In a significant move against western banks, a St Petersburg court has seized over $763 million of assets from Unicredit, Deutsche Bank, and Commerzbank, following a dispute with a subsidiary of Gazprom. This seizure, one of the largest since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, includes $504 million of Unicredit’s assets, equivalent to about 4.5% of its […]

Fantom price has been such a joy to watch for investors in recent days, as a much-needed breath of fresh air continues to spread throughout the crypto market. Bitcoin and other large-cap assets seem to be recovering well after a period of sluggish and frustrating price action. Notably, Fantom emerged as one of the best performers in the cryptocurrency market over the past week, posting a substantial 26% price increase in the last seven days. The Layer 1 token has particularly been on a hot streak in the past day, soaring by 15%. The Catalyst Behind The Latest FTM Surge The much-awaited Sonic upgrade has been critical to the turnaround the Fantom price has witnessed in the past few months. Sonic is expected to improve Fantom’s technology stack and introduce major scalability enhancements without a disruptive hard fork. Related Reading: This Crypto Trader Just Sold All His Bitcoin For Altcoins Like Cardano And XRP, Here’s Why Most recently, the Fantom Foundation unveiled the details of the upcoming layer-1 chain Sonic Network. According to the blog post, the new blockchain network will be connected to and be able to tap into vast amounts of liquidity, users, and protocols from “Ethereum and beyond” via a native layer-2 bridge. As disclosed previously, the Sonic Network is expected to go live alongside a new token, with the ticker S. In the latest memo, the project revealed that FTM token holders will be able to migrate Sonic’s token at a 1:1 ratio, depending on the results of a governance vote. The Fantom Foundation said in its latest blog post:  Initially, this migration process is anticipated to be bi-directional, which will allow users to swap back and forth between $FTM and $S. Since the $S token will only exist on Sonic and $FTM will only exist on Opera, we anticipate utilizing a bridge to enable bi-directional swaps. This process enables a seamless migration for current Opera network participants to experience Sonic. After a transitional period (to be determined in the future), the migration process is expected to transition to a one-way migration of $FTM to $S. The project noted that the supply of the new S token will match that of FTM to facilitate the token migration process after the Sonic chain launch. It is worth mentioning that the Fantom price experienced a significant surge following this update on the Sonic Network on May 17. Fantom Price At A Glance As of this writing, the Fantom price is around $0.908, reflecting an almost 15% increase in the past 24 hours. Related Reading: Bitcoin To $100,000: Infamous Head And Shoulders Pattern Appears To Signal The Start Of Another Rally Featured image from iStock, chart from TradingView

The UK government announced this week that the Insolvency Service has secured a winding-up order against cryptocurrency advisory firm Amey Finance Academy Ltd at the High Court. The company, created by Desmond Amey in 2018, claimed to offer investment advice and financial education. However, complaints emerged that consumers lost money, and the Financial Conduct Authority […]

Bitcoin bulls are enjoying 10% month-to-date gains currently, but one trader warns that the picture should soon look very different for BTC price action.

Coinbase, the largest US crypto exchange, is planning to tap into Australia’s $600 billion self-managed pension sector, according to a Bloomberg report. The company is developing a service tailored for this sector, aiming to cater to the growing interest in crypto investments among self-managed funds. This move comes amidst a significant increase in crypto holdings […]

This move follows a recent crackdown involving the confiscation of 2,000 cryptocurrency mining devices as part of an anti-corruption initiative.

Popular crypto analyst Michaël van de Poppe continues to back altcoins to put up a spectacular bullish performance in the coming months. In a new X post on Saturday, the veteran analyst takes a deeper dive explaining the reasons behind his advocacy for altcoins investment ahead of a highly expected crypto bull run. Related Reading: Crypto Analysts Reveal Sub-$1 Altcoins Set To Outperform In The Bull Run Investing In Altcoins Is The Best, Analyst Says Why In his most recent bullish prediction on altcoins, van de Poppe begins by stating these tokens may not present as the most ideal investment especially considering that their combined value is down by 70% against Bitcoin in the last three months.  The analyst has attributed this poor performance to several factors including a delay in network updates and an extended bear market. In addition, van de Poppe also notes Ethereum’s current struggles to be a significant contributor to this market downturn.  He explains that typically the crypto bullish hype moves from Bitcoin to Ethereum, followed by tokens with big market cap, then middle-cap tokens and small-cap tokens.  However, this cycle appears to be experiencing some delay due to a bearish cloud over Ethereum, driven by uncertainty over the approval of a proposed spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) as well as its asset class.  Nevertheless, van de Poppe believes this delay to be quite temporary as he postulates that market traders are currently pricing in any potential negative effect from the denial of an Ethereum Spot ETF or the classification of the prominent altcoin as a security.  Once Ethereum embarks on a bullish course, van de Poppe predicts other altcoins to follow suit. The analyst projects that certain tokens could record a 1000% gain as seen between October 2023-February 2024, amid the hype around Bitcoin spot ETFs. However, the analyst nudges investors to buy into the altcoin market now during the period of “lowest confidence”. He believes such an act is similar to investing in Bitcoin at $3,700 at the start of 2020, thus ensuring investors generate maximum profits in the coming bull run. Related Reading: Floki Inu Frenzy: Memecoin Eyes New Highs As Open Interest Soars Ethereum ETF Approval In The Balance As weeks continue to progress, the approval of an Ethereum spot ETF by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) appears highly uncertain.  This sentiment is driven by the Commission’s ongoing deliberation on whether to classify Ethereum as a security as well as a lack of dialogue between the agency and prospective issuers.  The next deadline dates are for May 23/May 24, during which the SEC will respond to 2 ETF applications with many analysts expecting further delays from the Commission. At the time of writing, Ethereum trades at around $3,123.39 reflecting a 0.53% increase in the last day. Featured image from Business Insider, chart from Tradingview

The XRP Ledger recorded 251.39 million on-chain transactions during the first quarter of 2024, an increase of approximately 108% over the fourth quarter of 2023.

Makerdao, a leading decentralized finance (defi) protocol, has revealed new concepts to its Endgame plan, introducing two new stablecoins: newstable and puredai. This strategic initiative aims to replace the existing DAI stablecoin and bolster the Makerdao ecosystem. Maker’s Endgame Plan Brings Newstable and Puredai to Replace DAI Makerdao, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) known for […]

The World Bank has announced that it will issue its first CHF digital bond on June 11. This 7-year, CHF 200 million ($219 million) bond is the largest CHF issuance by the World Bank since 2009. It utilizes distributed ledger technology and settles using Swiss Franc wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) from the Swiss […]

Phantom Wallet has climbed to third position on the utility category on the Apple app store and several crypto commentators are taking it as a bullish signal for Solana.

An indictment unsealed in the Central District of California charges two Chinese nationals, Daren Li and Yicheng Zhang, with leading a scheme to launder at least $73 million tied to an international crypto investment scam, often known as “pig butchering.” Li and Zhang allegedly managed a global network that laundered proceeds from fraudulent crypto investments, […]

Despite ongoing speculation about Bitcoin’s next potential “deep correction,” some cryptocurrency analysts disagree on its likelihood.

Russia and Iran are collaborating on creating a single BRICS currency, the Iranian ambassador to Russia has claimed. He noted that over 60% of the two nations’ bilateral trade is conducted in Russian rubles and rials, reflecting a shift away from the U.S. dollar. Russia-Iran Trade Flourishes With National Currencies Iran and Russia are reportedly […]

Economist Jim Rickards forecasts that gold prices could surpass $27,000, emphasizing that this projection is not made for attention or shock value. “It’s the result of rigorous analysis,” he clarified. This represents a significant increase from his previous estimate of $15,000 by 2026. Jim Rickards’ $27K Gold Prediction Explained Economist Jim Rickards shared his prediction […]