DeFi News Today Official TheBitTimes.com

In a recent introspective blog post, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin candidly addressed the complexities of his journey in the crypto world and its intersection with global politics.  Buterin’s revelations, particularly concerning his ‘unintended’ legitimization of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his observations on the cryptocurrency industry’s volatility, provide a rare glimpse into the mind of one of the crypto world’s most influential figures. Buterin recounted an experience in 2017 when he met with Vladimir Putin. Initially, he didn’t perceive this meeting as an endorsement of Putin’s regime. However, upon reflection, he now views it as an unwitting legitimization of a controversial political figure. This acknowledgment represents a significant shift in Buterin’s perception of his actions, highlighting the ethical complexities tech leaders face when interacting with global politics. “Now, five years later, I finally realized ...

The Solana-based decentralized trading aggregator Jupiter will launch its native JUP token through an airdrop today at 10 a.m. EST. Jupiter’s pseudonymous founder Meow said in a forum post on Jan. 30 that the token will have an initial maximum circulating supply of 1.35 billion, a reduction from the previously announced figure of 1.7 billion.  The Solana token could subsequently start trading with a market capitalization of $891 million, given that the JUP-USD perpetual currently trades at around 66 cents on Aevo . More Than Half Of The Initial JUP Will Be Allocated To Airdrops One billion tokens of the initial circulating supply have been set aside for airdrops. Market makers on centralized exchanges and liquidity pools will each receive 50 million tokens, while 250 million JUP will be used for a launch pool. About 955,000 wallets that interacted with Jupiter before Nov. 2 are eligible for the JUP airdrop, according to data from Airdrop Official. Everything you ne...

Although Robert Kiyosaki, a renowned investor and author of the best-selling personal finance book ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad,’ recently said he knew nothing about Bitcoin (BTC), he did explain why he actually had the flagship decentralized finance (DeFi) asset in his possession. As it happens, Kiyosaki said he owned Bitcoin as “protection against the theft of our wealth via our money,” particularly from the United States Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and Wall Street bankers, according to his X post published on January 31. Specifically, he voiced his opinion that those individuals were trying to carry out this nefarious mission through “inflation, taxation, & stock price manipulation,” which is why he saves and invests in the maiden cryptocurrency and not in “stocks, bonds, and fake dollars.” Why I own Bitcoin. Bitcoin is protection against the theft of our wealth via our money. Fed Chairman Powell, Treasury Secretary Yellin, and Wall Street...

Highly anticipated Web3 portal and trading platform Launchpad xyz, which raised $2.79 million in its presale, is turning on claiming of its $LPX token from 11am UTC on Wednesday, January 31st. Heightened volatility is returning to the market with a vengeance, which presents challenges and opportunities in equal measure. However, true to its mission to bring sophistication and trusted value to how retail investors engage in the markets, the team at Launchpad xyz is leaving nothing to chance. Launchpad xyz planners are well aware of the tumult in the market triggered by the launch of spot bitcoin ETFs and perhaps more fundamentally, the past performance of the market in previous halving years where the bitcoin price has crashed around that key disinflationary event.  Cautious Liquidity Provision To Protect $LPX Token Holders Accordingly, the team has instructed its market makers to have a rest, meaning there will be no liquidity provision until the...

The bullish PENDLE price prediction ranges from $4.12 to $4.67. PENDLE price might also reach $5.23 in 2024. PENDLE’s bearish market price prediction for 2024 is $1.563. What is Pendle (PENDLE)? As described in the document, Pendle is a permissionless yield-trading protocol where users can execute various yield-management strategies. Pendle is divided into three main parts, such as Yield Tokenization, Pendle AMM, and vePendle.  Pendle focuses on unlocking the full potential of yield, allowing users to implement advanced yield strategies. Some of the strategies provided by Pendle include fixed yield, long yield, and earning more yield without additional risks. As one of the parts of Pendle, yield tokenization is the process where the yield is tokenized into a separate token. The initial process includes Pendle wrapping yield-bearing tokens into SY (standardized yield tokens), a wrapped version of the underlying yield-bearing token that is compatibl...

International payment giant PayPal has completed its first investment using its stablecoin PayPal USD (PYUSD). In a press release on Jan. 29, the San Jose-headquartered payment company said that its investment branch, PayPal Ventures has thrown its support behind Mesh, a crypto-focused cybersecurity startup that uses PYUSD, an Ethereum-based stablecoin. This move marks the first time that PYUSD has been used as a funding instrument. The specific financial details are undisclosed. However, the company pointed out that the investment was made “almost entirely” in PYUSD, funds transferred on-chain utilizing Mesh’s Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), PayPal added. “As the world of financial services undergoes rapid transformation, we believe that user ownership and portability of assets will become a critical building block of product innovation, with crypto serving as the first beachhead where this is possible.” Amman Bhasin, partner at PayPal V...

The Ethereum price has plunged 1.1% in the last 24 hours to trade at $2,275 as of 04:29 a.m. EST on trading volume that jumped 22% to $6.7 billion. This slight drop in the ETH price comes as crypto analyst Benjamin Cowen warns that it will plummet to below the $1,000 mark.  In a recent video, Cowen mentioned that he believes Ethereum could experience a significant drop in value before entering a new bullish phase.  He points to the historical patterns of Ethereum’s price movements and the importance of the ETH/BTC pair in determining its future trajectory. Cowen highlights the retests of cycle lows in 2015, 2016, and 2020, emphasizing that a similar retest for 2022 is yet to occur.  He further predicts that Ethereum will experience a decline first in its Bitcoin pair (ETH/BTC), followed by a subsequent drop in ETH/USD, likely to happen within this year. The Ethereum Price: Bulls Rebound Within A Falling Wedge Pattern ETHUSDT Chart Analysis. Source:Tradingv...

Decentralized finance (Defi)  platform Solana (SOL) continues to be one of the best-performing cryptocurrencies in the short term, attracting increased buying pressure. The heightened interest has elevated Solana’s market capitalization to reach $42.5 billion by press time, reflecting an inflow of $4.4 billion or 11.5% growth from the $38.1 billion recorded on January 22. SOL seven-day market cap chart. Source: CoinMarketCap Indeed, Solana’s recent gains have coincided with the short-term market uptick led by Bitcoin (BTC). Notably, most cryptocurrencies capitalized on Bitcoin’s gains amid slowed profit-taking from the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) spot exchange-traded fund (ETF). Solana’s fundamentals At the same time, Solana’s buying pressure has emerged when the network is experiencing increased activity, with the platform’s meme coins playing a pivotal role.  Cryptocurrency Peter Schiff says Bitcoin could hit $10 mill...

U.S. prosecutors have pushed back against former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky’s motion to dismiss two criminal charges brought against him. Prosecutors argued that the charges, which include commodities fraud and market manipulation, show Mashinsky’s intention to mislead investors about his crypto platform’s profitability and business practices and manipulate the market for Celsius’ proprietary CEL token. Unsurprisingly, the US prosecutors have opposed Alex Mashinsky's motion to dismiss two of his criminal charges. I just put it on PACER for anyone else who likes to spend their Friday nights reading this kind of thing: https://t.co/sqOUrhxbZz — Molly White (@molly0xFFF) January 27, 2024 Celsius filed for bankruptcy in July 2022. Mashinsky resigned as CEO two months later. Since then, prosecutors have alleged that Mashinsky, 59, misled investors about Celsius’s financial health and manipulated the crypto market to benefit from inflated token prices. This eventually...

Bitwise has publicly disclosed its Bitcoin ETF fund wallet , attracting unsolicited Bitcoin from ETF supporters. Bitwise, a prominent player in the field, became the first issuer of a spot Bitcoin ETF to reveal the wallet address for its fund publicly. Shortly after this disclosure, the wallet began to receive an array of unsolicited contributions. Unexpectedly, individuals began sending small quantities of Bitcoin to the wallet, with amounts such as 0.00042069 BTC. Additionally, the wallet received various BRC-20 tokens, Bitcoin domain names, and a collection of Bitcoin NFTs. The total value of these unsolicited assets exceeded $5,000. What happens with those donations being sent to Bitwise’s digital wallet for their spot bitcoin ETF?@Matt_Hougan: "All assets accrue to the benefit s of shareholders of BITB." via @Timccopeland pic.twitter.com/X7yLe9BdEf — Nate Geraci (@NateGeraci) January 26, 2024 Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan explained that thes...

Natalie Brunell has deemphasized the notion that Bitcoin would face a potential collapse by 2026. According to Brunell, she is more concerned with a collapse in the bond market or the current fiat system. Brunell explained that deflation is incompatible with the current fiat system. Award-winning journalist Natalie Brunell has deemphasized the notion that Bitcoin would face a potential collapse by 2026. Brunell expressed her opinion in a recent interview on FOX Business, stressing that she will be more concerned with a collapse in the bond market or the current fiat system. "Why do we need 2% of our purchasing power to be stolen every single year?" – @NatBrunell on #Bitcoinpic.twitter.com/RWzbLp266Y — Michael Saylor️ (@saylor) January 25, 2024 According to Brunell, the current fiat system is built on credit, where the money in the bank is an IOU and someone’s liability. She said: I would be more concerned with a collapse within...

Bitcoin halving in April may raise the mining cost to $37,856 per BTC. CoinShares report warns of profitability crisis for miners if BTC falls below $40,000. Riot Blockchain, TeraWulf, and Cleanspark were identified as best-positioned miners. A new report warns that the upcoming Bitcoin halving, expected in April, could have the average cost of mining a single Bitcoin skyrocket to a staggering $37,856. This sharp increase could drive many miners out of business if Bitcoin fails to stay above $40,000. The Bitcoin mining network, while experiencing explosive growth with a 104% hashrate surge in 2023, faces a looming profitability crisis. According to CoinShares, a digital asset investment company, the average cost of producing one Bitcoin will cost an average of $37,856 after the halving event. “In this research article, we have estimated the weighted average for the cost of production and cash cost, which stood at approximately $16,800 and $25,000 per bitcoi...

Kaiko attributed the unexpected turnout to concentrated sell-offs. MANTA hit $220 upon listing on Bithumb but crashed to $1 in a few minutes. Last week, the Manta Network team orchestrated a two-day ICO via the Binance Launchpool. Well-known market intelligence and analytics platform Kaiko has recently drawn attention to the price action of MANTA, the native token of the recently launched crypto project, Manta Network. Specifically, Kaiko disclosed that MANTA had surged astronomically to $220 upon listing on the Bithumb exchange. However, what followed the extraordinary uptick was a similarly dramatic crash to below $1 in a few minutes. The market intelligence platform attributed the unexpected turnout to “heavy selling,” as holders dumped the token after its initial coin offering (ICO) terminated. MANTA token chart showing concentrated sell volume on January 18 | Kaiko Notably, last week, the Manta Network project team orchestrated an ICO via the ...