Cryptocurrency

A major Brazilian bank is offering a new and convenient option for taxpayers to settle their dues using cryptocurrencies. According to a statement published by Brazilian bank Banco do Brasil on Feb. 11, it is now “possible” for Brazilian taxpayers to pay their tax bill with crypto in a joint initiative with Brazilian-based crypto firm Bitfy.

Will 2023 finally see an explosion of crypto gaming? The signs are mixed, with former play-to-earn darling Axie Infinity falling out of favor and hemorrhaging players, while mainstream gamers report that Web3 games still have playability issues. The bright spot is that AAA games are finally starting to emerge in Web3, with projects like Illuvium

Top Stories This Week Kraken reaches $30M settlement with SEC over staking as IRS seeks user information Kraken has agreed to stop offering staking services or programs to United States clients after reaching an agreement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Along with ceasing operations, the crypto exchange will pay $30 million in

Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industry’s most important developments. China airdrops 180 million digital yuan to celebrate Lunar New Year  According to state-owned media Global Times, Chinese cities airdropped a total of 180 million digital yuan (e-CNY) worth $26.6 million to boost consumption during the Lunar New Year celebrations between

According to data from DefiLlama, Ethereum staking service Rocket Pool reached $1 billion in total value locked (TVL) on Feb. 9. The move comes less than two years after the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol launched its mainnet on Nov. 9, 2021. Dubbed a liquid staking solution for Ethereum, Rocket Pool allows users to join an

The United States Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said on Feb. 7 that the “disinflationary process, the process of getting inflation down,” has started but it is still in its very early stages. He cautioned that strong data would be met with more rate hikes. Though the comments are mixed, they triggered buying in the

Avalanche (AVAX) witnessed a meteoric start to 2023, gaining 98% in 30 days, and traders are now curious about whether the rally will extend throughout February. AVAX’s year-to-date gains for 2023 have outpaced those of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). Recent reasons for AVAX’s rally can be attributed to an Amazon partnership announcement on Jan. 11.

Infura is developing a decentralized marketplace of data providers that will help to prevent Web3 app crashes in the future, according to a Feb. 6 Cointelegraph interview with Infura researcher Patrick McCorry. McCorry stated that the new “Dfura” or “decentralized Infura” will help to ensure that blockchains remain decentralized by distributing data provider services among

The Shiba Inu (SHIB) price was at the lowest versus its top rival, Dogecoin (DOGE), in November 2022. Three months later, the dynamics have flipped.  SHIB price rises 100% versus DOGE On Feb. 4, 2023, the SHIB/DOGE pair reached 0.00001638 DOGE, up almost 100% three months after bottoming out at 0.00000993 DOGE, its lowest level

The price of Fantom (FTM) risks pulling back in February due to a growing divergence between its price and momentum in recent weeks. FTM price rallies 230% after Cronje’s 2023 roadmap FTM’s price has grown by 230% in the past five weeks, trading at $0.61 on Feb. 5. The rally came as a part of

In September 2022, Interchain Foundation, the team behind Cosmos’ development , introduced the Cosmos ATOM 2.0 whitepaper. The document proposed significant changes to Cosmos’s design, including a tokenomics upgrade to fund the Cosmos ecosystem development and reduce ATOM inflation. While the whitepaper launch acted as a bullish catalyst for ATOM price, the community vote to

The next crypto bull market will start sooner than most people think, according to Mark Yusko, founder and CEO of Morgan Creek Capital Management. Yusko thinks the next crypto bull run or, as he calls it, “the crypto summer,” could kick off as soon as the second quarter of this year due to the combination

The memecoin phenomenon didn’t prove as effective in the last month’s start of year crypto market rally, as the gains of the top cryptocurrencies in this category barely outperformed Bitcoin. The monthly gain of BTC stood at 44.5%, while the top two meme-based coins DOGE and SHIB gained 27% and 40.7%, respectively. Top meme-coins by

Bitcoin (BTC) gained about 40% in January, its best finish in the first month of the year since 2013. The sharp rally caused a change in sentiment and the futures markets which saw backwardation in November and December started trading at a healthy contango in January, according to Glassnode. Coming out of a bear market

According to a Jan. 31 post by Ethereum Foundation developer Parithosh Jayanthi, the “Zhejiang” public withdrawal testnet will launch on Feb. 1 at 3:00 pm UTC. Six days after Zhejiang, the Shanghai and Capella testnets will also be triggered at epoch 1350. Jayanthi noted: “This is also a great opportunity for all tools to test

USD Coin (USDC) issuer Circle has released an accountant-verified report of its treasury reserve holdings backing more than $44.5 billion worth of tokens currently in circulation. Circle’s December 2022 reserve report, reviewed by Grant Thornton accountancy group, breaks down the current make-up of the stablecoin issuer’s reserve vault. According to Circle, 44,553,543,212 USDC is currently

Traders tend to lighten up positions before important events because they hate uncertainty. The United States Federal Reserve’s policy decision is on Feb. 1, where the central bank is expected to hike rates by 25 basis points. Market observers will keenly watch for any hints about how high the rates could go. That could be

Top Stories This Week FTX creditor list shows airlines, charities and tech firms caught in collapse The complete list of creditors owed money by the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX has been released, revealing a wide range of global companies. Among the potential creditors are airlines, hotels, charities, banks, venture capital companies, media outlets and crypto

Azuki, a popular nonfungible token (NFT) project, had its Twitter account compromised on Jan. 27, leading to hackers stealing over $750,000 worth of USD Coin (USDC) by posting a malicious “wallet drainer link” posing as a virtual land mint. Hackers stole $751,321.80 in USDC from a single wallet within half an hour of the malicious links being tweeted,

A bill introduced to the New York State Assembly on Jan. 26 would allow state agencies to accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment for fines, civil penalties, taxes, fees and other payments charged by the state. JUST IN: A New York Senate has introduced a bill to allow #Crypto as a form of payment

Stablecoins in the cryptocurrency market help provide U.S. dollar-pegged tokens within the volatile industry. In bull markets, the market capitalization of stablecoins tends to decrease as investors flock to more volatile assets; and in bear markets, investors seek shelter in low-volatility stablecoins, thus increasing their market caps. On Jan. 26, the total market capitalization for