Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from June 8, 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...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mike Novogratz: Bitcoin Investors Waiting for a New Narrative Shift

Mike Novogratz declared institutional investors are waiting for the next narrative shift in a recent interview at the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami. The CEO of Galaxy Digital thinks the market is now in a consolidation phase after the price crash last month. Novogratz also commented on what the rise of defi could mean for banking operators in the near future. Mike Novogratz Thinks Bitcoin Investors Are Waiting for a New Narrative Galaxy Digital’s CEO Mike Novogratz thinks Bitcoin is still in a phase of consolidation after the dump in prices experienced last month. According to the entrepreneur, possible investors are waiting for the next shift in the Bitcoin narrative. This new push would entice them to start pumping money into digital assets again. Novogratz explained in an interview with Yahoo Finance that he thinks institutional investors are to blame for the recent tank in prices. Institutional investors were able to accumulate Bitcoin cheap at $9K prices, and with the sudd...
Post a Comment
Read more

Bill to make Bitcoin legal tender passes in El Salvador

President Nayib Bukele’s Bitcoin Law was passed in the Salvadorian congress tonight. The President of El Salvador's bill to make Bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador passed Congress with a super-majority just before 6AM UTC. In a Twitter Spaces conversation that began just after 5AM UTC with 22,000 listeners President Nayib Bukele said he would sign off on the historic law later tonight or first thing tomorrow. “It goes into effect immediately,” he said, clarifying the government would allow 90 days for the infrastructure to be put into place. He said that accepting Bitcoin would be mandatory for all businesses. “They have to take it by law,” he said of merchants in the country. “If you go to Mexico they have to take your pesos. “In the case of El Salvador Bitcoin is going to be legal tender as (is the) US Dollar.” He revealed that he will be meeting with the International Monetary Fund on Thursday. The government will also be releasing an official Bitcoin wallet (however thi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Kraken launches Kusama Parachain Auction platform as KSM defies downtrend

KSM token prices surge as Parachain auctions launch nears. U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has announced a “first-of-its-kind” Parachain Auction Platform enabling clients to participate directly from the exchange. In a blog post on June 8, Kraken revealed the new platform will enable users that qualify to pledge support for Kusama projects vying for a Parachain slot by staking Kusama’s KSM tokens. The rewards for contributors who support a winning bid vary and can include referral bonuses, early participation bonuses, and airdrops. Polkadot’s multi-chain ecosystem will use sharded sidechains to process transactions in parallel. These Parachains are acquired in the auction process whereby projects try to outbid each other for the right to use the slot for 48 weeks with KSM tokens. Kusama is the testing and development network often dubbed Polkadot’s “Canary network.” Only 100 Parachain slots are expected to be available, but this may change through protocol governance votes o...
Post a Comment
Read more

Members of East Africa Community Explore Potential Use of CBDC for Alternative Regional Payment System

Six East African states are reportedly set to explore the possibility of using central bank digital currencies (CBDC) as an alternative to their shared payment system. The six countries, which are all members of the East Africa Community (EAC) trading bloc, are hoping this alternative will create a pathway that leads to the attainment of “a single currency for the region by 2024.” The Moribund EAPS The revelations of the EAC’s digital currency plan follow the bloc secretariat’s “consultancy call for a feasibility study” on the planned upgrade of the East African Payment System (EAPS). Since its launch in 2014, the EAPS has failed to function properly due to member states’ distrust of each other’s currency. Consequently, according to a report , the EAC says the selected “consultant will conduct an exploratory scoping of such developments.” The consultant is similarly expected to conduct an exploratory scoping for “emerging technologies and their adoption, including but not limited t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Vitalik Buterin has made $4.3M from his $25K investment in Dogecoin … so far

Vitalik Buterin has recounted how turned $25,000 into $4.3 million in three years by investing in DOGE. In his recent appearance on the Lex Fridman podcast, Ethereum co-creator, Vitalik Buterin, revealed he profited more than $4 million from a $25,000 investment that he made into Dogecoin during 2016. But true to form, he gave it all away to charity. Dogecoin was created in December 2013 and sought to capitalize on the popularity of the then-popular Shiba Inu-inspired doge meme, with Vitalik describing DOGE as among the first “fun coins” launched into the burgeoning crypto asset ecosystem. Although he was impressed by the community that had formed around DOGE, Vitalik joked about the lack of investment thesis informing his decision, stating: “At the beginning, people didn’t take it very seriously [...] I just remembered thinking to myself, how am I going to explain to my mum that I just invested $25,000 into Dogecoin […] like the only interesting thing about this coin is a logo ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Coinbase says it was not involved in the DOJ's Bitcoin ransom seizure

Coinbase CSO says ‘good ol’ fashioned police work’ landed the FBI the private keys. Coinbase’s Chief Security Officer has refuted suggestions the U.S. crypto exchange was involved in any seizure of crypto assets related to recent Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack. CSO Philip Martin took to Twitter on June 8 to explain the firm’s involvement, or lack of it, with the Department of Justice warrant for the seizure of Bitcoin. “Coinbase was not the target of the warrant and did not receive the ransom or any part of the ransom at any point. We also have no evidence that the funds went through a Coinbase account/wallet.” 1/ I've seen a bunch of incorrect claims that Coinbase was involved in the recent DOJ seizure of bitcoin associated with the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack. We weren’t. a thread: — Philip Martin (@SecurityGuyPhil) June 8, 2021 The official seizure story, in which government officials recovered 63.7 BTC , worth roughly $2.3 million at the time, had a number...
Post a Comment
Read more

After googling it, CFTC boss says DeFi is a ‘bad idea’ and probably illegal

CFTC Commissioner Dan M. Berkovitz has called for a crackdown on unregulated DeFi derivatives platforms. Commissioner Dan M. Berkovitz of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) believes DeFi derivatives platforms may contravene the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA). Speaking as part of a June 8 keynote address dubbed “Climate Change and Decentralized Finance: New Challenges for the CFTC,” Berkovitz notes that: “Not only do I think that unlicensed DeFi markets for derivative instruments are a bad idea, but I also do not see how they are legal under the CEA.” Berkovitz noted that the “CEA requires futures contracts to be traded on a designated contract market (DCM) licensed and regulated by the CFTC,” however he asserts that no DeFi platforms are registered as DCMs or SEFs. During the keynote, the commissioner emphasized the need for regulators to become familiar with DeFi derivatives and other applications amid the booming growth of the sector . He referenced the huge amount...
Post a Comment
Read more

Elon Musk Agrees With Vitalik Buterin on Dogecoin and Ethereum Collaboration

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he “pretty much” agrees with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin about a collaboration between Dogecoin and Ethereum. Buterin said: “if we can have a secure Doge-to-Ethereum bridge. That would be amazing.” Vitalik Buterin Talks About Dogecoin and Ethereum Bridge, Elon Musk Agrees Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin talked about a potential collaboration between Ethereum and Dogecoin in an interview with AI researcher Lex Fridman last week. Referring to the Tesla and Spacex CEO repeatedly tweeting about dogecoin, Fridman said, “There’s a power behind someone like Elon Musk pushing the development of a cryptocurrency.” He then asked Buterin, “is there a way to leverage that power and momentum to improve Ethereum?” Buterin said: If DOGE wants to somehow bridge to Ethereum, and then people can trade DOGE thousands of times a second inside of loopring, then that would be amazing. “I definitely don’t think Ethereum is opposed to dog coins,” the co-founder em...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dfinity founder takes aim at Ethereum’s complex layer-two solutions

Dfinity founder Dominic Williams has criticized Ethereum’s emerging ecosystem of layer-two solutions for exposing users to counterparty security risks. Dominic Williams, the founder of Dfinity and its Internet Computer, has slammed the scaling solutions put forward by Polkadot and Ethereum for offering a disjointed user experience. The self-described “blockchain maximalist” criticized Ethereum’s burgeoning ecosystem of second-layer scaling solutions, describing Ethereum as starting to resembling a ridiculously elaborate “Rube Goldberg machine ” of “layer-two cloud applications.” Williams asserted layer-twos cause points of friction for Ethereum users and exposes them to counterparty security vulnerabilities, emphasizing that more than half of Ethereum’s nodes are hosted by Amazon Web Services: “A lot of these Proof of Stake networks today that people invest in are really just layer-two applications of cloud — we find that pretty disappointing. Blockchain shouldn’t be running on Am...
Post a Comment
Read more

Coinbase Says Interest From Pension Funds and Hedge Funds Has Skyrocketed, Institutional Holdings Soar 170%

The Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has revealed record growth in its institutional business. “This year, interest from pension funds and hedge funds has skyrocketed, supported by the roll-out of crypto-ETPs as well as an increased understanding of the crypto economy,” said Coinbase. Coinbase Sees Interest From Institutional Investors Skyrocketing Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase (Nasdaq: COIN) reportedly revealed Tuesday that between Dec. 31 last year and the end of the first quarter this year, its institutional holdings grew 170% from $45 billion to $122 billion. The company has over 8,000 institutional clients currently, including hedge funds, asset managers, pension funds, and endowments. Many institutional clients use Coinbase Custody, a crypto custody service with an insurance policy for institutional clients. The service, launched in 2018, supports over 90% of cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Drew Robinson, Head of Hedge Fund Sales at Coinbase, says...
Post a Comment
Read more

Goldman Sachs backs $28M funding round for Blockdaemon

Goldman Sachs has backed a Series A $28 million funding round for Blockdaemon, and invested $5 million in the blockchain infrastructure firm. Goldman Sachs has backed a $28 million Series A funding round for blockchain infrastructure firm Blockdaemon. The funding was led by Greenspring Associates and included participation from crypto lending firm BlockFi, and crypto-asset broker Voyager Digital Ltd, along with a $5 million investment from Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs is an American multinational investment bank with a net worth of $131 billion. The banking giant appears to be paying a significant amount of attention to crypto of late. In May the Goldma led a $15 million investment round in blockchain analytics firm Coin Metrics , and also launched Bitcoin derivatives trading for institutional clients in the same month. Blockdaemon provides staking and node infrastructure for institutional clients such as Goldman Sachs. According to the firm, it has averaged more than $5 billion...
Post a Comment
Read more

Bitcoin Keys Cannot be Hacked: Skeptics Question the Official Colonial Pipeline Bitcoin Seizure Story

On June 7, the United States Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced the “recovery” of 63.70 bitcoin from the funds Colonial Pipeline sent to the hackers. The official story has a number of inconsistencies and federal investigators did not disclose how the FBI was able to confiscate the Darkside gang’s private key. Darkside Ransomware Gang Story Loaded With Discrepancies and a Vague Bitcoin Key Capture The cryptocurrency space has been discussing the recent law enforcement capture of 63.7 BTC or $2.3 million worth of bitcoin at the time of seizure. There have been issues with the way the story has unfolded and people are skeptical of the official story. Bitcoin.com News reported on Monday, how the Justice Department and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco revealed the seizure story. Monaco detailed that federal authorities had “turned the tables on Darkside.” But from the very moment this story broke by a number of mainstream media outlets, ther...
Post a Comment
Read more

Amazon Job Listing Seeks Blockchain Lead – Internet Giant Looks to Create ‘Business Use Cases Across Defi’

Amazon is looking for a blockchain expert, according to a job posting published on the company’s employment portal. The firm wants someone who is “passionate about blockchain and decentralized networks” and someone who can build innovative “business use cases” across decentralized finance (defi). Online Marketplace Amazon Hopes to Hire a Head of Product to Lead Blockchain Innovation The world’s largest online marketplace Amazon is seemingly watching blockchain innovations and current defi platforms make waves in the world of finance. Since the firm’s inception, Amazon has disrupted the online world via technological innovation and now it wants someone to help with blockchain technology. The company posted a job listing this week that shows Amazon is looking for a “Head of Product” with a comprehensive blockchain and cryptocurrency background. The business already has a product called the “Amazon Managed Blockchain (AMB)” and a team behind the project as well. “Come join us to head...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mexico lawmakers aim to follow the example of neighboring countries with proposed Bitcoin legislation

“We are going to lead the shift to crypto and fintech in Mexico,” said one senator. Eduardo Murat Hinojosa, a senator of the federal government of Mexico, has said he will be submitting a proposal to lawmakers seemingly aimed at crypto adoption in the country. In a tweet today, Hinojosa changed his profile picture to feature the senator speaking into a microphone with the iconic “laser eyes,” indicating support for crypto. The lawmaker said he would be “promoting and proposing a legal framework for crypto coins in Mexico's lower house,” specifically mentioning Bitcoin ( BTC ). Voy a promover y proponer ante la Cámara de Diputados un marco legal para las criptomonedas en México #btc I will be promoting and proposing a legal framework for crypto coins in Mexico's lower house #btc pic.twitter.com/zwhYOZ7KAg — Eduardo Murat Hinojosa (@eduardomurat) June 8, 2021 Hinojosa was not the only Mexico lawmaker indicating their support for crypto. Indira Kempis Martinez, a senat...
Post a Comment
Read more

Reports suggest BlockFi seeks to raise millions at a valuation of $5B

Financiers from New York and London are said to be leading the private investment round, according to reports. Cryptocurrency lending platform BlockFi is reportedly looking to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in new funding at a valuation of nearly $5 billion, offering further insights into the growth of crypto-focused companies.  The company, which was founded in 2017 by Zac Prince and Flori Marquez, is said to be in late-stage talks with new and existing investors to secure the capital raise, according to technology publication The Information. New York-based hedge fund Third Point Management and Hedosophia, a London-based venture capital firm, are reportedly leading the new funding round. The same report indicated that the latest funding round has not closed, which means BlockFi’s desired $5 billion valuation could grow. As Cointelegraph reported, BlockFi raised $350 million in Series D financing earlier this year, building on the $100 million it raised via three ear...
Post a Comment
Read more

Concordium aims to end the era of anonymity in crypto industry

Crypto and blockchain industries need to play by the rules to realize their full potential, Concordium CEO says. The anonymity of Bitcoin ( BTC ) and other cryptocurrencies is a hot topic in the crypto space. While the transactions are open to track in a public blockchain, it is challenging to link a transaction with a real-life person in many use cases. As an identity-centric platform, Concordium takes a different direction by offering complete transparency. “The time has come for the blockchain industry to respect the general rules of society,” Concordium chairman Lars Seier Christensen said in an announcement. The launch of Concodium Blockchain marks the end of the era of anonymity, opacity, and the lack of transparency, he added. Developed and advised by leading executives and board members from corporations like Volvo, Ikea, Saxo Bank, MasterCard, and others, the Concordium Blockchain and its cryptocurrency GTU will launch the mainnet on June 9. According to the release, Conc...
Post a Comment
Read more

IRS Seeks Congressional Authority to Obtain Data on Cryptocurrency Transactions

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) says it needs congressional authority in order to obtain the information needed to regulate cryptocurrency. “We get challenged frequently and to have a clear dictate from Congress on the authority for us to collect that information is critical,” IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig said. IRS Says It Needs More Authority to Collect Crypto Data IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig said Tuesday during a Senate Finance Committee hearing that the IRS needs more authority to do its job in regulating cryptocurrency. He said: I think we need congressional authority. We get challenged frequently and to have a clear dictate from Congress on the authority for us to collect that information is critical. The commissioner noted that the cryptocurrency market is growing and its value is now approximately $2 trillion, with more than 8,600 exchanges worldwide. The Biden administration has proposed requiring businesses to report information on cryptocurrency transac...
Post a Comment
Read more

IRS needs congressional authority to handle crypto, says chief

"Most crypto, virtual currencies are designed to stay off the radar screen," said Charles Rettig. Internal Revenue Service chief Charles Rettig called out lawmakers for not taking the initiative on addressing the problem of many U.S. residents not paying taxes on crypto. In a Tuesday senate hearing on the IRS’ fiscal year 2022 budget, Rettig said that the agency would likely require a "clear dictate from Congress" to regulate crypto. The IRS has listed $32 million in its budget for “crypto-related enforcement operations” as well as $41 million related to cybercrime in its attempts to address the issue of non-reporting or underreporting taxpayers. "The authority for us to collect that information is critical," said Rettig. "The most recent market cap in that world — in the crypto world — exceeded $2 trillion and more than 8,600 exchanges worldwide, and by design most crypto, virtual currencies are designed to stay off the radar screen, so we will ...
Post a Comment
Read more

One percent of Bitcoin’s supply has been locked in the WBTC protocol

More than $6 billion worth of Bitcoin is now tokenized on Ethereum as WBTC. One percent of Bitcoin’s circulating supply is currently tokenized as Wrapped BTC (WBTC), equating to nearly $6.2 billion worth of BTC.  The milestone was acknowledged by the product manager of crypto custody firm BitGo, Kia Mosayeri, who tweeted the news on June 7. BitGo is the custodian for the Wrapped Bitcoin protocol, which was launched its Bitcoin-backed ERC-20 token WBTC on Ethereum in January 2019. 1% of all BTC has been wrapped into $WBTC ! https://t.co/jOi0LZZUyi — WBTC (@WrappedBTC) June 7, 2021 According to Etherscan , there are currently 187,610 Bitcoins wrapped on the protocol, equating to a fully diluted market capitalization of $6.18 billion. The current circulating supply of BTC is nearly 18.73 million, according to CoinGecko, confirming the 1% milestone. BTConEthereum estimates there are 240,620 Bitcoins that have been tokenized across various protocols for use on Ethereum, repres...
Post a Comment
Read more