Kategorie: Crypto Business

The funds will be used to refund Axie Infinity users who lost their assets after a hacker exploited Sky Mavis’ Ronin validator nodes and Axie DAO in March.

Sky Mavis, the developer firm behind the Axie Infinity game, has announced a $150 million funding round led by leading crypto exchange Binance.

The funding round also attracted other major investors from across the crypto space, including venture capitals a16z and Dialectic, crypto-focused investment firm Paradigm, and game software firm Animoca Brands.

According to Sky Mavis, the funds will be combined with those on the company’s balance sheet and be put into the reimbursement plan for Axie Infinity players affected by the recent $625 million hack.

Following the attack, the company has undertaken to bolster network security, including via internal audits. Reimbursing players was also one of the first commitments the developer pledged.

„Sky Mavis is committed to reimbursing all of our users‘ lost funds and implementing rigorous internal security measures to prevent future attacks,“ the firm’s CEO Trung Nguyen said.

He also touched on Sky Mavis‘ plans.

“As a team, we have made an intentional decision to focus on what lies ahead, starting with tomorrow’s launch of Axie Infinity: Origin. We are also thrilled to collaborate with Binance NFT on future projects.”

The company hopes to reopen the Ronin Network bridge, which the hacker exploited to steal 173,600 Ethereum (ETH) and $25.5 million in USDC, once the security audits are over.

As a way toward making the network even more robust going forward, Ronin’s validator group will increase from five to 21. The process will be complete in the next three months and with validators set to be split between the firm’s partners and community members.

Despite the historic hack, the Axie Infinity game remains the most popular and most-played NFT game. More than 2.6 million people own Axie NFTs, while monthly active users currently stand around 2.2 million.

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The UK is taking this and other steps as it looks to position itself as a global hub for crypto-asset technology innovation, Economic Secretary to the Treasury said at the UK Fintech Week 2022.

The UK is set to bring stablecoins within its regulatory framework on electronic payments, opening the assets to further adoption across the country.

The plans came to light on Monday, highlighted by a government official during the InnFin Global Finance Summit event in London.

According to Economic Secretary to the Treasury John Glen, the government is seeking appropriate and actionable steps that should put the UK at the forefront of crypto innovation. 

The government wants to see the country become a “global hub” for crypto technology and investment, Glen said.

And one of the steps involves the gradual fine-tuning of the country’s regulatory guidelines so that stablecoins become a legal payment option for consumers. These steps will also be tailored toward supporting stablecoin issuers and service providers.

Economic Secretary @JohnGlenUK announced today that stablecoins will be brought into UK payments regulation.

This places the UK financial services sector at the forefront of technology, creating conditions for stablecoin issuers and service providers to operate and invest. pic.twitter.com/14SsIGW5bf

— HM Treasury (@hmtreasury) April 4, 2022

A Royal Mint NFT by summer

The Finance Ministry’s recommendations also include the realization that growth within the digital asset space could provide a major boost to consumer choice. As such, UK’s government is eyeing a new regulatory approach that can support not just the stablecoin sector, but other sectors within the broader digital assets markets.

“If crypto technologies are going to be a big part of the future, then we, the UK, want to be in,” Glen said at the UK Fintech Week 2022.

Plans to have stablecoins brought within the UK’s regulatory environment have been coming since last year. However, there’s a new pace to the whole idea.

On Monday, HM Treasury (UK’s Economic and Finance Ministry) announced that Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak had asked the Royal Mint to create an NFT and issue it by summer.

Chancellor @RishiSunak has asked @RoyalMintUK to create an NFT to be issued by the summer.

This decision shows the the forward-looking approach we are determined to take towards cryptoassets in the UK. pic.twitter.com/cd0tiailBK

— HM Treasury (@hmtreasury) April 4, 2022

Other major plans around crypto from the British government include wider consultations around decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs) and decentralised finance (DeFi). For the latter, the key considerations are around DeFi loans and staking.

According to the finance ministry, the new legislation forms part of the broader goal to have a Financial Market Infrastructure Sandbox in place by 2023.

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The ADA Yield Fund starts off with $100 million and will benefit Cardano’s growing decentralised finance (DeFi) ecosystem via liquidity and other resources.

Wave Financial has announced the launch of Wave ADA Yield Fund, a $100 million fund aimed at supporting the Cardano (ADA) blockchain ecosystem.

According to Wave Financial CEO David Siemer, the fund is purely meant for the provision of liquidity and targets decentralised exchanges (DEXs), lending protocols and stablecoin issuers. The fund will also support stake pools in the Cardano DeFi ecosystem.

“Each of these decentralized applications adds to the strong foundation of the Cardano blockchain as it realizes a fully functional and diverse ecosystem,” Siemer said in a press release shared with CoinJournal on Wednesday.

Wave is a Los Angeles-based digital asset investment manager regulated by the US Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC). The company says the fund is a reflection of its goals in the crypto ecosystem, including support for promising entrepreneurs.  

Cardano’s growing ecosystem is attracting institutional investors

Cardano launched smart contracts capability in 2021 and has over the past several months, seen an explosion of developer activity.  Hundreds have launched via community funding initiatives, according to Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Input Output (IOHK)

But more are at various stages of development, with the ADA fund likely to prove a timely launch. Hoskinson agrees with the sentiment, noting in a statement that the Cardano ecosystem will succeed if projects built on the blockchain thrive.

“So we are pleased that the ADA Yield Fund is committing substantial financial resources to facilitate continued growth and market acceptance,” he added.

Cardano continues to see huge interest from institutional investors, with demand driving on-chain large transaction volumes even higher. Data shows that year-to-date, transactions involving $100k or more in ADA have spiked nearly 50x.

Demand has also seen the launch of ADA-backed exchange-traded products to cater to institutional investors. Just this week, WisdomTree launched a Cardano ETP for the European market.

The post Wave Financial unveils ADA Yield Fund to support Cardano’s DeFi ecosystem appeared first on Coin Journal.

Tahinis Restaurants owner Aly Hamam shared his ‘secret’ with Canadian politicians during a Standing Committee on Finance’s Pre-Budget Consultations session.

Canadian politician and Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre just bought lunch at Tahinis Restaurants using Bitcoin (BTC).

The news follows an earlier tweet from the politician about his plan to buy a shawarma with BTC even as he met the owner of a business that outsmarted the government to beat inflation.

Poilievre, who wants to become the next Canadian Prime Minister, could help Canadian businesses do just that. And he said as much in a tweet posted on Monday, which also aligns with his other big plan – to give people back their ‘freedom’ and make Canada the world’s “blockchain capital.”

Conservative leadership candidate @PierrePoilievre buys chicken shawarma from @TheRealTahinis using bitcoin Lightning Network. Transaction cost was one satoshi, which the consumer covers. This was the first bitcoin purchase at Tahini’s. pic.twitter.com/T5hVlY4fy0

— Andrew Lawton (@AndrewLawton) March 28, 2022

Bitcoin to the ‘world’

“You’ll never believe how this London shawarma shop owner outsmarted government to beat inflation. Today, I’m buying lunch from him—and bringing my Bitcoin wallet.”

So, how did a small business manage to beat inflation, outsmarting government experts and officials in the process? In a video, also shared on Monday, Poilievre specifically says even the Finance Minister got it (inflation) wrong.

Asked how, Aly Hamam, the owner of Tahinis Restaurants, gave an apt response:

He and his company noticed how there was a lot of money “chasing the same goods” in the months before the pandemic. And more money, exacerbated by the quantitative easing that followed the pandemic led to the rising inflation seen over the past year.

Luckily, Tahinis had stumbled upon Bitcoin (BTC).

According to Hamam, Bitcoin’s fixed money supply meant they went “in knowing the rules” and more importantly, these rules “don’t change on you.” Simply, no one controls the money as do banks and politicians.

He said Tahinis bought Bitcoin when the coin’s value was around $10k-$12k in 2020. At BTC’s market price of around $37k last week, the company had a +66% deflationary advantage over its fiat holdings at the start of the pandemic.

Here’s the rest of Hamam’s Bitcoin experience.

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BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager with over $10 trillion in assets under management.

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink says the investment giant is indeed looking at what’s possible with regard to offering digital asset services and investments to its clients.

“As we see increasing interest from our clients, BlackRock is studying digital currencies, stablecoins and the underlying technologies to understand how they can help us serve our clients,” Fink said in a letter published on Thursday.

He also touched on the benefits of digital currencies and digital currency payment systems amid increased exploration in this area by companies and governments.

„A global digital payment system, thoughtfully designed, can enhance the settlement of international transactions while reducing the risk of money laundering and corruption„, the BlackRock chief added.

According to him, the use of digital currencies has the potential to cut costs associated with cross-border payments. He mentioned the example of how this can greatly help expatriate workers looking to send money to families across the globe.

‚We serve our clients‘

BlackRock has over $10 trillion in assets under management, and Fink said that the firm only manages the money on behalf of its clients.

“The money we manage belongs to our clients. And to serve them, we work to understand how changes around the world will impact their investment outcomes,” he told shareholders.

The comments related to the Russia-Ukraine war, which Fink said had ended the globalisation seen over the past 30 years or so.

But while he still believes in the concept and benefits of globalisation, including global capital markets, Fink is convinced things have changed as a result of the war. The reaction of companies and governments and what could happen next will have far-reaching ramifications, he added. 

According to him, the war adds to the impact of the global pandemic and their impact “will reverberate for decades to come in ways we can’t yet predict.”

The post BlackRock is considering crypto services for clients amid rising demand, CEO says appeared first on Coin Journal.