Crypto news
Metaverse tokens surge after Meta tanks, Dorsey roasts Diem after it shuts down, a new malware can target 40 browser wallets: Hodler’s Digest, Jan. 28-Feb.5
Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link. Top Stories This Week Hodlers beware! New malware targets MetaMask and 40 other crypto wallets According to a report from security researcher 3xp0rt, a powerful new malware variant known as the “Mars Stealer,” an upgrade of the information-stealing Oski trojan of 2019, can target more than 40 browser-based crypto wallets, including MetaMask and Coinbase Wallet, along with popular two-factor authentication (2FA) extensions. The nefarious software utilizes a grabber function that steals private keys after it has been downloaded...
Bitcoin stays higher after stocks propel BTC price toward $42K
Bitcoin (BTC) held above $41,000 into the weekend after a late surge Friday took the largest cryptocurrency to two-week highs. BTC/USD 1-day candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView “The only good bear is a dead bear” Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD maintaining newly re-won ground Saturday, with the pair’s correlation to stock makets firmly in focus. Analysts had highlighted the $39,600 area as a key line to cross and flip to new support in order to secure further upside. In the event, this was no issue for bulls, as Bitcoin “gapped up” in seconds as it neared $40,000 to continue higher. Amid the newfound strength, the mood was conspicuously more buoyant than in recent days or even weeks. Popular analyst Credible Cry...
Indian couple celebrates blockchain wedding with NFT vows, digital priest
A young couple from India used nonfungible tokens (NFTs) to digitize their love for each other till eternity over the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. The recently married couple from Pune, India, Shruti Nair and Anil Narasipuram decided to take their court marriage to the next level by hosting a blockchain wedding. According to Anil, the husband: “I read some articles on how people in other countries were doing blockchain marriages and it motivated me.” Other prominent crypto entrepreneurs to follow the trend include Rebecca Kacherginsky, Coinbase’s staff product designer. Most people get married in a place of religious worship, on a beach, or in the mountains. Peter (@_iphelix) and I are NOT most people. We got married on the #blockchain. 1/7 pic.twitter.com/2ExexrlLbZ — Rebecca Kachergi...
3 things every NFT investor should know to avoid a tax nightmare
2021 will be remembered as the year of nonfungible tokens (NFTs). In a year where names like Beeple and Bored Ape Yacht Club dominated the headlines, it’s estimated that NFTs have generated more than $23 billion in trading volume. The rise of NFTs has ushered in a new generation of investors who spend time scouring platforms like Discord and OpenSea looking for the next 100x opportunity. However, it’s important for the NFT investor of today to keep tax implications in mind. Otherwise, they risk repeating the mistakes of the past. After the 2017 bull run, many crypto traders found themselves in a difficult position. Though they had racked up large tax liabilities while the market was going up, they no longer had the money to pay their tax bills after the crash. Many of these traders simply ...
Stealth rulemaking: Is proposed SEC rule with no mention of crypto a threat to DeFi?
On Jan. 26, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission proposed amendments to Rule 3b-16 under the Exchange Act that lacks any mention of digital assets or decentralized finance, which could adversely affect platforms that facilitate crypto transactions. Some cryptocurrency advocates — including SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce — believe that the commission’s extended definition of an exchange could thrust an entire class of crypto entities under the regulator’s jurisdiction, subjecting them to additional registration and reporting burdens. How real is the threat? The proposed change The amendments proposed by the regulator dramatically expand the definition of what an exchange is while eliminating the exemption for systems that merely bring together buyers and sellers of securitie...
Weekly Report: Banks in Russia may soon offer crypto services in the latest turn of events
Russia’s fate on cryptocurrencies has recently swung from pessimistic, and it’s now slowly crossing the line into optimistic. The country’s Finance Minister reportedly wrote a pro-cryptocurrency letter to the Prime Minister this week pushing for banks to trade crypto as a financial asset. Here is more on this and other top stories from the crypto sector this week: Local banks in Russia could be allowed to deal in crypto Russian banks could get one better if recent reports are anything to go by. Word out of the country, as reported by news outlet Kommersant, indicates the banks could yet be allowed to deal in crypto. Bank of Russia has been candid in its anti-crypto position as it recently published a report on cryptocurrencies and recommended a ban over risks to Russ...
Crypto specialist panel says Bitcoin could hit 400k by 2030
Finder’s recent price prediction report shows that a panel of specialists has predicted Bitcoin to rise and peak at $93,700 this year. However, the Fed’s plan to hike interest rates would affect this price, causing it to fall to $76,400 as the year ends. According to a Bitcoin price prediction report by Finder, a panel of experts in areas including NFTs, FinTech and crypto has issued its predictions on where the price of Bitcoin is headed in the future. The panel, which included 33 specialists, is foreseeing that the world’s largest digital asset would peak at around $93,700 before plunging to $76,400 as the year comes to an end. In addition, the panel forecasted that in the year 2025, Bitcoin would be worth at least $192,800, and five years later, its value should be app...
Market changes suggest SOL, UNI, AAVE, and MANA are ripe to buy, Santiment analyst says
A Santiment analyst has said these tokens are in a good zone for investors who want to buy into trader pain. Optimism on Solana grows as development activity continues to rise. In a recent YouTube video, the director of marketing at crypto analytics firm Santiment Brian Quinlivan highlighted a few altcoin ecosystems whose metrics show that they are set for a surge. The metric in question is market value to realized value (MVRV). MVRV shows the average loss or profit of a crypto token’s coins in circulation at the current price. It helps indicate to willing buyers when the time is right to do so. Uniswap (UNI) Despite the number of daily active addresses on the ecosystem falling sharply (from 3,259 on October 29, up to a recent 836 active ones), Quinlivan reviewed the asset’s 30-day long MV...
Ted Cruz buys the Bitcoin dip
Rafael ‘Ted’ Cruz, the junior Republican senator from Texas, is putting his money where his mouth is. According to a financial disclosure filed on Friday 4th Feb, Cruz bought between $15k and $50k worth of Bitcoin (BTC) on January 25th, using the River brokerage. At the time, Bitcoin was trading between $36k and $37k, and over the subsequent days it has risen to a current price of around $41,600. Assuming he hasn’t sold his bitcoins and incurred any short term capital gains taxes, his current profit on the transaction is in the region of $2,000 – $6,850. Source: United States Senate Financial Disclosures Following the example of fellow Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Cruz spent much of the latter half of the crypto bull run aligning himself with the blockchain and cryp...
Gas-free transactions will revolutionize Web3
Scalability is one of the main hindrances within decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and has created huge barriers to entry. Closely linked to this has been the issue of high gas fees, which continues to be a major pain point for newcomers to the Web3 space. When Web3 goes mainstream, these gas costs will become minimal. For the user, the experience will become completely gas-less like how it is on Web 2.0 applications. As a result of the lack of scalability and network congestion, gas fees have skyrocketed, further preventing users from performing various transactions on the blockchain. According to YCharts report, the average gas price on Ethereum is at a level of around 146 Gwei at the time of writing. The high cost of gas fees has become a financial nightmare for regular users in...
DAOs are meant to be completely autonomous and decentralized, but are they?
While the organizational structure of a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) is fundamentally meant to be “decentralized,” some of the biggest DAO protocols including Uniswap are not. A lot of the day-to-day activities within DAOs still involve a few core members of the organizations to make major decisions. This raises the question as to whether DAOs are completely decentralized. And, if not, is complete decentralization even possible? More broadly, DAOs can be compared to how democratic nations are run. While the ideology is to have decisions for the country made by the people, it’s mainly governed by a few powerful individuals who hold most of the license to determine laws and control decisions. Also similar to large organizations, shareholders are allowed to vote but the key pol...
Jack Dorsey on UBI: Bitcoin encourages transparency, long-term thinking
Twitter co-founder and Block (previously Square) CEO Jack Dorsey discussed the implications of a Bitcoin (BTC)-powered universal basic income (UBI) strategy with US congressional candidate and a full-time elementary school teacher, Aarika Rhodes. “Obscurity of information forces and incentivizes people to negative (financial) behaviors that don’t work for them, their community or family,” said Dorsey while pointing out the lack of transparency within the existing centralized financial system. “If there’s one thing to focus on in Bitcoin — the operations are transparent, the code is transparent, the policy is transparent.” This base foundation of BTC is what Dorsey believes has the potential to solve numerous use cases and problems as a direct result of using fiat currency. Through bu...
