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187,000 BTC Drained: Over $2 Billion in Bitcoin Leave the Top Exchanges Since June

16/10/2020 by Idelto Editor

Cryptocurrency reserves held on digital asset exchanges have been dropping to new lows, as some of the top exchanges have seen significant bitcoin reserve balance drops. A few months ago trading platforms had a lot more bitcoin reserves on hand and onchain data shows a few exchanges have seen customers steadily drain 187,000 bitcoins ($2.1B) from exchange-owned cold wallets.

In February, Coinbase had 1 million bitcoin under management and today reserves are down over 9% as 92,000 bitcoin ($1B) has left the exchange. Today, according to Bituniverse’s online exchange balance rank tracker, the San Francisco trading platform has 908,560 BTC under management.

36,000 BTC ($408M) left Coinbase since news.Bitcoin.com’s reserves report published on June 30, 2020. A number of top exchanges below Coinbase have also seen cold wallets drained during the last three months.

The top seven exchanges in terms of balance holdings on June 30, 2020, according to Bituniverse’s exchange balance rank tracker.

The second-largest exchange in terms of bitcoin reserves held is Huobi and the trading platform is down over 53,000 BTC ($601M) since June 30. Binance’s balances remained the same as the exchange holds 266,000 BTC today and three months ago, Binance held 269k BTC. Similarly, the fourth-largest reserve holder, Bitfinex, didn’t see much movement in the last three months.

The top seven exchanges in terms of balance holdings on October 16, 2020, according to Bituniverse’s exchange balance rank tracker.

Three months ago, Okex had 240,000 BTC on hand but today, Okex only has 198,000 BTC in reserves. This means 42,000 BTC left Okex since June as 17.5% left the exchange in the last three months.

Statistics show out of the top five crypto trading platforms over 187,000 BTC ($2.1B) has left these exchanges since the June report.

Just recently, Bitmex had some legal troubles with the U.S. government and since the incident, a lot of bitcoin has left the derivatives exchange. Three months ago Bitmex had 224 BTC in reserves and today the exchange only has 113,000 in cold storage. Onchain data indicates Bitmex lost a whopping 49.55% in BTC reserves since June 30.

At the time of publication, Glassnode’s “Exchange Balance vs. Bitcoin” stats show that there’s 2.7 million BTC held on exchanges today. Glassnode’s stats indicate that out of the 21 million BTC cap, exchanges hold 12.85% of all that will exist, and 14.59% of the 18.5 million BTC in circulation.

1.8 million BTC out of the aggregate 2.7 million BTC held on exchanges sits in the world’s top five crypto trading platforms. The top five custodial platforms by BTC reserve status include Coinbase, Huobi, Binance, Bitfinex, and Okex.

Exchange balances have been riding lower consecutively for the last 15 months and the last time balances were this low was around May 2019. To many crypto enthusiasts and traders, the low balances on exchanges suggest users are storing assets in a noncustodial fashion as opposed to leaving funds with a third party.

The data from Bituniverse and Glassnode also suggests that liquidity and selling pressure may lower.

What do you think about the low number of bitcoins held collectively on global exchanges today? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments below.

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Foreign Crypto Exchanges Like Paxful, Binance to Pay 1.5% Tax Under Kenya’s New Regulations

16/10/2020 by Idelto Editor

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has clarified that its planned digital service tax (DST) will be applicable to cryptocurrencies at a rate of 1.5% on gross transaction value, local media reported.

In August, the agency announced new rules for the taxation of what it calls “digital marketplaces.”

However, with oblique definitions on such key terms, it has not been clear who exactly will be taxed under the new regulations that come into force on Jan 1, 2020.

Now, KRA tax expert Nixon Omondi has appeared to set the record straight.

“As the law is, any person who will be offering a digital service – crypto is digital, the platform is digital, the acquisition process is digital, the process of payment is digital – in that respect, DST will be applicable on cryptocurrencies,” he explained, in a report by Bitcoinke.

The clarification means that platforms dealing with virtual currencies will be required to pay the 1.5% tax to the Kenyan government. The situation is rather tricky for foreign peer-to-peer exchanges like Paxful and Binance P2P, which have operations in the East African country – they will have to remit the tax each month.

Kenyan crypto businesses will make similar payments, too. However, local firms “have the option of claiming back their digital service tax at the end of the year since they also pay other taxes within the Kenyan jurisdiction,” said the report.

In its original communication, the Kenya Revenue Authority stated that the digital service tax is to be paid “by a person who derives or accrues income from services through a digital marketplace.” But the term “digital marketplace” proved a source of much consternation because of it being legally and technically ambiguous.

Kenya’s Finance Act offered a rather broad definition of the phrase, describing digital marketplaces “as a platform that enables the direct interaction between buyers and sellers of goods and services through electronic means.” Kenya is Africa’s third-biggest bitcoin market after Nigeria and South Africa.

What do you think about Kenya’s digital service tax? Let us know in the comments section below.

The post Foreign Crypto Exchanges Like Paxful, Binance to Pay 1.5% Tax Under Kenya’s New Regulations appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Uniswap Captures $2 Billion Locked, Dex Volume Outpaces Second-Largest Centralized Exchange

30/09/2020 by Idelto Editor

The decentralized exchange (dex) built on Ethereum, Uniswap has accumulated a whopping $2 billion in total value locked (TVL) this week. Tuesday’s data shows out of all the decentralized finance (defi) application’s Uniswap dominates the $11 billion landscape by over 18%.

Just recently, the defi space has touched a few new milestones as the ecosystem’s TVL this week has topped $11 billion. The dex Uniswap is dominating the defi landscape by 18.65% with over $2 billion TVL to-date.

Uniswap is followed by Makerdao ($1.9B), Aave ($1.56B), Curve.fi ($1.22B), and the Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) project ($990M). The Uniswap trading platform has captured a massive amount of demand this week with 104,324 unique users during the last seven days.

Today according to stats, the Uniswap dex is moving just as much trade volume as some of the top centralized exchanges (cex) globally. On Tuesday, Binance has the top trade volume as far as cex trade volumes are concerned with $2.5 billion in 24-hour volume.

Coinbase Pro is the second-largest cex in terms of trade volume on Tuesday with $343 million trades during the last 24 hours. Uniswap is well above Coinbase Pro with $398 million today, making the dex the second-largest crypto exchange worldwide in terms of trade volume on September 29.

Dex volume in general has been quite large this week and during the last seven days Dune Analytics data shows 13 dex platforms saw $3.7 billion in trades. $2.3 billion of those swaps took place on Uniswap as it currently captures 63.7% of the trailing seven day average.

Cumulatively, all 13 dex platforms saw a whopping $24 billion in swaps during the last 30 days. Dex platforms following Uniswap’s trade volume lead include Curve.fi, 0x, Balancer, Kyber, Synthetix, Dydx, and the Bancor Network respectively.

Uniswap’s weekly and 24-hour trade volume has been a topical conversation on social media and crypto-related forums. A number of crypto enthusiasts wonder if dex volumes will someday supersede cex volumes entirely.

Ethereum proponents believe the rise of stablecoins and dex platforms like Uniswap are starting to prove ETH skeptics wrong.

“In the last bull market, critics said ETH had no use case besides scammy ICO’s,” the CTO and analyst Leon Fu from the web portal cryptocurrency.market recently told his 19,000 Twitter followers. “With the rise of stablecoins, Uniswap, and other protocols [that] enable actual utility [and] have nothing to do with ICO’s. Clearly, ETH skeptics were wrong,” he added.

What do you think about Uniswap’s massive trade volume this week and during the last 24 hours? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments below.

The post Uniswap Captures $2 Billion Locked, Dex Volume Outpaces Second-Largest Centralized Exchange appeared first on Bitcoin News.

BCH Hash Watch: Majority of Miners Signal BCHN, Coinex Exchange Announces Futures

24/09/2020 by Idelto Editor

Bitcoin Cash proponents have recently noticed that the last 612 blocks or more than 61% of the last 1,000 blocks have been mined using BCHN, according to Coin Dance statistics. Moreover, data also shows that 82% of Bitcoin Cash hashpower is signaling BCHN, as the prominent miners Btc.com and Antpool have started signaling.

BCH fans are patiently waiting as there’s 53 days left until the November 15th Bitcoin Cash upgrade. News.Bitcoin.com reported on September 1, on how there’s a high chance the BCH blockchain will bifurcate into two networks.

At that time, our newsdesk detailed how prominent members of the BCH community bid the Bitcoin ABC developers farewell, and a number of mining operations began signaling the node BCHN.

Today, Coin Dance statistics show 612 out of the last 1,000 blocks have been mined using the BCHN full node software. Toward the end of September, two new pools joined the fray of BCHN signalers, as Btc.com and Antpool started signaling BCHN in their coinbase parameters.

This means currently 82% of the entire BCH hashrate has been signaling BCHN. Pools included in this group include Binance, Antpool, Btc.com, Btc.top, Bitcoin.com, Huobi, Okex, MY7A, easy2mine, and Bejn.

During the last 12 hours, around 2.6 exahash per second (EH/s) of hashrate has been directed at the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) chain. Additionally, the trading platform Coinex revealed contingency plans for the upcoming upgrade, as the announcement mentions the possibility of a network split.

🔥The Bitcoin Cash network will undergo a semi-annual hard #fork upgrade on Nov 15.

🔥To provide users with better services, we are going to launch futures markets of #BCH forked coins on Sep 24, 2020. #BTC #bch #crypto #coinex #hardfork #bchforkhttps://t.co/8zEHNGXYwE

— CoinEx (@coinexcom) September 23, 2020

Coinex also announced the introduction of futures slated to drop on September 24. Bitcoin Cash supporters will also be waiting for other exchanges to reveal contingency plans as well going forward.

The futures listed on the crypto trading platform Coinflex show ABC versus BCH futures are still 10-to-1 in favor of BCH. While BCHN blocks crossed the 60% range, BCH supporters on the Reddit forum r/btc discussed the changes. Many expect the number of BCHN-mined blocks to increase during the next few weeks.

One Redditor noted that since Antpool just recently joined with 20% of the hashrate, the “[seven] day average should reach ~75% in [five or six] days time.”

What do you think about the hashpower signaling BCHN and the recent futures announcement from Coinex? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

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Defi Economy Rebounds: Total-Value Locked Jumps 28% Capturing Close to $9B

18/09/2020 by Idelto Editor

,The total-value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance (defi) economy has recaptured much of the value lost during the Sushiswap fiasco last week. At the time, the defi TVL tumbled down to $6.8 billion from the $9.6 billion high on September 8, suffering a loss of close to -29%. Since then, however, the rise northbound has been parabolic, as the defi TVL has climbed 28% so far, with locked value rising to $8.75 billion on Thursday morning (ET).

Last week, the anonymous creator of Sushiswap caused an uproar within the decentralized finance (defi) community after cashing out some tokens meant for the project’s future development.

At that time, the total-value-locked (TVL) in defi was inching toward the $10 billion realm, when it crossed $9.6 billion on September 8. Although, the TVL shed a decent amount of value after the Sushiswap incident and the price of ethereum (ETH) tumbled by 30%.

Today, according to defipulse statistics the current TVL on Thursday, September 17 is $8.75 billion with the defi lending platform Aave capturing 15.3% of the TVL dominance. This is followed by the defi platforms Maker, Curve Finance, Uniswap, and Sushiswap.

On Thursday morning (ET), the crypto community has been discussing Uniswap’s UNI token, which saw 60% of UNI’s genesis supply allocated to Uniswap community members. Since the launch, Coinbase Pro announced UNI support on the exchange and the crypto platform Binance also listed the token a few hours after the release.

The Uniswap team says 21.51% will be reserved for future employees and developers with a four-year vesting period. 17.80% of the UNI supply will be distributed to investors with a four-year vesting timeframe as well.

The UNI launch announcement notes that the token will be leveraged for a governance treasury and governance will have access to the allocation on October 18. Uniswap’s governance token airdrop contributed to ethereum (ETH) miners capturing a lot of money in transaction fees.

“Following Uniswap Protocol’s announcement of the UNI token today, Ethereum saw a massive surge in miner fees,” the data analytics firm Glassnode tweeted. “Almost $1M USD in fees were spent in a single hour. This is a new record high (anomalous tx fees earlier this year excluded).”

Last Saturday, the Yearn Finance (YFI) token touched an all-time high reaching $43,678 after Coinbase Pro announced listing the defi crypto asset.

The token has been very popular among the yield farming community and notoriety for YFI’s price per token surpassing bitcoin (BTC) in value. Although YFI has lost -27.34% since the Coinbase listing announcement and the token is currently swapping for $31,736 per coin.

Since news.Bitcoin.com’s recent study on the defi economy on August 29, the total defi users over time jumped 17.78% from 388,011 users to 457,012 users on September 13. Defi-based decentralized exchange (dex) action has seen $5.2 billion in global swaps during the last seven days.

Dune Analytics data shows dex volumes during the last 24 hours was around $645 million. Uniswap is still the top dex in terms of volume exchanged capturing over 60% of the week’s trade volume.

With this week’s defi TVL rebound closing in on the highs it saw last week, it goes to show that the defi economy isnt letting up any time soon.

Meanwhile, ethereum (ETH) has regained much of the coin’s losses at the crypto asset trades for $383 per ether at the time of publication. Since last week’s report concerning 68 new whales joining the ETH network, the large concentration of ETH holders added another 1% to the aggregate tally.

What do you think about the defi ecosystem regaining momentum this week? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

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