Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

211-year-old investment firm buys $4.75 million of Ethereum (ETH)

Chicago-based financier Rothschild Investment Corporation purchased over 265,302 shares of the Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE), marking its first-ever investment into ETH, the asset powering the worlds most-used blockchain.　　Dipping into Ethereum　　Rothschilds shares in the ETH trust were worth over $4.75 million on March 31 (as per the filing).　　The firm is a part of the legendary Rothschild family, a secretive group with interests in global finance, real estate, mining, jewelry, winemaking, and others. The family possessed the largest private fortune in the world in the 19th century, and even in the modern world.　　As such, the ETHE is one of the many crypto-backed ‘Trust’ products offered by Grayscale. These are fully regulated, institutional-focused financial instruments that hold a small amount of spot crypto as part of each share offered to investors.　　The product is currently one of the only ways—unlike unregulated crypto exchanges that could go bust anytime—for institutional investors and family offices in the US to gain exposure to the burgeoning crypto market. Such an arrangement attracts the likes of Rothschild.　　In addition to the ETHE investment, Rothschild upped its position in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust by nearly 8,000 shares to 38,346 shares—an increase over the 30,454 shares it held at the end of

2021-04-16Deep Dive

Brian Brooks defends fintech charter to House Financial Services Committee

Brian Brooks has defended the fintech banking charter introduced while he served as the acting comptroller of the currency after Congressional Democrats took aim at the license on Thursday.　　Brian appeared as a witness before the House Financial Services Committees Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions at an April 15 hearing titled, “Banking Innovation or Regulatory Evasion？ Exploring Trends in Financial Institution Charters.”　　The fintech charter was introduced by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, or OCC, and overseen by Brooks in 2020, allowing financial technology firms including cryptocurrency companies to offer lending and payment products without being overseen by state banking regulators, FDIC insurance, or deposits from customers.　　Californian representative and chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, Maxine Waters, claimed that banks and state regulators have complained about the lack of regulatory scrutiny faced by fintech firms licensed under the charter:　　“State regulators, community banks and credit unions have raised alarms about how new entities, including big tech firms, are receiving unconventional bank charters and offering bank products and services while evading regulations most banks, including community banks, must comply with.”　　Waters characterized the OCC of having “overstepped its authority,” accusing the office of “pretending that laws signed by Abraham

2021-04-16Deep Dive

Balancer (BAL) price soars to new all-time high: What's driving the rally?

BAL, the native cryptocurrency of Balancer — a popular automated market maker (AMM) utilized by many decentralized finance (DeFi) users to trade cryptocurrencies — surged to new record highs above $70 on April 15.　　There are two key reasons behind the uptrend of BAL, namely the buzz around the Coinbase public listing and the resurgence of DeFi blue chips.　　What is the Coinbase and Balancer hype？　　On April 14, Adam Cochran, partner at Cinneamhain Ventures, said he believes BAL would likely be one of the primary beneficiaries of the Coinbase listing.　　Cochran said:　　“My theory is that most of Coinbases new millionaires will be heavily repurchasing back into crypto over the next 72 hours. While I think most CB assets will pop, there is one asset that I think will out perform over the next month from CB and that is $BAL.”　　The theory is based on a survey he ran with Coinbase employees worldwide leading up to the public listing.　　According to Cochran, he received 108 responses from Coinbase employees on which asset they will likely buy in the next month.　　Cochran said that outside of the major blue-chip assets, BAL was the main pick among the employees.　　He wrote:　　“I got 108 responses from employees world wide, asking

2021-04-16Deep Dive

Google Cloud integrates Band Protocol for real-time crypto price data

Price oracles are playing a leading role in driving blockchain adoption.　　Google Cloud is incorporating core technology from Band Protocol, a decentralized oracle service, to enable “immediate and accurate analysis of financial time series data,” according to Kevin Lu, head of business development at Band.　　Lu announced Thursday that Bands Standard Dataset is now live on Google BigQuery, an enterprise data warehouse powering ultra-fast SQL queries. Lu described the partnership as “one of the direct collaborations with the Google Cloud team to enable traditional, hybrid blockchain and cloud applications to be built which use decentralized oracles.”　　He continued:　　“Our teams are empowering researchers and developers to use decentralized oracles for any external data source or type, regardless if the application is natively built on the blockchain or Web 2, through the flexible design of Band Protocol oracles.”　　Google Cloud has figured out how to translate financial time series data into real-time analytics using machine learning. That data will come directly from Bands public dataset via BigQuery.　　Band launched in September 2019 as an ERC-20 token before migrating over to the Cosmos chain in June 2020. The protocol has quickly emerged as one of the major competitors to Chainlink, the blockchain industry‘s leading oracle service provider. The

2021-04-16Deep Dive

BITCOIN POWER: THE ENERGY OF A MONEY

Ripples and splashes are being made in the financial realm. Since its entry onto the world stage, the Bitcoin network has been growing. With each addition to the horde of nodes and miners that are scattered across the globe, Bitcoin continues to dig in. Supplying the world with a financial vehicle that provides solutions to the failed experiment that is Keynesian economics, inflationary monetary policy, savings, and it cannot be forcibly removed from an individual or entity. If you can‘t see the value there, then I won’t hold you.　　Fixing money fixes the world. Fiat currencies have allowed a disease of the mind to proliferate. That disease is living beyond our means. With the popularity of this false currency, companies and individuals are incentivized to spend more than they earn. We are at a time in history where companies that earn little to nothing are being valued higher than those that turn a legitimate profit. And that is just from the monetary side. Social media has seen a rise in popularity for groups and individuals to go into debt to simply project a life of luxury and excitement, while the reality is the opposite. Luxuries and services supplied by debt get

2021-04-16Deep Dive

Crypto Innovation: Is Legacy Finance a Roadblock?

Blockchain technology was born out of the long-standing need for change. Globalization, the growth of e-commerce, and an increase in cross-border sales drive demand for faster and safer transactions. IT visionaries see crypto as a way to disrupt the payment industry.　　In today‘s reality, though, pioneer fintech companies are dependent on the legacy ecosystem. Working at the junction of crypto and classical finance, we have to follow our old-school financial partners’ decisions.　　This includes abiding by their rules and complying with their policies. More often than not, they dont keep up with the innovation, slowing down the digital transformation.　　What is stalling the innovation？　　First, there are mental barriers. These include a desire to keep the status quo, a wish to see others test the waters first, or a lack of understanding. There‘s also the question of different appetites. In traditional finance, it’s common to take a few days to clear a payment that a decentralized network can complete in seconds.　　The second reason is unclear policies on dealing with crypto. Even when regulators are ready to introduce new regulations, large companies may take their time to update AML procedures.　　All the above leads to a certain hesitation regarding cryptocurrency transactions, even from the most crypto-friendly

2021-04-16Deep Dive

Telos Shifts Focus to DeFi, Adds Liquidity to TSwaps Platform

Cryptocurrency project Telos has announced plans to push into the decentralized finance space with the upcoming launch of Telos SureProfit.　　Telos is described as being a mass adoption, open finance network led by a community of visionary trail blazers. The project is pushing for scalable and fast decentralized finance within the cryptocurrency space.　　No more failed transactions　　The project has announced the upcoming launch of Telos SureProfit. The new feature will ostensibly allow investors to ensure their trades are successfully executed. The mechanic is known as “profit-or-cancel” technology.　　The feature works by looking at investors wallets and determining what the balance will be after the intended transaction is processed. The system then measures the balance and if it is below the prescribed amount based on the user, it cancels the transaction.　　SureProfit is set to prevent users from losing money during DeFi trades. Following the announcement, Telos has also launched five additional ERC-20 tokens including USDT, USDC, pETH, LINK, and PNT. The project is also working on adding decentralized exchange tokens such as SUSHI and UNI.　　Pushing DeFi adoption with features 　　Telos has shifted their focus to key areas of interest within the cryptocurrency ecosystem, including DeFi, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The company will look to

2021-04-16Deep Dive

A cure for copyright ills? NFTs promise to empower creative economies

If you‘ve had anything to do with digital arts, digital assets, or both, in the last few months, it has been virtually impossible to escape the barrage of news about how nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, are changing the game for creative industries. From Kings of Leon dropping their new album as an NFT to digital artist Beeple closing a Christie’s auction with an eye-popping price tag on a piece of his work, the trend has been unfolding at a staggering pace.　　Many believe that NFTs are not merely a flashy new medium for artistic work but a vehicle that can generate new efficiencies and redefine relationships between creators, their audiences, and traditional executives and of the music and arts industries.　　Better management of intellectual property rights and streamlining the distribution of royalties are among the most frequently invoked use cases. Established copyright management bodies, such as the Italian Society of Authors and Publishers, are joining the movement and heading in the direction of blockchain IP registries, while musicians are putting shares of their work up for sale for investors to profit from the records subsequent commercial use. How viable are these solutions, and what roadblocks can their champions run into？　　The quest for

2021-04-16Deep Dive

Crypto Enters New World Of Legitimacy

According to Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, the direct listing of his company on the Nasdaq exchange has become a “turning point” for the entire cryptocurrency industry, marking a distinct “shift in legitimacy”.　　As recently published in a Bloomberg article, things were certainly not always thus. Armstrong harks back to the times when “banks used to hang up on Coinbases calls” when the cryptocurrency sector was considered a no-go area for ultra-conservative traditional finance.　　He goes on to say how things have made a complete 180 degree turn, and that now executives from the banks that helped Coinbases public listing are now calling him up to ask how they themselves can get into crypto.　　“It feels like a shift in legitimacy not just for Coinbase but the whole industry,” Armstrong said. “Crypto has a shot at being a major force in the financial world.”　　The Coinbase stock fell around 14% on listing yesterday. However, considering that it was valued at $8 billion in a 2018 funding round, todays fully diluted valuation of $86 billion is a pretty fair return on investment for the company.　　A rising tide floats all boats can certainly be applied to yesterdays listing, as the entire cryptocurrency sector is surging with the

2021-04-16Deep Dive

NFT Explosion Coming over Next 2 Years & Will Create Jobs, Say Insiders

Brace yourself if you think youve had just about all you can stomach from the world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) – as industry insiders at the BlockDown 4.0 conference say that a non-fungible growth “explosion” is coming over the next two years.　　The comments were made at a panel session of the conference – currently streaming on Cryptonews.com – named “NFTs and the Metaverse: the most ambitious trend in crypto？”　　One of the panelists, The Sandbox CEO and co-founder Sebastien Borget, bemoaned the fact that brands that have become keen to cash in on the NFT trend are simply “asking how to sell NFTs,” while “a more long-term strategy is required.”　　He opined that the current NFT push was “just scratching the surface,” and that a rise in “gaming and wearable NFTs” as well as other uses for the technology would provide fuel for an “explosion” in the next two years. After that, governance-related matters would “take over” as stakeholders attempted to answer the question: “How will totally decentralized ecosystems work？”　　But the good news for those who have already had a bellyful of NFTs is that the insiders think that all this will spell new jobs.　　Borget opined that as the ecosystem grows, so

2021-04-16Deep Dive

...

642644

...

737