Blockchain Explained

2023-05-03 04:52:02 PEPE Token Soars to $500M Market Cap as Memecoin Fever Grips Crypto Traders

PEPE, the token that sprouted out of the "pepe the frog" meme, has rocketed to a $502 million market cap following a 2,100% rise since it was issued last month. According to Ethereum block explorer etherscan, PEPE has around 75,000 holders with several wallets – excluding centralized exchanges – holding in excess of $5 million worth of the tokens.

The PEPE token surged by a 350% over the weekend alone, and derivatives exchange BitMEX on Tuesday said it is listing perpetual swaps for the token, which will allow traders to trade the volatile asset with as much as 50x leverage. Whilst hype around the meme token continues to build, some early investors have been cashing out. One trader sold $2 million worth of the token using Metamask swaps, they ended up losing $350,000 as they were hit with 25% slippage due to minimal liquidity. Another trader temporarily tanked the price of PEPE by almost 50% as they cashed out $678,000 worth of the token.

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2023-05-02 04:44:02 Coinme, Subsidiary and CEO Fined $4M by SEC Over UpToken Offering

Bitcoin (BTC) kiosk company Coinme has agreed to pay nearly $4 million to settle charges by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleging it was party to an unregistered security offering, the regulator announced Friday. Coinme, its subsidiary Up Global SEZC and the CEO of both entities, Neil Bergquist, were all named in the order for allegedly running a crypto fundraiser known as an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2017 for "UpToken.".

The SEC accused the parties of "making false and misleading statements concerning the demand for UpToken and the amount raised in the offering." The order is the latest in a string of enforcement actions and heavy fines by the securities regulator that has forced some firms to shutter all or part of their operations. The SEC alleged Bergquist and Up Global worked to obtain UpToken supply "that would substantially reduce Coinme's need to purchase UpToken" following the ICO, leading to "publicly inflated amounts raised." To settle the charges, Up Global agreed to pay a $3,520,000 penalty, while Coinme agreed to pay a separate $250,000 penalty and Bergquist agreed to pay $150,000.

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2023-05-01 04:26:02 Bitcoin transactions reach record high as Inscriptions surge

The daily number of transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain reached a new all-time high yesterday when tracked using a seven-day moving average. According to The Block's data, the on-chain metric reached a record high of over 408,000 transactions. The previous record was just over 406,000. Chinese reporter Colin Wu also noticed the record high, citing a seven-day average of 426,337.14 transactions from Glassnode data.

The record-high daily average transaction count on Bitcoin may be related to Inscriptions — which have increased demand for block space on the leading blockchain. Inscriptions are the metadata added to satoshis, the smallest unit of bitcoin. They may include information as digital entries on Bitcoin's distributed public ledger. Daily Inscriptions reached a new all-time high yesterday of more than 223,000, according to data from Dune Analytics. According to Grayscale, the activity surrounding Ordinals and Inscriptions may be good for the OG blockchain. The crypto asset manager wrote that the "unexpected surge in popularity may indicate a shift in the broader perception of Bitcoin, despite its reputation as an ossified blockchain."

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2023-04-30 03:24:02 Crypto-friendly Cross River Bank faces FDIC scrutiny over 'unsafe' practices

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation issued a consent order to crypto-friendly Cross River Bank regarding “unsafe or unsound banking practices.” The FDIC supplies insurance for depositors in American commercial banks and savings banks. A spokesperson did not comment but directed The Block to the consent order which was issued on March 8 and made public Friday. A Cross River Bank spokesperson said the order is "the result of a standard review" pertaining to aspects of the bank's lending processes two years ago.

“The FDIC considered the matter and determined, and the bank neither admits or denies, that it engaged in the unsafe or unsound banking practices related to its compliance with applicable fair lending laws and regulations by failing to establish and maintain internal controls, information systems, and prudent credit underwriting practices,” the 34-page consent order said. Since that time, we proactively made significant enhancements to our fair lending and other programs including investing in technology and personnel. At this time many of the enhancements have been completed or will be completed in the coming months," the spokesperson said in a statement to The Block.

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2023-04-29 03:20:04 Hong Kong Opens New Opportunities By Allowing Crypto Firms Access to Banks

Hong Kong regulators are pressing banks to offer critical services to cryptocurrency firms as part of a multifaceted effort to promote the city as an industry powerhouse. With the pandemic gone, the Hong Kong economy is recovering speedily, and many newly created or abroad enterprises are eager to open bank accounts in Hong Kong to investigate commercial prospects.

Banks are speeding up the processing of account opening applications in response to increased demand. In effect, there have been increasing complaints about how difficult it is to get an account, with some claiming that banks would reject applications owing to anti-money laundering (AML) concerns and perceived high risks. In a blog post signed by Arthur Yuen, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s deputy chief executive, the watchdog said it expected regulated virtual asset service providers (VASPs) to be able to successfully register for a bank account via a fair procedure. Hong Kong banks from offering banking services to virtual (VA) linked organizations.

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2023-04-28 03:27:02 Baby Doge Has Announced To Integrate With Trust Wallet

The attention of cryptocurrency investors has been drawn to memes such as Dogecoin, the Shiba Inu, and Baby Doge. Although Dogecoin was instrumental in starting the crypto meme movement, subsequent meme initiatives have been responsible for the continuous expansion of the community and the raising of their status. During the bull market that began in 2021, Baby Doge Coin has amassed a significant amount of popularity.

Baby Doge was just just added to KuCoin’s exchange, and the creator has announced that a virtual cryptocurrency card will be released on May 4. One of the most recent statements made by Baby Doge is that the company has been able to successfully connect with Trust Wallet. According to the information provided in the statement, the newly integrated functionality will make it possible for users to trade BabyDoge directly within Trust Wallet. The Trust Wallet is a cryptocurrency wallet that supports a wide variety of other cryptocurrencies. The wallet was made available to the public in 2017. It’s compatible with over 65 different blockchains and over 4.5 million assets.

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2023-04-27 03:08:02 Uniswap Trading Volume Has Surpassed Coinbase, Reached $1.5 Trillion

The crypto market has seen several upheavals since 2022, but Uniswap has maintained its place in the defi field. It is remains the world’s largest decentralized exchange, with over $4 billion in total locked value (TVL) across all blockchains. Uniswap Labs claims Dune Analytics statistics indicating that the platform surpassed $1.5 trillion in trading volume in April. Due to the implementation of harsh laws in the United States, as well as the collapse of the centralized exchange FTX, investors have flocked to decentralized platforms.

For the second month in a row, the platform trading volume has exceeded Coinbase’s. The recent Pepe meme trend is another reason that has contributed to Uniswap’s success. This issue has fueled interest in non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which are one-of-a-kind digital assets held on the blockchain. With many users flocking to the platform to buy and sell these assets, the platform has been at the forefront of the NFT boom. Uniswap‘s daily active users have risen to approximately 85,000, a significant increase from May 2021. This increase comes just a week after the site announced the release of a mobile wallet app to help push Defi use. This wallet solution allows customers to purchase cryptocurrencies with a 2.55% fiat on-ramp cost. It also enables users to exchange currencies on popular DeFi platforms like Polygon, Arbitrum, and Optimism.

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2023-04-26 03:05:07 Terraform Labs co-founder Daniel Shin and nine others for multiple charges

South Korean prosecutors have indicted Terraform Labs co-founder Daniel Shin and nine others for multiple charges — including capital markets law violation, illegal trading, and breach of trust. This is a significant development in the ongoing Terra blockchain scandal, which has already seen the arrest of Shin’s counterpart, Do Kwon, in Montenegro. The indictment marks the first step in the prosecutor’s attempt to bring those involved in the Terra blockchain to trial.

According to a report by Bloomberg, the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office has frozen assets worth 246.8 billion won ($184.7 million) from the indictees. This is a significant sum of money, and it remains to be seen how the defendants will respond to this development. The Terra blockchain scandal has been ongoing for some time and has already resulted in the seizure of houses, cars, and other assets from Shin and other unnamed employees of the failed crypto project. While Shin had earlier denied his involvement in the project, it is clear that the authorities view him as a key figure in the scandal. It is worth noting that previous attempts to arrest Shin in 2022 were frustrated after a South Korean court refused to grant the arrest warrant.

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2023-04-25 04:21:02 DeFi Protocol Thetanuts Finance Raises $17M for Expansion, New Partnerships

Thetanuts Finance, a multi-chain structured products protocol, has closed a $17 million funding round led by Polychain Capital, Hyperchain Capital and Magnus Capital. The new funding will help the company create new partnerships with layer 1 and layer 2 networks, liquidity providers, blockchain foundations, market makers and exchanges.

The fundraise comes as the industry continues to slowly climb out of the crypto winter deep freeze that’s nearly stalled the investment landscape. Infrastructure product shave proven most resilient and decentralized finance (DeFi) projects have taken favor over centralized products after the collapse of centralized exchange FTX last fall. Thetanuts Finance is a DeFi firm offering a range of crypto structured products that cater to a wide customer base, including option traders, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), market makers and other liquidity providers. Users of the platform can earn yield on major cryptocurrencies and popular altcoins, provide liquidity.

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2023-04-24 04:45:05 Bitcoin Is Now Accepted At The Grand Bazaar In Istanbul

Bitcoin has now been accepted at the Grand Bazaar, one of the largest and oldest covered malls in the world in Turkey. The Bitcoin community has been sharing pictures on Twitter of stores in the Grand Bazaar accepting Bitcoin and Tether (USDT). Turkey launched a monetary reversal strategy last year, cutting interest rates as all other nations raised them, and the lira’s value is dropping.

To escape government control, they pay a greater premium than the official exchange rate to acquire US dollars, and the premium rate has hit its highest level since last year. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s strict financial regulations have restored the Grand Bazaar, which was once the heart of world trade in the 15th century. The move has also given rise to a new parallel exchange rate for the Turkish lira among the covered labyrinth of antique stores, jewelry boutiques, trinket-selling kiosks, and leather merchants. When limitations on local electoral banks tighten in the weeks before a high-stakes election, that parallel rate has become more entrenched.

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