Blockchain Explained

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Cloudflare to Experiment with Ethereum Nodes in Hopes of a Better Internet Ethereum’s highly anticipated conversion to a Proof of Stake consensus mechanism is picking up the pace. In anticipation of the event, Cloudflare has announced that it will be conducting an experiment using Ethereum nodes over the next couple of months. Ultimately, the solution that Cloudflare is working on intends to balance “the clear need to drastically reduce the energy consumption of Web 3.0 technologies and the capability to scale the Web 3.0 networks by orders of magnitude”. In the bigger picture, that’s “building a better internet”. However, the cybersecurity experts have concerns that the growing demand for Web 3.0 technologies is hardly compatible with environmental sustainability. Source https://t.me/Blockchain_Explained

Popular DEX aggregator 1inch adds a 10 millions to its ETH gas refund program The largest DEX aggregator 1inch announced its own gas refund program on the Ethereum network in 2021. Now 1inch is launching the second wave of this program, also for 10 million. This gave users the chance to trade ETH almost for free. 10 millions, which will go to users gas refund program. But now, one user can get only $10K in 1INCH tokens. This fact was very encouraging for platform users, against the backdrop of high gas prices. Source https://t.me/Blockchain_Explained

Hackathon organiser and web3 incentive platform DoraHacks raises $20 million Hackathon organiser and web3 incentive platform DoraHacks has raised $20 million in a Series B1 round, led by FTX Ventures and Liberty City Ventures.The funds will be used to accelerate the launch of the Dora Grant DAO, a decentralized grant community, and the Dora Infinite Fund, the company said in a release on Wednesday. The fund will officially launch via an NFT drop later in 2022. The raise follows an $8 million strategic round last year, led by Binance Labs, bringing the total amount invested in Dora core infrastructures over the past 18 months to nearly $50 million. Since late 2020, DoraHacks has invested in and incubated 20 projects, including DAO-as-a-service infrastructure Dora Factory, zero-knowledge infrastructure Zecrey, play-to-earn Thetan Arena, and web3 tooling infrastructure ETHSign. DoraHacks is also the co-host of the Binance Labs incubation program. Source https://t.me/Blockchain_Explained

Dutch Finance Official Wants to Ban Retail Investors From Trading Crypto Derivatives Crypto derivatives trading should be restricted to wholesale markets, a senior Dutch financial regulator said recently.The comments suggest Dutch supervisors want to join the U.K. in banning access to options and futures based on virtual assets for regular retail customers, even if they don’t yet have the power to do so. “I maintain that the trade in crypto derivatives should be restricted to wholesale trade,” said Paul-Willem van Gerwen, head of Capital Markets and Transparency Supervision at the Dutch Authority for Financial Markets (AFM). He cited the risks of markets that are opaque, and prone to manipulation and other criminal activity.The comments by van Gerwen were given in a speech last week and posted on the AFM website Tuesday. Source https://t.me/Blockchain_Explained

UK tax legislation allows crypto investors to ‘bank’ losses to reduce tax bill Crypto assets are not subject to the same level of oversight by HM Revenue, and Customs (HMRC) in the United Kingdom as fiat currency, since HMRC does not differentiate between cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and other assets like stocks and shares. Many investors are worried as a result of the recent decline in the market, but according to a regulation implemented by HMRC, many can make plans for the future and lower their tax burden to prevent losing even more money, according to a report published on May 16 in the Express.Indeed, investors may be able to “bank” previous crypto losses with the tax office in order to offset the effect of future profits. Source https://t.me/Blockchain_Explained

South Korean president’s plan to raise crypto tax threshold hits snag, Forkast says The South Korean National Assembly Research Service said in a report released on Thursday that a 20% tax on cryptocurrency gains set for 2023 must maintain a 2.5 million won ($1,940) threshold, contradicting new President Yoon Suk-yeol’s initiative to raise the limit to 50 million won, Forkast said. Raising the tax threshold for crypto gains to 50 million won to match that of stock gains was a promise Yoon made to voters while running for office, Forkast noted.The Assembly’s report also said that the crypto tax start date of January 1, 2023, should not be delayed to 2025 as the nation’s deputy prime and finance minister nominee Choo Kyung-ho had suggested earlier this month. Source https://t.me/Blockchain_Explained

Coinbase CEO says crypto will heal, take 15% of global GDP Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong showed an optimistic approach to the current market downtrend and said that crypto could grow to take 15% of the global GDP in 20 years.Coinbase founder and CEO Brian Armstrong dismissed the current pessimistic approaches to the market and said crypto would take 15% of global GDP in 20 years. In the last seven days, the total market cap lost more than 33% of its volume, equalling $570 billion. Some say the bear market is officially here. Especially after the LUNA crisis, the overall market sentiment took a sharp negative turn.Coinbase’s Q1 earnings report also displayed a drop in numbers. The numbers showed a 53% net revenue down from the previous quarter, which indicated a net loss of $430 million. Moreover, the report included bankruptcy wording which set off red flags in the community. Source https://t.me/Blockchain_Explained

Waves USDN Stablecoin De-Pegs But Now Trades at $0.93 Neutrino USD (USDN), an algorithmic stablecoin that is part of the Waves blockchain ecosystem, fell beneath its U.S. dollar peg, trading to lows of $0.90 on May 13.USDN, which is supposed to maintain its price at $1, dropped as low as $0.84 on Bittrex on May 8, earlier showing signs of weakness. Crypto journalist Colin Wu reports that the Curve pool for the USDN-3 pool is now imbalanced, with USDN accounting for 93.68%. The same sort of ratios were seen in UST's Curve pools, which could indicate that the peg is under strain and that additional deposits might be needed to restore equilibrium.This is not the first occurrence of the USDN's price slipping significantly from the dollar peg. Source https://t.me/Blockchain_Explained

Luna token supply hits 25 billion — up by nearly 24 billion today The circulating supply of Luna (LUNA) has broken above 25 billion as the token is being minted on an exponential level.For the last few weeks, the supply of Luna stayed around the 325 million mark. Wednesday, it shot up to 1.5 billion, and today it has increased as high as 25.3 billion — and it's still growing at a furious rate. As The Block previously broke down, a behavioral cycle is affecting the two tokens in light of UST losing its peg and a huge amount of selling pressure. At present, many traders are swapping UST for Luna, a mechanism designed to help the stablecoin maintain its peg with the US dollar. Yet as the price of Luna decreases, this results in the minting of a lot more Luna. Source https://t.me/Blockchain_Explained

SEC Chief: Crypto Exchanges are Playing Against Their Clients Gary Gensler spoke negative about the business of crypto-exchanges. In particular, he said that centralized exchanges, being market makers, often rob their clients with cross bids. His statement has already been reacted to, DEX aggregators such as 1inch have got a lot of new users, setting a record for the number of transactions. DeFi is the future, and multifunctional, user-friendly and decentralized platforms like 1inch will lead that future. Source https://t.me/Blockchain_Explained

Bitcoin Struggles at $30K as Crypto Market Cap Plummets to 10-Month Lows The crypto market cap is down to levels last since July 2021, while bitcoin continues to fight for $30,000.The past 24 hours brought more pain to the cryptocurrency market, with bitcoin barely managing to remain above $30,000. Most altcoins are in much worse shape, but none has lost more value than Terra in the past few days. It’s safe to say that the primary cryptocurrency has seen better days. It was less than a week ago when it challenged $40,000 but failed in its tracks. After remaining just shy of that level, the market tumbled, and BTC led the adverse trend.Firstly, the asset plummeted by $4,000 and found itself sitting at a multi-week low beneath $36,000. While that was a painful price drop of its own, it was just the start. Hours later, the bears pushed it south once more, and bitcoin dumped to $33,000. Source https://t.me/Blockchain_Explained

A $3.5 billion bet on bitcoin becoming a 'reserve currency' for crypto is being put to the test A multibillion-dollar bet that bitcoin can act as a “reserve currency” for the crypto economy is already being tested as UST, a controversial stablecoin, struggles to maintain its $1 peg. UST dropped close to 99 cents over the weekend, fueling fears of a potential “bank run” that could force Terra, the project behind it, to dip into a $3.5 billion pile of bitcoin to support the token.Now, the Luna Foundation Guard, an organization created by Terra’s inventor Do Kwon, says it will lend out $750 million in bitcoin to trading firms to hold UST’s price peg. But that’s done little to assuage investors’ concerns about the implications for bitcoin. Source https://t.me/Blockchain_Explained

Bitcoin whales continue dumping crypto as market conditions worsen The number of Bitcoin whales is down to levels last seen earlier in 2022, and the volume of exchange inflows has also hit a three-month high.The number of Bitcoin (BTC) whales has been on a steady decline and is back to the levels earlier in 2022, according to blockchain intelligence firm Glassnode. Glassnode also found that the volume of exchange inflows had risen sharply. Specifically, BTC addresses have traded in more than 1,700 coins — the highest level of inflows since February.The high exchange inflow volumes suggest that whales are selling their holdings as they prepare for a long-term bearish market. The Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index currently sits at 11, an extreme fear region. Following the bullish performance in 2021, many analysts and organizations predicted that the BTC would continue surging. Source https://t.me/Blockchain_Explained

Binance’s Recovery of Stolen Crypto Illustrates That Digital Assets Aren’t a Promised Land for Bad Actors A Fox Business article announced that Binance recovered a portion of the assets that were stolen from the recent Ronin hack. Just under $6 million of crypto was recovered –less than one percent of the total heist – but there is hope that larger segments will continue to be recovered over the coming days. The desire to cast Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as some kind of anonymous boogeyman that facilitates malfeasance is in no small part due to fear. Fear that a decentralized system of finance is becoming more popular and mainstream. Fear that those who have historically had a near-veto-proof grip over our financial system – that those people and institutions can’t wield the same kind of control over cryptocurrencies. Source https://t.me/Blockchain_Explained

The United States turns its attention to stablecoin regulation The U.S. continues to be a global leader in regulating and embracing the cryptocurrency industry, but the Stablecoin TRUST Act may set up some barriers for newcomers.The United States continues to be a global leader in embracing the cryptocurrency industry thanks to the work of Sen. Patrick Toomey, with the White House being at the forefront of crypto regulation. Last year, President Joe Biden signed a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill — and it included some new legislation that would impact the crypto sector. And more recently, the U.S. president announced a “whole-of-government” approach to regulating cryptocurrency in an across-the-board executive order directing multiple government agencies to answer specific questions on cryptocurrencies. Source https://t.me/Blockchain_Explained

New Zealand VC Launches $5 Million Web3 and Crypto-Focused Fund New Zealand-based venture capital firm Global From Day 1 (GD1) recently said it had launched a $5 million Web3 and crypto-focused venture capital fund to back local startups. The fund will invest in pre-seed to Series A companies across decentralized finance (defi), decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and Web3. In a boost for New Zealand-based startups and local investors, GD1 has launched a $5 million Web3 and crypto-focused venture capital fund. The fund, known as GD1 Crypto Fund 1, will be led by cryptocurrency and Web3 expert Nawaz Ahmed as a general partner. Remarking on what the incoming general partner is expected to bring, Vignesh Kumar, the co-managing partner at GD1. Source https://t.me/Blockchain_Explained

Litecoin Mining Hashrate at All-Time Highs The mining hashrate of Litecoin has reached a new all-time-high of 500+ TH per second. This latest feat was achieved on the 3rd of May, 2022. Following its new mining ATH, the director of Litecoin thanked fellow miners at Dogecoin foundation who are mining LTC to make the network more secure. Before this new record was reached, the previous mining rate’s high was achieved in July 2019. More miners joined the network in mid-2019, and Litecoin’s hashrate reached a milestone of 468 TH per second.The hashrate eventually dropped to 142 TH/s in January 2020. The decrease in mining power resulted from the dip in the price of Litecoin during that period. However, from 2020 to date, the network’s mining power has been on a steady increase, forming higher highs and higher lows. Source https://t.me/Blockchain_Explained

Two South Koreans Paid in Bitcoin to Spy for North Korea South Korean law enforcement recently announced the arrest of a serving military captain and an operator of a cryptocurrency exchange on charges of spying for a North Korean hacker. In return for the acts of espionage, the two South Korean individuals were allegedly paid bitcoins worth a total of $637,789. Two South Korean citizens, a businessman running a crypto asset management firm and a serving captain of the country’s army, were arrested on suspicion of passing military secrets to a North Korean hacker. In exchange for passing on the sensitive information, the individuals were allegedly paid in bitcoin worth $600,000 and $37,789, respectively.In an AFP report, South Korean law enforcement is quoted stating that the arrest was the first time. Source https://t.me/Blockchain_Explained

Telegram Users Can Now Send Crypto Through Telegram Chat! The Open Network (TON), a decentralized network, revealed earlier this week that it will integrate a bot to allow Telegram users to make cryptocurrency transfers. Users will be able to send and receive Toncoin ($TON) as well as buy Bitcoin with the “@wallet” bot.The popular message app users may purchase, sell, and send tokens to other wallets, as well as purchase crypto assets using bank cards by utilizing the bot. Toncoin is the token that powers the TON decentralized layer-1 blockchain, which Telegram created but abandoned in 2020 after a legal battle with securities authorities.The US Securities and Exchange Commission accused Telegram of breaking securities laws by selling Grams, the native cryptocurrency of the TON blockchain at the time, without being registered. The company decided to discontinue the project as a result of the lawsuit. Source https://t.me/Blockchain_Explained

2 Trillion Shiba Inu Whales Grab $9 Million in APE ETH investors who hold massive amounts of Shiba Inu meme cryptocurrency have acquired large chunks of trendy APE token, which is the most traded cryptocurrency among the 100 biggest ETH whales at the moment.Meanwhile, Shiba remains the largest holding by USD equivalent. WhaleStats crypto tracker has reported that two major whales who are invested in Ethereum and ERC-20 coins have purchased APE tokens worth $9 million in total.Whale "Jiraiya" has acquired 499,998 APE worth $8.1 million, and "Bombur" grabbed 70,804 APE—the equivalent of $1,255,359.The wallets of these investors also hold substantial amounts of Shiba Inu: "Jiraiya" holds $39,674,380 worth of Shiba. Source https://t.me/Blockchain_Explained

1inch Wallet Starts Allowing Crypto Purchases with Fiat Through Transak The largest DEX Agregator 1inch entered into an agreement with Transak. This will allow 1inch De-Fi Wallet users to use Transak's services and buy cryptocurrencies for most fiat currencies. The function is already available in the 1inch De-Fi Wallet app. “Meanwhile, the integration of Transak comes as part of the 1inch Network’s wider strategy of connecting more fiat payment options,” says Sergej Kunz, 1inch Network co-founder. “As more providers will gradually be added, the 1inch Network will eventually become an aggregator of fiat gateways, as well. Source https://t.me/Blockchain_Explained

Wall Street’s Latest ‘Market Manipulation’ Scandal Should Be a Wake-Up Call for Crypto This week saw the dramatic arrest and criminal charging of Bill Hwang, the former manager of the private hedge fund Archegos Capital Management. You may remember that Archegos blew up last March. Banks that had lent it money for huge, leveraged trades wound up losing $10 billion dollars. There’s a fascinating discussion to be had about whether what Hwang did was full-blown fraud, but I won’t bother trying to outdo Matt Levine on that front. Instead, I want to focus on the financial mechanics of what Archegos was up to, and why it’s extremely important for cryptocurrency holders or traders to understand.The nut of it is simple: Archegos borrowed a lot of money and used it to buy very large amounts of roughly 10 different stocks. Source https://t.me/Blockchain_Explained

Police are Losing Cybercrime Experts to the Crypto Industry, says NPCC The United Kingdom’s National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) claims that it’s losing cybercrime experts at 3 to 4 times the rate of the rest of policing. The crypto industry appears to be largely responsible for this, where major firms are poaching these professionals with offers of far greater pay. As Bloomberg reports, both cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis are among the companies paying big money to employ ex-police officers.Binance – the world’s largest crypto exchange – also tapped experts from both the Financial Conduct Authority and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority last week. The hires are meant to ensure the firm’s regulatory and sanctions compliance around the globe since politicians are increasingly leery of crypto’s role in illegal activity. Source https://t.me/Blockchain_Explained

📊 Bitcoin price on this day - April 29. https://t.me/Blockchain_Explained

Central African Republic Has Adopted Bitcoin as Reference Currency — Office of the Presidency Following the confusion that surrounded initial reports, a senior staffer in the Central African Republic (CAR)’s presidency has now confirmed that bitcoin will become the country’s reference currency. A press statement supposedly issued by the office of the Presidency of the Central African Republic (CAR) appeared to confirm reports by multiple media outlets suggesting that the bill passed by the National Assembly not only proposes to govern cryptocurrencies but recognizes bitcoin as a reference currency.Namsio said with this move the CAR had become the first country on the African continent to adopt bitcoin as a reference currency. Lauding the move. Source https://t.me/Blockchain_Explained

Coinbase Lists Competitor Binance’s Stablecoin BUSD Coinbase has listed Binance USD (BUSD), the crypto exchange’s U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, for trading on the Ethereum network.That makes it the eighth stablecoin to be offered by Coinbase, joining Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), TerraUSD (UST), Dai (DAI), Paxos Standard (PAX), Rai Reflex Index (RAI), and mStable USD (MUSD). BUSD is Binance’s stablecoin project, created in partnership with Paxos, which custodies the coin’s reserves. At the time of this writing, BUSD was the 10th most popular of the 172 assets on Coinbase, according to the exchange’s dashboard.But the launch wasn’t without a small hiccup. The Coinbase Exchange Status dashboard reported that the BUSD-USDT trading pair “failed to meet the metrics” needed to continue trading and had to be paused. Source https://t.me/Blockchain_Explained

Sphere Finance is a project dedicated to acquiring governance, farming liquidity and incubating projects that generate deep liquidity with the aim of taking over projects all over Polygon, and later other chains. It yields profits and sends them out in the form of $SPHERE tokens. It is going to come out with a V2 contract soon. If you think you're late to the hype train, think again! They will make the APY sustainable, earn even more governance while also making the market whale proof. No whales are going to manipulate this. So far, they've also incubated 3 projects and have a huge share in them! Join the S&P 500 of Crypto now! Telegram: https://t.me/SphereDeFi Discord: https://discord.gg/w5BxKy7tJX Twitter: https://twitter.com/SphereDeFi Website: https://sphere.finance/

Bitcoin, stocks fall as US dollar hits two-year high Crypto and stock markets tumbled as the U.S. dollar rallied to its highest point since March 2020 amid concerns of looming interest rate hikes at the U.S. Federal Reserve.Bitcoin continued to display a correlation with traditional markets, sinking 5.6% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko. The U.S. stock market fell with Nasdaq dropping by 4% on Tuesday over concerns of China’s slowing growth and further lockdowns to battle rising Covid-19 cases in Beijing.Dogecoin, the biggest winner in Twitter’s approval of Elon Musk’s US$44 billion takeover, retraced most of its gains to concede its top 10 crypto position after a 10% drop to 13th. Source https://t.me/Blockchain_Explained

In a First for a Major Company, Fidelity Plans to Bring Bitcoin to 401(k) Plans Fidelity on Tuesday said that some of the 401(k) plans it administers would soon offer employees a way to invest in Bitcoin through dedicated “digital assets accounts.” Fidelity’s crypto product won’t be a mutual fund. Instead, each plan sponsor would have a separate account for employees. The accounts would hold both Bitcoin and short-term money-market investments for liquidity. The Bitcoin would be custodied by Fidelity on its digital assets platform. The company said it would charge between 0.75% and 0.90% in annual fees. Source https://t.me/Blockchain_Explained

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