2024-10-21 11:19

The hub is in collaboration with Ghaf Group, a blockchain firm in the region. Layer 1 blockchain Sui has launched a hub in Dubai, a first in a global series of hubs, to support blockchain developers and entrepreneurs. "The vision is to be the heart of hackathons and implementation even in Dubai," said Kostas Chalkias, co-founder and chief cryptographer at Mysten Labs, which developed the Sui network. Dubai - The Sui blockchain has launched a hub in Dubai which will act as an incubator for blockchain developers and entrepreneurs, one of its founding developers told CoinDesk in an interview. Kostas Chalkias, co-founder and chief cryptographer at Mysten Labs, which developed the Sui network, is originally from Greece and has moved to Dubai from California. He said his vision is to bring an army of solution engineers to Dubai. "Like Leonidas, the Greek war hero, we are bringing an army of developers and if it is super successful in the very first month we will probably make it like Leonidas' 300," said Chalkias. ""Initially, we are bringing a small army but with big brains." Chalkias painted a scenario where a government entity would want a blockchain based solution to a problem and instead of spending days to create the solution, this hub would have the capacity to build the solution as a smart contract more or less on the spot. "When you're preaching an idea we will be able to sit down for two hours and build the proof of concept there. No other blockchain can do a POC on the spot. This hasn't happened before," Chalkias said. The hub is in collaboration with Ghaf Group, a blockchain firm in the region. The Dubai hub will be first in a global series of hubs, the entity announced. Dubai has been attracting the Web3 community with reasonably clear regulations and licensing processes which has seen crypto exchanges like Binance, Crypto.com and OKX win approvals this year. "UAE is top for deals UAE but not the actual development," said Chalkias. "The vision is to be the heart of hackathons and implementation even in Dubai." Initially, the hub would be hoping to help the government with digitalization, he added. The Sui network which was built by former Meta (META) employees, including Chalkias, overtook the likes of Cardano, Near and Aptos in terms of total value locked (TVL) in February this year. For some, Sui has emerged as the chosen blockchain over Solana. "We are building solution engineering here in Dubai," said Chalkias. "We want to invest in the region. We want to bring engineering capacity. I am bringing solution engineers. I want to run hackathons every month in Dubai where we don't sleep for three days. Read More: Why We Chose Sui Over Solana for Our DePIN https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/10/21/sui-launches-incubator-hub-in-dubai-for-on-the-spot-solution-engineering/

2024-10-21 11:05

Bitcoin's seven-day moving average (7DMA) hash rate surpassed 700 EH/s for the first time, marking a 13% increase since April's halving. The bitcoin hashrate has surpassed 700 EH/s for the first time, marking a 6% increase over the past seven days. Bitcoin's hashprice briefly went above $50 PH/s, a two-month high, as mining profitability increased driven by a spike in transaction fees and a surge in bitcoin's price. The seven day moving average of bitcoin's (BTC) hashrate has hit an all-time high of 703 exahashes per second (EH/s), the first time the network's hashrate has cracked 700 EH/s, according to Glassnode data. Hashrate refers to the total combined computational power used to mine and process transactions on a proof-of-work blockchain, such as bitcoin. Bitcoin's hashrate has grown almost 13% since the halving event in April, when the total number of bitcoin produced per day was cut in half to 450 BTC. Public bitcoin miners increase their hashrate share Data from bitcoin mining analyst Sebastian Ski shows that 12 of the top publicly traded miners contributed 28.9% to the total hashrate in September, translating to over 200 EH/s. Their contribution to the hashrate continues to increase month-over-month and has jumped by almost 10% since October 2022. Ski alludes to "The public miners are taking market share away from other miners in the world." Ski also mentions that the biggest gainers in hashrate growth in the past 12 months are: CleanSpark (CLSK), MARA Holdings (MARA), Riot Platforms (RIOT), and IREN. This also coincides with the top bitcoin miners seeing month-over-month production growth for September. Bitcoin mining is one of the hardest industries to stay profitable, due to it's capital intensive nature, on top of block rewards getting cut in half every four years. As a result, the weaker miners will have to unplug from the network, as staying online is not financially viable. Therefore, miners with the lowest cost of energy or the strongest balance sheet will continue to increase network share. Hashprice jumps to two-month high Bitcoin's hashprice, which measures mining profitability, recently jumped to $50 per petahash per second (PH/s) for the first time since August, according to Glassnode data. The slight surge in hashprice was due to bitcoin's price climbing to $68,000 and an increase in transaction fees due to the on-chain minting of the runes protocol that made up over 50% of all transaction fees on Oct. 17. As a result of the hashrate hitting all-time highs, the next difficulty adjustment is scheduled to increase by over 4% on Oct. 23. Bitcoin's difficulty adjusts every 2016 blocks based on the hashrate, ensuring that blocks are consistently mined on an average every 10 minutes. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/10/21/bitcoin-hashrate-hits-all-time-high-as-publicly-listed-miners-share-of-the-network-peaks/

2024-10-21 08:43

London-based L&G, which has $1.5 trillion in assets, is evaluating ways to join other big traditional players like BlackRock, Franklin Templeton and Abrdn that are offering blockchain-based money-market funds and the like. Legal & General (L&G), the London-headquartered pension and investment management firm with $1.5 trillion in assets under management, is plotting an entrance into the blockchain-based tokenization space that's growing popular among finance giants. Tokenization – or the representation of conventional assets like U.S. Treasuries-backed money-market funds via tokens on a blockchain – has become popular among traditional finance firms. That accelerated after the arrival of BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world, on the scene with its BUIDL fund on the Ethereum blockchain. Others are available from Franklin Templeton, State Street and Abrdn. “We are evaluating ways to make the Legal & General Investment Management Liquidity funds available in tokenized format,” said Ed Wicks, global head of trading at Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), when asked about the firm’s plans via email. “Digitization of the funds industry is key to improving efficiency, reducing cost and making a broad range of investment solutions available to a wider range of investors. We look forward to continued progress in this space,” Wicks said. L&G’s dalliance with blockchain technology stretches back to 2019, when the insurer said it planned to use the managed blockchain system from Amazon Web Services (AWS) to manage and record bulk annuities for its insurance business. LGIM is the asset management arm of L&G. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/10/21/uk-pension-giant-lg-looks-to-enter-cryptos-tokenization-space/

2024-10-21 08:20

Solana’s SOL led gains in leading digital assets in the past 24 hours as risk-on sentiment pushed the market higher. PLUS: The impending U.S. election contributes to increased volatility, with some expecting more gains for bitcoin in the days ahead. Bitcoin's price rose by 1.5% in 24 hours, with significant increases in futures open interest, indicating continued money flow into the market. The crypto market saw broad gains with Solana (SOL) and other major cryptocurrencies rising, fueled by speculative trading and thematic investments like AI-themed memecoins. Crypto traders are betting on a favorable outcome in the U.S. elections for cryptocurrency, with expectations of regulatory reforms if Donald Trump wins. Bitcoin (BTC) neared $70,000 earlier Monday as bullish sentiment from the forthcoming U.S. elections gains more momentum among crypto traders. BTC rose 1.5% in the past 24 hours, CoinDesk data shows, steadily rising through Sunday. The notional open interest on USD-denominated bitcoin futures across all tracked major exchanges crossed $40.63 billion over the weekend, setting a lifetime first. In token terms, open interest was 592,000 BTC, the highest since December 2022 when the cryptocurrency traded below $20,000 amid a peak bearish sentiment. Cash-margin open interest reached a new all-time high last week, with futures offered on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) accounting for 40% of the total as it crossed $11 billion on the bourse. Open interest refers to unsettled futures bets and indicates new money entering the market. A rise in the metric, alongside a price increase, confirms an uptrend. “The recent break of 68k was accompanied by about $2.4B in new BTC inflows over the past 6 sessions, along with a corresponding spike in BTC futures OI, which is a constructive indicator for new longs being established,” Augustine Fan, head of insights at crypto wealth management firm SOFA, told CoinDesk in a Telegram message Monday. Meanwhile, a critical open interest-based ratio tracked by CryptoQuant shows a sudden spike from 0.20 to 0.21 as BTC’s price rose by $2,000, indicative of increased leveraged bets on the asset. A bump in leverage indicates increased risk tolerance, which may contribute to market volatility - and higher liquidations - in the coming weeks. Broader market rally A jump in bitcoin led to higher prices throughout the crypto market. Solana’s SOL rose over 7% as a speculative frenzy of memecoins returned to the network, this time with an artificial intelligence theme. Ether (ETH), Cardano’s ADA, BNB Chain (BNB) and XRP rose as much as 4%, while major memecoins dogecoin (DOGE) and shiba inu (SHIB) added 3%. ApeCoin’s APE led market growth among mid-caps with a 21% jump in the past 24 hours, cheering the debut of its native blockchain network ApeChain. Expectations among traders is that APE could see boosted usage as tokens are issued on the new network - although steady long-term usage remains to be seen. Focus on U.S. election All eyes are on the upcoming presidential elections in the U.S. scheduled for November 5, with traders expecting a run-up in the days to come. Polymarket bettors have placed odds at 60% on Republican Donald Trump, with Democrat Kamala Harris at 39% as of Monday morning. “With the focus on the U.S. election results being front and center, the most positive outcome for crypto would be a Trump win along with a Republican sweep (of House & Senate), allowing the Trump/Vance endorsed digital asset reform plans to have a realistic chance of passing through congress,” SOFA’s Fan told CoinDesk. Traders at Singapore-based QCP Capital said in a weekend broadcast that macroeconomic factors in Japan and China, coupled with the U.S. elections, would boost BTC prices. “In Japan, inflation remains weak with headline inflation at 2.5%, down from 3.0%,” QCP traders said in the broadcast. “Market expectations indicate that the BOJ is unlikely to raise interest rates soon, contributing to a rally in USD/JPY, which is currently below 150. “Meanwhile, China cut its benchmark lending rates after the central bank lowered interest rates at the end of September as part of a series of measures aimed at reviving economic growth and halting a housing market crash,” they said. “With US equities close to all-time highs and the Japanese yen on a fresh weakening trend, risk-on sentiment will only grow stronger as we approach the US election. This will propel risk assets higher and support our Uptober narrative,” the note ended, referring to bitcoin’s historically bullish October seasonality. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/10/21/bitcoin-nears-70k-amid-record-open-interest-at-40b-as-trump-harris-election-nears/

2024-10-21 08:05

"ApeCoin has introduced an automatic yield mode, allowing users to passively earn returns by staking their APE tokens," one observer said, explaining the catalysts for the price rally. APE has hit the highest since April. The much-awaited ApeChain went live Sunday, bringing native staking yield to APE holders. ApeCoin (APE), the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC)-affiliated ERC-20 cryptocurrency used for governance and transactions in the ApeCoin ecosystem, has doubled in value over the weekend, topping $1.5 for the first time since April, according to CoinDesk data. The rally comes as the ApeCoin team, led by Yuga Labs, the company behind BAYC, debuted the highly anticipated blockchain network ApeChain Sunday. The ApeCoin DAO voted to build the same in January this year. The new offering, a Layer 3 network developed on Arbitrum One, is fully compatible with the APE token and facilitates minting non-fungible tokens (NFTs), trading, and decentralized applications while enhancing user experience, pseudonymous analyst Elena said on X. The ApeChain bridges also went live on Sunday, allowing users to transfer their tokens to ApeChain and automatically earn a staking yield on APE, ETH and stablecoins. Staking refers to locking assets in a blockchain network in return for rewards. It's analogous to investing in a fixed-income instrument. The decision to bring native staking yield to APE likely galvanized investor interest in the token, according to Markus Thielen, head of 10x Research. "ApeCoin has introduced an automatic yield mode, allowing users to passively earn returns by staking their APE tokens. This new feature reinvests rewards automatically, maximizing yield over time," Thielen said in a report to clients, explaining the catalysts for the price rally. "The system is part of the broader ApeCoin ecosystem, which aims to enhance token utility by encouraging users to engage more actively with the token through games, staking pools, and other activities. The platform also plans to extend support to other yield-generating cryptocurrencies to attract a larger user base," Thielen added. Another factor that may have helped the APE rally is LayerZero's launch on the ApeChain mainnet. LayerZero is an interoperability protocol that enables applications to move data across blockchains. The APE token's integration with LayerZero's omnichain fungible token standard enables "seamless cross-chain transfers, enhancing utility across multiple blockchains while ensuring scalable and efficient transactions," LayerZero said. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/10/21/apecoin-surges-100-as-yuga-labs-debuts-apechain/

2024-10-21 02:48

A widely-tracked momentum indicator has flipped positive for the first time since April. A widely-tracked momentum indicator has flipped bullish for the first time since April. A similar bullish flip happened at the onset of the late 2023 rally and in late 2022, marking the end of a brutal downtrend. A bitcoin (BTC) indicator that warned of seller exhaustion in early September has flipped bullish, bolstering the case for a move above $70,000. The moving average convergence divergence (MACD) histogram, a technical analysis indicator used to gauge trend strength and changes, has flipped positive on the weekly chart for the first time since April, according to charting platform TradingView. It signifies a renewed upward shift in momentum, implying a bullish resolution to bitcoin's prolonged back and forth trading between $50,000 and $70,000. The positive technical outlook is consistent with consensus that the Fed's renewed bias for rate cuts, growing probability of supposedly pro-crypto Republican candidate Donald Trump winning the Nov. 5 U.S. election, and weakness in the anti-risk Japanese yen, will likely power bitcoin to at least $100,000 by the end of December. The MACD is calculated by subtracting bitcoin's average price level during the past 26 periods (weeks in this case) from the average over the past 12 weeks. The signal line is then calculated as a nine-week average of the MACD and the difference between the MACD and signal lines is plotted as a histogram. It's one of the widely tracked indicators out there, and how it moved relative to the cryptocurrency's price in the first half of September signaled downtrend exhaustion. Bitcoin has risen nearly 30% since hitting lows under $53,000 in early September. The leading cryptocurrency by market value rose to $69,500 during Monday's Asian trading hours. The MACD's latest bullish signal follows a similar flash from the "line break chart" last week and suggests that bulls might finally succeed in establishing a foothold above the $70,000 mark, having failed to do so several times since the first quarter. A similar MACD bull cross happened in October last year as bitcoin moved past the long-held $30,000 resistance, eventually reaching a record high of over $73,000 in March this year. The bull cross seen in late 2022 marked the bear market bottom. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/10/21/bitcoin-gets-yet-another-bullish-signal-as-prices-near-70k/