Day: February 22, 2021

Lark Davis Urges Launch of Ethereum 2.0 Amid ‘Crazy’ Fees, Exodus to Binance Smart Chain

by Dailyhodl

As gas fees on the Ethereum smart contract platform soar, popular crypto influencer Lark Davis is calling on Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin to finally roll out Ethereum 2.0.

In a new video, Davis tells his 218,000 subscribers that while he is bullish on Ethereum (ETH), the transaction fees on the smart contract platform have become “insane,” causing a mass migration of traders onto alternative decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms like Binance Smart Chain (BSC).

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Davis calls upon Ethereum frontman Buterin to rectify the issue with the long-awaited launch of the team’s scaling solution, Ethereum 2.0.

“You do have to keep it real right now. The fees for Ethereum are crazy, crazy high which obviously doesn’t matter for the big money guys who are gobbling up Ethereum and waiting for it to go up to five digits. they’re looking at the investment thesis here. But we’re now at the point where ETH 1.0 – oh we need ETH 2.0 so soon, come on Vitalik [Buterin], get it going, man – ETH 1.0, most regular users are priced out of using the majority of applications on Ethereum.

And let’s keep it real, a transaction on Uniswap costs $50 on average these days. That’s crazy man, come on, come on that’s not cool at all. And if you want to get into a DeFi farm, you’re probably going to be paying a few hundred dollars to do that, which is loco, man. Totally loco.”

The analyst says that Ethereum is turning into a chain reserved only for the wealthy, and that the fees are likely triggering the explosion in popularity of Binance Smart Chain’s native BNB token and the PancakeSwap (CAKE) decentralized exchange that is built on BSC.

“Ethereum at this point is becoming a chain for rich investors. Good if you can afford it, right? Uniswap still does have deep liquidity and lists new tokens before anyone else and all that stuff, but right now we’re seeing non-rich users moving to other chains which is not surprising. Binance Smart Chain has been absolutely exploding in users with apps like PancakeSwap getting a lot of attention and actually starting to catch up to Uniswap in terms of total value locked. The Binance tokens exploded. Binance based DeFi projects all exploding over the last week as people are seeking greener pastures.”

As for Buterin’s progress on a remedy for the high fees, ETH 2.0’s beacon chain launched back in December, but still lacks the necessary scaling solutions needed to speed up and cheapen transaction costs. Buterin has previously said that although the team intends to roll out ETH 2.0 in three phases, Phase 0, Phase 1 and Phase 2, it would be possible to increase transaction speeds and lower costs with rollups during Phase 1.

Buterin says Phase 1 is expected to launch in August or September of this year.

“The roadmap has an interesting unintended artefact: sharded applications by themselves need phase 2. But sharded rollups only need phase 1, because rollups use the chain only for data, not for computation. So we will have all the tools we need for 6400x throughput quite soon!

So it’s not ‘rollups instead of sharding,’ it’s ‘rollups on top of sharding.’ That said, rollups are already here or coming soon even before sharding, and rollups without sharding still offer that 100x increase in throughput. So get on a rollup today!”

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Although a solution may not be too far off, Davis believes that until ETH 2.0 can be deployed, traders will continue “voting with their feet” by using cost-efficient alternatives.

“The message is pretty clear from investors. People are voting with their feet here. People want to use DeFi but they’re not interested in paying $50 to do a swap for coins or a few hundred dollars to provide liquidity. They’re just not wanting to do that, and they are right to not want to pay those fees… 

You have some rich Ethereum maximalists or whatever out there who are going to tell you, ‘You need to just deal with the reality of Ethereum right now, you shouldn’t be out there using these other chains,’ But you know what? Nobody cares about those opinions. People are voting with their feet.” 

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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any loses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

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Long Blockchain, Icon of the 2017 Crypto Frenzy, Gets Stock Delisted by SEC

by Decrypt

In brief

  • Long Blockchain Corp used to be known as Long Island Tea Corp.

  • The company went from selling iced-tea to supposedly investing in blockchain projects.

  • But it has got itself into trouble and today had its shares delisted by the SEC.

A former iced-tea company that became a blockchain investment company has had its shares delisted by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after failing to file financial updates.  

Long Blockchain Corp—previously known as Long Island Tea Corp—has not filed a quarterly report since September 2018, Bloomberg reported today. It is now no longer allowed to trade. 

The company used to sell lemonade and non-alcoholic iced-tea but rebranded around the time of the 2017 Bitcoin bull run. It experienced some quick success—and its stock pumped by 500% at the time. 

But the company struggled when the price of Bitcoin crashed, and got kicked off the Nasdaq in 2018. It has since been investigated for alleged foul play by the FBI and SEC. 

The SEC’s Friday order said that Long Blockchain Corp’s big plan to move to the cryptocurrency world was a failure.  

“In December 2017, the company changed its name to LBCC and announced that it was shifting its business operations from soft drink production to activities related to blockchain technology.” the SEC said. 

“Its blockchain business never became operational.” 

Long Blockchain Corp isn’t the only iced-tea-turned-blockchain company. Chinese tea company, Urban Tea, this month announced it would be moving into the world of blockchain and cryptocurrency mining. Like its predecessor, it too enjoyed a boost to its stock price following its announcement: jumping 15% on the news.

Is it destined for the same fate? Investors would no doubt love to be able to read those tea leaves.

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Ant-Backed MYbank Reportedly Involved in China’s Digital Yuan Trial

by Btcmanager

As part of China’s plans to expand its digital currency testing, online banking platform MYbank, backed by Alibaba’s affiliate fintech giant Ant Group, has reportedly joined the digital yuan pilot program. 

China Reportedly Tapping Private Sector for Digital Yuan Test

According to Bloomberg on Monday (Feb. 22, 2021), anonymous sources revealed that MYbank would bring its online services to China’s digital currency electronic payment (DCEP) app. Another digital bank, Webank, founded by Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings, would also be participating in the digital yuan trial program.

Indeed, banks have also been at the forefront of bootstrapping adoption of the digital yuan especially in the area of developing hardware wallets for the DCEP. The Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) launched a mobile application for digital yuan trial, while its Xiongan branch created a digital yuan hardware wallet. Also, the Postal Savings Bank of China developed a biometric hardware wallet for CBDC payments.

As previously reported by BTCManager in August 2020, the country’s central bank was reportedly looking to use its CBDC project to lessen the dominance held by Tencent and Alibaba in the digital payments sector. China has a vibrant electronic payments industry, with everything from grocery buying to bus rides conducted via mobile phones.


Also, statistics show that tech giants Tencent and Alibaba control over 90 percent of mobile transactions. According to speculations, the government is looking to water down the dominance enjoyed by both companies to provide fair competition for commercial banks.

Meanwhile, tapping into the online payments sector shows the government’s efforts at expanding the scope of its digital yuan trials. Different CBDC tests have also been conducted in cities like Shenzhen and Suzhou through various airdrop events.

Shenzhen carried out its first airdrop event, in October 2020. Although authorities said the CBDC red packet event was successful, some recipients were unimpressed with the digital yuan, stating it was no different from existing payment options.

Shenzhen further conducted two airdrop programs in January 2021. As part of the city’s second digital yuan trials, the ABC launched ATMs in different parts of Shenzhen to enable the conversion from cash to DCEP.

Suzhou has also distributed free digital yuan in lottery events, with the latest conducted in February 2021.


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Lindsay Lohan is Selling a Daft Punk NFT for $15K in Ethereum

by Decrypt

In brief

  • Noted crypto fan Lindsay Lohan is selling a Daft Punk-themed NFT for over $15,000.

  • Someone put the NFTs on Rarible yesterday…

  • …which is weird, because Daft Punk broke up this morning

Newly minted crypto fan Lindsay Lohan is selling a Daft Punk NFT for over $15,000. And while these crypto collectibles are designed to “provably unique,” we can’t yet determine if this one is the real deal.

NFTs are non-fungible tokens, one-of-one digital items on the Ethereum blockchain, which have become a popular medium for visual art over the past year. Paying for an NFT is essentially paying for publicly-recorded proof of ownership.

Many NFTs are just images online—things that someone might just screenshot and save to a phone. But demonstrable ownership has proved extremely lucrative; in December, the digital artist Beeple sold a collection of digital images for $3.5 million.

Lohan’s piece—a stylized image of the music duo in their robot suits—comes courtesy of a user called “Daft Punk,” who is almost certainly not affiliated with the actual duo of Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo (though, we’ve asked Rarible for confirmation).

According to records on the NFT marketplace Rarible, this “Daft Punk” user “minted” editions of some Daft Punk NFTs yesterday (there are only two distinct images, but each has been “minted” into a number of editions, similar to physical prints), and then transferred them into the wallets of big name collectors, such as Mark Cuban, Tyga, Soulja Boy, and Beeple. 

To be clear, Cuban and co. didn’t pay for these images—the “Daft Punk” account gave them away, presumably in an attempt to boost his cred and juice sales. And most of the accounts haven’t done anything with their newly gifted NFTs, because why would they.

Lohan is the exception: she’s reselling her Daft Punk NFT on the secondary market for 8.8 Ethereum (ETH), or over $15,000. Because why wouldn’t she.

Also weird: Daft Punk broke up this morning, which suggests that this NFT creator either got very lucky, or somehow knew about the breakup in advance. 

There’s also the faint but disturbing possibility that Lohan herself knew about the breakup. Stranger things have happened: remember when the Rock knew about the death of Osama Bin Laden before it was announced?

In any case, no one’s biting so far—the highest bid on Lohan’s NFT is currently $88.



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Cointelegraph launches Markets Pro crypto intelligence platform, powered by The TIE

by Cointelegraph

Cointelegraph Markets Pro, a data platform designed to level the playing field for cryptocurrency market participants, is now available to the public following a successful live testing period.

The platform, which has been in development for a year, is the result of exhaustive analysis of the crypto markets and the key drivers of asset price movements. It was developed jointly by Cointelegraph and The TIE, a leading provider of crypto data, analytics and software that counts major hedge funds, market makers and OTC desks among its clients.

Testing the VORTECS Score

At the heart of the platform is the VORTECS Score, which compares current market conditions for over 130 crypto assets to historically-similar marketscapes. A proprietary algorithm analyzes those historic conditions, seeking consistent patterns in market behavior in the following days.

“Even if crypto markets may seem volatile, the volatility often demonstrates remarkable consistency,” said Cointelegraph CEO Jay Cassano. “While we’re all aware that past performance is not indicative of future results, the Markets Pro platform combines sentiment analysis and social media activity with real-time market conditions in a way that allows us to create very specific models.”

 “History doesn’t predict, but it can be deeply informative.”

VORTECS beta testing delivered compelling results, according to Joshua Frank, CEO of The TIE.

“We tested every score that crossed a certain threshold in our live beta phase,” explained Frank. “When the VORTECS score for a particular crypto asset crossed 70, we saw an average price increase of 7.61% over the next 24 hours, and 25.9% over the next seven days.”

Frank noted that when scores that crossed the 80 threshold, asset gains were 8.58% over the next 24 hours — and 28.2% over the following week.

“Of course, since most crypto traders are rotating into other assets such as Bitcoin, the real measure of success during a bull market is whether or not assets that crossed these thresholds delivered gains against the entire crypto market,” continued Frank. 

“And in fact, that’s exactly what happened — over the course of a week, 70-scored assets gained an average of 21.3% vs. the universe of coins, rising to 23.8% for assets that scored over 80.”

Breaking NewsQuakes deliver headlines faster

Cointelegraph Markets Pro also features NewsQuakes, a comprehensive headline news aggregator believed to be the fastest in the cryptocurrency industry.

“We’ve been working with The TIE for a year to identify and isolate the most important price drivers in the news cycle,” explained Cointelegraph Editor-in-Chief Jon Rice.

“Token burns, exchange listings, partnerships and staking announcements are among the headlines that tend to move markets. The Markets Pro platform uses AI to sift through the thousands of sources we analyze every minute, delivering key insights into these events directly to Markets Pro subscribers — often within seconds.”

Rice suggested that when a cryptocurrency asset is listed on Coinbase, for example, it often sees rapid and significant price appreciation. “These announcements can deliver swift returns to traders who pick up on them quickly,” he said.

“For instance, our NewsQuake system delivered the news of the Filecoin listing in December within a minute of the announcement — and almost 60 seconds before the Coinbase team tweeted. That window matters to traders.”

Rice also noted that for many foreign exchanges the time between an announcement in the exchange’s native language and an English version can be far greater, but that the NewsQuake service supports multiple languages and translates them in real-time.

Market intelligence for everyone

Markets Pro subscribers also gain access to community features. Managed by teams from both Cointelegraph and The TIE, members can join the discussion with fellow enthusiasts, share strategies and ideas, and access unique research from the experts.

Cassano hopes that the combination of real-time news and algorithmic modeling makes the crypto markets more accessible to investors of all stripes. “We’ve witnessed a global surge in interest in cryptocurrencies, as well as a realization that the information asymmetries inherent in existing financial markets tend to be stacked against the average investor. I hope that Markets Pro can help level that playing field in the crypto industry.”

Frank echoed the sentiment, expressing that “When we initially set out to build The TIE more than three years ago we had one singular goal, to enable millions of everyday investors around the globe to make more informed decisions with trusted and transparent cryptocurrency data. The challenge was synthesizing the billions of data points we captured, and sharing intelligence that is actionable and insightful for everyone.”

cointelegraph markets pro is available here

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Elon Musk Compares Crypto to Gold, Says Prices of Bitcoin and Ethereum Seem High

by Dailyhodl

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk is looking at both gold and crypto and their functions as means of exchange.

In response to gold bug and outspoken Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff’s latest tirade against the leading crypto asset, Musk highlights his view that money is just another form of data that serves the purpose of facilitating transactions.

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“An email saying you have gold is not the same as having gold. You might as well have crypto. Money is just data that allows us to avoid the inconvenience of barter. That data, like all data, is subject to latency & error. The system will evolve to that which minimizes both.”

While the Tesla chief executive has come out to support Bitcoin to the tune of $1.5 billion, he says that he thinks BTC and Ethereum (ETH) are expensive.

Both BTC and Ethereum have hit all-time highs as of late with the flagship crypto asset soaring to $57,505 on February 20th and the leading smart contract platform climbing to $2,036 on the same day.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao joins the conversation as well and notes that Musk also thought that Tesla’s stock price was expensive just before shares of the electric automaker ignited a parabolic ascent.

Twitter user Top Tick Crypto echoes Zhao’s sentiments and points out that in May 2020, Musk believed Tesla was overvalued around $150.

“We are here.”

Source: Top Tick Crypto/Twitter

Musk’s latest remarks about Bitcoin and crypto come after the tech magnate changed his Twitter avatar into an image of an anime woman with glowing red eyes “just for a day.”

The SpaceX executive’s antics quickly caught fire and big Bitcoin supporters such as Senator Cynthia Lummis, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor and CoinShares executive Meltem Demirors have also added red laser eyes atop their profile photo enroute to sparking the #LaserRayUntil100k trend. The new trend, which has now become viral, invites members of the crypto community to use laser-eyed social media profile photos to cheer on Bitcoin’s rise to $100,000.

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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any loses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

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India’s Crypto Ban May Extend to IPO Promoters

by Btcmanager

The extent of the anti-crypto sentiment in India seems to be deepening with initial public offerings (IPO) participants like promoters, investment banks, and lawyers likely to be barred from holding or investing in cryptocurrencies. Meanwhile, the threat of a blanket virtual currency ban continues to loom over one of the largest digital currency markets in the world.

SEBI May Ban IPO Promoters from Owning Cryptos

According to a report by the Economic Times on Monday (Feb. 22, 2021), IPO promoters in India who own cryptocurrencies may soon be prohibited from participating in public sales. While the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has yet to issue any official communique in that regard, IPO stakeholders who spoke to ET say the securities regulator is already communicating its plans to investment bankers, securities lawyers, and other IPO participants.

For SEBI, the reason for the move is reportedly due to the fact that the securities regulator is not in favor of funds from IPO being moved into cryptocurrency investment positions. According to the ET report, SEBI does not want IPO participants to hold assets that could be deemed illegal in the country.

Commenting on the planned move to prohibit IPO promoters from crypto involvement, Mahesh Singhi, managing director of Singhi Advisors — an investment banking firm — remarked:


“In most situations currently, the money raised through IPO or even through other routes would come in the hands of promoters and investors, giving substantial liquidity in their hands and there is a fear that this could be used for speculation. The regulator had been giving indirect messages on this and in certain cases even other investors are cautious when it comes to promoters holding crypto assets, as these could be banned in India.”

Indeed, as previously reported by BTCManager, India is reportedly close to a blanket crypto ban with cryptocurrency holders to be given a grace period to sell-off their virtual currency assets. Earlier in February, the Indian government revealed that it was considering fast-tracking the controversial crypto bill via an ordinance process executive order.

Meanwhile, some IPO promoters are already pre-empting the crypto ban by issuing affidavits stating that they will sell their cryptocurrency holdings if the government follows through with the virtual currency ban. Apart from the threat of a blanket crypto ban, the country’s finance ministry also proposed a Bitcoin tax law back in December 2020.


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3 Bitcoin price metrics show bulls were not fazed by today’s $1.6B liquidation

by Cointelegraph

Bitcoin’s (BTC) sudden $11,500 drop liquidated more than $1.64 billion worth of BTC futures contracts. This massive figure represents 8.5% of the total $19.5 billion in open interest, which coincidentally had just reached its all-time high.

Although these are significant figures, they were proportionally lower than the $1 billion futures liquidation on November 26, 2020. At that time, the 16% correction that followed Bitcoin price testing a $16,300 low reduced the open interest by 17%.

In light of today’s big price move, investors’ positive expectations regarding Bitcoin remain unfazed as both the futures contracts funding rate and the options 25% delta skew are not flashing any red flags.

Open interest dropped by 8%

Bitcoin futures aggregate open interest. Source: Bybt.com

As the chart above shows, negative price swings and reductions in BTC futures open interest does not impact Bitcoin’s long-term growth. Between Jan. 19 and Jan. 23, the indicator fell by 20%, but it only took only two weeks to recover to the $13 billion level.

Open interest will vary more aggressively when traders are using excessive leverage. When this occurs, normal price fluctuations will cause cascading liquidations, reducing the outstanding number of open contracts.

Contango held steady, indicating a healthy market

By measuring the futures contracts premium to the current spot levels, one can infer whether professional traders are leaning bullish or bearish. Typically, markets should display a slightly positive annualized rate, a situation known as contango.

Bitcoin March 26 futures annualized premium. Source: NY DIG Digital Assets Data

Although the premium toned down after touching 5.7% on Feb. 17, it has since dropped down to 3.5%, which is average. Considering that there are 31 days left for the Mar. 26 contract expiry, this translates to an extremely bullish 50% annualized rate.

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the perpetual contracts funding rate has exceeded 2.5% per week. Therefore, arbitrage desks are likely paying such a hefty premium on March contracts to profit from the rate difference.

The options market’s 25% delta skew remains bullish

The 25% delta skew measures how the neutral-to-bullish call options are priced than equivalent bearish put options.

Bitcoin 3-month options 25% delta skew. Source: laevitas.ch

The indicator acts as an options traders’ fear and greed gauge, and it is currently sitting at negative 6%, meaning protection to the upside is more expensive. This further confirms the absence of desperation from market makers and top traders.

Key indicators continue to favor bulls

Today’s price action might be surprising to new market participants, but those who remember when Bitcoin price crashed by $11,200 between Jan. 10 and Jan. 11 will know that these sharp movements can’t be deemed out of the norm, especially considering Bitcoin’s 6-day volatility at 5.1%.

The data suggests that traders buying today’s dip will likely come out on top. Bitcoin’s positive newsflow and institutional investors growing interest in BTC will likely just intensify after today’s $48,000 retest.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.