crypto
Robinhood hits new low as FTX US and Bitstamp USA move into stocks
Crypto exchanges FTX US and Bitstamp USA are working on offering stock trading, which would be a further blow to Robinhood as its share price slumps to new lows. FTX US President Brett Harrison tweeted on Tuesday that the crypto exchange is “hard at work on stocks,” commenting that a launch would be coming in “a couple months.” We’re hard at work on stocks! Features we’re planning for day 1: -Live BBO and historical candles-Stock screening/search functionality-Basic fundamentals (market cap, P/E ratio, dividend yield)-Portfolio performance tracking, order/trade details What else should we have? pic.twitter.com/q2bTpsfuna — Brett Harrison (@Brett_FTXUS) January 11, 2022 This isn’t FTX’s first dalliance with stocks. Back in Oct. 2020, the global arm of the crypto exchange launched a feature ...
Tesla launches Dogecoin payments for merch but there is a catch
Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that Tesla now accepts Dogecoin (DOGE) as payment for the company’s merchandise. DOGE-eligible products in the Tesla store can be purchased by sending DOGE to Tesla’s Dogecoin wallet. While it’s accepting DOGE, the firm also clarified that they are not taking any other crypto. The company states that it cannot detect other assets but DOGE on its website. The business tells customers that “non-Dogecoin digital assets sent to Tesla will not be returned to the purchaser.” Additionally, items purchased with DOGE “cannot be returned, exchanged or canceled.” Tesla considers all sales made through DOGE as final that cannot be exchanged for cash. Tesla merch buyable with Dogecoin — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 14, 2022 Dogecoin creator B...
TokenBot helps crypto traders build social communities and monetize market knowledge
There are many advantages to automating one’s trading tactics instead of pointing and clicking with a mouse. For starters, bots can execute trading decisions free of emotion, are lighting fast and have far fewer margins of error. According to CNBC estimates, crypto trading bots account for 70% to 80% of the overall trading volume. TokenBot is an automated copy-trading platform designed for social trading groups and communities within messaging apps such as Discord, Telegram and Slack. Once added to a social media group, TokenBot monitors the admin’s account on an exchange and automatically notifies members of their trading activity details in real-time. The bot has more than 8,000 daily active users and streams close to $100 million per day in trading volume. In an exclus...
Iota selected for Phase 2A of EU blockchain initiative
On Thursday, the Iota Foundation, which oversees developments in the namesake Internet-of-Things transactions blockchain (IOTA), announced that it had been selected as one of five contractors by the European Commission to develop blockchain and distributed ledger technology in the region. According to the announcement, phase 2A aims to advance European Blockchain Services Infrastructure, or EBSI, in five areas: It will investigate the feasibility of sharding as to exponentially scale the Iota network on EBSI. Develop an approval weight consensus mechanism that will be highly flexible and allow both permissionless and permissioned use cases. Ensure any Iota-based solution for cross-border transfers abides by EBSI governance structures and any regulatory requirements from EU member states. I...
Seba Bank raises $119M in Series C funding
Seba Bank, a Swiss-based digital assets banking platform regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, announced on Wednesday that it had completed a successful Series C funding round of 110 million Swiss franc, or $119 million U.S. dollars. Notable investors in the round included cryptocurrency exchange FTX, quantitative digital currency trading firm Alameda Research, decentralized finance asset management firm DeFi Technologies, and venture capital entities such as Altive, Ordway Selections and Summer Capital. The bank said it plans to use the funds to fuel international growth and drive demand from institutional investors in the digital assets industry. Seba has been at the forefront of crypto innovation in Switzerland. In September 2021, the firm was granted the f...
Zero-knowledge scaling tech Plonky goes live on Polygon
On Monday, Polygon (MATIC), a layer-two Ethereum (ETH) scaling solution that is known for its fast transaction times and negligible gas fees, announced the launch of Plonky2, a zero-knowledge scaling technology, claimed to be the fastest in the world. Zero-knowledge algorithms ensure everything is correctly computed on layer two and return the succinct proof to Ethereum without sending the entire data. Instead of every miner (or staker) verifying every posted transaction, zero-knowledge allows the verification of simplified rolled-up proofs, thereby significantly speeding up the overall network. 1/2 We are proud to announce Plonky2, the world’s fastest ZK scaling tech! Plonky2 is a recursive SNARK that is ~100x faster than existing alternatives! Furthermore, it is Ethereum compatible...
Ramp expands presence in US with FinCEN regulation
On Tuesday, crypto-fiat gateway payments platform Ramp announced that its U.S. subsidiary Ramp Swaps LLC had received its registration as a Money Service Business with the Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. The regulatory greenlight enables Ramp to do business in 38 states across the United States. Besides the development, Ramp also has regulatory clearance with the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority and Poland’s Financial Supervision Authority. Ramp allows users to buy crypto directly in their wallets and decentralized applications, or DApps. Last year, the company grew its transaction volume by approximately 30x. It has partnerships with over 400 blockchain entities worldwide, including Axie Infinity, Mozilla, Opera Browser, Aave, T...
World’s biggest podcaster Joe Rogan has a ‘lot of hope’ for crypto
Controversial comedian and commentator Joe Rogan said that he “has a lot of hope” for cryptocurrencies in a recent podcast interview. In the 1760th Jan. 8 episode of his podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Rogan discussed the future of crypto with fellow podcaster, Adam Curry. Rogan’s podcast has an estimated 11 million listeners per episode, despite Spotify’s attempts to censor some of the more offensive episodes. Rogan, whose podcast took the top spot as most popular on Spotify during 2021, stated: “It’s either going to fall apart completely, or we’re going to use this as an opportunity to right the ship and come up with a better way to live our lives,” Curry is the host of right-wing podcast “No Agenda” which has been criticized by the mainstream media and medical community for promoti...
3x NBA champion Andre Iguodala becomes the latest athlete to receive salary in crypto
On Monday afternoon, Andre Iguodala, three-time NBA champion and the professional basketball player for the Golden State Warriors, announced via Twitter that he would be taking a portion of his estimated $2.647 million annual salary in Bitcoin (BTC). In addition, Iguodala added that he will give out $1 million worth in BTC to fans to increase the digital currency’s adoption. Payments were said to be facilitated by Block’s (formerly Square) Cash App. I’m excited to announce I’m taking part of my salary in BITCOIN w. Cash App! Bitcoin is the future, @klaythompson and I are both believers. To make bitcoin more accessible, we’re giving out $1M in bitcoin back to fans today. Drop your $cashtag w. #PaidInBitcoin & follow @CashApp — andre (@andre) January 10, 2022 Iguodala j...
Daniel Allan’s “Overstimulated” EP Is An Honest Look Into His Creative Process
After releasing three singles to give fans a taste of what’s to come, Daniel Allan has finally released his Overstimulated EP in its entirety. Overstimulated offers a transparent look into Allan’s headspace and creative process across its six tracks, each of which feels more heartfelt than the last. Additionally, he’s tapped a handful of talented collaborators to join in on his forward-thinking, pop-oriented sound including Idarose, DEEGAN, DLG., and bloody white. “Overstimulated is a project that comments on my personal journey and its overwhelming nature,” Allan said. “When life gets hectic, my primary coping mechanism is to lock myself in a room and work it out with music. Sometimes I don’t really know how to communicate, so I suppose this proje...
Bitcoin crash ahead? Expert warns higher inflation could whip BTC price to $30K
Bitcoin (BTC) may end up falling to as low as $30,000 if the U.S. inflation data to be released on Wednesday comes any higher than forecasted, warns Alex Krüger, founder of Aike Capital, a New York-based asset management firm. The market expects the widely-followed consumer price index (CPI) to rise 7.1% for the year through December and 0.4% month-over-month. This surge highlights why the U.S. Federal Reserve officials have been rooting for a faster normalization of their monetary policy than anticipated earlier. U.S. headline inflation. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bloomberg Further supporting their preparation is a normalizing labor market, including a rise in income and falling unemployment claims, according to data released on Jan. 7. “Crypto assets are at the furthest en...
Vitalik Buterin gives thumbs down to cross-chain applications
In a Reddit post on Friday, Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum (ETH), outlined critical security concerns surrounding cross-chain bridges in the blockchain ecosystem. As told by Buterin, storing native assets directly-chain (Ethereum on Ethereum, Solana on Solana, etc.) provides a certain degree of immunity against 51% attacks. Even if hackers manage to censor or reverse transactions, they cannot propose blocks to take away one’s crypto. The rule also applies to the Ethereum application. For example, if hackers launch a 51% attack (by controlling 51% of all circulating ETH supply) while an investor swaps 100 ETH for 320,000 DAI stablecoin, the end state remains invariant, i.e., the investor would always get either 100 ETH or 320,000 DAI. However, Buterin continued, that the ...
