Author: Cristian Lipciuc

Cristian Lipciuc is a blockchain journalist working with startup companies across multiple domains such as freelancing, app development & cryptocurrency. Cristian specializes in applied blockchain technologies, cryptocurrency integration, the adoption of new technologies by governments, and cybersecurity.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies Investing Tokens

Blockchain Platform Launches NFTs That Are Meant To Act Like Bonds

Telos, a blockchain development platform who have been exploring new and innovative solutions for the application of blockchain tokens, have come up with a new idea: namely, to sell Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) as a store of value that will operate in a similar fashion to bonds.

More Options For Fintech Startups

The aim of the project is to allow blockchain startups to perform their Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) in a more efficient way.

New fintechs on the block have often been faced with a catch-22 – once the ICO was over, trading of the tokens would sometimes begin prematurely, causing the value of the token to plummet before development of the new platform was even complete.

An NFT is a type of crypto token that represents something unique and is not interchangeable with any other token. For instance, 2 bitcoins will always have the same value – but the NFT F1 car paid for with over $110,000 worth of ETH at the time will always be distinctly unique from any other NFT – such as this turquoise kitten that goes for a much more affordable price tag.

According to Douglas Horn – the Chief Architect of Telos – the new T-Bond NFTs will allow investors to sell the NFTs without actually affecting the price of the token until after the project has launched.

“T-Bond NFTs offer a new and powerful option for any project seeking funding based on future technical achievement. Back in the ICO boom and continuing still, far too many projects have raised funds only to see their token plummet in value and community support dwindle. T-Bond NFTs create an ecosystem where projects can raise funds through investors, who in turn have the freedom to sell their NFTs on the secondary market without impacting the token price. This facilitates a vastly more sustainable model by harnessing the new synergy between DeFi and NFTs.”

Although the ICO boom has come and gone 3 years ago, so did Bitcoin – and it recently reached its’ all-time high. Maybe projects like these are the spark of a resurgence in ICOs – which this time around will be able to benefit from advances made in the DeFi sphere.

Categories
Blockchain Cryptocurrencies Dash

Bittrex Will Delist Three Privacy Coins

The asymmetrical push-back against privacy coins has been going on for a while now.

Although many crypto enthusiasts happily use them for legitimate reasons, the risk assessment measures, Know Your Customer (KYC), and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) procedures that must be put in place in order to allow trading them have pushed many smaller exchanges to delist them.

Pressure By Traditional Banks 

On the 15th of January, trading Monero (XMR), Zcash (ZEC), and Dash (DASH) will be disabled for trading on Bittrex.

An official statement made last Tuesday notified Bittrex users that trading in these privacy coins will end on their website on the 15th of January — however, the tokens in users’ wallets will be kept around for 30 more days in order to allow users to withdraw their coins.

“After the markets are removed, Bittrex generally seeks to provide users up to 30 days to withdraw any delisted tokens, but in certain instances the withdrawal period may be shortened. Users should withdraw any tokens before the posted withdrawal deadline.”

As Bittrex is a company with a strong focus on the American market, it’s possible that the sudden announcement comes in the wake of the US Congress potentially looking into measures aimed at privacy coins, coupled with pressure from traditional banking institutions. 

The announcement caused the going rate of the tokens to drop abruptly —  namely by 14.44% for XMR, and by 12.28% for ZEC at the time this article was written.

In response, Dash has stated that they consider the privacy coin label a misnomer and that they would be happy to meet with the Bittrex Compliance team in an effort to avoid being delisted.

Although the risk of keeping privacy coin trading up and running may prove to be too high for smaller exchanges, the tentative meeting between Dash and Bittrex might be a watershed moment in establishing the regulatory status of privacy coins going forward.

Categories
Australia Bitcoin Mining Digital Asset Mining

Crypto Mining Rig Manufacturer Prepares To Launch Trading Platform

Back in October of 2020, China-based cryptocurrency mining machine producer Ebang established a full subsidiary in Australia, hoping to not limit themselves to crypto hardware exclusively. 

Australian Financial License Pending

Immediately after establishing an Australian subsidiary, the company set its sights on an Australian financial license. 

In recent years, China has been cracking down on cryptocurrency exchange platforms, a measure that tends to give investors cold feet. This prompted many China-based crypto exchanges to look for greener pastures, generally within the APAC region. 

Although Hong Kong used to be the main place to relocate for crypto firms, a combination of turmoil in Hong Kong and interest in fintechs by the Australian government has made Australia a prime location for crypto businesses looking for a new base of operations.

Mr. Dong Hu – the Chairman and CEO of Ebang International Holdings – stated that the interest in the Australian market comes in the wake of the special attention given to blockchain technology across Australia, both by the private sector and the government.

“We are pleased to announce that the Company has established its presence in Australia in furtherance of our strategies to launch a comprehensive blockchain-enabled financial business and capture the growth opportunity along the value chain of the blockchain industry. We are currently applying for the Australian financial service license in preparation for our global expansion.”

Yesterday, Ebang followed up on their previous press release, stating that they are looking to launch within the first quarter of the 2021 fiscal year. 

Not many details have been shared about the tentative launch – except that it will not operate within mainland China at all. 
Although it is not clear whether the financial license requested by the company has been granted yet, the press release indicates that all procedures are at least well on track.

Categories
Crypto News Cryptocurrencies Cryptocurrency Law Ripple

Date For Ripple’s Pretrial Has Been Set

Ripple has been steadily falling, with multiple crypto exchange networks poised to delist XRP due to the SEC announcing that they are taking Ripple Labs to court, claiming that they are trading unlicensed securities in the form of XRP.

Although Bitcoin and Ethereum are not considered securities by regulatory bodies, the same seems to not be true for XRP.

Now a date has been set for the pretrial – which will be held virtually – before the official trial is held.

Ripple’s Future Is On The Rocks

Following massive sell-offs of the cryptocurrency that has prompted anxiety even among the most die-hard HODLers, the value of XRP has fallen by 65%, according to some crypto trading websites – although at the time this article was written, the cryptocurrency seems to be recovering slightly.

A surprising turn of events is that RippleLabs purported partner MoneyGram has also distanced themselves from the debacle.

According to a press statement issued by the company, MoneyGram is prepared to go on solo, despite the fact that RippleLabs is a major shareholder.

“As a reminder, MoneyGram does not utilize the ODL platform or RippleNet for direct transfers of consumer funds – digital or otherwise. Furthermore, MoneyGram is not a party to the SEC action. MoneyGram has continued to utilize its other traditional FX trading counterparties throughout the term of the agreement with Ripple, and is not dependent on the Ripple platform to accomplish its FX trading needs.”

A court document issued on the 29th of December has set the date of the pretrial – which will be held on the 22nd of February 2021. It will take the form of a teleconference, and all parties will submit a joint letter a week earlier – which should lay out the details being judged.

“(1) a brief description of the case, including the factual and legal basis for the claim(s) and defense(s), (2) any contemplated motions, and (3) the prospect for settlement.”

Whether you are a fan or a detractor of XRP, the trial is important – as it will set an important precedent for cryptocurrencies.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies Investing Scams

SEC Goes After Yet Another Crypto Company

Following their legal tussle with Ripple Labs – the second one this year for Ripple, after their debacle with the NPPA – the SEC has also moved against Virgil Capital LLC, a crypto investment firm.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission have put in place an order freezing assets and emergency relief funds for Virgil Capital LLC and all affiliates of the company, citing possible securities fraud.

Undisclosed Investments

Virgil Capital’s cryptocurrency trading fund – Virgil Sigma Fund LP – is being investigated in relation to fabricated records. The record states that up to $3.5 million in investments were not redeemed and $1.7 million in investor funds were due to be cashed in, in an attempt to pay off loans.

Although the funds were meant for crypto trading using a proprietary algorithm, it appears at least some of them were used for risky undisclosed investments and other purposes.

Stefan Quin – the 23-year old founder of Virgil Capital – reportedly told investors ever since July that their assets had been transferred to another fund, known as the VQR Multistrategy Fund LP.

However, it appears the transfers never actually took place.

According to Kristina Littman, the head of the SEC Enforcement Division’s Cyber Unit, the freeze is a preliminary step taken to ensure no more damage can be done to investor assets until the bigger picture is revealed.

“This emergency action is an important step to protect investor assets and prevent further harm. Stefan Qin allegedly made false promises to lure investors and then continued his deception to conceal his misuse of investor funds.”

The SEC’s ongoing investigation will be led by Fitzann Reid of the San Francisco Regional Office and Amanda Straub of the Enforcement Division’s Cyber Unit.

On the litigation side, work will be carried out by Susan LaMarca, Ms. Straub, and Ms. Reid, under the direct supervision of Steven Buchholz and Ms. Littman of the Cyber Unit.

Categories
Australia Crypto News Industries Investing

Japan’s SBI Buys B2C2 Aiming To Become A Bigger Force On The Crypto Markets In APAC

London-based crypto asset management firm B2C2 was recently bought by the financial monolith SBI Group.

According to Phillip Gillespie – the CEO of B2C2 – the spike in interest in Bitcoin that sent the most popular cryptocurrency rocketing to a $2400 price tag coincides with the interest in the asset shown by Square, PayPal, and others. However, this has also lead to a drop in the available supply of the asset.

“If an institution wants to buy crypto, there’s a bit of a problem. There are not that many places they can go right now.”

Regional Competition Heats Up

At the beginning of November, Australian Senator Andrew Bragg spoke out at the Future Of Financial Services 2020 conference – stating that Singapore’s decision to build the world’s first global data exchange showed that Australia was not the only economy in the region investing in cryptocurrencies, blockchain-based fintechs and the like – and that the Australian government would need to allocate more resources to ensure Australia stays in the lead in the very lucrative market.

“Hong Kong will still be an important gateway to China, but because of the recent turmoil there and the foreign influence laws, they won’t have the same regional headquarter attraction. We would be mad to sit idly by and allow such a lucrative share of the market to lead to Singapore or to Tokyo.”

Following a purchase of B2C2 shares worth $30 million back in July, SBI Holdings has bought up much more of the company’s stock – in fact, following the recent deal, SBI Holdings now owns 90% of the company. At the time this article was written, the price of the acquisition has not been publicly stated.

According to Ryo Suzuki – the executive director of SBI’s FX and Rates Division – the company already had the infrastructure to become a key regional player but was missing the necessary assets.

“SBI Group is the biggest internet financial group in Japan so we have the customer base. The cryptocurrency market is not mature in Japan yet, but B2C2’s expertise can provide such a service.”

Japan has now entered the APAC crypto market alongside Australia,  Singapore, and Hong Kong – now it’s time to see where the chips will fall, how the Australian government can help the local crypto industry get a leg up on the competition.

Categories
Bitcoin Blockchain Crypto News Hackers

Bitcoin.org Hit By DDoS Attack

Although the Bitcoin blockchain itself was not affected, the official website that hosts a copy of Bitcoin Core open-source code for developers and any other interested party was. So far, an attack against a blockchain itself has never been executed.

DDoS Attacks Common In Similar Circumstances

According to Cobra – an anonymous dev who helps keep the website up and running – this sort of attack is not uncommon when Bitcoin is spiking high and markets are bullish. He also warned that this particular attack was probably not over just yet. Although the official Bitcoin site is up and running again, DDoS attacks happen in waves through coordinated botnets quite often.

“Basically, we got hit with a large DDoS, which is quite common around ATHs (all-time highs) and bull markets. It took us down for a while but for now, we’re back up, but  we might go down on and off periodically depending on how long the attackers want to continue attacking.”

A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is an attack in which many devices infected by malware are coordinated by a bad actor in order to overwhelm an IP address with web traffic, slowing down traffic for normal users – and often taking the site offline completely for certain periods of time.

For those eager to help host the source code until the DDoS attacks cease, crypto enthusiasts have set up a torrent where the code can be downloaded from and hosted.

The attack is being led by mostly Russian IPs – although this does not necessarily mean the attack is coming from there, as bad actors nearly always use VPNs, allowing them to pretend to be from somewhere else.

In addition, infected devices carrying out the attack can belong to anyone, anywhere – and the owner of the device will almost certainly be unaware that their device is being used for nefarious purposes.

Categories
Australia DeFi Industries

Aussie DeFi Centered Around Institutional Lending Goes Live

Maple Finance – a DeFi startup focusing on institutional lending with top-notch conditions for collateral has recently finished their seed round.

The platform will not change their rates, bringing an interesting approach to the budding DeFi industry.

However, they may make special offers for institutional customers in good standing.

The seed round for the platforms MPL governance token – which brought in revenues of about $1.3 million – was done with Framework Ventures, FTX, Aave founder Stani Kulechov, Synthetix founder Kain Warwick, FBG, The LAO and many other investors.

Ready For Kick-Off

Sidney Powell – the co-founder and CEO of Maple Finance – commented on the establishment of his company with over $15 billion worth of assets ready to be used for DeFi loans and more.

“What we’re allowing is top institutions with solid balance sheets, sound reputations and strong cash flows soon being able to access capital-efficient finance, which enables further growth and adoption of crypto globally.”

The company has expressed its interest in serving crypto-native organizations – Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO) for instance.      As some of these firms don’t have traditional legal structures, investors and customers may have a harder time connecting with these firms – and that’s where decentralized finance institutions like Maple come in.

The company will split its assets up into pools – with a Pool Delegate in charge of each. These pools will be organized in categories like world regions, risk profiles, and more. Each Pool Delegate will supervise a pool where their expertise on a certain subject will be most helpful.

In order to demonstrate their business model, the first pool will soon go live – and offer limited funds within the $1-2 million range. The total amount of funds in the lending pool will be between $10 and 15 million.

With yet another up and coming decentralized financial institution, Australia continues down the path of becoming a regional – and hopefully global – blockchain superpower.

Categories
Australia Crypto News Cryptocurrencies Investing

Australian Fund Managers vs General Population – Who’s More Optimistic About Crypto?

Bitcoin recently broke the all-time high. In a country like Australia, where 91.4% of respondents to a survey stated that they were aware of at least one cryptocurrency, opinions are naturally split.

General Public Optimistic Despite Some Bearish Asset Managers

Although some investment management firms such as the Pendal Group are optimistic on Bitcoin – with management at the firm considering Bitcoin a better investment than government bonds, other financiers have a less optimistic approach.

“Bitcoin is a cockroach that exists. They can’t ban it out of existence.

We think ultimately that government bonds will turn into a dead asset class, so we now have to imagine what it will be like for other assets classes when bonds are no longer relevant to hold in a portfolio.”

Geoff Wilson – the chairman and founder of Wilson Asset Management – stated that despite being enthusiastic about blockchain technology, he did not see Bitcoin in the same light, considering it a risky investment.

“As an investment, it is extremely volatile and appears to be easily manipulated. Thus it is not a prudent investment, it is not strategic for us as an investor and in our view, it is not sustainable.”

Other fund managers were even more bearish on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general, with one Aussie financier saying that when wanting a good punt, he preferred to visit a casino.

Meanwhile Jamie Hannah – the deputy head of investments at VanEck – has found a middle-of-the-road-solution by listing a Bitcoin exchange-traded note in Germany. This allows investors to purchase Bitcoin-related funds without having to invest in crypto themselves.

This decision came following a noted increase in interest by clients of the firm, even when advised against it – after all, 2 out of 5 Aussies consider Bitcoin a good investment, and over 18% are in possession of crypto tokens.

It’s worth noting however that investors such as JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs have also been dismissive of crypto in the past – and had a change of heart. Like any investment, crypto may have its detractors – but only time will tell who is right.

Categories
Australia Blockchain Industries

Australian Wool Trading On Blockchain

On the 16th of December, Indorama Ventures Public Company Ltd. created and executed a Letter-of-Credit transaction with Techwool Trading PTY Ltd.

The deal was carried out with Indorama’s subsidiary active in the wool business, Indorama Holding Ltd.

Credit Approved

A Letter of Credit is a document that guarantees payment from one company or financial institution to another – but only once the seller meets all the terms and conditions stipulated within the contract.

The Letter of Credit was executed on the Contour blockchain – and is the first transaction of its kind for both companies involved.

For this transaction, both companies did away with the multitude of secondary tools usually necessary for trades of this type. HSBC Thailand took care of the banking for both sides and acted as an advisor for the transaction.

According to Mr. Krisda Phatchoroen – the Head of Commercial Banking at HSBC Thailand – the HSBC fully believes in the power of blockchain to make commerce better for everyone.

“We are pleased to be able to support IVL’s endeavors in digitizing its trade finance processes. HSBC believes that the use of technologies like blockchain and the Contour platform in particular will serve businesses well, especially in this restrictive environment brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Digitization is the way forward and we are glad to support IVL to successfully adopt this technology for their business.”

Indeed,  2018 predictions from Bain & Company suggest that the use of blockchain technology in order to increase security could lead to an increase in global trading volumes of over $1 trillion by 2026.

The UN has also predicted that tossing out current trade practices in favor of digital ones could slash export SLAs in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region by 44% – as well as reducing costs by 31%.