CertiK, a software security company active in the blockchain sector, announced the mainnet release of its own custom blockchain, the CertiK Chain. The new blockchain places a heavy focus on security, turning the previously static process of analyzing smart contracts into a real-time safeguarding system. Professor Ronghui Gu, the CEO of CertiK, said, “Gone are the days of reliance on off-chain security analysis, static security audit reports, and unnecessary loss of time and money.” The CertiK Chain is “setting a new industry standard in blockchain security protocols,” he added. The…
Day: October 26, 2020
Number of Bitcoin ‘Whale’ Addresses at Highest Since Fall 2016
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PayPal-Backed Blockchain Analytics Firm Hires Former US Treasury Adviser
Blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs has appointed former U.S. Treasury and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) heavyweight Ari Redbord to help build the firm’s risk-based anti-money laundering (AML) programs for cryptocurrency and digital assets. Redbord joins TRM Labs as the company’s head of legal and government affairs. At Treasury, he served as a senior adviser to the under secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. His resume also includes stints at FinCEN and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), in areas related to cryptocurrency. Blockchain analytics is a hot space…
Understanding Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) | CCG
Wrapped Bitcoin delivers the power of Bitcoin with the flexibility of an ERC20 token With the rise in popularity of ERC20, digital tokens in the Ethereum ecosystem have emerged as an important asset class. These tokens have all the advantages that blockchains and Ethereum have to offer in terms of transparency in total number of coins, owners, minting, fast confirmation times, transactions details and smart contract execution. Tokens on the Ethereum blockchain can serve several different functions; this paper will specifically focus on asset backed or wrapped tokens. The prices…
Blackstone Inks A $1.2 Billion Deal To Acquire Simply Self Storage
Blackstone Group Inc has inked a US$1.2 billion deal to purchase the real estate startup Simply Self Storage. Per the Wall Street Journal, the acquisition of Simply Self Storage by the Blackstone Group Inc (NYSE: BX) is from the Canadian firm Brookfield Asset Management Inc (NYSE: BAM) and will form for Blackstone a consolidation of its dive into the expanding real estate business. The coronavirus pandemic has caused a remarkable shift in real estate demand across the United States and the world at large. With most businesses affecting a work…
Ant Group Chairman Eric Jing: Blockchain Will be the New Standard of the Future Financial Infrastructure
Recently, Ant Group Chairman Eric Jing spoke about the future of financial infrastructure, and that blockchain will become a new standard. Given the economic effects from the COVID-19 pandemic, Jing said that it has divided human history into two eras, the pre-pandemic era, and the post-pandemic era, similar to the beginning of the first century. Jing emphasized that the future of the financial industry must be driven by technology, to improve efficiency, to enable processes that were impossible in the past. He added that the pandemic has become a catalyst…
Analyst Calls for Yearn Finance (YFI) Rally on Bitcoin’s Stabilization Signals
As Bitcoin catches a break after exploding above $13,000 last week, it’s mid-cap rival Yearn Finance (YFI) is looking to rally higher. The prediction comes from a pseudonymous analyst on Twitter who expects a consolidating Bitcoin to disperse a portion of its bullish sentiment across the altcoin market. YFI, an alternative investment asset to Bitcoin and thousands of its offspring cryptocurrencies, could merely benefit from the capital outflow from the king crypto market. “[YFI is] honestly not looking so bad at the moment,” the analyst explained. “As though [the] price…
Bitcoin Transaction Fees Spike 350% in a Month, as ETH Fees Decline
Bitcoin transaction fees are on the rise again. Fees shot up more than 350% during the last thirty days to Oct. 22. The most significant increase occurred in the last week, as the price of bitcoin soared on growing institutional interest. According to data by Bitinfocharts, it cost an average of $5.75 to send a transaction over the Bitcoin blockchain on Saturday, up from around $1.8 five days earlier. Fees peaked at $6.36 on Oct. 22, as the bitcoin (BTC) price scaled past $13,000, a 2020 high. Just over thirty…
Esports Startup VSPN Secures Tencent-Led $100M Funding
The move by Tencent to take a defining position in VSPN is based on the latter’s long term business focus. Shanghai-based esports startup Versus Programming Network (VSPN) has secured almost $100 million in a Series B funding round. According to TechCrunch, the funding round was led by Tencent Holdings Ltd (HKG: 0700), arguably the world’s leader in esports services, and the other funding secured by VSPN came from SIG (Susquehanna International Group), Tiantu Capital as well as Kuaishou. Gaming events have taken a mainstream position since the pandemic broke out…
Scary Bitcoin volatility? $750M in BTC options set to expire for Halloween
A big Bitcoin (BTC) volatility spike could occur by the month’s end as two major factors come into play. The BTC options market nears a massive $750 million expiration and the CME futures market’s open interest has also soared. When an options expiry nears, holders of options contracts have to adjust their contracts before or right after the expiration. Often times, that could cause volatility in the price of Bitcoin. Options open interest. Source: Skew Monthly close, options expiry, and CME expiration all coincide It is difficult to gauge the…