Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Did Elon Musk Just Suggest Tesla Is Dumping Its Bitcoin?

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk may have implied on Twitter today that Tesla has sold, or plans to sell, its Bitcoin.　　When Twitter user @CryptoWhale tweeted the hypothetical scenario that “Bitcoiners are going to slap themselves next quarter when they find out Tesla dumped the rest of their#Bitcoin holdings,” Musk replied with a single word: “Indeed.”　　Although it is unclear which part of the tweet Musk is agreeing with (the prediction Tesla dumped its Bitcoin or the comment about how much hate hes getting), or whether hes even agreeing at all, the insinuation that Tesla could dump the 43,200 Bitcoin it bought in February for $1.5 billion immediately depressed the price of Bitcoin by almost $5,000 dollars, down to $44,700.　　Musk, who has spent much of the year publicly supporting Bitcoin, started to trash the coin earlier this week, pointing out the environmental damage caused by fossil-fuel-powered Bitcoin mining operations.　　The rest of todays damage was done when Musk widened his criticism against Bitcoin, lobbing invectives at some of the most prominent Bitcoin maximalists on Crypto Twitter, and tearing arguing with their claims that proof-of-work mining helps decentralize the network.　　“Hey cryptocurrency ”experts“, ever heard of PayPal？ Its possible … maybe … that I

2021-05-17Deep Dive

Elon Musk On Why Dogecoin is Superior to Bitcoin

The Dogecoin saga with Elon Musk is one that continues giving. The market also seems to continually be swayed by the hot takes from the cryptocurrency community, and with Elon Musk responding to critics back to back, giving little to no room for critics to create misconceptions, it becomes easier to see where the Billionaire is coming from.　　What his beliefs are, and what Cryptocurrency he finds promising and worthy of his support in the long term.　　For Elon Musk, Doge has already won the battle.　　There have been questions poking at Musks decision to prioritize DOGE over Bitcoin. Top Bitcoin proponents are surprised by the fact that Musk is willing to dump the most valued cryptocurrency, with a fixed supply, for an altcoin like DOGE. We can see Anthony Pompliano mirroring the sentiments of other Bitcoiners in the trending tweet which reads:　　“The richest guy in the world bought billions of dollars in the best performing asset in the world for the last decade but is now spending time trying to make an internet joke become more technically efficient. Unreal.”　　However, Musk is not swayed by the unending criticism from the Bitcoin community. The unconventional Billionaire has stuck with his decision to build upon

2021-05-17Deep Dive

Research shows 46 million Americans would use crypto for retail purchases

BitPay has released a report that shows crypto is gaining traction among U.S. consumers as a means of making retail payments.　　However, the report also detailed why full-scale mass adoption of crypto for payments is still years away from becoming a reality.　　Interest in cryptocurrency as a payment method on the rise　　Multiple use cases for cryptocurrency exist, including lending and borrowing, store of value, gaming, and tokenization. But to this day, its still generally associated more with payments than anything else.　　Despite big pushes from suitable “payment tokens” such as Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin, cryptocurrencies have yet to impact the world of retail payments significantly.　　Several factors hinder the adoption of cryptocurrency in this regard. Problems such as transaction speed and cost, volatility, liquidity and convertibility, security, and counter-party risk.　　To make the experience as slick as using a Visa debit card, many organizations believe the solution lies in developing appropriate layer 2 infrastructure.　　Layer 2 refers to any secondary or additional framework that runs on top of an existing blockchain. They generally exist to improve speed and scale but operate independently of the main chain.　　With increasingly slick layer 2 solutions, not forgetting the rise in cryptocurrency ownership, interest in using crypto for payments is rising.　　BitPay

2021-05-16Deep Dive

MicroStrategy Buys $15 Million Bitcoin, Rejects Elon Musk’s Bitcoin Criticism

For months, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylors huge acquisitions of Bitcoin have been overshadowed by Elon Musk, the Tesla and CEO of SpaceX who disclosed purchases of billions of dollars in Bitcoin earlier this year.　　But when Musk turned his back on Bitcoin this week, citing environmental concerns, the price crashed. So Saylor seized the opportunity to buy the dip.　　“MicroStrategy has purchased an additional 271 bitcoins for $15.0 million in cash at an average price of ~$55,387 per #bitcoin,” tweeted the CEO of the cloud computing firm yesterday.　　Saylor confirmed that MicroStrategy holds 91,850 Bitcoin, purchased for approximately $2.241 billion at an average of $24,403 per Bitcoin.　　The share price of MicroStrategy fell immediately after the announcement, from $494 to $481 about half an hour later. Shares in the NASDAQ-listed Virginia company closed at $488. Bitcoin didnt really budge and is still worth about $50,000.　　MicroStrategy‘s purchase brings its Bitcoin holdings to 0.437% of Bitcoin’s entire supply. Tesla has disclosed holdings of under half of that: 43,200 Bitcoin, or 0.206%.　　And MicroStrategy is far deeper into Bitcoin than Tesla. MicroStrategy‘s Bitcoin holdings comprise 97% of its market cap of $4.76 billion. Tesla’s Bitcoin exposure amounts to just 0.3% of its $757 billion market cap.　　No surprise, then,

2021-05-14Deep Dive

Coinbase Reports Record Revenue and Says It Will List Dogecoin in 6 Weeks

Coinbase has had a spectacular 2021. The company announced $1.80 billion of revenue, $585 million more than the fourth quarter of 2020, and $191 million more than its results from a year ago.　　Much of these numbers are driven by the growing interest in cryptocurrencies. 56 million users and 6.1 million monthly transactions put the company right on the money radar, primarily since Coinbase benefits from the fees generated by every trade made on its platform.　　The IPO was also good news for Coinbase, which has benefited from increased confidence in its brand. Being fully regulated, Coinbase has become a benchmark for U.S. institutions and investors looking to increase their exposure to cryptocurrencies.　　Coinbase Global, Inc. announced today the release of its first quarter 2021 shareholder letter. The letter, including the companys financial results, can be found on the Investor Relations website at https://t.co/h2LGcznWvK　　— Coinbase News (@CoinbaseNews) May 13, 2021　　Coinbase shares rose 3% in after-hours trading session following the positive results. However, alarm over a possible investigation by the IRS and DOJ into Binance raised nervousness among traders, and the stock fell 6.5%.　　Coinbase is the leading cryptocurrency exchange in the United States. It offers a trading platform, a wallet, a custody service, and

2021-05-14Deep Dive

Cardano DeFi moves closer to reality with $5M deFIRE fundraiser

deFIRE is a Cardano-based smart order routing platform. The firm announced it had successfully raised $5 million ahead of its up-and-coming Initial DEX Offering (IDO) on Thursday, as per a press release shared with CryptoSlate.　　This venture capital funding round included big players from both legacy and crypto-specific firms. Strong interest at this early stage of development bodes well for both deFIRE and Cardano.　　“The new capital injection was led by industry heavyweights such as Morningstar, Cryptodromfund, SwissBorg Ventures, Lotus Capital, MoonWahle, Hype Partners, Axia8 Ventures, Newtribe Capital, GenBlock, Sheesha Finance, IBA, Exnetwork, Nodeseeds, and CoinsGroup.”　　DeFi on Cardano edging closer　　It will be the first fiat on-ramp and swap solution for Cardano native tokens, allowing token holders to swap one Cardano token for another directly.　　The deFIRE platform provides execution services on decentralized exchanges for token swaps, order routing services across DEXs, and intermediary services between wallets and DEXs.　　It distinguishes itself by offering a low latency decentralized order router service and is capable of handling institutional order flow originators and standard demands from retail traders.　　deFIRE is one of the first projects incubated on the OccamRazor launchpad solution. Mark Berger, President of the Occam Association, predicts massive liquidity flows coming for Cardano once Alonzo goes

2021-05-14Deep Dive

‘King of NFTs’ is dominating the crypto rankings — here's why

A blockchain specializing in NFTs says a number of high-profile releases have helped daily active wallet numbers surpass the likes of Ethereum and Flow.　　‘King of NFTs’ is dominating the crypto rankings — heres why SPONSORED　　A decentralized video game and entertainment network dubbed “the king of NFTs” has now surpassed more than three million accounts.　　Worldwide asset eXchange (known as WAX for short) offers an easy-to-use cloud wallet and a convenient way of creating, buying, selling and trading nonfungible tokens.　　Congestion on the Ethereum blockchain has prompted a number of developers to start seeking alternatives — and figures from DApp Radar suggest that, toward the end of March, WAX had more active wallets than Tron, EOS, Ethereum and Flow.　　Alien Worlds, a space exploration game built on WAX, has also cemented its place at the top of the rankings. Data suggests this DApp had 392,000 users in a recent 24-hour period — streets ahead of other games including Upland, R-PLANET and Galaxy Blocks.　　In contrast to NBA Top Shot, which is based on the Flow blockchain, Alien Worlds is firmly part of WAXs infrastructure and community — given how WAX tokens form a crucial part of gameplay.　　 Substantial growth in April　　WAX says the promising metrics

2021-05-14Deep Dive

What’s the Carbon Footprint of Fiat Money?

Critics of Bitcoin like to compare its carbon footprint to a transaction on your Visa card, ignoring the environmental impact of the infrastructure that sustains fiat money and the enormous collateral damage that fiat brings. These secondary effects make fiat money orders of magnitude more energy-destructive than Bitcoin.　　You can appreciate fiat‘s secondary footprint from any street corner on Earth: 80,000 bank branches and 470,000 ATMs in the U.S. alone, along with forests of skyscrapers that dominate every city on the planet. Then the part we don’t see: Finance and insurance are 8.4% of the gross domestic product in the U.S., only slightly behind manufacturing. That means millions taking the subway or driving to the office – or, the pandemic equivalent, firing up an army of laptops and call centers – to sling paper money under fiat‘s harsh fluorescent glow. Visa transactions don’t even come close.　　And that‘s on the good days. Because, when it comes to fiat, there are a lot of bad days. Fiat money has caused a recession every 5.6 years, to be precise, in the U.S. since the Federal Reserve’s founding, by manipulating the pace of money creation that drives the boom-bust cycle. Beyond the human toll, each

2021-05-14Deep Dive

Attrace Attracts $2.5m Investment from Founders of Deribit to Build Decentralized Referral Network

The founders of Panama-based derivatives exchange Deribit have announced a $2.5 million investment in Attrace, a blockchain project set to launch the worlds first referral layer for the tokenized economy. The cross-chain platform will allow anyone marketing or promoting tokenized assets to earn a commission for their efforts, creating a harmonized ecosystem for referrals.　　Since the first rivals to Bitcoin started to emerge, projects have sought to market and promote their tokenized assets to investors. At the same time, the cryptocurrency community has developed into a thriving hive comprising YouTube stars, Twitter influencers, Telegram groups, and more.　　However, there has been no unified method or system for incentivizing referrals until now, and any existing platforms have trust and privacy issues. Promoters and referrers have no way of claiming rewards for their efforts, with payments taking weeks or even months. Token issuers have no way of tracking which referrals are legitimate. End users and buyers often have to install invasive tracking cookies on their browsers if referrals are to be traced in any meaningful sense.　　The First Trustless Referral Layer for the Token Economy　　Attrace is the first project to attempt to solve this problem, using blockchain for blockchain-based assets. It uses a network of

2021-05-14Deep Dive

Orbs Integrate With Chainlink to Secure Its Liquidity Nexus

Orbs, a public blockchain infrastructure designed for businesses looking at trust as a competitive strategy, announced its integration to Chainlink Price Feeds Oracle to secure its Liquidity Nexus.　　Daniel Peled, the founder of Orbs, explained:　　“The Liquidity Nexus is a revolutionary idea for DeFi, creating a platform of risk tranching that divides risks between USD and crypto holders. We wanted to mitigate the vulnerability to oracle attacks, which wreaked havoc on the DeFi ecosystem. We are excited to announce the integration with Chainlink, a proven oracle network, to eliminate this dangerous attack pathway for the Liquidity Nexus.”　　The integration was done to prevent any price manipulation that might occur, causing serious issues for the Liquidity Nexus system. These attacks could create a situation where one side of the pool could be drained due to a sudden or sharp drop or price rise of assets. Historically, these types of attacks have caused tens of millions of dollars within DeFi protocols that rely on single-source oracles. However, by integrating with Chainlink, the protocol will no longer face such attacks.　　Chainlink is the leading oracle provider that has effectively protected against market manipulation by aggregating hundreds of data sources. Notably, Chainlink has countless other CEXs and DEXs

2021-05-14Deep Dive

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