Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from April 6, 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...

Hackers Target Github Server Infrastructure to Mine Cryptocurrencies

Github services is under investigation after a series of reports on attacks against one of its infrastructures by running unauthorized crypto mining apps. Cybercriminals allegedly exploited some security flaws that could have been exploited to mine cryptos illicitly. Attacks Exploit ‘Github Actions’ According to The Record , a Dutch security engineer, Justin Perdok, detected a cyberattacker targeting repositories belonging to Github. Attacks have been taking place since November 2020, said the report. Perdok pointed out that the series of attacks “abused a Github feature called Github Actions,” which allows users to automatically execute workflows and tasks only when a specific event happens and then pull the trigger on the repositories. That said, threat actors are taking advantage of the repositories where Github Actions are already enabled. The Record provided details on how the attack takes place: The attack involves forking a legitimate repository, adding malicious GitHub A...

Goldman Sachs CEO believes Bitcoin regulations are set for a 'big evolution'

Goldman Sachs CEO David Soloman has forecast a big evolution in how the U.S. government regulates cryptocurrency. David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs has forecast a “big evolution” in how the U.S. government regulates Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, in relation to financial institutions. In an interview with CNBC today, Solomon was quizzed on the banking giant’s moves to adopt Bitcoin. The CEO kept his cards close to his chest but conveyed that the bank is keeping a close eye on digital currencies, amid increasing demand for crypto exposure from its clients: “We continue to think about digital currency and the digitization of money in a very proactive way, and in that context, we are engaged with our clients and we look at all this through the centricity of ‘what do our clients need?’.” The current U.S. restrictions surrounding financial institutions forbids them from offering direct exposure to volatile and risky asset classes such as Bitcoin. Due to these regulations , whi...

Record first quarter for institutional crypto investment products: CoinShares

Assets under management for institutional funds have hit a record high of $59 billion. According to digital asset investment manager CoinShares, the first quarter of 2021 has hit a new record for institutional crypto product inflows. As reported in the April 6 CoinShares Fund Flows Weekly bulletin , Q1 of this year hit a new record with $4.5 billion in inflows compared with $3.9 billion in the final quarter of 2020. It added that inflows for the past week recorded, ending on April 2, totaled $106 million helping push the total for the three-month period 11% higher than the previous quarter. The inflow was down on previous weeks, however, as the week ending Mar. 12 recorded a $242 million inflow. While institutional inflows have slowed, CoinShares believes it is not indicative of a broader slowing trend as quarterly growth rates tend to be varied. Inflows for the past week have been dominated by $83 million in Bitcoin products, or 78% of the total, and $20 million in Ethereum. Ov...

DEX Barter Smartplace Launch: A New Era of NFT Trade

At Barter Smartplace, collectors can use barter exchange as the best way to build a collection. Trade coins for paintings, sculptures for digital art, a 1960s car for a collection of several gold coins, and many more exchange options are now available through barter. What Is Barter Smartplace? Barter Smartplace is a decentralized exchange for the barter trade of goods, currencies, and digital assets. The project has been developed with its own and private investment funds since December 2018, and this week the long-awaited launch of the NFT Marketplace took place with a security audit from Certik.io – the leaders of the blockchain security market for smart contracts. Barter is attracting a new round of funding to scale the capabilities of the Smartplace platform. The main goal is to create a legally significant basis for the transfer of ownership of goods through smart contracts and NFTs. Barter Smartplace Features Barter creates a blockchain platform for barter transactions, t...

Jeremy Allaire: 'USDC is halfway to flipping PayPal'

USDC has seen huge growth and is gaining fast on Tether, the king of the stablecoins. The co-founder and CEO of Circle, Jeremy Allaire, has made a bold prediction that the company-issued stablecoin is on track to surpass payments giant PayPal in terms of transacted dollar value. The comments came in an April 6 tweet in which Allaire alluded to the on-chain transaction volume for USDC over the past year, which he reported as over half a trillion dollars. He added that this was already about half of the total payment volume for PayPal in 2020, hinting that a ‘flippening’ could be coming soon. In the last year, there has been over half a trillion dollars in on-chain USDC transaction volume. For perspective, that's already about 50% of the total payment volume for @PayPal in 2020. Flippening coming soon. — Jeremy Allaire (@jerallaire) April 6, 2021 As some respondents to the Tweet noted, the two things are not necessarily comparable as transactions on PayPal are used to pay f...

North Korean Hackers Threatened Bithumb Exchange With a $16M Ransom Amid the 2017 Data Breach, Says Report

A new report commissioned by the U.S. secret services unveiled what happened behind the attack launched by North Korean hackers against a South Korean crypto exchange. The case is about a breach on June 29, 2017, which exposed data tied to over 30,000 customers stemming from Bithumb. Hackers Threatened to ‘Destroy’ Data and Cryptos Stolen According to Maeil Kyungjae , the U.S. authorities found that North Korean hackers got access to personal data and funds from customers then demanded a ransom payment afterward. The blackmailers targeted the crypto exchange Bithumb by asking them for 20 billion won ($16 million). Moreover, threat actors are also accused of sending malicious code through fake job applications to Bithumb employees. It was done reportedly during a hiring season that the company had over that year. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) collaborated with the South Korean authorities in making the correspondent inquiries on the case. On the ransom note, hackers thr...

Coinbase's first quarter revenue hits record $1.8B ahead of its Nasdaq listing

Coinbase raked in $1.8 billion revenue in the first quarter of this year according to new figures released one week prior to the company’s public listing on the Nasdaq. Coinbase has announced impressive first quarter results one week before the exchange’s direct listing on the Nasdaq, estimating that trading volume is up 276% and quarterly revenue has hit $1.8 billion. The bountiful revenue, revealed in the company’s Q1 earnings call, dwarf its $190 million revenue from the same time last year with the company attributing a portion of this explosive growth to Bitcoin’s bull market. The U.S exchange estimated net income between $730 million and $800 million and an EBIDTA of approximately $1.1 billion. The bull market has also seen monthly active users grow to more than six million users, up from 1.3 million in the first quarter, with crypto assets on the platform rising 1200% year-on-year from $17 billion to $223 billion. The U.S.-based exchange’s CEO Alesia Haas said: “We have ...

Nifty News: Playboy's revealing tokens, SNL’s NFT skit sold as an NFT, and more ...

Playboy bunnies are set to hop into the NFT market, Saturday Night Live sold that NFT sketch for more than $360,000 with all the proceeds going to charity. Playboy centerfolds will be sold as NFT s after the classic men’s magazine announced a partnership with Nifty Gateway today. The entertainment and lifestyle brand, famous for its Playboy bunnies, distinctive logo, and the dubious claim that men “only read it for the articles”, is planning to tokenize its art, cartoon and photography archive built up over 67 years, as well as release onew original artworks. According to a April 6 announcement, the brand does not reveal specific details for its NFT Drops on Nifty, but did state plans to “support emerging and underrepresented artists entering the NFT art community,” with the first set of NFTs to drop in collaboration with former playboy magazine contributor “ Slimesunday ”, better known as Mike Parisella, and a following drop set for June, with 3D artist Blake Kathryn to create a...

Encrypted messaging app Signal enables private payments using MobileCoin

High-speed privacy payments using MOB available to UK users only. Encrypted messaging app Signal has begun testing a payments feature that allows users to send cryptocurrency to other users privately. Signal announced on Tuesday, Apr. 6, that it is integrating support for MobileCoin for a new peer-to-peer payments system in the beta version of its apps. The new system called Signal Payments has been launched for beta testing on Android and iOS platforms for UK-based users only at the current time. Additionally, it only supports MobileCoin’s MOB cryptocurrency, which has been designed to be used on smartphones. Signal was mulling private crypto payments in January as reported by Cointelegraph. Signal’s head of growth and communication, Jun Harada, commented on the privacy features of MobileCoin, stating: “As always, our goal is to keep your data in your hands rather than ours; MobileCoin’s design means Signal does not have access to your balance, full transaction history, or fun...

Bitcoin-Pegged Token Crafted by Binance Swells, BTCB Now Commands $2.3 Billion Market Cap

Over the last twelve months wrapped or synthetic bitcoin projects have swelled a great deal. The digital token called wrapped bitcoin, for example, has 141,503 WBTC in circulation today, but the token called the Bitcoin BEP 2 (BTCB) has gathered some steam. Currently, there are 39,719 BTCB out in the wild today as the bitcoin-pegged token now has a larger market valuation than HBTC (27,906). Binance-Backed BTCB Token Jumps to 39.7K in Circulation On April 6, Ki Young Ju the CEO of the onchain data web portal Cryptoquant tweeted about an interesting transaction he had caught onchain. “Binance just sent 26k BTC to [the] BTCB reserve address. BTCB is a Bitcoin-pegged token on the Binance chain. The current circulating supply of BTCB is 39,719 BTC , and it seems this [will] increase soon. It might be a bullish signal for BNB ,” the Cryptoquant executive said. The token Bitcoin BEP 2 otherwise known as BTCB is a bitcoin-pegged token that is similar to competitors like WBTC, HBTC, REN...

BitMEX's Arthur Hayes surrenders in Hawaii, released on $10M bond

The former CEO of BitMEX surrendered in Hawaii and was later released after posting a $10 million bond. Former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes surrendered to U.S. authorities in Hawaii on Tuesday, six months after federal prosecutors first levied charges against him and three fellow BitMEX executives. In a statement, Hayes’ lawyers described the Singapore resident as “a self-made entrepreneur who has been wrongly accused of crimes that he did not commit,” adding: “Mr. Hayes voluntarily appeared in court and looks forward to fighting these unwarranted charges.” Hayes was released after posting a $10 million bail bond pending future proceedings in New York. Hayes’ lawyers proposed his surrender in Hawaii last month . Discussions centered around Hayes’ potential release subject to the $10 million bail bond, his retention of a passport for travel between Singapore and the United States, and a waiver of extradition mutually agreed upon by both parties. Hayes’ representation began talks with...

Ripple wins access to SEC discussions on defining crypto assets as securities

Ripple’s lawyers will dig through the SEC's internal discussion on crypto for mention of XRP. Ripple Labs has been granted access to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission documents “expressing the agency’s interpretation or views” on the subject of crypto assets. According to Law360 , U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn granted the defendants’ motion “in large part,” determining that SEC minutes or memos concerning crypto are likely discoverable. Netburn asserted staff-to-staff email communications do not need to be produced. Netburn also allowed for the SEC and Ripple to raise disputes with the ruling. In December, the SEC filed a lawsuit alleging Ripple Labs, its CEO Brad Garlinghouse, and chairman Christian Larsen, raised $1.38 billion through an unlicensed security offering in August 2013. Ripple has challenged the SEC’s suit, claiming that XRP is akin to Bitcoin or Ethereum — both of which have been classified as commodities by the SEC , in addition to criticizing th...

NBA Team Sacramento Kings to Offer Players the Option of Getting Salary Paid in Bitcoin

The Sacramento Kings, an American professional basketball team, will offer everyone in its organization the option of getting their salary paid in bitcoin. This includes all players, according to the NBA team’s chairman, Vivek Ranadivé. The Sacramento Kings to Offer Salaries in Bitcoin The Sacramento Kings team chairman Vivek Ranadivé reportedly said on Clubhouse on Monday that everyone in his organization could receive their salary in as much bitcoin as they want. A bitcoin enthusiast, Neil Jacobs, who was present at the Clubhouse meeting quoted Ranadivé as saying: I’m going to announce in the next few days that I’m going to offer everyone in the Kings organization, they can get paid as much of their salary in bitcoin as they want, including the players. The Sacramento Kings became the first NBA team to accept bitcoin as a payment option in the arena in January 2014 through Bitpay. In 2018, the team announced that it became the first professional sports team in the world to mi...

New Kind of Network (NKN) gains 340% to become ‘the biggest blockchain in the world’

NKN price rallied to a new all-time high as the number of full consensus nodes on the network surpassed 67,000. One telltale sign of a growing altcoin season is when obscure and lesser-known projects start putting on face-melting gains as traders scramble to jump on the rising price.  New Kind of Network (NKN) has emerged over the past month as one of these surprise gainers, increasing 1,400% from a low of $0.052 on March 8 to a new all-time high of $0.779 on April 6. NKN/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView NKN is a peer-to-peer network connectivity protocol and ecosystem that uses economic incentives to “motivate internet users to share network connections and utilize unused bandwidth.” Since its launch in January 2018, the project has steadily grown its active community to quietly become the “biggest blockchain network in the world in terms of full consensus nodes” according to the project’s website, with 67,266 nodes currently operating on the network and the capabil...

Indian IT giant Tech Mahindra to launch stablecoin tool for banks

Tech Mahindra wants to provide U.S. banks with a stablecoin solution after the OCC authorized federally chartered banks to use stablecoins for settlement in January. Indian multinational technology firm Tech Mahindra is developing a new stablecoin service targeting banks and financial institutions. The tech giant announced Monday that it has entered into an agreement with Dutch blockchain application incubator Quantoz to launch a “stablecoin-as-a-service” tool to reduce transaction costs and processing times. The new collaboration targets potential clients from the banking and financial sector as the United States’ Office of the Comptroller of the Currency  officially allowed federally chartered U.S. banks to use public blockchains and stablecoins for settlements in January 2021. Rajesh Dhuddu, blockchain and cybersecurity leader at Tech Mahindra, said: “The recent OCC announcement promoting the use of stablecoins for the settlement of financial transactions by banks will sp...

Venture capitalists invest over $16B in blockchain equity since 2012

With over 3,000 deals in eight years, blockchain VC still makes up only 1% of the global VC market. Did you know that between 2012 and 2020, over 3,000 blockchain venture capital deals occurred across the world? Cointelegraph Consulting has built the most comprehensive data set of all blockchain venture capital to date. Covering over $16 billion invested by 928 different angels, VCs, incubators and corporates, the new 75-page report is the most in-depth analysis ever written on the blockchain VC industry.  “The Cointelegraph Blockchain Venture Capital Report” contains exclusive interviews with the most influential VCs including Etiënne vantKruys of TRGC, Jin Kang of #Hashed, Alon Goren from the Draper Goren Holm Fund, Stephan Wong from PNYX Ventures, Camron Miraftab of Rarestone Capital, Michael Anderson of Framework Ventures, and Ryan Taylor of the Dash Investment Foundation. Read the full report here . The report is divided into three major sections including information rel...

Akon to build second African crypto-city in Uganda

Uganda’s government has reportedly allocated land for Akon’s crypto-city development project in the country. Senegalese-American rapper and businessperson Akon is set to begin building another crypto city, this time in the East African nation of Uganda. According to a report by Uganda’s flagship television network NBS, the country’s government has announced the allocation of land for the project. Akon City in Uganda will reportedly occupy one square mile half the size of the City of London (not to be confused with Greater London, which makes up the majority of the U.K. capital). Akon is also building a much larger crypto city in Senegal for $6 billion , with the project covering 2,000 acres or about 3.12 square miles. Both futuristic cities will utilize Akon’s Stellar blockchain-based cryptocurrency Akoin (AKN). Responding to questions about whether Uganda will be able to fund the crypto city developmental project, Akon responded: “I know if I put it there, they are [Ugandans] ...

CoinShares launches physically-backed Litecoin ETP

Major European digital asset investment firm CoinShares has launched its third physically-backed ETP in 2021. European digital asset manager CoinShares continues to actively expand its physically-backed cryptocurrency exchange-traded product offering with a new Litecoin ( LTC ) ETP. According to an April 6 announcement , CoinShares has launched its CoinShares Physical Litecoin. Listed under the ticker symbol LITE, each unit of the Litecoin ETP is backed with 0.2 LTC ($45) at launch, providing investors with passive exposure to the Litecoin network’s native asset. The new investment product will be initially listed on Switzerland’s regulated crypto exchange Swiss SIX exchange with a base fee of 1.50%, CoinShares said. LITE is now listed on Bloomberg, with an opening price of $44.5. Litecoin is a major altcoin and a fork of the Bitcoin codebase that was originally positioned as a “silver to Bitcoin’s gold.” Created by former Google and Coinbase engineer Charlie Lee in 2011, Litec...

India’s largest crypto exchange launches NFT marketplace after 2,000% token surge

India's WazirX has launched an NFT marketplace for the exchange of digital assets. The launch comes after a strong month for the exchange's in-house WRX token. India’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, WazirX, has launched a nonfungible token marketplace for the exchange of digital art, assets, intellectual property and more, reports India’s Economic Times. The launch comes hot on the heels of a month when WazirX’s in-house exchange token, WRX, gained almost 2,000% in value, as its price jumped from $0.27 to $5.66. The exchange itself was subject to the same trajectory during the past six months, as visitors to its website increased by 631%, according to information publicly available browser tools. WazirX founder Nischal Shetty celebrated the launch, which he claimed was the first of its kind in India, saying, “We are delighted to launch one of India’s first NFT marketplace. Since our inception, we have been at the forefront of innovation and empowered our customers with...

XRP surpasses $1 for the first time since 2018: What's behind the new rally?

XRP has surpassed $1 for the first time in 37 months as major cap altcoins are starting to follow Ethereum. The price of XRP has surpassed $1 on April 6 for the first time since March 2018 , putting its market valuation at around $47 billion. Moreover, the fourth-largest cryptocurrency in the global market has broken out against the Bitcoin ( BTC ) pair, causing it to see significant technical momentum.  XRP/BTC 1-month price chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView.com Mostly a technical rally, not too much fundamentals When XRP was hovering at around $0.75, cryptocurrency traders noted that XRP's market structure was bullish. Cantering Clark, a cryptocurrency derivatives trader, said that XRP has all the technical components to rally. Since then, XRP rallied from $0.75 to over $1. On April 6, Clark said : "Not for nothing, $XRP technically has taken all necessary strides to be bullish. After the exchange delistings and write-off by most of CT, this essentially left ...