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Financial guru Dave Ramsey says crypto is “fun” and can be a small part of investment portfolios. “It’s a commodity. Is it going to be around? Sure, it’s going to be around,” Ramsey said. Dave Ramsey Now Considers Cryptocurrency a Commodity That Is Here to Stay Personal finance guru and Ramsey Solutions CEO Dave Ramsey discussed bitcoin and his new book titled “Baby Steps Millionaires” in an interview with Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business Tuesday. Bartiromo asked him: “I know that you warned against crypto. You called it a get-rich-quick investment. Are you telling us that we do not have any exposure to crypto?” Ramsey replied: No, as long as the exposure is money you can afford to lose, whatever you want to do with that. However, he cautioned: “We’ve got people mortgaging their homes. We’ve got people taking their retirement out of their 401k and dumping it into crypto as if it is a proven process to build wealth.” While noting that “It’s just not a proven process,” he stressed: It’s a commodity. Is it going to be around? Sure, it’s going to be around. He elaborated: “I think it’s kind of fun. I enjoy watching the whole thing and all that. But, it’s an anomaly on the side. It shouldn’t be a big part of a personal financial plan to build wealth. It could be a small part — for entertainment.” Ramsey has come a long way in his view regarding bitcoin and cryptocurrency. In December 2020, he expressed his doubt on the Dave Ramsey Show that $100,000 in BTC could be cashed out. “If you really can cash it out and you might find out that this is funny money but I hope you can,” he said. He told his listeners in April last year: “I would cash it all out tomorrow. I wouldn’t have been in it in the first place though.” In May last year, he explained: “We do not tell people to invest in highly volatile, unpredictable investments. And currencies of any kind fall in that category. Bitcoin will be the most volatile among those, crypto would be the most volatile among those.” What do you think about Dave Ramsey’s comments regarding cryptocurrency? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

Strike, a bitcoin-based wallet and exchange service, has landed in Argentina, bringing USDT integration to users in the country. Jack Mallers, CEO of Strike, explained that his objective for bringing the app to the country has to do with providing a platform for Argentinians to hold a stable value in cash. This value will be held in the form of USDT, with no option for storing bitcoin, at least at launch. Strike Brings Stablecoin Integration to Argentinians Strike, a popular bitcoin-based wallet, has launched in Argentina, bringing a new way for Argentinians to store their savings via stablecoins. The announcement of this development was made by Strike CEO Jack Mallers, who explained that due to the financial woes the citizens of the country are experiencing, there is a migration to foreign currencies such as the dollar. Mallers stated: There is now unprecedented demand for an open monetary system that lives within a distributed network, has a known monetary policy, a fixed supply, and is resistant to censorship. Mallers further explained that Strike, in its Argentinian installment, will offer “a stable cash balance that can be spent both instantly and with no fees.” Powered by USDT While Strike is known for its Bitcoin and Lightning Network capabilities, it launched in Argentina with USDT as its backbone. This was considered strange by some local media outlets, considering that Mallers has publicly been a big supporter of the Bitcoin ecosystem, and that Strike has implemented these services in other locations already, including El Salvador. The current version of the application for Argentina uses USDT, the popular stablecoin issued by Tether, as a backbone to store value for users. USDT has a market cap of more than $78 billion dollars, being the most valuable stablecoin project in the whole cryptocurrency market. The USDT version that Strike uses is an ERC20 token, which uses the Ethereum blockchain. However, as Strike is a custodial wallet, users won’t have to deal with the high fees that are plaguing some ethereum users currently, as transactions using Strike are free of charge. In its terms of service the wallet explains that Bittrex is used for the custody of the assets, and that the company is not responsible for the custody of the cryptocurrency in its wallet. What do you think about the launch of Strike in Argentina? Tell us in the comments section below. View the full article

A recent letter published to the Bitcoin developers mailing list written by Square founder Jack Dorsey indicates that a legal defense fund has been created for open source developers in order to protect them “from lawsuits regarding their activities in the Bitcoin ecosystem.” Dorsey’s letter is also signed by Alex Morcos of Chaincode Labs and Martin White, the co-founder of Hudson River Trading. Jack Dorsey’s Open Letter to the Bitcoin Developers Mailing List Reveals Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund According to an open letter from Jack Dorsey, Alex Morcos, and Martin White, “the Bitcoin community is currently the subject of multi-front litigation.” While the letter does not specifically detail any of the legal cases developers are dealing with, it mentions that “individual defendants have chosen to capitulate in the absence of legal support.” However, the letter does hint at the Tulip Trading lawsuit, which involves Craig Wright, the Australian who claims he is Satoshi Nakamoto and the inventor of Bitcoin. “The Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund is a nonprofit entity that aims to minimize legal headaches that discourage software developers from actively developing Bitcoin and related projects such as the Lightning Network, Bitcoin privacy protocols, and the like,” the letter from Dorsey, White, and Morcos states. The open letter continues: The fund’s first activities will be to take over coordination of the existing defense of the Tulip Trading lawsuit against certain developers alleging breach of fiduciary duty and provide the source of funding for outside counsel. At this time, the fund is not seeking to raise additional money for its operations but will do so at the direction of the board if needed for further legal action or to pay for staff. Bitcoin Community Appreciates Legal Defense Fund Effort The letter explains that interested people with questions or concerns can email the fund’s team and the email domain “bitcoindefensefund.org” is mentioned. The website seems to be under construction at the moment, as a message from the domain host Namebright notes the site is “coming soon.” Of course, the Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund became a trending topic on social media after the open letter was published. Open source developer Bryan Bishop tweeted that he was “very grateful to see Jack’s support on the Bitcoin Developer Legal Defense Fund.” Bitcoiner Marty Bent wrote: “Shoutout to Jack, Alex Morcos, and Martin White for stepping up to protect Bitcoin developers from getting bogged down by lawsuits so they can focus on what they do best. Really cool to see come through the bitcoin-dev mailing list this evening,” Bent added. What do you think about the Bitcoin Developer Legal Defense Fund information Jack Dorsey published on the developers’ mailing list on Wednesday? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

Reality TV star Kim Kardashian and boxing legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. are facing a class-action lawsuit over their promotion of Ethereummax and the EMAX cryptocurrency token. The celebrities’ “improper promotional activities generated the trading volume needed for all the defendants to offload their EMAX tokens onto unsuspecting investors,” the lawsuit alleges. Kim Kardashian and Floyd Mayweather Jr. Sued Over Crypto Promotion Kim Kardashian and Floyd Mayweather Jr. have been sued over their promotion of a cryptocurrency token. The class action lawsuit, filed by New York resident Ryan Huegerich on Jan. 7, alleges that Kardashian and Mayweather misled investors in their promotion of Ethereummax and the EMAX crypto token. Other defendants include Ethereummax, its co-founders and creators Steve Gentile and Giovanni Perone, the project’s consultant and developer Justin French, and promoter Paul Pierce. Huegerich bought EMAX tokens and lost money. The class action covers anyone who bought EMAX tokens from May 14, 2021, to June 27, 2021. According to the lawsuit: The promoter defendants’ improper promotional activities generated the trading volume needed for all the defendants to offload their EMAX tokens onto unsuspecting investors. In addition, the lawsuit claims that while the plaintiff and class members “were buying the inappropriately promoted EMAX Tokens, [the] defendants were able to, and did, sell their EMAX tokens … for substantial profits.” Kardashian promoted Ethereummax in a June 2021 post on Instagram to her 250 million followers. The lawsuit noted that the reality TV star’s Instagram post contains the #AD hashtag “tucked in the far bottom right of the post” to show that it was a paid advertisement, adding that Kardashian “routinely gets paid between $300,000 and $1 million for most promotional posts.” Mayweather promoted Ethereummax in several ways, including on his boxing trunks during a widely viewed fight with Youtube star Logan Paul in June, and providing incentives for fans to purchase online tickets with EMAX tokens. In November 2018, Mayweather settled charges with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for failing to disclose payments he received for fraudulent crypto investments. “The settlement was dated November 29, 2018, meaning that this agreement was blatantly violated in connection with defendant Mayweather’s Ethereummax promotion,” the lawsuit claims. The price of EMAX quickly surged 1,370% after its launch in May. However, on July 15, it hit an all-time low, “a 98% drop from which it has not been able to recover,” the lawsuit describes. The case seeks restitution and disgorgement of profits by the defendants. The Ethereummax team issued a statement following the news of the lawsuit. “The deceptive narrative associated with the recent allegations is riddled with misinformation about the Ethereummax project,” they said, adding: We dispute the allegations and look forward to the truth coming out. In September last year, the chairman of the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), Charles Randell, singled out Kim Kardashian in a warning about crypto scams. What do you think about the lawsuit against Kim Kardashian and Floyd Mayweather Jr.? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

A new non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace called Looksrare has surpassed Opensea in terms of daily volume on Wednesday. Statistics show 3,264 Looksrare traders have executed $385.39 million in sales during the last day, as the marketplace has seen a 1,461% increase in daily volume. Looksrare NFT Market Captures Number 1 Position in Terms of Daily NFT Volume There’s a new Ethereum-based NFT marketplace called Looksrare and during the last day, it has surpassed Opensea in 24-hour volume. Of course, Opensea is the largest NFT marketplace in terms of all-time volume with $14.68 billion in total sales. The NFT marketplace Looksrare is new and hasn’t processed billions of dollars in sales. 24-hour statistics show, however, Looksrare’s daily volume and hourly volume has surpassed Opensea’s sales on January 12, 2022. Looksrare has seen $385.39 million in sales among 3,241 traders, which is lower than Opensea’s 59,500 traders on Wednesday. Opensea’s 24-hour volume was $109.78 million in sales as of Wednesday morning at 7:00 a.m. (EST). While the marketplace is new, the name has been buzzing on social media after the market beat Opensea’s daily trade volume. “The tragedy of complacency. Just like Mex during its heyday, Opensea probably succumbed to their inertia, comfortable in their established dominance,” the Twitter account dubbed “Hsaka” tweeted. People also have created charts on Dune Analytics highlighting the volumes between both NFT platforms. For instance, one user created a “Looksrare VS Opensea” set of charts that analyzes daily and hourly volume between both NFT markets. Other Dune Analytics users have created visual graphs in order to analyze Looksrare’s sales. One reason Looksrare is seeing a surge in popularity is because the project is airdropping LOOK tokens to anyone who has spent up to three ether on Opensea. While there are a couple of airdropped tokens unofficially associated with Opensea users, the leading NFT marketplace does not have an official native token. Dappradar.com’s NFT marketplace data indicates that the average sale on Looksrare at the time of writing is $108K per unit. Meanwhile, other top NFT markets today include Solana’s Magic Eden with $9.48 million in sales, and Mobox, with $1.29 million in sales. While Looksrare’s volume saw the biggest 24-hour percentage gains, Mobox saw an 87.08% increase. What do you think about the NFT marketplace Looksrare? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

The growth of the cryptocurrency industry has raised many concerns. They range from security and scalability, on-boarding newbies, trust-less custody and order matching on exchanges to overall user experience, and to achieve mass adoption of cryptocurrency, there’s a need for third generational exchanges to resolve these issues. Cryptocurrency and blockchain technology keeps evolving and changing to suit users’ needs. Decentralized exchanges are revolutionary and essential parts of this evolution, offering users privacy, security, and sovereignty over their crypto assets. However, any active DeFi user must have experienced the following drawbacks while using a DEX: Slow transaction speed; Insufficient volumes; Expensive gas fees; Low liquidity; Poor user experience; Manually executing your trades. Although these drawbacks are felt both by experienced traders and newbies alike, newbies are mostly affected as they are forced to educate themselves on market conditions and make risky financial decisions all on their own. Soldex, a third generational DeFi protocol built on Solana, aims to solve these issues. Soldex, a next generational DEX Soldex is the fastest, easiest, and most user-friendly third-generation DEX built on Solana. It is the next step in DeFi evolution as it aims to work on all market conditions, 24/7, with emotionless machine-learning and neural network algorithms. Soldex aims to resolve the issues faced by order-matching centralized exchanges and trustless custody within current decentralized exchanges as a third-generational exchange. With Soldex, users would enjoy both decentralization and AI trading. The Soldex protocol is being built to offer users the significant advantages of increased transaction speed, automated trading, and a user-friendly interface. Increased transaction speed One of the major pain points of DeFi users is slow transaction time. Nobody wants to spend long minutes waiting for a simple transaction to be completed. Slow transaction time coupled with high gas fees discourages retail traders from using DEXs. This is one of the reasons the Soldex protocol is being built on Solana. On Solana, the average cost of trading tokens is about $0.00001 per transaction and at a speed of about 65,000 TPS (transactions per second). Compared to Ethereum’s meagre 15 TPS, the scalability of Solana is enormous. Leveraging on the flexibility and efficiency of the Solana ecosystem, Soldex would be able to solve the problems of slow transaction time and high gas fees. Users on Soldex can perform quick, cheap, and efficient transactions. Automated trading With Soldex’s automated trading feature, users would be able to trade 24/7, in all market conditions, without the danger of human error. Trading crypto assets is an often risky and emotional business for many crypto users, especially newbies. The Soldex protocol aims to eliminate this risk by offering users AI-powered algorithms (created by other experienced traders). With this machine learning leverage, traders would design or choose their trading bots according to their criteria like volatility, risk tolerance, time frame, budget, crypto pairs, margin, etc. The protocol’s neural network algorithm will evaluate market data, make intelligent predictions on market risks and trade assets on traders’ behalf. Also, it will continue developing its capabilities based on data collected and trading experience. Soldex trading bots will have the following features; market data analysis market risk prediction trading assets Additionally, Soldex would level the playing ground between experienced traders and newbies by offering educational tools to users. Their educational tools will enable experienced traders to create their unique trading bot and even offer it to newbies for a commission. Newbies will also have enough educational tools to guide them using their chosen AI-powered bot. User-friendly interface The Soldex team intends to create a DEX optimized for quick navigation and user-friendliness; this ensures users enjoy incentivized liquidity, increased swaps, real-time transactions, and convenient deposits. One can say that the Soldex team has a wide range of experiences; and, having noted the challenges faced by other DEXs, aims to solve them all. Why Solana? What’s so interesting about the Solana ecosystem? The Soldex team understands one crucial factor: for crypto to become widely adopted, it needs to scale at a tremendous rate while remaining credibly neutral. Building on a blockchain where transactions cost over $30 and last several minutes before completion wouldn’t achieve this needed scalability. However, Solana is the perfect blockchain for next-generation DEXs looking to scale. With its novel proof of history mechanism and other technologies responsible for its impressive speed and scalability, Solana has proved that it is more than capable of carrying out its mass adoption mission. Solana boasts 65,000 transactions per second (TPS); these numbers make Ethereum’s meagre 15 TPS look non-existent. Also, Solana’s average rate of $0.00001 per transaction is negligible compared to the high gas fees of the Ethereum blockchain. Solana also possesses an excellent infrastructure built on several smart contracts and blockchain oracles. Leveraging this infrastructure, protocols built on Solana would enable a cheap, fast, and intuitive trading experience for their users while still keeping their platform fully decentralized. Soldex Recent Partnerships Larix – the first metaverse based finance protocol on the Solana ecosystem. The Soldex team recently partnered with Larix. Larix is the first and only protocol to support LP mortgage lending with auto-compounding. The one and only on Solana! This partnership allows the two protocols to sync and work together. Larix is the leading borrowing and lending protocol on the Solana blockchain. It has created more capital-efficient risk management pools ensuring that a broad selection of collateral types, stablecoins, NFTs, crypto tokens, and synthetic assets can be utilized in a safe and secure way. Laris makes use of a dynamic interest rate model. Larix is the first lending project on Solana that has been audited and reviewed by SlowMist – the well-known and reputable smart contract auditor. It is the first lending protocol with live mining functionality. It’s also the first lending protocol Open-Sourced on Solana. With this cooperation between Soldex and Larix, Soldex will gain an increase in attention and a wilder recognition in the market. What to look out for: There will be an AMA in the Soldex community on 11th January, 12pm CET. During this AMA, more details of this partnership will be revealed. For more information on Soldex please visit: https://soldex.ai/ (Website) https://t.me/Soldexai (Telegram) https://twitter.com/soldexai (Twitter) https://www.facebook.com/Soldex-102189735463890/ (Facebook) https://medium.com/@soldex (Medium) To learn more about the project visit the website, and follow the team on social media. This is a sponsored post. Learn how to reach our audience here. Read disclaimer below. View the full article

EverRise is a blockchain technology company that offers bridging and security solutions across blockchains through an ecosystem of decentralized applications. Through their innovative security focused ecosystem, EverRise provides investors and developers the tools to access the widest possible market with the maximum level of security. They are working towards the mass adoption of safety protocols across Binance Smart Chain, Ethereum, and Polygon networks and currently offer EverBridge, EverOwn, EverMigrate, and EverStake with more on the way. Jenn Duong is the Director of Marketing at EverRise. She recently joined the Bitcoin.com News Podcast to talk about the project: Jenn Duong is the Director of Marketing at EverRise. Her experience and background is rooted in brand development and creative content. As a creative bridging the gap between millennial and Gen Z storytelling, she has an extensive background in brand development, digital content creation, and go-to-market strategies. Some of her client work includes Samsung, VICE, Google, YouTube, YETI, and UN Women. The Bitcoin.com News podcast features interviews with the most interesting leaders, founders and investors in the world of Cryptocurrency, Decentralized Finance (DeFi), NFTs and the Metaverse. Follow us on iTunes, Spotify and Google Play. This is a sponsored podcast. Learn how to reach our audience here. Read disclaimer below. View the full article

In the year 2021, Morocco, which previously announced measures restricting crypto trading, became North Africa’s leading crypto-trading nation after its peer-to-peer (P2P) trade volumes surged to $6 million. Morocco in Africa’s Top Four In 2021, Morocco’s peer-to-peer crypto trade volume of $6 million was enough to see it ranked North Africa’s top cryptocurrency trading nation, according to the latest data from crypto payments company Triplea. The data also shows that only three African countries topped Morocco’s volumes and these include Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya. In a breakdown of the global peer-to-peer crypto trade statistics, the Triplea research data shows that 2.4% of Morocco’s population, or 878,168 people, owned cryptocurrencies in 2021. Only four African countries — Kenya (8.52%), South Africa (7.11%), Nigeria (6.31%), and Ghana (3.01%) — have higher proportions of their respective populations that own crypto. As noted in the research report, interest in cryptocurrency in Morocco has been rising despite the country’s standing regulations against crypto trading, which were first announced in 2017. “Moroccans are open to cryptocurrency, with peer to peer bitcoin trading volumes increasing steadily over the years and reaching record highs of 2.18 million Moroccan Dirham in 2020,” explains the report. Furthermore, the report notes that the increase in Morocco’s peer-to-peer traded volumes came during a year when the central bank, Bank-Al-Maghrib (BAM), said it would explore the benefits of launching a digital currency. Ukraine Leads the Pack Meanwhile, the research platform’s findings show that Ukraine — which has 5,565,881 of its people holding crypto — is the country with the highest concentration of crypto owners globally at 12.73%. Russia is ranked second with 11.91%, Venezuela is in third place with 10.34%, and Kenya is in fourth place. With respect to overall crypto ownership demographics, Triplea found that 79% of holders are male and 21% are women. Globally, about 58% of cryptocurrency owners were found to be under the age of 34. About 82% have a bachelor’s degree or higher while 36% have an annual income that exceeds US$100,000. What are your thoughts on this story? Tell us what you think in the comments section below. View the full article

The new wallet of China’s state-issued digital currency has quickly become one of the most downloaded applications in the country, within days of its launch. Its use and integration with other apps have contributed to an increase of digital yuan payments, media reports unveil. Wallet Launch Boosts Digital Yuan Ahead of Lunar New Year and Winter Olympics In the week after it was offered to the public, the digital yuan (e-CNY) wallet has placed among China’s most downloaded apps. On Wednesday, a day after its premiere, its downloads exceeded those of Tencent’s Wechat, and it became the most popular app on Apple’s iOS, the South China Morning Post reported, quoting market researchers. By Monday, it was also the second most downloaded financial app in Xiaomi’s app store. The e-CNY app is widely available for download but at the moment it can be used only in select areas. The Digital Currency Research Institute of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the developer of the software, is collaborating with authorities in 10 pilot cities including Shanghai, Shenzhen, Xiongan, Chengdu, Suzhou, and Beijing, where it has handed out digital yuan amounts as part of red envelope campaigns. The launch of the application is part of efforts to promote the Chinese central bank digital currency (CBDC) ahead of the Lunar New Year which begins on Feb. 1, a popular time for gifting red packets, the publication notes. During the week-long holiday, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics will start on Feb. 4. Visitors at the venues in the capital will be able to use the e-CNY without having to open a local bank account. The digital yuan can be spent through other payment apps as well such as Alipay and Wechat Pay, which account for 90% of China’s mobile payments market. The CBDC is also available in the applications of seven Chinese banks – Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of China, Bank of Communications, Postal Savings Bank of China, and China Merchants Bank. According to a report by China.org.cn, e-CNY payments have seen a “stratospheric rise” in the past week since the currency became available across Chinese mobile apps. The state-run news portal quotes the local services company Meituan which registered an increase of almost 43% in digital yuan-denominated payments, following an integration between its app and the e-CNY wallet. The value of transactions also spiked, by more than 64% over the week before the launch. China’s digital yuan is arguably the world’s most advanced CBDC, ahead of similar projects in the U.S., EU, and Russia. An official at the PBOC revealed in November that the digital currency had been used in transactions worth nearly $10 billion. As of October, around 140 million Chinese residents had opened a digital yuan account. While promoting the e-CNY, the government in Beijing launched a nationwide crackdown on cryptocurrencies and related activities last year. Do you expect a further increase in the use of the digital yuan wallet app and currency? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

PRESS RELEASE. Arkania Protocol has announced its IDO Launchpad for the public, with anti-whale mechanism, KYC and robust security. 12th January, St. Vincent & the Grenadines — The Arkania platform connects promising new projects with the global crypto community, offering developers a chance to showcase innovative new start-ups to individuals who then have the option to support them from the ground floor. Built on Binance Smart Chain, Arkania will integrate other chains in the future to offer an interoperable token launch experience. Public Friendly with Anti-Whale Mechanism With some new projects looking to secure massive sales of their token, it has become a common practice to offer private sales to a select number of large volume buyers, often with no cap on the number of tokens available to each buyer. This formula is sometimes even repeated in the public sale allowing “whales” to purchase a huge amount of tokens and later wield the power to manipulate the market for personal gain. The team at Arkania is acutely aware of this and to combat the issue they have incorporated an anti-whale mechanism in their platform. In combination with KYC requirements, each user will be allocated 1 ticket which equates to an equal chance to participate in IDOs launched on the platform. Features and Security Another user-friendly feature is the 10-day “Cooling Phase” between when a participant wins participation in an IDO and then applied for another. This mechanism brings a level of fairness to the platform, allowing other users to apply for the next project launch. Arkania has integrated the decentralized KYC solutions expertise of Fractal, allowing backers to keep their sensitive information private, but allowing them to clear whitelisting on the Arkania platform. While the platform offers an easy way for enthusiasts and backers to get in early on upcoming launches, it does not forgo the quality of the projects. Each project is meticulously tested against set parameters that include project feasibility, long-term viability, and a security audit. On the other side of the proverbial coin, it significantly reduces the project listing fee, lowering barriers and friction for projects to get on board the platform. ANIA: A Token for the Public Arkania’s native BEP-20 compliant ANIA token offers investors and enthusiasts a broad range of benefits on the platform, ranging from discounts, special early access to launches, staking rewards, and community-powered launchpad (converting into a DAO). The pre-sale tokens will be allocated on a first come first serve basis. The ANIA token is already live, with pre-sale Round 1 successfully completed. Round 2 timeline is as follows: Whitelisting: Starting on 8th January 2022 (1300 UTC) and will continue till the 20th). Round 2: From the next day, 21st January at 1300 UTC, and run for 48 hours ending on 23rd January, 2022. Price in Round 2: $0.04 per ANIA. Round 2 Cap: $1,450,000 Allocation Per Applicant: Minimum $500, maximum $5,000 (anti-whale mechanism). Pancakeswap Listing: 25th January 2022. About Arkania Developed to address the most pressing problems faced by the crypto community, Arkania is an innovative project, backed by a robust team with vast experience in crypto, cybersecurity, and smart contract development. The Arkania platform is dedicated to becoming the solution to growing security risks faced by IDO and token sale participants today. The platform’s ease of listing provides crypto projects with a readily available market of backers and enthusiasts. To learn more about the IDO platform, interested parties can visit the Arkania website. Arkania Socials Twitter | Telegram | Facebook | YouTube | Medium | GitBook | Instagram Media Contact Details Contact Name: Matyas Dousa Contact Email: matyas@arkania.io Arkania Protocol is the source of this content. This Press Release is for informational purposes only. The information does not constitute investment advice or an offer to invest. 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

The blockchain-powered game Axie Infinity has been a very popular application during the last 12 months, as the game’s NFTs have outpaced every NFT collection today in terms of all-time sales. While Axie Infinity has seen $3.85 billion in all-time sales, Nansen researcher Martin Lee recently published a report on how Ronin, Axie Infinity’s sidechain, has seen exponential growth. Researcher Takes a Deep Dive Into Axie Infinity’s Ronin Network Axie Infinity, the Ethereum-based blockchain game developed by Sky Mavis has seen a significant amount of NFT sales surpassing every NFT compilation released to date. Out of 1.44 million buyers across 12.6 million transactions, Axie Infinity has seen $3.85 billion in all-time sales. However, even though Axie Infinity is an Ethereum-based game, the protocol leverages the sidechain Ronin to help alleviate scaling issues. In the introduction to Axie Infinity’s Ronin, Nansen researcher Martin Lee explains that Ethereum’s Layer one (L1) “was not built for gaming.” To handle the issue with high fees and scaling problems, Axie Infinity’s development team created the Ronin sidechain to help facilitate transactions in a faster and inexpensive fashion. Lee’s research report compares Ronin to the sidechain protocol Polygon and the Layer two (L2) blockchain Arbitrum One. The study also explains how the Ronin sidechain has its own native wallet in order to handle sidechain transactions. Interestingly, when it comes to scaling Lee’s report shows that last November, “Ronin processed over 560% of the total number of transactions on Ethereum.” “While there is no official documentation on the max TPS (transactions per second) of the Ronin network, it has a block time of ~3s (ETH averages ~13s),” Lee’s study highlights. “Executing trades on the Axie marketplace and sending assets over the network are completed within seconds.‍” The researcher’s report also highlights a comparison of gas fees as the study’s author states: Gas fees on Ethereum hover between 50-100 gwei making micro-transactions uneconomical. Ronin, on the other hand, offers 100 free transactions per wallet per day. In the future, there will be a small fee once the $RON token is released, but it will likely cost less than $1. Study Envisions Other Developers Leveraging Ronin, Nansen Researcher Concludes ‘It’s still early days for Ronin’ The study also delves into the Axie Infinity decentralized exchange (dex) platform called Katana. Lee’s report highlights how the multi-chain layering works and the fact that when it comes to gaming applications specifically, L1 networks cannot adjust beyond their main specialization. “A lot of blockchains, whether they like it or not, will specialize,” Lee stressed in the report. Lee further noted that when Ronin grows mature and stable, “other games developers can start to build their games on Ronin.” Lee’s report continues: Despite launching less than one year ago, the Ronin network has proven itself to be a capable scaling solution for gaming. The birth of Ronin ushered in the rise of Axie Infinity and the Gamefi/Play-to-earn wave. Lee’s study draws the inference, that while the network does have flaws and is “more centralized than the community would like,” the developers’ Sky Mavis “made consistent steps to decentralize it.” The report notes the distribution of RON tokens and the LPs on the Katana dex. “It’s still early days for Ronin and it will be interesting to see how the blockchain develops and grows over time. Will Ronin become the go-to blockchain for gaming? Only time will tell,” Lee’s study concludes. What do you think about Nansen researcher Martin Lee’s study on the Ronin network and how it has outperformed some L1 networks in recent times? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

The chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, has explained how securities laws apply to cryptocurrency tokens as he outlined the commission’s priorities in regulating the crypto space. “Our role at the SEC is to ensure that the public still gets basic protection,” he stressed. SEC Chair Gary Gensler on Cryptocurrency Regulation SEC Chair Gary Gensler discussed cryptocurrency regulation and the agency’s 2022 regulatory agenda on CNBC Monday. The chairman explained that, in general, “If you are raising money from the public, and the public is in anticipation of profit based upon that promoter, sponsor, that group’s efforts — that’s within the securities laws, and it’s within the securities laws because Congress painted with a broad brush.” He elaborated: They want to protect you — the investing public — so that you have proper information, or what’s called full and fair information, and protect you against fraud and scammers and the like. Gensler stressed that investments that call themselves a token “are still probably, possibly a security.” While acknowledging that new ways to invest, including crypto tokens and Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs), are “exciting,” the SEC chairman emphasized: Our role at the SEC is to ensure that the public still gets basic protection. Gensler further explained: “What is kind of old and really important is this basic idea that if you raise money from the public and the public is thinking about a profit, you have got to give them basic disclosures and everything.” He was also asked to comment about the increase in crowdfunding using cryptocurrencies. Reiterating that he will not comment on any particular project, the chairman detailed: “Crypto tokens, I will call them, are raising money from the public, and are they sharing with the public the same set of disclosures that helps the public decide and are they complying with our Truth in Advertising? Call it the Securities Act’s anti-fraud provisions.” “There are thousands of these projects basically trying to raise money from the public so that they can back an entrepreneurial idea,” the SEC chairman described. While emphasizing that he supports innovation, Gensler noted that “it’s about bringing it into the securities laws.” He opined: Unfortunately, way too many of these are trying to say: ‘Well, we are not a security. We are just something else.’ “I think that the facts and circumstances suggest they are investment contracts, they are securities, and they should register,” Gensler concluded. He was also asked whether ethereum is a security, citing that the SEC views XRP as a security in an ongoing lawsuit with Ripple Labs and its executives. However, Gensler declined to comment on whether ether is a security. Reiterating that he is not going to answer about any one crypto, the SEC boss said: “I’m the chair of a five-member Commission that’s also a civil law enforcement agency. So, we don’t get involved in these types of public forums, talking about any one project, one possible circumstance, and give legal advice over the airwaves that way.” What do you think about SEC Chairman Gary Gensler’s comments on crypto regulation? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

Doubleline Capital CEO Jeffrey Gundlach, also known as the “Bond King,” has warned about “a recession in the later part of this year.” He also advised against buying bitcoin at the current level. “Maybe you should buy it at $25,000,” he said. Billionaire ‘Bond King’ Jeff Gundlach on Recession, Bitcoin, and the Fed Raising Interest Rates Billionaire fund manager Jeff Gundlach warned about a recession happening in the later part of this year in an interview with Yahoo Finance, published Saturday. He also commented on whether investors should buy bitcoin. Gundlach is the CEO of Doubleline Capital, which has over $137 billion in assets under management (AUM). He is sometimes referred to as the “Bond King” after he appeared on the cover of Barron’s in 2011 as “The New Bond King.” Institutional Investor named him “Money Manager of the Year” in 2013 and Bloomberg Markets named him one of “The Fifty Most Influential” in 2012, 2015, and 2016. According to Forbes, his net worth is currently $2.2 billion. He was asked whether there will be a recession in 2023. “I think the bond market is already showing enough of a recession indicator that by 2023 it seems pretty likely,” Gundlach replied. “I don’t think a lot of the Fed officials, economists, and investors appreciate the fact that the economy keeps buckling at lower and lower interest rates, so I think the Fed only has to raise rates four times and you’re going to start seeing a plethora of recessionary signals,” he warned, adding: It’s certainly a non-zero probability that you get a recession in the later part of 2022. On Monday, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said that the Federal Reserve might have to raise short-term interest rates more than four times this year. “It’s possible that inflation is worse than people think. I, personally, would be surprised if it’s just four increases this year,” said the JPMorgan boss. Earlier this month, a finance professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania warned about inflation and predicted that the Fed will hike rates “many more times than the market expects.” Regarding bitcoin, Gundlach stressed that the cryptocurrency is “for speculators.” Citing recent BTC price movements, he opined: At the present moment, I would advise against bitcoin … Maybe you should buy it at $25,000. Noting that he has never owned any bitcoin, the Doubleline CEO admitted, “That’s just not in my DNA.” He elaborated: “Bonds fit my culture of cowardice. I’m not a momentum investor at all, and in fact I’m sort of an anti-momentum investor, and I think bitcoin is for momentum investors only.” What do you think about Jeff Gundlach’s comments? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

U.S. state securities regulators have revealed that cryptocurrency investments are their top investor threat this year. “Before you jump into the crypto craze, be mindful that cryptocurrencies and related financial products may be nothing more than public facing fronts for Ponzi schemes and other frauds,” one regulator warned. Crypto Is the Top Threat for US Securities Regulators The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) released its “annual list of top investor threats” Monday. The NASAA, formed in 1919, is a nonprofit association of state, provincial, and territorial securities regulators in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The association has 67 members, including the securities regulators in all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. “The top threats to investors were determined by surveying North American securities regulators to identify the most problematic products, practices, or schemes,” the association explained. “Investments tied to cryptocurrencies and digital assets” top the list of the threats most often cited by securities regulators, the association noted. Alabama Securities Commission Director Joseph P. Borg commented: By far, NASAA’s securities regulators revealed that investments related to cryptocurrencies and digital assets is our top investor threat. He elaborated: “Stories of ‘crypto millionaires’ attracted some investors to try their hand at investing in cryptocurrencies or crypto-related investments this year, and with them, many stories of those who bet big and lost big began appearing, and they will continue to appear in 2022.” The NASAA warned: “Digital assets do not fall neatly into the existing investor regulatory framework, and it may be easier for the promoters of these products to fleece the public. All investments carry the risk that some, or all, of the invested funds could be lost.” Texas State Securities Board Enforcement Division Director Joseph Rotunda cautioned: Before you jump into the crypto craze, be mindful that cryptocurrencies and related financial products may be nothing more than public facing fronts for Ponzi schemes and other frauds. He continued: “Investments in cryptocurrency trading programs, interests in crypto mining pools, crypto depository accounts and securitized tokens should be seen for what they are: extremely risky speculation with a high risk of loss.” What do you think about cryptocurrency investments being the top investor threat for U.S. securities regulators? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

PRESS RELEASE. In the world of cryptocurrencies, it is important for any crypto exchange to offer plenty of different options when it comes to making money. This is precisely why Bitrue, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, has recently announced the launch of a new yield farming hub, available to all of its users from January 10th at 10:00 UTC. The main reason and context behind this new initiative has to do with the fact that staking and yield farming have become immensely popular methods through which investors can earn additional income. Bitrue therefore wants to cater to the real needs of its clientele in a safe manner and also keep up with all of the latest updates and changes regarding this industry, which it shall accomplish through the formation of key partnerships in the future as well as the mitigation of risks such as impermanent loss. What will the new hub do? The new hub enables the users to mine for tokens in a manner comparable to DeFi (decentralized finance) pools, which were quite popular last year. At launch, more than 20 pools with APRs (Annual Percentage Yields) of 150% or higher were made accessible, with consumers being able to choose from a variety of staking intervals. Bitrue Coin BTR, Bitrue’s native platform currency, shall be powering these pools. To start farming, either BTR or perhaps the token for which the user chooses to mine shall be made stakeable. Additionally, ever since its inception in July 2018, BTR has increased by over 300% to date. Furthermore, Bitrue has had plenty of experience regarding developing cutting-edge investing solutions, with Power Piggy acting as the initial cryptocurrency-based investment service released across the globe in early 2018. This new hub shall thus include Power Piggy, Vote Staking, BTR Lockups, along with a wide variety of other businesses that leverage BTR to produce profits for their respective consumers. Essentially, the initiative allows its consumers the choice to pick an investing plan which would be best-suited for them by providing such a diverse range of investment alternatives with varied lockup periods, yields, and formats. In the words of Adam O’Neil, Bitrue’s Chief Marketing Officer, it establishes BTR as the world’s inaugural Yield Token, which is a token dedicated solely to increasing the return on crypto-oriented investments. The new Yield Farming Hub is also only accessible at www.bitrue.com and it is just one of many upcoming initiatives by Bitrue that customers can look forward to. Bitrue’s vision Bitrue, which debuted in July 2018, is a diverse crypto exchange that supports trading, lending, and investments. It intends to use blockchain technology to provide financial possibilities to everyone, irrespective of geography or financial situation. The exchange has offices all over the world and are constantly developing new features to effectively support the new era of the digitised modern economy. In essence, the BTR token possesses the “explicit utility regarding the maximization of returns on investments”. What’s more is that the months-long resistance for BTR also appears to have been broken, as the token just crossed the $0.40 mark. Price discovery is incoming along with the highest weekly close during this weekend. For additional information, both the official website as well as the exchange’s Twitter channel can be checked upon for regular updates. 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

On January 10, 2022, the Associated Press (AP), the American non-profit news cooperative founded in 1846, has announced the news agency is launching a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace. The AP NFT market was built by the distributed ledger technology provider Xooa and on top of the Polygon blockchain network. AP Announces NFT Marketplace Launch The 175-year-old news cooperative the Associated Press revealed that the organization is launching an NFT marketplace using the Polygon blockchain network. According to the AP announcement, the NFT market built by Xooa will allow NFT collectors to collect the news agency’s iconic photojournalism. AP’s newly crafted Polygon-based NFT market will launch on January 31, 2022. Dwayne Desaulniers, AP director of blockchain and data licensing, explained that the non-profit news cooperative is thrilled to showcase the organization’s Pulitzer Prize-winning images from current and former AP photojournalists. “Each NFT will include a rich set of original metadata offering collectors awareness of the time, date, location, equipment, and technical settings used for the shot,” the AP press release notes. “For 175 years AP’s photographers have recorded the world’s biggest stories through gripping and poignant images that continue to resonate today,” Desaulniers said in a statement on Monday. “With Xooa’s technology, we are proud to offer these tokenized pieces to a fast-growing global audience of photography NFT collectors.” Proceeds From the NFT Market’s Sales Will Go Back to Funding AP Journalism While the initial launch will begin on the last day of January, AP says that the collection will be released over a period of weeks, and “NFT price points will vary.” Proceeds from the NFT sales will go back into funding “factual, unbiased AP journalism.” According to the AP, owners of the AP NFT images can also sell them on secondary markets after the initial sale. AP also details that people can purchase the NFTs with crypto or credit cards. The AP announcement further highlights that the Polygon blockchain is more “environmentally friendly” than other blockchain networks. “In this marketplace deployment, emphasis has been placed on accessibility for all types of collectors to empower them to join a community that shares their interest in stunning photography,” Zach Danker-Feldman, Xooa’s head of marketplaces said on Monday. What do you think about the Associated Press launching an NFT marketplace? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

Digital currencies had a phenomenal year, and a great deal of the crypto assets in existence reached all-time high (ATH) prices against the world’s fiat currencies. However, the same digital currencies that tapped ATHs last year are currently down a great deal in value, as numerous cryptocurrencies have lost 30% or more since 2021’s price highs. Crypto Values Are Lower Than Last Year’s Price Highs 2021 was a good year for crypto assets as numerous blockchain networks swelled in fiat value as billions upon billions were added to the alternative digital economy. Bitcoin (BTC) broke its previous ATH recorded in December 2017 at the end of 2020, when it surpassed the $20K per unit zone. BTC’s price continued to rise higher into 2021 and eventually, it tapped a high of $64K per unit. Furthermore, on November 10, 2021, the price of bitcoin jumped to the $69K zone but today the price is 39% lower. A myriad of crypto assets today are in the same boat as BTC, as they reached ATHs at some point last year, but have since shed at least 30% or more in fiat value. Ethereum’s (ETH) value skyrocketed to an ATH sixty days ago touching $4,847 but has since lost 35.46%. Binance coin (BNB) hit an ATH last year but it was eight months ago and today, it’s 34% down from the $689.92 per coin price it once held. Two months ago, solana (SOL) reached a high of $258.93 per coin, and today SOL is lower than that price by 47%. Different Percentage Losses, Time Frames, and Crypto Tokens That Staved Off the Losses Most of the leading crypto assets, in terms of market capitalization, have a wide array of differing percentage losses since their 2021 ATHs. Cardano (ADA), for instance, is down 62.78% since touching $3.10 per coin four months ago. Other crypto assets have either shorter time frames or much longer time frames since their ATHs. Xrp (XRP) for example, is one of the only top ten leaders that did not hit an ATH last year. The digital currency xrp touched its ATH four years ago when it reached $3.30 per coin. Polkadot (DOT) touched its all-time high two months ago when it reached $54.98 per coin and today, it is down 55.9%. Meanwhile, Terra’s (LUNA) ATH is much closer as LUNA tapped its ATH 16 days ago when it hit $102.63 per unit. LUNA is down 29.51% from the crypto asset’s ATH. Plenty of crypto assets below the top ten are down significantly, but a few have managed to remain high. Near protocol (NEAR) is only down 6.96% as it reached an ATH of $17.52 per unit seven days ago. Furthermore, the crypto asset issued by Bitfinex, Unus Sed Leo (LEO) is only down 9.75% from eight months ago. What do you think about the crypto assets in the top ten and how far down they are from their all-time price highs? View the full article

PRESS RELEASE. Tortola, BVI, 10 Jan 2022: Anyone who has been paying attention to the world of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) will know that people love investing in cartoon-themed initiatives. Whether it be the immensely popular canine-oriented cryptocurrencies like Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB), or perhaps even well-known NFT collections like The Bored Ape Yacht Club (TBAYC), the fact remains that as far as investing is concerned nowadays, toons continue to play an important role. With that being said, ‘TooNFT’, a blockchain-oriented webtoon platform, recently made it known that it has debuted on the ecosystem of South Korea’s leading webtoon company, Toomics. To help with the construction of a fully decentralised webtoon platform, the TooNFT team secured a whopping $1.75 million via a private financing round. What is TooNFT? TooNFT is built upon the Toomics ecosystem, which is one of the most sought after webtoon service platforms with about 50 million active web users in addition to more than 10 million app downloads on both Android and iOS, as well as a robust profit-generating business structure. Essentially, TooNFT may best be understood as a blockchain-oriented platform which strives to revolutionize the comics and webtoon industry through the creation of an intuitive next-generation ecosystem built around NFTs. HG Ventures had thus led the previously mentioned private round of funding, which was supported by notable institutional investors like Adaptive Labs, Alphabit, GBIC, Prestige Fund and Mindfulness Capital. By adhering to high standards and the overall goal of embracing a decentralized future, the TooNFT platform was launched on top of the aforementioned Toomics ecosystem so as to introduce the concept of non-fungible tokens to the webtoon and comics sector. TooNFT’s main objective is to hence enhance the innovative environment by providing a system which enables writers to draw in investments through the P2P (Peer To Peer) format without monopolising the intermediation process. As a result, by generating a sizable amount of support via early-stage investors in the amount of $1.75 million in their private as well as seed rounds, TooNFT can thus begin developing its webtoon NFT infrastructure to successfully integrate with the blockchain distributed ledger technology. Moreover, it is working towards making meaningful improvements regarding the webtoon industry including but not limited to easy-investment access for numerous regular users without the involvement of intermediaries, as well as a secure and dependable service with transparent data and various staking and reinvestment opportunities. TooNFT therefore leverages blockchain to become the world’s inaugural worldwide decentralized webtoon platform for mass consumption. The significance of Toomics Toomics began in 2015 by garnering up to $15 million in venture capital funding to launch their objective of developing a platform for webtoons and comics. Toomics has since exceeded all initial expectations and has up to 7 million MAU, inked collaborations with AfreecaTV, Tencent, KEB Hana Bank, and GMarket, and is now considered as one of the biggest webtoon platforms in the entire world, having received various accolades from respected institutions. Toomics hence has strong business traction, with up to $60 million made annually from centralized sales of various webtoon subscriptions on its platform. In layman’s terms, it aims to disrupt the webtoon business by using a blockchain-oriented protocol and developing a highly advanced and intuitive NFT ecosystem. TooNFT will therefore do well by working alongside such an innovative and successful platform. Media Contact: CEO name: Kim Dongil Email: social@toonft.com Phone: +82 10 8006 0401 Company: Global Digital Contents Ltd. Address: Charles Court, 1st Floor, 189 Main Street, PO Box 4406, Tortola, VG1110, British Virgin Islands. 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

Fintechs account for nearly two-thirds of the $4.9 billion that was raised by African technology firms during the past year. Fintech groups also dominate in terms of funding that exceeds $50 million, with a 40% share of the total number of tech firms. The Covid-19 Factor Out of the $4.9 billion in funding that was raised by African technology companies in 2021, almost two-thirds of this went to fintech companies, data from a new report has shown. In terms of deals wherein the capital raised exceeded $40 million, fintechs accounted for 40% of such deals. As shown in the latest Africa Investment Report, the fintech dominance in 2021 eventually culminated into a period with “the highest number of single, non-M&A [mergers and acquisitions] deals above $100 million” on record so far. The report also shows that Nigeria has the biggest share of fintech firms that raised more than $100 million. Meanwhile, the report suggested that the Covid-19 pandemic could well be the main explanation for the surge not only in the funding of fintechs, but non-fintech firms as well. “Logistics and energy follow by volume of funding but the most recent wave of digitization — perhaps boosted by Covid-19 — is propelling sectors such as e-commerce, agriculture and healthcare,” concluded the study report. Funding Highly Concentrated However, the same report does concede that most of the funds raised in 2021 were concentrated in a few projects. The report explains: Although highly concentrated in a few cases, [which] only represents less than 3% of total disclosed deals but captures over 55% of total disclosed funding, this investment size carries significant weight and acts as a pull factor for several investors. Besides equity financing, the Africa Investment Report data shows that debt financing is increasingly becoming a viable funding route. To support this assertion, the report points to the fact that 6% of total disclosed funding in 2021 was debt financing. In terms of the origins of the late-stage investors, the data shows that the United States is by far the biggest source of capital for Africa tech companies with a 62.5% share. In a distant second place was the United Kingdom, which had a share of 7.5%, followed by South Africa 6%, and Canada which accounts for 4%. What are your thoughts on this story? Tell us what you think in the comments section below. View the full article

The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, has confirmed that the country is making investments to secure a geothermal power source for the construction and operation of the upcoming Bitcoin City, which will be financed with the earnings of the so-called “volcano bonds.” Bukele stated there are high chances of finding a well in the area of the Conchagua volcano that will be able to power the whole city by itself. El Salvador Investing in New Geothermal Energy Sources The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, has confirmed that the country is making investments to increase its geothermal energy production. Bukele explained that the power coming from the volcanoes, managed and maintained by a state company called Lageo, produces more than 1,000 gigawatts for the nation yearly. The company is now adding more wells to increase its power production. According to statements from Bukele, the company is preparing the inclusion of four new wells to the system, that would contribute to production. One of the more advanced wells will supposedly be able to provide more than 95 MW (megawatts) of energy to the national grid. Regarding the nature of the energy provided, Bukele stated: [It will be] clean, cheap and renewable energy, from a source that will last at least a couple of million years. Power for Bitcoin City On the topic of powering Bitcoin City with geothermal energy, Bukele stated that they are also drilling new wells for this purpose. According to an article published by the presidency of the country, Bukele stated: We have a 90% probability of finding a well (with capacity) to (contribute) at least 42 MW. Enough to provide energy to the entire Bitcoin City. He further explained that if the city has more power demand than was anticipated, other wells that are in preparation can be used to supplement it. Bitcoin City, announced September 2021, is to be powered with energy from the volcanoes that is renewable and green. However, the project has been criticized by some that believe the volcanoes around the city are unable to produce this energy. This is the case of economist Steve Hanke, who said that the volcano which will supposedly power the city (the Conchagua) was inactive. However, Bukele rebuffed this position by stating that most geothermal wells were constructed around inactive volcanoes. Others have also criticized the usage of geothermal energy for mining bitcoin in the country, stating that it could end in an environmental disaster. What do you think about El Salvador’s new investments in geothermal energy? Tell us in the comments section below. View the full article

Binance is thrilled to announce that it is an official sponsor of the 2021 TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament, taking place from January 9 till February 6, 2022 in Cameroon. What To Expect This sponsorship deal will make Binance the exclusive cryptocurrency and blockchain platform for the AFCON 2021 tournament as we take our global brand and technology to African football. Binance will also be the official partner of the Assist of the Day / Binance Assist of the Week / Binance Assist of the Tournament, which will be promoted across CAF’s social media channels and across all six venues in five cities in Cameroon. The TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations kicked off on Sunday, January 9, 2022 at 5PM (WAT) at Olembe Stadium in Yaounde, with the host country Cameroon facing Burkina Faso. More than 160 nations will live broadcast the tournament with an audience of over 300 million. Veron Mosengo-Omba, CAF’s General Secretary said, “I am delighted to welcome Binance as an official sponsor of the AFCON tournament this year. Through this partnership with CAF, Binance will connect further with its users and the African community through football. CAF is ready to embrace blockchain-based technology and its impact on the future of African football development. I am certain that together with Binance, we can take African football to a new level.” As part of our mission to drive blockchain adoption and enable greater access to financial services for the world’s unbanked, Binance has provided free crypto education classes to over 541,000 Africans since 2020, on topics ranging from user protection to building a career in blockchain. Yi He, co-founder and CMO of Binance said; “With a population of 1.2 billion Africans and the prevalence of blockchain technology & its use cases, we believe the African continent could lead the future of the blockchain industry. We will continue to put in our efforts in pushing the mainstream adoption of crypto, so that more people can understand crypto, and understand Binance.” The TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations tournament starts the sports calendar of the year for Africa. Emmanuel Babalola, Binance Director for Africa said; “Football is the most popular sport in Africa, one that unites the entire continent and as the leading blockchain ecosystem, we are proud to be an official sponsor of the AFCON tournament. This corroborates our mission to take crypto mainstream across the continent.” This is a sponsored post. Learn how to reach our audience here. Read disclaimer below. View the full article

On Monday, January 10, the Argentina-based mobile wallet company Belo announced that the platform has added support for the Lightning Network by partnering with the bitcoin payment processor and infrastructure provider Opennode. The mobile application allows users to trade and transact in pesos and now users can transact with bitcoin payments going forward. Belo Partners With Opennode, Introduces Lightning Network Support Belo, the Argentine mobile wallet application founded by Manuel Beaudroit aims to “create a bridge” between the crypto world and life in pesos. On Monday, the company announced it has partnered with the bitcoin (BTC) payment processor Opennode and the application will support the Lightning Network. The Belo application is available for iOS and Android smartphones and it also supports ethereum and a few stablecoins pegged to the U.S. dollar. “Our partnership with Opennode is incredibly important for our users,” Manuel Beaudroit, the CEO of Belo said in a statement. “Our goal is for more and more people to learn and experience the potential and benefit of cryptocurrencies for everyday life, on a day-to-day basis, and in a simple way. With Belo, users only need one peso to start depositing money and buying crypto in a way that is usable by and accessible to everyone over 13, regardless of their purchasing power.” Opennode Executive Looks Forward to ‘Millions of People in Latin America’ Accessing Bitcoin Belo wallet launched in 2020 and Latin American residents have been able to obtain crypto assets via the mobile application and a Mastercard. The startup’s website insists that anyone above the age of 13 can use the Belo mobile wallet application, and either pay in pesos or cryptocurrencies. Opennode’s head of growth, Julie Landrum, explained during the announcement that the company looks forward to giving Latin American’s more choices in finance. “We’re incredibly excited about Opennode’s integration with the Belo App, as this means millions of people in Latin America will have the ability to transact instantly in bitcoin, furthering adoption in a region where bitcoin growth is exploding,” Landrum remarked. At the time of writing, there is over 3,200 BTC locked in the Lightning Network or $136.6 million. The Lightning Network’s total value locked (TVL) is 36.79% lower than it was on November 8, 2021, when it reached $216.13 million. What do you think about Belo App partnering with Opennode and integrating the Lightning Network? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

Sega, a leading videogame development company, has announced its new stance when it comes to the play-to-earn model and the inclusion of NFTs in its games. In the latest management meeting of the company, which happened on December 24th, Sega CEO Haruki Satomi stated that the company may drop its current experiments in the NFT field if players take a negative view of the subject. Sega CEO Reveals Company Might Scrap NFT Plans The CEO of Sega, Haruki Satomi, has referred to the possible stance the company may take regarding NFTs and the play-to-earn movement in the future. In the latest Sega management meeting, that happened on December 24th, Satomi talked about the subject, stating that the company might stop the experiments it has been conducting involving the inclusion of these new technologies in traditional gaming. When asked about Sega’s view on play-to-earn technologies at the moment, Satomi answered: We would like to try out various experiments and we have already started many different studies and considerations but nothing is decided at this point regarding P2E. There have been many announcements about this already including overseas but there are users who show negative reactions at this point. The executive further stated that Sega would consider abandoning these actions if the players perceive this as a money-making scheme. Metaverse Mention Satomi also touched on the subject of the metaverse, stating that to him, a metaverse is a place where the people gather and communities are generated. However, referring to the current buzz that the word has generated, he stated that not every game with metaverse elements constitutes a metaverse and that the gaming industry should focus on creating high-quality games instead of metaverse experiences. Expanding on these ideas, he stated: We want to make Super Game as a game that support global and multi-platform with having a network and a community. If such a game has a competitive element called PvP, it could turn into an e-sport. Furthermore, it could become a Metaverse if it has tens of millions of downloads worldwide and a certain number of active users. Sega is yet another gaming company that has started dabbling in NFTs. The company announced it would start selling NFTs based on its intellectual properties back in April, with a poor reception from the gaming community. Other traditional gaming companies such as Ubisoft and GSC Game World have also received this kind of backlash about activities that include blockchain and related technologies. What do you think about Sega’s stance on NFTs and the metaverse? Tell us in the comments section below. View the full article

PRESS RELEASE. EverRise launches their fifth decentralized application (dApp) today, EverSwap, a multi-chain decentralized exchange (DEX), with a Native Coin Swap feature powered by their cross-chain bridging dApp EverBridge. The Native Coin Swap (NCS) functionality lowers the barrier to entry for those interested in the multi-chain DeFi space by making the cross-chain experience accessible and seamless with fewer steps, fewer fees, and faster transfers. With EverSwap’s Native Coin Swap, users will be able to swap native cryptocurrencies, starting with Ethereum (ETH / ERC-20), Binance Smart Chain (BNB / BEP-20), and Polygon (MATIC / Polygon), across blockchains without the need for a centralized exchange. The Native Coin Swap provides a one-step DeFi solution for trading native cryptocurrencies. Native coins such as BNB, ETH, or MATIC typically need to be withdrawn to a centralized exchange when swapping for the coin of a different blockchain. This process traditionally costs both time and money with multiple transactions involved and steps needed to be taken by the user. Instead, EverSwap’s Native Coin Swap performs all transactions in the backend, creating a more streamlined process for users with the ability to receive new coins at block speed. EverSwap’s Native Coin Swap provides a fast and efficient way for users to participate in multiple blockchain ecosystems while staying all DeFi. Since the feature leverages the unique bridging infrastructure created for EverBridge by the EverRise development team, users are able to take advantage of EverBridge’s security features and block speed transfers. During their public beta release, users reported native coin cross-chain swaps being completed as fast as within 2 minutes. Diving into the EverRise Ecosystem and EverBridge’s Technology EverRise released an upgraded token (RISE) on November 29th, 2021. The upgraded RISE token launched simultaneously on three chains connected by EverBridge, with one circulating supply across the Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Polygon networks. This shared supply allows the RISE token to be used as an intermediary transfer token between the three blockchains. The protocol upgrade also introduced flexible, high yield staking into the EverRise ecosystem and made their security-centric dApps available to projects developed on any of these blockchains. EverSwap’s Native Coin Swap utilizes EverBridge’s technology to perform the transactions on the backend. EverBridge takes a native coin on one blockchain, converts it into RISE, then bridges the RISE tokens to the receiving blockchain, sells the bridged RISE tokens for the new native coin and deposits it directly back into the user’s DeFi wallet. Users justcover the gas fee and a 1% transaction fee per swap initiated. The volume generated from these transactions also contributes to the EverRise buyback and stake protocol. Currently, over 47% of the total RISE supply is staked and locked for an average of 9 months. EverSwap: On the way to become an all-in-one multi-chain DEX EverSwap’s Native Coin Swap feature is one of the first of its kind in the decentralized finance space and is a massive milestone for the industry as a whole. With a frictionless experience and intuitive UX/UI, EverSwap’s Native Coin Swap provides a novel tool for those exploring multiple blockchains in the DeFi space. As EverRise expands its ecosystem to more blockchains, they will bring this feature along with them and make more native cryptocurrencies available for trading on EverSwap. EverSwap’s Native Coin Swap feature is only the beginning of the all-in-one multi-chain DEX that the EverRise team is building out. A multi-chain swap option for the RISE token is slated to be released soon for RISE holders to swap RISE on Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Polygon. In addition to the multi-chain swap feature for RISE, EverRise will also be looking to add functionality to allow users to swap other DeFi tokens trading on Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Polygon networks in the future. About EverRise EverRise is a blockchain technology company focused on increasing accessibility to decentralized finance by bringing security solutions to the space. Through an innovative ecosystem of decentralized applications, EverRise provides investors and developers the tools to access the widest possible market with the maximum level of security. They are working towards the mass adoption of safety protocols across Binance Smart Chain, Ethereum, and Polygon networks and currently offer 5 security dApps: EverBridge, EverOwn, EverMigrate, EverStake and EverSwap, with more on the way. Website | Twitter | Telegram | Discord | Reddit | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube 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

Yellow Card has announced the resumption of naira deposits and withdrawals in Nigeria via a statement from the cryptocurrency exchange platform. The move by the company comes almost a year after a central bank directive forced Yellow Card to suspend deposits and withdrawals. CBN’s Growing Interest in Digital Currencies Almost a year after suspending services following a central bank directive, crypto exchange platform Yellow Card now says it is resuming local deposits and withdrawals in Nigeria. The company’s resumption of services also comes a few months after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) launched its own digital currency. In its statement published in the Vanguard, Yellow Card’s director of services Oparinde Babatunde suggested that the CBN’s altered stance on digital currencies may have influenced his company’s decision to resume services. He said: The tide has changed and we are now seeing a growing interest from the CBN in them creating their own digital currency. Around October last year, they announced the release of the e-naira which is a digital form of the country’s currency and draws its value from the physical naira. In the coming months, we hope the CBN will reconsider their stance on cryptocurrency. Similar to other crypto exchange platforms, Yellow Card was forced to stop naira deposits and withdrawals after the CBN ordered financial institutions to exclude crypto entities from the banking system. However, with this announcement, Yellow Card becomes the latest African cryptocurrency exchange platform to reveal it will be reinstating naira deposits and withdrawals. User Safety As previously reported by Bitcoin.com News, Luno Global was one of the first cryptocurrency platforms to announce that it would reinstate naira deposits and withdrawals. At the time of the announcement, Luno denied it had been in direct contact with the CBN but said it had been working with other stakeholders to find a solution that “prioritises the safety of its customers.” According to Babatunde, Yellow Card too — whose users are projected to surge to 500,000 by the end of Q1, 2022 — will prioritize the safety of its users. “We also have a strong focus on usability, trust and safety, having implemented Smile Identity to ensure the tier 1 traders are only able to submit documents once and they are scanned with an international db,” Babatunde is quoted explaining. Besides enhancing the user’s experience, Yellow Card will also educate Africans about cryptocurrencies through webinars and platforms like the YC Academy, the Vanguard report said. What are your thoughts on this story? Tell us what you think in the comments section below. View the full article