Author: Lauren Claxton

Lauren is currently a freelance writer with experience in finance writing. She has a growing interest in the metaverse and all things NFTs and expects to graduate in 2022 with bachelors degrees in creative writing and public relations.

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Crypto Exchange Crypto Wallets Kraken Trading

‘Super Wallet’ is Coming as Crypto Exchanges Will Soon Enable Trading of Stocks

Kraken CEO Jesse Powell featured on Decrypt’s GM podcast last week, in which he stated that the US exchange is currently exploring broadening its offerings to include stocks. Powell also noted that the so-called ‘super wallet’ appears to be a common goal among many exchanges:

One Wallet, Multiple Assets

During the Decrypt podcast, Powell discussed the future of crypto wallets and the exchanges they belong to. He said that ‘super wallets’ – wallets that allow users to buy and trade varying assets, from crypto and NFTs to stocks – were in the sights of many crypto exchanges right now, with Kraken itself exploring the potential of catering to stocks:

I think we’ve said before that [stocks] are something that we’re exploring, and I think [it] makes sense to do [so].

Jesse Powell, Kraken CEO

With crypto already being offered alongside other assets by companies such as Robinhood and eToro, crypto brokerages won’t be far behind. Kraken users are already speculating on how this potential addition could unfold:

https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/umjq92/bitcoin_exchange_kraken_exploring_stocks_as_part/
Reddit thread on Jesse Powell’s podcast appearance

Kraken Comes to the Aid of Ukraine

Kraken has been making itself visible over the past two years via multiple company moves. The most notable of these has been its dedication to aiding fundraising for Ukraine. In March, the company announced it would be distributing over US$10 million to relief efforts in the wartorn country, along with the waiving of exchange fees for Ukrainian addresses.  

In June 2021, the company decided to re-evaluate its launch plans following the poor performance of Coinbase’s IPO, stating that a direct listing might have a long-run “dampening effect” if Kraken continued with its plans to go public.

Categories
Australia Bitcoin Blockchain Crypto News

Australian University to Launch a ‘Green Cryptocurrency’ Research Lab

Australia’s Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) has successfully launched its Green Cryptocurrency Laboratory. Co-founded with the CloudTech Group, a leader in FinTech and blockchain technology, the lab will focus on reducing the carbon footprint of crypto.

Magi and Sam: RMIT Swanston Academic Building, Melbourne https://magiandsam.blogspot.com/2013/06/rmit-swanston-academic-building.html
RMIT partners with CloudTech to create the Green Crypto Laboratory, launched on May 6.

Researching ‘Green Crypto’

The May 6 event was hosted by Professor Zahir Tari, who has been named the lab’s director. RMIT is the world’s No 2 leading blockchain university and home of the Blockchain Innovation Hub. The Hub’s partnership with CloudTech aims to find answers to the increasing carbon footprint crypto technology is developing.

https://www.rmit.edu.au/contact/staff-contacts/academic-staff/t/tari-zahir

You might be shocked to learn that [blockchain technology] consumes more electricity to maintain the Bitcoin network each year than a medium-sized European country like Finland.

Professor Zahir Tari, joint director, RMIT Green Crypto Lab

The first project for the lab will be to develop Green Bitcoin, which will be a blockchain network based on PoST as the “underlying consensus mechanism”.

RMIT Making Crypto Waves

RMIT’s Blockchain Innovation Hub has been at the forefront of crypto development in Australia. In April it submitted a proposal to help the Melbourne portside precinct recover from the pandemic via the Docklands DAO. And, in October 2021, the university urged the Australian government to reform capital gains tax on crypto, stating that “reform will offer clarity for taxpayers and confidence in the tax system as a whole”.

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Bitcoin Markets

Bitcoin Falls Below $30K for the First Time Since July 2021

After declining more than 15 percent over the past week, the value of Bitcoin has slipped below US$30,000 for the first time since July 2021 – creating a new market cap of US$588 billion, down from US$900 billion.  

Interest Rate Rise to Blame

The drop, likely a result of the US Federal Reserve’s announcement to increase interest rates by 50 basis points, has undone the brief rebound period Bitcoin experienced after January’s dip.

Bitcoin’s outflow from the week prior has been the highest since June 2021, totalling over US$133 million. This seemed to be the result of institutional investors pulling their assets from the Bitcoin ETF, thus pushing BTC down 50 percent from its 2021 all-time high and causing panic globally:

However, the panic isn’t all doom and gloom, with experts suggesting the industry bubble is finally ready to pop and that there is room for optimism in the reboot. Crypto is prone to macroeconomic shock, and these strong crashes and booms are nothing the industry hasn’t encountered before.

Crypto Market Plunge

Bitcoin isn’t the only player in the industry that’s seen large decreases in value since January’s stock market sell-off. Last month saw US$250 billion wiped from the crypto market as a whole, due to leveraged liquidations and market fear. At the time Bitcoin dropped below US$40,000, and the overall crypto market tumble marked the industry’s worst day of trade since March 2020.

Categories
DeFi Hackers

DeFi Project ‘MM.Finance’ Suffers $2 Million Exploit

MM.Finance, the largest DeFi exchange on Cronos, has lost US$2 million in a recent exploitation by hackers. A Domain Name System (DNS) vulnerability is believed to be responsible, with the stolen funds being sent to Tornado Cash:

As per its tweet, MM.Finance traced the perpetrator of the cyberattack back to OKX centralised exchange. The funds stolen in the frontend breach were bridged to Ethereum using Multichain and deposited into Tornado Cash. OKX requires users to go through a ‘know your customer’ procedure, therefore the attacker had to have used fake IDs when signing up for the exchange.

While MM.Finance intends to compensate the affected addresses, the exchange has said that if 90 percent of the funds are not returned to MM.Finance within 48 hours, it will contact the FBI:

DeFi Exploits Increasing

Early April saw DeFi lender Inverse Finance suffer a US$15.6 million exploitation. The decentralised Ethereum protocol was compromised by hackers targeting its money market through the artificial manipulation of its token prices.

And, only days ago, Rari Capital lost US$80 million to hackers following a Fei protocol exploit. The assets had been held in Fuse lending pools, apparently the fault of a reentrancy vulnerability.

Categories
Australia Crypto News ETFs Regulation

Senator Bragg Intervenes in Crypto ETF Race, Backing Local Investment Managers

Andrew Bragg, an Australian Liberal Senator and pro-crypto lawmaker, has requested that the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) back local investment managers for the first Aussie crypto exchange traded fund (ETF).

Senator Bragg has addressed a letter to ASIC strongly recommending that the interests of Australian investment managers are kept in mind as the country’s first crypto ETF moves closer to fruition. The letter stated:

It would be a very regrettable outcome if foreign exchange-traded funds with direct exposure to cryptocurrency were widely available before domestic products.

NSW Senator Andrew Bragg to ASIC chairman Joseph Longo

While Bragg said he would not retaliate against the development of digital assets by foreign companies, he suggested that ASIC prevent them from capitalising on the delays that local firms are experiencing. The planned Aussie ETFs were supposed to have been greenlit a week ago, and Bragg expressed that he would be hesitant to see foreign products dominating Australian ones.

'This is a good and fair idea': Liberal senator Andrew ... https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/this-is-a-good-and-fair-idea-liberal-senator-andrew-bragg-backs-indigenous-voice-to-parliament-20190724-p52adz.html
NSW Senator Andrew Bragg backs local crypto ETFs.

Crypto ETFs: Momentum and Setbacks

April 2022 saw the Australian crypto ETF race heat up following the announcement of two more listings being ready to launch. These include the first Ethereum ETF and another Bitcoin ETF.

However, a week ago it was announced that the first crypto ETFs had been delayed due to an issue with an undisclosed third-party broker. This follows several tumultuous months. The hold-up was allegedly the result of standard checks prior to trading – no further information was given.

Categories
Crypto News Ethereum Tokens

Ethereum Name Service Token Surges 86% as Registered ETH Domains Surpass 1 Million

The Ethereum Name Service (ENS) this week announced it had surpassed a milestone of one million domain names created, with the news triggering an 86 percent value surge for the ENS token:

The Ethereum Name Service is helping to provide a smooth transition from Web2 to Web3, with its latest milestone clearly demonstrating its impact. A spike in registrations over the past 30 days has also had a knock-on effect on the ENS token:

The demand for three- and four-digit domain names is up and likely related to the NFT community’s new interests. These shorter domain names can also be used as the owner’s crypto address, instead of the random and more unwieldy alphanumeric combination.

Likely contributing to the spike is the fact that ENS’s protocol revenue rise has permitted the company to increase the funds available to its DAO. This, plus record registrations for April, contributed to the ENS token’s massive value surge.

Other Registered ETH Domains

Last August, American beer brand Budweiser dived into crypto and purchased the beer.eth domain name for 30 ETH. Adding Budweiser’s purchase of a Rocket Factory NFT for 8 ETH, the total venture was worth the equivalent of US$120,000.

More recently, Puma renamed itself puma.eth on Twitter and purchased several cat-related NFTs. These purchases can only mean there are more future crypto partnerships in the making.

Categories
Airdrop ETFs NFTs Regulation

VanEck Community Airdrop ‘NFT to Function Like a Digital Membership Card’

US asset management firm VanEck has announced that the first NFT of its upcoming collection is set to be launched and delivered via Airdrop. The collection will follow “Hammy” (Alexander Hamilton, the first US Treasury Secretary) and his journey through monetary policy’s past, present and future.

265 Alexander Hamilton Ten Dollar Bill Photos - Free ... https://www.dreamstime.com/photos-images/alexander-hamilton-ten-dollar-bill.html
US monetary policy pioneer Alexander Hamilton set to become an NFT.

For the first 1,000 of those who signed up for the project, the initial Airdrop takes place this week. At the end of the month, each purchased NFT will transform into a unique avatar that permits exclusive access to content produced by VanEck.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattbartlett1/overlay/photo/

The use of this NFT allows us to build an exclusive community where members who hold said NFT are invited to experiences and events where they can network with like-minded investors and crypto enthusiasts.

Matthew Bartlett, internal sales manager, VanEck

The major selling point of the collection will be the exclusive access it grants to in-person and digital events. It is intended to be an “NFT [that] functions as a digital membership card”, with the collection split into three tiers – common, rare, and legendary, with the latter tier having only 20 NFTs in circulation. The higher your NFT’s ranking, the more exclusive benefits will be available to you.  

Airdrops Gain Traction

Airdropping is now a popular method of dispensing crypto and NFTs to users. Last month, Ethereum scaling solution Optimism announced plans to utilise Airdrop to help its new token, OP, take off. It plans to feature several more Airdrop-based events, the next scheduled for a yet-to-be-announced date in Q2.

In other recent, less positive news regarding VanEck, November 2021 saw its rejection by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding ETF manipulation concerns. VanEck’s application for the Bitcoin ETF was denied as the fund allegedly did not meet its burden under the Exchange Act and the SEC’s Rules of Practice.

Categories
Blockchain Crypto News Hackers Solana

Solana Suffers 7 Hours’ Downtime as Bots Attack NFT Minting Tool ‘Candy Machine’

The beginning of May has seen a nearly seven-hour Solana crash, believed to be the result of a bot attack that targeted the company’s NFT minting tool ‘Candy Machine’ and has left users questioning the competence of the blockchain:

Candy Machine Suffers Sugar Hit

A tidal wave of traffic slammed Solana’s ‘Candy Machine’ on April 30. The bots responsible caused four million transaction requests, totalling 100 gigabits of data per second and setting a record for the platform, which could not keep up.

Later that night, the validator operators performed a cluster restart of its Mainnet Beta network. However, it wasn’t fast enough to stop the criticism that echoed around social media from Solana users and onlookers:

Solana’s plans to combat these crashes involve a botting penalty that is soon set to deploy to the program. It will only be the beginning of a broader effort but should work to stabilise the network, hopefully preventing similar issues in the future and stopping Solana from, negatively, being the talk of the town:

Not Solana’s First Outage

Solana has quite the track record of network outages. Notably, on January 4 the network was temporarily down due to a DDoS attack, causing huge transaction delays. Shockingly, this was followed by a second crash within the same week, believed to be a knock-on effect of the first attack.

Categories
NFTs

Mercedes Formula 1 NFTs Come with a Piece of the Actual Car

With Formula One’s Miami Grand Prix ready to roll next weekend, Mercedes has announced a new NFT collection. The twist? It could come with a piece of the actual car:

NFTs You Can Touch

F1 team Mercedes-AMG Patronus has revealed a long-term alliance with global crypto exchange FTX for the release of NFT collectibles for the Miami Grand Prix and the remainder of the 2022 race season.

FTX will be releasing 2,500 free-to-claim “ticket stubs” in the form of artistic renditions of actual race tickets. This gives fans the opportunity to collect ticket stubs throughout the season, creating a community of traders with a passion for racing.

The Miami event will even feature Mad Dog Jones, a notable NFT creator. Fans can also look forward to two special NFTs attached to the rear wing endplates of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton’s race cars – both of which will be auctioned together with accompanying Mad Dog Jones NFTs.

While the goal of the collection is to increase fan engagement, many have pushed back, mocking the initiative as far as calling it a “scam” and “stupid”:

Not Mercedes’ First Rodeo

This isn’t Mercedes’ first venture into the world of NFTs. In January, it teamed up with Art2People to launch a collection to celebrate its G-class series.

More recently, South Korean manufacturer Hyundai dipped its toe into the NFT ecosystem with its ‘Metamobility Universe’.

Categories
Australia Economics

Australian Consumer Price Inflation Records Largest Annual Increase Since 2000

Australia has this week recorded its largest quarterly and annual inflation increase since 2000. The ABS has released data stating the consumer price index has risen 5.1 percent on a yearly basis and 2.1 percent in the first quarter of 2022.

Life Keeps Giving Lemons

Australia’s new inflation rate exceeds the 5 percent mark registered in 2008, which accompanied the global financial crisis. It’s also the highest quarterly and annual rate since the 6.1 percent rate that marked the introduction of the goods and services tax (GST) in 2000.

The latest rise has been larger than originally anticipated, leaving many wondering whether the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will have no choice but to increase official interest rates as a counter:

Inflation Rates Rise Globally

Naturally, inflation isn’t exclusive to Australia and can be cryptocurrency-related. In July 2021, Aussie inflation rose by 3.8 percent, aided by Bitcoin’s return from its low point. At the time it was believed that the increase would be temporary, resulting from several one-offs.

And in the US, inflation hit a 40-year high last month, rising to 7.9 percent. Almost all costs of living are up, including gas, fuel, housing and food prices, as Russia’s conflict with Ukraine intensifies.