cryptocurrencies
Web Summit Lisbon, Nov. 3: Latest updates from Cointelegraph ground team
Welcome back to the day two coverage of Web Summit, one of the leading tech conferences in the world, with over 71,000 attendees on day two. The summit is live in person in Lisbon, Portugal after two years. The summit is known to bring together some of the most prolific personalities from the tech world together and in 2022 it’s no different. Web3 has increasingly become the most talked about topic in the tech world and Web Summit is no different as leading tech giants such as Apple or Microsoft continue to explore ways to integrate and transition to the Web3 ecosystem. After an eventful first day that saw some major Web3 announcements, including the Web3 alliance to prevent malicious phishing attacks, bad actors and Web3 domain collisions. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao ...
Skyward finance exploit allegedly results in $3 million loss
Skyward finance, an IDO platform enabling fair token distribution for projects on the NEAR Protocol, has reportedly been exploited for 1.1M NEAR tokens, worth an estimated $3 million USD at time of publication. The news was shared on Twitter by Aurora Lab’s community moderator Sanket Naikwadi, who stated that the exploit was first noticed by a member of the NEAR protocol community, who goes by the handle @Nearscout. The @skywardfinance was just exploited for ~1.1M $NEAR Tokens (Worth ~3M) . Thnx to @NearScout for noticing the treasury drain, he pinged me asking if something is wrong with skyward… then we looked into contract txns and found out about the exploit and sus txns. smol — SankΞt Ⓝ⚡️| sanketn81.near ,sanketn81.lens (@sanket_naikwadi) November 2, 202...
CZ explains why it’s so important to be building during the bear market
During a live panel at the Web Summit in Lisbon, Changpeng Zhao (colloquially styled as CZ), CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, shared his viewpoint on why it’s so important for crypto projects to continue their development in the bear market. As told by CZ: “It’s easier to hire talent in the bear market. A year ago, a college graduate knowing a little bit of Solidity programming cost a lot of money. The salaries just didn’t make much sense to me, but now it’s come down to very reasonable levels.” “Now it’s easy to hire people and grow,” he said, while also pointing to the declines in project valuations: “A year ago, every project with a test product or six-page whitepapers was worth $100 million. Currently, the valuation is ...
MetaMask rolls out NFT portfolio value tracker with new partnership
MetaMask users will now have the ability to track the value of their nonfungible token (NFT) portfolio through its latest product. The wallet provider announced a new feature on Nov. 2, which will bring updated pricing information for the over 5,000 NFT collections held by MetaMask users. The new utility comes as a result of a partnership with NFTBank, an NFT portfolio management tool and valuation engine. To create its predictions, NFTBank uses machine learning algorithms which update users with price estimates for individual NFTs within a collection. According to the announcement the algorithm takes into consideration parameters such as floor price, rarity, and bid/ask distribution when calculating a price value. The tool allegedly offers around 90+% accuracy price predictions. Daniel Ki...
Crypto regulation is 1 of 8 planned priorities under India’s G20 presidency, says finance minister
India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said she would love to show that the country is “moving speedily forward” with digital financial technology as it prepares to assume the presidency of the G20. Speaking at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations on Nov. 1, Sitharaman said the people of India have taken to digital technology “as fish to water.” The finance minister added that crypto asset regulation would likely be one of India’s priorities in its leadership of the G20, but needed the support of other members. According to Sitharaman, India needed to work with organizations including the International Monetary Fund, Financial Stability Board, and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development to ensure crypto “can be regulated with all countries...
Here are top tips by the crypto community to get through the bear market
The crypto bear market of 2022 has wiped out more than 70% of the market capitalization from the top. The total crypto market cap breached $3 trillion at the bull market’s peak last year but currently struggling to remain above $1 trillion. At a time when the majority of the cryptocurrencies are moving sideways with no significant bullish momentum recorded in months, it can get a little frustrating, especially for those who jumped in at the market top in hopes of making some quick money. As crypto-winter worsens, the Reddit crypto community shared their coping mechanisms and some “serious” tips to remain on top of their mental health during this cyclic event. One Reddit user wrote that they are in it for the long term, thus, they ignore the charts and daily fluctuations. “I igno...
Cowboy hats, boots, guns and crypto talk with Dan Held
Bitcoiner Dan Held gave journalist Nicole Behnam a true Texan welcome to Austin while the pair discussed their individual paths into the world of crypto. Dan Held is a household name in the world of Bitcoin (BTC), while Nicole Behnam is a journalist turned cryptocurrency and NFT enthusiast. Together, the pair explored Held’s hometown of Austin, Texas, getting a taste of local life while delving into their journeys into the cryptocurrency space. [embedded content] Held took Behnam to a local gun range to start things off, with the pair getting the chance to shoot a rare World War II-era German MP40. Behnam then grabbed her first cowboy hat from a local store and matched that with a pair of boots before the pair rounded off their thoughts on the cryptocurrency space. Related: How CZ bui...
Pro-crypto city of Lugano and El Salvador sign economic agreement based on adoption
Switzerland’s southern city of Lugano and El Salvador have signed an economic cooperation agreement based on crypto and blockchain. According to an Oct. 28 announcement from Lugano, the two pro-crypto jurisdictions signed a memorandum of understanding on economic cooperation at the city’s Plan B event. Lugano Mayor Michele Foletti cited El Salvador adopting Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender as part of the city’s interest in the agreement, which will allow the pro-crypto country to establish a physical government presence in an effort to “foster cooperation with educational and research institutions.” “The use of Bitcoin and Blockchain technology creates new opportunities for growth and investment that benefit our communities; it is a new alternative financial and exchange tool that fosters tra...
Binance still serving Russians while seeking clarity on EU crypto sanctions
In the weeks following new sanctions from the European Union, Binance has kept its doors open for non-sanctioned Russian nationals, but that does not mean that the firm isn’t complying with EU sanctions, according to Binance’s newly-appointed sanctions executive. Western sanctions against Russia have been a major challenge for Binance from day one, and the firm has been working hard to comply, Binance’s global head of sanctions Chagri Poyraz told Cointelegraph in an interview. Since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Binance has comprehensively blocked several non-government-controlled territories of Ukraine, including annexed regions like Donetsk and Luhansk, Poyraz said. “There is still an active war going on in the region,” he noted, adding that Binance continu...
Report: Vast majority of blockchain energy studies ‘lack scientific rigor’
According to a new preprint conducted by researchers at the Open Universiteit, University of California Berkley, and Radboud University, the vast majority of literature on blockchain energy use from both academic and everyday sources “lacks the scientific rigor expected from a mature scientific field.” The report analyzed 128 scientific and open-source studies related to carbon emissions of blockchains such as Bitcoin. Researchers then found that an astonishing 34% of studies did not even possess an explicit research design. Meanwhile, 43% of studies did not share data, while 67% did not share source code. Finally, 79% of studies had no discussions about the reliability of external data. Several notable fallacies across studies were discovered by researchers in their analysis. ...
UK police council reports there are officers in every unit trained for crypto enforcement
The detective chief superintendent for the United Kingdom’s National Police Chiefs’ Council has said all police forces in the country have officers trained for investigations involving the enforcement and seizure of cryptocurrencies. In an Oct. 25 parliamentary debate on the U.K. Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill, Andy Gould of the NPCC said that the country’s police force had the capability to address economic crimes involving crypto, but not the capacity. He reported that the authorities had used £100 million — roughly $116 million at the time of publication — over the last four years to create “cryptocurrency tactical advisers across the whole of policing.” “There are now officers in every force and every regional organised crime unit who are trained and equipped to [invest...
Singapore MAS proposes to ban cryptocurrency credits
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is introducing proposals to better regulate the cryptocurrency industry in the aftermath of the bankruptcy of the Singaporean crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC). The central bank of Singapore has issued two consultation papers on proposals for regulating the operations of digital payment token service providers (DPTSP) and stablecoin issuers under the Payment Services Act. Published on Oct. 26, both consultation papers aim to reduce risks to consumers from crypto trading and improve standards of stablecoin-related transactions. The first document includes proposals for digital payment token (DPT) services or services related to major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) or XRP (XRP). According to the authority, “any form of ...
