The global economy is on weak footing. This has led to rate cuts by several central banks across the world and many are planning to implement additional measures to support their respective economies. This has ballooned the balance sheets of the central banks and there appears to be no end in sight. Since mid-September, the Federal Reserve has resumed its bond buying initiative, leading its balance sheet to expand by $210 billion. The Fed’s balance sheet is now about $3.97 trillion. While the supply of fiat currencies has been steadily increasing for the past few years, Bitcoin’s (BTC) block rewards …

What are some of the key points to remember about scalability? It is all about centralization vs. decentralization. For blockchain platforms, the scalability of a given chain often boils down to the level of decentralization possessed by the network. Highly decentralized ecosystems (such as Bitcoin) are quite slow, whereas networks that are more centralized (like EOS, with its 21 Block Producers) are much faster. Therefore, having fewer nodes producing blocks generally makes things faster. However, centralization reduces the interesting properties that blockchains innately possess — namely their resistance to censorship, transparency and overall immutability. Are there any noteworthy blockchain-scaling solutions? …

The traditional financial system is heading to a disaster with about $17 trillion in global bonds returning negative-yields. “The whole concept of negative yields, of people paying for the privilege of lending money, is insane behavior to me,” said William Eigen, a veteran fund manager at JPMorgan Asset Management, in an interview with Bloomberg. Gemini crypto exchange co-founder Cameron Winklevoss believes that the staggering amount of negative-yield bonds is a compelling reason why investors should gravitate towards Bitcoin (BTC). Stafford Masie, the general manager of WeWork South Africa, also believes that Bitcoin is the best technological gift to mankind and …

The crypto market has been struggling since topping out in June but this does not mean institutional interest in crypto has diminished. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group tweeted that customer interest in CME Bitcoin (BTC) futures remained strong in Q3 2019 compared to Q3 2018. The total increase in open interest during this period was about 61%, which shows that the involvement of institutional traders is on the rise. Similarly, digital asset manager Grayscale Investments reported that its products received a total investment of $254 million in Q3 2019. That was a sharp increase over Q2 2019 when the …

A draft report by the G7 group of nations outlined the risks associated with “global stablecoins.” The report said: “No stablecoin project should begin operation until the legal, regulatory and oversight challenges and risks are adequately addressed.” This report is likely to increase the troubles for Facebook’s Libra project. Former Commodity Futures Trading Commission chairman Christopher Giancarlo believes that Libra and the prospects of central bank digital currencies will increase regulator's intrusions into the crypto space. This can work as a double-edged sword. If regulators provide clarity, it is likely to attract large institutional players into the game, but if …

Just a few years ago, it was hard to imagine that a stablecoin would come to represent a significant portion of the cryptocurrency industry. Market players tended to base their money-making strategies on a cryptocurrency’s volatility rather than its stability. There were only 11 stablecoins on the market in 2016, and another 10 were added in 2017. Nowadays, there are 66 stablecoins, and over 134 others still in development. The overwhelming majority of these stablecoins were running on Ethereum before 2018, without any indication suggesting that this might change. But the script has flipped, according to Blockchain.com’s “2019 State of …

The wait for a Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund got a bit longer as the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) shot down the proposal by Bitwise Asset Management and NYSE Arca. The regulators felt that the application did not satisfy the requirement that it will “prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices.” However, there was no noticeable reaction to this news, which shows that the market participants did not have high expectations of an approval. Meanwhile, as Bakkt’s volumes continue to unimpress, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group is upbeat on its forthcoming Bitcoin options product. Tim McCourt, CME …

Grayscale director of sales and business development Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary said that institutional interest in the crypto space has been strong throughout this year. The second quarter inflow was $85 million with 80% coming from institutions. Though this is positive, it shows that the inflow is only a trickle and a fraction of the firepower the institutions hold. A Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) can also boost interest in the asset class. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will announce their decision on Bitwise Asset Management’s ETF proposal before the Oct. 13 deadline. Bitwise managing director and global head …

On Sept. 30, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it had reached a civil settlement with EOS parent company Block.One following an investigation into violations of the SEC’s security offering regulations. The decision has sparked a new conversation around blockchain, and whether the sector’s apparent flaunting of regulations is brashness or simply the fact that in the worst of cases, the SEC’s teeth aren’t as sharp as initially assumed. On the surface, a $24 million settlement is a large and eye-popping number. However, the deal’s toughness begins to unravel when considering its broader context, as the …

EOSIO developer Block.one has announced the release of version 2.0 of the EOSIO open source protocol, according to an official press release shared with Cointelegraph on Oct. 8. EOSIO is a blockchain-based smart contract protocol used to develop and host decentralized applications (DApps). It employs a consensus model called delegated proof-of-stake. Protocol updates: smart contract efficiency and security According to Block.one’s announcement, the core of EOSIO 2.0 includes various improvements to EOS VM — a high-performance WebAssembly engine specialized for blockchain applications that enables more efficient use of system resources when processing smart contracts. Block.one claims that the updated EOS …

Total crypto market capitalization has held the $200 billion mark for the past few days. This is a positive sign, as it shows that market participants are not panicking at lower levels but are using dips to buy. The first leg of the bull phase was led by Bitcoin, which saw its dominance rise from just above 50% at the start of the year to about 71% in early-September. In the last few days, the action has been gradually shifting to altcoins, which can be seen from the gradual decrease in Bitcoin’s dominance, which is down to 66.7%. This increases …

Decentralized applications’ (DApps) transaction volume and user activity have slumped in the third quarter of 2019, a new study shows. DApp.com — an analytics platform for DApps built on Ethereum, EOS, Steem, Tron, TomoChain, IOST and Blockstack — revealed its recent findings in a news release shared with Cointelegraph on Oct. 7. An overall market assessment showed that DApps built on the six aforementioned blockchains reported a total transaction volume of $2.03 billion in Q3, down 40% compared with Q2. Only 36% of the DApp users from Q2 used DApps at least once in Q3, which also indicates a notable …