Binance has informed its retail customer base of a potential incoming service disruption that may halt on and off-ramp bank payment transfers. The service disruption will impact U.S Dollar-held bank accounts that are looking to buy or sell cryptocurrencies for less than $100,000 via the SWIFT payment system. The disruption will take effect on February 1. Binance announced the news to its “Binancians” by email on January 21, stressing that they’re now “actively seeking” a new SWIFT (USD) partner to avoid service disruptions for future bank payment transfers. The cryptocurrency exchange added that this was the banking partner’s decision and …

Crypto security is one of the hottest topics right now, as users wish for a much less turbulent 2023. Against the backdrop of a somewhat troublesome 2022, crypto enthusiasts are now more aware than ever that their assets need to be protected. To aid in users' efforts to keep their investments safe, one browser-based extension is revolutionizing the space. Web3 Antivirus is a simple and easy-to-use plugin that allows users to analyze and monitor smart contracts before interacting with them. To get a complete overview of what Web3 Antivirus brings to the table, tune into an AMA session with the …

The Ethereum network eclipsed Bitcoin in terms of total transaction volume last year, though the king of crypto has managed to retain its crown when it comes to online search interest. According to data from Nasdaq and Ycharts shared on Reddit on Jan. 2, Ethereum had 338% more total transaction volume in 2022 (408.5 million) than the Bitcoin network (93.1 million). The values shown in the chart are in millions of transactions with the average daily transactions at around 1.1 million for ETH and 255,000 for BTC. However, transaction volumes on the Bitcoin network were steadier and more periodic than …

Crypto-users may one day be able to automatically pay their electricity and telephone bills through their self-custodial crypto wallets, according to payments giant Visa. In a Dec. 20 blog post, Visa’s crypto thought leadership team proposed a solution that would allow providers to automaticall “pull” funds from users’ Ethereum-powered crypto wallets, without requiring the user to manually sign off on every transaction. Auto-payments for recurring bills are commonplace in the traditional banking world, giving users the ability to permit certain service providers to draw from their chosen bank accounts to pay off bills — such as a Netflix subscription or …

This year saw an influx of trademark applications filed by various companies looking to get in on the Web3 action. By November, a total number of 4999 US trademark applications had been filed for cryptocurrencies and digital related goods/services — this according to USPTO licensed trademark attorney, Mike Kondoudis. According to the USPTO licensed trademark attorney, the future of the Web3 ecosystem looks "bright" and that "mainstream adoption is inevitable." Learn more about the impact of Web3 trademark applications filed on the future of the Web3 ecosystem in Cointelegraph’s interview with Mike Kondoudis below. Cointelegraph covered a wide range of …

Major cryptocurrency platform Coinbase has offered an asset recovery tool for users who “mistakenly send unsupported tokens” to exchange addresses. In a Dec. 15 announcement, Coinbase said users who sent any of roughly 4,000 ERC-20 tokens to a Coinbase address could recover their previously unrecoverable funds by providing “the Ethereum TXID for the transaction where the asset was lost and the contract address of the lost asset.” The exchange said certain ETC-20 tokens including Wrapped Ether (wETH), TrueUSD (TUSD), and staked Ether (STETH) would be eligible for recovery, with a 5% charge on transactions of more than $100. “Our recovery …

Mike Belshe, the CEO of digital asset custodian BitGo has confirmed that Alameda Research attempted to redeem 3,000 Wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC) in the days before FTX’s bankruptcy filing on Nov. 11. During a Dec. 14 Twitter Spaces hosted by decentralized finance (DeFi) researcher Chris Blec, Belshe confirmed the firm knocked back the redemption request because the unknown Alameda representative involved didn’t pass Bitgo’s security verification process and seemed unfamiliar with how the wrapped-Bitcoin burning process worked. Full convo here. This part starts at 1:09:30. https://t.co/0KQg6bzd8k — Chris Blec (@ChrisBlec) December 14, 2022 “[The security details] didn't match the process. So …

Within the past 24 hours, the Binance cryptocurrency exchange has seen outflows of over $1.14B due to rising fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) within the crypto ecosystem. According to Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the exchange has seen this before and believes “it is a good idea to ‘stress test withdrawals’ on each CEX [Centralized Exchanges] on a rotating basis”. We saw some withdrawals today (net $1.14b ish). We have seen this before. Some days we have net withdrawals; some days we have net deposits. Business as usual for us. I actually think it is a good idea to “stress …

Are L2 networks the saviors? The emergence of a new tier of blockchains called layer-2 chains that have leveraged new cryptographic techniques like zero-knowledge-proofs (ZKPs) has helped address the scalability enigma. While the world was busy solving the blockchain trilemma at the L1 level, there were a bunch of smart developers who understood that optimization need not necessarily happen at the L1 level. One can create a network on top of L1 networks to solve fundamental problems. There are a few L2 networks, such as Polygon, Immutable and the Bitcoin lightning network, which use concepts such as sharding and rollups …

E-commerce and interactive platform builder LGND.io has announced a multi-year partnership with blockchain network developer Polygon and global entertainment company Warner Music Group to create a Web3 music platform called LGND Music. LGND Music, scheduled to launch in January 2023, is designed to be a music and collectibles platform that supports “digital collectibles from any blockchain in a proprietary player,” thereby making it possible for users to play their digital collectibles on the go. The partnership will allow select Warner Music Group artists to launch digital collectibles on both the app and desktop platforms. Creators will also be able to …

Bitcoin (BTC) is a dynamic monetary asset with the potential of being both — a commodity and a currency. For instance, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) classified BTC as a commodity, whereas El Salvador made Bitcoin a legal tender in 2021. So, does this make BTC a store of value or a medium of exchange? It can do both — On one hand, BTC can be added to treasuries as an inflationary hedge. On the other hand, it could also serve the retail purpose of paying for routine expenses. Almost over a decade ago, the first person to utilize …

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken announced on Nov 30, that it has made “one of the hardest decisions” to cut down its global workforce by approximately 1,100 people, making up approximately 30% of its total workforce, amid current market conditions. According to the CEO and co-founder Jesse Powell, Kraken had to triple its workforce due to the fast-growing crypto ecosystem, and the current pullback takes the company’s team size back to where it was 12 months ago. Powell shared in a tweet; "Macro was already tough and we held out but recent industry woes diminished near-term optimism about a crypto bound." Rough …