​​Drops ($DOP) have opened the Whitelist for their IDO on Polkastarter.

IDO Drops on Polkastarter will take place on the 21st of May. In order to participate you will need to hold at least 250 POLS on ERC20 or BEP20.

🔹 Hardcap at IDO: $200,000 (333,333 DOP)
🔹 Price at IDO: $0.60
🔹 Max allocation: $210

Previously Drops announced that they closed a private round raising $1m from such investors as Axia8 Ventures, Bitscale Capital, Blocksync, AU21, X21, D64 Ventures, Genblock and Drops Ventures. Also, their strategic partners include Polkastarter, Quantstamp, 0xb1, Kyros Ventures, Zokyo, PetRock Capital and BlockStar Technologies, as well as a number of high caliber angel investors.

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​​Block.one Secures USD 10B To Compete With Coinbase, Binance & Co

A new major player might join the vibrant industry of crypto exchanges, as Block.one, the developer of EOSIO, an open-sourced blockchain software, said it aims to launch Bullish, a new crypto exchange that has secured USD 10bn in funding, this year.

Block.one said it has injected USD 100m, BTC 164,000, and EOS 20m into its new subsidiary, Bullish Global, while other strategic investors added another USD 300m. The backers include Peter Thiel’s Thiel Capital and Founders Fund, Alan Howard, Louis Bacon, Richard Li, Christian Angermayer, Galaxy Digital, and global investment bank Nomura.

The new platform aims to offer new automated market making, lending, and portfolio management tools and "to combine the performance, user privacy, and compliance offered by central order book technology with the vertically integrated user benefits of decentralized finance (DeFi) market architecture."

BG is said to utilize EOSIO and the EOS Public Blockchain to produce "a cryptographically validated, provable, and immutable audit trail of all transactions processed on the Bullish platform."

EOS, ranked 19th by market capitalization, rallied following the news, jumping by more than 20% in half an hour. At 13:10 UTC it trades at USD 11.04 and is up by 8% in a day, 59% in a week, and 64% in a month.

“The Bullish exchange will leverage blockchain technology and a new market architecture to revolutionize the high-performance trading landscape by transparently automating expensive third-party functions and turning them into yield-generating portfolio management tools to offer institutions and individuals better and safer access to the latest cryptocurrency investment strategies,” Block.one CEO Brendan Blumer was quoted as saying in the press release.

According to Galaxy Digital's Mike Novogratz, "Bullish’s sheer size and scale combined with Block.one’s experience in high-performance blockchain engineering will make Bullish a formidable player from day one

Duet is the world's first multi-chain synthetic asset protocol with a hybrid mechanism (overcollateralization + algo-pegged) that “sharpens” all assets to be traded on the blockchain. A duet in music refers to a piece of music where two people play different parts or melodies. Similarly, the Duet protocol allows traders to replicate the real-world tradable assets in a decentralized finance ecosystem

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❇️ Open and Multi-chain
Duet Protocol aims to leverage the global cryptocurrencies market potential. In contrast to Terra & Mirror and ETH & Synthetix model, Duet is a multi-chain protocol which is more open, from both technology and ecosystem standpoints

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Accept more high-quality assets such as BTC, ETH,USDT, including assets unique to the DeFi world (cToken, LP token, NFT), as collateral, and reach a broader scale of underlying assets. Duet accepts competitors' token as collateral for dAsset minting, optimizing defi composability

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Accept interest-bearing assets such as yToken or wrapped POS Token, which offer a basic return. User‘s collateral will be sent to the corresponding governance/yield staking contract to earn interest.

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❇️ DUET Utility
DUET can be deposited as collateral to mint dAsset and as conditioner of liquidation limit for users’ CDP. In the Duet dAsset mining module, users can deposit dual assets (any acceptable collateral token and DUET). DUET value could decrease CDP liquidation limit (approaching 100% with infinity DUET staking) to raise capital efficiency. In instant minter, DUET acts as medium of exchange between native tokens and dAssets.

❇️ DAO Governance
Duet is governed by DAO, the Duet token holders will be able to vote using Duet Protocol’s on-chain governance system. There are two major types of votes: Collateral Polls and dAssets Votes. We will improve the DAO governance through schemes such as quadratic voting and grants.

💸💸 Duet Protocol closes first-round funding at US$3 million
https://www.bloomberg.com/press-releases/2021-05-11/duet-protocol-closes-first-round-funding-at-us-3-million

⏰⏰ AMA Recap Crypto Library
https://www.cryptolibrarys.com/2021/05/Duet%20Protokol.html

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✅ Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/duetprotocol
✅ Whitepaper: https://duet.finance/doc/Duet-Protocol-White-Paper.pdf

​​Tesla & Elon Musk-Triggered Selloff Shakes Crypto Market, Raises Questions

Electric car manufacturer Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk once again moved the whole crypto market, triggering a sharp selloff, massive liquidations, and prompting speculations about Tesla's move and reigniting debates about Bitcoin (BTC) mining. (Updated at 12:18 UTC: updates throughout the entire text. Updated at 14:50 with additional comments and the latest market data.)

Elon Musk announced that Tesla suspended vehicle purchases using BTC and is looking at other cryptoassets.

BTC plunged from almost USD 55,000 to USD 47,600, before recovering above USD 51,500 and correcting lower again.

At 14:48 UTC, BTC trades at USD 50,446 and is down by 10% in a day. The 24-hour BTC trading volume surpassed USD 110bn, compared with USD 68bn yesterday. Other coins from the top 10 club have also followed a similar path and are now down by 2%-13% in the past 24 hours, except cardano (ADA), which is up by 5%.

Meanwhile, total liquidations in the crypto derivatives market reached USD 4bn (392,741 traders “were liquidated”) in the past 24 hours, per Bybt.com data. BTC is responsible for USD 2bn, while ETH liquidations reached USD 742m.

"We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transaction especially coal, which was the worst emissions of any fuel," according to a screenshot, shared by Musk on Twitter.

It added the company still believes cryptocurrency is a good idea and has a promising future, "but this cannot come at great cost to the environment."

Tesla said it won't be selling any BTC it holds and intends to use it for transactions "as soon as mining transitions to more sustainable energy."

However, in April, Musk agreed that BTC "incentivizes renewable energy."
"We are also looking at other cryptocurrencies that use <1% of Bitcoin's energy/transaction," they concluded. This week, Musk asked his Twitter followers, whether the company should start accepting dogecoin (DOGE).

Ben Gagnon, Director of Mining Operations at listed BTC mining company Bitfarms, stressed that, according to data from Cambridge and Digiconimist Bitcoin Electricity consumption index, Bitcoin only represents approximately 0.1% of the global man-made emissions.

"And these emissions are largely a result of consuming electricity that would otherwise be lost due to lack of demand or cost-effective energy storage systems," he said in an emailed comment.

Tesla started accepting BTC in March this year.

Industry players seem unconvinced that Tesla was not aware of the carbon footprint of Bitcoin mining, and speculate that this decision to suspend BTC payments might be related to subsidies Tesla is receiving from the US government.

Moreover, just yesterday, Reuters reported that Tesla is seeking to enter the multi-billion dollar US renewable credit market, hoping to profit from the Biden administration’s march toward new zero-emission goals.

​​Slumping, Pumping, Hitting, Hustling, Musking and 20 Crypto Jokes

This week in the fun world of crypto, as people were arguing again whether it’s time to switch to sats from BTC, bitcoin mining difficulty hit a new ATH, but then after ETH broke USD 4K and bitcoin rallied past USD 59K, Tesla Elon Musk once again moved the whole crypto market and triggered a sharp selloff. Furthermore, researchers found that traders are rotating from bitcoin to ethereum and alts as JPMorgan sees ETH as overvalued, DOGE hit an ATH before slumping spectacularly following Elon Musk calling the token a “hustle”, the rise YFI and WOOFY could be a bellwether for another DeFi season, while SHIB took over the Cryptoverse, calling itself the DOGE killer, and Vitalik Buterin donated massive amounts of dog-themed tokens and ETH to charity and community projects. But it wasn't over, as DOGE then rallied following a boost by Musk and Coinbase, while the exchange said it's targeting more users not lower fees. And then MoneyGram teamed up with Coinme to facilitate BTC buying and selling.

While Tether presented its reserves breakdown for the first time, and Diem is set to launch in the US as stablecoin, experts opined that stablecoins could fall under the scrutiny of financial policymakers. Meanwhile, as the Cuban government mulls crypto adoption as a way to fight financial turmoil, a report concluded that China’s digital yuan failed to impress in early large-scale pilots, China’s blockchain business expansion appears to be slowing down, SEC sent somewhat negative BTC and ETH ETF signals that might be positive for GBTC, the IRS could come after the money you own them, and South Korea may get a new government-run department for crypto-related matters. In other news, Onchain Custodian has another company in the pipeline, the crypto community was left fuming following another Christie’s NFT sale, Russian crypto miners could be hit by the looming semiconductor shortfall, and Mark Zuckerberg named his goat Bitcoin which he may or may not slaughter.

And now, the crème de la week!

​​Fundstrat's Tom Lee Boosts Bitcoin Target 25% Despite Musk's Criticism

Tesla’s recent declaration it would no longer be accepting bitcoin (BTC), paired with bearish statements by its CEO Elon Musk, have done little to shake the certainty of investment research firm Fundstrat Global Advisors. The New York-based advisory business has increased bitcoin's price target for 2021 to USD 125,000, up 25%.

“I don't think it's going to get people negative on bitcoin, but it is going to get people to focus on the problems that are being created by digital assets,” Tom Lee, Managing Partner of Fundstrat, told Business Insider. “It is probably better to view it as a call to action for the bitcoin industry to focus on renewables or more efficient ways to provide proof of work.”

Some of his previous forecasts were either too bullish or too bearish.

In either case, according to him, it was possible Musk was influenced by people within his organization.

“Many people come to Tesla because it's ESG-friendly," Lee said, making a reference to the environmental, social, and governance criteria screened by some investors. “I think some of these same people might've just questioned, well, if you want to accept a digital currency … maybe it shouldn't be bitcoin”.

Tesla said last week that they are "concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transaction especially coal, which was the worst emissions of any fuel." A day before, Reuters reported that Tesla is seeking to enter the multi-billion dollar US renewable credit market, hoping to profit from the Biden administration’s march toward new zero-emission goals.

Also, per Business Insider, Lee said he's undeterred by bitcoin's waning market dominance, or the percentage of the total market capitalization, which currently fluctuates around 40%, according to various data providers. It was around 70% in the beginning of this year.

"Bitcoin dominance will actually grow during a bear market," Lee was quoted as saying.

In its April analysis, Fundstrat estimated that bitcoin’s price target for this year was USD 100,000.

One of the factors behind Fundstrat’s forecast was that corporations would be entering the crypto market in a bigger way in 2021.

“We think this is starting to happen more and will be one new source for capital flows into the crypto economy,” the company said. “Even if Facebook didn’t buy bitcoin, corporates are coming, and it may not be reflected in earnings announcements yet.”

Jack Dorsey-led Square confirmed that their BTC strategy hasn’t changed and they are "deeply committed to this community, including working towards a greener future through our Bitcoin Clean Energy Initiative." The company said it continues to assess their bitcoin investment "on an ongoing basis." In February, Square said they spent USD 170m on BTC.

Meanwhile, according to Justin Chuh, Senior Trader at digital asset investment manager Wave Financial, "gravity and volatility" in the crypto market still exists.

"When combining fundamentals such as positive net inflows of BTC to exchanges, mixed with the previously mentioned technicals of lower high and lower low, we can ignore what large egos and influencers say, and see that a pullback was bound to happen. But we have to accept that those voices chirping around on social media aren’t helping and can actually make moves. This is healthy, but I think we all wish this didn’t happen," he said in an emailed comment.

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​​Crypto Flash Crash: Recovery, Unavailable Exchanges & Tesla's 'Diamond Hands'

On Wednesday, what initially appeared as another usual sharp correction in the crypto market, suddenly turned into a less usual flash crash, once again marked by exchange outages and sharp rebound, while professional investors educate newbies, and Elon Musk claims that Tesla has not sold their bitcoin (BTC) holdings.

At 17:43 UTC, BTC trades USD 39,798, rebounding from USD 30,415, reached earlier today. The price is still down by almost 9% in a day. Ethereum (ETH) recovered from USD 2,051 to USD 2,839, trimming its daily losses to less than 17%. Other coins from the top 10 list are down by 13%-29% in a day.

"This will feel very uncomfortable for many traders and investors who are new to this high volatility area of the market and rightfully so, we've seen a lot of higher leverage positions be liquidated in a short span of time," Jeffery Wang, Head of America’s at the Amber Group, said in an emailed comment.

This was "a large flushout," Wang added, and if the market wants to continue higher it was "likely necessary to remove some of the froth from overleveraged positions."

The next few days will be important to see how overall sentiment is, "a term we've heard repeatedly over the past 6 months is many traders wanted the opportunity to buy lower, ie buy the dip, so with the opportunity now upon us will see if people do put new money to work or if their stance has changed."

In light of this massive drop across crypto markets, many in the Cryptoverse, such as FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, have noted large liquidations across the board.

USD 8.7bn worth of trading positions (790,625 in total) in the crypto derivatives market were liquidated in the past 24 hours, per Bybt.com data. USD 3.7bn of these are trading positions in BTC. Ethereum traders lost over USD 2.3bn

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​​Altcoins Take The Strongest Hit Again Amid China Crackdown News

As China is sending more negative news to the crypto market, altcoins are once again suffering the most.

Bitcoin (BTC) dropped from USD 41,760 to below USD 37,000 in half an hour and continued correcting lower. At 19:53 UTC, it trades at USD 36,082 and is down by 10% in a day. Meanwhile, ethereum (ETH) dropped by 16%, reaching USD 2,355, while multiple altcoins are bleeding even more.

USD 253m worth of trading positions in the crypto derivatives market were liquidated in the crypto derivatives market in the past four hours, per Bybt.com data.

China will crack down on bitcoin mining and trading activities as part of efforts to fend off financial risks, Reuters reported, citing the State Council's Financial Stability and Development Committee.

“The new guidance issued from the regulatory agencies – they’re taking it more seriously, they want more enforcement,” Bobby Lee, Founder and CEO of crypto storage provider Ballet, told Bloomberg. “But in terms of the rules, it’s the same in terms of what’s allowed and not allowed. There’s talk about going after miners. The question is, can they catch all the miners.”

However, per Matt Maley, Chief Market Strategist for Miller Tabak + Co, it’s not really the mining issue that is the problem.

"They say they’re doing this as part of an effort to control risk taking in their markets, but it’s really a signal that China is not going to be a big market for cryptos unless it’s a PBOC-controlled one," he told Bloomberg.

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​​Navigating a New Digital Era Means Changing the World Economic Order

COVID-19 has accelerated the growth in the digital economy through a dramatic increase in working from home, online shopping, digital entertainment, online services, among other areas. Ideas such as telemigration in which people from different parts of the world work in virtual offices might once have sounded outrageous. Today, many are already working from home through video streaming.

A completely virtual future is perhaps unlikely, but such shifts are a fundamental challenge to how we organize societies. Laws and regulations governing trade, taxation, labor, and social security, among other areas, are largely based on geographically-defined states that contain and regulate our economic and social activities.

This applies to the global economic order which consists of agreements between states to manage interactions between them. For example, an international regime regulates services based on how the service is supplied, in turn determined by where the buyer and seller are. For trade in goods, borders are used to implement rules such as tariffs and standards.

In taxation, the shift from physical to digital has resulted in a major challenge to taxation law. Similarly, living in one country and working in another remains a bureaucratic challenge even in some of the most integrated economies in the world.

Over recent years, there have been debates on how to deal with these changes amid ongoing technological shifts. At a fundamental level, we face two options. Is the task facing us is how we adapt our existing rules and regulations to accommodate these new technologies? Or do we need to think of completely new modes of regulations that govern our economic and social relations in a new technological age?

So far, the focus has been on the former. In trade, for example, discussions have focused, often with little success, on issues such as deciding if data flows are trade, how we impose tariffs on goods that are traded electronically, or whether an e-book is a good or a service.

Alternatively, we might want to think of the ongoing technological shift as a start of an entirely new world. A world that needs a radical rethink and new laws and regulations that accommodate the new technological era. But what would that look like?

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​​Bitcoin and Ethereum Inch Higher, MATIC Reclaims USD 2

☄️Bitcoin price might accelerate higher if it settles above the USD 40,000 resistance.
☄️Ethereum could revisit the USD 3,000 resistance, XRP is back above USD 1.00.
☄️MATIC rallied over 35% and it broke the USD 2.20 resistance.

Bitcoin price remained well supported above the USD 36,500 and USD 37,000 levels. BTC started a fresh increase above the USD 38,000 resistance. It is currently (04:30 UTC) approaching the USD 40,000 resistance, above which the bulls might gain strength.

Similarly, most major altcoins are showing positive signs. ETH broke the USD 2,750 resistance and it might test the USD 3,000 resistance. XRP/USD is back above USD 1.00, but it lacks bullish momentum.

Bitcoin price

After a short-term downside correction, bitcoin price formed a base above the USD 37,000 level. As a result, BTC climbed above the USD 38,000 and USD 39,000 levels. An immediate resistance is near the USD 40,000 level. A daily close above USD 40,000 could start a steady increase towards USD 42,000 or even USD 45,000.
On the downside, an initial support is near the USD 38,000 level. The first key support is now forming near the USD 36,500 level.

Ethereum price

Ethereum price also followed bitcoin and it gained pace above the USD 2,750 resistance level. ETH even broke the USD 2,800 level. The first key resistance is near the USD 2,880 level, above which the price could test the USD 3,000 level.
If there is a fresh decline, the USD 2,750 level might provide support. The next major support could be USD 2,650, below which the bulls might struggle in the short-term.

BNB, LTC, DOGE, and XRP price

Binance Coin (BNB) remained well bid above the USD 300 pivot level. BNB started a fresh increase and it cleared the USD 350 resistance. The price could test the USD 375 and USD 380 resistance levels. The main hurdle is still near the USD 400 level.
Litecoin (LTC) is gaining pace and it is trading above USD 180. LTC could test the key USD 200 resistance. A clear break and close above USD 200 may possibly start a strong increase. The next major stop for the bulls could be USD 250. On the downside, the USD 165 level is a decent support.
Dogecoin (DOGE) remained strong above USD 0.300 and it climbed above the USD 0.350 zone. It is now consolidating gains and it could attempt a move towards the USD 0.380 level. The next major breakout zone is near the USD 0.400 level.
XRP price stayed above USD 0.900 and it started a fresh increase. There was a break above the USD 0.98 and USD 1.00 resistance levels. If the price remains stable, it could rise towards the USD 1.10 resistance zone in the near term.

Other altcoins market today

Many altcoins gained over 10%, including MATIC, HOT, CHSB, LUNA, RUNE, TEL, CELO, SUSHI, OMG, LINK, SC, RVN, BAKE, HNT, and CAKE. Out of these, MATIC, HOT, and CHSB are up over 30%.

Overall, bitcoin price is showing positive signs above USD 38,000 and USD 39,000. If BTC clears the USD 40,000 barrier, it could accelerate higher in the near term. Conversely, it could drop towards USD 36,500.

Total market capitalization:

​​Knowledge of Crypto on the Rise, Encouraging Investment - Survey

Consumer understanding of cryptocurrencies appears to be trending higher, as 29% of respondents to a recent survey, conducted by payments platform Paysafe's digital wallet Skrill, declared they now knew more about cryptocurrencies than they had the same time a year ago. Moreover, some 26% said they were more likely to invest in cryptocurrencies now compared with 12 months ago.

The online poll was carried out between last March and April by consumer market research agency Sapio Research, collecting answers from 8,111 respondents based in the US, UK, Canada, Germany, Italy, Austria, and Bulgaria.

38% of respondents said they had either invested in or purchased a cryptocurrency, while 84% heard of at least one cryptocurrency, with 64% pointing to bitcoin (BTC), Skrill said in a statement shared with Cryptonews.com.

It seems to suggest that the more people know about crypto, the more likely they are to buy it, speaking volumes about the importance of education in crypto.

“Consumers’ knowledge and understanding of cryptocurrencies as a financial asset appear sharply divided, with 47% agreeing or strongly agreeing that they don’t know enough about them for use or investment, while 38% considered them too risky for investment overall," Skrill found, adding that 28% already "believe that cryptocurrencies are a good investment for the future."

The survey’s findings are in line with the results of the 2020 Edelman Trust Barometer which garnered data from 34,000 people in 26 regions, with 1,150 respondents in each market, pointing to a correlation between knowledge, trust, and investment decisions.

While just under half of those surveyed last year said they trusted cryptocurrencies, almost half of the respondents (47%) stated that “communicating crypto’s downsides” may increase trust more than any other measure, more so even than the second-placed “communicating crypto’s benefits” (46%).

Furthermore, a recent research by Motley Fool service The Ascent found that interest in cryptocurrency continues to grow in the US, but that lack of understanding is a barrier for new investors.

From 2,000 Americans surveyed, more than 51% who own cryptocurrency bought some for the first time within the last 12 months, while 22% of those who have never purchased crypto are likely to buy in the next year.

However, 29% of people who had never bought crypto say not knowing what to do with it prevents them from buying; 20% say they don’t understand how to buy it, and 24% don’t understand how crypto works at all.

"There was no clear opinion on what makes cryptocurrency useful," said Skrill's statement: 27% considered them the future of payments, 26% considered crypto a good store of value, 26% said they are the future of banking, but overall, only 17% said they used crypto for anything other than investment or speculation.

Besides bitcoin, the most known cryptoassets among respondents include bitcoin cash (BCH) with 31% of recognitions and 9% ownership, ethereum (ETH) at 22% and 8%, and litecoin (LTC) with 19% and 7%, respectively, as indicated by data from the survey.

“Up to 9% of respondents had used crypto as a payment method in the past month, with almost all (97%) of these trying it for the first time in the last year; 59% of those that had done so in the past month say they are now using crypto to pay frequently, and 44% claim this is now their preferred payment method,” the digital wallet brand said.

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​​Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Set For Sharp Drop This Weekend

Bitcoin (BTC) mining difficulty may be knocked out of its just recently gained all-time high this weekend, back to a March level.

If this adjustment goes as currently (16:00 UTC) estimated by mining pool BTC.com, mining difficulty - which is the measure of how hard it is to compete for mining rewards - will drop 13.58%. This will land it to 21.64 T, the lowest it's been since mid-March.

This would be only the third drop in the mining difficulty this year, and the largest one.

Additionally, it comes after the latest all-time high (ATH) of 25.05 T, hit during the last adjustment two weeks ago. This was the strongest move upwards since October 2017.

All of this is happening amidst the latest selloff seen in the crypto markets, which pulled BTC down by 43% from its April 14 ATH of USD 64,804 (per CoinGecko) to USD 36,813 at the time of writing.

Meanwhile, according to BitInfoCharts.com, hashrate, or the computational power of the network, had dropped around 21% between the previous adjustment and May 24. In the three days after that, the 7-day simple moving average hashrate went up 3% to nearly 130 Eh/s.

The mining difficulty of Bitcoin is adjusted around every two weeks (that is, every 2016 blocks) to maintain the normal 10-minute block time. The 7-day simple moving average block time on May 27 was just above 12 minutes.

Looking at the data provided by ByteTree, miners have spent more coins than they held in the past several weeks. In the past day, however, they held BTC 38.

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⚠️Dont miss your chance to buy in the pre-sale! Tokens are limited ➡️ https://coretoken.net/

🔻Current price of CTN is € 0.07 / $ 0.085 (which is according to many opinions undervalued with a huge potential for a +10x increase due to natural high demand in the Core Ecosystem and third party use case integrations)

💡Take a look at recent Livestreams and understand the potential of CTN:

▶️ Showcase with the founders of the Core Ecosystem
🔹https://youtu.be/Um3hTjSvDPI

🔥Ting and Meeting
🔸https://youtu.be/hcXhv5pcCsU

〽️Ping Exchange🔹https://youtu.be/W_0CYAFRHEA

➡️❗️Read the article to understand the potential of Core Token, which is technically perfect and also highly demanded: https://medium.com/core-group/a-brief-and-technical-introduction-of-core-token-2dbacddbcc98

✅👥COMMUNITY
INFO: https://t.me/coregroupcc
CHAT: https://t.me/coregroupchat
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/CoreGroupCC

​​China’s Mining Crackdown Continues – But Some Sense Hope

Beijing-backed anti-mining activities continue to gather pace in the Middle Kingdom, with major players apparently exiting the market and trading platforms such as BitMart moving to block Mainland Chinese IP addresses – but some miners in the nation have not given up on the industry, and even sense a new opportunity.

Yesterday, IT Home reported, the crypto platform BitMart announced that “all Mainland Chinese mobile phone number, or related account registration information that indicates that users are located in China” would face “restricted” access to its platform, with transaction closure functions still operational.

However, new transactions cannot be initiated from the Mainland, while attempting to transfer assets from Mainland locations into its wallets would “result in failure.”

The media outlet added that BitMart, which has some 5 million users, is backed by one of China’s biggest blockchain investors, the Shanghai-based Fenbushi Capital.

Sina reported that WeChat accounts linked to the publicly listed mining provider Shenzhen Internet Online Cloud Computing have been suspended, while the company’s shares have also ceased trading after it failed to release its FY2020 financial report.

The media outlet added that it was having trouble establishing contact with the company through official channels, which appear irresponsive.

And per Time Weekly, so-called “joint mining” ventures have also been hit hard by the recent crackdown. These ventures are a twist on traditional cloud mining models, and let participants mine remotely by buying hashpower from third-party vendors, only charging fees when the initial cost of miners’ equipment purchases has been covered. These include the B.TOP service, operated by the mining pool BTC.TOP, while the same media outlet claimed at least three such “joint mining” ventures are known to have totally suspended activities.

Much of the Chinese mining community appears to have been blindsided by the latest crackdown. Some have hoped to relocate from highly coal-dependent regions such as the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region (IMAR) to other parts of China where cleaner energy solutions such as hydropower are more abundant.

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