Crypto Shake

2022-06-19 18:00:04 ​​No, USDD Is Not De-pegged Below $0.97, Tron DAO Insists

TronDAO shared brief a Q&A on the status of reserves backing USDD and further plans for activities necessary to keep its liquidity ecosystem healthy.

Such fluctuations are inevitable due to market volatility, as USDD is a decentralized stablecoin that is not backed by a banking mint and redemption balances. As such, a market volatility rate around 3% is acceptable for this product.

After recent injections, USDD becomes virtually the most over-collateralized decentralized stablecoin in the Web3 segment. Currently, it is backed by a liquidity pool of 1,080,000,000 USDC; 10,874,566,176 TRX; 14,040.6 BTC and 140,013,886 USDT.

As such, the USDD collateralization rate is over 320%, as covered by U.Today previously. At the same time, some USDD and TRX positions were liquidated amid volatility spikes.

Collaborations with CEXes and DEXes are in sight
Today, June 18, 2022, the price of USDD jumped to $0.98 before plunging again below $0.965. TronDAO stresses that, despite such fluctuations, TRON DAO Reserve has a "very healthy" balance sheet.

USDD pools on Sunio DeFi protocol have over $200 million in liquidity, which is more than sufficient for its normal operations.

As such, TronDAO is going to score new partnerships with both centralized and decentralized cryptocurrency trading services, its team says. Open / Comment

2022-06-17 19:00:05 ​​BlackRock’s Blazier says the investment giant is ‘not buying the dip’

2022 has been marked by significant declines in the value of U.S. stocks, the likes of which have not been seen since the 1960s.

Meanwhile, the investment management juggernaut BlackRock (NYSE: BLK) suggests that traders and investors avoid buying the dip and instead wait it out.

According to Alex Brazier, the company’s deputy head, who spoke with Bloomberg Markets on June 17, BlackRock remains neutral on stocks over the next six to twelve months, as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq continue to rack up losses and the Treasury yields are rising.

“We are not buying this dip because it’s not a dip; it’s actually driven by a shift in the fundamentals of the equity market. We’ve got a higher rate path we’ve got now a rising probability of recession in the U.S., a very high likelihood of a recession in Europe at the same time, and as a result, equities don’t look cheap to us.”

Micro bullish but macro bearish
Furthermore, margins in the U.S. are at an all-time high, which puts pressure on wages and buying power of the consumers, so expectations of increasing wages are driving analysts to believe that profit margins for companies will be eroded with such an increase. Speaking on this issue, Brazier sees an out for the U.S.:

“Things that that’s going to help the U.S. to sort out its macro position is actually something that’s kind of macro bullish but micro bearish.”

Speaking on investment opportunities under these market conditions, the BlackRock deputy said that now is not necessarily a time to be in cash but rather eye the energy markets and commodities, which may be in short supply.

“This isn’t the market where you come out necessarily into cash, but it’s a market where we’re more cautious. We’re looking for signs particularly from the Federal Reserve over time that it is acknowledging the impact it’s having on growth.” Open / Comment

2022-06-13 20:30:00 ​​Former Engineer at Coinbase Issues Tips to Grow DeFi by 100x

Blake West, a former senior engineer at Coinbase, shares tips he believes may put the decentralized financial (DeFi) industry at a better competitive edge against the traditional financial economies.

He did this via a 12-paragraph Twitter thread on June 9, 2022, in which he started by posing a question: “Want DeFi to grow 100x from here? The answer is to be boring!”

Firstly, he compared the revenue of the markets. According to him, the global e-commerce companies made $2.2 trillion in revenue last year, while the non-fungible token (NFT) revenue from creators was only $3.9 billion.

West argues that speculative activities in crypto, NFTs, gaming, or web3 social are great but would do the DeFi industry less good. He believes the DeFi industry needs to move away from speculations and into the boring everyday financial activities of the legacy industries.

He added that the DeFi industry would prove a strong adversary only when it solves financial problems more efficiently.

Ad spending did not only happen to “internet native” activities. It stole market share from TV, radio, newspapers, etc. because it offered a better way to solve the same problem. So the challenge in front of DeFi is the same faced by every other technology that has aimed to disrupt the status quo. It must solve the same old problems, but better.

According to Binance Academy, DeFi is the use of decentralized networks and open-source software to create financial services and products. The functions of DeFi include creating monetary banking services like the issuance of stablecoins, providing peer-to-peer or pooled lending and borrowing platforms, and enabling advanced financial instruments such as DEX, tokenization platforms, derivatives, etc. Open / Comment

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2022-06-12 22:00:01 ​​Orderly Network Raises $20M for DeFi Infrastructure on Near Protocol

Orderly Network, a decentralized exchange (DEX) protocol, completed a $20 million strategic round of financing from several crypto funds, it said in a note shared with CoinDesk.

Orderly Network is a permissionless protocol and modular ecosystem built on top of Near Protocol. It relies on smart contracts to conduct peer-to-peer trading and offers risk management and shared asset pools for users.

Crypto funds Three Arrows Capital, Pantera Capital, Dragonfly Capital, Sequoia China, Jump Crypto, Alameda Research, GSR Ventures and MetaWebVC participated in the round.

“We are proud to back Orderly as they build out top-performing infrastructure and deep liquidity on Near,” said Kyle Davies, co-founder at Three Arrows Capital, in a statement. “Infrastructure being built for traders by traders results in better products that are designed to meet the specific needs and provide the best possible trading experience.”

Orderly will use the financing to enlarge its team, enter partnerships with other crypto firms and build new decentralized finance (DeFi) products, the firm said.

It will also start community lending pools to enhance liquidity on its platform. Token holders will be able to lend assets to market makers on such pools while receiving yields.

Founded in April 2022, Orderly Network received initial investment from Near and liquidity platform WOO Network. Market maker Kronos Research will provide initial liquidity, ensuring trading pairs are liquid after the platform’s public launch. Open / Comment

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2022-06-10 21:30:00 ​​EU Countries Close to Reaching Deal on Crypto Regulation

European Union countries are close to reaching a deal in the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulatory framework, Bloomberg reports.

Negotiators still have to iron out certain issues before reaching a consensus.

The regulation of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and stablecoins is a hot-button issue at the center of ongoing debates.

Regulators are mulling over limiting the size of transactions made with dollar-backed cryptocurrencies.

Member states are also considering creating a slew of anti-money laundering rules that have to be included in the regulatory framework.

The EU also wants to introduce climate-related disclosures in order to keep track of Bitcoin's environmental impact. Negotiators are discussing specific requirements for cryptocurrency service providers. As reported by U.Today, several amendments were introduced in order to restrict the use of proof-of-work. However, the European Parliament voted against including a de facto ban on Bitcoin mining in the MiCA framework after facing backlash from members of the cryptocurrency industry.

In March, EU lawmakers also approved a crackdown on anonymous cryptocurrency transfers. The draft bill is still undergoing trialogue negotiations.

France, which is currently at the helm of the council of the European Union, is presiding over the ongoing discussions. Open / Comment

2022-06-07 21:51:52 ​​Microsoft is hiring a Web 3.0 product manager as expansion into crypto accelerates

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) continues to strengthen its position in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space through relevant hirings, with the company announcing a position for Web 3.0 and Blockchain Principal Product Manager.

The job posting published on the company’s website on June 6 indicates that the successful candidate would be part of the Microsoft Cloud for Industry Growth and Expansion Team (MCIGET). Under this role, the primary task will be to ‘bring clarity, generate energy and deliver success for Microsoft in blockchain and crypto.’

Additionally, other responsibilities entail interacting with external blockchain and crypto ISVs to build on the Microsoft Cloud. The candidate will also be responsible for assisting in refining the general Microsoft blockchain and crypto strategy and execution.

One notable requirement for the job is experience in crypto, blockchain, distributed ledgers, or Web 3.0 and conceptual knowledge of modern cryptography.

Microsoft’s advances into crypto world
Overall, the team’s expansion adds to Microsoft’s recent efforts to integrate crypto into its existing products. According to the company:

“The blockchain and crypto market presents Microsoft with an opportunity to grow usage of our tools, platforms, and products in new ways and with new customers. We can apply lessons learned from prior blockchain work to guide engagement with partners who extend these technologies into their industries.”

Microsoft has been scaling its cryptocurrency and blockchain teams with strategic hiring in recent months. For instance, the software firm announced the Director of Crypto Business Development position in February. The successful hire was to assist in laying the foundation for Microsoft’s Web 3.0 strategy.

An analysis of the hiring spree indicates that the company is gradually establishing itself as a key player in emerging technologies like Web 3.0.

Already, the firm has expressed interest in venturing into the virtual worlds after successfully acquiring video gaming company Activision Blizzard for a deal worth $95.00 per share. The acquisition is expected to close in 2023 and will play a vital role in the company’s shift towards the metaverse. Open / Comment

2022-06-05 20:30:00 ​​DeFi Ledgers Can Help Regulators Oversee Sector, BIS Official Says

Decentralized Finance (DeFi) can be regulated by relying on its own trust-creating mechanisms to collect compliance data, according to Raphael Auer, head of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Eurosystem Innovation Hub.

A working paper authored by Auer titled "Embedded supervision: how to build regulation into decentralized finance," published Wednesday, argues that the compliance of DeFi players can be automatically monitored by "reading the market’s ledger."

"This reduces the need for firms to actively collect, verify and deliver data," the paper said.

DeFi is a term used to describe a range of intermediary-free financial applications built on a blockchain. The applications are built on distributed ledgers used to record transactions and for verification purposes. Although it is often championed by the crypto world and Web3 enthusiasts, DeFi has left regulators around the world sounding alarms over the urgent need to supervise the space.

But aside from a 2021 quarterly review by the BIS, an umbrella group for central banks, that called "decentralization" in DeFi an "illusion," and argued that centralized points within DeFi could allow regulators ways into establishing control over the space, little practical headway has been made in establishing oversight.

The technology of embedded supervision, however, has attracted interest from policymakers. At the request of lawmakers, the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union responsible for proposing new legislation, is currently preparing to charter a study on the potential impact of linking supervisory data applications to decentralized finance, as a precursor to potential further legislation.

But some have expressed skepticism about whether it is even possible to carry out such supervision on smart contracts where the code is unchangeable. Embedded supervision is “both nice to have and unworkable in practice,” George Giaglis, professor at the University of Nicosia Department of Digital Innovation told CoinDesk.

"You cannot enforce this at the protocol level. Unless you did something totally stupid like, you know, embedding code in smart contracts that would allow regulators to peer into transactions or something like that, which are things that cannot happen in practice," he said. Open / Comment

2022-06-03 22:30:00 ​​Lawmakers introduce bill to include crypto in Congressional disclosures

Representatives Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and Dusty Johnson (R-SD) have introduced a bill that would require members of Congress to disclose financial interests in crypto.

The lawmakers introduced the bill on May 20, when it was referred to the Committee on House Administration as the "Cryptocurrency Accountability Act."

The bill would amend the Ethics in Government Act, a 1978 law passed in the wake of the Watergate Scandal requiring public officials to disclose their financial and employment history and the history of their immediate families. If passed, it would amend the section describing the necessary disclosures to include:

"A brief description, the date, and category of value of any purchase, sale, or exchange in cryptocurrency by the Member or spouse or dependent child of the Member during the preceding calendar year which exceeds $1,000."

Here, cryptocurrency is described as "any digital representation of value which is recorded on a cryptographically secured distributed ledger or any similar technology."

It would also require the "identity and category of value" expressed as a dollar amount of any interest in crypto. It sets a 45-day clock from notice of the purchase of the asset to the disclosure. Failing to do so could result in a small fine or civil action brought by the Attorney General if the incident is willfully hidden. Open / Comment