Crypto News Roundup for August 11, 2020

Expectedly, this new development has been deciphered by many analysts and industry insiders as the imminent arrival of the so-called “altseason”, a period during which most altcoins rise quickly in price against the USD and BTC simultaneously. Meanwhile, in a major move forward for the IOTA community, the IOTA Foundation is gearing up to launch the first phase of the Chrysalis IoTA 1.5 network upgrade on its mainnet. These and other big stories from the day in the Tuesday edition of BeInCrypto’s daily news roundup.

Altcoin Market Capitalization Breaches Key Resistance Level

The altcoin market cap exceeded the multi-year major resistance line at $140 billion yesterday. That’s a first since the epic crypto bubble of 2017 which saw ICOs pushing the price of most altcoins (including the so-called ‘sh*tcoins’) to all-time-highs. What is remarkable here is that even at its current valuation against the dollar, the altcoin market cap is still more than 73% down compared with the corresponding figure from its all-time-high in Jan 2018. Read the Full Article

Cyprus SEC Blacklists 7 Digital Trading Sites

A famous (infamous?) tax haven for the rich and ultra-rich, Cyprus often faces criticism for its lackluster approach to implementing adequate money-laundering reforms. However, of late, the country’s regulatory apparatus has been observed going aggressively after scammers and financial frauds that victimize unsuspecting investors. In one such decisive action, the Cypriot SEC has blacklisted seven unregistered websites. Apparently, some of these blacklisted websites were promising ridiculous returns not even seen in crypto scams. Read the Full Article

IOTA Primed to Launch the First Phase of Its “Chrysalis” 1.5 Upgrade

The IOTA Foundation, which looks after the development of the IOTA project, has confirmed on Twitter that the initial phrases of the Chrysalis upgrade will go live on the mainnet next week. The 1.5 network upgrade is an intermediary step that will prepare the network for a transition to Coordicide or IOTA 2.0. Chrysalis’s first phase is intended to create performance, usability, and reliability upgrades to the current network. Among other perks, these upgrades will enable the network to process 1,000 transactions per second and institute 10-second confirmation times. Read the Full Article

Bitcoin Trading Volume Sets New Highs Across Latin America

Bitcoin trading activity has surged dramatically in South America with Argentina and Venezuela spearheading this new trend. In fact, both these economically-troubled countries are witnessing BTC trading volumes hit high after high each week. According to new data from CoinDance, South America is not the only region experiencing growth in bitcoin P2P trading volume. India and many countries across Africa are closely following suit. Read the Full Article

Uniswap Hits $254M in 24-hour Volume in the Year of the DEX

Uniswap’s market share has been growing rapidly in the past several months. According to CoinGecko data, Uniswap did $254M in volume in the past day, nearly four times higher than the next closest decentralized liquidity pool. The surging volume is predictable if you’ve been following the buzz. On Aug. 9, Hayden Adams, the founder of Uniswap, Tweeted that the exchange was processing over 100,000 transactions per day. Read the Full Article

Gas-Saving Automated Yield Farming Could Be the Next Big Thing in DeFi

As the DeFi token rush continues, new players are entering the scene thick and fast. DeFi tokens have been the best performing digital assets this year, with some of them scoring monumental four-figure percentage gains. The latest to join the farming frenzy is a new automated liquidity aggregator called APY.Finance, which is planning an alpha launch and new governance tokens. Read the Full Article