Kategorie: Crypto News

Daily crypto headlines and news about bitcoin, ether, ripple, solana, altcoins, nft, market, business, analysis, nft, metaverse, minting and mining.
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Highlights March 7: Major cryptos in the red, UK100 suffers amidst Russia-Ukraine war

Crypto market as a whole is in the red today. Ukraine has spent $15 million worth of cryptocurrency, primarily Bitcoin and Ether, on military equipment. It has received more than $50 million in cryptocurrency donations.

The UK100 lost more than 6% last week as the escalating Russia-Ukraine war caused a selloff in global markets. Firms with strong Russian links were the biggest losers, with miners Polymetal International and Evraz slumping 64.87% and 60.02%, respectively.

The price of oil has risen around 30% in the past week. It almost reached $125 early Monday morning and was trading around $123 at time of writing. Investors will be following closely the possibility that the US will ban imports on Russian oil, which could send prices even higher.

Top cryptos

Solana is down more than 6%, while Cardano, Avalanche, and Ethereum slid more than 4%. Bitcoin was trading just above $38,000 at time of writing, down around 3% over the past 24 hours.

Top movers

Most top 100 coins lost 3-5% of their value today. A notable standout is Fantom, which shed almost 12% of its value. Anchor Protocol lost 14% as the effects of a recent cash injection begin to dissipate.

Convex Finance is still spiraling downward. It has lost 8.68% in the last 24 hours and 9.82% over the past 7 days after a bug caused CVX to sink on a forced token unlock.           

Monero is down 6%, reversing recent gains. Other notable losers include Zcash (-9%) and Chiliz (-7%). Waves is still rallying on support for Ukraine. It gained around 2% today.   

Trending

The token of Meta Speed, an online multiplayer racing game based on blockchain technology, gained 746% today. You can gather your friends, form a team, battle with others and earn token rewards after winning the race.

MovieBloc, a decentralized movie and content distribution platform, is surging on news of lucrative film studio partnerships. The exciting movies it screens contribute to its massive popularity. It added 82% to its value in 24 hours.

The live TROY price today is $0.007 with a 24-hour trading volume of $118 million. TROY is up 29% after announcing an upcoming NFT launch.  

The post Highlights March 7: Major cryptos in the red, UK100 suffers amidst Russia-Ukraine war appeared first on Coin Journal.

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Cosmos is in a bullish reversal and could test even higher prices soon

Atom breaks out of a bearish channel and news supports a positive price action.

  • Cosmos making higher lows is a pointer to rising bullish momentum.

  • Major milestone hit on a critical Cosmos and Polkadot Bridge

  • Cosmos price action is also supported by the FXM listing. 

Cosmos ATOM/USD is not as well-known as the other large-cap cryptocurrencies. That said, it has been surging in value and is currently one of the few cryptos in the green, in a sea of red. So what exactly is Cosmos? 

Cosmos is a cryptocurrency that aims to interconnect Dapps across blockchains. The idea is to create an interconnected chain of Dapps and lay the foundation for Web 3.0. 

Over the past year, the Cosmos ecosystem has grown quite strongly and added a lot of value to the Cosmos (ATOM) token. That’s despite the fact that ATOM is an inflationary token.

The Cosmos ecosystem continues to grow

Cosmos is currently surging, and in the past week alone, is up by over 30%. This follows news that a bridge between Cosmos and Polkadot had hit a major milestone. News of this bridge has pushed up investor interest in ATOM because it will likely trigger an upsurge in the number of projects building on Cosmos.

Besides an update on the Cosmos/Polkadot Bridge called Astra/Shiden, Cosmos is also getting listed on more major exchanges. The latest big exchange to list Cosmos is FTX. This is a big deal because it means more liquidity and demand, especially now that the price is rising and new investors would want a piece of the pie. 

ATOM breaks out bearish channel

Source: TradingView

Since February 24, 2022, ATOM has been on an uptrend, even as the broader market slowed down. However, in the last 24-hours, ATOM has eased up.

All through Saturday and early Sunday, ATOM was trading in a bearish channel. It has since eased. However, in the last 4-hours, bulls have pushed ATOM through the upper resistance channel at $28.97. If volumes increase and a bullish reversal follows, ATOM could test prices above $35 in the next 24-hours.

However, if bears take control and the 24-hour support of $28.64 is lost, prices below $25 could be tested in the next 24-hours or so.

Summary

Cosmos (ATOM) is one of the few cryptocurrencies that are on an uptrend at the moment. This is driven by news of a major Cosmos/Polkadot bridge and the listing of ATOM on FTX. Trading volumes are rising, and price action indicates that ATOM could rally even further going into the new week.

The post Cosmos is in a bullish reversal and could test even higher prices soon appeared first on Coin Journal.

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Coinbase CEO says Russian oligarchs won’t use crypto to evade sanctions

Russia, sanctions, crypto– yes, three words that have this week informed one of the most discussed topics in the crypto space. 

We know Russia attacked Ukraine and a war is going on. This has in turn attracted tough sanctions from across European nations and the United States.

And in the middle of all these, there’s a simple hypothesis that crypto could provide Russian oligarchs a way to circumvent sanctions. Of course crypto should be able to do this, given characteristics inherent to the burgeoning technology.

But it won’t be won’t be easy and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has shared his views on why not.

Why Coinbase thinks crypto will not be ideal Russian oligarchs

According to Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, it’s possible a wealthy Russian close to President Vladimir Putin might try to evade US sanctions by using crypto. 

Yet, looking at the prevailing circumstances around Russia, crypto may not be what an oligarch trying to remain anonymous or discrete would look to use in “sneaking” huge amounts of money around.

And it even gets tougher given that the liquidity one might need to facilitate this on the biggest exchanges- most of them available in the US and other major countries looking to enforce sanctions.  As such, crypto businesses in these countries will likely follow the law and make it difficult for Russia or the sanctioned individuals.

Sharing his thoughts on this very topic, the Coinbase chief noted:

“Every US company has to follow the law – it doesn’t matter if your company handles dollars, crypto, gold, real estate or even non financial assets. Sanctions laws apply to all US people and businesses. So it would be a mistake to think crypto businesses like Coinbase won’t follow the law. Of course we will.”

He added that screening of customers is part of the law and that global watchlists provide useful information that helps the exchange block flagged individuals, IP addresses, accounts or transactions.

Armstrong then explains why he doesn’t think “there’s a high risk of Russian oligarchs using crypto to avoid sanctions.”

Why?

“Because it is an open ledger, trying to sneak lots of money through crypto would be more traceable than using U.S. dollars cash, art, gold, or other assets,” he said.

Blockchain traceability and following the law won’t make it easy for anyone looking to use cryptocurrencies to avoid sanctions.

Coinbase won’t block all Russians

Calls to ban all Russians from accessing services on crypto exchanges have also been made, including from officials in Ukraine. But Armstrong says Coinbase won’t take that step.

“We are not preemptively banning all Russians from using Coinbase. We believe everyone deserves access to basic financial services unless the law says otherwise,” he noted.

According to him, doing so will impact people for whom crypto is a buffer in these times when the ruble has deflated massively.

“Many of them [ordinary Russians] likely oppose what their country is doing, and a ban would hurt them, too,” he opined.

But like other regulated companies and businesses, Coinbase follows the law and if the US government asks it to block or ban certain users, the firm will follow the said laws.

Armstrong summarised his view of the whole issue by saying that Coinbase will also work towards helping Ukrainians access the crypto services they need.

The post Coinbase CEO says Russian oligarchs won’t use crypto to evade sanctions appeared first on Coin Journal.

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Lugano, Switzerland takes leaf out of El Salvador’s book

When El Salvador became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender in September, excitement rippled through the cryptocurrency world. It was a big step for crypto at large, and a giddy indicator of what the future could hold. Soon, enthusiasts started speculating if another country would follow.

Most believed it would be another low-income country, given weak currencies are typically very prone to shifting market environments and high inflation. Panama was perhaps the favourite, as they swiftly announced a bill to make Bitcoin legal tender following El Salvador’s move last year. Paraguay was another guess often floated, buoyed by their bill to regulate Bitcoin mining and trading before Christmas. All the frontrunners seemed to be Latin American, however, with Honduras and Guatemalan rumours also circulating on Internet forums.

Nobody got it right though. Because yesterday, the winner was announced as…a small city in southern Switzerland by the name of Lugano.

With a population of 62,000, Lugano is the ninth largest city in Switzerland. Sitting beautifully on Lake Lugano, it looks every bit as idyllic as a Windows screensaver.

So, what does the crypto announcement mean?

Lugano have played it a little differently than El Salvador, who went all-in on Bitcoin alone. The Swiss city have announced that Tether and LVGA (a CHF stablecoin), as well as Bitcoin, are now “de facto” legal tender.

El Salvador’s bet on Bitcoin is a lot more impactful and economically consequential on a macro scale, and not only for the fact that it is a country rather than a small city such as Lugano. But that’s not to say this won’t change anything in Lugano.

Citizens can now pay taxes in crypto, as well as parking tickets, tuition fees and public services. 200 businesses are also anticipated to accept payment for goods and services. So, while Bitcoin is not on equal footing to the Swiss franc, I think its especially interesting that stablecoins have been included as an option for citizens.

A repeated criticism of El Salvador’s decision was the detrimental impacts that Bitcoin’s notorious volatility would have when adopted as legal tender. But with stablecoins, price is obviously not a concern given the peg to fiat. It gives citizens a neat extra option – want to hold your savings in stablecoins, farming yield on a DeFi protocol, before seamlessly transferring over cash for your parking ticket? Well, that’s now possible.

Criticism

Of course, people will criticise the move as pointless and a publicity stunt. But in reality, what is bad about that? Here we are talking about a city of 62,000 in the middle of Europe, which never would have happened otherwise. What does the city have to lose? Blockchain startups, crypto unicorns and freelance enthusiasts are all the target of this change, but even if it only leads to a small bump in tourism, that’s still a win.

As I said above, the scale of the law is so minor that it is unlikely to cause any serious ramifications, such as what sceptics on El Salvador claim. The IMF, who urged El Salvador last month to “narrow the scope of the Bitcoin law by removing Bitcoin’s legal tender status”, won’t be knocking on the Lugano mayor’s office anytime soon. The concern surrounding financial integrity, protection of citizens and fiscal liabilities (given El Salvador’s small pool of government resources) won’t be a concern in Switzerland.

Tether

Tether are in partnership with Lugano, with chief technical officer Paolo Lugano saying at yesterday’s Plan B event that the firm had fund of 3 million Swiss francs together with Lugano officials, in order to push the adoption of Bitcoin, Tether and the LVGA token. He repeated the main goal – an initiative focused on making the city a buzzing blockchain hub in Europe.

It’s a fun episode in the exciting world of crypto, and it will be interesting to track whether Lugano can attract talent, businesses and traders to their beautiful city.

So, who is going to be next?

 

The post Lugano, Switzerland takes leaf out of El Salvador’s book appeared first on Coin Journal.

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Highlights March 4: Cryptos in the red, precious metals soar

The crypto market was in the red over the past 24 hours and the majority of top 10 cryptos registered declines this morning. 

US stocks slipped yesterday as the Russia-Ukraine war entered its eighth day. Alongside the conflict in Europe, Wall Street may be impacted by the NFP report and other job data, to be released today at 13:30 GMT.

Metal prices are soaring as concerns grow that the Russia-Ukraine war will disrupt supply. Gold (+0.42%), copper (+2.29%), palladium (+3.65%), aluminum (+5.46%), platinum (+0.51%) and nickel (+4.89%) all ticked higher.

Top cryptos

Bitcoin was down more than 4% at time of writing, priced slightly above $41,000. Other noticeable declines include Ethereum, which fell 6% and Solana, which was down more than 7%.

The live Cosmos price today is $33.55 with a 24-hour trading volume of $1.8 billion. The 20th biggest coin by market cap has gained around 4% in the last 24 hours. 

Top movers

Most top 100 coins lost 2-5% of their value today. Notable declines here included Internet Computer (-8%), VeChain (-9%), Theta Network and Dash (-7% each), and Helium (-9%).

Convex Finance is beginning to shed recent gains. It rose by more than 40% two days ago. Today, it’s down 8%.

Waves, the Ukrainian-born token, continues to rally. It’s up around 3% today.

The biggest mover of the day is UMA. Known as Universal Market Access, this is a protocol for the creation of synthetic assets based on the Ethereum blockchain. UMA was launched in December 2018.

UMA added 73% to its value on Tuesday. It’s now in the top 100, ranking at #97, and added 14.89% to its value today. Its price has more than doubled in the past 7 days.          

Trending

Kasta is an ecosystem enabling fast and free crypto transfers. Its eponymous token added 46% to its value today after an announcement that Kasta has launched beta testing of its app.

WadzPay Token, an ecosystem with smart contract-based fund disbursement methodology, has gained 36% in 24 hours. The native token WTK is about to break $0.1, possibly on news that the company is hiring 200 people for its new office in Singapore, which it opened last month.

GFI is the native token of Goldfinch, a decentralized credit protocol for crypto loans without crypto collateral. At the time of writing, it had added 22%, reaching $3.78. 

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