In a calendar year, the total crypto market capitalization more than quadrupled from $361 billion to more than $1 trillion in January — reaching an all-time high of around $2.6 trillion in May. Just weeks later, more than $800 million was wiped off of the total crypto market cap, representing a decrease of over 33%. Volatility of this magnitude in the crypto markets is nothing new, especially for those battle-tested by market cycles of years past. However, research indicates that the global number of blockchain wallet users increased by more than 25 million since March 2020, meaning this is just …

Earlier this summer, CNN and The New York Times each warned that the nonfungible token (NFT) bubble, fueled by buzz over eye-popping valuations for digital art and interest from collectors, might already be bursting. As the sixth employee at a social media startup called Wildfire — which was acquired by Google in 2012 — I’m all too familiar with skeptics and precautionary tales when it comes to new and emerging technologies. Based on my experiences across entertainment, licensing and blockchain technology, I contend that if the so-called NFT bubble is bursting, it could be a net positive for the future …

On the opening day of Messari Mainnet 2021, New York City’s long-awaited first crypto conference since the start of COVID-19, reports came blazing in via a viral tweet that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission had served a subpoena to an event panelist at the top of an escalator in broad daylight. While it’s still not entirely clear who was served (or why), this isn’t the first time the SEC has encroached upon the crypto industry in full view of the public. Let’s go back a mere two months. On July 20, 2021, SEC Chair Gary Gensler issued his …

Vasja Zupan of Matrix Exchange: Vasja is the president of Matrix Exchange, a regulated digital-asset exchange operating globally. “Bitcoin is the most decentralized and stable blockchain network there is. It has survived countless challenges, and decentralization ensures its resilience. Only a truly decentralized network can survive hindrances from block size wars and forks to regulatory pressure. While new anonymous networks are available today, transaction anonymity, more functionality or new approaches to blockchain validation do not ensure higher decentralization and resilience.” These quotes have been edited and condensed. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors’ alone and do …

Online communities, those that share a common interest on the internet, can range from social networks, grassroots organizations and customer communities. We, as a society, are naturally communal, so it makes sense to engage in ideas and interests with others online. Whether we build relationships with people directly or indirectly, communities are built. However, how we do so differs. In 2006, web expert Jakob Nielsen proposed a 90-9-1 rule based on participation inequality in social media and online communities. According to Nielsen, in most online communities, 90% of users are lurkers, i.e., those who observe, but don’t contribute, nine percent …

Privacy-focused blockchain file storage service Internxt has a lofty vision: leverage decentralized technology to break Big Tech’s monopoly over user data. Its first product, Internxt Drive, aims to compete as an alternative to Google Drive and Dropbox — without compromising personal privacy and data ownership. In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, Internxt CEO Fran Villalba Segarra described the core technology behind his product and explained why privacy should be considered a fundamental human right. He also explained the perils of centralized architecture, why Big Tech constantly violates user privacy and what’s in store for internet users in the era of …

Automated market maker (AMM) MonoX has announced the official launch of its mainnet platform, offering investors a full complement of swap and liquidity capabilities on the Ethereum and Polygon blockchain networks. With the release of this new service, Mono X is aiming to establish a cost-effective and accessible infrastructure for liquidity providers seeking to propel their projects to the market and traders interested in engaging in token swap services. In the case of traditional decentralized exchanges (DEXes) such as dYdX, it is necessary for projects to provide two tokens to build a liquidity pair, a requirement that increases the capital …

The sad reality is that a lot of fake news, scam messages and other fraudulent and defamatory materials are circulating the web, making it difficult for investors to know what information is legitimate and who they can trust. While trading can be fun and exciting, it can also lead to emotional or financial stress, especially when many dishonest parties manipulate the market. Although bad people will always exist, traders can exercise caution by leveraging the principles of responsible trading. Responsible trading requires investors to execute control over their trades, knowing when they are in a suitable position to take on …

Although decentralized finance (DeFi) is gaining popularity, to reach mainstream adoption, a cohesive user experience must become a focus. As crypto assets are being utilized in different ways, they are also becoming dispersed across more chains and protocols. Furthermore, for DeFi users, the added complexity of the latest industry developments, including new tokens, emerging yield farming opportunities and different projects, make it difficult to understand the lay of the land. The result is that users will require several different apps, software and other tools to track their portfolio. The comparison can be made to Instagram, which began as a simple …

Manta Network, a privacy layer project for the Polkadot ecosystem, has completed a new funding round to continue scaling decentralized finance (DeFi) use cases by boosting blockchain privacy. Announced Tuesday, Manta Network’s latest $5.5-million funding round included participation from more than 30 venture funds, including crypto hedge fund CoinFund and alternative investment firm ParaFi Capital. Other investors included Web 3. investment fund LongHash Ventures, CMS Holdings, Divergence, Spartan Group, Global Coin Ventures, SkyVision Capital, Zee Prime and SNZ. The funding has also featured some of the industry’s prominent individual investors from major cryptocurrency companies such as Digital Currency Group, Consensys …

This year, a great crypto cycle has played out with new all-time highs, euphoria and mainstream media paying lip service to the crypto trend du jour. However, the uncomfortable truth for us in the industry is that crypto is no more present in most people’s daily lives than it was in 2017. Four years have passed — what stalled its progress? 2017 marked my first professional foray into the blockchain space when I joined Crypto.com (then known as Monaco) as its first chief marketing officer. The company grew to become one of the largest crypto service providers and fiat-to-crypto gateways …

“Yahoo users will not be able to interact via mail with Google email (Gmail) users,” — If tomorrow’s headlines sounded like this, the earth would come to a halt. This headline shall never see the light for all the right reasons. However, blockchain tech and its favorite son, decentralized finance (DeFi), are heading towards this rabbit hole. Siloed blockchains with no window for external communication are dominating the nascent space. Interconnectivity is elementary and synonymous with the primitive human quality of being social. From the days of the barter system, transfer and exchange have been the two core practices on …