U.S. Government Launches Website for Victims of FTX Collapse
The U.S. government has launched a website for victims of the FTX collapse to communicate with law enforcement in regards to former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s “alleged” fraud. In an order late Friday night, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan authorized federal prosecutors to use the website to speed up the process given the massive scale of the FTX collapse.
FTX owes money to at least 1 million people including creditors and customers. This would help prosecutors with their case immensely as it is ‘”impractical” to contact each victim individually and get their testimony, the prosecutors remarked in the court filing.
Federal Law Requires Prosecutors to Contact FTX Victims
Federal law requires prosecutors to contact possible crime victims to inform them of their rights, including the rights to obtain restitution, be heard in court and be protected from defendants. “If you believe that you may have been a victim of fraud by Samuel Bankman-Fried, A/K/A/ ‘SBF,’ please contact the victim/witness coordinator at the United States Attorney’s office using the email address listed below for assistance in verifying whether you are a victim in this case,” stated in the website.
In criminal cases, prosecutors are required to notify victims ahead of plea or sentencing proceedings and allow them enough time to give testimony if they want to be heard. Based on the number of victims who provide such notice, the court will rule on the manner in which victims will be heard at such proceedings,” Kaplan wrote in his court order.
FTX Victim Testimonies Strengthen Arguments
Recently, Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to eight counts of wire fraud and conspiracy over the FTX collapse. Prosecutors have said he stole billions in customer deposits to pay debts for his hedge fund, Alameda Research, and lied to investors about the exchange’s financial condition.
Though Bankman-Fried has acknowledged risk management shortcomings, he did not consider himself criminally liable. In such a case, the direct evidence regarding the case may not be enough, hence testimonies of the victims can greatly strengthen arguments. Moreover, for the many other victims who did not come forward to cite legal trouble or other factors, this website could help them take the first step to recover their funds, and build a stronger and more compelling case with their testimonies, given the massive scale of damage Bankman-Fried has done.
FTX Owes Money to Over 1 Million People
The US Attorney suggests more indictments to follow. According to FTX’s bankruptcy filing on November 11, it owes money to more than 100,000 creditors and at least 1 million affected FTX and FTX US users.
John Ray, currently CEO of FTX, testified at the U.S. House Financial Services Committee in December, asserting that his team is implementing a restructuring plan that will potentially help customers and creditors get their money back.
One of the core objectives is asset protection and recovery. It involves extensive tracing of money flows and asset transfers from the time of FTX’s founding. Ray said that they are in the process of “collecting and reviewing dozens of terabytes of documents and data, including records of billions of individual transactions.”
U.S. Customers Accounted for 2% of All FTX Traffic
In an analysis of monthly active user data by CoinGecko, customers in the U.S. accounted for 2% of all traffic. Ray mentioned in his testimony that there were 2.7 million users in FTX US and 7.6 million users in FTX. But since “a small number of U.S. customers” were also among the FTX users, he overstates the actual customer relationships due to the possibility a customer may have more than one account.
Therefore, Ray aims to get to the bottom of the actual customer numbers. And the website for FTX victims can help speed up the process by providing information and clarity, since it is unlikely that most customers will not be able to appear at the Manhattan court in person.
The crypto industry had a tumultuous year in 2022, with coins tanking at the start of Q2 and never rallying, signalling the beginning of a crypto winter. To make matters worse, the collapse of Terra Luna and FTX led to a devastating contagion across the industry. Despite the challenges, we shouldn’t forget about the progress and achievements the industry has made. Here’s a brief recap of some of the biggest news in 2022.
Crypto’s Role in the Russia-Ukraine War (February)
During the Russia-Ukraine war, cryptocurrencies have been immensely valuable to Ukrainian refugees. Russian attacks have destroyed critical infrastructure, rendering many Ukrainians inaccessible to withdrawing money from ATM machines. Therefore, many Ukrainian refugees relied on digital currencies sent from relatives or donors abroad to purchase goods and services.
All that is needed for them to access their cryptocurrency wallets is a mobile phone and internet access, which was being provided by the thousands of Starlink satellite internet dishes provided by Elon Musk’s SpaceX at the time.
Feds Interest Rate Hike (March)
Despite Bitcoin reaching an all-time high of $69000+ in November 2021, what follows is a series of market decline. This is in part due to the U.S. Federal Reserve announcing its first interest rate hike in March to fight increasing inflation. As a result, the macro backdrop began to worsen, not only affecting crypto assets but also every other investment asset class. This also called into question Bitcoin’s reputation as an inflation hedge as Bitcoin itself started to trade in tandem with Nasdaq tech stocks, according to the New York Times.
Collapse of Terra Luna (May-July)
The collapse of the Terra Luna ecosystem in May 2022 was one of the most devastating black swan events in crypto history, wiping at least $60 billion off the market which triggered a dangerous domino effect across the industry such as the fall of several high-profile crypto firms, namely Three Arrows Capital, Voyager Digital, and Celsius Network.
Amid the crash, the UST algorithmic stablecoin, which was supposed to maintain a $1 peg via on-chain mechanisms with Terra’s native token LUNA, depegged, bottoming out at $0.006. This was caused by a massive continuous selloff on both UST and LUNA, resulting in a death spiral. Terraform Labs (TFL) developers and founder Do Kwon are facing multiple investigations as well as lawsuits into its collapse. (Canadian Pharmacy) As of now, South Korean authorities and Interpol have issued a warrant for the search and arrest of Do Kwon and his accomplices.
Recovery Plan of Terra Luna Classic (August)
As of now, the Luna Classic blockchain is managed and governed by the community after Terraform Labs (TFL) developers abandoned the chain in support of Luna 2.0. On August 26th 2022, governance was restored as citizens of Luna Classic could delegate, stake, and vote for the future of the ecosystem. Proposals and the associated implementations are being passed by the Terra Classic Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO).
Feds Sanction Tornado Cash (August)
On 8th August 2022, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions against Tornado Cash, a privacy-focused Ethereum mixing service that obscures the trail back to the fund’s original source. They claimed that Lazarus Group, a cybercrime group run by the North Korean government, has been using Tornado Cash to launder illicit funds.
Moreover, one of the developers for Tornado Cash was arrested in the Netherlands. The crypto community and privacy advocates bashed Netherlands authorities as the developer was simply writing code and had nothing to do with illicit activities. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin also criticized the move as he himself used Tornado Cash to make donations to Ukraine’s cause.
Ethereum Merge (September)
On 15th September 2022 at 06:42:42 UTC at block 15537393, the Ethereum Merge was completed. This meant a merger of the Ethereum mainnet execution layer and the Beacon Chain’s consensus layer, transitioning from the proof-of-work consensus mechanism to proof-of-stake. This landmark update brings major changes to the network, including a 99.95% reduction in energy consumption and a 90% cut in ETH issuance.
This is a significant achievement in the history of blockchain, allowing the Ethereum network to scale effectively as demand for Web3 and DeFi increase. Since Ethereum is the mother of all smart contract platforms, this could put Ethereum in a position to rival Bitcoin in adoption and even value.
Downfall of FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried (November)
On 11th November 2022, former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) filed FTX, FTX US, and Alameda Research for bankruptcy in the U.S. Once hailed as one of the top crypto exchanges, the sudden collapse of FTX came as a shocking blow to the entire crypto industry, setting off yet another contagion across the space. This affected 130 affiliated companies including several high-profile firms such as BlockFi, Genesis Trading, Grayscale, KuCoin, Gemini, Coinbase, Crypto.com, Sequoia Capital, and Galaxy Digital.
Apparently, SBF was misappropriating customer funds for his own benefits without customers’ consent and knowledge, conducting unethical flywheel schemes with Alameda Research. As a result, SBF had been arrested in the Bahamas, facing many criminal charges including securities fraud, money laundering, and campaign finance law violations. However, on 22nd Decemeber 2022, the disgraced FTX founder was released on a $250 million bail.
“Plus Token” was a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme disguised as a high-yield investment program. Platform administrators closed down the operation in June of 2019. Fraudsters abandoned the scheme by withdrawing over $3 Billion dollars in Cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, and EOS) and leaving the message “sorry we have run“. This has led to an international manhunt for the platform administrators and creators of Plus Token. Plus token has been blamed for causing Bitcoin prices to fall in 2019 as stolen funds were sold via Bitcoin OTCs.
PlusToken had a major following in Korea and China – especially among investors not familiar with cryptocurrencies. Plus token was a High Yield investment program that offered massive rewards on “investment” to unsuspecting victims in China and Korea. The scheme offered 9% to 18% monthly returns on investment – with larger investments getting more rewards. This type is similar to other High Yield investment programs like “Bitconnect” which collapsed in January of 2018.
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How did the Plus Token Ponzi Scheme Work?
Plus Token is a classic Ponzi scheme it lures unsuspecting victims to invest with promises of high returns and low investments. Plus Token maintained an illusion of sustainable business by pretending the funds are used to develop cryptocurrency-related products such as the Plus Token Wallet and Exchange. However, returns are generated by dividing more recent investments to pay off older members. The illusion of a sustainable business is what classifies this as a Ponzi Scheme, as victims actually believe that they are investing in a business that generates high returns.
Plus Token also had a strong referral element, which gave huge bonuses to any member who referred friends and family into the scheme. Investors were divided into 4 “tiers”, according to how much they invested and how many other referrals they can make. This meant the more a member referred, the exponentially higher the return. Members started to refer their friends and family to invest in large sums of cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, EOS, and Litecoin.
How did it become so popular?
Plus Token relied heavily in conferences and meetups to promote the token. The following video is taken at a Plus token gathering.
Early signs of trouble started surfacing in June of 2019 as users started reporting delays in fund withdraws. Some took to complain on the Chinese social media site “Weibo” citing that they were unable to receive funds despite writing for 35 hours after submitting withdrawal requests (Source Blocktempo).
Initially, Plus token blamed on “higher miner fees” for the withdrawal delays. They claimed the sent transactions with 1 sat /byte, leading to long delays on the Bitcoin Blockchain. Plus token supporters avidly as their followers to “believe” in the system and disregard the “false information”.
Ring Leaders tried to convince the community that Plus Token will come back.
Scammers: “Sorry We have run”
As funds began moving, one of the transactions carried the note “Sorry, we have run” as a comment to the transaction. This really needs no explanation – organisers of the scam have initiated their exit strategy and fled the country.
109 members of Plus Token scam have been arrested
Reports from Chinese news outlet CLS on 30th July 2020 reported that 109 individuals have been arrested in connection with the PlusToken scheme by the Ministry of Public Security. These include all 27 primary suspects thought to be responsible for the scam and another 82 core members.
Is Plus Token still scamming users?
On 29th April 2020, there were screenshots of the PlusToken app circulating on Chinese social media of a supposed notice announcing that version 3.0 beta of the app is now online. Subsequently, on 4th May 2020, a further notice was issued by the PlusToken team saying that version 3.0 beta will undergo compatibility synchronization and will stop all transaction functions. The notice further added that once this version is live, some eligible users will receive a reward. However, it seems more like an effort by PlusToken’s ringleaders to placate those who have invested by giving them hope that the project may return.
Tip of the Iceberg
PlusToken can be seen as the tip of the Iceberg as there are many other very similar crypto Ponzi schemes and scams. These include Cloud Token, S Block, and other cloud “mining” tokens. At the end of the day, tokens that ‘guarantee’ high returns without a clear and audit-able business plan should generate red flags.
Laundering stolen funds into exchanges
Luckily research is being down to track wallets known to be associated with Plus Token (8btc.com, @doveywan, @PeckShield). Work done by @PeckShield has shown funds moving from large wallets (~5000+ Bitcoin) to smaller wallets, and eventually into cryptocurrency exchanges. Due to the large sums of cryptocurrencies moved and actively being sold off – Plus Token played a role in dropping the price of Bitcoin.
Known amounts scammed – List sum of BTC from identified and tracked addresses. Reports have been circulating that up to ~1% of the entire Bitcoin supply is involved in the scam. Currently more wallets are being added to this list.
Plus Token Sell-offs Responsible for Bitcoin Price Drop?
Since as early as August 2019, Chinese cryptocurrency trading groups have already been circulating that due to the sheer amount involved, the scammers trying to dispose of the ill-gotten Bitcoin are pushing prices downward. And this price dump halted on 15th August 2019, coincidentally when Binance was suspended for trading because of a system upgrade.
In late November 2019, this issue was again brought to the forefront when Twitter user Ergo reported having traced 187,000 BTC of the approximately 200,000 BTC attributed to PlusToken’s investors. As to these funds, Ergo found they were “shuffled” (albeit badly, if at all) and gradually sent to various cryptocurrency exchanges and OTC brokers, primarily Huobi, for sale on the market.
I’ve been seeing a lot of Twitter FUD opining on miner capitulation in the last few days.
This got me thinking… could the selling by the PlusToken scammers have had an abnormal effect on this market cycle? pic.twitter.com/VZGjyQAxaF
Ergo predicts that if all the “mixed” funds were sold from August to November 2019, it would average out to be around 1,300 BTC sold per day. This could lead people to think it would have an effect on Bitcoin prices, which has fallen from USD $9,981.41 on 1st August 2019 to USD $7,182.89 on 4th December 2019.
Based on Ergo’s estimates of the amounts sold daily, the sell-off of the remaining 58,000 BTC or so Plus Token funds would continue for another 1.5 to 2 months.
In an apparent pattern, PlusToken scammers move their funds when BTC prices experience volatility. Such was the case on 11th February 2020, when Bitcoin trading at around USD $9,800, almost 12,000 BTC (worth around USD $118 million) from one of the addresses associated with the Plus Token funds were moved and split amongst various other wallets.
On 7th March 2020, Bitcoin was again trading at over USD $9,000. Again, Plus Token funds were being funneled through mixing services. This time, Twitter user ErgoBTC noticed that a total of 13,000 BTC (worth around USD $210 million) was involved. Analysts such as Kevin Svenson believe the scammers were “slamming the market with sell orders” every time Bitcoin prices went up so as to unload the funds.
Is there a pattern to the movement of funds associated with Plus Token?
According to ErgoBTC, the movement of funds to exchanges took a bit of a break from mid-March to early May 2020. Movement to exchanges has since then resumed and around 300-500 BTC/day is being moved to exchanges.
On 22nd June 2020, Twitter user Whale Alert found over 26 million EOS (worth over USD$67mil) had been transferred from a wallet associated with PlusToken to an unknown wallet, prompting cryptocurrency traders to go on high alert for potential downward price movement for EOS.
🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 26,316,339 #EOS (67,139,663 USD) transferred from PlusToken to unknown wallet
Indeed on 24th June 2020 we did see a marked dip in EOS prices, though it cannot be confirmed that this was due to a sale of the PlusToken funds.
EOS prices from 22 to 26 Jun 2020
Only a matter of a few days later on 24th June 2020, Whale Alert found another huge chunk of PlusToken funds, this time over 789,000 ETH (worth over USD$187 million) had been transferred from a PlusToken wallet to a new address, and yet again to another unknown address.
🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 789,534 #ETH (187,847,558 USD) transferred from PlusToken to unknown wallet
These funds were then further split into multiple unknown addresses of varying amounts.
Twitter user ErgoBTC, who has been following the movement of the PlusToken funds observes that the ETH that was recently transferred is the remainder of PlusToken’s unmixed coins which are now being moved to mixers. The purpose of this is to cloud the movement history of the PlusToken funds, so that they can avoid being flagged by exchanges when they are eventually sold on the market.
With all the excitement, a short update on their BTC is warranted.
We have also seen just about all of the remaining unmixed coins ~22k on our watch list begin entering their mixer over the last few days. https://t.co/DLR1M7xty9
In addition to the movements of EOS and ETH, it’s been a very busy week for PlusToken. So far they have moved over USD$428 million worth of cryptocurrencies to new addresses and the following exchanges: Binance, Huobi, HBTC, OKEx, Gate.io and MXC Exchange.
This week the following #PlusToken funds have been on the move to exchanges and new addresses for mixing:
– 22k BTC ($203m USD) – 789k ETH ($183m) – 26m EOS ($68m) – 20m XRP ($4m)
The big question: can the crypto markets absorb this volume or are we headed lower?
Those behind Plustoken rely on cryptocurrency Exchanges to dispose of their scammed funds. Cryptocurrency exchanges do have Know Your Customer (KYC) measures in place which should identify and report any such activity since it clearly constitutes money laundering. However previous massive sell-offs by PlusToken took place in Huobi and Okex, thus demonstrating that their KYC and AML measures were ineffective in stopping them in that instance.
Since the previous selloff, exchanges have stepped up their standards. For example, in reaction to the selloff Huobi has launched Star Atlas, an on-chain analytics tool to identify problematic activities such as fraud and money laundering on their Exchange. Meanwhile, peer-to-peer exchange Paxful has partnered with Chainalysis so that the exchange’s transactions can be monitored in real time.
In the latest sell off, it has already been found that substantial funds are being mixed and deposited into Binance, Huobi, HBTC, OKEx, Gate.io and MXC Exchange. Nothing has happened yet, but many traders are already watching to see if a market crash could be incoming, whilst questioning whether the affected exchanges will take any action on the funds that are now in their hands.
#Plustoken has been a major market factor since early 2019.
Analysis from @ErgoBTC & others proves ~165k BTC from PlusToken were mixed & sent to Huobi & OKex since August.
This week >$200mm of ETH/EOS/XRP have moved.@HuobiGlobal and @OKEx have remained entirely silent.
Chinese police seized US$4.2b of PlusToken, forfeited to China’s treasury
Filings from the Yancheng Intermediate People’s Court reveal that authorities have seized 194,775 Bitcoin (BTC), 833,083 Ether (ETH), 1.4 million Litecoin (LTC), 27.6m EOS, 74,167 Dash, 487m XRP, 6bn Dogecoin (DOGE), 79,581 Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and 213,724 Tether (USDT) from 7 individuals convicted in connection with this case.
This totals around USD$4.2bn worth of cryptocurrencies!
Court filings have also indicated that the seized cryptocurrencies will be forfeited to the National Treasury. This is because in China, trading and dealing in cryptocurrencies is illegal. So victims have no legal right for return of the seized assets.
Hence some victims have joked that they have inadvertently contributed to the national treasury.
Translation: “carelessness led me to also contribute to the nation’s treasury” lol I see what they did there.. https://t.co/jp1cLAboJo
It seems that the Plus Token saga, which started all the way back in 2018 had drawn to a close in December 2020 when the court in Jiangsu province, China sentenced the ringleaders of the Plus Token scheme to up to 11 years imprisonment. The main ringleader, Chen Bo and 13 other ringleaders were sentenced to between 2 and 11 years in jail. They were also fined various amounts ranging from 120,000 yuan to 6 million yuan. Another associate, Chen Tao, who was responsible for transferring the illegally obtained funds, was sentenced to over 4 years imprisonment.
As mentioned in the previous section, all the confiscated cryptocurrencies obtained from the Plus Token fraudsters were turned over to the state.
The Plus Token scam however is not dead in 2022. We can see from various social media outlets that people making periodical videos saying that the Plus Token project is alive and that they are working with a top Asian cryptocurrency exchange. Furthermore, these “influencers” who apparently have connections with those involved with Plus Token allege that once Plus Token is launched, they will not have a native token but instead the Plus Token proceeds will be issued in the form of that exchange’s own token.
Note however that the “major Asian exchange” in question has never mentioned any working relationship with Plus Token, nor has there been any announcement that they will issue their own native token.
Plus Token Sources and References
Chinese Sources and News Coverage
Special thanks to Matthew Graham for providing the videos and research!
Updated on 4th December 2019 to include new section- Plus Token Sell-offs Responsible for Bitcoin Price Drop? Updated on 18th December 2019 to correct spelling mistakes and more details of how the Ponzi Scheme operated Updated on 9th March 2020 on the latest Plus Token moves in 2020. Updated on 25th May 2020 on the latest PlusToken prosecutions and ver 3.0 beta of the app. Updated on 25th June 2020 on the movements of PlusToken’s remaining unmixed funds in the week of 21st June 2020. Updated on 2nd July 2020 on what exchanges are doing in response
Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.
Stacks ($STX) (formerly Blockstack) is an open-source network that allows developers to easily build decentralised applications (such as decentralised finance DeFi applications) and smart contracts. It also relies on Bitcoin as a backbone by reusing its computing power and blockchain for settlement and security with a new mechanism known as proof of transfer (PoX). Below, we look into PoX and everything you need to know about Stacks.
Background
Stacks is handled by a globally-distributed team that includes scientists from leading universities such as MIT, Stanford, and Princeton. On top of that, The project is a public company with its headquarters in New York.
Stacks’s place in the DeFi and broader crypto ecosystem is further cemented by being backed by notable names in the industry such as Y Combinator, Foundation Capital, Digital Currency Group, Winklevoss Capital, and LUX.
What is Stacks?
Stacks is a decentralized platform that leverages the Bitcoin platform’s security to power the creation of smart contracts and decentralized applications (Dapps). Interestingly, the network does not have to recreate the system’s PoW mechanism to connect to it. The project has four major layers; application, protocol, Stacks blockchain, and the Bitcoin system.
What is Proof of Transfer (PoX)?
Proof of Transfer (PoX) and the earliest Proof of Work (PoW) are requirements to define what a miner needs to do in order to create blocks on the blockchain. The purpose of mining is to verify a transactions’ legitimacy and in return miners are rewarded with cryptocurrencies. Proof of Work is the mechanism used for Bitcoin whereby miners compete to solve a puzzle using their computer’s processing power in order to add each block to the chain.
However, Bitcoin has its fair share of drawbacks. It has a very low transaction speed and is not smart contract-friendly. Therefore, second-layer solutions like the Lightning Network have tried to provide fast Bitcoin transactions but failed to power smart contracts.
As such, it has lost in the competition to Ethereum who now powers most decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. Yet, with Ethereum witnessing increased congestion, new projects are shifting from Bitcoin and Ethereum’s proof of work (PoW) to platforms using proof of stake (PoS) and other energy-friendly consensus mechanisms such as proof of burn (PoB). Now Stacks wants to take this a step further with their proof of transfer (PoX).
Name
What miner needs to do to mint new cryptocurrencies
Proof of work (PoW)
Use electricity towards computations i.e. solving complex problems.
Proof of stake (PoS)
Dedicate an economic stake in a base cryptocurrency
Proof of burn (PoB)
Destroy a base cryptocurrency
Proof of transfer (PoX)
Transfer a base cryptocurrency
Proof of work and other mechanisms
Stacks Blockchain
As mentioned earlier, Stacks has four major layers; application, protocol, Stacks blockchain, and the Bitcoin system.
Stacks blockchain is the solid rock that holds the ecosystem together. It is a distributed layer by itself and allows users to create smart contracts and virtual assets. What’s interesting with this layer is that it’s not a layer two chain but connects to the BTC-powered network with a 1:1 block ratio.
This implies that whatever happens on the Stacks platform is easily verifiable on the Bitcoin platform.
How Do the Two Platforms Connect?
To interface the two independent distributed networks, the Stacks blockchain uses PoX instead of PoW. Generally, the mechanism enables miners to mine a new digital currency by transferring a base currency. In the case of Stacks, transferring BTC results in a new coin being minted on the Stacks protocol.
Apart from fronting a new consensus mechanism i.e. PoX, the decentralized platform allows its users to easily create virtual assets that are transferable, and ownership can be assigned. The assets can represent a wide range of use cases such as business models, funding, and governance.
However, to effectively cater to each of these use cases, Stacks, through the Stacks blockchain, supports different asset types such as fungible and non-fungible tokens.
To power smart contracts, the Stacks blockchain uses a smart contract-centric programming language called Clarity, which provides enhanced security. Notably, the programming language is employed by leading decentralized platforms such as Algorand.
Protocol Layer
The protocol layer has the storage, authentication, financial, and naming service. Stacks’ storage system is called Gaia. It stores app data without the need for a third-party service provider.
It utilizes off-chain cloud systems such as a DigitalOcean or Azure to power super-fast data access by applications. Fortunately, the data is secured by its creator’s private key.
On the other hand, Stacks uses a decentralized feature to provide authentication. Authentication powers access to the network’s apps using a username and details on Gaia.
The financial aspect of the system supports DeFi platforms such as those providing decentralized exchanges and lending. The financial pillar is further strengthened by the protocol’s use of Clarity to drive smart contracts.
For instance, the smart contract-programming language can interface directly with the Bitcoin blockchain. Additionally, it’s reinforced to prevent security breaches and anticipate possible vulnerabilities.
Stacks has a unique naming feature called BNS (Blockstack Naming Service). Despite being decentralized, the service enables the platform’s users to give assets human-readable names. The names are secured with a combination of public and private keys.
$STX Token: What is is and tokenomics?
Activities on the Stacks blockchain are powered by a native currency known as Stacks token ($STX). It is used up as “fuel” when making transactions, interacting with smart contracts and using the BNS feature. It is also distributed as a reward to STX miners (see below).
The genesis block minted 1.3 billion Stacks tokens. Minted coins were shared among the founders, treasury, equity investors, employees, two token sales, and app mining.
App mining is Stacks’ way to reward developers for building high-quality applications on the Stacks network.
Stacks is available on Binance, HashKey, Crypto.com, and Kucoin. Unfortunately, its availability has been set for non-US persons only.
Stack Network’s Use Cases
From the start, the platform is built to enable privacy and allow users to control how their data is used in a world where user data is treated as a commodity for sale. And with Stacks’ use of PoX, Clarity, and other qualities, developers can ensure data privacy when creating apps, eliminate central authorities in financial products, and build fair games.
Stacks 2.0 and use cases
Stacks 2.0 blockchain is a layer-1 blockchain utilising the Bitcoin blockchain as a secure base-layer to bring apps and smart contracts to Bitcoin. Stacks 2.0 is currently in the testnet phase. The team have confirmed they are on track to reach code completion for the Stacks 2.0 blockchain by 15th December 2020 and have set a launch date for 14th January 2021.
Stacks implements proof of transfer (PoX) as a consensus mechanism and natively connects to Bitcoin. Therefore developers can ensure data privacy when creating apps, eliminate central authorities in financial products, and build fair games without the need to modify Bitcoin.
There will be 2 types of participants on Stacks
STX miners
They can spend BTC to elect leaders by sending transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain, where a Verifiable Random Function (VRF) will randomly select the leader of each round. The leader then writes the new block on the Stacks chain.
As a reward, STX miners get STX tokens, transaction fees, and the Clarity contract execution fees of each block.
STX holders
Holders can participate in consensus by locking up their STX for a cycle, running a full node, and sending useful information on the Stacks network as transactions.
As a reward, STX holders can earn Bitcoin rewards and unlike in the proof of stake mechanism, there is no risk of slashing for STX holders.
Conclusion
With an increasing number of security breaches on smart contracts and blockchain platforms, leveraging Bitcoin’s security when building smart contracts puts Stacks at the top of the game. Using Clarity at the base of every smart contract keeps hackers at bay, especially in the DeFi scene where malicious actors are always on the prowl for vulnerabilities in protocols.
Additionally, Chainlink oracles provide a trusted source of off-chain data for developers, while PoX allows for a one-on-one connection to the BTC-powered blockchain.
We are certainly curious to see what the team come up with in Stacks 2.0 and whether they can live up to their aims.
Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.
Staking on Ethereum 2.0 is finally live. However, the process of connecting your Ethereum (ETH) coins can be a bit tricky. It’s not all about sending 32 ETH to the contract. Doing so would end up with you losing your funds. In this tutorial, we will cover how to connect to the ETH staking contract through a validator node. Furthermore, we shall be using Allnodes, a non-custodial platform for hosting nodes.
How To Set up an ETH 2.0 Validator?
Setting up an Ethereum 2.0 validator remains a technical but increasingly accessible process. The following steps reflect the latest requirements and best practices.
Step 1: Prepare Your ETH and Wallet
You will need 32 ETH to activate a validator. Use a secure wallet such as MetaMask, ideally connected to a hardware wallet like Ledger or Trezor. Ensure your wallet is connected to the Ethereum mainnet and has enough ETH to cover gas fees.
Step 2: Hardware Requirements
With the rollout of Danksharding and increased network throughput, validator nodes now require more robust hardware:
SSD storage of at least 2TB, with 4TB recommended
Minimum 32GB RAM, preferably 64GB
Multi-core CPU with virtualization support
Reliable internet connection with at least 1GB/hour bandwidth for both upload and download
Step 3: Choose Your Hosting Platform
Allnodes continues to be a popular non-custodial hosting option. Monthly fees range from $5 to $10 depending on your configuration. Other platforms include DappNode, Avado, and Stakely.
Step 4: Use the ETH 2.0 Launchpad
Visit the Ethereum Launchpad to begin validator registration. Review the updated validator responsibilities, which include attesting to blocks, maintaining uptime to avoid slashing, and committing to long-term participation in Ethereum’s proof-of-stake system.
Step 5: Generate Validator Keys
Use the official Ethereum CLI tool to generate your validator and withdrawal keys. Choose your operating system and follow the instructions. Store your mnemonic phrase securely and offline.
CLI window
Step 6: Upload Deposit Data
Upload the deposit_data.json file to the Launchpad. Connect your wallet and confirm the transaction. You can verify your validator status on the Beacon Chain Explorer using your validator address.
Step 7: Finalize Hosting on Allnodes
Log into Allnodes and select the ETH 2.0 hosting option. Upload your deposit data, keystore file, and CLI-generated password. Monitor your validator’s performance through the Allnodes dashboard.
Step 8: Maintenance and Monitoring
Keep your node online at all times to avoid penalties. Use monitoring tools such as Grafana, Prometheus, or Allnodes’ built-in analytics. Annual returns for validators currently range between 3 and 4 percent, depending on network conditions.
Manage your Allnodes account
Keeping your Ethereum validator running on Allnodes is simple and secure:
Hosting Fees: Around $5–$8/month per validator. Pay with crypto or credit card.
Validator Rewards: Earn ~2.7–3.2% APR in ETH. Rewards auto-send to your withdrawal address.
Monitoring Tools: Real-time status, performance alerts, and uptime tracking via dashboard or external integrations.
Security: Allnodes is non-custodial. You manage your mnemonic and withdrawal keys—never share them.
Maintenance: Stay online 24/7, pay hosting fees on time, and monitor alerts to avoid penalties or slashing.
Update: Returns on my Allnodes node?
As of June 2022, my validator node balance is at 35.45202. This means I have earned a total of around 3.45 ETH since I set it up 2 years ago in 2020. Note that results may vary and those who set up their node earlier (as was in my case) were able to enjoy a 16% APY.
Conclusion
Ethereum 2.0 is being continuously developed by the Ethereum Foundation to be able to run on a wide range of computing devices. The above tutorial on how to set up an ETH 2.0 validator node using Allnodes covers every corner of the process. However, critical details such as mnemonics and passwords should be kept secure since they determine access to the deposited coins.
In addition, it’s worth noting that the process happens on three platforms, Allnodes, ETH 2.0 Launchpad, and CLI. Therefore, the three systems must harmoniously work together to get the desired outcome.
FAQs:
What if You Don’t Have the Full Amount?
Good question. First, NO. a validator node needs the full amount.
Can the ETH 2.0 Staking Contract Take Less Than 32 ETH?
However, you can still stake a lower amount only that it will be through third parties such as participating cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance and Coinbase.
Can I withdraw the rewards I earn from staking?
NO, not until ETH 2.0 reaches Phase 1, which is likely to be in 1 year or possibly more.
Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.
Base Protocol ($BASE) created a token with a value pegged to the total market capitalization of every cryptocurrency available in the market. The purpose is to diversify a person’s investments and expand their exposure to a lot of cryptocurrencies that they would not have otherwise availed from existing traditional investment vehicles.
This has helped investors because trading on the cryptocurrency market has always been challenging. Especially when the performance of some coins varies a lot from each other. There are big gainers and big losers. In addition, choosing which digital currency to invest in can be truly difficult at times considering their inherent risks. Fortunately, Base Protocol’s token aims to solve this problem.
Learn more about Base Protocol and how rebasing works in our debate with Nick Ravanbakhsh, co-founder of Base Protocol.
EPIC Debate: Are “Rebases” Useful Financially? – With Base Protocol
Background
Nick Ravanbakhsh and Dylan Senter, founders of the Base Protocol, started the project to address the lack of a crypto index fund product for the cryptocurrency market. They came up with the idea to establish a basket of digital assets that track the market.
Both of them are also co-founders of Spectiv, a digital token designed as a rewards system for content creators, aiming to do away with the advertising intermediaries like YouTube or Facebook.
Base Protocol’s key team members also include Chris Peña (Head of Development), who has over 10 years of experience being a developer for systems that span multiple industries,and Based McGee (Head of Development — Solidity), who has 10 years of experience being a software engineer.
What is Base Protocol?
Base Protocol is an Ethereum-based synthetic token that has its price derived from the value of all digital assets in the cryptocurrency market. You can think of it like a stock index. It functions as a trading vehicle where the price is dependent on the movement of all other stocks held in its particular market.
Through Base, investors can participate in the cryptocurrency market with the Base Protocol index mitigating risk.
Rather than simply speculating on the numerous cryptocurrencies that pop up almost daily, investors can spread their risk by simply investing in Base Protocol. This means that they can have a stake in every successful coin, at the same time, have a more balanced risk exposure.
And for as long as the cryptocurrency market continues to grow, you cannot lose. Basically, this project is geared to those who believe in the nascent industry’s long-term potential.
Features of Base Protocol
Base Protocol as a Synthetic Asset
A synthetic asset in finance is a tool designed to produce the same effects as investing in another asset (called the underlying asset). However, it also alters the key characteristics of the underlying asset.
This is effectively the engineering mechanism behind the Base protocol, which is a synthetic asset that simulates the performance of the cryptocurrency market. To do this effectively, it is built with some important features in place.
Elastic supply
BASE’s value is designed to be the combined value of all cryptocurrencies in the market at a ratio of 1:1 trillion. Hence Base Protocol is built to always achieve equilibrium with the market cap of all cryptocurrencies (target price). This means that its supply could also change depending on the current state of the market. Through its rebasing method, BASE could ensure that it can reconcile the difference between the value of its coin and the total market cap for cryptocurrencies.
Rebasing- how does it work?
Rebasing is the term used for the process by which a synthetic asset’s price is restored in equilibrium to the underlying asset. BASE’s rebasing mechanism adjusts its total supply until the market price reaches the target price.
While this protocol functions to ensure that the market price of BASE always correlates with the target price – it often only manages to influence the corrections. It is left to market actors to respond to rebases to correct prices.
t0 — An investor buys 1 BASE with a market price $1
t1— The market price of BASE goes up to $2 – out of sync with the target price of $1
t2 — To restore the market price’s equilibrium to target price, BASE’s total supply is adjusted in proportion to the difference. This is a “rebase”, and the process is called a “rebase event”.
t3 — Regardless of the rebase event, the investor’s net $ balance and his percent ownership of the total supply are always constant.
BASE Token ($BASE)
Base’s token ($BASE) is the token associated with the Base Protocol index and is both itself a cryptocurrency and a measure of the cryptocurrency market as a whole. It serves as a trading instrument that enables individuals to make investments based on the whole cryptocurrency market, instead of just a single or few digital asset selections.
BASE’s value follows the ratio of 1:1 trillion, based on the whole market cap for cryptocurrencies. For example, if the market cap is at $800 billion, the value of one BASE is $0.80.
The protocol is based on the Ethereum blockchain and can be bought on Uniswap. The price feed uses Chainlink’s decentralized oracle network.
While BASE is becoming more popular as an investment instrument, it can serve other specific purposes too. Here are some of the other features that the $BASE token can be used for.
Uses for $BASE token
Price Reference
Traders trying to analyze the potential movement of a particular coin could track its price with the value of BASE to determine how they fare against the whole crypto market. This can even be better than just comparing altcoins with BTC because it shows an overview of the whole crypto economy.
Hence $BASE is intended to be a single token that allows an investor to speculate on all crypto assets simultaneously. This way, they don’t have to buy any specific coin or invest in a select few and can spread their stake across the entire industry.
As long as the investor is optimistic about the industry’s future, they can invest in the market as a whole.
Safe Haven
According to the Team, purchasing BASE allows holders to make safe investments, instead of just selecting a single digital asset.
This is because cherry-picking cryptocurrencies into a portfolio opens the investor to the risk of loss — seeing how volatile the market can be. People might also miss out on the emergence of the rapid rise of any new currency.
By investing in $BASE, however, the idea is that one can mitigate the risk of exposure of individual coins while enjoying the rest’s potential gains.
Price Reference
As a market tracker, BASE’s price is indicative of the total market cap of the crypto market. Crypto investors already track the performance of altcoins in relation to bitcoin instead of USD.
The performance of any altcoin in relation to bitcoin is more a more important measure for the decentralized economy. But even better would be to use $BASE as the price reference. Instead of just BTC, the trader can see how well any altcoin performs against the entire crypto market.
Lending Instrument
BASE can be utilized as a hedge for leveraged crypto trading. It can be considered an alternative to borrowing in BTC since it is less volatile. For example, if the value of BASE drops and they have to repay the loan they made, they can suffer less in terms of losses since it depends on the overall drop in the market.
Base Cascade
BASE Cascade is a program on the platform designed to reward BASE holders. This is because it also serves as their contribution to the liquidity of Uniswap’s pool. In order to take part in the Cascade program, users have to lock their BASE and ETH on the Uniswap liquidity pool. They get a percentage of the transaction fees based on the volume of trading in the pool as a reward.
After they have deposited their BASE and ETH on Uniswap, they are given LP tokens, which is the token that they can stake to claim their rewards on Cascade.
At first, the rewards multiplier for Cascade participants is at 1x. 30 days after they are staked, it increase to 2x. 60 days after, the multiplier becomes 3x. The increase in the multiplier happens everyday until it reaches the ceiling point, which is at 3x.
Participation in Cascade is merely optional. Only the user can decided how much liquidity they want to contribute. Furthermore, they can withdraw at any point in time.
Conclusion
Devising new ways to expand the investment opportunities for the cryptocurrency market serves the purposes of adoption and new use cases. Base Protocol’s initiative to create a product that expands the exposure of its users to the whole crypto market can be a convenient entry point for fresh investments.
Some of the factors affecting the arrival of new entrants to the crypto space include the volatility of some coins and the difficulty in selecting the best-performing coin. With Base as one of their options, not only are investors given a much safer alternative to investing in single digital assets, they are also given the opportunity to speculate on the crypto market as a whole. Given that this project could potentially bring new interest to the space, we can expect a more vibrant community if the project becomes successful.
Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.
2020 has been a crazy year for everyone and just as much so with cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin was recently getting all the media attention after reaching a new all time highs for the first time since 2017. So we take a review and recap of the most important cryptocurrency, Bitcoin and Ethereum news in 2020!
Bitcoin smashes old ATH!
We have all been longing for it and now, finally, it has happened. After first resistance around previous 2017’s top, Bitcoin has finally found enough strength to establish new all time highs of over USD$26,000!!!
For the first time in three years all $BTC holders are now in profit, with new millionaires popping up at fast pace. Moreover, if we were to have a look at the best performing assets over the last 10 years, it would immediately be noticed as Bitcoin outperformed any other assets 8 times out of 10, with a stunning cumulative return in the order of magnitude of millions!
This is not a surprise for all crypto enthusiasts who have been accumulating for several months while prices were below USD$10,000 and are now ready to ride the roller-coaster towards new unexplored territory!
But with any hype, there are also traps! Here’s ONE THING you should avoid in crypto.
DO NOT do this in crypto
Publicly traded companies and institutional investors keep increasing their cryptocurrency exposure
2020 can be regarded as the year institutional investors came another step forward in publicly confirming their interest in crypto. While their cryptocurrency investments still usually amount to a small percentage of their portfolios, this is a clear signal that investors consider Bitcoin as a reserve currency to hedge against traditional fiat money and as an undeniable opportunity to diversify their overall exposure. These finance giants are smart investors, so they are certainly ones to watch.
At this very moment, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) is setting the pace in the ranking of Bitcoin adoption with a stunning 2.60% of the total existing supply of Bitcoin.
Nevertheless, the company that has been most public about its crypto accumulation plan in the last months is certainly Microstrategy. Its CEO Michael Saylor has repeatedly tweeted news keeping his investors up to date. With more than USD$400 million worth bought solely during last summer, the company now owns more than 40000 Bitcoins in their portfolio.
Not only public investors are opening up to crypto. Recently Paypal has introduced crypto payments within their app. Users can now instantly convert their fiat assets to buy and sell items with cryptocurrencies. Although they don’t actually give ownership of the underlying coins (they can only be used inside Paypal) and cannot be transferred to other wallets, we are sure this is still the beginning phase of crypto adoption by traditional finance platforms.
Check out our full coverage of this in the 17th edition of our newsletter as news of big $BTC buys were announced!
Ethereum 2.0 ETH2 finally launched
The long wait has been rewarded and Ethereum 2 (in its Phase 0), is now a reality!
On 1st December 2020 and as planned, the mainnet was successfully launched on the first attempt. There were initially concerns that the required threshold to automatically trigger the launch could have not been achieved by the deadline. However the amount of Ethereum staked in the deposit contract suddenly surged in the final days leading up to the deadline, confirming that the hype around the launch was real and that there were enough supporters willing to lock their tokens for months (or possibly even years)!
One of Ethereum 2.0’s key features is known as “Sharding”. It will enable the simultaneous processing of transactions which will significantly improve the current speed of the network, something that has recently created not a few struggles to its users.
2020 has no doubt been the year of decentralised finance (DeFi). And while serious cryptocurrency enthusiasts were already quite familiar with it, in 2020 its adoption just went mainstream. It wouldn’t be much wrong saying that this year everything in crypto has revolved around decentralised finance!
Total Value Locked in Defi 2020 (Source: defipulse.com)
What is DeFi?
It could substantially be defined as an experimental form of finance with, as pivotal point, the absence of any form of intermediaries. This means banks, brokers and any other middle men are cut off because blockchain doesn’t need them to work. Everything is ruled by smart contracts, hence everything is decentralized. Not all the projects are 100% decentralized yet, but the way to achieve it has been paved.
DeFi has all kinds of platforms: lending, borrowing, coverages, prediction markets, trading, synthetics and so on.
Since smart contracts are needed, the blockchain most protocols are built on is Ethereum. Despite its weaknesses (scalability), it continues to be the steady central point of the DeFi “movement”. Other chains are growing fast behind it, in particular Binance Smart Chain (BSC), while other are trying to increase their adoption too, such as Polkadot (with the use of parachains), Ontology and more. Cross-chain platforms like Ramp are also hot: connecting different chains is another step forward in helping decentralized finance’s growth.
Within Defi, certainly Yield Farming was THE thing on everybody’s lips.
During what can be referred to as the “Defi Season” last summer, the bravest users were getting incredible Annual Percentage Yields (APY).
It all started in July 2020, with Compound Finance and Yearn Finance (which made Andre Cronje even more known) as main actors when they decided to distribute their governance tokens $COMP and $YFI to their platforms’ users. Governance tokens, supposedly worthless, started to gain more and more value representing the “strength” of the underlying project. The higher their value the bigger the APYs users could get. New strategies arose, where “farmers” would “fold” or leverage their returns by supplying and borrowing multiple times. This is possible using the borrowed assets each time as new collateral for the next loan. At that point, the Yield Farming “mania” was already out of hand and any upcoming project would offer the option to farm their proprietary tokens.
But as usual, with high rewards come high risks. The main ones farmers have to face are platforms’ exploits and Impermanent Loss, which can very often lead to permanent losses! See our video on what is impermanent loss and how to avoid it.
Calling someone a crypto “degenerate” is no longer an insult
With the rise of yield farming and DeFi, a new specialty has also arisen. People manage to find projects just before or very soon after they are listed on Uniswap, and throw everything they have into it. Short for “degenerate gamblers”, these people that “ape” into projects (without much thought into exactly what it is or what it does) try to catch the initial wave and accumulate as much of these tokens as possible before others do, and then sell when the project becomes more widely known and demand increases.
Whilst this is highly risky not just in terms of return on investment, there is also a risk of being “rug pulled”. So as with all gambling, some win big, but some also lose.
“Rug pulls” hurt our wallets and our appetite for DeFi
As much as 2020 has been about Defi, it has also been the year of “Rug Pulls”.
We have witnessed countless episodes of stolen funds in the last months, and the trend doesn’t seem to be going to stop anytime soon. Hackers are evolving with smart contracts and are getting more sophisticated each time.
Flash Loans have been the favorite way to deliver an exploit till now. Basically a flash loan is something “non malicious” per se. What it implies is that any user could theoretically take out a loan (without providing any collateral). The only condition is to pay it back within the same transaction. But before this last step, the user can do whatever he prefers with the borrowed funds. For example, try to make money out of it! In this case, he would end up profiting off this flashloan! Magic? No, just Ethereum (and Smart Contracts!).
This mechanism is possible because the blockchain itself doesn’t even have “time” to realize what is going on. As a matter of fact, if the loan is not paid back in time, the transaction is simply rejected.
All of this is of course easier said than done, and it is not something within just anyone’s reach: this is the way the most sophisticated arbitrages are done. Unfortunately, this is also the way sophisticated hackers profited off some Defi platforms’ vulnerabilities.
Examples of flashloan attacks have been the ones at the expenses of bZx (three times for a total of around $9M), Value Defi ($7.4M), Harvest Finance ($24M), Akro ($2M) and Origin Protocol ($7M), plus many other less known projects.
DEX- the new challenger in town
This year has seen lots of drama among centralised exchanges (CEX) but they also were met with a serious challenger, the decentralised exchange (DEX). Decentralised exchanges promised self-custody of funds (i.e. less risk of hacks) and opened up a whole new world of “crypto dumpster diving”.
Monthly Dex Volumes by project (Source: duneanalytics.com)
As Defi was exponentially growing in 2020, so was the use of DEXs. Decentralized Exchanges like Uniswap and Sushiswap mainly rely on the AMM (Automatic Market Making) system to provide traders with the necessary liquidity to operate. Funds are pooled together and an algorithm is in charge of controlling the price curve.
Unfortunately this system is not flawless, and problems such as high slippage are still real in most cases. A key difference with centralized exchanges is the non-existence of order books. This is mainly because Ethereum doesn’t really have the necessary capacity to handle it. There are platforms that allow limit orders (1Inch Exchange for example) but there still is work to do. This is the reason why we also see exchanges being built on other chains such as Project Serum. This DEX offers a CEX-simil experience on the Solana blockchain (able to handle far more transactions per second than Ethereum).
NFTs: bringing art collecting into the digital age
Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are another crypto segment that has seen increasing adoption throughout 2020, and many believe 2021 will mark its explosion. They became first popular in 2017 with CryptoKitties but now the market seems to be more mature to just not consider them as a “meme”.
Non Fungible Tokens are unique non-interchangeable tokens (usually compliant with the ECR-721 standard) and can have many different uses other than just collectible items. They can be used in games (think of the Enjin multiverse); players can build or just enhance their NFTs to make them more valuable and exchange them with other gamers. They can and are introducing Art into the crypto ecosystem. Artists can create their digital pieces of Art and sell them on the blockchain on the available markets. The most known are Rarible and Opensea, where users swap NFTs in a similar way to exchanging standard ERC-20 tokens. Some of the most expensive NFTs have been auctioned for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
They are also strictly related to the “tokenization” concept. Everything in the real world can theoretically be tokenized into a NFT and transferred on the blockchain. Think about real-estate. You could digitize your house and use it to ask for a loan against its value, or you could sell/lend your piece of land and manage it with the security granted by the blockchain!
Are Regulators coming after crypto?
While crypto adoption keeps increasing worldwide, Regulators from any country are slowly but steadily turning their interest to crypto. They want to keep track of how things are evolving and decide how to approach the matter. It’s no surprise that Institutions have been struggling just to decide whether it was the case to tax crypto earnings and how to do it. Most countries still don’t have a clear legislation about it and crypto adopters are often left wondering what they should do to avoid future problems.
In 2020 we have seen many legislation proposals with the purpose of filling up gaps in regulations that would otherwise leave Institutions too far behind on the subject. Something they can’t afford to do.
Only considering the first half of December, we saw the Stablecoin Tethering and Bank Licensing Enforcement (Stable) Act and read of rumors about FinCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) proposed requirements regarding the use of self-hosted wallets (like Metamask). While it is certainly true that a tiny minority of crypto users take advantage of the (partial) anonymity granted by the blockchain, the vast majority doesn’t have anything to hide and is worried about their privacy being exposed if all the regulations should find final approval. In November, Hong Kong has proposed strict regulations against cryptocurrency exchanges and even who can trade with them as well.
Meanwhile, we have witnessed examples of crypto companies seeking regulation and compliance with the law. In September, Kraken was granted approval to become “the first regulated, U.S. bank to provide comprehensive deposit-taking, custody and fiduciary services for digital assets”. A few days ago Coinbase officially confirmed that they have finalized their Initial Public Offering (IPO) request, now under the SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) review process.
Digital currency race heats up
Digital currencies continue to be on top of many countries’ “To-Do list” when talking crypto and new payments technologies.
A digital currency directly issued by a State is something different from the current electronic versions of fiat money and would have the advantage of connecting Central Banks with final users in a more streamline way than now. Operations would be faster and cheaper. In Europe, for example, everything would be governed by the Central Bank itself. Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, is actively campaigning for the digital Euro, as shown in multiple occasions, and the work is proceeding.
While it is still not clear how the blockchain and the ledger will be structured, it is important that privacy remains at the center of the dispute, many believe.
In China, the DCEP (Digital Currency Electronic Payment, DC/EP) issued its state bank the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) is already in its testing phase, and ordinary citizens chosen for the testing were already people able to use it at designated shops and online retailers. We explain everything you need to know on DCEP.
Institutions are not the only entities working on digital currencies. $DIEM, the recently repackaged decentralized stablecoin powered by the Libra blockchain, should launch in January after years of tormented life!
Conclusion
2020 has been an eventful year for cryptocurrencies. However the technology itself is taking huge strides and challenging the way we see traditional finance (e.g. DeFi) and how we even view the currency we use on a daily basis.
Certainly what is most exciting of all is Bitcoin and Ethereum prices reaching all time highs. It is definitely making people confirmed in their beliefs that the winter is finally over, and the bulls are ready to come out.
With all these developments and positive price action, we think things can only get better. We are definitely excited to see what 2021 will bring!
Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.
There is a lot to consider when it comes to cryptocurrency investment and trading, and crypto exchanges are a great way to start. It is a good platform for beginners to familiarize themselves with the market as well as for experienced traders to make use of the various products the exchanges offer.
There are hundreds of crypto exchanges, and everyone is asking. “which crypto exchange is the best?” Everyone wants to get the best bang for their buck, whether it be low trading fees or lucrative products. We will be comparing two of the top and most talked about crypto exchanges in the world: Binance and FTX Exchange.
FTX EXCHANGE (INCLUDING FTX INTERNATIONAL AND FTX.US) ARE NO LONGER IN OPERATION
Both exchanges have filed for bankruptcy. Subsequently, the exchange was “hacked” and more than US$600 million worth of cryptocurrencies drained. The hacker is strongly rumoured to be a former FTX employee. For more about how this story unfolded and the latest news, check out these articles:
Founded in 2019, FTX Exchange is a cryptocurrency trading platform that was built by Alameda Research, a quantitative trading firm that develops specialized algorithms for trading crypto. It has topped many trading charts by volume and is responsible for 30% of the market trading volume on major exchanges.
The strong trading background of FTX shows that they live up to their claim of being an exchange “built by traders, for traders.”
FTX is largely focused on the derivative and prediction market, offering a wide array of futures, options, and volatility products with competitive trading rates and discounts for specific users.
FTX Exchange has been growing significantly over the past year, exploding past the likes of KuCoin and Kraken. They even managed to take market share away from Coinbase as well, which is the number one crypto exchange in the U.S. This is in part thanks to huge venture capital funding that is backing FTX.
Check out FTX Exchange Guide for a full review and tutorial on how to use FTX Exchange.
What is Binance Exchange?
Binance was founded in 2017 by Chengpeng Zhao (CZ), former Chief Technology Officer of OKCoin who has years of experience developing high-frequency trading software.
Binance is, by a large margin, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency exchange. It has more than than $25 billion in organic trading volume per day and millions of users worldwide.
Binance is largely focused on the spot market and has one of the most cryptocurrencies available to trade. It also has powerful trading tools such as leveraged trading, options trading and lending platform.
For the longest time, the trading platform scene is dominated by Binance, and is held in high regard for being smart and proactive in their planning and actions, not only for themselves but also for developing the crypto industry as a whole.
This is a significant step since it enables both exchanges to function in accordance with international standards, and meet the criteria of major regulators like the Financial Action Task Force.
Binance vs FTX Exchange Overview
In this section, we will take a closer look at what Binance and FTX have to offer and compare them based on these features:
Products
Supported cryptocurrencies
Fees
Security
Products
Binance and FTX have quite a lot of similarities based on their general offering. But the major difference is that Binance is more focused on the spot market and has more cryptocurrencies to offer, whereas FTX is more focused on the derivative and prediction market and has more volatility products. Therefore, FTX is usually seen as the preferred choice for experienced traders who want a wider (and potentially higher risk/reward) range of products.
Both exchanges offer products that are exclusive to them. Binance offers Crypto Loans, a P2P market, and Binance Earn, while FTX offers volatility and prediction markets. The addition of FTX stocks makes it the first domestic crypto exchange to provide stocks on its platform, enabling trading of stocks and ETFs by U.S. users.
FTX’s crypto card is exclusively accessible to US residents via the FTX US platform, whereas Binance’s crypto debit card has gained enormous popularity. While FTX places a greater emphasis on specialized trading products, Binance has more to offer in terms of their Binance Earn, allowing users to earn passive income.
Both Binance and FTX offers a mobile app for iPhone and Android so users can trade cryptocurrencies on the go.
Supported cryptocurrencies
Binance has the highest number of cryptocurrencies that any exchange offers to its users. It currently has 1,300 cryptocurrencies including its own native crypto, Binance Coin (BNB).
Nevertheless, FTX offers a lot of cryptocurrencies for users to trade, though not as large as Binance’s. FTX supports over 460 cryptocurrencies including its own native crypto, FTX Token (FTT).
Both exchanges however, are consistently adding to their lists of supported cryptocurrencies, including newly launched tokens.
Fees
The rates on both exchanges’ spot trade markets are extremely low, and they continue to decline as volume rises. However, FTX wins out since it assesses 0.02% as a maker fee and 0.07% as a taker fee for tier one accounts.
This is significantly lower than Binance fees, i.e. 0.1% maker and taker fee. Even after using BNB for trading fees, the user will have to pay a 0.075% fee, which is higher than FTX.
We can see that FTX is better for trading, and is clearly a winner in this category.
Security
One of the most important considerations when choosing an exchange is security. It’s safe to say that Binance and FTX are two of the most secure exchanges in the world.
Both exchanges use two factor authentication, and they store account funds and data away from online platforms so that they cannot be hacked. They also insure their funds by putting a certain amount of fee away as an insurance fraud.
Both platforms also employ round-the-clock monitoring and analysis, and in the case of a theft, user funds are protected by the reserves that both firms have in their treasuries.
FTX is one of the few exchanges that have never been hacked, and while Binance has seen some hacking incidents in the past, both exchanges adhere to the strictest industry security guidelines, with the majority of funds being kept in cold storage. FTX also does third party transaction audits via Chainalysis, giving them a slight edge over Binance.
However, we must also consider the fact that Binance has been around longer and has a much larger trading volume than FTX, making them a more attractive target to hackers. But Binance has managed to hold their ground and plan for the worst, and is still one of the top performing exchanges despite the bear market.
Conclusion
Binance and FTX have quite a lot of similarities based on their general offering. But the major difference is that Binance is more focused on the spot market and has more cryptocurrencies to offer, whereas FTX is more focused on the derivative and prediction market and has more volatility products.
Binance offers the most cryptocurrencies to trade including new projects such as DeFi, NFT or metaverse gaming. If you are a beginner or looking for new tokens to trade, or even an experienced investor who prefers passive earnings, Binance would be a better option for you.
If you are an experienced trader who strictly does day trading or skilled at volatility products, FTX would be the go-to for you as it offers all the products traders need, with significantly low fees.
Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.
Decentral Games is the first community-owned casino ecosystem offering a chance to participate in a seamless, anonymous and decentralized gaming ecosystem, all the while being rewarded for your participation.
Thrill-seekers from any part of the world have had the pleasure of enjoying their favorite casino games on-the-go. Despite the fact that these games have been available on the internet since the 90s, their popularity has only recently soared to the roof! This is in part thanks to the abundance and accessibility of mobile devices.
Table of Contents
Background
In 2019, with the power of Blockchain technology, a group of innovators has been able to give the online casino sphere a gigantic push forward with the formation of Decentral Games.
The founders were able to seize an opportunity to leverage the Ethereum blockchain to develop a non-custodial social 3D casino on the internet. The team, which is made up of about ten people, is based in San Ana, Costa Rica.
What is Decentral Games?
Decentral games is a casino ecosystem that is owned, governed, and maintained by its users (holders of the $DG token), through a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). Essentially, the platform allows casino game lovers to control its system and ensure that rules are followed and issues are resolved through the DAO.
The ecosystem leverages two previously existing Blockchain platforms. One is Decentraland, where its users are able to create, experience, and monetize contents and applications. The other is Matic Network, which provides seamless, fast, and cost-effective transactions on the Ethereum network.
Decentral Games puts the affairs of the game itself into the hands of its users. For instance, the users are in-charge of funds. And thanks to its open-source logic, a fair evaluation for every result (in case of disputes). Furthermore, each user is able to enjoy fast transactions and anonymous participation.
Decentral Games Ecosystem
Every element on the ecosystem interacts with the $DG token. And these interactions all happen via the dgTreasury, which serves as the casino house fund. It is open and observable to all users.
The treasury is responsible for bankrolling and funding all games. Therefore, for it to function effectively at all times, it must always have enough funds. Fees collected from players (in $MANA and $DAI) would be collected and kept in the dgTreasury, which is also from where winnings would be paid out.
By incentivizing players to stake their digital assets, the treasury gets enough buffer to fund gaming activities.
And players who stake digital assets are rewarded with $DG tokens, a process popularly known as mining. However, this is not the only means by which you can mine on Decentral Games.
What is $DG token?
$DG is Decentral Games’ native utility token based on Ethereum’s ERC-20 standard and made mainly for use on the DG platform. There are 3 main uses and ways to earn the $DG token which will be explored in detail later on in this article. These are: governance, liquidity mining, and gaming rewards.
Holders of the token can propose and vote on governance proposals concerning the features and/or parameters of Decentral Games’ ecosystem. Decentral Games also has a staking mechanism which rewards users with $DG tokens. Finally, $DG tokens are also rewarded to players for playing games with MANA or DAI.
$DG Allocation and tokenomics
At launch, a total of 1 million $DG will become accessible to be distributed strategically over 6 years. 62% (620,000 DG) would be allocated to the community, 20% (200,000 DG) to the development team with 3 years vesting, and the remaining 18% (180,000 DG) to early participants with 2 years vesting.
How to earn $DG tokens on Decentral Games
Governance incentives
As a DAO-based community, users are able to come together to deliberate on important decisions. And decisions are made through the results of a vote. With this system, the platform’s future is carved and decorum is maintained.
This system of self-regulation is known as Governance.
To submit a proposal or vote on them, you must own $DG tokens. Users can stake their token to submit proposals, as well as vote on them.
According to the encoded rules of the DAO, 1% of the total $DG supply is required to submit a proposal. While at least 4% of the total $DG supply must be pooled together within 7-days for a decision to be made.
The amount of $DG you have staked determines your voting power. Users are able to stake their tokens through the governance dashboard available to every user.
Participants in governance are often rewarded with more $DG tokens. This makes the second means by which you can mine on the Decentral Games.
It should be noted that issues deliberated and voted on are restricted to those within the platform and its eco-system itself. It does not extend to the management of the staff, assets, or affiliates. It also does not represent any right with respect to Decentral Games itself.
Liquidity Incentives: mining/farming $DG
The earning process, also known as mining, is conducted through several different processes on DG. It enables users to get $DG in return for providing liquidity to the MANA-DG and DAI-DG 98/2 balancer pools. Farming on $DG is done in 4 simple steps:
Hold $MANA or $DAI on your Ethereum Mainnet wallet on Metamask. and connect your wallet to Decentral Games.
Choose either Pool 1 (98% MANA- 2% DG) or Pool 2 (98% DAI- 2% DG).
Select “Add liquidity” and fill in your preferred deposit amount. If you are a first-time Balancer user you may have to sign up to 4 transactions: setup proxy, MANA/DAI authorisation, $DG authorisation, and add liquidity to pool. Once you have added liquidity to the pool, you will receive balancer pool tokens (BPTs) which can be staked to farm $DG.
Connect your Metamask wallet to the $DG Liquidity Farming Dashboard. Then, enter the BPT amount you wish to stake and confirm by selecting “Stake BPT”.
More details on how to farm $DG are available here.
Gameplay Rewards
But perhaps the most important means of mining on the platform is through gameplay. As you are enjoying the thrill of your games, you get rewarded in DG tokens.
Rewards are distributed based on specific activities you perform during gameplay. Some of those activities involve placing a wager, playing with multiple players on the same table, referring other players, and having your avatar wear DG non-fungible token-based wearables when playing.
You can bring your digital assets into the ecosystem using MANA or DAI tokens, both of which are fast and effective transactional stablecoins that run on Ethereum and are noted for their value exchange stability.
So in addition to any winnings players may receive, they will also receive $DG.
Available games on Decentral Games
At present, a good number of popular casino games are already available on Decentral Games. These include: Blackjack, Roulette, Slots, Backgammon, and Poker.
Decentral Games expanding into virtual land ownership?
On 21 January 2021 Decentral Games has transferred 403 Decentraland LAND parcels to the $DG DAO worth USD $500,000. Each of these land parcels is a unique and transferable non-fungible token representing 16×16 meters of virtual space in a specific location on the Decentralad map. Users can choose to own adjacent land parcels for building structures such as casinos and galleries. (https://escapecitybuffalo.com/)
$DG holders will be able to create proposals to direct how these land parcels should be developed.
Conclusion
As people spend more hours within virtual worlds, Decentral Games aims to grow to hundreds of thousands of users by the end of the year. And since it is part of a greater ecosystem called Decentraland, the casino platform can easily tap into a vast network of users.
Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.
Tidal finance has developed a protocol to protect capital invested in Liquidity Pools (LP) from data breaches and hacks through insurance pools.
The DeFi space grew exponentially in 2020— unperturbed by the general uneasiness surrounding the pandemic. By the end of the year, the total value locked (TVL) in LPs have grown from $500 million to $27 billion.
Attracted by the prospects of blockchain technology and its huge potential returns, LP providers had deposited billions in dollars worth of crypto assets to the advancement of the DeFi subsector. But with increased hacks and security breaches, LPs are becoming significantly more skeptical about their investments. This is where Tidal Finance comes in with a solution.
Background
Chad Liu, the founder of Tidal Finance, is an engineer and mathematician who had noticed that the Defi industry was stagnated by insufficient risk tolerance.
And in 2020, Liu was introduced to Co-founder Dan Raykhman (now CTO), with whom he shared the same vision. Liu had a background in finance and business. And together, they ventured to capitalize on their expertise to build a decentralized insurance market — now Tidal Finance.
What is Tidal Finance?
Tidal finance is an open market that allows users to create programmable insurance pools for different asset configurations.
Essentially, Tidal Finance is a market that encourages the creation of liquidity pools while also providing the resources necessary to protect the LP provider’s capital.
Tidal gets LP providers to create reserve capital for different pools. This way, many mutual cover pools are created. Whenever a user wishes for additional protection for (insure) his capital, he can purchase any of the available mutual coverage.
Tidal finance is built on the Polkadot network where it functions similarly to Balancer, but with improved security against loss capital, to improve liquidity for various emerging crypto assets.
Insurance Pool
Tidal Finance provides a framework that allows users to create customizable insurance pools. Each pool, regardless of asset-pair, can be covered by different terms (premium, cover period, etc.) LPs are then at the luxury of choosing which pool best satisfies their needs. There are currently 3 asset pairs that are covered: COMP.DAI, Aave.ETH, and Uni. (ETH, WBTC).ETH.
How Tidal Finance Works
The platform is an open market. That is, it only provides the tools needed to create an insurance pool. Therefore, users can configure pools using these tools to create an abundant insurance market that offers different conditions and terms (for different pools of protocols, tokens, and other assets) to LPs looking to stake their digital assets.
At the heart of every insurance pool is a Reserve Smart Contract. Here, reserve funds are provided by LPs. This helps to increase the reserve capital efficiency, protocol auditing, and improve risk management.
To ensure that the insurance pool created is sustainable, a vetting process is carried out while the insolvency risk is examined. And if the pool is assessed to hold out, it is allowed into the market where LPs and Insurance buyers can interact freely.
Basic Single Asset vs. Multi-Asset Pools
Basic single asset pools involve coverage for single asset types. While the risks involved are straightforward and pretty easy to calculate, the rewards are comparatively smaller.
On the other hand, multi-asset pools combine different assets and smart contracts to make a fairly complex insurance pool. It allows sufficient leverage as well as risk for high reward potentials.
Features of Tidal Finance
Tidal Finance is an aggregate of highly functional features that allows the creation of an insurance pool.
Pool Creation Template
Insurance pool templates are created by choosing from the available list, smart contracts, and assets to be covered. Then, other parameters can be customized, including the coverage duration and leverage ratio.
Auditors can now look at the template to assess the insolvency risk during the vetting process.
Approved pool templates are made available on the Tidal market for LPs to use. Furthermore, LPs can find pool templates that meet their specific token/protocol needs.
Pool Statistics and Ranking
The Tidal market provides a statistical display of the performance of available pool templates. The statistical data are collected from previously created pool templates.
Each pool template is indexed into a ranking list. The ranking provides the weighted average of key metrics, including current & max pool capital, current and max return on capital, current and max covered amount, capital reserve ratio, etc.
Users can also search through available pools using the ranking order.
Controlling Algorithm
Tidal uses algorithms to regulate the activities of pool creators to mitigate risk exposure. The combined effects of several algorithms guide pool creators to manage risk effectively. At launch, tidal would provide a list of rules to guide the activities of each insurance pool. These rules were constructed to mitigate risk and ensure the success of insurance pools.
Controlled algorithms that would be initiated at launch would enforce these guidelines.
Earn returns with Tidal Finance liquidity pools
Tidal Finance also lets you provide liquidity into their 3 liquidity pools to earn returns. The lockup period ranges from 30-90 days and the apparent return ranges from 20% to 300%.
Tidal Token ($TIDAL)
Tidal Finance’s token $TIDAL is the native token to the Tidal platform. The token is vital to the platform’s smooth operation as it allows holders to vote on important decisions regarding the project and rewards all the various participants.
When the Tidal protocol generates revenue, holders of the $TIDAL token are entitled to a percentage of it based on their staked amount and purchased amount of covers. This scheme is intended to incentivize users to participate actively in the Tidal community. Other than the small percentage reserved for this purpose, the rest of the revenue is deposited in the treasury wallet, which is an emergency backup fund for insurance pools running out of reserves.
The distributed percentage is adjusted frequently to prevent inflation.
Governance
The tidal protocol is managed by a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). It is made up of stakeholders that are LPs, Pool creators, and other users. But any other holder of the token qualifies as a member of the Tidal DAO.
Members of the DAO are able to propose changes and vote on them in a transparent approach. However, issues with higher stakes are left to the deliberation of long-term holders alone.
Partnership with Reef Finance
Tidal has partnered with another member of the Polkadot ecosystem, Reef Finance. The aim of this partnership is to promote decentralised smart contract insurance solutions to increase security for platform users. In particular, Tidal Finance will be empowering Reef Finance users by allowing them to create customized insurance pools.
Conclusion
Individuals and other entities are likely to be motivated to participate in liquidity pools when their capitals are safeguarded. This would provide the much-needed liquidity for upcoming blockchain projects and accelerate the growth of the cryptocurrency industry.
Designed to launch on Polkadot’s network, one of the highest growing crypto ecosystems in 2020, Tidal Finance holds high expectations among investors and liquidity miners. Could Tidal truly bring forth the long-overdue coverage needed in the DeFi space? Online time will tell. LPs, for one, would definitely be rooting for it.
Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.
