Bitcoin Price: US$ 43,873.56 (-1.51%)
Ethereum Price: US$ 3,122.30 (-1.92%)
Hash Rate Soars, New Yield Farms, & Crypto Security Tips
- Hash rate is defined as the total combined computational power used to mine and process transactions on Proof-of-Work Blockchains.
- For context, a higher hash rate is indicative of more miners securing the network by verifying the blockchain’s transactions.
- Last year, we saw BTC’s hash rate dropped significantly from 200M TH/s to 61M TH/s after China implemented its ban on crypto mining. China held more than 50% at the start of 2021, but as the ban started taking effects, it has since dropped to 0% as miners move their operations out of China.
- As a result of the ban, USA now holds the largest share of BTC’s global hash rate at 35.4% as of August 2021. Though a little outdated, it shows where the miners could be moving to. (Unfortunately, August 2021 is the most recent geographical data that is available by Cambridge.)
- Since the hash rate dip, it has swiftly recovered in just a few months and just this week, it hit 248M TH/s hash rate, the highest it has ever been. This means that the number of miners has been growing even as some move out of China. This spike could be a result of miners finishing the migration of their farms from China to other countries and starting to operate again.
- Drachma is a decentralized non-custodial automated market maker (AMM) which features “Curve style” hyper-efficient low-slippage swaps for both pegged and unpegged assets. Drachma will be a fair launch with no VCs, private, or team allocations. 100% of the tokens will be used to incentivize liquidity for the pools on Drachma as well as the Drachma token itself.
Colorado Will Accept Crypto For State Tax Payment
- Colorado residents will be able to pay their state taxes in cryptocurrency by the middle of this year, according to the state’s governor.
- The governor also said that the objective is to eventually accept cryptocurrency for all payments made in the state.
Twitter enables users to give and receive Ethereum tips natively
- In Sept. 2021, Twitter enabled Bitcoin payments as the first cryptocurrency payment option available via its tipping jar. Wednesday, the social media platform added a slew of fresh payment services to these existing tipping options, including Ethereum (ETH).
- Users looking to receive ETH tips simply need to enable the platform’s tipping features, and add an Ethereum address to the dedicated section of their profile. However, an attempt to add an ENS domain name in place of a full alpha-numeric address proved unsuccessful, prompting an error box that indicated punctuation was invalid.
- When it comes to Bitcoin, tips can be sent through the Bitcoin Lightning Network, which sends payment using the Strike app. The company provided no other details pertaining to tipping in ETH, however. For now, tips are only available for users on iOS and Android phones. According to Twitter, users keep 100% of the tips they receive.
NEO price climbs after China’s BSN gives the project the green light on NFT marketplaces
- Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the price of NEO has climbed 60% since hitting a low of $16.10 on Jan. 24 to hit a daily high of $25.68 on Feb. 11 and the project is once again on the move as its 24-hour trading volume surged 292% on Feb. 17.
- Three reasons for the increase in demand for NEO include the adoption of the Neo blockchain by China’s Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN), the full rollout of Neo N3 and the launch of several nonfungible tokens (NFT) and decentralized finance (DeFi) projects on the network.
The Metaverse Now Has Its First Major Bank, JPMorgan
- The top global bank, JPMorgan, recently announced the opening of its latest branch, Onyx, and this time, it is in the metaverse. JPMorgan’s Onyx Lounge, which is a virtual ode to its blockchain-based deposit banking project, is the first of its kind in the metaverse, making JPM the first multinational mainstream bank to do so.
- Leveraging upon the immutability and security of blockchains, the Onyx blockchain system which was recently launched by the Wallstreet bank will become a revolutionary innovation within the fiat payment system much the same way JPMorgan is positioning its latest branch in the metaverse to become the de facto deposit financial transaction and payment solution in the metaverse.
Bitcoin Supply On Exchanges Hits Multi-Year Low, Reigniting Hopes For An Ultra-Bullish Q1 Close
- Despite a series of dramatic sell-offs, data by on-chain data analysis firm Santiment now shows that Bitcoin’s supply on exchanges has hit a multi-year low, dropping to just 10.87% compared to 13.9% about six months ago. The last time something like this happened was in December 2018, a scenario that preceded a sustained bull run, seeing the cryptocurrency gain over 200%.
- This is also the opposite to what was witnessed in May and November last year when the number of addresses sending their coins to exchanges drastically increased, after which the price corrected by roughly 50%. The continued drop in coins on exchanges has historically proven pivotal to Bitcoin’s price as it reduces the risk of major sell-offs.
Fidelity International launches Bitcoin ETP on Deutsche Boerse
- Major financial services firm Fidelity International will be listing a Bitcoin exchange-traded product on the SIX Swiss Exchange and Germany’s Xetra digital stock exchange.
- According to a Tuesday announcement from Deutsche Boerse, a physical Bitcoin exchange-traded product, or ETP, from Fidelity International is now available for trading on the Deutsche Boerse Xetra and Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the ticker FBTC. In addition, the company reportedly said it planned to have the crypto investment vehicle listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange in the coming weeks.
- Fidelity Digital Assets will act as the custodian for the physically-backed Bitcoin (BTC) ETP, which will be centrally cleared with global exchange Eurex Clearing. The ETP has a total expense ratio of 0.75%.
Chainlink Verifiable Random Function v2 goes live on mainnet
- On Wednesday, blockchain oracle solution Chainlink (LINK) announced the release of Chainlink Verifiable Random Function, or VRF, v2. As told by its developers, the new, improved version of the random number generator can reduce transaction fees by 60% compared to v1. Randomness is a core component of making nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, and gaming applications fair and secure. On their own, blockchains and smart contracts cannot guarantee randomness, but rather require an oracle network to deliver such solutions on-chain.
Lingerie For Your Avatar? Victoria’s Secret Prepares To Enter The Metaverse
- It has recently come to light that lingerie brand Victoria’s Secret has filed an application with the US Patent and Trademark Office that shows its intention to enter the metaverse. This was posted by patent attorney Mike Kondoudis on Twitter this week. The application clearly shows the intention of the luxury brand to begin offering digital undergarments and other fashion items.
- Not only will it offer these digital items which are essentially NFTs, but it will also offer “information, photos, images, videos, recorded footage, highlights, and experiences in the field of fashion, clothing, fashion accessories, and style,” the patent filing reads.
- Additionally, Victoria’s Secret will offer “entertainment services, namely, providing online, non-downloaded clothing, undergarments, footwear, headwear, eyewear, bags, fashion accessories, photos, images, videos, and recorded footage for use in brutal environments and virtual fashion shows.”
Rarible Partners with VR Platform Cyber on Virtual NFT Marketplace Initiative
- Ethereum-based Rarible Protocol is partnering with virtual reality platform Cyber to create a virtual NFT marketplace. Under this initiative, Cyber will integrate Rarible’s tech to grant Cyber users access to collectibles beyond the Cyber marketplace. These collectibles include all the projects that currently use the Rarible Protocol, including Rarible.com, a top 10 NFT marketplace. In fact, according to DappRadar, Rarible.com has registered about $291.88 million in trading volume since its inception over two years ago.
