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Ukraine to Record War Against Russia in NFTs

by Blockchain NewsMarch 14, 2022

The Ukrainian government has planned to launch non-fungible tokens (NFTs) featuring unique digital artwork illustrating stories from its war with Russia.

According to the Guardian, Ukraine has taken this move to fund its war efforts.

Alex Bornyakov, Ukraine’s deputy minister of digital transformation, announced that the NFT collection would be “like a museum of the Russian-Ukrainian war. We want to tell the world in NFT format.”

The Ukrainian government’s request for $60 million cryptocurrency donations has also passed, and a CryptoPunk NFT worth more than $200,000 was also included in it.

Ukraine admitted that besides buying military equipment, the money is also being used to support media programs to voice its fight against the Russian invasion. Bornyakov said, “we don’t use this fund to buy weapons at this point. We’re buying night-vision goggles, optics, helmets, bulletproof vests.”

Ukraine had first announced a proposal to sell NFTs on March 3, following the cancellation of plans to airdrop to people who had donated crypto to fight the war, according to online media, the Block.

Russia has also received backlash from other countries for its war against Ukraine. Blockchain.News, citing Reuters reported that Japan had requested crypto exchanges to suspend transactions of crypto assets that are subject to asset-freeze sanctions against Russia and Belarus, following concerns from the Group of Seven (G7) nations, Reuters reported citing national officials.

Concerns among the G7 economies have been growing as they believe that the Russian government is using cryptocurrencies to tackle financial sanctions imposed upon the country for invading Ukraine, the report added.

The US Treasury Department has also issued new guidance that has asked US-based cryptocurrency firms to stop transactions with sanction targets.

Meanwhile, four payment service operators such as American Express, Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal, have also announced the suspension of their operations in Russia in protest of the country’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

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Ukraine to Record War Against Russia in NFT’s way

by Blockchain NewsMarch 14, 2022

The Ukrainian government has planned to launch non-fungible tokens (NFTs) featuring unique digital artwork illustrating stories from its war with Russia.

According to the Guardian, Ukraine has taken this move to fund its war efforts.

The Ukrainian government’s request for $60 million cryptocurrency donations has also passed, and a CryptoPunk NFT worth more than $200,000 was also included in it.

Ukraine had first announced a proposal to sell NFTs on March 3, following the cancellation of plans to airdrop to people who had donated crypto to fight the war, according to online media, the Block.

The US Treasury Department has also issued new guidance that has asked US-based cryptocurrency firms to stop transactions with sanction targets.

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Tagged : Bitcoin / Blockchain / Crypto / NFT / Russia

NFTs to Be the Epicenter of the Future of Sports, PWC Study Shows

by Blockchain NewsMarch 14, 2022

As non-fungible tokens (NFTs) continue taking the world by storm, big-four accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report shows that they will revolutionize the way fans interact and consume in the sporting arena.

Dubbed “Sports Industry Outlook 2022,” PwC suggested that NFTs were among the top ten hottest trends in the sports industry because they have the capability of shaping fan experience and boosting bottom lines.

From a list of three main NFT use cases, PwC noted that these digital assets could revamp seasonal ticket membership. Per the report:

“Many teams have started to consider how tickets could become digital tokens, providing ticket holders — especially season ticket members — with access to special content in the real world or around the stadium experience.”

Collectible NFTs have the potential of driving up revenue in the sporting industry because they will serve as trading cards for the digital world. Individual athletes, teams or leagues will typically license them.

By merging the metaverse with digital assets, both fungible and non-fungible tokens, PwC believes that a whole new market will be born needed to maximize fans’ satisfaction levels. Therefore, virtual access tokens will foster innovative opportunities and social experiences in the metaverse.

NFTs are deemed game-changers in different sectors, given that they are non-divisible and have to be sold as a whole. For instance, Amrit Dhami, a thematic analyst at GlobalData, recently noted that NFTs were perfect for fashion in the metaverse.

Given that NFTs reflect proof of ownership of an asset like an image, Dhami stipulated that these creations can change the fashion look in the metaverse because users will be offered the chance to buy ‘NFT clothing’ just like the way people purchase custom-made outfits.

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Tagged : NFT / PWC / Sports

Large Institutional Transactions Take the Lion’s Share of Bitcoin Volume at 99%

by Blockchain NewsMarch 14, 2022

Institutional demand for Bitcoin (BTC) does not seem to be fading based on the large transactions volume witnessed, according to a report by IntoTheBlock.

The study noted:

“Currently over 99% of all Bitcoin volume comes from transactions of over $100k, dubbed large transactions. The dominance of institutions and change in market structure accelerated in Q3 2020.”

Large transactions volume has been the norm in the Bitcoin market since the third quarter of 2020 because they have remained above 90%, per the report.

Institutional investments have played an instrumental role in revolutionizing the BTC ecosystem. For instance, they enabled the leading cryptocurrency breach the then all-time high of $20,000 in December 2020 after three years of waiting.

Since then, Bitcoin has been on a record-breaking streak, with the last historic high price of $69,000 set in November last year.

IntoTheBlock acknowledged that Bitcoin interest from tech and traditional finance institutions continues to grow exponentially, given that both new entrants and existing ones are not relenting on this asset.

For instance, some of the investments that have taken the crypto world by storm so far this year include Pantera Capital and Bain Capital, raising $1 billion and $560 million for crypto funds, respectively.

IntoTheBlock also noted that many addresses holding crypto continued going through the roof. The data analytic firm explained:

“Bitcoin addresses with a balance reached a record of nearly 40 million. Addresses holding Ether have outpaced this, with over 70 million having a positive balance of the smart contract platform’s native token.”

This correlates with the fact that Bitcoin hodlers remained unfazed despite the top cryptocurrency recently hitting lows of $34,000 based on accumulating more coins.

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Tagged : Bitcoin / Crypto / Cryptocurrencies / Institutional Investment / Investment / LARGE TRANSACTIONS / Market Analysis

Ukraine Receives Military Supplies via Crypto Donation

by Blockchain NewsMarch 14, 2022

Cryptocurrencies undoubtedly came to the rescue when Ukraine called for donations through it as its territories were invaded by Russia almost late last month.

With more than $100 million donated so far, Ukraine’s deputy minister of Digital Transformation, Alex Bornyakov, has detailed how much has been spent out of the donated funds thus far.

Speaking to Bloomberg recently, Bornyakov said as much as $15 million he has used in buying bulletproof vests, 500 helmets and as many as 410,000 lunch packs for the Ukrainian army. Most of these supplies were delivered just past Friday.

The total donations to the Ukrainian war effort came in the form of Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Polkadot (DOT), Solana (SOL), and Dogecoin (DOGE). Besides these mainstream cryptocurrencies, a number of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have also been donated to the Ukrainian government, including a Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC).

The report has it that some of the military supplies received by the Ukrainian government were paid for in digital currencies, another proof of how well cryptocurrencies can be utilized. However, the government has no plans to sell off the Bored Ape NFT in its wallet. The CryptoPunk #5364 NFT was last sold for 16.2 Ethers, worth over $43,000 in current prices. However, the Bored Ape collection now has a floor price of 97 ETH worth approximately $250,000 in current prices.

“Yes, someone donated us a CryptoPunk, but it’s so hard to sell, we haven’t used it at this point,” Bornyakov said. “We are going to keep it for now. We appreciate every support that people are trying to give. What’s important is people’s awareness. They see what’s going on, and they are trying to help. We will work with NFTs a little bit later. We are focused on things we can deal with right now. There’s no time to figure out how to convert them. Maybe once things settle down, we’ll figure this out.”

With more crypto funds flowing into the Ukrainian government wallet, digital currencies’ decentralized and censorship-free nature was well pronounced throughout this war period.

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Tagged : Crypto / Donations / NFT / Politics / Ukraine / War

US Labor Department Urges Caution over Crypto Investment in 401k Retirement Plans

by Blockchain NewsMarch 14, 2022

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) on Friday warned employers and retirement plan providers to “exercise extreme care” before they consider cryptocurrency into their investment option for plan participants.

The labor agency made such comments as part of its efforts focused on protecting the retirement savings of U.S. workers.

The DOL said that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and other digital assets such as non-fungible tokens, pose significant challenges and risks to 401(k) investors, including, financial loss, theft, and fraud.

The Labor Department disclosed that financial services companies have started marketing crypto investments to 401(k) plans as retirement-plan option in recent months.

The labor agency warned that employers who add crypto investments to their company 401(k) plans might easily go against their legal obligations to plan participants.

Ali Khawar, acting assistant secretary at the Employee Benefits Security Administration, talked about the development and said: “At this early-stage in the history of cryptocurrencies … the U.S. Department of Labor has serious concerns about plans’ decisions to expose participants to direct investments in cryptocurrencies or related products, such as NFTs, coins and crypto-assets.”

Investing in Cryptocurrency

In September last year, the U.S. Department of Labor started working on guidance related to cryptocurrency. But the latest move by the DOL shows that the agency has followed the footsteps of other U.S. federal regulators that have recently highlighted risks that cryptocurrencies present to investors. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has a regulatory focus on investor risks related to cryptocurrencies.

Although the current law does not prohibit investing cryptocurrencies in 401(k) plans, many labor lawsuits (including a recent wave) have challenged the structure of the plan investment lineup, resulting in several plan sponsors favouring safer and less exotic and or volatile investments.

There has been pressure on retirement plan providers to favor stable, transparent, and low-cost investments such as index funds to avoid potential litigation. Recent lawsuits have examined how the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) regulates alternative investments like private equity or hedge funds.

Investing in cryptocurrency and crypto funds—which are much less stable or transparent than mutual funds—may still be far away from the investment universe of an ERISA plan.

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Tagged : 401(K) / Crypto Investment / Cryptoeconomics / DOL / LABOR / Retirement / Us

Japan Asks Crypto Exchanges to Cancel Russian Sanction Related Transactions

by Blockchain NewsMarch 14, 2022

Following concerns from the Group of Seven (G7) nations, Japan has requested crypto exchanges to cancel transactions of crypto assets that are subject to asset-freeze sanctions against Russia and Belarus, Reuters reported citing national officials.

Last Friday, the G7 released a statement saying Western nations “will impose costs on illicit Russian actors using digital assets to enhance and transfer their wealth.”

Currently, there are 31 crypto exchanges in Japan, according to an industry association.

According to Reuters, Japan’s request also came following the issuance of new guidance by the US Treasury Department that has asked US-based cryptocurrency firms to stop transactions with sanction targets.

“We decided to make an announcement to keep the G7 momentum alive,” said a senior official at Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA). “The sooner the better.”

In a joint statement, Japan’s FSA and the Ministry of Finance said that strong measures will be imposed against the transfer of funds using crypto assets that would be in violation of the sanctions.

The FSA further added that illegal payments to sanctioned targets will be punished with three years prison sentences or a 1 million yen ($8,487.52) fine. Payments under surveillance also include crypto assets – such as cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens – the FSA added.

Russia has seen the further suspension of payment methods due to its war with Ukraine.

According to a March 7, 2022, report by Blockchain.News, more payment operators have followed the orders of sanctions issued by the U.S.

American Express, Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal have announced the suspension of their operations in Russia in protest of the country’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

The report added that four operators stated that cards issued by them would no longer function at shops or ATMs in Russia and that also means customers will no longer be able to use their Russian cards abroad or for international payments.

Another report by Blockchain.News stated that Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong believes cryptocurrencies are emerging as the lifeline for Russians as the nation faces heavy sanctions.

Armstrong was quoted as saying: “some ordinary Russians are using crypto as a lifeline now that their currency has collapsed. Many of them likely oppose what their country is doing, and a ban would hurt them, too. That said, if the US government decides to impose a ban, we will of course follow those laws.”

Armstrong also pointed out that banning Russians from using crypto exchanges is not possible as the law does not warrant it. He said that Coinbase is “not preemptively banning all Russians from using Coinbase. We believe everyone deserves access to basic financial services unless the law says otherwise.”

The war has caused panic among Russians and Ukrainians who are using crypto to shield their money.

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Tagged : Bitcoin / Blockchain / Crypto / Japan / Politics / Russia

Stripe Resumes Crypto Service Offerings, Partners with FTX

by Blockchain NewsMarch 14, 2022

Stripe, an Irish-American financial services company dual-headquartered in San Francisco, US and Dublin, Ireland, has jumped back into the cryptocurrency business after four years of attempting.

The global payments giant announced on Friday that it now offers support for crypto businesses and other services in the sector.

John Collison, Stripe co-founder, disclosed via Twitter social media platform that the firm “now supports all kinds of crypto businesses, including exchanges, on-ramps, wallets and NFT marketplaces, not just pay-ins but pay-outs, KYC and identity verification, fraud prevention, and lots more”.

As a result of the crypto offering services, Stripe announced that it has partnered with FTX, a global crypto exchange, to make cryptocurrency investments “easier than ever”.

Stripe stated that it would help FTX and its affiliate FTX US power payments for users adding funds to their FTX accounts. It will also assist FTX with related tasks like onboarding, verification of customers, and risk mitigation.

Stripe’s technology will assist FTX users in buying crypto assets with their debit cards and through automated clearing house transactions directly from their banks. Stripe will also help FTX with its payments technology to mitigate fraud risk by using machine learning to distinguish genuine customers from fraudsters.

Tristan Yver, head of strategy at FTX, talked about the partnership and said: “We’ve partnered with Stripe to help us transform what could be unintuitive crypto experiences into ones that exceed consumer expectations. The optimisations we made in our payments set-up with Stripe deliver the smooth on-ramp experience FTX’s growing customer base demands. We’re able to multiply revenue by making it easier than ever for people to invest in crypto.”

Enhancing Access to Diversified Financing Instruments

Stripe was an early proponent of cryptocurrency. In 2014, the global payments firm became the first major payments company to support Bitcoin payments. However, in 2018, Stripe stopped supporting Bitcoin because of the cryptocurrency’s volatility and a lack of efficiency in making everyday transactions.

Last November, Stripe formed a small team committed to exploring crypto and “Web3.” The efforts are being led by Guillaume Poncin, Stripe’s head of engineering. Earlier that month, Stripe hired Matt Huang, co-founder of crypto-focused venture capital firm Paradigm, to its board of directors.

During that time, John Collison, Stripe co-founder, admitted that several innovations are emerging in digital assets that have potential, such as Solana blockchain, a competitor to Ethereum, as well as “Layer 2” systems like Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, which aim to speed up cryptocurrency transactions and process them at a lower cost.

Founded in 2009, Stripe has rapidly become the largest privately-held fintech company in the U.S. Last time, the firm had a valuation of $95 billion and counted the likes of Andreessen Horowitz, Baillie Gifford, and Sequoia Capital as investors.

Stripe, which processes payments for the likes of Uber, Amazon, Google, and Amazon, has expanded into many areas in finance lately, including loans and tax management.

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Tagged : BUSINESS PARTNERSHIP / CRYPTO SERVICE OFFERINGS / FTX / Industry / Stripe

Roofstock Raises $240m in Series E Financing , Expand Access to Real Estate Investing

by Blockchain NewsMarch 14, 2022

Roofstock, a popular online real estate investment marketplace based in Oakland City in California, announced last Friday that it raised $240 million in a Series E equity financing round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2.

The funding gives the company a valuation of $1.94 billion. Existing and new investors involve over a dozen of firms, including Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Bain Capital Ventures, Canvas Ventures, Citi Ventures, First American Financial etc. DoorDash Angels also participated in the funding round.

Roofstock disclosed that it plans to use the fresh funding to accelerate its growth. The real estate firm intends to use the capital to double the headcount of its staff, including hiring across all roles from engineering and product to marketing, analytics, and operations.

Roofstock also wants to use the funds to bring more industry-leading solutions to the market and improve accessibility and liquidity in the real estate asset class. The company intends to develop products and services to optimize portfolios, expand its property management footprint, transform into other forms of real estate investing, and grow its suite of services for landlords to include analytics and banking-related services.

Roofstock also said that the fresh funding would help expand its strategic M&A efforts on top of the three previous acquisitions that the firm completed since its inception, including Streetlane Homes, Stessa, and Great Jones.

Gary Beasley, CEO and co-founder of Roofstock, talked about the development and said: “We’re grateful for the continued support from our new and existing investors and stakeholders who share our vision to make this a modern, radically accessible asset class. I could not be more excited to welcome our partners from SoftBank to join us on this ambitious journey.”

Democratizing Real Estate Investing

Founded in March 2015, Roofstock is an online real estate marketplace that continues serving clients who are looking to purchase and sell rental properties, including single-family rentals, among others.

Last August, Roofstock acquired property management tech platform Great Jones to simplify property management for its rapidly rising user base of remote retail investors.

The real estate investment marketplace grows rapidly with innovative offerings and new markets. In 2019, Roofstock achieved many key growth milestones, including more than doubling its investor base in under a year by 126%, and 75% of its users were first-time real estate investors.

Roofstock’s revolutionary model equips customers with the tools and resources required to get started, scale-up in real estate investing and rental portfolios, and in-depth analysis to help new and seasoned investors find properties with ease. The marketplace continues attracting a new generation of investors that want the passive returns real estate offers with the freedom to treat their investments like a stock portfolio.

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Tagged : Finance / Funding Round / REAL ESTATE INVESTING / ROOFSTOCK

Two Co-head of Citigroup’s Digital Assets Quit, Planing to Launch New Crypto Startup

by Blockchain NewsMarch 14, 2022

Two co-heads of Citigroup’s digital assets, Greg Girasole and Alex Kriete announced on Friday via their LinkedIn platform that they are leaving Citigroup to launch a new venture and would reveal more details soon.

Two top executives left the global investment bank less than a year after being appointed to be in charge of the new crypto-centred unit, which was introduced in June 2021 within Citi’s wealth management unit.

On his social media post, Kriete mentioned that he plans to commit himself full-time to build a new crypto firm but did not elaborate further details. Girasole also disclosed his departure via social media LinkedIn, saying that he and Kriete intend to establish their own blockchain-related venture. The two executives stated that they would reveal more details about the new business venture in the coming weeks.

Prior to being tapped to serve as co-head of the digital assets group, Girasole was a senior vice president and president portfolio manager for Citi in Manhattan and Stanford and also held several investment positions.

Also, before Kriete was named co-head of digital assets at Citi, he held senior vice president and vice president roles in investments at the bank.

Girasole talked about his departure and said: “After 7 years, I am leaving Citi in order to start my own venture in the digital asset space. It was at Citi where my passion for digital assets began, culminating in the opportunity to lead the effort to bring this new asset class to their Global Wealth franchise. I am proud of the foundation we set and will cheer their future success.”

Meanwhile, Kriete also commented about the development and stated: “After 11 years at Citi, I have decided to take on a new challenge and will be leaving the firm. Over five years ago, my personal interest and subsequent writing about blockchain-enabled digital assets (yes, “crypto”) led to an amazing network of colleagues across Citi businesses, external companies, and interested clients, and at this time I will be taking on a new challenge professionally by creating a new company in this space.”

The Crypto Economy Continues Attracting Top Wall Street Talents

Girasole and Kriete are not the only Citigroup executives that have departed the hallowed halls of traditional finance to embrace the rough and tumble world of cryptocurrency.

In March last year, Morgan McKenney, the Chief Operating Officer of Citigroup’s global consumer banking arm and an 18-year veteran of the financial giant, assumed the role of CEO for a firm known as Provenance Blockchain Foundation.

Before starting the CEO position at the blockchain firm, McKenney took a sabbatical from Citi and realized that digital assets are the future of finance. McKenney talked with more than 80 fintech entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and innovation people, and it became clear for her that digital is disrupting financial services in foundational ways.

Financial services have always been performed through trusted intermediaries, whether telling a broker to sell stocks or instructing the bank to send money. But blockchain is changing the underlying banking infrastructure layer to allow two parties that do not know each other to agree bilaterally and settle such assets in real-time.

In November last year, another former Citi trading executive launched a $1.5 billion fund focused on investing in cryptocurrency infrastructure, blockchain protocols, and virtual worlds. Matt Zhang, an ex-Citi head of structured products trading, launched Hivemind Capital Partners, a $1.5 billion multi-strategy fund to invest in cryptocurrency and blockchain startups. The move by Zhang, a Wall Street veteran with over 14 years of experience, to establish a new crypto venture fund offered further evidence that smart money investors are pivoting to the emerging world of digital assets.

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Tagged : Citigroup / Employees / Industry Expert / LAUNCH CRYPTO STARTUP