This week in crypto: SBF extradited to the United States

  • SBF is finally in the United States after signing an agreement earlier this year.

  • The SEC chair said the agency would continue cracking down on cryptocurrency companies.

  • Paxful removes Ether from their trading platform.

SBF is now in the United States

Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX, is now back in the US after he was extradited from the Bahamas earlier this week. He signed US extradition papers earlier this week and was moved to the United States on Thursday.

Following the extradition, SBF was issued a $250 million bail which he paid a few hours later. However, he still has a lot to answer for in the United States.

Earlier this week, former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang pleaded guilty, after they were charged with committing fraud that resulted in the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange.

According to the US Attorney for South District of New York (SDNY) Damian Williams, this is likely not the last major development in relation to the FTX investigations.

The US SEC also announced earlier this week that it had charged Wang and Ellison for their roles in a multiyear scheme to defraud FTX equity investors. 

The SEC to continues its crackdown on crypto

The SEC chair, Gary Gensler, revealed earlier this week that the agency would continue to clamp down on cryptocurrency companies. He called for the regulation of crypto issuers and exchanges. 

In an interview earlier this week, Gensler said;

“Financial history would tell you that most of these tokens [native tokens of crypto exchanges] will fail. [Insiders] sell the public on an idea while they’re potentially fraudulently pumping up the stock. This leads to distorted incentives and puts the public further at risk of the token not being properly registered and having proper disclosures and complying with the various provisions of the securities law about anti-fraud and anti-manipulation.”

Paxful removes ETH from its platform

Peer-to-peer trading exchange Paxful announced earlier this week that it had removed Ether from its platform. The Paxful CEO  cited the prevalence of scams among Ethereum-based tokens as one of the major reasons why ETH was removed.

Tezos activates the Lima upgrade

The Tezos team announced earlier this week that it had completed the 12th upgrade on its blockchain. The upgrade, called Lima, introduces several new features while also reducing the risk of bugs in smart contracts.

Lima marks the fourth protocol upgrade in 2022 as Tezos seeks to improve its blockchain. 

Waves planning to launch another stablecoin

Waves already has the USDN stablecoin, but that might not be enough. The Waves CEO and founder, Sasha Ivanov, promised that he would launch a new stablecoin, one that cannot be deppeged from the US Dollar.

However, the CEO said the new stablecoin would not be launched until the USDN plan resolution is implemented. 

Binance.US acquires Voyager assets

BAM Trading Services Inc.’s bid (operating as Binance.US) was chosen by Voyager Digital LLC, the operating unit of Voyager Digital Ltd., to acquire its assets after reviewing strategic options.

Voyager Digital said it chose Binance.US because it wants to maximise the value returned to clients and creditors as soon as possible. The bid from Binance.US is valued at around $1.022 billion. 

According to Voyager, the bid consists of the to-be-set fair market value of its crypto portfolio, valued at $1.002 billion at current market prices.

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Ethereum Classic Price Prediction: ETC seems stable whilst Metacade (MCADE) doesn’t stop rising

Web3 is a constantly expanding industry and crypto price action tends to favour projects that can adapt to its fast-changing environment. ETC is a classic example of a project that has been left behind due to its inability to scale with the rest of the industry, which has resulted in some pessimistic price predictions for the Ethereum Classic token.

In contrast, the latest Ethereum blockchain (ETH) continues to grow. There are some key differences between the two Ethereum chains, including ETH being home to fast-growing projects like Metacade.

What is Ethereum Classic?

Ethereum Classic (ETC) is a cryptocurrency that was created as a result of a fork in the Ethereum blockchain. Unlike Ethereum (ETH), Ethereum Classic does not support the use of smart contracts. Since ETC is not Turing Complete, developers cannot create decentralised applications (dApps) on the Ethereum Classic blockchain and this has always placed negative pressure on the Ethereum Classic price prediction.

Ethereum Classic is often referred to as “Ethereum’s original chain” because it retains the original Ethereum blockchain. After the Ethereum hard fork in October 2016, Ethereum Classic was kept online by nodes all over the world. This means that crypto users can still make transactions on the Ethereum Classic network, despite Ethereum Mainnet moving in a different direction over the past 6 years.

In recent times, Ethereum Mainnet has made the switch from a Proof of Work consensus mechanism to Proof of Stake. This has reduced the cost of supporting network infrastructure. While ETH is now Proof of Stake, ETC remains a Proof of Work blockchain. The result is that Ethereum Classic is slower and more expensive to run with a block time of 14 seconds and high transaction fees due to its energy-intensive mining system.

Price action lacking in ETC

The current price of ETC is $25.19. Since Ethereum Classic is the oldest Ethereum chain and is restricted by its inability to support dApps, it has much lower transaction activity than Ethereum Mainnet. With fewer people buying the token, ETC price is now a fraction as high as ETH, with poor Ethereum Classic price prediction assessments coming from analysts looking at its mid- to long-term prospects.

Despite this, the Ethereum Classic market cap is over $3 billion. However, the chain’s lack of functionality within the world of Web3 means it has lower growth potential for the long term. In trying to choose the correct Ethereum Classic price prediction, it’ll be important to think about the situation from a development perspective. For developers looking to build exciting digital services using blockchain technology, Ethereum Classic is not an option.

The expected result is that new projects building on ETH will continue to gain value while the Ethereum Classic price prediction shows ETC falling even further in the future. It all boils down to utility.

A New Project in the ETH Ecosystem Making Major Gains

While ETC price action leaves much to be desired due to its lack of functionality, one token that continues to impress is Metacade. Built using the latest Ethereum blockchain, this project offers broad utility to crypto holders who are looking to make the most out of the Web3 user experience.

Metacade aims to support the expansion of GameFi as a core sector of blockchain technology. It is a community-driven initiative that rewards crypto natives for providing value to the ecosystem, among a host of other exciting features that are attracting widespread interest.

What is Metacade?

Metacade is a broad gaming platform that aims to support the expansion of GameFi. Play-to-Earn projects are revolutionising the gaming industry, as players gain financial rewards for the time they spend in-game. This is a core reason why so many are predicting high growth potential for the GameFi sector over the coming years and Metacade is positioning itself as a key player.

Millions Expected to Join the Metaverse

There are many exciting new P2E projects being developed and the scope of what is possible in the metaverse is constantly being expanded. As blockchain technology becomes increasingly more advanced, and the world becomes increasingly more digital, millions of people are expected to jump into the metaverse to enjoy the hottest new Play-to-Earn games.

Supporting GameFi Developers

Metacade supports this expansion directly through its Metagrants program. The community will get to decide which new GameFi projects sound the most promising, and vote to use the Metacade treasury to directly fund the development teams. Metacade’s aim is to drive growth in Play-to-Earn gaming. For innovative developers that have exciting new ideas, this is an extremely valuable service. The Metacade ecosystem could become a hub of technological progress as a result, pushing the limits and ensuring a fresh supply of awesome titles.

Rewarding Play-to-Earn Gamers

In addition to supporting the continued development of blockchain-based gaming, Metacade offers some unique features to P2E gamers in its own metaverse scope. Active members of the Metacade community can earn MCADE rewards for their contributions. This includes sharing tips, tricks, and useful knowledge about how to optimise your GameFi playing experience.

The gaming community is at the centre of Metacade’s plans for the future. The project aims to connect avid gamers with the best Play-to-Earn opportunities, creating a virtual arcade where users can collaborate and share their insights. Power is given back to the community, as players can share their suggestions with game developers directly and earn MCADE tokens in the process.

MCADE vs ETC: Which Token Should You Buy?

While Ethereum Classic continues to hold its price above the $20 mark, investors are favouring projects that support the Web3 ecosystem, giving a relatively negative outlook for Ethereum Classic price prediction.

Ethereum Mainnet, on the other hand, remains the most-used network of decentralised applications, and people are bullish on the long-term future of dApps themselves. ETH stands to fare much better than any Ethereum Classic price prediction currently available, and for good reasons: its upcoming projects.

A prime example of a high-potential project being built on Ethereum is Metacade. Through supporting the expansion of GameFi and offering exclusive benefits to P2E players in an immersive digital world, Metacade is an attractive option for long-term crypto investors.

The MCADE presale is starting out at $0.008 per token. It has high long-term potential, and the price of each token will be increasing as it progresses through presale stages. In contrast, ETC continues to experience slow growth, as the latest Ethereum blockchain offers a vastly improved user experience.

You can buy ETC on eToro here.

You can participate in the MCADE presale here.

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Metacade signs terms to list on BitMart

  • Metacade is expected to list on BitMart after signing the listing terms.
  • Metacade presale is currently in the Beta Sale stage.
  • The Beta round price of the MCADE token is 0.01 USDT for 1 MCADE.

After a successful Metacade (MCADE) presale amid the current crypto bear market, Metacade has today announced that it has signed the terms to get listed on BitMart, a leading crypto exchange ranked at position 21 by CoinMarketCap with an average daily trading volume of about $447M.

If the listing process is to be completed successfully, BitMart will be among the first cryptocurrency exchanges to allow its customers to trade the decentralized GameFi token that has been making headlines in the past month.

MCADE token performance so far

Before delving into the performance of the Metacade (MCADE) token, it is important to mention that Metacade is disrupting the crypto market as we know it by creating a decentralized GameFi hub that will bring everything related to Play-to-Earn (P2E) on one platform. P2E games have been such a hit within the blockchain and crypto world, which is likely the reason behind the great performance of the MCADE token at a time when even the likes of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) are struggling.

The MCADE token is currently in the Beta presale round and 54% of the available MCADE tokens have already been sold out raising a whopping $1,340,966. One MCADE token is going for 0.01 USDT and the price is expected to rise to 0.012 USDT for one MCADE token in the next stage.

The next phase for Metacade is expected to be highly exciting as gamers and blockchain fanatics collaborate, communicate, and participate in things like dynamic virtual hangouts on the platform.

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Bitcoin versus Ethereum: Which one should you buy when the bull market returns

  • Bitcoin and Ethereum rank #1 and #2, respectively by market cap

  • Bitcoin is a digital version of currency while Ethereum powers smart contracts

  • Both cryptocurrencies are attractive in a bull market

Bitcoin and Ethereum rank as the biggest cryptocurrencies. To an investor, deciding which one to buy can be confusing. However, it should be easy if you understand the role that each plays in the crypto evolution. 

Bitcoin (BTC)

Think of Bitcoin (BTC/USD) as a digital version of your local currency. The biggest cryptocurrency is, however, different since it is based on a peer-to-peer network. It is decentralised, hence distinct from the conventional currencies, which are controlled by states and national central banks.

As money evolves and digitisation takes over, Bitcoin could become the new form of money. That will see it become a means of payment and a store of value. 

Invented in 2009, BTC has immensely grown in value. In 2021, the cryptocurrency tapped an all-time high of above $68,000. That compares to a price of just $500 in 2016 before the cryptocurrency embarked on a sustained surge. Bitcoin now trades above $16,000 after a sustained bear market this year.

Where to buy BTC

eToro

eToro is a global social investment brokerage company which offers over 75 cryptocurrencies to invest in. It offers crypto trading commission-free and users on the platform have the option to manually invest or socially invest. eToro even has a unique CopyTrader system which allows users to automatically copy the trades of popular investors.

Buy BTC with eToro today

OKX

OKX is a top cryptocurrency exchange which offers over 140 cryptocurrencies to invest in. OKX takes customer security very seriously, they store almost all of their clients‘ funds in cold storage, and the exchange is yet to be hacked. On top of this, the exchange offers very low fees and customers can even use their crypto as collateral for loans on the platform.

Buy BTC with OKX today

Ethereum (ETH)

Ranked as the second largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum (ETH) is viewed as the epitome of smart contracts. Like Bitcoin, Ethereum is decentralised and acts as a store of value, means of payment, and collateral.

Nonetheless, unlike Bitcoin, which is a dedicated form of digital money, Ethereum aims to power smart contracts, dApps, NFTs, and DeFi. It is also relatively newer compared to Bitcoin since it was created in 2015.

Ethereum price also had its fair share of strengths, reaching nearly $4,800 in 2021. Ethereum traded at less than $10 in 2016 before the start of a sustained climb. It now trades at $1,200 in a bear market. Investors anticipate that a recent move from proof of work consensus to proof of stake could power Ethereum to previous heights when the bull market returns.

Where to buy ETH

eToro

eToro is a global social investment brokerage company which offers over 75 cryptocurrencies to invest in. It offers crypto trading commission-free and users on the platform have the option to manually invest or socially invest. eToro even has a unique CopyTrader system which allows users to automatically copy the trades of popular investors.

Buy ETH with eToro today

OKX

OKX is a top cryptocurrency exchange which offers over 140 cryptocurrencies to invest in. OKX takes customer security very seriously, they store almost all of their clients‘ funds in cold storage, and the exchange is yet to be hacked. On top of this, the exchange offers very low fees and customers can even use their crypto as collateral for loans on the platform.

Buy ETH with OKX today

Final verdict

Bitcoin and Ethereum are very strong cryptocurrencies. Their price movement is almost similar, making it difficult to choose one over another. The selection of which cryptocurrency to invest in depends on what you like about each. The technical outlook and fundamentals emerging from each can also help when making a decision.

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