Executives from Brave and Unstoppable Domains told Decrypt that self-sovereignty is what makes a decentralized internet so appealing. By Ekin Genç 2 min read In brief User control underpins the value of the decentralized web, two co-founders of Web 3.0 companies tell Decrypt. Unsavory websites can be filtered by individual users, said Brian Bondy, Brave’s co-founder and CTO. Two weeks ago, privacy-focused browser Brave added support for decentralized domain names from Unstoppable Domains. Executives from both companies told Decrypt that the advantage of the decentralized web is that it restores control over the internet to its users. “If you eliminate the custodian of your domain name and your web content, you put the user back in control—they now have ownership, they're now the ones who can monetize rather than these other companies,” Bradley Kam, co-founder of Unstoppable Domains, said on the Decrypt Daily podcast last Friday. Kam said that in America, the appeal of the decentralized web isn’t so much about censorship resistance but rather user ownership, and the security that provides. “[I] think that's the thing that crypto brings up—so, for example, I'm not really worried about my money being censored where I am with my banks in the United States, but I am concerned about having control over it,” he said. Centralized domain name provider GoDaddy was hacked in November 2020 after an attacker targeted the company’s employees. Kam said that decentralized web hosting ensures nothing like that can ever happen. Unstoppable Domains, launched in 2018, provides .crypto domain names. When a user registers a domain, it is minted as an NFT on Ethereum. An attacker would have to overpower the entire Ethereum blockchain to take down a .crypto domain name. But one concern raised by Decrypt Daily host Matthew Diemer was whether a decentralized web could lead to a mushrooming of the number of unsavory websites that can’t be taken down by anyone. Earn Reader Rewards. Get the latest news delivered right to your hand. Download our app to earn Reader Rewards and access exclusive Web3 features.   Brave’s co-founder and CTO, Brian Bondy, said that his users can decide which content they want to block by turning on different filters. “We’re basically all about user choice,” he said. Brave’s integration with Unstoppable allows Brave users to access more than 30,000 decentralized websites and 700,000 blockchain domain names registered through Unstoppable. Opera Browser Integrates Unstoppable Domains Unstoppable Domains is continuing its inexorable march across the browser landscape. Last February, the blockchain-based Internet domain name provider launched its own browser before shipping ... .crypto domain names convert 40-character long hashes into readable words that mimic regular URLs. Since users own them after they have been minted, there aren’t any recurring fees—unlike Web2.0 domain custodians like GoDaddy. However, unlike Web2.0 domains, Unstoppable’s .crypto domains are only used on a couple of browsers. The only other browser that supports .crypto domains is Opera.

This clarification comes in the light of recent investor communication by various banking entities like HDFC, SBI, which cited 2018 circular and intended to alert them of the “uncertain regulatory landscape” of this space. IRA PURANIK MAY 31, 2021 / 10:09 PM IST Industry experts now see hope for a meaningful industry-government engagement on crypto-related policies. In a surprising yet positive stance on cryptocurrencies, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on May 31 clarified that banks and other regulated entities cannot cite its 2018 circular on cryptocurrencies as it has been set aside by the Supreme Court (SC) in March, 2020. The circular is not valid from the date of the SC order and cannot be cited or quoted from, the RBI said. This clarification comes in the light of recent investor communication by various banking entities like HDFC, SBI, which cited 2018 circular and intended to alert them of the “uncertain regulatory landscape” of this space. Investors were asked to clarify the nature of these transactions and be aware of the risks associated with crypto and virtual currencies. The mails sent out by these banks in this regard also stated that failure to do so could mean permanent closure of bank accounts and suspension of credit cards. What does this circular mean for the investors? WazirX, one of India’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, welcomed this move. Nischal Shetty, CEO, Wazir X hailed it as a positive sign, saying that “this document is a ray of hope for the Indian crypto ecosystem. We really appreciate the Reserve Bank of India’s clarification on this. We hope that this circular encourages banks to update their compliance teams and provide banking access to Indian crypto exchanges.” Given how vague and grey cryptocurrency regulation remains in India, most banks had started disassociating themselves with cryptocurrency exchanges like Coin DCX, WazirX, and more. More recently, Paytm also severed ties with WazirX, leaving many crypto investors unable to deposit or withdraw money from their accounts linked with the payment behemoth. The investor’s ire was evident, with many complaining of long delays and inability to deposit funds in time, which led them to miss market dips, generally considered a good time to buy. Karan Anand, an avid, distressed crypto investor mentioned how it is important for crypto-exchanges to smoothen their deposit process. “You cannot have people waiting for days to be able to buy crypto, especially when the claim by most exchanges is to be able to do so in a few minutes”, he said. Considering the significance of RBI’s directive for banks, a clarification by RBI comes as a respite for most crypto exchanges. The inability of the apex bank to prove how regulated financial entities will suffer due to cryptocurrency operations has always been a bone of contention, hampering the smooth growth of crypto-related services in the country. Delhi-based communications professional Yumna Ahmad, who regularly invests in cryptocurrency finally sees some ease of transactions. “This is a great move since this brings clarity to banks as to whether they should engage with the crypto industry or not. Since now there are chances of increased cooperation of banks with crypto-exchanges, we can expect ease of trading and more payment and deposit options in the near future”, she said. Echoing similar views, Rameesh Kailasam of Indiatech said the clarification by RBI is timely and encouraging as it formally establishes the old circular was no longer valid post the SC judgement and that banks cannot use this as the reason for denial. "IndiaTech.org has been seeking regulatory clarity for this sector backed by necessary checks and balances which would enable it to grow at a more rapid rate. IndiaTech.org recommended similar checks and balances regarding KYC, AML, CFT, FEMA etc. as the RBI now suggests to be carried out to ensure due diligence. We are hopeful there will be continued support from the government and regulator to progressively adopt this emerging technology," Kailasam added. All in the clear? However, a note of caution with regards to banks practicing due diligence in matters of cryptocurrency rings clear in the circular. Banks were asked to continue complying with relevant provisions of KYC (Know-Your-Consumer), AML (Anti-Money Laundering) laws, amongst others. “We welcome the move from the RBI to clarify the stand around the old circular which was set aside by the honorable Supreme Court. I hope the confusion around the same ends now. We also respect the concern the banks may have around AML (anti-money laundering) policies and discussions around the same will make the industry stronger, and investors and investments safer." said Sumit Gupta, CEO, and Co-founder, Coin DCX. However, due diligence is a statutory process that is required to be followed by all financial entities. All of this points towards green shoots for the thriving crypto industry, which has largely been suffering from unclear government stands and vague regulations. Despite a blurry cryptocurrency landscape in the country, Indians have invested more than $1 billion dollars in the cryptocurrency market, making India one of the top countries in terms of virtual currency trading. Industry experts now see hope for a meaningful industry-government engagement on crypto-related policies. Sandeep Naliwal, Co-Founder & Chief Operations Officer at Polygon, an Indian blockchain scalability platform said, “this is very positive for the ecosystem and it feels like overall consensus within the government and regulatory bodies is against stifling innovation and growth in the Crypto ecosystem in India. Polygon recently rose to meteoric popularity when Mark Cuban of Shark Tank fame invested in the company. The valuation of Polygon’s native token, Matic, zoomed from a mere $26 million from its inception in 2019 to more than $14 billion in recent times. “RBI’s statement to banks on cryptocurrency investments clears their position on whether customers are legally allowed to invest in crypto. Instead of denying service to their customers based on an invalidated circular, it is time banks came onboard the crypto investment bandwagon, allow the crypto exchanges to hold accounts with them, and enable customers to make investments via all possible options, including UPI and bank transfers. Cryptocurrencies are the future and we must ensure we stay at the forefront of this technology”, emphasises Ashish Singhal, CEO, Coinswitch Kuber. With RBI green signaling the trade of cryptocurrencies and more and more companies and individuals embracing cryptocurrency and the underlying applications of blockchain, a formal regulation for the sphere is not a far-fetched dream anymore. As the country looks forward to greater financial inclusion and participation, it is imperative that there is a conducive atmosphere built to facilitate the same.

The RBI has only asked banks not to shoot from its shoulder. The language indicates high caution. Banks will not have the backing of the regulator and will have to deal in crypto at their own risk. DINESH UNNIKRISHNAN MAY 31, 2021 / 10:06 PM IST Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das Hours after major Indian banks, including State Bank of India (SBI) and HDFC Bank sent emails to customers warning against using their services to trade in crypto currencies, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has clarified that banks cannot cite the 2018 circular for such communications. This is because, the circular was quashed by the Supreme Court of India on a petition filed by Internet and Mobile Association of India in March, 2020. The RBI said “Such references to the above circular by banks/ regulated entities are not in order” and “in view of the order of the Hon’ble Supreme Court, the circular is no longer valid from the date of the Supreme Court judgement, and therefore cannot be cited or quoted from." As expected, shortly after the RBI clarification, there has been a flood of reactions from the pro-crypto lobby welcoming the RBI move and interpreting it as a move from the regulator in support of the growth of crypto business in India. "We welcome the move from the RBI to clarify the stand around the old circular which was set aside by the honorable Supreme Court. I hope the confusion around the same ends now," said Sumit Gupta, CEO & Co-Founder, CoinDCX. "We also respect the concern the banks may have around AML policies and discussions around the same will make the industry stronger, and investors and investments safer," Gupta said. "RBI’s statement to banks on cryptocurrency investments clears their position on whether customers are legally allowed to invest in crypto," said Ashish Singhal, CEO, Coinswitch Kuber. RELATED STORIES RBI asks banks not to refer to its 2018 circular on virtual currencies Watch: Ethereum, the Bitcoin killer? "Instead of denying service to their customers basis an invalidated circular, it is time banks came onboard the crypto investment bandwagon, allow the crypto exchanges to hold accounts with them and enable customers to make investments via all possible options, including UPI and bank transfers. Cryptocurrencies are the future and we must ensure we stay at the forefront of this technology," Kuber said. Does this clarification mean that the RBI is endorsing the crypto trading? Clearly, it is not. The regulator, in fact, has not taken any position on the validity and legality of cryptocurrency transactions in India. It has, only avoided a potential legal hazard—inviting a contempt of the apex court by maintaining silence when a clutch of banks have used its old, invalid circular to keep the crypto lobby away. This is because in March, 2020 when the SC quashed the crypto circular on a petition by the Internet and Mobile Association of India v. Reserve Bank of India, the respondent was the RBI and not banks and, hence, any contempt proceedings will befall on the RBI, not banks if the crypto lobby moves court against banks using the 2018 RBI circular. The RBI, clearly, doesn’t want to invite the embarrassment of Contempt of Court and invite the wrath of the judiciary in this issue. Hence, the regulator (most probably based on a legal advice), has only safeguarded its position with the clarification. While the RBI has not so far formed an opinion on crypto regulations, what we know so far is the regulator has so far expressed its concern against using cryptocurrency as a medium of exchange. The RBI is in favour of a central bank-backed digital currency but clearly not crypto currency as a medium of exchange. Is the regulator okay with the use of cryptocurrency as an asset? The fact is we don’t yet since the central bank has not made its position clear on this too. In fact, On March 25, speaking at the 7th edition of India Economic Conclave, the RBI Governor, Shaktikanta Das had said the central bank has flagged some major concerns to the Government about crypto currencies. "Both RBI and the government are committed to financial stability. We have flagged some major concerns to the government on crypto currencies. The government will come out with a decision sooner than later," Das had said. While the RBI is clearly not comfortable with the idea of cryptocurrency as a medium of exchange, the government’s stance on this issue is also not clear. The government has proposed to present a Bill to regulate cryptocurrencies called The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official digital currency Bill, 2021. The Bill has provisions to make any dealings in cryptocurrency illegal. But there is no clarity yet on when this Bill will be introduced in Parliament. So what will happen now? The RBI clarification has, in fact, created more uncertainty. The topic is now open for interpretations on both sides. As it is evident already, crypto-lobby will now likely cite the RBI clarification to convince banks to open their channels for crypto trades. Banks have so far stayed away from such requests citing lack of clarity from the regulator on this issue and quoting the 2018 circular. Banks aren’t comfortable in dealing in cryptos as it is a high risk, high-volatile instrument and there is lack of regulation. Banks can, of course, not cite the 2018 circular anymore without risking the legal repercussions. The RBI clarification doesn’t mean banks have the permission from the regulator to deal in crypto currencies. In fact, the RBI has clearly warned banks to exercise caution citing a raft of pertinent regulations such as Know Your Customer (KYC), Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Combating of Financing of Terrorism (CFT) and obligations of regulated entities under Prevention of Money Laundering Act, (PMLA), 2002 and compliance with relevant provisions under Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) for overseas remittances. Reading between the lines, here, the message from the RBI is clear to banks. Banks will have to, if they wish to, open the doors to crypto business at their own risk. Banks will be forced to take a board approved policy to avoid being dragged to court and even then that risk stands. Till the government forms a national regulation on this asset class, it will be risky for any bank to do this. They will not have the backing of the regulator in case of any downside. Essentially, the RBI has told banks not shoot from the its shoulder.

Tracker News : SpeedApp | General Global freeleech is active on 1 and 2 June | Sitewide free leech [On the occasion of International Children's Day, we will have GLOBAL FREELEECH on June 1 and 2, for 48 hours. You can pamper your children or even the child in each of you, with the cartoons present on our website ( click here ). During this period, only the upload will be counted, but don't forget that the seed regulation is also valid for freeleech. On the occasion of International Children's Day, we will have GLOBAL FREELEECH on June 1 and 2, for 48 hours. You can pamper your children or even the child in each of you, with the cartoons present on our site ( click here ). During this period, only the upload will be counted, but do not forget that the seed rules are also valid for freeleech.]

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The Hollow Man

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From Seed to Pumpkin

The world’s first immersive in-vehicle media platform is being developed by holoride. Holoride will provide contents that changes to vehicle motion, journey time, and route by processing motion and location-based data in real-time by integrating blockchain and NFTs. Holoride Is Employing Trendy Tech Holoride is building an ecosystem around in-car experiences by combining three hot technologies for 2021: immersive media, blockchain, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The company, which secured a $12 million Series A in April, announced it would be integrating Elrond blockchain into its tech stack to bring transparency to its community of automobile makers and content creators. Holoride wants to leverage non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to entice developers to provide more content on the platform in exchange for a higher return on token sales, as well as to attract customers who want to customize their in-car experience. Elrond is a blockchain-based cryptocurrency with strong scalability, interoperability, and throughput that sets it apart from other digital currencies. In the emerging internet economy, the currency aspires to be a quick platform for distributed apps and enterprise use cases. Elrond’s creators provide 30% smart contract royalties to coin developers and have cooperated with a number of well-known companies, including Samsung of South Korea. Microsoft has also allowed Elrond for payments to buy apps, games and other digital content. This integration is a welcome development for Holoride and Elrond. Although, blockchain isn’t required for Holoride’s immersive in-vehicle media platform to work. Its passenger experiences are synced to the vehicle’s real-time motion and location-based data, so content changes to the vehicle’s movement. “We said we want to connect all our ecosystem partners in a very fair and transparent manner from the beginning, and blockchain technology delivers exactly on that,” CEO and founder Nils Wollny said. “Every transaction and engagement can be stored in the blockchain. For car manufacturers, they can see how much time was spent with holoride experiences in their cars, and for content creators it’s transparent on how much time was spent with their title they have created for our platform.” Riding On The NFT Craze Wollny hopes the enticement of buying or collecting NFTs while immersed in holoride’s experiences will lead to more engagement. For holoride, an NFT might start by connecting elements in the virtual world to locations or events in the real world. “Imagine people are traveling in their virtual vehicle, maybe it’s a spaceship or a submarine, as their physical body is in a car driving through the real world,” said Wollny. “They might pass by a certain location where a content creator decided to put something passengers can collect on their way.” The future of holoride’s NFTs is largely determined by how deeply passengers become engrossed in their in-car experiences, prompting them to seek attachment and personalisation in the form of digital tokens. Wollny adds: “We have our eyes set on the future, and this technology will help get us there. We’re thrilled to continue moving towards our wider market launch next year and show everyone what’s yet to come.”

Belt Finance, the latest victim to Binance Smart Chain (BSC) flash loan attacks, has accounted for their total loss as $50 Million. The team released their incident report on Sunday and stated that they would release a compensation plan within 48 hours. The latest updates state that the beltBUSD pool's loss was $50 Million BUSD with $43.8 Million in fees added to the $6.23 million in profits taken by the attacker. Follow Up To The Belt Finance Attacks As per the incident report, BeltBUSD vault users' loss amounts to 21.36% capital loss, and 4Belt mining pool users suffered a 5.51% capital loss. These were the only pools affected, and Belt has suspended withdrawals and deposits. The team has also patched the attack vectors of the two pools. The withdrawals and deposits will resume in the next 24-48 hours once the contract upgrade is complete. Belt Finance is keen on working together with the BSC community to address the issues that have caused the attacks. The team further added, "There have been rumors that the team has sold its tokens. This is not true, we have never sold any tokens, and this can be verified through the address plainly posted in our telegram group. Please be wary of the FUD and misinformation." Why BSC? The series of flash loan attacks have made the blockchain community question the BSC chain. However, the issue is not the blockchain as much as the strategy involved. In February, Yearn Finance, a DeFi project known for its immunity, was also attacked, causing a loss of millions of dollars. Hackers needed until May of this year to figure out a way to launch flash loan attacks on BSC. The BSC lock-up funds are second only to Ethereum, an appealing factor for hackers. Now that the hackers have knowledge and experience in initiating flash loan attacks, BSC is an easier target. BSC did not have a cross-chain bridge earlier, and the funds could not move out of the blockchain network. With AnySwap and Nerve providing cross-chain services, the funds are easily diverted to Ethereum, leaving BSC with no way to freeze it. A Lesson To Evolve From While it is easy to blame one or two factors, the reality is far from being as simple. Blockchain technology is still under evolution; look at its progress in the last four years and note the strides made. The hacking incidents of BSC escaped the vigilance of blockchain whales such as Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), CEO of crypto exchange, FTX Official. SBF has funds invested in Belt, MDEX, PancakeSwap, and Venus for farming, amounting to $800 Million. The capital in Belt is estimated to be $310 Million in the 4Belt capital pool, which was the target of the attacks. Belt also invested its users' funds in Ellipsis, an exchange for stablecoins on the BSC. The strategy was named bEllipsisBUSD, and the Ellipsis 3Pool was used to convert BUSD to USDT, and then BUSD. The conversion volume being ~$ 18 Billion brought nearly $8 Million as transaction fees to Ellipsis. Precautions To Be Taken To Avoid Slippage Fees Investors are currently in a state of panic, losing trust in the projects that have been the target of the attacks. They're keen on investing in projects supported by BSC, such as Venus. The perspective is that if anything happens to Venus, BSC will be there to handle the blow. Once Belt is open for fund withdrawals, community users estimate that investors will trigger a massive withdrawal. This may cause a shortage of certain coins resulting in excess swap slippage in the Belt pool. To avoid facing slippage losses, investors will withdraw coins according to the fund pool ratio instead of withdrawing coins separately.

31st May 2021, Willemstad, Curacao, - Rollbit launched cryptocurrency trading on May 10th, 2021, offering the chance to bet on the price of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). Dogecoin (DOGE) and Litecoin (LTC) were also added to the trading platform more recently. Rollbit is establishing itself as a leading online casino in the cryptocurrency space, and is now embarking on a journey to make cryptocurrency trading simpler, more exciting and more accessible to the masses. Rollbit Leads the Pack The new cryptocurrency trading feature offers many advantages over existing platforms, including: Zero-Fee Trading: Rollbit only generates a return from profitable trades by taking a small percentage. There’s no slippage and no fees are applicable when opening or closing a trade (note: a funding fee may apply if a trade is open for long enough). Up to x1000 Leverage: Rollbit users can trade BTC and ETH with leverage of x1 up to x1000. For DOGE and LTC, the maximum leverage is x100. Automatic Cashout: Close trades automatically based on either a price or a dollar amount of profit/loss using the stop loss and take profit functions to manage risk. A Community Focus: Chat, trade and compete for a place on the platform’s trading leaderboard, which ranks the users with the best performing trades by profit generated and by Return on Investment. Users can also share links to trades with other users or externally, so friends can view each other's PnL in real-time. Rollbit is also offering users a variety of additional benefits including cashbacks, rakebacks, level up bonuses and more, and this reward system will be carried over to cryptocurrency trading as well. Read more about the breakdown of Rollbit rewards here. The Future of Casinos Rollbit’s co-founder Razer commented: “We're very excited to offer crypto trading on Rollbit. Our goal was to eliminate the complex nature of trading on traditional crypto exchanges, and the team has certainly done an excellent job. With crypto being extremely popular right now, we couldn't think of a better time to launch this. Not only are we the first crypto casino to offer crypto trading, but users can also be rewarded for trading on Rollbit as all profit and loss contributes to our lucrative rewards program.” Rollbit made its mark on the crypto casino industry by pioneering an innovative and provably fair game known as X-Roulette in February 2020. X-Roulette is a standard format roulette game that utilises the Bitcoin blockchain to ensure the outcomes are completely random and that the game’s results are verifiable (i.e., provably fair). Following on from this, Rollbit will continue to innovate by extending the range of cryptocurrencies users can trade, adding unique features and introducing new provably fair games (alongside X-Roulette and Rollercoaster). Razer added: “We're very much only just getting started, we have an extensive roadmap for trading that will deliver even more exciting features in the near future.” To celebrate the launch of cryptocurrency trading, look out for opportunities to win prizes as Rollbit will host several trading challenges via Twitter! About Rollbit Rollbit is an online casino platform specializing in cryptocurrencies. Founded in February 2020 by a team of entrepreneurs with a shared passion for online gambling, Rollbit is committed to creating unique and fun experiences for its users. The platform hosts a diverse selection of games, including slots, table games, game shows and exclusive in-house games. Rollbit is positioned at the forefront of the cryptocurrency gambling space, with instant BTC, ETH & LTC deposits/withdrawals. For more information about Rollbit’s latest developments, visit: https://rollbit.com/. Get in touch with Rollbit via e-mail Join the Rollbit community on Discord Follow Rollbit on Twitter

Billy Markus, one of the co-creators of the meme-inspired cryptocurrency Dogecoin (DOGE), has on social media argued that the price of one DOGE hitting a dollar would not be a success, as those who bought it at that price would like to see it hit $10 and so on. In a series of tweets sent to his nearly 350,000 followers, Markus asked the DOGE community to freely sell their tokens whether they make money or not, without vilifying the community or the cryptocurrency when they do so as part of their rationalization. Markus clarified that he does not care whether Dogecoin holders sell or not, as community members should do what they believe is best for them. Instead, he cares about the cryptocurrency and its community as it wants to be successful. He added that Dogecoin getting to $1 would not mean it was successful, as people who bought in at that price would want to see the cryptocurrency at $10, and the cycle would go on. To him success would see the community grow with people doing good in it. Markus’ words come after retail investors teamed up to help the price of the cryptocurrency get to $1 on numerous occasions. CryptoCompare data shows that investors got to $0.74 earlier this year before the tide turned and the price of the cryptocurrency started plunging. In March of this year, billionaire investor Mark Cuban said on Twitter that he could see a way for the price of meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin ($DOGE) to reach $1. Dogecoin is, at press time, trading at $0.30. Its correction continued even after Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted a poll asking his followers if they wanted the electric car market to accept DOGE as a payment method. Earlier this month Markus commented on a statue of the cryptocurrency’s Shiba Inu mascot that was placed in front of the iconic “Charging Bull” sculpture in New York’s financial district. On social media, Markus acknowledged the Shiba Inu statue is real. Its placement is symbolic, as retail investors have been recently been betting on Dogecoin and other meme-inspired coins.

Those with skin in the game are reiterating that comparing Bitcoin to Ethereum is a pointless and potentially costly exercise. Druckenmiller: Ethereum is 'MySpace before Facebook' while Bitcoin won as 'Google'MARKETS NEWS Bitcoin (BTC) is at risk of a “flippening” from Ether (ETH), mainstream media claims as some familiar FUD — fear, uncertainty and doubt —returns to the spotlight. As BTC/USD continues to flag below $40,000, an old argument has resurfaced — but major investors are fighting back. Bloomberg: ETH "will likely exceed Bitcoin" In an article on May 31, Bloomberg cited multiple sources claiming that in the future, Ether will overtake Bitcoin as the world’s cryptocurrency of choice. The largest altcoin “will likely exceed Bitcoin at some point in the future, as Ethereum will be superior when it comes to innovation and developer interest,” Tegan Kline, co-founder of Blockchain firm Edge & Node, told the publication. Another executive added that Ethereum has a “better growth story.” The argument is far from new and has appeared regularly throughout Ethereum’s existence. The Ethereum network’s recent major upgrade has kept its profile afloat, and ETH has outperformed Bitcoin over the past year and formed the backbone of the decentralized finance (DeFi) phenomenon. ETH/BTC, long on a losing streak, reached its highest exchange rate in three years earlier this month. ETH has also managed to preserve more of its price gains than Bitcoin in recent days. As Cointelegraph reported, a key moving average remains intact for ETH/USD, while BTC/USD has failed to recapture "lines in the sand." Druckenmiller compares Ethereum to MySpace For all its impressive performance, however, claiming that Ethereum will replace Bitcoin at the top is nonsensical, many argue — and not only staunch Bitcoin supporters. In an interview with The Hustle last week, billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller became the latest non-technical figure to cast aside doubts about Bitcoin’s staying power. “I think BTC has won the store of value game because it’s a brand, it’s been around for 13-14 years and it has a finite supply,” he said. “Is it going to be gold? I don’t know. It’s sure as hell doing a good imitation of it the last year or two.” For Druckenmiller, Ethereum is to Bitcoin what MySpace is to Google. “I’m a little more skeptical of whether it can hold its position. It reminds me a little of MySpace before Facebook,” he continued. “Or maybe a better analogy is Yahoo before Google came along. Google wasn’t that much faster than Yahoo, but it didn’t need to be. All it needed to be was a little bit faster and the rest is history.” Others have long pointed out that technically, Bitcoin and Ethereum have little in common. Bitcoin’s finite supply and years of resistance to attacks place it in a different league than any other cryptocurrency, and comparing another one to it is an apples-to-oranges comparison. “I generally think all the other digital currencies don’t really compete with Bitcoin and are in no way similar to Bitcoin,” Saifedean Ammous, author of The Bitcoin Standard, famously told the Unchained Podcast in August 2017. “I think their real competition is, if I’m generous, I’ll say Amazon Web Services and these kinds of platforms.”

Key Takeaways Bitcoin looks set to close its biggest monthly dip since 2011. It suffered its worst drop since Mar. 2020 during a market-wide crash earlier this month. Despite the crash, 74% of the BTC supply and 94% of the ETH supply is in profit. The market looks uncertain over whether the negative trend will last. Bitcoin is down over 36% in May with hours left until the monthly closing. Ethereum has dipped 9% this month. Bitcoin’s Big Correction Bitcoin looks like it’s about to close its biggest monthly dip since 2011. Bitcoin is down 40% from record highs recorded in April, while Ethereum is roughly 42.4% off its all-time high. The correction has been particularly notable over the last two weeks after the market suffered its heaviest drop since Mar. 2020 earlier this month. Bitcoin broke support around $45,000 in the second week of May, leading to a massive sell-off due to cascading liquidations. It hit lows of around $30,000. Bitcoin first dropped below $50,000 on May 12 after a three-month consolidation. The sell-off was initiated by spot sellers and later intensified due to liquidations in the futures market. On May 19, the sell-off reached its peak, causing cascading liquidations across the futures market and in DeFi positions. The total Open Interest (OI) volume of the derivatives market at the beginning of the month was $31.1 billion. Nearly $12.2 billion has been wiped out from the futures and perpetual swaps in May. According to data from Glassnode, 76.5% of the Bitcoin supply is in profit. In other words, 76.5% of circulating coins are at a higher price than when they were last moved. The metric acts as a proxy for a top and bottom indicator; a 99% supply in profit suggests a top, while a 40% supply in profit often marks a bottom. The 76.5% figure is around the mid-range. On the other hand, nearly 94% of the ETH supply is in profit. The key levels to watch for ETH are 99% for a top and 25% for a bottom. There is some optimism across the market due to the rising inflation rates for Bitcoin and the development of the DeFi sector. However, the fear of a long-term bear market is palpable among participants. A Shift in Sentiment The change in sentiment has been particularly noticeable in recent weeks. One of the biggest concerns is the resemblance the latest crash has with previous bear markets. Bitcoin has recorded monthly drawdowns of around 30% on eight occasions, though the recent one is the biggest dip since 2011. These events can be divided into six phases, representing a long-term trend reversal in the market. Six of the drawdowns marked a bottom, while only two marked a top. Nonetheless, this month’s one bears a stronger resemblance to the top signals. A closer look suggests that it looks similar to Jun. 2013 and Jan. 2018, which have contrasting implications. Bitcoin’s price closed in the red in both May and Jun. 2013, with a total drop of 35.6%. However, the price ended the year up 5,428%, suggesting that the current price could run higher too. In Jan. 2018, a month after Bitcoin’s peak of almost $20,000, it recorded a 26.9% fall. In March and November of the same year, it fell more than 30%, ending the year 73.4% lower. The tops in late 2013 and 2017 preceded multiple months in the red. The bulls need to hold current levels and avoid another big drawdown in the coming months to avoid the long-term negative trend as it has in the past two times in 2014 and 2018.

Polkadot has lowered the minimum staking threshold from 300 DOT to just 1 DOT after its most recent update. The move makes it one of the most accessible networks to participate on as a nominator, without using an exchange as a middleman. Prior to this new development, retail DOT holders were forced to stake-as-a-service on centralized platforms like Kraken, Kucoin, and Huobi. Now, virtually anyone can participate directly on Polkadot. For comparison, Ethereum requires 32 ETH (approximately $90,000) to delegate on their network. Now that Polkadot only requires only 1 DOT to earn passive staking rewards, more community members will be able to bolster network security and assist in fending off potential DoS attacks. In his recent publication ‘Limits of Blockchain Scalability’ Vitalik Buterin stressed the importance of community participation on PoS networks: “If you have a community of 37 node runners and 80,000 passive listeners that check their signatures and block headers, the attacker wins. If you have a community where everyone runs a node, the attacker loses.” Ultimately, the best defense for protocols from bad actors is building a culture of users validating the chain. Lowering the minimum staking requirement to one DOT allows anyone in the Polkadot community to participate in earning passive income, no matter the size of their bankroll. Institutional Investors Turn Their Gaze Towards PoS Headlines like China reiterating anti-speculation laws from a few years ago and mounting environmental concerns about mining pulled the rug out from over-leveraged traders and rekt the crypto capital markets. Nearly a trillion dollars in market capitalization was erased – but with no government bailout required. After the dust settled, billionaires slowly began fawning over cryptocurrencies and touting their store of value properties. Mark Cuban confirmed that he invested in layer 2 scaling solution Polygon, Carl Ichan mentioned about getting into crypto in “big way”, and even Ray Dalio admitted he had “some bitcoin.” All three were cryptocurrency skeptics turned believers. Goldman Sachs and other banks also made bold predictions that Ethereum will flip Bitcoin as the premier crypto store of value, citing its programmability for dApps and smart contracts. However, there are lingering concerns among the crypto community as to when Ethereum 2.0 will actually launch. At the time of writing, DOT is currently trading at $22, down 52% from its ATH of almost $50. Significantly, DOT stakers are subjected to a 28-day lock up. This helps remove any added sell pressure and maintains a solid price floor. In addition, Polkadot’s transaction costs are much more affordable than using Ethereum’s congested network. Coexisting Chains As much as Polkadot is advertised as an Eth Killer, Polkadot isn’t necessarily competing with Ethereum. The two can coexist, with Ethereum forming the foundation for defi while Polkadot can provide the supplemental framework for new interoperable chains and cross-chain compatibility. This is facilitated by Polkadot’s “common good” Parachains which will be used as bridges to connect other blockchains. With institutional shift towards Ethereum as a tech investment for its programmability properties, it seems only a matter of time before a more scalable and cross-chain compatible solution like Polkadot pops up on their radar. Polkadot’s heterogeneous multi-chain platform achieves consensus through a Nominated Proof-of-Stake (NPoS) network, designed for validators and nominators to maximize chain security. The Relay Chain of Polkadot acts as the central nervous center where DOT holders can participate as validators to coordinate security measures for active parachains (short for parallelized chain). While Polkadot’s Relay Chain does not support application development nor smart contracts, it serves three primary goals: security, interoperability, and governance. The Relay Chain also allows users to stake their DOT, requiring as little as a 1 DOT since the recent upgrade. Parachains on Polkadot are application-specific sub-chains used for dApps, smart contract platforms and other use cases. Rather than having to bootstrap users for their network, projects that choose to build on Parachains will lease out the Relay Chain’s validators. This way they can focus on building their visions for their end-users instead of marketing. Having community members engage in staking for consensus is essential toward continued success. This ensures all members of the Polkadot ecosystem, no matter how large or small, can participate in staking. Parachains Going Live Soon Polkadot is currently testing and optimizing its upcoming Parachains on Kusama (the canary test-network). Following the completion of an audit, Parachains will launch sometime in the next few months. Polkadot has quietly built out its ecosystem full of stablecoin, smart contract platform and open parachain slots to be auctioned off at a later date. Most of these protocols will focus on building the necessary infrastructure for defi on Polkadot. Now that Polkadot has constructed a more inclusive staking environment, it’s well positioned to tackle the bottlenecks of blockchain maximalism by advancing multi-chain interoperability and scaling.

Banks like HDFC and the State Bank of India reportedly cautioned customers against crypto, citing the RBI’s quashed crypto circular. Indian central bank clarifies regulations as local banks shun cryptoNEWS India’s central bank has issued an official notice regarding the fact that local banks are reportedly cautioning customers against using cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC). Published Monday, the notice points out that the Reserve Bank of India is aware of media reports that certain banks have cautioned their customers against crypto by referring to the RBI’s quashed, three-year-old circular. “Such references to the above circular by banks/ regulated entities are not in order as this circular was set aside by the Hon’ble Supreme Court on March 4, 2020 in the matter of Writ Petition,” the notice reads, emphasizing that the circular is no longer valid and cannot be cited. However, banks and other regulated financial institutions can still carry out customer due diligence processes related to Anti-Money Laundering and Know Your Customer standards under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act of 2002, the RBI noted. The RBI’s statement comes in response to media reports claiming that some of India’s largest banks, like HDFC Bank and the State Bank of India, have cautioned their customers against dealing in digital currencies. Some users claimed that HDFC Bank cited the RBI’s 2018 order banning crypto trading in India. The ban was officially overturned in March 2020 by the Supreme Court of India. The news adds to the prevailing uncertainty regarding the legal status of crypto in India. Earlier this year, anonymous sources claimed that the government was planning a blanket ban on crypto.

Contents 1) $13.1 billion locked by 165,000 validators 2) Resigning miners to blame? The Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract is the first massive element of its infrastructure. Future validators of ETH2 should deposit their stakes (32 ETH minimum) to it in order to "reserve seats" in proof of stake (PoS) Ethereum (ETH). $13.1 billion locked by 165,000 validators As reported by Glassnode Alerts, a Twitter account that indexes the most notable events across major blockchains reported that today, May 31, 2021, the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract value has broken above its previous high. Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract surpasses all-times high Image via Twitter At press time, 5,209,474 Ethers are transferred to the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract. Given that the current Ethereum (ETH) price is $2,529, this monstrous deposit equals $13.1 billion. Automated service Eth2Validators registered more than 161,000 participants on Friday. Almost 95 percent of them are labeled "active" by analysts. According to the Ethereum 2.0 information page on Etherscan explorer, a new validator joins ETH2 every 7-8 minutes. So, almost 4.5 percent of the entire Ethereum (ETH) supply is now allocated in its PoS deposit contract. Resigning miners to blame? In the final days of May 2021, the Ethereum 2.0 depositing process gained impressive momentum. It might be explained by two processes. First, due to a 50 percent drop of the Ethereum (ETH) price, many small-sized holders decided to take the opportunity to join Ethereum 2.0 validation at a discount. Also, as covered by U.Today previously, Ethereum (ETH) mining is on borrowed time. Researchers at the Ethereum Foundation announced that late Q4, 2021, is a "conservative" time frame for mining breakeven.

Ocean, an open-source protocol, and Raven, a decentralized and distributed deep-learning training protocol, are partnering together. Raven will become a Compute Provider on Ocean Market and publish machine-learning algorithms consisting of Federated Analytics and Federated Learning. Raven resolves the trade-off between the benefits of using private data and the risk of exposing it on Ocean Market. The data will remain on-premise while allowing third parties to run algorithms to get valuable results, such as averaging or building an AI model. Democratizing Private Data And Training AI Models Ocean provides access to datasets and AI in a democratized manner. Raven’s decentralized algorithms allow the training of neural networks cost-effectively. It prioritizes ethical handling of the privacy and security of AI training data. Raven has been working on its protocol to enable it to integrate various encryption techniques into its protocol. The Compute-to-Data on Ocean Market is a perfect fit here. Data publishers need to approve AI algorithms to run their data as a first step. Raven Protocol or other third parties can publish the protocols. Compute-to-Data then trains AI models orchestrating remote computation and execution on the data required. The remote computation can be handled by either Raven Network or other Compute Providers approved by Data Publisher. Razvan Olteanu, Chief Operating Officer at Ocean Protocol, is excited about the partnership as AI is at the heart of what the protocol does. He states, “Ocean’s mission is to democratize access to data sets and AI capabilities; this aligns perfectly with Raven’s mission to provide cost-efficient and faster training of deep neural networks using a decentralized and distributed network of compute nodes. Together we are one step closer to unlocking the Open Data Economy.” Upholding The Spirit Of Decentralization Ocean has set its Compute-to-Data infrastructure as a Kubernetes (K8s) cluster with AWS or Azure running in the background. The cluster runs the actual compute jobs away from the eyes of end-users and clients. Data publishers and users can have an alternative option in the Compute Providers they choose to approve. Raven protocol will provide this option, keeping up with the spirit of decentralization. Since private data is involved, there is a higher chance of users expecting decentralization to be a strict requirement. An Additional Layer Of Security Ocean’s Compute-to-Data gains an additional layer of privacy thanks to Raven Protocol. If Raven wanted to publish or run a Federated Learning algorithm, a neural network is randomly initialized. The weight updates required are computed next to the data itself in a data silo. This is then sent to the data network and repeated in the subsequent data silos (data silo #1, data silo #2, data silo #3, and so on). The neural network is trained with all these data silos without the data having to leave the premises of its respective silo. This is enabled in Compute-to-Data by the Raven Distribution Framework. Kailash Ahirwar, Co-founder of Raven Protocol, says that at Raven, they believe that distributed computing is the future of computing. He further adds, “Our framework RDF is a distributed and decentralised compute engine, consisting of various libraries like RavOp, RavML and RavDL. As we are inching towards our goal, our partnership with Ocean is going to be a powerful collaboration providing value to our contributors, Ocean’s data-providers and clients. We are super excited to be working with Ocean’s team.” Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

The nation’s central bank said an old report from 2018 was no longer valid for actions taken by private banks today. SHAURYA MALWAReserve Bank of India slams banks after they stop services for crypto users Shaurya Malwa Secure your wealth: Invest in a Crypto Index Fund The Reserve Bank of India, the country’s central bank, released a new directive today after local banks ceased crypto services for users citing a directive from 2018, an official filing shows. “It has come to our attention through media reports that certain banks/ regulated entities have cautioned their customers against dealing in virtual currencies by making a reference to the RBI circular dated April 06, 2018,” the bank stated. Not in effect It added that such references to the above circular by banks/ regulated entities were “not in order” after the circular was set aside by the Hon’ble Supreme Court on March 04, 2020. India has a rather shaky relationship with cryptocurrencies, primarily due to the way its financial structure is governed. The country’s Financial ministry, which oversees all financial innovation in the country, is suggestively more crypto-friendly than the RBI, which controls how the rupee is issued and circulated and views cryptocurrencies as a ‘threat.’ But this time, even the RBI stepped in to clarify its stance. Banks like HDFC, SBI, and others recently started sending out curricula to crypto-linked customers in the past few months, stating they would not support transactions to and from crypto businesses like exchanges or wallets. The banks cited the 2018 dictum for their decision, adding that such accounts face the risk of termination should they continue to engage with crypto services. KYC norms for crypto users to continue In its directive today, the RBI said the onus of Know-Your-Customer (KYC) policies and other Anti-Money Laundering safeguards fell on the banks themselves. “Banks, as well as other entities addressed above, may, however, continue to carry out customer due diligence processes in line with regulations governing standards for KYC, AML, Combating of Financing of Terrorism (CFT) and obligations of regulated entities under Prevention of Money Laundering Act, (PMLA),” wrote Shrimohan Yadav, Chief General Manager of the RBI in the notice. Meanwhile, local entrepreneurs said the move was a step in the right direction. “This is a very positive development for the whole industry,” said Nischal Shetty, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of crypto exchange WazirX, in a statement to local outlet the Economic Times. He added, “There was a lot of confusion among banks whether they can service their clients in the industry. This notification makes it clear.” Indian crypto users are arguably relieved.

Crypto assets are of “great concern,” says Ireland’s central bank enforcer, Derville Rowland. By Adriana Hamacher In brief Ireland's central bank Director General joins the list of critical crypto voices. Despite the bearish sentiments, BNY Mellon is looking to expand its crypto operations in the country. Ireland’s central bank enforcer, Derville Rowland, said the rising popularity of crypto assets, like Bitcoin, was “of great concern” in an interview with Bloomberg today. Rowland, the Central Bank’s director general for financial conduct, was speaking just a day after BNY Mellon announced a new cryptocurrency unit in Dublin that will allow clients to hold, transfer, and issue digital assets, per Irish website Business Post. The new “Digital Innovation Hub” will be regulated by the Central Bank and will act as a custodian for digital assets such as Bitcoin, non-fungible tokens (NFTs,) and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs.) Bitcoin has risen about 30% year since the beginning of the year, despite falling 36% in the past thirty days, on environmental and mining concerns in China. Crypto’s rising popularity and volatility have unleashed a cascade of caution from Central bankers, including Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey. He warned that cryptocurrencies have no intrinsic value and that people should only buy them if they’re prepared to lose their money. Rowland’s remarks indicate that Ireland’s central bank is taking a cautious approach. “Crypto assets are quite a speculative, unregulated investment,” said the official, whose department has a reputation for heavy fines for transgressors. But the Irish aren’t heeding the bankers’ advice. A survey by money management app Plum suggests that they are investing 92% more in cryptocurrencies than people in Britain, France, and Spain. BNY Mellon’s crypto play in Ireland BNY Mellon is one of America’s oldest banks and has been present in Ireland since 1994. It’s the largest custodian in the world, boasting more than $25 trillion in assets under management. Despite the bank’s reputation, it has so far had a rocky start with cryptocurrencies.   In 2016, it reportedly wired over a hundred million dollars to an account linked with alleged crypto Ponzi scheme OneCoin, according to reports that emerged last year. But, in February 2021, BNY Mellon made a bold move when it first announced plans to store and manage Bitcoin, as well as other digital assets on behalf of its clients. “When the world’s largest custodian announces that it will provide custody services for digital assets—that feels like a tipping point in the market,” Guy Hirsch, US Managing Director at eToro, told Decrypt at the time.

Cheap subsidized electricity and massive inflation have made crypto mining quite attractive for Argentinians. By Liam Frost In brief Generous electricity subsidies as well as crushing inflation in Argentina have made Bitcoin mining a popular business. After independent miners, larger outfits like Bitfarms are also taking notice. More and more residents of Argentina are turning to Bitcoin mining amid economic uncertainty and generous electricity subsidies provided by the government, Bloomberg reported today. “Even after Bitcoin’s price correction, the cost of electricity for anyone mining from their house is still a fraction of the total revenue generated,” Nicolas Bourbon, who has experience in crypto mining, told the outlet. This became possible thanks to a longstanding policy that allows Argentinians to receive substantial electricity subsidies from the government. So much so that a consumer power bill reportedly amounts to only 2-3% of an average monthly income. By comparison, electricity costs at least twice as much in other Latin American countries like Brazil, Colombia, or Chile. Meanwhile, Argentinians are desperately looking for alternative assets that can serve as a hedge in the face of the rampant 50% annual inflation. To make matters worse, the government only allows residents to swap their pesos for up to $200 per month, further catalyzing the depreciation of Argentine pesos. “The crypto that miners generate is typically sold at the parallel exchange rate, but the energy is paid for at a subsidized rate. At the moment, revenues are very high,” Bourbon explained. Big players eye Argentina Large international mining firms have also noted the boom. Bitfarms, one of the largest Bitcoin mining companies globally, revealed that it plans to use a local power plant in Argentina to draw up to 210 megawatts of electricity. “We were looking for places that have overbuilt their electrical generation systems. Economic activity in Argentina is down, and power is not being fully utilized. So it was a win-win situation,” Bitfarms president Geoffrey Morphy told Bloomberg. While subsidies won’t fully cover the company’s operations, Argentina still offers an attractive rate of $0.022 per kilowatt-hour—which is far more lucrative than the industry’s average of $0.06. “Miners know the subsidies are ridiculous,” said Bourbon. “They simply take advantage of it.” Although Argentina’s generous electricity subsidies are slowly fueling discord among local politicians, Bitcoin mining will likely continue to remain quite a lucrative activity—at least for some time.

Central bank digital currencies will one day be more "smart," and not merely digital versions of cash, Yao Qian said. Yao Qian, director of the Science and Technology Supervision Bureau of the China Securities Regulatory Commission Daniel Palmer The former head of the digital currency initiative at the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) said central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are set to become more “smart” and could one day operate on blockchain networks like Ethereum. Yao Qian, now director of the Science and Technology Supervision Bureau of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said at the weekend that CBDCs shouldn’t attempt to be just a digital form of physical cash, but should incorporate smart contract functionality, Sina Finance reported Monday. Smart contracts are automatically executing pieces of blockchain code that carry out functions when certain conditions are met, and can also be designed to complement or replace legal contracts. Yao told the International Finance Forum 2021 Spring Conference in Beijing, however, that the number of security incidents arising from smart contract vulnerabilities shows the technology still needs to mature. Further, there are concerns over the legal status of digital contracts, he said. As such, central banks should take a cautious approach, starting with simple smart contracts and building complexity as security and legality become more assured. Yao led the central bank’s digital currency research lab from its inception until he left the PBoC in 2018, moving to the China Securities Regulatory Commission at the end of 2019. He is cited as author or co-author on many of the central bank’s patent applications relating to CBDC technology. The People’s Bank has been working on trials of its digital yuan with commercial banks and payment providers. However, a CBDC needn’t necessarily be account-based, Yao said. In theory, via a “two-tier” approach, a digital yuan or digital dollar could sit on Ethereum’s network, or that of the Facebook-backed Diem (formerly Libra). That would mean central banks could provide CBDCs directly to users without needing intermediaries. “Layered operations can enable the central bank’s digital currency to better benefit groups without bank accounts and achieve financial inclusion,” he said.

The 37.5% decline in May is beat only by September 2011's 40%. Omkar Godbole Bitcoin is on track for the second-biggest monthly percentage decline on record, despite bouncing from session lows in Asia. The cryptocurrency changed hands near $36,200 at 9:00 am UTC, representing a 37.5% loss for May. Prices hit a low of $34,195 early today. The monthly decline beats the 37% drop seen in November 2018 and is just short of the record 40% slide in September 2011, according to Bitstamp data. Ether (ETH, +9.87%), the second-largest cryptocurrency, is on track to end May down 12%, the first monthly loss since September 2020. Meanwhile, gold has gained 7%, its biggest monthly rally since July 2020, and the S&P 500 is little changed on the month, per data provided by TradingView. The bitcoin (BTC, +4.6%) market looked weak earlier this month amid continued selling by whales, or large investors with an ability to make or break price trends. The cryptocurrency took a beating after Tesla disowned bitcoin as means of payment, citing environmental concerns. The move dashed hopes for widespread corporate adoption raised by the carmaker’s decision to adopt bitcoin in February. The market mood soured further after China’s recent regulatory announcements and on concern of an early scaling back of stimulus by the U.S. Federal Reserve. Bitcoin slumped from $58,000 to almost $30,000 in the eight days to May 19 and has traded sideways ever since, with the upside capped by the 200-day simple moving average (SMA) at just above $40,000. According to blockchain analytics firm Glassnode, the price crash was driven mainly by panic selling by new investors who bought coins during the first-quarter bull run. Meanwhile, holders and institutions have been buying the dip in a sign of confidence in cryptocurrency’s long-term price prospects. The supply held by whale entities – clusters of addresses controlled by a single network participant holding at least 1,000 coins – has increased by over 25,000 BTC to 4.149 million since May 19.

The DBS Digital Bond, issued via its Digital Exchange (DDEx), is to be accompanied by a sixth-month expiry and a coupon rate of 0.6% per annum DBS Bank Sebastian Sinclair Multinational Singapore-based bank DBS has issued a 15 million SGD (US$11.3 million) digital bond in its first security token offering (STO). According to a press release shared with CoinDesk on Monday, The DBS Digital Bond, issued via its Digital Exchange (DDEx), is to be accompanied by a sixth-month expiry and a coupon rate of 0.6% per annum. The bank is the sole bookrunner for the transaction, which was completed by way of private placement. Differing from traditional wholesale bonds, the digital bond will be traded in lots of SGD 10,000. DBS said the move paves the way for other issuers and clients to use DDEx’s infrastructure to “efficiently access capital markets” for their funding needs, and establishes a precedent for further STO issuances and listings. DBS also said its digital bond complies with the current bond legal framework, providing investors the same legal certainties and protections over their rights as traditional bonds. “Our maiden STO listing on the DBS Digital Exchange is a significant milestone, as it highlights the strength of our digital asset ecosystem in facilitating new ways of unlocking value for issuers and investors,” said Eng-Kwok Seat Moey, group head of Capital Markets at DBS. The listing demonstrates the bank’s ability to provide integrated solutions across the digital-asset value chain, Seat Moey said. The bank expects tokenization to become more mainstream as its clients start to embrace STO issuance as part of their capital fund-raising exercise, she added. The securities are available for secondary trading among institutional and accredited investors who are members or end clients of the bank’s digital exchange.

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