Rachel Siegel, also known as CryptoFinally, was recently the only woman nominated for the Binance Influencer Awards. She alleges that she and two fellow female crypto influencers were deplatformed from Instagram following their criticism of the underrepresentation of women in the Blockchain industry. The other women who were allegedly targeted are TechWithCatalina and GirlGoneCrypto. Questioning the status quo Siegel told Cointelegraph that she has been very vocal about underrepresentation of women in the crypto industry. She noted that out of 25 award nominees, she is the only female: “I have been very local about the fact that there is a …

The global travel industry ground to a standstill after governments worldwide announced strict lockdowns to prevent the spread of COVID-19. At the Unitize virtual blockchain conference on July 6, Juan Otero, the co-founder and CEO of the Binance-backed online crypto travel agency Travala, said that the platform experienced a steep drop in booking volumes. Otero stated that till February, Travala was seeing exponential growth with a consistent rise in booking volumes. But as the coronavirus pandemic reached crisis levels, the firm saw an 80–90% drop in total bookings within a few weeks. Recovery around the corner? However, it appears that …

Binance, one of the world’s biggest crypto exchanges, has announced on July 5 that it will support the upcoming Ontology 2.0 network upgrade. Ontology 2.0 will include the integration of a number of community-led upgrades to its MainNet. Binance says that it will end support of Neo Enhancement Protocol 5-based, or NEP5, ONT tokens deposits. Any future deposits of NEP5 ONT will not be credited to users' Binance account, it indicates. Deposits and withdrawals of ONT will be stopped starting July 6 at 9 a.m. UTC. Users will be notified when the Ontology upgraded network becomes stable and deposits and …

Elrond (ERD) believes it has what it takes to overcome the behemoths of the proof-of-stake, or PoS, world. This Romanian PoS blockchain raised $3.25 million in an Initial Exchange Offering, or IEO, in July 2019. Elrond CEO, Beniamin Mincu, told Cointelegraph that Binance’s IEO process was very tough. He explained though that through perseverance, the project was able to raise the necessary funds, and receive significant exposure. Ethereum 2.0 — ahead of schedule Elrond’s technological stack reads very similar to what has been anticipated for Ethereum (ETH) 2.0 — sharding, secure PoS, a virtual machine; however, Mincu drew a number …

Estonian exchange, CoinMetro, has chosen to make their crypto sentiment analysis tool available to common users. This is the same tool that is used professionally by crypto hedge funds. Although the tool appears rather simplistic, CoinMetro CEO Kevin Murcko told Cointelegraph that the key here is that regular traders get access to exactly the same data that institutions have: “This data that we're displaying is the same exact data viewed at the same exact time as the institutional player. So while it may like every indicator lag price, you're getting it in the exact same form and the same time …

On Tuesday, Tether announced a sizable swap of USDT from the Tron blockchain to the Ethereum protocol. Tether explained that the amount of USDT in circulation would remain the same, meaning that USDT (TRC-20) will be burned and the same number of tokens will be issued on Ethereum. Tether makes use of several blockchains to host the circulating supply of USDT, which allows users to bypass congestion in a certain chain if the need arises. This system also makes USDT use easier for users invested in a certain platform to continue transacting in USDT and makes the stablecoin somewhat of …

A report released by major crypto exchange Binance illustrates how scams targeting cryptocurrency investors attempt to gain credibility. In the report published on June 30, the exchange explained that its Binance Sentry risk investigation service observed reports of fraudulent investment schemes promising quick or exponential returns on cryptocurrency investments. The frauds do not just concern crypto but also forex, binary options and contracts for difference (CFDs). Binance published the report after a Bitcoin (BTC) scam targeted the residents of Winnipeg, Canada, in late June. Scams are often well-organized, big operations Scam organizations are frequently the subject of regulatory warnings but …

Binance and its eponymous cryptocurrency, Binance Coin (BNB), is the third entity to receive a branded emoji hashtag following Bitcoin (BTC) and Crypto.com. This was announced by Binance’s CEO, Changpeng Zhao, who simply tweeted #BNB — showcasing the new emoji. #BNB — CZ Binance 🔶🔶🔶 (@cz_binance) July 1, 2020 The co-founder appears to be visibly excited with the cosmetic change, writing, “I think I could just sit here and randomly retweet people's #BNB tweets all day long,” though he appears to have retweeted only one of them so far. As reported by Cointelegraph earlier, branded hashtags are a little known …

Major cryptocurrency exchange Binance and Indonesian exchange Tokocrypto have listed a rupiah-backed stablecoin, Binance IDR (BIDR). According to an announcement on June 30, Binance and Tokocrypto users can now trade BIDR against Bitcoin (BTC), Binance Coin (BNB), Binance USD (BUSD), Tether (USDT) and Ether (ETH). Users will also be able to directly purchase and redeem the stablecoin at a rate of 1 Indonesian rupiah each ($0.000070). A part of Binance’s expansion plans BIDR is pegged to Indonesia’s fiat currency and runs on Binance Chain. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao claims that this is the first stablecoin pegged to this fiat currency …

Binance just completed its largest upgraded on June 28, making the world’s largest crypto exchange faster, announced founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao, or CZ. Anticipating the next bull run The trading platform has reportedly re-wrote all code and switched the matching engine to a new programming language. It’s said to be the biggest upgrade in two years. It could perform 10 times faster for traders for the next bull run. CZ added that: “[...] so in theory can handle 100x volume. But when real volumes hit, there will be some other peripheral systems that may temporarily bottleneck, but will be …

The repeal of a blanket ban on cryptocurrencies in March by India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, has been a boon to the thriving crypto industry in India — with the launch of new exchanges being a catalyst. This is despite the country being one of the most severely affected nations by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to a deepening economic crisis across the nation. For investors and fintech innovators alike, cryptocurrency and blockchain technology have proven to be a much-needed respite in these challenging times. Regulatory uncertainty Repealing the blanket ban was not the ultimate solution …

The price of the Compound Governance Token (COMP) has jumped by one-quarter on news of a surprise listing on leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance. COMP tokens began trading approximately one week ago, quickly making triple-figure gains and attracting millions in trade volume. Binance stated that it did not charge a listing fee for introducing the pairings. Binance now supports pairings between COMP and Bitcoin (BTC), Tether (USDT), Binance Coin (BNB), and BinanceUSD (BUSD). COMP spikes 25% in five minutes on Poloniex On June 25, Binance announced that it would list pairings for COMP one hour before they went live, spiking the …