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JPMorgan executes first DeFi trade on a public blockchain: Finance Redefined
Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of essential decentralized finance (DeFi) insights — a newsletter crafted to bring you significant developments over the last week. The first week of November saw the institutionalization of DeFi markets as major international banks and financial institutions executed and completed their first DeFi transactions. The global financial giant JP Morgan completed its first-ever cross-border transaction using DeFi on a public blockchain with the help of the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) Project Guardian. DBS Bank started a trading test of foreign exchange (FX) and government securities using permissioned DeFi liquidity pools. Apart from JPMorgan and DBS Bank, the Bank for International Settlements also said that automated market-making tec...
FX spot settlement in 10 seconds: NY Fed releases results of wholesale CBDC research
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York Innovation Center has released a report on the first phase of its Project Cedar wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC) Nov. 4. The Fed still has no plans to issue a CBDC, NY Fed executive vice president and head of markets Michelle Neal said at a presentation in Singapore, but it has investigated foreign exchange spot settlement “from the perspective of the Federal Reserve.” Its prototype wCBDC, intended for use by financial institutions rather than the public, was able to implement transactions dramatically faster and more securely than the current standard. A foreign exchange spot transaction was chosen as the use case for the 12-week first phase of Project Cedar because of its relative simplicity and that type of transaction is often used as...
Ethereum inches even closer to total censorship due to OFAC compliance
Considering that protocol-level censorship is deterrent to the crypto ecosystem’s goal of highly open and accessible finance, the community has been keeping track of Ethereum’s growing compliance with standards laid down by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Over the last 24 hours, the Ethereum network was found to enforce OFAC compliance on over 73% of its blocks. Ethereum sporting 73% OFAC-compliant blocks. Source: mevwatch.info In Oct. 2022, Cointelegraph reported on the rising censorship concerns after 51% of Ethereum blocks were found compliant with OFAC standards. However, data from mevWatch confirmed that the minting of OFAC-compliant blocks on a daily basis has grown to 73% as of Nov. 3. Ethereum’s PFAC compliance trend. Source: mevwatch.info Some MEV-Bo...
The Ledger: How Much More Revenue Can Streaming Price Hikes Bring?
The Ledger is a weekly newsletter about the economics of the music business sent to Billboard Pro subscribers. An abbreviated version of the newsletter is published online. Apple Music’s recent subscription price increase and a likely forthcoming price hike by Spotify would provide a boost to U.S. and global music revenues and likewise impact catalog valuations. Higher prices for Apple Music and Spotify’s individual plan could be worth hundreds of millions in additional subscription revenue annually in the U.S. Incremental revenues resulting from these price increases have the potential to reach roughly $650 million a year for streaming services. That assumes 7% growth in subscribers in 2023, no additional churn, a full year of higher prices and higher prices for both self-paid and p...
Is Bitcoin bullish or nah? Here is what is really going on with BTC price
Since March 2022, traders and so-called analysts have been forecasting a policy change or pivot from the United States Federal Reserve. Apparently, such a move would prove that the Fed’s only available option is to print into oblivion, further diminishing the value of the dollar and enshrining Bitcoin (BTC) as the world’s future reserve asset and ultimate store of value. Apparently. Well, on Nov. 2, the Fed raised interest rates by the expected 0.75%, and equities and crypto rallied like they usually do. But this time, there was a twist. Prior to the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, there were a few unconfirmed leaks stating that the Fed and White House were considering a “policy pivot.” According to comments issued by the FOMC and during Jerome Powell’s presser, Powell ...
OCC makes its staff available for fintech-related discussions
The United States Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, or OCC, has announced its representatives will be available on a one-to-one basis to discuss financial technology. In a Nov. 3 announcement, the OCC said entities considering fintech products and services, partnerships with banks, or concerns “related to responsible innovation in financial services” have the opportunity for one-hour meetings with its staff between Dec. 14-15. The government office said it will screen requests and proposed topics of discussions and announce virtual meeting times. The OCC announcement followed the department saying it planned to establish an Office of Financial Technology starting in 2023 in an effort to gain a “deep understanding of financial technology and the financial technology landscape.” The...
CBDCs are a declaration of war against the banking system claims economist
CBDCs are a declaration of war against the banking system, Richard Werner — development economist and professor at De Montfort University — told Cointelegraph at Web Summit on Nov. 4. Known for his quantitative easing theory, published almost 30 years ago, Werner is an advocate for a decentralized economy. In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph’s editor-in-chief Kristina Lucrezia Cornèr, he discussed the challenges that surround decentralization, the role of central banks, and how blockchain can help promote transparency in economies. This interview was part of Cointelegraph’s extensive coverage at Web Summit in Lisbon — one of the world’s leading tech conferences. Cointelegraph: Do you think that a decentralized financial system is actually possible? Richard Werner:...
Web3 Foundation makes bold claim to SEC: ‘DOT is not a security. It is merely software’
The entity supporting research and development of Polkadot as well as overseeing fundraising efforts for the blockchain has argued that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission should not consider the DOT token a security under its regulatory purview. In a Nov. 4 blog post, the Web3 Foundation Team’s chief legal officer Daniel Schoenberger said Polkadot’s native token (DOT) had “morphed” and was “software” rather than a security. Schoenberger said the claim was “consistent with the views” it had shared with the SEC following discussions it began in November 2019. “While the Polkadot vision had not contemplated that the blockchain’s native token would be a security, we understood that the SEC’s view was likely to be that the to-be-delivered token would be a security, at least at...
WeSleep Unveils its ‘Sleepie’ NFTs
Vilnius, Lithuania, 4th November, 2022, Chainwire Web3 app WeSleep has launched with the promise of daily rewards for users who pursue a healthy and active lifestyle. Dubbed a sleep-to-earn app, WeSleep utilizes clever tokenomics to incentivize positive behaviors. WeSleep is a sleep-to-earn Web3 app that incentivizes users to pursue a healthy and active lifestyle on a daily basis. • A Sleepie is a unique NFT that can be bought to allow rewards, in the form of $ZZZ tokens, to be passively generated while asleep. These tokens can be swapped to $BUSD using the in-app swap system. Or a user may choose to invest his earnings inside a staking pool to generate additional rewards. • Users can augment their earnings by leveling up their Sleepies or their profile itself. To level up a profile, a cer...
Elrond Transforms Into MultiversX, Launches 3 New Metaverse Products
Sibiu, Romania, 4th November, 2022, Chainwire Elrond, the startup building internet scale blockchain technology, announces its transformation into MultiversX. The company thus expands its mission of building the new internet economy to include the digital meta-space frontier. The metaverse-forward company introduces three new products as the pillars for its evolution. xFabric is a sovereign blockchain module, and core blockchain applications. Deployable in minutes. Fully customizable. Including a great set of features and use cases for any creative, brand or company. xPortal is a true SuperApp. The portal to the Metaverse. The home of your avatar. Everything finance. A debit card. Friends, chat and social. Accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world. xWorlds is a world creation engine. Ena...
Bitcoin sets new 7-week high as BTC price jumps past $21K on US jobs
Bitcoin (BTC) passed $21,000 at the Nov. 4 Wall Street open as bulls tackled a formidable sell wall. BTC/USD 1-day candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView Sellers move aside for new multi-week highs Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows BTC/USD breaking through resistance to hit local highs of $21,262 on Bitstamp. The pair had struggled to return to higher levels during the week, but the latest order book data from Binance showed asks now shifting up to north of $21,500. BTC/USD order book data (Binance). Source: Material Indicators/Twitter The day’s high marked Bitcoin’s best performance since Sept. 13, beating previous local peaks. Material Indicators, which provided the order book charts, noted that above-expected United States unemployment figures may be a...
Why are institutions accumulating crypto in 2022? Fidelity researcher explains
Institutions’ investment in crypto has increased in 2022 despite the bear market, according to a recent survey by Fidelity Digital Assets. In particular, the amount of large investors betting on Ethereum have doubled in the last two years, as revelead by Chris Kuiper, the Head of Research at Fidelity Digital Assets in a recent interview with Cointelegraph. “The percentage of respondents saying they were invested in Ethereum doubled from two years ago”, pointed out Kuiper. Kuiper pointed out that Ethereum’s appeal in the eyes of institutions is likely to increase even more now that after the Merge, Ether has become a more environmentally friendly, yield-bearing asset. In general, according to the same survey, institutional players are accumulating crypto despite the cr...
