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Showing posts from September 1, 2021

Offchain Labs Launches Arbitrum One Mainnet — Startup Raises $120 Million

On August 31, 2021, Offchain Labs announced the official launch of Arbitrum One mainnet and further detailed that the company has raised $120 million in funding. The Series B financing led by Lightspeed Venture Partners gives the firm a $1.2 billion valuation. Arbitrum One Mainnet Is Now Live, Offchain Labs Raises $120 Million in Funding The highly anticipated Arbitrum One mainnet launch has been revealed by the firm Offchain Labs and the startup also detailed the company has raised $120 million in financing. Bitcoin.com News has written about the Arbitrum One Layer-2 scaling solution on a few occasions as the protocol leverages Optimistic rollups to help Ethereum scale. A number of popular decentralized finance (defi) projects are leveraging Arbitrum’s gateway in order to give users better fee rates and faster actions. Arbitrum’s technology is leveraged by defi projects like Aave, Balancer, Band Protocol, Coinbase Wallet, Chainlink, Curve, DAI stablecoins, Etherscan, Dodo, Met...

The Highly Anticipated Carbon Social Platform Has Launched

PRESS RELEASE. The highly anticipated new crypto friendly social platform, Carbon , has launched. Carbon has been in beta stage since March, undergoing thorough testing, improvements and added features and gaining over 12,000 beta testers. Offering an emphasis on free speech as well as great security and privacy, Carbon includes an end-to-end encrypted messenger, integrated crypto portfolio tracker, Twitter style social feed, Reddit style topics and much more. Influencers have begun to migrate to Carbon as their platform of choice and many are expected to follow. Carbon offers generous crypto rewards for the best content creators, as well as tipping, so it’s little wonder it looks set to become an attractive platform for monetising user influence. The Carbon team is based in Western Australia and highly experienced in designing and launching apps and games. Carbon co-founder Daniel Abela says “We really wanted to create a platform that brought the fun back into social media. We’v...

Cardano founder says crypto will be vital to Afghani fight against Taliban

Afghans will leverage crypto assets as a store of value and to preserve financial privacy amid the Taliban’s dramatic insurgence, predicts Charles Hoskinson. However, he also believes the Taliban will embrace digital assets too. In a Sept. 1 interview with CNBC , Hoskinson, also a co-founder of Ethereum expressed his expectation that “cryptocurrencies will play a larger role in Afghanistan [...] in the war for and against the Taliban forces." Hoskinson highlighted the need for financial privacy-preserving technologies in Afghanistan, stating: Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson believes that digital assets may play an important role in offering financial privacy to Afghani citizens following the withdrawal of US forces. “Afghan’s digital life is now under scrutiny, the last two decades are being reviewed by a regime that if you expressed your opinion in ways that don’t fit their regressive viewpoints you are now under threat of harassment, imprisonment or even death.” While c...

The total market cap of public crypto stocks has quadrupled since January

The combined capitalization of publicly-traded crypto stocks surged from roughly $25 billion in January to around $100B today. The combined market cap of publicly-listed crypto firms has roughly quadrupled this year while the number of public digital asset firms has increased by 28% over the same period. A new report from CoinShares estimates that public “cryptocurrency pure play companies” were worth roughly $25 billion at the start of the year, with mining firms and financial service providers representing the lion’s share of value. While the report notes that 16 digital asset firms have gone public this year — increasing the number of public crypto companies to 57 public companies, the combined capitalization of said firms has skyrocketed to nearly $100 billion. This year has already seen the greatest influx of public crypto firms out of any calendar year, followed by 2018 with 14. Just three firms went public during 2014, 2016 and 2017 respectively. Number of crypto firms go...

VeChain Thor mainnet reaches 10 million blocks milestone with no downtime

Supply chain management platform hits blockchain milestone as major consensus upgrade nears. Supply chain platform VeChain has reached a milestone in terms of uptime and processed blocks on the VeChain Thor mainnet. The VeChain Foundation posted the achievement on its Twitter feed on Sept. 1, adding that it was “a major milestone that is testament to our public blockchain's scalability, security, and rock-solid stability.” The VeChain Thor network has now surpassed 10 million blocks and was currently processing block number 10,004,141 at the time of writing. Comparatively, Bitcoin has recorded a 99.98% uptime since January 2009 according to this tracker . The Foundation noted it has seen con enterprise usage from commerce giant Walmart and governmental adoption from both San Marino and China, where the project has close ties. VeChain partnered with a Walmart subsidiary in China to track food products in June 2020. According to the Foundation there are some major infrastruc...

Iranian Ministry of Industries Denies Power Shortages Are Caused by Illegal Crypto Miners

Iran’s Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade has rejected claims blaming illegal cryptocurrency miners for the continuing electricity shortages in the country. The department believes the state-run utility company, Tavanir, has overestimated their role in the power deficit. Illegal Miners Burn Less Energy Than Tavanir Estimates, Ministry of Industries Says An official from the Iranian Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade has denied claims by the Iran Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company ( Tavanir ) that illegal crypto miners are largely responsible for the ongoing power shortages in the Islamic Republic. Quoted by Way2pay and the English-language business daily Financial Tribune, the ministry’s Director of Investment and Planning Alireza Hadi stated: Figures announced by Tavanir seem to be highly exaggerated. The consumption of illegal miners is considerably lower than the 2,000 megawatts estimated by the utility. According to Hadi, this amount of elec...

Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and South Africa launch joint CBDC pilot

The joint initiative will prototype shared DLT platforms enabling institutions to settle cross-border transactions using central bank-issued digital currencies. The central banks of Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and South Africa have announced a joint initiative to trial international settlements using central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). The initiative, dubbed Project Dunbar, will prototype shared platforms enabling direct transfers between institutions using digital currencies issued by multiple central banks. The pilot’s findings will be used to inform the “development of global and regional platforms” in addition to supporting the G20’s roadmap for improving cross-border payments. Project Dunbar will be carried out in partnership with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub from its Singapore Center. The project will engage multiple partners to develop different DLT platforms and explore different designs that would enable central banks to share CBDC ...

SEC boss tells EU Parliament crypto and fintech could be as disruptive ‘as the internet’

SEC chairman Gary Gensler promoted cooperation between Europe and The United States in seeking to regulate decentralized financial technologies. Gary Gensler, the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has appeared virtually before the European Parliament to share his policy recommendations regarding the regulation of crypto assets. Speaking to the Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs on Sept. 1, Gensler highlighted the role financial technologies are playing in globalizing economic flows and undermining siloed national markets: “I think the transformation we're living through right now could be every bit as big as the internet in the 1990s.” Gensler highlighted the $2.1 trillion cryptocurrency markets as a “truly global” asset class, stating: “It has no borders or boundaries. It operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.” While Gensler stuck largely to the same pro regulation script he’s been saying for weeks, he did diverge off into ...

Eastern European victims sent $815M to Ponzis and scams in the past year

Scams make up the largest share of funds sent from Eastern Europe to illicit addresses. Recent research has revealed that Eastern Europe remains a very high source of cybercrime activity — both from victims to scams, and from users to darknet markets — in the cryptocurrency sector. Cryptocurrency addresses based in the Eastern European region have the second-highest exposure to illicit activity after Africa, according to a report published on Sept. 1 by blockchain research firm Chainalysis. However Eastern Europe has a much larger overall crypto economy than both Africa and Latin America (which came in third.) The findings echo research carried out last year . The research analyzed the illicit share of cryptocurrency activity by region between July 2020, and June 2021. It revealed that Eastern Europe-based crypto addresses and wallets sent $815 million to scams and Ponzi schemes over the period. “As is the case with all regions, scams make up the biggest share of funds sent from ...

US Consumer Crypto Survey: Almost 50% Invested in Cryptocurrencies This Year

A crypto survey of U.S. consumers, commissioned by regulated crypto platform Bakkt, shows that nearly half of all respondents said they invested in cryptocurrencies during the first half of the year. Nearly Half of US Consumers Invested in Crypto During the Past 6 Months, Study Shows A survey commissioned by regulated digital asset platform Bakkt shows that nearly half of surveyed consumers in the U.S. invested in cryptocurrencies in the past six months this year. Bakkt was launched in 2018 by Intercontinental Exchange, which operates over a dozen of the world’s most prominent exchanges including the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). “Commissioned by Bakkt and conducted over an online survey tool, we polled more than 2,000 consumers across the U.S. and was fielded in July 2021 … Data have been weighted for age, race, sex, education, and geography using the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey to reflect the demographic composition of the United States,” the survey report explain...

Dogecoin Foundation demands copycat memecoin ‘Dogecoin 2.0’ change its name

Fresh-faced memecoin, Dogecoin 2.0, has ruffled the feathers of the Dogecoin Foundation with its name. The Dogecoin Foundation has issued a statement distancing itself from a new copycat project called Dogecoin 2.0 (DOGE2), firing off legal demands that the new memecoin change its name. In a letter published Aug. 31st, the Dogecoin Foundation asserts it has engaged brand protection lawyers to contact Dogecoin 2.0’s developers in a bid to “protect the Dogecoin community from being misled and to protect the Dogecoin name from possible misuse.” Dogecoin 2.0’s website indirectly throws shade at the original canine-themed crypto, stating: “Dogecoin 2.0 aims to offer investors prolonged growth in utilizing a much more sustainable tokenomics structure than its somewhat inflated predecessor.” The Foundation’s letter states that Dogecoin enthusiasts, or “Shibes,” have raised concerns about the new project. While the community has historically welcomed new crypto projects, the Foundation ...

Bitconnect promoter pleads guilty over Ponzi scheme, as platform faces new SEC charges

Former BitConnect promoter Glenn Arcaro has pled guilty to his role in the saga, but the whereabouts of the firm’s founder Satish Kumbhani is unknown. Former director and promoter of the notorious Bitconnect Ponzi scheme, Glenn Arcaro, has pled guilty to fraud charges related to his role in the now-defunct crypto exchange and lending platform He has been ordered to pay back $24 million to investors. In a parallel action in the long-running saga the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Bitconnect, its founder Satish Kumbhani, former director Arcaro, and Future Money Ltd. over the scheme. The defendants are accused of running a fraudulent, unregistered securities offering that netted $2 billion. The latest developments come three years after BitConnect shut down its lending platform and crypto exchange in light of warnings from Texas and North Carolina regulators. Bitconnect has been widely accused of being a Ponzi scheme, and the scheme lives on in ...

Bitcoin Law Critic Arrested in El Salvador Without Warrant

A vocal critic of the upcoming bitcoin law in El Salvador, Mario Gomez, was briefly detained Wednesday. According to reports, he was arrested without a warrant. Critic of El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law Arrested An IT specialist and founder of Hackerspace San Salvador, Mario Gómez, was briefly detained Wednesday morning. His attorney said there was never an arrest warrant for him. Gomez has been a vocal critic of the upcoming bitcoin law in El Salvador. The National Civil Police of El Salvador (PNC) said they detained Gómez “while investigating financial fraud relating to an email phishing scam,” El Faro publication described. A press officer at the Attorney General’s Office told the publication: They tell me it’s a move by the National Civil Police. Our office has no information at this time. Gómez’s mother, who was with him when the arrest happened, explained that the police stopped their car, told her son to get out and go with them. She also said they seized his cell phone. The ...

Are NFT Sales Susceptible to Shill Bidding? NFT Skeptics Think It’s Possible

In 2021, there’s no doubt that non-fungible token (NFT) collectibles have been extremely popular and NFTs have made billions in sales during the last year. For instance, in the last month Opensea saw $3.44 billion in NFT sales, Axie Infinity saw $838 million, and the pixelated NFTs Cryptopunks saw $653 million in sales. However, there are plenty of NFT skeptics who wonder why JPEGs are selling for millions in ether, and some have suspected auctions and sales could be bolstered by shill bidding or rigging. While NFT Market Values Swell, Skeptics Wonder Why JPEGs Sell for Millions You’ve probably seen all the NFTs in the news as rock JPEGs and pixelated images have been selling for more than most medium-sized homes. Non-fungible token (NFT) assets have made billions of dollars during the last 12 months and believers don’t expect the trend to end. For example, Autoglyph #463 sold for 460 ether or $1.582 million on August 31, and the Art Blocks NFT Fidenza #6 sold for 460 ether or $1.58...

Mayoral candidate pledges to make NYC 'most cryptocurrency-friendly city in the nation'

Some mayors of cities large and small in the U.S. have been pushing for the adoption of cryptocurrencies or otherwise taking a position in favor of digital assets. Curtis Sliwa, a beret-wearing Republican running to be the mayor of New York City, said one of the goals of his campaign is to focus on crypto. In a Wednesday tweet, Sliwa said he would be focusing on creating greater financial inclusivity in New York City by opening more crypto ATMs and incentivizing businesses to accept cryptocurrency. According to his campaign website, however, the mayoral candidate currently only accepts donations in U.S. dollars using personal checks or credit cards. As NYC #Mayor , I will make #NYC the most cryptocurrency-friendly city in the nation Property taxes, fines & fees will be payable in #crypto We will open more crypto ATMs & incentivize businesses to accept crypto We must modernize our economy & make it accessible for ALL! pic.twitter.com/WW2zPncEps — Curtis Sliwa f...

Fractionalizing the Doge NFT, Cryptopunk 543 Gets Chopped and Sold for $1 per Share

This week a project called Pleasrdao announced that a notable Doge non-fungible token (NFT) that sold in June 2021 for 1,696.9 ether or over $3.6 million at the time of sale, will be fractionalized. At the time of sale, the Doge NFT was a historic sale and the NFT’s owner wants others to enjoy the ownership. Furthermore, Cryptopunk #543 is being fractionalized as well and sold at $1 per share. Fractionalizing the Doge NFT Into $DOG A project called Pleasrdao wants to sell shards of the Doge NFT that sold in June for close to 1,700 ether which is now worth more than $6.3 million using today’s exchange rates. The organization’s web portal says that “Pleasrdao is a collective of defi leaders, early NFT collectors and digital artists who have built a formidable yet benevolent reputation for acquiring culturally significant pieces with a charitable twist.” This week the project told the public that it would fractionalize the Doge NFT that sold in June and leverage Fractional Art . The ...

Bitcoin bulls target $50K as Friday’s $655M BTC options expiry approaches

$655 million in BTC options expire on Sept. 3, and data suggests bulls may be motivated to break the $50,000 resistance prior to the expiry. Bitcoin ( BTC ) failed to break the critical $50,000 psychological barrier on Aug. 23 and has since then retested the $47,000 support. If historical data plays any role in Bitcoin price, the month of September presented negative performances in 4 of the previous 5 years. Cointelegraph contributor and market analyst Michaël van de Poppe recently said that Ether's ( ETH ) break above $3,500 could be a leading indicator for Bitcoin's next bull run , and now that Ether trades at $3,700, traders anxiously await BTC's next move. Bulls could be excited for El Salvador's 'Bitcoin Law,' which is scheduled to take effect on Sept. 7. In addition, the recent $150 million Bitcoin Trust fund approval by the country's Legislative Assembly is another potentially bullish development. The money will be used to support the installa...

El Salvador police arrested and released Bitcoin detractor without a warrant

The National Civil Police later released a statement saying Mario Gómez’s detainment was related to an investigation for financial fraud. An El Salvadorian news outlet has reported that local police arrested a computer and cryptocurrency expert who was critical of the country accepting Bitcoin as legal tender for hours before later releasing him. According to multiple interviews conducted Wednesday by La Prensa Gráfica, the San Salvador police arrested computer specialist Mario Gómez today without a warrant, seizing his phone and attempting to take possession of a computer from his mother, Elena de Gomez. The National Civil Police, or PNC, released a statement saying Gómez’s detainment was related to an investigation for financial fraud before his lawyer, Otto Flores, said authorities released Gómez later that afternoon. "[Mario] participates a lot in forums, in events, on social networks and is critical of the government," said his mother. "If we see that the cou...

Expanding ecosystem and LedgerX acquisition send FTX Token (FTT) to a new ATH

FTT price soared to a new all-time high after FTX exchange added LedgerX to its ever-expanding list of acquisitions and partnerships. Real-world adoption and brand awareness are one of the best ways for a blockchain project to increase its value and attract new users to users to its ecosystem. One project that has seen massive growth throughout 2021 thanks to its increasing public exposure and exciting protocol launches and partnerships is FTX, a crypto-derivatives trading platform founded by Sam Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that after hitting a low near $50 on Aug. 31, the price of FTT catapulted 42% higher to a new all-time high at $66.50 on Sep. 1 as its 24-hour trading volume increased by 200% to $1.675 billion. FTT/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView The sudden burst in momentum came following the Aug. 31 announcement that FTX US, the United States-based arm of the exchange, would be acquiring Ledg...

BlockFi board of directors replaces 'Crypto Dad' after four months

“I’m looking forward to continuing to advise this impressive group of leaders, as they work to bridge the worlds of traditional finance and blockchain technology,” said Christopher Giancarlo. Former Commodity Futures Trading Commission chair Christopher Giancarlo, also known as “Crypto Dad,” will be leaving crypto lending firm BlockFi’s board of directors, but continuing to advise the group on digital assets. In a Wednesday announcement, BlockFi said Ellen-Blair Chube, a managing director and client service officer at investment banking firm William Blair & Company, would be replacing Giancarlo. BlockFi founder and CEO Zac Prince cited Chube’s “strong financial services experience married with her deep knowledge of the public sector” in bringing her on as a board member, but added that Giancarlo would contribute in an informal capacity as an advisor. “I’m looking forward to continuing to advise this impressive group of leaders, as they work to bridge the worlds of traditional ...

AOC, Pressley, Tlaib ‘Urge’ Biden to Replace Fed Chair With Someone Willing to Address ‘Climate Change’

All the recent money creation from the Federal Reserve wasn’t enough, according to a few American bureaucrats, as three politicians from the House Financial Services Committee are urging U.S. president Biden to replace Fed chairman Jerome Powell with someone who will address “climate risk.” AOC, Tlaib, Pressley: ‘Climate Change Is a Warning of the Potential Catastrophic and Irreversible Damage’ According to three U.S. representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley the Federal Reserve leadership is lacking. Despite the massive amounts of quantitative easing (QE) tactics and a benchmark rate suppressed at zero, the three politicians who are members of the House Financial Services Committee want more. Rashida Tlaib (pictured left) Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) (pictured middle) and Ayanna Pressley (pictured far right). Speaking with Politico , the representatives otherwise known as the “Squad” explained new leadership is needed in regard to the...