CRYPTO WORLD | CRYPTO WORLD NETWORK NEWS

Europe becomes largest crypto economy with over $1T in transactions

September 29, 2021 CRYPTO WORLD

cryptocurrency transaction volume 2019-2021

The region of central, northern and western Europe, or CNWE, has emerged as the world’s most active cryptocurrency block, receiving over $1 trillion worth of digital assets over the past year, according to new research from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. The report, which was released Tuesday, found that the CNWE region accounted for 25% of global crypto activity between July 2020 and June 2021. The region witnessed a sharp uptick in transaction volume across all crypto sub-categories, especially decentralized finance, or DeFi. Chainalysis describes crypto transactions as anything involving trade,…

Chinese regulators unite forces to crack down on crypto

September 25, 2021 CRYPTO WORLD

The Chinese central bank is setting up a “coordination mechanism” with state agencies to continue battling crypto. The Chinese government is getting more serious about cracking down on the cryptocurrency industry as state authorities are bringing forces to combat crypto operations in the country. The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) officially announced on Friday a set of new measures to fight against crypto adoption in China, including promoting stronger inter-departmental coordination in cracking down crypto activity. 10 Chinese state authorities, including the PBoC, the Cyberspace Administration of China and the…

YouGov poll finds 27% support for making Bitcoin legal tender in US

September 20, 2021September 15, 2021 CRYPTO WORLD

A new poll has found that 27% of United States residents support the government recognizing Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender. According to a poll from research and data analytics firm YouGov, 11% of respondents “strongly support” the idea that Bitcoin should be used as legal tender in the United States, and a further 16% of respondents would “somewhat support” it. The poll, which surveyed 4,912 U.S. residents, indicated that a larger number of Democratic respondents support the proposition than Republicans. Around 29% of Democrats stated they either strongly or somewhat…

Mastercard acquires blockchain security start-up CipherTrace

September 17, 2021September 15, 2021 CRYPTO WORLD

Payments giant Mastercard has signed an agreement to acquire blockchain analytics start-up CipherTrace as it looks to accelerate and expand its cryptocurrency strategy. The company says that CipherTrace’s security and fraud detection capabilities provide “additional transparency and support” for the digital asset ecosystem. Mastercard plans to integrate the start-up’s suite of crypto intelligence solutions with its own cybersecurity offerings. It says this will help businesses looking to build out their own virtual asset offerings identify and understand risks and to “help manage their digital asset regulatory and compliance obligations”. Ajay…

Switzerland’s Stock Exchange Gets Regulatory Approval To Launch Digital Bourse

September 15, 2021 CRYPTO WORLD

SIX, Switzerland’s stock exchange, has revealed that it has received regulatory approval to launch its digital bourse. According to an announcement made on Friday, the Swiss Financial Market Supervision Authority greenlit the approval for the digital bourse, named SDX. SIX revealed that it had received two licenses from FINMA, Switzerland’s market’s watchdog, to begin operating a stock exchange and depository for blockchain-based securities. The firm released a statement stating, “This authorization enables SDX to go live with a fully regulated, integrated trading, settlement, and custody infrastructure based on distributed ledger…

Cardano launches smart contracts after successful hard fork

September 13, 2021 CRYPTO WORLD

Cardano has completed its Alonzo hard fork to introduce Plutus-powered smart contract scripts. On Aug. 12, Cardano tweeted that the upgrade had been completed successfully at epoch 290, facilitating the creation and execution of smart contracts on the public blockchain for the first time. Despite celebrating the milestone, Cardano notes that it is still “early days for the project,” asserting that now is when “the mission truly begins” in a blog post published on the same day: Cardano has announced the completion of its Alonzo hard fork, ushering in its…

El Salvador Adopt Bitcoin as National Currency

September 8, 2021 CRYPTO WORLD

El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law has officially come into effect three months after its parliament passed the historic vote. The Central American nation is now the first country to recognize Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender. Tweeting earlier in the day, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele remarked “3 minutos para hacer historia — In 3 minutes, we make history.” However, day one of El Salvador’s Bitcoin experiment has been somewhat marred by server capacity errors suffered by the state-issued Chivo wallet. Addressing the situation, President Bukele remarked: “For a few moments it…

Twelve-year-old boy makes £290,000 selling whale art NFTs

September 1, 2021August 30, 2021 CRYPTO WORLD

Benyamin Ahmed taught himself how to create pixellated artwork by watching video tutorials. A 12-year-old boy has made around £290,000 selling whale art non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Benyamin Ahmed created and sold the digital artworks, which are called Weird Whales, after teaching himself how to create pixels by watching video tutorials during the summer holidays. “I made them to auction them off originally. It started as a learning experience but then just went viral on Twitter,” he told ITV News. The north London schoolboy has created 3,350 of the digital whale…

ECB Vice President States Crypto Should Be Regulated Like Other Assets

August 30, 2021 CRYPTO WORLD

European Central Bank (ECB) Vice President Luis De Guindos has stated he wants cryptocurrencies to be subject to the same rules that other assets are. The statements were offered in a presentation given as part of the summer courses offered by the European Parliament, where De Guindos declared his opinion about cryptocurrency regulation. ECB Vice President: Crypto Should Follow Same Laws as Other Assets Luis De Guindos, current Vice President of the ECB, stated he thinks crypto-assets should be regulated as any other asset in the market. De Guindos expressed…

Visa buys CryptoPunk, takes a step into the NFT market

August 23, 2021 CRYPTO WORLD

The NFT craze continues to attract people, as well as businesses in, with the most recent example of this being Visa’s own entry into the NFT space. The company just purchased CryptoPunk digital art, according to its announcement from earlier today, August 23rd. The multinational financial services giant spent around 50 Ethereum (ETH/USD) for a CryptoPunk NFT, and in doing so, it has once again proven its support for the digital currency sector. The company announced its acquisition of CryptoPunk #7610 in a recent Twitter post, noting that the transaction…

Bitpanda’s Valuation Hits $4.1B After Netting $263M in Series C Funding Round

August 18, 2021 CRYPTO WORLD

Bitpanda, an Austrian crypto trading platform, has more than tripled its valuation in five months. Earlier today the platform was valued at $4.1 billion after its Series C funding round raised $263 million. Reportedly, Valar Ventures spearheaded this investment round alongside Alan Howard and REDO Ventures. Existing investors such as Leadblock Partners and Jump Capital also took part in the financing round. According to the report, Bitpanda was worth $1.2 billion after its private financing round in March 2021. At the time, the company had managed to net $170 million.…

Over $600 Million Stolen in Biggest Ever Cryptocurrency Theft

August 15, 2021 CRYPTO WORLD

The largest hack in recorded history took place yesterday when attackers exploited a vulnerability that could change the “keeper role” of a blockchain contract and make any transaction such as a withdrawal, according to a Medium post by Poly Network. Poly Network, a platform that looks to connect different blockchains so that they can work together, confirmed that the vulnerability was due to the leakage of a keeper’s private key. In a tweet thread, SlowMist confirmed that over $610m was stolen. The security team has also confirmed that it “has…

Ethereum 2.0 Deposit Contract Reaches $20 Billion Worth of ETH

August 10, 2021August 9, 2021 CRYPTO WORLD

contract 0x00000000219ab540356cBB839Cbe05303d7705Fa

Ethereum 2.0, the much-awaited upgrade of the Ethereum network, received immense support from the ETH community since the official launch of Beacon Chain in December 2020. Etherscan.com, the block explorer and analytics platform for Ethereum, recently highlighted that the total value of the staked ETH under the deposit contract of ETH 2.0 has crossed the mark of $20 billion. Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract now has 6.59 million ETH, which is the highest level on record. During the first week of July 2021, ETH 2.0 deposit contract crossed 6 million coins…

Tether issues additional 1 billion USDT on the Tron network, signalling bullish period

August 9, 2021 CRYPTO WORLD

Tether, the largest stablecoin in the world has for some time had its dominance threatened after putting its money-printing on hold. Following multiple reports citing the challenges facing the operation of the stablecoin issuer, Tether has finally released 1 billion USDT on the Tron Network. This means the Tron Network has the largest USDT, boasting 53.5 percent of the 62.8 billion in circulation. As it stands, 32 billion USDT has been Issued on the Tron Network so far. This is followed by Ethereum with 30.9 billion USDT as an ERC-20…

Mastercard chooses 7 crypto startups for Start Path accelerator

July 28, 2021 CRYPTO WORLD

International payments giant Mastercard continues focusing on the digital asset industry by welcoming a batch of major cryptocurrency startups in its fintech accelerator. The company announced Tuesday a new startup engagement program as part of Mastercard Start Path, an accelerator program for fintech startups, aiming to support companies working with digital assets, cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. The program has added seven new startups, including digital wallet and trading platform Uphold, crypto storage firm GK8, American investment platform Domain Money, blockchain oracle startup SupraOracles, blockchain infrastructure provider STACS, digital asset firm…