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Showing posts from October 13, 2021

St. Louis Fed’s James Bullard Would ‘Support Starting the Taper in November’ to React to Inflation

St. Louis Federal Reserve president James Bullard told the press on Tuesday that he thinks the U.S. central bank needs to wind down the buying of $80 billion worth of monthly bond purchases. Bullard says he would support tapering starting as early as November, in order to “react to possible upside risks to inflation next year.” St. Louis Fed President Has Been ‘Advocating Trying to Get Finished With the Taper Process’ On Tuesday, Bitcoin.com News reported on the rising concerns over inflation as the Federal Reserve’s latest Survey of Consumer Expectations (SCE) report explained U.S. households believe inflation will be higher a year from now. It’s been more than 20 months since the U.S. central bank started its massive quantitative easing (QE) programs to combat the disastrous economic consequences of government-ordered lockdowns and supply chain shutdowns. *BULLARD: CONCERNED THAT INFLATION RISKS ARE TO THE UPSIDE Oh rly? — zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 4, 2021 The govern...

Billionaires are backing Bitcoin over gold ... but some say Ethereum is even better

“The reason I own Bitcoin is because the U.S. government and every government in the western hemisphere is printing money now to the end of time,” said Billionaire Barry Sternlicht. Following JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon's recent comments that Bitcoin is worthless, two well known billionaires have leapt to its defense — although both of them say Ether has some even more desirable properties. During an interview with CNBC's Squawk Box on Oct. 13, Barry Sternlicht, the co-founder of Starwood Capital Group said that gold was actually “worthless” and he is hodling Bitcoin (BTC) because every government in the “western hemisphere” is printing endless amounts of money. Sternlicht is estimated to have a net worth of around $4.4 billion and is known for his investments in the real estate market via Starwood Capital Group. The investment firm was founded in 1991 and reportedly has around $95 billion worth of assets under management (AUM). Sternlicht was asked for his take on Jamie Di...

G7 leaders issue central bank digital currency guidelines

Financial leaders from the G7 agree that CBDCs would complement cash and should not be detrimental to the monetary system. Group of Seven advanced economic nations has been discussing central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) this week, concluding that they should “do no harm” and meet rigorous standards. Finance leaders from the G7 met in Washington on Oct. 13 to discuss central bank digital currencies and endorsed 13 public policy principles regarding their implementation. The G7, which comprises Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K., and the U.S., mandated that any newly launched CBDCs should “do no harm” to the central bank’s ability to maintain financial stability. In a joint statement, G7 finance ministers and central bankers said : “Strong international coordination and cooperation on these issues helps to ensure that public and private sector innovation will deliver domestic and cross-border benefits while being safe for users and the wider financial system.” It a...

Crypto Firm Owners Plead Guilty to Tax Evasion, Face up to 5 Years in Prison

The owners of a cryptocurrency firm that raised approximately $24 million from more than 13,000 investors have pleaded guilty to tax evasion. “These crypto-savvy defendants exploited an emerging technology, lying to their investors, pocketing the proceeds, and concealing the income from the IRS,” said acting U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham. Crypto Firm’s Founders Face up to 5 Years in Jail The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Tuesday that the owners of a cryptocurrency company have pleaded guilty to tax evasion. Bitqyck founders Bruce Bise and Samuel Mendez were charged with tax evasion in August. Bise pleaded guilty on Sept. 9 and Mendez pleaded guilty Tuesday morning. Citing plea papers, the DOJ detailed: Mr. Bise and Mr. Mendez admitted that Bitqyck raised approximately $24 million from more than 13,000 investors. Instead of fulfilling their promises to these investors, the defendants used Bitqyck funds on personal expenses, including casino trips, cars, luxury home furni...

Almost 1.1M people have already signed up for Coinbase NFT waitlist

Sanchan Saxena, the Vice President of product at Coinbase said yesterday that the “insane” amount of traffic from signing up to waitlist temporarily broke the site. There have already been more than 1 million sign-ups for Coinbase’s NFT platform since the waitlist went live on Oct.12. Coinbase opened up the waitlist via a blog post announcing its upcoming NFT platform which is slated to launch later this year . The platform dubbed “Coinbase NFT” will initially support the Ethereum-based ERC-721 and ERC-1155 token standards, with plans to expand support to other blockchains in the future. At the time of writing, there are almost 1.1 million people waiting for early access to the NFT platform. Sanchan Saxena, the Vice President of product at Coinbase tweeted that the “insane” amount of traffic for the waitlist temporarily broke the site. Thanks for your patience everybody - for the last few hours, we have ramped up and scaled things for you to be able to sign up for the NFT market...

UK Gambling Commission opens inquiry into fantasy NFT soccer game Sorare

The UK gambling watchdog is trying to determine whether or not fantasy NFT soccer game Sorare should be required to have a gambling license. The Gambling Commission in the UK has opened an inquiry into Sorare, a popular NFT fantasy soccer game that raised $680M in a funding round last month “The Gambling Commission is currently carrying out enquiries into the company to establish whether Sorare.com requires an operating license or whether the services it provides do not constitute gambling.” However Sorare — which closed a $680 million funding round for its NFT trading card platform in September — denied it was involved in anything approaching “regulated gambling”. “We are very confident Sorare does not offer any forms of regulated gambling. This has been confirmed by expert legal opinions at every stage since the company was founded, including during a number of fundraising rounds,” it said on the company blog . According to a "consumer information notice" from the C...

Bitcoin miner Stronghold will list almost 6M shares in its $100M IPO

The firm uses a sustainable energy source by converting waste coal into power to mine Bitcoin. U.S. Bitcoin mining company Stronghold Digital Mining will list almost six million shares in an initial public offering on the Nasdaq. Stronghold plans to list 5,882,352 Class A common stock shares priced between $16 and $18 under the ticker “SDIG”. Taking the average proposed offering price puts the IPO at around $100 million. The Kennerdell, Pennsylvania-based firm first filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a Nasdaq IPO in July . It will fund an almost 900% expansion in capacity in the coming year. The final prospectus has already been filed with the SEC, but it has yet to become effective. Stronghold plans to become the first North American crypto mining company to go public through an actual IPO, according to Nasdaq . This is different from the now popular direct listing and Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPAC) avenues. Stronghold intends to grant underwri...

Bank of England’s Deputy Governor Says Crypto Collapse Plausible, Regulators Need to Urgently Establish Rules

Bank of England Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe says that a collapse in the cryptocurrency market is certainly “plausible,” stating that regulators worldwide need to pursue crypto rules “as a matter of urgency.” While cryptocurrencies do not currently pose a threat to the country’s financial stability, the deputy governor says there are some “very good reasons” to think that this might not be the case for very much longer. Crypto Collapse Plausible, Crypto Rules Are ‘a Matter of Urgency’ Bank of England Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe talked about cryptocurrency and its regulation on Wednesday at the SIBOS conference. He emphasized that regulators worldwide need to work quickly and establish rules to regulate cryptocurrencies, given the rapid growth of the industry and how long it takes to put new rules in place. He said: Regulators internationally and in many jurisdictions have begun the work. It needs to be pursued as a matter of urgency. As an example of how long it takes to estab...

New tickers and ARK filing shows Bitcoin futures ETF approval imminent: Analyst

According to Bloomberg Senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas there are “good signs” that the SEC will approve Bitcoin futures ETF applications from Ark Invest and Valkyrie. Bloomberg’s senior ETF analyst says there are “good” signs that a Bitcoin ETF will soon be approved, pointing to Ark Invest filing for a Bitcoin futures ETF with an assigned ticker and Valkyrie updating its own ETF prospectus with a ticker. Cathie Wood’s Ark Investment Management LLC filed for a Bitcoin ( BTC ) futures ETF under the ARKA ticker, while Valkyrie has assigned its BTC futures prospectus with the BTF ticker. According to Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas, firms typically update their proposals when they have everything set and “ready for launch,” suggesting that Valkyrie may soon be given the green light by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Balchunas also pointed to Ark Invests’ Bitcoin futures ETF application on Oct. 13 in partnership with 21Shares and whiteAlpha Architect white labe...

Crypto Is a ‘Major Priority’ for Miami Mayor Building City Into Crypto Capital of the World

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez says that cryptocurrency is a “major priority” for him as he attempts to build his city into the crypto capital of the world. “I want us to differentiate ourselves as a crypto capital of the United States or of the world,” he said. ‘Major Priority’ — Miami Aims to Become Crypto Capital of the World Miami Mayor Francis Suarez talked about bitcoin and cryptocurrency in an interview with Bloomberg, published Tuesday. The mayor has been lobbying lawmakers to allow government employees to be paid in bitcoin in addition to allowing taxes to be paid in the cryptocurrency and for the city to invest a portion of funds in BTC . He was asked how much of a priority crypto initiatives were for him. Mayor Suarez replied: It’s a major priority for me because I want us to differentiate ourselves as a crypto capital of the United States or of the world. “We have actually done three things,” he shared. “One is that we are going to request a proposal in October to allow...

Bitcoin bulls target prices above $58K ahead of Friday’s $820M options expiry

$820 million in BTC options expire on Oct. 15, and data signals that bulls are set to celebrate another positive week. Everyone is talking about a six-figure Bitcoin ( BTC ) price now that the digital asset has broken out of its multi-month downtrend and confirmed that a bullish trend is in play. If Bitcoin happens to enter a parabolic move toward $110,000, that would finally match PlanB’s Stock-to-Flow model prediction. According to the pseudonymous analyst , the scarcity and valuation of gold and other precious metals and “Elon Musk’s energy FUD and China’s mining crackdown” are a few of the factors responsible for the past five months of 50% or higher inaccuracy in the model. Bulls’ hopes mostly cling to an exchange-traded fund being approved by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Currently, there are multiple requests pending review between Oct. 18 and Nov. 1, but the regulator could postpone its final decision. Oct. 15’s $830 million options expir...

Swiss Bank Seba Now Lets Customers Earn Yield on Crypto Holdings

A FINMA-licensed Swiss bank, Seba, has launched a program enabling clients to earn yield on their crypto holdings. In addition, the bank will “provide support for centralized lending and borrowing services, enabling investors to generate yield by lending bitcoin and ethereum directly with Seba Bank.” Seba Earn Lets Clients Generate Rewards From Crypto Investments Seba Bank, a digital asset banking platform licensed by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), announced the launch of Seba Earn Wednesday. The Switzerland-based bank described the new offering as “an institutional-grade solution enabling clients to earn yield on their crypto holdings.” Noting that “The launch of Seba Earn caters to growing demand from institutions to manage a range of digital asset yield use cases from staking to decentralized finance (defi), and centralized lending and borrowing,” the bank elaborated: Seba Earn’s comprehensive staking management platform will enable institutions and ...

BoE deputy gov: Regulators should pursue crypto as a ‘matter of urgency’

The central bank official spoke about the risks that cryptocurrencies and stablecoins may pose when connected to traditional financial systems through individuals, financial institutions, hedge funds and banks. Jon Cunliffe, deputy governor for financial stability at the Bank of England, said the risks of a growing crypto market on the financial system are “relatively limited” at the moment but have the potential to grow very rapidly if regulators do not keep pace. In a speech to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) on Oct. 13, Cunliffe said policymakers around the world have only just started to develop the framework needed to properly regulate digital assets but should pursue it “as a matter of urgency.” The deputy governor spoke about the risks that cryptocurrencies and stablecoins may pose when connected to traditional financial systems through individuals, financial institutions, hedge funds and banks. Given that digital assets are continuin...

NFT Gaming Pioneer Vulcan Forged Launches New DEX for Gaming Tokens

PRESS RELEASE. Vulcan Forged has launched a new and revolutionary decentralized exchange for gaming tokens following the success of its gaming metaverse, VulcanVerse. Cardiff, United Kingdom – Blockchain gaming platform, Vulcan Forged , is announcing the launch of the first-ever decentralized exchange (DEX) purpose-built for gaming tokens, VulcanDEX . The DEX will allow users of the gaming platform to trade any gaming token without the need to register. Players will then be able to use their newly acquired tokens in their respective game. Users will also be able to stake gaming tokens to facilitate exchanges in VulcanDEX, with users earning rewards in proportion to their share of specific liquidity pools. The DEX currently has 4 active pools for this purpose, with several more, including $YGG, $SAND $AXS and $VNLA coming soon. Moreover, in-game assets can be farmed in VulcanDEX in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), creating an active economy that involve several popular bloc...

Olympus DAO chases a new ATH after fresh bond offerings and partnerships

OHM price is on the verge of a new high after a series of cross platform integrations, fresh bond offerings and the launch of Olympus Pro prove that the project has strong fundamentals. The rapidly evolving world of blockchain technology offers a wide range of approaches and tokenomic models aimed at solving the blockchain trilemma of creating a decentralized, stable and secure network. One tokenomic model that has seen several variants over the past year is the 'rebase' model, which is designed in a way so that token balances can fluctuate over time depending on changes in the token price and the supply in circulation. Olympus (OHM) is a rebase project that has caught the attention of many in the crypto space over the past six months — in large part thanks to the high yield offered to OHM stakers, which is currently above 7,000%. Olympus staking dashboard. Source: Olympus DAO What sets Olympus apart from other protocols in the market, including other rebase projects li...

Defi and Algorithmic Stablecoin Demand Grows in 2021 Despite Large Centralized Competitors

On Wednesday, October 13, 2021, the market capitalization of all the stablecoins in existence is around $134 billion, which is 5.60% of the entire $2.4 trillion crypto economy. While centralized stablecoin projects dominate the pack of dollar-pegged tokens, a great number of decentralized stablecoins have been moving in on these centralized competitors. Algorithmic or defi-styled stablecoin market caps have accrued billions of dollars this past year. While Tether and USD Coin Eclipse the Market, Algorithmic Defi Stablecoins Still Shine Tether ( USDT ) is one of the oldest and the largest stablecoins by market cap today, while the second-largest stablecoin valuation belongs to usd coin (USDC). Data from Coingecko’s stablecoin-by-market-cap metrics indicates that on October 13, there’s $134 billion in stablecoin assets. A great majority of those funds belong to tether and usd coin as USDT has a market cap of around $70.9 billion and USDC commands $33.3 billion. Despite controversial...

Polkadot to debut parachain auctions after governance vote

The first series of auctions will begin on Nov 11 and run until Dec. 9 Polkadot (DOT) has laid out a schedule to debut parachain auctions on Nov. 11 following unanimous approval from the blockchain’s on-chain governance council members. The news marks a landmark achievement as it fulfills the final core technical element of the whitepaper published five years ago. Parachains are uniquely distinctive layer-1 blockchain platforms that operate laterally alongside the main Polkadot network, in addition to being tethered to the Polkadot Relay Chain. Their purposeful function can be witnessed across a multitude of areas from decentralized finance to smart contracts. Speaking at the Sub0 Conference as representatives of Parity Technologies, Polkadot founders Gavin Wood and Robert Habermeier confirmed that Polkadot now holds the technical capabilities to implement parachains, auctions and crowdloans for the first time. In an immediate response, Proposal #118 was moti...

Price analysis 10/13: BTC, ETH, BNB, ADA, XRP, SOL, DOGE, DOT, LUNA, UNI

Bitcoin remains strong above its recent breakout level, but several major altcoins are still under pressure until BTC reveals its next move. Bitcoin ( BTC ) has been sustaining above $54,000 for the past few days but that has not resulted in euphoria among investors. Google Trends data shows that Bitcoin search interest has not picked up in recent days and is nearing one-year lows. Some analysts believe that this is a sign that only stronger hands are accumulating. A recent report from CoinShares also showed that institutional investors pumped more than $226 million into Bitcoin products in the week ending Oct. 8. The analysis firm estimates that the total assets under management of institutional crypto products have ballooned to $66.7 billion, just 5% below the record hit in May. Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360 Data from Glassnode also shows that the Bitcoin wallets of long-term holders contain 13.3 million Bitcoin , accounting for 70% of the entire ...

Jelurida will launch 30-day blockchain education campaign across East Africa

The tour will begin in Zanzibar on Oct. 23 before continuing on to Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania. The African arm of the company behind the Ignis, Nxt and Ardor blockchains will be launching a multi-country tour to provide blockchain education in the public and private sectors. According to information provided to Cointelegraph, Jelurida Africa said it would begin a blockchain expedition starting with Tanzania’s self-governing state of Zanzibar on Oct. 23 before continuing on to Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania. The group aims to promote blockchain education with meetups in universities, financial institutions and public offices. The team of distributed ledger technology and smart contract experts said it plans to reach out to local lawmakers and private firms as well as developers and blockchain enthusiasts in the respective countries as part of the tour. “If you look at our relationship within th...

Report: Kenya Has Fourth-Highest Interest in Cryptocurrency Globally

Kenya has the fourth-highest interest in cryptocurrency globally, a new research study by Broker Chooser has found. According to the study, only three countries — Ukraine, Russia, and the United States — have had higher searches for cryptocurrency in the last 12 months than Kenya. Crypto Searches in Kenya Highest in Africa According to a Citizen newspaper report , searches for cryptocurrencies originating from Kenya during the twelve-month period topped 99,810. Alternatively, this means there was an equivalent of 18 searches per 10,000 people during this period. The ranking of Kenya as the country with the fourth-highest searches for cryptocurrency globally means there is greater interest per capita in the East African state than in Nigeria and South Africa. Furthermore, the study estimates the number of cryptocurrency owners in Kenya to be approximately 4,580,760. In terms of awareness of crypto, the study found Kenya’s score to be 5.5 out of a possible 10. Despite the surging ...

SEC Chair Gary Gensler actually is pro-Bitcoin, Vault Equity CEO argues

Vault recently received approval for an ETF that includes stocks in various crypto-related companies. The founder of Vault Equity believes that United States regulators have a fair reason to be slow in approving a pure Bitcoin ( BTC )-related exchange-traded fund (ETF). Vault Equity CEO and founder Tad Park voiced support for the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding the regulator’s unwillingness to approve an ETF that would track Bitcoin directly. In a Tuesday Fox Business interview, Park argued that SEC chair Gary Gensler “actually is pro-Bitcoin” but is also “a little bit misunderstood” regarding his perspective on crypto regulation in the U.S. Park specifically referred to the SEC’s investor protection concerns, namely that crypto custody providers have yet to assure the commission that they can actually ensure proper asset protection: “I can say ‘I have a gold ETF or a Bitcoin ETF’ but I’m storing that gold in my basement. Is the SEC gonna allow tha...