In his monthly crypto tech column, Israeli serial entrepreneur Ariel Shapira covers emerging technologies within the crypto, decentralized finance (DeFi) and blockchain space, as well as their roles in shaping the economy of the 21st century. Sometimes a project’s name tells you all you need to know about it, no matter how niche. Take Kryptomon, for example, the NFT game that recently completed a 24-hour sale in one second. You understand, based on its name, that some kinds of cutesy monstrosities evolving and fighting one another must be involved, and you know it must be blockchain-based. Clear, concise and to …

Major cryptocurrencies Ether (ETH) and Dogecoin (DOGE) made the list of the world’s top searched terms in 2021 on Google On Dec. 7, Google released its traditional annual list of the top searches for the year, breaking them down into several categories including searches, news, people, games, movies and others. According to Google Trends’ Year in Search 2021, Dogecoin was the fourth most popular news search term on Google in 2021, both globally and separately in the United States. News related to the query “Ethereum Price” was ranked 10th. The cryptocurrencies are listed among the top searched new items including …

Eric Schmidt, the chief executive officer of Google until 2011 who later served as executive chair at the tech company and its parent firm Alphabet, has joined oracle solutions provider Chainlink Labs as a strategic advisor. According to a Tuesday announcement, Chainlink said Schmidt would guide the firm’s scaling strategy in its use of oracle networks to trigger smart contracts. Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov cited Schmidt’s experience “building global software platforms for next-generation innovation” in the firm’s decision to bring the former Google exec on board. “The launch of blockchains and smart contracts has demonstrated tremendous potential for the building …

In a report aimed at assessing threats to Cloud users, Google’s Cybersecurity Action Team said that some attackers are exploiting “poorly configured” accounts to mine cryptocurrency. On Wednesday, the Google team said out of 50 analyzed incidents that compromised the Google Cloud Protocol, 86% were related to crypto mining. The hackers used the compromised Cloud accounts to access resources from individuals’ CPUs or GPUs to mine tokens or take advantage of storage space when mining coins on the Chia Network. However, Google’s team reported that many of the attacks were not limited to a single malicious action like crypto mining, …

Shiba Inu (SHIB) edged further down on Nov. 24 as its appeal among the army of retail traders, who helped it rally by more than 535% to a record high of $0.00008854 earlier this year, declined. SHIB's price dropped by nearly 60% after establishing the said all-time high on Oct. 28, signaling that traders have been actively locking their Shiba Inu profits. That has further resulted in a substantial drop in SHIB's benchmark instrument SHIB/USDT's volumes on Binance, underscoring a weak retail interest. In doing so, SHIB tokens' reported market capitalization slipped to $21.30 billion from around $28.31 billion in …

Google’s keyword search data shows interest in nonfungible tokens (NFTs) has surged to record levels, with traffic beating out search terms pertinent to many crypto assets ranked among the top ten. According to Google Trends, interest in NFTs saw a dramatic spike at the start of the year as Dapper Labs’ NBA Top Shot and vintage Ethereum-based NFTs saw frenzied speculation. While the bubble initially appeared short-lived — with search volume drying up by roughly 75% as of the end of June, interest began to bounce back in July before breaking into new highs at the end of October. Since …

Decentralized, privacy-centric search engine Presearch has announced a partnership agreement with leading nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea to foster the growth of the Web 3.0 ecosystem for the global commons. The Presearch network is powered by a community of node operators and supporters who are rewarded in Ethereum-based PRE tokens for enhancing the network’s activity. According to analysis detailed in the company’s release, the platform has amassed a registration of 2.7 million users, in addition to facilitating 3.5 million daily search requests. Cointelegraph spoke to the founder of Presearch, Colin Pape, to attain an exclusive perspective on the inspiration behind …

Google’s parent company Alphabet has made a $1 billion equity investment in the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group, the exchange responsible for many crypto derivatives products. In a Nov. 4 notice to investors, the CME Group announced the $1 billion investment from Alphabet in addition to a 10-year strategic partnership with Google Cloud aimed at accelerating the exchange’s move to the cloud and changing the way global derivatives markets operate. Google made the investment through the company’s nonvoting convertible preferred stock. "Through this long-term partnership with Google Cloud, CME Group will transform derivatives markets through technology, expanding access and creating efficiencies …

Amid the ongoing nonfungible tokens (NFT) boom, people in Asia-Pacific (APAC) countries appear to be the most curious about NFTs, according to Google Trends data. Google Trends data shows that China, Singapore and Hong Kong are the three top countries in the world in terms of the number of “NFT” searches on Google over the past year. According to the data, China has posted the highest number of such searches, with the Google search index amounting to 100 points. Singapore and Hong Kong follow with 67 and 62 points, respectively. Other major “NFT”-searching countries include Venezuela, Philippines, Cyprus, Canada, New …

Cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com now tops the charts as the most downloaded app for the U.S. Google Play Store across all categories. According to the most recent list of Google Play Store’s top free apps, Crypto.com’s app has surged in number of downloads to jump to the 1st position ahead of TikTok. Coinbase’s app sits at 3rd ahead of Cash App, while Voyager Digital is 10th following the trading platform’s announcement it would be partnering with the Dallas Mavericks basketball team. Crypto.com’s rising popularity could be the result of the exchange releasing an ad campaign featuring actor Matt Damon, arguably one …

Digital Currency Group (DCG), one of the largest companies in the cryptocurrency industry, has completed a major secondary investment round led by Japanese financial giant SoftBank. DCG has sold $700 million worth of shares to companies like Google’s parent company, Alphabet, to bring its valuation to more than $10 billion, the company officially announced Monday. “Proud to welcome SoftBank, CapitalG, Ribbit, GIC, Tribe and Emory to an already fantastic list of DCG shareholders. And even more proud of over 1,000 employees of DCG and our wholly-owned subsidiaries that made this happen,” DCG CEO and founder Barry Silbert said. In a …

2021 has been a breakout year for the cryptocurrency sector, as the passage of the first Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a sign that crypto is becoming more mainstream and has the potential to lead to an increase in investors’ exposure to BTC. The influx of new participants into the market throughout the year has had a profound impact on the overall culture of the crypto ecosystem. Ideas of privacy and a secure store of value have been overshadowed by the culture of memes as PePe’s and Wojacks have become endemic to crypto Twitter, where frens say “gm” to …