Bitcoin (BTC) price broke above $25,000 on Feb. 21, accruing a 53% year-to-date gain at the time, it made sense to expect the rally to continue after U.S. retail sales data from the previous week vastly surpassed the market consensus. This fuelled investors' hope for a soft landing and the possible aversion of a recession in the U.S. economy. The apex of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s strategy success would be increasing interest rates and scaling back its $9 trillion balance sheet reduction without significatively damaging the economy. If that miracle happens, the outcome would benefit risk assets, including stocks, commodities …

Bitcoin (BTC) and the United States equities markets are trying to start the week on a positive note but some analysts are skeptical about the short-term prospects of the markets. According to Bloomberg Intelligence senior macro strategist Mike McGlone, Bitcoin will face significant resistance at $25,000. McGlone believes that it “may be a while before buy-and-hold types gain the upper hand.” It also looks like Bitcoin whales, unique entities owning 1,000 Bitcoin or more, are also not convinced of the recovery in the crypto markets. According to Glassnode, Bitcoin whale numbers have fallen to 1,663, which is well below the …

Blockchain Founders Fund, a venture capital fund supporting the adoption of Web3 and blockchain technology, has announced the close of a $75 million fundraising round from companies such as Polygon, Ripple, Octava, NEO Global Capital, Appworks, GSR, LD Capital, Metavest Capital and others, such as Sebastien Borget, chief operating officer of The Sandbox. According to the announcement, the fund will focus on supporting high-potential early-stage pre-seed and seed projects that encourage the mass adoption of Web3 and blockchain technology. The fund has already invested in over 100 startups, including Altered State Machine, Splinterlands, GRID, Krayon and Magna. In an interview …

Blur, a NFT marketplace, has seen its trading volumes and total sell-side liquidity skyrocket since conducting an airdrop on Feb. 14, 2023. The reason for the spike could be the start of season 2 airdrops, where 10% of BLUR token’s total supply will be distributed to certain users based on their activity. The team allocated 12% toward an early user airdrop in the first season that ran from the marketplace’s gated launch in March 2022 to February 2023. Blur has made a significant dent in OpenSea’s position as the leading marketplace. Analytics from data scientist Hildobby shows that Blur is …

Is Ether inflationary or deflationary? The classification of Ether as either inflationary or deflationary is a topic of debate. Supporters of the inflationary argument may point to the absence of a hard cap on Ether’s supply. However, the programmed decrease in the token creation rate, the implementation of PoS and its increasing utility in the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem suggest a deflationary trend for ETH. Ethereum’s ecosystem facilitates the development of decentralized applications (DApps). Its native currency Ether is used for transactions and as a reward for validators who process transactions. There is no fixed limit on the total supply …

Hardware wallet manufacturer Trezor is accelerating the production of new Trezor wallets by producing its own wallet silicon chips. Trezor officially announced on Feb. 27 that the firm will start facilitating the production of its own key component, the chip wrapper, in its flagship product, Trezor Model T. The move aims to significantly optimize Trezor wallets’ production, reducing lead times in the supply cycle from two years to several months. The optimization will also eliminate delays in shipping finished products and protect consumers from exposure to price fluctuations based on component supply and demand, Trezor said. As previously reported, demand …

Alchemy Pay has obtained a license from the central bank of Indonesia to operate remittances and fund transfers in cooperation with the local fintech Berkah Digital Pembayaran. Announcing the news on Feb. 27, Alchemy Pay noted that the Bank of Indonesia issued the licenses jointly to Alchemy Pay and Berkah Digital’s platform BDPay, enabling the firms to offer better payout methods and reduce associated operating costs. Fiat-to-crypto payment provider Alchemy Pay is expanding services in Asia by scoring new major regulatory approval in Indonesia. Exciting news! #AlchemyPay and @mybdpay have jointly received license from the Central Bank of Indonesia to …

Liquid staking protocol Lido Finance has pushed the big red button in order to activate a protocol safety feature called "Staking Rate Limit" after more than 150,000 Ether was staked with the protocol in a single day. Lido is a liquid staking solution for digital assets, in this case allowing users to stake Ether (ETH) without them needing to have their tokens locked. When a user deposits Ether, Lido issues them a liquid variant of ETH, known as staked ETH (stETH), giving users staking rewards for each day the tokens are held in their wallets. Lido protocol has registered its …

Yuzo Kano, the co-founder of Japan-based cryptocurrency exchange bitFlyer, is seeking to reinstate himself as CEO in a shareholders meeting next month, in an apparent bid to reinvigorate what he claims is a stagnating firm. Kano resigned in 2019 following a series of management disputes but is now determined to reinvigorate the crypto firm and lead it toward an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in the coming months, according to a Feb. 26 report by Bloomberg. The former CEO also said he also wants to put Japan back on the map in the world of cryptocurrency. “I will make it capable …

Crypto exchange Coinbase has been named as a defendant in a legal complaint brought by NanoLabs — the company behind the digital currency Nano (NANO) — over alleged trademark infringement. In the Feb. 24 filing with the California Northern District Court, NanoLabs alleged Coinbase's Nano Bitcoin futures contract and Nano Ether futures contract products infringe on trademark rights owned by them. It’s also alleged the infringement has caused NanoLabs economic detriment and weakened its brand identity, resulting in “actual damage and irreparable harm." Colin LeMahieu founded the Nano digital currency in 2014; which was originally named RaiBlocks. It was rebranded …

Ukraine has received over $70 million in the form of cryptocurrencies since the start of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, providing the nation with military equipment and humanitarian assistance. The figures came from a Feb. 24 report by blockchain data platform Chainalysis, which found the majority of the funds to have come in the form of Ether (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC). ETH donors led the way with $28.9 million given, while donors of BTC and Tether (USDT) chipped in $22.8 million and $11.59 million respectively. Donations have also come in the form of nonfungible tokens (NFTs), such as UkraineDAO’s auction of a …

The cryptocurrency markets and the United States equities markets witnessed profit-booking this week as the macroeconomic data hinted toward continued rate hikes by the Federal Reserve. Bitcoin (BTC) is down more than 4% and the S&P 500 fell 2.7% to record its worst week of the year. The CME FedWatch Tool shows a 73% probability of a 25 basis points rate hike by the Fed in the March meeting but after the hotter-than-expected inflation readings in two weeks, the probability of a 50 basis point rate hike has started to slowly gain traction. During periods of uncertainty, some coins enter …