Crypto had started to bull in 2020 at the height of the pandemic. Most thought that the financial markets would suffer greatly when most of the world went into lockdown, this would turn out to not be the case. Although the various markets had experienced price crashes at the beginning of the pandemic. Then, markets started to pick back up. Both stocks and the cryptocurrency markets had recovered even past their various points before the crash.
Related Reading | Crypto Analyst Lays Out Cardano’s (ADA) Pathway To $4
The recovery was at various points attributed to governments providing relief for citizens who could not work in the form of stimulus checks. These were to enable individuals who could not afford it to be able to stay home and also have their basic needs met. Governments even went as far as announcing rent and mortgage freezes across the country. In a bid to keep everyone in a home.
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These checks were spent by most on food. Because in reality, the checks were meant for people whose incomes were not enough to see them through a lockdown. Others though who could afford it had either invested part or all of their stimulus checks. Some of these investments were in cryptocurrencies.
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Stimulus checks were basically regarded by some as “free money.” Money that they would do with as they pleased. While some lamented the negative effects of printing that much money in such a short time, others saw this as an opportunity. This “free money” going into the market most likely played a part in the tremendous bull run that would then follow. A bull run that saw new all-time highs across the market.
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But this leads to the question; if a person had invested their $1,200 stimulus checks issued by the U.S. government back in April of 2020, how much would that investor have across various assets? This report will answer that questions, putting the numbers into perspective.
What A $1,200 Crypto Investment Would Net Investors
To start out, we will look at bitcoin. If $1,200 was invested into bitcoin back in April 2020, in current August prices, that investment would be worth about $9,000. The price of BTC has risen over 600% since then.
Related Reading | Puell Multiple: The Bitcoin Metric That Says BTC Miners Aren’t Ready To Sell
Next would be Ethereum. Putting a $1,200 stimulus check in Ethereum back in 2020, at this point, the investor would have over $22,500. This is an even higher price than BTC given that the price of ETH has outperformed the price of BTC for the past year.
Other altcoins besides Ethereum have also done very well in the past year. These include DOGE, ADA, SOL, and HEX. $1,200 put in DOGE would be worth over $200,000 now. A $1,200 investment ADA would be worth over $90,000. SOL would presently be worth over $120,000. And last but not least, a $1,200 investment in HEX would be worth over $300,000 in 2021.
Crypto market has grown over 1,000% since April 2020 | Source: Crypto Total Market Cap from TradingView.com
These numbers go to show the absolutely massive returns that the cryptocurrency market can bring. Although this is largely dependent on the investor’s ability to hold through every peak and trough until the assets get to this point.
Featured image from Freekpik, chart from TradingView.com
Momentum for the top layer-one protocols has been on the rise throughout August as the highly anticipated rollout of the London hard fork on the Ethereum (ETH) network has done little to address the network’s high transaction fees and delayed confirmations.
One of the biggest beneficiaries of the quest to find a more welcoming smart contract environment has been Cosmos (ATOM), a project focused on interoperability that has set out to become the “internet of blockchains” thanks to its Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol.
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the price of ATOM rallied 180% from a low of $8.87 on July 20 to a high of $24.77 on Aug. 22 as its 24-hour trading volume surged from an average of $250 million to $1.87 billion.
ATOM/USDT 4-hour chart. Source:TradingView
Three reasons for the strong showing from ATOM over the past month include the release of decentralized finance protocols on the network, the launch of a sidechain that enables the exchange of assets between Cosmos and Ethereum and the announcement of plans to bring Bitcoin (BTC) to the Cosmos ecosystem.
Expanding DeFi capabilities
Decentralized finance (DeFi) has been one of the biggest developments to emerge from the blockchain ecosystem over the past couple of years and is set to revolutionize the traditional financial sector.
The recent launch of the first functioning user interface for DeFi on Cosmos, known as Emeris, has been one of the biggest movers of ATOM price of late because the introduction of cross-chain exchange capabilities excited members of the Cosmos community and led to a spike in demand for the token.
⚛️ ✨Emeris beta, the first interface for #GravityDEX, is NOW live
The cross-chain portal @emerisHQ has just launched, making #DeFI in Cosmos a reality!
— Cosmos – Internet of Blockchains ⚛️ (@cosmos) August 18, 2021
Through the new interface, users can access a number of cross-chain DeFi protocols on the Cosmos network and trade assets on blockchains like IRISnet (IRIS), Persistence (XPRT) and the Akash Network (AKT).
Ethereum bridge opens up opportunitie
A second reason for the ATOM rally is the integration of Sifchain with the IBC, which made the project the first decentralized exchange to enable trades between the Cosmos ecosystem and the Ethereum network.
Another shining star joins us:
Welcome to the #IBCgang, @sifchain!
The value that Sifchain brings to the cosmos ecosystem is undeniable, and we look forward to building an exciting interchain future together!$ATOM $ROWAN $IRIS $AKT $CRO $OSMO $ION $DVPN $XPRT $REGEN $IOV https://t.co/gP8Ek3buRE
— Cosmos – Internet of Blockchains ⚛️ (@cosmos) August 27, 2021
Ethereum currently hosts most of the top smart-contract protocols for DeFi and NFTs and this integration allows users of both ecosystems to easily trade assets between the two networks.
Wrapped Bitcoin comes to Cosmos
A third reason for the current bullish momentum comes from an Aug. 23 announcement that the Interchain Foundation (IFC), an organization that funds development grants in the Cosmos ecosystem, had granted funding to the Interlay development fund for bringing Bitcoin to the Cosmos network.
Bitcoin #BTC is coming to #Cosmos! @inter_btc is building an #IBC bridge to enable any IBC compatible chain to access trustless Bitcoin. This exciting step will help Cosmos grow the #DeFi sector & improve inter-blockchain collaboration.
— Cosmos – Internet of Blockchains ⚛️ (@cosmos) August 23, 2021
Bitcoin is the undeniable leader of the crypto market and it holds a vast majority of the accumulated wealth of the ecosystem, so the ability to operate on Cosmos has the potential to bring new users to the network.
Interlay utilizes a lock-up and vault technology that lets users secure their Bitcoin and mint fully collateralized interBTC that can be used in many DeFi projects and the feature is already available as a Polkadot parachain.
This integration will allow BTC to be used in the Cosmos DeFi ecosystem and it will bring deep liquidity and an increase in utility to the network.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
Cardano has entered the “final, critical stage” prior to the platform’s much-publicized Alonzo upgrade, according to blockchain research and engineering company Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK).
IOHK has submitted an upgrade proposal to the Cardano testnet to “hardfork the chain into the Alonzo era,” according to a Twitter post from the company.
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The Cardano (ADA) developer says it is still targeting September 12th for the upgrade, which aims to bring smart contract functionality to the blockchain via a “hard fork combinator (HFC) event.”
IOHK says the development is a “major milestone” for the platform.
“Over the days ahead, we’ll be doing final checks and testing within a controlled environment to ensure that we are ready to upgrade the main Cardano network. And usher in a transformative era of smart contracts capability.”
According to Dimitris Poulopoulos, a project manager at IOHK, the window until September 12th will allow the company to identify and fix issues before the mainnet launch while monitoring the network to confirm stability.
Cardano’s native asset ADA surged on Friday as the crypto market rebounded from a mid-week correction. At time of writing, the third-ranked crypto asset by market cap is trading at $2.87 and is up 13.7% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.
ADA hit its all-time high of $2.95 on Monday.
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Cal Memorial Stadium has sold its naming rights to FTX during its second vital branding move. This venture was put forward after the purchase of the Miami Heat Arena’s naming rights in March.
FTX is a Crypto derivative exchange that bought the Cal Memorial Stadium from California University. This move by FTX aims to introduce its brand to the stadium.
This derivatives exchange owned by Sam Bankman-Fried is exploring further in sports. That is why; they have made a 10 year deal of $17M just for the university’s stadium naming rights.
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The stadium’s home team, the Cal Golden Bears, will now carry the new brand to create more crypto awareness. As stated by Bloomberg, from now onwards, anytime the home team will play their game this season, they will be wearing the latest FTX Field brand.
Related Reading | Total Cryptocurrency Market Cap Value Surges Across $1.9 Trillion Setting A New Record
Furthermore, the $17 million deal for the university’s naming rights is paid in cryptocurrency assets. This current deal is the latest inroad into sports sponsoring to create more awareness for crypto.
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FTX U.S. Partnered Miami Heat Basketball squad
Last March, FTX.US, a North American sector of this same exchange, signed a naming rights contract with the Miami Heat Basketball squad. Due to this partnership, the stadium’s home team was rebranded to an FTX Arena.
The organization also becomes the formal crypto exchange of MLB {Major League Baseball}. This is a segment of the sponsorship contract which is anticipated to remain for about 5 years. In fact, all the Major League Baseball umpire is expected to wear the firms’ mark on their respective uniforms.
Countless FTX executives have time-honored ties as well with the Cal Golden Bears. For instance, Sina Nader, the COO (Chief Operating Officer), serves as a Golden Bears walk-on member during his undergraduate years.
Last June, Tom Brady, the quarterback seven-time champion of the Super Bowl, and Gisele Bündchen, his wife, became Crypto derivative exchange’s partners to encourage crypto adoption. Because of this deal, Bündchen and Brady collected FTX equity stakes, each thus receiving crypto in exchange.
Furthermore, according to the report from our source on the 20th of July, FTX breaks the funding record of crypto. They raised their funding to $900 million to take on an “exchange decacorn” position. This particular company is worth more than $10 billion.
Related Reading | Microsoft To Fight Piracy With Ethereum, Introduces Project Argus
This latest deal by FTX as the Major League Baseball official sponsor has prepared the way for a wider and acceptable awareness for digital assets.
According to the tweet on Wednesday by Sam Bankman-Fried, this five-year contract may evolve to include alliances.
Cryptocurrency scams were reportedly the most common type of fraud in Australia during the first six months of the year. Locals parted with roughly $25 million after becoming victims of such fraudulent schemes.
‘If Something Sounds Too Good to Be True, It Probably Is’
According to a recent report by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), investment scams have risen to record levels in the country this year. Interestingly, frauds involving digital assets represent half of the total cases.
Delia Rickard – ACCC Deputy Chair – revealed Aussies lost nearly 70 million AUD (or 50 million USD) because of such scams for the period between January and July 2021. Cryptocurrencies, and especially Bitcoin, ranked first as the most common investment frauds:
“More than half of the $70 million in losses were to cryptocurrency, especially through Bitcoin, and cryptocurrency scams were also the most commonly reported type of investment scam, with 2,240 reports.”
Ms. Rickard added that bad actors often lure victims with promises of high profits and zero investment risks. She warned that such cases should raise investors’ attention instead of joining them carelessly:
“Be wary of investment opportunities with low risk and high returns. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
Delia Rickard, Source ABC News
Life Savings Lost in a Crypto Scam
Dealing with digital currencies can be risky not only because of the asset class’ volatility but also because of the numerous bad actors in the industry.
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As CryptoPotato reported in May, an Australian nurse waiting for her retirement became a victim of such a fraudulent scheme and lost her entire life savings.
The resident of Sydney – Rhonda – was browsing the internet when she saw an advertisement offering bitcoin investment using a fake celebrity endorsement by popular people in Australia.
She found the offer interesting and ”invested” $350, entering her email address and phone number into a brief online form. Rhonda had some positive returns at the beginning and enjoyed good communication with the people behind the scam.
The woman was aiming to make more and more money and periodically fueled more funds into the investment. Unfortunately, when checking her account after a while, Rhonda noticed that hundreds of thousands of dollars were missing.
The Australian officials have been trying to find the scammers and help the victim restore her money, but the operation has failed. Furthermore, the nurse said her plans of retirement were now gone.
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Kraken and five other DeFi projects contribute $250,000 each to support the teams that work on the Ethereum upgrade. In addition, they donated the sum to the ETH Foundation to develop the network’s version 2.0.
Open-source developer teams like Erigon, Besu, Nimbus, Geth, and Nethermind will join the ETH Foundation in the donation.
1/ A diverse execution-layer client ecosystem is at the heart of all that we’re building together.
Today, we’re excited to announce that @compoundgrants, @krakenfx, @LidoFinance, @synthetix_io, @graphprotocol & @Uniswap are donating $250K each to support #Ethereum client teams.
— Ethereum (@ethereum) August 24, 2021
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The Ethereum Foundation announced the source of the donations. They mentioned that the tips came from crypto exchange Kraken, Synthetix, the Graph, Compound Grants, and Uniswap Grants.
Related Reading | Blockchain Startup In Pakistan Dubbed Bazaar Secures $30 Million In Funds
The donations will add to the funds the Foundation provided earlier back the layer teams of ETH execution.
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The Funds Aim To Empower The Ethereum Team
The Foundation of what we build together incudes the various client ecosystem of Ethereum. It consists of the consensus layer clients and the execution layer; both are vital aspects of future Ethereum mergers. The announcement also reads:
“The donation sums up to $1.5 million and goes to open-source developer teams like Nimbus, Besu, Geth, Erigon, and Nethermind”.
The developer team is to make provision for the network’s critical infrastructure to see the transition of ETH. The ETH is to transit to proof-of-stake mechanism from a proof of work. An August 24th post on the Ethereum web page reads:
“In the heart of what we are developing together is a broad execution-layer client ecosystem. So today, we gladly announce that Kraken-fx, Uniswap, synthetix_io, graph-protocol, compound-grants, LidoFinance, and donates $250K each to support ETH 20 client teams.”
ETH is trading in a sideways momentum on the daily chart | Source: ETHUSD on TradingView.com
Jesse Powel, the co-founder and CEO of Kraken, says that the company is proud to give back to valiant builders who work hard on cutting-edge crypto innovation.
Kraken proposed that the exchange users would have staked up to 800,000 ETH in Eth2 by July. This is worth about $2.5 billion with current prices. The network platform had given out 25,300ETH as rewards emerging from staking when it started initially.
Related Reading | Kraken To Re-Enter The European Market By Applying For A New License
This project portrays an effort to ensure the security of Ethereum’s consistent growth and decentralization. Each of the elements is exemplified by the diversity of clients, our belief in Ethereum’s continued success, and the strength of the teams. The announcement revealed.
Etherscan Reports
The ETH Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559 upgrade was launched early this month. It introduces a burning mechanism as an aspect of its regulated gas fee structure.
According to Etherscan data, about 4.85 ETH worth almost $15,300 are burned every minute as of writing. Over 70,000 Ethereum (ETH) has been burned or removed from the network’s circulation.
Etherscan is a Block Explorer and Analytics Platform for Ethereum, a decentralized smart contracts platform. As of August 12, 31,792.48 ETH has been burned via Etherscan, amounting to $99,871,306.11.
Featured image from Pixabay, chart from TradingView.com
Coming every Saturday,Hodler’s Digestwill help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.
Top Stories This Week
Congress has put forward 18 bills on digital assets in 2021 so far
The U.S. Congress has been ramping up its efforts to provide a regulatory framework for crypto in 2021 and has put forward 18 bills concerning digital assets and blockchain tech so far this year.
According to an Aug. 22 analysis from former Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation regulator Jason Brett, the current 117th Congress differs from its predecessor in that it has been focusing on regulation concerning decentralized assets as opposed to private stablecoins.
It was also reported this week that the contentious$1 trillion infrastructure billwill see a vote in the House of Representatives by Sept. 27 — without any amendments to the controversial crypto tax provisions.
Visa invests $150,000 in NFT CryptoPunk asset
This week Visa, Visa spent $150,000 on a tokenized JPEG of a pixel art punk, better known as a CryptoPunk NFT. The firmannouncedthe news in an Aug. 23 blog post, with Cuy Sheffield, the head of crypto at Visa, teasing that the firm may be looking at a prolonged stay in the sector.
“To help our clients and partners participate, we need a first-hand understanding of the infrastructure requirements for a global brand to purchase, store and leverage an NFT,” he said.
Visa purchased CryptoPunk 7610 — a female figure with a mohawk, green clown makeup eyes and lipstick. Obtaining an “understanding of the infrastructure requirements” in purchasing an NFT mustn’t have taken long, as all you need to do is buy it and store it in your wallet. It’s not rocket science.
Budweiser alsojoined in the actionby purchasing a fan art NFT for 8 Ether (ETH), worth roughly $25,000. The NFT depicted a Budweiser-branded rocket that would take five minutes to whip up on Adobe Illustrator. The beer producer also spent 30 ETH, or $94,000, on the domain name Beer.eth through Ethereum Name Service on OpenSea.
PayPal launches crypto services for UK customers
Global payments provider PayPal announced the rollout of its crypto services for customers in the United Kingdom this week.
PayPal first launched its crypto services less than a year ago, and this is the first time it has expanded crypto support beyond U.S. shores.
The firm will initially allow customers to buy, sell and hold crypto assets including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether, Litecoin (LTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). However, crypto transactions for PayPal business accounts aren’t supported yet.
MicroStrategy splashes $177M on Bitcoin, now holds almost 109,000 BTC
MicroStrategy, led by Bitcoin apostle Michael Saylor, has snapped up another $177 million worth of digital gold. The latest purchase takes the firm’s tally up to 108,992 BTC, which cost a mere $2,918 billion overall.
The average purchasing price for its BTC sits at approximately $26,769 per coin. With the price of BTC sitting at $47,584 at the time of writing, MicroStrategy’s holdings are valued at $5.1 billion.
It is a foregone conclusion that Saylor is “all in” on BTC at this stage. However, it is yet to be seen if he will respond to crypto skepticPeter Schiff’s call out for a debate. Schiff faced off against Anthony Scaramucci this week over whether gold or BTC is a better store of value. After he won, he stated in jest:
“I just gotta say one thing: Michael Saylor, stop ducking me, I know you’re out there.”
Binance denies allegations of market manipulation
Major crypto exchange Binance came out swinging this week as it pushed back against allegations of market manipulation and trading against its users.
The firm is currently facing regulatory scrutiny and, in an Aug. 23 Twitter thread, Binance seemingly laid the blame of assertions of market manipulation on publications spreading FUD, along with people impersonating Binance employees.
The firm stated that, while it works on its compliance targets with regulators, it expects “fewer FUD-peddlers and individuals with malicious intent,” and went on to warn:
“Binance reserves the right to take legal action to protect its interests and welcomes responsible whistle-blowing that protects the trust of our community.”
Winners and Losers
At the end of the week, Bitcoin is at$48,373, Ether at$3,233and XRP at$1.14. The total market cap is at$2.08 trillion,accordingto CoinMarketCap.
Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Tezos(XTZ)at 46.33%, Avalanche(AVAX)at 33.86% and Celo(CELO)at 31.97%.
The top three altcoin losers of the week are Audius(AUDIO)at -21.08%, XinFin Network(XDC)at -13.99% and SushiSwap(SUSHI)at -12.76%.
For more info on crypto prices, make sure to readCointelegraph’s market analysis.
Most Memorable Quotations
“As long as the statute says that software developers, miners, stakers must do the impossible, there is no lawyer who would advise them to risk operating in violation of laws whose penalties for non-compliance would easily bankrupt them.”
Lawrence Zlatkin, Coinbase global vice president of tax
“In the last year, we’ve seen a significant shift in how the global financial ecosystem is thinking about new business models fueled by digital assets, and how this is playing a meaningful role in financial infrastructure.”
Linda Pawczuk, principal at Deloitte Consulting
“We will want to wait for all the regulatory things. Of course, crypto is an area which is extremely interesting, and is the biggest buzzword and is doing exceptionally well. But we would want to understand more on the regulation side.”
Manu Jain, managing director of Xiaomi India
“A trading platform that offers derivatives on digital assets to U.S. persons without registering, or in violation of CFTC trading rules, is subject to the CFTC’s enforcement authority.”
Dawn Stump, commissioner at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission
“When you have a good crypto wallet like Novi will be, you also have to think about how to help consumers support NFTs.”
David Marcus, head of Facebook Financial and co-creator of Diem
“Be wary of investment opportunities with low risk and high returns. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
Delia Rickard, deputy chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
“Binance has never traded against our users nor manipulated the market, and we never will.”
Binance
“With our CryptoPunk purchase, we’re jumping in feet first. This is just the beginning of our work in this space.”
Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa
“I think this cryptocurrency revolution and Bitcoin specifically, because of its scarcity, is going to transcend gold. It’s more portable, it’s impregnable in terms of the transaction over the blockchain […] and it’s being adopted quite rapidly.”
Anthony Scaramucci, Skybridge founder
Prediction of the Week
Bitcoin bullish cross on weekly chart paints $225K BTC price target if history repeats
Bitcoin regained the $50,000 price level this week, although the asset subsequently fell several thousand dollars as part of a price correction, fluctuating between $45,000 and $50,000 for most of the week.
During the month of August,themoving average convergence/divergence (MACD)indicatoron Bitcoin’s weekly price chart formed and continued through a cross of the indicator’s two lines, and jumped to green on its histogram (the bar part at the bottom of the indicator).
What does it mean? Well, nothing is certain, but according to reporting from Cointelegraph’s William Suberg, the last time Bitcoin’s MACD indicator acted similarly (last fall), the asset’s price grew by more than five times in value in the following half dozen months. BTC could potentially rise above $200,000 if things play out comparably, according to Suberg.
FUD of the Week
Google bans 8 ‘deceptive’ crypto apps from Play Store
Google, the Silicon Valley-based tech overlords, took down eight fraudulent crypto apps from its Google Play Store this week.
Fraudulent crypto-themed mobile apps have been popping up more frequently over the past 12 months, and they usually operate under the false pretext of offering cloud mining services.
According to a recent report from Trend Micro, the apps were charging around $15 a month for their fake services and extra for “increased mining capabilities” — all while duping users into watching paid ads.
The reportedly fake crypto apps included mining services such as BitFunds, Bitcoin Miner, Daily Bitcoin Rewards, Crypto Holic and MineBit Pro, to name a few.
Poll shows Brits concerned over the prospect of a digital pound
According to a survey conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies on behalf of Politico, 30% of British adults hold concerns over a Bank of England-issued central bank digital currency, or CBDC.
For some reason, the notion of having a programmable government-backed CBDC that can track all of their spending habits doesn’t sound appealing to them. If they think that’s bad, just wait until they hear about the insatiable appetite for personal data that Apple, Google or Facebook has.
There were 2,500 British adults surveyed in the study during early August, with 24% believing that it could be beneficial, while 46% were undecided.
Coinbase users angry with customer support after funds disappear from accounts
Top U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase was facing backlash this week for terrible customer service in relation to users reporting hacks and being drained of funds.
According to an Aug. 24 investigation from CNBC, thousands of disgruntled customers across the U.S. have lodged complaints against the company, and are unhappy with the lack of response from Coinbase when dealing with hacks and stolen funds.
“Interviews with Coinbase customers around the country and a review of thousands of complaints reveal a pattern of account takeovers, where users see money suddenly vanish from their account, followed by poor customer service from Coinbase that made those users feel left hanging and angry,” CNBC stated.
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“This is completing the revolution that was started with the internet.”
London’s impact: Ethereum 2.0’s staking contract becomes largest ETH holder
The aftereffects of the London upgrade begin to emerge as the Eth2 staking contract becomes the single largest Ether holder.
The new episode of crypto regulation: The Empire Strikes Back
A decentralized exchange reckoning is coming — and it’s bigger than the infrastructure bill — thus, the DeFi community must be ready.
Square and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is building a decentralized exchange for Bitcoin (BTC).
The tech mogul broke the news to his 5.6 million Twitter followers on Friday after first announcing last month that Square was developing a new business, called TBD, focused on creating decentralized finance (DeFi) services for Bitcoin (BTC).
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We’ve determined @TDB54566975’s direction: help us build an open platform to create a decentralized exchange for #Bitcoin https://t.co/jHYWHy1qmu
— jack⚡️ (@jack) August 27, 2021
Mike Brock, general manager of TBD, says he believes Bitcoin will be the “native currency of the internet.” Brock argues, however, that certain goals must be achieved before BTC can serve as “a sound global monetary system for all.”
“Getting Bitcoin today typically involves exchanging fiat at a centralized and custodial service like CashApp or Coinbase. These on- and off-ramps to Bitcoin have a number of issues and aren’t distributed evenly around the world.
This is the problem we’re going to solve: make it easy to fund a non-custodial wallet anywhere in the world through a platform to build on- and off-ramps into Bitcoin. You can think about this as a decentralized exchange for fiat.”
Brock says that the team plans to develop an open-source, open-protocol, permissionless platform that TBD doesn’t control. He adds that they’ve been looking at RSK, a secure smart-contract platform.
“We’d love for this to be Bitcoin-native, top to bottom. And that’s leading us to consider things like RSKsmart.However, the gaps needed to build this may be too large, which would also have us consider other chains as a bridge.
Some of the gaps we currently see are around cost and scalability. Lightning is solving for this with payments. We need a [solution] for exchange infrastructure between digital assets, like stablecoins.”
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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.
A slew of smart contract platforms have been surging in price over the past 30 days, and blockchain analytics firm Glassnode is digging into the metrics to determine whether or not any of these platforms can compete with Ethereum (ETH) in the future.
Avalanche (AVAX), Solana (SOL), and Terra (LUNA) have all exploded over the past month, gaining 292.9%, 212.2%, and 191.4% in value, respectively, according to CoinGecko.
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Glassnode first discusses the “spike in interest” on AVAX and SOL.
“Alternative smart contract platforms like Avalanche and Solana have found massive 30 day token price growth as hints of activity and bets on a multi-chain future start to garner attention.”
Glassnode notes that Avalanche had attracted limited liquidity across its decentralized finance (DeFi) projects until earlier this month when it announced a $180 million DeFi incentive program.
The Avalanche Foundation allocated the first $27 million for users of lending and borrowing protocol Aave and decentralized exchange Curve (CRV). The analytics firm highlights the exponential rise of liquidity in AVAX’s DeFi projects since the incentives were announced.
Source: Glassnode
Glassnode also says, however, that liquidity on Avalanche remains limited comparatively.
“Projects on Avalanche remain marked by being clones of existing projects on Ethereum, attracting this growth through incentives and inflated yields that may or may not persist long term.”
Solana has focused on DeFi protocol implementations, which have driven growth in its ecosystem, according to Glassnode. Solana also has a processing capacity of between 50,000 to 65,000 transactions per second, which allows the network to scale.
Still, growth in the Solana ecosystem is very limited compared to Ethereum, according to the analytics firm.
“There are five projects in the Solana DeFi space which have more than $100M TVL [total value locked]. For comparison, Ethereum boasts over 60 projects with more than $100M TVL.
Solana certainly presents an attractive alternative option for projects requiring scaling. Though for now, it has barely scratched the surface in competing with Ethereum for total liquidity.”
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Terra has demonstrated “non-trivial signs of adoption in a few choice protocols,” says Glassnode. Anchor Protocol, Terra’s largest DeFi protocol, has more than $3.4 billion in total value locked.
Like Solana and Avalanche, Terra has yet to host more than five projects with more than $100 million in liquidity, according to the analytics firm.
“While some alternative layer one smart contract platforms have seen their native tokens rally in recent weeks, actual liquidity on each chain remains limited relative to the Ethereum chain.”
Glassnode sees a world in which more users are migrating to these platforms, particularly if Ethereum struggles to scale its network.
“As some users traverse across to newer and more experimental blockchains, developers will have to assess the viability and longevity of additional users and capital moving on or off of Ethereum.
As competition for users, attention and capital increases, many developers and protocols may find the trade-offs worth it, or even find untapped value and opportunity in protocol design. And if Ethereum L2s struggle to scale the network, or create a heavy barrier for user experience, users may naturally gravitate towards alternative chains in response.”
Check out the full Glassnode report here.
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Input-Output HK – development company and driving force behind Cardano (ADA) – joined forces with the European Business University of Luxemburg (EBU). Their goal is to make education in developing African countries more “accessible, affordable, and equitable.”
Cardano’s New African Endeavors
The research and development organization Input-Output HK (IOHK) announced the collaboration with the European Business Univerisity of Luxemburg (EBU) earlier this week:
“We are pleased to announce a new and exciting partnership between IOHK and the European Business University of Luxemburg.”
The education provider has stretched to over 36 global organizations and currently educates 2,000 students in Africa. With that said, IOHK would aim to provide training programs and further schooling projects on the continent. The collaboration would also give local students access to educational materials for free.
EBU will enroll in an EBU Certificate program. Instead of tuition, students would only pay a €10 commitment fee. The university will offer courses from the program in Plutus and Haskell – smart contract platforms of Cardano.
In its turn, Cardano garnered the attention of the cryptocurrency crowd recently as the dollar value of its native token reached an all-time high of nearly $3. On-chain data from social media platforms even confirmed that ADA had become the most talked-about digital asset in the past few days.
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Cardano Already Stretched to Ethiopia And Tanzania
In April, the popular DLT project Cardano – partnered up with the Ministry of Education of Ethiopia to work on a blockchain-based national ID system.
The network will be based on the Atala PRISM. It should allow for the creation of secure records of “educational performance for 3,500 schools, 5 million students, and 750,000 teachers, giving all pupils verifiable digital qualifications and increasing social mobility.”
The blockchain project continued with its expansion on the African continent shortly after. IOHK and World Mobile teamed up on an initiative to use Cardano’s network to create digital identities, mobile internet connection, and financial acceptance to communities in Tanzania.
Micky Watkins, CEO of World Mobile, praised the mission of the organization together with their partners from IOHK:
“World Mobile has built a network based on a new relationship between people and connectivity in which ownership, governance, and identity work to empower the user and make access available to all in a sustainable way.”
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