“The Michigan-based company hopes to become the first nationwide mortgage lender to accept cryptocurrency. The lender will start by taking bitcoin but is looking into ether and other cryptocurrencies as well.
UWM is a national mortgage lender that had $59.2 billion in loan volume last quarter.”
“Fidelity says that 90% of its biggest clients are interested in accessing Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The firm is now planning to open up the digital asset space to retail investors.
What really got people off the fence was the pandemic, because you’ve got this scarce asset class and an environment where our currency is being debased, and there’s a ton of money printing.
Institutional interest mostly remains in purchasing Ethereum or Bitcoin directly. Fidelity Investment seems to be one step ahead, aiming to be among the first to offer the infrastructure necessary for investors to directly access the crypto market.”
See Also: Eqonex Launches Peer-to-Peer Crypto Lending Marketplace for Institutions
“Some of the biggest names on Wall Street and even a handful of U.S. states ended Q2 with multimillion-dollar bets on Coinbase. The investments speak to the exploding demand for exposure to the crypto economy, not just the assets themselves.
A review of regulatory documents reveals that a parade of megabanks, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, CitiGroup and Bank of America; asset managers such as Millennium Management, BlackRock, Miller Value Partners and Bridgewater; and even states such as Tennessee’s Treasury, have told securities regulators they held COIN.
Still, more straight-laced institutional types – namely state-run investment entities – held notable Coinbase positions last quarter. Pennsylvania’s public school employee retirement fund was long on $2.6 million while the Wisconsin Investment Board held $6.4 million, the state of Tennessee $1.7 million and Utah Retirement Systems $13.2 million.”
“The move to the layer 2 network makes 1inch Network the second decentralized finance (DeFi) app on Optimistic Ethereum, with the first being Uniswap.
The launch on Optimistic Ethereum will facilitate a dramatic increase in transaction speed.”
“The U.S. House of Representatives will start debating a bipartisan infrastructure bill next week, but Democrats are threatening to withhold their support for it for various reasons. This means the fate of a crypto tax provision might depend on whether another bill makes its way out of the Senate.
There is a group of progressive Democrats who are threatening not to vote for the bipartisan infrastructure bill unless the Senate passes a much larger $3.5 trillion package, which likely won’t happen until autumn.
At the moment whether the bill passes at all, let alone with amendments to address industry concerns about the crypto provision, is very unclear.”
See Also: Emmer, Soto Reintroduce Legislation to Clarify ‘Money Transmitter’ Designation
“Blockstream Energy utilizes modular mining units (MMUs), which are essentially independent mining facilities that can be operated remotely. Power producers like turbine or nuclear power plant owners can sell energy to the operators of these MMUs that otherwise would have gone unused.
Energy producers can use Blockstream MMUs for a variety of purposes including balancing electric grids and improving carbon trading strategies. Since MMUs can be shipped globally and are plug-and-play, many renewable energy mixes can fuel them.
For the first time, energy producers can control and scale demand to meet their supply. This incredibly powerful tool can be used to make existing electrical grids far more efficient while also significantly improving the economics of renewable energy projects.
The global Blockstream Satellite network can connect to MMUs anywhere in the world and allow their operators to manage them remotely, opening up the potential for them to situate their operations at sites isolated from high-demand civilian or commercial power infrastructures.”
“Non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace SuperRare launched a “Curation Token” on Tuesday to decentralize the project. At launch, 15% of the RARE token’s total supply was airdropped to past users of the platform.
SuperRare has done over $90 million in NFT art sales since 2018 and is backed by the likes of Mark Cuban, Velvet Sea Ventures, 1confirmation and others. The platform raised $9 million in a Series A in March. A portion of the governance token will be vested to investors over the next four years.
SuperRare’s newly formed DAO will vote on additional “Spaces” or galleries to inspire community-driven art and earn commission on each sale. Commissions will go to the treasury and be used for further projects decided on by RARE token holders, aimed at creating a decentralized and sustainable marketplace.”
See Also: NFT Trading Surges 8X as Penguins, Apes Drive New Boom
“The Dogecoin Foundation, a nonprofit organization that aims to support the development of the memecoin through advocacy, governance and trademark protection, has been re-established. Originally launched in 2014, the foundation became inactive over time and eventually dissolved. The foundation is now hoping to secure a three-year budget so that it can hire a small staff to work on dogecoin full-time.
The foundation boasts some well-known board members and advisers, including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who is serving as the foundation’s “blockchain and crypto adviser.”
Jared Birchall, a representative who was appointed by Tesla co-founder and influential dogecoin supporter Elon Musk and who is the head of Musk’s family office, joins as the foundation’s legal and financial adviser, while dogecoin core developer Max Keller will serve as a technical adviser.”
The Disrupt 