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The latest news from the world of cryptocurrencies. Paid promotion: @gqsoul
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Waste disposal is the event that occurs when the waste passes from the consumer to the collector.
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WaCo Token (WaCo) will launch IEO with ProBit Exchange!
IEO Info:
Price $1.00
Phase Start time 2021-03-03 12:00 KST
Phase End time 2021-03-09 12:00 KST
Bonus rate (other quote currencies) 15%
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Is Binance Coin (BNB) the New Ethereum (ETH)? Why BNB Surged Fast At 3rd Position?
Looks like Binance Coin (BNB) is all set to eat into the market share of Ethereum (ETH)! Binance coin (BNB), the native cryptocurrency of the Binance Smart Chain has entered an indomitable price rally over the last few days. Today, the BNB price surge another 50% flipping Tether (USDT) as the third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.
The Binance Coin (BNB) Price has shot another 50% today hitting its all-time high above $250 with its market cap now at over $40 billion. However, let’s take a look into what’s driving the mania behind the solid bull run of Binance Coin (BNB).
As we know that with the DeFi craze at its peak, the demand for decentralized exchanges (DExs) like UniSwap has been going high.
However, as the Ethereum blockchain continues to dominate the DeFi space, it is unable to cater to the mad rush in DeFi. The result is ETH gas fee has shot to the roof over the last few weeks.
Since the beginning of February 2021, the ETH average transaction fee has continuously stayed above $20, as per BitInfo Charts. While it has been an ideal scenario for the ETH miners who have been minting huge money, it is definitely putting some big weight on the wallets of DeFi investors.
Interestingly, investors are now looking for alternatives to other Ethereum competitors. Thus, Ethereum’s loss has ultimately translated to some huge gains for the Binance Smart Chain (BSC).
PancakeSwap Overtakes UniSwap As The Biggest DEX By Trading Volume
Well, some popular Ethereum-based DEXs like UniSwap are facing the brunt of the rising gas fee. The result is BSC-based DEXs like PancakeSwap has overtaken UnisSwap in terms of the daily trading volume.
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Microstrategy Is Not For Microsoft and 20 Crypto Jokes
As bitcoin (BTC) soared over USD 50,000 this week, American politicians engaged in a high-stakes crypto pledge wars, while MicroStrategy raised over USD 1bn for its bitcoin purchases. The world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, started “to dabble a bit’’ in bitcoin, even though Microsoft said it has no plan to follow in Tesla’s footsteps.
Amongst those who do have a bitcoin strategy was an unlikely duo of German Deutsche Bank and cannabis company SynBiotic, and PwC researchers found that the move also interests several Mexican companies. Lottery Giant 500.com acquired Bitcoin miner BTC.com, while more Chinese non-crypto firms entered Bitcoin and Ethereum mining. Despite the impressive run past USD 51,000, many overexuberant traders got burned as well, as USD 1.9 worth of crypto was liquidated in a day.
Last but not least, Elon Musk once again made headlines concerning Dogecoin ownership and whales, one of which is suspected to be Robinhood trading platform. Already defunct New Zealand cryptocurrency exchange Cryptopia got hacked once again, while Verge (XVG) cryptocurrency suffered yet another attack. Finally, Cardano’s Charles Hoskinson doubled-down on his criticisms of Ethereum, stating that concepts like ‘’the network effect’’ do not exist.
It’s only natural that such a fruitful week has left us with yet another sweet collection of crypto memes.
3 Reasons Why Bitcoin Hit New All-Time High
Bitcoin, the number one cryptocurrency, hit another all-time high of $48,481 at 1:21 p.m. UTC on the Bitstamp exchange.
After dipping to the $43,700 level, the cryptocurrency continued its record-shattering rally that was turbocharged by the big Tesla news at the beginning of the week.
Coinbase premium
Coinbase Pro's Bitcoin premium went through the roof, reaching as high as $500 earlier today as noted by analyst Lex Moskovski. This is believed to be a bullish indicator since it shows buying pressure from whales on America's largest exchange.
MasterCard's pivot to crypto
MasterCard, the second-largest payment network in the world, recently announced that it would start accepting cryptocurrencies:
We are preparing right now for the future of crypto and payments, announcing that this year Mastercard will start supporting select cryptocurrencies directly on our network. This is a big change that will require a lot of work.
BNY Melon unveils its Bitcoin plans
If this week were not big enough for Bitcoin, the Bank of New York Mellon, a major Wall Street player, has just made its Bitcoin plans public.
The shares of both BNY Mellon and Mastercard are now up more than two percent after adopting Bitcoin.
Russia Looks to ‘Tighten Control’ over Crypto Traders with New Tax Measures
Crypto industry experts in Russia have warned that government agencies are gearing up for a regulatory drive that will see it “tighten control” over crypto, enforcing tough new tax protocols and enhancing its monitoring of transactions.
Per media outlet RIA Novosti, industry sources have claimed Moscow wants to force all traders to submit annual tax declarations outlining the details of their transactions with cryptoassets.
The State Duma is poised to vote on a bill that will force individuals or companies working with “digital assets” to pay corporate income tax or personal income tax on their earnings and submit details of their transactions if these are worth over USD 8,000 over the course of a tax year.
But experts told the media outlet that the tax authorities will seek to police tax declarations using information gathered from crypto exchanges. The Central Bank, said legal experts and executives from the Garantex and Alfacash exchanges, is planning to force trading platforms to submit data on their clients’ transactions, and tax authorities will have access to these.
And the experts also added that the government plans to step up its monitoring of transactions conducted by Russian citizens and residents on overseas trading platforms.
The authorities appear confident that they already have the tools at their disposal to track crypto-to-fiat transactions using bank-submitted data, and now feel they are ready to start building networks that will help them track crypto-to-crypto trades.
Alfacash legal head and director Nikita Soshnikov stated that he foresaw a “general trend of tightening control over crypto transactions,” beginning with crackdowns on government officials with crypto holdings.
The experts added that crypto taxation policing would likely kick off in earnest in the coming financial year – with citizens and companies dealing with crypto expected to declare their earnings at the end of the FY2021 tax year (April 2022).
Yearn's YFI Drops Following a USD 11M-Heavy Exploit
Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol yearn.finance's YFI dropped more than USD 4,000 after one of its DAI lending pools was drained of USD 11m in an exploit.
Yearn's YFI governance token saw an abrupt USD 4,190 drop last night. Though the price has increased somewhat, it's still lower than yesterday's levels. YFI is currently (8:55 UTC) trading at USD 32,634. It dropped 2.4% in the last 24 hours, while it's still green in a week, appreciating nearly 10%.
Following the attack, UniWhales DAO account started reporting large sales of YFI for ETH.
According to DeFi Pulse, Yearn's total value locked saw a 3.5% drop since yesterday - from USD 507.8m to the current USD 490.5m.
"We have noticed the v1 yDAI vault has suffered an exploit. The exploit has been mitigated. Full report to follow," wrote yearn.finance in their tweet last night.
Per a post from Yearn's core developer, banteg, the attacker took USD 2.8m, while the vault lost USD 11m
Some commenters think they may have identified the Ethereum (ETH) address in question, per which the vault was drained by using an AAVE flash loan.
Aave founder and CEO Stani Kulechov described this as a "complex exploit with over 160 nested transactions transactions and 8,6 mm gas used (around 75% of the block) resulted to 2.7 mm USD loss."
Furthermore, according to investor Julien Thevenard, liquidity providers on lending platform Curve Finance received over 3m of the stolen funds.
While Curve Finance didn't comment on that, they said the Yearn team's reaction to the incident was "impressive."
At the time of the writing Friday morning, no further updates have been provided from Yearn Finance.
This is far from the only exploit targeting DeFi platforms in the past year. Just recently, an exploit has been reportedly discovered on DeFi protocol yCredit launched by Yearn Finance Founder Andre Cronje. He did, however, warn that yCredit is experimental and can be "economically exploited."
And millions were lost in multiple attacks last year, such as those on Value DeFi, bzx, Balancer, Akropolis, Harvest Finance, and others.
Meanwhile, CipherTrace, a crypto intelligence firm, recently said that DeFi-related crime is on the rise, and claimed that fraud still accounted for a whopping 73% of all crypto crime.
At the end of last year, industry insiders predicted that attacks on DeFi platforms and protocols — particularly new ones — will rise in 2021.
XRP Pumpers Hope For More Action; Cardano's Hoskinson Warns of Pump&Dumps
It seems like XRP pumpers are hoping for additional upwards action, while Cardano (ADA) founder Charles Hoskinson, chimed in on the rising pump and dump issue across the crypto space, warning that those joining these scams will end up losing a lot of money.
The most recent update by the aptly named Telegram group 't.me/pumpxrpofficial' formed five days prior, states that "after yesterday’s downside, XRP has created a beautiful rounding bottom and looks like it’s ready for more upside at the moment."
Also, a statement was released on behalf of the Buy and Hold XRP Telegram group administration, it said, as a response to the events of February 1 - the day of the international 'buy and hold' event - and the "misinformation circulating" online. "Due to the overwhelming global spike in demand for XRP, many key exchanges had experienced system bottlenecks," they said, adding: "We are unsure if the actions of the international community caused a direct increase in the price of XRP."
As reported yesterday, XRP price rallied, doubling in just two days before taking a dive. The event was the result of coordinated pumping campaigns on platforms such as Reddit and Telegram, including the almost 100,000-strong t.me/pumpxrpofficial, which were working on repeating the dogecoin (DOGE) rally.
And now, the admins of the infamous Telegram group claim they "look towards building an international governance model with the goal of bringing value and talent to the XRP Ledger. We look forward to working in concert with existing infrastructure to see this through."
All this comes after XRP had crashed due to a regulatory crackdown in the US, which was followed by a number of exchanges suspending or delisting the coin. The purge doesn't seem to be over, apparently fuelled by the latest pump and dump activity, as PrimeXBT decided to remove XRP trading pairs and delist XRP on February 10. Also, Japanese exchange Coincheck briefly halted XRP sales "in consideration of the transaction status" with XRP-affiliated blockchain company Ripple.
Unexpectedly, saved by a massive pump in the last days of January, XRP came out as the best performer among the top 10 coins by market capitalization in January. At 12:56 UTC on Tuesday, it's trading at USD 0.385. It dropped 35% in a day and increased almost 45% in a week.
Visa Wants to Work with Exchanges, Wallets on ‘Digital Gold’ Bitcoin
The CEO of payments giant Visa has stated that the firm wants to “work with wallets and exchanges” on handling crypto, in order to make its own card solutions interoperable with digital tokens – and has called bitcoin (BTC) and other “cryptocurrencies” “digital gold.”
The remarks were made by Visa supremo Alfred Kelly in a earnings call yesterday. During his talk, Kelly spent a significant amount of time discussing crypto. After differentiating a divide between “cryptocurrencies that represent new assets such as bitcoin” and “digital currencies and stablecoins” backed by fiat holdings, he stated,
“We see all cryptocurrencies as digital gold. They are predominantly held as assets that are not used as a form of payment in a significant way at this point. Our strategy here is to work with wallets and exchanges to enable users to purchase these currencies using their Visa credentials or to cash out onto our Visa credential to make fiat purchases.”
The Visa chief appeared to be keen to leave the door open for all crypto projects that show promise, pledging that should “a specific digital currency become a recognized means of exchange, there’s no reason why we cannot add it to our network, which already supports over 160 currencies.”
And Kelly appeared ready to court the custom of stablecoin issuers – as well as digital currency-issuing central banks. He said,
“For ... stablecoins and central bank digital currencies, these are an emerging payments innovation that could have the potential to be used for global commerce, much like any other fiat currency. We think of digital currencies running on public blockchains as additional networks … we see them as part of our network of networks strategy. … We are the clear leader in this space.”
Kelly was also keen to point out that it already has 35 partnership deals in place with what he termed “leading digital currency platforms and wallets,” with name-checks for Crypto.com, BlockFi, Fold and BitPanda, and was eager to add,
“The next leading network has a fraction of that.”
BTC trades at US 32,677 (08:46 UTC) and is up by 4.6% in a day and 5% in a week. It jumped by 19% in a month and 250% in a year.
S Korean Lawmaker Wants To Criminalize Crypto Manipulation
A South Korean MP has announced the creation of a draft private members’ bill that seeks to criminalize crypto market manipulation.
Per News1, the measure is the brainchild of the opposition People Power Party MP Lee Ju-hwan, who has criticized architects of the existing legal framework for being overly focused on anti-money laundering protection in all things crypto-related.
Courts and prosecutors in the country have previously charged individuals who have been accused of market manipulation under existing fraud laws, but Lee claims that there is no specific legal basis to address unethical trade practices in the crypto sphere for market price manipulation, crypto speculation offenses or the imposition of excessive fees by virtual asset service providers (VASPs).
Lee, gave the example of a domestic crypto exchange whose executives agreed to list a token in exchange for crypto payments worth “hundreds of millions of dollars” – as part of a wider plan to drive up token prices. He also spoke about a company whose CEO was sentenced to prison time after “arbitrarily manipulating” trading figures.
However, the lawmaker claimed that existing regulations did not specifically pertain to the crypto sector.
If passed, the legislation would also seek to punish the perpetrators of insider trading and purposeful info leaking on forthcoming listings.
And the MP added that “frequent” abuses of power were now common in the crypto industry, claiming that his bill would help promote “fair trade and investor protection in the virtual asset market.”
The bill will head to the financial or legal committee of the lower house. If approved, MPs could vote on it in the first half of this year.
Green Markets, Red Markets, Meh Markets and 20 Crypto Jokes
This was quite a week for ethereum which reached its ATH territory in USD, though it remained far from its ATH against BTC. But some mining pools banded together to try and stop the EIP 1559. Meanwhile, as the bitcoin snowball is expected to hit more institutions in 2021, JP Morgan strategists told us to look at the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust inflows for the USD 40K breakout signs, but when Grayscale made a major purchase, BTC went ‘meh’. And though the markets went red, altcoins may be set to receive some of the money going into BTC and ETH. As Bitcoin block 666,666 showed a Biblical message, and a battle was on over publishing Bitcoin whitepaper, investors who cashed in on their holdings before BTC hit USD 20K have been eating humble pie, while Lyn Alden said she invests in BTC but not in ETH because the latter is an unfinished product. Meanwhile, carmaking giants teamed up with auto insurance providers and tech heavyweights to work on a blockchain-powered vehicle history platform, while BlackRock revealed its intentions to invest in cash-settled BTC futures.
There's more. US Treasury Secretary nominee hinted at a new crypto environment and a potential unrealized gains tax, while stating that crypto has some benefits. While a former Coinbase exec might be replaced with a former Ripple advisor at the OCC, BIS announced work on a new blockchain-powered tokenization incentive, Japan’s reportedly gearing up to move into the second phase of its three-part digital yen project, the UAE financial watchdog is set to regulate crypto by 2022, and a British financial advisor’s petition to ban bitcoin transactions in the UK garnered just 124 signatures. Major South Korean carrier SKT launched blockchain-powered certification app, while the Upbit operator Dunamu launched a real-time digital assets “fear-greed” gauge. Maps.me took the DeFi plunge with a USD 50m fundraising effort, a Spanish football club said that it completed a transfer entirely in crypto, and a South Korean video games giant created a blockchain-powered tool for parents to monitor their offspring’s gaming time. And another Hong Kong crypto trader got robbed.
Idea Of Taxing Unrealized Gains Resurfaces As Money Printing Intensifies
United States President Joe Biden's Treasury secretary nominee Janet Yellen has once again become a topic of discussion in the Cryptoverse - this time over her comments suggesting she may look to tax of unrealized gains. And this has led some to question if the US is demonstrating a sign of what is to come in other countries that are printing fiat money at an unprecedented speed in an attempt to help economies.
Crypto advocates today said they were stunned by one of the many comments Yellen made during her hearing Tuesday before the Senate's Finance Committee.
Per Reuters, the nominee "raised eyebrows of some senators and Wall Street when she said that Treasury would consider the possibility of taxing unrealized capital gains - through a "mark-to-market" mechanism - as well as other approaches to boost revenues."
Unrealized capital gains are the increase in the value of assets that an investor is holding. These are then realized when that investor sells the asset at a higher price than they paid for it.
In 2019, the possibility of taxing wealthy investors on gains like these was also raised by Senator Ron Wyden, who will likely become chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, according to CNBC.
Appreciation would reportedly be taxed at the same rate as all other income - up to 37%.
However, none of the videos currently in circulation appear to show exactly what Yellen had to say on the subject.
But when asked about taxing realized appreciation of assets, she replied that she does "believe that capital gains should at some point be taxed," and she does mention the mark to market approach (MTM). Frustratingly, though, the audio becomes unintelligible at this point.
The billionaire investor and co-founder of Oaktree Capital, Howard Marks, was quoted by CNBC as saying that Yellen's plan to tax this type of gains is not practical, adding:
"I think that would hit sentiment. It would obviously make it less attractive to be an investor, all things being equal."
The only way investors would be able to avoid that taxation is by not making any profit from their assets, Marks added.
Many commenters seem to be quite puzzled about the idea that Yellen would suggest taxing unrealized gains, with some wondering how that could even work.
As reported, Yellen has also suggested that there may be tax increases on wealthy Americans and corporations, but stressed that the focus now was firmly on providing relief to mitigate the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The issues of further taxation and providing more aid would almost certainly involve Washington deciding to print more money. As reported, the need for more funding and stimulus measures announced last year prompted many to accuse Washington of 'money printer go brrr' tactics. Some believe that the combination of printing trillions of dollars and taxing unrealized gains would take a catastrophic toll on the economy.
Lack of Crypto Regulations a Turnoff for Japanese Investors – Coincheck
The head of the Japanese crypto exchange Coincheck said there are relatively “few” crypto-keen institutional investors in Japan – and has complained of the lack of a framework to help foster professional crypto investors.
In an interview with IT Media, Satoshi Hasuo, the Representative Director and President of Coincheck, warned that “there is a possibility that the entire Japanese community will lose out on investment opportunities,” while their counterparts in the West begin to step up their crypto investments.
Coincheck is currently the only major domestic exchange that offers over-the-counter (OTC) transactions for large-scale customers and Hasuo stated that factors such as American regulators allowing banks to take charge of crypto custody had helped sway investors toward crypto. In Japan, meanwhile, banks are yet to receive the green light to offer such services.
Hasuo explained,
“There is no legal framework for domestic institutional investors. There are also accounting problems. The government needs to introduce regulations.”
And the Coincheck boss stated that a rush of investors to the market may have helped drive up prices, although bigger Japanese investors have seen little or none of the action.
He said,
“Overseas, a considerable number of institutional investors are coming in, which is spurring the market on. There is no equivalent movement from corporations and institutional investors in Japan. We do have OTC customers, but these are few in number. And almost none of them are listed companies.”
Meanwhile, another Coincheck expert stated, per the same media outlet, that some Japanese companies would likely eventually pursue bitcoin (BTC) and altcoin-buying strategies like those executed by the likes of America’s MicroStrategy – but hinted that regulatory clarity could also help expedite this trend.
South Korean Banks ‘Play to Their Strengths’ with Bitcoin Custody Moves
South Korean commercial banks are now in “fierce competition” with each other in the race to launch bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptoassets custody products that they believe will prove a lucrative market for them, per a new report.
According to media outlet Newsis, industry sources claim that the cryptoasset management market “is expected to grow even larger” when a landmark legal amendment that requires all virtual asset service providers (VASPs) in the country to impose anti-money laundering protocols comes into force in March this year. The media outlet claimed that this would lead to “fierce competition” in the crypto market among banks.
The new legal measures will also hand banks considerable power when dealing with crypto exchanges, effectively granting them the authority to decide whether trading platforms are granted real-name banking contracts. Only platforms that abide by real-name, social security number-verified banking regulations will be allowed to continue trading.
As such, it appears that banks now hold all the aces in the crypto sector, and are looking to take advantage.
As previously reported, NongHyup, Kookmin and most recently Shinhan, three of the nation’s biggest commercial banks, have recently announced their intention to begin offering crypto custody services, and will likely look to woo custom from domestic crypto exchanges. Rival Woori Bank is also reportedly keen on entering the sector.
The Newsis report’s author quotes In Ho, the head of Korea University’s Blockchain Research Institute, as saying,
“There have even been hacking accidents at Bithumb and Upbit, the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in Korea, so some people think that if banks take charge of crypto custody, they will be compensated in the event of further hacks. Banks will be able to play to their strengths in this manner.”
And the professor added that banks are also keen to offer their services to an “increasing” number of professional investors with a penchant for crypto.
In concluded,
“Things have changed. In recent times, not only individuals, but also institutional financial companies and institutional investors are increasingly starting to invest in cryptoassets. This may be a contributing factor.”
More Crypto Regulation Coming in Russia and Beyond, Warns Key Lawmaker
Russian politicians have issued another grim-sounding warning about forthcoming crypto regulations, hinting that 2021 may have some less-than-welcome surprises in store for the nation’s crypto community – as well as crypto enthusiasts based overseas.
Per a report from radio station Govorit Moskva, Anatoly Aksakov, the head of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets and the chief deal-broker of Russia’s crypto legislation, stated,
“Crypto taxation and crypto holdings declarations are already in force. And there will only be increasing levels of control placed on the holding of cryptoassets to come. It is obvious that in the very near future, I think probably within 2021, crypto will be placed under strict regulation in virtually every country.”
He added that a bill proposing stricter crypto regulations had reached the committee stage in sessions late last year, a sign that politicians are prepared to usher in proposals some crypto players in Russia have called “draconian.”
Aksakov underlined that all citizens’ “digital savings” should be taxed, warning that “criminal penalties” would be enforced on non-compliant individuals.
He added,
“In Russia, the use of bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptoassets as a means of payment is prohibited. There are no signs that a change in legislation allowing cryptoassets to be used as a means of payment in Russia will be forthcoming.”
The same media outlet also reported that a prominent Russian economist painted a similarly bleak picture, claiming that more BTC growth could be on the cards – at a cost.
The radio station interviewed Mikhail L. Khazin, the author of the book Sunset of the Dollar Empire and the End of the Pax Americana, who opined,
“When any asset experiences rapid growth, it is accompanied by regular recessions. The rise in bitcoin prices is associated with the fall of the dollar against the backdrop of large problems in the United States and in the American stock market. Thus, for now, bitcoin prices are likely to keep growing.”
Khazin also predicted regulation was all but inevitable.
“Any attempt to transact using bitcoin will be viewed by finance ministry officials and the tax authorities as tax evasion. I think that legislation will be adopted soon requiring bitcoin owners to report all of their transactions to the tax authorities,” he concluded.
What's in Store for Ethereum in 2021?
The second-largest crypto network by market capitalization, Ethereum (ETH), had an eventful 2020 as many other players in the Cryptoverse. But what awaits the network in 2021? The picture looks green price-wise and busy when it comes to new developments, according to industry insiders talking to Cryptonews.com.
ETH went up more than 400% last year, surpassing the USD 700 level for the first time since 2018. Not only was it a beneficial year price-wise, but the network also saw several testnets – some of which were more successful than others - on its road to the much-promised Ethereum 2.0 (ETH 2.0), culminating in the launch of the deposit contract, followed by the first phase of ETH 2.0, Phase 0, in December.
As 2021 is already here, what will it bring?
2021 will definitely see a bull market, according to Matthew Gould, Unstoppable Domains founder and CEO. “We could see ETH prices over USD 3,000 … a lot sooner than people think.” Ethereum will lead in non-store of value use cases this year, he said, adding: “Expect Ethereum daily users to grow the fastest of any blockchain - including Bitcoin (BTC) - with all the new DeFi apps it brings to the table.”
At the same time, the network will keep moving towards its second version.
“ETH 2.0 will continue to advance its roadmap, with the introduction of shard chains, and eventually lead up to getting rid of the proof-of-work consensus algorithm altogether, and merging the Ethereum 1 chain with Ethereum 2.0,” said Monica Singer, the South African Lead for major Ethereum and blockchain company Consensys. This, she argued, will result in increased throughput and flexibility, as well as new network economics through staking, further leading to higher adoption.
Then “the virtuous cycle will apply,” continued Singer.
With more applications deployed on Ethereum, the more developers will join the community, and the price of ETH will increase and not necessarily correlate to the increase in bitcoin’s price, she said.
As reported, Ethereum already has more developers than Bitcoin.
Philippe Bekhazi, CEO of stablecoin platform Stablehouse, also noted that 2021 will likely see “a continuation of a bull market” for both ETH and BTC.
With the user experience gap in crypto “soon to be solved,” as well as with Ethereum scaling, institutional interest in bitcoin, and growing interest in DeFi, 2021 will see crypto start to go truly mainstream, argued Jack O'Holleran, CEO and Co-Founder of SKALE.
As a result, the number of developers building on Ethereum will grow 5 times “as they chase after these new consumers." The Ethereum ecosystem is "emerging as the backbone on which Web3 is built and will pave the path for new business models that will pave the way for the decentralized economy.”
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OKEx wallet integrates Unstoppable Domains to improve UX and enable faster payments
OKEx (www.okex.com), a world-leading cryptocurrency spot and derivatives exchange, is pleased to announce the wallet integration of leading blockchain domain provider Unstoppable Domains. As of now, rather than having to share a lengthy combination of letters and numbers to receive payment to their OKEx wallet, users can simply provide a domain name, like jon.crypto or ema.zil.
Another key benefit of this integration is that users can receive any cryptocurrency supported by both OKEx wallet and Unstoppable Domains to the same domain — rather than having to provide separate 40-character addresses for payment in different currencies. This greatly simplifies the user experience and makes sending and receiving payments faster and easier.
Blockchain domains are also censorship-resistant. Unlike regular domains on the existing internet that can be taken offline, it is impossible to deplatform on the decentralized web. No one can access or take down a domain other than its owner. As a San Francisco-based company backed by Draper Associates and Boost VC, Unstoppable Domains is on a mission to "set the internet free," and has received grants from both the Ethereum and Zilliqa Foundations.
"The integration of OKEx's wallet with Unstoppable Domains highlights our commitment to simplifying the user experience and helping onboard more people to crypto. It also demonstrates OKEx's continued support for the furtherment of the decentralized web. Along with additional upgrades to the exchange, such as real-time settlement for all futures and perpetual swaps, we're making key strides in improving the trading experience for all," commented OKEx CEO Jay Hao.
As a pioneer in Web 3.0, Unstoppable Domains has already launched thousands of websites in the decentralized web, registering more than 250,000 domains to date. The integration with OKEx wallet will help to set a new standard for crypto wallets and drive blockchain domains into the crypto mainstream.
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Crypto Traders Might Find Familiar Playbook In GameStop Hearing Today
The GameStop (GME) saga is set to take another twist as a trader prepares to tell the American House of Representatives that social media has allowed retail traders to leveling the playing field with their bitter Wall Street rivals, a strategy that is also coming good for thousands of crypto investors in the locked-down world of the coronavirus pandemic.
In a virtual hearing of the House’s Financial Committee entitled Game Stopped? Who Wins and Loses When Short Sellers, Social Media, and Retail Investors Collide, a number of the saga’s key players will make their voices heard, including Reddit’s CEO and co-founder Steve Huffman and the under-fire Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, whose firm is also suspected of hoarding a 28% share in the runaway dogecoin (DOGE) token.
Social media-related activities have also seen the prices of tokens like the meme-themed DOGE token skyrocket, as some investors attempt to turn the tides of volatility in their favor.
Wall Street managers have accused r/WallStreetBets, a Reddit community, or "subreddit," and others of what amounts to “market manipulation.”
Meltem Demirors, Chief Strategy Officer at CoinShares, appeared set to grab the popcorn in anticipation of the hearing, calling the testimony “truly, a fine work of performance art,” and tweeting,
“Tomorrow’s hearing is going to be a circus and I, for one, am going to be glued to my screen.”
So much of a circus, in fact, that it may end up becoming a scene in the forthcoming WallStreetBets-themed movie.
Indeed, prepared statements show little in the way of remorse, indicating that many of the key players are unbent going into the hearing – and still have Wall Street locked in their crosshairs.
Instigator-in-chief Roaring Kitty (real name Keith Gill) is also set to testify and in prepared testimony, he spoke out in defense of the trade, stating that the committee would be better off investigating Wall Street’s “potentially manipulative shorting practices.”
He also defended his own bullish and outspoken social media activities, claiming,
“The idea that I used social media to promote GameStop stock to unwitting investors is preposterous. Hedge funds and other Wall Street firms have teams of analysts working together to compile research and critique investment ideas, while individual investors have not had that advantage.”
Gill added,
“Social media platforms like YouTube, Twitter and WallStreetBets on Reddit are leveling the playing field. And in a year of quarantines and COVID, engaging with other investors on social media was a safe way to socialize. We had fun.”
Sounds similar to what hoards of crypto traders are doing every day, or more or less 24/7.
Huffman, meanwhile, jumped to his social media platform’s defense in his own testimony – and that of its users. The WallStreetBets subreddit has been one of the most active communities on Reddit for months, and was the epicenter of the unprecedented pump on GameStop shares – a move that shook Wall Street to the core.
The Reddit supremo opined that “it is important to protect online communities like WallStreetBets.”
He added,
“WallStreetBets may look sophomoric or chaotic from the outside, but the fact that we are here today means they’ve managed to raise important issues about fairness and opportunity in our financial system. I’m proud they used Reddit to do so.”
The subreddit has now over 9.1m members. It had less than 3m members at the end of January.
And other witnesses have already had their two cents on the matter prior to the hearing – which commences at midday in Washington DC (17:00 UTC).
Elon Musk Rages at Wallet, May Land in Hot Water from Regulators
Twitter, Elon Musk and crypto – hardly a minute seems to go by without a combination of the three dominating the headlines. And it looks like the Tesla supremo has been busy behind his keyboard again for a new spate of crypto-themed tweets at the time when American regulators could come after Musk for his Twitter activity.
He is now taking aim at the crypto wallet service Freewallet and sharing Chuck Norris-themed memes – while regulators reportedly consider moving against him following Tesla’s recent bitcoin (BTC)-related activities.
After Freewallet’s Twitter account quote-tweeted a dogecoin (DOGE)-themed post, Musk replied by writing “your app sucks” and adding the barb,
“Any crypto wallet that won’t give you your private keys should be avoided at all costs.”
The wallet’s PR team spun into overdrive, writing the following statement:
“Hi Elon, the app is online. Integrations to buy, exchange and merchant tools are working, support is available 24/7. It's nice you tried us out of all crypto services. Anything we can help you with, let us know.”
However, as the adage goes, play with fire and you’ll get burned. Musk duly responded with a call for the wallet operator to “please unlock my account,” sparking a torrent of wallet-themed replies, many of which were targeted at the wallet provider.
Outspoken developer and self-proclaimed “blockchain skeptic” Udi Wertheimer waded into the increasingly messy affair, tweeting: “I can’t.”
The world’s richest man paused his sideswiping at Freewallet to share a (yes, you guessed it) crypto-themed meme about the most notorious crypto exchange of all.
Meanwhile, The Daily Telegraph (via The Age) claims that American regulators could come after Musk for his Twitter activity – which has hogged the headlines in both the crypto and mainstream media all year.
The newspaper quoted experts who concluded that Musk was “likely to be quizzed” by the American Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over “whether Tesla already owned bitcoin when his intervention on social media sent prices surging.”
The media outlet quoted Doug Davison, a former branch chief at the SEC, as stating,
“It would not be surprising – given the focus on the chief executive’s tweets, bitcoin pricing and recent dramatic market moves – for the SEC to ask questions about the facts and circumstances here.”
The European Central Bank’s Vitor Constâncio claimed that “it was not disclosed when Tesla had made this investment” – a suggestion perhaps that some feel Musk may have sought to drive prices up for his company’s own benefit.
Meanwhile, a bogus Tesla insider who “unveiled” the company’s plans to accept bitcoin on Reddit days before the Musk-led firm made its big BTC reveal has come forward, claiming drugs drove him to troll the crypto community.
Per the New York Post, the poster was not a Tesla employee after all, but a 24-year-old political science student from Germany named Hendrik (surname withheld) who took the hallucinogenic narcotic LSD before taking to the net.
Hendrik stated,
“If you want to know the truth: I am a young German guy and I was on acid while I did this post in the last month. I had this afflatus that Elon is going to buy bitcoin, so I created this trollpost. And now all the newspapers around the globe are writing about it, it is kinda funny and scary to be honest.”
Hendrik added, however, that his post was inspired by real news – namely an exchange (on Twitter, where else?) between Musk and the head of the bitcoin-buying American software company MicroStrategy, Michael Saylor.
After bitcoin-related musings from Musk, Saylor offered to share his BTC purchasing “playbook” with the Tesla boss.
Bitcoin Returns Above USD 40,000 In Less Than A Month
The most popular cryptocurrency, bitcoin (BTC), rallied on Saturday, moving back above the USD 40,000 level for the first time in almost a month.
At the time of writing (14:38 UTC), BTC trades at USD 40,420 and is up by 6% in a day, increasing its weekly gains to 18%. BTC reached its all-time high of USD 41,940 on January 8th, per Coingecko.com data.
At the same time, other major cryptoassets are showing mixed results. After its recent rally to its new all-time high of USD 1,754 reached yesterday, ethereum (ETH) is down by 1% in a day, trading at USD 1,694. However it outperformed BTC in a week, increasing by 22%. Binance coin (BNB) is the best performer today as its price rallied by 25%, and jumped 73% in a week.
"Bitcoin and ethereum inflows to exchanges have declined slightly, with 7 day average inflows below the 30 day average, reducing sell pressure. Trade intensity has also declined slightly, which typically suggests buy pressure is reducing. However, for bitcoin at least, it is still high relative to the past," Philip Gradwell, Chief Economist at Chainalysis, wrote in his weekly report on Friday.
According to him, people cashing out after making a 25% or more USD gain has also declined since the large increase in the first week of January, suggesting people continue to hold despite their potential gains, now that some profit was taken following the price gains over the holiday period.
Ripple Partner SBI Holdings Launches XRP Lending
https://coingape.com/ripple-partner-sbi-holdings-launches-xrp-lending/
For more updates: https://twitter.com/CoinGapeMedia
Elon Musk Sees 'Broad Acceptance' For Bitcoin
Bitcoin (BTC) is on the verge of getting a broad acceptance by the "conventional finance people," the world's richest person, Tesla's Elon Musk said during an interview on Clubhouse, an invitation-only audio-chat social networking app, today.
Musk said he must be careful when talking about cryptocurrencies because his words could move the market. He also added that he doesn't have "strong opinions on other cryptocurrencies."
At pixel time (07:22 UTC), BTC trades at USD 33,561 and is unchanged in a day.
As reported, this past Friday, Musk added "#Bitcoin" to his profile on Twitter, later commenting: “In retrospect, it was inevitable”. Following the news, BTC rallied to more than USD 38,400, before it corrected below USD 33,000 again.
https://youtu.be/dwSZAULCnEY
🚨🚨🚨Hackathon has been hacked
Hacken, a cybersecurity leader, has reported an unauthorized access to the First Grey Hats Ideas Competition hackathon website. The event was created by the community members and supported by team Hacken.
Company stated that they restored an access to the website almost immediately and user data remains intact. However, it was discovered that hackers had left a message stating that they are planning to create an innovative project, which could improve the security of all DeFi products.
Hacken representatives have already contacted the hackers to find out more about the project.
Official satatement from Hacken: https://hacken.io/hacken-news/official-statement-regarding-the-hacking-of-the-first-grey-hats-ideas-competition-site/
Chinese Central Bank Governor Signals USD 37B Ant IPO May Still Happen
What was set to become the biggest initial public offering (IPO) in the world – the floating of Chinese business giant Alibaba’s fintech and blockchain arm Ant Group – could well be back on at some point in the future, the nation’s central bank boss has hinted.
Yi Gang, the governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), was speaking during a session named Strengthening the Financial and Monetary System at the World Economic Forum today. The moderator of the panel – Financial Times editor Roula Khalaf – asked him why the Ant Group IPO had been “stopped.”
Yi Gang replied,
“It’s a complicated issue. Everything is ruled by law, we must follow legal procedure.”
He added that an investigation of monopoly issues was ongoing and added that IPO regulatory authorities had likely “found a problem,” insisting that “all must be done according to the legal framework.” He also suggested that privacy-related issues may have played a role.
But when Khalaf asked him directly if the Ant IPO would “go ahead,” the governor refused to rule out the possibility, suggesting that “once problems are solved,” and “legal framework was “followed,” “you will have the result.”
Beijing officially stated that IPO, which had been on course to raise a projected USD 37bn, had been blocked due to new regulations that require internet platform providers to stump up a greater amount of the funding for loans they arrange.
But observers have claimed that the government was actually worried about Ant’s growing influence in the financial sector. The firm runs Alipay, which, along with WeChat Pay, is already responsible for a combined 15% of the current Chinese payments market.
And the international community has also speculated that the growing influence of Alibaba boss Jack Ma, who has all but vanished from the public view since the IPO was blocked late last year, barring a brief and inconclusive video appearance last week. In October, he made comments critical of the government, a move that is thought to have sparked ire in Beijing.
The tech world – and blockchain sector – has been asking “What happened to Jack Ma?” If Yi Gang’s comments are to be taken literally, we may all be on the verge of finding out.
First Grey Hat Hackers Ideas Competition 🚀🚀🚀
The high-profile event in 2021!🤩 Mr Leo Andreo leads the Hacken community in organizing the First Grey Hat Hackers Ideas Competition 🔥
🏆 The prize pool will be 35,000 USD.
The leading cybersecurity company Hacken will support the community’s initiative First Grey Hat Hackers Ideas Competition by providing 50% of the prize pool and applying its expertise at the ideas’ valuation stage.
Submit your product or service idea and get the attention you deserve by winning the competition! Who knows, maybe your project will become the next great sensation!
Bitcoin Snowball Is Expected To Hit More Institutions in 2021
Institutionalization, professionalization, commercialization, and inclusion of bitcoin (BTC) in portfolios of hedge funds, treasuries and others is likely to continue its upwards trajectory, providing BTC with endorsement, recognition, and validation, further leading to adoption and price appreciation, according to industry insiders talking to Cryptonews.com.
The institutionalization of cryptocurrency was the emerging theme of 2020, said Seamus Donoghue, VP Sales and Business Development at METACO, a provider of security-critical digital asset infrastructure for financial institutions, adding that, while the investment focus has largely been focused on BTC, ethereum (ETH) “will likely be a high beta alternative to the dominant narrative of Bitcoin as an institutional investment asset class.“ He said it’s possible for the same Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) which pushed retail into crypto and BTC’s price to its all-time high in 2017 to be replicated in 2021 as institutional FOMO.
He added that an acceleration in institutional money coming into BTC would have “a much larger and profound impact on the long term valuation of bitcoin--the risk is for a parabolic move in Bitcoin’s price in 2021.” It’s Donoghue’s opinion that,
“We are now at an inflection point where allocations to bitcoin will accelerate into the mainstream in 2021 and bitcoin will become an essential allocation for any institutional portfolio.”
2020 was the year when bitcoin started being taken seriously by some large corporations, retail investors, and institutional investors.
“This has set us up for a huge 2021 and beyond,” when we may see crypto investment "exploding in growth as more funds start adding it to their portfolio, more companies start accepting it as a payment method, and governments putting some positive regulation around it,” according to Tim Bos, CEO of ShareRing, a decentralized sharing economy and self-sovereign identity platform.
And Sinjin David Jung, Managing Director of IBMR.io (International Blockchain Monetary Reserve), stated that “adoption will be meteoric in 2021 now that bitcoin has been adopted by institutions.”
“Ultimately the true added value is simply that when people or institutions are buying into bitcoin, not because they mined it, but with actual cash at the current valuation, that creates a very established monetary system which really bitcoin now has become. The world’s immutable global independent sovereign ledger,” he said.
There are many more positive expectations shared by experts. Eric Wall, the Chief Investment Officer of the crypto hedge fund outfit Arcane Assets, told Cryptonews.com that “it's quite clear that bitcoin is making rapid progress in that it's becoming an asset class that's suitable addition to many investors' portfolios.” Wall finds that the professionalization of bitcoin, as well as its inclusion in the portfolios of hedge funds, high-net-worth individuals, family offices and corporate treasuries is likely to only accelerate in 2021. “Retail investor adoption is likely to track this development,” he said.
Speaking of which, Erick Pinos, Americas Ecosystem Lead at open source blockchain Ontology (ONT), said that more large financial institutions will publicly announce that they have moved funds into BTC in 2021, which “will create a snowball effect not only for other large institutions to follow with their funds but also for the retail market to start moving more personal wealth into bitcoin.”
Seamus Donoghue added that retail will “play no small part in crypto” as they are given increasingly easier access to the markets. It’s bitcoin’s performance that will drive the narrative and, if the institutional market evolves as expected in 2021, rapidly expanding on-ramps will only add fuel to the fire. “Institutional investor adoption drives the build out of institutional infrastructure to support bitcoin’s adoption. This in turn provides the foundation for retail investment vehicles and retail on-ramps,” he said.
This Is The Biggest Risk To Crypto Market According to Pantera Capital CIO
Leveraged trading is the biggest risk to the crypto market in terms of what could cause “something to pop down the line,” according to Joey Krug, Co-chief Investment Officer (CIO) at US-based major crypto investment company Pantera Capital.
He was speaking during Pantera Capital’s conference call yesterday.
According to Krug, some people get complacent when they realize crypto is here to stay. As a result, they lever up on it, thinking it can’t go down that much because institutions will swoop in and buy, saving the day. But eventually, when the lid blows off and bids are not there, liquidations of levered longs will drive the price down.
During the market crash on January 10-11, more than USD 3bn worth of long positions were liquidated, according to bybt.com data. To compare, on January 12, over USD 200m worth of short and also more than USD 200m long positions were liquidated.
As reported, crypto researcher and analyst Willy Woo argued that "unlike previous crashes in the past 2 years, where over-leveraged markets lead by trader liquidation, this one started on spot markets, then was greatly amplified by a single exchange partially failing, yet did not turn itself off for the good of the ecosystem."
Leveraged trading refers to borrowing funds so that you can take a larger position than you would be able to with your existing funds so that you can potentially generate a higher profit. However, while margin trading enables traders to amplify their returns, it can also lead to increased losses and liquidations, which is why experienced traders tend to advise newcomers to stay away from leveraged trading.
Meanwhile, during the call yesterday, Pantera Capital CEO Dan Morehead described the global macro environment as “off the charts,” pointing to the unprecedented pace at which the United States is printing money each month and “pushing it like crazy.”
As a result, the main two cryptoassets - bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH) - have soared, which illustrates the next point, which is that “this rally has consolidated around bitcoin and ethereum,” according to Pantera slides.
Ethereum Nears All-Time-High...but Nobody Knows which Watershed to Aim for
Media coverage of the latest crypto rally has largely focused on bitcoin (BTC)’s performance, with the token smashing all sorts of price records in recent weeks. But this bull market is not all about the BTC – altcoins are also having a field day, particularly bitcoin’s seemingly perpetual bridesmaid ethereum (ETH).
And with ether experiencing growth of over 100% in the past week, per most price aggregators, it looks like ETH is now ready to have its own time in the sun, and break through its all-time high (ATH).
There’s just one problem: Just as was once the case with BTC, nobody seems to quite agree what ETH’s historic ceiling actually is.
Coingecko puts the figure at USD 1,448.18 on its ETH page. Messari goes a bit lower with USD 1,431.77, while Coincodex goes considerably higher at USD 1,570. And Bitinfocharts has the lowest price of the lot at USD 1,355.59.
It is a discrepancy that even has the mainstream media hedging its bets about the what, whens and whys of ETH’s ATH. In a recent report, CNBC wrote about how ETH was “within reach of an all-time high above USD 1,400 which it reached in mid-January 2018.”
There is some consensus to be found, however (if one looks hard enough!). Both the ETH page on Coinmarketcap and the corresponding data at Coinpaprika agree on a figure of USD 1,432.88. And all six agree that the ATH (whatever it was) was reached on January 13, 2018 – prior to the “bubble bursting” events that saw crypto prices enter a long bear market.
At the time of writing (11:21 UTC), ETH trades at USD 1,192 and is up by almost 3% in a day and 60% in a week. It rallied by 107% in a month and 732% in a year.
DeFi 'Genie Is Out' and Is Set For Growth in 2021
n 2021, decentralized finance (DeFi) might see stronger interest not only from individual users but from institutional investors also, as the environment for this nascent sector is still favorable, according to industry players speaking to Cryptonews.com. Meanwhile, regulation might slow down this expansion.
“It appears to me that 2021 will be a year of enlightenment regarding cryptocurrency,” Bo Oney, Chief of Compliance of Bitcoin ATM Network Coinsource, said. “As the appeal of DeFi grows, you will see adoption and utility permeating as the main trends throughout 2021.”
The macroeconomic trends of low and even negative interest rates globally will mean that DeFi will be increasingly relevant to people, argued Monica Singer, the South African Lead for Ethereum (ETH)-focused major blockchain company Consensys, and not just to “the tech and financial nerds.” Another trend Singer sees picking up steam in 2021 is institutional money and professional traders increasingly wanting exposure to DeFi.
“As long as the legacy finance world keeps breaking, people will be pushed in our direction,” she said, adding that the key challenges will be education and simplifying the user experience.
Meanwhile, according to Will Liu, Head of decentralized data marketplace SAGA, DeFi passed the dramatic growing stage at the end of 2020. In 2021, it will be “a more standardized and easy-to-use form” and “a nice option for individual investors for a long time.”
While DeFi is still in its nascent phase, said Konstantin Richter, CEO and Founder of Blockdaemon, certain growing signs are indicating that it’s beginning to enter a phase of maturation. Therefore, a “particular area of interest will be whether the DeFi space can follow the lead of the crypto market and attract greater institutional investment,” he said.
Institutional adoption of crypto has proven to be a significant driver for adoption by retail users, and if DeFi can “mature and manage to attract similar mainstream investment, there are likely to be huge opportunities for early adopters of the technology in the coming year.”
Anthony Lauriola also said that DeFi will begin to define itself in 2021, with more industry players likely incorporating some element of DeFi into their existing offerings. “Last year DeFi established itself but this year, DeFi will likely see steady adoption” as it matures. “Currently, DeFi has a lot of potential to make common financial processes like lending, borrowing, and earning interest more accessible to emerging markets,” he said.
Ilia Maksimenka, Founder of digital payment platform PlasmaPay, argued that, while big news in 2020, DeFi’s “overnight success story has been years in the making.” The wider industry began to notice it and understand its potential in 2020. “Now that the genie is out of the bottle we expect the sector to rapidly grow in strength this year,” said Maksimenka. He added that the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the move to a more decentralized world.
Order Book Sharing Ban Could Shake South Korean Exchanges to the Core
New government regulations that will force South Korean crypto exchanges to cease order book sharing with overseas trading platforms could have a seismic effect on the crypto players in the country - and the issue is reportedly the main reason why major player Binance is set to close down its Binance Korea operations next month and only four out of 77 exchanges on target to meet stringent new guidelines.
Per EBN, the problematic ruling, which Cryptonews.com reported on earlier this week, Binance Korea “decided to close down due to the difficulty of discontinuing its order book” sharing policies with its international platforms.
Binance gave other reasons for the shutdown in its own official notice earlier this month.
Rival Huobi, however, has claimed it will stop its Huobi Korea exchange sharing order books with its overseas branches. Digifinex Korea has indicated that it is prepared to do likewise.
Regardless, the scale of the issue appears to be large than first thoughts. As the EBN report’s author notes, small and medium-sized exchanges have relied on order book sharing with overseas partners as a means of getting by, and many appear stumped as to how they will proceed without it.
Industry bodies have petitioned Seoul to amend a key crypto-related law that will promulgate in March 2021, ending order book sharing, and some exchanges are hopeful lawmakers will change their minds.
Per Bizwatch, only 11 out of South Korea’s 77 crypto exchanges have obtained the information security management system (ISMS) accreditation that the new law requires them to have in order to continue operating after March (plus a six month grace period).
And of that number only four (namely Bithumb, Upbit, Korbit and Coinone) have put into place real-name banking systems, making it “highly likely that only these four companies will survive” past the deadline.
However, some are doubtful about the possibility of a u-turn, with the regulatory Korea Financial Intelligence Unit writing ominously about the money laundering-associated risks of allowing exchanges to deal with “cross-transactions” between domestic and overseas trading platforms in the report that led to the clause being included in the act.
And EBN quoted an unnamed industry official as claiming that the upshot of the legislation would likely be that South Korean crypto investors take their funds to overseas exchanges.
“South Korean investors only use domestic exchanges out of convenience’s sake. There is no reason for investors to use domestic exchanges rather than overseas exchanges if they are high-volume traders,” the source said.
And another unnamed industry player was quoted as saying,
“I don’t expect the government’s attitude to crypto to change rapidly. Many people who are tired of the government’s strict regulations have already left the industry.”
