DFG Capital has led a $6.5 million investment in the interoperability start-up Interlay, which is building infrastructure for decentralized finance applications across major blockchains such as Ethereum, Cosmos and Polkadot. As per the announcement, the new funds will be used by Interlay to scale its operations and bring more developers on board with its open-source platform. In a statement, James Wo, DFG Founder and CEO, said Interlay's solution will "expand the cross-chain possibilities for Bitcoin." Interlay aims to integrate cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) with DeFi platforms such as Polkadot and Ethereum. InterBTC, the company's main product, is a fully crypto-based …

Bitcoin (BTC) continues to lose ground in December, a signal that traders may be locking in their gains before the end of the year. The lack of a Santa rally in the U.S. equity markets indicates that the risk-off sentiment prevails due to the uncertainty regarding the spread of the COVID-19 Omicron variant in several parts of the world. Even after the sharp drop in Bitcoin’s price, the demand from institutional investors remains tepid, and data shows that the largest institutional Bitcoin product, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), is trading at a discount of more than 20%. Veteran trader Peter …

Open-source blockchain platform Polkadot announced the launch of its first parachains (or parallelized chain) aimed at improving the interoperability between multiple blockchains. According to the announcement, the Polkadot team invested five years into the development of the parachains, which were allocated to teams via auctions, namely, Acala, Moonbeam, Parallel Finance, Astar, and Clover. With individual blockchains running in parallel within the Polkadot ecosystem, the auction winners will be able to lease slots on Polkadot's Relay Chain for up to 96 weeks at a time. Developed by Polkadot Founder and Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood, the Relay Chain helps in coordinating the …

Tokyo’s biggest finserv firm, SBI Group, will now allow general Japanese investors to purchase cryptocurrencies via its newly launched ‘crypto asset fund’. The fund is composed of seven cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), XRP, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Chainlink (LINK) and Polkadot (DOT). The crypto-asset fund, to be traded and operated by the SBI Alternative Fund, was established on Dec. 02 with a dedicated capital of 5 million yen, worth approximately $45,000 at the time of writing. However, the company may choose to release the capital in smaller break-ups of 1 million yen each. According to the official …

Solana, the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, is leading on-chain development charts despite a recent denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. As per Santiment data, Solana surpassed the daily GitHub submission rates of Polkadot and Cardano to become the leading blockchain over the past month. The number of daily GitHub submissions for Solana reached 90 between Nov. 12 and Dec. 13, followed by Polkadot at 76, and Cardano at 65. The surge in on-chain development activity for Solana comes in the wake of a recent DDoS attack on Dec. 9 that slowed down the network considerably. The fifth-largest blockchain managed to mitigate the …

The cryptocurrency market is back in high spirits today after the wider market bounced back from the Dec. 3 downturn in Bitcoin (BTC) price. Currently, bulls are aiming to send BTC price above the $52,000 support/resistance level and Ether (ETH) is trying to reclaim $4,400 but both assets are encountering push back at overhead resistance. Even with BTC and ETH consolidating, traders' change of sentiment has been a boon for altcoins and many have seen gains in excess of 50% within the past 24-hours. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that a few of the biggest gainers over …

Bitcoin (BTC) is attempting to extend its recovery by rising above the psychological mark at $50,000, but several popular analysts believe that BTC could remain range-bound for a few weeks or even months. On-chain analytics firm CryptoQuant said that Bitcoin “whales are still depositing BTC to exchanges.” This simply indicates that whales are setting themselves up to react at short notice depending on which path the price elects to take. The sharp correction of the past few days has pulled the Crypto Fear and Greed Index to 16, which indicates a sentiment of “extreme fear.” Some believe the current fall …

Ethereum, the second leading cryptocurrency, has long been crypto enthusiasts’ darling in terms of the value it has been bringing to the industry. However, with time and growing interest, the coin’s network showed flaws, including huge overloads, high transaction fees and speed issues. Cointelegraph talked to Marco Chen, co-founder of Parastate and member of Rust Foundation, about why Ethereum (ETH) compatible smart contracts are the new black for blockchain developers. 1. What’s the story behind ParaState? We’ve asked ourselves numerous times before starting ParaSate, “Crypto space is a fast-changing world, but what changes might be brought in the long term …

Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) have turned down from their respective overhead resistance levels, suggesting that bears continue to sell on rallies. New research in Australia suggests that the Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559 upgrade has turned Ether into a better store of value than Bitcoin. The report said the annual rate of increase in Ether’s supply since EIP-1559 is 0.98% compared to an increase of 1.99% in Bitcoin’s supply. Demand for Ether has been on the rise following the surging popularity of nonfungible tokens, decentralized finance and Metaverse-related altcoins. Several analysts remain bullish on Ether and anticipate it to …

Bitcoin (BTC) finished the month of November with a decline of about 7%. This was in sharp contrast to the prediction of the “worst-case scenario” of $98,000 by PlanB, the creator of the popular stock-to-flow model. Although the analyst described it as a “big miss”, he said he would give the Floor model one more month. In its latest “Week On-Chain” report, Glassnode analysts said that Bitcoin’s correction in November was the “least severe in 2021.” Analysts now expect Bitcoin to witness a Santa rally, similar to the 47% up-move in December 2020 or the sharper 80% surge that occurred …

The crypto markets and the global equity markets staged a strong recovery on Nov. 29 in spite of the uncertainty from the newly discovered Omicron variant of COVID-19. Long-term investors seem to view the recent dip as a prime buying opportunity. A recent filing by MicroStrategy showed that the firm purchased 7,002 Bitcoin (BTC) at an average price of $59,187. That boosted MicroStrategy’s total stash to 121,044 Bitcoin, bought at an average price of about $29,534 per coin. However, analytics resource Material Scientist, cited order book data, said “a lot of Bitcoin liquidity has been taken” and warned that “stop …

Bitcoin (BTC) and most major altcoins sold off along with global equity markets and crude oil on Nov. 26. The markets were roiled on news of a new coronavirus variant detected in South Africa that is worrying scientists due to its large number of mutations in the spike protein. The sharp fall has resulted in cross-crypto liquidations of over $750 million over the 24-hour period but the funding rates across exchanges remain elevated. This suggests that the selling may not be over yet. Bitcoin’s monthly close for November is most likely not going to hit analyst PlanB’s worst-case scenario of …