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  • Nearly one year in: Leading the herd at Coinbase

    Nearly one year in: Leading the herd at Coinbase

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    By Aaron Henshaw, Head of Coinbase Cloud Engineering

    It’s no secret that crypto is gaining mainstream appeal, with the global crypto market cap reaching an all-time high of $3 trillion for the first time, the total value locked in DeFi reaching $250 billion, and 16% of Americans investing in, trading, or otherwise using cryptocurrency in the past year. A growing number of the world’s largest companies are looking to integrate crypto into their applications. Recently, we’ve seen Stripe, Square, Reddit, the NBA and others introducing crypto into their product lines with no signs of this trend slowing down. They all have one thing in common: a need for infrastructure and tools to operate and participate in the ecosystem.

    Coinbase Cloud is committed to empowering current and future builders of the cryptoeconomy. Part of this will be building a platform that allows developers to access a suite of primitives like trading, storing, blockchain data access, and staking services. Our vision is to unleash a wave of innovation by offering turnkey solutions, enabling the innovators of tomorrow to do what they do best: build.

    Joining Forces

    In January 2021, Coinbase welcomed Bison Trails to become the foundational team and platform of Coinbase Cloud. By joining forces, we could accelerate our combined mission of creating a platform for the next wave of blockchain developers and provide a space to learn, participate, and build for the future of crypto.

    As the founders of Bison Trails, Joe Lallouz and I saw this as an opportunity to build something bigger than Bison Trails and more expansive for Coinbase. Coinbase’s commitment to being crypto-first undoubtedly contributed to a seamless transition for our team.

    The successful transition was also made possible by the support of the Coinbase leadership team, which has been committed to bringing blockchain infrastructure to the masses, as well as making this a great place for founders like Joe and I to continue building and realizing the vision that we set out to accomplish.

    As crypto becomes ubiquitous, the products and services of the Web3 era will need to be powered by reliable and secure infrastructure. Coinbase sees this opportunity and is deeply committed to both our success and the growth of the crypto ecosystem.

    The Momentum

    Crypto infrastructure has been the bread and butter of Bison Trails since its founding. Its infrastructure platform and products are now the foundation of the Coinbase Cloud platform and suite of developer offerings, to equip the next generation of builders with even more powerful solutions.

    We power some of the world’s top custodians, exchanges, funds, dapps and token holders. We are building an industry-leading platform for anyone to participate in blockchains (e.g. Celo Validators Groups, Polkadot Validators, eth2 Validators, including helping power Coinbase’s eth2 staking). We also provide reliable infrastructure for read/write data access, empowering the developers of tomorrow to build innovative crypto products and services, scale across blockchains, gain insights into network trends, and more. This frees our customers from having to invest time and resources into developing the necessary engineering, protocol, DevOps, or security competencies to do so reliably in-house.

    We are also taking network participation to the next level by engaging deeply with protocol teams. For example, we’ve worked with Solana Foundation and the NEAR council, and supported the Keanu merger, among others.

    Let’s take a look at our progress so far:

    • $30B+ in assets on platform¹ staked across more than 25 protocols as of November 2021
    • 60,000+ nodes across our Participate, Delegate, and Query & Transact products
    • Doubling the team size, including expanding our dedicated security team
    • 30+ protocols supported for our read/write infrastructure product, Query & Transact. This includes adding support for global distribution across three cloud providers, and multi-user API key management with rate-limiting options to our customers.
    • Powering features and cross-platform integrations for highly scaled Coinbase products, such as custody integrations for Institutional and eth2 staking for Retail

    These metrics are crucial. They measure our impact on the communities we support. Unlike passive custody, assets that are staked are actively used to secure the underlying protocols, making Coinbase Cloud the largest protector of stake-based protocols.

    Given the role we play across 30+ protocols, we’ve invested in the security and operational excellence of both our platform and the broader ecosystem. For example, our double-signing protection capability for eth2 has greatly reduced the risk to our platform users of any equivocation or double signing events. It’s for these reasons that companies and ecosystem players like a16z, Current, and Turner Sports have chosen to work with Coinbase Cloud.

    Trevor Marshall, CTO of Current, says “the secure, reliable infrastructure and network expertise Bison Trails (Coinbase Cloud) provides has been invaluable to making it possible for Current to be an early, active participant in Polkadot, Karura and Acala and build hybrid financial products that have the potential to improve the financial outcomes of even more people.”

    Up Next

    We are now preparing for the next phase. We see a future world where every developer, whether part of an early stage project or a leading financial institution, is in some way touching crypto networks. Coinbase Cloud will provide the tools and the platform they need to do that. Our mission is to empower the innovators and help accelerate the Web3 evolution. This is where the world of software is going and we’re excited to lead the herd.

    ¹The Bison Trails platform is non-custodial.


    Nearly one year in: Leading the herd at Coinbase 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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  • Non-Fungible Tokens and FX/CFD Brokers. An Opportunity Not to Be Missed?

    Non-Fungible Tokens and FX/CFD Brokers. An Opportunity Not to Be Missed?

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    Although the first non-fungible token (NFT) was launched as early as 2015, the market fever around this exciting asset class did not kick off until 2020 when it broke all-time records. The value of NFTs sold in the third quarter of this year reached a record level of $10.7 billion, and the craze around them is no longer reserved exclusively for a narrow group of crypto and blockchain enthusiasts.

    The NFT industry has embraced digital artists, celebrities, actors and large companies to look at and engage in this fast-growing industry as a way to maximize profits and build brand awareness. But, are NFTs suitable for everyone? Do they bring added value to retail investment platforms, foreign exchange (Forex) and contracts for difference (CFD) brokers?

    Finance Magnates has x-rayed what stands behind the success of CryptoPunks, Bored Apes and other digital collectibles, and it has discussed the subject with industry experts asking if they see an opportunity for Forex and contracts for difference brokers to use NFTs as promotional or trading assets.

    Non-Fungible Token (NFT) = An Opportunity for Your Brand?

    Famous brands and large companies have quickly discovered that NFTs can be a great way to build popularity among new economy participants and take advantage of the booming trend. As experts point out, it can be a great product for advertising new products and building brand awareness.

    “With NFTs, brands can create a buzz about a new product, create scarce and exclusive collectible assets to tell the brand story, or even support causes through token sales. Consumers today like to see brands driving sustainability efforts, which can be seen in the rise of ESG investments. So, brands might look to attract this demographic with NFTs,” Charlotte Day, Director of the Contentworks Agency, said.

    As the pandemic months have shown, retail investors aimed trading stands not so far from gamification, and experts have repeatedly commented on the gamification of the industry (commission-free trading platforms gaining huge popularity, such as Robinhood).

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    According to Philip Gunwhy, the Chief Marketing Officer for the NFT ecosystem, Blockasset, “traditional finance (or TradFi) moves slower than crypto, but it is inevitable that more and more brokers will enter the space in the future.”
    “It was only in 2020 that many institutions started to look at Bitcoin for the first time. That is still more or less the case today, save for those who are looking into Ethereum. Although NFTs have been around for around five years now, they have only really caught on in 2021. As the space matures, we can see many traditional brokers looking to break in: there is already evidence of that now, with crypto-native firms like Three Arrows Capital dropping millions of dollars on blue chips like Fidenza and Ringers,” Gunwhy commented.

    QIR3 2021 promo NTF

    CFDs for NFT-oriented Stocks?

    One of the most attractive ways for CFD brokers to tap into this rapidly building market is by offering clients access to NFT-oriented stocks. This is the simplest and easiest method to implement initially. The list of companies related to the non-fungible tokens is long and among the most popular ones you can find: Cloudflare (NET), Mattel (MAT), Dolphin Entertainment (DLPN), Takung Art (TKAT), PLBY Group (PLBY), Funko (FNKO) and, of course, Twitter (TWTR).

    Cloudflare’s stock price increased 350% last year, and in 2021 it has gained another 156%. In the case of Mattel, the appreciation is not as high but is also attractive for investors, amounting to over 50% since the beginning of 2020. Moreover, investors are very interested in Funko shares, which have grown by 65% YTD. Such rates of return will undoubtedly be of interest to current and new potential clients.

    To get the full article and the bigger picture on NFT phenomena, get our latest Quarterly Intelligence Report.

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  • Understand Cross-Chain Swap Aggregator XY Finance in 5 mins | by Bit Media Buzz | Dec, 2021

    Understand Cross-Chain Swap Aggregator XY Finance in 5 mins | by Bit Media Buzz | Dec, 2021

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    Bit Media Buzz

    XY Finance has built an efficient and user-friendly cross-chain swap for DeFi & Metaverse and single-token liquidity provision service through X Swap and Y Pool. Of them, X Swap caters to users’ cross-chain needs between multiple chains, and the newly launched Y Pool can reimburse swapping fees and token rewards for liquidity providers.

    With the coexistence of multiple chains and the boom of DeFi+NFT+GameFi, cross-chain exchange aggregators have become an essential and critical infrastructure in the entire cryptocurrency market, and the search for more efficient and convenient cross-chain exchange never stops.

    XY Finance, a cross-chain swap aggregator for DeFi & Metaverse, aims to provide users with efficient cross-chain swapping services at the best price. It recently closed a $12 million round of funding from Circle (Circle Internet Financial), Infinity Ventures Crypto, Mechanism Capital, Morningstar Ventures, YGG (Yield Guild Games), and Animoca Brands. We are honored to see investors across core pillars in the industry: exchanges, venture funds, research firms, GameFi DAOs, and game developers, such as MEXC Global, TRON Foundation, gCC (gumi Cryptos Capital), Lemniscap, Evernew Capital, PANONY, Axia8, Looksrare.vc and more.

    In addition to institutional investors, XY Finance gets backing from individual investors, such as Ben Chan (VP Engineering at Chainlink Labs), Kevin Tai (Co-Founder of Linear Finance), Tom Schmidt (Investment Partner at Dragonfly Capital), and Tempo (CEO of Perpetual Protocol), etc.



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  • MRHB DeFi Expands Asia Presence with Strategic Investment from Sinofy Group | by Bit Media Buzz | Dec, 2021

    MRHB DeFi Expands Asia Presence with Strategic Investment from Sinofy Group | by Bit Media Buzz | Dec, 2021

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    Bit Media Buzz

    Melbourne, Australia, December 2nd, 2021 — The world’s first inclusive and ethical DeFi ecosystem platform MRHB DeFi has received a strategic investment from Sinofy Group, a tech consulting management firm headquartered in Shanghai. Sinofy supports revolutionary tech companies to help them gain prominence in the world’s most digitally connected regions — China and Southeast Asia.

    A Partnership that goes beyond financial investment

    The investment includes a strategic partnership which sees MRHB DeFi join hands with Sinofy to fulfil the former’s vision of bringing an ethical, community-first focus to the world of decentralized finance. Sinofy Co-founder and angel investor Amirsan Roberto has taken the partnership a step further and joined the halal DeFi ecosystem startup as the Head of Investments and Partnerships.

    “Joining as Head of investments and Partnerships is a reflection of my commitment to and conviction in Marhaba’s vision,” explains Amirsan Roberto. “This is the first step we are taking in establishing our group venture fund and we are honored to have MRHB DeFi as our first institutional investment.”

    “We welcome Amir and Sinofy Group as part of the Marhaba family of partners and investors,” says Naquib Mohammed, CEO and founder of MRHB DeFi. “Since our early beginnings, Sinofy has actively supported our marketing efforts and aligning Marhaba with Sinofy’s deep regional expertise will bring us more visibility across Asia and beyond.”

    A Technical and Intellectual Collaboration

    Indeed the partnership will also see the parties collaborating on Sinofy East European Division’s upcoming We_Challenge 2021 Hackathon in Ukraine. With a gathering of 1,500 participants, 50 global media partners, 20 IT communities and 10 strategic partners, the hackathon is gearing up to be one of the most anticipated developer conventions in the region.

    MRHB DeFi will be coming on as an Official Sponsor at the event, with CTO Deniz Daikilic providing a keynote address as well as engaging in a panel discussion that includes CEO Naquib Mohammed and Head of Investments & Partnerships Amirsan Roberto.

    The Focus on Community and Ethics

    MRHB DeFi recently closed its Pre-Public Sale 2, an open, community-focussed offering to provide pre-IDO access and pricing to its loyal community members. The rousing success of the sale is further validation of the massive interest for DeFi services rooted in ethics and inclusion.

    MRHB DeFi was founded with a vision of providing excluded and crypto-cautious communities greater access to the growing opportunities and utilities of the cryptoverse. The project is underpinned by offering faith-based DeFi services which adhere to the ethical investment and financing principles rooted in Islamic Finance, many values upheld by the halal platform also align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Business practices deemed ethical include those that avoid interest, usury, social exploitation as well as support sustainability, asset or utility backed financing, transparency and equitable risk-reward sharing. These principles have universal appeal far beyond the faith conscious community.

    With the Islamic Finance market sized at around USD 3 trillion of assets, bringing even a small portion of Shariah-sensitive liquidity into DeFi will represent a major boost to the total value of the DeFi sector worldwide.

    Sinofy Group has now joined the host of strategic investors in MRHB DeFi who are on board to bring DeFi innovation to the Islamic finance industry. To date, investors include Sheesha Finance, Blockchain Australia, Mozaic, Contango Digital Assets, NewTribe Capital, Acreditus Partners, EMGS Group, MKD Capital and a grant from Polygon Technology.

    About MRHB DeFi

    MRHB DeFi is a halal, decentralized finance platform built to embody the true spirit of an “Ethical and Inclusive DeFi” by following faith-based financial and business principles, where all excluded communities can benefit from the full empowerment potential of DeFi.

    The diverse team comprises researchers, technocrats, influencers, Islamic fintech experts & business entrepreneurs, who came together to ensure that MRHB DeFi prevails in a manner that will impact society as a whole, essentially bridging the gap between the faith-conscious communities and the blockchain world.

    MRHB DeFi Official Channels

    Website: https://marhabadefi.com

    Twitter: https://twitter.com/marhabadefi

    Telegram: https://t.me/mdf_official

    Telegram Announcements: https://t.me/marhabadefi_ANN

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHuvZG9DbS5ffeoqLX_bERg

    Medium: https://medium.com/@mrhbdefi

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/marhabadefi

    Telegram (Arabic): https://t.me/mdf_arabic

    Telegram (Russian): https://t.me/marhabadefi_russia

    Telegram (Turkish): https://t.me/MarhabaDefiTR

    About Sinofy Group

    Sinofy Group is an end-to-end tech consulting management firm headquartered in Shanghai, offering a range of services across blockchain, fintech, cybersecurity, robotics, medtech, gaming, AI/ML and AR/VR industries.

    The company deals with customized solutions built to “Sinofy, Fund, and Empower” tech companies in the world`s most digitally connected region — China and Southeast Asia. To date, they have worked with innovative tech brands seeking to expand their digital reach and penetrate into new markets. Their vast global network brings a world-class blend of expertise and support.



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  • Ethereum Topside Bias Vulnerable If It Breaks This Key Support

    Ethereum Topside Bias Vulnerable If It Breaks This Key Support

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    Ethereum trimmed gains from the $4,800 resistance against the US Dollar. ETH is down 5% and it might decline further if there is a break below $4,350.

    • Ethereum failed to clear the $4,800 resistance and started a fresh decline.
    • The price is now trading near $4,500 and the 100 hourly simple moving average.
    • There was a break below a key bullish trend line with support near $4,600 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD (data feed via Kraken).
    • The pair could decline further below $4,500 if there is a close below the 100 hourly SMA.

    Ethereum Price Trims Gains

    Ethereum struggled to clear the $4,800 resistance zone and started a fresh decline. ETH broke the key $4,650 support to enter a bearish zone.

    Besides, there was a break below a key bullish trend line with support near $4,600 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD. The pair even traded below the $4,550 support zone. It is now trading near $4,500 and the 100 hourly simple moving average.

    A low is formed near $4,455 and is currently consolidating losses. An initial resistance on the upside is near the $4,540 level. It is near the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the recent decline from the $4,783 high to $4,455 low.

    The first major resistance is near the $4,580 level. The next major resistance is near the $4,620 level. It coincides with the 50% Fib retracement level of the recent decline from the $4,783 high to $4,455 low.

    Ethereum Price

    Source: ETHUSD on TradingView.com

    A close above the $4,600 and $4,620 levels could start a fresh increase in the near term. In the stated case, the price might rise towards the $4,750 level. Any more gains could lift the price towards the $4,800 zone in the near term.

    More Losses in ETH?

    If ethereum fails to start a fresh increase above the $4,600 level, it could start a downside correction. An initial support on the downside is near the $4,500 level.

    The first key support is now forming near the $4,450 level. A downside break below the $4,450 support zone could push the price further lower. The main breakdown support is $4,350, below which the price could decline heavily.

    Technical Indicators

    Hourly MACDThe MACD for ETH/USD is gaining pace in the bearish zone.

    Hourly RSIThe RSI for ETH/USD is now well below the 50 level.

    Major Support Level – $4,450

    Major Resistance Level – $4,620

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  • Polygon’s expanding ecosystem backs MATIC’s rise toward a new all-time high

    Polygon’s expanding ecosystem backs MATIC’s rise toward a new all-time high

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    Layer-two (L2) solutions for the Ethereum network have become a popular topic of discussion and speculation on their associated tokens backed the massive rally seen in many of the protocols this year. The parabolic growth of the decentralized finance (DeFi) and nonfungible token (NFT) sector also led to a surge in the cost carrying out simple transfers and this prompted developers and investors to migrate to L2-supportive platforms.

    One L2 solution that saw its token price rise to new highs earlier in the year and now looks poised to make another breakout higher is Polygon (MATIC), a proof-of-stake blockchain protocol that aggregates scalable solutions on Ethereum in order to support a multi-chain ecosystem.

    Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that MATIC hit a low at $1.01 on Sept. 21, and over the past few months the price has been in a steady uptrend, bringing the altcoin above the $2 mark on Dec. 1. 

    MATIC/USDT 1-day chart. Source: TradingView

    Polygon’s ecosystem is expanding and proof of this can be seen in the increase in protocol launches, cross-chain migrations, the launch of a Polygon-focused exchange-traded product (ETP) and a steady uptick in user activity.

    Ecosystem expansion

    One of the biggest drivers of MATIC price and on-chain activity has been the addition of new protocols to the Polygon network throproject launches and cross-chain migrations.

    Most recently, IDEX decentralized exchange announced that it would launching v3 of its exchange on the Polygon network, making it the first hybrid liquidity DEX on Polygon.

    The Polygon network has seen project launches from NFT projects like the OpenBiSea NFT marketplace and gaming / DeFi platforms like Rainmaker Games, Harvest Finance and Jarvis Network.

    Currently the Uniswap community is in the process voting on whether to add Polygon support for Uniswap v3 and after majority yes Phase 1 vote on Nov. 25 the process has shifted into Phase 2.

    Rising institutional support

    Another reason for the bullish price action for Polygon has been increased interest from institutional investors. Several ETPs for Polygon have been listed in recent months, including the Osprey Polygon Trust in September and the 21Shares Polygon ETP in November.

    Polygon is also included on the list of assets being explored by the Grayscale Investments as a potential Trust candidate.

    The network has also benefited from a $20 million investment fund launched by Wintermute, a digital asset market maker focused on helping to bootstrap the development of decentralized applications on Polygon.

    Currently, the Polygon network is receiving increased attention as it prepares to host a ZK Summit on Dec. 9 where developers will discuss the “current state and future of zk-STARKs and applications of Zero Knowledge proofs.”

    Related: IDEX to launch hybrid liquidity decentralized exchange on Polygon

    Increase in active users and wallets

    A third reason for the bullish price action seen in MATIC has been the steady increase of users on the network as evidenced by the increase in wallet addresses holding a balance.

    Polygon addresses with a balance vs. MATIC price. Source: Intotheblock

    As shown in the graph above, the number of Polygon wallets holding a balance has steadily increased throughout 2021 and is currently at an all-time high of 282,760.

    Evidence of the increased activity can also be found in the data for total revenue generated from fees on the network, which has been steadily increasing over the second half of 2021.

    Polygon price vs. total revenue. Source: Token Terminal

    As new protocols continue to list on the Polygon network, these stats are likely to rise if new users continue to use the platform to escape the high fees seen on the Ethereum network.

    VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for MATIC on Oct. 15, prior to the recent price rise.

    The VORTECS™ Score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historical and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.

    VORTECS™ Score (green) vs. MATIC price. Source: Cointelegraph Markets Pro

    As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for MATIC spiked into the green zone on Oct. 15 and reached a high of 94 around 48 hours before the price began to increase by 57% over the next six weeks.

    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.