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The CEO of Ripple Labs says that the lawsuit brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against him and his company over XRP “has gone exceedingly well.” He stressed: “This case is important, not just for Ripple, it’s important for the entire crypto industry in the United States.” Ripple’s CEO Comments on SEC Lawsuit Over XRP Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse discussed the SEC lawsuit over the sale of XRP during a fireside chat at the Paris Blockchain Week Summit Thursday. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Ripple, Garlinghouse, and co-founder Chris Larsen in December 2020 over the sale of XRP, which the securities watchdog said is an unregistered security offering. Ripple has disputed the SEC’s findings, insisting that XRP is not a security. Garlinghouse shared: The lawsuit has gone exceedingly well, and much better than I could have hoped when it began about 15 months ago. However, he noted that “the wheels of justice move slowly.” In November last year, Garlinghouse said he expects the lawsuit to conclude this year. “We’re seeing pretty good progress despite a slow-moving judicial process,” he said at the time. Earlier this week, a judge ruled that the SEC cannot edit the contents of emails purporting to show conflicts of interest regarding how the securities regulator dealt with XRP and other crypto tokens, including ether (ETH). Ripple is growing despite the ongoing lawsuit, Garlinghouse noted. “We’re having record growth,” he remarked Thursday. In January, he said that Ripple’s valuation has risen to $15 billion, emphasizing that his company’s financial position is the strongest ever despite the lawsuit over XRP. Garlinghouse further explained at the fireside chat that if Ripple loses the lawsuit against the SEC, then most tokens trading on cryptocurrency exchanges would be similarly deemed securities and will have to register with the regulator. “That’s cost, that’s friction,” the executive exclaimed, stressing: If you determine XRP as a security of Ripple, we have to know every person that owns XRP … That’s an SEC requirement. You have to know all of your shareholders. It’s not possible. “This case is important, not just for Ripple, it’s important for the entire crypto industry in the United States,” the executive opined, noting that there is a lot at stake if the SEC successfully classifies XRP as a security. “It would really be negative for crypto in the United States.” Do you think Ripple will win the lawsuit against the SEC and XRP will not be considered a security in the U.S.? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

The famous author of the best-selling book Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki, says that hyperinflation and depression are here. He also warned that the biggest bubble burst is coming, advising investors to buy gold, silver, and bitcoin. Robert Kiyosaki’s Latest Warnings The author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki, gave a series of warnings regarding the U.S. economy Friday. Rich Dad Poor Dad is a 1997 book co-authored by Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter. It has been on the New York Times Best Seller List for over six years. More than 32 million copies of the book have been sold in over 51 languages across more than 109 countries. Kiyosaki tweeted that a Wile E. Coyote moment and the biggest bubble burst are coming. Claiming that hyperinflation and depression are here, the famous author recommends buying gold, silver, and bitcoin “before the coyote wakes up.” The author of Rich Dad Poor Dad opined that baby boomers’ retirements will be “stolen” and that the $10 trillion in fake money spending is ending. He called the U.S. government, Wall Street, and the Federal Reserve thieves. Moreover, Kiyosaki tweeted early this month: “Repo market inversion. Last time this happened was 2008 … In 2008 I borrowed $300 million to buy great real estate, at bargain prices. Time to get rich coming again. Time to get smart, not greedy.” Emphasizing that weak businesses and greedy investors will fail, the famous author wrote: Be careful. Recession and crash coming. A growing number of economists and forecasters are now saying that a recession is on the horizon for the U.S. economy as the Federal Reserve continues to fight the highest inflation in more than 40 years. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, for example, said this week that the risk of the Federal Reserve tipping the U.S. economy into recession is rising. Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers also said a recession is “the most likely” outcome for the U.S. economy, not a soft landing. In October last year, Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Block Inc. and former CEO of Twitter Inc., predicted that hyperinflation will soon happen in the U.S. and the world. Recently, Mexico’s third-richest billionaire, Ricardo Salinas Pliego, also warned about severe dollar inflation. He recommended buying bitcoin. In addition, Kiyosaki has warned about a massive crash many times. Predicting a “giant stock market crash” in October, he noted that after the crash, the U.S. will slide into a new depression. He further warned that we are in the biggest bubble in world history. Last month, the Rich Dad Poor Dad author said the U.S. dollar is about to implode, recommending investors buy more gold, silver, bitcoin, ethereum, and solana. He emphasized that the world is in trouble and the U.S. national debt is going through the roof. In the same month, Kiyosaki warned that the government will seize all cryptocurrencies. Nonetheless, he predicted the end of the U.S. dollar, noting that the Russia-Ukraine war is giving rise to crypto as a safer haven than the government’s “fake fiat money.” What do you think about Robert Kiyosaki’s warnings? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

A district court in Moscow has arrested a man whom local media reports identify as Dmitry Pavlov, alleged administrator of the recently shut down darknet market Hydra. Russian authorities believe he has been involved in drug-related crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Moscow Court Arrests Russian Believed to Be Hydra Administrator Meshchansky District Court of Moscow has taken into custody a certain Dmitry Olegovich Pavlov accused of production, sale, and distribution of drugs under Russia’s Criminal Code, the “Moscow” City News Agency reported this week, quoting the court’s press service. Pavlov, who was arrested on Monday, April 11, has the same names as a 30-year-old Russian citizen and resident charged for similar offenses in relation to his alleged role as an administrator of the recently busted Hydra Market, one of the largest marketplaces on the darknet. Earlier this month, German law enforcement seized Hydra’s server infrastructure in the country and took down the Russian-language platform’s website. The operation was carried with support from several U.S. agencies. On April 5, the U.S. Department of Justice announced criminal charges against Dmitry Pavlov for conspiracy to distribute narcotics and conspiracy to commit money laundering. According to an indictment filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the Russian is also accused of administering and providing hosting services to Hydra. The Russian business daily Kommersant quoted Pavlov telling the BBC on April 6 he had not been contacted by U.S. authorities and that he learned about the charges from the media. He also insisted his company had all the necessary licenses from Roskomnadzor, Russia’s communications watchdog, and was not administering any websites but only leasing servers as an intermediary. The United States has been alleging the Russian Federation’s involvement with crypto-related criminal organizations, including darknet markets (DNMs) and ransomware actors. In September, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned the Russia-based crypto broker Suex, believed to have received more than $20 million from DNMs like Hydra. The department also imposed sanctions on Hydra itself — which had been active since at least 2015 and had around 17 million customers before it was shut down — and on a cryptocurrency exchange called Garantex, suspected of processing over $2.6 million in transactions from the darknet market platform. Do you expect other arrests in Russia in connection with the Hydra case? Tell us in the comments section below. View the full article

This week, the National Basketball Association (NBA) announced the launch of its own non-fungible token (NFT) initiative called “NBAxNFT.” According to the professional basketball league, the goal is to showcase “all things intersecting basketball and Web3, including NFTs, gaming, and the metaverse.” Professional Basketball and Web3 Collide Following the popular collection NBA Top Shot and the upcoming Golden State Warriors 2022 Playoff responsive NFT collection, the NBA has started NBAxNFT, which currently consists of a Twitter account and Discord channel. NBAxNFT is being called the “official Web3 home for the NBA,” and the project aims to combine all things basketball with NFTs, gaming, metaverse, and Web3 ideas. “Thanks to all who have followed,” the initiative’s official Twitter account explains. “If you’re new here, we’re excited to use this space to share all things NBA basketball and Web3. Looking forward to engaging with our community and partners like NBA Top Shot.” In terms of all-time sales of NFT collections, the Dapper Labs’ NBA Top Shot NFT collection holds the ninth position, in terms of all-time sales volume. To date, NBA Top Shot has seen an aggregate of 16,006,548 sales which equates to $885.6 million since the NFT’s inception. The recently launched Discord channel has more than 35,000 members at the time of writing and according to the NBA, 2022 Playoff NFTs will be released this weekend. “We’re showcasing all things intersecting basketball and web3, including NFTs, gaming, and the metaverse,” the NBAxNFT Twitter account detailed when it first launched the Web3 initiative. Four days ago, the NBA’s Golden State Warriors announced the launch of a 2022 Playoff responsive NFT collection. At press time, it has not been disclosed by the NBA whether or not Dapper Labs or the Flow blockchain will be involved, despite mentioning the company in a tweet about partners. Discussions stemming from the NBA’s Discord channel hint at the upcoming NFT drop being issued on Ethereum. What do you think about the NBA jumping into creating a space for Web3, NFT, and metaverse content? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

According to the project’s official Twitter account, Tornado Cash, the ethereum mixing service that allows participants to shuffle ether, is blocking flagged ethereum addresses listed on the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (OFAC) Specially Designated Nationals And Blocked Persons list (SDN). The decision follows the recent OFAC update, that lists the Ronin exploiter’s ethereum address, and further notes that the ether wallet is allegedly associated with the infamous North Korean hackers, Lazarus Group. Ethereum Mixer Tornado Cash Blocks OFAC Sanctioned Addresses Tornado Cash announced on April 15, 2022, that the project is leveraging a Chainalysis oracle to block OFAC sanctioned wallets. “Tornado Cash uses [a] Chainalysis oracle contract to block OFAC sanctioned addresses from accessing the dapp,” the official Twitter account said on Friday. “Maintaining financial privacy is essential to preserving our freedom, however, it should not come at the cost of non-compliance,” the Tornado Cash Twitter account added. The decision comes after the U.S. Treasury and OFAC published an update concerning the Ronin bridge hacker’s ethereum wallet. The ethereum address that was used by the Ronin bridge exploiter is now sanctioned and U.S.-based companies and citizens are banned from transacting with the address. According to the OFAC update, the address is associated with the North Korean hacking organization known as Lazarus Group. Following the decision, Tornado Cash got a lot of criticism for the move. “So let me get this straight,” one individual tweeted, “if my address is on the OFAC sanctioned addresses list, I just need to transfer it to another address and then I can begin my money laundering.” The news also follows the controversy surrounding the claims that the blockchain surveillance and intelligence company, Chainalysis, deanonymized Wasabi-based Coinjoin transactions. After the deanonymizing claims, Wasabi told the public a blacklist would prevent some UTXOs (unspent transaction outputs) from registering to Coinjoin transfers. The founder and creator of Wasabi wallet, Adam Ficsor, told the public: “Blacklisting arrived to Coinjoins. IMO it is a major setback to Bitcoin’s fungibility.” Meanwhile, the changes Tornado Cash added may be bypassed by not only simply switching to other ether addresses, but also by leveraging the contract without using the Tornado Cash protocol’s frontend. “Don’t worry guys, your favorite hackers will still be able to wash the money they have stolen from you using the smart contract directly,” one individual replied to the Tornado Cash Twitter statement. “This just affects the website frontend, contract is permissionless.” What do you think about the statements the Tornado Cash team made on Friday about blocking OFAC sanctioned ethereum addresses? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

About four months ago, four of the top rebase tokens by market valuation were worth close to $8 billion in USD value and today, the entire lot of rebase tokens collectively are valued at $1.14 billion. The largest rebase crypto by market capitalization, olympus (OHM), had a $4.3 billion market valuation last November, but after shedding 98.1% in USD value, OHM’s market capitalization is now $438 million. Over $7 Billion Exited the Rebase Token Economy During the Last Four Months During the first week of November, Bitcoin.com News reported on the olympus (OHM) rebase token and how the algorithmic reserve-backed crypto asset worked. Three weeks later, OHM’s overall market capitalization tapped an all-time high (ATH) at $4.35 billion on November 23. OHM already recorded an all-time price high months earlier in April, when it reached a high of $1,415 per coin on the 25th. Since that day, olympus (OHM) has shed 98.1% in value against the U.S. dollar. OHM sparked a slew of Olympus forks and the Avalanche-based reserve currency protocol called wonderland (TIME) saw its market capitalization jump over $2 billion three days before OHM’s market cap ATH. While TIME’s market cap reached an ATH on November 21, the asset itself saw a price high on November 7, 2021, when it tapped $10,063 per unit five months ago. Since November 7, TIME has lost 98.8% in value against the U.S. dollar. The rebase token redacted cartel (BTRFLY) has dropped 93.6% in value and klima dao (KLIMA) is down 99.5%. At one time, the aggregate market capitalizations of OHM, TIME, BTRFLY, and KLIMA was around $7.885 billion and today, the dozens upon dozens of rebase coins are worth $1.14 billion. In more recent times, a slew of rebase tokens saw double-digit gains, in terms of two-week standings. 14-day data shows the rebase coins midasdao (CROWN), dollars (USDX), spartacus (SPA), euphoria (WAGMI), and templedao (TEMPLE) have seen prices gain by double digits against the U.S. dollar. While OHM is 98.1% lower than it was in November, there’s still around $5.3 million in global trading volume and $24.71 million total value locked (TVL) in terms of staking. Wonderland users are staking $638.76 million today, but TIME has only seen $630,447 in 24-hour global trade volume. TVL metrics, and the aggregate global trade volume for rebase tokens, in general, have also dropped considerably over the last four months. What do you think about the market performance of rebase tokens like olympus, wonderland, redacted cartel, and klimadao over the last four months? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

Following recent declines in price, WAVES climbed higher to start the weekend, as crypto markets moved marginally higher. Some of the biggest contributors to the gains were EOS and GMT, which both rose by over 6%. EOS EOS rose for a second consecutive session to start the weekend, as prices raced to their highest level in over ten days. After trading at a low of $2.34 on Friday, EOS/USD raced to an intraday peak of $2.52 during Saturday’s session. This is the most EOS has hit since April 7, and comes after prices moved away from the long-term support level to start the week. As seen from the chart, this floor was at the $2.20 point, which prices hit following two weeks of declines, which commenced at a top of $3.17. Since this drop, which also saw the 14-day RSI hit a multi-month low of 36.34, price strength has climbed, and now hovers below a ceiling of 52. Should this resistance point be broken, we could see bulls look to push price towards the $2.65 level. WAVES WAVES was also up on Saturday, as traders appear to have finally found a floor, following a recent bearish run. Similar to EOS, prices of WAVES have been battling a red wave since March 29, which is when the recent bear run in crypto markets began. This run has seen WAVES drop to a bottom of $20 on Thursday, which is its lowest point in over five weeks, and an area where bulls typically re-enter. As of writing, WAVE/USD has risen to a high of $22.89 in today’s session, after beginning the day tracking closer to the $20.57 level. Looking at the chart, the 14-day RSI has shown us that price strength has been consolidating for the past few days, as it sits at the floor of 35.70. This is the lowest level the RSI has tracked at since February, and with prices being undoubtedly oversold, bulls may look at this as an opportunity to buy recent dips. Is the current $20 level in WAVES the true price floor, or could we see this support broken? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. View the full article

Argentinians are now discovering that P2P (peer-to-peer) markets can be used to maintain or multiply their savings in crypto and foreign currency. According to local media sources, more and more Argentinians are using P2P exchanges and markets to apply arbitrage and earn money being P2P cashiers. Maximiliano Hinz, Latam operations director of Binance, states that their P2P business has grown 40% in just the last month. Argentinians Rush to P2P Market Boom Argentinians are discovering the way in which liquidity providers in P2P markets earn great amounts of money by arbitraging between different markets. According to reports from local media, this course of action might quintuple the savings of some investors monthly, depending on the availability of some payment methods and the ability of the P2P cashier. These human exchangers can purchase crypto in cheap markets and then sell them in other international markets where the demand (and prices) are more interesting. However, this is not a given, as P2P cashiers need to manage different payment methods and accounts to give interesting options to their customers and score big spreads across different exchanges. In Argentina, there are several exchanges that manage P2P markets, meaning that these act as platforms to pair users wishing to exchange cryptocurrencies for fiat currencies. These include Binance, Paxful, Airtm, Okex, and Localbitcoins, amongst others. Growth and Earnings Different companies have confirmed the growth reported by local sources. Maximiliano Hinz, Latam operations director of Binance, stated: The growth has been quite organic. Due to the nature of the business, we can say that our active users grew by 40% last month. Renata Rodríguez, marketing manager for Paxful Latam, stated in the same vein that new user registrations in Argentina increased more than 110% in the last year. Other companies have not offered precise numbers, but have declared they have also detected a sharp increase in the activity of P2P markets. This is the case with Alex Vázquez, P2P operations manager of Okex, who stated: We detected a marked rebound, in particular, from last month. Also, these traders must have different payment methods to take advantage of the new spreads available depending on the markets involved. Local sources state that uncommon payment methods, including Payoneer and Paypal, might yield higher earnings when compared to others. This is because they are used by freelancers in the country seeking to obtain fiat and cryptocurrency paying with these platforms. Amazon gift cards can often be purchased with a discount rate of 25%, to be later sold at face value in other markets. However, volatility in crypto markets is a real concern for P2P cashiers, that prefer to trade stablecoins such as USDT and others. What do you think about the rise of P2P markets in Argentina? Tell us in the comments section below. View the full article

Prices of ETH and BTC were mainly unchanged to start the weekend, as market activity slowed, mainly due to the Easter holiday. Price consolidation comes after a week of bearish pressure that sent the world’s two largest cryptocurrencies towards key support levels. Bitcoin Bitcoin was once again trading marginally above the $40,000 level on Saturday, as markets remained quiet as a result of the Easter break. BTC/USD rose to an intraday peak of $40,618.84 to start the weekend, following a low of $40,009.09 earlier in the session. Recent price consolidation comes following a two-week streak which saw bitcoin lose close to $10,000 from its value. Typically, following a bullish or bearish trend within a relatively short span of time, markets will consolidate, as they prepare for either an extension of the initial move, or a change of direction. Looking at the chart, the 14-day RSI continues to track below a key resistance level at 44, which seems to be the main hurdle preventing a resurgence of BTC bulls. If recent sentiment continues, we may see some further declines back towards $39,600 prior to any upcoming extended gains. Ethereum ETH was also mainly unmoved during Saturday’s session, as the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency was tracking close to its price support. Following an earlier low of $3,001.12, ETH/USD only marginally rose, hitting a peak of $3,046.20 as of writing. This peak is around 0.49% higher than yesterday’s low, and sees price once again fail to make any significant gains following losses during the week. Since the beginning of the year, the price of ETH traded close to this $3,000 support level on four occasions, with bulls typically pushing prices higher. On the occasions when price has traded around current level, we typically see no more than two days of consolidation, prior to a rally. As of writing, prices are currently seeing the second day of consolidation, which could potentially tempt bulls to look at entries on Sunday. Could we see history repeat itself this weekend, to the benefit of ETH bulls? Leave your thoughts in the comments below. View the full article

The Brazilian Congress is trying to approve a cryptocurrency legal framework before the end of Q2. According to reports from local media, The proponents of the different law projects presented in the Senate and the Congress have stated they will seek the unification of the projects due to their similarity. This new unified project presents incentives for green mining and the inclusion of crypto-related fraud as a crime. Brazilian Congress Moves Gears to Approve Crypto Laws The Brazilian Congress has the disposition of approving a definitive law to regulate cryptocurrency before Q2 ends. According to local media, the rapporteurs of two different proposals seeking to regulate crypto interactions in the country will combine these two documents to present a unified version of them. Senators Iraja Abreu and Deputy Aureo Ribeiro will prepare this text, which will be on track for approval later this month. Abreu has already combined three proposals, and he will ask the Senate for these two new proposals (one in the Chamber of Deputies and one in the Senate) to be processed and approved jointly. Abreu stated: I’m doing everything in contact with the Chamber’s rapporteur, who did a very good job. The Central Bank’s technical team has also been very helpful. The texts are similar and will converge into one. The senator believes that with a clear and established cryptocurrency legal framework adapted to the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), this sector will be more investor-friendly for those interested in Brazil. He explained: There is a market demand for a safer business environment and the need for criminal classification to avoid fraud, in addition to adjusting Brazil to international agreements. Motivation and New Features One of the biggest motivations behind this law is the sheer amount of fraudulent activity associated with cryptocurrency. According to reports, the cryptocurrency markets move around R$130 billion annually (around $27.6 billion), with R$6.5 billion reals linked to fraudulent activity (around $1.38 billion). In fact, this project aims to include the definition of cryptocurrency-related fraud in the Brazilian penal code, which will carry penalties that go from four to eight years of prison time depending on the severity of the crime. The project also gives special importance to mining, including incentives for green mining projects. This means that mining projects that adopt green energy alternatives will enjoy tax benefits. Abreu stated: Brazil can become the new green mining mecca. That is the objective. What do you think about the cryptocurrency law project that will be presented in Brazil? Tell us in the comments section below. View the full article

Three African countries — namely Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and the Republic of Congo — are reportedly planning to adopt cryptocurrency and blockchain solutions powered by The Open Network (TON). Separately, Cameroon is considering issuing a national stablecoin that is based on the same blockchain network. Phased Adoption of the Solutions The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is reportedly considering issuing a national stablecoin that is built on blockchain, a statement released by The Open Network (TON) has said. In addition, the DRC, along with Cameroon and the Republic of Congo, are planning to adopt cryptocurrency and blockchain-based solutions powered by the TON. According to TON’s statement, the announcement of the blockchain entity’s plan to deliver these solutions follows its successful engagements with each of the three countries. Adoption of TON’s crypto and blockchain solutions by the three countries will be phased, the statement suggested. Democratizing the Financial System Commenting on the possibilities of his country’s potential partnership with TON, the Republic of Congo’s Minister for Posts, Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, Léon Juste Ibombo, said: The Republic of the Congo has been on this path for a number of years, having encouraged and witnessed the widespread adoption of mobile payments across the country. This is the next step in that journey and we believe that TON is the right partner to facilitate this. This will be an invaluable, practical instrument for the growth and creation of wealth, both for the government and our people alike. Echoing similar sentiments, Ibombo’s counterpart from the DRC, Désiré Cashmir Eberande Kolongele, spoke of his country’s pride in taking this step. He said the issuing of the stablecoin democratizes “access to our financial system for millions of unbanked and underbanked citizens.” For his part, the Cameroonian Minister of Posts and Telecommunication, Minette Libom Li Likeng, said: “The partnership with TON can play a fundamental role in the digital ecosystem of Cameroon for boosting the payment solutions and financial inclusion via CAMPOST, the public postal operator.” What are your thoughts on this story? Tell us what you think in the comments section below. View the full article

PRESS RELEASE. Universe Island is an action packed classic, third person shooting game that rewards players with $UIM tokens. These tokens fuel the Play-to-Earn ecosystem of the game and is scheduled to get listed at PancakeSwap on 18th April 2022. The launch of the beta version of the game and NFT marketplace would shortly follow. The NFT Marketplace will allow players to stake UIM tokens to activate lootboxes, get special monthly NFT airdrops, governance rights on decision for the game as well as access to Whitelist after 6 months of staking! The NFT cards will provide unique boosts for characters and can be traded at the NFT marketplace via UIM tokens with no additional fees or be displayed at the Metaverse Gallery. Furthermore, these NFT cards can also be viewed by players on characters in their real-time environment with our Augmented Reality (AR) Technology; thereby making Universe Island the first Play-to-Earn game enabling its players to view their heroes in real-life environment! With the launch date getting closer, the team of Universe Island is geared to provide players with a P2E game that would take the experience of everyone- gamers and crypto enthusiasts to a whole new level. All you need is a phone and you are ready to go! This is a press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release. View the full article

Crypto and blockchain firms constituted 16% of the 655 new company registrations that were recorded in Q1 of 2022, the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) has said. The surge in crypto-related registrations also coincided with a quarterly period in which the DMCC is reported to have recorded its “highest Q1 performance” since inception. Rise in Registrations Attributed to the Launch of DMCC Crypto Centre One of the UAE’s largest free zones, the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC), has said 16% of the 655 new company registrations recorded in Q1 of 2022 were crypto and blockchain firms. The DMCC has attributed this surge in crypto and blockchain companies joining the free zone to the presence of the DMCC Crypto Centre, which was launched in May 2021. According to a statement released by DMCC, the rise in the number of new registrations by crypto firms came during a quarter that has been named “the highest Q1 performance since 2002 inception.” In the statement, Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Executive Chairman and CEO at DMCC, touts the new milestone which is said to have cemented the free zone’s status as a “world-leading business destination.” The CEO explained: The global economic climate remains challenging, however, Dubai’s reputation as a world-leading business destination is stronger than ever, and DMCC sits at the very heart of this international appeal. Registering 665 new companies in the first three months of 2022 is another record broken for DMCC, and serves to show the huge potential on offer when joining our Free Zone in Dubai. DMCC will continue with its efforts to attract ambitious firms that may be looking to set up in Dubai, Sulayem added. Performance Better Than in Previous Quarters Meanwhile, in the statement, DMCC revealed its key markets — namely India, U.K., Germany, and France — had performed better than in previous, similar quarters. According to the statement, Dubai company formations from China grew by 34%. The DMCC has attributed this growth to its “significant Mandarin engagement programmes that run country-wide throughout the year, and its representative office in Shenzhen.” DMCC’s specific outreach programs to markets like Israel and Turkey resulted in quarterly company registrations originating from these jurisdictions rising by 350% and 100% respectively. According to the statement, DMCC has seen increased interest from trading hubs such as Indonesia and Vietnam. What are your thoughts on this story? Tell us what you think in the comments section below. View the full article

18 days ago on March 28, the Crypto Fear and Greed Index tapped the “greed” position, scoring a 60 for the first time in four months. Since that day, bitcoin has lost more than $7,500 in USD value, and hit a low of $39,200 per unit on April 11. The downturn has pushed the Crypto Fear and Greed Index back down to the “extreme fear” position with a score of 22. Crypto Sentiment Index Slides to ‘Extreme Fear,’ Bitcoin’s USD Value Is Down 35.7% Year-to-Date On Friday, April 15, 2022, the price of bitcoin (BTC) has consolidated for now, after reaching a low four days ago. BTC’s 24-hour range on Friday has been between $39,823.77 to $40,709.11 per unit, with roughly $22 billion worth of global trading volume. Bitcoin is down 7.2% this past week and two-week statistics show the leading crypto asset has lost roughly 11.3%. Year-to-date, bitcoin’s price against the U.S. dollar is 35.7% lower than a year ago today. While bitcoin’s market capitalization on Friday is around $767 billion it represents 38.91% of the current $1.97 trillion crypto economy. Today’s top trading pair with BTC is tether (USDT) with 60.88% of all trades worldwide. Tether is followed by USD (12.27%), BUSD (7.88%), JPY (4.09%), and KRW (3.28%). On April 15, the Crypto Fear and Greed Index tapped the “extreme fear” position and has a current score of 22. Yesterday, it was 28 which represents “fear” and the week prior, the score was 37, which also means “fear.” The Crypto Fear and Greed Index leverages market sentiment and crunches it down into a simple number and description. Sentiment indexes are used in traditional financial markets as well. Financial businesses, universities, and media organizations like CNN, the University of Michigan, Nasdaq’s ISEE Index, and more use these sentiment indexes to gauge how the market feels. Bitcoin is the ninth-largest global asset today, in terms of market capitalization, above Berkshire Hathaway’s market valuation ($760.36B), and below Tesla’s capitalization ($1.018T). The last time the Crypto Fear and Greed Index tapped a 22 was March 22, or 24 days ago. The Crypto Fear and Greed Index hosted on alternative.me explains extreme fear and greed can have two meanings. “’Extreme fear’ can be a sign that investors are too worried. That could be a buying opportunity,” the website explains. “When Investors are getting too ‘greedy,’ that means the market is due for a correction.” What do you think about today’s Crypto Fear and Greed Index data reaching extreme fear? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

Yield App, a thriving digital wealth platform, recently unveiled its hotly anticipated Referral Program and it was worth the wait. With up to 1,000 $YLD (more than $200 at the current price) available for both the referrer and the new customers being referred, it is easily one of the most lucrative referral programs in the digital wealth space. A referred customer must sign up for a Yield App account and pass KYC level 2 to begin using the platform. They must then become a Silver Tier member and deploy $1,000 into any Yield App portfolio(s) for 30 consecutive days to earn their reward. At the end of this period, the existing customer and their friend both receive a reward of up to 1,000 YLD, chosen at random. Unlike other similar promotions, Yield App’s Referral Program differentiates itself by giving new customers as long as they need to accumulate the necessary amount of assets to qualify for a referral reward. Customers can refer as many friends as they like, but the referred friend must be a new Yield App customer and each individual can only ever use one referral code. With a mission to unlock the full potential of digital assets and make it available to the world, Yield App bridges traditional and decentralized finance in the easiest way possible. Customers simply deposit their digital assets to earn market-leading annual rates on stablecoins (USDT USDC, DAI and TUSD) as well as blue-chip cryptocurrencies BTC and ETH. At the core of the platform’s strategy is its $YLD token, which rewards loyal community members with a higher yield the more YLD they hold in their on-platform wallets. Yield App has been making headway in the digital wealth space. Launched in February 2021, the platform has already amassed nearly 80,000 customers and over $0.5 billion in managed assets. With the launch of its hotly anticipated Referral Program, the company has made a bold statement regarding its longevity, after recently passing Armanino’s proof of reserves audit to bolster transparency. This is a sponsored post. Learn how to reach our audience here. Read disclaimer below. View the full article

On Thursday, Uniswap Labs, the company behind the popular decentralized finance (defi) protocol, Uniswap, launched a tool called the Swap Widget. Essentially, the widget allows developers and decentralized app (dapp) operators to embed the Uniswap decentralized exchange (dex) app with “one line of code.” Software Engineers Can Now Embed Uniswap Swapping Functionality Into Web3 Dapps One of the largest dex applications in terms of trade volume, Uniswap, announced the launch of a new widget tool that gives dapp operators the ability to integrate Uniswap into their third-party applications. The Uniswap blog post that announces the new Swap Widget explains that integration is easy as it only requires a single React component and one line of code. “We envision a world in which everyone is able to access fair, open, and transparent markets,” the company said on Thursday. “The Swap Widget brings this vision closer to reality by allowing developers to easily embed Uniswap swapping functionality, allowing their users to seamlessly swap tokens, join a community or DAO, wrap assets, and more, without leaving their apps.” The Swap Widget features a user interface that is customizable and for pricing the widget “bundles Uniswap Labs’ Auto Router to find the best price across Uniswap v2 + v3 token pools.” The widget also connects to layer two (L2) chains including Polygon, Arbitrum, and Optimism. Uniswap says that the Swap Widget is already available in a number of popular Web3 applications like Oasis.app, Friends With Benefits, and the non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace Opensea. As of Thursday, the widget is fully available to embed into a Web3 application and people can follow instructions by leveraging Uniswap’s developer docs. In order to ask questions or get technical support, interested Swap Widget users need to join the group’s Discord channel. At the time of writing, Uniswap v3 has the largest trading volume out of a slew of dex protocols with $1.11 billion in 24-hour volume. There are 479 unique tokens available on Uniswap and roughly 923 pairs, according to dex platform statistics. What do you think about Uniswap’s Swap Widget? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

The Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) purchased an additional 123.89 bitcoin on Friday worth close to $5 million at the time of settlement. Since mid-March, Terra’s LFG has been acquiring bitcoin on a regular basis and after the purchase on Friday morning, the non-profit organization has approximately 42,530.827 bitcoin. LFG Acquires Another Batch of Bitcoins for the Project’s Decentralized UST Forex Reserves Ever since Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon said the Terra project would purchase $3 billion worth of bitcoin for Terra’s decentralized UST forex reserves, LFG has been acquiring quite a bit of BTC. Bitcoin.com News reported on LFG’s last buy when it obtained 2,508 BTC two days ago and the wallet held approximately 42,406.92 BTC after the acquisition. On Friday, the non-profit organization LFG acquired a much smaller quantity of bitcoin as it deposited 123.89917 BTC worth close to $5 million at 1:55 a.m. (UTC). All of the funds deposited into the LFG address have stemmed from a Binance hot wallet, except for random dust transactions sent to the wallet on a daily basis. Now LFG’s bitcoin wallet holds 42,530.827 bitcoin worth $1.71 billion at the time of writing. It is currently the 18th largest bitcoin wallet after 69 transactions that started on January 21, 2022. The purchase of 123.89 BTC follows the creation of the Terraform Labs Global Founder Fellowship. “The aim of the Terra Global Founder Fellowship is to work with top tier early-stage VC firms, accelerator programs, and tech unicorn companies,” the Terraform Labs’ announcement explained on Wednesday. The Terra Global Founder Fellowship partners include Jump Crypto, Delphi Digital, Outlier Ventures, Long Hash Ventures, SCB10X, Alpha Finance Lab, Ship Capital, Basis Set Ventures, and Insignia Ventures. Terra’s stablecoin UST was also listed on Binance US on April 13, and UST’s market capitalization on April 15 is only $200 million away from surpassing the stablecoin BUSD’s market valuation. Terra’s UST has seen its market cap grow by 15.5% during the last 30 days. LFG’s Gnosis safe address has seen a lot of action in recent times as well. The address recently saw a deposit of 86,923,440 tether (USDT) three days ago. This was after the non-profit withdrew approximately 100,000,000 USDT the day before. Statistics show the LFG Gnosis safe address holds around $549.6 million in stablecoins with the most dominant being usd coin (USDC). The address currently holds $398.16 million worth of USDC, $151.4 million worth of tether (USDT), and a small fraction (0.056 ETH) of ethereum worth $168.56. What do you think about the Luna Foundation’s growing stash of bitcoins? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

In recent years, the IRS has made one thing abundantly clear – if you make money from crypto, they want their cut. So if you’re underreporting or outright avoiding crypto taxes, be warned: the penalties are steep. Before you take the wrong turn, learn the risks from crypto tax experts, Koinly. Is cryptocurrency taxed? The million dollar question – and the answer is a definite yes. Virtually every country in the world requires you to pay taxes on crypto. The exact tax you’ll pay will vary – but in general you’ll pay either Capital Gains Tax or Income Tax, or both in some cases. You can learn more about how crypto is taxed in your country in Koinly’s crypto tax guides. What will tax offices know about my crypto? Now that Crypto has gone mainstream, tax offices are sending a clear message to investors – you can run, but you can’t hide. As a digital asset, you might think there’s no way your tax office can know about your crypto, but it’s not the case at all. Tax offices including the IRS in the US, the ATO in Australia, HMRC in the UK, and the CRA in Canada are compelling crypto exchanges to share Know Your Customer (KYC) data on demand. This is done to ensure tax compliance and catch taxpayers avoiding crypto taxes. The IRS in particular have been using the John Doe summons to legally compel crypto exchanges to hand over user data. They’ve already won a John Doe summons against Coinbase, Kraken and Poloniex. So what happens if you’re caught evading crypto taxes? Crypto tax evasion in the US The IRS has identified two types of crypto tax evasion: Evasion of assessment Evasion of payment The penalties for each type of crypto tax evasion differ. Evasion of assessment The most common type of crypto tax evasion is evasion of assessment. Taxpayers who willfully omit income, underreport income, or overstate deductions commit this crime. Examples of crypto tax evasion include: Not reporting capital gains from sales or other disposals. Under reporting capital gains from sales or other disposals Not reporting additional income received in cryptocurrency. Not reporting business income received in cryptocurrency. Paying wages in cryptocurrency without reporting it. Evasion of payment A taxpayer who hides assets or funds that could be used for payment of their tax liability is said to be evading payment after a tax assessment has been made. Tax evasion of this nature is less prevalent in the crypto space – but not entirely unknown. IRS crypto tax evasion penalties Tax evasion and tax fraud are both federal offenses in the United States. Depending on the severity of the evasion, you can face up to $100,000 in fines ($500,000 for corporations) or up to 5 years in prison. Therefore, if you’re thinking of risking it, don’t. What if I’ve previously avoided crypto taxes? The IRS recently updated Form 14457 – the Voluntary Disclosure Practice Preclearance Request and Application – to include a section on reporting virtual currencies. Form 14457 lets taxpayers who may be facing criminal prosecution for violation of tax laws, voluntarily disclose information to the IRS that they previously failed to disclose. Provided the IRS hasn’t initiated proceedings already, a voluntary disclosure can help you avoid criminal prosecution if you’ve previously evaded assessment or payment. By making a voluntary disclosure, you agree to cooperate with the IRS and pay any due taxes in full in order to avoid criminal prosecution. Based on the penalties, disclosure is a much better option than a potential $100,000 fine or prison sentence. Global crypto tax evasion The IRS isn’t the only tax office cracking down on crypto tax evasion – tax agencies all around the world are doing the same. In the UK, the penalty for tax evasion can be anything up to 200% of the tax due and up to seven years imprisonment in serious cases. HMRC has just recently seized NFTs for the first time in a suspected tax fraud case. Tax evasion in Australia is punishable by up to two years imprisonment and a fine of 200 penalty units (around $33,000). Tax evasion in Canada can result in a penalty of up to 200% of the taxes evaded and a five-year jail term. How Koinly can help with crypto taxes Crypto taxes are complicated for many investors due to the lack of guidance from tax offices, as well as the sheer volume of transactions they need to calculate taxes on. But Koinly can help. Koinly calculates your crypto taxes for you. All you need to do is sync the wallets, exchanges and blockchains you use with Koinly using API or by importing a CSV file of your transaction history. Koinly will then identify your cost basis, identify your taxable transactions and calculate your subsequent capital gains, losses and income – all in one easy to read tax summary (and totally free of charge). After that, you can download your Koinly tax report to give to your tax office. Koinly offers a huge variety of reports for crypto investors around the world. This includes TurboTax reports, the IRS Form 8949 and Schedule D, the ATO myTax report, and more. Avoid audits and penalties. Let Koinly do the work for you. Sign up today and see how much you owe! This is a sponsored post. Learn how to reach our audience here. Read disclaimer below. View the full article

According to the U.S. Treasury and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the recent Ronin bridge hack may have been tied to the North Korean hacker syndicate called Lazarus Group. Federal law enforcement officials have tied the flagged ethereum address connected with the Ronin bridge exploit to the group of hackers and added the crypto address to OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals And Blocked Persons list (SDN). Ronin Bridge Exploiter’s Address Added to OFAC’s SDN List On April 14, the U.S. government published an OFAC SDN list update which includes the ethereum (ETH) address involved in the recent Ronin bridge exploit. Bitcoin.com News reported on the Ronin bridge attack on March 29, after the protocol associated with the blockchain game Axie Infinity lost $620 million in crypto assets. To date, the Ronin bridge attack has been one of the largest decentralized finance (defi) exploits in 2022. According to the U.S. Treasury and OFAC, the ethereum address, which is already flagged on blockchain explorers under the name “Ronin bridge exploiters,” belongs to the North Korean hacker syndicate called Lazarus Group. The ethereum wallet holds 144,837.79 ether worth roughly $438.6 million using today’s ether exchange rates. The newly updated SDN list explains that Lazarus Group has various names including the “Guardians of Peace,” “Hidden Cobra,” “Red Dot,” “Temp.Hermit,” and the “New Romantic Cyber Army Team.” Transactions With Any SDN-Listed Crypto Addresses Are Prohibited by the US Government OFAC has warned the public about Lazarus Group in the past, as U.S. authorities believe the hackers have been involved with major crypto hacks and ransomware threats. There have also been many research studies that investigate the North Korean hacking group’s alleged activities. The U.S. Treasury’s and OFAC’s update on Thursday notes that the hacker syndicate is reportedly located in the Potonggang District, Pyongyang, North Korea. Transactions with the OFAC specified ethereum address are prohibited for U.S. persons and financial institutions. According to a report published by the United Nations (UN) in March 2019, North Korea and the country’s supreme leader Kim Jong-un allegedly stockpiled at least $670 million worth of cryptocurrencies. On July 24, 2020, the U.S. Army published an investigative report that alleged North Korea has roughly 6,000 cyber hackers including the notorious Lazarus Group. What do you think about the U.S. government claiming that the Ronin bridge hacker is associated with the infamous Lazarus Group? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

On Thursday, following Robinhood’s listing of shiba inu, the co-founder and CEO of Robinhood, Vladimir Tenev, spoke about dogecoin being the future currency of the internet on Twitter. Tenev’s Twitter thread got a lot of comments and also received responses from the co-founder of the meme-based crypto, Billy Markus, and Tesla’s Elon Musk. Robinhood CEO Discusses How Dogecoin ‘Can Be the Future Currency of the Internet and the People’ Elon Musk’s favorite crypto asset dogecoin (DOGE) got some attention on Thursday after the Bulgarian-American entrepreneur and Robinhood CEO, Vladimir Tenev, started a thread on the meme-token subject. The topic started as Twitter was ablaze with commentary concerning Elon Musk’s unsolicited bid to purchase the social media platform. It also follows Robinhood’s recent shiba inu (SHIB) listing and the company adding DOGE. “Can Doge truly be the future currency of the Internet and the people?” Tenev tweeted on Thursday. “As we added the ability to send/receive DOGE on Robinhood, I’ve been thinking about what that would take. First off, transaction fees have to be vanishingly small. We’re already there. As of last Nov’s 1.14.5 update, typical transaction fees have been ~$0.003 – which you can experience on [Robinhood App] – compared to the 1-3% network fees that major card networks charge,” Tenev added. The Robinhood CEO further said that the block time should be fast enough to be recorded into the chain in less time than a point-of-sale (POS) transaction. “But it shouldn’t be so fast that miners start building up too many competing chains and waste excessive amounts of energy establishing consensus,” Tenev opined. The Robinhood executive continued: Doge’s current block time is 1 minute. This is a bit on the long side for payments – a ten second block time would be more appropriate as it would be less than the typical time spent completing a debit card transaction. Elon Musk: ‘Block Size and Time Should Keep Pace With the Rest of the Internet’ Following Tenev’s Twitter statements, Musk responded after a very active day on Twitter for the Tesla executive. “6 seconds, better said as 6000 milliseconds, which is a long time to computers, is about right,” Musk replied to the Robinhood CEO. Making the conversation a bit more interesting, Dogecoin co-founder and software engineer Billy Markus added his two cents to the discussion with Tenev and Musk. Markus detailed that eight years ago, he chose one minute blocks because “someone on bitcointalk said 45 seconds on a different chain was causing lots of issues, and 60 seconds was the fastest without having too many issues.” Markus then said: The faster while still secure, the better IMO — I would guess the infrastructure of the web has improved enough in 8 years to experiment with speeding it up. Tenev’s Twitter statements follow the recent listing of shiba inu on Robinhood and the CEO has been tweeting about that meme-based crypto asset as well. Musk has been conversing about Dogecoin network improvements for quite some time now (usually on Twitter), and has briefly mentioned a few times last year that the network should scale to the masses. In Tenev’s thread, Musk added a response to Markus’ “faster while still secure, the better” opinion and said: “Exactly, block size & time should keep pace with the rest of the Internet.” Tenev’s Twitter statements also touched on Dogecoin’s supply mechanics when he explained that DOGE is “inflationary and the supply is infinite, as opposed to Bitcoin’s finite supply of 21M coins.” The Robinhood CEO said: ~5B new Doge are created every year, and the current supply is about 132B. This results in a current inflation rate of Since Musk started talking about scaling the Dogecoin network last year, the Dogecoin Core development Github repo has seen a lot more action during the last 12 months. In fact, 1000x.group statistics show that between August 2017 and January 2021, Dogecoin network development was stagnant. Active Dogecoin Core network developers in recent times include the programmers Patrick Lodder and Ross Nicoll. What do you think about the conversation on Twitter with Vladimir Tenev, Billy Markus, and Elon Musk? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

During what can be described as a choppy trading session, it was XRP which was one of the most notable gainers, climbing to a one-week high. While ripple rose, NEAR was once again lower, falling by as much as 10% on Friday. XRP While crypto markets were mainly in the red, XRP was one of Friday’s biggest gainers, climbing by as much as 9%. Following a low of $0.7106 earlier in the session, XRP/USD rallied to an intraday high of $0.7937 as the day progressed. Today’s high comes after four consecutive days of gains, which have taken XRP to its highest point since April 6. This week’s run began after a false breakout of the support level at $0.7115, and has now come close to hitting resistance at $0.8000. Looking at the chart, passing this point could prove to be an issue, as the 14-day RSI indicator is now hovering below its own ceiling. This level of 50 hasn’t been broken in almost two weeks, and should bulls look to move beyond $0.8000, price strength would need to increase. NEAR Protocol (NEAR) NEAR fell for a second consecutive session on Friday, as price uncertainty continues, following last week’s surge to $20. Since hitting that point, which was then a four-month high, NEAR has since dropped, falling below its key resistance level of $17. Prices are now consolidating between this resistance, and support of $15, with prices today trading at an intraday bottom of $15.73. Today’s drop in price has also pushed short-term momentum lower, with NEAR now down 15% since last Friday. The 14-day RSI is now tracking at 56.02, which is its weakest point since March 22, and this comes following a break of its 58.65 floor. Despite current momentum appearing to be bearish, bulls will likely continue to hold off this onslaught until the $15 support point is broken, which may open the door to further shorts. Could we see NEAR slip below $15 in the upcoming days? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. View the full article

Ethereum continues to trade close to its support level of $3,000 on Good Friday, as some financial markets were closed for the holiday weekend. Volatility has slightly eased as a result, with BTC also hovering near its floor around $40,000 during today’s session. Bitcoin Bitcoin was trading lower during Friday’s session, as volatility in crypto markets somewhat eased as a result of the Easter break. Following a high of $41,245.49 on Thursday, BTC/USD is down by 2%, dropping to a low of $39,695.74 in the process. Today’s drop pushed prices closer to the long-term floor of $39,600, however BTC bounced back, with the move now appearing to be a false breakout. Now trading around $40,200, bulls remain set on keeping prices above $40,000, despite the momentum of the 10-day and 25-day moving averages mainly being bearish. The 14-day RSI also continues to track in oversold territory, after failing to break out of the 42.65 resistance level earlier this week. Looking at the chart, we may continue to see more price consolidation, until a breakout occurs on either the floor of 38, or ceiling of 42 on the RSI indicator. Ethereum Like bitcoin, ethereum also traded near its long-term support point of $3,000 on Friday, following a failed attempt to move past a key resistance level. Thursday saw ETH/USD fail to break out of its ceiling at $3,150, which then resulted in prices falling back towards support of $3,000. As a result of this, ETH dropped to an intraday low of $2,988.44 earlier in Friday’s session, and is currently down 1.5% on the day. Since this bottom, bulls have helped to re-capture the $3,000 floor, and this comes as the 14-day RSI indicator seems to have also found support. This floor is the 44 level, where price strength has remained since yesterday, as seen by the sideways trend on the chart. Despite this, there are likely some traders that could look to take advantage of the relatively quiet session, by trying to swing momentum on either side of the current support levels. Will we see any sustained price movement over the coming days? Leave your thoughts in the comments below. View the full article

During the first week of January, the software community Mozilla revealed it was pausing cryptocurrency donations after citing environmental concerns. 14 weeks later, Mozilla decided last week it will accept crypto donations again, but only from digital assets that leverage a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus model. Mozilla Plans to Accept PoS Crypto Assets Only, Executive Says PoW Cryptos ‘Significantly Increase Our GHG Footprint’ On April 7, Mark Surman, the executive director at the Mozilla Foundation, published an update about the software community pausing crypto donations. Surman said that it was after Mozilla released its climate commitments, and after Mozilla staff and supporters complained, that the foundation decided to pause crypto donations. Mozilla decided to review the environmental impact of cryptocurrencies more closely, and Surman’s blog post reports back on the results of Mozilla’s review. “Starting today, we are updating our donation policy,” Surman’s update explains. “Mozilla will no longer accept ‘proof-of-work’ cryptocurrencies, which are more energy-intensive. Mozilla will accept ‘proof-of-stake’ cryptocurrencies, which are less energy-intensive. Mozilla will develop and share a list of cryptocurrencies we accept by the end of Q2 2022,” the Mozilla Foundation executive director added. Surman detailed that the decision is mainly based on the organization’s climate commitments that aim to “exceed the net-zero emissions commitment of the Paris Climate Agreement.” The Mozilla Foundation believes that proof-of-work (PoW) digital assets “significantly increase our GHG footprint.” By stopping the acceptance of PoW cryptos, Surman stressed that the decision remains “aligned” with Mozilla’s emissions commitment. “In our climate commitments, we also promised to help develop, design, and improve products from a sustainability perspective,” Mozilla’s executive director concluded. “We believe that Mozilla can play a positive role in the industry by encouraging those cryptocurrencies that we do accept to be transparent about their energy consumption patterns.” What do you think about Mozilla changing its decision to accept PoS cryptocurrencies? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

After a boost on Tuesday, following the release of U.S. inflation data, bitcoin prices were once again lower on Wednesday. BTC has mainly traded below $40,000 during the session, with ETH continuing to hover above the $3,000 level. Bitcoin Following a slight rebound in price during yesterday’s session, BTC fell below $40,000 earlier today, and has remained there throughout the day so far. BTC/USD dropped to an intraday low of $39,389.66 on Wednesday, which came less than 24 hours after hitting a peak of $40,617.59. Wednesday’s move saw prices move past the support level of $39,515. However, they have since rallied, moving away from these lows. As of writing, BTC is now trading at $39,783.91, which is still 1.66% lower than yesterday’s high, with some expecting further declines. Prominent Twitter technical analyst “Plan B” ran a poll asking his 1.7 million followers if they believed BTC will dip below $30,000, to which 45% of those who voted said “yes.” The majority who voted “no” are likely looking at the RSI, which is currently tracking at 37, and is already oversold, and may be anticipating a more short-term realistic target of $37,000. Ethereum ETH was fighting to stay above $3,000 on Wednesday, as its price was also marginally lower than that of yesterday’s peak. On Wednesday, ETH/USD fell to an intraday low of $3,005 following the earlier high of $3,080, which sees the price down 2.10% as of writing. Despite this drop, bulls seem to still be unmoved by the uncertainty of prices, and could even look to send ETH back towards resistance. This short-term resistance is at the $3,145 level, and with historical bullish sentiment around the current floor of $3,050, we may see a rebound. However, looking at the chart, a cross of the 10-day and 25-day moving averages has occurred, which could be a sign that momentum may indeed be bearish. Do you expect ETH to fall further during the second half of April? Leave your thoughts in the comments below. View the full article

An advertising agency from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and a non-governmental organization have launched a campaign that seeks to raise funds for jailed Egyptian women via the sale of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The funds raised are already being used to pay off their debts, allowing the imprisoned women to leave jail. Raised Funds to Set Prisoners Free The UAE-based advertising agency, Horizon FCB, has launched a non-fungible token (NFT) campaign that seeks to raise funds to free Egyptian women that were jailed for failing to pay off their debts. In this campaign, Horizon FCB has partnered with the non-governmental organization Children of Female Prisoners Association (CFPA). According to a report published by Unlock Media, the imprisoned women were unable to pay off relatively small loans taken out to pay for medicine, emergencies, and other needs of their families, so they ended up in jail. The advertising agency’s general manager, Reham Mufleh, explained the rationale behind Horizon FCB’s decision to help. Mufleh said: We created and launched a humane initiative, Breakchains with Blockchain, inspired by the reasons for their imprisonment, we created in collaboration with artists from around the world, NFTs. Each is designed to tell a woman’s story, the story of why she was sentenced. Each NFT is priced at the amount it will cost to free them from their sentence and give them a second chance at life. As explained in the report, every year over 10,000 Egyptian women are sent to prison. Their only crime, according to the report, is failing to repay their loans. CEO of Horizon FCB Mazen Jawad says it is the heartbreaking stories of the jailed women and the plight of their families that prompted the advertising agency to start the campaign. In addition to raising funds, Horizon FCB and its partner CFPA are also using the novelty of NFTs to raise awareness about the plight of jailed women and their families. On March 21, when the campaign was launched, three Egyptian mothers were reunited with their families after their debts were paid using funds raised from the sale of NFTs. What are your thoughts on this story? Tell us what you think in the comments section below. View the full article