Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Crypto community happy as SEC gets Blockchain fan Gary Gensler as new chairman

Former CFTC is now the new chairman of the US SEC. Gary Gensler is pro-blockchain.　　The next person to chair the US SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) is someone with a soft spot for the crypto market, as apparent from the latest developments regarding the incoming Biden administration. On Monday (January 18, 2021), President-elect Joe Biden picked Gary Gensler as the new person to lead the SEC during his tenure. Biden is expected to take office in the coming days.　　Gary will take over from Elad Roisman, who became SEC‘s chairman in acting capacity after replacing the former chairman, Jay Clayton. Jay’s tenure ended on 23rd December, 2020.　　Gensler is a friend of crypto　　Besides being vastly experienced in Wall Street dynamics, Gary is also a former chairman of the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission). In that capacity, he has studied the crypto market extensively. At the MIT, Gary also taught blockchain-related courses. That‘s why Gary’s appointment as SEC chairman is a big deal for the expanding crypto community.　　Gary‘s appointment was welcomed by the industry, attracting the attention of some of the popular and influential people in the market. Ripple’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, tweeted to congratulate the incoming SEC chairman. Despite Ripple being embroiled

2021-01-19Deep Dive

JP Morgan: Bitcoin Needs to Reclaim $40K Soon or Momentum Will Fade

Strategists at JPMorgan Chase & Co said that Bitcoin has to surpass the $40,000 milestone to dodge another major price setback.　　Bitcoin has to endure and overcome the $40,000 boundary in order to avoid a consequent major price correction. JPMorgan strategists say that otherwise, the major cryptocurrency might suffer investment outflow.　　The $40K Is the Key to Future Prospects for BTC　　According to a JPMorgan Chase & Co report, cited by Bloomberg, this level is an omen to more eventual losses.　　The major financial institution strategists led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou said that the cryptocurrency is at risk of further losses and an outflow of trend-following investors unless it can “break out” over the $40K frontier. The team added that the pattern of demand for BTC futures and the $22.9 billion Grayscale Bitcoin Trust might help determine the perspective.　　“The flow into the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust would likely need to sustain its $100 million per day pace over the coming days and weeks for such a breakout to occur,” the strategists commented on Friday.　　After a record-breaking hit near $42K in the first week of January, Bitcoin suffered a significant price correction with almost $12K in just a short time, leaving investors pondering the reasons. JPM strategists

2021-01-19Deep Dive

German housing company issues $24M digital bond on Stellar blockchain

TL;DR Breakdown:　　A German housing company issued a $24 million digital bond.　　It uses Stellar blockchain to facilitate an easy transfer of ownership rights to real assets.　　As Germany opens to embrace blockchain technology in the digitization of the finance department, a housing company in the country, Vonovia, has seized the opportunity to issue registered digital bonds on the blockchain technology. Precisely, the German housing company issues these bonds on Stellar blockchain, in collaboration with an online marketplace, Firstwise, according to the press statement.　　These newly-issued security tokens will be used to transfer ownership of the claims to real estate rights under the highest security standards.　　Real-world Resource Tokenization: Bringing Trillions Of Dollars To The Blockchain　　Conflux becomes first Chinese govt backed permissionless blockchain projectHDBank issues blockchain based letter of creditBlockchain: the covid hunger solution　　German housing company adopts Stellar blockchain　　By using Stellar blockchain, the German companies intend to make the entire process of transferring the ownership rights to real assets more convenient and secure. Meanwhile, the term for these fully-registered digital bonds by the German housing company is limited to three years, according to the announcement. The amount of the bonds issued on the blockchain is worth about $24.3 million or €20 million.　　Having used several financial

2021-01-19Deep Dive

Different Types of Cryptocurrency Wallets You Can Use

What are cryptocurrency wallets？ As the name suggests, these wallets help you store crypto assets and tokens. A wallet can be a separate device or a software programme on your phone. They utilize blockchain technology to safely and securely store your crypto assets, as well as facilitate the sending and receiving of cryptocurrencies.　　What are the types of wallets？ These can broadly be categorized into hot and cold wallets. Hot wallets are connected to the internet and can be accessed anytime. They include online cloud wallets, most mobile wallets, software wallets, and crypto exchanges.　　Cold wallets are not connected to the internet and let you store your crypto offline. Funds can be received anytime, but you only sign the transaction with your private key once the cold wallet is disconnected from the network so that you dont show your private key to the internet. Cold wallets include hardware and paper wallets.　　A hardware wallet provides the perfect balance between safety and convenience when storing crypto. Hardware wallets are designed to protect your private keys from online methods of storage, such as on computers and phones, which can be accessed by a hacker. Since your private key never leaves the device, it cannot be

2021-01-19Deep Dive

Analyst: Hodlers will be this year’s biggest Bitcoin gainers

Analyst: Hodlers will be this years biggest Bitcoin gainers　　“HODLing”, a crypto-lingo used to mean “holding on for dear life” has been cited as the most beneficial method for cashing out big on Bitcoin. The wobbly movement of the cryptocurrency market is known to ignite different trends at any given time.　　Market reaction to this unsteady movement is then reflected in the technical charts, which ends up giving signals on where the cryptocurrency is headed. At no time do technical indicators pinpoint the next step of digital assets correctly, hence the need for fundamental analysis. One of the most referenced for profit accumulation has always been HODLing, and like the recent post from a Crypto-analyst suggests on Twitter, holders have the best shot at taking the biggest piece of the pie.　　The CTO of Glassnode on-chain analytics platform took it upon himself to reassure the community of the significance of fundamental indicators, many of which are at an all-time high.　　It comes as no surprise that BTC whales are at an all-time high. These big players have been credited with both the price spike and a possible future price dump, although retail investors played a bigger role in the recent Bitcoin selloff that sent

2021-01-18Deep Dive

Bitcoin open interest hits $8.8B as 45% of BTC options expire in 2 weeks

Over the past two months the open interest on Bitcoin options has held reasonably steady even as the figure increased by 118% to reach $8.4 billion as (BTC) price rose to a new all-time high. The result of Bitcoins price appreciation and the rising open interest on BTC options has resulted in a historic $3.8 billion expiry set for Jan. 29.　　BTC options aggregate open interest. Source: Bybt.com　　To understand the potential impact of such a large expiry, investors should compare it to the volumes seen at spot exchanges. Although some data aggregators display over $50 billion to $100 billion in daily Bitcoin volume, a 2019 report authored by Bitwise Asset Management found that many exchanges employ a variety of questionable techniques to inflate trading volumes.　　This is why when analyzing exchange volume, its better to source the figure from trusted data aggregators instead of relying on the data provided by the biggest exchanges.　　BTC spot exchanges aggregate volume (USD). Source: Bybt.com　　As the above data indicates, BTCs spot volume at exchanges averaged $12 billion over the past 30 days, a 215% increase from the previous month. This means the upcoming $3.8 billion expiry translates to 35% of spot BTC daily average volume.　　45% of all

2021-01-18Deep Dive

Bitcoin Tumbled $3500 In 24 Hours: Altcoins On The Rise As BTC Dominance Drops To 66%

Bitcoins dominance drops to 66% as the asset dumped beneath $34,500 for the second time in 3 days. Simultaneously, Polkadot recorded another ATH above $19.　　Bitcoin‘s bloody weekend continued with substantial price declines as the primary cryptocurrency dipped beneath $35,000, for the second time in 3 days. In contrast, remarkable gains for Cardano (ADA) and another all-time high for Polkadot have sent BTC’s dominance over the market to about 66%.　　Bitcoin Loses More Than $3K In 24H　　Just a few days after the Monday crash, in which BTC bottomed slightly above $30K, the cryptocurrency managed to recover most losses and even tried its hand at $40,000 once again.　　However, BTC failed to breach above that coveted level and started gradually declining in value. BTC dipped to $34,500 on Friday, but the bulls intercepted the move and drove it to an intraday high of nearly $39,000 a few hours after.　　Nevertheless, the adverse developments returned, and bitcoin plummeted once again – this time lower. As of writing these lines, Bitcoin price is trading below $34,500 – over $3,500 of free fall in less than 24 hours.　　The technical indicators suggest that the next support levels that could assist if BTC slumps even further south are $34,000, $32,500

2021-01-18Deep Dive

Is Ethereum Undervalued, or Polkadot Overvalued?

DOT, the native cryptocurrency of the Polkadot platform, has taken off lately. It‘s vaulted into fourth place by market capitalization, but is this warranted compared to Ethereum’s value？　　BeInCrypto dives into current platform analytics to compare the DOT versus ETH price and their network usage. Estimation of future production capacity drives price. However, we can begin to understand the valuation of the two ecosystems and why one may be way undervalued or overvalued compared to the other.　　Is Polkadot really an Ethereum killer？　　Since the bull run of 2017, smart contract platforms pop up regularly. They promise increased transaction speed and decreased transaction costs. They also envision overthrowing Ethereum as the smart contract king. These goals still tempt startups. Platforms like Polkadot and Cardano continue to grow in value and user following.　　But how does platform usage translate to price？ Do they correlate？ These new platforms may promise higher transaction speeds. Both speed and correlation merit further examination in this case.　　Understanding the metrics　　Ethereum currently ranks second by cryptocurrency market cap. It boasts a total market cap of $137.8 billion compared to Polkadot‘s $15.4 billion. Polkadot continues climbing the ranks, though. Crypto market cap aggregator CoinGecko showed that the platform almost quadrupled its market cap

2021-01-18Deep Dive

Top 30 Cryptocurrencies Gained 300% on Average in 2020: Report

In its annual report on the developments within the cryptocurrency field, the popular monitoring resource CoinGecko asserted that the top 30 coins by market cap added on average 300% in 2020.　　Moreover, the paper noted that the most widely-used stablecoins had neared $30 billion in circulation after a 440% surge.　　2020: Best Price Performers　　CoinGecko‘s report noted that the market caps of the top 30 cryptocurrency assets grew by $552 billion (308%) in 2020. Thus, last year’s results have significantly outperformed the numbers of 2019, where the increase was by $68 billion (62%).　　The percentage decreased slightly when examined just the top-5 cryptocurrencies to 242%. This difference comes primarily because of Ripple (XRP), which slumped in value at the end of 2020 following the SEC charges.　　Its also worth noting that Ethereum was the best performing large-cap cryptocurrency with a yearly surge of 472%. In comparison, BTC gained “just” 303% in 2020.　　Top 5 Cryptocurrency Returns 2020. Source: CoinGecko　　Naturally, this also meant that Ethereum has also outperformed Bitcoin in terms of market dominance. BTC‘s dominance increased by 0.9% to 73.7%, while ETH’s grew by 3.6% to 11.5%.　　Top 30 Cryptocurrencies Dominance. Source: CoinGecko　　The stablecoins in circulation added the most in 2020 as demand skyrocketed. The five most

2021-01-18Deep Dive

Bitcoin Core 0.21.0 Brings Taproot Closer and Adds Tor, Fee, Signet Changes

Bitcoin Core Project announced that Bitcoin Core 0.21.0 has been released, bringing a variety of fixes and upgrades to the Bitcoin (BTC) protocol, including a step towards the much-anticipated Taproot upgrade, fee changes, a new type of testing ground, new type of wallet support, and more.　　The latest Bitcoin Core is now ready for download. Per the release notes, it comes with “new features, various bug fixes and performance improvements, as well as updated translations.” And it really is a long list of changes to peer to peer (P2P) and network, setting, tools, utilities, wallet, and other aspects - which, among other things, are meant to improve privacy, transacting, and the use of the network overall.　　Among the most significant changes are those related to Taproot, Bitcoins largest alteration since 2017 designed to increase its privacy, which will be bundled with Schnorr, a soft fork that improves privacy, scalability, and speed, and encodes multiple keys into one. This particular release implements the proposed Taproot consensus rules (BIP341), said the notes, without activation on mainnet. Meanwhile, experimenting with Taproot can already be done, given that the upgrade rules are already active on Bitcoins signet, which is a sandbox network available for developers to

2021-01-18Deep Dive

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