Day: April 29, 2022

Propy Partners with Crypto Lending Platform Abra, Launching Crypto-backed Real Estate Loans

by Blockchain News

Blockchain-based real estate transaction management company Propy has partnered with digital asset wealth management platform Abra to open up a path to obtain real estate loans with digital assets as collateral.

Propy said that real estate buyers can use Abra Borrow to use their cryptocurrency for mortgage loans flexibly and said that repayment terms are very flexible and offer options as low as 0% to borrow dollars.

It’s an ‘All-In-One’ property transaction solution offering a unified transaction management process.

The CEO of Propy is Natalia Karayaneva, a real estate professional.

He emphasized the importance of finding a partner who can provide highly reliable crypto collateral for being the first company to process real estate transactions as NFTs.

He said about the collaboration：

“Abra’s impressive borrowing platform, proven track record, and customer-first mindset make it a natural fit as a partner. We look forward to working with the Abra team to expand financing options for the real estate ecosystem.”

The popularity of cryptocurrencies has led many real estate developers to accept cryptocurrencies as a means of payment.

Yesterday, Damac Properties, a major real estate development company based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), announced Wednesday that it would sell properties using Bitcoin and Ethereum as payment methods.

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AI-Generated NFT Collection to Preserve Ukrainian Art and Offer Humanitarian Support

by Blockchain News

Through a global coalition of advocates, digital innovators, artists, and educators, an AI-generated NFT collection has been established to conserve Ukrainian art and raise funds for humanitarian aid.

Dubbed MINT FOR UKRAINE, the non-fungible token (NFT) collection of one million artworks is seen as a stepping stone toward keeping Ukrainian culture in the history books. 

Tymofiy Mylovanov, the President of the Kyiv School of Economics, noted:

“There is no nation without its culture. Now with the help of AI and the blockchain, we have a chance to make pieces of Ukraine stay forever in the world’s history. While we are fighting for the freedom of our country, join us in the fight for our culture and help Ukraine.” 

Minting the NFT art pieces will be done for free after creating a wallet and donations channelled through crypto or currency of choice. Per the announcement:

“Up to 10% of donations are directed to support the Ukrainian culture (artists and cultural institutions), while the remaining 90% are devoted to humanitarian support of Ukraine, through the vetted network of charities.”

Phil Bosua, the creator of the collection, pointed out:

“I think the human/AI collaboration is the next great art movement. We now have a direct line from thought to expression and we can create as much art as we can imagine. When we pair these ideas with a global cultural crisis, art has the ability to cause change on a scale we’ve not yet imagined.”

The MINT FOR UKRAINE is also being made a reality through a joint effort by OpenSea, the Kyiv School of Economics Foundation, four Ukrainian Ministries, Polygon, Artificial Intelligent Mind Collective, Ukraine.ua, Polygon Studios, and Reface. 

Last month, Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation launched a MetaHistory NFT Museum, a blockchain-based collection of digital images, to tell the story of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

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Crypto Exchange CEX.IO Named as Top 10 Safest Crypto Exchanges by CryptoCompare

by Blockchain News

Cryptocurrency exchange CEX.IO is named in the top 10 safest cryptocurrency exchanges by CryptoCompare – the independent global cryptocurrency market data provider, ranking ninth.

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Established in 2013 in the UK as one of the first cloud mining providers, CEX.IO has become a regulated multi-functional cryptocurrency exchange, trusted by over a million users.

CEX.IO offers cross-platform trading via website, mobile app, WebSocket, and REST API, providing access to a high liquidity order book for top currency pairs on the market. Instant Bitcoin buying and selling are available via a simplified bundle interface.

CryptoCompare compared more than 150 global spot exchanges in the current market for a comprehensive assessment in terms of Know-Your-Customer (KYC) or trading risk, asset diversification, market quality, data provision, team/exchange, and security.

The Benchmark assigns a AA – F grade to help identify the lowest risk venues in the industry. CEX.IO received an “A” rating in these categories.

Coinbase scored the highest in CryptoCompare’s latest benchmark, followed by Gemini, Bitstamp, and Binance.

CEX.IO was also recently listed by Forbes as one of the top 20 best cryptocurrency exchanges in the world.

According to the official website, “CEX.IO Limited received a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) license issued by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC). CEX.IO Corp. has obtained Money Transmitter Licenses (MTLs) in 26 US states, and keep on working on covering more.”

The security issue of cryptocurrency exchanges has always been a matter of great concern and concern to investors.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance has set up a $1 billion insurance fund for customers to double-protect the platform from hacking attacks.

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Digital B2B Payments Startup CoreChain Technologies Raises $4.2m in Seed Round

by Blockchain News

Blockchain-based digital B2B payments startup CoreChain Technologies has announced a $4.2 million seed round led by Ulu Ventures.

Other investors include Connecticut Innovations, Bloccelerate VC and New Form Capital, Motivate Venture Capital, SaaS Venture Capital, Next Coast Ventures, and other investors.

CoreChain Technologies, founded in September 2020, is a business-to-business payments network built on blockchain technology.

To date, over $1 billion in B2B payments have been processed for businesses.

The CoreChain Network enables simple and secure digital B2B payments for any buyer/supplier network, offering a broad choice of digital payments solutions – ACH, eChecks, Virtual Card, as well as Digital Assets such as Stablecoins.

Steve Reale, CFO and Partner from Ulu Ventures-A seed-stage venture firm focused primarily on enterprise IT said that：

“Blockchain and distributed ledger technology has rewritten the B2B payments and financing script, ushering in new ways of doing business. CoreChain is connecting businesses with the modern financial mechanisms that are faster and more secure than what’s being used in today’s linear environments.”

According to Juniper Research, blockchain-enabled B2B cross-border payments will be totalling in value of more than $4.4 trillion by 2024.

CoreChain Technologies has raised a total of $5.5M in funding over 2 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Apr 281 from a Seed round.

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Panama Congress Passes Crypto Regulation Bill

by Blockchain News

Panama’s legislature voted 38 in favour, 2 abstentions, and none against a bill to legalize the use of cryptocurrencies on Thursday, Reuters reported on April 28.

The bill proposes that people can use cryptocurrencies as a means of payment for any civil or commercial activity, allowing people to pay taxes in cryptocurrencies, but does not support any cryptocurrency becoming legal tender,

Introduced by Panamanian Congressman Gabriel Silva, the bill covers the trading and use of encrypted assets, the issuance of digital securities, and the tokenization of precious metals.

Gabriel Silva said:

“We’re seeing the emergence of many different types of crypto assets like works of art. That’s why we didn’t want to limit ourselves only to cryptocurrencies.”

The bill still needs to be signed and ratified by President Laurentino Cortiso of Panama.

As early as last year, Panama was trying to join the ranks of legalizing blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies, and its flagship asset, Bitcoin (BTC),

Silva has said before that: “We seek to make Panama a country compatible with the blockchain, crypto assets, and the internet. This has the potential to create thousands of jobs, attract investment and make the government transparent.”

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Zcash Co-founder “John Dobbertin” is Actually Edward Snowden

by Blockchain News

Edward Snowden has been revealed as one of the co-founders of Zcash, after he gave his fellow co-founder Zooko Wilcox permission to disclose his involvement.

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Until now, Snowden was known by the pseudonym “John Dobbertin”.

The identities of the other five co-founders have already been revealed. His identity was revealed while taking part in a new documentary for Zcash, where he gave his Wilcox permission to disclose his involvement “as long as it is clear that I was never paid and had no stake.”

Snowden is popularly known as a whistleblower at the National Security Agency (NSA). While working at the NSA, Snowden released thousands of documents that revealed how the United States was spying on its own citizens. Following this, he moved to Russia after receiving asylum.

He has become a strong advocate of privacy.

Snowden has criticized Bitcoin for its privacy concerns saying it is an “open disaster”.

Zcash has become known for its transaction system which occurs in two pools called “Sprout” and “Sapling.” Both require their own key for access.

According to Zcash’s official website: “Zcash is a privacy-protecting, digital currency built on strong science. With Zcash, people can transact efficiently and safely with low fees. Shielded Zcash ensures transactions remain confidential while allowing people to selectively share address and transaction information for auditing or regulatory compliance.”

Zcash is aimed at using cryptography to provide enhanced privacy for its users compared to other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.

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Web3 Data Ecosystem Pocket Network Adds Support for the Fantom Blockchain

by Blockchain News

The Web3 blockchain data ecosystem Pocket Network adds support for the Fantom blockchain, allowing developers to mint Fantom RPC endpoints for their applications directly from Pocket Portal, earning $POKT tokens.

Remote Procedure Call is a software communication protocol that one program can use to request a service from a program located on another computer on a network without having to understand the network’s details. RPC is used to call other processes on the remote systems like a local system.

Pocket Network is a blockchain data platform built for applications that use cost-efficient economics to coordinate and distribute data at scale, enabling seamless interactions between blockchains and applications.

Fantom is a highly scalable blockchain platform for DeFi, crypto dApps, and enterprise applications.

Michael Kong, CEO of the Fantom Foundation, said that:

“Having Pocket Network’s decentralized RPC on Fantom brings us one step closer to a future built on censorship-resistant and decentralized infrastructure.”

Pocket provides RPC access to Ethereum, Polygon, and a dozen more blockchain networks. Its native blockchain protocol, cryptocurrency $POKT (a utility token), provides the second layer of full node incentives.

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Fidelity Investments Adds More Than 12,000 New Jobs to Meet Customer Interest in Growing Areas Like Crypto

by Blockchain News

To address customer demands in growing areas like cryptocurrency and direct indexing, Fidelity Investments has created more than 12,000 job offerings to shape the future of financial services. 

As a leading American multinational financial services corporation, Fidelity sees the new jobs as a stepping stone towards sustainable growth in different areas, such as advisory assets, daily trades, and assets under administration. 

Per the announcement:

“The new jobs are across all job functions, particularly customer-facing positions (69 percent) and technology positions (14 percent) and represent one of many ways Fidelity makes significant investments back into the customer experience.”

To meet the preferences of the next generation of investors, Fidelity is also rolling out development and innovative training programs.

For instance, a program dubbed ADAPT is meant to highlight careers at Fidelity in the cryptocurrency and blockchain field. 

With assets under administration hitting $11.3 trillion, Fidelity seeks to adhere to the unique needs of different customers. 

Kristen Kuykendoll, the head of talent acquisition at Fidelity Investments, pointed out:

“Our new career development programs help associates explore what’s next in their careers, learn skills for the future, and improve on processes across our businesses that will make an impact on peoples’ lives.”

The new jobs are expected to be filled by the close of the third quarter. 

This announcement comes days after Fidelity revealed that it would permit the allocation of some of its client’s retirement savings into Bitcoin because this move was necessitated by popular demand, Blockchain.News reported. 

It was pointed out that the permission for subscribers to invest in Bitcoin-backed 401(k) plans was dependent on whether the sponsors of the scheme favored such a move or not.

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Web3 Running App STEPN Launches NFT Sneakers with STEPN

by Blockchain News

Move-to-earn Web3 running app STEPN has partnered with ASICS to release a limited edition of “STEPN x ASICS NFT Sneaker” Mystery Box Collection.

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The NFT sneakers collection was launched exclusively on the Binance NFT Marketplace and hosted on the BNB Chain.

The collection has been co-branded by STEPN and ASICS. Over 195,000 participants and subscribed tickets have been garnered so far for the collection.

ASICS is a manufacturer of performance athletic footwear, apparel and accessories.

While the total trading value has exceeded US$10 million, the floor price has been maintained at over US$3,000 for the collection.

STEPN, Binance and ASICS have jointly decided to donate $100,000 from the sale proceeds of the NFT collection to a charitable cause.

STEPN would reward users with crypto via its app for walking, jogging or running and to participate, a user must purchase an NFT and start either walking, jogging or running outdoors to earn tokens. It also allows users to either spend their earnings within the Web3 ecosystem or withdraw the amount to an external account and cash out a profit.

The company has soared in popularity since its beta launch in December 2021 and topped the US$1 billion dollar market cap. STEPN has also maintained a steady increase in user growth and engagement as the total app downloads have exceeded 1 million.

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Singapore’s Cake DeFi Launches New Loan Service, Accepting Crypto as Collateral

by Blockchain News

Cake DeFi, a Singapore-based fintech platform, announced on Thursday that it has launched a new decentralized finance (DeFi) service that lets users get loans using cryptocurrencies as collateral.

The fintech firm said that the new service – which is called Borrow – allows customers to take a loan in decentralized USD stablecoin (DefiDollars), using their Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), or DeFi Chain (DFI) tokens as collateral, at a preset collateralization ratio of 200% and 5% annual percentage rate (APR), which are subject to change.

Cake DeFi further stated that customers can then spend the borrowed DUSD stablecoin to purchase items or invest in Cake DeFi’s passive income-generating solutions like staking, lending, and liquidity mining, either directly or after swapping it with other coins.

Julian Hosp, Cake DeFi co-founder and CEO, talked about the development and said that the launch of the new product came as a result of strong demand for personal and commercial loans that accept cryptocurrency as collateral. He cited a study by fintech company Stilt that identified that 94% of crypto users are either Generation Z or millennials.

“We are excited to launch Borrow, to provide users with more liquidity to invest in DeFi services while holding on to their assets. DeFi empowers people to generate passive income on their cryptocurrencies without the constant need to trade. It is our goal at Cake DeFi to keep bringing such innovative services to our users,” Hosp elaborated.

Facilitating Innovation and Growth

Early last month, Cake DeFi launched its corporate venture arm with $100 million in the capital.

The new venture arm, called Cake DeFi Ventures, focuses its investments across the metaverse, Web3, the NFT space, fintech, gaming, and esports spaces so as to benefit the core business of the parent company.

Cake DeFi was established in 2019 as a firm dedicated to solving people’s financial problems. The mission of the company is to inform and educate global users about cryptocurrency and DeFi in a simple, understandable, and straightforward manner.

The firm is a fully compliant platform, registered by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Currently, Cake DeFi manages over $1 billion in customer assets and has about 500,000 customers globally. The fintech platform focuses on creating DeFi services and applications such as liquidity mining, staking, and lending, which generates crypto returns for users.

 

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Bitcoin (BTC) $ 27,556.38 1.58%
Ethereum (ETH) $ 1,665.85 3.57%
Litecoin (LTC) $ 66.24 2.56%
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 250.23 2.51%