Month: March 2021

Wolfram Blockchain Labs, the cryptocurrency-centric division of popular computing engine provider Wolfram Alpha, is adding support for Tezos on its platform, providing a two-way interface with the blockchain. Announced on Monday, the integration adds support for Tezos blockchain data within the Wolfram Language, which allows developers to obtain analytical data from the blockchain. The language specializes in advanced statistical queries that analyze smart contract activity, and the integration primarily aims to ease the deployment of smart contracts on Tezos. In Read more …

MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin buying spree shows no signs of slowing after CEO Michael Saylor announced the purchase of another 328 Bitcoin (BTC) on Monday. The acquisition, which was paid for in cash, cost the firm around $15 million and equated to an average coin price of $45,710 at the time of purchase. The investment takes MicroStrategy’s total Bitcoin holdings to 90,859 coins — a haul worth $4.3 billion based on the current price. The firm has essentially dollar-cost-averaged into Bitcoin over the course Read more …

press release PRESS RELEASE. Decentralized storage is a crucial infrastructure in the technical field. With the Filecoin mainnet launch in October of 2020, Filecoin and IPFS are now leading the decentralized storage field. One of the star projects of the IPFS/Polkadot ecosystem, Crust Network proposes to implement key concepts of Filecoin based on the Substrate technical framework within the Polkadot ecosystem, and also address several design and technical issues of Filecoin. After several rounds of internal testing, Crust Network has Read more …

Hackers have threatened to release sensitive company documents supposedly belonging to USDT stablecoin issuer Tether unless the firm sends a 500 Bitcoin (BTC) ransom to a specified address. As revealed by the official Twitter account for Tether on Feb. 28, hackers purportedly threatened to leak documents that would “harm the Bitcoin ecosystem” if their ransom demands are not met. Tether has already stated that it will not pay the ransom, which amounts to a dollar value of $23.8 million at Read more …

India’s central bank has recognized the potential benefits of central bank digital currencies but not without including a few pitfalls. The Reserve Bank of India offered its assessment of CBDCs as part of its report on currency and finance issued on Feb. 28. As part of the report, the RBI noted that several countries are exploring the creation of their own sovereign national digital currency. According to the central bank’s report, CBDCs can help to promote financial inclusion and transactional Read more …

Authorities of the Chinese autonomous region of Inner Mongolia have proposed to close down all local cryptocurrency mining facilities to reduce energy consumption in the region. The Inner Mongolia National Development and Reform Commission, or NDRC, released an official proposal to shut down local crypto mining operations in line with its energy-saving rules. Published on Feb. 25, the draft proposal suggests to “comprehensively clean up and shut down virtual currency mining projects” by the end of April 2021. The authority Read more …

Just days after the conclusion of its long-running feud with the Office of the Attorney General of New York, Tether says it is now a victim of an extortion attempt. According to the stablecoin issuer, the blackmailers are threatening to release documents they claim “will harm the bitcoin ecosystem” if their demand for the payment of 500 bitcoins is not met. Tether Not Paying the Ransom However, in its statement dismissing the threat, Tether says the blackmailers were attempting to Read more …

The decentralized smart contract platform Fantom (FTM) continued its resurgent rally to the tune of 50% on Monday, despite a temporary network outage that saw the blockchain stop producing blocks for seven hours. Fantom emerged among the top 100 in the market cap rankings in January — eventually going on a 5,000% run that peaked in late February. Since then, the coin’s bull run subsided, but its value against the United States dollar still stands 3,434% higher than it did Read more …

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) recovered by more than 8% overnight on March 1 following a steep drop during the weekend. There are three reasons the price of Bitcoin recovered swiftly in the past 24 hours. They include the recovering global stock market, rising Coinbase premium, and a typical weekend reversal. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: Tradingview Rising global stock market coincides with weekend reversal The global stock market has started to recover as soon as the market opened Read more …

Crypto-friendly Japanese retailer Rakuten is now enabling users of Rakuten Wallet, its crypto exchange subsidiary, to easily spend their cryptocurrency holdings in everyday transactions.  According to an announcement published on Feb. 24, users are now able to load up their Rakuten Pay accounts seamlessly with their wallet holdings of Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Ether (ETH). Rakuten Pay is a mobile payment app that is operative nationwide and supported at a wide range of large and medium-scale retailers.  Diagram showing Read more …

The world’s largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), is at a defining moment in history, according to analysis from American investment bank Citigroup. Bitcoin is now at a “tipping point” to either become the preferred currency for international trade or face a “speculative implosion,” Citi analysts reportedly said. According to a Reuters report Monday, Citi analysts are confident that Bitcoin is on the cusp of going mainstream. According to the report, Bitcoin’s tremendous potential has been fueled by recent big Bitcoin moves Read more …

Russian oil firm Gazprom Neft’s aviation subsidiary — Gazpromneft-Aero — announced Monday that it has completed a successful pilot of its blockchain-based refueling project, Smart Fuel. The new platform was implemented for more than 100 scheduled flights of Russian budget airline Smartavia, operating at the international airport of Murmansk. Alongside Smartavia, the pilot involved major banks VTB and Raiffeisenbank. Dmitry Makarov, head of the Smart Fuel project, told Cointelegraph that the blockchain-based trial in Murmansk ran from September to December 2020. Read more …