The main altcoins do not reach USD 1,000 in fees per day. Between 8 cryptocurrencies, the peak during the last month was USD 6,000 in one day.

The use of Bitcoin and Ethereum exceeds that of the main altcoins on the market. This is reflected in the value in US dollars of the fees that its users pay every day, compared to other cryptocurrencies. This is a sign that users see greater usefulness in both networks.

Bitcoin users have paid at least USD 700,000 in fees every day to execute their transactions in recent months. The peaks have even reached above USD 2 million, according to data from Coin Metrics.

Ethereum had peaks of up to USD 8,600,000 in fees on August 13^th. With that figure, it exceeded the all-time high of USD 6,870,000 that it had recorded the previous day.

Fees on this network have not dropped below USD 1 million per day since July 19^th. That same date, there was the lowest value of the fees on Bitcoin for the last 30 days.

The combined total fees between both cryptocurrencies were almost USD 10 million on August 13^th. In the last week, that accumulated figure has not dropped from USD 4,000,000 any day.

Among the main altcoins by market capitalization, the total daily fees are well below those that Bitcoin and Ethereum have recorded. None of them even reaches USD 1,000 per day with specific exceptions, according to CoinMetrics.

Bitcoin and Ethereum Have Sustained Dominance

This reality is not new nor is it limited to the last month. Historically, it is possible to see that Bitcoin and Ethereum have sustained broad dominance over time.

The data reflect the willingness of users to pay fees for the use of consolidated platforms to move their funds. This occurs even though the value proposition of some other cryptocurrencies includes cheaper fees.

However, low levels of fees show little use of a cryptocurrency on blockchain-based networks. Since the space in the blocks is sold on these networks, the fact that transactions flow without paying or paying very little is only an indicator of their lack of use.

During the 2017 bullish market, Bitcoin even exceeded USD 20 billion in fees. For the last 3 years, neither BTC nor ETH has had competition in this area.

Bitcoin and Ethereum Have Jointly Moved Over USD 10,000 Million

Those who are against Bitcoin often label the payment of transaction fees as a problem for the cryptocurrency. This issue in the case of Ethereum has also received wide questioning since the proliferation of decentralized finance (DeFi) projects has congested it in recent months.

However, the fee levels on both networks recently show that their users compete to trade on the network. An example of this is the value in US dollars equally transferred on both networks in recent days.

There have been 6 days in which users have moved over USD 10 billion between both cryptocurrencies in the last month, according to data from Coin Metrics. Bitcoin dominates this area, repeatedly exceeding USD 8 billion in one day.

When comparing those values with those of the other cryptocurrencies, the difference is also clear. Except for ADA, none of the altcoins mentioned above exceeded USD 1 billion in one day.

By Alexander Salazar

The growth of Chainlink’s cryptocurrency has attracted the attention of the community. Many members of the crypto community even call it “the next Bitcoin.”

Chainlink’s cryptocurrency has been a great performer over the past few months, leading many to call it “the next Bitcoin.” It is possible to get an idea of the magnitude of Link’s growth, just by comparing its price from May to the present.

For the fifth month of the year, Link’s price was USD 0.5 USD. In less than 4 months, the value of each unit of this digital currency has reached USD 16.47 USD. It also ranks 5^th by market capitalization, according to CoinMarketCap.

No other cryptocurrency has reached that level of growth so far. The craze for all things related to Chainlink is leading many analysts to consider it the next Bitcoin.

Link Jumps to the Clouds

Chainlink’s digital currency emerged in 2017. Since then until a quarter ago, its value ranged between USD 0.5 and USD 1. At this time, the value of the cryptocurrency has risen by more than 1,600%. This is a record that would be elusive even for Bitcoin.

It is necessary to take into account that Link is the token of the Chainlink platform, which is in charge of operating with all the smart contracts of the Ethereum blockchain network.

Since last June, Coinbase has announced the incorporation of Chainlink into its services. This news caused a 400% increase in the value of the currency, as its growth does not seems to have stopped since then.

Right now, Chainlink’s market capitalization outperforms that of many other digital currencies of high caliber. Some of them are Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, and Cardano. The positive evolution of Chainlink in the field of cryptocurrencies has allowed many people to call it “the next Bitcoin”.

Chainlink Could Become Next Bitcoin

Link has gone from being just another altcoin to playing a new role in the sentiment of the crypto community. At the same time, its presence on social media has increased significantly.

However, many cryptocurrency projects are better than Bitcoin and perform better. Despite this, their popularity against the main cryptocurrency is the determining factor.

The fact that Bitcoin is the pioneering digital currency of the entire ecosystem makes it very difficult for any other project to become the next serious competitor or substitute for Bitcoin.

For its part, the main cryptocurrency has had a significant increase in its price. At the time of writing this article, the price of Bitcoin is USD 12,000 per unit. One of the reasons for this increase could be the failed economic policies of some powers in the face of the crisis.

Another factor related to Bitcoin’s success in recent weeks is the massive purchase that institutional investors have made on Wall Street. According to various media, professionals of the US exchanges would be buying Bitcoin en masse.

The community must neither underestimate nor underestimate the start of Chainlink. However, it will be long before it can become the next Bitcoin.

By Willmen Blanco

The exchange will pay users interest in the stablecoin that they choose and a random DeFi token. Each batch of savings is equivalent to USD 100, with dividends after 2 weeks.

In recent days, major cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced the launch of a batch of savings plans with stablecoins such as Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), and its own dollar-pegged asset Binance USD (BUSD). The most prominent new features of these savings plans include token rewards from various decentralized finance (DeFI) platforms.

The batches of savings in the said stablecoins will yield a return of 14.8% every year, divided into two parts of 7.4%, one in the stablecoin itself, and another in a random DeFi token. On the whole, the user will be able to receive one of 12 DeFi tokens, among which the most prominent are Compound (COMP) and MakerDAO (MKR).

The announcement specifically states that each batch of savings will be USD 100 (equivalent to the stablecoin that the user chooses) and the returns after each period will be USD 0.284 (equivalent to that pegged currency) and the equivalent of the corresponding DeFi token. According to the text, each stablecoin has a limit of 20 million units arranged for the savings program.

In the case of DeFi tokens, the calculation of the corresponding reward will correspond to the rate of the day of distribution “within 7 days after the end of the event.” The distribution of the interests on the stablecoin will occur on the day of the closing of the period of the batch.

Binance joins the wave of decentralized platforms, whose assets have become very popular in recent months, through this DeFi token reward system.

In just a few weeks, a lot has happened in the DeFi ecosystem with the boom in yield farming, a token launched as a parody that moved over USD 1 million in a few hours, and hundreds of thousands of US dollars locked in a failed experiment.

Binance Leads Trading Volume

Binance has quickly become one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges. Its trading volume has recently exceeded USD 4.98 billion, according to LiveCoinWatch. That figure leads it to double the volume of Huobi, which is second on the list.

As well as its exchange platform, Binance launched its blockchain, Binance Chain. As in other cases, the US government has already investigated this blockchain and the cryptocurrency Binance Coin, through the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

In late July, the SEC announced the hiring of blockchain monitoring service CipherTrace to investigate the activity on the Binance Chain. However, this company has already monitored the Binance blockchain at the request of the exchange itself, which hired its services in November 2019.

The relevance of stablecoins and DeFi tokens has increasingly become relevant worldwide. The United States has been using its power to know everything about these assets and, of course, about Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies.

By Alexander Salazar

OKEx has suspended deposits and withdrawals of ETC until the network is “stable.” KuCoin decided to remove ETC from loan requests and trading.

Following the recent 51% attacks, cryptocurrency brokerages are making decisions regarding the Ethereum Classic (ETC) network. For instance, the services of OKEx and KuCoin have restricted the operations with the crypto asset as a safeguard measure.

Chinese brokerage OKEx, which has offices in Malta and operations in more than 100 countries, suspended all deposits and withdrawals of ETC on its platform, following the first attack on July 31^st. The company noted on August 15^th that the decision protected its platform during the second attack, which occurred on August 6^th. However, the company later admitted that it suffered a loss of USD 5.6 million due to double-spending.

The entity stressed that the losses did not involve users’ assets, but that it was necessary to suspend five accounts as hackers used them in the attack. Regarding the stolen USD 5.6 million, OKEx said that it assumed the losses following its “user protection policy.”

After the event, OKEx confirmed that it is considering removing the cryptocurrency from its exchange system. For the time being, the company has reported that it will not restore ETC support “until it considers that the network is stable again”, which will depend on the “work of the Ethereum Classic community”.

Concerning KuCoin, which operates from the Seychelles archipelago in the Indian Ocean, the decision was more radical. The brokerage made it clear in an official announcement that it will no longer offer ETC support for loan requests or trading.

KuCoin made that decision due to the “instability of the current ETC network” and to protect the “user experience in margin trading”. For that reason, they will remove ETC trading pairs from the margin market, without impacting the spot market.

The restriction of loans came into effect on August 8^th, while traders’ cessation of operations with ETC ended on August 10^th.

Details about Attack on Ethereum Classic

Analytics firm Bitquery confirmed that those involved double-spending of 807,260 ETC in the first attack. At the time, that represented USD 5.6 million, the same amount that OKEx reported. They also reported spending 17.5 BTC (equivalent to USD 192,000) to buy processing power and execute the action.

In the second attack, there was a double-spending of 238,306 ETC (equivalent to around USD 1.68 million), according to Bitquery. This time, the attackers used the Bitfinex platform and an unidentified service. In a first attempt, there was an attempt to double-spend 465,444 ETC (equivalent to about USD 3.3 million).

The Ethereum Classic network has suffered similar attacks in the past, which has generated actions of this type among exchanges or brokerages. In early 2019, exchanges Kraken, Coinbase, and Poloniex stopped deposits and withdrawals for the same reasons. Binance, OKEx, and Bitfly increased the number of confirmations for ETC transactions.

By Alexander Salazar

The new self-regulation seeks to legitimize the use of cryptocurrencies in Brazil. Exchanges such as Ripio, Foxbit, and Bitcoin Market signed the document.

In recent days, the Brazilian Cryptoeconomy Association ABCripto signed a code of self-regulation of the cryptocurrency market. The document seeks to legitimize and ensure the use of crypto assets in Brazil.

The most emblematic companies in the market decided to sign this agreement to be able to trade around USD 100 billion worth of cryptocurrencies by the end of 2020. In this way, firms specialized in the custody, brokerage, and exchange of crypto assets must now incorporate measures to prevent crimes and money laundering on their platforms.

Among the most prominent companies that signed this self-regulatory code are the exchanges Foxbit, Ripio, Bitcoin Market, and NovaDAX. These exchange platforms collectively mobilize up to 80% of the volume of cryptocurrency transactions in Brazil. For that reason, the ABCripto entity considers this agreement a milestone in the Brazilian crypto-asset ecosystem.

The signing of the agreement happened recently on a live broadcast. At the same time, it was registered on a private blockchain-based platform that GrowthTech created. This company develops distributed ledger solutions for the notary and real estate market, relying on IBM cloud services. The idea was to establish a series of operational practices and compliance standards among the constituent members of this market.

The CEO of ABCripto, Safiri Felix, noted that the cryptocurrency trading market has increased by 2 digits per year in Brazil in the last three years. However, this ecosystem continues to face the regulatory vacuum, since the nation’s congress is still discussing four possible bills for cryptocurrencies.

Legitimize and Demystify Cryptocurrencies in Brazil

The main goal of this self-regulation is to protect users “without hindering the free initiative” of companies, according to Felix. In this sense, the document seeks to incorporate practices that legitimize and promote the trading of crypto assets, while demystifying the use of these currencies for scams or extortion.

For that reason, they have decided that all platforms will have to comply with the basic know-your-customer requirements. Likewise, they must increase their security parameters, strengthen their legal infrastructure, commit to respect free competition, and always respect the privacy of their users’ information.

The entity will punish all members who fail to comply with these regulations. The document will incorporate a series of warnings, fines, and even expulsion that the penalized companies will have to face.

Although they consider that the Brazilian government will issue a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency companies, Felix clarifies that this could take a long time. For more than a year, they have been investigating cases of self-regulation at the international level to adapt it to the Brazilian ecosystem.

The director also emphasizes that they decided to accelerate this process due to the coronavirus pandemic. This health phenomenon has triggered the use of financial technologies worldwide, highlighting among them those based on Bitcoin. Faced with this eventuality, Safiri Felix stated that this could be the right time for the more than 30 Brazilian crypto exchanges to adopt protection measures for their users.

By Alexander Salazar