Category: Crypto News

After some crypto sleuths made allegations of insider trading by individuals potentially connected to Coinbase, CEO Brian Armstrong said the crypto exchange would change some of its token listing practices.

In a Thursday blog post, Armstrong did not confirm whether any Coinbase employees had received disciplinary action or been referred for criminal charges in response to allegedly receiving insider information used to profit off certain token listings. According to the CEO, Coinbase planned to change its listing process over the next few quarters “to try and prevent on-chain data giving signal to watchful traders,” to allow users to rate and review assets and invest more in forensic tools.

“There is always the possibility that someone inside Coinbase could, wittingly or unwittingly, leak information to outsiders engaging in illegal activity,” said the Coinbase CEO. “We have zero tolerance for this and monitor for it, conducting investigations where appropriate with outside law firms […] If these investigations find that any Coinbase employee somehow aided or abetted any nefarious activity, those employees are immediately terminated and referred to relevant authorities (potentially for criminal prosecution).”

According to Armstrong, employees are limited to trading crypto on Coinbase’s platforms by its company policies to monitor transactions and “stay ahead of possible abuse.” However, Cointelegraph reported in April that some online sleuths alleged certain investors had insider knowledge of which tokens Coinbase was considering listing in the second quarter of 2022 based on blockchain records of purchases prior to the exchange releasing that information.

See more

Found an ETH address that bought hundreds of thousands of dollars of tokens exclusively featured in the Coinbase Asset Listing post about 24 hours before it was published, rofl pic.twitter.com/5QlVTjl0Jp

— Cobie (@cobie) April 12, 2022

The Coinbase CEO said “some market participants” might have been able to take advantage of its listing process by using on-chain data to monitor the exchange testing asset integrations as well as detecting small differences in the platform’s application programming interface, or API, responses. He added that the exchange wouldn’t “catch everything,” but would aim to work with other crypto firms and respond to feedback to adjust policies as needed.

“While this is public data, it isn’t data that all customers can easily access, so we strive to remove these information asymmetries,” said Armstrong. “We review assets as quickly as possible, and list everything we can — as long as we believe it’s safe and legal.”

Related: Coinbase insiders dump nearly $5 billion in COIN stock shortly after listing

A Coinbase listing can often result in a sudden price surge for a crypto project due to the size and popularity of the exchange. In May 2020, the price of OMG Network’s token OmiseGo surged 200% within 15 minutes of being listed on Coinbase before crashing. Morpheus Labs (MITX), Kromatika (KROM) and Big Data Protocol (BDP) — all tokens Coinbase named as being under consideration for listings — showed gains of 185%, 145%, and 204%, respectively, shortly following the exchange’s announcement in April 202.

Bitcoin (BTC) fell into the Wall Street open on April 29 as United States markets opened to volatility, including an 11% drop in Amazon stock.

All change at the Fed

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView confirmed BTC/USD dipping to $38,622 on Bitstamp Friday.

Despite a let-up in the U.S. dollar’s relentless bull run, Bitcoin showed little signs of strength as it remained firmly under $40,000.

Macro factors remained against the largest cryptocurrency along with risk assets more broadly, commentators noted, as the Federal Reserve reduced its balance sheet.

See more

The start of #Fed deleveraging? Fed balance sheet has shrunk for the 2nd consecutive week. Total assets now at $8,939bn, equal to 36.6% of US’ GDP vs ECB’s 82% or BoJ’s 137%. pic.twitter.com/0GRR5VgGIe

— Holger Zschaepitz (@Schuldensuehner) April 29, 2022

For Amazon, meanwhile, the pain was immediately obvious as missed earnings targets resulted in AMZN’s biggest intraday loss in eight years.

The S&P 500 traded down 1% at the time of writing, while the Nasdaq 100 was down 0.9%.

Focusing on Bitcoin, popular trader and analyst Rekt Capital argued that the relative strength index (RSI) may need to form a higher low and rebound in order to provide the market with the fuel for a breakout on short timeframes.

See more

#BTC ultimately rejects at this resistance

Now pulling back

Could $BTC find a base and then rebound once the RSI Higher Low has been revisited?#Crypto #Bitcoin https://t.co/nneXL2BrKe pic.twitter.com/AKMzmmdGds

— Rekt Capital (@rektcapital) April 29, 2022

Whales flip to bear market bottom buying

In its latest chart update on whale behavior, meanwhile, data from on-chain analysis platform Whalemap showed that buying behavior is echoing the bear market bottom of late 2018.

Related: Bitcoin set for volatile monthly close after BTC price ‘checks all boxes’ for major move

According to its data, whales with balances of between 1,000 and 10,000 BTC are busy accumulating BTC to the extent that they were when BTC/USD hit $3,100 in December that year. The volumes even outdo those from the $3,600 crash in March 2020.

“Whales are accumulating as much Bitcoin today as they were at the $3K lows,” analyst and indicator creator Charles Edwards commented.

“These are holders with approx. $40M – $400M in their wallets today. In 2018, that was $4M – 40M (but there were no ‘institutions’ then either).”

This week, Whalemap also noted that current spot price levels represent historically significant ground for buyers and sellers alike.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Music is a tricky business. The industry has its fair share of controversies, from monopolies to the limited earning potential for upcoming artists. While Web2 brought many positive changes, the industry still has a long way. Because of this, projects are trying to utilize blockchain technology to provide new solutions to the age-old music market.

In the last ten years, the industry has changed drastically because of the internet and social media development. Artists have new mediums to share their songs, and fans have many new ways to engage with and support their favorite musicians.

However, like most things within the Web2 sphere, a select few own the assets in the industry, and large corporations profit more than the users and artists. While they are still in their early stages, some blockchain projects are trying to take a shot at changing the industry from within.

Bringing fair payment to musicians

Tune.FM, a platform powered by Hedera Hashgraph, claims to be able to give musicians 90% of music streaming revenue, which is approximately ten times more than stream earnings on mainstream services. Artists can earn digital tokens every time their music is streamed within the platform.

In an announcement, Andrew Antar, the co-founder of Tune.FM pointed out that there were many independent musicians that suffered after the pandemic. “With the likes of Spotify not paying them fairly, many were struggling to get by. We are the antidote for the millions of creatives that are not being paid fairly by the big streaming services,” Antar said.

Allowing fans to co-own songs

Andreessen Horowitz-backed music marketplace Royal continues to let fans have shared ownership of songs from their favorite artists through nonfungible tokens (NFT). After dropping NFTs for prominent rapper Nas, the platform recently released tokens for American DJ and songwriter Diplo.

In a blog announcing the Diplo drop, Royal co-founder Justin Blau wrote that the platform’s aim is to “empower artists to maintain control over their work” while providing fuel for their careers. Blau also believes that by co-owning music, fans “establish a deeper connection” and help them be independent when it comes to creativity.

Powering music collaboration through NFTs

A project called Squad of Knights lets its NFT owners form six-person squads, with each person assigned their own roles in the music production process. Unlike working with traditional music labels, the platform lets its community members own 100% of the music they produce.

Founder and award-winning record producer Ramon ‘Illmind’ Ibanga Jr. said, “Finding people to work with is tough. Finding the right people to work with is even tougher.” He noted that the project’s goal is to bring producers, engineers, music artists, and managers together, both within the real world and the metaverse.

Related: Grammys 2022: NFTs hot topic of discussion among musicians and industry experts

Providing decentralized audio to the metaverse

Solana-based streaming platform Audius provides an array of decentralized audio files to the metaverse. The platform works with metaverses like the Portals Metaverse to give music to their users. Due to its decentralized nature, Audius allows anyone to pull content from the platform and use it when building their own projects.

In a Cointelegraph interview, Roneil Rumburg, the CEO and co-founder of Audius, said that the platform is a “decentralized repository of content with clearly defined rights so third-party developers can pull from the platform’s catalog without any issues.”

From 2021 till now, the metaverse concept has increasingly gained popularity and evidently has no plans of slowing down. Indeed, this popularity can be attributed to different metaverse platforms making giant strides and driving adoption.

One of them is “Over the reality,” a fast-growing metaverse platform merging physical and virtual reality through augmented reality. Since its inception, Over the Reality has been known for strategic and significant partnerships centered around driving growth and building a rewarding ecosystem for its community.

In the latest news, Over the reality announces the listing of OVR, its native token, on Kucoin, a leading cryptocurrency exchange supporting over 600 cryptocurrency coins. This means OVR is now listed on nine exchanges.

To trade $OVR on KuCoin:

• Deposit/Withdrawal Network: ERC-20
• Trading Pair: OVR/USDT.

While talking about the OVR being listed on KuCoin, Diego Di Tommaso, the “Over the Reality” co-founder, said, ” We’re proud to be listed on KuCoin, Tier1 exchange ranked in the top 5 list from CoinMarketCap. Another important step for the growth and accessibility of the OVER platform. Kucoin is one of the most important crypto exchanges worldwide, consistently ranked among the top 5 exchanges from CoinMarketCap. With the OVR token listing, we’re officially making our first step into the Tier1 exchanges landscape. Another important achievement for OVER on the path to mass adoption, an amazing onramp to facilitate the onboarding of users unfamiliar with direct blockchain interaction”.

KuCoin $OVR Listing Celebration Contest

Over the Reality Metaverse in conjunction with KuCoin has announced an upcoming contest to celebrate its native token $OVR listing on KuCoin for qualified  KuCoin users. They’ve prepared a giveaway campaign containing a reward pool of 29,000 OVR (approximately $40,000) for the purpose of this celebration. This campaign is set to run from 10 am April 28, 2022, to 10 am May 5, 2022 (UTC).

Participation is divided into three main activity categories:

Activity 1: OVR Airdrop for Metaverse Fan, Claim Your Share of the 5,000 OVR on KuCoin

During the campaign period, users who complete the following steps will be qualified to claim a 25 OVR airdrop each:

1. KuCoin users performed at least one trade of any KuCoin Metaverse projects from 00:00 on April 20, 2022, to 10:00 on May 5, 2022 (UTC);
2. ​​Have an OVR/USDT trading amount (buys + sells) that reaches 150 OVR.

KuCoin will randomly choose 200 lucky users (from the above-qualified users) to equally share a 5,000 OVR prize pool. Each lucky user will receive a 25 OVR reward.

Activity 2: Trading Competition, Win a Share of a 16,000 OVR Prize Pool

The top 20 accounts with the highest trading amount (buys + sells) of OVR on KuCoin during the competition period will win a share of 16,000 OVR.

Be One of the Top OVR Traders! Do Not Miss the 16,000 OVR Prize Pool!

The rewards will be distributed as follows:

Ranking	Rewards
Top 1	1,700 OVR  (approximately $1,250)
Top 2	1,500 OVR
Top 3	1,200 OVR
Top 4-10	800 OVR each
Top 11-20	600 OVR each

Activity 3: Participation Rewards, 8,000 OVR Is Up for Grabs!

The users who meet the following requirements will share an 8,000 OVR prize pool in proportion to their trading amount.

1. Have an OVR trading amount (buys + sells) that reaches 300 OVR;
2. Add the OVR/USDT trading pair to their Favorites List.

*The reward for the qualified users = (Each user’s total trading amount / all qualified users’ total trading amount) * 8,000 OVR.

Note:

1. Trading amount = buys + sells;
2. The Sub-Accounts and Master Account will be treated as the same account when participating in the OVR activity;
3. The winners of Activity 2 will not be eligible to receive the Activity 1 & Activity 3 rewards; The winners of Activity 1 will not be eligible to receive the Activity 3 reward;
4. The final rankings will be updated within 5 working days of the campaign ends;
5. Rewards will be distributed within 7 working days of the campaign ends;
6. The trading activity on the platform will undergo rigorous inspection during the activity. For any malicious acts conducted during the period, including malicious transaction manipulations, illegal bulk registration of accounts, self-dealing, etc., the platform will cancel the qualification of the participants. KuCoin reserves all rights to exercise at its sole discretion to define if the transaction behavior is counted as cheating behavior and determine whether to cancel the participation qualification of a user. The final decision made by KuCoin is with legal binding force to all participants who participated in the competition. Users hereby confirm that their registration and use of KuCoin are voluntary and are not forced, interfered with, or influenced by KuCoin in any way.

Conclusion

The $OVR token is definitely one to look out for. The introduction of IBCO provides a variable amount of $OVR  by issuing new tokens in response to price increases (when individuals buy OVR with DAI on the IBCO) and burns them in response to price declines (by acquiring tokens from the market with DAI reserves). Therefore, the IBCO’s ability to absorb liquidity is the key to accelerated token burn.

From the KuCoin listing to the IBCO update, Over the reality metaverse platform is constantly working to build a highly profitable ecosystem without compromising on users’ experience.

Roger Ver, an early investor and ardent promoter of Bitcoin (BTC) which earned him the moniker “Bitcoin Jesus” has resurfaced on Twitter after a year and backed Dogecoin (DOGE) in an interview, preferring it for payments over the world’s first crypto.

In an interview with Bloomberg, the Bitcoin.com founder said how he was a fan of the memecoin due to its fast transaction times and low fees:

“Dogecoin is significantly better, it’s cheaper and more reliable [than Bitcoin]. If I had to pick three contenders for the world’s dominant cryptocurrency, they would be Doge, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash.”

Ver also took time in the interview to voice his support for honorary Dogecoin CEO Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover.

“It’ll certainly make Twitter more attractive,” said Ver. “I am really, really grateful that Musk is out there calling out censorship.”

Although Ver was a proponent of Bitcoin for years, he now spends his days as a Bitcoin Cash (BCH) evangelist, the altcoin which forked from Bitcoin after a dispute over the block size.

A video posted in March to Ver’s YouTube channel shows he and his entourage onboarding retail merchants and taxi drivers to use Bitcoin Cash as a preferred payment method in Saint-Martin.

Ver says that Bitcoin Cash is the true vision of Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, and despite all his advocacy for the crypto, he claims he isn’t all in on BCH:

“I am definitely a cryptocurrency whale still, I’ve always had a wide assorted basket in cryptocurrency. I was never a Bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash maximalist.”

Related: Roger Ver’s next life: Cryonics meets crypto

In his return to Twitter, Ver wasted little time calling attention to crypto’s first principles, with his second tweet after his hiatus on April 28. He said that custodial wallets like those used by traders interacting with centralized exchanges would cause Bitcoin to lose a “key revolutionary property.”

See more

If regular people are all using custodial wallets, Bitcoin will have lost a key property that made it so revolutionary.

— Roger Ver (@rogerkver) April 28, 2022

Noncustodial wallets where the user retains control over the assets is something that allows Bitcoin to stand out from banks and other financial products.

Residents in three major Chinese cities have begun paying tax, stamp duty and social security premiums using the country’s central bank digital currency — the digital yuan (e-CNY). 

According to a domestic news report, a number of government agencies in the Zhejiang province — located just south of Shanghai — are currently running real world trials programs that involve citizens using the digital yuan to pay taxes.

The Zhejiang Taxation Bureau is working with the country’s central bank — the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) — to explore a variety of taxation payment methods using the digital yuan.

The PBoC and affiliated local government agencies are reportedly looking to the next major test for the digital yuan, the Asian Games which will take place in Hangzhou in September. Local authorities claim that the digital yuan could be used to streamline calculating tax-related activities.

Following the successful steps in the implementation of the digital RMB pilot program, which began public testing in April 2021, the PBoC stated that it will look to extend the program to more Chinese cities including Guangzhou, Tianjin and Chongqing.

On the other side of the ledger to taxation, one local government has chosen to “airdrop” 15 million digital yuan ($2.25 million) to its residents hoping to boost consumer spending during the pandemic, and promote use of the new currency.

Related: Hong Kong watchdog warns stablecoins could undermine HKD in CBDC paper

Roughly 130,000 residents of the Futian district in Shenzhen will receive a share of the 15 million digital yuan (e-CNY) in the form of a red envelope via Chinese social media app, WeChat. The digital RMB airdrop marks the most recent government attempt to boost spending in areas of China most affected by the recent Covid-related lockdowns.

In Chinese and other East Asian cultures, monetary gifts are often handed out in red packets or envelopes, as the colored wrapping bestows good wishes and luck upon the recipient.

These developments extend China’s already significant lead in developing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) for public use, with the majority of countries still in the research stages of CBDC implementation.

According to state media, transactions in digital yuan across China came to nearly 87.6 billion yuan by the close of 2021.

Mykhailo Fedorov, Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, tweeted that the Ukrainian government will accept war effort contributions in the form of nonfungible token (NFT) donations and purchases. Via the official “Aid for Ukraine” crypto fund, individuals can donate cryptocurrency, fiat and now NFTs. So far the initiative has raised over $60 million, according to the website. 

All funds go toward supplying Ukrainians with weapons, medical gear, medical kits and other expenses outlined on the Aid for Ukraine website. Total expenses amounted to $45,103,538 by April 14. The Aid for Ukraine platform is powered by crypto exchanges FTX and Kuna, and by staking provider Everstake. 

See more

The new big update of @_AidForUkraine website. We’ve added the NFT section: now you can donate or buy NFTs. All funds as always will contribute to the Ukrainian victory. Ready, steady, NFT https://t.co/x7OscenXCz pic.twitter.com/Zo9hYufHSB

— Mykhailo Fedorov (@FedorovMykhailo) April 27, 2022

The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine is the beneficiary organization of several NFT projects including Russia For Sale, which sells Russian lands in the form of NFTs, and Holy Water, which supports local Ukrainian NFT artists, among others. Those who buy an NFT from one of the organizations will contribute directly to Ministry’s crypto wallet.

At the time of publication, the NFTs donated by “UkrainianCryptoFund” and available to bid on in OpenSea come from collections such as, CryptoPunks, mfers, MoonCats, TIMEPieces by Time Magazine, CREYZIES and Chubbiverse Frens. All of these collections only accept Ether (ETH) for payment. 

Just as the Ukrainian government has fully embraced digital assets in order to support humanitarian efforts, so have many both Ukrainian and Russia citizens had to familiarize themselves and accept using crypto to support themselves. Cointelegraph spoke with some of the people who experienced the advantages of Bitcoin firsthand as well with some of the blockchain companies that have been thriving amid war. 

Related: Binance announces crypto card for Ukrainian refugees

Fedorov first signaled in a tweet on March 3 that the government would soon be using NFTs to help pay for its military. Since then, the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine has also launched a virtual NFT gallery to keep alive the memory of war. 

Him Das, the acting director of the United States Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, said some of the government bureau’s tools to fight money laundering and terrorism financing may be ill suited for crypto.

In a Thursday hearing of the House Financial Services Committee on “Oversight of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network,” Das addressed concerns from lawmakers regarding FinCEN’s authority to pursue information on illicit digital asset transactions. Kentucky Representative ​​Andy Barr said many of the current “special measures” FinCEN was authorized to use under Section 311 of the PATRIOT Act were “rarely used,” while Das hinted that digital assets were essentially new ground for the law aimed at Anti-Money Laundering, or AML, and Countering the Financing of Terrorism, or CFT.

“Section 311 was enacted in a time when most financial relationships and transactions were done through the traditional banking system where there are traditional correspondent account relationships,” said Das. “Nowadays, cross-border transactions often include money services businesses, payment systems, […] foreign exchange houses as well as cryptocurrency.”

Das added that FinCEN’s current authority under the PATRIOT Act would likely not stop actors from engaging in illicit transactions for ransomware attacks and darknet markets:

“Currently, the Section 311 authority is not right-sized for the types of threats that we’re seeing through the use of cryptocurrency.”

In addition to questions regarding FinCEN’s authority to assess suspicious transactions, many lawmakers questioned how the bureau might handle Russian oligarchs and entities using cryptocurrency to evade sanctions. Das reiterated FinCEN’s position from March that the Russian government was unlikely to ​​use convertible virtual currencies to evade large-scale sanctions, but would continue to monitor the situation:

“We’ve not seen large-scale evasion through the use of cryptocurrency, but we’re mindful of that and we’re working with financial institutions so that they’re aware of that potential that we can identify a large-scale evasion using cryptocurrency and act on it as well.”

Related: The new episode of crypto regulation: The Empire Strikes Back

According to Das, FinCEN will also be considering how to handle financial monitoring requirements for crypto firms that facilitate certain transactions to self-custodied, or unhosted, wallets. The U.S. Treasury Department proposed Know Your Customer rules on unhosted wallets for transactions of more than $3,000 in December 2020 and hinted in its semiannual agenda and regulatory plan released in January it would be looking at regulating this aspect of the crypto space.

“It’s not that unhosted wallets are entirely opaque,” said Das. “Unhosted wallets often engage in transactions with cryptocurrency exchanges, which are subject to AML/CFT regulation […] Law enforcement can engage with cryptocurrency exchanges with respect to suspicious activity reporting and other reports that might be applicable to them in terms of getting some degree of understanding in terms of transactions with unhosted wallets as well.”

The capital of Argentina and an agglomeration with more than 12 million citizens, Buenos Aires will make blockchain a vital part of its digitalization drive. Specifically, the city will accept public financial transactions in crypto. 

As the city mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta revealed in his Steve Jobs-styled presentation on April 25, the 12-step development plan titled “Buenos Aires +” envisions a significant increase in crypto and blockchain adoption.

See more

Con Buenos Aires + vamos a dar un paso más en el camino hacia un Estado facilitador que desburocratice y agilice los procesos. Un camino en el que el Estado sea el que se acerca a la gente, y no al revés. pic.twitter.com/yi6fUMmAUI

— Horacio Rodríguez Larreta (@horaciorlarreta) April 26, 2022

The city authorities intend to launch a platform for citizens’ digital IDs that will hold all the necessary information, such as birth dates and vaccine certificates, medical records, education documents. To make sure that such sensitive data is well-protected, the platform will run on distributed ledger technology (DLT). As Larreta emphasized in his speech:

“All that information stream, which will widen in a geometrical progression, will be protected by blockchain technology […] We are going to become the pioneers of that technology adoption so the users could control their data on their own.”

The move would mark the second step towards the digitalized Buenos Aires out of 12. What’s even more intriguing is that the ninth step entails the option for citizens to pay their taxes in cryptocurrencies. While the city itself won’t hold crypto on its public accounts, it will convert the citizens’ cryptocurrency transactions into Argentinian pesos.

As Buenos Aires’ secretary of innovation and digital transformation Diego Fernández specified in a separate statement, the city is going to partner with local crypto exchanges, such as SatoshiTango, Buenbit, Ripio and Belo, to facilitate such payments.

In December 2021, the Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin visited Buenos Aires during Web3 protocol The Graph’s launch anniversary. On that sojourn he had a meeting with the former president of Argentina, Mauricio Macri, who also happens to be the ex-mayor of Buenos Aires and Larreta’s fellow member at the “Republican Proposal” party.