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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Crypto News Litecoin

Flare Network to Support Litecoin Ahead of Q2 Launch

Flare Network to Support Litecoin Ahead of Q2 Launch

A decentralized network, Flare, which wants to bring full smart contract utility to the fourth-largest cryptocurrency Ripple (XRP), will also support Litecoin (LTC), according to the information shared on Friday. This should be a good development when launched, as it will open up more access and value for Litecoin. Also, the Flare network team mentioned on Twitter that LTC holders would equally receive the Spark (FLR) token.

More Interoperability for Litecoin

Flare is a distributed network that integrates the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). The team precisely noted that they would integrate Litecoin ahead of the Flare network launch, which is scheduled to hold later in quarter two of this year. When the network finally launches, LTC holders will be able to use the cryptocurrency with “Ethereum style smart contracts,” although only on Flare. 

The development will give Litecoin “interoperability and composability,” Flare said. Additionally, the Flare foundation agreed to allocate about five billion Spark tokens to LTC holders. There wasn’t any more information provided regarding the FLR distribution method for LTC participants. However, Flare Foundation noted that its token allocation would be reduced to support the LTC holders. Hence, the estimated amount of FLR to be distributed to XRP holders won’t be changed. 

Bitcoin Next?

Having announced plans to add Litecoin to the network, Bitcoin (BTC) could be the next digital currency in line. When Flare began pushing the initiative with Ripple, the CEO, and co-founder, Hugo Philion, mentioned that they would expand the network to include other cryptocurrencies – Bitcoin and Litecoin. Meanwhile, some people think there’s some sort of rule change, as Flare previously noted that more coins would be supported only when voted by the FLR holders.

“[…]and then also in that Flare paper, it’s defined something called the Spark-derived applications, and these will allow that system to expand such that the value from other networks that are not Turing complete, like Bitcoin or Litecoin, could be replicated in the same way that FXRP is being put onto the network. That is something that will have to be a governance issue and something that Spark token holders will vote on overtime.”

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Crypto News Ethereum

Time to Long? Ether Staked in Ethereum 2.0 Surpasses 2.29M ETH

Time to Long? Ether Staked in Ethereum 2.0 Surpasses 2.29M ETH

Ethereum users have since shown a huge level of commitment to Ethereum 2.0 staking, even after the development phase 0 was launched. For this reason and more, a significant number of Ether (ETH) has been leaving the cryptocurrency exchanges, which is quite a good development for ETH in the long term, according to industry experts. Possibly, this could also be a factor contributing to the growing price of the second-largest crypto.

At the time of writing, Ether was trading at the price of US$1,226 on Coinmarketcap, a digital currency price tracking platform. The cryptocurrency now has a market capitalization above US$140 billion.

Milestone: 2% of ETH has Been Staked

According to the information shared on Thursday by Crypto Quant, a crypto analytics platform, the number of staked ETH on the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract is worth two percent of the crypto’s current supply. This is another evidence that many Ethereum users are optimistic about the upcoming Eth2 network. That said, it’s worth noting that the current circulating supply is 114,154,295 ETH, and the staked two percent accounts for about 2.29 million ETH.

These coins staked on the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract cannot be withdrawn, at least until the next Eth2 development phase, thereby making the coins illiquid. Many experts relayed their thoughts that such development is quite healthy for ETH. Precisely, Ki Young Ju, the CEO of Crypto Quant, recently opined on Twitter that “illiquidity makes the ETH price go higher in the long-term.” 

With the increasing staking rate for Eth2, Ki Young Ju had mentioned on Twitter that Ether “is the most undervalued asset in crypto finance.” On January 4th, all crypto exchanges’ ETH reserves decreased by 20 percent compared to May 2020. Evidently, some of these coins are flowing to the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract, including decentralized exchanges (DEX) or for custody. 

“Whatever it is, it’s good for $ETH as decreasing market supply. Whales might use DEX for dumping, but at the same time, DEX drives Defi growth,” he added. 

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Bitcoin Crypto News

Bitcoin Hashrate Makes new ATH as Price Nears US$40,000

Quantum Computers Are Not a Threat To Bitcoin (Yet), Expert Explains

The Bitcoin (BTC) network hashrate has significantly surged to another level not seen since the cryptocurrency’s history. Noteworthily, hashrate is the measure of the entire processing/hashing power on the BTC network. So, more mining machines are going online on the cryptocurrency’s network. Meanwhile, this is coming at the time when Bitcoin is posting massive price growth. 

However, with every increase in BTC hashrate, the mining difficulty will also increase accordingly to balance the new BTC supply rate. 

Bitcoin Miners are Getting More Bullish

Bitcoin network hashrate broke all-time-high (7d ma), according to data from Glassnode, an on-chain analytics platform. A further glance at Blockchain.com, the crypto’s network explorer, revealed the hashrate to be 148.727 million terahashes per second or TH/s. The data shows that Bitcoin miners are deploying more advanced mining machines on the network.

This was more likely caused by the growing price of Bitcoin since the past month, December 2020.

Since leading cryptocurrency broke through the US$20,000 level, it has continued to rise gradually. As of January 1, the cryptocurrency closed the day at US$$29,374, according to Coinmarketcap. Fast forward to the present, the price of Bitcoin is well above US$30,000, nearing the US$40,000 level with its current price around US$38,000 at the time of writing.

With such a price, BTC’s market capitalization sits above US$717 billion, which is the major contributor to the US$1 trillion global digital currency market.

BTC Mining Profitability

Following the price performance of Bitcoin, it’s safe to mention that the BTC mining business is currently profitable. Miners are making more profits due to the growing price of the cryptocurrency. Plausibly, this is causing them to deploy more machines on the network, thereby spiking the overall hashrate at 148.727 million TH/s.

Meanwhile, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the next BTC mining difficulty adjustment will rise to an all-time high to balance the ease with BTC mining.

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Crypto News Ripple

Number of XRP Whales Dropped as it Continued to Lose Support

XRP Whales dropped as it continued losing support

Ripple (XRP), which is presently the fourth-largest digital currency, almost ended the past year in the best way possible. From the Flare Network-planned Spark token airdrop and the coin’s price growth to over US$0.6 level, there were lots of excitement and activities going on with the XRP armies, not until the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) interrupted things. 

Can we say XRP Whales are Giving up Already?

Literally, everything began dying down, with the cryptocurrency dropping from that point to the current level around US$0.2. Meanwhile, XRP is presently up by 26.38 percent on the seven-day chart, per Coinmarketcap.

Notably, the cryptocurrency and its holders have seen more of the downside following the whole XRP-security saga by the US regulator. Consequently, the number of addresses holding XRP (especially the whale addresses) have been decreasing since the announcement was made by the SEC.

The number of XRP addresses holding at least one million coins decreased from 1,721 on December 21 to 1,567 on January 3, according to Coinmetrice’s latest “state of the network” report. 

XRP is Losing More Support

SEC’s announcement of charges against the blockchain company, Ripple, also caused exchanges to delist the cryptocurrency. These include the likes of Beaxy, Bittrex, Bistamp, including the US leading exchange, Coinbase. This could be seen as a strategy for these platforms to avoid legal issues with the regulator, should the court favor SEC’s statements that XRP is a security.  

Today, the popular crypto investment company, Grayscale announced the removal of XRP from their Digital Large Cap (DLC) fund, which tracks the market capitalization of the five largest digital currencies. Currently, the fund only covers Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). The decision to delist the Ripple cryptocurrency came after DLC’s quarterly review on December 31.

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Australia Crypto News

Australia Records Highest Number of new Crypto Fintechs in 2020

Australia Records Highest Number of new Crypto Fintechs in 2020

It’s worth mentioning that the past year (i.e., 2020, to be precise) is the biggest year for the cryptocurrency industry in adoption, developments, and other aspects. This, in fact, concedes with the growing number of new companies entering the crypto and blockchain space in different countries, especially Australia.

A new report from KPMG, one of the “big four” auditing companies showed that Australia’s crypto and blockchain fintech increased significantly in the just-concluded year. This shows how much the Aussie crypto industry is growing. Already, the country is rated as one of the blockchain-friendly nations.

Aussie Records More Active Fintech 

At first, the auditing company noted in the “KPMG Fintech Landscape 2020” report on Monday that more than 733 fintech from diverse industries is presently active in Australia. Following this record, the number of active fintech in the country is up by 16.5 percent compared to the previous 629 recorded last year. In the Lending industry, the number of companies increased from 77 in 2019 to 103 in 2020, accounting for more than a 30 percent increase on a year-over-year count.

In comparison to the 2019 and 2020 record, other industries in Australia increased or decreased as follows: Neobank (5 to 10 or 100%), Regtech (48 to 47 or -2.10%), Middle & Back Office (65 to 67 or 3.10%), Payments (143 to 151 or 5.60%), Wealthtech (78 tp 79 or 1.28%), Insurtech 35 to 59 or 68.60%), Data and Analytics (37 to 36 or -2.70%), according to the report. 

Crypto-related Fintech in Australia Grew by 153%

As per KPMG, the crypto and blockchain industry in Australia had the largest percentage growth in new fintech from 2019 to 2020. Respectively, the number of new companies in the industry increased from 32 to 81, accounting for about 153 percent growth. This corresponds to the general support and interest in digital currencies over the past year, including the underlying technology, blockchain.

“Despite the impacts of COVID-19 on the economy, increased digitization across financial services and new customer behaviors have created new opportunities for innovation. […] The overall impressive net growth in the number of fintech illustrates both the robust market dynamics and strong support for the fintech sector in Australia,” said the National Fintech Lead at KPMG Australia, Daniel Teper.

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Bitcoin Crypto News

Dr. Doom Reacts as Bitcoin Briefly Dropped 15% From US$34,000

After Bitcoin (BTC) crossed the US$20,000 level in December, the leading cryptocurrency has been notably topping its value to the latest all-time high (ATH) above US$34,000. Despite the exponential growth since the past months, many opponents like Nouriel Roubini still don’t see the cryptocurrency as a thing. Popularly known as Dr. Doom, Roubini again referred to Bitcoin’s growth as a “bubble,” which is largely manipulated by Tether’s massive USDT minting. 

Dr Doom Red-flags Bitcoin’s Growth

On Sunday, the price of Bitcoin briefly dropped by more than 15 percent. This movement alone saw the cryptocurrency declined from as high as US$34,000 to US$29,000, sparking sentiment that BTC’s bullish moment is finally over. Surprisingly, the price of the crypto rebounded to a little above US$30,000. This suggested that many investors and traders are still optimistic about BTC at US$30K.

For Dr. Doom, however, the price movement of Bitcoin was manipulated. He argued that the digital currency could only rebound because Tether resumed massive issuance. “Active manipulation of BTC started after those scammers woke up from their Sunday night sleep,” Roubini tweeted, adding that the whole BTC story will end in sorrow when the “law enforcement & reg authorities crack it down soon.”

CT Still Bullish on Bitcoin

While Dr. Doom thinks that Bitcoin’s quick rebound follows the massive USDT issuance, many industry players think otherwise. For the crypto veteran trader Scott Melker (The Wolf Of All Streets), the BTC rebound shows there’s an insane demand for the cryptocurrency. A popular crypto analyst Willy Woo also opined that Bitcoin would hardly drop to US$20,000 again.

“We’ll never see $20k BTC again. $24k support would need a black swan event to breakdown. Floor price supported by long term buyers is rising very fast,” Willy Woo wrote on Sunday. 

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Bitcoin Institutions

Institutional Call? Nasdaq-listed Mogo Will Invest $1M in Bitcoin

Bitcoin Outperformed Oil, Gold With Over 100% Increase in Q1 2021

As crypto analysts expect that institutions will make massive investments in Bitcoin (BTC) in the coming years, many publicly-listed companies are already confirming these sentiments in 2020. Recently, the likes of MassMutual, an insurance company, invested about US$100 million in the cryptocurrency. Also, MicroStrategy completed its Bitcoin investment to US$1 billion in recent days.

Today, a popular Canadian financial technology company, Mogo, has disclosed its plans to invest more than US$1 million in Bitcoin.

The Institutions are Here!

The Nasdaq-listed company said on Wednesday that it’s planning to buy US$1.16 million worth of Bitcoin as corporate investment. With such capital, the company will be able to get about 47.1 Bitcoin, following the current price of the crypto at US$23,579 on Coinmarketcap.

Meanwhile, Mogo further revealed plans to buy additional Bitcoin in the coming year. Judging by this, one can easily predict that the company may invest in the cryptocurrency at any time soon. 

The Bitcoin will be purchased from the company’s US$13.2 million investment portfolio. “We are strong believers in bitcoin as an asset class and believe this investment is consistent with our goal to make bitcoin investing available to all Canadians,” according to the president and CFO of Mogo, Greg Feller. 

It’s also worth mentioning that other prominent companies like Square, Galaxy Digital, etc., are holding some Bitcoin as corporate investment.

Bitcoin Adoptions Grows With Price Performance

Since the leading cryptocurrency broke the US$20,000 level, there has been a massive interest in it among institutional and retail investors. This is evident following the growing number of BTC addresses. Also, the institutional-grade investment companies, especially Grayscale, have been recording incredible growth in its assets under management (AUM). 

Despite that Grayscale stopped accepting funds from new investors on its crypto products, it still bought over 12,000 BTC today, which came from its existing client alone. Currently, the company’s AUM is worth $15.9 billion. 

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Crypto Exchange Crypto News Ripple

Watch out for XRP Liquidity as Crypto Exchanges Begin Delisting

XRP Whales dropped as it continued losing support

Many people in the cryptocurrency industry predicted an incoming gloom for XRP, after the blockchain company Ripple, revealed on Tuesday that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was preparing to charge them. The lawsuit was filed later that day, which saw the cryptocurrency shading massive price points. 

Aside from this, many cryptocurrency exchanges have already begun delisting XRP on their platform – which is not a healthy development for the cryptocurrency.

SEC Says XRP is a “Security”

As Crypto News Australia recently reported, the ongoing case with Ripple stems from the long-standing controversy about XRP being security. According to the SEC, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) are not securities because they are decentralized and not controlled or issued by any company. XRP took the opposite side of this when Ripple issued billions of it in the past eight years. 

So, the US regulator accused the company and its executives of issuing unregistered securities to investors. Since the lawsuit was filed, the cryptocurrency has been taking massive hits.

At the time of writing, XRP trades at $0.33 on Coinmarketcap, which accounts for a -30 percent price change in a 24 hours count. Consequently, the cryptocurrency has also lost the position as the third-largest digital currency by market capitalization to Tether (USDT), the US dollar-backed stablecoin. 

XRP Might Face Liquidity Issues

Presently, about three cryptocurrency exchanges – Beaxy, CrossTower, and OSL – have discontinued support for the Ripple cryptocurrency, amid the development. This could be seen as an effort to run away from legal issues with the SEC, as exchanges that continued to support the crypto would likely be ordered to register with the SEC as a security exchange or face a fine – that’s if the SEC wins the case.

Notionally, more exchanges might delist XRP for the same reason, as the whole case unfolds. When this happens, XRP will fall into a liquidity crisis which isn’t a healthy sign for the crypto’s performance. “Many cryptocurrency exchanges would be forced to delist it, so liquidity would dry up,” said Ryan Watkins, a research analyst at Messari.

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Crypto Wallets Hackers

Ledger Crisis: Users May Pursue a Lawsuit as They Receive Threatening Emails

Ledger Crisis: Users May Pursue a Lawsuit as They Receive Threatening Emails

The security breach on Ledger, which led to the exposure of customers’ contact information, is currently causing a heavy shake of the company’s long-built reputation as the leading and secured hard wallet maker. On December 20, a hacker(s) dumped a database containing email addresses and physical contact information of Ledger customers, making them even more vulnerable to threats and phishing attacks – to a greater extent.

While the company says they are working to investigate the matter, customers are already displaying signs of pushing a class-action lawsuit against the hardware wallet provider. 

Ledger Users are Already Receiving Threatening Messages via Email

The recent development on the Ledger hack was spurred after a database – probably stolen in the June attack – was dumped on RaidForms, a marketplace for trading stolen information. This resulted in the exposure of over one million email addresses subscribed to Ledgers’ newsletter, including the Emails, Physical Addresses, Phone numbers, and other identifying information of 272,000 Ledger buyers. 

With this information in the wrong hands, many people feared that this is only the beginning of threats and phishing attacks on the customers. Already, the customers are receiving messages of physical threats, if they don’t pay about $500 in Bitcoin ransom, according to a Reddit user, u/elephants. The message sent to him/her reads precisely:

Hello (my name), I have recently become aware of your Cryptocurrency holdings, I also live in (my city), and I also know that you live at (my address). I’m not afraid to invade your home, I don’t want to make this any harder than it has to be. I’m offering you $500 (shouldn’t be much to you considering the recent pump) to leave you alone. 

If not, I’m not afraid to show up when you least expect it and see how my wrench works against your face, or maybe even wait for you to leave your home and take your belongings whilst you’re not there to call the police. I’ll be waiting for the money, and watching you until then.

Lawsuits hovering 

As Ledger customers seem not to be satisfied with the company’s response to the development, they are raising talks on pushing a class-action lawsuit against the wallet maker. 

Categories
Australia Blockchain

Aussie RMIT University Joins VeChain to Address Blockchain Governance Issues

Aussie RMIT University Joins VeChain to Address Blockchain Governance Issues

RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub, the blockchain department of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) in Australia, has become the latest member of VeChain Foundation. The organization is focused on extending blockchain technology – perhaps the VeChain blockchain – to the real world. VeChain announced the collaboration in a publication on Monday.

By joining the organization, the RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub will work to address issues with blockchain governance, while still pushing towards the mainstream adoption of the technology across different sectors.

VeChain, RMIT University to Address Hurdles With Blockchain

The collaboration is aimed at driving more research on blockchain governance models, and also speed up the standardization of blockchain governance consensus. For a start, the group will focus on creating a framework that will enable a streamlined medium for evaluating and comparing the governance systems of public blockchains. 

Afterward, the group will come up with a better incentivize model to encourage participation in the blockchain governance process. 

The Chief Scientist at VeResearch, Dr. Peter Zhou, commented:

“Blockchain governance plays a vital role in growing a healthy and sustainable blockchain ecosystem. This research collaboration is going to answer some of the most important and fundamental questions about blockchain governance and will contribute to the long-term growth of VeChain’s ecosystem and to achieving our goal of mass adoption.”

Blockchain Adoption by Enterprise, Government

In compliance with regulations, the group will continue to research the governance models that are suitable for enterprises as a long-term goal. In this way, they prepare for mainstream adoption of VeChain and blockchain technology in general, among the enterprises, governments, and educational research facilities. 

“With this important research, we are hoping to build towards a general theory of blockchain governance contributing to VeChain’s ecosystem and providing benefit to the broader blockchain community,” said Dr. Chris Berg, from RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub.