The U.S. dollar lost about 7% of its value in 2020, while Bitcoin rallied about 300% during the same period. As Bitcoin’s institutional adoption increases, United States companies may start to diversify their treasury with other stores of value, and Bitcoin (BTC) stands a good chance to garner a portion of it. Ark Invest’s latest report, "Bitcoin: Preparing for Institutions," shows that even a paltry allocation of 1% by companies from the S&P 500 could boost Bitcoin’s price by $40,000. However, analysts at Ar believe that the allocation is likely to be in the range of 2.5% to 6.5%, which …

Automated market maker Balancer announced today a widely-anticipated second version of its decentralized exchange protocol, featuring a host of upgrades centered on “security, flexibility, capital efficiency and gas efficiency" — but yield farmers are left wondering about the all-important liquidity mining details, which are still in development. “The main architectural change between Balancer V1 and Balancer V2 is the transition to a single vault that holds and manages all the assets added by all Balancer pools,” wrote Balancer co-founder and CEO Fernando Martinelli in a blog post. This architecture will mean all assets will be handled through a single central …

The price of Ether (ETH), the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain network, achieved a new all-time high of $1,500 today. Data suggests that the ETH options market showed dominant call activity, and this may be a primary factor in the rally to a new high. Across major exchanges, the price of ETH surpassed $1,500 after the options market showed dominant call activity. In the options market, there are two types of contracts: puts and calls. Puts are sell orders, and calls are buy orders. When there are more calls in the market, it means the options market is bullish. …

Manta Network has closed a $1.1 million funding round to create a fully private decentralized exchange on Polkadot. Announced on Tuesday, the round was led by Polychain Capital and joined by Hypersphere Ventures, Three Arrows Capital, Defiance Capital, Multicoin Capital, Alameda Research, BTC12 Capital, Genblock Capital, Rarestone Capital, AU21 Capital and TRG Capital. Manta wants to create an automated market maker exchange on Polkadot that would feature fully private swaps. It uses zk-SNARKs with Groth16 proofs, which is the same cryptographic technology used in Zcash (ZEC). True privacy has been hard to obtain in decentralized finance. All DeFi protocols are …

Bitcoin (BTC) price spent the day trading in a tight range between $32,000 and $34,000. At the time of writing, the digital asset is pinned below the descending trendline resistance and each attempt to cross above it is met by selling. Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView show a price increase of 4.14% for the top cryptocurrency, which currently trades at $33,840. In light of the sideways price action, Ki Young Ju, the CEO of the cryptocurrency analysis firm CryptoQuant, spotted a potential bullish indicator that may indicate a price breakout in the near future for Bitcoin. According to Ju, …

On Jan. 30 Uniswap (UNI) and Compound (COMP) both rallied to new all-time highs as the entire DeFi sector continued to heat up. UNI soared to a new all-time high at $19.93 and COMP price did the same as it briefly traded at $340. In the past 30 days the entire decentralized finance sector has been in a strong uptrend and data from DeFi Pulse shows the total value locked has soared from $16.43 billion on Jan. 2 to a new all-time high at $27.67 billion on Jan. 30. The surge in COMP price follows the recent release of a …

Following its merger into the Yearn ecosystem, SushiSwap has been making significant inroads into the market share of leading decentralized exchange Uniswap. On Jan. 29, Messari researcher Mira Christanto tweeted data illustrating that Uniswap’s share of the Automated Market Maker sector has declined as Sushi’s share expanded from mid-December until last week. Christanto asserts the Yearn merger has given Sushi a newfound legitimacy, allowing the project to move past criticism of the project that launched in August as a clone of Uniswap and secured TVL early on via a so-called “vampire” liquidity attack. In November, Sushi attracted further liquidity away …

Bitcoin (BTC) has bounced back above the $32,000 level today, but Guggenheim chief investment officer Scott Minerd believes that the current institutional demand is not sufficient to keep the price above $30,000 for long. Despite this view, Minerd continues to believe that the current downturn does not alter the long-term bullish story of Bitcoin. While several institutional investors are turning positive on Bitcoin as a store of value, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink does not seem impressed. Fink pointed out the volatility and called Bitcoin “a very small market” that is affected by small-dollar investments. Although Fink said that “some form …

This week the total value locked in decentralized finance platforms reached a new high at $26.2 billion, and this record high was achieved even as Bitcoin (BTC) price appeared to be slipping into a downtrend. This asymmetrical performance from DeFi tokens suggests the sector has staying power and the ecosystem built up around DeFi platforms is likely to have a far-reaching impact that may even alter the way traditional finance operates. As DeFi protocols gain traction, decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregators have also emerged among the thriving trading and staking market. The 1inch protocol sources liquidity from different DEXs and executes …

How can I join DeFi liquidity pools? The exact procedure for joining DeFi liquidity pools varies according to the platform. In general, one would need to set up an account on the platform of choice and then connect an Ethereum wallet such as MetaMask or other Web 3.0 wallets from the homepage. After that, tokens can be deposited into the relevant liquidity pool. On platforms, such as Uniswap, one would need to search for a specific pair they want to provide liquidity to and then connect the wallet. After checking the returns, such as the pool ratio and the exchange …

An ambitious contest has launched where blockchain developers will battle it out to put forward their ideas for a new decentralized exchange. Free TON is inviting applicants to build a suite of FreeDEX smart contracts that prove its network can perform tokens, loans and IOUs quickly and cheaply. Other requirements include ensuring that FreeDEX can support staking through TON DePool contracts, as well as soft majority voting — where neutral and uninterested parties can take a backseat so decisions are made by those who care most. Submissions are being accepted from Jan. 27 until March 14, and this is the …

Uniswap’s decentralized exchange has emerged as one of the critical pieces in the decentralized finance sector, with the DEX benefiting from the first-mover advantage after it became the go-to exchange for new projects and traders in 2020. In late 2020, 400 UNI tokens were distributed to all wallet addresses that previously provided liquidity on the platform at at its peak thhe impromptu airdrop was worth north of $3,500. By late October of 2020 the DeFi market has sold-off sharply and this pinned UNI price below the $4.00 mark for weeks but since the start of 2021, UNI token has gained …