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Tezos is seeking to attract DeFi developers, implementing a protocol upgrade that reduces smart contract gas fees by roughly 75%. Top-20 crypto asset by market cap Tezos ( XTZ ) has successfully completed its latest upgrade, “Delphi,” which aims to reduce smart contract gas fees by 75% to attract decentralized finance ( DeFi ) developers to build on top of its blockchain. Delphi was proposed on Sept. 3 . It’s a joint undertaking from Nomadic Labs, Metastatic, and Gabriel Algour intended to “help individuals developing smart contracts on Tezos.”  According to a joint post from Delphi’s developers the upgrade is “crucial to enable novel applications on Tezos that target areas like DeFi, collectibles, and gaming.” “The size and complexity of smart contracts is limited by gas constraints and so people attempting to build contracts with rich functionality have needed improvements to those constraints for some time.” Tezos is a fourth-generation blockchain platform that utilizes p...

Blockchain records show the hackers got away with more than $2,051,159 in DAI before moving the funds to a different address. Hackers were reportedly able to exploit savings pools at Gibraltar-based decentralized finance protocol Akropolis, getting away with more than $2 million in stablecoins.  The firm stated on Twitter on April 12 that it had identified a hack “executed across a body of smart contracts in the savings pools.” Akropolis said the areas targeted by the hackers had already been audited twice, and only included “Curve Y and Curve sUSD savings pools.” Ethereum blockchain records show the hackers got away with more than 2,030,850 Dai (DAI) by exploiting these savings pools. They then moved the funds to a different address. Akropolis has since issued a statement on its website stating  that "the majority of funds" are safe and it would be pausing all stablecoin pools. The firm added that it was "exploring ways" to reimburse affected users. Akropo...

Even as $525 million in Bitcoin options expire on Friday, bulls are expected to strongly defend the $15.5K level. On Nov. 13, a total of $525 million in Bitcoin ( BTC ) options open interest is set to expire. This is similar to last week when $470 million in options open interest also expired . This presents somewhat unusual activity as most volume goes through monthly and quarterly options. On Nov. 5 (last Friday), put (sell) options open interest was 30% larger than call (buy) ones. Deribit exchange holds $431 million open interest for this Friday's expiry and Bit.com has $72 million. Before coming to quick conclusions on whether this figure is bullish or bearish, it’s important to take a more detailed view in order to gauge the potential buy and sell pressure near expiry. For example, an $18,000 call option holder has not much gain in pushing up the Bitcoin price to $16,500 with less than 32 hours till expiry. These options are already deemed worthless by the market. The sa...

The S2F model predicts a Bitcoin price of up to $288,000 by 2022 but two fund execs are betting the model won't pan out. Eric Wall, chief investment officer of crypto hedge fund Arcane Assets, has offered a $1 million bet that the Bitcoin stock-to-flow model will be proven false before 2025. In a Nov. 12 tweet to his 32,700 followers, Wall laid out the terms of the wager, offering to pay $1 million to anyone who accepts his bet that the stock-to-flow, or S2F, model will be “broken” in less than five years. The CIO stated the definition of “broken” is if the Bitcoin ( BTC ) price hasn't "reached even 50% of its target range". Although he tagged in S2F model creator PlanB (@100trillionUSD) he later added: “This bet is not only for @100trillionUSD. If someone else has the money to lock up, I will take you on instead.” Not uncertain? I bet $1,000,000 that the S2FX model will be broken less than 5 years from now. This is not a joke. I'm willing to lock up the ...

The Silk Road saga gets more airtime on the latest CBS News documentary Mainstream U.S. media outlet CBS is airing a documentary tonight on the takedown of the Silk Road dark web marketplace. It features an interview with Julia Vie, former girlfriend of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht who claims 'Dread Pirate Roberts' wasn’t motivated by money — to the point where he didn't even own a car — and that he was not a drug pusher. In 2015 Ulbricht was found guilty of charges including aiding and abetting the distribution of narcotics, fraudulent ID trafficking, and money laundering in 2015 and received two life sentences plus 40 years. There are calls for his release  in an ongoing campaign popular with some in the crypto community. Proponents claim that he should be freed as he was a first-time offender, and all charges were non-violent in nature. The FBI Declassified: The Dangerous Journey on the Silk Road’ aims to bring viewers closer to the FBI investigation that too...

Upstart blockchain firm Bots Inc claims it can demand between $14 million and $18 million in monthly revenues after acquiring a patent to Bitcoin ATM technology last month. Puerto Rico-based blockchain and robotics firm Bots Inc has announced it is exploring its options with “a major law firm” to launch litigation against firms operating Bitcoin ATMs across the United States . Two weeks ago the company acquired a patent for protocols underpinning the operation of Bitcoin ATMs which it believes makes it eligible for millions in monthly royalties. As the apparent owner of intellectual property for technology it claims is fundamental to the operation of Bitcoin ATM networks, Bots’ chief executive Paul Rosenberg is eying “per-transaction” royalties from Bitcoin ATM manufacturers: “Per-transaction royalty payments will be negotiated for a several-year term. Some agreements, especially with the manufacturers, could cover previous years and/or a significant number of coming years.” Wi...

Gary Gensler will reportedly ensure a smooth transition with the Federal Reserve in addition to banking and securities regulators. Less than four days after his official acceptance speech, Joe Biden has already begun assembling a team including the former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as part of his transition to the 46th President of the United States. According to a Nov. 10 announcement from the ‘Biden-Harris Transition’, Gary Gensler has volunteered to join President-elect Joe Biden’s team as a financial expert. The former CFTC chair will be the lead tasked with ensuring as smooth a transition as possible with the Federal Reserve and banking and securities regulators. Gensler served as chairman for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, under President Barack Obama from 2009 until 2014. He was known as a stringent regulator during his time as CFTC head, overseeing reforms to the $400 trillion financial derivatives market. The new financial te...

“I’ve bought quite a few cryptocurrencies that turned out to be disasters.” David Schwartz, Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer, has revealed he lost more than $300,000 investing in altcoins. According to a Nov. 2 post on Quora asking readers if they had lost any money trading Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies, Schwartz stated that he had made a few crypto investments that he “ultimately had to write off as worthless.” “I’ve bought quite a few cryptocurrencies that turned out to be disasters,” stated the Ripple CTO who is a very frequent Quora contributor. “My total losses, just on tokens that became completely worthless, is just over $300,000.” Schwartz listed 11 tokens in particular that turned out to be bad investments for him, including Blocktix (TIX), DICE, Flash (FLASH), Vezt (VEZT), Amp (AMP), Signal Token (SIG), Bee (BEE), Kind Ads Token (KIND), Pryze (PRYZ), KudosCoin (KUDOS), and Neuron (NRN). Many of the altcoins went to zero in 2017 and 2018. Overall it seems q...

A Ukrainian national has been sentenced to nine years in prison in what the IRS is describing as the United States’ “first Bitcoin case [with] a tax component.” A former Microsoft engineer has been sentenced to nine years for stealing more than $10 million in digital value from his past employer in the form of “currency stored value" (CSV) including gift cards. Volodymyr Kvashuk, a 26-year-old Ukrainian citizen residing in Washington, used the accounts and identities of his fellow employees to steal and then sell the CSV — making it appear as though his co-workers were responsible for the fraud.  Kvashuk also used a Bitcoin ( BTC ) mixing service to further obfuscate the paper trail, telling the Internal Revenue Service that the $2.8 million worth of crypto that passed through his accounts gifts had been sent from a relative. According to the United States Departent of Justice: “Over the seven months of KVASHUK’s illegal activity, approximately $2.8 million in Bitcoin were tr...

Bitcoin’s market cap is rapidly surpassing the monetary base of multiple national currencies and it looks like the Canadian dollar is next. As Bitcoin ( BTC ) blasted through the $14,000 level its market capitalization surpassed the monetary base of the Russian ruble . This measure includes both physical currency and bank reserves, both of which are usually held by a country’s central banks. Bitcoin market price inferred to match top global monetary bases. Source: Crypto Voices The above chart may seem complicated at first glance, but it simply compares gold, silver, Bitcoin, and the remaining global monetary bases. We can see that the U.S. has $4.9 trillion physical notes, coins, and bank deposits parked at the Federal Reserve. By dividing this number by the current 18.5 million outstanding BTC, we reach the $263K stated above. In order for Bitcoin’s market capitalization to match the U.S. base money figure, the price would need to surpass $263,000. Although this might seem fa...

Traders and analysts across the Twittersphere and beyond chime in on crypto's future While some in the community continue to question the outcome of the US Presidential election, mainstream media outlets and the Associated Press have definitively called the race for former Vice President and current President-Elect Joe Biden.  But with uncertainty out of the way, traders and analysts are now looking to determine what a Biden administration will mean for cryptocurrencies — and they appear to have come to a loose consensus that a President who says nothing about crypto is preferable to a president who actively disparages it. Qiao Wang, the lead at decentralized finance accelerator DeFi Alliance, cheered Trump’s loss, noting that the President had tweeted negatively about Bitcoin and Libra in the past: The fact that Trump and Mnuchin are hostile towards BTC makes a Trump a far inferior candidate. Full stop. However the senate part is debatable. You could argue that democrats a...

“We just want to know that our funds are safe,” said one Cred user United States-based cryptocurrency lending service Cred filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Saturday, leaving many customers searching for solutions to get their funds.  According to court documents, the legal team for Cred CEO Daniel Schatt filed bankruptcy papers for the company in the District of Delaware on Nov. 7. Cred listed its estimated assets at between $50-100 million and its estimated liabilities between $100-500 million.  In an official statement, the company said it had filed for Chapter 11 in an attempt “to maximize the value of its platform for its creditors.” The bankruptcy filing comes following an Oct. 28 announcement the platform would be suspending fund inflows and outflows for two weeks. Cred stated on Twitter that the suspension was not due to any criminal investigation, but the platform was working with authorities “to help investigate irregularities in the handlin...

The record-breaking sale is a cherry on top of Axie Infinity's strong week and even stronger year While a rally in the latter half of the week saw major names across the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem climb upwards of 100%, Axie Infinity -- the Pokemon-inspired NFT game -- carried the banner for the NFT space, capping off a wild week of progress with a record-breaking 300 ether (roughly $130,000) sale.  The eye-poppingly expensive Axie -- the NFT-backed critters used to play and battle in the Axie Infinity game -- is named Angel, and is one of 19 “triple mystic” Axies currently in existence. Angel was sold on Friday on NFT marketplace Opensea, where it was then almost immediately re-listed for a staggering 666 ether (over $250,000) sum. The sale topped a strong week for the game which was filled with updates and news. Among the highlights were a livestreamed “The Last Lunacian” tournament, a collaboration with DeFi lending protocol Aave on a limited-edition NFT set, an...

Cynthia Lummis first bought Bitcoin back in 2013. Former Republican congresswoman and current Bitcoin holder Cynthia Lummis has won a seat in the U.S. Senate against Democratic challenger Merav Ben-David. According to a Nov. 4 report from Fortune, Lummis was an early adopter of Bitcoin ( BTC ), having first purchased the cryptocurrency in 2013 thanks to a tip from her son-in-law, Will Cole. Cole has served as the Chief Product Officer at blockchain financial services firm Unchained Capital since December 2019. “Cynthia believes in the philosophy behind Bitcoin, not just that it is a new asset class,” said financial firm Avanti's founder and CEO Caitlin Long. She later tweeted that Lummis want to defend Bitcoin “against federal encroachment.” Lummis, who defeated Ben-David with 73.1% of the vote, will be acting as a lawmaker over a state that has been very accepting of crypto-friendly institutions. San Francisco-based crypto exchange Kraken became the first cryptocurrency ...

There's buzz that the Eth 2.0 deposit contract appears to have been deployed but there has been no official announcement. Excitement is stirring in the Ethereum community after the deposit contract was apparently posted on Github, however the lead developers are yet to officially confirm the deployment. Ethereum developers have warned in the past about the danger of fake deposit contracts, so users should not send any Ethereum to the contract until after an official announcement. The repository on Github was posted a few hours and appears to have been uploaded by Ethereum Foundation researcher Carl Beekhuizen’s account. The release of v1.0.0 of the eth2.0-deposit-cli was titled; “We have a go for Main engine start” Crypto twitter has been taken over by the U.S. election but members of the Ethereum community have been eagerly awaiting anything official regarding the first stage of the long-awaited Eth 2.0 launch . Reddit also features numerous threads about the apparent lau...

Ciphertrace speculated the anonymous user made the transactions “to stay up to date with the Bitcoin network,” but it may have been hacked. An anonymous crypto user has just moved 69,370 Bitcoin from an address associated with the Silk Road darknet market, that more recently has become a popular hacking target. According to a Nov. 3 report from crypto intelligence firm CipherTrace, the recent movement involving two transactions adding up to 69,370 Bitcoin ( BTC ) — or more than $960 million at the time of publication — originated from an address connected with the Silk Road marketplace, which was shut down in 2013. The crypto user first sent 1 BTC — likely as a test transaction — before moving the bulk of the coins. Ciphertrace speculated the anonymous user made the transactions “to stay up to date with the Bitcoin network” by switching between address formats. As the last time anyone moved funds associated with the defunct darknet market was in April 2015, the BTC wallet would r...

The price of Bitcoin rose more than 2% in two hours as poll workers in US states began to count ballots. The price of Bitcoin ( BTC ) rose by more than 2% in two hours to briefly top $14,000 as the polls were starting to close across many U.S. states on Nov. 3. At the time of writing it was just under the key mark. Today is election day in the United States and many crypto leaders are predicting Bitcoin could be the big winner in a highly contentious race. At the time of publication, officials have counted more than 400,000 ballots. Bitcoin has only been around for two U.S. presidential elections, but the price has risen significantly with each successive race. In November 2012, 1 BTC was valued at roughly $12, while in 2016 the price was more than $700. With the coin now reaching $14,309 at the time of publication, it represents a rise of 1,900% in four years, or roughly 140,000% in eight years. This is the second time BTC has peaked above the $14,000 barrier in just one week, ...

PayPal is planning to launch crypto services for users of its platform globally, along with the Venmo app, and the company will explore central bank digital currencies. Senior executives at global payments giant PayPal have revealed further details about its plans to aggressively push into the crypto sector next year during the firm’s Q3 2020 earnings call, including plans to support central bank digital currencies ( CBDCs ). “Clearly the world is rapidly moving from physical to digital,” said PayPal CEO, Dan Shulman, emphasizing the accelerated rate of change within the payments and financial services sectors. Citing discussions with central banks , regulators , and crypto industry leaders , Shulman asserted: “There is no question that digital currencies are going to be rising in importance, having increasing functionality, and increasing prominence.” “CBDCs [...] are a matter of when and how they’re done, and not if.” PayPal ’s chief executive said that through its scale and pr...

“We believe voting should be safe and accessible to everyone, everywhere,” said Ripple. Blockchain-based payments firm Ripple has joined a non-partisan group of companies working to ensure access to fair voting in the United States. According to a Nov. 2 tweet from Ripple, CEO Brad Garlinghouse has joined Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and PayPal CEO Dan Schulman at the Civic Alliance, an organization that states it supports “safe, healthy and trusted elections” in addition to encouraging members’ employees and customers to be civic minded. “We believe voting should be safe and accessible to everyone, everywhere,” said Ripple. “That's why Ripple is 100% in #ForDemocracy.” Within the Civic Alliance — which has 936 members at the time of publication with a reach of more than 5 million employees — a subset of roughly 619 companies claims to encourage 100% of employees to vote with paid time off or flexible work schedules. Ripple has roughly 548 employees at its San Francisco offices. ...

Auditors see foul play in the deployment of the smart contract, resulting in a classic scam. On November 2, the Axion Network launched its new token, known as AXN. The project touted the asset as a new investment vehicle, claiming that it would be the most profitable blockchain of its kind to date. During the interim lead up to AXN's airdrop, five separate teams allegedly examined the token's code; industry darlings such as CertiK and Hacken were among those who conducted the audits.  A few short hours after the protocol's freeclaim event, however, it became clear that something had gone awry. An unauthorized actor unexpectedly minted 79 billion AXN and unloaded them on the market. The price collapsed in excess of 99%, netting the attackers a cool 1300 ETH — worth an estimated $500K at time of publication. In the hours that followed, the team behind the Axion project encouraged participants stay away from trading or interacting with the asset, stating via the platform...