Search results: Solana

NFTs accounts banned from WeChat due to “crypto speculation”. Meanwhile, Zilliqa on the rise after Metapolis announcement.

Ethereum’s transition to proof-of-stake promises to dramatically lower energy consumption, curbing greenhouse gas emissions that would require an annual offset by a forest roughly the size of Belgium.

Volatility has been the name of the game in the past few months, but experts tell Forkast that may be coming to an end.

Growth drivers of the NFT ecosystem The growing popularity of NFTs is stunning, having risen from several hundred million dollars in sales when the market first started, to around US$20 billion in 2021. We believe the exponential growth seen around the world can be explained by the product-market fit: NFTs have effectively provided a bridge […]

The world’s first NFT dates back to 2014, when New York artist Kevin McCoy’s animation known as Quantum was originally minted on Namecoin, a blockchain forked from Bitcoin. Quantum eventually sold for US$1.47 million at a Sotheby’s auction in June 2021, but its host blockchain is buried deep in the history of NFTs, rarely visited […]

As NFTs continue to draw new users, hacks and scams have begun to surface in the nascent industry. According to blockchain analytics company Chainalysis, the two most popular NFT-related crimes are money laundering and wash trading. The amounts involved are, however, relatively small with Chainalysis estimating that such criminal activities generated illicit profits of US$10 […]

In March 2021, a non-fungible token (NFT) in the form of artist Beeple’s digital collage sold for US$69 million at a Christie’s auction. It created a buzz among retail and professional investors who began to take a serious look into this new revenue stream for digital artists. Around the same time, Dapper Labs’ NBA Top […]

Traditional banks are failing the nearly 2 billion people in the world without access to financial services, writes Khalid Howladar. But DeFi can be a lifeline.

The rapid rise of NFTs has sparked concerns about speculative bubbles as well as the negative impact on the environment. As discussed earlier, China permits trading in NFTs so long as there is a holding period after each purchase. The country’s state media have also warned against speculative behavior surrounding NFTs.  In places such as […]

Inspired by the success of Beeple, Miguel Wang created CryptoTigers to generate pixelated tiger images for the Year of the Tiger.

The $320 million Wormhole hack laid bare the vulnerability of cross-chain bridges, writes Alex Smirnov of deBridge. How can we plug the gaps?

Cryptocurrencies have won credit for their role in Ukraine’s war, showing utility that will drive them beyond the battlefield, says Amber Group’s Michael Wu.

Stranded away from home, Web 3.0 company Everstake founder Sergey Vasylchuck realized he could still help his war-torn homeland Ukraine by raising funds through a DAO.

Decentralized finance (DeFi) total value locked (TVL) is taking a significant dip after pioneer and founder of Yearn Finance Andre Cronje quit crypto with his colleague and senior developer at the Fantom Foundation, Anton Nell, who announced their farewell on Sunday.  See related article: Fantom overtakes Binance Smart Chain in DeFi TVL Fast facts The […]

Crypto donations raised by the Ukrainian government alone since the Russian invasion topped US$38.8 million on Thursday, as funds flowing into alternative channels bring total contributions to at least US$60 million.  See related article: Ukraine crypto donations top $36M amid Russian invasion Fast facts Aid for Ukraine, a decentralized autonomous organization set up by the […]

Top blockchain and crypto news: Digital currency battling Russian invasion. Ethereum remains NFT projects’ chain of choice. China to lock up crypto traders.

Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov on Tuesday thanked crypto companies by name for their financial support in their defense against the Russian invasion. Fast facts “I am grateful to @gavofyork, who made an impressive donation of $5M from @Polkadot $DOT. This will certainly contribute to the Ukrainian victory as well as support civil […]

The global cryptocurrency market cap recovered above US$2 trillion since dropping below the mark in mid-February, in a US$200 billion 12-hour run.  See related article: Bitcoin, crypto market tank as Putin declares war on Ukraine Fast facts Bitcoin’s price jumped over US$2,000 in a 10-minute window from 6:30 am HKT Tuesday to mark a ceiling […]

The multi-faceted metaverse provides new channels for gaming, socialization, art exhibitions and more. Who’s leading the race and how?

The total number of unique non-fungible token (NFT) buyers on the Ethereum blockchain crossed the 1 million customers milestone on Sunday as the network’s gas fees slid to its lowest since August.  See related article: Ethereum price expected to hit $7,609 in 2022: report Fast facts NFT sales on Ethereum increased by 36.06% in the […]

More people in the region are in thrall to play-to-earn gaming as it adapts to offer real-world uses, says Infinity Ventures Crypto founding partner Brian Lu.

Axie Infinity breaks $4BN mark. Meanwhile, China’s brewing metaverse frenzy sees over 16,000 trademark applications.

Blockchain technology allows musicians to sell songs directly and earn more per song, writes Adi Ben-Ari of Applied Blockchain.

2022 will see a flowering ecosystem of blockchains working together, writes Will Harborne of DeversiFi. Here’s what the multi-chain future will look like.

Ethereum’s price is expected to reach US$7,609 this year, although it is expected to end the year at around US$6,500, according to Australian fintech Finder’s panel of 33 crypto specialists.  Fast facts In the long term, the panel predicted that Ethereum’s price will reach US$10,810 by the end of 2025, and US$26,338 by the end […]

Unique non-fungible token (NFT) buyers hit an all-time high (ATH) in January with more than 895,000 shoppers, according to data tracker CryptoSlam. Fast facts The new ATH recorded an almost 3,000% year-over-year increase and a 6.5% month-over-month growth. The number of unique sellers grew by almost 14% from December to January with 741,865 vendors, just […]

OpenSea is the world’s largest open marketplace for NFTs. Find out what’s driving everyone there in this Forkast explainer.

Klaytn, a public blockchain platform under South Korean internet giant Kakao, has joined China’s Blockchain-based Service Network’s (BSN) international infrastructure. Fast facts Klaytn’s joins fellow public blockchains Ethereum, Solana, Tezos and Polkadot in BSN International, to become accessible to the 25,000 developers in the ecosystem. The BSN is a Chinese state-backed project that is split […]

Top blockchain and crypto news: Market chills make investors shiver. Hacking storm at OpenSea. Has Beijing tamed NFTs?

Bitcoin and Ethereum fall below psychologically important levels as rising uncertainty clouds markets. Is the Fed also depressing crypto’s prospects?

The price of Bitcoin dropped below US$40,000 on Friday for the second time in two weeks, in the face of headwinds from the Russian central bank’s call to ban crypto trading. Fast facts Bitcoin lost up to 11% on Friday morning Asia time and was trading at US$38,599 at press time, according to CoinMarketCap. The […]

Top blockchain and crypto news: Asian governments target crypto. Managing MATIC. China’s expanding metaverse.

Solana-based non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace Burnt Finance, best known for burning then tokenizing street artist Banksy’s artwork, announced on Tuesday an $8 million Series A funding round led by Animoca Brands. Fast facts Other investors in this round include Alameda Research, Multicoin Capital, Valor Capital, Figment, Spartan Capital, HashKey, Terra and Fantom.  Burnt Finance got […]

Cardano’s ADA edged out Bitcoin as the currency of choice in a Twitter poll posted by Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin on a hypothetical future without ETH. Fast facts Buterin asked his 3.1 million followers on Friday what currency, aside from Ethereum, they would prefer to be used in 80% of all global transactions by 2035, […]

Bearish concerns over Federal Reserve rate hikes show a continued correlation with traditional markets, but industry watchers see changing dynamics at play.

Aventus CEO Alan Vey also predicts the decentralized finance rally is just getting started. Which blockchains does he see growing massively in the new year?

Looking beyond this year’s headlines like El Salvador’s Bitcoin adoption, here are the key developments in blockchain technology that will have lasting impact in the new year and beyond.

Ethereum was game-chaging at its 2015 launch, but today it’s showing its age. As Eth2 upgrades slowly unfold, who are the top rivals trying elbow out the #2 blockchain?

While increasing crypto adoption was predictable, 2021 also saw much that was unexpected. Here are the events that shocked even crypto natives.

Hackers scam 7,000 Solana, or US$1.3 million, from would-be buyers of a new NFT collection of the Monkey Kingdom project.

Bitcoin’s current price is not indicative of the crypto’s future prospects, says Mark Yusko, who looks forward to the tokenization of everything.

Not yet done with your holiday shopping? Here are ideas for all the loved ones on your list, whether they are tech-savvy or merely crypto-curious.

After two weeks of a downward price spiral, the market showed some signs of life this morning, with most coins managing to rise about 5% coming into business hours Asia time. AVAX, however, the native token of the Avalanche blockchain, gained almost 25% overnight to reach a two-week high of US$106.87 and finding itself in […]

The National Basketball Association has been ahead of the game in crypto adoption, but after a week of major developments, the league is now way out in front.

Justin Kan, co-founder of livestreaming platform Twitch, announced he will be launching Fractal, a new marketplace for gaming non-fungible tokens (NFTs). While the OpenSea NFT marketplace may be the largest, Fractal is not competing directly — it is betting on a niche in gaming NFTs. Fast facts The announcement comes days after a Twitch plug-in […]

Macroeconomic factors and a spate of bad news override bullish outlook in crypto market as the year lurches toward its end.

It’s come full circle: Shiba Inu holders can now spend their SHIB at GameStop — the company that helped trigger the memecoin trend.

OpenSea IPO plans in choppy waters. Crypto markets crumble. Bitcoin mining power struggles.

NFT privacy concerns meanwhile AussieMates raises mental health awareness

LUNA is now the 12th largest crypto, and Terra’s platform has been called ‘Alipay on the blockchain.’ What are Terra’s investment risks? Forkast.News explains.

The firm behind legendary sci-fi series Star Trek, Roddenberry Entertainment, has immortalized a key moment in entertainment history — in a way that may in time become an equally iconic moment in blockchain history. Gene Roddenberry’s signature on the first contract between himself and Lucille Ball’s Desilu Productions, which made Star Trek a reality, has […]

The Cosmos ecosystem is expanding rapidly with inter-blockchain transfers on the rise. What makes Cosmos different from other blockchains? Forkast.News explains.

Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum’s Ether (ETH) prices on Tuesday morning Asia time held their rebound from the Black Friday sell-off of global equities and cryptocurrencies following news of the new Covid-19 Omicron variant. Bitcoin was trading at US$57,184 and Ethereum at US$4,445, as of publishing time, according to CoinGecko data. Fast facts Institutional investors appear […]

As the NFT zeitgeist sweeps the world, the industry’s beating heart is in Asia, writes David Tng of TZ APAC. Here’s how Asia’s NFTs are changing business models.

Arbitrum is leading the way in Ethereum scaling, according to a new report by Nansen, a blockchain analytics platform. What are the challenges that lie ahead?

As social media’s influence on broader society continues to grow, decentralized platforms will mean less central moderation — for better or worse.

Algorand ‘re-imagines’ blockchain by trying to solve key weaknesses of Bitcoin. Learn about this wannabe Ethereum killer in this Forkast.News explainer.

Amid a sea of red in crypto markets today Avalanche is bucking the trend, gaining 130% since the start of the month to reach a new all-time high of US$146.22 and leaping over Dogecoin to enter the crypto top 10. This clears that list of memecoins for the first time since Dogecoin’s historic run in […]

Bitcoin continued its descent this morning Asia time and is currently trading around US$57,050 according to CoinGecko data. The largest cryptocurrency by market value saw a brief surge Monday, crossing the US$59,000 mark, but the rally was not sustained. Ethereum, too, is trading lower at US$4,169, down 15% from its Nov. 10 all-time high of […]

How blockchain technology can usher in the next stage of the internet and social media, through decentralized hosting and integration with cryptocurrency.

Crypto market cap plunges as South Korean banks head into metaverse

Every morning at Upbit, the nation’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, a brief and odd surge in random altcoin prices takes place. Which crypto will it be tomorrow?

Bitcoin continued its downtrend today to reach a low of $55,861, its lowest price this month. The world’s first cryptocurrency has dropped by 18.6% since reaching a fresh all-time high of over US$69,000 last week. Bitcoin’s price low comes amid struggles in the overall crypto market, which has lost over US$400 billion from its total […]

Blockchain-powered iVote.ph lets users ‘vote’ on NFTs depicting presidential candidates in the Philippines. Can the underlying technology be trusted?

Top blockchain and crypto news: Spot ETFs stymied as SEC stands firm. Is Bitcoin’s Taproot upgrade worth the wait? China’s crypto mining goes underground.

Scams like the Squid Game Token rug pull are every investor’s nightmare. How to avoid hoaxes and not feel like a fool? Forkast.News explains.

Cryptocurrency prices dropped again this morning Asia time, with Bitcoin and Ethereum trading 7% and 8% lower respectively in 24-hour trading, according to CoinGecko data. In the meanwhile, a new CoinShares report on institutional investing in cryptocurrency found record inflows year-to-date, suggesting that big investors overall are still bullish on crypto. Fast facts Bitcoin — the […]

Animoca Brands, a Hong Kong-based blockchain gaming unicorn, announced today that it has teamed up with Cube Entertainment, a major K-pop entertainment agency, to form a joint venture dedicated to building a music metaverse and issuing non-fungible tokens (NFTs), joining a slew of K-pop labels to make forays into the NFT and metaverse space. Fast […]

Developing regulations for decentralized finance is easier said than done. Attorneys Victor Ho, Andre Da Roza and Saranpaal Calais discuss the many legal and practical hurdles.

Ethereum’s sprawling Web 3.0 ecosystem — which includes the majority of the decentralized finance (DeFi), stablecoins, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and blockchain gaming worlds — continues to expand and draw users, with 3.4 million Ethereum addresses interacting with DeFi protocols, according to ConsenSys’ Web 3 Q3 2021 report published this week. Led by Ethereum co-founder Joseph […]

As speculation continues over the fate of the Chinese property development giant, crypto markets were not spared the downturn over fears of its potential collapse.

Co-founder and CEO of popular social media platform Discord, Jason Citron, has hinted at integration with Ethereum via wallets such as MetaMask by tweeting a screenshot of Discord connecting to the world’s number two blockchain along with the caption “probably nothing.” Fast facts It came in response to another tweet by writer Packy McCormick, which […]