Terra’s Do Kwon Buys $230 Million of Bitcoin

Do Kwon targets $10 billion BTC to back TerraUSD (UST).

Terraform Labs founder and CEO Do Kwon added Bitcoin worth $230 million to Luna Foundation Guard’s wallet, buying 5,040 BTC on Wednesday as prices dipped again.

Wednesday saw Bitcoin’s price below $45,000 amid negative market sentiment, providing a “buy-the-dip” opportunity for the Terra CEO. It was an opportunity that had earlier seen MicroStrategy also buy Bitcoin worth $190 million.

Kwon shared the news on Twitter:

„Today I watered my plant, wrote some emails, bought 230M in bitcoin, vacuumed the house, had some McDonalds, now off to walk the dog.”

And with that huge buy, Terra’s Bitcoin for UST reserves has grown to a $1.6 billion stash, with 35,768 bitcoins now held by the LFG.

In March, Kwon announced plans to eventually buy up to $10 billion in Bitcoin, up from an earlier targeted UST reserve of$3 billion. And as of today, the Luna Foundation’s BTC holdings have surpassed those of Tesla (TSLA). Tesla bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin in February last year.

MicroStrategy, which bought an additional 4,167 BTC worth about $190.5 million on Tuesday, is the biggest corporate holder of Bitcoin today. The company now holds 129,218 bitcoins bought at a cost of $30,700. 

The Michael Saylor-led firm’s total cost is around $3.97 billion, with the holdings currently valued at around $6.04 billion.

Bitcoin was trading around $43,660 on Wednesday evening, with the price down 4.6% in the past 24 hours.

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Axie Infinity creator secures $150 million in a funding round led by Binance

The funds will be used to refund Axie Infinity users who lost their assets after a hacker exploited Sky Mavis’ Ronin validator nodes and Axie DAO in March.

Sky Mavis, the developer firm behind the Axie Infinity game, has announced a $150 million funding round led by leading crypto exchange Binance.

The funding round also attracted other major investors from across the crypto space, including venture capitals a16z and Dialectic, crypto-focused investment firm Paradigm, and game software firm Animoca Brands.

According to Sky Mavis, the funds will be combined with those on the company’s balance sheet and be put into the reimbursement plan for Axie Infinity players affected by the recent $625 million hack.

Following the attack, the company has undertaken to bolster network security, including via internal audits. Reimbursing players was also one of the first commitments the developer pledged.

„Sky Mavis is committed to reimbursing all of our users‘ lost funds and implementing rigorous internal security measures to prevent future attacks,“ the firm’s CEO Trung Nguyen said.

He also touched on Sky Mavis‘ plans.

“As a team, we have made an intentional decision to focus on what lies ahead, starting with tomorrow’s launch of Axie Infinity: Origin. We are also thrilled to collaborate with Binance NFT on future projects.”

The company hopes to reopen the Ronin Network bridge, which the hacker exploited to steal 173,600 Ethereum (ETH) and $25.5 million in USDC, once the security audits are over.

As a way toward making the network even more robust going forward, Ronin’s validator group will increase from five to 21. The process will be complete in the next three months and with validators set to be split between the firm’s partners and community members.

Despite the historic hack, the Axie Infinity game remains the most popular and most-played NFT game. More than 2.6 million people own Axie NFTs, while monthly active users currently stand around 2.2 million.

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10 Safest Cryptocurrencies to Invest in 2022

Cryptocurrencies are becoming popular among both retail and institutional investors. There are now thousands of coins that are valued at over $2 trillion. In this article, we will look at ten of the safest cryptocurrencies to buy. The idea is to look at those that have staying power in the coming years to determine the safest crypto to invest in!

1. Chainlink (LINK)

Chainlink is a leading blockchain project that helps other developers to integrate off-chain data with the on-chain ecosystem. For example, a decentralized finance (DeFi) developer can bring data on cryptocurrencies to their platforms. It is also possible to bring data on weather and sports in the industry.

Today, Chainlink is widely used by most developers like AAVE, Anchor Protocol, and Uniswap. According to DeFi Llama, it has a total value secured (TVS) of over $60 billion. LINK, its native coin has a market cap of over $7.6 billion. 

Chainlink is a safe cryptocurrency because of its special role in the industry and its substantial market share in the sector.

Learn how to buy Chainlink with our in-depth guide or invest with our recommended platform below.

2. Ethereum (ETH)

Ethereum is one of the safest cryptocurrencies to invest in. It is a layer 1 network that has created a platform where developers can build and optimize their networks. While Ethereum is facing a lot of competition, its market share in all sub-sectors like gaming, non-fungible tokens (NFT), and DeFi have been strong.

Ethereum is expected to gain more market share in the coming years as it completes its transition to a proof-of-stake network. The developers are also implementing sharding technology that will make it faster and lower its transaction costs. All these make Ethereum a good cryptocurrency to invest in.

Learn how to buy Ethereum with our in-depth guide or invest with our recommended platform below.

3. Terra (LUNA)

Terra is a giant in the blockchain industry. Terra is another platform that enables developers to build dApps. Some of the biggest apps built in the ecosystem are Anchor Protocol, Lido, and Astroport. According to DeFi Llama, all DeFi apps built-in Terra have a total value locked (TVL) of over $25 billion.

Terra is also known for its algorithmic stablecoins such as Terra USD, which has a market cap of over $16.7 billion. Lido, which is built-in Terra also has Lido Staked Ether, which is valued at over $10 billion. Therefore, there is a likelihood that LUNA prices will keep rising in the coming years.

Learn how to buy Terra with our in-depth guide or invest with our recommended platform below.

4. Cosmos Hub (ATOM)

Cosmos is another popular safe cryptocurrency. It is a leading platform that helps to improve the communication of various digital currencies. It achieves this through Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol. According to its website, it now has over 262 cryptocurrencies with over $170 billion in assets. 

Cosmos also has an SDK that hosts some of the most popular platforms like Terra, ThorChain, and Osmosis, Therefore, as the ecosystem grows, there is a likelihood that the ATOM token will keep rising.

5. The Graph (GRT)

The Graph is a blockchain project that provides developers with APIs that help them index their networks. Developers can submit these subgraphs at any time. As a result, The Graph is often seen by Google in the industry. It has been embraced by most developers such as Audius, UMA, LivePeer, Synthetix, and Curve Finance, among others.

The Graph is a safe cryptocurrency because of how widely used it is and the fact that it has minimal competition in the industry. GRT, its native token, is valued at over $2.8 billion.

6. Avalanche (AVAX)

Avalanche is a smart contract platform that offers a better development platform than Ethereum. It is well-known for its blazingly fast transaction speeds and low costs. In a short period of time, Avalanche has attracted hundreds of developers from around the world. 

Some of the projects built on the platform are AAVE, Trader Joe, BENQI, and Stargate. In total, it has a total value locked (TVL) of over $10 billion. This makes it the fourth-biggest platform in the industry after Ethereum, Terra, and BNB. Therefore, there is a possibility that Avalanche price will keep rising in the coming years. 

7. Cronos (CRO)

Cronos is one of the safest cryptocurrencies to invest in. It was formerly known as Crypto.com Coin. As the name suggests, Cronos was started by Crypto.com, one of the biggest exchanges in the world. 

Cronos’ mainnet was launched in 2022 and has seen a strong performance. Its DeFi ecosystem has a TVL of over $4 billion, making it the 9th biggest platform in the industry. Some of the top apps built using Cronos are MM Finance, VVS Finance, MM Optimizer, and Tectonic among others. 

Therefore, because of its strong adoption, there is a likelihood that the CRO price will continue doing well in the coming years. 

8. Basic Attention Token (BAT)

Basic Attention Token (BAT) is the native token for Brave browser, a leading web 3.0 platform. The token is used to pay Brave users for interacting with its adverts. These users can also decide to contribute their earnings to publishers they love. Some of the top publishers in the ecosystem are firms like New York Times and TechCrunch. Brave has over 50 million users globally. 

BAT is a safe cryptocurrency to invest in because of the growing popularity of Brave and the fact that the company will keep attracting new advertisers as the number of users increase.

9. Sandbox (SAND)

Sandbox is a leading metaverse platform in the blockchain. The platform has a number of useful features. For example, users can buy virtual plots in the ecosystem. They can also buy other forms of non-fungible tokens (NFT) on the platform. 

Further, Sandbox regularly hosts events where users are rewarded using the BAT token. Therefore, because it is in a pole position, there is a possibility that the SAND token will keep rising in the coming years.

10. Solana (SOL)

Solana is another Ethereum-killer that hopes to dominate the industry. It is a well-funded platform that has faster speeds and lower costs. As a result, it has been embraced by many developers. Some of the projects in its ecosystem are Serum, Marinade Finance, Solend, and Raydium. In total, these apps have a total value locked of over $7.6 billion. Solana is a safe cryptocurrency because of its growing ecosystem.

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Goldman Sachs Group Inc. plans to provide OTC Ether options trading

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has announced plans to offer over-the-counter (OTC) Ethereum (ETH) options trading. According to the bank’s global head Andrei Kazantsev, the decision to offer Ethereum OTC options trading is pegged on rising customer interest in Ethereum, which is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

On Tuesday in a Goldman Sachs Client Webinar, Andrei claimed that the Wall Street giant has plans to sell cash-settled Ethereum options in “due time.” The bank has not given a specific timeline of when it plans to start the OTC ETH options trading.

The plans for ETH options come right on the heels of Goldman Sachs starting to offer OTC Bitcoin options. It started offering Bitcoin options last month.

Demand for crypto options by investors

There has been an increased demand for options trading by crypto investors since they use them to increase profits and reduce risk.

Secondly, over-the-counter transactions are normally larger trades and they are arranged secretly.

During the webinar, an associate in Goldman’s digital-assets unit called George Lewin-Smith noted that the conversations among clients had shifted to Ethereum, which is now seen as “more of an investable asset class.”

Besides options trading, Goldman Sachs currently does not offer spot crypto trading. It however provides access to Canadian and European exchange-traded goods that clients can use as a proxy.

Ethereum (ETH) performance

After passing the last significant test as it presses toward its long-awaited software upgrade dupped “The Merge,” the price of Ethereum (ETH) has risen by more than 32%.

If successful, ‘The Merge’ shall be the most important technical upgrade since Ethereum was launched in 2015. The main aim of the upgrade is to reduce Ethereum’s carbon footprint while also improving the blockchain’s scalability and efficiency.

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Highlights April 6: Major cryptos slide, US stocks dive

Major cryptos were in the red over the past 24 hours. Goldman Sachs will add over-the-counter options for Ether, which comes about a month after the company began with Bitcoin. Ukraine will sell 300 NFTs it received as donations to assist in the war effort.

US stocks slumped yesterday as a senior Federal Reserve governor warned the central bank could tighten monetary policy more aggressively to control inflation. 

Top cryptos

Solana and Avalanche dropped more than 6%, Cardano more than 5% and Ethereum fell over 4.5%. Bitcoin was trading around $45,300 at time of writing, down more than 3% over the past 24 hours.

Dogecoin gained 7% on news that Elon Musk has become a member of Twitter’s Board of Directors and increased his stock in the social media giant.

Top movers

It was mostly a bear market in the top 100 with the majority of coins losing 4-6% of their value. Tezos lost 8%, Internet Computer and Waves each lost 9%, Axie is down 10%, and THORChain shed 12%.  

Celo is down 13%, reversing yesterday’s gains. The same goes for Audius, SKALE, and Moonbeam, which were rallying yesterday too. They lost 8%, 12%, and 13% respectively in the last 24 h.

Among the few gainers were Zilliqa with 3% and Anchor with 6%. There is a new entrant in the top 100. At #90, Neutrino USD is trading for $0.93 with a 24-hour trading volume of $91.8 million.

It’s up 11% in the last 24 hours. Interestingly, Neutrino USD is a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar.

STEPN is the biggest winner with gains of 23%. Binance announced that STEPN had committed a total of $3,000 in GMT tokens as rewards for a Swap Farming giveaway. STEPN also crossed the market cap of $1 billion within a month of their IEO on Binance.

Trending

Charactbit is currently trading for $0.0044 and has added 900% to its value in the last 24 hours. The project’s goal is to promote cultural activities in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. In particular, virtual characters are cited as an important element of the metaverse.

The Charactbit (CHB) token hopes to inspire subculture representatives to become more active in the crypto ecosystem.

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