News of the day – archive

May 13, 2021 – Tesla suspends accepting Bitcoin due to ecological considerations

Elon Musk is once again making the crypto news, this time in quite an awkward way, announcing that Tesla will suspend accepting BTC, “concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuel for Bitcoin mining”.

Questions abound: Does he know that mining dynamics is towards renewable energy use (i.e. it’s greener now than at the time he first engaged it in)? If he knows, does this tweet mean that he folds to the will of customers/shareholders that do not know? Or is it about Tesla seeking to enter multi-billion renewable credit market ? As announced by Reuters yesterday (coincidence hmmm), Tesla’s EPA application would be under review by Biden administration, which of course would not have an impartial vision of the crypto mining issue… What is sure is that the market reacted to the news, Bitcoin price dropping -17% intraday.

May 12, 2021 – More fees paid on DeFi protocol Uniswap than on Bitcoin

Among the different sectors of crypto economy DeFi is probably the one than grows the fastest. Uniswap, one of the most popular DEX (decentralized exchanges), has recently exceeded Bitcoin in fees, meaning that people pay more fees to Uniswap LP (liquidity providers) than to Bitcoin miners. DeFi has experienced spectacular growth since the beginning of 2021, passing from $23 Bn to $166 Bn in total value locked, and judging by the quantity of exiting projects that are being developed, it’s not going to stop soon. Learn more on DeFi here

May 11, 2021 – Crypto funds looking to set off carbon footprint of mining

Bitcoin is often criticized for its high energy consumption, and while a big part of it comes from renewable sources, another part still depends on fossils. To avoid the negative impact on environment increasingly popular green mining is a solution.

Another solution is to offset the carbon footprint of mining, i.e. to support forest conservation projects ? This way was taken by a Canadian fund Ninepoint Partners LP, who chose to dedicate a portion of its fees to purchasing carbon credits, thus creating carbon-neutral Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF (Exchange-Traded Fund). This practice is not isolated: American hedge fund One River is also aiming at carbon-neutrality of its crypto funds, helping create a new standard in eco-friendly crypto asset management

May 10, 2021 – Ethereum breakes through $4k

In the peak of alt season Ethereum price has doubled in two weeks, breaching $4k today. This is surely due to important developments on the Ethereum blockchain, including numerous DeFi and NFT projects, as well as layer 2 solutions, such as Polygon.

This bull run is also marked by an increasing participation of institutional investors, and particularly American ones: ETH demand on Coinbase has been exceeding other exchanges since April, and ETH is traded there with a premium. Taking into account ever decreasing ETH reserves across the exchanges, the rally might not be over just yet… 

May 9, 2021 – DeFi DApp Rari hacked

Yesterday’s hack of a DeFi yield aggregator Rari should come as a reminder of both the risks inherent to all software and the advantages of the open source. An equivalent of $11 M were stolen using an “evil contract” that tricked the DApp smart contract into thinking a hostile contract should have access.

While Rari Capital is yet to be heard on eventual compensations to clients who had their coins stolen, this hack gives all DeFi actors an opportunity to learn and address the weak points that were exploited by the hacker. And to users – another argument for DeFi insurance ?

May 8, 2021 – American investment firms waiting for SEC to decide on crytpo ETFs

Bitcoin was born to give people back the control over their money. However now that it’s a recognized store of value – even the SEC says so – financial institutions crave it.

The success of the Canadian ETFs (the most recent 3iQ CoinShares ETF launched on April 19 has already $1 BN in asset under management) adds to American funds’ cravings, and the SEC is inundated with crypto ETF filings: VanEck, Fidelity, SkyBridge, Galaxy and other firms are waiting for a green light. Traditional investment companies in America already can get a crypto exposure with Grayscale and akin, but middle-class investors who wish to invest in crypto without buying it (e.g. to add it into their life insurance or retirement portfolio) would be the main crypto ETF clients. June 17 is a deadline for VanEck’s application and, if approved, it would propel the demand for crypto even further.

May 7, 2021 – ING bank interested in the DeFi

While some banks still cannot wrap their heads around cryptocurrencies, some start seriously tackling the DeFi – which could be “more disruptive than Bitcoin to the financial sector”. ING is one of them. In a recently released study called “Lessons learned from the DeFi” they analysed its properties and concluded that notwithstanding the obvious risks “DeFi may offer improved or even new financial services”. Moreover, centralized institutions could help addressing these risks, so that “the best of both worlds is achieved if centralized and decentralized financial services cooperate”.Well, some banks have more of a future than others.

May 6, 2021 – Banks to rival crypto exchanges

As the money keps flowing from banks to crypto exchanges, the former usually have two options: either they ban wire transfers to exchanges (like HSBC or the French CIC do), in which case people just change the bank , or they try to rival with exchanges, offering their clients crypto exposure.The American provider of crypto solutions for institutions NYDIG announced having hundreds of US banks waiting in line to add crypto to their service proposal. Hundreds!

In the meantime the biggest Singaporean bank DBS has been successfully running its version of crypto exchange, with trading volume increased x10 in the last quarter. This service is limited to accredited investors, but even so there are hundreds waiting to get access.How long for the last naysayer bankers to abandon their efforts to stop the unstoppable?

May 5, 2021 – St. Louis FED publishing a report on DeFi

Adding to Ethereum momentum, St.Louis FED published a detailed report on the DeFi, explaining why it could lead to a paradigm shift in the financial industry.Written by a Swiss DLT professor Dr. Schar, it skips the traditional biases of illicit activity (“the inherent transparency of DeFi is a deterrent to this use case”), while acknowledging that with a diligent attention paid to DeFi DApps’ security and scalability, this sector could “potentially contribute toward a more robust, open, and transparent financial infrastructure”.And a glance to the regulators: “regulating a decentralized network may not be feasible”. Well, we’re not upset by this…

May 4, 2021 – Revolut to finally allow crypto withdrawals

As public interest for crypto is rising, many companies born into the traditional finance are trying to profit from it. As such, Revolut, a neo-bank, positions itself as crypto-friendly by allowing its customers to buy Bitcoin and some other cryptocurrencies. The problem with this “friendliness” is that it feels fake, for Revolut has been denying all decentralization ideas, banning its clients from sending money to crypto exchanges or withdrawing bitcoins they bought on the platform to another wallet. Crypto was invented to be free from centralized authority, and locking it into a bank’s wallet is ridiculous. However it looks like Revolut managers have finally grasped the idea and Revolut will allow crypto withdrawals from May 6. PayPal and Robinhood should take notes.

May 3, 2021 – Ethereum breaking $3k

After an impressive rally Ether skyrocketed beyond the $3K level, which put its market cap on the 27th place – higher than Disney or Bank of America, and made Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin a crypto billionaire. Ethereum has become the main blockchain for the burgeoning DeFi industry and the NFT trend, with an equivalent of $12 Bn of daily transactions. It is quite likely that the 27th place is not the limit for Ethereum, though: on average 2320 developers are working on it every month, creating the world of possibilities.

May 2, 2021 – Bitcoin as an alternative to pension funds

Bitcoin does remarkably well as a store of value and it’s being used more and more as a supplement to pension funds, especially in countries where the latter have historically had issues of fraud and instability, not to mention the failing national currencies. Popular African exchange Yellow Card has witnessed rising popularity of crypto on the continent and noticed that along with the usual reasons for buying Bitcoin, such as cheap transactions/remittances and the access for the unbanked, people also invest in it as a complement to their retirement income, South Africa leading the trend.

May 1, 2021 – Bitcoin dominance decreasing

For 2 years Bitcoin dominance was oscillating between 60-70% of the cryptoassets market. Things are changing now – and not because BTC is losing ground, like in 2018, but because many new blockchain use cases appear and other coins grow. Ethereum for the DeFi, DOT for interoperability, FIL for decentralized digital storage, Doge for fun… And of course the stablecoins, one of which pushed Bitcoin dominance as low as 47.8% yesterday: as a response to ever increasing demand USDC minted over $3 BN dollar-pegged stablecoins in one fell swoop. More and more dollars are entering the crypto ecosystem, weaving it into our economies…

April 30, 2021 – Cardano Africa strategy taking shape

For 3 years now Cardano is helping find supply chain solutions and training developers in using Haskell (the language Cardano is built with) in Ethiopia.

Yesterday Cardano’s parent company IOHK unveiled two more contracts signed with African states: an education certification system allowing to digitally verify grades & monitor school performance in Ethiopia and a project to build mobile infrastructure, providing unbanked populations with access to financial products via crypto in Tanzania. Both these projects also have in common an implementation of Cardano’s Atala PRISM Digital Identity solution. The Africa strategy is set on improving the livelyhoods of millions of Africans… while creating millions of Cardano blockchain users. Well done ?

April 29, 2021 – University of Wyoming running nodes and staking crypto

Ever increasing number of banks proposing Bitcoin to their clients (the latest in the long list is US Bancorp, America’s fifth largest bank) is a rather good news for the crypto adoption, but it’s not affecting our mindsets that much – and blockchain is about changing the paradigm. Universities, on the other hand, have a real possibility to create decentralization awareness, especially if they don’t stop at theory. University of Wyoming allocating $4M to running nodes and staking crypto will not only earn itself some revenue, but show its students a very concrete example of how crypto ecosystem works.

April 28, 2021 – Bitcoin Beach initiative financing Salvadoran National Surfing team

How to transform a small struggling coastal village in El Salvador, where local businesses do not even meet the regulations needed to accept credit cards, into a well-functioning place able to host 2021 ISA World Surfing Games?

In case of El Zonte it took a Bitcoin donation in 2019 with a specific condition attached: the crypto should not be cashed out. Since then, its residents integrated Bitcoin into every step of daily life, using Lightning network for small payments. The Bitcoin Beach initiative is now a driving force behind cryptoadoption in El Salvador, aiming at sharing El Zonte experience with other communities. It also financed the country’s National surfing team, who signed their first-ever paid contracts last week.A great example of a community leapfrogging the banks directly into cryptocurrency.

April 27, 2021 – Crypto adoption rising on different fronts

What’s new in crypto adoption today? Australians can sell their cars vs bitcoin at carbuyers com au, San Francisco Sheriff’s Department bought bitcoin for their non-profit, NFL star player Sean Culkin converts full salary in bitcoin, Tesla proves BTC liquidity by selling 10% of its holdings, and Elon Musk continues to HODL.

April 26, 2021 – After Synthetix, Binance starts tokenizing stocks

Stock Exchanges to become a thing of the past? Last week Synthetix issued tokenized versions of Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google, today Binance announces its own token version of Apple, Microsoft and Microstrategy… Tokenized stocks become more mainstream, democratizing access to equity and enabling everyone to access the stiff and elitist world of traditional finance. Well, in case of Binance, not exactly everyone – tokenized stocks won’t be available to the citizens of China and the US, and there’s a KYC obligation… Synthetix, on the other hand, is decentralized. You know what I mean ?

April 25 2021 – New crypto regulation soon to be disclosed in Turkey

Some good news from Turkey: Turkish Central Bank governor reassured everyone, dismissing the possibility of a total crypto ban. Moreover, the country’s finance ministry is to announce its first comprehensive crypto regulation that would define crypto and precise the way institutions store the keys of their clients’ funds.

April 24, 2021 – Two Turkish crypto exchanges freeze their operations

Turkish crypto ecosystem is living the worst times. After the ban on crypto payments announced last week the trouble continued with the country’s crypto exchanges: Thodex and Vebitcoin have halted their operations (an arrest warrant is issued for Thodex owner, currently in Albania). Exchanges’ problems would definitely play in favour of the regulators, who would have the possibility to denounce crypto in general, but this situation only proves (once again!) than any centralized system is flawed, and centralized exchanges are no exception. For now they are the only way to connect crypto to fiat currency, but an impressive surge of DEX, or decentralized exchanges, may give us an alternative.

April 23, 2021 – Mayor of Jackson, Tenessee, embraces Bitcoin

While America is agitated after President Biden’s proposal to double capital gains tax rate (this will include gains from crypto), positive changes continue on a local level. The city of Jackson, Tenessee, has joined Miami and the state of Wyoming in their crypto enthusiasm, announcing its intentions to mine Bitcoin, add it to the city’s balance sheet and pay the city’s employees with it. Jackson’s mayor has even added laser eyes to his Twitter photo, joining the movement in support of Bitcoin’s price surge.

April 22, 2021 – MakerDAO issues a mortgage loan

DeFi is well on its way to taking over traditional finance, now also including its coverage of real-world assets. Yesterday MakerDAO issued a mortgage loan, using an ERC-20 token representing an ownership stake in a pool of real estate assets as collateral. With the help of New Silver real estate company and Tinlake protocol, 38k of DAI ($38k) were minted against a real-life asset, entering a new chapter of DeFi development. Maker is a Decentralized Autonomous Organization owned and managed by the holders of MKR token. It pioneered in decentralized lending and decentralized stablecoins DAI. Adding real-life assets to its services proves that DeFi potential is far from being apprehended and the future of finance is decentralized.

April 21, 2021 – LVMH, Prada and Cartier launching a consortium blockchain

Blockchain is public by definition – that’s what guarantees its independence from any central authority. A “private” blockchain looses this quality, for its owner could easily rewrite it. There are situations though when a consortium blockchain controlled by several entities could be useful. That’s the case of Aura, a blockchain consortium launched by LVMH, Prada and Cartier, which aims at tracing luxury goods and provide their customers with a proof of authenticity. Theoretically consortium members could collide and cheat within the blockchain, but Aura’s very purpose – assure that customers buy authentic pieces – makes it less likely, while providing an excellent traceability tool.

April 20, 2021 – Facebook stablecoin Diem to be launched later in 2021

Presented in summer 2019, a global Facebook-powered stablecoin project Libra has scared stiff the regulators and central bankers all over the world. It was stopped since, but certainly not forgotten. Diem stablecoin project, a much less ambitious version of Libra, is to be launched later this year. Diem’s pilot would be small in scale and focused on transactions between individuals. The question is, however, will Diem annoy the regulators as much as Libra, or Mr Zuckerberg’s “lie low” strategy will pay off.

April 19, 2021 – Chinese Central Bank calling Bitcoin an “investment alternative”

Cryptocurrencies and the People’s Bank of China seem to be at the opposite ends of the freedom spectrum: crypto is decentralized and independent, while the PBoC systematically uses access to money as a tool for controlling Chinese people. Crackdowns on crypto exchanges and ICOs in 2017 are a logical step in the authoritarian direction, as well as the progress that PBoC has made in the matter of digital yuan, a CBDC, for it will be even easier to control people’s finances with a private blockchain-based money. Bitcoin, however, has another quality that may be of interest to the PBoC – it’s doing remarkably good as a store of value. Li Bo, deputy governor of the PBoC, calling Bitcoin an “investment alternative” yesterday could be a sign of a shifting mood towards crypto. It could also be a sign of something really big – a PBoC’s willingness to accumulate BTC as it does with gold, progressively replacing dollars in its reserves. Such a move would not only show the acumen of the Chinese, but could possibly shake the dollar’s dominance as a universal unit of account.

April 18, 2021 – Bitcoin dips -15% overnight

Bitcoin priced dipped -15% overnight, dragging along a bunch of altcoins and causing hodlers around the world to rack their brains understanding why. In the midst of rumors of US treasury to charge several financial institutions due to a supposed money laundering with crypto, or yesterday’s hash rate drop caused by a blackout in the Chinese Xinjiang region, the reasons for the dip are still not clear. And if it were a simple market correction?..

April 17, 2021 – Turkey bans crypto

Why is it that countries that need innovation the most are the first to hinder it? Crypto could be a unique chance for Turkey to help its people cope with ever-devaluating lira or maybe even produce a tech unicorn… Mr Erdogan, however, prefers to leave blockchain innovation to America and Asia. Pity for the Turkish people though who will continue losing their hard-earned money to the inflation… but who cares as long as he continues proving his all-mightiness. So yes, yesterday Turkey banned “any direct or indirect usage of crypto assets in payment services and electronic money issuance”, giving users 2 weeks to clear their balances.Turkey is the 4th country in the world for crypto adoption, and the ban would probably hurt only officially registered crypto businesses, while the real usage will go underground, profiting to P2P exchanges. Turkish opposition already tries to raise a voice to defend cryptocurrencies… but we all know the chances.

April 16, 2021 – Ethereum completing Berlin hard fork

Yesterday Ethereum successfully accomplished Berlin hard fork – a group of updates modifying gas efficiencies and adding new transaction logic. While not quite revolutionary in itself, Berlin hard fork is another step towards integrating Ethereum into Eth2.0 – a more efficient blockchain using PoS consensus and shard chains mechanism to increase transaction throughput and decrease their cost.
In the meantime, the 0 phase of Eth2.0 launched last December has been performing really well, with over 3.6 M ETH ($8 BN) staked by over 118k validators.

April 15, 2021 – Former CIA Director calling Bitcoin a bad tool for criminals

It is surprising how the reason is weaker than our biases. So many politicians are quick to label the magic Internet money that they don’t understand a “tool for criminals”, even if its code is literally transparent and the ledger of all transactions is accessible by anyone. It would take something that does not need reasoning, like a reputation, to swing the public opinion. The former CIA Director Michael Morell used his reason and after researching the subject concluded that “there was probably less illicit activity in the Bitcoin ecosystem than there is in the traditional banking”. Moreover, concerned for his country, Mr Morell warned that misconceptions about crypto and criminality may “hinder the adoption of potentially revolutionary technologies”. So Mrs Yellen, Mme Christine Lagarde or M Bruno Le Maire, please do your research or put your trust in CIA competence… but do it quickly, otherwise it is your country that is going to stay behind.

April 14 2021 – ConsenSys raising $65 M

Ethereum is quite likely to keep its leadership in the DeFi space, despite newcomers such as BSC trying to gain a foothold. ConsenSys raising $65 M for DeFi infrastructure development on Ethereum is just another sign of it. Remarkably, the investment round was lead by JPMorgan, MasterCard and UBS, bridging the gap between the traditional finance and the decentralized one even further.

April 13, 2021 – New York Stock Exchange issuing souvenir NFTs

The lines between traditional finance and cryptocurrencies increasingly blurred. Crypto exchanges now propose tokenized stocks, like FTX or most recently Binance where one can now invest into stocks like Tesla without much of the constraints, and stock exchanges try to catch up with crypto, like the NYSE that issued souvenir NFTs commemorating the first trades of important stocks. The world of finance is morphing.

April 12, 2021 – Urs Fischer first NFT sold on Fair Warning

NFTs of digital art are only for crypto enthusiasts and newly-made bitcoin millionaires? Loic Gouzer, the man behind the world’s most expensive art sale (Da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi), doesn’t think so. His auction app Fair Warning just sold the Urs Fischer NFT – an artwork called CHAOS #1 Human, an animated ditigal piece featuring an egg/lighter combi (final price $97750). The blockchain can prove the scarcity of a digital piece: as it is linked to a non-fungible token , everyone can see that there’s only one Fischer’s egg/lighter artpiece on the blockchain and that it belongs to only one owner at a time. Moreover, the NFTs environment is much more democratic than the traditional art, allowing more art creators and art collectors to express themselves.

April 11, 2021 – Lightning Network powering livestreaming tips

Micropayments potential is huge, especially when it comes to streaming. The latest use case comes from an artist and DJ Cryptograffiti launching a plugin allowing to send BTC tips during a livestream DJ set via a QR code, which will automatically split the tip between a DJ and a producer. Fast and cheap, Lightning Network could become a great tool for online artists of all kinds.

April 10, 2021 – Argentina preparing a crackdown on crypto?

The Central Bank of Argentina requested all banks to provide it with personal details of people holding or otherwise involved with a cryptocurrency. Argentinian peso having lost 90% of its value vs USD in the last 5 years, the Central Bank has banned all foreign currency exchange in an effort to force people to use the peso. Quite naturally many turn to crypto… and it starts to attract the attention of the authorities.

April 9, 2021 – HSBC not allowing their customers to buy BTC-holding companies’ stocks

In the light of the newly changed “virtual currencies” policy HSBC decided to ban their customers from buying stocks of companies that have Bitcoin in their treasury – clearly taking their clients for idiots and preventing them from making profits. It is worth mentioning that HSBC is known for having been laundering money for drug cartels and Ponzi schemes for many years. In 2012 it paid a record $1.9 BN of fines to settle this case and… continued to launder dirty money even after probation, as revealed in FinCEN files. The “Hypocrite of the year” award definitely goes to HSBC.

April 8, 2021 – Real estate companies embracing Bitcoin

Crypto is a world of possibilities applicable to almost any existing domain. It takes time and effort to comprehend, but when you do, possibilities for innovation are legion.
California real estate company Caruso is one such example. Not only its tenants can now pay with bitcoin, a part of its treasury is allocated to BTC and it even considers using NFTs as a way to engage its customers.
A way to outpace the competition ?

April 7, 2021 – Lightning Network reaching 10’000 nodes

While political leaders repeat the same “Bitcoin transactions are not efficient” mantra, Lightning Network quietly reached 10’000 nodes on April 5th, doubling from the previous year, with $68 M worth of bitcoins locked into Lightning channels. LN is a layer 2 built atop Bitcoin, helping to decrease significantly both the transaction time (less than a minute) and the fees (fractions of a cent), making Bitcoin a convenient means of exchange.

April 6, 2021 – Cryptoassets market value has reached the value of US banking system

As calculated by coin.dance, Total Cryptocurrency Universe Market Value reached $1.921 BN, whereas the S&P Composite 1500 Banks Market Value stayed at $1.898 BN. This very concrete and measurable sign might be one of many to come, showing the growing obsolescence of the traditional centralized finance.

April 5, 2021 – Thai crypto exchanges’ volume surging by 600%

Thailand can join the group of top crypto adopters, with trading volumes rising almost 600% since November 2020: from $574 M to almost $4 BN in four months.

April 4, 2021 – Blockchain jobs on the rise

As the crypto economy reaches $2 TR, its employment opportunities abound. From developers to copywriters to brokers (and many more), the term “bitcoin jobs” on Google gives over 93M results, while “blockchain jobs” show around 151M results.
Blockchain is here to stay, so don’t linger to learn about it ?
Happy Easter everyone!

April 3, 2021 – Banks of America and CBDC

It looks like Bank of America too is being seduced by the CBDCs, as suggested by their report from March 31. No wonder, for a CBDC could increase Central Bank’s power, giving it a direct access to the citizens, bypassing commercial banks and alike.
Such access could facilitate the conduit for any stimulus and lending program, but it could also reinforce the state control over citizens’ transactions. Let’s hope that privacy will not be forgotten when considering a CBDC for real.

April 2, 2021 – Coinbase direct listing set for April 14

April 14 – the date when Coinbase goes public – can mark a major milestone in the history of finance.
With valuation estimated between $68 BN and $104 BN, it could be bigger than Euronext, Nasdaq and ICE altogether ($94 BN)! ?
Crypto is here for good boys and girls ? Read more here

April 1, 2021 – Strike payment app launching Lightning-based remittances service in El Salvador

It’s a shame really that workers in developed countries used to pay up to 20% fees when sending their hard-earned money to their families in poorer parts of the world. The blockchain is of course changing this. Using Lightning Network, a layer-2 solution built on the top of Bitcoin, BTC transfers are not only near-instantaneous, but also really cheap (we’re speaking fractions of a cent here). Payment apps using LN have a very real opportunity to make the world better, as does Strike for El Salvador – a country with 22% of GDP coming from remittances. Most Salvadorans are also unbanked, so their Bitcoin Lightning Wallet is used to pay local merchants, creating a whole new payment ecosystem. Read more here

March 31, 2021 – PayPal users now can pay in crypto

Another step towards crypto inclusion. PayPal, previously allowing to buy and store crypto (without much practical usage however), now allows its US customers to spend their crypto at millions of online merchants, converting into fiat at the checkout ? Read more here

March 30, 2021 – 8.2 terabytes of client data allegedly hacked from an Indian payment service MobiKwik

No data can be 100% secure in a centralized server managed by a centralized organization. An internal leak, a targeted attack, any number of scenarios can end up in sensible data getting hacked. 8.2 terabytes of personal data, including IDs, passwords etc, allegedly leaked from the Indian payment app MobiKwik is just another example, even if MobiKwik themselves deny it (and who wouldn’t, if their reputation depended on it…) Read more here

March 29, 2021 – VISA to settle fiat transactions with stablecoins

Yet another step taken by VISA towards crypto inclusion. A pilot program with crypto. com will test crypto institutions sending payments in stablecoins directly to VISA’s Ethereum address – an important feature that would dispense crypto fintech from lengthy and costly fiat conversion. Read more here

March 28, 2021 – Bitcoin-skeptic turned Bitcoin-investor

Another case of easy “mining-electricity-hurts-environment” argument with a happy ending: Norwegian billionaire Øystein Stray Spetalen did his homework and admitted he was wrong, only 9 days after declaring it a “nonsense currency”. Moreover, he is now on board of a crypto exchange and buys bitcoin ? All this thanks to a proper intelligence (and maybe a billionaire’s flair for the right trends). Read more here

Marh 27, 2021 – China for the world’s first CBDC

The Party is eager to launch the Digital Yuan before the 2022 Olympics, and testing has already started, with six banks enrolling their customers for trial. Users could be thrilled by the fast no-middleman transfers, but they should not rely on a “controlled anonymity” – for a private blockchain is at the mercy of those who control it – in this case the Chinese state. Bitcoin is public though, and can profit from the rising awareness of the CBDC, if not by the contrast between the two. Read more here

March 26, 2021 – Crypto real estate booming in Spain

Real Estate tokenization would have changed the industry outlook forever. Everyone can invest now, even if they don’t have much to spare – all you have to do is go online and buy a token. That’s what’s happening in Spain, with a tokenized appartement in Sevilla recently sold to 32 investors from Spain, Argentina, and Mexico. Investments started from €100. Read more here

March 25, 2021 – 7% of Americans who received stimulus checks spent them on crypto

So the government issues bonds to finance the Covid stimulus.The Fed creates money out of thin air and buys these bonds, while increasing the overall dollar supply. 7% of people who receive stimulus checks spend it on crypto – because, well, the increased dollar supply makes them worry about inflation. In a nutshell: somewhat ironically, the government is actually helping crypto adoption. Read more here

March 24, 2021 – Tesla accumulating bitcoins

Bitcoins paid as payments for Teslas will not be converted to fiat currency. Elon Musk is clearly set on contributing to crypto economy… and also paving the way for dollar-less business ?

March 22, 2021 – Bitcoin use ever-increasing in Morocco despite a ban

A good example of the incredible resilience of decentralized systems, and their capacity to become an inclusion tool. Crypto has been banned in Morocco for quite a while, but Bitcoin trading is doing better than ever ? Thanks to peer-to-peer platforms like LocalBitcoin Moroccans can have their financial autonomy – a precious thing in a country where 71% of adults are unbanked. Read more here

March 21, 2021 – Crypto ecosystem in Argentina healthier than its economy

Crypto is an amazing tool for protecting personal freedom. Even if your country’s government decides that it is better for you to starve while clinging to the devaluating national currency, you can choose to survive by using crypto. Argentina prohibiting its citizens to buy dollars became a favorable environment for the development of the crypto ecosystem and one of the key places for crypto adoption. Read more here

March 20, 2021 – First crypto ETFs in Brazil

The list of countries having approved crypto ETFs is not long so far, but it grows quite steadily. Brazil is the newest addition, with two crypto funds to be traded on B3 soon. So now with Canadian crypto ETF to the north and Brazilian ones to the south it looks like only a question of time for the US to follow suite. Read more here

March 19, 2021 – City of Reno to create a Reno DAO

Blockchain puts in perspective the notion of authority, empowering users to transact and take decisions in a decentralized way. DAOs, or decentralized autonomous organizations, are an excellent example of this new paradigm, allowing DAO token holders to take collective decisions via votes.
It would take a progressive mayor to understand the great potential that DAO holds for managing cities, and luckily for the city of Reno, their mayor seems to fit the description. Imagine the proceeds of a city property rent going directly to this city’s residents, or residents trading with each other their solar energy… Dropped equally among Reno residents, the Reno Coin could bring transparency to government affairs and create a local economy that could benefit all.
New democracy is on the move? Read more here

March 18, 2021 – European MP :” We must not let Zuckerberg becoma a Central Bank”

Who said that currency should be a prerogative of a Central Bank? That is, other than central bankers eager to maintain their monopoly?The energy deployed by them to hinder any progress in the matter of money is quite amusing to watch. And while they actually can close their countries to Facebook’s Diem stablecoin project (i.e. block a competitor), they cannot do so to Bitcoin and other decentralized crypto – for you cannot kill a headless structure. Monetary dramedy to follow. Read more here