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Showing posts from April 15, 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...
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Chinese mining pools’ hash power plummets amid regional blackouts

Blackouts for safety inspections in China’s Xinjiang region have significantly impacted the hash rate of many top Chinese Bitcoin mining pools. The hashing power of top Bitcoin mining pools located in Northwest China appears to have plummeted due to a regional blackout to enable safety inspections. The news was reported by Wu Blockchain, the author of Chinese crypto newsletter Wublock, who noted significant drops in the hash rate of several major pools — with Antpool crashing 24.5%, Binance Pool dipping 20%, BTC.com falling 18.9% and Poolin dropping by 33%. The hashrate of Bitcoin mining pools plummeted in 24 hours. Antpools fell by 24.5%, https://t.co/1YRYr58dLy fell by 18.9%, Poolin fell by 33%, Binance pools fell by 20%. The reason is that Northwest China is undergoing a complete blackout for safety inspections. pic.twitter.com/vaWgYsMEFH — Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) April 16, 2021 According to an article on Chinese media outlet Wu Talk , the region of Xinjiang is curren...
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Blockchain is hard for developers and everyday users. Is it getting any easier?

The blockchain sector has known for years that technical hurdles need to be eliminated for mass adoption to take place. Has any progress been made? For several years, one of the biggest hurdles to blockchain adoption has concerned the fact that it’s a rather technical space. Experienced developers find it daunting to build decentralized apps using this technology. Meanwhile, consumers unaccustomed to tokens and crypto wallets often struggle with user interfaces that are far clunkier than what mainstream platforms provide. With cryptocurrencies punching into the mainstream consciousness like never before, it has never been more important for blockchain platforms to seize the moment and offer the streamlined, easy-to-understand products and services that the masses can embrace with minimal hassle. As the old saying goes: “If you build it, they will come.” Blockchain enthusiasts know that this technology has potential, but you could argue that a key challenge involves conveying these...
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NFT Roundup: Tom Brady’s Autograph Initiative, Topps Digital Baseball Cards, Annoying Orange’s 4K NFT Clip

The past week has been busier than usual for the NFT ecosystem. Rap stars Jeezy and Riff Raff entered the NFT realm, Hoard introduced its lending platform for NFT-collateralized crypto loans, The Topps Company is dropping its Series 1 Baseball collectibles, super-quarterback Tom Brady is launching his own NFT initiative, Terra Virtua is releasing a Godzilla vs. Kong NFT line, and even Annoying Orange is NFTing. NFT-Collateralized Crypto Loans Arrive Hoard , an Ethereum-based NFT marketplace, launches a new loan platform called Pawn Shop, where you can use your NFTs as collateral to obtain crypto loans. The platform will support users as they trade, buy, sell, loan, and rent NFTs like in-game items, domain names, digital art, and more. If you own extra stablecoins and are looking for a way to generate profit from them, Hoard’s platform offers you high profits as a lender. The platform plans to gradually transition into a DAO with its own governance token, the HRD coin. The First ML...
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Brian Brooks defends fintech charter to House Financial Services Committee

Brian Brooks has defended the fintech charter he oversaw while heading the OCC, warning heavy-handed crypto regulations could undermine U.S. competitiveness globally. Brian Brooks has defended the fintech banking charter introduced while he served as the acting comptroller of the currency after Congressional Democrats took aim at the license on Thursday. Brian appeared as a witness before the House Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions at an April 15 hearing titled, “Banking Innovation or Regulatory Evasion? Exploring Trends in Financial Institution Charters.” The fintech charter was introduced by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, or OCC, and overseen by Brooks in 2020, allowing financial technology firms including cryptocurrency companies to offer lending and payment products without being overseen by state banking regulators, FDIC insurance, or deposits from customers. Californian representative and chairwoman...
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Liquity Protocol attracts $1B TVL in just 10 days

The “interest-free loans” decentralized lending protocol now has $1 billion worth of locked-up value after it launched on April 5. The team behind Liquity Protocol — a DeFi project launched on April 5 — has attracted $1 billion worth of locked up value according to data from Dune Analytics. From $0 to $1B TVL in 10 days Here's some charts highlighting Liquity's growth so far: pic.twitter.com/qpSzRp0gZs — Liquity (@LiquityProtocol) April 15, 2021 The Pantera Capital-backed Liquity is a Swiss-based decentralized and governance-free lending protocol that offers interest-free loans against Ethereum locked as collateral, with users required to maintain a minimum collateral ratio of 110%. Loans are paid out in the protocol’s algorithmic stable coin LUSD, which is pegged to the value of USD at a one-to-one ratio. The protocol automatically generates LUSD to meet user demand, and so far has minted a supply of 480 million stable coins, with more coins being minted than burne...
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‘Weird Coins Like DOGE and XRP Spike’- Galaxy Digital’s Mike Novogratz Warns of a Crypto Market ‘Washout’ 

Bitcoin bull and billionaire investor Mike Novogratz has warned about cryptocurrency market volatility in a recent interview stemming from the Barron’s and Marketwatch’s “Investing in Crypto” virtual event series. In general and over the long term, Novogratz is bullish about bitcoin and companies like Coinbase remaining prosperous. Novogratz Warns of a Crypto Market ‘Washout’ Shares in Coinbase Global, Inc. ( Nasdaq: COIN ) are currently down 5% since yesterday’s opening and during the launch billionaire Mike Novogratz spoke about the San Francisco firm and the crypto-economy in general. Novogratz has been a long-time supporter of bitcoin ( BTC ) and other digital assets like ethereum ( ETH ) as well. Just recently, the crypto investment company he founded, Galaxy Digital filed an application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to list a bitcoin exchange-traded fund. While speaking positively about the COIN launch on Wednesday, Novogratz said the excitement woul...
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Jim Cramer cashes out half his 'phoney money' Bitcoin to pay off mortgage

CNBC host Jim Cramer says he’s “won,” cashing out half of his Bitcoin portfolio to pay off his mortgage, stating that it’s “phoney money paying for real money.” Business TV personality and converted Bitcoin proponent Jim Cramer has sold half of what he calls his “phoney money” Bitcoin portfolio to pay off his mortgage. . @jimcramer discloses that he bought a lot of bitcoin when it was around $12K. He says he sold half of it to pay off his mortgage yesterday. "It was like phony money paying for real money... I think I won." https://t.co/L909N1g6x0 pic.twitter.com/hfkzTmIdWl — CNBC (@CNBC) April 15, 2021 During Thursday’s broadcast of “Squawk on the Street,” co-anchor Jim Cramer revealed that he’s “decided to become an apostate,” by selling off half of his Bitcoin holdings to pay off his home.  Cramer, who also hosts Mad Money, said that he bought a lot of Bitcoin at $12,000 because he thought it was a currency, and finally decided to take profits. “I know people are...
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Email server breach sees Celsians targeted by phishing attacks

Celsius customers have been targeted with fraudulent SMS and email communications after a third-party email distribution server was compromised by hackers. Crypto asset lending platform, Celsius Network, has revealed an email server breach that resulted in malicious phishing links being sent to customers. An April 15 announcement notes that some of Celsius’ customers have been receiving emails and SMS messages directing them to a malicious website impersonating the Celsius platform. The messages claim the link would direct them to a new web wallet from Celsius, purporting to offer $500 to users who create a wallet using the link. Phishing email sent to Celsius users: Reddit Celsius asserts the phishing links were sent after “an unauthorized party managed to gain access to a back-up third-party email distribution system which had connections to a partial customer email list” — allowing the malicious actors to target users with the phishing attempt. If accessed, the fraudulent l...
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Our Man in Shanghai: Coinbase listing scorned, graphics cards seized, nostalgia coins rule

Coinbase and cryptocurrencies viewed cynically on Chinese social media, and news of a large mining GPU smuggling bust in Hong Kong. It was a relatively quiet week in China’s blockchain space as events were overshadowed by the surge in the BTC price and the Coinbase direct listing in the U.S . Many locals reacted with surprise to the news, showing that exposure to cryptocurrencies is still relatively isolated in the world’s most populous country. Many netizens responded skeptically to the Coinbase story, with news aggregation account “Jiemian” on Weibo calling Bitcoin a scam, highlighting its connection to terrorists, and encouraging investors to stick to China’s A-shares. (For a quick comparison, the Shanghai composite index is down 2.13% this year, while Bitcoin has a YTD return of over 116%.) Jiemian has over 10 million followers on Weibo, but caters to a more traditional audience. The takeaway here is that despite China’s aggressive adoption of DCEP ( Digital Currency Electronic ...
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Rothschild Investment Corp snaps up quarter of a million shares in Grayscale ETH Trust

Rothschild Investment Corp, has acquired more than 250,000 shares in Grayscale’s ETH trust, and added 8000 shares to its BTC trust holdings — however the firm holds zero ties to the famed Rothschild family dynasty. Chicago-based financial institution Rothschild Investment Corp, has acquired 265,302 shares in Grayscale’s ETH trust, according to a filing on April 15 with the United States Securities Commission or SEC. The firm also added more Grayscale Bitcoin trust shares to its holdings, with the latest SEC filing revealing that it increased its tally from 30,454 in January up to 38,346 this month. Rothschild Investment has been accumulating GBTC since 2017, and the latest filing shows the firm’s appetite for crypto exposure is not slowing down. Ether proponent Ryan Adams, the founder of crypto investment firm Mythos Capital and Bankless , commented on the latest move noting that “BTC is the gateway drug to ETH.” BTC is the gateway drug to ETH https://t.co/1w7p66OkOF — RYAN S...
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World’s Largest Asset Manager Blackrock: Cryptocurrency Could Become a ‘Great Asset Class’

The CEO of Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager, says that he is fascinated by cryptocurrency, believing that it could become a “great asset class.” However, he said that Blackrock has not received many inquiries from its institutional clients about having bitcoin in their portfolios. Blackrock’s CEO ‘Fascinated’ About Crypto Following Coinbase’s IPO via a direct listing on Nasdaq, Blackrock CEO Larry Fink was asked in an interview with CNBC Wednesday whether his view on cryptocurrency has changed. Blackrock is the world’s largest asset manager, with more than $8.7 trillion in assets under management. “I’m still fascinated about it,” he began. “I’m encouraged by how many people are focusing on it. I’m encouraged about the narrative. It may become a great asset class.” He emphasized, “I do believe this could become a great asset class, cryptocurrency.” However, the executive noted: “I don’t believe it’s a substitute for currencies. I think we are going to have cryptocurrenc...
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Shift toward full decentralization pushes Maker (MKR) price above $4K

Maker price rallies to a new all-time high as the MakerDAO community makes preparations to become fully decentralized. Stablecoins have become a significant foundational piece for the cryptocurrency sector because they serve as a deeply liquid base pair for most assets and also offer investors a secure place to capture gains. Data also shows that stablecoins play a significant role in functioning as a gateway for capital inflow to the crypto ecosystem. While the largest stablecoins in the market are currently controlled and issued by centralized entities like Tether or Circle, DAI and its issuer Maker ( MKR ) is one stablecoin project that keeps with the ethos of decentralization that the cryptocurrency community is founded on. Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows that the price of MKR has increased by almost 100% in the past week, rallying from a low of $2,011 on April 7 to a new all-time high at $4,096 on April 15 on surging trading volume. MKR/USDT 4-hour ch...
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Dogecoin (DOGE) and Maker (MKR) soar as the altcoin market cap tops $1T

Dogecoin and Maker stole the spotlight as the hype around COIN faded and Bitcoin consolidates near $63,500. Now that the Coinbase (COIN) stock listing is out of the way, the focus of traders has shifted back to the crypto market as Bitcoin ( BTC ) price works to regain its footing above $63,000 and altcoins move higher. After reaching a new all-time high near $65,000, BTC price dipped below $62,000 before finding a bit of momentum in the range which one fund manager called a “ great opportunity to buy .” Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows that Bitcoin has steadily climbed higher since Wednesday's correction and bulls are attempting to flip the $63,500 level from resistance to support. BTC/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView Trading action for COIN was muted on Thursday as the price declined during the early trading hours and closed the day at $326.88. For those who are curious about how Bitcoin's current price action compares with previous bul...
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You can make money playing in virtual worlds: Gabby Dizon

Altitude Games CEO Gabby Dizon thinks the science fiction-inspired virtual reality Metaverse is being created all around us at increasing speed. “The Metaverse means different online worlds that are interconnected upon some form of shared economy. Usually, this economy is based on a blockchain,” explains Dizon, who also heads Yield Guild Games. While he thinks we’re still “in the very, very early stages” of building it, blockchain-based games like Axie Infinity and The Sandbox are already developing robust in-game economies. Dizon believes it will snowball from here, as ever-increasing automation is making it increasingly hard for people to find jobs and a place in society. “A lot of people will be losing jobs in the physical world, and what will they be doing? I think they will be going online, and they will start playing games. Specifically, they will start playing games to earn money.” This is not entirely without precedent, as locals in hyperinflation-hit Venezuela have be...
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