Cryptocurrency

On March 7, United States Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned that interest rates might remain higher for longer than previously anticipated. This boosted expectations of a 50 basis point rate hike at the Fed’s March meeting to about 70%, from 30% a week earlier, according to FedWatch Tool data. The U.S. dollar shot up

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has gone on a shitcoin selling spree, exchanging nearly $700,000 worth of tokens previously airdropped to him for Ether (ETH). According to Etherscan, a wallet belonging to Buterin on March 7 offloaded 500 trillion SHIKOKU (SHIK) for 380.3 ETH ($595,448), nearly 10 billion Cult DAO (CULT) for 58.1 ETH ($91,021), and

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has hinted that the firm’s new layer-2 blockchain network Base may be subjected to transaction monitoring and Anti-Money Laundering measures at launch. In an interview with Joe Weisenthal on Bloomberg Radio on March 6, Armstrong acknowledged that Base has some centralized components today, adding that “it will be more and more

American rapper and actor Snoop Dogg has been revealed as one of the co-founders of a Web3-powered live streaming app called “Shiller” — adding to yet another Web3 partnership for the well-known hip-hop artist.  The app is described as a “live broadcast platform” that aims to combine Web3 technology with real-time live-streaming content. The rap star

Digital asset investment firms poured $2.7 billion into decentralized finance projects in 2022, up 190% from 2021, while investments into centralized finance projects went the other way — falling 73% to $4.3 billion over the same timeframe. The staggering rise in DeFi funding was despite overall crypto funding figures falling from $31.92 billion in 2021

ConsenSys has announced the upcoming release of its zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) rollup to a public testnet on March 28, allowing for stress testing of the layer-2 scaling technology. ConsenSys’ research and development team has been working on its zkEVM rollup over the past four years. The zkEVM is touted to offer fast finality,

Bitcoin (BTC) is leading the cryptocurrency markets lower, and the matter is being exacerbated by Silvergate Banks’ ongoing issues. This week, the cryptocurrency-focused bank said it needed additional time to file its annual 10-K report and warned that it might not make it another 12 months. Reacting to this news, several cryptocurrency companies announced they would

Binance USD’s (BUSD) market cap has fallen below $10 billion for the first time in almost two years amid a United States regulatory crackdown on its token issuer and a planned delisting from a major crypto exchange. BUSD’s market cap has been on a steep downward trajectory since its all-time high market cap of $23.49

Trading platform Robinhood has launched its Web3 wallet on Apple’s App Store, becoming available to iOS users in over 130 countries. Robinhood shared the news in a Mar. 1 post, stating that users would no longer need to sit on a waitlist to access the new multi-chain, self-custody wallet. It added that it will be

In a new blog post published on Feb. 28, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin documented the continued need to improve the network to better facilitate Ether (ETH) as a means of payment. Buterin shared how he tried to pay for tea for himself and friends at a coffee shop in Argentina in 2021 but had to

Crypto ATM installations have seen a steady decline across the world over the past several months. While some ATMs have been taken out of operation due to geopolitical tensions and revenue decline, providers like Bitcoin Depot have started converting their physical Bitcoin (BTC) ATMs to software.  Bitcoin Depot recently converted all of its 7,000 crypto

Anatoly Yakovenko, the founder and CEO of Solana Labs has downplayed claims that Solana’s network outages were being caused by a high volume of validator messages and its on-chain voting system clogging its consensus layer. While the Solana Foundation confirmed in a Feb. 27 post that the “root cause” of the recent 20-hour network outage

The Ethereum community appears to have taken a bullish view of Coinbase’s newly announced layer-2 network, Base, which has been described as a “massive confidence vote” and a “watershed moment” for the blockchain network.  Secured on Ethereum and powered by layer-2 network Optimism, Base aims to eventually become a network for building decentralized applications (DApps)

Top Stories This Week Unsealed superseding indictment against Sam Bankman-Fried includes 12 criminal charges Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) was charged on four new criminal counts by a federal judge presiding over his case. According to a superseding indictment, there are now 12 criminal charges against Bankman-Fried, including eight conspiracy charges related to fraud

Bitcoin is struggling to stay above $23,000 as the weekend approaches. The selling pressure increased after the personal consumption expenditures excluding food and energy rose 0.6% in January and 4.7% over the year, above market expectations of an increase of 0.5% and 4.4% respectively.  This could trigger fears that the United States Federal Reserve may

Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industry’s most important developments. Hong Kong moves bullish On Feb. 20, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong launched a consultation on its proposed regulatory requirements for digital asset trading platforms. The SFC requires the licensing by June of all cryptocurrency exchanges operating

The founders behind the alleged $340 million “global Ponzi” scheme Forsage have been indicted by a federal grand jury in the District of Oregon. The four Russian founders — Vladimir Okhotnikov, Olena Oblamska, Mikhail Sergeev and Sergey Maslakov — have been formally accused of having key roles in the scheme that raised approximately $340 million from

The decentralized autonomous organization (DAO)-operated golf startup, LinksDAO, may soon put in an offer to purchase the newly marketed Spey Bay Golf Club in Scotland worth about $900,000.  LinksDAO — self-described as a “global group of golf enthusiasts” that is on a mission to build the “world’s greatest golf community” — officially opened the proposal

Solana Spaces will close down its two Solana (SOL)-themed, community-oriented retail stores in New York City and Miami at the end of the month, as the physical stores didn’t onboard as many users as initially anticipated. Solana Spaces tweeted the news on Feb. 21, sharing a note from founder Vibhu Norby explaining the reasons behind

South Korea’s “Kimchi premium” has flipped to a discount again, meaning cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are now cheaper to buy on South Korean exchanges. The phenomenon is named after the Korean dish kimchi. The Kimchi premium refers to when the price of Bitcoin (BTC) trades higher on South Korean exchanges than in other markets. According

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell for the third consecutive week but Bitcoin (BTC) price decoupled and is on track to close the week near the strong overhead resistance at $25,211. This suggests that the wider crypto market recovery is on a strong footing. After Bitcoin’s sharp rally from the lows, analysts remain divided in

Top Stories This Week Paxos ‘categorically disagrees’ with the SEC that BUSD is a security The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has defined the stablecoin Binance USD (BUSD) as a security in a Wells Notice sent to its issuer, Paxos Trust Company. The SEC alleges the organization failed to register BUSD under federal

The total crypto market capitalization rejected at $1.13 trillion on Feb. 16, but there was no change in the month-long ascending channel structure. More importantly, this level represents a 43% gain in 2023, which is far from the $3 trillion level achieved in November 2021. Still, the current recovery is notable.  As shown above, the

Cryptocurrency investors funneled as much as $4.6 billion into crypto tokens suspected to be part of “pump and dump” schemes in 2022. A Feb. 16 report from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis “analyzed all tokens launched” in 2022 on the BNB Smart Chain and Ethereum blockchains and found thatover 9,900 bore characteristics of a “pump and

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has started ramping up its crackdown on the crypto industry and recent enforcement actions had a negative impact on crypto prices last week and at the start of this week.  The SEC is focusing on stablecoin issuers. The most recent SEC stablecoin crackdown was on Feb. 13

Bitcoin (BTC) is leading the cryptocurrency markets on the path to recovery. Although the United States Consumer Price Index (CPI) print for January was marginally higher than expectations, it did not dent the enthusiasm of bullish crypto traders. A positive response to seemingly negative data is a sign that the sentiment is bullish and traders

The percentage of Ethereum blocks complying with orders set by the United States Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) has now fallen to 47% — the lowest level since Oct. 11.  The latest milestone in reversing censorship comes nearly three months after the percentage of OFAC-compliant blocks peaked at 79% on Nov. 21. OFAC-compliant blocks

Paxos Trust Company says it “categorically disagrees” with the United States securities regulator that has describedBinance USD (BUSD) as a security.  In the Feb. 13 statement, the BUSD issuer confirmed recent reports that it had received a Wells notice from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission over BUSD and its alleged failure to register

Recently reported planned enforcement action against Paxos by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over Binance USD (BUSD) has many in the community questioning how the regulator could see a stablecoin as a security. Blockchain lawyers told Cointelegraph that while the answer isn’t black and white, there exists an argument for it if the stablecoin

Top Stories This Week Kraken reaches $30M settlement with SEC over staking as IRS seeks user information Kraken has agreed to stop offering staking services or programs to United States clients after reaching an agreement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Along with ceasing operations, the crypto exchange will pay $30 million in