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Showing posts from April 1, 2021

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...

IRS authorized to access information on Circle's crypto traders to nab tax cheats

The Internal Revenue Services will seek information from Circle on all U.S. taxpayers who traded at least $20,000 worth of crypto between 2016 and 2020. A U.S. federal court has granted authorization to the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS, to serve a John Doe summons to fintech firm Circle seeking all information on U.S. taxpayers who traded at least $20,000 worth of crypto assets on its platforms between 2016 and 2020. The summons will apply to Circle Internet Financial Inc. including all “predecessors, subsidiaries, divisions, and affiliates, including Poloniex LLC.” According to the Department of Justice’s announcement , Judge Richard Stearns concluded there is “reasonable basis for believing that cryptocurrency users may have failed to comply with federal tax laws.” The document also notes the IRS “does not allege that Circle has engaged in any wrongdoing in connection with its digital currency exchange business,” adding: “The summons seeks information related to the IRS’s ‘...

Bitcoin Cash antitrust suit dismissed with prejudice

A Judge has nixed a lawsuit alleging Roger Ver and Jesse Powell and several other crypto figures engaged in market manipulation. The founder of Bitcoin.com Roger Ver, and other high profile crypto figures including Kraken CEO Jesse Powell , have won a motion to dismiss an antitrust suit filed against them alleging market manipulation. The amended complaint was filed by crypto company United American Corp in March 2020 against Ver, Powell, Bitmain Technologies and its CEO Jihan Wu, along with Bitcoin Cash developers Shammah Chancellor and Jason Cox. The case has now been dismissed with prejudice due to a lack of evidence. The emphatic decision came after the district court threw out the initial complaint without prejudice in February 2020. UAC’s initial complaint from December 2018 accuse d Ver, Wu, and Bitmain of colluding to manipulate the outcome of a Bitcoin Cash network upgrade scheduled for Nov. 15, 2018, when Bitcoin SV forked away from Bitcoin Cash. The original complain...

Irish Police Investigate Massive Bitcoin Scam That Allegedly Stole Millions From High-Net-Worth Individuals

Irish police are on high alert due to the rising number of cases related to a bitcoin-related scam targeting high-net-worth people in the country. The situation has become worrisome because suspicious high-value transactions have already been noticed by authorities. Authorities Already Searched One Property Tied to One of the Suspects According to The Irish Times , Gardaí (Ireland’s police) investigates what they consider a major crypto scam whose criminals could be residing in the country. A local bank already raised concerns about a suspicious transaction of 500,000 euros ($586,500) from a dormant account. After inquiries conducted by Gardaí on the older customer who wanted to invest such an amount of money into what he believed was a legit crypto business opportunity, he accepted the police’s advice to not send the fiat money. But per the media outlet, it seems other similar transactions took place before they acted to block the 500,000 euros move to the criminals’ wallet. In f...

Messari: New Coinbase listings really do outperform rival exchanges

In the five days after launching on Coinbase, new token listings gain 91% on average. But that doesn’t tell the whole story. Crypto analytics provider Messari has compiled a report concluding that the fabled “ Coinbase effect ” — the popular belief that new token listings on Coinbase tend to outperform launches on other exchanges — is true. But the effect is far from consistent, and after controlling for outliers, it’s not as great as many assume. Messari analyzed the performance of 28 new Coinbase listings over five days against 22 Binance listings, 19 FTX listings, 19 Gemini listings, 14 OKEx listings, and 11 Kraken listings over the same duration. While the research found that listings on Coinbase had the highest average return at 91%, the effect was far from consistent. The 28 tokens performed anywhere from a 32% loss to a 645% gain after five days. By contrast, new tokens on other exchanges ranged from a roughly 25% loss to a 60% gain with the next best average gain overall ...

Former SEC chair Jay Clayton tips new Bitcoin regulations are coming

The former SEC chairman warns that regulation will come both directly and indirectly. Former US Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Jay Clayton has stated that Bitcoin has not been classified as a security for a long time. But speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box on March 31, Clayton warned that its status as a non-security still does not protect it from the imposition of new regulations which, he warned, could be coming soon. "Where digital assets land at the end of the day--will be driven in part by regulation both domestic and international, and I expect that regulation will come in this area both directly and indirectly," says Former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton on #bitcoin . pic.twitter.com/voWcgCFqOH — Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) April 1, 2021 Host Andrew Ross Sorkin pointed out that under Clayton’s watch the SEC did not take a position on Bitcoin regulation. Clayton responded that was because the asset was declared not to be a security before he even took up his positio...

The Power of ETH and BCH: Smart Bitcoin Cash Project Highlights Innovative Sidechain

On Thursday, Bitcoin Cash proponents were introduced to a new website that features a project called Smart Bitcoin Cash or Smartbch for short. Essentially, the project is a sidechain for Bitcoin Cash that is compatible with Ethereum’s EVM and Web3 API, which means people will soon be able to leverage decentralized applications (dapps) without paying lots of money for transaction fees. Bitcoin Cash Fans Introduced to a Unique Ethereum and Web3-Compatible Sidechain At the time of writing, Ethereum is the dominant chain when it comes to Web3 applications and decentralized finance. However, ethereum (ETH) fees to interact with a Web3 compatible dapp or some type of smart contract can be very expensive these days. The Smartbch project aims to change all that and the creators plan to make throughput as large as one billion gas every 15 seconds. The new website called smartbch.org says the sidechain will essentially maximize throughput of EVM and Web3 tools. The website gives a person...

Canada's Purpose Bitcoin ETF may be cutting into Grayscale's market share

Following the launch of Canada’s first Bitcoin ETF, shares in Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust have spent an entire month trading at a discount compared to spot BTC for the first time. For the first time, shares in Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust traded at a discount compared to spot BTC for an entire month. Rafael Schultze-Kraft, the CTO of on-chain analytics provider Glassnode, shared the observation to Twitter on April 1, noting shares in the institutional fund manager’s Bitcoin Trust had traded at a notional discount of -6% on average during March. He noted the discount in Grayscale’s BTC shares has coincided with the launch of the Purpose Bitcoin ETF in Canada — which has accumulated 16,000 BTC worth roughly $940 million since launching in late February. 3/ The drop in $GTBC premium coincides with the launch of the Purpose #Bitcoin ETF – which could've drawn investment away from GBTC. The ETF has accumulated more than 16k BTC in over a month. (Still dwarfed by Grayscale's 6...

Mark Cuban owns 30% ETH because it’s ‘closest to a true currency’

Mark Cuban recently stated that Bitcoin is a better alternative to gold, and compared Ethereum's smart contracts to the internet boom of the late 1990s. Billionaire Mark Cuban believes Ethereum is the closest thing we have to being a true currency and views Bitcoin as a better alternative to gold. The Shark Tank and Dallas Mavericks co-owner made the comments as a guest on a recent episode of the Delphi Podcast , where he noted that the growth of DeFi and NFTs had made him excited about crypto. He explained that “smart contracts and the fact that they're decentralized" means "there's no one in charge right there, the governance is completely different. That's what changed the game.” In fact he compared the development of Ethereum's smart contracts to the internet boom in the late ’90s and early 2000s: “When the Internet started to happen, you started seeing all these applications that could disrupt things that happened in the analog world, like when w...

New Data Shows Bitcoin Captured Net Gains For Six Consecutive Months

According to Bloqport’s latest data, bitcoin, which ended the month of March with an overall gain of 29%, has now been in the green for six consecutive months. The data also shows that the crypto asset’s value has nearly doubled from its December 2020 closing price of $29,383 to its current value of $58,647. With this run, bitcoin has already outperformed many other assets including gold. An Institution-Fueled Bull Run As shown by the research and analytics firm’s data , BTC ’s current run began at the start of Q4 of 2020, a period that coincides with increased reports of institutional investors acquiring the crypto asset. As reported by Bitcoin.com News, Microstrategy and Square Inc had kickstarted a new wave of large corporations and hedge funds buying into the crypto asset. For instance, on October 7, 2020, Square Inc announced it had converted 1% of cash reserves (or $50 million at the time) into BTC . Since then, more corporations including Elon Musk’s Tesla have revealed t...

Our Man in Shanghai: Filecoin the talk of the town, Polkadot and NFTs gain attention

Retail investors are flocking to buy Filecoin on exchanges with predominately Chinese user bases and the head of the PBOC thinks the digital yuan has an uphill battle to take on Alipay and WeChat Pay. Distributed storage network project Filecoin is the talk of the town as FIL was the most highly traded token on Huobi, OKEx and Gate on Thursday. These three exchanges have a predominantly Chinese user base and represent a large part of the Tier One trading volume for major pairs. On Thursday afternoon, Huobi trading volumes of FIL were more than three times that of BTC as the price reached a 7-day increase of 170%. Filecoin has had strong success in capturing the attention of Chinese investors, including large investment groups such as Fenbushi Capital, SNZ Capital and Neo’s EcoFund. These three were part of a group that backed the $23 million Filecoin Ecosystem Fund , announced on March 25. The Filecoin Ecosystem Fund is intended to support projects and help development on the networ...

To the 'literal moon'? Elon Musk SpaceX tweet gives Dogecoin a 35% lift-off

RIght on cue for April Fool's Day, Musk promises to "put a literal Dogecoin on the literal moon," but for hodlers, the resulting gains were anything but a joke. It may be an April Fool's prank, but when it comes to meme-based cryptocurrency Dogecoin ( DOGE ), it hardly matters. DOGE/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bittrex). Source: Tradingview Musk: SpaceX taking Dogecoin to "literal moon" After a fresh tweet from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, DOGE/USD shot up 35% in minutes on April 1, hitting six-week highs. Musk, newly dubbed the "Technoking" of Tesla, is known for his tongue-in-cheek Dogecoin publicity, and his antics on Twitter and in interviews have already succeeded in boosting the altcoin's price. This time was arguably the most overt example of "memeing" a cryptocurrency to the moon, however, as Musk promised that his other company, SpaceX, would "put a literal Dogecoin on the literal moon." SpaceX is going to put a lit...

Hong Kong and China test cross-border digital yuan, says PBoC official

The digital yuan continues to develop apace. China has completed its first cross-border pilots of the digital yuan with Hong Kong. Wang Xin, director of the People’s Bank of China research bureau, said that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the PBoC have conducted technical tests on the cross-border use of China’s central bank digital currency.  The official announced the news at a Thursday press conference hosted by the State Council Information Office of China, local news agency Sina Finance reports . The news comes shortly after Mu Changchun, head of the PBoC's digital currency research institute, proposed a set of global CBDC rules last week. Speaking at a Bank for International Settlements seminar, Mu called on global financial institutions to ensure the global interoperability of national digital currencies. “Interoperability should be enabled between CBDC systems of different jurisdictions and exchange. The PBoC had shared the proposals with other central banks and...

Finance Redefined: The slow march forward, March 24–31

DeFi keeps chugging along while everyone is focused on NFTs Finance Redefined is Cointelegraph's DeFi-centric newsletter contextualizing major events in the previous week. Subscribers receive a copy every Wednesday. Editor's Note This is one of those weeks where it’s hard to find a central topic for this newsletter. There weren’t any big scandals or releases, more like a slow grind with a few projects launching new features, others announcing their fancy investment round, while every celebrity and their mother keeps dropping NFTs. Snoop Dogg is the latest , I believe? I suppose a fair question to ask is, “why NFTs and not DeFi?” The answer is money. NFTs are currently making stupendous amounts of money to their sellers, not unlike the DeFi yield farming mania of the summer of 2020. In crypto, money is always the answer. NFTs too shall pass, but like other past trends in crypto, this current rise may leave behind a residue that’s much larger than what we started with. I w...

Free Bitcoin: Major US Fast Food Chain Chipotle Giving Away $100K in BTC to Celebrate National Burrito Day

Chipotle Mexican Grill says it is giving away bitcoin and free burritos to celebrate National Burrito Day. The company has created a game where each participant will have 10 tries to guess a valid six-digit code for a chance to win a free burrito or up to $25,000 in bitcoin. Free Burritos and Bitcoin Giveaway Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) announced Tuesday that “it will give away $100,000 in free burritos and $100,000 in bitcoin to celebrate National Burrito Day on April 1.” According to QSR Magazine’s annual ranking of fast-food chains in the U.S., Chipotle is the 11th largest chain based on sales. In collaboration with Coil founder Stephan Thomas, Chipotle is launching an interactive game on National Burrito Day called “Burritos or Bitcoin.” The game will go live on April 1 at 9:00 A.M. PT and will end at 6:00 P.M. PT on the same day. Chipotle says: This occasion makes Chipotle the first U.S. restaurant brand to offer a cryptocurrency giveaway to consumers. Thomas has be...

South Korean gov't makes $10.5M profit from 4-year-old Bitcoin crime haul

The coins languished in cold storage for four years after being confiscated by authorities during an arrest. South Korean prosecutors have finally sold a Bitcoin ( BTC ) haul they confiscated from a criminal in 2017 and it’s worth $10.5 million more than it was at the time of the arrest. The cash has reportedly been deposited in the coffers of the country’s national treasury. According to reports coming out of the Suwon District Prosecutors Office, this is the first time confiscated Bitcoin has been sold by authorities, and the first time the coins in question have moved since being put into cold storage in 2017. Originally worth $238,000 at the time of the confiscation, the coins were recently sold for a sum of $10.8 million, marking a 4,400% increase in value in four years. Based on that percentage growth, we can assume that Bitcoin was priced at around $1,300 when the arrest was made, close to April 2017. With no specific cryptocurrency laws or regulations in place at the time...

Total crypto market capitalization posts new all-time high above $1.9T

Total crypto market cap briefly surpassed that of Saudi Aramco. Amid another bullish trend on cryptocurrency markets , total crypto market capitalization has broken a new historical record just unde $2 trillion. The market cap of all cryptocurrencies surpassed $1.9 trillion on March 31, according to data from major crypto monitoring resources like CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap . The total market cap reached as high as $1.99 trillion earlier on the day, hitting a new all-time record. Total market capitalization since July 2017. Source: CoinMarketCap Following a subsequent correction, the total crypto market cap has slipped slightly, dropping to $1.89 trillion at the time of writing.  In hitting its new historical high, the total crypto market capitalization has overtaken the market cap of oil and gas giant Saudi Aramco, the world’s second most valuable company by market cap after Apple. According to data from TradingView , Saudi Aramco’s market cap amounts to about 7 trillion...

South Korea will use blockchain to prevent counterfeit vaccine passports

Blockchain technology is being used to cement confidence in the integrity of new health surveillance measures such as COVID-19 vaccine passports. South Korea, which has begun its COVID-19 vaccine rollout for residents over 75 years of age, has revealed plans to use blockchain technology to certify forthcoming vaccine passports for immunized citizens.  According to Reuters, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun told a government meeting that a new mobile app will be used to manage digital proofs of vaccination, and is expected to launch later in April. Blockchain technology will be used to ensure that citizens are not able to forge evidence of having ostensibly received a jab.  “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,” Chung said. The vaccine passports are also targeted at travelers from overseas, who will be supported by the app and be permitted to enter the country sub...

April Bulls Day? Bitcoin just closed its best March and Q1 in 8 years

No hint of bearish traditions returning to Bitcoin markets this year as 2021 bucks the trend for March to bring serious downside. Will Q2 deliver on expectations? Bitcoin ( BTC ) has seen its most successful Q1 in eight years as the Ides of March fail to materialize for hodlers. Data published by analytics resource Bybt as Q1 2021 came to an end showed that BTC/USD gained more in the first three months of this year than any since 2013. BTC price gains 103% in Q1 Despite not reclaiming all-time highs before Q2 began, Bitcoin put in a rare performance this March — normally, that month sees negative returns. BTC/USD monthly returns chart. Source: Bybt Not only did the largest cryptocurrency rise by nearly 30% this time around, it also posted its highest price in history of $61,700. Zooming out, Q1 2021 saw only green candles each month for a combined quarterly rise of 103.1%. The last year to surpass this was also 2013 when the price was under $100, with a Q1 performance of 53...

NFT investment vehicle set to go public in London

The newly formed investment firm expects to reach a valuation of just under $35 million. A non-fungible token investment firm is gearing up to raise 10 million pounds ($13.7 million) by listing on the Aquis Stock Exchange Global Market, reports Reuters.  Dubbed NFT Investments, the firm was launched by the co-founders of crypto mining company Argo Blockchain. Described as an investment vehicle for unique digital artworks, NFT Investments expects the float to result in a company valuation of 25 million pounds ($34.4 million). The NFT market exploded at the turn of the year, with some digital artworks selling for as much as $70 million dollars in recent weeks. The industry as a whole has now witnessed over half a billion in total volume in a little over three months. Non-fungible tokens differ from typical cryptocurrency tokens like Bitcoin ( BTC ) in that they are designed to be unique, and not interchangeable with other tokens of their ilk. This makes them useless as tran...

Japan's FSA asks cryptocurrency industry group to introduce FATF travel rule

Japan has been a member of the FATF since 1990. Japan has made another step toward adopting cryptocurrency Anti-Money Laundering regulations developed by the Financial Action Task Force, Cointelegraph Japan reports . The Japanese Financial Services Agency  announced Wednesday that it will adopt the FATF’s travel rule — a set of regulations requiring virtual asset service providers  to share transaction data for senders and recipients — by April 2022. “It is required to introduce and implement the travel rule regulations in each country,” the FSA noted. The FSA requested the Japanese Virtual Currency Exchange Association, a local self-regulatory crypto organization, to prepare for the implementation of the travel rule: “From the perspective of ensuring the proper and reliable execution of the crypto asset exchange business, we will examine the accurate implementation of the travel rule in terms of technology and operation. We would like the JVCEA to establish a neces...

A Forex Broker Transfers 1,200 BTC Belonging to the Mirror Trading International to a South African Liquidator

Fresh reports from South Africa suggest that a total of 1,200 bitcoins belonging to the now-defunct Mirror Trading International (MTI) were recently transferred from FX Choice to an appointed liquidator. The reports add the transfer had been sanctioned by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), the country’s financial industry regulator. Confirmation of the Transfer According to a South African media report, the 1,200 BTC had been stuck in MTI’s account with FX Choice since June 2020. Similarly, Bitcoin.com News reported in August 2020, that FX Choice had blocked MTI’s account after an investigation into bitcoin trading firm found “compliance concerns.” And now, in a new statement issued on March 29, 2021, a representative of FX Choice confirms the transfer of funds. The representative said: The FSCA has authorised the dispersal of MTI’s frozen funds at FXChoice to the appointed liquidators. We confirm that the transfer has now been completed and we consider the matter ...