Blockchain
DeFi surge, rising TVL and new partnerships underpin Ren’s 100% rally

Interoperability between blockchains is rapidly becoming one of the buzz phrases being thrown around when discussing decentralized finance and the coins most likely to rally during an altcoin bull run.
The rapid growth of DeFi, its ever expanding total value locked and soaring ETH gas fees further highlight the sector’s need for a layer 2 option that also supports the ability to transact value across different networks.
REN’s open protocol is designed specifically to fill this need by providing interoperability and liquidity between the top blockchains including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Zcash.
Over the past three weeks the price of REN has increased by more than 200%, going from $0.251 on Dec. 27 to a new all-time high of $0.778 on Jan. 20 driven by a record $369 million in 24-hour volume.

Three reasons for the recent price surge in the price of REN include the announcement of a collaboration with Google, the continued increase in total value locked on the platform and the ability to earn passive income in multiple cryptocurrencies through the operation of a darknode.
Google software pivot boosts sentiment, addresses RENvm scaling issues
On Jan.19 the REN team tweeted:
Ren has been researching & building on @Asylodev, an open and flexible framework by @Google. @GCPCloud confidential computing relaxes RenVM’s economic constraints, allowing for an unbounded scaling solution. #RenVM.”
Not long after the tweet, REN price began to rally to a new all-time high. As mentioned in the tweet, Asylo is an open and flexible framework from Google designed to help build portable applications that run on Secure Enclave hardware.
The secure enclave hardware allows users to run general-purpose applications in a secure environment where both the data, and the application itself, cannot be compromised by anyone, including the user. This makes for a more secure experience for all parties involved and helps protect against malicious code and backdoor attacks.
Asylo also makes it possible to port an application from one type of hardware to the next, meaning that developers can support multiple implementations with relative ease, including Intel implementations, AMD implementations, and any others that appear in the future. The diversity of choice this allows is an important feature to ensure decentralization on the network.
Total value locked soars to a new high
Community engagement and added value are key factors when it comes to the long-term success of a blockchain project.
Since the release of the Ren virtual machine mainnet (RenVM) in May 2020, engagement on the platform has steadily increased as Bitcoin holders now had another way to bring their BTC to Ethereum and the growing DeFi space.
As seen in the chart below, the total value locked on the Ren platform reached a new all-time high of $653.6 million on Jan. 20 and a total of 14,670 BTC are locked on the platform to create renBTC.

The list of assets that RenVM supports continues to grow with BTC, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Zcash (ZEC), Filecoin (FIL), Terra (LUNA), Dogecoin (DOGE) and Digibyte (DGB) currently available to transact on the Ethereum and Binance blockchains.
Development is currently underway to make it possible to interact on the Polkadot (DOT), Solana (SOL) and Cosmos (ATOM) networks as well, which would further enhance the interoperability provided.
Darknodes, passive income and a decreasing supply
The third driving force behind the recent price appreciation of REN relates to the Ren token use case and how it can help users earn passive income. RenVM is a network of virtual computers that make up a virtual machine, which are also referred to as Darknodes.
REN token holders who wish to operate a darknode need to lock up 100,000 REN which wiil enable them to process transactions on the network and earn a fee in the form of the token transacted. Thus, a darknode operator has the opportunity to earn passive income in the form of multiple different cryptocurrencies from one location.

As can be seen in the above graphic, 17.13% of REN’s total supply is currently bonded on the platform and supports the operation of darknodes.
During the most recently completed cycle, the network as a whole earned $839,128 in fees in the form of BTC, ZEC, FIL and BCH. The total network fees collected since the launch of the RenVM equals $2.975 million.
The continued addition of new tokens and interoperability with new blockchains will likely see increased usage of the network and an increase in the amount of fees earned. At the current price of $0.6157 it costs $61,570 to operate a darknode.

As activity on the network increases, the amount of fees generated will also increase, making it even more lucrative for token holders to operate a darknode. This has the potential to lead to further price appreciation from REN as every new darknode results in a direct decrease in its circulating supply.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
Blockchain
Tether Gets 500 BTC Ransom: Sender Threats to Leak Harmful Documents


Tether, the company issuing the most widely-used stablecoin, USDT, has revealed that it got a ransom demand for 500 BTC. The sender has threatened the company to leak documents to the public that would “harm the bitcoin ecosystem.”
Tether Gets a 500 BTC Ransom Demand
Tether, the issuer of the popular USDT stablecoin, took it to Twitter to reveal that someone had threatened to leak documents to the public in an attempt to “harm the bitcoin ecosystem.”
The company explained that “forged documents are circulating online purporting to be between Tether personnel and reps of Deltec Bank & Trust and others. The documents are bogus.”
Furthermore, Tether explained that they’ve also received a ransom demanding 500 BTC, which is currently worth around $23.6 million. They also revealed that unless the ransom is paid, the sender would “leak documents to the public in an effort to harm the bitcoin ecosystem.” Also, Tether has no intention of paying the money.
What Now?
At the time of this writing, there’s no further information on what’s going to happen next.
It is unclear whether this is a basic extortion scheme like those directed at other crypto companies or people looking to undermine Tether and the crypto community as a whole. Either way, those seeking to harm Tether are getting increasingly desperate.
The company also said that the “forged communications and the associated ransom demand” were reported to law enforcement.
Interestingly enough, all of this comes about a week after Tether and Bitfinex reached a settlement with the office of the New York Attorney General, putting an end to a year-long lawsuit that many thought could really harm the ecosystem. Nevertheless, the company admitted to no wrongdoings and agreed to pay an $18.5 million fine.
However, as part of the settlement deal, the company has also agreed to no longer be able to deal with customers from New York.
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Blockchain
Litecoin Price Analysis: 01 March

The cryptocurrency market has been moving in a wave-like fashion with continuous crests and troughs. The market has been seeing spurts of growth in the price, but it did not trigger a price swing. Litecoin [LTC], also witnessed such a push in its price recently, but at the time of writing, the coin continued to move within a tight range.
The digital asset has a market capitalization of $10.99 billion and was being traded at $163.94.
Litecoin 1-hour chart

Source: LTCUSD on TradingView
The above chart of Litecoin has been noting the price consolidation between $155 and $181. Before the drop to this level, LTC was trading between $169 and $181 for a while. However, sudden selling pressure pushed it to this new price level.
This could mean that the LTC market may further this phase of consolidation as momentum in the Bitcoin market also noted a similar trend.
Reasoning
The Bitcoin market has been pushing the price of most altcoins in the market. Now that, the digital asset moves sideways after a little pump, the alts are also showing signs of consolidation.
Litecoin has shown that the volatility in its market has comparatively decreased as the Bollinger Bands converged. Meanwhile, the 50 moving average and signal line were beginning to witness a bearish crossover, which could be just a sign for the price to retrace within the above-mentioned range.
The Relative Strength Index has climbed to equilibrium due to the boost in price. This meant that the buyers and sellers were equal in the market, and hinted towards yet another spell of sideways movement for LTC. Meanwhile, the awesome oscillator noted the lack of momentum in the market.
Conclusion
The current trend prominent in the LTC market was of consolidation between $155 and $169. There has been bearishness evolving in the market, but the price swing may not be visible in the short-term.
Source: https://ambcrypto.com/litecoin-price-analysis-01-march
Blockchain
LetsExchange Launches Crypto Trading Service With Smart Exchange Rates

For each trade, LetsExchange instantly selects the best rate across the world’s leading crypto exchanges and lets the trader secure this rate at the beginning of the transaction.
Cryptocurrency trading can be a very lucrative activity. Because of the price volatility of many coins, the possibilities to make gains through short-term trading are big. Two factors influence the outcome of a trade. First, the trader must buy crypto at the best possible rate. And second, the trader must be able to buy or sell the crypto assets without delays.
The LetsExchange platform has been designed to maximize traders’ gains by facilitating the two factors mentioned above. With the use of this service, traders can get the most profitable exchange rate available on the market at a given moment. What’s more, the platform ensures that the said rate remains unchanged until the trade is completed.
This newly launched service also eliminates delays in the processing of transactions by waiving registration, KYC screening, and other authentication and authorization procedures. The platform’s founders elaborate on these features that allow traders to maximize their gains:
- The registration process and KYC authentication are time-consuming. Traders usually cannot afford to waste much time in such procedures as the cryptocurrency market is volatile, and exchange rates may change significantly within a few minutes. With LetsExchange, traders can benefit from these fluctuations by buying and selling cryptocurrencies as soon as they decide, without hassle and delays.
- LetsExchange works with the world’s top crypto exchanges including Binance, Okex, KuCoin, Gate, Huobi, and more. By using its SmartRate technology, the platform always offers the most profitable rate across all the exchanges. In this way, traders won’t waste time in comparing rates and researching the market status at a given moment.
- This platform offers the possibility to secure the most profitable exchange rate by selecting the Fixed Rates option. This feature will maintain the said rate unchanged until the completion of the trade. But if a trader prefers to forecast the rate fluctuations in a bid to maximize their gain, the floating rates option allows doing it. Each trader has the freedom to choose the most convenient strategy.
- Thanks to the use of fully automated exchange algorithms, the only delay in the processing time of a transaction depends on the network speed of the selected cryptocurrency. During Beta testing of the platform, the average transaction time was 25 seconds.
The LetsExhange platform at https://letsexchange.io is now ready to help traders maximize their gains by guaranteeing the best rates and eliminating unnecessary delays.
About LetsExchange
LetsExchange is a one-stop multicurrency exchange service free of registration, limits, and complications. It supports 210+ coins, about 45,000 currency pairs and automatically selects the best rate across all major crypto exchanges for each trade. Built by a team of crypto visionaries with 10+ years of experience in the blockchain space and fintech, LetsExchange saves your time at each step of a crypto swap and amplifies your trading revenue.
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The views expressed in the article are wholly those of the author and do not represent those of, nor should they be attributed to, ZyCrypto. This article is not meant to give financial advice. Please carry out your own research before investing in any of the various cryptocurrencies available.
Source: https://zycrypto.com/letsexchange-launches-crypto-trading-service-with-smart-exchange-rates/
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