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Showing posts from July 16, 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...

Report: Tweaks to South African Tax Filing System to Result in Decreased Crypto Arbitrage

Reports from South Africa suggest that tax authorities have plugged a loophole on the online tax filing system that enabled crypto arbitrage traders to make several purchases on overseas cryptocurrency platforms using just one approval. As a consequence of these tweaks, crypto arbitrage traders are now forced to make a new application each they need to place an order. In addition, this change also effectively rules out daily arbitrage trades. Loophole Plugged As the publication Moneyweb’s report explains, some South African crypto traders have been known to “profit from differences in the prices of crypto assets on local and overseas exchanges.” The price differences have ranged between zero and three percent in recent months. However, according to the report, South African crypto traders can exploit such differences using their nearly $700,000 (10 million rands) annual foreign investment allowance (FIA). They can also profit from these price differences using their special discre...

DOJ Tells FBI and Others: ‘Stop Signing Appreciation Notes for Binance’

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has requested federal agencies stop signing appreciation letters for Binance. The exchange used these letters as proof they are actively helping these agencies in criminal probes. However, this behavior seems to have bothered agents of these state organizations, who argue the exchange is bound to cooperate with these investigations by law. DOJ, Says ‘No Thanks’ to Binance Binance, the leading cryptocurrency exchange, seems to have fallen from grace with U.S. government agencies. The exchange normally requested appreciation notes regarding its cooperation with criminal probes. Now, according to two people with knowledge in the matter, the Department of Justice (DOJ) ordered the top law enforcement agencies to stop signing these thank-you notes. Binance used these notes from the FBI and the IRS as public confirmation that it is a law-abiding company. But Binance is compelled by law to help these institutions in their probes. From the stance of th...

Cardano Launches Testnet to Move Closer to Smart Contracts, Polymarket Odds Bet Against Project

On July 14, IOHK, the Cardano network developers, announced the project’s latest testnet called Alonzo white has been deployed. IOHK detailed that it has onboarded new participants and the move will help the project move “closer to smart contracts.” Two days later, a Cardano-based project called Spores raised $2.3 million to build a non-fungible token (NFT) and decentralized finance (defi) marketplace. Cardano Launches Alonzo White This week the Cardano ( ADA ) network launched the project’s successful hard fork of the Alonzo Blue testnet to the Alonzo White node. The upgrade aims to increase participation but also will help bolster functional Cardano-based smart contracts. “Hard fork successful,” IOHK tweeted on Wednesday. “Delighted to report around 19.44 UTC today we successfully forked the Alonzo testnet to the new Alonzo White node. The new network is happily making blocks already. Over the past week, we have spun up a new network and onboarded our new intake ready to help us...

LBank Recruits Global Elites to Share Crypto Growth Dividends

PRESS RELEASE. Internet City, Dubai — As an innovative global trading platform for various crypto assets, founded in 2015. LBank officially launched the Global Ambassadors Recruitment at the end of June in 2021. LBank provides its users with safe crypto trading, specialized financial derivatives and professional asset management services. It has become one of the most popular and trusted crypto trading platforms with over 5.6 million users in more than 50 countries around the world. User-oriented with 24/7 support LBank has always been user-oriented with protecting their benefits being the fundamental goal since its inception. It has professional 24/7 online customer service and 50 local telegram communities covering North America, the Middle East, and Europe with providing the real-time, multilingual solutions and updates on the latest news of the platform and the industry. Digging out promising projects to benefit users has been the consistent goal of LBank. Perfect coordination...

Data Shows Decentralized Finance Took a Hit in Q2 but Is Still Booming

While decentralized finance took a hit in Q2, stats still show there is an important movement in these protocols. Data taken from Messari’s Q2’21 defi review show that decentralized exchanges are busy settling important numbers. Decentralized Finance Bruised but Still Up The decentralized finance paradigm stormed the market this year, and while it certainly took a hit, it is still healthy. According to numbers extracted from Messari’s Q2’21 defi review report, there is still significant activity going on in the decentralized market. Decentralized exchanges, one of the core engines of the ecosystem, are still moving important amounts of funds. These settled $405 billion during the last quarter, an increase of 83% over the $221 billion settled on Q1. However, exchange volumes fell during May to $95 billion from the $203.5 billion in May. The general deceleration of the cryptocurrency market affected the sector significantly. In any case, June was a noteworthy month in the story of d...

NEM, Augur and District0x price push higher while Bitcoin trades below $32K

Massive spikes in trading volume sent the price of XEM, REP and DNT higher even as Bitcoin price hit a weekly low at $31,000. Bitcoin ( BTC ) is on the verge of closing another week that saw the price dip closer to $30,000 but the same bearish observation cannot be made for all altcoins. On Friday, several smaller-cap altcoins managed to shake off the bearish assault and post-double-digit gains before traditional markets closed for the weekend.  Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the top movers over the past 24 hours were NEM (XEM),  Augur (REP) and district0x (DNT). Top 7 coins with the highest 24-hour price change. Source: Cointelegraph Markets Pro It's worth noting that four of the top seven gainers are layer-one protocols, an interesting development that comes at a time when Ether’s ( ETH ) price is struggling below the $2,000 level and the community anxiously waits to see if the upcoming London hard fork  improves Ether price an...

4 Consecutive Difficulty Drops Make Bitcoin Block Rewards 49% Easier to Find

Following the largest mining difficulty drop in Bitcoin’s history, this weekend will once again see another slide, but less than 6% of the difficulty will be shaved. Statistics show Bitcoin’s hashrate has been able to climb higher since the difficulty drop two weeks ago, and climbed above 100 exahash per second (EH/s) this week. This weekend’s upcoming bitcoin mining difficulty drop will be the only time in history the difficulty slipped four times in a row. 2021’s Consecutive Difficulty Drops Come Awfully Close to 2011’s Records After China cracked down on bitcoin miners at the end of June, a large quantity of hashpower had temporarily halted. Statistics indicate that the hashrate was around 66 EH/s on June 28 and since then it has increased to above the 100 EH/s zone. There’s currently 18 known mining pools dedicating hashrate to the BTC chain, and 4.71 % of the global hashrate (24-hour stats) or 4.79 EH/s belongs to unknown miners. This weekend, Bitcoin’s mining difficulty wi...

Altcoin Roundup: Data shows social metrics surge ahead of DeFi and NFT price rallies

Analyzing Twitter mentions and Google Trends data is another way traders keep an eye on emerging trends and sector rotations in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. A common saying in the investing world is “The trend is your friend,” a phrase that points to the idea that the majority of the time, sticking with the prevailing market trend will produce positive results. Some of the common metrics used to identify market trends include: technical analysis, which involves studying price charts to spot opportunities ; fundamental analysis, which involves looking at a project’s underlying economic and technological factors; and social media metrics, which help an investor listen to the pulse of what the wider public is focused on. One of the more popular metrics that crypto traders use to identify emerging patterns is Google Trends, a product that analyzes the popularity of search queries performed via Google’s search engine. Using Google Trends, users can view the data in simple line graphs ...

Harmony announces $1M hackathon aimed at merging traditional finance and DeFi

The hackathon will run for roughly six weeks from Aug. 15 to Sept. 30 and include four challenges from three different categories. The Harmony blockchain has opened registration for a hackathon starting next month with more than $1 million in seed funding and prizes for participants. In a Thursday announcement on Twitter, Harmony said the hackathon would be focused on bringing in more people from traditional finance for challenges bridging their fields and decentralized finance. The protocol said there would be four challenges in each category of social wallets and keyless security, cross-chain and trustless bridges, and cross-border with fintech integration. “In blockchain, finance is where we are seeing product market fit,” said Harmony. “But most of DeFi was created by people who didn't come from traditional finance. We want to bring more TradFi in to contribute to DeFi. We know they have much to teach us and we can help them understand and harness the power of DeFi and te...

Visa, Mastercard Monitor Binance’s Regulatory Compliance as More Regulators Scrutinize the Crypto Exchange

Payments giants Visa and Mastercard say they are monitoring Binance’s regulatory compliance developments as more regulators come after the global crypto exchange for operating in their countries without authorization. Visa, Mastercard Monitoring Binance’s Regulatory Troubles Visa and Mastercard have not severed ties with cryptocurrency exchange Binance despite rising regulatory scrutiny. The two payments giants have not blocked Binance and cardholders can still use Visa and Mastercard to deposit funds into their accounts at the exchange. Visa told the Financial Times Friday that it was “aware of the recent FCA statement regarding Binance,” noting that it was in “dialogue with Binance to monitor developments,” the publication conveyed. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued a warning on Binance stating that the exchange is not authorized to engage in regulated activities in the U.K. Mastercard similarly told the publication: We continue to monitor this situation, including...

Cardano grows closer to launching smart contracts with new testnet

The Alonzo White testnet brings NFTs and various De-Fi use cases one step closer for Cardano. IOHK, the blockchain development team behind Cardano, announced on July 15 that the project’s Alonzo test net had officially transitioned from Blue to White, bringing with it the ecosystem’s long anticipated expansion to functional smart contracts. HARD FORK SUCCESSFUL: Delighted to report around 19.44 UTC today we successfully forked the #Alonzo testnet to the new #AlonzoWhite node. The new network is happily making blocks already. 1/5 — Input Output (@InputOutputHK) July 14, 2021 While the  previous testnet, known as Alonzo Blue, did offer some smart contract features, these were only available to a limited number of insiders. Yesterday’s upgrade will allow about 500 validators, stake pool operators, and developers to test these features going forward. Alonzo White is set to run for two to four weeks before upgrading to the final testnet for its current development phase, know...

Price analysis 7/16: BTC, ETH, BNB, ADA, XRP, DOGE, DOT, UNI, BCH, LTC

Bitcoin bulls defended the $31,000 level again, but data shows demand for BTC and altcoins is weak and this heightens the chase of further downside. Bitcoin ( BTC ) is witnessing a tough battle between the bulls and the bears near $31,000, which makes it an important level to watch out for. Data from Glassnode shows that the $31,000 to $34,300 zone has seen strong interest from buyers and sellers as 9.93% of the Bitcoin supply has moved in this zone. The failure of Bitcoin to rally quickly from strong support levels indicates weak demand. Proof of the current disinterest comes from BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, who said in a recent CNBC interview that investor demand for cryptocurrencies had declined recently. Fink said that during his last two weeks of business travel, not one question about Bitcoin and crypto investing was presented to him. Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360 Another sign of reduced demand is that the 90-day inflow into the United States an...

Malaysia is literally crushing thousands of illegal Bitcoin miners

It’s unclear why authorities outright destroyed the miners rather than attempting to reap some value, but they could still be sold for scrap. Authorities in Malaysia destroyed more than $1.2 million worth of Bitcoin mining rigs after they were confiscated for operating illegally. In a video posted today from local news outlet DayakDaily, police in the city of Miri on the island of Borneo and the Sarawak Energy company arranged for a steamroller to run over 1,069 Bitcoin ( BTC ) miners. The rigs were reportedly confiscated from residents of Malaysia attempting to illegally mine the cryptocurrency using stolen electricity between February and April. According to a Friday report from Malaysian newspaper The Star, the disposal of the mining machines — worth roughly $1.26 million — occurred at the Miri district police headquarters today. Authorities said three houses in the area had been destroyed this year due to illegal Bitcoin mining, while the Sarawak Energy company lost an estim...

China Reveals Digital Yuan White Paper: Smart Contracts, $5.4B Settled, Large Transfers Traced

The working group involved with the research and development of the digital yuan for the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has published a paper describing the digital currency’s progress. The PBOC initiated a task force dedicated to the creation of a digital yuan in 2014, and the recently published document is the project’s first white paper released in seven years. China’s Digital Yuan Is No Different Than Physical RMB After the creation of Bitcoin and a few years after the cryptocurrency economy started getting recognized, the PBOC was one of the first central banks to introduce the idea of creating a central bank digital currency (CBDC). China’s central bank has recently allowed the digital currency working group to publish a white paper that details the CBDC’s current progress. The white paper titled “Progress of Research & Development of E-CNY in China” notes that over the course of history, “the form of currency has evolved.” The PBOC’s digital currency working group stre...