Welcome to the world of decentralised finance January 19, 2021 Decentralised Finance or “DeFi” for short is an ecosystem of financial tools and services that are built on open-source networks and do not involve any centralised institutions. If you’re someone who takes an interest in the crypto space, you’ve probably heard about DeFi this year, as the space has rapidly grown from just over $600M [...]
Why 2020 was a year of explosive growth for DeFi and 2021 will be too January 19, 2021 Decentralised Finance or “DeFi” for short has had tremendous traction in 2020, even during the COVID-19 epidemic. The ecosystem has grown by billions just this year, surpassing $15B in December (source: https://defipulse.com/). People have been drawn to the DeFi space because it offers new suites of financial tools and services that you cannot get in [...]
Ethereum 2.0 staking, a worthwhile investment? January 19, 2021 Background The Ethereum network today is overrun with traffic, causing transaction fees to spike to levels that are not affordable for many use cases. This is partially due to the success of DeFi projects, where users don’t mind paying the high transaction fees because of the financial value of the transactions being made. (In Ethereum, [...]
Crypto AM reshines its Spotlight on CUDOS – The infrastructure token for web 3.0 January 19, 2021 Back in September, I was invited to write an Industry Voices article for CryptoAM.io, titled; Timing a Token Launch. As a global community of crypto and blockchain enthusiasts, we had all been affected by the pandemic over the previous 6-8 months and so I took the opportunity to share why we had paused our token [...]
Ethereum pumps – new all-time high incoming? January 19, 2021 Crypto at a Glance It’s been a relatively quiet week so far for Bitcoin, which seems happy to coast along between $35,000 and $37,000 for the time being. The really big-and-mega-exciting news today is Ethereum, which finally looks to be charging, head-down and horns out, towards that long-awaited new all-time high (set in the heady [...]
Bitcoin whales keep accumulating as ECB president calls for global regulations January 18, 2021 CryptoCompare data shows the price of Bitcoin (BTC) moved from around $35,500 at the start of the week to a high close to the $40,000 as BTC was seemingly trying to move back to its all-time high. Bitcoin’s price advance was rejected, and the cryptocurrency is now trading above $36,000. Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency [...]
FCA insists it protects consumers from investment harm despite criticism January 18, 2021 The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) opened 1,500 supervisory cases involving scams or high risk investments in the first 10 months of 2020, in an effort to clamp down on consumer investment harm. The city regulator also stopped applications for authorisation from 343 financial services firms and individuals where the potential for consumer harm was identified [...]
XRP set to fall out of top 5?Polkadot storms into top 4 coins – top 3 next? January 18, 2021 Crypto at a Glance It was a weekend of mixed signals for Bitcoin. There was FUD from Christine Lagarde and persisting rumours surrounding the negative impact of Tether, but there were also a host of financial industry grandees and politicians lining up to declare themselves converts. Even former Chief Economist of the World Bank, Larry [...]
UK regulatory changes forStablecoins and cryptoassets on the horizon January 18, 2021 On the 7th of January 2021, HM Treasury published a consultation paper titled “UK regulatory approach to cryptoassets and stablecoins: consultation and call for evidence” (Consultation). The Consultation represents the first stage in the government’s consultative process with industry and stakeholders on the broader regulatory approach to cryptoassets and stablecoins. It seeks views on how [...]
Why it’s easier to spend bitcoin than £50 notes January 15, 2021 Recently a friend of mine came into possession of a number of £50 notes. If I told you too much I would have to kill you, but it apparently involved a number of Covid-19 tests, a trip to Pakistan, some Kashmiri carpets and a large man from Barbados. I know some interesting people. I thought [...]