Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Central Banks of China, UAE Join Blockchain-Based CBDC Payments Project

The project will explore the capabilities of a DLT-based central bank digital currency in regional payments.　　The Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Bank of Thailand have announced the central banks of China and the United Arab Emirates are joining a project looking to use blockchain tech for regional payments.　　The “Multiple Central Bank Digital Currency Bridge” (m-CBDC) project will explore the capabilities of distributed ledger technology (DLT) through the development of a proof-of-concept (PoC) prototype, according to a joint statement Tuesday.　　Specifically, the central banks will explore the possibilities of DLT and CBDCs in facilitating cross-border, multi-currency, real-time payments.　　Hong Kong and Thailand previously collaborated on Project-Inthanon-Lionrock in Q4 2019 which developed a DLT-based prototype allowed participating banks to conduct payments on a peer-to-peer basis, removing clearing and settlement pain points.　　Under its new name, the m-CBDC Bridge will expand across more central banks, which will evaluate its feasibility on a pan-Asian and eventually wider basis.

2021-02-24Deep Dive

Bit Digital Expands Its North American Hosted Mining Partnerships

The company plans to expand U.S. mining with Compute North, Core Scientific and others, per a release.　　Nasdaq-listed bitcoin mining company Bit Digital (BTBT) announced plans to expand its North American-hosted mining presence through its partnership with Compute North, Core Scientific and Link Global Technologies.　　To date, the company hosts 2,100 machines with Compute North. The updated partnership will see Bit Digital move an additional 3,000 S17+ machines during Q2, per a press release.　　Interim CEO Erke Huang said partnerships with Compute North and others will allow his company to “quickly expand U.S. based bitcoin production.”　　While it plans to expand in the U.S., Bit Digital is currently facing class-action lawsuits based on allegations of fraud misrepresenting its Asia-based mining capacity. Those allegations first surfaced in a report by J Capital in late January.　　The company has also undergone some senior-level leadership changes after removing its former CEO Min Hu and accepting the resignation of board Chairwoman Ping Liu, per CoinDesks prior reporting.　　Shares of the mining company have dropped over 45% to around $16.16 at last check, per TradingView data.

2021-02-24Deep Dive

Bitcoin Mining Firm Northern Data Plans US Listing to Raise $500M

The Germany-based firm owns the worlds largest cryptocurrency mining facility in Rockdale, Texas.　　Bitcoin mining firm Northern Data is said to be planning to list in the U.S. in order to raise up to $500 million.　　Northern Data is in talks with Credit Suisse over the listing, which could take place later this year, according to a Bloomberg report on Tuesday citing people familiar with the matter.　　The Frankfurt-headquartered firm owns, among others, the worlds largest cryptocurrency mining facility in Rockdale, Texas, which has a planned capacity of 1 gigawatt by the end of 2021.　　Northern Data is already listed on Deutsche Börses Xetra trading venue under the ticker NB2.　　Shareholders include Cryptology Asset Group, the investment company backed by Mike Novogratz and Block.One.

2021-02-24Deep Dive

Air France pilots blockchain-based COVID-19 travel system

With travel and tourism being one of the industries hardest-hit by the coronavirus-pandemic-induced lockdowns, several stakeholders are increasingly prioritizing digital and contactless solutions.　　In this vein, Air France has partnered with MedAire, SGS, International SOS and the International Chamber of Commerce to test a blockchain-based COVID-19 travel system.　　Beginning March 11, Air France will begin the pilot test of the ICC AOKpass system developed by MedAire and the International SOS. The ICC AOKpass is an app that travelers can install on their smartphones that contains a secure record of their COVID-19 test results from approved labs.　　With the app, travelers need not present a paper test result, as the ICC AOKpass will serve as a secure form of verification of the users COVID-19 negative status.　　According to an announcement on Tuesday, the test will run for four weeks and will cover only the Paris CDG-Pointe-à-Pitre and Paris CDG-Fort-de-France route.　　The press statement also reveals that the use of the app will be voluntary for passengers flying the route. Air France said it will share details from the test with all other collaborators in the project to aid in further travel-related health digitization efforts.　　Commenting on the need for digital innovation in the travel sector amid the

2021-02-24Deep Dive

Research outlines how DeFi can merge with traditional finance

While public adoption of crypto assets is increasing, global regulations continue to progress and recognize decentralized technologies as a suitable infrastructure for the dematerialization of securities. In Luxembourg, the country that is second in the world in terms of assets under management, the countrys regulator adopted a bill that explicitly recognizes the possibility of using distributed ledger technology for the dematerialization of securities.　　The regulation is moving quickly elsewhere across Europe: Tokenized securities now fall under the same rules and regulations as traditional financial instruments in many other European countries including France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain and the United Kingdom.　　Read the e-book to discover how you can be part of this emerging digital asset industry. Download the full report here.　　Whats next for the industry？ Due to the increase in public adoption and the favorable regulatory environment, demand from the financial industry to access digital networks is on the rise. So far, banks have digitized the retail industry, but not much has evolved in capital markets.　　The digitization of this industry is now possible through the blockchain, an infrastructure now widely recognized by the largest governments globally for financial instruments. Funds and asset managers can now upgrade their distribution channels

2021-02-24Deep Dive

$5.6 billion crypto positions got liquidated over the 24 hours, amid market correction

The crypto market has probably entered a correction phase, as almost all the top-ten cryptocurrencies are declining in value. On Tuesday, the Bitcoin price dropped below $47,000, although the current price is slightly above this level, precisely at $47,937 on Coinmarketcap. The second-largest cryptocurrency, Ether (ETH), was trading below $1,500 at the time of writing. The current correction in the market has resulted in the liquidation of almost $6 billion worth of crypto positions on exchanges.　　Over 650k traders ejected amid overleveraged crypto positions　　More than $5.6 billion crypto positions were liquidated across crypto exchanges over the past 24 hours, according to the market information by ByBt. About 650,175 traders were affected by this development. These traders longed their positions on margin in order to make more profits with every increase in coin price. However, the positions had to be forcefully closed by exchanges as they went below the liquidation price.　　Per ByBt, Huobi Global had the largest single liquidation order in Bitcoin, worth over $20.66 million. However, Binance saw the largest liquidation worth more than $2.5 billion, followed by $1.40 billion HuobiGlobal. The Malta-based cryptocurrency exchange, OKEx, recorded about $745 million worth of crypto positions liquidated over the past 24 hours. Going

2021-02-24Deep Dive

As Bitcoin Tanks, Jeff Bezos Overtakes Elon Musk as World's Richest

With Bitcoin in the midst of a major market correction, billionaire Elon Musk has seen his top spot on the list of worlds richest people revised downward.　　After briefly nabbing the top spot on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index of the worlds richest people in January, the Tesla CEO today was overtaken by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.　　Musk, now worth a mere $183 billion to Bezoss $186 billion, can blame Bitcoin.　　The South Africa-born businessman is the largest stakeholder in the electric car company he runs, controlling an estimated 241 million shares, according to Barrons. Tesla stock prices have been in ludicrous mode since the fall, zooming up from a price of $408 on November 16 to a high of $883 on January 26.　　But then Tesla bought $1.5 billion in Bitcoin. Since the purchase was revealed on February 8, share prices have dropped $863 to $709. That equates to about $36 billion less that Musk personally can count toward his net worth.　　Teslas BTC buy has been a boon for the price of the cryptocurrency, however. On the morning of February 8, the price of BTC was $39,000; in the following two weeks, it ticked all the way up to an all-time high of $58,000.

2021-02-24Deep Dive

Non-fungible token market growth: A pointer to the future of NFTs

In 2020, the non-fungible token market grew by almost 300%, tripling its size in 2019. More than $250 million exchanged hands in transactions involving NFTs. A study by NonFungible.com showed that the Non-Fungible Token (NFTs) market is growing at an alarming rate. According to NonFungible.com, NFTs have what it takes to be a leading digital asset class for the virtual economy. The applications and financial cases of non-fungible tokens make them indispensable in the crypto industry.　　What are Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)？　　What does ‘non-fungible’ mean？ Fungibility is the characteristic of an asset or good, which shows it can be readily interchanged for an asset of the same kind. On the other hand, a non-fungible asset cannot be interchanged; examples include artwork, cars, houses, etc.　　Before discussing the non-fungible token market growth further, let us have a clear understanding of NFTs. Non-fungible tokens are blockchain-linked digital assets that are unique and cannot be interchanged. We can also define non-fungible tokens as crypto tokens used to represent assets. These tokens represent something unique; thus, they are not mutually interchangeable. You can compare non-fungible tokens to represent artworks, collectible sports cards, virtual real estate, and much more. Aside from their unique features, NFTs cannot be copied

2021-02-24Deep Dive

Square Buys Another $170M in Bitcoin

Payments giant Square said Tuesday it had purchased an additional $170 million of bitcoin (BTC), adding to the stash it purchased in October.　　Someone should have looked at the price of BTC before that went to press.　　According to the payment processors press release, the company added 3,318 BTC to its treasury for $170 million. Doing the math, that results in a per bitcoin purchase price of $51,235.70.　　Unfortunately for Square, after setting a record high above $58,000 over this past weekend, bitcoin hit a recent low of $44,964.49 before rebounding to about $48,408.31 at press time.　　When Squares announcement was released, just after 4 p.m. New York time, the price of bitcoin was below $48,000, which means those 3,318 BTC were then worth less than $160 million.　　In disclosing it lost more than $10 million in its latest investment in BTC, the company may inadvertently draw attention to an argument that JPMorgan analysts have made as to why they think many companies won‘t be following in the footsteps of Square and others (Tesla, MicroStrategy) who’ve added BTC to their treasuries, namely the cryptocurrencys volatility.　　The company made the announcement just before the release of its fourth-quarter earnings call that it had added to the 4,709

2021-02-24Deep Dive

POLKADOT VS. POLYGON: UNDERSTANDING TWO PROMINENT SECOND LAYER ETHEREUM BLOCKCHAIN SOLUTIONS

The meteoric rise of decentralized finance across 2020 exposed numerous vulnerabilities with the Ethereum network. While the Ethereum blockchain is one of the most secure and ‘battle-hardened’ infrastructures, high gas costs and scalability issues have led some projects to innovate instead of waiting for the long-desired Ethereum 2.0.　　Second-layer solutions have gained notoriety lately as companies endeavor to reduce gas fees and foster Ethereum scalability by shifting transactions to sidechains.　　Polygon, a recent rebrand of Matic Network, intends to build a “multi-chain system” utilizing solutionslike Optimistic Rollups, xkRollups, and Validium. Some advisors describe Polygons approach as part of a strategy to function as a “Polkadot on Ethereum” and compete against the open-source project founded by the Web3 Foundation.　　A price surge in February 2021 drove Polkadots DOT token to sit as the fourth-largest by total market capitalization, according to CoinMarketCap. The surge began after Polkadot released a para chain rollout map and noted it was in the Rococo testing phase.　　Matic Networks rebrand places Polygon and Polkadot as two of the most prominent Ethereum-based layer-two solutions focused on shifting the Ethereum ecosystem.　　Understanding the history, focus, and structure of both projects is vital for those curious in learning more about the “complex narrative” of Ethereum.　　POLKADOT

2021-02-24Deep Dive

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