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Dogecoin (DOGE) is the first memecoin project in the crypto realm. The dog-themed coin is not only one of the most popular cryptocurrencies but also one of the most successful. DOGE’s value skyrocketed during the 2021 bull run. The asset has turned several investors into multi-millionaires. DOGE also has a very robust fanbase. Tech billionaire Elon Musk is one of the most significant DOGE fans globally. He has never shied away from praising the coin. Also Read: Top 3 Cryptocurrencies Close To Hitting New All-Time Highs $500 Worth Of Dogecoin Becomes $2.1 Million Source: Watcher Guru DOGE was at its lowest on May 6, 2015. If you purchased $500 worth of DOGE when it was at its lowest point, the investment would have been worth $2.11 million today. Your holdings would have risen in value by 421,909% Source: Changelly Also Read: How High Will LTC Surge If Litecoin ETF Is Approved? Dogecoin (DOGE) hit an all-time high of $0.7316 on May 8, 2021. If you had sold the $500 worth of coins w...

El Salvador reinforces its commitment to Bitcoin by rolling out an extensive training programme for its civil servants. The initiative, spearheaded by the National Bitcoin Office (ONBTC) , aims to educate 80,000 government employees on Bitcoin’s strategic management and its implications for public policy. EL SALVADOR CONTINUES TO TRAILBLAZE! El Salvador will soon begin providing #Bitcoin instruction and certification to 80,000 public servants. https://t.co/gG9tMPvnPa — The Bitcoin Office (@bitcoinofficesv) August 20, 2024 A Comprehensive Training Approach The newly introduced “Certification in Public Administration 1” programme encompasses 160 hours of virtual, asynchronous training. It is divided into seven modules that cover a range of topics, including Bitcoin legislation, management strategies, and its role as legal tender. According to ONBTC Director Stacy Herbert , this programme is designed to elevate the country’s governan...

Analysis of El Salvador and the Central African Republic’s experiences with Bitcoin adoption showed mixed outcomes. Which countries could be next? Blending crypto with the mainstream, El Salvador became the first country to adopt Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender in Sep. 2021, a decision announced by President Nayib Bukele at the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami.  This historic decision was made to address economic challenges and leverage the growing trend of digital currencies.  However, the rollout was marred by various operational and regulatory challenges, including issues with the government’s digital crypto wallet, Chivo Wallet, and skepticism from the public and international financial experts. Chivo ATMs installed in El Salvador | Source: CoinATMradar El Salvador’s economy, already strained by the COVID-19 pandemic, faced increased scrutiny and uncertainty with the adoption of Bitcoin, leading to volatility in its sovereign debt ratings. Followin...

The protocol reached a total value locked of $3.8 billion at its peak. Cross-chain protocol Wormhole has secured a $225 million investment at a valuation of $2.5 billion. According to the Nov. 29 announcement, the investment round was led by Brevan Howard, Coinbase Ventures, Multicoin Capital, Jump Trading, ParaFi, Dialectic, Borderless Capital, and Arrington Capital.  The Wormhole Foundation also announced the launch of Wormhole Labs, which the company says "is an independent technology company that specializes in building products, tools, and reference implementations that help grow cross-chain activity and development." Currently, its blockchain-to-blockchain communications technology is used to bridge assets, power oracle data feeds, and transfer non-fungible tokens. Wormhole was launched in 2021 and has since facilitated over $35 billion in transactions. Developers claim that the protocol processes over 2 million cross-chain messages across more than 30 chains every d...

Hong Kong clients will be able to purchase Bitcoin and Ethereum in their personal accounts. Interactive Brokers, one of the largest brokerage firms in the world, has opened crypto trading for retail clients in Hong Kong. According to the Nov28 announcement, the service is offered in conjunction with OSL, one of the first crypto exchanges to receive a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) in Hong Kong. "Interactive Brokers' retail investors in Hong Kong now have immediate access to digital asset trading through a single unified platform powered by OSL," developers wrote.  Per its website, Hong Kong clients of Interactive Brokers can hold Bitcoin (BTC) or Ether (ETH) in their personal accounts alongside stocks, derivatives, commodities, forex, and other assets. Each trade is charged a commission equal to 0.20% to 0.30% of the transaction value. Last week, Cointelegraph reported that Interactive Brokers had received a license for retail virtual asset trading in Hong K...

Builders are increasingly looking to streamline their applications with more familiar interfaces to onboard new users, Understanding the difference between the front and back end is crucial with Web3 technology. The term “front end” describes the portion of Web3 applications that consumers interact with directly. This includes the technology’s user-facing side, websites and decentralized applications (DApps).  The back end, on the other hand, refers to the complex system that supports these Web3 applications. Everything from distributed ledgers and smart contracts to consensus protocols is included here. However, accessibility and simplicity are important for the adopt ion of Web3. When the technical complexities of Web3 are too prominently featured on the front end — such as managing cryptographic keys or understanding block chain concepts — it can alienate a significant portion of potential users. It is important to make the user experience and interactions smooth and easy to under...

The latest initiatives led by the Monetary Authority of Singapore aim to develop foundational capabilities to scale tokenized markets. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has introduced five additional industry pilots into the Project Guardian to test various use cases around asset tokenization.  Project Guardian is a collaborative initiative led by Singapore’s central bank that seeks to develop new financial infrastructure using decentralized finance (DeFi) elements. The latest initiatives are aimed at developing foundational capabilities to scale tokenized markets. As explained by MAS: “These developments under Project Guardian will catalyze the institutional adoption of digital assets, with the aim of freeing up liquidity, unlocking investment opportunities, and increasing the efficiency of financial markets.” Out of the 17 financial institutions members of Project Guardian, Citi, T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. and Fidelity International are testing bilateral digital asset ...

Galaxy Digital founder and CEO Mike Novogratz says approving a Bitcoin spot ETF is not “a matter of if but when,” which will drive institutional investment in the sector. Galaxy Digital founder Mike Novogratz has told investors that 2024 will be headlined by institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies drive n by the pending approval of Bitcoin (BTC) spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs). During Galaxy Digital’s third-quarter earnings call on Nov. 9, Novogratz highlighted the firm’s belief that approving several ETFs “is now not a matter of if but when." The fund manager filed its spot Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH) ETF applications with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in partnership with Invesco in Q3 2023. Related: Bitcoin briefly tops $37K amid market optimism for pending spot ETF approvals Investors' sentiment has turned bullish in Nov. 2023, with prominent ETF research analysts predicting the SEC will begin approving 12 major Bitcoin spot ETF applications by J...

The Narcotics Control Bureau and the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre trained 141 officials and over 2,800 officers in the financial year 2022–2023. The annual report from India’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) revealed that officials from various cybercrime and police departments were trained in cryptocurrency forensics and investigation during the financial year 2022–2023. The MHA highlighted that, under the Narcotics Control Bureau — India’s central law enforcement and intelligence agency — 141 officers were trained on the investigations of darknet and cryptocurrencies and other workshops related to digital footprints and gathering intelligence and evidence from open source and social media, to name a few. Additionally, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre trained more than 2,800 cyber police officials in crypto forensics and investigations and other emerging technologies like anonymization networks and investigating misuse of mobile applications in cyberspace. Rel...

“It’s not just a piece of artwork”: Mintable CEO Zach Burks argues that the United Kingdom government still hasn’t caught up on what NFTs are becoming. The United Kingdom’s government is in danger of regulating nonfungible tokens (NFTs) in a way that doesn’t suit the true nature of the nascent technology, says Mintable CEO and founder Zach Burks.   In an interview with Cointelegraph, Burks said he believes a recent report from a U.K. parliamentary committee significantly exaggerates the role NFTs play in copyright infringement and fails to recognize that they are more than just volatile digital pictures. “NFTs are in a transition phase where they’re moving away from the speculative boom of PFPs, and now it’s going into utilities of brands implementing NFTs across a whole range of different things,” Burks explained. In the Oct. 11 report, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee urged the government to take action to protect artists and content creators from copyright infringement asso...

Decentralization could help bring scientists in underfunded fields and locations to the table without requiring relocation or reemployment The Nature science journal recently published an editorial in its Nature Bioscience section lauding the use of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) as a revolutionary new method by which researchers working in underfunded scientific fields can create communities around their work and raise funding which, otherwise, might not be available. In a DAO-based research scheme, a project’s organization, fundraising, feedback, and pipeline from discovery to product/industry can all be handled by the same decentralized governing body. Per the Nature article, the general workflow would also be streamlined compared to the status quo: “Project proposals are sent to the DAO, and each DAO member is able to vote on whether a particular project should be funded. Members have tokens … to provide support and feedback to new project proposals. Research result...

Emurgo founder and CEO Ken Kodama told Cointelegraph that they’ve identified 21 areas that Cardano is missing, but are present in other blockchains. Decentralized identities and layer-2 solutions are some of the “gaps” in Cardano that the Emurgo team is working to fill, according to its founder and CEO.  Cointelegraph Magazine editor Andrew Fenton spoke with Ken Kodama, the founder and CEO of Emurgo — which is one of the three entities governing Cardano. Kodama talked about shifting their current approach into a venture studio model to fill 21 categories that they believe are “ missing from Cardano” when compared to other leading blockchains. According to Kodama, there are two key approaches to fill the gaps. These are either building the solutions themselves or invest ing. He explained: “For those 21 categories, either we build them ourselves or we invest. We do hackathons or we give grants to incentivize Cardano builders to build and to fill the gaps. So, that's what we need ...

Thailand’s new government is utilizing blockchain and crypto wallets to disburse $280 cash handouts to citizens. According to a report on Sept. 7, Thailand’s newly appointed government, Pheu Thai, is gearing up to utilize digital ledger technology to facilitate its economic stimulus initiative. Although specifics are yet to be revealed, it has been confirmed that the financial aid, amounting to 10,000 Thai baht (approximately $280), will be orchestrated through a blockchain system, ensuring high security and full traceability of the transactions. At this stage, whether the government will employ an existing blockchain solution or develop a bespoke system for this initiative remains unclear. Beneficiaries of this scheme will receive a digital wallet , which will be operational for six months, allowing them to make purchases at local establishments within a four-kilometer radius of their registered residences. This move is anticipated to bridge the gap in digital money...

“It’s reckless not to aggressively accumulate BTC at current levels,” K33 senior analyst Velte Lund said in a recent report. The potential of a spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) approval to drive prices up is dramatically underestimated by the crypto market , claim analysts from crypto research firm K33 — formerly Arcane Research.  In a Sept. 5 market report, K33 senior analyst Vetle Lunde and vice president Anders Helseth said the last three months had greatly improved the chances of a spot Bitcoin ETF approval despite the sentiment not being reflected in the price of Bitcoin or other mainstay crypto assets. The analysts explained while Bitcoin had all but given up its gains in the wake of Grayscale’s legal victory over the Securities and Exchange Commission — an approval would “attract enormous inflows” and significantly increase buying pressure for Bitcoin. Bitcoin returned its gains in the wake of Grayscale's victory. Source: K33 Research However, the downside of ...

The co-filing comes just a week after reports emerged that the SEC is likely to greenlight Ethereum ETF applications. Investment firms ARK Invest and 21Shares have teamed up to apply for two Ethereum futures exchange-traded funds after reports emerged last week that the United States securities regulator could soon begin approving applications. The two proposed Ethereum futures ETFs are “ARK 21Shares Active Ethereum Futures ETF” (ARKZ) and the “ARK 21Shares Active Bitcoin Ethereum Strategy ETF” (ARKY), according to an Aug. 24 filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing states that ARKZ would invest at least 25% of its total assets in cash-settled Ethereum futures contracts, such as those traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).  ARK 21Share has filed two more Bitcoin/ Ethereum ETF applications to the SEC. Source: SEC. ARKY, on the other hand, will consist of both Bitcoin and Ethereum futures contracts. Empowered Funds has been assigned as investment adviso...

This week’s episode of The Market Report discusses the spot Bitcoin ETF that just launched in Europe and why the U.S. still lags behind. In the latest episode of Cointelegraph’s  The Market Report , analyst Marcel Pechman discusses the first spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF)  approved in the European Union, which went live on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange on Aug. 15. Despite the seemingly unconventional choice of the Guernsey regulator for its constitution, the fund’s listing on Euronext suggests a strategic maneuver, though its meager 1 million euro launch and unfamiliar management casts a shadow over its appeal. Moving on, Pechman shifts focus to the United States Bitcoin ETF landscape, where the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has once again delayed its decision on approving a spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETF, setting a potential deadline for early 2024. This recurrent cycle of postponements echoes the challenges faced over the past decade. The lack of regulatory clarity in...

Unpacking the challenges and deceptive practices in the crypto space, and exploring the potential of unified standards for safer social token minting. The world of cryptocurrencies has witnessed a surge in the creation of community coins, often utilizing popular names like Elon Musk, Tesla and Andrew Tate, or even memes like Pepe. Unfortunately, these coins often have no real connection to the individuals or entities they reference, leading to potential confusion and misleading investments. While it may seem challenging to prevent the creation of such tokens, there are ways in which users can protect themselves from falling prey to these dubious offerings. Understanding the challenge It is no secret that anyone can create a token in a matter of minutes, thanks to the widespread availability of resources and tutorials on platforms like YouTube. This accessibility has allowed for the proliferation of memecoins and speculative tokens. This phenomenon attracts a particular subset of users...