Category: Cryptocurrencies

Categories
Blockchain Cryptocurrencies Payments

Visa To Integrate US Dollar Coin (USDC) System

The heavy-hitting financial institution has announced its plan to connect its global payments network to the U.S. Dollar Coin (USDC).

Taking Advantage Of An Already Large Network

Developed on the Ethereum blockchain by Circle Internet Financial, the cryptocurrency is currently worth about $2.9 billion. Once the system becomes available to Visa’s vast network of over 60 million merchants, the cryptocurrency will be able to be traded on the Visa network.

Although Visa is not planning to hold any USDC itself, the company will any interested parties on the Visa network to implement the software necessary to trade USDC into their system.

Circle Internet Financial will complete Visa’s Fast Track program itself – probably in the first half of 2021. Fast Track is a Visa program geared towards “cutting edge fintechs”, aiming to bring them into the Visa ecosystem.

According to Terry Angelos – Senior Vice President and global head of Fintech at Visa – Fast Track is designed to help small fintech companies unlock their true potential.

“Our goal is to bring cutting-edge Fintechs into the Visa ecosystem, to help them grow and scale their business in record time. Through programs like Fast Track, Visa is committed to helping Fintechs, many of which are small businesses, advance their potential and get into market quickly, so they are ready to provide innovations that move the world forward everyday – especially in current times.”

After the program is completed, Visa will begin issuing credit cards that will allow businesses to send and receive payments in USDC.

Cuy Sheffield – the head of the crypto department at Visa – stated that he foresees rapid adoption of crypto by businesses who opt in.

“This will be the first corporate card that will allow businesses to be able to spend a balance of USDC.  And so we think that this will significantly increase the utility that USDC can have for Circle’s business clients.”

Although there are already crypto cards on the Visa network – such as the Binance card – this will be the first time a crypto Visa card is issued that is not tied to any crypto trading platform.

Categories
Blockchain Cryptocurrencies DeFi

Aave Rehashed – Aave’s Upgraded v2 Protocol Is Here

A Finnish word for “Ghost”, Aave is a decentralized finance project that seeks to increase the transparency of decentralized finance, and improve its infrastructure.

Less than a year after the launch of the popular DeFi project, the second iteration of the Aave network is here.

After hitting a market cap of over $1 billion within 6 months, Aave has now hit a new milestone – namely, reaching a total volume of $1 billion in flash loans.

Stani Kuchelov – the founder and CEO of Aave – stated that the upgrades to the Aave network are a reflection of the company’s ethos.

“The Aave Protocol took major steps toward becoming more decentralized with the handover of the Admin Keys to the community. The Aave ethos is that finance should be as you like it, and with a working governance and “Aavenomics”, the future of the protocol is in your hands.”

Upgrades to Decentralized Finance

It’s safe to say the past few weeks have not been easy for companies specializing in decentralized finance (DeFi).

Between savvy coders making millions (and even returning some) and DeFi crypto storage “jars” being cloned and emptied right under everyone’s noses, DeFi companies have proven to be less stable than otherwise hoped.

With a little luck, however, Aave v2 may be able to solve some of the issues plaguing the budding industry.

Among the many improvements to the first iteration of the Aave network are upgrades to the notorious flash loan tool – including the option to carry them out in batches, native credit delegations, the optimization of gas prices.

In order to mitigate the growing gas price for transactions taking place on the Ethereum blockchain, Aave is introducing new ways to optimize gas prices, in some cases even cutting them by half.

Another interesting feature is the tokenization of debt. On this version of Aave’s blockchain, debt is tokenized, and borrowers will receive tokens representing their debt. This feature is mainly aimed at those who use cold wallets, as it will allow them to calculate their debt positions even when far away from the internet.

However, these are only a few of the updates brought to you by Aave. You can check out the full list on the official Medium blog of the company, complete with technical details.

Categories
Crypto News Cryptocurrencies DeFi Ethereum

Visa Partners With Circle to Connect Its 60M Merchants With Ethereum-based US Dollar Coins

Visa is taking a step further from traditional payments and jumping in on two major cryptocurrency projects. The first one is the recent announcement of the integration of the US Dollar Coin, an Ethereum-based stablecoin created by Circle Internet Financial, into Visa’s fintech FastTrack Program.

Visa will work with Circle to integrate the Ethereum protocol to its customers — by issuing cards for USDC payments. Now more than 60M merchants can send and receive USDC whenever they want. Visa won’t take custody of the digital currency.

Visa integrates the Ethereum-based USDC as ETH upgrades to Eth2, making it a more efficient and faster blockchain protocol. The company believes that its 60M base customers can benefit greatly from this new upgrade. Now traders are hoping for a major bullish uptrend for the next week.

No More Cash Or Miles: It’s Bitcoin now

The second project is with BlockFi, a New York-based startup that specializes in cryptocurrency-backed loans and savings accounts. Visa is launching in early 2021 a credit card that rewards its users with Bitcoin — instead of traditional money or miles.

The new card is issued by Evolve Bank & Trust and has an annual fee of $200.

“We’re excited to add credit cards to our suite of products and expand Bitcoin’s accessibility to a broader set of consumers. This card makes it simple and risk-free for people to gain or increase exposure to a new asset class without changing their spending or investing habits.”

Zac Prince, CEO of BlockFi said in a statement.

Visa currently has 25 cryptocurrency wallets integrated into its system. And as Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are becoming wildly popular every day, Visa expects to serve the cryptomarket customers with these two projects — by enhancing new payment methods and providing crypto-rewards.

Categories
Bitcoin Crypto News Cryptocurrencies

$860 Million In Crypto Wiped Out in a Single day — An Even More Volatile Market Ahead

These past two weeks have been interesting for the cryptomarket world: an overall bullish trend and a new all-time high of $19,918 for Bitcoin since 2017 — more financial institutions savagely acquiring BTC, famous investors highlighting crypto in general and, even more insane: at least $860 million in Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and other alts were liquidated this Tuesday, in just a few hours.

But Bitcoin takes the lead on ramping liquidations — recent data from Bybt shows how exchanges were massively liquidating trading positions after BTC dropped from 19,900 to 18,000 — which means that more than 80,500 long traders sold off their futures to avoid bigger losses.

Futures Liquidation Data chart: Source: Bybt

Binance Takes The Lead

Binance is the current platform with the most liquidated positions — and long positions were 85 % of that sum. In a single order, a trader lost $6 million on the Singapore-based Huobi-BTC, which is the largest liquidation in a single order.

This Tuesday, investors were looking to hit $20,000 on Bitcoin after the price surged again at the beginning of this week. Sadly, it never went above 19,918. This second drop — from 19,900 to 18,000 — caused more than $370 million in liquidations in less than a single hour.

Now, in Bitcoin alone, the number appears to go as high as $720M at the moment of writing.

Exchange Liquidation Data. Source: Bybt

“It Was Just A Bull Trap”

However, some traders think that this was just a correction, and a more volatile market is ahead, just as Gleen Goldman, lays it out on his Twitter account:

$20,000 is a major resistance level, and we are now seeing volumes that are rarely traded. There’s a lot of uncertainty surrounding the next move of Bitcoin, so traders must take measures before entering the market again.

Categories
Australia Blockchain Cryptocurrencies

Crypto.com Receives Australia License Allowing Them To Issue Crypto Debit Cards

A document mandatory for any financial institution in order to begin issuing crypto cards, Crypto.com has recently secured an Australian Financial Service License (ASFL).

All blockchain-based companies operating in certain areas of the Australian financial markets are required by law to possess an ASFL in order to comply with Australian anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism regulations.

“The guidance goes on to examine when tokens issued by an ICO could be a managed investment scheme, share, derivative, or non-cash payment facility under the Corporations Act. […]

 If a cryptoasset trading platform enables trading in tokens that are financial products, this may involve the operation of a financial market and a market license may be required.”

Crypto Cards On The Way

Crypto.com is a cryptocurrency trading website allowing users to buy and sell over 80 different cryptocurrencies. They also offer cryptocurrency cards in the UK, the USA, Singapore, and the European Union – and Australia seems to be next in line.

Even before the announcement of a card company acquisition, Crypto.com enabled transfers in AUD via PayID and BPAY.

In order to do so, they’ve acquired an Australian financial services company. Named The Card Group Pty Ltd, the financial firm specializes in prepaid cards, mobile, and wearable solutions.

The firm had also been vetted a priori by Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board, virtually guaranteeing the receipt of an ASFL.

As a country interested in blockchain, cryptocurrency, and the highly innovative technological solutions that stem from them since way before the crypto boom of 201

Categories
Bitcoin Crypto News Cryptocurrencies

The Wall Street Journal Discusses Bitcoin And The Adoption Of Cryptocurrencies By Institutional Investors

It has been an exciting two months for the cryptocurrency world, especially for Bitcoin. Since it rallied 80 % in just two months, it has settled new market capitalization records and capturing a lot of mainstream media attention. Now BTC lands on the homepage of The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

In a new report, WSJ discusses the embrace of Bitcoin among institutional traders — also highlighting how BTC gained the attention of famous multimillionaires investors, like Paul Tudor Jones and Stan Druckenmiller — both speaking highly positively about Bitcoin over the past few months.

The Wall Street Journal emphasizes how retail investors, hedge funds, and other companies are hungry for buying and holding cryptocurrency — especially BTC.

The Rapid Growth and Adoption of Bitcoin

More institutions and online financial services are embracing Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies every day — giving them a big boost in their prices. But also making them more scarce: Grayscale, 3iQ, and ETC Group alone have acquired over 24,000 BTC. That’s roughly translated to $457.764.000,00 million.

This week, BTC reached a level of USD 18,900 (25,700 AUD) on the daily chart, trading as high as 19,400 — prices that are rarely traded.

Source: Binance

As more high-net-worth investors and financial institutions buy Bitcoin, BTC replaces gold as a store of value, breaking their correlation.

Gold vs Bitcoin correlation

Public figures like Dan Schulman, CEO of PayPal, also spoke about Bitcoin, stating his bullish position with BTC and how cryptocurrencies are moving away from being “just an asset“:

As paper money slowly dissipates and disappears from how people are using transactions, central banks especially on the retail side will need to replace paper money with forms of digital fiat currency.

Stated Schulman for CBNC.

PayPal made a considerable impact in the cryptocurrency world these past months — the company recently removed its waitlist for US residents to buy and hold crypto-assets — and together with Cash App, they have accumulated over 70 % of newly mined Bitcoins.

Categories
Australia Crypto News Cryptocurrencies Investing

Pendal Group Joins The Big League Financiers Hedging Their Bets On Bitcoin

The Pendal Group – a Sydney-based investment management firm among the biggest in Australia – has recently come out in support of Bitcoin, lauding the asset’s qualities, especially when compared to government bonds.

No Longer An Asset For “The Tinfoil Brigade”

Vimar Gor – the head of Bond, Income, and Defensive Strategies at Pendal Group – iterated his support for Bitcoin and declared that the Pendal Group will be entering the crypto market via futures contracts.

In order to trade Bitcoin futures, the investment management firm is looking to join longstanding futures markets such as the CME Group Exchange and the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), among others.

In an interview for the Australian Financial Review, Vimar Gor went on to say that the currently ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been a catalyst for greater market trends that have been around for a while – and that cryptocurrencies are in the right spot to profit from it. With official interest rates and bonds plummeting and large scale central bank QE programs doing the rounds, Vimar predicts that bond yields won’t be very fruitful in the foreseeable future.

Vimar then went on to explain that cryptocurrency has become the elephant in the room – or rather a cockroach in the room that you can’t really ignore anymore.

“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.”

Contrary to notorious naysayers such as Peter Schiff, Vimar Gor sees a bright future for digital assets, owing to their finite supply and high demand.

Following the major investments into cryptocurrencies by companies like Square, Paypal, and now Pendal Group, it is not unlikely we will see more and more big-league financial companies hopping on the crypto train.

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
Crypto News Cryptocurrencies Mining Stablecoins

Coding Whiz Makes $5 Million With A Single Flashloan

Using the flashloan function made possible by smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain, a coding genius lent 80 thousand ETH and made a profit in DAI worth around $6 million.

However, a total of 8 million was actually gained – but $2 million were returned.

A flashloan is an operation that – if executed properly – can net you some capital gains with virtually zero risks involved. When pulled off right, you get your money back within 15 seconds, plus your profit. All you need is dollars to cover the network fees with the coder himself taking no risk as the code either executes all in one with the ability to instantly return the borrowed money and fees, or it doesnt. Although hard to execute properly, a fair bit of practice can lead to a massive payoff.

In this case, the mysterious dev flashloaned 80,000 ETH – worth AUD 52,398,834 at the time of writing – and netted himself a profit of AUD 6,833,870, paying only $57 of gas fees for the transaction.

For this transaction, the mysterious entrepreneur spotted an arbitrage opportunity that took advantage of stablecoin mining pools – and exploited it using solidity flashloans.

Do You Really Know Flashloan?

The universe loves to punish hubris – and the coder behind the operation seems to have an eye for comedy.

A few days ago, the team behind the DeFi mining pool who bore the brunt of the transaction tweeted about how they are impervious to “flashloan attacks”.

The tweet has since been deleted – but thanks to the Wayback Machine – it’s been saved for posterity.

The tweet encouraged crypto enthusiasts to read on about how technical marvels make them one of the most secure DeFi firms in the industry.

However, there is always a bigger fish – and someone who apparently was more well-versed in technical details called their bluff. Clearly a humorous individual, the coding whiz left a taunting message on the transaction – “do you really know flashloan?”

 The tongue-in-cheek antics then continued, with $2 million worth of the money returned to sender.

Many self-improvement blogs will tell you to work smart, not hard – but few took this old adage to heart as well as this individual.

Categories
Australia Cryptocurrencies Swyftx

Swyftx Reminds Crypto Users Why Cold Storage Is Important

This week, Swyftx – an Australian cryptocurrency exchange used regularly by over 30 thousand traders – reminded crypto enthusiasts that cold storage is a great solution for those with a large stash that they aren’t intent on trading in the near future.

Cold wallets are devices that store crypto tokens far away from the reach of the internet – and as a result, impervious to attacks by cybercriminals. Think of cold wallets as the safes in blast-proof banking vaults – but for cryptocurrency.

Calls For Responsibility

Although Swyftx and other trusted crypto exchange platforms have top-notch security, they are not completely immune to previously undiscovered exploits. As a result, Swyftx encourages users to deposit large stashes they plan to hold on to in cold wallets.

Certain types of cold wallets are available for purchase right on the Swyftx platform, and Alex Harper – the founder and CEO of Swyftx – states that more platforms should speak out on the unique benefits cold wallets offer.

“Other exchanges are not stressing cold storage options hard enough. Don’t get me wrong, the technology of exchanges has advanced lightyears since the Mt. Gox era, or even where we were when we first started almost 3 years ago. However, it’s still hard if not impossible to beat offline crypto storage. Crypto exchanges need to come out and talk to their communities about this… big time.”        

In addition, Harper stressed that he is intent on maintaining the platform’s status as a well-respected, consumer-friendly crypto service provider. Arguing that trust built and maintained over time is far more important than short term profit, he encouraged other platforms to speak out about the issue as well.

Swyftx has also put together a quick guide on crypto asset storage, outlining the benefits of each kind.