Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

The Downside of Crypto Donations

Cryptocurrency donations are providing a much-needed lifeline to hard-up charities right now. In many countries, the coronavirus pandemic has triggered massive government support packages for businesses disrupted by national lockdowns. Charities have not been so lucky. In the U.K. one in 10 nonprofits face bankruptcy. In the U.S., one in five donors have said they wont be giving until this is all over. 　　Innovative, mainly larger charities are tapping into the thousands of new crypto-rich individuals whove lately made a mint from bitcoin (BTC, +14.16%). Cutting out their usual fundraising middlemen also means donors can be guaranteed the biggest bang for their bitcoin. The Red Cross, UNICEF and Greenpeace, among others, encourage donors to give using crypto rather than cash and frequently advertise the associated tax benefits. Selling bitcoin and donating the after-tax fiat proceeds usually attracts a capital gains levy. By sending crypto directly to charities this is avoided, plus they receive the full value of the contributions. 　　Specialist donation platforms are stepping up to connect crypto donors with the growing number of small charities trying to get in on the bitcoin boom. But for many small charities, and those in need, the benefits come with intolerable levels of

2021-01-14Deep Dive

Anchorage Becomes First OCC-Approved National Crypto Bank

Crypto custodian Anchorage has secured conditional approval for a national trust charter from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), making it the first national “digital asset bank” in the U.S.　　The safekeeping, management and trading of digital assets have been regulatory stumbling blocks for large financial institutions – but those obstacles are gradually being removed. The OCC, a part of the Treasury Department charged with keeping banks safe but also competitive, has now issued three interpretative letters that lay the groundwork for banks to custody crypto, participate in blockchain networks and become payment providers using the tech.　　“In granting this charter, the OCC applied the same rigorous review and standards applied to all charter applications,” the bank regulator said in a statement. “By bringing this applicant into the federal banking system, the bank and industry will benefit from the OCCs extensive supervisory experience and expertise.”　　“We are a national bank. The only difference is our business line, that were doing crypto assets versus doing other assets,” Anchorage President Diogo Mónica said in an interview. “The benefit of having a federally chartered bank is that it preempts all the state laws. The clarity of being regulated by the oldest regulator

2021-01-14Deep Dive

‘Crypto Mom’ Hester Peirce calls for more regulatory coordination

The U.S. government needs to provide more clarity and guideposts for crypto regulations — and better cross-agency coordination is needed, said U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) commissioner Hester Peirce in an exclusive interview with Forkast.News Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau.　　“It is really quite challenging right now for projects, and people are thinking about different ways to do that in a way that‘s compliant. But there are no easy answers because we haven’t provided that clarity on how to do it,” Peirce said.　　The SEC‘s recent lawsuit against cryptocurrency platform Ripple Labs Inc., its CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Chairman Chris Larsen for allegedly raising over US$1.3 billion through the sale of the company’s cryptocurrency, XRP, in an unregistered securities offering has also intensified industry concerns regarding different U.S. agencies being misaligned or even at odds with one another over their individual rules and policies toward digital assets.　　According to Peirce, each agency has its own rulebook to follow. “I think that‘s not only a problem with respect to digital assets, it’s actually a broader problem because we have this very open-ended category called an ‘investment contract’ thats intended to capture anything that looks like a security and acts like a security, but might not

2021-01-13Deep Dive

What is Avalanche (AVAX) and why is it up 125% this past week?

Both Bitcoin and Ethereum have seen large retracements since their recent highs of $42,000 and $1,350, respectively. BTC currently trades for $35,000 while ETH has settled in the $1,075 range.　　Some cryptocurrencies have been largely unfazed by this drop, though.　　One such coin is Avalanche (AVAX). The cryptocurrency has gained 130 percent in the past seven days per CryptoSlate data and is one of the top-performing crypto assets of the past 24 hours.　　Chart of AVAXs price action over the past week from TradingView.com　　While the cryptocurrency is outpacing many other digital assets, not many may know what Avalanche is.　　What is Avalanche？　　Avalanche is a decentralized application network that operates similarly to Polkadot. The technology allows developers to deploy blockchains that fit certain needs and that can interoperate with other blockchains to create a comprehensive ecosystem.　　Ava Labs, which is the main developer behind the protocol, is backed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Initialized Capital, Polychain Capital, amongst other investment firms.　　The project was founded in part by Emin Gun Sirer, an on-leave Cornell University professor that has long followed Bitcoin and the rest of the crypto-asset space.　　AVAX is the networks native token. AVAX is used to pay for transactions on the Avalanche network. It has a hard-cap

2021-01-13Deep Dive

DeFi Project StaFi to Launch Synthetic Ethereum, Polkadot Tokens

Staking protocol StaFi has updated users with its 2021 roadmap after falling behind on a few key milestones.　　 StaFi Announces Product-Packed First Quarter　　Users can stake PoS tokens on StaFi and receive rTokens in return, which are available as a synthetic representation of staked assets. This allows users to trade rTokens while simultaneously earning staking rewards on the original coins, hence the term “liquid staking.”　　StaFi is working on launching rTokens for a variety of assets running on Proof of Stake blockchains, including Ethereum (rETH), Polkadot (rDOT), Cosmos (rATOM), and others.　　The founder, Liam Young, announced that code for rTokens of Etherum (ETH) and StaFi (FIS), the native token on StaFi Chain, are currently being audited and will be released soon. The team is, however, behind schedule.　　StaFi had earlier planned the final release of rETH and rDOT by the end of 2020, but that was not achieved. The team fell behind schedule due to various reasons, one of which was the lack of competent developers in the team.　　Also, Young clarified that the rToken development for DOT (or rDOT) is still in development. rDOT got delayed because the StaFi team found integration with the Polkadot ecosystem more complex than expected.　　“The development of rDOT is

2021-01-13Deep Dive

Bitcoin lessons: What the past 48 hours taught us about whales

After a significant period of swing action, Bitcoin, at the time of writing, was finally consolidating near the $35,000-mark. This was a relief for many, especially since in the last 48 hours, the cryptocurrencys price dropped from $41,000 to a lower range of $32,000. While some investors feared the worst, further drawdowns were not seen on the charts as Bitcoin recovered over the last 12 hours.　　With Bitcoins short-term trading sessions riddled with uncertainty at press time, Glassnode identified a few key factors that might highlight a vital role going forward.　　Bitcoin NVT Premium remains below 2019 levels　　Source: Glassnode　　Bitcoin NVT Ratio or Network Value to Transaction Ratio is key in identifying whether Bitcoin‘s price is overvalued or undervalued. Based on Glassnode’s findings, the NVT premium is currently below the levels attained in 2019, and largely below January 2018. What does this mean？ Well, it means that the rally is far from being overheated and as Willy Woo suggests, bullish capital flows into the market remain strong following the massive dip.　　In fact, short-term investment flows taking place on spot exchanges remain bullish, with investors heavily buying at this all-time high range.　　Are Whales actually active？　　Source: WhaleMap　　In order to validate whale interest, we tracked down

2021-01-13Deep Dive

Former Ripple CTO Cannot Access His Bitcoin Wallet That Is Now Worth $231 Million

While Ripple is facing regulatory fallout in the U.S., its former chief technology officer has another problem on his mind: figuring out the password to his Bitcoin fortune.　　According to a wild story published by The New York Times, Stefan Thomas cannot access his IronKey hardware wallet with 7,002 coins that are worth $231 million at press time.　　He has two attempts left　　One of Bitcoins biggest selling points is that it makes it possible to be your own bank, meaning that you do not have to trust centralized authorities to store your money. This privilege, however, comes with a high degree of responsibility, and Thomas now believes that it is not worth it.　　“This whole idea of being your own bank—let me put it this way, Do you make your own shoes？ The reason we have banks is that we dont want to deal with all those things that banks do.”　　All of the coins were gifted to the German native in 2011 for simply making an educational video about Bitcoin. Thomas lost his seed phrase that is necessary for unlocking his crypto riches the same year.　　After eight unsuccessful attempts to gain access to his wallet, Thomas now has two attempts left before his

2021-01-13Deep Dive

UK Treasury Calls for Feedback on Approach to Cryptocurrency and Stablecoin Regulation

The U.K. Treasury has released a consultation paper to gather feedback from stakeholders concerning the governments regulatory approach to cryptocurrencies and stablecoins.　　The consultation solicits opinions on how the U.K. can make sure its regulatory framework is “equipped to harness the benefits of new technologies, supporting innovation and competition, while mitigating risks to consumers and stability,” and incorporates advice from the Cryptoassets Task Force.　　With a large proportion of crypto assets falling outside regulatory oversight, the Treasury says they may pose a risk to consumers and lack financial safeguards.　　The U.K. is planning a “a staged and proportionate approach” to new crypto asset developments, taking a focus in the paper on stablecoins – cryptocurrencies that generally aim to have a stable value by being backed by assets such as the U.S. dollar.　　“[T]he landscape is changing rapidly. So-called stablecoins could pave the way for faster, cheaper payments, making it easier for people to pay for things or store their money. There is also increasing evidence that [distributed ledger technology] could have significant benefits for capital markets, potentially fundamentally changing the way they operate,” said John Glen, M.P., the Treasury‘s economic secretary, said in the paper’s introduction.　　However, he said, such developments could “pose a range

2021-01-13Deep Dive

How the OCC Is Building Crypto America (and Saving Banks From Extinction)

Over the last 12 years, $1 trillion of value has appreciated into existence. It may be a little more or a little less tomorrow, give a few $100 billion. It may one day reach $10 trillion or $100 trillion or stay at $1 trillion forever. It may even go to $0. But regardless of all that, $1 trillion of value has indeed materialized and grown on blockchain-based financial networks since 2008.　　If you are a financial advisor or a trust company, you have missed out on $1 trillion in capital appreciation for your customers. Regardless of how we spin it, the core fact is that crypto assets have largely been un-advised. They have not been distributed by fiduciaries to the mass market. Instead, they have either (1) been directly owned by retail investors through crypto exchanges or decentralized apps or (2) been packaged and secured for safe handling by newly buy-side funds for the largest endowments and family offices in the world. That means retail and mass affluent investors are doing it for themselves at Coinbase or Binance or MetaMask.　　This pattern joins a similar fact base for stock trading. Passive exchange-traded fund asset allocation assets have gone through the roof, in

2021-01-13Deep Dive

Visa Abandons $5.3B Acquisition of Plaid Over DOJ Antitrust Concerns

Visa called off its acquisition of Plaid, the fintech firm serving as a fiat bridge for a number of crypto and decentralized finance (DeFi) applications.　　The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Tuesday that the two companies have officially called off their planned $5.3 billion merger in the wake of the DOJs lawsuit last year that sought to block the deal.　　The DOJ filed a civil antitrust suit on Nov. 5, 2020, to stop the merger, claiming Visa is a monopolist in online debit, charging both consumers and merchants billions of dollars in fees each year to process online payments.　　“Now that Visa has abandoned its anticompetitive merger, Plaid and other future fintech innovators are free to develop potential alternatives to Visas online debit services,” Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim said in a statement. “With more competition, consumers can expect lower prices and better services.”　　As CoinDesk previously reported, Plaid has worked with Coinbase and at least two DeFi startups.　　The DOJ reported that Plaid earned approximately $100 million in revenue in 2019.

2021-01-13Deep Dive

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