Bitcoin (BTC) is attempting to notch its second successive weekly gains and end at the highest weekly closing price year-to-date. According to on-chain data from Glassnode, the recovery in Bitcoin’s price was driven by demand in the spot markets. This is likely to cheer the bulls because history suggests that spot market demand leads to sustained upside. Another positive sign is the strong demand for the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy exchange-traded fund (BITO) in the past two weeks, which pushed its exposure to a record high. Arcane Research said the strong inflows “suggest that Bitcoin appetite through traditional investment vehicles is …

Chainlink Labs recently announced a program that provides a blueprint to help new crypto projects in their blockchain business building journey. According to the company, the program called Startup with Chainlink will help early-stage founders and entrepreneurs with free information resources, community groups and access to mentors from a pool of business and technical experts. David Post, a Chainlink Labs executive who contributed to creating the program mentioned that the it will let startups access scaling information, operations best practices, webinars, events and community groups. However, top projects will be able to access more benefits such as mentors and venture …

Crypto market-making firm GSR has partnered with Chainlink to contribute price data to decentralized oracle networks (DONs) to be used within decentralized finance (DeFi) and smart contract applications, highlighting that the blockchain industry is moving forward to interoperability and more cross-platform compatibilities. In an announcement, Sergey Nazarov, the co-founder of Chainlink, said that “high-quality market data is vital to the growth of the multi-chain ecosystem.” According to Nazarov, GSR launching its data service will enable the firm to access the ever-growing blockchain economy and assist in the innovation of smart contracts. Francisco Lopez, a GSR executive, also mentioned that the …

On Wednesday, blockchain oracle solution Chainlink (LINK) announced the release of Chainlink Verifiable Random Function, or VRF, v2. As told by its developers, the new, improved version of the random number generator can reduce transaction fees by 60% compared to v1. Randomness is a core component of making nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, and gaming applications fair and secure. On their own, blockchains and smart contracts cannot guarantee randomness, but rather require an oracle network to deliver such solutions on-chain. Since its launch, Chainlink VRF (v1) has become the most widely adopted random number generator solution in the blockchain industry, fulfilling …

As concerns for environmental impact rose, the market started to require a framework that allows projects to showcase their ecological implications accurately. Because of this, climate-focused data tracking project Hyphen has found a market gap that it’s very eager to fill. With the support of a Chainlink grant back in 2021, the project is now launching a decentralized oracle network (DON) that allows smart contracts to have access to a verified resource, providing greenhouse gas data starting with nitrous oxide (N2O). This sparks the creation of a reporting ecosystem that holds corporations accountable for their emissions and allows climate disclosures …

Bitcoin’s (BTC) relief rally rose above $38,500 on Jan. 29, but the bulls are struggling to sustain the higher levels. For the past few days, Bitcoin’s sentiment has closely followed the U.S. equity markets. Hence, analysts warned traders to be careful and not to read much into any possible weekend rallies when traditional markets are closed because it could be a trap. However, analysts at trading suite Decentrader said in a recent report that a “near-term relief bounce” is possible. The report also highlighted that “meaningful buyers” were stepping in and that could result in “a potential change in the …

Bitcoin’s (BTC) sudden crash on Jan. 10 caused the price to trade below $40,000 for the first time in 110 days and this was a wake-up call to leveraged traders. $1.9 billion worth of long (buy) futures contracts were liquidated that week, causing the morale among traders to plunge. The crypto "Fear & Greed" index, which ranges from 0 "extreme fear" to 100 "greed" reached 10 on Jan. 10, the lowest level it has been since the Mar. 2020 crash. The indicator measures traders' sentiment using historical volatility, market momentum, volume, Bitcoin dominance and social media. As usual, the panic …

Bitcoin (BTC) and most major altcoins remain under pressure as supports give way and bears sell at each rally attempt. This negative sentiment pulled the Crypto Fear & Greed Index to 10/100 on Jan. 8, one of its lowest readings ever. In comparison, 2021 had started on a bullish note with the reading hitting levels of 93/100, indicating “extreme greed.” This weak opening in the new year has not unnerved Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mike McGlone who remains bullish. He said in a recent analysis that Bitcoin may rally to $100,000 and Ether (ETH) to $5,000 this year. However, some analysts …

2022 looks to be a transformative year for the cryptocurrency ecosystem as the focus on interoperability between siloed blockchain networks comes to the forefront and a multitude of projects announce plans to interconnect their platforms with other protocols. One sector of the crypto ecosystem that will play a vital role in ensuring smooth communication and interaction between networks are oracles projects like Chainlink (LINK) and Band Protocol (BAND). Oracles relay data in a consistent, secure and decentralized manner and this is key to providing price feeds for the DeFi sector and for centralized exchanges. As shown in the graphic above, …

Tokyo’s biggest finserv firm, SBI Group, will now allow general Japanese investors to purchase cryptocurrencies via its newly launched ‘crypto asset fund’. The fund is composed of seven cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), XRP, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Chainlink (LINK) and Polkadot (DOT). The crypto-asset fund, to be traded and operated by the SBI Alternative Fund, was established on Dec. 02 with a dedicated capital of 5 million yen, worth approximately $45,000 at the time of writing. However, the company may choose to release the capital in smaller break-ups of 1 million yen each. According to the official …

Decentralized oracle service Umbrella Network has launched a new accelerator program for projects looking to build data pipelines to the cryptocurrency market, a process that many within the industry believe is necessary to grow the emerging domains of blockchain gaming, DeFi and the Metaverse. The $15 million accelerator program intends to fund companies that are bringing new data solutions to the blockchain ecosystem, Umbrella Network announced Tuesday. Sam Kim, a partner at Umbrella Network, told Cointelegraph that his company is focused on funding projects within blockchain gaming, Metaverse, digital advertising, blockchain-based identity, sports and weather, among others. To date, projects …

Many people are moving to decentralized finance (DeFi) as it offers a superior user experience compared to traditional financial services. Decentralized lending and borrowing protocols enable lenders to easily earn interest on their assets, while borrowers can seamlessly access loans with variable or fixed terms. While decentralized lending and borrowing protocols are seeing increased traction, they still face a number of challenges as the blockchain ecosystem continues to mature. First and foremost, DeFi loans are typically overcollateralized, meaning users have to deposit a significant amount of excess collateral to help ensure that the loan will be paid back. Unfortunately, excess …