The world is quick to blame inflation for the rising prices at grocery stores and retailers. This was the #1 political issue for recent Election Day voters in the United States. For example, media sources recently reported poll data that 85% of Americans could not afford to spend $200 on a Thanksgiving meal in November 2022, and only 25% could afford $100. However, few recognize inflation is only part of the problem. Higher costs for products and services are also directly attributable to settlement fees paid by transportation providers who are forced to take out the equivalent of payday loans …

FTX’s collapse dealt a major blow to the already fragile sentiment among cryptocurrency investors. Although a quick recovery is unlikely, Blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis said that the crypto universe could emerge stronger from this crisis. Chainalysis’ research lead Eric Jardine arrived at the conclusion after comparing FTX’s fall to that of Mt. Gox. Another calming statement came from Bloomberg Intelligence exchange-traded fund analyst James Seyffart, who said that there was a “99.9% chance” that the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) held the Bitcoin (BTC) it claimed. He added that GBTC was “unlikely” to be liquidated. The negative events of the past …

Ether (ETH) price experienced an 11.9% decline from Nov. 20 to Nov. 22, bottoming at $1,074 — the lowest level seen since July. Currently, investors have reason to be concerned after crypto lending company Genesis reportedly faced difficulties raising money, triggering rumors of insolvency on Nov. 21. However, a spokesperson for Genesis told Cointelegraph that there were no plans for imminent bankruptcy because the company continues to hold discussions with its creditors. Unease about the centralization of decentralized finance (DeFi) surfaced after Uniswap Labs changed the privacy policy on Nov. 17, revealing that it collects publicly-available blockchain data, users' browser …

Decentralized exchange (DEX) Uniswap's recently updated privacy policy appears to have attracted the ire of some members of the community, with concerns that collecting and storing user data works against crypto's core values. In recent responses to a November blog post regarding its updated privacy policy, some vocal members of the community suggested it i uncharacteristic for a decentralized entity to collect and store information about its users. In the Nov. 11 post from Uniswap Labs, released around the time of FTX’s collapse, the decentralized exchange released its privacy policy to explain how it collected and stored user data. “With …

The sentiment across the cryptocurrency ecosystem remains fragile as market participants assess the impact of the FTX crisis on various businesses within and outside of the crypto sector. Trading firm QCP Capital said in its latest circular on Telegram that crypto assets may continue their underperformance till the new year. QCP projects Bitcoin (BTC) to plunge to $12,000 and Ether (ETH) to $800. Looking at the brighter side, FTX could be the last major player to bite the dust during the current bear market cycle, according to CK Zheng, co-founder of crypto hedge fund ZX Squared Capital. Zheng also added …

The collapse of FTX cryptocurrency exchange has created a liquidity crisis in the crypto space, which could extend the crypto winter through the end of 2023, according to a research report by Coinbase. According to analysts, the FTX implosion could keep the institutional investors at bay because they are even more likely to tread cautiously for some time. The crisis has negatively impacted several crypto-focused companies who have assets stuck on FTX following the company's bankruptcy filing on Nov. 11. Investors also fear the contagion could spread, causing further damage to the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Although several investors were rattled by …

On-chain data from Glassnode show Bitcoin’s (BTC) movements hit a new record for the largest net decline in aggregate BTC balances on exchanges, reducing by 72,900 BTC in one week. A similar movement occurred in April 2020, November 2020 and June 2022 with the current outflow leaving around 2.25 million BTC on exchanges. Exchange exodus for Ether, but not stablecoins While Ether (ETH) did not see an all-time high outflow from exchanges, 1.1 million Ether were withdrawn from exchanges over the last week. According to Glassnode, this marks the largest 30-day exchange balance decline since September 2020 during the DeFi …

Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution Arbitrum has seen a massive surge in activity since its Nitro update in August, having just clocked around 62% as many transactions as the Ethereum base layer. In a Nov. 1 report, crypto research firm Delphi Digital noted that as of the week ended Oct. 24, Arbitrum’s number of total transactions has increased by 550% since August, citing data from Dune Analytics. This week, @arbitrum had ~62% as many transactions as Ethereum L1. pic.twitter.com/DyuDNAjRGz — Delphi Digital (@Delphi_Digital) November 3, 2022 In an earlier Tweet, Delphi Digital initially phrased Arbitrum as accounting for 62% of all …

The shift of the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain to a proof-of-stake (PoS) protocol opened new opportunities for developers and investors to explore, including the burning of Ether. Now, Ethereum PoS transactions are validated through staking rather than mining. Staking impacts the supply and price dynamics of Ether in ways that are different from mining. Staking is expected to create deflationary pressure on Ether as opposed to mining that induces inflationary pressure. The increase in the total amount of funds locked in Ethereum contracts could also push its price up in the long term. This is because it affects one of the …

The millions oF UNI tokens delegated by Binance were a "misunderstood situation", said Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao on a Twitter's post, in response to questions about 13.2 million UNI tokens delegated on Oct. 18 that made Binance the second-largest entity by voting power in the Uniswap DAO. According to CZ, a UNI transfer between internal wallets caused the automatic delegation, denying allegations about the crypto exchange using user's tokens to vote. UNI transferred between internal Binance wallets, causing the UNI to be automatically delegated. This is part of their protocol, not "we intended". Binance don't vote with user’s tokens. …

Rarible, the Ethereum-based nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace, announced its platform upgrade to Rarible 2 on Oct. 20. The NFT marketplace says it is introducing new aggregation tools in order to showcase NFTs from across the Web3 space. This means users can browse and purchase Ethereum-based digital assets from Rarible, OpenSea, LooksRare, X2Y2 and Sudoswap. Alex Salnikov, chief strategy officer and co-founder of Rarible, told Cointelegraph that the NFT platforms we have today are “siloed,” and aggregation is the way to change that. “It creates an open environment where users can access the best prices for NFTs all through one interface." …

Crypto exchange Binance is now the second-largest entity by voting power in the Uniswap DAO, sitting just behind the venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z, according to the on-chain list of delegates. On Oct. 18, Binance delegated 13.2 million UNI tokens from its own books, which represents 5.9% of the voting power — a percentage of tokens delegated to the exchange. Compared to the total supply of UNI, the amount delegated represents 1.3%. The move will allow Binance to propose governance votes, as it exceeds a threshold of 0.25%, but it's still below the 4% quorum requirement to pass votes. …