Schlagwort: crypto business

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FTM bounces as Fantom CEO ‘clarifies’ Anton Nell and Andre Cronje’s exits

Fantom (FTM) plunged more than 16% on Sunday, dropping as lows as $1.38 as negative sentiment cut across the decentralised finance (DeFi) market.

The sharp decline was triggered by an unexpected tweet from Anton Nell, a high-profile developer and Fantom Foundation advisor.

Andre Cronje and Anton Nell ’shocker‘

In a brief thread on Twitter, Nell said that he and legendary DeFi developer Andre Cronje had come to a decision about their future engagements in the Fantom ecosystem and overall decentralised finance (DeFi) space. 

According to Nell, he and Cronje had finally decided to quit as crypto developers, listing several projects that they would no longer be involved with.

The news saw Fantom (FTM) plummet alongside Yearn.finance (YFI), a project closely associated with Cronje. YFI tanked more than 10% on Sunday.

But in the last few hours, both tokens have bounced higher, with FTM price up more than 2% and YFI +6%. 

For Fantom, the upside comes after the CEO of Fantom Foundation Michael Kong issued a statement ‘clarifying’ that the crypto community likely misunderstood Nell’s message.

In reassurance to the Fantom community, Kong noted on Monday:

“As many of you are aware, Anton, who works with Andre, tweeted that they were “terminating” 25 projects. This was misunderstood. They are “terminating” their involvement, but handing over anything they run to the existing teams.”

Fantom and YFI has ‘hundreds of developers’

Kong has reiterated that Fantom and Yearn.finance will be okay even with the exit of the iconic developers.

He believes this is certainly the case given the Fantom ecosystem currently has “hundreds of developers” working on multiple applications. According to him, these developers have been doing a great job and would continue to do so despite the turn of events.

Speaking of Yearn.finance, Kong noted that the project “has been around for years.” In addition, it has an existing team that will continue to work on it as before.

He has the same view of Multichain and Solidex, two of the largest projects on the Fantom chain. Like YFI’s, these projects have been teams that have worked on them for years. He assured the community that these and many other projects in the ecosystem that are largely associated with Nell and Cronje won’t be ‘terminated.’

Echoing Kong’s viewpoint was Year.finance developer pseudonymously known as banteg. As the YFI token tanked, the developer commented:

“People burying YFI, you do realize Andre hasn’t worked on it for over a year? And even if he did, there are 50 full-time people and 140 part-time contributors to back things up.”

The post FTM bounces as Fantom CEO ‘clarifies’ Anton Nell and Andre Cronje’s exits appeared first on Coin Journal.

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FTX establishes European unit

Two years after founding FTX.US, cryptocurrency exchange FTX has established a European unit licensed in Cyprus, various media sources reported. CySEC, Cyprus’ financial market regulator, approved FTX’s European platform (ftx.com/eu), the exchange announced.

FTX Europe will make products and services available in EEA via an unidentified investment firm licensed to operate across the region. The head office of the division will be in Switzerland. Cyprus will have an additional base.

Users in the EEA will have access to a variety of cryptocurrency products powered by FTX’s industry-leading digital asset offerings and trading technology.

The next phase of international growth

By extending FTX’s presence into Europe and the Middle East, this development marks the next phase of international expansion. Apparently, the new unit will be the crypto exchange’s European equivalent of FTX.US. After a $400 million funding round in January, it is valued at $8 billion.

Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO and founder of FTX commented:

We’re excited to launch our European operations in a regulated fashion to better serve those within the continent. As we continue to grow, we are constantly looking at opportunities to become appropriately licensed and regulated in every market we enter. We’ll be interacting with regulators in various countries across Europe to continue to provide a safe and secure environment for people to trade crypto.

Patrick Gruhn, Head of FTX Europe added:

We’re excited to bring FTX’s innovative offerings to the European markets and that CySEC officially approved our domain. Europeans will now be able to use FTX’s best-in-class trading platform to invest in a wide range of cryptocurrencies derivatives thru a regulated investment firm. 

A reputable investment jurisdiction

Cyprus is a highly reputed investment jurisdiction providing access to the entire European Economic Area, which includes the European Union plus three countries. 

The approval of FTX’s domain by the Cyprus CySEC to provide derivative services to European users also sets a new standard for cryptocurrency exchanges in Europe.

About FTX Europe

FTX Europe gives users in the European Economic Area and the Middle East access to FTX’s innovative products, including industry-leading options and derivatives, tokenized stocks, and volatility products among others. 

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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.

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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.

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