Japan’s largest banks are preparing to start testing the digital yen, created by an independent consortium of developers. If the project were to succeed, Japan would become the first to issue a “real” nationwide cryptocurrency “on a voluntary basis.” In Japan, a consortium of the country’s 74 largest companies announced the release and subsequent trials…

Analysts at JPMorgan led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou have suggested that Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, could see its dominance in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space fade to rivals.   According to Bloomberg, the analysts revealed that until the final phase of sharding, which they described as the “most critical” development for scaling Ethereum,…

Bitcoin will take market share away from gold in 2022 as digital assets become more widely adopted, Zach Pandl, the co-head of global foreign exchange, rates, and emerging market strategy for Goldman Sachs, said in a research note to clients. “We think that Bitcoin’s market share will most likely rise over time as a byproduct…

The Electric Coin Company (ECC) has been working on Zcash cryptocurrency for five years and has recently presented a new project roadmap. It contains a plan for the transition from the currently used Proof-of-Work algorithm to Proof-of-Stake, as well as a lot of other interesting developments.   A short while ago, on October 28, 2021,…

Prices of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are continuing their slide over the last two days, along with the stock market, as market analysts expect that the US Federal Reserve will raise interest rates soon to fight inflation. Bitcoin has slumped over 17% since December 27.   Bitcoin continues its slide Thursday after hawkish commentary from…

Nearly $41 billion worth of cryptocurrency was sent to NFT marketplaces and collections from the beginning of 2021 through mid-December, according to a new estimate from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. NFTs are now inching closer and closer in value to the traditional art market.   By the end of 2021, the marketplace for non-fungible tokens…

Internet blackouts brought in by the Kazakh authorities to help address Kazakhstan’s spreading unrest dealt a severe blow to Bitcoin cryptocurrency mining activity. The overall BTC hashrate fell 13.4% from roughly 205,000 petahash per second to 177,330 petahash per second. In addition, the Bitcoin price dropped 9% following the Kazakhstan blackouts, dropping to a swing…

American regulators’ attitude to cryptocurrencies seems to swing back-and-forth like a pendulum. One minute they wish (and act) to ban everything crypto-related as competition to fiat money, the second – they “let go of the reins”. The current swing is towards strengthening government control.   The latest US infrastructure bill introduces the broadest possible characterization…

CNET’s experts reveal where cryptocurrency is headed in 2022. This story is part of The Year Ahead, CNET’s look at how the world will continue to evolve starting in 2022 and beyond. Cryptocurrency made many of the strangest headlines of 2021. Boosters touted digital currencies as a world-changing technology with the potential to create new…

CoinMENA, the digital assets exchange focused on the MENA region, announced the live integration of Chainlink Price Feeds – decentralized data feeds of asset prices on various cryptocurrencies, FX rates, and traditional assets. CoinMENA is referencing Chainlink Price Feeds during all fiat-to-crypto transactions on the exchange. According to a press release, CoinMENA’s integration of Chainlink…