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Experts divided on how far India’s ‘private crypto’ ban will go
Government documents from 2019 have been cited by an Indian crypto expert to suggest that the proposed ban on all “private cryptocurrencies” could include just about every crypto. The Indian government this week announced it would introduce the Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill 2021 when it convenes at the Winter Session on Monday. The bill seeks a legislative vote on creating an official digital currency while imposing a ban on “all private cryptocurrencies.” However, there seems to be a lot of confusion regarding what exactly constitutes a “private cryptocurrency,” with some users speculating it could refer to “privacy” coins such as Monero (XMR) or Zcash (ZEC). Naimish Sanghvi, founder of crypto news website Coin Crunch India, explained in a Thursday&...
The Metaverse is a $1T opportunity after users increase 10x: Grayscale report
Crypto investment giant Grayscale has published a bullish report on metaverses, estimating that the “market opportunity” for bringing the metaverse to the mainstream may be worth over $1 trillion in the next few years. The November report titled “The Metaverse, Web 3.0 Virtual Cloud Economies” was authored by Grayscale head of research David Grider and research analyst Matt Maximo. The duo explores the burgeoning sector primarily from the perspective of open metaverse worlds backed by an “interconnected crypto-economy” such as Decentraland. The report highlights that metaverse platforms integrated with crypto tokens, decentralized finance services such as staking and lending, nonfungible tokens (NFT), decentralized governance and decentralized cloud storage have “created a new online exper...
Finnish regulators tighten the screw on virtual currency marketing
Hot on the heels of the rising cryptocurrency hype, Finnish regulators have dropped a formal notice. On Nov. 24th, the Financial Supervisory Authority (FIN-FSA) stated: “Only registered virtual currency providers can market virtual currencies and related services in Finland. The marketing of virtual currencies in Finnish and in Finland is only allowed for entities registered as virtual currency providers in Finland.” Finland is a highly economically free country, ranking 17th in the Index for Economic Freedom. However, as LocalBitcoins CEO Sebastian Sonntag told Cointelegraph upon receiving their FSA license in 2019: “The controls in the financial sector are of particularly high quality and the position of the clients is well protected.” It appears that the FSA is keen to protect investors...
Crypto poses no big risk to economy so far, Bank of Canada official says
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) do not pose any significant risk to the financial system at their current level of adoption, according to Bank of Canada’s Deputy Governor Paul Beaudry. Beaudry spoke about the risks to the stability of the Canadian financial system at the Ontario Securities Commission Dialogue 2021 on Nov. 23. When asked whether cryptocurrencies are a risk, the deputy governor responded that the Bank of Canada doesn’t think that crypto is “developing in a way that creates a systemic type of risk for a financial system” up to now. This is because cryptocurrencies are “quite removed from a financial system,” Beaudry noted. But as the crypto market grows bigger with more people investing in it, crypto becomes more of a risk, which could mean a certain level of vulnerabilit...
Elon Musk Sold Another $1 Billion in Tesla Shares
Elon Musk sold another $1 billion USD in Tesla shares on Tuesday evening, following through on his commitment to let go of some of his personal holdings. Earlier this month, Musk asked his nearly 63 million followers whether or not he should sell 10% of his stake in Tesla to pay taxes, explaining that his earnings as Tesla CEO come in the form of stocks. Financial filings posted this week indicate that Musk sold another $1.05 billion USD in stocks on Tuesday. According to CNBC, Musk has sold a total of $9.85 billion USD in Tesla stock this month, though Musk had been planning to sell some of his shares since September, and had scheduled the sales in advance of the Twitter poll. CNBC reported that Musk still holds more than 169 million shares in the company. In other news, th...
SEC open meeting on Dec. 2 to include crypto panel discussion
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, announced Wednesday the title of the upcoming crypto panel for its Dec. 2 Investor Advisory Meeting will be “Helping to Ensure Investor Protection and Market Integrity in the Face of New Technologies.” Previously, on Nov. 15, the Commission announced the meeting would be open to the public. Panelists and moderators will attend remotely. The crypto panel discussion agenda will focus on the regulatory framework covering digital assets, market structure issues and defining risk in emerging technologies. Additional topics are expected to include blockchain technologies, crypto-based exchange-traded fundsETFs and stablecoins. Half of the panelists are in blockchain specific roles: Ali Emdad, professor and associate dean, Earl G. Graves School...
Coinbase acquires crypto wallet provider BRD’s team as utility token price surges 500%
Crypto wallet provider BRD said “nothing will change” for users following an acquisition from major U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase. In a Wednesday letter to BRD users, CEO Adam Traidman and co-founder Aaron Voisine said some of the company’s team members would be moving to Coinbase to continue working on crypto wallets. Coinbase Wallet said on Twitter that the addition of the BRD team would “help accelerate web3 adoption” as well as provide “deep expertise in self-custody.” “Nothing will change in the BRD wallet app and as always, your funds are safe and secure,” said the BRD execs. “In the future, BRD wallet users will have an optional migration path to self custody with Coinbase Wallet.” Formerly known as Breadwallet, BRD is behind the utility token Bread (BRD). According to data from Coi...
Bitcoin mining power crunch: Kazakhstan looks toward nuclear solution
The exodus of Bitcoin miners from China into Kazakhstan has contributed to an energy crunch that the central Asian country’s president has proposed solving with nuclear energy. Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Energy has attributed the 8% increase in domestic electricity consumption throughout 2021 to Bitcoin miners. The country received at least 87,849 Bitcoin mining machines from Chinese companies so far this year following China’s crackdown on crypto mining, according to data from the Financial Times. The substantial increase in demand has led to a deficit in the domestic power supply and contributed to unreliable electricity services, according to the Kazakhstan Electricity Grid Operating Company. President Tokayev told bankers at a Nov. 19 meeting that he thinks building a nuclear power plant...
Animoca to repay users 265 ETH stolen in fake NFT drop Discord hack
Hong Kong-based gaming and venture capital company Animoca Brands and subsidiary Blowfish Studios have promised users that they will repay 265 ETH (US$1.1 million) stolen in a fraudulent nonfungible token (NFT) sale on D`iscord. The fraudulent minting event occurred at approximately 3 AM AEDT on Nov 19 on the Phantom Galaxies Discord server. It saw 1,571 fake minting transactions over the course of about three hours. Phantom Galaxies is an upcoming Australian game being developed by Blowfish Studios. The Phantom Galaxies Discord server has 94,000 members. In an increasingly common occurrence on Discord, hackers gained control of the official Phantom Galaxies server by using a malware bot that compromised the Admin account’s two-factor authentication. Once in control of the Discord server, ...
Executive Turntable: AWAL Restructures Global Team, Trio of WME Agents Move to UTA
AWAL has announced the launch of a newly structured global team that will focus on audience development. London based Aaron Bogucki is moving from his role as vp, marketing to the new position of global head of audience development to spearhead the department. Bogucki will report jointly to Paul Trueman, general manager, U.K. & international and president, North America Ron Cerrito. AWAL’s new audience development team will specialize in identifying, targeting and engaging artists’ audiences as well as developing and executing digital-focused strategies and fan-focused marketing initiatives. The team will work with AWAL’s frontline marketing, creative and catalog teams. Bogucki said, “Having been a part of AWAL’s incredible growth and success over the past four years, I can confidently...
The Deals: Anderson .Paak Signs with PPL for Neighboring Rights, Víctor Cárdenas Pacts with WCM
Anderson .Paak, the rapper, singer, producer and drummer who recently released the album An Evening With Silk Sonic alongside Bruno Mars, has signed with music licensing company PPL for the administration of his international neighboring rights collections. The deal will help .Paak collect performance royalties for the use of his sound recordings around the world. He joins a roster that includes George Ezra, Rita Ora and ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus. .Paak established himself as a prominent artist before forming Silk Sonic with Mars earlier in 2021. The duo’s first collaboration, “Leave The Door Open,” resulted in .Paak’s first No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, where it spent 18 consecutive weeks in the top 10. PPL CEO Peter Leathem said of the signing, “We are extremely pleased that Anderson .P...
UK Proposes Law Demanding Record Labels Pay Artists More for Streams
LONDON – The U.K. government has proposed a law requiring record companies to pay musicians and songwriters a bigger cut of revenue from music streams on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, a move that would bring streaming closer in line with radio and television broadcasts in the country. The Copyright (Rights and Remuneration of Musicians) Bill was published Wednesday (Nov. 24) and will be presented to Parliament on Dec. 3. The Bill would obligate record companies to pay performers ‘equitable remuneration’ when music is streamed. A similar statutory right already exists in the U.K. for TV and radio broadcasts, where performers receive 50% of the revenues distributed by the collecting society PPL, with the rest going to record labels and publishers. If a version of equitable remunera...
