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Showing posts from May 28, 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...

Religious Ban on Cryptocurrencies Provokes Social Media Reproach in Ingushetia

A decision by a prominent religious body in Ingushetia to prohibit dealings with cryptocurrency has sparked controversy in the predominantly Muslim Russian republic. Critics have taken to social media to express their disagreements with the ban, pointing out that the treatment of bitcoin in Islamic jurisdictions is not one-sided. Islamic Cleric Explains Reasoning Behind Crypto Prohibition At a meeting in mid-April, the Ingush Council of Alims adopted a ban on the purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies by Muslims in the country. The Islamic clergymen said at the time that they took the decision after studying Islamic sources and reaching a conclusion that the religion prohibits the trading of electronic money. Deputy Chief Mufti Magomed Hashtyrov has since been compelled to explain the council’s position. This week, he told the local newspaper Ingushetia that cryptocurrencies, as a means of payment, have no physical representation and their exchange differs from the trading of goods ...

Q1 SEC Filing Shows Argentinian Tech Giant Globant Invested in Bitcoin

Globant, one of the big four tech firms in Argentina, has quietly made its first foray into the world of cryptocurrency investing, according to its latest filing to the SEC. The firm bought bitcoin during the first three months of this year, and is now part of a select number of LATAM unicorns that have taken the approach of putting some of its value in crypto assets. Globant Invests in Cryptocurrency Globant, a software tech giant unicorn based in Argentina, has joined a select group of companies that are currently invested in cryptocurrencies, according to its latest filing to the SEC. The company, founded in 2003, reported the purchase of $500,000 in bitcoin ( BTC ) during the first quarter of 2021 (Q1). A small sum for a company with a valuation of more than $6.5 billion and listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Globant listed the bitcoin company as part of its intangible assets, saying bitcoin is: A cryptocurrency that is considered to be an indefinite-lived intangi...

Ripple Plans to Go Public After SEC Lawsuit Over XRP Is Resolved, CEO Says

Ripple could go public after the SEC lawsuit is resolved, according to CEO Brad Garlinghouse. He reportedly explained that the likelihood of this happening is “very high at some point.” Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse was asked at the Consensus 2021 conference on Wednesday whether Ripple will become a public company. He replied that the likelihood is “very high at some point.” Garlinghouse stressed that any initial public offering (IPO) plans would have to wait until Ripple resolves its lawsuit with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). He further pointed out that the securities regulator will be the one approving Ripple’s public offering after all. This was not the first time the media has reported about Ripple potentially going public. On an earnings call last month, the CEO of one of Ripple’s largest outside shareholders, SBI Holdings, said that Ripple planned to go public after the lawsuit was resolved. SBI’s CEO, Yoshitaka Kitao, reportedly said : “After the cur...

Ark Invest CEO Says Impossible to Shut Down Bitcoin — Regulators Will Become More Friendly Over Time

The CEO of Ark Investment Management (Ark Invest), Cathie Wood, says regulators cannot shut down bitcoin. She added that they will become more friendly towards cryptocurrencies over time. Wood is not the only one who thinks that governments cannot shut down bitcoin. Regulators Cannot Shut Down Bitcoin, Says Ark’s CEO Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood shared her view on bitcoin, its regulation, and environmental impact at the Consensus 2021 conference Thursday. The CEO said that bitcoin is “already on its way and it’ll be impossible to shut it down.” She added that regulators “will be a little more friendly over time” towards cryptocurrencies due to a fear of missing out (FOMO) on the innovation coming from the crypto sector. Wood also commented on bitcoin’s environmental impact, stating that “Half of the solution is understanding the problem.” She described: “This auditing of what miners, certainly in North America, are willing to do around how much of their electricity usage is generate...

A Look at Why Venezuela Is the Third Country With the Most Crypto Adoption

Venezuela has been listed as the third country with the most cryptocurrency adoption in the world by Chainalysis in its 2020 report. With its citizens coping with crippling inflation and losing purchasing power, the country has taken a turn for these assets to survive. But what are the real numbers behind this crisis that made Venezuelans change their whole way of living? How Venezuela Adopted Crypto: The Numbers It is a popularly known fact that Venezuela is one of the countries that have adopted cryptocurrency with the most force in LATAM. This was corroborated by Chainalysis in its latest 2020 Geography of Cryptocurrency Report, where it states that Venezuela is in fact the third country with the most cryptocurrency adoption in all the world. There is no doubt in what caused this: the economic disaster that was the result of years of wrong monetary policies, exchange controls, and corruption. But how deep is the hole that Venezuelans are living in today? How Venezuela went fro...

American convenience store chain now accepts Bitcoin payments

Mid-Atlantic convenience store giant Sheetz is set to accept Bitcoin and crypto payments across its outlets. Retail crypto payment acceptance in the United States continues to grow as Sheetz announces plans to allow the use of virtual currencies in its outlets across America. In a release issued on Thursday, the convenience store chain announced its partnership with digital payments provider Flexa to enable customers to pay for products and services with cryptocurrencies. As part of the announcement, Sheetz revealed that the crypto payment option was for both in-store items and gas pumps at their over 600 outlets across Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and West Virginia. Cryptos that will be accepted by convenience store chain include Bitcoin ( BTC ), Ether ( ETH ), Litecoin ( LTC ), and Dogecoin ( DOGE ) among others. The company’s crypto payment adoption move is also an extension of its business relationship with point-of-sale payment provider NCR. Apart...

Nigeria’s Naira Loses Ground on Forex Black Market Just a Few Days After Devaluation

The Nigerian naira currency lost further ground against major currencies after it depreciated to 493 nairas for one dollar on the black market on May 25, 2021. Before the latest depreciation, the currency had stabilized at around 485 nairas to the dollar. This was shortly after the exchange rate dropped to a three and a half year low rate of 500 nairas for one dollar back in November 2020. Renewed Pressure on the Naira As one report explains, the naira’s latest depreciation comes just a week after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) devalued the currency by over 5%. As previously reported by Bitcoin.com News, the CBN recently allowed the naira’s exchange rate to slide from 393 per dollar to around 410 per dollar. However, the same currency devaluation appears to have prompted the latest depreciation of the naira on the parallel market. Meanwhile, a different report is attributing the renewed pressure on Nigeria’s currency to “black market speculators who have taken advantage of th...

Crypto will ‘come to life’ in Nigeria, central bank governor says

Emefiele said the Nigerian government will do its best to prevent crypto from being used to finance illicit activities. At a 279th meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee in Abuja, Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Godwin Emefiele expressed confidence that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin ( BTC ) will be legal in the country, Business Insider reports Wednesday. Emefiele did not directly mention a decision to reverse the CBN’s February ban of institutions from buying and selling crypto, but noted that the bank has been investigating the industry: “We are committed in the CBN, and I can assure everybody that digital currency will come to life even in Nigeria [...] Under cryptocurrency and Bitcoin, Nigeria comes 2nd, while on the global side of the economy, Nigeria comes 27th. We are still conducting our investigation, and we will make our data available.” Emefiele also said the Nigerian government will do its best to prevent crypto from being used to finance illicit activities. “We f...

UAE authority issues warning about Dubai Coin

Dubai does not have an official cryptocurrency, officials state. As a tech-friendly region, Dubai is never short of new and promising projects, including crypto and blockchain,  but the influx of new cryptocurrencies makes it harder for newcomers to distinguish shady campaigns from reliable ones.  The Dubai Media Office announced that the authorities have never approved a digital currency named Dubai Coin, which saw a 1,000% jump when the project launched as “the official digital currency of Dubai” earlier this week. “It’s not the official cryptocurrency of the city,” the announcement warns. “The website promoting Dubai Coin is an elaborate phishing campaign that is designed to steal personal information from its visitors.” Following the announcement, major listing platforms CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko have removed Dubai Coin from their pages. The price of the coin crashed by more than 50% since the official statement, according to data from TradingView. The now-defunc...

Wisdom Tree files Ether ETF application with SEC

ETF shares would be listed on the Chicago Board Options Exchange’s BZX Exchange. Following in the footsteps of VanEck earlier this month, Wisdom Tree has filed an application for an Ether ( ETH ) exchange-traded fund submitted to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. According to filings dated May 27 , the ETF’s shares would be listed on the Chicago Board Options Exchange’s BZX Exchange. On May 7, rival ETF issuer, VanEck, also  filed  an application for an Ether ETF to be traded on the same exchange. Wisdom Tree’s application comes as the SEC has begun its formal review of Bitcoin (BTC) ETF applications submitted by Fidelity and SkyBridge respectively. The filing is far from Wisdom Tree’s first rodeo, with the issuer having filed numerous applications for Bitcoin ETFs in recent years. While U.S.-based investors are not yet able to access an Ether ETF, three Ether funds were approved by financial regulators in Canada on April 17. The funds launched wi...

Binance Smart Chain’s BurgerSwap drained of $7.2M in exploit

The latest in a recent spate of decentralized finance hacks. Another decentralized finance protocol was subject to a major exploit on Friday, May 28, after $7.2 million was drained from BurgerSwap (BURGER) on Binance Smart Chain. Varying amounts of seven different cryptocurrencies were stolen amid the attack, including $3.2 million worth of BURGER tokens, $1.6 million worth of Wrapped BNB (WBNB) and $1.4 million worth of Tether (USDT). The funds were still being sold off at time of publication. BurgerSwap launched in late 2020 as what was thought to be a clone of the Uniswap decentralized exchange. However, a post-mortem into the exploit revealed that the omission of a crucial line of code differentiated Uniswap from BurgerSwap, and was likely the point of attack for what took place on Friday. This revelation led some social media observers to speculate that BurgerSwap developers were behind the attack themselves. The BurgerSwap team announced that it was “working on the issue” a...

Kyrgyzstan Seizes 2,000 Cryptocurrency Mining Devices

Law enforcement authorities in Kyrgyzstan have confiscated thousands of crypto mining machines as part of a new offensive against illegal cryptocurrency mining in the country. Investigators have also identified industrial enterprises that have been supplying the bitcoin farms with electricity. Security Service Conducts Operation Against Illegal Mining in Kyrgyzstan The State Committee for National Security (GKNB), Kyrgyzstan’s organized crime-fighting agency, has recently found and raided a number of facilities mining cryptocurrency outside the law. The special operation has been conducted in the capital Bishkek and Chuy Oblast, the country’s northernmost region. During the offensive against illegal mining activities, law enforcement agents have seized around 2,000 cryptocurrency mining units, GKNB announced, quoted by Sputnik Kyrgyzstan. Pretrial proceedings are underway, the agency’s press service added. Ala-Too square in Bishkek. The process of cryptocurrency mining inflicts...