Category: Blockchain

Are Hong Kong and Nigeria Embracing Crypto? – Blockchain News, Opinion, TV and Jobs

By Marcus Sotiriou, Market Analyst at the publicly listed digital asset broker GlobalBlock (TSXV:BLOK). Bitcoin broke below $17,000 over the weekend as it is hovering around $16,700 at time of writing, however governments around the world are making progressive changes toward the crypto industry. According to a local newspaper, Nigeria will soon pass a bill that legalises crypto, which contradicts previous Nigerian legislation. Furthermore, Hong Kong’s first Bitcoin ETF has officially been listed. Hong Kong is the financial gateway to China, hence it could be an impactful backdoor for mainland money in China…

What is the relationship between blockchain and Web3?

Cryptocurrencies and blockchain are the building blocks of Web3. However, the decentralized web also relies on technologies like AR, VR, IoT and others unrelated to blockchain or digital currencies. The third generation of the internet, known as Web3, is based on blockchain technology. However, technologies like machine learning, big data, artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and others enable decentralized apps (DApps) to analyze information in a sophisticated human-like manner in a Web3 environment.  For instance, virtual reality headsets will create an…

Bitcoin Reaches Range High, but Can Its Recovery Continue? – Blockchain News, Opinion, TV and Jobs

By Marcus Sotiriou, Market Analyst at the publicly listed digital asset broker GlobalBlock (TSXV:BLOK). Bitcoin climbed to above $18,000 yesterday, reaching resistance at the local range high around $18,170, before rejecting back down to $17,600. Markets were volatile yesterday as always when an FOMC meeting occurs, where the Federal Reserve released the decision of the next U.S. rate hike. The Federal Reserve raised rates by 50 basis points, as expected, but less than the previous consecutive 75 basis point rate hikes. The FOMC decided to slow the pace of rate hikes following CPI…

Blockchain indexer The Graph says adoption is still strong two years after mainnet launch

According to data provided to Cointelegraph on Dec. 15, network growth still appears to be strong for blockchain indexer The Graph (GRT). Launched two years ago, The Graph Network allows developers to easily search, index, use and publish data from public blockchains.  From Nov. 2021 to Nov. 2022, the total number of developers on The Graph (both active and inactive) increased by 145% to 38,000. During the same period, average GRT query fees per month increased by 1,191% to 354,000, while total lifetime GRT queries on the decentralized network increased…

SEC approves 9 more WisdomTree ‘blockchain-enabled’ funds

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has given the green light to nine more blockchain-enabled funds from $82 billion asset manager WisdomTree. None of these funds track crypto assets themselves, but the firm does utilize the Ethereum and Stellar blockchains to keep a secondary record of share ownership, thus making them blockchain-enabled or “digital funds” as WidsomTree describes them. The firm announced the SEC’s approval on Dec. 14, and outlined that the nine digital funds offer exposure to a host of different asset classes such as equities, commodities and…

Blockchain vs. Crypto: Not What It Seems

There’s also a strong cohort who thinks we should focus on more innovative applications since traditional markets work fine, in spite of settlement risk, gated access and a dangerous lack of transparency. More efficient and lower cost debt markets, for example, open up opportunities for a much broader demographic than big banks, possibly facilitating the development of sophisticated markets in regions currently underserved. They also make new types of products possible, such as intraday repo, enhancing liquidity in tight markets. Could this be done on traditional databases? Some of it,…

Bitcoin Rallies After Release of Softer U.S. CPI – Blockchain News, Opinion, TV and Jobs

By Marcus Sotiriou, Market Analyst at the publicly listed digital asset broker GlobalBlock (TSXV:BLOK).  Bitcoin has climbed to $17,800 at time of writing, following softer U.S. CPI released this afternoon. CPI was expected to be 7.3% year-over-year, but came in at 7.1% and much lower than the previous 7.7%, leading to a strong bullish move higher in Bitcoin and other digital assets. This is because the expected CPI of 7.3% would indicate that inflation is inflecting down convincingly, after decreasing for 2 months in a row, which would signal to the Federal Reserve…

Argo Blockchain reports insufficient funds, ‘no assurance’ it can avoid Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Crypto mining firm Argo Blockchain has reported it had been negotiating to sell assets and “engage in an equipment financing transaction” in an effort to avoid filing for bankruptcy. In a Dec. 12 announcement, Argo Blockchain said it was at risk of having insufficient funds to continue operating within a month, and was in the middle of “advanced negotiations” to sell certain assets. Though the mining firm said it had not filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States, “inadvertently published materials” related to the company’s financial situation led…