Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

CB Insights Report: Crypto Market Records New High with Over $3 billion in VC Fundings

The $2.6 trillion crypto market is going down in history for its exceptional performance in 2021, being record-breaking for blockchain/crypto financing, experiencing 384% growth as compared to 2020. According to CB Insights, by September of 2021, crypto startups had raised over $15 billion in venture funding, which is 5 times more than last years data.　　Image Source: CB Insights　　These Crypto Companies made their mark in November 2021　　The month of November alone exceeded $3 billion in venture capital funding, with the largest crypto venture fund ever, worth $2.5 billion by the crypto-dominated investment firm, Paradigm. Furthermore, the Bitcoin mining infrastructure company, GRIID acquired the massive amount of $525 million from Blockchain.com, along with Gemini‘s funding round raising $400 million, making the company’s valuation over $7 billion. The world‘s largest crypto exchange’s sister company which is independently run on paper, Binance.US may also close a multi-million dollar funding round in the next couple of months. Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ) confirmed market speculations in an interview with Bloomberg.　　“Early-stage rounds (seed/Series A) dominate the dealmaking, capturing almost 80% of deals in 2021 YTD…Investors like Coinbase Ventures are also bursting onto the scene — the VC arm was by far the most active blockchain crypto

2021-11-26Deep Dive

Investors dump crypto assets amid confusion

Cryptocurrencies on Indian exchanges lost as much as a fourth of their value on Wednesday as panicked investors dumped their holdings amid prevailing confusion over whether the government would ban trading of such assets.　　Crypto industry executives, however, claimed that a complete ban is unlikely given the mass adoption of crypto assets, with the government most likely to bring them under the oversight of local regulators.　　While some media reports said the proposed ban would encompass all private cryptocurrencies, including their mining, holding and trading, others reported that the government may treat cryptocurrencies as financial assets.　　The finance ministry did not immediately provide details about the draft law. A ministry official said one should wait for the bill to be tabled in Parliament.　　Meanwhile, the worlds most-traded cryptocurrency, bitcoin, crashed to as low as ₹33,50,000 ( ₹33.5 lakh) on crypto exchange WazirX from a high of ₹46,35,371. In the global markets, bitcoin was trading around $56,800 ( ₹42.21 lakh), according to CoinGecko, a digital currency price and information data platform. Even tether, a stablecoin pegged to the dollar, traded at a discount of 25% in India. Other prominent coins such as ether, Shiba Inu and dogecoin also plunged by about 20% on Indian crypto

2021-11-26Deep Dive

The future is Bitcoin according to South Park creators

South Park, the animated TV series that often tackles topical issues with a comedic twist, showed Bitcoin being used as a mainstream means of payment in the not too distant future.　　In the “Post COVID” episode of its 24th season which aired Thursday, South Park depicted one of the shows protagonists, Stan Marsh, paying for a stay in a cheap motel using Bitcoin (BTC) roughly 40 years from now, when the pandemic is jokingly about to end for good. The fictional Super 12 Motel Plus — in a future where nearly all brand names have “plus” and “maxx” included — only accepts “Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency,” with the show having Marsh pay using a plastic card with the BTC logo and a QR code.　　“It‘s the future — we’ve all decided centralized banking is rigged so we trust more in fly-by-night Ponzi schemes,” said the motel clerk.　　Many in the crypto space know South Park for its criticism of the United States government‘s and banks’ response following the 2008 financial crisis, popularized by the meme “aaaand... its gone” — referring to Marsh losing money immediately after depositing it in a bank. Among the other future predictions in the recent episode are autonomous vehicles,

2021-11-26Deep Dive

Crypto.com token (CRO) added $7 billion to its market cap over past week

On November 17, the cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com and Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) shocked the world with a massive $700 million 20-year agreement on the naming rights of the Staples Center in Los Angeles.　　And now a week after the announcement, the Crypto.com CRO token price has doubled in value from $0.43 on Nov.17 to $0.76 on Nov. 25, according to CoinMarketCap.　　Meltem Demirors, the Chief Strategy Officer CoinShares International Ltd noted on Twitter:　　“The resulting PR doubled its token price and led to a $9 billion run-up in market cap”What is Crypto.com and why is its native token CRO so important？　　Crypto.com is a cryptocurrency exchange based in Singapore founded in 2016 where you can buy, sell, borrow, lend, spend cryptocurrencies with their Visa debit card, and they recently added their own NFT marketplace where you can buy and sell NFTs.　　CRO is the native token of the exchange and the holders within the platform will benefit from reduced fees in buying and selling cryptocurrencies, earning more interest as the holder lends his tokens, lower interest rates when borrowing money and a higher cashback in their Visa Card according to Crypto.com website.　　Crypto.com is the 10th biggest cryptocurrency exchange by daily volume ($1.8 billion), and CRO

2021-11-26Deep Dive

Morgan Stanley just bought the Bitcoin (BTC) dip through Grayscale shares

Institutional investors interest in Bitcoin has refused to wane despite the continued price volatility of the flagship digital asset which has seen the asset rise to over $68,000 then drop to around $57,000 presently within the space of the last 30 days.　　An example of one such investor is a leading investment bank in the United States, Morgan Stanley, who recently increased its exposure to the asset class by adding more Grayscale Bitcoin Trust shares to its holding.Morgan Stanley increases BTC exposure　　A Tuesday filing from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed that the investment bank‘s Insight Fund expanded its holdings of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust shares by more than 63% during the second quarter of this year. Per the filing, the bank’s holdings in GBTC shares stood at 928,051 but grew to 1,520,549 as of September 30. 　　When compared to its GBTC Growth Portfolio in the third quarter, the filings reveal a 71% increase from the previous period. Aside from that, Morgan Stanley Global Opportunity Portfolio also grew by 59% from 919,805 to 1,463,714 in three months.　　Cumulatively, the bank is holding over 6.5 million GBTC shares across three of its major funds which are worth approximately $303 million. GBTCs

2021-11-26Deep Dive

Metaverse ‘land sales’ come to Polkadot via PolkaStarter

Polkadot launchpad platform Polkastarter announced yesterday that will begin offering real estate land sales.　　According to the companys announcement, the first NFT metaverse Land Sale will take place next week on Polkastarter, enabling users to snap up real estate from the best metaverse projects.Buying virtual land is now as easy as buying tokens　　Given the incredible rise in popularity both experienced during the past year, NFTs and virtual world ecosystems were bound to cross paths at some point. Polkastarter, a launchpad platform based on Polkadot, was among the first to jump on board and offer users an easy and streamlined way to participate in what the industry now calls metaverses.　　Starting from December, Polkastarter will launch its NFT Metaverse Land Sales, enabling users to purchase virtual real estate from some of the most popular metaverse projects. These include virtual worlds such as ChainGuardians, Highstreet, Wider World, and Realm, where users will be able to buy either individual parcels or land packs.　　According to the company‘s announcements, these land sales will work just like the standard token sales on Polkastarter—users will be able to whitelist and participate in the sales through a streamlined and easy-to-use interface they’re already familiar with.　　“In virtual worlds such as ChainGuardians,

2021-11-26Deep Dive

El Salvador President Mocks Sweden’s Anti-Bitcoin Mining Stance

The Salvadoran President, Nayib Bukele recently took to Twitter to comment against Sweden‘s long-standing anti-Bitcoin Mining stance. While replying to a tweet that jokingly taunted El Salvador’s Volcanic energy use to mine Bitcoin, Bukele noted that the Swedish authorities might need to wait longer than expected as it would take millions of years for Salvadors volcanic energy to become scarce and eventually extinct.　　Earlier this month, in lieu of an extraordinary surge in energy consumption, the Swedish authorities called upon the European Union, appealing for a ban on the “energy-intensive” crypto mining. According to eminent official figures, crypto‘s hike in energy consumption has affected Sweden’s ability to meet its obligations under the Paris Climate Agreement, posing a threat to sustainability. The Sweden authorities presented Bitcoin mining stats, claiming that the energy usage of Bitcoin mining in the nation surged “several hundred percent” between April-August this year. Furthermore, they highlighted that the consumption has only increased, utilizing electricity of approximately 200,000 households at the moment.　　 El Salvador BTC Legal Tenders Success　　Last month, El Salvador began Bitcoin mining using volcanic energy, after becoming the first nation to implement Bitcoin as Legal Tender. According to President Bukele, sustainable Bitcoin mining was one of the

2021-11-26Deep Dive

What You Should Know Concerning El Salvador Bitcoin City Alongside Jack Dorsey Whitepaper

Its a no-brainer that Bitcoin has gained a massive impression from institutional investors including the likes of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey the pioneer of the Bitcoin Decentralised Exchange, labelled as TbDEX protocol. A recent report from the supergiant Decentralised finance company “Square” was discovered to have released a whitepaper, For the preannounced Square TBD division that have been mentioned by the CEO of the microblogging site in August. And in less than five months the manifestation of the Bitcoin Decentralised Exchange whitepaper TbDEX has been brought to the limelight.　　The TbDEX protocol aims to provide a seamless crypto trading experience thatll make the buying of digital assets such as Bitcoin extremely unique from the regular way it used to be with other decentralized platforms.　　The digital financial company Square claimed in the whitepaper that TbDEX is a protocol that permits investors for discovering highly liquid and tradable financial assets( such as Bitcoin, and fiat currencies) securely without recognizing the identity of both parties involved in the transaction.　　In essence, you can use the TbDEX to convert your fast depreciating fiat currency into Bitcoin on a free market basis using the Square digital payment platform.　　With a detailed observation of the whitepaper, it should be

2021-11-25Deep Dive

CZ fires back at Musk over “shady” Dogecoin wallet issue

Tesla boss Elon Musk was at the receiving end of a witty comeback at the hands of Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) on Tuesday.　　In a tweet, Musk saw fit to call out CZ over a glitch to do with Dogecoin wallets on the exchange, labeling the episode “shady.” He added that Binance Dogecoin users should be protected from errors that are not their fault.　　“Hey @CZ_Binance, whats going on with your Doge customers？ Sounds shady.”What did CZ say？　　In response, CZ said he is sure the issue lies with a recent wallet software upgrade from the Dogecoin devs. He added that the Binance team is working to resolve the issue in collaboration with the devs.　　“Elon, we are pretty certain it is an issue with the latest #doge wallet. We are in communication with the devs. Apologies for any inconvenience that may have caused you.”　　In what some would deem a tit for tat exchange, CZ signed off the tweet by saying, “What happened here？ ????,” while linking an article from The Guardian about software glitches in Tesla cars.　　Commenting on this, researcher Larry Cermak branded the dialogue between the billionaires as “a $300B+ dick measuring contest.”What happened with Dogecoin wallets on Binance？　　The technical issue

2021-11-25Deep Dive

Ripple to help create a CBDC for this tiny island-nation

According to a press release shared by Ripple, the XRP ledger is all set to partner with the Republic of Palau to help circulate digital dollars in the country. The press release also states that Ripple will be working on designing a USD-backed stablecoin that will help create other services such as corporate registries. 　　Despite facing turbulent price fluctuations in the market, Ripple has not given up on the idea of becoming the leading crypto player and is now partnering with the Republic of Palau to help the country secure its first digital currency. Palau extends support to Ripple　　Palau does not possess its independent fiat currency and its citizens rely on USD to manage their purchases. However, Palau has also made it clear that the country does not want to adopt XRP or any cryptocurrency as legal tender but it aspires to issue a digital version of government-backed USD. 　　Palaus President Surangel S. Whipps Jr in this regard has stated that Ripple could provide the necessary technology that would cater to the financial aspects of Palau systematically. 　　“As part of our commitment to lead in financial innovation and technologies, we are delighted to partner with Ripple. The first phase of

2021-11-25Deep Dive

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