Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Bitcoin (BTC) Continues Ascent Toward $50,000

There is some short-term weakness developing, which could lead to a drop prior to the continuation of the upward movement.BTC moves above resistance　　BTC continued its ongoing ascent on Oct 4 and bounced at the $47,800 resistance area, above which it had moved the day prior (green icon). Now, the area is expected to act as support.　　Technical indicators in the daily time frame have turned bullish. The MACD is in positive territory and increasing and its histogram reading is almost positive. 　　Similarly, the RSI is moving upwards and has crossed above 50. 　　However, there is resistance from the Supertrend line, which is bearish (red icon). This is the final major resistance area that BTC has to clear before it can move toward new highs.Future movement　　The six-hour chart more clearly shows that BTC has moved above the $47,800 area and validated it as support after. 　　While the MACD and RSI are showing some signs of weakness, neither has turned bearish yet. 　　The next closest resistance zone is found at the $52,950 highs from the month of September.　　The two-hour chart shows some signs of weakness, such as bearish divergences developing in the MACD and RSI.　　However, the latter could be in the process of

2021-10-05Deep Dive

Tweet mocking how little value NFTs have ... is turned into $5K NFT

Twitter user Lauren Walker tweeted a message claiming she was “stealing” nonfungible tokens, only to have crypto-Twitter turn around and mint her words into a token listing for thousands of dollars.　　In an Oct. 2 post on Twitter, Walker mockingly said her current collection of nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, was valued at more than $8 trillion given that she claimed she has right-clicked on the images and saved them to her drive. The message ignores the verifiable scarcity underpinning tokenizing images and artwork, but Walker said she had “a real job” and dismissed criticism from the community.　　In response, at least two crypto users have taken screenshots of Walkers message and replies, minted them as NFTs, and listed them for auction on the OpenSea marketplace. Bidding for one from user CaptainFantastic under the name “have fun staying poor” is currently up to 1.5 Ether (ETH), or roughly $5,100 at the time of publication. Another from user Clown World NFT has yet to receive any bids.　　The thrust of Walkers argument is seemingly understandable to someone without a working knowledge of NFTs, in that tokenizing the image makes it unique and essentially gives it value for someone willing to assign it value in a

2021-10-05Deep Dive

Institutional bulls back Bitcoin after weeks of altcoin accumulation

Institutional crypto appetites have shifted away from altcoin back to Bitcoin, with BTC investment products leading the inflows for digital asset products for the second week in a row.　　Institutional investors are pivoting back to digital gold with Bitcoin (BTC) investment products posting a third consecutive week of inflows.　　According to CoinShares latest Digital Asset Fund Flows Weekly report, BTC investment products generated $68.7 million worth of inflows between Sept. 27 and Oct. 1, representing a 36% increase in exposure week-over-week.　　While products tracking BTC have now dominated inflows to digital asset products for two weeks in a row, the bullish turn comes fresh off a record streak of outflows that persisted for eight consecutive weeks until early September.　　Total inflows for digital investment products were $90 million for the week, marking the seventh consecutive week of inflows as institutional investors continue to increase exposure to digital assets.　　Institutional investors also snapped up a significant amount of Ethereum (ETH) investment products, with inflows totaling $20.2 million. BTC and ETH products gained roughly 7.4% and 3.2% for the week respectively.　　There was also a mixed appetite for altcoins last week. Products tracking Cardano (ADA), and Solana (SOL) posting inflows of $1.1 million and $700,000 respectively, while Polkadot

2021-10-05Deep Dive

Tweet mocking how little value NFTs have ... is turned into $5K NFT

“This is basically the same as making a joke that you stole the Mona Lisa by taking a photograph of it,” said Twitter user Sergey Pshenichkin.　　Twitter user Lauren Walker tweeted a message claiming she was “stealing” nonfungible tokens, only to have crypto-Twitter turn around and mint her words into a token listing for thousands of dollars.　　In an Oct. 2 post on Twitter, Walker mockingly said her current collection of nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, was valued at more than $8 trillion given that she claimed she has right-clicked on the images and saved them to her drive. The message ignores the verifiable scarcity underpinning tokenizing images and artwork, but Walker said she had “a real job” and dismissed criticism from the community.　　In response, at least two crypto users have taken screenshots of Walkers message and replies, minted them as NFTs, and listed them for auction on the OpenSea marketplace. Bidding for one from user CaptainFantastic under the name “have fun staying poor” is currently up to 1.5 Ether (ETH), or roughly $5,100 at the time of publication. Another from user Clown World NFT has yet to receive any bids.　　The thrust of Walkers argument is seemingly understandable to someone without a working

2021-10-05Deep Dive

Bitcoin moves past $49K as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp go down

Major social media and communication platforms Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp went offline Monday as the price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies surged.　　As data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro shows, Bitcoin (BTC) price moved above $49,000 after falling to a daily low of $47,166, an increase of roughly 4.5% in less than two hours. Similarly, the price of Ether (ETH) rose 3.5% over the same period to reach $3,411 at the time of publication.　　The sudden price volatility comes as major social media platform Facebook, photo and video sharing app Instagram, and messenger app WhatsApp — both owned by Facebook — went down at approximately 3:16 pm UTC on Oct. 4. According to Facebooks communications team, which communicated through Twitter, the company was “working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible.”　　At roughly the same time on March 13, 2019, all three platforms reported a major outage that lasted more than 24 hours. At the time, Facebook attributed the problems to a “server configuration change.”　　The interruptions may impact community engagement around crypto and blockchain projects, but Discord, Twitter, YouTube and many other platforms are still functioning normally. Many Crypto Twitter users are already using the incident to highlight the need for

2021-10-05Deep Dive

Top 5 Cryptocurrencies to watch in ‘Up’tober

The month of September in the cryptocurrency world has always been known to be a month of red candles and the September of 2021 did not fail to live up to that expectation. The cryptocurrency market capitalization lost approximately 11.2% in the month of September from approximately $2.07 trillion at the beginning of the month to $1.84 trillion. Flagship cryptocurrency Bitcoin crashed from a high of $52,850 to trade a low of $43,285, on the 7th of September, a near $10,000 drop in a day. This was also the day Latin American country, El Salvador, officially adopted Bitcoin as a legal tender. In the month, Bitcoin lost over 10%.　　As you would expect, the altcoin market also crashed much steeper than Bitcoin. With many top altcoins like ADA, BNB, XRP, SOL all posting double-figure losses in the month. The altcoin market capitalization lost 12.22% in September from approximately $1.2 trillion to stand at $1.06 trillion at the end of the month.　　As previously mentioned, a major topic of discussion was El Salvador‘s adoption Bitcoin as a legal tender. El Salvadorians now use Bitcoin as a means of payment to purchase goods and services as it is mandating that all vendors accept Bitcoin.

2021-10-04Deep Dive

BitOasis crypto exchange to help Dubai Police spread fraud awareness

BitOasis, a cryptocurrency exchange from the United Arab Emirates, has partnered with the Dubai Police Force to raise awareness about frauds related to crypto investment and trades.　　The exchanges partnership with the Dubai Police is intended to help build regulations that will make crypto safe for investors in the region, BitOasis CEO Ola Doudin said. Speaking to Cointelegraph, Doudin stated:“The BitOasis team has been working very closely with policymakers and regulators to build trust and transparency into the crypto ecosystem. Partnering with Dubai Police is also a move in the same direction.”　　The move to safeguard investors coincides with UAE regulator‘s decision to approve crypto trading within Dubai’s DWTCA free zone on Sept. 23. On the same day, BitOasis announced it was linking its services with GoAML, a surveillance platform built and operated by the UAE Financial Intelligence Unit, for reporting suspicious transactions.　　This partnership will also see the active involvement of the National Committee for Combating Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism and Illegal Organisations, a state-run organization focused on building Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism frameworks.　　Tarek Mohammed, head of the virtual asset crime section at the Dubai Police, said that the department is currently undergoing extensive training

2021-10-04Deep Dive

El Salvador introduces fuel subsidy of $0.20 per gallon to locals who pay in BTC

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has announced that local consumers can enjoy a $0.20-per-gallon reduction in petrol prices when paying, using the government-backed Bitcoin wallet, Chivo.　　Describing the news as “positive news for the pockets of Salvadorans,” the president announced the subsidy via Twitter on Thursday. According to a rough translation, Bukele stated:“The state company Chivo negotiated with the largest gas station companies in our country, so that starting tomorrow, their stations will sell each gallon of fuel $ 0.20 cheaper, with Chivo wallet.”　　Bukele emphasized that there is no limit to the discount and that any local person or company can access the rebate. He added that the discount will erase “several increases in the international price of fuels” and “reduce transportation costs in supply chains.” 　　However, some Salvadorans appear unconvinced that the subsidy ultimately benefits the public, with Twitter user Adan 3840 responding:“Those 20 cents will come from all of us, right？ The gas station does not lose, there goes the refund after paid with the taxes of even those who walk on foot.”　　Others were cynical of the governments decision to offer the discount to only those who pay using Chivo, with another Twitter account questioning why the administration did not

2021-10-04Deep Dive

Compounding problems: $65M more COMP at risk as devs wait for time-locked bug fix

Major decentralized finance (DeFi) money market Compounds woes are worsening, with nearly $150 million worth of COMP now at risk due to a buggy upgrade to the protocol that went live last week.　　On Thursday, Cointelegraph reported that a bug had resulted in between $70 million and $85 million worth of COMP tokens being mistakenly offered to users as rewards after an update intended to fix bugs and “split COMP rewards distribution” went awry.　　Despite the reward distribution error being identified quickly, Compounds week-long delay in enacting new governance measures meant that the error will not be fixed until Thursda.　　On Sunday, Compound founder Robert Leshner tweeted that 202,472.5 COMP (worth approximately $65 million) had been placed at risk after the protocols drip function was called for the first time in roughly two months.　　The drip function makes tokens held in Compounds Reservoir available to users, with 0.5 COMP being accumulated by the Reservoir per block. Leshner noted that “the majority of COMP reserved for users” is held in the Reservoir.　　SushiSwap developer Mudit Gupta took to social media to criticize the use of time-locks on governance, asserting that roughly 100 people were aware of the threat posed by the drip function since the bug

2021-10-04Deep Dive

Coinbase reports 6,000 crypto account hacks after SMS flaw

Over 6,000 Coinbase users saw their drained last week as hackers exploited an authentication bug to bypass the companys SMS security feature, tech publication Bleeping Computer reported.　　Coinbase said it would reimburse the stolen amounts to make up for damages and did not report further security breaches as of press time.　　The hackers exploited a vulnerability to bypass the SMS authentication feature put in place by Coinbase to ensure user security. They illicitly gained access to user email addresses, passwords, and associated phone numbers, and used this information to log in.　　Hackers may have conducted large-scale phishing campaigns to gain access to such sensitive information—said Coinbase—one that unsuspecting users willingly gave out. 　　Banking trojan viruses have, in addition, been known to hit Coinbase users in the past.Inside the Coinbase hit　　As part of its security, hackers with access to a Coinbase customers credentials and email account are normally prevented from logging into an account if a customer has multi-factor authentication enabled.　　However, Coinbase said a vulnerability existed in their SMS account recovery process, allowing the hackers to gain the SMS two-factor authentication token needed to access a secured account.　　“Even with the information described above, additional authentication is required in order to access your Coinbase account,”

2021-10-04Deep Dive

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