Design

Bitcoin’s Hedging Performance in the Wake of the Coronavirus Outbreak

The recent coronavirus outbreak has far-reaching consequences beyond the spread of the disease and efforts to quarantine it. Recently, we’ve experienced one of the most severe stock market crashes in modern times: On March 9, 2020, the Dow Jones Industrial Average recorded a drop of -7.8%, which happened to be its worst single-day loss ever. However, on Thursday, March 12, 2020, the Dow then recorded the fifth-largest drop in modern history based on percentage points by a staggering amount of almost 10%. Unfortunately, the losses did not stop there. Four

Bithumb Global Launches Margin Trading for Bitcoin and Ether Pairs with Tether

Bithumb Global, the international platform of South Korea’s top crypto exchange, has rolled out margin trading with 5x leverage for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) trading pairs with Tether (USDT).In an announcement published on April 2, the exchange revealed the service would be available on its website and app. It will, however, be restricted for traders living in jurisdictions where margin trading is prohibited or capped — as, for example, with Japan.  Leveraged trading gains traction in the industryMargin trading enables traders to use borrowed funds in order to increase their

Nodle Outgrows Stellar, Begins to Migrate to own Blockchain

Nodle Network, an IOTA (MIOTA) competitor, is in the process of migrating from Stellar (XLM) to its own blockchain network with the release of the Arcadia testnet.Nodle is a decentralized network provider that specializes in detecting and connecting the internet of things (IoT). It currently connects over five million active nodes with over 92 million detected devices. While Stellar has been able to handle Nodle’s heavy traffic of 1.3 million daily transactions to date, the company believes it needs to deploy its own blockchain to accommodate some of the advanced features

Is Decentralized ASIC Production Possible?

The news about ASICs for Nervos CKB came out recently, as the time of writing, there are four ASICs announced, the Toddminer C1, Toddminer C1 Pro, Bitmain K5 and PA miner — the first batch of C1 was delivered on March 9, K5 and PA Miner are expected to be delivered in April and C1 Pro in May.Since mainnet launch, the total hashrate on CKB mainnet has been around 200TH/S on average, it is now gradually picking up (at the time of writing at ~500TH/S) with ASICs. Toddminer says C1+C1

Insight on Liquidity from DeFi Protocols

Over the last year and a half, decentralized finance has had an explosion of activity. Lending and borrowing decentralized applications, margin trading, liquidity protocols, stablecoins, insurance and derivatives have all grown in user numbers, in on-chain activity and in product maturity. As DeFi has grown, the need to exchange value from one form to another has grown with it, and multiple liquidity providers have stepped up to service this growing need for liquidity. This is the natural evolution of any system, introducing expanding functionality and connectivity and as it grows. Based

Doing Well by Doing Good: 5 Reasons Why it Works

“Do well by doing good.” The phrase has a deep meaning during this time in human history. In a nutshell, it means that companies that do good (i.e., help out during the Coronacrisis) will do well (i.e., make money and thrive). This is counter-intuitive. Logically, you would not help out during a recession: you would lay off workers, conserve your remaining cash, and “hunker down,” to use an unfortunate phrase. Here are a few reasons why the opposite is true. Your name gets out there. Many of our clients are

Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator Director on What DLT Startups Need to Succeed

The Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator — an incubator for early stage distributed ledger technology startups at the University of California, Berkeley — recently launched its spring cohort, which includes startups seeking to fight COVID-19, launch a cannabis-themed massively multiplayer online game and create a reverse auction platform for loans.Cointelegraph spoke to Jocelyn Weber, the director of the Xcelerator, to find out more about the resources the program offers to startups, success stories from previous cohorts and advice for startups looking to launch in the crypto space.Cointelegraph: Could you give an overview

Cardano’s Byron Reboot Goes Live, Paving Way to Shelley Mainnet

Proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain Cardano (ADA) went live with its Byron reboot yesterday, March 30, as the project prepares its transition to the Shelley mainnet.Announced by Cardano’s developer, the peer-to-peer technology firm Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK), the reboot involves a series of updates to major components of the Cardano network — the Cardano node, explorer, and Daedalus wallet backend, which is being spun out as a new version, Daedalus Flight.A process, not an eventIn an outline of the reboot’s significance, which has taken 18 months to complete, IOHK explained that