Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Market Pundits Term Cardano “The Sleeping Giant” Poised To Topple Ethereum In No Time

Ethereum has created lots of media buzz ever since the network underwent the London upgrade. Ethers price has skyrocketed from under $2k to over $3k. While the majority of the crypto market is currently in the green, it appears that Ethereum is gaining a lot of recognition.　　ETHUSD Chart by TradingView　　ETH‘s recent price spike has led some crypto fans to opine that it could be on a path to toppling Bitcoin. According to commentaries by market pundits, ETH could surpass Bitcoin’s market cap before the end of this year. However, while these enthusiasts seem to be super bullish on ETH, they have an even more pronounced outlook about Cardano.　　ADA: The Sleeping Giant　　Cardano has been one of the most prolific blockchain networks expanding by huge bounds of late. A few months ago, the Cardano network underwent an upgrade to initiate its transition for smart contracts. Another upgrade to expand this capability, along with DeFi, is expected in a few weeks time.　　ADA, which is Cardanos native crypto, has seen some serious gains over the past few days. In a week, the price rose from around $1.20 to the current range of around $2.17. A quick look at its market data shows that ADA

2021-08-20Deep Dive

Evolution Mining’s CEO: Bitcoin’s Volatility Will Lead Investors Back to Gold

Jake Klein believes gold is the better investment tool arguing that many people would swap the volatile cryptocurrencies for the precious metal.　　According to Jake Klein – the executive chairman and CEO of the gold mining firm Evolution Mining – bitcoins volatile nature would make gold a preferable investment instrument once again. He argued that the primary cryptocurrency falls behind the precious metal in terms of “longevity and security.”　　The Question of Our Times – BTC or Gold？　　In a recent interview for CNBC, the chief executive officer at Evolution Mining – Jake Klein – shared his views on the correlation between virtual currencies and gold. He opined that many crypto investors would eventually change their strategies because of the price volatility of the digital assets, bitcoin in particular. With that said, they would return to gold:　　“I think that the volatility in the crypto space is going to ultimately lead to people coming back to gold.”　　It is worth noting that the volatility in the cryptocurrency market is not something new. For example, since the beginning of 2021, BTC has been stretching its USD value from as low as $29,000 to an all-time high of nearly $65,000 in mid-April.　　However, this has not been an

2021-08-20Deep Dive

SEC’s Gary Gensler Says DeFi Apps Can Be Regulated

SEC chairman Gary Gensler has stated that the regulator could begin to regulate decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms.　　Gensler Says DeFi Developers Can Be Identified　　Historically, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has targeted centrally-operated crypto companies that have run ICOs, investment funds, exchanges, or otherwise sold cryptocurrency.　　DeFi platforms by contrast are decentralized. They typically only handle cryptocurrency transactions, not cash transactions, and they do not hold crypto on behalf of their users.　　Nevertheless, Gensler says that those DeFi platforms are sufficiently organized that they could be targeted by the SEC.　　Gensler said that there is “still a core group of folks” involved in writing software and governing each platform. “Theres some incentive structure for those promoters and sponsors in the middle of this,” he explained to the Wall Street Journal.　　In fact, the SEC is already taking action against DeFi. On Aug. 7, the SEC filed charges against Blockchain Credit Partners over unregistered token sales and misleading investors about profits. However, the company arguably did not offer true DeFi services.　　Additionally, in 2018, the SEC targeted the operator of Etherdelta, a popular decentralized exchange. The operator, Zachary Colburn, was charged with operating an unregistered exchange.　　Can the SEC Kill DeFi？　　DeFi has long been seen as a way

2021-08-20Deep Dive

How the Shiba Inu frenzy meant big growth for Robinhood

Crypto transactions accounted for more than 41% of Robinhood‘s total revenue in the second quarter, compared to 17% for the first three months of 2021, revealed the investing platform’s first earnings report since its recent stock market debut.　　Crypto accounted for $233 million, roughly 51%, of Robinhoods $451 million transaction-based revenue that increased 141% in the second quarter of 2021.　　Crypto, Women, DOGE　　While the interest in cryptocurrencies grew, with over 60% of Robinhoods net cumulative funded accounts trading in crypto during the second quarter, the popular commission-free investing platform recorded that its monthly active users more than doubled, compared to the same period last year.　　“Were encouraged by the number of people who are accessing the financial system for the first time through Robinhood,” said Vlad Tenev, CEO and Co-Founder of Robinhood in a press release, adding that crypto trading “saw strong growth this quarter among women investors in particular.”　　In addition, Robinhood reported that Dogecoin (DOGE) transactions accounted for a substantial portion of the recent growth in the net revenues earned from crypto.　　“While we currently support a portfolio of seven cryptocurrencies for trading, for the three months ended June 30, 2021, 62% of our cryptocurrency transaction-based revenue was attributable to transactions in Dogecoin,

2021-08-20Deep Dive

SEC Chair Gary Gensler Claims DeFi Is Centralized

On Thursday, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Gary Gensler told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo that decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms have “a lot of centralization”:　　“The so-called decentralized finance platforms actually have a lot of centralization. Theres a group of entrepreneurs that are running these platforms. They should come in and to the extent work with us and get registered. ”　　Gensler also made similar comments in his interview with The Wall Street Journal that was published earlier today.　　The top regulator described DeFi as “a misnomer” since many projects that fall under the umbrella term are only partially decentralized:　　“Theres still a core group of folks that are not only writing the software, like the open-source software, but they often have governance and fees.”　　The SEC boss has once again stressed that the agency doesn‘t discriminate when it comes to specific tech, but it’s not neutral on investor protection:　　“We focus on investor protection. We are neutral about technology (Bitcoin and the other crypto tokens). It was honor to teach a bunch of this up at MIT before I took this job.”

2021-08-20Deep Dive

Bloomberg Announces the Launch of DeFi Index Co-branded with Galaxy Digital

Manhattan-based finance and media giant Bloomberg, along with Galaxy Digital, had long been striving to expand their crypto offerings for the world. Finally today, the companies announced the launch of the Bloomberg Galaxy DeFi Index (ticker: DEFI) and Galaxy DeFi Index Fund.　　Per the announcement, the crypto index/benchmark will analyse the performance of large Decentralized Finance (DeFi) protocols by market cap that provide financial services without a centralized financial intermediary, such as an exchange, brokerage or a bank.　　The assets in the DeFi Index are picked based on institutional trading, custody readiness and the quality of pricing. Each asset cannot represents a holding more than 40% max and not less than 1% of the overall value of the benchmark. As of August 1, 2021, the Index comprises of of Uniswap, Aave, Maker, Compound, Yearn, and Sushi amongst others.　　DeFi and the Threat to Financial Services　　According to a recently published report, Decentralized finance has become an $80 billion industry in 2021, reflecting a growth of 385% over a year. If the industry keeps growing at this pace, it can break the $800 billion benchmark by next year. To which Alan Campbell, Head of Product Management for Bloombergs Multi-Asset Index business noted, “DeFi has strongly

2021-08-20Deep Dive

Cardano Fuelled Again by Stablecoin and Smart Contract Progress

Cardanos native token ADA today resumed its price rally as work continues on the smart contract-enabling “Alonzo” upgrade, and a new paper is published that details the technical underpinnings of a Cardano-powered stablecoin.　　As of press time on Thursday (09:09 UTC), ADA was up by 5.1% over the past 24 hours, trading at USD 2.12. The latest move means that the token has now risen by 18% for the past 7 days, and close to 90% for the past 30 days, per data from CoinGecko.　　The rally today follows a bull-run for ADA that has been largely driven by the much-anticipated “Alonzo” upgrade of the platform, which is said to finally enable smart contract functionality on Cardano.　　Commenting on the progress of the upgrade yesterday, the team at Cardano development firm Input Output said that the open source project has now seen 3,100 new commits for the week on the collaborative code repository GitHub, as they “edge ever closer to smart contract deployment.”　　And while Alonzo moves forward, Cardano fans also welcomed the release of the new Djed stablecoin whitepaper on August 18.　　The stablecoin, which has been in the works for the Cardano blockchain for some time, was first teased by Cardano founder and

2021-08-19Deep Dive

BITCOIN EDGES TOWARDS $50,000

BITCOIN EDGES TOWARDS $50,000 　　The price of the largest cryptocurrency edges towards $50k for the time in months as the market rebounds from the long-term correction.　　The rise in the price of Bitcoin has resulted from the adoption by BIG INSTITUTIONS around the world. Apart from big tech companies and asset management firms investing in Bitcoin, countries are also adopting Bitcoin. It is not from the truth to say that Bitcoin is now widely accepted around the world. The future is closer to us than we all imagine.　　The total market capitalization of Bitcoin is now at $889B, according to data from Coinmarketcap. Bitcoin market cap is now at an all-time high, which means there is now more money in Bitcoin than it used to. The price of Bitcoin is trading at $47,400 as at publishing time, with a total market cap of $889B. Bitcoins total market cap when its price hits all-time high at $64,900 was $700B, but it has now surpassed it by almost $200B when the price hits $47k. The future of Bitcoin is now in safe hands as the market cap grows and gains more public interest.　　Furthermore, the adoption of Bitcoin by Institutions has made Bitcoin transactions easy.

2021-08-19Deep Dive

Kazakhstan Biggest Beneficiary Of China’s Bitcoin Mining Ban

Chinas strengthening of their Bitcoin ban has affected more than just the ability of their nationals to trade and mine cryptocurrency, it has also had many secondary effects upon the global market. With a strict ban on Bitcoin mining being enforced in China, other countries are beginning to take the place of China as a global mining power.　　With China as the former global leader in cryptocurrency mining, crypto mining companies have been forced to either shut down entirely, or relocate to other countries. Some reports place the decrease in crypto mining from 75.5 to 46 percent, with the results of the decrease marking a significant opportunity for other countries to re-home the crypto mining rigs that are no longer allowed to operate in China.　　The US has been the primary beneficiary of Chinas crypto mining relocation efforts, with a number of large crypto mining companies such as Huobi Mall and BTC.TOP announcing they would be moving their mining rigs overseas. BTC.TOP stated at the time that they would be moving their rigs to the U.S:　　“In the long term, nearly all of Chinese crypto mining rigs will be sold overseas, as Chinese regulators crack down on mining at home [...] Eventually, China

2021-08-19Deep Dive

How Canada’s Hydroelectric Power Can Single-Handedly Fix Bitcoin’s Energy Consumption Dilemma

For a long while, the huge amounts of energy used by the Bitcoin network in mining the cryptocurrency have been a subject of discussion. Many have decried the network to be bad for the environment, as the high energy usage could be contributing to climate change.　　Inevitably, this was the argument Elon Musk used to stir the waters in the cryptocurrency market earlier this year, when his electric car company, Tesla, made a U-turn on accepting Bitcoin as payment for vehicle purchases.　　The announcement, which was made in May via Twitter by Musk who was then an ardent backer of Bitcoin, stated that the company was concerned about the increasing use of fossil fuels, especially coal which has the worst emission of any fuel, by Bitcoin miners. The announcement also clarified that the company would however not sell its around $1.5 billion Bitcoin holdings and would resume accepting it as payment when the network transitions to more sustainable energy usage.　　Musk followed up the announcement the next day with a tweet that described the energy usage of Bitcoin over a few months prior to then as “insane.” The tweet was supported by data pulled from Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI) – a

2021-08-19Deep Dive

...

487489

...

737