Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Yearn Finance Mints YFI Tokens Worth $200 Million

Yearn Finance has passed a proposal to increase the maximum supply of its YFI token, according to the projects governance pages.　　Yearn Finance Breaks Its Supply Cap　　Yearn Finances proposal to increase the maximum supply of YFI by 22% and mint 6,666 YFI has passed successfully. The vote attracted roughly 1,670 YFI in favor and 331 YFI against.　　The authors of the proposal chose to increase the cap by 22% as it was the minimum viable amount to meet the projects needs. Funds in the Yearn Treasury can be used to incentivize new contributors, fund liquidity mining and staking rewards, acquire talent, and provide new cross-protocol incentives.　　Now that the proposal has passed successfully, the 6,666 YFI tokens should be minted in 3 days.　　Allocation of Funds　　Of the newly created funds, 2,222 YFI ($69.32 million) will be given to leading contributors. There will be a vesting period on these tokens.　　Those funds will be allocated and distributed through a multi-signaturesetup, which will be coordinated by the members of a new Compensation Working Group.　　Another 4,444 YFI, amounting to $138.64 million, will be given to the Yearn Treasury. The operations fund will hold these tokens. These tokens cannot be used to vote on governance proposals.　　In Dec, 2020, Yearn

2021-02-03Deep Dive

Bitwise To Launch Bitcoin Shares on U.S. Brokerages

Bitwise Asset Management has initiated the process for listing shares of its Bitcoin Fund on OTCQX, the largest OTC market in the U.S.　　Bitwise Lists Bitcoin Investment Instrument　　American digital asset management firm Bitwise has formalized intent to begin trading shares of its Bitcoin Fund on the U.S. retail market. The trust fund has been in operation since December 2018. Until now, the investment was issued and redeemed at Bitwise only.　　A listing on the top U.S. OTC market would potentially allow the asset to be traded on brokerages like Fidelity, Schwab, E*Trade, and TD Ameritrade. OTCQX is maintained by OTC Markets Group Inc., which is the operator of the largest OTC markets in the U.S. The group trades over 11,000 different securities.　　Bitwise President Teddy Fusaro noted in a press release that the firm has been managing the fund since 2018, “offering investors a cost-effective, convenient, and secure means of gaining investment exposure to bitcoin.” The firm is “excited to potentially see shares of the fund quoted on OTCQX,” he concludes.　　Bitwises Other Offerings　　Recently, Bitwise launched its Bitwise 10 Crypto Index on the OTC platform. The product quickly became one of the most active stocks on the U.S. OTC market.　　The total assets under management

2021-02-03Deep Dive

Algorand (ALGO) is now bringing music to the booming DeFi industry

Turning to Algorand　　The Algorand blockchain will be utilized on Opulous, an upcoming music service and payments protocol, CryptoSlate learned in a release today.　　Opulous is a peer-to-peer platform to help increase artists access to capital without the need for traditional institutions such as banks. Behind it is Ditto, award-winning global music distribution and record label services company that has processed more than $1 billion in royalties to date.　　“Musicians are often largely overlooked when it comes to traditional banking loans, or the terms are so unfavorable it isnt worth their time,” said Ditto CEO Lee Parsons in a statement. He added, “Using DeFi, Opulous cuts out traditional banking, providing musicians a platform with minimal interest payments.”　　The product claims to be the first-ever decentralized finance (DeFi) offering backed by music as an asset class. As such, Opulous will function as a loan pool wherein artists can borrow from and also contribute. As such, artists looking to borrow money will receive a loan guaranteed against their past streaming revenues with the copyrights they own held as collateral.　　On the other hand, artists, and other investors, will also be able to pay into Opulous‘ ’Music Copyright Pools, earning 10% per annum on any contributions they make.　　How

2021-02-03Deep Dive

Miami mayor says city employees should be able to take their salaries in Bitcoin

Miami wants to overtake Silicon Valley as the most Bitcoin-friendly place in the U.S.　　Miami city employees could soon choose to get their salaries paid in Bitcoin rather than USD. In an interview with Forbes, Mayor Francis Suarez said tangible paths to expand Bitcoins adoption throughout the city included enabling city employee salaries to be paid in BTC.　　Major figures in the cryptocurrency world have responded positively to the idea, with Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey calling it “smart” on Twitter.　　Germini co-founder Tyler Winklevoss stated that the mayor is “leading the way for governments and Bitcoin.”　　Mayor Suarez told Forbes that due to the rise in crypto‘s popularity among citizens, he wants to do everything he can to make Miami a Bitcoin-friendly city. Other proposals include allowing local fees and taxes to be paid in Bitcoin and certain other cryptocurrencies, as well as investing some of the city’s treasury into Bitcoin, following Microstrategys example.　　Although he isnt sure of specific amounts, Suarez explained that the treasury investment would be structured as a public-private partnership, with the private partners receiving some of the rewards for alleviating some of the risks.　　He also revealed that he‘s also considering financing his reelection campaign in Bitcoin. He isn’t

2021-02-03Deep Dive

Bitcoin Traders Facing Prison Time for Failing to Disclose Income in South Africa

South African traders who fail to disclose their income from Bitcoin trades could end up in jail.　　Bitcoin traders are being targeted by the South African Revenue Service (SARS), according to a Feb. 2 report by MyBroadband.　　The agency has included some unambiguous questions about cryptocurrency trades in its new audit requests.　　Taxpayers are required to specify the purpose for purchasing digital assets, as well as relevant trading schedules.　　SARS highlights that failing to report your Bitcoin trades or lying about them is a crime, as noted by Tax Consulting South Africa, “It is no longer material whether the taxpayer concerned had justification for such non-disclosure or false statement made.”　　Those who fail to comply could end up spending up to two years behind bars.　　It is worth noting that even cash that is not withdrawn from cryptocurrency exchanges is also taxable.　　Tracking down tax dodgers is, however, not an easy feat. As reported by U.Today, they usually rely on foreign bank accounts to evade taxes.　　Searching for tax havens　　Back in July 2019, the Internal Revenue Service sent scary warning letters to about 10,000 crypto traders in the U.S. Last September, the IRS added a question about virtual currencies to the top of Form 1040 that is used

2021-02-03Deep Dive

Litecoin’s MimbleWimble privacy upgrade is ready to roll on March 15

The Litecoin MimbleWimble (MW) lead developer, David Burkett, has given a progress update on the project. He mentioned improvements to do with stealth addresses, as well as enhancements to the wallet interface.　　But crucially, Burkett puts a date of March 15 for when he can hand it over to the community for review.　　Litecoin founder Charlie Lee first mentioned the MW upgrade back in early 2019. He argued that MW is needed for Litecoin to become sound money, which was always the use case he was aiming for.　　“Litecoin (LTC) is decentralised money, free from censorship and open to all. Send low cost private, secure, borderless payments to anyone, anytime, anywhere.”　　What is MimbleWimble？　　MimbleWimble is a blockchain design that allows for more privacy and better network scalability. The design differences center on a compact history, making data easier and quicker to process and verify.　　However, what sets MW apart is the encryption of the amounts of inputs and outputs on a block. The block can still be verified and confirmed. But, to an outsider, it looks like one large transaction, as opposed to a combination of several.　　The result is that there are no identifiable or reusable addresses, as individual inputs cannot be linked with their

2021-02-03Deep Dive

First Polkadot ETP To Launch On SIX Exchange

Having added Polkadot to its crypto index, 21Shares announced that they would be launching an exchange-traded product (ETP) for DOT on the Swiss Exchange – SIX.　　This will be the first-ever ETP for the parachain network.　　PDOT ETP Details　　Polkadot was recently added to 21Shares, formerly known as Amun. The product is known as “HODL,” which gives users access to a basket of leading cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. As things stand, Polkadot has a weightage of 26.79% in the basket, second only behind Bitcoin. The PDOT ETP gives users complete exposure to Polkadot alone and is aimed at retail investors. According to 21Shares, this listing came about since they want to be “ahead of the curve” and keep pace with the recent surge in cryptocurrency interest, especially among European investors.　　Hany Rashwan, CEO 21Shares AG, said about the listing:　　“European investors are approaching us to launch new products based on other key crypto assets to enable them easy access without the need of a private key or unregulated wallets and exchanges.”　　What Is Polkadot？　　Founded by Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood, Polkadot is the fourth largest coin globally with a market cap north of $15 billion, as per CoinMarketCap. It is a major blockchain network that supports

2021-02-03Deep Dive

Second-Largest Stablecoin USDC Transitions to the Stellar Blockchain

The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) and Circle have revealed that the US dollar coin (USDC) is live on the Stellar network.　　Circle, the principal financial technology firm behind USDC development, is often cited as a regulatory-friendly organization. In a Tuesday blog post, the SDF explained that users could access the USDC on Stellars decentralized exchange and five Stellar-integrated wallets.　　USDC can be traded with six stablecoin pairs across the whole of Stellars ecosystem of 9,000 assets. As for developers, they can accept payments at scale.　　They can also issue programmable payouts, build marketplaces, and later on, receive a yield on top of their balance through a special free API service provided by Circle.　　Credit Card Giant Accelerated the Launch of USDC　　The SDF and the Centre Consortium announced Stellar as an official chain of USDC in October 2020. This should reportedly lessen the dependence of the stablecoin on the Ethereum blockchain.　　The number of USDC tokens in circulation has doubled since credit card company Visa partnered with Circle to integrate USDC into its payment network of 60 million merchants.　　Notably, over the last year, the market capitalization of USDC has surged over 1,000%. This is a more than a ten-fold rise. Meanwhile, the total number of operations

2021-02-03Deep Dive

Circle’s USDC Stablecoin Market Cap Grows 50% Year to Date

The total market cap of USDC currently in circulation has made a record significant increase since the beginning of 2021.　　Data from market monitor Skew has shown that the market capitalization for USDC has significantly risen by 100%. Results also reflected a steady ascent since the beginning of August 2020.　　However, this steady growth accelerated at the beginning of 2021. This new momentum saw the market cap of USDC rise from over $3 billion to about $6 billion in January alone. However, there may be some inconsistency in the data. According to CoinGecko, USDCs market cap already stood at around $4 billion on Jan 1.　　USDC Shows Strong Growth　　Stablecoins like USDC and DAI have lately been positioning themselves with a growing market share. BUSD and MKR have also seen sginificant growth, each holding a market cap of $1.5 billion, This leaves the smaller stablecoins like GUSD, HUSD, TUSD, and PAX to compete for the remaining share.　　Data from CryptoQuant reinforces this narrative and shows that stablecoin holdings on exchanges are making simultaneous increases. Its often inferred that a spike in the inflow of stablecoins like USDC will cause an uptick in the price of Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies.　　Although USDC has proved a formidable

2021-02-02Deep Dive

XRP Records Highest Social Volume Gains Since 2018

Regardless of the high-profile SEC and class action lawsuits that have been thrown at Ripple Labs recently, its native XRP currency has continued to push forward.　　The traction seen on social media platforms has begun to record new highs as XRP trade volume surpasses even Bitcoins market.　　XRP Marches Forward　　XRP has made a significant recovery from the price drop that happened within the last few weeks. Statistics from data aggregator, Santiment, reveals that the price surge seen with XRP coincides with massive gains in social media engagements that havent been seen since 2018.　　The social volume metric records the number of mentions of a digital currency across different social media platforms. This can help indicate trending developments and increased investor engagement.　　On the weekly time frame, the spike seen on XRP towers far above previous records. Social volume records from Jan. 30, 2021, show that Ripples engagement level went as high as 1,350 mentions at the peak of the frenzy. According to Santiment, “This gain in interest was the highest since Sep. 21, 2018, when $XRP surged from $0.32 to $0.77 in a day.”　　XRP Social Mentions: Santiment　　Similarly, other metrics such as the number of active addresses and volume have accompanied these raging figures. The

2021-02-02Deep Dive

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