Friday, April 30, 2021

Experts debate Bitcoin climate footprint in latest Cointelegraph Crypto Duel

In the latest Cointelegraph video debate, experts discuss pathways towards making Bitcoin more sustainable.

In the latest Cointelegraph Crypto Duel, founder of Digiconomist Alex de Vries and CEO and founder of Blockchain for Climate Joseph Pallant debated the intensity of Bitcoin’s footprint and possible paths forward to reduce it. 

As pointed out by de Vries, Bitcoin’s energy consumption has been increasing together with its network.  The analyst predicts its carbon footprint could increase tremendously as Bitcoin gets closer to mass adoption.

“I fear that this will quickly get completely out of control if adoption increases a lot more”, he said.

According to de Vries, as long as Bitcoin functions with a proof-of-work system, bringing down emissions will be difficult. De Vries doesn’t see the incentive for miners to embrace renewables, given the intermittency of this type of energy sources.

“There's no incentive for miners to just enrol themselves into a scheme where they can only get power for an hour of day”, he pointed out.

Thus, according to the analyst, Bitcoin miners will continue relying on fossil fuels in the forseeable future. 

Pallant disagrees. He believes that cheap renewables will be playing an important role in reducing the environmental footprint of Bitcoin.

"We do know that in a lot of places solar and wind power is the lowest cost", he said. 

Pallant also believes that blockchain tech could be used to establish a record of those Bitcoins that are mined with renewables, thus stimulating demand for those "green coins" among institutional investors. 

"We can get to net-zero emissions of these blockchains through reducing emissions where we can and offsetting the rest", Pallant pointed out. 

To check out the full debate, watch it on our YouTube channel and don’t forget to subscribe!



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Impact of crypto still years out, T. Rowe Price’s head says

Crypto could still be in its infancy, according to one mainstream company's CEO.

Although the crypto space has been around for more than a decade, William Stromberg, CEO of mainstream investment management outfit T. Rowe Price, thinks the asset class is still finding its sea legs. 

"It's early days,” Stromberg told the Baltimore Business Journal in an interview when asked if “T. Rowe Price will ever start investing in cryptocurrencies.”

“We have some research going on around it,” the CEO added. “Some companies, just really a handful, have tried to put together products where one can buy and own crypto-related currencies.”

So far, a crypto-free strategy is working for Stromberg. Quarter one of this year was a great one for T. Rowe Price. The firm notched $1.52 trillion in assets under management, and saw its profits rise by over 100%, the Baltimore Business Journal article detailed. 

A number of avenues exist for investing directly in cryptocurrencies. A growing number of avenues also exist for exposure to crypto assets via traditional financial products as well, although the opportunities are not as diverse, as opposed to interacting directly with specific cryptocurrencies.

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange, or CME, offers Bitcoin (BTC) futures and options trading, as well as Ethereum (ETH) futures, for example. Among other crypto investment gateways, Grayscale also offers a variety of mainstream crypto investment vehicles.

“It really truly is early, early days here so I would expect this to move at a good pace but take years to really unfold," Stromberg added in his response to the Baltimore Business Journal’s question on crypto.

Stromberg’s crypto comments came after the CEO discussed the overall financial landscape of American markets, for which he sees a positive future. "We are very bullish on the economy and the growth of the economy as it reopens and that reopening broadens," he told the Baltimore Business Journal.

Although in general crypto is not technically tied to any specific region or government, its price action can arguably be influenced by certain events, based on the price crash Bitcoin suffered during March 2020 around COVID-19 concerns, however some debate exists on the subject.



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Bitcoin hits $57K in surprise surge to almost erase April BTC price crash

A crazy few hours sees volatility return, with spot buyers noticeably in charge over leveraged traders.

Bitcoin (BTC) retook $57,000 on April 30 as a surprise bullish end to month took traders by surprise.

BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView

$4.2 billion expiry gives way to big Bitcoin gains

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and Tradingview showed BTC/USD climbing 5% in hours on Friday to come within inches of a green monthly close for April.

At press time, $57,000 still formed a focus, with the pair needing to clinch $58,800 to avoid April's monthly candle turning red.

On social media, traders pointed to this month's $4.2 billion options expiry being out of the way and thus allowing Bitcoin room to move. 

As Cointelegraph often reports, expiry events tend to pressure price beforehand, but post factum relief rallies differ considerably in strength, sometimes not appearing at all.

So much for "red April"

For Lex Moskovski, CIO as Moskovski Capital, the composition of the market on the day was a cause for optimism. 

"This Bitcoin price surge is driven by spot. Funding even decreased a bit," he noted

Moskovski referred to funding rates on exchanges, with a decrease implying that short positions are "paying" longs in a classic sign that upward momentum would continue. 

Spot buyer demand likewise signals that BTC is being bought without leverage, which translates to a more organic shifting of "real" coins to private wallets.

Bitcoin funding rates vs. BTC/USD. Source: Lex Moskovski/ Twitter

Just days ago, Bitcoin was on its way to sealing its biggest April losses since 2015 in a stark contrast to the general trend of the past twelve years.



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Nightlife comes to the metaverse as Decentral Games opens Atari Casino

Virtual experiences are becoming the "new norm" as Decentral Games expands their virtual nightlife offerings.

Virtual land governance DAO Decentral Games is continuing to expand into the metaverse nightlife space with the launch of an Atari-branded casino. 

The casino will be the third such gambling establishment for the DAO, which purchases land in virtual worlds like Decentraland and opens digital businesses. Using brand assets from Atari, the provably-fair games are designed to be “nostalgia-inducting,” per a press release from Decentral Games.

Gamers can play with a wide range of tokens, including DAI, ETH, and Decentraland’s MANA, and a “gaming mining” program is also in effect that rewards gamblers with Decentral Games’ governance token, $DG.

Decentral Games — which previously built a number of games for Decentraland on a whitelabel basis before setting out as an enterprise DAO — is expanding into the metaverse nightlife space rapidly. Last week, they announced a digital replica of the iconic Amnesia club. To celebrate the launch of the Atari Casino, they brought in DJ Dillon Francis for a concert with 3,700 worldwide attendees:

The metaverse — a term for interlinked virtual worlds that enable in-game economies — has been a hot sector for speculators and builders as of late as the NFT space has gained traction — enough so that major players like Fortnite founder Tim Sweeny have admitted that the tech is “going places.” 

The metaverse in particular might have been a unexpected winner throughout the Covid pandemic, as shutdowns led brands and consumers online.

“Lots of industries — entertainment, fashion — have been jumping on the bandwagon, perhaps because they’ve been impacted by Covid. They realize that they can connect with their customers in this new way,” said Decentral Games CMO Lee Lin Liew.

“It’s a new norm and a new market fit for us.”


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England’s central bank moves ahead with CBDC with 7 job postings

The Bank of England's CBDC-related job listings range from solution architect to senior manager.

The United Kingdom’s central bank, the Bank of England, or BoE, still maintains that it is unsure on a path forward regarding a central bank digital currency, although the entity is looking to hire at least seven CBDC-related job positions. 

The job listings recently surfaced on the BoE’s job posting website. One such position searches for a “Stakeholder Analyst - Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).”

As per the site, the bank is also searching for a project analyst, a solution architect, a technology analyst, a senior manager, and a senior enterprise architect — all CBDC-related, as well as a senior CBDC policy analyst. The site posted the listings on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“Like many other central banks, the Bank of England is actively exploring whether it should develop and issue a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC),” said the page for the stakeholder analyst job listing. “No decision has yet been taken on whether or not a CBDC is needed in the UK, but it is an important topic for the Bank to understand.”

The posting mentioned a number of specifics on the job, as well as the BoE’s focus in terms of looking into a CBDC.

Reporting earlier this month showed Her Majesty’s Treasury, or HMT, and the BoE jointly working on CBDC-related research, unveiling a CBDC task force. CBDCs have been a hot topic over the past year or so, with central banks acting at varied speeds.



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Biggest one day USDC print in history marks lowest Bitcoin dominance in years

The $3 billion USDC influx puts the total supply of the stablecoin at around $14,4 billion, reaching over a quarter of Tether's market cap.

More USD Coin (USDC) was printed on April 30 than at any time in the dollar-backed stablecoin’s existence, as just over $3 billion was minted in one fell swoop.

New USD Coins are minted whenever a customer exchanges their U.S dollars for the stablecoin, and Friday’s influx amounted to over 26% of its market cap at the time.

The sudden arrival of $3 billion worth of USDC into the cryptocurrency market coincides with a surging altcoin market, evidenced by Bitcoin’s (BTC) descent to its lowest market cap dominance in two and a half years.

Bitcoin’s dominance of 47.79% on Friday was the lowest since August 2018, as Ethereum (ETH), Binance Smart Chain (BSC), Cardano (ADA) and others saw their own market cap presence swell massively since the turn of the year. In early January, Bitcoin’s dominance was perched at over 70%, and has been on a steady decline since.

The value of USD Coin in circulation jumped from $11 billion to almost $14.4 billion on Friday, meaning USD Coin now has a market cap worth 28% of the most utilized stablecoin, Tether (USDT), of which over 50 billion are in circulation. In August 2020, USD Coin held a market cap worth just one tenth that of Tether, suggesting traders have found a definite use for USDC, perhaps at the expense of USDT.

Circle, which founded USD Coin in combination with well-known cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, recently announced that it had tapped New York based Signature Bank to ensure the backing of USD Coin with appropriate reserves. USD Coin is reportedly backed by a mix of cash and short-term U.S treasury bonds.



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MicroStrategy sees up to 52% revenue surge as Saylor confirms more Bitcoin buys ahead

New figures show certain revenue sectors boomed by over 50% in Q1 2021 compared to the same quarter last year.

MicroStrategy, the company which owns over 91,000 Bitcoin (BTC), saw an astounding surge in revenues in Q1, its latest figures confirm.

In a press release on April 30, CEO Michael Saylor revealed that the company's success had gone far beyond its Bitcoin profits.

Saylor: Hodling BTC creates "substantial value"

MicroStrategy has continued to hit the headlines for its flatly bullish position on Bitcoin and its future, adding to its reserves regardless of sentiment or price. 

Its advocacy has seemed to endear it to a new sector of clientele — nine months after beginning to convert its cash reserves to BTC, sales of its products and services have also boomed.

"Product licenses and subscription services revenues for the first quarter of 2021 were $31.3 million, a 52.3% increase, or a 49.8% increase on a non-GAAP constant currency basis, compared to the first quarter of 2020," the press release states.

Total revenues for Q1 were just over $122 million, representing a 10.3% increase over the same period in 2020.

"MicroStrategy’s first quarter results were a clear example that our two-pronged corporate strategy to grow our enterprise analytics software business and acquire and hold bitcoin is generating substantial shareholder value," Saylor commented.

He said that the company was "still happy" with its approach to BTC acquisition, adding that it would be adding to its already substantial reserves.

"We will continue to acquire and hold additional bitcoin as we seek to create additional value for shareholders," he concluded.

BTC (orange) vs. MSTR (blue). Source: Tradingview

As Cointelegraph reported, the company's stock price has experienced volatility this year, something which has echoed Bitcoin's own price discovery.

Bulls have "nothing to worry about"

The numbers are a familiar boon for Bitcoin bulls, who have been left hanging this week as rumors of major corporate buy-ins from the likes of Facebook went unsubstantiated.

This combined with equally familiar ranging price action has hit enthusiasm in some quarters, while analysts argue that there is nothing to be bearish about.

"So far, so good for Bitcoin. Still nothing to worry (about)," popular trader Michaël van de Poppe summarized to Twitter followers on Thursday.

An accompanying chart highlighted resistance beginning at $55,000 for the largest cryptocurrency to overcome as altcoins began to accelerate their own gains.

BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: Tradingview

At the time of writing, BTC/USD traded at around $54,700, having come full circle over the past 24 hours which included a drop below $53,000.



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Biden’s capital gains tax plan to pull crypto down to earth from the moon?

More taxes may cause short-term volatility, “but long term, you may see more demand for DeFi applications and other collateralized use cases.”

There are often multiple causes for an asset’s sharp decline, but Bitcoin’s (BTC) 10% “nosedive,” which took place on April 22, may be blamed on the Biden Administration’s reported plan to tax capital gains at double the current rate on America’s wealthiest. 

Bitcoin is habitually volatile, so one probably shouldn’t read too much into a double-digit swoon in any given week, but this might be as good a place as any to reflect upon the possible impact of the United States capital gains taxes, and taxes in general, upon the future growth of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.

Could it hinder long-term adoption? If so, in what ways? Will the Biden plan even reach fruition, given the vagaries of U.S. politics? How, too, does one explain the mini-market eruption in the face of the mere possibility of more taxes in a single nation? What sorts of misperceptions might we be harboring with regard to crypto taxation generally?

“The price drop can probably be attributed to a number of factors and rumors — chiefly, the month-end expiration of future positions, which resulted in a liquidation of positions that triggered a slide,” Markus Veith, a partner in the audit practice at Grant Thornton LLP and leader of the firm’s digital assets practice, told Cointelegraph.

There were also reports, generally thought to be false, that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was spearheading an effort to impose an 80% capital gains tax rate on cryptocurrencies, “as well as rumors that the U.S. Treasury was investigating financial institutions for illicit use of cryptocurrencies, which the DoJ would do, not the Treasury,” added Veith, continuing: “Then, there were also comments about a drop in Chinese mining capacity.”

A lot was happening that week

David Trainer, CEO of investment research firm New Constructs, downplayed the BTC price gyrations, stating: “10% volatility is nothing new for BTC and crypto in general.” Meanwhile, Tyler Menzer, a CPA and doctoral student in accounting at the University of Iowa, noted: “While the tax news does coincide with the drop, it may only be one of many contributing factors.”

But taxes do matter. “The [Biden] proposal would put the effective tax rate at above 50% in certain states and would be detrimental to job creation,” Carlos Betancourt, co-founder of BKCoin Capital in Miami, told Newsweek, adding, “and would continue to accelerate the move from states like California and New York to more tax-friendly states like Florida and Texas that have no state income tax.”

This is still an early stage in a new administration, of course, and there is some question whether a doubling of the capital gains on the wealthiest to 39.6% — as proposed — will even make it through Congress intact, or if that rate will eventually be reduced.

“Someone needs to pay for all the stimulus, deficits, and national debt, so very likely you would see a tax increase in the near future — whether on capital gains or something else is still to be decided,” Mazhar Wani, a PricewaterhouseCoopers tax partner in San Francisco, told Cointelegraph.

However, Omri Marian, professor of law at the University of California, Irvine School of Law, said that the proposal will unlikely be accepted in its current form. “The Democratic majority in Congress is just too narrow for this,” Marian informed Cointelegraph. Chris Weston, head of research at the Pepperstone Group — a forex broker — said: “The numbers being proposed at this juncture will unlikely pass the Senate in its current form, and centrist Democrats will not back the touted numbers.”

But casting rumors aside, if a doubling of the capital gains tax does pass through Congress intact, would it necessarily mean stormy weather for cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology?

Maybe not. Nathan Goldman, assistant professor of accounting at North Carolina State University, told Cointelegraph — after consulting with his co-author on BTC taxation matters, Christina Lewellen — that the new capital gains taxes are geared to the wealthiest — those with more than $1 million in annual income — and they would be paid only upon the sale of the digital asset:

“As a result, it is not clear whether the proposed changes would significantly affect most cryptocurrency holders.”

Still, “taxes likely do have an effect on Bitcoin prices,” said Menzer, continuing, “as we have a lot of prior research on a wide variety of outcomes and aspects of life that are affected by tax rates, especially in the financial sector.”

Moreover, they could push crypto and blockchain technology in some interesting directions. Wani, for example, would expect to see more “short-term volatility due to certain investors cashing out at the lower rates, but long term, you may see more demand for DeFi applications and other collateralized use cases to create liquidity and avoid triggering gains.”

What about murmurs surrounding Yellen’s so-called 80% capital gains tax — which would be “punitive and unprecedented”? Goldman told Cointelegraph, “I do not believe there is strong merit to the rumors of an 80% capital gains tax on cryptocurrency” — a position echoed elsewhere. But some still believe that Yellen hasn’t really warmed to crypto.

“My own view is Yellen fundamentally doesn’t get Bitcoin,” Weston said, continuing, “and to go after digital assets to protect against criminal activity in an asset that leaves a record is odd” particularly because cash is usually favored in such transactions, given its untraceability. Meanwhile, Trainer added:

“I think Janet Yellen was looking to minimize the speculation in crypto. She believes that rampant speculation, like what we see in crypto, is not healthy for investors or the underlying asset over time.”

With regard to the capital gains issue in general, Menzner commented: “To the extent that higher taxes make it more expensive to use cryptocurrency or adopt it for new uses, it will be a setback.” However, he added: “It could also accelerate the use of stablecoins for certain cryptocurrency projects, as they are designed to minimize price fluctuations and thus minimize any gain or loss from a tax perspective.”

“We don’t often see tax as the controlling decision of whether to exit a position, but it may drive when an exit occurs; for example, if any corresponding losses should be harvested, when long-term/short-term holding periods are met, etc.,” Paul Beecy, tax services partner at Grant Thornton LLP, told Cointelegraph.

Does U.S. tax policy matter globally?

To what extent, though, is this all just a U.S. issue? Does it really even matter in Singapore or France what happens in the U.S. with regard to tax policy — especially for a globally purchased and held asset like Bitcoin?

“Competitive advantage is key here,” according to Wani, who added: “It matters if other countries follow similar policies for taxation.” Also, he believes other countries may try to become more competitive by offering “more incentives — i.e., less taxation — to attract more talent and businesses from this growing industry to their jurisdictions.”

“The only thing I can definitively say on how much U.S. tax policy affects crypto is that we don’t know,” added Menzer, but “U.S. policy can cause real changes in crypto-exchange economics.” Many global exchanges do not allow U.S. residents and citizens to trade, for example, thanks to U.S. policy, “thus effectively separating non-U.S. traders from U.S. traders, which slightly breaks down the idea that Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies are uniformly global.”

It matters, said Marian, because “if you are a U.S. taxpayer, you owe U.S. taxes on your crypto trades no matter how you make them. It may be more difficult for the IRS to enforce if you hold your assets with a foreign custodian. But if you cheat on purpose, you wouldn’t care very much about a change in tax rates.”

What does seem clear is the lack of clarity with regard to taxes and cryptocurrencies, starting with the common misperception that you do not need to pay taxes on crypto. According to Goldman:

“You still need to pay taxes on the appreciation of your cryptocurrency assets. For example, if you bought a single Bitcoin on Jan. 1, 2016, for $434 and used that Bitcoin to buy a Tesla on April 1, 2021 — value $58,726 — you owe capital gains taxes on the difference.”

No hard and fast rules

More problematic still, there is no standard tax treatment for all cryptocurrency uses. As Beecy told Cointelegraph: “When digital currency is held [in the U.S.] by individual retail investors as a capital asset, the tax rules on buying and selling it are reasonably understood, and the capital gains tax that applies ought to impact digital currency transactions in a manner very similar to other financial capital assets.”

But when, by contrast, digital currency is structured as part of more complex transactions “and mimics other and more esoteric financial instruments — like derivatives, NFTs [nonfungible tokens], and certain security tokens — then the tax rules on those digital currency transactions are not really clear,” said Beecy.

All in all, last week’s BTC’s price gyrations might have been an over-reaction to some preliminary tax plans, but this response was probably predictable, given that “regulation is obviously a major grey cloud” that begets anxiety, as Weston noted, “but as we’ve seen many times of late, the market sells first, thinks about it, and calmer heads generally prevail.”

Taxation, of course, is a serious business, and even if doubling of the capital gains tax only directly impacts the wealthiest, history teaches that taxes can have a leveraged impact on long-term growth — so, one needs to pay attention.

Taxation is a form of regulation, and the mere fact that discussions like this are taking place in crypto’s only 12th year of existence may provide some confidence, arguably, that the U.S. is not going to ban or attempt to “shut down” cryptocurrencies. Indeed, the net effect could be an “increase [in] adoption as people feel more confident,” submitted Menzer.



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Hotbit crypto exchange shuts down for maintenance after attempted hack

The Chinese crypto exchange says funds are “SAFU” and that the emergency maintenance could take up to two weeks.

Cryptocurrency exchange platform Hotbit has shut down all of its services after an attempted cyberattack on Thursday.

“Hotbit just suffered a serious cyber-attack starting around 08:00 PM UTC, April 29, 2021, which led to the paralyzation of a number of some basic services,” a notice on the platform’s website reads.

The hackers were reportedly unsuccessful in gaining access to Hotbit’s wallets but did manage to compromise the platform’s user database. Thus, the Hotbit team has advised customers to disregard any communication from entities claiming to be representatives of the exchange.

With all normal operations currently paused during the ongoing maintenance, Hotbit also revealed that pending trading orders are canceled to prevent losses. Also, the exchange promised to bear any losses stemming from exchange-traded funds listed on its platform during the duration of the maintenance.

According to the Hotbit announcement, the maintenance will last for at least seven days with reports that the investigation and system upgrade could take as long as two weeks.

Addressing users on the exchange’s Telegram group, Alex Zhou, chief security officer of Hotbit, revealed that user funds were unaffected by the attack, stating: “The attacker tried to break into the wallet server to steal funds but the action was identified and blocked successfully by Hotbit risk control system. All users’ funds are safe.”

“At the same time, Hotbit is in the process of transferring all funds in hot wallet to cold wallet, the details of the whole integration could be seen on the chain,” he said.

Source: Etherscan

Indeed, data from Ethereum transaction monitoring tool Etherscan shows multiple token outflows from one of Hotbit’s known wallets to another address that currently holds about $14 million in several altcoins.

However, the length of time given for the maintenance is causing significant unrest among Hotbit users judging by comments on social media and in the platform’s Telegram channel.

Fears over the incident being an exit scam by the Hotbit team are palpable. Earlier in April, two major exchanges in Turkey went offline, with their executives fleeing with millions of dollars in user funds. Both incidents have led to sweeping arrests by law enforcement agencies as well as plans by the government to establish a central custodian bank for cryptocurrency exchanges in Turkey.



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Coinbase to acquire Skew crypto data analytics platform

Some of Skew’s institutional clients include One River Asset Management and Susquehanna International Group.

United States cryptocurrency giant Coinbase has acquired institutional-grade blockchain data analytics platform Skew.

Greg Tusar, vice president of institutional products at Coinbase, announced the news Friday, stating that the new acquisition will help customers make more informed trading decisions by using real-time data analytics.

“We’re excited to integrate skew’s data analytics platform with Coinbase Prime, allowing our customers to track cryptocurrency spot and derivatives markets in real-time. With skew, we’ll arm professional traders with dynamic, aggregated market data, presented in a highly actionable format, all within our market leading prime brokerage,” Tusar noted.

The acquisition is part of Coinbase’s broader strategy to serve institutional clients. According to Tusar, the exchange will continue to serve Skew’s institutional customers, which include One River Asset Management and Susquehanna International Group.

“While joining Coinbase represents an unparalleled opportunity for skew’s continued growth, we remain acutely focused on supporting our clients and working with our ecosystem partners. We believe our client commitment and offering will only be further enhanced by partnering with Coinbase,” Skew wrote in a Friday blog post.

The company noted that Coinbase has been a Skew client since it launched Skew Analytics two years ago. “We have not only developed a strong, positive relationship with the Coinbase team but have witnessed first-hand their impressive product-led culture, focus on compliance and commitment to the institutional space,” the firm said.

Headquartered in London, Skew was co-founded in 2018 by CEO Emmanuel Goh and chief operating officer Tim Noat with a mission to make crypto markets more transparent and drive institutional adoption. The company has seen rapid growth, accumulating more than 100 customers so far. Skew also established a bench with a mix of traditional financial services and crypto expertise with executives coming from major U.S. institutions such as JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Citi.

The news comes weeks after Coinbase went public on Nasdaq. Shortly after the listing on April 14, several Coinbase executives, including CEO Brian Armstrong and chief financial officer Alesia Haas, sold hundreds of thousands of COIN shares, netting millions of dollars.

Coinbase was actively acquiring companies before going public, though. In January 2021, Coinbase acquired Bison Trails, a fully managed blockchain infrastructure provider, in order to secure a “foundational element” within its growing ecosystem of products. The deal reportedly cost Coinbase around $80 million. Previously, the firm acquired trading execution startup Routefire to further improve its Coinbase Prime suite of tools and services.



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Turkey jails 6 in probe into missing Thodex crypto exchange CEO

The arrested siblings of the missing Thodex CEO reportedly own millions of dollars worth of crypto.

Turkish authorities are progressing with an investigation into local cryptocurrency exchange Thodex, which abruptly halted trading last week.

On Thursday, a Turkish court jailed six suspects pending trial, including siblings of the missing CEO and senior company employees, Reuters reported.

As part of a probe, Interpol reportedly issued a red notice for Thodex CEO and founder Faruk Fatih Ă–zer, who had reportedly flown to Albania. “When he is caught with the red notice, we have extradition agreements with a large part of these countries. God willing he will be caught and he will be returned,” Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said.

Local authorities detained over 83 individuals suspected to be involved in the case amid growing concerns that Thodex was a scam after the platform halted money withdrawals.

Some suspects indicated that Ă–zer’s siblings — GĂĽven Ă–zer and Serap Ă–zer — could have been serving major roles in Thodex's operations, noting that both had significant crypto holdings, local news agency Anadolu Agency reports.

GĂĽven Ă–zer reportedly holds nearly 22 million Turskish liras ($2.7 million) on two major local crypto exchanges including BtcTurk and Paribu. GĂĽven reportedly served as an active executive at Thodex despite not having an official role at the company.

Serap Ă–zer, the missing CEO’s sister, reportedly had over 120 million liras ($14.6 million) worth of crypto transactions on her Binance account between 2018 and 2021. She claimed that the account was not hers. Serap allegedly oversaw financial activities at Thodex.

As previously reported, the missing Thodex CEO is reported to have run off with as much as $2 billion worth of crypto, but according to the latest reports, Interior Minister Soylu said that the company’s portfolio totaled $108 million.

The news comes as the Turkish government hardens its stance on crypto, with the country’s central bank officially banning crypto payments effective today. Another Turskish crypto exchange, Vebitcoin, also announced last week that it would be ceasing operations amid employee arrests and allegations of fraud.

Additional reporting by Erhan Kahraman.



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Uzbek presidential agency proposes legalizing domestic crypto trading

Uzbekistan wants to lift its ban on cryptocurrency purchases after barring residents from buying crypto in 2019.

A major governmental agency in Uzbekistan seems to be rethinking its stance on cryptocurrencies.

The National Agency for Project Management under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, or NAFT, issued an official document proposing several amendments to licensing procedures for crypto trading.

NAFT proposed to officially allow local residents to conduct “all types of crypto exchange trades involving crypto assets and tokens in exchange for the national currency and the foreign currency.” The authority stressed that crypto investors would trade and invest at their own risk.

The proposal also aims to establish processes for the registration, issuance and circulation of digital assets, authorizing licensed crypto companies in Uzbekistan to issue their own tokens. According to official records, the proposed amendments are open to discussion until May 14, 2021.

The latest news shows an apparent change of heart toward cryptocurrencies at the NAFT. In late 2019, the agency banned the country’s residents from purchasing cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) . Despite barring crypto purchases, the authority reportedly still allows locals to sell their crypto holdings.

In January 2020, Uzbekistan debuted its first regulated cryptocurrency exchange, Uznex, which is only open to non-residents. The platform was launched by Kobea Group, a technology company from South Korea acting as a tech adviser to the government of Uzbekistan.



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100M euro digital bond was a CBDC test, says Banque de France

European financial institutions are using pilots to make a case for the digital euro.

It turns out the 100 million euro digital bond issued by the European Investment Bank earlier this week was actually a trial of a European central bank-issued digital currency, or CBDC.

An April 28 announcement from France’s central bank, Banque de France, revealed the digital bond was settled using a CBDC on a blockchain.

The two year-bond was issued on the Ethereum public blockchain on April 27 and settled the following day, with a maturity date of April 28, 2023. The sale was led by Goldman Sachs, Santander and Société Générale.

“From a technological standpoint, the experiment required the development and deployment of smart contracts under secured conditions, so that the Banque de France could issue and control the circulation of CBDC tokens and so that CBDC transfer occurred simultaneously with the delivery of securities tokens to the investors’ portfolio,” Banque de France said.

The bank also revealed plans for further experiments in the future, noting that its efforts are part a push to provide evidence of use cases for a European CBDC:

“In the coming months and in cooperation with the market, the Banque de France will conduct additional experimentations to assess other uses of central bank digital currency in interbank settlements.”

The news that the EIB had issued the bond on Ethereum pumped the Ether (ETH) price to $2,709 on Wednesday. Danny Kim, head of revenue at crypto broker SFOX told Reuters the announcement “triggered a bullish institutional use case for Ethereum.”

Despite the bullishness on Ethereum, the wait for a digital euro may still take some time, as the European Central Bank did not participate in the pilot.

In January this year, President of the European Central Bank Christine Lagarde said that the development of a digital euro is "going to take a good chunk of time to make sure it's safe," adding, "I would hope that it's no more than five years.”

On April 12, ConsenSys South Africa lead Monica Singer warned that Europe may be left behind if its too slow to pull the trigger:

“If the central bank in Europe is gonna wait until 2028, by then there won’t be a central bank. Because who’s gonna use the euro in its current form? There are gonna be so many choices.”


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SEC enforcement chief steps down just days after appointment

The official's conduct in past litigation was brought into question by a U.S. District court judge.

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission new enforcement chief, Alex Oh, has resigned from her position with the Securities and Exchange Commission just days after taking the role.

According to an official SEC announcement, Oh stepped down for personal reasons. However, in Oh’s resignation letter to Chairman Gary Gensler — as seen by Bloomberg — the former enforcement chief revealed she was stepping down to avoid becoming a distraction, as she deals with controversies arising from a case she worked in the past.

Oh was previously a partner at the Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison private law practice, where she represented, among others, oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp. The case in question reportedly relates to Oh’s defense of Exxon against allegations that the firm had supported the torture and murder of Indonesian villagers.

Oh’s conduct during the litigation was brought into question by U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth on April 26. Oh was asked to provide evidence for the unsupported claim she made during a deposition for the case that her opposing counsel was “agitated, disrespectful, and unhinged”.

“A development arose this week in one of the cases on which I worked while still in private law practice. I have reached the conclusion that I cannot address this development without it becoming an unwelcome distraction,” said Oh, in her resignation letter to the SEC chairman.

Oh will be replaced by Melissa Hodgman, who previously served in the role in early 2021. Hodgeman will serve as the acting director of enforcement going forward.

Gary Gensler's appointment as SEC chairman in mid-April was seen as a possible boon to the cryptocurrency space, given Gensler's history as a blockchain educator, and his acceptance of Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies' role as new financial tools.

However, Oh's resignation means Gensler is now without his first pick for the role of enforcement chief. How much this will disrupt Gensler's plans during his tenure as SEC chairman remains to be seen.



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Intercontinental Exchange sells Coinbase stake for $1.2B

Intercontinental Exchange has sold its 1.4% stake in Coinbase to reduce the company’s debt.

Intercontinental Exchange, the operator of the New York Stock Exchange and the owner of Bakkt digital asset platform, has sold its 1.4% stake in the newly Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency firm Coinbase.

Announcing the news Thursday on a financial results call for the first quarter of 2021, ICE chief financial officer Scott Hill said that the company sold its Coinbase stake for $1.2 billion. The executive noted that the sale generated approximately $900 million net after taxes.

Hill said that the proceeds were used to reduce ICE’s debt at the end of the first quarter. He noted that the company’s pro forma leverage, or total indebtedness rate, would have been closer to 3.6x compared to 4.2x when ICE acquired mortgage-focused software company Ellie Mae in September 2020.

“We are definitely a bit ahead of schedule, been paying down debt faster than we sort of expected when we started the deal. I mean I would say we were doing that, though, before the Coinbase sale,” ICE’s incoming CFO Warren Gardiner added. He stressed that Coinbase proceeds gave the company “some additional flexibility” as ICE moves into the rest of the year. “We are down to about 3.6 leverage, the target is about 3.25, where we can start to think about buying back stock,” he noted.

ICE’s decision to sell Coinbase shares comes amid the company posting record revenues in Q1 2021 totaling $1.8 billion and up 4% year-over-year. “First quarter revenues, operating income, adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per share were all the best in the history of our company,” the CFO said. He stated that, while ICE’s total transaction revenues slightly declined versus last year, the amount of total recurring revenues increased by 9%.

As previously reported, ICE’s digital asset trading platform, Bakkt, is set to go public on NYSE in Q2 2021 through a merger with VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings.

The biggest crypto exchange in the United States, Coinbase went public on Nasdaq on April 14 with a direct listing of its COIN shares. The shares opened at $381, marking heightened institutional demand as the stock’s pre-listing reference price was just $250. The Coinbase stock closed Thursday trades at $294, following a gradual decline after the listing, according to data from TradingView.

COIN share all-time price chart. Source: TradingView

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, multiple COIN investors including Coinbase executives sold $5 billion in COIN stocks shortly after listing. Notable sales included those of Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, selling nearly 750,000 shares netting at a total of around $292 million. 



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We all know the issues with DeFi — but what are the answers?

High costs and transactions prioritized by gas fees often make using DeFi protocols challenging to say the least. Does it really need to be this difficult?

Polkadex

Decentralized exchanges have indelibly changed the way that cryptocurrencies are traded. But in the grand scheme of things, the technology that’s driving these platforms is relatively young… meaning it’s inevitable that teething problems have emerged.

Some of the heavy hitters that dominate the market at present are known as non-orderbook markets. While it’s tantalizing and somewhat romantic that these platforms are controlled purely by supply and demand, it often results in some unexpected downsides.

There’s one glaring disadvantage that we don’t need to mention too extensively — high swap fees. We currently live in a world where it can cost hundreds of dollars to execute a small number of seemingly straightforward transactions on the best-known decentralized finance protocols. For the DeFi sector’s true potential to shine, these transfers need to be cheaper and faster than anything a centralized rival can provide.

Annoyingly, one of the things that makes cryptocurrencies so exciting can also stand in the way of these assets being practical as a medium of exchange… and that’s blockchain. On networks like Ethereum’s, miners end up prioritizing transactions that pay the highest gas fees — and this can prove calamitous for traders who are in a hurry. Opportunistic users who aim to snap up tokens at low prices risk ending up paying much more than they bargained for, especially if an asset’s value has risen by the time the trade is finalized.

We’ve also seen institutions begin to take a growing interest in this space — and in many cases, these corporations can be big spenders who like to snap up their digital assets in bulk. Right now, DeFi can end up being a poor fit for those seeking to execute big trades, and that’s because the size of these transactions can end up dwarfing the liquidity that’s available in the market.

Experiencing all of these hurdles also assumes that you’ve managed to get to the stage where you’re comfortable with using a DeFi protocol. Clunky, confusing user interfaces can make these ecosystems exceedingly off-putting — even to those who know their way around a traditional trading platform. And given the calamitous consequences that can arise if funds are sent to the wrong place, or if a wrong number is typed into a box, it’s crucial for newcomers to have confidence.

At first glance, it seems a radical rethink is needed to build upon the extraordinary success that first-generation protocols have enjoyed already — protecting the attributes that make DeFi platforms so popular, all while ripping a few pages out of the playbook used by centralized rivals. The end result can be enjoying the perks that a CEX provides, without the inherent dangers associated with putting trust in a third party.

What if bulk buys and bulk sales could be performed without liquidity being a concern, and an asset’s price going through the roof? What if decentralized finance protocols didn’t involve putting up with endless bottlenecks that affect a trader’s bottom line? Is there a way of ensuring that everyone’s transactions are equal, and can all of this be achieved while a user has full control of their funds?

‘The perfect decentralized exchange’

One top priority for the crypto sector needs to center on ensuring that a trading platform, decentralized or otherwise, gives equal opportunities for all. The design of some ecosystems often creates an unpleasant trade-off — one that benefits traders more than market makers, or vice versa.

Orderbooks can serve as a knight in shining armor here — responding to changes in global sentiments on traded assets in a split second. This can help eliminate the price slippage that oh, so many traders end up grumbling about… and put an end to the agonizing waits traders experience while their urgent transactions wind their way through the blockchain at glacial speed.

Polkadex Orderbook brings such a concept to life — ensuring makers can create markets by placing buy and sell orders, and takers can consume them. The project delivers a layer-two system on top of the Polkadex Network, and it’s claimed that the orderbook can accept trades in 20 milliseconds — with capacity for 500,000 trades to be processed per second.

Frontrunning becomes a distant memory by getting rid of fees altogether — meaning there’s a “first come, first serve” mentality toward processing trades. Simultaneously, this deals with the recurring issue of blockchains being too expensive to use.

Although this may initially seem like there’s a risk of centralization creeping into the DeFi space, an innovative twist comes in the form of decentralized Know Your Customer checks. User privacy is preserved thanks to how Polkadex never ends up receiving the details of the traders who use its platform ­— instead, they merely receive cryptographic proof that the checks have been completed.

Users remain in control of their funds at all times, and traders can also delegate their assets to a third party to benefit from algorithmic trading. An array of trading bots is also supported — including high-frequency trading bots that are geared toward investors of all sizes, giving everyone that split-second advantage that often proves crucial in a fast-moving market. Risk management bots, powered by machine learning, are also becoming more popular.

Polkadex is also set to offer a fully on-chain IDO platform that will deliver a one-stop-shop for new projects, from the fundraising stage to the listing of tokens, all while removing barriers to entry for consumers who want to get on the ground floor of startups they’re passionate about.

According to Polkadex, decentralized exchanges need to evolve — and need to evolve now. The team behind this project believes their approach, which blends a fast orderbook and plentiful levels of liquidity with a slick user experience, could fire the starting gun on a new generation of DeFi.

Learn more about Polkadex

Disclaimer. Cointelegraph does not endorse any content or product on this page. While we aim at providing you all important information that we could obtain, readers should do their own research before taking any actions related to the company and carry full responsibility for their decisions, nor this article can be considered as an investment advice.



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Thursday, April 29, 2021

Australian senate committee calls for national blockchain land registry

Australia’s senate committee on technology and finance wants lawmakers to establish a national blockchain land registry.

An Australian senate committee has published a report calling for a blockchain-based national land registry, better clarity over laws relating to smart contracts, and continued efforts to establish international standards for DLT.

The Select Committee on Australia as a Technology and Financial Centre's second interim report offers 23 recommendations spanning blockchain, consumer data, and corporate taxation.

Five recommendations deal specifically with blockchain and digital assets, including that the Council of Financial Regulators Cyber Working Group takes into account international data standards.

The committee recommended that National Cabinet consider supporting a blockchain-powered national land registry as a pilot project for Commonwealth-State cooperation on “RegTech’ to highlight ways to streamline administrative processes in both the public and private sectors.

“The committee was particularly impressed with the potential for blockchain to drive efficiencies in the area of land registries, and is recommending that this issue be further explored in the context of the National Cabinet.”

Zooming out, the committee noted there was a need for more clarity and certainty in digital asset regulations, and highlighted concerns from industry stakeholders regarding “the uncertain status” of smart contracts under Australian law.

Despite hearing about the concerns, the committee didn’t hear many solutions:

“While the committee heard extensive evidence on the need for such regulation, it heard less on concrete ideas for how this regulation should best be crafted." 

Instead it recommended the Australian Government “consider how best to improve clarity with respect to the standing of smart contracts.”

The report called on the Department of Industry, Science, Energy, and Resources, or DISER, to publish regular updates on the progress of the National Blockchain Roadmap and to to review and update the roadmap as the space evolved. 

Moving forward, the committee plans to review how capital gains are applied to cryptocurrency transactions, and give deeper consideration to the regulatory implications of central bank digital currencies and stablecoins during the final phase of its inquiries.



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Bitcoin mining in China set for 'stricter supervision' due to carbon concerns

China is reportedly paying more attention to the crypto mining sector, amid concerns of its growing carbon footprint.

China’s crypto mining operations may be set for stricter supervision in the future, with the Government reportedly concerned about the energy consumption of Bitcoin mining in particular.

Beijing sent an “emergency notice” to conduct checks on data centres involved in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency mining operations on April 27, which was reportedly met with some panic in China.

However Chinese columnist Colin Wu or Wu Blockchain on Twitter, was quick to downplay fears of how this could impact Chinese Bitcoin miners in the short term, noting that:

“This caused some panic in China. However, the Chinese government said it was only conducting an investigation. Data centers are difficult to use for Bitcoin mining, and are mainly used for ETH Filecoin.”

According to Chinese state media PengPai (accessed via translation), the “emergency notice” was routine work for the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, as it seeks to account for a clearer picture of the energy consumption from the mining operations of Beijing-based data centers.

It has yet to be revealed if the checks will be carried out on a national scale, or what the future ramifications could be. However, according to PengPai, Yu Jianing, the rotating chairman of the Blockchain Committee of the China Communications Industry Association, it's a sign of things to come. He believes that “under the background of carbon neutrality, the future blockchain mining will indeed have stricter supervision.”

This notion holds up when looking at Inner Mongolia for reference — which will no longer be a mining hub. Crypto miners have been given until the end of April to shut down operations after China recently banned crypto mining in the area in order to meet its new carbon-reduction goals.

China’s 14th “five year plan” outlines a set of targets which include an 18% reduction target for “CO2 intensity” and 13.5% reduction target for “energy intensity” from 2021 to 2025.

Beijing is not known as a crypto mining hub as its electricity prices are higher than other regions, which may mean other hubs such as Xinjiang and Sichuan are targeted in the future.

Data from the Cambridge Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index or CBECI, estimates Xinjiang accounted for 35% of China’s Bitcoin hashing power in April, and accounted for roughly 23% of the world’s hash rate.

More stringent mining conditions could have global effects, with some believing Bitcoin's sharp crash to $50,000 earlier this month was in part a result of Xinjiang's drop in hashrate due to power outages  around April 17.

Popular crypto Analyst Willy Woo speculated a “whale with closer knowledge to happenings in China,” sold off before mining pools were temporarily shut down, citing a transfer of 9000 Bitcoins to Binance on April 16.



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Fidelity launches institutional cryptocurrency analytics platform Sherlock

Sherlock will provide fundamental and technical analysis for fund managers and investors.

Asset management giant Fidelity is delving deeper into the digital asset space with the announcement of an analytics platform called Sherlock.

In an announcement on April 29, Fidelity Investments — which has $10 trillion assets under management — unveiled a digital assets data and analytics solution to assist institutional investors and fund managers.

The platform, dubbed Sherlock, will be similar to Bloomberg’s Terminal and will collate data on fundamental and technical analysis, blockchain data, market data, social sentiment analysis, and industry news into one portal.

It will include research on crypto assets from some of the leading institutional data providers, in addition to unique analytics to help investors evaluate the market, according to the announcement.

The new platform will compete against existing solutions from companies such as Messari which was launched in 2018 to provide institutional-grade analytics. Research firm Delphi Digital, which announced a partnership with gaming venture firm Bitkraft on Thursday, is another provider of in-depth research and analytics for institutional clients.

Other platforms offering a deeper level of data and analytics include Glassnode, Skew, Coin Metrics, Dune Analytics, and Santiment.

Kevin Vora, vice president of product management at the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology, acknowledged the increased institutional interest in the crypto space:

“It’s been exciting to see the tremendous growth in the digital assets data space over the past few years, and while the market is maturing rapidly, we’ve heard from institutional investors that there’s still a need for a comprehensive and accessible data solution,”

In addition to an advanced set of analytics tools for institutional investors, Sherlock will also allow users to explore the data off-platform for modeling and back-testing.

Senior associate at Blockchain Capital, Kinjal Shah, commented that one of the major challenges when researching crypto markets is piecing together information from numerous resources, adding that “Sherlock helps us research more efficiently by giving us access to holistic, timely data, which is crucial in this fast-paced market.”

Fidelity’s Center for Applied Technology (FCAT) also has a blockchain incubator team that conducts research and builds proofs of concepts around specific use cases for distributed ledger technology.

Fidelity is bolstering its crypto asset presence which began in 2014 with BTC mining. On March 24, the investment giant filed for a Bitcoin ETF aiming to be the first to provide such a product in the U.S.

On April 8, Tom Jessop, who heads Fidelity’s crypto division, stated that he believes things have reached a tipping point for the crypto asset industry.



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BNY Mellon fund laments: ‘We should have bought Bitcoin, not gold'

SEC filings show that America’s oldest bank has attributed the underperformance of its small-cap ETF to failing to buy MicroStrategy shares after the firm invested heavily in BTC.

U.S.-based financial institution BNY Mellon, the world’s largest custodian bank and asset servicing company, states that the recent performance of one of its exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, was significantly impacted by its lack of exposure to companies investing in Bitcoin.

The BNY Mellon Opportunistic Small Cap Fund (DSCVX) gained 35% from September 1, 2020, through February 28, 2021, underperforming its benchmark, the Russell 2000 Index — which produced roughly 41.7% over the same period.

Filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission indicate the firm laments not purchasing shares in leading business intelligence firm MicroStrategy (MSTR) — which invested billions into Bitcoin last year, holdings that have since grown to more than $4.8 billion. The filings state:

“Fund performance was hurt as well by a decision not to own MicroStrategy, whose stock surged when it announced it had invested in Bitcoin.”

The document also notes that the fund’s position in gold mining company, Alamos Gold, “hampered performance as shares were hurt by weak gold prices.”

According to ETF.com, 88 ETFs are currently exposed to MicroStrategy, including the sixth-strongest performing fund of 2021 so far, the Amplify Transformational Data Sharing ETF (BLOK) — which is heavily exposed to crypto firms and is the single-largest holder of MSTR by percentage allocation with 5.20% of its portfolio invested in Microstrategy.

On average, U.S.-based ETFs have allocated 0.57% of their capital to MicroStrategy.

Since announcing its first Bitcoin investment in August 2020, MicroStrategy has accumulated $2.2 billion worth of BTC — with the firm’s crypto stash having appreciated in value by 120%.

Over the same period, the price of MSTR has skyrocketed by 385% from $135 to $655 at the time of writing. In early February, MSTR was trading at record highs above $1,270.

MSTR/USD since August 2020: TradingView

BNY’s small-cap ETF typically invests a minimum of 80% of its assets into the stocks of companies with a low market capitalization from the Russell 2000 Index. Some of the fund’s largest allocations include North American airline SkyWest, enterprise cloud provider Cloudera, and healthcare provider Acadia. Roughly 23% of its investments are in the industrial sector, 17.5% are in healthcare, 15.9% are in technology, and 14.2% are in financial services

After opening 2020 trading at roughly 27.5%, DSCVX crashed as low as $16 during March as the economic impacts of the coronavirus became apparent globally. Since then, the fund has more than doubled in price to trade for more than $37.

Despite regretting the lack of MSTR exposure of its Opportunistic Small Cap Fund, BNY Mellon is making significant investments in the crypto sector, leading the $133 million Series C funding round of institutional crypto custodian Fireblocks last month.

In February, BNY Mellon also announced plans to offer Bitcoin custody services.



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Nvidia again limiting crypto mining on its RTX-3060 gaming graphics card

After accidentally unlocking its own hash rate limiter in a driver update, Nvidia has announced it will lock new cards again by reducing the mining capacity by 50%.

Graphics card giant Nvidia is quietly reintroducing a hash rate limiter on its RTX 3060 series graphics cards in an effort to disincentivize cryptocurrency miners.

On April 29 the company issued the GeForce 466.27 driver that reintroduces RTX 3060 cryptomining limiter.

GeForce 466.27 driver release notes, Source: Nvidia

According to sources reported by computer news site Videocardz, Nvidia will release the new ‘Lite Hash Rate’ models in mid-May which will be almost identical to previous versions of the same cards.

The gaming giant had originally limited the hash on the previous models, reducing mining performance by 50%. Matt Wuebbling, head of global GeForce marketing at Nvidia, said in a blog post in February:

“We designed GeForce GPUs for gamers, and gamers are clamoring for more.”

Hackers first came up with a workaround, and then in March, a driver update inadvertently unlocked this 'limiter' unleashing the card’s true potential of 118 Mh/s, enabling the mining of Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies.

The new cards are said to be identical in every way except that they will have a new PCI Device ID of 2504. Although the unlocked driver is now in the public’s hands, the new ID is designed to render them useless if used with the 470.05 driver update. It is however virtually certain some miners will attempt to circumvent this, and the previous models were supposedly hard-locked via the BIOS.

GeForce RTX 3060 new PCI Device ID in 466.27 drivers. Source: VideoCardz

The news has received a mixed response among the gaming community. Videocardz forum user “Eric W,” stated that the move only seems to sideline small home miners, who are often gamers t:

“Well this is a mixed bag. I want to buy a new gpu for gaming, but I also mine when I'm not actively playing games... I can't buy a mining gpu because Nvidia seems to only sell them in quantities of several thousand and I have no interest in having 100s of mining rigs.”

User “Mark” suggested the limiter wouldn’t put miners off anyway, adding that “it needs to be 90%+” to “be a real deterrent to miners”  while "Mashed Potato" believes it’s just a money grab:

“They still want miners to buy their cards… but twice as much.”

According to VideoCardz, limits are expected to be set on most RTX 30 series cards, although certain models, like the RTX 3090, may not end up with a limiter due to its high price tag of $1,500.



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$400M gaming VC fund Bitkraft teams up with Delphi on blockchain gaming

The collaboration will seek investments in the gaming and blockchain industry.

Gaming-focused venture capital fund Bitkraft Ventures has partnered with crypto industry research firm Delphi Digital in order to invest in related projects.

The collaboration, announced on April 29, will allow Bitkraft to increase its focus on investments in firms that use blockchain technology in addition to crypto assets and economics.

Bitkraft was founded in 2015 and has more than $400 million in assets under management with more than 50 investments in companies such as Epic Games, BitFry, and Fuze TV. In August 2020, the company raised $165 million to invest in digital gaming and e-sports and it is now betting big on crypto and blockchain.

Founded in 2018, Delphi Digital is an institutional-grade research firm focused exclusively on crypto and digital assets.

The two companies intend to combine their collective expertise in gaming, e-sports, digital entertainment, crypto technology, and the crypto asset class. Bitkraft Ventures will open its investment strategy to support investments in tokens as an asset class.

Founding partner at Bitkraft Ventures, Jens Hilgers, stated that the partnership hopes to embrace the inevitable change crypto will bring to gaming and beyond.

“The open infrastructure born out of decentralized technologies is reaching sufficient maturity to support new business models and content types at scale,”

Bitkraft hired blockchain and gaming metaverse expert, and venture partner at Delphi Digital, Piers Kicks, earlier this year to spearhead its foray into the crypto industry.

Delphi Digital co-founder and COO, Anil Lulla, said the combination of expertise in the two companies “will be a compelling value proposition for prospective portfolio companies” looking to invest in the emerging space.

There has been a considerable overlap with the gaming industry and crypto space in recent months. Major Japanese game developer Nexon announced a $100 million investment in Bitcoin on April 28, while gaming giant Ubisoft announced its intentions to become corporate baker on the Tezos network the day before.

On April 8, video game stalwart Atari announced a new blockchain division that will focus on leveraging the technology for decentralized gaming.



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Our Man in Shanghai: Huobi looks to become Grayscale of Asia, Yao Ming’s NFT wine, and Chinese crypto investors go to the dogs

Huobi tackles the institutional market, you can now own an NFT of basketball star Yao Ming drinking red wine, and China’s digital yuan starts to target the private sector

Huobi Asset Management is looking to be the Grayscale of Asia with the launch of four cryptocurrency related tracker funds. The funds include a Bitcoin Fund, an Ethereum fund, a multi-asset basket of digital currencies, and a private equity fund for mining businesses. The aim is clearly to entice major institutional investors into the space with a product that feels familiar. The fund and asset management company is set up in Hong Kong, even though Huobi maintains several offices within the mainland. Huobi is China’s most established exchange and ranks second on the global liquidity rankings behind Binance.

DOGEmania continues

High volumes and volatility continued on the world’s most popular memecoin. On April 28th, searches on WeChat for the Chinese version of ‘Dog-coin’ were up over 65% from the previous day. Shiba, another dog-themed memecoin, was also popular with Chinese exchanges MXC, Gate, Hotbit, LBank and Hoo. These five claimed the top spots for centralized exchanges by volume on April 29th. This suggests that Chinese investors are less attracted to fundamentals and continuing to invest in a more trend-based manner.

Yao Ming takes a shot at NFTs

The winery founded by retired Chinese basketball star Yao Ming released an exclusive wine paired with an NFT. Yao Family Wines released 200 limited edition bottles in a series named The Chop. This is a reference to historic stone seals, known as chops, that were used on official Chinese documents or pieces of art. The NFTs are now being traded on OpenSea for between 0.2-0.5 ETH. Yao Ming is currently an executive in the Chinese Basketball Association and is well known for his humanitarian work off the court.

Crypto projects wriggle off the hook

After five proposed class action lawsuits against crypto companies were dismissed in New York federal courts, a number of blockchain projects, including Tron, will be sleeping a little easier. The five dismissed cases were initially filed by plaintiffs upset about misleading investors, engaging in market manipulation and the sale of digital assets that were allegedly unlicensed securities. Cases against Binance, Kucoin, and Tron have yet to be dismissed but considering the similarities, it seems they have a good shot at dismissal too. Tron has a mixed perception in China, where Chinese co-founder Justin Sun has raised more than a few eyebrows with his heavy handed approach to marketing.

Digital China Summit and the digital yuan

On April 25-26, many of China’s largest corporations and organizations came together to discuss the topic of digitalization. E-commerce giant JD.com announced it had been paying some of their staff salaries with DCEP, China’s central bank digital currency. The firm also announced it uses the technology for select business-to-business payments. JD.com, which is similar to Amazon, is no stranger to blockchain and digital currencies. It maintains a blockchain division that is responsible for a number of projects related to supply chain management and food safety.

At the summit, Ant Finance revealed that a number of private companies had been supporting the government-led project. Ant Group and Tencent, the companies that own the two largest private payment processors in the country, are included in the project. Also named was smartphone and 5G technology provider Huawei. This won’t be a major surprise, as private companies will be eager to act in solidarity with the national policies. However, it does potentially lay a clear path to market for the digital yuan if it can be integrated into the country’s most popular apps and products.

This weekly roundup of news from Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong attempts to curate the industry’s most important news, including influential projects, changes in the regulatory landscape, and enterprise blockchain integrations.



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Canadian firm files final prospectus for Bitcoin ETF

Subject to regulatory approval, the asset manager should convert its Bitcoin trust to an ETF starting next week.

After putting the matter to a vote amongst the unitholders of its Bitcoin trust, Toronto-based investment manager Ninepoint Partners has filed its final prospectus for a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund.

According to an announcement from Ninepoint today, the securities regulatory authorities in each of the 10 provinces and 3 territories of Canada have acknowledged receipt for its application to establish a Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund, or ETF. The firm said in March it would allow its unitholders to vote on whether to convert its existing BTC trust to a Bitcoin ETF on the Toronto Stock Exchange, or TSX.

Ninepoint is aiming for the BTC trust to be converted to a Bitcoin ETF starting next Thursday, May 6, subject to regulatory and stock exchange approvals. Should the application be successful, the Ninepoint Bitcoin ETF would trade on the TSX under the ticker symbols used for its Bitcoin trust: BITC.U for U.S. dollars. However, the firm will shorten the BITC.UN ticker for the trust’s units in Canadian dollars to BITC for the ETF.

Canadian regulators have given the green light to many firms applying for crypto ETFs this year, including offerings from investment fund manager 3iQ, Purpose Investments, Evolve Funds Group and CI Global Asset Management. However, yesterday in the United States the Securities and Exchange Commission delayed its decision to approve or disapprove a Bitcoin ETF registration from asset manager VanEck.



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