CoinMarketCap: Daily digest for Crypto Coin Chance, on October 1, 2021

How the tiniest of errors resulted in an $80 million loss for Compound Finance

Compound Finance rolled out Proposal #62 on Wednesday to implement "Dynamic COMP reward distribution," and patch a number of minor bugs.

However, soon after executing the upgrade, Compound Labs reported "unusual activity," resulting in some users being able to claim more $COMP tokens than allowable.

Unusual activity has been reported regarding the distribution of COMP following the execution of Proposal 062.

No supplied/borrowed funds are at risk — Compound Labs and members of the community are investigating discrepancies in the COMP distribution.

— Compound Labs (@compoundfinance) September 29, 2021

Having looked into the contract, smart contract auditor Kurt Barry said the bug resulted from the tiniest of errors. He added that this minor mistake cost Compound Labs tens of millions.

But how tiny was this error?

Ethereum's Solidity language is unforgiving

Solidity is an object-orientated programming language, meaning it organizes design around objects and data. As opposed to function and logic.

It has similarities to C and C++ so it's relatively simple to learn. And given the number of programmers who are already familiar with C and C++, transitioning to Solidity doesn't take much.

However, this imperative approach has risks in that programmers must tell the code exactly what to do at every stage. And a mistake, even a tiny omission leaves the smart contract open to vulnerabilities.

"With an imperative approach, a developer writes code that specifies the steps that the computer must take to accomplish the goal. This is sometimes referred to as algorithmic programming. In contrast, a functional approach involves composing the problem as a set of functions to be executed."

In this case, Barry's investigation showed that Compound's Proposal #62 error was due to the programmer missing an "=" sign in two locations.

"Smart contracts are unforgiving of the tiniest errors…COMP bug is a tragic case of ">" instead of ">=" (in two code locations). Two characters, tens of millions of value lost."

Critics will argue that Compound's audit and testing process should have been more thorough. However, isn't this another example of Solidity's flaws, which get magnified when millions of dollars are at risk?

What is the Compound Finance Proposal #62?

Previously, the Compound Finance rewards rate was the same rate for both suppliers and borrowers, and this fostered problems such as negative interest rates when borrowing particular assets.

Proposal #62 intended to split the COMP distribution to liquidity suppliers and borrowers based on governance-set ratios rather than an equal 50/50 share model.

"This proposal changes the Comptroller logic to have two different COMP distribution rates for each and every market – borrow-side (compBorrowSpeeds) rate and supply-side (compSupplySpeeds) rate."

However, the bug contained within the upgrade enabled some users to claim more $COMP tokens than allowable.

At this stage, exact details of the loss are unknown. However, Compound CEO Robert Leshner states the worst-case scenario is an overclaim of 280,000 COMP tokens, equating to $82,880,000 at today's price.

The post How the tiniest of errors resulted in an $80 million loss for Compound Finance appeared first on CryptoSlate.

October 1, 2021 at 1:55 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRqy

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COTI to Release Bank Accounts and Visa Debit Cards

The digital fintech platform COTI has announced its latest products that will provide Visa debit cards and bank accounts to users. Its partner in the initiative is the financial institution Simplex.

COTI's New Services

COTI (Currency Of The Internet) – a blockchain platform allowing organizations to build their own payment solutions – has expanded its product line. According to an announcement shared with CryptoPotato, it teamed up with the fintech firm Simplex to introduce Visa debit cards and bank accounts to customers.

The new services would help users to access the monetary ecosystem easier and would serve as a bridge between fiat currencies and digital assets.

Clients would be able to open a new bank account with an IBAN and order a COTI Visa debit card. On it, they could convert crypto to fiat for global spending. Cash withdrawal from ATMs, both in SWIFT and SEPA regions, as well as topping up the account with crypto assets would also be possible.

The debit card would be implemented into COTI Pay. The blockchain platform added that in the future, it would integrate other features and loyalty-based plans into the offering.

COTI revealed that it would roll out the cards on two rounds. It will send out 3,000 cards during the initial one, while 5,000 more will be available a month later.

The team behind the blockchain project assured it would distribute the solution to various regions around the globe. As of the moment, though, it applies only to EU and EEA residents.

COTI's Other Partnerships

Recently, the enterprise-grade fintech platform announced another collaboration. This time with Cardano's stablecoin hub, Ardana.

The alliance ensured crypto-to-fiat payments aimed at the Cardano community, in addition to consumers and merchants worldwide. Shahaf Bar-Geffen – COTI's CEO – confirmed the move:

"Today, COTI is doing its first steps in Defi over Cardano, which we believe will be huge. We are happy to collaborate with the remarkable team of Ardana to bring new Cardano Native Assets to ADA Pay and scale up our operations."

The news caught the attention of the crypto community. What's more, COTI's token price spiked by roughly 50%, hitting an all-time high (ATH) of $0.60. It tapped yet another record yesterday at $0.66 but has retraced now to approximately $0.62.

September 30, 2021 at 11:55 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRqv

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Charles Hoskinson To Launch Three-Time Grammy Nominee Paul Oakenfold's Album On Cardano

The release of smart contracts capability on Cardano has brought with it some interesting projects. Cardano had revealed multiple partnerships over the course of its two-day Cardano Summit. These projects aimed at increasing utilizing the capability of the blockchain to its fullest potential. But before smart contracts had debuted on the platform, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) had been supported.

Cardano network has seen thousands of NFTs being minted. This had been actively encouraged by the developers in order to entice the community into using the blockchain as its default for minting NFTs as opposed to well-established networks like Ethereum and Solana. The latest iteration of the network promoting NFTs on the network has come in the form of founder Charles Hoskinson releasing dance artiste Paul Oakenfold's album as an NFT on Cardano.

Hoskinson Teams Up With Paul Oakenfold

Celebrities have taken to NFTs like fish to water. From athletes to musicians, NFTs have presented as a new way for public figures to stay connected with their fan base, while also monetizing their image. Now, founder Charles Hoskinson is taking it one step further as he partners with Paul Oakenfiled to release the DJ's album as an NFT on Cardano.

One of @ethereum's original co-founders, @IOHK_Charles, is working on a collaborative album with dance music legend @pauloakenfold.https://t.co/WUgw3AV2XF

— EDM.com (@TheEDMNetwork) September 29, 2021

Related Reading | Cardano Summit Sees Launch Of Exciting New Partnerships

The announcement was made at the just-concluded Cardano Summit and will cover everything from Oakenfield's album, down to its cover art and notes. The dance and trance DJ who is of British descent has been nominated for three Grammy Awards over the course of his career and is regarded as a legend in the EDM scene.

Hoskinson has been working closely with the artiste to bring the project to life on the blockchain. The founder believes that blockchain technology is important for the future of the music industry and is interested in how this will work. "Getting to learn about the electronic music industry and how the blockchain can support it has been a revelation," Hoskinson said.

Bringing Music To Cardano

Oakenfield's album will not be the first, nor the last, to bring music to the blockchain as NFTs. For Cardano alone, multiple music and music-related acts have brought their talent to the world through the network.

Related Reading | EMURGO To Invest $100 Million In Cardano To Bolster DeFi Adoption

Most notable of these had been the launch of ZZ Top frontman Bill Gibbons' music NFT collection on the blockchain. Auction for Gibbons' collection had run in the same time frame as the Cardano Summit, and it included 30-second original jam sessions digital music by Billy Gibbons and one Golden Ticket which conferred a 20-minute one-on-one session with the artiste.

Earlier this month, the blockchain had seen the launch of the first-ever music label to be launched on the blockchain. $GREED is a crypto music label that was launched on the ecosystem as a smart contract.

ADA price trading at $2.097 | Source: ADAUSD on TradingView.com
Featured image from IOL, chart from TradingView.com

September 30, 2021 at 11:55 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRqt

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Visa Is Building A Payment Channel Network On Ethereum

Visa has been active in engaging with crypto, and this week is no exception. Reports have emerged that the payment facilitator and financial services firm has deployed it's first smart contract on Ethereum Testnet.

The move isn't the first to signal Visa's increased acceptance to adopt crypto in their operations.

Visa's Universal Payment Channel

The company is showing clear investment in becoming a leader of payment processing through central banks via crypto. Visa's first smart contract deployment was a payment channel accepting both Ether and USDC. This is a conceptual protocol in development by the payment processor that will enable interoperability between central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), called a "Universal Payment Channel," or UPC.

The timing is appropriate given the global discussion around CBDCs. This week alone, Nigeria is looking to be the first country in Africa to launch a CBDC, the Bank of England has released it's CBDC forum members, and New Zealand's Central Bank has sought public feedback on CBDCs. Of course, the biggest story in the speculation is China's recent bitcoin ban paired with rumors of the country's exploration of a 'digital yuan.' Through it all, it's safe to say that crypto and centralized currencies are at the forefront of most countries treasury departments lately.

Visa's UPC is being built to support different CBDCs across a variety of blockchains. The company's head of crypto, Cuy Sheffield, described the initiative as a "longer-term future thinking concept around a way that Visa could potentially help become a bridge between one digital currency on one blockchain and another digital currency on another blockchain."

Ethereum testnet is host to Visa's first take at a Universal Payment Channel protocol. | Source: ETH-USD on TradingView.com

Related Reading | Crypto Analyst Says Ethereum Market Is A "Ticking Time Bomb", Here's Why

It's All Part Of The Plan

This week's development is far from the first move from Visa to dig their heels in crypto. Last month, the company purchased a CryptoPunk and released a positive perspective around NFTs. And at the midpoint of 2021, the company shared that over $1B had been spent on crypto-linked Visa cards on the year. Through it all, Visa has shown a clear favorite in Ethereum as well, and now is utilizing the chain once again with the Universal Payment Channel. The company's clear engagement with Ethereum could prove fruitful to establishing further institution buy-in for the blockchain.

In the corresponding UPC research and insights report released by Visa, the company shows a clear desire to be a "network of blockchain networks" for global transactions. Digital asset tracker 21Shares has described Ethereum as "the most significant single innovation within the cryptoasset and blockchain industry since the creation of Bitcoin in 2009." Should Visa's UPC be built on the backbone of Ethereum? There's good reason to be optimistic looking forward.

Related Reading | TA: Ethereum Just Reversed But $3,150 Presents A Major Challenge

Featured image from Pexels, Charts from TradingView.com

September 30, 2021 at 10:53 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRqr

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Bitcoin daily transaction volume hits $29 billion ATH, what does this mean?

Researcher Kevin Rooke noted that daily transaction volume on the Bitcoin network hit an all-time high of $29 billion on Sunday.

Rooke also pointed out that there have only been 5 days in Bitcoin's history when the network settled above $20 billion. Three of which occurred this week.

Source: @kerooke on Twitter.com

But what does this mean, especially within the context of current market conditions?

Is Bitcoin about to bounce back?

Recently, a confluence of factors has increased sell pressure in both stock and crypto markets. Most notable is the unfolding $300 billion liquidity crisis at Chinese property giant Evergrande.

Last week, Chinese regulators also renewed their efforts to crack down on all cryptocurrency transactions, including mining activity.

Bitcoin bottomed at $39,700 on September 21, having fallen 25% from its local high of $52,800. Since then, it's been trading within a tight range, with $45,100 marking the high point.

Nonetheless, today, the $BTC price rallied above the $40,750 support level. And a clear break above $42,000 in the early hours (GMT) demonstrated a willingness by bulls to build on the momentum.

Typically, technical analysts see the rising prices with rising volumes as a trend confirmation. But is that what we are seeing with Rooke's data?

"If volatility in price is accompanied by high trading volume, it may be said that the price move has more validity. Conversely, if a price move is accompanied by low trading volume, it may indicate weakness of the underlying trend."

Is this a load of hot air?

Volume refers to every transaction between a buyer and a seller. One transaction occurs when a buyer agrees to purchase what a seller is offering. If five transactions occur in a day, the volume for that day is five.

Transaction volume is the above scenario taking into account the price of the asset at the time of exchange.

Therefore, Rooke's data, in which transactional volume hit an all-time high, cannot be taken as a trend confirmation because that metric includes price as a variable.

What's more, using recent transactional volume to compare past activity is somewhat erroneous in that 2021's median price, of $46,800, is much higher than in previous years. Therefore, this skews any sort of comparison with periods when $BTC was priced much lower.

A look at the actual volume, not transactional volume, shows a downtrend over the last ten days. This was accompanied by a slight uptrend in price that has so far failed to retest previous resistance at $44,900.

Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

Rising price with falling volume indicates a weak uptrend and a possible reversal on the cards.

The post Bitcoin daily transaction volume hits $29 billion ATH, what does this mean? appeared first on CryptoSlate.

September 30, 2021 at 10:53 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRqp

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The US Should do The Opposite of China on Crypto: a16z Partner

Speaking at CNBC's Delivering Alpha conference on Sept. 29, a16z partner Katie Haun said the U.S. should look towards China for what not to do.

She was referring to Beijing's incessant crackdowns on the crypto industry and any activities related to the trade of digital currencies.

In her view, financial regulators in the U.S. should be doing the exact opposite, but at the moment, it appears they are following in China's footsteps with moves to over-regulate crypto rather than ban it outright.

"This is an opportunity for the United States, because we should be doing the exact opposite in my mind in this realm of what China is doing,"

Don't Follow China

Haun, who currently manages Andreessen Horowitz's crypto investments, predicted that China will "tie trade, tie loans, tie other assistance to the use of essentially their stablecoin," or CBDC.

According to CNBC, she added that the U.S. is taking the right approach with a central bank digital currency.

"I'm glad we're studying as a country CBDCs, but we've publicly said as a country that we're going to keep studying it for a couple of years. I think it's really important that policymakers and private industry in the U.S. work together."

Other industry experts have been critical of Uncle Sam's lethargic approach predicting that they will get left behind. In April, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said that a Chinese-style CBDC would not work in America, hinting that it is one that enabled the state to monitor all financial transactions.

Haun stated that not all crypto industry players were against regulation, stating, "It's not that the industry does not want regulation," before adding, "It wants clarity, but it also does not want to be treated as a monolith."

Grim State of Crypto Regulation Ahead?

She said, "regulation cannot be one size fits all," referring to NFTs, which should not be treated as a financial product or service.

The executive expressed disappointment as the Securities and Exchange Commission for penalizing Coinbase over its proposed Lend product. She said some companies are getting punished despite "good faith efforts" while others "are really getting a free pass" for skirting regulations.

The current state of regulation in the U.S. is looking pretty grim as the Biden administration empowers more anti-crypto lawmakers. The latest being the nomination of staunch banking and crypto critic Saule Omarova to head the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).

September 30, 2021 at 8:54 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRqg

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Chivo Wallet Users in El Salvador Will Receive a Discount on Fuel Payments

El Salvador's state-owned digital wallet company "Chivo" will be granting citizens a discount on fuel payments. This provides greater incentives for citizens to use Bitcoin as a medium of exchange.

Chivo Partners With Major Gas Companies

Nayib Bukele – President of El Salvador – announced the new benefit yesterday over Twitter. The reveal was part of a longer thread on the nation's efforts to reduce the cost of fuel in the country.

The government will be absorbing further increases in the cost of fuel on international markets for one year. According to Bukele, this will limit gas prices in the country for consumers and small businesses and strengthen the economy.

However, Chivo wallet will also be playing a role in reducing gas prices. In partnership with the largest gas stations in the country, the company will make gas $0.20 cheaper on the gallon for users of its wallet. The president says that this will help erase several increases in international fuel costs.

The benefit is all-encompassing, applicable to public transport, entrepreneurs, people, and businesses of El Salvador. Bukele believes that this provides another direct relief to El Salvadorans while reducing transportation costs for supply chains.

Another Step Towards Bitcoin Adoption

While not directly stated by the president, the Chivo partnership also provides a financial incentive for citizens to transact in Bitcoin. Ever since El Salvador's legal tender law was passed in June, many in the country have rejected its adoption.

Despite protests from citizens, media, and bankers alike, Bukele has been headstrong in standardizing Bitcoin across the nation. When the Chivo wallet launched, he freely provided $30 worth of Bitcoin to citizens as an incentive to use it.

Furthermore, the government appears to be stocking up Bitcoin at every available opportunity. Just last week, it purchased another round of 150 Bitcoins, making its total Bitcoin holdings at least 700.

September 30, 2021 at 7:53 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRqb

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Quant: Bitcoin Indicators Now Look Similar To Q4 2020, Big Move Ahead?

Quant says some Bitcoin indicators show the same trend as in during Q4 2020, suggesting that BTC could make a similar move up.

Bitcoin Netflow And Stablecoins Supply Ratio Trends Look Similar To Q4 2020

As explained by an analyst in a CryptoQuant post, two BTC indicators: the netflow and the stablecoins supply ratio, are both trending similarly to how they did during the last quarter of 2020.

The Bitcoin netflow indicator shows the net number of coins entering or exiting exchanges. Its value is calculated by taking the difference between the outflows and the inflows.

When the metric observes positive values, it means exchanges are experiencing more inflows than the outflows, and so more investors have started sending their BTC to exchanges for selling purposes.

Similarly, negative values imply just the opposite; investors are withdrawing their Bitcoin from exchanges either to hodl in personal wallets or to sell them through OTC deals.

The other metric of relevance is the stablecoins supply ratio, which is defined as the market cap of BTC divided by the market cap of all stablecoins.

When the indicator's values are on the lower end, it means there is an abundance of stablecoins supply in the market. High supplies can imply a potentially bullish sentiment among the market as investors use these coins for picking up other crypto like BTC.

Related Reading | China's Ban On Crypto-Assets Forces Huobi Mining Pool To Rotate 100k Bitcoin

On the other hand, higher values of the ratio indicate a low supply of stablecoins, which implies a lack of buying pressure in the market. This could lead to a potentially bearish trend or sideways movement for BTC.

Now, here is a chart showing the trend of these two Bitcoin indicators vs the price:

The similarity between Q4 2020 and the current period | Source: CryptoQuant

As the above chart shows, the netflows seem to have been negative for a while now and the stablecoins supply ratio is also assuming low values.

Related Reading | Bitcoin Bearish Signal: On-Chain Data Shows Whales Have Started Selling

This trend looks to be similar to how it was during Q4 2020. What followed it was a big bull rally, and so the quant believes we may see BTC blow up similarly soon.

BTC Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin's price floats around $43k, down 2% in the last seven days. Over the past month, the crypto has lost 9% in value.

Over the last few days, BTC has only shown sideways movement as the crypto fails to make a move above $45k. The below chart shows the trend in the price of the coin over the last five days:

BTC's price continues to consolidate between the $40k and $45k levels | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView
Featured image from Unsplash.com, charts from CryptoQuant.com, TradingView.com

September 30, 2021 at 7:53 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRq9

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1inch geofences US IP addresses, says new product for the American market is in prep

The popular decentralized exchange (DEX) liquidity aggregator 1inch has been restricting US trades since April, but the network has only recently added a technical layer to control its terms of use compliance.

By combing through token prices across the leading decentralized exchanges (DEXes), 1inch is designed to find the most lucrative swapping deals for users.

Pop-up notification

As of recently, 1inch added a pop-up notification and technical layer to control its terms of use compliance, geofencing US IP addresses.

"…then they fight you". SEC +1

You now have to sign a *legal* message on chain to use 1inch. Probably the beginning of a new UX trend in this dark or murky DeFi waters. pic.twitter.com/kTwA59VXK6

— Julien Bouteloup (@bneiluj) September 29, 2021

Launched in August 2020 after a $2.8 million funding raise from the likes of Binance Labs, Galaxy Digital, Greenfield One, Libertus Capital and Dragonfly Capital, the popular platform that sources liquidity from various exchanges and is able to efficiently split a single trade across multiple DEXs has been growing in volume since.

Top DEXes by Volume in last 30 days

Let's compare top DEXes by the trading volume in the last 30 days, in order to evaluate their adoption scale.$UNI $DFYN $DYDX $SUSHI $MDX #1INCH $CAKE $CRV $QUICK pic.twitter.com/96plRPonoO

— TOP 7 ICO (@top7ico) September 28, 2021

"Our Interface is NOT offered to persons or entities who reside in, are citizens of, are incorporated in, or have a registered office in the United States of America or any restricted territory, as defined below (any such person or entity, a "Restricted Person"). We do not make exceptions. If you are a restricted person, then do not attempt to access or use the Interface. Use of a virtual private network (e.g., a VPN) or other means by restricted persons to access or use the Interface is prohibited," read the eligibility part of the platform's terms of use, updated in April 2021.

Though a number of international exchanges moved to limit their products in certain jurisdictions, the restricted access is fairly simple to circumvent by using VPNs for masking physical location.

As of September 29, 1inch users have to sign a legal disclaimer message on-chain.

Preparing a product for the US market

1inch's popularity has been on the rise, as the network keeps gunning for the 1 million total user milestone.

Unbelievable! #1inch successfully surpasses 700K in total users count!

The 1M mark is closer and closer

https://t.co/R7USegSose #DeFi #crypto pic.twitter.com/TA9ZM9wzOw

— 1inch Network (@1inch) September 24, 2021

Meanwhile, the network disclosed its plans to debut a new product, specifically designed for the American market and global institutional investors.

"The 1inch Network is in the process of collecting the Series B funding round that has now grown to $175M (instead of $70M as was planned before). A significant part of these funds will be used for the development and launch of the 1inch Pro product which is specifically designed for the US market and for global institutional investors in accordance with all the regulatory requirements," the network's representative told the Block.

The post 1inch geofences US IP addresses, says new product for the American market is in prep appeared first on CryptoSlate.

September 30, 2021 at 7:53 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRq7

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MetaMask challenger XDEFI Wallet secures $6 million to scale its next-generation DeFi wallet

XDEFI Wallet, a next-gen browser wallet, is proud to announce a $6 million round led by Mechanism Capital with participation from DeFiance Capital, Alameda Research, Sino Global Capital, Animoca Brands, Morningstar Ventures, CoinGecko, and some of the world's top DeFi users including, Darren Lau (The Daily Ape), Mark Zeller (Aave), Scoopy Trooples and Mariano Conti.

"The crypto landscape has gone through an immense change in the last year through the explosion of DeFi, NFTs, and Multichain ecosystems. We are excited to back the XDEFI team, which built a beautiful product for users to take full advantage of the true Web3 experience," stated Mechanism Capital General Partner, Andrew Kang, one of the investors, in this regard.

The browser wallet space has been dominated by MetaMask, which is solely focused on Ethereum compatible chains and was not built to cater to DeFi users' needs.

Ease of access to DeFi

Other browser wallets such as Terra Station or Phantom were developed to support a specific Blockchain. As a consequence, DeFi users end up downloading several wallets to interact with different ecosystems at the expense of speed and security.

XDEFI Wallet's Chrome extension is engineered to deliver the fastest possible experience for DeFi and NFTs. Unlike its competitors, it achieves this through native integrations with nine blockchains, proprietary gas pricing algorithms to ensure users never miss a block, and by automatically adding new token contracts to users' wallets.

"In DeFi and NFTs, speed is alpha. The faster you can get into a mint, the faster you can move across chains, the faster you can sign a transaction – these things determine your ability to seize an opportunity or not. XDEFI Wallet has been built to give DeFi users a speed edge," explained XDEFI Wallet CEO Emile Dubié.

The project recently completed an invite-only Beta with over 20,000 users and will be available for public release in early October.

Since its inception in August 2020, XDEFI Wallet has scaled from a team of 4 to a team of 25 with talents previously at Bloomberg, Consensys, B2C2, and Boston Consulting Group.

XDEFI Wallet will use the funds to launch proprietary integrations with Terra and Solana and deepen its existing integrations with THORChain, Ethereum, and other EVM-powered networks. The team's vision long-term is to create a suite of products bridging different Blockchain ecosystems together in an effort to improve accessibility to the best DeFi and NFT opportunities.

The post MetaMask challenger XDEFI Wallet secures $6 million to scale its next-generation DeFi wallet appeared first on CryptoSlate.

September 30, 2021 at 7:53 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRq6

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Binance Adds Former IRS-CI Expert to Head Global Intelligence and Investigations

The world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, continues to employ high-profile investigators as part of efforts to boost the company's compliance measures.

New Audit and Investigations Lead for Binance

In an official press release on Thursday (September 30, 2021), Binance announced that Tigran Gambaryan will be the company's new VP of Global Intelligence and Investigations. Gambaryan's hire comes after working 10 years as a Special Agent with the US Internal Revenue Service.

According to the announcement, Gambaryan's new position "will focus on external and internal investigations to prevent threats and financial losses." In addition, the audit and investigations team, which will be co-headed by Jimmy Su, Binance's Chief Security Officer, will also work with regulators and law enforcement agents globally.

While working at the IRS, the former Special Agent led investigations into the Mt Gox hack incident, bitcoin exchange BTC-e, and the Silk Road corruption. Gambaryan's investigative expertise also covered tax evasion, identity theft, national security, terrorism financing, distribution of child pornography, and bank secrecy act violations.

Commenting on the latest development, the new Binance executive said that he would educate the global law enforcement community on the company's commitment to ensure a secure ecosystem and tackle cryptocurrency's illegal use.

Furthermore, Gambaryan said:

"Compliance is the first line of defense. We will work closely with our colleagues in compliance to identify criminals and refer them for prosecution. The constantly evolving crypto industry requires strong cooperation between the industry, law enforcement, and regulators. Our goal is to increase trust in cryptocurrency by establishing Binance as the leading contributor in the fight against human trafficking, ransomware and terrorism financing."

Binance Ready to Work With Global Regulators

The latest hiring seems to be in line with Binance's commitment to bolster regulatory compliance. Earlier in September, the company hired Aron Akbiyikian as its Director of Audit and Investigations. Back in August, Greg Monahan joined the crypto exchange giant as the new Global Money Laundering Reporting Officer.

Meanwhile, Binance has come under regulatory scrutiny recently, with the company receiving warnings from several countries about its illegal operations. Consequently, the crypto exchange has announced plans to stop some of its offerings in countries like Australia, Hong Kong, and parts of Europe.

To meet regulatory requirements, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao stated that the firm will get a new headquarters and reorganize its structure.

September 30, 2021 at 6:54 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRq5

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Billionaire Orlando Bravo Reveals He Owns Bitcoin And Why He's 'Very Bullish'

Billionaire Orlando Bravo recently revealed his stance on crypto. Talking to CNBC, Bravo revealed that he indeed held bitcoin and held a very bullish stance on the future of the digital asset. The billionaire appear at the Delivering Alpha conference where he openly expressed his love for crypto. Bravo highlight some of the best features of cryptocurrencies, exclaiming, "How could you not love crypto?"

Bitcoin Is Here To Stay

Although already quite valuable, the billionaire sees more growth in the future of the currency. Institutional investors are yet to completely dive into the space and Bravo explained that with more institutional adoption will come a surge in the value of the digital asset.

Related Reading | JPMorgan CEO Doesn't Care If Bitcoin Grows 10X In Five Years

Being able to completely operate outside the purview of the government has been one of the major drivers of bitcoin growth. It has provided investors the opportunity to invest with amounts that would otherwise have seen them locked out of traditional investment avenues. Providing a major pull for younger investors who would rather take control of their financial investments.

Besides being personally owning bitcoin, Bravo's equity firm Thoma Bravo is also invested in the crypto space. Thoma Bravo participated in a recent funding round carried out by the fast-growing crypto exchange FTX Trading. This puts the billionaire in a position where he is both personally and professionally invested in crypto. But it doesn't end there. The fund manager also sees great potential in blockchain technology and said it "sometimes provides better use cases than data-based software."

BTC price trading in the mid-$43K | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com
Why Bravo Is Bullish

Bravo's bullish stance on crypto mainly boils down to one thing; adoption. It is estimated that less than 10% of the world's population knows about bitcoin. With bitcoin's growth being likened to that of the internet, there is going to be a major explosion in adoption in the next five years. The billionaire pointed that the digital asset will only continue to grow as more people adopt it.

"For me, it's pretty simple. More people are going to use it in the future than today, and it's going to be more established. Institutions are just beginning to go there, and once that happens, I think it will increase significantly over the years. I'm very bullish."

Related Reading | Verifone Brings Bitcoin Payments To Thousands Of Merchants Across The U.S.

When asked if he thought crypto was here to stay, Bravo had enthusiastically replied, "absolutely." He explained that inflation and transaction fee rates will drive people to bitcoin.

The billionaire declined to comment on future price predictions for the asset saying, "I'm not going to give you a number because looking at the fundamental value here is very difficult." But added that bitcoin's finite supply coupled with its use cases and growing adoption will be positive for the value of the digital asset going forward.

Featured image from The Guardian, chart from TradinginView.com

September 30, 2021 at 5:53 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRq3

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Paying for Taco Bell with Dogecoin (DOGE) could soon become a reality

Per a Bloomberg report, the next time you might be buying a Taco Bell, you could be able to make payment for your order using the popular meme coin, Dogecoin, or other popular large-cap cryptocurrencies.

Verifone and BitPay partner for crypto pay out machines

According to the report, BitPay Inc, a leading crypto payment processor is partnering with Verifone, one of the largest providers of payment processing machines that accepts credit cards or Venmo at checkout lines to enable crypto payment via the machines.

A statement credited to the two companies revealed that the newest Verifone machines would support different crypto tokens and wallets before the end of the year.

Many merchants who have declined the acceptance of crypto assets as a payment option for their products have always cited concerns about the volatile nature of the industry.

BitPay, with the new development in view, has revealed it would look to better protect those who accept digital assets as it would make sure that the fiat value of the crypto is paid promptly into the merchant bank account immediately after a transaction is completed.

Speaking on the partnership in an interview, the chief executive officer of Verifone, Mike Pulli, stated that the partnership is geared towards offering the consumers more options when they want to make payments for their goods and services.

In his words, "If they decide to buy a pizza with Visa or AmEx or crypto, we don't care. We just want to give them the flexibility to pay the way they want to."

On the other hand, BitPay's CEO, Stephen Pair, stated his belief that the partnership is proof of the growth of the crypto industry.

We've always felt it was a matter of time before people had an expectation they could pay with crypto as they pay with Mastercard and Visa.

It is interesting to note that this partnership would make Verifone one of the latest firms seeking ways to simplify crypto payments and drive mass adoption.

Just last week, social giant Twitter introduced Bitcoin tipping to its millions of users. Similarly, a fintech firm, PayPal, has continued to relentlessly pursue ways of simplifying crypto access to its users.

The post Paying for Taco Bell with Dogecoin (DOGE) could soon become a reality appeared first on CryptoSlate.

September 30, 2021 at 4:54 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRpW

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DC Comics to Distribute Batman and Superman NFTs for Free

The American comic book publisher – DC Comics – partnered with Palm NFT Studio to launch its collection of non-fungible tokens. The NFTs will feature superheroes like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and more.

DC's Superheroes as NFTs

One of the largest and oldest US comic book companies – DC Comics – will double down on its NFT endeavors by releasing another collection of superheroes.

DC's partner this time would be the blockchain network for culture and creativity – Palm NFT Studio. Starting on October 5th the collectibles will be available to all new and existing registered members of DC FanDome, with a second one available for those who engage on social media channels.

Jim Lee – Publisher and Chief Creative Officer of DC Comics – would hand-pick the digital collection as it would include characters like Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Harley Quinn. The initiative would also grant the opportunity to collect three covers for each character in three levels of rarity.

As an example, fans of Wonder Woman can collect a Common NFT (1987's Wonder Woman #1 by George Pérez), Rare NFT (2021's Nubia and the Amazons #1 by Alitha Martinez), and Legendary NFT (Yara Flor on 2021's Future State: Wonder Woman #1 by Jenny Frison.)

Marvel Does Not Fall Behind

It is worth noting that DC Comic's biggest rival – Marvel Entertainment – has also joined the NFT craze by launching a non-fungible token collection.

As CryptoPotato reported last month, it partnered with the blockchain-based digital collectibles marketplace VeVe to release the first official Spider-Man NFTs. The initial series included five variations of the superhero, costing between $40 and $400.

The President of Marvel Entertainment – Dan Buckley – opined that releasing Spider-Man non-fungible tokens is just the beginning as it might launch more digital collectibles of superheroes in the near future:

"Spider-Man is one of the most legendary Super Heroes in the Marvel Universe, so there was no better way to kick off our global digital collectibles experience with VeVe. We can't wait to bring Marvel fans and collectors even more exciting drops throughout August and beyond."

It seems that the first edition was a success, as the company announced that it sold out all 60,500 digital statues within 24 hours after the launch.

Shortly after, Marvel Entertainment expanded its NFT universe by releasing a new digital collection with more iconic heroes, including Captain America, Bucky Barnes, and the Red Skull.

Featured Image Courtesy of Geeky Craze

September 30, 2021 at 3:55 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRpT

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China's Ban On Crypto-Assets Forces Huobi Mining Pool To Rotate 100k Bitcoin

The Chinese crackdown on mining activities has awakened a lot of decisions and actions. Many miners are already trooping to the US, the new mining hub, to continue their operations. Recently, the NDRC (National Development & Reform Commission) in China seized more than 10,000 mining rigs in Inner Mongolia.

The report even disclosed that the operation was the 45th time that the watchdog has carried such out. Given the losses that miners incur in the wake of these incidents, many forward-thinking companies are protecting their interests.

One of such companies to take proactive action is Huobi Global, a crypto exchange with millions of users, including Chinese citizens. The first step the company took was to restrict the Chinese citizens on its platform.

Related Reading | New To Bitcoin? Learn To Trade Crypto With The NewsBTC Trading Course

Now, mainland china residents can no longer access the platform. As a result, Huobi Global is currently moving funds to fill the withdrawal needs of the clients. Also, it plans to stop all Chinese accounts gradually until December 31.

Miners Move Bitcoin To Support Withdrawal Needs

Huobi Global is occupying the eighth position amongst the largest Bitcoin Pools. However, now that they've restricted Chinese citizens, the miners have to move their funds worth $4.21 Billion to meet the withdrawal needs.

Bitcoin is now gradually recovering its previous losses | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com

Apart from this Bitcoin fund movement, there were massive movements from Ethereum wallets on September 26, amounting to 800,000 ETH or $2.29 billion from ETH whales.

Related Reading | Miner Refunds The Giant Sum Of 7,626 Ethereum Mistakenly Sent By Bitfinex

The crackdown from the Chinese government is causing havoc in many pools as many exchanges are no longer allowing new entrants. The Huobi Global exchange is amongst the exchanges affected by this development.

Featured Image by Pexels - Charts by TradingView

September 30, 2021 at 2:53 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRpR

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Ethereum Price Analysis: ETH Flirts With $3,000 But Will Bulls Manage to Break It?

ETH/USD – Ether Remains Inside Established Range

Key Support Levels: $2890, $2710, $2620.
Key Resistance Levels: $3000, $3200, $3300.

Etheruem continues to trade inside the range it set around ten days ago between $3200 and support at $2770 (.786 Fib). A 100-day MA further bolsters the support at the bottom end of the range.

Yesterday, ETH found the support at $2800 and rebounded higher from there today as it spikes above $3000. The market will need to break this established range to dictate the next direction. A break above $3200 could allow ETH to recover to the September highs. On the other hand, if it goes below $2,800 we might see the cryptocurrency start sliding to $2.2K.

ETH/USD Daily Chart. Source: TradingView.

ETH-USD Short Term Price Prediction

Looking ahead, the first support lies at $2890. This is followed by $2710 (.786 Fib & 100-day MA), $2620 (200-day MA & downside 1.414 Fib Extension), and $2500.

On the other side, the first resistance lies at $3000. This is followed by $3200 (20-day MA), $3300 (50-day MA), $3350, and $3500.

The daily RSI remains beneath the midline, indicating weak bearish momentum in the market. However, it is shaping up to hold 40 and is looking to climb back into bullish territory.

ETH/BTC – Bulls Defend .5 Fib Retracement

Key Support Levels: 0.068 BTC, 0.0671 BTC, 0.066 BTC.
Key Resistance Levels: 0.07 BTC, 0.072 BTC, 0.074 BTC.

Against BTC, the cryptocurrency is doing well to hold the support at 0.068 BTC, provided by a .5 Fib Retracement. ETH has also been trapped inside a range between the support at 0.068 BTC and resistance at 0.071 BTC. It must break this range to trend in the next direction.

Additionally, ETH is also trading inside a descending price channel here. It recently found resistance at the upper boundary of the price channel at the start of the week, which caused it to head back toward the 0.068 BTC support.

ETH/BTC Daily Chart. Source: TradingView.

ETH-BTC Short Term Price Prediction

Moving forward, the first support lies at 0.068 BTC (.5 Fib). This is followed by 0.0671 BTC (20-day MA), 0.066 BTC (downside 1.272 Fib Extension), and 0.0654 BTC (.618 Fib).

On the other side, the first resistance lies at 0.07 BTC (100-day MA). This is followed by 0.072 BTC, 0.074 BTC, and 0.075 BTC.

Again, the RSI remains beneath the midline, indicating weak bearish momentum controls the price.

September 30, 2021 at 1:53 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRpJ

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Billionaire Orlando Bravo is a Very Bullish Bitcoin HODLer

The Puerto Rican billionaire businessman – Orlando Bravo – believes cryptocurrencies will play a significant role in the future monetary system. He admitted that he is a bitcoin owner as he anticipates its price to surge in the following years.

'How Could You Not Love Crypto?'

Orlando Bravo – Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Thoma Bravo – shared his optimistic prediction about the future of the digital asset industry. He labeled it as a "great," " frictionless," and "decentralized" system which is "here to stay." On top of that, it represents the young people's ambition to have their own financial network. "How could you not love crypto," he concluded.

The 51-year-old businessman further revealed that he is keen on bitcoin and has invested in the primary digital asset. Bravo also believes that large institutions would soon start allocating funds to it, and that would lead to its price rally:

Bravo, known as the first Puerto Rican-born billionaire, also praised the underlying blockchain technology of cryptocurrencies. According to him, it is "very powerful and sometimes provides better use cases than data-based software."

Other BTC Supporters

With his statement, Orlando Bravo joined the list of prominent individuals who are bullish on bitcoin and believe that "crypto is here to stay."

Such is the case with BlackRock's CIO – Rick Rieder. Last year he praised the technology behind the leading digital asset adding that the younger generations are more receptive towards innovation within the financial world.

On top of that, Rieder opined that BTC is much more functional than gold as it's easier to send coins from one spot to another using the internet rather than "passing a bar of gold around."

Another bitcoin bull is CoinShares CSO Meltem Demirors. During the crypto crash in late June this year, she opined that the collapse of the digital assets' prices has its good side, too, as the market would clean itself from insecure investors.

"What we're seeing is a correction, a contraction, and a lot of what is getting shaken out is what we call the 'paper hands,' the 'weak hands."

Subsequently, she asserted that bitcoin "is not going anywhere."

Featured Image Courtesy of StanfordEdu

September 30, 2021 at 1:53 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRpI

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First Kusama Statemine Token RMRK Now Available on CEXs

[PRESS RELEASE – Zug, 29 Sept]

The RMRK Association announces that the RMRK token, the utility and governance token of the popular NFT protocol, is now available for purchase on Kucoin and Gate.

This is the very first Statemine fungible token to be available for trading globally. Statemine is a public-good parachain on the Kusama network, Polkadot's canary blockchain, designed to be the canonical balance-keeper of thousands of different fungible and non-fungible tokens. RMRK is the first such token to become globally tradable through CEXes.

Some of RMRK's many utilities include:

a metaverse currency
staking to mine resources in a Play to Earn metaverse
sponsorship to go carbon-negative during the minting of NFTs
governance of platform parameters like fees, commissions, stakelocks and more
curation and verification of fellow artists on the flagship marketplace Singular
collateral in DeFi
and more…

The token was given away in a fairdrop to buyers of NFTs during April's and May's NFT sale and is 89% in the hands of the community.

With the team keeping only 5% for 2 years and all other holders being unlocked on day 1, RMRK is one of the most egalitarian token distributions to date.

Learn more about the token's full list of utilities, market cap, and other details on RMRK's dedicated token page.

As a reminder, the RMRK protocol is a system of NFT Legos which allows developers and designers to build composable, equippable, multi-resource NFTs which are multi-chain by default by virtue of being launched on Kusama, the center of a multi-chain universe. The NFTs can visually change based on others they own, but these ones are also eternally liquid and forward-compatible in that they can be made equippable by unrelated future projects that aren't even planned yet.

About Company:

The RMRK Association is registered in Zug, Switzerland, and founded by Bruno Škvorc, ex Ethereum 2.0 developer and Web3 Foundation technical educator. The Association is the steward of the RMRK protocol: a system of "NFT legos", the most advanced NFT protocol ever created.

September 30, 2021 at 11:54 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRpx

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SEC Chair Reiterates Support for Bitcoin Futures ETFs, But Concerned About Investors' Protection

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman, Gary Gensler, has once again renewed his support for the approval of Bitcoin Exchange-traded Funds (ETFs) in the country.

Gensler told the Financial Times' Future of Asset Management North America conference that his main focus is on Bitcoin ETFs that invest in futures contracts and trade on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange under the 1940 Investment Company Act.

He disclosed that the Investment Act of 1940 offers significant protection for investors of mutual funds and ETFs, adding that those venturing into Bitcoin ETFs also deserve similar protection, especially against fraud and market manipulation.

Bitcoin ETF Approval Around the Corner

The SEC rejected numerous submitted Bitcoin ETF applications during the administration of Jay Clayton, but recent comments from Gensler gave applicants the notion that the regulator will soon approve such a product.

However, since Gensler disclosed that his administration would be open to seeing the first Bitcoin ETF go live in the U.S., none has yet been greenlighted by the commission.

While trying to keep applicants' hopes alive, Gensler stated that he is looking forward to the agency's "review of such [Bitcoin ETF] fillings," which may likely be focused on applications that put the 1940 Investment Company's Act into consideration.

The Long Wait for a Bitcoin ETF

Following the launch of Bitcoin ETFs in Canada and Brazil, the crypto space has been eager to see a similar product go live in the United States.

Although the SEC has received several applications in the past, including from VanEck, the agency has been reluctant to approve one due to concerns of potential market manipulation and fraud.

With Gensler's appointment as SEC chair in April, many have hoped that there will be approval of a Bitcoin ETF in the United States.

Investors' Protection is Paramount

While Gensler has always been open to Bitcoin ETFs, his main concern is on investors' protection given the sad tales that have flooded the crypto market, which he believes can be avoided via the Investment Company Act of 1940.

"This crypto space is now certainly of a size that without those investor protections of banking, insurance[and] securities laws [and] market oversight, I do think somebody is going to get hurt. A lot of people are likely to get hurt," he said.

Featured Image Courtesy of NYPost

September 30, 2021 at 11:54 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRpw

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Cool Valley Mayor Will Airdrop $1000 Worth Of BTC To Each Household

The small town of Cool Valley, Missouri, lives up to its name. Its mayor, Jayson Stewart, plans to give $1K in bitcoin to each household and the project is fully funded. To top it all of, the airdrop comes with education. The 1500 habitants will learn how to use wallets and interact with the network, and also will be incentivized to HODL the coins they receive. "We're going to get people storing their own Bitcoin as quickly as possible," the Cool Valley mayor said.

Related Reading | New To Bitcoin? Learn To Trade Crypto With The NewsBTC Trading Course

Cointelegraph recently interviewed Jayson Stewart, and he told them:

"What really excites me, and what I'm working on, is getting regular people to hold Bitcoin, and for them to really benefit from the appreciation of holding an asset like that."

About a month ago, the Cool Valley mayor went viral with the plan to do this very thing. At the time, he told KSDK, "I have some very supportive donors who have agreed to match any money that I raise up to several millions of dollars." And the plan went so well that Steward already has all the funds and then some. Such is the power of the Internet. Such is the power of Bitcoin.

$1,000 #Bitcoin will go to every resident of Cool Valley, Missouri.

The Mayor's plan is now fully funded!

— Bitcoin Archive 🗄🚀🌔 (@BTC_Archive) September 29, 2021

Will Cool Valley Residents HODL Their Coins?

While the process of how will they distribute the Bitcoin is not yet clear, it seems like they decided to let people spend it if they want. At first, that wasn't the case. A month ago, the Cool Valley mayor told KSDK, "We're putting in place like a vesting schedule for Bitcoin. The idea is that maybe you don't touch it for five years before you really get full access to it. We're working on ideas like that because that's my number one concern."

Now, the plan is to offer the Cool Valley residents an incentive to HODL. This is much more in line with Bitcoin's philosophy. The recipients will get a still unspecified bonus if they do, or they'll receive less BTC if they decide to sell. That brings to mind the 2014 experiment at MIT, which had positive results and sparked more than one career in cryptocurrencies.

Back to the more recent interview, the Cool Valley mayor said, "the story got so popular in a way that I never anticipated." Since they got more donations than they were expecting, Steward plans to use the excedent to convert the government lights to solar power and fund other environmentally friendly projects. "There's a lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt when it comes to the environmental effects of Bitcoin," he said. And he's putting his donors' Bitcoin where his mouth is.

BTC price chart for 09/30/2021 on Coinbase | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
Bringing Bitcoin Bussines To Missouri

Recently, Stewart joined the Midwest BankCenter's Advisory Board. This is "a locally owned bank with nearly $2 billion in assets." In the same breath, he said "I'm trying to get a Bitcoin-friendly bank over here." We can read between the lines there. Apart from that, Steward said, "We've had some people reach out about opening a mining facility."

Is this man taking a page from Nayib Bukele's book? El Salvador's President's decision to make Bitcoin legal tender has brought a lot of new business to the country, and that experiment is just starting. Reportedly, Cool Valley already hosts one Bitcoin ATM. One ATM and private donations, that's the way El Zonte started. Are we witnessing another spark in the process towards the hyperbitcoinization of the world? Only time will tell.

Related Reading | Top 5 Crypto Airdrops for May 2021

In another recent interview, this time with Bitcoin Magazine, the Cool Valley mayor praised Bitcoin:

"It's given me a new way of thinking about humanity in the future," Stewart said. "It's given me a hope, and an optimism that we can overcome some of the worst parts of the system that we're born into, and actually create a future exactly how we want it to be. There's a certain level of hope and optimism that I get from Bitcoin."

Bitcoin is hope. And the residents of Cool Valley will soon have the chance to experience the magic first hand.

Featured Image by Bermix Studio on Unsplash - Charts by TradingView

September 30, 2021 at 11:54 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRpu

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Europe houses the world's crypto DeFi 'whales,' data shows

A new Chainalysis report has revealed that Europe has overtaken Eastern Asia as the biggest crypto economy in the world. According to the report, the continent has witnessed impressive growth since July 2020, receiving over $1 trillion worth of cryptocurrencies—a figure that is equivalent to 25 percent of activities in the industry globally.

The report cited the impact of institutional investors in the growth of the space while also stating that retail activity also rose in tandem. It also revealed that "transaction volume grew significantly across virtually all cryptocurrencies and service types, but especially on DeFi protocols."

The Chainalysis report further stated Europe was the "international hub in the world cryptocurrency economy." Another interesting finding made by the report was that the region was "the biggest cryptocurrency trading partner for every other region we study, sending at least 25% of all value received by other regions."

Taking a closer look at the report

An independent analysis of the crypto growth showed that it began when the economy began to receive numerous large institutional-sized transactions. These transactions are largely above $10 million worth of cryptocurrency.

By June this year, these transactions had grown from $1.4 billion in July 2020 to $46.3 billion, representing more than half of all activities in the space.

The immense influence of DeFi in this growth is marked by the fact that over the last 12 months, the majority of large institutional-sized transfers went to DeFi platforms.

Due to this, many observers were not surprised when the finding revealed that the majority of those large institutional transfers were made in Ethereum and wrapped Ethereum (wETH), an ERC-20 token of equivalent value to Ethereum commonly used in DeFi protocols.

Speaking on the DeFi protocols, it highlighted that they represent three to four of the top five services used by investors in most months, mentioning that services like Uniswap, Instadapp, and dydx were making frequent appearances. On the other hand, Binance and Coinbase have been able to maintain their position as the most popular centralized exchanges used by investors.

The post Europe houses the world's crypto DeFi 'whales,' data shows appeared first on CryptoSlate.

September 30, 2021 at 11:54 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRpt

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Twitter shares sneak peak of NFT verification tool

After introducing the Bitcoin tipping feature on its platform over a week ago, Twitter announced it was also working on the NFT feature. This is no joke, as a developer in the giant microblogging company today shared a sneak peek of the said feature, indicating that the platform would see NFT verification soon.

As promised, here is the first experiment. Feedbacks and ideas are welcome https://t.co/TDyhibCXfG pic.twitter.com/2ifru9T2Pa

— Mada Aflak (@af_mada) September 29, 2021

Twitter's NFT feature

In a tweet yesterday, Mada Aflak, Twitter Spaces software engineer, demonstrated how the said feature would work. According to him, users would click on their avatar and select an NFT from their crypto wallet.

They would be redirected to OpenSea, the notable NFT marketplace, to download their NFTs, which they can add to their avatar. It would have the customary blue checkmark translating that the image belongs to the person.

Mada Aflak wrote in the tweet, "As promised, here is the first experiment. Feedbacks and ideas are welcome."

Aflak indicated that that was just a demo of the feature, as it can still be subject to change since it's not the final. Mada also solicited questions, suggestions, and feedback from the Twitter community.

What is more common nowadays is the use of crypto, or NFTs that users of the social media giant tend to use as profile pictures on their accounts. This is why Twitter is looking to authenticate each NfTs that could be attached to each profile as anybody could use any NFT image as their profile picture, as such, it could become quite difficult to know the rightful owner of the image.

Concerns over NFT feature

However, Blockstream's grubles has another opinion entirely to it as he believes the new development by Twitter might not be able to solve the problem it set out to solve.

According to him, "Twitter's NFT authentication looks incredibly easy to defeat, and will just devolve into a pile of disputes which will ultimately be resolved by a Twitter person in a cubicle somewhere, proving the 'centralization, but with more steps' meme we've come to know and love about ETH."

The post Twitter shares sneak peak of NFT verification tool appeared first on CryptoSlate.

September 30, 2021 at 11:54 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRpr

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Canada Gets Its First BTC and ETH Multi-Crypto ETF

EvolveETF – a Canadian ETF provider – has just launched Canada's first multi-cryptocurrency exchange-traded fund. The product is backed by the two largest cryptocurrencies by market cap: Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Crypto Diversification in an ETF

As announced this week from EvolveETF's site, the new fund has already begun trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) under ticker symbols "ETC" (CAD Unhedged Units) and "ETC.U" (USD Unhedged Units).

ETC will not be backed by Bitcoin or Ethereum directly. Rather, it will hold shares of EvolveETF's existing single-crypto funds. These include their Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs "EBIT" and "ETHR," respectively.

Their balance of each token will be "based on [Bitcoin and Ethereum's] market capitalization weightings" and will be rebalanced monthly. Right now, their weightings should be roughly one-third Ethereum and two-thirds Bitcoin.

Raj Lala, president, and CEO of EvolveETFs, outlined why he sees these two particular crypto assets as valuable.

"Bitcoin has established itself as a store of value and is often referred to as digital gold. Ether is often referred to as digital oil and has become an essential building block for digital finance including NFTs and other DeFi applications."

The new ETF will help provide diversification for investors having trouble choosing between Bitcoin and Ethereum. It also provides ease of access for people who seek crypto exposure using traditional investment methods. Additionally, Royal Bank of Canada users can include ETC in their tax-free savings account, allowing them to profit from BTC and ETH without paying capital gains.

Canada Soaring Passed US on Crypto Acceptance

While Canada achieves yet another milestone in approving its first multi-crypto ETF, the United States is yet to greenlight any digital asset ETF at all. Companies like Fidelity have been pleading with the SEC for permission to launch such a product. However, Chairman Gary Gensler has been slow to give any approvals, citing investor protection concerns.

Brian Armstrong – CEO of Coinbase – has frequently criticized the SEC for their lack of regulatory clarity and unwillingness to cooperate on other crypto projects. Meanwhile, Canadian authorities have provided digital asset trading platforms with remarkably clear regulatory instructions.

September 30, 2021 at 10:53 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRpq

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Canadian Biconomy Exchange Launched Native Token – BIT

[PRESS RELEASE – Please Read Disclaimer]

Now, the exchange has launched a new native token – BIT. The BIT token has a multitude of uses, making it an extremely promising investment prospect.

The BIT token is now publicly traded and is available to investors on the PancakeSwap starting on 06.09.2021

BIT Token Utilities

Biconomy Token is the native cryptocurrency exchange token of Biconomy.com. Biconomy's reputation and development is a significant factor in BIT's value. Holders of BIT tokens can take advantage of the following BIT token benefits, which will make it a reliable and secure asset:

50% of transaction fees for repurchasing and burning BIT to curb inflation. The other 50% will be distributed to token holders in the form of USDT.
A 6% transaction tax is applied to each BIT transaction, of which 4% is removed for destruction, while 2% is returned to the wallet with currency.
The current market has no exchange tokens that follow this model!
Special trading commissions to BIT holders.
Owning BIT tokens gives a chance to participate in high-quality projects investment.
Biconomy launched futures trading in Q3 of 2022, income goes for repurchasing and burning BIT.
BIT will be applied to smart chain, DEX, and other potential Biconomy products.

Roadmap

Biconomy also published a two-year long-term strategic roadmap. Biconomy's SWAP product is in development – so you're always able to swap cryptocurrency instantly, buy BIT Token with any cryptocurrency, even without trading skills, simply and conveniently.

Biconomy wants BIT Token holders to have access to a decentralized system for managing the exchange – the BIT DAO System. The platform will use the Solana ecosystem, so BIT Token holders will receive extra tokens if they use the exchange in the future.

BIT Staking

Biconomy plans to make the product a true consolidated tool with a wide variety of features.
Investors must have BIT tokens and BUSD on Metamask or Trust wallet in order to stake BIT and be able to get even more BIT tokens. BIT-BUSD LP is obtained by creating a pool on Pancake Swap. In the first round of BIT Staking, BIT Tokens worth 10 billion have been allocated as a reward.

About

Biconomy is one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in Canada. Founded in 2019, the company has offices in Canada, the UK, Russia, South Korea, and Japan.

A world-leading exchange, it provides professional and secure trading services to more than 300K+ crypto traders around the world.

September 30, 2021 at 10:53 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRpp

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4 Years of KuCoin: From a 7-Person Team to 8 Million Users Worldwide

The 4th anniversary marks a special moment for KuCoin. They've recently claimed at TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 that it intends to be the first and biggest social trading platform in the crypto sector.

This couldn't happen without the initial 7-person team finding a way to spearhead crypto adoption in 2013. Little did they know, KuCoin would become a global enterprise with over 600 employees and serve 8 million users in 207 countries.

KuCoin started solely as a spot-crypto trading platform. It's now morphed into a massively rich crypto ecosystem due to onboarding industry-standard services such as KuCoin Spotlight, KuCoin Futures, KuCoin Trading Bots, KuCoin Pool, KuCoin Labs, and more.

This progress has led to $500 billion accumulated in trading volume and over 800 million transactions.

How it all started

KuCoin founder, Michael Gan was a tech expert for Alibaba Group's Ant Financial. He first heard about Bitcoin when it was only $6 from his boss (and now co-founder), Eric Tang. Michael did what most people do when they recognize Bitcoin's future potential – mine.

After stacking BTCs, Michael decided to sell some on Mt.Gox as it had the most liquidity. He immediately noticed how challenging the platform was for newcomers and how it would be a problem for mass adoption. He subconsciously understood that blockchain tech can only change the world if the world knows how to use it.

Michael and his friends saw their original thoughts on blockchain's future materialize as cryptocurrencies grew more popular.

It drove them to think of ideas that would play a vital role in worldwide adoption and establish themselves in crypto history. This sparked the idea of a user-friendly exchange platform anyone can access.

While most people had their eyes on the Mayan calendar in 2012, the KuCoin dream team was forming through friends and acquaintances that shared the same passion for blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies.

By the end of 2013, KuCoin had its "hello world" moment as the team wrote down the first bits of code in a cafe. They never looked back, and the rest is history.

The ICO Era: KuCoin's make or break moment

Michael and his team paid strong attention to the ICO market in mid-2017 as projects were failing from all directions, and some were obvious scams. They saw the opportunity to help the community not fall into ICO traps, and it started with a shift of identity.

KuCoin no longer saw itself as a basic trading exchange. It decided to be the 'People's Exchange' instead.

They did this by using their platform "to find the best projects available and the 'hidden gems' of the crypto-world for our users."

This was a risky decision as KuCoin's reputation was on the line. Directing users to the wrong projects can damage an exchange indefinitely. Especially during an adoption wave.

From that moment forward, it's been nothing but all-time highs for KuCoin.

Michael may have started his crypto journey mining Bitcoin, but now, he and his team give miners a reason to see long-term value in crypto.

In November 2018, KuCoin completed a $20 million Series A financing from IDG Capital and Matrix Partners. It's worth noting that IDG is also an early investor of acclaimed crypto exchanges like Coinbase and Liquid. These funds also helped KuCoin continue to improve its platform's stability, safety, and ease of use. Culminating in greater value for its users.

KuCoin increased its user base by a massive 1144% this year and tripled the number of female traders on their platform. Female traders are now 38% of users.

GameFi (the play-to-earn NFT industry) is booming and KuCoin took lead by creating the first trading board for metaverse tokens.

KuCoin also outperformed Deribit and approached BitMEX in derivatives trading volumes.

So, what's next for KuCoin in 2022?

KuCoin CEO reveals all

Current CEO, Johnny Lyu discussed KuCoin's roadmap for 2021-2023 early this year. It confirms their plans to upgrade their current systems and deploy more quality services.

In the 1st quarter of 2022, KuCoin will be launching a 3.0 version of its wallet custody system. In the next quarter, KuCoin Matching Engine 3.0 will go live — this will further increase the speed and efficiency of users placing trades.

The last two quarters concentrate on improving their futures trading system and achieving metrics such as 25 million worldwide users, over a million Twitter followers, and for their daily volume to pass $15 billion.

Despite their listed objectives, KuCoin's intentions haven't changed that much. They're still focused on finding the next crypto gems, aiming to be the most prominent altcoin exchange. But now, they're also fully committed to raising the value of KCS (KuCoin Token) to the point it reaches the top 30 in market capitalization.

This means they'll be on the lookout for the next best advancements in the NFT and DeFi space.

Another interesting goal KuCoin plan to achieve is transforming into a social trading platform, which is still blank in the crypto industry. Currently, most exchanges focus on building a better trading tool, while KuCoin identified crypto investors' needs beyond trading.

This will be accomplished through the launch of lots of new social features later this year. This will allow users to better understand and trade crypto on KuCoin and find global investors who share the same interest. Through the information and interaction services provided by the platform, even a newcomer will have a bigger chance to win.

KuCoin is successfully turning the crypto mass adoption marathon into a sprint.

Their exponential growth, recent additions, and bullish plans verify this.

The crypto space is becoming more interesting by the day as there's always something new that can potentially change the world. KuCoin aims to be directly involved in what crypto offers the people next.

KuCoin is not just putting themselves at the forefront of the crypto rollercoaster, they're guaranteeing the ride never ends.

September 30, 2021 at 10:53 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRpn

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XDEFI Wallet Secures $6 Million to Scale its DeFi Wallet

[PRESS RELEASE – London, England, 29th September 2021]

Mechanism Capital General Partner, Andrew Kang commented:

"The crypto landscape has gone through immense change in the last year through the explosion of DeFi, NFTs, and Multichain ecosystems. We are excited to back the XDEFI team, which built a beautiful product for users to take full advantage of the true Web3 experience."

The browser wallet space has been dominated by MetaMask, which is solely focused on Ethereum compatible chains and was not built to cater to DeFi users' needs. Other browser wallets such as Terra Station or Phantom were developed to support a specific Blockchain. As a consequence, DeFi users end up downloading several wallets to interact with different ecosystems at the expense of speed and security.

XDEFI Wallet CEO, Emile Dubié states:

The project recently completed an invite-only Beta with over 20,000 users and will be available for public release in early October here: Chrome link

Since its inception in August 2020, XDEFI Wallet has scaled from a team of 4 to a team of 25 with talents previously at Bloomberg, Consensys, B2C2, and Boston Consulting Group.

XDEFI Wallet will use the funds to launch proprietary integrations with Terra and Solana, and deepen its existing integrations with THORChain, Ethereum, and other EVM powered networks. The team's vision long-term is to create a suite of products bridging different Blockchain ecosystems together in an effort to improve accessibility to the best DeFi and NFT opportunities.

About XDEFI Wallet

XDEFI Wallet is a browser extension wallet that is engineered to give DeFi and NFT users an edge. It is the world's only wallet with native integrations on THORChain, Terra, Ethereum and several EVM networks.

September 30, 2021 at 9:53 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRpi

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Bitcoin Reclaims $43K as Binance Coin Spikes 8% (Market Watch)

Bitcoin has reacted well to the latest price drop below $41,000 and quickly spiked above $43,000. Most alternative coins continue with indecisive moves, with Binance Coin being today's exception. BNB has increased by more than 8% to above $370.

Bitcoin Reclaims $43K

The enhanced volatility that bitcoin faced in the past several days continued yesterday as well. CryptoPotato reported when the cryptocurrency fell below $41,000 for the second time in just a few days, but the bulls drove it upwards by a few thousand dollars almost immediately.

However, the pain wasn't over yet as another price drop transpired, which pushed it down to a new low of $40,800 (on Bitstamp). The situation changed somewhat rapidly again, and this time BTC went higher.

In just a matter of hours, bitcoin added roughly $3,000 of value and tapped an intraday high of $43,800. As of now, though, it has retraced by several hundred dollars and stands around $43,000.

As a result, bitcoin's market capitalization has risen above $800 billion, while the dominance over the alternative coins has increased to just under 43%.

BTCUSD. Source: TradingView

BNB Sees an 8% Increase

Most alternative coins have failed to produce any significant gains in the past few days. Ethereum has been one of the biggest losers as it had dropped from above $3,100 to $2,900, where it stood for a while. In the past 24 hours, ETH went on a run and surged above $3,000, but as of now has retraced below that level once more.

Cardano continues to decline in value with another 2% dip. As a result, ADA stands beneath $2.1. Ripple, Solana, Polkadot, Dogecoin, Avalanche, and Terra have remained relatively calm since yesterday.

Binance Coin has outperformed all larger-cap alts with an 8% increase. Consequently, BNB has reached a multi-day high above $370. This comes just hours after the leading crypto exchange announced the latest project to go live on its Binance Launchpad.

Cryptocurrency Market Overview. Source: Quantify Crypto

OMG Network is the only double-digit gainer in the past 24 hours with a 13% increase, followed by LEO with a 9% surge.

Nevertheless, the crypto market cap has added around $40 billion and currently stands above $1.9 trillion.

September 30, 2021 at 8:57 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRpc

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Altair Network wins 9th parachain auction on Kusama

Altair Network is now the winner of the 9th parachain auction on Kusama. According to parachain auction data, the network amassed over $61.7million worth of KSM tokens from over 11,200 contributors, securing first place in the competition to launch on Kusama.

Welcome to the cₕₐₒₛ @altair_network!

After winning the 9th parachain auction, Altair is now being onboarded as my 10th parachain [9-auction winning parachains, plus #Statemine]. Over 11.2K network stakeholders locked up KSM in favor!https://t.co/KQow7VYqbs pic.twitter.com/PdNZwN4S49

— kusama (@kusamanetwork) September 29, 2021

Altair is now onboarded as the 10th Kusama parachain

The winner of the latest parachain auction is set to create a bridge between the experimental version of the Polkadot blockchain and Centrifuge. Altair is a network that enables users to tokenize real-world assets and finance them on the Kusama network—before they go live on the Centrifuge Chain.

Altair is to Centrifuge what Kusama is to Polkadot—an experimental chain built using nearly the same codebase that allows users to test the bounds of asset financing. The team behind Altair wants to enable users to tokenize the most experimental of assets, ranging from novelty NFTs to undiscovered assets, and finance them to expand the reach of the DeFi ecosystem.

In order to provide the liquidity needed to finance these novel assets, Altair needed to focus on interoperability. The protocol will bridge across the Kusama, Polkadot, and Ethereum ecosystems to allow assets to go wherever financing is available.

Over 11,200 contributors recognized Altair's potential and have pledged 187,835 KSM tokens, worth just over $61.7 million at press time, to the project. All of the pledged funds will remain locked throughout the duration of Altair's slot, which officially begun on September 29th and will last until August 5th, 2022.

And just like that, Altair is now a Parachain on @kusamanetwork

BIG thank you to our absolutely incredible community, this would not have happened without you pic.twitter.com/dRIL9glbUH

— Altair (@altair_network) September 29, 2021

According to data from Parachains.info, the Altair reward pool currently holds 79.8 million AIR tokens, 25% of which will be unlocked immediately and distributed to those that pledged KSM during the parachain auction. For each pledged KSM, users will receive 430 AIR tokens. The remaining 75% of the reward pool will be released linearly throughout Altair's 48-week parachain slot.

Aside from providing a decisive win for Altair, the latest parachain auction was also touted as a testament to the auction mechanics underlying Kusama. The blockchain's parachain slot auctions follow a modified candle auction format, with each auction lasting approximately 1 week. To prevent bidding at the last moment and altering the result of the auction, the exact endpoint of a particular auction remains unknown until after the auction's close.

Today the students became the master in bringing the cₕₐₒₛ on yours truly.

Auction sniping is impossible on Kusama. Any parachain that takes the lead for even a single block in the ending period can win a slot. Congratulations to all past, present, and future winners. pic.twitter.com/RDHi7j6u4X

— kusama (@kusamanetwork) September 29, 2021

The post Altair Network wins 9th parachain auction on Kusama appeared first on CryptoSlate.

September 30, 2021 at 8:57 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRpa

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"Supply shock" predicted as Kusama (KSM) parachain auctions heat up

The Kusama ecosystem is filling out nicely as potential projects continue vying for auction slots.

According to Twitter user @DonnieBigBags, approximately 2.4 million Kusama tokens are locked in auctions, accounting for more than a quarter of the circulating supply.

Around 2.37 million $KSM tokens are now locked up in auctions.

Nearly a quarter of the entire supply. It's only going to continue to dry up.

I've know of 3 projects buying $KSM off of the market right now, fighting over the 2 remaining auction slots of this round. pic.twitter.com/rUG0XQ5r57

— Donnie (@DonnieBigBags) September 28, 2021

Add to that the over 5 million $KSM tokens being staked, and the total number of tokens locked up comes to around 7.4 million.

With a circulating supply of just 8.47 million tokens, tokens locked in auctions and staking equate to 87% of the circulating supply.

Given the squeeze on token supply, the circumstances for a negative supply shock are in place, likely triggering price rises.

What are parachain auctions on Kusama?

Self-described as Polkadot's "canary network," Kusama is an experimental blockchain that provides an interoperable and scalable platform for developers to work with.

It's built on Substrate, a blockchain kit developed by Parity Technologies, and has a similar codebase to its cousin Polkadot.

The purpose of Kusama is to provide a testing ground for projects to innovate and deploy their own blockchain.

"Many teams will choose Kusama for their dapp or parachain and remain exclusively on Kusama. Other teams will join Kusama as a temporary preparation ground for deployment on Polkadot."

To that end, developers make use of Kusama's parachain architecture to set out their offering. But making the cut depends on being able to lease a slot on the Relay Chain via a permissionless auction mechanism.

Source: kusama.network

Each auction has an open bidding period of around one week, and the winner is allocated a lease duration of up to 48 weeks, which is split into eight lease periods times six weeks each.

There are 10 auction slots available, with bidding for the tenth final spot ending on October 6, 2021.

What democratizes the process is the use of crowdfunding. Projects can set up crowd loan campaigns to bump up their auction bids. Supporters contribute by locking up their $KSM against their chosen project until the end of the lease.

Rewards are often distributed for supporters, but this is structured according to each individual project. They often take the form of airdropped tokens in a ratio dependent on the amount of $KSM contributed.

Who are the leading projects in the latest auction?

At the time of writing, we are approaching the end of the 9th auction.

There are two projects in the running. Leading is Heiko Finance, with 196,834 $KSM tokens bid. Heiko Finance is a DeFi offering providing lending, staking, and borrowing.

And there's Altair, which has more contributors but combining to give a lesser total bid of 139,313 $KSM tokens. Altair's use case is tokenizing real-world assets.

Source: parachain.info

Markets appear to have bottomed from the recent downturn. Kasuma is among the top gainers, up 6% in the last 24-hours to $338.

The post "Supply shock" predicted as Kusama (KSM) parachain auctions heat up appeared first on CryptoSlate.

September 30, 2021 at 7:54 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRp8

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Chamath Palihapitiya: Bitcoin Has Effectively Replaced Gold

The argument claiming that bitcoin is or will someday be better and more utilized than gold has received further support from the CEO of Social Capital Chamath Palihapitiya. In a recent interview, he asserted that BTC has already replaced the precious metal, and its market cap will soon readjust to show it.

Bitcoin Has Replaced Gold

The past few years saw the debate of bitcoin versus gold growing outside the cryptocurrency community, with numerous prominent names from other financial industries weighing on it. While some, like Peter Schiff, continue to reject BTC as a valid competitor to the yellow metal, others, like Michael Saylor, Anthony Scaramucci, and Steve Wozniak, see more merit in the cryptocurrency.

Chamath Palihapitiya, the venture capitalist, engineer, and founder of Social Capital, seems to be a member of the second camp. Speaking to Delivering Alpha, he said it was hard for him to provide a specific price tag for BTC, even though he previously predicted that it will reach $200,000, but outlined a significant milestone that bitcoin has achieved in his eyes.

"Bitcoin, I think, has effectively replaced gold. And it will continue to do so." As such, he added that BTC's market capitalization "is just going to grow."

Palihapitiya has previously praised the cryptocurrency and its merits while urging investors to allocate at least 1% of their portfolios to it. Additionally, he said his introduction to the asset was roughly a decade ago, and buying portions of it has become his "best investment bet."

Chamath Palihapitiya. Source: CNBC

Sold All Tesla Shares

Palihapitiya was also known for his support for Elon Musk's electric vehicle giant Tesla. However, he recently revealed that he has disposed of his entire position "in the last year or so" to fund other investment projects.

"I don't have an infinite pool of capital. So when I have these ideas, the money has to come from somewhere."

During the same interview, Social Capital's CEO also expressed concerns about the growing inflation rates. To prepare for the already evident consequences, he has focused on accumulating hypergrowth companies, cash-generating businesses, and a few assets that lack correlation with those two, such as bitcoin.

"In an inflationary environment, in my very simplistic view of the world, I want to own three things: hypergrowth, because hypergrowth can always out-run inflation, cash-generative assets, and then I want to own non-correlated assets."

September 30, 2021 at 6:55 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRp6

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GreedSwap: Super Producers Cool And Dre Help Launch New Coin & Crypto Record Label

Grammy nominated super producer team 'Cool and Dre', and developer Peter Parente have introduced their latest project, GreedSwap ($GREED) – one that has a lot of eyes ready and wondering: what's going on and what's next? It was only a matter of time before music and the vastly growing cryptocurrency market came together to change the way music is bought and sold to the world.

Chess Over Checkers: The Deal And The Plan

According to a recent press release, GreedSwap, also known as the $GREED project, announced a new contract on one of the fastest and third largest growing cryptos, Cardano (ADA). This new blockchain will hopefully add value to the growing list of strong projects taken on by the Cardano team. With 2,300 smart contracts getting ready to launch, ADA looks to have a huge year looking forward.

For those who have been watching this blockchain and the broader market for some time, you likely understand how important each new partnership and project can be.

Related Reading | Why Cardano Bull Trend Isn't Over And 91% Increase Is Imminent, deVere CEO Nigel Green

ADA holding after reaching all time high the past two weeks. | Source: ADA-USD on TradingView.com

What makes GreedSwap a potentially important player for Cardano is its versatility, depth and broader ceiling as a company in general. $GREED not only provides a game changing factor for the music industry, but it also provides something for investors, with a deep ecosystem. That ecosystem will include farms, staking pools, a multichain NFT Marketplace, and a major Metaverse build in Decentraland that will include NFT wearables, driveables and NFT keys. These keys will give you VIP access to certain areas in GreedSwap's virtual world that will also include a Greed Music studio where you can watch your favorite musicians and recording artists create music, while also being able to watch them stream live concerts.

Related Reading | Cardano Trends Down, ADA In Danger Of Sliding Back To $2?

Only Time Will Tell: The Change We Seek, Or Doom We Meet…

This news will hopefully provide a new look at how music can now be shared to the world, allow the ability to connect artists with fans at a new level, and also engage consumers via crypto. Artist and musicians have already taken a likes to the NFT world by collaborating and doing exclusive tracks and albums. Big names in hip-hop especially, such as Curren$y, have gotten involved (Curren$y released an exclusive NFT project titled 'Financial District', and he won't be the last to do this as many artist have taken this approach quite seriously).

Other artists, like DJ Premiere have gotten involved with NFTs and crypto as well. The ability to cross promote on a number of different levels beyond music makes it easier for GreedSwap to get its name around to the crypto world.

Hopefully it sticks, and we all can see what this company can do to impact a new generation of music.

September 30, 2021 at 6:55 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRp4

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TA: Ethereum Just Reversed But $3,150 Presents A Major Challenge

Ethereum started a fresh increase from the $2,750-2,780 support zone against the US Dollar. ETH price could revisit the main $3,150 resistance zone in the near term.

Ethereum started a fresh increase above $3,000 after testing the $2,780 zone.
The price is now trading above $3,000 and the 100 hourly simple moving average.
There was a break above a key bearish trend line with resistance near $2,910 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD (data feed via Kraken).
The pair could rise towards the main $3,150 and $3,165 resistance levels in the near term.

Ethereum Price Gains Traction

Ethereum remained strong near $2,780 and started a fresh increase, similar to bitcoin. ETH was able to clear the $2,880 and $2,950 resistance levels to enter a positive zone.

There was a break above a key bearish trend line with resistance near $2,910 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD. The pair surpassed the 50% Fib retracement level of the key decline from the $3,165 swing high to $2,788 low.

Ether price is now trading above $3,000 and the 100 hourly simple moving average. It is consolidating near the $3,040 resistance level. The bears seem to be protecting the 61.8% Fib retracement level of the key decline from the $3,165 swing high to $2,788 low.

Source: ETHUSD on TradingView.com

The first major resistance is near the $3,075 level. The main resistance is still near the $3,150 and $3,165 levels. A break above $3,150 and $3,165 could start a steady increase. The next key resistance is near $3,200, above which the price might accelerate higher.

Dips Limited in ETH?

If ethereum fails to continue higher above the $3,050 and $3,075 resistance levels, it could start a fresh downside correction. An initial support on the downside is near the $2,975 level.

The first key support is now forming near the $2,950 level and the 100 hourly simple moving average. If ether fails to stay above $2,950, there is a risk of a larger decline. In the stated case, the price might slide towards the $2,800 level.

Technical Indicators

Hourly MACD – The MACD for ETH/USD is now gaining pace in the bullish zone.

Hourly RSI – The RSI for ETH/USD is well above the 50 level.

Major Support Level – $2,950

Major Resistance Level – $3,075

September 30, 2021 at 5:54 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRoW

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Argentina's Largest Soccer Team, Boca Juniors, Is Considering to Launch a Club NFT

Boca Juniors, Argentina's most popular soccer team, is looking to score a goal in the field of digital tokens.

Boca Juniors seems to be exploring ways to take advantage of the NFT fever and is talking to multiple companies to study their proposals for creating virtual communities powered by NFTs.

Decentralizing the Boca Juniors

There are many ways to take advantage of NFT technology in the sports business world, and fan tokens are perhaps one of the most popular approaches for soccer clubs.

This type of token allows holders to enjoy certain benefits like taking part in some decision-making sessions, interactions with players, and some other advantages, without the need to have corporate rights.

According to information provided to Bloomberg by anonymous sources, Socios.com, the fan token development company with licenses for more than 50 high-level sports clubs, is proposing the issuance of a fan token that could generate revenues of around $10 million for Boca Juniors.

Another company, Decentral Games, offered to create a token and develop a virtual stadium in which fans and players have the opportunity to interact. The idea would follow the concept of a previous development they did for the Amnesia Ibiza nightclub in Spain.

Banner promoting Ammensia's virtual world. Image: Amnesia

In addition to these two large companies, sources mention two other unidentified bidders interested in issuing fan tokens, with one of them aspiring to become an official sponsor of the club, paying for advertising on the team's official jersey.

NFT Technology Is Changing The Sports Business

Boca Juniors has not made any decisions at this stage, but companies are already starting their engines. With more than 16 million fans worldwide, the team is no mean feat, and Socios.com has already ensured that Argentina is a strategic market for the company.

Football legend Diego Maradona wearing the uniform of the Boca Juniors. Image credit: PA Images

But it's all about a win-win situation, and Boca Juniors could also profit greatly from the successful launch of a fan token or an NFT collection. For context, FC Barcelona's fan token, the $BAR, sold out in 2 hours, netting the company $1.3 million.

Similarly, in the basketball world, NBA Top Shot, reached a record-breaking $231 million in sales in just one month.

And interestingly, other teams have used their tokens as a way to negotiate player compensation. For example, when PSG acquired Lionel Messi, the contract had an associated payment in the club's tokens in addition to the agreed amount in fiat money.

September 30, 2021 at 4:54 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRoS

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Community gaming platform Rival team up with Cardano to bring NFT marketplace

Top esports platform Rival has officially announced a tie-in with Cardano to facilitate an NFT platform showcasing franchises within the Rival stable.

"Cardano will facilitate the sales of NFTs, the ability to create and distribute NFTs, the redemption of NFTs for physical goods and marketplace-based royalties within the Rival platform for its clients' gaming communities, including brands, media properties, sports teams and leagues."

The news first broke at the Cardano Summit, which also unveiled a multitude of partnerships to realize the goal of bringing about positive change on a global scale.

But, in terms of appealing to the mass market and those who aren't necessarily already crypto savvy, Rival's partnership stood out as the most intriguing.

Who is Rival?

Rival describes itself as a "white label" platform that enables companies to tap into gaming and esports to find new customers, drive engagement, build community loyalty, and generate additional revenue streams around their brand.

Its clients include many sports teams, such as the National Football League's (NFL) Seattle Seahawks, National Basketball Association's (NBA) Detroit Pistons, English Premier League (EPL) teams Aston Villa and Watford.

Rival CEO Matt Virtue said partnering with Cardano for NFTs will help his firm maximize and personalize the Rival experience for everyone involved. By utilizing Cardano's technology, Virtue is now able to take its offering to the next level.

"Our partnership with Cardano marks Rival's entry into blockchain and is a significant step in our evolution as an enterprise platform solution to unlock the unlimited potential in gaming and esports."

Real-world utility on Cardano could be a while

The above is possible thanks to the Alonzo smart contract protocol, which rolled out just over two weeks ago, on September 12.

As much as that date was lauded as a new era for Cardano, it's starting to dawn on many that real-world utility and a sufficiently "filled-out" ecosystem could take years to accomplish.

Data from adapools.org shows there are over 7,000 smart contracts deployed on the network. But, of those, only 27 are Plutus smart contract scripts. Meaning, the overwhelming majority are Mary-era scripts for native tokens/NFTs, rather than actual applications.

On the day Alonzo launched, IOHK's Director of Marketing and Comms, Tim Harrison, felt it necessary to rein in expectations. He described the situation as a journey to a destination, adding that users shouldn't expect too much in the initial stages.

"There are high expectations resting on this upgrade. Some unreasonably so. Cardano watchers may be expecting a sophisticated ecosystem of consumer-ready DApps available immediately after the upgrade. Expectations need to be managed here."

All the same, with Rival on board, and more to follow, it won't be long until the ecosystem is sufficiently filled out.

The post Community gaming platform Rival team up with Cardano to bring NFT marketplace appeared first on CryptoSlate.

September 30, 2021 at 4:53 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRoR

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TA: Bitcoin Regains Strength, Why Crypto Market Could Rally In Near Term

Bitcoin price remained well bid above the $40,750 support against the US Dollar. BTC seems to be forming a bottom near $40,750 and it could start a strong rally.

Bitcoin recovered above the $41,500 and $42,000 resistance levels.
The price is now trading above $42,500 and the 100 hourly simple moving average.
There was a break above a key bearish trend line with resistance near $42,200 on the hourly chart of the BTC/USD pair (data feed from Kraken).
The pair could accelerate further higher towards the $44,200 resistance zone in the near term.

Bitcoin Price Gains Pace

Bitcoin price remained strong above the $40,750 support level. As a result, BTC started a fresh increase above the $41,500 resistance level. There was a clear break above the $42,000 level and the 100 hourly simple moving average.

Besides, there was a break above a key bearish trend line with resistance near $42,200 on the hourly chart of the BTC/USD pair. The pair climbed above the 50% Fib retracement level of the key decline from the $44,325 swing high to $40,771 low.

Bitcoin is now trading above $42,500 and the 100 hourly simple moving average. On the upside, an immediate resistance is near the $43,200 level.

Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

The first major resistance is near the $43,500 level. It is close to the 76.4% Fib retracement level of the key decline from the $44,325 swing high to $40,771 low. The next major resistance is near the $44,350 level, above which the price could accelerate higher. In the stated case, it could test the $45,500 resistance.

Fresh Decline In BTC?

If bitcoin fails to clear the $43,500 resistance zone, it could start a fresh downside correction. An immediate support on the downside is near the $42,800 level.

The first major support is now forming near the $42,500 level and the 100 hourly simple moving average. A break below the $42,500 level might push the price towards the $41,500 level. The main breakdown support is still near the $40,750 zone, below which there could be a sharp decline in the near term.

Technical indicators:

Hourly MACD – The MACD is now gaining pace in the bullish zone.

Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for BTC/USD is now well above the 50 level.

Major Support Levels – $42,500, followed by $41,500.

Major Resistance Levels – $43,500, $44,350 and $45,500.

September 30, 2021 at 3:54 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pbeQZY-wNaRoL

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Thursday, September 30, 2021

Daily digest for Crypto Coin Chance, on October 1, 2021

New post on Crypto Coin Chance

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Ethereum's Solidity language is unforgiving

What is the Compound Finance Proposal #62?

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COTI's New Services

COTI's Other Partnerships

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Is Bitcoin about to bounce back?

Is this a load of hot air?

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Don't Follow China

Grim State of Crypto Regulation Ahead?

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Chivo Partners With Major Gas Companies

Another Step Towards Bitcoin Adoption

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Pop-up notification

Preparing a product for the US market

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Ease of access to DeFi

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New Audit and Investigations Lead for Binance

Binance Ready to Work With Global Regulators

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Verifone and BitPay partner for crypto pay out machines

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DC's Superheroes as NFTs

Marvel Does Not Fall Behind

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ETH/USD – Ether Remains Inside Established Range

ETH-USD Short Term Price Prediction

ETH/BTC – Bulls Defend .5 Fib Retracement

ETH-BTC Short Term Price Prediction

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'How Could You Not Love Crypto?'

Other BTC Supporters

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About Company:

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Bitcoin ETF Approval Around the Corner

The Long Wait for a Bitcoin ETF

Investors' Protection is Paramount

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Taking a closer look at the report

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Twitter's NFT feature

Concerns over NFT feature

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Crypto Diversification in an ETF

Canada Soaring Passed US on Crypto Acceptance

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BIT Token Utilities