The average transaction fees on Ethereum went above USD 7.5. The expenditure on fees is led by protocols like Uniswap and the stablecoin Tether.

Between August 12^th and 13^th, transaction fees on the Ethereum network reached an all-time high. Currently, a transaction on Ethereum can cost over USD 7 worth of fees on average.

According to data from Blockchair, there was an average above USD 7.5 per transaction on August 13^th, which is well above the USD 5.4 averaged on August 12^th. These data confirm users’ complaints of high fee costs to send a few US cents on Ethereum.

There has been a sustained rebound in transaction fee amounts on Ethereum in recent weeks. The excitement about decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms may be, to a large extent, responsible for this increase.

One of the most prominent cases is that of Uniswap, at the time of writing this article. The Etherscan explorer reflects that this protocol is responsible for almost 18% of the Gas (unit of measure for fees on Ethereum) that users have spent on the network in one day.

The increase in processing fees on August 12^th also led to the highest expenditure in the network’s history. According to data from CoinMetrics, there was more than USD 6.87 million worth of transaction fees.

Besides the token-exchange protocol Uniswap, the stablecoin Tether (USDT) contract has moved more than 10% of the Gas on Ethereum in recent hours, which maintains high levels of activity on the network.

Potential Ponzi Scheme and Increased Activity

In the last few hours, Etherscan also highlights a platform that has a warning as a potential Ponzi scheme among the contracts with the highest expenditure on fees.

The Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission recently reported Forsage, a website that presents itself as a crowdfunding platform, as a fraudulent scheme. In the last few hours, Forsage has moved 2.18% of the fees on Ethereum.

Fees increase as the number of daily transactions approaches levels not seen since January 2018, right after the biggest bullish run in the history of the cryptocurrency market. At that time, Ethereum’s cryptocurrency, Ether (ETH), went above USD 1,350.

Data from Etherscan show that there have been more than 1,200,000 daily transactions on the network in recent days, even exceeding 1,280,000 on August 10^th. The all-time high to date is 1,349,890, which occurred on January 4^th, 2018.

A recurring concern on the Ethereum network is precisely that of the cost of transactions. In January 2018, it was already possible to see high levels of transaction fees.

Before the Istanbul hard fork, which occurred at the end of 2019, there were already initiatives that sought to reduce fees to trade on the network.

The steady increases in recent months have stimulated the interest in seeking mechanisms to reduce fees. It is recently possible to find the EIP-1559 and Escalator improvement proposals.

These proposals take into account changing the current mechanism to adjust rates based on the network’s current demand. Likewise, they seek to establish a range of free offers for each transaction, establishing a maximum that users can willingly pay.

By Alexander Salazar

The coupling between both assets reached a new monthly high of 68.9%. The price of gold remains around USD 2,000 per ounce.

The correlation between the prices of Bitcoin (BTC) and gold reached a monthly record of 68%. This is an all-time figure that shows co-movements in the price of both assets. The event takes place one week after gold reached a price of USD 2,075 per ounce, an all-time price for the precious metal.

According to data from the market analytics firm Skew, the correlation showed multiple variations during the last 30 days. In that period, the lowest correlation between both assets was -43% (-0.43) and a high that touched 70% (0.7) for the first time in history.

The market research agency posted a message with the figure in its Twitter account. They stated that “the monthly Bitcoin/gold correlation is reaching new all-time highs, driving the store-of-value narrative for BTC in these times when ‘the money printer is going brrr’.”

The recent coupling between gold and Bitcoin also reached a peak in April of this year, almost a month after the price of the first cryptocurrency had dropped by 40%. At the time, the correlation between both assets exceeded 0.6 (60%) in the Return Rolling Correlation metric for the first time.

The figures would be a reflection of the current conditions of the global economy. The world in general entered a process of economic contraction and general uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In April, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) classified what was happening as an unusual disaster with a negative forecast of 6.1% for the developed economies at the end of 2020. Four months ago, experts already predicted that Bitcoin could represent an alternative to face a potential economic recession.

The fact that the price of Bitcoin and that of gold show a high correlation is a sign that the first cryptocurrency is gaining spaces as a safe-haven option. This is happening in the event of inflation or a possible drop in the price of the US dollar.

People traditionally see gold as a safe haven for investors, which are framed in the fact that the precious metal is limited and hard to find, far away from the inflationary monetary policies of governments.

Even though the price of Bitcoin has shown high volatility so far in 2020, it is also important to remember that the cryptocurrency recovered 22% of its price in a few days, after the collapse/crash in March. That situation allowed BTC to decouple from the hit stock market, which also dropped/collapsed after the World’s Health Organization (WHO) decreed a COVID-19 pandemic five months ago.

At the time of writing this article, the price of Bitcoin has a price of USD 11,767 per unit, according to CoinMarketCap. On its part, gold is currently trading at USD 1,948 per ounce, according to Monex. These prices indicate that the main cryptocurrency and the precious metal continue to be the best investment options.

By Alexander Salazar

Banks constantly request reports on the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Toribio considers that banks treat Bitcoin like they do with online games or pornography.

Banks are aware of the performance and potential of Bitcoin. However, they decide to ignore its progress and deal with their agendas. That is the opinion of Alberto Toribio, Specialist in Technology and Innovation at the Spanish bank Bankia.

In recent days, Toribio assessed the approaches of financial institutions to Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency ecosystem in general. In his opinion, the people who work in these instances are fully aware of what is happening in the industry.

Banks “know very well what is happening in the ecosystem, but they decide to ignore it,” said the ambassador of Cryptoplaza, a Madrid-based community that focuses on cryptocurrencies and blockchains.

Toribio thinks that banks ignore Bitcoin because it has “a bad press.” In doing so, he specifically referred to the narrative that relates the cryptocurrency that Satoshi Nakamoto created to illicit activities. He even considered that there are people in banking who frown on Bitcoin because they consider it “anti-system”.

In his view, banks deal with Bitcoin just as they do with online games or even pornography. Although they know that these types of companies move a lot of money and could generate high profits, these financial institutions do not provide them with payment services.

Wrong Approach to Cryptocurrencies by Central Banks

In this environment of rejection of cryptocurrencies, a contradiction has emerged that is increasingly gaining strength. According to Toribio, central banks have started “a race towards the creation of digital currencies without having a clear idea of the objective”.

Financial regulators in many countries insist on exploring the possibility of creating their digital versions of national fiat currencies, known as CBDC (central bank digital currencies). This issue has caught the attention of countries like the United States, Canada, Japan, China, and France, among many others.

However, Toribio understands this exploration by central banks as wrong, since it did not arise from a search for innovation. He states that CBDC fever started after Facebook announced its intentions with the Libra project.

The also creator of Coinffeine, a decentralized Spanish exchange, believes that the emergence of Libra made everyone in financial institutions nervous.

Since then, these projects began to proliferate, which he considers not to make much sense. He even compared the case to the unnecessary use of blockchains for marketing rather than for technological innovation.

Toribio considered focusing on digital currencies for payments to be a mistake. According to the specialist, it is very difficult to compete with existing solutions and methods in this area, such as PayPal and Visa. By focusing on it, central banks are missing out on real potentials, such as investments. He said that cryptocurrencies are superior to traditional options in that area.

Finally, the former blockchain project advisor explained that not all the people who make decisions in financial institutions ignore Bitcoin and the rest of cryptocurrencies. In this regard, he stated that “making decisions in this area is more complicated than people think.”

By Willmen Blanco

An announcement published on Medium just before the launch of the international portal notes that China’s BSN integrated with six public chains, including Ethereum, EOS, Nervos, Tezos, NEO, and IRISnet.

China’s Blockchain Services Network (BSN) launched its international website, which launched its global expansion plan, in which it has allies such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, and Google Cloud. These huge American companies play their roles as their primary cloud service providers. They intend to be overseas data centers.

The new BSN portal officially appeared yesterday, August 9, and aims to provide “low cost” tools for the world’s blockchain developers to build their projects, the goal is to create a global blockchain network, as read in the description of the website.

The platform is now a Chinese and a global version aiming that companies and individuals from all over the world are joining it. BSN China was launched last April, also adding the integration of companies and service providers operating in Chinese territory.

An announcement published on Medium just before the launch of the international portal notes that China’s BSN integrated with six public chains, including Ethereum, EOS, Nervos, Tezos, NEO, and IRISnet. The statement adds that the national blockchain platform seeks integration with other public blockchains to achieve more widespread interoperability.

The network offers packages of supports for developers to create decentralized applications (DApps). The website details that the system has shared environments and smart city nodes where developers can easily connect to upload their projects.

As the service network moves forward with its global expansion plans, US President Donald Trump signed executive orders affecting TikTok and WeChat, two of China’s most popular apps.

According to the requests, US companies must stop their operations with them in the next 45 days. Trump has said that his decision is an effort to “protect the national security” of his country. The move represents a significant escalation in Washington’s firm position vis-à-vis Beijing’s power in global technology.

The Chinese government also plans to launch its sovereign digital currency, which is already in a trial period. Employees of some state banks in cities such as Shenzhen said they had started internally testing an application to transfer money and make payments with the digital yuan, as revealed by Reuters on August 5^th.

For several years, China has also been working on the launch of its digital currency, as reported by CriptoNoticias. However, the team working on this development operates in a closed-door environment, far from the headquarters of the People’s Bank of China, so details of the project such as when its launch will happen are unknown.

The blockchain platform is a Chinese government-sponsored initiative that was first piloted in October 2019 and initially supported small as well as medium-sized businesses to create and implement blockchain-based applications. This program was officially launched in April 2020 for global commercial use, as reported by CriptoNoticias at the time.

By Jenson Nuñez

The leader of the OneCoin pyramid scheme, the “crypto queen” as Ruja is also known, disappeared in October 2017, leaving no trace at all.

The Missing Cryptoqueen is still wanted; the search for Ruja Ignatova continues. The leader of the OneCoin pyramid scheme, the “crypto queen” as Ruja is also known, disappeared in October 2017, leaving no trace at all and other than millions of deluded souls who believed in her fake cryptocurrency.

A Law firm and a public relations firm, together, activated a plan to intimidate the UK regulatory organization. Both companies succeeded in getting the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to withdraw warnings that singled out Onecoin as a scam.

In 2016 the FCA had warned citizens to be alert when dealing with OneCoin, given that the company did not have the regulation of the financial authority and about which it found irregularities. However, ten months later, the warning from the UK regulatory body disappeared.

Two characters who never knew each other revealed how OneCoin operated to disengage from warnings issued by the FCA that blacklisted it for financial scams.

One of these characters, Gary Gilford, Ruja Ignatova’s lawyer, uncovered the names of the companies that actively participated in the plan at the request of OneCoin The leading London law firm figures as one of them, Carter-Ruck. At the same time, the other is the public relations firm Chelgate.

OneCoin Multi-Level Marketing

Journalist Jamie Bartlett recounts in a podcast episode how OneCoin launched an operation to reverse an adverse situation and how they later used it to their advantage. “When the FCA removed the warning, OneCoin used that to publicize itself, arguing that if it carried out dishonest activities, it would remain on the blacklist of financial regulators.”

Because one of the most significant financial regulators in the world no longer considered OneCoin a scam, said company used this as a marketing tool and growing extensively. By 2017, just three years after its launch, OneCoin had 3 million members around the world. A very considerable number and a serious reason to worry about, the scam was on a grander scale than we could ever have thought.

Documents show that the crypto queen’s scam with its fake cryptocurrency is on the order of 5 billion dollars, a juicy amount, and continues its operations.

Open offices were still open in Bulgaria, with OneCoin signs, and with active staff.

“The office is open because people keep buying the packages that OneCoin sells. People are still waiting for the cryptocurrency exchange to open. Even after the arrest of Konstantin Ignatov (Ruja’s brother), people still have not realized that OneCoin is a scam, and they continue to buy fake cryptocurrency ”, Barttlet points out in that episode.

In September 2019, the BBC broadcast the first episode of the Missing Cryptoqueen podcast. Since then, the documentary based on Bartlett’s journalistic investigation has been on the trail of the story of greed, deception, and collective madness that engulfs OneCoin and its leader Ruja Ignatova.

By Jenson Nuñez.

Platforms for the exchange of bitcoin such as SatoshiTango, LocalBitcoins, and Paxful evidenced new caps on trading volumes in Argentina.

In April of this year, the IMF expected a contraction of at least 5.7% in Argentina. The IMF’s preliminary figure was conservative since in June update was released stating that the Argentine economy would fall by 10% in late 2020. Others believe that it could reach a peak estimated at 12.5%.

Surrounded by these predictions, exchange controls, and the semi-paralysis of the country, Argentines turn their eyes towards bitcoin (BTC) as an excellent alternative to safeguard value. A month ago Argentina registered the highest levels of purchase of the first cryptocurrency, which determines a trend that could increase in the coming months.

Platforms for the exchange of bitcoin such as SatoshiTango, LocalBitcoins, and Paxful evidenced new caps on trading volumes in Argentina. The decline of the local economy, inflation, and the revaluation of bitcoin has also been conjugated have made the price of BTC show a new all-time high in the Argentine domestic currency.

 According to the information service Coin Monitor, some platforms sell bitcoin at more than 1,600,000 Argentine pesos per unit. Already in 2018, bitcoin was strengthening as a store of value in the face of high inflation in the country, something that has been ratified, and consolidated in the last two years, but with higher levels of adoption, primarily due to the reappearance of exchange restrictions.

On this point, the Argentine tax consultant Marcos Zocaro indicated in June that this type of control was encouraging the purchase of cryptocurrencies. By user preference, he mentioned that bitcoin followed by the stablecoin DAI holds the first option.

Will Argentina give bitcoin a chance?

The fact that Argentina has obtained a refinancing with its international creditors and that now it also tries to do it with the IMF could repeat patterns of the past. The facts show that the authorities, although they have the support of the institutions, would not have controlled the internal economic situation.

Talks with the IMF are expected to last until the first quarter of 2021, which shows how difficult it is to renegotiate a debt of these proportions. In any case, uncertainty and rising inflation could continue, something that could benefit bitcoin again.

Argentina’s Economy Minister, Martín Guzmán, estimated that, due to the complicated scenario, a quick agreement is ruled out.

“Due to the complexity and the number of details to be negotiated, we don’t see it quickly. It will take months, it is even possible that an agreement can only be reached at the beginning of next year,” Guzmán was quoted as saying by local media.

The official assured that under the conditions in which the country is currently, it is not possible to face the maturities that will begin in September 2021.

Seeking debt refinancing with a deteriorating economy, inflation, exchange controls, and the confession that you cannot meet your commitments might not be the best cover letter. This situation could pave the way for bitcoin to break through and meet the needs of those who seek to minimize the impact of State decisions.

By Jenson Nuñez.