Though Dogecoin has seen a near 45% rally over the past month, its use cases remain limited, especially given that it can’t interact with smart contracts.

2022 continues to be a year of surprises, with one of the biggest so far being Elon Musk’s decision to acquire social media juggernaut Twitter for a whopping $44 billion. While the takeover has set into motion a whole host of debates — particularly those pertaining to Big Tech censorship — it has also called into question the future of Dogecoin (DOGE), a digital currency of which the billionaire has been a big proponent over the last couple of years.

To put things into perspective, just hours before Musk tweeted that “the bird is freed” on Oct. 27, the price of DOGE was hovering around $0.07. However, by Nov. 1, it had surged to $0.16, bringing the total market capitalization of the so-called memecoin to a sizable $21 billion. And while DOGE is currently trading close to $0.08, its 30-day profit ratio is greater than 40%.

It is also worth noting that every time Musk has tweeted in support of the digital asset, its value has skyrocketed quite dramatically. For example, throughout 2021, he continued to refer to DOGE as the “people’s crypto,” a message that sent the currency’s value flying by a whopping 4,000% over the course of the year.

Moreover, Tesla — an American multinational automotive and clean energy company helmed by Musk — started accepting DOGE as payment for its merchandise in January 2022, including its “Giga Texas” belt buckles and miniature vehicle replicas. Furthermore, Musk’s recently released joke fragrance, Burnt Hair, could also be purchased with DOGE.

A bleak future for DOGE?

To get a better idea of whether Musk’s Twitter takeover and constant support of DOGE stand to make an indelible mark on the digital currency’s financial future, Cointelegraph reached out to Lior Yaffe, co-founder of Switzerland-based blockchain software company Jelurida. Yaffe does not have too much faith in Dogecoin, judging from the poor decision-making displayed by Musk so far, adding:

“From paying too much for Twitter to causing companywide mayhem by firing many good employees and making terrible management decisions such as the blue check episode, I’m not optimistic about either Twitter or Dogecoin.”

Furthermore, he claimed he would be surprised if Musk can bring any real use cases to Dogecoin, noting that even if Musk intends to somehow integrate Twitter with crypto payments — which is a very difficult task — he doubts they will be able to achieve such a dream in the near future. “Even if they do manage to build a payment system around Twitter, there are much better blockchain solutions than Dogecoin to choose from with regards to security, privacy, smart contracts and scaling,” he stated.

Recent: Could Hong Kong really become China’s proxy in crypto?

Henry Liu, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange BTSE, told Cointelegraph that after taking into consideration the current macroeconomic environment, he foresees the price of DOGE continuing to remain highly volatile, much in line with the crypto market.

“We expect DOGE to stay speculative in the short run, and there should be reduced liquidity and trading volumes across various platforms. If DOGE can be given new utility regarding its collaboration with Twitter, we may foresee a spike driven by social media communities,” he said.

Not everyone is so skeptical

Nikita Zuborev, chief analyst for cryptocurrency exchange BestChange, told Cointelegraph that while one cannot discount the fact that the growth of meme tokens often happens suddenly and unreasonably, Musk’s recent acquisition of Twitter could potentially boost DOGE’s price, mainly because one cannot rule out the possibility of the asset being integrated into the firm’s social network ecosystem in the future. He added:

“If that happens, then the previously useless memecoin will turn into the platform’s central control token of sorts, reaching a massive audience in the process. Such a transformation will be able to bring the coin several use cases, something that many investors are betting on.”

To further strengthen his argument, Zuborev pointed to the upcoming launch of the SpaceX-backed Doge-1 lunar satellite, which is directly related to the brand of the coin. “These kinds of moves stand to provoke high demand in DOGE’s market and price growth,” he claimed. 

That being said, he did concede that as long as the asset’s primary selling point remains rooted in its meme-centric outlook, it would only be wise to add the currency to one’s portfolio just to diversify it. However, as a standalone investment, he does not give much merit to DOGE.

“Besides Dogecoin, Musk has repeatedly spoken quite positively about Bitcoin as well, a crypto that is far more stable and can be integrated into Twitter’s ecosystem easily. One can consider it as an alternative to DOGE, especially to capitalize on Musk’s continued market manipulations," he said.

DOGE’s utility is still minimal, and that’s a fact

Thanks to Musk’s affinity for Dogecoin and his recent takeover of Twitter, it stands to reason that speculation regarding the asset’s price will run amok, at least for some more time. That being said, the fact remains that Dogecoin as a crypto project is still quite limited in its operational utility, a sentiment echoed by Daniel Elsawey, co-founder and CEO of decentralized exchange TideFi.

Taking a more holistic view of the matter, he told Cointelegraph that cryptocurrencies in the digital asset space today fall into two distinct categories: those with smart contract capabilities and those without. In his opinion, the market as a whole is moving toward the tokenization of items in our day-to-day lives, and this is what stands to tip the adoption curve of digital assets toward one side or the other. He added:

“Given that DOGE cannot directly interact with smart contracts as part of its original design, I would say that unless it’s specifically used as an option for payment, the use cases associated will continue to remain speculative.”

Lastly, given that the crypto industry is still in its relative infancy, it continues to remain heavily dependent on Bitcoin (BTC), tracing its price movements quite heavily. Moreover, volatility continues to pervade the market due to the recent downfall of crypto exchange FTX, something that will have a direct effect on the price of most cryptocurrencies in the near to mid-term. “Dogecoin is no different in this respect. There is still a lot of uncertainty surrounding the asset,” Elsawey concluded.

Recent: Banks still show interest in digital assets and DeFi amid market chaos

As we head into a future driven by a high degree of economic turbulence — across a myriad of financial sectors — it will be interesting to see how the future of Dogecoin plays out moving forward, especially as projects with limited use cases continue to be wiped out from the market seemingly with each passing day.

Original: https://cointelegraph.com/news/is-doge-really-worth-the-hype-even-after-musk-s-twitter-buyout
By: Shiraz Jagati
Posted: November 19, 2022, 3:36 pm

Soulbound tokens (SBTs) refer to digital identity tokens that represent the characteristics or reputation of a person or entity.

By creating an alternative financial system with extraordinary flexibility and innovation in less than ten years, Web3 has astounded the globe. Economic and cryptographic primitives such as smart contracts and consensus mechanisms have helped to create an open-source system to conduct and authorize financial transactions.

However, the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem cannot support straightforward contracts like an apartment lease because it lacks a native Web3 identity. This article aims to demonstrate how even modest advances toward social identity representation with soulbound tokens could circumvent these constraints and reroute Web3 to an authentic, more transformational path. 

What are soulbound tokens (SBTs)?

Projects and use cases focusing on social identities and communities rather than just money are required for blockchains to be at the core of collaborative and fascinating ecosystems. To address this issue, Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum’s co-founder, along with Puja Ohlhaver, strategy counsel at FlashBots, and E. Glen Weyl, political economist and social technologist, introduced the concept of soulbound tokens in a paper titled “Decentralized Society: Finding Web3’s Soul.”

According to the authors, soulbound tokens provide the basis for a decentralized society (DeSoc), which is a co-determined sociality in which communities and souls come together bottom-up as emergent features of one another to co-create plural network goods and bits of intelligence at various scales. A soulbound token is a publicly verifiable and non-transferable nonfungible token (NFT) that represents an individual’s credentials, affiliations and commitments. So, what is a non-transferable token?

Non-transferable tokens refer to NFTs that can help track reputation and are added to addresses but cannot be sold. But what does “Souls” refer to in soulbound NFTs? The wallets or accounts to which SBTs or non-transferable tokens are permanently bound are called Souls. For instance, a Soul can represent an individual’s employment history, which can be self-certified similar to information in one’s curriculum vitae.  

But, when SBTs possessed by one Soul can be issued — or attested — by other Souls who are counterparties (e.g., individuals or organizations) to these relationships, that is when the mechanism’s true power is revealed. For instance, the Ethereum Foundation might be a Soul that awards SBTs to those who attended an Ethereum conference. According to the paper, the concept of “plural network groups” refers to interactions and communications within the networks and are the most critical drivers of economic growth.

How do soulbound tokens work?

Soulbound tokens may assist Web3 networks in using non-transferable tokens as reputation indicators rather than relying upon money-centric frameworks to achieve the same. For instance, the lender currently verifies the borrower’s bank account balances, credit scores and repayment history to offer an undercollateralized loan. 

However, with SBTs representing one’s credentials, reputation will act as collateral to get an undercollateralized loan. Now, if you recall the fundamental concept of NFTs, they represent property or assets with some monetary value. But, how to verify someone’s reputation in a blockchain-based trustless system?

To understand this concept and the working of SBTs in the Web3 space, let’s take an example of a decentralized autonomous organization’s (DAO) voting system. Most DAO governance models assign voting power based on the number of tokens held by a member. 

Nonetheless, DAOs issuing SBTs could prioritize reputation over tokens owned by a member. The reputation can be verified via users’ interactions with the community. For instance, trophies earned from Kusama’s Governance Rewards program for every on-chain referendum member votes in can be used to represent their reputation. 

That said, trophies serve as a visual representation of a member’s on-chain activity in Kusama and Polkadot DAOs, which may now be sufficient security for an undercollateralized loan. Additionally, a reputation-based voting system may defend DAOs against Sybil attacks.

A Sybil attack involves one or more bad actors taking control of the majority of the governance tokens to redirect the project’s direction in their favor. Soulbound tokens being publicly verifiable, can protect DAOs from falling into the trap of bad actors. For instance, souls holding respectable SBTs may be assigned majority voting power to protect the integrity of decentralized autonomous organizations.

However, do soulbound tokens exist? There are a few examples of how soulbound tokens can be utilized in the Web3 world, which is described in the below section. But. when will soulbound tokens be available? Binance Account Bound (BAB) will be the first SBT issued on the BNB chain by Binance. The BAB token will not have any monetary value and cannot be transferred.

It will serve as a digital verification solution for Binance customers that have completed Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements. Additionally, third-party protocols can utilize BAB SBTs to facilitate DAO governance voting and airdrop, among other use cases. 

 

READ ALSO

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by Cointelegraph

3 months ago

How can soulbound tokens be used?

In everyday life, there are many use cases of SBTs in Web3, as explained below:

NFT ownership

Artists can get rid of dishonest individuals selling NFT collections under the guise of famous artists by linking soulbound tokens to their artistic profile. SBTs would allow buyers to trace the social provenance, whereas blockchain inclusion enables them to track when a specific work was created. 

For instance, a tradeable NFT could be issued by an artist from their Soul to help buyers recognize an artist’s work by the number of soulbound tokens it contains, establishing the legitimacy of the nonfungible token. As a result, Souls would develop a publicly-verified, on-chain method for staking and develop a reputation around the provenance and rarity of an item.

Job vacancies

Soulbound tokens representing a candidate’s educational credentials like degree and professional certificates and previous work history can be used as proof of skill to meet the human resource needs of an organization.

Gaming

A user’s Web3 activity can be tracked using SBTs, which can be converted into non-transferable reputation tokens inside game avatars that can only be leveled up in this method. This means being a good Web3 citizen: You can level up instead of playing the game, giving your avatar non-transferable skills and experience.

 

READ ALSO

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Verification of borrowers’ credit history

Traditional credit reports may also be represented by SBTs, giving lenders access to a borrower’s whole credit profile. And, the SBT may be replaced by payment documentation or deleted once the loan has been repaid. As a result, people cannot hide their ongoing obligations.

Souldrops

Web3 has been mainly dependent on token sales or airdrops to entice new communities, but both methods provide mediocre results. As an alternative, Souldrops can be issued using SBTs, for instance, to developers with 5 out of the last 10 conference attendance soulbound tokens serving as a proof of attendance protocol (POAP). People can use POAPs, a special NFT, to demonstrate that they attended a live or recorded event.

What are the benefits of soulbound tokens?

One of the advantages of using soulbound tokens for credential verification purposes is that since information is permanently replicated on the blockchain, no one can falsify it. Moreover, any awards and certificates earned by an individual can be publicly verifiable via SBTs. Furthermore, since authenticity cannot be purchased through soulbound tokens, it fosters confidence among tokenholders and the general public.

Additionally, protocols will be able to check borrowers’ credit histories and evaluate their credit scores to determine how much they can borrow, thanks to soulbound NFTs. Moreover, SBTs restrict Web3 projects from becoming a cash bag by making digital representations non-tradable. That said, an individual cannot buy NFTs; instead, they need to put effort into earning them.

Are there any risks associated with soulbound tokens?

Along with lucrative advantages, soulbound tokens have some cons, too. For example, the current wallet mix may not be ideal for SBTs due to the lack of community recovery methods. As a result, community recovery wallets need a wide variety of soulbound tokens dispersed throughout several communities to recover lost Souls.

A solution to the above lies in a community recovery strategy, in which a Soul’s private keys can be obtained if consent by a qualified majority of one of the communities (that the Soul belongs to) is received..

However, some people or organizations might recognize interests that conflict with their own ideology, which could theoretically lead to harassment, violence or even trolling, indicating a privacy concern as an individual’s personal information is exposed.

Theoretically, SBT-based credit systems could lead to dystopian ecosystems (where freedom and independent thought is restricted) like China’s social credit system, where specific social groupings are automatically excluded owing to the presence of specific soulbound tokens.

SBTs vs. NFTs

Nonfungible tokens can be bought and sold via NFT marketplaces, whereas soulbound tokens are non-transferable NFTs because they’re bound to the Soul. A summary of the differences between SBTs and NFTs is listed in the table below:

Although NFTs cannot be altered or duplicated, they are easily transferable, which could be a problem if they are utilized by someone with access authorization without first being granted to a holder. Therefore, soulbound tokens are tied to a particular Soul address and can be verified via on-chain credentials, restricting anyone from modifying them.

The future of soulbound tokens

The concept of soulbound tokens, despite being interesting, is quite new and cannot replace the NFT ecosystem. Instead, it can serve as an alternative way of identity control, allowing DAOs, for instance, to better engage with their community members.

However, it remains to be seen if both SBTs and NFTs will co-exist until DeSoc becomes a reality in the Web3 space or if SBTs alone can serve as digital identity tokens in the decentralized world. 

Original: https://cointelegraph.com/news/what-are-soulbound-tokens-sbts-and-how-do-they-work
By: Jagjit Singh
Posted: November 19, 2022, 1:00 pm

Historical data around crypto crashes revealed that 14 crypto exchanges, together, were responsible for the loss of at least 1,195,000 BTC, representing 6.3% of the 19.2 Bitcoin currently in circulation.

One of the biggest factors differentiating Bitcoin (BTC) from fiat currency and most cryptocurrencies is the hard limit of 21 million on its total circulating supply. However, the demise of numerous crypto exchanges over the last decade has permanently taken out at least 5.7% (1.2 million BTC) of the total issuable Bitcoin from circulation.

The lack of clarity around a crypto exchange’s proof of reserves came out as the primary reason for their sudden collapses, as seen recently with FTX. Historical data around crypto crashes revealed that 14 crypto exchanges, together, were responsible for the loss of 1,195,000 BTC, which represents 6.3% of the 19.2 Bitcoin currently in circulation.

An investigation conducted by Jameson Lopp, co-founder and chief technology officer of Bitcoin storage platform CasaHODL, revealed that Mt. Gox maintains the top position when it comes to exchanges losing BTC holdings.

While the scarcity of Bitcoin is directly related to its value as an asset, Lopp pointed out that fake Bitcoin offerings currently threaten the ecosystem, adding that “Bitcoin will not be a great store of value if most people are buying fake bitcoin.” Investigations confirm that at least 80 crypto assets have “Bitcoin” in their names, aimed purely to mislead BTC investors.

As a result, investors purchasing fake Bitcoin assets negatively impact the price appreciation of the original Bitcoin.

80+ crypto assets have the word "bitcoin" in their name.
14 have a market cap over $1,000,000.
3 claim to be Bitcoin.
1 is Bitcoin.

— Jameson Lopp (@lopp) September 22, 2022

To ensure Bitcoin’s position as sound money, self-custody comes out as the most effective way to reduce reliance on crypto exchanges and corporate “paper Bitcoin” contracts.

Related: Blockstream CEO Adam Back talks Bitcoin over a game of Jenga

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele announced plans to acquire 1 BTC every day starting from Nov. 17, 2022.

We are buying one #Bitcoin every day starting tomorrow.

— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) November 17, 2022

Public records show that El Salvador currently holds 2,381 BTC at an average buying price of $43,357. However, stagnant Bitcoin performance opened up a window of opportunity for the country to substantially bring down its average price of Bitcoin acquisition.

Original: https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-scarcity-rises-as-bad-exchanges-take-1-2m-btc-out-of-circulation
By: Arijit Sarkar
Posted: November 19, 2022, 6:54 am

Grayscale shared a letter from Coinbase Custody attesting that each of Grayscale’s crypto products is fully backed, but stopped short of providing the wallet addresses.

Cryptocurrency investment product provider Grayscale Investments has refused to provide on-chain proof of reserves or wallet addresses to show the underlying assets of its digital currency products citing “security concerns.”

In a Nov. 18 Twitter thread addressing investor concerns, Grayscale laid out information regarding the security and storage of its crypto holdings and said all crypto underlying its investment products are stored with Coinbase’s custody service, stopping short of revealing the wallet addresses.

6) Coinbase frequently performs on-chain validation. Due to security concerns, we do not make such on-chain wallet information and confirmation information publicly available through a cryptographic Proof-of-Reserve, or other advanced cryptographic accounting procedure.

— Grayscale (@Grayscale) November 18, 2022

“We know the preceding point in particular will be a disappointment to some,” Grayscale added, “but panic sparked by others is not a good enough reason to circumvent complex security arrangements that have kept our investors’ assets safe for years.”

The move by Grayscale comes as pressure mounts on crypto businesses to introduce proof of reserves in the wake of FTX’s liquidity issues and subsequent bankruptcy.

Some Twitter users hit out at Grayscale’s view that security concerns surrounded its decision to withhold its wallet addresses, with one commenting the addresses of Bitcoin (BTC) inventor Satoshi Nakamoto are well known and are of higher value to attackers, “yet Satoshi's Bitcoin remains secure.”

Grayscale shared a letter co-signed by Coinbase chief financial officer Alesia Haas and Coinbase Custody CEO Aaron Schnarch that broke down Grayscale’s holdings by its investment products and reaffirmed the assets “are secure,” that each product has its “own on-chain addresses” and the crypto always belongs “to the applicable Grayscale product.”

Grayscale added that each of its products is set up as a separate legal entity and “laws, regulations, and documents [...] prohibit the digital assets underlying the products from being lent, borrowed, or otherwise encumbered.”

Related: Nickel Digital, Metaplex and others continue to feel the impact of FTX collapse

Grayscale is known for its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), a security tracking the price of Bitcoin, it also has products tracking the price of other cryptocurrencies such as Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL).

Investor concerns come as Genesis Global, serving as the liquidity provider for GBTC, announced on Nov. 16 that it had halted withdrawals, citing “unprecedented market turmoil” resulting in significant withdrawals from its platform that exceeded its current liquidity.

Genesis is a part of the crypto-focused venture capital company Digital Currency Group (DCG) which also owns Grayscale. GBTC is trading at a discount of nearly 43% compared to its net asset value in part due to investor speculation on GBTC’s exposure to Genesis.

Original: https://cointelegraph.com/news/grayscale-cites-security-concerns-for-withholding-on-chain-proof-of-reserves
By: Jesse Coghlan
Posted: November 19, 2022, 1:41 am

In the past 48 hours Bitcoin traders added to their leveraged long positions even as crypto critics and politicians ramp up their criticism of cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin (BTC) price has tested the $16,000 resistance multiple times since the 25% crash that occurred between Nov. 7 and Nov. 9, and some critics will justify their bearish bias by incorrectly assuming that the failure of FTX exchange should trigger a much broader correction.

It's kind of annoying me that Bitcoin is still selling for $16k-ish, even in the wake of all of this FTX news. I mean I assume the volume is low, but what on earth will it take to properly crush this zombie "currency" back to its rightful value of nearly zero?

— Daniel Knowles (@dlknowles) November 18, 2022

For example, Daniel Knowles, a correspondent at The Economist, says the 26th largest tradable asset in the world with a $322 billion market capitalization is “astonishingly useless and wasteful.” Knowles also said that “there is still no logical case for specifically Bitcoin. It's pure ponzi.”

If you think it through, for outsiders, Bitcoin’s price is the single most important indicator of success, regardless of its valuation surpassing secular companies such as Nestle (NESN.SW), Bank of America (BAC) and Coca-Cola (KO).

Most people’s need for centralized authority over their money is so entrenched that cryptocurrency exchanges’ success and failure rate becomes the gatekeeper and success benchmark, when in fact, quite the opposite is true. Bitcoin was created as a peer-to-peer monetary transmission network, so exchanges are not synonyms for adoption.

It is worth highlighting that Bitcoin has been trying to break above $17,000 for the past seven days, so there is certainly a lack of appetite from buyers above that level. The most likely reason is that investors fear contagion risks, similar to what was seen with Genesis Block, the last FTX-related victim to halt service due to liquidity concerns. According to recent reports, the company announced plans to cease trading and shutter operations.

Bitcoin price is stuck in a downtrend, and it will be hard to shake it, but it’s a fallacy to assume that centralized cryptocurrency exchange failure is the primary reason for Bitcoin’s downtrend or a reflection of its actual value.

Let’s look at crypto derivatives data to understand whether investors remain risk-averse to Bitcoin.

Futures markets are in backwardation and this is bearish

Fixed-month futures contracts usually trade at a slight premium to regular spot markets because sellers demand more money to withhold settlement for longer. Technically known as contango, this situation is not exclusive to crypto assets.

In healthy markets, futures should trade at a 4% to 8% annualized premium, which is enough to compensate for the risks plus the cost of capital.

Considering the data above, it is evident that derivatives traders flipped bearish on Nov. 9, as the Bitcoin futures premium entered backwardation, meaning the demand for shorts — bearish bets — is extremely high. This data reflects professional traders’ unwillingness to add leveraged long (bull) positions despite the inverted cost.

The longs-to-shorts ratio shows a more balanced situation

To exclude externalities that might have solely impacted the quarterly contracts, traders should analyze the top traders’ long-to-short ratio. It gathers data from exchange clients’ positions on the spot, perpetual and fixed-calendar futures contracts, thus better informing on how professional traders are positioned.

There are occasional methodological discrepancies between different exchanges, so readers should monitor changes instead of absolute figures.

Even though Bitcoin failed to break the $17,000 resistance on Nov. 18, professional traders slightly increased their leverage long positions according to the long-to-short indicator. For instance, the Huobi traders’ ratio improved from 0.93 on Nov. 16 and presently stands at 0.99.

Related: Crypto Biz, FTX fallout leaves blood in its wake

Similarly, OKX displayed a modest increase in its long-to-short ratio, as the indicator moved from 1.00 to the current 1.04 in two days. Lastly, the metric stood flat near 1.00 at the Binance exchange. Thus, such data show traders did not become bearish after the latest resistance rejection.

Consequently, one should not conclude that the futures backwardation considering the broader analysis of the long-to-short ratio, show no evidence of excessive bearish demand from whales and market makers.

It will likely take some time until investors exclude the potential regulatory and contagion risks caused by FTX and Alameda Research’s downfall. Until then, a sharp recovery for Bitcoin seems unlikely for the short term.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Original: https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-traders-increase-leverage-longs-even-as-crypto-critics-say-btc-is-a-pure-ponzi
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Original: https://decrypt.co/114942/gemini-okx-crypto-severe-outflows-jpmorgan
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Original: https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2022/11/17/jpmorgan-the-shrinking-stablecoin-market-is-another-sign-of-investors-exodus-from-crypto/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=rss&utm_campaign=headlines
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Original: https://decrypt.co/114897/el-salvador-start-buying-1-bitcoin-every-day-says-president-bukele
By: Andrew Asmakov
Posted: November 17, 2022, 11:07 am

The new browser extension lets users store, send and receive crypto across all EVM chains and Solana.

Following the collapse of FTX and the bank run on crypto exchanges in general, self-custody Trust Wallet is gaining momentum. In one week, the company launched the long-anticipated browser extension and collaborated with Binance Pay and Coinbase Pay, whose users can now transfer their funds directly to a Trust Wallet account. 

On Nov. 14, Trust Wallet launched its browser extension, now available in Google Chrome and Opera browsers. The extension lets users store, send and receive crypto across all EVM chains and Solana. A network auto-detect function provides users with a seamless dApp experience without the need to manually add networks.

The extension also includes multi-wallet support, NFT support, fiat on-ramp providers, and non-EVM blockchain integrations, as well as hardware wallet support.

On Nov. 16, the world’s biggest crypto exchange, Binance, reported the launch of Binance Pay’s Trust Wallet integration. Now, Binance users won’t have to scan or input a wallet address, having their Trust Wallet among the direct withdrawal options. And it won’t cost anything above the blockchain gas fees. By press time, the function is supported solely on Trust Wallet App’s Android version, but Binance announces the iOS version “soon.”

The same integration will work with Coinbase Pay. According to Bipul Sinha, Group Product Manager at Coinbase, an ability for users to easily fund their self-custody wallet or dapps corresponds with the company's mission to "build a bridge to Web3."

Related: 3 barriers preventing Web3 mass adoption — Trust Wallet CEO

Earlier, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao publicly endorsed Trust Wallet, stating that “self-custody is a fundamental human right.” The move comes as no surprise, given that Binance owns the U.S.-founded wallet provider since 2018.

By Nov. 15, Trust Wallet Token (TWT) has surged by nearly 150% in six days, bucking the downturn in the cryptocurrency market, whose net capitalization has crashed by almost $100 billion in the same period. Meanwhile, the token’s trading volume has soared from 279 million TWT to 593.25 TWT in the same period, showcasing the market’s conviction in its uptrend.

Original: https://cointelegraph.com/news/trust-wallet-launches-browser-extension-integrates-with-binance-pay
By: David Attlee
Posted: November 17, 2022, 9:48 am

Cold feet are in charge as exchange users continue to move Bitcoin from exchanges to non-custodial wallets.

Bitcoin (BTC) has flooded out of exchanges in the past week as users become wary of security and regulatory scrutiny.

Data from on-chain monitoring resource Coinglass shows United States exchanges in particular seeing heavy BTC balance reductions.

U.S. exchanges lead BTC exodus

In the wake of the FTX scandal, efforts to draw attention to the risk involved in custodial BTC storage stepped up on social media.

Users appeared to heed the warning, withdrawing over $3 billion in cryptocurrency in the week immediately following the solvency debacle and ordering record numbers of hardware wallets.

The aftermath of FTX is only just beginning, meanwhile, and as regulators plan investigative action and more attention to crypto as a whole, investors angst continues to grow.

The data shows the trend is still in force when it comes to exchange withdrawals. In the past seven days, practically all major platforms have seen net withdrawals outpacing deposits.

The biggest weekly reduction comes from Gemini, down almost 30,000 BTC, closely followed by Kraken, Binance and Coinbase.

Unsurprisingly, U.S. exchanges have seen particularly heavy withdrawals, the jurisdiction due to play a key role in the FTX saga going forward.

This week, lawmakers announced a dedicated hearing into what happened at the exchange, with its ex-CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, reportedly due to be extradited to the U.S. from the Bahamas.

“The fall of FTX has posed tremendous harm to over one million users, many of whom were everyday people who invested their hard-earned savings into the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, only to watch it all disappear within a matter of seconds,” Maxine Waters, Chair of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, which will host the hearing, said, quoted by mainstream media.

The Coinglass figures meanwhile show that even those exchanges with no exposure to FTX have failed to stem the exodus.

In total for the week, 134,000 BTC has left their books — the equivalent of around $2.2 billion at current prices, with around $1.5 billion coming from U.S. platforms.

"Acute financial distress"

As Cointelegraph reported, while exchange withdrawals have surged, the average BTC hodler remains significantly underwater — and thus less than inclined to sell.

Related: Bitcoin price dips to $16.4K over Genesis woes as execs defend GBTC

Data from on-chain analytics firm Glassnode confirms this. The average long-term holder (LTH) — an entity holding coins for at least 155 days — is 33% in the red.

This is almost unprecedented and matched only by the pit of the 2018 bear market, when the average tally hit 36%.

Accompanying comments described LTHs as undergoing “acute financial distress.”

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Original: https://cointelegraph.com/news/us-crypto-exchanges-lead-bitcoin-exodus-over-1-5b-in-btc-withdrawn-in-one-week
By: William Suberg
Posted: November 17, 2022, 9:36 am

Original: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/11/17/binance-to-relaunch-bid-for-bankrupt-lender-voyager-source/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=rss&utm_campaign=headlines
By: Ian Allison
Posted: November 17, 2022, 8:46 am