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Showing posts from January 20, 2021

MLB Team Washington Nationals Partners With Terra Blockchain Community, Ballpark Plans to Accept UST

On February 9, the American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C., the Washington Nationals, announced the team has partnered with Terra, the open-source blockchain platform and decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). The Washington Nationals detail that the team is a “leading innovator” and is “consistently introducing new technologies to enhance the fan experience.” Washington Nationals Ink Long-Term Deal With Terra Major League Baseball (MLB) team the Washington Nationals has partnered with the blockchain platform and DAO Terra, according to an announcement published by the team on Wednesday. The deal with Terra follows a slew of sports-related deals with crypto firms, but the MLB team will be the first to partner with an open-source blockchain project. In addition to the partnership, the algorithmic stablecoin UST that’s issued on the Terra blockchain will be “accepted as a payment method at Nationals Park as early as next season.” “The Nationals continue t...
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Ethereum Could Touch $10,500 After Crypto Rises to Record High: Fundstrat Global

Fundstrat Global Advisors strategist David Grider predicts that the price of ethereum could rally to $10,500 per unit after the cryptocurrency set a new all-time high on Tuesday. The estimate implies a near 700% upside on the current ether price hanging above the $1,300 range. According to Grider, ether ( ETH ) – the second largest digital asset after bitcoin ( BTC ) – will continue to benefit from its relationship with decentralized finance (defi) applications, the majority of which are built on the Ethereum blockchain, and have seen massive growth in 2020. He also premised his prediction on the recent upgrade to the Ethereum network, which is targeting to become a blockchain for an entire financial system. When fully completed, he said, the three-part upgrade would allow the blockchain to process the same number of transactions as those done by the likes of Mastercard Inc. and Visa Inc. “Ether is the best risk/reward investment play in crypto,” Grider was quoted as saying , addin...
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Bitcoin double-spend spotted in the wild

BitMEX Research has identified what it believes to be a double-spent Bitcoin transaction... worth $21. BitMEX Research has identified a suspected double-spend transaction valued at 0.00062063 BTC or roughly $21 — and it doesn’t appear to be an instance of that popular replace-by-fee wallet hack. On Jan. 20, BitMEX’s ForkMonitor noted that “multiple blocks were produced at height 666833.” BitMEX Research tweeted : [1/2] There was a stale Bitcoin block today, at height 666,833. SlushPool has beaten F2Pool in a race. It appears as if a small double spend of around 0.00062063 BTC ($21) was detected https://t.co/o8lz9xagYG pic.twitter.com/IEdPu8JEjt — BitMEX Research (@BitMEXResearch) January 20, 2021 One hour later, BitMEX Research attributed the orphaned block to an RBF transaction, which is where an unconfirmed transaction is replaced with a new transfer paying a higher fee. However, ForkMonitor has since updated its advice to say: “No (RBF) bumps have been detected.” Twitt...
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83% of cryptocurrencies that peaked in 2018 are still down by 90%

Data compiled by Messari indicates that the 157 crypto assets that posted record highs in 2018 are still bumbling along at prices more than 90% down from their ATHs. Data published by crypto market data aggregator Messari shows that 83% of crypto assets that tagged all-time highs in January 2018 are still down by at least 90%. The data was spotted by CMT Digital analyst Matt Casto, who tweeted data showing the average return-on-investment, or ROI, of crypto assets sorted by the year in which they posted record price highs. Holding assets that hit high marks +3 years ago is proving to be a massive lost opportunity cost for deploying capital. There's a reason 83% of assets that hit a high price in January 2018 are trading +90% below their ATHs. ATH/Cycle Low data is from @MessariCrypto API pic.twitter.com/Kfzfq69ZMp — Matt Casto (@mcasto_) January 21, 2021 The data set included 410 assets that posted record prices during 2017 or later, with 2018’s 157 star coins perform...
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Former Ripple advisor set to become Comptroller of the Currency: WSJ

President Joe Biden looks set to appoint another former crypto executive to head up the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. According to the Wall Street Journal, a former member of Ripple’s board of advisors directors is likely to become the next Comptroller of the Currency. The report cites insiders “familiar with the matter” who expect President Biden to nominate former Treasury Department official, Michael Barr, to the top post overseeing national banks. The position as Comptroller of the Currency serves as the administrator of the federal banking system, and is the chief officer of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The WSJ described it as one of the most powerful banking regulators: “The comptroller oversees hundreds of bank supervisors stationed inside large U.S. financial firms, making the person in the job one of the most powerful bank regulators.” The official decision is yet to be finalized and the WSJ was unable to verify the story with commen...
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Reports Show Crypto Custodian Xapo Set to be a Digital Bank in Gibraltar

According to a recent report, the cryptocurrency custodian Xapo is getting ready to become a “fully-fledged” bank in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. The region located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula has also been extending “regulatory guidelines for digital asset exchanges,” according to a partner at the international law firm Isolas LLP. Just recently, the cryptocurrency custodian Xapo sent out a wave of emails that noted it would not serve U.S. customers going forward. “Due to a change in our global business strategy, Xapo, Inc. is leaving the U.S. market and will be closing all U.S. customer Xapo accounts. As a result, we’ll need you to transfer your funds to an external bitcoin address,” the company detailed. This email followed the announcement Xapo made this past spring when it said that the company plans to become a digital bank in Gibraltar. “We will be relaunching as a digital bank late this year,” the company disclosed. On January 20, 2021, G...
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Going long: 270K Bitcoin moved into storage in a month

Investors are in it for the long run, locking 270,000 BTC away over the last 30 days. Despite surging prices, Bitcoin investors are rapidly locking up their BTC for the long-term, with 270,000 BTC being taken out of liquid supply in the last 30 days. According to data published by crypto market data aggregator Glassnode, “liquid” Bitcoin wallets have shed 270,000 BTC over the past month, up from 175,000 Bitcoin at the start of January. Bitcoin Monthly Liquid Supply Change. Source: Glassnode The data shows that Bitcoin’s ( BTC ) liquid supply has consistently fallen over the last nine months, with liquid supply currently sitting at 21.3% and showing no signs of reversing. Bitcoin’s increasingly illiquid supply could be bullish for its price, with new retail and institutional traders vying for an increasingly diminishing supply. Glassnode estimates that nearly 80% of the 18.6 million circulating Bitcoin are currently stored in “illiquid” wallets. According to Glassnode , a Bitc...
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Eth2 notches up 66K validators as devs reveal progress for 2021

Analysis of recent deposits to the Eth2 contract address reveals the number of individual validators is on the rise. Seven weeks after the launch of Ethereum 2.0’s beacon chain and 2.25 million ETH has been deposited into the ETH2 contract address , signaling growing confidence in the long-awaited rollout of ETH2.  More than 66,360 beacon chain validators have been created as part of Ethereum’s transition from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake. Data provided by smart contract experts at Dune Analytics suggests that more ETH is now being staked by individual contributors than single addresses with large balances, which had dominated flows to the Eth2 contract throughout December and the first half of January. my takeaway: the combination of proficiencies and crosspollination leading up to the complete merge is going to be awesome to see "eth1 devs on user-layer optimizations and stability" "eth2 devs on sophisticated proof-of-stake consensus" https://t.co/...
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President Biden freezes FinCEN's proposed crypto wallet regulations

President Joe Biden has frozen all regulatory processes including proposed FinCEN rules detrimental to the crypto industry. One of the first actions President Joe Biden has taken on his first day in office is to freeze Federal regulatory process, including the controversial self-hosted crypto wallet regulations proposed by former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The announcement came in a White House memorandum for the heads of various federal agencies, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) included. The edict doesn’t specify the crypto wallet proposal, but places a general freeze on all agency rulemaking pending review, effective for 60 days from the date of the memorandum. Crypto industry insiders have lauded the move with Compound Finance General Council Jake Chervinsky stating ; “We fought hard & earned the right to take a breath & reset. Janet Yellen isn't Steve Mnuchin. I'm optimistic.” The self-hosted wallet proposal was made by FinCEN on Dec...
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Nebraska senator introduces bills to allow state banks to custody crypto

“We need to be a leader in FinTech,” said State Senator Mike Flood. A Nebraska state senator has proposed new crypto-friendly legislation which could see his state become the next regulatory safe haven for FinTech firms. Sworn in just two weeks ago, Republican Mike Flood today introduced the Transactions in Digital Assets Act and Adopt the Nebraska Financial Innovation Act to the state’s 107th Legislature. The two bills lay out guidelines for state banks to be able to custody digital assets in addition to creating financial institutions dealing in digital assets for which Nebraska would provide “charter, operation, supervision, and regulation”. The measures would also give local courts the jurisdiction to hear claims “in both law and equity relating to digital assets.” The proposed legislation will likely move to committee before a general file in the state legislature, where Republican lawmakers currently outnumber Democrats almost two-to-one, 32 to 17. The proposed bills also...
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Multibillion Dollar Fund Manager Ruffer Sees Long Trend of Institutional Bitcoin Adoption

British investment management firm Ruffer has revealed that its bitcoin holdings now account for about 3% of its entire portfolio of approximately $29 billion. The firm believes that we are “at the foothills of a long trend of institutional adoption and financialization of bitcoin.” A Long Trend of Institutional Bitcoin Adoption Ruffer provided an update on the firm’s bitcoin investment this week in its Investment Manager’s Review for the period ending Dec. 31. The firm wrote: We gained our bitcoin exposure via the Ruffer Multi Strategies Fund and two proxy equities in Microstrategy and Galaxy Digital. At the period end the combined exposure of these was just over 3%. The firm noted that “In the short period since investing both stocks are up more than 100% and bitcoin is up 90%.” On its website, Ruffer declared that its assets under management as of Dec. 31 was £21 billion (approximately $29 billion). A 3% allocation would mean the firm’s bitcoin holdings are now worth about ...
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Some institutional investors taking profit as Bitcoin retraces

CoinShares has noted significant outflows from institutional products this past week, signaling some institutions have been realizing profits amid BTC’s recent pull-back. A new report from crypto fund provider CoinShares has indicated that some institutional investors have been realizing profits during BTC’s recent consolidation. CoinShares’ weekly digital asset flows report identifies $85 million in outflows from institutional crypto products this past week, asserting the data suggests “some investors are continuing to take profits after [BTC’s] strong price appreciation.” The report noted the rising (trade-weighted) U.S. dollar, stating the USD index “is typically inversely correlated to Bitcoin prices,” and could explain why some investors are taking profits at the current levels. The firm also identified modest outflows from Ethereum-derived investment products, with $3 million leaving the markets. Despite the profit-taking, institutional inflows remain strong, with $359 mill...
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YfDFI Finance: Much Anticipated Farming Platform Released

PRESS RELEASE. As of today, YfDFI Finance is launching not one, not two, not three but four farming pools, locking up a huge chunk of its circulating supply. The team could not have achieved this without the continuous support from the community. Starting off 2021 the right way! “Our team has been working tirelessly throughout the holidays to live up to the community’s expectations. Internally, our mantra the past couple of months has been: ‘Underpromise and overdeliver’. With overwhelming support from our community, we have reached every single milestone on our roadmap so far, mainly within the established time-frame, and sometimes even sooner” said Calliba, Project Coordinator. He continued: “With the recent market surge we are excited to be in a position where we are more than ready to ride the incoming wave. We’ve waxed up our surf boards and are ready to ride. We’ve also had a ‘New Year Makeover’ – new name, new face, but the same beast within. More importantly, the core of ou...
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Bitcoin price searches for support near $35K, DeFi tokens move higher

DeFi tokens moved higher while Bitcoin price struggles to hold $35,000 as support. Bitcoin price is finding soft support at $35,000 after dropping 7.4% in the later hours of Jan. 19. According to Cointelegraph contributor Joseph Young, the correction was primarily the result of an overheated derivatives market and uncertainty over whether BTC can recapture the $40,000 level. Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows that the price of Bitcoin ( BTC ) fell as low as $33,400 before recovering to the $35,000 level.  Not all is lost for the top cryptocurrency though, as news BlackRock, a multi-trillion-dollar asset manager, had submitted filings to the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission that mention the possibility of using Bitcoin derivatives and other assets as part of its investment scheme. BTC/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView According to Decentrader analyst filbfilb, Bitcoin could be “trapped in consolidation between $30,000 and $38,000,” with a lot o...
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Privacy-focused Firo cryptocurrency suffers 51% attack

Over 300 blocks were rolled back in the course of the 51% attack. Anonymous cryptocurrency Firo — formerly known as Zcoin— is the latest Proof-of-Work coin to suffer a 51% attack. Tweeting on Wednesday, Firo revealed that the protocol had come under a 51% attack and advised holders to pause all transactions until the network returns to a normal state. We are under 51% attack at the moment. We recommend not to make transactions during this time until the network returns to a normal state. We will post updates when we have them. Note this is not a coding error but a nature of PoW. $XZC $FIRO — Firo (formerly Zcoin) (@firoorg) January 20, 2021 The attack reportedly came to light when users reported that previously confirmed transactions had become unconfirmed. This was apparently the result of a blockchain reorganization attack initiated by the attacker. According to Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, the blockchain reorg resulted in a rollback of 306 blocks. Details of the attack sh...
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Jack Ma resurfaces in new video after an almost 3-month ‘disappearance’

A representative for the Jack Ma Foundation confirmed to reporters that the businessman had “participated in the online ceremony of the annual Rural Teacher initiative event on January 20.” Jack Ma, the founder of Chinese e-commerce group  Alibaba , has made his first public appearance since October, bringing almost three months of intense speculation about his possible  whereabouts to a close. In a new video clip published online on Jan. 20, Ma was reportedly shown visiting a school rebuilt by his foundation — a glimpse that was enough to spur Alibaba's Hong Kong-traded shares to rise by almost 9%.  Investors' momentary reassurance follows months of inscrutable actions from the Chinese state to reassert control over one of the country's wealthiest figures, whose conglomerate provides over 70% of China's citizens with fintech services through AliPay.  A representative for the charitable Jack Ma Foundation confirmed to reporters that Ma had “participated ...
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3 reasons Bitcoin abruptly dropped by 7.4% overnight

The price of Bitcoin declined steeply overnight and three factors are likely behind the unexpected pullback. The price of Bitcoin ( BTC ) dropped sharply from $37,800 to $35,000 overnight, liquidating $572 million worth of cryptocurrency futures positions. There are three major reasons why the price of Bitcoin declined steeply in the past 12 hours. The reasons are an overheated derivatives market , growing doubt in the market, and the lack of upside volatility. BTC/USD 15-minute candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: Tradingview Derivatives market was overheated before the correction Before the pullback occurred, the Bitcoin derivatives market was extremely overheated. The futures funding rate was hovering at around 0.1%, which is 10 times higher than the average 0.01%. BTC futures perpetual swaps funding rates. Source: Digital Assets Data The futures funding rate is a mechanism that achieves balance in the futures market by incentivizing long or short contract holders based on m...
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Brave private browser integrates IPFS support to desktop version

Brave Browser has integrated IPFS into its desktop web browser for Windows, macOS and Linux. Brave Browser, a popular blockchain-enabled web browser, has integrated native support of InterPlanetary File System, or IPFS, to strengthen the access to the decentralized web. According to a Jan. 19 announcement , Brave has integrated IPFS into its desktop web browser for Windows, macOS and Linux, enabling users to install the protocol in a couple of clicks. IPFS is a peer-to-peer hypermedia protocol designed to make the web faster, safer, and more open. The protocol aims to supplement or possibly even replace the Hypertext Transfer Protocol, or HTTP, which is a major client-based protocol used to transfer web pages across a network. In the announcement, Brave pinpointed some crucial issues associated with HTTP: “The underlying protocol of the web today is HTTP, which dictates where power exists in those applications. HTTP puts publishers in complete control of service availability and d...
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Bithumb CEO Predicts Only Four to Seven South Korean Crypto Exchanges Will Survive New Rules

The CEO of the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb has made some predictions regarding the upcoming new rules governing the national industry. In fact, the executive believes there will only be between four and seven exchanges surviving the new regulation. Smaller Companies Unlikely to Meet New Banking, Anti-Money Laundering Protocols on Time During an interview with Hanguk Hyungjae , Heo Baek-young made an apocalyptic forecast for the local crypto firms. He believes that smaller companies could “struggle” to meet the Information Security Management System (ISMS) certification requirements. In South Korea, there are almost 50 crypto exchanges in operation as of press time. Upcoming regulations will become effective in March, but firms have been given a six-month grace period to meet the required measures. The amended Special Financial Transactions Information Act was approved by the National Assembly finance committee in November last year. Under the framework, crypto e...
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