Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

South Korean Whales Accumulating BTC on Exchanges, Can Coinbase Buyers Hold Bitcoin Above 30k?

Bitcoin is currently trying to solidify its position above $32,000 after experiencing high volatility over the past couple of days after the $5,000 price crash. The price volatility is primarily because of Asian whales dumping large portions of their bitcoin holdings on exchanges during the Asian market time which results in a dip in bitcoin price which is followed by a buying spree on coinbase as the US markets opens right after the Asian market closes down.　　Source: CryptoQuant Alert　　The current selling and buying spree between the Asian and US markets is contributing to the high volatility of the top cryptocurrency observed in the past couple of days. The same pattern has started to begin today a little early as South Korean exchange as 1882 bitcoin worth $60 million was just sent to Bithumb an hour ago raising the concern of a possible upcoming dip in bitcoin price.　　Bitcoins price rise of over $34,000 led to heavy traffic and malfunctions on a number of crypto exchanges. The high demand for bitcoin at its current price and billions of spot rallies has led to BTC selling at premium rates on several exchanges especially in South Korea.　　This is one of the key reasons behind

2021-01-06Deep Dive

Here are some of the big projects coming to Polkadot (DOT) in 2021

After signing off on an action-packed year, Polkadot is gearing up for an even more eventful 2021. We take a look at some of the projects that are set to launch on the blockchain platform this year, as well as a few major updates to the networks that are set to see the light of day in the coming weeks.　　Frontier　　With interoperability being one of the key foundation blocks Polkadot was built on, Frontier pops up as one of the most important additions to the blockchain. Developed by Parity Technologies, Frontier is an Ethereum-Substrate compatibility program thats set to be released this year. Substrate is a modular, extensible blockchain network that makes it easier to build custom blockchains and Polkadot parachains.　　Gavin Wood, the founder and lead developer of Polkadot, said that the program was “almost completely done” in his end-of-the-year blog post, adding that it will lead to a major interoperability movement within the blockchain.　　Frontier is Substrate‘s own Ethereum compatibility layer that allows developers to run unmodified Ethereum dApps. The program will allow any Substrate chain to appear exactly as an Ethereum chain would, as well as host any tooling supported by Ethereum’s Solidity programming language, which includes MetaMask, Truffle, and

2021-01-06Deep Dive

Marathon and DMG Create First North American Coop Mining Pool

Marathon Patent Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: MARA) and DMG Blockchain Solutions (TSX-V: DMGI) announced on Jan. 5 their intent to create a North American mining pool.　　Increased Profits and More　　Marathon and DMG, through their US daughter company Blockseer, signed a non-binding agreement to create a non-profit organization.　　The NGO, dubbed the Digital Currency Miners of North America (DCMNA), will focus on industry issues. These include pooling resources, sharing profits, lobbying and increasing transparency on several levels.　　Combining Hashrate　　DCMNA will combine the hashing capacity made available by its members. Rewards will be given in proportion to the hashing they make available to the pool.　　Marathon has already offered to commit its entire hashrate, roughly 10.36 exahashes per second, into the pool. This amounts to over 7% of the total BTC network rate.　　Blockseer will contribute its pooling platform. The company announced on Oct. 29, 2020, that it was operating pool software in private beta. External auditors will reportedly confirm the results of pooling on the Blockseer platform.　　AFL/CFT, DCMNA Style　　The pooling platform introduced by Blockseer claims it will increase transparency as well. The pooling technology will remove transactions Walletscore rates as risky.　　As a result, the blocks mined by the pool are less likely to run afoul of the

2021-01-06Deep Dive

Number of XRP Whales Plunges While Active Bitcoin Addresses Come Close to Record Highs

The XRP whale population has shrunk precipitously over the past few weeks due to Ripples legal troubles with the SEC, according to CoinMetrics.　　The cryptocurrency analytics firm has estimated that the number of addresses with at least 1 million tokens has dropped from 1,721 to 1,567 in just two weeks.　　Image by coinmetrics.substack.com　　Exchanges and asset managers drop XRP　　While the whole cryptocurrency market is recovering from yesterday‘s carnage, XRP is the lone coin in the red. It is once again on the verge of slipping below Litecoin after Grayscale Investments, the leading crypto asset manager, has removed the token from its Large Cap Crypto Fund in a widely expected move. On top of that, the firm’s XRP trust also halted subscriptions shortly after the SEC lawsuit was announced.　　Multiple exchanges, including Coinbase, Bitstamp, Binance.US, will suspend XRP trading now that the token is considered to be a security by the much-feared regulatory agency.　　In turn, Ripple lamented the SEC for hurting countless “innocent” retail holders:　　Weve always said that there is a dangerous lack of regulatory clarity for crypto in the U.S. — their lawsuit has already affected countless innocent XRP retail holders with no connection to Ripple.　　Bitcoin and Ethereum addresses near record highs　　In the meantime,

2021-01-06Deep Dive

Bitcoin Futures and Options Offered by CME Group Record Triple-Digit Growth

Bitcoin futures and options offered by Chicago-headquartered CME Group have recorded a 117 percent increase in average daily volume (ADV) since December 2019, according to a full-year report shared on Jan. 5.　　These cryptocurrency products are seeing faster growth than e-micro gold futures, silver futures and even SOFR futures.　　How CME became a major player in crypto　　In December 2017, Bitcoin-tied futures made their debut on CME—back when the previous bull market reached its peak.　　Because of the bear market in 2018, futures-trading activity became anemic, which prompted the rivaling Cboe exchange to discontinue its own product in March 2019. In May of that year, however, CME saw a sharp uptick in volumes, which also coincided with Bitcoins stunning recovery.　　In January 2020, CME also launched Bitcoin options following Bakkts debut.　　On the verge of 2021, CME toppled OKEx and Binance to become the number one destination for trading Bitcoin futures.　　On Jan. 4, the first trading day of the new year, 17,234 contracts changed hands as institutional investors are becoming keener on Bitcoin.　　After three years of deliberation, CME Group will also list Ethereum futures on Feb. 8.　　Gaps keep getting bigger　　Following its weekend rally, CMEs futures had to be temporarily halted at the open because of a

2021-01-06Deep Dive

Altcoins explode higher: Synthetix, Uniswap, and more rally by over 20%

“Altcoin season” may have begun as coins aside from Bitcoin and Ethereum take center stage, outperforming strongly against BTC and the U.S. dollar.　　Nearly every cryptocurrency in the top 100 by market capitalization is up in the past 24 hours, save for Tron (TRX), NEXO, stablecoins, and Siacoin (SC).　　Ethereum has also started to outpace Bitcoin once again, showing the strength of the altcoin market. Many believe that profits that investors took on BTC are cycling into altcoins, hence Bitcoins stagnation in price.　　Altcoins erupt higher　　Altcoins have seen extreme strength over the past 48 hours.　　Synthetix Network Token (SNX) is up 30 percent in the past 24 hours, pushing past $10 for the first time ever. The cryptocurrency is erupting higher as there are high expectations for new products and for the launch of a second-layer scaling solution in collaboration with Optimistic Ethereum, a rollup-based network.　　Uniswap (UNI), too, is up 21 percent in the past 24 hours. There are also expectations that it will launch some sort of second-layer scaling solution in collaboration with Optimistic Ethereum, yet this has yet to be confirmed by developers.　　Cardano (ADA) is also shooting higher. The coin is up 17 percent in the past day.　　This may be set to

2021-01-06Deep Dive

BitGo Launches Wrapped Bitcoin, Ether on Tron Blockchain

BitGo clients are already minting WBTC and WETH as TRC-20 tokens on Tron, according to the companys public orderbooks.　　After a few test mints executed by BitGo in mid-December, nearly 100 BTC (roughly $3.4 million at current prices) have been wrapped and minted as TRC-20 WBTC tokens by Alameda Research and CoinList.　　Alameda also minted 1 WETH on Tron Tuesday morning. The trading firms TRC-20 WBTC and WETH mints were made to meet over-the-counter (OTC) client demand and test the new product, Alamedas Ryan Salame told CoinDesk.　　BitGo announced a partnership with Tron in September with plans to bring WBTC and WETH to Justin Sun-founded network, per CoinDesks prior reporting. Now the project is fully operational.　　“Our blossoming alliance with BitGo has finally brought cross-chain solutions like WBTC and WETH to fruition,” Sun said in a statement.　　Read more: BitGo Is Bringing DeFi-Friendly Wrapped Bitcoin to the Tron Blockchain　　The supply of ERC-20 WBTC, BitGos original tokenized bitcoin project, saw nearly parabolic growth through the second half of 2020, peaking at over 124,000 BTC wrapped on Ethereum in late November. As the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector has cooled off, however, the supply of ERC-20 WBTC has dipped to its current level of nearly 110,000 tokens.　　In September,

2021-01-06Deep Dive

Origin Brings Back Interest-Earning OUSD Stablecoin Following $7M Hack

Origin is relaunching its yield-generating stablecoin following a November attack that drained OUSD holders of $7 million.　　Starting now, users can once again exchange USDC, USDT and DAI for OUSD.　　As CoinDesk reported in September, the smart contract powering OUSD was not yet audited. OUSD allowed users to deposit the most popular stablecoins that would be plugged into decentralized finance (DeFi) yield farming strategies, the returns on which would be returned to OUSD holders by increasing the balance in each wallet.　　By November, the smart contract had $7 million locked in it, which the company argues proved demand. However, in mid-November it was drained due to a re-entrancy bug in the smart contract (the same exploit that sunk the original DAO).　　“We remain committed to our vision of a superior stablecoin for the Ethereum network. Despite the setback from the hack, we are returning with renewed confidence that we are building something important, that people really want,” Josh Fraser, Origin CEO, said in a statement.　　OUSD compensation plan　　On Dec. 11, Origin released a plan for compensating users who lost funds in the attack. The first 1,000 OUSD lost for each user would be fully compensated in OUSD. After that, holders still get compensated but with

2021-01-06Deep Dive

Ethereum: The Last Bastion for Yield

In the legacy financial world, yield has dried up. Yields on U.S. Treasury bonds have never been lower. The 10-year Treasury bond now offers you a less than 0.9% return. At around 2.1%-2.3%, AAA corporate bonds arent doing a whole lot better.　　Knowing this, while also hearing about the Federal Reserve‘s strong intentions to get inflation above 2%, it’s no wonder investors are ditching low-yielding assets and getting into more speculative investments. People are allocating capital in increasingly distorted ways. How else are they going to get a return？　　On Ethereum its difficult to avoid yield. Yield is the default incentive for successful decentralized finance (DeFi) applications to attract capital.　　At the most basic level, borrowing and lending applications like Compound and Aave are offering 4.6% and 6.2% interest, respectively, on deposited USDC. More sophisticated yield aggregators like Yearn are generating 7.8% in their basic yield strategies, and up to 16% in more aggressive strategies.　　Uniswap, averaging over $1 billion in trading volume per week, is putting its 0.3% trading fees into the hands of those that have supplied liquidity to the protocol. Those that have supplied ETH and USDC to Uniswap have received a staggering 35% APY on a hybrid 50-50 USD/ETH position

2021-01-06Deep Dive

Here are some of the big projects coming to Polkadot (DOT) in 2021

After signing off on an action-packed year, Polkadot is gearing up for an even more eventful 2021. We take a look at some of the projects that are set to launch on the blockchain platform this year, as well as a few major updates to the networks that are set to see the light of day in the coming weeks.　　Frontier　　With interoperability being one of the key foundation blocks Polkadot was built on, Frontier pops up as one of the most important additions to the blockchain. Developed by Parity Technologies, Frontier is an Ethereum-Substrate compatibility program thats set to be released this year. Substrate is a modular, extensible blockchain network that makes it easier to build custom blockchains and Polkadot parachains.　　Frontier Readme file. Source: Github　　Gavin Wood, the founder and lead developer of Polkadot, said that the program was “almost completely done” in his end-of-the-year blog post, adding that it will lead to a major interoperability movement within the blockchain.　　Frontier is Substrate‘s own Ethereum compatibility layer that allows developers to run unmodified Ethereum dApps. The program will allow any Substrate chain to appear exactly as an Ethereum chain would, as well as host any tooling supported by Ethereum’s Solidity programming language, which

2021-01-05Deep Dive

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