After rallying 1.510% in 2021, QTUM price hit a $35.70 all-time high on May 7. This relatively obscure altcoin launched in September 2017 is a fork of the Bitcoin Core 0.13 version, but it also integrates the Ethereum virtual machine (EVM) and smart contract execution capability. Following Bitcoin's (BTC) April 23 crash down to $47,500, QTUM faced a 52% correction in 4 days before bottoming at $10. However, the situation for the altcoin improved on May 5 as QTUM initiated a 160% rally in two days, reaching the $35.70 peak. Qtum combines Bitcoin's transaction model with Ethereum smart contracts The …

Bitcoin’s (BTC) recent downturn temporarily pulled its dominance rate down to 49.5% which is the lowest level since August 2018. This has led a growing number of traders to predict that altcoins will outperform Bitcoin in the short term. Over the past few months, the price action from altcoins seems to be disengaging from Bitcoin. Take for example, Ether (ETH), which hit a new all-time high today even as Bitcoin price is down 20% from its all-time high. The major factor that could have tilted the scale in favor of altcoins is the massive rise in the popularity of the …

A startup in a blockchain ecosystem says it eliminates the conflicts of interest that are often seen on fiat platforms. Value Network enables users to create binary options markets based on their very own parameters, including asset pair, price level and time of expiration. This peer-to-peer approach means they don’t have to bet against centralized brokers, some of whom have been linked to scams and fraud in a largely unregulated space. Binary options expire at a set date in the future — with a yes or no outcome. A successful bet means users win the funds of those who had …

Software engineers and developers are slowly switching their attention from layer-one blockchains once dubbed ‘Ethereum killers’ to the ever-increasing number of new decentralized finance protocols. A February Blockchain Development Trends report by venture capital firm Outlier Ventures suggests that developers are switching their focus away from Ethereum rivals. The findings confirm that over the past twelve months, Ethereum remains the most actively developed blockchain protocol, followed by Cardano and Bitcoin. Jumping into the fourth spot in the year of its public launch, is decentralized file storage project Filecoin. The report noted that while some new platforms such as Polkadot, Cosmos, …

Proof-of-Stake, or PoS, blockchain Qtum successfully completed a hard fork of its testnet in preparation for the launch of its mainnet hard fork. According to a statement sent to Cointelegraph, the upgrade went live on the testnet at block 625,000 on June 29. This event officially introduced offline staking in Qtum. Mainnet hard fork to happen in August or at block 680,000 The testnet event – scheduled to start on July 6 – is the last phase before Qtum launches its mainnet hard fork. This is expected to happen on August 28, 2020, or at block height 680,000. As of …

Major privacy-oriented cryptocurrency, Beam (BEAM), is making its first official move towards decentralized finance, or DeFi. In anticipation of Beam’s soon-to-come hard fork, the team behind the project updated a number of relevant specifications, paving the way to the so-called “Confidential Defi,” Beam announced to Cointelegraph on June 24. Confidential Assets are at the core of Beam’s future DeFi offering Scheduled for June 28, the hard fork will enable Confidential Assets, or Beam CA — independent tokens on the Beam network. Beam CA will be a key component in the future Beam’s DeFi offering, Beam advisor Guy Corem said. Beam …

Space-as-a-service-focused blockchain startup SpaceChain has sent its hardware wallet technology to the International Space Station (ISS). As part of the CRS-19 commercial resupply service mission, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is delivering SpaceChain’s hardware wallet technology to the ISS, according to a Dec. 6 press release. The move purportedly marks the first tech demonstration of blockchain hardware on the ISS and the third blockchain payload by SpaceChain over the past two years. Acceleration of space-as-a-service adoption The technology will then be installed on the commercial platform on Station provided by commercial utilization of space firm Nanoracks. The initiative is set …

China’s state-backed tech workgroup has released its fourteenth crypto rankings report, with Bitcoin (BTC) ranked 11th and EOS (EOS) retaining the top spot as of the end of September 2019. The listings rank 35 assets in total, as reported on Sep. 29 by the Center for Information and Industry Development (CCID)’s online information portal. Reshuffles Compared with the last instalment of the rankings this July, Bitcoin has held its position while altcoin Tron has dislodged Ether (ETH) from the second spot. XRP is up from 30th to 20th-ranked asset. CCID cryptocurrency rankings, Sep. 2019. Source: CCIDnet Qutum (QTUM) has risen …

San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex is going to remove 23 trading pairs ostensibly due to low volume. In a tweet published on Aug. 15, Poloniex announced that it will be removing 23 trading pairs on August 16, 2019, due to low volume. After removing, each asset will continue to be independently tradable, the exchange notes. The list of pairs slated for removal reads: LTC/XMR, DASH/XMR, ZEC/XMR, MAID/XMR, NXT/XMR, BCN/XMR, LSK/ETH, GNT/ETH, MANA/ETH, QTUM/ETH, STEEM/ETH, OMG/ETH, LOOM/ETH, SNT/ETH, CVC/ETH, KNC/ETH, GAS/ETH, BNT/ETH, LOOM/USDT, SNT/USDT, KNC/USDT, BNT/USDT and FOAM/USDC. Earlier this year, Poloniex announced that starting from May 29 it will stop …

Scottish craft beer brewery BrewDog has extended its latest crowdfunding to allow investors to buy shares in the form of cryptocurrency, the company tweeted on July 4. BrewDog’s crowdfunding project, so-called “Equity for Punks” now accepts ten cryptocurrencies to become a shareholder. The supported cryptos include bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), bitcoin SV (BSV), ether (ETH), litecoin (LTC), ripple (XRP), OmiseGO (OMG), Qtum (QTUM), Augur (REP), and 0x (ZRX), as BrewDog stated in a recent blog post. Launched back in 2010, Equity for Punks program allows investors to buy a small stake in the company, providing an alternative to shares …

Decentralized blockchain platform Qtum is working with Google Cloud as a software partner to increase the ease of launching native products for users, the company confirmed in a blog post on May 2. Qtum, which like the Ethereum (ETH) platform focuses on smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps), has already released a suite of developer tools on Google Cloud, which executives hope will further uptake. “Google Cloud is the perfect partner to help us make the blockchain ecosystem simpler and more intuitive. Where launching a node was once an intensive and complex process, Qtum’s new developer suite introduces helpful shortcuts …

Malta-based major cryptocurrency exchange OKEx has listed Ripple (XRP) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) on its customer-to-customer (C2C) trading platform, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph on Feb. 22. OKEx, the top third crypto trading market by daily trading volumes at press time, now allows users to buy or sell XRP and BCH with five supported fiat currencies: the British pound (GBP), Chinese renminbi (CNY), Vietnamese dong (VND), Russian ruble (RUB) and Thai baht (THB) on the OKEx C2C trading platform. The Thai baht was added to the OKEx C2C platform in mid-February. During the newest upgrade, all services …