As Bitcoin continues to hold above $9,800, one whale decided now was the time to move more than $1 billion in BTC. According to blockchain data, an unknown Bitcoin (BTC) trader moved over 132,255 BTC — roughly $1.3 billion — in three transactions just one minute apart on June 11. The cryptocurrency was moved in block 643,133. The transactions came as the price of BTC was still under a key resistance level, $10,000. At the time of writing, 1 BTC is valued at $9,887. The massive volume led to speculation the BTC belonged to an exchange or custodial service with …

One of the time-honored traditions in the crypto community may be on the verge of becoming obsolete. Alchemy, a blockchain development platform, is going live with Alchemy Notify — a push notification for developers that could signify an end to repeatedly refreshing your favorite block explorer while waiting for a transaction confirmation. The crypto user-experience is one of the most derided aspects of the industry, with critics claiming that the complicated nature of transactions, and the time it takes for many blockchain protocols to finalize them, means that cryptocurrency will never find mainstream adoption. But along with events such as …

Telos announced on May 26 that Transledger will use its blockchain technology to power an interoperability platform enabling cryptocurrencies to move between blockchains. The Transledger platform aims to bring improvements to peer-to-peer applications like decentralized exchanges (DEXs), along with enabling management of coins like Bitcoin (BTC) with faster and more powerful smart contract features. Technology brings benefits to decentralized exchanges Transledger enables coins including Bitcoin and Ether (ETH) to move between blockchains while keeping their value, using proxy tokens on Telos as a medium of exchange. This allows these coins to take advantage of Telos smart contracts and half-second transaction …

Fledgling Ethereum anonymization protocol Tornado.cash has launched completely immutable smart contracts — rendering the protocol “unstoppable” from May 21. While the project has extolled the virtues of immutability and declared that “code is law,” many within the Ethereum (ETH) community are advising against depositing funds into the protocol. Tornado.cash opts for complete immutability Tornado notes that “[t]here are pros and cons” to its dedication to immutability, declaring heightened decentralization and the inability for smart contracts to be altered as positive virtues of the protocol. However, the developers concede that “the tornado.cash team is also not able to protect the users …

Soon after an unknown entity “rescued” $5.7 million worth of STEEM tokens from a “New Steem” hard fork seizure, Bittrex confirmed that the funds reached their account. The crypto exchange now faces a difficult decision of what to do with the 23.6 million STEEM tokens allegedly stolen from Steem witnesses. In a May 21 statement, Bittrex co-founder Richie Lai confirmed that the entity of the transaction initiator, the account named “community321,” remains unknown so far. Lai pointed out that there is an allegation that the account could be hacked outside of Bittrex. The statement reads: “This morning, someone deposited 23,627,501 …

From April 11 until May 14, Bitcoin (BTC) transaction fees increased by more than 1,250% from $0.38 to $5.16. While Bitcoin transaction fees have since fallen by 33.3% to sit at roughly $3.44 as of this writing, fees have increased by 36.5% since the block reward halving on May 11. Bitcoin fees double in three days after halving The average cost of executing transactions on the Bitcoin network has increased by more than 800% in just one month, with May posting the highest transaction fees since July 2019 so far. Bitcoin transaction fees March 2020 - May 16, 2020: BitInfoCharts …

Crypto funds associated with Upbit’s $50 million hack in November 2019 have continued to move. Soon after hitting the world’s biggest crypto exchange, Binance, large sums of the stolen funds continued to be transferred to a little-known crypto exchange as well as major exchanges like OKEx. On May 14, Whale Alert — a service dedicated to tracking major crypto transactions — reported on a series of new transactions involving funds from Upbit’s 2019 hack. According to Whale Alert, a large portion of the stolen Ether (ETH) has also hit a number of unknown wallets. Addresses of little-known exchange Byex.com receive …

With the third Bitcoin rewards halving scheduled in approximately 14 hours at the time of press, the average value of transaction fees has surged more than 300%. According to data available on Bitinfocharts, the average transaction fees for Bitcoin (BTC) on May 8 peaked at $3.19, an increase of over 300% from the average fee on April 26, $0.62. The last time the average BTC transaction fee was over $3.00 was in July 2019. Source: Bitinfocharts Historically, Bitcoin transaction fees prior to a halving event have increased markedly. The last halving on July 9, 2016 saw transaction fees skyrocket in …

The World Bank has predicted that the global remittance industry will retract by 20% amid the global economic slow-down resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. With a plethora of crypto firms targeting the remittance sector, the news may comprise a poor omen for many blockchain firms seeking to gain a foothold in the cross-border payments industry. World Bank predicts record slump in remittances On April 22, the World Bank published a report predicting that 2020 will see the “sharpest decline of remittances in recent history.” Slashed wages and falling employment of migrant workers is expected to drive a 19.7% drop in …

Securitize, a digital securities issuance platform backed by major cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, has announced a new tool that assures that secondary market transactions of digital securities are compliant with regulations. According to an April 22 blog post, Securitize Instant Access streamlines the creation of compliant peer-to-peer transactions by investors in private securities. To ensure that transactions meet the necessary requirements, Securitize uses smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain. To initiate a transaction, investors privately create an indication of interest to sell their digital securities with a web link, which can be posted and shared across various channels. The blog post …

Vietnamese online ticketing agency Future.Travel now accepts Bitcoin (BTC) payments via the Lightning Network (LN), with funds being converted into local currency at the time of sale. To enable LN-based Bitcoin payments, Future.Travel collaborated with Canada-based tech firm Neutronpay, which will provide Future.Travel its multi-currency merchant platform, according to an April 20 announcement. With the newly integrated option, the BTC transaction processing time will ostensibly be cut down to three to four seconds in most cases. Eliminating fraud, reducing transaction processing time Overall, Future.Travel has been supporting BTC payments for over six years and recently added other cryptocurrencies like Litecoin …

Businesses in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates’, or UAE, are increasingly embracing blockchain technology as local regulators move towards adopting inclusive legislation regarding crypto assets. Though Abu Dhabi Global Market, or ADGM, announced its plan to allow crypto asset trading in 2018, the UAE capital has taken a cautious approach to rolling out permissive regulations. However, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, or ADIB, recently became the first Islamic bank to execute trade finance distribution transactions, and the ADGM is readying to launch crypto asset trading in Q2 2020. ADIB executes blockchain-based trade finance distribution On April 15, …