Cloud-based instant messaging service Telegram has released the terms of use for its native cryptocurrency wallet Grams Wallet. In the Oct. 8 publication, Telegram said the conditions apply whether as a standalone application or as incorporated into the Telegram Messenger application. Here are five key takeaways: 1. Taxes, regulation In the statement, Telegram emphasized that the Grams Wallet should not be used in jurisdictions where its services are prohibited by any applicable law, regulation or rule, including embargoes, sanctioned countries and sanctioned individuals. Telegram also stressed that its customers are responsible for determining what taxes apply to use of Gram …

Major United States-based crypto exchange and wallet service provider Coinbase has announced that it will increase trading fees again on its professional platform Coinbase Pro. Maker fees for trades under $10K surge over 200% Starting from Oct. 7, Coinbase Pro will adopt a new fee structure that will cause its maker trading fees for low tier — $10,000 and below — to surge as high as 233%, according to the update posted on Oct. 3. Following another surge in March 2019, Coinbase Pro currently charges all accounts trading under $100,000 with a 0.15% maker fee and a 0.25% taker fee. …

California-based financial firm SoFi has added zero-fee cryptocurrency trading to its platform SoFi Invest. According to an official announcement on Sept. 25, crypto trading on SoFi Invest joins the list of previously introduced trading of stocks and exchange-traded funds. SoFi Invest now offers clients to buy three major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC), with the firm claiming that users do not even need to set up a crypto wallet, according to the platform’s website. Increased demand for crypto from clients To welcome new crypto users on its platform, SoFi also offers a $25 bonus for …

Binance.US, the United States-based arm of major crypto exchange Binance, will start trading on Sept. 24, offering zero trading fees until Nov. 1. 13 trading pairs Binance.US will launch 13 fiat-to-crypto and crypto-to-crypto trading pairs, according to a blog post on Sept. 23. The trading pairs include major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), XRP, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), Binance Coin (BNB) and the Tether (USDT) stablecoin. The exchange will purportedly list a second batch of coins soon, following an evaluation period based on its Digital Asset Risk Assessment Framework. Know Your Customer onboarding already set up As …

Ethereum network participants are attempting to raise the network’s block size as a direct response to network congestion. Gas limit on course to become 10 million per block As various parties including co-founder Vitalik Buterin confirmed this week, testing is currently underway to improve network performance and reduce transaction fees. “Given the current #Ethereum network congestion we have started to test raising the block gas limit to 10M gas,” mining pool Bitfly tweeted on Sept. 14. The move follows considerable upticks in Ethereum network usage, largely due to stablecoin Tether (USDT), which has shifted its reliance from Bitcoin via the …

A $1 billion Bitcoin (BTC) transaction has become conspicuous not because of its size but because its sender spent far too much on fees. Someone could have sent 94K BTC for $35 Social media users were guessing at the origin and destination of the funds on Sept. 6, which involved 94,504 BTC ($1.018 billion). According to Twitter-based monitoring resource Whale Alert, the transaction did not involve known wallets or those belonging to a specific cryptocurrency-related organization, such as an exchange. One theory suggested the funds may be tied to institutional trading platform Bakkt, which begins accepting client deposits today. “Institutions …

Why did Bitcoin fork and split? The inability of the community to find consensus regarding a proposal to increase the block size resulted in a user-activated hard fork of the Bitcoin blockchain in August 2017. While numerous proposals advocating a change to the block size limit had failed to gather the support required to manifest change, transaction fees had skyrocketed by mid-2017. During August 2015, the average BTC transaction fee was just $0.50. However, by June 2017, median fees had increased 10x to approximate $5. With nearly half of the world’s population living on less than $5.50 per day, high …

European crypto exchange Bitstamp has set up its own Lightning Network (LN) node to boost the network’s capabilities, the company tweeted on July 8. As a second layer over the blockchain of the biggest cryptocurrency, bitcoin (BTC), the LN is designed to enable fast and zero-fee transactions by creating payment channels between users. Specifically, the network aims to address bitcoin’s scalability problem by keeping the majority of transactions off-chain. By launching its own LN node, Bitstamp aims to promote the growth of the network, as well as encourage the crypto industry to adopt the technology, the firm wrote in an …

Bitcoin (BTC), and XRP, the third biggest coin by market cap, are not competitors, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse claimed in a Fortune interview on June 20. In the interview, Garlinghouse outlined the key difference of two major cryptocurrencies, arguing that bitcoin is a store of value or “digital gold,” while XRP is a “bridge currency” that enables an efficient solution for fiat-to-fiat transfers. As such, Garlinghouse cited the difference between bitcoin and XRP in terms of transactions costs, claiming that Ripple can do a transaction for a tiny fraction of a cent while a bitcoin transactions costs roughly $2.30 on …

Binance has unveiled a series of new products and features relating to stablecoins — with the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange describing these digital assets as “an efficient fiat gateway into crypto.” Stablecoins are often pegged with a fiat currency, meaning one unit can equate directly to 1 euro or $1. With new coins emerging all the time, the industry is evolving quickly, prompting the company to launch a stablecoin market in which its consumers can benefit from pairings with other cryptocurrencies. The crypto-only exchange now supports five stablecoins in total: Paxos Standard Token (PAX), TrueUSD (TUSD), USD Coin (USDC), StableUSD …

Major United States-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced a new market structure for its professional trading platform, Coinbase Pro, in a blog post published on March 15. Per the announcement, the changes aim to increase liquidity, enhance price discovery and ensure smoother price movements. The changes include a new fee structure, reportedly designed to increase liquidity, updated order maximums, new order increment sizes, the turning off of stop market orders and added market order protection points. According to the post, Coinbase Pro and Coinbase Prime — the firm’s institutional trading platform — will cease their support for stop market orders. The …

Ethereum (ETH) mining pool Sparkpool confirmed it had come to an arrangement with a user who accidentally sent it over $300,000 in mining fees on March 11. The mix-up, which occurred on Feb. 19, involved an Ethereum user apparently confusing the fields required to send an ETH transaction. Three transactions broadcast to the Ethereum network with a combined total mining fee of 2,730 ETH (currently worth about $365,800). While the circumstances behind the event remain unknown, Sparkpool subsequently agreed to refund half of the the 2,100 ETH mining fee, which represented the largest of the three transaction fees. The refund …