Binance Smart Chain Protocol Qubit Finance Hacked for $80M

A bug in Qubit's Ethereum bridge allowed a hacker to siphon 206,809 BNB from its lending pools.

Key Takeaways

• A hacker has stolen 206,809 BNB worth $80 million from Qubit Finance.
• The hacker exploited a vulnerability on the protocol's Ethereum bridge.
• The Qubit team has offered a bounty of $250,000 to the hacker in return for the stolen funds.

Qubit Finance, a DeFi protocol on Binance Smart Chain, was exploited today for $80 million worth of BNB tokens.

Qubit Hit by Hack

Another Binance Smart Chain protocol has been hacked.

An unknown hacker was able to drain $80 million worth of BNB tokens from the Binance Smart Chain lending protocol Qubit Finance.

On Jan. 27, at around 21:36 UTC, a hacker exploited a vulnerability on the Qubit Bridge, a cross-chain bridge connected to Ethereum. This bridge lets users deposit WETH from Ethereum mainnet into Qubit’s Binance Smart Chain-based smart contract to mint xETH, which can be used as lending collateral on the protocol.

Due to a critical vulnerability in the bridge’s smart contracts, the hacker was able to mint xETH without depositing any WETH, thereby giving them the ability to take out unlimited leveraged loans from Qubit’s pools.

In a Twitter post announcing the exploit, the team reported that the hacker “minted unlimited xETH to borrow on BSC.” Using the xETH as collateral, the hacker proceeded to siphon 206,809 BNB from Qubit Finance, worth about $80 million at the time. The loot can be seen sitting in the hacker’s address.

In an on-chain message directed to the hacker, the Qubit team offered a bounty of $250,000 in return for the stolen funds, as per the protocol’s ongoing bug bounty program with the ethical hacking platform Immunefi. In another post, the Qubit team has also tried to contact the hacker to negotiate.

The Qubit Finance exploit appears to be the seventh-largest DeFi protocol hack in terms of the value of stolen funds, as per data from DeFi Yield. Following the hack, the protocol’s Qubit token has dropped 27% over the past 24 hours.

Since the launch of Binance Smart Chain in September 2020, the chain has become infamous for the amount of hacks, exploits and rug pulls that have taken place on it.

In 2021, several DeFi projects on Binance Smart Chain suffered major hacks or exploits. Some of the most severe include Meerkat Finance’s $31 million hack in March 2021, a Uranium Finance exploit that cost protocol users $50 million in April, and the $88 million attack on Venus Finance in May.

Qubit Finance has not yet commented on plans to reimburse or compensate users for funds lost due to the exploit.

Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned ETH and other cryptocurrencies

Dogecoin Drops to Lowest Price in Nine Months as Crypto Market Sinks

The original meme coin is now down 81% from its all-time high in May 2021, continuing its gradual decline in value.

It’s a brutal day across the cryptocurrency market, which has shed about 13% of its overall value in the last 24 hours, per CoinGecko. And while the especially volatile meme coin Dogecoin has seen a lesser daily dip, it’s now at its lowest point in more than nine months.

Dogecoin is down nearly 9% over the last 24 hours to a current price just above $0.14, as of this writing, and it briefly dipped below the $0.14 mark this afternoon. DOGE has now dropped 18% over the last seven days, according to CoinGecko’s data.

Dropping under $0.14 today, Dogecoin reached its lowest point since mid-April 2021, when the long-running meme coin was in the midst of a social media-fueled surge that took its value from about $0.07 to $0.40 in a matter of days.

Dogecoin saw an immense rise in value in early 2021. It began the year priced at less than one penny per coin, and then ticked up significantly starting in late January as part of the wider meme stock trading frenzy. DOGE popped to a then-peak of about $0.08 per coin in early February before the price started to dwindle.

But DOGE’s value multiplied several times further in April and May, ultimately reaching an all-time high above $0.73 on May 8. That peak wouldn’t hold, however.

As the wider crypto market entered an early summer free fall, DOGE dropped hard with occasional upward swings, but never came close to recapturing its top. According to CoinGecko, DOGE hasn’t been above $0.30 since early September. As of this writing, Dogecoin’s price has fallen 81% since marking its all-time high.

DOGE was created as a joke in 2013, but gained serious value in 2021 as millions of new investors flooded into cryptocurrency. It found prominent fans in Mark Cuban and Elon Musk, the latter of which has a propensity to pump DOGE’s price with his tweets. It also boosted Robinhood’s crypto business, although the company warned of the risk of relying on such a volatile coin.

Whether Dogecoin can regain its early 2021 momentum and reach the fabled $1.00 milestone remains to be seen—but right now, it has fallen far from its peak. Today’s wider market crash has only exacerbated the coin’s gradual decline in recent months.

As for Shiba Inu, the Ethereum-based meme token that emerged as DOGE’s main rival last year—and even briefly surpassed Dogecoin in market cap—it’s down a larger 16% at a current price of $0.00002273. SHIB hit a three-month low today, per data from CoinGecko, and is now down 74% from its late October all-time high of $0.00008616.

What Is Huobi Token (HT)?

Huobi Token (HT) is the native cryptocurrency of the Huobi Global exchange. The exchange was founded in China in 2013 but then moved its operations to Seychelles for more friendly crypto and finance regulations. It became a popular option among those seeking to enter the new world of crypto that lets users invest in projects through trading and Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). Huobi followed Binance’s path by releasing the exchange token in 2018 that facilitates on-platform governance, rewards, and special event access.

Founders of Huobi

Huobi was co-founded by Leon Li, a former computer engineer at Oracle. Leon Li was a Bitcoin supporter from the early days and wanted to introduce blockchain and crypto technology to more people. The other co-founders of the exchange are Jun Du (CEO of Node Capital and BiKi.com) and Herbert Rafael Sim, founder of Crypto Chain University and media powerhouse with a history at Forbes, Huffington Post, and more.

Huobi now operates Huobi Global, Huobi China, Huobi US, and has acquired other tools, like Quick Wallet, to offer convenience to its customers. The Huobi Token has played a large part in one of the biggest crypto exchanges in the world, with a daily trading volume in the billions. 

How Does Huobi Token Work?

The Huobi Token works to provide Huobi Exchange users a better experience with new ways to get a discount on trading fees, access new cryptocurrencies, and vote on decisions about the future of the platform. With HT, exchange users can directly benefit from how well the platform does over time. If Huobi continues to move up in popularity, HT holders will see their accounts rise as well. 

The Huobi Token is part of the Huobi Eco Chain that hosts DeFi apps like decentralized lending and borrowing platforms. The Eco Chain is similar to the Binance Smart Chain, an established exchange-based blockchain. 

HT is an ERC-20 token that acts to secure the network and provides benefits and transaction methods for Huobi users. It acts much like Binance Coin (BNB) on the back-end. It also has similar tokenomics like BNB’s buyback or coin-burning strategy. Using this method, Huobi utilizes 20% of the revenue generated from contracts to buy back HT from the network and removes it from circulation to increase its value. 

There is 500 million HT in total, with 100 million reserved for platform operations and user rewards. 100 million tokens are held for the Huobi team as incentives, and 300 million HTs were given away so users could purchase points cards (the giveaway is now over).

What Makes Huobi Token Unique?

The Huobi token has a few unique benefits for users, but it is mostly a way to keep up with the evolving economics of the crypto exchange business. It was created in part to keep up with Binance and its native BNB token. The Huobi Token will provide a common or uniform method of payment across the ecosystem. It will also be used largely in OTC trading and corporate payments.

The Huobi Token currently ranks 50 on CoinMarketCap (at the time of writing) and has gained tremendous value since its release in 2018. In the beginning, HT was trading at around $1.30 USD. During the all-time-high period in 2021, it reached a price of nearly $35 before stabilizing. Many are optimistic in their future price estimates since native tokens of other exchanges have also performed well. 

The Future of Huobi Token 

As more people become involved in crypto trading, Huobi will benefit and grow along with the industry. It also provides a compelling loyalty and rewards scheme that will position it well in an increasingly competitive crypto exchange industry. 

New BHUNT Malware Targets Cryptocurrency Wallets via Software Installs

Bitdefender, a cybersecurity and antivirus company, has detected BHUNT, a new kind of malware that targets cryptocurrency wallets via software installs. The malware works on top of installs of unsecured or cracked software, that already comes packaged with the system to be deployed on desktop environments. Once installed, the software extracts passphrases and seeds from popular wallets.

BHUNT Malware Spotted in the Wild

Bitdefender, a leading cybersecurity firm, has issued a report regarding a new kind of password stealer that focuses on cryptocurrency wallets users have on their PCs. BHUNT, as this new malware is called, enters computers through infected software installs, mostly of cracked software. According to the technical document issued on the software, BHUNT attacks Exodus, Electrum, Atomic, Jaxx, Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Litecoin wallets. Once installed, the software can transfer the funds of the users to another wallet, and also steal other private data residing in the infected computer.

Password stealers are not new to the PC sector, as computers can already be infected by various viruses that also have these capabilities. What is special about this software is that its presence is heavily encrypted and it is packaged as digitally signed software, but the issued certificate does not match with the binary of the program.

Infection and Prevention

Bitdefender concluded that BHUNT was released in the wild with no clear target by the way it has spread. On how the software spread, Bitdefender’s report states:

All our telemetry originated from home users who are more likely to have cryptocurrency wallet software installed on their systems. This target group is also more likely to install cracks for operating system software, which we suspect is the main infection source.

The company indicated the level of infections detected on a map, and the countries with the most infections presented were Australia, Egypt, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Norway, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, and the U.S.

Bitdefender also issued recommendations to avoid being infected with BHUNT or with other, similar password-stealing malware. “The most effective way to defend against this threat is to avoid installing software from untrusted sources and to keep security solutions up to date,” the report concluded.

Recently, a torrent that contained the new “Spiderman: No Way Home” movie was reported to also contain cryptocurrency malware.

What do you think about the new BHUNT cryptocurrency-stealing malware? Tell us in the comments section below.

Crypto Whales Relocate Over $500,000,000 in Ethereum in Matter of Hours – Here’s Where the ETH Is Heading

This Friday, blockchain tracker Whale Alert spotted a series of transactions in which large Ethereum holders moved 237,419 ETH, worth $557,777,068, in just over 10 hours.

In the largest transaction of the series, a whale sent its entire 55,277 ETH stash worth $129.94 million from one unknown wallet address to another. The sending wallet had previously received a little over 50,000 ETH in its first transaction – 26 days ago – from a sender who also emptied its wallet.

The trail of transactions, which goes as far back as nearly a year, indicates that the controlling entity appears to be emptying wallets and relocating the ETH trove to new addresses.

On top of the largest ETH movement of the day, five whales moved huge amounts of Ethereum between wallets of unknown origins. Two deep-pocketed investors shifted ETH from an unknown wallet to a crypto exchange, and one big-time crypto holder transferred ETH from an exchange to an unknown wallet.

Here’s the summary of the largest ETH transactions in the past day

Dogecoin (DOGE) Listed on GokuMarket for BTC, USDT & EUR Trading!

 July 20th, 2021 — We are pleased to announce that DOGE is listed on GokuMarket exchange for BTC, USDT, & EUR trading. GokuMarket is known as the one marketplace for the blockchain economy. GokuMarket provides real-world crypto utilities to their users; buy, sell, earn and shop with cryptocurrencies on GokuMarket using the web or Android / iOS app

Users can now trade Dogecoin (DOGE) effortlessly on GokuMarket. Dogecoin has been a long-standing token in the cryptocurrency community and has withstood the test of time regarding volume and adoption. For this reason, we have chosen to list the fan favorites for our trading community. More DOGE utilities will come soon.

Deposit & withdraw Dogecoin (DOGE) on GokuMarket with ease on one of the safest & leading desktop & mobile wallets. GokuMarket multi-currency wallet is very user-friendly and accessible on the go.

👉 Trade Dogecoin (DOGE) with BTC, USDT & EUR 📈

The GokuMarket cryptocurrency market is constantly expanding and offering many opportunities to online traders. Dogecoin (DOGE) is now listed on the GokuMarket Exchange with the BTC, USDT & EUR trading pairs, which can be accessed from the GokuMarket Android / iOS app or the website.

The GokuMarket community keeps growing stronger and stronger from the new exchange and marketplace crypto project listings. Once listed, the crypto projects can add more real-world use cases for their users on GokuMarket. So if you know of any exciting projects, please ask them to explore and complete the listing application.

Welcome Dogecoin (DOGE) Community 💜

About Dogecoin (DOGE)

Dogecoin (DOGE) was originally created at least in part as a lighthearted joke for crypto enthusiasts, and took its name from a once-popular meme. The open-source digital currency was created by Billy Markus from Portland, Oregon, and Jackson Palmer from Sydney, Australia, and was forked from Litecoin in December 2013. Dogecoin’s creators envisaged it as a fun, light-hearted cryptocurrency that would have greater appeal beyond the core Bitcoin audience. DOGE was created to support content creators, online communities and artists. In recent times, DOGE has seen a massive adoption and support. Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted several tweets on social media that Dogecoin is his favorite coin.

About GokuMarket

GokuMarket is a European-licensed crypto wallet, exchange, and marketplace that offers retail cryptocurrency investors and seasoned traders solutions. The platform operates globally, with its primary markets being Poland, Czech Republic, France, Scandinavia, the United Kingdom, Thailand, Japan, Vietnam, Ecuador & Colombia.

RIPPLE AND SEC REACH A DEAL AHEAD OF DEPOSITION ABOUT SPEECH ON ETH

On Friday, both parties announced they made progress in regard to the privilege issues and planned to further narrow and resolve those issues relating to Mr. Hinman’s deposition.

With one week to go before the deposition of William Hinman takes place, the plaintiff and defendants have jointly sent a letter to Judge Sarah Netburn announcing they have reached a deal so that the testimony goes smoothly.

“We have reached an understanding, reflecting a compromise by all parties, pursuant to which the Defendants may examine Mr. Hinman on various issues without triggering a privilege objection from the SEC”.

Last week, the Judge ordered the deposition to go forward despite the immense resistance from the SEC – “desperate”, according to attorney Jeremy Hogan.

On Friday, both parties announced they made progress in regard to the privilege issues and planned to further narrow and resolve the issues relating to Mr. Hinman’s deposition.

Despite the understanding reached between the SEC and Ripple, some remain skeptical about the progress made. “I will be surprised if the parties do not come to her after the deposition to get a ruling on the privilege “deliberative process” issue”, said XRP Holders’ attorney John Deaton.

“They may have agreed to ask certain questions and allow him to answer those questions under seal and then get a ruling after the fact”.

Deaton has previously suggested ten basic questions for the deposition that don’t fall under the privilege argument, but a Special Master may still be required to rule on the potential stream of objections.

At the center of the deposition of the ex-SEC Director of Corporation Finance will be his speech in 2018 about Ether as he said it is not to be considered a security. That triggered an intense market reaction and many deals were made at the time and after that, but also many questions have arisen.

Ripple Labs intends to raise some of those questions, in a move that could both expose the SEC for its missteps and put pressure on ETH as its nature as a non-security could be revisited.

Anthony Hopkins' New Thriller 'Zero Contact' to Premiere on NFT Platform

Award-winning movie star Anthony Hopkins’ new film called Zero Contact is set to launch on a new non-fungible token (NFT) platform this summer. The feature-length movie was produced entirely virtually during the 2020 global pandemic.

Anthony Hopkins Stars in Movie Launching as NFT

A new feature-length movie starring Anthony Hopkins will premiere on a new non-fungible token (NFT) platform, Vuele, according to an announcement Wednesday by several companies involved.

The movie, called “Zero Contact,” stars Hopkins, Veronica Ferres, Aleks Paunovic, Lilly Krug, TJ Kayama, and Martin Sternmark. Hopkins has won six Oscars, with the most recent win being this year for best actor in his role in the film “The Father.”

Zero Contact follows “five characters around the world connected only by their devotion to tech titan Finley Hart (Hopkins),” the announcement details. “They are forced to work together to shut down Hart’s secret invention, a machine that is either the solution to mankind’s problems or the end of life on earth.”

The film was produced entirely virtually during the 2020 global pandemic. “Everything about this film is unconventional, from the way we shot it using Zoom and remote production, to its distribution,” Rick Dugdale, the producer and director, commented, elaborating:

This project was truly a one-of-a-kind experience. We had to innovate at every step of the way, shooting in 17 countries around the world. It only makes sense for a film like this to continue to break new ground by releasing via the blockchain. It’s a unique opportunity to be a part of history.

The NFT platform Vuele, formed last month, is a joint venture between fintech firm Currencyworks and producer Enderby Entertainment. It will be operated through a new subsidiary, Enderbyworks LLC.

Vuele describes itself as “the premier direct-to-consumer, feature-length film viewing and distribution platform delivering feature-length films and digital collectible entertainment content as NFTs.”

The platform “will let users buy exclusive, limited edition films and collector content to watch, collect, sell and trade on the platform.” Customers can pay with cryptocurrency or regular credit cards.

Dugdale explained:

Vuele will have four or five ‘drops’ of Zero Contact with the first likely in late July – early August. They’ll include the film, plus extras still to be determined that would vary from token to token to create different price points.

“The idea is to develop a marketplace for the NFTs,” he noted, adding that this method of distribution “creates scarcity in copies of the film, and protects against piracy.”

What do you think about Anthony Hopkins’ movie launching as an NFT? Let us know in the comments section below.

Crypto Wallet Recovery Service KeychainX Can Save Your Bitcoin

Whenever the prices of digital assets skyrocket, social media gets flooded with stories of people that could be millionaires now but forgot the keys to wallets they opened a few years before. But if this happened to you, don’t lose hope, cryptocurrency wallet recovery service KeychainX can save your money.

Your Wallet With a Forgotten Password Is Not Lost Yet

KeychainX is a bitcoin wallet recovery service operating since 2017. In the last 6 months alone, the company recovered wallet keys for about 100 clients from all over the world and you can see some of their raving reviews on Trustpilot where KeychainX has an almost perfect 4.9 ‘Excellent’ score.

The service covers all kinds of situations such as recovering lost Bitcoin wallets from wallet.dat files, Dogecoin wallet passwords, blockchain second or first passwords, Android wallet or spending PIN, Ethereum from JSON files, and Ethereum presale wallets. KeychainX can even decrypt your blockchain.info 15,17,19 or 21 word mnemonic seed that is no longer supported by blockchain.com itself.

This means that as long as you have more than just the public key for a wallet, there is a chance to unlock it. So if you have a cryptocurrency wallet which you can’t access the funds in for any reason, make sure to give KeychainX a try right now and avoid being just another anecdote about someone that lost their fortune due to misfortune. You don’t want to tell your children one day after bitcoin reaches one million dollars that you lost the keys and didn’t do anything about it.

Brute Force and Smart Algorithms

The company shares some of the stories of its successes on Medium that show the varied capabilities needed for this line of business. For example, KeychainX recently shared how it recovered a Dogecoin wallet worth over $3 million for a retired truck driver that purchased the coins back in 2015 for about $1500. The client forgot his PIN number and only had a few hints to share with the team such as his birthday and so on. Trying to check all possible 12 digits combinations that the client thought was the length of the PIN using brute force alone would have taken more than a lifetime, but KeychainX developed a custom smart algorithm based on his hints that unlocked the wallet in no time.

Another interesting KeychainX success story shows how it recovered an old blockchain.info wallet with more than a 12 words story mnemonic seed – something many people mistakenly think is impossible. The client only remembered 17 words out of his mnemonic seed which was used to backup the wallet, and the team had to use a combination of brute force and a lot of “source code archeology” to recover the funds from the no longer supported wallet. The story also shows the lengths that KeychainX is willing to go to for its clients and the sheer spark of genius that is sometimes needed in the search for these lost fortunes.

To learn more about the company visit KeychainX.io or just send an email to KeychainX@protonmail.com if you need to talk about password recovery.

82% of Institutional Investors Plan to Increase Cryptocurrency Exposure: Survey

A survey by Nickel Digital Asset Management shows that 82% of institutional investors and wealth managers are planning to increase their cryptocurrency exposure between now and 2023.

• The survey reportedly asked institutional investors and wealth managers from the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, and the UAE who currently have exposure to cryptocurrencies and digital assets about their crypto investment strategies. It was conducted between May and June.
• According to the results, 82% of respondents expect to increase their crypto exposure between now and 2023.
• 40% said they will dramatically increase their crypto holdings, 7% said they would reduce their exposure, and 1% said they would sell their entire holdings of crypto assets.
• Responding to the question about their future crypto investment plans, 58% of respondents said that the main reason for investing is long-term capital growth prospects. Meanwhile, 38% said confidence in the asset class, and 37% said more leading corporates and fund managers investing in crypto assets. Moreover, 34% said an improved regulatory environment will be a key factor in increasing their crypto allocations.

• Anatoly Crachilov, co-founder and CEO of asset management firm Nickel Digital, was quoted by Institutional Asset Manager as saying: “The number of institutional investors and corporates holding bitcoin and other cryptoassets is growing and their confidence in the asset class is also increasing.” He elaborated:

Many of those professional investors with holdings in crypto assets are looking to increase their exposure … These trends will continue to expand.

• The CEO noted that the trend is “being driven by several factors including strong market performance during the Covid-19 crisis, more established investors and corporations endorsing the market, and the sector’s infrastructure and regulatory framework improving.”

What do you think about 82% of surveyed institutional investors planning to increase their crypto exposure? Let us know in the comments section below.

UFC Partners With Crypto.com — Sources Say $175 Million Deal Is MMA Firm's Largest Sponsorship

The cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com has revealed the company has entered a partnership with Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) as the firm’s global fight kit partner. Reports stemming from people familiar with the matter say the partnership is a ten-year deal worth $175 million and the UFC’s largest sponsorship deal to date.

UFC Names Crypto.com First-Ever Global Fight Kit Partner

The digital currency firm Crypto.com has partnered with the UFC and will be the mixed martial arts (MMA) organization’s global fight kit partner. This means the Crypto.com brand will be featured on UFC fighter uniforms and the brand will be shown this Saturday, July 10, during the fight between Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor. The UFC has been operated by Dana White since 2001 and since he became president of the MMA organization, the UFC has become a multi-billion-dollar enterprise.

The picture above is UFC 261: Usman vs. Masvidal held on April 24, 2021, in Jacksonville, Florida. The parent company of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), Endeavor Group Holdings, Inc., had an initial public offering five days later on April 29, 2021, and is now a publicly traded firm listed on New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The American holding company Endeavor also owns Miss Universe and represents the professional sports leagues the NFL and NHL.

According to unnamed sources speaking with publications like sportico.com and CNBC, the sponsorship deal is the largest in UFC history. Back in March, the UFC partnered with Draftkings in a deal that was reported to be worth $100 million. The people familiar with the matter have said the Crypto.com deal with the UFC was estimated to be around $175 million and for a ten-year period.

MMA Organization Has Cryptocurrencies On Its Radar

UFC COO Lawrence Epstein mentioned during the announcement that cryptocurrencies are now on the firm’s radar.

“If we had talked a couple of years ago, crypto might not have been on the radar, but it’s sort of a sign of the times,” Epstein said to sportico.com. “It’s new, but it’s moving quickly, and it’s very dynamic.” He also detailed that the company was attracted to Crypto.com’s young consumer base and demo. “In general, that consumer is younger, and based upon the data that we’ve seen, that consumer also has a fair amount of discretionary income. It’s an attractive group to try to get interested in your product.”

The deal between the UFC and Crypto.com follows the variety of partnerships between crypto firms and sports companies. FTX Trading Limited has led the pack when it comes to sports partnerships with recent deals with MLB, TSM, and even the Super Bowl champion Tom Brady. The NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers recently partnered with the crypto cashback company Stormx.

Crypto.com following this trend and the $175 million deal with UFC is quite a sizable investment if the unnamed sources are factual. Sources said during the first week of June, FTX paid roughly $200 million to rebrand the U.S. professional esports organization TSM.

What do you think about the UFC partnering with the cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Charles Hoskinson Faces Twitter Backlash as His Cardano Predictions Fall Short of Reality

Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, has recently found himself the target of Twitter critics as year-old tweets that highlighted projections for the network’s adoption are failing to match community expectations.

Slower Rollouts and Sluggish Adoption Spotlighted by Critics

Cardano, the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization and self-titled third-generation blockchain initiative, has no shortage of followers and evangelists that believe in its very scientific approach to developing blockchain technology. Yet, the network faces no shortage of detractors either, and the internet never forgets.

It’s been nearly one year since Cardano creator Charles Hoskinson unveiled his predictions for the network on Twitter, envisioning more widespread dapp (decentralized app) deployments and hundreds of assets running atop the blockchain.

Most of these predictions haven’t come to fruition.

The Twitter community has been quick to pounce on this reality, with one handle highlighting that no assets or dapps are running atop the network.

Instead, multiple projects have announced plans to launch eventually. Indeed, since the network’s smart contract functionality is still being tested and supposedly set to launch when the Alonzo upgrade is completed in August, the dapps criticism is valid to an extent.

Another poster was quick to highlight Cardano’s smaller transaction turnover relative to other networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum despite its sky-high valuation in the tens of billions of dollars. In another dig at Hoskinson, he compared Cardano community members responding to his tweets as reminiscent of community responses defending IOTA in 2017, labeling these respondents ADA bots.

John Rice, Cointelegraph’s editor-in-chief, sarcastically hinted at busy weeks ahead if the blockchain is actually going to realize the network creator’s ambitious predictions.

ADA Critics and Community Battle

Although some of the Twitterati jumped on Hoskinson’s predictions as proof the network wasn’t achieving its stated goals, others were quick to point out the obvious: the original tweet from the Cardano founder himself was labeled a “prediction.”

Community members and Hoskinson have responded to the blitz of critics, highlighting the network’s success in certain areas. But more important than the tit-for-tat Twitter battle is the actual reality of the blockchain itself.

Yes, most dApps are hosted on Ethereum, and yes, it is responsible for immense amounts of token creation. However, the network’s speed to market didn’t necessarily result in a bulletproof platform. Moreover, there aren’t serious plans in the pipeline to handle the governance component, whereas Cardano has embedded this element in its approach.

Additionally, every stage of Cardano’s development undergoes a peer-review process akin to similar methods embraced in academia. This academic-like approach means that all new features are rigorously tested and validated before formal launch, helping Cardano address the drawbacks of early blockchains from the outset.

Another important point of reference is that Cardano has embraced proof-of-stake since its launch, helping minimize its power consumption relative to Ethereum. Although Cardano barely scratches 20,000 transactions per day, one of the reasons behind this reality is that over 70% of the network’s native ADA tokens in circulation are staked. By comparison, just over 5% of all Ether in circulation is staked.

Opposing viewpoints are a great source of debate and eventual innovation. This conversation is proving no different, especially as Cardano may be inching ever closer to achieving the potential reality Hoskinson laid out. While his timing may be off, his prediction may still be prescient given more time. Only time — and the market — will tell.

Do you think the criticism of Charles Hoskinson and Cardano is justified? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Man Who Accidentally Threw Away 7,500 Bitcoins on Hard Drive Has New Plan to Retrieve His BTC

The British man who accidentally threw away a computer with 7,500 bitcoins on its hard drive has come up with a new plan to retrieve his lost coins from the city landfill. “We estimate there are between 300,000 – 400,000 tons of waste to look through,” he said.

Man on Mission to Retrieve 7,500 Lost Bitcoins

James Howells, an IT engineer who accidentally threw away the hard drive of an old computer containing 7,500 bitcoins back in 2013, has not given up his quest to retrieve his coins. The 35-year-old from the city of Newport in the U.K. has shared with The Sun publication his 12-month plan to search the city landfill using x-ray scanning devices and AI technology.

Noting that “This would be a proper search – not just somebody going in with a bucket and spade,” the British man affirmed:

We have a system with multiple conveyor-belts, x-ray scanning devices and an AI scanning device that would be trained to recognise items that are a similar size and density to the hard drive.

“This would be a delicate search because we wouldn’t want to damage the hard drive in the process – you can’t just use a claw grabber,” he emphasized. “We’ve spoken to excavation experts and proper engineers to make sure it was all being done correctly as well as in a way that was safe for the environment.”

Howells added that over the past four or five months, he had been “talking to some of the best data recovery experts in the world to make sure we can get it off the hard drive.”

The search will be costly but Howell said that his plan is backed by a very rich hedge fund willing to cover the cost of the search and the equipment involved in exchange for the lion’s share of his fortune.

Howells believes that his hard drive is in a 200-meter squared area and could be 15 meters deep based on aerial photographs of the site. The IT engineer said:

We estimate there is between 300,000 – 400,000 tonnes of waste to look through.

Despite having a plan, Howells said that the Newport City Council would not let him search the landfill, even after he offered them £55 million ($76 million).

The Newport City Council explained that “The cost of digging up the landfill, storing and treating the waste could run into millions of pounds – without any guarantee of either finding it or it still being in working order.” Moreover, the council stated that “excavation is not possible under our licensing permit and excavation itself would have a huge environmental impact on the surrounding area.”

At the time of writing, 7,500 bitcoins are worth about $246 million according to data from Bitcoin.com Markets.

Do you think James Howells will recover his bitcoins? Let us know in the comments section below.

Jay-Z's Entertainment Firm Roc Nation Buys Sensorium's Metaverse Crypto Tokens

On Wednesday, the full-service entertainment company founded by influential hip-hop artist Jay-Z, Roc Nation, revealed the firm has purchased tokens from the Sensorium Corporation. The tokens Roc Nation bought are called senso (SENSO), the in-platform currency of Sensorium Galaxy, an entertainment-focused metaverse that fuses cryptocurrencies with virtual reality (VR).

Roc Nation Enters Sensorium’s Blended World of Crypto and VR

The Jay-Z-founded company Roc Nation is a firm that specializes in entertainment products and services such as talent acquisition, clothing, publishing, sports, and management. Now the company is getting involved with digital currencies as Roc Nation has revealed the purchase of senso (SENSO) tokens, the native currency for the metaverse tethered to Sensorium Galaxy.

Currently, Sensorium metaverse offers a demo. “The Sensorium starship tech demo provides an early look at the future lobby of Sensorium galaxy, from where social VR experience and events will begin,” the website explains. “This demo is not representative of the final look and feel.”

Sensorium Corporation, the creators of the metaverse, have blended blockchain technology with VR, and the project just released “Prism” one of the first worlds in the Sensorium metaverse. Prism visitors can join music festivals, concerts, and play mini-games with the chance to see artists like David Guetta and Armin van Buuren.

Sensorium Corporation plans to launch the next metaverse world called “Motion,” which has been said to include an underwater metaverse experience. “Let your moves become your language,” the Sensorium Motion world description says. “Connect with your senses through deep mindfulness and exciting dance performances to an underwater space. Dive into this mystic land to experience deep connections enabled by pure movements.”

Roc Nation’s senso token purchase announcement on Wednesday explains that the company is taking steps toward the future. Desiree Perez, the CEO of Roc Nation, detailed that the entertainment company wants its artists to be included in Sensorium Galaxy.

Roc Nation’s Perez further explained in a statement sent to Bitcoin.com News:

Sensorium Galaxy is well-positioned to take the entertainment industry to the next level. Their digital metaverse has a strong focus on quality, which is exactly what we want for our extensive artist base.

In Sensorium Galaxy ‘Artists Can Benefit From Global Content Distribution’

According to the project’s developers, the in-game metaverse currency called senso will be able to be leveraged for many transactions within the online world. Senso tokens can purchase concert tickets, upgrade features, issue custom non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and subscribe to premium content.

Sensorium Galaxy’s Prism is in closed beta and the public launch is scheduled for later this year. “[Prism] is located at the epicenter of SG, [Prism] is the world of music. A land where top performers gather to express themselves with absolute freedom,” the Sensorium Galaxy website details.

Brian Kean, the chief communications officer at Sensorium Corporation said during the announcement that Roc Nation’s senso purchase cements the idea that entertainment leaders realize the opportunities tethered to growing digital environments.

By owning the senso tokens, “Roc Nation is taking a step towards the future of entertainment,” Kean added. “[By] giving their artists a chance to potentially benefit from global content distribution through Sensorium Galaxy and safeguard ownership rights on all of their digital content.” Sensorium Galaxy also gives senso token holders like Roc Nation the ability to take part in multiple product-level decisions.

In recent times, Roc Nation’s founder Jay-Z has been talking about cryptocurrencies, blockchain, and NFTs. In June, Jay-Z discussed NFTs and blockchain technology with Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey and the rap star also changed his Twitter profile picture to Cryptopunk #6095 a few days prior.

What do you think about Roc Nation purchasing senso (SENSO) tokens? What do you think about digital environments and metaverses? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Musée - the User Owned NFT Marketplace and Gallery

2021 continues to bear witness to the continual rise in non-fungible token (NFT) prevalence and innovation. Following on from 2020 – where the NFT market was claimed to have tripled in total transaction value – NFT sales in just the first quarter of 2021 reached over a whopping $2 billion.

As the NFT market foundations progressively become cemented in place, it becomes apparent that the high of money-making can only go so far – there is a growing necessity to focus on the sentimental side of NFT ownership, with the space steadily hungering for growth and is now developing the need for something next level.

Musée: Digital Real Estate for Creators and Collectors

Musée is an NFT-owned marketplace platform built upon a finite number of digital plots, where owning a plot allows users to sell and share their creations or NFTs from their collections directly on the grid. All plots are visible from the homepage as soon as users land on the platform and anyone can purchase as many plots as they like, and even interact with other users’ content.

When landing on the homepage, the first thing users see are any available empty digital plots, and the NFTs already occupying purchased plots. This ensures the allocated plots are the first and foremost visuals visitors see; ensuring maximum exposure for all forms of NFT artwork on all digital plots. Visitors will have the ability to enjoy a full screen exploration mode as they discoverer the available NFTs for sale from the plot owners.

Using the Ethereum blockchain ERC-721 tokens, interested individuals/parties can purchase, own, combine, and sell NFTs that have full ownership of the plots. Pioneering the digital art-NFT space, Musée develops the first ever marketplace/museum fusion via blockchain to secure Proof-of-Ownership (PoO), and control of the space. Musée believes that the artworks and collectibles of the modern digital era can be anything from a digital Mona Lisa, to a simple Tweet.

Musée provides all users with a place to congregate and come together to express, find joy, sell their art, and become part of a like-minded, positive community. As users purchase plots and portray their NFT imagery to the world, they steadily fuel the future of the blockchain art revolution. As part of Musée’s evolution, it will become a complete social platform where plot owners can engage with their followers.By broadcasting art openly and ensuring it remains the focal point of the platform, Musée’s homepage reinforces the importance of art and expression. Enabling people from all walks of life to celebrate art socially and display their most coveted NFTs openly, the innovation Musée presents will change the way in which people interact with art forever.

Musée’s future plans are to be the leading museum of the virtual worlds, the metaverse – the Louvre Museum of the digital era. The owners of the first 10,000 plots have the chance to own a part of history.

Musée Features

As aforementioned, the moment users land on the homepage, the digital plots are the first thing they see. Each recently sold and listed digital plot comes with their plot size dimensions, the price in ETH (and USD), and a “View details” link to direct interested parties to the plot. Just like physical real estate, plot owners will have the opportunity to increase the value of their land in many ways. As users gain followers, so does their plot(s), increasing its resale value. In the future, plot owners will be able to invite guest artists to participate within their plots for limited drops.

The platform’s main focus is the grid containing all the plots. It is the milliondollarhomepage of the NFT era. But unlike the milliondollarhomepage, Musée will remain a living and evolving page due to the power of NFTs.

Functioning as a social platform and cornerstone for NFT art, Musée truly revitalizes the world of art, museums, and NFTs. Reinventing the way people cherish and view NFT art, Musée bolsters NFT value, creates a space for culture, and identity; all while providing an entity that truly belongs to the community. In a world where physical institutions are becoming increasingly scarce and difficult to visit, Musée breathes life into a platform that facilitates expression, and connection; globally.

Musée Plot Sale and Launch – 20th July, 2021

But all this would not be possible without first making the plots available for purchase – and it is with excitement that Musée are gearing up for their launch day. Pegged for July 20th at 9AM EST, Musée will make all plots available for sale at 0.5ETH per plot, giving users a way to cherish their digital art and collectibles forever.

Having explored its many features and pioneering direction, Musée’s game-changing potential is clear. Musée offers a social platform that not only connects people but also allows them to build upon a museum-like digital plot that could display their art forever. Add in the option to sell that NFT and/or plot and it is easy to find an option for prosperity and expression not openly available anywhere else.

That which has been limited to physicality and centric ownership for an era is now transitioning to the boundless planes of the internet. A place where creators and contributors alike have the opportunity to seize ownership of what they love.

Unicrypt, a Multi Service Provider for DeFi Projects

PRESS RELEASE. Unicrypt is a robust crypto service provider that has been turning heads in the crypto world with its broad range of useful applications. Primarily focused on decentralised services, the platform is a conducive base for new DeFi projects aiming to make a launch.

The service provider offers an ever-changing and fast-evolving DeFi project launch platform with new services being offered and upgraded. Unicrypt is touted as the original liquidity locker for uniswap pools, pioneering the Proof-of-Lock (POL) consensus. The article shall give a comprehensive review of the platform, outlining its services, roadmap and plans.

Services offered

The platform offers three key services; liquidity locking, yield farming, and a base for issuing Initial Liquidity Offerings (ILO).

• Liquidity Locking

Unicrypt offers liquidity locking for pools based on the Uniswap liquidity provider, as well as on other Automated Money Makers (AMM). By liquidity locking, it issues to investors a guarantee that developers of a DeFi project won’t make large withdrawals within the locked up period.

• Yield Farming

The platform allows investors to carry out yield farming on any token thanks to its farm-as-a-service (Faas) protocol. The process is simplified by complete automation of the process. A user, therefore, doesn’t need to have any prior knowledge in coding to be able to farm.

• ILO Launchpad

As an ILO launchpad, Unicrypt enables DeFi project developers to enjoy project launches without having to conduct listings. The launchpad is directly connected to the liquidity lockers, allowing the locking of liquidity on Uniswap or any supported AMMs. The entire process is fully automated and decentralized, giving a good presale platform for DeFi projects

The Journey Towards Further Adoption

The platform’s journey towards increased public adoption can be illustrated by several indicators. The indicators include;

Wider AMM Support Diversity for More Accessibility

Unicrypt was launched in June 2020. It became the first liquidity locker on Uniswap pools, generating the POL consensus. The consensus attracted more investors to Uniswap since it could guarantee the continued availability of pool liquidity for new DeFi projects..

It has since extended its services to 5 other different AMMs namely; PancakeSwap, SushiSwap, JulSwap, QuickSwap and HoneySwap. The higher accessibility on multiple platforms has served to boost its usage.

Increased Demand Pushing Up Prices

The platform’s native token is the UNCX. During its release in August 2020, its price was $17.7. The price now hovers at around $440, which is somewhere close to 25 times the initial asset prices. Given that the asset’s prices are dictated by demand and supply, such growth is a good performance indicator of robust adoption levels.

The current prices are however about half of the mid-May all-time high of $934. While the drop is significant, it highlights an overall bearish market sentiment across the entire blockchain world. The medium to long term predictions show a recovery of prices as markets get back to bullish conditions and demand expands

Impressive Growth in Monthly Visits

The platform has also been receiving a consistently growing number of site visitors. The number of monthly visits as per a similarweb research shows that monthly visits have grown to almost 8 times the figures from the start of the year. January visits totalled to 120k people. May’s visits stand at an outstanding 953k visitors.

Direct visits top this figure with over 58.95% of total visits, which shows more repeat revisits by previous users as well as from users with knowledge of the platform. Second, in generating the visits, referrals stand at 26.76%, a good growth indicator of more than ¼ of all visits.

The Future

Unicrypt has a clear roadmap for a brighter future with more usability and interoperability. The upgrades are expected to not only give the increased traffic of recent months a better experience but also drive further adoption. They can be categorized into two groupings;

Going Public with More Services

A recent announcement by the platform’s stakeholders has highlighted the fact that Unicrypt is going public with new services. Token vesting and token minting options have been deployed recently. Token vesting enables new crypto projects to lock their tokens and set periodic release strategies for the tokens with their team and partners. It avoids incidences of market manipulation when working alongside liquidity lockers. The token minter allows new projects to create new tokens within seconds while not requiring coding skills or additional audits.

Future Integration With Elrond and Solana Chains

Unicrypt plans to be compatible with new chains to add on it’s current range and increase its interoperability levels. It currently operates in four chains namely; Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon and the xDaiChain.

The service plans to be integrated with the chains Elrond and Solana as hinted by the platform’s developers. Accessibility shall increase, driving more adoption with this initiative.

Conclusion

Unicrypt’s performance in the last few months has been phenomenal. The adoption rates have gone through the roof, thanks to the amazing calibre and diverse range of services it offers.

To maintain its position at the front of the pack, it plans new services and more integration to help drive adoption rates even further. The platform is indeed one of the great indicators of the untapped use case potentials of blockchain technology.

 

AscendEX Lists Radix - a DeFi Protocol With Developer Incentives

PRESS RELEASE. AscendEX (formerly BitMax), a global cryptocurrency financial platform with a comprehensive product suite, is thrilled to announce the listing of the Radix tokens (EXRD and XRD) under the pairs USDT/XRD and USDT/EXRD on June 29 at 1 p.m. UTC.

Radix intends to remove the technology barriers limiting the expansion of DeFi by building a layer-1 protocol that directly addresses the technology needs of DeFi, both for today’s applications and the future of general financial services worldwide. The platform leverages a full-stack approach, re-engineering consensus, distributed virtual machines, executable on-ledger code, DeFi component building, DeFi application building, and developer incentives.

Radix is the first layer 1 protocol specifically built to serve the DeFi ecosystem. Radix aims to significantly improve the developer experience by reducing DeFi hacks, bugs, and exploits by restricting output states using an FSM runtime environment instead of Turing complete. It offers an on-ledger component catalog where developers can easily chain together DeFi “money legos” to create dApps. Radix features an on-ledger incentivization scheme whereby components generate royalties for developers based on usage.

Its goal is to make access to DeFi projects mainstream and as frictionless as possible by not being limited by scale – Radix scales linearly and indefinitely by adding more nodes. In addition, Radix aims to maintain atomic composability – transactions, when needed, settlement atomically across the global ledger. This is a vital feature for any DeFi ecosystem because key DeFi features, such as flash loans are impossible without it.

Some major upcoming milestones for Radix include its mainnet launch in July 2021, which will demonstrate the core foundation of the project. Additionally, Radix will launch radix engine V2 in December 2021, which will then enable developers to build safely on the Radix Ecosystem.

 

About AscendEX

AscendEX (formerly BitMax) is a global cryptocurrency financial platform with a comprehensive product suite including spot, margin, and futures trading, wallet services, and staking support for over 150 blockchain projects such as bitcoin, ether, and ripple. Launched in 2018, AscendEX services over 1 million retail and institutional clients globally with a highly liquid trading platform and secure custody solutions.

AscendEX has emerged as a leading platform by ROI on its “initial exchange offerings” by supporting some of the industry’s most innovative projects from the DeFi ecosystem such as Thorchain, xDai Stake, and Serum. AscendEX users receive exclusive access to token airdrops and the ability to purchase tokens at the earliest possible stage.

To learn more about how AscendEX is leveraging best practices from both Wall Street and the cryptocurrency ecosystem to bring the best altcoins to its users, please visit www.AscendEX.com.

 

For more information and updates, please visit:

Website: https://ascendex.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AscendEX_Global

Telegram: https://t.me/AscendEXEnglish

Medium: https://medium.com/ascendex

 

About Radix

Radix intends to remove the technology barriers limiting the expansion of DeFi by building a layer-1 protocol that directly addresses the technology needs of DeFi, both for today’s applications and the future of general financial services worldwide. They leverage a full-stack approach, re-engineering consensus, distributed virtual machines, executable on-ledger code, DeFi component building, DeFi application building, and developer incentives.

 

For more information and updates, please visit:

Website: https://www.radixdlt.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RadixDLT

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/WkB2USt

Telegram: https://t.me/radix_dlt

 

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This is a press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release.

Skybridge Capital Launches Ethereum Fund — Ether ETF Filing to Follow

Asset management firm Skybridge Capital has launched an ethereum fund, CEO Anthony Scaramucci has confirmed. He added that the asset manager will be filing for an ether exchange-traded fund (ETF).

• Skybridge Capital CEO Anthony Scaramucci revealed in the latest episode of The Scoop, published Tuesday, that his asset management firm has launched a private ethereum fund.
• “July 1st, we’re launching a private ethereum fund,” he said prior to the launch of the ether fund, adding:

We’ll then file for an ETF for ethereum. Again, it is anybody’s guess when those things will be going.

• He also revealed, “As we’re speaking, we’re making an announcement on an ETF for a digital innovation fund that has some great publicly traded assets that we think are geared, related to [ethereum], related to bitcoin, but also the other coins.”
• The company filed a registration statement for a bitcoin ETF with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in May.

• Scaramucci emphasized:

We have a full commitment to crypto.

• Skybridge launched a bitcoin fund in December last year with $25 million as the company expected an “avalanche of institutional investors.” The fund was open to the public in January with $310 million in assets under management. Last month, Scaramucci said that bitcoin still had more upside than gold.

What do you think about Skybridge launching an ether fund and planning to file for an ET