Blockchain

In a significant move to combat sanctions evasion and illicit financial activities, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed sanctions on Ekaterina Zhdanova, a Russian national allegedly involved in laundering and transferring funds using crypto on behalf of Russian elites. 

According to the announcement, the action aligns with the G7’s commitment to closing loopholes that allow Russian state actors, oligarchs, and proxies to exploit virtual currency to circumvent international sanctions.

Crypto Money Laundering Exposed

Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian E. Nelson emphasized the alleged role played by key facilitators like Zhdanova in aiding Russian elites, ransomware groups, and other illicit actors in evading US and international sanctions through the abuse of cryptocurrencies. 

Nelson stated that the Treasury remains steadfast in its efforts to safeguard the global financial system against such exploitation and other risks within the crypto ecosystem.

Allegedly, Zhdanova’s involvement in obfuscating the source of wealth for a Russian client, enabling the transfer of over $2.3 million into Western Europe via fraudulent investment accounts and real estate purchases, drew OFAC’s attention. 

Zhdanova’s services provided sanctioned Russian individuals access to Western financial markets that would otherwise be restricted due to US and international prohibitions. 

The US Treasury Department alleges that such illicit financial activities enable the evasion of multilateral sanctions and undermine efforts to hold Russia accountable for its unprovoked war and aggression.

Utilizing cryptocurrencies as a facilitator of large cross-border transactions, Zhdanova relied on entities lacking Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) controls, including the OFAC-designated Russian cryptocurrency exchange, Garantex Europe OU. 

Zhdanova employed various methods to transfer funds internationally, including cash transactions and leveraging connections with other money laundering associates and organizations. 

Additionally, she utilized traditional businesses, such as a luxury watch company with global offices, to maintain access to the international financial system.

Furthermore, it is alleged that Zhdanova conducted crypto exchange transfers on behalf of oligarchs who relocated internationally, facilitating the movement of over $100 million to the United Arab Emirates. 

Unveiling The Scheme

Zhdanova also provided a tax residency service in the UAE to Russian clients, potentially participating in identity obfuscation. This service offered clients a UAE tax residency, identification card, and bank account, with payments made in cash or virtual currency, subsequently transferred to foreign bank accounts at the client’s discretion.

Notably, Zhdanova’s services extended to individuals associated with the notorious Russian Ryuk ransomware group. Zhdanova allegedly laundered approximately $2.3 million in suspected victim payments for a Ryuk ransomware affiliate, which has targeted numerous victims worldwide, including the United States, particularly in the healthcare sector.

As a consequence of this action, all US persons must report any property or interests in property belonging to Zhdanova or any entities directly or indirectly owned by her. Transactions involving such property are generally prohibited unless authorized by OFAC.

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com 

FTM, the native currency of the Fantom ecosystem, might be the next coin to follow and perhaps outperform Solana (SOL). This optimistic preview is by one technical analyst, “Magnate,” who, in an X post on October 3, said traders who missed the SOL rally may have a chance with FTM. 

Solana Is Exploding: Reverses Post-FTX Losses

At press time, SOL is trading at new 2023 highs and has reversed all post-FTX losses. Changing hands at $39 as of writing on November 3, the SOL uptrend remains, looking at the candlestick arrangement in the daily chart. Specifically, SOL is up 125% from September lows and 190% from June 2023 highs. 

At this pace, SOL has outpaced Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), two of the world’s largest cryptocurrencies. This is despite Bitcoin, buoyed by the broader crypto’s optimism of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approving the first spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the coming weeks. The general confidence is despite the SEC laying out a potential timeframe for when this product will go live.

Looking at the SOL daily chart, primary support is around the November 2022 high at around $36–a key reaction line traders are closely monitoring. As it is, there has been a cool-off, but traders are confident of a pullback, pushing the coin back higher in a bullish breakout formation. 

Is Fantom (FTM) Preparing For A 100% Surge?

Magnate, sharing the daily and weekly charts of FTM, noted that the coin appears to be bouncing off a critical support zone. In the weekly chart, the uptrend is defined. FTM is picking momentum, edging higher as confidence, partly due to fundamental events and the recovery across the board, is changing sentiment, propping bulls. 

From the daily chart, FTM found support at 2022 lows before edging higher to spot rates. This leg up has catalyzed demand, lifting the coin 35% from October lows. Still, FTM is down approximately 65% from February 2023 highs.

Even so, only time will tell if FTM will track SOL, lifting off by over 100%, as the technical analyst predicts. Although there have been some challenges, there are also some positive developments taking place. One such development is that Messari, an analytics platform, recently observed a surge in Fantom’s on-chain activity. 

According to their findings, the average number of new addresses added to the network daily increased by 106% in the last quarter. In comparison, the average number of active addresses per day rose by 3% in the same period.

A massive amount of ETH has made its way to centralized exchanges, increasing the Ethereum balances of these exchanges. Given the implications of exchange inflows, it could be a barrier to the cryptocurrency when it comes to claiming the $2,000 resistance.

Investors Send 13,000 ETH To Exchanges

Data from IntoTheBlock shows a massive amount of ETH headed toward exchanges as the price rose. The total inflow volume as of October 31 when the price first cleared the $1,800 resistance was at 480,570. However, by the start of November, this number had blown up massively.

November 1 saw the total ETH flowing into exchanges reaching 774,890, and by this time, the bulls had established their dominance above the $1,800 level. With outflows coming out at just around 630,000 ETH, the netflows come out to approximately 130,000 ETH flowing into exchanges on November 1. This showed a willingness among investors to start taking profit from their holdings.

As the data tracker shows, the majority of Ethereum investors had moved back into profit after crossing $1,800. Even following the retracement, the total percentage of ETH investors in profit is sitting at 55.40% and it is no surprise that some of these investors would want to secure profit.

By November 2, though, there has been a relaxation from investors when it comes to inflows. Data shows that on Thursday, the ETH inflow figures fell to 637,070, although this is still much higher than the previous week’s figures. The exchange net flow is now down to 31,040 ETH as of Thursday.

Ethereum Large Holders Swing Into Action

Ethereum has also seen a spike in the number of large transactions being carried out on the network as well as the transaction volume of these large holders. The total number of large transactions sat at 1,900 on October 29. But by November 2, the figure ballooned to 4,320, an over 100% increase in just four days.

The transaction volumes of these whales also saw a rise in an almost similar manner compared to the number of large transactions. Large transaction volumes were at 741,440 ETH on October 29. But on November 2, the volume reached 2.21 million ETH. In dollar figures, large transaction volumes went from $1.33 billion to $4.04 billion.

Looking at the bullish and bearish transactions (i.e those who are buying versus those who are selling), there isn’t a large difference bulls still continue to lead in the asset. The 7-day total for bulls came out to a total of 98 bulls compared to 87 bears. But the gap is closing further on a daily basis where IntoTheBlock shows 14 bulls and 12 bears.

In recent developments, US authorities led by US Attorney Philip R. Sellinger successfully seized $54 million worth of Ethereum (ETH) from Christopher Castelluzzo, a convicted drug dealer operating in Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey. 

Massive Crypto Bust

The US Attorney’s Office filed a civil forfeiture action to recover previously seized cryptocurrency that was determined to be the proceeds of an illegal narcotics distribution scheme operating in and around New Jersey. 

US Attorney Philip R. Sellinger emphasized law enforcement’s “commitment” to seizing financial gains from criminal activity, regardless of the form they take. Sellinger further stated:

The civil action we are taking today seeks to recover millions of dollars of cryptocurrency, which the defendant allegedly obtained from drug sales. Whether it’s as simple as bags of cash or as sophisticated as cryptocurrency, we will take the steps necessary to seize financial gains defendants obtain from criminal activity. 

According to the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) press release on the case, the prosecution sheds light on using cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum by criminals on the darknet to evade detection.

In addition, James E. Dennehy, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Newark, stated that the FBI played a critical role in uncovering the illegal conduct and ill-gotten proceeds.

Drug Trafficker’s Ethereum Stash Seized

According to court documents and the investigations conducted, Christopher Castelluzzo and his associates conspired to sell narcotics between 2010 and 2015. 

In 2013, they allegedly began trading drugs on darknet platforms in exchange for Bitcoin. Castelluzzo, using proceeds from narcotics sales, participated in Ethereum’s Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in July 2014, acquiring 30,000 Ethereum. Additionally, Castelluzzo received 30,000 ETH Classic in 2016.

Castelluzzo’s plan to move the funds to a tax haven in Ireland, Malta, or the Bahamas, or potentially keep them in USDT (Tether), was revealed in forfeiture documents. 

However, a subsequent search warrant led to the raid of Brian Krewson’s residence, an associate of Castelluzzo. Police discovered the relevant crypto wallets under Krewson’s control, and after obtaining the necessary passwords, law enforcement executed the seizure of the Ethereum, valued at $31 million at the time.

Currently serving concurrent 20-year federal and state prison sentences for drug distribution convictions, Castelluzzo attempted to evade taxes and transfer the 30,000 Ethereum out of the United States while incarcerated. 

However, Castelluzzo’s plans were intercepted when recorded prison telephone calls exposed his efforts to launder the cryptocurrency. As a result, the United States intervened and seized Castelluzzo’s cryptocurrency holdings linked to his drug trafficking crimes.

The current value of the 30,000 Ethereum stands at approximately $54 million, underscoring the significant impact of the seizure. 

As of the time of writing, ETH is trading at $1,815, reflecting a 0.9% increase over the past 24 hours and a steady upward trend of over 2% in the past seven days, exhibiting strong bullish momentum in the market.

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com

Cardano (ADA) has recently experienced a notable surge in market capitalization. Blockchain analytics firm Santiment reported a 9% increase in ADA’s market cap over the past day, which adds to a more than 20% rise over the last two weeks.

This growth spurt in valuation aligns with heightened activity on the Cardano network, specifically among large-scale holders, commonly referred to as ‘whales.’

Cardano On-Chain Data Signals Bullish Behavior For ADA

Before this latest rise in value, several on-chain metrics hinted at the potential for a short-term increase in ADA’s price. Santiment’s analysis pointed out that two key indicators—address activity and whale transactions—had spiked to levels not seen in three months.

This kind of on-chain behavior often precedes market movements, drawing the attention of investors and analysts alike.

Digging deeper into the Cardano blockchain data, there’s been a 23% rise in address activity over the past three weeks, according to Santiment, suggesting a growing use case or increased speculation about the altcoin’s future.

Concurrently, whale transactions, which are large transfers of ADA often indicative of deep-pocketed investors’ movements, have shot up by more than 32%. Such significant transactions can substantially impact market sentiment, potentially leading to price volatility or, in this case, a bullish trend for ADA.

#Cardano has been the big story Thursday, with its market cap growing +9% in the past 24 hours and now +36% over 2 weeks. As usual, #onchain activity hinted at this #bullish action with $ADA address activity & whale transaction at their highest in 3+ months.… pic.twitter.com/IYBBk3ssf4

— Santiment (@santimentfeed) November 2, 2023

ADA Latest Price Action: Market Surges Over 10%

Meanwhile, in a development that aligns with market expectations, ADA’s price has sustained a bullish trend over recent weeks. Correspondingly, the altcoin’s market capitalization has reflected this positive momentum, swelling by approximately 11.4% in the past week and by nearly 30% in the past two weeks.

Significantly, ADA’s market cap has surpassed the $11 billion mark, climbing from the earlier monthly low of around $9 billion. This uptick in market cap value has seen ADA achieve a trading price of $0.32 at the current time, marking an increase of close to 5% in just the last 24 hours.

Further bolstering the optimistic market sentiment, ADA’s daily trading volumes have experienced a substantial increase. Where just last Friday, the trading volume hovered around $214 million, there has been a remarkable swell, with the figure soaring to nearly $500 million in the past day.

This enhanced trading activity, coupled with the market cap growth, signals a robust investor interest in ADA, potentially indicative of broader market confidence in the altcoin’s prospects. 

Featured image from Unsplash, Chart from TradingView

Cardano (ADA) has returned to the radar of crypto investors after an interesting run brought its price up above $0.3. This price level has been elusive for a while but eventually, the bulls have gotten a hold of it. As the market faces an impending downturn, Cardano’s run-up could be threatened. However, one crypto analyst believes that ADA could have gone the way of Solana over the past few days.

Cardano Doing A Solana Run

In a TradingView post, crypto analyst Alan Santana revealed their expectations for the Cardano price. The initial post which was made on October 30 used the daily timeframe of the coin’s performance to figure out what could be ahead for it.

Santana points out that ADA continued to show bullish consolidation for the prior week which no doubt contributed to its rising prices. Eventually, the price did break out and ADA made a run for the $0.3 resistance and ended up beating it. But even this achievement is small fish compared to Solana’s 80% run.

The analyst pointed out that ADA did not retrace as expected by the bullish consolidation continued on the way up instead. Like with any consolidation in an asset, this helped Cardano to gather strength and momentum that could trigger a price pump.

Santana was proven right when ADA did eventually bear $0.3 and ran up as high as $0.31, after which came the update to the initial post. Here, the crypto analyst alludes to the correct market correction that brought Bitcoin back below $35,000 and noted that major altcoins will follow any retracement made by the market.

However, for Cardano, the analyst noted that it is moving in the same way that Solana did to hit a new yearly high. In the last few days, the SOL price moved independently of Bitcoin and Cardano is starting to do the same. While Bitcoin is down 1.94% in the last day, Cardano is seeing 5% gains in the same time frame.

If this breakout continues, then ADA could break away from the Bitcoin trend completely and form its own. Following Solana’s rise, such a rally would put ADA well on the path toward the $0.4 resistance. “When the market is set to continue straight up, while some pairs will retrace a little bit others will continue growing with force,” the analyst said.

Santana’s chart points to a possible rise to $0.35 at the top of the rally. This would mean an 80% rise in price from the initial price at the time the analysis was made. Thus, a very similar rally pattern to that of Solana.

ADA Investors Take The Lead

Cardano’s rise over the last few days has not gone unnoticed and a recent report from on-chain tracker Santiment has hinted at what could be the possible driver behind it. According to the post, ADA whale and address activity rose quickly and touched 32% in the last three weeks. This brought the on-chain activity to a new three-month high.

The price which seems to be hell-bent on pulling a Solana also rose 36% in a two-week period, making it one of the top winners during this time. A continuation of this on-chain activity trend will push the price further in the coming weeks.

However, with the price having risen so much, some level of profit-taking is expected. This would inadvertently lead to a price dip. But as long as demand stays up, it’ll only be a temporary setback.

In the financial center of Dubai, the Cardano Summit 2023 will gather some of the most prominent projects in the crypto space. During the three-day event, speakers, founders, and the community will voice views on the growing sector and the future of the network and blockchain technology as Cardano enters a critical stage in its development.

Our team had the opportunity to speak with the team behind SingularityNET, one of the first projects that has worked on integrating blockchain, machine learning, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) products. The community has been asking for staking features and finally got a response.

SingularityNET Launches Staking For AGIX Tokens During Cardano Summit 2023

During the event, SingularityNET revealed the implementation of staking capabilities for users holding their native token, AGIX. In this way, users can generate a yield from holding the token and contribute to the adoption of Cardano and SingularityNET.

Exciting News: AGIX Staking is coming to @Cardano!

Get exclusive insights by visiting our booth at the #CardanoSummit2023 – we’ve got a special surprise waiting for you!

Read our latest blog post for more details: https://t.co/qajpfZfdUL#AGIXonCardano #CardanoCommunity

— SingularityNET (@SingularityNET) November 2, 2023 

The staking capabilities will roll out for everyone later this month. As mentioned, SingularityNET has been working on the intersection between the nascent industry and AI long before these technologies became a global trend. Now, their partnership with IOG and Cardano makes them a perfect candidate to benefit from the adoption of both as major companies pour capital and effort into integrating with AI and blockchain-based projects.

Our team sat down with Janet Adams, COO of SingularityNET, and Mihaela Ulieru on the future of blockchain and AI, the role of the community, and their partnership with Cardano. This is what they told us.

Q: Could you tell us about your experience during the Cardano Summit 2023? What does it mean for the SingularityNET ecosystem and its partnership with Cardano?

Adams: Feel like Home. When I come to a Cardano Summit, our partnership with Carano is very deep. It’s very strong. I have so many friends here today wandering around all of the different booths, meeting all the different thriving businesses, that are building on Cardano meeting so many friends of Singularity Net. We’re here with Dessa (Desdemona) Robot.

Dessa is really popular. She’s our pop star, our rockstar robot using a humanoid robot, of course, built by Hanson Robotics. It’s been very positive. I’m having a number of really positive discussions with all of the Cardano community. But what’s really important for us this year at SingularityNET is that our AGIX ADA staking solution on Carano is ready to launch in the next one to two weeks.

And that’s something that I always get asked for by the Cardano community, “when staking.” And so now it’s finally here, I’m here this week and this weekend I’m telling everybody “We now have staking.” They’re all super excited by it. And then that opens the door to us, porting the full SingularityNET marketplace onto Carano as our next major technical action.

Q: SingularityNET was a project being developed on Ethereum and eventually migrated to Cardano; what has been the result of this migration? Are your ties with Cardano and its community growing stronger?

Adams: So our visionary founder, Dr. Ben Goertzel, has a strong relationship with Charles Hoskinson. And there are two to three core reasons why Cardano is such a leading blockchain partner for us at SingularityNET.

One is that we share a common vision and goal for positive impact on humanity. Cardano was established to bring digital identity to populations who don’t have these kinds of solutions. And the shared passion that I feel when I meet the Cardano community is for positive impact. So that’s number one within the whole crypto community. And I meet many, many communities around the world. The Cardano community is the most heart-led, the most purpose-driven, the community that really cares about dramatically improving life on the planet for the people who need it most and reducing inequalities. We have shared interests in Africa, where we both have offices as well.

So one is the purity of purpose, the second is the mathematical foundation of the Cardano blockchain. It’s clearly in the long run, it’s clearly the most mathematically robust blockchain that has been developed. And because our artificial intelligence is also clearly mathematically driven as a mathematically driven solution, it’s really important that our AI runs on really solid, really secure, really scalable blockchain infrastructure.

And then the third reason is we wanted to take advantage of the much better gas fees on Cardano, but the community, the strength of the community, is the most passionate community in the world. We’re the most passionate company in the world, and our community is also super passionate. And so you bring those two passions together with a blockchain that is more robust, more scalable, more solid, more mathematically proven than any other blockchain. It’s clear that this is a very strong opportunity for us to work together, SingularityNET and Cardano are building the most important technologies of all time to reduce inequalities.

Q: Could you tell us about SingularityNET’s latest projects and how Artificial Intelligence (AI) connects with blockchain technology? Moreover, why build on Cardano rather than in a different network?

Ulieru: Some of our most outstanding projects are building the future of Artificial General Intelligence, such as Zarqa – a large language model that performs much better than ChatGPT due to our approach, which is building with a layer of symbolic reasoning on top of the normal neural networks methods implied in ChatGPT. Another dearest to my heart is the Cogito Protocol, which has a first application Green Coin – a stablecoin pegged to Sustainability Index and which will grow as we make strides to address the climate and sustainability conundrum.

So it offers a holistic perspective on incentivizing action that improves the state of the world at scale. Rejuve is a health impact project that enables people to improve their health (an App is guiding them on healthy lifestyle tricks) including a genetic product that improves longevity. And at last, Sophiaverse – a game in the metaverse enabling AGI to train by interacting with people via a game structure. There are many more and all building on Cardano as our preferred blockchain since it had the best technological stack.

Q: How do you envision the future of AI running on the blockchain? And what do you expect Cardano and SingularityNET to achieve in the coming years?

Ulieru: AI is all about processing large amounts of data, and the greatest conundrum is that it infringes on the privacy rights of individuals. With Blockchain this is hard to solve as well, given the transparency inherent in the design. Cardano came up with an innovation, which was today presented by Charles Hoskinson here at the Summit, the Midnight blockchain, with its “dust” token, which can enable the processing of encrypted data. There is also a development on the scaling of Cardano – since SingularityNET is expanding Hydra, the side chain of Cardano, with a novel implementation of a “ledgerless” blockchain named Hypercycle (see hypercycle.ai), which is enabling the processing of encrypted data and as such preserves the privacy. Hypercycle was chosen by SingularityNET to be “the Internet of AI” since their innovative implementation also comes with a “router” for the Internet of AI which everyone can install instead of their normal router and thus bring the AI algorithms to their data, which they can keep private and secure on their own personal router.

We at SingularityNET chose Cardano because it is by far the most innovative blockchains in terms of technology out there. The Keynote of Charles Hoskinson today proved exactly this, including the flexibility of Cardano to accommodate interoperability with all other blockchains, which we at SingularityNET praise a lot, since we are blockchain agnostic and want to enable everyone to use us. And yesterday we also announced that we began staking AGIX on the Cardano blockchain.

Cover image from Unsplash, chart from Tradingview

Data shows the cryptocurrency longs have taken a beating today because of the plunge towards $34,000 that Bitcoin has observed.

Cryptocurrency Futures Market Has Seen Liquidations Totaling $137 Million Today

According to data from CoinGlass, a large amount of liquidations have taken place in the cryptocurrency futures market during the past day. “Liquidation” here refers to a forced closure of a futures contract being done by the derivative contract with which said position is open.

A contract is liquidated when it amasses losses equal to a certain percentage of the margin (that is, the initial collateral that the holder had put forth when opening the contract).

As it’s easy for traders’ bets to fail during volatile periods, it’s not surprising that the volatility from the past day has induced liquidations throughout the market. The below table shows the data for the liquidations that have occurred in the sector during the last day.

As you can see, the cryptocurrency futures market has seen liquidations amounting to about $137 million in the past day. Out of these, around $113 million of the contracts were long positions.

This means that more than 82% of the liquidation flush in this period has involved the long holders. This is consistent with the price action, as most of the liquidations have been triggered by a plunge in the Bitcoin price from above $35,400 to the $34,000 mark.

Such large liquidation events are popularly called “squeezes.” Since the squeeze from the last 24 hours has seen the longs on the losing side, the event was a “long squeeze.”

As the below table displays, Bitcoin-related contracts have unsurprisingly contributed the most towards this latest squeeze.

Bitcoin saw $40 million in futures liquidations, while Ethereum registered almost half of those at $21 million. Out of the altcoins, Solana (SOL) observed the highest liquidations.

SOL has seen a bit of an explosion recently, so it’s not unexpected that it has attracted a large amount of speculators towards it. As a natural consequence of this higher interest in the cryptocurrency, its liquidations have been more than the other altcoins.

Mass liquidation events like today’s aren’t exactly a rare occurrence in the cryptocurrency sector, due to extreme amounts of leverage being easily accessible and the volatility that most of the coins witness on the regular.

It would appear that today’s liquidation squeeze has been unable to put off speculators, as the Bitcoin open interest (a measure of the total amount of contracts open on the futures market) is still at high values.

As such, it’s possible that Bitcoin will see more volatility in the near future and with it, another liquidation squeeze.

Bitcoin Price

Following its drop of more than 3%, Bitcoin is now trading around the $34,200 level.

Chainlink (LINK) appears to be riding the current market momentum as the cryptocurrency industry experiences a widespread surge. The recent fluctuations have brought LINK along with other digital currencies into the spotlight, prompting investors to closely monitor its trajectory. 

Amidst this upward trend, Chainlink has strategically positioned itself as a dominant force in the world of decentralized protocols, sparking optimism for a potentially bullish rally. 

The current price of LINK, as reported by CoinGecko, stands at $11.05, with a slight 24-hour dip of 1.9% but a promising seven-day gain of 1.8%. Despite this minor setback, industry observers remain optimistic about its future prospects, citing several key factors that could drive its upward trajectory.

Chainlink’s Surging Exchange NetFlow

The data from CryptoQuant paints a promising picture for Chainlink, revealing an impressive 1,012% surge in its exchange netflow, currently valued at a little over $11 million.

This data holds significant importance, indicating a substantial influx of funds into the Chainlink ecosystem, potentially signaling a growing interest from institutional investors and retail traders alike. 

With an increased inflow of capital, Chainlink could experience enhanced liquidity and greater market stability, paving the way for sustained growth and a potential surge in its valuation.

Chainlink’s Vital Role In Decentralized Protocols

One of the most prominent factors contributing to Chainlink’s upward momentum is its pivotal role within various decentralized protocols. As an integral component of the blockchain infrastructure, Chainlink provides critical services that facilitate secure and reliable data transmission between smart contracts and external sources. 

This crucial function has positioned Chainlink as a fundamental building block for the broader blockchain ecosystem, garnering significant attention from both developers and enterprises seeking to leverage its robust infrastructure for a myriad of applications. 

With the continuous expansion of decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), Chainlink’s relevance and utility are expected to grow further, solidifying its position as a cornerstone of the digital economy.

Crypto Strategist’s Positive Outlook

Renowned crypto strategist Michaël van de Poppe recently praised Chainlink’s performance following a prolonged period of consolidation, indicating a potential bullish breakout on the horizon.

Van de Poppe emphasized the importance of monitoring key support levels, saying he’d be interested to acquire the token at $26-$28 if the markets experience a “deeper correction.”

Request 04 – $SOL

Solid strength, solid upwards trend.

Wouldn’t be surprised if we reach $36-39 on this one.

If the markets make a deeper correction, I’d be keen to get some $SOL at $26-28. pic.twitter.com/RjhQAT8yx4

— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) October 27, 2023

His positive outlook on Chainlink’s future, with a projected rally towards $12.50-13.00, reflects the growing confidence among market participants regarding the cryptocurrency’s long-term prospects.

Despite the inherent volatility of the crypto market, such endorsements from industry experts serve to reinforce investor sentiment and instill a sense of optimism within the Chainlink community.

(This site’s content should not be construed as investment advice. Investing involves risk. When you invest, your capital is subject to risk).

Featured image from Shutterstock

Ripple grabs yet another achievement with its recent legal and regulatory approval which will basically grant crypto-related firms within the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) the right to offer XRP services.

Latest Approval Sparks Broader XRP Adoption

According to a recent announcement, XRP was recently approved under the digital asset regime of the Dubai independent financial services regulatory body within the DIFC, Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA).

This achievement appears to be more significant than it seems. This is due to the position held by the DIFC as the top financial center not only in Dubai or the UAE, but also covering a huge territory, including the whole Middle East, Africa, and South Asia (MEASA) region.

Additionally, for the past 20 years and counting, the DIFC has been the hub for a variety of financial initiatives, which makes it one of the major locations for companies, investors, and financial institutions in the MEASA area.

With this approval, regulated cryptocurrency-focused businesses based in the MEASA region would be able to provide all kinds of cryptocurrency-related services using XRP. These include lending, and trading, among others. 

Trade and investment within the MEASA region have benefited abundantly from the DIFC’s assistance. This is because it is crucial for connecting MEASA companies and investors with the rest of the globe. 

Due to this, the financial hub’s legislative lucidity on XRP creates several opportunities for the crypto asset throughout the 72 MEASA member nations.

This is a significant achievement because despite XRP already enjoying regulatory clarity in several MEASA nations with pro-crypto laws, it may buttress its notoriety in the area.  Thereby introducing the digital asset to a major number of MEASA firms whose headstations are located there.

Another reason why the approval is impressive is because a lot of major players in the cryptocurrency ecosystem are from the MEASA region. These include crucial nations like the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar, Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and India. 

As part of the DIFC’s crypto asset regime, XRP has become the first cryptocurrency that the regulatory body authorized legally and regulatoryly through an external application.

The digital asset is now the latest addition to other digital assets like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Litecoin (LTC) in the region. However, these other assets were not approved through an external application.

India The Leading Player In Cryptocurrency Adoption

India being in the MEASA region sparks a wider adoption of XRP as the country has been the top major player in cryptocurrency adoption since 2023. 

According to an excerpt that was released in September by the New York-based blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, it was revealed that India was leading the charge in terms of grassroots cryptocurrency adoption.

In addition, several other countries leading the grassroots crypto adoption appeared to be from the MEASA region, such as Vietnam, Pakistan, and Indonesia.

Nonetheless, XRP’s latest approval will buttress extensive regional payment solutions and use cases for several other crypto assets on the XRP Ledger (XRPL).