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2022-04-22 11:57:42 ​​EU officials considered Bitcoin trading ban to enforce proposed mining ban

Previously unseen documents detailing the EU’s conversations around banning Bitcoin have come to light following a freedom of information request.

European Union (EU) officials discussed banning Bitcoin trading during a debate on a proposal to ban Proof of Work mining according to documents obtained through a freedom of information request.

According to a report, published by German digital culture organization Netzpolitik, officials from the EU went as far as suggesting that an all out ban on trading Bitcoin (BTC) should be enforced in order to curb its overall energy consumption.

The most worrying comments from the crypto community’s perspective came from a document that detailed the minutes from an EU meeting with Sweden’s financial supervisor and an environmental protection agency in which officials suggested that regulators pressure the Bitcoin community to switch to a Proof of Stake (PoS) mechanism, instead of its current energy-intensive Proof of Work (PoW) mechanism. A unidentified official in the discussion said:

“Ethereum started moving [to PoS] because of its community…if Ethereum is able to shift, we could legitimately request the same from BTC. We need to ‘protect’ other crypto coins that are sustainable. We don’t see [the] need to ‘protect’ the Bitcoin community.”

Another unnamed speaker suggested that the EU could reasonably place a blanket ban on trading any crypto assets that used a PoW algorithm.

The answer to this question was redacted in the document to protect the “ongoing decision-making process,” but it brings attention to the fact that the EU was seriously considering such dramatic regulation.

When discussing the potential effect of an outright Bitcoin ban on investors and retail traders the officials were largely unconcerned, claiming that all Bitcoin investors are fully aware of downside risk.

“Participants in BTC are fully aware of the volatility of the currency/investment risk. [We] do not need additional protection measures.”

This report comes as Bitcoin’s energy usage continues to draw attention from environmental organizations and regulators. According to the University of Cambridge’s Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, Bitcoin mining currently consumes roughly 139 terawatt hours (Twh) of electricity every year. For comparison, the entire UK only used an estimated 265 Twh in 2021, according to Statista.

At the end of March, Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen teamed up with Greenpeace to pressure Bitcoin to change its consensus mechanism to PoS, much like Ethereum intends to do later this year.

The EU’s Economic and Monetary Affairs committee recently voted against legislation calling for a ban on Proof-of-Work mining. However, these documents do provide unique insight into the lengths that some EU officials are willing to go to in order to crack down on mining-related energy usage.

While it appears that PoS cryptocurrencies remain safe from sweeping regulatory action in the near-term, Bitcoin mining will continue to be a contested issue in the EU. Open / Comment

2022-04-19 12:41:48 Animoca Brands buys major stake in Aussie digital services agency

Be Media has begun an aggressive hiring process in blockchain development and project management following the acquisition.

Nonfungible token (NFT) investment giant Animoca Brands has acquired a significant stake in the Australian digital marketing agency Be Media.

Be Media has locations in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney and has provided Web2 firms with advertising and digital strategy since 2013. While the company isn’t geared toward the crypto sector, the investment seems to be a part of Animoca’s immediate aim to “shepherd companies into Web3.”

According to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph, Be Media will be tasked with seeking out partnerships with top Australian Brands relating to Animoca’s various blockchain-focused initiatives such as NFTs and launching an “open Metaverse.”

“In line with its expanded scope after the acquisition, Be Media has begun an aggressive hiring process in the fields of blockchain development and project management to support the expanding pipeline of opportunities that the company will handle,” the announcement read.

Be Media founder and CEO Jordan Fogarty — who will retain a minor stake and continue with his current role — outlined his enthusiasm for diving into blockchain tech with his firm, noting that he was “honored” to have the chance to help local companies take the plunge into Web3 and “introduce their customers to the metaverse, NFTs, and the power of digital property rights.”

Speaking with the Australian Financial Review (AFR) on Tuesday, Fogarty also suggested that there is currently an “insane” demand from the local business sector to adopt Web3 tech such as NFTs:

“So many brands out there are saying they need to do something in web3, but how, and there’s not many service providers with the skills and experience because it’s so new.”

Animoca Brands, the crypto unicorn valued at around $5 billion, has been on a relentless investment spree over the past couple of years. Last week alone, Cointelegraph reported that the company acquired a 96% stake in Eden Games for $15 million and a 70% stake in Darewise Entertainment.

Both deals are expected to help the company develop triple-A level games backed by blockchain tech. While the investment in Be Media also adds to Animoca Brands’ two other Australian investments, which include gaming firms Blowfish Studios and Grease Monkey Games. Open / Comment

2022-04-13 11:15:00 ​​Content creators introducing a new paradigm with NFTs

Artists and content creators are expanding the creator economy past the $100 billion mark by taking control of their brands through NFTs.

Nonfungible tokens (NFT) have created an environment where artists can take control of their work and finances. Experts agree that artists and creators that tokenize their work and issue it as NFTs no longer have to deal with third-party intermediaries.

Although galleries have traditionally done the leg work in attracting buyers, they are seeing their utility diminish as cheaper decentralized apps (DApps) make it easy for investors to connect directly with their favorite artists. This is creating a new paradigm in the creator economy driven by NFTs.

As the creator economy has topped $100 billion with plenty of upsides, and NFT marketplaces OpenSea and LooksRare doing over $100 million in daily volume according to market tracker DappRadar, it makes a lot of sense for creators to figure out how they can extract as much value for the work they produce.

Australian NFT artist Danielle Weber feels that more artists should be tokenizing their work and taking control of their personal branding. In an email to Cointelegraph, the 10-year artist outlined the many shortcomings she perceives in the traditional art industry and how NFTs have helped her get around them. She is a strong proponent of NFTs as a new tool for creators.

“I definitely encourage all artists to tokenize their works. What really attracted me to the prospect of entering the NFT art scene is that it made art more accessible to everyone.”

Accessibility is an important aspect for artists as they increase their chances to make a sale when more people see their work. The NFT space facilitates direct interaction between artists and fans without the need for intermediaries. This has created what Weber called a “beautiful cycle.”

Former lead engineer at blogging website Medium Julien Genestoux agrees that artists and content creators should be taking control of their products through NFTs, including the interaction with fans. He told Cointelegraph in an April 6 interview that the NFT space helps “remove arbitrary moats” between artists and fans. Open / Comment

2022-04-11 12:09:43 ​​Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest dumps PayPal, favoring Bitcoin-friendly Cash App

Wood believes that Venmo is merely a follower of Cash App, which has generated more than double Venmo’s revenue from almost half the number of users.

Crypto investment company Ark Invest founder Cathie Wood has dumped all of the firm’s holdings of PayPal and showed greater confidence in the long-term growth of the Cash App payment system which uses the Bitcoin (BTC) Lightning Network.

Wood explained her firm’s move at the Miami Bitcoin 2022 conference which wrapped up on Saturday.

The Lightning Network (LN) is a layer-2 solution for Bitcoin meant to facilitate faster and cheaper transactions. Financial technology company PayPal operates the payment app Venmo as a direct competitor with Block’s (formerly Square) Cash App.

Wood said in an interview with CNBC on Friday that she made the decision to drop PayPal for Cash App due to its more comprehensive approach toward digital asset wallet integration. She said that although Venmo has begun to accommodate Bitcoin, “it’s more of a follower of Cash App.”

“We tend to put our bets with who we believe will be the winners […] As we consolidated our portfolios during a risk-off period, we chose Block over PayPal.”

Wood continued that her firm’s conviction in Cash App stems from what she perceives to be the organically-driven growth in users “as opposed to more of a top-down approach” from Venmo.

In general, Wood believes retail investors have driven the crypto market up to this point, as she stated:

“I don’t think most institutional investors are positioned the way they ultimately will be. Retail has really led the charge here.”

Venmo currently boasts 70 million users and $850 million in profit, compared with Cash App’s 44 million and $2.03 billion in profit in 2021, according to data from app tracker Business of Apps. The stark contrast in their ability to net profits could be another motivating factor for Ark’s assessment of the two brands.

As Ark Invest has taken a bullish stance on Cash App, its Bitcoin product lead Miles Suter announced on Thursday that American users would be able to automatically invest a portion of their direct deposits into Bitcoin.

Wood is a big Bitcoin believer who repeated her prediction in the interview that BTC would hit $1 million by 2030. Open / Comment

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2022-04-08 13:24:55 ​​Samson Mow’s new company JAN3 helping build Bitcoin City in El Salvador

Bitcoin entrepreneur Samson Mow has launched a new company called JAN3, reportedly raising $21M in funding at a $100M valuation.

Samson Mow, former chief strategy officer of Blockstream and founder of Pixelmatic, said on Thursday that he has started a new company called JAN3 which will focus on accelerating Bitcoin (BTC) adoption.

The Chinese-Canadian Bitcoin entrepreneur told Reuters that JAN3 has already signed a memorandum of understanding to assist in developing digital infrastructure in El Salvador.

“It‘s a general MOU that says we'll work together to build digital infrastructure for the country and for Bitcoin City.”

Mow added that making the decision for JAN3 to work with El Salvador was an easy choice, “I just set up my company and I said ‘do you want to work together?’ and they said ‘sure.’”

Mow and his new firm will work alongside El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele and its government to assist in the establishment of Bitcoin City, a development that will reportedly use geothermal power from nearby volcanoes to power Bitcoin mining as well as the city‘s infrastructure.

According to JAN3’s recently established Twitter account, which boasts a rapidly growing follower count of 3,300, the company has reportedly raised $21 million in funding at a valuation of $100 million.

The funding round was led by chief investment officer of Atlanta Digital Currency Fund Alistair Milne, co-founder of crypto mining firm F2Pool Chun Wang, as well as El Zonte Capital, a new investment fund founded by prominent Bitcoin bull Max Keiser and his wife, Stacy Herbert.

The news comes as Mow spoke at the Bitcoin 2022 Conference where he announced that two new jurisdictions — The Caribbean island of Roatán and Madeira, an autonomous region of Portugal — would be adopting Bitcoin as legal tender. Mow also mentioned Mexico, but the country is still considering the idea. Open / Comment

2022-04-05 11:39:01 ​​Crypto venture capital firms see surging assets under management

Filings reveal the massive amount of assets that crypto venture funds are managing, Andreessen Horowitz’s (a16z) crypto funds were also disclosed to be worth around $9 billion.

Venture capital (VC) firms focused on Web3 projects and crypto businesses are accumulating billions of dollars worth of assets under management as more capital is injected into the sector.

The assets under management figure for Web3 and crypto investment firm Paradigm has recently been revealed. Filings show that the firm has $13.2 billion in assets, a growth of 343% compared to the $2.98 billion reported in a filing in December 2020.

The filings were reviewed by business journalist Eric Newcomer. Writing for his newsletter, he looked at recent applications with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for some of the biggest venture capital firms in the Web3 and crypto sectors.

To be registered as an “investment advisor,” these firms must disclose their regulatory assets under management with the SEC.

The applications also revealed that Andreessen Horowitz's (a16z) crypto-focused funds totaled around $9 billion. Overall, its total assets under management for all investments topped $54.6 billion.

Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global also posted some big numbers, with $85.5 billion and $124.7 billion respectively, Tiger seeing a 58% increase from $79.1 billion in its filings from last year.

The findings come after a recent report that venture capital money is pouring into crypto. In 2021, $25.2 billion worth of venture capital funding went to global blockchain startups, a 713% increase from the $3.1 billion in 2020. Open / Comment

2022-04-01 14:45:28 Binance wins dismissal of class action over 2018 tokens that tanked

The judge ruled domestic law doesn’t apply to Binance as it is not an exchange domestic to the United States and that the case was filed “too late.”

A federal judge has dismissed a class action complaint asserting Binance violated United States securities laws by not registering as a broker-dealer or exchange and sold crypto tokens that were not registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The original complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York was brought by a group of investors who say they invested in the tokens EOS, BNT, SNT, QSP, KNC, TRX, FUN, ICX, OMG, LEND, ELF and CVC around 2017 and 2018. An amended complaint was filed, only listing nine tokens, with BNT, SMT and CVC removed.

The investors said the tokens had lost much of their value since purchasing and were seeking compensation for the price paid for the tokens and the fees paid to Binance in connection with their purchases.

“Binance and the Issuers wrongfully engaged in millions of transactions, including the solicitation, offer, and sale of securities, without registering the Tokens as securities, and without Binance registering with the SEC as an exchange or broker-dealer. As a result, investors were not informed of the significant risks inherent in these investments, as federal and state securities laws require.”

The investors further claimed that Binance capitalized on the enthusiasm brought on by cryptocurrencies, marketing tokens and initial coin offerings (ICOs) on behalf of projects and profited off the associated trading fees, adding that investors “purchased the tokens with a reasonable expectation of profit from owning them.”

In his decision on Thursday, judge Andrew Carter said that as the investors waited more than a year after purchasing the tokens to file the complaint, they had sued too late. Most of the tokens were purchased in 2018 and the original filing wasn’t until April 2020. Open / Comment

2022-03-28 13:51:58 ​​Rio de Janeiro to accept Bitcoin for real estate taxes from 2023

Supporting this cause led by Mayor Eduardo Paes, Binance CEO announced a new office in the Brazilian city, stating that “He‘s done his part. We are working on ours.”

Rio de Janeiro will officially start accepting Bitcoin (BTC) payments for taxes related to urban real estate within their city limits, otherwise known as Imposto sobre a propriedade predial e territorial urbana (IPTU).

As reported by Cointelegraph Brazil, the new pro-crypto tax laws will be implemented from 2023, which was announced by the Secretary of Economic Development, Innovation and Simplification, Chicão Bulhões.

Supporting this cause led by the Brazilian Mayor Eduardo Paes, Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao announced to open a new office in the region, stating that “He‘s done his part. We are working on ours.” Open / Comment

2022-03-25 13:05:15 ​​LG Electronics adds blockchain and crypto as new areas of business

South Korean tech giant LG Electronics has officially updated its business development goals to include cryptocurrency and blockchain-based software.

South Korean tech giant LG Electronics has officially added blockchain and cryptocurrency as new business areas in its corporate charter.

According to a local South Korean news report, LG added two distinct crypto-related objectives during its annual general meeting on Thursday, March 24. The objectives include “the development and selling of blockchain-based software” and “the sale and brokerage of cryptocurrency,” which led to conjecture whether LG would establish some form of crypto exchange.

When asked about the company’s intention to start its own exchange or platform, an LG spokesperson tempered any speculation, stating, "Nothing has been decided yet. We just mentioned business areas in a broad manner."

Rumors concerning LG creating a crypto-related marketplace emerged earlier this year when Bithumb CEO Heo Baek-young confirmed that the exchange was working with “a large company” to develop an NFT marketplace.

The tech manufacturer has been on a warpath of NFT adoption and integration, announcing earlier this month that it was working with blockchain tech company Kakao’s Ground X to introduce a line of smart TVs that are fully NFT-capable. LG also announced a partnership with Seoul Auction Blue, an online art auctioneer to carry out further projects related to NFT-based artworks.

LG’s announcements come as fellow tech giants and South Korea, more broadly, continue to adopt cryptocurrencies and blockchain-related tech. Earlier this year, fellow South Korean tech giant Samsung, announced that it would be launching an NFT platform for its smart TVs as well as launching its own store in the Decentraland metaverse.

Most notably, the country elected crypto-friendly President Yoon Suk-yeol earlier this month, with Yoon’s election campaign being centered around deregulating South Korea’s crypto industry as well as establishing initiatives to make the country a future home of blockchain technology “unicorns.” Open / Comment