Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Crypto scammers make $9 million on fake YouTube streams

Crypto scammers have stepped up their acts in devising new means of defrauding their victims as new research has revealed that they now doctor YouTube videos of influential people in the crypto industry to promote fake crypto giveaways.Crypto scammers got $9 million through doctoring YouTube videos　　According to the research conducted by Tenable, crypto scammers were able to defraud unsuspecting individuals of around $9 million in October through the fake promotions of giveaways involving crypto-assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, Cardano, Ripple, and Shiba Inu.　　Tenable revealed that the scammers tend to use old, irrelevant, and unrelated YouTube interview videos featuring popular individuals in the crypto industry like Elon Musk, Vitalik Buterin, Michael Saylor, and others while accompanying the videos with tweets detailing the fake giveaway event.　　It continued that the scammers usually have a dedicated section in the video comment section where they promise to double the number of crypto donations sent by the viewers to their desired crypto wallet address.　　A more cursory look at the research showed how the scammers profited from the fraud. Per the report, fraudsters got over $8 million from Bitcoin-related scams, while they got $413,000 from giveaway scams on the second largest crypto asset by market cap, Ethereum.　　It

2021-11-27Deep Dive

Avalanche’s first memecoin SDOG ends in a $30M rugpull

SnowdogDAO (SDOG), the first memecoin to launch on Avalanche, lost over 90% of its value yesterday in what many believe was the platform’s largest rug pull.　　Despite millions of dollars in investments lost, the SnowdogDAO team maintains that the event wasnt a rug pull, but a “game-theory experiment” gone wrong.Insiders front-run a token designed to avoid front running　　SnowdogDAO, a decentralized reserve memecoin based on Avalanche, failed spectacularly yesterday after being live only 8 days. Launched as an 8-day experiment scheduled to end with a giant buyback, SDOG attracted a lot of attention in the crypto community.　　The development team said that they created the “game theory experiment” to create awareness for Snowbank.　　“We believed that the combination of a decentralized reserve meme coin that would die after 8 days, with the perspective of a giant buyback would create interest and bring exposure to the Snowbank project.”　　The pinnacle of the experiment was set to be the giant buyback, which would be financed by assets acquired by the Snowdog treasury through mint sales. In 8 days, the treasury market value grew to $44 million, which meant that holders were able to compete for a portion of those funds during the buyback.　　What the developers failed to

2021-11-27Deep Dive

BITCOIN FAILED TO RALLY BACK TO THE RECENT HIGH, BROKE BELOW THE $60K SUPPORT

A new downtrend is about to resume on Bitcoin as the price broke the $60K support level. Bitcoin bulls failed to reach the $69K all-time high that was created about a fortnight ago. An attempt by the bulls to rally price back to the recent high failed as the price began to drop at the beginning of last week.　　The $64K mini-support was removed as the price broke through and closed around $60,000. Days after, the $60k support was breached and a new low of $55,640 was formed, according to data received from TradingView.　　The price of Bitcoin rallied back up shortly but, the $60K price zone has turned into a resistance level as it rejected price.　　Bitcoin is trading below the 50 EMA on the daily timeframe, and below the 200 EMA on the 4hour timeframe. The 50 EMA has crossed the 200 EMA to the downside on the 4hour timeframe and the price is currently trading below it.　　A break below the $55K support will see the price of Bitcoin trade lower and this might be the birth of a new downtrend on the largest cryptocurrency.　　Bitcoin has lost over 15% of its value ever since it reached a new all-time high of

2021-11-26Deep Dive

Grayscale says metaverse is a $1 trillion industry following rise of MANA, SAND, and AXS

Earlier in the year, many people had little to no understanding of what the metaverse was or how it was going to operate, not to talk of the economic opportunity present in the space.　　However, since Facebook changed its name to Meta and revealed that the new focus of its business would be the metaverse, crypto enthusiasts and the world generally have begun to pay a more cursory look at what the buzzword means and the potential it holds.　　The metaverse, per Wikipedia, is the “integration between virtual and physical spaces and virtual economies.”　　Simply put, the metaverse is a fusion of the real and physical world with the virtual world where individuals can carry out activities similar to what they do in the real world. Like in the real world, individuals can own virtual goods, objects or even “real estate” in the new virtual world.　　Grayscale says metaverse could be worth over $1 trillion　　Grayscale, the popular digital asset management company, in one of its recent reports has declared that the economic opportunities present in the metaverse could top $1 trillion within the next few years.　　The report, tagged “The Metaverse, Web 3.0 Virtual Cloud Economies,” noted that metaverse platforms that have been integrated with

2021-11-26Deep Dive

1 million Shiba Inu users can't be wrong... can they?

With over one million token holders, Shiba Inu looks set for great things ahead, despite trading more than 50% below its all time high.　　Shiba Inu (SHIB) has reached an adoption milestone by surpassing the 1 million holders mark — even though the memecoin is trading 50% below its all-time high.　　News of the milestone and daily price increase has energized the Shiba Inu community since the official Shiba Inu Twitter account tweeted a shoutout late on Nov. 25.　　Since the project reached this milestone, the price has jumped up 11.4% over the past 24 hours, with SHIB now trading at $0.00004237 according to Coingecko. There are 1,002,021 SHIB holders according to data from Etherscan.　　Despite the recent price increase, SHIB is still trading well below its Oct. 28 peak of $0.00008190, possibly due to SHIB whales taking profits.　　Theres plenty going on in the Shib Inu world. Bitfinex Derivatives listed SHIB with Tether (USDT)-paired perpetual contracts for trading on Nov. 23.　　And South Korean exchange Korbit has been accepting deposits and SHIB was scheduled to start trading at 3AM UTC. This makes Korbit the first Korean exchange to list Shiba Inu.　　Dogecoin (DOGE) is currently the only other memecoin available to trade on the four big

2021-11-26Deep Dive

Bitcoin overtakes Paypal on value transferred, sets sights on Mastercard: Report

The Bitcoin network already processes more volume by dollar value than Paypal and the largest decentralized cryptocurrency network in the world by market cap could outstrip Mastercard by as early as 2026.　　A Nov. 25 report from market intelligence platform Blockdata titled When might the Bitcoin network process volumes like Mastercard and Visa？ points out that the Bitcoin network processed about $489 billion per quarter in 2021, which is greater than Paypal‘s $302 billion. After just 12 years in existence, Bitcoin processes about 27% of Mastercard’s $1.8 trillion per quarter, and 15% of Visas $3.2 trillion.　　Three factors could see the Bitcoin network to rise to the level of the two credit card giants in terms of total volume processed: the total number of transactions, the average amount of Bitcoin sent per transaction, and the rise of the price of Bitcoin (BTC).　　The first factor — total number of transactions — is the most variable-dependent. Theoretically, “if Bitcoin were to increase its value transferred per transaction today by ~260%, it would be processing an equivalent volume to Mastercard on a daily basis.”　　However, the report could not find current data indicating that the average amount of Bitcoin sent per transaction is on an upswing.

2021-11-26Deep Dive

Transaction volumes on Bitcoin surpass PayPal, will it beat Mastercard, Visa next

The mainstream adoption and acceptance of Bitcoin over the past couple of years has translated into good numbers. The cryptocurrency network reportedly surpassed the leading payment platform PayPal, by conducting 62% more transactions in terms of dollar value, as per a report by Blockdata.　　Although this was a significant milestone to achieve, the real test for Bitcoin lies ahead, in conquering payment giants such as MasterCard and Visa. In 2021, the Bitcoin network processed about $489 billion per quarter. On the other hand, PayPal processed $302 billion per quarter, while Mastercard and Visa were significantly ahead at $1.8 trillion and $3.2 trillion per quarter, the report noted.　　Source: Blockdata　　The above chart shows that a significant feat is yet to be achieved by Bitcoin to match the level of established payment providers. However, Blockdata suggests it isnt impossible after all. In this context, the report noted,　　“Its impressive how Bitcoin, as a 12-year-old decentralized network, is 27% of the way in terms of one metric (volume processed) compared to Mastercard, a company founded in 1966.”　　It also noted that their significantly different use cases should also be taken into account. Since Bitcoin is essentially a “saving technology” while the rest are “spending technologies.” In any

2021-11-26Deep Dive

Piers Ridyard from Radix on how to scale blockchains and the future of DeFi

Layer-1 blockchains are having somewhat of their own internal war in crypto circles these days, with the likes (and communities) of Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, Elrond, NEAR, and several others going at it on Twitter and Discord daily.　　A bit away from the action—and with its own fan following—is Radix, another layer-1 blockchain in development since 2018. During tests in that year, Radix demonstrated 1.4 million transactions per second (TPS), making it one of the fastest and most scalable blockchains to do so.　　Today, joining Cryptonites host Alex Fazel on his podcast is Radix CEO Piers Ridyard. Ridyard has spent over five in the cryptocurrency space, going from mining on the genesis block of Ethereum in early 2015 to building and exiting a YCombinator company that built decentralized deal-room software for insurance companies in 2017. 　　Ridyard today discussed his plans for Radix, the future of DeFi and public consensus, and how crypto benefits the unbanked in underdeveloped economies. The episodes not one to miss!　　Here are some insights from the show.The maturation of DeFi　　“Some of the highlights of DeFi in 2021 have just been the maturity the maturing of the space, right. Like there was this early like Cambrian explosion of ideas that came

2021-11-26Deep Dive

SEC to Discuss Cryptocurrencies at December 2 Open Meeting

The SEC will hold a Panel discussion regarding crypto and digital assets matters. The discussion will be aimed at ensuring investor protection, which is the commissions main goal. The SEC will also discuss the rapidly changing conditions of the market with the rapid development of new technologies.　　According to the official discussion page, the panel will be exploring new ways of protecting investors who are willing to receive exposure to the digital assets market. Commissioners will discuss optimization of the currently existing regulatory framework in accordance with the newly formed, decentralized market structure.　　The underlying risk is another topic that the commission is looking forward to addressing, which includes a discussion of various blockchain and DeFi technologies, crypto-based ETFs and stablecoins.　　The market has not yet reacted to the event overall, while it can, in fact, have a positive outcome for the entire industry. Previously, the SEC stated that it will allow further approval of new products only if it discovers a way of properly regulating these products or the market in which they will function.　　The panel will include specialists from various financial companies and universities, including Alie Emdad, who works as a professor at Graves School of Business and Management at Morgan

2021-11-26Deep Dive

Why Ethereum’s Model Is Simply Exploitation Of The Working Class By The Wealthy

Ethereum has come under fire for its economic model for several infringements against its original ethos.　　The reduction of miners rewards, burning of tokens, and the violation of the rule that “Code is Law” form part of the reason for criticisms.　　Ethereum is set to switch to Proof-Of-Stake in 2022 amid rising gas fees.　　Ethereum has been touted as the worthy successor to Bitcoin but several flaws in its design have been unearthed. Tomer Strolight reveals the reasons why Ethereum is a clear case of exploitation of the working class by the wealthy.　　The Problem With Ethereum　　Tomer Strolight, an analyst has bared his mind on the problems with Ethereum in a two-part blog post. He writes that Ethereum has lost its path from being an example of pure decentralization and has transmogrified into full-blown exploitation. Strolight lays the foundation of his argument by splitting the Ethereum ecosystem into various strata comprising the working class (miners), the wealthy class (initial coin offering participants), the ruling class (core developers), and the general populace (Etherians).　　Strolight goes on to state that the ecosystem was built on the foundation of promises including the fact that code is law, the reward for miners, and “that the needs for the working

2021-11-26Deep Dive

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