Blockchain & Digital Assets

July 9, 2021 @ 2:07 pm By JD Alois  |  

Individuals affiliated with Long Blockchain, previously operating as Long Island Iced Tea Company, have been hit with allegations of insider trading by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Once a beverage firm, during the early days of the blockchain boom the company decided to pivot… Read More

July 9, 2021 @ 11:29 am By JD Alois  |  

Following the announcement from Barclays that it would no longer allow transfers to the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance, Santander has announced it will do the same. As posted on the Santander website, the bank explains: We’re stopping payments to Binance for your protection We… Read More

July 9, 2021 @ 9:36 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Square Inc (NYSE: SQ) will reportedly be developing a hardware wallet for Bitcoin (BTC), the payments giant revealed on Thursday (July 8, 2021). We’re doing it #Bitcoin https://t.co/IwbKuBoXGv — jack (@jack) July 8, 2021 Square’s announcement came after US Senator Elizabeth Warren cautioned about the… Read More

July 8, 2021 @ 11:17 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Taproot has now been locked in and should activate in November of this year. Taproot is the name of various technological innovations that have all been bundled together. When they are activated, they should make Bitcoin (BTC) transactions significantly cheaper and also more private, along… Read More

July 8, 2021 @ 10:20 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

Decision-makers in the United States are warming to cryptocurrency for a variety of reasons, including self-interest, GlobalBlock sales trader Alexandra Clark said recently. Senator Cynthia Lummis has encouraged people to buy and hold bitcoin in their portfolios as the billions of dollars in stimulus cannot… Read More

July 8, 2021 @ 8:02 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

On July 5, 2021, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) had completed its second 12-month review of the implementation of its updated Standards on virtual assets and virtual asset service providers or VASPs. A review from CipherTrace examines how different jurisdictions and the private sector… Read More

July 8, 2021 @ 7:41 pm By Priyanka Pani  |  

Vietnam is the latest among smaller nations to have joined the crypto bandwagon as the country is developing a strategy towards having a digital government. In the last few weeks, countries such as El Salvador, Portugal, and Philipinnes have introduced regulations around cryptocurrencies. Vietnam’s Prime… Read More

July 8, 2021 @ 5:28 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Nate Maddrey and the other researchers at Coin Metrics note that Ethereum (ETH) gas prices have dropped down to their lowest levels since March, of last year. Although a few months back, average gas price consistently reached 150-200 GWEI, the average gas price has now… Read More

July 8, 2021 @ 5:19 pm By JD Alois  |  

Circle, a digital asset firm that has gone big into stablecoins and services, will become a publicly traded firm in a SPAC deal. Circle is the principal operator of the dollar based stablecoin USD Coin (USDC). Of interest is the fact that Circle also owns… Read More

July 8, 2021 @ 3:19 pm By JD Alois  |  

Liti Capital SA,  a Swiss litigation finance firm, says it has raised an additional $5 million to purchase assets worth up to $50 million. Litigation finance is when a firm purchases a percentage of a lawsuit to help fund a lawsuit in the hopes of… Read More

July 8, 2021 @ 1:31 pm By JD Alois  |  

The news regarding China’s crypto exit continues to cascade around the world as the second-largest economy puts the squeeze on Bitcoin mining, crypto trading, and other uses of crypto-assets. Just this week, it has been widely reported that the People’s Bank of China has demanded… Read More

July 8, 2021 @ 11:21 am By JD Alois  |  

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Banque de France (BdF) say the two agencies have successfully completed a test using central bank digital currency (CBDC) for a wholesale cross-border payment and settlement. Both jurisdictions have been known to be experimenting with CBDCs with the… Read More

July 8, 2021 @ 10:03 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing (NBCTF) has shared information on the “seizure” of virtual currency held by several different crypto wallets that are believed to be associated with donation campaigns “carried out by Hamas.” As noted in a report from Chainalysis, the seizure… Read More

July 8, 2021 @ 9:28 am By JD Alois  |  

Senator Elizabeth Warren, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, has sent a letter to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler telling the securities regulator that crypto exchanges may be undermining the SEC’s mission of basic investor protections. Gensler, for his part, has publicly worried that crypto… Read More

July 8, 2021 @ 8:34 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The cryptocurrency markets had been “brimming” with excitement to start the year. However, as we get ready to enter the “dog days” of summer 2021, Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and other virtual currencies are “flatlining,” the Kraken team notes in an update while pointing out… Read More

July 7, 2021 @ 7:46 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Interchain Foundation and BlockScience are pleased to confirm their new partnership in order to bring “robust” and complex systems engineering to the Cosmos stack. As noted in an update from the Interchain Foundation: “To date, the Interchain Foundation has made significant investments in the… Read More

July 7, 2021 @ 7:22 pm By JD Alois  |  

The UFC is going crypto in a deal with Crypto.com that is described as a “historic long-term partnership that represents an evolutionary step in the branding of both companies.” The terms of the deal were not disclosed. The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is a mixed… Read More

July 7, 2021 @ 5:18 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), a global financial institution that’s owned by reserve banks and aims to “foster international monetary and financial cooperation and serves as a bank for central banks,” notes that advancements in technology, along with rising demand for digital payment methods… Read More

July 7, 2021 @ 2:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

Visa (NYSE:V), an old-school payments platform that has embraced crypto, reports that over $1 billion has been spent on crypto-linked Visa cards. Cryptocurrency can be spent across Visa’s entire network of over 70 million global merchants. Visa has partnered with platforms like Coinbase, FTX, Crypto.com,… Read More

July 7, 2021 @ 1:44 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Qtum Chain Foundation, which supports the ongoing development of Qtum (QTUM), a leading blockchain platform, reports financial expenditures quarterly “for transparency and openness with the community.” The Qtum Chain Foundation’s latest report, published on June 6, 2021, notes that they have covered (as usual)… Read More