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Access real-time blockchain and cryptocurrency news updates from around the globe.
KyberSwap announces treasury grants for hack victims
The grant is designed to ease the financial burden on affected individuals and will equal the USD equivalent of the assets lost in the security breach.
SEC faces sanctions threat as Judge questions DEBT Box case accuracy
Initially, the SEC, led by attorney Michael Welsh, had convinced the court to freeze DEBT Box’s assets, arguing the company was moving to Dubai, beyond U.S. regulatory reach.
Ethereum price rallies toward key resistance but is ETH’s strength sustainable?
Ether (ETH) is trading higher on Dec. 1, despite its inability to breach the $2,100 resistance. This level has prompted several rejections in the past three weeks, which is especially concerning given Ether’s 16.2% gains in November.
Ether 12-hour price index, USD. Source: TradingViewHowever, the current positive momentum is supported by several factors, including applications for spot ETFs and the expansion of Ethereum’s ecosystem, driven by layer-2 solutions.
ETH benefits from ETF expectations and negative news related to competing blockchains
A pivotal development occurred on Nov. 30, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) initiating the review process for Fidelity’s spot Ether ETF proposal, filed on Nov. 17. This move, along with similar applications from firms like BlackRock, awaits regulatory green light. If approved, these ETFs would bolster Ether's status as a digital commodity, reducing the likelihood of it being treated as a security.
Despite analysts predicting the SEC might delay its decision to early 2024, interim deadlines for applications by VanEck and ARK 21Shares on Dec. 25 and Dec. 26, respectively, have kept the market engaged. The mounting interest from large mutual funds in Ether products is creating a favorable impact on its price.
The Ethereum network's growth, especially in transaction activity and layer-2 development, is noteworthy. The Ethereum layer-2 ecosystem has become increasingly important as the average transaction fee held above $4 for the last couple of months. These layer-2 solutions offer more cost-effective and flexible options than the base layer.
KyberSwap hacker wants control, law firm says Aussie DeFi tax rules ‘non-binding’: Finance Redefined
Law firm Cadena Legal said that the guidance released by the Australian Taxation Office is “non-binding” and must be treated as “toilet paper.”
Bitcoin price hits $39K as Powell stirs bets Fed rate hikes are over
Bitcoin (BTC) hit $39,000 for the first time since mid-2022 on Dec. 1 as the United States Federal Reserve boosted hopes of policy easing.
BTC/USD 1-hour chart. Source: TradingViewPowell: Calling end to hikes would be “premature”
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView confirmed a new 19-month BTC price high of $39,000 on Bitstamp.
Bitcoin bulls, already in a strong position, beat out resistance as Fed Chair Jerome Powell took to the stage at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia for a scheduled appearance.
“The FOMC is strongly committed to bringing inflation down to 2% over time and to keeping policy restrictive until we’re confident that inflation is on a path to that objective,” he said in prepared remarks.
“It would be premature to conclude with confidence that we have achieved a sufficiently restrictive stance, or to speculate on when policy might ease.”
Real AI use cases in crypto: Crypto-based AI markets, and AI financial analysis
We’re rolling out genuine use cases for AI and crypto each day this week — including reasons why you shouldn’t necessarily believe the hype. Today get two for the price of one: Blockchain based AI marketplaces, and financial analysis.
It may not seem like the most exciting use case blending AI and crypto, but both Near co-founder Illia Polosukhin and Framework Ventures founder Vance Spencer cite blockchain-based marketplaces that source data and compute for AI as their top pick.
AI is an incredibly fast-growing industry requiring ever-increasing amounts of computing power. Microsoft alone is reportedly investing $50 billion into data center infrastructure in 2024 just to handle demand. AI also needs enormous amounts of raw data and training data, labeled into categories by humans.
Polosukhin believes decentralized blockchain-based marketplaces are the ideal solution to help crowdsource the required hardware and data.
“You can use [blockchain] to build more effective marketplaces that are more equal,” he tells Magazine, explaining that AI projects currently need to negotiate with one or two big cloud providers like Amazon Web Services. Still, it’s difficult to access the required capacity due to a shortage of Nvidia’s A100 graphical processing units.
Real AI use cases in crypto: Crypto-based AI markets, and AI financial analysis
Increasing numbers of blockchain marketplaces offer crowdsourced data and compute for AI models — and can AI analysis improve fund returns?
KuCoin pledges $20K grant to TON Foundation for ecosystem development
The funding will support TON ecosystem projects, research and development efforts, community-building and marketing activities.
Hashing It Out: A case for Web3 chat apps with Push Protocol’s Harsh Rajat
Harsh Rajat, founder and project lead of Push Protocol, explains the surge in the development of Web3 chat applications on the latest episode of Hashing It Out.
Starknet token distribution not yet finalized despite speculation over portal screenshots
The Starknet Foundation is warning community members to be on the lookout for scams relating to circulating screenshots of early iterations of a token distribution portal.
FTX and Alameda Research cash out $10.8M to Binance, Coinbase, Wintermute
The latest transfer was spread across eight tokens: StepN (GMT), Uniswap (UNI), Synapse (SYN), Klaytn (KLAY), Fantom (FTM), Shiba Inu (SHIB), Arbitrum (ARB) and Optimism (OP).
Bitcoin sees best monthly close in 19 months as BTC price taps $38K
Bitcoin (BTC) returned to $38,000 on Dec. 1 after the November monthly close became its best since April 2022.
BTC/USD 1-hour chart. Source: TradingViewBitcoin bears fail to spark monthly close sell-off
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView tracked impressive overnight BTC price performance, which held key support.
The close came in at just over $37,700, with bid liquidity preserving the intraday range and avoiding a last-minute sell-off, per order book data from trading resource Material Indicators.
BTC/USDT order book data. Source: Material Indicators/X“Monthly close looks pretty good closing above $35K,” popular trader Skew reacted on X (formerly Twitter).
“Could see some multi week compression between $35K - $39K.”
United Nations agency to upskill thousands of staff in blockchain tech
The UN Development Programme, which is tasked with eliminating poverty in over 170 countries, wants to educate its 22,000 staff on distributed ledger technology.
Another $18.9M Hong Kong exchange scandal, HTX ‘sorry’ airdrop: Asia Express
Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industry’s most important developments.
Scammers posing as investment experts allegedly enticed 145 victims to tip $18.9 million into the unlicensed Hong Kong crypto exchange Hounax.
According to reports earlier this week, the police said investors were allegedly promised up to 40% return per annum with “no risk” in its advertisements. After users deposited their funds, they were unable to withdraw them. On Nov. 1, the Securities & Futures Exchange (SFC) of Hong Kong listed Hounax on its billboard of suspicious crypto exchanges but clarified that because Hounax was unlicensed at the time of the incident, it was not subjected to the regulator’s enforcement actions.
This was the second scandal involving a crypto exchange in Hong Kong in recent months. In September, another unlicensed exchange, JPEX collapsed after allegations of a Ponzi scheme unsurfaced, leading to 66 arrests and an estimated $205 million in investors’ losses.
Despite the scandals, Hong Kong regulators appear to remain steadfast in their commitment to transforming the city into a major Web3 hub. On Nov. 27, SFC CEO Julia Leung explained that “even if the grace period ends tomorrow, fraud will still occur, so there is no intention to modify the grace period and other measures for the time being.”
Another $18.9M Hong Kong exchange scandal, HTX ‘sorry’ airdrop: Asia Express
Hong Kong rocked by another $18.9 exchange fraud scandal, HTX offers airdrop in wake of $30M hack, and digital yuan takes off in HK and China.
IOTA makes 40%+ move after $100M ecosystem foundation announcement
Iota, an open-source distributed ledger focused on the Internet of Things (IoT), saw its native IOTA token rally 43% on Nov. 29 after announcing the creation of the Iota Ecosystem DLT Foundation and its registration in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. This makes Iota the first distributed ledger technology foundation to be regulated by the Abu Dhabi Global Market.
According to a press release from the project, the foundation will be seeded with $100 million in IOTA tokens, which will be vested over a four-year period. Traders clearly perceived the announcement and funding plan as a short-term bullish catalyst.
Historically, ecosystem and developer incentives by blockchain and DeFi protocols tend to attract liquidity to the project and boost market participants’ sentiment.
In August 2021, Avalanche’s AVAX (AVAX) token went on a 1,400% tear after the announcement of the Avalanche Rush decentralized finance (DeFi) incentive program.
A similar outcome was seen with Trader Joe’s JOE token in the months following December 2022 after the DeFi protocol announced plans to establish a presence on Arbitrum.
IOTA makes 40%+ move after $100M ecosystem foundation announcement
IOTA price saw a high volume surge that took the altcoin to a near one-year high, but are there reasons to support further upside?
Capital flight from Binance subsides: Report
“It’s business as usual,” Nansen wrote in evaluating Binance’s data.
Real AI & crypto use cases, No. 4: Fight AI fakes with blockchain
We’re rolling out one genuine use case for AI and crypto each day this week — including reasons why you shouldn’t necessarily believe the hype. Today: How blockchain can fight the fakes.
Generative AI is extremely good at generating fake photos, fake letters, fake bills, fake conversations — fake everything. Near co-founder Illia Polosukhin warns that soon, we won’t know which content to trust.
“If we don’t solve this reputation and authentication of content (problem), shit will get really weird,” Polosukhin explains. “You’ll get phone calls, and you’ll think this is from somebody you know, but it’s not.”
“All the images you see, all the content, the books will be (suspect). Imagine a history book that kids are studying, and literally every kid has seen a different textbook — and it’s trying to affect them in a specific way.”
Blockchain can be used to transparently trace the provenance of online content so that users can distinguish between genuine content and AI-generated images. But it won’t sort out truth from lies.
