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Hashed Announces Investment in DeFi Protocol bZx

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Hashed, which is one of the largest cryptocurrency investment firms in South Korea, officially announced its investment in bZx through the private round before the token release this July.

Among its other investments such as Handshake, QuarkChain, and Oasis Labs, the firm had previously led a $1 million Pre-A Investment round with Dapp.com, the data analytics platform for decentralized app products built on blockchains.

Sharing the thesis behind the latest investment, the South Korean blockchain VC firm referred to bZx’s  exploit that took place during the ETH Denver hackathon and stated,

“Those who failed and resiliently stood back up can accomplish growth much faster through their lessons learned. Just like we supported bZx, Hashed will also continue to support talented founders who stay resilient from failures and strive to win numerous challenges in the blockchain ecosystem.”

bZx, which is a set of smart contracts built on top of the Ethereum network, focuses on lending and margin trading. Months after launching site whitepaper in February 2018, it secured $7.8 million in their Initial Coin Offering [ICO] of BZRX tokens.

In February 2020, two hackers used flash loans to attack the protocol, first in a $350,000 attack and later in a $600,000 attack.

Despite this, Hashed believed that the bZx team has done everything in its power to fulfill its responsibility as a DeFi protocol. It further added,

“When bZx struggled through the aftermath of the attack, Hashed supported the team along the process. Indeed, we could actually witness how this team solved the unprecedented DeFi incident. We believe the team showed integrity”

However, not all were optimistic about the whole fiasco. For one, Robert Leshner, the Founder of the rival DeFi lending protocol Compound, had previously lashed out and said that the platform “isn’t capable of protecting user funds” and should “immediately cease operations until it can be thoroughly and completely audited”.

As a result of two back to back attacks, the total value locked [USD] in the protocol dropped from $19.447 million to $7.692 million in a period of just two weeks. Since then, the figures have shown almost no signs of recovery. At the time of writing, TVL locked in bZx was just $646.461K.

What is Yearn.Finance Token and Why is it Worth Over $30,000 Right Now?

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Step aside Bitcoin, there is a higher valued crypto-asset in town at the moment! 

Yearn.Finance, a governance token that was created to power the decentralized finance protocol yEarn is worth over $30,000 at press time. Clocking in at $32,300 at the moment, the asset’s valuation has risen by 139% over the past week, and close to 67% over the past day.

The sheer growth of DeFi has been there for everyone to see that the YFI token is taking its value to the next level. There is no doubt that YFI is a speculative asset, but its utilization has been central to the “yield farming” method, where various DeFi lending protocols distribute governance tokens as incentives for using them.

In simple terms, yEarn is a yield aggregating platform on Ethereum where users can decide and compare yields between different DeFi lending protocols and earn incentives by placing their crypto in “vaults”.

Now, since YFI is the governance token of this platform, users want to hold more of it so that they can cast their votes on policies and proposals that dictate the future of the yEarn network.

How is it Yearn.Finance surviving and growing so fast?

Now, one of the main reasons why YFI’s value has undergone a price explosion is due to its limited supply of only 30,000. Close to 29,680 are already in circulation, making it a very scarce asset in the ecosystem. Each vault allows users to deposit a particular token and the protocol yields farms with it.

However, it is important to note that Andre Cronje, founder of Yearn.Finance emphasized that YFI is to be provided to liquidity providers who supply other ytokens and be used for voting.

Cronje stressed multiple times that YFI token is valueless but after being listed on Binance and Uniswap, and presently on AAVE, the token has been bought by at a frightening rate on exchanges.

Partnerships with AAVE has certainly helped as after being listed on 28th August, the price has been up by 75%, and right now, the momentum does not look like to slow down anytime soon.

However, people and potential investors should vary from YFI tokens because the sole purpose of the token is to manage the platform and not hodl. Once Yield Farming runs its course, YFI tokens may undergo an unceremonious price dump and there will be no-one to recoup the lost value. Andre Cronje mentioned it from day one, that YFI is “valueless” and people should keep that in mind.

 

The Amount of Value Locked in DeFi Just Hit $9 Billion

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DeFi is growing faster than ever

The decentralized finance economy has grown massively this year and as of the time of writing, the industry is now worth $9.017 billion, according to the on-chain data resource DeFi Pulse. Total Value Locked [TVL] essentially means the amount of money running through its smart contracts.

The industry has grown incredibly quickly with its TVL figures surging by more than 119% over the course of just one month.

DeFi

With a large portion of DeFi-based applications, tokens, and services hosted on the Ethereum network, its native token, ETH locked in it has also surged to a new all-time high of 5.229 million. This, in turn, has reignited bullish projections in terms of ETH’s price which stood at $404, at the time of writing.

ETH 5

Race for first place in DeFi’s TVL intensifies

Recently ousting Maker for the position of the biggest DeFi protocol was Aave [which was previously known as Ethlend] with a dominance of 18.98% over the last 24-hours as its TVL [USD] reached $1.71 billion. One of the significant factors of Aave lending protocol outpacing previous front runners was its LEND token which soared more than 4500% since the beginning of the year.

Adding to the surging popularity was the recent development of the issuance of a license to Aave’s U.K. business entity, Aave Limited by the Electronic Money Institution.

Meanwhile, Maker settled for the second-biggest position with $1.43 billion locked in smart contracts. Trailing not far behind was Curve protocol with a figure of $1.27 billion.

This was followed by Yearn.Finance at $956.3 million. Interestingly while it neared the coveted league of $1 billion TVL protocols, its native token, YFI recently hit a new all-time high following its listing on Aave’s platform and a hint at a partnership with the crypto-derivative platform, FTX.

Referring to the collaboration news, Founder of the project, Andre Cronje tweeted,

https://twitter.com/AndreCronjeTech/status/1299218253127069702

Indian Cryptocurrency Sees Resurgence as August Marks 6 Months Since Crypto Ban Was Lifted

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The world of cryptocurrencies took a massive upswing in March when India’s Supreme Court reversed a ban imposed by Indian’s Reserve Bank back in 2018. Ever since the ban was lifted, several popular institutions who had lost interest in the subcontinent came flocking back to set up shop.

This increase has not gone without notice as many analyst companies outrightly claimed India’s importance in today’s burgeoning economy. The rebound in exchange trading has been accompanied by a rapid thaw in mainstream responses to cryptocurrency.

India’s population has always created a large user base that companies look at with massive interest. With over 600 million banked individuals, it only takes a momentary push to bring in a mainstream sentiment for the cryptocurrency world. Even former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan had said that the world of virtual assets would play a pivotal role in taking the fintech world to the next level. The acceptance level for crypto has reached such a level that even the International Monetary Fund recently released a video talking about the benefits of decentralized assets.

This marked improvement in the affairs comes a few years after a complete crypto shutdown in the country. When the RBI first instituted the ban, several high profile companies from India left the country and decided to explore options in other regions. Zebpay, a popular cryptocurrency exchange was one of the major examples in this crossfire with founder Ajeet Khurana once claiming that a return to India would be profitable.

His words seem to have come true as the crypto industry has grown by double digits in the country. Bitcoin and Ethereum trades are at an all-time high in the country and it does not seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Even Arjun Vijay, the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Giottus Cryptocurrency exchange stated:

“It takes time to add beneficiaries and transfer money to peoples’ bank accounts. This can be anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours. Most people don’t have the patience to trade like this. Volumes fell 90% when the RBI payments ban came into effect in August 2018.”

The Indian market will again see a resurgence when the price of Bitcoin goes up, a situation that has been on the rollercoaster for the past two months. Experts assume that the current support will maintain for some more time, which can provide sustenance for a continued bull run.

Vitalik Buterin Wary of Upcoming Brain Implants as Neuralink Gets Ready for Friday Demo

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The modern age has pulled all stops when it comes to technological advancements with cryptocurrencies just forming the tip of the iceberg. However, as technology moves ahead at a rapid pace, some tech evangelists have asked people to be more mindful of the changes.

As we approach the much-awaited demonstration of Elon Musk’s Neauralik, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has put forth his own comments and suggestions on the topic. The 26- year old programming prodigy gave his two cents on why genetic modifications to the brain would be a bad idea in the long run. 

Musk and his Neuralink organization are touted to showcase the first workings of the model on Friday with many claiming how it would revolutionize the way we consume content. The Neuralink device works by embedding a device in a person’s body which in turn will act as the controller when any action is required to be taken. This interlink between a device and the human brain was seen as a disturbing attribute by Buterin, who sided more with genetic enhancements.

The Ethereum co-founder’s tweet read:

“Am I the only one who finds genetic enhancement of humans *much more palatable* than brain implants? Genes are hard to target; there’s no ‘gene for obedience to the communist party.’ But mixing brains and centralized digital tech risks eroding our strongest domain of privacy.”

Buterin’sn discussion also veered into how people can be controlled using devices such as the Neuralink. He also made the connection that there were also some flaws with gene therapy, pointing out some genes that are directly connected to obedience. He claimed that people with such genes are just as vulnerable to becoming obedient to cults that “the government hates’.

Some people even enquired if there existed devices that would make people obey the communist party. To this Buterin replied:

“No but I’m sure the brain implants that people will come up with by default could be easily backdoored to surveil people’s moods even about specific topics and so forth.”

The extent of Neuralink’s abilities is not yet confirmed but sources say that the live demo will show its brain machine interface while providing details about the state of human trials. Fans and critics alike will have to wait and watch how Musk plans to unfold his latest masterpiece and if it will bring positive changes to the world of technology.

 

South Korean Authorities Confiscate Major Crypto Exchange for Wash Trading

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The oldest newspaper in South Korea, Seoul Shinmun, reported on August 26 that the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange in the country, Coinbit, had been seized by law enforcement authorities on allegations of bloating trading volumes. According to the report, the South Korean authorities invaded the exchange offices on Wednesday morning after discovering that the platform had feigned for more than 99 percent of its trading volume.

Trade washing is a widespread practice among cryptocurrency exchanges globally. According to a Bitwise crypto management firm report back in March, more than 95 percent of the trading volumes are fake, with exchanges creating pseudo accounts and using them to trade back and forth, making the respective platforms seem more popular and active. Coinbit also used this illicit method to magnify its trading volume.

Coinbit made over $85 million in illicit proceeds

The South Korean Authorities claim that the CEO of Coinbit, Choi Mo, and his team allegedly purchased different crypto assets using fake accounts, impacting the over 250,000 active monthly users on the platform. Currently, Coinbit has discontinued all its activities, pending investigations.

Notably, the major Korean exchange managed to manipulate its trading volume by creating two accounts with all its funds. One of those accounts falsely traded the major tokens such as BTC, ETH, XRP, and USDT pairs with pseudo accounts.

On the other hand, Coinbit used the second account to trade hidden tokens and ICOs. The obscure tokens are only obtainable from one exchange, that is, Coinbit. By doing this, the major exchange controlled their supply, tampering with their valuation to inflated prices, and ultimately selling them to unsuspecting users on the platform.

South Korean authorities confines exchange’s head office

In addition to the market manipulation strategy, the wash trading scheme netted the major crypto exchange with deceitful revenue over $85 million.

Furthermore, the wash trading scheme has made the South Korean authorities raise doubts regarding Coinbit’s bookkeeping ways. This draws attention to more professional misconduct and fraud. Meanwhile, the South Korean authorities have isolated the exchange headquarters and some of its branches in Korea.

Will Rising DAA Translate to Bullish “Ripples” in XRP’s Value?

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The cryptocurrency market has been on an impressive streak this year as it nearly doubled its valuation. But this was not the case with XRP, which is the third-largest market cap cryptocurrency. And despite the fact that other coins have managed to push closer to the levels last seen during the 2018 bull run, XRP was still down by over 91% from its ATH of $3.50 as recorded on 4th January of the same year to its current price at $0.283.

Will XRP’s multi-year downtrend finally end?

But all hope is not lost. XRP made a higher low in the last week of June, for the first time since early 2018. To top that, XRP’s active address output has continued to remain high despite a poor performance on its price action. This was noted by the crypto analytic platform, Santiment, which tweeted that

“Ripple holders can take solace in it being one of the few alts with a DAA bullish divergences we’ve identified.”

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On 24 August, the number of XRP ‘s Daily Active Addresses [DAA] surged to a seven-day high of 9,499, despite the fact that the coin had dropped by more than 9% over the past week. Compared to the February numbers, the DAA was still low.

A little flashback: The figure reached an ATH of nearly 71,000 daily active addresses during this bullish phase when XRP was being traded at $0.337 as compared to its previous high of 50,583 active wallets when the coin was valued close $3.1

Coming back to the present scenario, the increase in DAA figure coincided with XRP’s price hinting a potential upside break in the coming days.

XRP 4 e1598348171831

A symmetrical triangle pattern took shape on the short-term XRP price chart. While this was indicative of a potential price breakout on either side, in insight it was the placement of the daily moving averages that provided more clarity.

The 50 DMA [Pink] underwent a golden cross with the 200 DMA [Purple] in the first week of August. The rising gauge between the two DMAs indicated a potential bullish uprising for the coin’s price as both the moving averages continued to support the price candles from big losses.

Meanwhile, the RSI confirmed a bullish divergence as it formed higher lows while the price formed lower low, thus, suggesting a consistent strengthening momentum.

There is also a sense of optimism in the market as the Crypto Fear and Greed Index for Bitcoin and other large cryptocurrencies were found to hovering in “Greed”.

Trailing far behind the top two

While the growth of XRP has been significant, when compared to Bitcoin and Ethereum, however, the numbers are quite small. BTC boasted DAA of nearly 1 million while that of ETH stood a little over 500,000.

The reason for this could be the use of “destination tag” feature by XRP ledger [XRPL]. According to developer Mark Hamilton, this feature enables allows for a single XRP address to have many subaddresses. This essentially implies that the total number of active addresses is undercounted.

China’s Blockchain and Fintech Superiority Might Oust America-led Global financial System, Says Ripple Co-founder

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China leads the world in terms of blockchain and fintech, while the US dollar is the reserve currency of the world. The United States has drawn a lot of criticism from industry experts for its inaction on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. The latest person to comment on this subject is the co-founder of Ripple, Chris Larsen.

The co-founder and executive chairman of Ripple, Chris Larsen, published an op-ed piece arguing that the United States and China are drawn in a “technology cold war.” According to Larsen, the fact that Chinese miners control about 65 percent of the Bitcoin hash rate, they can gain complete control of the Bitcoin network in future. Moreover, the Ripple co-founder urged U.S. authorities to work in collaboration with blockchain and crypto firms in the country.

China’s blockchain and fintech supremacy

In Larsen’s argument, the superiority of China in blockchain and financial technology might be a significant catalyst to future conflicts between the two economic heavyweights. Furthermore, Larsen claims the U.S. dollar might lose its status as the world’s reserve currency in the wake of digital currencies, digital wallets, blockchain technology and interoperability procedures.

With China leading the world in the fronts as mentioned above, Larsen argues it creates a possibility for the nation to overtake the traditional financial system powered by the U.S. dollar through digital payments such as crypto-assets such as the digital yuan. In his piece, Larsen noted:

“For China, this is a once-in-a-century opportunity to wrest away American stewardship of the global financial system, including its ultimate goal of replacing the dollar with a digital yuan.” 

Can the Chinese reverse Bitcoin transactions?

According to a study conducted by the University of Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, 65 percent of all cryptocurrency mining operations take place in China. In Larsen’s argument, if the United States loses financial superiority to China, it could threaten digital currencies. He argues that the Chinese could take advantage of the accumulated hash power to influence crypto transactions.

China and the United States are currently embroiled in a battle surrounding technology advancement. Notably, the two companies are battling on the upcoming 5G technology. Chinese firms have been pushing aggressively to have a bite of the American telecom market. Still, U.S. authorities have put in place barriers to the Chinese, citing matters of national security.

XRP, Bitcoin SV, EOS Technical Analysis on 24rd August 2020

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The brakes are being pulled on the altcoin rally at the moment. After close to 3 weeks of the bullish rally, the majority of the digital assets were exhibiting strong corrections on the market charts. While the correction has slowed down over the past day, the trend is still significantly bearish at the moment.XRP, Bitcoin SV, EOS technical analysis is given below

XRP hourly chart

XRP tron 1 e1598266605796

Since 17th August, XRP has declined dropped from $0.32 to its present valuation at $0.290. Although the price has undergone a minor hike of 3.07% in the past day, it remains fairly in the bullish realm. XRP market capitalization jumped above $13.02 billion after topping off near $14 billion a few days back. With a trading volume of $1.24 billion, XRP maintained its position as the 3rd largest digital asset.

Now, market indicators suggested that XRP might be entering a period of another bullish rally. Chaikin Money Flow or CMF suggested that the token had high capital inflows than outflows as MACD suggested that a bullish crossover in the charts. Bollinger Bands for XRP suggested a neutral trend as the bands appeared to be parallel to each other.

Bitcoin SV hourly chart

BSV tron e1598266761965

For Bitcoin SV, it is currently near its resistance at $199. The last time BSV was valued below this range was on 27th July. However, the asset’s inability to maintained a price higher than $217 has now entertained a huge retracement. However, Bitcoin SV had registered a gain of 3.10 percent over the past day.

Bitcoin SV is currently the 8th largest digital asset with a market capitalization of $3.68 billion. Analyzing the Relative Strength Index or RSI for BSV, it can be suggested that buying pressure is slowly taking over in the markets, as Bollinger Bands exhibited more volatility going forward.

BSV’s Parabolic SAR was bullish as well with the dotted indicator firmly under the candlesticks.

EOS hourly chart

EOS tro

12th ranked EOS continued to have a poor 2020. The token that was once ranked 4th in the charts currently exhibited a low market cap of $3.17 billion at the moment. For EOS, markets have remained rather neutral with the occasional surge and spike in prices. Although the token has dipped over the past week, it continues to exhibited tepid volatility levels as the valuation continued to be under the resistance of $3.40.

Aroon indicator suggested that the price may under another bearish onslaught as the bearish market completed a reversal over the bullish market. However, Awesome Oscillator pictured positive momentum as the candlesticks turned green at the end of the indicator.

DeFi Platform CurveFinance CEO Usurps 71% Voting Power

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Is a decentralized finance platform truly decentralized when one of its prominent executives takes over a staggering 71% of the governance voting power?

In a surprising turn of events, DeFi platform Curve Finance Founder and CEO Michael Egorov took over 71% of the voting power for the platform’s DAO.

Curve, which is an exchange liquidity pool on Ethereum, requires CRV token holders to lock up their tokens and get ‘voting escrow CRV’ or ‘veCRV’ as a return, which essentially represents the individual’s voting power on the protocol. The time duration of the locked-up funds also plays an important role. The longer the token holders lock up their CRV, the more voting power they have.

According to the platform, the vote locking boost is an incentive for the CRV holders to participate in its DAO governance. While the official platform also stated that Curve “strongly believes in the power of decentralization” and wants the “CRV holders to be involved in the protocol’s future“, the latest move of seizing over two-thirds of the voting power by Egorov came as a bolt out of the blue.

Capture 2 e1598243703383

What prompted this move?

The token launch took place on August 14th. Since then, only a handful of holders have actually locked their CRV tokens for voting. This left a great deal of voting power in the hands of a few addresses.

According to Egorov, a little less than 7% of the roughly 10 million CRV in circulation, were locked in for voting which implied that there were a few individuals who were actually participating in Curve’s governance DAO. With an enormous amount of voting power sitting idle, it was an easy target for an address controlled by Yearn.finance, which happens to be Curve liquidity pool, to acquire 58% of the voting power.

In reaction to this, Egorov locked up 621,860 CRV tokens, much more than he initially intended. What was even more damaging was that he set a time period for 4 years. While Egorov asserted that he “over-reacted”, it was already too late.

Following this mayhem, Yearn.Finance’s Founder Andre Cronje tweeted,

“Quick CRV <> veCRV required to beat 600k veCRV; Assuming people don’t do 4 year lockups, and only do 1 week lockups; You only need to lockup to 150,000,000 CRV to decrease the founder power to 50%.”

Despite the uproar among the community members, Curve remained optimistic about evening up the voting power in the coming days. Along the same line, it noted,

“While formal voting power is skewed (hopefully not for long) – use that power to vote in accordance with the community soft-vote (similar to governance polls in Synthetix) for that part of voting power.”