cryptocurrencies

Brazilian payment app PicPay launches crypto exchange with Paxos

12Aug By edrad80No Comments

Bitcoin

Brazilian payment app PicPay launches crypto exchange with Paxos

Major Brazilian payment application PicPay is moving into cryptocurrencies by integrating a crypto exchange service allowing users to buy Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH).The firm officially announced on Wednesday that PicPay clients can now buy, sell and store two major cryptocurrencies, BTC or ETH, directly on its app. PicPay pointed out that its choice was due to the real use cases provided by these digital assets, including security and many other benefits. The firm stated:“Blockchain technology, which is behind coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum, is already used in the real estate sector, the insurance industry and even the art market, through non-fungible tokens.”The new crypto feature is enabled through a partnership with the major crypto company Paxos and allows customers to use Paxos-is...

DeFi platform Oasis to block wallet addresses deemed at-risk

11Aug By edrad80No Comments

Blockchain News

DeFi platform Oasis to block wallet addresses deemed at-risk

According to a new community Discord post on Thursday, decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Oasis.app says that sanctioned addresses will no longer be able to access the application. As a result of the change to the terms of service, wallets flagged as high risk are prohibited from using Oasis.app to manage positions or withdraw funds. Instead, such a category of users must interact directly with the relevant underlying protocol where funds are stored or find another service.In explaining the decision, Oasis.app team member Gabriel said:“We’ve recently needed to update the Terms of Service of the Oasis.app front-end to comply with the relevant laws and regulations. In line with the latest regulations, Oasis.app has an updated Terms of Service. Any sanctioned addresses will no longer be ab...

Good news for Bitcoin: New CPI data suggests inflation has peaked | Find out now on Market Talks with Tim Warren and Caleb Franzen

11Aug By edrad80No Comments

Analysis, Bitcoin

Good news for Bitcoin: New CPI data suggests inflation has peaked | Find out now on Market Talks with Tim Warren and Caleb Franzen

In this weeks episode of Market Talks we welcome senior market analyst at Cubic Analytics, Caleb Franzen.Caleb is a Senior Market Strategist at Cubic Analytics, analysing new data/charts on the economy, the stock market, and Bitcoin to make better investment decisions. He is also a former corporate banking & portfolio analyst.The main topic of discussion with Caleb will be the new CPI data and what they mean for the crypto market, specifically Bitcoin (BTC). Is there a correlation between the data and the recent price pump? How sustainable is this price action?We also go over a few of Caleb’s tweets where he explains which indicators he looks at when analysing charts. One indicator he finds particularly interesting is the 78-week Williams%R oscillator. We get into why it’s important an...

11Aug By edrad80No Comments

Bitcoin

BlackRock announces the launch of a new private spot Bitcoin trust

According to a blog post published on Thursday, BlackRock — the world's largest asset manager, overseeing over $10 trillion in total assets — has launched a new private spot Bitcoin (BTC) trust. The fund is only available to U.S. institutional investors and seeks to track the performance of Bitcoin, less the expenses and liabilities of the trust. In explaining the decision, BlackRock said: “Despite the steep downturn in the digital asset market, we are still seeing substantial interest from some institutional clients in how to efficiently and cost-effectively access these assets using our technology and product capabilities. Bitcoin is the oldest, largest and most liquid digital asset and is currently our clients’ primary subject of interest within the digital asset space.”Private inv...

Optimism TVL surges nearly 300% M/M ahead of The Merge upgrade

10Aug By edrad80No Comments

Etherium

Optimism TVL surges nearly 300% M/M ahead of The Merge upgrade

According to data from DefiLlama, total value locked (TVL) on Optimism, a layer-2 scaling solution for the Ethereum blockchain, has surged 284% in the past month. The vast majority of TVL consists of users lending and borrowing assets on Aave through Optimism's layer-2 chain.Investors have been bidding up digital assets related to the Ethereum ecosystem in anticipation of The Merge upgrade, which will see the blockchain transition from a proof-of-work network to that based on proof-of-stake. According to a recent Ethereum developer call, the tentative date for The Merge coming online has been scheduled for Sept. 19. As a layer-2 Ethereum blockchain, Optimism seeks to scale the ecosystem via Rollups, or off-chain computations, to speed up transactions. Transactions are recorded on Opti...

10Aug By edrad80No Comments

Bitcoin

Bitcoin without internet: SMS service allows sending BTC with a text

An innovation using the cellular network (GSM) could onboard millions of Bitcoin (BTC) users previously unreachable by the internet-dependent Bitcoin protocol. Built by South African developer Kgothatso Ngako, the new SMS-based service is named Machankura, a slang South African word for money.KG, as he’s known to his friends, spoke to Cointelegraph from Pretoria, South Africa, about his fascination with Bitcoin and the hope that Bitcoin via text will bring BTC to millions of Africans.Machankura, the #Bitcoin for feature phones service in Africa, is slowly growing. https://t.co/TZngXXVhu0— Derek Ross ⚡5️⃣ (@derekmross) August 8, 2022An English speaker, when KG first learned about Bitcoin, he streamed audiobooks and podcasts religiously on the way to work. As he fell down the Bitcoin ra...

Circle plans to only support Ethereum PoS chain after Merge is complete

9Aug By edrad80No Comments

Blockchain News

Circle plans to only support Ethereum PoS chain after Merge is complete

On Tuesday, Circle, the issuer of the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin, pledged its full support for the transition of Ethereum to a proof-of-stake, or PoS, blockchain after the much-anticipated Merge upgrade. The firm views the Merge as an important milestone in the scaling of the Ethereum ecosystem, writing:“USDC has become a core building block for Ethereum DeFi innovation. It has facilitated the adoption of L2 solutions and helped broaden the set of use cases that today rely on Ethereum’s vast suite of capabilities. We understand the responsibility we have for the Ethereum ecosystem and businesses, developers and end users that depend on USDC, and we intend to do the right thing.”Currently, USDC is both the largest dollar-backed stablecoin issued on Ethereum and the largest ERC-20 asset over...

Anonymous user sends ETH from Tornado Cash to prominent figures following sanctions

9Aug By edrad80No Comments

Blockchain News

Anonymous user sends ETH from Tornado Cash to prominent figures following sanctions

On Tuesday, one day after the U.S. Treasury sanctioned cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash for its alleged role in cryptocurrency money laundering operations, intervals of 0.1 Ether (ETH) transactions began materializing from the smart contract to prominent figures such as Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and American television host Jimmy Fallon. It is not possible to trace the source of the transactions per Tornado Cash design, and as a result, either one individual or multiple individuals or entities could be involved in the operation.Notable individuals/companies who just received funds from a government-sanctioned entity:- Jimmy Fallon- Shaquille O'Neal- PUMA- Randi Zuckerberg- Logan Paul- Brian Armstrong- Steve Aoki- Ukraine Crypto Donation- Dave Chappelle- BeepleField day f...

‘IBC is a serious alternative for secure cross-chain communication,’ says Sunny Aggarwal of Osmosis

9Aug By edrad80No Comments

Blockchain News

‘IBC is a serious alternative for secure cross-chain communication,’ says Sunny Aggarwal of Osmosis

On August 2, the Nomad Token Bridge became yet another victim of cross-chain hacking after the protocol suffered a $190 million exploit. Joining a list of casualties alongside Axie Infinity’s Ronin Bridge and Solana’s Wormhole, many industry experts have cast doubt on the future of cross-chain technologies. However, not all cross-chain toolkits have thus far been exploited. Regarding this matter, Cointelegraph spoke with Osmosis’ co-founder Sunny Aggarwal. Osmosis is one of the most popular decentralized exchanges, or DEXs, on the Cosmos hub with $120 million in total value locked. Here’s what Aggarwal had to say regarding Cosmos’ namesake inter-blockchain communications protocol (IBC):"The major bridge hacks are a reminder to victims that bridges are, in fact, too brittle to be allowed to...

9Aug By edrad80No Comments

Bitcoin

Selling Bitcoin doesn’t mean you’re not bullish: Cypherpunk CEO

Despite a massive wave of liquidations on the cryptocurrency market, some companies that sold their crypto over the past few months are not bearish on Bitcoin (BTC) at all.Canada-based investment firm Cypherpunk Holdings was one of the companies that opted to sell crypto amid the crypto winter of 2022, liquidating 100% of its Bitcoin and Ether (ETH) by June. One of the first public companies in the world to ever invest in Bitcoin, Cypherpunk said at the time that it maintained its long-term “bullish outlook on crypto” despite selling all its digital coins.One may find Cypherpunk’s crypto liquidation somewhat odd as the company’s stock is publicly trading under the ticker symbol HODL on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The acronym is widely used in the crypto community to refer to “Hold On for D...