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Which altcoins will survive the SEC crackdown? Bitcoin OG explains

Bitcoin OG and educator Dan Held points out which crypto assets are most likely to avoid the ongoing SEC crackdown.

Proof-of-work coins that had a fair distribution at their launch are the most likely to avoid being labeled as securities by the U.S. SEC, according to Bitcoin OG and educator Dan Held. 

Last week, the SEC sued Binance and Coinbase, accusing them of offering a number of altcoins as  unregistered securities. As a result, many of the tokens mentioned in the lawsuit were delisted by major trading platforms which made their price tank.

According to Held, Tokens that “had fair or transparent launches”, such as Litecoin, Dogecoin and Monero, do not match the definition of a security that the SEC is following and therefore are likely to avoid the current crackdown. 

Related: SEC charges against Binance and Coinbase are terrible for DeFi

“It definitely seems like the SEC has carved that out as something that they won't be going after”, he said in an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph.

According to Held, the vast majority of the tokens classified as securities by the SEC in its lawsuit against Coinbase and Binance were proof-of-stake coins, or tokens who had a pre-mined distribution, which means they have a more centralized ownership.

As Held also pointed out, the current crackdown is mainly carried out by a single government entity, the SEC, which means the level of pressure on the industry is still far from reaching the maximum level.

Held also stated that only Bitcoin and a few other cryptocurrencies that are decentralized enough will survive in the long run, as they are the only ones that can survive an all-out government attack.

To find out more about which cryptos can resist the ongoing SEC crackdown, watch the full video on our YouTube channel, and don’t forget to subscribe!

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TradFi and DeFi come together — Davos 2023

On this episode of Decentralize With Cointelegraph, the team reflects on their week in Davos covering the World Economic Forum as crypto and TradFi continue to collide.

Traditional finance, or TradFi, continues to explore the world of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, with the World Economic Forum holding more workshops and sessions for the sector in 2023. These were major themes seen by the Cointelegraph team as they covered the action throughout a busy week in Davos, Switzerland. In a late-night recording session, the team recapped everything readers need to know about the week for the new Decentralize With Cointelegraph podcast.

Cointelegraph editor-in-chief Kristina Lucrezia Cornèr reflected on her access inside the WEF compared with previous years in Davos. She also unpacked the ongoing synergies between traditional finance and decentralized finance, or DeFi, that were evident from the myriad crypto industry events taking place. Cointelegraph journalist Gareth Jenkinson was tasked with covering these crypto meet-ups, which took place at a number of shops refurbished for events down the central promenade in Davos.

Speaking to a number of industry insiders and TradFi participants, Jenkinson highlighted the ongoing cross-pollination between the sectors, while just a handful of crypto participants were involved in conversations inside the World Economic Forum.

From JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon’s renewed skepticism toward Bitcoin (BTC) to the Cointelegraph team nearly getting stranded due to frozen diesel in their gas tank, Davos 2023 proved to be an entertaining and educational journey.

Davos has long been the spiritual home of the World Economic Forum, but recent years have seen a number of crypto and blockchain firms, projects and events rent space along the central road that runs to the WEF conference compound.

While crypto proponents mixed with TradFi members and curious visitors from both public and private institutions on the promenade, just a handful of crypto-related institutions took part in workshops inside the WEF.

Cointelegraph editor-in-chief Kristina Lucrezia Cornèr (right) on stage with Rhett Power (left), Forbes columnist, hosting Webit Founders Games in Davos during WEF 2023. Source: Cointelegraph

Cointelegraph spoke with representatives from Circle and Ripple, who gave an inside view into the WEF’s changing perception toward the sector, while the heads of metaverse platforms The Sandbox and Upland also touched on the different perceptions both inside the WEF and outside of its walls.

Related: Cointelegraph heads to Davos for World Economic Forum

There seemed to be general consensus that the crypto and blockchain space was becoming increasingly talked about at the WEF, with the number of workshops and discussions on the sector increasing from May 2022.

Cointelegraph reporter Gareth Jenkinson (right) with Brooks Entwistle (left), APAC managing director at Ripple. Source: Cointelegraph

Nevertheless, the co-mingling of TradFi and DeFi proponents was clear to see. Conventional investment funds, hedge fund managers and banks all drove discussions around cryptocurrency adoption and custody at the events Cointelegraph attended and moderated.

To hear Cornèr and Jenkinson reflect on changing perceptions and increased conversations between the old guard of traditional finance and the innovative cryptocurrency and blockchain ecosystem, listen to the first episode of Decentralize With Cointelegraph on Cointelegraph’s newly launched podcasts page — and be sure to check out the additional lineup of new shows. The episode is also available on Spotify.

World’s Central Banks Buy $24,000,000,000 in Gold in Three Months, Setting New Record: Report

Mastercard partners with Polygon to launch Web3 musician accelerator program

The program will help five emerging artists set up and manage their brands in the Web3 space, and is also aimed at educating people in the music scene on what avenues Web3 tech can offer them.

Global payments giant Mastercard is ramping up its exposure blockchain tech yet again, after announcing a Polygon-based accelerator program to help musicians build their careers via Web3.

The firm announced the "Mastercard Artist Accelerator" program via a Jan. 7 blog post, outlining that from this spring, it will connect five emerging musicians from across the globe with mentors that will  help them set up their brand in the Web3 music space.

"The artists will gain exclusive access to special events, music releases and more. A first-of-its-kind curriculum will teach the artists how to build (and own) their brand through Web3 experiences like minting NFTs, representing themselves in virtual worlds and establishing an engaged community," the post reads.

The program will culminate with a live-streamed artist showcase later in the year.

Mastercard is also launching a non-fungible token (NFT) collection called the "Mastercard Music Pass" for those that aren't selected for the program. The aim is to provide hodlers with educational materials and "unique resources" through brand collaborations to help budding musicians learn about the Web3 integrations with the music sector.

Commenting as part of the announcement, Polygon Studios CEO Ryan Watt noted that “Web3 has the potential to empower a new type of artist that can grow a fanbase, make a living, and introduce novel mediums for self-expression and connection on their own terms."

Polygon looks primed to become a hub for music related Web3 projects. On Dec. 6, Cointelegraph reported that global entertainment giant Warner Music Group had partnered with Polygon Studios and e-commerce and interactive platform builder LGN.io, to build a Web3 music platform called LGND Music.

The platform is slated to launch later this month and will allow users stream music and collect and trade music NFTs.

Related: Mastercard adds 7 blockchain startups to its crypto accelerator

Mastercard has been actively furthering its involvement in the blockchain and crypto sectors. In January 2022, Mastercard joined forces with Coinbase to enable the use of Mastercard cards for purchasing NFTs on Coinbase's marketplace.

In mid-October 2022, Mastercard partnered with Paxos to allow banks to offer cryptocurrency trading and related services to their customers. 

While in that same month, Cointelegraph also reported that Mastercard had launched a crypto fraud protection tool enabling  banks to find and prevent fraud on crypto merchant platforms within its network.

World’s Central Banks Buy $24,000,000,000 in Gold in Three Months, Setting New Record: Report

Finance Redefined: Uniswap builds token-swap feature for Ukraine, LUNA surpasses Ether, and more

In this week's newsletter, we will explore some of the key developments from the DeFi space that had an impact on the Ukraine donations and look at some of the trendsetters in our industry.

The crypto community has emerged as one of the leading aid providers for Ukrainians, as crypto donations surged over $50 million. This week, many in the decentralized finance, or DeFi, community have come forward to donate and make it simpler for other people to donate to Ukraine. 

LUNA continued its price dominance with another double-digit surge over the past week and also flipped Ether to become the most staked altcoin. 1Inch launched a new secure peer-to-peer, or P2P, swap that the firm claimed could open the gates to several new use cases.

Uniswap builds an interface to swap altcoins into ETH donations for Ukraine

On Tuesday, decentralized exchange, or DEX, Uniswap launched an interface which directly converts ERC-20 tokens into Ether (ETH) and sends them to the official crypto wallet addresses of the Ukrainian government, all in a single transaction.

Uniswap claimed that the address shared by Ukraine is located on a centralized exchange and only accepts Ether and Tether (USDT). Thus, the feature simplifies the donation process for anyone holding ERC-20 tokens on Uniswap’s list and who wishes to donate by connecting their wallet to the DEX. Ukraine later rolled out support for donations in Polkadot (DOT) as well. Polkadot’s founder, Gavin Wood, personally donated $5.8 million in DOT to the newly supported address.

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LUNA flips Ethereum, becoming the second-largest network for staked value

Terra (LUNA) has flipped Ethereum in terms of staked value with $29.5 billion worth of LUNA locked up compared to Ether’s $25.9 billion, as per data from Staking Reward.

The platform’s data shows that there are currently 226,325 LUNA stakers, making it the second most staked crypto asset with more than four times the number of those staking ETH at 54,768. Solana leads the staking charts with $35 billion in staked value.

In terms of annual staking rewards, LUNA is estimated to yield 6.62% on average, while Ethereum fetches 4.81%. The most rewarding out of the top 10 staked assets is Polkadot with 13.92%. Data indicated that interest in LUNA has surged of late. Over the past seven days, LUNA’s TVL has increased 26.905% and sits well above third-placed BNB Smart Chain (BSC) at $12.03 billion worth of TVL.

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1inch Network adds a P2P feature to facilitate secure crypto swaps

1inch Network introduced peer-to-peer order functionality within the 1inch decentralized application, or DApp. This feature allows users to specify the person or wallet that will fill the other side of the trade, as opposed to over-the-counter, or OTC, payments where 1inch matches the order with a taker.

The company website said the new feature “opens the door to a whole new world” of possible use cases including transactions within NFT marketplaces, auctions or reverse auctions. Although other services like Binance Pay or Bybit support P2P payments, the company said that they have “stepped in to fill the gap” in demand for this kind of service.

1inch claimed that their P2P service offers trustless swaps backed by smart contracts and complete decentralization. Users can send orders via email or to any messenger using URLs that bypass 1inch’s backend.

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DeFi market overview:

Analytical data shows that DeFi’s total value locked has decreased across the week, reaching a figure of $110.86 billion.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView reveals that DeFi’s top 100 tokens by market capitalization performed reasonably well across the last seven days.

UMA was the biggest gainer with a weekly surge of 110%, followed by Thorchain (THOR) which gained 62.5% over the past week. LUNA continued its dominance with another week of double-digit gains and posted a 40% surge. Oasis Network (ROSE) took the fourth spot with a 15% rise followed by Chainlink (LINK) at 6.7%.

Before you go!

While the DeFi ecosystem continues to make new breakthroughs, a rising controversy around the blocking of IP addresses for users in sanctioned countries has led to much discussion over the past 24 hours. MetaMask and Infure reportedly blocked Venenzulean users, sparking a debate over the promised decentralization of these products.

The decentralization debate is a part of the larger discussion of whether crypto platforms that claim to be decentralized and borderless must adhere to every government-enforced sanction.

Thanks for reading our summary of this week’s most impactful DeFi developments. Join us again next Friday for more stories, insights and education in this dynamically advancing space.

World’s Central Banks Buy $24,000,000,000 in Gold in Three Months, Setting New Record: Report