Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Robinhood Might Add Crypto to Its Balance Sheet

Robinhood Crypto COO Christine Brown recently told Yahoo! Finance that the Menlo Park-based financial services company might add crypto to its balance sheet, following the lead of rival Coinbase.　　Brown also said that Robinhood was looking into adding more cryptocurrencies:　　Now, if you have more than the seven coins that we currently offer, we wont be able to fulfill that today. So, we are looking at extending our offering including even more coins so we can be the one-stop-shop for crypto customers.　　As reported by U.Today, Robinhood announced that it would gradually start rolling out support for cryptocurrency wallets in October. Its shares are currently up 6% on the news.　　Crypto has become a vital part of Robinhoods business, accounting for the majority of its transaction-based revenue in the second quarter. Dogecoin alone was responsible for 26 percent of the companys entire Q2 revenue.　　For more blockchain news, please download WikiBit- the Global Blockchain Regulatory Inquiry APP.

2021-09-23Deep Dive

Bitcoin eyes $3b September options expiry after a drop to $40k

Major crypto options exchanges, including industry leader Deribit, are due to settle billions of dollars worth of bitcoin options contracts this Friday. Analysts do not expect the monthly expiration to have a notable impact on bitcoin, which is under pressure this week due to several macro risks and regulatory concerns.　　Data provided by Skew shows a total of 73,700 options contracts worth $3.14 billion due for expiry Friday, of which nearly 50,000 are call options and the rest are puts. Deribit alone will be settling more than 85% of the total open interest.　　“I‘m not expecting much fireworks unless we run through $50,000; there’s some concentrated open interest there,” Shiliang Tang, chief investment officer of crypto hedge fund LedgerPrime told CoinDesk in a Telegram chat.　　Tang explained that if bitcoin breaks above $50,000, traders who sold calls in anticipation of a bearish move or consolidation may resort to hedging - buying the cryptocurrency in the spot or futures market to mitigate losses arising from the short call position. That could put upward pressure on the cryptocurrency, accelerating gains.　　However, that scenario looks unlikely given this weeks 11% drop to $42,000.　　Options are derivative instruments that give the purchaser the right to buy or sell the

2021-09-22Deep Dive

As Bitcoin falters, here is the altcoin analysts believe is the next Solana

Bitcoin has been trading below $50,000 for a while now and traders have started exploring altcoins that could generate great returns in the short term.　　Several analysts have pointed to Avalanche as the best alternative, saying it looks set to take the Solana implosion route.　　Bitcoin is trading at $42,000 at press time, down 10 percent in the past week. This is despite the never-ending bullish sentiments from traders who believe BTC will end the year north of $100,000. However, in the short term, traders could be best served by exploring other alternatives, and Avalanche has piqued the interest of many analysts who believe it‘s due for a breakout and could be ’the next Solana.Why Avalanche (AVAX) is exciting analysts　　Avalanche is a layer 1 proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain network that supports smart contracts. The project has managed to solve some of the most pressing blockchain challenges, including having a high throughput of over 4,500 transactions per second and full compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine. Its based on the Byzantine fault tolerance protocol and launched in September 2020.　　AVAX, which is the native token on the Avalanche network, is one of the cryptocurrencies that many analysts believe will soar in the near future. And

2021-09-22Deep Dive

Here Is the First Sign of Whales Selling Their Bitcoin Holdings

The opinion expressed here is not investment advice – it is provided for informational purposes only. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of U.Today. Every investment and all trading involves risk, so you should always perform your own research prior to making decisions. We do not recommend investing money you cannot afford to lose.　　According to data provided by OkLink, the number of large transactions rapidly spiked during the recent sell-off, which may be the first indication of appearing selling pressure from large Bitcoin holders. An indicator provided by OkLink tracks the number of transactions greater than 500 BTC.　　The rise in the number of transactions has appeared after a significant drop on the weekend, which is a common practice since traders are mostly being active on weekdays. But before facing a weekend transactional activity drop, the indicator showed another spike on Sept. 14, which may be a reflection of large transactions on exchanges that were later realized on the market.　　After a 15% sell-off, even more whale-tier transactions have been made but, in addition to that, different on-chain data providers have not shown any increased exchange inflows, which means that even though large wallets are selling their assets, institutional investors are

2021-09-22Deep Dive

25% Of Salvadorians Have Downloaded The Bitcoin Wallet Dissolving Fears Of A Revolt

Despite the latest Bitcoin dip, President Nayib Bukele tweeted that 1.6 million Salvadorians now use the Chivo Wallet. With a population of 6.5 million, this figure constitutes a quarter of the countrys population.　　On Saturday, President Bukele said 1.1 million users had downloaded the wallet. Meaning Chivo adoption has grown by 31% in just three days. He added that the uptake in Bitcoin, in less than a month of going live, is greater than that of 40 years of legacy banking.　　1.1 million Salvadorans already use @chivowallet (and we havent enabled 65% of phone models yet).　　It seems that we will be able to bank more people in 1 month, than they did with nationalizations and privatizations of traditional banks in 40 years.　　With the rest of the world watching how El Salvadors Bitcoin experiment pans out, this demonstrates that, despite pockets of dissent, the people are in.　　The Numbers Dont Lie　　Based on protests against Bitcoin, it seems as though El Salvador is a country divided.　　The protests have been growing in scale since President Bukele announced his plans to make Bitcoin legal tender. While initial gatherings were peaceful and small in number, they have grown progressively larger and more violent in the run-up to the

2021-09-22Deep Dive

The Top Five Most Promising dApps Being Built On Cardano

Key Takeaways　　Cardano smart contracts arrival means that decentralized applications (DApps) can now be launched on the platform.　　No DApps have launched yet, in part due to Cardanos novel design challenges of eUTXO model.　　However, several dApps are on the way that claim to have solved the design challenges.　　The Cardano mainnet went live in late September 2017. However, it only recently delivered on its promise of being a smart contracts platform with its Alonzo hardfork combinator (HFC) event last Sunday.　　With the highly awaited upgrade of the Alonzo testnet to the Cardano mainnet, the blockchain has become a fully-fledged smart contracts platform. This means that decentralized applications can now be launched on it.　　It is still early days, however, for the platform as they are yet to see any decentralized applications launch despite several being in development. This has in part been due to the design challenges that Cardanos novel e-UTXO model poses. Most prominent among the challenges is the fact that if the platforms are not designed properly, they may run into problems with multiple users utilizing it at the same time – technically called concurrency problems. This has already been exposed to be a serious challenge as shown in the initial testnet launch

2021-09-22Deep Dive

See What SEC Chair Gary Gensler Compared Stablecoins With

Gary Gensler, the Chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has compared stablecoins to the Wild West noting the digital currencies are acting like Poker Chips at the Casino. Speaking in an interview with the Washington Post, Gensler highlighted the impact of digital currencies in pushing new frontiers for the ongoing financial revolution. However, the SEC boss says based on precedents, private forms of money are not known to last long.　　“History tells us private forms of money don‘t last long… These stablecoins are acting almost like poker chips at the casino right now. So, add to the Wild West analogy, I mean we have a lot of casinos here in the Wild West, and poker chips is these stablecoins at the casino gaming tables. And so I think there’s just a lot of warning signs and flashing lights that might have a spill on aisle three and Id rather get ahead of it.”　　Despite likening stablecoins as possessing elements of gambling and how speculative investments in the assets are, Gensler believes the digital currency innovation is changing the paradigm for current business models.　　“I think [cryptocurrency] has been a catalyst for change… I also think it is raising new

2021-09-22Deep Dive

Coinbase Rolls Back Its USDC Lending Plans Fearing SEC Lawsuit

In the freshly brewing battle between Coinbase and the SEC, the securities regulators seem to be winning as of now. Last Friday, September 17, crypto exchange Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) released an update stating that it will roll back its plans to launch the USDC APY program.　　This happens as the U.S. SEC threatened a lawsuit if coinbase doesnt follow the seucities laws in the stablecoin lending. In an update to its launch post, Coinbase noted:　　As we continue our work to seek regulatory clarity for the crypto industry as a whole, weve made the difficult decision not to launch the USDC APY program announced below. We have also discontinued the waitlist for this program as we turn our work to what comes next.　　Coinbase had already received interest from thousands of customers across America to sign-up for the program. However, Coinbase noted that it will continue with its efforts in bringing innovative and trusted programs to its customers.　　SEC has A Problem With Lending and Staking　　Crypto lending is nothing new as exchanges like Geminin have been already offering it. However, through it Lend product, Coinbase also wanted to allow its users to stake their USDC stablecoins and earn 4% APY.　　It seems that the SEC

2021-09-22Deep Dive

Most Surveyed South Koreans Want the Government to Tax Crypto

The majority of surveyed South Koreans support the introduction of crypto taxes, although the minority that is opposed to the measure may still hold important political cards.　　Per the Hankook Ilbo, the survey found that just over 33% of those questioned said they were actually opposed to the introduction of taxes, with over 55% stating they wanted the government to start taxing crypto traders and investors. The remainder stated they were unsure or undecided on the matter.　　Crypto tax was due to be introduced in October this year, but politicians agreed to push the launch back to January 1, 2022. The decision was made after domestic exchanges complained that they needed more time to prepare the data which the nationwide tax agencies have required they start submitting to their auditors.　　The study was conducted between September 17 and September 18 by the Korea Social Opinion Research Institute (KSOI), which spoke to over 1,000 adults nationwide.　　But crucially, the KSOI noted that younger respondents were more likely to say they opposed crypto tax.　　The ruling Democratic Party is painfully aware of the fact that younger voters – who represent the core of its support at the polls – have become increasingly crypto-keen over the course of

2021-09-22Deep Dive

Survey Shows Why Walmart Should Accept Bitcoin (For Real)

A Morning Consult survey published on Sept. 21 has found that frequent Walmart shoppers are two times more likely to own Bitcoin than the average American.　　Image by morningconsult.com　　Almost a third of those who visit the largest U.S. grocery chain more than once per week hold the benchmark crypto.　　Overall, Bitcoin ownership stands at 16% in the U.S. Only 10% of non-Walmart shoppers have exposure to the top coin.　　Last week, a bogus press release about Walmart accepting Litecoin, which was picked up by some mainstream media, pushed the price of the O.G. altcoin by almost 30%.　　Notably, the official Litecoin Twitter account also briefly tweeted the fake news. Both Walmart and the Litecoin Foundation were quick to deny the partnership.　　As reported by U.Today, founder Charlie Lee blamed the organizations social media manager for the mishap: “It was wrong to retweet it. We deleted it quickly afterwards. But the damage is done.”　　With that being said, Walmarts Bitcoin-centric customer base and its recent crypto-related job posting indicate that the Litecoin hoax might well be a sign of things to come.　　For more blockchain news, please download WikiBit- the Global Blockchain Regulatory Inquiry APP.

2021-09-22Deep Dive

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