BitMex's 100x Group has awarded its last Bitcoin development grant of the year. The company has awarded a grant valued at $40,000 to Calvin Kim for his Bitcoin scalability solution, Utreexo — a project originally created by Tadge Dryja from the MIT Digital Currency Initiative. Bitcoin's protocol checks every proposed transaction to make sure that the sender has enough coins to complete the request. All unspent Bitcoin (BTC) is saved in what is known as UTXO, or Unspent Transaction Outputs. While the entire Bitcoin blockchain is currently around 300 GB, the UTXO is only 4 GB. MIT researchers have claimed …

Sergio Dermain Lerner, a researcher known for looking at the mining patterns of the original Bitcoin (BTC) miner, has turned his attention on the Bitcoin blocks mined by Satoshi Nakamoto. Lerner made a preview of his latest findings available to Cointelegraph. His research is based on the irregular pattern of the Least-Significant-Byte (LSB) of the nonce field of block. This past June, Lerner published a blog that expanded on his original research from 2013. He suggested that for an unknown reason, Satoshi refrained from mining in the first five minutes of the block interval. Other researchers have also expanded on …

Global crypto exchanges have reportedly seen a significant increase in web traffic in July as cryptocurrency prices gained momentum. According to data from crypto analytics startup ICO Analytics, web traffic on global crypto exchanges increased by 13% on average in July 2020. Illia Kmez, head of content at ICO Analytics, told Cointelegraph that centralized crypto exchanges added 26% in web traffic since December 2020. In order to provide calculations, the startup analyzed web traffic of around 100 exchanges including international trading platforms and exchanges that only operate in one country, Kmez said. While the average stands at 13%, some crypto …

Bitcoin (BTC) is the most popular cryptocurrency for trading in every region of the world, but North American investors are the cryptocurrency’s biggest fans, a new report says. On Aug. 6, major crypto analytics firm Chainalysis published a report devoted to key trends in the North American crypto market. According to the report, North American investors “disproportionately favor Bitcoin” over other cryptocurrencies like Ether (ETH) or XRP. Bitcoin represents 72% of all crypto trading in North America While Bitcoin is the most traded crypto in the world, North America accounts for 72% of all of the asset’s transaction volume, the …

As Ether (ETH) continues to hit new 2020 highs, the majority of ETH is now reportedly profitable. According to data from blockchain intelligence firm Glassnode, more than 90% of the circulating ETH is now in "a state of profit." This means that over 90% of about 112 million ETH coins were bought at a lower price than the current market price of Ether, Glassnode tweeted on Aug. 4. Over 90% of the circulating #ETH supply is now in a state of profit, i.e. the current price is higher compared to the price at the time the coins last moved. Last …

The blockchain community is playing a significant role in helping to develop pharmaceutical drugs to combat COVID-19, as blockchain can bring immense computational power to confirm transactions, and generate new coins, according to Brandon Mintz, CEO of crypto ATM network, Bitcoin Depot. In an interview with Cointelegraph, Mintz highlighted that the biggest benefit blockchain brings to the table is “the security aspect of things,” adding that such an adoption is also helpful for contactless payments and online purchases with crypto as online sales continue to skyrocket. Crypto community efforts to support COVID-19 researches Bitcoin Depot’s CEO commented about the use …

Major South Korean conglomerate Hanwha Group is cementing its involvement in the cryptocurrency industry with a new investment. Hanwha Investment & Securities, a securities brokerage subsidiary of Hanwha Group, has participated in a 4 billion won ($3.3 million) funding round in crypto firm CrossAngle. Xangle is specialized in collecting corporate disclosures for crypto Announcing the news on July 16, CrossAngle said that the Series A2 investment is expected to enable the company to develop an infrastructure for institutionalizing crypto data services. Incorporated in Singapore, CrossAngle is building Xangle, a public crypto disclosure service focused on providing transparent data for cryptocurrencies …

Thomas Lambert, Daniel Liebau, and Peter Roosenboom from the Rotterdam School of Management suggest that Security Token Offerings are better at financing start-ups than Initial Coin Offerings. Their research was published on July 14 via the University of Oxford Business Law blog. The research paper pointed out that although ICOs and STOs are both issued on distributed ledgers, the idea behind an ICO is “value creation for a community. Utility tokens in ICOs can only grant holders with consumptive rights on services or products and can not be seen as a “financing mechanism”. However, STOs can. Researchers explained that: “Tokens …

Researchers suggest that utility token issuers should provide basic levels of transparency to the public before listing on exchanges. They say that doing so may increase stakeholder confidence and attract new market participants. This is the key to crypto adoption, according to Duke University School of Law’s FinReg Blog on June 25. Disclosure of certain information is key for crypto performance In the blog post, authors Nicholas J. Krapels and Dan Liebau pointed out that the majority of crypto industry experts don’t believe utility token issuers disclose enough information to their stakeholders. This could be the main reason these cryptos …

South Korea's central bank, the Bank of Korea, has formed a legal advisory group to evaluate issues surrounding a potential central bank-issued digital currency (CBDC) launch. According to a press release the central bank issued earlier today, the group includes six experts, namely three professors, two lawyers and one BOK official. The panel will reportedly operate until May 2020, although the BOK’s CBDC plans are not set in stone. Notably, back in April the central bank launched a 22 month-long pilot scheme to assess the logistics of issuing a CBDC, meaning that the program will operate longer than the newly …

Cointelegraph Markets’ post-halving Bitcoin (BTC) analysis report takes a deep look at the 2020 halving, its effect on the crypto market and miners, and how it compared to the previous halving events. The three main sections of this report are: What’s next for Bitcoin miners? BTC correlation with stocks, gold & rising institutional interest Tether market cap growth boosts Bitcoin The Bitcoin halving Scheduled to take place roughly every four years, the Bitcoin halving is a built-in event that cuts Bitcoin’s block reward by half. The halving that occurred on May 11 is the third of its kind, bringing with …

This week’s headlines from Japan included SBI Holdings pairing up with Redstone Digital for a joint venture fund, LayerX teaming up with GMO Aozora for digitalization research, Decurret working to put aspects of the health system on the blockchain with Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance, BitFlyer exchange releasing a commercial, and a data company producing a report on crypto in Japan. Check out some of this week’s crypto and blockchain headlines, originally reported by Cointelegraph Japan. SBI Holdings starts up joint venture fund with Redstone Tokyo-based SBI Holdings has paired up with Redstone Digital, a German venture capital outfit, …