Day: February 20, 2023

Bitcoin Flips Visa Again

by Blockchain News

Since the beginning of the year, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) has increased by 48%, which has caused its market valuation to once again surpass that of the payment processing behemoth Visa.

According to CoinMarketCap, with the price of Bitcoin sitting at $24,365 at the moment, its market size of $470.16 billion is now only slightly more than that of Visa, which has a market cap of $469.87 billion at the moment.

Companies Market Cap reports that this is the third time Bitcoin has “flipped” Visa’s market cap, meaning that Bitcoin’s value has exceeded Visa’s value.

The first occasion was in late December 2020, coincidentally coinciding with the first time that BTC reached $25,000 in value.

This was accomplished during a price rise that saw BTC climb from $10,200 in September 2020 to $63,170 seven months later in April 2021. The price increase lasted for seven months.

BTC was able to take the lead over Visa for a very short period of time on October 1 before the payments business was able to reclaim their position as the market leader. Visa regained the lead between June and October 2022.

This advantage was further extended when, between November 6 and 10, 2022, the failure of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX took off more than $100 billion from the value of BTC in only four days.

However, since that time, BTC has had a complete recovery and has added an extra $65 billion to its market valuation of $408 billion as of November 6. This has allowed it to surpass the payment processing behemoth.

Because of the relatively tiny gap in their respective market caps, Bitcoin and Visa are now trading places on an hourly basis, which is something that should be taken into consideration.

Regarding the remarkable beginning that Bitcoin had in 2023, its third “flipping” of Visa occurred on the heels of a run of 14 days in a row during which the price increased. This run lasted from January 4 through January 17.

According to Google Finance, the market capitalization of Mastercard, the world’s second-largest payment processing network, is now $345.24 billion. BTC, on the other hand, has a significant lead over Mastercard.

However, Bitcoin is still trading at a discount of 63% compared to its all-time high of $69,044 that it hit on November 10th, 2021.

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Gemini co-founder: Crypto’s next bull run will start in Asia

by Blockchain News

Cameron Winklevoss, an American investor and co-founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, predicts that Asia will be the beginning of the next bull run for cryptocurrencies.

His remarks came at a time when authorities in the United States, particularly the Securities and Exchange Commission, were ramping up their enforcement actions and threatening to clamp down even more.

In a tweet he sent on February 19, Winklevoss said, “My working thesis at the moment is that the next bull run is going to start in the East.”

“It will serve as a sobering reminder that crypto is a global asset class, and that the West, and more specifically the United States, has always had only only had two options: embrace it, or be left behind,”

“There is no way to stop it. That is a fact,” he went on to say.

Chainalysis found that the cryptocurrency market in Central and Southern Asia and Oceania (CSAO) was the third biggest market in its index for 2022. Between July 2021 and June 2022, residents of these regions were compensated with a total value of $932 billion worth of bitcoin.

CSAO was also home to seven of the top 20 nations in 2022’s index, including Vietnam (which ranked first), the Philippines (which ranked second), India (which ranked fourth), Pakistan (which ranked sixth), Thailand (which ranked eighth), Nepal (which ranked sixteen), and Indonesia (20).

In a thread on his Twitter account, Winklevoss stated that governments that fail to offer clear rules and sincere guidance on cryptocurrencies will be “left in the dust” and will miss out on “the greatest period of growth since the rise of the commercial Internet.” He also stated that these governments will also miss out on the opportunity to shape and be a foundational part of the future financial infrastructure of this world (and beyond).

Winklevoss is not the first person to argue that the United States’ attitude to cryptocurrencies would drive away the business, nor will he be the last person to claim that Asia may kick off the next cryptocurrency boom cycle.

According to Brian Armstrong, CEO and co-founder of Coinbase, the strict measures of U.S. authorities, notably the SEC, might further push cryptocurrency firms abroad.

In the meantime, a free market analyst on Twitter known as GCR has predicted that “China, (and Asia in general) will fuel the next run” in a post that they made on January 8 to their 147,300 followers. GCR’s tweet read: “China, (and Asia in general) will fuel the next run.”

“It will take quite some time to melt the cynicism that Westerners have toward this space, but the East is ascending and yearning to flex their muscles.”

In October of last year, Arthur Hayes, a former CEO of the crypto derivatives giant BitMEX, made a prediction that the next bull run will begin when China moves back into the market. He went one step further and said that Hong Kong has a vital part to play in this process. His prediction was that the next bull run will begin when China moves back into the market.

Hayes argued that Hong Kong could become the proving ground for Beijing to experiment with cryptocurrency markets and act as a hub for Chinese capital to find its way into global cryptocurrency markets. Hong Kong is already acting as a testing ground for Beijing to experiment with traditional markets.

During that time, he made the statement that “China has not abandoned crypto; it has merely remained inactive.”

At the beginning of this year, Paul Chan, Hong Kong’s financial secretary, gave a speech on January 9 at the POW’ER Hong Kong Web3 Innovators Summit. In his speech, he revealed that Hong Kong’s lawmakers had passed legislation in December to set up a licensing system for virtual asset service providers.

As a direct result of the modifications to the legislation, a narrative known as the “Chinese Coins Pump” has been gaining traction. This narrative has been gaining traction as speculation grows over whether the regulatory easements in Hong Kong will lead to a massive surge for utility tokens of Asian-focused exchanges.

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Stablegains Sued for Allegedly Misleading Investors

by Blockchain News

The decentralized finance yield platform known as Stablegains is the subject of a legal action that has been brought against it in a court in the state of California on the grounds that it allegedly deceived investors and did not comply with securities legislation. This action was brought against Stablegains on the grounds that it was brought against it on the grounds that it was brought against it on the grounds that it was brought against it on the grounds that it This lawsuit was filed against Stablegains on the grounds that it was filed against it on the grounds that it was filed against it on the grounds that it was filed against it on the grounds that it was filed against it on the grounds that it was filed against it on the grounds that it was filed against it on the grounds that it was filed against it on the grounds

Alec and Artin Ohanian, who are the plaintiffs in this case, brought a complaint to the attention of the United States District Court for the Central District of California on February 18th. The defendants in this case are known as the Ohanians, and the complaint that was submitted alleges that the now-defunct DeFi platform fraudulently transferred all of its customers’ currency to the Anchor Protocol without obtaining either the customers’ knowledge or their consent.

It is possible for investors to receive returns of up to twenty percent on their investments using Terra USD, which is an algorithmic stablecoin created by Terraform Labs. Anchor Protocol was the organization that was in charge of supplying all of these rewards (UST). Because Stablegains was an early supporter and investor in Terraform Labs (UST and LUNA), the company is familiar with both of these organizations. Also an early investor in UST was the company Stablegains. This is due to the fact that Stablegains was the organization that initiated the formation of TFL in the first place. In point of fact, Stablegains, Inc. engaged in misleading advertising practices by presenting UST as an investment that was exempt from the prospect of experiencing any form of loss.

Stablegains provided a gain of 15% for its customers, and the firm kept whatever difference there was between that and the yields that were given by Anchor Protocol. Stablegains was built on the Anchor Protocol blockchain.

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The Most Unworkable State Law

by Blockchain News

The cryptocurrency industry has recently criticised a bill that was recently proposed in the Illinois Senate due to its “unworkable” intentions to compel blockchain miners and validators to perform “impossible things.” One example of this would be undoing transactions if a state court ordered them to do so.

The Senate Bill was surreptitiously submitted into the Illinois senate on February 9 by Illinois Senator Robert Peters. However, it does not seem that the community was aware of it until February 19, when Florida-based attorney Drew Hinkes mentioned it in a tweet.

The bill, which would give the courts the authority to alter or rescind a blockchain transaction that was carried out through the use of a smart contract, would be given the title “Digital Property Protection and Law Enforcement Act,” and it would give the courts this authority in response to a valid request from the attorney general or a state’s attorney that is made in accordance with the laws of Illinois.

Any “blockchain network that executes a blockchain transaction originating in the State” would be subject to the act if it were to become law.

When it comes to blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, Hinkes referred to the proposed legislation as “the most impractical state law” he has ever seen.

“This is a shocking about-face for a state that was previously supportive of innovation. Instead, he tweeted that the state had enacted “probably the most impractical state legislation relating to cryptocurrency and blockchain I have ever seen.”

According to the provisions of the law, miners and validators on the blockchain might be subject to fines ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 for each day that they disobey the instructions of the court.

Hinkes said that it would be “difficult” for miners and validators to comply with the measure suggested by Senator Peters, despite the fact that he acknowledged the need of passing legislation that would increase consumer protection.

Hinkes was also surprised to learn that miners and validators who worked on a blockchain network that “has not adopted reasonably available processes” to comply with the court orders would have “no defense” open to them.

The law also seems to dictate that “any person utilizing a smart contract to supply goods and services” must include code in the smart contract that may be used to comply with court orders. This code can be used to ensure that the terms of the smart contract are followed.

“Any person utilizing a smart contract to supply goods or services in this State should incorporate smart contract code capable of implementing court orders respecting the smart contract,” is the full text of the law.

Other members of the bitcoin community have replied with derision of the measure in a manner similar to what was previously said.

On February 19, the crypto analyst “foobar” remarked to the 120,800 people who follow him on Twitter that court-ordered transactions would need to be changed “without having the private key” of the participants, which he found to be “hilarious.”

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Kimchi premium refers to when the price of BTC cheaper

by Blockchain News

The “Kimchi premium” in South Korea has switched back to a discount, which means that it is again possible to acquire cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin at a lower price on exchanges located in South Korea.

Kimchi, a traditional food from Korea, inspired the naming of this occurrence. The term “Kimchi premium” refers to the phenomenon in which the price of Bitcoin (BTC) trades at a premium on exchanges located in South Korea relative to prices found on other marketplaces.

The data that was provided by the blockchain analytics service CryptoQuant indicates that between February 17 and 19, the Korea Premium index fluctuated within a range of -0.24 and 0.01 points.

CoinMarketCap said that BTC was trading at $24,464 on Coinbase and $24,487 on Binance at the time this article was written.

In contrast, the price was quoted at $24,386 on the Korean market Bithumb, while the price at which Bitcoin was being traded on Upbit, one of the main exchanges in South Korea, was $24,405.

The scenario is the same for the cryptocurrency with the second-largest market capitalization, Ether (ETH).

At the time this article was written, the statistics on CoinMarketCap revealed that ETH was trading for $1,687 on Coinbase and $1,691 on Binance. On Bithumb and Upbit, however, ETH was changing hands for $1,682 and $1,683, respectively.

According to Doo Wan Nam, chief operating officer of node validator and venture capital firm Stablenode, the change from a premium to a discount for kimchi reflects a decrease in interest from retail investors in Korea.

“Generally speaking, it signals a dip in interest in cryptocurrency from the retail sector in Korea,” he added. “This is paradoxically a better time to purchase since you know you can always sell yours to Korean gamblers for 20% premium later when they FOMO.”

Arbitrage refers to the process wherein some traders attempt to make a profit by trading the price disparities that exist between several exchanges.

In the past, the extent of the Kimchi premium has been linked to the news, with large drops in price reported at periods when negative news about South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges broke.

The premium vanished in the beginning of 2018, shortly after the government of South Korea stated its intention to take regulatory action against cryptocurrency trading.

According to research published by the University of Calgary in 2019, the Kimchi Premium emerged for the first time in 2016.

According to the findings of the study, throughout the period beginning in January 2016 and ending in February 2018, Bitcoin exchanges in South Korea charged an average of 4.73% more than their counterparts in the United States.

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Kimchi premium refers to when the price of BTC cheaper

by Blockchain News

The “Kimchi premium” in South Korea has switched back to a discount, which means that it is again possible to acquire cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin at a lower price on exchanges located in South Korea.

Kimchi, a traditional food from Korea, inspired the naming of this occurrence. The term “Kimchi premium” refers to the phenomenon in which the price of Bitcoin (BTC) trades at a premium on exchanges located in South Korea relative to prices found on other marketplaces.

The data that was provided by the blockchain analytics service CryptoQuant indicates that between February 17 and 19, the Korea Premium index fluctuated within a range of -0.24 and 0.01 points.

CoinMarketCap said that BTC was trading at $24,464 on Coinbase and $24,487 on Binance at the time this article was written.

In contrast, the price was quoted at $24,386 on the Korean market Bithumb, while the price at which Bitcoin was being traded on Upbit, one of the main exchanges in South Korea, was $24,405.

The scenario is the same for the cryptocurrency with the second-largest market capitalization, Ether (ETH).

At the time this article was written, the statistics on CoinMarketCap revealed that ETH was trading for $1,687 on Coinbase and $1,691 on Binance. On Bithumb and Upbit, however, ETH was changing hands for $1,682 and $1,683, respectively.

According to Doo Wan Nam, chief operating officer of node validator and venture capital firm Stablenode, the change from a premium to a discount for kimchi reflects a decrease in interest from retail investors in Korea.

“Generally speaking, it signals a dip in interest in cryptocurrency from the retail sector in Korea,” he added. “This is paradoxically a better time to purchase since you know you can always sell yours to Korean gamblers for 20% premium later when they FOMO.”

Arbitrage refers to the process wherein some traders attempt to make a profit by trading the price disparities that exist between several exchanges.

In the past, the extent of the Kimchi premium has been linked to the news, with large drops in price reported at periods when negative news about South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges broke.

The premium vanished in the beginning of 2018, shortly after the government of South Korea stated its intention to take regulatory action against cryptocurrency trading.

According to research published by the University of Calgary in 2019, the Kimchi Premium emerged for the first time in 2016.

According to the findings of the study, throughout the period beginning in January 2016 and ending in February 2018, Bitcoin exchanges in South Korea charged an average of 4.73% more than their counterparts in the United States.

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Hedge fund Galois Capital shuts down after FTX collapse

by Blockchain News

Galois Capital, a hedge fund that was one of the companies that lost money when FTX went bankrupt, has decided not to continue operating after seeing fifty percent of its holdings get stuck in the failing exchange. The decision has been made to wind down the fund and distribute whatever assets are left over to the original investors.

On November 12, 2022, the hedge fund acknowledged in a statement that it has large exposure to the FTX exchange. The statement was posted on the hedge firm’s official Twitter account.

A letter was sent to the fund’s investors informing them that all trading had been ceased and that the fund had rolled back its holdings, as stated in a story that was published in the Financial Times. Kevin Zhou, who was one of the co-founders of Galois Capital, issued an apology to the company’s investors and said that due to the gravity of the problem with FTX, they are unable to find a justification for continuing to run the company.

In addition to this, the hedge fund promised its investors that they would get ninety percent of the money that are not held hostage by the FTX exchange. The remaining 10% will be held indefinitely by the corporation until all outstanding issues have been resolved via dialogue.

In addition to these factors, Zhou has indicated that he is considering selling the hedge fund’s claims rather than waiting for a drawn-out bankruptcy procedure that may take up to ten years. The co-founder of Galois Capital asserts that purchasers of these claims have a greater ability to pursue claims in bankruptcy courts.

The bankruptcy of FTX resulted in the freezing of millions of dollars belonging to many companies, including New Huo Technology and Nestcoin. One of the numerous companies that has suffered losses as a result of the FTX scandal is Galois Capital, which has at least fifty million dollars in assets that are frozen on the exchange.

In the meanwhile, the biggest creditor to Mt. Gox has taken a strategy very similar to that of Galois Capital by opting for an early payment option rather than waiting for a drawn-out judicial procedure that may take many years to complete. Mt. Gox Investment Fund said on February 17 that it has made the decision to be paid in September rather than waiting any longer to receive its assets back.

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Public feedback on the SFC’s proposed cryptocurrency exchange licensing regime

by Blockchain News

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) in Hong Kong is seeking comment from the general public on its most recent proposed licensing framework for cryptocurrency exchanges. The SFC has asked for feedback from members of the general public. It is anticipated that this framework will begin to function beginning in June of 2023.

During the public consultation window, some of the most important questions that will be addressed include whether or not licensed exchanges should be allowed to serve retail investors in the country and what kinds of measures should be put in place to provide a range of “robust investor protection measures.” Both of these questions will be discussed. Another important question that will be discussed is whether or not licensed exchanges should be allowed to serve institutional investors. In addition to this, the subject of whether or not to allow regulated exchanges in the nation to provide services to institutional investors will be brought up for discussion as well.

On February 20, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) released a statement that described a new licensing framework for the industry and provided a summary of the consultation process that had taken place. All centralized cryptocurrency trading platforms that are now operating in Hong Kong are needed to get a license from the regulatory body in order to continue doing business in that region in accordance with the industry’s newly implemented licensing regulations.

The Securities and Futures Commission of Canada (SFC) has developed a set of proposed regulatory standards, which were derived from the prerequisites that are already in place for registered securities brokers and automated trading venues. The SFC is responsible for regulating the securities and futures markets in Canada. However, in order to meet the new regulatory requirements, several criteria that have previously been established have been amended. These modifications have been made.

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The Importance of Embedded Finance in Today’s Fintech World

by Blockchain News

A recent research conducted by Decta brought to light the significance of integrated financial elements in the modern world of fintech. According to the findings of the survey, some significant drivers for a seamless customer experience are the increasing use of online purchasing and digital payment methods.

Embedded finance is a novel method of software distribution that collaborates with suppliers of financial infrastructure to include financial services into the ecosystems of goods that are already on the market. Banking, lending, insurance, payments, and branded credit cards are some of the most frequent types of integrated financial solutions.

According to the findings of the survey, the most important factors that contribute to a positive experience when making purchases online are the ease with which payments can be made and the number of different payment methods that are available. The primary cause of an unpleasant shopping experience is the absence of a chosen payment option or difficulty during the checkout process. Almost 49 percent of respondents said that they would probably quit shopping if they ran across these difficulties.

One of the most important aspects of embedded finance is the ability to provide personalized offers, which are highly appreciated and may be improved by concentrating on certain demographics. For instance, 54 percent of American consumers favored integrated add-ons such as finance and insurance. Members from Generation X were the most happy with personal offers, whilst participants from Generation Z and Baby Boomer rated the offers they received a lower grade.

Other favored integrated features that gained the approval of the respondents include loyalty benefits, seamless payments, and same-page checkouts.

The research gives insights into client targeting and acquisition as cryptocurrency firms are steadily seeking to incorporate embedded financial elements, such as crypto-based credit cards or loans. The use of blockchain technology has been investigated by crypto companies as a means of assisting traditional businesses in the implementation of loyalty incentives and integrated financial services.

During the most recent bull market, the bitcoin ecosystem was able to benefit from increased investment from institutional investors. As a result of conventional hedge funds and some of the largest firms in the Fortune 500 jumping on the cryptocurrency bandwagon, we are starting to see widespread acceptance of cryptocurrencies.

However, there is still a significant distance to go with the primary goal of making cryptocurrency usable on a daily basis by retail customers. The research conducted on embedded finance may be able to assist crypto firms in taking a hint from the mainstream and putting it into practice with crypto-linked goods in order to provide a superior experience for their customers.

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Bridge the gap between traditional finance and DeFi

by Blockchain News

The cryptocurrency community is always looking for new methods to use decentralized finance (DeFi) technologies in order to close the gap that exists between conventional finance and fiat currencies. A main means through which consumers may traverse between these two financial ecosystems is via the use of crypto on-ramp services.

In addition, if there are complications throughout the transaction process, there is a possibility that as many as 90 percent of customers would leave their purchases in the middle of the flow.

The research looked at nine of the most popular fiat-to-cryptocurrency exchanges, such as Coinify, MoonPay, Transak, and Wyre, among others.

According to the statistics, the performance of the different onramps varies greatly; nonetheless, the position of the user is one of the primary elements to consider. The transaction success rates in Europe were among the highest in the world, while those in Africa and South America were among the lowest.

Payment methods, the fiat currency that was converted into cryptocurrency, and the available trading pairings are some of the other elements that influenced transactions on cryptocurrency exchanges. The use of bank transfers as a means of payment has been shown to have higher success rates in transaction completion rates, reaching almost 100% success in two separate cases.

In addition, the value of the transaction was a significant factor in determining whether or not it was successful. Transactions ranging from zero to twenty-six dollars had an authorization rate of sixty-six percent, whereas those with a value of more than five thousand dollars had an authorization rate of nineteen percent on average.

The study came to the conclusion that one of the potential solutions to problems with transaction authorisation might be for token service providers to provide as comprehensive a selection as they can manage of aggregated onramps via a single interface. Another solution is to dynamically route transactions in order to provide consumers with the solution that is most suitable for their circumstances.

Paolo Ardoino, chief technical officer of Tether, made this statement not too long ago at the World Economic Forum. He referred to the platform’s stablecoin Tether (USDT) as an on-ramp for Bitcoin (BTC).

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has identified its soon-to-be-released retail central bank digital money as a possible entry point into the decentralized finance arena.

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Bitcoin (BTC) $ 26,168.01 0.63%
Ethereum (ETH) $ 1,584.47 0.39%
Litecoin (LTC) $ 63.83 1.05%
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 213.75 1.40%