Binance has released its payments app, Binance Pay, in public alpha. The app is a contactless peer-to-peer cryptocurrency payment feature that lets users send and receive payments in cryptos like Bitcoin (BTC). Binance initially rolled out Binance Pay in a soft launch in February 2020 for P2P payments, enabling 250,000 users to interact with the product. Today, Binance Pay is launching in alpha with new features like merchant-based transactions and is available to all users. A spokesperson for Binance told Cointelegraph that the new service is not limited to certain jurisdictions and is “currently available to all eligible users on …

2021 has been a great year for Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto in general. However, Ethereum and the decentralized finance, or DeFi, sector have outshined other niches of the cryptocurrency space, dazzling the community with enormous growth in terms of popularity, engagement and sheer volume, with the total value locked currently sitting at around $56 billion, according to DappRadar. The nonfungible token, or NFT, space is also seeing unprecedented growth. Many believe 2021 is shaping up to be the year of NFTs. However, DeFi continues to thrive, especially on the Ethereum blockchain where developer and user activity surpasses that of any …

After a blockbuster 2020, Ethereum is struggling to catch its breath — overwhelmed by transaction volumes sparked by the surging popularity of DeFi and non-fungible tokens. Now, rival networks such as the Binance Smart Chain are attempting to steal Ethereum’s lunch crypto… and become the destination of choice for decentralized finance projects. Here we speak to Vladimir Tikhomirov, the founder of Rubic Finance, for his take on the state of the DeFi sector — and talk about the project’s goals for 2021. 1. What do you think are the biggest challenges facing DeFi right now? Everyone is talking about the …

Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized finance (DeFi) are two of the hottest concepts in the crypto sector, and each is altering the way projects and companies interact with the public on a wide scale. One project that is looking to apply these concepts into a framework for sports fan engagement is Chiliz, a blockchain platform created by the Socios fan engagement platform. The project is designed to allow fans to purchase branded Fan Tokens that let them influence their teams through the popular vote. According to the project website, all Fan Tokens are minted on the Chiliz blockchain with on-platform …

There may be good news on the horizon for the victims of one of DeFi’s largest-ever exploits. At 5:30 AM UTC today, a Meerkat Finance developer identifying themselves as “Jamboo” posted a short message in a newly-created Telegram channel, “Meerkatrefunds.” In it, Jamboo said that the exploit was a “trial” testing user's greed and “subjectivity,” and that the team was preparing to refund all victims. Jamboo provided proof of their association with Meerkat by sending a small transaction from the Meerkat deployer, demonstrating that they have access to the exploited contract (or communicates with someone who does). The transaction was …

At roughly 9 am UTC today Meerkat, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol on Binance’s smart contract platform, lost $31 million worth of BNB tokens. While the team initially claimed that they had been the victim of an exploit, they have since deleted all social channels, and due to the nature of the exploit some believe the team liquidated and pilfered user funds — a type of scam colloquially referred to as a “rugpull.” A fork of Ethereum-native yield vault protocol Yearn Finance, Meerkat was just a few hours old when the attack drained its vaults. On-chain transactions show that an …

One of the biggest trends in recent months has seen Bitcoin flow out of exchanges into wallets. Generally, this is interpreted as a bullish sign — indicating that investors are optimistic about further growth in cryptocurrency prices. But delve deeper, and there’s more to this than meets the eye. The crypto industry has grown immeasurably over recent years — making stars out of a number of exchanges. Platforms such as Binance and Coinbase now handle billions of dollars in trading volumes every day. With this come concerns that centralization is creeping in — and fears that major exchanges are becoming …

DeFi has steadily grown in prominence over the past year thanks in large part to the strong foundations established by decentralized exchanges (DEX) that enable easy access to the latest tokens and projects. While there have been previous iterations of DEX user interfaces, such as IDEX or Etherdelta, it wasn’t until Uniswap launched that trading in the DeFi network really took off and facilitated the launch of the finance tokens. Here are six of the top-performing tokens in the decentralized finance sector. UNI/USDT Uniswap has risen from the humble beginnings of a simple user interface that allowed for a token …

As part of a wider exodus, the highest-profile Ethereum-native decentralized finance project yet has announced an expansion to Binance Smart Chain. In a press release on Thursday, the 1inch team revealed that it has ported 10 million 1INCH tokens (currently worth over $40 million dollars) to BSC. The tokens will be used as a liquidity bridge between Ethereum and BSC and will seed the 1inch ecosystem on BSC, including the 1inch Aggregation Protocol and the 1inch Liquidity Protocol. “As we at 1inch are always on the lookout for the hottest DeFi projects, the addition of BSC-based DEXes to our aggregation …

The parabolic rise of the Binance Smart Chain has been all over the news this week, aided by a few seemingly unfriendly moves by the exchange itself. It started on Friday, when Binance suddenly froze withdrawals of Ethereum-based assets for about one hour. Many interpreted it as a move against the blockchain and its ecosystem, given that the cited reason was “congestion issues” — something one hardly imagines is a problem for an exchange, unless they shoulder withdrawal costs for the user. The day after, FTX started shaming Binance for excessive promotion of BSC on the exchange. Specifically, FTX was …

Binance Coin (BNB) has been on an absolute tear in the month of February. It traded at $48.93 on Feb. 1 and grew to trade at $304 at the time of publication, amounting to a 521% month-to-date gain and 707% year-to-date gain. This price rally has led BNB to become the third-largest cryptocurrency, with a $46.5 billion market capitalization. BNB achieved its all-time high of $342.88 on Feb. 19. This price rally and leap in market capitalization could be attributed to Binance Smart Chain gaining popularity within decentralized finance markets and other macroeconomic factors driving the growth of flagship assets …

Ren (REN) price underwent a strong 65% breakout on Feb.19 as the interoperability-focused protocol saw continuing accumulation from whale wallets holding more than 1 million REN. Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows that REN rose from $0.99 on Feb. 18 to establish a new all-time high of $1.84 on Feb. 19. The move to a new high occurred as REN's trading volume also reached $704 million over the past 24-hours. Attention for the protocol received a noticeable uptick at the end of January when it was announced that Dogecoin (DOGE) would be integrated with REN, enabling the trading of …