Binance no longer operate in UK

Binance the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world was warned that it cannot provide services in the United Kingdom without a license.

The British financial regulator Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has warned the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance that it can no longer operate in the country. The regulator claims that the service provider of Binance.com is Binance Markets Limited which is part of the Binance Group, the company that is not licensed to operate in the UK.

The FCA also warned the Brits of the risks of investing in crypto assets. The department notes that most of the companies offering cryptocurrency exchange services are not licensed in the UK, which means that should the investors incur any damages they will not be able to contact the financial ombudsman to claim compensation for them.

Representatives of the crypto exchange cited the official announcement of the platform that states that the FCA warning does not affect the services provided by the Binance.com website. The site representatives noted that Binance Markets Limited is a separate legal entity and does not offer services through the Binance.com website.

In the next few weeks, the Binance crypto exchange may warn UK users that their accounts will be closed. The UK is not a crypto-friendly jurisdiction; besides, the country has a clear regulation of financial activities which requires registration with the FCA.

Regulation is an irrefutable factor in market growth. As more and more institutional investors become agreeable to investing in cryptocurrency, the risks diminish.

The Wild West phase in the crypto sector is almost over, and exchanges that adhere to AML (Anti-Money Laundering) and KYC (Know Your Customer) rules are finally gaining some edge in this highly competitive market.

The UK's decision may be related to the events that took place in the first half of 2021, when cryptocurrencies showed the highest volatility in history - strong growth at the beginning of the year followed by a sharp drop.

So far, the decision of the regulator limits only the activities of the largest cryptocurrency exchange that operated in the United Kingdom without a license, meaning that Binance can restore its activities in the UK if it opens its own licensed division in the country. In any case, the British regulator's ban on Binance will not seriously affect the quotes.

In May, it became known that the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service of the United States initiated an investigation against the Binance crypto exchange. Federal authorities conduct inspections for violations in the field of anti money laundering (AML) and taxation laws. So far, no charges have been laid against the site.

In March 2021, Binance became the subject of an investigation by the United States Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The regulator studied the work of the company on the subject of allowing American residents to trade in crypto derivatives in the absence of an appropriate license.

Coinbase has received a license to store cryptocurrency in Germany

This will allow the site to continue serving customers in the country. Coinbase shares already rise by 5% to $ 237.

Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, has received permission from the German Federal Financial Supervision Authority (BaFin) to store cryptocurrency, which allows the site to continue serving customers in the country. After that, the value of the shares of the crypto exchange increased by 5% and reached $ 237.

Coinbase shares have been listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange since April 14, 2021. Immediately after the opening of trading, the share price reached $ 381 with a set reference price of $ 250. Within a few hours, the shares rose in price by 12.5% ​​to $ 429.5, but then quotations fell to a local minimum of $ 315. The closing price on the first day of trading was $ 328.28.

At the end of 2019, the German parliament ordered all organizations that store cryptocurrency to obtain a license to operate in BaFin. Coinbase was the first crypto exchange to receive this license.

On June 24, it became known that Coinbase received permission to work in Japan. A subsidiary of the crypto exchange received a corresponding license from the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA), which controls financial activities in the country.

Mexico’s Finance Minister Confirms Cryptos Are Banned From Financial System

The statement comes after Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego said his bank would accept bitcoin.

A top Mexican official reiterated on Monday a ban on the use of cryptocurrencies in the country’s financial system.

Arturo Herrera, Mexico’s finance minister, said cryptocurrencies aren’t legal tender assets and aren’t treated as currencies within the country’s current regulatory framework.

Those bans are not expected to be lifted in the short term, Herrera said during a presentation to the Financial Action Task Force, a global anti-money laundering group.

The announcement comes after a Sunday pronouncement by billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego, a noted bull, that he was working to make Banco Azteca the first bank in Mexico to accept the cryptocurrency. Salinas is chairman of Grupo Salinas, the bank’s parent company.

Herrera’s comments weren’t explicitly tied to Salinas’ pledge, but came within hours of the businessman’s announcement.

Herrera said his secretariat will publish a four-page communiqué detailing the government’s position.

In a joint statement, the Central Bank of Mexico, the finance secretary and the National Banking and Securities Commission specified that cryptocurrencies are neither legal tender assets nor currencies under the current legal framework. In addition, they warned about the risks of using cryptocurrencies.

The document consists of four pages and was characterized by Herrera as “unusually extensive.”

The three entities reiterated the warnings they issued in 2014, 2017 and 2019 about crypto’s risks as a form of exchange, store of value or other form of investment.

In addition, the document said that financial institutions in Mexico are not authorized to deal with virtual assets such as bitcoin.

Financial institutions that conduct or offer operations with virtual assets without an authorization will be in violation of the regulations and subject to applicable sanctions, the report added.

Mexico is the headquarters of Bitso, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in Latin America. In May, the company raised $250 million in its Series C funding round and reached a $2.2 billion valuation.

The statement on Monday affirms that the government has not authorized the collection of deposits from the general public “through technological schemes related to blockchain or distributed registries, known as stablecoins.”

In May, Bitso CEO Sergio Vogel said on CoinDesk TV’s “First Mover” program the exchange, which has 2 million users, has seen a sharp increase in demand for dollar-linked stablecoins.

South Africa Moves to Tighten Crypto Regulation After Scams

South Africa is moving with more urgency to stiffen oversight of cryptocurrency assets after a proliferation of scams.

A new regulatory timeline foresees finalizing a framework in three to six months, after the publication of proposals earlier in June that requires public comment before approval, according to Kuben Naidoo, chief executive officer of South Africa’s banking regulator known as the Prudential Authority.

“We are trying to put in place the regulatory framework quickly,” said Naidoo, who’s also a deputy governor of the South African central bank. “Our view is that crypto is a financial product and should be regulated as a financial product.”

The approach that’s taking shape means tougher rules could be imminent this year after a jolt of scandals that most recently included a suspected Ponzi scheme, which resulted in the disappearance of an estimated $3.6 billion in Bitcoin.

“Now we are defining this as a financial product and if there are scams where the public is being duped, given incorrect or false information, it is certainly a market conduct issue that should be taken seriously,” Naidoo said.

South African cryptocurrency service providers have been operating unchecked by regulatory powers even as the popularity of the asset class has taken off. Last year, the collapse of Johannesburg-based Mirror Trading International was called the biggest crypto-related scam of 2020 by blockchain data platform Chainalysis.

Summary

The drumbeat for more regulation of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin has grown this year as their value has soared to $1.5tn amid price extreme volatility, and amid further examples of their use in illicit activities such as money laundering and fraud.

There’s no doubt that if something went up 1,000 per cent it’s very volatile, and you should understand that as part of your portfolio allocation.

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Everything You Need to Know to Make it Through a Conversation About NFTs

There’s nothing like an explosion of blockchain news to leave you thinking, “Um… what’s going on here?” That’s the feeling I’ve experienced while reading about Grimes getting millions of dollars for NFTs or about Nyan Cat being sold as one. And by the time we all thought we sort of knew what the deal was, the founder of Twitter put an autographed tweet up for sale as an NFT.

Okay, Let’s Start With The Basics: What is an NFT? What does NFT stand for?

• Non-fungible token.
• That doesn’t make it any clearer.

Right, sorry. “Non-fungible” more or less means that it’s unique and can’t be replaced with something else. For example, a bitcoin is fungible — trade one for another bitcoin, and you’ll have exactly the same thing. A one-of-a-kind trading card, however, is non-fungible. If you traded it for a different card, you’d have something completely different. You gave up a Squirtle, and got a 1909 T206 Honus Wagner, which StadiumTalk calls “the Mona Lisa of baseball cards.” (I’ll take their word for it.)

How do NFTs work?

At a very high level, most NFTs are part of the Ethereum blockchain. Ethereum is a cryptocurrency, like bitcoin or dogecoin, but its blockchain also supports these NFTs, which store extra information that makes them work differently from, say, an ETH coin. It is worth noting that other blockchains can implement their own versions of NFTs. (Some already have.)

What’s worth picking up at the NFT supermarket?

NFTs can really be anything digital (such as drawings, music, your brain downloaded and turned into an AI), but a lot of the current excitement is around using the tech to sell digital art.

You mean, like, people buying my good tweets?

I don’t think anyone can stop you, but that’s not really what I meant. A lot of the conversation is about NFTs as an evolution of fine art collecting, only with digital art.

(Side note, when coming up with the line “buying my good tweets,” we were trying to think of something so silly that it wouldn’t be a real thing. So of course the founder of Twitter sold one for just under $3 million shortly after we posted the article.)

Do people really think this will become like art collecting?

I’m sure some people really hope so — like whoever paid almost $390,000 for a 50-second video by Grimes or the person who paid $6.6 million for a video by Beeple. Actually, one of Beeple’s pieces was auctioned at Christie’s, the famou—

Sorry, I was busy right-clicking on that Beeple video and downloading the same file the person paid millions of dollars for.

Wow, rude. But yeah, that’s where it gets a bit awkward. You can copy a digital file as many times as you want, including the art that’s included with an NFT.

But NFTs are designed to give you something that can’t be copied: ownership of the work (though the artist can still retain the copyright and reproduction rights, just like with physical artwork). To put it in terms of physical art collecting: anyone can buy a Monet print. But only one person can own the original.

No shade to Beeple, but the video isn’t really a Monet.

What do you think of the $3,600 Gucci Ghost? Also, you didn’t let me finish earlier. That image that Beeple was auctioning off at Christie’s ended up selling for $69 million, which, by the way, is $15 million more than Monet’s painting Nymphéas sold for in 2014.

This last sold for $3,600, but the current owner is asking for $16,300. GIF by Trevor Andrew

Whoever got that Monet can actually appreciate it as a physical object. With digital art, a copy is literally as good as the original.

But the flex of owning an original Beeple...

What’s the point?

That really depends on whether you’re an artist or a buyer.

I’m an artist.

First off: I’m proud of you. Way to go. You might be interested in NFTs because it gives you a way to sell work that there otherwise might not be much of a market for. If you come up with a really cool digital sticker idea, what are you going to do? Sell it on the iMessage App Store? No way.

Also, NFTs have a feature that you can enable that will pay you a percentage every time the NFT is sold or changes hands, making sure that if your work gets super popular and balloons in value, you’ll see some of that benefit.

I’m a buyer.

One of the obvious benefits of buying art is it lets you financially support artists you like, and that’s true with NFTs (which are way trendier than, like, Telegram stickers). Buying an NFT also usually gets you some basic usage rights, like being able to post the image online or set it as your profile picture. Plus, of course, there are bragging rights that you own the art, with a blockchain entry to back it up.

No, I meant I’m a collector.

Ah, okay, yes. NFTs can work like any other speculative asset, where you buy it and hope that the value of it goes up one day, so you can sell it for a profit. I feel kind of dirty for talking about that, though.

So every NFT is unique?

In the boring, technical sense that every NFT is a unique token on the blockchain. But while it could be like a van Gogh, where there’s only one definitive actual version, it could also be like a trading card, where there’s 50 or hundreds of numbered copies of the same artwork.

Who would pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for what basically amounts to a trading card?

Well, that’s part of what makes NFTs so messy. Some people treat them like they’re the future of fine art collecting (read: as a playground for the mega-rich), and some people treat them like Pokémon cards (where they’re accessible to normal people but also a playground for the mega-rich). Speaking of Pokémon cards, Logan Paul just sold some NFTs relating to a million-dollar box of the—

Please stop. I hate where this is going.

Yeah, he sold NFT video clips, which are just clips from a video you can watch on YouTube anytime you want, for up to $20,000. He also sold NFTs of a Logan Paul Pokémon card.

Who paid $20,000 for a video clip of Logan Paul?!

A fool and their money are soon parted, I guess?

It would be hilarious if Logan Paul decided to sell 50 more NFTs of the exact same video.

Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda (who also sold some NFTs that included a song) actually talked about that. It’s totally a thing someone could do if they were, in his words, “an opportunist crooked jerk.” I’m not saying that Logan Paul is that, just that you should be careful who you buy from.

Can I buy this article as an NFT?

No, but technically anything digital could be sold as an NFT (including articles from Quartz and the New York Times, provided you have anywhere from $1,800 to $560,000). deadmau5 has sold digital animated stickers. William Shatner has sold Shatner-themed trading cards (one of which was apparently an X-ray of his teeth).

Gross. Actually, could I buy someone’s teeth as an NFT?

There have been some attempts at connecting NFTs to real-world objects, often as a sort of verification method. Nike has patented a method to verify sneakers’ authenticity using an NFT system, which it calls CryptoKicks. But so far, I haven’t found any teeth, no. I’m scared to look.

Look? Where?

There are several marketplaces that have popped up around NFTs, which allow people to buy and sell. These include OpenSea, Rarible, and Grimes’ choice, Nifty Gateway, but there are plenty of others.

I’ve heard there were kittens involved. Tell me about the kittens.

NFTs really became technically possible when the Ethereum blockchain added support for them as part of a new standard. Of course, one of the first uses was a game called CryptoKitties that allowed users to trade and sell virtual kittens. Thank you, internet.

I love kittens.

Arrrrrggggg!

Same. But in my opinion, the kittens show that one of the most interesting aspects of NFTs (for those of us not looking to create a digital dragon’s lair of art) is how they can be used in games. There are already games that let you have NFTs as items. One even sells virtual plots of land as NFTs. There could be opportunities for players to buy a unique in-game gun or helmet or whatever as an NFT, which would be a flex that most people could actually appreciate.

Could I pull off a museum heist to steal NFTs?

This image is not an NFT. Yet. Image: Wallace and Gromit: The Wrong Trousers

That depends. Part of the allure of blockchain is that it stores a record of each time a transaction takes place, making it harder to steal and flip than, say, a painting hanging in a museum. That said, cryptocurrencies have been stolen before, so it really would depend on how the NFT is being stored and how much work a potential victim would be willing to put in to get their stuff back.

Note: Please don’t steal.

Should I be worried about digital art being around in 500 years?

Probably. Bit rot is a real thing: image quality deteriorates, file formats can’t be opened anymore, websites go down, people forget the password to their wallets. But physical art in museums is also shockingly fragile.

I want to maximize my blockchain use. Can I buy NFTs with cryptocurrencies?

Yes. Probably. A lot of the marketplaces accept Ethereum. But technically, anyone can sell an NFT, and they could ask for whatever currency they want.

Will trading my Logan Paul NFTs contribute to global warming and melt Greenland?

It’s definitely something to look out for. Since NFTs use the same blockchain technology as some energy-hungry cryptocurrencies, they also end up using a lot of electricity. There are people working on mitigating this issue, but so far, most NFTs are still tied to cryptocurrencies that generate a lot of greenhouse gas emissions. There have been a few cases where artists have decided to not sell NFTs or to cancel future drops after hearing about the effects they could have on climate change. Thankfully, one of my colleagues has really dug into it, so you can read this piece to get a fuller picture.

Can I build an underground art cave / bunker to store my NFTs?

Well, like cryptocurrencies, NFTs are stored in digital wallets (though it is worth noting that the wallet does specifically have to be NFT-compatible). You could always put the wallet on a computer in an underground bunker, though.

BTC dropped below $30,000, hitting its lowest level since January 28. This drop is due to both the Chinese mining companies moving out of China and increased regulatory pressure on the cryptocurrency industry. 

Over just one hour, the bitcoin rate fell by 6%, breaking through the $30,000 support level and reaching a local low of $29,294. When on the rise, the first time when bitcoin crossed the $30,000 milestone fell on January 2. Thus, over six months, BTC fluctuated within $35,000.

The downward trend is not likely to stop soon, and Bitcoin will continue to go down in the coming days. BTC had been balancing between the levels of $30,000 and $40,000 for four weeks. A week ago, BTC was worth about $ 40,000, but in recent days it has experienced strong surges in volatility, after which it started a rapid decline, unable to withstand pressure from several directions simultaneously.

In mid-April, Bitcoin reached an all-time high, just short of $65,000. Yet, the success was short-lived, unlike the one of 2017. In May, bitcoin started to decline again and the correction over two months exceeded 50%.

Bitcoin pulls along with it other cryptocurrencies that are also suffering losses. E.g., ETH fell to $1,754, XRP, to $0.5252, ADA, to $1.02, and the trifling DOGE cryptocurrency, to $0.16490.

The cryptocurrency market began to weaken due to differences between proponents and opponents of Proof-of-Work (PoW) based cryptocurrencies over the negative impact of mining on the environment. Their disputes have led Chinese regulators to put more pressure on mining companies to close or move to other jurisdictions.

The bearish pressure on cryptocurrencies was compounded by the aggressive behavior of the US Federal Reserve (FRS) which moved up its timeline for rate hikes by several years as compared to what was planned in previous years.

The $30,000 price is the support level for Bitcoin. This means that the next targets for the asset price could be $27,000 to $28,000. The main target for shorting traders will be the $20,000 level.

If the price of the cryptocurrency manages to again exceed the $30,000 mark in the near future, it will signal the possible start of a new wave of growth in quotes.

The $30,000 mark is psychological; therefore, the fact that the bitcoin value has broken through this level can provoke a panic sell-off by private investors. We may see a sharp drop in quotes to the $25,000 level within the next few hours. Let us remind you that Tesla acquired Bitcoin at a price of approximately $30,000.

The only guarantee associated with the cryptocurrency space is volatility, and obviously this is what is happening right now.

Despite previous pullbacks, the infrastructure of the cryptocurrency market keeps getting more mature, which has helped to increase institutional support over the past year, as the managers of major hedge funds, pension funds and banks switch to cryptocurrency, while registered investment advisors are looking for ways to provide their clients with access. to cryptocurrencies.

Between mid-September and its peak in April, bitcoin value had gone up by almost 500%. Even with the recent downturn, the growth of the cryptocurrency over the past 12 months still exceeds 200%.

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The resounding statements by Elon Musk and other market participants about the dangers mining presents for the environment were one of the reasons for the correction. Yet, how fair are these arguments?

In May, Elon Musk announced that Tesla would no longer accept Bitcoin as a means of payment citing as the reason increasing environmental pollution due to Bitcoin mining. Musk raised the issue of the environmental unfriendliness of cryptocurrency mining.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge concluded that the annual electricity consumption of bitcoin exceeds that of the whole Argentina, i.e., about 121.36 terawatt hours of electricity per year. Experts believe that this number is unlikely to go down in the near future.

The Greenpeace has also shown interest in the issue of environmental pollution due to mining. Opinions about the harm mining inflicts on the environment have been expressed more than once. In April, Nature Communication magazine predicted  that by 2024, the greenhouse effect from mining farms in China will exceed that of the Philippines.

Not only the Greens but China also highlighted the problem of harm mining causes to the environment. For example, the close to the country's authorities Xinhua news agency indicated in its statement on a possible mining ban in the country that, among other things, mining “consumes a lot of energy resources,” therefore, the cryptocurrency does not meet the goal of “carbon neutrality”.

Impact of Restrictions on the Environmental Friendliness of Mining

An expert from Prague Daniel Frumkin believes that restrictions in China, together with the recent ban on mining in Iran, can improve the environmental friendliness of mining and increase the use of renewable energy sources in it. Frumkin made his own calculation on how much energy is spent on mining.

For example, the amount of waste gas in the US alone is probably sufficient to keep the bitcoin network running. According to Frumkin, the very reasoning about the benefits or harms of this or that type of energy consumption is illogical without reference to the context and specific conditions.

Solar Powered Mining

Manufacturing of solar panels so insistently supported by the advocates of renewable energy is in some respects harmful to the environment. Xinjiang province is the exact place where major production of these panels is located and where a lot of mining farms accused of environmental pollution are also located.

In early June, the authorities of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region ordered the immediate termination of miners' activities. Other regions in China may follow the suit.

A joint study by Square and ARK Invest mentions the possibility of using solar energy in mining adjusted to the fluctuations in the strength of the sun's energy throughout the year and day. The document specifies the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) which is the total cost of construction and operation of a power generation facility over its entire service life divided by the total amount of energy produced.

The authors found that even if the price of BTC remains constant for two years, the difficulty of mining using electricity from solar panels will continue to increase until the average cost of mining for miners reaches the actual price of BTC. At that, mining will remain profitable for miners, albeit at a constantly decreasing rate, throughout a 48-month period. In addition, the initial investment actually pays off towards the end of the 3rd year of operation. Thus, the use of solar energy for mining will only be justified if investors believe that the price of BTC will rise significantly over the next 4 years.

Renewable Energy Sources

Much of the energy used for mining comes from renewable sources. For example, in 2019, according to some estimates, about 73% of the energy used for mining was carbon neutral. The University of Cambridge researchers believe though that in reality this number is almost twice lower than such estimates and that only 39% met the carbon neutrality criterion in September 2020.

According to the aforementioned Daniel Frumkin, a significant part of mining farms use the energy manufactured by hydroelectric power plants and natural gas. In recent years, the levelized cost of renewable energy has dropped significantly and is almost equal to that of coal-fired power plants. All this suggests that the harm factor of bitcoin for the environment may be exaggerated.

The topic of the harm of mining to the environment becomes a powerful argument in the crypto industry when switching from one blockchain to another. In a recent interview, OneOf co-founder Lin Dai made the following statement, "we really can't feel comfortable enough to use the Ethereum platform, mainly due to the environmental impact and high gas fees." While the Ethereum 2.0 update is intended to address such issues, Lin Dai announced that the OneOf project moves to the Tezos blockchain which already uses a PoS algorithm to improve environmental efficiency.

Energies from Volcanoes for Mining

El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele instructed Minor Gil, President of the state-owned energy company LaGeo, to start mining bitcoins using cheap, 100% clean and renewable energy from volcanoes. LaGeo operates two geothermal power plants located in El Salvador in the Ahuachapán and Berlin regions.

According to the LaGeo’s report, 20% of the electricity used by El Salvador comes from geothermal sources. The company has a resource potential of 644 MW, but at the moment, uses only a third of it.

Bukele states that he has already been informed about the construction of a new well, the commissioning of which will ensure 95 MW production.

On June 9, bitcoin became a legal tender in El Salvador after the country's parliament has adopted the relevant law. Acceptance of bitcoins for payment will become mandatory in the country. The head of El Salvador stressed that the cryptocurrency will be a legal tender along with the US dollar.

The government also plans to create an official crypto wallet wherein it will store $150 million worth of bitcoins in a trust fund based on the Development Bank of El Salvador to ensure the automatic and instant conversion of BTC into the US dollar.

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Yes! We have made our own glossary.
It will be updating. But you can always fly into our chat and throw a term at us so that we can add it here.

A

51% Attack — a.k.a Majority Attack is an attack on a blockchain and it occurs when more than 50% of computational power of the network (hash rate) is getting controlled by a single party. Attackers create fraudulent blocks of transactions for themselves and making others transactions invalid in the network. In case of Proof-of-Stake(POS), attackers will need to obtain more than 50% of the cryptocurrency supply to make Majority Attack possible.

All-Time High (ATH)– is the highest price that any coin or token has ever reached. For example, Bitcoin ATH is $ 60,012. This price was fixed on March 13, 2021. The previous ATH was $ 32,947, on January 2, 2021.

All-Time Low (ATL) — is the lowest price that any coin or token has ever reached.

Altcoin — all cryptocurrencies except Bitcoin. Also, bitcoin maximalists often call altcoins shitcoins.

Ask Me Anything (AMA) — is the format of interviews with the CEO or another project representative. Most often takes place on Telegram. AMA is organized by bloggers or the media, pre-collecting questions from subscribers. Sometimes users can get a drop for cool questions.

Airdrop — is a free distribution of project tokens. As a rule, projects make airdrops for early users. Examples: 1inch and Uniswap.

B

Blockchain — database consisting of a chain of serial blocks. Each unit stores information (for example, transactions in Bitcoin). To guarantee what data in past are impossible to replace — each block stores also information about the previous block. As a result, to change something in the past — you need to rewrite all following blocks.

Block — a set of information inside a blockchain. Each block contains information, and data about previous blocks to make it impossible to replace information in past blocks.

Block Explorer — is a blockchain analysis tool that can be used to explore data in blocks, and depending on the blockchain — for example, monitor transactions, wallets, network status, and other blockchain data.

Block Confirmation — is adding a transaction to a block is a confirmation of its success. When there are more blocks after the block with your transaction — the transaction can be considered as fully confirmed and irrevocable

Bitcoin Pizza — a pizza that was purchased for 10,000 bitcoins, on May 22, 2010. It was the first purchase with bitcoins. At the time, those bitcoins were worth $41. And now over $500 million. May 22 is now “Bitcoin Pizza Day.”

Bounty — is a reward, often in project tokens, for completing certain tasks. As a rule, this is an activity in social networks, writing and translating articles, creating video content, memes, and bug reports.

Bear Market — is the time when the crypto market is in stagnation or even falls. Antonym — bull market (or bullrun).

Bitcoin Dominance — is the percentage of capitalization of bitcoin to the rest of the crypto market.

BEP-20 — is a token standard on BSC (Binance Smart Chain) and it’s capable of smart contracts. It’s safe to say that BEP-20 = ERC20 in the Ethereum network. For example, the CAKE token on the PancakeSwap platform is the BEP-20 token.

C

Crypto Tracker — is an application that allows you to track cryptocurrencies in real-time. For example, bitcoin.

Crypto Portfolio — is the place where your assets are. And in which you can trade them. Bitcoin, Ethereum, or XRP. And maybe others, everyone has own tastes.

Cold Wallet — is an offline wallet that used as storage for cryptocurrencies. Cold wallet also stores user’s address, private key and don’t have an access to Internet, that’s why it’s protected form online hacks and exploits. Great examples of cold wallets are: Ledger Nano, Trezor wallet, paper with a private key in your strongbox.

Confirmation time — is the time it takes to add the transaction to the block, which means confirming the transaction

D

Do Your Own Research (DYOR)— is to check the project yourself, make sure of its legitimacy. Well, or understand that the project is a scam.

Dump — is falling market or coins. For example, Bitcoin fell 40%. This is a dump.

Decryption — isa data decryption process.

Dominance — is the percentage of capitalization of a certain coin to the entire crypto market. Most often — bitcoin dominance.

Degen — isthe name of a person who understands DeFi very well. Yes, crypto is toxic.

E

ERC-20 — is a standard for Fungible tokens in Ethereum Network and it’s capable of smart contracts and used in DApps. It’s the most popular standard of the token nowadays and used everywhere. Utility tokens, Governance tokens, Meme tokens and etc — this is all ERC-20 in Ethereum. Examples are UNI, 1inch, 0x, AAVE, COMP, SNX and etc.

ERC-721 — is a standard for Non-Fungible tokens in Ethereum Network and is known as NFT. The main property is that every ERC-721 token unique and can not be replaced. Its often used for collectibles, real estate, paintings and art overall. Crypto Punks, Hashmasks, and “Everydays — The First 5000 Days” by @beeple are ERC-721 NFTs.

F

Faucet — is website or application that give away a small amount of crypto for free for doing simple tasks or just like that. Faucets are often used to receive tokens on testnet networks.

Falling Knife — is a trading term for a rapid drop in the price of an asset. Often used in the phrase “Trying to catch a falling knife,” which means the trader is trying to catch the bottom after a sharp drop. Very often speculators get a second bottom as a gift to the first one.

Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)— is a feeling when you see a gigantic green candle in the chart of the coin you don’t hold and want to get into this rocket or when you don’t buy next 100x gem after TGE. Overall, it’s the feeling that you missed some great opportunities, events or trades.

Flippening — is a term for describing the moment when Ethereum overtaking Bitcoin in the future in terms of Market Cap. When Ethereum Maxis can said “Ethereum NUMBA WAN”.

Fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) — is the spread of deliberately false, or simply negative news and facts, in order to tarnish the reputation of the project.

Fiat — the designation of ordinary money — rubles, dollars, euros, etc. Usually, traders enter and exit crypto through fiat.

G

Gas — is the unit used to measure the price of a transaction is the commission to miners. For example, in ETH it is called gwei. 1 Gwei = 0.000000001 ETH. And vice versa 1 ETH = 1 billion gwei!

Gas limit — is the limit of gas that can be spent to perform a transaction. Like a maximum amount of gas that will be spent

H

Hot Wallet — is an online wallet that allows user to store, send and receive coins and tokens. Hot wallets have public and private keys and requires to write down and remember your seed phrase consisting 12 or 24 words. Great examples of hot wallets are: Metamask, 1inch wallet, Rainbow and Argent.

Hodl/Hodler — slang definition of those who buy cryptocurrencies and keep them no matter what happens.

Halving — is the process of cutting half of rewards that miners/validators are getting for their work — adding transactions to the blockchain. For example, previous halving was in 2020 and rewards for miners diminished from 12.5 BTC to 6,25 BTC.

Hard Cap — is a maximum fundraise goal that crypto startup can receive from investors on ICO/IDO/IEO and etc. Fun fact — there was no hard cap on Ethereum ICO.

Hard fork — is a process of big changes in networks’ protocol that make previously valid blocks invalid. After hard fork to continue using protocol users and nodes have to upgrade to the latest version of the software.

Hash — is a function that satisfies the encryption requirements for blockchain computations. It is a fixed-length alphanumeric code that is used to represent words, messages, and data of any length.

Hashrate — is a total computational power that is being used in order to process blocks and transactions in Proof-of-Work chains (Bitcoin, Monero, Ethereum and etc.).

K

KYC — is a user verification process. For example, on Binance or Bitfinex, a trader must provide pics of the documents in order to increase withdrawal limits.

L

Listing — is the process when a particular coin first appears on an exchange. When coins are listed on popular exchanges, such as coinbase, they often go to the moon.

M

Mainnet — isthe core network of a particular blockchain. Only in this network does the asset have value.

Market Order — is a fast buy / sell order at the current market price. For example, a market sell order will match the cheapest buy limit order available in the order book. The order will go through the entire glass until it is closed, so do not forget to look at the liquidity.

N

NGMI — is an acronym for “not gonna make it”. It is usually used to describe a situation when a person does not want to buy Bitcoin or another token, because he is afraid of losses. And that’s why he won’t make money in the future.

P

Pump — is planned and sharp pumping of the value of the coin, then to sell it at the highest possible price. As a rule, pumps are typical for coins with low capitalization. Therefore, manipulators are trying to attract as many people as possible to the project in order to control the price.

Pump and Dump — is astrategy to pump and dump the coin. Whales artificially pump up the value of a coin in order to sell it at the highest possible price to small traders. As a result, the value of the coin goes down, and investors lose money and become hamsters.

Private Keys — are a combination of characters created by using an encryption algorithm that provides access to the cryptocurrencies stored on the account. These keys need to be stored very securely, since whoever knows the private key has access to the wallet and can manage the assets.

S

Stop-loss order — isan order type that limits potential losses. Traders use this type of order to set a specific price level at which an existing order will automatically close if the price touches it.

Soft Cap — is the lower limit of fundraising at the ICO / IDO / IEO stage, etc. If the project does not reach it, it is canceled and the funds are returned to investors. But in reality, the project may not return the funds and try to work with what they got.

Seed Phrase — is a set of 12–24 words in a specific order that provides access to the cryptocurrencies stored in the account. This phrase needs to be stored very securely, since whoever knows it has access to the wallet and can manage assets. Seed phrase, mnemonic, seed phrase, mnemonic words, seed phrase are all synonyms.

T

Testnet — an alternative network for experimentation and testing. A crypto on the testnet has no value on the mainnet, and vice versa. Many products launch testnets at an early stage and thank their testers with drops.

W

WAGMI — is an acronym for “we all gonna make it”. It is usually used in a situations when there’s a hope for market or coins to rise, or when there’s a lot of good news coming about the market.

Whale — is a participant of the market with large amount of assets. Usually it is early bitcoin users, ethereum investors, exchanges and other wealthy guys.

Whitelist — is a list of participants who are admitted to various kinds of events: sales, IDOs, IEOs and other forms of fundraising. Approving members can be done via email, telegram or discord accounts, wallet address.

Whitepaper — is a document that crypto startups compose at an early stage. It outlines the main problem that a startup solves, the solution to the problem, the main mechanisms of the platform and tokenomics. For example, you can check the Bitcoin WP (Whitepaper) published in 2008 or the Ethereum WP published in 2015.

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For the first time ever, the main cryptocurrency will become a legal payment method along with the US dollar. Here is how this will affect digital assets and which countries may soon follow the example of El Salvador.

On June 9, El Salvador's parliament passed a law that formalized Bitcoin as a legal tender. The document will be signed by the President of the country Nayib Bukele in the near future. The El Salvadorian authorities will have 90 days after the law comes into effect to create the appropriate infrastructure.

Acceptance of Bitcoins for payment will become mandatory in the country. The cryptocurrency will be legal tender along with the US dollar, the leader of El Salvador stated.

El Salvador’s Reason

El Salvador per se has no effect on the crypto market. Moreover, the country does not even possess own national currency (settlements are conducted in U.S. dollars). The country has decided to accept Bitcoin as a means of payment to help migrants transfer money to their families in El Salvador.

"The entire economy of this country is 70% dependent on such infusions of cash from migrants who have left for other countries to work."

This is why globally the decision of the El Salvadorian authorities will not affect the crypto market in any way. Statements made by the authorities of those countries that intend to fight against digital assets or strictly regulate them have a much higher impact, he said. For example, the former US President Donald Trump called Bitcoin a fraud and called on the American authorities to "very tightly" regulate the circulation of digital assets in the country.

Who is Next

Nevertheless, the adoption of Bitcoin as a means of payment in El Salvador is a historic milestone, which marks the recognition of Bitcoin as a vehicle for the transfer of value by not just retail or institutional users but by national regulators. El Salvador's example may be followed by other countries that are known by high dependence on money transfers by emigrees, hyperinflation of the national currency, economic instability, or sanctions imposed by the United States and the EU.

Other countries that count among the poorest may take a similar step, even though this has very little impact on digital assets as well, since most of the investors and traders are concentrated in the United States, developed countries of the EU, and Asian countries.

Two days before the adoption of Bitcoin as a legal tender in El Salvador, Panamanian Congressman Gabriel Silva also expressed the need for such a step in Panama. He called on the Panamanian authorities to support the cryptocurrency so that the country can become a hub for technology and entrepreneurship. Silva said Panama's National Assembly is already considering an appropriate bill.

A similar statement was made by the Paraguayan Congressman Carlos Rejala. He hinted that Paraguay's support for the cryptocurrency at the state level will soon be announced.

Implications for Investors

A message on Reddit expresses the opinion that the adoption of Bitcoin as a means of payment in El Salvador could negatively affect coin owners in the field of taxation, as the IRS will now be able to treat Bitcoin as a foreign currency.

Roger Brown, a former senior adviser to the IRS, argues that if this happens, any gains from trading or investments will have a "normal" tax nature, writes Decrypt. Cryptocurrencies now have a lower capital gains interest rate for assets held for more than a year.

In March 2014, the IRS issued a notice stating that cryptocurrency is property and not currency for U.S. federal income tax purposes. According to Brown, this position was explained, among other things, by the fact that digital currencies are not legal tender in any country in the world; but after the decision made by the El Salvadorian authorities, prerequisites arise for the IRS to designate them as a currency.

Brown himself, however, does not believe that the IRS will make any changes to tax rules for Bitcoin just because the coin was recognized as a legal tender in El Salvador. Despite the importance of this decision, El Salvador is not at the level of the European Union or any other major economy, Brown explained. At the same time, he did not rule out that in the future the IRS may revise the tax rules for the main cryptocurrency if other countries start using it as a means of payment.

According to research by Santiment analytical service, the largest holders of the main cryptocurrency continue to accumulate digital coins.

According to Santiment analytical service, since June last year, the activity of Bitcoin addresses dropped to its lowest. According to the site, for the past two and a half weeks the major holders of the main #cryptocurrency continue to accumulate digital coins while whales have been showing growing interest in Bitcoin. The number of digital coins on crypto exchanges continues to decline after the drop in quotes that too place May 19.

“Whales seem to be buying this drop with confidence,” the Santiment report states.

According to the information provided by the analytics platform Glassnode, the largest outflow of Bitcoins from crypto exchanges since November 2020 was recorded on June 7 when, over 24 hours, 22,500 digital coins (worth $744 million) were withdrawn from the exchanges.

The major #Ethereum holders also continue to accumulate altcoins. This trend has not changed since October last year. Ethereum address activity continues to decline since the surge seen in mid-May. At the same time, negative social trends of Ethereum decreased to the level of October 2020.

Digital coin holders are looking forward to the next big #Bitcoin move, but the long-term model of altcoin accumulation still looks optimistic, analysts say.

"It Is Too Early to Talk about a Long-Term Correction." When Bitcoin Wil Switch Back to an Upturn Trend

On the morning of June 8, the price of Bitcoin dropped to $32,300. Over one day, the price of the main cryptocurrency dropped by 10%, and its capitalization fell to $622 billion, according to CoinGecko. This happened after billionaire and former US President Donald Trump criticized the digital coin and called it a scam. The businessman urged the US authorities to "very tightly" regulate the circulation of digital currency in the country.

Restrained Fall

Given the current information background, the drop of the Bitcoin rate looks quite restrained. In addition to Trump's statement, the quotes were pressured by the news of the interception by FBI of a virtual Bitcoin wallet used by the DarkSide hacker group after the attack on the Colonial Pipeline, as well as messages about the intentions of the US authorities to introduce stricter cryptocurrency regulations.

It is too early to talk about a long-term correction, since from a technical point of view, for launching such a scenario, the price of Bitcoin must drop below $30,000.  In the meantime, the dynamics look just like a price surge and a short-term reaction to negative information, the expert said.

There are two possible scenarios the events may follow. The first is that Bitcoin will fluctuate for some time in the range between $35,000 - $40,000, until a critical mass of buyers is assembled. This will activate the bullish trend.

The second scenario assumes a drop in the Bitcoin rate to $20,000 - $25,000.

"At these levels, a rapid set of long positions may take place, which will push the quotes up and trigger the beginning of an upward trend." 

Institutional Investors’ Behavior

Remember that during a strong bull market last March, Goldman Sachs announced the launch of new investment instruments based on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, as there was a high demand among customers for such products.

It would be wrong to use the word panic as far as institutional investors are concerned, since investors, despite the withdrawal of funds from products based on Bitcoin, keep simultaneously increasing investments in instruments based on altcoins, which has a positive effect on the crypto market.

On June 7, MicroStrategy announced a $400 million bond issue maturing in 2028. The company plans to use the raised funds to buy Bitcoins. The software maker is now the largest cryptocurrency holder among public companies. MicroStrategy owns 92,000 bitcoins worth $3 billion, according to Bitcoin Treasuries.

At the moment, there is a high probability of a renewal of a new all-time high for Bitcoin as the super-cycle is not over yet, and the market is somewhere in the middle of the growth that should stop closer to 2023.

The drop of Bitcoin to $30,000 had almost no effect on the non-fungible token market. Yet, this does not mean that NFT can be used as a protective tool in the development of an investment portfolio.

The non-fungible token market did not pay too much attention to the collapse of cryptocurrency quotes which occurred in May, when the price of Bitcoin fell to $30,000 for the first time since January. According to the Nonfungible service, the volume of primary sales of NFT has been growing since mid-May, as well as the number of token buyers. For example, sports non-fungible tokens experienced a surge in both primary and secondary sales in the second half of May.

The growth in popularity of NFTs was recorded last March. This happened after the sale by Christie's auction house of a painting by Beeple in the form of NFT for $69.3 mil. In March, the sales of non-fungible tokens reached a record $200 mil, which exceeded their sales for the whole year of 2020.

High Risk Investments 

The lack of correlation between the NFT market and cryptocurrency quotes indicates that these two sectors are subject to different laws and that non-fungible tokens are not a cryptocurrency in the usual sense.

"The NFT is only a digital shell, a blockchain that primarily solves the issue of copyright."

When it comes to art, the value of an NFT is determined based on how much the audience is willing to pay for a particular painting, music track, etc. The NFT is a high-risk investment, even though it has proved to be resilient during the crypto market crash. It is risky to devote more than 10% of your investment portfolio to such assets.

Unclear Outlook

The NFT market should not be considered as a protective tool against fluctuations in cryptocurrency quotes, since non-fungible tokens are one of the young and high-risk sectors of the cryptocurrency market. It is not worth relying on NFTs when developing an investment portfolio, since the prospect of the secondary market for many expensive tokens, especially those related to art, remains unclear.

"This is an interesting area, it is worth looking into, but we would not recommend investing all your funds in such assets."

The most promising NFTs relate to art objects, but rather than into the collections like CryptoPunks you should look into the works of young artists who already have a name in the art world, such as Banksy. We also recommend considering sports NFTs.

In March, one of Banksy's paintings was burned to be turned into an NFT. The destruction of the painting took place at an unknown location in Brooklyn and was broadcast on YouTube and Twitter. After the painting had been burned, a blockchain company created a non-fungible token tied to the "digital image of the art object." This was the first known case of the transformation of a physical work of art into a virtual asset.

An indicator that may signal an imminent deeper decline in the market has appeared on the cryptocurrency rate chart.Currently, the chart of the Bitcoin rate is potentially developing a "cross of death" pattern, which may indicate an imminent onset of selling off or an intensification of a downtrend. We assume that this pattern may fully form roughly between the end of July and the beginning of September of the current year.

“The Bitcoin price has already fallen from the all-time high by 54% and may fall by another 54% if the cross of death is formed today. This will lead to a drop in the price of cryptocurrency to $18,000."

When Bitcoin peaked at $20,000 in 2017, the pattern formed on the chart after 3.5 months. During that time, cryptocurrency quotes fell by almost 70%. Then the asset experienced an additional 65% correction, dropping in price to $3 200.

A similar situation occurred in mid-2019 when the Bitcoin price fell by 53% 149 days after the peak. After the "cross of death" had been fully formed, quotes fell by another 55%.

As of June 3, Bitcoin is trading at $39,000. Over the past day, the cryptocurrency has fallen in price by 0.5%. According to CoinGecko, the capitalization of the asset is now $688 billion with a market share of 40%.