Crypto news
Metaplex Foundation closes $46 million raise to expand Solana NFT use cases
The firm specifically sought investors in the sports and entertainment industries to stick with the current NFT curve Metaplex Foundation, the creator of Solana’s NFT protocol Metaplex, has today said it completed a funding round in which it raised $46 million. The round was co-led by Jump Crypto and Multicoin Capital, with several other major brands, including Alameda research, Solana Ventures and Animoca Brands involved. Prominent public figures, including American rapper Snoop Dogg and several retired as well as active pro basketballers such as Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson, and Kevin Love took part. DJ production duo The Chainsmokers (via Mantis Venture Capital firm) and New York Knicks Executive Vice President also participated. In total, 90 investors pitched in the fundraising....
Hedera Governing Council to buy hashgraph IP, and open-source projects code
The Hedera Governing Council has officially voted to purchase the intellectual property rights to the hashgraph consensus algorithm from founding architect and inaugural member of the council, Swirlds Inc, for an undisclosed fee. A Wednesday announcement also details plans to transition their code to an open-source model this year under Apache 2.0 license, in addition to transferring core team members such as CEO Mance Harmon and chief scientist Leemon Baird from Hedera to Swirlds Inc. as the CEO and chief technology officer, respectively, and deploying community staking and node opportunities, among other updates. Hedera Hashgraph is an enterprise-grade distributed ledger technology designed to create decentralized applications in the Web3 sphere. It’s governing council is composed ...
Astrology charts beat technical analysis: Maren Altman is a star
Are future prices written in the stars? Meet Maren Altman, presciently named for cryptocurrency, who combines astrology and day trading crypto into a winning blend. In 1973, Princeton University professor Burton Malkiel published his book A Random Walk Down Wall Street, in which he famously states that a “blindfolded monkey throwing darts at a newspaper’s financial pages could select a portfolio that would do just as well as one carefully selected by experts.” Fast forward to 2013, and Rob Arnott, CEO of Research Affiliates, conducted research mimicking monkeys using AI and actually discovered the monkeys had done a much better job than both the experts and the stock market. Closer examination proved the success was a result of the random selection of companies by the “monkey approach,” op...
a16z, Google lead $20M investment in Africa Web3 game publisher Carry1st
Web3 and social games publisher Carry1st has raised $20 million in Series A funding to further expand product development in Africa — a continent that could become the premier hub for the gaming industry over the next decade. The investment round was led by Silicon Valley venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, which has been highly active in the blockchain space, with additional participation from Avenir and Google-parent Alphabet. Carry1st’s existing backers, including Riot Games, Konvoy Ventures, Raine Ventures and TTV Capital, also participated in the investment round. The cash injection will be used by Carry1st to expand its content portfolio, grow its in-house development team and spearhead a new growth strategy to attract tens of millions of new users. A key pillar of its growth str...
Smart contracts can redefine business — But this doesn’t imply wide openness
In his monthly crypto tech column, Israeli serial entrepreneur Ariel Shapira covers emerging technologies within the crypto, decentralized finance and blockchain space, as well as their roles in shaping the economy of the 21st century. The contract, an obligation that party A will do something party B desires at a price both agreed to be fair, is in many ways foundational for a functioning human society. As a testament to that, even King Hammurabi, credited as the author of one of the oldest legal codes in the world, saw it fit to codify regulations on the ties and contractual obligations between merchants and their agents. While in the great ruler’s time, merchants trusted their agreements to clay tablets, today’s counterparts are increasingly trusting their contracts on the blockchain. T...
Coinbase seals partnership deal with Mastercard to facilitate NFT purchases
The exchange announced its upcoming NFT marketplace last year, and its waiting list has already accumulated over 2.5 million users US-based cryptocurrency platform Coinbase, on Tuesday, announced it is working with multinational financial services firm Mastercard to allow users to buy NFTs using cards. Most of the existing NFT marketplaces currently only support crypto payments for the collectables and digital items they host. The Coinbase-Mastercard partnership aims to simplify things for users of the former’s upcoming NFT platform by allowing them to complete purchases using the latter’s cards. By making the experience of purchasing NFTs suitable for novice users, the pair hopes to reach a broad market. “As an important step in this mission, we’re excited to annou...
USDC flips Tether on the Ethereum network
Circle’s USD Coin (USDC) has reached a major milestone by surpassing Tether (USDT) in total supply on the Ethereum network. USDC’s current supply on Ethereum as of writing is 40.06 billion tokens, just ahead of USDT’s supply of 39.82 billion. Tether has been the most popular stablecoin since at least 2016, after originally sharing the market with BitUSD and NuBits (USNBT) stablecoins when it launched in late 2014. At that time, USDT ran on Omni. As the latter two fell into obscurity due to losing their dollar peg and shedding users, USDC emerged in 2018 as a more transparent and more regulated competitor to Tether, which has been under a cloud for years due to doubts over its backing. Although USDT is still the most popular stablecoin with a total supply of 78.5 billion, nearly 50% of the ...
Strike wallet is 5th most popular finance app in Argentina, but where’s the BTC?
Strike’s digital wallet has become the fifth most popular finance app in Argentina within a week of its launch. The firm, led by hoodie-wearing CEO Jack Mallers, rolled out its crypto payment services for the Argentinian market on Jan 12. Strike is famed for enabling Bitcoin (BTC) payments via the Lightning network, particularly in El Salvador. However, according to local media and user reports, the firm’s app in Argentina reportedly currently only supports the use of Tether’s stable coin USDT for transfers via Lightning. Users are able to purchase Bitcoin via the app though, and send it to a third party wallet. Mallers tweeted on Jan. 18 that Strike’s app is currently ranked as the fifth-highest finance app and the top new app overall on the Argentinian Apple app store, as he emphasized t...
Bitcoin mining becomes more sustainable: Mining Council’s Q4 survey
The percentage of the global Bitcoin mining industry running on renewable power increased by 1% to 58.5% in the fourth quarter of 2021 according to new data. The Bitcoin Mining Council (BMC) announced the findings of its fourth quarter survey on Jan. 18. The survey focused on three metrics: sustainable power mix, technological efficiency and electricity consumption. Q4 #Bitcoin Mining Council Survey Confirms Improvements in Sustainable Power Mix and Technological Efficiency. Estimated sustainable energy mix was 58.5%. Join us at 5pm ET today for a full briefing.https://t.co/t1gTZV9GtT — Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) January 18, 2022 Founded in May 2021, the BMC is a voluntary global forum of Bitcoin mining companies such as Bit Digital, BitFury, Bitfarms and Atlas Mining, and ot...
Opera announces beta of its new Web3 focused ‘Crypto Browser’
Opera, the Norway-based company behind the popular internet browser, has released the beta version of its new Crypto Browser Project. This crypto browser aims to facilitate the user experience of browsing DApps, games and metaverse platforms by offering direct access to Web3 services for Windows, Mac and Android users. The current Opera browser boasts a no-login VPN, and native ad & tracker blocker that help to make it secure. According to a release shared with Cointelegraph, the new crypto browser will maintain these security features, while integrating direct access to decentralized exchanges, NFTs and gaming DApps, as well as Telegram and Twitter support. Jorgen Arnesen, EVP Mobile at Opera, stated that the main goal of the project is to help crypto and Web3 become more ...
Analysts warn that Bitcoin could dip to $38K ‘before an eventual breakout’
The cryptocurrency market faced another day of weakness on Jan. 18 as the price of Bitcoin (BTC) dropped lower and additional pressure was also put on the altcoin market. Currently, the crypto Fear and Greed Index registered “Extreme Fear” among investors and some traders caution that BTC price could soon fall below its recent $39,000 swing low. Crypto Fear & Greed index. Source: Alternative Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that bulls lost control of the $42,000 support level during the early trading hours on Jan. 18 as bears hammered the BTC price to a daily low of $41,250. BTC/USDT 1-day chart. Source: TradingView January is historically weak for Bitcoin Many crypto holders who were disappointed by the lack of a blow-off top to close out 2021 are ...
OpenSea acquires Dharma Labs and a new CTO
OpenSea announced Tuesday the acquisition of Dharma Labs, a cryptocurrency lending platform and digital wallet, for an undisclosed amount. According to the statement, Dharma Labs would effectively shut down and its co-founders, Nadav Hollander and Brendan Forster, will become OpenSea’s new chief technology officer and its head of strategy, respectively. OpenSea claimed this acquisition will help accomplish its mission to scale product development, grow its team, expand its safety and reliability efforts and invest in the nonfungible token (NFT) and Web3 ecosystem. I’m happy to finally share that we’ve acquired @Dharma_HQ to help us scale our engineering, product and customer support! https://t.co/NnJdSFBzvo — Devin Finzer (dfinzer.eth) (@dfinzer) January 18, 2022 Devin Finzer, OpenSea’s co...
