ETH

Online Retail Giant Rakuten Allows People to Load Payment App With Cryptocurrencies

01/03/2021 by Idelto Editor

The firm Rakuten Inc., often referred to as “the Amazon of Japan,” announced customers can now load up Rakuten Pay accounts with cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, ethereum, and bitcoin cash. In order to commemorate the latest crypto service, Rakuten is also offering bonus points to people leveraging “Rakuten Cash” via crypto assets.

Crypto Can Pay for Rakuten Goods and Services, Alongside Mister Donut, Familymart, and McDonald’s

The massive Japanese electronic commerce and online retail company based in Tokyo is now allowing crypto users to leverage the company’s Rakuten Pay service in order to load up on Rakuten Cash. The payment service with crypto asset support provides clients with access to a wide range of Rakuten’s services and products including the firm’s travel services, Kobo e-books, and mobile.

Moreover, users can load their Rakuten app with BCH, BTC, or ETH in order to purchase items at Familymart, McDonald’s, 7-11, and Mister Donut to name a few. Digital currency proponents, particularly from Japan, we’re extremely happy about Rakuten’s new crypto support.

“This news is huge for Japan,” explained one individual on Twitter. “You can now pay at McDonald’s and 711 and perhaps hundreds of thousands of other stores with Crypto.”

Rakuten’s announcement details that crypto users can also top up funds with digital assets via their Rakuten Cash-buying function. However, users need to also leverage Rakuten’s crypto wallet in order to access Rakuten Cash via digital currencies. Moreover, the company is offering a bonus point gift to customers using the Rakuten Cash-buying function with cryptocurrencies.

Rakuten Group Wants to Provide Convenient Crypto Asset Management

The press release also notes that there is a minimum charge amount of 1,000 yen ($10) and a one-time upper limit at around 100,000 yen ($1,000) per month. The loads can be done 24 hours a day and seven days a week via the Rakuten Pay app and the company’s crypto wallet. There is no fee for conversion, but “it is necessary to open a physical trading account using the Rakuten Wallet and install a smartphone app dedicated to trading,” Rakuten says.

The Tokyo-based firm further adds:

[The company] will utilize the synergies of the Rakuten Group to provide convenient and profitable cryptocurrency asset management and new usage methods to improve customer satisfaction.

Rakuten Group has been into crypto solutions and blockchain technology for quite some time, as it launched the Rakuten Blockchain Lab (RBL) in Belfast, UK, back in 2016. Then in 2018, the company acquired the crypto exchange project “Everybody’s Bitcoin Inc.” for 256 million yen (~US$2,305,484). On August 19, 2019, Rakuten continued to move forward and launched its crypto exchange.

“Through the smartphone app, customers can make transactions for crypto asset trading accounts, such as depositing/withdrawing Japanese yen and depositing/withdrawing crypto assets, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,” the Japanese company said at the time.

The latest Rakuten crypto support that allows people to pay for goods and services with ETH, BTC, and BCH, is another forward move for Rakuten in the crypto industry since jumping in back in 2014.

What do you think about Rakuten’s latest announcement about crypto support for Rakuten Pay and Rakuten Cash? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Cryptocurrency Adoption Passes Another Milestone Surpassing 100 Million Users

25/02/2021 by Idelto Editor

According to a new study conducted by Crypto.com, the total number of global cryptocurrency users has surpassed 100 million for the first time ever. The study, which measured the cryptocurrency marketplace’s size using onchain metrics, survey analysis, and internal data, recorded 106 million cryptocurrency users in January 2021.

January’s Bitcoin Rally Accumulated a 15.7% Jump in Global Users

Compared to December 2020, the 106 million users represent a 15.7% increase in just one month. What’s fueling the growth of the crypto market? According to Crypto.com’s research, it comes down to bitcoin adoption momentum.

Eric Anziani, Crypto.com COO had this to say to Bitcoin.com regarding the research’s findings:

Our study improves upon previously used methods to find a clear trend of growing cryptocurrency ownership. As more companies and merchants adopt cryptocurrencies as a treasury asset and means of payment, we expect 2021 to be a banner year for crypto mass adoption, bringing us ever closer to our vision of ‘Cryptocurrency in Every Wallet’.

Bitcoin smashed through its previous all-time high, pushing its market capitalization past $1 trillion. The growth shows no apparent signs of slowing down either as sentiment around cryptocurrency increases, especially as JP Morgan and BNY Mellon will start offering digital payment methods. Not even two full months into the year yet, investors are piling 10-digit figures into bitcoin. Tesla bought $1.5 billion of bitcoin at the beginning of February, and investment website Motley Fool announced a $5 million investment just a week later.

Bitcoin isn’t the only thing that’s fueling the demand for cryptocurrency. Several other factors are at play too. Crypto.com’s research attributes this rapid ascent to the growth of the decentralized finance (defi) market, the ability to buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrency through Paypal, and the institutional adoption of cryptocurrency are attracting new crypto users every day.

Defi Momentum is Growing

The defi market’s momentum is significant given the increased demand for ethereum and other altcoins like Binance’s BNB. The total market capitalization of coins locked in defi has grown from $690 million to over $11.7 billion, a significant number that’s encouraging new investors to enter the market.

According to Crypto.com’s research, ETH’s growth rate was higher than BTC in November and December 2020; BTC’s unique users grew by 1.5% in November compared to ETH’s 2.8% growth. In December, ETH’s change was nearly double that of BTC’s: 2.8% compared to 1.2%.

How accurate are all of these numbers? A total number of 24 exchanges were included in the research, and while Crypto.com has updated and improved its methodology since its last report, it does admit these figures may be subject to some small caveats.

How long do you think it will now take to reach 200 million users? Let us know in the comments section below.

Binance Suspends Ethereum and ERC-20 Token Withdrawals Before Quickly Reversing Course

23/02/2021 by Idelto Editor

The rollercoaster-ride in cryptocurrency prices on Monday was accompanied by Binance’s fresh restrictions for ethereum and ERC-20 tokens.

Ethereum Network Congestion Fingered as the Culprit for the Temporary Halt

Through the official Binance Twitter account, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges by volume, announced that it had “temporarily suspended withdrawals of $ETH and ethereum-based tokens” due to network congestion while underscoring that user funds were SAFU (Secure Asset Fund for Users).

#Binance has temporarily suspended withdrawals of $ETH and Ethereum-based tokens due to high network congestion.

Rest assured funds are #SAFU and we apologize for any inconvenience caused.

Updates to follow.

— Binance (@binance) February 22, 2021

Although Binance has since reversed its earlier decision and restored service in an announcement 37 minutes after its first tweet, traders were quick to pile on with the criticism. This latest move came amid a spike in Ethereum gas costs and a backlog that quickly escalated past 151,000 pending transactions. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao corroborated the stress on the system, noting that gas shot past “+1200” during the latest congestion.

ETH is super congested now, at 1200+ gas. @Binance have suspended withdrawals.

There was a conspiracy theory that Binance is deliberately making ETH gas fees high. 😂 Let’s see it come down a bit. pic.twitter.com/tNK9b3b9OK

— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) February 22, 2021

Binance has already become a big target among the crypto community after being blamed for persistently high gas costs. Some claim that the congestion is a concerted effort on the part of Binance to attract more users to its Binance Smart Chain. However, given the tremendous transaction volumes and gas fees that Binance pays to the Ethereum network weekly, this claim is hard to corroborate

Binance Outage Underlines the Need to Scale

Yet, together with other recent events like the AWS problems that surfaced last week, this latest service outage begs the question as to whether centralized exchanges are capable of handling the latest torrent of investor flows. Moreover, the rollout of Ethereum 2.0 has brought to light similar scaling issues and whether already clogged blockchains can keep pace with advancing adoption.

For some market participants, the answer lies in liquidity aggregators. While service interruptions have dotted the cryptocurrency landscape for years and become commonplace during periods of serious volatility, aggregators that pool liquidity from centralized (CEX) and decentralized exchanges (DEX) have cobbled together a patchwork solution. Still, questions linger about the security of their custody along with blockchain interoperability.

Offerings like Orion Protocol have addressed many of these challenges by aggregating liquidity in a hybrid fashion from CEXs, DEXs, and now automated market-makers (AMMs). Aggregators are attempting to help decentralize the pressure and reverse the load issue strain felt by exchanges during peak periods while avoiding the custody question.

Still, for traders on centralized exchanges, load balancing issues and volatility remain a scourge for the ecosystem as the latest Binance outage underlines.

Do you think withdrawal suspensions will become the norm or a solution to network congestion will be found? Let us know in the comments section below.

Pricing Gold, Food, and Altcoins With the BTC Denominator: How to Measure an Asset’s Worth in Bitcoin

21/02/2021 by Idelto Editor

On February 21, bitcoin touched a lifetime price high at $57,844 per unit after the crypto asset’s market valuation crossed the $1 trillion zone for the first time in history the day prior. Meanwhile, a number of digital assets have seen fiat values increase as coins like litecoin, ethereum, and others gather gains against the U.S. dollar. However, when bitcoin is the base denominator in terms of value, a lot of coins have a long way to go to catch up.

Measuring Alternative Crypto Assets With Bitcoin

The crypto asset bitcoin (BTC) has seen phenomenal gains and a lot of other digital currencies have seen price increases as well. For instance, ethereum (ETH) is the second-largest digital asset in terms of market capitalization, and ETH has touched the $2,040 price range.

Now ETH has seen pretty decent gains against the U.S. dollar, as its up a decent 76.32% during the last month, and 249.90% over the last three months. Traditionally people price everything in their local fiat currency like U.S. dollars or euros, but things look a whole lot different when other crypto assets are priced against or with BTC.

Pricing Gold, Food, and Altcoins With the BTC Denominator: How to Measure an Asset's Worth in Bitcoin — Bitcoin (BTC) hit an all-time price high on February 21, 2021, hitting $57,844 per unit against the U.S. dollar. But what if we measured other assets in BTC?

For instance, data from messari.io shows an ether priced in bitcoin is worth 0.0341 BTC and on Tradingview the price is a hair higher at 0.0343 BTC at the time of publication. Now even though ether has seen decent gains against the U.S. dollar in 2021, it was a lot higher in comparison to BTC back in 2018.

At that time in January 2018, a single ETH was around 0.1090 BTC. Bitcoin’s price at the time was around a third of what it is today, while ether’s value was closer to where it was back then albeit a touch higher. The same can be said for a myriad of other alternative assets in the crypto economy.

Litecoin (LTC) is a good example, as LTC is a cryptocurrency with a market valuation of around $15.5 billion and holds the eighth largest valued market cap. Against fiat, LTC has done well this year increasing over 66% during the last month against the U.S. dollar.

LTC has gained 157% against the dollar for the last three months, but has yet to capture the coin’s all-time high (ATH). Litecoin is still 38% away from the ATH three years ago, which was $369.32 per LTC. Back in February 2018, a single LTC was around 0.019533 BTC but today one LTC is swapping for 0.003966 BTC.

Pricing Everything in Bitcoin Gives a Different Perspective

People can price anything in BTC and in other common denominators or vice versa. For instance, a person can get a 2021 Lamborghini Huracan EVO today for 5.08 BTC, a brand new Honda Accord is only 0.44 BTC. You can get a pristine 3.0-carat diamond ring for a single BTC and 0.12 BTC buys the average American food for a whole year.

Back in the day when a single coin crossed parity with a single Federal Reserve note ($1), it was a milestone. Then years later, it passed the value of one troy ounce of fine silver ($27), and everyone noticed.

Years later the price surpassed the value of one troy ounce of fine gold and that definitely got some attention. On Saturday, BTC ripped into another ATH and crossed parity with one kilo of fine gold. The fact of the matter is, the common denominator can be perceived a whole lot differently when measuring things in BTC or against it.

What do you think about measuring assets and other cryptocurrencies in bitcoin? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Bitcoin Snaps Back After Slight Dip, Current BTC Chart ‘Is Near Identical to August 2017’

15/02/2021 by Idelto Editor

Digital currency prices are on the move again, after tumbling a hair downwards during Sunday evening’s trading sessions. On Sunday the price of bitcoin dropped -7.64% after touching a lifetime price high at $49,715 and then slid to $45,915. As trading sessions entered into Monday, BTC has regained some of the losses as it jumped northbound 4.62%.

Crypto Markets Shrug Off the Recent Dip

Bitcoin (BTC) and a slew of digital assets saw some significant losses yesterday, after a few crypto assets touched new all-time highs (ATH). BTC has been awfully close to the psychological $50k region, but hasn’t managed to cross the price zone yet. On Sunday, the price came really close at $49,715 per unit but tumbled downward after reaching that point.

BTC/USD chart on Bitstamp on February 15, 2021.

After sliding below the $46k zone, BTC is back up to the $47,800 to $48,150 region once again, but prices are still down 1.8%. The second-largest crypto asset, in terms of market valuation, is ethereum (ETH) which is swapping for $1,809 per coin. ETH tumbled yesterday, to a low of $1,710 per unit and has managed to regain much of the losses.

Top ten market valuations on February 15, 2021, according to markets.Bitcoin.com.

Cardano (ADA) slid to $0.78 per token but is back up to $0.87 per ADA. Polkadot (DOT) hit a low of $25.11 yesterday but is now swapping for $28.50 during Monday morning’s trading sessions. XRP, BNB, and LTC are all down a couple of percentages, but bitcoin cash (BCH) is up 2.77% and holds the ninth largest market cap.

Bitcoin cash is currently trading for $719 per coin and has a $13.4 billion market cap. The tenth-largest blockchain, in terms of valuation, is chainlink (LINK) which is exchanging hands for $33.86 per unit.

Jack Purdy: ‘Today’s Bitcoin Chart Is Near Identical to August 2017’

While many traders are discussing a few crypto markets reaching new ATHs, people are pondering if we are nearing the bull run’s top. On February 11, Civic founder Vinny Lingham said that when BTC reaches the $50k zone it should surpass it quite easily.

“Just a hunch, but I think bitcoin blows through $50k on the first attempt,” Lingham tweeted.

The August 2017 chart compared to today’s chart as shared by Jack Purdy on February 15, 2021.

In another tweet, Lingham shared on Monday, he referred to a chart shared by Jack Purdy, which compares the August 2017 BTC/USD chart with the current 2021 BTC/USD chart.

“It’s pretty mind-blowing that the bitcoin chart is damn near identical to August 2017. Anyone need a refresher for what happened next?” Purdy asked.

Lingham added:

Yup. This isn’t a bubble, yet. The next bubble is still coming…

A Healthy Correction and Regrets

Etoro’s Simon Peters said that even though BTC dropped in value after the peak, it was a perfectly normal correction. “Bitcoin climbed once more over the weekend, with strong buying on Sunday, propelling the price to a new peak,” Peters told news.Bitcoin.com in an investors note on Monday.

“Bitcoin rose more than 25% during the week, to finish at yesterday’s peak,” Peters continued. “The price boost came after a series of major announcements from companies, including Tesla. Tesla’s move sparked further announcements from other industries last week, with many of the leading names in banking and finance announcing similar plans to integrate crypto assets,” the analyst added.

Peters further stated:

Having peaked overnight, bitcoin pulled back marginally Monday to around $47,000, but this is normal as some investors opt to take profits.

Meanwhile, it doesn’t seem like the Chinese New Year crypto dump came to fruition this year. After prices were looking overheated, investors took profits and stepped off into the sidelines temporarily, but are now back. The fact that BTC prices are where they are today, is still quite surprising to some investors who missed the train. For instance, the head trader and founder of Asenna Capital, Assad Tannous, told his 95,000 followers a regretful statement.

“At $10k I said BTC would end in tears,” Tannous tweeted. “I was right, I don’t own any, and I could cry.”

What do you think about the recent price movements within the crypto economy? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.