Italian professional soccer club AC Milan will be releasing its first-ever nonfungible token (NFT) project in collaboration with the BitMEX crypto exchange. Proceeds will go to Fondazione Milan, the clubs’ charity arm.
The limited-edition collection will feature 75,817 NFTs, a number representative of the capacity of the club’s home ground, San Siro stadium. It will depict a 3D image of a jersey found in South Sudan by Danish war photographer Jan Grarup who was in the country documenting widespread flooding last December.
BitMEX partnered with AC Milan to contribute to the project by providing trading discounts and “other benefits” to the first 10,000 pre-orders. BitMEX will also donate to Fondazione Milan by purchasing a “large number” of the NFTs.
As per the announcement, the club says the proceeds will contribute to funding its charitable causes around the world, specifically mentioning the ongoing crisis in Ukraine and a UNICEF project in South Sudan.
Magic Eden to accept tokens from DeGods and Aurory projects
Magic Eden, the largest marketplace by volume for Solana NFTs, according to DappRadar, has confirmed it will accept the tokens from popular Solana NFT projects “DeGods DUST” and Aurory’s “AURY” within the coming weeks.
The marketplace first teased integration of the DUST token in late March, tweeting “brb integrating $DUST” on March 31. On April 1, a drawing of a Magic Eden-themed bar with the caption “$AURY” was tweeted.
— Magic Eden Solana’s Leading NFT Marketplace (@MagicEden) April 1, 2022
“DeGods” is the most traded collection in 30 days on Magic Eden, according to its own statistics, and has an all-time trading volume on the platform of 307,121 Solana (SOL), or $33.8 million at the time of writing. “Aurory” is in third place overall in sales volume for a Solana NFT project according to DappRadar, with an all-time volume of $79.5 million.
The integration of the tokens may be the latest attempt by the platform to solidify itself as Solana’s native NFT marketplace after OpenSea announced it will integrate Solana, putting the two platforms in direct competition.
According to reports, Tiffany Huang, head of content and marketing at Magic Eden, stated that the platform was looking to integrate tokens from other “blue chip” NFT collections.
Solana NFT sales are gaining momentum
Solana NFTs are seeing a significant gain in volume. In the last 24 hours, the NFT sales volume on the Solana blockchain has hit over $9.2 million — an increase of 51.5% — according to analytics firm CryptoSlam.
It comes after a drop was seen in the trading volume of Solana NFTs following the March 30 announcement that OpenSea would integrate the blockchain when OpenSea announced the Solana integration. On April 6, the day before the integration was live, trading volume decreased by 34.4%.
Ethereum is still the top network when it comes to NFTs, with $49.4 million in sales made in the last 24 hours.
Other Nifty News
Starbucks has announced its foray into NFTs, with CEO Howard Schultz stating that ”sometime before the end of the calendar year, we are going to be in the NFT business.”
Autograph, the NFT platform co-founded by Tom Brady, has signed a multi-year partnership with ESPN to create a docuseries and NFT collection titled “Man in the Arena: Tom Brady,” which details the career of the NFL legend.
Solana (SOL) price reached $143.50 on April 2 after an incredible 82% rally over a 20 day period. This positive performance can be attributed to recent NFT markets-related news and a marketwide bounce, but the current 22.7% decline could have investors confused.
Solana/USDT at FTX. Source: TradingView
The rally started after Coinbase Wallet added support for SOL and other Solana-based blockchain tokens on March 18. The crypto exchange also outlined plans to “further integrate” with Solana by connecting the Coinbase Wallet with the decentralized applications (DApps) and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) hosted on the network.
The expectation of OpenSea’s integration of the Solana network also excited investors. This means Solana will join Ethereum, Polygon and Klaytn as the payment options visible in the drop-down “all chains” tab on OpenSea’s “rankings” page.
Solana’s strategy to focus on NFT markets seems to have paid off because the layer-1 blockchain network has risen to third place all-time in total NFT sales on April 6. Moreover, the latest 30-day accumulated data shows Solana amassing $216 million worth of NFT sales.
Solana’s DApp deposits are on the decline
Solana’s primary decentralized application (DApp) metric started to display weakness in late March after the network’s total value locked (TVL) dropped below SOL 50 million.
Solana network Total Value Locked, SOL. Source: DefiLlama
The chart above shows how Solana’s DApp deposits saw a 30% decrease in three weeks as the indicator reached its lowest level since Sept. 20, 2021. As a comparison, Terra’s TVL increased by 34% year-to-date, while Fantom network deposits grew by 30%.
As shown by DappRadar data on April 8, the number of Solana network addresses interacting with decentralized applications increased by 11% on average. Orca, a user-friendly decentralized exchange (DEX), was the absolute highlight, amassing 153,290 users.
Even though Solana’s TVL has been hit the hardest compared to similar smart contract platforms, there is solid network use on DeFi and NFT marketplaces, as measured by Magic Eden’s 212,230 active addresses in the last 30 days.
The data above suggests that Solana investors should not worry about the most recent correction. The Solana ecosystem is fueled by the delivery of important milestones toward Ethereum compatibility and NFT market integrations and as long as this happens the potential for further price appreciation seems likely.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.
Bitcoin (BTC) dropped from a high of $47,200 on April 5 to a low of $42,107 on April 8, indicating possible selling by short-term traders who may have preferred to lock in their profits. However, the price action is still stuck in a tight range during the weekend, indicating that supply and demand are in balance.
Interestingly, one large investor continued to buy $1 million of Bitcoin every day, without attempting to time the market, using the strategy of dollar-cost averaging.
Another whale that utilized the dip to add more Bitcoin to its existing stockpile was Terra. This week, the wallet associated with the Luna Foundation Guard added 4,130 Bitcoin, taking its total holding to 39,897.98 BTC.
Could Bitcoin bounce back sharply due to whale buying? Will select altcoins also turn higher in the short term? Let’s study the charts of the top-5 cryptocurrencies that may outperform if the sentiment improves.
BTC/USDT
Bitcoin bounced off the support at $42,594 on April 7 but the bulls could not clear the barrier at the 20-day EMA ($43,922) on April 8. This may have attracted selling by traders, which pulled the price below the $42,594 support.
BTC/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView
A minor positive is that the bulls are attempting to defend the 50-day simple moving average ($42,620). If bulls push and sustain the price above the 20-day exponential moving average ($43,923), it will increase the possibility of range-bound action in the short term. The BTC/USDT pair may then oscillate between the 50-day SMA and the 200-day SMA ($48,219) for a few days.
On the contrary, a weak bounce off the 50-day SMA will suggest a lack of aggressive buying at the current levels. The bears will then try to capitalize on this opportunity and sink the pair below the 50-day SMA. If they succeed, the pair could drop to the psychological level at $40,000 and if this level also cracks, the next stop may be the support line of the ascending channel.
BTC/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
The 4-hour chart shows that the rebound off the $42,594 support fizzled out at the 20-EMA. This indicates selling by the bears at higher levels.
The 20-EMA is sloping down and the relative strength index (RSI) is in the negative zone, indicating advantage to sellers.
If the price turns down and breaks below $42,000, the selling could intensify. The pair could then drop to $40,000 where the buyers may again attempt to arrest the decline.
Alternatively, a break and close above the 20-EMA could open the doors for a possible recovery to the 50-SMA. The bulls will have to push and sustain the price above $45,400 to gain the upper hand.
NEAR/USDT
Near Protocol (NEAR) turned down sharply from the stiff overhead resistance at $20 on April 8 and the long wick on the day’s candlestick suggests that bears are aggressively defending the overhead resistance.
NEAR/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView
The NEAR/USDT pair could drop to the 20-day EMA ($15), which could act as a strong support. If the price rebounds off this level, it will suggest that bulls continue to buy on dips. The bulls will then make one more attempt to push the pair to a new all-time high. The rising 20-day EMA and the RSI in the positive territory suggest advantage to buyers.
Contrary to this assumption, if the price plummets below the 20-day EMA, it will suggest that traders may be booking profits aggressively. That could open the doors for a possible drop to the 50-day SMA ($12).
NEAR/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
The 4-hour chart shows that the price has repeatedly bounced from just below the 50-SMA. This indicates that buyers continue to accumulate on dips. If the price turns up from the current level and rises above the 20-EMA, the bulls will again try to push the price toward $20.
Conversely, if the price turns down and sustains below $16, the short-term traders may rush to the exit. That could pull the pair toward $14.50. If this level cracks, it will suggest that bears are back in the driver’s seat.
FTT/USDT
FTX Token (FTT) broke and closed above $49 on March 24 but the bulls could not flip the level into support during the retest. The price slipped below the 200-day SMA ($47) and has reached the 50-day SMA ($45).
FTT/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView
A minor positive is that the buyers are attempting to defend the 50-day SMA. If the bulls push the price back above the 200-day SMA and the overhead resistance at $49, it will suggest strong buying at lower levels.
The bullish momentum could pick up on a break and close above $54. The FTT/USDT pair could then rally to the pattern target at $66.
Conversely, if the price fails to break above the 200-day SMA, the possibility of a break below the uptrend line of the triangle increases. If that happens, the pair could drop to $40 and later to $37.
FTT/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
The 4-hour chart shows that the pair has been falling inside a descending channel pattern. Although the bears pulled the price below the support line of the channel, they could not sustain the lower levels. This suggests that the break below the channel may have been a bear trap.
If bulls push and sustain the price above the 20-EMA, the pair could rise to the 50-SMA. This level could again act as a resistance but if the bulls overcome it, the next stop could be the downtrend line. A break and close above this barrier could signal a possible change in trend.
This positive view will invalidate if the price turns down from the current level and plummets below $44.
Ethereum Classic (ETC) formed a double bottom pattern when it broke and closed above the overhead resistance at $38. The price then rallied to the pattern target at $52 on March 29 where profit-booking set in. This pulled the price to the breakout level at $38.
ETC/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView
The buyers will try to flip the breakout level at $38 into support. If they succeed, it will suggest a change in sentiment from selling on rallies to buying on dips.
If the price rises from the current level or rebounds off $38 and breaks above $45, it will suggest that the correction may be over. The buyers will then again try to push the ETC/USDT pair to $53. A break and close above this level will signal the resumption of the up-move.
This positive view will invalidate if the price continues lower and plummets below the 50-day SMA ($35).
ETC/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
The 4-hour chart shows that the pair rebounded off the $38 level with strength but the bulls are struggling to sustain the price above the 20-EMA. This indicates that bears are selling at higher levels.
A minor positive has been that the bulls have not given up much ground from the 20-EMA. This increases the possibility of a break above this resistance. If that happens, the price could rise to the 50-SMA. A break and close above this resistance could open the doors for a possible up-move to $48 and then to $53.
Contrary to this assumption, if the price breaks below $38, the selling could intensify and the pair could drop to $32.
XMR/USDT
Monero (XMR) signaled a potential trend change when it broke and closed above the downtrend line. Although the bears tried to pull the price back below the downtrend line, the bulls did not relent.
XMR/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView
The bears are attempting to stall the rally at the immediate resistance at $239 but the long tail on today’s candlestick shows buying at lower levels. The upsloping 20-day EMA ($216) and the RSI in the positive territory indicate advantage to buyers.
If buyers sustain the price above $239, the XMR/USDT could further pick up momentum and rally to $255.
On the other hand, if the price turns down from the current level, it will suggest that bears are aggressively defending the overhead resistance at $239. A break and close below the 20-day EMA will be the first sign that the bullish momentum may be weakening. The pair could then drop to the 50-day SMA ($190).
XMR/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
The pair has been in a gradual uptrend for the past few days. The failure by the bulls to sustain the price above $239 attracted profit-booking from short-term traders but the bears could not pull the pair below the 20-EMA. This suggests strong buying at lower levels.
If buyers drive and sustain the price above $239, the up-move may accelerate. Alternatively, if the price once again turns down from $239, the pair may drop to $209 and remain range-bound between these two levels for a few days.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD circling $42,700 Sunday with a matter of hours to go until the conclusion of the weekly candle.
The pair had fallen into the end of Wall Street trading Friday, while the weekend provided some nervous calm as $42,000 support remained intact.
For popular trader and analyst Rekt Capital, there was still cause for optimism despite the past seven days seeing losses of nearly 10%.
This #BTC pullback is a second chance for a lot of people
If you promised yourself that you’ll buy $BTC when it goes lower
Rekt Capital highlighted three key moving averages currently being tested as support, noting that historically, bouncing off them had preceded “strong bullish momentum.”
“Technically speaking, anything above ~$38000 is a macro Higher Low for BTC,” he had said Saturday.
Macro pressure had formed the backdrop to the gloomy mood throughout the week, as Cointelegraph reported, and concerns over U.S. dollar strength remained on the day.
“The moment the DXY is topped out (which could be soon), the next bull run will start. And that one is going to be an epic one,” Cointelegraph contributor Michaël van de Poppe forecast, likewise adopting a more hopeful perspective.
In what was becoming a perennial source of optimism, Blockchain protocol Terra continued its BTC buys Sunday, with associated nonprofit the Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) adding 4,130 BTC to its wallet.
According to on-chain monitoring resource BitInfoCharts, the given wallet was the 19th largest in existence with a balance of 39,897.98 BTC ($1.7 billion).
LFG Bitcoin wallet data summary (screenshot). Source: BitInfoCharts
Dogecoin cleans up among major altcoins
Altcoins were similarly flat on the day, with the top-ten cryptocurrencies by market cap moving no more than 1% up or down.
DOGE/USD reached $0.158, marking its highest since April 6 on the back of continued publicity from Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Among Musk’s suggestions over the weekend was Twitter, shares of which he purchaseden masse last week, accepting payments in DOGE.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
We ask the buidlers in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector for their thoughts on the industry… and throw in a few random zingers to keep them on their toes!
This week, our 6 Questions go to Michelle Legge, head of crypto tax education at Koinly — a cryptocurrency tax calculator and portfolio tracker for traders, investors and accountants.
Alongside her work at Koinly, Michelle is passionate about closing the financial literacy gap for women. Before crossing into the crypto space, she looked after consumer education for an Australian fintech startup, where she launched a world-first gender-pay-gap insurance product.
Today, Michelle is back in her homeland of South Africa, living the digital nomad life and managing a remote team of content and social media wizards from plant-based cafes across Cape Town. As for her crypto curiosity, Michelle is cautiously optimistic, betting on altcoins with unconventional use cases. Blame it on her day job, but while Michelle knows that crypto is the future, crypto tax appears to be the dark side of the moon. Helping crypto investors to be tax-strategic seems a worthy cause in light of ever-tightening regulations.
1 — From smart contracts to DApps, NFTs and DeFi, we have seen so many of the next “killer apps” for crypto, but none have really taken off quite yet. What will stick?
Projects that attract the warm embrace of Joe Public are the ones that stick. We’ve gotten a lot closer to a retail use case with DeFi’s many yield farming products, and that shows no signs of slowing down. But will it go fully mainstream? Possibly, in time — provided the space doesn’t get taxed into oblivion. On the other hand, NFTs have seen massive adoption from all walks of life, creating a sense that this blockchain use case has cracked a very tough nut.
While the NFT arena might be dominated by the glitz and glam of the celebrity art scene today, I imagine NFTs will come into their own in a rather mundane way. If the public can interface with “the blockchain” via pictures, then it’s logical to assume that anything we’re used to seeing on paper will go the way of a digitized, ownable NFT. What could this look like at the most basic level? Share certificates, graduation diplomas, medical records, insurance policies, birth certificates, passports, etc.
The creation, distribution and management of proof-of-ownership NFT administration could spawn an industry of its own, much like it already has in the gaming industry. However, for NFTs to work like this, we need to remember that the NFT art we’re just getting our heads around is a taxable asset. That’s fine when we’re thinking about art, music, movies and domain names, but no one wants to face a tax bill for erroneously “profiting” from the “disposal” of a health insurance policy. It will need to be clear to all, the taxman included, that NFTs used in this way have a zero-dollar value.
2 — If the world is getting a new currency, will it be led by CBDCs, a permissionless blockchain like Bitcoin, or a permissioned chain such as Diem?
It pains me to say, but central bank digital currencies are waiting in the wings. Everything we’ve seen, from Biden’s executive order to the much-hyped inflation curse throttling the global economy, tells us that governments are hungry for CBDCs. Even without the regulation headlines, we need only consider the power and control that CBDCs offer. Rishi Sunak’s Britcoin appears in the works, with disturbing undercurrents of programmability — leaning into the likes of China’s social credit system. CBDCs will be, but unlike the disruptive and empowering future presented by Bitcoin and friends, CBDCs seem a different blockchain beast altogether.
3 — Which is sillier: $500,000 Bitcoin or $0 Bitcoin? Why?
Don’t call me negative, but I work in crypto tax. It’s my opinion that the bulk of the Bitcoin “mooning” happened behind the curtains, in the good old days when governments and tax agencies were none the wiser. Can stratospheric growth happen under the iron fist of rampant regulations and scrutiny? I fear not.
4 — Tell us about a hidden talent, and give us a link to prove it!
A talent so hidden it might not even exist? I guess I don’t have “bedroom DJ” in my Twitter bio for nothing, but if being good at Spotify playlists makes me gifted, then so be it. “Le Crush” is the name of my pet playlist, and a homage to my heady nights (perhaps seven in total?) steering the decks in Melbourne’s noughties club scene.
5 — What talent do you lack and wish you had? How would you use it if you had it?
Is it because women are coded for multitasking, or because we live in a high-octane, caffeine-fuelled society? Either way, the talent I lack is the laser-beam focus of a border collie and its tennis ball.
If focus is the house, then the foundation is Buffett’s famous “Say no to almost everything.” The key, it would appear, is to limit open tabs to five max — a great step down from the 39 currently calling my attention. Hyperfocus in a crazy world? I think it’s a talent, or rather a superpower, that most of us wish for.
6 — What’s the silliest conspiracy theory out there… and which one makes you pause for a moment?
This question — and its loaded gun — is just the kind of thing to get a woman canceled! The fact is, I’m rather a reasonable conspiracy theorist, but there’s a spot for a tinfoil hat in my closet, nonetheless.
I think, like many people drawn to cryptocurrency, our sort comes bearing gifts of distrust — and who could blame us? Some of the rabbit hole’s biggest targets — let’s mention Big Pharma here — do have priors. It’s right to question everything, and it’s good to remember that no chapter on WWII is complete without an entry on the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. I will say this though: A flat earth could be a great solution to the rising tides, right?
A wish for the young, ambitious blockchain community:
To the women of blockchain, we need your voices. Be the reason and balance that keeps us moving in the right direction.
cat coin is among some viral projects on Binance smart chain
after going to moon catcoin is in a dip and is now in range of $12 to $15 million dollar marketcap but the question still remains when moon
looking at the chart cat coin is forming a Bullish pattern in chart which is clearly visible for the next listing could be a 100x for this coin?
catcoin the biggest cat of bsc
crypto trading is always risky do your own research before investing
bitcoinlfg is the fastest growing coin tracker in the world with 80k+ app installs and 3.5 million+ visits monthly advertise with us http://t.me/bitcoinlfgofficial or email team@bitcoinlfg.com
Privacy-focused cryptocurrency Monero (XMR) rallied by nearly 9.5% in the past week compared with the crypto market’s decline of 8.5% in the same period. What’s more, the XMR/USD pair has broken above a strong, multi-month resistance trendline, hinting at more upside ahead.
XMR price action
XMR’s price was down by a modest 0.87% on April 10 from its two-month-high of $245 established a day before. However, the cryptocurrency still outperformed its top rivals, including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), on a weekly timeframe.
Speculations about entities using Monero to bypass sanctions could have boosted its appeal among investors. Meanwhile, The American research group Brookings warned last month that Monero, the first in the line of privacy coins, could be “used as part of a sanctions-evasion scheme.”
“As a result of the difficulties in tracking and tracing the individuals involved in privacy coin transactions,” Brookings explained.
“The IRS has offered payments of $625,000 to those that can crack the privacy protections of Monero, Zcash, and other such cryptocurrencies.”
Monero’s market capitalization has risen by almost 85% to $4.30 billion since February. While technical indicators suggest that it could grow further in the second quarter.
XMR market cap since February. Source: CoinMarketCap
Technical breakout in play
This week, XMR broke above a downward sloping trendline that had been capping its upside attempts since May 2021.
Interestingly, the trendline constitutes what appears to be a bull flag pattern, in combination with a parallel lower trendline acting as support. A basic tenet of bull flags is that they send the price in the direction of its previous uptrend (called “flagpole”) after it decisively breaks to the upside.
As a rule, bull flag’s upside target is typically the sum of the breakout point and the flagpole’s height. That puts XMR en route to almost $480, up almost 110% from today’s price near $235.
On longer timeframes, however, independent market analyst Don Yakka argues that XMR price could reach as high as $10,000 if a classic “cup-and-handle” pattern plays out.
XMR/USD daily price chart featuring cup-and-handle pattern. Source: Don Yakka/TradingView
Cup-and-handles are bullish continuation patterns with the “cup” representing a U-shaped price trend, including a period of strong correction followed by an equally decisive recovery, and the “handle” resembling a consolidation indicator, such as a “flag” or a “pennant.”
A cup-and-handle pattern resolves after the price breaks above its resistance level. The breakout target is measured after calculating the pattern’s maximum height and adding it to the breakout point.
Nevertheless, privacy coins like Monero continue to face downside risks due to increasing regulatory pressure from multiple governments around the world.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
Cointelegraph is following the development of an entirely new blockchain from inception to mainnet and beyond through its series, Inside the Blockchain Developer’s Mind, written by Andrew Levine of Koinos Group.
In myprevious article, I explained from first principles what was needed to build a truly free-to-use social decentralized application (DApp) and how Koinos is that solution. In that article, I explained that to deliver a truly free-to-use DApp, it must be possible for someone other than the end-user to provide the network resources (“mana” in the case of Koinos) required to run a given smart contract.
Blockchain mana
Now that we understand why Koinos is designed the way it is (to support free-to-use experiences), I’m going to explain in more detail how this works. One of the innovative features of Koinos is its novel fee-less mechanism, called “mana,” which allows KOIN holders to use the blockchain for free without having to pre-stake their tokens or even think about what they’re doing. It’s the core technology that allows people to use the blockchain for free.
Koinos is designed around the idea that from the moment someone acquires KOIN, they should be able to perform actions on the network while Koinos incrementally and temporarily locks small amounts of their tokens, effectively “charging” them in opportunity cost instead of an explicit fee. Mana is how the system quantifies that opportunity cost so that users can exchange time (opportunity cost) for network resources, thereby replacing the need for a token-based fee like Ethereum’s gas model.
This creates a fun, game-like user experience for the blockchain, but what about decentralized applications on the blockchain? As the native currency of the Koinos blockchain, only KOIN will have the mana that users will need to freely use the blockchain. But if KOIN is the only token with mana, then won’t users have to acquire the token to use any Koinos DApps and wouldn’t this feel a lot like a fee? Yes, it would.
While the user experience is certainly superior to a real fee, since the user will only have to make that purchase once, it does still create friction in the DApp user’s experience. From our work on Steem, we saw that this requirement, when combined with the requirement to purchase usernames and consciously stake a large number of tokens, were major barriers to adoption. That’s why we designed Koinos from the ground up to solve this problem while solving several other important problems, like poor upgradeability and limited programming language support, along the way.
To solve the problem of allowing people to use DApps without first having to acquire any token whatsoever, Koinos allows smart contract developers to specify who will pay the mana when the smart contract is run (“Payer/Payee Semantics”). That could be the user, the developer or someone else entirely — like a large stakeholder — who wants to help the DApp succeed.
This unlocks a new capability we call “mana sponsorships,” which simply means that any account can “sponsor” the mana needed to run a contract. A developer can use this capability to set themselves as the mana provider for the contract. Then, when someone tries to use their DApp, they can do so without first having to acquire KOIN.
This allows for yet another leap forward in user experience when compared to other platforms and may be sufficient for many decentralized applications, but our mission is not to simply create a user experience that is better than other platforms — it is to accelerate decentralization through accessibility.
DApp mana
While mana sponsorships enable developers to provide the mana needed by users without diminishing the developer’s token balance, developers are still required to acquire KOIN. When the usage of their DApp is low, this amount of KOIN might be trivial, but as usage goes up, and as the price of KOIN goes up, this requirement could quickly become burdensome. What is possibly most important is that enterprising developers have to believe that their application will see widespread adoption (otherwise, they would have no motivation to build it) and so the prospect of having to spend a fortune on KOIN might turn them off to even building the application in the first place.
This is where “DApp mana” comes into play and completes the frictionless user experience, thereby maximizing accessibility. While the KOIN token is the only cryptocurrency that contains the mana used by the Koinos system as payment for network resources (i.e., the “base” mana), DApps can use this exact same code to create their own mana on their own token.
Unparalleled composability
This demonstrates the unparalleled composability of Koinos. Because the entire Koinos system is written as smart contracts, any part of the system (like the mana subsystem) can be copied by DApp developers and leveraged within their application.
DApp developers can use the mana in a small KOIN stash to bootstrap their initial user base or subsidize a certain amount of “freemium” usage of their DApp, but then require that users exchange their KOIN for a dedicated cryptocurrency (their “DApp token”) with its own mana that will be consumed down when using the DApp, thereby allowing them to continue using the DApp for free.
This allows for the frictionless onboarding of users while creating an economically sustainable path that turns users into stakeholders and gives the DApp developer the KOIN they need to support their growing demand for Koinos network resources.
This is a very organic and scalable mechanism because the developer does not need to try to predict how much KOIN they will need, and purchase that KOIN before they even have any users. In addition, large stakeholders can support burgeoning DApps without overcommitting resources. They can commit only the amount of mana they feel is necessary to bootstrap the application and get it to the point where it is acquiring the necessary mana organically from its users and new stakeholders.
At Koinos Group, it’s never enough to just solve a single problem. We’re always looking for ways that we can solve a problem while unlocking additional capabilities that make the blockchain even more powerful. The system I have described in this article emerges entirely from the simple Payer/Payee semantics already running on the Harbinger testnet. Not only do they allow for free-to-use DApps, but they also create an organic path for developers to acquire the additional mana they will need to support their DApp’s growth while giving large stakeholders a way to invest in growth and value creation without sacrificing any of their token holdings. That’s a win-win-win.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.
The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
Andrew Levine is the CEO of Koinos Group, a team of industry veterans accelerating decentralization through accessible blockchain technology. Their foundational product is Koinos, a fee-less and infinitely upgradeable blockchain with universal language support.
Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.
Nonfungible tokens continue making headlines, with coffee giant Starbucks having recently signaled its intent on joining the NFT party. “Sometime before the end of this calendar year, we are going to be in the NFT business,” said Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz via a Partner Open Forum on Monday.
The NFT talk surfaced in tandem with a rising interest in unionization led by workers of the chain’s U.S. stores. One of the folks heading up the union movement, Laila Dalton, was let go from Starbucks shortly after the NFT announcement. Comments from Schultz show he is not in favor of unions.
The U.K.’s HM Treasury expressed interest in crypto regulation on a number of fronts. Included in the mix was the recognition of the potential for stablecoins as commonplace payment vehicles, with the aim of fitting the asset type into current regulatory guidelines.
“It’s my ambition to make the U.K. a global hub for crypto-asset technology, and the measures we’ve outlined today will help to ensure firms can invest, innovate and scale up in this country,” HM Treasury Chancellor Rishi Sunak noted.
Economic Secretary to the Treasury John Glen said: “If crypto technologies are going to be a big part of the future, then we, the U.K., want to be in — and in on the ground floor.”
Part of the crypto industry since mid-2021, pseudonymous Twitter user “Yopi” is a cancer fighter. After trying chemotherapy, doctors told Yopi he needed stem cell treatment upon the return of the cancer. The treatment cost for Yopi: $50,000.
Yopi posted a tweet explaining the situation, which was met with significant response from the crypto community. He ended up receiving about $74,000 in crypto assets, as of the time of Cointelegraph’s reporting.
Tuesday saw a filing for a different type of Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) from ProShares — one that would allow investors to bet against BTC futures. ProShares has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its Short Bitcoin Strategy ETF. Essentially, shares of the ETF would profit when Bitcoin futures go down in price instead of up. These so-called inverse ETFs, which are designed to perform the opposite of the benchmark in which they track, are relatively common in the futures market.
ProShares’ Bitcoin Strategy ETF, based on Bitcoin futures, was listed in October 2021 after the SEC approved the product. The newly filed ProShares Short Bitcoin Strategy ETF has a June listing goal, although a decision from the SEC could see this being delayed.
A new collaboration between crypto storage company Blockstream and Jack Dorsey’s Block (formerly Square) will see the development of a fully solar-powered, open-source BTC mining facility.
According to the announcement, the mining facility will be outfitted with a 3.8 megawatt Tesla solar PV (photovoltaic) array and 12 MWh (megawatt hour) lithium-ion battery Tesla Megapack. With this mining facility, the companies intend to investigate the feasibility of operating a zero-emission energy BTC mine.
The collaboration will also see the development of a publicly accessible dashboard, which will display key metrics including the power output, total number of mined BTC, storage performance, expenses and return on investment, to name a few.
Winners and Losers
At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $42,388.53, Ether (ETH) at $3,207.75 and XRP at $0.76. The total market cap is at $1.96 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.
Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Mina (MINA) at 17.56%, NEAR Protocol (NEAR) at 16.07% and Convex Finance (CVX) at 10.06%.
The top three altcoin losers of the week are Waves (WAVES) at -50.60%, Zilliqa (ZIL) at -37.08% and Axie Infinity (AXS) at -29.43%.
“While it is clear that the energy requirements of global Bitcoin mining have grown significantly since 2017, recent literature indicates a wide range of estimates for 2020 (47 TWh to 125 TWh) due to data gaps and differences in modelling approaches.”
“There’s no reason to treat the crypto market differently just because different technology is used.”
Gary Gensler, chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
“Just imagine where we could be in five years, where virtually everyone in the Western world will have a smartphone wallet on their smartphone and they‘ll likely be able to transact with every restaurant in the world.”
“El Salvador is an independent democracy and we respect its right to self-govern, but the United States must have a plan in place to protect our financial systems from the risks of this decision, which appears to be a careless gamble rather than a thoughtful embrace of innovation.”
Norma Torres, U.S. representative, on El Salvador making Bitcoin legal tender
“If people have an itch to contribute something or to do a side project in this space, I would say, ‘Throw your heart into it,’ because you’re going to get feedback and connections and insights and experiences from it that you just wouldn’t have dreamt of.”
Roughly every four years, Bitcoin’s mining payout per block cuts in half. Called the Bitcoin halving, this event has coincided with four-year price cycles, including bull and bear periods. This four-year cycle could be over, however, according to multiple industry participants.
The Santiment blog’s pseudonymous author “Alerzio” noted April 11 as a potential signal of changing times. BTC maintaining price action north of $50,000 per coin before or around that date may be evidence of a cycle that differs from previous four-year periods, Alerzio wrote. April 11 is the midpoint between the most recent BTC halving and the next one.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) recently waved a red flag pertaining to influencers involved in finance. ASIC essentially warned influencers, both solo and companies employing influencers, of using language that might be seen as financial promotion. The warning from ASIC mentions finance as opposed to crypto specifically, but crypto is often grouped into the category of finance.
“If you present factual information in a way that conveys a recommendation that someone should (or should not) invest in that product or class of products, you could breach the law by providing unlicensed financial product advice,” the ASIC information sheet states.
Some comments of opposition regarding the move in part relate to the lack of clarity regarding what counts as financial influence.
A collection of Ledger hardware wallet users have brought a legal case against Ledger, Shopify and TaskUs. In short, the case alleges that the defendants did not take appropriate steps to prevent the leak of a significant number of Ledger buyers’ personal data in 2020.
The complaint alleges that Ledger and Shopify misled customers by advertising the “unmatched security” of their products – promises that are at odds with the current leak. The plaintiffs also claimed that Shopify and TaskUs were aware of the leak for over a week before alerting customers. Shopify was in charge of Ledger’s online store at the time of the leak, and TaskUs is a third-party data consultant responsible for handling customer service, as delegated by Shopify, according to the legal complaint.
The group of Ledger users behind the legal complaint seeks certain damages, as well as disclosure of what data was actually leaked.
In an attempt to further suppress Russian nationals from using cryptocurrencies to safeguard assets amid the war in Ukraine, the Council of the European Union announced its intent to prohibit “providing high-value crypto-asset services” to the country.
Some of the other restrictive measures proposed by the European Commission this Friday include banning transactions and freezing assets connected to four Russian banks as well as a “prohibition on providing advice on trusts to wealthy Russians.”
Just a day before the Council’s announcement, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin claimed that Russian entities and individuals hold more than $130 billion in crypto assets — an amount that nearly equals Russia’s total gold holdings, which is valued at roughly $140 billion as of March 2022.
The outlook for projects in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector has begun to improve in recent months as a combination of global events have highlighted the benefits of holding funds outside of the traditional financial systems.
One project that has rallied over the past few months is Kyber Network (KNC), a multi-chain cryptocurrency trading and liquidity hub that aims to offer users the best trading rates.
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that after bouncing off a low of $2.83 on April 6, the price of KNC jumped 55.4% to hit an all-time high of $4.04 on April 8 amid a 253% spike in its 24-hour trading volume.
KNC/USDT 1-day chart. Source: TradingView
Three reasons for the building momentum of KNC include the integration of support for ten separate blockchain networks, the launch of a liquidity mining program with Avalanche (AVAX) and an expanding list of partnerships and protocol integrations that expand the reach of the Kyber Network.
Kyber Network adds multi-chain support
One of the biggest factors providing a boost to Kyber Network is the protocol’s push to integrate with the top chains across the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
KyberSwap, the main decentralized exchange interface on the network, now offers trading across ten separate networks, including Ethereum (ETH), Avalanche, Polygon (MATIC), BNB Smart Chain (BSC), Aurora, Arbitrum, Fantom (FTM), Oasis (ROSE), Velas (VLX) and Cronos (CRO).
Interoperability has become one of the main themes driving growth not just in DeFi, but in all sectors of the crypto economy because the ability to send assets and data across multiple chains is a necessary feature in the future of DeFi, the NFT sector the Metaverse.
As more chains come online, the ability to access them through one protocol is a desirable feature that many crypto and DeFi investors will come to expect.
KNC joins Avalanche Rush Phase 2
Another significant development that has helped attract increased attention and trading activity on the Kyber Network is the project’s partnership with the Avalanche Network and the Avalanche Rush Phase 2 liquidity mining program.
The liquidity incentive program kicked off on March 21 and it includes a total of $1 million in rewards for liquidity providers.
Avalanche is one of the fastest-growing Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible networks in the cryptocurrency ecosystem and it has helped to attract more users and liquidity to the Kyber Network users by offering a low-fee alternative to Ethereum.
New partnerships and protocol integrations
A third reason for the building momentum behind KNC is the continued addition of new partnerships and major protocol integrations that are helping to spread the reach of the network.
On April 7, it was announced that KyberSwap integrated with Uniswap v3 on the Ethereum and Polygon network, bringing the most active decentralized exchange into the KyberSwap ecosystem.
The project has also revealed a new partnership with the Bondex professional network and Kyber Ventures, the investment arm of the Kyber Network, established a working relationship with Pegacy, a popular NFT racing game.
VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for KNC on April 6, prior to the recent price rise.
The VORTECS™ Score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historical and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.
As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for KNC spiked into the green on April 6 and hit a high of 75 around nine hours before the price increased 55.4% over the next two days.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
