The fair price of bitcoin is at $38,000, and cryptocurrencies have overtaken real estate as one of the preferred "alternative assets". Business Insider writes about this with reference to analysts at the financial holding JPMorgan.

At the time of writing, digital gold is trading near $29,600. The fair price named by experts is 28% higher than the actual one.

“Last month’s cryptocurrency market correction is more like a capitulation compared to the situation in January/February 2021. Going forward, we see upside potential for bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market as a whole,” JPMorgan said in a note to clients.

Holding analysts, including Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, noted that during the correction, the digital asset market suffered more than other “alternative investments” like real estate. In their opinion, this indicates the possibility of growth.

In February 2022, Panigirtzoglou already stated that the fair pric ... Read more »

The StarkWare project, which specializes in second-level scaling solutions, closed a $100 million Series D funding round. Investors valued the company at $8 billion.
The round was led by venture capital firms Greenoaks Capital and Coatue. Funding was also provided by the company's new and existing investors, including Tiger Global. As part of the deal, StarkWare employees had the opportunity to sell their shares.

Founded in 2017, StarkWare delivers two products focused on scaling Ethereum, StarkEx and StarkNet. The first is based on the SaaS model and allows decentralized applications to satisfy “specific needs”. Platforms like dYdX and Sorare use it.

The second product is a permissionless solution on top of Ethereum based on Rollup. It allows developers to create and deploy their own smart contracts, as well as interact with other applications.

The company will use the funds received from investors to expand the product line, develop bu ... Read more »

The Turkish authorities are developing legislation that will tighten control over the crypto industry and likely impose a tax on some transactions. It is reported by Bloomberg, citing government sources.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party is expected to bring new rules for local crypto exchanges to parliament in the coming weeks.

Among the proposals is a requirement for a minimum capital of companies of 100 million lira (~$6 million). Also, global crypto trading platforms will be required to open branches that will pay taxes in Turkey.

Regarding the taxation of individuals, the authorities have not come to a final decision. According to the interlocutors of the publication, the government is leaning towards the introduction of a “symbolic fee” for the purchase of digital assets.

The new regulation measures were discussed at a meeting in the president's office, with the participation of his deputy ... Read more »

Ripple will consider an IPO after the completion of litigation with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This was stated by the head of the company Brad Garlinghouse during the World Economic Forum in Davos.
“We are certainly at the stage of development where this [going public] is possible. And we will consider the issue as soon as we finish the lawsuit with the SEC, ”Garlinghouse explained.

At the end of 2021, the total annual volume of transactions on the RippleNet platform reached a record $15 billion due to the popularity of the On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) service. The company noted that the Asia-Pacific region has become "one of the largest participants in the ODL dollar turnover."

Garlinghouse estimated the results of the first quarter of 2022 at $8 billion and noted that the company continues to grow, for the most part outside the United States. In March, RippleNet began to be used for international payments by National A ... Read more »

In Russia, access to the Internet must be maintained so that the inhabitants of the country can receive independent information. This was stated by US State Department spokesman Ned Price at a departmental briefing.

“We called on intermediaries from all over the world not to disconnect Russia from the Internet, so that information continues to flow into the country, and the Internet remains free and open within Russia itself,” he said.

Price also noted that the United States will support journalists in Russia, whose work has become more difficult since the start of the war.

Earlier, the need to provide Russians with independent news against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine was stated by YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki. She stressed that the service is not going to leave Russia.

Recall that in early February, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev stated that the “key rights to manage” the ... Read more »

The head of Terraform Labs, Do Kwon, announced the launch of the main network Terra 2.0, which received the identifier Phoenix-1. According to him, the participants of the LUNA airdrop have already been credited with tokens - in order to see the balance, you need to connect to the Terra Station system.
Kwon added that new members from the Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol ecosystem need to connect to Terra Station using the same network they previously used with Terra Classic.

The Terra Finder block explorer has added Phoenix-1 support. According to the service, the network has produced over 330 blocks at the time of writing.

Terraform Labs said that users can transact with liquid LUNAs, including staking, trading, and transactions with decentralized applications after their launch.

“Since Terra 2.0 is a different chain and not a fork, dapps from Terra Classic will have to be restarted on the new blockchain,” the developers remi ... Read more »

Cryptocurrency exchange FTX will spend "billions" of dollars to acquire stakes in other companies to expand its product line. This was stated in a conversation with Bloomberg by its head Sam Bankman-Fried.

“FTX is a profitable company. You can look at the amount we have raised in the last year or two, several billion dollars. It gives an idea of ​​where we are in terms of cash on the balance sheet, which was clearly seen as a [vehicle] for potential acquisitions,” he said.

In July 2021, FTX raised $900 million in a Series B funding round, which was subsequently raised to $1 billion. In October of the same year, the company closed a Series B-1 round of over $420 million, bringing its valuation to $25 billion.

In January 2022, FTX received a $400 million investment. The exchange was valued at $32 billion. In the same month, the company's US subsidiary raised a similar amount at an $8 billion valuation.

The firm is actively abso ... Read more »

On May 25, as a result of another recalculation, the difficulty of mining the first cryptocurrency decreased by 4.33% to 29.9 T. The decrease in the indicator was the highest since July 2021. The average hashrate over the approximately two-week period since the previous difficulty correction was 214 EH/s, also down 4.3% from its high. According to Glassnode, the first cryptocurrency’s smoothed 7-day moving average of network computing power fell to 205.9 EH/s from the all-time high of 208.5 EH/s on May 5. According to Arcane Research analyst Jaran Mellerud, mining profitability continues to plummet. In November 2021, Antminer S19 miners from Bitmain, consuming 1 MWh, brought the owner $500. At the moment, this figure has dropped to $146. Devices of the S9 series with a corresponding figure of $40 approached the break-even point.

Nvidia has released January-March 2022 financial results with a weak second-quarter revenue guidance. Shares of the GPU maker fell 10.32% in the post-trade session. The company expects revenue in the range of $8.1 billion (± 2%), while the market consensus was $8.5 billion. Nvidia adjusted its expectations downward by $500 million due to factors “related to Russia and the lockdown in China." In the first quarter, revenue grew by 46% compared to January-March 2021, to $8.29 billion, against market expectations of $8.1 billion. Adjusted EPS was $1.36 against analysts' forecast of $1.29. Sales of GPUs for cryptocurrency mining have dropped to “nominal values” against the backdrop of lower prices in the digital asset market compared to $155 million in the same period a year ago. The company did not disclose specific numbers. In the second quarter of 2021, the figure was $266 million, $105 million in the third and $24 million in the fourth. Since the beginning of the year, Nvidia share ... Read more »

Two former OnlyFans executives have announced the creation of Zoop, a trading platform for celebrity-themed NFT gaming cards. The Block writes about it. The application will be presented in the summer of 2022. With it, users will be able to buy, sell and exchange tokens, as well as participate in competitions with rewards ranging from free concert tickets to custom branded items. It is not yet known whether the stars will be directly involved in the project. The Zoop team includes OnlyFans founder Tim Stockley and RJ Phillips, who helped develop the resource. According to the latter, the application is being developed on the basis of the Polygon blockchain, which will guarantee the transparency of transactions. “Users need to see who bought what and when the cards were sold,” Phillips said. The platform will initially release 500 NFTs featuring each celebrity, with a list to be announced next month. Collectible cards will be sold at a Dutch auction. It is also planned to create a ... Read more »