cryptocurrencies
Analysts say 2022 will be ‘defined by agility and cost-efficiency’ instead of ‘blockchain purity’
The entire crypto market took great strides toward mass adoption in 2021 and now that the year is nearly complete, analysts are setting their price targets for 2022. Many analysts supported calls for a $100,000 (BTC) price before the end of 2021 and although this seems unlikely, most investors expect the key price level to be tackled before Q2 of 2022. Here’s a look at some of the Bitcoin price predictions analysts are expecting in 2022. Bitcoin is still on track to surpass $100,000 Analysts has been more reticent in providing off the cuff Bitcoin predictions ever since PlanB’s stock-to-flow model incorrectly predicted a $98,000 BTC price by the end of November, even though the model had been spot on from August through October. While some traders are now questioning the validity of ...
Crypto mainstream adoption: Is it here already? Experts Answer, Part 3
Sebastian is the chief strategy officer at Coinsource, a Bitcoin ATM provider in the United States. “In 2022, we expect more countries to follow El Salvador’s lead and adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, particularly countries across Latin America and Asia. As a result, we anticipate an increase in the number of Bitcoin ATMs across Latin America, and also in Europe. As new countries adopt, it is likely U.S. dominance in the crypto industry will be reduced. Regulation of crypto will continue into 2022, which is generally a good thing. However, it must be reasonable and fairly applicable to all. We have the potential to solve compliance in many of the protocols once and for all, so we need to double down on this. The industry is on a good path to increase the standards by whic...
Indian police commissioner issues a public warning against crypto frauds
The Additional Commissioner of Police Shikha Goel warned Indian citizens about the rise in cybercrime in an event hosted by the city police of Hyderabad, India, suggesting not to transfer cryptocurrencies to unauthorized private wallets. Goel highlighted the various methods that are actively being used by fraudsters to dupe investors such as lucrative investment opportunities, illegitimate bank transfers and cryptocurrencies. Acknowledging the growth of Indian crypto users, Goel added: “They [fraudsters] ask you to share your cryptocurrency details. And once you put it in your wallet, then the money is taken away.” After simplifying the elaborate fraud in a sentence, Goel also highlighted that sixteen such cases have been registered involving cryptocurrencies. Do not transfer your cryptocu...
Binance Turkey fined 8M lira for non-compliance against money laundering
The Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) has fined Binance Turkey 8 million lira (nearly $750,000) after the crypto exchange failed the financial watchdog’s audit for monitoring Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance. The Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK), which serves as Turkey’s financial intelligence unit under the Ministry of Finance and Treasury, found crypto exchange Binance’s Turkey operations guilty of violating laws that intend to prevent the laundering of money acquired through criminal means. According to local news media Anadolu Agency, MASAK carried out an audit of Law No. 5549 on Prevention of Laundering Proceeds of Crime, also known as the AML Law. The AML Law in Turkey requires companies to identify and verify the personal identification information...
Spreading holiday joy through charitable giving with cryptocurrency
The holidays are the perfect time of the year for giving back, and the rise of cryptocurrencies has created even more opportunities for charitable initiatives. This was highlighted during Giving Tuesday 2021, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving which saw over $2.4 million raised in cryptocurrency from the nonprofit fundraising platform The Giving Block. As crypto philanthropy becomes a new subsector of the cryptocurrency economy, some in the industry believe that crypto donations will only continue to increase. Alex Wilson, co-founder of The Giving Block, told Cointelegraph that last year the organization raised about $4 million in crypto donations, noting that this year, over $100 million in crypto donations will likely be received. According to Wilson, this growth is partly due to the fact th...
Child prodigy with 162 IQ wants cryptocurrency for Christmas and gets it
The wish of owning cryptocurrencies this Christmas came true for a 12-year-old schoolkid with an intelligence quotient (IQ) higher than Albert Einstein. Barnaby Swinburn, a resident of Bristol, England had asked for two Christmas presents, a Mensa test for testing his IQ and a cryptocurrency portfolio. According to BristolLive, Swinburn scored the highest possible score of 162 on the test, beating Einstien’s IQ of 160. As a result, the schoolboy became a member of the high-IQ society, which intakes the top 2% of the highest Mensa scorers. Speaking about cryptocurrencies, Swinburn’s mother Ghislaine said: “He’s been watching the markets. He’ll be getting an envelope with money in it for Christmas which he’ll turn into cryptocurrency.” However, the Swinburn family is yet to reveal the ...
From DeFi year to decade: Is mass adoption here? Experts Answer, Part 3
Tristan is the core contributor to Zeta Markets, an under-collateralized DeFi derivatives platform, providing liquid derivatives trading to individuals and institutions alike. “We’ve seen a Cambrian explosion in the DeFi ecosystem in 2021, with peak TVL approaching $300 billion vs the 2020 peak of $21 billion. This sounds like the growth surely has to slow. Yet, DeFi still represents just a fraction of CeFi trading volumes. At Zeta, we see a clear opportunity for more and more CeFi infrastructure to be built on-chain in a permissionless manner. This will unlock innovative products that have previously been impossible to implement. The following has already started to happen: Composability trumps the siloed products of CeFi, which has created really powerful network effe...
Turkey’s crypto law is ready for parliament, President Erdoğan confirms
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has reportedly confirmed the completion of a crypto law draft that will soon be shared with the Parliament for mainstream implementation in the country. In an effort to counter the falling value of the Turkish lira, President Erdoğan shared plans to implement a new economic model while speaking at a press conference in Istanbul. As reported by local media NTV, Erdoğan said that the cryptocurrency bill is ready, adding: “We will take steps on this issue by sending it to Parliament without delay.” Acknowledging the country’s recent inflationary episode, Erdoğan said that the currency event is not related to mathematics but a matter of process — implying a possibility and potential of lira’s value growth: “With this understanding, we intend to cha...
‘Twas the Night before Christmas: A Cointelegraph Story
‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro’ the Twittersphere Not a troll was stirring, not even a financier; The crypto was HODLed in cold storage with care, In hopes that Satoshi would soon reappear; The newbies avoided FUD and slept in their beds, While visions of lambos danc’d in their heads. And Pomp being occupied, and Schiff spewing crap, Weren’t calling attention to traders stacking sats. When in the trends came mentions of Nakamoto, I had to be sure it wasn’t just FOMO. Away to my portfolio my fingers did fly, And checked on the prices — man, were they high! Then, for a moment, I thought I was wrong. But no — a huge bull run, and eight altcoins going along. Who could have done this? Who answered my prayer? I knew in an instant the answer: Michael Saylo...
5 cryptocurrency projects that made waves in 2021
2021 was a breakout year for the cryptocurrency market in many respects and most investors are absolutely thrilled that Bitcoin (BTC) price established a new all-time high of $68,789. In the same timeframe, Ether (ETH) went on a parabolic rally which saw its price gain 565% from Jan. 1 to hit a record high at $4,859 on Nov. 10. While it was a banner year for large cap cryptocurrencies, some of the biggest gains and most impactful developments came from the altcoin market where decentralized finance (DeFi) and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) rallied by thousands of percent and helped to usher in a new level of awareness and adoption for blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. Here’s a look at five altcoin projects that made significant contributions to the cryptocurrency ecosystem in 2021. Un...
US lawmaker planning to introduce comprehensive crypto bill in 2022: report
Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis, one of the United States lawmakers behind many pro-crypto pieces of legislation, is planning to introduce a comprehensive bill next year to handle digital assets. In a Thursday report, Bloomberg said Lummis’ proposed bill aimed to provide regulatory clarity on stablecoins, guide regulators as to which cryptos belong to different asset classes and offer consumer protections. In addition, the U.S. senator reportedly proposed creating an organization under the joint jurisdiction of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to oversee the crypto market. On Twitter, Lummis called for U.S. voters to reach out to their respective senators to support the bill, saying she was looking for bipartisan cosponsors. The Wyomi...
Telegram-verified payments bot to accept Toncoin cryptocurrency
Telegram co-founder and CEO Pavel Durov has expressed excitement about the Telegram Open Network (TON) technology still developing after Telegram officially abandoned the project last year. “I’m proud that the technology we created is alive and evolving. When it comes to scalability and speed, TON is still years ahead of everything else in the blockchain realm,” Durov said in a Telegram post on Thursday. He noted that the project rebranded from TON to Toncoin. Unlike the original TON, the new project is independent of Telegram. “But I wish its team the same success. Coupled with the right go-to-market strategy, they have all they need to build something epic,” he noted. Durov’s remarks came amid Donate, a Telegram-verified payments service, preparing to enable donations on Telegram using t...
