Crypto

Bitcoin (BTC) futures open interest is mimicking the start of the BTC price bull run, data shows. As BTC/USD hovered near $40,000 on Thursda, a fresh bullish report from Stack Funds called for “cautious optimism” about further price rises. Bitcoin has sought to flip $40,000 to support this week, returning to the level multiple times and refusing to leave recent gains as a blow-off top. According to its latest weekly market appraisal, however, Stack Funds believes that it is derivatives that are giving stronger hints about potential bullish price continuation. Bitcoin open interest is currently exhibiting the style of increase that characterized Q4 last year — the springboard for current $64,500 all-time highs. “Those who wanted to accumulate lower might have missed out on the large swings,...

Payment provider PayPal said it is working on a cryptocurrency super app, and it will be released soon PayPal CEO, Dan Schulman, revealed during the company’s Q2 2021 investor update call yesterday that they are close to rolling out their cryptocurrency super app. He stated that their users won’t have to wait much longer to enjoy additional cryptocurrency functions through their platform. Schulman told investors that the initial version of PayPal’s super app wallet was “code complete”, and he expects the wallet to be available to its US customers in the next few months. However, he didn’t give an exact month when he expects the app to be available to cryptocurrency investors and traders. According to PayPal, the super app wallet will come with numerous features, including high yield saving...

Canadian blockchain startup BlockCrushr has agreed to drop an intellectual property (IP) lawsuit against early backer, Ethereum-focused software engineering firm, ConsenSys. The two firms filed a joint agreement to dismiss the case on July 27, with the deal’s terms prohibiting BlockCrushr from attempting to pursue the matter in future. ConsenSys has characterized the agreement as a victory for its position, stating: “BlockCrushr has dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice after review of the evidence provided in discovery established that BlockCrushr’s claims were entirely without merit.” ConsenSys’ lead counsel, Tibor Nagy, added: “This is an important and complete victory for ConsenSys and illustrates the value of aggressively combating meritless claims.” Filed in July 2020, the...

Erik Voorhees, the founder and CEO of ShapeShift, has revealed in a podcast that he felt embarrassed and disgusted by the behavior of Bitcoin maximalists at the 2021 Bitcoin conference in Miami. A Bitcoin OG who can see some merit in altcoins, Voorhees spoke on a panel during day two of the Miami conference in June. He caused a stir when he said “Did I hear someone on that prior panel say ‘If you’re against toxic maximalism, you’re against Bitcoin and you’re against freedom?’… Yeah, that’s some bullshit.” The ShapeShift CEO expanded on those comments in a July 27 interview on the Unchained Podcast hosted by journalist Laura Shin. The 35-year-old slammed Bitcoiners who believe that toxic behavior such as trashing proponents of other cryptocurrencies is a good thing for BTC: “They’ve spun th...

Last-minute additions to the bipartisan infrastructure deal in the United States Senate saw lawmakers propose expanded cryptocurrency taxation to raise an additional $28 billion in revenue. The proposal will implement tighter rules on businesses handling crypto, expand reporting requirements for brokers and mandate that digital asset transactions worth more than $10,000 are reported to the Internal Revenue Service. Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, the lead Republican for the infrastructure discussions, noted Congress has expressed concerns regarding crypto reporting and taxation requirements for some time: “Everybody’s been talking about the appropriate way to provide more reporting in particular and that leads to better compliance.”  The crypto measures were hastily add...

An ongoing lawsuit involving crypto project Nano has taken another turn this week when the developers sought a sanction after the plaintiff dropped the case. The Nano team is after $701,000 in attorney fees and costs as a sanction after a token buyer dropped his proposed class action. On July 27, its legal team told a California federal court that some of the claims against them had been “legally baseless”, according to Law360. Token buyer Alec Otto had accused the Nano developers of fraud, violating securities laws and other offenses, in connection with the loss of millions of tokens following the BitGrail exchange hack in 2018. The developers stated that Otto’s class action claims were filed too late, at least one filing contained allegations unsupported by evidence and that he adv...

The Blockfolio brand is no more: One of the first genuine product brands in the cryptocurrency space, the mobile app that started as a portfolio tracker — and later morphed into a trading app under the stewardship of FTX — will now take its new owner’s name. Blockfolio, which boasted a user base in excess of six million crypto enthusiasts, was acquired by Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX Trading company in August 2020 in a deal worth $150 million.  Related: Billionaire SBF says FTX may one day buy Goldman Sachs and CME “The rebrand of FTX: Blockfolio to FTX puts the final cap on our acquisition of Blockfolio, doubling down on our commitment to being the number one crypto trading platform for both retail and institutional users,” said FTX CEO and crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried...

Crypto mining firm BIT Mining, which recently announced it would be expanding out of the Chinese market, plans to purchase 2,500 Bitcoin miners for deployment in Kazakhstan. In a Wednesday announcement, BIT Mining said it had entered a $6.6 million agreement to buy 2,500 Bitcoin (BTC) mining rigs. The firm has already put 3,819 BTC miners into operation at data centers in Kazakhstan, with another 4,033 machines on the way. Once all are deployed, the addition of the recent mining purchase is expected to increase BIT Mining’s hash rate capacity to roughly 458 petahashes per second. Though based in the city of Shenzhen, BIT Mining has said it plans to expand its operations outside of China in response to the recent government crackdown on mining. Many Chinese firms have reportedly faced ...

Last week, as Bitcoin resurged after briefly falling below $30,000, a good number of altcoins embarked on their own relief rallies. Telcoin (TEL) was among this large group of digital assets whose prices shot up on July 21.  Unlike most of its peers, however, TEL’s upward trend remained alive for the entire week, leading to a respectable 82% gain against the dollar and a 43% gain against Bitcoin (BTC) over a seven-day period.  Given the market dynamics of the time, many traders may simply attribute this performance to a marketwide oversold bounce — but was there a way for traders to spot the potential for this tremendous run early? TEL’s second wave TEL is the utility token of Telcoin, a blockchain protocol designed to facilitate affordable mobile-based remittances globally. Telc...

Multiverse, a decentralized artificial intelligence ecosystem that funds early-stage tech companies, has secured $15 million in investments from some of blockchain’s biggest venture funds.  Samsung Next, a developer ecosystem focused on AI, blockchain and fintech, was among the investors, along with Arrington XRP Capital, Huobi Ventures and Fenbushi, Multiverse announced Wednesday. With the raise, Multiverse now has an implied valuation of $250 million, making it one of the largest ecosystem developer funds at the intersection of blockchain and AI. The investment will go towards expanding Multiverse’s capacity across engineering, research and marketing. The organization is eyeing a bigger presence in Europe and Southeast Asia.  Related: New Samsung service Paperless adds do...