The largest U.S. bank, with assets of $2.6 trillion, disclosed to the SEC that it had acquired shares of Bitcoin ETFs for about $760,000. JPMorgan Chase, a financial firm with headquarters in the United States, has revealed holdings in Bitcoin and exchange-traded funds provided by Bitwise, BlackRock, ProShares, Grayscale, and Fidelity. The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy
Forensic Risk Alliance, an international consulting group, is apparently going to closely monitor Binance’s compliance efforts for the next three years. Forensic Risk Alliance (FRA), an international consulting firm, has apparently been hired by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) to make sure cryptocurrency exchange Binance complies with regulatory standards for the next three years,
Bloomberg ETF analyst Erich Balchunas speculates that the update might be a response to possible SEC feedback. Staking intentions have been eliminated from ARK Invest and 21Shares’ revised proposal for an exchange-traded fund that would hold spot ether. The provision indicating that 21Shares will stake a portion of the fund’s assets through third-party providers was
Even though Bitcoin’s volatility had a little respite, investors who like stable prices are still not satisfied with it at this point.Further escalating price volatility is the lack of liquidity in the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry, which is worth less than $100 billion compared to the $1.2 trillion market capitalization of Bitcoin. Accessibility is a significant barrier to the widespread use of cryptocurrencies, and it is particularly evident in mining, which is the process of appending transactions to the blockchain and issuing new tokens.Technical expertise and access to large computational resources are prerequisites for mining. Therefore, the crypto sector needs to be creative in order to provide stable and more approachable substitutes that will make adoption simpler. Users can trade digital assets and take advantage of market volatility with Brightpool Finance, a DeFi platform driven by artificial intelligence. It functions as a decentralized exchange (DEX). Brightpool pays its users for each trade order, in contrast to conventional exchanges that collect fees for transactions. Brightpool has included the highly regarded Black-Scholes-Merton model, or BS.AI. This AI-enhanced algorithm looks for opportunities in the volatility of cryptocurrencies, expedites reward processes, and generates tokens.To ensure targeted token distribution and precise limit order execution, the AI continually adjusts to changes in the market. The platform introduced BRIX, its native token, to guarantee price stability using a methodology akin to that of the VIX, a stock market volatility forecasting index. Growing market volatility immediately helps BRIX, turning it from an indication into a useful asset. To mitigate market uncertainty, tokenholders benefit from a rise in BRIX value in tandem with market peaks. BRIX provides users with mining chances because to its unique proof-of-bid features and zero initial supply. Under this mechanism, miners can only mint BRIX through platform bids. In addition, the platform has a halving mechanism that lowers mining earnings over time as more tokens are created. Early rewards are available for BRIX mining. BRIX has a halving mechanism where mining incentives gradually drop as more tokens are created, similar to Bitcoin’s halving event. Therefore, consumers may have a clear advantage by getting involved in mining early on. On the Brightpool platform, customers only need to place a purchase or sell order in order to participate in the early mining process. With greater beginning payouts that gradually drop over 45 stages, the halving mechanism incentivizes early engagement.Only a limited set of people who have access to the site through a unique URL are initially invited to join early. The benefits drop with each phase of halving, therefore the earlier users start minting, the greater the rewards. A restricted number of users can access Brightpool Finance’s mining process during its beta period. The platform ran a two-month testnet phase on Arbitrum Sepolia, a secure environment where developers could test their decentralized apps (DApps), prior to the official launch. In the future, according to Brightpool, innovation and pragmatism will combine to facilitate interaction with digital assets.Through the use of traded pairs and the BS.AI architecture, Brightpool invites other projects to pool in an effort to boost liquidity and establish a thriving ecosystem.The paradigms of cryptocurrency trading and liquidity management in the DeFi industry will continue to shift as new stability and accessibility strategies emerge, lessening the skepticism of conventional investors.
A bipartisan bill that would support the Biden administration in enforcing export restrictions on the nation’s best artificial intelligence (AI) models has been unveiled by American legislators. The plan, which would prevent future regulations on AI exports from facing legal challenges, was unveiled late on May 8 by House Republicans Michael McCaul and John Molenaar and Democrats Raja Krishnamoorthi and Susan Wild. The Commerce Department would also be granted “express authority” to prevent individuals of the United States from working with foreign agents in the creation of AI systems that could endanger national security. The U.S. Commerce Department, which is in charge of export policy, finds it more challenging to regulate open-source AI models under the current laws. The newly proposed bill will reduce obstacles to controlling open source AI exports if it is approved. This measure comes after a Reuters story published on Wednesday stating that the United States is prepared to defend its in-house AI against threats from China and Russia. It declared that it will put export restrictions on its most sophisticated in-house AI models. China has been known to utilize open-source models originating from the U.S., like Meta’s Llama models, to develop its own AI. It also comes after Microsoft and G42, a Dubai-based artificial intelligence startup in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), recently reached an agreement on April 16.Microsoft promised to support local AI innovation in the UAE with a $1.5 billion partnership. The UAE will now have access to state-of-the-art AI technologies created by Microsoft in the United States thanks to this agreement. This is only one of several agreements Microsoft has with other countries about the creation and application of its artificial intelligence models and cloud computing services. The United States’ primary concern, though, remains the possibility of China gaining access to advanced AI technology.The AI model Yi-34B of 01.AI, a well-known Chinese startup run by Lee Kai-fu, a former Google executive, was developed with the aid of Meta’s Llama system, the company disclosed in November 2023. The US government has taken a number of actions to punish China and limit its access to AI technology produced in the US. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was accused of using Chinese AI startup Baidu’s technology for military purposes, which put the company in danger of penalties in January.
The Zilliqa network has had some operational disturbances lately, which have affected the creation of blocks on its mainnet. Though the problem is still being looked into, as of May 10, complete network functionality has been restored.After “temporary disruptions to block production on mainnet,” the Zilliqa team informed the community that the network was back up and running. The infrastructure team is keeping an eye on the network’s stability while attempting to identify the root cause of the recent outages, even after the network’s functioning has been restored. Following the discovery of a block generation slowness on May 8, the Zilliqa network technical team has been working nonstop for nearly 48 hours in an effort to avert additional disruptions. The Zilliqa technical team found a bug on May 9 at approximately 9:30 am UTC that resulted in a null value being returned “instead of a node’s RLP following a possible invalid database lookup.” “The team has created internal rehearsal networks to recreate this issue and trial bug fixes, allowing for possible solutions to be tested within an isolated environment before progressing to Testnet and mainnet deployments.” Together with the release of the Zilliqa version 9.3.4 network upgrade, the team had fixed all functionality by approximately 2:30 pm UTC on May 9. The developers expressed their regret for any inconvenience the update may have caused to users and the Zilliqa community, noting that it will provide “a number of enhancements to EVM compatibility.” But even after the update and patch were implemented, on May 9 at roughly 7:05 PM UTC, there was still another production disruption that affected the Zilliqa mainnet.Now, in order to more accurately identify the problem and deal with the underlying cause of the disturbance, the team improved the debugging procedures. Technical problems have previously caused production interruptions in the Zilliqa block. The number of daily Zilliqa blockchain transactions dropped by over 50% in December 2023 due to a “interruption to block production,” from nearly 61,000 to 30,906. The community is thanked for their “patience and support during the course of resolving” the issue, and the Zilliqa team is still looking into the root cause of the recent network outages.
Blockchain technology uses consensus processes to validate cryptocurrency transactions and add them to the blockchain. These systems guarantee that all network nodes have access to validated transaction records and that all transactions are documented. Proof-of-Work (PoW), the first consensus method, was first presented by Satoshi Nakamoto for Bitcoin in 2008. PoW uses a randomised set
The CEO of Harvest thinks that access to crypto ETFs in mainland China may be made possible by the Hong Kong-mainland China ETF bridge programme. The CEO of Harvest, a Hong Kong-based exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks Bitcoin spot prices, wants mainland Chinese investors to be able to purchase the Bitcoin ETF. Han Tongli, the
cryptocurrency trading platform According to court filings made in the Northern District of California on Thursday, Kraken has requested that the charges made against it by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) be dismissed in order to prevent a “significant reordering” of the country’s financial regulatory framework. In November of last year, the SEC filed
The biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, Binance, along with competitor KuCoin, were barred for “operating illegally” for several months before India’s anti-money laundering agency confirmed their approval—making them the first offshore cryptocurrency-related firms. Both individuals are officially registered with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU-IND) of the country, overseen by the Finance Ministry. The highest
The realms of bitcoin and decentralised finance (DeFi) are rising in prominence, bringing with them complexity as well as potential. It is important to comprehend important financial measures because navigating this dynamic terrain can be difficult. Thus, what distinguishes APY from APR? Among the parameters that hold the key to optimising profits and minimising expenses
Exodus Movement, a cryptocurrency wallet startup, stated late Wednesday that it will not be launching on NYSE American, the sister market of the New York Stock Exchange, on Thursday as scheduled. According to a press release from Exodus, NYSE American informed the business on Wednesday that Exodus’ registration statement, which the company said had been
The trading platform Robinhood (HOOD) announced impressive first-quarter profits yesterday, with a 40% year-over-year increase in revenue driven by a spike in cryptocurrency trading. This led to some analysts raising their projections for profitability and price targets. KBW kept its market perform rating but increased its price target from $20 to $21.50. Competing broker JMP
The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing interviews with former and current Binance employees, documents, emails, and other industry participants, that Binance fired a staff member who discovered evidence of market manipulation at cryptocurrency investment firm DWF Labs, one of the exchange’s clients. In an effort to clean up its act in front of
Ever since Ethereum launched the much awaited Dencun upgrade two months ago, the supply of Ether has not been deflationary.According to data from CryptoQuant, the total amount of ether supply rose to 120.1 million on May 7 from 120 million on March 12 prior to the Dencun update being sent out on mainnet.Although it is a slight increase, this is the first time since September 2022, when the much-awaited Merge moved Ethereum to its present proof-of-stake consensus process, that the supply of Ether has been inflationary. According to the founder and CEO of Cryptoquant, Ether’s temporary loss of its deflationary status is not catastrophic for the Ethereum network because its primary advantages are more closely linked to decentralized applications (DApps).Ki Young Ju posted on May 9th, X. “Post-Dencun upgrade, $ETH lost deflationary status with reduced fees, departing from “ultrasound money.” Ethereum’s strength lies in DApps; it’s wiser not to compare it to Bitcoin’s sound money narrative.” Following the Merge on September 15, 2022, a mechanism was introduced that permanently burnt transaction fees on the network, causing a decrease in the amount of Ether available. This is when the Ether supply first become deflationary.According to ultrasound.money, more than 419,713 Ether tokens have been destroyed, or taken out of circulation permanently, since the Merge. With the same level of network activity, Ether’s inflationary trend has come to a halt thanks to the Dencun upgrade, which has made median transaction costs up to four times less than they were previously.Although this is an important development for the Ethereum network and its users, a May 8 report by CryptoQuant suggests that Ether’s standing as ultra-sound money may be jeopardized. “The Dencun upgrade has made ETH inflationary again, potentially killing the narrative of “Ultra sound” money as a structurally lower amount of
The first quarter saw more than $690 million in loan processing for cryptocurrency lending startup Ledn, making it the company’s most successful quarter since its founding in 2018. That amount is over five times higher than the preceding three months’ total.More than 84% of the transactions were aimed towards institutions, and demand skyrocketed following the U.S. acceptance of spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in January, when loans totaling several hundred million dollars were given to ETF market makers, according to a news release from Ledn.Ninety percent of the $140.3 million in loans that the company made in the fourth quarter of 2023 went to institutional borrowers. “The first quarter of 2024 has set the tone for a promising year for Ledn, as we’ve not only doubled our loan book since November 2022 but have also solidified our leading position in the market by adapting to the increasing demand for digital asset financial products,” CEO Adam Reeds said in a statement.
The Solana-based tokenization platform AgriDex reported that it has raised $5 million to put agricultural commodities on the blockchain.The South African wine organization Oldenburg Vineyards, the sub-Saharan African agricultural group African Crops, and Endeavour Ventures were among the investors in the pre-seed funding round, the company announced via email on Thursday.On its marketplace, AgriDex offers a variety of crops for purchase.Deals are safeguarded once they are completed by minting a non-fungible token (NFT) that contains all of the important transaction information. In recent months, there has been a growing trend in the cryptocurrency sector related to the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs).Although they came in second to meme coins’ 1,313% yield, RWAs were the second most lucrative story in the first quarter, according to a CoinGecko report, with returns of 286%.RWA tokenization has typically concentrated more on assets like bonds, stocks, and precious commodities like gold.AgriDex is making an effort to expand this story to include the $2.7 trillion global agriculture market.
Through its node auction, Sophon, a zkSync Hyperchain with an entertainment focus, has raised $60 million in Wrapped Ether (wETH).The funds will be utilized to introduce Sophon, an ecosystem with a focus on gaming and artificial intelligence (AI) that is designed as a modular rollup using zero knowledge (ZK) technology. The ecosystem is scheduled to debut in the third quarter of 2024.For a fledgling initiative, the $60 million node sale is regarded as substantial. According to Sophon co-founder Seb, part of the reason for the node sale’s success is the requirement for dependable infrastructure for use cases that are entertainment-focused, including gaming and AI. “Gaming and AI require their tech partners to be able to scale cheaply and with robust infrastructure. Choosing ZK tech here is the move that these folks are making since the TPS capacity is much larger than within optimistic setups, and especially within the zkSync codebase, the fees are much less dynamic —
Stablecoins’ market capitalization has increased significantly over the last six months, from $122 billion in October 2023 to $157 billion in April 2024.Tether (USDT) is the stablecoin supplier with the largest market share, having raised over $100 billion and holding more than 70% of the market.Building on this pace, Tether reported a record $4.52 billion profit from holdings in U.S. Treasury, resulting in $1 billion in net operating earnings, in its Q1 2024 attestation report.As of April 28, there were 5.6 million active Tether addresses (balances that were not zero). Using the Herfindahl Index, we explore these wallets’ decentralization in additional detail.Repurposed to gauge the market concentration of Tether wallets, this index sums the squares of each address’s network balance to determine the proportions of the total supply held by various addresses.If the score is low, it means that the supply is more evenly dispersed among numerous addresses, whereas a high score implies that the supply is concentrated in a few hands. The Herfindahl index scores for the various stablecoins are 0.00708164 for USDT, 0.00981202 for USDC, and 0.00331652 for DAI, as seen above.The supply of DAI, followed by USDT and USDC, is spread among addresses in the most equitable manner among the top three stablecoin providers.A more equally distributed supply may result from the recent addition of USDT to the TON network, which could lower its Herfindahl score.April saw the announcement by Telegram, a messaging app with 900 million active users per month, that USDT would be supported natively on TON.The distribution of Tether wallets could be greatly impacted by this action. With a 98.2% domination, USDT dominates TRON transactions when looking at the top three blockchain platforms and how they use stablecoins.Gas expenses can vary, but USDT transfers on TRON usually range from 95 cents to about $2. Peer-to-peer USDT transactions can be carried out for free within the TON wallet as it is naturally integrated within the Telegram software.According to reports, there is a network charge of 0.0145 TON (or roughly $0.09 as of May 6, 2024) for transactions between two USDT users that happen outside of the wallet. Users may decide to move from TRON to TON for frequent, minor transactions due to the integration of USDT, which offers faster transactions and reduced fees.In 2023, the US, Indonesia, Brazil, India, and Russia will be the top five nations on Telegram in terms of users.In the international remittance business, the majority of these nations are major players.While Russia experiences large inflows from its diaspora in Europe and the former Soviet states, India is one of the top recipients globally.Malaysia and the Middle East are major sources of remittances that Indonesia receives from its migrant labor force.On the other side, Brazil is more renowned for its remittances, which it sends to its emigrants in Europe, Japan, and the US. Due to Tether’s TON network integration, substantial market share, and possibility for a more dispersed wallet system, USDT may be more widely used in major remittance markets as a result of Telegram’s user base growth.
According to a JPMorgan analyst, public blockchains are still insufficient for carrying out substantial volumes of transactions.On May 7, Umar Farooq, CEO of JPMorgan’s blockchain-based Onyx payment platform, spoke at the BIS Innovation Summit. “I think you almost need something like [a Unified Ledger]. I mean, it’s actually almost a necessity because if you look at […] public blockchain ledgers, they are not fit for purpose for large transactions today.” The CEO made these remarks in reaction to the Unified Ledger, an idea that the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) unveiled last year with the goal of facilitating digital assets, tokenized deposits, and money flows across central banks on its network.Farooq went on to say that public blockchain validators cannot be held responsible if a $100 million transaction fails. stated Farooq. “Who do I sue? […] You need to get somewhere where people can do trusted transactions
A specialised committee was established to keep an eye on the cryptocurrency market by the Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory institution, often known as Bappebti, an Indonesian government institution tasked with supervising the sector. Regulations passed in January gave rise to the Crypto Asset Committee. Since cryptocurrency is seen as a commodity in Indonesia, it is
Following an effort to investigate sharing ledger technology, Citi, JPMorgan, Mastercard, Swift, and Deloitte are a few of the significant financial services firms collaborating to simulate multiasset transactions in US dollars. According to a statement released recently, the research project, named Regulated Settlement Network (RSN) proof-of-concept (PoC), will investigate the possibility of bringing securities like
The digital asset derivatives industry veterans Joshua Lim and Shiliang Tang formed Arbelos Markets, a major trading firm for cryptocurrencies, on Wednesday announced that they had secured $28 million in an investment round that was “significantly oversubscribed.” Prominent cryptocurrency venture capital firm Dragonfly Capital oversaw the loan and seed equity funding for the project. Additional
The resurgence of the cryptocurrency market in recent days has been driven by native cryptocurrencies of blockchain projects that purport to use artificial intelligence (AI). Shares of Nvidia (NVDA), a chipmaker listed on the Nasdaq that is the poster child for all things AI, have also increased.According to data provider CoinGecko, RNDR, the utility token of The Render Network, a decentralized GPU-based rendering system, has increased by about 40% to $10.432 in just seven days, marking the largest gain among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market value. Some AI currencies have outperformed the market, rising between 17% and 23%. Examples of these are SingularityNET’s AGIX, Bittensor’s TAO, and Fetch.ai’s FET.The market-value leader in cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, has increased 1.7%, while the CoinDesk 20 Index, a measure of the overall state of the market, has increased by 0.6%.Decentralized AI currencies and DePIN, or decentralized physical infrastructure, tokens are among the top performers over the last seven days, according to the relative strength crypto narrative tracker of the cryptocurrency analytics platform DYOR. “There is a strong buzz around Nvidia’s impending earnings,” Hitesh Malviya, founder of DYOR, told CoinDesk. “AI coins will keep having cyclical runs [higher] as they are directly correlated with the whole AI-side development happening around us.” After the market closes on May 22, the chipmaker is scheduled to release its first-quarter earnings.Zacks Investment Research anticipates that the business will produce $5.49 in earnings per share, up 403% from the previous year.According to Bloomberg, several AI startups have recently seen generally positive outcomes. Over time, NVDA—whose chips were once used to power mining rigs before attracting AI interest—and bitcoin, as well as the larger cryptocurrency market, have established a strong positive association.After an almost year-long decline, the NVDA and the cryptocurrency market bottomed out in late 2022 with the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which contributed to a greater public understanding of artificial intelligence. On Monday, NVDA shares increased to $922, the highest level since April 1.TradingView, a data source, indicates that they have recovered more than 20% from the low of $756 they hit on April 19. Over time, NVDA—whose chips were once used to power mining rigs before attracting AI interest—and bitcoin, as well as the larger cryptocurrency market, have established a strong positive association.After an almost year-long decline, the NVDA and the cryptocurrency market bottomed out in late 2022 with the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which contributed to a greater public understanding of artificial intelligence. There is much speculation that in the upcoming months, OpenAI will probably release ChatGPT version 5.Due in large part to their significant expenditures in artificial intelligence, tech companies revealed late last month that their quarterly earnings growth exceeded expectations.Notably, CEO Tim Cook discussed Apple’s ongoing investments in generative AI on the company’s most recent earnings call. He also hinted at significant announcements regarding AI that will be made at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 10 and the “Let Loose event” on May 7. “OpenAI will launch a new model in the coming months, better
Galaxis, a Singapore-based Web3 platform, revealed on Tuesday that it has received $10 million from investors, including Chainlink, Ethereum Name Services (ENS), Rarestone Capital, Taisu Ventures, and co-founder Nick Johnson of ENS, in preparation for the token launch.The entire investment was also aided by profits from the company’s node sale of over 11,000 “Galaxis Engines.”DJ Steve Aoki, actor Val Kilmer, and NBA personality LaMelo Ball are just a few of the celebrities that the platform has collaborated with. It assists creators and brands in introducing collections of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).With over 225,000 NFTs sold over the past several years, the company has made over 32,000 ETH ($100 million) from secondary NFT sales. It is currently getting ready for “mass distribution,” according to the corporation. “The next step is to see the use of our native GALAXIS token supercharge the ecosystem,” said CEO and co-founder Andras Kristof, who also installed the first bitcoin ATMs in Singapore. He also said that as a post-hype NFT utility platform, “we believe the use of this new technology will go beyond the hype”
The Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) has granted In-Principle Approval to QCP Capital, a digital assets trading firm.The company, headquartered in Singapore, is the most recent provider of digital assets to obtain a license to operate in Abu Dhabi.The company announced that it has partnered with Further Ventures to grow throughout the Middle East during Token 2049 in adjacent Dubai in April. “Our intention is to be a responsible player that wants to support market confidence,” CEO Melvin Deng said in a statement. “We are proud to be the first Singaporean digital asset market maker and broker-dealer to set up here in the market and hope we can encourage others to venture into this dynamic market.”
Decentralised Autonomous Organisations, or DAOs, are leading the way in a technology revolution that is changing how decisions are made. Traditional hierarchies or centralised control do not bind these entities. Rather, they rely on the ability of smart contracts and blockchain technology to facilitate transparent and trustless governance. DAO proposals become the pivot that guides
According to blockchain data, a hacker who stole $125 million from Poloniex’s hot wallets in November delivered 1,100 ether (ETH) to Tornado Cash, an approved coin mixer. After lying inert for 178 days, the ether, valued around $3.3 million, was transferred to Tornado Cash on Tuesday in increments of 100 ETH. On April 30, the
Professional bitcoin traders can now use the digital bank Revolut’s cryptocurrency exchange, Revolut X. To rival the industry’s top cryptocurrency exchanges, Revolut, a London-based company with over 40 million global users, created Revolut X. In February, Revolut informed users that it was going to launch an exchange after allowing users to purchase and sell cryptocurrency
Last week, a phoney marijuana lab was shut down by Indonesian authorities in Sentul, Bogor Regency, West Java. The facility was located in an upscale neighbourhood. Brigadier General Suyudi Ario Seto, the deputy chief of the Jakarta Metropolitan Police, disclosed that the primary ingredients were purchased using cryptocurrencies and originated from China. The amount of
