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Showing posts from December 5, 2021

Indian Crypto Bill: Exchange CEO Discusses What to Expect

There are reports that the Indian government may impose restrictions on self-custodial cryptocurrency wallets and only allow Indian crypto exchanges. The CEO of a major cryptocurrency exchange in India has shared his thoughts on the possible restrictions. The Indian government has listed a cryptocurrency bill to be taken up in the current session of parliament. Possible Restrictions in Indian Crypto Regulation A cryptocurrency bill is waiting to be heard in the current session of parliament in India. The country’s finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, has confirmed that the bill needed to be reworked from its original version that seeks to ban cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin in ether. However, she still has not revealed what’s actually in the bill, leading to much speculation. The CEO of local cryptocurrency exchange Wazirx discussed some of the speculations in a series of tweets Friday. “There have been unconfirmed reports” that “‘Self custodial wallets’ may not be allowed ...

Virtual land in the Metaverse dominated NFT sales over past week

Based on NFT and Metaverse sales over the past week, the demand for digital land outpaced all other items, art, and collections. Digital land is in high demand in what is already a highly lucrative market as the past week’s NFT and Metaverse sales figures revealed. Data from the industry metrics platform, NonFungible, indicates that over the past week there have been more than $300 million in NFT sales. Of that total, almost a quarter have been for digital land in the Sandbox Metaverse. Over the past week, each one of the top ten NFT Metaverse sales across the top five collections were for in-game digital land. The Sandbox traded a total volume of $70.5 million for 4,433 assets over the past week — making it the Metaverse collection that raked in the most cash. Although Decentraland ranked in second place for the total volume traded, the top ten most expensive metaverse NFT sales during the past week, ranging from 225,000 MANA ($758,250) to 50,000 MANA ($220,000), were al...

Phemex Is Bringing Its Community’s Dreams to Life Celebrating Its Second Anniversary

Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange Phemex is celebrating its 2nd anniversary this November. It’s been an eventful couple of years for the derivatives platform, and with its Choose Your Reality event, this anniversary is going to be a memorable one. Phemex’s dedication to its users has created a thriving community, and to celebrate their impressive growth the exchange is inviting participants to wish them a happy birthday by talking about their own dreams and aspirations. They’re also giving away grand prizes to those participants who come up with the most creative wishes. Thus, a few special winners will see their dreams come to life. The firm’s dedication to its users is deep-routed. Phemex’s CEO and founder, Jack Tao, was a Wall Street veteran from Morgan Stanley. After over a decade of observing the inner workings of the traditional financial system, he realized just how underserved retail investors were compared to the more wealthy players. Jack and his team of ex-Morgan...

Decentralized exchange aggregator trading volumes surge to new highs

More and more traders are turning to DEX aggregators to seek out the best rates for token swaps. Trading volumes on popular decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregators have surged to new highs over the past few weeks. Decentralized exchange aggregators provide a way for token traders and swappers to scan several DEX platforms to get the best swap rates at the time. According to Dune analytics, popular DEX aggregators such as 1inch, 0x, and Paraswap have seen volumes surging over the past month. The combined volume for those three hit a cumulative weekly all-time high of $6 billion last week, increasing by around 50% since the beginning of November. DEX aggregator weekly volumes - dune.xyz 1inch has a minor lead in terms of the current market share at 53%, but 0x is rapidly catching up with 42% recorded for December so far. Last week, 1inch announced a Series B funding round led by Amber Group that raised $175 million. On Dec. 5, 0x actually surpassed 1inch in terms of daily volu...

Singapore suspends Bitget exchange license over K-Pop coin promotion

The Singapore-based Bitget exchange has reportedly lost its license after a legal tussle with the agency for K-Pop boy band BTS. Singapore-headquartered digital asset platform, Bitget, has reportedly been suspended by the Monetary Authority of Singapore after getting into a dispute with an agency for the popular K-Pop boy band BTS. As reported by the Financial Times on Dec. 5, Bitget lost the Singapore license following the controversial listing of a new K-Pop-related cryptocurrency called Army Coin. However, the crypto exchange still claims to have licenses in other jurisdictions such as Australia, Canada, and the United States. The issue arose on Oct. 25, when the Bitget exchange shared a tweet promoting Army Coin, which is named after the South Korean boyband's followers. It allegedly used misleading information such as, “This coin exists for the benefit of BTS” and “ARMY coin aims to take care of BTS members for life”. The exchange reportedly violated the band agency’s ...

El Salvador’s President Tells Peter Schiff Benefit of Switching Gold Reserves to Bitcoin

The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, has revealed that his country holds 44,106 oz. of gold in its reserves that has lost some value over the past year. He told gold bug Peter Schiff that if El Salvador had sold its gold and bought bitcoin last year, it would now be worth $125 million more. Bitcoin vs. Gold: El Salvador Could’ve Made Millions More Switching Reserves From Gold to Bitcoin El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele has revealed some details of his country’s gold reserves in a conversation on Twitter with gold bug Peter Schiff. Schiff commented on El Salvador buying the dip Saturday morning after Bukele announced that his country bought 100 more BTC as the price of bitcoin fell from above $52K Friday night to below $44K. “There’s a lot more dips coming. How much taxpayer money do you intend to waste?” Schiff asked Bukele. The Salvadoran president replied, “None.” He emphasized, “We’re already in the green from our last purchase, in less than 24 hours.” Bukele conti...

Binance plans to become registered UK firm despite regulatory setbacks

The exchange’s CEO says it plans to expand to the U.K. in the next six to 18 months, despite being ordered by the country’s regulator to cease trading in June. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said the exchange is planning to expand to the U.K. in the next six to 18 months, despite being instructed by the country’s regulator to cease trading earlier this year. The U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) revoked Binance’s ability to trade in Britain in June, amid a sweeping regulatory crackdown on crypto exchanges. Binance is one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges. To become a registered crypto asset firm in the U.K., the platform must abide by money laundering and terrorist financing controls. To meet these requirements, Zhao indicated the company was considering setting up a specific company to run in the U.K. — similar to its Binance.US subsidiary . Zhao told the Telegraph on Dec. 4 that Binance plans to apply for an FCA license, having hired a “number of ex-regulatory s...

SEC Chairman Gary Gensler Stresses Crypto Markets Are Open to Manipulation, Investors Vulnerable

The chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, has called for more investor protection in crypto markets. “This asset class is rife with fraud, scams, and abuse in certain applications,” he said. “In many cases, investors aren’t able to get rigorous, balanced, and complete information on tokens or trading and lending platforms.” Gary Gensler Wants More Investor Protection in Crypto Markets SEC Chairman Gary Gensler raised concerns about the cryptocurrency markets at an Investor Advisory Committee meeting last week. The Investor Advisory Committee, established by Section 911 of the Dodd-Frank Act, advises the SEC on regulatory priorities, including “initiatives to protect investor interests and to promote investor confidence and the integrity of the securities marketplace.” During his speech, Gensler shared some concerns regarding the crypto markets. He began by acknowledging that “Satoshi Nakamoto’s ‘Bitcoin Whitepaper’ and the crypto markets tha...

Value Locked in Defi Slips 5% in 24 Hours, AMM and Rebase Tokens Take Double-Digit Losses

Since mid-November the total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance (defi) has slid from $257 billion to $250.55 billion and during the last 24 hours it lost a touch more than 5%. Over the last seven days, defi tokens like uniswap, pancakeswap, curve dao token, 1inch and sushi have lost anywhere between 15% to 23.9% in value. Defi TVL Drops — Curve, Makerdao and Convex Finance Dominate At the time of writing, the TVL in defi protocols across a myriad of blockchains is $250.55 billion, according to metrics from defillama.com. The aggregate defi value locked has lost 5.08% during the last day, and the protocol Curve dominates most of the TVLs listed with 8.07% dominance. The automated market maker (AMM) Curve commands $20.23 billion TVL which is up 1.13% this past week. Makerdao is the second-largest defi protocol TVL with $18.56 billion at the time of writing. The third-largest defi protocol TVL belongs to Convex Finance with $15.14 billion today. Ethereum Defi TVL Dominanc...

Top 5 cryptocurrencies to watch this week: BTC, ETH, MATIC, ALGO, EGLD

If BTC holds the $49,000 level, ETH, MATIC, ALGO and EGLD could move higher during Bitcoin’s expected “consolidation phase.” Bitcoin ( BTC ) and most altcoins sold off on Dec. 4 with massive deleveraging seen in the crypto derivatives markets. Data suggests more than $2.5 billion of crypto liquidations over a 24-hour period. During the recent fall, Ether ( ETH ) has continued to outperform Bitcoin . While Bitcoin’s market dominance has dropped below 41%, Ether has continued to gain ground and its market dominance has risen above 21%. Crypto market data daily view. Source: Coin360 Some analysts believe that Bitcoin’s recent decline could result in a lengthy phase of consolidation. Decentrader co-founder filbfilb expects Bitcoin to consolidate well into the first quarter of the next year. Lex Moskovski, CIO of Moskovski Capital, also expects “ a slow grind up .” Could Bitcoin hit a bottom within the next few days? Let’s analyze the charts of the top-5 cryptocurrencies that coul...

Starting My Journey Into the Metaverse by Throwing Tomatoes at Zuckerberg’s Face

Editor’s Note: The following story was written by Neomi, an author from China with experience covering art, music, culture, tech, and travel. Bitcoin.com News sent her into the field of blockchain-based metaverse experiences to capture the feeling of a pioneer entering this new reality. Decentraland, Day One: I Need a Hat Upon entering Decentraland for the first time I wanted to lay low, so I created my avatar: a bald guy with a black suit and a pair of black sunglasses. Within just ten minutes of beginning my exploration, however, I came across ten other players that looked exactly like me. We probably had another thing in common, too — none of us could afford to buy a proper hat. I had heard people were investing millions into NFTs in the metaverse but had just been too afraid to check the prices. Suffice to say, I found out that things are expensive — even hats. In order to look slightly different from the other bald guys in the metaverse, I needed to grind for some assets. I en...

Over 80% of African Users on Mineplex Reportedly Interested in Buying Goods With Staked Crypto

A report says over 80% of African users on the Mineplex marketplace have shown an interest in the platform’s commodity staking program since launch. Zero Fee Alternative According to a recent study, over 80% of African users have taken part in the commodity staking program since its launch as a new product on the Mineplex marketplace. This figure by far dwarfs that of Asian users (23%), Europe (14%) and the U.S. (9%) users who find commodity staking interesting. As noted in a study report that was shared exclusively with Bitcoin.com News, Mineplex Banking said this commodity staking option serves as a zero-fee alternative to traditional loans and gives users the ability to buy products they cannot afford straight away. Explaining African users’ clear preference for staked crypto, the report suggested that this could be based on changing tastes and preferences. “The high level of interest by African users in the new financial instrument can be based on the need to change the syste...

Tau-Chain Founder Ohad Asor and Prof. Franconi Explain Logical AI and How to Trade Knowledge

Tau, in development, is the world’s first fully user-controlled blockchain, capable of understanding and implementing users’ consensus in real-time. It allows you to understand and be understood by billions of people, on a platform so advanced that it changes and updates itself based on how you as its users collaboratively decide what its next version should be like. Ohad Asor and Prof. Enrico Franconi recently joined the Bitcoin.com News Podcast to explain the advanced technology behind Tau : By writing in languages that the Tau platform and its users can understand, it unlocks truly revolutionary features such as the ability to make your knowledge machine accessible, creating the world’s first knowledge economy to trade specific pieces of knowledge for cash (using the Agoras cryptocurrency (Ticker AGRS)) as well as the ability to host efficient discussions and collaboration of ideas of up to billions of people. As users are able to make themselves understood to Tau, the network...

Browser cookies are not consent: The new path to privacy after EU data regulation fail

Nobody loves cookies: Where the European Union General Data Protection Regulation falls short and what can be done. The endless cookie settings that pop up for every website feel a bit like prank compliance by an internet hell-bent on not changing. It is very annoying. And it feels a little bit like revenge on regulators by the data markets, giving the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) a bad name and so that it might seem like political bureaucrats have, once again, clumsily interfered with the otherwise smooth progress of innovation. The truth is, however, that the vision of privacy put forward by the GDPR would spur a far more exciting era of innovation than current-day sleaze-tech. As it stands today, however, it simply falls short of doing so. What is needed is an infrastructural approach with the right incentives. Let me explain. The granular metadata being harvested behind the scenes As many of us are now keenly aware of, an incessant amount of data and metadata is p...

Meme Token Economy Suffers After Crypto Market Dip, DOGE and SHIB Market Caps Lose Billions

The global cryptocurrency market valuation has rebounded a great deal since the initial downturn after 12:00 a.m. EST on December 4, and on Sunday, the crypto economy is down 1.4% during the last 24 hours. Meanwhile the meme token market capitalization today is $47.2 billion down 12.6% during the last day. Dogecoin has suffered pretty badly losing 19.2% during the last seven days, while its rival shiba inu has shed 9.7% last week. Meme Token Economy Takes the Brunt of the Crypto Market Carnage — Dogecoin Drops 19% in a Week’s Time At the time of writing, the crypto meme token market economy is valued at $47.2 billion and has taken a deep hit from yesterday’s market carnage. Dogecoin (DOGE) is the largest meme token market cap with $21.5 billion as each DOGE is trading for $0.164 or 0.00000342 BTC per unit. DOGE is down 37.7% over the course of the last month, but dogecoin is still up 4,863% year-to-date. On Sunday, December 5, there’s $1.4 billion in global DOGE trades with Binan...

Inside the blockchain developer’s mind: Blockchain consensus, Part 1

Gaining a deeper understanding of a popular — but meanwhile widely misunderstood — concept in blockchain technology: the consensus algorithm. Cointelegraph is following the development of an entirely new blockchain from inception to mainnet and beyond through its series, Inside the Blockchain Developer’s Mind. In previous parts, Andrew Levine of Koinos Group discussed some of the challenges the team has faced since identifying the key issues they intend to solve and outlined three of the “crises” that are holding back blockchain adoption: upgradeability , scalability , and governance . This series is focused on the consensus algorithm: part one is about proof-of-work, part two is about proof-of-stake and part three is about proof-of-burn. In this article, I want to leverage my unique perspective to help the reader gain a deeper understanding of a popular concept in blockchain technology, but also one that is woefully misunderstood: the consensus algorithm. In order to g...

Bitcoin Hashrate Rises Despite Price Drop, Mystery Hashpower Returns

Bitcoin’s hashrate has increased a great deal, even after the leading crypto asset’s price slipped below the $50K price zone. Eight days ago the network hashrate was coasting along at 168 exahash per second (EH/s), and this past week it increased 7.73% to today’s 181 EH/s. Bitcoin’s Hashrate Climbs Higher Following Difficulty Decrease Following the price drop under the $50K zone, Bitcoin’s ( BTC ) hashrate remains strong and has increased more than 7% higher during the last week. At the time of writing, BTC ’s hashrate on Sunday is 181.59 EH/s as the network’s processing power has been reaching daily highs. Three month statistics indicate BTC ’s hashpower tapped 190 EH/s on Friday, December 3. Metrics show that the network’s hashrate reached an all-time high on May 9, 2021 at 191.42 EH/s. One reason the hashrate remains high despite the recent price drop is because the network’s mining difficulty has dropped during the last difficulty change on November 28. The change that day sa...

Crypto Conference DeFiCon 2021 to Be Hosted on December 18-19 in Brooklyn, NYC

PRESS RELEASE. The next crypto conference lighting up the season is DeFiCon 2021, hosted on December 18-19 in Brooklyn, NYC. As a nonprofit conference, DeFiCon steers away from the typical corporate and for-profit conference model. All of DeFiCon’s net proceeds will be donated to charity. The event is also engages civic leaders and activists. Featured keynote speakers are Stani Kulechov, the Founder and CEO of AAVE, Jaz Gulati, the Co-Founder founder of Ren Labs, and Kieran Mesquita, Chief Scientist at RAILGUN. As a crypto native event, DeFiCon tickets are NFTs designed by the original artist of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, Seneca ( www.allseeingseneca.com ). Mint now to own the Unbearable Bear, a collection of 1,218 Bears living on the Ethereum blockchain. Then join frens in Brooklyn at DeFiCon next month on December 18-19. To mint General Admission and VIP NFT tickets, visit: www.deficon.nyc – ALL net proceeds from the event will go directly to nonprofit. Mint now FIND DEF...

China’s Hainan Province Ramps Up Crackdown on Crypto Mining Operations

The province of Hainan in South China has taken steps aimed at curbing crypto mining activities. Besides blacklisting the industry, local authorities are also introducing higher electricity rates for the mining enterprises that continue to operate in the region. Hainan to Ensure Crypto Miners Pay More for Power The ongoing crackdown on cryptocurrency mining in China has reached the country’s smallest and southernmost province, Hainan. The coin minting business has been recently listed as an “eliminated industry” and the remaining miners in the region will soon face higher electricity bills. According to a document published this week by the provincial Development and Reform Commission, the differentiated tariffs for electrical energy will be imposed as part of a pricing mechanism designed to reduce carbon emissions. While China banned crypto-related activities such as trading back in 2017, authorities did not interfere with mining until this year. In May, the State Council in Be...