Daily Archives: April 22, 2022

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) continues taking measures to prevent capital outflows amid martial law by enforcing major restrictions on cryptocurrency purchases.

The Ukrainian central bank officially announced Thursday a set of restrictions on cross-border operations, prohibiting individuals from buying cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) with the national fiat currency, the hryvnia (UAH).

Ukrainians are now allowed to buy Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies only with foreign currency, with total monthly purchases limited to 100,000 UAH ($3,300). The relevant limit also applies to international peer-to-peer transactions.

According to the announcement, the NBU has deemed crypto purchases as “quasi cash transactions” alongside operations like electronic wallet deposits, foreign exchange transactions and travel payments. By adopting restrictions on such transactions, the central bank aims to prevent the “unproductive outflow of capital” from the country amid martial law.

“The relevant changes will help improve the foreign exchange market, which is a necessary prerequisite for easing restrictions in the future, as well as reducing pressure on Ukraine’s international reserves,” the NBU wrote.

The central bank admitted that the need for international transactions has massively increased amid martial law, with millions of citizens being forced to leave Ukraine. However, the NBU cannot afford “unproductive capital outflows,” which include investing in cryptocurrencies, the announcement notes, adding:

“Quasi cash transactions […] are mainly carried out to circumvent the current restrictions of the National Bank, in particular for investing abroad, which is prohibited under martial law. Therefore, the relevant transactions should be interpreted as leading to unproductive capital outflows.”

According to the NBU, the Ukrainian government adopted the relevant changes as part of the NBU board resolution from April 20, 2022, which entered into force on Wednesday.

Related: Ukraine’s largest savings bank halts Bitcoin buys with hryvnia — Report

Some Ukrainian banks have adopted such restrictions already, according to several sources. PrivatBank, the largest commercial bank in Ukraine, reportedly prohibited its customers from purchasing BTC with UAH in mid-March.

The restrictions apparently raise eyebrows as the Ukrainian government has been actively working to legalize cryptocurrencies amid martial law. In March, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a law to establish a legal framework for the country to operate a regulated crypto market.

The FTX Exchange ranks among the world’s most prominent centralized cryptocurrency exchanges and the top five crypto derivatives exchanges in terms of daily trading volume. The FTX cryptocurrency derivatives exchange has its own native token FTX and offers competitive trading fees, innovative features like derivatives, options, OTC trading, futures trading, leveraged tokens, and more than 300 cryptocurrencies.

The FTX token has several use cases in the FTX ecosystem and is designed to increase network effects and demand for FTT and decrease its circulating supply.

Read on to learn everything you need to know about the FTX ecosystem and how to buy FTX token in a few simple steps.

Let’s dive right in!

What Is FTX

FTX is a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange based in the Bahamas. Sam Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang founded the FTX cryptocurrency exchange in 2019.

The FTX marketplace provides many advanced options to skilled investors and commercial trading organizations and also simple spot trading for newbies to the crypto industry. The FTX platform is an extensive international FTX crypto derivatives exchange, offering a wide range of cryptocurrencies, leveraged tokens, and derivatives services such as spot, futures, over-the-counter (OTC), prediction market trading, etc. Residents of the US have limited access to FTX due to strict regulations; however, they can access the US division of the international FTX exchange FTX.US, which has limited offerings compared to the global platform.

The FTX derivatives exchange aims to fix the issue of forced liquidation that most leveraged trading platforms have. It deploys a backstop liquidity program to detect when a user has dropped below the maintenance margin and sends volume-limited liquidation orders to close down positions that drop below the maintenance margin.

As of writing, the FTX exchange has a seven-day trading volume of 11.1 billion USD, according to data from CoinStats.

What Is FTX Token

The FTX derivatives exchange has its own native token with the ticker FTT, which is an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain.

FTX token (FTT) holders get a discount on the trading fees and can use FTT as collateral for future positions. Active traders on the FTX exchange can get a percentage difference as high as 60%. In addition, using FTT comes with insurance protection, which enables traders to continue trading during volatile markets without triggering margin calls. FTT can be used to create leveraged tokens, and the insurance is beneficial when using leveraged tokens where profits and losses are multiplied according to the leverage.

Users can stake FTT tokens to validate a transaction. Staking FTT comes with many benefits, such as getting additional rebates and spinning the non-fungible swag wheel to win a free NFT. Other benefits include increased airdrop rewards, bonus votes, and IEO tickets.

The FTX token (FTT) attained an all-time high of USD 79.68 on 9th September 2021, and the price dropped significantly afterward, in line with the entire crypto market, due to global uncertainties and inflation.

Now that you know everything about the FTX derivatives exchange and the FTX token let’s get into how to buy FTX token (FTT). The best place to buy the FTX token is the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, as it offers multiple incentives to investors; however, it’s not available in all countries.

So let’s first look into buying FTX token (FTT) on the FTX exchange and then get into other popular exchanges such as Binance, Coinbase, etc. 

Buy FTX Token (FTT) on FTX Exchange

The FTX platform is the best place to buy and trade FTT tokens, and most of the token’s use cases are applicable only on the FTX crypto exchange. While FTX crypto exchange is available in the United States and allows users to buy and trade in many major cryptocurrencies, it doesn’t allow US citizens to trade in FTT tokens. For the countries where FTX token (FTT) can be purchased and traded, it’s the best place to do so. Almost one-third of the gas fees collected by the exchange are used to buy FTT tokens, which are then burnt. Also, FTX claims that the gains made due to its backstop liquidity fund would be distributed amongst the FTT holders. On top of that, every week, FTX gives away three SRM tokens to every FTX token holder that has over 500 FTX tokens (FTT). 

To buy FTX token directly on FTX, follow these easy steps:

Create an FTX Account

To buy FTT, you need to create an account on FTX and verify your identity by providing basic identity proofs and documents. Personal information such as your name, contact number,  email address, home address, social security number, and a copy of your driver’s license, passport, or government-issued ID will be required. You will also need to identify yourself through a webcam or smartphone in compliance with Know Your Customer (KYC) rules if you plan to use a debit or a credit card. Tap on Account Limits in your settings menu to fully unlock your account for greater limits and the ability to use debit/credit cards.

The exchange would verify your identity quickly, and you should be able to buy and trade in almost any cryptocurrency of your choice, including the FTT token. 

Deposit Funds

Once you’ve verified your account and uploaded all your necessary documents, the next step is to deposit cryptocurrency or fiat currencies into your account. FTX supports several fiat currencies, including USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, etc.

You can use your bank account, credit or debit card, crypto coins from a different crypto wallet, or make a wire transfer. You may also deposit euros via SEPA.

To deposit funds from your bank account, you must fill in your bank account details and transfer the desired amount into your FTX wallet. Typically, the USD and other major currency transfers from bank accounts take one day to process, but they can take longer in some instances. You can also deposit fiat currency into your FTX wallet using credit cards to make an instant purchase or set up a recurring purchase. However, you must be aware that using your cards for buying crypto may attract an additional fee. You will see the fees associated with using your debit card. This is a convenience fee charged by the card processor and is equivalent to 2.9% + 0.30 USD per transaction. You can trade immediately on your funds deposited with your card as long as you’ve not had any chargebacks. Coins purchased with cards can be withdrawn after 7 calendar days.

You can also deposit cryptocurrency into your FTX App account, and funds will usually be available anywhere between a few minutes to an hour, depending on the speed of the blockchain’s verifications of your transaction.

Purchase FTT

Once you’ve deposited funds into your account, the next step is to buy the FTX token (FTT). There are multiple trading pairs available for FTT. In the Futures Market, the trading pair is FTT-PERP, while in the spot market, the trading pairs are FTT/BTC, FTT/USD, and FTT/USDT. So you can choose a trading pair to buy FTX (FTT) token.

Buy FTT on Binance

Binance is among the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. While it has disadvantages compared to a decentralized exchange, its ease of use and wide range of supported cryptocurrencies make it a popular choice for purchasing FTT and other digital tokens.

To purchase FTT on Binance, you need to create a retail investor account on the platform and verify your identity by uploading identity proof documents. Once the account is verified, Binance allows users to purchase the FTX token (FTT) or any other crypto of their choice through fiat deposits using a credit or debit card, crypto coins from a different crypto wallet, or a bank transfer.

FTT is available on Binance in 4 trading pairs, namely FTT/USDT, FTT/BUSD, FTT/BTC, and FTT/BNB. You could also use the comparison service of CoinStats to select what asset you want to trade FTX token (FTT) against. Once you select the asset, you wish to trade FTX token (FTT) against, e.g., USDT (TETHER), the next step is to purchase the required amount of USDT needed for purchasing FTT. After you’ve added USDT (TETHER) to your wallet, go to FTT/USDT trade and buy your desired amount of coins. After the transaction is completed and your order for FTT has been fulfilled, the new coins should reflect in your wallet.

Congratulations on purchasing FTX tokens (FTT) in a few easy steps!

Get an FTX Token Wallet

When it comes to cryptocurrencies, one of the most important things to consider is how to store them. While most major cryptocurrency exchanges, such as FTX, Binance, etc., provide their own wallets to store your crypto assets, these wallets are prone to online attacks, hacks, malware, etc., due to being connected to the internet at all times. The 2019 hack of Binance, when Bitcoin worth USD 40 million was stolen from it, is a vivid example.

Therefore it’s advisable for all traders and investors in crypto to store their assets in wallets that they control. 

The FTX.US cryptocurrency exchange provides a custodial wallet to store your crypto, including the FTX token; however, the exchange has your private keys, which means it has control of your crypto.

If you want to have complete control of your crypto, you need to transfer it to your own external wallet.

Types of Wallets

Crypto wallets randomly generate a recovery phrase (or “seed phrase”), a list of 12 to 24 words given in a specific order. A recovery phrase is a human-readable form of your wallet’s private key—the unique, secret passcode used to authenticate and encrypt your wallet access. This phrase allows you to sign transactions and claim ownership of your wallet addresses, recover your wallet if it gets lost or damaged (in case of hardware wallets), or if the device you use to access your wallet gets lost, stolen, or becomes otherwise inaccessible.

Note that you’ll see this phrase only once during account setup, and be sure to write it down, take a screenshot, add it to a password manager, or find another way to keep it safe.

Depending on your investing preferences, you might choose between software and hardware wallets, the latter being a more secure choice.

• Software Wallet: The strength of software wallets lies in their flexibility and ease of use. A software wallet is the most easy-to-set-up crypto wallet. It lets you interact with several decentralized finance (DeFi) applications quite easily. However, these wallets are vulnerable to security leaks because they’re hosted online—like your bank accounts. So, if you want to keep your private keys in software wallets, conduct due diligence before choosing a wallet to avoid security issues. We recommend a platform that offers 2-factor authentication as an extra layer of security.
  CoinStats Wallet is one of the most secure software wallets to store cryptocurrencies after buying from an exchange. CoinStats Wallet lets you monitor all your assets across different exchanges from one place, and it even allows you to use the full power of DeFi protocols.
  Another popular software wallet is the Metamask Wallet, available as an app and a browser extension.
• Hardware Wallet: A hardware wallet is a device that stores the private keys you need to receive or send crypto. Hardware wallets are usually considered the safest way to store your cryptocurrencies as they offer offline storage, thereby significantly reducing the risks of a hack. They are secured by a pin and will erase all information after many failed attempts, preventing physical theft. Hardware wallets also let you sign and confirm transactions on the blockchain, giving you an extra layer of protection against cyber attacks.
  Ledger hardware wallets are arguably the most secure hardware wallets letting you securely trade FTT tokens. They come in two models:
  The Nano S is designed for crypto beginners and offers only a few features.
  The Nano X is more suitable for advanced crypto traders and provides storage for a wider variety of assets.

Depending on your preferences, you can go for either of the kinds mentioned above of wallets and safely store your assets, including the FTX Token (FTT). You can also check out CoinStats Wallet to securely manage all your assets in one place. 

Final Word

FXT is a legitimate cryptocurrency exchange that offers its users innovative trading products such as leveraged tokens and futures trading. Users will not be short of trading opportunities with over 100 trading pairs, leveraged tokens, futures, indexes, and options.

Therefore, if you are looking to invest in cryptocurrency, then the FTX token (FTT) might be one of the best choices to diversify your crypto portfolio.

Investment Advice Disclaimer: The information contained on this website is provided to you solely for informational purposes and does not constitute a recommendation by CoinStats to buy, sell, or hold any securities, financial product, or instrument mentioned in the content, nor does it constitute investment advice, financial advice, trading advice, or any other type of advice. Our information is based on independent research and may differ from what you see from a financial institution or service provider.

Investments are subject to market risk, including the possible loss of principal. Cryptocurrency is a highly volatile market and sensitive to secondary activity, do your independent research, obtain your own advice, and be sure never to invest more money than you can afford to lose. There are significant risks involved in trading CFDs, stocks, and cryptocurrencies. Between 74-89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider your circumstances and obtain your advice before making any investment. You should also verify the nature of any product or service (including its legal status and relevant regulatory requirements) and consult the relevant regulators’ websites before making any decision.

Bitcoin (BTC) headed toward $40,000 on April 22 after a major retracement in equities speared bulls’ latest advance.

Bitcoin sheds $3,000 on U.S. stocks plunge

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD being kept firmly under $41,000 Friday after volatility during the latest Wall Street trading session.

Thursday had seen United States markets react sharply to “surging” Treasury yields, the Nasdaq 100 dropping 2% and taking highly-correlated crypto down with it.

US stocks fall in a dramatic reversal as yields surge. Nasdaq 100 drops 2% as US 10y yields jump by 7bps to 2.9%. pic.twitter.com/vlgaW9F62C

— Holger Zschaepitz (@Schuldensuehner) April 21, 2022

With that, Bitcoin briefly lost over $3,000 in a matter of hours, wicking to around $39,800 before recovering.

Another macro trigger meanwhile came in the form of the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet reduction finally getting underway. Also set to pressure stocks and risk assets, the move to combat forty-year record inflation was long priced in but was not visible in the data until now.

“Looks as if Fed balance sheet expansion has stopped shortly before the $9tn mark is reached,” markets commentator Holger Zschaepitz summarized on the day.

“Fed’s total assets have shrunk by $9.6bn to $8,955.9bn. The balance sheet is now equal to 37.3% of the US’s GDP vs ECB’s 83% and BoJ’s 137%.”

As Cointelegraph reported, the European Central Bank (ECB) has yet to show signs of reducing its own balance sheet, itself near $10 trillion.

Comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell served to add additional angst to sentiment, hinting at further key interest rate hikes for May.

Crypto traders thus remained cautious, with several noting that the week’s run to near $43,000 had not been accompanied by suitable volume, suggesting its validity was suspect from the start.

“Low volume pumps are not to be trusted. They are used for distribution or keeping sellers in control,” popular Twitter trader Roman warned.

“We’ve seen many instances of low volume pumps over the last 6 months that all failed at major resistance. Be careful.” 

That six-month period has seen Bitcoin bulls fail to shift a stiff trading range despite multiple surges within that range.

Ethereum risks return to $2,600

Thursday’s rout meanwhile spelled additional pain for altcoins, with Ether (ETH) dropping under $3,000.

Related: GBTC premium nears 2022 high as SEC faces call to approve Bitcoin ETF

In classic style, the top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap copied Bitcoin’s weakness with daily losses of around 4%.

For trader and analyst Rekt Capital, the Ethereum retest was of significance, opening up the door to a deeper comedown to $2,600.

Could $ETH dip to $2600 this month?

After all, Sept’ 2021 has shown how volatile retests of the black ~$3000 level can be to the downside (Chart 1)

Revisiting ~$2600 could still be a possibility if #ETH Weekly Closes below the Ascending Triangle top (Chart 2)#Crypto #Ethereum pic.twitter.com/2cUq9lZvBG

— Rekt Capital (@rektcapital) April 21, 2022

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

The Doge NFT, PleasrDAO, and Amber Group partner up to make NFTs more accessible

PleasrDAO, a collective of DeFi leaders, early NFT collectors and digital artists today announced a partnership between Amber Group and world’s most famous meme, The Doge NFT (fractionalized into DOG as a first-class ticket to entertainment), to bring greater accessibility to the rapidly growing fractionalized NFT ecosystem.

As part of this work, Amber Group is excited to work with The Doge NFT (DOG) as it launched on Huobi, the #5 largest crypto exchange in the world according to CoinGecko, on March 29.

The partnership aims to address a key challenge unique to the NFTs – the lack of accessibility. The expensive nature of NFTs presents challenges for fans, collectors, and potential community members who often lack the capital to participate in the NFT marketplace. Amber Group’s relationships put it in a unique position to bring greater convenience into the NFT ecosystem, enabling the fractionalizing of NFTs. Through fractionalization, NFTs can be owned by multiple individuals, creating openness for a broader segment of crypto enthusiasts who would otherwise not be able to participate in the trading of NFTs.

PleasrDAO turned one year old in March 2022 making it one of the longest-running DAOs and was formed when its members purchased pplpleasr’s Uniswap V3 “x*y=k” animation for 310 ETH. The NFT depicts a pink unicorn making its way towards an Ethereum logo-cradling oasis. Foreshadowing at its finest.

Since then, PleasrDAO has collected other big-ticket items — all linked to what it describes as “culturally significant” ideas and causes. This includes the original Doge meme turned NFT from the owner of Kabuso in Japan and the one-of-a-kind unreleased Wu-Tang Clan album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin purchased from the US government.

PleasrDAO last raised an undisclosed sum from a16z and top crypto investors in December.

“Amber Group moved quickly and thoughtful providing us with doge-class service,” explains Tridog, head of The Doge NFT project.” We are excited to allow easier access to our tokenized community and first class ticket to dogentertainment.”

“NFTs are integral to the broader digital asset ecosystem, and greater accessibility to NFTs will undoubtedly accelerate the overall awareness and growth of the entire industry,” said Tiantian Kullander, Co-founder of Amber Group. “We’re excited to partner with PleasrDAO in bringing this convenience to fractionalized NFTs. We have every confidence that with this partnership, PleasrDAO will catalyze greater experimentation and innovation of digital art and communal ownership. We are looking forward to transforming the NFT ecosystem together.”

Months after a storm of controversies, Nuggets News founder and crypto influencer Alex Saunders issued a public apology over last year’s controversies and the way he handled things. 

Back in 2021, Saunders faced a series of allegations claiming that he had failed to pay loans and investment funds. Those who were affected claimed that Saunders owed them Bitcoin (BTC). This compelled Australian media entities to conduct investigations and conclude that the influencer owes as much as $7 million.

The Nuggets News CEO faced a $350,000 lawsuit filed by Ziv Himmelfarb, claiming damages from unpaid loans. Himmelfarb said that he invested 4 BTC, 30 Ether (ETH), and $50,000 worth of stablecoins. As Saunders did not respond, a default judgment was handed down, requiring Saunders to pay the investor’s losses.

Apart from this, the influencer also came under fire because of a failed launch of a Decentraland-based project. The crypto influencer had raised funds for a virtual headquarters in the Decentraland platform. However, it was later revealed that Saunders failed to pay the studio that was supposed to build the virtual HQ.

After a long hiatus, the Nuggets News founder issued a public statement on Twitter claiming that he has settled most of his debts and is in the process of settling the others. The influencer admitted that he was “not thinking clearly and handled things poorly.” He said:

“Everyone I had any kind of dealings within the crypto space has now been contacted and either repaid, or in the process of being repaid.” 

Related: Shopify facing another lawsuit from crypto holders over Ledger data breach

Despite the apology, not everyone believes Saunders’ recent announcement. In one of the replies, Twitter user Jexxa said that he thinks this is a “cop out” and that Saunders knew what he was doing to his “trusting followers.”

While I feel for anyone with mental health issues, this is just a cop out. You knew very well what you were doing to your trusting followers and their funds. Second last paragraph, straight back to shilling… things never change.

— Jexxa – mind your own keys (@j_jexxa) April 22, 2022

The central bank of Ukraine has introduced additional restrictions on international transactions that will prevent Ukrainians from buying crypto assets abroad with the national fiat. The measures are intended to reduce capital outflow amid an ongoing military conflict with Russia.

Ukraine Citizens Not Allowed to Buy Crypto Abroad From Local Currency Accounts

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has issued a notice detailing the introduction of certain restrictions on cross-border transactions that private individuals can make. The move aims to curb the “unproductive outflow of capital from the country under martial law,” the regulator stated.

Ukrainian residents will be allowed to acquire assets that can be directly converted to cash, or quasi cash transactions, using only their own foreign currency up to the equivalent of 100,000 hryvnia ($3,400) per month. The limit applies to cross-border peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers as well. These non-cash transfers can be carried out with cards issued to accounts in foreign currency.

The quasi cash transactions include a range of operations like replenishment of electronic wallets or forex accounts, payment of traveler’s checks, and purchase of virtual assets, the monetary authority elaborated. The new regulations come after when, in March, the largest commercial bank in Ukraine, Privatbank, halted hryvnia transfers to cryptocurrency exchanges.

In order to facilitate financial support for Ukrainian refugees abroad, the NBU allows Hryvnia account holders to make cross-border P2P transfers within the 100,000-hryvnia monthly limit. However, the central bank emphasized that quasi cash transactions from these accounts in national currency are temporarily prohibited.

The National Bank of Ukraine insists that these rules will help to improve the country’s foreign exchange market, which it considers a precondition for easing restrictions in the future. The regulator is also convinced that the measures will reduce the pressure on Ukraine’s foreign currency reserves.

The Ukrainian foreign exchange market has processed significant volumes of foreign currency purchases by local banks for settlements with international payment systems. Such transfers reached $1.7 billion in March. The demand for these settlements stems from the increased use of cards issued by Ukrainian banks to accounts in national currency for the purchase of goods and services outside the country.

Bank cards are also employed in quasi cash transactions that the NBU says are mainly carried out to circumvent its restrictions, particularly for investing abroad which is prohibited under the current martial law. The bank notes, however, that the new limitations do not apply to the use of cards to pay for goods and services in Ukraine and outside the country.

What do you think about the new restrictions on crypto purchases imposed by the National Bank of Ukraine? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Lubomir Tassev

Lubomir Tassev is a journalist from tech-savvy Eastern Europe who likes Hitchens’s quote: “Being a writer is what I am, rather than what I do.” Besides crypto, blockchain and fintech, international politics and economics are two other sources of inspiration.