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.

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Bitcoin Crypto News

Brazil SEC Approves First Bitcoin ETF in Latin America

Brazil SEC Approves First Bitcoin ETF in Latin America

Brazil has become the second jurisdiction to approve a Bitcoin exchange-traded product (ETF) after Canada.

QR Capital, the company behind the ETF, announced on Friday that the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission (Comissão de Valores Mobiliários or CVM) approved its application for a Bitcoin ETF. This authorizes the listing of the cryptocurrency investment product on the Brazilian Stock Exchange (B3).

First Bitcoin ETF in Latin America

The Bitcoin ETF, dubbed QBTC11, is the first-of-its-kind crypto product to go live in Latin America. According to QR Capital, QBTC11 would enable qualified investors to participate in the Bitcoin market without having to custody the cryptocurrency itself. Basically, cryptocurrency ETFs are designed for investors, especially institutions, who seek exposure to cryptocurrency but don’t want to worry about keeping them safe.

“With this safeguard, investors gain even more legal certainty to add Bitcoin to their portfolios in the most professional way possible. But, more importantly, the QBTC11 places Brazil at the epicenter of the most modern financial regulation,” the company wrote. 

The Bitcoin ETF tracks the cryptocurrency index of CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate and real-time price benchmark CF Benchmarks. 

US, Australia yet to Approve its First Bitcoin ETF

The United States and Australia are two other popular countries that are yet to approve a Bitcoin ETF application. Already, the Canadian regulators have greenlighted about three Bitcoin ETFs.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) previously rejected a Bitcoin ETF application by Cosmos Capital, a digital asset management company. However, on February 12, the regulator said the application didn’t meet the regulatory requirements, adding that they are open to accepting Bitcoin-linked ETFs, provided rules are in place to protect investors.

Meanwhile, the United States is on the verge of seeing its first ETF approval. Recently, the SEC published VanEck’s Bitcoin ETF application. This means the regulator has less than 45 days to either accept or reject the application. 

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Crypto News NFTs

OpenSea Raises $23 Million Series A to Scale its NFT Marketplace

The non-fungible token (NFT) market keeps growing in popularity and adoption with every proceeding day. So many digital creations are being listed and traded on different NFT marketplaces as more people join the frenzy. 

In preparation for more traders to come, one of the leading NFT marketplaces, OpenSea, has raised US$23 million in a Series A funding round. The objective is to expand its operation, according to the co-founder and CEO, Devin Finzer. 

OpenSea Prepares for NFT Boom

Following the announcement, the funding round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, a crypto-friendly venture capital company based in the United States. Naval Ravikant, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, Belinda Johnson, Ben Silbermann, and some other big-name angel investors also participated in the investment round.

OpenSea is looking to scale up its marketplace, as it believes that billions of people will be introduced to digital ownership in the coming years. 

Interest in NFTs is Increasing Rapidly

Launched in late 2017, the NFT marketplace already sees an increase in trading and new digital art listing. In the report, Finzer revealed that more than 20 million non-fungible tokens have been listed for trading on OpenSea. The NFT transaction on the marketplace increased by 100x over the last six months. 

“We’ve had the fortune to work with hundreds of projects and creators: from game companies to digital artists to musicians to professional athletes. The world is waking up to the power of this technology, and it’s happening quite suddenly,” Finzer wrote.

Recently, Crypto News Australia reported that the term “NFT” reached a peak of popularity, following the search interest on Google. The non-fungible tokens had the most search interest, compared to other crypto-related terms like Blockchain, DeFi, and Cryptocurrency. 

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Australia Crypto News

Senator Andrew Bragg Wants Australia to Consider Opportunites in Cryptocurrency

Senator Andrew Bragg Wants Australia to Consider Opportunites in Cryptocurrency

The Australian government is very keen on establishing the nation as one of the tech-friendliest economies, as a senate committee has already been formed and is working to improve the country’s position as a leading financial and technology hub.

Among this, Senator Andrew Bragg, the chairman of the committee, called on the country to consider more opportunities in cryptocurrency, which is increasingly adopted worldwide.

Australia to Consider Opportunities in Digital Currency

Australia as a Technology and Finance Hub – Senator Andrew Bragg

In a media release on Thursday, Senator Bragg precisely noted that it was crucial for the committee to consider opportunities in cryptocurrencies, digital assets, and Neobanking. He believes such emerging technologies unlock geographic restraints on the country to become a global leader in finance and technology. The Senator also called on the committee to consider “Instances of corporate law holding back investment.”

“I fully expect the Committee to focus on removing more barriers to Australian growth as a technology and finance centre. […] This is a golden opportunity to bolster Australia’s economic growth, and I want to ensure we take full advantage of it”

Australian Senator Andrew Bragg

Australia is Well Poised to Become a Leading Technology and Finance Hub

Meanwhile, this committee tasked with improving Australia’s position as a financial and technology hub took up some changes. Per the statement, the committee, previously known as the “Senate Select Committee on Financial Technology and Regulatory Technology,” has been renamed to the “Select Committee on Australia as a Technology and Financial Centre.”

Also, the deadline for the committee to report on its existing work program has been extended from April to October 2021, probably because the Senate voted to expand the scope and length of the Select Committee on Australia as a Technology and Financial Centre. 

“The work of the Committee so far has clearly shown Australia is well poised for rapid growth in the sector to attract investment and create jobs,” Senator Bragg added.

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Binance Blockchain Crypto News Ethereum

Binance Smart Chain (BSC) Records New ATH 3 Million in Daily Transaction Volume

Binance Lists Coinbase (COIN) Stock Market Token For Trading

The Binance Smart Chain (BSC) has reached another all-time high in daily transaction volume. 

Over the recent weeks, the transaction volume on Binance Smart Chain has increased significantly as many people and projects are switching to the centralized network for cheaper and faster transactions. This comes amid the congestion on Ethereum, which has caused slower and expensive transaction fees for the second-largest blockchain network.

BSC Topped 3 Million in Daily Transaction Volume

Following the BSC Scan data, a total of 3,726,576 transactions were made on the network as of March 16, which is the highest number of daily transactions on BSC since its inception. This is not surprising as many projects are increasingly being developed on the network. Additionally, some other projects have migrated from the Ethereum blockchain to the BSC network for cheaper and faster transactions. 

Early this month, SushiSwap launched on the Binance Smart Chain and a few other blockchain networks, including Fantom, in a bid to escape the expensive transaction fees plaguing the root network, Ethereum. Meanwhile, the decentralized exchange (DEX) is currently the largest in the DeFi market, with about US$4.59 billion in assets locked. 

On March 16, Ethereum recorded about 1.3 million in daily transaction volume. 

What is Killing Ethereum?

The activities on the Ethereum blockchain increased significantly, probably due to the boom in the decentralized finance industry and the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) market. However, the increased usage of Ethereum resulted in network congestion, making it very expensive to use. 

The developers are looking to resolve this scalability issue through the Serenity upgrade, also known as Ethereum 2.0. This major upgrade is expected to be completed and deployed in the next two to three years, hence, many Ethereum users fear that the network might continue to lose more projects and users if no immediate action was taken by the developers to solve the issue. 

As a temporary solution, however, Ethereum developers are planning to deploy rollups, which is a layer-two solution that will scale the current Ethereum network by 100x, according to Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum. He added that the planned solution would address the congestion issue on the network until Ethereum 2.0. 

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Crypto News

Grayscale Launches Investment Trusts for Chainlink and Four Other Cryptos

Grayscale Launches Investment Trusts for Chainlink and Four Other Cryptos

Leading cryptocurrency asset manager, Grayscale has added five new cryptocurrencies to its suite of Investment Trusts. Precisely, the company has launched Trusts product for Chainlink (LINK), Basic Attention Token (BAT), Decentraland (MANA), Filecoin (FIL), and Livepeer (LPT). 

Per the press statement on Wednesday, the new offerings reflect the growing interest and demand for digital currencies amongst global investors.

Grayscale now offers 14 crypto Trusts

The newly-listed cryptocurrency Trusts products are currently open for daily subscription by both retail and institutional accredited investors. These investment products provide investors exposure to the underlying cryptocurrencies without managing the cryptos themselves. This better serves institutional investors who don’t seek to direct exposure to participate in the burgeoning asset class.

“Digital currencies have reached an inflection point. Investor demand has never been higher, and every day we’re seeing new entrants to what has surely become a bona fide asset class,” said Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein. 

In total, Grayscale now offers 14 cryptocurrency investment Trusts, which includes other popularly-traded digital currencies like Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and many others. The Trusts are solely invested in the underlying cryptocurrencies, as Grayscale asserted in the report.

Grayscale on pace to US$50 million AUM

Currently, Grayscale has almost $43 billion in assets under management (AUM). The Bitcoin Trusts have the largest share, as it accounts for over US$36 billion of the total AUM, followed by the Ether product, which holds US$5.6 billion. 

One can expect the company’s AUM to surpass US$50 billion in the coming days, following the addition of the five cryptocurrencies. Meanwhile, the price of Chainlink increased to about US$30, which represented about a 9.65 percent increase on the 24 hours chart, just some hours after the announcement. BAT and a few other cryptocurrencies listed by the company were also seeing a mild increase in market price.

Categories
Crypto News Ethereum

Bullish? All Centralized Exchange Ether (ETH) Reserve Have Dropped to New Low

Bullish? All Centralized Exchange Ether (ETH) Reserve Have Dropped to New Low

The amount of Ethereum (ETH) held on centralized cryptocurrency exchanges or CEXes has been continuously reducing since September last year. On Tuesday, ETH reserve on exchanges dropped to another low, which is quite bullish, provided the demand for the cryptocurrency continues to soar. 

During press time, the second-largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of over US$207 billion, was trading at $1,801 on Coinmarketcap. Many holders think that ETH is undervalued, owing to the growing network traction and ecosystem. 

ETH Reserve Might Drop Further

There are currently less than 21 million ETH sitting on centralized exchanges, according to data from CryptoQuant. 

The declining amount of ETH in exchange reserve is probably due to more holders moving their cryptos to external wallets for HODLing. The decentralized finance (DeFi) is one other factor behind the decreasing ETH reserve. Among other things, traders are moving ETH from centralized exchanges to decentralized platforms like Uniswap, SushiSwap, Compound, etc., for trading and lending. 

This is evident as there is about 9.138 million ETH currently locked in DeFi projects. This equals over US$16 billion, following the price of the cryptocurrency during press time.

Another place to watch is the Ethereum 2.0 staking contract. The ETH reserve on centralized exchanges dropped further after the deployment of the deposit contract. At the time of writing, a total of 3,588,404 ETH has been staked on the network so far, which is worth over US$6.4 billion.

Is This a Bullish Case?

The reserve is likely to decrease further as more people increasingly participate in DeFi projects and Ethereum 2.0 staking. This is quite bullish, as less supply with more demand could see ETH soaring in price. 

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Blockchain Crypto News NFTs

Google Searches for NFTs Surpass Other Crypto-related Terms

Google Searches for NFTs Surpass Other Crypto-related Terms

Interesting stories of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) selling for millions of dollars have been making rounds across multiple crypto publications. It’s no doubt that interest in the NFT markets has gone up significantly since the beginning of 2021. 

Although the rate of Google searches for other popular cryptocurrency terms has also increased this year – which indicates a growing level of interest in the cryptocurrency industry in general – NFTs have the most searches amongst them.

Google Searches for NFTs Spikes

According to data from Google trends, the search interest for NFTs has surpassed that of Blockchain, Decentralized Finance (DeFi), and Cryptocurrency. 

There was almost no search interest for non-fungible tokens throughout the past year. However, a massive number of people have begun showing interest in the market since the beginning of the year. Interest over time for non-fungible tokens has also reached 100 this week, which represents another peak of popularity for the crypto term, as per Google trends. 

As seen in the chart above, there isn’t any noticeable growth in Google searches for DeFi, an industry with more than US$42 billion in assets. Interest in the market has remained relatively since 2021, and the year before. 

Elon Musk Joins the NFTs Market

The founder of Tesla, Elon Musk, is also interested in the NFT market. On Monday, he posted a techno track about non-fungible tokens on Twitter, which he intends to sell as an NFT. This attracted the likes of Justin Sun, the CEO of Tron blockchain, and Beeple, a popular digital artist, who were offering to buy the techno track NFT for about US$69 million.

In response to Beeple, however, the billionaire said he wanted about 420 million DOGE (about US$25 million)  in exchange for his NFT.

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Australia Crypto News Stablecoins

RBA Governor Philip Lowe Reiterates Plans For An Australian Digital Currency

RBA governor Philip Lowe reiterates plans for a wholesale CBDC

Philip Lowe, the governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, has reiterated intentions for launching an Australian national digital currency.

It’s no longer surprising that many central banks around the world are increasingly exploring and studying the possibility of launching a national digital currency (known as a “CBDC”). In fact, the Bank of International Settlement confirmed in a survey that about 80 percent of central banks planned for a CBDC.

Banks can use digital currencies for settlements

While speaking with the Melbourne Business Analytics Conference on Monday, the governor mentioned that the Australian central bank “is conducting research on the technologies and policy implications of a potential wholesale central bank digital currency.”

The world is gradually transitioning to digital alternatives for payment, especially since the cash bans of outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

Lowe said technology (blockchain) and data are unlocking this new possibility through digital currencies. Through distributed ledger technology, many big banking institutions could use digital currencies in the future to support the settlement of transactions in the inter-bank payment system, instead of transacting in “regular” Australian dollars.

RBA is still working on a Wholesale CBDC

The RBA governor also stated that the central bank is still working on the concept for a wholesale CBDC via its in-house Innovative Labs.

As of February 20, Crypto News Australia reported that the central bank was being sceptical about a retail CBDC. The Payments System Board of the central bank noted that they don’t see any strong case to launch a retail-focused CBDC. Instead, the bank was researching the feasibility and implications of launching a wholesale CBDC.

Wholesale CBDCs are more beneficial to financial institutions for payment and settlements than retail CBDCs, which are designed for general public use.

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Crypto News DeFi

DeFi Project Cream Finance, PancakeSwap suffers DNS attack

Internet administration user interface. 3D rendering Shallow DOF

A number of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) projects, including Cream Finance and PancakeSwap, have been hit with DNS attacks, following several notices shared on Twitter on Monday. Having confirmed the attack, the teams behind the affected projects warned that the websites are currently unsafe for the users to visit until stated otherwise.

Attackers requests for users seed phrase

The decentralized peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform, Cream Finance, is probably the first DeFi project to report the incident. In a tweet, they explained that the DNS or Domain Name System was compromised by a third-party, and that the users on the website are being asked to enter their seed phrase. 

A few hours later, PancakeSwap, the largest automated market maker (AMM) and decentralized exchange on Binance Smart Chain (BSC), reported a similar story.

PancakeSwap warned users to avoid the website “until we confirm it is all clear.” Users’ funds on the DeFi projects are safe, as the attackers cannot transfer any fund without their seed phrase.

The CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, took to Twitter to also warn against using these platforms, until they are confirmed safe to use.

“A number of DeFi projects are under DNS hijack attack. Pancake, Cream, etc. Please be VERY VERY careful and not use them until they recover the situation. Please also help spread the awareness,” he wrote.

Cream Finance and PancakeSwap token update

There isn’t any serious decline in the price of the projects’ tokens CREAM and CAKE, regardless of the incident. During press time, the PancakeSwap token was trading at US$9.90 percent, representing a 9.27 percent decrease in the 24-hour count, according to Coinmarketcap. Also, the Cream Finance token was trading at US$103.71, which accounts for about a 7.37 percent decrease over the last 24 hours.

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Crypto News DeFi

DeFi Trader Just Lost $188,000 in $SUSHI Forever, Sending It To The Wrong Address

A DeFi trader has lost a fortune for mistakenly sending his 1000 SUSHI coins to the wrong address. This incident reminds us that the crypto space is dangerous for the newbie, with new participants in the decentralised finance (DeFi) space don’t understand how applications work and mistakes can be easily made, which result in financial lost, that cannot be recovered.

9,999.988 SUSHI Gone Forever

A transaction was spotted on Friday, which involved about 9,999.988 SUSHI transferred from FTX exchange to SUSHI token smart contract.

The supposed DeFi trader most probably sent these cryptocurrencies to the contract address by mistake. It’s a costly mistake, as these cryptocurrencies are sometimes impossible to recover.

SUSHI refers to the native digital currency of SushiSwap (not the popular Japanese food). It’s a decentralized exchange, which forked from Uniswap. Tokens sent to SUSHI smart contract are supposedly gone (forever), except the protocol developers intercedes with a function to recover it.

Looking at the transaction details on Etherscan, the amount of SUSHI lost or transferred to the contract address was worth US$188,899 during the time of the transaction.

Another Trader Loses $10,000 Worth of DAI

A similar case today involved DAI, the decentralized US dollar-backed stablecoin developed by MakerDAO. A trader also mistakenly sent 10,083.935 DAI to the protocol’s smart contract address, losing about US$10,000.

As per DeFi Pulse, the total value of digital currencies locked in decentralized finance protocols are currently worth over US$42 billion. The increasing reports of losses simply indicate that the industry is still in its nascent stage, and some traders lack a clear understanding of the DeFi applications. Hence, there is more room for the industry to grow further as the new participants get acquainted with the protocols.