Crypto Currency

Ethereum token issuance will be greatly reduced with Ethereum 2.0 says Vitalik Buterin. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said that issuance on the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade will be drastically reduced in a podcast interview with POV Crypto called “ Internet Money ”. Discussing some of the differences between Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), Buterin explained why the team chose Proof of Stake as the upgraded consensus mechanism: “One of the reasons why we’re doing Proof of Stake is because we want to greatly reduce the issuance. So in the specs for ETH 2.0 I think we have put out a calculation that the theoretical maximum issuance would be something like 2 million a year if literally everyone participates.” He said the current testnet participation sees around 100,000 ETH issued a year. The current Ethereum network has about 4.7 million ETH issued annually. Eth 2.0 issuance meanwhile is expected to be somewhere between 100,000 and 2 million a year, with the most likely scenario bei...

Bitcoin price corrected 11.36% after setting a multi-month high at $9,400 but bullish investors appear intent on recapturing $9,000. Thursday's Bitcoin ( BTC ) price action was relatively uneventful compared to the past 48-hours of activity that the top-rated crypto on CoinMarketCap pulled off on Tuesday and Wednesday.  On crypto-Twitter, one will easily find analysts calling for the digital asset to rally to $10,000 before halving, and a few have even hinted that a new lifetime high is on the cards.  Tether withdrawals soar with BTC price Regardless of these predictions, Bitcoin’s $1,700 single day move made waves and crypto exchanges like Binance managed to handle $16 billion in trading volume , a new all-time high not seen since January 2018.  Data from on-chain analytics provider glassnode showed that USDT withdrawals also reached an all-time high of $1,943,417 shortly after Bitcoin price topped out at $9,450.  Crypto market daily price chart. Source: ...

Professor of Criminology Roderic Broadhurst found that some darknet market operators may have scruples after all. Almost half of the darknet sites surveyed by the Australian National University do not offer COVID-19 ‘treatments’ or protective equipment.  Researchers found that eight out of 20 markets do not sell any items related to coronavirus with another nine selling a very limited selection. Just three sites accounted for the vast majority (85%) of all unique items sold. The study was commissioned by Australian Institute of Criminology and monitored 20  darknet markets on April 3 to conduct a census of COVID-19 related medical products and supplies. The researchers found 645 listings on sale in exchange for cryptocurrency, including personal protective equipment (PPE), ‘vaccines’, diagnostic equipment, and one even claimed to offer a blood sample from a recovered coronavirus patient. The researchers were not permitted to purchase the item so were unable to assess the ...

The crypto industry’s attitudes toward tax are maturing, with a recent survey indicating that two-thirds of digital asset users are in favor of cryptocurrency taxation. A recent survey conducted by South Korean wallet provider Childly found that 66% of respondents are in favor of crypto assets being taxed. The poll of more than 5,750 crypto users worldwide revealed that only one-in-five crypto users are opposed to digital asset taxation. Crypto community warms to taxation 48% of respondents strongly agreed that cryptocurrencies should be taxed, describing digital asset taxes as “a must.” 18% of participants expressed support for crypto taxes, however, on the proviso they were set “at an acceptable level. 20% of polled crypto users disagree with taxing crypto assets at present, with 9% asserting that it is “too early” and more time is needed to consider appropriate obligations for the sector. 11% expressed strong disagreement with taxation at all, stating that an “entirely new a...

A judge has given preliminary approval for a $25 million settlement in the Tezos class-action lawsuit. A Californian judge has given preliminary approval for a $25 million settlement proposed by the Tezos Foundation to end a consolidated class-action lawsuit. The lawsuit dates back to shortly after Tezos’ $232 million initial coin offering (ICO) in July 2017, when investors started filing claims against the firm, accusing Tezos of issuing unlicensed securities in the U.S. According to court documents from an April 30 hearing, the judge wrote, “the Court will likely be able to approve the settlement, subject to further consideration at the Settlement Hearing”. The date for the Settlement Hearing is yet to be set. If the foundation is found liable in the suit, estimates of damages range from under $1 million to more than $150 million. The proposed $25 million settlement will provide class-action members damages equivalent to between 16%, to more than 100%, of the estimated damages. ...

Accounting firm Grant Thornton will record intercompany transactions for its clients on the EOSIO blockchain, capturing a small slice of an area worth $40 trillion annually. Major U.S. accounting firm Grant Thornton is moving all of its clients’ intercompany transactions to the EOSIO network. Grant Thornton’s new inter.x platform uses blockchain technologies to provide transparency for intercompany transactions, including real-time data-analytics monitoring transfer-pricing compliance and treasury management. A company representative told Cointelegraph that Grant Thornton had chosen EOSIO for "its speed, user experience and scalability.” While a spokesperson said it was difficult to put a dollar value on the firm’s intercompany transactions, the company reported $1.9 billion in revenue for 2019. Intercompany transactions (between business entities within a company) typically “account for 30% to 40% of the global economy, equaling almost $40 trillion annually.” Grant Thornto...

The XRP Markets Report for Q1 2020 shows the On-Demand Liquidity network is more popular than ever, while Ripple’s XRP sales have hit a new low. Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) payments network tripled in transaction volume over the last quarter according to the just released Q1 2020 XRP Markets Report . The dollar value transacted using ODL increased by more than 294%, which is good news for token holders with the report describing XRP liquidity as the “lifeblood of Ripple’s [ODL] for cross-border payments.” In further good news, Ripple has again reduced its total XRP sales from $13.08 million in Q4 2019 to $1.75 million in Q1 2020. The company had been criticised for propping up its balance sheet with XRP sales. The report also notes the token was integrated into “a number of additional exchanges and liquidity instruments.”  ODL increased by money transfer services The report attributes part of the increase in ODL to cost-saving measures implemented by the network whic...

Crypto pioneer Charlie Shrem told Virtual Blockchain Week the combination of the halving and QE will spark a major bull run … but it might take some time. At Virtual Blockchain Week , crypto pioneer Charlie Shrem made a strong bull-case for Bitcoin, saying the combination of diminishing supply due to the halving, and wholesale quantitative easing, will drive prices higher over the next one to two years. Bitcoin halving and QE During a fireside chat with the VBW hosts on April 30, Shrem stated that, “It's kind of crazy that we have a halving during coronavirus because it was such a black swan event.” “We have two trillion dollars of money printed in the United States, people are starting to get all that money,” he said. “Also, all these people are getting their unemployment benefits probably when they're about to go back to work [...] and they haven't been needing to spend much money while they're sitting at home for the past few months.” “And then you have the ha...

Speaking to Cointelegraph during Virtual Blockchain Week, Caitlin Long predicted an oncoming wave of institutional investment. During Virtual Blockchain Week , Cointelegraph spoke with Caitlin Long — the founder and CEO of the upcoming “crypto bank” Avanti Bank & Trust as well as the driving force behind regulatory changes in the state of Wyoming for allowing financial institutions to handle both crypto assets and fiat currencies. A Wall Street veteran, Caitlin Long ran Morgan Stanley’s pension solutions for a decade after holding a number of senior roles at Credit Suisse prior to transitioning to focus on the blockchain and crypto sector. Caitlin shared her perspective on the impact that the lack of crypto-friendly financial institutions has had on the development of the digital asset ecosystem, the intersection between mainstream and decentralized finance, and her prediction that major institutional investors will soon enter the crypto space. Cointelegraph: How does a lack o...

The Props Project, which includes popular dating app Dating.com, is moving over to the Algorand blockchain. Props Project, a decentralized network of apps including Dating.com, is migrating from a private blockchain to Algrorand ( AGLO ). Props’ network of independent apps uses Props Token as a reward mechanism. Currently it has over three million users across various apps. The company developed PropsChain, a private fork of Ethereum that currently handles 50,000 transactions an hour.  No need to sacrifice However, to achieve greater scalability and transparency, the company decided to move to Algorand’s public blockchain. Algorand CEO Steven Kokinos told Cointelegraph that Algorand was unlike “first generation blockchains” in that it does not have to sacrifice scalability for security or decentralization: “Up until now, people would have to really deploy private Blockchain in order to get the scale and throughput if they had large user bases. And if they didn't, then they...

SmartPy and Cryptonomic are adding Chainlink price oracles to the Tezos network, filling a perceived gap in the ecosystem. Two leading Tezos ( XTZ ) teams, SmartPy and Cryptonomic, are making Chainlink ( Link ) oracles natively available on the Tezos network. The two teams received a grant from the Tezos Foundation to integrate Chainlink oracles into Tezos smart contracts. Cryptonomic co-founder Vishakh told Cointelegraph that their work has filled a key missing link within the Tezos ecosystem: “Most of our core team has worked in finance for multiple years, especially derivatives finance. We’ve worked on mission-critical systems that handle very high notional financial trades. So that's why we're really attracted to Tezos because of on-chain governance and formal verification. But one missing piece of the puzzle, there have to be external inputs in order to build successful Tezos DeFi applications.” An oracle is a prerequisite for decentralized finance Speaking to Coi...

Japan's financial watchdog has accredited two crypto-focused associations as Certified Financial Instruments and Exchange Associations. Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) has certified two local organizations as Certified Financial Instruments and Exchange Associations. According to an April 30 announcement , the FSA has recognized the Japan STO Association and the Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Business Association (JVCEA) as self-regulatory groups for derivative transactions and security token offerings of crypto assets. JVCEA will subsequently be renamed the "Japan Crypto Asset Trading Business Association" on May 1.  JVCEA is the official self-regulatory organization for the cryptocurrency industry in Japan authorized to create regulations and policies for cryptocurrency exchanges in the country. Cointelegraph has reached out to JVCEA for comment but has not received a response as of press time.  Recent crypto developments in Japan As of March, there wer...

Blockchain startup Gapless has raised $6 million from investors, including world-famous car manufacturer Porsche. Porsche has participated in a 5.5 million euros ($5.9 million) funding round for a German startup Gapless — the developer of a blockchain-based vehicle management system. Among other contributors, Gapless saw FinLab EOS VC Fund, a joint venture between Block.one and FinLab, and insurance entrepreneur Kersten Jodexnis, Tech.eu reported on April 29. Gapless is going to allocate the raised money to further develop its key product, an application that allows users to record a complete history of vehicles, as well as increase its user base. According to Gapless, it currently manages over 50,000 vehicles on its platform in Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom. Investing in future technologies Porsche told Cointelegraph that it is “constantly looking into and investing in future technologies and will evaluate case by case if such products or services can be dep...

Building on previous advantages for traders and miners, Portugal continues to establish a crypto haven with Technological Free Zones. In a bid to drive innovation forward and to stimulate the economy, Portugal has recently approved a nation-wide plan to encourage digitalization in several fields. Published on April 21, the “Digital Transitional Action Plan” puts forward multiple ways, in which the Portuguese government will provide infrastructure and incentives for innovation, entrepreneurship and competition, as well as internationalization for enterprises in the country. Although digitalization is a recurring topic when discussing economic strategies, the COVID-19 pandemic has put the subject in the spotlight as private and public entities alike try to mitigate the economic downfall brought about by the mandated lockdowns. The plan focuses on three main strategies highlighted in a summary by a Portuguese law firm VdA Legal Partners: “Capacity-building and digital inclusion of peo...

Top venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz forms its second crypto asset fund totaling $515 Million, surpassing the initial goal by $65 million. Top venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is expanding its presence in the crypto sector. The United States-based company has raised $515 million for its second crypto-focused fund, according to an April 14 article on Fortune.  Earlier reports suggested that Andreessen Horowitz, also called a16z, was hoping to accumulate $450 million in capital for the new vehicle, meaning that the firm has surpassed the initial goal by $65 million. The new fund will focus on blockchain startups Similarly to Andreessen Horowitz’s first crypto-oriented fund, which raised $300 million in 2018, the new endeavor will reportedly focus on blockchain projects, although the Fortune report does not mention startups working with digital assets. Chris Dixon, general partner at the venture capital juggernaut, said of blockchain:  "It's very rare th...

Tencent, the operator of major Chinese social media app WeChat, has opened applications for its new blockchain accelerator. Tencent, the operator of Chinese social media app WeChat, is launching a blockchain accelerator.  Announced on the company’s website on April 29, the “Tencent Industrial Accelerator” is open to both early-stage and mature blockchain startups, with a total of 30 places available.  To qualify, projects must have at least one financing round behind them.  Applications are being accepted until June 6. What does the accelerator offer? Tencent’s blockchain accelerator will focus on a variety of recruitment areas including industrial blockchain solutions and blockchain applications for data sharing, supply chain financing and digital asset transactions.  Other recruitment areas will focus on blockchain for sectors such as government affairs, energy, education, logistics, manufacturing, agriculture and public welfare.   Successful app...

A choppy trading session sees BTC/USD shave almost $1,000 off its latest gains and major withdrawals come from exchanges. Bitcoin ( BTC ) bounced off $8,500 on April 30 after fresh volatility saw the largest cryptocurrency shed 8% in hours. Cryptocurrency market daily overview. Source: Coin360 BTC price tests reclaimed support Data from Cointelegraph Markets and CoinMarketCap showed a swift reversal for Bitcoin on Thursday trading, diving from highs of $9,440 to lows of $8,530. At press time, support at $8,500 — which as resistance proved weak during Bitcoin’s run-up this week — was holding.  Short-term movements remained choppy, with jumps of $200 or more occurring over a matter of minutes or less.  Bitcoin 1-day chart. Source: CoinMarketCap The action coincided with what could be speculative moves by large-volume traders. OKEx, for example, saw a string of $20,000 withdrawals in quick succession, something commentators suspected was related to maintenance. Th...

Tokenization might be the best way for businesses to adjust to the new reality of the global coronavirus pandemic. One of the most curious and subtle developments of the COVID-19 global pandemic is the surging demand for stablecoins . Their total supply hit an all-time high recently — roughly $7.5 billion — with demand for Tether ( USDT ) and USD Coin ( USDC ) soaring. The development implicitly foreshadows financial disruption as desperate emerging market governments, foreign financial institutions and international businesses compete for a global shortage of dollars. The general consensus for the term of the development is called crypto or digital version of dollarization, and it represents a new take on the dollarization mechanics that have taken place across countries like Argentina and Ecuador before. Unironically, the International Monetary Fund was apparently aware of the potential of such a development back in 2017, detailed by Christine Lagarde. The only defensive ...

Bitcoin gifts investors 27% rewards since January 1, more than double that of gold and infinitely better than stocks and oil. Bitcoin ( BTC ) hitting almost $9,500 on April 30 was a boon for cryptocurrency investors — but gold bugs were left holding the buck. As BTC/USD climbed to eight-week highs on Wednesday, the pair’s already handsome year-to-date returns began outshining its last major competitor — gold. Schiff blames speculators as BTC launches As Cointelegraph reported while prices aimed for $9,000, gold was still the best bet year to date. Now, however, Bitcoin has obliterated the precious metal’s rate of return. Topping out at $9,440 on Thursday, BTC doubled gold’s 13.1% rate of return in less than 24 hours. The surprising achievement means that out of a basket of macro assets, Bitcoin is now the easy winner — stocks, gold, the dollar, and crisis-hit oil have been left in the dust, data from monitoring resource Skew confirms. Macro asset current year returns summary...

An Italian town has created their own currency to support local businesses in the Coronavirus lockdown. A small southern Italian town of 550 residents, Castellino del Biferno, has started minting their own currency, called Ducati, as a method to support their local economy during the coronavirus Pandemic. The town mayor Enrico Fratangelo, had been studying minting money for 12 years before having the opportunity to put his ideas to the test. "We decided to mint money to make sure the local economy could withstand the impact of the situation. However small this economy may be, there are three or four businesses still open, without considering bars or pubs," Fratangelo explained. Supporting the Economy Ducati are distributed to residents based on their economic needs and can be spent on essential goods. In order to minimize any confusion, the value of 1 Ducati will equal 1 euro. The town council received €5,500 from the government to issue food stamps, and with the addit...