Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Are Huobi-like Exchanges in Top Rank Still Reliable?

Several problems of Huobi have surfaced after Mingxing Xu, the founder of OKEx, was arrested despite its success as one of three famous exchanges in blockchain industry with the other two being Binance and OKEx. As such, are these household names still trustworthy？ The answer can be found herein.　　Huobi isnt effectively regulated in spite of a high rating on WikiBit, and its comment section is rife with exposures of its interrupted networks. Liquidation triggered by this operation hit nearly 330,000 traders at that time, the worth of which reached billions of dollars only within 24 hours.　　Huobi at its early stage boasted reputation, providing satisfying services, smoothing transactions, and keeping assets safe as best as it could. However, since Lin Li disappeared and Jun Du took the exchange over, Huobi has been unscrupulously reaping profits by cutting off networks once a certain market occurs and recovering the access when it falls back so as to conceal what happened. Huobi has commonly performed these unscrupulous operations even if it is a first-class exchange.　　As OKEx is deeply troubled while Huobi has carried out inaccessible networks several times, Binance is the only one that stays aloof at present. Therefore, it can be said that

2021-06-10Deep Dive

China’s Police Arrests Over 1,000 Crypto Traders on Fraud and Money Laundering Charges

Chinese authorities have arrested 1,100 suspects who allegedly used cryptocurrency to launder funds for telecommunications network fraud activities.　　China Continues Crackdown on Crypto　　The Ministry of Public Security on Wednesday (June 9, 2021) announced that authorities cracked down on a group of people believed to be running an illegal criminal gang. According to the announcement, they used crypto for money laundering activities in order to avoid law enforcement agents.　　Meanwhile, the authorities were able to stop the flow of funds and catch the suspects through its card freeze operation. Since January 2020, the Chinese government has carried out drastic measures to combat money laundering and illegal activities in the country, targeting the cryptocurrency and telecommunications industry.　　The actions of the government consequently led to a freeze wave, with banks reportedly freezing cards linked to crypto transactions. As reported by CryptoPotato back in November 2020, this affected over 70% of Chinese bitcoin miners.　　According to the Ministry of Public Security, the latest development is the “fifth round of centralized network collection”, which focuses on people using crypto for money laundering activities. The investigations led to the arrest of 1,100 suspects and the dismantling of 170 criminal gangs.　　China has continued to adopt a negative and hostile stance

2021-06-10Deep Dive

Curve Finance Upgrades Algorithm For Concentrated Liquidity

Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Curve has been tweaking its mathematically complex algorithm to introduce dynamic automated market making.　　In an announcement on June 9, Curve Finance unveiled its latest upgrade which introduces a method for creating liquidity for assets that are not necessarily pegged to each other in a way more efficient than current automated market makers offer.　　The DeFi protocol is combining two popular asset swap models into a hybrid system that builds upon the current mathematical formula (x·y = k) for AMMs.　　The “algorithm for exchanging volatile assets” went live on June 10 according to the latest tweet from Curve which explained:　　“When swapping or depositing: treat it to be similar to typical crypto pools elsewhere, except with smaller slippage on average,”　　Heavy math　　The whitepaper, penned by Curve Finance CEO Michael Egorov, goes into the complex mathematics behind the new algorithm. The upgrade essentially allows low-slippage swaps between volatile pairs of assets or between assets that have constantly fluctuating prices.　　There are two versions, one on Ethereum which contains USDT, wBTC, and wETH, and the Layer 2 Polygon version which has am3Crv (Curves stablecoin pool), wBTC, and wETH, it added.　　Yearn developer “Banteg” described it as “concentrated liquidity which doesnt require manual rebalancing,” adding that

2021-06-10Deep Dive

More Latin American MPs Push for Bitcoin Laws – Including a Gov’t Vice Minister

The ranks of Latin American politicians joining the laser-eyed, bitcoin (BTC) adoption-supporting movement are beginning to swell – and while the majority of the crowd are young, opposition party MPs, the group now boasts at least one government vice minister.　　While the movement began in earnest over the weekend, when the President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele expressed his support for adoption, others in the region have quickly followed suit. Bukele‘s regime has pushed ahead with a landmark bill that will see BTC adopted as the nation’s legal tender – alongside the USD – set to promulgate in 90 days.　　But as previously reported, a small but growing number of MPs in other nations, such as Paraguay, Argentina, Panama, and Brazil, has also come out in favor of implementing similar measures in their own countries. Although some have talked of launching private members bills, most of these realistically stand little chance of success as things stand.　　However, the Ecuadorian Vice Minister of Economic Inclusion Julio Eduardo Clavijo is the exception. Although only a junior minister, Clavijo is exceptional in that he is – unlike most of the others thus far – a member of his nations government and the ruling party. Like others,

2021-06-10Deep Dive

Here’s what would happen to Bitcoin if the government tried to take it over

Fear mounted as the FBI announced that it helped Colonial Pipeline retrieve a portion of its BTC ransom payment, but can the government actually take over Bitcoin and the network？　　On June 7, the United States government task force seized more than $2 million in Bitcoin (BTC) to pay a ransom following an attack on the Colonial Pipeline system. A warrant filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California shows that authorities recovered 63.7 BTC.　　As news of the recovery spread through mainstream media, some outlets suggested that the U.S. government somehow hacked the Bitcoin address in order to extract the funds. For example, University of Michigan professor and New York Times contributor Justin Wolfers tweeted:　　This triggered a discussion on whether an entity could break through SHA-256 encryption, and if so, why waste this ability on unlocking a Bitcoin wallet that only contains $2 million？　　The same type of cryptography is used by the National Security Agency, banks, foreign agencies, cloud storage systems, and most electronic devices like smartphones and communication apps.　　If governments wanted to create short-term havoc in the cryptocurrency market, they would need to make large sales to negatively impact the price. However, there would probably be

2021-06-10Deep Dive

Layer 2 Solutions Stand To Transform The Crypto World

The crypto market has continued to showcase a staggering amount of growth over the course of the last year and half, as is probably best made evident by the fact that the total capitalization of this sector doubled from $1 trillion to $2 trillion over the course of Q1 2021 alone. Not only that, during the aforementioned time window, even the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector has grown tremendously, with the total value locked (TVL) in the space rising from $15 billion to a whopping $67 billion, thereby showcasing a growth of more than 400%.　　That being said, as the DeFi market has continued to expand and thrive recently, a lot of functional issues related to the Ether network — the platform on which a bulk of all DeFi platforms in existence today are built on — have continued to arise, primarily those related to high transaction costs and low data throughput.　　To put things into perspective, all through Q1 2021, gas costs (or transaction fees) on the Ether network continued to remain at all-time high, staying at an average of around $40 during February and recently scaling up to a whopping $70.　　So whats the deal with Layer 1 and Layer 2 solutions

2021-06-10Deep Dive

Square Completes $100M Investment in Underserved Communities

Financial payments company Square, Inc. announced it has allocated the final $25 million of its $100 million investment in minority and underserved communities.　　Of the remaining $25 million, $5 million was distributed to create The Bitcoin Endowment, a new fund working toward increasing Bitcoin education and adoption in historically under-resourced communities across the globe.　　The Bitcoin Endowment Funds first grant is to Black Bitcoin Billionaire, an organization working to onboard the Black community into bitcoin and create education focused on building wealth.　　$10 million also went to the Entrepreneurs of Color Fund, focused on advancing small business diversity, and the final $10 million went to international organizations focused on supporting minority and underserved communities.　　The Entrepreneurs of Color fund is managed by Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) and focused on getting capital into the hands of minority small business owners while also providing support such as coaching, operational guidance, and training.　　“Minority business owners have historically faced higher barriers than white owners in accessing affordable, flexible financing to launch and grow their businesses,” said George Ashton, president of LISC Fund Management, a subsidiary of LISC, one of the nations largest community development financial institutions, in a statement.　　“Squares commitment to the fund directly responds to that

2021-06-10Deep Dive

OKEx Integrates With Polygon, How It Could Reduce Costs For DeFi Adoption

Crypto exchange OKEx has announced an integration with scaling solution Polygon. The platform seeks to provide more access to Ethereum-based dApps. Thus, developers can build, and users can connect to them at a lower cost.　　Ethereum is the number one platform for DeFi dApps. Uniswap, Curve, Aave, and others, operate on its network. The high operational cost has forced some users to look for alternatives. They have found them on Binance Smart Chain, Solana, and others.　　However, DeFi on Ethereum remains popular and the features, security, and decentralization of their dApps along with the fast growth of its ecosystem continue to attract new users. OKEx leverage Polygon to provide its users with a better experience when transferring funds from the exchange platform to Polygons network and into DeFi.　　OKEx CEO Jay Hao highlighted the importance of solutions such as Polygon for users which are “priority” for the platform. Hao added:　　As Layer-2 technology, especially a few big names in the market, matures and becomes a solution to the congestion on Ethereum, we are happy to be one of the first major crypto exchanges to take up this innovation and bring Polygons solution to our users.　　 OKEx At The Forefront Of L2 Scalable Solutions？　　Before the

2021-06-10Deep Dive

Victory Capital Entering Crypto Market Through Nasdaq

Victory Capital announced it will be entering the cryptocurrency market in partnership with Hashdex and Nasdaq.　　Victory Capital will sponsor private placement funds based on the Nasdaq Crypto Index (NCI). The NCI is a multi-coin crypto index co-developed by Nasdaq and Hashdex. The funds will be available to accredited investors.　　Victory Capital will also be offering private funds tracking Nasdaq‘s Bitcoin Reference Price Index, in addition to the Nasdaq’s Ethereum Price Index. Having co-developed the NCI with Nasdaq, Hashdex will also be providing its trading and asset management expertise to each of these products as well.　　 Nasdaq crypto index (NCI)　　Nasdaq and Hashdex developed the NCI to address rapidly growing institutional investor interest in digital assets. They designed the rule-based index to be dynamic in nature and broadly representative of the cryptocurrency market. It uses strict eligibility criteria, while also being rebalanced quarterly in order to maintain an up-to-date representation of this market. Additionally, the NCI debuted in Hashdex‘s native Brazil on April 26 on the country’s B3 exchange.　　Mannik Dhillon of Victory Solutions at Victory Capital Management highlighted some of the benefits the NCI provides for investors. For instance, he noted that it enables them to gain exposure to multiple digital assets in

2021-06-10Deep Dive

Proposed New York Bitcoin mining ban watered down to allow green projects

A proposed crypto mining ban calling for a forced three-year hiatus on all mining operations in New York has been watered down — and will now allow green projects.　　The bill passed in the senate on June 8, and has now been referred to the state assembly. If the bill is passed in the assembly, it will be delivered to Governor Andrew Cuomo to either approve or veto the proposed legislation.　　The initial New York Senate Bill 6486A sought to halt all crypto mining for three years in order to conduct environmental impact reviews on mining operations in the tri-state area.　　However, the bill was amended in the senate to get it over the line, and the revised 6486B-bill is now focused solely on any firm that uses carbon-based fuel sources to power proof-of-work crypto mining.　　There is no longer a specific time frame on the crypto mining ban with the bill preventing the expansion of any carbon-fuel powered mining operations, along with the establishment of any new mining operation using non-renewable energy sources.　　The amended bill also calls for documentation regarding the energy output, carbon footprint, and type of fuel used by all crypto miners.　　Governor Cuomo stated on June 7 that he was not

2021-06-10Deep Dive