Polkadot

Swiss Bank Seba Now Lets Customers Earn Yield on Crypto Holdings

13/10/2021 by Idelto Editor

A FINMA-licensed Swiss bank, Seba, has launched a program enabling clients to earn yield on their crypto holdings. In addition, the bank will “provide support for centralized lending and borrowing services, enabling investors to generate yield by lending bitcoin and ethereum directly with Seba Bank.”

Seba Earn Lets Clients Generate Rewards From Crypto Investments

Seba Bank, a digital asset banking platform licensed by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), announced the launch of Seba Earn Wednesday. The Switzerland-based bank described the new offering as “an institutional-grade solution enabling clients to earn yield on their crypto holdings.”

Noting that “The launch of Seba Earn caters to growing demand from institutions to manage a range of digital asset yield use cases from staking to decentralized finance (defi), and centralized lending and borrowing,” the bank elaborated:

Seba Earn’s comprehensive staking management platform will enable institutions and individuals to generate rewards from their crypto investment on networks including Tezos, Polkadot, and Cardano, with more protocols coming in the coming months.

In addition, the announcement explains:

Seba Earn will also provide support for centralized lending and borrowing services, enabling investors to generate yield by lending bitcoin and ethereum directly with Seba Bank.

The bank also noted that it “will continue integrating support for additional coins.”

Guido Buehler, CEO of Seba Bank, commented: “It is clear that as institutional interest in digital assets accelerates, investors have a broader appetite for crypto assets, with a particular interest in earning services like staking, defi and centralized crypto borrowing and lending.”

What do you think about Seba Bank launching a crypto earning program? Let us know in the comments section below.

From $250 Billion to $2.35 Trillion: A Look at the Top Ten Crypto Market Cap Shifts Over 2 Years

03/09/2021 by Idelto Editor

From $250 Billion to $2.35 Trillion: A Look at the Top Ten Crypto Crypto Market Cap Shifts Over 2 Years

While the crypto economy is worth more than $2.35 trillion, there’s a variety of new cryptocurrencies that have claimed top ten positions, in terms of market capitalization, in recent times. Two years ago, the top ten crypto assets by market cap looked a lot different than today, and things have also changed a great deal in the past 12 months.

The Top Ten Crypto Assets in August 2019

Since the crypto asset’s inception, bitcoin (BTC) has held the largest market valuation out of all the coins in existence and no other digital currency has ever taken the top position. We know the crypto economy is valued at more than $2.3 trillion, and out of the 10,000+ cryptocurrencies, dominance levels are changing. Top ten shifts are happening, and the top ten crypto-asset positions in terms of valuation have changed a great deal last year and the year before.

At the end of August 2019, bitcoin (BTC) held the top position but only had a market valuation of around $181 billion. Today, BTC has an overall market valuation of $929 billion or 413% more than it was in August 2019. That same summer, ethereum (ETH) was the second-largest crypto asset by market cap with just over $20 billion. Today, ETH has an overall valuation of around $443 billion which is a whopping 2,115% increase in two years.

Cryptocurrency market capitalization in August 2019.

In August 2019, XRP held the third-largest crypto valuation with an $11 billion market cap. The market cap has increased by 427% but XRP now holds the sixth-largest position in terms of valuation among the top ten. Bitcoin cash (BCH) was the fourth largest crypto cap in the late summer of 2019 with an overall valuation of $5 billion. Today it is $12.4 billion which is an increase of 148%, but BCH is now in the 15th position in terms of market valuation. Litecoin (LTC) held the fifth biggest market with $4 billion two years ago, but today, LTC is in the 16th position.

Cryptocurrency market capitalization on September 3, 2021. These prices were recorded at 8:30 a.m. (EST) on Friday morning.

Binance coin (BNB) managed to move up from the sixth position that year, as it now holds the fourth largest crypto market valuation today. Tether (USDT) moved up from two years ago when it was in the seventh position and today, USDT is the fifth position. Tether is still the most valuable stablecoin and has been for the last two years in a row. EOS was in the eighth position back in 2019 and today, EOS has slid all the way down to the 35th top position in terms of market cap.

Bitcoinsv (BSV) was in ninth place in 2019 and stellar (XLM) held the tenth position in August the same year. BSV has plummeted to the 52nd position in terms of market cap and XLM is now the 22nd largest crypto asset. BSV had a $2.3 billion market cap back then and it has improved a bit (34.78%) to today’s $3.1 billion. Stellar had a $1.4 billion market valuation while today it is $8.5 billion, gaining 507%.

The Top Ten Crypto Assets in August 2020

In August 2020, things were also different. While BTC and ETH held the first and the second position, XRP was really close to being overtaken by tether (USDT) that year. XRP held the third position with a $12 billion market cap and USDT was around $10 billion in August 2020. At that time, BCH, BSV, LTC, and BNB remained top ten contenders. Meanwhile, Chainlink (LINK) held the fifth-largest market cap with a $5.7 billion valuation. LINK is now the 12th largest coin market cap today with $13.5 billion.

Cryptocurrency market capitalization in August 2020.

Crypto.com (CRO) was in the ninth position in August 2020 with a $3.5 billion market cap and CRO is sitting in the 43rd position today with $4.1 billion. It is interesting to note that all the top ten coins in 2021 have market caps of over $20 billion. While in August 2020, only five coins had market caps over $10 billion, and in 2019 only three coins were over $10 billion. CRO and BSV have seen very little increases in market valuation in two years, while other markets have seen much larger gains.

Moreover, coins like dogecoin (DOGE), solana (SOL), cardano (ADA), polkadot (DOT), and usd coin (USDC) are all newcomers as far as the top ten cryptos are concerned. Solana (SOL) is up more than 19% in 24 hours and recently flipped dogecoin (DOGE) in terms of market cap.

What do you think about the changes in the top ten cryptos during the last two years? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Ethereum Fees Jumped 154% Since Last Week, $400 Uniswap Fees, $1K to Interact With Opensea

29/08/2021 by Idelto Editor

Following the bug and the split that occurred after a great number of Geth nodes did not upgrade, Ethereum fees have risen dramatically since August 21, jumping from $11 per transaction to today’s 0.0088 ether per transaction ($27.98).

Ethereum Transaction Fees Skyrocket

Ethereum is the second-largest crypto asset in terms of crypto market capitalization with a $375 billion market cap or 17.4% of the crypto economy’s $2.16 trillion. ETH is up 34.3% during the last month, but has lost 2.1% during the last two weeks. On August 27, Bitcoin.com News reported on Ethereum having issues upgrading and the problems led to a chain split. As that news has settled, discussion of rising Ethereum gas fees have replaced the conversation.

Ether fees have jumped dramatically since August 21, spiking 154.36% to today’s average transaction cost of $27.98 per transaction. The cost to interact with smart contracts and Web3 platforms is even worse, as people have reported on Uniswap or decentralized exchange (dex) fees being upwards of $300 to even over $1K per interaction. Non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace fees for places like Opensea have significantly higher ether gas fees than usual as well.

Ethereum 2.0 Hopes, ‘Ethereum Killers,’ Gas Reducers, and Compatible Chains

The hope is that Ethereum 2.0 will fix the issues with transaction fees and stabilize the fees to be more uniform. However, while Ethereum developers prepare for the switch, Ethereum competitors otherwise known as ‘ETH-Killers’ are steadily catching up to the second-largest crypto asset.

Ethereum is facing rising competition from blockchains like Binance Smart Chain, Cardano, Solana, Polkadot, Terra, Avalanche, Tron, Cosmos, and EOS. All of which aim and promise to provide much lower transaction fees in order to send funds or interact with decentralized finance (defi) applications.

Although the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade is something these networks may want to fear as many Ethereum proponents believe it will solve the fee issues. Two specific projects that aim to squash ether gas fees include Optimism and Arbitrum. These two projects leverage what’s called “optimistic rollups” and the Ethereum community is hopeful they will make progress toward relieving ether gas costs. Additionally, there are other projects that aim to crush ether gas costs with projects like fuel.sh, the aztec.network, starkware.co, loopring.org, zksync.io, and hermez.io.

Furthermore, already people are using projects like Polygon (MATIC) and Hecofi to utilize Ethereum in a cheaper fashion as well. The Ethereum community understands that the full ETH 2.0 release will not be 100% until at least some point in 2022. Until then so-called ‘ETH Killers’ and alternative gas solutions will likely continue to increase in demand. $27.98 or 0.0088 ether per transaction is not very enticing to people who want to transact with ether, buy and sell NFTs, and interact with Web3 and defi platforms.

What do you think about Ethereum’s rising fees jumping 154% in one week? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

As Bitcoin Drops in Value, Proof-of-Stake Tokens That Use Less Energy See Double-Digit Gains

15/05/2021 by Idelto Editor

Crypto markets have been very volatile in recent times and a great number of digital assets have dropped more than 30% in value during the last three days. Although, not all the coins in the crypto economy are doing badly, as coins that do not leverage proof-of-work (PoW) consensus algorithms have actually done well after the recent Tesla controversy. Distributed ledgers that use delegated validation nodes and proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchains have made double-digit gains in recent days.

Green Energy Gains: Cardano, Polkadot, and Polygon Shine

As soon as Elon Musk and Tesla sparked the proof-of-work (PoW) consensus algorithm controversy, a few blockchains that use less energy and alternative consensus algorithms have seen massive gains. For instance, cardano (ADA) tapped an all-time high at $2.37 per unit on Saturday.

ADA is up a whopping 4,362% against the U.S. dollar during the last 12 months. Seven-day stats show ADA has gained 40% and more than 18% during the last 24 hours. The Cardano network leverages proof-of-stake and the project is backed by the Ethereum cofounder Charles Hoskinson.

Meanwhile, XRP, which also does not use a PoW consensus algorithm, hasn’t gained massive percentages but has remained stable during the downturn. Ripple Labs cofounder Chris Larsen recently explained that BTC would lose its dominance if it didn’t address the energy problems just before Elon Musk stirred the controversy.

Polkadot (DOT) is also a proof-of-stake blockchain and it has remained profitable after Musk’s environmental concern statements. The PoS crypto-asset DOT has seen a 40% gain during the last seven days.

Crypto Industry’s First PoS Coin Comes Back to Life

Stellar (XLM) has done well, polygon (MATIC) is up 25% today, and dogecoin (DOGE) markets held steady because Musk recently said he was working with DOGE developers. The biggest gainers on Saturday include kicktoken (KICK +132%), stakenet (XSN +91%), origin sport (ORS +42%), and peercoin (PPC +40%).

In fact, the Peercoin project is the first PoS blockchain to pioneer distributed ledger systems without using massive energy. The token peercoin (PPC) was invoked in 2012 and the website calls it a “green cryptocurrency for a sustainable future.” For years now PPC floundered as an old and mostly forgotten PoS coin but since the recent concerns over PoW, the Peercoin project has made a strong comeback.

What do you think about all the PoS coins that are seeing gains because they don’t leverage PoW? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

PINT to Tokenize Exposure to the Top Polkadot Initiatives

19/04/2021 by Idelto Editor

As the launch date for parachains nears, a new initiative is constructing a decentralized finance (defi) index token that tracks Polkadot projects aimed at helping investors diversify their holdings through a single instrument.

Six Projects Provide Soft Commitments to Join Polkadot Index Network Token

The growing interest in Polkadot and its novel parachains has seen the blockchain’s native token become the source of frenzied speculation over the last few months, joining the list of the top ten cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.

Now, with approaching parachain launches for several projects, two organizations are taking steps to help improve access to the ecosystem’s opportunities through the Polkadot Index Network Token (PINT).

Chainsafe, a protocol and infrastructure development firm, is collaborating with Stateless Money, a staking service provider, to bring this new index fund and accompanying token to fruition.

The PINT token will be governed by a seven-member expert group called the PINT Council and a Constituent Committee formed of members of each project featured within the index. These two groups will oversee the index and take on specific roles like determining the index composition.

Already, projects are lining up to join this new initiative, both as index components and part of the Constituent Committee. So far, PINT has received soft commitments from major ecosystem projects, including Acala, Equilibrium, Hydradx, Litentry, Moonbeam, and Plasm, helping further the index token’s appeal.

A New Standard in Defi

From inception to the present, this new index has represented a very unique undertaking in the blockchain ecosystem. Staker DAO, an on-chain governance protocol, brought its Polkadot Index Network Token proposal to its community for a vote. Despite being for the Polkadot ecosystem, voting occurred on both the Ethereum and Tezos blockchains, which operate competing ecosystems.

In the time since Staker DAO first requested an index token feasibility study in late 2020 from Chainsafe and Stateless Money, a Staker DAO governance proposal was submitted in March and approved by the community in early April.

This approval established that Chainsafe would be the party responsible for developing the token’s Substrate pallets over the next three months. In the meantime, Stateless Money will take the lead in coordinating the project.

For Polkadot ecosystem participants and external investors, this new initiative promises substantial benefits. In terms of investor advantages, the idea of gaining broad, diversified exposure to high-profile Polkadot projects without the need to allocate individually to each project is enticing.

On the other side, Polkadot projects can leverage PINT by allocating a certain portion of their respective parachain’s tokens. This entitles parachains to help from the PINT Treasury, which can help finance expensive Parachain Lease Offerings. This service can also help parachains manage native token volatility.

Do you see yourself using PINT as an investment instrument? Let us know in the comments section below.