“We’ve deployed the Arbitrum contracts on Ethereum mainnet, and have begun onboarding infrastructure and projects. The developer interest and enthusiasm for Arbitrum has exceeded our wildest expectations. Over 250 teams have requested access for our developer launch, and we can’t wait to see what they build on Arbitrum and how much gas savings this will enable.

Arbitrum One is initially open to all developers that have requested access, and we’ll open it up to end users once there’s a quorum of live projects that have deployed on the network and are ready to go live. We will guarantee that all projects that have already applied and are granted access will have at least two weeks to build and test before we open Arbitrum One to everyone.“

---

“To Cory Doctorow, internet users have become serfs to the barons and nobles of Silicon Valley. In this “feudal security model” when the masses try to vote with their dollar or their click, as they would in a free market, they can’t escape the oligopoly power of tech giants.

We live in this world where bandits run amok wanting to do terrible things to you and your data. Both implicit and explicit forms of collusion, combined with a monopoly rent by not having to compete, allows firms to really structure markets and create policies that advantage them.

The term Web3 refers broadly to a movement to re-decentralize the internet, replacing the current hub-and-spoke architecture with something more distributed and closer to the old model of clients and servers. Blockchain and cryptocurrency are an epiphenomenon of this push.

Web3 is really attuned to the problem of freedom. Seize the means of computation.”

---

---

“The unique technology underlying the mistX platform utilises Flashbots and as such transactions processed via mistX do not publish user transaction information to a public mempool, but instead bundle transactions together. This effectively hides the information from front-runners and thus prevents your transactions from being manipulated, front-run, or sandwiched.

mistX is the first time in Ethereum history that FlashBots is available to regular users for front-running protection. There is no concept of reverts on mistX, your transaction is either successful with no front-running, or you pay nothing.

There are none of the typical gas fees associated with Ethereum transactions processed by mistX, instead, when trading from a token to ETH, or ETH to a token, fees are determined and handled as a portion of the transaction’s value. When trading with Ethereum using mistX, no longer will you need to ensure your wallet holds additional Ethereum to cover gas fees.

Inspired by the insights promulgated by Flashbots and their deep understanding of the MEV crisis, we recognise the dark forest that lurks in the Ethereum network and have developed mistX as a solution that enables the end user to navigate the dark forest safely.”

See Also: Tale of Thales, binary options re-imagined
See Also: Connext: Solving the Cross-chain L2 Liquidity Problem
See Also: Chico on mistX (Video)

---

“Art studio Robert Alice has created the first iNFT, an NFT linked to a machine-learning chatbot. The asset in question is a machine-learning bot that uses a generative language model based on the OpenAI GPT-3 engine. That means she’s able to hold (somewhat stilted) conversations about life, the universe and everything.

Today we have static images, GIFs and videos. The next iteration of this is going to be when you can have interaction and some level of intelligence in the character itself or in the art form.

Alethea AI is exploring the commercial possibilities of iNFTs.

We’ve been approached for some very interesting use cases where they want to bring back celebrities, and make them come back to life. So you might have an interactive, intelligent version of Elvis, or Einstein might teach you something.

“Alice” is being auctioned off at Sotheby’s in June as part of a collection of digital artworks. What the winner of the Sotheby’s auction actually gets is a bundle of content: the seed text, the image file, and the personality data that is stored on-chain.”

---

“The problem: most DeFi protocols today require you to pay an interest rate ranging from 3% to 10% per year. And these rates can change any time! These loans also require high over-collateralization, usually between 130 to 150%, meaning you can only borrow against a fraction of what your ETH’s worth.

Liquity provides a cheaper and more capital efficient alternative to borrowing against your ETH. Instead of paying an expensive and variable interest rate, users pay a much cheaper, one-time fee ranging from 0.5% – 5% (most often 0.5% – 0.6% during normal times), with no additional costs and no fixed loan duration. Additionally, Liquity only requires a minimum collateral ratio of 110%*, giving you better capital efficiency and more downside protection during volatile markets.”

---

“In regard to Microsoft’s migration to a solution powered by enterprise Ethereum, Brody remarked that EY is seeing an overall trend, where companies are shifting their focus toward public blockchains and closing down their private-blockchain-centric hosting businesses. Given ConsenSys’ ownership of Quorum, along with the company’s long-term relationship with Microsoft, it makes sense for Microsoft to join with ConsenSys.

From the Microsoft Azure Blockchain Service user perspective — which includes major corporate customers such as JPMorgan, GE Aviation, Singapore Airlines, Starbucks and Xbox — the migration to QBS may not have much of an impact.

The Microsoft program to migrate software contracts for the Xbox ecosystem to Ethereum-based smart-contracts continues to gain steam, with over 300 companies now integrated.”

---

“Regulators may understandably regard privacy tokens and related technologies as ripe for abuse by money launderers and bad actors. But Wednesday’s panelists argued that restricting their use would be both legally misguided and bad for society.

At the end of the day, the technology shouldn’t be what’s being regulated, it should be the uses of the technology. A cashless society is a surveillance society, and anonymity is absolutely necessary for civil liberties.

According to Salm, self-hosted software or hardware wallets such as Ledger should remain safe from scrutiny by agencies like the U.S. Treasury Department’s FinCEN. That’s because the coins are legally similar to cash, which generally isn’t subject to search or seizure without a warrant. The rising popularity and effectiveness of decentralized exchanges, or DEXs, poses an even more complex regulatory challenge.

The best solution to blunting regulatory overreach may be to offer regulators a form of oversight that doesn’t involve mass surveillance.

The more you’re able to become surgical in understanding account behavior, the less you need to surveil all activity. That doesn’t necessarily mean having access to all this information, it’s about using more advanced data analytics [and] machine learning in order to connect various dots.”

---

“Bitcoin’s mining difficulty fell by 16% on Sunday to 21 trillion, the sharpest decrease this year. The correction suggests that Chinese miners are pulling the plug in advance of further crackdowns on mining by the government.

Inner Mongolia has already begun to crack down. The region’s autonomous government is reportedly considering adding Bitcoin miners to social credit blacklists and has proposed the revocation of telecommunications licenses for miners.”

“The three ETPs to be listed on the Bourse will give investors exposure to bitcoin and ether. The third product is a “short bitcoin” ETP. So far, 21Shares has listed crypto ETPs in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. Due to investor demand, the investment firm is now expanding its range to France.

On the same day, New York-based investment management firm VanEck will be listing two bitcoin and ether ETPs on the Euronext stock exchanges in Amsterdam and Paris.“

See Also: VanEck Lists Crypto ETPs on Euronext Stock Exchanges in Amsterdam and Paris
See Also: American convenience store chain now accepts Bitcoin payments

---

“The Series A will help Set decentralize its protocol and grow its lineup from four to as many as 20 multicoin investment vehicles.

What we aim to be is the BlackRock of crypto.

To get there, Set has homed in on portfolio development. Its protocol allows users to gain exposure to many coins, usually bundled thematically, by purchasing a single token. There’s the UNI-heavy DeFi Pulse Index, the Metaverse Index long on tokens from virtual worlds and a pair of leveraged products.

Think of them as crypto-native exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Everything is non-custodial.”

See Also: USDC-Creator Circle Snares $440 Million in Funding Round
See Also: Google Cloud Now Provides Blockchain Insights for Polygon Network

---

“Bitcoin (BTC) failed to sustain moves above $40,000 resistance on Thursday as the broader uptrend weakens. The cryptocurrency was trading around $36,000 at the time of writing and upside appears limited into the weekend.

A bearish trend reversal is on watch after months of slowing momentum, consolidation and a downside break below $50,000 and $40,000.”

See Also: About $2.1 Billion in Bitcoin Options Expired Today

---

“When inflation is high enough that consumers prefer to minimize cash holdings, the cost of establishing and securing a new digital currency system is low, and the platform’s market share is sufficiently large, then it is optimal for the platform to issue its own currency.

As an example from the paper cited in the brief, for Amazon to turn a profit from issuing and accepting only its own digital currency, interest rates would need to be above 11%, or the retail giant would need a much larger market share. The authors’ model also suggests that high regulatory costs in the U.S. would dissuade platforms from such an issuance.

For companies, the authors say that a key benefit is seigniorage revenue – the profit from selling the digital currency. It also cites loyalty benefits, data harvesting and lower settlement risk as reasons for companies to issue their own tokens.

Historically, this revenue has been reserved for sovereign nations, which have long held a monopoly on money creation.

Examining whether regulators should be worried about private digital currencies, the authors point out that company decisions are based on profit, not benefits for society, and their digital currencies could circulate outside the platform to compete with sovereign currencies.“

---

“The SEC’s complaint charges promoters including U.S.-based Trevon Brown (aka Trevon James), Craig Grant, Ryan Maasen and Michael Noble (aka Michael Crypto) with violating the registration provisions of federal securities laws. The complaint also charges U.S.-based Joshua Jeppesen with aiding and abetting Bitconnect’s offer and sale of securities.

We allege that these defendants unlawfully sold unregistered digital asset securities by actively promoting the Bitconnect lending program to retail investors. We will seek to hold accountable those who illegally profit by capitalizing on the public’s interest in digital assets.

According to the complaint, the promoters received commissions based on their success in soliciting funds. The complaint seeks injunctive relief, disgorgement plus interest and civil penalties. While no criminal complaints were filed, the FBI has been investigating Bitconnect for the last three years.“

---

“The budget published Friday, the first from the Biden administration, includes two proposals that would give the Treasury Department additional requirements around what type of information financial institutions must report to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) or other Treasury sub-departments.

The first proposal would “expand the scope of information reporting by brokers” by allowing them to share information across different jurisdictions that have partnered with the U.S. The proposal would take effect for returns filed after Dec. 31, 2022, according to the document.

The second proposal would require financial institutions to report data on user accounts with a breakdown on different types of transfers above a de minimis threshold of $600.”

---

“According to a report by decentralized app marketplace DappRadar, the average number of NFT sales rose almost 300%, from 21,815 per day in January, to 82,373 in May (so far). This number rose even higher as crypto prices started to plummet on May 12, with sales surging to almost 94,000 NFT transactions a day.

Although the number of trades has increased, the value per trade took a hit immediately as crypto prices started to drop. The first 11 days of May saw an average of $14.9 million traded daily, however, since then, the volume dropped to under $6 million per day. Many NFT owners appear willing to take a loss this month with the average token sale price dropping from $180 to $70.”

---

“The NNS has been the subject of criticism, with users expressing concerns regarding the centralization of voting power, the closed-course and patented code underpinning the protocol, a lack of transparency regarding data collection, and the single point of failure created by the NNS’ design.

Some have expressed qualms about NNS voting rights accruing over time, fearing that the system guarantees Dfinity’s foundation and its early backers will maintain centralized control over the network in the future.

The end goal is that the Internet Computer is fully decentralized and not controlled by DFINITY or anybody else.

Critics have also estimated that as much as 74% of the ICP token’s supply could be centralized among “private interests” including the project’s team, investors, and advisors. Nick from the Dfinity Foundation countered the claim, asserting that only 24.72% of supply is held by seed donors.”

See Also: How Dfinity’s Internet Computer Will Integrate Ethereum

---

“U.S. billionaire and one-time cryptocurrency skeptic Carl Icahn is contemplating a potential $1.5 billion investment in digital currencies. The activist investor said he’s looking at investing in crypto in “a relatively big way.”

I’m looking at the whole business, and how I might get involved with it.”

See Also: Bitcoin Outflow From Exchanges Suggests Confidence Crypto Rout Is Over

---

“The asset manager becomes the second firm to submit an ETH ETF application with the U.S. regulator, after VanEck. Approval would see Ethereum investments become readily available to U.S. retail traders.

Canadian regulators have moved much more swiftly on both fronts. There, investors can choose between multiple bitcoin and ether ETFs.”

---

“The Uniswap community has voted in favor of launching the leading decentralized exchange’s v3 iteration on layer-two scaling solution, Arbitrum. Arbitrum claims to have achieved a reduction in gas costs of 55 times for its testnet port of Uniswap v2 in November 2020, supporting 390 swaps per second compared to jusseven on the Ethereum mainnet.

Uniswap’s creator, Hayden Adams, announced the vote on May 27, revealing the proposal’s governance vote received 41.35 million votes in favor and zero opposing votes from UNI token holders. He noted that work is already underway to plan the deployment and design its interface.

Adams said that the Uniswap team remains “incredibly excited” for the launch of rival layer-two scaling solution, Optimism. Adams noted Uniswap is still targeting a deployment on Optimism for ‘the near future.'”

---

See Also: Binance.US CEO Brian Brooks: Excluding Crypto Banks From Fed System Is ‘Dangerous’

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“What is unique is that every resource from raw ore and spaceship fuel to planetary manufacturing bases and utterly unique starships is an immutable non-fungible token (NFT) built on Ethereum’s ERC-721 standard — with a twist.

Specifically, the Farsite token (FAR) is a cNFT, a proposed standard for a nonfungible token that holds some amount of ERC-20 tokens, making it usable as loan collateral or for staking. Within Farsite, these cNFTs contain the game currency — credits — with 1 FAR token hard-coded to 1,000 credits. While those cNFTs are largely designed to be used in-game, they will also be tradable on external NFT marketplaces like OpenSea, giving an extra financial impetus to the game’s economy.

That said, Farsite makes use of those credit-loaded NFTs in-game in a number of ways. Most notably, they act as insurance policy for spaceships, as they are unlocked and returned to the owner if a ship is destroyed in battle. However, they also allow players to use ships and other high-value items — ship blueprints, manufacturing stations and the like — as collateral for in-game loans.”

---

“On May 28, the United States president will announce the massive fiscal policy, the largest since the Second World War. Biden reportedly wants the federal government to spend $6 trillion in 2022. He also plans to raise the total spending to $8.2 trillion by 2031.

Biden had earlier proposed significant tax hikes on America’s richest companies and individuals to fund his massive spending program. But it would take the government at least until 2030 to shrink its budget deficits, the Times reported. That means the United States would face a monumental debt burden as it borrows money to finance Biden’s record proposal.

The government is proposing to push our country further into debt while simultaneously destroying the value of our currency. Historians will write that the government accelerated the destruction of the world reserve currency as the citizens cheered them on.”

---

“Securitize, a digital asset securities firm, has launched two crypto security yield funds: one based on bitcoin (BTC) and the other denominated in the stablecoin USDC.

We will get inflow of money into the fund in fiat currency, convert into USDC or BTC and lend back to Genesis and Anchorage and collect yield.

The Securitize Capital BTC Yield Fund will offer investors exposure to BTC with a 2% annualized yield. The USDC Yield Fund will offer a much higher yield of 6% to 8% annually. And both funds will have a management fee of 0.50%. For now, both yield funds will be available to accredited and qualified investors.”

---

“Crypto lending platforms and so-called decentralized finance (‘DeFi’) platforms raise a number of challenges for investors and the SEC staff trying to protect them.

Gensler previously told the House Financial Services Committee that stronger regulation around crypto exchanges could help protect investors. In particular, he suggested a dedicated market regulator for the crypto markets would provide some protection around fraud and manipulation, two concerns the SEC has often cited in rejecting bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) applications.”

See Also: US SEC wants to work with Congress to regulate crypto exchanges
See Also: US Lawmakers Introduce Bill to Require Digital Dollar Updates

---

“CipherTrace, which has counted Binance as a client for some time, will likely appease crypto regulators with regard to the experimental DeFi space, an area the global anti-money laundering watchdog the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recently warned is on its radar.

One of CipherTrace’s duties is assessing the degree of know-your-customer (KYC) activity that happens across the universe of virtual asset service providers (VASPs).“

See Also: Mayhem in Binance Leveraged Tokens During Crypto Crash Leaves Traders Fuming

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“China’s nationwide crackdown on crypto mining could create a competitive environment in which only the biggest miners can survive, said a co-founder and managing partner of Waterdrip Capital, a major investor in the Chinese crypto mining industry.

Finding suitable sites outside the mining hubs requires a lot of resources such as capital and network. Only the most experienced and deep-pocketed miners will be able to carry out such a plan.”

---

“Blockchain’s potential to sustain a distributed, tamper-proof infrastructure for collective digital memory has taken on an unexpected political salience for citizens in Hong Kong.

Soon after Hong Kong’s public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong, or RTHK, revealed its intent to erase any archived content older than one year, residents hurried to save a trove of past news footage that had until now been freely available to the public.

The fight over the collective record of the past has long been underway at an official level, encapsulated by the Hong Kong police’s attempt to rewrite the narrative of one of the most violent and traumatic episodes in the 2019 protests: an indiscriminate assault on civilians at the suburban subway station Yuen Long.

With LikeCoin’s blockchain infrastructure, in 10 (or however many) years from now, it will be possible to know whether or not the content has been tampered with by tracking any changes to its digital fingerprint. When it comes to historically significant archived video footage, that could offer a clue that the original file may have been reedited in a deliberately misleading way.”

“The layer 2 solution offers drastically higher transaction throughput than Ethereum, and gas fees that are up to 270 times lower. It’s been live on testnet since 2020. In development since 2018, Arbitrum is the first general smart contract Ethereum layer 2 rollup solution to go live.

Arbitrum, among other differentiating tech breakthroughs, is the only rollup that supports porting Ethereum contracts at the bytecode level without making any code modifications.

In tandem with the launch, Offchain Labs is partnering with developer platform Alchemy to help devs more easily tap into the new network. Alchemy powers 70% of the top Ethereum applications and over $30 billion in on-chain transactions. The Arbitrum-Alchemy partnership drastically lowers the barriers to entry by meeting a large swath of developers where they already are.

High gas fees and slow transaction mining times have been the biggest pain points for Ethereum developers and users for quite some time.

Arbitrum’s layer 2 technology provides a long-needed solution. Over 150 projects have requested launch-day access to Arbitrum.“

See Also: Uniswap Holders Consider Arbitrum for Scaling DeFi’s Top DEX

1/ It's high time for @optimismPBC vs @arbitrum. I know you've been waiting for it so let's go!🔥🔥🔥

Long 🧵 pic.twitter.com/vPFtlfBTPS

— Kris Kaczor 🦆 (@krzKaczor) May 21, 2021

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“Global payments giant PayPal plans to let users withdraw cryptocurrency to third-party wallets. The company ships new developments every two months on average, he said, though it’s unclear when the withdrawal functionality is coming.

We want to make it as open as possible, and we want to give choice to our consumers. We want them to be able to take the crypto they acquired with us and take it to the destination of their choice.”

See Also: Mastercard Exec Shares Thoughts on Crypto Rewards, Stablecoin and CBDC Plans

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“Fidelity Investments’ first bitcoin fund has raised $102 million from wealthy investors since launching last August, according to Wednesday regulatory filings. Some 83 investors pooled their bets (at a minimum of $50,000 each).

That’s enough to make Fidelity’s offering one of largest of its kind. Only Pantera, Galaxy and NYDIG, which recently began providing access to Morgan Stanley clients, have reported more than $100 million in sales for a bitcoin-only fund.

Fidelity has moved to launch a more broadly available bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) – also under the “Wise Origin” brand.”

See Also: BlackRock Is ‘Studying’ Crypto, Which Could Someday Play Role Akin to Gold, CEO Says: Report
See Also: SEC Starts Official Review of SkyBridge, Fidelity Bitcoin ETF Applications

---

“A sparsely populated page on GameStop’s website said the company is welcoming ‘exceptional engineers … designers, gamers, marketers, and community leaders‘ to join the team and includes a link to an Ethereum address. The video-game retailer has already created a token for its NFTs on Ethereum.

While details of the planned platform are so far in short supply, a graphic stating ‘Power to the players. Power to the creators. Power to the collectors,’ may suggest NFTs will be based on gaming.”

---

“Polygon revealed that its SDK was designed to mirror a “Polkadot on Ethereum” approach, which could see the emergence of a multichain network for Ethereum. The Polygon SDK contains several plug-and-play modules with custom-made solutions for parameters like consensus and synchronization.

The Polygon SDK will reportedly exist in two iterations, with the first version allowing developers to create standalone chains that have complete interoperability with the Ethereum network. In the second Polygon SDK iteration, developer teams will be able to create actual layer-two protocols directly connected to the Ethereum mainnet.

With the Polygon SDK, we are solving pressing needs for Ethereum’s multi-chain future, including ease of deployment and inter-L2 communication.”

---

MAPPING THE METAVERSE

A new world order is here: The ETH x DeFi x NFT metaverse.

This is my attempt to map it all. Please share this crazy thread and say hi 👋 🦊

tl;dr – this is so much bigger than I ever imagined… and none of us has enough #ETH for what is about to happen. pic.twitter.com/awZotThGhR

— Kaspar ☾ (@_Kaspar__) May 18, 2021

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“The authors estimate European security token growth of around 81% per year over the next five years across assets such as real estate, debt and fiat currencies. Upcoming regulations are expected to align with the aim of the European Commission to create a ‘harmonized digital asset market.’

The security tokens market is evolving dynamically and can still be considered to be in its infancy phase.”

---

“Amid power shortages caused by a lack of rain, Iran is again clamping down on cryptocurrency mining.

Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, has said mining operations must cease until Sept. 22 due to the load they place on the national power grid. Even authorized miners will have to halt operations.”

“The Rayonism hackathon wrapped up last week with the Nocturne testnet – a multi-client Merge testnet. Dozens of nodes and thousands of validators built and secured a beacon chain that provided native support for a rich Ethereum application-layer with accounts, contracts, and user transactions.

The Rayonism hackathon allowed teams to rapidly prototype core Merge designs and to better understand how this merged system will work in practice. All teams now have a deep familiarity with the structure of the Merge, and a clear visual on how their software will evolve in this coming year.

Client teams are now focused on this summer’s two forks – London and Altair – while researchers are back to Merge spec refinements and testing. After the summer upgrades, teams will shift their focus to the Merge, and begin tackling the production engineering with an eye toward public testnets.“

---

“People have flocked to high-yield crypto environments as interest rates for traditional investments are staying low by comparison. It’s been nearly a year since the DeFi summer, but the optionality has only increased, along with the amount of “money legos” that are being combined in different ways.

The fact that everyone can participate in affecting what the interest rate will be in these markets is a very big thing because, traditionally, big interest-rate movements have been decided by the banking industry; for example, by a few people sitting down with a room in London.

Prince said he saw real value in using interest rates to translate something really powerful that’s happening in the crypto ecosystem in the terms with which everybody is already familiar.

Everybody knows what an interest rate is. And everybody knows that earning 8.6% on something is better than earning 0.2%.”

See Also: Blockchain May Be ‘An Existential Threat’ to Fidelity, Institutional Head Says
See Also: DeFi Is Rising in Chicago

---

“The announcement Monday induced a flurry of debate as to whether such a “cabal” ran counter to Bitcoin’s underlying principles of decentralization. One of the founding members said the council has no intention to change “the nature of Bitcoin.” Still, the closed-door proceedings rubbed many the wrong way.

If you have a completely open network and the big open players on this open network openly and without any coercion decide to collaborate with each other, is that decentralization? It’s a little bit of a definitional issue.

As long as the network remains open, however, many concerns should be assuaged, he said.”

See Also: ‘This Isn’t the Start of OPEC’: New Bitcoin Mining Council Just Wants to Promote Greener Practices, Member Says

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“Chinese miners have been scrambling to look for overseas sites to host their mining machines following the State Council’s warning that it may crack down on crypto mining due to environmental concerns.

I have been having conversations all weekend, starting since last Friday, with Chinese miners looking to co-locate in the U.S. I think the consensus right now is there are too many uncertainties to tell if this is actually going to take place or not.

Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi has shuttered its miner hosting services in mainland China. Crypto mining pool BTC.TOP suspended its operations in China and HashCow said it will stop buying new rigs.”

See Also: Chinese Province Proposes Social Credit Blacklisting of Bitcoin Miners: Report
See Also: Bobby Lee Says Latest China ‘Bitcoin Ban’ Nothing to Fear and Nothing New

---

“Professor George Church, co-founder of Nebula Genomics and Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, is minting an non-fungible token (NFT) of his genomic data, a first for the world of NFTs. The inspiration for the NFT comes, in part, from thinking about how genomic and health data can be fairly shared and monetized.

While NFTs are most widely known for popularity with artists, they are expanding into other areas. They’ve been used as a mechanism for selling cybersecurity exploits and for proving your location in the Internet of Things.

Church said he sees a future where individuals can choose to license their data to third parties as NFTs and set their own rules and permissions for who has access to that data.

We’ve partnered with Oasis to develop technology where individuals can selectively grant permission to their data. This permission can also be revoked. Essentially, it will be possible to temporarily license data to third parties without forever giving it up.”

See Also: TechCrunch Founder’s Apartment to Be Sold as NFT
See Also: Christie’s Auction House Exec: NFTs Are the ‘Art World’s Napster’
See Also: Dapper Labs’ NBA Top Shot Has Crossed the Million-User Mark
See Also: Russian Artists to Sell NFTs to Support Journalists Under Pressure
See Also: OG Crypto Artist Josie Bellini Talks About the Future of NFTs (Video)

---

“Decentralized infrastructure provider SpaceChain is expecting to send a number of commercial services into orbit next month.

The first will see SpaceChain’s “space node” launched and ultimately installed at the International Space Station (ISS). That will act as a first demonstration of Ethereum technology on SpaceChain’s existing hardware aboard the ISS. The firm said having an Ethereum node in space brings physical security when transacting in crypto assets.

The security of space infrastructures also ensures the independence of Ethereum contract operation from centralized terrestrial servers, thus providing more efficient smart contract operation and greater application scenarios.

The second launch, expected June 24, will bring about the installation of Bitcoin nodes created for cryptocurrency exchange Biteeu and Nexus Inc. on a YAM-2 satellite.”

---

“The tower will incorporate a wireless network aiming to improve access to digital ledgers. Anyone within a certain radius of the tower would have access to blockchains, irrespective of their cellular or internet connection. The plan is for the network to be made available on more skyscrapers, including some outside of Manhattan.

This one building will be able to connect — sort of like a hand radio operator — everyone in New York City to a crypto trading wireless communication.”

---

“China’s BSN appears to be fired up over private/permissioned or “consortium chains,” citing applications across industry, government and areas like medicine. Red Date’s He showed off the BSN architecture for the first time in public, albeit at a “very early stage.” Unlike blockchain projects in the West, China’s BSN initiative is backed (and guided) by the government.

Do not put 100% of your resources into public chains and cryptocurrencies. Just give a little bit of money and resources to the underlying technology and research.”

---

“Concerns about a looming global debt crisis have taken the world’s top hedge fund manager from doubting bitcoin (BTC) to dabbling in it.

Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio said the U.S. dollar is on the verge of devaluation on a level last seen in 1971 and that China is threatening the greenback’s role as the world’s reserve currency. In such an environment bitcoin, with its gold-like properties, looks increasingly attractive as a savings vehicle, said Dalio, whose firm started 2021 with $101.9 billion in assets under management, making it the world’s largest hedge fund.

With one currency (the dollar) possibly on the wane while another (the renminbi) possibly ascendant, there is the chance a neutral cryptocurrency such as bitcoin could act as gold did in previous centuries.

Personally, I’d rather have bitcoin than a bond.

I have some bitcoin.”

---

“Jay Clayton, the SEC’s ex-Chairman, is now a crypto advisor at One River. Ironically, it looks like Clayton, who previously rejected Bitcoin ETF applications during his time at the SEC, could help One River get approved.

One River today filed an application to the SEC for a carbon-neutral Bitcoin ETF. It is the latest high-profile company to do so (the SEC is currently reviewing eight applications) and the market is, according to analysts, hungry for such a product.

The Trust intends to offset the carbon footprint associated with Bitcoin by purchasing and retiring carbon credits necessary to account for the estimated carbon emissions associated with the bitcoins held by the Trust.”

See Also: A16z Tells Congress SEC Disadvantages ‘Ordinary Folks’ From Token Investing

---

“Monday’s quick recovery came as demand from wealthy investors appears to have brought relief to the battered cryptocurrencies. Also adding support to bitcoin’s price Monday, Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio said that he owns some bitcoin during an interview.

The oldest cryptocurrency extended its gains Monday afternoon, after Musk tweeted about bitcoin mining’s “promising” renewable usage.

Spoke with North American Bitcoin miner. They committed to publish current & planned renewable usage & to ask miners WW to do so. Potentially promising.

The miners have agreed to form the Bitcoin Mining Council to promote energy usage transparency & accelerate sustainability initiatives worldwide.”

See Also: Chinese Bitcoin miners abandon ship ahead of incoming crypto crackdown

---

“Announced Monday, the six-year-old project is announcing the launch of Augur Turbo. Notably, the new sportsbook will live on Ethereum layer 2 Polygon, drastically cutting down on fees on the platform.

With the Chainlink integration, users can create betting markets for the National BasketBall Association, Major League Baseball, Mixed Martial Arts and the Olympics. Support for the National Football League, college football, soccer, tennis, golf and esports will soon follow. Chainlink will deliver data such as schedules, post-game scores, team and player stats.“

---

“The partnership will see Opium plug into UMA’s Optimistic Oracle product to provide financial derivatives for hedging risks related to SpaceX flights. The derivatives work as binary options contracts, allowing users to purchase insurance against a failed launch on SpaceX.

SpaceX’s SmallSat Rideshare flights allow multiple payloads to share launches into space. Owners of these payloads and their stakeholders may wish to hedge the risk of a failed launch. Insurance is already offered by SpaceX at about 5% of the value of the payload. Opium and UMA are attempting to compete with that.

If the market price is less than 5%, we can show how strong DeFi is in making insurance cheaper. If the market sets the price at more than 5% we can invite Elon to stake money and earn free interest.”

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“According to McLaughlin, the fact that tokens are an immutable ledger of digital signatures makes tokenization a superior base-layer for asset representation. Thus, the Citibank transaction banking chief urged financial services stakeholders to consider pivoting toward a token-based system for their digital money efforts to enjoy benefits like programmability and “always-on” operations.

Indeed, regulated decentralized finance, or reg-DeFi, is becoming a popular refrain among bankers. John Whelan, blockchain chief at Banco Santander, predicted that reg-DeFi — permissioned layer-two protocols on public networks — could be the future of finance.“

See Also: IMF Official: ‘A World With More Than One Reserve Currency Is a More Stable World’
See Also: Fed’s Brainard Breaks Down CBDC Policy Considerations, Sees Price Pressures Waning in the Future

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“Pairing policy measures with market-based mechanisms provides the recipe to supercharge climate alignment. To enable this transformation, climate-related information must be compiled into actionable metrics to drive demand signals for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction at all stages of production and distribution along supply chains.

Supply chain emissions, referred to as “scope 3” emissions, are often the largest contributor to corporate carbon footprints, yet they are regularly left unmapped or roughly estimated. This is primarily because they are not defined in a way that establishes unequivocal accountability, nor are they trackable.

We envision a digitally native system for supply chain accountability. This solution’s open-source attribution protocol would enable anyone to define, track and trace emissions, and to report disclosures. It would also allow anyone to trade physical goods and digital attributes and their associated credit certificates (e.g., carbon offsets and insets).“

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“The article comes in response to Elon Musk’s May 15 tweet asserting that Dogecoin will emerge as the leading chain if it moves to increase its block size by 900%.

Buterin challenged Musk’s proposition, emphasizing the challenge of seeking to achieve a sharp increase in scalability and throughput ‘without leading to extreme centralization and compromising the fundamental properties that make a blockchain what it is.’

Buterin stressed the need for decentralization to eliminate the risk of a network having a single point of failure and the protections that a widely distributed network enjoys against coordinated attacks. He added that decentralization cannot be achieved without regular users being freely able to run nodes.“

“We wanted to highlight the one thing we found notable in the 40 page report, is the bank’s preference for ethereum over bitcoin, which is not really surprising: as Mike Novogratz points out, ‘the three biggest moves in the crypto ecosystem—payments, DeFi, and NFTs—are mostly being built on Ethereum, so it’s going to get priced like a network. The more people that use it, the more stuff that gets built on it, and the higher the price will ultimately go.’

Goldman’s conclusion: ethereum is the platform that solves economic problems here and now, while bitcoin is “a solution looking for a problem.”

The market share of coins used for other purposes beyond currencies like “smart contracts” and “information tokens” will likely continue to rise. Bitcoin owners face accelerated network decay risk from a competing network.

In our view the most valuable crypto assets will be those that help verify the most critical information in the economy. A blockchain platform like Ethereum could potentially become a large market for vendors of trusted information, like Amazon is for consumer goods today.

As cryptocurrency use in DeFi and NFTs becomes more widespread, ether will build its own first-mover advantage in applied crypto technology. Ethereum can also be used to store almost any information securely and privately on a decentralized ledger. And this information can be tokenized and traded. This means that the Ethereum platform has the potential to become a large market for trusted information. We are seeing glimpses of that today with the sale of digital art and collectibles online through the use of NFTs. But this is a tiny peek at its actual practical uses.

Given the importance of real uses in determining store of value, ether has high chance of overtaking bitcoin as the dominant digital store of value. The greater number of transactions in ether versus bitcoin reflects this dominance. [Further], a major argument in favor of bitcoin as a store of value is its limited supply. But demand, not scarcity, drives the success of stores of value. No other store of value has a fixed supply. More important than having a limited supply to preserve value is having a low risk of dramatic and unpredictable increases in new supply. And ether, for which the total supply is not capped, but annual supply growth is, meets this criterion.”

See Also: Goldman’s Crypto Chief Worries About Fraud, but Not Cryptocurrency’s Future

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“Professional investors “get” DeFi much faster than they get Bitcoin (or Ethereum for that matter). The thing that really crystallizes the excitement around DeFi for traditional investors, however, is real-world examples like Uniswap and Aave.

For instance, traditional investors know Coinbase, which recently went public with a $60 billion valuation, making it the largest publicly traded crypto company in the world. It’s a phenomenal business, with a fast-growing user base and enormous revenue growth. But Uniswap is growing faster. From a starting point of zero a few years ago, Uniswap did $50 billion in turnover last month while generating over $250 million in fees. That’s incredible.

Similarly, Aave is a relatively new lending protocol, a decentralized competitor to BlockFi. The last time I checked, on May 16th, it had more than $8 billion in loans outstanding and was generating more than $1 million in revenue per day.

These are numbers that traditional investors can get their heads around. They are the vernacular of Wall Street: revenue growth, user growth, and so on. You can even apply traditional valuation techniques like price-to-sales multiples, whereas valuing bitcoin is extraordinarily difficult.

The way forward for DeFi is going to be extremely volatile. This is a very early market that faces a huge array of challenges, from regulatory risks to procyclical leverage to security concerns and more. But the long-term outlook is exciting, and the story is compelling, and I believe institutional investors may be entering the market in size sooner than many people think.“

See Also: Ultra Sound Conviction

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“Those looking to donate funds to local aid groups largely can’t because of long standing restrictions, by the U.S., Israel and other countries, on transferring money to bank accounts in the territories.

Banks in Israel and around the world are restricting business relationships with what they consider to be risky clients, along with Israel’s ongoing, severe controls on the movement of people and goods to and from Gaza, undermine Palestine’s economy and hinder development.

They also impact humanitarian and human rights organizations working in the region as well as businesses who have employees in Gaza, and block families from sending remittances to the Strip.

U.S. payment service Venmo, a subsidiary of PayPal, was delaying transactions that contained the words “Palestine” or “Palestinian” along with terms including “emergency fund.” PayPal’s flagship service also does not do business in Gaza or West Bank, although in 2016, TechCrunch reported that it “does work for Israelis living in settlements in the West Bank, which are illegal by international law.”

The use of sanctions as a geopolitical tool can violate human rights and halt entire populations from accessing financial services. Earlier this year, the U.N. called on the U.S. and European Union to ease sanctions on Venezuela as the restrictions – imposed with the goal of removing controversial President Nicolas Maduro from power– were exacerbating a humanitarian crisis. People in sanctioned countries like Venezuela and Iran are increasingly looking to alternatives like cryptocurrencies, that are relatively resistant to government censorship and other restrictions, to be able to conduct day-to-day transactions.”

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Elon Musk is the new John McAfee in crypto

Learn from history or be dooned to repeat it

— Andreas (BEWARE of giveaway scams!) (@aantonop) May 22, 2021

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“Bitcoin can help foster a more decentralized energy system than the one we have now. Our electrical grids are mostly built on centralized models, with large-scale generation plants and heavy-duty transmission lines carrying power from generation centers to the users in the regions.

So long as we keep the existing hub-and-spoke model in place, we continue to justify and serve the fossil fuel industries that feed into it.

The inefficiencies of the existing system are now clear. It’s expensive to build, maintain and operate long-distance transportation infrastructure and, in the case of electricity transmission, significant amounts of power are lost between the generating plant and the final destination. The system design also makes it an especially appealing target for hackers.

Bitcoin mining can help communities overcome the one obstacle that disincentivizes them from developing renewable microgrids: the significant cost involved in the initial outlay. Miners can provide revenue guarantees to these operators, allowing them to raise the capital needed to start building their systems. 

Decentralization, in the form of renewable energy created closer to where it’s consumed, is key to a more sustainable future. Bitcoin, as the decentralized value network, can help engineer that.”

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“Yes Eth2 is coming, we have layer 2 apps in production, and promising scaling solution like Arbitrum and Optimism coming soon. But today, there’s one scaling solution that’s garnered a lot of attention: Polygon.

The scaling solution now has over $11B in value locked and features a growing ecosystem of familiar DeFi protocols like Aave, Sushiswap, Curve, OpenSea and PoolTogether. No, it’s not perfect. It doesn’t inherit all of the security guarantees of Ethereum…yet. But it’s a step forward.

Bottomline for DeFi users: there’s a ton to do on the Polygon network today and the gas costs are virtually zero, so you should give it a try.”

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“Decentralized governance, a facet of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), is perhaps the most valuable application smart contracts could bring to humanity. DAOs can be thought of as living organisms on the internet, entities that would function autonomously according to distributed consensus mechanisms.

The desire for change in the political landscape is palpable and reflected in the growing voter absenteeism in many nations. Though decentralized parties will initially lack political influence, the craving for empowering technologies and purer forms of democracy will stimulate adoption over time.

The elimination of centralized power authorities would help protect citizens from government overreach and corruption, reduce bureaucracy and improve the speed at which laws and policies are passed.

Last month, a ground-breaking new law was passed in Wyoming, effectively recognizing DAOs as limited liability corporations (LLCs). As regulation catches up to technology, we may see these LLC DAOs progressively introduce decentralization into businesses and organizations.“

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Every time China "bans" #bitcoin 🙄 pic.twitter.com/z4uxqclxLn

— Chris Dunn (@ChrisDunnTV) May 21, 2021

“Bitcoin fell back below $37,000 on Friday as a top Chinese governmental body called for a crackdown on cryptocurrency mining, amplifying regulatory concerns. The decline happened after a Chinese government website published a statement summarizing a top-level meeting in which officials called for a crackdown on bitcoin mining and trading activities.

We should be more alert and look for potential risks. We should crack down on bitcoin mining and trading activities and prevent individual risks from being passed to the whole society.

Prices for the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization dropped to $36,800 from $41,700 during U.S. trading hours, erasing a sizable chunk of the corrective bounce from Wednesday’s low of $30,201.

This is one of the most high-profile warnings against cryptocurrencies in recent years. The State Council is the chief administrative authority of China, where heads of cabinet-level executive department make national policies.

Anti-bitcoin (mining) news regularly comes up, but this is worth monitoring. Miners in China I’ve spoken with are unsure of the impact right now.”

See Also: Hong Kong regulators set to ban retail Bitcoin trading

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“Blockchain data shows large investors remain confident of bitcoin’s long-term prospects and continue to accumulate coins on dips, shrugging off concerns about the negative environmental impacts of cryptocurrency mining.

Wallets linked with over-the-counter (OTC) desks registered an outflow of 10,292 BTC on Wednesday, when bitcoin tanked from $43,000 to nearly $30,000. That was the largest single-day outflow from OTC addresses in 3.5 months. The number rose further to 11,056 BTC on Thursday, hitting the highest level since Dec. 31 and taking the six-day tally to nearly 35,000 BTC.

Once again [there is] strong institutional demand. Whatever bitcoin lows we will see this summer, they won’t be for long.

We believe that most of the leverage is out of the system now, and bitcoin should start to form a base here. However, the sharp fall – 40% between Sunday and Wednesday – has eroded confidence, and it will take some time for bitcoin to regain upward momentum.”

See Also: Market Wrap: China Breaks Crypto as Bitcoin Falls to $36K, ETH Drops $300 in Two Hours
See Also: Everyone is buying the dip, but are they all buying BTC?

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“As the amount of energy needed to run bitcoin became clearer, this policy became no longer tenable.

Friends of the Earth, another environmental campaign group, told the FT it was considering the issue. On Friday, Bloomberg radio and TV host Lisa Abramowicz tweeted that asset manager Bridgewater Associates is warning that ‘bitcoin consumes as much energy as some countries, a barrier for investors focused on sustainability.’

Amid the outcry over crypto-based emissions, other bitcoin mining firms including Argo Blockchain have been stressing that its new facilities are largely powered by hydropower.”

See Also: Vitalik: Bitcoin may get ‘left behind’ due to its power usage

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“Bill 649 would create a charter that would give consumers and institutions places to custody their digital assets. The banks will look very similar to Wyoming’s special purpose depository institutions, such as Avanti Financial and Kraken Financial. The bill also allows already existing state-chartered banks in Nebraska to open crypto banking divisions.

Like Wyoming SPDIs, digital asset banks in Nebraska won’t lend in fiat, and each bank has to hold 100% of its assets in reserve. Unlike Wyoming’s SPDIs, the Nebraska digital asset banks can’t accept fiat deposits.”

1/ IT'S CLEAR a US #crypto regulatory crackdown is starting but I'm optimistic bc most of the major players/agencies have spoken already & the policy is taking shape: it's "pay taxes, comply w/ laws & don't take shortcuts, & we'll enable the innovation." It's NOT a "#bitcoin ban"

— Caitlin Long 🔑 (@CaitlinLong_) May 20, 2021

See Also: US Seeks Information About $1.4M EtherDelta Hack in 2017

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“With the Etherscan integration, Optimistic Ethereum users will now be able to monitor deposits and withdrawals in addition to viewing when L2 transactions are pre-confirmed and when they have been posted and finalized in batches on L1.

According to the Optimistic Ethereum roadmap, it expects to launch to public mainnet in July 2021. However some whitelisted protocols are moving ahead of that date. One of the first protocols to deploy Optimistic Ethereum (OΞ) is DeFi synthetic assets exchange Synthetix. Founder Kain Warwick stated that the rollout has taken longer than expected but is now imminent.

It really cannot be overstated how enormous a development this will be on OΞ. Especially as more protocols migrate and liquidity transitions to this new L2 infrastructure.”

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“A British Member of Parliament is more bullish on Ethereum than Bitcoin and has called on the government to let people experiment with crypto. Tom Tugendhat, MP for Tonbridge and Malling, devoted precious time in a speech of “Affordable and Safe Housing For Fall” on Wednesday to share his prediction that Ethereum will “flip” the market capitalization of Bitcoin.

I’m not going to go in the few moments left of the flippening and why I am going to be bullish on Ether and not Bitcoin, or the nature of the change in the Treasury that is needed to enable innovation that sees the sharing of prosperity on a global basis rather than a local one. We need to think about the contracts and currencies that will shape future trade and risk sharing.”

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“Commerzbank joined with chemical firms Evonik and BASF to test the use of blockchain and programmable money in managing supply chains between two companies. Payments were made in a fully automated and digital manner using programmable digital euros based on e-money using Commerzbank’s blockchain platform.

The two German chemical companies transmitted data to Commerzbank, which generated a “complete and tamper-proof depiction” of the business processes, with smart contracts validating the transaction.”

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“Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, told Acting Comptroller Michael Hsu that he is “concerned” about the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (OCC) granting national trust charters.

The lawmaker specifically pointed to the three crypto companies that have secured conditional OCC trust charters in the past five months: Paxos, Protego and Anchorage, and asked that Hsu “reassess” the conditional trust charters.

These companies suggest that the OCC’s approval of their charters guarantees their business model is as safe, stable and dependable for customers as a local community bank. The fact is, given the many uncertainties present in the digital asset landscape, the OCC is not in a position to regulate these entities comparably to traditional banks.

I urge you to review the procedures and guidelines followed within the OCC regarding the evaluation and approval of the Anchorage, Paxos and Protego charters to ensure that the OCC’s supervision and licensing standards remain both rigorous and equitable among charter applicants.”

See Also: US Treasury Calls for Businesses to Report Crypto Transfers of More Than $10K to the IRS

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“SEC chief Gary Gensler said Thursday that federal financial regulators should “be ready to bring cases” against bad actors in crypto and other emerging technologies. He said regulators should be ready to pursue deceptive private funds, accounting fraud, insider trading and a bevy of other potential regulatory pitfalls rippling throughout the capital markets.

As we continue to stay abreast of those developments, the SEC and FINRA [the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority] should be ready to bring cases involving issues such as crypto, cyber and fintech.

While hardly offering a playbook, Gensler’s remarks may bolster the perception that investor protection is a top priority for the Biden Adminstration’s SEC.“

See Also: Australian Minister Says Government Has ‘No Issue’ With Crypto Investment

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“ETF provider Teucrium Trading filed an application with the SEC to launch an ETF that would trade on NYSE Arca and would track a benchmark of bitcoin futures contracts.

While the SEC has yet to approve the application of any bitcoin ETF, Teucrium could be hoping the Teucrium Bitcoin Futures Fund (BCFU) would have an advantage over applications that propose ETFs that are physically backed by bitcoin.”

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“Bullish signs are everywhere at the time of writing. Funding rates are deeply negative; outflows from exchanges reached sky-high levels in the past 24 hours; and leveraged traders have been effectively washed out of the market with $8 billion in liquidations.

$46,000, around $6,000 or 15% above spot price, is apt to act as resistance should Bitcoin see a further impulse move on short timeframes. $46,000 is also where the significant 20-week weighted moving average (WMA) currently lies.”

See Also: Bitcoin Back to $42K, Nearly Recovering All of Wednesday’s Losses
See Also: Retail Traders Catalyzed Latest Bitcoin ‘Panic Sale:’ Chainalysis
See Also: Fallout: Ethereum fees skyrocketed as traders raced to unwind leveraged positions

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“It is expected that investors will be able to buy and sell digitized equity in EnergyFunders’ Yield Fund I on tZero’s trading system, giving them access to returns from oil and gas projects.

EnergyFunders CEO Laura Pommer said that she was ‘pleased about this potential opportunity to provide a secondary market for trading our new EnergyFunders Yield Fund I in the same way that you might trade stocks, bonds or ETFs (exchange-traded funds) in a regular brokerage account.'”

See Also: Figure Raises $200M, Valuing Blockchain Mortgage Firm at $3.2B

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“The study identifies 19 value drivers for cryptocurrencies within five clusters: financial factors, development activity, social media dominance, network usage, network size and sophistication. One of the report’s notable finds is that the number of online searches for Bitcoin is not a significant predictor of its price; however, social media presence is a real value driver for altcoins.

According to the analysis, the value of Bitcoin appears to be primarily driven by its stock-to-flow ratio. Another variable that could serve as a fundamental value driver for Bitcoin is the number of active addresses.

For Ether, the number of verified smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain tends to be a solid price predictor. Because the number of active users on the blockchain represents the popularity of Ethereum as an ecosystem of decentralized applications (DApps), there is a case for using the number as a valuation tool for ETH.

The prices of other blockchains designed to create DApps — such as Polkadot, Neo or EOS — are more correlated with Ether’s price than with their own network’s development activity, surprisingly. The other tokens analyzed in the report include payment coins such as Dash, Stellar’s Lumen (XLM) and Litecoin (LTC). These tokens’ prices are dependent on Bitcoin’s movements.”

See Also: Ether is a better commodity than Bitcoin, says NYU Professor

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“Asset management would be a new business for Coinbase, which has billions of dollars in institutional assets under custody. The Osprey deal hasn’t been finalized, both sources said.

Although small in comparison, Osprey Funds competes with Grayscale, whose assets are also under Coinbase’s custody.”

See Also: What Coinbase’s Media Play Means for Crypto

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“Despite launching to the Ethereum mainnet just two weeks ago, Uniswap v3 has already overtaken SushiSwap to rank as the second-largest Ethereum-based decentralized exchange by trade volume. The combined market share of v2 and v3 suggests Uniswap now represents more than 60% of all Ethereum-based DEX trade.

With v3 coming within reach of v2’s daily volume despite only holding 15% of the total value locked, or TVL, v3 appears to be realizing its mission of increased capital efficiency.

Watkins noted that v3 is the only automated market maker that turns over more than 100% of its $900 million TVL each day, beating out its rivals by more than 400%. V3’s turnover is equal to 104% of the platform’s TVL, Uniswap v2 ranks second with 20%, followed by SushiSwap with 16%.

Layer-two scaling is next on v3’s roadmap to lower fees for users.”

“An unusual confluence of bearish fundamentals caused all cryptocurrencies to fall Wednesday, but traders seem to be scooping up cheaper crypto, sparking something of a rebound.

Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was in the red Wednesday by 8.7% as of press time. BTC was above the 10-hour moving average and below the 50-day, a sideways signal for market technicians. The total drop for bitcoin in the past 24 hours was 26.7%, going from a high of $43,602 around 21:15 UTC to as low as $31,926 around 13:15 UTC. Bitcoin has recovered somewhat from that low, at $39,461 as of press time. Bitcoin has fallen almost 50% from its high on April 12.

The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, ether, was trading around $2,609 as of 21:00 UTC, slipping 23.1% over the prior 24 hours.

What we saw today was a black swan event of cascading liquidations.

However, BTC is trending back up. Wednesday is shaping up to be the highest spot volume day for bitcoin in 2021. As of press time, daily volume is over $14 billion on the eight major exchanges tracked. Global Digital Asset’s Friedman sees price support at $37,000, where traders will keep scooping up more bitcoin should the price head back down to that level.

We have more than likely seen the bottom here.”

See Also: 3 good reasons why $30,000 is probably the bottom for Bitcoin
See Also: Top Crypto Exchanges See Technical Issues Amid Market Crash

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“Amid the market-wide risk aversion, exchanges offering crypto futures have liquidated $8 billion worth of positions. Bitcoin futures account for almost 50% of the total market-wide liquidations.

Total liquidations seen in the past 24 hours, however, are still short of the record $10 billion worth of forced closures observed on April 17, when bitcoin fell sharply from $60,000. Since then, the market has mostly seen daily liquidations of less than $4 billion, barring today’s brief spike.

The data shows the major part of the recent decline from $55,000 to below $40,000 is primarily driven by increased selling in the spot market. The number of bitcoin held on exchanges has risen by more than 65,000 BTC in the past seven days, according to data provided by Glassnode.

The correction could soon run out of steam as technical indicators show oversold conditions. Further, the order book is flashing signs of capitulation. Capitulation is widely considered the final stage of the price sell-off.”

See Also: DeFi Liquidations Up 14-Fold in Broad Crypto Sell-Off

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“Bitcoin’s steepest price correction since March 2020 coincided with a growing sense of risk aversion on Wall Street, where investors are growing concerned that rising inflation might prompt the Federal Reserve to tighten monetary policy – a move that could undermine the bullish case for riskier assets.

Stocks, oil and industrial metals were nursing losses. Prices for gold, seen as a traditional safe-haven asset or inflation hedge, rose.

Crypto is considered to be an emerging market, and as such, a risk correlated market vulnerable to downturns in global sentiment.”

See Also: Ark Investment tips $20M into Grayscale Ethereum Trust

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“MicroStrategy, the business intelligence firm with billions in bitcoin reserves, is down 10% to $435 in the last 24 hours. Square, the owner of Cash App and another holder of bitcoin reserves, is down 3% to $197. Coinbase, the leading crypto exchange in the U.S., is down 7% and flirting with all-time lows at $222.

The Bitwise Crypto Industry Innovators ETF, which tracks 30 prominent publicly listed crypto firms, is down 9.3% at press time. Even furniture maker Ethan Allen, the shares of which have benefited from the rise in ether due to the company’s stock ticker being ETH, may now be paying the price for that association today, falling 5% to $27.”

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“The investment strategy has been in development for months and is likely to be available to qualified investors around mid-June. Wells Fargo is one of the U.S.’s largest financial services companies, with assets of almost $2 trillion.

We think the cryptocurrency space has just kind of hit an evolution and maturation of its development that allows it now to be a viable investable asset.”

See Also: Nebraska bill to allow banks to offer crypto services passes to final round

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“ETH 2.0 will see the Ethereum blockchain switch from the energy-hungry proof of work consensus mechanism to a proof of stake model.

By my (very conservative) calculations, Ethereum will see a greater than ~99.95% reduction in energy use post-merge. In total, a Proof of Stake Ethereum, therefore, consumes something on the order of 2.62 megawatt. This is not on the scale of countries, provinces, or even cities, but that of a small town (around 2,100 American homes).

Ethereum’s power-hungry days are numbered, and I hope that’s true for the rest of the industry too.”

See Also: What Eth 2.0 Validators Can Expect After the ‘Altair’ Upgrade

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“The prevailing view is that proposals for a blanket ban are now outdated, according to the report. A pivot away from prohibition and toward regulation would be a sizable boon for crypto in India, which has witnessed considerable adoption despite the uncertainty.

The committee would also explore the wider use of blockchain technology and study ways to develop a digital rupee.”

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“Acting Comptroller Michael Hsu told a House Financial Services Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., that he had spoken with fellow regulators about forming a “sprint team” around crypto. This work could include creating a legal definition for what a cryptocurrency is in the U.S.

We are engaged with the other agencies in a joint effort to think through some of these crypto definition[s] and some of the applications in crypto areas.”

See Also: Crypto volatility is not a ‘systemic concern’ for the Fed, say local presidents

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“About 80% of central banks are exploring use cases involving central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), with 40% already testing proof-of-concept programs. CBDCs are moving toward global implementation, and the infrastructure of a digital currency is critical for a successful rollout, according to the report.

Facebook-backed cryptocurrency Diem, formerly known as Libra, is motivating many central banks to develop CBDCs, the report noted. Most recently, Diem formed a partnership with Silvergate Bank with plans to test the U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin later this year.

Diem offers a whole new paradigm in economics: a diverse association of enterprise and social impact stakeholders developing digital currencies on a permissioned, open-source chain built with the most cutting edge tech – with a built-in global market and limited barriers for growth once live.”

See Also: Egypt’s Largest Bank Joins Ripple Network for Cross-Border Payments

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“The crypto bull market of early 2021 was a boon to Ledger’s top line. The company is looking to fill hundreds of positions as it expands its business operations.

Ledger is expanding its in-house capacity significantly, with over 150 open positions needing to be filled. The company recently filled the role of vice president of NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, as it expands its services to artists and NFT management.

The entire industry is in hyper-growth, and we are proud to be a part of it.”