“Visa has bought a female CryptoPunk for around $150,000, taking a step into non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as it seeks to learn more about the burgeoning market. CryptoPunks, of which 10,000 have been minted, are considered to be the original NFTs. CryptoPunk 7610 is one of 3,840 “female” punks.
We think NFTs will play an important role in the future of retail, social media, entertainment and commerce. To help our clients and partners participate, we need a firsthand understanding of the infrastructure requirements for a global brand to purchase, store, and leverage an NFT.
He also said Visa wanted to signal its support for the creators, collectors and artists who are developing NFT commerce, as well as to ‘collect an NFT that symbolizes the excitement and opportunity of this particular cultural moment.’
Following the news of Visa’s purchase, a further 90 CryptoPunks NFTs were snapped up in the next hour for combined sales of around $20 million.”
“The rollout is the first expansion of PayPal’s crypto offering outside the U.S. The process will begin this week and should be available to all eligible customers within the next few weeks.
The company has not yet allowed users to move crypto holdings off-platform, though this stance may change.”
“Stablecoin USDC will be 100% backed by cash and short-term U.S. Treasurys by September, developer Circle announced. Circle revealed last month that only 61% of tokens were backed by “cash and cash equivalents,” referring to cash and money-market funds.
Earlier this month, Circle announced its desire to become “a full-reserve national commercial bank” operating under the supervision of the U.S. Federal Reserve, U.S. Treasury Dept., Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC).”
“Because the CFTC doesn’t regulate commodities themselves – only futures contracts or derivative products like swaps – Stump said it doesn’t matter whether digital assets are classified as securities or commodities, because they wouldn’t fall under the authority of the CFTC unless a futures or derivatives contract was involved.
Stump also explained the difference between the CFTC’s regulatory authority, which Stump said doesn’t apply to digital assets, and its broader enforcement authority, which Stump suggested does. Using the CFTC’s case against crypto exchange and derivatives trading platform BitMEX as an example, Stump said the agency has historically used its anti-manipulation and anti-fraud enforcement authority to protect cash commodities.”
“Major cryptocurrency exchange Binance is pushing back against allegations of market manipulation and working against the interest of its users.
In a Monday Twitter thread, Binance seemingly laid the blame for any claims of manipulating the crypto market on publications spreading fear, uncertainty, and doubt as well as certain individuals impersonating employees at the exchange. The firm said it “reserves the right to take legal action to protect its interests.”
Binance has never traded against our users nor manipulated the market, and we never will.
It’s unclear if the exchange was referring to any specific incident, but the statement comes after a pseudonymous Twitter user under the name RealFulltimeApe alleged on Aug. 21 that Binance ‘keeps an overview of big liq levels and purposely pumps/dumps the price to take them out for profit.’ The user claims to be a former “big data engineer” at the exchange and would be ‘providing proof soon.'”
“In a note to the Poly Network team, the attacker or attackers referred to the saga as “one of the most wild adventures in our lives.”
Poly Network subsequently tweeted its thanks to the attacker or attackers, posting a link to a transaction on the Ethereum blockchain confirming that the key worked.”
The Disrupt 