A report published by CoinMetrics has found extreme wealth centralization among many top stablecoins, with at least 80% of the total capitalization for five top stable tokens being held in less than six accounts. CoinMetrics found that most at least 20% of transfers made using most stablecoins are valued at less than $100, showing significant stable token adoption as a means of payment. The report also found that more than 40% of transactions made using the Paxos Standard Token (PAX) are directly linked to a single multi-level marketing, or MLM, Ponzi scheme. Stablecoins show extreme wealth centralization The report found …

Recently, some of the 120,000 Bitcoin (BTC) that was stolen from Bitfinex in 2016 started moving again. Here is what has been happening with this stash of coins valued at over $1 billion. 2016 Bitfinex hack summary. Source: Crystal. $1 billion in BTC waiting to be dumped Thus far, the hackers have moved less than 3,000 BTC out of almost 120,000 BTC that they managed to steal from the exchange. The highest proportion of coins that have been spent went to darknet marketplaces, with the Russain giant Hydra leading the pack with 736 BTC. This is worrisome, as it would …

For an industry that is supposed to be based upon decentralization, it appears to be getting crowded at the top, with a number of companies transforming into unspoken oligarchs, each wielding huge influence — or at least that’s what some critics argue. One of the most remarkable crypto companies operating today is Binance. In only three short years, Binance has enjoyed a meteoric rise to the top. Criticism of Binance, philosophical or otherwise, can’t fail to take into account the impressive stream of innovation the firm seems to channel. Headed by Changpeng Zhao, the Twitter-happy CEO better known as CZ, …

Chinese authorities have dismantled a group of alleged scammers posing as Huobi exchange officials, who were operating an over-the-counter (OTC) website. As reported by local media outlet Jinse, on May 20 police arrested 12 suspects in Guangdong province believed to be behind the scheme, after an investigation found that WeChat crypto trading groups had been infiltrated from November 2019. Scammers persuaded victims to invest in the fake OTC platform, which was used for money laundering, and then sent the defrauded money to overseas accounts. Fraud committed through WeChat Local authorities announced that they seized computers, mobile phones, bank cards, and …

For hundreds of years, Gibraltar was a vital part of the British Empire. The tiny territory, known as “The Rock” due to a gigantic protrusion of limestone that dominates its skyline, was sliced off the bottom of the Iberian peninsula in 1713 and has been a British Overseas Territory ever since. At first glance, the territory is small, dry and home to an oversupply of thieving monkeys. But beyond the southern tip of the territory lies the Strait of Gibraltar, through which half of the world’s shipping traffic still passes. Despite the territory’s growth, the British Empire eventually withered and …

The cryptocurrency wallet of major cryptocurrency exchange Huobi now allows users to buy cryptocurrencies with credit and debit cards. Until now, Huobi Wallet only allowed its users to exchange between different crypto assets and access to decentralized lending, while lacking a fiat onramp. Huobi Wallet CEO Will Huang said that now the applications provides for most of the basic needs of simple crypto users: “[The app] has become a one-stop app for users to buy, store, swap and transfer crypto on the go, while retaining complete control of their assets.” Huobi Wallet is purportedly one of the largest applications of …

In a recent tweet, Binance (BNB) CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) may have inadvertently admitted his involvement in the management of the recently acquired CoinMarketCap (CMC). Following in Elon Musk’s footsteps? Zhao’s tweet from May 14 seemingly admits his involvement in managing CMC: Source: Twitter If he is not involved in the managerial decisions of CMC, including the configuration of various metrics, then it raises the question — why is the CEO of Binance making public statements that suggest otherwise? At the very least, this resembles public pressure on CMC’s management. The situation is reminiscent of a Twitter-enabled gaffe by Elon …

Huobi Group has rebranded its cryptocurrency derivatives exchange platform Huobi DM to Huobi Futures. According to the announcement from the company's spokesperson and head of Huobi global business, Ciara Sun, the new name of the exchange is to signify the growth of the nascent industry into one that is now garnering the interests of both institutional and retail investors. Leveraging the potential of the derivatives market Reports shared by Huobi Group with Cointelegraph show that Huobi’s derivatives platform has brought in substantial growth for the company in the first quarter of 2020. It is evident from the report why Huobi …

Data compiled by Glassnode is showing that the number of Bitcoin (BTC) held on top crypto exchanges has steadily fallen since the violent mid-March crash that saw crypto prices tumble by 50% in a single day. The sum of BTC held on exchanges currently sits at a little over 2.3 million — the lowest it has been since May 22, 2019. As such, the percentage of BTC stored on centralized exchanges has dropped from 14.1% to 12.5%. $3B in BTC removed from exchanges since March The number of BTC stored on top crypto exchanges has fallen by approximately 300,000 since …

After a sharp drop in Bitcoin (BTC)’s value on May 10 — just ahead of today’s halving of block rewards for miners on the network — several exchanges scrambled to inject liquidity into their BTC insurance funds. Earlier today, Binance revealed it had used “over 13,000,000” Tether (USDT) yesterday to protect traders from the risk of auto-deleveraging (ADLs) on its platform. “We will inject an additional 30,000,000 $USDT into the insurance fund, on top of the 7,500,000 USDT from April 30th,” the exchange pledged. The exchange’s insurance fund balance for BTC/USDT contracts plummeted overnight from 21,005,925 USDT on May 10 …

Pre-halving speculation has driven historic volumes of crypto trade, with April 30 producing the second-strongest single day for volume on record according to a report published by market data aggregator, CryptoCompare. Notional volume for BTC options on Chicago Mercantile Exchange, or CME, also tagged a new record in recent days, with 202 contracts changing hands on May 5. April 30 posts historic volume $66.2 billion worth of crypto assets changed hands on April 30 as Bitcoin (BTC) rallied above $9,000 — comprising the second-largest daily volume behind the $75.9 billion in crypto assets traded during the historic March 13 crash. …

As the world is still reeling from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, people everywhere are doing what they can to support the effort to find vaccines and treatments. Not to be left out, blockchain projects everywhere have rallied together to supply computing power and money in a concerted effort to accelerate research. What it takes to fight this virus It shouldn’t be surprising to hear that researching treatments, tending to patients and supplying resources are all expensive work. With the added burden of a global pandemic that is threatening the economy, supply chains and the workforce, donating extra resources …