Crypto Bubble

2022-04-29 22:15:00 ​​Digital Yuan Giveaway: Shenzhen Residents to Receive 15 Million Yuan in Digital Currency

The Chinese government is giving away 15 million yuan in central bank digital currency (CBDC) to 130,000 residents of Shenzhen this Friday. The digital yuan can be used at nearly 5,000 stores with no minimum purchase required.

Digital Yuan Pilot Continues
China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), continues to test its central bank digital currency (CBDC) with another digital yuan giveaway.

The government of Shenzhen’s Futian district has announced that 15 million yuan ($2.27 million) in digital RMB (e-CNY) will be given to local residents Friday, Global Times reported. It will be divided into 130,000 red packets and given away by raffle via Wechat payment.

Consumers can spend the red packets at nearly 5,000 stores in the district with no minimum purchase required, the publication conveyed, adding that this is the first time that the issuance of digital yuan includes all eight pilot banks and a range of sectors including restaurants and supermarkets.

This is not the first time that the Chinese government is giving away digital yuan in Shenzhen, which is one of the first pilot cities for the e-CNY. In October 2020, the government gave away 10 million digital yuan to Shenzhen residents. At that time, the red packets could only be used at 3,389 designated stores in the Luohu district.

Earlier this month, China’s central bank added more cities to test its digital currency.

Besides Shenzhen, the digital yuan is also being tested in Shanghai, Suzhou, Xiong’an, Chengdu, Hainan, Changsha, Xi’an, Qingdao, Dalian, Tianjin, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen, and six cities in the Zhejiang province that will host the 2022 Asian Games in September. The six cities are Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Shaoxing, Jinhua, and Huzhou.

According to the latest data from the Chinese central bank, the digital yuan had 261 million unique users at the end of 2021. In addition, transactions worth more than 87.5 billion yuan ($13.8 billion) have been made using e-CNY. Open / Comment

2022-04-27 14:08:29 ​​Mastercard and Visa Change their Fee Structure; A Chance for Crypto?

Mastercard and Visa, two big payment networks in the US, have changed their fee structures, and the decision could make businesses turn to cryptocurrencies. These fees, typically charged whenever a customer uses a credit card, generally are a portion of the total transaction. The rise of credit card processing fees is likely to affect many businesses.

What the Fee Increases Mean
The vast majority of the interchange fees go to banks issuing credit cards. A smaller portion goes to Mastercard and Visa, which use their networks to process the transactions. Both companies say the fees help fund fraud prevention and innovation.

Some of the delayed changes due to the pandemic aim to support small businesses and make shopping more convenient for consumers. However, retailers and members of Congress are concerned that these changes will increase the cost of doing business.

Although some companies will see higher fees, Mastercard and Visa say they are reducing their rates for small businesses by 10%. These changes should help make their businesses more competitive and attract more local customers.

A Chance for Crypto?
As credit card fees rise, more merchants will switch to other forms of payment, such as crypto. Although digital assets can also be cheaper than credit cards, they still have transaction fees. For example, despite Bitcoin’s criticism over its transaction fees, many people still believe that it should be considered a legitimate form of payment.

Even better, are current layer two companion networks cheap enough? According to Buterin, various rollups are reducing fees for users of Ethereum significantly. For instance, Arbitrum and Optimism provide fees that are around 8x lower than the Ethereum base layer. These services can also avoid including signatures and have data compression.

Despite the lack of token subsidies, the rollups still see significant adoption. For instance, Arbitrum is worth over $2 billion, and it is one of the first DeFi platforms to show promising signs. However, despite the increasing number of fees these services offer, Buterin believes that they must be cheaper to encourage more adoption in the payments and gaming industries.

On the other hand, Bitcoin LN allows folks to transfer bitcoins without any fees using their digital wallets. The objective of the network is to make it easier for people to make payments between themselves without having to go through the traditional channels. By allowing users to handle transactions off-chain, the network improves the efficiency of the process. Open / Comment

2022-04-25 18:20:00 ​​Entertainment company Mad Realities raises $6 million to create decentralized media

Mad Realities, a new media company, wants to eventually run as a decentralized autonomous organization, where the community co-creates the shows they watch.

The company has raised $6 million in a round led by VC firm Paradigm.

Mad Realities, a new media company, raised a $6 million seed round to become a decentralized entertainment platform that lets viewers own and co-create TV shows based on the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) they hold.

The seed round was led by Paradigm, with participation from funds Maveron, Long Journey, and Paris Hilton’s 11:11 Media. Individual investors included Bumble chief brand officer Selby Drummond, co-founders of crypto social club Friends with Benefits Trevor McFedries and Alex Zhang, Syndicate co-founder Will Papper, and others.

In March, Mad Realities launched its first proof-of-concept dating show, Proof of Love, on YouTube, in which votes on contestants for the show were chosen by a community of NFT holders. Co-founder of Mad Realities, Alice Ma, with a background in product and software engineering, also sold an NFT in March for 4ETH to let the eventual owner nominate contestants they want on the show (including themselves).

Until now, the company was funded by a community of supporters, who pitched in 172 ETH or $500,0000. With the new investment, the company plans to hire engineers to build out the platform and grow the core team.

Co-founder Devin Lewtan previously worked on the Clubhouse show “NYU Girls Roasting Tech Guys,” an interactive dating show that would allow any participant in the room to join a live conversation with someone else while others listened live to see if the two contestants could hit it off or face an eventual roasting by the moderators. The show featured guests like Twitch co-founder Justin Kan and musical artist Diplo.

“Mad Realities is the MTV of this new media network that does not exist yet,” said a statement from the company. “Our shows are social experiences from conception to consumption. We are starting with a dating show, but see all reality TV as a content-led community, a social experience to be shared.”

The long-term vision is to rethink how people consume and interact with the content they watch, with the eventual goal of becoming a decentralized autonomous organization wherein NFT holders, not company executives, decide what happens. Future iterations of the company will include a governance token and moving beyond the dating genre to co-create new types of shows. Open / Comment

2022-04-24 18:05:00 ​​Is Uniswap (UNI) In Trouble? Uniswap To Shut Down Compromised Wallets

Uniswap is preparing to lock out a variety of wallets on its platform. Uniswap, the cryptocurrency exchange that runs on a decentralized network protocol, will be blocking wallets it considers to have been affiliated with illegal activities.

Uniswap Users Might Lose Access To Wallets
On its official website, in its frequently asked question section, Uniswap explains that it intends to curb criminal activ through investigations, in partnership with TRM Labs.

Listing the number of wallets likely to get blocked, an excerpt from its website reads ;

We intend to only block wallets that are owned or associated with clearly illegal behavior like: sanctions, terrorism financing, hacked or stolen funds, ransomware, human trafficking, and child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

In addition, apps that have already been blocked, have been traced to illicit activities, as noted by Uniswap. The platform maintains that it is unlikely that any errors have been made. However, it made provisions for users to make enquiries.

Uniswap also noted that privacy and data practices have not changed for existing users.

Uniswap in troubled waters
The update comes not long after Uniswap got hit with a class action lawsuits. The lawsuits, filled by two U.S firms, — Kim and Serritella LLP and Barton LLP — alleges that Uniswap had breached securities law, after carrying out securities sales branded as digital tokens.

In one of the lawsuit, plaintiff Nessa Riley, a North Carolina based crypto investor, claims to have lost her $10,400 investment in EthereumMax, Matrix Samurai, and Rocket Bunny crypto assets.

She alleges that Uniswap has failed to conduct thorough investigations on fraudulent users of the platforms, who are known to list fake digital tokens.

Uniswap is also being accused of facilitating rug pulls, as well as pump and dump schemes that have taken place on the network. The lawsuit is expected Open / Comment

2022-04-23 14:25:00 ​​Ethereum Holds $3K Support as Unique Interactions Hit Monthly High

The second highest cryptocurrency by market cap, Ethereum, is down 3% but still above crucial support levels of $3,000. Santiment, an on-chain data provider, reports that Ethereum’s address activity has picked up this week, with Wednesday’s 592k unique interactions marking the highest level in over a month. In addition, $ETH social discussions have risen to their highest levels in over two months.

ETH Upgrade is Highly Anticipated
The broader cryptocurrency market has been under pressure. In the past 24 hours, the global crypto market cap has decreased by 2.19% to $1.88T. A total of $107.01B has been traded in the crypto market within the same time, increasing 16.88%.

The upcoming Ethereum Merge will be a significant event for the blockchain industry. With the PoS transition just around the corner, many analysts expect the crypto to reach $10,000.

Investors expect the price of Ethereum to recover from its recent decline. Developers have already completed the first test of the project, the mainnet shadow fork. Developers believe that the successful completion of the second upcoming test will boost the cryptocurrency’s price as the project is close to its transition from a proof-of-work to a proof-of-stake (PoS).

According to experts, the increasing number of addresses with over 10,000 ETH in the network signifies that the PoS transition is gaining momentum. It could lead to a significant increase in the buying pressure.

ETH Price Analysis
This week, Ethereum remained heavily bid and rose beyond the $3,080 barrier level. Even more impressive, ETH broke over the $3,130 resistance zone and settled above the 100 hourly simple moving average.

It even surged up to $3,180 and traded as high as $3,172. A recent negative slump occurred below the $3,130 mark. The price of ether fell below the 23.6 percent Fib retracement level of the upward run from the swing low of $2,880 to the high of $3,172.

The price tested the $3,050 support level and the 100 hourly simple moving average. On the hourly chart of ETH/USD, a significant bullish trend line is forming with support at $3,080. On the upside, an early resistance level was seen near $3,130. The next significant resistance is between $3,170 and $3,180. In the short term, closing over $3,180 might signal the commencement of a significant rising trend. In the above scenario, ether may grow to around $3,250. Near $3,280 or $3,320, it might find the next substantial resistance.

What is Coming?
Bulls performed a classic-long entry today by opening Ethereum price above the pivot and then testing the pivot for support before rallying from there. The current rally in the Ethereum price might continue as the Relative Strength Index moves upwards. The buy-side volume is not overwhelming could put the index in the overbought territory and scare new investors away.

As a result, ETH might stage an additional upside in the following weeks. However, Ethereum has to observe the psychological levels of $3,200, $3,3000, and $3,400. These levels will act as a push to the run-up to $3,500.

The RSI is not indicating a positive increase, which might imply the potential of a bull trap with buyers failing to hold price-action above the monthly pivot. Bears would wait for a breach below the monthly pivot before attempting to push price action down towards $3,000 at the 55-day SMA. If that happens, the price may plummet to $2,695, a decrease of 12 percent overall. Open / Comment

2022-04-22 12:25:03 ​​Top Privacy Coins Blaze Past Bitcoin This Week, Here's Why

Privacy coins have soared higher this week as crypto market sentiment remains mixed. The top three privacy coins Monero (XMR), Zcash (ZEC), and Decred (DCR) are continuously moving higher as the largest cryptocurrencies Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) fail to show any significant movement this week.

In the last 24 hours, privacy coins Monero (XMR), Zcash (ZEC), and Decred (DCR) are up nearly 7%, 6%, and 20% as the coins remain in demand. In the last 7 days, Monero, Zcash, and Decred have surged almost 20%, 14%, and 31%, with prices reaching 2022 highs.

The broader crypto market declined as investors feared more monetary tightening by the Federal Reserve.

Largest Privacy Coins Rally On Network Upgrades
The largest privacy coin Monero (XMR) has been surging significantly higher in the last few days as developers announced the “Fluorine Fermi” upgrade. The upgrade will take place on July 16th at the block height of 2.7 million while the software will be released one month before on June 16th. Hence, users and node operators are required to update their software before the date of upgrade.

The version 0.18 upgrade will introduce new features on the Monero network via a hard fork. An increase in ring size from 11 to 16 will improve the base privacy of transactions on the Monero network. Moreover, an upgraded Bulletproofs algorithm will improve transaction size and verification by almost 5-7%. Thus, reducing transaction time on the network. In addition, to improve the security and resilience of the network, fee changes will be implemented, while also enforcing view tags to reduce wallet sync time by almost 30-40%.

Zcash is also undergoing the major upgrade Network Upgrade 5 between April 19-22, 2022 at a block height of 1.8 million. The upgrade will improve the privacy and scalability of the Zcash network. The advancement to the Halo 2 proving system will remove trusted setups and proof composition. Moreover, the migration to a PoS consensus and the implementation of components of the Cosmos infrastructure.

Decred the best performer
Decred (DCR) prices blew past their peers this week, outperforming most of the crypto market ahead of the key v1.7 upgrade scheduled to take place in early May.

The upgrade is a push towards increasing staking rewards and decreasing pumping-and-dumping by miners. As a result of the privacy upgrade, mining rewards will be reduced from 60% to 10%, while rewards for proof-of-stake (PoS) validators will be increased from 30% to 80%. Thus, users will be incentivized for keeping DCR in their wallets. Open / Comment

2022-04-21 13:15:00 ​​TON Users Donate $1B to Advance Ecosystem, Foundation Says

The TON Foundation, steward of the cryptocurrency project abandoned by messaging app provider Telegram. said it has raised over $1 billion in donations from users to advance its ecosystem.

Donations were made in toncoin, the native currency of the ecosystem, over the course of 10 days starting April 7, according to an announcement Wednesday shared with CoinDesk.

A total of 527 million TON have been donated, worth just over $1 billion at the time of writing.

The funds came via 176 separate donations, with most coming from large holders. Among them, 18 donations were of over 10 million TON and 37 were of over 4 million, a TON Foundation spokesperson told CoinDesk.

The Foundation has been attempting to increase the allure of the TON ecosystem to potential Web 3 builders and developers.

There is no plan to offer a direct incentive for donors, who have been motivated instead by a desire to benefit the TON ecosystem, the spokesperson said. "We think donors realize that TON's success is helped by having a well-capitalized Foundation to support the ecosystem."

The TON Foundation was formed by members of the blockchain's community who wished to keep the project alive after Telegram shut it down in August 2020 following a following a lawsuit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

TON's reincarnation has also recently received $250 million in investment for its first ecosystem fund, with the venture arms of Huobi and Kucoin among the backers.

While toncoin is independent from Telegram, there are plans for it to be integrated fully into the messaging service, which would make it available to the app's 500 million monthly users. Open / Comment

2022-04-20 18:00:10 ​​SEC Slight Win As Court Denies Ripple’s Move to Dismiss Dr. Albert Metz Supplemental Expert Report & Other Developments

Efforts by blockchain company Ripple to strike Dr. Albert Metz’s supplemental expert report have ended in futility, as Judge Sarah Netburn has denied the defendants’ motion to strike.

With the most recent ruling, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s late filings of Dr. Metz’s supplemental expert rebuttal report will stand.

Recall that the deadline for the submission of all expert discovery reports was initially slated for August 16, 2021. However, following several disputes raised, the deadline was pushed to January 14, 2022, and subsequently February 28, 2022.

At the last deadline on February 28, 2022, the SEC served the defendants a new supplemental report from Dr. Metz, while citing information that is already known by Ripple and the Individual Defendants.

Based on this, Ripple moved to strike the Dr. Metz supplemental expert rebuttal report, saying the report does not meet the requirements of Civil Procedure Rule 26(e) and 37(c)(i).

The SEC argued that the defendant’s motion is one filed to strike out expert testimony, which is essential in the case.

“Defendants have not demonstrated that re-deposing Dr. Metz on his additional analysis and potentially filing their own supplemental reports would constitute, as they put it. … Overall, given the harshness of preclusion, I decline to strike Dr. Metz’s supplemental report,” Judge Netburn ruled.

Following the most recent ruling, the court extended the discovery deadline to May 13, 2022, to give more room to re-depose Dr. Metz’s analysis in the supplemental rebuttal report.

It is worth noting that the Dr. Metz report is drafted to show the economic significance and effects of Ripple’s public announcement with regard to the value of the XRP coin. Open / Comment

2022-04-18 13:10:00 ​​Thorchain, Compound Lead DeFi Recovery With Double-Digit Gains

Some decentralized finance (DeFi) assets are defying the broader crypto market slump with significant gains, including Thorchain and Compound.

THORchain (RUNE) is up over 17% in the last 24 hours, while Compound (COMP)—up 16% in the last day—has also gained over 11% in the last week.

Synthetix Network, a decentralized synthetic asset issuance protocol, is also surging, posting over 12% gains in the last day.

These price moves come amid a much more lethargic market for some of the industry’s biggest hitters.

Bitcoin and Ethereum, the two largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, have posted only 2% and 1% gains in the last 24 hours. Over the last seven days, both cryptocurrencies have dropped by 5% and 4% respectively.

DeFi recovery

Earlier this week, Compound was one of several new cryptocurrencies listed by Robinhood, a popular stock and crypto trading platform, including popular meme coin Shiba Inu (SHIB).

Just yesterday, the THORchain team announced a new user interface—THORSwap V2—had gone live at the open beta stage.

“Our fresh new user interface delivers the elegant, user-friendly cross-chain trading and LP experience you’ve been waiting for,” the tweet reads.

THORSwap V2’s Open Beta is live! Our fresh new user interface delivers the elegant, user-friendly Cross-chain trading and LP experience you’ve been waiting for.

Yesterday was also THORchain’s “birthday,” with the DeFi asset now officially one year old.

The Synthetix boost can also likely be attributed to the protocol listing Solana (SOL), Avalanche (AVAX) and Uniswap (UNI)—among others—for futures trading earlier this week. Open / Comment

2022-04-17 15:10:00 ​​Dogecoin Creator Predicts $1 DOGE But Makes Important Clarification

The creator of one of the most popular memecoins on the market, Billy Markus—also known as Shibetoshi Nakamoto, shared a satirical price prediction that gave hope to some DOGE investors in the commentary under the tweet.

But while some newbies in the crypto field felt some reassurance, the Dogecoin creator quickly clarified his message, saying that he meant Hong Kong dollars and not the U.S. dollar.

The satirical nature of the tweet was not welcomed by some investors as they expressed their frustration with Dogecoin's performance on the market in the last 300 days. Since August of last year, DOGE is now showing signs of a recovery and mostly losing value instead of gaining it.

Lately, Dogecoin surprised its investors with a strong 20% after Elon Musk stated that he is willing to buy Twitter, which seemed like positive news for DOGE—famously adored by the entrepreneur. Open / Comment