Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

IMF: Russia-Ukraine Crisis Will Boost Crypto Adoption

Gita Gopinath, First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said on Thursday that economic sanctions imposed on Russia as a result of its invasion of Ukraine will decrease the dominance of the U.S. dollar. She also said the Russian-Ukraine crisis will increase the adoption of digital finance, including cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).　　Russia-Ukraine War To Drive Adoption of Cryptocurrencies: IMF　　Gita Gopinath, the IMF‘s first deputy managing director, warns increased adoption of digital finance, including cryptocurrencies, and decreased dollar dominance will lead to the diversification of countries’ foreign reserves as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war and sanctions imposed on Russia.　　“The dollar would remain the major global currency even in that landscape but fragmentation at a smaller level is certainly quite possible,” she said in an interview with the Financial Times.　　Moreover, Western sanctions on Russia and restrictions on its central bank forced the country to shift from the US dollar to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. Recently, Russia even agreed to accept cryptocurrencies in payment for oil and natural gas trade with its allied countries. Thus, a greater use of digital currencies in global trade could replace dollar dominance, which leads to the further diversification of

2022-04-01Deep Dive

Son of a billionaire buys insider NFTs

A few weeks after rumors circulated about possible insider trading in recent Meebits NFT purchases, there are now speculations that Alexandre Arnault, the son of the third richest man in the world, might also be involved in using inside information to purchase some of the rarest HypeBears NFT in a blind auction.　　HypeBears are a new 10,000 digital best collection with unique outfits and apparel. The collection allowed buyers to bid during the pre-reveal, which meant no one knew what each bear looked like. Did Arnault have prior knowledge of the HypeBears？　　But it appeared like Alexandre Arnault, an executive at Tiffany & Co, had an idea of what the bears looked like, unlike other bidders.　　This was because Arnault targeted certain HypeBears and was willing to pay more for those NFTs. He bid 32% more for HypeBear #9021 and 58% more for HypeBear #7777. He did the same thing for seven other bears. 　　When the identities of the HypeBears were revealed, Arnault bid on five of the ten rarest HypeBear NFTs and won three, including #7777 and #9021. 　　While this might have been a coincidence, the odds of him bidding for the rarest tokens are very low unless he knew them. According

2022-04-01Deep Dive

Elizabeth Warren Calls for US to Create a CBDC

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) says its time for the U.S. to create its own central bank digital currency. Warren spoke with Chuck Todd on his show Meet the Press Reports, scheduled to air at 10:30 p.m. ET on Thursday. NBCUniversal shared a partial transcript of the conversation with CoinDesk.　　“So a lot that banks do wrong, if you think, We could improve that in a digital world, the answer is, Sure you could. But in that case, let‘s do a central bank digital currency,” Warren told Todd. “Yes, I think it’s time for us to move in that direction.”　　Responding to Todds question on whether Bitcoin will face at minimum being regulated like a commodity, Warren responded, “I think its going to end up getting regulated,” using the subprime mortgage financial crisis that started in 2007 as of an example why its needed. She didnt say what form regulations might take.　　Warren in March announced a new bill to block cryptocurrency companies from conducting business with sanctioned companies. The Digital Assets Sanctions Compliance Enhancement Act, introduced with Sens. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and others, would allow the U.S. president to add non-U.S.-based crypto companies to sanctions list

2022-04-01Deep Dive

'No Plan to Issue CBDC' — Bank of Japan Governor

Role of CBDC in People‘s Lives　　The governor of the BOJ, Haruhiko Kuroda, recently disclosed the central bank’s stance on issuing a digital currency has not changed — it will not issue a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The governor, however, insisted the BOJ will still continue “to carefully consider the expected roles of central bank money” in peoples lives today and in the future.　　In remarks made while delivering a speech at a Fintech Summit in Japan, Kuroda explained why the central bank is not rushing to launch a CBDC. He said:　　We consider it important to prepare thoroughly to respond to changes in circumstances in an appropriate manner, from the viewpoint of ensuring the stability and efficiency of the overall payment and settlement systems.　　Also, to help the BOJ with this process, Kuroda revealed that the central bank is “drawing on the wisdom of various stakeholders both at home and abroad.”Feasibility of Launching a CBDC　　Kuroda‘s latest remarks concerning the BOJ’s intention to launch a CBDC, however, come just a few days after the central bank said it is moving on to the next stage in testing the feasibility of a CBDC. In a recent statement, the BOJ announced the commencement of the

2022-04-01Deep Dive

Citi Predicts Metaverse Could Be $13 Trillion Opportunity With 5 Billion Users

The Metaverse Is Potentially an $8 Trillion to $13 Trillion Opportunity, Says Citi　　Citi released a new Global Perspectives its infrastructure; digital assets including non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in the metaverse; money and defi (decentralized finance) in the metaverse; and regulatory developments applicable to the metaverse.　　Regarding the size of the metaverse economy, Citi described: “We believe the metaverse may be the next generation of the internet — combining the physical and digital world in a persistent and immersive manner — and not purely a virtual reality world.”　　Noting that “A device-agnostic metaverse accessible via PCs, game consoles, and smartphones could result in a very large ecosystem,” Citi wrote:　　We estimate the total addressable market for the metaverse economy could grow to between $8 trillion and $13 trillion by 2030.　　In addition, the report explains that Citi believes the total number of metaverse users could be around five billion.　　Report co-author Ronit Ghose, global head of Banking, Fintech & Digital Assets, Citi Global Insights, explained:　　Expert contributors to the report indicate a range of users of up to 5 billion, depending on whether we take a broad definition (mobile phone user base) or just one billion based on a narrower definition (VR/AR device user base) — we adopt

2022-04-01Deep Dive

Crypto Billionaire Do Kwon Says Terra (LUNA) Plans on Being Biggest Bitcoin Holder in World, Other T

The co-founder of Ethereum challenger Terra (LUNA) says that the crypto project plans to keep stacking BTC until its stash is second only to Satoshi, Bitcoins anonymous founder.　　In a new interview on the Unchained Podcast, Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon explains the plan to accumulate the top crypto asset by market cap in an effort to back Terras native stablecoin, TerraUSD (UST).　　Kwon says that UST being backed by BTC would help investors trust in the stablecoin when Terra expands to other blockchains.　　Terra‘s goal is to be the largest decentralized money in crypto, period. Its goal is not to be the largest stablecoin in the Terra blockchain, so we’re sort of expanding into lets say the Solana ecosystem, Avalanche, Ethereum, Polygon. We plan to be everywhere where there are developers and users.　　Now the thing is, different from growing stablecoin demand in the Terra ecosystem itself where trust in UST is extremely high – when you go to expand into these different ecosystems, then faith in LUNAs collateral fitness is a lot less than what it is like in the Terra ecosystem.　　But if you have Bitcoin as collateral, then nobody really questions it because it is the apex.　　According to Kwon, Terra plans

2022-03-31Deep Dive

5 best metaverse crypto projects to watch for 2022

Through the implementation of metaverses, crypto projects can revolutionize how people interact with one another. Not only that, these virtual worlds open up pathways for digital asset ownership and in-game monetization, which has the potential to transform many industries.　　To help deepen your understanding of this flourishing area, this article will discuss the best metaverse crypto projects for 2022, highlighting their features and value potential for the months and years ahead.The 5 Best Metaverse Crypto Projects for 2022　　Presented below are five of the most exciting metaverse crypto projects with the greatest potential in 2022. Well explore each of these projects individually in the following section, touching on why they are deemed to have such high-value propositions.　　Silks – Best Metaverse Crypto Project for 2022　　Decentraland – 3D Metaverse World with Monetization Possibilities　　Enjin – User-Friendly Metaverse Platform for Creating NFTs　　The Sandbox – Exciting Metaverse Project with Incredible Customization　　Bloktopia – Skyscraper-Based Metaverse Project with VR CapabilityA Closer Look at the Most Exciting Metaverse Projects　　The projects listed above have incredible transformative potential – especially within the growing area of play-to-earn (P2E) gaming. Lets dig a little deeper into each of these projects, covering the intricacies that make them so exciting.1. Silks – Best Metaverse Crypto Project

2022-03-31Deep Dive

Crypto investors lose almost $700 million to blockchain hackers in Q1, 2022

As the cryptocurrency market continues to grow, it attracts more attention from cybercriminals, who have stolen nearly $700 million worth of assets from crypto platforms in the first quarter of 2022 alone.　　Throughout this period, hackers have managed to get away with $682 million in as many as 72 hack events, with more than half of the losses attributed to hacks on Solana (SOL) and Binance Smart Chain (BSC) ecosystems, according to the recent findings by the Atlas VPN team.　　In four major attacks, Solana suffered a loss of $397 million. The worst of them was the hack on Wormhole, a communication bridge between Solana and other decentralized finance (DeFi) networks, during which the platform lost around $334 million.　　Money lost to blockchain hackers Q1 2022. Source: Atlas VPN　　Number of hack events in Q1 2022. Source: Atlas VPN　　In the meantime, Binance Smart Chain was the target as many as 12 times, during which the crypto hackers took off with a total amount of $99 million.　　NFTs targeted more than most by hackers　　Interestingly, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have proven among the most attractive targets for hackers, accounting for almost $49 million looted in 20 attacks.　　A particularly popular type of fraudulent activity in this category was rug

2022-03-31Deep Dive

From April you can mine BTC, HNT and MXC from a 4W handheld device

A couple of days ago, we published an article on Planetwatch. In it, I toyed with the idea of a crypto mining super box that could mine different cryptocurrencies. Well, a few hours after it went live, I received an email from a reader informing me that there was indeed such a device.　　It is called the Match X M2 Pro and costs a whopping $2,900. Initially, I was skeptical. The email was from a total stranger on the internet who was, for all intents and purposes, shilling a token in which he had invested. However, after I dug a little deeper, I found something to be explored.Proof of Participation　　The description of the miner states that it uses a “Proof of Participation” model for mining;　　Proof of Participation (POP) model, M2 Pro offers a new type of mining in which the amount of tokens mined is determined by the value of the miners participation in the network itself.　　With POP mining, as opposed to the more common POS or POW, a miner proves his participation in the network by mining “data blocks,” which use next to no power. In fact, the power consumption for the M2 Pro is minuscule, 4-6W. It looks very

2022-03-31Deep Dive

Billionaire Mike Novogratz Says 'People Have Realized Crypto Is Really Popular'

Mike Novogratz Expects Lawmakers to Take a Softer Stance on Crypto　　Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz talked about why he is more optimistic about the crypto market now than he was six or seven weeks ago in an interview with CNBC Tuesday. The executive explained:　　Maybe what I got wrong was with all this selling in fixed income that money has got to go somewhere.　　The billionaire predicted earlier this month when BTC was struggling to break the $40,000 level that bitcoins price would range between $30,000 and $50,000 throughout the year. At the time of writing, bitcoin is trading at $47,327 based on data from Bitcoin.com Markets.　　Novogratz continued, “We certainly see increased adoption in crypto,” adding:　　I mean Janet Yellen pivoted and was much more friendly to crypto than shes ever been.　　Last week, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen admitted that crypto has benefits. “Crypto has obviously grown by leaps and bounds and its now playing a significant role, not really so much in transactions, but in investment decisions of lots of Americans,” she said. “There are benefits from crypto and we recognize that the innovation in the payment system can be a healthy thing.”　　“Thats basically politicians listening to their constituents and getting to the

2022-03-31Deep Dive

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