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Showing posts from October 2, 2021

IMF recommends CBDC and global crypto standards for financial stability

The fresh policies recommended by the IMF aim to curb down the financial risks associated with global crypto adoption. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) released a set of actionable policies for the emerging markets and developing economies to ensure financial stability amid global crypto adoption. The IMF believes in the potential of crypto assets as a tool for faster and cheaper cross-border payments, citing the dramatic increase in the value of the crypto markets despite the bearish trends from May 2021 . The report attributes high returns, transaction costs and speed and reduced Anti-Money Laundering (AML) standards as the primary drivers for crypto adoption. To counter the resultant financial stability challenges as a result of increased trading of crypto assets, IMF recommends: “Policymakers should implement global standards for crypto assets and enhance their ability to monitor the crypto ecosystem by addressing data gaps. Emerging markets faced with cryptoization...

Crypto Miners Blamed for Power Supply Deficit in Kazakhstan, Government Mulls Restrictions

Kazakhstan is facing electricity shortages and cryptocurrency mining has been singled out as the main culprit. Amid an ongoing crackdown in China, the Central Asian nation has become a magnet for crypto miners who are taking advantage of its low electricity rates. Republic of Kazakhstan Sees 7% Increase in Electricity Demand Due to Crypto Miners Kazakhstan plans to boost its power generating capacities in the coming years but right now the country is experiencing electricity shortages. In 2021, consumption has surged by 7% in comparison with last year, a government official revealed at a press conference. The spike in demand is largely due to a growing number of data centers devoted to cryptocurrency mining, Energy Minister Magzum Mirzagaliev told local media this week, referring to numbers released by the grid operator, KEGOC. Stressing that “this is a very big increase,” he stated: We need to make a number of decisions. First, we must be able to ensure that system operators ha...

IMF Warns Crypto Boom Poses New Financial Stability Challenges, Urges Regulators to Step Up

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warns that the rising popularity of cryptocurrencies poses new challenges to financial stability. “Cryptoization can reduce the ability of central banks to effectively implement monetary policy. It could also create financial stability risks.” IMF Sees New Challenges to Financial Stability From Crypto The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned about the risks posed by the cryptocurrency boom in a blog post published Friday. The post, titled “Crypto boom poses new challenges to financial stability,” is authored by three financial experts from the IMF’s Monetary and Capital Markets Department: Dimitris Drakopoulos, Fabio Natalucci, and Evan Papageorgiou. Noting that “The total market value of all the crypto assets surpassed $2 trillion as of September 2021 — a 10-fold increase since early 2020,” they said that many entities in the ecosystem “lack strong operational, governance, and risk practices.” These include exchanges, wallets, miners, and ...

Risk-averse Ethereum traders use this options strategy to increase exposure to ETH

The Iron Condor options strategy gives risk-averse traders a safer way to profit from a potential $3,400 to $5,400 ETH price. On Oct. 1, the cryptocurrency market experienced a 9.5% pump that drove Bitcoin ( BTC ) and Ether ( ETH ) to their highest levels in 12 days. A variety of reasons have been attributed to the price move, including the U.S. consumer price index, exchanges' diminishing supply, and a "cup and handle" bullish continuation chart formation. Traders are not likely to find an explanation for the sudden move, apart from investors regaining confidence after the Sept. 19 drop was attributed to contagion fears from China-based property developer Evergrande. The Ethereum network has been facing some criticism due to the $20 or higher transaction costs caused by the nonfungible token (NFT) sales and decentralized finance (DeFi) activity. Cross-chain bridges connecting Ethereum to proof-of-stake (PoS) networks have been partially solving this issue, and Frid...

World’s Largest Monero Accepting Darknet Market Reveals Retirement Plan — White House Admins Say DNM ‘Reached Its Goal’

One of the largest darknet markets (DNM), White House, announced the market is retiring as the DNM’s administrators say the team has reached its goal. After revealing the retirement plan, White House admins explained that user registration and orders have been disabled. Darknet Market White House Plans to Close Its Doors Soon, User Registration and Orders Have Been Disabled When the DNM Dark Market was seized by global law enforcement, White House marketplace became the second-largest DNM just below the Russian darknet behemoth Hydra. White House also was a monero ( XMR ) only DNM, which means XMR was the only digital currency accepted by White House vendors. White House and the DNM Archetyp Market were the only two DNMs that had a strict XMR only rule. However, the administrators of White House market announced the DNM is closing down voluntarily as the team has reached its goal. White House (WH) admins further emphasized that users should not expect the DNM to return so if a WH...

Morgan Stanley acquires more GBTC, Alibaba to halt crypto mining gear sales, and a possible scenario for $6 million BTC: Hodler’s Digest, Sept. 26-Oct. 2

Coming every Saturday, Hodlers Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more a week on Cointelegraph in one link. Top Stories This Week DOGE co-founder sets sights on Ethereum bridge and NFTs for mass adoption Billy Markus, the co-founder of the beloved Dogecoin ( DOGE ), emphasized the importance of completing an Ethereum-to-Dogecoin bridge on Thursday, citing that the asset could be integrated for payments on Ethereum-based NFT marketplaces. Markus stated that there is high demand to purchase NFTs within the crypto community and that enabling NFT purchases with DOGE greatly increases its utility. The development of a DogecoinEthereum bridge would mark a significant milestone for the meme coin, as it would enable users to send DOGE from the Dogecoin blockchain to the Ethereum blockchain, and utilize the asset in the DeFi and NFT sect...

Building a better stock market: Tokenized shares bridge trading gap on blockchain

Blockchain tech allows for the creation of a community-governed system that is fundamentally incompatible with traditional finance. The dramatic short squeeze of the stock of video game retailer GameStop this January was the moment when r/WallStreetBets finally transformed from a humble Reddit forum into a financial force that can no longer be ignored. But lost among the memes, trading app drama and hand-wringing over the sanctity of the stock market was one surprising outcome: GameStop’s share price didn’t just rise — the company actually listened to its many new retail investors and aggressively ramped up its strategy to focus on e-commerce. Rather than just a one-off market glitch, the investments made by r/WallStreetBets users resulted in the real transformation of a company that many in Wall Street had been predicting the demise of. Related: GameStop inadvertently paves the way for decentralized finance You’d think Wall Street types and their fan club in Congress would be ha...

Federal Reserve Chairman Powell Says No Intention to Ban or Limit Use of Cryptocurrencies

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell confirmed during a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee that he has no intention to ban or limit the use of cryptocurrencies. He also commented on the regulation of stablecoins. Powell Says ‘No Intention to Ban’ Crypto The chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Jerome Powell, talked about cryptocurrency, stablecoins, and central bank digital currencies (CBDC) during a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee Thursday. The main focus of the meeting, however, was the Federal Reserve’s and Treasury’s responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen spoke for the Treasury Department. U.S. Congressman Ted Budd from North Carolina said to Powell: “In a July hearing before this committee, you were asked about CBDCs or the central bank digital currencies and their impact on stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies, and you stated , ‘You wouldn’t need stablecoins, you wouldn’t ne...

Actions speak: China’s crypto ban may reveal digital yuan CBDC goals

China’s ban on cryptocurrencies causes a mild slump, but recovering from this FUD is not new for crypto as China’s motives come under the scanner. Chinese regulatory authorities gave yet another shock to the cryptoverse by imposing a ban on all cryptocurrency transactions on Sept. 24. This measure came just as the market was beginning to recover from the government's June prohibition on cryptocurrency mining activities. The fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) that resulted from the ban caused Bitcoin ( BTC ) to crash nearly 9% within five hours, from exchanging hands in the $45,000 range to bottoming out at $41,142. Soon after, Alibaba announced that it would be banning any sale of cryptocurrency rigs and related accessories starting Oct. 8. However, the flagship cryptocurrency has since recovered to trading above pre-ban levels of around $45,000. At the time of writing, BTC is exchanging hands in the $47,300 range. This recovery could be on the back of two favorable developme...

Coinbase Reveals Massive Hack of User Accounts: Over 6,000 Customers Lost Funds

The Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has disclosed that at least 6,000 users were victims of a hacking campaign to gain unauthorized access to the accounts of Coinbase customers. The hackers also took advantage of a flaw in Coinbase’s SMS Account Recovery process to gain access to user accounts. Cryptocurrencies of at Least 6,000 Coinbase Customers Stolen by Hackers Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase reportedly informed over 6,000 customers this week that their accounts had been compromised and funds were removed. A copy of the letter is posted on the website of California’s Attorney General. In the letter, the exchange explained: Unfortunately, between March and May 20, 2021, you were a victim of a third-party campaign to gain unauthorized access to the accounts of Coinbase customers and move customer funds off the Coinbase platform. At least 6,000 Coinbase customers had funds removed from their accounts, including you. In order to access a user account at Coinbas...

Private distributed ledger technology or public blockchain?

Is every chain of blocks a blockchain? What is the fundamental difference between private and public networks? Some people think that permissioned distributed ledger technology can perform better than open blockchain because it is tweaked to address the issues of the latter. Such systems are also called “permissioned blockchain,” as if blockchain is a high-level concept and “permissioned” is one of its variants. But this statement is controversial and down below, you will come to understand why. Is “permissioned” decentralized? There are a lot of other options to choose from in DLTs: permissioned, private, enterprise, federated DLT, etc. And frankly, sometimes, it is not easy to distinguish between them. Therefore, for this level of discussion, let us compare just DLTs vs. blockchain. A permissioned DLT and the mentioned variety thereof are not decentralized. There should not be any fallacy around this, as it might be fatal for a project. While some opponents to this statement mig...

October’s Historical Bitcoin Price Trend Extends Hope for a Renewed Bull Run to End the Year

Bitcoin logged price losses once again for the crypto asset’s fifth consecutive September in its lifetime, but as soon as the month ended, billions of dollars came back into the crypto economy. Metrics show that while September has consistently been a bad month for bitcoin, October, on the other hand, has traditionally been a good month for bitcoin since 2013. Bitcoin Has Been Profitable in October 77% of the Time In 2020, the price of bitcoin ( BTC ) closed the month of September at around $10,750 per unit but the following month, BTC spiked 25% to roughly $13,450 per unit. This year, September has been dreary price-wise, and many crypto proponents have asked to be woken up when “ September ends .” On September 26, Civic co-founder Vinny Lingham wrote : “This feels like September 2017 again… Who remembers what happened next?” On October 1, 2021, BTC surged from $43,500 per unit to Friday’s high of $48,500 per BTC . That’s an increase of around 11.49% and the spike happened very ...

Study Findings Show 83.7% of Luno Users Are Bullish on Bitcoin’s Resurgence

About 83.7% of those surveyed by Luno in a recent study believe the price of bitcoin will rise significantly in the next few months. In fact, 59.4% of the more bullish respondents are expecting the leading crypto to rise to as much as $100,000. Bullish Beyond Bitcoin These are the findings of Luno’s Q3 Customer Sentiment Survey that was conducted between August 20 and September 20. A total of 1,870 customers of Luno cryptocurrency exchange from South Africa, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the U.K. participated in the study. Aside from bitcoin, study participants were also asked to share their thoughts about the prospects of altcoins like ETH , XRP and BCH . As the study findings suggest, many of the respondents across the four countries are similarly bullish on altcoins as well. South Africans Less Bullish on ETH However, it would appear that Luno customers in the U.K. and Malaysia are more bullish on such cryptos as ETH than their counterparts in South Africa. The exchange’s blog e...

NFT for the win: Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen chases a nonfungible trophy

Ten finalists including Magnus Carlsen and Wesley So will compete for the Champion’s Trophy NFT, while a replica will be made available for auction. An international chess tournament, Meltwater Champions Chess Tour (MCCT), has announced to mint nonfungible token (NFT) trophies and collectibles for preserving the game‘s most defining moments for infinity. The winner of the MCCT will be awarded an NFT trophy, marking the mainstream crypto involvement from the international chess community. The tournament’s finals will see participation from grandmaster Magnus Carlsen and other nine professional chess players including Wesley So. According to the official statement, Chess Champs will mint two editions of the Champion’s Trophy NFT, allowing fans to obtain a replica of the trophy through an online auction. Moreover, the company will also release a series of NFT collectibles attributed to “the moves, the moments and the players” on the chess tour. Carlsen’s interest in crypto can b...

Bitcoin investors 'no longer fearful' — watch this BTC price level next

Sentiment breaks out from "extreme fear" along with Bitcoin price action as expectations call for only a modest correction before fresh gains. Bitcoin ( BTC ) stayed higher on Oct. 2 after a "fantastic" break to the upside upended market sentiment. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView Trader eyes $45,000 BTC price floor Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed eerie calm on BTC/USD after Friday's sudden upside volatility saw $3,000 added in an hour. The classic "short squeeze" saw no significant pushback into the weekend, with Bitcoin preserving levels above the August close. For Cointelegraph contributor Michaël van de Poppe, it was now a question of what form a consolidation period could take in the coming days. "If we want to get any corrective move at all, I think you don't want to see it go that far down," he warned in a YouTube update Friday. "I think the deepest you wa...

The focus of the blockchain climate discussion is missing the point

Bitcoin’s energy consumption and its dependency on climate-damaging fossil fuels has raised debates from both inside and outside the blockchain community. As the nonfungible tokens craze took off at the start of the year, many climate-conscious artists vocalized their disapproval of Ethereum’s energy consumption. In May, Elon Musk then derailed Bitcoin ( BTC ), citing the energy consumed by Bitcoin as cause for Tesla to withdraw its plans to accept BTC as payment for its electric cars. Both of these events have provoked a surge of debate from inside and outside the blockchain community. In particular, the arguments tend to focus on two areas: Bitcoin’s energy consumption and its dependency on climate-damaging fossil fuels versus renewables and, secondly, the benefits of one blockchain platform over another — generally focusing on consensus models and promoting proof-of-stake as the greener option. Each debate is overflowing with arguments for both sides. If the IPCC is right, th...