Schlagwort: crypto business

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Kraken to end its crypto-staking services in the U.S. – here’s why

  • Kraken is ending crypto-staking services to settle with the U.S. SEC.
  • It will also pay $30 million in penalties as part of that settlement.
  • The development casts doubt upon Coinbase that also offers staking.

Kraken – the U.S. based crypto exchange was in focus today on reports that it’s bringing down the curtain on its crypto-staking operations.

Kraken to pay $30 million in penalties to settle charges

Kraken was facing an investigation from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over selling unregistered securities.

The Kraken staking programme is offered and sold as a security. Staking-as-a-service providers must register and provide full, fair, and truthful disclosure and investor protection.

On Thursday, the crypto exchange agreed to end the said operations to settle those charges. Kraken will pay $30 million in penalties as well even though it refrained from admitting to or denying the allegations.

The development marks the first regulatory crackdown on staking; a service that’s been quite popular with the crypto exchanges.

Non-U.S. clients will still have access to staking services

Kraken offered a whopping 20% annual percentage yield on staking with payments sent to clients twice per week. On Twitter, Gary Gensler – Chair of the U.S. SEC said in a video message today:

When a company or platform offers you these kinds of returns, whether they call their services lending, earn, rewards, APY or staking – that relationship should come with protections of the federal securities laws.

The crypto exchange did confirm, however, that its staking services will remain available to clients outside of the Unites States through a different subsidiary.

Today’s settlement also casts doubt upon Coinbase Global Inc that offers staking services in the United States as well. Its shares closed the regular session down nearly 15% on Thursday.

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MakerDAO integrates Chainlink automation to enhance DAI stability

  • MakerDAO’s integration of Chainlink extends on the Maker’s automated system Keeper Network.
  • The automation will help stabilise the DAI infrastructure, including via updates on price and the debt ceiling.
  • An proposal over the integration passed in a governance vote by Maker (MKR) holders.

MakerDAO has onboarded Chainlink’s decentralised oracle framework as it looks to enhance the stability of its DAI stablecoin.

The integration with Chainlink’s automation tool follows a governance proposal that saw Maker (MKR) holders approve the launch of the oracle system on MakerDAO’s Keeper Network, the DAI creator announced on Thursday.

MakerDAO integrates Chainlink oracle for DAI

The Keeper Network helps uphold the DAI infrastructure, offering an automated system that executes specific functions related to the Maker Protocol, including providing updates on price and debt ceiling. 

The Maker Protocol will also benefit from tasks such as liquidity balancing for DAI as well as increased decentralisation due to the addition of third-party actors.

Automation via Chainlink’s oracle network is therefore critical to MakerDAO’s technology stack, with activation set to help stabilise DAI.

“The sophisticated technology and tools that quietly but constantly run in the background to ensure DAI’s stability rely upon MakerDAO’s Keeper Network. This network of automated bots perform essential tasks to maintain the Maker protocol and will be greatly expanded through the integration with Chainlink’s renowned, hyper-reliable automation platform,” Nadia Álvarez, a member of MakerDAO’s Growth Core Unit, said.  

As highlighted above, integration with Chainlink followed a vote on what was a wider proposal for various changes, including dust parameters and recognised DAO delegates’ compensation package for January to 8 February, 2023.

Per an update from MakerDAO, the executive proposal passed on 9 February, 2023 at 03:23 UTC and is subject to a 48-hour delay as stipulated in MakerDAO’s governance pause delay. The security measure means the changes can now be executed as of 11 February, 2023 beginning 03:23 UTC.

Following the vote, MakerDAO will avail 181,000 DAI to the Chainlink Automation Keeper Network for the next six months, translating to 1,000 DAI per day.

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Tether reports $700 million net profit in Q4 2022

  • Stablecoin issuer issued its latest attestation report for the fourth quarter of 2022.

  • The company reported a net profit of $700 million in Q4.

  • The profit is in addition to the company’s reserves.

Tether publishes its Q4 attestation report

Stablecoin issuer Tether published its latest attestation report on Thursday, February 9th. The company reported a net profit of $700 million in the previous quarter despite the ongoing bear market.

Tether revealed that the profit is in addition to its reserves. While commenting on this latest cryptocurrency news, Tether said;

“Tether’s reserves remain extremely liquid, with the majority of its investments being held in cash, cash equivalents, and other short-term deposits.”

The stablecoin issuer added that the December report was attested by the accounting firm BDO. The report added that Tether’s consolidated assets exceeded its liabilities as of Dec. 31, 2022.

The report comes barely two months after Tether pledged to stop issuing secured loans from its reserves.

The company reported that its consolidated total assets amounted to at least $67.04 billion in the last quarter. Furthermore, its consolidated total liabilities amounted to $66.08 billion. Hence, reflecting excess reserves of at least $960 million.

The net profit is part of shareholder equity

Tether pointed out that the reported profit is part of shareholder equity, that is, what’s in excess of reserves. A company spokesperson added that;

“It’s basically additional capital sitting in the company to further strengthen Tether.” 

This is the first time the stablecoin issuer has disclosed its profit figures. The company didn’t reveal how it made its profits.

In a statement, Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino said;

“Tether once again proved its stability in the troubled year of 2022. Not only were we able to smoothly execute over $21 billion dollars in redemptions during the chaotic events of the year, but Tether has, on the other side, issued over $10 billion of USDT, an indication of continued organic growth and adoption of Tether.”

The stablecoin issuer removed commercial paper from its reserves in October 2022. Tether’s other assets include funds, precious metals, and corporate bonds. 

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Sandbox (SAND) price prediction: Something big is about to happen

The Sandbox price crashed for two straight days as the cliff unlock date nears and as a risk-off sentiment prevailed. The SAND/USDT price retreated to a low of $0.7797, which was lower than this week’s high of $0.937.

Cliff unlock nears

Crypto tokens have a mechanism known as tokenomics, which defines the distribution of initial tokens. A cliff unlock is a situation that is baked in the tokenomics that increases the number of tokens in circulation. 

Data by Token Unlocks shows that just 56% of all SAND tokens are now in circulation, with the remaining 44% being locked. The locked ones are currently valued at over $1 billion. The next cliff unlock will happen on Monday and will see over 372 million tokens valued at over $292 million being unlocked. 

As a result, the total number of SAND tokens in circulation will rise to 2.1 billion tokens. Sandbox now has a total market cap of over $1.17 billion and a diluted value of $2.34 billion. Therefore, introducing new tokens will dilute existing holders. 

In theory, the SAND price should decline ahead and after this dilution. However, in some instances, cryptocurrencies tend to rise when it happens. For example, in January, Axie Infinity’s AXS token surged even after the cliff unlock introduced more tokens in its ecosystem, as I wrote here. In other cases, such as with dYdX, companies tend to postpone their cliff unlock.

In such cases, this dilution happens because the developers usually publish positive news to counterbalance the news. For example, on Wednesday, Sandbox announced a major partnership with Saudi Arabia Digital Government Authority. It is unclear what the partnership will do but there is a likelihood that the government will take a stake in the company. 

Sandbox price prediction

SAND/USD chart by TradingView

So, is it safe to buy The Sandbox? Turning to the daily chart, we see that the SAND crypto price pulled back slightly below the resistance point at $0.9800 (November 5 high). Still, the coin seems to be forming a cup and handle pattern, which is usually a bullish sign. Sandbox crypto is also slightly above the 25-day and 50-day moving averages. 

Therefore, despite the bearish view of the cliff unlock, there is a likelihood that the coin will have a bullish breakout in the near term. This view will be confirmed if it rises above the important resistance at $0.98.

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Metacask to auction rare 1988 Macallan cask for $3 million

  • Metacask is set to auction the rare whisky cask starting 12 February, with the 35-year-old cask asking price debuting at over $3 million.
  • The cask is held as The Macallan Distillery in Scotland.
  • A digital art and NFT will be offered as part of the sale.

Metacask, a leading marketplace for spirits casks and bottles, is set to auction (link to auction is here) off a rare 1988 whisky cask from The Macallan Distillery, Scotland.

According to the CasperLabs blockchain powered platform, the sale is for a 35-year old rare Scotch whisky cask. 

The number #4178 cask comes with a 1/1 animated art dubbed ‘The Dragon’- a masterpiece by one of Italy’s most renowned artists Ruben Frosali.

Metacask’s highly anticipated cask auction

The 35-year-old whisky cask is debuting at over $3 million and its auction follows Metacask’s recent success with a 1991 cask sale, which fetched more than $2.3 million.

“Metacask auctioned a 1991 cask  ‘The Angel’s Share’ in 2021, now just over a year later, we’re back with another much-anticipated auction,” Metacask co-founder and CTO Nim Siriwardana noted in a statement.

The latest auction is scheduled for between 12 and 19 February 2023 on the Metacask marketplace. Bidding is open to USD while settlements will be in either bank transfer or cryptocurrency. 

As part of the sale, the buyer will get an audio-visual non-fungible token (NFT) of the original Ruben Frosali art, Metacask said in a press release. The NFT will serve as a digital deed,providing for not just ownership and provenance but also useful for price discovery.

Potential buyers might want to know that the whisky was last regauged at 51.2% alcohol by volume (ABV), with roughly 495 bottles remaining.auctionhere

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