Author: Cointelegraph

Unlike some of my peers in the technology space, I don’t see the Metaverse as a virtual world in which we work, socialize and shop. Rather, I see it as a point in time, reached in 2020 and into this year because of the global pandemic, when the digital world became as important as the physical world. It’s a shift away from the idea that physical reality is superior and preferred over digital reality. Work for many has turned into a series of Zoom meetings, people are buying virtual real estate, and children are spending time with their friends in Fortnite and Roblox.  Facebook’s…

Bitcoin (BTC) saw its first dive below $38,000 in over two weeks on Feb. 20 as macro triggers rattled low-volume weekend markets. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD losing ground Sunday, following threats of fresh sanctions on Russia over its alleged plans to invade neighboring Ukraine. After a quiet Saturday, crypto began to move downhill after comments from United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson on financial blocks of Russian firms should the situation escalate. These would be prohibited from “trading in pounds and dollars,” the BBC reported Johnson as saying Sunday morning, alluding to support from United States President Joe Biden. With crypto…

One of the main themes among the crypto community in 2021 was China’s aggressive policy toward mining, which led to a complete ban on such activities in September.  While mining as a type of financial activity has not gone away and is unlikely to disappear, Chinese cryptocurrency miners had to look for a new place to set up shop. Many of them moved to the United States — the world’s new mining mecca — while some left to Scandinavia and others to nearby Kazakhstan, with its cheap electricity. Mining activities can’t stay under the radar forever, and governments around the world have…

2021 has been a significant year for crypto with no fungible token (NFT) being awarded word of the year, decentralized finance (DeFi) trending in the mainstream media and crypto companies making headlines for a variety of announcements. This is, no doubt, in part due to the effects that COVID-19 has had on the economy, with many looking for new ways to diversify their finances and a move to working from home giving people the free time to research new interests. And, many chose to get involved in crypto. As conversations began to move on from Bitcoin (BTC) to other larger crypto projects like Ethereum network upgrades and central bank…

Just between July 2020 and June 2021, ransomware activity soared by a whopping 1,070%, according to a recent Fortinet report, with other researchers confirming the proliferation of this mode of extortion. Mimicking the prevalent business model of the legitimate tech world, ransomware-as-a-service portals popped up in the darker corners of the web, institutionalizing the shadow industry and slashing the skill ceiling for wannabe-criminals. The trend should be ringing a warning bell through the crypto ecosystem, particularly since ransomware attackers do have a knack for payments in crypto.  That said, the industry that was once a Wild Wild West is now assuming a more orderly setting. Slowly but surely…

The Republic of the Marshall Islands has moved to formally recognize decentralized autonomous organizations, better known as DAOs, as legal entities — a move that gives collectively owned and managed blockchain projects formal recognition on the global stage.  DAOs, which are blockchain-based entities governed by self-organizing communities, have attained legal recognition in the Marshall Islands after the country passed the amended Non-Profit Entities Act 2021. The amendment allowed cryptocurrency trading infrastructure platform Shipyard Software to incorporate the island country’s first DAO, Admiralty LLC. The incorporation was aided by MIDAO Directory Services Inc., a domestic organization that was established to help…

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has reportedly launched a probe into major crypto exchange Binance’s U.S. arm regarding trading firms connected to Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao. According to a Tuesday report from the Wall Street Journal, the SEC is looking into the relationship between Binance.US and trading firms Sigma Chain AG and Merit Peak. The federal regulator has reportedly requested information from the U.S. crypto exchange on the two companies and is investigating how it may have disclosed its potential links to the market makers to users. The news outlet reported that corporate documents from 2019 as well as former Binance…

Ethereum’s average transaction fees dropped by almost 73.3% just within a month — down to $14.17 from $53.03. The infamous transaction fees of the Ethereum ecosystem underwent a decremental phase from Jan. 10 to record the lowest average and median fees of $14.17 and $5.67 — lowest since September 2021.  Data from Blockchair shows that the average transaction fee of ETH in January was $53.03, which at its peak was $70.83 back in May 2021. Just within a month, the average fees saw an almost 73.3% decline as evidenced by the following chart. Additionally, the resultant median transaction fee also witnessed…

The end of the weekly candle could soon give way to a more pressing $42,400 target should the market move significantly overnight, one trader says. Bitcoin was on the cusp of making a new higher weekly close on Feb. 13 as bulls kept the market above $42,000. Bitcoin: Potential CME gap to come Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView tracked fairly stress-free conditions for BTC/USD over the weekend, with the weekly candle set to conclude in under 12 hours. The pair had briefly dipped below the $42,000 mark before recovering, this setting it up to challenge last week’s close of $42,400 on Bitstamp.…

In a fun and fortune-finding experiment, a Redditor has locked away $100 worth of Bitcoin in a public library “somewhere in Europe” until 2122. There’s never a dull day in Bitcoin (BTC) land. Despite that markets calling for a lull, the creative Bitcoin community always has cause for amusement. Yesterday, a Redditor by the name of Optimal-Dentistador (henceforth, OD) queried the longevity of the Bitcoin network with a time-lapse challenge. In a post made to the Bitcoin subreddit, OD “wrote a letter and also put the private keys for $100 worth in BTC.” In private communication with Cointelegraph, they disclosed they “put 0.003…