Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

11% of US insurers invest — or are interested in investing — in crypto

United States-based insurers are the most interested in cryptocurrency investment according to a Goldman Sachs global survey of 328 chief financial and chief investment officers regarding their firms asset allocations and portfolios.　　The investment banking giant recently released its annual global insurance investment survey, which included responses regarding cryptocurrencies for the first time, finding that 11% of U.S. insurance firms indicated either an interest in investing or a current investment in crypto.　　Speaking on the companys Exchanges at Goldman Sachs podcast on Tuesday, Goldman Sachs global head of insurance asset management Mike Siegel said he was surprised to get any result:　　“We surveyed for the first time on crypto, which I thought would get no respondents, but I was surprised. A good 6% of the industry respondents indicated that theyre either invested in crypto or considering investing in crypto.”　　Asia-based insurers were next in line, with 6% interested or currently invested, and European insurers came in at only 1%.　　The report found cryptocurrencies were in fifth place for the asset class insurers expect to deliver the highest returns over the next 12 months, with 6% ranking it as their first choice, beating United States and European equities.　　Around 2% of firms indicated a current crypto investment,

2022-06-02Deep Dive

Taco tokens: Chipotle adds crypto payments via Flexa

Nearly 3,000 Chipotle restaurants across the U.S. will accept 98 cryptocurrencies as the Mexican-style fast food chain partners with Flexa to support crypto payments.　　The popular Mexican fast food chain Chipotle is now accepting cryptocurrency payments through digital payment provider Flexa at all of its over 2,950 United States based restaurants.　　Flexa announced the partnership on June 1st which will see Chipotle accept all the 98 cryptocurrencies Flexa currently supports including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and seven U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins including USD Coin (USDC). Chipotles website does not contain any information on the announcement however.　　The fast food giant is the latest Flexa partner joining other large businesses such as cinema operator Regal Theaters and Bancoagrícola, El Salvadors largest financial institution where Flexa enables both retail and merchant Bitcoin transactions for the banks customers.　　Chipotle has briefly experimented with cryptocurrencies in the past. In April 2021 to celebrate National Burrito Day it gave away $100,000 worth of Bitcoin along with free burritos and claimed it was the first U.S. restaurant brand to offer a crypto giveaway.　　For the so called “chiptocurrency” giveaway Chipotle partnered with former Ripple CTO Stefan Thomas, creating a game where players guessed a code possibly winning either a burrito or up

2022-06-02Deep Dive

Bitcoin daily mining revenue slumped in May to eleven-month low

Bitcoin miners have had a tough month, with revenue and profitability tanking in May. Hash rates remain high, however.　　Bitcoin mining revenue and profitability have continued to slide along with the assets price this year as the crypto winter deepens.　　May has been one of the worst months for Bitcoin miners in the past year as revenue and profitability continue to tank. Bitcoin daily mining revenue tanked as much as 27% in May, according to data from Ycharts sourcing data from Blockchain.com.　　On May 1, the analytics provider reported daily revenue of $40.57 million for BTC miners, but by the end of the month, it had fallen to $29.37 million. Daily mining revenue hit an eleven-month low of $22.43 million on May 24.　　BTC daily mining revenue YTD – ycharts.com　　Daily mining revenue spiked to a peak of around $80 million in April 2021 but has since fallen 62% to current levels.　　Mining profitability, which is a measure of daily dollars per terahash per second, has hit its lowest levels since October 2020, according to Bitinfocharts. The crypto metrics provider currently reports mining profitability of 0.112 USD/day for 1 THash/s.　　Furthermore, the metric has seen a decline of 56% since the beginning of the year and is

2022-06-02Deep Dive

Reliably unreliable: Solana price dives after latest network outage

Solana has suffered its fifth outage of 2022, and the year is only five months old. A bug-related consensus failure was the culprit this time.　　The Solana network is not having a good year, having suffered full or partial outages at least seven separate times over the past 12 months.　　A bug has knocked the Solana blockchain offline again as block production halted at 16:55 UTC on Wednesday. This latest outage lasted around four and a half hours as validator operators managed to restart the mainnet at around 21:00 UTC, according to the incident report.　　Solana Labs co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko explained what happened in a tweet:　　“Durable nonce instruction caused part of the network to consider the block is invalid, no consensus could be formed.”　　“Durable transaction nonce” refers to a mechanism addressing the typical short lifetime of a transaction block hash according to the official Solana documentation. A bug in the feature caused nodes to generate different outputs resulting in consensus failure, which ultimately caused the latest period of downtime.　　The network was restarted with this feature disabled, and Yakovenko added that fixes for the bug “will be out ASAP.”　　Naturally, there was a fair amount of backlash from the community with comments like this filling

2022-06-02Deep Dive

Global Securities Body Warned Of Need For Crypto Market Regulation

In the wake of the recent fiasco involving Terra crash, there seems to be an increased push for regulation. In a latest, the community of financial planners came up with recommendations for crypto market regulation.　　Need To Regulate Crypto Market　　The financial planning standards board (FPSB) made the recommendations to the IOSCO Retail Market Conduct Task Force. FPSB is an association for the global financial planning profession. The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) is an association of organizations that regulate the worlds securities and futures markets. The body has been assisting the community in evaluating the issues and risks relating to the crypto trading platforms.　　The FPSB stressed on the need to regulate crypto assets. It also suggested ensuring that financial advisers are appropriately qualified to do the advising.　　The recommendations spoke on how regulators around the world could address the potential adverse impacts of the rise of complex financial products. It also suggested addressing the impact of technology innovation and social media personalities.　　Dante De Gori, FPSB head of stakeholder engagement, said,“Financial fraud and scams are certainly not new, but the rapid emergence and evolution of crypto assets and other complex digital assets means the level of risk and exposure for retail investors

2022-06-02Deep Dive

Kanye West Quietly Enters NFT, Crypto Market With Latest Move

Some celebrities were super impressed with the power of NFTs when the whole craze came to light. Some others though, did not really bought the concept. Kanye West was one of those big stars who were skeptical about the NFT scene.　　In fact, many saw his comments against NFTs as a big loss to the crypto community. That was understandable, given his massive influence on social media.　　Kanye West Yeezus NFTs　　In what could be a big boost to the NFT market, the American rapper filed for trademark application around his Yeezus brand. According to Josh Gerben, a trademark attorney, Kanye West filed 17 applications for trademark recently. The attorney informed on Twitter:　　“Kanye West has filed 17 new trademark applications around his YEEZUS name. The filings indicate an intent to launch YEEZUS-branded amusement parks, NFTs, toys and more.”　　The trademark application appears to have been filed on May 27 in the name of Mascotte Holdings, Inc, which is Wests company. In the application filed to the U.S. patent and trademark office, the rapper has filed for the Yeezus trademark under various categories.　　Yeezus Crypto & NFTs　　The stand out category among the applications is ‘Blockchain-based currencies and non-fungible tokens’. Other notable goods and services include amusement

2022-06-02Deep Dive

Binance Labs Closes $500M Web3 Fund For Crypto Startups

Binance Labs, the in-house venture capital arm of the worlds largest crypto exchange Binance, has raised $500 million to support crypto startups.　　Binance VC Arm Raises $500M　　Money keeps pouring into crypto despite diminished prices and looming recession risks.　　Binance‘s venture capital arm, Binance Labs, announced Wednesday that it had raised $500 million to drive adoption of Web3 and blockchain technologies. The fund is Binance’s first raise to take in outside capital, with backers including DST Global Partners, Breyer Capital, and several other family offices, private equity funds, and corporations.　　Per the announcement, the new fund will invest in crypto startups across three stages: incubation, early-stage development, and late-stage growth. For projects in their incubation phase, Binance Labs will support them by sharing its network of resources, experts, and mentors. In contrast, the fund will back early-stage startups through token and equity investments, and late-stage projects through more involved strategic partnerships. Commenting on the $500 million investment initiative, Binance founder and CEO, Changpeng Zhao, said:　　“In a Web3 environment, the connection between values, people, and economies is essential, and if these three elements come together to build an ecosystem, that will accelerate the mass adoption of the blockchain technology and crypto. The goal of the

2022-06-02Deep Dive

Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister Advises Retail Investors to Steer Clear of Cryptocurrencies

Singapores deputy prime minister has advised retail investors to steer clear of cryptocurrencies, citing that they are “highly risky.” He stressed, “We cannot express this enough.”　　Singapores Deputy Prime Minister Warns About Crypto　　Singapores Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat reportedly warned retail investors against investing in cryptocurrency Tuesday while speaking at the Asia Tech x Singapore (ATxSG) summit. He said:　　“Retail investors, especially, should steer clear of cryptocurrencies. We cannot express this enough.”　　He brought up the collapse of cryptocurrency terra (LUNA) and algorithmic stablecoin terrausd (UST) to support his argument. Many investors lost a lot of money when the two cryptocurrencies crashed.　　While cautioning that cryptocurrency is “highly risky,” the deputy prime minister stated that digital dollars could transform finance. For more blockchain news, please download WikiBit - the Global Blockchain Regulatory Inquiry APP.　　Keat also stressed the importance of crypto regulation, stating:　　“We must continue to adapt our rules to ensure that regulation remains facilitative of innovation, and yet addresses the key risks that crypto assets pose.”　　Singapore has adopted strict rules on crypto, with the countrys central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), as the main regulator of the crypto sector. Many people have applied for a license with the MAS to operate

2022-06-02Deep Dive

Morgan Stanley: Crypto Venture Capital Funding Could Drop by 50% This Year

The crypto industry has seen a wave of venture capital firms investing in various assets and blockchain firms since the start of 2021. However, American multinational investment management and financial services company Morgan Stanley believes the amount of crypto VC funding could slow down significantly by year-end as the period of “easy money is over.”　　7% of All Global VC Funding in 2021 Went Into Crypto　　In a report on Tuesday, Morgan Stanley strategists noted that crypto startups received a record $30 billion from VC funding in 2021, representing 7% of all VC investments globally. According to the team, the massive inflow of venture capital into crypto firms last year, which peaked in December 2021, was triggered by bullish trends and excess US dollar liquidity.　　Although crypto VC funding has continued to flow into blockchain companies since the start of 2022 despite the bearish market sentiment, the strategists expect a 50% drop in such investments by the end of this year if the crypto industry matches the trends in other sectors.　　Morgan Stanley noted that the performance of eight of the “most important VC markets” over the last 12 months has slumped by 50% from ATH. The strategists added that could happen to crypto

2022-06-02Deep Dive

Former OpenSea Exec Charged with Insider Trading

Nathaniel Chastain, former product manager at leading non-fungible token marketplace OpenSea, has been charged with insider trading by U.S. prosecutors, according to a press release published by the Department of Justice.　　Chastain is now facing one count of money laundering and one count of wire fraud.　　Last September, he was forced to resign after it turned out that he was buying NFTs before they would appear on the websites homepage. His ingenious scheme was exposed by a Twitter user who posted transaction receipts tied to Chastain.　　The unscrupulous executive would sell his NFTs right to make significant financial gains after pumping their price by attracting more eyeballs.　　In some cases, Chastain was able to make profits of up to five times his original investment.　　He used anonymous accounts in order to conduct his NFT purchases.　　Chastain was reportedly asked to leave the company due to the damning allegations. The former executive was silent on the issue, and the controversy was quickly denied down.　　Now, Chastain is once again on everyones lips after U.S. prosecutors brought their first NFT-related insider trading case against him. For more blockchain news, please download WikiBit - the Global Blockchain Regulatory Inquiry APP.　　In a statement, FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Michael J. Driscoll said that

2022-06-02Deep Dive