Kategorie: Crypto Business

• Nexo’s native token NEXO jumped more than 8% as the company announced an additional repurchase plan worth $50 million.
• The repurchase starts immediately and will continue over the next six months.
• Nexo completed a $100 million buyback program, launched in November 2021,  in May this year.

Digital assets platform Nexo has committed a further $50 million to its long-standing buyback program after the initiative received backing from the company’s Board of Directors, according to details shared on Tuesday.

The board’s approval allows the crypto lender to make discretionary and periodic repurchases of the native token NEXO, the firm announced.

With the $50 million commitment, Nexo is set to add to the $100 million buyback plan the company launched in November 2021, and which ended in May this year.

“The allocation of an additional $50 million to our buyback plan is a result of our solid liquidity position and Nexo’s ability and readiness to spur on its own products, token, and community, alongside its outward-facing initiatives of injecting liquidity into the industry,” said Nexo co-founder Antoni Trenchev.

The native token NEXO  

According to Nexo, the buyback will be from the open market and starts immediately. The firm also expects the program to continue for the next six months, with all token repurchases going into the company’s on-chain reserve for a vesting period of 12 months.

At the end of the lock-up period, Nexo could use the repurchased tokens to pay daily interest to customers via the native NEXO token. The platform could also use them in strategic investments through token mergers, with the deals incorporating vesting schemes to protect NEXO holders’ interests.

Currently, NEXO price is around $1.04, gaining by more than 8% in the past 24 hours and nearly 17% up over the past week. Despite the crypto bear market, the NEXO token is up by more than 43% over the past month.

So, although NEXO is down more than 70% from its all-time high above $4.00 reached in May 2021, demand for the token looks to be strong across the market.

“In these challenging market conditions, the NEXO Token has moved consistently with the likes of BTC and ETH, demonstrating that, proportionally, demand for our native asset remains strong. Right now, our investors and clients require solid ground to walk on, and our third token buyback ensures this added stability as we emerge from the latest market rollercoaster,” Trenchev added.

The post Nexo commits additional $50M to buyback initiative appeared first on CoinJournal.

The government of Mendoza has added crypto to legal tax payment options and provided a step-by-step guide for users.

The Mendoza province, the wine capital of Argentina and one of the world’s leading destinations for oenophiles, now accepts cryptocurrency for tax obligations and other government fees.

This is after the Mendoza Tax Administration (ATM), the province’s tax agency, announced it had added the new payment method to facilitate payment of taxes online.

Pay tax online with crypto

According to a press release the government published on Friday, taxpayers can go to the tax administration’s ‘pay online’ section and follow a step-by-step guide on how to pay their taxes with crypto.

“This new service is part of the strategic objective of modernization and innovation carried out by the Mendoza Tax Administration so that taxpayers have different means to comply with their tax obligations,” read part of the press release.

The crypto payment option will support all types of crypto wallets and taxpayers will have to scan a QR Code to complete the transaction, the agency advises in the guide.

But while the payments will be made in crypto, ATM has partnered with a crypto payments provider to convert cryptocurrencies into the local currency pesos. This will help the tax watchdog to offer proof of payment as well as remit these to the government in pesos, according to the announcement.

The government of Mendoza’s move to accept crypto for tax obligation payments comes as more people turn to cryptocurrencies as Argentina’s inflation skyrockets. Annual inflation hit a 20-year high of 71% in figures reported earlier this month, with the central bank hiking interest rates by 950 bps to 69.5%.

Economists recently projected the country’s inflation rate will hit 90% by the end of the year.

The post Argentina’s wine capital Mendoza accepts crypto for provincial taxes appeared first on CoinJournal.

FTX has been active in the acquisitions arena this year, snapping up firms like Liquid and Bitvo amid the crypto winter.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of crypto exchange FTX, has said his company does not plan to acquire cryptocurrency exchange Huobi.

The FTX boss, whose firm has in recent months dominated news headlines around huge acquisition and expansion efforts amid the crypto winter, noted in a tweet on Monday:

“Just to be explicit because apparently a lot of people are saying this: No, we are not planning to acquire Huobi.”

Just to be explicit because apparently a lot of people are saying this:

No, we are not planning to acquire Huobi.

— SBF (@SBF_FTX) August 29, 2022

Huobi launched in 2013, one of the earliest cryptocurrency exchanges, and one with a growing footprint following establishments in Korea and Hong Kong.

FTX’s acquisitions and plans

Bankman-Fried’s remarks come after reports surfaced of FTX being in talks to acquire Huobi. 

According to one such recent report, Huobi founder Leon Li had discussed the sale of a majority stake in his company to FTX, with the potential bid then putting the exchange’s valuation at around $3 billion.

Reports also claimed that Tron (TRX/USD) founder and former CEO Justin Sun had also shown interest in Huobi. Sun also refuted the claim.

FTX’s growth plans despite the crypto winter include acquisition of crypto exchange Liquid and trading platform Bitvo. 

The firm, which also has an agreement to acquire crypto lender BlockFi, has reportedly also been in talks to acquire South Korea-based crypto exchange Bithumb.

The post Sam Bankman-Fried denies FTX is looking to acquire Huobi appeared first on CoinJournal.

The investment round also included Binance Labs, Crypto.com, FTX Ventures and Circle Ventures among other institutional investors.

EMURGO’s venture arm has invested in Web3 hackathon leader DoraHacks as it eyes further development of the Cardano (ADA) ecosystem.

The funding round also attracted leading institutional investors within the crypto market, including FTX Ventures, Binance Labs, Crypto.com Capital, Gemini Frontier Fund, Circle Ventures and Sky9 Capital.

Eyeing Cardano’s Web3 ecosystem

An EMURGO press release on Monday noted that the investment into the hacker movement is part of the company’s mission of promoting global hackathons exclusive to the Cardano blockchain. 

DoraHacks is the most active hackathon developer community,  counting more than 300,000 devs and experts.

The two firms are thus looking to bring top Web3 dApps to Cardano via DoraHacks’ open source DAO-as-a-service platform DoraFactory. According to the announcement, the platforms also eye collaborative efforts on bounties, grant programs, and curation of top projects within the Cardano universe. 

“We expect this investment to drive and scale Cardano’s Web3 developer community through co-hosting hackathons, bring more funding and technological resources to Cardano’s decentralized funding programs for Cardano devs, and ultimately accelerate Cardano’s Web3 in the years to come,” said Kaimin Hu, a venture partner at EMURGO Ventures.

EMURGO Ventures’ plan to scale Cardano comes as its community awaits the launch of Vasil, an upgrade meant to boost the proof-of-stake blockchain platform’s scaling capabilities.

Though delayed since June, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson recently noted that the highly anticipated update will now happen in September.

The post EMURGO Ventures invests in DoraHacks to help scale Cardano appeared first on CoinJournal.

• GEM Digital Limited has committed $50 million to SoMee through a token subscription facility.
• The blockchain-based social media platform will use the investment to increase the liquidity of native token $SME
• SoMee users earn token rewards in $SME and Hive blockchain’s $HIVE when they like or post on the network.

SoMee.Social, a blockchain agnostic social media platform powered by HIVE blockchain technology, has secured a $50 million investment commitment from Bahamas-based digital asset investment firm GEM Digital Limited.

Liquidity for native token $SME

An announcement by the platform on Friday said that the investment group’s backing was being provided via a Token Subscription Facility, which SoMee will channel into fueling liquidity for its HIVE-backed native token $SME.

SoMee also plans to leverage the investment to drive further growth for its SoMee.Social network, including incentivising users. In this, SoMee users have access to US dollar-denominated earnings that reflect their rewards in $SME and $HIVE tokens. 

Network users earn these tokens from posting content or “liking” posts by other users. The incentives apply to all users across SoMee and all HIVE-based applications tapped into the social media channel’s posting data.

SoMee, which received startup grants from Amazon Web Services (AWS) and IBM, will officially be available in the Apple and Google app stores by early September. The platform is already accessible via web at SoMee.Social.

The post SoMee.Social secures $50M investment commitment from GEM Digital appeared first on CoinJournal.