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Showing posts from July 20, 2021

Nifty News: Tyson Fury’s NFT nets almost $1M, bad trip from Sushi, wine gets nifty ...

Sushi dropped LSD-themed NFTs to celebrate the launch of its trident AMM, while the ‘Gypsy King’ Tyson Fury has sold a single NFT for almost $1 million. Tyson Fury’s first venture into the NFT market resulted in a single NFT selling for almost $1 million on HoDooi.com — a new platform aiming to become the 'eBay of NFTs'. The auction for ‘Lineal by Tyson Fury’ closed on July 16, and represents one of the top athlete-themed sales in the market to date. The NFT depicts a tokenized illustration of Fury with two championship belts over each shoulder and a crown featuring his nickname “Gypsy King” on the front. The NFT includes real-world bonuses such as a signed five-by-five foot painting of the artwork, signed boxing gloves, and video from Fury congratulating the winning bidder. ‘Lineal by Tyson Fury’ NFT: HoDooi.com The NFT sale on HoDooi was also accompanied by a collection of five open edition NFTs of varying numbers of copies, that are priced between 250 USDT and 1000 ...

‘Ethereum: The Infinite Garden’ Documentary Project Raises 1,036 Ether

A documentary project called “Ethereum: The Infinite Garden” has raised 1,036 ether to complete its fundraising proposal. The project will use these funds to finance the first feature-length Ethereum documentary, that will cast members from the community and key individuals from the Ethereum Foundation, including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. The initiative aims for a 2023 release. ‘Ethereum: The Infinite Garden’ Documentary Project Gets Funded “Ethereum: The Infinite Garden,” a project that aims to produce the first documentary about how the smart contracts project was conceived, fulfilled the goal of its recent fundraising campaign. The initiative managed to raise 1,036 ether from more than 600 backers in just three days, an amount bigger than what they established as their goal in the first place (750 ether). The team is now entering the preproduction phase by establishing connections with people from the Ethereum Foundation. The project proposal states that “Ethereum: ...

OpenSea is the latest crypto unicorn after $100M funding round

OpenSea also announced expanded support with Polygon, and noted that “Buyers no longer have to pay blockchain fees when making trades on OpenSea.” OpenSea has become the latest crypto unicorn after it announced a $100 million Series B funding round led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz at a valuation of $1.5 billion. The unicorn status is attributed to firms that are valued at over $1 billion, and OpenSea now joins a long list of crypto unicorns such as Coinbase, Animoca Brands and Chainalysis to name a few. We're expanding! Announcing our $100M raise and $1.5B valuation, led by @a16z OpenSea is also now cross-blockchain. NFTs that you create can now be gas-free, allowing creators to fully earn their way into crypto for the first time Details ↯ https://t.co/EeQfyZTxUA 1/2 — OpenSea (@opensea) July 20, 2021 The fundraise included participation from hedge fund and private equity firm Coatue, along with backing from figures such as former Walt Disney president M...

Chainlink onboards an average of 1.4 new partners each day in 2021

Chainlink is onboarding new partners twice as fast in 2021 compared to 2020. Leading oracle provider, Chainlink, has onboarded partner integrations at a rate of more than 1.4 daily during 2021 so far. According to the archives of Chainlink’s ecosystem portal, 281 different crypto projects have announced integrations during 2021 so far, with the calendar currently 201 days into the year. With all time third-party Chainlink integrations currently totaling 650, that means 43% of the project’s partners were onboarded this year. By contrast, roughly 250 partners integrated with Chainlink during all of 2020. While many of Chainlink’s partners are little-known projects in their nascent stages, some of the crypto sector’s leading players have recently teamed up with the oracle provider, including Huobi’s ECO Chain, the Hedera Governing Council , and Alchemix. An increasing number of projects are also utilizing Chainlink’s Verifiable Random Function (VRF), which offers decentralized app...

Green energy crypto mining ETF launches on New York Stock Exchange

The new exchange-traded fund will focus on environmentally friendly crypto mining infrastructure firms. An exchange-traded fund focusing on more environmentally friendly crypto mining operations and infrastructure has been launched in the United States. The new Viridi Cleaner Energy Crypto-Mining and Semiconductor ETF started trading on Tuesday, July 20, on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ‘RIGZ’. The product is part of growing efforts to attract mainstream investors with a focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. Viridi Funds, which launched the new investment product, stated that the fund also invests in crypto mining infrastructure businesses and semiconductor companies such as Samsung Electronics, Nvidia Corp., and Advanced Micro Devices, according to Law360 . Viridi CEO Wes Fulford, a former CEO of Bitfarms, said the fund will focus on clean energy screening. He said that the migration of mining out of China to North America was good news, as m...

MTI Investors Urged to Ignore Fake Bitcoin Recovery Offers

Beleaguered Mirror Trading International (MTI) investors have been told to ignore unsolicited offers from individuals claiming to have the ability to trace and recover their missing bitcoins. This warning from the court-appointed liquidators was made after reports emerged that several MTI investors had received such bogus offers from individuals claiming to be agents for cryptocurrency organizations. Fake Agents According to a report , these so-called agents have been asking MTI investors that may be interested in their services to pay them in bitcoins. However, in his warning to investors, MTI joint liquidator Adriaan van Rooyen dismisses the agents’ claims. He said: We have information that MTI members are being contacted by people purporting to be agents with access to MTI’s database. These agents are falsely claiming they can recover bitcoin deposited by members into MTI. This is clearly yet another attempt to defraud members of the MTI. Only the provisional liquidators have a...

MakerDAO to dissolve Foundation and become truly decentralized again

MakerDAO plans to complete its roadmap to decentralized governance with the dissolution of its foundation in the coming months. Pioneering decentralized finance protocol, MakerDAO, has announced its foundation will formally dissolve in the coming months, marking one of the final milestones in the protocol’s roadmap to decentralized governance. A July 20 blog post describes Maker’s decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, as now being “fully self-sufficient” — with its globally distributed community “now responsible for every aspect of the Maker protocol.” “Complete decentralization of Maker means that future development and operation of the Protocol and the DAO will be determined by thousands or perhaps millions of engaged, enthusiastic community members, all determined to extend the benefits of digital currency to people across the globe.” The post’s author, Maker Foundation CEO, Rune Christensen recounts highlights from the project’s six-year journey, with Christensen havi...

ETH developer Virgil Griffith back in jail after allegedly checking Coinbase account

Griffith will likely spend the next two months in jail before his trial in September. Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith has violated the terms of his bail and has been taken into custody after he allegedly accessed his cryptocurrency account. The remand order came from U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel after Griffith reportedly sought to access Ethereum assets held by Coinbase in May. The Ethereum Foundation researcher will likely spend the next two months behind bars. He is scheduled to be tried on September 21 on charges of conspiracy to violate sanctions with North Korea and faces up to 20 years inside. According to Law360 , Judge Castel’s main concern was flight risk since the assets Griffith held had jumped in value into the $1 million range, which may have influenced his decision to check the wallet, the judge stated. Prosecutors sought remand on July 9, claiming that Griffith violated bail terms that sharply restrict his internet use. He allegedly accessed Coinbase to c...

Auditors reveal USDC backing as Jim Cramer sounds alarm over Tether's mad money

Grant Horton has conducted an audit on USDC’s reserves and Jim Cramer has questioned what's going on with Tether's commercial paper reserves. Auditors working for Circle have disclosed the reserves backing the firm’s USDC stablecoin, while Mad Money’s Jim Cramer has questioned Tether’s lack of transparency with its USDT reserves. Multi-national tax advisory firm Grant Horton conducted the audit, and a reserve attestation report was published on July 20 which showed that 61% of USDC’s reserves were held in cash and cash equivalents equating to $13.4 billion, as of May 28. Circle’s total commercial paper accounts for 9% of its reserves, and the figures provide a stark contrast to Tether’s reserves, in which undisclosed commercial paper accounted for 49.5% of its total reserves — something that Cramer has been "sounding the alarm" about recently. The Circle report defines cash as deposits at banks and Government Obligation Money Market Funds, while cash equivalents...

Treasury Secretary Yellen Asks US Regulators Overseeing Crypto Assets to ‘Act Quickly’ to Regulate Stablecoins

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has asked the regulators overseeing crypto assets to “act quickly to ensure there is an appropriate U.S. regulatory framework in place” for stablecoins. U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Public Affairs announced Monday the outcome of the meeting of the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets (PWG) which Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen convened to discuss stablecoin regulation. The meeting , which took place Monday, was joined by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). “In the meeting, participants discussed the rapid growth of stablecoins, potential uses of stablecoins as a means of payment, and potential risks to end-users, the financial system, and national security,” the announcement details, adding: The Secretary underscored the need to act quickly to ensure there is an appropriate U.S. regulatory framework in place … The PWG expects to issue recommendatio...

JPMorgan Says a Lot of Clients See Cryptocurrency as Asset Class and Want to Invest

JPMorgan says a lot of its asset and wealth management clients think cryptocurrency is an asset class and they want to invest in it. “Our job is to help them to put their money where they want to invest,” said the CEO of J.P. Morgan Asset & Wealth Management. A Lot of JPMorgan Clients Consider Cryptocurrency an Asset Class Mary Callahan Erdoes, J.P. Morgan Asset & Wealth Management’s CEO, talked about her firm’s approach to cryptocurrencies in an interview with Bloomberg Wealth, published Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase’s asset and wealth management line of business is one of the world’s largest investment managers and private banks, with $3.4 trillion in client assets. Erdoes, who joined the firm 20 years ago, was asked what she would do if a client came to JPMorgan and said that they wanted to invest in cryptocurrency. Specifically, she was asked: “Do you say you shouldn’t do it? do you facilitate it? or are you still evolving your position?” The chief executive replied by firs...

Mastercard Enhancing Program for Cryptocurrency Wallets and Exchanges

Payments giant Mastercard has announced that its crypto card program is being enhanced for cryptocurrency wallets and exchanges. The company said, “Making the process simpler will allow more banks and crypto partners the opportunity to offer their consumers the choice of paying with cryptocurrency.” Mastercard Making It Simpler to Convert Cryptocurrency to Traditional Fiat Currency Mastercard announced Tuesday that “it will enhance its card program for cryptocurrency wallets and exchanges,” making it “simpler for partners to convert cryptocurrency to traditional fiat currency.” The company elaborated: Mastercard and its partners will test this new capability to enable more banks and crypto companies to offer a card option to people wanting to spend their digital assets anywhere Mastercard is accepted. The enhancement to Mastercard’s existing crypto card program involves a suite of key partners. Evolve Bank & Trust and Metropolitan Commercial Bank will issue cards, while Upho...

Circle Publishes USDC Attestation, Reserve Report Reveals Segregated Accounts in USD-Denominated Assets

On July 20, the CEO of Circle Internet Financial LLC., Jeremy Allaire, published a blog post that explains the firm’s dollar-pegged stablecoin is backed by “prioritized trust, transparency, and accountability.” Allaire’s blog post follows a letter from the Centre Consortium’s accountant, Grant Thornton explaining that the stablecoin’s reserve account information matches the accompanying reserve account report, which is “correctly stated.” Circle Publishes Stablecoin Reserve Transparency Blog Post, Letter from Grant Thornton, and the Latest Reserve Attestation At the end of May, the cryptocurrency community started discussing the stablecoin usd coin (USDC) as the project’s reserve backing attestations were running late. At the time, USDC’s token issuance was swelling rapidly and at the end of the month, the Centre Consortium partner Coinbase revealed interest-bearing USDC accounts with 4% APY. A few days later, Circle disclosed that the project expanded to the Tron network, and p...

Study suggests Canadian CBDC could promote digital innovation within the country

The Bank of Canada suggested that a Canadian CBDC could provide a number of innovations, including the elimination of transaction fees from debit and credit cards. A study released by Canada’s central bank, Banque du Canada, has noted a number of favorable reasons that the country could benefit from its own Central Bank Digital Currency, or CBDC. The document laid out two scenarios that might result in the bank issuing a CBDC at some future date. One would be if citizens were no longer widely using cash within the country for reasons that were left unspecified. The other could be if a digital currency, public or private, were to become so widely adopted as to threaten the sovereignty of Canada’s existing central currency. Participants did not see either scenario as a likely outcome in the near future, but noted that an interest in stablecoin regulation and adoption had increased within the country in recent months. Even so, the study found that cryptocurrencies and stablecoins use...

Crypto.com deploys its Ethereum Virtual Machine chain testnet

Running on a proof-of-authority consensus algorithm, Cronos is powered by Ethermint, a proof-of-stake chain interoperable with Ethereum and EVM-compatible chains. The Crypto.com chain testnet allowing projects built on Ethereum to transfer over to its ecosystem from chains compatible with Ethereum Virtual Machine is now live. In a Tuesday announcement, Crypto.com said it had launched the testnet for its Ethereum Virtual Machine, or EVM, chain called Cronos, running in parallel to the Crypto.org chain. The chain is aimed at providing developers the ability to move projects from Ethereum and EVM-compatible chains to the Crypto.org ecosystem, giving users greater access to DeFi features like smart contracts. “We are going to provide full support for developers building on Cronos: technical, funding, marketing — everything you need to turn your idea into reality,” said Crypto.com CEO and co-founder Kris Marszalek. “Combined with easy dapp portability, I’m confident we will see an expl...

Robinhood Aims for $35 Billion Market Valuation in Upcoming IPO

An amended prospectus filed yesterday by Robinhood indicates the company is aiming to get a valuation of up to $35 billion in its upcoming IPO. The fee-free options, cryptocurrency, and stock trading service is expecting to sell up to 55 million shares and raise more than $2 billion when the IPO launches next week. Robinhood Aims for $35 Billion Valuation Robinhood, the fee-free, trade-it-all exchange, is aiming to achieve a valuation as high as $35 billion in its upcoming IPO, according to an amended prospectus filed with the SEC on Monday. The exchange, which is reportedly going public as soon as the next week, expects to sell about 55 million shares in its IPO to raise more than $2.3 billion in the process, with a share price in the range of $38 to $42. The exchange, whose self-imposed mission is to democratize access to investment products, reached a valuation of $11.7 billion last September. At the time, Robinhood raised $460 million in an extension of its Series G funding r...

Enjin plans to use NFTs to promote sustainability and equality as member of UN pact

The company previously said it planned to enable carbon-neutral NFTs by 2030, and claimed its JumpNet blockchain is already carbon-negative. The United Nations Global Compact, a non-binding pact aimed at encouraging businesses to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, has accepted nonfungible token and blockchain gaming and platform Enjin as a participant. Enjin announced today it would be exploring ways to use nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, to promote sustainability and equality as part of the UN pact. The company suggested using the technology to fight climate change by employing it in carbon capture companies and reducing the global wealth gap by allowing creators around the world permissionless access to NFT markets. "While we are struggling to recover from the global pandemic and its impacts, we are experiencing exponential growth of technologies like AI and blockchain,” said the head of the Centre for AI and Robotics at the United Nations Interregional Crime...

FTX smashes crypto funding record with $900m raise to become exchange decacorn

The crypto derivatives exchange has seen its valuation soar over the past year, reflecting the rapid growth of digital assets over the same period. FTX, the cryptocurrency derivatives exchange founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, has closed a $900 million funding round – highlighting once again that venture capitalists are shrugging off market turmoil in their quest to uncover quality blockchain plays. The Series B investment round had over 60 participants, including Softbank, Sequoia Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Multicoin, VanEck and the Paul Tudor Jones Family. With the raise, FTX’s valuation has grown to $18 billion, making it one of the largest cryptocurrency companies in the world. Just one year ago, the derivatives exchange had a valuation of $1.2 billion. Related: FTX crypto exchange integrates institutional trading tool ClearLoop Founded in 2018, FTX operates one of the largest crypto derivatives businesses in the world, with average daily volumes exceeding $10 billion. With a...

$13K Bitcoin price predictions emerge with BTC falling below historic trendline

The 50-week simple moving average earlier offered incredible support for Bitcoin's long-term bullish bias, but bears convincingly took it during the June 19 sell-off. Bitcoin ( BTC ) prices broke below a long-standing support wave that was instrumental in keeping its strong bullish bias intact after March 2020's crypto market crash. Dubbed the 50-week simple moving average, or 50-week SMA, the wave represents the average price traders have paid for Bitcoin over the past 50 weeks. Over the years, and in 2020, its invalidation as price floor has contributed to pushing the Bitcoin market into severe bearish cycles. Bitcoin price breakdowns below 50-week SMA through history. Source: TradingView For instance, the 50-week SMA acted as support during the 2018 bear market. The wave helped prevent Bitcoin from undergoing deeper downtrends — between February 2018 and May 2018 — as its price corrected from the then-record high of $20,000. Similarly, the wave provided Bitcoin with ...

Majority of institutional investors ready to buy digital assets, study says

A new study found that institutional investors’ appetite for digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, is growing. New data shows that institutional investors’ interest in cryptocurrencies and crypto-related businesses is continuing to grow. Fidelity Digital Assets, the crypto arm of the global asset management giant Fidelity Investments Inc, tasked Coalition Greenwich to survey 1,100 institutional investors to understand their expectations regarding digital asset investments. The majority of surveyed investors expected to invest in digital assets in the future. The survey was conducted between December 2020 and April 2021 with the participation of high net worth investors, family offices, digital and traditional hedge funds, financial advisors and endowments, Reuters reported . The definition of digital asset investment defined by the survey team included investing in cryptocurrencies directly, buying crypto-related company stocks, or exposure through other investment pro...

Museum of Bitcoin Mining History Opens Its Doors in Venezuela

A new museum dedicated to the history of bitcoin mining opened its doors in Venezuela last weekend. The institution will allow visitors to learn about the history of cryptocurrency mining, going from its roots to the current state of the mining industry. The museum is part of a private initiative started by Criptoavila, a mining-dedicated company. Museum of Bitcoin Mining History Debuts in Venezuela A newly created Museum of Bitcoin Mining History opened its doors to the public in Venezuela last weekend. The new initiative pushed by Criptoavila, a private company whose members have nine years of experience in the mining business, aims to introduce people to the world of bitcoin mining. The museum, which is located in Caracas, will be open to all audiences and will be free to enter. According to Criptonoticias , the exhibition will show the evolution of Bitcoin mining since its central processing unit (CPU) origins, passing through the graphics processing unit (GPU) mining stage. Th...