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Tag: cryptocurrencies

  • Prime Minister Nominee: South Korea’s Cryptocurrency Stance May Shift

    Prime Minister Nominee: South Korea’s Cryptocurrency Stance May Shift

    The nominee for South Korea’s prime minister, Kim Boo-Kyum, by the president Moon Jae-In may not be as harsh on cryptocurrencies. South Korea had recently launched a crackdown on cryptocurrencies and the increase in crimes because of them but that stance may shift soon with the new prime minister nomination.

    The government had been vocal about the rampant increase in illegal activities such as tax evasion and money laundering because of cryptocurrencies in the country.  The Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Ministry of Justice, the Financial Services Commission, and the National Police Agency had decided to join hands to curb this problem. The various agencies had been playing their roles in the fight against crime and cryptos. This has resulted in increased monitoring of transactions, tight regulation, and a law that requires trading accounts on exchanges to be made only with real names.

    Recently, Seoul had announced the seizure of $22 million worth of cryptocurrencies from tax delinquents. The tax authority, National Tax Service, had identified 1,566 individuals and companies with overdue taxes. Out of these, $22 million had been seized in cryptos from 676 individuals.

    South Korea has also imposed a 20% tax on cryptocurrency profits under effect from 2022. The prime minister nominee has stated to make sure there are no victims of this law. But it is too soon for the cryptocurrency community to get their hopes up because Kim Boo-Kyum has maintained a neutral stance as he has also spoken in support of the chairman of South Korea’s Financial Services Commission, Eun Sung-soo, who called cryptocurrencies to have no intrinsic value. Kim also downplayed the matter of a petition to ask Eun to resign so if Kim is a crypto proponent he will still be surrounded by crypto critics.

  • Chinese Institutions Promoting the Digital Yuan

    Chinese Institutions Promoting the Digital Yuan

    China has been one of the leading countries in terms of digital payments. WeChat and AliPay are – were – the most common modes of payment. The Chinese government recently launched a digital yuan – e-renminbi which is expected to take over all other payment methods. The digital yuan had also been speculated to cripple cryptocurrency dominance in the country.

    Ant Group’s AliPay and Tencent’s WeChat Pay had maintained a duopoly in the country over the digital payment sphere. However, with the launch of the new digital yuan by the Chinese government the dynamics are expected to shift soon.

    Being launched by the government, the digital yuan also enjoys the support of major institutions which will boost its adoption like wildfire in no time. In Shanghai, six state banks are actively promoting the digital yuan ahead of a shopping festival on May 5. The banks are persuading their clients to download the digital wallet. The digital yuan is said to be much more convenient than AliPay or WeChat Pay, people just need to realize that by using it. Shanghai is still in the pilot stage of the rollout of the digital yuan.

    The digital yuan’s rollout is a part of the Chinese government’s clamp down on the internet. The Chinese government had been skeptical of cryptocurrencies as well as the increasing dominance of WeChat Pay and AliPay. The People’s Bank of China has called mobile payment dominance a posing risk to the financial system. Hence, the digital yuan serves as a solution.

    China is the first major economy to take an initiative towards a sovereign digital currency. Once the pilot phase is completed, the success of the project will set new precedents for countries all over the globe and will propel global digitization.

  • Binance Adding Three New Stock Tokens to its Offering

    Binance Adding Three New Stock Tokens to its Offering

    Binance has announced to launch the stock tokens of Microstrategy (MSTR), Apple (AAPL), and Microsoft (MSTF). The launch of the three additional stock tokens would make the total tokenized stock offering of Binance equal to five. The first stock token to go live on the exchange is MSTR today, followed by Apple on April 28 and Microsoft on April 30. The first stock to be traded on the cryptocurrency exchange was Tesla (TSLA) on April 12 followed by Coinbase (COIN) on April 15.

    As the stock tokens were created in partnership with the investment group CM-Equity, the tokens are not available in areas restricted to CM-Equity like the US, mainland China, and Turkey. CM-Equity is also responsible for backing the stock tokens by portfolios of the underlying securities.

    Binance’s new product, tradable stock tokens, offers traders the opportunity to trade tokenized fractions of stocks. Users can trade fractionalized units of stocks as low as one-hundredth of a stock. The stock tokens are used to track the performance of the underlying security. The stock tokens are traded against Binancestabelcoin (BUSD) and not against US Dollars.

    The tokenized stocks have been under scrutiny of European regulators as the true nature of the product is argued. Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, BaFin, is worried that the tokenized stock may not be able to provide the required transparency. European Union regulators have also voiced their concerned over the new product. However, Binance has not let it affect its new product as it adds three new stock tokens to its offerings.

    The launch of the new stock tokens and Binance’s expansion is because of its strong competition with the crypto derivatives platform, FTX, which had earlier launched its own stock tokens.

  • Polkadot (DOT) Price Prediction: Rise to $43?

    Polkadot (DOT) Price Prediction: Rise to $43?

    Polkadot (DOT) went as high as $48 in the bull run but, like the market norms is, the cryptocurrency suffered from market corrections. The price tried to reach upwards but succumbed to bearish pressures and has been on a downward trend. At the time of publication, Polkadot stands at a price level of $32. In the 24-hour timeframe, the price of the cryptocurrency has increased by 10% while the trading volume has gone up by 50%.

    Poladot (DOT) Price Prediction

    The market sentiment for Polkadot is bearish. Out of the 26 technical indicators, ten stands at a sell position while ten are neutral and only six are giving out a buy indication. The oscillators are neutral while the moving averages are mainly bearish.

    Trader Flytheus has set a price target of $45 for the cryptocurrency. The trader is suggesting a long position for the cryptocurrency and expects it to break the major resistance level of $42 Per the trader’s analysis, Polkadot has started to move upwards.

    Polkadot is a good long-term investment as the project is believed to possess potential. Wallet Investor estimates the cryptocurrency will hit $110 in a year’s time while the 5-year forecast stands at $423. Digital Coin Price predicts Polkadot to have a price level of $57 by 2022 while by 2028 it is expected to reach $144. Long Forecast is not as bullish on the cryptocurrency and predicts a rise to $43 by the end of the year but subsequently, the marginal increments diminish and Polkadot is projected stable at $50.

    What is Polkadot? 

    Polkadot is a multi-chain network designed to increase the interoperability of blockchains by allowing them to connect to Polkadot’s network. Polkadot allows different blockchains to interact as parachains on its blockchain as well as access the proof of stake validation and security of Polkadot. The project was designed by Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood.

  • South Korea’s Crackdown on Cryptocurrencies

    South Korea’s Crackdown on Cryptocurrencies

    With the world moving towards a fast-paced adoption of cryptocurrencies, regulators are facing a lot of problems trying to navigate the tricky waters of the crypto sphere. Throughout the world, governments have been vocal about the riskiness of cryptocurrency investment whereas others have been worried about the susceptibility of cryptocurrencies to criminal activities. Cryptocurrencies are notoriously known to be hotbeds for illegal activities especially money laundering and tax evasion because of the lack of regulation in the industry.

    Asia have had a love-hate relationship with cryptocurrencies but amidst the recent rise in crypto adoption, regulators have become increasingly strict. South Korean regulatory authorities have joined hands to crackdown on the rampant illegal activities going on in the cryptocurrency market. The Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Ministry of Justice, the Financial Services Commission, and the National Police Agency have, together, launched a plan to eradicate the problems brought by cryptocurrencies. With every agency playing its role, there has been an increase in monitoring of transactions – in the country as well as across border.

    The crackdown has come to fruition as the city of Seoul has announced the seizure of $22 million worth of cryptocurrencies on account of tax evasion from individuals and companies. The city’s tax authority, National Tax Service, had identified 1,566 individuals and company executives with overdue taxes. $22 million worth of cryptocurrencies were seized from three different cryptocurrency exchanges from 676 of the 1,566 individuals.

    Out of the total tax delinquents, 118 of them have remitted $1 million to the government. The cryptocurrency holders have also appealed to the government to not liquidate the cryptocurrencies as their value is expected to increase.

  • Tether Listing on Coinbase Despite Controversy

    Tether Listing on Coinbase Despite Controversy

    The largest cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, has announced to list Tether (USDT) on its professional trading platform. Coinbase Pro will allow deposits in USDT if liquidity conditions are met before April 26 – the trading launch. After the supply limit of Tether is fulfilled, trade in BTC-USDT, ETH-USDT, USDT-EUD, USDT-GBP, USDT-USDT, and USDT-USDC will be enabled in post-only, limit-only and full trading subsequently.

    However, Coinbase only supports ERC-20 Tether based on the Ethereum blockchain. The launch of USDT on Coinbase Pro does not entail that the stablecoin is supported by the mobile application or the retail trading platform and the exchange has reported to make a separate announcement if it were to happen.

    Tether is a stablecoin backed by USD which means that every Tether token is backed by US dollars in Tether’s bank accounts. Tether is pegged 1 to 1 to USD. However, the company’s claims that each Tether is backed by equal US dollars in the company’s reserves turned out to be false. Tether Limited has since found itself tangled in controversies. In the announcement, Coinbasealso hinted that the NASDAQ-listed exchange is not worried about the controversy surrounding Tether.

    Recently, New York Authorities had alleged that Tether is not, in fact, backed by the US dollars as the company claims. The lawsuit by the attorney general of New York shook Tether Holdings Limited to its core. However, the lawsuit could not proceed as a settlement was reached between the parties. Bitfinex and Tether were required to pay a fine of $18.5 million and submit reports of their reserves. The stablecoin has been complying with the requirements and the company’s consolidated reserves report shows USDT is fully backed by USD.

  • A New Leap in the Crypto Industry: ASEAN Blockchain Consortium

    A New Leap in the Crypto Industry: ASEAN Blockchain Consortium

    Blockchain organisations from Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines have decided to enter into a partnership in order to promote blockchain technology. The Blockchain Association Singapore (BAS) has initiated a memorandum of understanding between the organizations. The MoU has resulted in the formation of a new blockchain consortium dubbed as ASEAN Blockchain Consortium.

    The ASEAN Blockchain Consortium comprise of Blockchain Australia, Phillipines’ Distributed Ledger Technology, Labuan International Business and Financial Centre of Malaysia, AsosiasiBlockchain Indonesia, and Thailand Digital Asset Operators Trade Association. This initiative if the first of its kind – taken to promote blockchain technology.

    The new blockchain consortium not only plans to educate on blockchain technology and promote it but also help cooperate with regulators to ensure legal compliance in the industry. The consortium was much needed by the cryptocurrency industry as regulators throughout the world are struggling with cryptocurrencies and a huge part of the struggle is blockchain education – or lack thereof. Being a relatively new technology, not many are well-versed in blockchain and cryptocurrencies which leads to unnecessary complications especially with even novel innovations like non-fungible tokens.

    The crypto industry has grown phenomenally in the past few months. From big institutions to small scale traders, everyone has realized the value the technology holds and mass adoption of cryptocurrencies and block chain technology appears to be imminent now. Southeast Asia and Australia has seen some of the highest numbers of cryptocurrency adoption recently which makes the ASEAN Blockchain Consortium the right step taken at the right time. The Consortium also makes a new leap in the adoption of the cryptocurrency industry.

  • Chainlink (LINK) Technical Analysis: Will the price pick up?

    Chainlink (LINK) Technical Analysis: Will the price pick up?

    Chainlink had been a well-performer in the bull run. The year-to-date growth of Chainlink is 178%. The altcoin rose form $11 to an all-time high of $44. Chainlink has been on a descent ever since the establishment of its all-time high. In the daily timeframe, the cryptocurrency’s price fell by 15% although the daily trading volume has gone up by nearly 100%.

    Chainlink (LINK) Technical Analysis

    The market sentiment for Chainlink is bearish with a majority of the technical indicators giving out a signal of sell. Out of the 26 total technical indicators, 12 are standing at a sell position, nine are neutral while only five are giving out a buy indication. Both the oscillators and moving averages are mainly bearish.

    Chainlink (LINK) technical analysis

    Chainlink is under strong market corrections. The cryptocurrency has invalidated most of the bullish analyses and is aggressively testing support levels. Chainlink has broken the strong support level at $32 identified by trader CryptoTaiwan. The next support level lies at $28 and it is crucial for Chainlink to hold in order for it to stabilize.

    Major developments you should know of 

    Karura the decentralized finance hub of Kusama Foundation had recently announced the integration of Chainlink price feeds. Karura is a parachain optimized to power DeFi apps while offering unmatched scalability. Chainlink oracles have been proven to be one of the best – if not the best – in the market and both parties will benefit immensely from the partnership.

    eToro, the leading cryptocurrency exchange, has announced the offering of Chainlink to its 20 million users. The move can be attributed to the high success of Chainlink oracles which has led to increasing institutional interest in cryptocurrency. Chainlink also has a high retail demand.

    The project has also recently published whitepaper 2 which introduces the second upgrade of Chainlink. The whitepaper entailed some interesting and major developments to be made to the network which will result in increased efficiency and security. The developers will focus on 7 core areas of the network – hybrid smart contracts, scaling, confidentiality, trust-minimization, incentive-based security, decreased complexity, and fairness for transactions.

    What is Chainlink?

    Chainlink is a cryptocurrency that serves as a bridge between real-world data and smart contracts. Chainlink decentralizes the procedure of gathering individual oracles to gather and verify data for smart contracts. Chainlink is one of the leading oracle providers in the cryptocurrency industry.

  • Solana (SOL): Are the pullbacks to last?

    Solana (SOL): Are the pullbacks to last?

    Solana (SOL) started off the new year with a price level of less than $2 but with a staggering growth rate, the cryptocurrency climbed upwards to establish its all-time high of $39. Solana is ranked at 16th in terms of market capitalization. Currently, the cryptocurrency is under pullbacks. The price of the cryptocurrency has declined by 13% in the past 24 hours. At the time of press, Solana was trading hands $32.69 apiece.

    Solana (SOL) Technical Analysis

    Trader Slothie has identified a parabolic curve formed by the price action of Solana in her Solana technical analysis. The trader has also identified the four bases of the parabolic curve. By the third base – the triangle in red – the price doubles which was what happened in the case of Solana. Subsequently, after the final base, the price usually dips under market corrections.

    As made clear by the price developments, Solana is in market corrections. The trader is suggesting a short position in the long term and do not expects the cryptocurrency to reverse is trajectory. However, this does not entail that Solana should be overlooked and the project still has good long-term potential – which is also supported by various other platforms. DigitalCoinPrice places Solana at a price level of $58 in 2022 while a price level of $140 is suggested to be achieved in five years’ time. Wallet Investor is predicting Solana to be above $100 by the end of the year.

    Will Solana rise back up?

    Given the innovative technology underlying the project and; hence, it’s potential it may be considered highly likely for Solana to break away from the bearish trend. Solana has also been gaining popularity with investors as around $44 million had been injected into the project in the past month. Moreover, the stablecoin Tether (USDT) had also launched on the Solana blockchain with Tether regarding Solana as “one of the fastest growing blockchains”.

    What is Solana (SOL)?

    Solana is also dubbed as the “Ethereum Killer” because of the similarities the project bears to Ethereum as well as the technological advancement it offers. Solana is designed to provide decentralized finance solutions and support the creation of decentralized apps. However, that is not all. Solana offers way better scalability as it employs a Proof of History (PoH) as well as a Proof of Stake (PoS) mechanism.

  • Will Cardano (ADA) Pick Up Or Succumb To Bearish Pressures

    Will Cardano (ADA) Pick Up Or Succumb To Bearish Pressures

    Cardano (ADA) climbed to new highs in the recent bull run with the year to date gains at nearly 500%. But after establishing the all-time high at $1.54, the cryptocurrency succumbed to bearish pressures. Currently, on a downward trajectory, Cardano stands at $1.04. The market sentiment for Cardano has turned bearish with twelve of the twenty-six technical indicators giving out a sell signal, ten at neutral and only four at buy signal.

    Cardano (ADA) Technical Analysis

    According to the analysis of trader Harison HBN, Cardano has broken out of a triangle formation – confirming the bearish trend of the coin. Per the trader, Cardano is likely to continue to fall until it establishes strong support. Cardano (ADA) is expected to stabilize at the price level of $0.74 which lies parallel to the 0.618 Fibonacci level. If the support is established at this point, Cardano will regain its bullish momentum and start off on an upward trajectory. The trader has set a price target of $2.41 for Cardano.

    Cardano (ADA) Technical Analysis

    What is going on in the Cardano sphere?

    The recent fall in the cryptocurrency’s price can also be attributed to the allegations made against Cardano. Bankless podcast co-owner David Hoffman has called Cardano a “scam” in his podcast. The founder of Cardano (ADA) Charles Hoskinson took to Twitter to negate the allegations. Hoskinson also bashed the podcast co-owner saying calling the developers of Cardano criminals is not the same as being skeptical about the cryptocurrency. Hoskinson has also hinted towards accusation being the reason why Cardano is not doing well.

    Where on one hand Cardano is suffering from bearish momentum on account of uncertainty regarding the project, on the other hand, the cryptocurrency is seeing increasing adoption. Bitcasino, the world’s first Bitcoin-based casino operator has added Cardano as a mode of payment. Cardano (ADA) holders can now access a wide variety of games at the casino.

    Cardano (ADA) was designed to be better than Ethereum but so far, it has lagged. But things may change soon as the cryptocurrency’s next major upgrade is under works which will give Cardano smart contracts capabilities. The founder has also hinted towards bringing NFT marketplaces to the Cardano blockchain. These developments may set Cardano on track to compete with the queen of the market, Ethereum.