Cardano (ADA) market has witnessed back-to-back pieces of good news since Aug. 31, from its listing on Robinhood, a U.S.-based retail investment platform, to the release of its first lending and borrowing protocol, Aada Finance. Additionally, Cardano developer IOHK stated that they are close to clinching "three critical mass indicators" that would lead to the launch of their long-awaited Vasil hard fork in September. Vasil aims to improve Cardano's scalability and transaction throughput through pipelining. The upgrade could also improve the decentralized application (DApp) and smart contract capabilities by changing the Plutus script, a programming language used for smart contracts …

The demand for organizations to adopt blockchain technology is growing rapidly. Recent findings from market research and advisory firm Custom Market Insights found that the global blockchain technology market size was valued at $4.8 billion in 2021, yet this amount is expected to reach $69 billion by 2030. While notable, it’s become critical for the industry to enable rigorous research into the development of the blockchain sector. Tim Harrison, vice president of community and ecosystem at Input Output Global (IOG) — the developer arm behind the Cardano blockchain — told Cointelegraph that during the past year, the blockchain ecosystem has …

Bitcoin (BTC) price has been trying to change course while the S&P 500 is still giving up gains on a daily basis. Even though the United States equities markets have been grinding lower since Aug. 26, Bitcoin has managed to hold on to the $20,000 mark. However, investor interest seems to be shifting away from Bitcoin. That has led to a reduction in assets under management (AUM) for Bitcoin investment products, which dropped 7.16% in August to $17.4 billion, according to a new report by CryptoCompare. In comparison, the AUM for Ethereum (ETH) products increased 2.36% to $6.81 billion during …

The United States equities markets are attempting to stabilize after the carnage on Aug. 26. On similar lines, Bitcoin (BTC) is also witnessing a see-saw battle near the psychological level of $20,000 with both the bulls and the bears vying for supremacy. Although several analysts are bearish on Bitcoin in the near term, it has not stopped the whales from accumulating at lower levels. Data from on-chain research firm Santiment shows that the number of whale addresses holding between 100 to 10,000 Bitcoin has risen by 103 in the past 30 days. In bear markets, rumors spread fast and could …

Blockchain developer Cardano represents the crypto space with a top spot in a new report on global brand intimacy. Cardano ranks 26 among 600 brands and holds the top spot in the crypto industry, according to a report released by brand relations agency MBLM. According to the report, brand intimacy refers to the emotional connections brands are able to create with their user base and audience. MBLM utilized artificial intelligence (AI) and big data to understand consumer relationships with some of the world’s leading brands, including Disney, Tesla and Apple. Across 19 industries analyzed, crypto was among the top 10 …

Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of essential decentralized finance (DeFi) insights — a newsletter crafted to bring you significant developments over the last week. This past week, there were some major developments in the run-up to the upcoming Ethereum Merge slated for Sept. 15. Bitfinex became the latest crypto exchange to throw its support behind the chain split token. While DeFi bridge hacks have become a norm this year, developers behind Rainbow Bridge managed to foil an exploit attempt within seconds, leading to the hacker losing their safety deposit. The Tornado Cash developer who was arrested last week …

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned that the central bank will continue to use the “tools forcefully” to bring down inflation, which is close to its highest level in 40 years. He cautioned that the restrictive policy may remain for some time and warned that it could “bring some pain to households and businesses.” The United States equities markets reacted negatively to Powell’s comments with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping more than 600 points. The cryptocurrency markets also witnessed sharp selling with Bitcoin (BTC) and most altcoins threatening to break below their immediate support levels. Along with a not-so-supportive …

Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK), the blockchain company behind the Cardano network says the much anticipated Vasil hard fork is “ever closer” after revealing the state of three critical indicators that will trigger the mainnet update. In a Twitter thread posted on Aug. 25, IOHK shared its latest “rollout status” of the Vasil upgrade to its 265,800 followers, with updates on “three critical mass indicators” which will determine when the mainnet update will go ahead. This includes having 75% of mainnet blocks produced by nodes running 1.35.3, around 25 exchanges upgraded (representing 80% of liquidity) as well as the top …

Bitcoin (BTC) and several major cryptocurrencies have been trading sideways as traders avoid taking large bets before the United States Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole Economic Symposium, which begins on Aug. 25. The volatility is likely to soar as investors get some clarity on the Fed's stance in the next few days. On Aug. 23, a team led by Goldman Sachs chief economist Jan Hatzius said that Fed Chair Jerome Powell could sound dovish when he speaks on Aug. 26, reiterating that the central bank may move at a slower pace in future meetings. The analysts expect the Fed to raise …

The European stock markets and the United States equities markets are both deep in the red on Aug. 22 as investors fear that aggressive rate hikes may not be off the table. Another thing keeping investors nervous could be the upcoming Jackson Hole economic symposium which is scheduled to begin on Aug. 25. Investors are concerned that Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell could further elaborate on the Fed's hawkish stance and plans for future interest rate hikes. This macro uncertainty has kept the institutional investors away from the crypto markets. CoinShares data showed that crypto investment products recorded weekly volumes …

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has continued to refute claims that the Cardano’s testnet is “catastrophically broken,” implying the need to finally move forward with the long-delayed Vasil hard fork. In a Twitter thread on Aug. 21, Hoskinson shared his frustration concerning some of the videos claiming Cardano’s testnet has a “catastrophic” issue, which stems from an Aug. 19 thread from Cardano ecosystem developer Adam Dean. The developer claimed that the testnet is “catastrophically broken” due to an undiscovered bug in Cardano’s Node v 1.35.2 that creates incompatible forks — which had managed to slip under the radar of the previous …

Bitcoin (BTC) and most major altcoins witnessed a sharp sell-off on Aug. 19, but there does not seem to be a specific trigger for the sudden drop. The sharp fall resulted in liquidations of more than $551 million in the past 24 hours, according to data from Coinglass. Barring a V-shaped bottom, other formations generally take time to complete as buyers and sellers try to gain the upper hand. This tends to cause several random volatile moves that may be an opportunity for short-term traders, but long-term investors should avoid getting sucked into the noise. Glassnode data shows that investors …