Blockchain venture studio Draper Gorem Holm has announced plans to incubate Tezos-based startups as part of its $25 million venture fund, highlighting its conviction in the smart contract platform. The venture fund, called Fund 1, was launched in October 2020 as a way to incubate emerging blockchain companies. Fund 1 is set up as a traditional venture capital fund focusing on emerging fintech and blockchain startups. The inclusion of Tezos-based projects into the fund is hardly surprising given the company’s growing support for the smart contract platform. Draper Goren Holm already backs Tezos Stable Technologies, the team behind the USDtez …

Reno, the closest major city to the famous art festival Burning Man, is developing its own decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, and a token in partnership with TQ Tezos, a tech firm building Tezos-based solutions. Mayor Hillary Schieve announced the city’s plans to create the Reno DAO in a Thursday Tez Talks podcast hosted by the Tezos Commons Foundation. The city will build its Reno DAO and Reno Coin on top of the Tezos blockchain network in order to monetize art objects and pieces as well as further explore the potential benefits of blockchain and crypto to solve some of …

Wolfram Blockchain Labs, the cryptocurrency-centric division of popular computing engine provider Wolfram Alpha, is adding support for Tezos on its platform, providing a two-way interface with the blockchain. Announced on Monday, the integration adds support for Tezos blockchain data within the Wolfram Language, which allows developers to obtain analytical data from the blockchain. The language specializes in advanced statistical queries that analyze smart contract activity, and the integration primarily aims to ease the deployment of smart contracts on Tezos. In addition, Wolfram Blockchain has developed an oracle for Tezos that would supply its smart contracts with data available from Wolfram …

The Proof-of-Stake model has been around since 2012, when it emerged as an alternative way to achieve consensus than Bitcoin’s computationally heavy Proof-of-Work. However, it’s taken until now for PoS to take off, spurred by the launch of staking on high-profile platforms including Ethereum 2.0, Polkadot, and Cardano. Despite epic price rises since the start of the year and the fact that it’s the second-biggest cryptocurrency by total market capitalization, Eth2 lags behind competitors in the staking rankings. So, why isn’t Ether (ETH) the number one staking cryptocurrency? A brief history of proof-of-stake Back in 2012, Peercoin developers Sunny King …

Demand and supply metrics determine the price of an asset and data from Glassnode, an on-chain data firm, shows that Bitcoin’s (BTC) liquid supply has been decreasing since June 2020. This signals that traders owning Bitcoin are not selling their holdings. While the supply is shrinking, demand has been going up in the past few months as an increasing number of institutional investors have been buying Bitcoin. Bloomberg recently reported that Morgan Stanley Investment Management’s subsidiary Cointerpoint Global “is exploring whether the cryptocurrency would be a suitable option for its investors.” According to Morgan Stanley’s website, Counterpoint Global chooses to …

Bitcoin (BTC) price has yet to recapture the $40,000 level and traders who were expecting a quick resumption of the uptrend may have been caught off guard by the recent pullback. This could have led to the liquidation of about $500 million worth of cryptocurrency futures positions in the past 24 hours. Over leveraged positions provide the necessary ammunition during the uptrend, but they become a liability when the trend reaches an inflection point. When the markets turn down, leveraged long positions quickly turn into a loss, resulting in margin calls from brokers. When the margin requirements are not met, …

The strength of Bitcoin's (BTC) uptrend appears to be growing, as the top-ranked digital asset soared above $40,000 earlier today. It's probably safe to say that many investors are completely astounded by the fact that BTC has doubled its value only a month after breaking through the $20,000 mark. This suggests that the buying has continued unabated, signaling strong demand at every higher level. This bullish sentiment has pulled several altcoins higher, with the total crypto market capitalization extending $1 trillion. As most altcoins have only recently started participating in the rally, they may run up vertically in the short …

Bitcoin (BTC) has had a stellar 2020, but how are other top crypto assets faring? Let’s take a look at how some of the top cryptocurrencies by market capitalization performed this . Bitcoin First, Bitcoin has seen a massive gain since Jan. 1, as its price soared from $7,195 to as high as $28,422. Within 12 months, the price of Bitcoin rose by 290%, outperforming all major stock indices and most stocks, apart from a select few including Tesla (TSLA). The main catalysts behind Bitcoin’s rally have been the increase in institutional demand, favorable financial conditions as a result of …

Ethereum 2.0 has already emerged as the fourth-largest proof-of-stake network by total value locked in staking within roughly six weeks of the Eth2 deposit contract going live. Despite withdrawal functionality not yet enabled and no precise estimation for its full launch date, nearly $1 billion worth of Ether (ETH) has already been designated for staking. According to crypto data aggregator Staking Rewards, more than 1.5 million Ether or 1.35% of Ethereum’s supply has been deposited for staking. Ether staking rewards are currently estimated at approximately 13.20%, meaning that a single stake of 32 ETH would earn $2,725 over one year …

Top 20 crypto asset by market cap Tezos (XTZ) has successfully completed its latest upgrade, “Delphi,” which aims to reduce smart contract gas fees by 75% to attract decentralized finance developers to build on top of its blockchain. Delphi was proposed on Sept. 3. It’s a joint undertaking from Nomadic Labs, Metastatic, and Gabriel Algour intended to “help individuals developing smart contracts on Tezos.” According to a joint post from Delphi’s developers, the upgrade is “crucial to enable novel applications on Tezos that target areas like DeFi, collectibles, and gaming.” “The size and complexity of smart contracts is limited by …

On Friday the Swiss town of Wetzikon -- formerly best-known for its idyllic pastures and churches -- launched a blockchain-based program to support small and medium-sized local businesses affected by the Coronavirus pandemic. Valued at 250,000 Swiss francs ($280,000), the initial aid disbursement will be funded with a municipal credit line earmarked for the Coronavirus and will be distributed to the roughly 25,000 inhabitants of Wetzikon in the form of an eCoupon worth 10 Swiss francs. Residents can access the disbursement through a smartphone app, “ecoo,” which will be using the aid program as a pilot trial for its platform. …

Negotiations between six legal firms over $8.3 million in attorney’s fees awarded from Tezos’ $25 million class-action settlement has descended into “unseemly mudslinging,” according to lawyers representing Block & Leviton LLP (B&L) and Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP. The $25 cash million settlement agreement with Tezos (XTZ) was approved in September, ending class-action claims that the firm distributed unregistered securities through its 2017 initial coin offering (ICO). On October 7, the two firms asked U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg to deny a motion for counsel fees filed in September by Hung G. Ta Esq. PLLC (HGT), LTL Attorneys LLP, the …