Crypto

After dropping a filing for a Bitcoin (BTC) futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) in October, United States $1.6-trillion asset manager Invesco has disclosed the reasons behind its decision. Anna Paglia, global head of ETFs and indexed strategies at Invesco, said that the biggest reason for dropping the filing was that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission only approved Bitcoin ETFs with 100% exposure to Bitcoin futures. The Invesco Bitcoin Strategy ETF was designed to ideally be a mix of futures swaps, physical Bitcoin and private funds in the Bitcoin industry, Paglia said in a Sunday interview with the Financial Times. Such a composition would help protect investors in the event of a liquidity crisis, she stated, adding: “We thought that CME futures were going to be a very effective e...

A Swedish financial watchdog’s call for a European Union-wide ban on proof-of-work (PoW) crypto mining, mainly known as the method of minting new Bitcoin (BTC), has received backlash from crypto-related fund managers.  Melanion Capital, a Paris-based alternative investment firm known for its Bitcoin ETF, addressed the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority and Swedish Environmental Protection Agency’s call to ban PoW mining across Europe. “The claim that Bitcoin miners jeopardize the electricity network is completely misinformed,” noted Melanion, reminding that Bitcoin miners’ business model is prone to collapse when the electricity demand increases as it would also increase energy prices. The statement points to the authorities that have chosen to welcome miners instead of banning t...

Bitcoin (BTC) stayed true to form on Nov. 22 as the hour before the Wall St. opening bell was met with a sudden surge. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView Skittish Bitcoin darts around below $60,000 Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed BTC/USD as it rose almost $3,000 in minutes after hitting multi-day lows of $56,640 Monday. #Bitcoin just pumped $2500 in like 5 minutes — Benjamin Cowen (@intocryptoverse) November 22, 2021 The pair had seen strong rejection after briefly breaking the $60,000 mark, this now clearly acting as resistance and a critical level to break in order to continue the bull run. As Cointelegraph reported, opinions continue to favor a return to full-on gains for Bitcoin, albeit with the specter of missing the predicted...

Blockchain innovation is surging throughout Southeast Asia, as the region is home to a number of fintech firms and global crypto companies. In particular, Singapore has become one of the world’s most crypto-friendly countries. This was recently highlighted in a report conducted by crypto exchange Gemini, which found that 67% of 4,348 respondents currently own crypto. The report further noted that Ether (ETH) is the most popular cryptocurrency in the region, with 78% of surveyors claiming to own the digital asset.  Interestingly enough, the Ethereum blockchain may also be the network of choice for financial institutions based in Southeast Asia. Charles d’Haussy, Asia managing director at blockchain firm ConsenSys, told Cointelegraph that companies in the region looking to empower...

Senator Jane Hume has stated that decentralized finance (DeFi) “presents huge opportunities” for Australia to cement its place as a “front-runner for innovation and economic progress.” Senator Hume spoke at the Australian Financial Review Super & Wealth Summit in Sydney on Monday, Nov. 22. She is the Minister for Women’s Economic Security of Australia, representing the Liberal Party and the state of Victoria.  The conference was primarily about super and government retirement funds — both notoriously slow and steady investments. The comments on DeFi are more notable in this regard. Senator Hume called for industry and government to acknowledge that DeFi is “not a fad,” and to “tread cautiously, but not fearfully” because the technology is “not going away any time soon.” “If ...

Quidd, a marketplace for digital collectibles and a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, has raised a total of $5 million in private pre-sales and an initial DEX offering (IDO). The token sale took place on Polkadot project incubator Polkastarter on Nov. 18. The allotment of 2 million QUIDD tokens at a price of US$0.25 per token sold out in under an hour, raising $500,000. Earlier this month, the private sale of the Ethereum-based QUIDD tokens raised US$4 million from investors including Binance Smart Chain Growth Fund, Genesis Block Ventures, Kingsway, Mind Fund Group Ltd, Sanctor Capital, OneFootball, and other angel investors. During the Nov. 3 pre-sale on the Animoca Brands’ Launchpad, 1,001 vouchers sold out in 22 minutes. Each voucher cost around $500, bringing the total value of the pre-sa...

Polemos, a play-to-earn (P2E) gaming guild specialized in NFT games, has raised $2 million in a strategic funding round to focus on its open-world role-playing game. Soon-to-be-launched as an open beta in Q1 2022, Illuvium is an open-world RPG adventure game built on the Ethereum blockchain. Players collect creatures called Illuvials that are represented as tradeable NFTs. The digital characters can be used to battle against other players and complete quests, becoming more powerful with each battle won. On Nov. 19, Polemos announced the funding round that was led by investment firm Delphi Digital and Framework Ventures. Other participants in the round included DeFi founders from Sushi, Aave, 1inch Exchange, and a number of others. Aiming to create a multi-layered network of players before ...

The total value locked (TVL) on Ethereum layer two (L2) networks has surged to a new peak as gas fees continue to steadily rise driving further adoption.  Layer 2 analytics platform L2beat currently reports that the total amount of value locked across various L2 protocols and networks has reached an all-time high of $5.64 billion. L2 scaling solutions provide much higher transaction throughput and lower transaction fees, and they have surged in terms of adoption in November which has seen the highest average gas fees in Ethereum network history. Hitting new ATHs in $ETH locked in layer2 pic.twitter.com/0971sAdS16 — Evan Van Ness (@evan_van_ness) November 22, 2021 Arbitrum has the lion’s share of the L2 market with $2.67 billion locked up, or around 45% of the total. The dYdX decentral...

In her monthly Expert Take column, Selva Ozelli, an international tax attorney and CPA, covers the intersection between emerging technologies and sustainability, and provides the latest developments around taxes, AML/CFT regulations and legal issues affecting crypto and blockchain. The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), where I exhibited my art, took place in Glasgow, Scotland and ended with the adoption of the Glasgow Climate Pact, bringing nearly 200 countries closer to keeping global temperature rise by 2100 under 1.5 degrees Celsius. The conference remained more focused on emission reductions than on developed countries’ provisions of support to developing countries, as outlined in UN-Energy’s summary of the Ministerial Thematic Forums, which highlighted key recomme...

We ask the buidlers in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector for their thoughts on the industry… and we throw in a few random zingers to keep them on their toes! This week, our 6 Questions go to Han Kao, founder of thesis-driven investment fund Sanctor Capital and co-founder of crypto research company Crypto Briefing. Han grew up in New York City and studied economics at Columbia University. He started as a software developer but soon realized he wanted to be an entrepreneur. Over the years, Han has founded several companies: a web development firm (ISI Studios) during the dot-com boom, events marketing (BDBG Marketing) and online ticketing (theDreamVine) companies from 2005 to 2015, and a mobile app studio (J Tech) in 2015. In 2017, Han began publishing research on early-stage blockcha...

Look at your feet. A lot of you (raises hand) are wearing Nikes right now. For the fiscal year ending May 31, 2021, Nike reported its revenue was up 19% to $44.5 billion for the year. But that’s here. What about in the Metaverse? Why Nike is interested in the Metaverse For those as of yet unfamiliar with the concept, the easiest — yet very incomplete — way of imagining the Metaverse is imagining yourself existing in a real-life video game. Nike enters and provides very cool meta-stuff. This is no joke. Nike is very serious about the Metaverse. Patent filings dating way back to the pre-Metaverse universe in 2018 reveal that Nike has seriously been stockpiling the tools with which it can do business in the Metaverse. These digital tools will include sneakers but also avatars and other f...

Bitcoin (BTC) is witnessing a tough tussle near the $58,000 mark but that has not stopped select altcoins from hitting a new all-time high. This shows that traders are watching the fundamental developments on individual coins. One of the recent top performing major altcoins has been Avalanche (AVAX), which has soared more than 120% in November. The coin caught traders’ attention leading up to the announcement by accounting firm Deloitte which plans to build its disaster relief platforms on the Avalanche blockchain. Crypto market data daily view. Source: Coin360 In another step that shows growing crypto adoption, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele announced the launch of Bitcoin city, which will be powered by geothermal energy and initially funded by $1 billion worth of Bitcoin bond...