Blockchain
Flash Crash! Bitcoin dips below $10,000, Ethereum drops 12%
The first and second largest coins by market cap suffered heavy defeats this week.


It was too good to be true: What goes up must come down. Still, traders were disappointed by today’s Ethereum flash crash of not-quite 12% and Bitcoin’s latest drop of 2%.
Here’s what happened to Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap. All was going well for ETH this week, which on Wednesday hit $487, its highest price since the summer of 2018, according to metrics site CoinMarketCap. Then, like a flaming plane searching for a cornfield to land on, Ethereum started to nosedive. It finally hit the ground this morning, falling from $385 to $339, its lowest price since the end of July. Its crash scuppered the profits of local yield farmers; decentralized finance coin YFI fell by 27% over the past 24 hours.
(A little explanation for the labored metaphor: this summer’s ETH boom can be in part attributed to the rise of decentralized finance, or DeFi. DeFi, a catch-all term for non-custodial financial services, runs almost exclusively on the Etheruem blockchain, so an easy way to access its protocols is to swap ETH tokens for DeFi coins. Lots of DeFi protocols offered extra DeFi coins as a reward for investing lots of money in them. That’s called yield farming. So when ETH took a hit, so did the rest of the yield farming market).
Bitcoin’s fall looks a little more graceful since its price only dropped by 2% in the past 24 hours, per CoinMarketCap. But take a closer look and the largest cryptocurrency by market cap is just as wounded. First, Bitcoin’s fell from $12,000 this week. Its price hit in the past 24 hours is the latest of three sharp jabs in the gut this week.
And on some crypto exchanges, such as Binance, Bitcoin briefly fell below $10,000. (According to CoinMarketCap, its price is $10,202 right now). That’s significant, because Bitcoin’s price hasn’t fallen below $10,000 since the beginning of the summer. And it spent the spring recovering from its previous fall from $10,000, which occurred back in March due to the pandemic.
Is this summer’s bull run finally coming to an end?
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.
Source: https://decrypt.co/40970/flash-crash-bitcoin-dips-below-10000-ethereum-drops-12
Blockchain
Blockchain and crypto will challenge current finance, Nigeria VP says


Nigeria’s vice president, Yemi Osinbajo, delivered a speech at an economic summit on Friday in which he spoke positively of crypto and blockchain.
“There is no question that blockchain technology generally, and cryptocurrencies in particular, will in the coming years, challenge traditional banking, including reserve banking, in ways that we cannot yet imagine,” Osinbajo said on Friday during the Central Bank of Nigeria, or CBN, Bankers’ Committee Economic Summit. “We need to be prepared for that seismic shift, and it may come sooner than later,” he said.
The Nigerian vice president also noted the broadness of the crypto industry, mentioning decentralized finance, or DeFi, in the mix. “Decentralized finance, using smart contracts to create financial instruments, in place of central financial intermediaries, such as banks or brokerages, is set to challenge traditional finance,” he said.
Osinbajo’s speech, which included a number of other points, is posted on his YouTube channel. The Nigerian vice president also tweeted out a video clip highlighting of some of his crypto comments from his talk.
“The point I’m making, is that some of the exciting developments we see call for prudence and care in adopting them and these have been very well-articulated by our regulatory authorities,” he said, adding:
“But we must act with knowledge and not with fear. We must ensure that we are in a position to benefit and in a position to prevent any of the adverse side effects, or any of the possible, even criminal, acts that may arise in consequence of adopting or taking any of these options.”
The comments come in contrast to recent developments in Nigeria. Earlier in February, Nigeria forbade banking interactions with crypto exchanges, as per a ruling from its central bank. The CBN’s governor also called crypto assets illegitimate. Bitcoin recently traded at a significant premium in the region.
Blockchain
‘Bitcoin could reach $1 million or $1, and may do both of those’


While many analysts predict that either Bitcoin could increase to a million or fall to a dollar, a popular businessman and investor based in the US thinks that the asset could do both!
In a recent interview with Joe Kernen at CNBC’s Squawk Box, Internet analyst Henry Blodget of the dot com era fame said:
Bitcoin could go to $1 million… it could also go to $1. And in fact it may do both of those
In addition, Blodget, who also served as the head of the global Internet research team at Merrill Lynch, is unconvinced about the asset’s value proposition. He claimed that Bitcoin as an inflationary hedge and the narrative surrounding its value as ‘digital gold’ were “stories”. He further added:
But the stories that we tell about why relative to the value of gold or other currencies, they’re ludicrous.
In his opinion, Bitcoin can trade just about anywhere because it does not have any fundamental backing. He said that unlike traditional stocks, “which usually does have some relationship ultimately to a fundamental,” of a company, “Bitcoin doesn’t, so that means it can trade anywhere.”
The entrepreneur thinks that crypto exchange Gemini’s CEO Tyler Winklevoss could eventually be “exactly right,” in his forecast that the asset could surge to a million. However, Blodget said:
If people were to decide that for the next couple of hundred years Bitcoin is where you park your money when you take it out of the fiat system, OK, it’s possible.
Interestingly, while crypto Twitter and Bitcoin enthusiasts, in particular, called out the analyst’s criticism, they commended the interviewer’s counter-argument. CNBC’s Joe Kernen seemed to even “speak the language” of the crypto space as one twitter user named @HodlBells noted:
@JoeSquawk I didn’t think you understood the value prop of bitcoin. You do! You’re way ahead of the bulk of your generation. Particularly those who have profited the most off the petro-dollar. Look forward to you speaking their language and translating the future for them! Thx!
— Hodl Bells (@HodlBells) February 26, 2021
Source: https://ambcrypto.com/bitcoin-could-reach-1-million-or-1-and-may-do-both-of-those
Blockchain
Crypto platform NetCents to offer users access to DeFi protocols thru Vesto


NetCents, a cryptocurrency payments company, today announced it has signed an agreement with Vesto.io to pave the way for DeFi access in the NetCents platform.
Vesto, is a San Francisco-based company that has created a platform allowing users to choose from multiple DeFi protocols in a virtual supermarket. NetCents (with regulatory approval) intends on enabling a portal to the Vesto infrastructure from the NetCents wallet in order to facilitate user’s adoption of DeFi investing in an efficient and easy-to-understand interface.
“We have seen the DeFi space explode over the past year, but for it to reach the next level – the tools and the process has to be attainable by the novice crypto investor. We will be adding a layer of simplification to the process so that individuals can have their savings actually working for them without the complexity of the current platforms. Individuals have the right to lend their money at market-based rates instead of getting 1% interest on their savings that the commercial banks are offering.”
– Clayton Moore, NetCents Founder & CEO
LOI
The Letter of Intent (LOI) contemplates a Joint Venture between parties and an option for NetCents to invest in Vesto and hold a significant ownership stake in the company at a future date.
Management of NetCents also informed investors that many of the concepts embraced by these DeFi platforms have not been vetted by the many authorities that regulate financial products. NetCents intends to work together with regulators to navigate this landscape and resolve it with a compliant product.
For Example: Fintech businesses seeking to bring a novel product or service to the market can seek regulatory relief through regulatory sandboxes such as the Ontario Securities Commission’s LaunchPad or the British Columbia Securities Commission’s SandBox.
Furthermore, businesses that distribute, trade, or advise in crypto assets that are securities are required to comply with securities laws (in particular, registration and prospectus requirements), which can be onerous. There are many exemptions for specific types of distributions, trades, and other activities and NetCents intends to research these exemptions rigorously. These exemptions, at a high level, may limit the types of investors that can participate or the investment amounts, or may require the preparation of disclosures to investors and filing of a disclosure document.
-
Blockchain4 days ago
Ankr adds Eth2 futures (fETH) to its staking system
-
Blockchain1 week ago
Motley Fool adding $5M in Bitcoin to its ‘10X portfolio’ — Has a $500K price target
-
Blockchain1 week ago
The Graph adds support for Polkadot, NEAR, Solana and Celo
-
Blockchain5 days ago
Ripple now registered as a Wyoming business
-
Blockchain1 week ago
Corporate FOMO
-
Blockchain5 days ago
Former BoE, BoC Governor Mark Carney joins Stripe board of directors
-
Blockchain4 days ago
Peter Schiff Now Discusses Bitcoin More Often Than His Beloved Gold
-
Blockchain1 week ago
Nvidia Announced the CMP HX Dedicated GPUs for Professional Crypto Mining