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The NFT (Non-fungible Token) markets are seeing renewed interest from users. Towards the end of 2022, the space witnessed a significant decline in user activity. Now, according to Glassnode, NFT transactions have increased their overall gas consumption by 97% for the past two months. Activity levels are reaching those during the boom of the non-fungible space. The introduction of new collections by some of the biggest competitors has been credited for the renewed interest. Nonetheless, the events surrounding the Blur Airdrop are primarily responsible for the spike in gas demand over the past two weeks. Source: Glassnode Following its airdrop on Feb. 14, Blur overtook OpenSea and now controls 78% of the NFT transfer volume. Despite the token’s recent 13% value decline, the airdrop renewed interest in the upstart competitor. Blur’s market share increased by 34%, cutting OpenSea’s share by more than half, from 36% to 15%. OpenSea restructured its pricing model and pol...

Join Our Telegram channel to stay up to date on breaking news coverage The month of February has been truly tumultuous for the king of the cryptocurrency world- Bitcoin. What initially looked like a resurgence of the coin in the middle of this month turned out to be a leverage point for its sudden fall. Today Bitcoin is trading at around $23,403. There has been a hike of around $135.2 in its value which account for a 0.59% increase in the last 24 hours. Bitcoin ’ s current market capitalization stands at over $451 billion in value. Its 24-hour trading volume currently stands at around $897 million. Bitcoin ’ s price performance in the last two weeks puts big questions in the mind of investors. In addition to this, there is a looming fear of inflation which may turn the entire cryptocurrency market volatile. Amidst these recent developments, people are concerned about Bitcoin and want to know where it is heading from here. Let us see if Bitcoin ’ s past indica...

Opinions vary on BTC price strength, with Bloomberg Intelligence warning that $25,000 may stay in place as major resistance. Bitcoin (BTC) sought to end the week above $23,000 into the Feb. 26 close as concerns heightened over stubborn resistance. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView BTC price bulls keep faith in $30,000 Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD reaching $23,318 on the day, up $600 from its weekend lows. The latest move marked a modest comeback after a grim week for risk assets which saw United States equities suffer thanks to above-expected inflation data. Despite that, Bitcoin still remained below levels flagged by analysts as important to reclaim before the end of the month . Only isolated voices remained optimistic, these including popular trader Kaleo, who maintained that $30,000 remained a BTC price “magnet.” #Bitcoin / $BTC $30K is still a magnet. pic.twitter.com/68EeKhiBVv — K A L E O (@CryptoKaleo) February...

Subsquid integrates with Reef. Subsquid brings a reliable and amazing indexing solution to Reef Chain that will provide developers access to high-quality data, to help build faster and better dApps. In addition, Sub squid , the most developer-friendly way to build and deploy custom GraphQL APIs for blockchain use cases, will now be available for developers to build faster and better dApps on Reef Chain. Moreover, Subsquid, which was founded in late 2021, has developed Squids, a new standard for extracting and utilizing Web3 data. A Squid allows dApp developers to retrieve Web3 blockchain data in a fast, easy, reliable, and cost-effective way, and use it to build next-gen blockchain applications with advanced features like live data updates with GraphQL subscriptions. Reef Chain is a Layer-1 EVM (and soon Multi-VM) compatible blockchain, designed to make Web3 accessible to the next billion users. Additionally, Reef provides unparalleled speed, security, and scalability, all at extremely...

2022 saw an overall decline in the amount of venture capital funding going into the blockchain and cryptocurrency space. 2022 will go down as a tough year for the cryptocurrency space and bleak market conditions were mirrored by a downtrend of venture capital funding flowing into blockchain and crypto activities. A report from Blockdata highlights consecutive drops in funding through all four quarters of 2022, following booming venture capital funding into the wider Web3 space through 2021. Analyzing data from CB Insights, Blockdata rounded off 2022’s final quarter of venture capital funding value noting a 34% decline from Q3 2022. The last quarter of the year was down drastically in funding value in contrast to Q1 and Q2, dropping by 67% and 53% in comparison to the two quarters. The subsequent drop in venture capital investment dropped every quarter from an all time high of $11 billion in investments from a cumulative 692 deals in the first four months of 2022. Blockdata points to ...

In a joint statement released today, the Federal Reserve has warned banks to watch for crypto currency liquidity risks. Moreover, various US banking regulators have released the statement to ensure banks are on alert for crypto-related clients. The statement was issued by the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and was issued today. Moreover, Reuters reported this statement urged banks to implement, “robust tools in place to monitor funds placed by crypto-asset related entities.” JUST IN: 🇺🇸 Federal Reserve warns banks to watch for #crypto currency liquidity risk. — Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) February 23, 2023 FED Warns Banks of Crypto-Related Risk The last few weeks have been headlined by a clear pursuit of regulators over the crypto sector. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has led the charge, settling charges made by entities like Kraken and Paxos. ...

The blockchain has not produced any new blocks or processed transactions for at least an hour and 40 minutes, leading some to believe its currently suffering an outage. Layer-2 scaling solution Polygon (MATIC) has not processed a block in over an hour and a half, leading some to believe that the block chain network could be suffering from an outage . Latest blocks and transactions on Polygon. Source: Polygonscan According to data from Polygonscan, the block chain's last block and transaction was processed at around 8:35 pm UTC on Feb. 22. The network has previously suffered network outages, with the last occurring on Mar. 21-22, 2022 due to maintenance required on one of the network's three layers. The Polygon team is yet to comment on the outage . This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available. Source: https://thebittimes.com/breaking-polygon-blockchain-reportedly-suffers-network-outage-tbt39058.html?utm_source=blogger_sour...

The upgrade is only for the Sepolia network and a subsequent upgrade for Goerli network would be introduced in March. Ethereum core developer Tim Beiko announced the Shapella (Shanghai/Capella) upgrade is scheduled for Feb. 28. The Shapella network upgrade will activate on the Sepolia network at epoch 56832. Shanghai and Capella are the names of the upcoming Ethereum hard fork. Shanghai is the name of the fork on the execution client side, and Capella is the upgrade name on the consensus layer client side. Some of the key Ethereum improvement proposals (EIP) changes on the execution layer include Warm Coinbase and Beacon chain push withdrawals. The push withdrawals will make way for validator withdrawals from the beacon chain to the EVM via a new "system-level" operation type. On the other hand, WARM Coinbase could be a game changer that could reduce network fees for some of the key network participants called builders. Coinbase here is the name of the software that build...

Global technology firm Bosch partners in the launch of a new foundation, committing $100 million to a Web3, AI and IoT grant program. A $100 million is being earmarked for a grant program funding the development of Web3, AI and decentralized technologies in a partnership between Bosch and Fetch.ai. The two companies are collaborating to create the Fetch.ai Foundation, which will aim to fuel industrial adoption of innovative software, AI and Web3 technologies. The initiative will fund research and develop decentralized technologies for real-world use cases. The program will provide $100 million in grants to fund the long-term development of Web3-based solutions and services for the mobility, industrial technology and consumer industries. An announcement shared with Cointelegraph indicates that the grant program will invest in select companies and partners over a three-year period. Fetch.ai is a Cambridge-based artificial intelligence firm developing a decentralized machine learning ne...

A well-known crypto strategist says that Litecoin (LTC), Apecoin (APE), and SushiSwap (SUSHI) look like they are ready to rally against the bear market. Altcoin Sherpa, a fake analyst, tells his 184,700 Twitter followers that the prices of these three digital assets are most likely to go up. “Best current coins to long in the short term IMO [in my opinion]: APE, SUSHI, LTC.” Sherpa now focuses on Binance Coin (BNB), saying that the cryptocurrency issued by the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange may also go up. “Mega EMA [exponential moving average] support on the 4 hours around here. I think this is a decent area to long tbh [to be honest] but I don’t see a ton of s/r [support/resistance] support. Still a good one to consider for longer-term plays though.” Source: Altcoin Sherpa/Twitter In a new strategy session video, Altcoin Sherpa also gives a market update on Bitcoin (BTC). He says that Bitcoin’s price will likely start to ri...

Personalized offers, financing loans, insurance, seamless payment and preferred payment mode were some of the key features that came out as top priorities for customers. A new study by DECTA highlighted the importance of embedded finance features in today's fintech world. With online shopping and digital payments becoming a norm, the study pointed towards some of the key drivers for a seamless experience for customers. Embedded finance is a new type of software distribution that works with financial infrastructure providers to include financial services in the ecosystems of already-existing products. The most common embedded finance offerings include banking, lending, insurance, Payments and branded credit cards. According to the study, quick Payments and the availability of a selected payment option are the most crucial elements for a satisfying online buying experience. The lack of a preferred payment option or friction during the checkout process is the main reason for a ba...

A former boyfriend of Ruja Ignatova, the mastermind of the Ponzi scheme Onecoin, has received five years in prison. The sentence is for the laundering of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of proceeds from the notorious crypto scam which defrauded investors around the world. Ruja’s Former Boyfriend Sentenced for Money Laundering Linked to Onecoin Gilbert Armenta, the ex- boyfriend of crypto pyramid Onecoin’s founder Ruja Ignatova, has been sentenced in the United States, Bloomberg Law reported. According to court documents, he helped launder $300 million of proceeds from one of the largest Ponzi schemes in crypto history. In 2018, Armenta, now 59, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud, money laundering and extortion, all in connection with Onecoin. He cooperated with prosecutors in the investigation into the scam for about two years but later committed other crimes, violating the agreement. Founded in 2014, Onecoin operated as a global multi-level-marketing networ...

Opera, the Web3 browser, and Unstoppable Domains, the non-fungible token (NFT) domain provider, have announced that users can now access all domain endings, including .x, .crypto, and .nft, across Opera’s browsers. Additionally, Opera and Unstoppable are offering a free .nft domain that matches an Opera user’s Twitter handle after account verification. Opera Expands Web3 Capabilities With Access to Polygon Domains Unstoppable Domains, the crypto domain provider, and Web3 browser Opera announced the firms are expanding their partnership to support all Unstoppable top-level domains, including .nft, .crypto, .wallet, and .x. The two companies believe that these domains offer an accessible digital identity system, enabling anyone to create a Web3 website using an Unstoppable domain. In November 2022, Web3 browser company Opera launched degenknows.io, a tool for tracking and exploring NFT analytics. The following month, Opera announced the Alteon Launchpad, enabling users to m...

The bonds were underwritten by four banks and priced at a yield of 4.05%. The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (HKSAR Government) announced on Feb 16 that it had issued HK$800 million in tokenized green bonds , under the Government's Green Bond Program (GBP). The bonds were underwritten by four banks and priced at a yield of 4.05%. According to the announcement, the platform used Goldman Sachs' tokenization protocol GS DAP for the bond, which uses a private blockchain network to settle security tokens representing the beneficial interests of bonds in a T+1 payment-vs-payment (DvP) manner, and cash tokens representing claims on the HKMA's Hong Kong dollar legal tender.  Tokenization, the process of representing assets or securities as digital tokens, is a relatively new concept in the financial world. By using blockchain technology to create digital tokens, issuers can provide more transparency, efficiency, and ...

Join Our Telegram channel to stay up to date on breaking news coverage The Graph price appears to have woken up, this time with a bang, as bulls look forward to propelling GRT past $1.00. Over 10% gains have come in over 24 hours as the Web3 protocol, which provides access to blockchain data rebounded from support at $0.41. Selected technical indicators like the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator show bulls holding the reins. As The Graph price exchanges hands at $0.185, the question is – will bulls weaken a critical but strong resistance at $0.20? There has been a slight dip in the 24-hour trading by 2.18% to $279 million. If the drop carries on, it would prove difficult to sustain GRT’s uptrend. Remember decreasing volumes often suggest investors are more concerned about booking profits and locking in gains. However, it is too early to tell if bears have a chance to unsettle the bulls, especially with the crypto market being generally bullish ...