Near Protocol (NEAR) is a smart contract platform that uses parallel processing to scale the network. This technique, known as sharding, resembles what Eth2 is aiming to achieve and Near’s proof-of-stake consensus mechanism also allows token holders to stake their coins. In the past month, NEAR has rallied by 107% and this raises questions on
Ethereum
Hardcore decentralized finance (DeFi) adherents woke up today to a long-awaited sight on Coingecko’s top 100 rankings by marketcap: native tokens for popular DeFi platforms Synthetix and Aave have cracked into the top 20, an event DeFi observers have heralded as “The Great Repricing.” DeFi investors, users, and builders have long argued that the sector
Within 48 hours of Grayscale reopening its services to new investors on January 13, Bitcoin’s price shot up by almostd 20%, to once again hover just under the $40,000 mark. During the same period, the institutional investment firm added 4,618 BTC to its portfolio at a current value of $182 million. Including last quarter’s intake
Grayscale products witnessed $3.3 billion in inflows in the fourth quarter of 2020, a large jump over the $1.05 billion seen in the preceding quarter. According to Grayscale, institutional investors accounted for 93% of the new investments. The significance and magnitude of the investments can be gauged from the fact that in 20, Grayscale received
Gaming hardware giant Nvidia has addressed the ongoing shortage of its new RTX 3000 product line after high demand from gamers, and to a lesser extent, cryptocurrency miners, pushed up prices and cut availability. Nvidia chief financial officer Colette Kress said the company didn’t have good visibility into how much demand came solely from cryptocurrency
RIF, the utility token for smart contract network RSK, shot up over 30% in price after an appearance by its founder on the Jan. 13 edition of The Pomp Podcast. The gain equates to a $36 million increase in market cap for RIF, most of which has occurred in the last 12 hours. $RIF up
Decentralized exchanges (DEX) are a giant leap in permissionless and transparent trading, and they exist as fantastic alternatives to centralized exchanges. While DEXs ease the process of listing new ERC-20 tokens and remove the need to pay a central authority high listing fees, they stil have the issue of high gas fees. This is precisely
The Cream Finance project, a lending protocol that recently merged into the Yearn ecosystem, announced the upcoming launch of its Iron Bank feature, a name inspired by the once-popular TV show Game Of Thrones. Cream’s Iron Bank is an attempt to create a DeFi equivalent of corporate debt. The announcement, released on Thursday, explains how
It’s been a rough week for the Aragon governance platform where philosophical differences have brought about a long list of resignations. Aragon co-founder Jorge Izquierdo announced on Jan. 11 he would no longer be working as CEO of the for-profit Aragon One, a company dedicated to building tools and services related to Aragon. Aragon is
The cryptocurrency market started the year in full force and with all the bullish breakouts happening it can be difficult to discern which projects are simply being driven by the macro trend and which are making gains based on solid tech developments and improving fundamentals. As the price of Bitcoin dropped more than $11,000 between
The crypto bull season — and the accompanying hype — is undoubtedly upon us. Recalling some of the celebrities who got in on crypto during the historic winter 2017 market, the actress Lindsey Lohan has now recorded a paid, promotional video for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). Lohan’s video was commissioned by a crypto news
On Jan. 12 Bitcoin (BTC) price rebounded slightly as the price attempted to re-enter the $37,000 range but at the time of writing increased selling is pushing the price back toward the $32,000 mark. While the bearish price action may have shaken out newer investors who are unfamiliar with Bitcoin’s whipsaw volatility, the recent 28%
Aragon (ANT), a platform specializing in managing decentralized autonomous organizations, announced a merger with the Vocdoni protocol, a blockchain voting and governance solution provider. Unlike the Yearn.finance mergers, this acquisition has a much more traditional nature. Aragon has acquired Dvote Labs OÜ, the company behind the Vocdoni protocol. Its 11 team members will be hired
DeFi coverage protocol Nexus Mutual expanded the list of centralized exchanges eligible for incident protection. Users trading on Binance, Kraken, Coinbase and Gemini are now able to buy protection in the event of an exchange hack or prolonged withdrawal downtime. The project announced the new integrations on Monday as part of their “custody cover” initiative.
Ethereum has consistently followed a roadmap for its continual evolution to a proof-of-stake consensus protocol, and 2020 saw the groundwork for Ethereum 2.0 soundly laid. The smart contract blockchain has firmly established itself as a platform backed by the second-most valuable cryptocurrency in the world, Ether (ETH), and has become a primary resource for developers
The past week has been an emotional rollercoaster for Ether (ETH) traders as there were seven 4-hour candles of a 10% or larger price movement. Furthermore, the most recent 30% drop to $920 triggered $550 million in liquidations on long futures contracts. To complicate things even further, this current price correction is taking place just
