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  • 1inch Integrates with Opium

    Thanks to the integration, Opium derivatives pools will be available in the 1inch dApp, creating extra earning opportunities for users.

    The 1inch Network is glad to announce an integration with the derivatives platform Opium, which will enable users to take advantage of Opium derivatives pools directly in the 1inch dApp. 

    “Crypto derivatives is a promising segment in the DeFi space, and this collaboration with Opium will open up new opportunities for 1inch users,” says Sergej Kunz, 1inch Network co-founder.

    Opium’s API featuring derivatives pools has been added to the 1inch dApp, with all transactions done through Opium’s smart contract.

    Crypto derivatives work similarly to options contracts, enabling users to purchase insurance against, for instance, a significant decline in the price of ETH, or, conversely, to bet on an increase in its price.

    For instance, a user can buy Turbo ETH with a strike price of $2,200, which means that if ETH’s price goes above $2,200 at a specified date in the future, the user will automatically collect the difference between the price at the time of purchase and $2,200.

    Users providing liquidity to derivatives pools will collect yields coming from fees paid by buyers of derivatives. Based on performance at the time of launch, the annualized return for the Turbo 1INCH derivatives pool on Ethereum is projected to be 8.9%.

    Initially, the Turbo 1INCH derivative will be available on Ethereum, while on Polygon, users will be able to choose between Turbo 1INCH and Turbo ETH.

    For a detailed guide on using Opium derivatives pools on 1inch, please, check this Help Center article.

    Opium is a protocol that facilitates creating, settling and trading decentralized derivatives. The protocol is based on a set of open-source Ethereum-based smart contracts. Users can launch decentralized derivatives or invest in derivatives.

    In early 2021, the protocol released its token, OPIUM. Prior to the launch, a premine was run, as well as a $3.5 mln private sale, with buyers including Mike Novogratz, Galaxy Digital, QCP Soteria, HashKey, Alameda Research and others.

    One of Opium’s first products were credit default swaps for Tether (USDT) aimed at insuring buyers in the event of Tether’s default. 

    Stay tuned for more exciting news about 1inch integrations and collaborations!

  • Three Coins That Can Attract Investors’ Attention: Mehracki (MKI), Waves (WAVES) and Cardano (ADA)

    Three Coins That Can Attract Investors’ Attention: Mehracki (MKI), Waves (WAVES) and Cardano (ADA)

    Cryptocurrencies are on the rise and more people are investing in them every day. If you’re looking to invest in a new cryptocurrency, Mehracki (MKI), Waves (WAVES), and Cardano (ADA) are three coins that can attract your attention. These coins have unique features that make them worth investing in, which this article will explore.

    The Meme Token – Mehracki (MKI)

    Mehracki (MKI) is a token project that embraces the meme culture. The distinctness of Mehracki comes from its promotion as a payment tool in physical areas. We can say that physical adoption is to gain validity in travel, hospitality centers, and tourism areas. Mehracki’s management team offers many rewards programs for mass adoption of the token. The platform sees tourism and hotel management as its target audience.

    The sole purpose of the MKI creators is to make the token one of the accepted payment instruments in all tourism and hospitality businesses. Considering the research made today, the tourism sector dominates 10% of the world economy. Mehracki (MKI) has ingenious ideas to eliminate payment difficulties and inadequacies in this area. The most important of these ideas are branding and strategic partnerships. There are launch plans for branding in the second quarter of 2022. For strategic partnerships, one-on-one work with hotel businesses is envisaged.

    Wherever you go in the world today, you can see that the first meme project, Dogecoin (DOGE), is accepted as a means of payment in many businesses. Mehracki (MKI), on the other hand, aims to extend the usage area of the MKI token beyond what all other meme projects have accepted. Various awards are also given for the development of the ecosystem and functionality of the idea mechanism. This platform, whose adoption of the DAO management system is considered absolute, plans to become an area where developers and management teams leave the platform and all management to users.

    The Multi-Purpose Blockchain – Waves (WAVES)

    Waves (WAVES) is a successful, recognised and scalable blockchain platform. Wave company has its wallet called Wave Wallet. Waves use the Waves-NG on-chain solution, which aims to solve the scalability problem of blockchains based on the LPoS protocol. Waves want to surpass Bitcoin’s transaction speed by using the “Proof of Work” (PoW) consensus algorithm Waves-NG. The infrastructure section consists of a set of tools, test environments, APIs, and SDKs, which are extremely powerful to speed up and facilitate the processes of users and developers. The developers make extraordinary efforts to ensure that participants understand the platform effectively.

    The amount of WAVES tokens was limited, as the usefulness of the token increased over time. The maximum limit was lifted in 2019, and decision-making fell into the hands of network participants. WAVES should not be seen as just a means of payment, as it also provides access to all the services of the platform of the same name. It hit an all-time high of $41.33 in May 2021. Fast forward a year later in May 2022, it ranked 98th among cryptocurrencies with a price of $ 0.82. If you are looking for a crypto coin that is a multi-purpose blockchain platform which supports various use cases, WAVES may be worth your investment.

    The Proof of Stake Blockchain – Cardano (ADA)

    Cardano (ADA) is a decentralised public blockchain cryptocurrency project that is fully open source. It is a blockchain network that is well known for using proof-of-stake (PoS) – a mechanism that allows validators to lock up a certain amount of crypto coins in a blockchain. This is an efficient method in comparison to proof of work, which is a more energy-intensive algorithm.

    The ADA coin is the native cryptocurrency of the Cardano blockchain. In October 2017, ADA had a market capitalization of $600 million. ADA trades on cryptocurrency exchanges under the ticker symbol “ADA” and as of February 2018, it was the ninth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation. Cardano has been actively traded since October 1, 2017. The price of one Cardano (ADA) token was $0.02 at launch and rose to $1 by January 2018, an increase of 5,000%. In early 2018 Bitcoin Magazine announced they were launching a Japanese edition of the magazine on the Cardano (ADA) blockchain.

    Conclusion

    While all of these coins have the potential to do well in the market, Mehracki (MKI) seems to be a particularly strong investment option at this time. Do your research before investing, but it may be worth considering adding Mehracki (MKI) to your portfolio. Waves (WAVES) and Cardano (ADA) are also worth watching, as they could potentially see significant growth soon.

    More information on Mehracki (MKI):

    Presale: https://presale.mehracki.io/register

    Website: https://mehracki.io

    Telegram: https://t.me/Mehracki_Official

  • Main Ethereum Public Testnet Ropsten Undergoes Proof-of-Stake Merge

    Main Ethereum Public Testnet Ropsten Undergoes Proof-of-Stake Merge

    Ethereum (ETH) cryptocurrency cover

    Key takeaways:

    • Ropsten, the main Ethereum testnet, has undergone a merge combining its existing Proof-of-Work chain and the Proof-of-Stake Beacon Chain
    • Ropsten’s transition to PoS is one of the final stages before the Ethereum mainchain transitions to the PoS consensus model
    • Ethereum’s transition from PoW to PoS is expected to take place in the second half of this year

    Ropsten’s PoW chain merges with PoS Beacon Chain

    Yesterday, the primary public Ethereum testnet underwent a successful merge of the “old” Proof-of-Work (PoW) blockchain and the “new” Proof-of-Stake (PoS) Beacon Chain. Ropsten’s merge transition took place on June 8, as predicted by software engineer Terence Tsao in mid-May. On Wednesday, Tsao shared a tweet in celebration of the PoS being activated on Ropsten.

    Ropsten’s transition from PoW to PoS is one of the final stages before the Ethereum mainchain merges with the Beacon Chain and ushers in the era of Ethereum 2.0. The transition is expected to alleviate some of the network congestion issues and bring down the cost of transactions on the network. Moreover, Ethereum’s energy footprint is expected to decrease in excess of 99% as the leading smart contract platform goes PoS later this year and moves away from energy-intensive PoW mining.

    Earlier this year, devs stress tested the Ethereum network in a series of so-called shadow forks to identify potential bugs in the code and gauge the network’s ability to handle smart contracts. Shadow forks provide a sandbox environment for teams and developers to stress test the network to “get a sense of the post merge world,” explained Ethereum Foundation developer Parithosh Jayanthi in at the time.

    The exact date of “The Merge” is not yet known. According to an estimate shared in April by Ethereum developer Tim Beiko, the highly anticipated event will take place a “few months after” June.

  • Tbitex Review: US-regulated Crypto Derivatives Exchange with up to 100x Leverage

    Tbitex Review: US-regulated Crypto Derivatives Exchange with up to 100x Leverage

    Tbitex cryptocurrency exchange cover

    Tbitex Exchange Review

    Tbitex is a cryptocurrency exchange founded by a former HSBC executive in 2021 and is registered in the United States. They have team members in the US, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The exchange specializes in derivatives trading but offers spot and margin trading.

    Basic information about the Tbitex exchange:

    • Exchange Type: Centralized exchange
    • Launch Date: February 2021
    • Location: International (offices in the United States).
    • CEO: Steven Li

    This Tbitex review will cover the most important features of the exchange to help you decide if it is the right platform for you to be trading on.

    Pros of trading on Tbitex:

    • Derivatives up to 100x leverage
    • US Regulated exchange
    • Unique “Separate Position” Modes
    • Copy Trading
    • Crypto Earn

    Cons of trading on Tbitex:

    • No native fiat deposit or withdrawal options

    Tbitex Features Review

    In the short time that Tbitex has been active, the exchange has already attracted over 500,000 registered users across 20 different countries. With the competition for user growth being extremely competitive amongst exchanges, it is no surprise that Tbitex has gone above & beyond to make its exchange stand out amongst the crowd.

    Derivatives with up to 100x

    Tbitex selecting leverage level window

    The core feature of the exchange is its derivatives platform which offers up to 100x leverage for traders. Currently, they offer up to 18 different perpetual futures contracts on their derivatives platform, allowing traders access to trade popular cryptocurrencies such as BTC, ETH, BCH, LTC, XRP, ADA, EOS, TRON, UNI, FIL, and DOT. 

    As you would expect, the futures exchange offers the standard order types, which include;

    • Limit orders
    • Market orders
    • Stop-limit orders
    • OCO (one-cancels-the-other) orders

    They also allow users different position modes to manage their risk accordingly. The two modes available are cross margin, where all open positions share the same margin balance, and isolated margin, which allocates a specific margin to individual positions.

    The exchange uses its own proprietary matching engine with extremely high liquidity, allowing for different types of flexible trading strategies. 

    Furthermore, Tbitex is the first exchange in the industry to offer “Separate Position” modes. This feature allows users to separate orders that are hedged in the same direction. Using the feature, traders can open up to 10 independent positions on one asset and add limit orders to close each of those individual orders. This allows traders to be flexible and adjust their strategies according to the current market conditions. 

    Crypto with Fiat

    Another solid feature for Tbitex is their crypto on-ramp, allowing users to buy USDT and USDC with fiat easily. The feature will enable users to select to pay with various fiat currencies and provide a range of service providers to facilitate the transaction.

    Tbitex third party fiat providers

    Security Features

    To be considered a top-tier exchange, it must implement several safety features. Thankfully, Tbitex has a plethora of different mechanisms in place to ensure the safety of its customers. 

    Firstly, customers’ funds are stored in cold storage wallets. The transfer from cold storage requires two manual review offline signatures, making it harder for hackers to steal the funds. 

    Additionally, Tbitex provides a secured trading service through their compensation for unusual losses. Suppose you experience common problems associated with exchanges, such as slippage greater than 0.3%, forced closing of positions, network downtime, or abnormal pinning. In that case, you are entitled to apply for compensation through their “Unusual Loss Allowance” form.

    Tbitex unusual loss allowance application form

    The team will review the application and, once they have verified the loss, will send the compensation directly to your account.

    Copy Trading

    Another feature coming to Tbitex is its “Copy Trading” platform. Similar to the feature provided by eToro, Copy Trading will allow users on Tbitex to copy all of the trades from the best traders on the platform. Any time a trader you are copying executes an order, the exchange will copy the order in your own account.

    This allows users to earn from more experienced traders and discover different types of trading strategies. 

    Tbitex Earn, Referrals, and Trading Benefits

    The exchange will soon also feature an earning section, allowing users to earn an annual percentage yield (APY) for locking assets into the platform.

    Additionally, Tbitex provides benefits to their traders for placing trades. The scheme allows you to earn 2% on profits from futures trades exceeding $200 USDT. Additionally, any losses that exceed 200 USDT will give 2$ of the margin for the order as a subsidy.

    Traders can receive up to 20 USDT trading benefits per day, and they are distributed every 24 hours. 

    Tbitex Trading Benefits

    Another earning feature on Tbitex is their rewards program. Users can earn up to $110 for completing certain tasks such as completing KYC, placing first futures trades, and hitting certain volume thresholds.

    Tbitex promotion for new users
    Tbitex Referral program

    Lastly, Tbitex also offers up to $120 for any referrals brought to the platform.

    Team

    The team behind Tbitex is highly experienced. The exchange was founded by Steven Li, a former executive for HSBC. After graduating from the University of Waterloo with a Master’s in Computer Science, Li went straight to work as a Senior Trader at HSBC. He continued to become the Investment Director at Tron DAO before founding Tbitex. 

    As you would expect, Li developed many skills from his previous roles. Specifically, he became an expert in constructing high throughput trading platforms that delivered a low-latency trading experience. This expertise helped him to create the trading platform for Tbitex. 

    Mobile Review

    Tbitex Mobile Application

    Tbitex also offers a solid mobile experience with an app for both iOS and Android. The mobile application provides traders with all the tools they need to manage their positions when they are on the move. 

    Is Tbitex safe to use?

    We would consider Tbitex extremely safe to use with the security implementations they have in place. Additionally, the exchange actually obtained an MSB license qualification issued by FinCEN in the United States. This makes Tbitex a regulated exchange in the United States, meaning they would need to be fully compliant like any other financial provider in the US that is holding customers’ funds. 

    Closing thoughts

    Tbitex exchange is certainly designed to rival the heavyweights within the industry. Alongside offering the same suite of tools that most exchanges offer, Tbitex takes things one step further to offer unique tools such as its Separate Position modes, Copy Trading, and compensation for unusual losses.

    Additionally, the exchange is headed by a highly experienced CEO, who certainly has the required skills to continue to grow the exchange. 

  • Indonesian Crypto Exchange Pintu Raises $113M From Pantera, Lightspeed, and Others

    Indonesian Crypto Exchange Pintu Raises $113M From Pantera, Lightspeed, and Others

    Pintu crypto exchange cover

    Key takeaways:

    • Indonesian-based cryptocurrency exchange Pintu has raised $113 million in its Series B
    • The round saw participation from Pantera, Lightspeed, and several other prominent crypto investors
    • According to Pintu CEO Jeth Soetoyo, the newly acquired capital will be used to expand the exchange’s product offering and its presence in the country

    Pintu plans to expand its regional presence and offer DeFi and NFTs

    The Pintu cryptocurrency exchange has raised $113 million in a Series B funding round that saw participation from Pantera Capital, Lightspeed India Partners, Intudo Ventures and Northstar Group. 

    According to The Block, which cited Pintu CEO Jeth Soetoyo, the company’s Series B had a lead investor who preferred to remain anonymous. 

    With more than $110 million raised in the latest financing round, Pintu has now collected $151.8 million in total investments, according to Crunchbase. The exchange collected roughly $41 million in the new capital in 2021 – $6 million during its Series A and an additional $35 million as a part of the Series A+. 

    Soetoyo told The Block that the newly acquired funds will go towards new products and services, including in the DeFi and NFT space. The Indonesian-based exchange reportedly plans to further bolster its presence in the country as well.

    Per Triple-A, Indonesia is home to the seventh largest population of cryptocurrency owners in the world. The blockchain analytics firm estimates that roughly 7.3 million people or 2.66% of the total population own some kind of digital assets. 

  • The Benefit Season Is Here: Bet and Increase Your Earnings

    The Benefit Season Is Here: Bet and Increase Your Earnings

    1xBit benefit season

    June 3, 2022, Limassol, Cyprus — Vitality T20 Blast has maintained its uniqueness through its show of riveting cricket games. As one of the top franchises in the T20, cricket fans always get to witness spectacular plays regularly.

    The Benefit Season Tournament

    Just as the T20 cricket is one of the most beloved cricket formats, cricket fans also love one of the sport’s oldest perks – the Benefit Season. It comes with its tradition of season-long benefits for players of many years’ service. 1xBit is poised to let fans participate in the Benefit Season tournament and share the 55 mBTC prize fund.

    How to Register & Win

    The Benefit Season tournament is a new opportunity to begin a lucky streak on 1xBit. The betting platform offers rewards for betting on any cricket matches during the tournament. It is a simple process to join the tournament; all anyone needs to do is register or log into their 1xBit account, click the “Take part” button on the tournament page, and place bets on any cricket matches.

    It is the season of Benefits, and players should not let anything hold them back because the more bets, the higher the chances of winning. The tournament begins on June 3, 2022 and will continue until the late hours of July 18, 2022. The results of the tournament will be announced the next day.

    Available Prizes to Be Won

    Players with the longest streak of winning bets will win fantastic prizes in the Benefit Season tournament. The 55 mBTC prize fund will be shared by 10 lucky bettors who will get up to 10 mBTC.

    Benefits of Using 1xBit

    1xBit is a top online betting website that stands out amongst peers with its innovative model of using cryptocurrency as a form of payment. The sportsbook understands the importance of a simple onboarding process for potential users, thus implementing a simple registration process requiring only email. A successful registration comes with a generous welcome bonus of up to 7 BTC for the first four deposits.

    While surfing the website, players can enjoy many features, like an extensive list of sports betting, live betting, esports, live casino, etc. Players can also enjoy instant payouts and pay zero fees for all earnings on 1xBit. It is worthy to note that all these transactions are cloaked with total anonymity offered by blockchain technology.

    1xBit outpaces its opponents with its long list of more than 40 cryptocurrencies on the website, resolving to accommodate more crypto communities on the platform. If you enjoy the game of cricket, then the Benefit Season tournament is here for you. It is the time to earn more benefits for following your passion.

    1xBit Socials

    Blog | Twitter | Telegram | Instagram | YouTube

    Media Contact Details

    Contact Name: Anastasia Semenova

    Contact Email: marketing@1x-bit.com

    1xBit is the source of this content. This Press Release is for informational purposes only. The information does not constitute investment advice or an offer to invest

  • PayPal Now Lets Users Move Their Crypto Within and Outside the Platform

    PayPal Now Lets Users Move Their Crypto Within and Outside the Platform

    paypal-crypto

    Key takeaways:

    • PayPal has rolled out new cryptocurrency features that grant users more options when moving their crypto assets
    • PayPal users can now send their crypto between friends and family with no fees as well as transfer it outside the platform
    • The product supports Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash

    PayPal users can now freely move their BTC, ETH, LTC, and BCH

    PayPal, one of the leading payment processors in the world, has announced the expansion of its cryptocurrency services with the inclusion of new transfer options. With the addition of new features, PayPal users can now transfer supported digital currencies into PayPal, move their coins from PayPal to external platforms (including crypto exchanges and blockchain wallets), and send or receive crypto with zero fees.

    The platform currently supports four digital currencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin. The rollout of the new features has already begun and they are currently available to select users from the US. 

    An expert from the company’s press release reads:

    “Allowing PayPal customers the flexibility to move their crypto assets (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, or Litecoin) into, outside of, and within our PayPal platform reflects the continuing evolution of our best-in-class platform and enables customers to interact with the broader crypto ecosystem.“

    In addition to new features, PayPal has also announced it has become the first company to obtain a “full Bitlicense by the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).” The license allows PayPal to pursue its mission of “expanding the accessibility and utility of digital currencies” and building an “inclusive” financial system.

    In October 2020, PayPal became one of the first companies in traditional finance to allow its users to buy and sell crypto via the company’s own wallet solution. In March 2021, PayPal introduced the “Checkout with Crypto” feature, which allows users to pay with digital currencies at millions of merchants. Earlier this year, the company confirmed it is exploring its own stablecoin products, after a software engineer by the name of Steve Moser found references to “PayPal Coin” in the company’s iOS app.

  • Yield Farming vs. Staking

    Yield Farming vs. Staking

    Bitcoin Crops Yield Farming

    The importance and popularity that active trading used to hold has transitioned over to passive income strategies. The eternal debate of yield farming vs. staking is one example of such strategies.

    Holding one’s digital assets safe and hoping their value increases is no longer as attractive as it used to be. Nowadays, people usually look to the markets for opportunities that would allow them to put their crypto to good (and lucrative) use. That’s where staking vs. yield farming comes in — both make it possible to earn from your crypto passively, but what’s the difference? Join us below as we explain.

    What is Yield Farming?

    At first glance, the origin of the term “yield farming” may sound strange. “Yield” is a measure of the return to the holder on a security/crypto, while “farming” refers to the process of generating that cryptocurrency. Therefore, yield farming is basically a new way to “grow” your own cryptocurrency (much like farmers grow food).

    More specifically, this process means individuals lend their crypto assets to DeFi platforms, which lock them in liquidity pools. While your assets are locked, they actually provide liquidity to DeFi protocols by making it possible to trade, borrow, and lend. In return for using your crypto assets to facilitate these operations, the platform earns fees, which it then pays back to investors depending on their share in the overall liquidity pool.

    However, this is where it gets a bit more technical. Liquidity pools are necessary to ensure AMMs (Automated Market Makers) can function. Why are AMMs important? Rather than using traditional sellers and buyers, AMMs allow automated, permissionless trading thanks to liquidity pools.

    On the other end of the spectrum, liquidity providers get LP (Liquidity Provider) tokens that track individual contributions to the liquidity pool. Therefore, the rewards are higher for liquidity providers who contribute more capital to the pool and vice versa.

    Yield Farming Advantages

    If you’re looking to become a yield farmer, one way to go about it is to lend your digital assets through a DApp. When doing so, the DApp lends your coins to borrowers, allowing you to earn payment in the form of new coins. However, keep in mind that the interest rates depend on the demand for digital assets, and also that your earned interest accrues every day.

    In other words, it’s not as if it’s mandatory to merely keep your crypto assets in a wallet, especially when you consider that you can potentially earn more through yield farming. Revenue streams for yield farmers range from token rewards and transaction fees to price appreciation and interest. Additionally, this strategy also helps with affordability, since it’s less costly than mining (you don’t have to invest in costly mining equipment or pay for electricity used in the mining process).

    Moreover, if you’re looking into more sophisticated yield farming strategies, you can consider smart contracts or depositing different tokens on a crypto platform. But most of all, yield farming protocols are usually focused on allowing farmers to maximize returns while simultaneously taking security and liquidity into account.

    What is Staking?

    Staking is the more traditional of the two strategies. If you’re looking into staking, you’ll need to commit your crypto assets to a network (such as Ethereum, for example), and participate in validating its transactions. The term “staking” is behind the Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism that numerous blockchain networks use. Basically, this strategy enables you to earn interest while you’re waiting for the release of block rewards.

    PoS vs. PoW

    Most astute investors and individuals who are still new to the industry wonder why PoS exists. After all, Bitcoin uses the Proof of Work (PoW) consensus mechanism, so what’s the point of having another one? The answer is that PoS blockchains are much less resource-intensive than PoW ones. PoW networks need massive computing power for validating new blocks.

    On the other hand, PoS blockchains have nodes — servers that process and verify transactions, and also serve as checkpoints. Users who set up these nodes are commonly referred to as “validators.” These individuals are selected randomly to sign blocks and are rewarded for their role.

    So, how does staking as a crypto strategy factor into everything mentioned above? While it’s prudent to understand the technicalities involved in how PoS works and setting up a node, it is not a requirement. Thanks to technology in the form of crypto exchanges, you can simply send your crypto assets to an exchange, after which the network will handle the node setup and validation.

    Additionally, the more stakes there are on the blockchain network, the more decentralized and safer it will be against attacks. Overall, it’s a convenient system: keeping the network safe and in working order means that stakers receive rewards. These rewards typically offer higher returns compared to investing in other financial markets. Regardless, remember that there are also risks associated with staking, since networks’ stability may fluctuate over time.

    Difference Between Staking and Yield Farming

    The differences between staking and yield farming include the following:

    • Safety
    • Fees related to transactions
    • Lock-in periods
    • Profitability
    • Level of complexity

    Safety

    Hacking is always a risk in all things online, including crypto. Susceptibility to hackers is higher with yield farming that relies on more recent DeFi protocols. Additionally, if there are flaws in the programming of the smart contract, this risk increases even more.

    Generally speaking, staking is safer than yield farming because stakers actively participate in the strict consensus process of the underlying blockchain. Therefore, shady individuals typically lose their staked funds if they’re caught attempting to trick the system.

    Fees Related to Transactions

    Gas costs are an inherent (and significant) concern for yield farmers. On the one hand, yield farmers can switch liquidity pools at their leisure, but on the other, they also must pay transaction fees every time they do so. Considering these costs is critical even if you expect a higher return on another platform.

    With staking, you don’t need to solve complex math problems like in a PoW blockchain network. Consequently, the upfront staking and ongoing maintenance costs are lower when staking.

    Lock-In Periods

    When looking into yield farming vs. staking, the winning strategy for liquidity-seeking investors may seem evident at first glance. Why? It seems straightforward: locking in your funds for a more extended period of time typically leads to higher returns (or APY) from staking.

    However, there’s also the fact that yield farming does not require investors to lock in their funds.

    Profitability

    The relationship between risk and reward is simple to understand: riskier investments usually offer higher returns, and vice versa. Therefore, the higher your returns, the more funds you have to reinvest. The APY (Annual Percentage Yield) is a traditional method for measuring returns. Conventional staking on exchanges typically offers steadier APY returns than yield farming.

    Case in point, staking rewards usually range from 5% to 14%. On the other hand, yield farmers can generate massive profits by adopting a new strategy or project early in the process, allowing their returns to go as high as 1000%.

    Level of Complexity

    The staking process and strategy is easier compared to yield farming. When looking at passive income, staking means that investors simply choose the staking pool and lock in their assets.

    Conversely, yield farming is usually more complex because investors have to choose which tokens they want to lend and on which platforms. Down the line, there’s also the possibility that they will continue switching tokens or platforms.

    Periodically switching between different yield farming pools may increase your APY, but there’s also the matter of paying additional gas fees in the process. Overall, yield farming is more complex compared to staking, but it may result in more lucrative returns if you possess the knowledge, time, and resources you’re willing to devote to this strategy.

    Start Earning Passive Income Today

    Investors have numerous opportunities when they step into the crypto world. Knowing the factors and risks that can influence staking gives investors an advantage in designing yield-based strategies.

    CEX.IO’s products allow users to earn staking rewards of between 2.6% and 23% on a variety of coins without lock-up periods. CEX.IO’s Staking product — including the straightforward CEX.IO staking calculator — is low-risk and aligns with the technology’s core principle of inclusivity.

    Consequently, users can stake whatever amount is most comfortable for them and allows everyone to reap potential benefits from the growth of the crypto space.

  • Circle Account and Circle APIs Now Support USDC on Polygon

    Circle Account and Circle APIs Now Support USDC on Polygon

    Circle's USD Coin (USDC) cover

    Key takeaways:

    • USD Coin operator and issuer Circle has announced support for USDC on the Polygon network
    • Circle Account and Circle API users will now be able to seamlessly tap into USDC’s liquidity on Polygon
    • Polygon is the ninth blockchain platform supported by USDC

    Circle unveils support for Polygon USDC

    Circle – the operator and issuer of the world’s second largest stablecoin USD Coin – announced on Tuesday that the fintech company’s array of products and services, including Circle Account and Circle APIs, now support USDC on Polygon.

    Polygon is a Layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum, allowing users to benefit from faster and lower-cost transactions. The popularity of L2 networks skyrocketed in recent years due to Ethereum’s inability to process an adequate number of transactions due to the emergence of NFTs and DeFi products, which leads to network congestion and high gas fees.

    According to the official announcement, support for Polygon USDC will allow Circle Account and Circle API users to seamlessly tap into the Polygon network without having to manually bridge USDC from Ethereum to Polygon. This will allow easier access to crypto trading platforms, swapping, borrowing, and lending DeFi products, NFT trading, and more.

    With the addition of the Polygon blockchain, USDC now exists on nine blockchain platforms, including the aforementioned Ethereum, Algorand, Solana, Stellar, TRON, Avalanche, Flow, and Hedera.

    The news of USDC expanding to a new blockchain comes less than two weeks after Tether announced the launch of its USDT stablecoin on the Polygon network. 

    USDC is the fourth largest digital asset by market capitalization, with the total value of all USDC in circulation amounting to more than $53 billion. For context, the third-largest digital asset, USDT, currently boasts a market cap of over $83 billion.