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| Step Finance 
| #STEP
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| STEP Price: | $0.011 | | Volume: | $61.0 K | | All Time High: | $10.67 | | Market Cap: | $3.2 M |
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| Circulating Supply: | 291,197,676 |
| Exchanges: | 5
| | Total Supply: | 609,606,578 |
| Markets: | 9
| | Max Supply: | 630,106,792 |
| Pairs: | 11
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The price of #STEP today is $0.011 USD.
The lowest STEP price for this period was $0, the highest was $0.011, and the current live price for one STEP coin is $0.01093.
The all-time high STEP coin price was $10.67.
Use our custom price calculator to see the hypothetical price of STEP with market cap of BTC or other crypto coins. |
The code for Step Finance crypto currency is #STEP.
Step Finance is 2.1 years old. |
The current market capitalization for Step Finance is $3,183,591.
Step Finance is ranking upwards to #698 out of all coins, by market cap (and other factors). |
There is a modest daily trading volume on #STEP.
Today's 24-hour trading volume across all exchanges for Step Finance is $61,022. |
| The circulating supply of STEP is 291,197,676 coins, which is 46% of the maximum coin supply. |
| Note that there are multiple coins that share the code #STEP, and you can view them on our STEP disambiguation page. |
StepDAO and Solana Allstars- The Next Step
There are two major announcements we want to highlight today, but more importantly it’s time to also take a deeper look into how we approach growth at StepOur recent Solana Crossroads event in Istanbul was a massive hit! — Step Finance- Unifying The Brand. — Step Finance is us. Its the core product (the dashboard), brand, community and everything we work on everyday. We also have a number of other brands which are also Step: Solanafloor- NFT News and Data Analytics, Solana Crossroads- IRL Events, The Next Billion- Our podcast, Step Data Insights- Onchain Data research reports / Newsletter, Step also is one of the top 3 most active dapps in Solana for the last 2 years: 2.4million+ unique users, 51 000+ Monthly active users, Integrations with the vast majority of the Solana ecosystem, Several millions of monthly impressions on socials etc, The Dashboard app is probably what most people still remember us as. But we are bigger than that, much bigger. As you can see above the other brands we run are focused on one thing: growing the pie. Need to know whats up with your wallet? Use Step. Wanna read about monkey jpegs and check pricing? Use Solanafloor. Totally new to crypto and want to listen know more? Check the podcast. More sophisticated and want more data insights? Check the data research reports etc. We want to create as big of a funnel as possible to our products, this is how we can grow the number o... 
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2022 Year in Review
All one needs is Step Wow, 2022 was a hell of a year in crypto. In fact, it was empirically the worst year ever in terms of blow ups, price action and general carnage. Yet here we are, still standing…LFG! As I look back on the year that was I am reminded where we were this time last year and the mountain of things that have been done since then. Lets do a quick recap on where we have come from, how things have evolved and we have pivoted in some ways and where we are going now. — Take me back to the summertime. — One year ago, Step as a product was coming off the massive bull run on Solana. We had no time to focus on anything other than integrations for the Dashboard which was the only and core product at the time. There were still a few yield farms, lenders, collateralised stablecoins etc which are launching and in order to stay relevant we needed to spend a lot of time and resources on integrating them on the dash (many of which are now dead btw, RIP). With the tempo winding down on new launches in the ecosystem we were faced with the question of ‘what next?’. I remember having many team meetings where we discussed for hours some of the 10–15 or so ideas on which we could work on. Things which we thought would add value to the platform and token in some way. Aaron0v and Dana pivotal in a lot of these discussions as it often involved Rust work. You’ll note in one of our earliest blogs in 2022 we were ...
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Step Q4 Roadmap
tis the season gm to all as we are in the final stretch of 2022. It is that time of year where everyone is foot on the throttle to the finish line, there are lots of holidays/disruptions, conferences and end of year goals to hit. Its no different for Step. Lets take a look back at what Q3 brought and the most recent updates this month. Continued performance gains, dashboard generally loading for even the most complex wallets in < 3 seconds., New integrations and coverage updates: Star Atlas, PsyFi, UXD, Ratio, Brave wallet and many more!, Onchain Referrals live!, Translations for Turkish, Infact everything we said we were going to do in the Q3 update was pushed out ontime:Q3 Update goals With the exception of one thing, the big one- the new Step Analytics product. Rest assured we still intend to get it out before the end of the year as we have said before and we have a MVP taking shape internally. Nothing much more to add on that front other than we are pushing ahead and making progress every week. — Closing out the Year. — So what do we have in store for the end of 2022? Well, other than trying to get out the Analytics MVP there are also plenty of milestones: Solana Breakpoint conference, the whole ecosystem will be there aswell as the Step team, many meetings with our partner projects, New media announcements and launches: Solanafloor turning into more of a media website for NFTs and Solana news is...
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Step update #10- Solanafloor Acquisition and more
Solanafloor the home of NFT Data Analytics The last month has been a very exciting time for Step for those who have been following along our socials and discord. The most important announcement of late has been our acquisition of Solanafloor and how that plays into the future of both the Step and Solanafloor platforms. We also have deployed a number of important updates including speeding up load times on the dashboard, new swap page design and routes, many bug fixes and a few integrations like the new Star Atlas marketplace. Lets get into the latest developments and what lies ahead for Step in todays update! — Acquisition of Solanafloor. — Step was delighted to announce on the 28 July that we have completed an acquisition of Solana’s leading NFT data insights and analytics platform, Solanafloor (Coindesk article). This greatly strengthens the Step product offering and we also onboard the excellent Solanafloor team including the founder and creator of Solanafloor cryptowazza. NFTs have clearly been one of the most important growth areas for the Solana ecosystem over the last 12 months. In a time where there has been a massive drawdown in the crypto market as a whole and particularly defi, NFTs have shown strong continued growth as evidenced in the recent Step Data Insights newsletter post with a comparison of Opensea vs Magic Eden. Active Solana NFT users transact on average 7.65 a day compared to the equivalent...
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Step Q3 Roadmap
Step shining bright Well its quarterly roadmap time again this time we are in the 3rd Q already and there’s only 4 Q’s in a year, how time flys... This is indeed an interesting time for the crypto market, we are solidly in a bear market with a lot of projects and companies blowing up left and right and some projects going silent or winding down their activity completely, its really in times like this that legends are made and we at Step are full steam ahead hiring and building no matter what the macro is like. If you missed our previous Q2 Roadmap its worth a quick recap on what’s been achieved so far. I’d say we have probably achieved 70% of our goals with some things just not making it over the line and others being about 80% done. Tasks like performance have been ongoing with many of our onchain calls for pricing and individual integrations being moved to the backend and reducing load when you load your Step dashboard. Coverage is another ongoing task which we have integrated several more complex protocols like lenders or PERP dees and options vaults etc. I expect we will see less new projects launching this quarter so integrating them isnt such a big priority for us at the moment. NFT pricing has been another thing which is now running smoothly with our Magic Eden and Solanafloor integrations (we are rocking both APIs). The Opportunities page has seen some updates this Q as have other areas of the app like our en...
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Step Update #9 — Step 2.0
Step Update #9 — Step 2.0New Look Dashboard! Today we are introducing an app-wide refresh with our new UI we are calling Step 2.0. You’ll notice many areas of the app have been improved, consolidated and standardised on desktop and mobile breakpoints as we prep for the second half of this year and much more data focused development. But first, a little history lesson… — Humble beginnings. — Step started in February 2021 from a Solana hackathon and has since grown into one of the most well featured and detailed portfolio managers of any blockchain, well beyond what we first imagined it would be. Back when we started there was only 2 AMMs and maybe 1 or two other yield farm related projects already onchain. The initial scope then for us was “make a dashboard to show you your positions in these few apps” however as Solana caught on with mega traction in 2021 the number of new projects launching was immense with almost everyday being some new pool or protocol going live. Our job then became expanding the size and specificity of the app. We needed to expand the number of individual modules from 2 (LP positions and Token balances) to over 13 currently with close to 50 individual project integrations often spanning 1–3 modules and thousands of individual markets. With the market growing so rapidly we often needed to use the fastest ways to get the integration done and working and then move on, this was ...
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Step Update #8
xSTEP is your friend gm Steppers and its time again for todays update blog. Another busy month behind the scenes here at Step HQ with work pushing ahead on our Q2 goals, there’s a few big ticket items remaining on that list including referrals and the first products for our historical data indexing work. Lets have a short recap on what’s been going on — Integrations, bug fixing and UX updates. — We recently added support for the 01.xyz perps exchange, Cykura, Crema aswell as Orca whirlpools, TULIP staking and various fixes and improvements to Transaction History and and pool support. We have a few more integrations we are considering and that should cap off coverage for a while most likely. We don’t see as many protocols launching at the ferocious pace of 6 months ago which frees up some of our team to focus on the other areas of the app to our delight. One of those areas is a UX overhaul, you’re going to really like what you see, this simplification will also make development quicker going forward as we standardise a lot of the areas we had to smash out quickly in the past and cleanup redundant blocks of code. — Sunsetting of the Step AMM and Farms. — The Step AMM was born out of a time on Solana a year ago where there were 2 AMMs- Raydium and Orca. Serum had just deprecated their xyk AMM and the goal for the Step AMM was to:Provide a liquidity sink for STEP token holdersAdd a steady re...
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The Pathway to Data
Data from Star Trek approves Its been a turbulent time in cryptoland this year with major hacks happening every month coupled with big events like the Luna/UST stablecoin depeg this week. Regardless, Step has been continuing to build throughout and if you check in to our Discord or Twitter you’ll always see new updates every few days. Come checkout some of the Feature Spotlights we have been doing recently on lesser known parts of the App as it will frame a lot of the discussion below. Step is well placed to grow during a bear market. We have been constantly hiring the last few months with most recently this week placing a new job ad for an Ambassador Program Manager which, as the name suggests is a new initiative to engage new users around the world in the Solana ecosystem, but perhaps more on that at a later time. On the tokenomics side we are well placed with the lowest FDV of any Solana project, zero farm emissions for the last 9 months and Reward options being the only way circ supply increases. The token isn’t immune to market forces though, the markets will do its thing but that’s irrelevant to what we are doing at Step- our job is just continue to build the best product we can and be the one page that is indispensable to your crypto usage, if we do that then value will come. — Monetisation in DeFi. — All the necessary parts of a DeFi ecosystem are mature on Solana now- 8 AMMs, 4 order book Dexes, 5...
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Step Q2 Roadmap
gm We would have got this out sooner were it not for some big Solana events like in Miami, expanding Step team rapidly (3 new hires in the same week) and some integrations we had planned that have happened in April. A very busy month thus far! Its time we look ahead and outline the general high level direction we are going in this quarter as well as a quick look at some of the amazing updates we have just launched. — Q2- A focus on Data. — We have discussed before about the balancing act we need to do at Step between 3 core areas: Increasing coverage- This means integrating new protocols for the dashboard. This is our core product and always #1 priority for us at Step to ensure we show you an accurate representation of where your money is New Features- this would include things not related to coverage or tokenomics but simply just good to have on the frontend. Things like Transaction History or NFT pricing etc, these are not revenue accruing however essential for providing users a good user experience. Tokenomics related features- these often involve new Rust contracts deployed on-chain for things involving the STEP token. This also requires a fair bit of frontend work however ensuring we have value capture mechanisms for token holders is crucial to the long term success of Step, this often involves buttons users click where a fee is paid for a useful service (e.g. compounding, swaps etc). We need to balance th...
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Step Update #7
Step Up We are already ending Q1 soon and a lot has happened here at Step it feels like ancient history. Lets get into some of the recent updates and learnings at Step. New Charities Support Step was the first to pioneer charitable donations on Solana with initially launching support for the FTX Foundation mid last year. We would have loved to have added more charities early on however getting charities comfortable with accepting SPL tokens within their existing legal framework became an issue. Luckily things have moved on since then and we have added a number of new charities to the donations page (https://app.step.finance/#/charities) through a collaboration with the good folk at Getchange. DeFi on Solana We have also added a new ‘DeFi on Solana’ page where you can search any project name or token for some historical pricing, stats and explainers. Only tokens added to the token list registry will show up here. We will also be building out this page with many more analytics as time goes on. Step is good at showing you what you have, new pages like DeFi on Solana the idea is to show you what you don’t have. This helps increase exposure of the Solana ecosystem. Speed enhancements and more dynamic pools A number of integrations are loading their pools and other information dynamically, this means quicker support for new pools on step without us needing to manually add. We are still refining this and often third parties ...
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 | ETH Eyes $2,000 as US Investors Step Up But There's a Critical Obstacle ...
Ethereum's price is showing a very bullish signal right now, with a couple of key resistance levels getting broken to the upside. If the breakout is valid, things could look much better for the crypto market in the coming months.
Technical Analysis
By: Edris
The Daily Chart:
On the daily chart, the price has been rallying since a sharp rebound from the 200-day moving average around the $1400 mark. It has climbed above the 50-day moving average located around the $1600 level, before breaking through the higher boundary of the large symmetrical triangle pattern.
Currently, the key $1800 resistance level is also seemingly getting tested, and the price could soon target values above $2000, especially the $2300 level, in the coming weeks if the current breakout is valid.
On the other hand, in case a fake breakout occurs, a pullback towards either of the 50-day or 200-day moving averages or the $1300 support area could be expected.
Source: TradingView
The 4-Hour Chart:
Looking at the 4-hour timeframe, the recent price rally becomes more clear. The cryptocurrency has been struggling with the higher boundary of the symmetrical triangle and the $1800 level over the last few days, with the latter yet to be broken to the upside.
The RSI indicator also demonstrates a bearish divergence between the recent price highs, which could point to a possible correction in the short term. The $1680 and $1500 levels could be possible turning points for the price in case a bearish move materializes.
...
|  | G20 Meeting of Financial Chiefs Takes A Step Forward Towards Crypto Regu...
The G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) Meeting on February 24-25 in Bengaluru, India, concluded with a strong commitment to regulations for the cryptocurrency sector.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF), Bank for International Settlements (BIS), and Financial Stability Board (FSB) have been tasked to come up with recommendations and a roadmap for regulating the cryptocurrency sector.
G20 Meeting of Financial Chiefs
“We look forward to the IMF-FSB Synthesis Paper, which will support a coordinated and comprehensive policy approach to crypto-assets, by considering macroeconomic and regulatory perspectives, including the full range of risks posed by crypto assets,” The G20 Chair’s Summary and Outcome Document said.
Besides the finance ministers and central bank governors, the event was attended by Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director, IMF, Agustin Carstens, General Manager, BIS, and representatives of the Financial Stability Board (FSB).
Klaas Knot, Chairman of FSB, sent a letter to the G20 meeting in which he mentioned that the FSB was preparing recommendations for regulating cryptocurrency and decentralized finance.
“This year, the FSB will finalize its recommendations for the regulation, supervision, and oversight of crypto-assets and markets and its recommendations targeted at global stablecoin arrangements, which have characteristics that may make threats to financial stability...
|  | SEC General Counsel Dan Berkovitz to Step Down in January 2023
The US Securities and Exchange Commission announced that Dan Berkovitz will step down from his General Counsel position as of the end of January 2023.
The current SEC Principal Deputy General Counsel - Megan Barbero - will replace Berkovitz upon his departure.
SEC Chair Gary Gensler said he was 'grateful' for Berkovitz's 'exceptional public service and his dedication to this agency' in the official announcement before adding,
'Dan has led the Office of General Counsel during a time in which we’ve proposed critical reforms throughout the capital markets. His counsel, judgment, and leadership have been invaluable to our work at the SEC. I have been blessed to work with Dan at two great market regulators, and I congratulate him for his 34 years in public service.'
Berkovitz occupied the position for a little over a year after serving as the CFTC Commissioner for three years (from 2018 to 2021).
He noted that his departure from the SEC was because it was time for him to 'pursue new and different challenges and opportunities.'
Although it may not be directly related, Berkovitz recently had dinner at a luxury Indian restaurant in Washington DC with several FTX execs, including the now-disgraced former CEO - Sam Bankman-Fried, according to emails seen by the Washington Examiner.
The details of the conversation are still unclear, but the emails reveal that the bill was covered by FTX General Counsel Ryne Miller, who then asked for $50 from Berkovitz.
The former crypto exchan...
|  | Elon Musk Promises to Step Down as Head of Twitter — Edward Snowde...
Tesla CEO and Twitter chief Elon Musk has promised to step down as head of Twitter. As the billionaire seeks a new CEO to run the social media platform, privacy advocate Edward Snowden threw his name in the hat, stating that he takes payment in bitcoin. 'The question is not finding a CEO, the question is finding a CEO who can keep Twitter alive,' Musk clarified.Elon Musk Discusses Finding New Twitter CEO
Elon Musk set up a poll on Twitter over the weekend asking his 122.3 million followers whether he should step down as head of the social media platform. The billionaire added that he will abide by the results of the poll, which ended with 57.5% of over 17.5 million respondents wanting him to step down.
Responding to a comment about him having a new CEO picked out already and that he will retire to being chairman of the Twitter board, Musk clarified: 'No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor.' In another tweet, the Tesla chief explained:
The question is not finding a CEO, the question is finding a CEO who can keep Twitter alive.
Many people urged Musk not to quit. 'If Elon Musk steps down from Twitter, I will close my account. He’s why I opened it in the first place,' one exclaimed. 'The crowd chose to crucify Jesus too, remember that Elon Musk. The crowd is not always right. Leaders LEAD, they don’t bow!' another told the billionaire. 'Stand up for free speech. The First Amendment needs you,' a third user emphasized.
In Nove...
|  | AscendEX New User Promotions: Reward Every Step of the Way
PRESS RELEASE. New York, NY, November 11, 2022 – AscendEX, a leading global cryptocurrency exchange, is excited to announce its new user rewards program, providing users an exclusive chance to mine BTC and earn satoshis rewards (SATs) by completing tasks. In addition, all new users will be able to get 10,000 SATs when they sign-up instantly!
Easy As 1-2-3
The AscendEX new user rewards program includes BTC mining rewards, user challenges, and task rewards for every new and current user on the platform. This rewards program is designed to familiarize users with the key features of our platform.
Bitcoin mining has never been so easy.
Once you sign-up and verify your account, you will immediately be able to start mining BTC and stacking SATs just for being active. In addition, you'll receive a 10,000 SAT bonus just for signing up!
Our satoshi ticker on the rewards program home page will continue to tick upward when you are logged in and active, regardless of whether you are trading or just checking your portfolio. No matter what, you are constantly mining BTC and adding to your total rewards balance.
Get Paid to Trade - Complete Tasks, Stack SATs
Don't peak, Ascend! Along with constantly being able to mine BTC from your desktop and mobile device, the program allows users to earn BTC for completing tasks. Upon completing a task, you will receive a notification that congratulates you, and the corresponding SAT amount will be credited to your SAT reward ticker. These tasks ran...
|  | US Regulators Step Up Scrutiny of the Crypto Industry. 3AC, FTX Under In...
Bloomberg reported that the CFTC and SEC are investigating Three Arrows Capital. The US regulators want to understand whether the Singapore-based cryptocurrency hedge fund violated some rules and laws that hedge funds must comply with.
Sources interviewed by Bloomberg hinted that U.S. regulators seem to think 3AC could have been misleading clients about the strength of its balance sheets and not properly disclosing why the fund was not registered with regulatory agencies.
Three Arrows Capital Founders And The SEC
In late July, Kyle Davies and Su Zhu, founders of Three Arrows Capital, gave an interview to Bloomberg breaking their silence about their alleged flight. The crypto investors argued that they had to disappear from the public radar because they received several death threats after a British Virgin Islands court ordered them to file for bankruptcy and liquidate all of the assets owned by 3AC.
During the interview, both founders clarified that despite being in unknown locations, they had been in communication with the relevant authorities 'from day one.'
However, according to the lawyers in charge of the liquidation, none of the co-founders have cooperated.
According to another Bloomberg report, Teneo, the company in charge of liquidating 3AC's funds, had to seek permission from a U.S. judge to notify the founders via Twitter and their emails after being unable to contact them via the usual communication channels. So far, none of the co-founders have responded to Teneo'...
|  | NYDIG CEO and President Become the Latest Crypto Execs to Step Down
The alternative asset manager - New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) - announced the departure of its CEO Robert Gutmann and its President Yan Zhao.
Tejas Shah and Nate Conrad will take their posts, respectively.
Changes at the Top
The cryptocurrency-focused company revealed that its bitcoin balances hit an all-time high during Q3, up almost 100% YOY. At the same time, NYDIG's revenue was up by 130% in Q2, followed by another increase in the next quarter.
Nevertheless, it noted that the CEO and President - Robert Gutmann and Yan Zhao - have stepped down from their respective positions and will remain as key members of NYDIG's parent company - Stone Ridge Holdings Group.
The company announced Tejas Shah as the new Chief Executive Officer and Nate Conrad as the new President. They will focus on doubling down the organization's investments in the crypto mining industry by serving some of the leading North American miners.
Ross Stevens - Founder and Executive Chairman of the firm - argued that these structural changes should be
beneficial during a time of market decline:
'When markets crumble, character emerges. A flight to quality from the most risk-aware institutional investors has relentlessly driven bitcoin, and revenue, to NYDIG over the last 12 months.
The firm's balance sheet is the strongest it's ever been, and we're now investing aggressively into a capital-starved market. Robby and Yan are delivering the business to Tejas and Nate in phenomenal shape.'
Prior to the...
|  | Settlements With China — Russia Plans Next Step for Digital Ruble
Russia intends to use its digital ruble, to be introduced early next year, for payments with its key ally, China. Authorities in Moscow hope other nations will be willing to adopt the Russian digital currency in trade, which will allow the country to circumvent sanctions imposed over the Ukraine war.Russian Federation Eyes Digital Ruble for Payments in Trade With China
The Central Bank of Russia is gearing up to launch settlements with the digital ruble, the new incarnation of the Russian fiat currency that's now being tested, as early as 2023. According to a statement by a prominent member of the lower house of Russian parliament, the sanctioned nation wants to use it in payments with China, which has become Russia's main trading partner.
Limited access to the global financial system due to financial restrictions introduced in response to its military invasion of Ukraine is forcing Russia to seek alternative means for foreign trade transactions. Alongside cryptocurrencies, the digital ruble is one of the options Moscow is considering in its efforts to bypass the sanctions.
'The topic of digital financial assets, the digital ruble and cryptocurrencies is currently intensifying in the society, as Western countries are imposing sanctions and creating problems for bank transfers, including in international settlements,' the head of the Financial Market Committee at the State Duma, Anatoly Aksakov, recently told the Parlamentskaya Gazeta newspaper.
The high-ranking lawmaker elab...
|  | Kraken's Jesse Powell on Why He Decided to Step Down as CEO
The news of Jesse Powell, the CEO of Kraken, stepping down from the position at the cryptocurrency exchange he founded in 2011 is a significant shake-up. The exec recently came under fire for allegedly 'fostering a hateful workplace and damaging their mental health,' according to a New York Times feature.
But Powell believes the entire fiasco was a 'blessing in disguise' and that it turned out positively for the company.
Powell's Comments Post Step Down
Despite the market downturn, Kraken has posted relatively stronger financial results than its competitors. But certain comments by the former boss sparked outrage. In an interview with Protocol, the often-controversial exec said his decision to step back from the CEO position has nothing to do with media outcry.
'Following that, we actually got just a surge in new job applicants, an unprecedented number of new job applicants, a lot of people saying they're tired of the woke workplaces where they're at and they would love to work in a place like Kraken with the kind of culture that we have.'
Powell said the entire incident served to 'embolden and galvanize' the team. He went on to add that the controversy helped Kraken to 'get out a lot of bad fits from the company.' He now plans to focus more on product development and industry advocacy.
Work Culture Controversy
From questioning over women being of equal intelligence to calling American women 'brainwashed' to saying staff should not be able to choose their pronouns and questio...
|  | Kraken CEO Jesse Powell to Step Down After More Than a Decade
Jesse Powell, the chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder of major cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, will step down from his position after leading affairs at the company for more than a decade.
This is yet another leadership change in crypto-related companies in the past several months.
According to a press release on Wednesday (August 21, 2022), Dave Ripley, Kraken's chief operating officer (COO), will replace Powell as the new CEO. Ripley will assume the top executive position once the firm gets a new COO.
Meanwhile, Powell, the Kraken's largest shareholder, will remain chairman of the company's board. The co-founder made the decision to step down over a year ago, with the exchange searching for a suitable replacement before choosing Ripley.
According to a statement by the former Kraken boss:
“Dave’s proven leadership and experience give me great confidence that he’s the ideal successor and the best person to lead Kraken through its next era of growth. I look forward to spending more of my time on the company’s products, user experience and broader industry advocacy.”
Back in June, Powell debated with some employees who seemed to focus on 'minor slights and first world problems' rather than prioritize the firm's mission. The Kraken boss said that unhappy employees had a choice to leave the company.
Meanwhile, Powell joins the list of CEOs who have stepped down in recent times. Michael Moro of crypto brokerage firm Genesis and MicroStra...
|  | CFTC Prepares to Step up Oversight of Crypto Market — Says Many Di...
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has shared with Congress its plans to regulate the crypto market with 'full oversight capabilities' if the proposed Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act becomes law. The regulator claims to have the right experience and expertise and believes that 'Many digital assets constitute commodities.' Meanwhile, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has insisted that the vast majority of crypto tokens are securities.CFTC Chairman's Testimony on Crypto Regulation and the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act
The chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Rostin Behnam, discussed how his agency would regulate the crypto market in a legislative hearing Thursday before the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
The purpose of the hearing was to review the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act (DCCPA) which seeks to empower the CFTC 'with exclusive jurisdiction over the digital commodities spot market.' The bipartisan bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate in August by Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), John Boozman (R-AR), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and John Thune (R-SD).
Behnam told lawmakers:
Many digital assets constitute commodities … The CFTC's expertise and experience make it the right regulator for the digital asset commodity market.
He explained that his agency 'facilitates customer protections through its principles-based market oversight and disclosure regime aimed at ensuring transpar...
|  | US Senator Wants Congress to Step in With Crypto Guidance — Urges ...
U.S. Senator Pat Toomey says Congress should step in and provide a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency. He stressed that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is not sharing its framework for regulating crypto with lawmakers, noting that Chairman Gary Gensler 'owes us much more clarity on how and why he intends to apply SEC regulations.'
US Senator Wants Congress to Step in on Crypto Regulation
U.S. Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA), a ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, discussed cryptocurrency regulation in an interview with Bloomberg Thursday.
Commenting on whether the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is too slow in regulating cryptocurrency, he opined: 'I think the problem is that the SEC isn't sharing with us the framework that they are using.'
The senator proceeded to reference SEC Chairman Gary Gensler stating that most crypto tokens are securities, stating:
Gary Gensler famously argues that virtually all crypto tokens are securities. I think reasonable people can disagree with that.
The lawmaker noted that while Gensler 'would exempt bitcoin from that classification,' he said that 'pretty much everything else … is a security.'
Senator Toomey explained that the SEC chairman 'doesn't go on to say how he would apply the existing frameworks that we use to regulate securities issuance and trading to a very, very new and very different technology where some of these things don't fit - like custody rules, clearance rules - these things...
|  | XRP Eyes a Drop to $0.3 if Bulls Fail to Step In Soon (Ripple Price Anal...
Ripple seems to be struggling around the support at $0.33 for 10 days in a row. As a result, the cryptocurrency is trading within a very narrow range with little to no volatility. The sentiment remains predominantly negative.
Technical Analysis
By Grizzly
The Daily Chart
On the daily chart, the bulls tried to extend the price above the resistance zone at $0.33 (in red) on multiple occasions. Presently, it appears that there's not enough demand to propel a considerable increase.
The current structure formed after registering a high near $0.4 has been bearish. If this situation continues, the cryptocurrency is more likely to revisit the horizontal support at $0.3 (in green). The ascending line (in yellow) that has become resistance is another hurdle ahead of price growth.
Furthermore, this line currently overlaps with the red resistance zone, which gives more merit to bearish arguments. Until a candle closes above this area, an increase seems unlikely.
Key Support Levels: $0.32 & $0.30
Key Resistance Levels: $0.33 & $0.36
Daily Moving Averages:
MA20: $0.34
MA50: $0.35
MA100: $0.35
MA200: $0.51
Source: TradingView
The XRP/BTC Chart
The bulls failed once again to break the 200-day moving average line (in white) on their fifth attempt. This resistance is in the range of 1700 SATs to 1800 SATs.
In the short term, the 50-day moving average (in yellow) acts as support. A close and break below it could send the pair to 1,500 SATs (in green).
Although the bulls have the upper hand in t...
|  | Bitcoin Reclaims $20K, Crypto Market Eyes $1 Trillion, Ethereum 2.0 Merg...
The past seven days saw the total cryptocurrency market capitalization recover towards the $1 trillion mark after losing it in June. At the time of this writing, the market cap sits at $998 billion, according to data from CoinGecko.
A large part in the above played the increase in Bitcoin's price. The cryptocurrency is up some 9% in the past week and has managed to recover above $20K. In fact, it currently trades at $21,300 for a 3% daily gain. BTC had even soared above $22K for a brief period this Friday, but the bears intercepted the move and pushed it back below to where it currently trades.
The broader market also soared. Ethereum is up around 14% in the past seven days, followed by other major cryptocurrencies from the top 10. BNB is up 10%, the same as Solana. XRP and ADA are lagging behind with 3.9% and 2.2%, respectively.
Bitcoin's dominance - the metric that tracks its share relative to that of the rest of the market - increased by roughly 1% during the week. This indicates that the primary cryptocurrency had it better compared to altcoins.
Interestingly enough, the increase comes on the back of more bad news from industry participants. Genesis Trading - another cryptocurrency lender - revealed that it has exposure to bankrupt hedge fund Three Arrows Capital.
On the other hand, another successful step towards the integration of Ethereum 2.0 took place this week. The protocol's public testnet - Sepolia - became the second major testnet to implement the merge, bringing...
|  | Analyst Warns of Increased Bitcoin Volatility as Futures Traders Step In
Bitcoin's price spiked above $20,000 earlier today, and even though it's currently trading below this level, the cryptocurrency charts gains of 1.4% over the past 24 hours. Now, on-chain analysts warn of enhanced incoming volatility.
The cryptocurrency market added some $50 billion in the past day as Bitcoin's price is testing the critical level of $20K, which also contains the highs from the cycle in 2017-2018.
At the time of this writing, the price is trading slightly below that point but is still up around 1.4% on the day.
Now, analysts are warning that volatility is likely to increase as the open interest builds up and futures traders are stepping in.
According to a CryptoQuant analyst, the open interest on the most recent pump increased by a whopping $615 million in just a few hours.
Generally, to analyze probabilities of which direction the price might end up going, the open interest in conjunction with the funding rates is a good indicator.
This time, however, it appears that funding rates are almost neutral.
This means that long and short traders are almost in balance. Leverage added to both sides (long and short) and will increase volatility in the near term.
Source: CryptoQuant
Speaking of leverage, it's also worth noting that the past 24 hours saw around $180 million worth of liquidated positions, 75% of which were shorts.
Data from Coinglass hints that the open long positions for the past 24 hours are 51%.
|  | SBF: Big Players Like FTX Should Step in and Help Crypto Recover
The Founder and CEO of the crypto exchange FTX - Sam Bankman-Fried - thinks large companies like his should use their expertise and 'stem contagion' in the digital asset market. As such, they could aid the ecosystem to thrive again, he added.
In addition, the American argued that the Federal Reserve and its controversial approach to tackling high inflation is the main reason financial markets (including crypto) have plummeted recently.
The Big Players Should Not Stand Aside
One of the most influential people in the crypto space - Sam Bankman-Fried - opined that crises in the sector like the ongoing situation could be solved with the help of the leading companies. In fact, he believes they need to dive into the issue even if it leads to short-term losses:
'I do feel like we have a responsibility to seriously consider stepping in, even if it is at a loss to ourselves, to stem contagion. Even if we weren't the ones who caused it or weren't involved in it. I think that's what's healthy for the ecosystem, and I want to do what can help it grow and thrive.'
Bankman-Fried reminded that FTX has already provided help on similar occasions. Last year, wrongdoers hacked the Japanese exchange Liquid and stole around $100 million worth of digital assets. Shortly after, FTX provided a $120 million in financing so the company could get back on its feet:
'We, I think about 24 hours later, stepped in and gave them a pretty broad line of credit to be able to cover all of their demands, to make ...
|  | Fed Views Stablecoins as a Financial Instablity, Urges Regulators to Ste...
The Federal Reserve published the latest 'Monetary Policy Report' on Friday, categorizing the stablecoin industry - particularly the algorithmic stablecoins - as a risk of financial instability. Meanwhile, it expressed concern regarding the concentration of fiat-backed stablecoins on Tether's USDT and Binance's BUSD.
Fed's Latest Take on Stablecoins
Given the rapidly growing digital asset markets, the Fed highlighted the 'structural fragilities' in the sector as embodied by 'the collapse in the value of certain stablecoins' in the Monetary Policy Report submitted to Congress.
Though without directly naming the algorithmic stablecoin - UST - that dragged the broader market to plunge in May, the Fed hinted at the project as an indicator of floating fragility within the industry. However, fiat-backed stablecoins - with a much higher degree of concentration and capitalization - are more concerning to the Central Bank.
Considering that USDT, USDC, and BUSD have accounted for the overwhelming majority of the stablecoin market cap, the Fed outlined a lack of transparency regarding the underlying assets that back them as well as the fundamental risk involved that may exacerbate the vulnerability of the asset meant to be pegged 1:1 to USD.
'Stablecoins that are not backed by safe and sufficiently liquid assets and are not subject to appropriate regulatory standards create risks to investors and potentially to the fi nancial system, including susceptibility to potentially destabi...
|  | Arizona State University to Step Into the Metaverse
Arizona State University (ASU) - one of the biggest public universities in the States - intends to join the Metaverse and Web3 ecosystems. It also plans to release non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for authenticating event tickets and certificates.
ASU to Conduct Classes in a 'Virtual Environment'
A series of trademark filings with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) revealed that the university's future offerings might include NFTs and holding lectures in virtual reality.
ASU intends to issue digital collectibles for both in-house events and such within its students' campus. NFTs depicting the university's sports highlights are also expected to see the light of day. Conducting virtual classes, meetings, and other projects in the Metaverse is another goal set before the institute.
In a recent tweet, Josh Gerben - trademark attorney and Founder of Gerben Perrott - confirmed the rumors.
Arizona State University has big plans for the metaverse and Web3.
Per USPTO filings made on June 7th, @ASU plans to offer:
1. NFTs for event tickets and artwork of campus landmarks.
2. NFTs for video of sports highlights.
2. Classes in a 'virtual environment.'#ASU #ForksUp pic.twitter.com/PPR89Cu4B2
— Josh Gerben (@JoshGerben) June 13, 2022
With its nearly 150,000 students, ASU is among the largest universities in the USA. Its potential jump into the Metaverse space might be prompted by the fact that in 2021 (because of the healthy measures surrounding COVID-19), almost 60,0...
|  | AMAZY Makes a Step Forward With Stylish NFT Sneakers, Move2Earn, and Mor...
[PRESS RELEASE - Please Read Disclaimer]
Got used to enriching with tokens while sitting indoors all alone? Forgot what the fresh air is? Can hardly remember the last time you were running? Imagine that you receive the perfect chance to manage your NFTs and earn tokens by such non-trivial things as walking or jogging. Ain’t it AMAZYng?
AMAZY is a motivational fitness social application with game-fi elements. One can hold several pairs of NFT sneakers, mint them and gain tokens. There are several types of sneakers with different ways to farm tokens. AMT utility token has an unlimited supply. The AZY governance token’s (initial market cap ~$1.5M, fully diluted valuation — $25M) total supply is 1B tokens.
AMAZY has already gained more than 300 participants from the number of influencers: celebrities, bloggers and crypto bloggers with a total audience of over 1B subscribers, and is definitely not going to stop! The project has the potential to achieve the widest audience level in crypto, including showbiz stars and crypto experts.
Finally, what makes AMAZY unique?
- Reasonable prices for NFT sneakers starting from $100 only;
- Fancy 3D sneakers models to choose from;
- Optimized leaderboard system;
- The anti-fraud GPS is created to prevent any possibility of getting tokens in case no actions required from users are being made;
- Exclusive NFT drops from bloggers and influencers, many of whom are making their first-ever steps in crypto, causing massive additions...
|  | WikiLeaks' Julian Assange is ?ne Step Closer to US Extradition (Re...
The founder of the whistleblowing platform WikiLeaks – Julian Assange – could soon be extradited to the United States since the British and the American governments are diligently working on this. Still, the Australian activist will be able to appeal the decision.
How Close Is Assange to a US Prison?
The creator of the media organization WikiLeaks – Julian Assange – came to international attention in 2010. Back then, his platform published a series of leaks that exposed several war crimes conducted by the US army in Iraq and Afghanistan. Specifically, the videos show how soldiers kill civilians, including a Reuters photographer and his driver.
Shortly after those leaks, Assange became a top target for the US authorities. In addition, Sweden issued an international arrest warrant for him over allegations of sexual misconduct. WikiLeaks’ founder said these accusations were a pretext for his extradition from the Scandinavian country to the USA.
After losing his legal battle against the Swedish authorities, Assange sook shelter in the Embassy of Ecuador in London, where he was granted asylum. Three years ago, he was dragged out of the embassy and sent to the high-security Belmarsh Prison in the British capital.
Ever since then, the US has been trying to pull Assange to the States and send him to American federal prison for his whistleblowing endeavors against the army. He is wanted on 18 criminal charges and faces up to 175 years behind bars.
Accordi...
|  | Last Hopium NFT Project Brings Dubai A Step Closer to Becoming World&rsq...
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is emerging as one of the world's most crypto-friendly regimes as it launches programs to assist local crypto development and regulation.
Even the Dubai World Trade Center (DWTC), a government-owned event and exposition site in Dubai, has declared that it would become a complete zone and regulator of cryptocurrencies, operators, and exchanges.
Another project based out of Dubai, Last Hopium, is an NFT drop aimed to use blockchain technology to bridge digital asset holder, to big hotels like Ritz, Hilton and Waldorf.
The plan is to keep up with Dubai's ongoing efforts to assist crypto development. Both Dubai and the UAE try to benefit the local economy from blockchain technology, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and cryptocurrencies.
This plan to adopt blockchain and crypto is not just restricted to improving government services. With over 100 million worldwide blockchain wallets containing over $400 billion in liquid assets, the UAE has long attempted to entice blockchain and crypto into its economy.
Binance Joining Hands with Dubai World Trade Center
Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency trading platform, is among the first crypto exchanges to join the Dubai World Trade Center Authority's new crypto center (DWTCA).
The company has publicly stated that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the DWTCA for the opening of a whole crypto zone in Dubai.
The crypto giant is set to assist the DWTCA in describing the objective of accelerating...
|  | LBank Exchange Will List STEP on January 21, 2022
PRESS RELEASE. INTERNET CITY, DUBAI, Jan. 21, 2022 – LBank Exchange, a global digital asset trading platform, will list STEP on January 21, 2022. For all users of LBank Exchange, the STEP/USDT trading pair will be officially available for trading at 21:00 (UTC+8) on January 21, 2022.
While being used to revolutionize the financial world, crypto can also be used to revolutionize the way for people to keep fit and healthy. As a revolutionary mobile App, Step makes it possible to get rewarded with cryptocurrency when working out and staying fit. Its native token STEP will be listed on LBank Exchange at 21:00 (UTC+8) on January 21, 2022, to further expand its global reach and help it achieve its vision.
Introducing Step
Step is a revolutionary mobile App that lets its users earn crypto for their fitness efforts. With Step, it's easy to get fit and earn crypto at the same time, like a gym membership that pays back for every step taken. The mobile App tracks users' steps and pay out in cryptocurrency based on how far they go each day, helping them become the best version of themselves.
To use the Step to earn crypto, one can just simply download Step Tracker App from the Play Store or from App Store, buy Step tokens and store them in wallet, then the Step Tracker App will automatically measure user's daily walking or running activity and send crypto to their wallet. The Step App has an intuitive and clean design, tracks user's progress and payments balance automatically, and...
|  | A Step Towards DeFi 3.0: A Sneak Peek Into Alfprotocol
One thing that keeps the development team occupied is ensuring that the platform’s launch provides users with a bug-free, smooth, and efficient protocol that offers an intuitive interface. As a result, the user interface has been extensively revised. Alf’s goal is to make sure that the user can navigate the platform with ease and take full advantage of the platform and all of its capabilities. Today, Alf protocol unveils the first look at its user interface. Although the design is not finalized, the preview gives an extensive overview of what the team has planned. The final version of the user interface may alter somewhat in appearance but retain the same functionality. The Dashboard The dashboard for the Alf Protocol will provide a brief snapshot of the market’s performance. Users will be able to see the entire value locked, the total supply and demand, the top-performing pairs, and other information to ensure that they are always up to date on market dynamics. The Farming Panel The farming panel will provide an easy way for farming options on the given pair. The panel will allow access to leveraged and non-leveraged farming options with detailed balance information and expected APY. The panel will provide all the essential information to help investors make vital decisions before committing their funds. Alf users will have access to high leverage farming options from the same panel, with leverage up to 200x only achievable due to the protocol’s use of Solana’s li...
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