Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

The Top 5 Most Promising DeFi Staking Opportunities of 2021

DeFi has become extremely deep-rooted as an established breakthrough to a crippling economy. The opportunities that the present DeFi landscape offers to participants are undeniably profound. The space has, without a doubt, accelerated wealth creation among the masses. And one of the strongest contributing mechanisms that serve as proof that DeFi has completely reformed the financial system is Staking.　　When earlier, people settled for the meager returns as interests on their capital holdings. The advent of DeFi staking now allows users to bank the unbanked quite literally. It is now possible to yield solid returns merely by holding your crypto and without performing any trades or transactions. The prospect must have felt like a technical impossibility a few years ago; it is now one of the most fundamental reasons behind the meteoric rise of DeFi.　　The Top 5 Most Promising Staking Opportunities in 2021　　In recent months, there has been an influx of projects that offer numerous staking opportunities with their own set rewards. However, there are specific DeFi protocols that stand out the most. These protocols not only represent the highest potential behind Staking in its present form. But allows us a glimpse of a future where Staking becomes a flourishing and

2021-04-23Deep Dive

US House Passes Bill Mandating SEC and CFTC to Establish Working Group Focused on Digital Assets

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a crypto-related bill introduced by pro-bitcoin Congressman Patrick McHenry. It requires the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to establish a working group focused on digital assets.　　Bill to ‘Ensure Collaboration Between Regulators and Private Sector’ on Cryptocurrency　　The U.S. House of Representatives passed several bipartisan bills on Tuesday, including H.R. 1602, introduced by pro-bitcoin Congressman Patrick McHenry, the Republican leader of the House Financial Services Committee.　　H.R. 1602, entitled “Eliminate Barriers to Innovation Act of 2021,” will “establish a digital asset working group to ensure collaboration between regulators and the private sector to foster innovation,” the committee described.　　McHenry explained:　　[This bill] requires the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to establish a working group focused on digital assets. This is the first step in opening up the dialogue between our regulators and market participants and move to needed clarity.　　The bill states that the working group shall be established no later than 90 days after the date of its enactment.　　In addition, the bill requires that the members of the working group include at least one representative from fintech companies that provide digital asset products or services, financial

2021-04-23Deep Dive

Coinbase Pro to List Tether Stablecoin

Coinbase, the most-recognizable cryptocurrency exchange in the US, is adding Tether to its Coinbase Pro platform.　　Its welcome news for Tether, the largest stablecoin by market capitalization, which just recently settled an investigation by the New York Attorney Generals Office regarding potentially illicit loans between it and its sister exchange, Bitfinex.　　The loan saw Bitfinex get access to $900 million in Tethers cash reserves to cover a shortfall when payments processor Crypto Capital made off with around $850 million. That led to questions about whether Tether was fully backed by US tender, as the dollar-pegged stablecoin claimed.　　Tether has since revised its position to assert that, though Tether is pegged to the dollar, it is backed by reserves that “include traditional currency and cash equivalents.” In March, it published an attestation from a Cayman Islands accounting firm stating that it had enough reserves to cover its liabilities as of February 28.　　Todays press release from Coinbase doesnt quite endorse Tethers assertions, but merely references them: “For stablecoins like USDT, the company behind the protocol is responsible for holding reserves that fully back each token. The company behind Tether, Tether Limited, claims to hold reserves that fully back each USDT.”　　The move is something of a

2021-04-23Deep Dive

South Korea to Curb Illegal Cross-Border Crypto Trading

Key Takeaways　　According to a report from Korea Economic Daily, there has been a sudden rise in bank transactions from Korea to China.　　Regulators suspect the transactions may be related to crypto traders looking for cross-border arbitrage opportunities.　　South Koreas leading financial regulator is reportedly formulating new guidelines to strengthen the monitoring of cross-border transactions connected with cryptocurrency.　　South Korea may soon curb overseas cryptocurrency transactions that take advantage of arbitrage trading opportunities.　　The Kimchi Premium　　According to a report from Korea Economic Daily, there has been a sudden rise in transactions between Korea and China.　　The countrys leading banks found fiat transfers of $72.7 million (81.2 billion won) to China between Apr. 1 and Apr. 9. This was an eightfold increase from $9.07 million in total for the whole of March.　　Korean regulators suspect that the sudden spike in transactions is linked to cryptocurrency purchases that were carried out on foreign exchanges, made with the intention of selling the same cryptocurrency on domestic exchanges at a premium.　　Regulators suspect the transactions may be related to crypto traders looking to arbitrage the kimchi premium—the difference in the price of cryptocurrencies on Korean and global exchanges.　　Such price differences occur during extreme optimism among Korean crypto speculators. Since the beginning of

2021-04-23Deep Dive

Square says Bitcoin mining is “key to clean energy future”

Bitcoin mining farms and renewable energy facilities can greatly help each other to create an “abundant, clean energy future,” according to a joint research report published by payments company Square and asset manager Ark Invest yesterday.　　Per the white paper, there are currently several roadblocks standing in the way of solar and wind power facilities development. One of them is the intermittency of their output since both rely on times of day or weather conditions to operate—and those may not always coincide with peak hours of energy consumption.　　Additionally, there is currently around 200 GW worth of “delayed” solar and wind capacity in the so-called interconnection queues in just three of the U.S. energy markets. What this means is that dozens of energy projects have already been approved and have developers and financing readily available, but arent in construction.　　And there is a simple reason for that—the existing electrical grid simply cannot accommodate any more power, especially since wind and solar facilities are usually located in rural areas with less developed infrastructure. This is where Bitcoin mining comes in.　　The “buyer of last resort”　　By “attaching” Bitcoin mining facilities to solar and wind power plants, developers can solve several problems in both industries. For starters,

2021-04-23Deep Dive

Chinese Crypto Miners Face Unstable Regulatory Environment

Tightening regulations have unnerved some crypto miners in China.　　The three largest Chinese bitcoin (BTC, -6.86%) mining hubs are facing serious headwinds from regulators. This could put a big dent in hashrate production, which is the computing power to mine bitcoin. Hashrate from China contributes over 65% of the worlds total, according to some estimates.　　Heavy scrutiny of coal mines in Xinjiang, new regulations on high energy-consuming companies in Inner Mongolia and the end of a local energy policy in Sichuan have unnerved some bitcoin miners in China. The regulatory challenges from these three regions are distinct, but they epitomize some of the biggest long-term policy risks when Chinese crypto miners deal with local authorities.　　With so much hashrate concentrated in China, the volatile regulatory environment for Chinese miners can have significant ripple effects on bitcoins global market. Investor fears of a Chinese crackdown might even trigger dramatic bitcoin price movements.　　“We have always thought that mining is really at the mercy of the regulatory body that it is working with,” Nick Hanson, CEO of Seattle-based crypto mining firm Luxor, said. “ In China, crypto mining is really governed by the provincial governments.”　　A coal mine accident on April 10, which flooded the mine and

2021-04-23Deep Dive

Telegram's First Cryptocurrency Autotrading Channel

An alternative to trade bitcoin and other digital currencies are autotrading platforms such as CryptoWhale. It is one of the first companies crypto market that allows you to connect your Binance Spot and Binance Futures account with Cornix, an automated trading system.　　But should you trade with CryptoWhale？ Find out with this review we have for you, where we will tell you what you need to know about this Telegram channel.　　It is a Telegram channel used for autotrading bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.　　If you are wondering what autotrading is, it is a type of trading where the CryptoWhale trader opens trades in his own Binance Spot or Binance Futures account and these trades are replicated in his users account thanks to a tool called Cornix, which is the one that allows you to connect your Binance accounts with CryptoWhale.　　In this way, your customers do not have to personally open trades if they do not want to, as all the operations are handled by CryptoWhale. This is an advantage for users who do not understand trading or do not have time to trade.　　Users simply connect their Binance Spot and Binance Futures account with CryptoWhale via Cornix from Telegram and start benefiting from the

2021-04-23Deep Dive

BitMEX Confirms Expansion Plans, Focus On Derivatives Remains

Building on its earlier announcement of expansion plans, crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX has unveiled it is broadening its offer with five new business segments: spot, brokerage, custody, information products, and academy. The company will also seek additional licenses in a number of jurisdictions.　　The initiative was announced by Alexander Höptner, Chief Executive Officer of 100x Group, the holding behind the platform, who said in the statement that when he “joined BitMEX this year, I was tasked with a very specific mission - lead our transformation beyond derivatives to something bigger.”　　Höptner, who took over the position last January, coming from German legacy finance institutions including Stuttgart stock exchange Börse Stuttgart, has been planning to “expand that product universe to more plain vanilla products to increase the customer base, and bring new customers”.　　In his latest message, Höptner said the company has “experienced incredible success throughout our short history. But the crypto landscape has evolved rapidly in the last few years, and its time for BitMEX to make a strategic shift,”　　In line with its latest move, to enable spot trading, “BitMEX will launch full-service spot capabilities globally to provide users with a way to buy and sell crypto assets.” Derivatives are to remain the

2021-04-23Deep Dive

CoinDesk Research: Does Bitcoin Have an Energy Problem?

Bitcoin does consume a lot of energy, but it also incentivizes renewable energy through improving economics and distribution.　　Below is the introduction to the latest report by CoinDesk Research associate George Kaloudis, which unpacks some of the myths, acknowledges some of the realities and looks ahead to the evolving energy mix, bitcoin‘s role in improving renewables distribution and how policy can help further bitcoin’s relationship with the energy industry going forward.　　Bitcoin (BTC) experienced a retail-driven meteoric price rise in late-2017, breaching $19,000 in December 2017 and a subsequently rapid price fall to ~$6,000 in February 2018. Professional investors took notice then, but few considered bitcoin a viable avenue to responsibly grow capital while properly managing risk. Three Februarys later, bitcoin topped $1 trillion in total market value and financial institutions are now serious about cryptocurrency. Bitcoin is no longer widely characterized as an inappropriate institutional investment.　　While institutional bitcoin investment merits may overlap with retail bitcoin investment merits (for more on this, see our report on bitcoin‘s value proposition), institutions face different types of pressures. Institutions face performance pressure from investors, policy pressure from regulators and reputation pressure from the public. A common concern from these stakeholders is bitcoin’s undeniable relationship with

2021-04-23Deep Dive

A Gift To Mankind: CryptoG launches global wealth distribution project

CryptoG has launched a global wealth distribution project aimed at restoring financial power back to the people.　　Its official token, CTG, is a digital currency used within its community as a worldwide cross-border anonymous payment system in exchange for goods and services, 100% backed and redeemable for gold.　　“With our secure private gold vault located in South East Asia (one of the largest privately-owned gold mining reserve), anyone around the world may use CTG as a form of payment or as a medium of exchange to trade for goods and services,” a representative of the group said in a statement.　　CryptoG said CTG is what a currency should be. It is backed and redeemable for pure physical gold, free from any inflation factor since there are only 30,000 units of CTG issued and locked forever, fully anonymous without complicated Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures and verification, and no middleman as transactions are done directly between sender and receiver, among other things.　　“CTG can also be swapped with other assets including crypto, stocks about less than 0.1% per transaction, no limitation to the amount transacted whether it is a dollar ($1) or a hundred billion dollars ($100,000,000,000),” the representative added.　　CryptoG said it seeks to be

2021-04-23Deep Dive

...

639641

...

742