Category: Crypto News

Important Crypto Dates This Month – April 2021

Post author By Raj Evans
Post date April 5, 2021

In this article we take a look at important Crypto dates and events happening in this month.

The selected events include Hard Forks, Partnerships, Announcements, Rebranding, Exchange Listings, Releases, Token Swaps, Important Airdrops, Conferences and more.

Crypto News Partner Events and Announcements

Date	Event	Notes
1 April	Coinjar adds new digital currencies	Aave, Curve, EOS, Sushiswap, Synthetix and 4 other new digital currencies are available for trading on CoinJar.
30 April	Binance coin burn	15th Burn of Binance Coin (BNB)
16 April – 14 May	Crypto.com App Giveaway	Trade Dogecoins to Win $50k Cash and DOGE NFT Prizes on Crypto.com App

Important Cryptocurrency Events

Date	Coin	Event	Notes
2 April	Ankr (ANKR)	PolkaPets NFT Launch	Ankr Launching Friday 2 April
2 April	Curate (XCUR)	Kucoin Listing	Supported trading pairs are XCUR/USDT
2 April	Vaiot (VAI)	Kucoin Listing	Supported trading pair is VAI/USDT
5 April	Monetha (MTH)	New Road Map	New road map for this year to be published
5 April	Drep (DREP)	Killer Product Launch	Official Launch of DREP Killer Product on 05.04.2021, RoadMap 2021
5 April	Crown (CRW)	Airdrop	A total of 2500 wCRW will be airdropped to the LP token holder addresses according to the percentage of the pool they hold.
6 April	Enjin Coin (ENJ)	Jumpnet	JumpNet is a high-speed bridge network that will allow free, instant on-chain transactions of Enjin Coin, which includes NFT integration.
7 April	Fetch.ai (FET)	ATMX Distribution	Get your $fet ready, $atmx distribution for $fet holders.
7 April	DxSale Network (SALE)	ZIL Dx Locker Launch	@Zilliqa Dx Locker Launching on April 7th
8 April	Kava.io (KAVA)	Kava 5 Launch	Proposed upgrade on the 8 April
9 April	Elrond (EGLD)	First Defi 2.0 Module	The first module will go live on hypergrowth day 95.
10 April	Pancake Swap (CAKE)	Token Burn	Next week will be the biggest #CAKE burn ever (so far)!
14 April	Ethereum (ETH)	Berlin Hard Fork	Ethereum developers have scheduled the Berlin hard fork for April 14 at block height 12,244,000
15 April	Pundix (NPXS)	Pundix Token Removal	Pundi X (old) is going to announce the token removal amount in the 1st week of April, and execute it in the 2nd one.
15 April	Measurable Data Token (MDT)	Airdrop	Every 10 MDT deposited into @TheRewardMe app (snapshot by mid April), you will get 1 ME token.
21 April	IOTA (MIOTA)	Chrysalis Migration	The official start date of the Chrysalis network migration
30 April	ICON (ICX)	Balanced Defi Launch	Mainnet launch for Balanced, “A DAO on the ICON Network that creates tokens pegged to real-world assets.
30 April	KardiaChain (KAI)	Mainnet 2.0	Launch Mainnet 2.0
30 April	IoTeX (IOTX)	Mainnet V1.2	The next evolution of IoTeX blockchain is almost here — get ready for Mainnet v1.2

Upcoming Crypto & Blockchain Conferences

Date	Event	Location	Notes
April 12 – 16	European Blockchain Convention 2021 Online Edition	Online	The meeting point of the Blockchain industry in Europe.
April 15 – 16	BlockDown 4.0	Online	The goal of bringing the blockchain and crypto communities together from all corners of the globe.
April 19 – 22	AUSTRALIAN BLOCKCHAIN WEEK	Online and Physical	Australia’s Blockchain launch, roundtables, live panels, fireside chats, a makers day
April 28 – 29	Blockchain Finance Forum: Europe 2021	Online	Explores the effects that this new disruptive technology has on the European financial sector.
April 30 – May 1	Incrypted Asia 2021	Online and Physical	The purpose of connecting, communicating, collaborating for business beyond boundaries…

Coinbase Crypto Exchange To Be Listed On Nasdaq 14 April

Post author By Robert Drage
Post date April 5, 2021

In an announcement by Coinbase their public direct listing of its Class A common stock was declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on April 1, 2021, and are set to be available on Nasdaq April 14.

We’re happy to announce that earlier today, the SEC declared our S-1 registration statement effective and that we expect our direct listing to occur on April 14, 2021, with our Class A common stock trading on the @NASDAQ under the ticker symbol COIN.https://t.co/cwRZWmj9Pv
— Coinbase (@coinbase) April 1, 2021

In a direct listing, the issuing company forgoes selling new stock and instead allows existing stakeholders to sell their shares to new investors. The company has said it plans to register nearly 115 million shares.

The crypto exchange and custodian will also hold a first-quarter earnings call on April 6, to provide a financial outlook for 2021, Coinbase said in a press release.

Coinbase Has Made Major Stride Since Its Inception

The company was valued at between $90 and $100 billion in its final week of trading on Nasdaq’s private market. Further, a $100 billion debut would make Coinbase more valuable than traditional tech stocks such as Uber. The company has more than 43 million users trading digital assets in over 100 countries. The company also in 2020, brought in $1.3 billion in revenue and turned a profit of $322 million.

Based on the average price of $343.58 of shares traded on Nasdaq’s private market last month, CNBC calculated Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong’s 39.6 million shares will be worth $13.6 billion, catapulting him into the billionaire rankings alongside individuals like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Bill Gates.

The Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) also announced that it had reached a settlement deal worth $6.5 million with Coinbase. The settlement puts an end to the company’s claims reporting inaccurate transaction data, along with allegations of a former employee indulging in improper trading – allowing them to continue with their listing.

The listing had been pushed back from March however, the delay was anticipated, as direct listings are usually delayed.

Bitcoin Crypto News NFTs

US Rapper Snoop Dogg Picks Interest in Bitcoin and NFT

Post author By Ibiam Wayas
Post date April 5, 2021

Celebrities are gradually picking interest in Bitcoin (BTC) and the emerging digital currency market in general.

During an interview with Vanity Fair, a famous American rapper, Snoop Dogg, formally known as Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr., endorsed BTC, adding that he believes in its technology. He also disclosed his interest in the booming non-fungible token (NFT) market as he prepares to issue one on the Crypto.com NFT platform.

Bitcoin is “here to stay”

Snoop Dogg said he believes in Bitcoin “one hundred” percent. According to him, the coronavirus pandemic helped accelerate more interest in the cryptocurrency, and it wasn’t a fad.

I believe in it. I believe in the technology and I believe in the global connection it creates. I’m not too caught up in the value of the coin, because I’ve been around long enough to see things go up and go down, and I know it’s here to stay.
Snoop Dogg

Concerning NFTs, the US rapper is also a big supporter who believes that such technology is changing how artists can connect with their fans globally.

I am excited about it, ya dig? I’m happy to participate in the movement. I’m definitely gonna bring more attention to the game. Cut me in, or cut it out.
Snoop Dogg

Snoop Dogg’s NFT launch

The rapper also revealed in the interview that his NFTs would launch on the Crypto.com platform. The name? A Journey with the Dogg. The contents include an original track called “NFT.”

Recently, Crypto News Australia reported that Crypto.com named Snoop Dogg, Aston Martin Cognizant Formula OneTM, Axel Mansoor, and a few other celebrities as official launch partners of its NFT marketplace. For a start, Crypto.com said the platform would mostly feature exclusive NFT contents from celebrities in diverse industries, including music and sports.

Australia Bitcoin Crypto News Scams

Crypto Criminal Jailed For Money Laundering And Identity Theft

Post author By Cristian Lipciuc
Post date April 5, 2021

A Sydney resident has been sentenced to 16 months in prison following an arrest last June after authorities were tipped off by a crypto company he had dealt with in order to deposit the stolen bitcoins.

The suspect pleaded guilty to seven counts of money laundering, one charge of identity theft and a drug offence.

In order to withdraw a total of $43,350, he used his newfound identities to withdraw the money from various crypto ATMs provided by BitRocket. However, BitRocket informed law enforcement that something fishy was going on in the wake of the first few transactions — leading to the man’s subsequent arrest while attempting yet another withdrawal. His apartment was subsequently searched, where police found a small amount of methamphetamine, as well as $6500 in cash.

Several Identities Used

Spokesmen for law enforcement have stated that as many as seven false identities were used by the suspect in yet another crypto money laundering case these past few months.

According to AFP Cybercrime Detective Acting Inspector Thomas Walker, the use of false identities can slow down police work considerably, since there is the risk of apprehending an innocent person who may not even be aware that their identity was stolen.

Criminals are continually trying to identify new opportunities to profit at the expense of other people, but we are focused on identifying and stopping anyone who tries to cheat the system and defraud others.
Thomas Walker, AFP Cybercrime Detective Acting Inspector

Although law enforcement representatives are not sure yet, they suspect the Bitcoins were stolen back in 2019. Detectives are also investigating whether the man is part of a larger cybercrime group, or a “lone wolf”.

So far, the alleged money launderer has spent a total of 9 months behind bars — and will be eligible for parole after 12 months in custody.

Crypto News NFTs

Enjin Raises $18.9 Million for its Polkadot-based NFT Network

Post author By Ibiam Wayas
Post date April 2, 2021

Enjin, the largest social gaming website, plans to venture into the non-fungible token (NFT) market. Recently, the platform was able to raise nearly US$19 million from prominent crypto venture companies to further the development of its dedicated NFT blockchain on Polkadot.

Per the announcement, the company precisely raised US$18.9 million through the private sale of EFI, the native cryptocurrency of the planned NFT blockchain dubbed Efinity. The fundraising round was led by the venture arm of Crypto.com, DFG Group, and Hashed.

Other prominent crypto companies like HashKey Capital, Blockchain.com Venture, BlockArk, Arrington XRP Capital, etc., participated in the token’s private sale.

The capital raised will be used to develop Efinity and also support the blockchain’s parachain.

We are strong believers in the potential of NFTs and are confident the Enjin team will play a pivotal role in developing the infrastructure required to meet that potential.
Bobby Bao, Head of Corporate Development & Capital of Crypto.com

Enjin is Building a Cross-chain NFT Highway

Through the Polkadot-based Efinity, the team at Enjin intends to establish a blockchain network that can support multiple NFTs from several blockchains, including Ethereum.

Digital assets should exist in a metaverse of blockchains. Opening up liquidity across multiple blockchains and use-cases will connect a broad ecosystem of creators, buyers, and sellers.
Witek Radomski, CTO at Enjin

Enjin chose Polkadot over Ethereum for Efinity due to the scalability and other properties of the blockchain. Efinity is expected to process between 700-1,000 transactions per second (TPS).

The development of Efinity comes amid the growing interest in the NFT market. Over the past months, many artists, musicians, and celebrities have issued and sold digital content as NFTs, some of which sold millions of dollars. In March 2021 alone, over US$200 million digital contents were traded as NFTs.

Crypto News Ethereum

There are now 113,012 Active Validators for Ethereum 2.0

Post author By Ibiam Wayas
Post date April 2, 2021

The number of active validators for Ethereum 2.0 (or Serenity) has been increasing rapidly since the beginning of the year. This suggests more Ether (ETH) being staked on the deposit contract.

Eth2 Staking and Validators

According to the data from Beaconcha.in, 3,616,331 ETH have been staked on the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract, which represents about 3.136 percent of the total ETH in circulation. The coins staked are worth over $7 billion, following the price of ETH at US$1,958 at the time of writing. Additionally, there are currently 113,012 active validators on the network.

The increasing number of coins staked on the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract indicates the community’s growing level of confidence for the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) era. The full deployment of Ethereum 2.0 would transition the mainnet from a Proof-of-Work (PoW) model to PoS, where new blocks are added to the blockchain through validators instead of miners.

To become a validator, users are expected to stake at least 32 ETH (US$62,656). Meanwhile, the annual percentage return (APR) for staking on the deposit contract is 8.1 percent, according to Eth2 LaunchPad.

Eth2 to Address Network Congestion Issue With Current Mainnet

Scalability is a serious issue affecting the current Ethereum network. There is a massive number of users and projects on the blockchain, hence, resulting in the congestion of the network. Consequently, this usually causes a spike in the network fee, thereby making Ethereum more expensive for smaller users. As seen in recent months, many projects had to migrate to other blockchains, often towards Binance Smart Chain (BSC), for reasons that include high transaction fees.

Eth developers are planning to fix these issues through Ethereum 2.0, which is a better and more scalable version of the current network. However, Eth2 won’t be launched until the next two years, at least.

Crypto News DeFi Ethereum Gas

Aave to Use Ethereum Sidechain to Reduce Transaction Costs

Post author By Robert Drage
Post date April 2, 2021

Decentralised finance (DeFi) firm Aave liquidity protocol is working with Polygon (formerly known as MATIC) an Ethereum side-chain project to alleviate congestion and transaction fees on second-largest public blockchain.

In an announcement by Aave integration lead Marc Zeller, they will be exploring Ethereum sidechain technology for an increased user experience.

Block space supply today is scarce and limited, and since the “DeFi Summer” of 2020, demand for using Ethereum and DeFi has never slowed down […] High transaction fees are a feature of a successful public blockchain, as they define actors ready to pay the market price to use the decentralised services.
Marc Zeller, Integrations lead at Aave

The first exploration of ‘New Frontiers’ will be with @0xPolygon, a sidechain of Ethereum that allows quick and cheap transactions 🌵🤠
— Aave (@AaveAave) March 31, 2021

One of the main assets of DeFi is the ability to build synergies with other projects, and by having an Aave Market in all the venues that matter, there’s no need for a “winner-takes-all” scalability solution and users can choose the solution they feel comfortable with.
Stani Kulechov, Aave founder

Polygon Sidechain Integration

Polygon is a scalable sidechain of Ethereum and boasts a growing ecosystem, with some of the favourites being Aavegotchi and decentralised exchange Quickswap. Polygon is also powered by Chainlink oracles, benefiting Aave by gaining access to high quality and security price-data.

A sidechain on Ethereum refers to any mechanism that allows tokens from the layer 1 mainchain to be securely used within a completely separate blockchain but still moved back to the original chain if necessary.

Polygon will also be bringing in a smart-contract bridge to allow various other assets. Users of the bridge will receive part of the transaction fee used in MATIC tokens to cover most of their transaction fees on the Polygon blockchain.

A look at some of the fees:

Deposit AAVE : $0.000061
Borrow USDC : $0.000102
Withdraw AAVE : $0.000109
Repay USDC : $0.000072

I think we're still all underestimating what mainstream crypto adoption will look like when gas fees aren't $100 / transaction.
— Ryan Selkis (@twobitidiot) March 30, 2021

At launch the following assets will be onboarded on the Polygon Aave Market :

MATIC
USDC
USDT
DAI
WETH
AAVE
WBTC

With close to $43 billion currently locked within DeFi lending platforms. Built on Ethereum, Aave, a DeFi protocol aimed at both retail and institutional clients, has a market size of $6.48 billion, making it the third largest in the sector, according to DeFi Pulse. Aave has also integrated with Transak to enable the direct purchase of Polygon assets with fiat currencies.

Crypto News Institutions

Morgan Stanley Files To Offer BTC Exposure To Multiple Institutional Funds

Post author By José Oramas
Post date April 2, 2021

Investment giant Morgan Stanely has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to allow Bitcoin exposure into multiple funds.

The bank filed the request on Thursday. According to the document, all institutional funds may gay exposure to Bitcoin indirectly through investments in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) or cash-settled futures.

Certain Funds may engage in futures contracts based on bitcoin. The only bitcoin futures in which a Fund may invest are cash settled bitcoin futures traded on futures exchanges registered with the CFTC.
Morgan Stanley SEC file

Investors Demanding Bitcoin

A few weeks ago, Morgan Stanley offered three Bitcoin funds to its wealthiest investors. Giving the inherent volatility of BTC, the bank will allow its clients to invest only 2.5% of their capital.

The bank has outlined that Bitcoin is a risky investment, and it will allow clients with a high tolerance for risk. Although this didn’t discourage investors from demanding more exposure to BTC as it rallies again to $60k.

Rumours were circulating that the investment giant was behind Bithumb, South Korea’s largest crypto-exchange. As reported, the bank could be negotiating with Bithumb Holdings to acquire 10% of shares — and even placing a $2 billion bid for the exchange.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $59,000, down 0.50% in 24 hours, with technicals pointing at a strong buying sentiment.

Crypto News Market Analysis NFTs Trading

Filecoin pumps +52% in a Single Day amid Partnership with new NFT Ecosystem

Post author By Malik Junaid
Post date April 2, 2021

File coin is trading in an uptrend here like many other altcoins. The Cryptocurrency Filecoin just went up +52% in a single day by breaking a Rising wedge pattern with strong buying volume and surges over +135.74% in a week.

What is Filecoin?

Filecoin is a system that hosts data in a decentralized manner with the goal of storing “humanity’s most important information.” Unlike cloud-storage companies which are prone to the problems of centralization, Filecoin leverages its decentralized nature to protect the integrity of a data’s location, keeping it easily retrievable and hard to censor.

Filecoin Quick Stats

SYMBOL:	FIL
Global rank:	9
Market cap:	$18,203,679,833 AUD
Current price:	$289.51 AUD
All time high price:	$296.30 AUD
1 day:	+52.38%
7 day:	+135.74%
1 year:	+5405.74%

Filecoin Price Analysis

At the time of writing, Filecoin is ranked 9th cryptocurrency globally and the current price is $289 AUD. This is a +135.74% increase since 26th March 2021 (7 days ago) as shown in the chart below.

Source: TradingView

After looking at the above 4-hour candle chart, we can clearly see that Filecoin was trading inside the Rising wedge pattern on the FIL/USDT pair. The first resistance was on the $220 AUD price levels which Filecoin broke with a strong bullish trend buying volume and is now heading towards the all-time high price in AUD. Seeing that many altcoins are holding strong this week, Filecoin is likely to continue to increase in the uptrend if the traders keep buying with high volume.

“A rising wedge is a technical indicator, suggesting a reversal pattern frequently seen in bear markets. This pattern shows up in charts when the price moves upward with pivot highs and lows converging toward a single point known as the apex.”

What do the Technical indicators say?

The Filecoin TradingView indicators (on the 1 day) mainly indicate FIL as a strong buy, except the Oscillators which indicate FIL as a neutral.

So Why did Filecoin Breakout?

General market sentiment seems to suggest cryptos are in the middle of the bull run season, which could have contributed to the recent breakout. Another reason for this sudden pump in price could be whales secretly buying Filecoin for the next Altcoins rally. It could also have contributed to some of the recent news regarding partnership with the new NFT Ecosystem.

Investment giant Grayscale recently launched a Filecoin trust, looking at purchasing FIL tokens and offering institutional investors the FIL-backed shares. Soon after, the trust attracted interest from mainstream investors: ByBt.com data showed that Grayscale Filecoin Trust added 45,550 FIL to its reserves.

We’ve only just begun scratching the surface of what NFTs mean for creators.

We are proud to parter with @HENIGroup and @Heydayfilms on @PalmNft, a new #NFT ecosystem and studio for creators and artists. https://t.co/Wv5KBgs39S https://t.co/tX2R6s8YbN
— ConsenSys (@Consensys) March 30, 2021

Where to Buy or Trade Filecoin?

Vite has the highest liquidity on Binance exchange so that would help for trading FIL/BTC or FIL/USDT pairs. However, if you’re just looking at buying some quick and HODLing then Swyftx exchange is a popular choice in Australia.

Blockchain Bytom ChainLink Crypto News

Bytom Blockchain to Integrate Chainlink

Post author By José Oramas
Post date April 1, 2021

Bytom, a proof-of-work interactive blockchain, will integrate Chainlink as the oracle solution for all Bytom dApps. The integration of Chainlink will provide Bytom’s ecosystem with high-quality data and decentralised security.

As explained in Bytom’s official blog on Medium, Chainlink will enhance several applications on Bytom by providing price feed oracles. MOV, a Bytom-based dApp, will use Chainlink’s BTM/USD to secure BTM staked as collateral in their DeFi products.

We selected Chainlink as the preferred oracle provider to the Bytom blockchain because it has a proven track record of securing billions of dollars in value on mainnet for various other leading DeFi protocols.
From Bytom’s official blog

Tokenizing Real-world Assets

Chainlink’s Price Feeds have been praised by the DeFi space for allowing a fast and effective method to connect smart contracts to real-world market prices of assets.

These Price Feeds will bring several benefits to a broad range of smart contracts and DeFi products on Bytom’s ecosystem. The integration of Chainlink aligns with Bytom’s plans to tokenize real-world assets.

By integrating Chainlink oracles, Bytom developers can get premium off-chain data in a highly secure and reliable manner, including real-world asset prices.
James Zhu, CTO at Bytom

Chainlink has provided high-quality data and a solid oracle infrastructure to several DeFi applications. The team behind Bytom expects to continue to work with the oracle and expand the number of dApps supported by the blockchain.

Chainlink was also integrated into the mainnet of Origin Protocol, becoming the sole provider of real-time price data for OUSD.