Author: Coindesk

Shiba inu (SHIB) jumped 16% on Thursday, leading the gains among major cryptocurrencies, amid rumors of a listing on Robinhood. Shiba inu prices reached as high as $0.00003 during early Asian hours on Thursday before a selloff. Shiba inu is the thirteenth-largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of $17 billion. Price-charts suggest the move followed a bounce from resistance-turned-support levels of $0.000027. However, the tokens remains in a broader downtrend, as prices have dropped 62% since reaching all-time highs of $0.00008 in October 2021. Shiba inu prices surged after rumours of a Robinhood listing did the rounds on social media.…

Big chunky pixels. Lots of pixels. That’s what you see when you enter most of the early crypto metaverses, such as Decentraland and The Sandbox. The avatars are simple. The graphics are crude. The ambitions are grand and perhaps the future is bright, but the actual aesthetics, to put it charitably, are still in the “early days.” And then there’s Neon District. The Neon District is part crypto metaverse, part RPG (role-playing video game). It just looks different. The visuals are stunning and hauntingly bleak – a cyberpunk dystopia full of thieves, hackers, guilds and assassins. It’s dark. It’s even…

Major global cryptocurrency exchange Binance has hired former government officials from Russia and Ukraine to help develop its business in those countries, the company announced on Tuesday. Olga Goncharova, until recently the head of the Bank of Russia’s Department of Collecting and Processing of Reports, joined Binance as its first director of government relations in the country. She had been leading her department at the Bank of Russia since 2014. At Binance, she will build relationships with federal government bodies in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States as well as supervise the company’s interactions with trade associations in the region, according to the press…

The use of crypto payments to facilitate illegal human and drug trafficking is rising, and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) is blaming crypto kiosks. In a new study released Monday, the GAO – a government agency that provides auditing and investigative services for Congress – highlighted that the kiosks, also called crypto ATMs, were partly responsible for this surge because the machines are less regulated than crypto exchanges and transactions are more difficult to trace. “As [crypto] market usage expands, FBI officials said they expect to see an increase in the use of virtual currency kiosks for illicit purposes, including for human…

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are having a rough few weeks. Bitcoin is currently down more than 18% over the last 30 days. CoinGecko’s tabulation of total crypto market cap shows a peak way back on Nov. 10, and steady declines since. The floor prices of some NFTs have also started to show hints of weakness. For a truly stunning number of crypto newcomers, this may be something of a new experience. The past two years have seen incredible growth for platforms like Coinbase, where verified users rose from 37 million in the second quarter of 2020 to 68 million in the second…

Crypto miners are having a tough start to the new year, with their shares extending December’s decline as bitcoin fell below $43,000. However, Wall Street analysts are staying upbeat on the sector’s outlook and still prefer the miners over the cryptocurrencies they produce. The shares of publicly listed miners such as Marathon Digital, Riot Blockchain, Hive Mining and Hut 8 are down about 10% in just the first week of 2022. Viridi Cleaner Energy Crypto-Mining & Semiconductor ETF (RIGZ), a miner-heavy exchange-traded fund, has also lost about 10% this week and is priced around the lowest levels since its inception in July, according to TradingView data.…

Decentralized autonomous organizations, or DAOs, have recently formed to try to buy the U.S. Constitution and a professionally certified golf course. Now they are organizing to deploy capital into cryptocurrency startup companies, potentially disrupting the venture capital funding model that has financed waves of new technologies for generations. Crypto investment-focused DAOs have become the new arena for sourcing deals, meeting company founders and cutting checks – all functions that were typically done by well-heeled venture capitalists who prided themselves on their industry-insider status. “We’re trying to democratize crypto investing and provide access to those that never had such access,” said Joyce Yang, founder of Global Coin…

DeFi platform WonderFi Technologies Inc. agreed to buy Canadian crypto exchange Bitbuy for C$206 million ($161.8 million) in cash and shares, according to a statement Tuesday. Payment comprises 70 million new shares of WonderFi and C$20 million ($15.7 million) in upfront cash. It also includes C$30 million ($23.6 million) in deferred cash through a vendor-takeback note due in 12 months. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter. WonderFi first announced a strategic investment in Bitbuy’s parent company in December for an undisclosed amount. Vancouver-based WonderFi closed a financing round in June that included strategic investors Kevin O’Leary, Leonard Latchman, Argo Blockchain, BIGG Digital, Josh Richards…

Yield-boosting application Convex Finance crossed $20 billion in total value locked (TVL) this Sunday, days after becoming the second-largest decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol by TVL. DeFi projects rely on smart contracts instead of middlemen for financial services such as lending, trading, and borrowing. Data from DeFi Llama shows that the platform locked just $68 million after its launch in May 2021, surpassing older projects in later months. The project took a month to attract $1 billion, and five months to reach $10 billion. Increased demand for the product led to an additional $10 billion in liquidity in the last two months.…

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance got into trouble with the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) Thursday. Binance notified its users in June that Ontario was becoming a restricted jurisdiction and users may need to close their accounts. However, the crypto exchange sent a letter to its users Wednesday stating: “As a result of ongoing and positive cooperation with Canadian regulators, there is no need for Ontario users to close their accounts by December 31, 2021.” The exchange also informed its users: “Binance in Canada has been successful in taking its first steps on the regulatory path by registering in Canada as a money…