Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Rostin Behnam To Be Named As The New CFTC Chair — Why He Could Make Or Break The U.S. Crypto Market

President Biden named Rostin Behnam to head up the US Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), setting the stage for widespread reform as the derivatives regulator takes on the booming institutional adoption in the burgeoning cryptocurrency space.　　Behnam Will Become Next CFTC Chair　　According to Bloomberg, Behnam has been officially picked to fill the position that has been rather rudderless ever since Heath Tarbert resigned earlier this year. It should be noted that he has been overseeing the swaps and futures markets on an interim basis since January when Biden took office. Behnam has, however, not been nominated or confirmed by the Senate.　　Anonymous sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that his appointment on a permanent basis will be officially announced in the coming weeks.　　If he is confirmed and nominated, he will join former CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler who was recently confirmed as the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after being chosen by Biden. Behnam has served as a CFTC commissioner since 2017.　　Behnam Could Build Or Destroy The U.S. Crypto Market　　Rostin Behnam grabbed the headlines in 2020 after he commissioned a report that called for better pricing of carbon in the United States to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Democrat

2021-08-16Deep Dive

DOGE ‘Strongest’ Crypto as Medium of Exchange, Says Mark Cuban

Leading Dogecoin (DOGE) advocates Mark Cuban and Elon Musk have voiced their support for the meme-inspired altcoin as its price continues to climb.　　Billionaire and media personality Cuban referred to DOGE as the “strongest” cryptocurrency as a medium of exchange earlier this week. Speaking with CNBC Make It, the entrepreneur said the token had unique uses over other cryptocurrencies. Namely, that it can be used for the acquisition of goods and services.　　When CNBC shared a link to the story via Twitter, reiterating Cuban‘s quote about DOGE as “the strongest”, Tesla CEO Elon Musk replied:“I’ve been saying this for a while.”　　Cubans most recent advocacy for DOGE followed his revelation that his basketball team, the Dallas Mavericks, would soon run a merchandise sale. A sale that would include special pricing for those who paid in DOGE.　　However, the billionaires support for DOGE has not been without its critics. Even most recently, Cuban has defended himself against accusations of shilling the memecoin on Twitter.　　On August 15, he responded to one such accusation:“I don‘t shill Doge. I shill the prods [sic] & services of my companies. Where we allow people to pay in ANY crypto, 95% of the sales are in DOGE. Customers CHOOSE to use

2021-08-16Deep Dive

Jack Dorsey Doubts Ethereum’s Ability To Dominate The Traditional Market As Bitcoin Did

Billionaire technology entrepreneur and CEO of Square and Twitter, Jack Dorsey, is well known in the cryptocurrency community as a Bitcoin maximalist and he has openly stated so too.　　He is one of the Bitcoin maximalists who does not give consideration to any other blockchain networks apart from Bitcoin. His recent comment on Ethereum, the second-largest market cap cryptocurrency, has reiterated this.　　It cannot be denied, however, that the Ethereum network is also a big player in the cryptocurrency market. The network, that was built with the aim of making blockchain technology have much greater use than just being a store of value or a fiat currency replacement like Bitcoin, but as a decentralized runtime environment for building and operating smart contracts, also called decentralized applications (DApps), has largely achieved that so far, as it the currently the largest marketplace for building DApps.　　There are already more than 1,000 applications for the Ethereum blockchain listed in its main app repository, including financial, arts, and collectibles, gaming, and technology-centric applications, and more are still being developed.　　Many crypto-market participants see these as strong talking points for Ethereum, however, skeptics are still ever-present, and Jack Dorsey is one of them.　　In a recent comment on Twitter, Dorsey

2021-08-16Deep Dive

Top 5 cryptocurrencies to watch this week: BTC, ETC, LUNA, KLAY, AXS

Bitcoin (BTC) is facing a stiff challenge from the bears near the $48,000 mark. As Cointelegraph reported earlier, the buy and sell levels show that sellers on Binance have held their ground at $48,000.　　PlanB, the creator of the stock-to-flow Bitcoin price model, said if Bitcoin manages to close August above $47,000, the year-end “worst-case scenario” target price of $135,000 may come into play.　　Despite the slight downturn, the institutional adoption of Bitcoin continues to increase. Filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission show that four wealth management firms have bought shares in Grayscales Bitcoin Investment Trust.　　A survey of about 42,000 people in 27 countries by product comparison website Finder, showed a high adoption rate in Asia. Among the countries polled, Vietnam had the highest adoption rate at 41% while India and Indonesia had a 30% adoption rate.　　Compared to their Asian counterparts, the respondents in the United Kingdom and the United States reported a low 8% and 9% adoption rate. However, the report warned that “due to the varying Google infrastructure in each territory, not all surveys were nationally representative.”　　Will Bitcoin‘s hesitation near the $48,000 mark result in profit-booking？ Could altcoins attract funds that exit Bitcoin？ Let’s study the charts

2021-08-16Deep Dive

Argentina’s President: No Reason to Push Against Adopting Bitcoin

The president of Argentina has indicated that theres no reason why the country would push back against potential Bitcoin adoption.　　El Salvador‘s decision to adopt BTC as a legal tender has rattled the cages in Central and South America. Argentina’s president was the latest to showcase support to some extent in a recent interview.　　Speaking to the local media outlet Caja Negra, Alberto Fernandez touched on the topic of digitalization and where the country stands on it.　　More specifically, he received a question whether Argentina will look into launching its own central bank digital currency or perhaps even adopting Bitcoin as a legal tender.　　“I don‘t want to go too far out on a limb … but there is no reason to say ’no. Perhaps that is a good path to take.”　　He added that the most significant advantage of going with the BTC route is that “the inflationary effect is largely nullified” because of the assets maximum supply of 21 million coins ever to exist.　　This particular issue is what Argentina has been struggling with for years. In June 2021 alone, consumer prices increased by more than 3%. Thus, analysts concluded that the 12-month inflation rate has grown above 50%.　　On a more macro scale, the

2021-08-14Deep Dive

Ethereum alone not enough to disrupt Big Tech: Jack Dorsey

Twitter CEO and self-professed Bitcoin (BTC) maximalist Jack Dorsey is not giving Ether (ETH) fans an inch. In his latest offhand remark about the market‘s second-largest cryptocurrency, Dorsey downplayed the platform’s potential to single-handedly shake up the status quo in Big Tech:　　Dorseys comment followed an online discussion of the usefulness of a full-blown integration of nonfungible tokens (NFT) into Twitter, which Twitter user Seyitaylor argued would be more to the benefit of Ethereum than to the social media site. 　　Dorsey agreed that such a move would be more consequential for the Ethereum ecosystem than for his own platform but added, “Every account on Twitter being able to link to a Lightning wallet however…”　　Despite Twitter‘s previous dabbles in the world of NFTs — and Dorsey’s own use of the technology to raise money for charity — Dorsey has remained a staunch Bitcoin advocate, much to the frustration of both Ether diehards and less sectarian crypto fans. 　　When one Twitter user responded to Dorsey‘s comments, pushing him to explain, “Why the ETH hate then if there’s room for more than one piece to the puzzle？” Dorsey‘s rejoinder was that “focus on one thing isn’t hate of the others. Ive made my concerns

2021-08-14Deep Dive

Polygon Merges With Hermez Network in $250M Deal

Polygon, a “layer 2” platform on the Ethereum blockchain, is merging with rollup platform Hermez Network in a 250 million MATIC (+7.63%) deal. The acquisition was worth about $250 million based on MATICs price on Aug. 4, when the deal was struck.　　Hermez will be absorbed into the Polygon ecosystem under the name Polygon Hermez, where it will become a part of Polygon‘s line of products, including Polygon SDK and Polygon Avail. The entire Hermez project – its employees, technology and native HEZ token (which holders will be able to exchange at a rate of 3.5 MATIC: 1 HEZ) – will be integrated into Polygon’s platform.　　Polygons merger with Hermez is the first complete merger of one blockchain network into another.　　Earlier this year, two Ethereum projects, Keep and NuCypher, announced a merger of their protocols into a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) in a project nicknamed “Keanu,” but will keep their brands and companies separate. And Yearn Finance frequently announces mergers and partnerships, but it is unclear what is happening under the surface of those deals. 　　Polygon‘s absorption of Hermez’s team and protocol is something different entirely. 　　Hermez is a zero-knowledge (ZK) rollup, which means that it uses mathematical proofs to verify and

2021-08-14Deep Dive

SEC Chairman’s Latest Crypto Move Will Hurt American Innovation, Rep. Patrick McHenry Says

Today, the top Rep. Patrick McHenry (NC-10) said Gary Genslers intentions to have more control over the crypto ecosystem were “a blatant power grab that will hurt American innovation.”　　The battle to determine which will be the position of regulators towards the crypto industry is heating up in the United States. While some big-name politicians claim that the state has a duty to protect its citizens from the risks of an under-regulated industry, others equally influential claim that excessive regulation is driving investors away.　　Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) is in the latter group, and this week he made it clear again.　　In an official statement posted on the House Financial Services Committee website, Patrick McHenry questioned SEC Chairman Gary Genslers recent interest in increasing his regulatory powers to exert more control over the cryptocurrency industry.　　“Chairman Genslers latest move to ask Congress for jurisdiction over non-securities exchanges is a blatant power grab that will hurt American innovation,”　　 Rep. Patrick McHenry Thinks U.S. Needs Better Laws　　A few days ago, Sen. Elizabeth Warren shared a letter written by Gary Gensler, asking for more power to regulate the cryptocurrency industry. In the text, Gensler assures that cryptocurrency investors are using platforms that are not “adequately protected” and

2021-08-13Deep Dive

Argentina’s President: No Reason to Push Against Adopting Bitcoin

El Salvador‘s decision to adopt BTC as a legal tender has rattled the cages in Central and South America. Argentina’s president was the latest to showcase support to some extent in a recent interview.　　Speaking to the local media outlet Caja Negra, Alberto Fernandez touched on the topic of digitalization and where the country stands on it.　　More specifically, he received a question whether Argentina will look into launching its own central bank digital currency or perhaps even adopting Bitcoin as a legal tender.　　“I don‘t want to go too far out on a limb … but there is no reason to say ’no. Perhaps that is a good path to take.”　　He added that the most significant advantage of going with the BTC route is that “the inflationary effect is largely nullified” because of the assets maximum supply of 21 million coins ever to exist.　　This particular issue is what Argentina has been struggling with for years. In June 2021 alone, consumer prices increased by more than 3%. Thus, analysts concluded that the 12-month inflation rate has grown above 50%.　　On a more macro scale, the Argentinian peso has lost roughly 85% of its value against the US dollar in the past five years.　　Nevertheless, the

2021-08-13Deep Dive

The fiendish new trick cyber-criminals are using to evade capture

“Follow the money” - for generations its been the mantra of investigators looking for criminals.　　In the cyber-realm, this battle between criminals and the authorities has been raging for years.　　Despite the anonymous nature of cryptocurrencies, dozens of cyber-criminals have been caught in the last two years thanks to new techniques able to track their funds around the cryptocurrency blockchain - a public list of all transactions between wallets.　　But could the tide be turning？　　A new service has launched on the darknet offering criminals a way to check how “clean” their digital coins are.　　“Were seeing criminals start to fight back against blockchain analytics and this service is a first,” explained Dr Tom Robinson, chief scientist and founder at analysis provider Elliptic, who discovered the website.　　“Its called Antianalysis and criminals are now able to check their own Bitcoin wallets and see whether any association with criminal activity could be flagged by authorities,” Dr Robinson said.　　Elliptic says the discovery shows how sophisticated cyber-crime networks are becoming, and how worried criminals are about getting caught.　　“Its a very valuable technique. If your funds are tainted, you can then do more laundering and try to remove that association with criminal activity until you have clean coins,” he said.　　Dr

2021-08-13Deep Dive