Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

Hyperliquid: Bouncing Off Support But EMAs Remain The WallHyperliquid, as measured by Hyperliquid Strategies Inc (NASDAQ:PURR), bounced 2% after tagging the $56 to $58 demand zone, a key support band being tested for the first time since the June rally. 

Crypto analyst ALTF4 noted on X that Hyperliquid’s growth has moved beyond trading volume into market structure, with roughly $194 billion in 30-day perpetual volume, $11.5 billion in open interest, and non-crypto markets including equities, FX, and commodities now trading on the same venue. 

The chart, though, requires patience. The 20-day EMA at $62.56 and 50-day EMA at $62.31 are converging just above current price, forming a dense resistance cluster that needs to flip to support before the setup carries conviction.

Key levels for HYPE: $56 to $58 — Demand zone support; losing this exposes $52 $62.31 to $62.56 — EMA cluster, the resistance wall to reclaim $76 — Chart projection target on a confirmed EMA reclaim Uniswap: Cup and Handle Breakout with Supertrend ConfirmationUniswap (CRYPTO: UNI) surges to $3.8, completing a textbook cup and handle breakout. The cup formed from May through June, the handle consolidated through early July, and price has now cleared the breakout level with conviction. 

The Supertrend indicator flipped green at $3.23, adding trend confirmation to the pattern.

Price now sits above all four major EMAs and is challenging the 200-day EMA at $3.9 as the final overhead barrier before open air. The cup and handle measured move targets $4.80 to $5 on continuation.

Key levels for UNI: $3.9 — 200-day EMA, last resistance before the measured move opens $4 — Psychological resistance above $3.54 — 20-day EMA support on any retest; holding here keeps the breakout valid $3.23 — Supertrend level, the line that invalidates the setup on a close below Monero: The Cleanest Breakout Setup In The Market Right NowMonero (CRYPTO: XMR) pushes to $357.28, pressing directly into the descending trendline that has capped every rally since late January. 

Bollinger Bands are squeezing tight with price coiling at the upper band at $358.63, a classic compression pattern before a directional expansion.

All four EMAs are clustering between $333 and $354, essentially flat, confirming the squeeze is real. 

A daily close above $360 clears the descending trendline and triggers the Bollinger expansion, with a breakout target of $400 to $420. Rejection here sends the price back to $333.

Key levels for XMR: $358.63 — Bollinger upper band and descending trendline confluence, the breakout line $333 — Bollinger midband support on rejection $400 to $420 — measured move target on confirmed breakout Image Source: Shutterstock

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A US court has ordered the forfeiture of more than $8.3 million in cryptocurrency and physical assets tied to Angelo Martino, a former ransomware negotiator who was convicted of secretly colluding with the BlackCat ransomware group while posing as a trusted advisor to his victims.

A Double Agent Inside the Incident Response Industry Martino was employed at the Chicago cybersecurity company DigitalMint, where he negotiated on behalf of companies whose computers were hacked and held for multimillion-dollar ransom payments. Rather than protecting clients, Martino shared confidential information he gained from his work as a ransomware negotiator, including victim organisations' negotiating positions and insurance policy limits, to extract the maximum payment for himself and other BlackCat affiliates.

In all, he and his associates extorted more than $75 million in ransoms from four companies and a nonprofit organisation that he represented as a negotiator. The victims included hospitality, retail, medical, and financial services businesses. Martino, 41, of Land O'Lakes, Florida, was sentenced to 70 months for his role in conspiring with BlackCat/ALPHV actors to extort multiple victims, as well as conspiring with other former cybersecurity professionals to attack additional victims in 2023.

Alongside Martino, Ryan Goldberg of Georgia and Kevin Martin of Texas were also involved in the scheme. On May 1, his co-conspirators Kevin Martin and Ryan Goldberg were each sentenced to 48 months in prison for their roles in the conspiracy.

Multi-Chain Crypto Portfolio and Physical Assets Seized The US District Court for the Southern District of Florida issued a forfeiture order targeting his hidden crypto portfolios. The total value of the seized assets is estimated at $8.37 million, spread across several blockchain ecosystems: 90.319 $BTC worth approximately $5.84 million; 7,999.873 $XMR worth approximately $2.46 million, held in the privacy-focused Monero cryptocurrency; 56,174.15 $XRP seized from wallet "...EkThx6"; and 39,760.79 $XLM held at address "...5RJ3BD". Small holdings of Solana's native SOL token were also confiscated during the operation.

Authorities have also seized a bayfront home with an estimated value of $1.68 million, a second single-family home with an estimated value of $396,000, multiple vehicles, a food truck, and a 29-foot luxury fishing boat that Martino obtained using proceeds from his crimes. A hearing to determine the amount of restitution to be ordered against Martino is set for September 17.

Sources:
US Department of Justice: Florida Ransomware Negotiator Sentenced to Prison
Help Net Security: Ransomware Negotiator Who Betrayed Clients Sentenced to 70 Months
CyberScoop: Former DigitalMint Ransomware Negotiator Sentenced to 70 Months

Prosecutors Tie 500+ Drug Parcels to a Crypto-Laundering Darknet Operation

Zcash Founding Scientist Challenges Bitcoin’s 21 Million Cap

July 08, 2026

Overview This is the v0.18.5.1 release of the Monero GUI software. This recommended release includes a large number of bug fixes.

The latest CLI release notes can be found on the precedent blog post

Some highlights of this release are:

Fix a memory safety issue during QR code scanning (#4597) Fix wallet freeze on shutdown edge case (#4603) Prevent CSV formula injection during export (#4609) Apply consistent text escaping across rich text views (#4610) Fix console log spam on startup (#4615) Check wallet file directory is writable during wallet creation (#4617) Add confirmation dialog for unauthenticated OpenAlias (#4618) Fix generic name in desktop file (#4590) Hide update popup during device passphrase prompt (#4623) Set desktop entry ID for the application (#4625) Update P2Pool to v4.17.1 (#4620) Minor bug fixes The complete list of changes is available on GitHub, along with the source code.

Contributors for this Release This release was the direct result of 8 people who worked to put out 48 commits containing 192 new lines of code. We'd like to thank them very much for their time and effort. In no particular order, they are:

tobtoht selsta SChernykh jpk68 City-busz SNeedlewoods plowsof thomasbuilds Download The new binaries can be downloaded from the Downloads page or from the direct links below.

Windows, 64-bit Windows, 64-bit (Installer) macOS, Intel macOS, ARM Linux, 64-bit A complete guide for the GUI wallet is included in the archives, but an online version is available.

Download Hashes If you would like to verify that you have downloaded the correct file, please use the following SHA256 hashes:

monero-gui-win-x64-v0.18.5.1.zip, 9241bb617bc4de37b0c3b2481c234ce39984ba2615fc65991979c189f092c918 monero-gui-install-win-x64-v0.18.5.1.exe, 0c0880b62edf00ee4291b37c4ba32227fd1bc31433d84929eeec1e2862bd1c0f monero-gui-mac-x64-v0.18.5.1.dmg, 1f7b2c3a0e83180267d4c09cbb4f4d14b35c4f3c218abae585f0bb288f8bf01c monero-gui-mac-armv8-v0.18.5.1.dmg, c40a9125a976d7f063216f286976a252eb5a7f26206bd034f25782691786f18c monero-gui-linux-x64-v0.18.5.1.tar.bz2, ecf7f734fb0048896b12f7e04e4f69a0257271f8411c06d30cd701371d2fd155 A GPG-signed list of the hashes is at https://www.getmonero.org/downloads/hashes.txt and should be treated as canonical, with the signature checked against the appropriate GPG key in the source code (in /utils/gpg_keys). To ensure that the files you download are those originally posted by the maintainers, you should both check that the hashes of your files match those on the signed list, and that the signature on the list is valid.

Two guides are available to guide you through the verification process: Verify binaries on Windows (beginner) and Verify binaries on Linux, Mac, or Windows command line (advanced).

Post tags : Monero Software Releases

EU Targets VPNs as Age Verification Loophole: What Happens Next?

Privacy-focused coins Zcash (ZEC) and Monero (XMR) exhibit a wide range of recovery signs on Friday, as bulls tighten their grip following weeks of extended declines. ZEC hovers above $460, marking three straight days of gains, while XMR moderates gains above $320.

The broader crypto market’s recovery is grounded in improving sentiment. Appetite for risk assets has improved, evidenced by the Fear & Greed Index, which is embedded in the Fear Territory at 21 on Friday, after rising only marginally from 19 the day before and June’s average at 11. Steady growth in risk-on sentiment is critical to stabilizing the market and supporting short to medium-term gains.

Crypto Fear & Greed Index | Source: AlternativeZcash, Monero struggle to attract retail buyersInterest in privacy coins remains generally low despite the broad price increases this week. CoinGlass data show that perpetual Open Interest (OI) declined to 1.92 million ZEC on Friday, down from 1.93 million ZEC the previous day. A wider scope highlights a steep drawdown from 2.38 million ZEC recorded on June 16, while further cooling could limit Zcash’s recovery potential.

Zcash Futures OI | Source: CoinGlassZcash OI on Binance mirrors the overall drop, suggesting weak retail conviction in the recovery. The OI averages 578,000 ZEC, down from 601,000 ZEC in the same period.

Zcash Binance OI | Source: CoinGlassMonero reflects similar suppressed retail demand to ZEC, with futures OI standing at 452,000 XMR on Friday, up only marginally from 445,000 XMR. Despite the minor increase, CoinGlass data shows a steady decline from June’s peak of 514,000 XMR.

Demand for Monero derivatives remains significantly low at 28 million XMR, which marks a noticeable drop from nearly 32 million XMR on June 12. If retail remains on the sidelines and demand fails to improve, the ongoing rebound may be temporary and possibly give way to a reversal if investors sense exhaustion and book early profits.

Monero Futures OI | Source: CoinGlassPrice analysis: Zcash builds recovery momentumMonero trades above $460 while maintaining a bullish near-term bias as it holds firmly above the 200 EMA at $446 and the Bollinger Bands’ middle line near $421.

Momentum remains constructive, with the Relative Strength Index (RSI) hovering just below overbought territory around 68 on the 4-hour chart and the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator staying in positive territory, hinting that upside pressure is still intact.

ZEC/USDT 4-hour chartOn the topside, immediate resistance aligns with the Bollinger Bands’ upper layer at $464. A sustained break above this level would open the door to further gains toward the $500 mark. On the flip side, initial support lies at the 200 EMA around $446, ahead of the cluster formed by the 100 and 50 EMAs at $428 and $419, respectively. A deeper setback toward the Bollinger Bands’ middle line at $421 would still keep the broader bullish structure intact as long as that zone holds.

Monero holds key support amid limited upsideMonero trades around $322, maintaining a constructive near-term bias as it holds above the 50 and 100 EMAs at roughly $314 and $319, while still trading below the 200 EMA at about $330, which caps the recovery.

The RSI hovers in bullish territory near 66 on the 4-hour chart, suggesting firm upside momentum, and the MACD remains positive with an expanding histogram, reinforcing the notion of persistent buying pressure despite the overhead trendline resistance.

XMR/USDT 4-hour chartInitial resistance lies at the 200 EMA around $330, ahead of the horizontal supply range at $340, should buyers extend the advance. Looking down, initial support emerges at the 100 EMA near $319, followed by the 50 EMA around $314, while the former trendline break region close to $303 acts as a deeper structural floor if a sharper pullback unfolds.

(The technical analysis of this story was written with the help of an AI tool.)

The U.S. Treasury added 134 crypto addresses tied to ISIS-K, the Islamic State’s Afghan and Pakistani affiliate, to its sanctions list on July 1, and Tether froze all 131 on Tron, though three Monero wallets stay beyond reach.

Posted July 2, 2026 at 8:06 pm EST.

The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) updated its designation of ISIS-K on July 1 to add 134 cryptocurrency wallet addresses to its Specially Designated Nationals list, and stablecoin issuer Tether froze the balances on all 131 Tron addresses in the batch. The remaining three sit on Monero, where no one can touch them.

The action is a working model of how sanctions now reach onchain. The government publishes a set of addresses tied to a designated group, and a centralized issuer can render the funds on those addresses unspendable almost as fast as the list goes out. That leverage exists only where an issuer controls the asset. Monero, a privacy coin with no central operator, has no equivalent kill switch, so the three designated XMR wallets keep functioning despite the sanctions.

ISIS-K, the Islamic State’s Afghan and Pakistani affiliate, is a U.S.-designated terrorist group. According to blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis, the group solicited donations through its media arm, the al-Azaim Media Foundation, over websites and messaging apps. The 131 Tron addresses took in more than 1.4 million dollars since 2023 and sent out more than 880,000 dollars, with several of the wallets routing funds to Syria-based crypto exchangers.

Tether has become a recurring instrument in these actions. In January, the company froze roughly 182 million dollars in USDT across five Tron wallets, and it has repeatedly blacklisted addresses flagged by U.S. agencies. On June 22, OFAC also took action against people responsible for moving money for ISIS, sanctioning six entities and three individuals across Europe, the Middle East, and West Africa.

The same July 1 tranche carried a separate counter-narcotics action, naming a network tied to Brazil’s Primeiro Comando da Capital that allegedly used crypto to move more than 30 million dollars in illicit proceeds. Together the designations show OFAC leaning harder on onchain identifiers, and the split outcome on Tron versus Monero marks the boundary of what that approach can actually enforce.

Related Listen: DEX in the City: Why AI Agents Are Good for Crypto and Stablecoins

AI-assisted content: This article was produced with the assistance of AI tools and was reviewed, edited, and fact-checked by a member of the Unchained editorial team before publication.

Jul 2, 2026, 2:49 p.m.

1 min read

Summary

OFAC sanctioned 134 crypto addresses linked to ISIS-K (131 Tron, 3 Monero) on Wednesday, and Tether subsequently froze the funds in all 131 Tron wallets.ISIS-K used its media wing to solicit donations via Tron, Monero, and Bitcoin, highlighting stablecoin issuers' growing role in sanctions, Chainalysis said.The Treasury also sanctioned a Brazil-linked network tied to the criminal gang PCC, which laundered over $30 million in illicit funds using crypto.The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added 134 crypto wallet addresses to its ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K) sanctions entry on Wednesday, including 131 Tron addresses and 3 Monero addresses.

The TRON wallets received more than $1.4 million since 2023 and sent more than $880,000, according to Chainalysis. Tether froze balances on all 131 Tron addresses.

ISIS-K, the Islamic State affiliate active across Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of Central Asia, has used its media arm al-Azaim Media Foundation to solicit crypto donations through websites and messaging platforms, Chainalysis said.

Chainalysis said it identified historical donation addresses tied to the group on the Tron, Monero and Bitcoin networks.

The freeze reinforces the role of centralized stablecoin issuers in sanctions enforcement. Tether froze more than $182 million in USDT across five Tron wallets in January under its sanctions compliance policy.

OFAC also sanctioned a Brazil-linked network tied to Primeiro Comando da Capital, or PCC, which Treasury described as Latin America's largest criminal gang.

The network laundered more than $30 million in U.S.-generated illicit proceeds and used crypto to move funds back to Brazil, according to the Treasury.

AI Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk's full AI Policy.

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Building the Zcash Machine: Tachyon and Quantum Readiness

Building the Zcash Machine: Tachyon and Quantum Readiness

Zcash’s Tachyon upgrade aims to scale shielded payments, improve quantum readiness, and test whether its funding, security, and governance can hold.

Jun 30, 2026

Zcash’s Tachyon upgrade aims to scale shielded payments, improve quantum readiness, and test whether its funding, security, and governance can hold.

Why it matters:

Zcash’s Tachyon upgrade aims to scale shielded payments, improve quantum readiness, and test whether its funding, security, and governance can hold.

Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.

Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.

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TL;DR Tether froze USDT held in 131 TRON wallets after OFAC linked the addresses to ISIS-K. The updated U.S. sanctions list added 134 crypto wallet addresses, including 131 on TRON and three on Monero. Chainalysis said the sanctioned TRON wallets received more than $1.4 million since 2023 and sent over $880,000. The latest action expands Tether’s compliance efforts as regulators tighten oversight of illicit crypto transactions. Tether has frozen USDT balances held in all 131 TRON wallets linked to the terrorist group ISIS-K after the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) expanded its sanctions list to include 134 cryptocurrency wallet addresses. The updated designation covers 131 TRON addresses and three Monero addresses believed to be associated with the group’s financial activities.

According to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, the sanctioned TRON wallets have received more than $1.4 million since 2023 and have transferred over $880,000 during that period. The action follows OFAC’s latest sanctions update targeting ISIS-K, the Islamic State’s affiliate operating in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and parts of Central Asia.

OFAC updated its sanctions against ISIS-K, adding 134 cryptocurrency wallets (131 TRON, 3 Monero) as identifiers. In a separate enforcement action, OFAC targeted individuals linked to the Latin American criminal group PCC for laundering illicit proceeds via crypto. Read more…

— Chainalysis (@chainalysis) July 1, 2026

OFAC Expands Sanctions as Tether Blocks ISIS-K-Linked Wallets The latest sanctions update adds 134 cryptocurrency wallet identifiers to OFAC’s existing designation of ISIS-K, a group that has previously used cryptocurrency to support fundraising efforts. Historical investigations have shown that the organization’s media arm, al-Azaim Media Foundation, solicited crypto donations through online campaigns using multiple digital assets, including TRON, Monero, and Bitcoin.

Chainalysis points out that the 131 TRON wallets at the center of the sanctions have interacted with mainstream crypto services and, in some cases, transferred funds to cryptocurrency exchangers based in Syria. In response to the designation, Tether froze the USDT balances held in all of the sanctioned TRON addresses.

The sanctions update comes as regulators continue to strengthen oversight of cryptocurrency transactions linked to terrorism financing and other illicit activities. Following the latest designation, financial institutions and virtual asset service providers are expected to update their sanctions screening and transaction monitoring systems to identify exposure to the newly listed wallet addresses.

Tether Continues to Expand Compliance Efforts The latest wallet freeze comes just days after Tether, currently providing custodial wallets, blocked $344 million in USDT held across two TRON wallets that had been flagged by U.S. authorities over suspected illicit activity. That action ranked among the company’s largest compliance operations and reflected its ongoing coordination with law enforcement agencies.

According to Tether, the company has frozen more than $4.4 billion in digital assets since it began working with authorities, including approximately $2.1 billion linked to requests from U.S. agencies. The stablecoin issuer says it has supported more than 2,300 investigations involving 340 agencies across 65 countries.

The latest enforcement action highlights the growing role of stablecoin issuers in enforcing sanctions on public blockchain networks. While blockchain transactions remain transparent and traceable, issuers such as Tether, which is also one of the biggest Bitcoin holders, can freeze tokens when wallet addresses are linked to sanctioned entities or criminal investigations, making compliance measures an increasingly important part of the digital asset ecosystem.

THORChain Podcast #212: ADR29 Fee Debate ft. BooneW, KentonC137 & Patriotsounds | June 28, 2026 | Watch the full episode on YouTube

By Raynalytics

TL;DRBoone proposed ADR29, an asset-specific minimum swap fee lever built with Monero in mind. His working example is a 50 bps floor on each $XMR leg, but the proposal is not approved or implemented.ADR29 is designed to complement, not replace, THORChain’s dynamic fee model. When both apply, the protocol would use the higher floor.The core disagreement was strategic: charge more where THORChain has a permissionless edge, or keep fees low enough to win volume and discourage competitors.Higher Monero fees could feed more system income into protocol-owned liquidity, helping a shallow Monero pool deepen without depending entirely on outside LPs.The second half moved from fees to distribution: affiliate tooling, a swap widget, more browser wallets, and possible mobile paths for THORChain Swap.IntroductionPodcast #212 was supposed to feature Amir Taaki, but technical problems cut that conversation short. Boone joined while out shopping, without video and with one specific mission: make sure the community understood ADR29.

That intervention turned into a full debate about what THORChain should optimize for. Boone argued for monetizing permissionless demand now. Kenton argued that low prices build a longer-lasting moat. Denny focused on whether decentralized governance can manage manual fee levers quickly enough. Nobody pretended the answer was settled, which made the discussion more useful.

The result was less a sales pitch for one proposal and more a map of the choices around Monero, dynamic fees, protocol-owned liquidity, and THORChain’s route to a larger market.

1. ADR29: A Fee Floor for Each AssetToday, THORChain applies minimum swap fee floors broadly by asset class. The same L1 floor covers many unrelated assets, even when their liquidity, competition and market structure look completely different.

Boone’s proposed ADR29 adds per-asset minimum slip settings. Instead of raising the L1 floor for every pool to address one asset, nodes could set a different floor for Monero, Bitcoin or another specific asset. The proposal also allows an explicit zero override and optional economic caps on those operational fee levers.

Monero is the reason Boone built it. THORChain is preparing a genuinely permissionless $XMR route, while many existing cross-chain options rely on centralized or permissioned infrastructure. Boone’s working number was 50 bps per Monero leg. On an asset-to-$XMR double swap, that would produce a combined floor near 1%, roughly where he said many existing Monero venues already price their service.

His pitch is not simply “charge more because we can.” It is that THORChain could offer a better product at a familiar market price, then route the additional system income toward deeper protocol-owned liquidity.

The proposal remains an initial draft. Even if the code is accepted, the per-asset floor would be off unless nodes chose to use it.

"All it does is give the nodes more optionality." (Boone)2. Why ADR29 Is Not a Replacement for Dynamic FeesThe episode repeatedly returned to the difference between ADR29 and ADR26, THORChain’s dynamic L1 fee model.

Dynamic fees tune the minimum fee for eligible L1 swaps associated with approved affiliate THORNames and trading pairs. The aim is to discover whether a lower or higher fee produces more protocol revenue for that flow. ADR29 is broader in a different direction: it sets a governance floor for an individual asset and also reaches activity that the affiliate-based model does not, including arbitrage flow through trade and secured assets.

Boone estimated that arbitrage accounts for roughly 60% of THORChain volume. In a separate two-hour sample, he found that L1 swaps with affiliate fees represented about 33% of volume. Those were his working observations, not a complete protocol study, but they explain his concern: a dynamic feature limited to qualifying L1 affiliate flow may leave much of the network untouched.

He also questioned the signal used to adjust dynamic fees. If the controller reacts to revenue without accounting for changes in the wider exchange market, a high-volume market day could look like proof that the fee changed correctly even when macro conditions caused the move. His suggestion was to normalize against global exchange volume so the controller reads less noise.

ADR29 is designed to coexist with that experiment. If an affiliate’s dynamic fee and an asset-specific floor both apply, the higher value wins. Nodes can still test dynamic fees first, learn from live behavior, and consider ADR29 later.

"This is not a replacement. This is not instead of Chad’s dynamic fees." (Boone)3. The Real Debate: Revenue Now or Market Share Later?Once the mechanics were clear, the conversation became a strategy argument.

Boone sees two markets. The first is the enormous global exchange market, where centralized exchanges dominate and most users optimize for familiarity, price and convenience. The second is the much smaller permissionless market, where THORChain already has a meaningful edge.

His preferred sequence is to monetize the smaller market first. Higher-margin permissionless flow could build POL, fund marketing, strengthen node participation and give the network more resources before it attacks the mass market. In his framing, trying to beat subsidized competitors such as Near Intents on price today risks joining a race where other protocols can spend emissions or investor capital to offer uneconomic swaps.

Kenton pushed the other way. A high Monero fee could invite competitors, while a low fee makes the market less attractive to enter. More importantly, users who discover THORChain as the cheapest permissionless route may carry that first impression forward and spread it by word of mouth. If the long-term target is centralized exchange volume, price has to be part of the conversion story.

That question also reaches aggregators. SwapKit and other routers can move flow quickly when another venue offers a better quote, so loyalty may matter less than execution. Boone saw that as a reason fees can be lowered later when competition arrives. Kenton saw it as a reason to undercut competitors before they gain a foothold.

Denny added a governance concern. A centralized business can move a pricing lever quickly. A decentralized network may be slower to reach consensus, making an algorithmic approach more attractive than frequent manual adjustments. He also argued for getting the $XMR pool stable before experimenting with higher fees.

"Long term, of course we want to capture all swap volume." (Boone)The disagreement stayed productive because everyone shared the same destination. The open question is which stepping stone gets THORChain there.

4. POL Turns Fees Into Permissionless LiquidityADR29 matters beyond the fee itself. Boone tied it directly to protocol-owned liquidity.

If a shallow Monero pool generates higher fees and a portion of system income flows into POL, the protocol can progressively own more of that pool. That creates liquidity which does not leave when external LPs decide the return is no longer attractive. It also reduces the problem of asking outside capital to absorb the early operational risk of a new chain integration.

Boone described POL as an asset rather than a liability. If an early $XMR issue costs the pool money, the protocol can learn and recover without owing an external LP. Denny agreed that this makes POL especially powerful for a complex launch like Monero.

The wider security argument is equally important. A permissionless protocol can still become dependent on liquidity providers or market makers who withdraw during stress. Boone pointed to solver and market-maker systems that can lose liquidity exactly when markets become chaotic. POL is always-on capital controlled by protocol rules.

"You don’t just need a permissionless protocol. You need permissionless liquidity." (Boone)This is why the fee debate and the POL debate cannot be separated. ADR29 asks what each asset should pay. POL asks whether part of that income can become a permanent moat.

5. Distribution: Widgets, Wallets and the Next Front EndThe final major thread was how users actually reach THORChain.

Kenton outlined the immediate THORChain Swap priorities: finish Keplr Wallet support, complete the affiliate page, ship a reusable swap widget, fix the current bug backlog, and add more browser wallets. The affiliate flow is intended to let a partner register, receive an API key, configure its THORName, set a fee and preferred payout asset, then generate widget code for its own website.

The widget is central to Kenton’s distribution thesis. A newsletter or partner site can embed THORChain swaps, earn affiliate fees, and lend its existing credibility to the interface. Kenton said he has already arranged a year-long package of 12 articles with DeFi Llama and wants the supporting dashboard and destination experience ready before promotion ramps up.

Mobile remains the harder problem. IBEC raised a passkey-based wallet path, while Boone suggested he could help as an AI-assisted developer. Another option is a memoless mobile app that works with wallets users already have, avoiding yet another seed phrase. A fuller route would be to fork the open-source Unstoppable Wallet and keep applying upstream improvements, but that was brainstorming, not a committed build.

The team’s sequencing was practical: improve the existing frontend, make integrations self-serve, expand wallet connectivity, then decide whether a dedicated mobile wallet earns its place on the roadmap.

"Strong opinions loosely held." (Kenton)That line captured the whole episode. ADR29 now gives the community something concrete to evaluate, but its value will come from testing assumptions rather than defending camps.

What to WatchADR29 review: The draft merge request needs technical review and governance discussion. It is proposed, not live.ADR26 first: Dynamic fees may get a live trial before ADR29 advances, creating real evidence about eligible flow and fee sensitivity.Monero launch quality: The first priority is a stable $XMR pool and safe small swaps. Fee experiments can follow once the product works reliably.POL governance: Watch whether nodes gain a more responsive operational lever for directing system income into protocol-owned liquidity.Distribution work: Keplr, affiliate onboarding, the swap widget and additional browser wallets are the near-term THORChain Swap milestones.More THORChain data, check out raynalytics.net

Follow Raynalytics for more Weekly Analytics and Podcast recaps.

Cryptoinsightuk analyst Will Taylor says Monero’s multi-year structure could support a move toward the $1,000 area and potentially as high as $1,160 if the current weekly trend holds.

Taylor shared a weekly XMR chart on X and tied the setup to a broader thesis around privacy coins, arguing that Monero’s market structure has continued to improve despite the regulatory and exchange pressure facing privacy-focused assets.

“Looking to see if this trend continues or not. Structural higher lows and higher highs, with volatility of the upside moves increasing. I’m thinking a TP below / around the psychological level of $1,000,” Taylor wrote.

He added that the more aggressive target sits above that level. “We still have today to confirm on the weekly of course, but just an idea. There is also an argument for the $1,160 region that would align with the 2.618 fib level.”

Monero price analysis | Source: X @Cryptoinsightuk The Thesis Behind Monero The chart shows Monero trading near $388 against USDT on KuCoin. The projected move toward the $1,160 area would imply a gain of around 200% from the highlighted region, according to the chart’s measurement. Taylor’s market-cap chart also shows XMR around $7.15 billion, with Fibonacci extension levels mapped above the current range.

Taylor’s thesis is not based only on near-term price structure. In a longer note from The Weekly Insight, he framed Monero as a bet on the persistence of crypto privacy demand, even as regulators and exchanges have moved against privacy tokens.

“The next token I want to look at is XMR (Monero). There’s been an international push to essentially halt privacy tokens like Monero, Dash, and others, due to their ability to make transactions difficult, if not impossible, to trace. I’d like to remind everyone that this was the original vision for crypto—an anonymous, decentralized financial system.”

That framing is central to his argument. For Taylor, delistings and regulatory scrutiny do not eliminate the market for privacy assets; they may instead sharpen the divide between assets optimized for compliance visibility and assets built around transaction confidentiality.

“Although privacy tokens are being delisted from exchanges, there is still a valid market for them, regardless of how large that market may be. Many people, myself included, value privacy and believe that it will continue to play a significant role in the future of crypto.”

Taylor also focused on market capitalization rather than price alone, noting that Monero’s current market cap is around $6 billion in his analysis. He said Fibonacci extensions suggest the asset’s valuation could rise materially if the setup develops as expected.

“Using Fibonacci extensions, we could see its market cap rise to $35 billion,” he wrote. “Since it has been delisted from many exchanges recently, it’s important to consider market cap as a key factor.”

Taylor described Monero’s history as a major expansion from early lows followed by years of consolidation or accumulation, which he sees as a possible base for a larger upside move.

“This, to me, suggests that we could see explosive price action to the upside in the future. I believe the narrative for privacy tokens is strong and growing, especially as mainstream adoption increases and surveillance in the crypto space tightens. Privacy is likely to become a critical part of the market in the years to come.”

At press time, XMR traded at $387.97.

XRP faces the 0.786 Fib, 1-week chart | Source: XMRUSDT on TradingView.com Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes has suggested that Zcash (ZEC) could eventually reach 10% of Bitcoin’s market capitalization, a long-term bullish thesis on privacy coins rather than a near-term price forecast. Based on ZEC’s circulating supply of around 16 million tokens, that scenario would imply a price in the high four-figure range, roughly $8,000–$10,000, depending on Bitcoin’s valuation.

A Chart Pattern Worth Watching On the technical side, traders point to a possible cup-and-handle pattern, but this is a subjective chart formation with no guarantee of outcome. Resistance is often cited around $625–$650, with some speculative projections suggesting a move toward $1,000, though this depends heavily on broader market conditions and is not a confirmed target.

The target also lines up with ZEC’s 1.618 Fibonacci extension, drawn from a $745 swing high down to a $185 swing low.

Privacy Coins Pull Ahead ZEC is not moving alone. Monero and Dash, both privacy-focused tokens, have also posted gains over the past month. But Zcash leads the pack. Reports indicate the coin climbed more than 80% in 30 days while the total crypto market cap barely moved — up just 0.2% over the same stretch.

ZEC market cap currently at $9.6 billion. Chart: TradingView $ZEC update

This thing is running its own bull market rn… gg

I closed my short. Especially with $BTC sitting on support around $76k

Even a small pump in Bitcoin makes ZEC go absolutely stupid right now https://t.co/xLs6ficv7l pic.twitter.com/obAhbnXqfp

— SnorlaX お金 (@SnorlaxOnChain) May 18, 2026

In the past three days alone, ZEC added 18% as the broader market slipped 3%. That split has prompted some traders to say Zcash is running its own bull market. Growing demand for financial privacy appears to be the main force behind the move, pulling fresh interest into a coin that had been largely overlooked for years.

Institutional Interest Adds Fuel Earlier in May, hedge fund Multicoin Capital disclosed it holds a position in ZEC. Around the same time, Robinhood added the token to its platform, opening it up to a wider pool of retail investors.

Both developments landed at a time when the privacy narrative was already building. Hayes’s comment added another layer. His estimate was speculative — based on a market cap comparison to Bitcoin — but it drew attention and, according to data, ZEC’s value in Bitcoin terms has risen about 20.5% since he made the remark.

Whether the cup-and-handle plays out or not, the coin has already proven it can move on its own terms.

Featured image from Quicknode, chart from TradingView

Browser-based crypto mining in 2025: Still viable or virtually dead?

PANews reported on May 20th, citing Cointelegraph, that the Tor Project, in partnership with Funding the Commons, launched a Web3 crowdfunding campaign to support 10 non-profit projects dedicated to privacy, anti-censorship, secure communications, and digital infrastructure for the public good. The campaign, launched on May 19th, accepts donations in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Zcash, Monero, and Golem. Using a quadratic funding model, the $115,000 matching fund pool is provided by Cake Wallet, Zcash community funding, Logos, and Octant, and will run until June 18th. David Casey, Project Director at Funding the Commons, stated that quadratic funding is one of the solutions Web3 offers for financing critical infrastructure. Isabela Fernandes, Executive Director of the Tor Project, stated that the campaign aims to support organizations building tools to resist censorship. A Freedom House report indicates that global internet freedom has declined for 15 consecutive years, and by 2025, internet shutdowns and systemic censorship will affect more than half of the world's population. The United States withdrew from the Free Online Coalition in January.

Privacy Coins – Will Growing Regulations Strangle Monero, Dash and ZCash to Death?

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. 

“Today we know that centralization and big bureaucracies have not, as promised, been the answer for promoting better opportunities for society” ~ Carlos Salinas de Gortari

To ASIC or not to ASIC has been the dilemma for years now. For some, the distinction is very easy; it comes down to choosing between centralization and decentralization. For others, it is about taking all the aspects of mining into consideration and opting for what’s best suitable for the end participants and the network altogether. With ASICs in the scene, one side of the coin depicts decentralization, the other side portrays centralization. A coin that’s puzzling not only to the ones in the cryptocurrency space, but also to the ones outside.

While there are many projects that completely oppose even the idea of ASIC mining, there is an equal number of projects or even more that have warmly embraced the new idea. And, why not? Decentralization means an open-market, which in turn symbolizes technological advancement.

Skating on thin ice On one hand, the argument that’s pro-ASIC is that “it contributes to the network security,” which is debatable. On the other hand, the argument that it leads to centralization of the network is something that’s hard to be brushed off. The security threats of ASIC mining centralization include ASIC boost, selfish mining, eclipse attacks, and launching a 51 percent attack without having 51 percent hash power (just by collaborating with three or four other mining pools). The problems of ASIC mining have taken a prominent seat in the crypto-market.

However, this is not the only factor that bothers miners and participants. There is only a portion of the community that can afford ASIC miners and the ones who can also have their table full with the question of whether or not their ASIC miners will be profitable by the time it ships.

The largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, is among those cryptocurrencies that have been pro-ASIC mining, and it is because of this very cryptocurrency that ASIC mining has gained a strong foothold in this space. The mining evolution from CPU to GPU to FPGA to ASIC completely superseded Satoshi Nakamoto’s “one CPU, one vote” rule.

Speaking to AMBCrypto, Bob Summerwill from ETC Cooperative said,

“If you see what’s been happening with every single cryptocurrency has ASICs, even the ones that claim to be ASIC resistant. And the reason is very simple, it just you can do it more efficiently. You are just doing a fairly simple algorithm and doing that in hardware is going to more efficient than doing it in software. There’s no going around that and the economic is such that you just cannot resist. It’s just futile to try and resist. The ASICs are going to happen anyway and they are actually good for you. So, resisting is futile and actually counter productive.”

While Bitcoin itself is relatively safe from the biggest problems of ASIC mining and centralization – 51 percent attack, the same, however, does not hold true for other cryptocurrencies. The reason is quite simple; the cost of BTC mining and the price is higher compared to the rest of p-o-w coins. In short, it’s possible, but it’s not quite feasible for the attacker considering there would also be a war against the rest 49 percent, and even if one percent hash rate is lost to the other side, it would mean game-over. Meaning, there’s zero economic incentive for launching a 51% attack on Bitcoin.

The Hash War A classic example of the blunders that can be caused by mining pools powered by ASICs is the Bitcoin Cash vs Bitcoin Satoshi Vision hash war that took place towards the end of 2018. Some market speculators even claimed that the hash war resulted in not only two different chains, but also the crash of Bitcoin’s price and hash rate towards the end of last year.

This was not the first time Bitcoin Cash got dragged into a mining war, nor was it the last time that BCH made headlines concerning matters related to mining. The cryptocurrency was itself a result of a fork war that took place in 2017 over the bigger block size argument. The latest on the shelf was this year’s report on re-org, carried out by BTC.com and BTC.top, with both pools joining hands to reverse blocks of transactions in order to cease an unknown miner from gaining access to coins, an exploit taking advantage of after May 15 hard fork.

Such instances show how the most important pillar of any cryptocurrency in the market, decentralization, can be undermined.

An achievable goal? While many are of the opinion that ASIC-resistance is futile, there are still projects that stand firm against ASIC-mining, keeping decentralization as the most important goal, even though there hasn’t been any substantial proof that this is an achievable goal.

Ethereum and Monero were the two coins that held the beacon of ASIC Resistance; Ethereum with back-and-forth discussion over implementing ProgPoW, and Monero with RandomX.

The Valladolid Debate

While ‘To ASIC or not to ASIC’ is a dilemma that the entire ecosystem faces, ‘to ProgPoW or not to ProgPoW’ is the question the Ethereum community is struggling with.

The reason to implement ProgPoW is simple, ASIC resistance, which even had a greenlight from the auditors. There are several reasons against it: debates of GPU miners buy-outs, Proof-of-Stake shift, and problems with the teams that proposed the algorithm.

Bob Summerwill said,

“When Ethereum was started it was like we don’t want ASICs, we don’t want to be like Bitcoin, we don’t want our mining to be dominated by a few of these Chinese companies. So, we are going to do something which is memory hard and runs on GPUs and not specialist hardware. It’s a different time now and I think what we’ve ended up inheriting there is not something that really makes sense anymore. The ASIC resistance is a myth. You can’t resist it.”

How does ProgPoW aim to answer the ASIC question? ProgPoW would have five key elements to its algorithm: change from Keccack_f1600 to Keccack_f800 [shift from 64-bit words to 32-bit words], the random sequence generated would change every 50 blocks, the DRAM would increase to 256 bytes from 128 bytes, adds reads from a small, and low-latency cache that supports random addresses.

ProgPoW would not eliminate the threat of ASIC mining. It would merely make it minimal by giving GPU miners a boost. The GitHub post reads,

“The design goal of ProgPoW is to have the algorithm’s requirements match what is available on commodity GPUs. If the algorithm were to be implemented on custom ASIC there should be little efficiency gains compared to a commodity GPU.”

The algorithm was supposed to make a debut this year with the Istanbul hard fork, but was postponed to the next one due to audit delays. Sailing through these troublesome factors, it is still unclear whether ProgPoW would ever make it to the Mainnet.

The ‘I have a dream’ of Monero

When Bitmain announced an Antminer designed for Cryptonight-based cryptocurrencies, it left the entire Monero community in a state of shock. If there was one thing that this community was sure of, it was that ASIC miners were a no-no.

The immediate response was to tweak the network algorithm on a constant basis, in this case – every six months. While the strategy did come at a cost – compromising the security of the network, it did work. In the ASIC-manufacturers‘ perspective, it would be pointless in terms of cost and effort to build an ASIC only to see the cryptocurrency change its algorithm to a different one.

Interestingly, the tweak in the mining algorithm brought an end to the popular crypto-jacking service, Coinhive, on 8 March 2019. The official announcement on the discontinuation of the service, stated,

“The drop in hash rate (over 51%) after the last Monero harh fork hit us hard. So did the ‘crash’ of crypto currency market with the value of XMR depreciating over 85% within a year. This and the announced hard fork and algorithm update of Monero network on March 9 has lead us to the conclusion that we need to discontinue Coinhive.”

The Monero community upped the ante with RandomX. The algorithm will be using all components of the core but not all of the chips, including the memory interface of the uncore; a difficult aspect to achieve for ASICs as it only focuses on one element in mining. The algorithm was changed from CryptonightR to RandomX at the end of November 2019. Its maiden voyage has been on easy waters so far. “Test fast, fail fast, adjust fast” has been Monero’s mantra so far.

Hit-and-miss

In December 2019, Vertcoin [VTC], ranked 306 on CoinMarketCap, recorded a 51 percent attack. Interestingly, the cryptocurrency has always been at arms against ASIC mining and had opted for Lyra2REv3 proof-of-work algorithm. Notably, this was not the first time the coin succumbed to the attack as the network faced a 51% attack in December 2018 too. A GitHub post on the attack stated,

“On Sunday, 1 December 2019 15:19:47 GMT 603 blocks were removed from the VTC main chain and replaced by 553 attacker blocks. We note that 600 blocks is the current confirmation requirement for VTC on Bittrex. There were 5 double-spent outputs in which ~ 125 VTC (~$29) was redirected. Each of the double-spent outputs are coinbase outputs owned by the attacker and it is unknown to whom the coins were originally sent before being swept to an attacker address after the reorg.”

Decentralized ASIC mining?

While the topic of ASIC centralization continues to be hot debate every now and then, Blockstream, a blockchain technology company, unveiled its mining colocation service and Blockstream Pool, earlier this year. In an episode of Magical Crypto Friends, CSO of Blockstream, Samson Mow, said that the pool would be contributing to Bitcoin’s mining decentralization as it utilizes BetterHash protocol. Mow had stated,

“So, you can run your own node at home, you can host your miners in a facility or you could have your own miners in your facility and then run BetterHash node that would connect to our pool and then it’s just more decentralized overall […]”

After all that’s said and done, the question here is not if ASIC resistance or mining is the way, but is Decentralization truly achievable?

Decentralization in mining is always going to be something that’s going to be hard to achieve as mining would always centralize in a place where electricity is cheap, farms with either CPUs or GPUs or ASICs are always going to exist.

“Maybe wars aren’t meant to be won, maybe they’re meant to be continuous.”

TLDR Arizona advanced Senate Bill 1649 to a full House floor vote after clearing the House Rules Committee. The bill would allow the state to create a Digital Assets Strategic Reserve Fund. The proposal permits Arizona to retain seized cryptocurrencies instead of auctioning them. The legislation names XRP, Bitcoin, Monero, NEAR Protocol, and Nano as eligible assets. Lawmakers set criteria to assess adoption levels and transaction activity for reserve assets. Arizona lawmakers advanced Senate Bill 1649 to a full House vote after clearing the House Rules Committee. The proposal would allow Arizona to retain seized digital assets in a state-managed fund. The measure names XRP, Bitcoin, and Monero as eligible assets under defined standards.

Arizona Crypto Reserve Plan Names XRP as Eligible Asset The House Rules Committee approved SB1649 with eight votes in favor. As a result, the bill now heads to the full House for consideration. Lawmakers introduced the measure to create a Digital Assets Strategic Reserve Fund. The proposal allows the state to keep digital assets obtained through forfeiture or surrender. Currently, agencies auction most seized cryptocurrencies.

State Senator Mark Finchem introduced SB1649 earlier this session. The Senate Finance Committee passed the bill with a 4–2–1 vote. Lawmakers set criteria to determine which assets qualify for the reserve. The criteria review adoption rates, annual transaction volume, and ecosystem development. The bill lists XRP, Bitcoin, Monero, NEAR Protocol, and Nano as eligible assets.

The proposal authorizes the State Treasurer to manage the reserve fund. The Treasurer may invest holdings to generate returns for the state. However, the bill requires that investment actions do not increase financial risk. Lawmakers included this provision to guide fund management practices.

If the House approves SB1649, the bill will move to the governor’s desk. The governor may sign the measure into law or veto it. Lawmakers placed the bill on the House calendar following the committee vote.

Bitcoin and Monero Included in Arizona Reserve Framework SB1649 identifies Bitcoin as a primary digital asset for the reserve. Lawmakers also included Monero under the eligibility framework. The bill groups these assets with XRP under a defined fair value threshold. This threshold evaluates economic strength and technical performance.

Under the measure, Arizona may retain cryptocurrencies received through legal processes. Agencies would transfer those assets to the reserve fund instead of auctioning them. The Treasurer would then oversee storage and management of the holdings. Lawmakers structured the bill to formalize how the state handles digital assets.

The legislation forms part of broader digital asset discussions in Arizona. Lawmakers are also considering Senate Bill 1042. That proposal would allow the state to invest up to 10% of public funds in cryptocurrencies. SB1042 remains under review in the state legislature.

At the federal level, digital asset reserves have also entered policy debates. President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. The order also created a broader digital asset stockpile framework. Lawmakers referenced these developments during state discussions.

The House will now determine the fate of SB1649 in a floor vote. If members approve the measure, it will proceed to final executive consideration. The legislative process continues as scheduled in the current session.

Stellar to Match XLM Donations to Six Non-Profits During April

The Komodo platform is many things – a unique blockchain, a coin that pays interest, a decentralized exchange, a development blockchain with many additional features being planned for the future.

The Komodo blockchain is a fork of the ZCash blockchain, which itself was forked from the Bitcoin blockchain, making Komodo a descendent of Bitcoin. It includes the zk-snark technology that Zcash was built upon, and adds a delayed proof of work consensus algorithm to make Komodo more robust and secure.

The ultimate goal of Komodo is to create an entire ecosystem comprised of diverse partnerships that will send the platform forward into the future. Because it was designed to be used by developers of any level and in any industry it is extremely versatile.

In this comprehensive review, I will give you everything that you need to know about the Komodo platform.

How Komodo WorksThose doing development on the Komodo platform are not building onto the blockchain, but are instead building their own standalone blockchains. It’s not a fork or sidechain, and the Komodo platform doesn’t act as a parent to the new blockchain.

Each project is an independent blockchain that becomes connected to the Komodo ecosystem. This is crucial because the fact that each blockchain is independent means that future development won’t be limited by Komodo in any way.

Benefits of the Komodo Platform

Komodo was also designed from the ground up as a modular ecosystem. This allows developers to choose which technologies they wish to use in their own projects.

Perhaps most importantly, Komodo was developed with security as a top priority. In addition to using the Zcash zk-snark protocols for anonymity and privacy, Komodo uses a delayed proof of work (PoW) protocol to provide Bitcoin level security to even the smallest blockchains and projects. As stated on the Komodo website itself:

Komodo’s innovative dPOW (delayed proof of work) provides a security layer that creates backups of your blockchain’s data and notarizes it to Bitcoin’s blockchain, providing even the smallest of blockchains with Bitcoin-level security.

In essence, Komodo is using Bitcoin’s hashrate to ensure immutability for the Komodo blockchain.

Komodo PrivacyKomodo was created as a form of the Zcash blockchain, using their technology known as ‘Zero Knowledge Proofs’. This technology allows each transaction on the blockchain to be 100% anonymous or as transparent as necessary given the requirements of each situation.

Anonymous transactions are important to many users because they hide the amount, sender and recipient of the transaction, but still make it possible for miners to verify that the transaction is valid and without any double-spending. Alternatively transactions can be left transparent, in which case information shows just as it would for a Bitcoin transaction.

Anonymous transactions help protect user privacy, but they provide a more important function, and that is to preserve fungibility, which is a basic requirement for any currency.

Komodo SecurityAfter including privacy by forming from Zcash, the developers of Komodo provided for enhanced security of the blockchain in a unique manner. They created a proof of work token, but modified it to be Delayed Proof of Work, allowing it to recycle Bitcoin’s hashrate to ensure immutability of Komodo’s blockchain.

Komodo does this by using 64 “notary nodes” that work to notarize blocks in the Bitcoin blockchain. This provides protection for Komodo because an attacker would have to alter both the block in the Komodo blockchain and the block in the Bitcoin blockchain.

Steps in the Komodo Delayed Proof of Work

As long as the Bitcoin blockchain is secure, so too will Komodo – and all the other blockchains built using Komodo – remain secure.

This mechanism can now be used by any cryptocurrency that wishes enhanced security. By using Komodo the new blockchains are connected to Bitcoin, benefiting from the security of the Bitcoin blockchain, while also saving on transaction costs.

Komodo TeamThe Komodo project is based on anonymity, so it comes as no surprise that many of the Komodo team members initially chose not to reveal their identity. The founder and one core developer of Komodo went by the moniker JL777, but is now known as James ‘JL777’ Lee.

The CTO of the project was known as CA333, but we now know him as Kadan Stadelmann. This increased transparency has come about as Komodo grows in size and scope and is attracting more investors.

The full team is now nearly 30 members spanning leadership, development, marketing, and community development. And speaking of community, there are numerous contributors from the community, both developers and community outreach ambassadors.

Some of the Komodo Team Members

Currently, the general manager of Komodo is Ben Fairbanks, who is also the founder and CEO of RedFOX Labs, an incubator that is helping to launch Komodo based companies in emerging markets. Prior to joining Komodo and launching RedFOX, he served as COO at the ride-hailing service Grab. He brings extensive business and marketing experience to the project.

The CTO of the Komodo project, almost since the very beginning, has been Kaden Stadelmann. He also serves as CTO of RedFOX Labs. He previously worked as an IT security analyst and software developer, and founded the company satoshihack back in 2011, making him a pioneer in the blockchain space.

Core development is led by founder James Lee, and he is joined by Adam Bullock and Mihailo Milenkovic as well as roughly a dozen full-time developers and another dozen community volunteer developers.

KMD CoinThe Komodo native currency (KMD) was launched in an ICO in February 2017 at a price of $0.10. Since then the price of the coin has risen and fallen with the fortunes of the project and the markets. As of mid-March 2018 it was trading at $2.73 and was ranked the #48 coin by market cap on Coinmarketcap.com.

Even though 2018 saw many coins losing 90% or more of their value, KMD held up fairly well in the face of the bear market. It rallied in April, topping $4 and slowly sank from that level, finally dipping under $1 in November 2018 and hitting a low of $0.492329 on November 25, 2018.

It slowly recovered from that low and by February 2019 had doubled in price as it traded back above $1. It remained above $1 for nearly all of 2019, and nearly hit $2 in July 2019, but the price has recently dropped and as of August 9, 2019 stands at $0.863399.

KMD Price Performance. Image via CMC

The fundamentals for the coin continue to look solid thanks to the 5% annual interest rate paid to KMD holders, and the current low price is more a reflection of broad-based weakness in the cryptocurrency markets.

There are currently 115,389,114KMD in circulation, with a planned total supply of 200 million coins, which is projected to be reached in 2031. Until that time, KMD holders will continue to receive a 5.1% annual interest payment (called Active User Rewards) on their KMD holdings, so long as they keep more than 10 KMD in a wallet where they control the private keys. The KMD had an all-time high of $12.54 on December 21, 2017.

Buying & Storing KMDKMD can be purchased on a good number of exchanges, with the largest volume on CoinBene. There is also good volume at Binance, CoinEx, and HitBTC. Other good choices for buying KMD include CoinEx and Bittrex.

Given that there is strong volume across a number of exhanges, it bodes well for the liquidity of KMD. Improved liquidity means that you can execute large block orders on these books without much slippage in the price of the coin.

Register at Binance and Buy KMD Coin

In order to earn the 5.1% annual interest users must hold their KMD in a supported wallet. The top two based on the Komodo website are the Verus Agama wallet, which is a multi-coin wallet from the Verus Coin project, or the native Komodo OceanQT wallet. Other options include the Guarda Wallet and the ZelCore wallet.

Development & RoadmapWhen it comes to determining the amount of work that has been done by a project, there are a number of metrics one can look at.

However, one of the most effective that I have found is to take a look at the coding activity in the project's public repositories.

Therefore, I decided to jump into the Komodo GitHub to get a better sense of what the developers have been pushing over the past year. Below is the total code commits to two of their development repos.

Commits for Select Repos over past 12 months

As you can see from the above, the team has been quite active pushing code to their core repository over the past year. It is also worth pointing out that there are a further 56 other repositories with varying degrees of activity.

This is more development activity than we have seen at most other projects. In fact, if we were to compare Komodo to its peers, it is ranked 30th in terms of commits and 12th for overall coding activity on coincodecap.

This perhaps makes sense when viewed in the context of the numerous projects being built on the Komodo platform (more below). 

In terms of the upcoming roadmap, the two most important remaining milestones for 2019 are the release of the developer portal as well as the GUI for the fully mobile-ready wallet/DEX hybrid.

If you want to keep up to date with development on the project then I suggest you jump into their discord and meet the team. They also encourage community developer contributions to the core.

Komodo Platform ProjectsThere are a number of standalone projects that were developed for the Komodo platform. Those that are farthest along in development and have been released as at least betas include Decentralized ICOs, BarterDEX along with a built-in “tumbler” service called Jumblr.

However, as of July 2019 Komodo has launched its Antara Framework, which is the basis for nearly all current services on Komodo.

Decentralized Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs)The Decentralised ICO concept was meant to be an exciting option for startups as it would mean that they could launch their process much easier. It would also have given them access to the Komodo technology, marketing channels, and consultants.

However, given the regulatory pressure that has been placed on ICOs recently, this initiative seems to have fallen by the wayside. Of course, the lackluster performance of most recent ICOs has not helped the process.

The Komodo team had plans to launch a number of Decentralised ICOs. In May of last year they planned to release their first with the BlocNation dICO. However, this did not seem to materialize and the Blocnation project seems to have gone dead (with the site down).

The dICO that never materialized... Image via Komodo Blog

Despite this though, Komodo will accept pre-existing blockchain projects on other platforms that would like to migrate to Komodo to receive your own fully customizable, high performing independent blockchain.

As of August 2019 there are a number of projects that have launched on Komodo.

JumblrJumblr is a cryptocurrency anonymizer developed by Komodo which is decentralized and open-source. It can be used to increase privacy when using the Komodo platform.

Anonymizing funds is actually a fairly straightforward and simple practice. The Jumblr will take KMD tokens from a non-private address and send them through a number of zk-snark addresses.

Once these untraceable addresses have processed the coins they are sent to a new address where they are completely anonymous. The fee for using the Jumblr service is 0.3%, which is payable in KMD tokens.

BarterDEX Rebranded to AtomicDEXBarterDEX was previously called EasyDEX but was rebranded in July 2017. It is a decentralized exchange utilizing atomic swaps, and more recently etomic swaps, which bridge the gap between Bitcoin and Ethereum based blockchains.

The use of atomic swaps and etomic swaps lower counterparty risk, transaction fees and speeds the transfer of assets. BarterDEX can support trading of any cryptocurrency, and will also support fiat in the future. Already the decentralized exchange is capable of performing swaps for 95% of the cryptocurrencies in existence.

BarterDEX also solves the liquidity problem encountered by most decentralized exchanges by producing Liquidity Nodes that stabilizes prices by buying and selling assets in the order books.

Screenshots from the AtomicDex App. Image via atomicdex.io

In July 2019 the BarterDEX platform got another upgrade and rebrand and has been re-launched as AtomicDEX in a closed public beta. AtomicDEX provides a secure, reliable, and completely decentralized method for trading digital assets.

Trades no longer have to pass through an intermediary but are done from wallet to wallet. AtomicDEX will act as a multi-currency wallet and as a fully decentralized trading platform. At its beta release, AtomicDEX has support for 13 different coins, but can technically support 99% of all existing cryptocurrencies. New coins will be added with each update to the DEX.

The Antara FrameworkThe Antara Framework was launched on the Komodo mainnet on July 15, 2019, completing a rebrand that stretched out for nearly a full year. This relaunch has included several new developments, such as the beta release of the Antara Smart Chain Composer, which allows anyone to launch their own SmartChain blockchain in just minutes, including full seed nodes and mining nodes.

The Antara Framework is an adaptable framework for simple, end-to-end blockchain development. Antara makes it easier than ever before to launch a chain, activate modules, and start building blockchain-based applications.

Antara has maintained the independence and privacy of building with Komodo. Each independent chain has its own consensus rules, hashing algorithm, decentralized network, and coin. Blockchains launched with Komodo’s technology never depend on the KMD chain, network, or platform.

Antara Network Recently Going live. Image via Komodo Blog

It’s an open ecosystem so there is no vendor lock-in. Creating a chain from the CLI is permissionless and free. The Komodo team is not informed when a chain is created so there's no way to track a chain after launch.

The framework also comes with built-in modules, making development speedy and easier. This allows developers to natively support any software, dApp or blockchain-based games.

With 18 different customizable Smart Chain parameters, any blockchain can be built to serve any business need. The Antara Integration Layer also offers several white label products such as a multi-coin wallet, block explorers, full seed nodes, a branded DEX, a crowdfunding app and integration with SPV Electrum servers.

CompetitionBecause Komodo is involved in so many aspects of the blockchain it is facing competition from many different directions.

Decentralized exchanges are becoming increasingly popular, and the AtomicDEX exchange is in competition with BitShares, EtherDelta, and Waves, as well as many other smaller players.

As a privacy coin, KMD competes against the larger Dash and Monero coins, and of course against the Zcash that it was forked from.

Komodo faces stiff competition from Ethereum as it is the leader in the ICO and smart contracts field, but other established blockchains such as NEO, NXT and Waves are also competing for ICO traction.

And now we also have initial exchange offerings (IEOs) from the likes of Binance and other exchanges growing in popularity. Smart contracts have also found their way into most projects. One strength for Komodo is that it is the first to offer a fully decentralized exchange with atomic swap capabilities.

ConclusionThe Komodo project is an extensive and ambitious large-scale project that aims to solve many issues that centralization of cryptocurrencies and blockchains face.

In addition to being its own blockchain and coin, it is also tackling the decentralized exchange, atomic swap, and decentralized ICO space. It includes options for anonymity and has a unique proof of work consensus algorithm that promises enhanced security, even for new blockchains based off Komodo.

Needless to say, that’s a lot to bite off, but the Komodo team has shown itself to be up to the challenge time and again. In a world where deadlines are often missed by months, the Komodo team has not only delivered but also delivered early and with few bugs. The team also takes user feedback into consideration and has been known to pivot quickly based on the needs of the community.

If the Komodo team continues to deliver it could make a long-term lasting impact on the cryptocurrency space, but it is too early to tell if this will be the case. In any event, it is certainly a project worth watching.

In the roughly 18 months since this review was first prepared the Komodo team has continued to deliver an exceptional product, and with the July 2019 release of the Antara Framework, it has advanced to the first composable SmartChain platform in the industry. This first-mover advantage keeps Komodo on the cutting edge of blockchain development.

Disclaimer: These are the writer's opinions and should not be considered investment advice. Readers should do their own research.

Posted: April 16, 2020

At the time of writing, the cryptocurrency market was noting a sudden surge in market cap and valuation. In fact, Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, was recording a 5% pump in value, a pump that most of the altcoin market followed. At press time, Tezos [XTZ] was up by 4%, Monero [XMR] by 4.45%, and DigitByte [DGB] by 8%.

Tezos [XTZ] 

The tenth-largest cryptocurrency on CoinMarketCap, Tezos [XTZ] has been one of the few major assets to reap some profits lately. According to its YTD returns, the coin was returning 44.19% since the beginning of 2020. Despite major falls in the market, the XTZ market had regained its lost value following the crash in March. Further, Binance’s launch of Tezos staking gave a lot of positive momentum to the market.

At press time, the coin was valued at $1.951 with its resistance marked at $2.189 and support at $1.219. However, the coin may have been entering bearish territory.

According to the Awesome Oscillator, the coin had shed its bullish momentum, with bearish momentum soon taking over. However, the trend was lacking strength, suggesting that even though there were sellers in the market, the pressure wasn’t high.

Monero [XMR] 

Monero was recording a 0.58% growth in its price over the past 24-hours, with a market cap of $964.28 million. As the charts suggested, the coin was not successful in reversing bearish attacks, with the privacy coin registering losses of 15.69% in the market. XMR was being traded at $55.190, its with immediate resistance at $60.66 and support at $41.956.

The volatility in the market had reduced as the Bollinger bands appeared to converge. However, it would seem that the bulls may return as the moving average had slipped under the candlesticks.

DigiByte [DGB] 

The 63rd-ranked coin on CoinMarketCap was recorded to have a market cap of $66.91 million, DigiByte has been at a loss of 10.73% since the beginning of the year. The coin noted a sudden spike in its price over the past week, however, after which it slipped. At press time, DGB was valued at $0.0051, while resistance was noted to be 0.0068, with the support at $0.0040.

Bullish signals were also reversed as the coin’s price went down. As per the MACD indicator, the MACD line was above the signal line until recently. However, with sellers in the market, the MACD line had crossed over the signal line, giving way to a bearish trend.

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