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Showing posts from February 9, 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...

UN report says North Korea behind $281M exchange hack to fund nukes

A preliminary report from a United Nations inquiry suggests North Korea is using the proceeds from crypto hacks to funds its weapons programs. The United Nations has accused the North Korean state of stealing $281 million worth of crypto from an exchange during September 2020. According to Reuters, the findings from a “confidential report” authored by independent sanctions monitors for U.N. Security Council members “strongly suggests” links between the hack’s perpetrators and the North Korean regime. Reuters quoted the report: “Preliminary analysis, based on the attack vectors and subsequent efforts to launder the illicit proceeds, strongly suggests links to the DPRK.” Reuters noted the U.N. report accuses North Korea of using the stolen funds to support its nuclear and ballistic missile programs in violation of international sanctions. Despite the report containing few concrete details surrounding the victimized exchange, crypto data firm Whale Alert’s Frank van Weert speculate...

Seized Silk Road Bitcoin Worth $3 Billion Likely Linked to Disgraced US Secret Service Agent

Over $3 billion worth in bitcoin seized by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), belonging to Silk Road, are likely linked to a former U.S. Secret Service agent. The latest findings suggest that “Individual X” is, in fact, Shaun Bridges. Bridges Is Set to Be Freed in November Per recent court filings, cited by Fortune , the 69,370 bitcoins taken by the law enforcement also have possible ties with Carl Mark Force IV, a former official from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Both agents were part of the investigations related to the now-defunct darknet marketplace. Although the report cannot be taken as a legal confirmation of Bridges’ relation with the BTC seized, Fortune pointed out that some clues in a DOJ statement shed some light about it: Individual X was able to hack into Silk Road and gain unauthorized and illegal access to Silk Road and thereby steal the illicit cryptocurrency. It’s worth noting that the disgraced U.S. Secret Service agent was convicted for usin...

Nervos launches $5M fund to support DeFi projects

Chinese blockchain network Nervos has announced a $5 million fund to back emerging DeFi projects China’s Nervos Network has launched a $5 million fund to support projects building decentralized exchanges, lending platforms, and other DeFi protocols. According to a Feb. 10 announcement from Nervos, the fund will be used to provide cash grants and direct support to fintech and blockchain entrepreneurs. In particular, Nervos is looking to back Defi teams building trustless decentralized exchanges, synthetic asset solutions, identity protocols, lending solutions, prioritizing projects striving for interoperability across multiple blockchain networks. Grant applicants building on the Nervous blockchain will also be eligible to receive hands on support from Nervos’ core developer team. Nervos is a Chinese-based open-source public blockchain that enables layer-two scaling solutions and is aiming to build an "universal, Internet-like public network." Nervos described the fund...

Bitcoin mempool clogs up with 125K transactions waiting

While the number of Bitcoin transactions that can fit in a block remains the same, demand on the network is leading to rising transaction costs. The number of transactions waiting to be confirmed in the Bitcoin mempool surged briefly above 125,000 today. This represents the equivalent of roughly 149 megabytes worth of data waiting to be added to the blockchain, which is enough to fill at least 107 upcoming blocks. Although smaller than the spike that saw a 143,000+ transaction backlog on Dec. 17, 2020, the increasingly cluttered mempool is emboldening Bitcoin’s critics while providing forks with talking points about the speed and cost of cryptocurrency transactions. Over past 3 months, the daily av­er­age Bitcoin transaction fee has var­ied be­tween $2.18 and $17.20; makes buying a coffee (or any other consumer purchase) with Bitcoin very expensive ~ Bit­In­fo­Charts https://t.co/8bT5yl1Ioo — D.A. Nygaard (@Danofhope) February 9, 2021 The mempool is commonly referred to as...

Virtual land can be worth more than the real thing after plot sells for record $1.5M

Digital land is breaking new ground in terms of the price it can fetch, sometimes beating out the real thing. A non-fungible token, or NFT, representing digital plots of land has sold for a record $1.5 million in the crypto-tamagotchi virtual ecosystem, Axie Infinity. The platform offers NFTs for ‘Axies’, fantasy creatures that inhabit a player-controlled virtual realm called “Lunacia.” On Feb. 8, a community member purchased nine digital land plots in Lunancia as one parcel for 888.25 Ether — worth more than $1.5 million at the time. Lunancia spans 90,601 plots of land in total, of which 19% are already player owned. Is this real life?! Congrats to @Its_Falcon_Time and @seedphrase for making NFT History! 9 Genesis plots. 888.25 ETH! $1,500,000 The. Largest. NFT. Sale. Ever Why? pic.twitter.com/WcIbg6X1Z3 — Axie Infinity (@AxieInfinity) February 8, 2021 The purchaser, known as ‘Flying Falcon’, explained why he purchased the nine genesis plots in a tweet , stating;...

CME’s Ether futures drove more than $30M volume on first day

More than $30 million worth of Ether contracts changed hands on CME during the market’s first day of trade. The launch of Chicago Mercantile Group’s highly anticipated Ether futures saw more than $30 million worth of contracts traded during the first day of trade. Launched on Feb. 8, CME’s new Ether product saw 388 contracts traded in its first day, with 303 of the contracts being mobilized to speculate on February’s price. While 84 contracts expiring in March were also traded, only a single April contract changed hands. Each of CME’s contracts represents 50 Ether, with the exchange setting the minimum trade value at five contracts — worth more than $450,000 at current prices. CME’s ETH futures last traded for $1,826.5, a 1.5% price premium over the spot markets. With the majority of contracts traded set to expire in February, traders appear to be speculating that Ether will close the month near its current price levels. CME ETH futures, 15-min chart: TradingView The days lea...

Crypto Financial Services Firm Blockfi Launches Competitive Bitcoin Trust

The cryptocurrency financial services firm Blockfi has launched a bitcoin-based trust that offers custody from Fidelity Digital Asset Services. Blockfi’s investment vehicle aims to give investors exposure to the leading crypto asset as bitcoin assets under management (AUM) was over $29 million on February 8, 2021. Blockfi Launches a Competitive Bitcoin Trust With a Sponsor Fee of 1.75% On Tuesday, the lender and financial services company Blockfi launched its bitcoin trust as it is managed by Blockfi Management LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Blockfi. The trust will charge a sponsor fee of 1.75% and the company leverages custodial services from Fidelity’s crypto arm. According to the announcement, the company will use Coin Metrics’ index services and pricing data. The company Grant Thornton LLP will be the Blockfi Bitcoin Trust’s financial auditor. Blockfi’s trust will compete with Grayscale ’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and it offers an annual fee that is .25% lower than GBTC’s fe...

Bitcoin energy debate resurfaces with calls for ‘green hackers’ to attack network

“If you’re not a green hacker, and you’re not doing it for the planet, you can also do it for the money: by speculating downward on the price of Bitcoin before launching attacks.” The exponential rise in Bitcoin ’s price and hash rate is driving critics to once again question the largest blockchain’s energy efficiency — with calls for “green hackers” to band together to mount an attack on the network. Total world production and consumption vs. Bitcoin. Source: CBECI A self styled “developer and ecologist” who goes by the name of Franck Leroy created Twitter and Medium accounts this month to advocate the destruction of the Bitcoin network through “ethical hacking.” In a post titled “Green hackers around the world, let’s destroy Bitcoin” Leroy states that Bitcoin is an “irrational and destructive financial bubble” that is hugely damaging to the climate due to its exorbitant use of electricity. A third of the article calls on hackers to “destroy Bitcoin,” stating that the netwo...

DeFi wars heat up as Curve Finance TVL hits $3.99B, surpassing Uniswap

Curve Finance has surpassed Uniswap’s total value locked, a sign that competition between DeFi protocols is heating up. As decentralized finance grows in prominence, a battle of the DEXs is brewing between several of the top protocols like Uniswap (UNI), SushiSwap (SUSHI) and Curve DAO (CRV) as the growing list of platforms vie for investor liquidity and transactions on the network.  In terms of total value locked, DeFi lending platforms currently dominate the space with the top 3 positions currently occupied by Maker ( MKR ), AAVE, and Compound (COMP). Decentralized exchanges hold the next three positions with Curve DAO recently surpassing Uniswap to rank fourth in terms of TVL. Top 6 DeFi platforms by total value locked. Source: Defi Pulse An added boost of attention for CRV came on Feb. 8 when it was announced that a Substrate-based version of Curve Finance will soon be implemented on Equilibrium’s Polkadot (DOT) parachain . The integration is supported by the Web3 Foun...

Darknet market link provider claims its Bitcoin donors’ accounts were frozen

The admin of a well-known darknet market link provider claims its donation address was flagged as suspicious after it criticized Chainalysis' KYT flagging system. The administrator of dark.fail , a website providing verified links to darknet markets, claims that exchanges are unfairly closing accounts donating Bitcoin to the service after implementing a Chainalysis transaction flagging system. The admin alleged in a tweet that two donors of Bitcoin to the website had their accounts blocked by exchanges that recently implemented Chainalysis’ new KYT — or Know Your Transaction — blockchain monitoring service. WARNING: Two of my donors report that their exchanges blocked their accounts after they donated Bitcoin to me. I am a journalist! I do not commit crimes. Last year I voiced strong opposition to blockchain analysis. My donation address was flagged in return. This is pure evil. https://t.co/EzZK7sa5Lg — dark.fail (@DarkDotFail) February 9, 2021 The admin believes there ...

South Korean Crypto Exchange Becomes the First Overseas Platform Legally Recognized in China

A South Korean cryptocurrency exchange announced it established its first legally recognized branch in China. Although the nation banned all local crypto trading services, DBX said the firm already obtained a license to go ahead with the operations. Final Certificate of Incorporation Granted on February 5 According to Money Today , DBX received the operating license to establish the subsidiary in China as part of its overseas expansion plans. The crypto exchange is affiliated with the Korea Blockchain Coordination Association. Per the details given by the exchange, the Chinese government first green-lighted the opening of the branch on December 28, 2020, by issuing a temporary permission. However, the officials granted the final incorporation’s certification on February 5, 2021. A DBX official commented on the matter: The license to establish a corporation this time received from the Chinese government is a license that was obtained from the opposition to the establishment of fo...

Helium (HNT), Avalanche (AVAX) and Pickle rally on partnership announcements

Partnership announcements, improving fundamentals and growing interest in DeFi are driving the price of Helium, Avalanche and Pickle higher. Bitcoin ( BTC ) price continues to defy gravity and its strong bullish breakouts frequently result in short sellers needing to cover their positions in a hurry. A repeat of this happened on Feb. 9 when Bitcoin soared on the news of Tesla’s $1.5 billion Bitcoin purchase. Bybt data shows that about $1.34 billion worth of Bitcoin futures positions were liquidated due to the sharp rally. Crypto market data daily view. Source: Coin360 Another notable event was the launch of CME Ether ( ETH ) futures on Feb. 8. Several traders feared that the launch would send Ether price tumbling, similar to the weakness seen in Bitcoin shortly after the launch of its futures in 2017. However, this has not happened and Ether remains strong . Along with the major cryptocurrencies, several smaller tokens with strong use cases have also performed well. Let’s stud...

Stablecoin flows hint at $50K Bitcoin after Tesla pump liquidates $500M in BTC shorts

Around $500 million worth of positions were liquidated within hours as the Tesla news caused Bitcoin to spike over $46,000. Bitcoin ( BTC ) has extended its rally over $46,000 on Feb. 9, a day after a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing revealed that Tesla bought $1.5 billion worth of BTC. The price of Bitcoin immediately soared from around $39,000 to $45,000 across major exchanges on Feb. 8 after the news began to spread. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: Tradingview Mass Bitcoin liquidation As the Bitcoin price initially rallied to $45,000, it caused $500 million worth of short positions to get liquidated. Bitcoin liquidation. Source: Bybt.com The term liquidation in the Bitcoin futures market refers to when the price of BTC moves quickly in a short period beyond the liquidation prices of futures contracts. For instance, if a trader borrows 10 times the base capital and trades a $100,000 Bitcoin position with $10,000, the position woul...

Hackers post racist and offensive messages to Blockfolio users

A breach of Blockfolio’s signal feed saw racist messages sent to some users of the crypto portfolio platform. Some Blockfolio users received shocking messages from the app on Tuesday in what has now been confirmed as a breach of the platform’s signal feed. The hackers responsible for the breach sent racist and offensive messages, threatening them to withdraw their funds or risk losing their deposits. Responding to the matter, Blockfolio released a tweet apologizing for the incident while assuring users of the safety of their funds. According to Blockfolio, the breach only affected the signal submitter protocols and not the actual trading environment. The platform also promised to credit all trading feature-enabled users with $10 as well as others who sign up within the week. FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried also responded to the incident via his Twitter account stating that the company will perform a security review of Blockfolio’s non-trading protocols. As previously reported by Co...

OKEx integrates .crypto domain-based payments from Unstoppable Domains

As more exchanges start to support the simplified address format, will error-prone text-string addresses become a thing of the past? Global cryptocurrency exchange OKEx announced Feb. 9 that it has integrated support for blockchain-based addresses from Unstoppable Domains into its customer wallets. This means that rather than needing to provide individual wallet addresses for each token type, users can send and receive any of the many currencies supported by both OKEx and Unstoppable Domains via a single .crypto or .zil domain name. In practice, this functionality was already available for incoming transactions. The domain owner could simply set up the redirects for each currency to their OKEx wallet addresses via the Unstoppable Domains platform. However, OKEx wallet can now accept .crypto addresses for outgoing transactions and will redirect these to the addresses specified by the domain owner. Simplified address formats can enhance the user experience and remove one of the rem...

Major Thai bank's venture arm sets up $50M fund to invest in blockchain, DeFi

Siam Commercial Bank, over a century old, doesn't fail to keep up with the times. Siam Commercial Bank — Thailand's oldest bank, established by royal charter back in 1907 — is cementing its reputation as a strong backer of innovative financial technologies. The institution's venture arm, SCB 10X, has today announced a new $50 million fund that will be dedicated to investments in global blockchain, decentralized finance and digital asset startups in their early and growth stages. The fund is just the latest of Siam Commercial Bank's forays into the blockchain and fintech space. The institution has previously partnered with Ripple on a blockchain-powered mobile app and worked with Azimo to use RippleNet for cross-border payments. Given that Thailand is a major remittances destination , the SCB appears to be well aware of the potential benefits blockchain and other fintech developments stand to offer the country. Mukaya Panich, chief venture and investment officer...

XRP risks losing top-5 crypto status as Polkadot, Cardano market caps hit $21B

A second usurping of XRP by Polkadot leaves it perilously close to exiting the top five cryptocurrencies by market cap. XRP briefly lost its top-three altcoin position on Feb. 9 after newcomer Polkadot ( DOT ) overtook its market cap in an ongoing altcoin shake-up. Data from Cointelegraph Markets and CoinMarketCap  confirms that XRP is now barely holding on to the fifth-largest cryptocurrency spot and could soon leave the top five altogether. Ripple gets flippled... a second time The new order among large cap altcoins comes as a new "altseason" hits the market, with investors' chosen targets differing considerably from the last in early 2018. Among the victims is Bitcoin Cash ( BCH ), which as Cointelegraph reported was removed from the top ten altcoins courtesy of Stellar ( XLM ) and Dogecoin ( DOGE ) this week. In the case of XRP, the losses could have been worse. Trading at $0.46 at the time of writing, the token  previously traded as low as $0.16 amid legal ...

Average Crypto Trading Fees 2020 – Cryptowisser Finds Industry Leaders Still Have Higher Fees

PRESS RELEASE. Cryptowisser , who operates the world’s largest crypto exchange list , has published the second installment of its quarterly empirical report on trading fees among cryptocurrency exchanges. The 2020 Q4 report analyzes 350 different exchanges and is the biggest of its kind, giving an insight into trading fees development. According to Cryptowisser’s previous installment from Q3 2020, fees were set to generally decrease on trend with the impressive 17% decrease over the last 3 years. However, with the recent surge in Cryptocurrency, it seems some exchanges have had enough demand to actually increase their trading fees (Albeit marginally). For example, it is reported that the average spot trading taker and maker fees both increased by (0.004%) and the average contracts trading fees also saw a 0.0007% increase. Average BTC Withdrawal Fees Cryptowisser was also able to retrieve fixed BTC- withdrawal fees from 324 of their listed exchanges and reported an average wit...