A new strain of crypto-malware is being spread via YouTube, tricking users to download software that’s designed to steal data from 30 crypto wallets and crypto-browser extensions. Cyber intelligence company Cyble in a June 30 blog post said it had been tracking the malware known as PennyWise — likely named after the monster in Stephen King’s horror novel It — since it was first identified in May. “Our investigation indicates that the stealer is an emerging threat,” wrote Cyble in a blog post on June 30: “In its current iteration, this stealer can target over 30 browsers and cryptocurrency applications …

The crypto markets have remained relatively stable over the weekend and on July 4, which is a holiday for the United States financial markets due to Independence Day. Although Arthur Hayes, former CEO of derivatives platform BitMEX, was expecting a “mega crypto dump” around July 4, it has not materialized. The drop in Bitcoin’s (BTC) volatility in the past few days has resulted in the squeezing of the Bollinger Band’s width. This indicates a possible increase in volatility in the next few days, according to popular analyst Matthew Hyland. Meanwhile, crypto investors seem to be waiting for clues from the …

Multichain, a cross-chain platform, has announced the integration of the Bitcoin-based (BTC) smart contract protocol Rootstock (RSK) blockchain into its ecosystem. This will allow users to exchange Ether (ETH), USD Coin (USDC), Binance USD (BUSD) and other assets between RSK, Ethereum and BNB Chain. According to Monday's announcement, the integration is a major milestone for Multichain because it opens up access to decentralized finance (DeFi) on Bitcoin. This addition will allow users to take advantage of RSK's security and functionality. The integration will enable RSK to bring Bitcoin to Multichain's ecosystem while also providing access to new markets and use …

The past few weeks have been interesting and have surfaced what we in the financial services industry call matters requiring attention, or MRAs. An MRA describes a practice that deviates from sound governance, internal controls and risk management principles. These matters that require attention have the potential to adversely affect the industry and increase the risk profile. I have always focused on technology and innovation-led business models — systems and interconnected elements of blockchain-powered business networks — redefining the transaction systems that power many industries, including financial services. A growing number of naysayers have become vocal about recent events, which …

The Ethereum ecosystem’s biggest roadblock to mainstream dominance is often attributed to the extremely high transaction fees — known as gas fees — it requires to complete a transaction. However, with Ethereum’s average gas fees coming down to 0.0015 Ether (ETH), the narrative is set to change. The average transaction fee on the Ethereum blockchain fell down to 0.0015 ETH or $1.57 — a number previously seen in December 2020. However, starting in January 2021, Ethereum’s gas fees surged, owing to the hype around nonfungible tokens (NFT), decentralized finance (DeFi) and a promising bull market. For nearly two years, between …

Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) took center stage in the year 2021 as artists, influencers, A-list celebrities and the sports industry finally came across a fan engagement tool that empowered the general public to cash in on their success. However, the hype around NFT did not manage to stand its ground, as sales plummeted to one-year lows amid the ruthless bear market of 2022. The NFT boom, which started in early 2021, upheld its glory until May 2022 — supported by a healthy and bullish crypto ecosystem and positive investor sentiment. However, Bitcoin’s (BTC) struggle to hold on to its all-time high …

According to Mike Darlington, CEO of Monstercat — an electronic music platform — and Jake Udell, founder of social NFT platform Metalink, bear markets are a time to ideate and build new products. During this week’s episode of NFT Steez, a bi-weekly Twitter Space hosted by Cointelegraph analysts, both Darlington and Udell agreed that the future will be bright for crypto and especially for music nonfungible tokens (NFTs). During the interview, Darlington and Udell explained the importance of researching projects with “sustainable teams” that continue to build despite the current market conditions and they encouraged investors to learn from the …

Bitcoin dropped 56.2% in the second quarter of 2022, according to crypto analytics platform Coinglass. That makes it Bitcoin’s worst quarter since the third quarter of 2011 when BTC price fell by 67%. A large part of the damage was done in the month of June when Bitcoin plunged 37%, the worst monthly drawdown since September 2011. It is not all gloom and doom for crypto investors. On June 29, JPMorgan strategist Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou said that the “Net Leverage metric” suggests that crypto’s deleveraging may be on its last legs. The eagerness of crypto companies with stronger balance sheets to …

The market cap of Bitcoin (BTC) dropped another 33% in June, which is now beginning to numb the Twitter community. On the upside, many crypto traders who wanted out did so fairly aggressively from March to May. But, the less optimistic news is that the stagnancy in address activity may need to change for prices to get a running start on recovery. Unlike April and May, the altcoin pack didn’t struggle tremendously more than Bitcoin. BTC’s 33% drop was pretty middle of the road in terms of corrections. In a vacuum, crypto bulls would prefer seeing altcoins continuing to lag, …

Garry Kasparov, the Russian chess grandmaster and chair of the Human Rights Foundation, doesn’t appear at all bothered by the current crypto bear market. Kasparov, who is also a long-time Bitcoin supporter, told Cointelegraph during Consensus 2022 “so what” in regards to his thoughts on the bear market. Kasparov added that he thinks 99% of all coins are “crap,” yet he expressed that both Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) are already integrated into traditional financial markets due to recent price fluctuations. He said: “They'll lose a bit more, but they’ll also gain more, which shows that these are already being …

The Open Network (TON) Foundation is the latest cryptocurrency company to upgrade its ecosystem with Ethereum Name Service (ENS)-like domain names. The TON Foundation on Thursday announced the launch of TON DNS, a new service that allows users to assign human-readable names to crypto wallets, smart contracts and websites. Similar to other popular crypto-related domain names like “.eth” or “.crypto” the domain zone for TON DNS is “.ton” and will enable users to access decentralized applications in a simple way. With TON DNS, users will be able to use simple and short domain names instead of typing in a long …

Given Ethereum’s dominance coupled with the current crypto bear market, it remains questionable if L1s will flourish. This was recently highlighted in a Chainalsys blog post entitled “New layer 1 blockchains are expanding the DeFi ecosystem, but no ETH killers yet.” Ethan McMahon, an economist at Chainalysis, told Cointelegraph that Chainalysis published this report to raise awareness for the current L1 ecosystem: While Ethereum allowed decentralized finance (DeFi) to flourish in 2020, a number of layer-1 blockchains (L1s) have since been developed to address the challenges associated with the network. For instance, as Ethereum’s proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism and high …