Month: December 2021

  • Coinbase makes it easy to earn yield with DeFi

    Coinbase makes it easy to earn yield with DeFi

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    By Rhea Kaw, Senior Product Manager

    Today we’re introducing a new way for Coinbase’s global customers to put their crypto to work and earn yield. We are making DeFi more accessible, enabling eligible customers in more than 70 countries to access the attractive yields of DeFi from their Dai with no fees, lockups, or set-up hassle.

    Access DeFi from the comfort of your Coinbase account

    Decentralized Finance (DeFi) is becoming one of the most popular use cases for blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies because it enables people to access crypto applications without the need for a centralized intermediary.

    However, accessing DeFi protocols can require expensive network fees and involve a somewhat complex user experience. Coinbase is making DeFi more customer friendly and accessible. Eligible users will now be able to access the attractive yields of DeFi from the comfort of their Coinbase account with just a few taps and without the network fees.

    Starting today, you’ll be able to earn DeFi yield on Dai, a stablecoin that is designed to be pegged to the US Dollar.

    When you opt in to earn DeFi yield, your Dai is deposited into Compound Finance, an industry-leading DeFi protocol. The offered APY varies based on the rates from Compound and will automatically update to reflect changes in the market. Compound’s rates are variable — as an example, during the month of October, the APY for supplying DAI fluctuated between 2.83% and 5.39%.

    These higher rates reflect both the unique access to global liquidity and increased risk that can come with DeFi. Though Coinbase monitors these protocols regularly, we cannot guarantee against potential losses. One way that DeFi protocols endeavor to mitigate risk of loss is to use overcollateralization, which means that they hold excess assets to cover potential losses. This is a unique form of investment, so it is always best to make an informed investment decision.

    Even when deposited with Compound, your Dai remains available to you on Coinbase at all times, letting you continue to trade and spend as usual. Best of all, Coinbase covers the gas fees typically required to access DeFi protocols and their variable yields.

    Get Started Today

    DeFi has tremendous potential to help increase economic freedom, and we’re excited to be able to provide a trusted and accessible way to participate. Today’s launch is just the beginning — we are continuing to explore ways to allow our customers to use a wider variety of assets and a greater number of DeFi protocols.

    Earning DeFi-powered yield on Dai is now available for eligible Coinbase users in over 70 countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, and Spain. DeFi Yield is not currently available for customers in the United States. We will continue to work to bring DeFi Yield to more countries to reach more of our customers.

    To get started, visit the Dai asset page in the Coinbase app or on Coinbase.com. In addition to being in an eligible jurisdiction, you must have Dai in your Coinbase wallet in order to enter the DeFi Yield experience. Once you have a Dai balance, go to the Dai asset page, choose the DeFi Yield tile to review, and accept the terms to start earning.


    Coinbase makes it easy to earn yield with DeFi was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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  • Ledger Partners with Crypto Exchange FTX

    Ledger Partners with Crypto Exchange FTX

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    Crypto partnerships are on the rise. With surging global adoption, leading companies in the crypto ecosystem are announcing collaborations to make digital assets more accessible. Ledger, one of the most popular hardware wallets, today announced a partnership with crypto exchange FTX.

    As a result of the latest collaboration, the liquidity, leverage, and trading options of FTX will be available via Ledger Live, the company’s secure self-custody application. The collaboration between FTX and Ledger has enabled global users of Ledger Live to trade a broad range of digital currency pairs.

    Ledger outlined a few challenges related to the accessibility of digital assets in the global crypto ecosystem and mentioned that the recent partnership will provide quick access to trading in a secure environment.

    “This is an important innovation in cryptocurrency trading,” said FTX Founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. “Investors are looking for increased security and self-custody solutions without sacrificing liquidity, leverage, and trading options. The partnership between FTX and Ledger addresses this pain point for the marketplace, by providing quick access to trading while assets remain fully secure.”

    With a valuation of more than $25 billion, FTX is one of the fastest-growing crypto firms in the world. In October 2021, the digital exchange secured $420 million in funding.

    Partnership

    The press release shared by Ledger states that the users can take advantage of innovative services in a smooth manner. With access to over 300 cryptocurrency trading pairs, the collaboration provides an important opportunity for portfolio diversification.

    “Ledger is the number 1 choice for serious crypto investors. More than 15% of all crypto assets are secured by the more than 4 million Ledger Nanos sold since 2014,” added Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier. “In the past, they would need to move their assets to an exchange, trade, and move back again. Now serious traders and investors can do everything right from the security of their Ledger Nano.”

    Crypto partnerships are on the rise. With surging global adoption, leading companies in the crypto ecosystem are announcing collaborations to make digital assets more accessible. Ledger, one of the most popular hardware wallets, today announced a partnership with crypto exchange FTX.

    As a result of the latest collaboration, the liquidity, leverage, and trading options of FTX will be available via Ledger Live, the company’s secure self-custody application. The collaboration between FTX and Ledger has enabled global users of Ledger Live to trade a broad range of digital currency pairs.

    Ledger outlined a few challenges related to the accessibility of digital assets in the global crypto ecosystem and mentioned that the recent partnership will provide quick access to trading in a secure environment.

    “This is an important innovation in cryptocurrency trading,” said FTX Founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. “Investors are looking for increased security and self-custody solutions without sacrificing liquidity, leverage, and trading options. The partnership between FTX and Ledger addresses this pain point for the marketplace, by providing quick access to trading while assets remain fully secure.”

    With a valuation of more than $25 billion, FTX is one of the fastest-growing crypto firms in the world. In October 2021, the digital exchange secured $420 million in funding.

    Partnership

    The press release shared by Ledger states that the users can take advantage of innovative services in a smooth manner. With access to over 300 cryptocurrency trading pairs, the collaboration provides an important opportunity for portfolio diversification.

    “Ledger is the number 1 choice for serious crypto investors. More than 15% of all crypto assets are secured by the more than 4 million Ledger Nanos sold since 2014,” added Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier. “In the past, they would need to move their assets to an exchange, trade, and move back again. Now serious traders and investors can do everything right from the security of their Ledger Nano.”

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  • Blockasset Announces BLOCK Public Sale, Rekindles Athlete-fan Relations in Post-pandemic Space

    Blockasset Announces BLOCK Public Sale, Rekindles Athlete-fan Relations in Post-pandemic Space

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    Sports NFTs are getting an upper hand, sent by closely-knit communities around sports stars, teams, and leagues. The big “calling” for fans is how they can get closer to their favorite athletes, collaborate with them and even have an impact on some of their decisions. Blockchain is the enabler for all of this, and Blockasset is what blockchain looks like when it’s an adrenaline-pumped fan shouting “LET’S GO!!!”.

    Aiming to connect star athletes and clubs with their fans via cutting-edge tech, Blockasset sets up collaborations with major sports celebrities, builds a community of fans and fan-vestors, and brings real utility to NFTs, fan tokens, and $BLOCK – the staple token of the platform.

    What are the benefits for athletes, fans and investors?

    Blockasset offers an effective way for famous athletes to launch their personal NFT collections and boost a network effect across the energized user base.

    This model has already stood big with many wins to be proud of. On two occasions, the NFT collections broke the sales records on Solana: when Giorgio Chiellini rolled out his “Gladiator” set in July and when “Legends” NFTs dropped in the first week of November. Legends brought together 5 famed athletes, trooping Muhammad Ali and Alexander Ovechkin. All fungibles got snatched within 9 minutes, grossing $5 million in sales.

    Fans are ravished with unique real-world perks and rewards, such as Discord servers VIP membership, signed merchandise, draws for exclusive merch, as well closed-door AMAs with athletes and even in-person meet-and-greet events. Uncovering the immense power of the “collaborative economy”, Blockasset lets users participate in fantasy leagues with athletes, and influence their decisions about signings and other joined projects. This is how users are incentivized to accumulate tokens for their needs and keep active within the ecosystem.

    Those wishing to invest in sports, too, get to have a unique suite of sports-focused assets. It’s not even disruption, but just “ruption”, as new investors are drawn into the space with anti-inflationary and uniqueness that NFTs have. Onboarding has been made easy: and users can easily purchase $BLOCK with fiat. With sports platforms like Blockasset, early adopters get the chance to leverage the potential of the nascent sector – before the majority of fans and collectors even get a whiff about the new opportunities that mix up a fervor of pro sports and innovation.

    $BLOCK: internal token with embedded utilities

    The community is king, while, when it comes to technologies, utility is the queen. $BLOCK is an internal utility token that opens access to all features and functionalities on the platform. The virtuous cycle pushes up the price of $BLOCK with users constantly staking and using the token.

    Holders of $BLOCK may stake the token to receive a steady stream of ASSET – another token used to access specific features within the ecosystem. At the same time, those paying with $BLOCK at the internal NFT marketplace will enjoy significant discounts.

    Besides that, $BLOCK is used for platform governance, such as taking decisions on where the platform would go feature-wise. In contrast to general-purpose NFT marketplaces, users can also vote on various aspects relating to their favorite athletes: for instance, what music they play at specific events, and which NFTs they present there.

    Play-to-earn, yet another feature powered by $BLOCK, will roll out in Q2 2022, boosting the engagement and interactions among fans, investors and sports celebrities even further. The project’s whitepaper envisions independent universes of games and NFTs developed by specific companies and clubs, all under the aegis of Blockaccess.

    According to the platform’s representatives, the public sale of $BLOCK will take place on December 9 on DaoMaker, Solanium and Raydium. The sale will offer only 3.84 million tokens for purchase out of the total supply of 320 million.

    More interest towards segment-specific NFTs

    Investors are starting to pay more attention to NFTs that focus on specific segments, such as sports, music, gaming. This is understandable as the industry discovers the potential use cases, and the markets get more and more segmented. Sports is clearly among such niches, and Solana-based projects are leading the way thanks to the lower barrier to entry and easier interactions.

    The community will continue to discover various ways to leverage the power of $BLOCK through leaderboards, NFT trading and staking, play-to-earn, and supporting initiatives by athletes. With more use cases comes the potential for sustainable upward price dynamics.

    Don’t miss the boat on this amazing project, and consider taking part in the $BLOCK public sales on December 9. Readers can find out more information at the official website and follow Blockasset’s Twitter account – some serious buzz is happening there.

     



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  • 3 reasons why DeFiChain (DFI) price has gained 60% in December

    3 reasons why DeFiChain (DFI) price has gained 60% in December

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    Decentralized finance (DeFi) offers one of the most widely applicable use-cases for distributed ledger technology and today it is one of the main avenues for the wider adoption of blockchain technology.

    Last week, as the wider crypto market corrected and Bitcoin (BTC) dropped by 22%, DeFiChain (DFI) bucked the trend and rallied 76% to establish a new high at $5.70 on Dec. 6 as its 24-hour trading volume surged from an average of $3.6 million to $24.3 million.

    DFI/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

    Three reasons for the price breakout for DFI include the launch of decentralized assets on the DFI mainnet, a surge in transactions and users on the network and an increase in the total value locked on the protocol.

    Traders pile into decentralized stocks and cryptocurrencies

    The biggest source of momentum for DFI in recent weeks has been the launch of decentralized assets on the DeFiChain network and staking options for holders.

    Users of the platform now have access to multiple pools that include large-cap cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether, as well as synthetic versions of popular stocks and indices, including pairs for Tesla (TSLA), Apple (APPL) and the S&P 500 (SPY). In addition to having exposure to these assets, stakers also benefit from the higher-than-average yields available on the platform.

    DeFiChain DEX pool pairs. Source: DeFi Scan

    Other d-asset options available to users include Gold (GLD), Silver (SLV), the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) and the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT).

    Transaction volumes surge

    Another reason for the strong performance seen from DFI has been an increase in transactions on the network following the release of decentralized assets.

    Daily DeFiChain transaction count. Source: DeFiChain Analytics

    The surge in network activity is largely the result of the new use cases made possible by the launch of decentralized assets, including the creation of assets, liquidity mining and arbitrage trading.

    The added features have also helped to attract new users to the DFiChain ecosystem, with the number of unique wallets holding DFI reaching a new record high of 42,555 on Dec. 8.

    Unique addresses holding DFI. Source: DeFiChain Analytics

    Related: Nasdaq to provide price feeds for tokenized stock trades on DeFiChain

    Total value locked hits a new all-time high

    DFI has also seen a steady increase in total value locked on the DeFiChain protocol, which is now at an all-time high of $1.83 billion according to data from Defi Llama.

    Total value locked on DeFiChain. Source: Defi Llama

    The spike in value locked coincides with the launch of decentralized assets on the network and it’s claer that users rushed to deposit funds to gain access to the high yield opportunities available to liquidity providers.

    Aside from the staking features offered on the DeFiChain DEX, larger DFI holders with at least 20,000 DFI also have the option of locking their DFI tokens up in order to run a masternode on the network and earn rewards in return for helping to verify transactions and secure the blockchain.

    The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.