Digital Assets
Digital assets are about more than just Bitcoin. The global adoption of blockchain, expansion of cross-border payments, new investment vehicles tied to intellectual property, and more, could one day establish a global market of digitized assets worth $50 trillion. This channel provides access to the latest developments, opportunities, risks, and thought leaders in the growing Digital Assets space.
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Earlier today, Tim Sweeney, the head of Epic Games, shared an email with the company’s employees, announcing some significant changes within the organization. In this message, Sweeney discussed the necessity of layoffs, divestitures, and the evolving landscape of Epic’s business model.
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More Stories on Digital Assets
Digital Assets: Paypal and Subsidiary Venmo May Allow Users To Transact Cryptos
According to a report by Coin Telegraph, PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) is looking to recruit digital experts such as a Crypto Engineer and a blockchain research engineer. Significantly, the first posting describes the role to include “designing, developing and maintaining key crypto products/features targeted towards availability, performance, and scalability of PayPal services.” These job ads have popped up simultaneously with rumors in the crypto world that payments giant PayPal and digital wallet subsidiary Venmo are about to make a splash in cryptocurrencies.
Digital Assets: Crypto Industry Agog With Anticipation on Jay Clayton’s Exit From the SEC
On Friday, June 19, Attorney General William P. Barr announced that President Trump intended to nominate Jay Clayton, currently the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to serve as the next United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY). The crypto industry is excited that the chances for approval of a bitcoin ETF may improve with Clayton’s exit.
FinTech: The Newly-Launched PayId Global Alliance Will Disrupt Cosy Payments ‘Silos’
Industry leaders across finance, technology and the non-profit sectors have come together to launch PayId, a simplified payment ID process for global remittances. The Open Payments Coalition, an alliance of leading companies such as GoPay, Ripple, Blockchain.com, BitPay, Brave, Flutterwave, Mercy Corps and others, will develop PayId.
Digital Assets: Aussie Beer Manufacturer Lion on the Hook for $800K in Ransomware Demand
In the second ransomware attack on Australian drinks manufacturer Lion in less than a week, the cyber villains have demanded a ransom amount of $800,000. The amount must be paid in the Monero cryptocurrency by June 19, failing which the amount doubles to $1,600,000.
Alternative Investments: A New WisdomTree Alternative ETF Will Invest in Bitcoin
A filing by WisdomTree for the proposed WisdomTree Enhanced Commodity Strategy Fund shows it intends to invest up to 5% of its net assets in bitcoin futures contracts. The balance of the funds would be invested in four commodity sectors, namely, energy, agriculture, industrial metals, and precious metals primarily through investments in futures contracts. The fund will not invest directly in bitcoin or in physical commodities.
Digital Assets: Komainu, an Institutional Grade Custody Service for Digital Assets, Set To Go Live
Japan’s biggest brokerage and investment bank, Nomura, blockchain security firm Ledger, and digital asset investment house CoinShares have come together to launch Komainu, a custodial service for digital assets aimed at institutions.
Digital Assets: Bank of Canada Making Contingency Plans For its Own Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)
The Bank of Canada is putting in motion plans for a “contingent system for a central bank digital currency (CBDC).” This proposal came to the fore when the bank posted an opening for “Project Manager, CBDC,” on its website.
Digital Assets: Nasdaq-Listed Software Company Sapiens Paid $250K Ransom to Hackers Amidst COVID
Sapiens International Corp. N.V. (NASDAQ: SPNS), an Israeli software company listed both on the Nasdaq and in Tel Aviv, was allegedly forced to pay $250,000 in bitcoin to hackers amidst the COVID-19 crisis.
Digital Assets: Bank of Korea Sets Up Legal Think Tank To Review CBDC
The Bank of Korea has commissioned a legal task force to assess regulatory roadblocks for the issue of a South Korean central bank digital currency (CBDC). Last February, the Korean central bank had set up a research team to look into the possibility of a digital currency and assess moves in this regard by other central banks. That move was reportedly triggered by Chinese advances towards a digital yuan, including a pilot test. It may be recalled that the Bank of Korea said on December 1 that “we are considering issuing digital currency (CBDC).”
Digital Assets: Vanguard Successfully Tests ABS Issuance on the Blockchain
Vanguard, technology provider Symbiont, an unnamed ABS issuer, and bankers have worked together on the successful, first pilot of an ABS settlement by incorporating its entire transactions cycle on a distributed ledger technology (DLT) network
Digital Assets: Galaxy Digital and Bakkt Launch a Bitcoin ‘White Glove’ Service For Institutions
Galaxy Digital, owned by Mike Novogratz, and Bakkt, the bitcoin futures provider majority-owned by the Intercontinental Exchange, have teamed up to offer top-flight services to institutions and asset managers relating to bitcoin.
Digital Assets: Fidelity Report Says Institutional Adoption of Crypto Gaining Traction
Fidelity Digital Assets issued a report on digital assets on Tuesday based on a survey of nearly 800 institutions in the U.S. and Europe conducted from November 2019 through early March 2020.
A growing number of institutional investors believe that digital assets should be a part of their investment portfolios, the report found. In fact, 80% of institutional investors found something appealing about the asset class.
Digital Assets: Russian Blockchain-based Trade Finance Platform Factorin Clocks $500M Turnover
In its first year, Factorin, a Russian blockchain-based trade finance platform has processed 246,000 invoices and supplies and chalked up a transaction turnover above $ 500 million. 30 banking organizations and factoring companies are already on-board the platform, and numerous small and medium-sized businesses are grateful customers.
Digital Assets: Bloomberg’s Bitcoin Analysis – $20K in 2020
Bloomberg analyst Mike McGlone sticks with his bullish stance on bitcoin, the ‘first-born’ cryptocurrency, calling it a “resting bull.” McGlone’s analysis in the June 2020 Edition of the Bloomberg Crypto Outlook colors both gold and bitcoin (BTC) in the same bullish hues. “The metal and the crypto remain our top candidates to advance in 2020, with added rally fuel from Covid-19,” writes McGlone.
Digital Assets: 2020 A Gravy Train for Crypto Bad Actors; $1.36B Siphoned in Five Months
CipherTrace’s latest report, “Cryptocurrency Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Report, Spring 2020,” claims that crypto-crimes during the first five months of 2020 netted their perpetrators $1.36 billion. At this rate, 2020 could well achieve the dubious distinction of recording the second-highest value in crypto crimes ever recorded. In 2019, crypto-criminals made off with $4.5 billion.
Digital Assets: BEQUANT Platform To Launch Crypto Prime Brokerage on OKEx Exchange
In a bid to expand its institutional client base, BEQUANT, the UK-based digital asset solutions provider recently introduced its prime broking services. The service is intended to provide institutions with easier access to liquidity, custody, lending, and other products in the crypto space. BEQUANT has now announced its tie-up with cryptocurrency marketplace OKEx for the launch of its prime brokerage service.
Digital Assets: China Merchants Aims To Be the First Blockchain-Powered Port in the World
China Merchant’s Port (HKG: 0144), the country’s largest port operator, is collaborating with Alibaba Group (NYSE: BABA), and its subsidiary, Ant Financial to develop a distributed ledger technology (DLT), or blockchain platform.
Digital Assets: Goldman Pans Bitcoin; Crypto Community Up in Arms
Crypto fans have not taken kindly to a Goldman Sachs presentation that fired potshots at bitcoin.
The offending presentation from Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) has sparked a raging controversy for its remarks against bitcoin. Luminaries from the crypto world took to Twitter and the media to lambast “the vampire squid” for its observations.
Digital Assets: COVID-19 Lockdowns Boosted Crypto Demand at Revolut
Revolut, the digital challenger bank that allows crypto trading, revealed data on cryptocurrency trading on its app during the COVID lockdown. Over 3 million customers in the UK use Revolut’s cryptocurrency trading service. Analysis of the data from the neo bank shows up interesting insights on cryptocurrency adoption and the effect of virus lockdowns on…
Digital Assets: Bitcoin Suisse offers 24/7 Trading in Precious Metals Alongside Cryptos
Swiss cryptocurrency financial services company Bitcoin Suisse has made yet another move towards expanding the range of products that can be traded on its platform. On April 29 it announced trading with fiat currencies. On Tuesday it followed up with the announcement that it now permitted precious metals trading against the top cryptocurrencies.
Digital Assets: In India, RBI Confirms No Ban on Crypto; CoinDCX Raises $2.5M; Crypto Volumes Fly
The Reserve Bank of India, the Indian central bank, confirmed that there currently exists no banking ban on the crypto industry in India. CoinDCX, India’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, gained a strategic investment of $2.5 million that was led by Polychain Capital with participation from Coinbase Ventures. Meanwhile, Indian crypto exchanges have benefited from the lockdowns imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The crypto sector benefiting from a huge surge in interest, trading volumes, and new user signups during the lockdowns.
Digital Assets: The Texas Grid Pays Thiel-backed Layer1 to not Mine Cryptos in August
Layer1, the bitcoin miner backed by the likes of top-flight VC Peter Thiel and early-stage investor Shasta Ventures, based its operations in west Texas to take advantage of cheap power. Wind energy and natural gas combine to make the cost of power here the cheapest in the world. But for Layer1, there’s icing on this cake. It gets paid $17 million annually to not draw power when the grid needs it most.
Digital Assets: Crypto Adoption Growing Apace – CoinPayments Ties Up with Shopify
Canadian e-commerce giant Shopify (NYSE: SHOP) has added another crypto payment processor to its retinue of digital platforms facilitating crypto payments. It entered a strategic partnership with CoinPayments, the world’s largest cryptocurrency payments processor.
Digital Assets: Now Buy Prepaid Tezos Cryptocards at 10,000 French Retail Shops
After Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple’s XRP, Litecoin, and Dash, French startup Digycode has added Tezos (XTZ) to its lineup of cryptocurrency prepaid vouchers purchasable at tobacco shops across France. Digycode has partnered for this purpose with Nomadic Labs, which contributes to the development of the Tezos core software.