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Showing posts from March 25, 2021

Nifty News: Sophia the Robot sells $1M worth, Cardano to clone NFT platforms, and more

Sophia the Robot has generated more than $1 million in NFT sales, Bhad Bhabie is dropping NFTs to help the “troubled teen industry”, Cardano trying to convince top NFT platforms to port over. If creative self-doubt and competition between humans in the art world weren’t already hard enough, artists now face the prospect of battling it out on Nifty Gateway with artistic robots . Sophia, the world-famous humanoid robot developed by Hong Kong-based Hanson Robotics, has generated more than $1 million in sales from her debut NFT drop on Nifty Gateway. The “Andrea Bonaceto and Sophia the Robot drop” was launched in collaboration with contemporary artist Andrea Bonaceto. The drop included tokenized portrait GIFs that morphed from artist Andre Bonaceto’s paintings into Sophia’s artworks. The portraits depicted figures involved in her development such as Hanson Robotics founder David Hanson and the AI researcher Ben Goertzel, along with self-portraits of Sophia. I connected into @Crypto88...

Australian government offers $6M in grants to innovative blockchain teams

The Australian government has made two grants of up to $3 million available to blockchain teams targeting minerals certification and excise taxation solutions. The Australian government has opened applications for grants up to $3 million each in funding to blockchain projects targeting supply chain tracking in the minerals industry and tax tracking in the food and beverage sector. Applications are open until April 29, with any sole trader, partnership, publicly-funded research organization, or entity incorporated in Australia that possesses an Australian Business Number eligible to apply. The money will be used to fund two distinct pilots. The Food and Beverage Provenance pilot hopes to support a team addressing the complexities associated with spirits producers complying with excise taxation. The Critical Minerals Pilot will support a project seeking to bolster supply chain integrity for the industry, and will also expect contributions to Australia’s National Ethical Certif...

Tidal to Launch Balancer LBP Following 500x Oversubscribed Polkastarter IDO

PRESS RELEASE. Tidal Finance, a high-yield insurance platform, offers the ability to hedge against the failure of a DeFi protocol or asset. While reinventing the way decentralized insurance works, Tidal Finance plans to attract participation from the community through a Balancer liquidity bootstrapping pool on 25th March . The Tidal IDO on Polkastarter was oversubscribed by 500 times garnering massive support from the community. Backed by KR1, Hypersphere Ventures, Spartan Capital, Kenetic Capital, QCP Capital and AU21 Capital, Tidal Finance integrates its decentralized smart cover solutions in various protocols to protect the nascent DeFi industry from malicious threats to fuel DeFi adoption. The Tidal platform allows users to cover multiple protocols at the same time with increased capital efficiency. It also offers competitive insurance premiums to its buyers, thus attracting increased participation from DeFi users. On a Mission to Reinvent the Way Decentralized Insurance Works ...

Jamaica Plans to Pilot a Central Bank Crypto, CBDC to Work Alongside Notes and Coinage

While a number of countries are working on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), on Tuesday, the Bank of Jamaica (BoJ) announced it will soon be piloting a CBDC project. The BoJ is working with a firm called Ecurrency Mint Incorporated and plans to pilot the cryptocurrency in May. Jamaican CBDC to Pilot this May Jamaica, the island country situated in the Caribbean Sea has plans to pilot a CBDC this May as it has been working with an “extensive procurement process.” The country’s central bank, the BoJ, has chosen a technology provider to help with the CBDC solution. The startup the bank found dubbed Ecurrency Mint Incorporated stems from the BoJ’s Fintech Regulatory Sandbox. “Ecurrency Mint will also be the provider when the national CBDC roll-out begins in early 2022,” the central bank’s announcement notes. The CBDC pilot will be tested thoroughly in May and all the way until the end of December 2021. According to the central bank’s notice, the CBDC will work alongside paper ...

Options traders target $80K by May, Skew suggests just 6% chance they're right

Options traders are betting big that BTC will be above $80,000 on April 30, but analytics provider Skew thinks there is a 94% chance their positions will be worthless. With Coinbase’s highly anticipated direct listing IPO expected to take place next month, options traders appear to be betting that Bitcoin will once again soar to new all-time highs in the coming weeks. On March 24, the founders of crypto analytics firm Glassnode tweeted data suggesting that options traders on peer-to-peer crypto derivatives exchange, Deribit, are loading up on contracts set to expire on April 30 with a strike price of $80,000 . Contracts worth a notional value of 4,000 BTC have been purchased targeting the price-point in total, more than any other strike-price by at least 50%. This Friday $6 billion in options contracts are set to expire. #Bitcoin price expectations for April are high with lots of investors placing their new bets on $80k. pic.twitter.com/xRipoAaD1F — Jan & Yann (@Negentropic...

China and Japan go full steam ahead with CBDC pilots

Asia’s largest economies are pushing forward with their respective CBDC trials, with six Chinese banks offering digital wallets and Japan establishing a new committee. China and Japan are pushing forward with their respective pilots for central bank-issued digital currencies, or CBDCs. On March 26, Bank of Japan announced it had established the Liaison and Coordination Committee on Central Bank Digital Currency to convene with both the private sector on the banks upcoming CBDC proof-of-concept, or PoC, stating: “The Bank, through this committee, will share details of, and provide updates on the PoC with the private sector and the government and will seek consultation on future steps to facilitate smooth implementation of the PoC.” The announcement also noted the bank has been preparing to conduct a pilot CBDC since October 2020, and will formally commence Phase 1 of its CBDC pilot next month. On March 23, Chinese state media outlet Sina reported that six major government-owne...

99.98% less power: Lighthouse’s first Ethereum and Eth2 merge transaction

It is one of the first steps towards Phase 1.5 that will ‘dock’ Eth1 with Eth2. Blockchain security provider Sigma Prime has announced its first merge transaction between the two Ethereum networks. The transaction was made by its Lighthouse client using only Proof of Stake validators, it stated in a March 25 tweet . It added that this was a step towards a 99.98% drop in Ethereum energy consumption, deriving that figure from calculations that compare the current Proof of Work Eth1 with the much more efficient Proof of Stake Eth2. Sigma Prime stated that it is an exciting achievement but still far from production as it is still a prototype with much more work to do, adding: “Primarily, you should take this is a signal that Eth1 and Eth2 developers are actively working together on the merge.” This is not the first time such a feat has been managed, with Sigma Prime pointing out that in August last year the Teku Ethereum client had also demoed a prototype capable of performing any...

Bitcoiners love dogs, gold bugs prefer cats — Important new research

Research has revealed crypto investors are more likely to be ‘dog people' while gold investors are more likely to be ‘cat people’. New research from US crypto exchange Xcoins suggests gold investors are pretty evenly split between men and women, but men dominate the ranks of crypto investors by a significant margin. The data also revealed that “gold investors are more likely to own a cat than cryptocurrency holders (45% to 38%), while cryptocurrency holders tend to be ‘dog people’ (43% to 38%).” Xcoins ’ research used Global Web Index data between 2017 and 2020, to find the differences between gold and crypto owners. The research found that there is a significant disparity between women's views on gold as an investment as opposed to crypto. Around 46.7% of gold investors are women and 53.5% are men, while among crypto investors, 71.9% are men and just 28.1% are women. The crypto gender gap is nothing new and it is widely believed the crypto and blockchain sectors are mal...

Major South Korean Bank BNK Busan Plans to Offer Banking Services to Domestic Crypto Exchanges

The South Korean crypto frenzy among the banking industry remains on fire, as another major bank is treading waters to offer banking services for crypto exchanges. The BNK Busan Bank launched a program that consists of visiting competitors’ banks that already offer it. BNK Busan Is Visting Its Competitors to Conduct the Research According to the Busan.com news outlet , the bank researches how these financial institutions deal with the crypto exchanges amid the forthcoming regulation. As the banks provide fiat services to the crypto businesses, the legislation set to promulgate on Friday will force them to use the Information Security Management System (ISMS) certification. That’s the reason why the Digital Strategy Department and the Money Laundering Prevention Department of BNK Busan Bank are making an in-depth investigation on how such a system works and then offering it in the future. Domestic crypto exchanges will be required to gather real names and social security numbers f...

Avanti Financial raises $37 million to launch institutional crypto bank

The digital asset bank will be aimed at institutional investors only, and there is no exchange planned. The Avanti Financial Group has announced that it has raised $37 million in a Series A round, bringing the company closer to launch as a digital asset bank. In a March 25 announcement , Avanti stated that it will use the proceeds to fund the required regulatory capital needed for launch, in addition to funding development and other operating expenses. The round brings the total amount raised to $44 million. Participants in the round are a who’s who of institutional investors including Coinbase Ventures, Binance.US, Morgan Creek Digital, Madison Paige Ventures, AP Capital, and Susquehanna Private Equity Investments, in addition to individuals including Trace Mayer and some of Avanti’s executives and directors. The University of Wyoming Foundation also contributed to the funding round. Avanti was founded in 2020 as a Wyoming bank engineered to serve as a regulatory compliant bridge...

SEC’s ‘Crypto Mom’ warns selling fractionalized NFTs could break the law

Fractionalized NFTs and baskets of non-fungible tokens could easily be considered investment contracts under U.S. securities law, warns SEC Commissioner, Hester Peirce. Speaking at Draper Goren Holm’s Security Token Summit on March 25, SEC commissioner Hester Peirce, also known as “Crypto Mom” warned the issuers of fractionalized non-fungible tokens and NFT index baskets that they could inadvertently be distributing investment products. While Peirce stated that “the whole concept of an NFT is supposed to be non-fungible” — meaning that “in general, it’s less likely to be a security” — she noted that “people are being very creative in the type of NFTs they are putting out there.” Peirce urged NFT issuers to be cautious if they decide to “sell fractional interests” in NFTs or NFT baskets, stating: “You better be careful that you’re not creating something that’s an investment product — that is a security.” With NFTs fetching increasingly exorbitant prices , fractionalized interests...

Domestic and Foreign Buyers Acquired a ‘Tokenized’ Apartment in a Spanish City by Paying With Ethereum

National and foreign buyers acquired a “tokenized” apartment in Spain with ethereum, which involved a domestic crypto exchange and a real estate investment firm. The city of Sevilla was the scenario for the crypto deal between the parties. Transaction Was Worth Over $64,000 According to El Correo Web , the Spanish crypto exchange Criptan and the investment firm Rental IT arranged the transaction of the property, tokenized by the real estate company. The media outlet specified the tokenization — split into several tokens and digitalized through a blockchain — was done to target 32 investors from Spain, Argentina, and Mexico. With the acquisition, the buyers that disbursed their funds paying with ethereum ( ETH ) participated in the investment starting from 100 euros ($117). Afterward, Rental IT exchanged the cryptos into fiat (euros) and then purchased the property from the owner. The transaction was reportedly worth 54,773 euros ($64,430), said El Correo Web. Jorge Soriano, the co...

$51K Bitcoin price not a problem as ‘structurally, nothing has changed’

On-chain data points toward a bullish future for Bitcoin despite today’s sell-off to $50,400. On March 25, concerns surrounding the record-breaking $6.1 billion ( BTC ) options expiry t his Friday sparked an overnight sell-off that dropped Bitcoin price to $50,400. The downturn was not a surprise for many traders and some called for a possible test of the $47,000 support level. Despite Bitcoin's loss of bullish momentum, several derivatives indicators, including a bullish futures premium and a neutral skew , suggest that the price may not drop below $50,000. BTC/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView While technical indicators paint a mixed picture of Bitcoin's short-term price action, the asset retains strong fundamentals today media reported that sovereign wealth funds have begun inquiring about opening positions in BTC. This points to growing global adoption for BTC and the cryptocurrency sector as a whole as new Ether ( ETH ) trusts are also being established to ...

Nifty News: Italian copyright agency mints 4M NFTs, breast cancer LINK found, and more

Algorand helps secure almost 100,000 authors' copyrights, NFTs raise breast cancer awareness, the New York Times gets in on the action, and more. Italian copyright collecting agency Società Italiana degli Autori ed Editori, SIAE, has minted more than four million NFTs on the Algorand blockchain to digitally represent the rights of more than 95,000 authors. The partnership between SIAE and Algorand started in 2019, with SIAE aiming to digitize its entire copyright database to help decentralize the management of the metadata. NFTs will eventually provide copyright owners such as authors and publishers with royalty streams to their work. The tokenization of the articles and published works will allow the system “to transfer management directly to rights holders, who will then be able to manage directly the metadata relating to their rights,” said general manager of SIAE Gaetano Blandini “Blockchain technology is definitely an interesting strand to continue exploring because of i...

Double jump.tokyo signs up to layer-two scaling solution for NFTs

The alpha release will launch this month for Gods Unchained, opening up to double jump.tokyo and several other developers. Double jump.tokyo, the developer of popular blockchain game My Crypto Heroes, announced on March 25 that it will use the Immutable X platform to mint and trade nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, across all its games. Immutable X is a layer-two solution for the Ethereum blockchain, created by Immutable — the team behind the Gods Unchained trading card game. It aims to promote NFT adoption by reducing gas fees and allowing for more dynamic game mechanics. The alpha release will launch this month for Gods Unchained, opening up to double jump.tokyo and several other developers, including SuperfarmDAO, Illuvium and Mintable, shortly thereafter. The platform touts several benefits designed especially for the NFT market, including instant trading confirmations, capacity for over 9,000 transactions per second and zero gas fees. It does this using a system of batched zero-k...

India's government orders companies to disclose crypto holdings

Recent amendments to India’s Companies Act will see firms in the country include their crypto involvement in all public financial reporting. While the legal status of cryptocurrencies remains undecided in India, companies in the country involved in virtual assets must now report their activities as part of their financial statements. The new rule follows amendments made by the country’s Ministry of Corporate Affairs to Schedule III of the 2013 Companies Act. According to the document published on Wednesday, Indian firms both public and private that have invested or traded in crypto during the financial year must disclose their profits or losses. Other crypto-related disclosures include the amount of cryptocurrency held by the company as of the reporting date as well as additional advance deposits made by customers for the purpose of cryptocurrency investment or trading. The amendments to the Companies Act of 2013 will come into effect at the start of April. Companies having to ...

The last dip is the deepest as wife leaves husband for buying more Bitcoin

Whoever said love cuts across all boundaries said it before Bitcoin was invented. The pressure of trying to sell Bitcoin ( BTC ) at a price top is proving too much for some couples. A Reddit post revealed that a man’s wife left him after he refused to sell his Bitcoin holdings when the price hit $60,000, and instead loaded up on more BTC during the recent dip. In a post titled “My wife is leaving because Bitcoin,” user u/Parking_Meater said his wife packed her bags and went to live with her sister after she caught him converting more cash into Bitcoin. The Reddit user wrote: “She just left to go stay at her sisters. She super mad that I didn't sell at 60k and looks at the price often scolding me. I keep telling her we don't need the money and have the cash. We live nice. However today she caught me buying the dip and was so pissed she almost hit me! Now she packed bags and went to her sisters to stay.” The trading accumen of the poster’s wife is unknown, however her inst...

European Central Bank tries to quell Germans' doubts about digital euro

A future digital euro wouldn't be a threat to savers, say officials from the European Central Bank. The European Central Bank, or ECB, has been investigating the possibility of launching a digital euro project within five years to complement existing central bank money. But whereas high-profile leaders such as ECB president Christine Lagarde have been largely positive about the prospect , officials from Germany's Bundesbank have remained unconvinced . In a new op-ed for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, ECB board member Fabio Panetta and fellow official Ulrich Bindseil attempted to tackle some of the Germans' misgivings head on: “The ECB is by no means planning to use a digital euro to enforce interest rates that are significantly more negative. As long as there is cash, it will always be able to be held at an interest rate of zero percent.” Panetta and Bindseil's comments picked up directly on the Bundesbank's previous suggestions that a digital euro could...

Blockchain-friendly Wyoming challenges Delaware's biz incorporation dominance

One business and law professor has argued that Wyoming’s liberal blockchain law could help the state compete with Delaware in the business incorporation arena. Amid the patchwork of state and federal regulations for crypto and blockchain firms, Wyoming seems to have established itself as a more progressive jurisdiction for companies involved in the novel technology. For Pierluigi Matera, professor of comparative law at the Link Campus University of Rome, these liberal blockchain laws could see the state chip away at Delaware’s preeminence in business incorporation in the United States. In a paper published on Thursday, Professor Matera argued that Wyoming’s targeted blockchain-friendly approach could pose a significant challenge to Delaware’s dominance. According to statistics from the Delaware government portal, 67.8% of all Fortune 500 companies are incorporated in the state with 1.5 million legal entities electing to be registered in the state. In the absence of federal inco...

Bitcoin falls to two-week lows as $6 billion in options set to expire — What’s next?

Bitcoin has fallen through its recent support at $53,000 as volatility picks up before a record options expiry event. Bitcoin’s ( BTC ) price has been in retreat, down 20% since the recent all-time high at $62,000 in mid-March. As crypto markets are frequently volatile, this may very well be another normal pullback within the current bull cycle. Corrections are needed to generate strength for further upward momentum as markets can’t go up in a straight line. Additionally, a record $6 billion expiration of options is expected on March 26, which often brings some volatility. It is also quite common for the market's momentum to shift momentum once the options expiration date comes and goes. $53K level has to become support to gain bullish momentum BTC/USD 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView The 4-hour chart shows an apparent downtrend since the recent all-time high at $62,000 with bearish support/resistance flips. Regardless, Bitcoin’s price has rejected the cri...

Finance Redefined: Uniswap V3 is here, but was it worth the wait? March 17–24

An in-depth review of the most anticipated release in DeFi. Finance Redefined is Cointelegraph's weekly DeFi-centric newsletter, delivered to subscribers every Wednesday. Uniswap V3 was publicly announced yesterday and I didn’t really get a chance to write about it, so I wanted to dedicate this newsletter to a review of V3 and the AMM space in general. My initial reaction to Uniswap V3 in one, brutally honest word, was “meh.” But it got better when I read further into it, so let’s unpack what’s happening here. Uniswap V3 is a solid upgrade and it’s clear that a lot of work went into it. But it under-delivers compared to the hyped up picture most of us had of the new Uniswap. People expected Hayden Adams to silence everyone and roll-out this amazing impermanent loss-protected and super efficient AMM that would leave Uniswap towering over everyone else. Instead, V3 actually worsens impermanent loss, depending on your personal position and market movement. The key innovation ...

Bitcoin Cash hits new lows vs. Bitcoin after Tesla snubs 'fork products'

The car maker subsequently deletes a warning not to send Bitcoin Cash or Bitcoin SV as payment for orders, but for BCH/BTC, the damage was done. Controversial Bitcoin ( BTC ) spin-off Bitcoin Cash ( BCH ) has hit new all-time lows against its parent after Tesla publicly rejected using it for payments. In a series of tweets on March 24, CEO and "Technoking" Elon Musk confirmed that U.S. customers could now buy a Tesla using BTC — but his company shunned "fork products" such as BCH. Tesla: Don't send us anything but BTC Bitcoin Cash spun off from the Bitcoin blockchain in August 2017 and has since remained a controversial entity within cryptocurrency. Proponents claim supremacy over Bitcoin thanks to BCH fees being far lower while transactions also tend to take less time to clear and require fewer resources. The narrative has taken various forms over the years, with advocacy ranging from passive to belligerent as BCH/BTC continues to plug new lows. On Wed...