Europe
A dozen Bitcoin ATMs installed at the largest EU electronics retailer
Austrians have “sufficient funds” for more Bitcoin ATMs — that’s the verdict that MediaMarkt, a German electronics retailer, reached following a successful Bitcoin ATM pilot in Austria. MediaMarkt has rolled out Bitcoin (BTC) ATMs in 12 branches across the country, including Seiersberg and Klagenfurt. Confinity and its spinoff ATM company, Kurant, manage over 200 Bitcoin ATMs in Austria, Germany, Spain and Greece. Kurant’s Head of Marketing & Sales, Europe, Thomas Sperneder told Cointelegraph: “MediaMarkt stores across the country have been equipped with Bitcoin vending machines. In total, these are now present in twelve markets and enable the simple and secure purchase of cryptocurrencies.” A Bitcoin ATM in Austria. Source: Kurant A successful pilot project fea...
German banking giant Commerzbank applies for crypto license
One of the largest banking institutions in Germany has confirmed it applied for a local crypto license earlier this year, marking the first time a major bank has made a move toward cryptocurrencies in the country. A spokesperson from Commerzbank confirmed to local media outlet Börsen-Zeitung on April 14 that it “applied for the crypto custody license in the first quarter of 2022.” If approved it would be authorized to offer exchange services along with custody and protection of crypto-assets. Commerzbank serves over 18 million customers and over 70,000 institutional clients, and the cryptocurrency offering will reportedly target its institutional client base. Since Jan. 1 2020 any business wishing to offer cryptocurrency services in Germany must first seek approval from the Federal Financi...
New crypto card by Nexo allows users to pay without selling Bitcoin
Major cryptocurrency loan company Nexo has officially launched a crypto-backed Mastercard card enabling users to pay for services with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) without selling their crypto. Nexo has partnered with Mastercard and the peer-to-peer payment startup DiPocket to launch the Nexo Card, a crypto card allowing cardholders to use their crypto as collateral rather than selling it, the firm announced to Cointelegraph on Wednesday. The card is linked to a Nexo-provided, crypto-backed credit line allowing to use of multiple assets as collateral, including but not limited to Bitcoin, Ether (ETH) and the Tether (USDT) stablecoin. “The Nexo Card functions through Nexo’s crypto-backed credit lines, which means that funds for your purchases come from your available credit lin...
Museums in the metaverse: How Web3 technology can help historical sites
Metaverse events at ancient and historical sites could soon shape up to be an alternate future for tourism. Owners of physical castles and villas who have drafted up augmented reality blueprints of their properties think their ambitious plans to attract visitors in the metaverse will work, as virtual events can help them pay the hefty maintenance bills for their aging properties and also offer a chance to change historical narratives. The metaverse tourism model was expedited by downturns in tourism brought about by COVID-19, but the industry may have already been heading that way. Currently, major metaverse platforms are clunky, difficult to use and waiting for more “real estate” development, but firms are concentrating on what could be. Brands seem to be entering the metaverse en m...
EU bans providing ‘high-value crypto-asset services’ to Russia
The Council of the European Union has cut Russians off from certain cryptocurrency services as part of a package of restrictive measures against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “brutal aggression against Ukraine and its people.” In a Friday announcement, the EU council said it would be closing potential loopholes in using digital assets for Russian entities and individuals to evade sanctions with a “prohibition on providing high-value crypto-asset services” to the country. The action was one of three financial measures the European Commission proposed alongside banning transactions and freezing assets connected to four Russian banks as well as a “prohibition on providing advice on trusts to wealthy Russians.” Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin claimed on Thursday that Russians hol...
European Commission opens new consultation on digital euro
The European Commission is calling for financial services specialists to weigh in on the potential rollout of a digital euro. In a Tuesday notice, the European Commission’s Directorate‑General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union said it would be preparing an assessment of the central bank digital currency based on the expected impact on financial service providers, retail users, and chambers of commerce. The commission will consult with industry specialists on issues concerning the digital euro including international payments, privacy, the impact on the financial sector and financial stability, use cases alongside cash payments, and anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism rules. “For a digital euro to be used as the single currency,...
ETF provider WisdomTree launches Solana, Cardano, Polkadot ETPs
The American exchange-traded fund (ETF) provider WisdomTree continues expanding its cryptocurrency products in Europe by launching three new crypto exchange-traded products (ETP) backed by Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA) and Polkadot (DOT). WisdomTree announced Tuesday the launch of three new physically-backed crypto ETPs, including WisdomTree Solana (SOLW), WisdomTree Cardano (ADAW) and WisdomTree Polkadot (DOTW). The ETPs are already listed on major European digital exchanges like Deutsche Boerse’s Xetra, the Swiss SIX exchange and the Swiss Stock Exchange. The pan-European exchange Euronext is expected to list the crypto ETPs in Amsterdam and Paris on Thursday, the announcement notes. The ETPs are designed to offer investors in Europe another option to gain exposure to the price of Solana, ...
EU Parliament to vote on a new crypto wallet and transfer proposal
The upcoming vote follows a rejected proposal to limit proof-of-work cryptocurrencies The latest revision, among other changes, seeks to strictly manage crypto transfers involving self-hosted wallets Following last week’s rejection of a proposal (in the Markets In Crypto Assets bill) seeking to restrict Proof of Work (PoW) mining, a new EU report focusing on crypto transfers has been tabled. In a Saturday Twitter thread, Unstoppable Finance’s Patrick Hansen shared that the EU Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs is set to hold a vote targeting ‘unhosted’ wallets. Hansen, who previously reported on the rejected MiCA proposal, stated that the proposal would crack down on these wallets. He added that the draft piece contains ‘absolute red...
From taxes to electricity, blockchain adoption is growing in Austria
Austria has been actively transforming into an attractive location for providers of blockchain-based products, with the government itself experimenting with the technology and trying to create a legal basis upon which companies can use it. With regard to blockchain-based applications in the economy, however, Austria is still in the experimental phase, with most firms still running pilot projects. Still, politicians and economists alike see potential for select industries. Public administration reform via blockchain The Austrian government is quite open to blockchain innovations, cryptocurrencies aside, and has supported various projects in the public and private sectors. In 2019, a consortium of public administration institutions founded the Austrian Public Service Blockchain (APSB)....
CTS Eventim Revenues Grew Nearly 60% in 2021 With Help of Economic Aid
German ticketer and concert promoter CTS Eventim generated revenue of 407.8 million euros ($449 million) in 2021 – half of which came from government COVID-19-related economic aid, the company announced Thursday (March 24). That was up 58.8% from 256.8 million euros ($283 million) in 2020 but less than one-third of its revenues of 1.44 billion euros ($1.54 billion) in 2019 and less than half of the 1 billion-plus euros it achieved in both 2017 and 2018. Ticketing revenue of 224.1 million euros was 39.7% above 126.6 million euros in 2020 but less than half of pre-pandemic levels in 2018 (447.1 million euros, $492 million) and 2019 (481.6 million euros, $530 million). The segment’s revenues were helped by 112.2 million euros ($124 million) of COVID-19 economic aid from Germany and other gove...
Crypto trading in rubles falls even as ECB warns again on sanctions
The President of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde has reiterated warnings that Russian individuals and businesses are using cryptocurrencies to skirt sanctions. However, as of March 18, daily ruble-denominated crypto trading volume was sitting at just $7.4 million, down over 50% from recent figures and a peak of $70 million on March 7, according to data from Chainalysis. This amount represents a tiny slither of the total global crypto market volume, with Bitcoin’s total daily volume generally fluctuating between $20 billion and $40 billion. In a presentation at the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Summit on Tuesday, the crypto skeptic Lagarde said that European financial authorities had seen the “volumes of rubles into stable, into cryptos, at the moment [is at] th...
‘How I met Satoshi’: The mission to teach 100M people about Bitcoin by 2030
Dušan Matuska is, among many other things, a Bitcoin educator and consultant. The Slovak’s dream is to educate 100 million people about Bitcoin (BTC) by 2030 through talks, podcasts, webinars, workshops and even a Bitcoin education center in a far-flung destination (plans are currently under wraps). Alongside his Bitcoin teaching aspirations, he helps out at a small-scale Bitcoin mining facility in Slovakia, co-founded a crypto cafe known as Paralelni Polis in the capital city of Bratislava, and has translated well-known Bitcoin books into his native tongue, Slovak. But, how did he get here? And, what does meeting Satoshi Nakamoto have to do with it? It starts with Bitcoin, which he first heard about in 2015. But like many people, “I didn’t take a lot of notice. I thought it was...
