Cardano is close to attaining the title of a fully-fledged smart contracts platform following a critical upgrade in mid-July. The project's founder Charles Hoskinson confirmed that they recently processed the sales of more than $10 million worth of non-fungible tokens atop their public ledger. Moreover, SundaeSwap, the first DeFi DEX to utilize Cardano smart contracts is expected to launch soon, and many ADA investors interpret this as a potential bullish catalyst for the altcoin. But the Ethereum rival's growth as a project might not lead to higher adoption for its native cryptocurrency, ADA, at least according to an analysis shared …

This supercar rally has a very distinctive twist: Participants can only use cryptocurrencies. The Run Crypto Rally is a five-day networking event that’s going to span Europe — and it promises to be full of extravagant parties, engaging discussion and high-octane driving. Day one will take lucky guests from London to Champagne, complete with a networking breakfast, club class seats on the Eurotunnel to Calais, a visit to Circuit de Reims-Gueux, and an exquisite meal where each course is paired with a special bubbly. The day ends with a poker tournament. After a hearty breakfast the next morning, the tour …

Bitcoin (BTC) bulls are locked in a battle with bears to take control of the $40,000 level and dovish comments from the United States Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, suggest that loose monetary policies will remain in place for the foreseeable future. Generally, the crypto ecosystem is “cautiously optimistic” about further price rises as the fallout from China’s miner purge begins to subside and displaced miners begin to establish mining operations in other countries, resulting in a rebound of the Bitcoin hash rate. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that while the momentum in Bitcoin has slowed down, …

A crypto protocol says that it delivers fast and feeless transactions that will boost blockchain adoption and open the door to micropayments. Stealth’s native cryptocurrency is based on a Bitcoin-type UTXO ledger that allows it to deliver multi-signature transactions, something that’s essential for custodial applications. The project aims to stand head and shoulders above what it describes as “hundreds of projects that fail to offer acceptable user experiences.” Presently, all of the major crypto networks suffer massive levels of congestion, hiking up costs for everyday users. Stealth aims to solve this problem with an efficient chain that improves Bitcoin’s throughput …

A decentralized finance protocol has launched its mainnet — describing it as a crucial step on the journey to a frictionless financial future. Radix, which describes itself as a platform for smart money, is also launching Instapass with its Olympia mainnet — an optional user and developer service that delivers the world’s first single sign-on solution for building compliant DeFi. The Radix mainnet is being positioned as a generational improvement in the history of decentralized ledger computing — and one that delivers 100 times more executional efficiency than the Ethereum Virtual Machine. This comes hot on the heels of the …

Bitcoin (BTC) and most major altcoins are attempting to break above their respective overhead resistance levels, indicating the return of the bulls. Data from Bybt shows that the Grayscale premium has been climbing and reached -5.88% on July 27, its closest level to zero since May 25. This suggests that institutional investors may have again started building positions via the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust. Another institutional investment product showing a possible return of buyers is Canada’s Purpose Bitcoin ETF whose assets under management rose to 1.1 billion Canadian dollars on July 27, its highest level since May 13. Swiss private bank …

Last week, as Bitcoin resurged after briefly falling below $30,000, a good number of altcoins embarked on their own relief rallies. Telcoin (TEL) was among this large group of digital assets whose prices shot up on July 21. Unlike most of its peers, however, TEL’s upward trend remained alive for the entire week, leading to a respectable 82% gain against the dollar and a 43% gain against Bitcoin (BTC) over a seven-day period. Given the market dynamics of the time, many traders may simply attribute this performance to a marketwide oversold bounce — but was there a way for traders …

A digital assets platform has launched an Americas unit as part of its global expansion. OSL says the move is in response to growing institutional and corporate demand for digital assets. Led by Fernando Martínez, OSL Americas delivers prime brokerage — including electronic and over-the-counter execution as well as coin borrowing and lending. It is also set to serve as a regional hub for engagement with the company’s software-as-a-service partners. In time, access will be offered to the platform’s institutional-grade exchange. OSL’s CEO, Wayne Trench, said: “OSL's combination of experienced traders, deep global relationships and advanced technology allow its prime …

Bitcoin’s (BTC) recent surge above $40,000 injected a healthy dose of bullish optimism into the crypto market, and further proof of this comes from the Crypto Fear & Greed Index, which has decreased from "extreme" to "neutral." Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the top movers over the past 24 hours are Linear (LINA), WazirX (WRX) and Storj (STORJ). The overall market conditions continue to improve following the now-denied rumors that Amazon would begin accepting cryptocurrencies as payment at some point in 2021 which helped to spark an increase of more than $155 billion in the total …

The Cardano network is in the watershed phase of its network development and upgrades. The ongoing phase of the protocol’s roadmap is the Goguen phase, bringing smart contracts to the network. This is the third phase of the roadmap after Byron and Shelley. The Goguen phase was split into three stages, Allegra, Mary and Alonzo. The Allegra update went live on December 16 last year, and the Mary update was deployed on the mainnet on March 1 earlier this year. This leaves the Alonzo upgrade, which was further split into three different phases, named Blue, White and Purple. While the …

A network that’s home to tools and applications championing anonymity has announced that it is exploring the development of oxUSD, a privacy preserving stablecoin. Oxen’s network is already used to power the anonymous messaging app Session — as well as Lokinet, a router that offers an alternative to Tor. However, the project’s team say their infrastructure is capable of handling so much more. They believe a private stablecoin would be a powerful complement to the products that are already on offer, delivering instant and untraceable digital payments. When it comes to the rationale behind launching such a digital asset, Oxen …

Just $20 million of the $1 billion in cryptocurrency that Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin donated to a COVID-19 relief fund in India has so far been cashed out and distributed to aid recipients. Figuring out why the process is not as frictionless as crypto users would hope is the focus of a recent interview with the fund’s founder, Sandeep Nailwal. Cointelegraph readers will recall that this May, Buterin’s decision to liquidate several of his meme coin positions and donate the proceeds to various charities had prompted panic and admiration in equal helpings. Panic, firstly, set in among those traders who …