According to data from programming repository GitHub, Polkadot recognized more than 500 contributions each day in September — an all-time high for the multichain protocol. Simultaneously, data from Polkadot's cross-consensus interoperability standard XCM show that a record 26,258 messages were sent between its parachains. In total, 14,930 developers' contributions were recorded on Polkadot's GitHub in the month of August. As told by project developers, 66 blockchains are now live on Polkadot and its parachain startup network Kusama. Since its inception, over 140,000 messages have been exchanged between chains via 135 messaging channels. Together, the Polkadot and Kusama Treasuries have cumulatively …

The United States Federal Reserve has been aggressively hiking rates in an attempt to cool down inflation and that has kept the U.S. equities markets under pressure. Investors have been closely watching the inflation figures for early signs of topping out but to no avail. Wholesale prices rose 0.4% in September, exceeding the Dow Jones' estimate for a 0.2% gain. This suggests that inflation is yet to respond to the Fed’s monetary tightening. All eyes will now be fixed on the consumer price index data to be released on Oct. 13. Equity traders can expect volatility to pick up following …

Smart contract blockchains have played a pivotal role in creating wide-ranging functionality after the advent of Bitcoin in 2009. Ethereum led the way in this regard, but innovative technology stacks like Polkadot have brought a new paradigm to the sector. It’s been just less than a year since Polkadot’s Relay Chain went live in December 2021, and the platform’s ecosystem continues to grow as interest in Web3 increases across the world. Polkadot shares an intrinsic link to Ethereum given that its creator Gavin Wood played a role as a co-founder of the preeminent smart contract platform some seven years ago. …

The Web3 Foundation and the global online learning platform edX launch a series of foundational courses in blockchain technology and the Polkadot platform. The four-part series, called Web3x, will cover the fundamentals of blockchain and explore the Substrate software development kit and the Rust programming language. By press time, the Web3x webpage contains only the first two courses: ‘Introduction to blockchain and Web3” and “Introduction to Polkadot.” The former course explains the history and key terminology of blockchains, Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum and Web3, and the technologies behind them. The latter provides the learners with the key terminology behind Polkadot (DOT) …

The United States equities markets have started the week on a weak note as investors remain unconvinced that the Federal Reserve will pull back its aggressive monetary policy. The Nasdaq Composite index fell to its lowest level since September 2020. All eyes will be fixated on the U.S. Consumer Price Index data for September to be released on Oct. 13 as that could influence the Fed’s decision on the size of the rate hike in the next meeting in November. Depending on how the market perceives the reading, legacy markets and the cryptocurrency markets may witness a pick up in …

The United States equities markets have been under a firm bear grip for a large part of the year. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite have declined for three quarters in a row, a first since 2009. There was no respite in selling in September and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is on track to record its worst September since 2002. These figures outline the kind of carnage that exists in the equities market. Compared to these disappointing figures, Bitcoin (BTC) and select altcoins have not given up much ground in September. This is the first sign that selling …

A community-driven platform is making a bold prediction for the future: the worlds of DeFi and NFTs will eventually fuse and form a new, brighter star. Starfish Finance says its infrastructure has been built in anticipation of this happening — and it's based on Astar Network, one of Polkadot's top parachains. The Starfish protocol is based on Balancer V2. Users have the freedom to create liquidity pools of up to eight different cryptoassets on top of a full stack DeFi product suite. Beyond its DeFi capabilities, users can stake NFTs on their native chain through Celer Network’s latest IM framework, …

The S&P 500 fell for six days in a row and made a new year-to-date low on Sept. 27, but Bitcoin (BTC) maintained its outperformance and stayed well above its June low. This could be a positive sign because several times, markets that show strength on the way down are the ones that outperform in the event of a recovery. The United States equities markets rebounded sharply on Sept. 28 after the Bank of England announced a bond-buying program and the U.S. Treasury yields pulled back from multi-year highs. As this occurred, strong buying in Bitcoin took place, but BTC …

The United Kingdom is in focus following the British pound’s fall to a new all-time low against the United States dollar. The sell-off was triggered by the aggressive tax cuts announced by Prime Minister Liz Truss’s government. The 10-year gilt yields have soared by 131 basis points in September, on track for its biggest monthly increase since 1957, according to Reuters. The currency crisis and the soaring U.S dollar index (DXY) may not be good news for U.S. equities and the cryptocurrency markets. A ray of hope for Bitcoin (BTC) investors is that the pace of decline has slowed down …

The S&P 500 index has declined about 5% this week while the Nasdaq Composite is down more than 5.5%. Investors fear that the Federal Reserve’s aggressive rate hikes could cause an economic downturn. The yield curve between the two-year and 10-year Treasury notes, which is watched closely by analysts for predicting a recession, has inverted the most since the year 2000. Among all the mayhem, it is encouraging to see that Bitcoin (BTC) has outperformed both the major indices and has fallen less than 4% in the week. Could this be a sign that Bitcoin’s bottom may be close by? …

The Federal Reserve hiked rates by 75 basis points on Sept. 21 and Fed chair Jerome Powell projected another 125 basis points increase before the end of the year. If that happens, it will take the benchmark rate to 4.4% by the end of the year, which is sharply higher than the June estimates of 3.8%. The Fed also intimated that it only expects rate cuts to be considered in 2024. The expectation of higher rates pushed the 2-year Treasury to 4.1%, its highest level since 2007. This could attract several investors who are looking for safety in this uncertain …

The United States equities markets and the crypto markets are likely to remain volatile in the near term because traders remain nervous about the size of the next Federal Reserve rate hike on Sept. 20 and Sept. 21. While the majority favors a 75 basis point rate hike, according to the CME FedWatch Tool, some analysts expect the Fed to hike rates by 100 basis points, the first such instance since the early 1980s. Many expect Bitcoin (BTC) to continue its slide and drop below the June low in the future. Although anything is possible in the markets, many times, …