Crypto analysis firm DappReview published its quarterly report examining transaction volumes for decentralized applications (DApps) on April 8. The report finds a significant increase in total DApp activity during the past three months when compared to Q1 2019, despite a drop in the number of new projects and users. Quarterly DeFi volume nearly doubles year-over-year While Quarterly Ethereum-based DApp activity has surged almost 650% year-over-year (YoY), both EOS and Tron-based DApps have seen a decline in volume compared with Q1 2019. DappReview notes $7.9 billion in DApp volume transpiring across 13 blockchains in Q1 2020 — an 82% increase YoY. …

Tensions between Steem (STEEM) and the Hive (HIVE) community continue to escalate, with Steem executing a soft fork to freeze up to 20 accounts owned by the network’s former witnesses. The frozen accounts hold 17.6 million STEEM, worth approximately $3.2 million and equating to nearly 5% of Steem’s total supply. On April 4, the soft fork was proposed in a Steemit post authored by the new account "softfork2288." In response to the purported “uncertain threat that the leaders and main influencers of [Hive] represented to the Steem Blockchain,” the fork sanctioned roughly “no more than 20 accounts “ that meet …

Poloniex revealed its forthcoming Tron (TRX)-powered initial exchange offering (IEO) platform on April 5. Projects seeking to conduct their offerings on Poloniex’s LaunchBase platform face the stipulation of issuing tokens in exchange for TRX, and will be considered on a “first-come, first-serve” basis. Poloniex announces Tron-powered IEO platform Poloniex asserts that LaunchBase is intended “to help quality blockchain projects grow and further develop their ecosystem,” stating that it will “offer professional advice and guidance” to assist partner projects. In addition to agreeing to raise funds in TRX, partner projects will be subject to “eligibility and screening requirements.” Entities located in …

Seven crypto companies have been targeted by 11 lawsuits that were filed in a New York federal court on April 3. The suits were filed by Roche Freedman — the same law firm representing the estate of the late Dave Kleiman in the ongoing dispute with self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto, Craig Wright. Eleven lawsuits target seven crypto companies The eleven putative class action suits name dozens of parties including cryptocurrency exchanges Binance, KuCoin, BiBox, and BitMEX and parent company HDR Global Trading Limited, and alleged crypto issuers Block.one, Quantstamp, KayDex, Civic, BProtocol, Status, and the Tron Foundation. Many of the company’s …

Refereum, a blockchain-based platform that rewards users for video game engagement and streaming, has partnered with Tron. The collaboration allows Refereum to pay out its video game streaming users in Tron’s TRX coin, and BitTorrent’s BTT token, said an April 2 statement provided to Cointelegraph. Partnerships, more partnerships, and purchases Tron bought software company, BitTorrent Inc, in 2018. BitTorrent also utilizes an associated crypto asset called BTT, which is built on Tron’s blockchain. Refereum teamed up with DLive, a blockchain streaming service, near the end of 2019, giving video game live streamers reward-collecting potential. Furthering the connective web, Tron made …

On March 28, Tron (TRX) founder Justin Sun tweeted to announce the release of Djed, a system for collateralized loans he described as “something new.” The platform was immediately criticized as many see it as a plagiarized version of MakerDAO (MKR). Sun teased the launch on Jan. 16 when Sun let his fans choose the name of a planned decentralized stablecoin that was initially to be backed by TRX and BitTorrent Token (BTT). Self-described TRX whale and Tron fan Mike McCarthy was the one who proposed the name Djed, just one hour and a half after Sun’s initial tweet. The …

Tron (TRX) partnered with cryptocurrency service provider, Metal Pay, to enable instant purchase of TRX in the United States. According to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph on March 25, TRX will now be available for purchase with fiat currency in the Metal Pay mobile application. Users can pay for the crypto asset via debit card or checking account. Furthermore, Tron users can also earn up to 5% cashback in MTL, Metal Pay’s proprietary tokens, on eligible transactions for sending and receiving United States dollars. The platform also allows its users to exchange TRX for over 20 other cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin …

Major cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and Huobi have announced support for the Steem (STEEM) community’s hard fork to create the new Hive network. On March 18, Binance and Huobi published announcements revealing their support for the Steem hard fork that is scheduled for March 20. The decisions appear to quash allegations from earlier in the month that the exchanges were coordinating with Justin Sun in his apparent attempted takeover of the Steem network. Binance and Huobi support Hive hard fork Both exchanges will take snapshots of STEEM account balances at 2 PM UTC, and both exchanges will suspend STEEM deposits and …

The Steem (STEEM) community announced its intention to create a new platform in the wake of the controversy with Justin Sun. According to a blog post published on March 18, the new platform, named Hive, will launch on March 20. The new platform will initially be launched as an exact code fork of the Steem blockchain, but it will not directly copy the current blockchain’s state. Steem users will receive their balances through a 1:1 airdrop taken from a snapshot of the blockchain at 10 AM EST on March 20. There is a major caveat, however, as the airdrop will …

Over the last few days, the centralization versus decentralization row has erupted in earnest. In case you missed it, the activities of Tron founder Justin Sun following his takeover of blogging site Steemit have been pivotal to the controversies. Let’s briefly recap. Earlier in February, it emerged that Sun was further expanding his crypto-empire with the acquisition of Steemit, which runs on the Steem blockchain. Steem was developed by Daniel Larimer, who also introduced the delegated proof-of-stake governance model, or dPoS, to the blockchain sphere. Larimer later went on to build EOS, which also runs on dPoS. Related: Steemit Managing …

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has officially apologized to the Steem community following its involvement in a major centralization scandal involving Tron founder Justin Sun. In its letter posted on March 10, Binance affirmed that it “stays neutral and has no interest in on-chain governance beyond the Binance ecosystem.” Binance also provided records of its powering down of all the 31,730,000 STEEM tokens it had staked in support of Justin Tron’s allegedly “hostile takeover” of the blockchain. Steem vs. Tron controversy: the backstory Binance’s letter comes following a stand-off earlier this month between members of the Steem community and Tron CEO Justin …

The scandal surrounding the Steem blockchain continues to unfold. After juggernaut exchanges Binance, Huobi and Poloniex were heavily criticized by community members for allegedly mobilizing customer deposits to take over the network, two of those firms announced they were backing off. Meanwhile, Tron CEO Justin Sun, who has recently acquired Steemit — the startup behind the major blockchain-based blogging and social networking platform — has referred to the disgruntled voters who tried to reclaim control as “hackers” who have been “successfully defeated.” However, as the latest developments show, Sun intends to withdraw all of the orchestrated votes “ASAP,” while the …