Day: August 3, 2020

Ethereum Fundamentals: DeFi Total Value Locked Passes $4 Billion

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After a near-unstoppable uptrend, Ethereum’s rally was stopped dead in its tracks just 20 hours ago. In the span of just around ten minutes, the price of the leading cryptocurrency plunged from $415 to a low of $325 on most spot exchanges. Chart of ETH’s price action over the past few days from TradingView.com This move purportedly triggered over $100 million worth of liquidations over Ethereum’s margin markets. Despite this extreme volatility across the cryptocurrency market, Ethereum’s killer use case, decentralized finance (DeFi), continued to gain steam. Related Reading: Crypto Tidbits:…

Travel Management Company CWT Pays $4.5M Bitcoin to Hackers

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U.S.-based corporate travel firm CWT paid $4.5 million in a Bitcoin ransom to hackers who stole sensitive files from the company. According to a July 31 report from Reuters, representatives from CWT (formerly Carlson Wagonlit Travel) paid ransomware hackers 414 Bitcoin (BTC) on July 27 — roughly $4.5 million at the time — over two transactions. Blockchain data shows the criminals transferred the funds to a different address within an hour. The attackers said they used Ragnar Locker ransomware to disable access to files on 30,000 computers at the firm…

Ethereum Bulls Face Mass Liquidation, But Analysts Point to Signs of Strength

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Ethereum saw one of the most intense drops it has seen since mid-March yesterday, with the cryptocurrency’s price reeling from highs of $415 to lows of $300 in a matter of minutes. This decline caught bulls off guard, as the crypto was previously flashing signs of overt strength as it pushed higher each day. ETH’s sharp decline also came about in tandem with that seen by Bitcoin, which faced a grim rejection at $12,000 that caused its price to decline down towards $11,000. Both assets have since recovered from their…

Analyst Who Predicted Drop to $10,500: Bitcoin Could Plunge Another $1,500

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On July 31st, the day Bitcoin pressed past $11,500 for the first time in a year, one cryptocurrency trader predicted a steep retracement. The trader commented in a tweet that while he wasn’t in a trade at the time, he would not mind “getting in a long position from around $10,300 to $10,500.” Few expected Bitcoin to drop so far at the time. But on the evening of Saturday, the cryptocurrency plunged to the pivotal $10,500 level in a flash crash, which resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars worth…

A General Strategy on How to Select a Crypto Fund, Part 1

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Digital assets, as a new asset class, exhibit interesting characteristics that could benefit a diversified portfolio of traditional assets. There are, however, many ways to get exposed to digital assets — passive investment, actively managed, short or long term investing, etc. — and with over 800 funds of all sizes, ranging from passive index to active trading funds to venture capital funds and fund of funds, it can be hard to sort the wheat from the chaff. Just like hedge funds, crypto funds come in all shapes and sizes, and…

Decentralized Energy is Key to a DeFi Future

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Decentralized Energy (DeEn) leverage DApps and smart contracts on Ethereum to conduct transactions and trade energy assets. In a paper released July 31, Lition, a Berlin-based sustainable tech startup that has launched a blockchain-based marketplace allowing consumers to choose between multiple energy providers, DeEn has the same “structure, advantages, and logic” as DeFi, or Decentralized Finance. DeFi should include DeEn Similar to DeFi where trades of digital assets are peer to peer, DeEn allows consumers to know exactly where their energy is coming from, Lition said. It empowers consumers to…