Recent News on Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, and Finance | Yellow.com

Cardano, once hailed as Ethereum's potential successor, is facing a tough reality check. The blockchain network's adoption has stalled over the past year. What's going on with Cardano? According to recent data from analytics firm IntoTheBlock, user base is stalled. The numbers don't lie. Cardano's total holder count remains unchanged from a year ago, stuck at around 4.45 million. This plateau follows a period of significant growth during the 2021 bull run. IntoTheBlock's analysis paints a sobering picture. New investors aren't flocking to Cardano like they used to. The network's appeal as an Ethereum alternative seems to have lost its shine. So, what's the deal? It looks like other networks are stealing Cardano's thunder. Solana and Base are now the cool kids on the block, attracting investors who might've considered ADA in the past. This stagnation isn't great news for Cardano. A growing user base is crucial for any asset's long-term success. Without it, ADA might struggle to make significant moves in the future. But it's not all doom and gloom. Cardano's showing some signs of life in other areas. Since April, the network has maintained a stable trend in daily active addresses. This suggests a committed core community is still using the blockchain regularly. IntoTheBlock puts it this way: "Despite the slowdown in new users, the network's transaction count and active user base have remained stable since April, indicating a committed community that continues to engage with the protocol." Here's another bright spot: Cardano's been processing a whopping $7.2 billion in daily volume lately. That's nothing to sneeze at, outpacing many rival networks. There's also a silver lining in terms of investor behavior. HODLing conviction seems to be on the rise, with nearly 40% of ADA supply sitting dormant for a year or more. Looks like some folks are playing the long game. The big question now is whether Cardano can break out of this rut and attract fresh blood. The crypto world moves fast, and ADA needs to step up its game if it wants to stay relevant. Only time will tell if this is just a bump in the road or a sign of bigger troubles ahead.

MetaMask, the popular Ethereum wallet, is rolling out a blockchain-based debit card. The card is developed with Mastercard and crypto payments firm Baanx. It's a big deal for crypto users. The initial launch is limited. Only a few thousand digital-only cards will be available. The rollout targets users in the EU and UK. MetaMask plans to expand distribution later this year. This move blurs the lines between traditional finance and digital assets. It's part of a larger trend. Global institutions are tokenizing bonds and credit. Asset managers are offering bitcoin ETFs. Payment giants are exploring blockchain tech. Mastercard's not new to this game. They've been working with Baanx on web3 payments. They're connecting traditional payments with crypto platforms. These include hardware wallet firm Ledger and decentralized exchange 1inch. Visa, Mastercard's rival, isn't sitting idle. They've partnered with Circle's USDC stablecoin and the Solana network. Their goal? Speeding up cross-border payments. Raj Dhamodharan, Mastercard's blockchain exec, sees potential. "We spotted a chance to make purchases easier for self-custody wallet users," he said. It's about making things more secure and interoperable. Baanx's chief commercial officer, Simon Jones, has bigger dreams. He reckons everyone with a mobile should have access to basic financial services. "This could be huge in countries with loads of unbanked folks," he added. The card works like your regular debit card. But here's the kicker: you can buy stuff directly with your MetaMask holdings. You keep control of your funds until you pay. Pretty neat, huh? Users can spend USDC, USDT, and wETH cryptocurrencies. These need to be held on the Linea blockchain. It's an Ethereum layer-2 network developed by Consensys, MetaMask's parent company. Lorenzo Santos from Consensys summed it up: "This gives people more freedom to spend their assets." It's all about options, folks. Crypto or cash, take your pick. The crypto world's changing fast. MetaMask's new card might just be the push it needs to go mainstream. Or it could be another flash in the pan. Only time will tell.

Crypto enthusiasts are going all in on XRP. The digital asset, once mired in legal troubles, is now the talk of the town. Why? A flood of traders are wagering it'll hit $1.10 soon. XRP's price has barely budged in the last day. It's sitting at $0.5684. The broader crypto market is up 1%. Over the week, XRP has climbed 13.5%. Monthly gains stand at 7%. But zoom out, and it's down 10% year-on-year. Not great, Bob. Ripple, the company behind XRP, recently settled with the SEC for a mere $125 million. You'd think this would send the price soaring. Nope. But here's where it gets juicy. Deribit, a crypto derivatives exchange, has seen a massive spike in call options for XRP. The strike price? $1.10. The charts paint a murky picture. XRP's indicators are all over the shop. It could go either way, really. Take the moving averages. The 30-day and 200-day lines are playing footsie. A breakout could be on the cards. The relative strength index is stuck at 50. Traders seem to be twiddling their thumbs. But hold up. The support and resistance levels are converging. This often signals a big move is coming. And those call options? They're hinting it might be upwards. A tweet from user @NekozTek spilled the beans. "There is very high activity in call options on XRP with a strike of $1.1 on the Deribit exchange," they wrote. Deribit's data backs this up. There are now 4,452,000 open contracts targeting the $1.10 price. That's a lot of bullish bets. XRP's been a bit of a laggard lately. But with Ripple's legal woes in the rearview mirror, things could be looking up. The company's just inked a deal with Dubai's financial innovation hub. They're aiming to boost blockchain adoption in the Middle East. Stuart Alderoty, Ripple's Chief Legal Officer, dropped a bombshell on CNBC. He claimed the SEC now wants to work with Ripple on a potential XRP ETF approval. If Ripple keeps expanding and an ETF gets the green light, $1 could be in the cards. But in this market, who knows?

El Salvador has clinched a $1.6bn deal to revamp its port infrastructure. The investment backs President Nayib Bukele's vision for a Bitcoin City. Turkish-owned Yilport Holdings is footing the bill. They'll modernize two ports: Acajutla and La Unión. It's a record-breaking private investment for the country. Bukele broke the news on social media. He said Yilport would pump over $1.615bn into upgrading the Pacific Port of La Unión and modernizing Acajutla. La Unión's current facilities are a ghost town. Ships rarely dock there due to dated infrastructure. The deal gives Yilport and CEPA, the local port commission, a 50-year lease. It's a long-term play to breathe life into the ports and boost regional logistics. CEPA's president, Federico Anliker, is pumped. "El Salvador is becoming a very important logistics hub in Latin America," he said. He reckons it'll beef up the country's global trade game. The project kicks off late 2024. They're taking it step by step to avoid disrupting operations. This port overhaul ties into a bigger dream: Bitcoin City. Bukele pitched this futuristic metropolis back in 2021. The plan? Zero taxes and Bitcoin mining powered by geothermal energy. The upgraded ports will serve as Bitcoin City's lifeline. They'll handle the logistics and trade needs, aiming to lure more investment. Bitcoin City isn't just about crypto. It's set to be a full-blown urban center with homes, businesses, and leisure spots. Originally, crypto bonds were supposed to fund it. It's a bold move that shows El Salvador's commitment to embracing digital currencies. Crypto buffs are watching closely. They're curious to see if El Salvador can pull off this economic gambit. The $1.6bn project is a big deal for El Salvador. It could turn the country into a regional powerhouse for transit and trade. Plus, teaming up with a Turkish big shot might create jobs and more opportunities. It's a risky bet, no doubt. But if it pays off, El Salvador could be sitting pretty. Only time will tell if Bukele's vision will pan out or if it's just a pipe dream.

The FBI has given a standard "Glomar response" to a journalist's request for info on Satoshi Nakamoto. They won't confirm or deny having records on Bitcoin's creator. Investigative journalist Dave Troy shared this development on X on August 13. The FBI's response hinted that Satoshi might be a "third party individual". Troy plans to appeal the decision. He's not after Satoshi's identity. He just wants to know what the FBI has on the subject. Satoshi's true identity has been a hot topic since 2008. That's when the Bitcoin whitepaper dropped. No one's cracked the code yet. Some reckon it might be Hal Finney, an early Bitcoin contributor. Finney passed away in 2014. Troy thinks if the FBI thought Finney was Satoshi, they'd have no issue releasing his file. This isn't the first time the FBI's played hard to get. A similar request in 2018 got the same non-answer. Craig Wright, the Aussie computer scientist, has long claimed to be Satoshi. But he might be in hot water now. He could face perjury charges in a UK court for his statements. In a plot twist, Wright recently slapped a legal disclaimer on his website. It says he's not Satoshi. This comes after eight years of saying he was. We know next to nothing about the real Satoshi. Their P2P Foundation profile suggests an April 5, 1975 birthday. Go figure. The last we heard from Satoshi was in 2011. They told developers they'd "moved on to other things". Talk about ghosting an entire community. So, the Satoshi mystery continues. The FBI's tight-lipped response has only added fuel to the fire. It's got the crypto world buzzing again as we will probably never calm down about the fact we don't know the identity of the man who is responsible for all that crypto hysteria.

An early Ethereum investor is making waves in the crypto market. They've deposited 48,500 ETH to an exchange over the past month. This comes as Ether's market cap took an $80 billion hit. The whale bought 1 million ETH at $0.31 during the ICO. That was 3,300 days ago. Now, they're cashing out at an average of $3,176 per ETH. Talk about a windfall. The ROI? A mind-boggling 1,024,416%. Not too shabby for a nine-year wait. The whale's been busy. They've made 17 transactions to OKX in the past month. The deposits started small but ramped up. The last three were 5,000 ETH each. There's still 15,600 ETH left in the whale's wallet. If they keep selling, we could see another $41 million hit the market soon. But it's not just this whale making moves. Block Tower Capital sold 9,232 ETH worth about $25 million. They used FalconX, Cumberland, Wintermute, and B2C2Group to do it. Interestingly, despite these big sales, ETH is actually leaving exchanges overall. CryptoQuant data shows exchange reserves dropped from 17.1 million to 16.8 million in August. The launch of the spot Ethereum ETF hasn't helped prices either. Net inflows are still negative, thanks to outflows from Grayscale's ETHE. Ether's price is having a rough Q3. It's currently sitting at $2,649. So what's next for ETH? With whales cashing out and ETFs not providing the expected boost, it's anyone's guess. But one thing's for sure - the crypto world is never dull.

Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, is set to convert Monero balances to USDC. The process starts September 2. It's part of their plan to delist the privacy coin. The exchange dropped this bombshell in a blog post on August 12. They'll be converting 15 tokens in total, including XMR. The conversion will wrap up by March 1, 2025. Binance isn't rushing this. They're taking their sweet time. The conversion rate? It'll be based on the average exchange rate over six months. XMR isn't the only casualty. Other tokens getting the chop include Bitcoin Gold and MobileCoin. Users can still withdraw these assets until September 1, 2024. Surprisingly, Monero seems unfazed. It's trading at $149.38, down a mere 0.2% since yesterday. Talk about resilience. But not everyone's happy. Mykola Siusko, a Web3Privacy Now contributor, isn't mincing words. He told Decrypt, "Binance is widening the gap between original decentralization ethos and regulated surveillance capitalism." Siusko didn't stop there. He added, "Basically, they are proving to be a part of surveillance apparatus." Ouch. Privacy coins like Monero are a hot potato. They're designed to keep transactions under wraps. Advocates love 'em. Critics? Not so much. These coins use fancy tech to hide transaction details. It's like digital cash on steroids. Popular ones include Zcash and Dash. But they're not without issues. Regulators are giving them the side-eye. Some exchanges are showing them the door. Yet, they're still gaining traction among privacy buffs.

Amir Taaki, a veteran Bitcoin developer, has created what he claims is the world's first fully anonymous onchain decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). The project aims to "defend freedom" in the digital realm. Taaki announced the launch on X on August 12. "More than ever, we need anonymous DAOs to defend freedom," he stated. The DAO's design ensures complete anonymity. It's invisible on the blockchain. So is its treasury and transactions. Member identities and token ownership? Hidden. Proposals and voting? You guessed it – also anonymous. "Everything about this DAO is designed to be completely anonymous and invisible on the blockchain," Taaki explained. The system allows for calling any smart contract. This includes treasury fund transfers. DAO actions remain concealed. Payments don't reveal treasury info. Receivers stay anonymous. Taaki argues that DAOs should be "anonymous and subversive". His main goal? Protection against oppressive regimes. "DAOs were envisioned as the post-corporate online future for mobilization and wealth creation of communities," he said. "This vision got stuck and eventually fizzled out." The British-Iranian hacktivist slammed the current state of the internet. He claims it's too reliant on surveillance and data harvesting. Anonymous DAOs, in his view, could create free, uncensored, and sovereign online organizations. Taaki is working with DarkFi. The team claims to be developing anonymous tools for online organizations. Their aim? To harness "the true power of cryptocurrency." The project has turned heads in the crypto community. Nick Almond, CEO of Factory Labs, called it "cypherpunk AF". He added, "It's a primitive. A privacy building block. My mind is bending with how this changes DAO game theory. Gonna be interesting." DAO governance has been a tricky business for crypto and DeFi projects. Management challenges stem from the lack of traditional hierarchies. This can lead to unclear leadership roles. Another issue? Unequal token distribution. It can centralize control into the hands of a few whales. This goes against decentralization principles. Several DeFi protocols, like Uniswap and Compound Finance, have faced such governance issues in recent years. Will Taaki's invisible DAO solve these problems? Or will it create new ones? Only time will tell. But one thing's for sure – the crypto world is watching.

Cardano leapfrogs Ethereum in developer activity. It's now third among top cryptocurrencies. Santiment, an on-chain intel platform, spilled the beans on August 6. The rankings are based on GitHub activity. Cardano scored 452.85. Its market cap is $12.05 billion. Ethereum took a nosedive, landing in ninth place. Internet Computer (ICP) topped the list. It scored 570.1. Hedera (HBAR) came second with 468.03. Cardano's been busy. It's rolling out multiple projects. The Chang hard fork is on the horizon. It'll shake up Cardano's governance structure. Dave, a Cardano enthusiast, tweeted some juicy details. About 66.47% of blocks are now Chang-ready. The upgrade's meant to beef up security and stability. This leap over Ethereum is a big deal. It shows Cardano's got grit, even when the market's in a funk. But Ethereum's not out of the game yet. Other big names made the top 10 too. Chainlink, Optimism, Cosmos, Starknet, Ethstatus, and Polkadot all showed up to the party. Cardano's price is perking up a bit. It's up 14.41% over the week. Trading volume's jumped 49.66% in 24 hours. As of writing, Cardano's trading at $0.33. It's had a rough month, but things are looking up. At least that's what the numbers are saying. Javon Marks, a crypto analyst, is pretty bullish on Cardano. He reckons it could hit $5 in this cycle. That's some serious optimism right there. So, what's the takeaway? Cardano's making waves in the dev world. It's giving the big boys a run for their money. But in crypto, things change fast. Keep your eyes peeled.

Marathon Digital Holdings is making waves. The US-based Bitcoin mining firm has a new trick up its sleeve. They're stamping "Made in USA" on all Bitcoin blocks they mine stateside. The company announced this move on X. "MARA is Team USA, proudly declared in each American-made bitcoin block we mine," they wrote. CEO Fred Thiel is all in on this patriotic push. He's committed to labeling US-mined blocks with the stamp. Every block from their MARA Pool in the States will get the "Made in USA" tag. Thiel's pretty chuffed about it. He reckons Marathon's the only big player who can pull this off. "The only large scale miner who can do this because we run our own pool," he boasted. This stunt follows Donald Trump's recent Bitcoin comments. The presidential hopeful wants all remaining Bitcoin to be "Made in the USA." He made this claim on his social media platform, Truth Social. Trump sees Bitcoin as a potential shield. He thinks it could be "our last line of defense" against a central bank digital currency (CBDC). But not everyone's on the same page. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said in March that the US is "nowhere near" any form of CBDC. At the Bitcoin 2024 conference, Thiel shared his two cents. He reckons Bitcoin mining could "flourish" under Trump. The exec thinks Republicans have "seized the day" on this topic. Marathon Digital isn't just stamping Bitcoin. They're also buying it up like there's no tomorrow. On July 25, they snapped up $100 million worth of BTC as a treasury reserve asset. The company's going "full hodl" on Bitcoin. That's crypto-speak for holding onto their coins for dear life. They're not stopping there, either. On August 12, Marathon announced a $250 million offering of senior convertible notes. The plan? Use the cash to buy even more Bitcoin. Looks like they're betting big on the red, white, and blue of Bitcoin mining.