Imagine the following scenario: Sometime in 2021, financial regulators declare that all stablecoin owners must be verified. What would happen to the cryptocurrency ecosystem? Right now, a large chunk of stablecoin usage is pseudonymous. That is, you or I can hold $20,000 worth of tether or USD coin stablecoins in an unhosted wallet (i.e., not on an exchange) without having to provide our identities to either Tether or Circle, the managers of these stablecoin platforms. We can send this $20,000 along to other users, who can transfer the coins on, who in turn can transfer them on, and no one along […]
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In retrospect, it was inevitable: A team of blockchain developers has forked GitHub and come up with a system for collaborating on open source software. There’s even a decentralized finance (DeFi) twist. Announced Thursday, Radicle, a fully decentralized code repository, has raised $12 million in funding, integrated its peer-to-peer network with Ethereum and launched the RAD governance token. The funding round was led by NFX and Galaxy, with participation from Placeholder, Electric Capital and ParaFi Capital; Naval Ravikant, Balaji Srinivasan and Meltem Demirors were also involved. Notably, it’s the first crypto investment from NFX since Libra co-creator Morgan Beller left Facebook […]
Every asset that moves fast attracts the B-word. But what the last few decades of research in finance has taught us is that it’s not so easy to spot financial bubbles, at least not until after they collapse. The very fact that we don’t have “successful” bubbles tells us that our definition of bubbles is backward-looking, excluding once-lofty assets that actually made it. Joakim Book is a research fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research and a writer on all things money and financial history. He holds degrees in economics and economic history from the University of Glasgow and the […]
The Swiss canton of Zug has started accepting tax payments in cryptocurrency. In a previous announcement in 2020, the Swiss authorities said that, from February, citizens and companies based in Zug will be able to pay up to 100,000 CHF (around $111,300) of their taxes in either bitcoin or ether. No partial payments in cryptocurrency will be accepted. Zug has been dubbed “Crypto Valley” over the many industry companies drawn to the jurisdiction over its friendly blockchain and crypto regulation. “As the home of the Crypto Valley, it is important to us to further promote and simplify the use of cryptocurrencies […]
The sale gives Christie’s a chance to “dip its toes” in crypto, said a New York representative. Source link
Online brokerage app Robinhood says it plans to enable withdrawals and deposits of cryptocurrencies including dogecoin. In a tweet Wednesday, the app provider said it “fully intends” to provide the extra functionality, though not date is provided for when it might be activated. Currently, traders can only buy and sell crypto assets within the app, according to its support page. The tweet came an hour before Bloomberg published an article alleging Robinhood was the owner of the world’s largest dogecoin wallet. Robinhood stated in the tweet that it “does not currently invest in cryptocurrency or use any customer cryptocurrency” for its […]
The Secret Network, a protocol focused on privacy for decentralized finance (DeFi), has launched SecretSwap, a front-running resistant and cross-chain decentralized exchange. It is now live on the Secret Network mainnet. SecretSwap uses the SNIP-20 secret token standard and Secret Ethereum bridge. “SecretSwap is the first front-running resistant, cross-chain [automated market maker]. Its architecture (being based on Secret Network) gives SecretSwap usability advantages, protects users from malicious bot activity, increases the availability of assets and keeps fees much lower than on Ethereum,” said Tor Bair, the Secret Foundation’s executive director and chairman, in a direct message. DeFi privacy According to Bair, […]
The new venture is expected to increase revenue and “optimize” its product offering structure. Source link
Bitcoin broke above $52,000 Wednesday, with a market capitalization nearing $1 trillion. Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $52,231.69 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 7.16% over the previous 24 hours. Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $48,430.80-$52,536.47 (CoinDesk 20) BTC trades above its 10-hour and 50-hour averages on the hourly chart, a bullish signal for market technicians. Bitcoin trading on Bitstamp since Feb. 15. Source: TradingView Bitcoin trading volume on major exchanges.Source: CoinDesk Bitcoin is in “uncharted territory,” said Hunain Naseer, senior editor at OKEx Insights, after its price surged to a new all-time high above $52,000, only a day after it passed […]
Nothing says 2021 like dogecoin, a dog-themed cryptocurrency that has recently skyrocketed in value, thanks in part to the support of Elon Musk and other celebrities. For a time it was the 10th largest cryptocurrency. Dogecoin finished 2020 at less than half a penny per DOGE, according to CoinDesk’s dogecoin price index. It now trades at or above 5 cents, putting its year-to-date returns at around 1,000%. It may be tempting to write this off as a speculative frenzy or just a fluke, but that would be missing the larger picture. We should take note of dogecoin’s rise, if only because […]
At 6:00 UTC Thursday, the Stargate upgrade of Cosmos will go live. The Cosmos community recommends that interested observers follow along by watching the @cosmos account on Twitter. Stargate represents an important milestone for the Cosmos project on the way to launching its inter-blockchain communication (IBC) protocol that will allow the 200+ Tendermint-based blockchains to interoperate easily. The era of cross-pollinating blockchains is very nearly here. Stargate enables a number of other enhancements as well. The chain will run more efficiently, upgrades will be much faster and full nodes will be able to sync up more quickly. “Stargate upgrades all the […]
U.S. lawmakers are set to question a trader named Keith Gill and the chief executives of Reddit and Robinhood about their roles in the GameStop frenzy at a congressional hearing later this week. But some have another concern: whether China is involved. Several Republican lawmakers on the House Financial Services Committee plan to examine Reddit’s ties to Chinese tech conglomerate Tencent and Robinhood rival Moomoo, according to a Politico report. Moomoo is a wholly owned subsidiary of Futu Holdings, which is also backed by Tencent. These Republicans are reportedly concerned about possible manipulation by the Chinese companies in the inflating of […]
Blockchain.com said the institutional backing will power an increasingly institutional-minded business. Source link
The world’s oldest central bank, Sweden’s Riksbank, is to extend its pilot project for a potential central bank digital currency (CBDC) for another 12 months. According to a press release on Friday, the project, which is being carried out with assistance from professional services firm Accenture, will run until February 2022. The Riksbank said it would continue developing a technical solution for a central bank-issued e-krona “as a complement to cash,” with the primary objective being for the bank to increase its knowledge around the technology. For 2021, the institution will continue developing its potential digital currency offering with a focus […]
The head of the St. Louis Federal Reserve believes bitcoin does not pose a threat to the U.S. dollar’s status as the global reserve currency. In an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, James Bullard said the Fed’s policy focus will remain fixed on a global dollar economy “as far as the eye could see.” “Whether the gold price goes up or down or the bitcoin price goes up or down doesn’t really affect that,” said Bullard. Instead, the Fed’s president flagged “privately issued” cryptocurrencies, not sanctioned by the government, as being the primary issue. Bullard then drew comparisons to a time […]
Christie’s is partnering with digital marketplace MakersPlace to auction the work of a renowned crypto artist. Source link
Bitcoin alcanzó un nuevo valor máximo al superar los $50.000 esta mañana, después de haber desplazado el exceso de apalancamiento alcista en el mercado de derivados con una rápida caída del precio el lunes. Por un breve momento, y durante las primeras horas de trading en Nueva York, bitcoin superó por primera vez los $50.000. El lunes, los valores de bitcoin habían caído $3.000 hasta situarse por debajo de $45.926 durante las primeras horas de trading en Asia, lo que provocó liquidaciones de posiciones largas por aproximadamente $392 millones en el mercado de derivados. Tras una breve caída, bitcoin superó los […]
The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) has approved Canada’s second bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). Evolve’s bitcoin ETF was conditionally approved on Tuesday to trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange, the company announced in a press release. “Evolve was the first to file for a bitcoin ETF in the U.S.,” said James Seyffart, ETF research analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. “It’s a promising sign if there are no issues with launching a bitcoin ETF in Canada. … The U.S. regulatory framework tends to be a lot more in line with things that happen in Canada.” ETFs are an easy way for investors who want […]
Basketball players, pop singers and now high-end vinyl toys – lots of different groups are trying out non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on Ethereum as a new way to monetize. Superplastic is a company that makes artistic vinyl toys for the collectibles market. It’s debuting two new figures on the Winklevoss-owned Nifty Gateway, from Guggimon and Janky, two artists with strong Instagram followings. We might be seeing fresh interest from the non-crypto world because of the sector’s growth. NonFungible.com released its 2020 report on NFT data for 2020, finding over 220,000 active wallets in the space and counting 31,504 sellers and 74,529 buyers […]
South Korean internet giant Kakao’s blockchain arm Ground X is now storing and verifying unlisted investments as nonfungible tokens (NFTs) on its public blockchain. Unlisted investments are shares of startups that are offered to investors for purchase prior to a public offering. Since these securities are not listed on formal markets, they are traded over the counter (OTC). South Korea’s OTC trading market is growing: the country’s OTC exchange K-OTC ended 2020 with a record-high market capitalization of over 1 trillion won ($1.1 billion) since its launch in 2014. Foreign investors can also buy and trade OTC shares in South Korea. […]
SBI Holdings, a Japanese financial services firm, is to lead an ongoing strategic fundraising round for Swiss digital asset bank Sygnum. Sygnum, which holds a Swiss banking license, said Tuesday it has secured an “eight-figure” U.S. dollar investment from SBI’s subsidiary, SBI Digital Asset Holdings, which will be used to help the firm grow its client base and expand into new markets across Europe and Asia. The firm, which has bases in Switzerland and Singapore, said the fundraising effort will have brought in investment of around $30 million over the past six months, helping the firm grow its assets under administration, […]
Bitcoin’s march onto corporate balance sheets could be hampered by the crypto’s legendary volatility, according to a survey by Gartner released Tuesday that found only 5% of business executives intended to invest in bitcoin as a corporate asset this year. Source link
Bitcoin faced choppy markets for most of Tuesday after briefly trading above $50,000 for the first time during early U.S. trading hours. With some remaining bullish, other analysts and traders warned about near-term price correction. Bitcoin (BTC) trading around 48,810.95 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 0.39% over the previous 24 hours. Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $47,088.84-$50,584.85 (CoinDesk 20) BTC between its 10-hour and 50-hour averages on the hourly chart, a sideway signal for market technicians. Bitcoin trading on Bitstamp since Feb. 13. Source: TradingView Bitcoin volumes on major crypto exchanges since January.Source: CoinDesk, CryptoCompare Bitcoin’s trading volumes on the […]
Bitcoin mining farms in Texas have gone offline because of a massive winter storm that drained the state’s power grid. While some mining farms have stopped operations due to power outages, others are selling electricity back to the grid at a premium, said Ethan Vera, co-founder of Luxor Tech, which is a U.S.-based crypto mining company. Most mining farms are offline, Vera said. Due to the Texas outage, hashrate generated from Luxor’s mining pool has decreased by 40%. The majority of hashrate for the entire mining pool comes from the U.S. mining farms, Vera said. While it is not clear what […]
Android versions of popular cryptocurrency app Bitcoin Ticker Widget and a seeming clone of Steemit, Steemit Earn Money, included software development kit (SDK) tools that extract extensive data on users in the past and are potentially linked to location tracking code from X-Mode a notorious data tracking company, according to a new report from Express VPN Digital Security Lab. Two other personal finance apps also have been found to contain these data trackers. “We wanted to say to consumers: ‘This is a huge problem; you may not be aware of it,’” said Sean O’Brien, principal researcher at ExpressVPN Digital Security Lab. […]
There’s been renewed interest in bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with the nomination of Gary Gensler to head the Securities and Exchange Commission and the approval of a true Canadian bitcoin ETF. Whether one gets approved in the U.S. is still unclear. You’re reading State of Crypto, a CoinDesk newsletter looking at the intersection of cryptocurrency and government. Click here to sign up for future editions. When ETF? The narrative The big news last week was the Ontario Securities Commission approved North America’s first bitcoin ETF in Canada. An ETF, which is essentially a retail-friendly, regulated bitcoin investment vehicle that can trade in […]
Osprey Fund’s bitcoin trust is now available to retail investors via the over-the-counter (OTC) market, the company announced Tuesday. The fund was formed two years ago, and Osprey applied to register the trust with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the middle of last year, said Osprey CEO Greg King. It joins a crop of new bitcoin funds aimed squarely at the market-leading Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) before a bitcoin ETF is approved by the SEC. This includes offerings from Bitwise Asset Management, BlockFi and CrossTower that aim to give traditional investors exposure to bitcoin without having to touch […]
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple said Monday that there’s little chance of settlement ahead of the expected trial of the blockchain payments firm over alleged securities infractions. In a discovery letter addressed to Federal Judge Analisa Torres at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the parties said that having previously discussed the matter, they “do not believe there is a prospect for settlement at this time.” They further noted that previous settlement discussions took place under the Trump administration and were mainly conducted with division directors who have since left the SEC. […]
Bitcoin printed new lifetime highs near $50,000 this morning, having crowded out excess bullish leverage in the derivatives market with a swift price drop on Monday. The top cryptocurrency by market value clocked a record high of $49,950.93 at around 08:00 UTC Tuesday and was last seen trading near $49,280, representing a 2.8% gain on the day, according to CoinDesk 20 data. Prices had fallen Monday by $3,000 to below $45,926 during the early Asian trading hours, triggering nearly $392 million-worth of long liquidations in the derivative market. While the dip was short-lived, a breakout above $50,000 has so far remained […]
In this episode, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson discuss North Korea reportedly stealing your crypto to create nuclear weapons, Tesla rattling markets at an opportune time and Nigeria trying to ban crypto. Starting Feb. 12, in the Chinese calendar, we are in the year of the ox, or bull; at least for now, things are looking quite bullish for crypto. Usually, Chinese users would massively sell bitcoin ahead of the New Year but the current rally is being mostly driven by institutions, not retail buyers in Asia. So it looks like the “To the Moon” show must go on! A United […]
Hong Kong’s plan to restrict cryptocurrency investment to professionals means retail investors could move to unlicensed venues, said Global Digital Finance. Source link
The U.S. House Committee on Financial Services hearing will investigate issues around the recent trading surge for shares of GameStop and other companies. Source link
Despite bitcoin’s rapid $3,000 fall from new record highs seen Sunday, institutions seem confident about the cryptocurrency’s long-term prospects. The cryptocurrency dropped to $47,790 earlier on Monday, after just failing to pass the psychological hurdle of $50,000 over the weekend. So far, however, are there are few signs of preparations for deeper losses in the options market. “There is still an absence of any institutional long-term hedging. In fact, funds continue to take advantage of selling June-December expiry put options at strikes below $40,000,” Deribit Insights said in a tweet thread explaining the reasons for the price drop and the resulting changes […]
Bitcoin has fully pared losses from Sunday’s dip as the leading cryptocurrency fell from around $48,600 to below $46,000 early Monday morning. As of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET), bitcoin was trading above $48,600 on Coinbase. But the leading cryptocurrency still has yet to trade above the psychologically significant $50,000 mark. Much of bitcoin’s choppy price action and its recent dip could be attributed to futures deleveraging. Eager bulls piled into long trades expecting a swift breakout to $50,000 or higher. Funding rates for perpetual bitcoin futures have steadily increased through February, according to market data collected by Skew, with some […]
As another wave of major financial institutions announce bitcoin plans, it’s getting harder for the MSM to simply print the same old FUD. This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io. Today on the Brief: A follow-up on celebrity in crypto Dapper Labs and BlockFi raising at multibillion dollar valuations Cathie Wood and ARK increase their bitcoin position Our main discussion looks at the latest institutional bitcoin news: Deutsche Bank – the world’s 21st largest – quietly revealed a digital asset custody program with much bigger ambitions in a December 2020 World Economic Forum report Bloomberg is reporting that Morgan Stanley’s $150B investment […]
Australia’s blockchain and cryptocurrency companies need more support from the federal government and regulators to boost confidence within the country’s business sector, according to Steve Vallas, CEO of advocacy body Blockchain Australia. Speaking at the Senate Select Committee on Financial Technology and Regulatory Technology on Thursday, Vallas said Australia has a blockchain “base” from which it can accelerate development and that his organization is now “signaling” that the technology is something people “should be investing in.” Vallas pointed to Australia’s lack of blockchain innovation in the last few years, saying it hadn’t harmed the country’s ecosystem. However, “I think we need […]
Is it wasteful to use electricity mining bitcoin? As the Biden Administration settles into power with an ambitious agenda around clean energy, notably promising to eliminate carbon emissions from the US power generation sector by 2035, the question of bitcoin mining and it’s ever-growing use of energy bubbles up once more. In this episode of ‘On Purpose, With Tyrone Ross,’ Harry Sudock, VP of strategy at GRIID Infrastructure joins the show to discuss the modern energy landscape, how far we’ve come and where bitcoin mining can fit into a sustainable energy system. The greatest number of people living in poverty are […]
Asset management firms Alpha Innovations and Arcanum Capital have launched a $10 million venture capital fund focused on driving blockchain innovation in emerging markets. The Arcanum Emerging Technologies Fund is to be the first of a series, with an initial close expected in late February, according to a company statement. The fund will provide seed and series A financing to blockchain firms in emerging markets, the companies said in a statement on Monday. According to James McDowall, a founding partner at Arcanum, the fund is geared towards finding, supporting as well as incubating blockchain startups that are exploring decentralized finance (DeFi) […]
Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will conduct a public hearing this month to gauge what qualifications should be imposed on retail investors opening new cryptocurrency trading accounts. According to a report by the Bangkok Post on Sunday, the regulator is concerned for investor safety amid the recent meteoric rise in cryptocurrency prices and the resulting flood of sign-ups to local exchanges. The regulator aims to determine if new crypto investors have enough experience and are in a financial position to absorb the risks associated with cryptocurrency trading and volatile price swings. “We should set some screening criteria such as age, […]
Bitcoin saw a significant drop early on Monday, soon after it had looked primed for a convincing move above $50,000. The top cryptocurrency slipped from nearly $49,000 to $45,926 during the early Asian hours and was last seen changing hands near $47,790 – down 1.8% on the day, according to CoinDesk 20 data. The decline surprised many investors, as a notable all-time high milestone had looked on the cards amid optimism generated by the recent wave of institutional adoption. So what happened? Here are three reasons that may explain the sudden price pullback. 1. Funding stress “Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, in […]
SBI Holdings, a major Japanese financial services firm, is currently in discussions with foreign financial firms to establish a cryptocurrency joint venture. SBI’s founder and CEO Yoshitaka Kitao said his firm would “definitely” turn the venture into a core earner for SBI, while adding his firm is considering large scale mergers and acquisitions (MA). While Kitao noted at least two deals were on the table for discussion with possible joint-venture partners, he declined to disclose further details. The plans were apparently prompted by cryptocurrency’s entrance into the financial mainstream. “Institutional investors – mainly hedge funds – have recently started investing in […]
An Ava Labs engineer gave a rundown of the small code bug that severely crippled the Avalanche blockchain last week. In a Sunday Medium post, blockchain engineer Patrick O’Grady wrote that increased congestion on the network triggered a “non-deterministic bug” related to how the high-throughput, proof-of-stake blockchain keeps track of transactions. Funds were never at risk, O’Grady notes, though the high-profile misstep has a valuable lesson for the blockchain industry. Avalanche launched in September 2020 with the claim it could process 4,500 transactions per second. It’s backed by prominent cryptocurrency firms including Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital, Bitmain and Initialized Capital. It […]
Dogecoin is not a cryptocurrency you would expect to read about much in this column since it is not exactly an “institutional grade” asset. It has a market cap of over $8 billion at time of writing (less than 1/100th of bitcoin’s), no unique use case and no lively derivatives market. But bear with me while I explain why it embodies two key themes impacting institutional interest in crypto assets: the role of “fundamentals,” and the likelihood of successful government bans. You’re reading Crypto Long & Short, a newsletter that looks closely at the forces driving cryptocurrency markets. Authored by CoinDesk’s head […]
Decentralized trading platform Synthetix has raised $12 million from venture capital firms Coinbase Ventures, Paradigm and IOSG. The raise looks to be a rare occurrence of VCs investing through the purchase of a platform’s native token directly from its treasury rather than wiring funds to its founders. Synthetix is run by a DAO, or a decentralized automatic organization, a way for a project to govern itself without a traditional corporate structure. Token holders are typically encouraged to vote on the direction the DAO will take. In the case of Synthetix, a platform on which users can trade synthetic assets and commodities, […]
A reading of Nic Carter’s latest essay for CoinDesk on the inappropriateness of comparing the energy consumption of bitcoin and Visa transactions. Source link
The record comes as traders analysts have described institutional investors’ interest in bitcoin as growing “at a staggering pace.” Source link
Editor’s Note: Happy Chinese Lunar New Year! First Mover will not publish on Monday, February 15, which is Presidents’ Day in the U.S. Cryptocurrency markets will be open, as they always are. Price Point Bitcoin (BTC) was lower, after pushing early Friday to an all-time high price of $48,925, based on CoinDesk pricing. Market activity was quiet due to the Lunar New Year celebrations across Asia and the upcoming Presidents’ Day holiday in the U.S. on Monday, according to Craig Erlam, senior market analyst for the foreign-exchange brokerage Oanda. (It’s the Year of the Ox, by the way, which is seen […]
Dapper Labs, responsible for high-flying digital collectables such as NBA Top Shots and CryptoKitties, is raising funds that should net the firm more than $250 million at a valuation of about $2 billion, according to The Block, which cited sources familiar with the deal. Source link
Decentralized finance protocols (DeFi) Cream Finance and Alpha Finance were victims of one of the largest flash loan attacks ever Saturday morning resulting in a loss of funds totaling $37.5 million, according to transaction details on Etherscan. Two hours later Cream said its contracts were “functioning as normal” and markets had been enabled. Alpha Finance then posted its own announcement, saying its Alpha Homora V2 product as the root cause. They confirmed that they’re working with DeFi guru Andre Cronje and Cream Finance to investigate the incident, and that the loophole had been fixed. They also said that they “have a […]
Morgan Stanley already has a nearly 11% stake in the bitcoin-laden business intelligence company MicroStrategy. Source link
A recap of a swath of news about corporate players coming into the crypto space, and why it could change the landscape of regulation. This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io. On this edition of the weekly recap, NLW breaks down the entrance of corporates into the crypto space this week, including: He also argues that more corporate actors investing in bitcoin and crypto makes it significantly less likely the U.S. government would look towards severe regulation. Image credit: Blablo101/Getty Images Plus Source link
Seven female coders from Iran got scholarships and graduated from a bootcamp of ConsenSys Academy, Ethereum startup incubator’s educational branch. The scholarships, a part of ConsenSys’ global program to help developers start coding on the Ethereum blockchain, might provide additional opportunities for people in the country largely cut off from the international tech community. Women account for 70% of university graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in Iran – more than in many developed countries around the world. But tech professionals in Iran are struggling with more roadblocks building their career than their peers in Europe and the U.S. […]
Mike Hearn, the lead platform engineer at enterprise blockchain builder R3, is stepping down from his role at the company, CoinDesk has learned. Hearn will stay on at R3, but only in the capacity of a technical adviser, according to a memo sent to company staff Friday. Hearn has long harbored ambitions to broaden his range and start new projects, the memo said. “Mike’s plans include his own projects, as well as becoming technical advisor to the R3 executive committee. To support the former, he’ll become CEO of his new firm, as well as transitioning to his ongoing R3 advisory role,” […]
With bitcoin slipping after hitting a new all-time high around $49K and Canadian regulators approving a bitcoin ETF, CoinDesk’s Market Daily is back with the latest news roundup. Add Markets Daily to your Alexa Flash Briefing here. This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io. ByteTree’s Charlie Morris shows how bitcoin’s price gets to $1 million by 2032. PLUS: JPMorgan hounded by own traders over absence in bitcoin market. JPMorgan employees have hounded senior trading-division management during internal “town hall” meetings over when the largest U.S. bank might get into bitcoin, CNBC reported. Source link
Editor’s Note: Welcome to the year of the Ox. Blockchain Bites will not publish on President’s Day, Monday, Feb. 15. Three stories Bull market buzz The first bitcoin exchange-traded fund in North America has been approved by Canada’s securities regulator, a move some commenters see as opening the door for the U.S. to follow. The U.S. government has been hesitant to approve a bitcoin ETF product, which tracks the price of bitcoin and is traded on a stock exchange, due to bitcoin’s supposedly shallow liquidity and risks the asset could be manipulated. Bitcoin miners earned a record $4.06 million in just […]
Welcome to Money Reimagined. Well, this past week felt historic. As bitcoin surged to all-time highs and found its way into TV studios and onto newspaper front pages, it felt like we’d crossed the chasm and gone mainstream. This happened in predictably weird and wild ways, with memes and attention-grabbing stunts – as discussed in the column below. Regardless, it seemed like no one could stop talking about bitcoin. Ethereum had a big week, too. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange launched ether futures, which helped the token hit all-time highs as well. And the buzz around decentralized finance (DeFi) and nonfungible tokens […]
MicroStrategy is moving to assemble a blockchain analytics team. It would be the first bitcoin-related software product from a company best known for CEO Michael Saylor’s whopping bet on BTC as a reserve asset. The firm, based in Tysons Corner, Va., put out calls on LinkedIn Friday for a Blockchain Data Analyst and Blockchain Data Engineer, explaining in job postings they will join a team “building an analytics platform with advanced metrics and insights for Bitcoin.” MicroStrategy hinted last November its interest in building blockchain data products and even stated its intention to hire for them. Executives did not go public […]
Deutsche Bank has joined the growing ranks of large financial institutions exploring cryptocurrency custody, with aspirations to offer high-touch services to hedge funds that invest in the asset class. The Deutsche Bank Digital Asset Custody prototype aims to develop “a fully integrated custody platform for institutional clients and their digital assets providing seamless connectivity to the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem,” according to a little-noticed report by the World Economic Forum, host of the annual gathering of muckety-mucks in Davos, Switzerland. In a passage buried on page 23 of the December 2020 report, Germany’s largest bank says it plans to create a trading […]
Cathie Wood’s ARK Investment Management increased its holdings of the Grayscale Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC) by 2.14 million shares in the fourth quarter of 2020, bringing its holdings of the market-leading institutional bitcoin investment vehicle to 7.31 million shares. Source link
It will take 21 years for the rest of the world to mine as much of the Chia (XCH) cryptocurrency as the company behind it will have on the day its mainnet launches next month. “We believe that chia, a new digital currency built on our new blockchain with radically different features and security than other digital currencies, will ultimately deliver on the promises of ‘magic internet money,’” the company argues in its first version of a new business white paper released on Wednesday. The size of the pre-mine is one notable revelation from the paper, in which Chia also announced […]
The price of bitcoin struggled to regain $49,000 Friday, continuing to bounce between $48,000 and $46,000 heading into the weekend. As bitcoin contemplated which way to go, ether made a new all-time high above $1,850. Much of bitcoin’s choppy price action could be attributed to futures deleveraging as eager bulls piled into long trades expecting a swift breakout to $50,000 or higher. Funding rates for perpetual bitcoin futures have steadily increased through February, according to market data collected by Skew, with some funding rates reaching their highest levels in the past 12 months. High positive funding rates signal an increase in […]
Hip-hop mogul Sean Carter and Jack Dorsey are putting 500 BTC in a blind trust. This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io. On today’s episode, NLW breaks down: The Miami Commissioners vote to start educating people about bitcoin and crypto The Nigerian Senate debate following the Central Bank of Nigeria’s recent crypto ban Why Jay-Z and Jack Dorsey’s bitcoin trust matters NLW argues the relationship between the crypto industry and celebrities is very different this time around compared to the previous ICO-led bull market. See also: How Nigeria and India Are Dealing With Crypto Bans Image credit: Shareif Ziyadat/Getty Images Entertainment Source […]
Apple Pay functionality will allow cardholders to make purchases in store and online using the crypto held in their BitPay wallet. Source link
The founder of “Joker’s Stash,” one of the largest underground marketplaces for stolen payment card data, is officially retiring after making a fortune of over $1 billion, reports Elliptic, a U.K.-based blockchain analytics firm. According to an Elliptic blog post, the site’s pseudonymous founder, JokerStash, said the site will cease operations on Feb. 15. Joker’s Stash was founded in 2014 and quickly rose to prominence. “The revenues earned by Joker’s Stash can be estimated from the value of incoming cryptocurrency payments to its wallet, as seen on the blockchain,” wrote Elliptic co-founder Tom Robinson. “Since 2015 almost $400 million in bitcoin […]
Miami’s city commissioners tapped the brakes on Mayor Francis Suarez’s headlong rush to make the city a cryptocurrency haven, voting Thursday night to study the use of crypto before allowing residents to use it to pay for services or giving city workers the option to to get paid in it, according to a report in the Miami Herald. Source link
Gaming developers have begun integrating Bitcoin’s Lightning Network into their own games and existing titles to provide players with bitcoin payouts. The Lightning Network is a payment protocol that facilitates fast, near-feeless transactions on a network that operates with different rules than Bitcoin’s primary network. This in-game rewards economy offers everyday gamers a “stake” in the game and an opportunity to monetize their hobby, a privilege typically enjoyed only by the Goliaths of the professional esports industry. The end of the match was nothing special. From the outside, it looked like any other Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) esport match, until […]
PayPal could be to central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) what private banks are to physical dollars. The company’s CEO, Dan Schulman, laid out a vision during its investor day on Thursday for PayPal’s digital wallets being the means by which central banks distributed CBDCs to consumers across income levels. “You think about how many [digital wallets] we’re going to have in the next two, three or five years, and we’re a perfect complement to central banks and governments to distribute those digitized forms of currency,” Schulman said. Schulman also revealed that PayPal is looking into smart contracts and tokenizations of other […]
In an environment that is proving less secure over time, we’re giving more thought to the preservation and proper allocation of our wealth. But how does one participate in a system that continues to advantage people who are positioned nearest to the financial nucleus? How do you participate when, without apology or consequence, they can shut off a game they are inconveniently losing? How is this possible, and why is it the only system we are “allowed” to opt into if we want to generate wealth for our family? Ian Gaines is a Media Manager at Erickson Immigration Group. Black Bitcoin […]
Policymakers in India will provide a transition period if a proposed ban on cryptocurrency usage is passed as expected. According to a report by Bloomberg on Thursday, a senior Financial Ministry official – speaking under condition of anonymity – told Bloomberg cryptocurrency holders were likely to be given a three-to-six month period to close their positions. Those still holding digital assets after the window closes will likely see their investments liquidated, per the report. After that, cryptocurrency usage in all aspects will be banned via a new law set to be introduced in the current parliamentary session via the Cryptocurrency and […]
Michael Cagney, the founder of blockchain lending startup Figure Technologies, wants to set up a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), it announced in a regulatory filing Thursday. The blank-check firm seeks to raise $250 million, according to the prospectus filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and will be called Figure Acquisition Corp. I. Bloomberg first published the news. Figure Technologies issues mortgages and loans, using its own blockchain, called Provenance, to automate portions of the process. It was founded in 2018 and raised $220 million from Ribbit Management, DST Capital, RPM Ventures, Nimble Ventures and Morgan Creek, the […]
Nigeria’s Senate has summoned the country’s top financial regulators for a briefing after the central bank ordered local financial institutions to stop providing services to crypto companies and users last Friday. The Nigerian Tribune reported Thursday the Senate has mandated its banking committee to invite the governor of the central bank (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, and the director general of the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission, Lamido Yuguda, to appear at a time to be determined and explain the opportunities and threats of cryptocurrency. The Senate session discussing the issue was live-tweeted on the Senate’s official Twitter page. Last week’s CBN directive […]
The first bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in North America has been given the go-ahead by Canada’s financial regulator. According to a decision document on Thursday, the receipt of approval from the Ontario Securities Commission was filed under a Multilateral Instrument passport system in multiple Canadian jurisdictions. Those territories include British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut. This story is developing and will be added to accordingly. Source link
Bitso, un exchange enfocado en América Latina, ha adquirido Quedex, una plataforma de trading de criptoderivados con sede en Gibraltar, donde también es regulada. A pesar de que los términos de la compra de Quedex no fueron dados a conocer, el CEO de Bitso, Daniel Vogel, dijo a CoinDesk que se trató de un buen acuerdo por varias razones. Quedex fue la primera plataforma de criptoderivados en recibir una licencia mediante el marco regulador de activos digitales de Gibraltar, la misma jurisdicción y régimen que regula a Bitso, dijo Vogel. La adquisición de Quedex también permite a Bitso hacerse con una […]
Bitcoin was trading between $47,000 and $48,000 for much of Thursday, breaking the $48,000 level multiple times throughout Thursday. Traders and analysts told CoinDesk they remain bullish on the overall market, as institutional investors’ interest in bitcoin is growing “at a staggering pace.” Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $47,174.04 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 5.48% over the previous 24 hours. Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $44,057.64-$48,635.84 (CoinDesk 20) BTC above its 10-hour and 50-hour averages on the hourly chart, a bullish signal for market technicians. Bitcoin trading on Coinbase since Feb 5.Source: TradingView Despite bitcoin’s new historical high price earlier Thursday, […]
PayPal’s buy, sell and hold crypto products are coming to the United Kingdom in a few months, the company announced during its investor day Thursday. Its launch of crypto as a funding service will go live in a few months as well, and crypto products in Venmo will go live in the first half of 2021. The results from the new product at the e-commerce giant have “exceeded” expectations, said Jonathan Auerbach, executive vice president and chief strategy, growth and data officer at PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL). “We’re actually looking at our crypto services to help position PayPal, to help shape the […]
Three trends 1. Crypto infrastructure is being laid down across the banking, tech and financial sectors. BNY Mellon, the world’s biggest custodian bank, will allow customers to custody crypto by the end of the year. It’s working with unnamed outside partners to build out the offering, according to CoinDesk’s Ian Allison. Mastercard plans to support digital currency transactions directly on its massive network, and allow merchants that opt in to participate directly in the crypto economy, CoinDesk’s Danny Nelson reported. “Our philosophy on cryptocurrencies is straightforward: It’s about choice,” Mastercard Executive Vice President for Blockchain and Digital Asset Products Raj Dhamodharan […]
With BTC setting a new record above $48K and Mastercard implementing crypto payments, CoinDesk’s Market Daily is back with the latest news roundup. Add Markets Daily to your Alexa Flash Briefing here. This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io. Bitcoin’s price hits new all-time high over $48,000 despite U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s warning that cryptocurrencies are prone to illicit uses. Source link
Peirce also pushed back against an emerging government narrative that cryptocurrency is a dangerous rail for terrorist financing. Source link
Rapper Post Malone and his manager Dre London have teamed up with social money platform Fyooz to launch a celebrity beer pong league using non-fungible tokens (NFTs). According to the announcement, the Celebrity World Pong League NFT will bring recipients the chance to play beer pong against the rapper. Beer pong is a drinking game that involves players throwing a ping pong ball across a table with the mission of landing it in a glass of beer on the other end. NFTs, meanwhile, are digital tokens that can have different attributes to represent a wide variety of physical goods as well as […]
The bill was introduced by Republican State Senator Mark Lofgren to bring blockchain tech on par with traditional contracts and recordkeeping. Source link
Rows of latest-model laptops, highly sought after by the gaming community, have been spotted in China being used to mine cryptocurrency. In tweets posted on Wednesday, images show a room filled with “several hundred” gaming laptops said to be kitted out with Nvidia RTX 30-series graphics processing units (GPUs). WCCTech, a computer and gaming publication, said the laptops shown in the tweets come from the Chinese manufacturer Hasse and are being used to mine crypto using the in-demand Nvidia cards. Like something from a gamer’s nightmare, some laptops appear to be stripped of their housing to offer optimal cooling for the […]
In this episode, Christine Kim and Will Foxley discuss with Ethereum Foundation researcher Danny Ryan the roll-out of the Ethereum 2.0 development roadmap, starting with the launch of phase 0 and the Beacon Chain. “Not a surprise but a relief.” That’s how Ryan characterized how he felt about the successful activation of the Eth 2.0 network in early December. “We were confident going in but it’s been excellent to see it go so well,” Ryan said. “Compared to some of our testnet launches, they got better and better. But the mainnet launch was more successful than any of those.” As of […]
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission should be “looking to people” like Tesla CEO Elon Musk for market manipulation following the electric car maker’s recent decision to put bitcoin on its balance sheet, according to economist and prominent bitcoin critic Nouriel Roubini. Musk has been tweeting about bitcoin and dogecoin in recent weeks, at one point updating the bio of his popular Twitter profile to “#bitcoin.” Tesla filed its annual 10-K report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Monday, saying it purchased about $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin (BTC, -5.76%) in January. The New York University economics professor similarly criticized MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor’s […]
Cryptocurrencies used for illicit purposes are a “growing problem,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Wednesday. “I see the promise of these new technologies, but I also see the reality: cryptocurrencies have been used to launder the profits of online drug traffickers; they’ve been a tool to finance terrorism,” she said in her opening remarks. She referenced the Anti-Money Laundering Act passed into law by Congress last December, a part of the National Defense Authorization Act that requires the U.S. government to update its anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) laws. Yellen said the existing regulatory framework was created in the […]
A Bank of America cryptocurrency report warns of the risks and potential market disruption from anti-privacy government measures. Cryptocurrencies “challenge the ability of governments to levy taxes and to control capital flows more broadly,” according to a recent report from Bank of America Securities obtained by CoinDesk. Uncertainty over how the U.S. governments will act to limit these use cases presents an key risk for cryptocurrency investors. “Encrypted private wallets with digital assets that can be transferred across borders would seem to underminethe monetary sovereignty of every nation-state,” the report says. In an “extreme case,” regulators could simply ban all institutions […]
Amazon’s grip on the internet economy appears to be coming for currency next, with the e-commerce giant preparing to launch a “digital currency” project in Mexico. The yet-to-be-announced project, which Amazon sketched out across a series of recent job posts, appears to be an effort to keep lucrative Prime customers eternally plugged into Amazon’s platform. “This product will enable customers to convert their cash in to digital currency using which customers can enjoy online services including shopping for goods and/or services like Prime Video,” one job post said of Amazon’s “new payment product.” Amazon’s Digital and Emerging Payments (DEP) division intends […]
Well, Dogecoin still is a meme – just a more expensive meme. And as the price rises from the depths, Dogecoin’s historically scattered development is rising with it. Take Dogecoin lead maintainer, Ross Nicoll, for example. His last commitment on Github came in October of 2019, but in the past two weeks he’s taken on a handful of new pull requests to make changes to the coin. As he and four other Dogecoin developers take up the keyboard in the name of the Shiba Inu-emblazoned memecoin (which is now worth over $9 billion at $0.07 a coin), they’re tasked with upgrading […]
Mastercard is planning to give merchants the option to receive payments in cryptocurrency later this year. According to a source familiar with the matter, the functionality will see Mastercard customers’ digital currency payments settled in crypto at participating merchants, a first for the financial giant. The company has not yet disclosed which digital currencies it intends to support, or where. The details shed new light on CEO Michael Miebach’s Q4 pledge to integrate digital currency payments “directly on our network” in a move the new chief, helming his first earnings call on Jan. 28, said will provide maximal flexibility to customers […]
Three stories 1. Tesla caught a lucky break in announcing its $1.5 billion bitcoin purchase when it did. The auto giant is reportedly being investigated by Chinese authorities over safety and quality concerns, news that came to light the same day headlines were dominated by Tesla’s treasury, according to CoinDesk markets reporter Muyao Shen. Media gadflies, like NYU economics professor Nouriel Roubini, have criticized Tesla and bitcoin. Speaking on CoinDesk TV this morning, “Dr. Doom” raised questions about “market manipulation” – including CEO Elon Musk’s public comments on crypto and that a particular wallet “sucks” – and Tesla’s “failing” business model, […]