Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

ETHEREUM APPROACHES $5000. BITCOIN AIMS RECENT HIGH

Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency, has made a new all-time high at $4700 as the market opens for the week. Being among the top gainers in the recent surge in the price of cryptocurrencies, Ethereum has gained more than 60% of its value since September. Ethereum gained over 10% in the last seven (7) days, according to data from Coinmarketcap.　　The surge in the price of Ethereum has also increased its total market cap to $557B, according to data from Coinmarketcap.　　$5000 is the next psychological price level for Ethereum, as more upward momentum is still on. Price is trading at $4730 at publishing time.　　On the other hand, Bitcoin broke the $63,000 resistance level as the market opens for the week. The price of Bitcoin has been moving sideways for two weeks as buyers keep holding the $60,000 support level and the $63,000 resistance level holding as well. This has made it difficult for Bitcoin to have a clear direction since it made a new all-time high.　　But things will change this week, as the price broke the $63,000 resistance level that has been hindering buyers upward movement.　　Bitcoin is trading at $65,118 at publishing time.　　The recent all-time high at $67,000 is the area where

2021-11-11Deep Dive

Bitcoin Hit An All-time High Wednesday

Bitcoin reached an all-time price high of about $68,950 on Wednesday after a report showed higher-than-expected inflation in October. The cryptocurrency eventually returned some gains as short-term overbought signals appeared on the charts.　　“The knee-jerk reaction to the hottest inflation reading in 30 years triggered risk aversion which was accompanied with a strong dollar and weakness across the top cryptos,” Edward Moya, an analyst at Oanda, a foreign exchange brokerage firm.　　Latest Prices　　Bitcoin (BTC): $65,916.17, -2.37%　　Ether (ETH): $4,641.23, -3.04%　　SS GET STARTED!

2021-11-11Deep Dive

Bank of England Governor Warns Crypto Is Providing Means of Payment for Criminals

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey has warned that crypto assets are providing another means of payment for people who want to conduct criminal activity.　　Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey Sees Crypto Helping Criminal Activities　　The governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, said during an online question-and-answer session organized by the British central bank that the rise of cryptocurrency is helping illegal activities. He was quoted as saying:　　“The advent of digital means of payment, and in particular crypto assets, Im afraid that the evidence suggests … that it is providing another means of payment for people who want to conduct criminal activity.”　　Governor Bailey has warned about various aspects of cryptocurrency on several occasions. He said in May: “I‘m skeptical about crypto-assets, frankly, because they’re dangerous and theres a huge enthusiasm out there.”　　He also stated that cryptocurrencies “have no intrinsic value.” However, the Bank of England governor added that it does not mean people do not put value on them, noting that “they can have extrinsic value.” Nonetheless, Bailey emphasized: “I‘m going to say this very bluntly again. Buy them only if you’re prepared to lose all your money.”　　The Bank of England governor is not the only one worried about

2021-11-11Deep Dive

Kraken CEO: 'I Don't Think Anyone's Going To Have a Monopoly' on the Metaverse

Amid all the talk in crypto about “the metaverse,” the CEO of crypto exchange Kraken foresees a multiplicity of metaverses.　　“I dont think therell be any single metaverse,” Jesse Powell said on Tuesday at the Decrypt and Yahoo Finance Crypto Goes Mainstream event, adding that games and platforms such as World of Warcraft, the NFT-powered Axie Infinity, and Facebook itself can all be considered separate metaverses. “I dont think anyones going to have a monopoly on this.”　　In the future, said Powell, gaming metaverse platforms will enable users to migrate in-game items such as skins between platforms. “I think its the same for Facebook and other kinds of proprietary platforms,” he said. “Theyll support these blockchain assets and some representation of them in their world, and theyll all have different roles.”　　What is the metaverse？　　The metaverse is a persistent, virtual universe in which users interact with each other as avatars in shared spaces to play games, socialize and work. Several companies including Facebook, Nike and Microsoft have made moves in the metaverse space recently, with Facebook going so far as to rebrand as Meta. “I think were basically moving from being Facebook first as a company to being metaverse first,” Facebook CEO Mark

2021-11-11Deep Dive

ConsenSys co-founder tantalizes the possibility of a MetaMask token

Joseph Lubin, the co-founder of Ethereum development team ConsenSys, teased the possibility of a MetaMask token during a Twitter exchange.　　MetaMask is a browser extension that enables access to the Ethereum ecosystem. It acts like a “lite wallet” for storing ERC-20 tokens allowing users to access services, including dApps, built on the Ethereum chain.　　In September, ConsenSys said the MetaMask wallet had reached a major milestone in hitting 10 million monthly active users (MAUs). This is up 1,800% from July 2020, when its MAUs stood at 545,000.　　As expected, with MetaMask being one of the most popular wallets out there, expectations over a $MASK token are high.$MASK token incoming？　　Lubins bombshell disclosure came during a tweet by @icebergy_ in which he joking said MetaMask would have to drop a token to compete with Coinbase launching a browser wallet extension.　　Wading into the discussion, Andrew Thurman, a tech reporter at Coindesk, pointed out that it would never happen due to JPMorgans stake in MetaMask, and an aversion to holding the token on its balance sheet.　　However, Lubin dismissed this point by saying ConsenSys already holds thousands of tokens on its balance sheet, implying this has no bearing on controls placed by stakeholders.　　He then justified this position by

2021-11-11Deep Dive

Memecoins Shiba Inu (SHIB) community pushes hard for Robinhood listing

The COO of Robinhood Crypto, Christine Brown praised the Shiba Inu community for its engagement with the firm, leading to speculation of an imminent listing. However, Brown was quick to shut down any talk of a listing due to company policy.　　A change.org petition for Robinhood to list Shiba Inu is currently at over 525,000 signatures, demonstrating the strength of feeling on the matter.　　Tristan Luke, who started the petition implied a Shiba Inu listing could be as big for Robinhood as Dogecoin was several months ago. He called on people to encourage Robinhood, as the first traditional brokerage, to make the move.　　Nonetheless, Robinhood is currently under fire after it revealed a data breach leaked information on 7 million of its customers.Is Shiba Inu poised for Robinhood listing？　　When asked when Robinhood would list $SHIB, Brown opened by saying the Shiba Inu community has been vocal in pushing for a listing. This, she said, was a positive from her perspective.　　“One of my favorite things is seeing the community around these coins, really engage with us and really let us know what they want.”　　But as far as confirming or denying a listing, she went on to say that its company policy not to talk

2021-11-11Deep Dive

DEXs like Uniswap, PancakeSwap, and Curve saw a 550% growth last year

A new Chainalysis report has revealed that decentralized exchanges (DEX) are currently outgrowing their centralized counterparts as their numbers have spiked massively within the last year.Decentralized exchanges outgrow centralized exchanges　　According to the Chainalysis report, DEXs such as Uniswap, Curve, and PancakeSwap saw a growth of about 550% between August 2020 to 2021.　　Aside from that, the report also ranked the decentralized exchanges above over-the-counter brokers, centralized exchanges, and “high-risk exchanges” because of their minimal Know Your Customer.　　A more cursory look at the report from Chainalysis revealed that while DEXs have been on the rise, the total numbers of crypto exchanges have been dropping.　　Per the report, as of 2019, there were 845 crypto exchanges, however, the numbers have dropped to 672 as of this year with many of the smaller exchanges shutting down.　　Kim Gauer, the head of the Chainalysis research team, highlighted that the smaller exchanges closing shops were mostly those who couldnt get enough liquidity. It should be added that the report did not reveal if some of the closure of these exchanges was caused by mergers and acquisitions.DeFi boost DEXs　　Still, on DEXs, Chainalysis pointed out that the growth in the number of these exchanges coincided with the growth the space

2021-11-11Deep Dive

How Blockchain Technology Is Transforming Microtransactions and Revitalizing the Gaming Industry

Microtransactions are a staple of many modern games, to the point many have just accepted them. However, new models are emerging, thanks to blockchain technology, that stand to disrupt the norm. Play-to-earn games are growing in popularity, and new services are lowering the cost of entry. These innovations are set to become the catalyst to create a true vision of the coming metaverse.A new play-to-earn structure　　Modern video games are rife with microtransactions. Whether simple things like costumes or accessories, or more elaborate offerings like characters and weapons, these in-game purchases have largely divided the gaming community. When done right, they can offer new content at a fair price, but when abused, they lead to “loot crates” and a general “pay-to-win” mentality. This creates artificial pay barriers to success for those who can‘t simply throw money at a game they’ve already bought. Furthermore, any money sunk into a specific title is lost entirely when the player moves on.　　However, with the rise of blockchain gaming and NFTs, this is all changing. A new gaming model is emerging based around real asset ownership and a new “play-to-earn” structure. A prime example is Axie Infinity, a play-to-earn NFT-based online game which has galvanized user

2021-11-11Deep Dive

Crypto boom strains Kazakhstan's coal-powered energy grid

Kazakhstan is struggling to meet the energy needs of its booming cryptocurrency mining industry, which is flourishing thanks to cheap power and an exodus of crypto miners from neighbouring China.　　The Central Asian nation of 19 million has become the worlds second-biggest bitcoin mining location after the United States in recent months, according to the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance.　　Now the government is trying to decide how to tax and regulate the largely underground and foreign-owned industry, which has forced the former Soviet republic to import power and ration domestic supplies.　　Moreover, local mining farms are mostly powered by ageing coal plants which themselves, along with coal mines and whole towns built around them, are a headache for authorities as they seek to decarbonise the economy.　　While some people see crypto as the way to a quick fortune, many governments fear that privately operated highly volatile digital currencies could undermine their control of monetary systems, promote financial crime and hurt investors. China last month banned all crypto transactions and mining.　　Crypto mining, the energy-intensive computing process through which bitcoin and other tokens are created, is seen by many as hurting global environmental goals.　　CRACKDOWN IMMINENT　　The Kazakh government plans to crack down first on unregistered “grey”

2021-11-11Deep Dive

Coinbase to Support Bitcoin ETF Trading

The latest update in the Bitcoin ETF market saw raging speculations about the crypto exchange giant, Coinbase‘s upcoming initiative to support Bitcoin ETF trading on its platform. According to Eric Balchunas’ tweet, Coinbase is set to launch $BITO trading, however, it may as well be a big mistake, given the high trading fees of 1.49 percent on the platform. The ETF analyst warned Coinbase of potential consequences upon starting $BITO trading.　　Bitcoin ETF Frenzy　　Futures-linked Bitcoin ETFs have taken over the US crypto market, launching a swift bull for the OG crypto, with further speculations of Spot BTC ETF in the process to directly track the underlying asset class, from institutional players along with lawmakers. The ultimate Bitcoin enthusiast and MicroStrategy CEO, Michael Saylor recently commented on BTC ETFs, noting that they will completely take over the economy within three years span. Additionally, Saylor asserted that Bitcoin ETFs will become the primary substitute for Gold ETFs in near future. CoinGape‘s exclusive coverage stated that Saylor argued upon Bitcoin’s emergence as the primary asset class for the Western world, further replacing the $425 billion fund – SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, ticker SPY – tracking the equity index.　　“To do that, you need the

2021-11-11Deep Dive