Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Bitcoin Adoption: European Outlook

In a study conducted by Chainalysis, Eastern Europe leads the charge among European Union countries in terms of Bitcoin adoption　　 Between July 2019 and June 2020, Eastern Europe accounted for 12% of global cryptocurrency activity　　 Ukraine and Russia ranked first and second in crypto adoption in Europe　　 Regardless of differing crypto regulations in individual countries, the European Commission and European Central Bank have joined forces to create a digital Euro　　The European Union contributes about 22% of all economic activity and 15% of the GDP of the globe, making it a key region for economic activity; naturally, this includes Bitcoin. As the price and popularity of Bitcoin rises, so has the adoption of the crypto. Understanding the impact this has on the economic powerhouse that is the European market, is essential.　　 European Countries Ranked in Bitcoin Adoption　　According to data from Chainalysis, Ukraine and Russia rank first and second in Bitcoin adoption in Europe; Eastern Europe leads the region in Bitcoin adoption.　　The data notes that between July 2019 and June 2020, Eastern Europe accounted for 12% of global cryptocurrency activity. Although the study was not limited to Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency accounts for a majority of all transactions.　　During the 12 month

2021-04-20Deep Dive

How SushiSwap’s New Products Could Propel It To The DeFi Top

The DeFi sector saw a sharp drooped in its Total Value Locked, according to DeFi Pulse data. At the time of writing, the metric is recovering quickly and stands at $54.93B. Sitting at the number six spot on the top 10 DeFi protocols by TVL with $3.88B, SushiSwap could be on the verge of taking a leading position.　　Source: DeFi Pulse　　Uniswaps v3 deployment is around the corner, but its competitor remains in the innovative race. Since January 2021, SushiSwap has been taking over the total Weekly DEX Volume, as research firm Messari reported.　　Presently, SushiSwap generates around 15% of the weekly DEX volume. In comparison, Uniswap is responsible for around 11% of the same metric, as shown in the chart below.　　Source: Messari　　How SushiSwaps BentoBox and Kashi operate　　Recently, SushiSwap released a new “aggressive strategy”. Its objective, to grow beyond its current use case as an automated market maker. The strategy revolts around BentoBox and Kashi Lending.　　The first product is a single vault that contains the assets deposited by users and makes them available for DApps “builts off of the vault”, as Messari stated. In contrast with similar products, BentoBox is more efficient when transferring the token, more efficient in terms of gas fees

2021-04-20Deep Dive

Democratizing trading: After GameStop, does more need to be done?

Democratizing finance has been a dominant theme in recent years — with companies vying to create a level playing field and give amateur investors the same opportunities that hedge funds and institutional investors enjoy.　　There have been some successes along the way. Purchasing stocks is a lot easier now than it was a few years ago. The internet has helped to demystify the equities markets… enabling anyone to train themselves in technical analysis and access the latest intelligence. The costs associated with gaining exposure to shares have also tumbled.　　One of the companies that fired the starting gun on this journey was Robinhood — named after the storied figure in English folklore who stole from the rich to give to the poor. The platform was built on the belief everyone should have access to financial markets, making investing “friendly, approachable and understandable for newcomers and experts alike.”　　It was an enticing message — and one that encouraged people to sign up in their masses. But this vision was dealt a massive blow as a result of the GameStop short squeeze, which was spearheaded by the Reddit forum r/Wallstreetbets. A band of retail investors was taking on short-selling hedge funds — driving the stock

2021-04-19Deep Dive

Who Are the Fastest Growing Developer Communities in Crypto?

According to cryptocurrency metrics tracker CoinMarketCap, there are more than 9,000 digital currencies currently traded and available on exchanges across the world. The relative merit of most of these projects is determined in part, by their market value. The higher the market capitalization, the more valuable the project is perceived to be.　　But relying on such a one-dimensional metric can overlook networks that have active and vibrant developer communities in favour of those with better marketing budgets. The story of OneCoin, the giant pyramid scheme that sucked in more than $6 billion worth of investment has become a cautionary tale of what happens when a project is built on hype alone.　　There are more than 8,000 monthly active developers working on various cryptocurrency projects, according to the Developer Report, produced by Electric Capital, a venture firm, with some 80% of those developers starting in the last two years.　　The current leader in terms of people actively contributing to the development of a network is Ethereum, with approximately 2,300 average monthly developers - those who were active on a monthly basis, according to the Developer Report. The number actively working on Ethereum has grown by 215% in 3 years. But there are a number

2021-04-19Deep Dive

Why new SEC chief Gary Gensler may be Biden’s gift to crypto industry

In what has been a turbulent few months for digital currencies, Joe Bidens inauguration as the 46th president of the United States has brought a potentially valuable gift to the wider blockchain industry. The confirmation of the former chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Gary Gensler to head up the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is a significant step towards challenging the argument against governmental blockchain regulations, thanks to his extensive knowledge of the industry.　　While the blockchain industry is maturing at an unprecedented rate, there is still plenty of skepticism from regulators around the world. The untenable and short-sighted regulations on blockchain proposed by the previous U.S. administration wont disappear overnight, and education, demonstration and perseverance will be the trifecta that will result in governments finally embracing a decentralized financial system.　　Why blockchain matters　　The main goal of the decentralized finance industry is to bring more opportunities to the unbanked and provide equality of access and transparency to all market participants. The benefits of this technology are limitless; opening up more opportunities for people who cant access traditional finance, as well as revolutionizing existing methods of organizing people and resources around a purpose, such as peer-to-peer networking and facilitating business transactions

2021-04-19Deep Dive

7 Lessons From Coinbase's Public Listing

In a decade of covering crypto, we cant recall a week like that one. Coinbase (COIN) hit the public markets on Wednesday and triggered wall-to-wall media coverage, including flattering feature stories in outlets that usually treat Bitcoin like a dirty word, and hot takes a-plenty on business TV and social media.　　The debut price of $381 shredded the Nasdaq-selected reference price of $250. Shares shot as high as $430, letting Coinbase enjoy a brief moment as a “centacorn” worth more than $100 billion. Then the bears crashed the party, sending shares down to $328 to close its first day, a 14% dip. The stock ended the week at $342.　　The opening day initial pop and subsequent pullback has been the standard recipe for a parade of recent tech unicorn listings. But given the absurdly high expectations for Coinbase, the company‘s debut went extremely well, even if it couldn’t hold on to that $100 billion valuation for more than a few minutes on Wednesday. It will likely reclaim that mark soon, based on a wave of analyst buy recommendations that predict the stock will eclipse $500.　　Lets look past the flurry of stonk-go-up, stonk-go-down coverage. What were the big-picture lessons of the listing？　　1.Coinbase proved

2021-04-19Deep Dive

Gaming Giant WeMade Wants to Buy Bithumb

Another South Korean gaming giant has been linked with a possible deal to take over Bithumb, one of the countrys biggest crypto exchanges.　　Per a report from Chosun, WeMade, the firm behind the Legend of Mir series, is the latest to express an interest in buying a stake in the crypto trading platform, whose biggest shareholder put his shares up for sale last year, as confirmed to Cryptonews.com by the brokerage Samjong KPMG.　　Chosun reported that interest from the rival gamemaker Nexons holding company NXC had become “sluggish,” as had interest from the internet heavyweight Naver and global crypto exchange leader Binance, but that WeMade had “emerged as a dark horse” in the race to buy Bithumb.　　The media outlet quoted an unnamed investment banking insider as stating that “foreign financial companies that have tried to take over have since withdrawn from the negotiation table.”　　The newspaper claimed its sources had confirmed WeMade was exploring a range of options, which could involve a purchase of main shareholder Lee Jung-hoons stake (between 60% and 70%) in addition to a minority stake of around 10%-12% owned by the video hardware retailer Vidente.　　Lee is thought to be holding out for a bid of USD 628m, although interested

2021-04-19Deep Dive

Did a massive Chinese power outage cause Bitcoin’s crash down to $50K?

Woo noted reports identifying the blackouts were published late last week, with the power outages occurring to facilitate safety inspections in response to a recent flooding accident at a local coal mine that saw 21 miners temporarily trapped underground after power and communications went down.　　According to the Cambridge Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index, or BECI, Xinjiang represents nearly one-quarter of the global hash rate.　　The analyst notes yesterday saw the largest daily drop in total Bitcoin network hash rate since November 2017, with hash rate plummeting from 172 million terahashes per second, or TH/s, to less roughly 154 million TH/s, according to Ycharts.　　Popular crypto market analyst, Willy Woo, has attributed the violent April 18 cryptocurrency crash to a sudden drop in hash rate resulting from a power outage in the Chinese region of Xinjiang.　　Bitcoin hash rate: Ycharts　　Woo points to 9,000 BTC that was transferred to Binance on April 16, speculating the funds were likely sent by a “whale with closer knowledge to happenings in China.”　　Coupled with heavy selling in the quarterly futures markets, the downward momentum drove $4.9 billion worth of Bitcoin liquidations and a further $4.4 billion in margin calls in the altcoin markets — with a record 1 million accounts

2021-04-19Deep Dive

The Smart Way to Triple Your Bitcoin

Unless you‘ve been living under a rock, you’ll know that Bitcoin has grown at an unbelievable rate over the last year. It recently hit a new peak of over 64,000 USD for a single BTC, rising by 63%, in the first quarter of 2021 alone.　　Undoubtedly, one of the main causes of this incredible bull run is that the pandemic has weakened traditional currencies and driven many to look at alternatives to help see them through the storm. This has resulted in crypto investment by global financial institutions and major corporations. In turn, the increased adoption has led to a growth in the legitimacy and popularity of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general, a development that is likely to be with us for the long term.　　If you already own Bitcoin, you want to ensure that you don‘t lose all your money if the price crashes again, and you also want to put your profits to work on your behalf, so they aren’t just sitting idle. The safest and most profitable way to achieve this is with crypto arbitrage.　　What Makes Crypto Arbitrage such a Smart Strategy？　　There are a number of factors that make crypto arbitrage an attractive investment strategy. Lets take a closer

2021-04-19Deep Dive

How Euler.Tools Could Bridge The Gap To Full-Scale Blockchain Adoption

Bitcoin is suddenly all over mainstream media, whetting the appetite of risk-taking investors interested in entering positions in cryptocurrencies. However, what they dont understand is all the benefits that this emerging asset class and the underlying blockchain technology have to offer.　　Negative perceptions about cryptocurrencys use for crime continue to get in the way of widespread acceptance. And even if that barrier is broken, learning about the technology and even using it can be challenging or confusing at first.　　However, Euler.Tools, the world‘s first real-time block explorer platform that intends to disrupt the crypto trading industry using interconnected data, could finally make learning crypto and blockchain easy. Here’s how Euler.Tools is helping traders see and understand blockchain technology and market events all from one single platform.　　The Early Mathematical Origins Behind Euler.Tools　　The story of how Euler.Tools first began was a struggle. Founder Jorge de los Santos got into crypto trading after finding success in other markets, only to get totally liquidated. His fascination with where the money went from there fueled his passion for learning more about cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.　　The more he searched for concrete sources of information, Santos realized that the industry still faced many challenges. As Santos first began his

2021-04-19Deep Dive

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