M.I.A. has been in the news for comparing the Alex Jones verdict to "every celebrity pushing vaccines," and she also just released her first album in six years, MATA. To promote the latter, she talked with another outspoken celebrity who is known for making controversial comments, Grimes, for PAPER Magazine. "Grimes has carved out a place in the music industry that is super unique, and shes sustained it and is strong enough to hold it by herself, M.I.A. tells PAPER. You have to respect that. I know she must have gone through crazy shit to keep that level of identity that she has."

There's no mention of vaccines in their lengthy conversation, but they touch on lots of other topics, including affordable housing, public education, spirituality, cryptocurrency, motherhood, poverty, lobbying, and more. Grimes makes a case for religion as a "social technology" that could help people overcome their problems, saying:

The thesis I've been coming to over time is that the things we need to do to overcome our problems are technological, but that includes both literal technology and social technology, which is something we disregard too often in our culture. When I say social technology, religion is a social technology. It's a thing people used to fill in for mental health before we had concepts of mental health. I still think religion functions better than the mental health system most of the time. Part of our issue is that we haven't been updating our religions or making new religions that are adequate and make sense with the time. Most religions feel somewhat mythological or fantastical in the current cultural landscape, even if they contain really good teaching.

To speak about resources and technology, we have solutions to all these problems, we are just not implementing them. We have carbon capture, we have remineralization of soil and, in fact, we can do those things at the same time. If everybody started composting and we started enriching soil and putting our waste into compost and taking more care, there's ways to take care of our earth that solve our problems that can allow for radical abundance. While I don't think we can have equality of outcome between people, I do think something that is achievable is equality of opportunity.

She also calls for less reliance on the government, saying, "What we need to do is rely less on the government and allow individual companies to start creating the tools we need to power our lives."

"I 100% agree with you," M.I.A. replied. "I'm a full supporter of that and support any independent thinkers and companies who've got the motivation to see a vision and follow it through. But the problem is, say a company like Google, how do you then maintain their value system or ethics so that they don't become politicized and become the government? That's the problem we are living through now. Tech giants have become the shapers of this situation that we are seeing."

Later in the conversation, Grimes says that after she releases the new project she's working on, "I'm probably going to put out one more album and then I'm going to do things that are more helpful to people." She also says she's "literally working on a housing bill in Austin, right now."

"I can't wait for this album to come out and actually go and do that," M.I.A. responds. "There is a part of me that wants to keep going straight and drive through Mexico, through South America and really take in what's happening and what people need and do it instead of saying it. My thing is going to be affordable housing. I want to dedicate my life to that for the next five, 10 years."

Read the conversation in full on PAPER.

See the original post:

Grimes & M.I.A. talk spirituality, cryptocurrency, politics and more in new interview - Brooklyn Vegan

A cryptocurrency firm that employs the former chancellor Philip Hammond as an adviser has withdrawn its application to operate in the UK, after struggling to win approval from the financial regulator.

The Guardian revealed earlier this year that Copper Technologies, in which Hammond holds a 0.5% stake, was considering seeking registration in Switzerland rather than the UK.

The company had been given temporary registration by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), pending approval of the controls it had put in place to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.

Fintech company Revolut, which had also been placed on the FCAs temporary list, was awarded full registration for its UK crypto business last month.

But Copper Technologies has revealed, in accounts filed at Companies House, that it had withdrawn its application and moved UK customers to Switzerland, after winning approval there.

Hammond, who was chancellor between July 2016 and July 2019, has been critical of the UK for failing to set up a comprehensive regulatory framework governing cryptocurrencies.

Earlier this year he said it was frankly quite shocking that Britain was lagging behind other countries.

The FCAs regime for digital assets currently covers money laundering and terrorist financing but not specific aspects of cryptocurrency trading and investing.

Hammond, recruited by Copper Technologies as a senior adviser in 2021, has growth shares that were thought to be worth up to $15m (13m), based on reports by Bloomberg that the company was seeking a valuation of $3bn in a fundraising exercise.

The accounts show that Copper Technologies has raised $196m so far but the ultimate success of the fundraising and thus the valuation could be affected by a broad global sell-off of digital assets over the past year.

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In the meantime, losses at Copper, which provides digital currency infrastructure to other businesses, have increased from 3.6m to 14.3m, accounts show.

A spokesperson for the company said: Copper maintains open and active dialogue with regulators across the jurisdictions where we are operating, including of course with the FCA. Since gaining our membership to [Swiss body] VQF in May, we are pleased to be able to offer clients services from Switzerland.

More here:

Cryptocurrency firm advised by Philip Hammond withdraws UK application - The Guardian

The year is rounding up, and investors in the blockchain industry have seen the cryptocurrency marketplace value drop exponentially. Although the industry is on a downward slope, there are still some cryptocurrencies that are worth investing in before the end of 2022.

The state of the crypto market has left coins like Curve DAO (CRV) and Enjin (ENJ) struggling to find their feet. However, Plona (PLON) is one of the few tokens moving in a great direction regardless of the state of the crypto marketplace. Curve and Enjin have been in the blockchain industry for many years now. Meanwhile, Plona (PLON), only recently launching into the market, is looking to make a name for itself, doing so effectively.

If you want to simplify the process of exchanging different ERC-20 tokens, Curve Dao (CRV) is the cryptocurrency for you. Curves platform will streamline this exchange process while providing its users with swap support for Bitcoin tokens (BIT) based on Ethereum (ETH) and stablecoins like USDC and DAI.

Curve Dao (CRV), an Ethereum-based cryptocurrency, is a blockchain that powers Curve.fi at a low cost. Curve.fi is a decentralized exchange and automated market maker protocol that uses liquidity pools instead of exchanges that match a buyer and a seller. We saw a 4.40% decrease in Curve Dao (CRV) tokens, leaving Curve token holders in a frenzy. Currently worth $0.91 today, Curve Dao (CRV) is one of the more expensive cryptocurrencies in the marketplaces that isnt performing at its best. Investors in Curve Dao (CRV) are now looking for more affordable tokens like Plona (PLON), which is doing remarkably well.

Enjin, a software providing developers with the ability to create and manage virtual goods, uses blockchain technology to manage in-game items across various properties. The developers of Enjin designed this cryptocurrency on the Ethereum blockchain. They wanted to make it easy for individuals, businesses, and brands to use non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

There are high fees and fraud problems in the virtual in-game goods and collectables industry that the Enjin (ENJ) platform is tackling and trying to use. The team at Enjin (ENJ) wants users to have the ability to design their own assets on the Ethereum blockchain and integrate them into apps and games. So, Enjin (ENJ) released its own software development kits to aid this process. Currently, one Enjin (ENJ) will cost you $0.457 as the coin went down by 0.89% in 24 hours. Enjin (ENJ) is now trading at 0.0003305 Ethereum (ETH), with the potential to drop even more. If you are looking for a more affordable option, consider investing in Plona, which only costs $0.14.

What is Plona (PLON)? Plona (PLON) is a non-fungible token (NFT) project based on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. The creators of Plona (PLON) are blockchain experts who love exotic cars. They designed Plona (PLON) to be the worlds first fractional luxury car investment platform on the blockchain, enabling users to trade fractional NFTs backed by real-world automobiles. Plona (PLON) token is at the forefront of promoting fractional ownership by tokenization, leading experts to believe the platform will have a 3,500% gain by January 2023.

Investors in the blockchain industry can own a fraction of the luxury cars of their choice after investing $29 in the Plona platform. Plonas starting price at launch is $0.012 but is subject to change, given how much hype this cryptocurrency has received. A unique feature that the team at Plona (PLON) is calling Plona Airdrop will reward Plona (PLON) token holders who hold on to their coins in their wallets. This feature enables users in the community to benefit from a 2.5% transaction fee on all network transactions. As of today, the Plona (PLON) token might be worth purchasing over Curve Dao and Enjin.

Join the Plona presale and find out more below

Presale: https://buy.plona.io

Website: https://plona.io

Twitter: https://twitter.com/plonatoken

Telegram: https://t.me/plonatoken

Disclaimer: This is a press release post. Coinpedia does not endorse or is responsible for any content, accuracy, quality, advertising, products, or other materials on this page. Readers should do their own research before taking any actions related to the company.

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Plona (PLON), Curve DAO (CRV), and Enjin (ENJ) Which Cryptocurrency is Worth Purchasing In 2022? - Coinpedia Fintech News

What Is Cryptocurrency: 21st-Century Unicorn Or The Money Of The Future?

TL;DR:

Today cryptocurrencies (Buy Crypto) have become a global phenomenon known to most people. In this guide, we are going to tell you all that you need to know about cryptocurrencies and the sheer that they can bring into the global economic system.

Nowadays, youll have a hard time finding a major bank, a big accounting firm, a prominent software company or a government that did not research cryptocurrencies, publish a paper about it or start a so-called blockchain-project. (Take our blockchain courses to learn more about the blockchain)

Virtual currencies, perhaps most notably Bitcoin, have captured the imagination of some, struck fear among others, and confused the heck out of the rest of us. Thomas Carper, US-Senator

But beyond the noise and the press releases the overwhelming majority of people even bankers, consultants, scientists, and developers have very limited knowledge about cryptocurrencies. They often fail to even understand the basic concepts.

So lets walk through the whole story. What are cryptocurrencies?

Few people know, but cryptocurrencies emerged as a side product of another invention. Satoshi Nakamoto, the unknown inventor of Bitcoin, the first and still most important cryptocurrency, never intended to invent a currency.

In his announcement of Bitcoin in late 2008, Satoshi said he developed A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.

His goal was to invent something; many people failed to create before digital cash.

Announcing the first release of Bitcoin, a new electronic cash system that uses a peer-to-peer network to prevent double-spending. Its completely decentralized with no server or central authority. Satoshi Nakamoto, 09 January 2009, announcing Bitcoin on SourceForge.

The single most important part of Satoshis invention was that he found a way to build a decentralized digital cash system. In the nineties, there have been many attempts to create digital money, but they all failed.

after more than a decade of failed Trusted Third Party based systems (Digicash, etc), they see it as a lost cause. I hope they can make the distinction, that this is the first time I know of that were trying a non-trust based system. Satoshi Nakamoto in an E-Mail to Dustin Trammell

After seeing all the centralized attempts fail, Satoshi tried to build a digital cash system without a central entity. Like a Peer-to-Peer network for file sharing.

This decision became the birth of cryptocurrency. They are the missing piece Satoshi found to realize digital cash. The reason why is a bit technical and complex, but if you get it, youll know more about cryptocurrencies than most people do. So, lets try to make it as easy as possible:

To realize digital cash you need a payment network with accounts, balances, and transaction. Thats easy to understand. One major problem every payment network has to solve is to prevent the so-called double spending: to prevent that one entity spends the same amount twice. Usually, this is done by a central server who keeps record about the balances.

In a decentralized network , you dont have this server. So you need every single entity of the network to do this job. Every peer in the network needs to have a list with all transactions to check if future transactions are valid or an attempt to double spend.

But how can these entities keep a consensus about these records?

If the peers of the network disagree about only one single, minor balance, everything is broken. They need an absolute consensus. Usually, you take, again, a central authority to declare the correct state of balances. But how can you achieve consensus without a central authority?

Nobody did know until Satoshi emerged out of nowhere. In fact, nobody believed it was even possible.

Satoshi proved it was. His major innovation was to achieve consensus without a central authority. Cryptocurrencies are a part of this solution the part that made the solution thrilling, fascinating and helped it to roll over the world.

If you take away all the noise around cryptocurrencies and reduce it to a simple definition, you find it to be just limited entries in a database no one can change without fulfilling specific conditions. This may seem ordinary, but, believe it or not: this is exactly how you can define a currency.

Take the money on your bank account: What is it more than entries in a database that can only be changed under specific conditions? You can even take physical coins and notes: What are they else than limited entries in a public physical database that can only be changed if you match the condition than you physically own the coins and notes? Money is all about a verified entry in some kind of database of accounts, balances, and transactions.

So, to give a proper definition Cryptocurrency is an internet-based medium of exchange which uses cryptographical functions to conduct financial transactions. Cryptocurrencies leverage blockchain technology to gain decentralization, transparency, and immutability.

How miners create coins and confirm transactions

Lets have a look at the mechanism ruling the databases of cryptocurrencies. A cryptocurrency like Bitcoin consists of a network of peers. Every peer has a record of the complete history of all transactions and thus of the balance of every account.

A transaction is a file that says, Bob gives X Bitcoin to Alice and is signed by Bobs private key. Its basic public key cryptography, nothing special at all. After signed, a transaction is broadcasted in the network, sent from one peer to every other peer. This is basic p2p-technology.

The transaction is known almost immediately by the whole network. But only after a specific amount of time it gets confirmed.

Confirmation is a critical concept in cryptocurrencies. You could say that cryptocurrencies are all about confirmation.

As long as a transaction is unconfirmed, it is pending and can be forged. When a transaction is confirmed, it is set in stone. It is no longer forgeable, it cant be reversed, it is part of an immutable record of historical transactions: of the so-called blockchain.

Only miners can confirm transactions. This is their job in a cryptocurrency-network. They take transactions, stamp them as legit and spread them in the network. After a transaction is confirmed by a miner, every node has to add it to its database. It has become part of the blockchain.

For this job, the miners get rewarded with a token of the cryptocurrency, for example with Bitcoins. Since the miners activity is the single most important part of the cryptocurrency-system we should stay for a moment and take a deeper look at it.

Principally everybody can be a miner. Since a decentralized network has no authority to delegate this task, a cryptocurrency needs some kind of mechanism to prevent one ruling party from abusing it. Imagine someone creates thousands of peers and spreads forged transactions. The system would break immediately.

So, Satoshi set the rule that the miners need to invest some work of their computers to qualify for this task. In fact, they have to find a hash a product of a cryptographic function that connects the new block with its predecessor. This is called the Proof-of-Work. In Bitcoin, it is based on the SHA 256 Hash algorithm.

Image Credit: https://privacycanada.net

You dont need to understand the details about SHA 256. Its only important you know that it can be the basis of a cryptologic puzzle the miners compete to solve. After finding a solution, a miner can build a block and add it to the blockchain. As an incentive, he has the right to add a so-called coinbase transaction that gives him a specific number of Bitcoins. This is the only way to create valid Bitcoins.

Bitcoins can only be created ifminers solve a cryptographic puzzle. Since the difficulty of this puzzle increases the amount of computer power the whole miners invest, there is only a specific amount of cryptocurrency token that can be created in a given amount of time. This is part of the consensus no peer in the network can break.

If you really think about it, Bitcoin, as a decentralized network of peers that keep a consensus about accounts and balances, is more a currency than the numbers you see in your bank account. What are these numbers more than entries in a database a database which can be changed by people you dont see and by rules you dont know?

Basically, cryptocurrencies are entries about token in decentralized consensus-databases. They are called CRYPTOcurrencies because the consensus-keeping process is secured by strong cryptography. Cryptocurrencies are built on cryptography. They are not secured by people or by trust, but by math. It is more probable that an asteroid falls on your house than that a bitcoin address is compromised.

Describing the properties of cryptocurrencies we need to separate between transactional and monetary properties. While most cryptocurrencies share a common set of properties, they are not carved in stone.

1) Irreversible: After confirmation, a transaction cant be reversed. By nobody. And nobody means nobody. Not you, not your bank, not the president of the United States, not Satoshi, not your miner. Nobody. If you send money, you send it. Period. No one can help you, if you sent your funds to a scammer or if a hacker stole them from your computer. There is no safety net.

2) Pseudonymous: Neither transactions nor accounts are connected to real-world identities. You receive Bitcoins on so-called addresses, which are randomly seeming chains of around 30 characters. While it is usually possible to analyze the transaction flow, it is not necessarily possible to connect the real-world identity of users with those addresses.

3) Fast and global: Transactions are propagated nearly instantly in the network and are confirmed in a couple of minutes. Since they happen in a global network of computers they are completely indifferent of your physical location. It doesnt matter if I send Bitcoin to my neighbor or to someone on the other side of the world.

4) Secure: Cryptocurrency funds are locked in a public key cryptography system. Only the owner of the private key can send cryptocurrency. Strong cryptography and the magic of big numbers make it impossible to break this scheme. A Bitcoin address is more secure than Fort Knox.

5) Permissionless: You dont have to ask anybody to use cryptocurrency. Its just a software that everybody can download for free. After you installed it, you can receive and send Bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies. No one can prevent you. There is no gatekeeper.

1) Controlled supply: Most cryptocurrencies limit the supply of the tokens. In Bitcoin, the supply decreases in time and will reach its final number sometime around the year 2140. All cryptocurrencies control the supply of the token by a schedule written in the code. This means the monetary supply of a cryptocurrency in every given moment in the future can roughly be calculated today. There is no surprise.

2) No debt but bearer: The Fiat-money on your bank account is created by debt, and the numbers, you see on your ledger represent nothing but debts. Its a system of IOU. Cryptocurrencies dont represent debts, they just represent themselves.

To understand the revolutionary impact of cryptocurrencies you need to consider both properties. Bitcoin as a permissionless, irreversible, and pseudonymous means of payment is an attack on the control of banks and governments over the monetary transactions of their citizens. You cant hinder someone to use Bitcoin, you cant prohibit someone to accept a payment, you cant undo a transaction.

As money with a limited, controlled supply that is not changeable by a government, a bank or any other central institution, cryptocurrencies attack the scope of the monetary policy. They take away the control central banks take on inflation or deflation by manipulating the monetary supply.

While its still fairly new and unstable relative to the gold standard, cryptocurrency is definitely gaining traction and will most certainly have more normalized uses in the next few years. Right now, in particular, its increasing in popularity with the post-election market uncertainty. The key will be in making it easy for large-scale adoption (as with anything involving crypto) including developing safeguards and protections for buyers/investors. I expect that within two years, well be in a place where people can shove their money under the virtual mattress through cryptocurrency, and theyll know that wherever they go, that money will be there. Sarah Granger, Author, and Speaker.

Mostly due to its revolutionary properties cryptocurrencies have become a success their inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto, didnt dare to dream ofit. While every other attempt to create a digital cash system didnt attract a critical mass of users, Bitcoin had something that provoked enthusiasm and fascination. Sometimes it feels more like religion than technology.

Cryptocurrencies are digital gold. Sound money that is secure from political influence. Money promises to preserve and increase its value over time. Cryptocurrencies are also a fast and comfortable means of payment with a worldwide scope, and they are private and anonymous enough to serve as a means of payment for black markets and any other outlawed economic activity.

But while cryptocurrencies are more used for payment, its use as a means of speculation and a store of value dwarfs the payment aspects. Cryptocurrencies gave birth to an incredibly dynamic, fast-growing market for investors and speculators. Exchanges like Okcoin, Poloniex or shapeshift enable the trade of hundreds of cryptocurrencies. Their daily trade volume exceeds that of major European stock exchanges.

At the same time, the praxis of Initial Coin Distribution (ICO), mostly facilitated by Ethereums smart contracts, gave life to incredibly successful crowdfunding projects, in which often an idea is enough to collect millions of dollars. In the case of The DAO, it has been more than 150 million dollars.

In this rich ecosystem of coins and token, you experience extreme volatility. Its common that a coin gains 10 percent a day sometimes 100 percent just to lose the same the next day. If you are lucky, your coins value grows up to 1000 percent in one or two weeks.

While Bitcoin remains by far the most famous cryptocurrency and most other cryptocurrencies have zero non-speculative impact, investors and users should keep an eye on several cryptocurrencies. Here we present the most popular cryptocurrencies of today.

Source: coinmarketcap

Bitcoin

The one and only, the first and most famous cryptocurrency. Bitcoin serves as a digital gold standard in the whole cryptocurrency-industry, is used as a global means of payment and is the de-facto currency of cyber-crime like darknet markets or ransomware. After seven years in existence, Bitcoins price has increased from zero to more than 650 Dollar, and its transaction volume reached more than 200.000 daily transactions.

There is not much more to say Bitcoin is here to stay.

Ethereum

The brainchild of young crypto-genius Vitalik Buterin has ascended to the second place in the hierarchy of cryptocurrencies. Other than Bitcoin its blockchain does not only validate a set of accounts and balances but of so-called states. This means that ethereum can not only process transactions but complex contracts and programs.

This flexibility makes Ethereum the perfect instrument for blockchain -application. But it comes at a cost. After the Hack of the DAO an Ethereum based smart contract the developers decided to do a hard fork without consensus, which resulted in the emerge of Ethereum Classic. Besides this, there are several clones of Ethereum, and Ethereum itself is a host of several Tokens like DigixDAO and Augur. This makes ethereum more a family of cryptocurrencies than a single currency.

Ripple

While Ripple has a native cryptocurrency XRP it is more about a network to process IOUs than the cryptocurrency itself. XRP, the currency, doesnt serve as a medium to store and exchange value, but more as a token to protect the network against spam.

Ripple, unlike Bitcoin and ethereum, has no mining since all the coins are already pre-mined. Ripple has found immense value in the financial space as a lot of banks have joined the Ripple network.

Litecoin

Litecoin was one of the first cryptocurrencies after Bitcoin and tagged as the silver to the digital gold bitcoin. Faster than bitcoin, with a larger amount of token and a new mining algorithm, Litecoin was a real innovation, perfectly tailored to be the smaller brother of bitcoin. It facilitated the emerge of several other cryptocurrencies which used its codebase but made it, even more, lighter. Examples are Dogecoin or Feathercoin.

While Litecoin failed to find a real use case and lost its second place after bitcoin, it is still actively developed and traded and is hoarded as a backup if Bitcoin fails.

Monero

Monero is the most prominent example of the CryptoNight algorithm. This algorithm was invented to add the privacy features Bitcoin is missing. If you use Bitcoin, every transaction is documented in the blockchain and the trail of transactions can be followed. With the introduction of a concept called ring-signatures, the CryptoNight algorithm was able to cut through that trail.

The first implementation of CryptoNight, Bytecoin, was heavily premined and thus rejected by the community. Monero was the first non-premined clone of bytecoin and raised a lot of awareness. There are several other incarnations of cryptonote with their own little improvements, but none of it did ever achieve the same popularity as Monero.

Moneros popularity peaked in summer 2016 when some darknet markets decided to accept it as a currency. This resulted in a steady increase in the price, while the actual usage of Monero seems to remain disappointingly small.

Besides those, there are hundreds of cryptocurrencies of several families. Most of them are nothing more than attempts to reach investors and quickly make money, but a lot of them promise playgrounds to test innovations in cryptocurrency-technology.

Your standard cryptocurrency has evolved significantly over time. One of the most significant crypto implementations happens to be stablecoins, aka cryptocurrencies that use special cryptography to remain price stable. There are three kinds of stablecoins in the market:

If you wish to learn more about stablecoins then do check out our guide on the same. While there is no need to get into the details, lets see why these have exploded in popularity in recent times.

Central Bank Digital Currencies or CBDCs are a practical implementation of stablecoins that can push cryptocurrency into the mainstream market. The idea is to have a digital form of fiat money that can be used as legal tender, generated by the countrys central bank.

The market of cryptocurrencies is fast and wild. Nearly every day new cryptocurrencies emerge, old die, early adopters get wealthy and investors lose money. Every cryptocurrency comes with a promise, mostly a big story to turn the world around. Few survive the first months, and most are pumped and dumped by speculators and live on as zombie coins until the last bagholder loses hope ever to see a return on his investment.

Markets are dirty. But this doesnt change the fact that cryptocurrencies are here to stay and here to change the world. This is already happening. People all over the world buy Bitcoin to protect themselves against the devaluation of their national currency. Mostly in Asia, a vivid market for Bitcoin remittance has emerged, and the Bitcoin using darknets of cybercrime are flourishing. More and more companies discover the power of Smart Contracts or token on Ethereum, the first real-world application of blockchain technologies emerge.

The revolution is already happening. Institutional investors start to buy cryptocurrencies. Banks and governments realize that this invention has the potential to draw their control away. Cryptocurrencies change the world. Step by step. You can either stand beside and observe or you can become part of history in the making.

Interested in trading crypto? Take our cryptocurrency investing courses!

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What is Cryptocurrency: [Everything You Need To Know!]

Diversification Is Key

There isnt only one best cryptocurrency to buy.

Lots of cryptocurrencies have various use cases and promise to disrupt various industries.

Investing in cryptocurrency is risky, but investing in only one is way riskier.

So make sure to diversify your crypto portfolio.

Diversification is a great way to hedge your risk and increase your chances of being involved in the next hot cryptocurrency.

Since I love diversification, my list of the best cryptocurrencies to invest in includes coins that:

As all cryptocurrencies presented are so different, make sure to think about which ones make the most sense for your portfolio and your investment strategy.

Going forward, I will describe each coin, its purpose, team, liquidity, price volatility, and other metrics.

In the end, you will have a solid understanding, so that you can decide for yourself which is the best cryptocurrency to buy in 2021.

I will start with popular, well-known cryptocurrencies. Ideal for beginners.

Then, I will move on to some more advanced coins.

These coins may generate more profits, but they require you to know a bit more about them.

Plus, they are likely more volatile than the first coins on my list.

If youve already invested in top cryptocurrencies offered on platforms like Coinbase and want to expand your portfolio, then the coins at the bottom of my list might be best for you.

Bitcoin is the most widely used cryptocurrency to date. It is often referred to as the king of cryptocurrencies, and its primary goal is to act as global, peer to peer, digital cash.

Best Exchanges To Buy Bitcoin

Simply put, Bitcoin is still the best cryptocurrency to buy today, if not the best. I would not recommend anyone invest in cryptocurrency without investing in Bitcoin.

If youre still not convinced, check out why Bitcoin is a good investment.

Litecoin is one of the first cryptocurrencies to come after Bitcoin, and one of the hottest cryptocurrencies of the last decade.

Using Bitcoins source-code, Litecoin is a fork of Bitcoin with some technical changes to the code, making it much faster than Bitcoin. Its mission is also to be a global, peer to peer currency.

Despite its competition, Litecoin is still one of the most trusted and used cryptocurrencies these days.

Ethereum was the first major project to introduce smart contracts.

Smart contracts allow developers to launch mobile and desktop decentralized applications (dApps) on top of the blockchain.

Thousands of tokens run on the Ethereum network, and these tokens were what spurred the initial coin offering (ICO) movement.

Is Ethereum a good investment? Check out the full guide on why Ethereum is worth buying.

Unlike Bitcoin and Litecoin, which aim to be used as currencies, the Binance coin is a utility token.

This means its value comes from how useful it is (and how much demand there is for its utility) within the Binance ecosystem.

Binance is one of the worlds fastest-growing exchanges. Because Binance Coin is used to pay for transactions on the exchange and many other purposes, BNB is one of the fastest-growing cryptocurrencies in 2021 in terms of trade volume.

If youre looking to diversify your cryptocurrency portfolio by adding a utility token issued by a company with a solid business history and an experienced team, think Binance coin.

Basic Attention Token is another utility token most commonly utilized in the Brave Browser.

The BAT token is used to tip content creators, or virtually anyone that you find helpful on the internet. You can tip content creators monthly, or choose to send one time payments to specific people.

Additionally, users who watch ads can get rewarded in BAT. Using smart contracts, advertisers can lock up BAT, and as their ad is viewed, their funds are released to both the Brave Browser and the end viewer.

Monero is a privacy-focused project. The coin utilizes fancy cryptography and privacy logic to hide the participants' identities.

It is widely used on the dark web for this reason and is the most popular privacy coin today.

NEO is often known as the China-based Ethereum. Founded in China, NEO is another smart contract platform enabling developers to launch dApps on the blockchain.

They are slightly more centralized than Ethereum: instead of relying on hundreds of nodes like on Ethereum, there are only a few (less than 10) that make up NEOs decision making.

Beam is another privacy-focused cryptocurrency making waves in the industry.

Unlike Monero, which is a more traditional blockchain project, Beam uses a new blockchain protocol called Mimblewimble.

Without getting into detail, Mimblewimble is known to help significantly with scaling the blockchain and transaction speed, all while maintaining a high level of privacy and anonymity.

Nexo has been gaining some attention recently. Nexo as a software is a wallet that allows users to borrow money using their coins as collateral.

On the other hand, users can also easily and instantly lend crypto and gain interest from lending.

Nexo also offers a free credit card for users and has a unique business model.

The NEXO token is one of the first security tokens to be offered (STO) in the industry.

Cardano, which is competing with Ethereum and NEO, is touted to be more scalable and easier for developers to use.

It aims to be more scalable by introducing two layers of technology: one responsible for tracking balances of the ledger, and the other for transferring value.

Cardano uses two programming languages called Haskell and Plutus.

Haskell has been around since the 1980s, and is Cardanos attempt at making it easier for developers to create decentralized applications. Plutus is the functional language built in-house by Cardanos development team.

Enjin is a fascinating use case for blockchain technology. The company's entire goal is to bring gaming (esports, VR, social, etc.) to blockchain.

This means that gamers can own assets from their games.

Imagine playing games and, when the game is over, you can sell those assets to other players.

You can also buy and collect in-game items from your favorite players and top Twitch champions. Wait for them to increase in value or sell them right away. The choice is yours.

Another amazing feature of Enjin is their Multiverse. The concept is incredible: players will be able to play one game and then transfer their character, assets, winnings, and other items to an entirely different game made by a whole different game developer!

You made it to the end of my list! I hope you enjoyed my top 11 cryptocurrencies to buy for 2021, and that you found the information I provided useful.

If youre looking for more great cryptocurrencies to invest in, or to find out which coin is going to be the next big cryptocurrency, here is what you can do:

An excellent community to explore new cryptocurrencies is the BitcoinTalk forum, specifically the altcoin threads.

You can interact with people deeply involved in this niche, explore opinions, and search for the announcement threads (ANN).

This forum is also helpful to discover projects early on, before they become the next big cryptocurrency.

More great communities can be found on Facebook -- and one of them is our own Facebook group. Feel free to join and ask other members about their favorite cryptocurrencies.

The best crypto exchanges perform a significant number of checks before listing new coins for trading.

You can use these verifications as some kind of quality label to find some of the best cryptocurrencies to invest in which arent listed on this page.

eToro andBinanceare some of the biggest crypto exchanges and offerdozensof the best cryptocurrencies for trading -- I definitely recommend you check themout.

Buying the best cryptocurrencies is not enough to be a successful crypto investor.

Countless promising investors saw their crypto journey end brutally because they did not pay attention to security.

If youre serious about investing in cryptocurrencies, put some effort into reinforcing your security.

I hope you enjoyed this article.

Let me know in the comments which coins you invest in, and which top cryptocurrencies you think are missing from my top 11!

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The 11 Most Promising Cryptocurrencies to Buy [2021]

Gisele Bundchen to pick up stake in crypto exchange FTX

National Football League quarterback Tom Brady and his supermodel wife, Gisele Bundchen, will each take an undisclosed equity stake in crypto exchange platform FTX Trading Ltd, the company said on June 29. Under the deal, Brady will also become an FTX ambassador and Bundchen will take the role of environmental and social initiatives adviser.Both will receive an unspecified amount of cryptocurrency, the company said. Founded and led by Sam Bankman-Fried, a 29-year-old crypto veteran billionaire, FTX is in talks to raise $1 billion at a valuation of $20 billion, according to media reports. Brady, a seven-time Super Bowl champion, has long been an advocate of cryptocurrencies.In June, he edited his Twitter profile photo to one with a "laser eyes" meme - a popular internet fad among supporters of cryptocurrency. Earlier this year, Brady also said he would launch a Non-Fungible Token (NFT) platform called Autograph that will bring together iconic brands from sports, entertainment, fashion and pop culture to create digital collectibles. (Reuters)

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Top cryptocurrency news on July 1: Major stories on Bitcoin, cryptocurrency and policies - Moneycontrol.com

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Development in the ongoing saga of Bitcoin and its many competitors and copycats in the $2.22 trillion global cryptocurrency market seems to never stop. Even so, just a tiny fraction of Americans actually have any practical and personal experience with it. Only single-digit percentages of people in the U.S. like those in so many other rich, powerful, industrialized countries owned or used cryptocurrency in 2020. Across the world, however, its catching on much more quickly.

Find Out: Where Does Cryptocurrency Come From?See: 10 of the Most Private Cryptocurrencies To Invest In

Heres a look at the countries whose populations are on their way to making cryptocurrency the rule, not the exception, in their national economies.

Some of the most complete data on the subject come from Statista, which combined 55 different research reports from the Statista Global Consumer Survey to identify the countries where Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are most popular. The results reveal a clear trend. People from countries in Africa, Asia and South America are much more likely to own or use cryptocurrency than those in Europe, North America or Australia.

Big Money: If You Invested $1,000 in These Cryptocurrencies a Year Ago, Heres How Much Youd Have Now

Africas largest economy is the king of cryptocurrency. In Nigeria, 32% of respondents nearly 1 in 3 report having used or owned one type of crypto or another in 2020. By comparison, just 6% of Americans reported the same.

According to Bitcoin.com, Nigerias unique culture and circumstances are fueling the trend. One of the biggest influencers is poverty, a condition suffered by 87 million of Nigerias 200 million people and crypto transactions are cheap. Another reason for the trend is that Nigerians are much more likely to make payments and send money using their phones. Finally, double-digit inflation is the rule, not the exception, in Nigeria, and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, which are capped to a finite number of coins, serve as a hedge against inflation.

Story continues

Decide: Is It Too Late To Invest In Cryptocurrency?Helpful: 3 Common Crypto Misconceptions Debunked

Nigerians are the most open to crypto trading and spending, but the country is hardly alone in its rapid adoption of what was a mostly unfamiliar novelty until very recently. Southeast Asia makes a strong showing and one country from Latin America breaks the top five, but the worlds most powerful countries with the biggest economies fall on the bottom half of the list. The worlds top 10 crypto countries, according to the Statista data, are:

Nigeria: 32%

Vietnam: 21%

Philippines: 20%

Turkey: 16%

Peru: 16%

Switzerland: 11%

India: 9%

China: 7%

U.S.: 6%

Germany: 5%

Japan: 4%

Ethereum (ETH): What It Is, What Its Worth and Should You Be Investing?

Bitcoin is not currently the hottest cryptocurrency. The original and still-biggest digital coin grew by 113% in the first quarter of 2021, which should sound great to investors. That, however, is small potatoes compared to:

Dash: 198%

Ethereum: 324%

Maker: 760%

Dogecoin: 7,555%

Dogecoins Popularity: Is It Still Worth an Investment?

Despite the current spotlight on the hottest-trending altcoins, America is the undisputed champion of the world when it comes to Bitcoin specifically. More than $1.52 billion worth of Bitcoin was traded on U.S. crypto exchanges in 2020, according to Statista. Thats more than three times more than the No. 2 country, Russia, where the equivalent of $421.38 million in trading volume took place. Nigeria wasnt far behind with a little over $400 million. After that, it dropped way off to a little over $200 million in Europe.

Read: Why Some Money Experts Believe In Bitcoin and Others Dont

Cryptocurrency and blockchain technology company TripleA estimates that there are now more than 300 million cryptocurrency users across the world. The average crypto ownership rate by country is 3.9% and more than 18,000 businesses worldwide now accept some form of cryptocurrency as payment. About three crypto users in five are male, and no matter the country, users are more likely to be young and educated.

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Last updated: June 28, 2021

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Which Countries Are Using Cryptocurrency the Most?

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Which Countries Are Using Cryptocurrency the Most? - Yahoo Finance

NEW DELHI: Major cryptocurrencies were trading with mild gains on Wednesday. Crypto traders turned cautious with a positive bias on digital tokens, after volatility for a couple of weeks. Eight out of top-10 digital tokens were trading higher at 9.30 hours IST, surging as much as 4 per cent.

Bitcoin is hanging tough amid a slew of negative headlines, extending its rally for the third day and lifting the spirit of battered bulls. The largest cryptocurrency has rallied above its average price over the past 20 days, a positive indication for advocates who were looking for the digital token to reclaim its upward momentum.

Star stock picker Cathie Wood's ARK Invest is teaming up with 21Shares US LLC, which filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday to create a bitcoin exchange traded fund (ETF), the latest fund manager attempting to cash in on investors' growing interest in cryptocurrencies.

"The sentiment across the crypto board is strongly bullish. Investors are grabbing every opportunity to buy on dips. The rally was observed across the board as BTC, ETH, XRP, and other altcoins gained from a massive buying frenzy. Despite severe selling pressure recently, the correction has drawn investors' attention," said Edul Patel, CEO and co-founder, Mudrex.

TP ICAP is eyeing to launch a cryptocurrency trading platform with Fidelity Investments and Standard Chartered's digital assets custody unit. TP ICAP is the world's biggest interdealer broker. The platform will initially allow them to trade Bitcoin, with second-largest token Ether to be added later.

However, traders have turned cautious on buzzing cryptocurrencies which tanked up to 95 per cent recently, eroding almost all of investors' wealth.

This coupled with the fact that BAT is still relatively undervalued given its utility, acquiring the asset at these levels seems to look like a highly attractive proposition for long-term investors. In addition, as the ERC-20 and DeFi space continue to grow, BAT is poised for success.

Major levelsSupport: $0.485, $0.425Resistance: $0.63, $0.725

Time is in UTC and the daily time frame is 12:00 AM - 12: 00 PM UTC.

(Views and recommendations given in this section are the analysts' own and do not represent those of ETMarkets.com. Please consult your financial adviser before taking any position in the asset/s mentioned.)

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Top cryptocurrency prices today: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple gain up to 4% - Economic Times

Cryptocurrency

Updated : June 30, 2021 09:27 PM IST

Did you know that there are thousands of cryptocurrencies in existence, many of which put even Bitcoin's performance in the shade. Here's a list of the top-10 best-performing cryptocurrencies over the past 12 months

What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Bitcoin? Most likely it's Bitcoin's superb performance over the past decade, which has spawned millionaires and created the cryptocurrency industry. But did you know that there are thousands of cryptocurrencies in existence, many of which put even Bitcoin's performance in the shade. Here's a list of the top-10 best-performing cryptocurrencies over the past 12 months, their market capitalisation, one-year performance, and how much Rs 10,000 invested in them, a year back, would have grown to. We have also filtered out cryptocurrencies that do not have at least $100 million in market cap. Or little-known 'InsurAce', which has turned Rs 10,000 to Rs 2 crore, would have topped this list. Read on to know more... (Image: Shutterstock)

Telcoin (TEL) was founded with the aim of connecting with mobile networks globally enabling easy conversion between mobile telecom money, prepaid credit, and postpaid billing platforms. Price: $0.02 | M-cap: $1.3 billion | 12-month return: 16,104% | Growth of Rs 10,000: Rs 16,20,400 (Image: PRNewswire)

Dogecoin is the first meme currency among its peers. Its logo carries the image of Shiba Inu dog, which was a popular meme on social media sites like Reddit and Facebook. Price: $0.25 | Mcap: $32.7 billion | 12-month return: 9129% | Growth of Rs 10,000: Rs 9,22,900 (Image: Shutterstock)

Matic Network or MATIC is an Indian blockchain scalability platform that aims to create a multi-chain ecosystem of Ethereum-compatible blockchains. Matic is also known as Polygon and was created by a startup-based in Mumbai. Price: $1.12 | Mcap: $7.1 billion | 12-month return: 6324% | Growth of Rs 10,000: Rs 6,42,400

Theta Fuel is the second token of the Theta network blockchain. Theta Fuel or Fuel is powered by chain operations like payments to relayers for sharing a video stream. Price: $0.04 | Mcap: $2.1 billion | 12-month return: 3809% | Growth of Rs 10,000: Rs 3,90,900. (Image: Theta Fuel)

Pirate Chain Developers of Pirate Chain initially diverged from the Komodo blockchain and Zcash to create Pirate Chain. The cryptocurrency is a privacy coin, which means it has security features that it claims makes it the worlds most anonymous currency. Price: $2.54 | Mcap: $587 million | 12-month performance: 3074% | Growth of Rs 10,000: Rs 3,17,400

Chiliz is a utility token on the Ethereum blockchain that serves as the digital currency for the ChiliZ and Socios.com platform. Many football clubs use Socios.com platform as a part of their fan engagement strategy. Price: $0.24 | Mcap: $1.4 billion | 12-month performance: 2170% | Growth of Rs 10,000: Rs 2,27,000

PancakeSwap is a decentralized exchange token built on Binance Smart Chain as a fast and inexpensive alternative to Ethereum. Pancakeswap has a feature that allows user-generated liquidity pools. Price: $13.36 | Mcap: $2.5 billion | 12-month return: 2084% | Growth of Rs 10,000: 2,18,400%

Luna, also known as Terra, is a stablecoin backed by traditional fiat currencies to power price-stable global payments systems. Luna combines the price stability of fiat currencies with the features of cryptocurrencies to offer fast settlements. Price: $6.19 | Mcap: $2.5 billion | 12-month return: 1903% | Growth of Rs 10,000: Rs 2,00,300

Dawn Protocol is the worlds first token for gaming and e-sports. Created on the Ethereum blockchain, Dawn Protocol aims to create career opportunities for world gamers with decentralized rewarding and matchmaking technologies. Price: $1.78 | Mcap: $130 million | 12-month return: 1355% | Growth of Rs 10,000 rupees: Rs 1,45,500 (Image: AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

HEX is a blockchain certificate of deposit that allows investors to earn up to as much as 40% interest in a year. Interest in HEX has spiked lately to the point that the cryptocurrency is up 59% even over the past 1 month, a period during which nearly all cryptocurrencies have fallen sharply. Price: $0.08 | Mcap: $14.2 billion | 12-month return: 1350% | Rs 1,45,000 (Image: Shutterstock)

Published : June 30, 2021 08:56 PM IST

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Rs 10,000 invested in this cryptocurrency would have grown to Rs 16 lakh in 1 year: Here's the top-10 list - CNBCTV18

A U.S. congressman has called for a law that allows the government to identify cryptocurrency users and reverse crypto transactions. Theres a significant sentiment, increasing sentiment, in Congress that if youre participating in an anonymous crypto transaction that youre a de-facto participant in a criminal conspiracy, he said.

Democratic Rep. Bill Foster of Illinois, who is also co-chair of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus, talked about cryptocurrency regulation during an Axios virtual event Tuesday. Addressing the problem of ransomware attacks and how criminals are asking for bitcoin and not cash, the congressman stressed that there is a fundamental difference between crypto assets and real-world assets. Thats an important distinction that we must make ultimately in the law.

Emphasizing that laws must be passed to allow federal courts to identify crypto users and reverse transactions in bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, he said:

You have to be able to go to a court to unmask participants under some circumstances.

He discussed The condition under which we can reclaim cryptocurrencies, such as ransoms paid to criminals, noting that it is one of the fundamental decisions which has to be made about crypto assets.

The congressman pointed out that the law needs to address whether cryptocurrency is truly anonymous or is there a court you can go to, to unmask the participants. In addition, is there a court, a third-party, that you can go to, to reverse fraudulent or mistaken transactions.

Foster gave an example. If someone dragged you into an alley and put a gun to your head and say get out your cell phone and transfer all your bitcoin to my wallet. Are you just out of luck or can you go to court, have them unmask the participant. Furthermore, can the court if they decide that the transaction was fraudulent, criminal, or mistaken use its access to very heavily guarded key, cryptographic back door, in a sense, that allows them to cryptographically reverse transactions on a blockchain.

The lawmaker claims that such tools are necessary for the government to protect itself, the people and companies from ransomware attacks, like the one suffered by Colonial Pipeline.

Rep. Foster opined:

Ive just said about three things there that will drive the crypto purists berserk, like the trusted third party and so on.

He believes that For most people, if they are going to have a big part of their net worth tied up in crypto assets, they are going to want to have that security blanket of a trusted third-party that can solve the problem when they get hacked, when they get stolen or even just a mistaken assumption.

Foster further said that cryptocurrencies must become compliant with federal regulations and laws for them to ever become mainstream instruments for conducting transactions. Replying to a question about how the U.S. would regulate cryptocurrencies given their global and borderless nature, he affirmed, Were going to have to establish a law between the legal and illegal regimes here, elaborating:

Theres a significant sentiment, increasing sentiment, in Congress that if youre participating in an anonymous crypto transaction that youre a de-facto participant in a criminal conspiracy.

Many people took to social media to ridicule the congressman and his attempt to reverse bitcoin transactions, stating that he does not understand how bitcoin works. Some responded to Fosters criminal allegation, stating that they are not de-facto criminals.

What do you think about Rep. Foster calling for legislation to give the government power to reverse cryptocurrency transactions? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

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US Congressman Calls for Law Allowing Government to Reverse Cryptocurrency Transactions Regulation Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News

NEW DELHI: Major cryptocurrencies were trading with mild gains on Monday. Crypto traders turned cautious over valuations of digital tokens, following volatility in the previous session. Seven out of top 10 digital tokens were trading with gains at 9.30 hours IST, led by Ethereum.

Britain's watchdog Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ordered cryptocurrency exchange Binance to stop undertaking any regulated activity in the country, saying the firm lacked authorization. The exchange would not be allowed to undertake any regulated activities without the prior written consent of the FCA.

Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego said his banking business may begin using Bitcoin, becoming the country's first bank to start accepting the cryptocurrency. He is ranked as the third richest Mexican with an estimated fortune worth over $15.8 billion.

Prior to this, Bitcoin will become a legal tender in El Salvador, another South American country in September. It is the first nation to elevate the digital token to the status of a currency.

"The major selloff across the crypto spectrum observed last Friday seems to have subsided for now. Volume data from various exchanges show that several investors bought the dip in the markets over the weekend. However, it cannot be termed as a bullish momentum as the markets are clearly range-bound," said Edul Patel, CEO and co-founder, Mudrex.

"BTC began the day at a decent 5 per cent higher over the previous day. Altcoins continue to be under some selling pressure. Overall, the markets can be expected to remain in consolidation for the short term."

In India, where households own more than 25,000 tonnes of gold, investments in crypto grew from about $200 million to nearly $40 billion in the past year, according to Chainalysis.

Tech View by Siddharth Menon, COO WazirXThe Bitcoin chart has formed the double bottom pattern which is known for the trend reversal. RSI breaking the trendline may be a confirmation of the trend reversal.

Crypto veteran Bobby Lee says Bitcoins recent 50 per cent collapse from all-time highs does not mirror market tops of the past and he expects Bitcoin price to see $100K by end of this year.

(Views and recommendations given in this section are the analysts' own and do not represent those of ETMarkets.com. Please consult your financial adviser before taking any position in the asset/s mentioned.)

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Top cryptocurrency prices today: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano gain up to 5% - Economic Times

Bengaluru: Earlier this week, the price of Bitcoin dropped below $30,000 for the first time since January, after hitting an all-time high of almost $65,000 in mid-April.

While Tesla chief executive Elon Musk's tweets are one of the reasons for this price dip, another major reason is China's massive crackdown on the digital coin and cryptocurrencies in general.

The country has always had a firm stance against cryptocurrencies. Back in 2013, Chinas central bank had barred financial institutions from handling Bitcoin transactions when the price of the digital coin jumped from $100 to $1,000 within a few months. It had also banned fundraising through initial coin offerings and shuttered domestic Bitcoin exchanges in 2017.

In May, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and the State Council issued a warning saying it was necessary to crack down on Bitcoin mining and trading behavior, and resolutely prevent the transmission of individual risks to the social field.

This was after three Chinese state-backed financial associations raised concerns about risks emerging from the volatility of cryptocurrencies, and directed their members including banks and online payment firms to not provide any cryptocurrency-related services.

Crypto miners shut down

Soon after the government warning, several cryptocurrency miners including HashCow and BTC.TOP halted all or part of their China operations last month. This had huge ramifications since Chinese miners reportedly account for as much as 70% of crypto mining worldwide.

Earlier in June, Weibo, Chinas version of Twitter, blocked several prominent crypto-related accounts, saying each of them violates laws and rules.

On Monday, China's central bank The Peoples Bank of China (PBOC) also met with several domestic banks and payment firms such as Alipay, urging them to tighten restrictions on cryptocurrency trading and directing them to stop facilitating cryptocurrency transactions. These institutions must also comprehensively investigate and identify crypto exchanges and over-the-counter capital accounts of dealers and cut off the payment link for transaction funds in a timely manner, it said.

This crackdown has forced several miners to shut down or sell their machines in despair and exit the business. Some of them are also relocating overseas to countries like Kazakhstan, according to a Reuters report. It said that Chinas crackdown could cause up to 90% of crypto mining to go offline in the country, citing an estimate by Adam James, a senior editor at OKEx Insights.

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Chinas role in the 2021 cryptocurrency crash - Economic Times

Jirapong Manustrong / Getty Images/iStockphoto

The weird world of cryptocurrency got even weirder with the arrival of Shiba Inu. Now among the top 30 or so cryptocurrencies in the world, its staying power is a testament to the might of memes, the contagious nature of investor groupthink and the cuteness of fluffy dogs.

But is the coin that billed itself as the Dogecoin Killer a legit crypto investment opportunity now that it boasts more than 550,000 users? Theres a lot to consider before you can answer that question.

Find Out: Where Does Cryptocurrency Come From?Read: Why Some Money Experts Believe In Bitcoin and Others Dont

Launched in August 2020 by an anonymous person going by the name Ryoshi, Shiba Inu was a challenge to Dogecoin from the very beginning. Its mascot the coins namesake breed of Japanese dog is also the mascot of Dogecoin, which itself was started as a joke based on a viral canine Internet meme.

Like so many other cryptocurrencies, Shiba Inu is based on the Ethereum blockchain. Ryoshi started with a supply of 1 quadrillion tokens thats 1,000 raised to the power of five. Ryoshi then locked half of the tokens in a decentralized finance protocol called Uniswap and burned the other half, worth $1 billion, to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin for safekeeping. Buterin then donated trillions of Shiba Inu coins to India to help stem the spread of COVID-19 it was historys largest cryptocurrency donation before burning 40% of the total supply to a dead wallet.

If you got through the last two paragraphs but have no idea what you just read, investing in Shiba Inu is probably not for you.

See: Mark Cuban Talks Dogecoin: Youve Got To Know Why Youre Investing

Unlike Bitcoin, which is currently trading at around $35,000 per coin, Shiba Inu goes for just a tiny sliver of a penny about $0.000008082 per token. The logic, according to Barrons, is that cheaper coins draw wider audiences. Dogecoin, by comparison, is trading at a much more expensive 26 cents.

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All that is fine and well, but like everything involving crypto trading, volatility is the name of the game with Shiba Inu. The coin briefly lost half of its value on the day that Buterin made the donation to India. Thats a single-day drop of 50% based purely on investor emotion and reaction to a news story and in the world of crypto, thats not at all unusual.

If you can handle that kind of heat, by all means but keep in mind the nature of the roller coaster youre about to board.

On May 9, Shiba Inu soared to its all-time high of $0.000035. The price almost immediately crashed back down to Earth and less than 10 days later, that number had an extra zero in it, as it does to this day.

Take a Look: What Is the Next Big Cryptocurrency To Explode in 2021?

If you want to look in your digital wallet and see millions, billions or even trillions of something, you wont do better than Shiba Inu but few experts would recommend that as a sound investment strategy.

Crypto, in general, is in a slump right now, particularly Ethereum-based tokens like Shiba Inu and Dogecoin. If that trend reverses course, its perfectly logical to believe that Shiba Inu will be lifted by the tide. In fact, on June 24, an expert writing for FXStreet used convincing logic to predict that Shiba Inu is due for an 80% price increase, and maybe it is. But its just as easy to find experts who predict that the coin of the moment will soon be tossed onto the trash heap of crypto history with the rest of the fallen altcoins.

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Last updated: June 29, 2021

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Is the Shiba Inu Coin the Cryptocurrency You Should Be Watching?

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Is the Shiba Inu Coin the Cryptocurrency You Should Be Watching? - Yahoo Finance

The Financial Conduct Authority is implementing tight regulations in the cryptocurrency space and cracking down on some crypto platforms. The tight regulations have seen more crypto firms withdraw their applications from the regulator.

UKs Financial Conduct Authority is keeping an eye on the cryptocurrency market after it was appointed anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing regulator of crypto-asset firms earlier this year.

Since it was appointed the major regulator of the cryptocurrency market in the U.K., the FCA has asked crypto firms to register with it before they can operate in the region. In the past six months, the British regulator has only registered six firms, and it is assessing dozens more.

Crypto platforms that registered with the regulator in December are eligible to receive the Temporary Registrations Regimes (TRR). With the TRR, they can continue offering their services while the FCA assesses their registration.

The tight regulation in the U.K. is causing several companies discomfort in the United Kingdom. An FCA spokesperson has revealed that 64 applications have been withdrawn in less than a month. This was up from 51 that was recorded earlier this month.

According to the FCA, several businesses are withdrawing their applications because they dont meet the required anti-money laundering standards. The cryptocurrency companies have to update their mode of operations to comply with the AML standards before they can reapply with the regulator.

Last weekend, the FCA warned Binance that it doesnt have the authority to conduct regulated activities in the U.K. The regulator banned the exchange from conducting any regulated activity in Britain.

The ban on Binance led another crypto exchange Huobi to suspend its U.K. customers from accessing derivative services on its platforms. Overall, the FCA said it is working with other major regulators, notably in the U.S. and Asia, to ensure that crypto exchanges operate under the rules of law.

Story continues

The cryptocurrency market could experience massive regulations in the coming months. The Bank of France governor recently urged the EU to quickly regulate the crypto market. Failure to do so could affect the EUs monetary sovereignty. The regulators in various parts of the world believe it is important to regulate the crypto market as it continues to grow both in size and adoption.

BTC/USD chart. Source: FXEMPIRE

The crypto market is on a positive trend for the third consecutive day. Bitcoins price is up by less than 1% over the past 24 hours and is currently trading above $35k. The total cryptocurrency market cap has also gone up, from roughly $1.1 trillion last week to $1.4 trillion at the time of this report.

This article was originally posted on FX Empire

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FCA Is Tightening Cryptocurrency Regulation In The U.K. - Yahoo Finance

DAR ES SALAAM, June 25 (Reuters) - Tanzania's central bank has said it is working on President Samia Suluhu Hassan's directive to prepare for cryptocurrencies, pointing to a possible reversal of a ban it put in place in 2019.

The new president, who came to power after the death of her predecessor in March, said this month the arrival of digital currencies in the East Africa nation was inevitable.

"In the financial sector, we have witnessed the emergence of blockchain technology or cryptocurrency," Hassan said during the opening a new central bank branch in the northern town of Mwanza this month.

"Many countries in the world have not accepted or started using these currencies. However, I would like to advise the central bank to start working on those issues. Just be prepared."

Her comments made shortly after El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as a legal tender, prompted fresh debate over the role of cryptocurrencies in economies and remittance transfers. read more

Tanzania's central bank banned cryptocurrencies in November 2019, saying they were not recognised by local law, but it now says it is adapting following the president's comments.

"The bank is working on the directives given," a Bank of Tanzania spokesperson told Reuters this week, declining to give further detail.

GRADUAL PREPARATIONS

The spokesperson did not respond to questions on whether the bank plans to adopt existing cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, or was looking to issue its own digital currency as China has done.

Hassan's comments reflect her much more open attitude to foreign investment, a shift from the stance of her predecessor John Magufuli, who tussled with foreign gold miners and even locked horns with neighbouring Kenya over access to the market.

Tanzania Bankers' Association chairman Abdulmajid Nsekela welcomed Hassan's push, for the $63 billion economy still relies heavily on cash transactions.

"The most challenging element for regulators is to be caught by surprise by innovations," he said. Gradual preparations would help the central bank assess the risks and come up with ways of addressing them in advance, he added.

Analysts warned that progress might be slow.

"The change in tone from Tanzania's president is clear, but wait to see whether the central bank will take concrete steps towards embracing cryptocurrencies," said Faith Mwangi, an analyst at Tellimer.

Mwangi pointed to Uganda, where President Yoweri Museveni made similar comments back in 2017, but the central bank has yet to rescind its ban on cryptocurrencies.

Reporting by Nuzulack Dausen in Dar es Salaam and Duncan Miriri in Nairobi; Additional reporting by Omar Mohammed; Writing by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Karin Strohecker and Andrew Heavens

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Tanzania cbank says it is working on president's cryptocurrency push - Reuters

Spiritus, an electric car made by light electric vehicle manufacturer Daymak, will mine cryptocurrency when idle.

What Happened:According to an announcementpublishedon Tuesday, Spiritus will be able to mine several cryptocurrencies and then settled inDogecoin(CRYPTO: DOGE),Ether(CRYPTO: ETH), orBitcoin(CRYPTO: BTC). The company's first prototype of the car has already started mining cryptocurrency using the company's patent-pending Daymak Nebula platform.

Daymak's Nebula platform is a crypto mining tool suite for electric vehicles that will allow its cars to mine and manage cryptocurrencies.

"Using this technology, the Daymak Spiritus will be the first car in history to continuously make money for its owner," the manufacturersaidin the press release.

The firm alreadyannouncedthat its Spiritus would mine cryptocurrencies on June 1st.

Now that its prototype started mining, the company launched awebsitestreaming the profits made by the car through mining,raking in an estimated $11.85 per day as of press time.

The Spiritus can be bought with cryptocurrency, with the base model costing $19,995and the premium one for $149,000.

The car will also feature solar panels, as, according tothe company, "the Spiritus fleet will be the most environmentally-friendly crypto miner nodes on the blockchain."

Image: Courtesy ofDaymak

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Spiritus Becomes The First Car To Mine Cryptocurrency, Including Bitcoin And Dogecoin - Benzinga - Benzinga

Most people remain hesitant to invest in cryptocurrency in their DC plans, but a recent survey finds that theres a small crypto-curious contingent.

With the increased attention of cryptocurrency, Stan Treger, behavioral scientist at Morningstar, notes that analysts at the firm began to wonder if investors would welcome this asset into their retirement portfolios. As such, they posed this questionas part of a larger, nationally representative survey of about 1,400 people conducted in May 2021.

The firm asked survey participants to rank a set of 16 potential retirement plan features in order of most to least preferred, including the option to invest in cryptocurrencies, the availability of professionally managed options, auto escalation and investment advice.Participants largely ranked cryptocurrency last as a desired feature in a retirement fundthe most common ranking for cryptocurrency was 16 out of 16, with 24% of respondents ranking it last.There was, however, a small contingent (3%) that ranked it first. Morningstar notes that the mean and median ranks for cryptocurrency were 11.08 and 12,respectively,out of 16.

Young Investors

While investors for the most part seem wary of adding such funds into their retirement portfolios, young investors are the one group that tends to be more interested in cryptocurrency.Morningstars data appears to reflect this notion, with age accounting for about 4.8% of the variance in the rankings of cryptocurrency. The older the participants, the less important they found cryptocurrency, Treger notes.

Morningstars chart below breaks down the desirability of cryptocurrency by generation, displaying the average and median ranks by age group, as well as the percentage of the age group that selected cryptocurrency to be the most important and the least important feature of a retirement plan.The % First heading denotes the percentage of the age group that ranked cryptocurrency as its most desired feature, while the % Last indicates the percentage of the age group that rankedcryptocurrencyas its least-desired feature.

As indicated, younger adultsincluding Gen Z and Millennialswere approximately five times as likely to prefer cryptocurrency in their retirement plan as the oldest generation. In contrast, Baby Boomers were approximately twice as likely as any other generation to rank cryptocurrency last.

Still, although younger investors appear to find cryptocurrency more appealing than older investors do, there is a general hesitancy to add it to their retirement portfolios. It may be five times as likely to be interested in cryptocurrency, but that interested group still adds up to less than 5% of the broader population of younger investors, Treger emphasizes.Thus, while advisors might find it worthwhile to gauge clients interest in cryptocurrency, particularly Millennial and Generation Z clients, it shouldnt be a primary factor in decision-making, he adds. People still tend to desire traditionally attractive features such as good employer matches and the availability of professional advice.

Morningstars findings in relation to participant views appear to be fairly consistent with a recent NAPA Net reader poll that asked what readers thought about Bitcoin as an investment option, where there was quite a bit of skepticism, but also some interest.

And what about the rankings of those other 15 features? Those findings will appear in a future update,Morningstar notes.

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Is There Demand for Cryptocurrency in Retirement Portfolios? - National Association of Plan Advisors

2020 was a remarkable year for cryptocurrency as COVID-19 accelerated the digital transformation. No doubt, 2021 is also witnessing major breakthroughs and achievements as cryptocurrency trends are shaping the future of finance. We are halfway through 2021, but new developments in the crypto world are emerging each day. In the next six months, we can expect more crypto adoption and top cryptocurrency trends ruling the crypto space.

If you are a crypto enthusiast, you should know the top crypto trends for better investment decisions. Here are the top 10 cryptocurrency market trends in 2021 for everyone to watch out for.

Decentralized financial services or DeFi projects will be one of the biggest trends in the crypto world in 2021. DeFi projects have built a strong foundation in the financial field lately. Moreover, experts believe that DeFi will be one of the key drivers for the accelerated adoption of digital storage of assets or tokenization. Also, with the growth of Ethereum (built on DeFi protocols), DeFi will also boom.

In 2020, the volume of stablecoins in circulation was increased by 500%. Dollar pegged stablecoins will see more light of the day in 2021 with Tether and USDC being the market leaders. Stablecoins are one of the trending crypto coins today. With the advantages that stablecoins offer, more investors are investing in them to protect themselves from usual crypto market volatility.

This bubble is definitely growing bigger with the increased adoption of cryptocurrency from different countries across the world. Still today, crypto taxation is ambiguous. But, this year, we might see crypto standard crypto regulations that will govern crypto activities and transactions. This crypto market trend will come into effect soon.

Experts say that with regulations coming into the picture, central banks will also be a part of the game with the introduction of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). This can also become the future of payments and finance. You must have heard of China creating its own digital money digital yuan. Similarly, other countries such as the USA, UK, Europe, etc. are attempting to create tokenized money.

Growing cryptocurrencies may test their waters for IPOs. With crypto exchanges also growing in popularity, even they would go public. This might make crypto a well-established market with major players defining the scope.

Crypto lovers are desperately looking forward to the ETF this year. However, it might take some time as the US SEC has rejected its decision on ETFs for a long time now. Nonetheless, if ETFs get approved, more traders will invest in cryptocurrencies instead of having exchange wallets. This will bring a boom in the crypto world.

NFTs are digital assets representing products in the real as well as the digital world. It is quite useful for people who wish to trade items as they can avoid the complex onboarding process of a centralized platform to trade them. NFTs are already widely being used in the art and gaming industry. This year, we will see more adoption of NFTs.

Be ready to pay crypto tax as many countries are planning to implement it soon. Governments of different countries are creating tools to monitor cryptocurrency transactions. In 2021, we might see crypto exchanges reporting on their customers gains to their tax authorities.

5G will be extensively used to decide on mining operations, DeFi applications and to introduce new services in the market. Network issues for traders will be resolved as 5G will offer high-speed connectivity, eliminating the need of placing servers close to crypto exchanges.

Apart from investors, millennials are really interested in the crypto field. More educational material on cryptocurrency will be available and accessible to guide millennials in the highly volatile crypto market. Crypto market trends today will guide millennials to invest strategically.

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Top 10 Cryptocurrency Trends in 2021 Everyone Should Know - Analytics Insight

Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey have agreed to discuss bitcoin with each other at an event in July.

June 27, 2021 / 07:58 AM IST

Bitcoin, ether and other major cryptocurrencies are currently trading in the green, seeing a recovery after tumbling the previous day.

The global cryptocurrency market capitalisation is$1.32 trillion, up 2.85 percent from the previous day.

Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency, hadplunged to as low as $30,184.50 on June 26.

TeslaCEO Elon Musk and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey have agreed to discuss bitcoin with each other at an event in July.

The billionaires will have a conversation at an event called "The B Word", which is scheduled for July 21.

According to the event's official website, it will offer a "live experience and a library of content to the investor community, enabling a more informed discussion about the role Bitcoin can serve for institutions across the globe."

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Cryptocurrency Prices Today on June 27: Bitcoin, ethereum trade in the green - Moneycontrol.com

Peter Dunn, Special to USA TODAY Published 12:01 a.m. ET June 9, 2021 | Updated 8:13 a.m. ET June 9, 2021

From Dogecoin to Bitcoin to Coinbase, cryptocurrency is the hottest trend in investing right now. Heres what you need to know before buying in. USA TODAY

Dear Pete,

I'm one of the lucky ones. I invested very little money, and now own cryptocurrency worth more than $350,000. I'm 30 years old, I rent, and I don't have much in savings or retirement investments other than my crypto. I'm really struggling as to what to do next. I don't know whether to keep going, or to take the $350,000 and do something more practical with it. Am I foolish to just let it ride?

Mason, Chicago

You do realize "let it ride" is a gambling term, right? While you might think I've unfairly targeted one throwaway phrase in your email, it's the blurred line between gambling and investing which makes cryptocurrency so confounding.

Too many people believe investingisgambling. As it turns out, investing is not gambling. Is risk involved? Yes. Is reward involved? Yes. Is investing a game of chance? Well, that depends on your investing strategy.

I've always believed a person can earn the right to take additional investing risks by creating underlying financial stability in their life, such as an emergency fund, properly funded retirement strategy and wiping out consumer debt. It's tough to accomplish this level of stability when your entire net worth is tied-up in something as volatile as crypto.

The primary difference between gambling and investing is an investor will use tools of diversification to mitigate risks and decrease the chance for loss. A gambler is typically all-in with a singular lever dictating whether they win or lose. And even if you hold different types of cryptocurrency, the use of a single asset class means you aren't mitigating risk through asset allocation and diversification.

Cryptocurrency, explained:How does bitcoin even work?

Investors have very specific goals around rate of return, time horizon, and risk tolerance itself. Additionally, investors generally have specific goals for specific accounts whether the money is meant for retirement, college, or some other time-determined event. Gamblers primary goals revolve around winning the bet, without any additional structural elements or constraint.

The strangest reality about the intersection of investing and gambling is the same asset can theoretically be either an investment or a gamble. It's the strategy and planning behind the asset which decide whether or not you're gambling.

Gambling is exciting. Investing, when done well, is really boring. I, too, am tired of reading/hearing quotes from the great investing gurus of our time, but Warren Buffett wasn't wrong when he warned, "Beware the investment activity that produces applause; the great moves are usually greeted by yawns."

Don't make your decision so binary. There is no inherent "all or nothing" moment here. You can take money off the table and do something less speculative with it.

I've always believed a person can earn the right to take additional investing risks by creating underlying financial stability in their life. For instance, a healthy emergency fund, a properly funded retirement strategy, and the absence of consumer debt make investing excess funds in speculative vehicles much more tolerable. It's tough to accomplish this level of stability when your entire net worth is tied-up in something as volatile as crypto.

Consider using some of the value of your crypto holdings to create more conventional stability. By doing that, you allow the rest of your crypto holdings to become less of a gamble and more of a specific investing strategy. You'll still have the theoretical upside of crypto, but you'll also have a more reliable base to your financial planning strategy.

If you do sell any cryptocurrency, be sure to account for taxes. Unfortunately, a gaggle of crypto investors are going to learn an incredibly harsh lesson when they don't consider the tax obligations they hold to the IRS.

The price of bitcoin fell below $50,000 Thursday morning after Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted a day earlier that the electric car maker would stop accepting the digital currency as payment for its vehicles. (May 13) AP Domestic

You need to come to terms with the FOMO (fear of missing out) which inevitably comes with switching from a speculative investing strategy to a more prudent investing strategy. You can't forever measure your decision to diversify with an open-ended timeline that would otherwise allow your previous speculative investments to swing wildly, if not higher. That will be the temptation in all of this. If you were to diversify and then your previous investments shot up like a rocket, you'll feel like you failed. You didn't fail. That's FOMO, and it's as old as investing itself.

One additional note: If you do sell any cryptocurrency, be sure to account for taxes. Unfortunately, a gaggle of crypto investors are going to learn an incredibly harsh lesson when they don't consider the tax obligations they hold to the IRS.

Colonial Pipeline hack:Majority of $4.4 million cryptocurrency ransom payment recovered

Peter Dunn is an author, speaker and radio host, and he has a free podcast: "Million Dollar Plan." Have a question for Pete the Planner? Email him at AskPete@petetheplanner.com. The views and opinions expressed in this column are the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of USA TODAY.

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Is buying cryptocurrency investing or gambling? Here's how to tell the difference - USA TODAY