Aaron Rodgers, quarterback for the Green Bay Packers football team, has said he will be taking part of his National Football League salary in Bitcoin.
In a video posted to his Twitter account on Nov. 1, Rodgers — dressed as fictional character John Wick, likely for Halloween — said he would be partnering with Cash App to take a portion of his salary in Bitcoin (BTC). The NFL reported in July that Rodgers would be earning a $1.1 million base salary on top of a $14.5 million signing bonus and a $6.8 million roster bonus from March, totaling roughly $22.3 million.
I believe in Bitcoin & the future is bright. That’s why I’m teaming up with Cash App to take a portion of my salary in bitcoin today.
To make Bitcoin more accessible to my fans I’m giving out a total of $1M in btc now too. Drop your $cashtag w/ #PaidInBitcoin & follow @CashApp pic.twitter.com/mstV7eal04
— Aaron Rodgers (@AaronRodgers12) November 1, 2021
According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro, Rodgers’ total salary would be worth roughly 368.84 BTC at a price of $60,636 at the time of publication. Though the crypto asset reached an all-time high price approaching $67,000 on Oct. 20, it dipped under $60,000 more than once last week and has been mainly moving between $60,000 and $63,000.
Related:NFL player Russell Okung isn’t getting paid in Bitcoin; this is what he’s doing instead
Rodgers joins other professional sports players embracing crypto as the space becomes seemingly more mainstream. Last week, Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady said he would be compensating the fan who held his 600th career touchdown football with 1 BTC along with some signed sports memorabilia.
The President’s Working Group on Financial Markets has released its report on stablecoins.
The report urges broad legislative action to regulate stablecoin issuers, including enacting deposit insurance requirements.
The authors asserted that some stablecoins on the market may be considered securities.
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A highly-anticipated report from the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets was released today. The report urged swift legislative action to extend federal oversight to the rapidly-growing stablecoin market.
PWG Urges Stablecoin Regulation
The President’s Working Group on Financial Markets (PWG), in conjunction with Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), has released a report on stablecoins recommending that Congress exercise its broad legislative power to regulate the issuance and custody of stablecoins in the United States. The report was published earlier today by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
The report has recommended “that Congress act promptly to enact legislation to ensure that payment stablecoins and payment stablecoin arrangements are subject to a federal prudential framework on a consistent and comprehensive basis.”
In addition to standard AML/CFT concerns, the report identifies three particular risks to the national interest posed by an unregulated stablecoin market: the risk posed by “stablecoin runs,” the risks associated with the stability of stablecoins as a payment system, and the systemic risk of “concentration of economic power.”
To mitigate the risk of so-called “stablecoin runs”—a hypothetical scenario, named for real-world bank runs, in which depositors all attempt at once to redeem their stablecoins for cash only to find that the issuing entity does have enough to cover the demand—the report recommends legislation requiring stablecoin issuers to be “insured depository institutions,” which are subject to “appropriate supervision and regulation.”
To address the second main concern involving the stability of stablecoins as a payment system, the report recommends that Congress empower federal authorities to require “any entity that performs activities that are critical to the functioning of the stablecoin arrangement to meet appropriate risk-management standards.” This would entail submission to federal oversight.
The third primary concern listed in the report is the risk of “concentration of economic power,” which the report suggests mitigating by requiring stablecoin issuers “to comply with activities restrictions that limit affiliation with commercial entities.”
The report urges prompt action on behalf of Congress, writing:
“The rapid growth of stablecoins increases the urgency of this work. Failure to act risks growth of payment stablecoins without adequate protection for users, the financial system, and the broader economy. In contrast, a regulatory framework that supports confidence in payment stablecoins, in normal times and in periods of stress, could increase the likelihood of stablecoins supporting beneficial payments options.”
In addition to requesting Congressional action regarding the regulation of stablecoins, the report also asserts that“stablecoin arrangements and activities may implicate the jurisdiction of the SEC and/or CFTC,” writing that:
“Stablecoins, or certain parts of stablecoin arrangements, may be securities, commodities, and/or derivatives. Moreover, much of the trading, lending, and borrowing activity currently fueled by stablecoins on digital asset trading platforms and within DeFi similarly may constitute securities and/or derivatives transactions that must be conducted in compliance with federal securities laws…”
While it urges Congressional expediency to address stablecoin arrangements, the report warns that, in the meantime, these agencies “will continue to use their existing authorities to address these prudential risks to the extent possible.”
Disclaimer: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned BTC, ETH, and several other cryptocurrencies.
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The Recording Academy and OneOf, a green NFT marketplace backed by legendary record producer Quincy Jones, announced an exclusive partnership centered around the next three years of Grammy Awards in an unsigned statement on the Grammy.com website.
Details on specific NFT collections will be released in January, but will celebrate both the awards themselves and nominees / recipients. Some of the money from the sale of the assets will go towards funding the Recording Academy scholarship fund. OneOf, built on the Tezos blockchain, is specifically designed with musicians and listeners in mind. Recording Academy co-president Panos A Panay said:
“As an Academy, we are always looking for ways to help artists discover new forms of creative expression, while also creating new ways of income generation and ways for fans to interact with the artists that they love. OneOf shares that vision, and we are proud to work with a sustainable NFT company.”
OneOf co-founders Adam Fell, Joshua James and Lin Dai echoed their own excitement at the announcement saying:
“If used to their full potential, NFTs will empower the music industry in a way few other technologies ever have. It is our great honor to work with this prestigious organization to help shepherd this bright future to the industry.”
OneOf launched in August. The platform has hosted previous token drops from Doja Cat, the Game, iHeartRadio Music Festival, and Alesso. Whitney Houston, TLC and G-Eazy have inked deals for future drops with the company as well. The startup raised $63 Million prior to launching.
Aaron Rodgers is a future Hall of Fame quarterback.
He’s joined Tom Brady in taking a cryptocurrency promotion deal.
Aaron Rodgers, the Green Bay Packers quarterback and three-time NFL MVP, announced today that he’s the latest professional athlete to take a portion of his salary in Bitcoin.
The deal is part of a partnership with money transfer service Cash App, which will kick off with a $1 million Bitcoin giveaway on Twitter and Instagram.
Rodgers, wearing a black suit and red facial markings while sipping a concoction of whisky and anti-aging serum, told his social media followers, “I’m excited about the future of cryptocurrency, and am a big believer in Bitcoin. So much so that I’ve chosen to take a large portion of my salary in Bitcoin, thanks to the help of Cash App.”
I believe in Bitcoin & the future is bright. That’s why I’m teaming up with Cash App to take a portion of my salary in bitcoin today.
To make Bitcoin more accessible to my fans I’m giving out a total of $1M in btc now too. Drop your $cashtag w/ #PaidInBitcoin & follow @CashApp pic.twitter.com/mstV7eal04
— Aaron Rodgers (@AaronRodgers12) November 1, 2021
He explained the promotion by stating, “Cryptocurrency is a new concept to many and can be intimidating to understand.” Getting some coins, he suggested, helps people to “get” it.
The campaign, which began today, is scheduled to last until November 8. To be eligible for up to $100 in BTC, people can comment using the hashtag #PaidInBitcoin and their Cash App address, known as a $Cashtag.
It’s similar to the promotions Cash App has run with mega-rapper Megan Thee Stallion, who helped the app distribute $1 million in Bitcoin last December, then followed it up with stock and cash giveaways this year, the latter with fellow “WAP” singer Cardi B.
And Rodgers is far from the only pro athlete to get into crypto—he’s not even the most famous quarterback. Tampa Bay Buc Tom Brady serves as a spokesperson for crypto exchange FTX.com. Last week, he publicly traded one Bitcoin to the fan who ended up with the ball Brady threw for his 600th career touchdown pass.
Cash App isn’t an exchange. Rather, it’s Square’s answer to Venmo. And because Square is led by Bitcoin proponent Jack Dorsey (who also helms Twitter), it’s been ahead of the curve for BTC payments. The mobile app enabled buying and selling—as well as sending and receiving—of Bitcoin toward the beginning of 2018, just weeks before Robinhood first allowed Bitcoin and Ethereum trading.
In the second quarter of trading in 2019, Squarereported$125 million in revenue from the feature. Two years later, its Q2 revenue from Bitcoin hadballoonedto $2.72 billion. And Square does more than just letting other people purchase BTC—it also buys Bitcoin itself; in the last 13 months, it haspurchased over 8,000 BTC(now worth nearly half a billion dollars).
The hope is that Rodgers can help send more users toward the app. As of publication time, the QB’s post had over 34,000 comments and 6,000 retweets on Twitter.
“Uptober” is over but as Zhu Su tweeted earlier today, the crypto market rally could extend through “Upvember, Upcember” and beyond. The month of October was stellar for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) primarily because each hit new all-time highs and even though the prices are consolidating now, traders are still wildly bullish.
Uptober, Upvember, Upcember
— Zhu Su (@zhusu) November 1, 2021
The steady emergence of the Metaverse is also driving excitment within the crypto sector as it promises to be one of the driving forces behind development in the cryptocurrency space. The concept of a Metaverse is also impacting the “real world”, a prime example being Facebook’s recent rebranding of to ‘Meta’.
As the market heads into the month of November and bullish expectations run hot, let’s take a look at some projects where the data hints at possible upside breakouts.
Polkadot’s parachain auctions approach
The Polkadot (DOT) network is a sharding, multichain protocol designed to facilitate cross-chain transfers of any data or asset type and the project is focused on increasing interoperability between separate networks across the blockchain ecosystem.
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that momentum for DOT has been on the rise over the past couple of months, with its price rising 95% from a low of $26.05 on Sept. 29 to a new all-time high at $51.57 on Nov. 1 as its 24-hour trading volume surged 135% to $2.93 billion.
DOT/USDT 1-day chart. Source: TradingView
The rising strength of DOT is largely due to the upcoming launch of the parachain auctions on the Polkadot protocol. It’s likely that traders are looking at the success of the parachain auctions that took place on Polkadot’s sister network, Kusama, and expecting the same to occur for DOT.
Polkadot’s parachain auctions have been in development throughout 2021 and the excitement surrounding their Nov. 4 launch appears to be the driving force behind DOT rallying to a new all-time high at $51.57 today.
The motion to enable parachain registration and crowdloans has passed Polkadot’s council and gone to a public referendum. If passed, parachain teams will be able to register their parachain and open their crowdloan on Nov. 4, 2021 at approx. 19:15 CET. https://t.co/5ouDWBmnvc
— Polkadot (@Polkadot) November 1, 2021
VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for DOT on Oct. 27, prior to the recent price rise.
The VORTECS™ Score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historical and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.
VORTECS™ Score (green) vs. DOT price. Source:Cointelegraph Markets Pro
As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for DOT began to pick up on Oct. 27 and reached a high of 80 around two hours before the price began to increase 28% over the next five days.
Revolve Games selects Chromia
Chromia (CHR) is a layer-one blockchain network that is Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible and capable of enhancing layer-two performance on Ethereum and the Binance Smart Chain.
Data from TradingView shows that since hitting a low of $0.296 on Oct. 27 the price of CHR has surged 101% to a daily high at $0.595 on Oct. 31 as its 24-hour trading volume spiked to $371 million.
CHR/USDT 1-day chart. Source: TradingView
The surging price of CHR comes as the project’s gaming ecosystem had several positive developments, including the announcement that blockchain gaming firm Revolve Games chose Chromia to build and host its play-to-earn ecosystem, as well as the listing of the Chromia-based Mines of Dalarnia token on Binance.
Related:‘Uptober’ closes at record high in best month of 2021 — 5 things to watch in Bitcoin this week
Theta Token expands its NFT ecosystem
Theta is a blockchain-based video streaming protocol designed to operate as a decentralized network where users are rewarded for sharing bandwidth and computing resources with others on the network.
Momentum for THETA has been on the rise over the past couple of months as its NFT ecosystem has expanded and is now preparing to host the launch of Katy Perry’s NFT project in December.
The token also got a boost after it was revealed that THETA stakers will be airdropped its TDROP governance token in February 2022, with the allocation each holder receives determined by the average number of THETA staked during the evaluation period.
VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for THETA on Oct. 28, prior to the recent price rise.
VORTECS™ Score (green) vs. THETA price. Source:Cointelegraph Markets Pro
As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for THETA climbed into the green zone on Oct. 27 and reached a high of 81 on Oct. 28 around three hours before the price began to increase 42.3% over the next three days.
The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $2.63 trillion and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 43.8%.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
Web Summit 2021, the biggest tech conference in the world, kicked off on Monday in Lisbon, Portugal, and will last until Nov. 4, 2021. In an opening statement, Carlos Moedas, the Mayor of Lisbon, said that “My dream is that Lisbon will be the capital of innovation in the world.” Meanwhile, João Leão, the Minister of Finance of Portugal, stated:
“Portugal is the country people come to invest, to do business and to look live, and to do so in a manner that is open to different cultures.”
Notable guest speakers included Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, Black Lives Matter co-founder Ayo Tometi, and Nicholas Julia, co-founder and CEO of French non-fungible token, or NFT, fantasy gaming company Sorare.
NFTs are digital certificates of ownership representing artwork, images, videos, music, and more. They are stored in one’s digital wallets, while the actual assets can be stored on-chain or off-chain, depending on size. Sorare enables players to manage their own football (soccer in the U.S.) teams with digital player cards minted as NFTs. These cards can be bought, sold, and transferred.
When asked about the future of the NFT industry within five to ten years, Julia said the following:
“NFTs will be the underlying technology for everything of value on the web. It could be monetary value, or it could be personal value. I mentioned personal identity earlier on, so that’s something an NFT could carry for you on the web. It’s going to be invisible.”
Founded in Paris three years ago, Sorare’s valuation has grown from $270 million to $4.3 billion. Japanese multinational conglomerate SoftBank led its latest round of funding in September. According to Julia, half a million users joined the platform organically, without any marketing. More than 200 football clubs worldwide are currently partnering with Sorare. Based on the company’s profile on NFT marketplace OpenSea.io, Sorares cards’ cumulative trading volume has surpassed 50,200 Ether (ETH).
But Sorare also seeks to expand outside the realm of NFTs for gaming. Julia issued the following statement in that regard:
“We want people to feel the benefits of it, that you truly own your digital good, that you can move it, and so it. We don’t want the friction of the crypto, and that, most of the crypto products of today as complicated I see it as a technology that’s going to underpin everything of value on the web.”
The rollout of the world’s second central bank digital currency, or CBDC, is off to a rocky start. Last week, Nigeria rolled out its eNaira CBDC after the Bahamas became the first country in the world to launch theirs, known as The Sand Dollar, the year prior.
In a statement quoted by local news outlet The Nation, Central Bank of Nigeria, or CBN, Governor Godwin Emefiele said “overwhelming interest and encouraging response”. Similarly, President Muhammadu Buhari estimates that the eNaira could generate an additional $29 billion in economic activity over the next decade, citing the possibility of direct government welfare payments via the digital currency.
According to Emefiele, since its launch on Oct. 25, 33 banks, 2,000 customers, and 120 merchants have signed up for the platform. The app is available on both Apple and Android. Over 200 million worth of eNaira ($602,959 USD) has since been issued to financial institutions in the country.
But while government officials are optimistic about its outlook, the launch has not gone all smoothly. The CBN’s eNaira Speed Wallet briefly went offline shortly after its unveil on app stores such as Google Play. The app was removed to facilitate an upgrade after receiving over 100,000 downloads, with polarizing reviews. Users mostly complained about glitches and several features of the app not working at all. It is currently available. As reported by Peoples Gazette, the CBN also plagiarized a legal disclaimer for the eNaira from an American equipment manufacturer.
Last month, in a survey conducted by Finders.com and tabulated by The Straight Times, 24.2% of respondents in Nigeria said they owned cryptocurrencies — ranking the country at the top of the world in digital currency use. Malaysia ranked second (18.0%), and Australia came in third (17.7%). Meanwhile, the United States came in tenth place, with 10.4% of adults owning crypto.
The President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, or PWG, has released a report suggesting that stablecoin issuers in the United States should be subject to “appropriate federal oversight” akin to that of banks.
A Nov. 1 U.S. Treasury report from the group with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said Congress should “act promptly to ensure that payment stablecoins are subject to appropriate federal prudential oversight on a consistent and comprehensive basis.” The government agencies said stablecoin issuers should be held to the same standards as insured depository institutions including state and federally chartered banks and savings associations as they protect customers’ deposits and limit “any potential negative systemic impacts in the event of bank failure.”
The report did not specify under which federal agency stablecoin and digital asset trading fell, but said the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, as well as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, had “broad enforcement, rulemaking, and oversight authorities” to address such transactions and companies within the crypto space. However, the PWG suggested the risks concerning stablecoins would likely grow as the space developed and may sometimes fall “outside of the regulatory perimeter” of the SEC and CFTC.
“Because payment stablecoins are an emerging and rapidly developing type of financial asset, legislation should provide regulators flexibility to respond to future developments and adequately address risks across a variety of organizational structures,” said the report.
While the group said it believes this legislation is “urgently needed to comprehensively address the prudential risks posed by payment stablecoin arrangements,” it said federal agencies should continue to use their authority to address risks within the crypto space if and when Congress chooses to act. Should there fail to be congressional action, the PWG recommended the Financial Stability Oversight Council step in to establish additional regulatory standards for stablecoins.
Many stablecoin issuers and companies in the crypto space participated in the discussions leading to the report. The PWG list of exchanges included Coinbase and Gemini, as well as stablecoin issuers Tether, Paxos, and the Diem Association.
Related:US Treasury reportedly in talks for stablecoin regulation
The release of the Treasury report follows a seeming legislative tug-of-war between U.S. government agencies on stablecoins. In September, Gary Gensler hinted that both the SEC and CFTC would benefit from congress assistance in regards to regulation and enforcement of stablecoins, but a subsequent report from Bloomberg suggested the SEC was taking the reins on proposing legislation and overseeing the sindustry.
