GildCoin - Crypto News

2021-01-20 21:00:42 ​​UAE Financial Watchdog Set To Regulate Crypto By 2022

The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) has announced plans to implement new regulations for cryptocurrencies in its business plan brochure for the years 2021 to 2022.

“We will build upon recent achievements in this space over the business planning period through developing a regulatory regime for digital assets (such as tokenized securities and crypto-currencies), having already implemented regulations supporting various innovative business models,” the financial watchdog said.

“In doing so, we intend to take a regulatory approach that facilitates innovation while requiring strict adherence to the DFSA’s licensing, prudential and conduct requirements,” according to the DFSA which regulates the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).

While the shape of the designed regulations is not known at this point, the past few years have brought a number of steps by the watchdog which signalled its highly cautious stance on cryptocurrencies. In September 2017, the regulator issued its General Investor Statement on Cryptocurrencies in which the DFSA said it viewed Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) as high risk investments.


“They have their own unique risks, which may not be easy to identify or understand; such risks may increase where offerings are made on a cross-border basis. These offerings should be regarded as high-risk investments,” according to the watchdog.

“The DFSA would like to make it clear that it does not currently regulate these types of product offerings or license firms" in the DIFC "to undertake such activities," the statement said. "Accordingly, before engaging with any persons promoting such offerings in the DIFC, or making any financial contribution toward such offerings, the DFSA urges potential investors to exercise caution and undertake due diligence to understand the risks involved.”

With close to 2,600 registered companies and about 25,600 employees, the DIFC claims to be the leading financial hub in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia region. Open / Comment

2021-01-17 20:00:21 ​​Crypto and Tax in 2021: Be Ready to Pay More

As some may be aware, there are only two things certain in life, death and taxes, and while crypto was initially able to avoid tax (to varying degrees), it would seem that the taxman is finally catching up with the industry. The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) introduced a new tax form at the end of 2020 that requires taxpayers to declare whether they’ve acquired or sold crypto in the past tax year, while 2020 also saw the UK’s HMRC begin developing a system to monitor the dealings of crypto traders.

According to a variety of tax experts working within crypto, 2021 will bring an even greater raft of new tax-reporting measures for the industry.

Paying taxes on crypto gains

Niklas Schmidt, a lawyer and tax adviser with the Austria-based Wolf Theiss, predicts that while most tax authorities worldwide continue to lag behind crypto, 2021 will see this situation change significantly.

“The most important crypto-related tax news that we can expect in 2021 is the extension of CRS to crypto exchanges,” he told.

CRS stands for Common Reporting Standard and is a system introduced by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to combat tax evasion through the usage of offshore bank accounts.

In other words, crypto exchanges are likely to be required to report on their customers’ gains to their customers’ local tax authorities.

“Basically, if an investor opens a bank account in say Switzerland or Panama, the bank will ask the investor for proof of residency and in particular for his taxpayer identification number. Then, on a yearly basis, the bank will report the amount of interest, dividends, etc. earned by the investor as well as the total holdings to its local tax authority, which in turn will automatically transmit this information to the tax authority of the home country of the investor (which can then check whether the investor filed a correct tax return),” he said.

Schmidt added that the EU began a consultation to extend CRS to crypto exchanges at the end of 2020, while the OECD itself has announced that it will formulate a version of CRS for crypto-assets in 2021.

“If agreement on this were reached (which I believe will happen), then crypto traders using centralized exchanges will have to be aware that their tax office will learn about their crypto holdings. It will no longer be possible to do trades on foreign exchanges and thereby hope that the tax authorities will not learn about these activities,” he said.

United States: "Yes" or "No"

One holdout from CRS is the United States, which presumably feels no obligation to report to its ‘friends’ and ‘allies’ on the activities of customers of American businesses. However, it will nonetheless spend much of 2021 ramping up its efforts to track its own citizens’ dealing with crypto, so that it can ultimately spend more money on bombing other nations.

As reported, the IRS made it a lot harder to pretend you don’t have bitcoin (BTC) or other cryptoassets hidden away somewhere. They altered the standard 1040 form by putting this question on the front page: At any time during 2020, did you sell, receive, send, exchange or otherwise acquire any financial interest in any virtual currency? The taxpayer must check the box "Yes" or "No."

At the same time, the expanding requirements of the IRS might be complemented by recent initiatives from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), which recently drew the ire of much of the crypto industry by proposing a new reporting rule for transactions above a certain threshold.

“The new regulations would require banks, cryptocurrency exchanges, money service businesses and some other institutions (financial institutions) to obtain and report the identities of parties engaging in cryptocurrency transactions, including payments involving ‘unhosted wallets,’ if the transaction exceeds USD 3,000,” said international tax lawyer Selva Ozelli. Open / Comment

2021-01-14 20:00:30 ​​This Is The Biggest Risk To Crypto Market According to Pantera Capital CIO

Leveraged trading is the biggest risk to the crypto market in terms of what could cause “something to pop down the line,” according to Joey Krug, Co-chief Investment Officer (CIO) at US-based major crypto investment company Pantera Capital. (Updated at 19:20 UTC with more comments by Joey Krug).

He was speaking during Pantera Capital’s conference call yesterday.

According to Krug, some people get complacent when they realize crypto is here to stay. As a result, they lever up on it, thinking it can’t go down that much because institutions will swoop in and buy, saving the day. But eventually, when the lid blows off and bids are not there, liquidations of levered longs will drive the price down.

During the market crash on January 10-11, more than USD 3bn worth of long positions were liquidated, according to bybt data. To compare, on January 12, over USD 200m worth of short and also more than USD 200m long positions were liquidated.

As reported, crypto researcher and analyst Willy Woo argued that "unlike previous crashes in the past 2 years, where over-leveraged markets lead by trader liquidation, this one started on spot markets, then was greatly amplified by a single exchange partially failing, yet did not turn itself off for the good of the ecosystem."

Leveraged trading refers to borrowing funds so that you can take a larger position than you would be able to with your existing funds so that you can potentially generate a higher profit. However, while margin trading enables traders to amplify their returns, it can also lead to increased losses and liquidations, which is why experienced traders tend to advise newcomers to stay away from leveraged trading.

As for Pantera Capital itself, the firm took some risk off the table when the Market Value to Realised Value (MVRV) ratio rose to its highest level since 2017 a few days ago. The indicator shows how much unrealized gains bitcoin (BTC) holders are sitting on. When this metric gets high, it means the market is overheated, and if it starts to decline, people sell in order to lock-in gains out of panic or fear, Krug explained on the call.

According to Krug, this recent crash was a healthy outcome for this space, noting that people realized some gains and the market pulled back a bit in a consolidation period.

Now, the CIO said, the market is in a good position for the next leg upward and it is his view that the rally is going to continue.

At the time of writing (19:18 UTC), BTC trades at USD 35,805 and is up by almost 3% in a day and less than 1% in a week. It rallied by 86% in a month.

Meanwhile, during the call yesterday, Pantera Capital CEO Dan Morehead described the global macro environment as “off the charts,” pointing to the unprecedented pace at which the United States is printing money each month and “pushing it like crazy.”

As a result, the main two cryptoassets - BTC and ethereum (ETH) - have soared, which illustrates the next point, which is that “this rally has consolidated around bitcoin and ethereum,” according to Pantera slides.

Krug also noted that institutional investors are primarily honing in on bitcoin and ethereum and outside of these two assets there is not a great deal of institutional interest. He also waded into decentralized finance (DeFi), saying that these tokens are getting “pushed up” indirectly by BTC and ETH. The CIO also noted that it will not be this cycle when institutions buy DeFi protocols, adding that it will probably be the next cycle or the one after that.

Another huge development has been the rise of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), a trend that has been led by China, which Morehead noted “has a very big headstart on the world.” And while they don’t directly impact the price of tokens that are not pegged to fiat money like stablecoins, they will still introduce “billions of people” to the market including those without bank accounts but with smartphones, Morehead said. Open / Comment

2021-01-11 20:00:11 ​​Not Only Bitcoin Price Is Changing During This Bull Run

As the most popular cryptocurrency, bitcoin (BTC), keeps scoring its new all-time highs, industry observers see important changes on the BTC adoption front too.

According to Anthony Lauriola, Chief Operating Officer at blockchain portfolio company Dan Holdings, in 2020, we saw “a significant shift in the way people view cryptocurrency,” as people are starting to see it more as a method of payment and not just a store of value - a trend Lauriola said will continue into 2021. “As we see more global entities entering the crypto space, we will likely continue to see bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies continue to increase in price, value, and popularity.” Additionally, crypto adoption in emerging markets will also play a part in overall market growth in the coming years.

Also, as governments are forced to print mass amounts of cash to offset negative effects on the economy, many people have turned to bitcoin to hedge against inflation. “We may start to see the effects of this in 2021 and I believe this could be the driving factor for a bitcoin bull market," Lauriola said, estimating that BTC will hit USD 100,000 this year.

Lauriola further argued that, last year, there was a large increase in the number of people who relied on cryptocurrencies and digital payments for remittances and bill payments in many regions of Africa.

“There is still a lot to be learned as far as individuals using cryptocurrency as a payment method, but we are beginning to see the barriers to entry being lowered as technology becomes more accessible for everyone.”

Similarly, Philippe Bekhazi, CEO of stablecoin platform Stablehouse, expects that "any further economic fallout from the pandemic will spur growth of payment networks predicated on bitcoin or ethereum in emerging economies."

Meanwhile, IBMR Managing Director Sinjin David Jung offered an historic perspective.

“While it might seem like a bubble there is a very big difference from other times in the past, like 2008 we had issues in terms of the financial markets and how opaque they were,” he said. The stock market was getting bigger at the time, as were tech stock valuations. And unlike the internet euphoria of 1995-1999, when the internet was “as a single network” … now you have layers of networks, networks upon networks.” He said that this is a very different time and expects this bull market to continue on for the next almost 2 years.

"After that all bets are off but we’re definitely entering into a new economic reality structurally because of the way technology now has changed the way production is globally to create this exponential network upon network framework," he added.

In either case, the general consensus seems to be that BTC will trade between USD 50,000 and USD 100,000 in 2021.

“Considering how well bitcoin has profiled itself thus far in the coronavirus aftermath and given the outlook from our current macroeconomic environment, we're expecting 2021 to be a phenomenal year for bitcoin. It's not entirely unlikely that we'll see bitcoin trade in the USD 50k - USD 100k range,” Eric Wall, the Chief Investment Officer of the crypto hedge fund outfit Arcane Assets.

According to CoreLedger CEO Johannes Schweifer, USD 100,00 is "only 5 times" from its historic all-time high of 2017: "Bitcoin has shown it can grow more than that in a shorter timespan than one year, so it is more than possible."

At the time of writing (09:14 UTC), BTC trades at USD 41,067 and is up by almost 128% in a month and 405% in a year.

Meanwhile, Sinjin David Jung argued that “as the vaccine kicks in and the stimulus comes out the economy is going to get a kick start but people are still going to be wary of traditional assets and while they probably will still sock something away in the current stock market it will also be in cryptocurrencies.” Open / Comment

2021-01-07 21:00:31 ​​Bitstamp, Korbit Owner Set to Take Control of Bithumb

The owner of Nexon, the South Korean gaming giant and the owner of the Bitstamp and Korbit crypto exchanges, has reportedly agreed on a deal worth USD 458m to buy a controlling stake in Bithumb, the nation’s market-leading trading platform.

Bithumb has been looking for a sale for several months after a failed takeover and accusations of fraud against two key executives. The exchange was placed on the market last year, with Samjong KPMG placed in charge of finding a buyer.

A number of parties expressed an interest in the exchange, but many have been put off by a new set of stringent compliance and regulatory measures set to promulgate in March, as well as an unresolved legal issue that could cost the platform USD 67 million in unpaid taxes.

But, per Maeil Kyungjae, Nexon supremo Kim Jung-ju has decided to take the plunge, in a deal that will see him take up a controlling 65% stake in the trading platform.

Lee Jong-cheol, a blockchain business consultant based in Seou.

“If this report is true, Mr. Kim appears to have got a very good deal. Buying the country’s biggest exchange for a discounted price when the crypto market is booming is a remarkable coup.”

The exchange was valued at just under USD 600m, but it appears that the owners’ desire to exit the market post haste drew them to consider a much lower price.

Kim’s involvement in the crypto industry has been very eventful. His Nexon firm (and the NXC holding company) made its first crypto buy, Korbit, in September 2017, later moving to buy the European exchange Bitstamp in October 2018. Last year, NXC announced it was launching a third exchange from scratch.

However, in 2019, Kim spent much of the year looking to exit the business world altogether, putting his whole company up for sale, before making a u-turn and deciding to stay in the game.

Lee added,

“Expect the unexpected seems to be the rule of the game in South Korea’s crypto industry these days.” Open / Comment

2021-01-04 21:00:26 ​​Blockstream Debuts Open-source Hardware Bitcoin Wallet

The Vancouver, Canada-based major blockchain firm Blockstream said it has launched an open-source, battery-powered hardware wallet for storing bitcoin (BTC) and digital assets issued on the Liquid Network, including tokens like the stablecoin tether (USDT).

The wallet is named Blockstream Jade.

Fronted by British Bitcoin OG Adam Back, a man some internet theorists suspect may be the “real” Satoshi Nakamoto, the firm currently operates the Blockstream Green crypto wallet.

“Having our own hardware wallet will also allow us to roll out advanced hardware wallet features faster,” said Back.

And the Canadian firm stated that its new USD 39.99 wallet would initially provide Blockstream Green support for Android only, but claimed that desktop support was “right around the corner,” with iOS support to follow “soon after,” as well as “the ability to connect the hardware wallet through Bluetooth LE.”

Also, the company said it will activate a few ‘dormant’ features through software updates over the course of 2021.

“One example is the on-board camera. Once activated, the camera combined with the full-color screen will enable you to complete transactions entirely through QR codes, ensuring that you won’t even need to take the risk of connecting your Blockstream Jade to an online device through a cable or Bluetooth,” said Lawrence Nahum, Chief Architect at Blockstream.

The new device features a 1.14-inch IPS LCD display.

Meanwhile, the new hardware wallet in combination with their online wallet offers the multisignature functionality.

Blockstream’s Chief Security Officer took to Twitter to claim that users could even build their own devices at home “from scratch” if they are “worried about supply chain risk or ordering from our store.” “Advanced users,” he said “could flash Jade firmware onto an M5Stack Fire” IoT device they would have to put together using a home assembly kit. Open / Comment

2021-01-01 20:00:23 ​​Total Tokenization, Taproot, Bitcoin ETF + More News

Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.

Adoption news

The vice president of the Russian metals giant Norilsk Nickel has spoken out about his company’s ambitious tokenization plans, saying new platforms now make it possible to “tokenize anything.” The firm has recently unveiled its first offerings on its metals token platform, which was green-lighted by the Russian Central Bank earlier in the year. And in an interview with Indicator, VP and sales chief Anton Berlin said his company is following a business model that “assumes Russian regulation” on crypto and tokenization-related issues “will gradually change,” becoming more business-friendly in 2021 and beyond.

Bitcoin news

With the agreement by Binance Pool, the mining pool run by major crypto exchange Binance, all the major pools are now prepared to support Taproot, one of the most anticipated Bitcoin (BTC) upgrades, and its largest alteration since 2017. According to crypto mining pool Poolin VP Alejandro De La Torre, Binance Pool finally said 'yes' to the upgrade support, after being the only one with over 10% of the network that hadn't done so. "Mining pools in favor of the taproot upgrade now at 91.05%!!," said De La Torre.

Major US asset manager VanEck has once again submitted an application to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an exchange-traded fund (ETF) based on bitcoin (BTC), the "VanEck Bitcoin Trust." The document was filed on December 30, saying the ETF would trade on the Cboe BZX Exchange.

Regulation news

The Serbian government will permit the issuance and trading of digital assets and related services under the Digital Asset Law, which officially went into effect on December 29, eight days after it had been published in the official gazette, thus reversing the country's previous policy. It will be applied six months from now. Per the law, digital asset service providers in Serbia can operate after "obtaining permission from the supervisory authority," while the Securities Commission and the National Bank of Serbia are tasked with the supervision and applying the law.

Bitcoin custodian firm BitGo agreed to pay USD 93,830 in a settlement pact with the US Treasury for 183 "apparent violations" of multiple sanctions programs related to digital currency transactions, said the announcement. As a result of deficiencies related to BitGo's sanctions compliance procedures, it said, BitGo failed to prevent persons in the Crimea, Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and Syria from using its non-custodial wallet service. The statutory maximum civil monetary penalty applicable in this matter is USD 53m, the department said.

The US Treasury Department's proposed rules per which users would be required to comply with Know-Your-Customer (KYC) measures if they want to send their crypto to a private wallet may be ineffective, found blockchain analytics firm Elliptic. The firm said in their open letter that the rules could "adversely impact" the effectiveness of existing Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regulations, that the rules overstate the risks proposed by unhosted wallets as transactions can already be traced, that the Treasury’s 15-day comment period for this rule is "unjustifiably short," and that rules "would impose an unjustified tax" on financial innovation. Open / Comment

2020-12-28 20:00:21 ​​2021 Trends in CBDCs: More Pilots, Maybe Some Launches, But Not For Retail

The more the price of bitcoin (BTC) rises, the more institutions and corporations become interested in this most popular cryptocurrency. However, the same relationship doesn’t seem to hold for central banks and governments: instead, the more the price of bitcoin rises, the more central banks and governments become interested in central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

Regardless of whether this prioritization of CBDCs over cryptocurrencies is a good thing for crypto, it looks like that the momentum behind central bank digital currencies will only grow in 2021. This is not only because of the crypto market’s recent rally, but because Facebook’s Libra stablecoin (now Diem) is estimated to launch next year.

But according to industry experts and central banks, the main focus for CBDCs in 2021 will be on wholesale — rather than retail — digital currencies. And while 2021 will bring an increase in CBDC trials and research, it’s unlikely that any major central bank will actually launch its own digital currency in 2021.

Wholesale CBDCs, not retail

A spokesperson for the Swiss National Bank (SNB) confirmed that it will spend 2021 collaborating on a potential wholesale CBDC, which would be used exclusively between central and private banks, mostly for interbank settlements.

“Together with the BIS Innovation Hub and SIX, the SNB will continue its work on wholesale CBDC (w-CBDC) as part of Phase 2 of Project Helvetia,” he said.

The SNB still isn’t committed to actually launching a wholesale CBDC, but one thing it’s clearer on is its position with regards to general/retail CBDCs.

“Broad access to digital central bank money would call the existing two-tier banking system into question. Instead of being the banker to the banks, as it is today, the SNB would act as a commercial bank, taking on the role that is currently played by the private sector,” the SNB’s spokesperson said.

The bank also told that broad access to digital central bank money “could pose a threat to financial stability.” It also stated that “cashless payments in Switzerland are already reliable, secure and efficient and the system is continuously being updated and refined.”

This pro-wholesale position is echoed in part by the European Central Bank, although it does seem a little more open to at least experimenting with retail CBDCs at some point.

According to a spokesperson speaking to Cryptonews on background, the ECB’s main concern in 2021 will be working with European central banks on testing how a digital euro might fit and complement existing central bank settlement services. This focus was explicitly stated in a speech given by the ECB’s Fabio Panetta on November 27:

“First, we will test the compatibility between a digital euro and existing central bank settlement services (such as TIPS). Second, we will explore the interconnection between decentralized technologies, such as distributed ledgers, and centralized systems,” he said.

Panetta also mentioned that the ECB “will investigate the use of payment-dedicated blockchains with electronic identity,” which might imply experimentation with a retail CBDC. However, in the same speech, he also noted that the Eurozone is already working towards instant payments as part of its current infrastructure, so a retail CBDC will unlikely be needed in terms of speed and efficiency.

More pilots, maybe a few launches

The ECB and SNB will certainly be busy with trials and research in 2021, and so will other central banks worldwide.

“From our discussions with governments exploring this technology, we can expect a few central banks to take the lessons they have learned this year and begin putting CBDCs into practice in 2021. Yet, for most governments, 2021 will be a year of further education and understanding,” said Denelle Dixon, the CEO and executive director of the Stellar Development Foundation. Open / Comment

2020-12-25 20:00:27 ​​Bitcoin & Crypto Taxes In US: When to Sell and When to Hodl

With 2021 in sight, bitcoin (BTC) and other crypto investors in the US are facing a fork in the road. They can cash in on the gains that 2020 has delivered and take profits off the table or continue to hodl until the new year or longer. Whichever way they decide to go will determine when and how much they will have to fork over to Uncle Sam come tax day.

That was then, this is now

Sharon Yip, certified public accountant (CPA), a crypto tax advisor working closely with crypto tax software company CoinTracking, spoke to Cryptonews about the tax dynamics for crypto investors. Yip, whose practice is dedicated to helping cryptoasset investors and blockchain companies dealing with crypto taxes, explained how in 2018, many people weren’t prepared to pay crypto-related taxes.

Many investors lost money as their portfolios tumbled in value. And when tax time came around, she said, they didn’t have the money to cover the bill. So they either intentionally avoided reporting their crypto transactions or simply didn’t know how to.

Now many of those investors are in hot water after receiving notices from the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) related to 2018. This effort came as a result of US crypto exchanges like Coinbase issuing 1099-K forms to certain customers, which allowed the tax agency to match the forms with individuals who didn’t report their taxes. Investors whose crypto payments exceed USD 20,000 or who have completed more than 200 transactions are the recipients of a 1099-K.

“This is very serious. Based on the people who received the tax notice and contacted us for help, we’ve seen a range of tax assessments go from USD 45,000 to USD 1.5m based on sales proceeds once you throw in penalties and interest,” said Yip, adding that every single time you trade, it adds up. “It’s like a snowball that keeps rolling bigger.”

Taxable event

The IRS classifies cryptoassets as property. Yip’s advice to investors who are looking to capture a profit in this bull market is to have a clear idea about gains and losses and not to make assumptions. CoinTracking advises clients to make tax projections to gauge how much they might owe. Even if you have a full-time job with a W2 and just trade on the side, it might not be enough to cover taxes for capital gains. As a result, you could end up with a large balance due, which could trigger penalties for underpayment.


First and foremost, Yip explained, investors should know that every crypto transaction is a taxable event. The only time it’s not taxable is if you purchase crypto with fiat money, which is akin to buying stock. But if you are buying one crypto with another crypto, it’s a taxable event.

“It’s a two-step transaction. For example, if you’re using BTC to buy EOS, you are treated as if you are selling BTC for USD and then use the USD to buy the second coin, EOS. This situation will recognize a tax gain or loss,” explained Yip.

“People are not prepared and have no idea how to handle this. Whether they pocket the profits or invest in other coins that could go higher, people really need to be prepared for the tax consequences. I’m shocked how people thought as long as they didn’t cash out, they don’t have to pay taxes.”

She gives the scenario of an investor buying BTC at USD 5,000. Now that it’s trading at USD 23K, they might sell it and use the proceeds to buy another coin. Even though they put zero cash back in their pocket, it’s a taxable event.

“From the IRS’ perspective, it’s the same whether you sold at USD 23,000 and pocketed the money or turned around and bought another coin. It’s your choice,” Yip said.

It is a common belief that the majority of crypto investors didn’t report their crypto transactions on tax returns, and as Yip noted, the government needs the money now more than ever with all of the stimulus it is giving away. Open / Comment

2020-12-21 20:00:42 ​​How Many Spark Tokens XRP Holders Get - Question Answered

A little more than a week after blockchain platform Flare Network took a snapshot of the XRP blockchain, it has completed its calculations and found out how many spark (FLR) tokens the eligible XRP holders will get.

According to Flare's blog post, "after a week of analysis with Flare's partners, XRPLORER and Towo Labs, the XRP:FLR claim ratio can now be set out." They said that to maintain the strict minimum 1:1 distribution ratio, the distribution amount is increased from 45bn Spark tokens previously stated to FLR 45,827,728,412.

Therefore, "for each 1 XRP held then 1.0073 FLR (rounded to 4 decimal places) can be claimed," wrote CEO Hugo Philion.

As a reminder, Flare Network is backed by Ripple's investment arm RippleX, and it's working on a system that aims to help blockchains interact with XRP. Its native token is spark, created by a utility fork of XRP. The team behind the network took a snapshot of the entire XRP blockchain on December 12, searching for the addresses that held XRP in the crypto exchanges and wallets that participated in the 45bn-spark-heavy airdrop.

Flare is creating 100bn spark tokens, which will be distributed as they become available, with the network excepted to go live in Q1-Q2 2021. As for the airdrop, the eligible users need to nothing, given that they will receive the tokens automatically. They'll receive 15% of the total spark for which they are eligible at launch, and the rest should be distributed over a minimum of 25 months and a maximum of 34 months, after which any remaining undistributed spark will be burned or distributed based on a governance vote.

As reported, 110 exchanges supported the airdrop, including Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, OKEx, Huobi, and others, as well as a number of wallets.

At 10:54 UTC, XRP is trading at USD 0.53. It dropped 8% in a day and appreciated more than 7% in a week. Meanwhile, it went up 43% in a month, and 173% in a year. Out of the four time frames, it outperformed bitcoin (BTC) in the monthly gains one. Open / Comment