Schlagwort: blockchain markets

Nomura Holdings, one of the biggest wealth managers in Japan, is setting up a new digital asset unit, which will include cryptocurrencies and NFTs, CoinJournal learned from a press release originally posted on their website.

Capitalizing on increasing adoption of digital assets

Nomura is reorganizing its Future Innovation Company into a newly founded Digital Company in the immediate future. Its main goal is to increase adoption of digital assets and offer relevant services to clients.

NFTs, cryptocurrencies, security tokens, and other digital assets are gaining presence as a new asset class. New types of services are emerging from the fusion of distributed ledger technology and traditional finance.

Kentaro Okuda, Nomura President and Group CEO said:

This is an important next step in our digital evolution. Digital technology is a critical part of our strategic drive to expand our operations in private markets. The new Digital Company will lead deeper collaboration among internal and external stakeholders, accelerate our uptake of digital technologies, and enhance our client services.

Nomura is hopping on crypto bandwagon

The company has about 74 trillion yen of assets under management, equivalent to $641 billion. They intend to promote digital adoption by their subsidiaries. Their announcement follows Rakuten’s recent launch of an NFT marketplace.

Data of Bloomberg indicate Japan’s crypto industry is worth about $1 trillion. The biggest bank in the country, MUFG, launched a stablecoin platform early last month.

Draconian regulations, but there’s hope for Japan

The land of the rising sun grapples with some of the world’s strictest crypto regulations. Crypto exchanges face great challenges in obtaining a license although the government recognizes digital assets.

Corporations have been adopting crypto consistently since last year. Tesla accepts Dogecoin at its supercharger stations and sells some merchandise for DOGE. eBay has released a statement saying it might begin to accept crypto payments as soon as next week. It permits NFT trading.

Ukraine adopted crypto

After the Russian invasion, Ukraine adopted crypto to receive donations, becoming the first country in history to do so. As the national bank closed electronic cash transfers, Ukrainians piled into stablecoin Tether.

The post Leading Japanese wealth managers sets up crypto unit appeared first on Coin Journal.

The crypto market as a whole was higher this morning, with the majority of top 10 cryptos registering gains over the past 24 hours.

Apple (-1.16% yesterday) has joined a chorus of tech firms boycotting Russia. Apple’s customers in Russia can no longer buy any of the iPhone maker’s tech devices or make purchases from its app store.

All three major US indices tumbled yesterday as the fighting between Russia and Ukraine intensified.

Markets may be impacted by the ADP Non-Farm Employment Change report, set to be released at 13:15 GMT. Furthermore, investors will be following Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell, who is set to present his bi-annual monetary policy update to Congress today.

Top cryptos

Bitcoin climbed around 1%, trading above $44,000 at time of writing. Ethereum was up around 2%, and Cardano and XRP both registered small gains. Cardano ranks ninth at the moment. Its lackluster performance may relegate it to a spot outside the top 10 soon.

Terra continues to lead in the top 10 in terms of weekly gains, recording 63% today. It has climbed to #7 by market cap. A price surge in Terra’s LUNA token over the past week has made it the second-largest staked asset among all major cryptocurrencies, passing Ethereum.

Top movers

The NEAR price has rebounded sharply in the past few days as demand for altcoins has jumped. The token is trading at $11.43, which is about 56% above the lowest level in February this year. NEAR ranks 22nd and added around 9% to its value today.

Other gainers include Fantom with 12% and THORChain with 17%. Convex Finance is rebounding in a massive way. It’s up 45% today.

Anchor Protocol is also reversing recent losses. It has gained 13% in the last 24 h.

Render is a distributed GPU rendering network built on top of the Ethereum blockchain, aiming to connect artists and studios in need of GPU compute power with mining partners willing to rent their GPU capabilities out. It has added 16% to its value today.   

Trending

Dog-themed meme coin Floki Inu is up 19.40% in the last 24 hours on news of a listing on crypto exchange HUOBI. 

FET has been surging ever since it was listed on Huobi a few days ago. The ecosystem is also accepting crypto donations for Ukraine. It added a quarter to its value.  

Frontier recently closed a $100,000 sweepstakes contest and concluded a series of lucrative partnerships with some high-profile platforms. The price of its token FRONT has increased by almost 40% today.

 

 

The post Highlights March 2: Cryptos in the green, tech firms stage Russia boycott appeared first on Coin Journal.

Hashstack Finance announced completion of a $1 million see funding round. This took place right after its launch of the Open Protocol testnet, CoinJournal learned from a press release.

Funds invested in new talent and Open Protocol development

Hashstack will use the funds to attract talent, continue developing the Open Protocol, and grow the community.

Among the well-known investors to take part in the round are GHAF Capital Partners, Kane & Rao Group, Moonrock Capital, Nimrod Lehavi, Chainridge Capital, and MarketAcross.

Hashstack Finance founder Vinay commented:

Bringing under-collateralization to the DeFi is critical to our mission at Hashstack. We are grateful to be backed by some of the smartest money in this ecosystem. The funds raised will be utilized towards talent acquisition, product development, and growth.

Kevin Kurian, General Partner at Kane & Rao Group added:

Getting the maximum value out of your assets is essential in any market. Hashstack offers a solution that the market has not really seen before. We backed Vinay and his team at Hashstack with our capital to bring forward these new ideas.

Only product with up to 1:3 collateral-to-loan ratio

Hashstack’s Open Protocol is the only autonomous lending solution in DeFi that enables non-custodial, under-collateralized loans up to 1:3 collateral-to-loan ratio.

It means you can borrow up to $600 by providing only $200 as collateral. Of this, you can withdraw $140 (i.e. up to 70% collateral) while using $460 for in platform trading.

Open Protocol can offer under-collateralized loans immediately regardless of whether you need to borrow for trading capital, personal cash needs, or leveraged investments in IDOs.

Simplex CEO Nimrod Lehavi said:

DeFi lending is at its inflection point. Hashstack smartly circumvents the need for on-chain credit score in order to facilitate under-collateralized loans. Hashstack has the potential to be one of the pioneers of Layer – 3 enabler solutions.

Three-pronged approach to accelerate DeFi lending growth

Open Protocol applies to following approach to eliminate inefficiencies from the DeFi ecosystem:

• Effective asset utilization through diversification of available assets via lending and providing trading capital
• Clear compartmentalisation of APY and APR of deposits/loans with that of their minimum commitment period (MCP)
• Under-collateralized loans

Feras El Sadek of GHAF Capital Partners said:

All our companies including Hashstack hold a great value to us.  We at Ghaf Capital are very excited to back Hashstack as we view them as an essential cog in the crypto ecosystem, solving major issues to allow the blockchain space to go mainstream, making crypto accessible and affordable to billions of people all over the world. 

I personally admire how they push to add value to the whole system of the blockchain world.  We in Ghaf Capital Partners hold similar values in that sense. We always push start-ups to do more and help support their growth continuously.  It’s great to see others be a part of our company’s mission.

The post Hashstack Finance closes $1M seed round appeared first on Coin Journal.

The crypto market is rallying across the board today. Price growth is provoked by Ukrainians buying goods with crypto donations and Russians stocking up on crypto as a store of value.  

Defence companies surged yesterday after Germany pledged to boost its armed forces in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Germany’s Rheinmetall (+24.94%) took off. Several US companies in the sector also recorded gains.

Energy companies shone yesterday as US stocks climbed higher. Solar firms Enphase Energy (+8.44%) and SolarEdge Technologies (+14.93%) leapt over concerns for global oil supplies, as did hydrocarbon exploration company Occidental Petroleum Corp (+12.88%).

Markets today may be impacted by the release of the ISM Manufacturing PMI at 15:00 GMT. 

Top cryptos

Bitcoin jumped around 14%, trading above $43,000 at time of writing. Ethereum and Cardano were both up around 11%, and XRP registered gains of around 7%.

LUNA has enjoyed a standout performance this week. It gained another 21% today, bringing its weekly surge to just under 80%. It is rallying on news of an FTX listing, slated for today.

Outside the top 10, Wrapped Bitcoin is doing the best. It added 13% to its value. Other prominent gainers include Avalanche and Cosmos.  

Top movers

Most top 100 coins are rallying too. One of the biggest winners is WAVES, the token of Waves, a multipurpose blockchain platform created by Ukrainian-born Alexander Ivanov. In what could be a show of support for Ukraine, WAVES added almost 38% to its value today.

As it usually happens, one day’s biggest losers are the next one’s biggest winners. In that vein of thought, THORChain gained 23% today. NEAR Protocol is also one of the leaders with gains of 22%.

Other coins conforming to bulls’ expectations include Kadena (+19%), Fantom (+15%), Neo (+16%), and Theta Network (+17%). Most of those were plummeting yesterday.  

Trending

The biggest gainer of lesser-known coins is OBROk, a limited-supply asset launched in 2021. The OBRok Token team is working on the Metaverse, Web3, renewable energy, and aeronautical sciences. They also provide R&D services in these areas via blockchain technology. OBROk is up 275% today.

The live UMA (Universal Market Access) price today is $8.33 with a 24-hour trading volume of $462.7 million. UMA is up 73.45% in the last 24 hours.

Qredo, an ecosystem that claims to be rearchitecting digital asset ownership and blockchain connectivity, has seen its native token gain steadily over the past few weeks. Its fully diluted market cap increased by 28% today.

The post Highlights March 1: Cryptos stage comeback, defence stocks on the rise appeared first on Coin Journal.

In the last 24 hours, the crypto market saw sharp rallies across the board. The war in Ukraine has become a turning point in the world order in many ways, one of which has been in demonstrating the might and use of these assets.

This article provides a brief overview of the main reasons the market is up today. These include increased crypto spending by Ukrainians and Russian citizens’ perception of it as a safe haven.

A historic moment for crypto adoption

The past weekend was a historic moment for cryptocurrency adoption. Ukraine posted an official plea for cryptocurrency donations on Twitter. Donations poured in, topping $15 million, which doesn’t include various other initiatives that have been organized to raise funds.

The Ukrainian government is using donated crypto to buy critical supplies, including gas, food and military equipment as the country continues to battle Russian forces tirelessly. It has been estimated that they have spent around $10 million in crypto so far.

The power of borderless currencies

The rush to support Ukraine financially highlights the power of borderless assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum and reminds of the critical role DeFi and other non-custodial solutions can play. People fleeing Ukraine only need a seed phrase to transport their Bitcoin or Ethereum.

Ukraine’s move to ask for crypto donations is an important milestone in the process of adopting the asset class globally. Naturally, that has reflected in its price growth.

The role of Russia in rising crypto prices

Russians are rushing to stock up on crypto in an effort to protect their assets and to bypass state-imposed capital controls. Sanctions against Russia are driving Russian citizens to buy it as a way of surviving the conflict, which led the ruble to shed more than 30% of its value.

Data of Chainalysis shows the Russian Federation ranks 18th in crypto adoption worldwide. There is no doubt that the conflict Vladimir Putin started will fortify this in the country. It might even push it to an all-time high as Russian citizens try to cope with the economic consequences.

A final contributing factor is the unwinding of net short positions by traders, which CoinDCX attributes to a short squeeze.

Major crypto price movements

Bitcoin (BTC/USD) gained 13% today, trading for more than $43,000 at the time of writing. The second-biggest cryptocurrency, Ethereum (ETH/USD), jumped by 10% in 24 hours. Binance Coin (BNB/USD), the fourth biggest crypto and the native token of Binance, gained 11% today.

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The post The Cryptocurrency market makes significant gains, why is crypto up today? appeared first on Coin Journal.