Author: Ibiam Wayas

Ibiam is an optimistic crypto journalist. He loves to associate with like-minded individuals and collaborate with them on similar projects. He spends much of his time honing his writing and critical thinking skills.

Tether’s USDTs are Fully Backed, Moore Cayman Confirms After Audit

Post author By Ibiam Wayas
Post date March 31, 2021

According to this announcement by Tether, third-party audit and assurance services provider Moore Cayman has confirmed USDTs in circulation are fully backed.

Over the recent years, many FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) stories have circulated in the cryptocurrency space concerning Tether’s asset reserves. Many people had argued that the company was only posting figures and that its US dollar-backed stablecoin (USDT) were not fully backed.

This controversy was mostly fuelled by the massive number of USDTs usually minted by Tether. Some people were concerned that the cryptocurrency market, especially Bitcoin (BTC), would crash if there were evidence that Tether’s assets are not fully backed. This announcement might help reduce all these FUDs and worries amongst crypto investors.

USDTs are Fully Backed by Tether Reserve

At the time of writing, there were over 40.6 billion USDTs in circulation, according to CoinMarketCap. Judging by Moore Cayman’s assurance report, it’s believed that Tether’s reserves back all these assets.

“Tether has always been fully backed, and the assurance opinion we made available today confirms it once again. As Tether’s growth in the market continues to validate our business, we understand the public’s interest in this matter and are pleased to share this attestation as part of our ongoing commitment to transparency,” Tether noted in the announcement.

USDT Remains the Largest Stablecoin

Stablecoins are backed by an asset, and USDT, in this case, is backed by the United States fiat currency. USDT is the largest and most-traded USD stablecoin in the crypto market. It has a market capitalization of over $40 billion, ranking as the fourth-largest digital currencies.

The USD Coin (USDC) is the second-largest US dollar-backed stablecoin with over $10 billion in market capitalization. Recently, Visa added USDC as a settlement currency.

Bitcoin Bitcoin Mining Crypto News

Bitcoin Mining Hash Rate Soars as BTC Nears US$60,000 Again

Post author By Ibiam Wayas
Post date March 30, 2021

As the leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), is staging a comeback to the US$60,000 price level, its network hash rate just reached another all-time high.

This indicates that more mining machines have been deployed on the BTC network. What’s more interesting to note is that most miners are seemingly not selling off their coins at the moment. Hence, there may not be a significant increase in the number of BTC deposited to exchanges, even with the spike in hash rate.

Bitcoin Hash Rate Sets New All-Time High at 165.99M TH/s

Total Hash Rate of the Bitcoin network [Blockchain.com]

According to the data from Bitcoin explorer Blockchain.com, the network hash rate reached another major high of 165.992 Million Tera Hash per second (TH/s). Hash rate is basically the measuring unit of the processing power of the Bitcoin network. So, an increase in hash rate denotes that there are more miners processing transactions on the BTC blockchain.

The development today is not so surprising, given that the BTC mining industry has been growing rapidly. In recent months, many companies purchased more advanced mining machines to increase their processing power. This somewhat coincides with the growth in the market price of Bitcoin. Some companies tend to increase their mining hash rate when there are massive increases in Bitcoin price.

Meanwhile, a spike in the BTC hash rate is usually followed by an increase in mining difficulty to offset the number of resources required to mine Bitcoin.

Bitcoin Price Update

Bitcoin was trading at US$57,750 at the time of writing. The cryptocurrency reached as high as US$58,200 on Monday. From a circulating supply of 18.6 million BTC, the crypto’s market capitalization sits around US$1.078 billion.

Bitcoin price and volume [CoinMarketCap]

Overall, the crypto market has increased by 2.57 percent over the last 24 hours, possibly due to the mild increase in BTC.

Bitcoin Crypto News Institutions

Former SEC Chairman Jay Claton Becomes an Advisor to a Bitcoin Fund Manager

Post author By Ibiam Wayas
Post date March 30, 2021

The former chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Jay Clayton, will be serving as an advisor to One River Asset Management, a company behind a $2.5 billion Bitcoin fund.

One River Appoints Clayton as Regulatory Advisor

According to Bloomberg’s report on Monday, Jay Claton has been appointed to serve as regulatory advisor to the digital assets manager. Besides the former SEC chairman, two other government officials, Kevin Hassett and Jonathan Orszag will be joining One River for the same role. Hassett served under President Donald Trump’s administration as the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, while Orszag is an economic consultant who previously worked in the Clinton administration.

The digitization of our financial ecosystem isn’t just coming, it’s already here. Three years ago, I didn’t believe we would be where we are today – the number of respected investors who have embraced digital assets. I would not have predicted this level of take-up.
Jay Clayton

However, Clayton noted that the development today doesn’t translate to a change in view on the importance of the rule of law and of regulation for the digital currency space or any other industry.

I see a wide range of outcomes for digital assets that include strong government regulation, domestically and globally. The time frame is uncertain, but I expect there will be international coordination if not international consensus around digital assets.
Jay Clayton

About One River Asset Management

One River reportedly began purchasing Bitcoin back in November, when the cryptocurrency was still trading around $15,000. From $1 billion in Bitcoin then, the company currently sees about $2.5 billion in Bitcoin under management. The CEO at One River, Eric Peters, seems to believe in digital currencies more as a store of value and inflation hedge rather than alternatives to fiat currencies.

Binance Crypto News

Binance Hires Former FATF Executives as Regulatory Advisors

Post author By Ibiam Wayas
Post date March 26, 2021

Binance, the largest digital currency exchange, has appointed two former Financial Action Task Force (FATF) officers as advisors, according to a blog post on Thursday.

FATF is the global regulatory body for money laundering and terrorist financing. By hiring the regulators, the exchange is aiming at strengthening its regulatory and compliance strategies. Meanwhile, the development today comes a few days after FATF updated its regulatory guidance, calling for tighter KYC/AML measures for digital currencies and virtual asset service providers (VASPs)

McDonell, Nadeau Becomes Binance Regulatory Advisors

Binance appointed Rick McDonell, the former Executive Secretary at FAFT, and Josée Nadeau, the former Head of the Canadian delegation to the FATF. As advisors to Binance, the regulators will drive the organization in compliance with global regulations and law enforcement agencies, especially on areas that include anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT).

Having worked with international organizations, both Nadeau and McDonell bring extensive regulatory and compliance expertise and experience to the table.

“Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology are gaining widespread adoption, with even traditional banking organizations now offering crypto services. These new technologies will certainly change how people and organizations alike manage money. […] We are both delighted to be working with Binance, one of the leading organizations in this new industry.”

McDonell and Nadeau said in a joint statement.

Binance is Beefing up its Regulatory and Compliance Strategy

It’s now apparent that the cryptocurrency exchange is positioned to become a more compliant and regulatory-friendly company. Prior to Nadeau and McDonell’s appointment today, Binance recently on-boarded the former U.S. Senator for Montana and Ambassador to China, Max Baucus, as an advisor. Baucus will help to navigate the exchange in government relations and regulatory initiatives.

Australia Blockchain

Australia’s SMX to Trace Cottons Produced in Israel Using Blockchain

Post author By Ibiam Wayas
Post date March 25, 2021

Israeli Cotton Board (ICB) has partnered with an Australian blockchain authentication platform, Security Matters (SMX), to trial the traceability of both organic and conventional cotton produced in the country. According to the report by Ecotextile, the collaboration comes as part of ICB’s broader plan to ensure sustainability and genuineness of cotton grown in Israel.

Israel to Trace Cotton on Blockchain

As part of the pilot program, the Australian blockchain company will trace organic and conventional cotton production from the cultivation and field stage. SMX will also use blockchain to authenticate the origin of the cotton produced and provide full transparency in the byproducts’ value chain and life cycle for recycling.

If successfully completed, SMX’s blockchain platform will be adopted by all the cotton growers in the country, per the report.

For cotton growers in Israel, sustainability is not a fad but a way of life. […] We believe in harnessing advanced technologies like SMX to protect and benefit our growers and enable our customers to obtain digital blockchain certification and be able to tangibly verify that the cotton purchased from ICB is 100% BCI certified and the conventional and organic cotton grown in Israeli is genuine.
Yizhar Landau, ICB’s chief executive

Supply chain management is one of the major areas where blockchain technologies can play a significant role. The traceability and authentication of products essentially help to boost consumer confidence.

This project is not the first of its kind in Australia. Earlier this year, Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) partnered with Everledger to develop a Proof-of-Concept (PoC) aimed at mapping on the blockchain any wool produced in the country. Noteworthily, Australia is the world’s leading wool producer, accounting for about 90 percent of the wool used worldwide.

Bitcoin Crypto News Institutions

US Procurement Agency is Planning a 6.79 Bitcoin Auction

Post author By Ibiam Wayas
Post date March 25, 2021

In the coming week, the United States General Services Administration (GSA) will auction about 6.79 Bitcoin, according to an update on Wednesday. The GSA is an agency providing centralized procurement for the US federal government.

The announcement today comes one week after GSA auctioned the first-ever Bitcoin through its online clearinghouse service, GSA Auction. According to them, the first auction was more like a test run, yet it generated lots of excitement amongst crypto investors.

“Our first steps wading into the cryptocurrency market quickly became one of our hottest auctions of 2021.”

The US government is getting acquainted with selling seized cryptocurrencies. Earlier this year, U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) announced the auctioning of 4,040.5 Bitcoin, which was worth about $37 million at the time.

An auction worth USD $380k

During press time, Bitcoin was trading at USD $55,992 according to CoinMarketCap; hence, the 6.79 BTC to be auctioned are worth over US$380,000. The cryptocurrencies will be split into ten different lots and auctioned via the GSA Auction webpage. Bidding starts from March 29 till March 31, according to the report.

This might possibly provide crypto investors with an opportunity to purchase Bitcoin at a price lower than its market value. The GSA didn’t mention how the government got those cryptocurrencies. However, the cryptocurrencies were likely confiscated from cyber-criminals, just like the ones sold by the Lithuanian government lately.

As Crypto News Australia reported in November, the Lithuanian government bagged more than AU$10 million by selling confiscated cryptocurrencies, which included Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Monero (XMR). These cryptos were reportedly seized by law enforcement agencies in February last year.

Crypto News Dogecoin NFTs Sports Worldwide

Crypto.com to Launch an NFT Platform Featuring Celebrities in Music and Sports

Post author By Ibiam Wayas
Post date March 24, 2021

Popular digital currency exchange and trading platform, Crypto.com is venturing into the non-fungible token (NFT) market.

The exchange announced on Tuesday that it’s launching a NFT marketplace, which will exclusively feature content from celebrities in different industries, including sports and music. Noteworthily, this follows the growing interest and boom in the NFT market.

Crypto.com Collaborates with Snoop Dogg, Aston Martin, and Others

The Crypto.com NFT marketplace is launching this Friday as an invite-only platform, per the announcement. It’s basically aimed at delivering unique and compelling content. Hence, the exchange partnered with celebrities in sports, athletics, music, and art for the inaugural contents on the soon-to-launch NFT marketplace.

The partners include Snoop Dogg, Aston Martin Cognizant Formula OneTM, Klarens Malluta with Lionel Richie, Axel Mansoor, Bag Raiders, BossLogic, and many others. The crypto exchange intends to collaborate with more mainstream artists in the coming weeks.

First F1 Team to Join the NFT Market

The partnership with Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team comes as they are planning to return to F1 racing after 60 years.

We’re excited to be the first Formula 1 team to offer a new way for our fans to own a piece of our history. The collection of NFTs we’re making available capture the very first moments of our return to F1 after more than six decades
Jefferson Slack, Managing Director at Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team.

Meanwhile, Crypto.com noted in the announcement that the NFT platform would be open to both users and non-users of the exchange. Among other things, the platform will allow collectors or the celebrities’ supporters to purchase or sell their NFTs using over 20 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and Dogecoin (DOGE).

Crypto News DeFi Ethereum

Uniswap V3 to Launch in May with 4,000x Capital Efficiency and More Flexible Fees

Post author By Ibiam Wayas
Post date March 24, 2021

The long-awaited next iteration of the leading decentralized exchange, Uniswap, will be deployed in the next two months, as the team disclosed in a blog post on Tuesday.

The upcoming Uniswap V3 is essentially aimed at enabling a more capital-efficient decentralized trading platform. Interestingly, the improvements with V3 will allow cheaper gas fees for transactions on the exchange compared to the current Uniswap iteration.

Uniswap V3 to Launch on Ethereum and Optimism Network

According to the Uniswap team, the next iteration will be deployed on the Ethereum blockchain precisely on May 5 and later on the Optimism network. With Uniswap V3, liquidity can be provided on the exchange with about 4000x capital efficiency, compared to the current Uniswap V2.

This will liquidity providers earn higher returns on their capital while also paving the way for low-slippage trade execution.

Additionally, Uniswap V3 will allow efficient and cheaper integration of oracles, which are “capable of providing time-weighted average prices (TWAPs) on demand for any period within the last ~ nine days.” With the launch of Optimism, the gas cost of V3 swaps will likely be significantly cheaper.

These features make Uniswap v3 the most flexible and efficient AMM ever designed.
Uniswap

Uniswap TVL

The exchange has become a critical infrastructure for decentralized finance. The current iteration was deployed in May 2020 and facilitated more than $135 billion in trading volume within a period of one year.

Uniswap was once the largest protocol in DeFi. However, its asset began plummeting following the end of its liquidity incentives last year. One can easily predict that the DEX will eventually outrank some protocols, following the features of V3. At the time of writing, there are US$4.04 billion worth of assets locked in the exchange, according to DeFi Pulse.

Crypto Art Crypto News NFTs

Eight CarbonDrop Artworks From Renowned NFT Artists Attracts Over $2.2 Million

Post author By Ibiam Wayas
Post date March 23, 2021

Popular digital artists, including Beeple, are auctioning carbon-neutral artworks as Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). This is part of a collaborative effort between the NFT artists and the Open Earth Foundation to create awareness of climate change and essentially raise funds to support its CarbonDrop initiative, which is aimed at improving the planetary condition.

A total of eight artworks have been issued under this initiative, all of which see over US$2 million bids.

CarbonDrop NFTs Attracts Over $2M Bids

The artists involved in the CarbonDrop initiative include Beeple, Refik Anadol, Sara Ludy, Mieke Marple, GMUNK, Kyle Gordon, Andres Reisinger, and FVCKRENDER. The carbon-neutral NFTs are being auctioned on Nifty Gateway, one of the leading NFTs marketplace. So far, the eight artworks combined have amassed US$2,218,951 in bids at the time of writing.

Beeple’s ‘OCEAN FRONT’ NFT has the highest bids in terms of value. It attracted a US$2 million bid during press time. Interestingly, Justin Sun, the CEO and founder of the Tron blockchain, is one of the highest bidders. Meanwhile, other artworks are yet to reach a six-figure bid.

Beeple’s OCEAN FRONT NFT

NFTs Artists Help to Fight Climate Change

All the proceeds from the digital art collection will be donated to Open Earth Foundation, as noted on the auction page. The 501c3 non-profit organisation is on a mission to increase planetary resilience. It harnesses emerging digital technology, such as blockchain and radical collaborations, to deploy and scale concrete systemic solutions at a planetary level.

The NFT auction is also committed to balance its own carbon footprint as detailed on their website.

Each unique carbon offset is pegged to the unique artwork in order to compensate the underlying emissions from the NFT minting. Artists will further commit to offset their historical NFT footprint to create a net positive climate impact.
CarbonDrop.art

Basic Attention Token Binance Crypto News

Brave Browser Extends BAT to Binance Smart Chain

Post author By Ibiam Wayas
Post date March 23, 2021

January 22, 2021, Brazil. In this photo illustration the Brave Browser logo seen in the background of a silhouette hand holding a mobile phone

Privacy-focused Brave Browser has extended its Ethereum-based digital currency, Basic Attention Token (BAT), to Binance Smart Chain (BSC) ecosystem. The development today means that BAT holders can now access several projects on BSC, including its decentralized finance (DeFi) services.

BAT Debuts on BSC as Wrapped Token

The Brave token was launched as an ERC-20 standard token. However, it can now be used on the BSC ecosystem as a wrapped token, which will make it possible for BAT holders to access BSC projects like PancakeSwap, BakerySwap, Beefy Finance, etc., through “numerous bridges that connect Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain.”

Also, Brave intends to preconfigure support for BSC on its browser wallet later this year to enable users to directly access the BSC services without having to download additional applications. In addition to that, Brave also plans to leverage the low transaction fee on the BSC network to enable scalable P2P tipping within its browser.

Our hope is that BAT and Brave will take crypto mainstream and to make DeFi user-friendly for the mass market. […] With wrapped BAT now available on BSC, we believe this is achievable.
Brendan Eich, CEO and co-founder of Brave

Brave now adds to the list of popular Ethereum platforms that have migrated to the BSC network for some reasons that include cheaper transaction fees.

BAT Monthly Users Surpass $3 Million

BAT is one cryptocurrency with fast-growing demand. It’s the utility token of Brave Browser, which sees over 25 million monthly active users (MAU). More than 3.8 million users transact with the cryptocurrency on a monthly basis.

BAT was trading at US$1.20 on Coingecko during press time. It soared by over 7% on the 24-hour count, following the announcement on Monday. Its market capital currently sits around US$1.7 billion.