Crypto Briefing

Coinbase Ends Margin Trading In Response to CFTC Regulations

Wed, 25 Nov 2020 01:52:06 GMT

Coinbase Pro has decided to discontinue its margin trading services, according to a post on the company’s blog.

Margin Trading Ends Wednesday

According to the announcement, customers will not be able to place margin trades after 2 p.m. PST on Wednesday, Nov. 25. The service will be disabled entirely after all open positions end next month.

Coinbase cited regulations from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as its reason for discontinuing the service. Though Coinbase did not state which regulations have caused issues, some have speculated that the problem concerns regulations around actual delivery of digital assets. The CFTC issued guidance on that issue in March.

Coinbase has offered margin trading on and off. The feature was first introduced as part of the company’s GDAX exchange in 2017. It was reintroduced into Coinbase Pro in February of this year—making the service’s lifespan quite short overall.

Where To Go Next?

Coinbase notes that “clear, common sense regulations” are necessary, and it says that it intends to work with regulators to create those rules. This implies that Coinbase could reintroduce the service at a future date.

In the meantime, several other crypto exchanges still offer margin trading, including Kraken, BitMEX, Binance, Huobi, and Poloniex. As such, traders will have little trouble choosing an alternative.

The decision to shut down the service will not affect standard Coinbase users. Margin trading was mainly aimed at advanced users and is generally considered a high-risk trading strategy.

Chinese Bitcoin Miners Hesitant to Trade. Otherwise, It’s Business as Usual.

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 22:28:08 GMT

This year, several Chinese OTC desks, miners, and traders have been caught up in a large-scale government crackdown, raising fear, uncertainty, and doubt that it is the leading cause of Bitcoin’s price surge.

The Chinese Bitcoin FUD

Thomas Heller, a Bitcoin mining expert from HASHR8, told Crypto Briefing:

“There have always been times where due to anti-money laundering reasons, the banks would have an eye out for these kinds of BTC transfers. But, particularly in the last four to six months, it has been a lot more frequent.”

A survey report by a Chinese media source, Wu Colin, grabbed headlines, pointing out that 74% of miners are complaining that “payment of electricity bills has been greatly affected.”

After the Chinese government banned crypto exchanges in 2017, miners and traders relied on OTC desks or peer-to-peer platforms to exchange crypto and fiat. A crackdown of the desks would thus paralyze the crypto industry in the country.

With miners unable to sell Bitcoin and pay their utilities, commentators have indicated that BTC’s rise has been artificial. As soon as regulators reopen, the price will inevitably crash.

At least, this has been the accepted thesis.

Indeed, the crypto industry in China is facing some unfortunate regulatory blowback. For instance, one USD is trading at 6.60 CNY, but the highest buyer on OKEx’s P2P platform is for 6.41 CNY. Heller confirmed that the USDT/RMB conversions are occurring at a 1% to3% discount. He added:

“People are hesitant to use OTC platforms in China. They don’t want to risk getting their account frozen. And there are several people I know that have had their account frozen.”

But this hasn’t halted business in the country, as Colin indicated. Instead, the government has made it “more challenging for customers to exchange crypto.”

Matthew Graham, the CEO of Sino Global Capital, told Crypto Briefing via correspondence that the general market sentiments are unaffected in China. The regulators’ focus is more towards “fiat on/off-ramp and money laundering,” rather than crypto.

The co-founder of 8btc, a Bitcoin and blockchain community in China and Red Li, confirmed the above claim. He wrote to Crypto Briefing:

“The crackdown is on Tele-scam, which launders money through crypto OTC market, not crypto OTC markets.”

On-Chain Data Confirms “No-Effect” from Miners

Bitcoin miner outflows have slowed down since May. The metric measures the daily withdrawal of Bitcoin from mining pools. The regulatory crackdown might have played a role in the drop.

But, Bitcoin’s halving event has also played a significant role in the reduced outflows.

Bitcoin miner outflows. Source: Crypto Quant

The miner outflows have been consistent for the past six months and also recorded spikes, suggesting more significant withdrawals on some days. The network’s hashrate has seen a significant rise too.

The constant growth of the supply-side industry points to business as usual in China.

Moreover, the argument that miners can cause a significant downside is fundamentally flawed as the market has gotten bigger.

The mean daily inflows of Bitcoin to exchanges since the halving is 45,000 BTC. At the same time, the daily outflows of miners range from 1,200 to 2,000 Bitcoin.

According to on-chain analyst Willy Woo, miners are selling at a rate of 264 BTC per day, and buyers are quickly absorbing this.

Since #Bitcoin was at $11.4k a month ago, miners have been selling an average 11 BTC per hr at exchanges.

In comparison 214 BTC per hr has been scooped off exchanges. This is net flows of buyers over sellers.

This week's average is 328 BTC per hr.

(@glassnode data)

— Willy Woo (@woonomic) November 17, 2020

Lucas Nuzzi, a research analyst at Coinmetrics, also inferred from on-chain data that:

“At the current volume (billions of USD), miners are unlikely to play this significant of a role in liquidity, as their daily payout rarely surpasses 20M USD.”

Concluding, Nuzzi said that “other factors, such as increased institutional participation and macroeconomic concerns, are more likely the culprit” behind the latest Bitcoin bull run rather than Chinese miners stuck in a jam.

Billion-Dollar SBI Japan Launches "Reliable” Interest on Bitcoin Deposits

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 17:45:39 GMT

SBI VC Trade, a subsidiary of the Japanese financial giant SBI Group, has announced a new cryptocurrency lending service called “VC Trade Lending.”

The service allows users to deposit their cryptocurrencies in exchange for an annual interest of only 1%. The service is currently focused on Bitcoin (BTC) lending, and other assets like ETH and XRP will be added later on.

According to the announcement, users can lend a minimum of 0.1 BTC (~$1,900) and a maximum limit of 5 BTC (~$95,000).

SBI Japan Assures Reliability

The launch comes when Cred, one of the leading crypto lending firms, recently filed for bankruptcy due to mismanagement of funds. The Japanese firm hopes to avoid this pitfall, stating that customer assets will only be within the SBI Group family of companies.

“One of the risks of cryptocurrency lending service is the risk of bankruptcy of the lender. All of our customers’ lending destinations for our cryptocurrency lending service are SBI Group companies that boast high reliability so that you can use it with confidence,” said SBI VC in the press release.

SBI is not the only large Japanese firm moving into the lending and borrowing space. Earlier in October, Japan’s messaging giant Line also rolled out its crypto lending product.

Ripple’s Rise Short-Lived as XRP Holders Rush to Exchanges

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 17:07:27 GMT

Like a few other altcoins, XRP has profited from Bitcoin’s impressive rally as of late.

The cross-border remittances token is up more than 200% in the past two weeks, but several technical and on-chain metrics suggest that prices may retrace before higher highs.

Breaking Through Multi-Year Resistance

XRP’s price action had been contained by the $0.32 resistance level since mid-August 2019. But on Nov. 20, the cross-border remittances token was able to slice through this major hurdle and surge nearly 140%.

The bullish impulse allowed prices to reach a high of $0.78, which is the highest level seen since late September 2018.

From a technical perspective, Ripple’s native token seems to have broken out of a massive ascending triangle that developed within its daily chart for the past eight months. A horizontal resistance wall formed along with the swing-highs, while a rising trendline was created along with the swing-lows.

The distance between the widest point of the triangle anticipated an upswing to $0.84.

However, this target can be regarded as complete due to the rapid upward price action XRP has seen in the past few days.

XRP/USD on TradingView

Indeed, the TD Sequential indicator suggests that the altcoin may be trading in overbought territory. This technical index presented sell signals in the form of green nine candlesticks on XRP’s 12-hour and 4-hour charts.

The bearish formations estimate a one to four candlesticks correction before the uptrend will resume.

XRP/USD on TradingView

Although the TD setup’s forecast has yet to be validated by a spike in sell orders, it appears that some investors are preparing to cash out.

XRP Hodlers Prepare to Realize Profits

More than 2.3 billion XRP tokens have been sent to multiple cryptocurrency exchanges since prices began to take off. This represents a 330% increase in daily exchange inflow, worth nearly $1 billion.

Considering the number of investors that went from underwater to profitable positions, such a spike in exchange inflow may lead to mounting selling pressure.

“The 30-day investors are up +159% on average in the past month alone. And when an asset is gaining over +5% returns per day for an entire month, history says there will be a period that will allow traders to catch their breaths at best, and kick themselves for not selling at worst,” said Brian Quinlivan, Marketing and Social Media Director at Santiment.

XRP Exchange Inflow by Chainalysis

In the event of a correction, the most significant support level underneath XRP lies at $0.32. But before prices can fall to this point, there are two other demand areas that this cryptocurrency must break.

These areas sit at $0.54 and $0.45, respectively.

On the flip side, the bearish outlook will be invalidated by a daily candlestick close above $0.78. If XRP bulls manage to push prices above this supply wall, a further advance to $0.84 or even $1 will be almost guaranteed.

Institutions Crowding Out Retail With Bullish Bitcoin Predictions

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 15:39:55 GMT

Investment banks and hedge fund managers are no longer shorting Bitcoin. Instead, leading advisors are strongly advocating BTC to attract institutional clients eager to benefit from the top coin’s lucrative gains.

Asset Managers Give Ambitious BTC Targets

It began with veteran investor Paul Tudor Jones earlier this year when he recognized Bitcoin’s potential as an inflation hedge under the presence of the most “unorthodox economic policies in modern history.”

Fast forward to November, a wave of analysts from top financial services firms have declared hyper bullish targets on Bitcoin.

On Nov. 9, billionaire investor Stan Druckenmiller first revealed his Bitcoin investment, explaining how the number one crypto had outperformed gold.

Druckenmiller’s announcement quickly became old news, however.

Citibank projected a $318,000 target for Bitcoin by December 2021 to its clients. The basis of their fundamental analysis was inflationary fears and fiat devaluation.

An ARK Investment analyst later topped the list after posting a $500,000 target for Bitcoin.

Bitcoin Could Hit $500,000, According to ARK Invest's Catherine Wood — https://t.co/YgjBN9MceZ

— *Walter Bloomberg (@DeItaone) November 20, 2020

Then the CIO of the worlds’ largest asset management firm, BlackRock, said that Bitcoin could “replace gold to a large extent.”

Deutsche Bank’s research strategist Jim Reid echoed this sentiment, writing:

“There also seems to be an increasing demand to use Bitcoin where Gold used to be used to hedge dollar risk, inflation, and other things.”

Analysts from JP Morgan also acknowledged this demand as Grayscale’s GBTC shares have attracted more investors than gold ETFs, predicting 10x BTC gains over the precious metal.

Introducing Digital Gold

The fundamental basis of their bullishness is Bitcoin’s rise as an inflationary hedge and a complement to gold.

Near-zero interest rates and unprecedented money printing to the tune of $3 trillion defined the U.S. economy, which extends to the rest of the world as well. Analysts expect inflation to follow next and are looking for an out from the US dollars.

While gold has been the first choice as a hedge against inflation, it is slowly losing its luster as a medium of exchange in a digitalized world.

If not for this narrative, then the above asset managers are pleased with BTC’s strong performance this year. Bitcoin has outperformed gold with a 165% gain year-to-date, compared to gold’s 23%. And though these managers act independently of the institutions they represent, their commentary was wholly missing in 2017.

Thomas Lee, a leading contrarian hedge fund manager and partner at Fundstrat, said in an interview:

“It [BTC] is killing it this year—it’s just crushing all other hedges and asset classes this year, but in 2021 I think Bitcoin could be the year of the fireworks… the best is probably yet to come.”

yEarn.Finance Founder Andre Cronje Announces Deriswap

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 13:02:31 GMT

Andre Cronje, the founder of the highly-popular DeFi protocol yEarn.Finance has released details of a new project called Deriswap.

Cronje has been extremely busy in the DeFi space throughout this year, and his latest project focuses on creating what he calls “capital efficiency.” In a Medium blog post, Cronje said:

“Deriswap (currently under audit), combines Swaps, Options, and Loans into a capital efficient single contract, allowing interaction between the two assets that make up the pair.”

He explained that it would benefit liquidity providers (LPs) by maintaining exposure and collecting additional rewards.

There are already several popular DeFi protocols that enable swaps (Uniswap, Sushiswap), options (Hegic, Opyn), and loans (Aave, Compound). However, Deriswap differs in its ability to offer multiple functions within one contract.

Andre Cronje, the Deriswap Architect

Of course, Cronje is already familiar with all these projects. He was heavily involved in Hegic, while his yEarn.Finance protocol acts as a yield optimizer combining Aave, Compound, and more.

yEarn has had a particularly memorable year: when Cronje released the protocol’s YFI token in July, the DeFi community embraced its “fair launch” process (Cronje himself had to take part in yield farming to get hold of any YFI tokens).

In September, it hit an all-time high price of $43,678, according to Coingecko. It currently trades at $25,253.

YFI Token Price Action. Source: CoinGecko

Cronje’s other recent projects include Keep3r and Eminence, a gaming platform hacked for $7 million in users’ funds. Such is Cronje’s level of fame in the DeFi space, many users risked putting funds into the contract before it had been properly announced or audited.

Full details on Deriswap, including the launch date, are yet to be released. The protocol is currently under audit.

Disclosure: One or more members of the Crypto Briefing Management team are investors in Hegic. Andre Cronje, the creator of yEarn Finance, is an equity-holder in Crypto Briefing.

Bitcoin Critic and Economist Janet Yellen Set to Lead U.S. Treasury

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 12:42:53 GMT

According to the Wall Street Journal, former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen could become the next Secretary of the Treasury. President-elect Joe Biden has nominated Yellen for the position.

Yellen’s Vocal Criticism of Bitcoin

If Yellen is confirmed, she will be the first woman to hold the position of Treasury secretary. She will also be the first person to lead three of the U.S. government’s biggest financial regulators: the Treasury, the Federal Reserve, and the Council of Economic Advisers.

However, Yellen has earned a reputation in the cryptocurrency community for a different reason—her resistance to Bitcoin.

In 2018, she stated that she is “not a fan” of Bitcoin due to its use in illegal activity. She also stated in 2017 that Bitcoin is a “highly speculative asset” and “not a stable store of value.”

Her opposition to cryptocurrency may not be a permanent stance, however. Yellen received a gift of Bitcoin from a crypto entrepreneur in 2018 and accepted it graciously. She has also acknowledged that there are many alternatives to Bitcoin, adding that “maybe something is coming down the line that is more appealing.”

Will the Government Change Its Position?

Yellen’s position on Bitcoin is not so different from that of other government leaders. Steven Mnuchin, who is currently the Secretary of the Treasury, has also taken a strict stance toward cryptocurrency since 2019.

Like Yellen, he noted that Bitcoin’s use in criminal activity and its price volatility are still significant issues.

Meanwhile, Jerome Powell, who currently heads the Federal Reserve, has expressed mixed views on crypto. In 2019, he stated that “no one uses [Bitcoin] for payments” and that the coin is at best a speculative store of value like gold. On the other hand, Powell has expressed tentative support for stablecoins, a permissioned Ethereum fork, and even a central bank digital currency (CDBC).

Given that the U.S. government has many facets, it is not clear how things will change if and when Yellen heads the Treasury.

Bitcoin Breaks $19,000 for the First Time Since 2017

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 12:13:46 GMT

Bitcoin briefly surpassed $19,000 this morning. This is the first time the first-ranked cryptocurrency has hit the price level since December 2017, when its value almost doubled from $10,000 in the space of less than a week.

Bitcoin Bulls in Full Control

According to the data analytics site CoinGecko, Bitcoin hit an all-time high price of $19,665 on Dec. 16, 2017.

Source: TradingView

The milestone follows several months of sustained highs. Since August, Bitcoin has surged by more than 70% from around $11,000. Aside from the “Black Thursday” market crash in March, it’s been relatively stable at the $10,000 mark for the last few years.

Many factors have likely contributed to the price hike, the primary of which has been institutions taking a shine to crypto. Several wealthy investors have recently announced purchases in Bitcoin, seemingly buying into the idea that it represents a form of “digital gold.”

Recently, the payments service PayPal made something of a U-turn on crypto, too. Only yesterday, the company’s CEO, Dan Schulman, confirmed their plans to integrate crypto payments in a CNBC interview.

The heightened level of interest among prominent individuals like Michael Saylor has led to widespread media coverage surrounding Bitcoin. Castle Island Ventures investor Nic Carter was recently invited to speak about the cryptocurrency with Bloomberg. He was asked whether its recent halving event was a possible factor in the price rise. Carter suggested that the event was already priced in because it had been forecast so far in advance.

Of course, another reason for Bitcoin’s rise is the rocky socioeconomic climate that’s come to the fore in 2020.

The Coronavirus pandemic has catalyzed what some call the worst global economic crisis in a century, and Bitcoin seems to have been accepted as a store-of-value amid central banks fighting for solutions to the crisis. This year, the Federal Reserve has printed trillions of dollars to sustain the world economy.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s market cap is just over $350 billion. That puts the digital currency’s value above one of the world’s biggest investment banks, JPMorgan Chase.

Forked Bitcoin Cash Chain Under DoS Attack

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 12:03:12 GMT

Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCHA), the result of the recent Bitcoin Cash (BCH) hard fork, has witnessed an attack where a single miner is disrupting the network.

Bitcoin Cash Fork Under Attack

Experts are calling it a denial of service (DoS) attack aimed at disrupting the blockchain.

The attack originated from an unknown mining entity that has been mining empty blocks on the Bitcoin Cash ABC chain for more than a week.

The attacker broadcasted a mysterious message: /Nov 25th, 2020: bcha dump/. Source: Blockchair

An empty block only contains the block reward transaction (as seen above), and all other transactions are excluded, hampering the network to function normally.

The incident was first reported by Nikita Zhavoronkov, the lead developer at Blockchair, who said it is clearly malicious behavior.

I don’t wain to rain on the Bitcoin ABC’s parade, but my prediction was correct — the chain just got DoS attacked. There are 200k transactions in the mempool waiting to be confirmed, and someone mined 11 empty blocks — it is clearly malicious behaviour. pic.twitter.com/xhp73f3c0w

— Nikita Zhavoronkov (@nikzh) November 21, 2020

The intention behind the attack is still unknown. Adding to the mystery, the attacker also broadcasted a message which warned of an upcoming “bcha dump” on Nov. 25.

Low Hash Rate, Few Miners Led to the Attack

On Nov. 15, a Bitcoin Cash (BCH) blockchain fork took place, resulting in a new blockchain called Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCHA). After the BCHA chain went live, only a few mining pools were active, resulting in a low network hashrate.

The unknown miner has the biggest hash rate on BCHA. Source: Blockchair

At press time, BCHA’s hashrate is 0.12 Eh/s, which is less than 1/10th compared to BCH’s hashrate of 1.7 Eh/s. According to Zhavoronkov, the low hashrate may have allowed a single mining group to control the network.

Ethereum Is Ready for Long-Awaited Serenity Upgrade

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 09:30:40 GMT

The deposit contract for the network’s long-awaited ETH 2.0 upgrade passed its minimum threshold of 524,288 ETH yesterday, meaning that Ethereum’s Beacon chain will be deployed as planned at 12 pm UTC on Dec. 1.

Ethereum 2.0 Ready for Liftoff

The contract needed to meet the minimum of 16,384 validators seven days ahead of deployment, but a surge of deposits yesterday meant the target was exceeded late last night.

The deposit contract is the starting point for phase 0 of Ethereum 2.0, also known as Serenity. After Dec. 1, Ethereum will initiate proof-of-stake (PoS), a mechanism where validators provide security to the network and receive ETH as a reward.

It’s an alternative to the blockchain’s current proof-of-work (PoW) system. Ethereum 2.0 has been discussed since late 2018, and its launch has had a few delays. The deposit contract was finally released on Nov. 4, though the initial uptake to become a validator was relatively slow. To participate in the genesis launch, validators need to deposit a multiple of 32 ETH, meaning a high cost of entry (32 ETH is worth almost $20,000 today).

Setting up a validator is also a relatively complex process for less advanced users.

Despite the slow start, progress picked up significantly towards the end of the one-week cut-off period. The deposit contract met 60% of its target early yesterday. Meanwhile, the ETH price soared past $600 for the first time since 2018 amid the anticipation for the upgrade.

Later, a stream of participants pushed the balance past its 524,288 ETH threshold.

It met the goal with around ten hours to go before the 12 pm UTC cut-off. Many members of the Ethereum community took to Twitter to celebrate the milestone.

524288 pic.twitter.com/N66EmtW0Ih

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) November 24, 2020

We did it!

— Hudson Jameson (@hudsonjameson) November 24, 2020

I think it's a good time to revisit this masterpiece

🎶 "Eth2.0 yo, Eth2.0 yo, Eth 2.0 yo"https://t.co/WRLwTypd1D

— Camila Russo (@CamiRusso) November 24, 2020

1/ The minimum amount of ETH required – 524,288 – has now been sent to the deposit contract 🥩

This means that the eth2 Beacon Chain (phase 0) will launch as planned on Dec 1st at 12PM UTC!

NEVER BET AGAINST ETHEREUM 🚀

Let's recap 👇 pic.twitter.com/GREZ9DMJSn

— Anthony Sassano | sassal.eth 🏴 (@sassal0x) November 24, 2020

500k ETH! This is so exciting! Eth2 deposits almost there 🚀 pic.twitter.com/SKwPopXC1P

— Linda Xie (@ljxie) November 24, 2020

There’s now 612,736 ETH deposited at the time of writing. According to a graph provided by Ethereum, stakers can expect to earn 20% APR as a reward for securing the network.

Source: Ethereum

The deployment of the Beacon chain is phase 0 of Ethereum 2.0. It will be followed by several other stages over the coming years, which all form part of the blockchain’s Serenity upgrade.

With those developments, it’s hoped that the network will achieve scalability, and ultimately, wider adoption.

PayPal Follows Bitcoin Startups, Laying Foundation for Crypto Payments

Mon, 23 Nov 2020 22:45:03 GMT

The latest swarm of billionaire investors have bought Bitcoin for one reason: Its store of value narrative. Still, with the arrival of PayPal, the original peer-to-peer electronic cash may find renewed strength as a medium of exchange.

Invoicing PayPal With Bitcoin

PayPal’s entry has made a huge impact on the crypto industry since announcing its adoption of various digital assets. Over 346 million users are now allowed to buy, sell, and store Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin.

ItBit exchange, which acts as a proxy for Paypal’s trading volume, is doing up to $35 million in trading volume daily.

ItBit exchange trading volume. Source: Nomics

Bitcoin, followed by Ethereum, has attracted many new investors in the on-going economic crisis. And, PayPal is clearly capitalizing on this uptick even if payments have been restricted upon rollout.

Nevertheless, Dan Schulman, the CEO of PayPal, has confirmed that customers will be able to make crypto payments starting next year. PayPal will convert customers’ crypto into fiat or any desired option for the merchant in real-time. Schulman said in a CNBC interview:

“Early next year we’re going to allow cryptocurrencies to be a funding source for any transaction happening on all 28 billion of our merchants. That will significantly bolster the usage of cryptocurrencies.”

Long before PayPal, BitPay has been one of the leading service providers in this space, enabling conversion of customer’s crypto to make fiat payments to merchants or companies. While PayPal’s entry threatens the company, BitPay’s CEO Stephen Pair believes that:

“We’re competitors, but there are also opportunities for BitPay to partner with PayPal.”

The crypto payments service provider has launched a new product, “BitPay Send,” for businesses and organizations sending out crypto payments.

The service is for individuals or freelancers who are willing to earn a portion or all of their salary in Bitcoin for investment purposes. Moreover, the companies need not custody Bitcoin themselves as BitPay Send converts fiat into crypto at the time of payment.

Their new endeavor’s motivation began in-house as their employees demanded full or part of their remuneration in crypto. Pair said:

“This is the first time that we’re going to help companies with paying out crypto. It could be to employees, publishers, affiliates – any demographic that you want to pay out via crypto.”

AdGate Media is one of the first adopters of the new feature. AdGate is building an ecosystem for rewarded advertising on mobile applications. The ads give users credit or in-app purchases by taking surveys, trying new apps, and signing up for special offers. The websites and ad publishers, on the other hand, earn from their clients.

According to AdGate’s CEO Dan Sapozhnikov, there was a demand from publishers who wanted to get paid in crypto. He said:

“There’s definitely a good dollar range where BitPay does make a lot of sense for some of our publishers, especially cross border payments. Banking is a bit more difficult where an international wire can cost around $45. There are a lot of times that Bitcoin does make sense.”

Currently, BitPay processes about 100,000 transactions daily, whereas PayPal handles millions. According to Pair, however, his company will soon make up this gap as users begin to realize the benefits of crypto. He said:

“Paypal getting into this validates what we already knew for the past ten years. It just shows that cryptocurrency or blockchain payment is going mainstream.”

Cardano Makes New Yearly Highs While Technicals Warn of Potential Correction

Mon, 23 Nov 2020 16:12:30 GMT

Cryptocurrency enthusiasts are paying heightened attention to Cardano after ADA breached new yearly highs. Still, a particular technical indicator points to a retracement before higher highs.

Cardano Breaks New Yearly Highs

Cardano is yet another altcoin following Bitcoin’s 90% bull rally.

The so-called “Ethereum killer” finally moved past a critical resistance barrier and surged over 50%. It went from trading at a low of $0.105 on Nov. 20 to recently reach a new yearly high of $0.158.

Despite the significant bullish impulse seen in the last few days, IntoTheBlock’s “In/Out of the Money Around Price” (IOMAP) model shows that Cardano has more room rise. Based on this on-chain metric, there is little to no resistance barrier ahead of this altcoin, preventing it from posting further gains.

If buying pressure continues to mount, ADA could rise to $0.20 before finding any potential hurdle.

In/Out of the Money Around Price by IntoTheBlock

When looking at Cardano’s network growth, the bullish thesis holds.

Since late October, the number of new daily ADA addresses has steadily increased. Roughly 3,800 addresses were joining the network on a daily basis around Oct. 24.

This number has skyrocketed to nearly 13,000 a day, representing more than a 240% jump.

Cardano Network Growth by IntoTheBlock

The uptrend in network growth is a green flag for price growth shortly. A sustained increase in network growth is often a leading indicator of appreciating prices. The rise in newly-created addresses tends to affect the regular inflow and outflow of tokens in the network and, thus, liquidity.

Approaching Overbought Territory

Regardless of the optimistic view that Cardano’s on-chain metrics show, the TD sequential indicator warns of a potential correction in the horizon. This technical index is about to present sell signals in the form of green nine candlesticks on ADA’s 12-hour and 4-hour charts.

Although the bearish formations have yet to develop, the near-term future might not look bright for the bulls.

ADA/USD on TradingView

The IOMAP cohorts reveal that Cardano must hold above $0.142 because this is the most significant demand wall underneath it. Here, more than 55,000 addresses had previously purchased over 5 billion ADA.

Such a critical interest area may have the ability to keep falling prices at bay in a correction. Holders within this price range may do anything to keep their positions in the green, including buying more tokens to help Cardano rebound.

But if the spike in downward pressure is significant enough to break through the $0.142 support level, the smart contracts token could plunge to $0.126

Pickle Finance Devs Patch Code Following $19.7 Million Hack

Mon, 23 Nov 2020 15:44:02 GMT

Popular DeFi yield aggregator Pickle Finance was hacked Saturday for 19.7 million DAI. The unaudited DeFi protocol had gained much popularity among DeFi investors for its innovative earning strategies.

Pickle Finance Shaken by Exploit

The DeFi protocol Pickle Finance earns from arbitrage trading stablecoins between various platforms. The design is similar to yEarn’s vaults, which requires liquidity providers (LPs) to deposit their stablecoins in so-called “PickleJars.”

The hackers attacked the pDAI PickleJar linked to Compound in what has been described as a “complicated attack” by Pickle developers.

Reportedly, it took the developing team three hours to identify the source of the attack. The disputed part of the code was revoked on Nov. 22, removing the critical piece of future exploits.

Was in a 5h long late-night/early-morning war ⚔️ room where reverse engineering took place last night with @bantg @emilianobonassi @bneiluj @samczsun and the @picklefinance team

One of the most intricate hacks till now in the ecosystem 🤯

Diagram showing the series of events👇 pic.twitter.com/rh0Dd9kd5x

— vasa (@vasa_develop) November 22, 2020

After the hack, the PICKLE token price dropped 62.3%, from $23 to lows of $8.7. It bounced back to $12.5 after implementing a fix but continues to trade below September and October lows of $15.

PICKLE price chart. Source: Coingecko

The total value locked (TVL) in the protocol at press time is $26.3 million.

They have resumed deposits to other jars in the latest update but have implored users to “refrain from depositing in the DAI Jar for now.“

The detailed postmortem revealed further vulnerabilities, which the team expects to fix “in the coming days and weeks.”

ETH Hits $600 Ahead of Ethereum 2.0 Launch

Mon, 23 Nov 2020 14:23:12 GMT

It’s the first time since 2018 that Ethereum has passed the $600 mark thanks to the upcoming Ethereum 2.0 launch and Bitcoin’s success.

ETH Follows Bitcoin and Upgrade

One of them is Bitcoin’s recent ascent: thanks in part to a wave of institutional buyers such as Michael Saylor, the number one crypto is up over 40% since August. ETH tends to follow BTC’s trajectory, often with a slight delay, which explains why there’s been a surge recently.

ETH’s price kicked into overdrive over the weekend, jumping over 27% since Friday. But another important factor is the blockchain’s pending upgrade, Ethereum 2.0.

The long-awaited Beacon chain is set to deploy on Dec. 1, enabling holders who deposit 32 ETH to validate the network as it moves to a proof-of-stake (PoS) system.

Ethereum 2.0, also known as Serenity, has been talked about and anticipated since late 2018. After a series of delays, with the contract now at 60% of its minimum threshold target of ETH deposited, it looks likely that the upgrade could finally ship. The number of addresses holding 32 ETH has also increased in line with Serenity moving forward.

The $600 ETH price puts Ethereum’s market cap at just over $68 billion.

Ethereum 2.0 Deposits Hit 60% as Launch Looms

Mon, 23 Nov 2020 13:18:31 GMT

The deposit contract for Ethereum 2.0 has hit 60% of its target.

315,616 ETH has been deposited to the contract at the time of writing, equating to roughly 60% of the minimum target of 524,288 ETH. The contract needs 16,384 validators to deploy as planned, with ETH holders must deposit a minimum of 32 ETH to participate.

Source: Etherscan

At 524,288 ETH, genesis can occur, leading to the deployment of the long-awaited Beacon chain.

The deployment time is slated for 12 pm UTC on Dec. 1, but it will only ship as planned if the contract hits the minimum seven days in advance. That means it still needs another 208,672 ETH in the next 24 hours to deploy on time.

Ethereum 2.0, also dubbed Serenity, has been a hugely anticipated event for some time. Uptake to join its Phase 0 genesis, though, has been relatively slow. The deposit contract went live on Nov. 4, but it had only met around 10% of its target within the first week. Still, recent data shows that the number of Ethereum addresses holding 32 ETH is at an all-time high, possibly because users are preparing for the upgrade.

Moreover, with a significant boost in deposits over the weekend, it’s looking increasingly likely that Ethereum 2.0 will ship before 2020 is out.

Source: Dune Analytics

The Beacon chain is designed to bring proof-of-stake (PoS) to Ethereum. It’s a process that enables validators to earn ETH as a reward for providing security to the network, rather than rewarding miners as with a proof-of-work (PoW) system.

One reason for the slow initial uptake for phase 0 might be the technical difficulties associated with becoming a validator. The entry price is likely another high barrier for many people. ETH surged towards $600 over the weekend, meaning a full 32 ETH validator is currently worth around $19,000.

In addition to the heightened interest in Bitcoin over the last few weeks, speculation surrounding Ethereum 2.0 could be a key driving force for the price surge.

Ethereum’s co-founder Vitalik Buterin has been one of the key voices readying the community for the event. He went as far as depositing 3,200 ETH into the contract, possibly as a tactic to encourage other holders to join.

The #eth2 deposit contract has reached more than half of its target (currently at ~278000 ETH deposited), with the bulk of the deposits taking place in the last three days!https://t.co/yqy87eMafV

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) November 22, 2020

With the Nov. 24 cut-off looming, there’s been some debate across the Ethereum community about preparing for the genesis launch.

Eric Conner, a prominent Ethereum supporter, posted a Github thread proposing a maximum deployment date if the minimum deposit isn’t reached on time. Several Ethereum developers joined the discussion, though no new date has yet been announced.

I'm suggesting that we add a maximum genesis date of December 15th for eth2 launch, removing the reliance on the minimum deposit amount of 524,288 ETH.https://t.co/D9AV6y6UYF

— Eric Conner (@econoar) November 17, 2020

Ethereum 2.0 has been regarded as one of the biggest crypto events of the year. If the contract falls short of 524,288 ETH in the next 24 hours, genesis will occur seven days after the point the threshold is reached.

Litecoin Bulls Breach February Yearly High, Heading for $100

Mon, 23 Nov 2020 11:30:51 GMT

Litecoin has surged to a new 2020 trading high after breaking past the February 2020 high with relative ease. The strong bullish momentum LTC experienced last week could easily spill over into this week as institutional investors turn to the Bitcoin fork as an alternative investment.

Litecoin Bulls Take Aim at $100

The weekly close above February high suggests that a potential bullish explosion towards the $100 resistance zone is highly probable.

Technical indicators on the higher time frames also show large room for upside movement in the following days, with the ultimate weekly bullish target sitting near the $140 level.

LTC/USD on TradingView.

Looking at the William’s alligator indicator, the near-term bullish outlook remains in place while price trades above the $80 support level, which coincides with the 5-day moving average (green).

A failure to hold the $80 support level could see LTC performing a near-term price correction towards the $75 to $70 range for support. Dip-buyers will likely be lurking around the mentioned support region in expectation of renewed highs over the medium to long-term.

Litecoin Daily Chart on TradingView.

On-chain data analysis provided by Santiment shows no major selling pressure from whales at the moment. Additionally, daily active addresses are diminishing as prices continue to surge.

This metric suggests that traders continue to hold on to Litecoin during this price expansion period.

This indicator should be monitored closely if LTC approaches the $90 or $100 levels, as a spike in daily active addresses may indicate profit-taking for larger LTC holders.

Daily Active Addresses by Santiment.

Data analysis from Santiment also shows that Litecoin addresses holding 1,000,000 to 10,000,000 coins have been steadily increasing their balances since Oct. 27.

This metric highlights that whales have been adding to their balances, coinciding with the recent bullish rally above the $65 resistance zone.

Litecoin Holders Distribution Combined Balance. Red (10,000-100,000 coins) Purple (100,000-1,000,000 coins) Brown (1,000,000-10,000,000 coins) by Santiment.

Addresses with 10,000-100,000 coins have been selling some of their holdings, indicating short-term speculators taking profit towards the $84.50 yearly resistance. Conversely, addresses holding 100,000-1,000,000 coins have maintained their balances, suggesting they are neither selling nor buying more coins.

With the positive technical and on-chain backdrop, LTC could be well-placed to break into a much-higher trading range this week if bulls can overcome the psychological $100 resistance level.

Unwrapping The NFT Hype Aftermath in 2020

Mon, 23 Nov 2020 10:30:15 GMT

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) — which enable the creation of unique tokenized assets such as collectibles, art, and even real estate — have experienced remarkable growth in 2020.

This led to a short-lived phase of exuberance in NFT-related tokens in September. However, expectations have since cooled off for a sector with several roadblocks before achieving its potential.

Dissecting the NFT Hype in September

As decentralized finance (DeFi) tokens retraced in early September, crypto traders started to look for the next trend with high growth potential. As such, the NFT space saw an influx of capital and attention, while broader markets crashed.

Particularly, protocols such as Rarible (RARI), Meme (MEME), and Shroom.Finance (SHROOM) all significantly outperformed the market with triple-digit returns. This trend likely saw reallocation of capital from DeFi tokens into NFTs following the end of the “Summer of DeFi.”

MEME, which started with a satirical protocol called “The Degenerator,” increased by as much as 1,300% in September and subsequently lost 90% of its value. The MEME token allows holders to mint NFTs by staking tokens in its platform. Their community executed an alternative to yield farming where liquidity providers (LPs) are rewarded with NFTs instead of a protocol-native token.

MEME farmers can then sell their NFTs on platforms such as OpenSea.

Source: OpenSea

But How Valuable Are These NFTs?

NFTs minted with MEME tokens have sold for an average of 0.93 ETH, or roughly $430 at the time of writing. However, less than 10% of the NFTs available in OpenSea have been purchased, suggesting that most users cannot sell their farmed memes. This drops the effective average price of all MEME NFTs sold in OpenSea to only $43.

This did not stop crypto traders from speculating on the MEME token and other NFT-related ERC20s in September. Daily active addresses (DAAs) for MEME spiked along with prices, suggesting that network activity was being driven by hype and price action.

Source: IntoTheBlock

The high correlation coefficient of 0.91 between prices and DAAs in September supports the thesis that MEME’s network activity was strongly related to the asset’s price.

This doubled from 0.45 in August when more traders were focused on DeFi, and there was less hype surrounding NFTs. On-chain volumes also show that whales took advantage of the inflated expectations to sell.

Source: IntoTheBlock

Large transactions volume, a key metric that IntoTheBlock aggregates as the total volume sent in transactions of over $100k, is a helpful indicator of whales’ and institutional players’ activity. In this case, the spike on Sept. 22 as MEME’s price peaked suggests that large players opted to sell amidst the NFT hype.

While MEME’s peak valuation of roughly $50 million may not seem high compared to the long-term potential of NFTs, on-chain metrics point to large holders realizing that the sub-niche has a long way to go before becoming a mainstream alternative to current media. Since the September hype, most NFT-related tokens have crashed while NFT marketplaces saw a decrease in volume and average price per item sold.

Source: DappRadar

The graph above monitors aggregate data for the top five NFT marketplaces in Ethereum. The divergence between volume and number of traders points to more retail users experimenting with NFTs and whales settling down. Despite hitting a new high in daily active users in November, at just over 2,000 traders, it is evident that NFT marketplaces are still in their infancy. To live up to the hype seen in September, the NFT space must overcome several hurdles.

Barriers to NFT Adoption

High gas fees were the norm for Ethereum during the summer. While these may not deter whales from making large transactions to earn high yields in DeFi, gas fees have certainly discouraged broader usage and smaller transactions, leading to some non-DeFi protocols shutting down.

Source: IntoTheBlock

Gas costs for a simple ETH transaction reached a high of $5.20 on September 17.

The costs of deploying complex smart contracts like minting and purchasing NFTs can be as much as ten times more expensive, pricing out average retail users and disincentivizing small transactions. This is evident in the previously referenced chart aggregating data for NFT marketplaces, with both volume and traders crashing on the same day gas costs reached a new high. As gas prices have dropped, the number of NFT traders increased.

The recent drop in gas prices, however, does not solve the sector’s problem. Given the scarce nature of blockspace in Ethereum and other blockchains, transactions are likely to trend towards financial use cases as these have a greater willingness to pay.

For example, a trader expecting a 100% return should, in theory, be willing to pay higher gas fees than someone looking to unlock an in-game NFT item. This trend favors transactions that are financial by definition but also incentivizes the financialization of other sectors.

While blockspace scarcity is expected to be alleviated when ETH 2.0 launches and L2 solutions become adopted, NFTs face another roadblock to adoption: the Ethereum ecosystem itself. At the moment, to interact with NFTs, users have to follow as many as five steps before being able to own one. This hampers the adoption of ordinary people who may be unwilling to learn how to go through all of these steps.

For visionary NFT applications like a decentralized metaverse to gain traction outside of crypto, entry barriers must drop, and user education must improve. There are steps in progress to reduce friction in using Ethereum-based dApps like USDC’s “gasless” transactions, but for the foreseeable future, users still need to rely on MetaMask and go through a steep learning curve.

As the NFT ecosystem matures, novel use cases are still expected to drive demand, pushing new users to learn how to use Ethereum. At the same time, mass adoption is generally preceded by lower costs and barriers to entry. Ultimately, NFTs, and crypto broadly, have to overcome these challenges before realizing the vision of a decentralized future.

DeFi Project Spotlight: Rocket Pool, Staking Service for Ethereum 2.0

Sat, 21 Nov 2020 15:27:45 GMT

Ethereum has been around since 2015. The technology was groundbreaking at the time of its launch. It enabled blockchain-based applications, such as DeFi and games.

Five years later, Ethereum’s tech looks inferior to competitors, most of which emerged during the 2017 ICO boom.

Low throughput significantly throttles the performance of Ethereum-based dApps. The project utilizes a secure but slow Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus, which only allows 15 transactions per second (TPS) at best.

Meanwhile, other Layer 1 platforms like Polkadot and Solana can handle hundreds or even thousands of TPS because they run more efficient consensus algorithms like Proof-of-Stake (PoS).

PoW consensus requires nodes to run specific algorithms, committing their computing power to the network’s security. PoS, on the other hand, uses financial incentives to keep nodes from behaving maliciously.

Ethereum planned to transition from PoW to PoS for years, but it has been difficult from a technological standpoint. Moreover, as the network expanded and absorbed more value, the stakes grew higher. If the transition goes wrong and users lose money, Ethereum will lose much of its reputation.

Still, the team is working on moving Ethereum to PoS. It decided to separate PoW-based Ethereum 1.x from PoS-based Ethereum 2.0. The two blockchains will exist in parallel until a full transition from one to another is possible.

After years of development and weeks of running testnets, the date for launching Ethereum 2.0 was finally published. Along with it, the team revealed a staking contract, where node owners can deposit their funds.

PoS systems incentivize node owners to stake funds by offering them rewards. The opportunity of earning rewards in a leading cryptocurrency is appealing, so many users are interested in staking on Ethereum.

However, staking isn’t only locking ETH and getting rewarded. A node’s stake is essentially a bond, which the network takes away partially or in full if the node doesn’t contribute to the network’s security.

Running a node requires appropriate hardware, a stable and fast network connection, and an understanding of the software. In many ways, it resembles a full-time job.

On top of that, Ethereum has a minimum staking requirement of 32 ETH (around $17,000 at the time of writing), which may be high for some node owners. Meanwhile, users with enough ETH may not have enough time or knowledge to run a node.

Rocket Pool helps make staking on Ethereum 2.0 more accessible, convenient, and decentralized. The project’s team builds a system to streamline the staking experience for ETH whales and node operators.

Rocket Pool Value Proposition

The advantages of using Rocket Pool instead of staking natively are different for node operators and stakers.

Node operators can lower their barriers of entry and increase rewards. The protocol requires 16 ETH to run a node; the other half of the minimum stake comes from pooled users’ funds.

Sharing the minimum stake is beneficial both for small and large node operators. Node operators with 16 ETH get the opportunity to stake, while whales can spin up two times as many nodes as they could natively and enjoy a better return on their investments.

Like node operators, stakers get lower barriers of entry. On top of that, they can deposit more than 32 ETH, socialize losses with other stakers, and are freed from technical hassles.

Since users’ funds are pooled, stakers can start earning rewards on as little as 0.01 ETH, and there is no maximum deposit. Rocket Pool splits the pooled funds in chunks of 16 ETH and distributes them across node operators.

Spreading ETH among nodes provides better protection against slashing. If a node operator fails to meet Ethereum’s requirements, it will lose part or all of its stake. If a user stakes natively, they risk losing all of their funds due to slashing. Rocket Pool reduces potential losses because if a platform’s node is slashed, the entire pool of stakers shares the loss.

To better protect stakers, Rocket Pool provides additional incentives for node operators, which stake the protocol’s native RPL tokens. If a node’s 32 ETH stake is wiped, the RPL stake is burned to compensate for the loss.

By creating a system that benefits smaller ecosystem players to participate in staking, Rocket Pool solves top-heavy consensus.

PoS platforms generally have a handful of nodes with large stakes, which practically control the consensus and game the system to retain the control. Consequently, centralization concerns arise.

By allowing smaller players with limited resources to join Ethereum 2.0 consensus, Rocket Pool democratizes participation in the network and makes it more secure.

Finally, stakers enjoy the advantage of keeping access to their ETH through rETH ownership tokens. When a user deposits funds to a pool, they receive rETH, which grows in value over time as the rewards are accumulated. The earlier a user gets into the pool, the more rETH per one ETH they earn.

Despite the availability of staking, Etherum 2.0 is far from being fully functional.

Moreover, it doesn’t have a bridge to Ethereum 1.x yet, so users who stake natively lose access to their ETH potentially for years. Meanwhile, rETH holders will be able to liquidate their ownership tokens at any time.

How Does It Work

Rocket Pool’s smart contracts receive funds from users and distribute them across the network of Smart Nodes, which are essentially nodes connected to the platform.

When a user deposits ETH to the pool, a smart contract issues a corresponding amount of rETH. Further, it creates a batch of four ETH and sends it to one of the Smart Nodes.

If a node goes down, the smart contract stops depositing ETH to it.

Pooled funds distribution. Source: Rocket Pool

Deposits to the pool have fixed terms, currently ranging from three months to one year.

Once a Smart Node gets a total of 16 ETH from Rocket Pool, the platform’s smart contracts automatically batch the node’s 16 ETH with the pool’s 16 ETH and creates a 32 ETH validator.

Pooled funds allocation to nodes. Source: Rocket Pool

On top of staking rewards, node operators in Rocket Pool receive commissions from users. The commissions range from 2%-20%, depending on the demand for nodes. If there is more ETH than Smart Nodes can take, the commission goes up to incentivize node operators to join and vice versa.

The nodes, which stake RPL tokens for extra insurance, get better chances to receive higher commissions.

Deposits, rewards, and commissions for Smart Nodes are represented by Rocket Pool’s nETH, which nodes receive if they stop participating in the system before smart contracts on Ethereum 2.0 are implemented.

Ethereum 2.0 won’t have smart contract capabilities until the so-called phase 2 segment is expected 2021-2022.

Once the network transitions to phase 2, users will be able to swap rETH and nETH for the regular ETH.

The Pros and Cons of Rocket Pool

Rocket Pool creates a base pillar for Ethereum 2.0 consensus. Transitioning to PoS consensus brings a new set of potential issues, including the centralization of consensus and insufficient security.

By making staking more accessible, easier, and more profitable than it can be done natively, Rocket Pool incentivizes more users to participate in Ethereum 2.0 consensus, therefore better securing the network.

Crypto organizations and institutions like Grayscale or Binance can act as proxies to Rocket Pool too. Doing so allows them to offer users extra returns on their idle ETH without setting up any staking infrastructure.

Still, while it’s encouraging that the team has vast experience working on the project since 2016, Rocket Pool adds smart contract risk to staking and running nodes. If a smart contract has a bug, it can lead to the loss of stakers’ funds.

Moreover, the platform is somewhat centralized because some of its Smart Nodes are trusted. Although the team plans to onboard users and organizations with a reputation at stake as trusted nodes, trusted elements create bottlenecks in decentralized setups.

Trust nodes will also be responsible for reporting data from Ethereum 2.0, effectively acting as an oracle. While it’s an understandable architecture decision, as Ethereum 2.0 doesn’t have smart contracts, it presents a risk of data manipulation.

The project plans to implement a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), but it’s still developing.

Finally, Rocket Pool doesn’t have a backstop mechanism. RPL security bonding is not mandatory for the nodes. Consequently, if a major part of the pool’s nodes gets wiped by slashing, the system can become insolvent if not enough RPL were staked as insurance.

Rocket Pool Competition

The platform is unique in that it’s focused on the decentralization of staking. There are numerous staking service providers like Bison Trails and Staked, but their operations are centralized, and they don’t onboard any external nodes.

One of Rocket Pool’s closest competitors is Stakewise. The platform provides cloud infrastructure, streamlining the experience of operating a node. However, unlike Rocket Pool, Stakewise requires the full 32 ETH deposit to be able to stake.

Both Rocket Pool and Stakewise provide deposit tokens, which represent ownership in staking pools. These tokens can be integrated into DeFi protocols, opening prospects for users to generate additional yield.

Whether one of the platforms will have an advantage over the other will depend on its token acceptance among DeFi platforms.

Community Reception

The number of users interested in staking ETH is substantial. For example, a corresponding subreddit has 6,800 users.

Currently, Rocket Pool is in beta. 440,544 ETH ($207 million) are staked across 631 node operators.

Meanwhile, the nodes’ commission is 20%, and the node utilization is 100%, which means that more users are willing to stake ETH than Smart Nodes available. Considering that the project gained 5,700 users on Twitter since 2017 and has 700 users in Discord, it’s likely that a handful of whales deposited large amounts of ETH to the pool.

Still, considering Rocket Pool’s early stage of functioning and the early stage of Ethereum 2.0, its traction is adequate. 631 nodes represent almost 15% of 4,478 nodes that currently support Ethereum 1.x.

The Future of Rocket Pool

One of the advantages of Rocket Pool is that it piggybacks on the success of the smart contract platform with the largest community in the space.

If Ethereum 2.0 pans out as expected, Rocket Pool can become a default staking-as-service platform, given its long history of development and early mover advantage.

Rocket Pool’s focus on decentralization, trustlessness, and neutrality will become a building block for centralized and decentralized services on Ethereum 2.0. By the time phase 2 is live, Rocket Pool’s solution will be battle-tested, so it will make more sense for teams to plug into it instead of spinning up staking infrastructures.

Veteran Trader Falls for ADA Scam on Fake CoinDesk Site, Warns Community

Sat, 21 Nov 2020 14:24:12 GMT

Crypto scams are commonplace, netting $4 billion in 2019 alone. Leon Fu of TaiFu Indexes almost lost a significant sum to a scam involving three fake websites. He was only saved by taking security precautions.

Fu posted a tweet on Nov. 19 to describe how he visited what he believed was the CoinDesk website, failing to notice a small alteration to the letter “e” in the domain name.

This scam URL looks almost identical to the real URL used by CoinDesk.

The fake website led him to another decoy, this time imitating the Cardano Foundation website, with the word “Foundation” misspelled.

Finally, satisfied with the information there, Fu clicked the link to what he believed was the AdaLite staking site, not noticing that the “.io” domain had been swapped for “.org.”

The only thing that saved me from losing all my ADA's is I always do test transaction when doing a transaction for the first.

— Leon Fu (@leoncfu) November 19, 2020

Fortunately, Fu’s error was limited to the loss of a few hundred dollars. While he didn’t notice the fraudulent domains, his other security measures protected him from any major loss.

Crypto Scams and Best Practices

Scams in crypto are so prevalent that the SEC launched a fake ICO in 2018 designed to trick gullible investors, redirecting would-be victims to a web page advising on how to avoid scams.

The SEC’s advice to avoid projects promising impossible returns or issuing scant documents to prove their concept is useful information for any investor. However, there are many types of scams.

Taking extra caution when following links is a must for anyone entering financial account details or making a transaction. Checking URLs and Twitter handles to verify their authenticity can prevent losses.

Using a hard wallet is also a good idea when dealing with larger sums. Most exchanges and wallets offer 2FA protection, which traders would do well to implement. Finally, as Fu suggests, sending a test transaction before committing the full amount is another way to avoid falling prey to a scam.

Circle Using USDC Stablecoin to Aid Venezuela Crisis

Fri, 20 Nov 2020 19:59:22 GMT

Circle is partnering with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and Airtm to distribute its stablecoin USDC.

Organized with support from the U.S. government, the initiative has been conceived as a potential solution to Venezuela’s economic difficulties. Since 2016, the country has suffered from hyperinflation, caused in part by Venezuela’s controversial President Nicolás Maduro leaning on money printing.

The country’s difficulties were accelerated this year with the onset of Coronavirus. Hyperinflation has had a particularly disastrous effect on doctors and patients, who have in many cases found that their funds had become worthless.

Circle’s USDC coin has the potential to help in such a scenario because it’s a stablecoin.

That means its value is pegged to the U.S. dollar, so it doesn’t suffer from the same change in price as the Venezuelan bolivar. Moreover, as it’s a digital currency, in many ways it’s easier to distribute amongst those in urgent need.

The Circle collaboration has been led by the President-elect Juan Guaido, and American cryptocurrency exchange Airtm have also shown their support. The U.S. government, meanwhile, provided “coordination and licensing.”

A statement on Circle’s blog outlines how the aid will be distributed. The initiative involves the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve releasing funds to the Guaidó government, which will then use them to mint USDC.

This will then be sent to Airtm, where it will be distributed to the wallets of Venezuelan healthcare workers as AirUSD, a stablecoin backed by Airtm. From there, it can be withdrawn as bolivars at the free market rate.

As Airtm has its own virtual debit card, there’s no need to interact with a Venezuelan bank.

Source: Circle

Airtm currently has approximately 500,000 users in Venezuela, so it’s hoped that the app will provide something of a lifeline at such a crucial stage.

It’s also a significant turning point for Airtm. Only in August, the Maduro government was responsible for blocking the exchange from distributing $18 million in aid. It’s just one example of the party’s dubious policies, which have come under intense scrutiny from much of the rest of the world since the beginning of the Venezuelan crisis.

The partnership is also the first of its kind in history; a digital stablecoin has never been used to provide foreign aid in the past, much less via distribution from the U.S. government.

Circle concluded their announcement of the collaboration with a positive look to the future potential of stablecoins:

“While this may be the first time, it will no doubt not be the last as global stablecoins firmly arrive on the world stage as a foundational infrastructure in the future of the international monetary system.”