Although nonfungible tokens (NFTs) have been a part of the cryptocurrency market since 2014, interest and adoption has risen rapidly over the last two years. At their height in August 2021, the total trading volume of NFTs rose to over $5 billion, kickstarting what briefly came to be to known as “NFT Summer.” According to a report by CoinGecko, the NFT market is now expected to move more than $800 billion in the coming two years. The report, which mostly utilized investors from Asia and the Pacific, highlighted that of 871 respondents, around 72% of them already own at least …

The native tokens of move-to-earn lifestyle app STEPN swung higher on news that they would be available to trade on Coinbase, a U.S.-based crypto exchange. The price of STEPN's governance token Green Metaverse Token (GMT) rallied by nearly 20% to reach over $4 in the past 24 hours, hitting as high as $4.50, its best level to date. Similarly, the other STEPN token, called the Green Satoshi Token (GST), which players earn after walking, jogging and running outdoors with STEPN's "NFT Sneakers," gained 6.5% to about $6.25 on a 24-hour adjusted timeframe with a new record high of $7.20. STEPN …

There’s a special bond between mothers and their sons. For “Alan,” a 28-year-old engineer who wished to remain anonymous, a Bitcoin (BTC) loan helped his mom to buy a house. Alan told Cointelegraph that he took out a Bitcoin-backed loan in 2021 — serendipitously, on his sister’s birthday — to gift his mom the tax-free money. She then used the funds to buy a house in North Yorkshire, England, while Alan kept his Bitcoin. Alan first used Bitcoin in 2012, learning it was a useful currency to buy things on the internet. He used the peer-to-peer (P2P) service LocalBitcoins — …

Dubai-based crypto exchange Bybit has recently announced its service expansion into crypto options trading, allowing users to trade USD Coin (USDC) options and perpetuals. Ben Zhou, co-founder and CEO of Bybit, told Cointelegraph that this decision to add options to the product line was in response to its community’s demands. Zhou noted that investors want to trade options because it can “serve as a hedge against existing risks and provide greater market exposure.” It also gives traders a way to diversify their portfolios. The newly-launched crypto options contracts on the exchange work on the same principles as its traditional finance …

Popular retail trading platform Robinhood has fired 9% of its workforce amid a firesale of its stock that has seen HOOD plunge to all-time lows. In the past 30 days alone, HOOD has tanked roughly 38% to sit at $9.99 at the time of writing, marking the lowest price since the initial public offering launch in mid-2021. The decline is part of a longer-term bearish trend that has seen the price of HOOD continually decrease since its all-time high of roughly $70.39 on Aug. 4, 2021, according to TradingView. Robinhood publicly announced its staff readjustment via a Tuesday blog post …

ApeCoin (APE) underwent a modest selloff a day after the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), a popular nonfungible token (NFT) brand, reported losing $2.4 million worth of digital collectibles in a robbery. APE price rally to $25 stalls The hacker compromised BAYC's official Instagram account, using it to post a phishing link that withdrew tokens out of users' cryptocurrency wallets. On April 25, the BAYC Twitter handle confirmed the hack, albeit too late as users had already transferred tokens to the hacker's account, thus losing ownership of their extremely expensive Bored Ape, Mutant Ape and Bored Ape Kennel Project NFTs. …

The United States-based retirement plan provider Fidelity Investments will reportedly allow 401(k) retirement saving account holders to directly invest in Bitcoin (BTC). The new Bitcoin retirement investment plan would go live later this year. It will allow over 23,000 companies associated with Fidelity to administrate their retirement accounts to offer Bitcoin investment options to the customers, reported The Wall Street Journal. If the proposal to allocate BTC to their savings account gets approval from employers, it will allow retirement savers to allocate up to 20% of their portfolio in Bitcoin. Fidelity is currently in discussions with several of the employers …

Dogecoin (DOGE) prices flipped higher in the last 24 hours after its most celebrated backer, Elon Musk, purchased Twitter for $44 billion. At its best, Dogecoin had climbed to $0.17 on April 25, albeit still down 77% from its record high in May 2021. Twitter’s native currency: Dogecoin? DOGE’s price rose by nearly 25% to $0.15 on a 24-hour adjusted timeframe, confirming that traders considered Musk’s acquisition of Twitter a bullish event for Dogecoin. The reason: Musk’s long-time support for DOGE, including his recent advice to the Twitter board that they should start accepting the memecoin for Twitter Blue, their …

Monero (XMR) price dropped by nearly 10% three days after establishing a week-to-date high of around $290 on April 24. Nonetheless, several technical indicators suggest that the XMR/USD pair is poised to resume its uptrend over the next few months. Falling wedge breakout underway Notably, XMR’s price broke out of its “falling wedge” structure in late March. It continued its move upside in the later daily sessions, with rising volumes indicating bullish sentiment among Monero traders. Traditional analysts consider falling wedges as bullish reversal patterns, or the price first consolidates within a contracting descending channel, followed by a strong bounce …

STEPN (GMT) has rallied strongly against the United States dollar this week as it looks likely to form a classical bullish technical pattern called “the bull flag.” GMT eyes more upside GMT’s price rose 30% week-to-date, including a strong rally to establish an all-time high near $3.85 followed by a relatively modest correction to nearly $3.00. In particular, the correction phase occurred inside a descending parallel channel, raising possibilities that the price would eventually break out of it to the upside. That is precisely because traditional analysts consider strong run-ups, followed by range-trapped price corrections, as bullish continuation setups. And, …

Despite often producing results higher than the traditional market, trading cryptocurrency is not all butterflies and rainbows. Higher rewards are the direct result of a more complicated market, one lacking in the fundamentals. To compare, consider the process of purchasing a stock. Before engaging in a trade, investors have access to quarterly earnings and sales reports, among other metrics for success. The cryptocurrency market, in contrast, lacks these same proof points, requiring traders to look at in-depth technical analysis for verification instead. Since the technical analysis process is complex, new investors often find themselves discouraged from entering the market or …

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, is adopting major restrictions on users in Russia following the European Union’s fifth package of sanctions against Russia. Binance officially announced Thursday new limitations for Russian nationals or residents of Russia, restricting such persons from trading if they hold over 10,000 euros, or $10,800. Restricted accounts are no longer able to deposit or trade using Binance’s spot, futures and custody wallets, as well as staked and earned deposits. The restriction relates to Russian nationals, natural persons residing in Russia and legal entities based in Russia, the announcement notes, adding: “Accounts for Russian …