Bitcoin down, trading above Rs 34.44 lakh

Cryptocurrencies were trading in the red early on April 1. The global crypto market cap was $2.05 trillion, a 4.88 percent decrease over the previous day. The total crypto market volume over the last 24 hours was $131.94 billion, a 16.84 percent increase. The total volume in DeFi is $19.97 billion, 15.14 percent of the crypto market's 24-hour volume. The volume of all stable coins is now $109.15 billion, which is 82.72 percent of the crypto market's 24-hour volume. Bitcoin's price is Rs 34.44 lakh with a dominance of 41.48 percent. This is a 0.11 percent decrease over the day, as per CoinMarketCap data. Except stablecoin tether (up 1.7 percent), all major cryptos on our list have slumped. Polkadot nosedived 6.06 percent, while dogecoin is down 5.89. These were followed by cardano, down 5.16 percent, Binance (4.89 percent), XRP (4.37 percent), bitcoin (4.09 percent) and ethereum was down 3.84 percent. Read full here

Binance steps up hiring, activity in crypto hub Dubai

Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, is recruiting over 100 positions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and is helping to shape Dubai's new virtual assets' regulations, its regional head said. Binance's links with the Gulf state have deepened in recent months as the UAE tries to style itself as the world's new digital assets hub and develops regulation. "It is a very progressive framework and we are very happy to be part of that process, working very closely with the Dubai government," said Richard Teng, Binance's MENA head. "I wish more regulators globally adopt this approach that Dubai has—a public-private sector partnership." Read details here

How cryptocurrencies are funding Ukraine’s fight against Russia

The Ukrainian government has gone all out soliciting aid from the world's cryptocurrency community and the efforts have borne fruit. Since February 26 when officials began tweeting calls for donations, the country has received over $71.66 million of its $200-million target as on March 31. As of mid-March, Ukraine had spent around $34 million of the funds either as crypto tokens or converting it to traditional currency, Alex Bornyakov, the country’s deputy minister for digital transformation said. The ministry of digital transformation of Ukraine has set up a website ‘Aid for Ukraine’ where cryptocurrencies can be donated to the fundraising account of the National Bank of Ukraine. Funds will be used towards the nation’s humanitarian aid programmes and the armed forces in the war against Russia, it claims. Take a look

Blockchain company Ronin hit by $615 million crypto heist

Blockchain company Ronin said that hackers stole cryptocurrency worth almost $615 million from its systems in what would be one of the largest cryptocurrency heists on record. The project said that unidentified hackers stole on March 23 some 173,600 ether tokens and 25.5 million USD Coin tokens. At current exchange rates, the stolen funds are worth $614 million. Ronin is used to power the popular Axie Infinity game, which uses NFTs. It said in a blog post that the hacker had used stolen private keys – the passwords needed to access crypto funds – to make off with the funds. Ronin said it had discovered the hack on March 30. Read more here