Daily Archives: April 28, 2022

The nonfungible token (NFT) and Metaverse sectors have been the bright spots in an otherwise sideways crypto market in 2022 and proof of this comes as the APE token hit a new all-time high at $22.60 on April 28.

The steady bullish momentum for APE is, in large part, due to the upcoming The Otherside land auction being held by Yuga Labs and Animoca Brands in conjunction Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT project on April 30.

The Otherside launch will consist of a Dutch auction-style sale and only Know Your Customer (KYC)-approved wallets will be allowed to participate in the sale of the first 100,000 land parcels. All sales will be paid for using APE, which is clearly helping to drive demand for the token higher as interested parties accumulated the token in anticipation of the sale.

The Otherside adventure will begin on 4/30 at 12pm ET, only on https://t.co/UWRD4dOC9H. The KYC on was to participate in Saturday’s mint — only those who KYCed can participate. More details in the .

— OthersideMeta (@OthersideMeta) April 25, 2022

Related: ApeCoin price breakout stalls after $2.4M BAYC NFT robbery — What’s ahead?

Wallets that already hold a BAYC or Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) NFT will be able to claim a land parcel for free for 21 days after the auction without needing to be KYC-approved to claim.

Ongoing governance votes within the ApeCoin community have also helped increase demand for APE, a clear demonstration that BAYC and MAYC holders are looking to get more engaged with the direction the ecosystem will take in the years ahead.

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.

PRESS RELEASE. For a gaming community to complete 4 years in the crypto gaming industry is a remarkable achievement to say the least. CropBytes was launched during the 2018 bull run, and the team’s strategy and agility towards changing market scenarios and needs of the community have enabled the game to sustain and grow over the years. What started out as a NFT based game with initial flash sale, is now a game with a sustainable economy with a mix of FTs and NFTs with over 550k downloads and adequate liquidity is the market.

With the first few months fo launching the assets in erly 2018, the initial version of the game was launched which was a big hit and it drew attention of the early adopters of crypto-based games. As the players grew, so did the demand for game assets and goods in the game. This set the ball rolling for the expansive game economy we see today.

Building a web3 games for the Bulls & the Bears

When the game’s acceptance grew and more players began to hold assets in the game, the CropBytes team saw that demand for NFTs decreased as the bear market loomed. Focusing on economics, the team reworked their approach, knowing that an only NFT game will not survive the following bear market. After extensive research and consultation the team concluded that adding FTs is critical to the economy’s sustainability.

The team then transitioned from traditional list trading to an order book exchange. The strategy succeeded, and CropBytes was able to successfully navigate through the initial bear market with the game’s players not abandoning ship as was the case with some other games.

Not just running the NFT hype

CropBytes started with a rudimentary economy and elected not to go too far, such as establishing an inflation or deflation protocol, but even then, the team had a strategy for what needed to be done in the next couple of years. A prime example of this is that the gamers were aware from the start that a ‘Version 2’ of the economy, also referred to as the ‘Service Economy’, was on the way. The team had intended to deploy it in 2020, but decided to push it ahead determined that an exchange where players in the game could buy, sell and trade FTs was the need of the hour so players can grow the value of the assets over time.

The importance of 2020 and CropBytes’ involvement

The CropBytes team gained the knowledge of studying market cycles after running the game for more than two years and hence anticipated the approaching bull market of 2020. That’s when it started, as the team was fully prepared with essential features and a great product along with the new in-game referral plan that attracted numerous people from new demographics like South America and Southeast Asia. This tremendous influx of gamers presently accounts for about 45% of all active users, and growth is still being experienced even now.

Numerous established participants had lost their source of income when the pandemic first began, and CropBytes thus became their sole option for financial security, which ended up bringing together the team and the community. It was the most pivotal point in CropBytes’ journey, and the team has witnessed countless participants increase their portfolio by more than 8,900% alone during that time.

CropBytes’ gamers are hence more devoted to their CropBytes metaverse assets than they are to their actual world assets. They exist in the metaverse and actively participate in the economy’s growth on a daily basis.

CBX IEO, partners and overall journey

The goal of starting and developing the game on a centralized platform was to establish a strong foundation and create a fully functional balanced economy before releasing the game to larger markets. According to the roadmap, several in-game additions such as Pro-Animals, Breed Feed Crafting, Breed Feed Market, Superhero Breeding, New UI, and others have been successfully released.

Furthermore, the native token, CBX, debuted on Bybit and MEXC following a successful launchpad setup by the exchanges and with support from notable industry leaders like Sandeep Nailwal (CEO & Co-Founder of Polygon), Siddharth Menon (COO & Co-Founder of WazirX), as well as various major VCs such as Draper Dragon, Exnetwork Cap, and others. Nischal Shetty (CEO & Co-Founder of WazirX), Harsh Rajat (Founder of EPNS), and many additional crypto industry luminaries also contributed.

‘While NFTs are the most popular form of game assets, fundamentally it may not be sustainable in open economy. Using real world economics of commodities games assets have to be designed accordingly to make them fungible. This addresses the biggest problem with NFT that is liquidity and attracts more capital over time.’

– Siddharth Menon, Founder Tegro

CBX token is CropBytes’ metaverse token. It is possible to observe numerous projects distributing tokens even without a product in existence these days. CropBytes team has run the game for the first 3 years and built an established community with TRX, aother popular token. It was only in Nov 2021 that CropBytes was listed on a joint platform by Bybit & MEXC and this greatly assisted the veteran players who remained by CropBytes’ side.

What else should we know about CBX?

The plans for CBX are long-term, as the price is not based on ‘hype’ but rather value. Over the course of four years, the asset value progressively increased and is currently worth more than 50 times its original purchase price.

Also, as good projects usually take time to reach their potential, the fact that the players who signed up at the beginning are still hanging on to their assets and have expanded their portfolio by over 40x to 50x is a true testament to CropBytes’ robust and sustainable economy. Future plans revolve around working on the metaverse, mini-games, the service economy (which will be in various phases), and much more to come.

About CropBytes

CropBytes is a one-of-a-kind farming simulation game. Starting a ‘crypto farm’ entails more than just growing digital crops and raising animals, since the project’s major goal is to be at the heart of the cryptocurrency gaming revolution with its inherently constructed game economy.

Its goal is to provide its customers with an effective platform for leveraging the power of crypto in order to both play and earn in the digital world, and is both iOS and Android compatible. To date, CropBytes has managed to gain over 550,000 signups and 15,000 average monthly active users. It is one of the most talked about gaming initiatives in this entire sector as it strives to do its part for the Web 3.0 gaming revolution.

The global community of believers consists of gamers from Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Venezuela, Russia, Brazil, Vietnam, Argentina, Spain, India.

Everyday, 1000’s of gamers are joining this revolution, consistently contributing to the growth of the CropBytes’ sustainable economy. Today the game is far more diverse, immersive, rewarding, and collaborative…. just like the real world. This world provides more opportunities and a place for ambitious crypto farmers to thrive. Today CropBytes’ identity has adapted with its growing community and renewed vision.

Join the CropBytes movement, where every gamer has the power to build and own their crypto farm and grow this sustainable metaverse. #FarmOnCropBytes

Check out the website, whitepaper and Twitter as well as Telegram channels for more information.

This is a press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release.

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Bitcoin millionaires are now a widely understood term. This has grown from the massive surge in the price of the digital asset which has continued to decrease the number of BTC required to be a millionaire. A number of bitcoin millionaires had lost their status when the price of the digital asset had declined. However, as bitcoin is recovering, these millionaires have been growing in number but data shows that the increase in price is not the only driver.

Accumulation Is The Name Of The Game

The price of bitcoin had declined significantly following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This had seen a considerable number of bitcoin millionaires lose their status. But since then, there have been more investors being added to the millionaires’ list.

Related Reading | Bitcoin Futures Basis Nears One-Year Lows, How Will This Affect BTC?

Santiment notes in a new report that the number of bitcoin addresses had been on a steady increase since the way between Russia and Ukraine had started. Not only had the number of addresses been on the rise but whale addresses have been rising. These addresses which hold between 10 to 100k BTC on their balances which were either existing or new had been able to reclaim their millionaire status.

🦈🐳 The number of #Bitcoin addresses has been increasing since the #RussianUkrainianWar began. Since then, there are 1,629 shark and whale addresses holding between 10 to 100k that are either new or have returned to this millionaire (or above) status. 📈 pic.twitter.com/9Ts70gdfHJ

— Santiment (@santimentfeed) April 27, 2022

Usually, the obvious culprit for the number of bitcoin millionaires growing can be a surge in price. This drastically increases the value of the tokens held. However, with the price of BTC now making any significant recoveries recently, there is another reason for this and that has been accumulation.

The chart from Santiment shows that these investors have been accumulating BTC at an accelerated rate. This accumulation had seen a sharp increase at the end of March before falling but the whales are once again picking up momentum as the month of April draws to a close.

So instead of regaining their millionaire status by waiting for the price of BTC to go up, these whales have been buying more coins. This also follows the recent trend of daily active addresses picking up on the network. Network transaction volume is also up in this regard. 

Bitcoin Turning Bullish

Bitcoin had lost its footing at $40,000 earlier in the week. This had caused a stir among bears as they tried to drag down the price of the asset. BTC had continued to hold above its $36,000 support level, serving as a bounce point for its recent recovery.

BTC trading in the mid $39,000s | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

Currently, bitcoin is trading above the 5-day moving average. An indicator that proves that investors are now willing to purchase the digital asset higher than the prices they bought days ago. This can often spell a shift in sentiment for investors but only for the very short term.

Related Reading | Bitcoin Drops To $38K After Amazon Retraction On Accepting BTC Payments

BTC still needs to hold above $39,500 though as this remains a critical spot for it. A failure to secure the price above this point could see the digital asset retest the $35,000 in the coming days before any sign of recovery is registered.

Featured image from Altcoin Buzz, chart from TradingView.com

Mishi Choudhary, the legal director of the Software Freedom Law Center, supported the efforts of some United States lawmakers to develop an electronic version of the U.S. dollar.

In written testimony for a Thursday hearing of the House Financial Services Committee on digital wallets, Choudhary said the United States needed “a currency or electronic token that is equivalent in functionality to cash, offers all of its benefits including anonymity, privacy, autonomy, no transaction fee and addresses all of its flaws.” Her description suggested a token with many of the benefits of a central bank digital currency and cryptocurrencies but without traceability — similar to the e-cash proposed by Representative Stephen Lynch in a March bill.

“The unique element of the ECASH idea is hardware wallets containing the equivalent of coins created by and managed by the United States Treasury, which is as close a way of universal access just like the cash,” said Choudhary. “This idea imagines how everybody can have, store and pay with money without the banking system being involved in any way at all. An idea is to have electronic tokens that are equivalent in functionality to cash and no more traceable.”

Choudhary added that the aim of this proposed e-cash would be to preserve privacy and improve financial inclusion while allowing the public access to the software underlying the technology for transparency. Raúl Carrillo, deputy director of the Law and Political Economy Project and one of the witnesses at the hearing, said that unlike cryptocurrency, e-cash would not be used for payments online, and could potentially be lost along with missing hardware.

The proposed e-cash would not be built on a blockchain or require the internet to operate, but Illinois Representative Bill Foster pointed to the lack of information concerning ownership as a potential concern around illicit transactions — i.e., Know Your Customer, or KYC, requirements. Choudhary hinted a lack of regulatory clarity could hold back the United States from being a leader in digital transactions as other jurisdictions have attempted to address issues in the space.

“The European Union has adopted a very different approach for crypto transactions to include information on the parties involved and outline anonymous crypto transactions for now,” said Choudhary at the hearing. “That has obviously raised the concerns of how much innovation will come out of [the] European Union if the same kind of KYC issues are superimposed on that. Major crypto companies have now, at least, unveiled initiatives that are improving the industry’s KYC and Anti-Money Laundering practices.”

Related: Banks will be required to work with crypto, e-money and CBDCs to survive

Many U.S. lawmakers have come out in support of the Federal Reserve releasing a central bank digital currency or backing adoption of crypto on a state level. In January, the Fed issued a discussion paper on the benefits and risks of a digital dollar while in November 2021, the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets urged lawmakers to consider legislation on stablecoins to address potential risks.

Mykhailo Fedorov, Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, tweeted that the Ukrainian government will accept war effort contributions in the form of nonfungible token (NFT) donations and purchases. Via the official “Aid for Ukraine” crypto fund, individuals can donate cryptocurrency, fiat and now NFTs. So far the initiative has raised over $60 million, according to the website. 

All funds go toward supplying Ukrainians with weapons, medical gear, medical kits and other expenses outlined on the Aid for Ukraine website. Total expenses amounted to $45,103,538 by April 14. The Aid for Ukraine platform is powered by crypto exchanges FTX and Kuna, and by staking provider Everstake. 

The new big update of @_AidForUkraine website. We’ve added the NFT section: now you can donate or buy NFTs. All funds as always will contribute to the Ukrainian victory. Ready, steady, NFT pic.twitter.com/Zo9hYufHSB

— Mykhailo Fedorov (@FedorovMykhailo) April 27, 2022

The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine is the beneficiary organization of several NFT projects including Russia For Sale, which sells Russian lands in the form of NFTs, and Holy Water, which supports local Ukrainian NFT artists, among others. Those who buy an NFT from one of the organizations will contribute directly to Ministry’s crypto wallet.

At the time of publication, the NFTs donated by “UkrainianCryptoFund” and available to bid on in OpenSea come from collections such as, CryptoPunks, mfers, MoonCats, TIMEPieces by Time Magazine, CREYZIES and Chubbiverse Frens. All of these collections only accept Ether (ETH) for payment. 

Just as the Ukrainian government has fully embraced digital assets in order to support humanitarian efforts, so have many both Ukrainian and Russia citizens had to familiarize themselves and accept using crypto to support themselves. Cointelegraph spoke with some of the people who experienced the advantages of Bitcoin firsthand as well with some of the blockchain companies that have been thriving amid war. 

Related: Binance announces crypto card for Ukrainian refugees

Fedorov first signaled in a tweet on March 3 that the government would soon be using NFTs to help pay for its military. Since then, the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine has also launched a virtual NFT gallery to keep alive the memory of war. 

While there’s a number of bitcoin whales that often get caught by blockchain parsers and written about in media reports, ethereum whales get a lot less attention. According to statistics in 2022, there are a lot more ethereum whales than holders with large sums of bitcoin. In fact, while the top 100 richest bitcoin addresses control 14.08% of the circulating supply, the top 100 richest ethereum addresses hold 39.81% of all the ether today.

Data Shows Ethereum Still Has a Large Concentration of Whales in 2022

Ethereum, the second-largest crypto asset in terms of market capitalization, has an overall USD valuation of around $348 billion. Ethereum’s market cap represents 18.3% of the $1.89 trillion crypto economy’s net value. While the leading crypto asset has been around for close to seven years, 100 addresses command 39.81% of the current ether in circulation. However, after subtracting the Ethereum 2.0 Contract address, which holds 10.06% of the current ether in circulation, 99 wealthy addresses own 29.75%.

From the top five richest ethereum addresses alone, 5.17% of the ETH supply is controlled by the Wrapped Ether contract, 1.78% of the ETH supply is held by the trading platform Kraken, and 1.68% is held by Binance. Many of the 100 richest ethereum addresses are centralized exchange platforms and decentralized finance (defi) protocol reserves. This includes exchanges and protocols such as Bitfinex, Okex, FTX, Polkadot Multi-Sig, Arbitrum’s bridge, and Lido. After the 57th largest ethereum address, the majority of the rest are unknown wallets or simply whales.

Into the Block statistics show addresses that own more than 1% of the circulating supply and addresses that own between 0.1% and 1% of the circulating supply, equate to 41%. Those same metrics applied to bitcoin’s top 100 addresses equate to 10%. From this perspective, the data shows that there are a lot more ether whales than the concentration of large bitcoin holders. Moreover, some of these ethereum whales have been making a name for themselves, as blockchain parsers are starting to monitor their activities more often.

Meet Some of Ethereum’s Most Famous Whale Addresses — Light, Locke, Tsunade, Bluewhale0072, and Bluewhale0073

For instance, whalestats.com gives an interesting perspective of the ether whales who not only hold ethereum but also tokens and non-fungible token (NFT) assets. Whalestats.com labels the rich list, and the top five addresses include wallets called “Light,” “Locke,” “Tsunade,” “Bluewhale0072,” and “Bluewhale0073.” The wallet Bluewhale0073 has been making headlines lately for purchasing and selling massive amounts of shiba inu (SHIB). Whalestats monitors whales “who are worth an average of $75,905,160 and hodl an average of 10,236 ETH, 34 tokens, and 1 NFT.”

The address called Light is currently worth over $17.9 billion today and it holds 136 NFTs from 54 collections. While none of the NFTs are extremely valuable, Light’s SHIB stash is worth $786.69 million. Light also holds $218.74 million in CRO and $217.08 million in tether (USDT). The whale’s stash of ethereum is worth $87.57 million as Light holds 30,320 ether. Light also has multi-million-dollar stashes of usd coin (USDC), enjin coin (ENJ), the sandbox (SAND) and, decentraland (MANA).

The address dubbed Locke currently holds $13.52 billion in digital assets today. Locke holds 151 NFTs from 53 different collections and $109.3 million worth of ethereum. Locke also owns millions of dollars worth of BAT, SAND, UPXAU, MATIC, SHIB, LINK, FTM, and APE. The address also holds hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of ENJ, USDC, USDT, GRT, SRM, SPELL, and QNT. The whale address called Tsunade holds $186.9 million and 162 NFTs from 57 different collections. Tsunade has $60.07 million in USDT, $40.44 million in SHIB, and $36.5 million in ETH.

Bluewhale0072 is the fourth largest ether whale on whalestats.com and the address holds 100 NFTs from 37 different collections. The wallet is currently worth $67.4 million today and $40.67 million of the wallet’s funds are held in tether (USDT). Bluewhale0072 also holds a large portion of wrapped bitcoin (WBTC) and has $4.99 million worth of WBTC today. As mentioned above, Bluewhale0073 has been written about on a few occasions and in recent times. That’s because at certain times, Bluewhale0073 purchases vast quantities of shiba inu (SHIB).

Bluewhale0073’s USD value today is $122.98 million and the wallet only owns ten NFTs from four different collections. A large portion of Bluewhale0073’s wealth is in ethereum (ETH) as the wallet holds $114.53 million in ether today. Bluewhale0073 also holds $5.53 million in USDT, $1.75 million in USDC, $640K in MATIC, and $19,324 in SHIB. While reports noted that Bluewhale0073 was purchasing millions of dollars of SHIB, the address sold most of the meme-coin, trading for other coins like ETH.

While we don’t know who all the ethereum whales are, they are caught regularly by blockchain analysis and they can be tracked. Crypto whales have always been an enigma and they are called whales because they are massive compared to the rest of the smaller fish in the digital currency industry. Much like the whales in the ocean, crypto whales can cause major volatile waves within the crypto economy.

What do you think about today’s ethereum whales? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Jamie Redman

Jamie Redman is the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News and a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open-source code, and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 5,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.