OK Group, the conglomerate formerly behind cryptocurrency exchange OKEx, is investing approximately 10 million RMB ($1.4 million) into Yun Qu Technologies, a blockchain startup based in Wuhan. The announcement was made on April 8 on China’s state news network, Xinhuanet. Yun Qu is headquartered in Wuhan, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak. The investment was being discussed since late 2019, according to OK Group spokesmen. As the city begins to return to normal life, OK Group’s investment will help Wuhan’s local businesses recover from the pandemic and the associated quarantine. Yun Qu Technologies provides a variety of information services …

Cryptocurrency exchange OKEx announced a new feature that allows its users to convert small balances to the firm’s proprietary token OKB. OKEx announced on April 7 that the new product allows its user to convert all the crypto asset balances worth less than 0.001 Bitcoin (BTC) ($7.38 at press time) into OKB. The upper limit for conversion value is 0.01 BTC ($73.84 at press time), there is no limit on conversion time but the conversion is only available when the price fluctuates within 5%. A trader told Cointelegraph that small balance handling is an important feature for long-term traders because …

Major cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex has become the latest exchange to offer staking services to customers. Announced April 3, Bitfinex will offer staking rewards up to 10% per annum on crypto assets underpinned by a Proof-of-Stake algorithm. "We're committed to engaging our existing users and the wider community with new products and innovations," said Bitfinex’s CTO, Paolo Ardoino. "The Bitfinex Staking Rewards Program provides our users with another avenue to increase their holdings on our platform." Bitfinex introduces staking in response to customer demand Ardoino states that Bitfinex’s clients asked for staking to be introduced, noting that staking allows traders to …

CryptoCompare has published its monthly report analyzing the trade activity on crypto exchanges. The record-breaking crash of March 12 and 13 drove new all-time volume highs in both the spot and derivatives markets. March 13 sets record for daily spot trades The report states that March 13 produced the single greatest volume in the history of crypto assets — with all exchanges and markets producing $75.9 billion in trade activity over 24 hours. $54.3 billion of 71.5% of trades came from ‘Lower Tier’ exchanges, while ‘Top Tier’ exchanges generated $21.6 billion in volume. Despite Binance and OKEx representing the largest …

It seems that Malta is becoming both less popular among and less populated with crypto firms. The European Union country attracted dozens of industry players in 2018 on the back of the “blockchain island” agenda championed by the local government, but the relevant framework has not yet proven to be effective. Meanwhile, the official rhetoric apparently started to shift away from the blockchain sector, as the government now aims to consolidate it with “other niche sectors.” Meanwhile, the Malta Financial Services Authority, continues to pluck out non-registered crypto agents — be it the world’s top crypto exchange or smaller startups. …

Bitcoin (BTC) derivatives exchange BitMEX has fallen to third place in 24-hour trading volume for Bitcoin futures. Data from Skew analytics on March 23 reveals that the derivatives giant, founded by Arthur Hayes, is reporting $2.45 billion in 24-hour futures volume, as against Binance’s $2.48 billion and OKex’s $3.08 over the same time frame. 24-hour trading volumes for Bitcoin futures contracts on major exchanges. Source: skew.com Mid-term trends Earlier this month, aggregated open interest in BitMEX’s futures contract took a steep plunge from $1.2 billion on March 12 to $745 million the following day, and down to $607 million on …

First, there were property rents. Then came interests. As modern civilization evolves, people always find new ways to earn money without actually producing, or even doing all that much. This concept is today known as “passive income.” Technological progress also expanded the meaning of passive income. Today, people can claim YouTube advertisement revenues, dropshipping and even creating online courses as their favorite way to earn passive income. Lennix Lai, the director of financial markets at OKEx, believes there is another method to add to this ever-expansive list: crypto staking. He was a keynote speaker during the Blockchain Economy 2020 conference …

Crypto exchanges have become the most powerful stakeholders in the crypto ecosystem. Currently, just 12 crypto exchanges hold around 2.5 million Bitcoin (BTC) in their wallets, worth around $15 billion. That’s 13.8% of all Bitcoin mined to date — or, 16%–17% of all Bitcoin in circulation, considering lost Bitcoin (as of March 19). Exchanges are also some of the largest holders of altcoins, which recently led to a controversy when some of the biggest crypto exchanges used large stockpiles of Steem tokens to take over Steemit. Just like Steem, Tron’s consensus is also delegated proof-of-stake, and its biggest representative is …

On March 13, trading giant BitMEX was thrust into the middle of a controversy that saw the premier exchange face an operational outage that lasted for about 25 minutes. During the downtime, rumors spread throughout the cryptoverse that some foul play had been going on behind the scenes, especially since Bitcoin’s (BTC) price fell to around the $3,700 mark. Related: Crypto Traders Explain What Caused the Bitcoin Price Plunge to $3,000s To help allay some of the suspicions that arose due to the aforementioned outage, BitMEX’s PR team issued a tweet that read that the company “became aware of a …

OKEx completed a short maintenance yesterday at a time of great volatility in the cryptocurrency market. The exchange also just recently overtook competitor BitMEX and became the top Bitcoin futures trading platform. On Mar. 12, OKEx announced that the platform would be down for system maintenance starting at midnight UTC for about half an hour. Later the same day, the exchange announced that trading activity had resumed. The maintenance took place at a time of great volatility in the cryptocurrency market which was accompanied by unusually high volumes on cryptocurrency exchanges. Bitcoin (BTC) started Mar. 12 at nearly $8,000 and …

OKCoin, one of the world’s oldest cryptocurrency exchanges, is continuing to expand its fiat-to-crypto onramps by adding support of the Singapore dollar (SGD). Starting March 12, OKCoin users can deposit and withdraw Singapore’s official fiat currency — the Singapore dollar — for major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). As the Singapore dollar is also officially accepted in its neighbor country Brunei, individuals and institutions in both jurisdictions are able to start trading their Singapore dollars for crypto, OKCoin announced to Cointelegraph. The Singapore dollar is the third fiat currency supported by OKCoin after the United States dollar and …

The Indian Crypto Bulls Roadshow describes itself as a not-for-profit initiative that seeks to educate Indian citizens as to the emerging blockchain and cryptocurrency sectors. The roadshow was originally scheduled to visit eight major Indian cities over 20 days — New Delhi, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Surat, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, and Bangalore. However, following India’s Supreme Court ruling that the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) ban on banks providing services to companies operating with crypto was unconstitutional, the roadshow has scheduled seven additional cities to host the event — Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, Patna, and Kanpur. To plan for the additional locations, …