The long-awaited day finally came on Oct. 19 as the first Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) went live on the New York Stock Exchange, thrusting the crypto asset into the limelight across mainstream news outlets and alternative media alike. Despite the fact that the ETF in question will hold no actual Bitcoin and is instead a futures-based instrument, investors and pundits across the ecosystem have largely hailed its launch as proof that Bitcoin has hit the big leagues and will soon surpass the coveted $100,000 price target. Many investors either don’t have access or will choose not to interact with …

In the past few weeks, Centric Swap (CNS), a dual-token model that gives stakers a fixed hourly yield that “stabilizes over time as it self-regulates token supply to meet ongoing changes in demand,” has rallied more than 850% and is still about 200% away from its previous all-time high. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that since hitting a low of $0.000104 on Sept. 9, the price of CNS has skyrocketed 1,130% to a daily high at $0.0017659 on Oct. 15 as its 24-hour trading volume spiked 130% to $6.4 million. Three reasons for the rapid rise in …

The Binance cryptocurrency exchange has announced a $1 billion accelerator fund to expand the capabilities of the Binance Smart Chain ecosystem and advance mainstream adoption across the financial technology sector. The exchange showcased the eight-figure fund in a tiered development model across four specialist areas: Talent Development, Liquidity Incentive Program, Builder Program and Investment & Incubation Program. The announcement suggested that they will allocate $100M, $100M, $300M and $500M to each segment, respectively. The largest benefactor of the pot, the investment & incubation program, will focus on multi-chain expansion of the already burgeoning areas of the technological sphere. This includes …

New research by analytics platform DappRadar has revealed the extent to which decentralized finance (DeFi) and nonfungible token (NFT) markets have grown this year. In its Thursday “Value Flow Report,” DappRadar reported that recent trends have seen sizable growth in NFTs and blockchain gaming but that DeFi is also still generating substantial value. “Although the value flows to some extent from DeFi to NFTs, it appears that both categories are generating value independently.” The research delved into Ethereum-based DeFi, which is still the dominant force in the sector despite the emergence of rival networks such as Binance Smart Chain (BSC), …

Cross-chain decentralized finance platform pNetwork has become the latest protocol to be targeted by hackers on Binance Smart Chain, reporting a loss of roughly $12.7 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC). According to a Twitter thread published by pNetwork on Monday, the incursion resulted in 277 pBTC being siphoned from the exchange. The hackers made off with the majority of the network’s collateral, pNetwork added. 1/N We're sorry to inform the community that an attacker was able to leverage a bug in our codebase and attack pBTC on BSC, stealing 277 BTC (most of its collateral). The other bridges were not …

The wider cryptocurrency market appears to be in the early stages of a recovery with many altcoins regaining their footing after correcting by 20% to 30% on Sept. 7 when Bitcoin (BTC) fell below $43,000. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the biggest gainers over the past 24 hours were NEAR Protocol (NEAR), Algorand (ALGO) and PowerPool (CVP). NEAR Protocol gains 64% The top gainer NEAR Protocol is a decentralized proof-of-stake protocol focused on offering faster transaction speeds at a lower cost to help facilitate the adoption of blockchain technology. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView …

Bison Trails, an enterprise infrastructure provider for the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry, has extended support to developers of Binance Smart Chain — a move the company says will contribute to the health and security of the rapidly growing DeFi sector. Through Bison Trails, developers on Binance Smart Chain, also known as BSC, will have access to validor node infrastructure, which allows them to run nodes and contribute to the security of the network. Specifically, Bison Trails is providing BSC with Query & Transact infrastructure, which allows developers to build applications more easily. The partnership with BSC centers around the growth …

A decentralized exchange says its unique dual mining mechanism delivers transaction fees that are “close to zero” — including for major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. MDEX says a blend of liquidity mining and transaction mining results in a deeper liquidity pool and lower slippage, as well as a more user-friendly experience. Data from CoinMarketCap shows that transaction volumes across the blockchains it uses have surpassed big names such as PancakeSwap, Sushiswap and 1inch. MDEX has come a long way since the project launched on Jan. 6. Within a month, the project claims single-day transaction volumes exceeded $1 billion — a …

An up-and-coming decentralized exchange has gone cross chain as it “plants new seeds to grow the jungle.” ApeSwap’s plans to expand to Polygon were driven by an awareness of the multi-chain trend that has emerged in the blockchain sector — and a desire to remain at the cutting edge when it comes to DeFi. The project’s team has also recruited 10 of its close partners on Binance Smart Chain to join them, helping to create an entire DeFi ecosystem on Polygon overnight. The launch has been executed with the full support of the Polygon team through co-marketing and MATIC liquidity …

Immunefi, a security service outfit that specialized in decentralized finance (DeFi) projects, has inked a collaboration with the Binance Smart Chain. According to a release issued on Friday, Immunefi will work in collaboration with BSC to improve the security of projects on the Binance chain. As part of the partnership, ethical hackers who take part in a campaign to discover vulnerabilities in BSC-based projects will earn rewards. As a security outfit, Immunefi has reportedly paid more than $3 million in bug bounties to ethical hackers. Major BSC protocols such as PancakeSwap, DODO, and Zapper among others are already deploying the …

A crypto project is vowing to transform the gaming landscape with the help of a brand-new consensus mechanism. Ulti Arena says that proof-of-gaming means that players can earn rewards as they rack up experience on a range of immersive titles. The startup is building a dedicated game client that provides in-depth analytics on a player’s movement, speed and reaction times — enabling them to build on their skills. Better still, Ulti Arena says that it will support some of the most popular games in the industry right now, including Dota 2 and LOL. Its ecosystem is boosted further by an …

A yield farming platform has announced that it is expanding to Avalanche. DeFi Yield Protocol — known as DYP for short — says the move will mean that its advanced trading tools are available to a greater cross-section of users. Three of its products are initially going to be available: DYP Farming, DYP Tools and DYP NFTs. Flexible staking terms are offered through DYP — and this means that tokens can be locked up for three days, 30 days, 60 days or 90 days. Through DYP Tools, advanced features are offered that allows users to track tokens, access yield data …