Categories
Bitcoin Bitcoin Investment Bitcoin Wallet

Payments Giant MoneyGram Enables Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC) Trading on App

Payments company MoneyGram is rolling out a new service that allows consumers to buy, sell and hold crypto assets using the company’s mobile app.

In a statement, the money transfer giant says the MoneyGram app’s crypto trading feature will support Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC) and is now available to customers in nearly all US states and the District of Columbia.

Says MoneyGram chairman and CEO Alex Holmes,

“We see crypto and digital currencies as another input and output option. As a next step in the evolution of MoneyGram, we’re thrilled to provide our customers with access to a trusted and easy-to-use platform to securely buy, sell and hold select cryptocurrencies.”

The company is bringing the new service to its customers with the help of the crypto exchange CoinMe. The two companies have been working together since 2021 when MoneyGram teamed up with CoinMe to enable customers to buy Bitcoin using fiat currency and convert the digital coin to cash at its physical locations in the US.

In June, MoneyGram also launched a new service in key remittance markets, including the Philippines, US, Canada and Kenya, to bridge fiat money and cryptocurrencies using payments blockchain Stellar (XLM) and the stablecoin USD Coin (USDC).

Categories
Bitcoin Bitcoin ETF Bitcoin Investment Bitcoin Wallet Crypto Mining cryptocurrency exchange Cryptocurrency Investment Cryptocurrency news Ethereum Investment News NFT Investment

Tether Launches Mexican Peso Tokens on Ethereum, Tron, and Polygon

Stablecoin issuer Tether Operations Limited announced that the company has launched a new token pegged to the value of the Mexican peso. According to the team, the newly launched MXNT tokens will initially be hosted on Ethereum, Polygon, and Tron.

Stablecoin MXNT is pegged 1:1 to the Mexican peso

Stablecoin and blockchain firm Tether has revealed that it has launched a new fiat-backed token that will join the company’s pool of stablecoins. Tether launched MXNT, a stablecoin pegged to the value of the Mexican peso.

Tether’s other fiat token offerings include the popular USDT, which is pegged to the US dollar, and EURT, which is pegged to the value of the euro. The company also offers CNHT, a token pegged to the offshore Chinese yuan, and Tether gold XAUT, a token pegged to the value of an ounce of fine gold.

Tether USDT is the largest stablecoin in existence today as it currently has a market valuation of around $73.2 billion. The token’s market cap represents 5.77% of the $1.27 trillion crypto economy.

Of the $86.43 billion in digital currency trading volume on Thursday, the connection volume is around $45.42 billion, or 52.55% of today’s global trading volume. In terms of bitcoin (BTC) trading pairs, USDT is the top pair with bitcoin, capturing 55% of today’s BTC trading volumes. Tether says that the launch of MXNT will be a “testing ground for the integration of new users in the Latin American market.”

Paolo Ardoino, CTO of Tether, detailed during the announcement that the company has seen the popularity of digital currencies increase in Latin America. “We have seen an increase in the use of cryptocurrencies in Latin America in the last year, which has made it clear that we need to expand our offerings,” Ardoino said in a note sent to Bitcoin.com News.

Categories
Bitcoin Bitcoin ETF Bitcoin Investment Bitcoin Wallet Crypto Mining cryptocurrency exchange Cryptocurrency news Ethereum Investment News NFT Investment

Trading App Giant Robinhood Lists Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) Stocks in Grayscale

US trading giant Robinhood is adding two crypto-related products to its lineup for retail investors.

Investment asset manager Greyscale has announced that the company’s traditional investment vehicles for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) are launching on the Robinhood trading app.

There are two new ways to access crypto on @RobinhoodApp. You can start trading $GBTC and $ETHE today. https://t.co/n09aiEVhqEhttps://t.co/6tFrYCsmzx pic.twitter.com/AxKH7xZ0nS

— Shades of Gray (@Grayscale) May 6, 2022

The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) digital currency investment product was originally called the Bitcoin Investment Trust, created in September 2013, and offers institutional investors exposure to Bitcoin without the need to purchase or store it in person. Grayscale BTC Trust currently has $23.2 billion in assets under management (AUM).

Meanwhile, the Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE) was founded in December 2017 and now has $8.4 billion in AUM.

Last October, Grayscale announced its intention to convert its Bitcoin fund into an exchange-traded fund (ETF), with the company’s global head of ETFs Dave LaValle saying:

“GBTC demonstrates that there is strong investor demand for physically backed Bitcoin investment vehicles.”

In November, filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed that banking giant Morgan Stanley significantly increased its holdings in GBTC.

In January, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev mentioned the platform’s goal of adding crypto-related products to its platform.

At the time of writing, Robinhood quotes GBTC price down 1.08% and trading at $24.75, while ETHE is in the red down 1.6% with a value of 19.76 $.

Bitcoin itself continues the sell-off that began earlier Thursday when it was priced above $39,000, down 2.22% on the day and changing hands at $36,189 at the time of writing.

Ethereum is also struggling, falling sharply from Thursday’s high of $2,937 and currently priced at $2,711.

Categories
Bitcoin Bitcoin ETF Bitcoin Investment Bitcoin Wallet Crypto Mining Cryptocurrency Investment Cryptocurrency news Ethereum HYIPs Investment News

Coinbase Product Manager Predicts Big Advances For Ethereum In 2022

Ethereum is one of the prominent blockchains in the cryptocurrency industry that established smart contract technology. This has helped cement decentralized finance and checkmate third-party interference in cryptocurrency transactions. But in the past, their main challenge and drawback was related to scalability and speed in executing transactions.

As the months and years go by, Ethereum is making great progress in fixing scalability issues. This led to the deployment of the layer two version of the blockchain.

Related Article | Is Norton 360 Mining Ethereum on your computer? If so, they will take a 15% cut

As the new year begins, many people have shared their predictions and expectations for the cryptocurrency industry in 2022. Some of these people include investors, analysts, and industry leaders. Among the many comments is the latest post from Surojit Chatterjee, Chief Product Officer at Coinbase.

Chatterjee predicts big strides in Ethereum’s scalability. Sharing his predictions on Tuesday via a company blog post, the CPO expressed his confidence in Ethereum. He mentioned that the scalability of the blockchain would put it ahead of Web3 and the crypto economy.

Ethereum struggles to resurface | Source: ETHUSD on TradingView.com

Furthermore, he was confident that there would be an improvement in the scalability of Ethereum. In addition, he indicated the possible traction for alternative layer one networks.

Also in his post, the CPO commented on the emergence of new top-tier networks based on social media and gaming. He explained that moving bridges from layer one to layer two will drive a huge improvement in scalability. Furthermore, he anticipated a situation where the industry is in a desperate search to improve the speed and usefulness of L1 and L1-L2 cross-bridges.

Benefits of Cross-Bridges for Ethereum Scalability

Using these bridges will facilitate the easy transfer of tokens from a layer one (L1) network like Ethereum to a layer two (L2) network like Arbitrum. In addition, it allows reverse transactions between bridges.

For companies like Matter Labs, 2021 saw their tremendous breakthrough. The company developed and implemented its level two platform based on the zkSync rollup package to achieve its great feat.

Overall, 2021 was a year of massive expansion for the tier two ecosystem, as all major platforms saw an increase in adoption. Tier two ecosystem tracker L2beat reports a nearly 11,000% increase in the total amount blocked last year. This brought the value in 2021 to $5.5 billion from $50 million in January 2021.

As for scaling technologies, Chatterjee chose zk-Rollups citing its attractiveness to users and investors. He explained that Zero-knowledge scalability compiles transaction data in batches. This will allow efficiency in its processing in the Ethereum L1.

Additionally, Coinbase CPO predicts the emergence of more privacy-focused apps. However, he mentioned that this would generate more attention from regulators, as there are restrictions imposed through KYC and Anti-Money Laundering (AML).

Related Article | More green energy: Cryptocurrency mining saves a hydroelectric plant in Costa Rica

Chatterjee has other predictions, including increased industry regulations, safer DeFi, and more institutional participation in DeFi. Others are moves to Web3 by Web2 companies, more brand equity in metaverses, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Categories
Bitcoin Bitcoin ETF Bitcoin Investment Bitcoin Wallet Crypto Mining Cryptocurrency Investment Cryptocurrency news Investment News

Crypto.com Lists a New Ethereum-Based Decentralized Exchange Token

Crypto.com, the Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange giant, is listing an Ethereum-based small-cap hybrid liquidity decentralized exchange token.

In a new announcement, Crypto.com introduces IDEX (IDEX), formerly AuroraDAO, to operate on the company’s app.

IDEX is a decentralized multi-blockchain exchange that offers a non-custodial solution for trading digital assets. The IDEX token is used to secure the network and encourage platform adoption.

According to the Crypto.com press release,

“IDEX is the first hybrid liquidity DEX that combines the best of centralized and decentralized exchanges, with the performance and features of a traditional order book and the security and liquidity of an automated market maker (AMM).

Users benefit from not having to pay additional network costs to place or cancel orders. Placements are also processed in real time, allowing for advanced trading.

IDEX is an Ethereum token that powers the decentralized exchange IDEX. IDEX holders can stake tokens to help protect the protocol and earn rewards.”

While many new coin listings tend to trigger rallies, IDEX price action hardly responds to the news.

IDEX is currently trading at $0.20, down 3.73% in the last 24 hours.

The hybrid decentralized exchange is the second new token that Crypto.com has listed this year after merging with the Oasis Network (ROSE) last week.