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Showing posts from May 17, 2021

Restrictions on Crypto Trading to Deprive Nation of Opportunities, Iranian Fintechs Warn

Startups have spoken out against government attempts to curb the operations of crypto exchanges in Iran. Cryptocurrency trading is not illegal, Iranian fintechs insist, calling on lawmakers and regulators to develop rules that would allow the sanctioned country to continue to take advantage of decentralized money transfers. Iranian Fintechs Insist There Is No Ban on Cryptocurrency Trade Recent statements by various authorities in Teheran have prompted a response from the Iran Fintech Association (IFA) which represents companies working in the sector. In a letter to the speaker of parliament, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, and the head of the central bank, Abdolnasser Hemmati, the independent industry body stated: Resorting to restrictive measures is the simplest, but not the best response to the issue. Doing so would deprive the nation of potential opportunities and create grounds for underground business. Amid growing interest in cryptocurrencies, the Central Bank of Iran ( CBI ) issu...

Fox teams up with Rick and Morty co-creator on animated NFT series

Fox will launch a nonfungible token marketplace for its upcoming animated series, Krapoplis. Fox Broadcasting Company has teamed up with Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon to develop what they describe as the “first-ever animated series curated entirely on the Blockchain.” The animated comedy series, dubbed “Krapopolis,” will be launched alongside a dedicated marketplace that will host the sale of tokenized digital goods including nonfungible tokens depicting the characters and artwork featured throughout the show. The show also hopes to reward its most devoted fans with tokens that unlock “exclusive social experiences.” Alongside the partnership, Fox announced the launch of the new NFT company “Blockchain Creative labs,” which is expected to operate the marketplace for Krapopolis and other shows in the future. While details are sparse on what exactly “curated entirely on the blockchain” means, Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier noted plans to introduce advertising partners...

Elon Musk impersonators make bank as crypto scammers' profits surge

Scammers are impersonating Elon Musk and other prominent crypto figures to dupe naive investors out of their coins at an accelerated rate. The United States Federal Trade Commission has found that crypto scammers’ profits spiked in the last two months, noting a surge in fraudulent impersonators posing as prominent figures associated with digital assets, such as Elon Musk. The findings report that cryptocurrency investment scams rose sharply in October 2020 as the impacts of coronavirus pandemic and lockdown deepened, with nearly 7,000 people reporting losses of more than $80 million to digital asset scams over the six months that followed. The FTC’s Consumer Sentinel notes many of the thefts arose from giveaway scams where con artists pose as celebrities or crypto influencers and falsely promise to multiply cryptocurrency deposits sent to their wallet. More than $2 million in digital assets were to Elon Musk impersonators over the past six months. The data shows an overall...

Institutions dump BTC as volume soars for Ether funds

Institutional investors appear to have offloaded nearly $100 million worth of Bitcoin exposure this past week while Ether investment product volumes surged. CoinShares’ weekly Digital Asset Fund Flows report has revealed last week saw the largest Bitcoin in the report’s history as Elon Musk’s Twitter account again wreaked havoc in the crypto markets. The May 17 report notes $98 million exited Bitcoin investment products last week, equating to 0.2% of total assets under management, or AUM. “While small, this marks the largest outflow we have recorded,” CoinShares noted. Amid the tumultuous market conditions for Bitcoin, institutional investors appear to have ramped up their accumulation of Ether and other alternative cryptocurrencies, with the report identifying inflows to crypto asset investment products of $48 million when excluding Bitcoin. Ethereum represented more than half of flows to altcoin investment products with $27 million. Cardano and Polkadot also saw increased in...

Spanish Regulator Issues Guidelines for Fund Managers Planning to Invest in Cryptocurrencies

The Spanish financial regulator is easing the entity’s tough stance towards cryptocurrencies by announcing an unprecedented measure that green lights institutional investors to enter into such business decisions. The National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) unveiled guidelines that approve institutional crypto investment under certain conditions. Fund Managers Should Specify ‘High Risks’ of Cryptos in Marketing Resources According to El Economista , the set of guidelines allow Spain-based investment funds and collective investment schemes (sicavs) to trade virtual assets on a daily basis, but just the ones “in which the market price is determined from sales operations carried out by third parties.” The so-called collective investment institutions (IIC) won’t be permitted to allocate money into derivatives and securities such as crypto-powered exchange-traded commodities or exchange-traded notes. Furthermore, guidelines specify that fund managers under the regulation should alw...

1.1M noobs panic sell, but Bitcoin hodlers DGAF

Weak hands are panic selling, but long-term BTC holders have seen it all before. While new entrants to Bitcoin markets have been panic selling at a loss, the recent market slide has not vexed the old hands. Heavy selling in response to hints from Elon Musk that Tesla may soon sell its BTC stash saw Bitcoin prices tumble to their lowest levels in 20 weeks as the markets found support near $42,000 on Monday, May 17. According to on-chain analytics provider, Glassnode, the crash predominantly saw newer traders exiting from their positions at a loss while long-term hodlers stood their ground. Glassnoded noted Bitcoin’s adjusted Spent Output Profit Ratio (aSOPR) , a metric that shows whether BTC was in profit or at a loss when it was last transacted on-chain, fell below 1.0 amid the dip. An aSOPR of less than 1.0 indicates aggregate losses have been realized on-chain and are most pronounced in short-term holders (coins younger than 155-days) — traders that purchased during the 2021 bu...

EY invests $100 million to expand blockchain product suite, launches DeFi contract simulator

Ernst & Young is investing $100 million into targeting enterprise DeFi with its latest suite of Blockchain Analyzer products. “Big Four” accounting firm, Ernst & Young Global Limited, or EY, is continuing to invest heavily in blockchain, investing $100 million into engineering and developing distributed ledger technologies for a range of enterprise applications. On May 17, EY revealed its second-generation of Smart Contract & Token Review tools through its EY Blockchain Analyzer product suite, including a testing studio allowing simulated smart contract execution for complex decentralized finance, or DeFi, applications. “The new iteration supports multiple new capabilities that are expected to be used in complex DeFi contract ecosystems,” EY announced, adding: “It offers a blend of compliance testing with traditional code review, and it supports customized smart contract tests and simulation of mainnet transactions.” Yael Tamar, the co-founder of asset tokenization f...

Biggest Layoffs in US Banking History: Analyst Predicts Banks to Cut 200,000 Jobs

A Wells Fargo analyst has predicted the largest “reduction in U.S. bank headcount in history.” Banks are expected to cut 200,000 jobs as they strive to improve productivity and efficiency amid rising competition from fintech and non-bank financial institutions. US Banking Sector to Experience Biggest Headcount Reduction An analyst with Wells Fargo, Mike Mayo, has predicted that U.S. banks would cut 200,000 jobs, or 10% of employees, over the next decade, the Financial Times reported Monday. He explained: This will be the biggest reduction in U.S. bank headcount in history. Mayo said that low-paying jobs are most at risk, such as those in branches and call centers as banks adapt to the new realities following the coronavirus pandemic. He added that job cuts have been necessary as technology companies and non-bank lenders increasingly gained market share in the payment and lending business over the past years. The analyst further commented, “If I was giving advice to my kids, I’...

Ark Invest: Bitcoin Mining Net Positive to Environment, Concerns of BTC’s Energy Consumption Are Misguided

Following concerns raised by Tesla CEO Elon Musk about Bitcoin’s energy consumption, global asset manager Ark Investment Management explained that the concerns are “misguided.” Referring to its research using real-world data, the investment firm emphasized that “the impact of bitcoin mining could become a net positive to the environment.” Bitcoin Mining Could Help the Environment Investment Management (Ark Invest) published a note Monday responding to the comments made by Tesla and its CEO, Elon Musk, regarding Bitcoin’s energy consumption. The electric car company has suspended accepting bitcoin for payments citing environmental issues. “We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel,” Tesla wrote. Ark Invest’s analyst Yassine Elmandjra wrote: In our view, the concerns around Bitcoin’s energy consumption are misguided. Contrary to consensus thinking, we believe the imp...

Buy or hodl, says investor Raoul Pal as Bitcoin price chart hints at 'falling wedge'

Investment strategist Raoul Pal suggested traders should probably buy the Bitcoin dip as price crashes to two-month lows. Raoul Pal wants Bitcoin ( BTC ) investors to mobilize their trades against Elon Musk. The macro investment strategist advised traders to either accumulate or preserve their Bitcoin holdings just as the flagship cryptocurrency suffered massive declines over the weekend and at the beginning of this week . Bitcoin drops by 16.92% over the weekend and Monday. Source: Tradingview In retrospect, bulls came under pressure after Elon Musk started rattling the cryptocurrency market . On May 12, the billionaire entrepreneur reversed his company Tesla's decision to accept bitcoin payments for its electric vehicles, citing environmental issues related to the bitcoin mining industry. Nevertheless, he noted that Tesla would keep holding more than a billion-dollar worth of bitcoins on its balance sheet. The company had revealed the said crypto investment in its securiti...

Bitcoin Stock-to-Flow Still ‘Intact’ Says Creator, Crypto Fear Index Taps 12-Month Low

The leading cryptocurrency bitcoin has dropped 20% in value after Tesla announced on May 12, the electric car firm would not be accepting bitcoin for purchases. Two days later, the creator of the notorious stock-to-flow cross-asset (S2FX) price model, Plan B, shared his model and said the S2FX was still “intact.” Plan B still shows confidence in the bitcoin bull run and expects another 5x in the next six months. S2FX Price Model Still ‘Intact’ Despite the recent crypto market downturn , Plan B still seems positive that the bitcoin bull run is not quite over. “Plan B,” is a pseudonym leveraged by the Twitter account @100trillionusd and also the creator of the popular stock-to-flow (S2F) price model . This particular model leverages a ratio of bitcoin’s scarcity ( BTC in circulation) to BTC issuance. At the time of writing, the Bitcoin network’s inflation rate per annum is approximately 1.77% and will continue to drop lower as time passes. Plan B first published his paper called ...

Mobile crypto ‘mining’ app possibly connected to personal data leak

A 17GB personal data leak reportedly sprung from the Pi Network mobile app. Pi Network, a cryptocurrency mining app for mobile users, may have been connected to 17GB worth of personal data leaks, a Vietnamese news outlet reported on Monday. The treasure trove of personal data was apparently taken from the Know Your Customer checks of users of Pi Network, according to the person who posted it to hacker hangout RaidForums on Thursday. The identity cards of an estimated 10,000 Vietnamese citizens were placed for sale, along with connected home addresses, phone numbers and email addresses. The seller placed a price tag of $9,000 on the data, payable in either Bitcoin ( BTC ) or Litecoin ( LTC ). Phien Vo, a moderator of a Vietnamese Pi Network group chat channel, told VnExpress that Pi Network’s KYC checks are performed by a third party, adding that Vietnamese identity cards like those in question aren’t compatible with the app. However, Vo did indicate that an older version of the a...

Nigeria Devalues Currency as Central Bank Moves to Unify Exchange Rates

In a possible policy shift, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) recently allowed the local naira currency to briefly drop to a new low of USD$1 for 419.75 nairas on May 14, 2021. However, by close of business the naira had recovered and was trading around 411.25. Before the latest adjustment, the naira had fluctuated between 380 and 381 to the dollar since July last year. Unifying Multiple Exchange Rates Meanwhile, a report in the Nigerian media has speculated that the seeming devaluation of the naira indicates that the CBN is now working towards “unifying multiple exchange rates.” According to the report, Nigeria operates multiple currency regimes and this often frustrates businesses. Consequently, some institutions including the World Bank have called for the unification of rates in order to attract investment into the West African state. In the meantime, the Nigerian apex had (in addition to allowing markets to determine the exchange rate) already stopped availing data on the nai...

All hail the Shiba? Rise of Dogecoin pretenders fueled by meme frenzy

Shiba Inu joins in at the top of the dog meme coin phenomenon as Musk announces developer support for Dogecoin. Shiba Inu (SHIB) has been the talk of the cryptoverse and mainstream media recently. It is a meme coin themed around the Shibu Inu dog, a Japanese dog breed that Dogecoin ( DOGE ) is also basing its image on. According to data from CoinMarketCap, SHIB hit its all-time high of $0.0000388 on May 10 after it surged more than 2,500% from trading at $0.00001478 on May 7. The token has now been listed on most of the major exchanges , such as Binance, Coinbase, FTX, OKEx and even Binance’s Indian counterpart, WazirX. It had also briefly broken into the top 20 cryptocurrencies list by market capitalization. Currently, it has dropped off in the rankings, with a market cap of just over $6 billion. Earlier on May 10, SHIB’s market capitalization hit an all-time high of over $13.5 billion. SHIB was launched in August 2020, soon after Dogecoin’s hype on TikTok sent the coin to a two-...

UK Bitcoin wallet provider Caricoin to create NFT platform for reggae artists

Reggae and dancehall musicians in the Caribbean may soon have a nonfungible token platform to help gain greater control of their creative work. Jamaican reggae artist Bay-C has partnered with Caricoin, a London-based Bitcoin ( BTC ) wallet company, to create a nonfungible token (NFT) platform for fellow performers in the Caribbean. According to a report by the Jamaica Observer, the planned NFT platform will allow reggae and dancehall creatives in the Caribbean to gain more from their efforts in the music industry. The planned NFT platform for musicians in the Caribbean is a further extension of the three-year partnership between Caricoin and the reggae star. Commenting on the plans for the NFT platform, Bay-C stated: “Not everybody wants to understand how the blockchain technology works, some just want to get the content out; know that they have this NFT, so we're trying to make it as easy as possible for as many people in the Jamaican and Caribbean creative space.” Accordin...

Yay or nay? New petition demands Elon Musk sell all his Bitcoin

The "Dogefather" has gone too far for some Bitcoin hodlers and should allow a "better custodian" to own them instead, said the petition's creator. Tesla and SpaceX CEO and self-proclaimed "Dogefather" Elon Musk should sell his Bitcoin holdings, said hodlers. A new petition on Change.org is currently gathering signatures to make Musk divest himself of his personal stash of Bitcoin ( BTC ). "Elon Musk: Sell your Bitcoin" Its goal is modest:100 signatures at first, of which a grand total of 62 have already been gathered. For the creator of the petition, however, billionaire Musk has touched a nerve. "Elon Musk has accumulated at least $1.5bn of bitcoin on the Tesla balance sheet, and very likely has a larger personal holding he has not revealed," its description begins. "Meanwhile, Musk has doubled down on endorsing dogecoin, a literal joke, claiming to be working with the nonexistent development team and mooting integrati...

Iranian crypto miners using household energy to face large fines

Iran is fighting against unauthorized crypto mining amid ongoing energy supply shortages. The Iranian government continues to closely monitor the cryptocurrency mining industry by initiating new measures against home crypto miners, according to a new report. Mostafa Rajabi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Energy of Iran, said that crypto mining with household electricity is not legal and thus, home miners will have to pay heavy fines if discovered, local news agency The Tehran Times reported Sunday. Crypto miners using household energy will be also required to provide compensation for potential damages caused to the electricity network, the official stated. Rajabi said that the government has undertaken these measures in order to get a handle on Iran’s power shortage — the result of foreign sanctions on hydrocarbons and decreased hydroelectric production due to less-than-average rainfall. Rajabi stated that unauthorized crypto mining can damage the local p...

Brazilians Can Now Bet on President Bolsonaro’s Reelection Bid on FTX

Crypto derivatives exchange FTX has launched a futures contract that allows Brazilian voters and traders in jurisdictions where the platform is available to bet on the outcome of Brazil’s next presidential election. With health and financial crises looming in the country, Jair Bolsonaro’s second term as head of state is far from certain. FTX Launches Bolsonaro 2022 Futures Contract The new futures contract, Bolsonaro 2022 , expires at $1 if the current president wins the election and to $0 if he fails, FTX announced . Brazilians will head to the polls on Oct. 2, 2022, but if no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, the winner will be determined in a second round to be held on Oct. 30. In case the presidential election is canceled, or no winner is announced by the end of 2022, the contract will expire at $0. Source: FTX The risk profile of Bolsonaro 2022 is different from BTC as the chances of large moves in either direction are significantly higher, the broker noted. In...

Bitcoin price metric flashes rare ‘buy the dip’ opportunity at $42K lows

NVT is a “buy the dip” opportunity that few ever get access to this week, one analyst says, as BTC/USD stays in the mid-$40,000 range. Bitcoin ( BTC ) is facing a make-or-break moment this week as a classic indicator signals a price watershed. According to the network value to transaction (NVT) price, BTC/USD is in line for a reset at recent lows of just above $42,000. NVT calls a significant BTC move After dipping on negative sentiment as a result of tweets from Elon Musk, Bitcoin is attempting to establish definitive support near its old all-time highs from February. At the same time, NVT, which is used to discover potential local price polarities, suggests that the market is looking at an event similar to early 2018 or last March’s cross-asset crash. The start of 2018 heralded a year-long bear market, while last year, Bitcoin conversely bounced from lows to new all-time highs — a bull run that analysts argue is still in action. With the $42,000 dip bringing Bitcoin bel...

Crypto Miners Using Household Electricity Face Fines as Consumption Spikes in Iran

Those who mine cryptocurrencies with power intended for domestic use will pay hefty fines, the Iranian government warned. The country is experiencing shortages due to reduced hydropower generation as authorities register a surge in electricity consumption for cryptocurrency mining. Crypto Miners to Pay for Damages to the Power Grid Hydropower plants in Iran have been working with limited capacity as a result of insufficient rainfall this year. At the same time, authorities say the minting of digital coins consumes more and more electrical energy. Illegal mining operations, often relying on electricity supplied to Iranian households, overload transformers, damaging the grid. Unauthorized mining of cryptocurrencies affects electricity supply, noted Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi, spokesman of the Iranian Ministry of Energy. Miners who run such facilities will be fined when identified and held responsible for the damages they cause to the electricity network, Mashhadi added, quoted by the Te...