Skip to main content

MLB Team Washington Nationals Partners With Terra Blockchain Community, Ballpark Plans to Accept UST

On February 9, the American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C., the Washington Nationals, announced the team has partnered with Terra, the open-source blockchain platform and decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). The Washington Nationals detail that the team is a “leading innovator” and is “consistently introducing new technologies to enhance the fan experience.” Washington Nationals Ink Long-Term Deal With Terra Major League Baseball (MLB) team the Washington Nationals has partnered with the blockchain platform and DAO Terra, according to an announcement published by the team on Wednesday. The deal with Terra follows a slew of sports-related deals with crypto firms, but the MLB team will be the first to partner with an open-source blockchain project. In addition to the partnership, the algorithmic stablecoin UST that’s issued on the Terra blockchain will be “accepted as a payment method at Nationals Park as early as next season.” “The Nationals continue t...

Indian banks put crypto traders' accounts under the microscope

HSBC, HDFC and Citi are now requiring crypto traders in India to provide information about their activities or risk losing their funds.

Cryptocurrency traders and investors in India are among the latest casualties in an increasing trend of personal account closures by global banking operations. 

India’s parliament is currently contemplating a nation-wide crypto ban which local industry critics, such as former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan have compared to “banning the internet for five years.”

The Economic Times reports that customers of private banks in India, such as HDFC, HSBC and Citi, have been receiving notices this year asking them to clarify crypto-related transactions, often requiring them to visit their local bank branch in person. If such clarification is not received, accounts are at risk of being suspended or seized. One letter to an affected customer states:

“To comply with the regulatory guidelines, banks are advised to exercise due diligence by closely examining the transactions carried out in the account on an ongoing basis to caution users, holders and traders of virtual currencies including Bitcoins regarding risks.”

In 2020, India’s Supreme Court reversed an order from the Reserve Bank of India in which banks were asked to discontinue provision of services to cryptocurrency traders.

India’s parliament is expected to enact a new bill that will further restrict the financial activities of traders, and prominent members of the Indian cryptocurrency community have spoken up against it. Sathvik Vishwanath, CEO of India-based exchange Unocoin, believes that a move in the opposite direction is needed to encourage growth of the fintech space in his country. “With crypto by her side,” he said, “the country can bank the massive unbanked population.”

Banks are also preemptively closing customer accounts deemed to be associated with funds moving in or out of cryptocurrency exchanges in a number of countries.

On Feb. 5, the Central Bank of Nigeria prohibited financial institutions operating in the country from “facilitating payments for cryptocurrency exchanges,” leading to the immediate closure of bank accounts associated with exchanges and the individuals behind them.

In the U.K., HSBC recently stopped accepting transfers from cryptocurrency exchanges altogether. Lloyds Bank, a British retail and commercial bank, has also been ramping up efforts to dissociate themselves with cryptocurrency traders, as experienced by podcaster Peter McCormack in a Feb. 22 tweet. However that may be a self inflicted wound.

A long-time Bitcoin investor based in the U.K., who wishes to remain anonymous, told Cointelegraph that major banks across Europe are increasingly distancing themselves from crypto traders. He said that new accounts are being turned away from banks on the basis of their involvement with crypto.

“I was looking to openly approach a new bank and be up front about it,” he says. “But I met a brick wall.” The investor claims to have put “six figure amounts” through HSBC “with no issues,” but that legacy accounts are being treated differently than newcomers.

“If you don't tell them and you're already in, it seems fine. But if you ask, it's a 'no'.”
https://ift.tt/37JcvcX

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Blockchain Software Firm Consensys Acquires Mycrypto Ethereum Wallet

On February 1, the blockchain infrastructure firm Consensys has revealed it has acquired the Ethereum-based wallet Mycrypto and plans to merge the wallet into Metamask. The price Consensys paid for Mycrypto was not disclosed but the announcement notes that the acquisition will “further improve the security of all the products.” Consensys Obtains Mycrypto Ethereum Wallet, Plans to Merge With Metamask in the Future Consensys has acquired the Ethereum-based wallet Mycrypto for an undisclosed sum according to an announcement released on Tuesday. The deal aims to strengthen the company’s Ethereum wallet Metamask and “enhance Web3 experiences.” The eventual merger between the two Ethereum interfaces will “provide users with a heightened experience that is even more extensive and secure,” according to Consensys. Consensys is an Ethereum software company led by one of the Ethereum co-founders Joseph Lubin. The Web3 wallet Metamask, with 21 million monthly active users (MAUs) is owned by C...

Earn up to 50% APY by Staking $GLQ on GraphLinq App

PRESS RELEASE. The newest utility token to offer staking to its users/holders is GraphLinq Protocol’s $GLQ. As of this article, $GLQ has 4,500+ holders according to etherscan, excluding GLQ holders on CEX like Kucoin, MXC, Gate. This is a great step for the future of the project as it will further incentivize more users to hold. Explore more about GraphLinq, its staking mechanism & steps to stake. What Is GraphLinq? GraphLinq – The No Code protocol for automating actions on-chain & off-chain, launched in just March 2021, has come a long way bringing users in the crypto space a never seen model of integrating blockchain automation on any blockchain-related/non-related task. The goal of the GraphLinq protocol is to allow users to interact blockchains with any connected system as effortlessly as possible without any prior knowledge of coding. GraphLinq ecosystem currently consists of an engine, an integrated development environment ( IDE ) & an app to provide automated...

The Congolese Mountain of Gold: Surprise Discovery in Africa Shows Metal’s Scarcity Is Hard to Prove

A myriad of gold bugs like to compliment the yellow precious metal for its ostensible scarcity, as estimates say only 2,500 to 3,000 tons of new gold is produced annually. While new gold discoveries have seemingly slowed, investigative studies also show that in some areas, gold is being smuggled into the economy by the ton, and often never accounted for as far as per annum issuance estimates. Recently, reports show a whole mountain of gold was discovered in the Congo, as the Democratic Republic of the Congo is well known for being a region that sees tons of smuggled gold filtered into the global financial system unreported. Surprise Gold Deposits Continue to Crack the Precious Metal’s Scarcity Proposition It has always been said that the precious metal gold (Au) is scarce, and some reports even say that gold mining on earth will end by the year 2050 . Additionally, estimates also show that there’s roughly 2,500 to 3,000 tons of new gold that is accounted for and enters into the fin...