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Showing posts from March 31, 2021

Nifty News: Weeknd NFT collection, arm space ads, Takashi Murakami joins revolution

The Weeknd to drop NFTs on the weekend, a tennis player sold space on her arm as an NFT, Takashi Murakami has released 108 NFT flowers. Musician Adel Tesfaye, better known as The Weeknd, is set to release his first NFT via Nifty Gateway on Saturday. He follows in the footsteps of other musicians such as Kings of Leon , Grimes, Rico Nasty, and Ja Rule who recognize the ability of NFTs to put the power (and the dollars) back in the hands of artists. Excited to announce that my first NFT drop is taking place on Saturday at 2:00 pm EST on @niftygateway . The collection will feature new music and limited edition art. I developed the artwork with Strange Loop Studios pic.twitter.com/627BO4JekK — The Weeknd (@theweeknd) March 31, 2021 The drop will consist of a one-of-a-kind token featuring the audio track to a song which will not be made available on any other platforms, and two limited edition artworks developed in collaboration with Strange Loop Studios. The tokenized song will be a...

South Korea to launch blockchain-based vaccine passports

The Prime Minister of South Korea has announced a blockchain-based vaccine certificate will launch later this month, but the concept has proven controversial across the world. South Korea will introduce blockchain-powered vaccine passports via a smartphone app later this month, the country's prime minister said Thursday. South Korea is joining a number of other nations in introducing vaccine certificates that enable cross-border travel while mitigating the risk of infections. Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun suggested there could be substantial benefits for citizens at home too: “The introduction of a vaccine passport or ‘Green Pass’ will only allow those who have been vaccinated to experience the recovery to their daily lives,” he said during a daily inter-agency pandemic response meeting. The government developed the app using blockchain technology as a way to provide security against the possibility of identity theft. "[Systems] in other countries also do not store per...

Hot DOGE nips at the heels of r/Bitcoin on Reddit

R/Dogecoin was the third-most active crypto group on Reddit behind r/CryptoCurrency and r/Bitcoin this week. Despite Dogecoin under-performing this past week when compared to other leading crypto assets, DOGE’s community has been among the most active on Reddit. According to data compiled by Skew and tweeted by Messari researcher Mira Christanto, r/dogecoin has been the third-most active crypto group on Reddit this week, with 33,822 new comments posted in seven days. Friendly reminder for Redditers: r/Bitcoin is $BTC while r/btc is $BCH pic.twitter.com/skFwhFM2y0 — Mira Christanto (@asiahodl) March 31, 2021 Dogecoin is the second-most active group coalescing around a single crypto asset, ranking behind r/Bitcoin’s 48,757 comments last week. Unsurprisingly, the wide-ranging r/CryptoCurrency attracted the most engagement of any crypto group on Reddit, with nearly 219,000 comments posted this past week. After DOGE, Cardano was the next-most active with 15,735 comments, followe...

The $1,000,000 Aladdin Exchange Event Is Online

PRESS RELEASE. The most awaited Aladdin Exchange $1,000,000 event is finally live. The giveaway event is open to the public. People can register on the exchange’s official platform and win prizes. The Aladdin Exchange team announced that the event starts on March 29, 2021, and ends on April 27, 2021. With more than 2 million people already registered, Aladdin Exchange keeps doors open for those who want to register and participate in the simulated trading event . To successfully register and be eligible, users must complete the verification process. Users need to verify the SMS and Aladdin Pro Wallet verification (Level 3) in order to compete and win big rewards. After the registration process, users will get coins to participate in the simulation trading competition. Users who make more profit during the giveaway will be entitled to prizes. 316,752 participants will get the chance to win up to 1,000,000 USD. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place holders will win $100,000, $50,000, and $1...

Spain Is ‘Close’ to Regulating Crypto-Related Ads in the Streets, Says CNMV President

Spanish financial authorities don’t seem to be happy with the massive crypto-related advertising campaigns deployed across Madrid’s streets. The National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) is rushing to approve a regulation on such ads that promote bitcoin in Spain. Proposal Comes in the Wake of a Bitcoin Advertising Campaign Ran by a Local Exchange During a speech at the “Observatory of Finance” conference hosted by El Español, Rodrigo Buenaventura, CNMV president, was vocal on his stance against these ads, considering them “risky.” He referred to all crypto-related advertising, rather than just only promoting bitcoin ( BTC ). Although, he didn’t mention specifically the reasons behind the sudden interest in regulating crypto advertising on streets, it came just after a local crypto exchange, Bit2me, deployed a massive campaign promoting bitcoin in Madrid. In fact, the firm put over 800 posters across the Spanish capital city, and some of them very close to the CNMV headquarte...

Oakland Athletics MLB team has sold a suite season ticket for Bitcoin for the first time

The A’s become the first team in Major League Baseball to sell tickets for cryptocurrency. Major League Baseball team Oakland Athletics has sold their first crypto-purchased season ticket less than three weeks after first offering them. The Oakland A’s, as they’re colloquially called, introduced an offer on March 15 enabling fans to purchase suite tickets with Bitcoin. On Wednesday, March 31, the San Francisco East Bay ballclub announced that the buyer was New York-based publicly traded crypto asset platform Voyager Digital Ltd. The fintech firm purchased a six-person suite for all of the team’s 2021 home games for the price of one Bitcoin, or approximately $58,500 on the day. It’s happening: #Bitcoin in baseball. @investvoyager (publicly-traded, licensed crypto-asset platform) has purchased full season suite at #Oakland Coliseum. 1st ticket deal in cryptocurrency in #MLB . @Athletics @Ehrls15 — Raj Mathai (@rajmathai) March 31, 2021 Six-person private suites for individu...

Riot Blockchain’s hashing capacity grew 460% in 2020: Report

Riot Blockchain has published its 2020 financials and revealed it has increased its hashrate by 460%. According to its latest annual financial report, leading U.S.-based mining firm Riot Blockchain increased its hashing capacity by 460% and more than doubled the amount of Bitcoin held on its balance sheet in 2020. Riot saw a 78% growth in total mining revenues from $6.7 million to $12 million, owing to the increase in operational hash rate from 101 pentahashes per second, or PH/s, as of December 2019 to 566 PH/s as of December 31. While the company said it achieved profitability in the fourth quarter with $3.9 million in net income on a GAAP basis, Riot posted an overall net loss of $12.7 million for 2020. However, this was an improvement over its 2019 performance, when it posted a net loss of roughly $20 million. The company increased its cash and cryptocurrency holdings from $11.3 million in 2019 to $235 million last year, and doubled its Bitcoin holdings from 514 BTC to 1078 ...

Bitcoin closes six monthly green candles for the first time since 2013

Bitcoin's last six monthly candles have closed green, tying its previous record streak for bullish monthly candles. Bitcoin has just closed six consecutive monthly green candles for the first time since April 2013. Should history repeat, Bitcoin may enjoy further parabolic gains this year. In April 2013, Bitcoin closed at roughly $140 after posting six green monthly candles. While the markets would retrace to less than $100 over the next two months, Bitcoin would then surge 700% over the following six months and tag prices above $1,000 for the first time. BTC/USD since 2012, 1m candles: Trading View Bitcoin posted a similar pattern in the lead up to its parabolic bull run in 2017, with the markets posting five consecutive green monthly candles heading into September. While September saw BTC post range-bound consolidation, Bitcoin surged into new all-time highs in October to rallied from $5,000 to almost $20,000 by the end of the year. According to Bloomberg strategist, Mike...

With US Tax Season Around the Corner, Here’s How to Report Crypto Activity to the IRS

The key to properly filing taxes on cryptocurrency comes down to excellent record-keeping, the correct IRS tax forms, and knowledge about what qualifies as income versus capital gains. Handle Tax Filings With Care to Avoid Any Audits Although the traditional April 15th deadline for filing US taxes has been pushed to May 17th, there is no time like the present for organizing cryptocurrency transaction records. At this point, all cryptocurrency transactions are taxable in some constellation, so it’s vital to familiarize yourself with the nuances to ensure you fill in the accompanying tax forms correctly. To give you the inside scoop on streamlining your filings, Bitcoin.com has enlisted advice from Shane Brunette, the CEO of Cryptotaxcalculator . How Capital Gains In Crypto Work Like a stock sale can result in a positive return, resulting in capital gains tax exposure, cryptocurrencies operate similarly. However, exchanging cryptocurrency for fiat currency is only one type of taxa...

Bakkt launches payments app as institutions compete for crypto assets

Bakkt believes its new crypto payments app will unlock more than $1 trillion worth of digital assets for commerce. Major financial institutions are expanding their cryptocurrency services, with Bakkt launching its digital asset payments application for the general public. Bakkt was launched by Intercontinental Exchange in 2018, with the firm offering Bitcoin futures contracts to accredited investors exclusively. The Bakkt App is the firm’s first retail-facing crypto initiative. Bakkt’s app was trialed by 500,000 users invited to participate in its Early Access Program in late 2020. The firm is also conducting a $1 million giveaway to encourage people to download the platform. Launched on March 30, the payments app allows users to manage Bitcoin and other digital assets, including loyalty points and vouchers, to make purchases. More than 75 major brands are offering discounted gift cards to purchasers who use the Bakkt app, including Choice Hotels, GolfNow, and Best Buy. Users ca...

BNY Mellon Report Compares Bitcoin and Gold, Study Says ‘Gold Is the Only Globally Accepted Currency’

The popular safe-haven asset gold recently posted the lowest settlement in three weeks, as a firm dollar and bond market yields have weakened support for the precious metal. The financial goliath BNY Mellon also published a report about the differences between gold and bitcoin and the study said that the crypto asset “fits the description of a nascent currency.” A Firm Dollar and Treasury Yields Takes Some Steam Out of Gold’s Market Performance The U.S. dollar has gained some strength in the last two weeks, and crypto-assets like bitcoin (BTC) have increased in value as well. However, the precious metal (PM) gold has seen better days, as gold prices have retreated during the last few weeks. The price of gold dropped under the $1,700 per ounce range last week but today, the PM has managed to climb back above the psychological price zone. At the time of publication, an ounce of .999 fine gold is trading for $1,716.30 after jumping 1.7% in the last 24 hours. Today’s gold and silv...

Yearn Finance reveals ‘Coordinape’ decentralized grant distribution platform

A new system that functions primarily at the social layer will soon be managing Yearn's grant program Yield vault protocol Yearn Finance has revealed today the details of “Coordinape,” a new platform for distributing the $40,000-per-month Yearn DAO community grants budget — just one initiative in a wider effort to further decentralize Yearn’s governance. Yearn founder Andre Cronje — who said in an interview with Cointelegraph that he no longer takes part in Yearn’s “day to day” development — revealed the program in a blog post this morning. Each Coordinape member will have a set quantity of “allocation points” which they can distribute to other members who they worked with during a given month. Members with the most interactions and allocations will receive weighted portions of the grants budget. While there are other tools for programmatically distributing rewards, such as Colony, a recently re-released DAO platform, core Yearn operations member Tracheopteryx said that a i...

Hong Kong Security Crackdown Leads to Record Capital Outflows— Residents Reportedly Used Cryptocurrencies to Move Funds

The Canadian anti-money laundering agency, Fintrac, says it recorded official capital inflows originating from Hong Kong that totaled more than $34 billion in the past year. The outflows, which are the highest since 2012 when the earliest Fintrac records are available, “are the first evidence of a significant flight of capital overseas from the Asian financial hub following the security turmoil.” Accounts Frozen As detailed by one report , the city’s record capital transfers, which are “up 46 per cent from 2016 and 10 percent from 2019, came in a year when Hong Kong police froze the accounts of several people linked to pro-democracy protests.” This freezing of bank accounts, in turn, triggered “concerns among some residents about asset safety.” Meanwhile, Darren Gibb, a spokesman for Fintrac suggests that some of the fleeing Hong Kong residents could be using cryptocurrencies to move funds ashore. He said: The Fintrac data captures only a fraction of total legal inflows into the ...

Goldman Sachs readying Bitcoin product for clients — BTC bounces above $58K

Cryptoassets will be available to Goldman investors at some point in Q2, comments from an incoming senior executive quoted by CNBC suggest. Bitcoin ( BTC ) and some altcoins will soon be available to Goldman Sachs clients, according to a new mainstream media report. Released by CNBC on March 31, comments from an interview with Mary Rich, global head of digital assets for the bank's private wealth management division, confirm plans to offer cryptoassets to investors. Goldman exec: Crypto access coming in "near term" The move will make Goldman the second major lender to open up the world of cryptocurrency to its clients, and comes weeks after a pioneering move by Morgan Stanley. ″We are working closely with teams across the firm to explore ways to offer thoughtful and appropriate access to the ecosystem for private wealth clients, and that is something we expect to offer in the near-term,” CNBC quoted Rich as saying. Morgan Stanley's rollout is due to launch i...

The Ethereum Improvement Proposal 1559: Is the squeeze worth the juice?

What the planned EIP-1559 could mean for Ethereum, DeFi and miners. The Ethereum Improvement Proposal 1559, set to be bundled together with the “London” upgrade in July, has caused as much excitement as fear and panic . On the surface, EIP-1559 is nothing more than a change in Ethereum’s gas fee structure. And to spice it up, it has also been labeled as Ethereum’s scarcity engine, or burn mechanism, as it will destroy Ether ( ETH ) used in transaction fees, making the cryptocurrency deflationary, and perhaps more valuable down the line. Related: Ethereum at a crossroads: Ether community turmoil over miner reward fees Curbing Ether’s inflation will make the digital asset as deflationary as Bitcoin ( BTC ), meaning that its buying power will only increase over time. However, the relevance of the EIP-1559 proposal is based on fixing the runaway gas fees. The upgrade has been in the works for some time, but its timing couldn’t have come at a better time. Ethereum’s sky-high tran...

UK crypto firms must now submit yearly financial crimes reports

Financial crimes reporting obligations are irrespective of a crypto firm’s total annual revenue. The United Kingdom's Financial Conduct Authority has included cryptoasset businesses under the financial crimes reporting umbrella eight months after initially announcing plans to do so. The FCA made this known via a policy statement issued on its website on Wednesday. This move comes as the country’s financial regulator has increased the number of firms required to submit annual financial crime report known as “REP-CRIM” from 2,500 to about 7,000. According to the policy statement, the FCA declared that compliance with REP-CRIM reporting was a necessary tool to enable regulators to combat money laundering activities. In its 2020/2021 business plan, the FCA stated : “We will strengthen our rules to prevent money laundering, as well as working with domestic and international stakeholders to support a joined-up approach to cryptoassets.” During the initial announcement of the plan ...

Crypto M&A Deals Set a New Record in 2020, Surging to $1.1 Billion

The cryptocurrency bull run has been the most notorious headline highlighted in the last few months, but more figures are being watched beyond bitcoin prices. A new report released by Pricewaterhousecoopers (PWC) revealed that crypto merger and acquisition (M&A) deals skyrocketed in 2020. 2021 Is on Track to Surpass Last Year’s Numbers, PWC Says Quoted by Bloomberg , the consulting firm pointed out that the crypto M&A sector more than doubled last year to $1.1 billion from 2019 figures. Geographically speaking, the United States is still taking the lead by itself, as deals taking place in the region accounted near $785 million. Still, Europe and Asia together, as EMEA region, generated $303 million in crypto M&A deals, said PWC. Henri Arslanian, global crypto leader of PWC, highlighted the fact that 2020 numbers posse a record for the sector. However, he added that 2021 is on track “to significantly surpass it from every single metric.” The study says that findings su...

Digital euro could take four years, says ECB president Christine Lagarde

The ECB will decide whether to proceed with digital euro pilots by mid-2021, Lagarde said. It could be a while before European Union gets a central bank digital currency, if it gets one at all. In a Wednesday interview with Bloomberg Television, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde laid out the complex decision-making process with which the bank will determine the future of a digital euro. The ECB will soon release its analysis of eight thousand responses received from its digital euro consultation process. “That will be communicated to the European Parliament which is one of the key players as well as the Commission and the Council with which we operate,” she stated. Based on that consultation, alongside the parliamentary work, the ECB’s Governing Council will decide whether the institution will begin experimenting with a CBDC by mid-2021. Following an initial experimentation phase, the council would then hold a six-month or a one-year assessment on whethe...

China's blockchain project BSN to integrate R3 Corda

Chinese banks will soon have access to a permissioned version of the Corda Enterprise infrastructure via the country's Blockchain Service Network. Red Date Technology, one of the builders of China’s Blockchain-based Service Network, has obtained licensing rights from R3 to resell both the free and enterprise Corda implementations in China. According to a press release by R3, the news marks the first occasion of the BSN developer being able to resell enterprise blockchain technology from an overseas company. Since the R3 deal is with BSN China, developers will create a permissioned version of Corda to comply with Chinese blockchain regulations. Also, with banks reportedly being one of the likely users of the network, the country’s UnionPay cloud infrastructure will play host to BSN Corda notaries. The partnership also offers an entry point for R3 into the Chinese market following the company’s significant expansion across Asia. Commenting on the importance of integrating an e...

iPhone user blames Apple for $600K Bitcoin theft via fake app

Apple removed the fake Trezor app several times, but it kept appearing on the App Store days later. A scam cryptocurrency app on Apple’s app distribution service App Store has reportedly stolen $600,000 Bitcoin ( BTC ) from one iOS user. Cryptocurrency holder Phillipe Christodoulou fell victim to a scam app on the App Store, losing nearly all his life savings to a fake crypto wallet application, The Washington Post reports Tuesday. Christodoulou went on the App Store last month to search for a mobile Trezor app to check his Bitcoin balance via phone. Unaware that Trezor does not currently provide an iOS app, Christodoulou downloaded a doppelgänger Trezor application that boasted close to five stars, giving the impression that it was indeed an official app. After entering his seed phrase, Christodoulou said that his savings of 17.1 BTC were stolen. Christodoulou said that Apple, which collects 15% to 30% commissions on sales, should be held responsible for this situation. “Th...