Key Highlights Newmont delivered Q2 earnings per share of $2.10, surpassing analyst expectations of $1.99, though quarterly revenue of $6.1 billion fell below the $6.4 billion consensus. The company achieved a quarterly record with $2.2 billion in free cash flow, distributing $1.9 billion back to investors. Quarterly gold output reached 1.29 million ounces, affected by seismic activity at the Cadia operation in Australia during April. The all-in sustaining cost totaled $1,621 per ounce, tracking below the company’s full-year target of $1,680 per ounce. Shares declined approximately 1% in extended trading to $93.45, even as operational metrics remained solid. Newmont (NEM) exceeded Wall Street’s earnings projections for the second quarter of 2026 but came up short on revenue, pressuring shares in after-hours activity. The world’s leading gold producer recorded earnings per share of $2.10 compared to the Street’s $1.99 forecast, yet quarterly sales of $6.1 billion trailed the anticipated $6.4 billion.
In extended trading, NEM shares changed hands around $93.45 — representing a decline of roughly 1.34% — following a 1.08% drop during regular hours to close at $94.72.
Newmont Corporation, NEM
While revenue disappointed, Newmont achieved a second-quarter milestone with $2.2 billion in free cash flow generation. Through the first six months of 2026, the miner produced $5.3 billion in free cash flow, marking a significant jump from the $2.9 billion recorded during the comparable 2025 period.
During the quarter, shareholders received $1.9 billion through a combination of dividend payments and stock repurchases. This figure includes $1.7 billion deployed toward buybacks as part of the $6 billion authorization granted in April 2026. The company accelerated repurchases in July, executing over $600 million worth that month.
Over a two-year span since launching its buyback initiative, Newmont has reduced outstanding shares by more than 100 million — representing approximately 9% of the float.
The miner’s average realized gold price for the quarter stood at $4,414 per ounce, climbing from $3,320 during the year-ago quarter but retreating from Q1 2026’s $4,900 level. Year-over-year, realized prices jumped roughly 33%, while direct sales costs increased a modest 4%.
Australian Mine Disruption and Output Levels Quarterly gold production totaled 1.29 million ounces, slightly below the 1.3 million ounces from the prior quarter and down from 1.48 million ounces in the second quarter of 2025. The April seismic event at the company’s Cadia facility in Australia temporarily disrupted operations, though normal activity has since been restored.
Company executives reaffirmed their full-year production forecast of 5.3 million ounces. Approximately 49% of annual output was achieved in the first two quarters, leaving 51% projected for the latter half — with fourth-quarter production expected to be particularly strong.
The all-in sustaining cost registered at $1,621 per ounce, comfortably beneath the company’s $1,680 full-year projection. Adjusted EBITDA for the period reached $3.8 billion, while operational cash generation totaled $2.9 billion.
Energy Costs and Forward Outlook A notable challenge emerged from elevated oil prices: crude averaged approximately $100 per barrel during Q2, substantially above the $70 baseline incorporated into Newmont’s annual projections. Energy and fuel expenses represent 15% of direct operating expenditures.
The company’s 2026 guidance framework assumes gold trading at $4,500 per ounce. Each $100 fluctuation in the gold price translates to roughly $505 million in revenue and cost impacts.
Chief Financial Officer Brian Tabolt highlighted “significant operating leverage embedded in the portfolio” and indicated the existing capital allocation strategy could accommodate increasing the quarterly dividend to $0.27 per share — an increase from the current $0.26 — during the next annual assessment.
The Red Chris block cave development in British Columbia achieved important regulatory milestones during the quarter. Management anticipates a board decision on the project’s feasibility analysis near year-end 2026, though they noted capital requirements will likely exceed initial projections due to inflationary pressures.
The quarter concluded with Newmont holding net cash of $3.4 billion — surpassing its $1 billion strategic target — providing ample financial flexibility to maintain share repurchases throughout the remainder of the year.
Renowned economist Peter Schiff questioned the soaring market capitalization of Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) proxy company MicroStrategy Inc. (NASDAQ:MSTR) compared to gold mining companies.
What Happened: In a recent X post, Schiff pointed out that MicroStrategy, despite not earning or producing much, has a market valuation exceeding all gold mining companies except for Newmont Corporation (NYSE:NEM), the largest in the sector.
Schiff even initiated an X poll, asking his followers if MicroStrategy’s market cap will eventually surpass Newmont’s. As things turned out, more than 83% voted in favor of such an outcome.
As of this writing, MicroStrategy has a market cap of $47.764 billion, narrowly trailing Newmont, which was valued at $54.42 billion. Since the beginning of the year, shares of MicroStrategy have popped an impressive 276.9%, while the gold-mining company has grown by 16.84% year-to-date.
The short-term performance also favors the Bitcoin development company, which jumped 53% over the month compared to Newmont, which fell 10.57% during the same period.
Comparing the technical indicators of the two stocks, all of MicroStrategy’s moving averages flashed a ‘Buy’ signal, while the momentum indicator Moving Average Convergence Divergence, which compares an asset’s long-term performance versus short-term, was also bullish, according to TradingView.
On the other hand, Newmont’s moving averages all indicated a ‘Sell’ signal, implying a bearish condition.
See Also: Jade City Launches MVP Platform To Revolutionize $50 Billion Jade Market With Blockchain
Powered by the Bitcoin strategy, MicroStrategy under Michael Saylor has outperformed many top players on Wall Street. With year-to-date gains of 272%, it netted higher returns this year than the “Magnificent 7” companies
As of this writing, the company held over $18 billion in Bitcoin on its books, according to bitcointreasuries.net.
Price Action: At the time of writing, Bitcoin was exchanging hands at $72,477.89, up 2.20% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro. Bitcoin’s rally boosted shares of MicroStrategy up 1.14% to $258.24 on Tuesday.
Photo Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
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MicroStrategy Inc. (NASDAQ:MSTR) is making headlines as its stock climbs in pre-market trading, driven by Bitcoin’s impressive rally. The company’s market value has now outstripped the combined worth of the world’s two largest gold mining companies.
The market capitalization of MicroStrategy stands at $96.732 billion, significantly higher than Newmont’s $49.16 billion and Barrick Gold’s $31.11 billion. This valuation boost follows the company’s recent acquisition of 51,780 Bitcoin, valued at $4.6 billion, completed between Nov. 11 and Nov.17.
Peter Schiff commented on the feat by MicroStrategy on Wednesday, “I wonder how much longer it will take before MSTR’s market cap exceeds the capitalization of the entire gold mining industry!”
See Also: Peter Schiff Pokes Fun Of MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin Purchase: ‘Michael Saylor Is Gonna Need A Bigger Plan’
Led by co-founder and chairman Michael Saylor, MicroStrategy has pivoted its strategy towards Bitcoin since 2020, viewing it as a hedge against inflation.
Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs has given a “go for gold” as a leading commodity trade for 2025, with prices expected to reach $3,000 per ounce by December 2025.
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The company plans to use the net proceeds to acquire additional Bitcoin and for general corporate purposes.
The 0% convertible senior notes, due 2029, will be offered to qualified institutional buyers under Rule 144A of the Securities Act and certain non-U.S. persons in compliance with Regulation S.
With an initial conversion price set at $672.40 per share—a 55% premium over the November 19 closing price—the offering highlights strong institutional demand.
MicroStrategy expects to raise $2.58 billion in net proceeds, potentially reaching $2.97 billion if initial purchasers exercise their option to acquire additional notes.
The offering is set to close on Nov. 21, pending customary conditions.
The upsized offering underscores MicroStrategy's commitment to Bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset, a strategy that has significantly boosted its market value.
Also Read: Robinhood Positioned As Top ‘Crypto Deregulation’ Trade, Says Bernstein
"MicroStrategy's market cap exceeding these gold giants demonstrates the transformative potential of Bitcoin," said Peter Schiff, who questioned whether MicroStrategy could soon surpass the entire gold mining industry's capitalization.
MicroStrategy's stock has surged 3.36% in pre-market trading, driven by Bitcoin's rally to over $94,000.
The company recently acquired 51,780 bitcoin between Nov. 11 and 17 for $4.6 billion, further consolidating its position as the largest corporate holder of the cryptocurrency.
Its Bitcoin holdings now exceed 331,000 BTC, with a cumulative acquisition cost of over $16 billion.
Executive chairman Michael Saylor has positioned Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation, a strategy initiated in 2020 that has paid off amid surging cryptocurrency prices.
While MicroStrategy doubles down on Bitcoin, other major players like Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) continue to focus on traditional assets.
Goldman recently projected gold prices to reach $3,000 per ounce by the end of 2025, emphasizing its role as a leading commodity trade.
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Binance has announced the delisting of USD-M perpetual contracts for NEM (XEM), Orbs (ORBS), and Loom Network (LOOM). The delisting affects traders who actively engage in derivatives markets for these assets. Binance advises users to manage their open positions to avoid automatic settlements during the process. Following the announcement, the prices of these tokens have dropped by 5% to 7%, reflecting market concerns.
Binance Announces Delisting of XEM, ORBS and LOOM Perpetual Contracts Binance has reported the delisting of USD-M perpetual contracts for XEM, ORBS, and LOOM tokens. The delisting process will involve automatic settlements at 09:00 (UTC) on December 9. This step is part of the platform’s periodic review of products to ensure optimal performance and mitigate risks for its users.
Starting December 9, at 08:30 (UTC), traders will no longer be able to open new positions in these contracts. Any open positions must be closed before the delisting time to avoid automatic settlements. Failure to do so will result in its Funding Rate Arbitrage Bot closing all arbitrage strategies tied to these pairs.
The exchange has also outlined potential protective measures for volatile market conditions. These measures include adjustments to leverage limits, position values, and margin tiers, as well as changes to funding rates and price index components. Users are urged to remain cautious and follow updates to avoid disruptions.
This announcement reflects Binance’s proactive approach to maintaining platform integrity and safeguarding users against volatile market risks. As one of the top crypto exchanges, Binance continues to adapt its offerings to meet evolving market demands.
Price Movements and Volume Trends Amid Delisting Following Binance’s delisting announcement, the affected cryptocurrencies have experienced notable price declines. NEM (XEM) price has dropped by 7% and is currently trading at $0.026, with a 24-hour low of $0.02527 and a high of $0.02828.
Orbs (ORBS) price has seen a 6% dip, trading at $0.03301. Its 24-hour low and high stand at $0.03177 and $0.0355, respectively. Loom Network (LOOM) is down by 4%, trading at $0.07367 at the time of writing.
Binance regularly conducts reviews to ensure asset compliance, often delisting tokens as part of these checks. However, prices tend to crash following such announcements, as seen with IDRT, KP3R, OOKI, and UNFI in November.
Binance Futures announced delisting of three cryptocurrencies – XEM, ORBS, LOOM. Market prices of XEM, ORBS, and LOOM dropped by more than 4%. As per the latest Binance announcement, Binance futures is going to delist perpetual contracts of NEM (XEM), Orbs(ORBS), and Look Network (LOOM) tokens. Binance futures made this announcement as part of their periodic review of products and their market performance. Being one of the largest crypto exchange platforms, Binance’s announcement led to tokens’ price declines.
The delisting of USD-M perpetual contracts for XEM, ORBS, and LOOM takes place with automatic settlements on 9 December 2024 at 9:00 UTC. Binance advised users to close their open positions, if they have any, before the delisting process. And, it also advised them not to open new positions for XEM, ORBS, and LOOM contracts.
As part of the delisting process, Binance Funding Rate Arbitrage Bot will conduct an automatic settlement and close all arbitrage strategies on XEM/USDT, ORBS/USDT, LOOM/USDT trading pairs. Once the delisting process completes, users will no longer be able to open new arbitrage strategies.
Binance takes protective measures to prevent potential risks since cryptocurrencies are volatile assets. It will adjust maximum leverage value, position value, and maintenance margin and update funding rates, etc as precautions.
Market prices of XEM, ORBS, LOOM tokens Following the perpetual contracts delisting announcement from Binance, market prices of XEM, ORBS, and LOOM tokens plunged sharply. XEM token price fell down by over 4% and is trading at $0.0265 at the time of reporting. Its market cap and trading volume have also dropped by 5% and 7% respectively.
ORBS is trading at the $0.33 price level with a 24-hour price drop of 5% and its market cap is also down by 5%. The fact that its trading volume is up by 184% amidst the price drop is noteworthy. Similar to the first XEM and ORBS, LOOM token price has dropped by around 4%.
Binance is one of the top crypto exchange platforms with billions of users across the world. Both its token listing and delisting announcements will have a huge effect on the market prices. The delisting process of Binance is result of its regular review of market performance and asset compliance.
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Manisha is a proficient content writer with a keen eye for blockchain, NFTs, and fintech trends. With a passion for breaking down complex topics, she delivers insightful and engaging content for the Web3 community. Her expertise spans emerging market trends, latest news, and industry developments.
Wall Street stumbled on Tuesday, with broad losses by midday in New York as investors turned risk-off amid mounting concerns over lofty valuations, seasonal headwinds and fiscal strains.
VIXY ETF is spiking. Check live prices here. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) — Wall Street's "fear gauge" — surged nearly 20% to 19.2, marking its third consecutive advance.
Major equity benchmarks retreated, led by the Nasdaq 100, which slid 1.7%. The S&P 500 fell 1.4% in its first session of September — historically its weakest month of the year. The Dow lost more than 500 points or 1.1%.
Fresh economic data added to the gloom. The ISM Manufacturing PMI showed a sixth consecutive month of contraction, highlighting how tariffs, intended to shield the domestic industry, are instead driving up costs and delaying investment.
Safe-haven demand remained strong. Gold hit fresh record highs above $3,500 an ounce, while silver extended its surge past $40. In energy markets, crude oil jumped 2.6% to $65.65 after reports of renewed Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil facilities.
Bond markets also came under pressure. Long-dated yields climbed across advanced economies, with 30-year U.S. Treasuries up five basis points to 4.97% — hovering just below the closely watched 5% mark.
Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) managed to escape the broader sell-off and rose 1.6% to above $110,000.
Tuesday’s Performance In Major U.S. Indices ETFsAccording to Benzinga Pro data:
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Gold prices suffered a sharp correction on Tuesday as investors locked in profits following this year's explosive rally, while optimism across earnings kept industrial stocks powering higher and pushed the Dow Jones to fresh record highs.
The blue-chip index climbed 0.7% to 47,050 points, marking a new all-time high, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 hovered near record territory.
• GDX is among today’s weakest performers. Review the technical setup here.
In contrast, gold miners tumbled as bullion prices slumped more than 5% to $4,100 per ounce — their steepest one-day drop since August 2020.
Newmont Corp. (NYSE:NEM) plunged nearly 10%, while the VanEck Gold Miners ETF (NYSE:GDX) slid 9.5%, marking its worst day in over five years. Silver also dropped 6.7%.
Meanwhile, cryptocurrency markets regained momentum, with Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) rising 2.5% to $113,000.
Tuesday’s Performance In Major U.S. Indices, ETFsAccording to Benzinga Pro data:
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Hedge funds just revealed their Q4 portfolios. The world’s largest investors are making the same bet.
We’ll get into all of it.
THE RUNDOWNFED › Minutes from the January meeting showed a more divided central bank than expected. Several officials floated possible rate hikes if inflation stays sticky. Markets still price 93% odds of a hold in March, and two to three cuts remain the base case for 2026. But the tone was noticeably hawkish.
THE PLAY: How the Biggest Investors Are Positioning to Win in 2026The 13F filings this week told a pretty clear story, even if the individual moves seem contradictory. The biggest investors in the world are getting out of the trades that worked last year.
So where did the money go?
Hard assets. Bridgewater loaded gold miners. Gold just crossed $5,000. Oil is back above $65. With the Fed now openly discussing rate hikes if inflation doesn’t cool, the inflation hedge trade is getting real capital behind it again.
None of this means you need to copy their exact trades. 13F filings are backward-looking, and some of these positions may already be different. But the direction matters: the biggest funds in the world are diversifying away from mega-cap tech concentration.
If your portfolio still looks like it did in 2025, that’s worth thinking about.
Thanks for reading! Catch you in the next one!
For more updates throughout the week, follow @WOLF_Financial on X.
Benzinga Disclaimer: This article is from an unpaid external contributor. It does not represent Benzinga’s reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy.
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Key TakeawaysWall Street Target Price RevisionsInvestment Rating and Valuation AnalysisGet 3 Free Stock Ebooks Citi maintained its Buy rating while increasing NEM’s price target from $118 to $150 Bernstein upgraded NEM shares to Outperform from Market Perform, boosting the target from $121 to $157 based on positive gold market trends The company has exceeded earnings expectations for four consecutive quarters, with Q4 delivering a +24.14% EPS beat Fiscal year consensus EPS projection stands at $8.65, representing a 25.5% increase year-over-year NEM shares posted a +0.8% gain over the past month while the S&P 500 declined 2.7% during the same timeframe Newmont’s attributable gold mineral reserves decreased to 118.2 million ounces by the end of 2025, compared to 134.1 million ounces in the previous year, primarily attributed to asset divestments. However, the mining giant maintains substantial holdings of 12.5 million tonnes in copper reserves and 442 million ounces in silver reserves.
Newmont Corporation, NEM
During the fourth quarter, Newmont delivered revenues totaling $6.82 billion, marking a 20.6% increase compared to the prior-year period. The company reported earnings per share of $2.52, significantly higher than the $1.40 recorded in the same quarter last year.
Both metrics exceeded Wall Street projections. The revenue figure surpassed the analyst consensus of $6.06 billion by 12.58%, while earnings per share beat forecasts by 24.14%.
This marks the fourth consecutive quarter where the company has outperformed consensus EPS projections. Revenue estimates have similarly been exceeded throughout this entire period.
Analysts project Q1 EPS of $1.91, representing a 52.8% increase from the corresponding quarter in the previous year. This consensus forecast has been revised upward by 10.4% in the last 30 days.
For the complete fiscal year, the consensus EPS forecast is positioned at $8.65, indicating 25.5% year-over-year expansion. This projection has seen an 11.2% upward revision over the past month.
Wall Street Target Price Revisions Citi announced on March 3 that it was raising its price objective on NEM from $118 to $150, while reaffirming its Buy recommendation.
Bernstein made its move earlier, on February 27, elevating the stock from Market Perform to Outperform status and increasing its price target from $121 to $157.
Bernstein cited an optimistic outlook for gold prices as the primary catalyst. The research firm also highlighted the appointment of a new CEO with a defined strategic vision, what it described as realistic guidance targets, and enhanced relations with Newmont’s primary joint venture collaborator.
Investment Rating and Valuation Analysis Zacks has assigned NEM a #1 Strong Buy rating. This ranking reflects the magnitude and trajectory of recent earnings estimate adjustments.
From a valuation perspective, Newmont receives a C grade within the Zacks Value Style Score framework, indicating the shares are trading at levels comparable to industry peers — neither undervalued nor overextended.
During the last month, NEM delivered a +0.8% return, contrasting with the S&P 500’s 2.7% decline. The broader Zacks Mining – Gold sector advanced 4.6% during this same period.
Analysts anticipate current quarter revenues of $5.87 billion, which would represent a 17.2% year-over-year expansion. Full-year revenue projections are set at $24.01 billion and $27.65 billion for fiscal years 2025 and 2026, respectively.
Key TakeawaysExceptional Cash Generation and Cost DisciplineSeismic Event at Cadia and Second Quarter ProjectionsGet 3 Free Stock Ebooks Newmont delivered Q1 adjusted EPS of $2.90, significantly exceeding analyst expectations of $2.18; total revenue surged 46% year-over-year to $7.31 billion Free cash flow reached an all-time quarterly high of $3.1 billion while all-in sustaining costs of $1,029 per ounce came in below annual guidance An April 14 earthquake measuring 4.5 magnitude impacted the Cadia mine in Australia; underground mining operations are projected to recover to approximately 80% capacity in five weeks The board greenlit a fresh $6 billion share buyback program, marking the fourth authorization since early 2024; cumulative buybacks have totaled $6 billion over approximately two years Management reaffirmed 2026 production targets of 5.3 million gold ounces despite anticipating Q2 output to fall marginally below Q1 levels Shares of Newmont (NEM) advanced 0.2% during Friday’s premarket session following the mining giant’s announcement of its sixth consecutive quarter of surpassing both earnings and revenue projections. The stock had already climbed 1.6% in Thursday’s extended trading hours and carries a year-to-date gain of approximately 11% entering today’s session.
Newmont Corporation, NEM
First-quarter adjusted earnings per share reached $2.90, representing more than a twofold increase from the $1.25 reported in the same period last year and substantially exceeding the Street’s consensus estimate of $2.18. Top-line revenue jumped 46% on a year-over-year basis to $7.31 billion, with gold revenue contributing $6.04 billion to that total.
The company achieved an average realized gold price of $4,900 per ounce during the quarter — representing a 16% sequential increase from Q4 2025.
Exceptional Cash Generation and Cost Discipline Newmont generated a company-record $3.1 billion in free cash flow for the quarter, even after absorbing approximately $1.3 billion in cash tax obligations. Adjusted EBITDA reached $5.2 billion.
All-in sustaining costs (AISC) on a by-product basis registered at $1,029 per ounce, coming in below the company’s full-year guidance corridor. Leadership attributed the favorable cost performance to improved pricing for co-products including silver and copper, combined with disciplined capital allocation.
Despite elevated energy prices, management maintained its annual cost outlook. The company estimates that each $10 per barrel movement in oil prices translates to approximately $12 per ounce in AISC impact. Diesel fuel represents roughly 6% of direct operational expenses.
First-quarter production totaled 1.3 million ounces of gold, 30,000 tons of copper, and 9 million ounces of silver. Multiple operations exceeded expectations — Cadia, Merian, Ahafo South, and Yanacocha all posted stronger production compared to Q4 2025.
Seismic Event at Cadia and Second Quarter Projections The primary near-term operational challenge stems from a magnitude 4.5 seismic event that occurred near the Australian Cadia facility on April 14. No personnel injuries were reported. Underground electrical and water management systems have been successfully restored, and the company secured regulatory clearance to commence repair activities.
Underground restoration work is anticipated to require approximately five weeks, with Cadia expected to return to roughly 80% operational capacity. Complete recovery is targeted for late Q2. Second-quarter production is forecast to trail Q1 figures modestly due to a brief interruption in mill feed supply, with normal production rates resuming in the third quarter.
Sustaining capital expenditures are projected to increase during Q2 reflecting summer season activities at Brucejack and Red Chris sites, mobile equipment acquisitions, and tailings management initiatives at Cadia and Boddington.
Regarding capital allocation, Newmont has now repurchased $6 billion worth of shares throughout the preceding 24 months. The board authorized an additional $6 billion repurchase program — representing the fourth such authorization since February 2024. The company also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.26 per share, consistent with its annual dividend objective of $1.1 billion.
Newmont indicated it is evaluating the reinstatement of multi-year forward guidance and characterized 2026 as a “trough year,” with potential for enhanced production in 2027 driven by higher-grade zones at Lihir, new cave developments at Cadia, and continued expansion at Ahafo North.
Gold futures settled at $4,724 per ounce as of Thursday, representing a decline of approximately 12% from the January 29 record closing price of $5,354.80.
Binance announced the delisting of OMG Network, NEM and Waves coins on June 17, 2024. The exchange will end support for withdrawals on September 17. Binance has announced the delisting of four altcoins, news that has seen the said tokens nosedive amid market reaction.
The exchange notified the crypto community of the impending delisting on Monday, June 3, with OMG Network price falling sharply alongside that of the other tokens.
Binance delists XEM, OMG and WAVES According to Binance, trading support for the four altcoins will cease on June 17, 2024, at 03:00 (UTC). Specifically, the exchange will end support for spot trading pairs for OMG Network, NEM, Waves and Wrapped NXM.
The action against the four cryptocurrencies follows internal reviews that target adherence to industry standards and requirements.
“When a coin or token no longer meets these standards or the industry landscape changes, we conduct a more in-depth review and potentially delist it. Our priority is to ensure the best services and protections for our users while continuing to adapt to evolving market dynamics,” the exchange wrote in the announcement.
Per the notice, reviews involve factors such as team’s commitment to the project, development activity, trading volume and liquidity and network security.
Binance also regularly reviews projects in terms of their smart contract stability, level of public communication and new regulatory requirements among other factors.
Key details According to the exchange, the trading pairs to be removed include MG/USDT, WAVES/BTC, WAVES/ETH, WAVES/TRY, WAVES/USDT, WNXM/USDT, and XEM/USDT.
Withdrawals will halt on September 17, 2024 at 03:00 (UTC).
Binance has previously announced delistings for tokens such as Monero (XMR), Aragon (ANT) and Multichain (MULTI) based on such due diligence.
OMG, XEM and WAVES tumble OMG Network, (OMG), Waves (WAVES), NEM (XEM) and Wrapped NXM (WNXM) are all down as the altcoins tumble amid the major announcement from Binance.
According to data from CoinGecko, OMG Network price was down 27% to near $0.50, while NEM traded 30% down at $0.025. Meanwhile, WAVES, which traded at highs of $4.81 in mid-March, was down 27% to around $1.70.
Wrapped NXM slipped nearly 5% after the news to hit $80.75 at the time of writing.
Blockchain is a decentralized, secure and very fast technology that is already making waves in the business world. The blockchain is beginning to run the world with numerous blockchain projects being developed and deployed on the internet. There are companies already trying to build on what other people developed. All of these blockchain developments are done in different programming languages, some of which are explained below.
1. JavaScript
This is a high-level programming language and more importantly, it is a weakly typed, dynamic, prototype-based and leading web technology in the world. This programming language is very popular, and there are already new frameworks being created for javascript, which can be used to develop codes.
Javascript is very easy and you only need to understand the basics to start to work on this language. It is mostly used in blockchain development in ethereum.js and web3.js which are used to connect the application frontend with smart contracts and ethereum networks. It is also used for node.js in the Hyperledger Fabric SDK which is the framework that many big companies use. Another blockchain you can use javascript for is the NEO.
2. C#
C# is an object-oriented, compiled and high-level programming language that was created for Microsoft late into the 90s/the early ‘00s. Numerous ivory research has shown that this language is similar to C++ or Java, and it is more difficult to learn this language than the Javascript language. Although, it is also not as complicated as some other languages such as Go.
There are a number of popular blockchain projects that the C# language is being used for. The most popular of such blockchain project is the NEO, something that’s popularly referred to as the Chinese rendition of Ethereum. Another popular blockchain project it is used for is IOTA, zero-fee transactions and highly scalable projects centered on IoT (Internet of Things).
3. C++
This is an object-oriented, high speed, strongly static and compiled programming language. This language has access to hardware and high-level efficiency. Even though it was developed back in the 70s and 80s, as an extension of the C language.
This language is quite complicated and is more difficult to learn than the C language, as some top writers have noted. And if you are a beginner or just learning to code, this language is not for you.
Interestingly, it has been used in many popular and important blockchain cryptocurrencies and projects such as Bitcoin, Bitcoin cash, Eos, Monero, QTUM, Stellar, Cpp-ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, etc.
4. Python
Python is a dynamically typed and trendy high-level programming language that supports functional programming and is also object-oriented. This programming language is growing in popularity than before and is the ideal language to use in developing artificial intelligence and machine learning features.
Many big IT companies create frameworks and smart tools to support Python, and it’s often used to create chatbots.
This very easy and popular language has also been used for numerous projects in the blockchain. One of such examples is its implementation of Ethereum, known as pythereum. It can also be used to create smart contracts for Hyperledger as well as NEO contracts. Python also has its own implementation of steemit known as steempython.
5. Golang
This language called Go for short, is a compiled, statically typed programming language that was developed by employees from Google. The idea of Golang is to have a combination of the efficiency of a compiled language such as C++ and the ease of developing codes such as Python.
This language is quite complicated and developers at papersowl are of the opinion that it is very difficult to learn this language. However, most of the developers with this opinion are python and javascript developers. Developers on C++ will find it easier to learn Go.
There are a lot of blockchain projects that Go has been used for. One of such is the Go-Ethereum blockchain written in this language. Another one is Hyperledger Fabric which is the blockchain solution that big organizations opt for.
6. Solidity
Solidity is a statically typed and contact-oriented programming language developed by the developers of Ethereum. This language was created the main language for the development of the smart contract, and is, therefore, the ethereum’s smart contract primary language.
Solidity is like a smaller copy of javascript with little changes. It is therefore not very complicated. So if you’re a mid-level developer, it’ll take you just a few days to learn this language.
This language is used primarily in the development of Ethereum smart contracts.
7. Java
This programming language, developed by Sun Microsystems, is a strongly typed language, based on object and class. Java is an object-oriented language popularly used in many big companies.
The difficulty level of java can be compared to that of C#, which is quite complicated and harder to learn than python or javascript. But still, this programming language is still very popular and there are numerous custom papers to help if you are just learning to code. But it is difficult to tell which is easier, Java, C++ or Golang?
Java is also used very widely in the blockchain industry. It is popularly used in IOTA, P2P cryptocurrency and NEM platform also uses java. Other objects where java is being used in the blockchain are the IBM blockchain, NEO contract, Ethereum, Bitcoin J, Hyperledger’s contract.
8. Rust
Rust is a strongly typed and compiled programming language that has been sponsored by Mozilla since 2009. This language is very similar to the C++ programming language, so you really can’t say that it’s a language that can be learned easily. The entry level for this language is high as it has a very small community, so we can safely rate its difficulty as hard.
There are only very few blockchain projects using this programming language. Parity is one of the few. A secure and fast ethereum client written in Rust. The most popular blockchain project written in Rust is the Ethereum Classic, a cryptocurrency birthed after Ethereum was hacked. Exonum, a security-oriented blockchain framework is also written in Rust.
9. Ruby
Ruby was developed in Japan by Yukihiro Matsumoto in the 1990s. This programming language is purely object-oriented. In fact, everything is an object in Ruby apart from the blocks, and they also have their replacement in procs and lambda.
Ruby was developed to act as a buffer between the underlying computing machine and human programmers. The syntax of this programming language is similar to other languages like Java and C, so it’s easier to learn this language for C and Java programmers.
10. CX
CX gives pointers, propelled cuts and array, and it also possesses the simple error control highlights which makes it convenient to design any blockchain with it. It was assembled over Go initially, and this stops the frameworks of CX from performing discretionary codes, which is a problem associated with business programming.
This programming language was made for the blockchain development of Skycoin, with a capacity for it to work as an intermediary for digital contracts.
CX integrates with Open Graphics Library (OpenGL) and uses the capacity of the GPU proficiently.
11. Simplicity
This is a relatively new programming language birthed in late 2017. It was designed mainly for blockchain development and smart contracts. It helps to increase productivity by hiding low-level logical components.
This language is object-oriented, similar to C++, and it uses blockchain principles to prevent data changes and errors.
The developers are still working on expanding the capabilities of this language, the features are going to be finalized and it will be added to bitcoin. So, we expect that from mid-2020, Simplicity should have more applications.
Conclusion Blockchain technology which makes it possible for us to have cryptocurrency exchange is, without doubts, here to stay. Blockchain developments are getting better with languages such as simplicity being specifically to make blockchain development a smoother process.
Crypto markets reach 2019 high; Bitcoin still in charge, XRP and BNB pumping, LTC retreating slowly. Market Wrap Crypto markets have reached their highest level since July 2018 in terms of market capitalization. The momentum has come from Bitcoin hitting another 2019 top, and Ripple’s XRP pumping on a new partnership announcement.
Bitcoin has been grinding higher for the past 24 hours until it topped $9,400 briefly marking its highest price since early May 2018. There is heavy resistance above this and BTC quickly started to retreat back to the $9,200 area where it was trading this time yesterday. According to coinmarketcap.com daily volume dumped 25% in an unnatural looking spike so the figures could be spurious.
Ethereum has been static again and remains at $270 where it was this time yesterday. Without any solid fundamentals ETH remains sluggish and unable to push towards $300. It is still 80 percent down from its all-time high and ‘altseason’ has yet to materialize.
The top ten is a mixed affair during Asian trading today but the top performer is XRP. The Ripple token surged 9 percent after the announcement that the company was partnering with MoneyGram. The deal would involve the deployment of xRapid for cross border transfers using XRP. After topping $0.46 XRP corrected to $0.44 where it currently trades.
An industry defining milestone: together, @MoneyGram and @Ripple are solving the challenges with cross-border payments using the speed and efficiency of #XRP. https://t.co/xIfeJJgSy7
— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) June 17, 2019
Binance Coin is also doing well today adding 5 percent as the exchange announced that it will issue a number of crypto-pegged tokens on Binance Chain in the coming days, starting with $BTCB, a BEP2 token pegged to $BTC. BSV is up marginally and Litecoin is starting its pullback, dropping 3 percent back towards $130.
The top twenty is also mixed but red is dominating over green as altcoins slide again. NEO and Tezos are dumping 5 percent a piece right now and IOTA and NEM are not far behind dropping 3 percent. Only Cosmos is making anything with 3 percent added on the day.
FOMO: Chainlink Churning Higher Today’s top one hundred top performer is LINK which has cranked 18 percent to hit $2. The fomo is still lingering from the Google Cloud tie up as this altcoin climbs the charts to 24th with a market cap of $700 million. Japan’s Monacoin is also on a roll today adding 15 percent, unsurprisingly most of it on Bitbank in JPY. Zcash is the third most popular altcoin today making 13 percent.
The two usual suspects are at the bottom end of the performance pile, Maximine Coin and Aurora.
Total market cap 24 hours. Coinmarketcap.com Total crypto market cap hit a new 2019 high of $290 billion a few hours ago. The move was driven by BTC and XRP which both pumped within a few hours of each other. Market cap is currently back at $286 billion where it was this time yesterday. BTC is still in the driving seat.
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.
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 markets consolidating again; Binance Coin, Dash and Maker are moving, the rest slipping slowly. As widely predicted the crypto market pump was just that as things are starting to dump again today. The movements have been minor but the majority are in the red at the moment as market capitalization slips back to $120 billion.
Bitcoin did not get close to $3,700 today so new resistance levels are forming lower again. Around $3,650 seems to be its stability point for the time being but dips are not being supported and Bitcoin could drop lower, it is currently down half a percent on the day.
Ethereum has held on to second place by not moving over the past 24 hours. Still trading at $120 ETH could get some momentum from the Constantinople hard fork which has been delayed until the end of the month. XRP has lost a little more ground today and the gap between the two is currently just over $200 million.
Most of the top ten are falling back during the Asian trading session today. Tron has dropped the most despite the BTT airdrop today as TRX loses 3.5%. Bitcoin Cash is not far behind with a 3% slide. Only Binance Coin is making progress today adding another 2.5% as it closes the gap on Stellar in ninth which has dumped another 2%.
There are two big movers in the top twenty at the moment. Dash and Maker have added a further 7% on the day trading at $83 and $495 respectively. The Maker dev fund was moved to a new multisig wallet two days ago which caused the CMC market cap spike and the flipping of ETC and NEM. NEO and Zcash have also added 3.5% each to their prices over the past 24 hours but IOTA and NEM continue to slide.
There are no major pumps occurring in the top one hundred at the time of writing. Huobi Token is the best performer adding 15% followed by MOAC with a 12% rise. Getting bashed is yesterday’s pump; Quant followed by Revain both shedding 10% in predictable dumps.
Total market capitalization has not really moved overnight and is still at $120 billion. No further gains for the big cap coins look likely so further consolidation is expected in this channel for the time being. Volume is still at $20 billion and markets are still 6% higher than they were this time last week.
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
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 have found a new level; Binance Coin pumping hard, EOS and Maker still sliding. Market Wrap Monday’s crypto market dump has found a new level and the selloff has abated over the past 24 hours. This has prevented another huge rout though further losses cannot be ruled out. Total market capitalization has stabilized above $125 billion for the time being.
After dumping $100 yesterday Bitcoin has found a new channel around $3,760 where it has traded for the past day. Daily volume is back up to nearly $9 billion for BTC but it appears to be all bearish at the moment. As predicted Bitcoin fell after failing to break strong resistance at $3,900, all indicators suggest that further losses are imminent.
Ethereum has leveled out at around $127, dropping a further percent or so on the day. All of February’s gains are getting wiped out as ETH continues to weaken and follow in the shadow of Bitcoin. XRP has not fallen in the same magnitude which has reduced the gap between second and third places to just $800 million. The Ripple token is currently trading at $0.305.
Binance Coin price 24 hours. Coinmarketcap.com Only one altcoin is surging in the top ten during today’s Asian trading session and it is developing a pattern of its own. Binance Coin appears to be behaving like a stablecoin; it pumps when markets dump. BNB is currently up 10.5% as it hits an 8 month high of $12.50. Binance boss CZ appears to have taken over from Justin Sun for volume of twitter posts in any given day;
Either way his exchange backed token is flying at the moment as it surges past Stellar and Tron to take eighth spot by market cap which is currently $1.7 billion. Changpeng Zhao’s current AMA and recent DEX announcements are driving momentum for BNB. Tron is the only other altcoin in the green in the top ten as it made almost 3% over the past 24 hours.
Looking further down at the top twenty Bitcoin SV is having a rare bounce as it adds 4% on the day taking its price to $66.50. The rest are still in the red with Maker shedding the most at 5%. Monero, NEM and Zcash are all still weak with further losses of 3% today.
FOMO: MOAC on The Move Today’s fomo induced pump is MOAC which is up 14% at the time of writing. There does not seem to be much driving momentum for this multi-level blockchain scaling platform so it could well be tomorrow’s dump. Also getting a boost at the moment is Loom Network with a 12% pump.
Following a couple of days of fomo, Ravencoin is cooling off today as it becomes the top one hundreds biggest loser dumping 13% on the day. Revain and Bitcoin Gold are not far behind as they both shed 12% making up the only three to drop double digits at the moment.
Total crypto market capitalization has found a temporary floor at $126 billion following the $4 billion dump yesterday. Daily volume has crept back up to $28 billion but signals are bearish and the selloff is likely to continue. Crypto markets are at exactly the same place they were three months ago as the consolidation continues.
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.
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.
The world’s largest crypto exchange Binance on Monday announced delisting and ceasing trading of these four cryptocurrencies from Binance spot and margin. Waves (WAVES), OMG Network (OMG), NEM (XEM), and Wrapped NXM (WNXM) delisting announcement has caused prices to dip massively.
Derivatives trading data report major trades as traders and investors move or readjust their holdings in WAVES, OMG, XEM, and WNXM, causing open interests to pump over 100% in the last 24 hours.
Binance Announces Delisting of WAVES, OMG, XEM, NXM In an official announcement on June 3, Binance said it has decided to delist and cease trading on all spot and margin trading pairs of Waves (WAVES), OMG Network (OMG), NEM (XEM), and Wrapped NXM (WNXM). Users will not be able to trade these cryptocurrencies after 03:00 UTC on June 17.
Exchange claims these crypto have failed to meet the standard and industry requirements in reviews done periodically by the crypto exchange.
“When a coin or token no longer meets these standards or the industry landscape changes, we conduct a more in-depth review and potentially delist it. Our priority is to ensure the best services and protections for our users while continuing to adapt to evolving market dynamics,” stated Binance.
The last date for withdrawing these tokens is September 17 as the exchange completely ends support for these crypto. Binance delisting these tokens from Binance Simple Earn, Binance Auto-Invest, and Binance Loans weeks before the delisting date.
Binance’s Delisting Factors For All Crypto Crypto exchange Binance reviews listed crypto for maintaining a high level of standard and industry requirements. These are in line with listing requirements of the exchange.
These include a team’s commitment to project, development activity, trading volume and liquidity, stability and safety of network, smart contract stability, level of public communication, response to exchange’s periodic due diligence requests, unethical/fraudulent conduct or negligence, regulatory requirements, and contribution to crypto ecosystem.
Prices Tumbled After Announcement WAVES price tumbled over 25% after Binance’s announcement, with the price currently trading at $1.77. The trading volume has jumped over 900% as traders and investors make quick readjustments to their holdings.
Meanwhile, OMG, WNXM, XEM prices have dropped over 25%, 3%, and 29%, respectively, in the last few hours.
Interestingly, the announcement caused massive futures trading as WAVES, OMG, XEM futures open interest jumped over 100%. The move is likely triggered by a change in margins and readjustments to trade.
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Sujha has been recognised as 🟣 Women In Crypto 2024 🟣 by BeInCrypto for her leadership in crypto journalism.
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Last updated:
June 3, 2024
Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, is ceasing support and trading on all spot and margin pairs for four altcoins.
Starting June 17, Binance announced that it will delist altcoins including Waves (WAVES), OmiseGo (OMG), Wrapped NXM (WNXM) and NEM (XEM).
The exchange noted that these altcoin removals come in line with its periodical review of each digital asset. This ensures whether tokens continue to meet a high level of standard and industry requirements, Binance’s blog post read.
“When a coin or token no longer meets these standards or the industry landscape changes, we conduct a more in-depth review and potentially delist it. Our priority is to ensure best services and protections for our users while continuing to adapt to evolving market dynamics.”
Some of the factors evaluated during the periodical review includes token’s trading volume and liquidity, network stability and safety. The exchange also evaluates whether the token shows evidence of any fraudulent conduct, regulatory requirements, among others.
Further, Binance said that deposits of these altcoins will not be credited to user accounts after June 18. Additionally, it will not support withdrawals of these four tokens after September 18, 2024.
Following the delisting, WAVES token saw a sharp plunge of 25%, with the token currently trading at $1.67. The altcoin’s trading volume has jumped over 1340% as investors readjusted their holdings.
Binance Halts Cash Payments for P2P Trades in India
In the meantime, Binance’s India arm has stopped cash payment option for peer-to-peer trades.
The announcement to halt cash payments has affected local traders, who used Indian rupee (INR) option to avoid tax regulations.
Purushottam Anand, founder of Bengaluru-based blockchain firm Crypto Legal told Economic Times that P2P cash transactions expose parties to serious physical and financial risk, irrespective of whether any exchange is involved or not.
“There have been cases where traders have been physically assaulted and forced to transfer their virtual assets or hand over cash during physical meetings,” he added.
Crypto markets consolidating today; Bitcoin takes a breath, LTC back up, XRP, EOS and Tezos retreating. Market Wrap Crypto markets have remained in consolidation for the past 24 hours. Very little movement has occurred on most of the majors as Bitcoin shows no direction at the moment. Total market capitalization remains around $285 billion this Wednesday morning.
Bitcoin peaked at $9,250 yesterday but failed to hold that level, sliding just below $9k three times in the past 12 hours. It did recover back above it every time though and is currently sitting at $9,150. With heavy resistance above $9.5k and a new support zone at $8.7k BTC could consolidate here for a while.
Ethereum is still stagnant, dropping back below $270 again in a downside correction. The next key support level is $260 and a fall through this could lead to larger losses for ETH. Without any clear fundamentals it is hard to see where else it can go in the short term.
Altcoin Outlook Red dominates the top ten during today’s Asian trading session. XRP could not hold on to its gains despite the big partnership announcement and has fallen back over 3 percent to $0.43. Bitcoin Cash, EOS and Stellar are shedding a similar amount as altcoins remain weak. Only Litecoin and Binance Coin are in the green, but only just as these two continue to hold strong.
The top twenty outlook is also mixed but most crypto assets remain flat for another day. Ethereum Classic and Tezos are the only two that have really moved in the past 24 hours and both are falling back. Zcash is making a comeback and is about to flip NEM for that 20th spot as ZEC grabs 8 percent on the day.
FOMO: Insight Chain Cranks The pump of the day has gone to INB which has spiked 85 percent to reach $0.34. There does not appear to be anything obvious fundamentally driving this EOS based blockchain project. Nearly all of the volume is on one exchange, Livecoin, indicating that the pump is probably manipulated.
Ardor is doing well today with a climb of 26 percent and privacy based Zcoin is third with a 16 percent gain on the day. At the red end of the top one hundred is Aurora which probably isn’t worth mentioning any more. Zilliqa and Chainlink are also dumping over 7 percent each.
Total market cap 24 hours. Coinmarketcap.com Total crypto market capitalization has not really changed much over the past day. It is back to yesterday’s level of $284 billion with a daily volume of $54 billion which has fallen significantly this week. Altcoins are still largely frozen as Bitcoin continues to dominate, still commanding over 57 percent of the market.
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 holding on to weekend gains; Bitcoin still dominating, XRP moving up, ETH retreating slowly. Market Wrap Crypto markets have held on to weekend gains and there has been no typical ‘Red Monday’ reaction so far. Bitcoin’s surge to new 2019 highs has buoyed up markets and several altcoins have also gained. A number have fallen however, but in general total market capitalization is high and holding above $280 billion.
Bitcoin traded above $9,300 twice yesterday marking a new high for thirteen months. A pullback dropped BTC price back to high $8,000s but it quickly recovered during Asian trading today to reach $9,200 again at the time of writing. Technical indicators and historical highs show a lot of resistance at $9,600 which will need to be broken for BTC to hit five figures.
Ethereum got a weekend boost reaching $278 but it has not been able to follow Bitcoin and hold those gains. ETH is down 2 percent since yesterday dropping prices back below $270. The longer term trend for ETH is still up though so more momentum could take it to $280 this week.
The top ten is pretty mixed during Asian trading on Monday morning. XRP is showing a little progress with a further 2 percent added taking it to $0.429. Litecoin has remained flat following its epic rise last week and is still at $135 and the rest are level with yesterday’s prices.
Top twenty movements are also mixed with Cosmos and Tezos getting the best performance adding over 4 percent each to reach $6.54 and $1.33 respectively. NEO has added almost 3 percent and NEM is back in the big twenty with a 5 percent gain. As above, the rest are pretty flat this morning.
FOMO: A Smiles For Grin Entering the crypto top one hundred with a 12 percent push is Grin, a private lightweight blockchain based on mimblewimble. The only thing that could be driving momentum is an approaching hard fork next month. Bytom is the only other double digit altcoin today with 11 percent added, BitTorrent token is third gaining over 8 percent.
There are no big dumps going on as markets remain flat on the day. At the bottom of the pile right now is Dent, MaidSafeCoin, and KuCoin Shares dropping 5-6 percent.
Total market cap 24 hours. Coinmarketcap.com Total crypto market capitalization is at $284 billion, holding gains but remaining flat over the past 24 hours. Since last Monday crypto markets have gained a solid 16 percent, driven largely by Bitcoin. Over the same period daily volume has jumped from $60 to $75 billion. Bitcoin dominance is also up to 57.3 percent as it continues to eat into lack luster altcoins.
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.
Pundi X was one of the most highly anticipated ICOs of 2018. This meant that it was able to hit its $35 million hard cap within 90 minutes.
The project is trying to build a large decentralized crypto point of sale network. They are trying to acheive this through Merchant devices, cards and crypto wallets. If they succeed, they hope to make buying cryptocurrency as easy as "buying bottled water".
However, are these ambitions too grand?
In this Pundi X review I will attempt to answer that. I will also take an in-depth look at the use cases of the NPXS token as well as its long term adoption potential.
Pundi X Technology and Use CasesThe driving force behind the creation of Pundi X is the steep learning curve for those just entering the cryptocurrency ecosystem. With very few exceptions (Robinhood and Coinbase come to mind), current cryptocurrency exchanges are confusing and difficult to learn for new users.
And that doesn’t even touch on the difficulty and confusion associated with juggling multiple wallets, private keys, passphrases and authenticators.
Honestly, even experienced cryptocurrency users can become somewhat frustrated. Pundi X offers to change all this through three interlocking pieces of technology: The Pundi X platform, mobile wallets, and card payments.
One interesting and unique feature of the Pundi X network is that its devices are integrated into two blockchains – Ethereum and NEM. Nem (XEM) was chosen because it is popular with Asian financial institutions, and because it has the technology to enable nearly instantaneous payments.
The PlatformThe Pundi X POS device has begun production in February 2018 following the ICO and has been shipping to merchants since July 2018. The list of merchants has been expanding at an ever increasing pace. You can see a list of all of the global merchants here
It allows customers to pay for goods with cryptocurrencie stored in their mobile wallet, and can also be used to buy cryptocurrencies (BTC, ETH, XEM, QTUM, or ACT) to top up the wallet.
During the ICO Pundi has said that they will deliver 100,000-700,000 POS devices to at least 12 different countries over the next three years. In addition to the base model, Pundi is also designing a smaller unit and a desktop version that will be capable of accepting major credit cards, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay.
Pundi X POS System Explained
The team is actually doing much better with XPOS devices shipped to more than 25 countries as of November 2019, and expectations for over 100,000 XPOS devices being deployed by 2021.
The POS system also serves merchants as it incorporates inventory, membership and identity management features. Pundi X says the POS system will be far better than Bitcoin ATMs thanks to the increased range of services available and the lower cost.
In addition, the devices are far smaller, enabling them to be installed in many places where a Bitcoin ATM wouldn’t be feasible. The Pundi X token (NPXS) will be used as gas for the network, powering transactions and advertisements, as well as identify customers for qualified discounts.
The initial 500 units were delivered to select locations in late June, and on July 10, 2018 the team announced the first of these, which are located in Hong Kong in four participating FAMA restaurants as part of the RISE 2018 convention. The team also distributed XPASS cards to RISE 2018 participants to demonstrate how easy it is to use cryptocurrencies to make purchases using their technology.
The current and planned Pundi X PoS devices. Image via Pundi X
The team has also said they will focus on Indonesia, which is the largest South-East Asian country, with a population of roughly 250 million. Obviously, Hong Kong has also become a target for early adoption, and the Pundi X team has also said that it has expanded into China.
It’s very exciting to see the team shipping and beta testing the actual hardware, and while it may seem unreal to be able to purchase goods with cryptocurrency, and to purchase cryptocurrency while waiting for your lunch or dinner to be served, this platform could not only make it a reality, but make it widely accepted over the next three years.
Pundi X WalletThe mobile wallet (Pundi XWallet) will simplify key management for users, storing the public and private keys and using a password system similar to any online system.
This feature alone is expected to massively increase adoption of cryptocurrencies by new users, however, there are worries that it could deter existing cryptocurrency users who worry about security and privacy issues.
The wallet is able to hold BTC, ETH, BNB and NSPX, as well as fiat currencies. There are plans to add support for additional currencies over time. The XWallet also includes a virtual XPASS card, or it can be synched with a physical XPASS card.
Screenshots of XWallet in the Google Play Store
The XWallet is available on both iOS and Android devices and are free to download. In terms of feedback on the apps, it has about a 4.3 star rating in the Google Play store. However, there appears to have recently been a number of complaints about the functionality of the app.
Some of these relate to the KYC requirement of Pundi X which is not something that they can really control. However, for those that are technical in nature, the team appears to be quite responsive and - most importantly - receptive.
The Pundi X Card Payment SystemThe company has released a card, which they are naming the XPASS card, which works together with the mobile app and wallet, enabling payments and deposits by card (a familiar medium for most) that are pulled from the mobile wallet.
In addition, users are able to see the current market price of each cryptocurrency before paying for goods and services, allowing them to pay with the cryptocurrency that brings the best value at the time. Currently, the XPASS card has support for BTC, BNB, ETH and NPXS.
This ability to pay for things easily with cryptocurrencies is what will finally give them real value in a widespread sense. The Pundi X whitepaper states that
most cryptocurrencies can only be used to buy other cryptocurrencies, reducing the relevance of them to almost zero for most people
Pundi X Card Payments
Indeed one of the primary arguments of non-crypto believers is that cryptocurrencies have no real value. It is hoped that enabling ease of payments will change that opinion.
It does seem as if the Pundi X team has created a technology system that has the potential to make cryptocurrencies widely accepted and used on a global scale. While the use cases are strong in theory, much of the adoption will depend on how quickly the POS devices can be rolled out, how well they actually work, and how successful the next several years of marketing for the technology is.
It is also notable that Pundi has partnered with iBank for the release and distribution of the XPASS cards. They offer both the standard XPASS card as well as a special edition Cao Jun designed card.
Pundi has also released a Manga themed XPASS card that also supports NEM and Qtum. Eventually, these special edition cards will be made into digital assets on the IOST blockchain.
Pundi Function X - f(x)Function X or f(x) is Pundi’s vision of the blockchain internet and includes not only a decentralized internet model, but also the hardware devices necessary to take advantage of this new blockchain based operating system.
The first device being launched is the Pundi X blockchain phone, being dubbed “BOB” for “Blok on Blok”. In addition to the blockchain based phone, the Pundi X team is also planning on redesigning the XPOS terminals to take advantage of f(x) technology. Finally, there is a Function X physical node in development.
FXTP Protocol With the BOB Smartphone
These are only three examples of hardware that can be created to take advantage of the f(x) operating system. Like everything else the Pundi X team takes on, the concept of the Function X operating system is ambitious, impressive, and far-reaching.
Pundi X TeamThe Pundi X team are a talented group of technologists and entrepreneurs, which seems to be exactly what this project will need for success. In general, the management team is comprised of computer engineers turned serial entrepreneur.
The glaring exception to this is CEO and founder Zac Cheah, who was formerly an HTML games developer, but perhaps this is why he surrounded himself with such a strong team.
The President of Pundi X, Constantin Papadimitrou, has a long history of founding successful fintech companies, and scaling them, which makes him an ideal fit for a project that will need rapid growth and adoption.
From Left: Zac Cheah (CEO), Pitt Huang (CTO), Constantin Papadimitriou (President), Danny Lim (CFO)
The CTO/COO and co-founder Pitt Huang created and sold his first business by the age of 25 and went on to create and sell several more business, including one that had over 200 employees.
The CFO and the third co-founder of the project is Danny Lim. Danny is an APAC financing expert who has product design experience with Baidu and Lenovo. Danny is a PhD Law scholar from Tsinghua University and hold ACMA and CGMA accounting qualifications.
The management team operates out of Jakarta, which the research team largely operates out of Shenzhen. Overall the team has physical offices in Jakarta, London, São Paulo, Seoul, Tokyo, Shenzhen and Singapore. As of August 2018 the team is comprised of more than 150 employees, with over half filling research and development roles.
PartnershipsThe Pundi X team has worked diligently, not only on the product and platform, but also on partnerships to help spread the platform and ensure both short-term growth and long-term stability.
The most significant partnership for Pundi X has been the one with NEM. It is this partnership that will allow Pundi X to confirm transactions instantly. Without this the team would almost certainly be able to gain traction with consumers, who are not going to be willing to use a transactional payment system that takes several minutes at the least to confirm transactions. The fast and inexpensive transactions provided by NEM make it possible for Pundi X to gain mainstream adoption.
Pundi X Partnerships
The Pundi team has also spent time positioning itself within the cryptocurrency ecosystem, establishing partnerships with the Indonesian Blockchain Association, the Singapore Fintech Association, the XPOS Consortium, ACCESS, the Fintech Association of Hong Kong, and the Swiss Finance and Fintech Association.
This last led to a further partnership with Swiss company UTRUST, who have committed to deploying 1,000 of the Pundi X POS devices.
Pundi X has been proactive in creating partnerships as a key business development tool. They have also used them to maximize their value proposition, increasing trust, engagement and adoption for both consumers and merchants. This should assist them tremendously in their marketing efforts as they roll out the Pundi X devices and systems throughout Asia and beyond.
Even though the NXPS coin has been languishing along with the rest of the cryptocurrency markets, the project continues to attract members to its various online communities. In fact, it has by far the largest following on Facebook I've ever seen for a blockchain project with over 110,000 followers of its page.
That dwarfs its other social media accounts, although it does have a strong Telegram channel, with over 40,000 followers there.
The project's following on Twitter is pretty solid, with 66,600 followers. The team is also active there, not only tweeting their own stuff but also retweeting useful information from other Twitter users and blockchain projects.
The sub-Reddit for Pundi X is somewhat disappointing, with only 5,534 followers. Posts here are infrequent too. In fact, you'd be better off following the project's YouTube channel, which has a large number of videos and some very good information about Pundi X and NXPS tokens.
It also has over 4,000 subscribers, which is pretty good on Youtube for a blockchain project.
The NPXS TokenAs mentioned earlier, Pundi X held an ICO back in January, raising their $35 million hard cap in just 90 minutes. As we all know, the first quarter of 2018 was a bad one for crypto in general and the NPXS token slowly sank from $0.001 to between $0.0007-0.0008 by April.
That’s where things got interesting after the Bancor Network listed the NPXS token. That took the price to $0.004 or so, but then in May price jumped again, reaching nearly $0.015 before dropping back. Price spiked to an all-time high of $0.015621 on June 17, 2018 when the shipment of the first 500 XPOS devices was announced.
NPXS Price Performance. Image via CMC
Of course, that pump didn’t last and price turned lower almost immediately following the June shipment announcement. There was a brief rally in May 2019, but by October 23, 2019 price was at an all-time low of $0.000159. Several weeks later on November 8, 2019 price has recovered slightly to $0.00018, making NPXS the 94th largest coin by market cap.
Trading & Storing NPXSIf you think now is a good time to buy NPXS, or if you just want to support the project, you’ll find the token listed on dozens of different exchanges.
The largest trade volume can be found at Binance, but Upbit and Hotbit also have good volumes. You could also consider Bithumb, Exrates, BKEX, or Vebitcoin. There are a handful of other exchanges with acceptable trade volumes although you could struggle with larger orders.
Taking a look at the liquidity on an exchange like Binance it appears average. For example, on the BTC / USDT order book the depth is reasonable with a minor bid ask spread however daily turnover is on the lower side. So, larger block orders could lead to some slippage.
Register at Binance and Buy NPXS Tokens
The recommend wallet is the mobile XWallet that is created and released by the Pundi X team. You can get it here and it is perfect for staking too. There are other options such as the Atomic Wallet, and of course, you can store NPXS in any ERC-20 compatible wallets too.
The NPXSXEM TokenIn addition to the NXPS ERC-20 token there is also an NXPSXEM token created from the NEM blockchain. It is a utility token that was created for utilization on NEMXPOS devices.
Pundi plans on manufacturing and deploying 20,000 NEM XPOS units around the world, all of which will run on the NEM blockchain. Of course, it is also openly traded on markets and as of this writing has a value of $0.000171.
NXPSXEM hit its all-time high of $0.004845 on August 8, 2018, just a day after being exchange listed. It’s all-time low was $0.000088 on October 16, 2019. Like NXPS it can also be staked by holding it in the XWallet until the end of 2020.
ConclusionPundi X has taken on an impressive and ambitious task in tackling what could amount to everyday adoption of cryptocurrencies by the masses, if their vision is realized. The technology seems appropriate for what they’re attempting, and the delivery of XPOS devices to more than 25 countries already shows the commitment of the team, and the success of the project to date.
The entire team has substantial experience in both technology and finance, which has been helpful to the start-up. With partnerships in place, and the hope for larger partnerships to be forged, Pundi X is like a sleeping giant.
All that’s left is to see if they can deliver on their promise of 100,000 units in the coming three years, and whether they are able to market those devices appropriately.
With those two pieces in place, you could be seeing a Pundi X device at a retailer near you in the near future. In fact, if you live in Brazil, Southeast Asia or some areas of Europe and Africa you might have already come across Pundi X devices.
And now with the development of Function X Pundi is looking to not only take over cryptocurrency merchant transactions, but they also want to take over the internet. Imagine if they’re successful. Pundi X in twenty years could be like a combination of Google, Apple, and Amazon with a global reach and commanding market presence.
Disclaimer: These are the writer’s opinions and should not be considered investment advice. Readers should do their own research.
In a blog post on Tuesday, Binance Exchange, the largest crypto trading platform by volume, announced the automatic conversion of several delisted tokens to USDC.
This action will be executed based on the average token to USDC exchange rate within the conversion period.
What Binance Exchange Users Need To KnowAfter delisting 10 tokens from its catalog, Binance said in a follow-up message that it would convert them to USDC automatically, enabling holders to access their funds. After the conversion happens, the exchange will credit the stablecoin equivalent of the affected tokens to users’ wallets by April 28, 2025. The tokens include:
Vai (VAI) Tornado Cash (TORN) OMG Network (OMG) Waves (WAVES) NEM (XEM) BarnBridge (BOND) Dock (DOCK) Mdex (MDX) Polkastarter (POLS) Pundi X PURSE (PURSE) Read more: Binance Review 2024: Is It the Right Crypto Exchange for You?
Holders of these tokens should adjust their trading strategies accordingly to prepare for the upcoming changes. Failure to do so by October 28 would see them automatically converted to USDC, effectively phasing out the affected tokens from the exchange.
“During the Conversion Period [between October 29, 2024 and April 28, 2025], users will not be able to view the above tokens in their Binance wallets,” Binance articulated.
In this regard, it is worth mentioning that the history of Binance’s tokens delisting often inspires volatility. For instance, the exchange delisted six altcoins around mid-August, causing double-digit price drops for PowerPool (CVP) and Ellipsis (EPX). These tokens also featured among the delisted assets.
However, Binance is not only removing several tokens but also adding new ones to its platform. One of the notable additions is Scroll (SCR), a zkRollup scaling solution for Ethereum.
As per the announcement, SCR will be listed on October 11, with pre-market trading for the SCR/USDT pair set to open. This move supports Ethereum’s scalability by enabling faster, more efficient transactions while maintaining security and decentralization.
“Binance is excited to announce the 60th project on Binance Launchpool – Scroll (SCR), a Bytecode-level compatible zkEVM Rollup,” an excerpt in Binance’s announcement read.
Read more: What are Crypto Airdrops?
With this listing notice, Binance becomes the first platform to list Scroll’s powering token. The exchange will also airdrop 55,000,000 SCR, representing 5.5% of the total supply. Airdrop farming will start on Wednesday, October 9. The participants must lock their BNB and FDUSD to receive the SCR tokens.
Unibright is a project that has been generating quite a bit of interest recently. So much so that the UBT token has been rallying in price as traders have been snapping it up.
However, behind the impressive performance is a really interesting project that is looking to take enterprise blockchain adoption to the next level. Unibright is also looking to be the connecting fiber between the open source Ethereum network and companies.
So, is it really worth considering?
In this Unibright review, I will attempt to answer that. I will also take a look at the long term use cases and adoption potential of the UBT Token.
What is Unibright?Unibright is a fairly new blockchain project that's self-described as the “unified framework for blockchain based business integration.” Whew! That's quite a mouthful, but what exactly does it mean, and how can we use Unibright?
In essence Unibright is being created to give companies and other organizations the ability to utilize blockchain technology without the extensive costs, huge hassle, and the need for a large corps of developers.
Unibright Abstract. Image via Whitepaper
Instead businesses are able to use the visual workflow created by Unibright to create and launch smart contracts on an appropriate blockchain. And it can all be done without any coding skills whatsoever. There's no blockchain skills required, no smart contract development knowledge, not even traditional software development knowledge is needed.
Unibright has even gone to the trouble of including a number of business use cases right within the system. These include cases such as invoicing, shipping process monitoring, asset life cycles, multi-party approvals, and many others.
Users can easily select their use case and then create a custom workflow. This can then be deployed in a way to bridge the information between the new blockchain and existing systems, such as ERP.
Unibright ObjectivesOne of the key roadblocks to the adoption of blockchain technology by enterprises has been the concerns around the usability of existing solutions, and the huge knowledge gap that exists in regards to deploying, developing, and designing blockchain solutions.
Add to this the scarcity of talented blockchain developers and the cost of hiring such talented developers. It's understandable that businesses have been slow to adopt blockchain solutions, even though many business leaders are able to see the potential for blockchain to dramatically improve their operations.
The blockchain solutions being created often have clear advantages for businesses, but traditional businesses have been slow to adopt these new and novel solutions. The uncertainties regarding costs, development, and effectiveness in blockchain integration has kept many on the sidelines.
Unibright Overview. Image via Unibright
And that's why Unibright was developed and where it comes into play.
The Unibright project is attempting to position itself as a unified framework that simplifies all the aspects of blochcain integration for enterprises through its algorithmic design.
Through this framework businesses can take advantage of interoperability, not only between blockchains, but also with legacy systems. Unibright provides a full stack of tools that function to connect information between all systems, increasing the productivity and efficiency of an organization.
One of the beauties of the Unibright platform is it's blockchain agnostic. It tries to use visual cues and more abstract designs to describe integration scenarios for businesses and to make them as cost-efficient and easy to implement as possible. The platform has also attempted to remain flexible in regard to technological advancements in blockchain.
Unibright TechnologyIn the simplest terms the Unibright platform was created as a simple framework that individual businesses can mold to their own specific needs.
It will allow managers to use blockchain solutions in their everyday operations with little risk, while saving costs and increasing productivity and efficiency. Unibright is designed to finally close the gap between blockchain technology and traditional business applications.
The Unibright framework currently contains four distinct tools:
The UB Workflow DesignerThis tool allows anyone, even those with no blockchain experience or knowledge, to define workflows visually, and without any reference to a specific blockchain protocol. The UB Workflow Designer allows its users to choose an existing template and them customize it to their workflow needs.
The Unibright Visual Workflow Designer
This visual designer can even define integrations with other blockchains and IT systems, as well as setting system boundaries. Once the workflow has been created the system automatically generates the needed smart contracts with the necessary business logic.
The UB Contract InterfaceThis is the central part of Unibright's ecosystem. With the UB Contract Interface users are able to make changes to previously designed workflows, transforming them into smart contracts specific to a blockchain. They can then publish the smart contracts, maintain them, or automatically generate templated connection adapters for existing systems.
The Unibright Contract Interface
The templates that are made available to users of the Unibright ecosystem have been designed around predefined business workflows, and are presented at a high level of abstraction. The development team plans on maintaining the templates, enhancing them as needed, and creating new templates to serve new use cases and industries.
The UB ExplorerThe UB Explorer provides a simple interface where users can monitor all ongoing processes. Data is collected from the smart contracts, as well as from any systems that have been connected to the chosen template.
The Unibright Explorer
The Explorer provides Smart Queries that present useful information and are automatically generated based on the specific workflows. This way both on-chain and off-chain data can all be presented together in an easy to read and extremely useful dashboard.
The UB ConnectorThis is how Unibright allows off-chain systems to access and use Unibright smart contracts. It also enables the creation of cross-chain workflows, and cross-system workflows.
The Unibright Connector
It does this through the Smart Adapter, which takes all the technical details needed to connect a blockchain or ERP system and transforms them to allow the connection to happen. Smart Adapters make the Unibright Connector dynamic, and enable a massive variety of integration possibilities.
Unibright TeamUnibright and its team are based in Germany and led by founder and CEO Marten Jung. Marten has also been the CEO of the parent company SPO Consulting for the past two years. SPO Consulting has been in business for over 20 years, with a focus on business integration.
The co-founder and CTO of Unibright is Stefan Schmidt. He also serves as the Head of Software Architecture. The Lead Frontend Engineer for the project is Ingo Sterzinger, who brings over a decade of software development experience to Unibright.
Some Unibright Team Members: Marten Jung, Stefan Schmidt, & Ingo Sterzinger
In addition to these three there are an additional four core positions, with the following titles mentioned: Chief Communications Officer, CMO and Head of Marketing, Lead Engineer Testing, and Lead Engineer Data Modeling.
These positions are all filled with members who have many years of experience in database management, engineering, and computer science. The only potential downside is that none of the team members have any prior blockchain experience. However they all seem accomplished enough to acquire the skills they need to succeed rapidly.
Advisors & PartnersBesides having a very skilled set of team members, Unibright also has a very skilled and knowledgable team of advisors.
This group brings a wealth of blockchain experience and knowledge to the project and includes Youtuber and founder of DataDash Nicolas Merten. In addition there are a number of former PwC auditors, blockchain developers from Ambisafe and Iconiqlab, PhDs, and venture capitalists.
Unibright has also been aggressive in developing partnerships, including SAP, Microsoft, Iconiqlab, and Ambisafe among others. This puts the project in a good position to strengthen their market exposure and positioning.
Some of the Partners Unibright is working with
They’ve also gotten together with Deutsche Bahn to create a tokenized ecosystem for public transportation. And most recently they’ve entered into a strategic partnership with NEM. In addition, the parent company SPO Consulting has business relationships with companies such as Lufthansa, Unilever, and Samsung that can be leveraged in the coming years.
UBT TokenAccessing the Unibright framework requires UBT tokens. Users deposit whatever number of tokens required for their usage. To acquire tokens users must buy them on the open market. Unibright even offers to help if the users need assistance in purchasing through an exchange.
There were some concerns expressed by the Unibright community at this setup, as some felt that large enterprises couldn't be expected to go to an exchange to purchase tokens, but this hasn't been a problem to date and all users have been able to acquire whatever tokens they need from IDEX.
This 30 days of usage is a crucial part of the UBT token model. It was setup so that a users initial deposit must be large enough to cover a minimum of 30 days usage. This allows them to later make use of a “Rebuy contract.”
This is key because it allows customers to repurchase the tokens they used over the 30 day period from Unibright to continue using their blockchain integration. The Rebuy contract determines the rebuy price, with the standard set at $0.14 per UBT.
Features of the Unibright token
This price may seem low to some, but in truth this is how enterprise solutions are often costed. In practice the initial purchase and deposit is likely to be the most expensive part of the process. This makes complete sense since the initial deposit is like the setup cost for the process. Currently the price of one UBT is above the $0.14 level, making the Rebuy contracts very useful from a business standpoint.
Once tokens are deposited to the platform, and this includes rebought tokens, they cannot be withdrawn again. When tokens are deposited and the Rebuy Contract is signed the tokens are locked in a smart contract which lasts for the duration of the contract.
The good news for investors is that every additional Unibright user removes more UBT tokens from the open market. This should help support UBT prices in the future as increased demand will lead to declining supply.
What happens when the contract ends?Once the contract ends the user needs to deposit more tokens which they've purchased on the open market. They sign a new contract and these tokens are then locked into the platform. This means new tokens must be purchased each time a Rebuy Contract expires.
What about the tokens from the expired contracts?These tokens go back to Unibright. Initially the plan was to sell these tokens on the open market to create additional revenue for the project. That plan has been set aside thankfully, and the team has decided not to sell the tokens they receive, ever.
Instead the plan is to use these tokens to onboard non-profit organizations to the platform. These tokens are not being gifted, but will be deposited into the framework to help the charities to benefit from the blockchain integrations that have been made available.
In essence this means that any token deposited into the framework will be forever removed from the open market, and thus the circulating supply of UBT tokens will be forever declining.
UBT Trading & StorageAfter the project held their ICO in May 2018, raising $13.54 million by selling roughly two-thirds of the UBT supply for $0.14 each investors were rewarded with an immediate pump to almost $0.19 each. That didn’t last long though, and by the end of May the price of UBT was slightly below the ICO price. The token continued to decline, nearly reaching $0.01 by October 2018.
Price bounced around slightly after that, rarely topping $0.02 and also not going below $0.01. By the end of 2019 the price of UBT was still stuck stubbornly below $0.02.
As the entire universe of altcoins began climbing in 2020, so too did UBT begin to rally. From just below $0.02 at the start of the year the token price has soared to an all-time high of $0.28922 as of February 18, 2020.
UBT Token Price Performance. Image via CMC
When it comes to exchange coverage, UBT does not appear to have that much support. Hotbit has over 60% of the trading volume which means that it is quite centralised. The liquidity also appears to be quite limited which means that you will experience slippage when trading large block orders.
Because UBT is an ERC-20 token you can use any wallet that’s suitable for storing ERC-20 tokens. Some suggestions would be the Ledger and Trezor hardware wallets, MyEtherWallet, MetaMask, Atomic, and many others.
Development Progress & Roadmap2019 was quite a busy year for the Unibright team. There were a number of technical advancements that they brought to the fore as well as some partnerships. These include the following:
Q1: They brought the UniBright framework to product readiness (earlier than initially). They also joined the European Blockchain FoundationQ2: There was further collaberation with Universities and other academic institutions. On the product front, they released the C02 compensation project for "Carbonara".Q3: They integrated Facebook's Libra technology into the Unibright framework. There was also some work on the tokenization of securities.Q4: Perhaps the most meaningful announcement here was their official partnership with Digital and Anyblock Analytics.While Unibright does not have an updated roadmap on their website, they do have this blog post that was published in April of last year. As you can see, there are a number of goals they would like to achieve by the end of this year and by the end of 2024.
By the end of 2020, they would like to achieve the following:
On-boarding More clients: They also would like to lock 15-25% of UBT inside the platform.Development on Automatic Setup: This would allow clients to set up a Unibright Framework SaaS environment, for locking in tokens and enabling token renewal by smart contractThen, the singular goal that they would like to acheive by 2024 is enable mass adoption as they target to lock up 80% of the UBT inside the platform.
Final ThoughtsBy looking for ways to offer blockchain technology in a simple manner to businesses and enterprises Unibright is taking on one of the most critical areas to the adoption of blockchain technology.
Businesses need this new technology for its productivity enhancements, efficiency, and cost-savings potential, but are hesitant to adopt technology with a steep learning curve. With the Unibright solution there’s no need for a business to have any knowledge or expertise in blockchain, but they can still benefit from the technology.
While the team behind Unibright did not come from a blockchain background themselves, they still seem extremely capable, and that could actually give them an advantage in creating solutions that work for non-blockchain companies. Plus having a parent company with several decades of experience in a similar business must work in Unibright’s favor.
They stand out in their avoidance of hype, which is refreshing in the blockchain ecosystem. In place of the hype they have a clear approach to B2B marketing, which makes them more trustworthy. Their website does an excellent job outlining the business use cases for Unibright, and offers several scenarios where the platform would be used to increase the efficiency of a business.
Unibright To the Sky? Image via UniBright Blog
There are some downsides and risks to the project. Most notable of them is the certainty that competition in this space will grow in the coming years as the need for adding blockchain solutions to more businesses increases. Unibright combats this through the extensive experience of the parent company, and through the growing network of partnerships.
There is also the possibility that businesses will never come around to see the need to add blockchain technology. This possibility is truly beyond the control of Unibright, and they need to continue pushing forward under the assumption that businesses will eventually want to move to blockchain technology.
There has also been some criticism over the addition of a token to this platform, and questions over whether tokenization is needed. The plans for scaling the platform make it clear that a token is a necessary component of the platform.
Overall the team is already well positioned and doing well in growing their partnerships and usage of the platform. Once acceptance and use of blockchain technology increases at the business level Unibright will be in a great position to take advantage of that.
