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Zambia SEC Warns Crypto Enthusiasts About Making Investments in Onyxcoin Cryptocurrency

The Securities and Exchange Commission in Zambia has issued a statement warning the general public that the creator of OnyxCoin Kwakoo is in no way a licensed investment advisor and should not solicit funds from within or outside the country. The CEO of the commission was reported to have made this statement as relayed by the Lusaka Times on August 2.Relatedly, the CEO had noted that the Securities Act, No. 41 of 2016 dictates that certain activities — such as Kwakoo’s — requires proper licensure in the country, except drastic legal measures, are taken to curb future occurrences. Chitalu had also added that the SEC was under the impression that Onyxcoin promoters are falsely claiming that that the cryptocurrency would experience a 1000% growth and make lots of profit for holders by June 2021. Going by the information stated on the commission’s official website, the Zambia SEC had also warned against ICO’s and cryptocurrencies generally:Other possible MLM schemes the commission also pointed out“The Commission would also like to advise investors, both current and potential, to observe extreme caution when dealing with self-proclaimed cryptocurrency educators, trainers and advisors (whose numbers are rapidly increasing) as the credibility and accurateness of their teachings and advice are unverified.”In a previous report, the National Bank of Rwanda had issued a warning to the public about alleged crypto scams, including Onyxcoin, Supermarketings Global Ltd 3 Friends System Group Ltd and OneCoin.

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Market Researcher States That Bitcoin is an Indicator for Geopolitical Turmoil

Nicolas Colas, a market researcher and Co-founder of market research firm DataTrek Research, says that Bitcoin could be used as an indication for geopolitical turmoil.

Bitcoin serving as indicators

On August 14, in a CNBC interview, Colas had claimed that Bitcoin was one of the few assets whose price had predicted the Hong Kong’s protest which also involved its local capital flight.

He had said that he believed that Bitcoin was a safe haven when asked by the interviewer. He said:

“We are definitely seeing that, and really are perked up around the Hong Kong protests and some of the currency flight that happened out of Hong Kong and the mainland, and Bitcoin was one of the few assets that we watched that actually predicted that uncertainty ahead of time. Nothing else was really moving, Bitcoin was.”

Colas expressed his certainty about the digital currency’s ability to hit the $20,000 mark again, saying that the currency is still new and in its infant stage and had a lot of room for growth.

Image via Shutterstock

BTC Breaks Its Strong $10,000 Support Amidst US-China War Trade Cool Off

The price of Bitcoin has taken a serious hit in the past few days as the largest cryptocurrency has dipped below its supposedly strong support of $10k and bounced back up.

Market visualization. Source: Coin360

The relief of the market as the tension eases off with Bitcoin taking the hit

As the data reflects from coin360 shows, we see that investors have not just had a gloomy week but a have been bashed during the entire week.

As it has been observed in recent months Bitcoin has been seen to have developed a pattern; Bitcoin reversed its success from the previous weekend when geopolitical uncertainty and fiat currency weakness and within several jurisdictions had pushed its price above the $12,000 spot.

Hong Kong and Argentina took the lead as regards fueling this theory which critics of Bitcoin such as Peter Schiff had taken the opportunity to refute as the markets fell. He made a statement through a tweet on Tuesday saying that:

“Now that trade tension with China has eased, the pressure on the yuan is off. Those who bought Bitcoin to speculate on Chinese safe-haven buying, which never happened, are taking their chips off the table,”

On the other hand, Bitcoin advocates on social media, have been seen to be more open to other explanations. According to a survey conducted by a regular analyst and trader Josh Rager delivered a rare even split regarding the future Bitcoin price. In the survey, amongst the 35000 participants, 50% of them had voted for and against the price of Bitcoin taking below $10000 in the short term.

Bitcoin's Largest Competitor Ethereum Quickly Gaining Ground in Colombia

From every indication, it appears the second largest cryptocurrency and most formidable Bitcoin rival, Ethereum has been seen quickly gaining ground as it gains tremendous popularity in Colombia.

Ethereum becoming Colombia’s best option

It has been seen that the South American region has been very receptive to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general. Countries such as Venezuela that have experienced extreme situations ranging from inflation of their currency to other economic situations which ultimately renders them useless to persons within that geographical location have been left with little or no choice but to seek refuge in cryptocurrencies.

While some others have turned to other cryptocurrencies such as dash to make sure they are able to meet their daily needs such as feeding, the government hasn’t been of much help in this situation.

Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro had recently introduced the Petro, which was alleged to be backed by the countries rich oil reserves. However there has been no mention of backing this native digital currency by the country’s oil reserves in the country’s whitepaper, and many believe this to be false and not workable. Also, Maduro had made efforts to integrate Petro into the salary scheme of workers in the country so as to enable ease of there payment through this digital currency as the value of the Venezuelan Bolivar is fast hitting rock bottom. But unfortunately, this plan too had failed.

Although the plans to integrate Petro into the country’s financial system had failed, its citizens have been able to take on other solid substitutes like Bitcoin, and now Ethereum which has been gaining a lot of popularity recently. This was reflected in a survey conducted by Paxful, a cryptocurrency platform that allows peer to peer trading between users who want to buy and sell cryptocurrencies. From every indication, this looks like a good sign for the altcoin.

Image via Shutterstock

Cardano’s Shelley Mainnet Code Launch at Virtual Summit Could be a Catalyst for ADA Price Rally

Cardano (ADA) price has shown a bearish trend in the past few days, according to on-chain data. However, Cardano has been the third best-performing cryptocurrency in the top 30 according to market capitalization in terms of price gain in the past month, behind Crypto.com, and VeChain.

Cardano describes itself as a third-generation blockchain platform, aiming to significantly improve shortcomings of the first generation, Bitcoin, and the second generation, Ethereum, including smart contracts.

The IOHK team, one of the leading entities contributing to the development of Cardano, is taking ADA to its next milestone. Two teams of developers from IOHK have been developing two different systems of the staking protocol, including the Byron-derived version, which is currently in use, and a Haskell-based Shelley system.

Taking on a scientific approach, Cardano has learned the limitations of the two prior generations. According to Charles Hoskinson, the founder of IOHK as well as one of the co-founders of Ethereum, he understands the importance of the long-term evolution of the platform in areas such as scalability, governance, and extensibility when making decisions around architecture.

The Shelley upgrade

Prior to the bearish slump, Cardano’s ADA cryptocurrency has risen around 50% since late May 2020, in light of the news of its Shelley upgrade. The Shelley mainnet is a decentralized network of community nodes operating on a proof-of-stake consensus protocol, with less central governance coming from the developers. In other words, the Cardano ecosystem is moving from a centralized network to a distributed network system.

As the anticipation for Cardano to introduce its upcoming Shelley mainnet, ADA’s price has benefited from the announcement and successful testnet before its launch. The launch of the Cardano Shelley mainnet remains on schedule, and IOHK is already in the final and crucial phase, with no major bugs found so far.

Ethereum killer to be announced?

IOHK will be hosting a virtual summit on July 2 – 3 for the launch of Cardano’s Shelley code. The virtual event will allow participants to attend free of charge, and according to Hoskinson, there will be a lot of “cool” announcements during the summit.

One of the new “cool” announcements to be expected is the new multi-asset standard from Cardano, which is said to be much superior to Ethereum’s ERC20 standard. Hoskinson recently presented Prism, an identity solution that uses decentralized IDs, to compete with products from Microsoft.

A new roadmap for Cardano’s developments will also be presented, as well as a presentation of how Cardano can be used commercially. These new announcements could jumpstart a new rally for ADA price. With a new range of commercial uses to be presented by Cardano, further crypto adoption could be expected.

Cardano joins Hyperledger Consortium

Earlier this month, IOHK announced that the company has joined the Hyperledger Consortium, an open-source community focused on developing a set of frameworks for enterprise blockchains. Hyperledger consortium has more than 250 member companies, with industry leaders in the financial services, technology, and other related fields.

IOHK will be collaborating with other companies in the blockchain ecosystem, to expand its interoperability with the other projects in the consortium.

Cardano Founder Charles Hoskinson Addresses an Alleged ADA Scam in China

Scammers are capitalizing on the recent success of Cardano’s cryptocurrency, ADA, and using it for their own personal gain. For the first time in over a year, ADA has moved above $0.10, and has picked up by over 200 percent.

According to a video footage shot by cryptocurrency podcaster and founder of Boxmining Michael Gu, a group of farmers in China is being hustled with Cardano and ADA. The fraudsters, operating under the name of “Asian Dragons,” was purported to be seen advertising Cardano merch and ADA. In the video, one can see Cardano Founder Charles Hoskinson plastered at the front for the audience to see.

Since the incident, Cardano Foundation and CEO Charles Hoskinson have come out publicly and addressed the incident, making it absolutely clear that they are not in any way associated with the cryptocurrency sales pitch.

Hoskinson even went further and filmed a YouTube video, inputting his two cents on scams and illegal activities. He states that he has also seen every ICO scam under the moon, as he has been in the business for quite some time. Hoskinson shares that it is unfortunate that his hard work was plagiarised and dumbed down to a mere marketing scam:

“You work five years on something, you put your heart and soul into it, you just have a giant event that 10,000 people attend. Then you see floating around Telegram, Twitter, some video — some scammers in China using my face, our company’s logo, the Cardano Foundation’s logo who have absolutely no affiliation with us.”

As the altcoin ADA skyrocketed in the month of July, market experts have disclosed that it is the highest price level it’s been at since June 2019. Currently, ADA is experiencing a 200% year-to-date gain, making it the biggest news on crypto markets. ADA’s counterpart Bitcoin, which is the top cryptocurrency on crypto markets, only saw a surge of 30% this year.

On top of his recent success with his blockchain firm, Input Output (IOHK) CEO Hoskinson also spoke up in support of Kanye West’s recent announcement that the rap star wished to run for presidency. Hoskinson took to his YouTube platform once again and said,

“If it’s not a joke, when Cardano has native assets, to demonstrate the power uniqueness of native assets, we will issue Kanye Coin, and the circulation will be 1 token for each vote that Kanye gets in the election.”

Will Crypto Assets Have a Future in Russia After All? State Duma Passes DFA Bill

The State Duma of Russia passed a law regarding digital financial assets (DFA) in the financial bill’s third reading, which determined the fate of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Russian Parliament: How It Works

Russian legislative system is separated in different readings for different bills, to determine the criteria for law adoption of each proposed regulatory rule. Each bill undergoes three readings as it transitions from a draft to adoption phase. The third reading, which is the final one, therefore is associated with final adoption.

DFA Bill Finally Goes Through

The DFA bill, named “On Digital Financial Assets,” decrees that on January 1, 2021, transactions with cryptocurrencies involved will be legalized. However, the catch is that crypto enthusiasts will not be able to use Bitcoins (BTC) and altcoins as a form of payment, but rather, they would have to conduct business payments with fiat money.

“On Digital Financial Assets” bill also has no concept of “token” or “mining” in it, as the Russian parliament has rectified the bill during the second reading and removed these notions from the draft.

Though crypto-relevant transactions will be legalized, Russia is currently still waiting for the autumn session in order to draft up a final law, that will determine the specifics on the actual regulation of cryptocurrency.

Bill Dictates What “Digital Currency” Is

Under the DFA bill, an investor can therefore hold BTC funds. However, the crypto asset is not recognized as an international monetary unit of Russia or a foreign state. The DFA official document also defines what Russia considers as “digital currency” from a legal viewpoint. Crypto assets can be used as a store of value; however, Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies are neither an international currency, nor a currency of a foreign state or Russia.

Therefore, according to the State Duma overlooking the Financial Market sector, crypto assets, such as Bitcoins, cannot be used to pay for goods and services.

BTC is Out, But Stablecoins Are In

Though Bitcoins and altcoins will not be allowed to replace fiat payments, the newly adopted “On Digital Financial Assets” bill will allow local businesses to issue stablecoins, which is self-explanatory in that it is a “stable” token that is usually set to fiat currencies, such as USD. Head of the State Duma’s Financial Market Committee Anatoly Aksakov confirmed that Russia will be able to use stablecoin tokens and also exchange them for other assets, which include but are not restricted to digital assets that were issued abroad.

Head of State Duma Despises Crypto

Though this may be considered as huge improvement from criminalizing cryptocurrencies– a move that Russia was planning to implement – Chairman of the State Duma committee Anatoly Askakov has made his stance on cryptocurrencies very clear in the past, making it known that he disliked cryptocurrencies of any sort. He stated emphatically that if it was not for Russia’s official currency, Ruble, Russian government would not adopt it.

DFA Bill Sets The Mood For Autumn Bill

At this very moment, while the DFA bill provides the basis of Russia’s crypto legislation and is set to be adopted by January 2, 2021, the global crypto community is still awaiting legal action regarding the regulation of the cryptocurrency industry in Russia as a whole. That will be dictated by another bill, set to be introduced in the autumn session.

Litecoin Confirms MimbleWimble Test Network Set Later This Year, LTC Price Predictions are High

Litecoin’s core developer, David Burkett confirmed that the test network for MimbleWimble’s implementation is set for September this year. Litecoin features faster transaction verification times and improved storage efficiency compared to Bitcoin.

Litecoin is taking a step further towards implementing the MimbleWimble on the network, and Burkett noted that “confidence is returning to the space and to cryptocurrency as a technology,” in his latest update.

Litecoin’s protocol in development, MimbleWimble has been created to enable more privacy and fungibility to the network, which was started in H2 2019. Mimblewimble is the tongue-tying curse debuted in Harry Potter, which binds the target’s tongue from speaking on a specific subject.

When compared to the Bitcoin network, MimbleWimble takes up only 10 percent of the data storage requirements, allowing it to be highly scalable for storing blockchain, and enables further decentralization.

The project has had a focus on the initial block download, which is a feature that will improve the scalability of the Litecoin network. The initial block download will enable transactions to be verified by only checking the “state of the chain.” MimbleWimble has a different verification mechanism compared to the Bitcoin network, which will allow miners to verify transactions without downloading all the blocks on Litecoin. Burkett added:

“When developing projects this large, things rarely go exactly as planned, so the design changes over time. Having a chance like this to go back through the code and clean things up, re-evaluate decisions made, etc. will really pay off in terms of code quality, hopefully allowing for a smooth first testnet launch at the end of September.”

According to TradingView analyst Faibik, Litecoin (LTC) price will most likely break upwards from a descending parallel trading channel. The analyst noted that Litecoin has hit the upper boundary of the trading channel, and LTC price is expected to break upwards and that the Litecoin price could rise to the $120 threshold. Litecoin is trading at $58.28 at press time.

Source: Trading View

The chart’s daily timeframe shows that LTC/USD will have a bullish exponential moving average cross, which could mean a Litecoin bull run.

Possible cross-chain communication integration with Cardano?

Last month, IOHK CEO and Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson announced that Cardano has allocated a cross-chain communication team to build a network enabling interoperability between blockchains.

Cross-chain communication could enable users to use Hydra to send value to and from other major networks including Bitcoin and Litecoin.

Earlier in July, Charles Hoskinson said he would “love the idea” of testing cross-chain communication between Cardano and Litecoin, and Charlie Lee, the creator of Litecoin responded with, “Sure!”

Band Protocol (BAND) and Chainlink (LINK) DeFi Tokens Outperform Bitcoin by Gaining 100%

With the recent boom of the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry, DeFi tokens have undergone more than a 100% gain on the crypto market over the past few weeks, outperforming Bitcoin.

Altcoin Season

Recently, with the growth of the DeFi industry, Band Protocol (BAND) and Chainlink (LINK) have been recorded to soar by 348% and 88% respectively, outpacing Bitcoin’s surge. The DeFi tokens bull run took effect in the span of 10 days. Since the beginning of this month, cryptocurrency BAND was recorded to peak at $17,78 from $3.9, and LINK rose from $7.6 to $14.45.

As for Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency surged past $12,000 on the market. However, according to Holger Zchaepitz, the global stock market has reached what experts call a “bubble territory,” which refers to an economic situation where asset prices experience a surge, before eventually falling back down in stock pricing.

2020, The Year of DeFi

Market experts point to the increasing popularity of decentralized finance apps (Dapps) and the growth of the DeFi sector to explain the sudden surge of Band Protocol (BAND) and ChainLink (LINK).

The boom of DApps enables avid crypto investors to trade, loan, and earn interest from cryptocurrency transactions easily and rapidly. Band Protocol (BAND) and Chainlink (LINK) both run on the oracle blockchain network, which is the underlying technology used to leverage DApps. On CoinMarketCap, ChainLink (LINK) was also recorded to have reached sixth on the market capitalization ladder.

Crypto data analytics firm Messari also explained BAND’s bull run by pointing at LINK’s trajectory. Their crypto experts pointed out that ChainLink might have spurred its counter rival’s growth on the market by stating:

“BAND has recently taken a page straight out of the LINK handbook with a slew of partnership and integration announcements, including a Coinbase Pro listing. Up over 32x on the year, its relative valuation play and anchor to LINK has worked so far.”

As BAND and LINK cryptocurrencies operate on different blockchain networks, they support separate DeFi ecosystems, which run on Ethereum blockchain.

Ethereum, A Big Player in The DeFi Industry

Ethereum has been having quite a year. With the recent launch of Medalla and the blockchain ecosystem celebrating its 5-year anniversary recently, Ethereum has been making headlines left and right. Its native cryptocurrency Ether also experienced a recent surge on the market, with investors hoping for it to push past the $400 mark.

At the time of writing, its cryptocurrency Ether is trading slightly north of $390. Ethereum is reputed to have the most DeFi applications run on a blockchain, leveraging smart contracts rather than an intermediary.

Polkadot (DOT) Becomes the Tenth-Largest Crypto by Market Cap Leading the Altcoin Surge

Polkadot (DOT) has recently become one of the most talked-about altcoins recently in the crypto industry, as it recently surged and became the tenth-largest crypto by market capitalization. The DOT token recently completed its second token sale just a month ago, and its first sale was in 2017.

Recently, two large crypto exchanges have decided to list Polkadot, ahead of its redenomination from the project. The redenomination witnessed DOT denominated at one-hundredth of the value of the old DOT after the community voted. According to the Polkadot network, the DOT token has three purposes, governance, staking, and bonding on the network.

The Polkadot’s DOT token has been available for trading since 2019, and the future of the DOT token was handed to its community for voting. The co-founder of Polkadot announced the results of the community vote on July 27. There were a few choices for the vote, the community could keep the original DOT value, or a stock-split of DOT, creating a new DOT token that was either one-tenth, one-hundredth, or one-thousandth of the old DOT.

As the announcement confirmed that the new DOT would be to split the token by a factor of 100, the new DOT value would be in effect on Aug 21.

Binance and Kraken crypto exchanges announced that they were listing the DOT token on Aug 18, with immediate effect. However, there was some controversy around its listing time, as the exchanges caused massive confusion among traders, showing the prices at the redenominated value. The price of DOT was inflated by up to ten times during the first hour of trading, then a plunge followed.

After the controversy with the crypto exchanges, the DOT token surged to $4, reaching a 40 percent gain. Polkadot is currently trading at $3.93 at press time. The recent DOT price surge was driven by its growing utility, redenomination, and a strong technical outlook, with its rally towards $5.

Polkadot also briefly became the seventh-largest crypto by market cap, surpassing Cardano (ADA) and Bitcoin SV (BSV). The lead technical analyst at Blockfyre said:

“$DOT is already #7 in marketcap. It feels like most of the money that’s going to be made already has been made. Thus I can’t image the upside is tremendous from here and that most buying from here on will lose.”

However, Polkadot is now the tenth largest crypto by market cap, just slightly below Cardano and Bitcoin SV.