Eight years ago, on 30 June 2018, the Ontology MainNet went live. It has run without interruption ever since. Anniversaries are usually a moment to look back, and there is plenty to look back on: an identity framework shipped early, a wallet used in more than 170 countries, a network that has settled tens of millions of transactions. But the more useful thing to do on our eighth birthday is to say clearly where we are going next. The next chapter is about identity, data ownership, and AI, and it runs through one product: ONTO Wallet.
The short version is this. AI is resetting the value of data, and the kind of data it needs most is the hardest to source responsibly: high-quality, consent-based information that is provably created by a real person. Ontology has spent eight years building the infrastructure that can supply exactly that. Now we are putting it to work.
The data problem AI is about to hit AI systems are only as good as the data they learn from. For years that data came from web scraping, but the industry is moving away from scraped content toward high-quality human data. Synthetic data can scale human judgement, but it cannot replace it. What AI increasingly needs is verified human data: information that is high-quality, consent-based, and provably created by a real person, sourced in a way enterprises can stand behind.
The supply of that data is the problem. Today the people who create data rarely share in its value. By Ontology’s own analysis, Meta, Alphabet and Amazon alone have earned more than 1.3 trillion US dollars from user-generated data, while the individuals behind it receive nothing.
Regulation is moving the other way. Frameworks such as the EU Data Act are pushing enterprises toward first-party, user-consented data. The missing piece has been a way to prove data is authentic and human without exposing it. That is the gap Ontology has spent eight years preparing to fill.
ONTO Wallet: from holding assets to owning data ONTO Wallet is the centre of the strategy. It remains a multi-chain Web3 wallet, and it is now building on that foundation to add an identity and verified human data platform. People own the data they create, build a verified profile, and earn rewards by contributing data on their own terms. On the other side of the marketplace, projects in AI, gaming and Web3 gain access to verified human data, a resource that is in growing demand and hard to source responsibly.
The platform rests on capabilities Ontology has built over its eight years, now native to the wallet: decentralised identity through ONT ID, and software-only verification that confirms data is authentic and human without exposing the underlying information. No special hardware is required.
It is organised around four ideas:
Ownership: people own the personal data they create.
Identity, the core differentiator: verifiable identity is what lets a person prove who they are and what they have done.
Utility: real rewards and a working data marketplace, not a promise of one.
Trust: the guarantees carried by the network underneath.
Identity is the through-line. It is what turns raw data into verified human data that the AI economy can actually use.
Eight years of building the foundation Ontology comes to this moment with infrastructure already in production, not a whitepaper:
Eight years of stable operation: the Ontology MainNet has run without interruption since 30 June 2018.
An identity pioneer: ONT ID is one of the earliest decentralised identity frameworks aligned with the W3C DID standard, with 1.65 million decentralised identities issued.
Global reach: ONTO Wallet has more than 2 million users, across 70+ blockchains and 170+ countries.
A proven network: more than 20,188,999 transactions processed, 898 active nodes, and 216,135,075 ONT staked.
The infrastructure underneath: a four-part EVM upgrade A data platform that asks people to contribute needs transactions that are fast and inexpensive. So the anniversary release also upgrades the network that makes that possible, bringing four widely adopted Ethereum opcodes to the Ontology EVM. The changes reduce transaction costs, shrink smart contract sizes, and bring the network in line with the current Ethereum standard, while removing friction for teams porting existing Ethereum contracts across.
PUSH0 (EIP-3855): places the value zero onto the stack, reducing contract size and lowering the gas cost of almost every transaction.
BASEFEE (EIP-3198): lets a contract read the network’s current base fee directly on-chain, with no external data source.
MCOPY (EIP-5656): copies memory in a single step, speeding up data-heavy operations such as encoding and cryptography.
Transient storage, TSTORE and TLOAD (EIP-1153): a low-cost storage that lasts for a single transaction, well suited to temporary state such as reentrancy protection.
Together these bring the Ontology EVM in line with the opcodes introduced in Ethereum’s Shanghai and Cancun upgrades, so the latest output from compilers such as Solidity and Vyper runs without special handling.
“For eight years we have built the infrastructure for trusted identity and user-owned data. The next eight are about putting it to work for the defining technology of our time. AI runs on data, and it increasingly needs data that is high-quality, consented, and provably human. Ontology and ONTO Wallet let people own that data and decide how it is used, turning verified human data into the foundation of a fairer AI economy.”
Li Jun, Founder of Ontology
Where Ontology goes next This anniversary is less a celebration of what Ontology has built than a statement of where it is going. As AI resets the value of data, Ontology intends to be the place where identity is owned, data is given with consent, and verified human data becomes infrastructure the whole industry can build on.
Eight years in, the foundation is in production. The work of the next chapter starts now. Learn more at ont.io and onto.app.
On its eighth anniversary, Ontology puts ONTO Wallet at the centre of its strategy, adding an identity and verified human data platform to its multi-chain wallet, with a four-part Ontology EVM upgrade keeping the infrastructure underneath fast and current.
Ontology, the Layer 1 blockchain for decentralised identity and data, marked the eighth anniversary of its MainNet by setting out the next chapter of its strategy: building the trusted identity and verified human data layer for the AI economy. At the centre is ONTO Wallet, the ecosystem’s datawallet, which is adding an identity and data platform that lets people own the data they create and put it to work, exactly as AI’s demand for high-quality, consent-based human data accelerates.
Eight years of building identity and data infrastructure have prepared Ontology for an AI economy that increasingly depends on trusted, consent-based human data.
The data problem AI is about to hit
AI has a data problem. As models become more capable, the supply of high-quality, consent-based human data is becoming one of the industry’s biggest constraints. Synthetic data can scale human judgement, but it cannot replace it. What AI increasingly needs is verified human data: information that is high-quality, consent-based, and provably created by a real person, sourced in a way enterprises can stand behind.
The supply of that data is the problem. Today the people who create data rarely share in its value. By Ontology’s own analysis, Meta, Alphabet and Amazon alone have earned more than 1.3 trillion US dollars from user-generated data, while the individuals behind it receive nothing. Regulation is moving the other way: frameworks such as the EU Data Act are pushing enterprises toward first-party, user-consented data. The missing piece has been a way to prove data is authentic and human without exposing it. That is the gap Ontology has spent eight years preparing to fill.
ONTO Wallet: from holding assets to owning data
ONTO Wallet is the centre of the strategy. It remains a multi-chain Web3 wallet, and is now building on that foundation to add an identity and verified human data platform. People own the data they create, build a verified profile, and earn rewards by contributing data on their own terms. On the other side of the marketplace, projects in AI, gaming and Web3 gain access to verified human data, a resource that is in growing demand and hard to source responsibly.
The platform rests on capabilities Ontology has built over its eight years, now native to the wallet: decentralised identity through ONT ID, and software-only verification that confirms data is authentic and human without exposing the underlying information. No special hardware is required.
It is organised around four ideas: ownership of personal data, verifiable identity as the core differentiator, real utility through rewards and a working data marketplace, and trust carried by the network underneath. Identity is the through-line: it is what lets a person prove who they are and what they have done, and what turns raw data into verified human data that the AI economy can use.
Eight years of building the foundation
Ontology comes to this moment with infrastructure already in production, not a whitepaper:
Eight years of stable operation: the Ontology MainNet has run without interruption since 30 June 2018. An identity pioneer: ONT ID is one of the earliest decentralised identity frameworks aligned with the W3C DID standard, with 1.65 million decentralised identities issued. Global reach through ONTO Wallet: more than 2 million users, across 70+ blockchains and 170+ countries. A proven network: more than 20 million transactions processed, ~900 active nodes, and 216 million ONT staked The infrastructure underneath: a four-part EVM upgrade
A data platform that asks people to contribute often needs transactions that are fast and inexpensive. The anniversary release upgrades the network that makes that possible, bringing four widely adopted Ethereum opcodes to the Ontology EVM. The changes reduce transaction costs, shrink smart contract sizes, and bring the network in line with the current Ethereum standard, while removing friction for teams porting existing Ethereum contracts across.
PUSH0 (EIP-3855): places the value zero onto the stack, reducing contract size and lowering the gas cost of almost every transaction. BASEFEE (EIP-3198): lets a contract read the network’s current base fee directly on-chain, with no external data source. MCOPY (EIP-5656): copies memory in a single step, speeding up data-heavy operations such as encoding and cryptography. Transient storage, TSTORE and TLOAD (EIP-1153): a low-cost storage that lasts for a single transaction, well suited to temporary state such as reentrancy protection. Together these bring the Ontology EVM in line with the opcodes introduced in Ethereum’s Shanghai and Cancun upgrades, so the latest output from compilers such as Solidity and Vyper runs without special handling. Alongside the EVM enhancements, Ontology has continued its ongoing technical review process, introducing a series of performance optimisations and bug fixes that further improve network stability, efficiency and overall reliability.
“For eight years we have built the infrastructure for trusted identity and user-owned data. The next eight are about putting it to work for the defining technology of our time,” said Li Jun, Founder of Ontology. “AI runs on data, and it increasingly needs data that is high-quality, consented, and provably human. Ontology and ONTO Wallet let people own that data and decide how it is used, turning verified human data into the foundation of a fairer AI economy.”
Where Ontology goes next
This anniversary is less a celebration of what Ontology has built than a statement of where it is going. As AI resets the value of data, Ontology intends to be the place where identity is owned, data is given with consent, and verified human data becomes infrastructure the whole industry can build on. The work of the next chapter starts now.
About Ontology
Ontology is building the trusted identity and verified human data layer for the AI economy. Through decentralised identity and verifiable data, Ontology gives individuals control over their information and enables enterprises to access verified, user-consented data at scale. For more information, visit ont.io.
About ONTO Wallet
ONTO Wallet is evolving from a multi-chain wallet into a multi-chain data wallet for the AI economy. It lets people own their digital identity, build a verified profile from the data they already create, and earn rewards by contributing that data on their own terms, while giving projects access to verified human data. Learn more at onto.app.
Eight years ago, Ontology set out with a simple but powerful vision: to build a decentralized identity and data ecosystem that people could trust. Today, as we celebrate our 8th anniversary, we’re honored to reflect on a journey shaped not just by innovation, but by a global community that has grown with us, supported us, challenged us, and helped define what Ontology has become.
Our anniversary theme, “Celebrating 8 Years of Trust. Unlocking ∞ Possibilities”, represents exactly that. Trust has always been our foundation. Possibility has always been our future. And between them lies our community, the bridge that made eight years possible.
This milestone is more than a celebration. It’s an invitation.
An invitation to look back… and to build forward.
Your Story, Our Story: Announcing “Ontology Life – Ontology & Me” To mark our 8th anniversary, we’re launching a special community campaign:
🌀 Ontology Life – Ontology & Me Story Sharing Contest Over the years, Ontology hasn’t just been a protocol; it’s been part of people’s journeys as builders, developers, creators, partners, and community members. We want to hear those stories.
📅 Timeline November 21 — November 30
💰 Prize Pool: $1,000 in ONG 🥉 $200 ONG 🥈 $300 ONG 🥇 $500 ONG Winners will be chosen based on:
Story quality Engagement and votes on social media Final selection by the Ontology team 📣 How to Join Look for the official anniversary post on X. Reply under the tweet with your Ontology story, your first interaction, biggest milestone, favorite moment, or how Ontology has shaped your Web3 journey. Share it, hype it, tag friends, and celebrate with us. Whether you’ve been here since the beginning or you joined last week, your story matters. Your voice is part of our history.
A Look Back: 8 Years of Building Trust Over the past eight years, Ontology has powered secure decentralized identity, enterprise adoption, cross-chain integrations, and real-world solutions. We led the charge on DID long before it became a Web3 trend. We consistently pushed for a safer, more private, more human digital world.
From ONT ID to ONTO Wallet, from enterprise partnerships to community-led initiatives, this journey has been built together, step by step, block by block.
And the future?
The future is even more exciting.
Unlocking ∞ Possibilities: What’s Next for Ontology We’ve been making great progress in implementing our 2025 Roadmap, as our 8th year shapes up to be an important foundation in creating a future with infinite possibilities. This next chapter is designed around one mission: empowering people with tools that make Web3 more open, more intelligent, and more connected than ever before.
Below is a deeper look at the innovations coming to the Ontology ecosystem.
🔒 Ontology IM: Decentralized, Private Instant Messaging Our biggest launch of the year is also one of our most ambitious.
Ontology IM is a decentralized, identity-verified messaging protocol designed for the next era of Web3 communication. Unlike traditional messaging apps that rely on centralized servers, user profiling, and opaque data practices, Ontology IM offers:
Full end-to-end encryption with cryptographic identity verification True censorship resistance—no middleman controls your data DID-anchored messaging, ensuring that every conversation is real, verifiable, and secure This protocol is built not just as another messaging app, but as an infrastructure layer for decentralized communication, enabling:
dApps to embed secure messaging instantly Communities to coordinate without fear of censorship Users to enjoy seamless, private conversations across chains After months of development and testing, Ontology IM is nearing its public debut, and the first hands-on experience will be in your grasp very soon.
🤖 AI Marketplaces AI and blockchain are converging faster than ever, and Ontology is positioned at the center of that evolution.
Our upcoming AI Marketplace will introduce a new layer of intelligence to the Web3 experience by enabling creators, developers, and users to:
Deploy AI agents tailored for wallet management, data insights, identity verification, transaction support, and more Access AI-driven services that plug directly into the Ontology ecosystem Build and monetize AI tools in an open marketplace powered by decentralized identity Combine ONT ID + AI for secure, privacy-protected personalization For users, this opens the door to Web3 that is more intuitive and more helpful:
Your wallet becomes your assistant Your AI agents understand your on-chain activity while keeping your data private Everyday tasks become smoother, more automated, and more efficient For developers, it’s an opportunity to launch intelligent tools into a global marketplace built on real identity and trust.
💧 DEX Integration & Liquidity Expansion Liquidity is the lifeblood of any blockchain ecosystem, and 2025 will mark a major strengthening of Ontology’s market foundations.
Following the latest community vote and the upcoming MainNet Upgrade, the stage is set for:
Improved liquidity for both ONT and ONG Enhanced token utility across the Ontology EVM A more accessible and connected trading environment for users and partners Alongside these improvements, we are finalizing the requirements to bring a DEX to the Ontology EVM, enabling:
Native swaps Yield and liquidity opportunities More robust token flows across the ecosystem Easier onboarding for developers building decentralized applications This upgrade ensures Ontology remains competitive, flexible, and attractive to new builders in a rapidly evolving multi-chain world.
Thank You for 8 Years of Trust Eight years in Web3 is more than a milestone, it’s a testament to resilience, innovation, and community. Through bull runs, bear markets, technological shifts, and global changes, Ontology has remained committed to building infrastructure that empowers people, not platforms.
To everyone who believed in Ontology, who built with us, who shared feedback, who held discussions, who contributed code, who created content, who participated in governance, who simply showed up —
Thank you.
Our story continues.
And now, we want to hear yours.
Share your story. Celebrate our journey. Shape what comes next. Happy 8th Anniversary, Ontology!
As part of our 8th Anniversary celebrations, Ontology is launching a new initiative designed to strengthen the network, increase decentralization and empower ONT holders. If you have ever thought about running your own node, this is the perfect moment to get started.
During Round 266, we are rewarding community members who step up and create new nodes. Here is everything you need to know.
What Is the Ontology Node Campaign The Node Campaign is a special event that encourages ONT holders to run their own nodes by removing one of the biggest barriers to entry: the operational setup fee.
Event Summary Round: 266
Dates: November 24 to December 12/13
Rewards: 2500 ONG set-up fees reimbursed after the round ends
Winners: Top 5 new nodes ranked by Total Stake
If your new node finishes the round in the Top 5 by stake amount, Ontology will refund your node operation fee at the end of the round.
This is a great opportunity to become more involved in the ecosystem while supporting Ontology’s long term health and decentralization.
Why Run a Node Running a node on Ontology brings several benefits:
1. Earn Staking Rewards By operating a node, you can attract delegators and earn a portion of the staking rewards generated by your total stake weight.
2. Support Network Stability More nodes means a more secure and resilient blockchain. Your participation strengthens Ontology for everyone.
3. Strengthen Decentralization Increasing the number of active nodes reduces concentration and creates a healthier ecosystem.
4. Contribute to Ontology’s Growth As we expand into messaging, AI marketplaces and gaming, a stronger node ecosystem ensures better performance and reliability for all applications.
How to Participate To join the campaign, simply create a new Ontology node during Round 266. Only nodes created in this round will be eligible.
The Ontology team has prepared easy-to-follow guides to help you through the entire process.
Step 1: Prepare Your ONT Make sure you have enough ONT (10,000) to register your node and meet the staking requirements.
Step 2: Download ONTO Wallet You can run and manage your node directly from ONTO.
Step 3: Follow the Node Creation Guide We recommend reviewing the full guide before beginning to ensure a smooth setup.
Step 4: Watch the Video Tutorial (Optional) Prefer a visual walkthrough
Step 5: Launch Your Node During Round 266 Make sure you create your node between Nov 24 and Dec 12/13. Nodes created before or after this period will not qualify.
Step 6: Build Your Stake The Top 5 nodes with the highest total stake at the end of the round will have their fees reimbursed.
Step 7: Receive Your Fee Reimbursement After Round 266 ends, the Ontology team will reimburse the fees in ONG directly to the winning node operators.
Tips for Increasing Your Total Stake If you want to improve your chances of winning:
Share your node with the community and invite delegators Provide clear information about your node name and purpose Be active in Telegram groups and social channels Maintain transparency and encourage long term staking Support your node with your own ONT to increase its weight A strong, well-communicated node can attract more delegators.
Who Should Join the Campaign This event is ideal for:
ONT holders who want to become more active participants Community members interested in staking and node economics Builders and ecosystem partners who want to support decentralization Anyone who wants to learn more about participating in the Ontology network If you believe in Ontology, running a node is one of the most meaningful ways to contribute.
Join the Network, Strengthen the Ecosystem The Node Campaign is an opportunity to take your involvement to the next level, help grow our network and access real rewards for doing so.
With fees reimbursed for the Top 5 new nodes, the barrier to entry has never been lower.
Round 266 is your moment to step forward.
Start preparing your node now.
We look forward to welcoming new operators into the Ontology ecosystem.
PANews reported on November 26th that Binance plans to suspend token deposits and withdrawals on the Ontology (ONT) network at 15:00 (UTC+8) on December 1st, 2025, to support its network upgrade and hard fork. The project team anticipates conducting the network upgrade and hard fork on December 1st, 2025 (UTC+8).
Please note the changes in token economics following this event:
The Ontology network uses a dual-token model: Ontology (ONT) and Ontology Gas (ONG). Ontology Gas (ONG) Maximum and Total Supply Changes: It will be reduced from 1 billion to 800 million, of which 200 million tokens will be burned immediately; Ontology Gas (ONG) circulation supply: No immediate changes, but the future supply cap may be capped at 750 million due to a permanent lock-up mechanism.
Binance has announced that it will support a major upgrade and hard fork of the Ontology (ONT) network.
Binance Announces Support for Ontology (ONT) Network Upgrade and Hard Fork According to the statement made by the exchange, deposits and withdrawals of all tokens on the Ontology network will be temporarily suspended as of 10:00 on December 1, 2025.
It was stated that this step was taken to ensure the smooth implementation of technical updates on the network and to protect the user experience in the best possible way.
The Ontology network upgrade and hard fork is also scheduled for December 1, 2025. The Ontology blockchain is known for its dual-token structure: Ontology (ONT) is a governance-focused token, while Ontology Gas (ONG) is used to pay transaction fees on the network.
With the new update, the Ontology Gas (ONG) supply will undergo a significant change. The current maximum and total supply of 1 billion will be reduced to 800 million. As a result, 200 million ONG tokens will be permanently burned.
However, the circulating supply of ONG will reportedly not change immediately following the upgrade. However, due to Ontology's permanent locking mechanism, the circulating supply may decline to approximately 750 million units in the future.
Binance stated that deposits and withdrawals for ONT and ONG will be reopened once the network upgrade is complete. It emphasized that users' spot transactions will not be affected by the upgrade.
*This is not investment advice.
Follow our Telegram and Twitter account now for exclusive news, analytics and on-chain data!
Ontology is celebrating its 8th anniversary and introducing one of its biggest updates to date – the v3.0.0 MainNet upgrade. Li Jun, Ontology’s Founder, shared the full announcement on X.
Key Highlights From Ontology’s v3.0.0 MainNet Upgrade Strengthened Token Economy and Incentive Model Ontology’s v3.0.0 upgrade introduces major improvements to Ontology’s dual-token model (ONT and ONG), designed to support long-term sustainability and ecosystem growth.
The total ONG supply has been reduced from 1 billion to 800 million, with 100 million ONG permanently locked. This lowers inflation and strengthens long-term token value. Updated reward distribution now allocates 80% of newly issued ONG to ONT stakers and 20% to liquidity and ecosystem expansion, balancing network security with growth incentives.
These changes align Ontology’s token model with long-term utility and healthier economic design.
Network Upgrades, Identity Integration, and Governance The v3.0.0 upgrade enhances the core performance, interoperability, and identity tooling of the Ontology Blockchain.
Upcoming support for EIP-7702 will introduce a more flexible account system and stronger compatibility with the Ethereum ecosystem, improving cross-chain liquidity and builder experience. Core upgrades to consensus, stability, and gas management make the network faster and more reliable. ONT ID will soon be creatable directly on Ontology EVM, unlocking seamless decentralized identity use cases across DeFi, gaming, and social platforms. All tokenomics updates were approved through on-chain governance, reflecting a mature and aligned Ontology community.
These improvements position Ontology as a more interoperable, identity-driven, and community-governed Web3 infrastructure layer.
Product Enhancements, Developer Growth, and Real-World Utility Ontology continues to expand its ecosystem with new tools, user experiences, and privacy-preserving features.
Expanded grants, developer tools, and onboarding resources make it easier to build with ONT, ONG, and ONT ID. A new encrypted IM solution launching later this year will leverage decentralized identity and zero-knowledge technology to protect user sovereignty and secure communication. The ONTO Wallet has been upgraded with a refined identity module, better UX, and new payfi functionality developed with partners, improving Web3 payments and digital identity management. Orange Protocol is advancing its zkTLS framework to turn verified, privacy-preserving reputation signals into real economic utility — strengthening Ontology’s mission to make decentralized trust measurable and portable. Recommended Reading ONG Tokenomics Adjustment Proposal Passes Governance vote
The proposal secured over 117 million votes in approval, signaling strong consensus within the network to move forward with the next phase of ONG’s evolution.
Mainnet Upgrade Announcement
Initial update about the upcoming MainNet v3.0.0 upgrade and Consensus Nodes upgrade on December 1, 2025. This release will improve network performance and implement the approved ONG tokenomics update.
8 Years of Trust – Your Story Campaign
The first campaign to kick off Ontology’s 8th anniversary celebrations. It shares updates from the 2025 roadmap along with details on how to win rewards just for sharing your story with Ontology. We want to hear from you!
Your Guide to Joining The Node Campaign
Everything you need to know about how to get involved in Ontology’s node campaign, including key dates and requirements.
Bitcoin (BTC) $60,983 has exceeded $91,000 as the week and the month of November come to a close. While the graphical data remains calm and trading volumes low, altcoins predominantly exhibit lateral movements. However, the upcoming week promises significant developments for both Ethereum $1,623 and Ontology (ONT).
Ontology (ONT) DevelopmentsOntology is set to launch its MainNet v3.0.0 and Consensus Nodes upgrade on December 1, 2025. This update will enhance network performance and implement an approved update to ONG tokenomics. The ONT token is utilized for network governance. Meanwhile, ONG, as a gas token, covers transaction fees, smart contract executions, and the costs of dApp interactions.
The update in ONG tokenomics will limit the ONG supply to 800 million and extend the issuance schedule from 18 to 19 years. 80% of the released ONG will be allocated to incentivize ONT staking.
Upcoming Ethereum FusakaThe Fusaka upgrade, named from a blend of “Fulu” and “Osaka,” represents this year’s second major network upgrade for Ethereum and will be implemented on Wednesday. This update is expected to bolster the core layer of Ethereum, facilitating improved management of high-volume transactions from Layer2 solutions, enhancing the entire Ethereum ecosystem.
A pivotal feature of this update is PeerDAS, which allows validators to check only data segments instead of entire blobs. This approach balances bandwidth demand and reduces costs for validators and Layer2 networks. Key for investors is the improvement in cost efficiency and transaction speed.
This upgrade, highly praised by Fidelity Digital Assets and other institutions, is seen as a crucial step in preparing the Ethereum network for the future. Tokenization is currently a hot topic, and Ethereum stands at its center. Fusaka is expected to produce positive results in strengthening the main network’s efficiency and enabling various Layer2 solutions in tokenization processes.
Fusaka is more than a one-time upgrade; it signals the continuation of essential improvements for Ethereum. The path embarked upon is incredibly positive for maintaining a cost-effective, economically sustainable, and competitively viable Ethereum. While the long-term impacts will be evident, in the short term, Ether’s price will be driven by investor appetite rather than developer enthusiasm.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
PANews reported on December 1st that, according to official news, Ontology mainnet version v3.0.0 will officially launch on December 1st, 2025. All nodes must upgrade to version v3.0.0 before 08:00 (UTC+8) on December 3rd to avoid service interruptions. Changes to the total and maximum supply of ONG will occur at block height approximately 19,500,000 (expected on December 15th). Please complete the upgrade before the deadline.
According to previous reports , after this upgrade, the maximum and total supply of Ontology Gas (ONG) will be reduced from 1 billion to 800 million, of which 200 million tokens will be burned immediately; the circulating supply of Ontology Gas (ONG) will not change immediately, but the future supply cap may be limited to 750 million due to a permanent lock-up mechanism.
Welcome to the November edition of the Ontology Community Newsletter! This month brought exciting campaigns, updates, and events from Ontology, ONTO Wallet, and Orange Protocol. Below are the highlights, neatly organised to help you catch up on everything that happened across the ecosystem.
DID & Web3 Reputation — What Happened in November • DIF Newsletter #55 Released The Decentralized Identity Foundation (DIF) published its latest newsletter, exploring how DID and verifiable credential standards are being adapted for AI agents to enhance trust and identity in decentralized systems.
• Privacy and Social Trust in Web3 Bitget reported on UXLINK and ZEC’s collaboration to build compliant privacy and real-world trust networks, advancing Web3 reputation through human-centric systems.
What Ontology Did in November • Whitepaper Saturday Launch Initiated a weekly quiz based on Ontology’s whitepaper as part of the #ONTWeeklyChallenge, inviting the community to answer surprise Telegram questions for $ONG rewards and emphasizing deeper understanding over superficial reading.
• Meme Monday Activation Launched the week’s challenge with a themed meme contest (“When you finally understand how staking works”). Participants submitted original memes tagged #OntonautsMeme and tagged 3 friends for a share of a $100 $ONG prize pool.
• Hodler Tuesday Participants who held at least 10 $ONT / $ONG and shared proof in Telegram received rewards. The event also encouraged the community to prepare for Discussion Wednesday.
• Wordle Wednesday Event Hosted a live Wordle-style discussion in Telegram with updated rules requiring reposts, tags, and form submissions to qualify for $ONG rewards.
• Swap Thursday This week included:
A minimum $10 token swap challenge via ONTO Wallet with screenshot submissions A new educational video on Proof of Stake A Privacy Hour Space focused on decentralized identity and Web3 An announcement for a Community Connect on AI × Crypto • Game Friday Held a series of Telegram mini-games testing knowledge and reaction speed, with leaderboard rewards for top performers.
• Community Connect Hosted multiple live Spaces discussing Web3 × AI × Crypto, and previewed the next Whitepaper Saturday.
• 8th Anniversary Campaign Kick-Off Two major anniversary initiatives launched:
Ontology & Me storytelling campaign Free Node Setup campaign November Spaces Community Connect: https://x.com/OntologyNetwork/status/1986359985522049448?s=20 Privacy Space: https://x.com/OntologyNetwork/status/1986458150753501674?s=20 Community Connect: https://x.com/OntologyNetwork/status/1986359985522049448?s=20 Privacy Hours: https://x.com/OntologyNetwork/status/1986458150753501674?s=20 Community Connect: https://x.com/OntologyNetwork/status/1986645858209689845?s=20 Community Connect: https://x.com/OntologyNetwork/status/1988897265621037193?s=20 What ONTO Wallet Did in November • Trading Competition Update Shared ongoing leaderboard updates for the Trading Competition with @SimpleSwap_io, encouraging users to keep trading to win from the 2,170 USDT prize pool (ending November 14).
• OKX DEX Integration Announced full integration with @okx DEX, enabling ONTO Wallet users to access trending trading pairs directly within the dApp.
• Trading Competition Conclusion Confirmed the competition’s end, published the winners list, and announced that rewards would be distributed within 7 working days.
• Invite Campaign Launch (8th Anniversary) Launched a referral campaign offering 20 ONG per successful invite, drawn from a 10,000 ONG pool, running November 21 – December 21.
• Invite Campaign Access Instructions Shared guidance on accessing the Invite Campaign through:
Mobile browser Discover page banner ONTO Profile section What Orange Did in November • Rewards Distribution Announced 20 lucky winners from the @humanode_io campaign on Orange, distributing $400 for bridging Biotoken on Ontology EVM.
• X Space Promotion Highlighted an upcoming Space hosted by @digikaai on AI Agents, Smart Contracts & The New Digital Workforce.
• OHS Snapshot Announcement Reminded users that one week remained before the OHS snapshot for Ontology’s 8th anniversary and encouraged minting OHS and reaching the top 10 ranks for a share of $1,000 ONG.
Staking & Statistics Total transactions to date: 20,105,312 That’s a Wrap for November! Stay engaged as we continue shaping the future of Web3 together.
See you in next month’s edition!
📚 Also read Your Guide to Joining the Ontology Node Campaign This guide explains how holders can join Round 266 of the node campaign (running November 24 – December 12/13) and get a chance to have their node-setup fees reimbursed (2,500 ONG) if their node ends up among the top 5 by total stake. It outlines the full step-by-step participation process — from preparing 10,000 ONT, installing ONTO Wallet, to registering your node — and gives tips on how to attract delegators and increase your node’s stake.
8 Years of Trust: Your Ontology Story Begins Here This celebratory post reflects on eight years of growth, community-building, and infrastructure development in the Ontology ecosystem — from decentralized identity and enterprise adoption to cross-chain integrations. It also introduces the anniversary campaign Ontology Life – Ontology & Me, inviting users to share their personal Ontology journey (first interaction, milestones, favorite moments) to win a share of a 1,000 ONG prize pool. The article paints a big-picture view of where Ontology has come from — and where it’s going.
PANews reported on December 19th that the Ontology mainnet has completed its upgrade, reducing the maximum and total supply of ONG tokens from 1 billion to 800 million. This adjustment has been approved by the community vote and is now officially in effect on the mainnet. The vote took place from October 28th to October 31st, 2025, with the Triones nodes unanimously approving the proposal with 117 million votes. This adjustment not only involves technical updates but also reflects the community's consensus on long-term sustainability, enhanced liquidity, and support for developers. The adjustments include permanently burning 200 million ONG, fixing the maximum and total supply at 800 million ONG, and permanently locking up the equivalent of 100 million ONG in ONT and ONG assets through a new liquidity mechanism. Furthermore, the ONG release period has been extended to approximately 19 years, maintaining a stable release rate of 1 ONG per second.
Previously, it was reported that Binance would support the Ontology (ONT) network upgrade and hard fork. The Ontology community passed a proposal to adjust the ONG token economy, reducing the total supply to 800 million tokens and permanently locking up 100 million tokens of value.
Ontology, a blockchain focused on decentralized identity and trust infrastructure for Web3, is pleased to announce the launch of Ontello Beta, a new app that brings encrypted messages, on-chain identity, and artificial intelligence (AI) agents. The mission behind this launch is to protect users’ identities while bringing their messages fully on-chain in encrypted form under this single app.
Today we’re opening the Ontello Beta to our community 🚀
A new kind of social + Web3 app bringing private encrypted messaging, on-chain identity, passkey-secured smart wallets, & AI agents into one simple experience.https://t.co/frxNTlJABm@matrixdotorg @ont_did
— Ontology – The Trust Layer for Web3 (@OntologyNetwork) December 23, 2025 Ontology is committing that it is the first kind of social +Web3 app that ensures security at a high level and provides users with a comfort zone via encryption of messages and on-chain identity. In addition, this application also has a strong system in the form of a passkey-secured smart wallet along with AI agents. In this decentralized world, real identity is the burning question in the market. Ontology comes on the front page to deal with it for the development of users. Ontology has revealed this news through its official X account.
Ontello to Deliver Self-Sovereign Identity and Encrypted Experience Fundamentally, the purpose behind this launch is to ensure full ownership in the sense that user will have their own identity and their own actions will not belong to any platform. With Ontello, users will experience a secure end-to-end encrypted messenger, self-sovereign identity powered by ONT ID, a built-in smart wallet that ensures proper working with the device’s passkey, and AI agents for Web3 life.
In addition, Ontology gives proper guidance for the efficient working of Ontello Beta, which is as simple as other apps. First of all, users will create a decentralized identity with ONT ID, because with ONT ID, every message is tied to a real, verifiable, self-owned identity. In this process, user can change their display name later, but the ONT ID remains permanent.
Empowering Users with Decentralized Identity and AI for Web3 This innovative step of Ontology is much more beneficial for users in terms of decentralized identity with a secured passkey system for the wallet. Moreover, Ontello Beta creates an automatic self-custody smart wallet upon first-time registration; in other words, there is no need for seed phrases, no private key management, no complication, but only the users’ wallet will be protected by a passkey.
This initiative is of great significance as now users can send their assets to ONT ID, ENS, or standard addresses. Last but not least, one of the interesting features of Ontello Beta is the AI Agent Store, which is specially built for Web3 users. To sum up in one line, Ontello’s aim is that users’ identity should be decentralized, communication should be encrypted, and AI should strengthen individuals, instead of platforms.
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Crypto journalist with years of experience providing in-depth analysis and news on blockchain and decentralized finance. With a keen eye for detail, Shahzaib delivers insightful articles that explore the latest trends, market movements, and innovations within the crypto and blockchain ecosystem. His work focuses on educating readers while offering expert commentary on the evolving landscape of digital assets, DeFi protocols, and the broader impact of blockchain technology.
Welcome to the December edition of the Ontology Ecosystem Newsletter.
December marked a busy close to the year, with important infrastructure updates, ecosystem milestones, and community conversations across Ontology, ONTO Wallet, and the wider network. Below is a structured overview of what happened and why it mattered.
Ontology Network Updates December focused heavily on infrastructure stability, long-term sustainability, and ecosystem alignment.
Early in the month, Ontology issued a mandatory MainNet v3.0.0 upgrade notice, requiring node operators to update by December 3 to avoid network disruption. This upgrade was accompanied by planned ONG supply adjustments around December 15, reinforcing Ontology’s commitment to predictable and transparent network operations.
To mark Ontology’s 8th anniversary, the team hosted a series of community discussions, including special Privacy Hour X Spaces focused on ecosystem progress and future direction, as well as Community Connect Spaces covering anniversary updates and broader Web3 trends.
December also saw Ontology join the Circle Alliance Program, opening the door for deeper collaboration around on-chain economies powered by USDC.
Additional highlights included:
Publication of the House of ZK report, covering MainNet upgrades and ecosystem developments A new Consensus Round 266 summary, outlining yield performance and staking growth Announcement of Ontology & Me campaign winners, distributing 1,000 ONG based on community voting Launch of Ontello Beta, introducing a new social Web3 application with encrypted messaging and AI agents Community Spaces in December Ontology 8th Anniversary Space Node, Staking, and ONTO Growth Space These conversations offered insight into both technical developments and broader ecosystem direction.
ONTO Wallet Highlights December was also an active month for ONTO Wallet, with a strong focus on discovery, trading activity, and community participation.
ONTO published its 2025 Year in Review, reflecting on the product’s evolution into a trusted Web3 discovery wallet designed to help users explore projects with greater clarity and confidence. This was complemented by the launch of the Year in Review feature inside the app, along with a community sharing campaign offering rewards of up to 100 USDT.
ONTO also announced an official partnership with Changelly, expanding exchange options inside the wallet. The integration is scheduled to go live in January, with related campaigns to follow.
Trading activity remained strong throughout the month, including:
Final leaderboards and winner announcements for the ONTO x Exolix Trading Competition Multiple trading lucky draw campaigns with rewards in USDT and ONG A new Exolix trading campaign offering a total prize pool of 4,400 USDT In parallel, ONTO continued community education efforts, publishing guidance on non-custodial wallet security and promoting discussions on building sustainable Web3 communities.
Network Activity Snapshot As of December, the Ontology network has processed:
20,149,529 total transactions and over 200 million ONT has been staked.
This milestone reflects continued on-chain usage across the ecosystem.
Looking Ahead As the year comes to a close, Ontology remains focused on infrastructure reliability, responsible ecosystem growth, and long-term engagement models. More updates on upcoming initiatives and community programs will be shared in the new year.
Thank you for being part of the Ontology ecosystem. We look forward to continuing the journey together in 2026.
Welcome to the January edition of the Ontology Ecosystem and Web3 Infrastructure Newsletter.
January marked a strong start to 2026, with important infrastructure improvements, new partnerships, and community conversations across Ontology Network and ONTO Wallet. Below is a structured overview of what happened and why it mattered.
Ontology Network Updates January focused on network optimization, thought leadership, and strengthening the foundation for enterprise adoption.
A key milestone this month was the 80% reduction in MainNet gas prices, implemented on January 22 following community governance approval. This reduction significantly lowers transaction costs across the network, improving accessibility for developers and users alike.
On the thought leadership front, Ontology published articles exploring Web3 distribution evolution with a focus on trust and discovery, as well as insights on CeDeFi as a bridge between liquidity and self-custody. These pieces reinforce Ontology’s position as a thought leader in decentralized infrastructure. For broader context on these themes, a16z crypto explores how portable reputation is reshaping on-chain identity.
Additional highlights included: 2025 ecosystem expansion highlights showcasing growth across identity and DeFi verticals
Ongoing community governance participation in network parameter decisions
Continued infrastructure reliability and node performance monitoring
Community Spaces in January Web3 Unlocks Live Space exploring opportunities with ecosystem partners
These conversations provided insight into both technical developments and broader ecosystem direction.
ONTO Wallet Highlights January was an active month for ONTO Wallet, with new partnership integrations and trading campaigns driving user engagement.
The previously announced partnership with Changelly officially went live this month, expanding in-wallet exchange options for users. To celebrate the integration, ONTO launched a trading competition with a total prize pool of 5,400 USDT.
ONTO continued its focus on helping users navigate Web3 with confidence, maintaining its position as a trusted discovery wallet designed for clarity and security. As blockchain identity tools enter everyday life, self-custody wallets like ONTO play an increasingly central role.
Network Activity Snapshot As of January, the Ontology network has processed:
20,162,892 total transactions
This milestone reflects continued on-chain usage across the ecosystem.
Looking Ahead With gas costs significantly reduced and new partnerships in place, Ontology is well-positioned for continued growth in 2026. Industry analysts identify digital identity, regulation, and government adoption as pivotal Web3 trends this year, areas where Ontology’s infrastructure continues to deliver. The network remains focused on infrastructure reliability, ecosystem expansion, and community-driven governance.
Thank you for being part of the Ontology ecosystem. We look forward to sharing more updates in February.
Ontology has spent eight years building the infrastructure for decentralised identity, reputation, and trust. Following the landmark tokenomics reform and 80% gas fee reduction of recent months, the foundation is firmly in place.
In 2026, we consolidate that foundation into real-world value. The identity and data stack converges within ONTO Wallet, giving individuals a single place to manage, build, and monetise their digital reputation. For AI-driven enterprises, Ontology provides verifiable, human-generated data they can rely on. Eight years of infrastructure becomes a gateway for human-centric AI and financial sovereignty.
A Leaner, More Accessible Public Chain The ONG tokenomics reform saw 200 million ONG burned and the supply permanently capped at 800 million, with an ongoing liquidity lock programme removing further supply from circulation. Community governance reduced gas fees by 80% in January 2026. These changes created a leaner, more cost-effective network. In 2026, we refine the engine and expand the community footprint.
We will continuously optimise the Ontology EVM with selective integration of high-value Ethereum Improvement Proposals that enhance performance and developer flexibility. The goal is to ensure the chain remains a top-tier environment for decentralised applications and supports the infrastructure demands of the data wallet model.
ONT staking continues to offer highly competitive APRs, and in 2026 we are lowering the barrier to entry for self-run nodes to encourage a more diverse validator set. Broader community participation in governance strengthens network resilience and distributes trust across the ecosystem rather than concentrating it.
We are also shifting toward gamified, social, and interactive engagement. The aim is to make the Ontology ecosystem not just functional but rewarding to explore, attracting new participants through experience rather than speculation alone.
Strengthening the Identity Foundation Decentralised identity has been at the core of Ontology’s mission since day one, and the ONT ID frameworkremains one of the most mature decentralised identity systems in production. As Real World Asset (RWA) use cases accelerate and demand for trustworthy digital credentials grows, the infrastructure underpinning identity must evolve in step.
In 2026, we will continue upgrading our Decentralised Identifier (DID) and Verifiable Credential (VC) infrastructure to meet the growing demands of RWA use cases, while maintaining alignment with the latest W3C standards. This ensures that Ontology’s identity layer remains interoperable, standards-compliant, and ready for the next wave of real-world adoption -whether that involves tokenised assets, cross-border credentials, or regulatory compliance frameworks.
The ONT ID system and its associated components form the trust backbone that makes ONTO Wallet’s identity monetisation features possible. Without verifiable, standards-aligned identity infrastructure, data monetisation and reputation systems lack the credibility that enterprises and institutions require.
Strategic Consolidation: The ONTO Integration We are moving from a fragmented product suite to a unified, focused platform. In 2026, we are selectively incorporating and re-exposing relevant functionalities developed in Orange Protocol (Reputation) and Ontello (Privacy) into ONTO Wallet, in a way that aligns with the right timing, user needs, and product context. Together with the ONT ID identity layer already built in, the result is a single product where users manage their identity, credentials, reputation, and privacy from one interface.
ONTO Wallet transforms from a crypto wallet into a data monetisation engine. Users will be able to leverage their accumulated reputation and verified data to unlock rewards, access exclusive services, and participate in the data economy. The value users have built over time through their identity and activity becomes something they can act on, not just maintain.
Where Crypto Meets AI Crypto has historically centred on trading. Ontology is looking toward the next decade of productivity.
Bitcoin started a revolution. AI is the technology currently reshaping daily life. We believe the true disruption lies at the intersection of blockchain and AI, where verifiable identity and user-consented data become essential infrastructure for the next generation of intelligent applications.
We will actively explore and implement use cases for ONT and ONG within AI applications. This includes positioning Ontology as a layer of truth for AI training sets: verified, human-generated data that models can rely on. It also includes using our tokens to facilitate micro-payments for decentralised AI agents and services, creating functional utility beyond speculation.
Data Sovereignty: Building the Alternative We stand firm in the belief that unique individuals deserve unique ownership.
We may not be able to stop the data-harvesting practices of Web2 giants directly. What we can do is build a superior alternative. Ontology provides the infrastructure that allows users to bypass traditional data exploitation and move toward self-sovereign data monetisation: owning their information, controlling who accesses it, and earning from its value.
By putting high-quality, user-consented data back into the hands of innovators, we empower projects to build more accurate, ethical, and impactful tools. The data economy does not have to be extractive. With the right infrastructure, it can work for the people who create the value in the first place.
2026 in Summary In 2026, Ontology consolidates eight years of infrastructure into a unified product and a clear market position. The identity and reputation stack -anchored by an upgraded ONT ID framework aligned with the latest W3C standards -converges in ONTO Wallet. The public chain becomes leaner and more accessible. And the intersection of blockchain and AI opens genuine utility for ONT and ONG beyond trading.
The work ahead is not about building more technology. It is about delivering value from the technology we have already built.
Join the Movement Whether you are an enterprise seeking verified, user-consented data, a builder creating the next generation of AI-powered tools, or an individual ready to take ownership of your digital identity -2026 is the year to get involved.
Explore the ecosystem at ont.io
Download ONTO Wallet at onto.app
Stake ONT and secure the network
Join the conversation and shape what comes next
Eight years of infrastructure. One unified vision. Your data, your future.
Ontology consolidates its decentralised identity, reputation, and privacy stack into ONTO Wallet, positioning the ecosystem at the intersection of blockchain and AI with verified, user-consented data.
Ontology, a leading decentralised identity and data infrastructure network, has published its 2026 roadmap outlining a strategic shift from infrastructure development to product consolidation and real-world value delivery.
The roadmap follows a landmark 2025 tokenomics reform that permanently capped ONG supply at 800 million, burned 200 million tokens, and introduced an ongoing liquidity lock programme. In January 2026, community governance reduced on-chain gas fees by 80%, creating a leaner and more cost-effective network for developers and users.
Product Consolidation: One Wallet, One Interface
Central to the 2026 strategy is the consolidation of Ontology’s product suite into ONTO Wallet. Relevant functionalities from Orange Protocol (reputation and data aggregation) and Ontello (privacy) are being selectively incorporated into ONTO, joining the ONT ID identity layer already built in. The result is a single interface for managing identity, credentials, reputation, and privacy.
ONTO Wallet will evolve from a crypto wallet into a data monetisation engine, enabling users to leverage their accumulated reputation and verified data to unlock rewards, access exclusive services, and participate in the emerging data economy.
Identity Infrastructure Upgrades
Ontology’s ONT ID framework remains one of the most mature decentralised identity systems in production. In 2026, the project will continue upgrading its Decentralised Identifier (DID) and Verifiable Credential (VC) infrastructure to support growing demand from Real World Asset (RWA) use cases, while maintaining alignment with the latest W3C standards.
Blockchain Meets AI
The roadmap positions Ontology at the intersection of blockchain and artificial intelligence. Verified, user-consented data from the ONTO ecosystem will serve as training sets for AI models, addressing the growing demand for high-quality, provenance-verified human data. ONT and ONG tokens will gain additional utility through micro-payments for decentralised AI agents and services.
Public Chain and Governance
Ontology will continue optimising its EVM-compatible chain through selective integration of Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs). The barrier to entry for self-run validator nodes will be lowered to encourage a more diverse and resilient validator set. Gamified ecosystem engagement initiatives are planned to drive broader community participation.
Data Sovereignty
The roadmap reinforces Ontology’s commitment to self-sovereign data ownership. The project is building infrastructure that enables users to bypass traditional data exploitation, control who accesses their information, and earn from its value -providing innovators with access to high-quality, user-consented data for building ethical and impactful tools.
About Ontology
Ontology is a high-performance, open-source blockchain specialising in decentralised identity, data, and reputation. Since 2018, Ontology has built a comprehensive trust infrastructure enabling self-sovereign identity, verifiable credentials, and user-consented data exchange. Its native tokens are ONT (governance) and ONG (utility). For more information, users can visit ont.io.
Ontology’s ONT jumps over 20% as traders bet its decentralized identity stack could benefit from the EU’s eIDAS 2.0 rollout of digital ID wallets to 450M citizens.
Summary
Ontology’s ONT token has surged more than 20% today, extending a week that saw an intraday jump of up to 55% as EU eIDAS 2.0 headlines hit the market. ONT, a decentralized identity and data infrastructure token, traded between roughly $0.0568 and $0.0959 over the last 24 hours, with its price now around $0.07. The move comes as the EU confirms eIDAS 2.0 digital identity wallets will roll out to more than 450 million citizens by 2026, a timeline that has lit up Binance Square and X. Ontology’s (ONT) price has rallied more than 20% in the last 24 hours, as traders crowd into what they see as a pure‑play bet on Europe’s coming digital identity overhaul. MEXC data show ONT changing hands near $0.07 today, up 19.45% on the session, with intraday trading between roughly $0.0568 and $0.09587 and a market capitalization of about $65.38 million based on a circulating supply of 934.26 million ONT. That builds on an earlier spike this week, when a Binance Square post noted that ONT had “recorded a sharp surge of nearly 50%, reaching $0.06235 in just a few minutes” on a breakout backed by a sudden volume spike.
The backdrop is the European Union’s decision to push ahead with eIDAS 2.0, a regulatory framework that will require every member state to offer at least one EU Digital Identity Wallet to citizens by 2026. A Binance Square analysis explicitly tied ONT’s move to that catalyst, arguing that “Ontology’s focus on identity security and data integrity is perfectly aligning with the EU’s new eIDAS 2.0 digital ID wallets,” and noting that the protocol’s infrastructure is designed around verifiable credentials and selective disclosure. In the same post, the author highlighted a “staggering 70% vertical surge in just three hours, spiking to $0.065,” alongside a “massive $1.16 million capital injection in a single hour” as traders chased the narrative.
Ontology price with overbought signals ONT sits in the digital identity and infrastructure niche rather than pure DeFi or L1 smart‑contract competition. Coingecko’s overview of Ontology describes it as a project focused on decentralized identity and data, with a circulating supply near 910 million ONT and a market cap that has recently hovered in the $50–70 million range. According to Binance Square, earlier this week ONT’s technical picture flashed classic “overbought” conditions, with the token’s relative strength index pushing into the 79–85 band as it ripped more than 55% intraday. That kind of momentum is usually associated with short‑term exhaustion, yet today’s continuation suggests dip‑buyers are still willing to lean into the eIDAS theme as long as the EU sticks to its late‑2026 rollout plan.
On the higher‑timeframe chart, CoinMarketCap data show ONT trading around $0.07227 recently, up 22.43% on the day, with a 24‑hour volume above $126 million and a gain of roughly 85.6% from its all‑time low of $0.03894 earlier in March. That bounce comes after years of drawdown from its $11.18 all‑time high set in May 2018, leaving plenty of bagholders who may see any identity‑driven rally as a chance to exit.
Digital id narrative ripples across peers The Ontology move is also resonating across the broader identity and privacy sector. While there is no single benchmark basket, traders on Binance Square and X are increasingly grouping ONT with other “identity stack” tokens and real‑world‑data plays that could, in theory, plug into government‑backed wallet schemes. The EU’s own vision, set out in public documents and explained by firms such as Thales, is to give roughly 450 million people a secure digital wallet that can hold credentials like IDs, diplomas or licenses under user control, using cryptographic attestations and selective disclosure. That pushes identity from niche to macro‑level infrastructure—exactly the kind of narrative that tends to attract speculative capital.
In previous crypto.news coverage of real‑world‑asset and identity projects, similar regulatory tailwinds have sparked sharp but uneven rallies, with early winners often those that have pre‑existing technical primitives rather than the best marketing. A separate crypto.news story on tokenization highlighted how EU pilots can create “credibility arbitrage” for protocols that fit policymakers’ priorities even if their token economics remain unproven. Another crypto.news story on market cycles noted that when Bitcoin and large caps stall, narratives like digital identity can briefly take center stage as traders hunt for the next high‑beta theme.
As ONT trades around $0.07 with daily gains above 20%, the question now is whether sustained progress on eIDAS 2.0 and concrete integration wins can justify the move—or whether this week’s rally will fade once the initial regulatory buzz is priced in.
China’s Center for Information Industry Developed Research Institute’s monthly crypto rankings have always been viewed as an oddity, given that the CCID is controlled by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in a country notoriously scathing toward cryptocurrency.
But since President Xi Jinping’s recent address at the Politburo claiming that “We must take blockchain as an important breakthrough for independent innovation of core technologies. Clarify the main directions, increase investment, focus on a number of key technologies, and accelerate the development of blockchain and industrial innovation,” the rankings potentially warrant more respect.
With the Chinese government announcing its intention to be at the epicenter of blockchain technology development, cryptocurrency markets went into overdrive, with Bitcoin seeing over 30 percent gains within ten hours.
Whether the Chinese government actually warms to the decentralized cryptocurrencies its citizens have long been enamored of remains to be seen. In the meantime, the news was widely viewed as a positive sign for the markets.
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Are the CCID Research Institute Rankings Suddenly Relevant Again? The newfound enthusiasm for blockchain in the CCP, also indicated in recent news of a pending state-run digital currency, drags the CCID’s rankings back into view. Its latest edition has just been released.
Assessed in terms of technology, applicability (capability of being applied to solve problems), and creativity (how unique the blockchain is in its approach to solving problems), EOS has consistently ranked first since the organization began publishing its rankings in May of 2018.
The 14th index shows some notable movements since its last report. TRON overtook Ethereum in second place, though only by the skin of its teeth. Lisk is up seven places to seventh and Qtum surged ten places to eighth.
Ontology is down seven places to fourteenth and Cosmos fell twelve places, from tenth to 22nd. GXChain fell precipitously, falling out of the top five in favor of BitShares. The top five now reads EOS, TRON, Ethereum, NULS, BitShares.
NANO on the Rise NANO enjoyed a rise from 22 to 13, finding a place back in the spotlight it lost during the early 2018 BitGrail debacle, from which it has since struggled to recover. As reported recently by Crypto Briefing, NANO is playing a substantial role in the ecosystem of Softbank-backed payments processor Wirex, an FCA-licensed company based in the U.K.
At a recent NANO meetup in London, Wirex’s CEO Pavel Matveev said the company was keen to continue its relationship with the crypto formerly known as RaiBlocks. A Wirex blog post also spared no compliments in describing Nano, calling it “a next-generation cryptocurrency with great potential.”
With an opaque ranking system, the CCID results will likely remain a curiosity for some time. However, the CCP’s apparent newfound fondness for blockchain technology means it is warranted for the community to put blatant skepticism over their rankings on hold for at least an interim period.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Paul de Havilland. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Crypto exchange giant Binance today announced the launch of its staking platform. Binance will issue monthly rewards and distributions to those holding certain tokens on its platform.
Customers will receive rewards for staking tokens for the following projects: NEO, Ontology (ONT), VeChain (VTHO), Stellar (XLM), Komodo (KMD), Algorand (ALGO), Qtum (QTUM), and Stratis (STRAT).
Staking rewards are essentially just rewards for HODLing your crypto in a Binance wallet. Crypto rewards will take the form of, er, more crypto—a little like interest in a bank account. This gives Binancians an incentive to hold their funds in Binance.
For staking, there will be no minimum staking amounts or time lengths, and users won’t have to set up any nodes. Come October 1, Binance will take a snapshot of the network every hour to calculate a snapshot of each day.
There are, however, “holding” amounts. To start receiving staking rewards on Algorand, for instance, you’d need to hold 2 ALGO. Luckily, the price of the ALGO has tanked, so that’s only around $0.34.
Tezos is notably absent from the launch. Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao hinted that users could earn rewards for staking Tezos earlier this week. A user asked CZ if Binance would offer staking rewards for Tezos, and the cryptic crypto CEO replied with a single laughing emoji.
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The value of the cryptocurrency Tezos rose by 26 percent last night, the slow-burning result of Coinbase’s announcement that it would reward customers for "staking" the cryptocurrency on its platform. But what does that actually mean?
In practice, staking allows customers to earn what is essentially interest on any cryptocurrency they hold, rewarding HODLers with a stream of passive income. Coinbase’s estimated annual return for users staking Tezos is 5 percent.
To earn rewards, customers must first stake Tezos for around 35-40 days, after which they will start to be rewarded with interest every three days.
Tezos is a proof-of-stake coin, meaning it has no miners. Instead, those who verify transactions stake coins on the validity of the transaction to help keep things running smoothly. Those who stake the coin have the chance to generate new Tezos, and provide the liquidity that underpins the network. Previously, Tezos users had to set up a “baker”—the proof-of-stake equivalent of a “miner”, to earn rewards. This was a relatively complicated process, requiring specialist knowledge.
On Coinbase, staking rewards are issued automatically, and customers do not have to take any further action to enter into the program. “This makes earning staking rewards much easier,” Nic Carter, a partner at Castle Island Ventures tells Decrypt.
Tezos, which is similar to Ethereum and allows distributed applications to be built on its blockchain, was started in 2014 by Kathleen and Arthur Breitman, a married couple who had significant fintech experience on Wall Street and beyond. The company raised $232 million in a 2017 ICO in Switzerland—which was a record fundraise at the time. In a long feature about the internecine struggles of the young company, "Inside the Crypto World's Biggest Scandal," Wired said that "the name 'tezos' became crypto-world shorthand for ICO avarice."
The company has since recovered from its governance crisis.
Interestingly, though Coinbase announced the Tezos staking program late morning California time, it didn’t start to surge until around 7:30PM PST. Then it took off like a rocket as traders raced to get in on the action. Carter said he couldn’t find any specific reason that the price jumped so dramatically so late in the day.
“Markets aren’t particularly good at incorporating information,” he said. That's particularly true in the crypto market, which Carter says is especially slow to respond to news.
For Coinbase, encouraging staking of Tezos could supply its exchange with a steady stream of the coin, adding liquidity to its exchange. This is helpful for the exchange, which Carter says is transitioning to being the equivalent of a “crypto native bank with a full custody offering.” Carter says the announcement is “a good incentive to have retail owners of Tezos deposit them with Coinbase.”
(We reached out to Coinbase and Tezos to understand more about the deal and will update the article when we have more information.)
Coinbase’s announcement follows rival cryptocurrency exchange Binance, who launched its own staking platform last month. It supported the following eight cryptocurrencies: NEO (NEO/GAS), Ontology (ONT/ONG), Vechain (VET/VTHO), Stellar (XLM), Komodo (KMD), Algorand (ALGO), Qtum (QTUM), & Stratis (STRAT). Stellar staking has finished, but several more pairings have been added: TRON, Elrond, Fetch.ai, and ONE.
Binance’s CEO, Changpeng Zhao has previously hinted at Binance’s future support for Tezos staking.
Of course, though stakers might be consistently rewarded with 5 percent of the coin’s value—the value of the individual coin is still subject to fluctuation. Binance estimates that staking Algorand, for example, will yield over 15 percent, but Algorand is a more volatile cryptocurrency. The Algo, worth $0.26—down from highs of $3.28 in June—has netted investors minus 92 percent in returns.
And, as Carter tells Decrypt, staking comes with risks: staking funds on Coinbase requires customers to keep funds on Coinbase. If the exchange—or the customer—gets hacked, then they could lose their Tezos.
Additionally, Carter says that staking on large exchanges means that “Coinbase and other exchanges will come to own a huge fraction of supply for these staked coins.” This, says Carter, is a potential risk: “the security model ultimately could degenerate into a few large custodial institutions signing blocks.”
Crypto analyst Eric Wall echoed Carter's caution: “I'd keep a worried eye on this. It's about time Proof-of-Stake really gets battle-tested in the context of a fully matured industry. We’ll soon see which tools and services become popular—then we can work out which threats are the most concerning, the same way we've done for Proof-of-Work.”
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Most of the top 50 altcoins recorded incredible recoveries over the past 2-3 days. While this did not hold good for all coins, as most of them were still suffering from the losses incurred last month, a few coins like Nano and HedgeTrade were actually on a bullish run. A few other alts like Stellar, Lisk and Ontology, on the other hand, were recording a short-term bearish run.
Stellar
Stellar has been doing fine in terms of price. Since the 55% drop on 12 March, the coin has been on an upward run, maintaining constant support at $0.036. However, the attached chart indicated the formation of a symmetrical triangle, one highlighting a 40% chance for a downward breakout
The CMF indicator lay at -0.04, hinting at a downward price outbreak. However, there were 60% chances of an upward breakout; if in this case it turns out to be true, the price might rise to reach the resistance at $0.04.
In other news, the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) is contributing to fight COVID-19 by launching a charity fund; XLM tokens are being accepted as donations by several charitable organizations, including UNICEF and The Tor Project.
Like Stellar, Nano, after the 57% drop on 12 March, maintained a stable price level for over a week. At the time of writing, the price was maintained its support at $0.42. The chart for Nano highlighted the formation of an ascending triangle, indicating an upward breakout in the market. The Awesome oscillator indicator also confirmed the upward breakout as it lay above the zero line, at press time.
HedgeTrade, with a circulating supply of 288,208,798 HEDG, was ranked 22nd on CoinMarketCap. As seen in the attached chart, the coin had been trending upwards since mid-December 2019, but the market crash on 12 March pushed down the price by 40%.
However, the coin has been trending upwards lately, and there was the formation of a potential ascending triangle, one signaling a further upward breakout. Additionally, the Stochastic RSI indicator was over 80, signaling an ‘overbought’ situation.
Months ago, Binance announced its Binance US and began to accept deposits from US citizens on September 18, starting with Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC) and USDT.
Binance US later grew this number to 19 and according to a recently published blog post written by Binance US CEO Catherine Coley, the company is now considering adding another 18 tokens to those already listed.
In the post, the exchange suggests that its decision to expand its list of supported tokens is borne out of the need to have “the most diverse selection of high-quality digital assets, without high fees.”
This expansion is bound to ensure that all of the exchange’s customers are not denied access to the bigger market with a lot more tokens and competition, ensuring that customers can trade assets with “true utility.”
The tokens currently been considered are Celer Network (CELR), Decreed (DCR), Enjin Coin (ENJ), Fantom (FTM), Icon (ICX), IOST (IOST), Komodo (KMD), OmiseGo (OMG), Harmony (ONE), Ontology (ONT), Ren (REN), Status (SNT), Theta (THETA), TomoChain (TOMO), Tron (TRX), NEM (XEM), Tezos (XTZ), and Hedera Hashgraph (HBAR).
The announcement also adds a reminder that all new users will get a $15 bonus when they sign up and will be able to trade free of charge for 30 days as it has been doing since the launch. Because Binance US is unavailable in some US states, the announcement also intimates that the platform is working on expanding access to the states that do not have Binance US access.
On the issuance of these tokens, Coley suggests that the company will take whatever measures it deems fit, to protect against fraud:
“Binance.US recognizes that the ease of issuing blockchain tokens and the perceived lack of regulation could make these tokens targets for abuse. Binanace.US has both legal obligations and moral duties to shield our users from fraudulent blockchain projects and combat financial crimes.”
Coley then concludes by asking the public to do “digital homework” before any decisions are made suggesting that customers are to not only learn about the prospective assets but also about methods being used by Binance.
Market Wrap Crypto consolidation continues; Litecoin still inching up, NEO making progress, everything else is flat. Crypto markets are looking a little erratic as we enter the weekend but in the grand scheme of things nothing has changed over the past seven days. Total market cap has crept up marginally but most tokens are still consolidating within their slim boundaries.
Bitcoin has bounced of intraday resistance levels of $3,640 twice but is still holding above major support at $3,600. Lower highs have been made all week indicating that BTC is likely to turn bearish soon, especially if it falls below the key $3,600 level.
Ethereum is stable at $123 still, it has not moved a bit over the past 24 hours and remains where it has been since mid-week. XRP is slowly weakening and the gap between the two has now widened to $450 million.
There has been so little action for the majority of the top ten that they are showing tenths of a percent change over the past day. Litecoin is the biggest mover with 2% as it pulls away from EOS and increases the market cap gap between them. Very little else is going on in this section.
NEO is today’s top coin in the big twenty as it adds 3% on the day. Tezos is creeping back towards a top twenty place adding 2% but it is still a way off Zcash. Maker and NEM are dumping 4-5 percent following a couple of days of reasonable gains.
There are only two altcoins in double digits at the time of writing. Ontology and Aelf have added 16% a piece during the Asian trading session. The Parity Games partnership appears to be driving momentum for ONT. There are no big dumps going on at the messy end of the top one hundred but the day’s worst performers are Aurora and Revain.
Total market capitalization has not moved over the past 24 hours and remains a fraction higher at just over $121 billion. Markets are still range bound in a very tight channel where they have been all week. There are no signs of momentum in either direction and the tedium continues in crypto land.
Market Wrap is a section that takes a daily look at the top 20 cryptocurrencies during the current trading session and analyses the best-performing ones, looking for trends and possible fundamentals
Crypto markets pulling back sharply; Litecoin, EOS, Bitcoin Cash and SV getting smashed, Crypto.com gets fomo. Market Wrap As expected crypto markets are finally dumping as we end the week. Over $16 billion has been lost as markets fall from their 2019 high back to $170 billion or so. Bitcoin initiated the dump but so far has remained above key support levels. It is the altcoins that are bleeding today.
Bitcoin fell below $5,000 for the first time in a week and settled at $4,950 before recovering slightly. The failure to break resistance at $5,400 has sent BTC back down as it drops around 4% on the day. Many had predicted this pullback and foretell further losses back to major support at $4,600 where the 200 day moving average is.
Ethereum has fallen harder as expected with a drop of 5% back below $165 again. There was no push to $200 for ETH which is still rising and falling along with its big brother. The gap between it and XRP in third is now much larger though at almost $4 billion market cap.
The top ten is a sea of red during today’s Asian trading session. The altcoins are getting hammered, some by double digits. Litecoin is losing 9% today as it falls back to $77, EOS and Bitcoin Cash are not doing a great deal better with 24 hours loses of 6 – 7 percent. Stellar and Cardano have both dumped 5% as Tether moves back up the chart.
The top twenty is awash with equal pain as Bitcoin SV, Ontology and Maker dump ten percent a piece. Close behind is Tron, NEO and Ethereum Classic with losses of over 6% on the day.
FOMO: Crypto.com Crushing It Despite the massive market correction Crypto.com’s Chain is flying today with a 25% fomo pump to $0.093 (1860 satoshis). There does not appear to be much driving the fomo, the only recent news is that the company donated $500k to Binance charity. South Korean markets are dominating trade in CRO with Upbit taking 40% of the total volume.
TrueChain is also getting fomo today with a 20% pump and Lambda is the third altcoin in double digits at 17%. KuCoin Shares are still getting dumped with a further 11% lost today. ABBC Coin and Revain, the usual suspects, are also dumping 10% each following recent pumps.
Total market capitalization 24 hours. Coinmarketcap.com Total crypto market capitalization has lost 5.5% in 24 hours falling from around $180 to just below $170 billion. Markets reached a new 2019 high on Thursday with a brief surge to $186 billion but since then $16 billion has been wiped out. This could be a short term pullback or the beginning of a final capitulation that so many analysts have been talking about.
Market Wrap is a section that takes a daily look at the top cryptocurrencies during the current trading session and analyses the best-performing ones, looking for trends and possible fundamentals.
Crypto markets pulling back; Bitcoin dominance rising, BNB and Cardano falling, BAT getting attention. Market Wrap Crypto markets have held gains largely thanks to Bitcoin’s rally yesterday. Total market capitalization remains over $180 billion at the time of writing as BTC eats into the altcoins while its dominance climbs to the highest levels this year.
Bitcoin surged through $5,600 yesterday and spent most of the past 24 hours above it. It has started to pull back now though in early Asian trading and was sitting around $5,550 this morning. Volume is currently at a weekly high of $16 billion and momentum has remained with BTC which has increased its total market share. Analysts are expecting a pullback but the correction should not be too severe;
$BTC Daily Chart.
There are multiple Fib clusters lined up at the 5850 area. Not to mention that it rejected at the 127.2 retrace today. IMO, getting close to a local top. Not saying to sell all out, but if me, I would reduce exposure and see what the correction looks like. pic.twitter.com/VP6ZpTIQUN
— CryptoFibonacci (@CryptoFib) April 24, 2019
Ethereum has dropped back to just below $170, it did not react with BTC this time and has remained pretty flat over the past week or so. ETH is falling back to last week’s levels as all gains get wiped out.
Altcoins have not rallied this time around and the top ten is all red today. The biggest two losers are Binance Coin and Cardano which have dumped 6 to 7 percent on the day. The rest have slumped 2 to 4 percent as traders move into Bitcoin or back into stablecoins.
There are only a couple of beacons of green in the top twenty at the time of writing. Monero and Tezos have made marginal gains but all those around them have fallen back. IOTA, Ethereum Classic and Ontology have dumped hard dropping over 6 percent each. The rest are losing 3 to 5 percent during early trading this Wednesday.
FOMO: BAT Back At It There are no major pumps going on in the top one hundred at the moment but the best performing altcoin is Basic Attention Token after a few days of declines. BAT is up 9 percent on the day to reach an intraday high of $0.45. Brave browser ads have gone live according to the Reddit which has driven momentum for BAT again.
Aurora and NULS are making around 8 percent today but there are no double digit gains as most altcoins are getting eaten by Bitcoin. The biggest loser today is yesterday’s fomo coin, DigixDAO dropping 17 percent. Digitex Futures and Revain are also getting dumped doubles today.
Total market cap 24 hours. Coinmarketcap.com Total market capitalization has corrected a little back to $181 billion. Most of yesterday’s gains have been lost by altcoins but Bitcoin is holding on to them at the moment. Market dominance has risen to a four month high of 54.2 percent as Bitcoin controls the markets at the moment.
An international education initiative, designed to train the next generation of blockchain developers, has announced that TRON and the Stellar Development Foundation are among the inaugural thirteen companies who will work collectively to provide skills and expertise for the benefit of the industry.
The Blockchain Education Alliance, which is headed-up by MouseBelt, a combined VC fund and design studio, unveiled its first members: and they include a number of well-known names from the space.
As well as TRON (TRX) and Stellar (XLM), other Alliance cryptocurrency companies include Hedera (HBAR), ICON (ICX), Wanchain (WAN), and Ontology (ONT). There are also commercial and development companies like Emurgo and ETC Lab. Other members include Harmony One, Nervos, Orbs, LTO Network, and NEM (XEM).
Education, Education, Education MouseBelt is an accelerator for brand-new startups – as well as blockchain initiatives for existing companies – that has a team of fifty engineers to build products for companies all around the world.
Ashlie Meredith, Director of MouseBelt University, told Crypto Briefing that the idea of an Education Alliance came about after realizing there was “…probably a lot of really good projects going on at universities because that’s where a lot of innovation happens”.
After talking to Presidents of Blockchain Societies in the US and Canada, MouseBelt found they were all “…saying the same thing”. Frustrated with the lack of educational resources available for blockchain development, students were mostly teaching themselves blockchain because the “slow and bureaucratic” universities took too long to develop accredited courses.
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MouseBelt began by offering sponsorship agreements for meetups at thirteen schools across North America, as well as some support for hackathons and conferences at the beginning of the last academic year.
“We started the university programme to sponsor their events and get a conversation going,” explained Meredith. But that has now extended into an alliance of sixty-eight schools in more than fourteen countries, with universities in Europe, Singapore and Korea offering courses in all aspects of the industry. Meredith herself runs a course in event management and engagement with other crypto-users.
MouseBelt is now talking to universities, getting them on-board with official courses. They have already signed official partnerships with engineering departments at three universities and are currently trying to establish a base in Latin America too.
With clear engagement from universities, the Education Alliance is intended to extend the availability and depth of courses. Meredith said courses on Solidity were frequently in demand and the aim is for companies actively involved in the space to connect with students, guiding them on the technology and even provide office hours or online seminars.
What do the Alliance members get out of it? Nikhil Saraf, Principal Engineer at SDF, said they were already working on devoting resources to the Education Alliance, as it complemented their existing initiatives to encourage developers into learning blockchain skills.
“At the end of the day we’re building a community”, he said, “…and with this alliance we can get more students involved and teach them best practices on blockchain and how to develop on Stellar.”
Although SDF has not clearly articulated what its role in the Alliance will be, they did not see its purpose as recruiting programmers. Saraf mentioned that they were interested in the positive benefits it would bring to the whole space.
That said, he hoped it would make Stellar relevant to the next generation of blockchain developers; and they would be open to beginning conversations with promising projects.
“We want them to do their thing with that knowledge, hopefully on Stellar,” he added.
Kicking off this week, the new Education Alliance just had their first virtual meetup – an event that members are expected to attend to help coordinate the direction of education.
Although every company will be looking to take something slightly different from the Alliance, Meredith said that they wanted members who cared about “…the ethos of what blockchain is trying to do”, whether that’s through data privacy or financial sovereignty.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Paddy Baker. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
In 2017, China dominated cryptocurrency headlines – but to many observers, it’s now all quiet on the eastern front. But don’t let the diminished focus fool you – Chinese blockchain projects continue to innovate and build; and some are moving ever-closer to major global adoption.
On Thursday, September 6th, NEO organized a press event entitled “Symposium: Blockchain in China” which involved seven Chinese and Southeast Asian blockchain projects – NEO, Bytom, PlatON, Ontology, Vechain, Conflux, and TomoChain.
NEO Global Development (NGD)’s head of marketing, Gao Yuan, moderated the event. Discussions focused primarily on the Asian blockchain industry through 2020; driving mass adoption in China; and the Chinese regulatory environment.
Last February, NEO’s leadership outlined the roadmap to NEO3 at the second DevCon in Seattle. Since then, many of their goals have been achieved. NEO has successfully expanded the NGD Seattle team, updated NEO’s consensus algorithm, partnered with second layer solution providers, and launched a digital identity solution.
Source: NEO The project leaders discussed collaborative efforts towards building Web3 solutions, or what NEO founder Da Hongfei referred to as the next-generation internet (NGI) initiative, launched by the European Commission.
The future of blockchain in China The symposium began with a discussion of stablecoins and their potential impact on the future of Chinese exchanges. Most participants at the round table believed fiat-backed stablecoin assets could be viewed similarly to traditional currencies, which regulators may see as a replacement for conventional fiat.
Notably, the traditional industry seeks stable assets, because Bitcoin’s price volatility reduces institutional interest in using cryptocurrency for lending or settling trades. When regulators can view fiat-backed stablecoins as currency alternatives, cryptocurrency may become acceptable assets for management.
But TomoChain’s CBDO, Kyn Chaturvedi, challenges the need for banks to accept crypto-backed assets.
As centralized exchanges such as KuCoin and Binance offer “soft staking,” Chaturvedi pointed out, these platforms have become bank-like entities that manage retail investor’s assets. With staking benefits, retail investors may choose to park assets in an exchange, as opposed to a bank.
Further, the outlook through 2020 is “all about enterprise,” according to Chaturvedi. He expects decentralized finance applications to begin entering the Vietnamese and Southeast Asian markets.
Da Advocates For Blockchain Trade Organization NEO’s Da added that interoperability (or cross-chain atomic swaps) will have a more significant role moving forward.
With the digitization of assets, he pointed out, retail investors can use physical assets (i.e., mortgaging a home) for collateral. Digitizing assets also allows for user transaction history to act as a form of credit history, which may increase access to assets or settlement characteristics for users.
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Further, Da believes the conversation could begin around a type of world trade organization (WTO) between blockchain-based companies. A WTO might help to create a broader overlap across chains, much like the overlap between economies of varying countries. He went on to say that a free-trade zone among public blockchains could create a better division of labor.
For example, European and U.S.-based projects seem ever more likely to register in Switzerland, and Asian projects are often primarily interested in registering in Singapore. Something like a blockchain-WTO is necessary to consider activities allowed in specific jurisdictions.
Looking forward, Jun Li, founder of Ontology, believes changes in the coming year will meld developing countries with the internet. This could allow smaller to medium-sized platforms the opportunity to increase data points, use cases, and credibility.
Source: NEO Driving mass adoption in China Before mass commercialization of blockchain can occur, current technologies and product offerings must reach a level of maturation, which reduces friction for onboarding new users. Reducing friction for end-users is a prerequisite.
Developers and companies should make it simple for the less technologically savvy portions of the population to purchase cryptocurrencies and use decentralized applications. Further, tokens need to be integrated into current traditional platforms to replace current offerings.
Kevin Fang, founder of VeChain, is integrating the company’s blockchain technology into the existing technology of the company’s enterprise partners. As a service, VeChain outsources provider solutions that are customized for specific industry-based pain points.
For example, VeChain offers traceability to Walmart China’s supply chain for food safety. To hammer home the point of interoperability, Fang said, “enterprise partners don’t care which chain they’ll use, or if it’s a public or private chain, they just care that a traceability solution will work.”
John Wang, head of NEO Ecosystem Growth department, believes there are two areas of focus for driving mass adoption: complete ecosystems and interoperability.
First, he said, complete ecosystems are required to grow user bases and integrate blockchains. The integrity of a public blockchain is critical for the success of a project as is its ability to offer support for ecosystem partners.
Second, a single blockchain cannot serve real enterprises, just as systems, applications, and products (SAP) solutions can not address all of an industries problems. In addition to software, he said, implementation teams are also necessary to coordinate and assist enterprise partners in meeting their needs.
Ultimately, blockchain-based entities require further regulation, so they understand the limitations within which they can operate and where they stand. Without defined regulations, existing companies can get shut down when new regulations come down the pipeline.
With a clearly defined regulatory framework, blockchain can more easily integrate with current financial products and traditional industries.
China’s regulatory environment The final discussion of the symposium focused on China’s current and potential future regulatory environment.
Yuanjie Zhang, CFA of Conflux, highlighted that “blockchain and regulation aren’t incompatible.” Activities on blockchain architecture require regulation, he said, whether it’s activity through the exchanges or private wallets.
For example, U.S. projects require digital currency exchanges to submit know your customer (KYC) data. If a user gains returns from their assets through an exchange and doesn’t file taxes, authorities will soon be able to to catch tax evaders.
“If the Chinese government wants to tighten regulation,” he said, “then it just needs to look at the regulations around the world.”
Chaturvedi noted that, “In the West, we think China is strict, but there is clarity on what regulations actually are. In the US, there’s the SEC, the CFTC, FinCEN… each look at cryptocurrencies in different ways. As a result, regulation is very confusing.”
“Permissionless doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to be non-compliant,” said Ontology’s Li, noting that ICOs are banned in China because of illegal fundraising strategies. Li went on to say, “Fraud is illegal everywhere; China isn’t an exception.”
“Chinese regulation is among the strictest in the world,” added Da Hongfei. “China knows very well what can be done and what can’t be done, which is different from many regulators.” He went on to highlight that Chinese blockchain projects spend more on legal costs than blockchain companies in other countries.
With only three regulators in China that usually issue joint guidelines, Chinese-based projects like NEO better understand what can and can’t be done.
Interoperability Demonstrates Blockchain Advances NEO hosted the symposium to highlight the importance in the industry to build relationships across projects and establish interoperability protocols in the future.
Perhaps price isn’t the best indicator to measure blockchain projects’ successes and their potential moving forward.
Rather, it may be more telling to pay attention to coordination efforts between blockchain projects that have remained in the industry through the 2018 bear market.
If multiple blockchains are to succeed in the future, it is interoperability that will likely be paramount to their success – and that of the broader industry.
This article has been amended to correct a mispelling of Kyn Chaturvedi’s last name.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Dylan Grabowski. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
During the inaugural NEO Community Assembly (NCA), NEO introduced three new products. Fresh off the week-long NCA, NEO launched NEO3 Preview1, a pilot on their testnet that demonstrates considerable upgrades that could soon be incorporated on NEO’s mainnet protocol. These additions have pushed NEO closer to its anticipated NEO3 mainnet launch.
Inaugural NEO Community Assembly (NCA) Product Launches
Taking place from September 2 to 6, the NEO Community Assembly offered powerful insights into mass blockchain adoption within the China landscape by bringing together NEO as well as leading China-based projects such as Ontology, VeChain, PlatON, and Bytom. The biggest news out of this event was the release of three products focused on advancing towards next-gen Internet by enabling large-scale blockchain adoption through NEO’s signature developer-centric approach to innovation.
NEO•ONE offers an end-to-end framework for simplified programming, testing, and deployment of NEO dApps. NEO Blockchain Toolkit for .NET and NEO Express, developed by Visual Studio and Microsoft .NET, is a plug-in to improve the accessibility of smart contract development for both platforms’ large developer communities, 21 million and 7 million respectively.
Finally, NeoFS provides a system for decentralized file storage that emphasizes privacy, security, fault tolerance, scalability, and performance. The vision for NeoFS is to support dApp users who need to store data by providing a much cheaper alternative to what centralized cloud providers currently offer. The combination of all three tools are part of NEO’s strategy to strengthen the foundations of the project’s growing ecosystem.
NEO3 Preview1 Goes Live
Besides the launch of new products, the focal point of NCA was the talk surrounding the future of NEO’s protocol changes. Since the project published the NEO3 roadmap in April 2019, NEO developers have been working towards a full-scale mainnet upgrade which will provide several improvements that are vital to enterprise adoption. Recently, NEO achieved another milestone with the launch of its NEO3 Preview1 pilot on TestNet, representing a step towards NEO’s goal of building the foundation for next-gen Internet. NEO3 Preview1’s upgrades and features only apply to the TestNet. Nevertheless, they offer a compelling snapshot into NEO3 ahead of the planned migration, which is expected to happen sometime in Q1 2020.
Numerous upgrades have gone into the release of NEO3 Preview1. This includes an auto compression mechanism on P2P messages, which provides savings on space and bandwidth. In turn, this increases the possible number of transactions per second (TPS). While many changes apply to the efficiency of the blockchain itself, there are several refinements made with developers in mind. As one example, NEO 2.x has nine different transaction types that are related to a particular application scenario or provide more niche functionality. With NEO3, there will only be one transaction type. Other changes are focused on small tweaks for specific scenarios. For instance, the time unit of each block timestamp has been changed to milliseconds to open up more possibilities for IoT use cases.
After the events of last week, news from China keeps on coming. After China’s president, Xi Jinping, urged the country to increase its usage of blockchain technology, crypto prices have gone through the roof. The overall cryptocurrency market experienced a significant uptick initially, but that wasn’t enough for Chinese projects, as some have continued to surge by the hour.
Chinese Crypto Projects to the Moon Friday was a day filled with optimism in the crypto market. The president of China made an announcement that appears to have had a huge impact on the industry. According to Xi Jinping, the country should invest more in blockchain tech in light of its “critical role in technology innovations and industrial revolutions”.
The community was quick to react, and gains were had all over the place, especially for China-based projects. While most altcoins are surging against the USD but falling against Bitcoin, NEO, Ontology, Qtum, Bytom, GXChain are all skyrocketing at the moment.
Bytom’s rise is the most notable one as of now, having increased more than 75% against BTC and 85% against the US dollar.
BTM/BTC Bittrex. Source: TradingView Ontology has risen 40% against BTC and 45.5% against the dollar.
ONT/BTC Binance. Source: TradingView NEO is trading at $11.71, having risen 35% against the dollar and 27% against BTC.
NEO/BTC Binance. Source: TradingView As impressive as these surges are, these projects’ all time highs are even higher. Bytom’s current price ($0.143) is down 85% from its ATH of $1.17. Similarly, ONT is down 90% from $10 to $0.95, and NEO has fallen 94% from its ATH of $196.
You may also like: Trump Heads to Beijing for High-Stakes Xi Summit: What It Means for Bitcoin Why Has Bitcoin Dumped 50% When Global Liquidity Has Increased? Chinese-Language Laundering Networks Now Dominate a Fifth of Global Illicit Crypto Flows Chinese Interest Picks Up Xi’s announcement regarding blockchain has had a significant impact in other areas as well. It’s still hard to say if that was the only reason for the substantial price surge, but it’s safe to assume that it played a role.
CryptoPotato reported earlier today on increased interest in blockchain and Bitcoin among the Chinese public. The China-based multi-purpose app WeChat showed a 1,200% increase for blockchain-related searches on the 25th of October. Also, a new cryptocurrency law is set to become active in the country starting next year.
Interestingly, the CEO of US-based Facebook last week urged his own country to invest more in blockchain, lest it fall behind other countries such as China.
This weekend has been one of the best in recent history in terms of crypto asset performance. Bitcoin’s epic rally to retouch five figures has given its brethren a boost but there appears to be a pattern emerging. Chinese crypto assets are leading the way resulting in speculation that the red dragon may have just ignited another altseason.
Chinese Crypto Bulls Awaken Most altcoins have remained on the floor this year. A brief move in summer renewed hope that an altseason may be about to begin again but that was quashed when all gains evaporated over the past few months.
Only a tiny handful of altcoins have made serious progress this year, the majority are still over 80% down from their all-time highs.
As Bitcoin got a major boost late last week from the Chinese president, crypto asset markets increased by 25%, or over $50 billion in just a day or two. Many of those low lying altcoins started to surge and Chinese ones were leading the pack as the fomo builds.
Tron has been explosive over the past day with a 30% surge to reach $0.021 or 215 satoshis. Daily volume is almost $2 billion which has push market capitalization up to $1.9 billion. Chinese entrepreneur and project CEO Justin Sun has been a marketing machine and he didn’t miss the opportunity to post that TRX was now a top ten crypto asset again.
Back to TOP 10. #TRON #TRX $TRX $BTT pic.twitter.com/kTMIof3PIT
— H.E. Justin Sun 👨🚀 🌞 (@justinsuntron) October 28, 2019
There has also been a lot of Tether printing recently for chain swaps to the TRC-20 standard which Poloniex, Huobi and Bitfinex are now supporting.
VeChain is another Chinese crypto project and it is no surprise that this token is also surging 30% at the moment. VET has spiked to 44 satoshis in under 24 hours as the fomo intensifies in the People’s Republic. Bytom, another Chinese dominated crypto platform, has pumped over 100% in 24 hours as BTM topped $0.18.
NEO is another solid performer as this ‘Chinese Ethereum’ has cranked 35% on the day. Late last week NEO was trading below $7 and by Monday morning it had topped $12. Daily volume has surged from around $225 million late last week to $1.3 billion at the moment which equals that during the January 2018 peak.
There have been continual updates and development on the blockchain and network but until this weekend NEO has not performed at all. When NEO does perform well, its sibling tokens also get a lift and GAS and Ontology are cranking higher today.
Not So Fast … Not all are so optimistic however and the Chinese fomo should be taken with caution according to some crypto analysts. Alex Krüger noted that China will not allow public decentralized crypto assets and is all about control;
“Odds of China supporting public blockchains with tradeable tokens that can be used for speculation and moving money out of China bypassing capital controls … are close to zero. China is not interested in decentralization but in control. Private blockchains don’t need tokens.”
This may be the case but it does seem that the China effect has caused more fomo than Bakkt, Libra and any crypto ETF promises combined.
It’s safe to say that the last few days have been nothing short of turbulent for Bitcoin. After trading in a close range for a few weeks with rather low volatility, the cryptocurrency last week recorded its largest daily price increase since 2011. In a span of about 24 hours, it surged by more than 40%, rising as high as $10,350.
Predictably, a correction soon followed. Bitcoin shed about $1,000, as its price fell to around $9,400. Bitcoin’s dominance rate also increased notably. Prior to the latest surge, Bitcoin’s share of the overall crypto market was around 65.5%, and it rose as high as 68.6% before pulling back to 67.9%.
BTC/USD. Source: TradingView Altcoins also saw substantial gains following Bitcoin’s price surge. This was especially true for Chinese projects, many of which saw massive increases. That’s perhaps to be expected, given that one of the potential reasons for the overall market increase was China’s President Xi Jinping urging the country to streamline the usage of blockchain technology.
Major Cryptocurrency Headlines Mark Zuckerberg Is Right About China: President Xi Jinping Urges Investment in Blockchain. The president of China, Xi Jinping, urged the country to increase the development and implementation of blockchain-based technology, praising its qualities and usage in various industries. Interestingly enough, this came just a couple of days after Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, said that “China is moving quickly” in this regard and that the US could fall behind if it fails to speed up.
Bitcoin’s Price Touches $10,350, Records Largest Daily Percentage Increase Since 2011. Immediately after President Xi Jinping’s speech, Bitcoin recorded its largest daily increase in percentage terms since 2011. The cryptocurrency went parabolic, spiking more than 40%. The move was sudden, and the price subsequently cooled off a bit, retracing to $9,400.
WeChat Searches For “Blockchain” Spiked 1,200% Following News of New Chinese Cryptocurrency Law. It goes without saying that regulations have a lot to do with adoption and awareness in the field of cryptocurrency. WeChat, a Chinese multi-purpose application, saw a substantial surge in searches for blockchain-related terms. The development followed not only the president’s statement but also some reported changes in the country’s cryptocurrency laws.
You may also like: Saylor Should Stop Buying Bitcoin, Says CryptoQuant Strengthening Dollar and OG Selling Pressure Keep Bitcoin Bears in Control Analyst Warns: Strategy Will Have to Sell Over 50,000 BTC by 2028 The Biggest Winners and Losers Bytom (+84.91%) Bytom, being a China-based cryptocurrency project, is among the biggest winners of the top 100. BTM has surged upwards of 86% in the past 24 hours, bringing its price to around $0.144 at the time of this writing. Trading against Bitcoin, BTM is up around 85%. It currently possesses a market cap of around $144 million and has also seen a notable increase in trading volume. Over the past day, its trading volume has exceeded $152 million.
Ontology (+33.19%) Ontology has also managed to capitalize on the latest market movement. Its price increased by about 33%, and ONT is currently trading at around $0.973. Its market cap is approximately $541 million. Interestingly enough, the cryptocurrency also made substantial gains against Bitcoin, as it’s trading around 31% higher against the leading cryptocurrency. Its trading volume is also massive – more than $709 million in the past 24 hours alone.
Nexo (-9.66%) Unfortunately, not all projects managed to catch Bitcoin’s latest wave. In the past 24 hours, Nexo has declined by about 10% against the US dollar and 11% against BTC, making it the biggest loser among the top 100 coins. Its current market capitalization is around $53 million, and its trading volume is a little more than $10 million.
Over the last three days, cryptocurrencies have registered one of the biggest price jumps and crypto enthusiasts are more optimistic than ever about the future. The market cap of the aggregate crypto market stands at around $250 billion, after gaining more than $50 billion in days. According to some analysts, this unexpected ascent was as a result of the comments made by the Chinese President Xi Jinping and the passing of the crypto law that will see increased use of blockchain technology in China.
The Chinese crypto FOMO has had a profound effect on digital assets than ever witnessed, with Chinese-centric coins posting the most gains. To cap it all off, a major Chinese bank has invested in a local bitcoin wallet provider.
Chinese Crypto FOMO Massively Pumps The Market The comments by Xi Jinping and the passing of the cryptography law came as a huge surprise to many considering the fact that China has been on the forefront to fight cryptocurrency. Now, the Chinese government is seemingly taking a bold step towards the adoption and growth of blockchain technology, presumably to gain an edge in the budding digital landscape.
On Friday last week, Jinping made some positive comments about blockchain technology. On Saturday (26/10/2019), the standing committee of the 13th National People’s Congress passed the cryptography law which will take effect early next year. This law is designed to standardize the application of passwords and the use of blockchain technology.
These events have had a tremendous effect on the crypto economy. Overall, the prices of almost all the cryptocurrencies have improved a great deal over the last few days. These gains have been monumental compared to the impact seen with Bakkt, Facebook’s Libra or the hope of approval of ETFs by the USA regulatory bodies.
Chinese-Centric Coins Record Huge Gains Although the news coming from China pumped the entire crypto markets with bitcoin, XRP, Ethereum, and other top cryptos posting considerable gains, Chinese-centric coins are noticeably enjoying the lion’s share.
TRON (TRX) has gained 15.60 percent against the US dollar in the last 24 hours. TRX climbed from $0.0137 to $0.020244 at press time. Its market capitalization stands at $1.35 billion, making TRX the tenth-ranked cryptocurrency. TRX’s ascent is as a result of several bullish reports surfacing from China. Additionally, TRON founder Justin Sun recently mentioned an upcoming partnership between Tron and a 100 billion dollar megacorporation. According to Sun, this partnership will promote the distribution of TRON Dapps and tokens to a vast number of customers.
Other cryptocurrencies that have some sort of tie to China are posting massive gains. Bytom, Ontology, VeChain, and IOST are up by 37.78%, 11.37%, 5.31%, and 8.19% respectively in just 24 hours.
Chinese Bank Invests In Bitcoin Wallet BitPie According to a couple of crypto analysts, bitcoin was headed towards a bearish territory, the Death Cross. This is a scenario that happens when the 50-day moving average drops below the 200-day moving average. In simple terms, before Friday, bitcoin’s technical outlook looked dismal but dramatically changed after comments from the Chinese leadership.
Chinese bitcoin FOMO has risen, so much so that a Chinese bank has reportedly invested in a local bitcoin wallet platform. According to a well-known industry analyst and founding partner of Primitive Crypto Dovey Wan, China Merchants Bank has invested in BitPie, one of the longest-serving bitcoin wallet provider in China. BitPie is a non-custodial wallet and so far has the largest number of users. Per Wan, this move is a continuation of the growing trend of crypto and blockchain nationalization in China. She summed it up nicely, stating:
“All I can say is this ton me it’s a sign of [the] beginning of the nationalization of Bitcoin/cryptocurrency related infra in mainland [China]. Eventually, all things can be state-owned, or at least partially (mining, ASIC, exchanges, wallets, etc).”
Does This Mean China Is Finally Unbanning Bitcoin And Cryptocurrencies? In 2017, the Chinese government restricted trading on local cryptocurrency exchanges and banned ICOs. However, it appears that the Chinese government is now taking a different approach. In addition to embracing blockchain technology, reports say that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is distributing material intended for blockchain learning, with content about bitcoin and ethereum as well.
Moreover, Sichuan Daily reported today that Yang Jiang, former Vice-chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission suggested that Sichuan province should open up more business opportunities in the region using both bitcoin and blockchain technology.
It’s worth noting that the remarks made by Jiang are not representative of the Chinese government. However, they come just a few days after the Chinese president Xi Jinping made impressive comments about blockchain. This goes to show that China is not only becoming more interested in blockchain technology but also in bitcoin.
While it is rather improbable that the Chinese government would create any kind of competition for its upcoming digital currency, the hard-line stance on bitcoin and cryptocurrencies seems to have changed considerably.
China is abuzz with all things blockchain. Since Thursday, when Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered his ringing endorsement of digital ledger technology, China has seen an abundance of new initiatives, positive sentiment and surges across cryptocurrencies and blockchain related stocks.
In late 2017, in a bid to protect retail investors burned by the ICO craze, China adopted a tough stance on cryptocurrencies, while continuing to champion blockchain, the underlying technology. The global effect wasn’t instantaneous, but many analysts saw its attitude to cryptocurrencies as a harbinger of the fall in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies over the following months.
Xi’s calls last week for China to “take the leading position” in blockchain, as a “core technology,” and for industry investment and support, have resulted in what many are calling a new boom for the industry.
Here’s how that’s playing out in China and beyond.
1. Crypto boom timeBitcoin (BTC) surged 24% in the 24 hours following Xi’s comments, reaching $10,350 in its biggest two-day leap since late 2017. Other major cryptocurrencies including Ethereum (ETH) and Ripple's XRP also saw big gains. Pundits took to Twitter to proclaim that the president’s comments had sparked a crypto boom, though not everyone was in agreement.
$BTC has moved +42% today
- 4th largest gain in history and largest since May/10/2011 (if comparing against daily returns).
- 15th largest two-day gain in history, Nov/18/2013.
Thank you China.
President Xi is the true Crypto Dad.
— Alex Krüger (@krugermacro) October 26, 2019
2. Soaring blockchain based stocks Government support of preferred Chinese industries translates to billions of dollars in cheap financing and other subsidies, with investors alert for any sign of favoritism towards a certain sector.
As a result of Xi’s pronouncement, Chinese investors have been snapping up shares in blockchain-related businesses. More than 85 stocks hit the 10 per cent upside limit that halts trading in Shenzhen and Shanghai, the Financial Times reported today. Even businesses only marginally related to blockchain benefited, including an index of blockchain-related equities compiled by data provider Wind which saw an 8.9 percent rise to its highest level since April. In Hong Kong, Pantronics Holdings, which was acquired by crypto exchange Huobi, soared as much as 62 per cent.
“It’s all because of Xi,” Pan Shaochang, an equity analyst at financial services startup Dongwu Securities, told the FT. He added that many of these businesses were still at an early stage, but that “the growth potential is huge.”
3. Chinese crypto renaissanceChinese cryptocurrencies have emerged from the doldrums to take centre stage. Home-grown cryptocurrencies NEO, Ontology (ONT), Quantum (QTUM), VeChain (VET) and others saw gains of more than 50%. Bytom (BTM), saw an increase of 459%, as per reports on China’s Huobi exchange. Such staggering gains caused commentators to ridicule the influence on the market of crypto startups such as Bitcoin futures exchange Bakkt or Facebook’s Libra coin.
Ahahahahahhaha, now on Chinese CT
" Fuck ETF, fuck Bakkt, fuck Libra, none of these BS will pump, only we Chinese pump with real money, the only way to pump"
(excuse me for the F word... try my best to translate from very Chinese slang)
— Dovey 以德服人 Wan 🗝 🦖 (@DoveyWan) October 28, 2019
Chinese research agency CCID today poured oil on these claims with its update of global project rankings. EOS retrained its pole position, but Swiss-headquartered Ethereum gave way to China-based Tron. While the CCID’s methodology has been questioned by some, it’s also gained credence after Xi’s comments.
4. Surging interest across Chinese mediaBlockchain has been all over the Chinese media since Xi’s remarks, with @cnledger, a Twitter account for China's crypto industry, noting that it’s been reported on “intensively” across national TV channels and newspaper headlines.
Search volumes for keywords related to blockchain also spiked on Chinese search engine Baidu and messaging app WeChat after the presidential speech. China-based Google searches rose significantly, suggesting that Xi’s remarks had encouraged intense interest in cryptocurrencies, said Reuters.
"There have definitely been more conversations since the weekend," Anthony Wong of Hong Kong-based crypto investment firm Orichal Partners told the New York Times.
5. China’s national digital currency is imminentIn recent months, China has stepped up plans to launch its own national digitial currency, with the People’s Bank of China hiring experts to join its Digital Currency Research Institute (DCRI). Huang Qifan, vice chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE), predicted in an interview with tech news site Pandaily that China would be first off the mark with a national currency. Many believe that the FOMO (fear of missing out) generated by Facebook’s efforts to get its cryptocurrency Libra off the ground has led Beijing to accelerate its efforts. While no date has yet been set, Li Wei, head of the People’s Bank of China’s technology department, today told a Shanghai forum that, in preparation, commercial banks should step up their application of blockchain technology and embrace digital finance.
6. China’s blockchain ecosystem is expandingChina’s blockchain industry is in rude health. The Chinese government requires blockchain projects to register with its Cyberspace Administration, and more than 500 blockchain projects have done so since March, run by state-owned banks, courts and tax offices, as well as commercial tech conglomerates. China’s most popular app, Xuexi Qiangguo, has launched government-run courses in Bitcoin and Ethereum.
And China looks set to expand its focus on blockchain education; in his speech, Xi called for the creation of new initiatives such as “Blockchain+,” a platform for “personal development” in areas such as education, employment and health. China’s Communist Party is even urging patriots to “seize the opportunity” created by the technology, and swear their allegiance via blockchain.
7. China has introduced its first cryptography lawChina’s national congress on Saturday passed a new law designed to encourage research and development on commercial cryptography technologies. It also aims to build up standardized regulations for the industry, in preparation for the upcoming challenges the nascent sector will face. On Twitter, it sparked comparisons with the approach taken by the U.S.
A pal sent me this from Vegas. If the US regulators don’t allow for fintech innovation, the Chinese will eat our lunch. Xi’s comments on Friday were significant. Crypto and blockchain will be part of the financial and consumer infrastructure in the future. Buy the dip. $btc pic.twitter.com/prM9VvjT3x
— Michael Novogratz (@novogratz) October 26, 2019
But what of Bitcoin? Will developments in China continue to fuel the recent meteoric rise of the original cryptocurrency? Sentiment is, broadly speaking, bullish: “The positive comments from the Chinese leader will continue to support the broader crypto prices to maintain at current levels,” Andy Cheung, head of operations at Malta-based OKEx, an exchange popular among Chinese users, told Reuters.
Cheung’s not alone in his thinking. “It’s likely that momentum, perhaps partly driven by FOMO, will now pick-up pace again in the cryptocurrency sector,” Nigel Green, CEO of financial advisory deVere Group, told Decrypt.
Chinese websites have pointed out that blockchain is not the same as interest in bitcoin, of course. But the country’s newfound enthusiasm for blockchain seems just as extreme as its previous erstwhile ban on crypto, with @cnledger even claiming that “Articles saying blockchain technology is a scam are now BANNED.”
3/ Articles saying blockchain technology is a scam are now BANNED.
Who still remember the days when posts promoting blockchain getting deleted real fast? pic.twitter.com/W5iRJ3PDYS
— cnLedger (@cnLedger) October 28, 2019
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Bitcoin went on one of its most impressive runs ever last week, surging over 42% in just a day. Not only did this make last week the best one Bitcoin has had since May, it also brought positive sentiment back to the market, which had previously been fairly bearish.
However, Bitcoin has since retraced and is currently trading at around $9,200. Interestingly enough, BTC flash crashed to slightly above $9,000 earlier today, but it managed to recover fairly quickly. At the time of this writing, Bitcoin is down about 2% on the day.
BTC/USD. Source: TradingView We also saw a very slight decrease in Bitcoin’s dominance rate, suggesting that altcoins have managed to capitalize somewhat on the flash crash. Indeed, all of the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap are trading in the green against BTC, having marked slight increases. ETH is up about 2%, the same as XRP. Bitcoin Cash is up about 3.6%, and all others have seen minor gains in the range of 0.5% – 1.5%.
Major Cryptocurrency Headlines Bitcoin Cash Spikes 10% as Jihan Wu Resumes Control of Bitmain. Jihan Wu, who stepped away from Bitmain’s operations at the beginning of this year, has since resumed control over the company, ousting the CEO, Ketuan Zhan. In an email to staff, Wu directed employees to not take any orders from Zhan or participate in meetings organized by him. Bitcoin Cash’s price rose by 10% on the news. Wu has previously expressed his support for the cryptocurrency, as Bitmain spent around 70% of its 2017 operating cash flow to buy BCH.
China’s CCIEE Chair: We Will Be the First to Launch Central Bank Digital Currency. The vice-chairman of China’s Center for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE), Huang Qifan, maintained that the country will be the first to launch a blockchain-based central bank digital currency. He also said that he doesn’t believe in Facebook and its potential cryptocurrency, Libra. However, he feels that digital currencies of the kind are needed because conventional payment methods are outdated.
NEO and Other Made-in-China Cryptocurrencies See Huge Price Gains. The news from China sparked a rally throughout the cryptocurrency market. However, China-based projects saw particularly impressive gains. Bytom, NEO, Ontology, Qtum, and GXChain were among the more notable gainers.
You may also like: Bitcoin Price Crashes Below $60K as Strategy’s MSTR Plunges 10% Mining Profits Dry Up Across Bitcoin, DOGE, LTC, and BCH Bitcoin’s Network Is Booming Even as Prices Remain Below Record Highs The Biggest Winners and Losers NoahCoin (+1177%) NoahCoin rallied hard, surging upwards of 1,100% in less than a day. The project recently announced that users could swap their tokens for native ones. Given that this update was made around a month ago, however, there is no apparent reason for the recent surge. In any case, NoahCoin is currently trading at around $0.004, which is a staggering increase compared to its price a day ago when it was only $0.00028.
IOST (+31%) IOST is another project which saw significant gains over the past 24 hours despite the seemingly stalling cryptocurrency market. Having increased by upwards of 30%, IOST is currently trading at around $0.0075. Interestingly enough, it surged even more against Bitcoin, gaining more than 35%. The project’s total market cap is now over $90 million.
Bytom (-10%) Bytom was one of the biggest gainers during last week’s rally, as mentioned above. The coin surged about 80% following the news out of China, but it has since cooled off and is actually down over the past 24 hours. BTM marked a decrease of around 10% and its price is currently around $0.11, though its total market cap remains well above $113 million. The cryptocurrency is also down around 7.5% against BTC.
