Crypto Lake

2022-04-02 17:00:43 KunciCoin keeps on pushing their way to succeed in DeFi and we are proud to see that they are listed in @BitrueOfficial

Since we posted for the first time, over 14 top exchanges were listed, over $3M of daily trading volume and a game studio with 20 million downloads.

Congratulations to the team for the achievements, join @KunciGlobalOfficial to know further. Open / Comment

2022-03-30 20:00:42 ​Russian Ministry of Energy Calls for Urgent Legalization of Crypto Mining

The legal vacuum in the crypto mining sector must be filled “as soon as possible,” according to a statement by Russian Deputy Minister of Energy Evgeniy Grabchak. The government official also called for introducing regional quotas for crypto farms instead of regulating their business at the federal level.

Cryptocurrency mining needs to be regulated soon, Evgeniy Grabchak insisted during Russia’s first national conference of legal bitcoin miners, held recently in Irkutsk. The Siberian oblast, where electricity rates start at just $0.01 per kWh, has been dubbed “the mining capital of Russia” as coin minting in the region spiked after China cracked down on the industry last May. Quoted by Tass, Grabchak elaborated:

The legal vacuum makes it difficult to regulate this field and establish transparent rules of the game. It needs to be eliminated as soon as possible… We have no other options in the current reality. The legal regulation, fitting the concept of mining into the regulatory framework must be implemented.

Russia’s deputy minister of energy further suggested that it would be more expedient to determine sites for mining facilities and the available energy capacities at the regional instead of federal level. These quotas must be in compliance with the development plans of the Russian regions, other industries, and the energy system, he added.

Authorities in Irkutsk and elsewhere have previously stated their readiness to provide sites for the industrial extraction of cryptocurrencies, if the business is recognized as an entrepreneurial activity as a growing number of officials have been suggesting. Calls in that direction have been issued by the chairman of the parliamentary Financial Market Committee, Anatoly Aksakov, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, and the Governor of Irkutsk Oblast, Igor Kobzev.

Amid mounting western sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine, Russia has seen an opportunity to use cryptocurrencies to regain access to global finances, while Moscow is considering accepting bitcoin for its energy exports. Despite the strong opposition of the Bank of Russia to legalizing a range of crypto activities, including mining, government efforts to regulate the country’s crypto space have resumed.

Most institutions have sided with the Finance Ministry’s approach which favors regulation under strict oversight, over a blanket ban. In February, the department submitted a new bill “On Digital Currency.” In January, President Vladimir Putin urged the government and the central bank to resolve their differences and highlighted Russia’s competitive advantages as a mining destination. Open / Comment

2022-03-27 20:00:32 ​​Secretary Yellen recognizes ‘benefits of crypto’ despite lingering skepticism.

U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen speaks to CNBC‘s Squawk Box shares her views on the state of digital assets amid calls for imposed regulations.

Janet Yellen, the 78th United States Secretary of the Treasury, spoke Friday morning on CNBC’s flagship business and politics show Squawk Box on an array of topics such as the growth of the renewable energy sector amid Russia’s economic isolation, the rising levels of inflation and Federal Reserve responsibility and her current perspective on digital assets.

Recognizing the multitude of technological and societal advancements within the cryptocurrency space over the past few years, Yellen offered a friendlier more receptive tone than on previous occasions, stating that crypto is “now playing a significant role, not really so much in transactions, but in investment decisions of lots of Americans.”

“There are benefits from crypto, and we recognize that innovations in the payments system can be a healthy thing.”

Yellen was keen to raise some concerns around the market’s financial stability — an assessment often leveled at the industries‘ highly-volatile assets from experts and officials operating within the Wall Street jurisdiction — in addition to consumer investment protection and its usage for illicit transactions.

Yellen’s historical sentiment of digital assets can be quaintly summarized by recalling her remarks at the February 2021 U.S. Financial Sector Innovation Policy Roundtable: “I see the promise of these new technologies, but I also see the reality,” continuing to list problems with money laundering, online drug traffickers and finance terrorism in the industry.

Earlier this month, President Joe Biden issued an executive order on crypto — his 82nd under tenure — and advocated for a unification of all regulatory bodies in publishing consumer-centric financial frameworks.

Industry leaders largely praised the order and spoke with hope on the opportunities it could present moving forward. Yellen stated that it could “result in substantial benefits for the nation, consumers, and businesses.” Open / Comment

2022-03-24 20:00:47 ​​Digital currencies could get a boost from the international crisis: BlackRock CEO.

BlackRock CEO believes the current crisis, added with growing inflation would lead to the formation of a global digital payment network.

Larry Fink, the CEO of the world’s largest asset manager BlackRock, believes the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis has boosted the case for digital currencies as a tool of settlement for international transactions.

In a letter to shareholders, Fink noted that the ongoing war would force nations to reassess their currency dependencies, which eventually could make way for a global digital payment network, reported Reuters. He said the war has put an end to the globalization forces at work over the past 30 years.

Fink’s observation about the boost in the digital currency market is quite spot on, as trade sanctions on Russia have already led many countries that import oil and gas from there to look for alternate payment networks beyond centralized SWIFT. India is reportedly developing a direct INR payment gateway to buy energy supplies while discussion about a digital payment network is also on the rise.

"A global digital payment system, thoughtfully designed, can enhance the settlement of international transactions while reducing the risk of money laundering and corruption," Fink said.

According to rumors, Ripple partner The Clearing House is in talks with Wells Fargo to develop a SWIFT alternative.

Russian local Bitcoin trading volume has also registered a spike in March after seeing a constant decline over the past year. That said, prior to the Ukraine invasion, the country was looking to regulate the cryptocurrency market positively.

Ukraine, on the other hand, legalized cryptocurrencies on March 16, 2022, after receiving millions in crypto aid from around the world. The war-torn nation has already raised over $100 million in crypto donations, which they have used to reinforce their army and buy supplies.

Cryptocurrencies over the years have proven to be a great hedge against troubled times but with the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, it has become a prominent tool for international settlements and sending out quick relief. Open / Comment

2022-03-23 16:00:53 Sphere Finance aims to do governance acquisitions using a treasury amassed by investors, for investors. The profits from the investments are then sent to investors as dividends in the form of the $SPHERE token every 30 minutes, 48 times a day. The treasury is amassed through taxes that users agree to pay for buying, selling & transferring their tokens, including the "Dynamic" tax, an additional tax for every % of the LP that you hold and sell on a transactional basis. Later, the project will take the form of an index fund, like an S&P 500 of crypto, airdropping tokens as dividends to holders. Join the movement.

Telegram: https://t.me/SphereDeFi
Discord: https://discord.gg/spheredefi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SphereDeFi Open / Comment

2022-03-21 20:00:31 ​Russia Tries to Replace Apple Pay and Google Pay with Gazprom Pay.

Russian banks are continuing to ramp up the range of services they provide in a bid to continue providing their services outside the global banking networks they have been frozen out of after Russia invaded Ukraine.

As previously reported, a number of Russian banks and their cards have been frozen out of digital payment platforms such as Apple Pay and Google Pay in line with Western-led sanctions. But banks are responding with a number of solutions, including a new service from Gazprombank, the banking branch of the state-controlled energy giant Gazprom.

Per a press release, the bank has unveiled a solution named the GazpromPay wallet, which should go online on March 22. The bank said that the wallet will allow users to make “quick, convenient, and safe” payments from any bank card when using online stores.

The bank added that the wallet would allow customers with smart devices to link existing bank cards as well as “instantly issue” and use “virtual cards” in order to make purchases at online stores with “profitable cashback” options providing up to 5% refunds on purchases.

The solution will do away with the need for customers to enter card details every time they pay online, the firm said, adding that the “need to invest in the development of such services in Russia today has acquired particular relevance” in recent days.

As reported earlier today, fellow Russian banks including Sberbank have been granted permission to operate “digital financial asset” issuance and exchange services in a bid to broaden the range of services they provide their customers as sanctions continue to bite.

Meanwhile, in a further sign that reports of the disillusionment of key Vladimir Putin aide Elvira Nabiullina may have been premature, the latter – the Governor of the Central Bank – has stated that a “gradually resumption” of trading will begin on the Moscow Exchange. Open / Comment

2022-03-18 21:00:37 ​​Australian competition regulator takes Meta to court over fake crypto ads.

The ACCC highlighted unapproved or endorsed “scam” ads featuring prominent Australian figures such as entrepreneur Dick Smith, TV host David Koch and former NSW premier Mike Baird, in particular.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is taking Meta Platforms, Inc. (formerly Facebook) to the Federal Court, alleging that the firm and its Irish branch engaged in “false, misleading or deceptive conduct” by publishing scam celebrity crypto ads.

Some users have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars to the sophisticated and long-running scams tied to the ad.

The spotlight on Meta has heated up in Australia since the start of February, with Cointelegraph previously reporting that the ACCC was investigating the firm over allegedly fraudulent crypto ads. Aussie mining billionaire Andrew Forrest also took legal action against the company for hosting ads that allegedly used his name to defraud victims.

In an announcement posted earlier today, the ACCC asserted that Meta “aided and abetted or was knowingly concerned in false or misleading conduct and representations by the advertisers.”

The ACCC highlighted unapproved or endorsed “scam” ads featuring prominent Australian figures such as entrepreneur Dick Smith, TV host David Koch and former NSW premier Mike Baird.

The regulator stated that the ads contained dubious links which directed users off Facebook to a fake media article that featured quotes attributed to the public figure supposedly endorsing a “cryptocurrency or money-making scheme.”

“Users were then invited to sign up and were subsequently contacted by scammers who used high-pressure tactics, such as repeated phone calls, to convince users to deposit funds into the fake schemes,” the announcement read.

ACCC Chair Rod Sims didn’t mince his words, as he asserted that, “Meta is responsible for these ads that it publishes on its platform” and that company the stood to gain financially by failing to remove them:

“It is a key part of Meta’s business to enable advertisers to target users who are most likely to click on the link in an ad to visit the ad’s landing page, using Facebook algorithms. Those visits to landing pages from ads generate substantial revenue for Facebook.” Open / Comment

2022-03-15 20:00:57 ​​Hashdex to launch Web3 and smart contracts ETF on Brazil's stock exchange B3.

The new ETF's reserve period started on Monday and runs until March 25, 2022, according to the announcement.

Hashdex, a global crypto-focused asset manager, has revealed the launch of its Web3 Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) with a new announcement.

As per a report by Cointelegraph Brazil, the new ETF will be available on B3, Brazil's main stock exchange, and will give investors a secure and diversified way to invest in Web3 and its underlying smart contract platforms.

The new ETF's reserve period started Monday, March 14, 2022, and runs until Friday, March 25, 2022. Hashdex's co-founder and CEO Marcelo Sampaio said the company believes that Web3 represents the future of the internet and is a further indication of blockchain technology's potential. He added that:

"The WEB311 ETF not only provides exposure to the smart contract platforms underpinning Web3, but serves as an accessible and unique way to invest in projects that will be the main engine of the internet of the future."

The new product was announced in conjunction with CF Benchmarks, one of the world's major providers of digital asset market indexes. WEB311 will mirror the “CF Web 3.0 Smart Contract Platforms Market Cap Index," as per the announcement.

The index will comprise tokens from two industry-leading platforms with the most valuable DeFi contracts in terms of total value locked in their protocols — Ethereum (ETH) (22.5%) and Solana (SOL) (22.1%) — as well as emerging ecosystems. They fall under the category of Cardano (ADA) (22.5%), Polkadot (DOT) (19.5%), Algorand (ALGO) (8.8%), Tezos (XTZ) (3.5%); and Cosmos (ATOM) (1.1%).

Hashdex is a fund manager that issues licensed crypto investment funds, having launched its first cryptocurrency-focused ETF, HASH11, in April of last year. Hashdex also offers a Nasdaq-weighted BTC/Nasdaq Crypto Index fund and a Bitcoin Risk Parity Gold Fund.

In August 2021, Hashdex introduced an ETF dedicated to the future of the internet, which is decentralized and built on blockchain technology with the ticker BITH11. Open / Comment

2022-03-12 20:00:32 ​​Bank of Israel issues draft guidelines on cryptocurrency AML/CFT.

Private banks could be required to conduct risk assessments on case-by-case basis.

On Friday, the Bank of Israel published a draft regulation on Anti-Money-Laundering and Combatting the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) risk management for the banks facilitating crypto-to-fiat transactions.

The move hints at the Israeli government’s preparations to legalize and regulate the relationship between banks and virtual currency service providers (VASPs). The document cites the customers’ increased involvement with digital assets as the rationale for the new policy:

“In view of the increase in customer activity in virtual currencies, and the resulting increase in customer requests to transfer money the Banking Supervision Department today published a draft circular dealing with managing AML/CFT risks derived from the provision to customers of payment services related to activity originating in virtual currencies.”

The regulator emphasizes the “high potential risk” of digital asset transactions due to the anonymity of digital wallets and stresses the need to establish mechanisms of money identification. For now, this task is divided into two major components: conducting rigorous risk assessments and clarifying “the source of the money used in the purchase of the virtual currency and the path through which the virtual currency passed” between purchase and conversion into fiat.

As the release clarifies, banks would only be allowed to deal with the entities holding a license to provide financial asset services issued by the supervisor of the Capital Market, Insurance and Savings Authority.

The draft amendment was sent to the Advisory Council on Banking Matters, which is expected to provide additional input that, along with public commentary, will be considered by the Bank of Israel in the process of finalizing the guidelines.

In November 2021, the Israeli government obliged VASPs to obtain an operating license from the Israel Securities Authority and the Capital Markets, Insurance and Savings Authority. With the AML/CFT guidelines for banks now on the table, the nation is moving even closer to getting a comprehensive framework for digital asset transactions. Open / Comment

2022-03-09 20:00:42 ​​Google Trends data reveals that no one cares about the metaverse or NFTs in 2022.

Search interest for keywords “metaverse” and “NFT” has continued to drop since the start of the year.

While the worldwide search interest for the keywords “metaverse” and “NFT” boomed in the last quarter of 2021, Google Trends data shows that the hype may have started to fizzled in February 2022.

Google Trends shows that in the last 12 months, searches for “metaverse” gained traction from October to December 2021. However, since the beginning of 2022, the search interest has continued to drop, hitting its lowest point in March.

Apart from the keyword “metaverse,” the data shows that the worldwide search for “NFT” has also started its decline this year. However, the drop for NFT is more noticeable, as it reached record highs in 2021 then fell steeply in the first quarter of 2022.

In the last 12 months, users from Turkey have been at the top of the interest-by-region category in Google Trends for the keyword “metaverse.” The country surpassed China and Singapore, which rank No. 2 and 3, respectively. Cyprus and Lebanon follow closely at fourth and fifth, respe.

Meanwhile, Singapore has held the top spot in the interest-by-region list for the last 12 months for the keyword “NFT.” The country is followed by Hong Kong, China, Canada and the Philippines.

Back in December, the global search interest for “NFT” surpassed “crypto” for the first time. Apart from this, monthly trading volume in the NFT marketplace OpenSea also hit a new all-time high in January. The increase in search volume for the keyword and trading volume shows that NFTs have finally caught mainstream attention.

The growth of nonfungible tokens (NFT) in 2021 has been attributed to some of the biggest NFT drops of the past year and the celebrities who started to offer their own collections. From influential rappers such as Snoop Dogg to marketing experts such as Gary Vaynerchuk, many figures brought interest to NFTs last year. Open / Comment