Fernando Henriques

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Biggest Movers: XMR Climbs to 6-Month High, TRX up 17% Following News of USDD Stablecoin

TRX was up by over 17% on Thursday, as founder H.E. Justin Sun announced that a new stablecoin, USDD, was going to be launched on the TRON blockchain. XMR was another big mover today, climbing to its highest point since November. TRON (TRX) TRX surged today, as founder H.E. Justin Sun of TRON confirmed that a new stablecoin will be launched on the blockchain. In a tweet, Sun stated that, “TRON DAO joined hands with major blockchain players to launch USDD (Decentralized USD), the most decentralized stablecoin in human history.” Do Kwon of Terra also welcomed the announcement, with TRX/USD rising to an intraday high of $0.07405 on the news. TRX/USD – Daily Chart As of writing, TRX is up 16.54% in today’s session, climbing to its highest point since April 2 as a result. Today’s high sees prices near the long-term ceiling of $0.07500, which hasn’t been broken since March 31, where the move matured to being a false break. Overall, the ceiling has held firm for most of the year thus far, however with the momentum of the moving averages now ascending, we could soon see an eventual move past this point. One potential obstacle will be that of the 14-day RSI, which is now tracking at an eighteen-day high of 66.82, which is marginally below resistance of 68. Monero (XMR) XMR was up by as much as 8% in today’s session, as prices rallied to a multi-month high, following a second day of gains. After trading at a low of $253.56 on Wednesday, XMR/USD surged to a peak of $277.14 earlier on today. Today’s move saw XMR hit its highest point since November 14, when prices were falling from earlier highs close to $300. XMR/USD – Daily Chart As seen on the chart, XMR has now rallied past its key resistance level of $273 as a result of today’s run, however there could be another ceiling in the way. This would be that of the 14-day RSI, which is currently residing at the 68.9 level, which is deeply overbought, and marginally below a ceiling of 69.8. Due to the historic strength of the current price ceiling, it is likely that bears have already entered the market, with more waiting in the wings should this resistance hold.4y

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Bitcoin, Ethereum Technical Analysis: BTC up to $42,550 Ceiling, as Bullish Momentum Continues

Bitcoin, Ethereum Technical Analysis: BTC up to $42,550 Ceiling, as Bullish Momentum Continues  BTC was once again trading higher, as bullish momentum extended during today’s market session. Bitcoin rose to its highest level in eleven days, breaking resistance of $42,500 in the process. ETH was also up, hitting a ten-day high. Bitcoin BTC climbed higher for a fourth consecutive day, pushing the world’s largest cryptocurrency past a key resistance level earlier today. After a bottom of $40,961.10 during Wednesday’s session, BTC/USD raced to an intraday peak of $42,709.75 earlier in the day. This is the highest point bitcoin has reached since April 10. However, on that occasion prices fell towards the $40,000 level. BTC/USD – Daily Chart As of writing, momentum on this occasion seems to be bullish, with the 10-day moving average now upward facing, which typically signifies an incoming price surge. If such a surge were to occur, the target for bulls will likely be the $44,800 ceiling, which hasn’t been hit since April 6. Price strength has also recently broken out of a ceiling of 50.35, and seems to be trying to recapture the 55 level. This could be enough to send the price to $44,800 if it transpires. Ethereum ETH has also recorded its fourth consecutive higher high, with prices today also moving past a long-term resistance point. Following a false breakout of the $3,150 ceiling yesterday, prices went on to fall to a low of $3,045.29 on hump-day. However, Thursday saw this breakout finally sustained, with ETH/USD rallying to a high of $3,166.33. ETH/USD – Daily Chart Today’s peak is the highest ETH has traded at since April 11, and comes as the 14-day RSI has also risen to a high of its own of 12 days. Price strength is now tracking at 52.85, with the 55.15 ceiling clearly the next point of interest for current ETH bulls. As we said yesterday, should this ceiling be hit we will likely see ETH hovering near the $3,300 level, with some even eyeing the $3,500 point.4y

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Last Day - BTC Total Liquidations

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TRON Founder H.E. Justin Sun Announces the Launch of USDD — a Decentralized Stablecoin

PRESS RELEASE. Geneva, Switzerland / April 21 / – H.E. Justin Sun, Founder of TRON, announced today in an open letter on Twitter that an all-new stablecoin is launching on the TRON blockchain, USDD (or Decentralized USD), marking its official entry into the field of decentralized stablecoin. TRON DAO will partner with other blockchain industry leaders to establish USDD. It will leverage the power of mathematics and algorithms to achieve the overarching goal of financial freedom for all. In another open letter, Sun mentioned that a TRON DAO Reserve would be established to ensure the sustainable development of USDD. At the start, USDD will be issued as a TRC token on the TRON network. The TRON DAO Reserve will serve as a transparent mechanism to manage the reserves backing the USDD. USDD will not rely on any centralized institutions for redemption, management, and storage. Instead, it will achieve full on-chain decentralization. USDD will be pegged to the underlying asset, TRX, and issued in a decentralized manner. When USDD’s price is lower than 1 USD, users and arbitrageurs can send 1 USDD to the system and receive 1 USD worth of TRX. When USDD’s price is higher than 1 USD, users and arbitrageurs can send 1 USD worth of TRX to the decentralized system and receive 1 USDD. Regardless of market volatility, the USDD protocol will keep USDD stable at 1:1 against the US dollar via proper algorithms in a decentralized manner. Taken together, this decentralized currency protocol with a stable price will significantly expand use cases of crypto, making it truly accessible with far-reaching implications for the blockchain space and the real economy. After four years of growth, TRON has seen over 87 million on-chain users and 3 billion transactions in its ecosystem. The circulating supply of TRC-20 USDT has exceeded that of ERC-20 USDT, standing at $41 billion, making TRON the world’s largest stablecoin network. It boasts over $55 billion worth of financial assets, including on-chain stablecoins, and has settled and cleared total financial assets of over $4 trillion. In December 2021, the TRON network became fully decentralized and was restructured into the TRON DAO, the world’s largest decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Around that same time, Sun was officially appointed by the government of Grenada as its Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the WTO. Since then, Sun has been actively representing Grenada at different WTO meetings. During his mandate, Sun said that he would proactively promote the integration of cryptocurrencies and sovereign states to build a stronger financial infrastructure that is secure, efficient, and inclusive. Sun has also expressed that he will continue to leverage his experience in digital currency for a joint response to the new challenges facing digital transformation in the post-pandemic era. USDD on TRON marks a small step for developing TRON-based stablecoins and yet a giant leap for mankind in pursuing the ultimate financial freedom. People should enjoy more than the four freedoms that Franklin Roosevelt once proposed – freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. They should also be entitled to freedom of finance, freedom of wealth, and freedom to protect their private properties. The end goal is to make equitable access to financial services a fundamental human right. In time, financial services will become a necessity like water and air, accessible to people worldwide. About TRON DAO TRON is dedicated to accelerating the decentralization of the internet via blockchain technology and decentralized applications (dApps). Founded in September 2017 by H.E. Justin Sun, the TRON network has continued to deliver impressive achievements since MainNet launch in May 2018. July 2018 also marked the ecosystem integration of BitTorrent, a pioneer in decentralized Web3 services boasting over 100 million monthly active users. The TRON network has gained incredible traction in recent years. As of April 2022, it has over 87 million total user accounts on the blockchain, more than 3 billion total transactions, and over $8 billion in total value locked (TVL). In addition, TRON hosts the largest circulating supply of USD Tether stablecoin across the globe, overtaking USDT on Ethereum since April 2021. The TRON network completed full decentralization in December 2021 and is now a community-governed DAO.4y

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Belarus Adopts Legal Procedure for Seizure of Illicit Cryptocurrency

Implementing a recently signed presidential decree, the government of Belarus has introduced a procedure allowing the state to seize digital currency holdings. The move will grant law enforcement authorities in Minsk powers to seize crypto assets linked to illegal activities. Justice Ministry Regulates Confiscation of Digital Coins in Belarus The Ministry of Justice of Belarus has established a legal procedure for the seizure of cryptocurrency funds as part of enforcement proceedings, the crypto news outlet Forklog reported, quoting an announcement released by the department. The measure aims to implement a decree by President Alexander Lukashenko pertaining to the country’s crypto space. Signed by the Belarusian leader in February, it orders the creation of a special register for crypto wallet addresses used for illicit purposes. Authorities conducting the criminal process will account for the seized or forfeited crypto funds, the justice ministry detailed. Its document dated April 14 also covers the foreclosure of digital assets as part of confiscations of debtors’ property and regulates their valuation. The government in Minsk had three months to take the necessary steps to implement Lukashenko’s latest crypto-related order after which it will enter into force. Belarus legalized various crypto activities with another presidential decree signed in late 2017 and enforced in May of the following year. It introduced tax breaks and other incentives for crypto businesses operating as residents of the Hi-Tech Park (HTP) in Minsk within efforts to develop the country’s digital economy. The former Soviet republic, a close ally of Russia, does not allow the use of cryptocurrencies in payments. Nevertheless, Belarus ranks third in the region in terms of crypto adoption, according to the Crypto Adoption Index produced by blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, largely due to strong peer-to-peer activity. In March last year, Lukashenko hinted at a possible tightening of the country’s crypto regulations and referred to China’s policies. However, HTP officials later clarified that Belarusian authorities had no plan to adopt stricter rules for the industry. What’s more, in February of this year, the Ministry of Finance proposed amendments that will allow investment funds to acquire digital assets.4y

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EOS Jumps as Foundation Introduces a New 'Turn-Key Solution for Developers'

EOS, the native token of the EOSIO protocol, is rallying on the news that the network is bringing Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatibility, which would allow developers on the EOS network to create smart contracts using the popular programming language Solidity.  At 10:58 UTC, EOS was trading at USD 2.76 and was up almost 7% in a day. The price jumped 17% in a week, trimming its annual losses to less than 59%. Dubbed the TrustEVM, the new virtual machine was brought into the EOS network by the EOS Network Foundation (ENF), a group of members of the EOS community who rebelled against Block.one, the developer of the EOSIO software, to take over the network codebase.  "TrustEVM is an [Ethereum] Virtual Machine based on the EOS network, offering a turn-key solution for developers to operate their apps on [a] full Ethereum-compatible chain while enjoying the high throughput, scalability, security, and reliability from EOS," Trust EVM said.  The ENF claimed that the new virtual machine would be significantly faster than the other EVMs with 0.5 second block times and 10,000+ transactions per second. Moreover, according to them, the EVM runtime will be compatible with the rest of the EOS dapp (decentralized app) ecosystem, which would allow tokens to be trustlessly moved between the environments. The EOS network is reportedly able to process over 120 million daily transactions without network stoppages. However, according to the ENF, the network failed to attract developers and missed out on the DeFi and NFT booms because of Block.one's "lack of commitment to community or financial support." With the new virtual machine integrated, the foundation says that the EOS network would be able to attract more developers, opening the way for rapid adoption.  "The TrustEVM will usher in the next generation of DeFi and GameFi with limitless possibilities when combining the speed, throughput, and cost of EOS for Solidity-based applications running on the EOS EVM," Yves La Rose, Executive Director of the EOS Network Foundation, was quoted saying in the announcement.4y

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Today Crypto Fear & Greed Index

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Game Studio Blizzard Is Polling Players About Crypto and NFTs

Blizzard, a game studio and part of the Activision-Blizzard company, has started polling some gamers about the use of NFTs and cryptocurrency elements. The survey, which was only directed to some of its players, raised rumors about the possibility of the company introducing some of these elements into its games. However, Mike Ybarra, head of the studio, denied this possibility. Blizzard Makes Selective Poll, Includes NFTs and Play-to-Earn Subjects Blizzard, the game development studio that created franchises like Starcraft, Warcraft, and Overwatch, is polling some gamers about their opinions when it comes to NFTs and play-to-earn mechanics. According to sources on social media, the poll consulted players about issues that included other, more common topics for a gaming company, like augmented reality and cloud gaming. However, there was a section that asked directly about the opinion and the feelings of these users on the inclusion of NFTs and cryptocurrency elements in some of the gaming IPs (intellectual property) of the company. While the survey did not directly point to the implementation of these mechanics into any game, it did raise worries in some gamers about the possibility of this being in the works. However, the head of Blizzard, Mike Ybarra, denied the idea, declaring: No one is doing NFTs. NFTs in the Future Fans of Blizzard were surprised by the answer of Ybarra and the survey, deeming the situation illogical. However, this poll might be related to the future of Activision Blizzard after the acquisition announced by Microsoft for almost $69 billion in January. The future owner of the company, if the purchase clears the legal hurdles it faces, might be interested in taking some of Blizzard’s IPs to experiment with them, which would explain the existence of the exploratory poll. However, there has been no clear news about the origin of the poll. NFTs and the play-to-earn phenomena have been hotly debated topics amongst gamers of AAA franchises, who have shown resistance to the adoption of these elements in traditional games. However, some companies have already included them in part of their business plans, even investing in companies involved in the field. One of the most pro-crypto companies is Ubisoft, which has already launched its own NFT market, called Quartz, and has backed Animoca Brands, the company behind The Sandbox, one of the most well-known metaverse-based platforms. Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda has also declared support for these types of features, highlighting their benefits in a new year’s letter.4y

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Bitcoin and Ethereum Consolidate, ZIL and ZRX Rally

- Bitcoin price is struggling to gain pace above USD 42,000. - Ethereum is consolidating near USD 3,100, XRP is stuck near USD 0.75. - ZIL jumped 19% while ZRX rallied over 50%. Bitcoin price climbed above the USD 41,500 level, moved above USD 42,000 but struggled near USD 42,200. It is currently (04:05 UTC) consolidating gains above USD 41,600 and might remain supported near USD 41,200. BTC is up almost 1% in a day and over 1% in a week. Similarly, most major altcoins remain supported and might eye another increase. ETH tested the USD 3,150 resistance zone before correcting lower. XRP failed to climb above the USD 0.78 resistance.  ADA struggled to clear the USD 0.98 resistance zone. Total market capitalization Source: tradingview.com Bitcoin price After a move above USD 41,500, bitcoin price extended its increase and was able to surpass the USD 42,000 zone. However, the bulls struggled near the USD 42,200 level. The price corrected lower and traded below USD 41,500, before recovering. After the USD 41,200 support zone, the next major support is near USD 40,800, below which the price might revisit USD 40,000. An immediate resistance on the upside is near the USD 42,000 level. The next key resistance could be USD 42,200, above which the price may perhaps start another increase. Ethereum price Ethereum price gained pace above the USD 3,120 resistance. ETH even spiked above the USD 3,150 resistance zone, but there was no upside continuation. The price is now consolidating gains below USD 3,100, with an immediate support at USD 3,080. The next major support is near the USD 3,050 level, below which the price could test USD 3,000. On the upside, the USD 3,150 level might present resistance. The next key resistance might be near the USD 3,220 level.  ADA, BNB, SOL, DOGE, and XRP price Cardano (ADA) attempted a steady move above the USD 0.95 level. However, it failed to clear the USD 0.98 resistance zone. It is now consolidating below USD 0.95 and might test the USD 0.932 level. BNB extended gains above the USD 425 resistance level. It tested the USD 432 resistance zone, where the bears emerged. It is back to USD 420, and, if it continues correcting lower, it may perhaps find bids near USD 415. Solana (SOL) again failed to clear the USD 110 resistance zone. It is moving lower and might test the USD 102 support. The main support on the downside is now forming near the USD 100 level. DOGE failed to stay above the USD 0.145 resistance. It corrected lower and now approaching the USD 0.140 level. If the bears remain in action, the price might slide towards the USD 0.135 support. XRP price is moving lower and approaching the USD 0.750 support. If the price stays above USD 0.75, it could start a fresh move towards USD 0.780. The main resistance is still near USD 0.800. Other altcoins market today A few altcoins are up over 4%, including XMR, APE, THETA, CAKE, EOS, ZEC, CVX, ZIL, ZRX, and KAVA. Out of these, ZRX rallied over 54% and broke the USD 1.10 level, increasing its weekly gains to 45%. ZRX also more than doubled in a month. Meanwhile, ZIL is the best performer among the top 100 cryptoassets by market capitalization today as it jumped 19% and surpassed USD 0.13, increasing its weekly gains to 17%. Overall, bitcoin price is still trading above the USD 41,000 level. If BTC gains pace for a move above the USD 42,000 level, it could accelerate higher in the coming sessions.4y

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Vitalik Buterin Says His Influence Over Ethereum Diminishing, Harder to Make Things Happen

Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin claims his influence over Ethereum “keeps decreasing,” and says he has less influence today than he had six months ago.  “I feel like my influence in Ethereum keeps decreasing every six months. I have less now than I did six months ago. Six months ago, I had less than I had a year ago. And a year ago, I had less than I had 18 months ago,” Buterin said in a recent interview with the American tech entrepreneur and investor Naval Ravikant. He further noted that there are many people in the Ethereum community that even he has to “convince to push in a particular direction.” “If you watch some of the [Ethereum Improvement Proposals – EIPs] that I personally promote, some of them don’t even make it. So for a lot of them you have to try pretty hard to satisfy all people’s concerns,” the Ethereum co-founder said. Asked what was the biggest initiative he had promoted that never got adopted, Buterin offered EIP-4488 as an example, saying it would have been in Ethereum today “if I had more control.” EIP-4488 was described by Buterin as “a fairly technical change” that would lead to a decrease in the cost of rollups over the short term. A rollup is a technology that executes transactions outside the network’s base layer (layer 1) before the data is posted to layer 1 where consensus is reached. Buterin also admitted in the interview that it is becoming harder to make big changes to the Ethereum protocol due to the many stakeholders that have a say in the decision-making process. According to Buterin, protocol decisions today “tend to be done” through a bi-weekly call known as the “all-core devs call,” where everyone has to agree for a proposal to move forward. “Even at the beginning, the research team has to agree. And then in the later stages, the core developers, the people actually writing the code, have to agree as well,” Buterin said. He added that the process of making things happen on Ethereum is “definitely more vetocratic” than it was three years ago, and “definitely much more than it was six years ago, when we could get a change accepted and it would get included very quickly.” “Even now, I feel like the window is closing on substantial things. It’s getting harder to do big things even today,” the Ethereum co-founder said.4y

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Coinbase NFT Marketplace Launches in Beta, Plans to Move Beyond Ethereum

Coinbase NFT, a new non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace by crypto exchange , launched in beta on Wednesday. The exchange also said it plans to decentralize this marketplace by “moving [features] from Coinbase tech to decentralized solutions,” while adding support for NFTs on other blockchains than Ethereum (ETH). Meanwhile, beta testers will be able to create a profile on Coinbase NFT and start buying and selling NFTs, the company said in a blog post. It added that the platform has been built as an open marketplace where users can trade NFTs using their own non-custodial wallets such as MetaMask, without having to use the Coinbase Wallet. For a limited time period, Coinbase transaction fees are waived, the post further said, adding that fees “in-line with Web3 industry standards” will be added later. The new NFT marketplace incorporates several aspects of social media into the trading experience, with an aim to make it intuitive and easy to use for everyone. According to Coinbase, the marketplace allows users to have a personal profile and follow the accounts of others, similar to how social media networks like Instagram works. The platform will also have content feeds customized for each user where NFT traders can up- and downvote other people’s posts and comments. “We’re starting with a small set of beta testers who’ll be invited based on their position on our waitlist. We’ll start at the top of the waitlist and open access to more people over time,” the blog post said. Coinbase said it will add more features “in the coming weeks and months.” The plans include adding support for NFT drops, minting, token-gated communities, as well as an option to buy NFTs directly with a credit card or a Coinbase account. Wednesday’s beta launch marks the company’s latest step into the world of digital art, a journey that started when more than 1 million users signed up on a waitlist to join the platform in a single day in October last year. Commenting on the massive interest at the time, the American entrepreneur Nate Roth said “Coinbase's [NFT] waitlist is already larger than OpenSea's wallets.”4y

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Last Hours - BTC Total Liquidations

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Makerdao Plans to Integrate Ethereum L2 Solution Starknet to Lower DAI Transaction Costs

The decentralized finance (defi) project Makerdao has announced its plans to support the zero-knowledge (ZK) rollup solution Starknet in order to make DAI transactions faster and network costs cheaper. Starknet will be integrated into the defi protocol on April 28, 2022, as part of Makerdao’s multichain strategy expansion. Makerdao’s Multichain Strategy Expansion Grows With Starknet Support On Wednesday, the development team behind the Makerdao project revealed plans to integrate the Ethereum layer two (L2) scaling solution Starknet. The protocol Starknet is a product developed by the startup Starkware and it offers an L2 scaling solution with ZK-based computations that utilize validity proofs. Makerdao is the issuer of the stablecoin DAI, and after Starknet is supported the team believes it will make DAI “minting, trading and liquidation significantly faster.” Starknet’s Makerdao integration follows the project’s bridge deployments on Arbitrum and Optimism. A project contributor from Starknet Core Unit at Makerdao detailed that cross-chain bridge technology has swelled because of expensive gas fees. “As we see unsustainable gas fees drive more activity and users to a wider variety of blockchains, security challenges that come with bridging will continue to grow,” the Starknet Core Unit contributor said in a statement sent to Bitcoin.com News. Projects must move on to Layer-2 to continue to serve users, and Makerdao is partnering with Starknet to do exactly that.” The Starknet Core Unit team member added: With this strategy, we are positioned to cement the Maker’s Protocol’s position as the leading decentralized lending protocol in the industry, and also the status of DAI as the most decentralized, secure stablecoin. Through this development, Makerdao will increase its product offerings and grow alongside Ethereum. While Makerdao Expands, Decentralized Algorithmic Stablecoin Competitors Rise Above DAI Makerdao’s DAI stablecoin is currently the fifth-largest stablecoin crypto asset today with an $8.7 billion market capitalization. For quite some time following DAI’s inception, Makerdao’s stablecoin was the largest decentralized stablecoin by market capitalization, but recently Terra’s UST has surpassed DAI’s overall valuation. Makerdao also has its own native coin maker (MKR), which is the 73rd largest market capitalization today with $1.7 billion. During the announcement on Wednesday, the team further said that the upcoming improvements “will likely also increase the number of Makerdao users.” Retail users will be able to leverage Maker Vaults again as well in order to deposit collateral and generate DAI. Currently, the engineering team has started to implement a multiphase roadmap for the integration by first creating a simple cross-chain bridge tethered to a wallet. “Subsequent phases include the release of fast withdrawals in Q2, followed by near-instant teleportation of DAI across Layer-2,” Makerdao’s announcement concludes. “Finally the implementation of the entirety of Makerdao on Starkware—heralding multi-collateral DAI (MCD) contracts and an interface to migrate bad debt to the Ethereum Layer-1.”4y

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Bitcoin & Crypto ‘Tribalism’ Hurts Entire Market, Ripple CEO Says

The “tribalism” that has formed around bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptoassets is becoming a problem for the entire crypto market, according to Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of the XRP-affiliated American fintech firm Ripple. The comments were made during a fireside chat at the Paris Blockchain Week Summit last week, per a CNBC report. “I own bitcoin, I own ether, I own some others. I am an absolute believer that this industry is going to continue to thrive,” Garlinghouse was quoted as saying. “Polarization isn’t healthy in my judgment,” he added. He also noted that the “tribalism” seen today means efforts to lobby politicians in the US for favorable regulations have turned into “fractured representation” by the crypto industry. In the conversation, Garlinghouse also compared the crypto industry of today with how the IT industry developed from the late 1990s and early 2000s. “Yahoo could be successful and so could eBay [...] They’re solving different problems,” Garlinghouse said. He added that the two companies can both be successful because “there are different use cases and different audiences and different markets.” “I think a lot of those parallels exist today,” he said. Last week’s comments from Garlinghouse follow a series of hits against bitcoin in particular by representatives for Ripple. Last month, Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen – a long-time critic of Bitcoin’s proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism – teamed up with Greenpeace to fund a USD 5m campaign aimed to discredit proof-or-work in favor of proof-of-stake (PoS). Meanwhile, Garlinghouse himself is also no stranger to attacks on Bitcoin, previously calling mining of the cryptocurrency “a massive waste,” and saying it is “not ideal” for payments. Ripple is in a long-running court battle against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) about the sale of XRP tokens, which the SEC claims constitutes an illegal securities sale.4y

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Nigerian Agencies Told to Stop 'Demonizing' Crypto Industry Players

Nigerian public and law enforcement agencies have been urged to “stop the demonization” of the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry. According to an association that advocates for the risk-based regulation of the crypto industry, financial institutions should not use a Nigerian central bank directive as basis for denying service to industry players. Risk-Based Regulation of Crypto Activities A blockchain and crypto industry association has told Nigerian public and law enforcement agencies to stop demonizing and discriminating against blockchain and crypto entities. In its latest press release, the Stakeholders in Blockchain Technology Association of Nigeria (SIBAN) argues that Nigeria urgently needs risk-based regulation for cryptocurrency activities as well as capacity building. In a press release, SIBAN reiterates its strong belief that a February 5, 2021 directive from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) did not ban cryptocurrencies in Nigeria. Yet, despite there being no law that provides for the arrest or persecution of crypto entities, the association’s statement said industry players are being targeted. “From time to time, instances of undue arrest and detention, bank-account blocking and closures, discrimination, extortion, harassment, intimidation, seizures, and queries, are experienced by persons or entities involved in any blockchain or cryptocurrency activity in Nigeria, particularly since the CBN cryptocurrency directive of 2021,” the statement said. Besides asking security agencies to recognize the blockchain and cryptocurrencies, SIBAN implored banks and other financial institutions to “appreciate the difference between blockchain technology and cryptocurrency.” The advocacy group said in instances where cryptocurrency is not involved, banks and other financial institutions should not use the CBN directive to justify denying service. Capacity Building Recommended SIBAN also opined that if agencies insisted on treating the blockchain just like they treat cryptocurrencies, such a stance would impact the entire banking system. The statement, warning of repercussions if such a move were to be taken, added: If treated as the same, the CBN’s very own blockchain-powered eNaira and any other blockchain-powered product or service in the country would be affected in Nigeria’s banking and financial system as well. This, of course, is not the intention of the CBN. To help Nigerian agencies stop treating or likening the blockchain to cryptocurrencies, the advocacy group recommended “capacity building in blockchain and cryptocurrency, particularly AML-CFT for virtual assets, to banks and other financial institutions.” Meanwhile, SIBAN, which describes itself as a pro-innovation and pro-regulation association, said while it encourages its members to “adhere to the rule of law” it will nevertheless “will explore administrative and legal options to seek redress” in instances where their rights are violated. On the other hand, the statement suggested that the association is ready to collaborate with regulators if ever such a request is made.4y

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Quantum Simulations Predict that Merchant Crypto Adoption Could Spread in 'Cliques'

Quantum computer simulations conducted by researchers at quantum computing startup Multiverse Computing and the Bank of Canada have shown that crypto adoption among merchants can spread in “cliques of firms”, as individual firms generally base decisions on what their partners do. The simulations, said by the researchers to be the first time a central bank from a G7 country uses quantum computing in crypto-related research, showed that such cliques of crypto-embracing merchants would not be all good for adoption.  They could also exclude other players from fully utilizing crypto, the researchers behind the study told Cryptonews.com. The researchers further said that it is important to stimulate the use of crypto to increase the efficiency of the market. This would, in turn, help ensure that everyone who wants to use crypto as a payment can, they said. The simulations were conducted as a proof of concept project in partnership with Canada’s central bank, using a so-called D-Wave Systems quantum annealer. The simulation was able to study financial networks as large as 8-10 players, with up to 2^90 possible network configurations, according to an announcement from the company. It added that solving this with classical computing would have been practically impossible. In terms of the results of the simulations, the researchers said that the cost of crypto adoption will be “a lot higher” for individuals actors if their partners are reluctant to adopt crypto. On the other hand, a single player could drive another to adopt crypto, the researchers said, concluding that actions by an individual player are “highly influenced by its environment.” Looking forward to the future, the researchers opined that more work is needed to extend the model to other types of players, including crypto exchanges. “By incorporating cryptocurrency exchange platforms, for instance, we could gain insight from what happens when certain players have some control over the market,” the researchers told Cryptonews.com. They added that it could also be interesting to study how pressure from regulators in different countries affects crypto adoption among merchants, including how payments between countries with different regulations might develop. Commenting on the quantum simulations, Sam Mugel, chief technology officer at Multiverse Computing, said that they are proud to be a partner of “the first G7 central bank to explore modelling of complex networks and cryptocurrencies through the use of quantum computing.” He argued that the study shows that the firm has been able to “model a complex system reliably and accurately,” and said that this shows what quantum computing is capable of at the current state.4y

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Republic of Ireland to Prohibit Political Cryptocurrency Donations

The government of Ireland is preparing to ban political parties from accepting campaign donations in cryptocurrency. The move aims to block the perceived threat of Russian interference in the European nation’s elections against the backdrop of a clash between the West and Moscow over the war in Ukraine. Ireland to Limit Foreign Political Support for Its Parties, Including Crypto Donations The executive power in Dublin is drafting new political integrity rules to limit foreign political donations amid fears that Russia might try to influence Ireland’s electoral process. The stricter regulations are meant to prevent Irish parties from accepting donations through cryptocurrencies and oblige them to fully reveal their properties. A report by the Irish daily Independent describes the changes as a significant shake-up of the country’s electoral legislation, which will grant the Electoral Commission powers to issue take-down notices to social media platforms and alerts of online misinformation attempts. Local Government Minister Darragh O’Brien, who is leading the reform efforts, has been quoted as stating: The appalling invasion of the Ukraine and insidious disinformation war highlight the ongoing fundamental threats faced by all democracies. O’Brien also unveiled that his colleagues have already agreed to implement the stringent measures he is proposing in order to protect Ireland’s “democratic system given the escalating threat of cyber warfare targeting free countries.” The respective amendments to the political funding laws will be made through the Electoral Reform Bill 2022. The new Electoral Commission of Ireland, which should be established by the summer, will be tasked to also introduce guidelines for political advertising on the internet, including requirements for parties to clearly state how ads are funded and the audiences they are targeting. Party leaders will have to declare that their political organizations are adhering to the new regulations. The initiative to update the Irish political funding rules predates the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In January, Darragh O’Brien asked Attorney General Paul Gallagher to establish a taskforce comprising legal experts and political scientists to examine the need for new election integrity laws. He was citing “serious concerns” over the deteriorating security situation in Eastern Europe and “well-documented escalation of cyberattacks on democratic states.” Meanwhile, the cyberspace has become another battleground in Russia’s war with Ukraine with the two sides registering hacking attacks on government websites and databases. Both Kyiv and Moscow have also turned their attention to cryptocurrencies, with the Ukrainian government raising millions of dollars in crypto donations while the Russian Federation looks to employ crypto assets as a means to evade sanctions.4y

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Bitcoin and Ethereum Consolidate Gains, SNX and APE Rally

- Bitcoin is consolidating gains above the USD 41,200 resistance. - Ethereum tested the USD 3,120 resistance, XRP is still well below USD 0.80. - SNX rallied 21%, while APE jumped 31%. Bitcoin price remained well bid above the USD 40,500 level. BTC extended gains above the USD 41,200 resistance, spiked above USD 41,600, and is currently (04:07 UTC) consolidating gains near USD 41,400. BTC is up almost 2% in a day and 3% in a week. Similarly, most major altcoins are showing positive signs. ETH surpassed the USD 3,080 resistance, but struggled near USD 3,120. XRP is consolidating near the USD 0.765 level. ADA might attempt a move above the USD 0.95 resistance zone. Total market capitalization Source: tradingview.com Bitcoin price After a close above USD 40,000, bitcoin price started another increase. BTC was able to clear the USD 41,200 resistance zone. The bulls even pushed the price above the USD 41,500 resistance. It is now consolidating gains near the USD 41,400 level. An immediate resistance on the upside is near the USD 41,750 level. The next key resistance could be USD 42,500, above which the price may perhaps rise to USD 43,500. On the downside, an initial support is near the USD 41,000 level. The next major support is near USD 40,500, below which the price might revisit USD 40,000. Ethereum price Ethereum price also settled above the USD 3,000 level. ETH was able to surpass the USD 3,080 resistance zone and tested the USD 3,120 resistance, where the bears emerged. ETH is up almost 2% in a day and a week. It is now consolidating gains and might attempt another move above USD 3,120. The next key resistance might be near the USD 3,220 level. If there is a downside correction, the price might find support near USD 3,050. The next major support is near the USD 3,000 level, below which the price could struggle. ADA, BNB, SOL, DOGE, and XRP price Cardano (ADA) is stuck near the USD 0.95 level. The first key resistance is near the USD 0.98 level. The main resistance is near the USD 1.0 level, above which the price could rise steadily. BNB is showing positive signs near the USD 420 level. An immediate resistance is near the USD 425 level. Any more gains may perhaps send the price towards the USD 432 level. Solana (SOL) gained 7% and there was a move above USD 105 resistance. The main resistance is still near the USD 110 level, above which the bulls could gain strength. DOGE attempted an upside break above the USD 0.145 resistance, but it faced a strong resistance. It is now consolidating near USD 0.144. XRP price is still trading near the USD 0.765 level. An immediate resistance is near the USD 0.780 level. The main resistance is still near the USD 0.80 level. A close above USD 0.80 could set the pace for a larger increase. Other altcoins market today Many altcoins are up over 5%, including LUNA, APE, MANA, EGLD, SAND, RUNE, EOS, SNX, AAVE, GMT, KSM, ENJ, and CRV. Out of these, SNX and APE are the two best performers today. SNX jumped 21% and surpassed USD 6, increasing its weekly gains to 23%. APE rallied 31%, broke the USD 16 level, and increased its weekly gains to 41%. Overall, bitcoin price is trading above the USD 41,000 level. If BTC settles above USD 41,500 and USD 41,650, it could start a steady increase in the coming sessions.4y

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US Secret Service Has Seized Cryptocurrency Worth Over $102 Million in 254 Fraud Cases

The U.S. Secret Service has seized cryptocurrency worth more than $102 million in 254 fraud-related investigations. “What criminals want to do is sort of muddy the waters and make efforts to obfuscate their activities,” said the assistant director of the Secret Service’s Office of Investigations. “What we want to do is to track that as quickly as we can, aggressively as we can, in a linear fashion.” US Secret Service Seizes Cryptocurrency Worth $102 Million A senior executive with the U.S. Secret Service, David M. Smith, talked about cryptocurrency in an interview with CNBC, published Tuesday. Smith is a senior executive and special agent currently serving as the 28th Assistant Director of the U.S. Secret Service Office of Investigations, where he leads the agency’s global investigative mission, comprising 161 offices and over 3,000 employees. The Secret Service is responsible for detecting, investigating, and arresting any person who violates certain laws related to financial systems. “In recent years digital assets have increasingly been used to facilitate a growing range of crimes, including various fraud schemes and the use of ransomware,” its website describes. Smith told the news outlet that Secret Service agents and analysts are actively tracking the flow of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on the blockchain, elaborating: When you follow a digital currency wallet, it’s not different than an email address that has some correlating identifiers. “And once a person and another person make a transaction, and that gets into the blockchain, we have the ability to follow that email address or wallet address, if you will, and trace it through the blockchain,” the assistant director affirmed. According to statistics compiled by the agency, the Secret Service has seized more than $102 million in cryptocurrency since 2015 from criminals in connection with 254 cases of fraud-related investigations, the publication conveyed. Smith noted that “One of the things about cryptocurrency is it moves money at a faster pace than the traditional format,” stressing that fast transaction speed makes crypto attractive to both American consumers and criminals. “What criminals want to do is sort of muddy the waters and make efforts to obfuscate their activities,” he noted. “What we want to do is to track that as quickly as we can, aggressively as we can, in a linear fashion.” The assistant director explained that once the Secret Service detects an illegal activity, it works to “dig a little deeper into those transactions and deconstruct” them. Smith said: You send me something bad on an email, I know there’s some criminal activity associated with that email address, I can deconstruct, find whatever tidbits of information that you used when you initially logged in or signed up for that email address. Smith further shared that investigators are finding more and more thieves converting stolen BTC and other cryptocurrencies into stablecoins. He opined: “Because, you know, the criminals, they’re humans too. They want to avoid some of that market volatility associated with some of the major coins.”4y

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Bitcoin Funds See Slowing Investment Outflows, Ethereum Outflows Accelerate

Regulated crypto investment products saw outflows of close to USD 100m last week, as capital continued to leave funds backed by both bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH) in droves. The outflows were partly explained by tax-related selling in the US, while one analyst said the macro landscape for crypto has now improved. "The outflows represent the second week in what we believe is likely a result of recent profit-taking and a reaction to the more hawkish [Federal Open Market Committee, FOMC] statement," CoinShares said. According to them, the prior week to last week saw outflows primarily from the US, while last week most of the outflows were from Europe (88%) in what might be a delayed reaction to the FOMC statement. Also, per the analysts, investors look to have sold out of short-bitcoin investment products, following a few weeks of inflows.  Meanwhile, over the course of last week, funds backed by ETH saw their outflows accelerate to USD 27m, up from USD 15.3m the week before, according to new data from the crypto research and investment firm CoinShares. On the more positive side, however, BTC-backed funds saw outflows decrease compared to the week before. From seeing outflows of USD 132m two weeks ago, BTC funds last week saw USD 73m leave. The only crypto fund category that saw inflows last week were multi-asset funds, which had USD 5.3m added to them, CoinShares’ data showed. So far this year, outflows from BTC-backed funds stand at USD 196m. Source: CoinShares The fund provider with the largest outflows last week was ETC Group, which lost USD 75.9m. Meanwhile, Purpose had the largest inflows among the providers tracked with USD 11.7m added. Source: CoinShares The outflows from crypto-backed investment funds are interesting given the current macroeconomic environment, which has experts divided on the medium-term outlook for the crypto market. Commenting on the state of the market earlier on Tuesday, Marcus Sotiriou, an analyst at crypto broker GlobalBlock, said the macro backdrop is now “looking positive in my opinion.” What matters most is not how much the US Federal Reserve will raise interest rates next, but “how strong the consumer is,” said Sotiriou. “Despite many funds and economists predicting a recession, the facts suggest we may have a soft landing. Therefore, I think the short term is bullish for Bitcoin and equities, even if there is a 50-basis point rate hike or not,” the analyst said in an emailed comment. Meanwhile, crypto financial service provider Babel Finance said in its latest report that sentiment among short-sellers in the market has strengthened. This is evident from the 7-day average funding rate for perpetual futures contracts, which hit a new short-term low over the past week, the firm said. It added that the month of April is also tax season in the US, with many investors having to file their taxes by April 18. This is known to cause some selling in the market, as traders sell crypto to pay taxes they owe. As of 12:43 UTC on Tuesday, BTC was up 4% for the past 24 hours and almost 4% for the past 7 days, trading at USD 40,957. At the same time, ETH was up by 4% for the day and over 2% for the week to a price of USD 3,063.4y

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