India’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Unocoin, has adopted the blockchain-based Unstoppable Domains, which simplifies crypto transactions by turning blockchain addresses into human-readable web URLs.
Announced on Wednesday, the partnership between Unocoin and Unstoppable Domains — both funded by Silicon Valley investor Tim Draper — is expected to reduce remittance costs and simplify the transaction process for the exchange’s 1.2 million users.
Unstoppable Domains turns crypto addresses into decentralized websites on the Ethereum and Zilliqa blockchains. Instead of sending coins to a 42-character blockchain address, Unstoppable Domains allows users to create simple URLs ending in “.crypto” and “.zil” extensions. Domain names need only be purchased once, and then exist forever on the blockchain without requiring any renewal or maintenance fees.
The decentralized aspect of Unstoppable Domains should be of particular interest to Indian crypto users, especially amid the furor created by the Finance Ministry’s decision to ban the use…
Ethereum usage is surging this year, with the value of transactions settled on the network skyrocketing during 2021.
According to research from Messari, Ethereum has settled $926 trillion worth of transactions this quarter so far — 700% more than it processed during Q1 2020.
The network is currently on-pace to settle $1.6 trillion in transactions for the first quarter of this year. In the last 12 months, Ethereum has already settled $2.1 trillion in transactions.
If Messari’s $1.6 trillion forecast is accurate, Ethereum’s quarterly settlement value will have increased 1,280% compared to Q1 2020, and more than 5,000% compared to Q1 2019.
Messari researcher Ryan Watkins noted the data counters the prevailing narrative that Ethereum is seeing an exodus of users amid its high gas fees, exclaiming:
“Incredible scale for a technology that critics claimed couldn’t scale.”
Ethereum’s recent surge in settlement value can be attributed to explosive growth in the…
A veteran miner has cracked open their 2010 stash of Bitcoin, with crypto analysts spotting 100 BTC being transferred from two wallets that had laid dormant for more than a decade.
Prior to today’s transaction, the addresses had not seen any activity since receiving a 50 BTC Coinbase reward each nearly 11 years ago, except for two incoming transactions worth just 0.00000547 BTC each that were sent to the wallets in the last six months.
The Feb. 25 transaction combined the two mining address outputs, indicating both addresses belong to the same owner. The two blocks were mined only a couple of hours apart on Jun. 10, 2010.
Bitcoin is currently trading for $49,800, giving the coins a combined value of nearly $5 million. With BTC trading for $0.08 when the coins were mined, the whale’s holdings have increased in value by 622,500 times.
Some…
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Cross-chain bridges and DeFi integration are pushing these 3 altcoins higher
The cryptocurrency market is showing signs of progress following a multiday sell-off that saw the total market capitalization drop by more than $400 billion as Bitcoin’s (BTC) price briefly fell below $46,000.
While the majority of altcoins have entered a consolidation phase that includes a retest of underlying support levels, several projects have started to regain lost ground after new developments reignited investors’ optimism.
ADA/USDT
Cardano’s ADA started the year with a bullish spark that saw its price increase 624% from $0.165 on Jan. 2 to a high of $1.20 on Feb. 20. This week’s sharp correction pulled the price to a swing low at $0.80, but it is clear that traders bought the dip.
Since hitting a swing low at $0.80, ADA’s price rallied 30% to $1.05 following the news that community members at Venus Protocol…
Decentralized finance and the numerous platforms offering investment services have been the talk of the cryptocurrency sector for several months, and this has resulted in investors capturing spectacular gains for some of the top DeFi tokens like Uniswap’s UNI and AAVE.
The fast-moving prices and 1,000% annual percentage yield on staked tokens elicited cheers from investors when the market was going up, but the recent selling pressure seen as Bitcoin’s (BTC) price dropped below $45,000 shows that the highest fliers are often the quickest to fall as traders rush to exit their positions and lock in their gains.
On Feb. 22, Bitcoin’s price entered a sharp corrective phase that saw the top digital asset pull back by more than 20% from its all-time high of $58,274. As this occurred, the majority of altcoins also saw double-digit corrections, and DeFi tokens…
Credit card providers charge merchants a cut of the payments they accept, called interchange fees or swipe fees. With two major card providers aiming to elevate rates, could crypto become an alternative?
“Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. are planning to raise swipe fees for some types of credit-card purchases in April,” the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, adding:
“Though invisible to consumers, they [interchange fees] are glaring to merchants, which often end up paying fees of about 2% of their customers’ credit-card purchases. The fees are set by the card networks, such as Visa and Mastercard. Merchants pay them to the banks that issue the cards.”
As credit card fees rise, other options will become more attractive to merchants. That includes crypto. Digital assets also incur transaction fees, but some may be cheaper alternatives than the current credit card scene, especially if card fees continue rising.
Bitcoin (BTC),…