Crypto and Tax in 2021: Be Ready to Pay More
As some may be aware, there are only two things certain in life, death and taxes, and while crypto was initially able to avoid tax (to varying degrees), it would seem that the taxman is finally catching up with the industry. The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) introduced a new tax form at the end of 2020 that requires taxpayers to declare whether they’ve acquired or sold crypto in the past tax year, while 2020 also saw the UK’s HMRC begin developing a system to monitor the dealings of crypto traders.
According to a variety of tax experts working within crypto, 2021 will bring an even greater raft of new tax-reporting measures for the industry.
Paying taxes on crypto gains
Niklas Schmidt, a lawyer and tax adviser with the Austria-based Wolf Theiss, predicts that while most tax authorities worldwide continue to lag behind crypto, 2021 will see this situation change significantly.
“The most important crypto-related tax news that we can expect in 2021 is the extension of CRS to crypto exchanges,” he told.
CRS stands for Common Reporting Standard and is a system introduced by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to combat tax evasion through the usage of offshore bank accounts.
In other words, crypto exchanges are likely to be required to report on their customers’ gains to their customers’ local tax authorities.
“Basically, if an investor opens a bank account in say Switzerland or Panama, the bank will ask the investor for proof of residency and in particular for his taxpayer identification number. Then, on a yearly basis, the bank will report the amount of interest, dividends, etc. earned by the investor as well as the total holdings to its local tax authority, which in turn will automatically transmit this information to the tax authority of the home country of the investor (which can then check whether the investor filed a correct tax return),” he said.
Schmidt added that the EU began a consultation to extend CRS to crypto exchanges at the end of 2020, while the OECD itself has announced that it will formulate a version of CRS for crypto-assets in 2021.
“If agreement on this were reached (which I believe will happen), then crypto traders using centralized exchanges will have to be aware that their tax office will learn about their crypto holdings. It will no longer be possible to do trades on foreign exchanges and thereby hope that the tax authorities will not learn about these activities,” he said.
United States: "Yes" or "No"
One holdout from CRS is the United States, which presumably feels no obligation to report to its ‘friends’ and ‘allies’ on the activities of customers of American businesses. However, it will nonetheless spend much of 2021 ramping up its efforts to track its own citizens’ dealing with crypto, so that it can ultimately spend more money on bombing other nations.
As reported, the IRS made it a lot harder to pretend you don’t have bitcoin (BTC) or other cryptoassets hidden away somewhere. They altered the standard 1040 form by putting this question on the front page: At any time during 2020, did you sell, receive, send, exchange or otherwise acquire any financial interest in any virtual currency? The taxpayer must check the box "Yes" or "No."
At the same time, the expanding requirements of the IRS might be complemented by recent initiatives from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), which recently drew the ire of much of the crypto industry by proposing a new reporting rule for transactions above a certain threshold.
“The new regulations would require banks, cryptocurrency exchanges, money service businesses and some other institutions (financial institutions) to obtain and report the identities of parties engaging in cryptocurrency transactions, including payments involving ‘unhosted wallets,’ if the transaction exceeds USD 3,000,” said international tax lawyer Selva Ozelli.
As some may be aware, there are only two things certain in life, death and taxes, and while crypto was initially able to avoid tax (to varying degrees), it would seem that the taxman is finally catching up with the industry. The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) introduced a new tax form at the end of 2020 that requires taxpayers to declare whether they’ve acquired or sold crypto in the past tax year, while 2020 also saw the UK’s HMRC begin developing a system to monitor the dealings of crypto traders.
According to a variety of tax experts working within crypto, 2021 will bring an even greater raft of new tax-reporting measures for the industry.
Paying taxes on crypto gains
Niklas Schmidt, a lawyer and tax adviser with the Austria-based Wolf Theiss, predicts that while most tax authorities worldwide continue to lag behind crypto, 2021 will see this situation change significantly.
“The most important crypto-related tax news that we can expect in 2021 is the extension of CRS to crypto exchanges,” he told.
CRS stands for Common Reporting Standard and is a system introduced by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to combat tax evasion through the usage of offshore bank accounts.
In other words, crypto exchanges are likely to be required to report on their customers’ gains to their customers’ local tax authorities.
“Basically, if an investor opens a bank account in say Switzerland or Panama, the bank will ask the investor for proof of residency and in particular for his taxpayer identification number. Then, on a yearly basis, the bank will report the amount of interest, dividends, etc. earned by the investor as well as the total holdings to its local tax authority, which in turn will automatically transmit this information to the tax authority of the home country of the investor (which can then check whether the investor filed a correct tax return),” he said.
Schmidt added that the EU began a consultation to extend CRS to crypto exchanges at the end of 2020, while the OECD itself has announced that it will formulate a version of CRS for crypto-assets in 2021.
“If agreement on this were reached (which I believe will happen), then crypto traders using centralized exchanges will have to be aware that their tax office will learn about their crypto holdings. It will no longer be possible to do trades on foreign exchanges and thereby hope that the tax authorities will not learn about these activities,” he said.
United States: "Yes" or "No"
One holdout from CRS is the United States, which presumably feels no obligation to report to its ‘friends’ and ‘allies’ on the activities of customers of American businesses. However, it will nonetheless spend much of 2021 ramping up its efforts to track its own citizens’ dealing with crypto, so that it can ultimately spend more money on bombing other nations.
As reported, the IRS made it a lot harder to pretend you don’t have bitcoin (BTC) or other cryptoassets hidden away somewhere. They altered the standard 1040 form by putting this question on the front page: At any time during 2020, did you sell, receive, send, exchange or otherwise acquire any financial interest in any virtual currency? The taxpayer must check the box "Yes" or "No."
At the same time, the expanding requirements of the IRS might be complemented by recent initiatives from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), which recently drew the ire of much of the crypto industry by proposing a new reporting rule for transactions above a certain threshold.
“The new regulations would require banks, cryptocurrency exchanges, money service businesses and some other institutions (financial institutions) to obtain and report the identities of parties engaging in cryptocurrency transactions, including payments involving ‘unhosted wallets,’ if the transaction exceeds USD 3,000,” said international tax lawyer Selva Ozelli.
COVID-19 Pandemic Accelerated Rollouts Of 'Game-Changing' CBDCs
Hastened by the pandemic, central bank digital currency (CBDC) initiatives will roll out in the next couple of years, becoming a "game-changer".
It’s the COVID-19 pandemic which we have to thank for “greatly accelerating the push for digital currencies to replace traditional cash and cross border transaction systems,” said Brian Gallagher, Head of Business Development at blockchain platform Partisia Blockchain. Besides the Chinese-state sponsored digital yuan, we’ve also seen discussions of a digital euro, digital dollar, digital yen, digital ruble, as well as a Saudi and UAE state-sponsored cryptocurrency for cross border trade between the two countries.
“These types of systems will roll out within the next 1-2 years. Before the pandemic, that timeline may have been closer to 3-5 years,” Gallagher said.
The first version of CBDCs may start seeing the light this year, according to Philippe Bekhazi, CEO of stablecoin platform Stablehouse. He said that “government-led CBDC initiatives will begin to materialize as we get further into 2021.”
Monica Singer, the South African Lead for major Ethereum-focused blockchain company Consensys, stated that it will be a “game-changer” when Central Banks introduce CBDCs. “Imagine a world when anyone could have their own e-Wallet … that can hold CBDCs which can be interchangeable with any other coins,” she said.
Singer added that she is “totally passionate” about using this technology to include the unbanked – those who’ve never had the chance to have a bank account or to own any asset to increase their wealth - of which the estimate is 1.7bn people.
“It is an amazing opportunity to give the unbanked the chance to benefit from financial products from not only currencies like stablecoins and CBDCs,” she concluded, “but also tokenized assets that they will be able to acquire in real-time, as these tokens of real-world assets will be readily available and fractional ownership will become the norm.”
Furthermore, with greater emphasis placed on digital payments among the general population, governments worldwide started to explore the use of CBDCs to reach the wider public amid lockdowns for stimulus plans, said Amrit Kumar, President and Chief Scientific Officer at blockchain platform Zilliqa (ZIL).
For instance, there’s Project Helvetia - an experiment between the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub Swiss Centre, the Swiss National Bank (SNB), and the financial market infrastructure operator SIX - which already trialed the technological and legal feasibility of transferring digital assets. This is just “a recent example that reflects the promise of the large-scale use of digital assets," Kumar said, and added,
“As a whole, the emphasis on digitalization seen in the past year across multiple aspects of society can only bode well for the future, largely setting the foundations for the widespread use of crypto assets for everyday transactions.”
However, it’s also the fast development of the Chinese digital yuan itself that hastened the discussion and ‘production’ of CBDC’s globally.
“2020 saw growing traction around the use of CBDCs, with the launch of China’s digital yuan further prompting central banks across the globe to accelerate their digital currency initiatives,” said Kumar.
As an example, he gave Singapore, which has been exploring the use of wholesale CBDCs, with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) finding that the time may have come “to take this from experiment to production. The case for CBDCs is strong, particularly in a time of economic turbulence,” Kumar concluded.
Hastened by the pandemic, central bank digital currency (CBDC) initiatives will roll out in the next couple of years, becoming a "game-changer".
It’s the COVID-19 pandemic which we have to thank for “greatly accelerating the push for digital currencies to replace traditional cash and cross border transaction systems,” said Brian Gallagher, Head of Business Development at blockchain platform Partisia Blockchain. Besides the Chinese-state sponsored digital yuan, we’ve also seen discussions of a digital euro, digital dollar, digital yen, digital ruble, as well as a Saudi and UAE state-sponsored cryptocurrency for cross border trade between the two countries.
“These types of systems will roll out within the next 1-2 years. Before the pandemic, that timeline may have been closer to 3-5 years,” Gallagher said.
The first version of CBDCs may start seeing the light this year, according to Philippe Bekhazi, CEO of stablecoin platform Stablehouse. He said that “government-led CBDC initiatives will begin to materialize as we get further into 2021.”
Monica Singer, the South African Lead for major Ethereum-focused blockchain company Consensys, stated that it will be a “game-changer” when Central Banks introduce CBDCs. “Imagine a world when anyone could have their own e-Wallet … that can hold CBDCs which can be interchangeable with any other coins,” she said.
Singer added that she is “totally passionate” about using this technology to include the unbanked – those who’ve never had the chance to have a bank account or to own any asset to increase their wealth - of which the estimate is 1.7bn people.
“It is an amazing opportunity to give the unbanked the chance to benefit from financial products from not only currencies like stablecoins and CBDCs,” she concluded, “but also tokenized assets that they will be able to acquire in real-time, as these tokens of real-world assets will be readily available and fractional ownership will become the norm.”
Furthermore, with greater emphasis placed on digital payments among the general population, governments worldwide started to explore the use of CBDCs to reach the wider public amid lockdowns for stimulus plans, said Amrit Kumar, President and Chief Scientific Officer at blockchain platform Zilliqa (ZIL).
For instance, there’s Project Helvetia - an experiment between the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub Swiss Centre, the Swiss National Bank (SNB), and the financial market infrastructure operator SIX - which already trialed the technological and legal feasibility of transferring digital assets. This is just “a recent example that reflects the promise of the large-scale use of digital assets," Kumar said, and added,
“As a whole, the emphasis on digitalization seen in the past year across multiple aspects of society can only bode well for the future, largely setting the foundations for the widespread use of crypto assets for everyday transactions.”
However, it’s also the fast development of the Chinese digital yuan itself that hastened the discussion and ‘production’ of CBDC’s globally.
“2020 saw growing traction around the use of CBDCs, with the launch of China’s digital yuan further prompting central banks across the globe to accelerate their digital currency initiatives,” said Kumar.
As an example, he gave Singapore, which has been exploring the use of wholesale CBDCs, with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) finding that the time may have come “to take this from experiment to production. The case for CBDCs is strong, particularly in a time of economic turbulence,” Kumar concluded.
Visa Wants to Work with Exchanges, Wallets on ‘Digital Gold’ Bitcoin
By Tim Alper
January 29, 2021
Visa Wants to Work with Exchanges, Wallets on ‘Digital Gold’ Bitcoin 101
Alfred Kelly. Source: a video screenshot, Youtube, Business Live ME
The CEO of payments giant Visa has stated that the firm wants to “work with wallets and exchanges” on handling crypto, in order to make its own card solutions interoperable with digital tokens – and has called bitcoin (BTC) and other “cryptocurrencies” “digital gold.”
The remarks were made by Visa supremo Alfred Kelly in a earnings call yesterday. During his talk, Kelly spent a significant amount of time discussing crypto. After differentiating a divide between “cryptocurrencies that represent new assets such as bitcoin” and “digital currencies and stablecoins” backed by fiat holdings, he stated,
“We see all cryptocurrencies as digital gold. They are predominantly held as assets that are not used as a form of payment in a significant way at this point. Our strategy here is to work with wallets and exchanges to enable users to purchase these currencies using their Visa credentials or to cash out onto our Visa credential to make fiat purchases.”
The Visa chief appeared to be keen to leave the door open for all crypto projects that show promise, pledging that should “a specific digital currency become a recognized means of exchange, there’s no reason why we cannot add it to our network, which already supports over 160 currencies.”
And Kelly appeared ready to court the custom of stablecoin issuers – as well as digital currency-issuing central banks. He said,
“For ... stablecoins and central bank digital currencies, these are an emerging payments innovation that could have the potential to be used for global commerce, much like any other fiat currency. We think of digital currencies running on public blockchains as additional networks … we see them as part of our network of networks strategy. … We are the clear leader in this space.”
Kelly was also keen to point out that it already has 35 partnership deals in place with what he termed “leading digital currency platforms and wallets,” with name-checks for Crypto, BlockFi, Fold and BitPanda, and was eager to add,
“The next leading network has a fraction of that.”
BTC trades at US 32,677 (08:46 UTC) and is up by 4.6% in a day and 5% in a week. It jumped by 19% in a month and 250% in a year.
By Tim Alper
January 29, 2021
Visa Wants to Work with Exchanges, Wallets on ‘Digital Gold’ Bitcoin 101
Alfred Kelly. Source: a video screenshot, Youtube, Business Live ME
The CEO of payments giant Visa has stated that the firm wants to “work with wallets and exchanges” on handling crypto, in order to make its own card solutions interoperable with digital tokens – and has called bitcoin (BTC) and other “cryptocurrencies” “digital gold.”
The remarks were made by Visa supremo Alfred Kelly in a earnings call yesterday. During his talk, Kelly spent a significant amount of time discussing crypto. After differentiating a divide between “cryptocurrencies that represent new assets such as bitcoin” and “digital currencies and stablecoins” backed by fiat holdings, he stated,
“We see all cryptocurrencies as digital gold. They are predominantly held as assets that are not used as a form of payment in a significant way at this point. Our strategy here is to work with wallets and exchanges to enable users to purchase these currencies using their Visa credentials or to cash out onto our Visa credential to make fiat purchases.”
The Visa chief appeared to be keen to leave the door open for all crypto projects that show promise, pledging that should “a specific digital currency become a recognized means of exchange, there’s no reason why we cannot add it to our network, which already supports over 160 currencies.”
And Kelly appeared ready to court the custom of stablecoin issuers – as well as digital currency-issuing central banks. He said,
“For ... stablecoins and central bank digital currencies, these are an emerging payments innovation that could have the potential to be used for global commerce, much like any other fiat currency. We think of digital currencies running on public blockchains as additional networks … we see them as part of our network of networks strategy. … We are the clear leader in this space.”
Kelly was also keen to point out that it already has 35 partnership deals in place with what he termed “leading digital currency platforms and wallets,” with name-checks for Crypto, BlockFi, Fold and BitPanda, and was eager to add,
“The next leading network has a fraction of that.”
BTC trades at US 32,677 (08:46 UTC) and is up by 4.6% in a day and 5% in a week. It jumped by 19% in a month and 250% in a year.
Binance Pay Launched 'Softly' and Binance Card 'Going Strong' - CEO
Major crypto exchange Binance has "softly, quietly launched Binance Pay" last Friday, currently in beta, said the CEO, discussing several other developing projects as well.
While it's relative hidden now, "if you can find the product, you can try it," joked CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao during the virtual Binance Blockchain Week, referring to the quiet launch of Binance Pay.
This is a basket product that the Binance plans to spend "a lot of effort on" this year, said CZ. While there is no announcement, the website's support section states that "Binance Pay is a contactless, borderless and secure cryptocurrency payment technology which allows you to pay and get paid in crypto from your friends and family worldwide."
It currently supports six currencies: binance coin (BNB), binance USD (BUSD), bitcoin (BTC), ethereum (ETH), swipe (SXP), and one fiat, EUR.
"We think that payments is one of the most obvious use cases for crypto," CZ said. However, it's much easier for merchants to accept cash and credit which people commonly use every day than currencies which the large majority of their customers do not use. "This way their business doesn't have to fluctuate with crypto," said CZ.
Meanwhile, users pay in crypto directly, allowing them "to stay completely in crypto," he argued.
Per the website, users can receive or pay up to USD 10,000 (equivalent) or 10 transactions in 24 hours, while funds received in Binance Pay will only be available for transfer to other wallets after 24 hours.
Binance Card, which works on the same 'user pays crypto, merchant receives fiat' premise, is one of the projects in Binance Pay, the CEO stated, while they launched an app-to-app payment prototype as well.
"Binance Card is still going really strong," he said, without providing numbers. Active Binance Card users are "growing really, really quickly ... at double-digit rates." While all European customers can sign up for the card now, more markets are "launching very soon."
The second to last update the CEO mentioned is that Binance launched the easy-to-use Lite mode in their app a while ago, geared towards new users "who may not be super-active traders," CZ said, while users in the countries where it's available can toggle between the Lite and the Pro version.
Lastly, Binance announced the 18th project on Binance Launchpad - SafePal (SFP) - which they said will follow a new Launchpad subscription format, with the recording of user BNB balances starting on February 2. CZ said that the exchange is a minority investor in the project, as it was a Binance Labs incubation project two years ago.
The new subscription format allows holders to commit an amount of BNB towards a token sale, said the exchange, "where their final allocation of the new token is determined by the ratio of their committed BNB against the total committed BNB by all participating users." There is a max cap of token allocation per user.
Major crypto exchange Binance has "softly, quietly launched Binance Pay" last Friday, currently in beta, said the CEO, discussing several other developing projects as well.
While it's relative hidden now, "if you can find the product, you can try it," joked CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao during the virtual Binance Blockchain Week, referring to the quiet launch of Binance Pay.
This is a basket product that the Binance plans to spend "a lot of effort on" this year, said CZ. While there is no announcement, the website's support section states that "Binance Pay is a contactless, borderless and secure cryptocurrency payment technology which allows you to pay and get paid in crypto from your friends and family worldwide."
It currently supports six currencies: binance coin (BNB), binance USD (BUSD), bitcoin (BTC), ethereum (ETH), swipe (SXP), and one fiat, EUR.
"We think that payments is one of the most obvious use cases for crypto," CZ said. However, it's much easier for merchants to accept cash and credit which people commonly use every day than currencies which the large majority of their customers do not use. "This way their business doesn't have to fluctuate with crypto," said CZ.
Meanwhile, users pay in crypto directly, allowing them "to stay completely in crypto," he argued.
Per the website, users can receive or pay up to USD 10,000 (equivalent) or 10 transactions in 24 hours, while funds received in Binance Pay will only be available for transfer to other wallets after 24 hours.
Binance Card, which works on the same 'user pays crypto, merchant receives fiat' premise, is one of the projects in Binance Pay, the CEO stated, while they launched an app-to-app payment prototype as well.
"Binance Card is still going really strong," he said, without providing numbers. Active Binance Card users are "growing really, really quickly ... at double-digit rates." While all European customers can sign up for the card now, more markets are "launching very soon."
The second to last update the CEO mentioned is that Binance launched the easy-to-use Lite mode in their app a while ago, geared towards new users "who may not be super-active traders," CZ said, while users in the countries where it's available can toggle between the Lite and the Pro version.
Lastly, Binance announced the 18th project on Binance Launchpad - SafePal (SFP) - which they said will follow a new Launchpad subscription format, with the recording of user BNB balances starting on February 2. CZ said that the exchange is a minority investor in the project, as it was a Binance Labs incubation project two years ago.
The new subscription format allows holders to commit an amount of BNB towards a token sale, said the exchange, "where their final allocation of the new token is determined by the ratio of their committed BNB against the total committed BNB by all participating users." There is a max cap of token allocation per user.
Can't Beat Crypto Regulators? Educate Them
Crypto industry players urge each other to focus more on educating regulators to avoid overregulation and help authorities to foster financial innovation.
According to Dave Hodgson, Chief Investment Officer at NEM Group and Managing Director at NEM Ventures, “one primary obstacle that we are facing going into 2021 is regulations that remain inconsistent and often unclear across national boundaries.”
However, some major companies are working with regulators in order to help them shape a more friendly environment, hopefully, not only for themselves.
For example, the CEO of major crypto exchange Binance, Changpeng Zhao, hopes for more regulatory clarity this year and expects to see "more positive results" of their efforts of working with regulators and helping them make better tools to improve compliance.
“The natural evolution of financial markets requires that regulation must be imposed to protect those that don't really understand the risks,” argued Monica Singer, the South African Lead for Ethereum-focused major blockchain company ConsenSys. As the regulators understand the products and the risks, they will be able to issue regulations and taxes where it’s applicable, she said, adding that taxes will “have to be imposed,” given that any transaction in the production of income should contribute to the government finances – as is the definition of taxes.
Bo Oney, Chief of Compliance of Bitcoin ATM operator Coinsource, stressed that regulation “should be crafted to foster continued financial innovation, without damaging the value accrued by consumers or investors. He hopes to see “a closer negotiation between regulatory authorities and virtual assets service providers in the near future.”
Meanwhile, Matthew Gould, Unstoppable Domains founder and CEO, told that it seems like “there's going to be another attempt to over regulate crypto” this year, but that “hopefully the crypto industry can come together to educate lawmakers and ensure innovation isn't halted from overburdensome regulation on our young industry.”
"Industry leaders will have to be proactive in educating policymakers on the ins and outs of these technologies to ensure that the regulations introduced help the space continue growing," added Erick Pinos, Americas Ecosystem Lead at Ontology (ONT).
However, while regulators are still learning, the industry might see some old-fashioned attempts to regulate this nascent space that targets the foundations of the traditional financial system.
'A flurry of challenges'
Philippe Bekhazi, CEO of stablecoin platform Stablehouse estimates that "we will see a flurry of regulatory challenges in both the US and EU markets, particularly in relation to AML/KYC compliance.”
“Overly onerous regulations will choke the free markets, and prevent the self-reporting that has ultimately bolstered the likes of Tether. Market corrections already present a high enough barrier, and any additional hurdles will discourage competition in the free markets,” Bekhazi warned.
Meanwhile, Anthony Lauriola, Chief Operating Officer at blockchain portfolio company Dan Holdings, which is currently in the process of expanding its scope globally and working to refine its know-your-customer (KYC) requirements, estimated that enhanced regulation is likely coming, especially in the US, while more North American cities and local governments may adopt payment of taxes in crypto. Furthermore, the rest of the world will “actually take a more relaxed role to regulation which might foster more adoption in emerging markets for crypto than more established ones,” he said.
Crypto industry players urge each other to focus more on educating regulators to avoid overregulation and help authorities to foster financial innovation.
According to Dave Hodgson, Chief Investment Officer at NEM Group and Managing Director at NEM Ventures, “one primary obstacle that we are facing going into 2021 is regulations that remain inconsistent and often unclear across national boundaries.”
However, some major companies are working with regulators in order to help them shape a more friendly environment, hopefully, not only for themselves.
For example, the CEO of major crypto exchange Binance, Changpeng Zhao, hopes for more regulatory clarity this year and expects to see "more positive results" of their efforts of working with regulators and helping them make better tools to improve compliance.
“The natural evolution of financial markets requires that regulation must be imposed to protect those that don't really understand the risks,” argued Monica Singer, the South African Lead for Ethereum-focused major blockchain company ConsenSys. As the regulators understand the products and the risks, they will be able to issue regulations and taxes where it’s applicable, she said, adding that taxes will “have to be imposed,” given that any transaction in the production of income should contribute to the government finances – as is the definition of taxes.
Bo Oney, Chief of Compliance of Bitcoin ATM operator Coinsource, stressed that regulation “should be crafted to foster continued financial innovation, without damaging the value accrued by consumers or investors. He hopes to see “a closer negotiation between regulatory authorities and virtual assets service providers in the near future.”
Meanwhile, Matthew Gould, Unstoppable Domains founder and CEO, told that it seems like “there's going to be another attempt to over regulate crypto” this year, but that “hopefully the crypto industry can come together to educate lawmakers and ensure innovation isn't halted from overburdensome regulation on our young industry.”
"Industry leaders will have to be proactive in educating policymakers on the ins and outs of these technologies to ensure that the regulations introduced help the space continue growing," added Erick Pinos, Americas Ecosystem Lead at Ontology (ONT).
However, while regulators are still learning, the industry might see some old-fashioned attempts to regulate this nascent space that targets the foundations of the traditional financial system.
'A flurry of challenges'
Philippe Bekhazi, CEO of stablecoin platform Stablehouse estimates that "we will see a flurry of regulatory challenges in both the US and EU markets, particularly in relation to AML/KYC compliance.”
“Overly onerous regulations will choke the free markets, and prevent the self-reporting that has ultimately bolstered the likes of Tether. Market corrections already present a high enough barrier, and any additional hurdles will discourage competition in the free markets,” Bekhazi warned.
Meanwhile, Anthony Lauriola, Chief Operating Officer at blockchain portfolio company Dan Holdings, which is currently in the process of expanding its scope globally and working to refine its know-your-customer (KYC) requirements, estimated that enhanced regulation is likely coming, especially in the US, while more North American cities and local governments may adopt payment of taxes in crypto. Furthermore, the rest of the world will “actually take a more relaxed role to regulation which might foster more adoption in emerging markets for crypto than more established ones,” he said.
Crypto Traders Might Find Familiar Playbook In GameStop Hearing Today
The GameStop (GME) saga is set to take another twist as a trader prepares to tell the American House of Representatives that social media has allowed retail traders to leveling the playing field with their bitter Wall Street rivals, a strategy that is also coming good for thousands of crypto investors in the locked-down world of the coronavirus pandemic.
In a virtual hearing of the House’s Financial Committee entitled Game Stopped? Who Wins and Loses When Short Sellers, Social Media, and Retail Investors Collide, a number of the saga’s key players will make their voices heard, including Reddit’s CEO and co-founder Steve Huffman and the under-fire Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, whose firm is also suspected of hoarding a 28% share in the runaway dogecoin (DOGE) token.
Social media-related activities have also seen the prices of tokens like the meme-themed DOGE token skyrocket, as some investors attempt to turn the tides of volatility in their favor.
Wall Street managers have accused r/WallStreetBets, a Reddit community, or "subreddit," and others of what amounts to “market manipulation.”
Meltem Demirors, Chief Strategy Officer at CoinShares, appeared set to grab the popcorn in anticipation of the hearing, calling the testimony “truly, a fine work of performance art,” and tweeting,
“Tomorrow’s hearing is going to be a circus and I, for one, am going to be glued to my screen.”
So much of a circus, in fact, that it may end up becoming a scene in the forthcoming WallStreetBets-themed movie.
Indeed, prepared statements show little in the way of remorse, indicating that many of the key players are unbent going into the hearing – and still have Wall Street locked in their crosshairs.
Instigator-in-chief Roaring Kitty (real name Keith Gill) is also set to testify and in prepared testimony, he spoke out in defense of the trade, stating that the committee would be better off investigating Wall Street’s “potentially manipulative shorting practices.”
He also defended his own bullish and outspoken social media activities, claiming,
“The idea that I used social media to promote GameStop stock to unwitting investors is preposterous. Hedge funds and other Wall Street firms have teams of analysts working together to compile research and critique investment ideas, while individual investors have not had that advantage.”
Gill added,
“Social media platforms like YouTube, Twitter and WallStreetBets on Reddit are leveling the playing field. And in a year of quarantines and COVID, engaging with other investors on social media was a safe way to socialize. We had fun.”
Sounds similar to what hoards of crypto traders are doing every day, or more or less 24/7.
Huffman, meanwhile, jumped to his social media platform’s defense in his own testimony – and that of its users. The WallStreetBets subreddit has been one of the most active communities on Reddit for months, and was the epicenter of the unprecedented pump on GameStop shares – a move that shook Wall Street to the core.
The Reddit supremo opined that “it is important to protect online communities like WallStreetBets.”
He added,
“WallStreetBets may look sophomoric or chaotic from the outside, but the fact that we are here today means they’ve managed to raise important issues about fairness and opportunity in our financial system. I’m proud they used Reddit to do so.”
The subreddit has now over 9.1m members. It had less than 3m members at the end of January.
And other witnesses have already had their two cents on the matter prior to the hearing – which commences at midday in Washington DC (17:00 UTC).
Jennifer Schulp, the Director of Financial Regulation Studies at the Cato Institute, a public policy think tank based in the American capital, is also set to testify on the matter. And she indicated that it was far too late to attempt to put the genie back into the bottle – meaning that WallStreetBets may not be the last time retail investors make a social media-driven stock market move of the GameStop pump’s scale.
The GameStop (GME) saga is set to take another twist as a trader prepares to tell the American House of Representatives that social media has allowed retail traders to leveling the playing field with their bitter Wall Street rivals, a strategy that is also coming good for thousands of crypto investors in the locked-down world of the coronavirus pandemic.
In a virtual hearing of the House’s Financial Committee entitled Game Stopped? Who Wins and Loses When Short Sellers, Social Media, and Retail Investors Collide, a number of the saga’s key players will make their voices heard, including Reddit’s CEO and co-founder Steve Huffman and the under-fire Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, whose firm is also suspected of hoarding a 28% share in the runaway dogecoin (DOGE) token.
Social media-related activities have also seen the prices of tokens like the meme-themed DOGE token skyrocket, as some investors attempt to turn the tides of volatility in their favor.
Wall Street managers have accused r/WallStreetBets, a Reddit community, or "subreddit," and others of what amounts to “market manipulation.”
Meltem Demirors, Chief Strategy Officer at CoinShares, appeared set to grab the popcorn in anticipation of the hearing, calling the testimony “truly, a fine work of performance art,” and tweeting,
“Tomorrow’s hearing is going to be a circus and I, for one, am going to be glued to my screen.”
So much of a circus, in fact, that it may end up becoming a scene in the forthcoming WallStreetBets-themed movie.
Indeed, prepared statements show little in the way of remorse, indicating that many of the key players are unbent going into the hearing – and still have Wall Street locked in their crosshairs.
Instigator-in-chief Roaring Kitty (real name Keith Gill) is also set to testify and in prepared testimony, he spoke out in defense of the trade, stating that the committee would be better off investigating Wall Street’s “potentially manipulative shorting practices.”
He also defended his own bullish and outspoken social media activities, claiming,
“The idea that I used social media to promote GameStop stock to unwitting investors is preposterous. Hedge funds and other Wall Street firms have teams of analysts working together to compile research and critique investment ideas, while individual investors have not had that advantage.”
Gill added,
“Social media platforms like YouTube, Twitter and WallStreetBets on Reddit are leveling the playing field. And in a year of quarantines and COVID, engaging with other investors on social media was a safe way to socialize. We had fun.”
Sounds similar to what hoards of crypto traders are doing every day, or more or less 24/7.
Huffman, meanwhile, jumped to his social media platform’s defense in his own testimony – and that of its users. The WallStreetBets subreddit has been one of the most active communities on Reddit for months, and was the epicenter of the unprecedented pump on GameStop shares – a move that shook Wall Street to the core.
The Reddit supremo opined that “it is important to protect online communities like WallStreetBets.”
He added,
“WallStreetBets may look sophomoric or chaotic from the outside, but the fact that we are here today means they’ve managed to raise important issues about fairness and opportunity in our financial system. I’m proud they used Reddit to do so.”
The subreddit has now over 9.1m members. It had less than 3m members at the end of January.
And other witnesses have already had their two cents on the matter prior to the hearing – which commences at midday in Washington DC (17:00 UTC).
Jennifer Schulp, the Director of Financial Regulation Studies at the Cato Institute, a public policy think tank based in the American capital, is also set to testify on the matter. And she indicated that it was far too late to attempt to put the genie back into the bottle – meaning that WallStreetBets may not be the last time retail investors make a social media-driven stock market move of the GameStop pump’s scale.
Ethereum Hits USD 2,000, Outshined by Bitcoin
The two largest cryptoassets, bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH), are on their journey of discovering new all-time highs. (Updated on February 1, 06:13 UTC, with the latest market data and comments from Elon Musk.)
Despite its recent high fees-caused problems that helped competitors grow, ETH surpassed USD 2,000 today for the first time, while BTC, which is still a USD 1trn asset, rallied above USD 56,000.
On Sunday (06:08 UTC), ETH trades at USD 1,951, correcting lower from its new all-time high of USD 2,043. The price is down by 3.8% in a day, trimming its weekly gains to less than 8%.
High ETH fees are dampening the rally as DeFi users are migrating towards competing, more centralized chains such as Binance Smart Chain, while competitors are using every opportunity to criticize ETH.
ETH sent to the ETH 2.0 deposit contract, where it's being locked for many months, surpassed ETH 3m (USD 5.9bn).
Grayscale Ethereum Trust received ETH 222,958 (USD 435m) since its reopening in February.
Meanwhile, at the same time, BTC is trading at USD 56,789, after it hit USD 57,851 yesterday. The price is up by 1.5% in a day and 21% in a week.
The prices of the two largest cryptoassets corrected after Tesla's Elon Musk said that "BTC & ETH do seem high." However, both BTC and ETH have rebounded since then with bitcoin showing more strength.
However, in April 2020, Musk also said that "Tesla stock price is too high."
Since then, the price of one of the hottest stocks went up by 458%. In the same period of time, BTC rallied by 572%, while ETH skyrocketed by 892%.
"I was expecting [BTC] to touch [the USD 50,000] level so that the media could get some headlines and then pull back somewhat considering the relentless one-way move we've seen the past 90 days but it's so far holding up well above USD 50,000 so there is very solid demand holding it up. Still expect strength in the medium term but don't think it will be without some volatility in both directions," Jeffery Wang, Head of America’s at the Amber Group, said in an emailed comment.
Also, according to Philip Gradwell, Chief Economist at Chainalysis, low BTC inflows to exchanges and high trade intensity when the price is rising suggests that bitcoin available to buy is falling while demand is rising, which indicates prices should rise.
"However ... there may be an increase in trading off of exchanges, for example via Over The Counter (OTC) brokers. So exchanges may not be giving a full picture of market conditions," he wrote in his newsletter, adding that large investors appear to have reduced their holdings by BTC 192,000 in the week of 8 February.
"It feels to me that we are in a ‘wait and see’ moment," Gradwell said, noting that while large investors seem to be cautious now, this is being balanced by retail demand on exchanges, which often follows the momentum of the market.
However, one of the most bullish non-crypto companies, US-based software developer MicroStrategy, confirmed yesterday that they were able to borrow over USD 1bn "for free" in order to buy more BTC, showing how strong demand from large investors is.
"The trend is clear: we are in a phase where some people are getting hilariously rich. The last phase of this was late 2017, but the realized gain on exchanges then was half of what it is now. And the gains being made now are equal to half of all the gains that have ever been made," Gradwell concluded, adding that if all the bitcoin ever deposited on exchanges was bought immediately and then only sold when it was withdrawn, the profit from that trade so far would be USD 78bn.
The two largest cryptoassets, bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH), are on their journey of discovering new all-time highs. (Updated on February 1, 06:13 UTC, with the latest market data and comments from Elon Musk.)
Despite its recent high fees-caused problems that helped competitors grow, ETH surpassed USD 2,000 today for the first time, while BTC, which is still a USD 1trn asset, rallied above USD 56,000.
On Sunday (06:08 UTC), ETH trades at USD 1,951, correcting lower from its new all-time high of USD 2,043. The price is down by 3.8% in a day, trimming its weekly gains to less than 8%.
High ETH fees are dampening the rally as DeFi users are migrating towards competing, more centralized chains such as Binance Smart Chain, while competitors are using every opportunity to criticize ETH.
ETH sent to the ETH 2.0 deposit contract, where it's being locked for many months, surpassed ETH 3m (USD 5.9bn).
Grayscale Ethereum Trust received ETH 222,958 (USD 435m) since its reopening in February.
Meanwhile, at the same time, BTC is trading at USD 56,789, after it hit USD 57,851 yesterday. The price is up by 1.5% in a day and 21% in a week.
The prices of the two largest cryptoassets corrected after Tesla's Elon Musk said that "BTC & ETH do seem high." However, both BTC and ETH have rebounded since then with bitcoin showing more strength.
However, in April 2020, Musk also said that "Tesla stock price is too high."
Since then, the price of one of the hottest stocks went up by 458%. In the same period of time, BTC rallied by 572%, while ETH skyrocketed by 892%.
"I was expecting [BTC] to touch [the USD 50,000] level so that the media could get some headlines and then pull back somewhat considering the relentless one-way move we've seen the past 90 days but it's so far holding up well above USD 50,000 so there is very solid demand holding it up. Still expect strength in the medium term but don't think it will be without some volatility in both directions," Jeffery Wang, Head of America’s at the Amber Group, said in an emailed comment.
Also, according to Philip Gradwell, Chief Economist at Chainalysis, low BTC inflows to exchanges and high trade intensity when the price is rising suggests that bitcoin available to buy is falling while demand is rising, which indicates prices should rise.
"However ... there may be an increase in trading off of exchanges, for example via Over The Counter (OTC) brokers. So exchanges may not be giving a full picture of market conditions," he wrote in his newsletter, adding that large investors appear to have reduced their holdings by BTC 192,000 in the week of 8 February.
"It feels to me that we are in a ‘wait and see’ moment," Gradwell said, noting that while large investors seem to be cautious now, this is being balanced by retail demand on exchanges, which often follows the momentum of the market.
However, one of the most bullish non-crypto companies, US-based software developer MicroStrategy, confirmed yesterday that they were able to borrow over USD 1bn "for free" in order to buy more BTC, showing how strong demand from large investors is.
"The trend is clear: we are in a phase where some people are getting hilariously rich. The last phase of this was late 2017, but the realized gain on exchanges then was half of what it is now. And the gains being made now are equal to half of all the gains that have ever been made," Gradwell concluded, adding that if all the bitcoin ever deposited on exchanges was bought immediately and then only sold when it was withdrawn, the profit from that trade so far would be USD 78bn.
MIT, Jack Dorsey & More Pour Resources into Bitcoin Development Efforts
Forward-thinking innovators are looking for new ways to power Bitcoin (BTC) development, with one of the world’s biggest tech universities, IT CEOs and entrepreneurial pop stars all turning their attention to the betterment of the Bitcoin network.
In the latest development, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has waded in via its MIT Media Lab-run Digital Currency Initiative (DCI).
The DCI has announced that as part of its new Bitcoin Software and Security Effort project, it will embark on a “four-year research and development program” to “harden the Bitcoin network and steward the industry's commitment to funding open-source software.
The DCI stated that it would be working with “industry leaders” on its initiative, which will see its project group work on Bitcoin Core development by “attracting domain experts in network and operating system security, compilers, programming languages and more to join the effort.”
The MIT group stated that it had already raised USD 4m worth of funding to help its cause, and hoped to raise double this amount over the long-term, with contributions coming from a number of leading BTC proponents and industry players – such as Twitter and Square chief Jack Dorsey, Fidelity Digital Assets, CoinShares, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss of the Gemini group of crypto companies and perennial BTC bull Michael Saylor, the head of MicroStrategy and an MIT graduate.
The DCI project will see the collective “move from three to eight” senior Bitcoin developers and research professionals, bolster the system against software-based attack threats and inflation risks, as well as build up “long-term defenses against layer-1 Bitcoin Core bugs.”
Saylor, in typically pro-BTC mood, stated,
“Bitcoin is the most important innovation since the advent of the internet.”
But the MIT project is not the only big business-powered initiative aiming to shore up Bitcoin against future-related risks and network issues. Earlier this month, Dorsey and rap superstar Jay-Z announced that they would be stumping up BTC 500 (USD 23m) to the ₿trust, another Bitcoin development drive that will initially focus on bolstering teams in Africa and India.
Dorsey has also launched his own development initiative through Square’s Square Crypto unit, which is seeking to improve the Bitcoin user experience for ordinary participants.
Earlier this week, the Twitter boss splashed out a further BTC 1 contribution to the Brink initiative, a donation-funded Bitcoin network R&D drive, and a frequent recipient of Square Crypto funding. The Human Rights Foundation, Kraken and Gemini are also among supporters of the Brink drive.
Forward-thinking innovators are looking for new ways to power Bitcoin (BTC) development, with one of the world’s biggest tech universities, IT CEOs and entrepreneurial pop stars all turning their attention to the betterment of the Bitcoin network.
In the latest development, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has waded in via its MIT Media Lab-run Digital Currency Initiative (DCI).
The DCI has announced that as part of its new Bitcoin Software and Security Effort project, it will embark on a “four-year research and development program” to “harden the Bitcoin network and steward the industry's commitment to funding open-source software.
The DCI stated that it would be working with “industry leaders” on its initiative, which will see its project group work on Bitcoin Core development by “attracting domain experts in network and operating system security, compilers, programming languages and more to join the effort.”
The MIT group stated that it had already raised USD 4m worth of funding to help its cause, and hoped to raise double this amount over the long-term, with contributions coming from a number of leading BTC proponents and industry players – such as Twitter and Square chief Jack Dorsey, Fidelity Digital Assets, CoinShares, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss of the Gemini group of crypto companies and perennial BTC bull Michael Saylor, the head of MicroStrategy and an MIT graduate.
The DCI project will see the collective “move from three to eight” senior Bitcoin developers and research professionals, bolster the system against software-based attack threats and inflation risks, as well as build up “long-term defenses against layer-1 Bitcoin Core bugs.”
Saylor, in typically pro-BTC mood, stated,
“Bitcoin is the most important innovation since the advent of the internet.”
But the MIT project is not the only big business-powered initiative aiming to shore up Bitcoin against future-related risks and network issues. Earlier this month, Dorsey and rap superstar Jay-Z announced that they would be stumping up BTC 500 (USD 23m) to the ₿trust, another Bitcoin development drive that will initially focus on bolstering teams in Africa and India.
Dorsey has also launched his own development initiative through Square’s Square Crypto unit, which is seeking to improve the Bitcoin user experience for ordinary participants.
Earlier this week, the Twitter boss splashed out a further BTC 1 contribution to the Brink initiative, a donation-funded Bitcoin network R&D drive, and a frequent recipient of Square Crypto funding. The Human Rights Foundation, Kraken and Gemini are also among supporters of the Brink drive.
MoneyGram Slapped With Lawsuit Over Ripple, XRP Partnership
The money transfer firm MoneyGram is facing a class action lawsuit claiming that the company made false and/or misleading statements about its partnership with American blockchain company Ripple and the legal status of the XRP token.
Per a press release by Rosen Law Firm, the suit has already been filed, and on behalf of purchasers of the securities of MoneyGram between June 17, 2019 and February 22, 2021.
According to the lawsuit, in this period, defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that:
"XRP, the cryptocurrency that MoneyGram was utilizing as a part of its Ripple partnership, was viewed as an unregistered and therefore unlawful security by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC);
in the event that the SEC decided to enforce the securities laws against Ripple, MoneyGram would be likely to lose the lucrative stream of market development fees that was critical to its financial results throughout the Class Period;
as a result, defendants’ public statements were materially false and/or misleading at all relevant times. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages."
The law firm claims that those who purchased "MoneyGram securities during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement."
A lead plaintiff is yet to be chosen.
MoneyGram and Ripple became partners, after the latter made a USD 30m initial investment in MoneyGram equity in June 2019. However, Ripple found itself in a long battle with the SEC over XRP, as the regulator claims that XRP is an unregistered security, which Ripple disputes.
MoneyGram recently claimed that its support for Ripple stayed in place, but still announced that it would suspend the receipt of "market development fees." Alex Holmes, the MoneyGram CEO, said at the time that they are "definitely supportive of Ripple's efforts, but at the same time, we have to do what is right for the organization."
In 2020, MoneyGram received USD 38m in net market development fees from Ripple in 2020, representing about 15% of the company’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. The company said it also faced logistical challenges in using the platform, as well as legal and reputational risks, following the lawsuit against Ripple.
The money transfer firm MoneyGram is facing a class action lawsuit claiming that the company made false and/or misleading statements about its partnership with American blockchain company Ripple and the legal status of the XRP token.
Per a press release by Rosen Law Firm, the suit has already been filed, and on behalf of purchasers of the securities of MoneyGram between June 17, 2019 and February 22, 2021.
According to the lawsuit, in this period, defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that:
"XRP, the cryptocurrency that MoneyGram was utilizing as a part of its Ripple partnership, was viewed as an unregistered and therefore unlawful security by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC);
in the event that the SEC decided to enforce the securities laws against Ripple, MoneyGram would be likely to lose the lucrative stream of market development fees that was critical to its financial results throughout the Class Period;
as a result, defendants’ public statements were materially false and/or misleading at all relevant times. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages."
The law firm claims that those who purchased "MoneyGram securities during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement."
A lead plaintiff is yet to be chosen.
MoneyGram and Ripple became partners, after the latter made a USD 30m initial investment in MoneyGram equity in June 2019. However, Ripple found itself in a long battle with the SEC over XRP, as the regulator claims that XRP is an unregistered security, which Ripple disputes.
MoneyGram recently claimed that its support for Ripple stayed in place, but still announced that it would suspend the receipt of "market development fees." Alex Holmes, the MoneyGram CEO, said at the time that they are "definitely supportive of Ripple's efforts, but at the same time, we have to do what is right for the organization."
In 2020, MoneyGram received USD 38m in net market development fees from Ripple in 2020, representing about 15% of the company’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. The company said it also faced logistical challenges in using the platform, as well as legal and reputational risks, following the lawsuit against Ripple.
DeFi On Bitcoin To Grow In The Shadow Of Ethereum
Decentralized finance (DeFi) is big and getting bigger, having accounted for only USD 1bn in total value locked (TVL) in July 2020 and now accounting for around USD 40bn. However, while almost everyone tends to treat the sector as a single, rapidly growing bloc, it’s actually composed of a number of sub-sectors that are respectively growing at varying rates.
One of these sub-sectors is DeFi on Bitcoin (BTC). Featuring platforms and products built on the Bitcoin blockchain, it remains small compared to the Ethereum (ETH)-based DeFi ecosystem, yet it’s starting to gain more attention.
Industry players speaking estimate it will remain a niche area within the overall DeFi landscape, with BTC mostly being moved to Ethereum-based DeFi rather than the other way around.
According to DeFiPrime’s latest figures, the Bitcoin blockchain accounts for 26 — or approx. 10.5% — of the 248 DeFi projects or platforms it currently lists.
This seems like a fairly respectable (if modest) proportion, yet if you look at total value locked in, you begin to realise that DeFi on Bitcoin is pretty miniscule.
For Ethereum-based DeFi, the TVL is at around USD 40bn, the top ten platforms all enjoying at least USD 1bn in TVL (according to DeFi Pulse). If you look at some of the leading Bitcoin DeFi projects, you realize that DeFi on Bitcoin doesn’t really come close.
He added that the Lightning Network — which is also technically DeFi — has a TVL of around USD 55m, according to DeFi Pulse. As such, he concluded, “overall, the DeFi ecosystem in BTC is small at the moment.”
Even platforms within the Bitcoin DeFi sub-sector agree with this assessment.
“As far as I know, the DeFi ecosystem on Bitcoin is very limited, since Bitcoin is not a smart contract platform like Ethereum or Tezos. Decentralized exchanges (DEX) based on Atomic Swaps (such as Atomex) are the most common applications on this topic related with Bitcoin,” said Igor Matcak, Atomex’s co-founder and core developer.
Likewise, a contributor to decentralized exchange Bisq (who wishes to remain anonymous) also acknowledged that Bitcoin-based DeFi is small, even if he takes issue with the narrow definition of DeFi.
“I've heard Hodl Hodl a peer-to-peer BTC trading platform and another project called Sovryn do lending with Bitcoin, but I'm not sure either of these projects serve a substantial base of users at the moment. So maybe the space is in an earlier stage of development on the Bitcoin side,” he told
Decentralized finance (DeFi) is big and getting bigger, having accounted for only USD 1bn in total value locked (TVL) in July 2020 and now accounting for around USD 40bn. However, while almost everyone tends to treat the sector as a single, rapidly growing bloc, it’s actually composed of a number of sub-sectors that are respectively growing at varying rates.
One of these sub-sectors is DeFi on Bitcoin (BTC). Featuring platforms and products built on the Bitcoin blockchain, it remains small compared to the Ethereum (ETH)-based DeFi ecosystem, yet it’s starting to gain more attention.
Industry players speaking estimate it will remain a niche area within the overall DeFi landscape, with BTC mostly being moved to Ethereum-based DeFi rather than the other way around.
According to DeFiPrime’s latest figures, the Bitcoin blockchain accounts for 26 — or approx. 10.5% — of the 248 DeFi projects or platforms it currently lists.
This seems like a fairly respectable (if modest) proportion, yet if you look at total value locked in, you begin to realise that DeFi on Bitcoin is pretty miniscule.
For Ethereum-based DeFi, the TVL is at around USD 40bn, the top ten platforms all enjoying at least USD 1bn in TVL (according to DeFi Pulse). If you look at some of the leading Bitcoin DeFi projects, you realize that DeFi on Bitcoin doesn’t really come close.
He added that the Lightning Network — which is also technically DeFi — has a TVL of around USD 55m, according to DeFi Pulse. As such, he concluded, “overall, the DeFi ecosystem in BTC is small at the moment.”
Even platforms within the Bitcoin DeFi sub-sector agree with this assessment.
“As far as I know, the DeFi ecosystem on Bitcoin is very limited, since Bitcoin is not a smart contract platform like Ethereum or Tezos. Decentralized exchanges (DEX) based on Atomic Swaps (such as Atomex) are the most common applications on this topic related with Bitcoin,” said Igor Matcak, Atomex’s co-founder and core developer.
Likewise, a contributor to decentralized exchange Bisq (who wishes to remain anonymous) also acknowledged that Bitcoin-based DeFi is small, even if he takes issue with the narrow definition of DeFi.
“I've heard Hodl Hodl a peer-to-peer BTC trading platform and another project called Sovryn do lending with Bitcoin, but I'm not sure either of these projects serve a substantial base of users at the moment. So maybe the space is in an earlier stage of development on the Bitcoin side,” he told
Bitcoin, Ethereum Rally Despite Outflows From Grayscale's Trusts
The so-called Grayscale effect might be waning, as both bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH) are rallying while these two most popular cryptoassets are leaking from Grayscale's trusts.
In the past 7 days, BTC 211 (USD 11.4m) and ETH 781 (USD 1.4m) left the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and Grayscale Ethereum Trust (GETH), respectively. In the same period of time, the price of BTC jumped by almost 9%, while ETH rallied by 16%. Outflows of BTC 100 were seen several times in the second half of the past year.
Just two months ago, strategists at the major investment bank JPMorgan said that Grayscale trusts could be a determining factor in whether the cryptos' prices go up or down, as losses could be fuelled by the "trend-following investors" leaving the space.
In comparison, the highest recorded inflow in a single day was BTC 16,240 on January 18, and the highest outflows BTC 134.17 on December 28 last year and January 4 this year.
Meanwhile, ETH inflows surpassed BTC's after the GETH reopened in February. Since then, nearly ETH 245,410 entered it, today worth around USD 448m. In the same period, BTC 7,404.13 entered the GBTC, currently worth nearly 400m.
However, Grayscale BTC holdings are much larger, standing at BTC 655,430 (USD 34bn), while it has ETH 3.17m (USD 5.7bn).
Meanwhile, inflows into litecoin (LTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), and ethereum classic (ETC) have increased in the past week. In the market, LTC price is up by 13% in a week, BCH - 7.5%, while ETC increased by 9%.
As reported, Grayscale recently confirmed that they're looking into at least 23 different digital assets "for potential new product offerings."
While other trusts, such as Bitwise, BlockFi, Osprey Bitcoin Trust, and Canadian Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are emerging, the Grayscale trusts have so far been a dominant way for institutional investors to enter the cryptoverse.
The trusts are structured to hold the underlying crypto, while the value of each share is dependent on the amount of crypto under management. They also provide a familiar structure for accounting and taxation. However, there is no way to redeem the underlying crypto.
"The lack of redemption options plus high institutional demand has created an interesting side effect: crypto trusts are becoming large supply sinks that lock up cryptoassets and effectively take them out of circulation, reducing the overall liquid supply," crypto intelligence firm Coin Metrics noted recently.
BTC's free float supply is about 14.55m and the GBTC alone effectively removes an additional BTC 650,000 from circulating supply, per the firm's data.
The so-called Grayscale effect might be waning, as both bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH) are rallying while these two most popular cryptoassets are leaking from Grayscale's trusts.
In the past 7 days, BTC 211 (USD 11.4m) and ETH 781 (USD 1.4m) left the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and Grayscale Ethereum Trust (GETH), respectively. In the same period of time, the price of BTC jumped by almost 9%, while ETH rallied by 16%. Outflows of BTC 100 were seen several times in the second half of the past year.
Just two months ago, strategists at the major investment bank JPMorgan said that Grayscale trusts could be a determining factor in whether the cryptos' prices go up or down, as losses could be fuelled by the "trend-following investors" leaving the space.
In comparison, the highest recorded inflow in a single day was BTC 16,240 on January 18, and the highest outflows BTC 134.17 on December 28 last year and January 4 this year.
Meanwhile, ETH inflows surpassed BTC's after the GETH reopened in February. Since then, nearly ETH 245,410 entered it, today worth around USD 448m. In the same period, BTC 7,404.13 entered the GBTC, currently worth nearly 400m.
However, Grayscale BTC holdings are much larger, standing at BTC 655,430 (USD 34bn), while it has ETH 3.17m (USD 5.7bn).
Meanwhile, inflows into litecoin (LTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), and ethereum classic (ETC) have increased in the past week. In the market, LTC price is up by 13% in a week, BCH - 7.5%, while ETC increased by 9%.
As reported, Grayscale recently confirmed that they're looking into at least 23 different digital assets "for potential new product offerings."
While other trusts, such as Bitwise, BlockFi, Osprey Bitcoin Trust, and Canadian Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are emerging, the Grayscale trusts have so far been a dominant way for institutional investors to enter the cryptoverse.
The trusts are structured to hold the underlying crypto, while the value of each share is dependent on the amount of crypto under management. They also provide a familiar structure for accounting and taxation. However, there is no way to redeem the underlying crypto.
"The lack of redemption options plus high institutional demand has created an interesting side effect: crypto trusts are becoming large supply sinks that lock up cryptoassets and effectively take them out of circulation, reducing the overall liquid supply," crypto intelligence firm Coin Metrics noted recently.
BTC's free float supply is about 14.55m and the GBTC alone effectively removes an additional BTC 650,000 from circulating supply, per the firm's data.
A Year Since Big Market Crash: Bitcoin Up 1,370%, Ethereum - 1,740%
It has been a year since the infamous Black Thursday (USA time) / Black Friday (UTC time) - one of the "droppiest" events in Bitcoin (BTC)'s, Ethereum (ETH)'s, and altcoins' history. And the world's first crypto has come a long way since.
On the night (UTC time) from Thursday, March 12, to Friday, March 13, 2020, the crypto markets turned very bloody. The focus was on the number one crypto by market capitalization which had abruptly taken a steep dive - some 40%. It went from the USD 9,000 level to below USD 5,000, and at one point even below USD 4,000.
Numerous industry insiders, analysts, researchers, and many outside the industry - all gave their insights into what had happened, why it might have happened, and took to social networking sites, research papers, and blog posts to share what they expect to see next.
Nic Carter, Partner at venture capital firm Castle Island Ventures said this loss marked the second-biggest one-day loss in bitcoin’s history, while crypto analysis firm Glassnode revealed that more than half of all circulating bitcoin was held at a loss, for the first time in over a year.
Hot on the heels of this massive event, there was major selling in altcoins, including ethereum (ETH), XRP, and litecoin (LTC). And soon after, BTC safe-haven status was questioned.
Vijay Ayyar, head of business development at crypto exchange Luno, said at the time that “investors are moving out of any risky assets.” While BTC is compared to gold as a safe-haven asset, "it’s very under-penetrated and is considered more as a risky asset to hold at this point,” he added. Jonathan Leong, CEO of fintech BTSE, also argued that "it is difficult to consider bitcoin as a safe haven at this time," while crypto trader Alex Krüger said that bitcoin was trading like “the exact opposite” of a safe-haven.
Yet Ross Middleton, Chief Financial Officer at decentralized exchange DeversiFi, noted that BTC will show "its safe-haven credentials" longer-term, while Mike Novogratz argued that the crash set "the narrative of bitcoin as a store of value ... back 12 to 18 months," adding that "we’re going to have to get through this, and then we’re going to have to rebuild confidence."
It has been a year since the infamous Black Thursday (USA time) / Black Friday (UTC time) - one of the "droppiest" events in Bitcoin (BTC)'s, Ethereum (ETH)'s, and altcoins' history. And the world's first crypto has come a long way since.
On the night (UTC time) from Thursday, March 12, to Friday, March 13, 2020, the crypto markets turned very bloody. The focus was on the number one crypto by market capitalization which had abruptly taken a steep dive - some 40%. It went from the USD 9,000 level to below USD 5,000, and at one point even below USD 4,000.
Numerous industry insiders, analysts, researchers, and many outside the industry - all gave their insights into what had happened, why it might have happened, and took to social networking sites, research papers, and blog posts to share what they expect to see next.
Nic Carter, Partner at venture capital firm Castle Island Ventures said this loss marked the second-biggest one-day loss in bitcoin’s history, while crypto analysis firm Glassnode revealed that more than half of all circulating bitcoin was held at a loss, for the first time in over a year.
Hot on the heels of this massive event, there was major selling in altcoins, including ethereum (ETH), XRP, and litecoin (LTC). And soon after, BTC safe-haven status was questioned.
Vijay Ayyar, head of business development at crypto exchange Luno, said at the time that “investors are moving out of any risky assets.” While BTC is compared to gold as a safe-haven asset, "it’s very under-penetrated and is considered more as a risky asset to hold at this point,” he added. Jonathan Leong, CEO of fintech BTSE, also argued that "it is difficult to consider bitcoin as a safe haven at this time," while crypto trader Alex Krüger said that bitcoin was trading like “the exact opposite” of a safe-haven.
Yet Ross Middleton, Chief Financial Officer at decentralized exchange DeversiFi, noted that BTC will show "its safe-haven credentials" longer-term, while Mike Novogratz argued that the crash set "the narrative of bitcoin as a store of value ... back 12 to 18 months," adding that "we’re going to have to get through this, and then we’re going to have to rebuild confidence."
Warnings as Crypto, Digital Yuan Fraudsters Run Wild in China
Chinese media outlets are reporting a sharp rise in bogus crypto, blockchain and digital yuan-related schemes in the country, as bitcoin (BTC) prices rise and the rollout of the Chinese central bank digital currency (CBDC) approaches.
Per reports from JRJ and the National Business Daily, unsuspecting investors are laying down up to USD 60,000 at a time in fraudulent projects – only to discover that their money has been spirited away by con artists.
The media outlets say they have unearthed evidence that unscrupulous groups of individuals are targetting people all over the country with legitimate-looking offers that on closer examination are far too good to be true.
One example is the Blockchain Dragon Knight group (literal translation) which claims to provide professional crypto and fiat currency-related services, and claims investors stand to make gains of up to 600% on their initial stakes – an entirely bogus outfit, according to multiple Chinese outlets.
Another offender is the operator of a bogus tether (USDT)-related app. Daxinggan reported last week on the case of a woman surnamed Lee who was tricked into downloading the app and transferring “over USD 60,000” to buy what she believed were perpetual tether contracts – only to later discover that she had no way of retrieving her funds.
Other scammers are reportedly claiming to be affiliated with firms working with early-adopter digital yuan “funds” – a tactic that emerged earlier this year – as well as bona fide exchanges like Binance.
The trading platform – originally a China-based firm – now only operates blockchain-related activities in the country.
Anti-fraud officers in Wuhan also said they had received complaints from WeChat users of stock market trading chat rooms who said that fellow members had approached them about suspicious “digital currency” investment opportunities.
As recently reported, interest in BTC and major altcoins remains sky-high in the Middle Kingdom, despite a crypto crackdown that came into force in September 2017 – with many experts in Asia explaining that many Chinese individuals are continuing to transact crypto, using stablecoins like tether as a gateway token for BTC trading.
Exchanges are banned in China, once the hub of the crypto world. But blockchain technology is incentivized and digital pay is extremely popular, while over-the-counter (OTC) crypto trading is common.
Chinese media outlets are reporting a sharp rise in bogus crypto, blockchain and digital yuan-related schemes in the country, as bitcoin (BTC) prices rise and the rollout of the Chinese central bank digital currency (CBDC) approaches.
Per reports from JRJ and the National Business Daily, unsuspecting investors are laying down up to USD 60,000 at a time in fraudulent projects – only to discover that their money has been spirited away by con artists.
The media outlets say they have unearthed evidence that unscrupulous groups of individuals are targetting people all over the country with legitimate-looking offers that on closer examination are far too good to be true.
One example is the Blockchain Dragon Knight group (literal translation) which claims to provide professional crypto and fiat currency-related services, and claims investors stand to make gains of up to 600% on their initial stakes – an entirely bogus outfit, according to multiple Chinese outlets.
Another offender is the operator of a bogus tether (USDT)-related app. Daxinggan reported last week on the case of a woman surnamed Lee who was tricked into downloading the app and transferring “over USD 60,000” to buy what she believed were perpetual tether contracts – only to later discover that she had no way of retrieving her funds.
Other scammers are reportedly claiming to be affiliated with firms working with early-adopter digital yuan “funds” – a tactic that emerged earlier this year – as well as bona fide exchanges like Binance.
The trading platform – originally a China-based firm – now only operates blockchain-related activities in the country.
Anti-fraud officers in Wuhan also said they had received complaints from WeChat users of stock market trading chat rooms who said that fellow members had approached them about suspicious “digital currency” investment opportunities.
As recently reported, interest in BTC and major altcoins remains sky-high in the Middle Kingdom, despite a crypto crackdown that came into force in September 2017 – with many experts in Asia explaining that many Chinese individuals are continuing to transact crypto, using stablecoins like tether as a gateway token for BTC trading.
Exchanges are banned in China, once the hub of the crypto world. But blockchain technology is incentivized and digital pay is extremely popular, while over-the-counter (OTC) crypto trading is common.
Next 2-3 Years 'Should Be a Turning Point for Bitcoin' - Deutsche Bank
The next few years might prove crucial for bitcoin (BTC) that is "here to stay" but is not likely to be used as a means of payment, according to German multinational giant Deutsche Bank.
Bitcoin’s market capitalization of more than USD 1trn “makes it too important to ignore,” while large players who buy and sell BTC have “considerable” market-moving power, said the March 2021 report prepared by Deutsche Bank Research. The coin’s price could continue to rise as long as asset managers and companies continue to enter the market.
So in the short term, bitcoin “is here to stay,” though its value will remain volatile due to its limited tradability, small tactical asset allocations, and the entries and exits of large asset managers. However, according to the authors of the report, in the long term, BTC will have to “transform its potential into results to sustain its value proposition.”
“The next two or three years should be a turning point for Bitcoin; consensus about its future may emerge as people monitor digital currency developments,” the researchers said.
For now, according to them, bitcoin’s current valuation is pricing in a shift toward cross-border digital currencies and the hypothesis is that BTC, as the leader, will benefit from network effects and become an important means of payment in the future.
The researchers argued that "the race is fierce" for cryptos to become a mainstream means of payment – BTC is an illiquid asset rarely used as a means of payment, while yet to be launched Facebook-backed Diem is focused on consumer adoption and real usage of money, it said. Furthermore, many countries have moved to create their central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
Therefore, in the medium to long run, because of strong network effects, it’s unlikely cryptos will be used as a widespread means of payment, said the report, adding:
“And as long as governments and central banks exist and hold the power to regulate money, there will be little room for bitcoin—as a means of payment—to replace traditional currencies.”
However, US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, said, citing a recent report from the Bank for International Settlements and a group of seven central banks, that a CBDC "needs to coexist with cash and other types of money in a flexible and innovative payment system."
In general, due to its volatility, most merchants don’t want to accept cryptocurrencies as a payment method. Consumers might use providers to own/trade the asset – but mainly for investment, said the Deutsche Bank report.
It concluded that,
“But once we see some stability in the market, the use of crypto for the exchange of goods and services could normalize. Before that, the risks for both merchants and payment providers outweigh the benefits.”
The report also noted that since 2010, Bitcoin has been declared dead about 400 times, but the trend has been decreasing, and 2020 saw the fewest Bitcoin obituary predictions in 8 years.
And if governments were to back cryptocurrencies and consumers still want them, “adoption rates will drive the timeline for mainstream use.” Now we’re seeing the early days of blockchain wallet use, it said, but “if current trends continue, there could be 200 million blockchain wallet users in 2030.”
Among other conclusions, the bank said that:
There is little evidence of a direct correlation between the prices of bitcoin and gold, while the average daily volume and open interest of Bitcoin was only 1.9% and 2.8% of the volume and open interest of gold, respectively.
The USD currency index is usually inversely correlated with the BTC price, for unclear reasons, while it’s also unclear if the rise in yields is having a direct effect on the BTC price.
Given the small number of BTC transactions compared to those in fiat currencies, “bitcoin is comparable to the smallest currencies. Bitcoin’s liquidity is much closer to the Thai baht.”
The next few years might prove crucial for bitcoin (BTC) that is "here to stay" but is not likely to be used as a means of payment, according to German multinational giant Deutsche Bank.
Bitcoin’s market capitalization of more than USD 1trn “makes it too important to ignore,” while large players who buy and sell BTC have “considerable” market-moving power, said the March 2021 report prepared by Deutsche Bank Research. The coin’s price could continue to rise as long as asset managers and companies continue to enter the market.
So in the short term, bitcoin “is here to stay,” though its value will remain volatile due to its limited tradability, small tactical asset allocations, and the entries and exits of large asset managers. However, according to the authors of the report, in the long term, BTC will have to “transform its potential into results to sustain its value proposition.”
“The next two or three years should be a turning point for Bitcoin; consensus about its future may emerge as people monitor digital currency developments,” the researchers said.
For now, according to them, bitcoin’s current valuation is pricing in a shift toward cross-border digital currencies and the hypothesis is that BTC, as the leader, will benefit from network effects and become an important means of payment in the future.
The researchers argued that "the race is fierce" for cryptos to become a mainstream means of payment – BTC is an illiquid asset rarely used as a means of payment, while yet to be launched Facebook-backed Diem is focused on consumer adoption and real usage of money, it said. Furthermore, many countries have moved to create their central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
Therefore, in the medium to long run, because of strong network effects, it’s unlikely cryptos will be used as a widespread means of payment, said the report, adding:
“And as long as governments and central banks exist and hold the power to regulate money, there will be little room for bitcoin—as a means of payment—to replace traditional currencies.”
However, US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, said, citing a recent report from the Bank for International Settlements and a group of seven central banks, that a CBDC "needs to coexist with cash and other types of money in a flexible and innovative payment system."
In general, due to its volatility, most merchants don’t want to accept cryptocurrencies as a payment method. Consumers might use providers to own/trade the asset – but mainly for investment, said the Deutsche Bank report.
It concluded that,
“But once we see some stability in the market, the use of crypto for the exchange of goods and services could normalize. Before that, the risks for both merchants and payment providers outweigh the benefits.”
The report also noted that since 2010, Bitcoin has been declared dead about 400 times, but the trend has been decreasing, and 2020 saw the fewest Bitcoin obituary predictions in 8 years.
And if governments were to back cryptocurrencies and consumers still want them, “adoption rates will drive the timeline for mainstream use.” Now we’re seeing the early days of blockchain wallet use, it said, but “if current trends continue, there could be 200 million blockchain wallet users in 2030.”
Among other conclusions, the bank said that:
There is little evidence of a direct correlation between the prices of bitcoin and gold, while the average daily volume and open interest of Bitcoin was only 1.9% and 2.8% of the volume and open interest of gold, respectively.
The USD currency index is usually inversely correlated with the BTC price, for unclear reasons, while it’s also unclear if the rise in yields is having a direct effect on the BTC price.
Given the small number of BTC transactions compared to those in fiat currencies, “bitcoin is comparable to the smallest currencies. Bitcoin’s liquidity is much closer to the Thai baht.”
DeFi Sandwich Traders Get 'Salmonella'
A trader decided to try out an experiment in exploitation as a cautionary tale to all decentralized finance (DeFi) entrants, gaining more than ETH 100 (USD 168,560) in profits from sandwich trading contracts.
"Sandwich trading is a lot of fun, but it's not risk free," said Nathan Worsley, founder and Chief Technology Officer of non-custodial marketplace LocalCoinSwap, pointing to a writeup of his "recent alpha discovery: "Salmonella"."
Sandwich trading is a strategy by which somebody places a trade before - as well as after - a victim trade, so to exploit the resulting slippage, or the difference between the expected price of a trade and the price at which the trade is executed. "In layman's terms, you see that someone will buy an asset, so you buy it first to artificially inflate the price, before selling afterwards at a profit," said Worsley.
And there has been a shift recently, combined of two innovations that have made this strategy safer:
a rise in miner-extractable value (MEV) services such as FlashBots which allow traders to create “sandwich bundles”, where either all 3 transactions execute, or none of them does, so traders wouldn't be left with bags of worthless tokens,
and a rise in miner trading teams, who mine the sandwich bundles directly into their blocks.
However, per Worsley, "nothing is risk-free on the blockchain, and exploitative trading strategies such as sandwich trading and front-running actually increase in risk the more the engineer attempts to generalize their ability to capture opportunities."
Worsley decided to demonstrate "the risks of playing in the mempool," via a new trading alpha he dubbed “Salmonella” - whereby the generalized nature of front-running setups is intentionally exploited. He added,
"The goal of sandwich trading is to exploit the slippage of unintended victims, so this strategy turns the tables on the exploiters."
Ethereum mining pool Ethermine was chosen as the "initial target" as it was responsible for the bulk of sandwich trading, and Worsley then created his Salmonella contract - a regular ERC-20 token behaving normally in usual use cases, but having the ability to detect when traders other than the specified user is transacting it. At that point, it returns just 10% of the specified account, while showing event logs that match a trade of the full amount.
The creator then deployed his Salmonella contract, created a Uniswap pool with salmonella and ethereum, created a series of bait transactions looking like "juicy opportunities" to sandwich traders, and then enabled himself to swiftly cancel trades, change gas prices, and reset the trap Uniswap pool state.
Few hours later, says Worsley, he "scooped" more than ETH 68 from sandwich traders' "bots attempts to wreck my bait," followed by another ETH 35. But that wasn't all, as Worsley said that,
"I casually had a browse of my Salmonella smart contract, only to find I had emptied about 17 other Sandwich trading contracts in the course of my experiment, for much smaller values than Ethermine of course."
Worsley concluded that, while he continued the experiment for a couple of days, the traders eventually adjusted to detect the "poisonous tokens."
Meanwhile, some commenters argued if mining pools announcing that they are going to extract MEV from users is "miners revenge on the community for 1559."
Bitfly, the operator of Ethermine, announced last week ago that "in order to compensate the upcoming mining reward reduction caused by the adoption of EIP-1559 we have launched our MEV beta program."
Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559 is a much-awaited one, expected to bring the automatic setting of fees and token burn mechanism for each transaction. It is set to be included in the London network upgrade, estimated in July this year. But a group of miners has been strongly opposed to it, with some announcing "a show of force" for April 1.
A trader decided to try out an experiment in exploitation as a cautionary tale to all decentralized finance (DeFi) entrants, gaining more than ETH 100 (USD 168,560) in profits from sandwich trading contracts.
"Sandwich trading is a lot of fun, but it's not risk free," said Nathan Worsley, founder and Chief Technology Officer of non-custodial marketplace LocalCoinSwap, pointing to a writeup of his "recent alpha discovery: "Salmonella"."
Sandwich trading is a strategy by which somebody places a trade before - as well as after - a victim trade, so to exploit the resulting slippage, or the difference between the expected price of a trade and the price at which the trade is executed. "In layman's terms, you see that someone will buy an asset, so you buy it first to artificially inflate the price, before selling afterwards at a profit," said Worsley.
And there has been a shift recently, combined of two innovations that have made this strategy safer:
a rise in miner-extractable value (MEV) services such as FlashBots which allow traders to create “sandwich bundles”, where either all 3 transactions execute, or none of them does, so traders wouldn't be left with bags of worthless tokens,
and a rise in miner trading teams, who mine the sandwich bundles directly into their blocks.
However, per Worsley, "nothing is risk-free on the blockchain, and exploitative trading strategies such as sandwich trading and front-running actually increase in risk the more the engineer attempts to generalize their ability to capture opportunities."
Worsley decided to demonstrate "the risks of playing in the mempool," via a new trading alpha he dubbed “Salmonella” - whereby the generalized nature of front-running setups is intentionally exploited. He added,
"The goal of sandwich trading is to exploit the slippage of unintended victims, so this strategy turns the tables on the exploiters."
Ethereum mining pool Ethermine was chosen as the "initial target" as it was responsible for the bulk of sandwich trading, and Worsley then created his Salmonella contract - a regular ERC-20 token behaving normally in usual use cases, but having the ability to detect when traders other than the specified user is transacting it. At that point, it returns just 10% of the specified account, while showing event logs that match a trade of the full amount.
The creator then deployed his Salmonella contract, created a Uniswap pool with salmonella and ethereum, created a series of bait transactions looking like "juicy opportunities" to sandwich traders, and then enabled himself to swiftly cancel trades, change gas prices, and reset the trap Uniswap pool state.
Few hours later, says Worsley, he "scooped" more than ETH 68 from sandwich traders' "bots attempts to wreck my bait," followed by another ETH 35. But that wasn't all, as Worsley said that,
"I casually had a browse of my Salmonella smart contract, only to find I had emptied about 17 other Sandwich trading contracts in the course of my experiment, for much smaller values than Ethermine of course."
Worsley concluded that, while he continued the experiment for a couple of days, the traders eventually adjusted to detect the "poisonous tokens."
Meanwhile, some commenters argued if mining pools announcing that they are going to extract MEV from users is "miners revenge on the community for 1559."
Bitfly, the operator of Ethermine, announced last week ago that "in order to compensate the upcoming mining reward reduction caused by the adoption of EIP-1559 we have launched our MEV beta program."
Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559 is a much-awaited one, expected to bring the automatic setting of fees and token burn mechanism for each transaction. It is set to be included in the London network upgrade, estimated in July this year. But a group of miners has been strongly opposed to it, with some announcing "a show of force" for April 1.
DeFi - CeFi Convergence & 'Explosive' Growth Are Coming - BIS Summit Panel
Decentralized finance (DeFi) and centralized finance (CeFi) are heading towards convergence as we are entering a period of rapid development for DeFi applications worldwide, according to the participants of a panel discussion at this year’s BIS Innovation Summit, an event hosted by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).
The panel, entitled 'CeFi to DeFi: can global finance be de/re-constructed?', featured a mix of private and public sector participants who voiced their ideas and concerns related to how the opportunities and risks inherent to DeFi could transform the global financial landscape.
David Puth, CEO at Centre, the company that manages USD Coin (USDC), said that “the promise of what can happen in decentralized finance” is increasingly appreciated by the world of legacy finance.
The world is heading toward a “convergence” of centralized finance and DeFi, according to the CEO, who said “there’s an explosive period of growth ahead of us”.
Asked about the potential coexistence of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and stablecoins, Puth argued that, while “every central bank is going to move at its own pace accordingly,” he was confident that “stablecoins and CBDCs are going to be peacefully co-existing for an indefinite period of time.”
Joseph Lubin, Founder and CEO of blockchain company ConsenSys and Co-founder of Ethereum (ETH), stated that “the trust characteristic of blockchain comes from maximum decentralization” and “technologists and regulators have the same overarching goal: to build better systems that serve more people.”
“In these early stages of development of technology there are many sharp edges,” Lubin said, pointing to some of the areas which could be transformed through DeFi.
He further opined that microlending businesses could be built "more effectively" with the use of DeFi, but that it would take time, adding:
“Payments will be a massive innovation. Self-custody wallets already are an innovation. The way we trade tokens … is going to become more fair, in my opinion.”
Presenting a regulator’s point of view, Hester Peirce, Commissioner at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), noted that “regulators are used to dealing with a centralized counterparty to which we can go.”
“There are ways to deal with that risk. You can set up a system to mutualize losses in such a scenario in which you deal with DeFi entities," she argued. But another risk in her opinion is that people often don’t think about regulation until a problem arises, and "when there is a problem, they really need a regulator,” Peirce said.
While many things in DeFi are out of the SEC’s purview, some are building "things that mimic securities … and that would fall within our purview," said Peirce, admitting that the agency has been “slow to give guidance, so people did things that potentially implicated securities.”
Sheila Warren, Head of Blockchain and Data Policy and Member of the Executive Committee at the World Economic Forum (WEF), stated that she believed “DeFi promotes financial inclusion” but that “many people use that … for claiming inclusion when there really is not a lot of it”.
Barriers to DeFi’s further proliferation included lack of digital literacy and wealth in many parts of the world, paired with a lack of infrastructure and Internet access. These represented issues which DeFi itself could not solve, according to Warren.
Pointing to a “danger of regulatory fragmentation,” Warren said she would encourage international coordination of respective countries’ regulation of DeFi.
“We can create learning communities which can tell each other about where the pitfalls are,” Warren said.
For its part, the WEF was planning to release this spring a new paper, entitled DeFi beyond the hype paper, and a toolkit for DeFi users created in cooperation with the University of Pennsylvania, she said.
Decentralized finance (DeFi) and centralized finance (CeFi) are heading towards convergence as we are entering a period of rapid development for DeFi applications worldwide, according to the participants of a panel discussion at this year’s BIS Innovation Summit, an event hosted by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).
The panel, entitled 'CeFi to DeFi: can global finance be de/re-constructed?', featured a mix of private and public sector participants who voiced their ideas and concerns related to how the opportunities and risks inherent to DeFi could transform the global financial landscape.
David Puth, CEO at Centre, the company that manages USD Coin (USDC), said that “the promise of what can happen in decentralized finance” is increasingly appreciated by the world of legacy finance.
The world is heading toward a “convergence” of centralized finance and DeFi, according to the CEO, who said “there’s an explosive period of growth ahead of us”.
Asked about the potential coexistence of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and stablecoins, Puth argued that, while “every central bank is going to move at its own pace accordingly,” he was confident that “stablecoins and CBDCs are going to be peacefully co-existing for an indefinite period of time.”
Joseph Lubin, Founder and CEO of blockchain company ConsenSys and Co-founder of Ethereum (ETH), stated that “the trust characteristic of blockchain comes from maximum decentralization” and “technologists and regulators have the same overarching goal: to build better systems that serve more people.”
“In these early stages of development of technology there are many sharp edges,” Lubin said, pointing to some of the areas which could be transformed through DeFi.
He further opined that microlending businesses could be built "more effectively" with the use of DeFi, but that it would take time, adding:
“Payments will be a massive innovation. Self-custody wallets already are an innovation. The way we trade tokens … is going to become more fair, in my opinion.”
Presenting a regulator’s point of view, Hester Peirce, Commissioner at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), noted that “regulators are used to dealing with a centralized counterparty to which we can go.”
“There are ways to deal with that risk. You can set up a system to mutualize losses in such a scenario in which you deal with DeFi entities," she argued. But another risk in her opinion is that people often don’t think about regulation until a problem arises, and "when there is a problem, they really need a regulator,” Peirce said.
While many things in DeFi are out of the SEC’s purview, some are building "things that mimic securities … and that would fall within our purview," said Peirce, admitting that the agency has been “slow to give guidance, so people did things that potentially implicated securities.”
Sheila Warren, Head of Blockchain and Data Policy and Member of the Executive Committee at the World Economic Forum (WEF), stated that she believed “DeFi promotes financial inclusion” but that “many people use that … for claiming inclusion when there really is not a lot of it”.
Barriers to DeFi’s further proliferation included lack of digital literacy and wealth in many parts of the world, paired with a lack of infrastructure and Internet access. These represented issues which DeFi itself could not solve, according to Warren.
Pointing to a “danger of regulatory fragmentation,” Warren said she would encourage international coordination of respective countries’ regulation of DeFi.
“We can create learning communities which can tell each other about where the pitfalls are,” Warren said.
For its part, the WEF was planning to release this spring a new paper, entitled DeFi beyond the hype paper, and a toolkit for DeFi users created in cooperation with the University of Pennsylvania, she said.
Money Laundering Might Taint NFTs Too, Prepare For Tighter Controls
While non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are certainly the big thing in crypto at the moment, they aren’t without their problems. Aside from accusations of hype and faddishness, NFTs also raise the familiar and thorny issue of money laundering.
Without much in the way of quantitative proof, detractors have linked the burgeoning NFT market with money laundering, with some people describing them as the “best money laundering method in the cryptocurrency world.”
However, industry players speaking suggested that, while NFTs are open to money launderers, there’s currently nothing concrete to indicate that their use for laundering is significantly worse than it is in the traditional art world, or with other types of crypto. At the same time, they attest that the strict introduction of KYC/AML (know your customer / anti-money laundering) standards will help combat this emerging problem.
Given the young age of NFTs, there’s currently no hard data on their use for money laundering. Still, experts affirm that criminals are likely to turn to them sooner or later, if they haven’t already.
“I can only speculate how large it is today and how large it could become. Right now none of the major trading venues (such as OpenSea) seem to have KYC gathering or AML/CFT Combating the Financing of Terrorism screening for users so that could be exploited,” said Tim Swanson, the head of market intelligence for Clearmatics.
This suggests that the NFT world might be ripe for money laundering, but again, there’s nothing that currently shows just how ripe.
“I don't know of any nameable examples of anyone money laundering with NFTs. But I'd be amazed if nobody had tried,” said David Gerard, the author of Libra Shrugged and Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchains.
The main reason to assume this is that, as Gerard also pointed out, the traditional art world has long been notorious for money laundering.
“So I expect the same people will try the same tricks in this new field,” he added.
However, it’s extremely difficult gauging at this stage just how much of problem laundering will be with NFTs, as well as judging whether it will be more of a problem than it is with physical art.
“My only thought as to why one might assume NFTs have a greater proportion of money laundering is that I’d assert that the crypto marketplace ‘might’ have more scams than the physical art world. There’s a lot of scamming in physical art, through counterfeiting,” said Yaya J. Fanusie, an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), where he researches the national security implications of cryptoassets and blockchain.
Fanusie acknowledges that identifying the proportion of money laundering in the NFT sector is an “elusive task,” yet he personally suspects that the virtual nature of NFTs makes it more vulnerable than the traditional art world.
“But let’s be real — it’s probably easier to introduce digital-only scams than it is to physical scams. So, there’s likely a large percentage of ill-gotten, fraudulent funds in crypto, that scammers and illicit actors want to launder,” he told.
There are currently a myriad of ways a would-be money launderer can use art to hide the illicit sources of their ill-gotten money. And if nothing else, it seems that what the NFT world does is add a few more methods to the launderer’s repertoire.
“Savvy users attempting to launder typically attempt to obfuscate their tracks by going into and out of liquid coins or tokens through multiple different coin exchanges that have lax KYC gathering and AML/CFT screening,” said Tim Swanson, adding,
“NFTs are just another way of achieving the same goal, of breaking the provenance and walking away with ‘clean’ or screened coins.”
It seems that, given the relative lack of know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering checks in the NFT sector, laundering via NFTs may be as simple as buying and then selling a non-fungible token.
While non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are certainly the big thing in crypto at the moment, they aren’t without their problems. Aside from accusations of hype and faddishness, NFTs also raise the familiar and thorny issue of money laundering.
Without much in the way of quantitative proof, detractors have linked the burgeoning NFT market with money laundering, with some people describing them as the “best money laundering method in the cryptocurrency world.”
However, industry players speaking suggested that, while NFTs are open to money launderers, there’s currently nothing concrete to indicate that their use for laundering is significantly worse than it is in the traditional art world, or with other types of crypto. At the same time, they attest that the strict introduction of KYC/AML (know your customer / anti-money laundering) standards will help combat this emerging problem.
Given the young age of NFTs, there’s currently no hard data on their use for money laundering. Still, experts affirm that criminals are likely to turn to them sooner or later, if they haven’t already.
“I can only speculate how large it is today and how large it could become. Right now none of the major trading venues (such as OpenSea) seem to have KYC gathering or AML/CFT Combating the Financing of Terrorism screening for users so that could be exploited,” said Tim Swanson, the head of market intelligence for Clearmatics.
This suggests that the NFT world might be ripe for money laundering, but again, there’s nothing that currently shows just how ripe.
“I don't know of any nameable examples of anyone money laundering with NFTs. But I'd be amazed if nobody had tried,” said David Gerard, the author of Libra Shrugged and Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchains.
The main reason to assume this is that, as Gerard also pointed out, the traditional art world has long been notorious for money laundering.
“So I expect the same people will try the same tricks in this new field,” he added.
However, it’s extremely difficult gauging at this stage just how much of problem laundering will be with NFTs, as well as judging whether it will be more of a problem than it is with physical art.
“My only thought as to why one might assume NFTs have a greater proportion of money laundering is that I’d assert that the crypto marketplace ‘might’ have more scams than the physical art world. There’s a lot of scamming in physical art, through counterfeiting,” said Yaya J. Fanusie, an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), where he researches the national security implications of cryptoassets and blockchain.
Fanusie acknowledges that identifying the proportion of money laundering in the NFT sector is an “elusive task,” yet he personally suspects that the virtual nature of NFTs makes it more vulnerable than the traditional art world.
“But let’s be real — it’s probably easier to introduce digital-only scams than it is to physical scams. So, there’s likely a large percentage of ill-gotten, fraudulent funds in crypto, that scammers and illicit actors want to launder,” he told.
There are currently a myriad of ways a would-be money launderer can use art to hide the illicit sources of their ill-gotten money. And if nothing else, it seems that what the NFT world does is add a few more methods to the launderer’s repertoire.
“Savvy users attempting to launder typically attempt to obfuscate their tracks by going into and out of liquid coins or tokens through multiple different coin exchanges that have lax KYC gathering and AML/CFT screening,” said Tim Swanson, adding,
“NFTs are just another way of achieving the same goal, of breaking the provenance and walking away with ‘clean’ or screened coins.”
It seems that, given the relative lack of know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering checks in the NFT sector, laundering via NFTs may be as simple as buying and then selling a non-fungible token.
Visa Starts Settling Transactions in USD Coin On Ethereum
Payments giant Visa partnered with major crypto company Crypto in order to settle transactions in the second-largest steblecoin USD Coin (USDC) with Visa over Ethereum (ETH).
"Working with Anchorage, the first federally chartered digital asset bank and an exclusive Visa digital currency settlement partner, Visa has launched a pilot that allows Crypto to send USDC to Visa to settle a portion of its obligations for the Crypto Visa card program," the payments company said, adding that it plans to offer the USDC settlement capability to additional partners later this year.
Per the company, the ability to settle in USDC can help Crypto and other crypto native companies evaluate fundamentally new business models without the need for traditional fiat in their treasury and settlement workflows.
Visa’s standard settlement process for purchases made on Crypto Visa cards each day, requires Crypto to convert their digital currencies into a traditional fiat currency that Visa accepts — adding cost, time, and complexity to their daily business processes, the company explained.
"Visa’s treasury upgrades and integration with Anchorage also strengthen Visa’s ability to directly support new central bank digital currency (CBDC) as they emerge in the future," they added.
According to Jack Forestell, Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer of Visa, this announcement "marks a major milestone in our ability to address the needs of fintechs managing their business in a stablecoin or cryptocurrency."
“We see increasing demand from consumers across the world to be able to access, hold and use digital currencies and we’re seeing demand from our clients to be able to build products that provide that access for consumers,” Cuy Sheffield, Head of Crypto at Visa, was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Payments giant Visa partnered with major crypto company Crypto in order to settle transactions in the second-largest steblecoin USD Coin (USDC) with Visa over Ethereum (ETH).
"Working with Anchorage, the first federally chartered digital asset bank and an exclusive Visa digital currency settlement partner, Visa has launched a pilot that allows Crypto to send USDC to Visa to settle a portion of its obligations for the Crypto Visa card program," the payments company said, adding that it plans to offer the USDC settlement capability to additional partners later this year.
Per the company, the ability to settle in USDC can help Crypto and other crypto native companies evaluate fundamentally new business models without the need for traditional fiat in their treasury and settlement workflows.
Visa’s standard settlement process for purchases made on Crypto Visa cards each day, requires Crypto to convert their digital currencies into a traditional fiat currency that Visa accepts — adding cost, time, and complexity to their daily business processes, the company explained.
"Visa’s treasury upgrades and integration with Anchorage also strengthen Visa’s ability to directly support new central bank digital currency (CBDC) as they emerge in the future," they added.
According to Jack Forestell, Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer of Visa, this announcement "marks a major milestone in our ability to address the needs of fintechs managing their business in a stablecoin or cryptocurrency."
“We see increasing demand from consumers across the world to be able to access, hold and use digital currencies and we’re seeing demand from our clients to be able to build products that provide that access for consumers,” Cuy Sheffield, Head of Crypto at Visa, was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Hacken Foundation is launching its second project disBalancer 🚀
👉It provides a real value-added solution to businesses and has a high potential to succeed in the market since all companies are interested in becoming resistant to DDoS attacks. DDOS token Sale Round is your chance to be involved in a revolutionary enterprise. Have some doubts? Then let's remind the great success of HAPI project. The hard cap of 8,400,000 HAI was closed in a blink during the first round of HAPI token sale. And now we are very close to repeating this achievement.
📅 The token Sale Round starts on April 1st at 1 pm (UTC)!
Let’s make the industry safer together! 🙌
👉It provides a real value-added solution to businesses and has a high potential to succeed in the market since all companies are interested in becoming resistant to DDoS attacks. DDOS token Sale Round is your chance to be involved in a revolutionary enterprise. Have some doubts? Then let's remind the great success of HAPI project. The hard cap of 8,400,000 HAI was closed in a blink during the first round of HAPI token sale. And now we are very close to repeating this achievement.
📅 The token Sale Round starts on April 1st at 1 pm (UTC)!
Let’s make the industry safer together! 🙌
Ripple Bosses Break from Legal Battle to Bash Bitcoin
Not content with fighting the American regulatory Securities and Exchange Commission over the nature of the XRP token, the heads of Ripple have picked a fight with bitcoin (BTC) advocates – attacking the Bitcoin network’s often-maligned proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism.
In an interview with TechRadar, the Ripple Chief Technical Officer David Schwartz claimed that the PoW has been touted as a “secret sauce” but showed “cracks” right from the outset, adding that the design of the Bitcoin PoW consensus mechanism was “such that true decentralization and disintermediation was never a possibility.”
He said,
“A cryptocurrency should be a one-sided market; the users want a store of value and a means of exchange. But what Bitcoin did was turn it into a two-sided market. Miners have historically fought for high transaction fees, because that’s their revenue. The reality is that you have another set of stakeholders who are trying to charge the highest fees they can get away with, and that’s not much different from the way payments work at a bank.”
The media outlet quoted Schwartz as stating that bitcoin was “doomed to fail its most important mission: to deliver a system whereby people can transact freely with one another, without the involvement of any intermediary.”
Meanwhile, the Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse also questioned Bitcoin’s carbon credentials.
He conceded that BTC was “an exceptional store of value,” but attacked its payment potential, writing,
“It’s just not ideal as a payments mechanism because of PoW energy costs/carbon dioxide emitted – estimates show a weighted average carbon intensity of 480-500 grams of carbon dioxide equivalent per kWh.”
“It’s great to see more and more individual players taking action to address climate change/use renewables for mining, but we need consensus (no pun intended) across the entire industry to make all cryptos 100% renewable,” he added.
Bitcoin defenders reacted with incredulity, with one observer quipping in a Twitter reply,
“So when will legislators/authorities utilize carbon-neutral tech such as XRP to facilitate instant, cross-border payments?”
Bitcoin critics have repeatedly attacked the network’s PoW model, with much evidence to suggest that a number of powerful mining pools rely on cheap, arcane and highly polluting coal-powered energy stations in China and elsewhere.
But even from the outset, defenders – including founder Satoshi Nakamoto himself all the way back in 2010 – have sought to justify PoW and its energy usage model.
And late last month, Lyn Alden, the founder of Lyn Alden Investment Strategy defended PoW and the Bitcoin network, pointing out that Bitcoin’s “total energy usage is determined primarily from market capitalization and difficulty adjustments, not transaction volume” – which means that “marginal bitcoin transaction/spending choice has virtually no impact on” the network’s total energy usage.
She added that much of the energy now being used in BTC mining was now coming from renewable sources and concluded,
“A lot of energy concerns directed at Bitcoin start with the presupposition that it is useless. A trillion dollars in market cap disagrees. Little concern is given to worldwide washing machine energy usage, for example, because we understand the value.”
Not content with fighting the American regulatory Securities and Exchange Commission over the nature of the XRP token, the heads of Ripple have picked a fight with bitcoin (BTC) advocates – attacking the Bitcoin network’s often-maligned proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism.
In an interview with TechRadar, the Ripple Chief Technical Officer David Schwartz claimed that the PoW has been touted as a “secret sauce” but showed “cracks” right from the outset, adding that the design of the Bitcoin PoW consensus mechanism was “such that true decentralization and disintermediation was never a possibility.”
He said,
“A cryptocurrency should be a one-sided market; the users want a store of value and a means of exchange. But what Bitcoin did was turn it into a two-sided market. Miners have historically fought for high transaction fees, because that’s their revenue. The reality is that you have another set of stakeholders who are trying to charge the highest fees they can get away with, and that’s not much different from the way payments work at a bank.”
The media outlet quoted Schwartz as stating that bitcoin was “doomed to fail its most important mission: to deliver a system whereby people can transact freely with one another, without the involvement of any intermediary.”
Meanwhile, the Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse also questioned Bitcoin’s carbon credentials.
He conceded that BTC was “an exceptional store of value,” but attacked its payment potential, writing,
“It’s just not ideal as a payments mechanism because of PoW energy costs/carbon dioxide emitted – estimates show a weighted average carbon intensity of 480-500 grams of carbon dioxide equivalent per kWh.”
“It’s great to see more and more individual players taking action to address climate change/use renewables for mining, but we need consensus (no pun intended) across the entire industry to make all cryptos 100% renewable,” he added.
Bitcoin defenders reacted with incredulity, with one observer quipping in a Twitter reply,
“So when will legislators/authorities utilize carbon-neutral tech such as XRP to facilitate instant, cross-border payments?”
Bitcoin critics have repeatedly attacked the network’s PoW model, with much evidence to suggest that a number of powerful mining pools rely on cheap, arcane and highly polluting coal-powered energy stations in China and elsewhere.
But even from the outset, defenders – including founder Satoshi Nakamoto himself all the way back in 2010 – have sought to justify PoW and its energy usage model.
And late last month, Lyn Alden, the founder of Lyn Alden Investment Strategy defended PoW and the Bitcoin network, pointing out that Bitcoin’s “total energy usage is determined primarily from market capitalization and difficulty adjustments, not transaction volume” – which means that “marginal bitcoin transaction/spending choice has virtually no impact on” the network’s total energy usage.
She added that much of the energy now being used in BTC mining was now coming from renewable sources and concluded,
“A lot of energy concerns directed at Bitcoin start with the presupposition that it is useless. A trillion dollars in market cap disagrees. Little concern is given to worldwide washing machine energy usage, for example, because we understand the value.”
✨DISCIPLINA is a project from the golden age of crypto, made by a relatively anonymous team✨
🤓It stores verified personal profiles based on academic and professional achievements. It is backed by Cardano founders, who invested in the project.
👉DISCIPLINA's blockchain is quite compact, just like Mina's. It also has a testnet and a Mac wallet.
🔅NFT's implementation is planned to validate the authenticity of platform's content and courses.
➕Pros:➕
✅ Great technology with its own blockchain, not another Ethereum-based token
✅ Strong team
✅ Backed and supported by Cardano founder
✅ Traction in China
✅ Launchpad IDO, sweet profit and BSC is expected - just the way we like it
🚀It’s gonna be a GEM!🚀
🤓It stores verified personal profiles based on academic and professional achievements. It is backed by Cardano founders, who invested in the project.
👉DISCIPLINA's blockchain is quite compact, just like Mina's. It also has a testnet and a Mac wallet.
🔅NFT's implementation is planned to validate the authenticity of platform's content and courses.
➕Pros:➕
✅ Great technology with its own blockchain, not another Ethereum-based token
✅ Strong team
✅ Backed and supported by Cardano founder
✅ Traction in China
✅ Launchpad IDO, sweet profit and BSC is expected - just the way we like it
🚀It’s gonna be a GEM!🚀