Blockchain
This company is bringing DeFi to 140 million users thanks to a $50 million round of venture capital


Alameda Research, the company behind the FTX exchange, has led a funding round that raised $50 million to create a DeFi ecosystem on Maps.me, an offline mapping application. The funding will enable a multi-currency wallet to be launched on the Maps.me platform, unlocking decentralized payments for the app’s 140 million users.
Popular offline mapping app receives $50 million in funding from major investors
A hugely popular offline mapping app Maps.me has just raised $50 million in funding to bring decentralized finance to its 140 million users. According to a press release shared with CryptoSlate, the funding round was led by Alameda Research, the company behind the FTX cryptocurrency exchange.
Genesis Capital, a Hong Kong-based investment firm, and CMS Holdings, a principal investment firm focused on the crypto industry, also participated in the round.
The funding will be used to introduce an embedded multi-currency wallet on the Maps.me mobile app, effectively unlocking the world of decentralized finance to tens of millions of new users. Maps.me said that the wallet will be able to provide access to turn-by-turn routing, travel guides, and hotel bookings, as well as process “a wide range of payment and investment tools in the Maps.me ecosystem.”
Introducing the world of decentralized finance to Maps.me users
The wallet embedded in the app will allow users to store value and earn yields of up to 8 percent. Users can also use the wallet to exchange funds, send money, and get cash back on transactions made through the app.
One of the biggest goals of Maps.me is to use the funding to combat the high fees seen on foreign exchanges. The company said that banks and third-party travel booking platforms also have extremely high commissions that make travel bookings a burden. The goal of the wallet, representatives from the company said, is to enable users to make direct bookings with near-zero fees.
Alex Grebnev, the co-founder of Maps.me, said that the company was looking forward to working with Alameda Research as the company has achieved significant scale in terms of its number of users.
Alameda Research noted that the main reason behind investing in Maps.me was the potential the platform has to bring about new users to the world of decentralized finance. Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and CEO of Alameda and FTX, said:
“By embedding and democratizing access to yield-earning finance to millions of users via an everyday app, Maps.me has the potential to really propel DeFi mainstream adoption and bring a groundbreaking technology to the masses.”
Users of the FTX exchange can participate in the IEO of the MAPS token on the FTX platform. The token will be issued both on the Solana blockchain as an SPL token and on Ethereum as an ERC-20 token. The exchange limited the IEO to users whose accounts are KYC2 and ve either 1,000 FTT staked or a 30-day trading volume of at least $50,000.
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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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DISCLAIMER Read More
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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