Author: José Oramas

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

Categories
Australia Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies E-commerce

RaleyPay Launches into $600b E-commerce Market for Aussie Retailers

RaleyPay is launching a payment solution by bridging the gap between traditional finance and cryptocurrency. The platform is launching into the $600b e-commerce market to make crypto available for Aussie retailers. 

The Australian platform will allow crypto transactions at global exchange rates. RaleyPay users can now pay their bills, buy in their favorite stores, cash out from an ATM, or transfer funds to any bank account nationwide — by converting their crypto to fiat at the time the payment is made, with a daily limit of $50,000.

Users put their bank or mobile details, select a cryptocurrency, choose a conversion rate and receive their funds — with no fees for crypto transfer to bank accounts.

Australia’s First Crypto-payment Solution

RaleyPay is implementing Australia’s first crypto-payment solution by allowing their clients to spend Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other digital currencies the same way as fiat.

The core value of this is that now Australians can easily pay their Bills with ETH or Bitcoin, and make only shop integrations with Shopify, WooCommerce & Magento.

Their first merchants are the Australian companies BronID, which specializes in anti-money laundering — Piper Alderman, a company that provides legal advice on commerce, and Blueshyft, an iOS-based platform with 1,400 retailers nationwide.

Australians can transact their Bitcoin or Ethereum in the following ways:

  • Buy crypto such as Bitcoin and Ethereum with AUD via PayID or bank transfer.
  • Sell crypto and withdraw AUD to any Australian bank.
  • Spend crypto on e-commerce websites.

Part of the reason cryptocurrencies have a negative stigma is the logistical nightmare of transacting with local and international exchanges due to the risk, painstakingly complex processes, and exorbitant fees. So we wanted to solve these two problems by removing the barriers to buying and using digital currencies at global market rates, while also opening up new revenue opportunities for retailers.

Stated RelayPay founder & CEO, Charlie Karaboga, for Australian Fintech.

RelayPay will launch soon crypto loans, a feature called Crypto Backed Lending: users can deposit Bitcoin or Ethereum as collateral to get an AUD loan for up to 50% of the value of the asset.

Categories
Australia Blockchain Brisbane Gold

Australian Largest Asset Exchange, BTC Markets, is Listing Meld Gold on Its Platform

The largest Australian trading platform, BTC Markets, announced today on Twitter the listing of Meld Gold (MCAU). A Brisbane-based company that delivers and facilitates gold ownership through digital gold certificates.

BTC Markets will offer their investors AU$1 million of Meld Gold at spot prices. The trading officially starts at 11:00 AEDT on 17th November 2020.

Backed by Australian Gold

Meld is backed by recycled Australian gold, held in independent Australian vaults and refineries. The brand new company has partnered with retailers, industries, financial advisers, and several global brands to consolidate and connect their entire gold supply chain.

Meld allows businesses and investors can transact and sell their gold directly with bullion dealers — Including Brisbane-based Imperial Group, independent collective offering products and services specialising in precious metals.

Meld is also built on Algorand (ALGO), a technology that created the world’s first permissionless, point of sale (PoS) blockchain protocol and focuses on DeFi applications like Smart Contracts and Atomic Transfers.

In April, Meld announced its partnership with Algorand and Australian gold industries to add the supply chain of gold onto the blockchain technology. Usually, gold-backed tokens are supported by an amount of physical gold — under the issuer’s custody. 

However, in the Meld system, every token equals one gram of physical gold — not held by the issuer but the network companies, like Melbourne Mint. 

“Meld is developing an industry solution that interconnects the entire supply chain, creating efficiencies such as decreased costs, increased transaction speed, and greater liquidity.”

stated Michael Cotton, director of Meld Gold, for Decrypt.

“Meld is using blockchain technology to emulate and improve the actual gold market” stated Peter August, CEO of Melbourne Mint for Cointelegraph in April. August believes that Meld can shape the Australian gold industry with its new model.

Categories
Australia Bitcoin Blockchain

U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis Believes Bitcoin is a Haven Against Dollar Inflation

In a recent interview on the ABC News program GMA3, Wyoming’s elected Senator Cynthia Lummis alleged that Bitcoin can serve as a good store of value. The former State Treasurer said that she hopes to bring Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency in general to the “national conversation” in the U. S.

“Our own currency inflates. Bitcoin does not. It’s 21 million Bitcoin will be mined, and that’s it. It is a finite supply. So I have confidence that this will be an important player in store of value for a long time to come.”

— Senator Cynthia Lummis

Lummis is the first Senator in the U.S. to currently own Bitcoin. She bought BTC in 2013 thanks to her son in law, Will Cole, Unchained Capital Chief Product Officer.

American and Aussie Politicians Highlighting Crypto

Senator Lummis is not the only politician who recently talked positively about the potentials of Bitcoin and crypto in general. Australian Senator Andrew Bragg spoke about the benefits and potential of blockchain technology during the online panel of the Future Of Financial Services 2020 conference. 

The liberal Senator alleged that Australia needs to innovate and look further into blockchain technology to stay relevant in the financial realm. Bragg believes that blockchain can solve several critical regulatory problems in Australia, as well as globally.

“The future is blockchain technology. Instant cross-border transactions powered by blockchain may well be the solution for one-touch government with real-time international transactions.”

— Andrew Bragg

Bragg’s statements came shortly after S. Iswaran, Singapore’s Minister of Communications, urged all countries around the world to use a free flow of data across borders — highlighting the quick expansion and digitization of businesses and economies globally.

“It’s imperative we stay open and connected digitally. We should facilitate the free flow of data so international trade can continue to flourish and our people can remain connected to the global commons.”

— S. Iswaran.

A Weaker Dollar

Economists and investors are agreeing on something: the future of the USD is uncertain. Now that Joe Biden was announced president by the media, fear bases around the tensions between a Republican Senate and a Democrat president. A technical analyst from Token Metrics, Bill Noble, believes that this could especially devalue the dollar — and most investors would look to empty their weakling fiat into crypto.

U.S. Dollar Index (DXY), taken from Trading Economics

As more politicians and institutions highlight the potential of digitized economies, traders and investors see Bitcoin and other crypto-assets and their backbone technology — the blockchain, as a haven against a seemingly weaker dollar.

Categories
Crypto News DeFi Hackers

Hacker Steals 2$ Million From Akropolis Savings Pools

Akropolis (AKRO), the Crypto DeFi platform, recently tweeted on November 12 that their savings pools were hacked by the amount of 2$ million dollars worth in DAI, apparently, in a Flash Loan attack. 

According to Akropolis, the hack was executed “across a body of smart contracts” in the savings pools. The firm added that their staking pools are “safe” — and the hack only affected CurveY and Curve sUSD savings pools. 

In a statement, the firm noticed a “discrepancy in the APYs of our stablecoin pools”. Reports from the ETH blockchain show that the hackers were able to gather a total of $2,051,159 million in DAI. Later, the hacker sent the funds to a different address where they are currently held.

Now the entire Akropolis protocol is paused — its stablecoin pools remain suspended as the security team is currently working on several procedures in the affected areas. The firm informed major exchanges about the attack — and their security processes are under review as well.

Researcher Steven Zheng reported on Twitter about the hacker’s transaction. Zheng also stated that the hacker was executing batches of $50,000 attacks 7 hours later. 

Zheng, as well as many other crypto users, suggested that this hack was similar to the Harvest Finance project hack — a market price manipulation made with flash loans exploits. “This is not entirely true”, said Ana Andrianova, Akropolis founder, discarding Zheng’s suggestion about the attack being similar to Harvest Finance.

Harvest Finance was a DeFi project led by an anonymous team. The attack caused millions of dollars worth of FARM tokens stolen by hackers. As a result, its prices fell over 60% at press time.

While its users are now fearful about the future of their savings, the Akropolis team stated that “most funds are safe” and that they are exploring ways to refund the users affected by the hack. 

“We are exploring ways to reimburse users for the loss in a way that is sustainable for the project, and will make a proposal to the community prior to any final decision being made.” As a sideline, the firm stated one of the next steps is a post-mortem publication with their analysis as soon as possible.

Categories
Institutions Ripple

eToro And Binance Drop XRP From Their Platform

Following the massive backlash that Ripple faces due to the SEC’s lawsuit, two major exchanges —Binance and eToro— are suspending XRP trading from their platform.

As expected, it was only a matter of time until major exchanges started delisting XRP when Coinbase and Grayscale —both members of the Crypto Rating Council— decided to turn away from Ripple.

eToro stated that the platform is suspending XRP trading and deposits on the U.S. The broker settled a deadline of January 24 for users to close all XRP positions. Despite this, earlier suspensions could apply before January 3 if the panorama for Ripple worsens.

For now, the above prohibitions affect only US customers and will not affect any customer’s ability to hold XRP in the eToro Wallet.  All customers, including US customers, may continue to hold XRP in their eToro Wallet, and those customers still holding XRP on the eToro platform after January 24th can transfer their XRP to an eToro Wallet at any time.

Likewise, Binance announced that trading and deposits using XRP are suspended, but withdrawals are allowed until January 13.

A Risky Scenario For Exchanges

The SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple can take several years of legal dispute. The decisions to remove XRP are not only driven by the massive price drop. Exchanges could be in danger of being sued by regulatory bodies alike if the SEC wins and Ripple Labs did sell XRP as a digital asset.

Similarly, a Coinbase user is filing a lawsuit against the exchange for selling XRP as a digital asset instead of a security.

Thomas Sandoval, who resides in St. Louis, is the plaintiff in this case. Sandoval states that Coinbase knew that XRP was a security, unregistered by regulatory bodies, but decided to sell it as a digital asset anyway.

It’s not yet clear how the legal procedure will develop. Sandoval added that Coinbase “scammed” its user base by having “prior information” about XRP being an unlicensed security.

The pretrial for Ripple has been set as well, on February 22 of 2021. The pretrial will be held virtually with a teleconference. Both parties need to submit a joint letter a week later defending their position.