Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

DeFi Deep Dive: Binance Chain Darling PancakeSwap

The number of automated market makers (AMM) and food-related yield farms has exploded in the past six months or so propelling the total value locked (TVL) across all platforms to a record $57 billion.　　Following the major successes that decentralized exchange (DEX) Uniswap had in 2020, mirrored by its clone SushiSwap, it was only a matter of time before a DEX cloned them again and emerged on a rival chain.　　Ethereum (ETH) has been struggling under the weight of its own success, which has driven up transaction fees to unsustainable proportions. This has made smaller DeFi operations, such as token swaps, totally unviable for those without very deep pockets.　　The food-themed PancakeSwap (CAKE) AMM and liquidity farm promised a solution to the gas crisis by launching on a faster blockchain, namely Binance Smart Chain (BSC).　　Around six months after its debut, the DEX had attracted over $4 billion in liquidity.　　A very brief history　　PancakeSwap is a relatively new platform, so it does not have much to speak of in the way of history. It was launched in mid-September 2020 on BSC as a clone of SushiSwap but offering swaps for BEP-20 tokens instead of the ERC-20 standard.　　As with most platforms launched with a lot of

2021-03-22Deep Dive

The Best Crypto Lending Platforms to Consider in 2021

The crypto world has created an alternative for the financial world, giving users an alternative digital option to pay for goods and services. Although the industry is still shuffling, new technologies prove to be actual threats to the current financial world. For instance, to replace the contemporary financial world, the crypto ecosystem instituted lending and borrowing platforms for crypto assets just as done in the banking sector. These platforms have some of the best features that make them tower over the fiat banks, and with more pace, they will soon replace the banking world. But what are some of the best lending platforms in the crypto world, and what do they offer？ Here is a list of the five best crypto lending platforms to watch in the year 2021.　　BlockFi　　Primarily, BlockFi is a crypto exchange platform guaranteeing users an average interest rate of about 8.6% annually on every crypto asset they deposit therein. This platform currently offers loans for collateralizing crypto assets in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, GUSD, and USDC. Instead of selling these assets when having emergencies, the users can lock their value in the BlockFi ecosystem and get a loan in the name of those crypto assets.　　The platform doesnt require

2021-03-22Deep Dive

How the CFTC fine on Coinbase could affect future crypto company listing

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has imposed a $6.5 million fine on Coinbase. The regulator is accusing the Exchange of false or misleading reporting and wash trading, per an official statement.　　Between 2015 and 2018, according to the CFTC order, a former Coinbase employee engaged in the referenced misconduct on the GDAX platform. The exchange has received an order to cease “further violations”. According to the official release:　　“Coinbase recklessly delivered false, misleading, or inaccurate reports concerning transactions in digital assets, including Bitcoin, on the GDAX electronic trading platform it operated.”　　The exchange allegedly operated two “automated trading programs” called Hedger and Replicator. These bots generated trade orders that “matched with one another”. The exchange did not report to the CFTC that it operated multiple accounts, according to the order.　　“Coinbase was trading on GDAX, but failed to disclose that Coinbase was operating more than one trading program and trading through multiple accounts. In addition, the order finds that while Hedger and Replicator had independent purposes, in practice the programs matched orders with one another in certain trading pairs, resulting in trades between accounts owned by Coinbase.”　　The information generated by the trade between the bots was included on Coinbases website. Then, entities such

2021-03-22Deep Dive

Coinbase Settles With CFTC for $6.5M Over Old Trading Practices

Coinbase will pay a $6.5 million fine to settle allegations it self-traded cryptocurrencies between 2015 and 2018.　　Crypto exchange Coinbase will pay $6.5 million in a settlement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) over allegations the exchange “self-traded” digital assets.　　According to a consent order published by the commodities regulator Friday, Coinbase self-traded a small amount of cryptocurrency between 2015 and 2018 through two of its automated trading programs. A now-former employee of the exchange also allegedly wash traded some amount of litecoin (LTC, -0.07%) around that time period as well.　　One of these programs was designed to project how much of any given cryptocurrency Coinbase was expected to sell on its retail brokerage app. The system would then purchase the suggested amount of cryptocurrency through its professional trading division (GDAX, now known as Coinbase Pro) and hold it in the exchanges treasury.　　Self-trading is when “the same entity takes both sides of the trade,” a report by the U.S. Treasury Department and several financial regulators said in 2014. This type of market activity could be likened to wash trading, where an entity might pump the volume of an asset to make it appear as if more activity was occurring than in reality.　　Importantly,

2021-03-20Deep Dive

Facebook Digital Currency Project Cofounder Departs

Kevin Weil was one of the original creators of the “Facebook coin,” a project announced with fanfare in 2019 that has been mired in uncertainty.　　Kevin Weil, a Facebook executive and a leader of Diem, the companys digital currency initiative, announced on Thursday he is leaving in order to join a satellite firm.　　The news appears to be another setback for Facebooks crypto ambitious, which the company unveiled with considerable fanfare in June of 2019 but have since stalled amid regulatory headwinds.　　Weil, a veteran of Twitter, made his name at Facebook by helping to grow Instagram, and then became one of the co-founders of the digital currency project that was initially known as Libra. He announced his departure on Twitter, noting, “I still deeply believe in that mission.”　　The departure of Weil, who is joining a firm called Planet Labs, follows the exit of other prominent executives who had worked on Facebooks digital currency project.　　When Facebook first announced Libra, its stated goal was to create a new global decentralized currency alongside a federation of other companies, including payment giants Visa and PayPal. But those companies, as well as others like Stripe and Mastercard, soon quit the federation as the Libra project drew negative

2021-03-19Deep Dive

The LAO Unveils Institutional Neptune DAO to Foster DeFi Liquidity

The LAO (Limited Liability Autonomous Organization) is OpenLaws for-profit DAO. Announced in September 2019, the LAO is used to fund Ethereum startups and DeFi protocols.　　Its been working on over 40 projects. It develops regulatory and legally compliant DAOs acting as a bridge between traditional legal regimes and the Ethereum world.　　Neptune DAO acts as an extension of the LAO by leveraging the knowledge, expertise, and backgrounds of its members. This is to ensure DeFi protocols get the support they need, the announcement added.　　The Accredited Neptune Collective　　The new Neptune DAO will identify and provide opportunities for liquidity pools and liquidity providers. Members of Neptune can pool their capital and identify which projects to support and what investment strategies to engage in.　　Members will be able to propose and vote on any strategies through the DAOs governance protocols. If approved, the strategy will be executed by Sam Cassatt, former CSO of ConsenSys, and his newly formed Aligned Capital.　　Membership to the institutional-grade Neptune DAO enables members to vet and identify emerging opportunities in the DeFi space. Beyond that, they can mutualize gas costs, and save time when it comes to staking, claiming, and re-staking assets.　　Neptune DAO will launch publicly on April 2 and will stay

2021-03-19Deep Dive

WBTC: Where Bitcoin Meets DeFi

As bitcoin (BTC) keeps reaching its new all-time highs, all eyes are on the worlds leading cryptocurrency as it dominated news cycles and attracted newcomers to the digital asset industry. The price action of the heavily followed asset is driving attention and investment into Ethereum (ETH)-based protocols such as Uniswap (UNI) and Aave (AAVE) with the total value locked (TVL) in decentalized finance (DeFi) rising by over USD 20bn since January 2021.　　At the turn of 2018-2019, the height of the most recent bear market, few knew about decentralized finance as an industry, yet just a year on, neologisms such as yield farming and liquidity mining have seen an influx in attention and investment with popular yield farming platform Harvest Finance having over USD 600m in TVL.　　Wrapped Bitcoin, or WBTC for short, is the first ERC-20 token with the same 1:1 ratio to bitcoin, and it was launched in 2019.　　The concept of WBTC emerged in a bid to improve bitcoins functionality and usability by delivering the power of bitcoin with the flexibility of an ERC-20 token, allowing those with bitcoin to take part in major DeFi protocols, many of which are based on Ethereum.　　As Bitcoin and the Ethereum blockchains are not

2021-03-19Deep Dive

Fireblocks a Hot Investment With $133 Million Series C

Blockchain infrastructure isnt sexy.　　But who needs sexy when you can haul in $133 million？　　Fireblocks, which provides digital asset custody, transfer, and settlement infrastructure for clients such as banks and exchanges, closed a $133 million Series C round led by investment firms Coatue, Ribbit, and Stripes.　　The round also came with strategic investments from major clients SVB Capital and BNY Mellon—one of the largest investment banks in the world with $2 trillion assets under management—as well as financing from crypto investing mainstays such as Fred Ehrsams Paradigm and Mike Novogratzs Galaxy Digital.　　A Series C is a fundraising round for successful companies that need to scale up quickly. That pretty much describes the situation at Fireblocks, which raised $30 million in a November 2020 Series B. For the last three quarters, Fireblocks has nearly doubled its customer projections.　　“Like they say, Good problems to have. Those are still problems,” CEO and co-founder Michael Shaulov told Decrypt in an interview. “At the end of the day, we are the critical infrastructure for clients, and if the system doesnt work or they cannot basically use the system, they cannot do transactions.”　　The first order of business with the capital infusion, then, is to double the size of

2021-03-19Deep Dive

Bitcoin is Too Volatile, Impractical, and Fails as a Store of Value: Bank of America

While Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan have taken a more pro-BTC approach, another giant US financial institution, Bank of America, has issued a report bashing the asset. In it, researchers called bitcoin impractical, exceptionally volatile, and questioned its store of value status.　　BoA Slams Bitcoin　　Cited by the Financial Times, the Bank of Americas report on bitcoin took a stab at several attributes, including its highly volatile nature. The researchers claimed that this “exceptional volatility” makes the cryptocurrency “impractical as a store of wealth or payments mechanism.”　　Furthermore, they asserted that speculators purchasing portions of the asset are the only reason behind its bull run that drove it from $10,000 to $60,000 in the span of several months. However, they believe that other asset classes have outperformed BTC in terms of a store of value capabilities.　　Broadly, we find that bitcoin has not been particularly compelling as an inflation hedge as commodities and even equities provide better correlation to inflation.　　As such, we think the main portfolio argument for holding bitcoin is not diversification, declining volatility, or inflation protection, but rather sheer price appreciation, a factor that depends exclusively on bitcoin demand outpacing supply on a forward basis.　　BoA‘s researchers also touched upon BTC’s environmental impact. They

2021-03-19Deep Dive

What is BitClout? The Latest Crypto Hype – Is It Safe?

Every now and then, the cryptocurrency community is taken ablaze by a new project that does the rounds.　　Now, it seems that Bitclout is where all the rage is – a new type of social network, the intention of which is to enable users to speculate on people and posts with real money.　　Lets have a closer look at what Bitclout is and why it is so popular right now.　　What is the Bitclout Network？　　Bitclout is a new decentralized protocol that brings forwards a social network, enabling users to speculate on people and posts using real money.　　According to the project‘s official whitepaper, it’s set up on its own custom blockchain and boasts a similar architecture to Bitcoin. However, it can only support data like posts, follows profiles, and other speculation features.　　Without providing any further information about the technology behind the product itself, the whitepaper goes on to explain everything about its native cryptocurrency – BitClout, and the things users can do with it.　　Yet, it mentions that “just like Bitcoin, anyone on the internet can run a BitClout ”node“ that serves the BitClout content, and every node on the network stores a full copy of all the data.”　　The BitClout Cryptocurrency　　BitClout can be bought for

2021-03-19Deep Dive

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