Monat: Januar 2023

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Nexo to pay $45 million to settle SEC charges

  • Nexo reached a $45 million settlement with US regulators, including the SEC.
  • The crypto lender allegedly offered unregistered securities via its Earn Interest Product.
  • Nexo will pay $22.5 to state regulators and the rest to the SEC, with this expected in the next 12 months.

Nexo, a Cayman Islands corporation founded in 2018 and a leading crypto lender, will pay $45 million as settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA).

NASAA announced the settlement late Thursday, noting Nexo had agreed to pay the penalties following the outcome of a comprehensive investigation into an interest product the crypto platform allegedly offered to US customers.

Nexo settlement closes multi-year investigation

According to the press release announcing the settlement, the charges related to Nexo’s offering and sale of alleged unregistered securities via its Earned Interest Product (EIP). The regulatory watchdog noted 17 US state securities regulators had agreed to the reported settlement, with more set to accept it.

“This settlement recognises the important work of state securities regulators and the SEC in making sure that those who are investing their hard-earned money have all the information necessary to understand the risks and rewards of their decisions,” said Charlie Clark, Director, Washington Department of Financial Institutions Agency.

Nexo commented on the landmark settlement via a blog release, confirming it had been reached on a “no-admit-no-deny basis.” This closes a multi-year probe into Nexo’s offerings, particularly its interest bearing accounts.

According to Nexo, the regulators’ inquiries over the past year or so showed the company had not engaged in any fraud. 

“We are content with this unified resolution which unequivocally puts an end to all speculations around Nexo’s relations to the United States. We can now focus on what we do best – build seamless financial solutions for our worldwide audience,” said Nexo co-founder Antoni Trenchev.

The crypto lender will pay $22.5 million to state securities regulators and the rest to the SEC, with the payments made over the next 12 months. Notably. Nexo was in the process of a phased out exit from the United States market. 

Nexo’s native token NEXO rose in the aftermath of the announcement, and was changing hands around $0.84 on Friday afternoon. The NEXO price was up by more than 17% in the past 24 hours as at 12:10 pm ET

The post Nexo to pay $45 million to settle SEC charges appeared first on CoinJournal.

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Fantom launches on-chain funding system Ecosystem Vault

  • Fantom Foundation, the platform behind the Fantom (FTM) blockchain announced the launch of Ecosystem Vault on Friday.
  • Vault is a decentralised funding mechanism that will be financed by 10% of FTM transaction fees.
  • The funds in the vault are available to projects that get 55% approval in community-driven governance vote.

Fantom, a scalable Layer-1 blockchain platform, has officially launched Ecosystem Vault, a decentralised funding pool that will empower and help builders deploy new community-driven projects on the blockchain.

Vault to boost Fantom’s dApps ecosystem

Announcing that Vault was officially live, Fantom noted in a blog post that the funding mechanism will encompass governance proposals from the community.

The project represents Fantom’s continuing evolution as the community eyes further decentralisation, the Fantom Foundation team wrote.

Vault’s on-chain mechanism allows for a funding profile where projects and developers seeking to build decentralised apps (dApps) in the ecosystem can secure financing. As noted above, the funding pool also gives the Fantom community a chance to contribute to the growth of the blockchain via their funding decisions.

Per the Fantom Foundation, the Ecosystem Vault will get funds from 10% of transaction fees. The community controls these funds, which are a result of a reduction in the burn rate of native token FTM.  

Anyone can apply for the funds in the Vault, a process that requires applicants to create a Fantom Governance proposal (has 100 FTM fee). Afterwards, the proposal will need approval from 55% of the community based on 55% quorum. The Foundation tweeted:

As of Friday, 20 January, 2023 at 11:06 am ET, the vault held roughly 69,247 FTM tokens valued at just over $21,000.

The post Fantom launches on-chain funding system Ecosystem Vault appeared first on CoinJournal.

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Bitcoin’s recovery will depend on a lot of macro-activities affecting the market, says Dan Ashmore

  • Coinjournal’s Dan Ashmore says numerous factors, including inflation and rate hikes, have affected the prices of most cryptocurrencies.

  • He told CNBC that Bitcoin’s recovery would depend on numerous macro events affecting the market.

  • Bitcoin and the broader crypto market have lost more than 65% of their value since the all-time high of November 2021.

Bitcoin’s recovery will not happen overnight

Dan Ashmore, a cryptocurrency analyst at Coinjournal, told CNBC in a recent interview that the price recovery of cryptocurrencies will not happen overnight. When commenting about the price collapse last year, Ashmore said;

“Entering 2022, we were at the tail-end of one of the longest and most explosive Bull Runs in recent memory. And then the world is gripped by this inflation crisis post-pandemic. We also experienced one of the swiftest rate hike cycles in recent memories. That sucked the liquidity out of all these risky assets. It is not overly surprising that we have seen this massive pullback.”

The macro climate will play a role in market recovery 

At press time, the price of Bitcoin stands at $21,163, down by more than 60% from the all-time high. While commenting on the possibility of price recovery, Ashmore said the macro climate would play a huge role in that regard. He said;

“In the last month or so, we have seen slightly more positive readings. It still has a long way to go, but it is brighter than it looked a month or two ago. We still have a long way to go before we get back to that $69,000 all-time high. This is not going to be an overnight process.”

He added that the rise depends on a whole range of variables in the macro climate going our way. Furthermore, the avoidance of incidents such as the LUNA, FTX, and Celsius crashes could help boost the market in the long term.

The post Bitcoin’s recovery will depend on a lot of macro-activities affecting the market, says Dan Ashmore appeared first on CoinJournal.

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Blockchain uses: The real expansion has just begun!

  • Blockchain is changing industries and bringing the benefits of the new technology to every day life.
  • Medical innovation and data confidentiality are big trends.
  • Blockchain technology in gaming, supply chain management and digital identity verification are also huge steps.

In recent years, application cases for blockchain have extended significantly beyond bitcoin, with various businesses embracing the tech in a broad range of industries. These industries include healthcare, transportation, and financial services, to name a few.

However, there are a number of hidden things and the curtains are about to get off. Because blockchains are decentralized, transparent, and boost the capacity of an entire network, they open the door for innovations that require a large amount of computational power to be implemented. 

Most significantly, they give customers the ability to exercise control over their assets, which may include their data, without having to rely on any outside parties.

As blockchain technology continues to advance, businesses all over the world are collaborating to discover the most effective methods to apply the technology in a variety of contexts. In order to gather deeper insight, we have sought out initiatives that are changing industries and pushing blockchain closer to the lives of people on a daily basis.

The medical innovation  

For a very long time, physicians or health institutions all over the world have been thought of as the exclusive owners of medical records. 

A database in Argentina that contained sensitive data such as governmental IDs including tax ID numbers with over 115,000 persons who filed for COVID-19 circulation licenses was breached in the year 2020. This database contained the information of everyone who applied for the licenses.

Turning the pitiable state of patients into a comfortable one

Because of this occurrence, ShelterZoom decided to develop a system that would safeguard the medical records of its customers from any future cyber breaches that are comparable to this one. 

In order to empower patients with full ownership and control over their medical information, the firm developed a smart-document software-as-a-service supplier and collaborated with a private hospital.

Users are able to access medical record panels and do any and all essential procedures whenever they choose by utilizing a mobile app or extension based on blockchain technology. It also gives patients the ability to monitor email attachments and access privileges to those documents, irrespective of whether the receiver of the email has even opened it.

As a direct result of the agreement, more than 300,000 individuals have permission to the Web3 application. Additionally, there are plans in place to make the service available to other healthcare professionals in Argentina in the near future.

According to the opinions of several experts, projects centered on first-party information will eventually replace analytics in advertising and serve as the basis for personalization. Users are given the ability to monetize their own data through Web3, and consumers stand to gain considerably as a result of this fundamental innovation that is made possible by blockchain technology.

The authority leading to data confidentiality 

In the decades that have passed since the introduction of the internet, data has evolved into an extremely valuable resource. 

Traditionally, users have donated their personal data to services and websites for free, and they do not receive any monetary advantage when those businesses sell their personal data to other parties. 

Users are able to once again exercise control over their own data and decide for themselves whether or not to commercialize it for their personal advantage when using Web3.

Dimo is a decentralized system for transport data that gives users the ability to produce vehicle data recordings that have been confirmed. 

Owners have the ability to privately share this information with apps, which provides them with the ability to negotiate cheaper insurance and finance prices. The native DIMO token can be earned as a reward for both referrals and active involvement in the network.

According to the opinions of several experts, projects centered on first-party content will soon overtake cookies in marketing and serve as the basis for personalization. 

Users are given the ability to monetize their own data through Web3, and consumers stand to gain considerably as a result of this fundamental innovation that is made possible by blockchain technology.

The luxurious leverages of blockchain 

Customers of high-end brands can now easily confirm the genuineness of their purchases thanks to the Aura Blockchain Consortium. 

For instance, Prada is guaranteeing the authenticity and transparency of its recycled gold jewelry and diamonds through a relationship with Aura, allowing customers to track the items from mine to finger.

By the same token, there are certain AI-based trading bots too, go URL and know how these bots have turned basic trading mechanisms into luxurious ones. 

Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, and other LVMH labels are also part of the group. The company provides its customers with an Aura-powered diamond certificate detailing the features, history, and travel of each stone.

The jewelry trade has struggled with the issue of traceability for a long time, notably in regard to diamonds, despite the trade’s efforts to sell only conflict-free gems.

While ConsenSys developed the blockchain infrastructure and the traceability smart contracts for Aura, the Ethereum blockchain is the foundation around which Aura is built. Mercedes-Benz and Cartier are two additional members of the funding group.

The silver lining 

Blockchain technology is being adopted in a wide variety of industries, from healthcare to gaming to supply chain management to digital identity verification. 

With Ethereum as well as other blockchains now able to store and run computer code, the number of potential applications for this cutting-edge technology has skyrocketed.

Over the past year, we’ve dispelled the misconceptions that cryptocurrencies serve as a bank for the unbanked, provide a safe haven from inflation and that Decentralized Finance (DeFi) financial engineering can produce higher returns than any other asset class. 

Recently, though, people have returned to ask about the practical applications of digital assets rather than my forecasts for their future prices. And that’s making headway.

The recent events may prove to be a blessing in disguise by shifting the blockchain industry’s focus from financial engineering to more appealing business applications that actually add value.

The post Blockchain uses: The real expansion has just begun! appeared first on CoinJournal.