After months of unrelenting turbulence, the crypto industry has been on somewhat of a tear over the last couple of weeks, with the total market capitalization of the space recently topping the $2 trillion mark for the first time since May. In fact, over the last 21 days alone, a whopping $700 billion entered the
The decentralized finance sector is growing at a breakneck pace. Three years ago, the total value locked in DeFi was a mere $800 million. By February 2021, the figure had grown to $40 billion; in April 2021, it attained a milestone of $80 billion; and now it stands at above $140 billion. Such rapid growth
It was a topsy turvy week — “staggering,” a crypto veteran called it. One that saw United States Senator Ted Cruz and Senator Ron Wyden collaborate on behalf of the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry — albeit, in a lost cause. These events could eventually pave the way for future regulatory success, though it may not
Polkadot (DOT) is a blockchain project designed to interconnect sub-chains called parachains or parallel chains. Each application-specific chain built within Polkadot uses the Substrate modular framework, and this is meant to ease the development process. The project has been at the center of developers’ and investors’ attention for most of 2021, but the sharp market-wide
Lionel Messi, the Argentinian soccer superstar, has opted to receive cryptocurrency as part of his new contract signed with the French club Paris Saint-Germain. The club revealed that the player will receive crypto as part of his $30 million payment, as a “welcome package” given to the player. The proportion of the crypto stash in
Bitcoin’s (BTC) rapid recovery above $46,000 has renewed calls for a $100,000 BTC price by the end of 2021, while the effects of China’s crackdown on the mining industry are slowly beginning to fade as the Bitcoin network hash rate shows signs of recovery. One of the side benefits of China’s crackdown is that it
The much-talked-about Ethereum hard fork finally went live on Aug. 5 after block 12,965,000 was mined. Dubbed “London,” the software upgrade will bring together significant alterations in Ethereum’s code. Overall, the code changes target improvements to the network’s transaction fee market, user experience and much more. London comes with five Ethereum Improvement Protocols (EIP), with
Binance has halted Korean won (KRW) trading pairs as part of a raft of changes to its operations in South Korea. In a notice issued on Friday, the crypto exchange giant announced the discontinuation of KRW trading pairs as well as KRW payment options on its service. Other features discontinued include Korean language support on
The NFT sector took the world by storm in 2021 as crypto and corporate sector influencers, globally recognized companies and popular sports teams embraced the growing digital collectible trend. After a brief sector-wide pullback which coincided with the market-wide declines seen beginning in May, the NFT sector roared back to life as collectibles like CryptoPunks, Pudgy Penguins
The United States is facing severe inflation despite the Federal Reserve and mainstream media doubling down on saying the loss of purchasing power is just “transitory.” This week consumer and producer metrics from July have been published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and inflation is growing stronger. July CPI Stats Show a Jump
Trading volumes on peer-to-peer nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea have surged by over 12,000% in 2021. DappRadar data shows that the total incoming value to OpenSea’s smart contracts increased to $56.07 million on Wednesday compared to $73,556 on Jan. 1. Meanwhile, the marketplace’s user count increased from 315 to 14,520 in the same period —
United States Senators have cast their votes, and the contentious HR 3684 infrastructure bill cleared in the upper Congress chamber. Now, the gigantic document of over 2,700 pages and amounting to almost $1 trillion is heading to the House of Representatives, including the provisions expanding the definition of a cryptocurrency broker, designed to beef up
Cardano’s ADA token made a triumphant return to the $2 mark on Aug. 13 as weekly gains topped 50%. ADA reverses most of its 3-month losses Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed ADA/USD quickly shooting higher during Friday after overcoming heavy resistance. At the time of writing, the pair circled $2.07 and was
A KPMG report titled “Pulse of Fintech H1 2021,” shows that the total investment in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector in the first half of this year has risen to $8.7 billion, which is more than double the $4.3 billion worth of deals done in 2020. KPMG global fintech co-leader Anton Ruddenklau said: “Cryptocurrency and blockchain
Artificial intelligence research lab Fetch.ai has been granted a request to have major cryptocurrency exchange Binance identify individuals behind a $2.6 million hack. According to a Friday Reuters report, the Royal Courts of Justice in London has ordered Binance to identify the hackers and seize the stolen assets. Fetch.ai reportedly claimed that hackers stole $2.6
[embedded content] In this summer 2021 edition of the Ripple Drop, we examine how the XRP Ledger supports NFT innovation, Ripple’s efforts to create a more inclusive work environment and the APAC region as a growth powerhouse. XRP Ledger Unleashes the Full Potential of NFTs David Schwartz, Ripple’s CTO, shares the latest on the white-hot