Author: José Oramas

José is a journalist and translator with a keen interest in blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

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CBDCs Crypto News

Brazil and Peru Looking to Introduce CBDCs in 2022

South American countries Brazil and Peru are looking to introduce CBDCs by 2022, according to two recent reports from local agencies.

More Countries Joining the CBDC Train

Both countries are jumping on the CBDC bandwagon as several nations worldwide are rapidly developing and launching their own digital currencies. For example, last month Nigeria became the first leading African economy to launch a CBDC, called eNaira.

According to Julio Velarde, president of the Reserve Bank of Peru, the country is working on the early stage of development for a national CBDC. The pilot program will focus on aiding the payment system.

Julio Velarde, president, Reserve Bank of Peru. Source: centralbanking.com

We have been working on a digital currency. We are in a lot of projects with several central banks: with India, Singapore, Hong Kong and with a lot of [other] central banks, thinking of a digital currency that is going to be the one that will prevail in the future.

Julio Velarde, president, Reserve Bank of Peru

On the other hand, Brazil’s Central Bank (BCB) president Roberto Campos Neto revealed the institution would start working towards the development of a Brazilian CBDC in 2022. This comes after the financial institution told the Brazilian Senate it planned to launch the final version of the digital real (Brazil’s local currency) in 2024.

Roberto Campos Neto, Brazilian Central Bank president. Source: brazilian.report

[Crypto] is already starting to affect even the national accounts, which means it has become a relevant investment instrument.

Roberto Campos Neto, president, Central Bank of Brazil

According to the BCB, Brazilians have acquired around US$4.27 billion worth of crypto and held close to US$50 billion so far this year.

Fernanda Guardado, the bank’s deputy governor for International Affairs and Corporate Risks, said the BCB is taking a careful approach towards developing the digital real. She added that crypto assets are viewed more as a financial asset highly demanded by Brazilians.

Are CBDCs Not What They Tell Us?

Not everyone is so keen on the idea of nations developing CBDCs. Last month, former US National Security Agency consultant and whistleblower Edward Snowden said that CBDCs are just an instrument of central banks and governments to surveil its citizens. In his own words:

CBDC is something closer to being a perversion of cryptocurrency, or at least of the founding principles and protocols of cryptocurrency – a cryptofascist currency, an evil twin entered into the ledgers on Opposite Day, expressly designed to deny its users the basic ownership of their money and to install the State at the mediating centre of every transaction.

Edward Snowden, former NSA consultant
Categories
Crypto News DeFi Metaverse NFTs

TIME Magazine to Hold ETH on its Balance Sheet as Part of Galaxy Metaverse Deal

American media giant TIME Magazine this week revealed a partnership with Mike Novogratz’ Galaxy Digital and, as part of the deal, TIME will hold ETH on its balance sheet.

The partnership, announced by the magazine on November 18, will seek to educate its readers about the advent of the metaverse.

TIME Joins the Metaverse

The metaverse is a digital landscape where users can interact socially and economically. Many successful projects have created their own virtual reality world using blockchain technology and tokenomics. Two examples are Decentraland (MANA), which recently soared after the Caribbean island of Barbados announced it would build a digital embassy in its metaverse, and Sandbox (SAND), which also hit an all-time high this week after the announcement of a Play-2-Earn (P2E) metaverse event.

TIME will launch the TIME 100 Companies list, followed by a weekly newsletter titled ‘Into the Metaverse’. Galaxy will manage the list, which will feature the most promising projects and developers.

TIME‘s decision to jump into the metaverse was probably propelled by the fast-paced advancement of this technology. Two weeks ago, Crypto News Australia reported that Microsoft was set to follow Facebook (now called Meta) and will launch Mesh, its own version of the metaverse, focused on the corporate world.

Over the next decade, the metaverse will become an increasingly important part of the world economy; our physical and digital realities are already becoming hard to distinguish. We look forward to partnering with TIME, an iconic brand driving innovation, as we seek to bring readers, creators, and the curious into the metaverse and demystify the tremendous amount of transformation happening.

Mike Novogratz, CEO, Galaxy
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Gaming Metaverse NFTs Solana Tokens

NFT and Gaming Token WAX Soars 215% in a Month Amid Unprecedented User Growth

Performance of the WAX token has certainly waxed lately following massive NFT (non-fungible token) trading volumes on its Worldwide Asset eXchange (WAX) platform.

WAX Outranks Solana in NFT Sales

This week, WAX surged 44 percent following massive demand for the currency, with over 8 million WAX accounts interacting with the token on the WAX network. The token is up a massive 215 percent in the past month.

Ethereum remains the number one platform in terms of NFT trading volume. But as NFT content creators look for alternative choices, the WAX platform has witnessed massive NFT sales lately. The protocol has become the second Layer-1 blockchain in daily and 30-day NFT sales volume, outpacing high-profile ecosystems in the industry such as Solana and Flow.

There is no big news about partnerships or network upgrades, so the recent price surge is driven only by demand, but we have to note that WAX CEO William E. Quigley has recently talked up NFTs, the metaverse, and the launch of vIRLs, a new form of NFTs issued by the WAX protocol that represent real-world items users can collect without physically shipping them.

What is WAX?

The WAX platform is considered the most eco-friendly platform for NFTs, collectibles and video games. There, users can play several decentralised games, build their DApps, and buy and sell NFTs using WAX in a fast, cost-efficient manner.

With its high proven real-world operation transaction volume capacity, unique fee structure of no minting and gifting transaction fees, and energy efficient and low carbon footprint, [WAX] is the ideal blockchain for games that are looking to incorporate elements such as play-and-earn monetisation at scale.

William E. Quigley, WAX CEO

WAX currently has a US$1.5 billion market cap, with each token priced at US$0.85. The price surge comes after a massive wave of traffic, making it the number 1 platform with daily active users.

Categories
Binance Coin Bitcoin Cardano Crypto News Dogecoin Ethereum Markets Solana

Crypto Market in the Red Amid $880 Million Liquidity Flush

The crypto market is experiencing a sharp correction after approximately US$840 million was liquidated this week, draining nearly US$400 billion from the market.

Data from Coinglass (previously known as Bybt.com) shows at least 78,358 traders were liquidated in a span of just 24 hours. The largest single liquidation occurred on Bybit – ETH/USD, US$3.1 million.

ETH holders were by far the most affected compared to other cryptocurrencies such as BTC, which in 24 hours had a total of 1.13k BTC ($68.14 million) liquidated across most exchanges.

Most Currencies in the Red – Bitcoin Retests 58K Support

Liquidations were triggered when BTC plunged over 10 percent this week, dragging most of the market with it. Altcoins such as Binance Coin (BNB), Cardano (ADA), Solana (SOL), and Dogecoin (Doge) were in the red by double digits as well.

Many say the drop is due to the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that US President Joe Biden signed into law on November 15. The bill is embedded with various crypto tax provisions for entities considered “brokers” by US law, even if they aren’t, such as node validators. The unclear and biased language caused outrage in the crypto community, with many industry leaders calling for opposition of the bill.

Going back to Bitcoin, the daily RSI pulled back to 40k levels but the price is currently hovering above 60k, though a further drop is expected in coming weeks.

Compared to previous dips, this one represented only 12 percent off its all-time high (ATH), but the emotional reaction appears to be much more intense. Back in September, BTC retraced -25 percent before jumping to new ATHs.

Categories
Crypto News Crypto Wallets DeFi Institutions

Crypto Adoption Rate is Mirroring Internet Adoption of the Late 1990s

Crypto adoption from 2014 to 2020 is resembling that of the internet from 1990 to 2000, the same years when the online boom was considered a scam and a bubble that would eventually burst.

The speed at which cryptocurrencies have taken off has been surprising. On one hand, detractors had to sit back and watch how crypto assets reached the mainstream mostly driven by institutions and renowned wealthy investors such as Paul Tudor Jones and Mark Cuban, collectively highlighting the benefits of crypto and blockchain technology. 

But the crypto community could not have predicted the speed and extent of crypto adoption this year. In August, Crypto News Australia reported that global adoption had surged an incredible 880 percent over the past year, and the number of active addresses reached its peak on November 10 – the highest level since May.

At the beginning of November, the number of active bitcoin addresses stayed above 1 million for five days in a row. This, according to analytics firm Santiment, signals that prices will flirt with further all-time highs (ATHs) in the future.

Cryptocurrency adoption in Australia has advanced markedly. Earlier this month, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) allowed users to buy, sell and hold crypto on its CommBank mobile app. However, Australia still has many challenges ahead with crypto adoption in terms of education and regulation.

Number of Users Engaging With Crypto Products Skyrockets

The number of users and institutions engaging with crypto and DeFi-related products has risen as well. According to Coinbase’s Q3 2021 Shareholder Letter, the number of users on the exchange earning yields on their crypto assets increased to a total of 2.8 million.

Meanwhile, crypto-native institutions have been keener to explore the DeFi space as the sector has experienced a boom. More institutions are using Ethereum to borrow and lend across several DeFi apps, as per a report from digital assets broker Genesis.

Categories
Bitcoin Crypto News Regulation

SEC Rejects VanEck’s Spot Bitcoin ETF Over ‘Manipulation Concerns’

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has rejected VanEck’s spot Bitcoin ETF application this week due to “concerns of market manipulation”.

VanEck’s Spot Bitcoin ETF Rejected … For No Good Reason?

In a not-at-all surprising turn of events, the SEC rejected VanEck’s proposal after several days of delay by the agency. SEC chairman Gary Gensler has in the past highlighted his preferences for a BTC futures-linked ETF over a spot ETF.

On October 20, the investment giant announced that the SEC had officially received the green light to launch a BTC futures-linked exchange-traded fund.

However, it seems the BTC spot ETF remains elusive as it didn’t meet certain SEC requirements for investor protection. As per a November 12 letter from the SEC:

The Commission concludes that [the fund] has not met its burden under the Exchange Act and the Commission’s Rules of Practice to demonstrate that its proposal is consistent with … the requirement that the rules of a national securities exchange be ‘designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices’ and to ‘protect investors and the public interest’.

SEC letter

The crypto community received the news with disappointment, one signalling that the agency doesn’t care about regular investors. Gabor Gurbacs, VanEck’s director of digital assets, expressed his disappointment on Twitter:

More Than 30 ETF Applications Still Awaiting Approval

There are more than 30 ETF applications pending approval. The SEC approved only two futures-linked ETFs last October, one of them VanEck’s, which goes live on November 16, ET. The first one recorded over US$1 billion in trading volume, turning it into the second-largest traded fund in the US.

Australian investors also smashed ASX trading records with BetaShares’ crypto ETF last week, reaching volumes exceeding A$40 million on its first day of trading.

Categories
Crypto News DeFi Tokens

UMA DeFi Token Continues to Soar Following Protocol Launch, Up 63% in a Week

UMA, the native token of Universal Market Access, skyrocketed more than 60 percent over the past three days after the launch of Across Protocol, a bridge from layer 1 to layer 2 on the UMA mainnet. 

Across Protocol is Live

The UMA token’s performance was average at the beginning of the last week but that changed quickly after the announcement of the Across Protocol, which will provide a secure and fast bridge for DeFi users, allowing them to bridge USDC, ETH and UMA from Arbitrum back to the Ethereum mainnet. 

The bridging function works by offering incentives for relayers to offer short-term loans to users on L1, which are repaid after two hours from a liquidity pool on L1. This pool is refilled when the funds arrive from L2 transactions. These transactions are insured by UMA’s Optimistic Oracle.

Across Protocol Medium post

The token has been rallying rapidly since then, up 63 percent to a market cap of US$1.05 billion in the past seven days. Data from Messari shows the token has achieved 100.52 percent in YTD gains, now trading at a range of US$16.50 in most exchanges.

UMA was created in December 2018 as a protocol designed to allow users to create synthetic assets on the Ethereum blockchain. UMA started its bullish rally on December 23, 2020, when the currency broke above the US$9.35 mark, trending upward along with many other altcoins.

Another token that has seen tremendous trading volume is SCRT, the privacy token of Secret Network, a DeFi protocol that aims to be a privacy-centric platform for the community.

Categories
Bitcoin CBDCs Crypto News Cryptocurrencies

Hillary Clinton Thinks Bitcoin Could Undermine US Dollar Reserve Status

Former US secretary of state and presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton believes cryptocurrencies pose a serious threat to countries as they may “undermine” the US dollar and thus destabilise nations.

During Bloomberg’s New Economy Forum, Clinton addressed some of the challenges nations are facing, such as disinformation, advances in artificial intelligence, and the rise of cryptocurrencies. She said that while they look like a “very interesting and exotic effort”, cryptos can be “extremely destabilising in the hands of the wrong people”.

There’s a whole new layer of activity that could be extremely destabilising or, in the wrong hands or in alliances with the wrong people, could be direct threats to many of our nation-states and certainly to the global currency markets.

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Of course, the crypto community took it all with humour and rather mocked Clinton’s claims, which go hand in hand with the Biden administration and its effort to undermine American crypto innovation with the US$1.2 trillion infrastructure bill.

Russia-backed Hackers Using Bitcoin

With “the hands of the wrong people”, Clinton is referring to hackers and organised groups who receive donations in bitcoin to fund illicit activities, which, according to Clinton, are “backed by Russia and other nations”.

But the US dollar is still the currency of choice when it comes to funding illicit activity. While that happens, hedge funds and countries are exploring how to make use of blockchain technology and crypto. We can talk about central banks worldwide that are considering launching CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies), or reckless hedge funds like Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy buying hundreds of millions of dollars during dips.

An example of bitcoin adoption was shown by Central American republic El Salvador and its decision to make BTC legal tender in the country, allowing unbanked citizens access to digital wallets and to transact BTC seamlessly to reduce costs in remittances, as many individuals working overseas send money home to their Salvadorean families.

Categories
Blockchain Crypto News DeFi Social media

Twitter Launches Crypto Team to Explore DApps

Twitter is building an expert cryptocurrency team focused on bringing crypto, blockchain, and decentralised technology into the social media platform.

Twitter Crypto and DeFi

Twitter has hired Tess Rinearson, dubbed Twitter Crypto, to lead the team in its plans to bring crypto, blockchain, and DApps to the platform for a wide variety of uses not necessarily related to the financial aspect.

Rinearson took to Twitter to explain what Twitter Crypto will bring to the table. The team hopes to enhance the BTC tipping platform and the proof of identity service for NFTs. Both features were announced a month ago after Jack Dorsey highlighted that Twitter could see significant growth with the integration of crypto.

Moreover, the team will seek how it can support DApps development amid growing interest from creators. Twitter Crypto hopefully will allow them to manage virtual goods and digital assets, and support other projects and communities.

Supporting Crypto Communities

Building communities and allowing them to share information has been an important aspect for Twitter, from crypto HODLers to NFT enthusiasts.

As Crypto News Australia reported last month, Twitter has been testing blockchain technology to verify NFT profile pictures.

Looking farther ahead, we’ll be exploring how ideas from crypto communities can help us push the boundaries of what’s possible with identity, community, ownership and more.

Tess Rinearson, aka Twitter Crypto

Rinearson has a solid background in the area of blockchain and consensus development, including engineering the Tendermint Core. She has also worked with the Interchain Foundation, Cosmos, and Chain.com. 

Categories
Crypto News Ethereum Scams Social media

Discord CEO Hints at ETH Integration, Allowing Users to Send Each Other Crypto

One of the largest messaging and digital distribution platforms, Discord, could soon allow support for Ethereum, as hinted by its founder and CEO, Jason Citron. 

On a Twitter thread on November 9, Citron posted a screenshot of what appears to be Discord connecting to Ethereum through MetaMask and WalletConnect, with a caption that reads: “probably nothing”.

The screenshot is probably a private development not yet released:

Citron was responding to Packy McCormick, founder of Not Boring Capital and the Not Boring newsletter. McCormick posted a link to the latest issue of his newsletter called Discord: Imagine a Place. The post highlighted various features of the social network, saying it has the potential to lead the web3, considered the next stage of the internet – a decentralised version of it.

There are more than 150 million monthly active users on Discord, and many of them are crypto users, so Discord could benefit from ETH and ERC-20 transaction fees performed on the platform.

However, not everyone in Discord is so happy about this scenario.

Community Divided on the Issue

Citron’s tease divided the Discord community, with one side saying the integration of cryptos into the platform is the right step towards innovation, and the other saying cryptos and NFTs are mainly used for money laundering or tax evasion.

Several users cancelled their subscriptions to Discord Nitro, the platform’s premium membership:

Other users responded to these comments as invalid statements with no factual evidence:

A lot of scams have occurred in the Discord platform from users using deceiving wallets. Two months ago, a Discord user lost US$10k after a scammer hacked the user’s MetaMask wallet using a fake WalletConnect app.