Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is the next company to wrap up its cryptocurrency-related services in response to the ongoing crypto crackdown in China. Alibaba officially announced Monday that its platform will prohibit sales of cryptocurrency miners and suspend categories for blockchain miners and accessories from its website on Oct. 8. In addition to stopping sales of crypto mining devices, Alibaba will impose a ban on using its platforms to sell major cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), as well as smaller coins like Quark (QRK). The new restrictions involve but are not limited to crypto mining-related hardware …

Institutional investors were buying the dip on the back of China’s latest FUD, with digital asset investment products generating $95 million worth of inflows last week. According to CoinShares’ Monday “Digital Asset Fund Flows Weekly” report, a surge in dip buying helped drive a sixth consecutive week of inflows for institutional crypto investment products broadly. The $95 million worth of inflows between Sept. 20 and Friday marks a 126% weekly inflows increase. Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) investment products led the pack with $50.2 million and $28.9 million worth of inflows, respectively. While BTC investment products have seen outflows in …

In the wake of yet another iteration of China’s enduring crackdown on cryptocurrency, a particularly influential narrative on Crypto Twitter suggests that by banning Bitcoin (BTC), China has definitively put itself on the dark side of the struggle, while the collective West must now resolutely throw its weight on the opposite side by embracing crypto. Granted, this framework for thinking about the relationship between political power and decentralized finance is appealing for crypto allies. Yet the news coming out of the United States gives few reasons to believe that policymakers there see the situation this way. It appears that U.S. …

Sparkpool, the second-largest Ethereum mining pool in the world, is suspending operations due to the ongoing Chinese crackdown on crypto. The mining pool officially announced that it has suspended access to new users in mainland China on Monday in response to Chinese authorities initiating new measures to combat crypto adoption in the country. Following the initial restrictions made last Friday, Sparkpool will continue shutting down services, and plans to suspend existing mining pool users both in China and abroad on Thursday. According to the announcement, the measures intend to ensure safety of users’ assets in response to “regulatory policy requirements.” …

Uniswap (UNI) prices staged a solid rebound after crashing last week in the wake of China’s decision to intensify its anti-Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency rhetoric. UNI price gained 14.90% on Monday to reach an intraday high of $26.26. UNI/USD’s climb came a day after it dropped to a monthly low of $17.63. As a result, it churned out more than 48% profits for the dip buyers within the last 24 hours. Adoption FOMO UNI serves as a governance token inside Uniswap’s decentralized exchange (DEX) ecosystem. As a result, its holders get to vote on matters that help steer the future …

Amid the ongoing legal battle between Ripple and United States’ securities regulators, a former U.S. Treasurer and Ripple board member has voiced support for XRP. Former Treasurer Rosa Rios, who joined Ripple’s board of directors in May 2021, took to Twitter on Sunday to reiterate her confidence in XRP while criticizing other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC). Rios argued that jurisdictions like China are now cracking down on Bitcoin, as cryptocurrencies like BTC allegedly provide nothing more than a tool for speculation. Tagging Bitcoin, Ripple and its payment ecosystem, RippleNet, the former U.S. official wrote: “XRP’s primary purpose is facilitating …

The uncertainties sparked by China’s blanket ban on crypto trading have taken a downturn as homegrown crypto exchanges such as Huobi take proactive measures to protect and return existing investments residing on the mainland. Speaking to Cointelegraph in this regard, Du Jun, co-founder of Huobi Group, said that the crypto exchange wants to ensure the safety of the users’ assets as part of its social responsibility: “Customers will be able to transfer their assets to other exchanges or wallets over the next few months. Specific measures and operating rules will be outlined in future announcements.” Citing a possibility of a …

Decentralized derivatives exchange dYdX has seen a surge in trade activity as concerns surrounding a renewed Chinese crypto crackdown have circulated this year, with the decentralized exchange (DEX) now processing more volume than Coinbase’s spot markets for the first time. According to CoinGecko, dYdX has facilitated more than $4.3 billion worth of trades in the past 24-hours, beating out Coinbase’s $3.7 billion in volume by nearly 15%. DYdX founder and former Coinbase employee Antonio Juliano celebrated the milestone in a Monday tweet. 5 years ago I left @coinbase and eventually founded dYdX Today, for the first time, @dydxprotocol is doing …

China has attempted to stifle the crypto sector’s growth on several occasions in the past 12 years but barring a minor blip, the blanket bans on crypto-commerce have not altered the long-term growth of cryptocurrencies. This shows that no one country, even if it is the second-largest economy in the world, can halt the emergence and growth of cryptocurrencies. Deutsche Bank analyst Marion Laboure said in an update on the bank’s website that Bitcoin (BTC) is likely to “remain ultra-volatile in the foreseeable future” as most people buy it either for investment or for speculation rather than using it as …

Ethereum’s native token, Ether (ETH), staged a rebound on Sept. 26 following a massive decline earlier this week that saw its prices plunging to as low as $2,651 on Coinbase. The ETH/USD exchange rate rose 3.63% to hit an intraday high of $3,030. The upside move amounted to a 14.3% upside retracement from the pair’s week-to-date low at $2,651, showing that traders attempted to retain their bullish bias despite potential headwinds ahead. Last week, ETH prices fell due to a flurry of issues arising from China. On Monday, traders dumped crypto assets en masse after a tumult in China’s heavily …

Governments are tasked with bringing fair and efficient services to the public. Unfortunately, providing transparency and accountability often results in a reduction in efficiency and effectiveness or vice versa. Governments are usually forced to choose to improve one at the cost of the other. On rare occasions, technology comes along that enables governments to improve fairness and efficiency. The move from paper-based record keeping to computer databases was one such technology. The internet was another. Blockchain is the next. Like the internet before it, blockchain will not only improve how the public interacts with government services, it will have broad …

Welcome to the world of central bank digital currency, or CBDC, where big countries like China and small countries like the Bahamas are trying to mark their presence. It’s a world where 86% of the world’s central banks are trying to create digital currencies. Almost 60% of them are working on the concept and 14% have already introduced a pilot program. Related: Did CBDCs affect the crypto space in 2020, and what’s next in 2021? Experts answer CBDC: A global perspective A CBDC is the digital version of a national currency that can be exchanged throughout the world. Unlike a …