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Showing posts from August 20, 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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Altcoin Roundup: Here’s a few things to consider when buying NFTs

The dawn of the Metaverse is upon us, and NFTs are forming the foundation of a new economy where users easily store assets and transfer value. The nonfungible token (NFT) sector of the cryptocurrency ecosystem has made waves that splashed across the headlines of even mainstream news outlets in 2021. Celebrities, musicians , sports teams, established auction houses and even fast-food restaurants got involved with the creation and/or sale of one-of-a-kind digital items.  With the top NFT marketplaces like OpenSea seeing record-breaking trading volumes as projects like CryptoPunks and Pudgy Penguins see tens of millions of dollars in value exchanged daily. However, it can be challenging to know which projects have the ability to hold or increase in value long-term and which ones are likely to fizzle out once the hype dies down. NFT projects that fit into the growing crypto metaverse and offer multiple ways to engage and earn a yield such as play-to-earn and staking features hav...
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Missouri mayor suggests giving residents up to $1K in Bitcoin

Jayson Stewart hinted Cool Valley residents could be required to HODL the funds for five years. The mayor of Cool Valley, Missouri said he was exploring giving more than $1 million in Bitcoin to the city’s 1,500 residents.  In a Thursday interview with St. Louis news outlet KSDK, Mayor Jayson Stewart said he wanted to see “every single household in my city receive some level of Bitcoin.” Stewart said the funds would likely come from some “very supportive donors” but did not rule out using money from the government’s pandemic relief response to launch the venture. The mayor did not specify how much Bitcoin ( BTC ) the city would be able to distribute to each resident, but suggested it could be any amount up to $1,000 — roughly $1.5 million, or more than 30 BTC at the time of publication. However, he also hinted the funds could require Cool Valley residents to HODL for five years. “My number one concern is that someone just sells their Bitcoin to pay their car note, and then wh...
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3 reasons why Avalanche (AVAX) price is up 200% this month

A rapidly expanding DeFi ecosystem and a new low-cost bridge to the Ethereum network are just a few reasons why AVAX price is up 200% in August. Layer-one blockchain networks like Bitcoin ( BTC ) and Ethereum ( ETH ) form the foundation of the cryptocurrency ecosystem and enable smart contract functionality that has allowed the creation of new industries like decentralized finance (DeFi) and nonfungible tokens (NFT). Avalanche (AVAX) is a relatively new layer-one solution that has recently seen a significant increase in price and adoption as the dominant smart-contract platform (Ethereum) continues to struggle with high transaction costs and slower processing times than its competitors. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that after hitting a low of $12.24 on Aug. 3, the price of AVAX rallied 205% to a multi-week high at $37.42 on Aug. 20 as its 24-hour trading volume surged to more than $1.4 billion. AVAX/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView Three rea...
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Helping Afghanistan: Organizations currently accepting crypto donations

Basic needs for refugees, medical care on the ground, and visa assistance — some crypto users are sending tokens to nonprofits and others to help the Afghan people. With thousands of Afghans currently being accepted as refugees in different countries following the Taliban’s takeover of many highly populated areas, many nonprofit organizations are accepting donations in cryptocurrency. Thousands if not millions of Afghans are attempting to or are in the process of fleeing their home in fear of what the Taliban may do now they are largely in control of the country. Organizations helping refugees and those on the ground have put the word out: they need funds to support Afghans arriving on foreign soil with often little more than the clothes on their backs. Hearts & Homes for Refugees, a New-York based grassroots nonprofit, is currently calling for donations to assist the roughly 20,000 Afghans still in the country waiting for U.S. authorities to process special immigrant visas. T...
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Price analysis 8/20: BTC, ETH, ADA, BNB, XRP, DOGE, DOT, SOL, UNI, BCH

Bitcoin has resumed its move toward $50,000 and this is likely to send altcoin prices higher. Wells Fargo, in partnership with NYDIG and alternative assets manager FS Investments, has registered a new investment fund dubbed “FS NYDIG BITCOIN FUND I,” which will offer the bank’s wealthy clients an opportunity to gain indirect exposure to Bitcoin ( BTC ).  In another sign of growing institutional interest, filings submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by BlackRock show a 6.71% stake in Marathon Digital Holdings and a 6.61% stake in Riot Blockchain. BlackRock’s total investments in both the publicly traded Bitcoin mining firms are roughly valued at $384 million. Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360 Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced on Aug. 20 that the company’s board had approved a proposal to add $500 million worth of crypto to the balance sheet and allocate 10% of the profits earned into crypto purchases in the future. With thi...
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VanEck and ProShares apply to withdraw Ethereum ETF filings from SEC

It’s unclear why both asset managers chose to apply for and withdraw seemingly similar applications for Ether ETFs on the same days. Less than two days after submitting separate applications to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, asset managers VanEck and ProShares have seemingly decided not to pursue exchange-traded funds with exposure to Ether. In individual Aug. 20 filings with the SEC, legal representatives of VanEck and ProShares both said the firms had elected not to proceed with registering their respective Ether-based exchange-traded funds, or ETFs. VanEck had submitted a filing to launch an “Ethereum Strategy ETF” with the SEC on Aug. 18, while ProShares applied for an “Ether Strategy ETF” the same day. Both products had seemingly aimed to provide exposure to Ether ( ETH ) by investing in futures contracts as well as pooled investment vehicles and other exchange-traded products. It’s unclear why both asset managers chose to apply for and withdraw seemingly simi...
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Bitcoin's race to $50K heats up as solid institutional backing continues

Bitcoin’s recent “golden cross” pattern formation was previously witnessed when BTC’s value surged on two occasions in 2020. The crypto market has been surging recently and there’s one cryptocurrency — Bitcoin ( BTC ) — leading the way. After having suffered through volatility for the better part of the last 60-some days, the flagship crypto has showcased a high level of recovery, even breaking past its 200-day moving average earlier this month, suggesting that a move to the $50,000 psychological barrier may be in the cards soon. To really put things into perspective, over the last month alone, BTC has registered gains of more than 55%, helping to take the total market capitalization of this relatively nascent space back beyond the $2 trillion threshold. These startling figures can, in large part, be attributed to increased institutional adoption that has been witnessed in relation to this industry in the recent past.  In this regard, some of Bitcoin’s most significant institu...
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Clearing the air: Renewably sourced Bitcoin may ensure a clean energy future

Crypto mining companies leveraging renewables may also have a much larger impact on clean energy for the environment. Bitcoin ( BTC ) may be the last thing one might consider when thinking about ways to ensure a clean-energy future. This has especially become the case following a tweet sent by tech entrepreneur Elon Musk back in May, in which he stated that Tesla would stop accepting BTC payments due to the increasing usage of fossil fuels for mining.  Yet raising awareness around the high energy costs typically associated with Bitcoin mining didn’t negatively impact the crypto ecosystem — in fact, it did just the opposite. Following Musk’s tweet, a number of cryptocurrency mining companies came out of the woodwork to explain how Bitcoin can be mined using renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar and geothermal energy. It’s also important to point out that leveraging renewable energy to mine Bitcoin had been the case for some companies long before Musk raised concerns on...
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Digital intelligence must overcome challenges to solving crypto crimes

Changing an intelligence agency's perspective on crypto crime is the next step toward a successful crypto investigation. While the value of cryptocurrencies has varied wildly in the last year, this has not diminished crypto’s attractiveness to criminals. Many of them are moving their illegal activities underground and outside the view of law enforcement. Because of the public nature of most blockchains, however, this rapid movement shouldn’t be a major concern to law enforcement agencies. With the right tools and training, following the proceeds of crypto-enabled crime is actually not as difficult as it may seem. However, intelligence agencies must have a cryptocurrency investigation plan that includes the right tools to lawfully collect digital evidence and the properly trained personnel to investigate these types of crimes when they arise. Digital intelligence (DI) is a two-part definition — the data collected from digital sources and data types (think smartphones, computers...
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Brazil’s central bank president endorses crypto regulation

Central bank head Roberto Campos Neto recognizes the demand for greater crypto regulation as the country evolves in the market. Speaking at an online  event organized by the Council of the Americas, Roberto Campos Neto, president of the Central Bank of Brazil, shared his views on transparent payments networks, the country’s central bank digital currency project and crypto regulation. Campos Neto has been a staunch advocate of the cryptocurrency space since taking office in 2019. His progressive policy-making has been an encouragement to investors and organizations alike, ambitious to modernize the Brazilian financial infrastructure. During the event, Campos Neto mentioned several ongoing discussions with Brazil’s Securities and Exchange Commission on how to welcome cryptocurrencies into the regulatory landscape: “The financial market is changing so much that it’s all becoming data. We need to reshape the world of regulation.” Fernando Carvalho, CEO of QR Capital, t...
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Unstable Bitcoin price to pivot investment flow to gold, mining chief says

Evolution Mining’s executive chairman said gold and Bitcoin could coexist, but the latter is not yet mature enough to deliver the established safe haven assurance of the former. Jake Klein, CEO of Australian gold mining establishment Evolution Mining, has said that crypto price volatility will make gold a far more attractive proposition. Speaking to CNBC on Thursday, Klein argued that Bitcoin ( BTC ) is still ways away from offering the longstanding security associated with gold from a hedge investment perspective despite Bitcoin’s returns outsizing gold by several orders of magnitude in the last decade. According to Klein, crypto is still a speculative play, and the attendant volatility inherent in such markets will point investors back toward gold. The unstable nature of cryptocurrency prices is an often-cited criticism of crypto as an asset class. Back in June, Francesca Fornasari of BNY Mellon subsidiary outfit Insight Investment argued that Bitcoin’s price volatility, among ...
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Swedish gov't pays out $1.5M in Bitcoin to convicted drug dealer

The Swedish prosecutor had argued in court that the man should be stripped of his illicitly-earned Bitcoin at the equivalent value in fiat currency at the time of his conviction. The Swedish government has found itself in the unforeseen situation of paying out around $1.5 million worth of Bitcoin ( BTC ) to a convicted – and then jailed – drug dealer. Two years ago, the man was convicted in a Swedish court for having illegally earned 36 Bitcoin through online drug sales. Yet, Tove Kullberg, his prosecutor at the time, had used the Bitcoin's equivalent value in fiat to make her case. The court, therefore, judged that the man should be stripped of his illicitly earned Bitcoin at its then-value of 1.3 million Swedish kronor ($100,000). In the period following the man's conviction and imprisonment, his crypto stash had appreciated to such an extent that the Swedish Enforcement Authority, tasked with auctioning off the 36 BTC, needed to sell off just 3 BTC to satisfy the court’...
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Bitcoin price returns above $47K as crypto market shrugs off Binance KYC news

Neither Bitcoin nor altcoins are in any mood for cold feet on Friday, with gains in some of the top 10 cryptocurrencies topping 10%. Bitcoin ( BTC ) abruptly exited lower levels to challenge firm resistance on Friday in further inspiration for bulls.  BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView Bitcoin coils up beneath major sell wall Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView  showed BTC/USD hitting local highs of $47,415 on Bitstamp overnight on Thursday. The pair had received a welcome boost from news of a Bitcoin fund launch from Wells Fargo, which fuelled 24-hour gains of over 5%. Now, Bitcoin was primed to challenge established resistance levels at $47,000 and higher — these nonetheless keeping bulls in check at the time of writing.  For popular trader and analyst Rekt Capital, a key support area to watch was now broader — between $44,000 and $46,500. “BTC successfully Daily Closed above orange, which has led price to immediate r...
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