Category: Ethereum

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$2.2 Trillion Bond Giant Embraces Crypto as ‘Inflation Hedge and Store of Value’

Pimco, a US$2.2 trillion global fixed-income giant, will continue to explore crypto assets that have the “potential to disrupt the financial industry”, according to a report from CNBC.

Exploring Cryptocurrencies as an Inflation Hedge

During an interview with CNBC, chief investment officer Daniel Ivascyn revealed that Pimco had already invested in “crypto-linked securities” through several hedge fund portfolios, and plans to increment crypto assets exposure in the near future.

The move was announced on October 20 after Bitcoin and other high-market cap cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum surpassed record price levels, with BTC breaking above US$67,000 and ETH reclaiming the $4,000 mark, falling just short of its May ATH of $4,300.

Most cryptocurrencies saw a boost in price after the first Bitcoin futures-linked ETF, which saw a massive trading volume on its first days of approximately US$1 billion.

According to Ivascyn:

Now we’re looking at potentially trading certain cryptocurrencies as part of our trend-following strategies or quant-oriented strategies, then doing more work on the fundamental side. This will be a gradual process where we spend a lot of time on the internal diligence side speaking to investors. And we’ll take baby steps in an area that’s rapidly growing.

Daniel Ivascyn, CIO, Pimco

Ivascyn went on to say that cryptocurrencies like bitcoin offer an inflation hedge and a store of value against fiat hyperinflation and declining purchasing power. His comments resemble those of JPMorgan, whereby analysts at the investment bank revealed earlier this month that investors were replacing gold with bitcoin as a better inflation hedge.

Competitive Environment Keeps Pace with Innovation

Cryptocurrencies and the DeFi sector have become highly valuable financial instruments not only for crypto enthusiasts but for artists, content creators, institutional investors and more.

As crypto and blockchain technology advances continue to accelerate, traditional institutions are keener than ever to explore a space that’s innovating at such a pace. To that matter, Ivascyn said:

Pimco is thinking about scenarios where this could take us to ensure we are competitively prepared to deal with what’s a rapidly changing environment that offers a pretty significant value proposition.

Daniel Ivascyn, CIO, Pimco
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Crypto News DeFi Ethereum NFTs

Polygon ‘Becoming Independent of Ethereum’ as dApps Grow 100x Over Past Year

Popular Layer-2 scaling solution Polygon is inarguably on a growth trajectory. The number of decentralisation applications (dApps) running on its scalable network has significantly risen in the past 12 months and most of those dApps were natively launched on the network, meaning Polygon is becoming less dependent on Ethereum, according to recent data from Alchemy. 

Polygon Growth 2x Ethereum

The data revealed the rate of adoption for Polygon is increasing 2x faster than Ethereum at a comparable time in its history. For context, the number of protocols launched on Polygon has increased to about 3,000, which represents 9,900 percent or 100x growth on the previous 30 recorded in October 2020. 

More interestingly, 62 percent of all the dApps are Polygon-native, meaning they are only hosted on top of Polygon. QuickSwap is one such platform, a fork of Uniswap that was natively launched on Polygon to harness its properties for quick and cheap trades. The remaining 38 percent, which includes SushiSwap, Curve, Aave, Balancer and others, exists on both Polygon and Ethereum. 

Growth Strategy Relies Less on Gas

Polygon employs several solutions to enable developers to scale their projects on Ethereum. The growing number of Polygon-native dApps simply points out that more developers are confident and are relying on the layer-2 network more than Ethereum, which suffers expensive gas prices following the frenzy in the non-fungible token (NFT) and Decentralised Finance (DeFi) markets.

We can expect the number to skyrocket from here, as Polygon recently announced plans to onboard the next 100 million users into its DeFi ecosystem. To achieve this, Polygon has committed about US$100 million to develop a decentralized autonomous organisation (DAO) to also improve the DeFi experience.

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Blockchain Crypto Art Crypto News Ethereum NFTs

Playboy is Launching 11,953 Rabbit NFT Avatars

In a follow-up to May’s ‘Liquid Summer‘ NFT series whose first drop sold out in under three minutes, American lifestyle brand Playboy is launching a new collection called ‘Playboy Rabbitars‘ that goes all the way back to its roots.

In a nod to its foundation year of 1953, Playboy will release 11,953 unique Rabbitars, 3D rabbit characters in NFT form serving as keys to a reimagined Playboy Club and giving owners access to benefits including members-only events, merchandise, artwork, and exclusive artist collaborations.

The Rabbitars have been created by Playboy’s Web3 Innovation team in partnership with Possible Studios and WENEW, the art studio and blockchain technology company co-founded by Michael ‘Beeple’ Winkelmann and Michael Figge.

In metaverse terms, Rabbitars are NFTs that live on the Ethereum blockchain as ERC-721 tokens hosted on IPFS (InterPlanetary File System, the metaverse’s decentralised file storage system).

Avatars Inspired by Brand Art and Editorial History

Each Rabbitar is generated from a pool of more than 175 traits, including fur, facial features, ears and headwear, apparel, accessories, occupation-related characteristics, and more. Some of the rarer examples are inspired by aspects of Playboy’s art and editorial history.

According to Jamal Dauda, Playboy’s vice-president of blockchain innovation, distributed ledger technology is revolutionising how fans and consumers interact with brands.

At Playboy, we’re committed to moving out of the era of merely acquiring followers and into an era of building thoughtful communities where each member has a voice. Our goal is to deliver meaningful opportunities for ownership and unique value.

Jamal Dauda, vice-president of blockchain innovation, Playboy

Liz Suman, Playboy’s vice-president of art curation and editorial, points out how the brand’s 68-year history began with the rabbit logo:

When it came to visualising the Rabbitar world, our goal was to pay homage to our legacy in the arts, while tapping into the spirit of innovation to create something entirely new for the NFT community.

Liz Suman, vice-president of art curation and editorial, Playboy

Available Across Three Separate Sales

Playboy Rabbitars will be available for purchase for 0.1953 ETH (US$813) on the official Rabbitar site using crypto or USD in three separate sales:

  • presale for whitelisted ETH-paying collectors from October 24-26;
  • public sale for Fiat/USD-paying collectors on October 26 following the whitelist sale; and
  • public sale for ETH-paying collectors on October 27.

All collectors will need an Ethereum wallet whether paying with Ethereum or USD. 

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Bitcoin Crypto News Ethereum

ETH Eclipses All-Time High, Big Surge Ahead?

While Bitcoin is breaking price barriers and hovering above US$63,000, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, Ethereum, surpassed the US$4,000 mark for the first time since May 14 and briefly surged past its previous all-time high, reaching US$4,360.

The ETH rally started on October 20 by surging 5 percent, reaching the US$4,100 mark on the Binance exchange and at the time of writing, is up 47 percent over the past 30 days. Despite a correction following the new all-time high, ETH remains up over 12 percent over the past week.

The ETH bull run coincided with Bitcoin’s dramatic market boost of 30 percent in a month, breaking a record price of US$67,016 on October 20.

Additional data from Crypto Watch shows a 30-day correlation between Bitcoin and Ether of 0.82 – an 82 percent linear positive correlation between both cryptocurrencies. This means that as Bitcoin enters price discovery, ETH could follow and settle to even higher highs.

ETH and BTC Frontrunning Crypto Scene

Ether had a volatile rally throughout Q2 2021, bouncing back and forth from 3k to 2k. It was on August 4 that ETH reclaimed and held steady its 3k position, reaffirming its market dominance with the launch of DeFi protocols and NFT projects.

Several factors are driving the current ETH bull run, among them the massive popularity of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the emergence of new and innovative DeFi protocols, and the US’ first Bitcoin futures ETF.

The Bitcoin futures fund recorded astronomical trading volumes: around US$500k in just an hour after going live, and over $1 billion a day after. The institutional demand has been so high that the BTC ETF is on risk to breach a limit on the number of futures contracts it is permitted to hold on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, as per data compiled by Bloomberg.

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Australia Bitcoin Crypto News Cryptocurrencies Ethereum Scams

Alex Saunders Ordered to Pay $500,000 by Default for Unpaid Crypto Loans

Former influential cryptocurrency influencer Alex Saunders has been ordered by the Supreme Court of Victoria to pay upwards of A$500,000 to one of his followers after he failed to respond to a lawsuit as reported by Crypto News on August 11.

This is the first time in Australia that a follower has successfully sued a cryptocurrency influencer for losses incurred on an investment.

Alex Saunders. Source: twitter.com/NuggetsNewsAU

The Supreme Court of Victoria ruled on October 14 that Saunders has to pay back the funds, plus interest and legal fees, as a default ruling because the defence did not file a response within the 42-day deadline.

The default settlements of A$487,805 (including A$8,534 for interest) and A$4,156 for legal fees are to be paid to New Zealand investor Ziv Himmelfarb for the “crypto loans” he made to Saunders earlier this year.

The court statement of claim included a “long/short crypto fund” sent by Saunders via Facebook on February 17, 2021, leading to Himmelfarb sending over A$250,000 worth of bitcoin to subscribe for an interest in the crypto fund.

The court order also includes a section where Himmelfarb also sent Saunders around A$65,000 worth of USDC for a “DCB project”, for which Saunders was allegedly raising capital from his community.

Along with the crypto fund investment and the DCB project, Himmelfarb sent Saunders A$144,305 worth of ETH (Ethereum) coins in an “ETH coins loan”.

Unregistered Crypto Funds

The crypto fund and DCB projects in question were pursued in the lawsuit as being unregistered under section 601EB of the Act. As mentioned, this allows the investor to lay claim to a contract breach whereas the investment scheme has not been registered in Australia as required under the Corporations Act.

Bankruptcy Notice Issued

Following the application, the Australian Financial Security Authority has issued a bankruptcy notice, giving Saunders 21 days to pay, failing which Himmelfarb can file a creditor’s bankruptcy petition. Crypto News asked Himmelfarb if he had any comments and he said:

My only comment is that I hope I don’t have to go all the way through to bankruptcy, but I won’t hesitate to do that if Alex doesn’t pay.

Ziv Himmelfarb

Related News

Controversy on Twitter followed a story published and since removed by news.com.au regarding a former colleague of Saunders, Ben Simpson, who has been contacted by Crypto News with a list of questions regarding his business relationship with Saunders and involvement with any other projects.

Crypto News has also contacted Saunders to add comments for this story, but he has maintained his silence through all channels.

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Blockchain Crypto News DeFi Ethereum Gaming NFTs

DeFi Total Value Locked Has Exploded This Year, Up 10x Since January

The DeFi (decentralised finance) sector has been one of the hottest topics in the crypto community this year, mainly because of its fast-paced growth in a relatively short time. The TVL (Total Value Locked) across DeFi protocols is now at US$218 billion – a rise of over 850 percent from US$21.4 billion on January 1.

Ethereum Blockchain Takes the Lead with 69% Dominance in DeFi Market

DeFi TLV has exploded 10 times higher since the beginning of the year, surpassing the US$200 billion mark. According to data from DefiLlama, Ethereum is the blockchain that currently leads the market, with a TVL of US$151.15 billion.

Meanwhile, Curve – an exchange liquidity pool on Ethereum – is by far the largest TVL protocol with a dominance of 7.84 percent (7-day change) across various blockchains, including Avalanche, Polygon and Binance Smart Chain.

Source: DefiLlama

What’s Behind the Exponential Growth?

DeFi’s exponential growth can be attributed to numerous features and innovations within the sector. But there are two main drivers of the industry: the rise of blockchain video games with Play-2-Earn (P2E) mechanisms, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

P2E games have attracted numerous users across the globe, especially since the pandemic struck down economies worldwide and forced people to look for alternative means to make ends meet. Such was the case with Axie Infinity, a Pokemon-inspired, blockchain-based video game that allows users to play and earn SLP, the game’s native currency that can be traded for fiat money.

Axie hit a milestone by surpassing US$2 billion in trading volume by September, making it the first DApp to reach such a figure. There are other video-game DApps on other blockchains besides Ethereum, integrating P2E mechanisms and NFTs trading. Some of them are set to blow up in popularity in the future and take a slice of Ethereum’s dominance. One such example is Star Atlas, a metaverse real-time grand strategy game currently developing on the Solana blockchain.

NFTs Boosting the DeFi Market

NFTs are undoubtedly one of the hottest trends in the DeFi market, dragging artists, musicians and content creators across the globe to a digital ecosystem full of opportunities. Q3 saw a massive explosion for NFTs with a US$10 billion trading volume in August and September alone, inflating ETH’s price 20 percent amid a thriving NFT market.

DeFi is also taking off in Australia, which ranked 12th out of 154 nations to embrace and adopt DeFi and its numerous innovative DApps, most of them built on the Ethereum blockchain.

Some analysts even believe that NFTs and blockchain games will be future key foundations of the industry. Others like WallStreetBets (WSB) plan to “take over” traditional financial markets. As Crypto News Australia reported last month, the popular subreddit WSB has launched a DeFi protocol that allows trading of synthetic stocks backed by blockchain technology.

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Crypto Art Crypto News Ethereum NFTs Tokens

Glenfiddich to Release Rare, Expensive $18K Whisky as NFTs

Premium single-malt Scotch whisky brand Glenfiddich has partnered with new non-fungible token marketplace BlockBar to launch a series of 15 limited-edition NFTs, each worth a tidy US$18,000.

The tokens are offered through BlockBar’s NFT platform, which allows Glenfiddich to digitise and sell exclusive spirits products as NFTs directly to consumers for personal consumption, collecting or investment purposes.

Each token corresponds to a physical bottle of a 1973 Armagnac cask finish Single Malt Scotch Whisky sold by Glenfiddich. The purchaser of each NFT becomes the owner of the physical product represented by the token, which also takes the form of a digital receipt to verify the buyer’s ownership and the authenticity of the product.

Buyers can be assured their accounts won’t be compromised and their NFTs won’t be stolen as the tokens are protected by FireBlocks’ digital asset custody infrastructure and Chainalysis’s compliance technology.

Buyers Retain Resale or Transfer Options

Each buyer has the option to resell or transfer the NFT via the BlockBar platform or redeem it for the physical version. BlockBar is also responsible for storing the product and, on request, delivering it to thirstier buyers.

“Glenfiddich continues to push boundaries in whisky innovation and this mindset transcends to those we partner with,” commented Doug Bagley, chief commercial officer of William Grant & Sons,  Glenfiddich’s parent company.

We are proud to be the first luxury spirits brand to be available on BlockBar at the time of the launch. BlockBar brings a heightened level of authenticity to our brand via its proprietary NFT platform and creates an elite club of distinguished collectors with whom we’re excited to build long-term relationships.  

Doug Bagley, chief commercial officer, William Grant & Sons

The first series of Glenfiddich NFTs will launch October 19 on a first in, best dressed basis. Buyers can purchase them from BlockBar with Ethereum (ETH) or by credit card.

“BlockBar values transparency, authenticity and quality assurance, and Glenfiddich is the perfect partner to mark the launch of our mission to bridge the physical and digital worlds of luxury,” said BlockBar CEO Dov Falic. 

We’re proud to be providing the first direct-to-consumer, fully authenticated wine and spirits platform via an NFT marketplace. This is a momentous time for the crypto, NFT, and luxury wine and spirits communities, and we can’t wait to announce many more exclusive releases in future.

Dov Falic, CEO, BlockBar

NFT Space Continues to Show its Versatility

Not only does the Glenfiddich/BlockBar partnership herald the advent of the drinkable NFT, this month Norwegian chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen was awarded the world’s first NFT chess trophy after winning the Meltwater Champions Tour.

Not all has been rosy in the blooming NFT garden, however. Last month, when Time magazine announced a new collection of NFTs offering “unlimited access” to its website throughout 2023, all 4,676 tokens tied to the digital artworks sold out in minutes. The sale rush clogged the Ethereum blockchain, sending gas fees through the roof – so much so that buyers spent almost four times as much on transaction fees as they did on the NFTs themselves.

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New Visa NFT Program Aims To ‘Help Creators Reach New Audiences’

Financial services giant Visa has partnered with former major league baseballer Micah Johnson to launch an initiative to help digital creators learn about using non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and cryptocurrencies, the company announced in a media statement.

In August, Visa sprang across the NFT board by purchasing a CryptoPunks NFT avatar for US$150,000 worth of Ethereum. The company now aims to bring more NFT awareness to a larger audience, in a new initiative it has launched jointly with Johnson.  

Bringing Blockchain to a Wider Audience

Johnson, a former MLB player turned crypto artist and creator of the NFT series character Aku, has launched along with Visa a program aiming to assist digital creators and small-business owners to better understand how NFTs work, and how blockchain can be used to create and mint digital art.

The initiative will select a group of creators, sponsor them and consult with them on NFTs and using blockchain to enter the digital art scene.

Johnson came onto the digital art scene in 2020 when he launched Aku, an animated astronaut character that became the first NFT to be optioned for a feature film.

Visa also aims to build connections between NFT creators and its current network of payment partners. Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa, explained that Visa will help participants “navigate both crypto and traditional payment infrastructure”:

Visa Aims to Operate as a Universal Payment Channel

The financial services powerhouse is very active in the blockchain and crypto space. Earlier this month, Visa announced plans for the development of a protocol to make cross-border payments with Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and stablecoins from any blockchain connected to its network.

Visa is developing the protocol to allow customers to send digital currencies between blockchains so as to operate as a “universal payment channel” (UPC). The payment channel will connect CBDC networks between countries and will link CBDCs with private stablecoins.

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Coinbase’s 43 Million Users Will Soon Be Able to Buy NFTs

US crypto exchange Coinbase has announced that it too will be joining the non-fungible token (NFT) game, with “Coinbase NFT” expected to launch by the end of this year.

Coinbase’s NFT marketplace will allow its 43 million users to buy and sell Ethereum-based collectibles, the company announced on October 12. Coinbase currently relies on its exchange fees but is now branching out into other revenue streams.

Today, we’re announcing Coinbase NFT, a peer-to-peer marketplace that will make minting, purchasing, showcasing and discovering NFTs easier than ever. Just as Coinbase helped millions of people access Bitcoin for the first time in an easy and trusted way, we want to do the same for NFTs.

Coinbase announcement

Coinbase Cashes In On NFT Madness

NFTs have certainly been the talk of the crypto-town in recent months, with transaction volumes topping US$10 billion in the third quarter of 2021, and Coinbase has got on board.

Coinbase NFT will include “social features” and tap into the creator economy of people making money by posting content online. NFTs have become a great way to fairly compensate artists who have been negatively affected by the availability of digital media.

The crypto exchange’s newest release will provide direct competition for NFT marketplace OpenSea, currently home to the majority of Ethereum-based NFT trading.

Coinbase Making Strides in the Crypto World

News of an NFT marketplace may console Coinbase users who were left furious when the platform failed during the September 7 crypto crash. Soon after that unfortunate event, Coinbase announced that US workers could be paid in crypto via the platform.

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Crypto News Ethereum NFTs Sports

Magnus Carlsen Awarded NFT Trophy For Chess Tournament Win

Norwegian chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen has been awarded the world’s first non-fungible token (NFT) chess trophy after winning the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour (MCCT).

The tournament minted a couple of NFT trophies and collectibles to preserve the game’s most defining moments. Carlsen has praised the crypto ecosystem for its support of virtual chess tournaments and cited MCCT’s recent partnership with the FTX crypto exchange, which allowed professional chess players to compete for a prize of 2.1825 bitcoin (BTC), worth approximately US$81,079.

Identical Signed Trophy Sells For 6.88 ETH

Carlsen’s trophy is one of two identical NFTs minted on the Ethereum blockchain. Both were signed by the grandmaster and auctioned off to collectors at the new Chess Champs digital marketplace.

The second NFT trophy has already sold for 6.88 Ethereum (ETH), worth US$24,750 at the time of purchase.

At the presentation, Carlsen spoke of his appreciation for NFTs and cryptos in general:


NFTs help the chess community celebrate great moments and possibly also reward those that have already invested so much time in growing the game. With Chess Champs, this is just getting started and I look forward to seeing it evolve. 

Magnus Carlsen

Before the chess trophy was unveiled, MCCT director Arne Horvei said: “For the first time in the history of chess we are going to provide a trophy that is an NFT-only trophy and, as far as I know, there is no other competition with professionals that has ever done that.”

To have NFT trophies and copies with a real trophy is one thing but to have an NFT-only trophy, as far as I know, we are the only one to have done that.

MCCT director Arne Horvei

NFTs: Bridging the Gap Between Sports and Digital Entertainment

The NFT market is still exploding and there is no sign it will stop any time soon. Current NFT use is only in buying and hoping the value increases, but a company called SynFutures is now allowing investors to short the booming industry.

Sports fans and collectors alike are loving NFTs. In Australia, and all over the globe, people are going crazy over sports NFT trading cards. The NFT market is taking full advantage of fans’ and collectors’ love of the industry, with many now offering sports trading cards that capture famous sporting moments as NFTs.