InCoin Eng (crypto news)

2022-01-18 18:29:01 Microsoft bets $69 billion on games and meta universe

Microsoft said it will acquire Activision Blizzard for $95.00 per share, about 45% more than it was valued before the announcement, in an all-cash deal worth $68.7 billion, "including Activision Blizzard's net cash," adding that:

"This acquisition will accelerate the growth of Microsoft's mobile, PC, console and cloud gaming business and provide the building blocks for the meta-universe."

Per Satya Nadella, Microsoft chairman and CEO:

"Gaming is the most dynamic and exciting entertainment category on all platforms today, and it will play a key role in the development of the meta-universe platforms."

"When the deal closes, Microsoft will become the world's third-largest gaming company by revenue after Tencent and Sony." Open / Comment

2022-01-17 21:39:02 OpenSea: NFTs are buying up like hotcakes

NFT trading volumes on the OpenSea Marketplace are already breaking records. According to Dune Analytics, the new record monthly trading volume on the marketplace was $3.5 billion.

The number of active OpenSea users is also breaking records. By mid-January, the number had surpassed 365,000, and in December it was at 362,000.

The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection is selling and buying best on the marketplace. In the last 24 hours, $47 million worth of NFTs from this collection have been sold.

BAYC was launched in April 2021. The collection includes more than 10,000 digital images, also called monkey avatars. These are ERC-721 tokens on the Ethereum network and sell them for ETH. Members of the cryptocommunity attribute the popularity of Bored Ape Yacht Club to the great variety of art styles. The BAYC collection is completely sold out and NFTs from it can be bought on the secondary market at a much higher price. Open / Comment

2022-01-17 20:46:01 Bitmain introduced a new miner with 198 TH/s hash rate

ASIC miner manufacturer Bitmain introduced the Antminer S19 Pro+ Hyd with liquid cooling system.

According to the announcement, the new model will provide a hash rate of 198 TH/s with energy efficiency of 27.5 J/TH. Antminer S19 Pro+ Hyd consumes 5,445 watts.

In November, the vendor introduced the S19XP model based on 5nm chips from TSMC. Its parameters are 140 TH/s, 21.5 J/TH and 3010W.

The website does not specify the price of Antminer S19 Pro+ Hyd. According to the company, it is scheduled to ship between May and September 2022.

Recall that in May Bitmain placed an order with TSMC for 5-nanometer chips for its equipment. Open / Comment

2022-01-15 20:01:01 Investors in NFT owe billions of dollars in taxes

As Bloomberg notes, the IRS has not provided clear rules on the taxation of collectible tokens. However, this does not exempt NFT investors and creators from paying taxes, and the IRS may well investigate their activities and impose penalties.

There really is no clarity in the tax calculations. For example, tax experts agree that when a token is issued and initially sold, the owner must file a single income tax return and pay a 37% tax. Investors in tokens must pay income tax.

But there's controversy here - whether NFTs should be characterized as collectibles, since the tax on long-term income from such items is 28%. But for investments in cryptocurrencies and stocks, the tax is 20%.

"We are likely to see an increase in tax evasion cases for investments in NFTs, as well as tax evasion cases for crypto-assets," the IRS believes. Open / Comment

2022-01-15 18:07:01 Rio de Janeiro could invest 1% of its reserves in bitcoin

Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes said that the capital could become the first city in Brazil to acquire bitcoin as a savings vehicle.

It is possible that Paes wants to follow in Suarez's footsteps, so he announced that today the city of Rio de Janeiro will publish a decree creating a special working group to deal with various issues related to the purchase of bitcoins. The initial goal is to allocate 1% of the city's currency reserves to BTC.

Over the past few years, the Brazilian real has lost more than 45% of its value against the U.S. dollar. Over the same period, BTC has gained 900% against the U.S. dollar.

Paes also promised that if Rio de Janeiro city residents decide to pay their taxes in BTC, they can get discounts of up to 7%. Open / Comment

2022-01-14 19:10:13 User lost $137,000 while trying to buy fees.WTF tokens

The fees.WTF service conducted an airdrop of WTF tokens among Ethereum users who spent at least 0.05 ETH (~$160) to pay for gas on the network. Within a few hours the price of the asset dropped 66%.

fees.WTF allows you to track the commissions that users spend on gas on the Ethereum network. WTF tokens can be placed in a staking pool, which at the time of writing promises an annual return of 1,400%.

According to onchain data, when the initial WTF-WETH pool was created on the Uniswap platform, developers contributed more than 2,111 WTFs and just 0.000001 WETH.

The liquidity imbalance allowed users to sell relatively small amounts of WTF for large amounts of WETH. In contrast, WTF buyers purchased tokens at inflated values.

For example, due to such slippage, one user mistakenly exchanged 42 WETH (~$137,700) for 0.00004 WTF (~$0.0000037). Open / Comment

2022-01-14 16:47:01 Tesla started selling merch for Dogecoin. The currency went up almost 20%

Now on the Tesla website, items available for purchase with cryptocurrency are marked with a special icon. For 835 Dogecoin you can buy a belt buckle with Tesla logo, and a children's electric quad bike Cyberquad was put up for 12,020 Dogecoin. Also for 300 tokens you can buy a whistle in the shape of a Cybertruck SUV.

Acceptance of cryptocurrency payments was previously announced by the head of the company Ilon Musk. "Tesla Merch can be bought for Dogecoin," the billionaire wrote on his Twitter account.

Following Musk's announcement, the value of Dogecoin jumped 18%, surpassing the $0.2 mark. The coin's market capitalization rose to $26.45 billion.

In a December 2021 interview with The Time, Musk stated that Dogecoin "encourages people to spend money rather than save it." The billionaire also added that although Dogecoin was created as a "silly joke," it is "better suited for transactions" than bitcoin. Open / Comment

2022-01-13 20:27:02 Rumors of an imminent listing on Robinhood pushed up the price of Shiba inu

The Shiba inu meme token (SHIB) is up 14% in the last 24 hours following reports that the Robinhood trading platform may finally list it.

SHIB was trading up to $0.0000322, its highest level since January 5, while trading volumes were up 62%. Despite this SHIB is still trading 64% below its October highs.

The source of the information came from First Squawk, a financial news account on Twitter. According to its information, SHIB's listing on Robinhood could happen in February. A number of First Squawk reports in the past have been misleading, such as that the Chicago Mercantile Exchange was going to list Dogecoin futures. Some believe the account is being used to manipulate the market.

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev denied in October that the platform has plans to add SHIB in the near future: Open / Comment

2022-01-13 19:35:07 Miners in Kazakhstan resume their activities

After early January saw a decline in the total bitcoin hash rate in the world due to the Internet outage in Kazakhstan, there has been a gradual increase: over the day - plus 2.4%, to 172 thousand Ph/s. According to some estimates, the activity of bitcoin miners in Kazakhstan has now recovered to 85%.

If the activity of miners is fully restored, we may speak about the fact that by the share in the total hash of bitcoin (18%) the country will become the second after the U.S. on this indicator. Recall that at present the U.S. and Canada together account for almost every second bitcoin mined in the world.

Bitcoin mining is now bringing new players to the map of this activity. For example, a bitcoin mining project using geothermal energy from waterfalls located near inactive volcanoes in Central America is being developed at the initiative of the president of El Salvador. Open / Comment

2022-01-13 17:14:02 Bitso sponsors Mexico's national soccer team

Latin America's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Bitso, has become the official sponsor of Mexico's national soccer team, according to a press release provided to ForkLog.

As part of the partnership, Bitso and the national team will promote the adoption of cryptocurrencies in the region, starting with the provision of educational programs. The agreement also includes the release of an NFT collection by the Mexican national team, which will be distributed exclusively by the exchange.

"Our soccer team constantly encourages us to dream of reaching new heights, so we couldn't wish for a better ally to promote access to technology and innovation throughout the region," said Bitso co-founder and CEO Daniel Vogel.

The sponsorship agreement with the Mexican national team is the company's third in the soccer world. The Mexican championship team Tigres and one of Brazil's leading clubs, São Paulo, are already partners of Bitso. Open / Comment