crypto

Jun 26 2021

3 reasons why Quant (QNT) price rallied 125% this week

Real-world use cases and delivered value are important when evaluating the long-term prospects of a cryptocurrency project, and this is especially true in down markets when sentiment is low and the possibility of an extended bear market is a reality.

One project that has been gaining momentum over the past month despite the market-wide downturn is Quant (QNT), an interoperability-focused project designed to help enterprises integrate and operate distributed ledger technology (DLT).

*QNT/USDT 4-hour chart. Source:* *TradingView*

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that following a brief dip to $44 on June 22 as the entire crypto market faced a sell-off, the price of QNT surged more than 125% to establish a new record high at $99.11 on June 25.

Coinbase bump in full effect

The rapid turnaround in the price for QNT following the pullback was due in large part to its listing on Coinbase Pro, which began accepting deposits on June 23.

Inbound transfers for BOND, LPT & QNT are now available in the regions where trading is supported. Traders cannot place orders and no orders will be filled. Trading will begin on or after 9AM PT on Wed 6/24, if liquidity conditions are met. https://t.co/ozmX17nhsz

— Coinbase Pro (@CoinbasePro) June 23, 2021

Price action for QNT began to pick up on June 24 as trading via limit orders opened up on Coinbase Pro, and its addition to the front-side of Coinbase which includes the Andriod and iOS apps on June 25 saw another boost in trading volume and token price.

As a result of the momentum brought by the new listing, the average 24-hour trading volume for QNT soared on June 25.

Protocol upgrades attract attention

Prior to the Coinbase listing and market sell-off, QNT price began to gain traction around June 14 following the release of a mid-year technology update called Overledger 2.0. This is the project’s hallmark “DLT gateway that delivers interoperability across different systems, networks and DLTs,” according to the project’s website.

Excitement for the update had been building since early June as evidenced by the recognition Quant has received from several reputable sources including cloud infrastructure provider Oracle and the professional services network Deloitte, which included the project in its nominations for the Most Disruptive Fintech Award for 2021.

VORTECS™ data turned bullish ahead of Quant’s most recent rally

VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for QNT on June 22, prior to the recent price rise.

The VORTECS™ Score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historic and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.

*VORTECS™ Score (green) vs. QNT price. Source:* *Cointelegraph Markets Pro*

As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for Quant actually reached a high score of 71 on June 22 as the market was selling off and was subsequently followed by a 125% rally in price over the next three days.

The NewsQuake™ service from Cointelegraph Markets Pro also highlighted the Coinbase listing announcement on June 24, which was followed by a 50% increase in the price of QNT over the next two days.

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.

3 reasons why Quant (QNT) price rallied 125% this week

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Jun 25 2021

Altcoin Roundup: Stablecoin pools could be the next frontier for DeFi

In times like these, when the entire cryptocurrency market is down and there is nary a sector-wide runup to be found, traders have to dig into data to see how the market dynamics may have changed to pinpoint signs of new growth.

Stablecoins are the newest trend to emerge in the decentralized finance (DeFi) arena due to the resiliency they bring to the sector, especially since protocols that are more reliant on the dollar-pegged assets continue to offer token holders low-risk yield opportunities in turbulent market conditions.

Possible evidence of stablecoins rising influence can be found in the difference between the decline in Ether’s (ETH) price and the total value locked in smart contracts. The price of Ether declined by 20% more from its peak than the decline in the total TVL of the DeFi sector.

*TVL in smart contracts vs. Ether price decline. Source:* *Glassnode*

When one takes into account that most of the crypto market saw price declines on par with what Ether experienced, the fact that the DeFi TVL fell less percentage-wise than the price of Ether points to the stability offered by stablecoins.

Stablecoin marketcap increases tenfold

The total amount of stablecoins available in the market has skyrocketed from under $15 billion to more than $113 billion over the past year, led by Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC), bringing an increased level of liquidity to DeFi protocols.

*Top seven stablecoins by market capitalization. Source:* *CoinGecko*

The top stablecoins are included in a large percentage of the liquidity pool (LP) pairs available on DeFi platforms, as well as being included as a standalone token that users can deposit on protocols, such as Aave, to earn a yield. This further makes them an integral part of the burgeoning DeFi ecosystem.

Stablecoins have, in fact, led to the creation of a specialized subset of DeFi protocols, which focus on yield farming stablecoins and provide a safer way for investors to earn a yield while minimizing risk.

Early on in the DeFi craze, protocols attracted new users and deposits by offering high yields that were typically paid out in the native token of the protocol.

With a majority of DeFi tokens now down at least 75% from their all-time highs, according to data from Messari, many of the gains that users thought they made through staking and providing liquidity have evaporated, leaving little to show for the risks taken on these experimental platforms.

The battle for stablecoin liquidity

The rise of successful stablecoin-focused protocols such as Curve Finance, which is a decentralized exchange for stablecoins that uses an automated market maker to manage liquidity, platforms such as Yearn.finance, Convex Finance and Stake DAO battle to offer the best incentives that will attract a larger share of the Curve ecosystem.

Supplying stablecoins to Curve, or as a stablecoin LP like as a USDC/USDT pair, amounts to the blockchain version of a savings account. Many of the top protocols, including the three listed above, offer between 10% and 30% yields on average for stablecoins deposits.

Thanks to smart contracts, users can make deposits to automated, compounding stablecoin liquidy protocols, reducing the stress of the daily market gyrations.

*Total market capitalization of the top 100 DeFi tokens. Source:* *CoinGecko*

The aftermath of the May 19 sell-off is still impacting investors, and in times like these, the yield opportunities provided by supplying stablecoins to DeFi protocols is an attractive way to diversify a crypto portfolio and hedge against market downturns.

Want more information about diversification into the above-mentioned projects?

Altcoin Roundup: Stablecoin pools could be the next frontier for DeFi

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Jun 24 2021

50,000 electric vehicle charging stations in Europe to offer crypto payments

Two payments firms have partnered to roll out crypto payments across 50,000 electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in Europe.

The partnership is between Irish e-commerce and mobile payment solutions firm HIPS Payment Group Ltd and Vourity, a Swedish firm that specializes in unattended payment facilities such as EV charging stations.

The integration of crypto payments with charging stations will occur over the next three years starting from November 2021.

The firms haven’t revealed which cryptocurrencies will be supported yet, but Vourity has dropped a pretty strong hint that Ethereum is likely to be among the first after it released an image of a payment terminal with an ETH logo on it. Ethereum is moving to the much more energy efficient Proof-of Stake consensus mechanism in the next year, which could mitigate any backlash among environmentally conscious EV drivers.

“We are currently evaluating what cryptos/coins we will support. It will be converted to fiat,” stated Hans Nottehed, the CEO of Vourity.

Vourity payment terminal, with an ETH logo

Crypto payments will be integrated with Vourity’s EV charging stations by connecting to the blockchain via Hips Merchant Protocol’s native protocol token Merchant Token.

Back in May, HIPS Payment Group launched the HIPS Merchant Protocol, the HIPS Merchant Protocol Gateway, and its governing Merchant Token.

The protocol was built on Ethereum and Solana in May 2021 and plans to expand support to Cardano in the future.

“With near real-time transaction speeds, in addition, the Hips Merchant Blockchain is designed for merchant transactions regardless if they are mobile, instore or e-commerce and utilizes the interchange concept from the payment card industry,” HIPS noted in May.

EV crypto innovation

Tesla famously did a U-turn on accepting Bitcoin (BTC) payments for vehicles, with Elon Musk noting the firm won’t change course until the mining sector is at least 50% powered by clean energy. Other EV-focused firms have sought ways to innovate using “clean” crypto mining and adoption.

At the beginning of this month, Canadian light EV manufacturer Daymak announced an upcoming EV set for 2023, that is fitted with a crypto mining rig that can mine Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies while it’s charging or parked.

In March, Stellantis, the parent company of European car manufacturer Fiat, partnered with Kiri Technologies, to promote an “eco-driving style,” by rewarding Fiat EV drivers in cryptocurrency via Kiri Technologies’ KiriCoin.

In that same month, Volkswagen Group Innovation, the research department of German car Volkswagen, announced a partnership with Energy Web, a non-profit organization focused on open source energy transition.

The duo teamed up to research methods of using EV’s and charging stations as part of the power grid using blockchain.

Jesse Morris, the chief commercial officer of Energy Web, spoke with Cointelegraph and emphasized the benefits of tracking the integration between EVs, charging stations, and power grids using blockchain.

Morris mentioned that during times of local grid congestion, Volkswagen drivers could be incentivized not to charge by being paid out in crypto or fiat. Additionally, utility providers could pay EV drivers to store energy during times of excess generation on the power grid.

50,000 electric vehicle charging stations in Europe to offer crypto payments

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Jun 24 2021

How Polygon’s proposal to implement EIP-1559 will affect its network

Polygon (MATIC) is a crypto coin that experienced a rise of nearly 6962% in early 2021. Since then It has marked its name in the list of the top 20 crypto coins in the worldwide spectrum. Now, It is looking forward to implementing EIP-1559, which can significantly improve its network.

Recently, Polygon’s development team offered a proposal for the enactment of EIP-1559 on Polygon’s network after its implementation on the Ethereum blockchain under the London Network Upgrade.

Initially, Polygon MATIC was being marketed at 1.12 dollars at the time of writing and faced a significant rate dip on June 21. Nonetheless, it recovered quickly and upheld its dignity as the week’s Top crypto coin, preceded merely by Bitcoin.

What will change with the implementation of the EIP-1559?

As the development team of Polygon Matic announced that once their proposal is implemented in the upcoming London upgrade, they will enforce a revised edition of an Ethereum Improvement Plan-1559/(EIP-1559) on their network, the observers have anticipated that this move will greatly improve quality of polygon.

At present, EIP-1559 on the Ethereum platform charges a base fee to be burnt with every transaction and provides a priority fee that offers incentives to miners to carry out each transaction. However, On the polygon network, no burning base fee will be needed to implement the EIP-1559 since MATIC has a limited supply.

Proposal for implementing EIP-1559 on Polygon is open for discussion on the forum https://t.co/SlN5xWT3dA

— Polygon (@0xPolygon) June 19, 2021

The development team said that rather than burning the base fee, Polygon’s DAO would allow the community to deal with the issue. For this, the core contract account will be in action.

As summarized by the Polygon’s development team, the procedure of laying funds within the new contract is comparable to the future fee strategies for validators. Besides, any kind of deflationary tool would imply realignment of the payouts, allowing DAOs to use up some money for the improvement and maintenance of the network. The polygon team asserts that the practice will attract benefits for all validators for an extended period in the future.

Another improvement that we’ll see with EIP-1559 on Polygon is in regards to changing the present auction method of Ethreum’s transaction fees. The fee will now be decided using the method established by the algorithm instead of charging the standardized fee for the whole network.

The issuance limit on MATIC tokens is assigned at 10 billion MATIC. Thus, the limited supply of polygon MATIC that allows fee burns for each trade will theoretically be thanks making it is critical to reconsider the procedure of paying compensation.

Conclusion

Despite the recent decline in the gas taxes on Ethereum, people prefer to use the Polygon MATIC network. Based on recent data, the top 10 Decentralized Finance apps on the Polygon network enticed more than 242,000 different functional wallets, while Ethereum acquired merely 100,000 distinct active wallets in the past week.

How Polygon’s proposal to implement EIP-1559 will affect its network

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Jun 23 2021

$3.6B in Bitcoin vanishes in ‘hack’ along with owners of South African crypto platform

Around 69,000 Bitcoin has vanished from a South African investment platform along with two brothers who owned the crypto firm.

Although the facts are yet to be proven in court, if it turns to be an exit scam rather than a hack, it would be the biggest in history according to Bloomberg. There were warning signs for investors either way, with users reportedly promised returns of up to 10% a day.

AfriCrypt was founded in 2019 and operated by brothers Ameer and Raees Cajee. It had reportedly amassed around 54 billion rands worth of BTC, or $3.6 billion USD at the time, when it sent a message to investors on April 13 claiming the platform had been hacked.

The firm said it would halt operations while it began the process of “attempting to retrieve stolen funds and compromised information.”

South African law firm Hanekom Attorneys, which has taken the case on behalf of affected users, said suspicions were aroused as the message included the warning that: “clients may proceed the legal route, but we ask clients to please acknowledge that this will only delay the recovery process.”

“We were immediately suspicious as the announcement implored investors not to take legal action,” Hanekom Attorneys said. The law firm also claimed that “Africrypt employees lost access to the back-end platforms seven days before the alleged hack.”

Hanekom Attorneys alleges that the brothers transferred the 69,000 BTC — which is now worth $2.2 billion after the recent price tumble — from AfriCrypt’s accounts and client wallets, and subjected the funds “to various dark web tumblers and mixers, resulting in severe fragmentation” to make the funds untraceable.

The brothers have been unreachable, with calls going directly to voicemail, while the AfriCrypt website is also down. The law firm has reported the case to an elite unit of the national police dubbed the “Hawks.”

South Africa’s Gauteng South High Court has granted a provisional liquidation order against the Cajee brothers, and they have been given until July 19 2021 to respond to the order.

According to African online crypto news outlet BitcoinKe, AfriCrypt drew in clients by targeting high net worth investors and urging them to refer their friends, while also offering returns of up to 10% daily.

The eye watering daily return puts the 10% monthly return promised to users of South African crypto Ponzi scheme Mirror Trading International (MTI) into the shade.

MTI has been described as the biggest Ponzi-scheme the country had ever seen, pulling in 23,000 BTC from investors ($774 million at today’s prices) with MTI’s CEO, Johann Steynberg reportedly fleeing to Brazil to escape punishment when the firm was placed under provisional liquidation in 2020.

$3.6B in Bitcoin vanishes in \’hack\’ along with owners of South African crypto platform

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