Our current week update on Blockchain industry — check out new trends affecting price of digital currency….
::Bitcoin::
- BlackRock, a leading money-management firm which has over $6.5 trillion in assets under management revealed its approach to Bitcoin.
- MicroStrategy is building its first Bitcoin software product, focused on providing “advanced metrics and insights” for Bitcoin.
- MicroStrategy plans to raise another $600 Million to buy Bitcoin. The company announced that it intends to offer a $600 million aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes that are due 2027 in a private offering to qualified institutional investors.
- MicroStrategy has announced to issue $900 million more worth of debt, adding $300 million to the novel debt issuance model to buy more Bitcoin.
- The first Bitcoin ETF in North America, TSX’s Purpose Bitcoin ETF had a gangbuster debut today trading nearly $100 million in volume.
- PrivateFly earned 19% of its revenue in bitcoin. A UK jet charter company has revealed that 20% of its yearly revenues were paid in bitcoin.
- Bitcoin becomes 6th most valuable asset in the world with $1 trillion market cap.
- Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said he has a neutral view towards bitcoin but supports the digitalization of money.
::Blockchain::
- Insured Finance is launching the World’s First Insurance Vault for NFTs and the IFNFT Token. IFNFT tokens are required to access the vault. These tokens will be minted and airdropped to Insured Insiders.
- The Polkadot project released a detailed roadmap on Monday for the highly anticipated rollout of parachains and slot auctions, which should mark the full launch of the protocol.
- Uniswap becomes first DEX to hit $100 Billion Volume. DeFi has come a long way, with Uniswap hitting $20 billion in volume last month alone.
- Umbria Network, a decentralized finance platform on the Ethereum blockchain is proud to announce that it will be deploying its suite of applications on Polygon.
- Blockchain dot com raises $120M funding round to grow institutional business. The firm is continuing its institutional pivot with the new cash injection.
- The Graph adds support for Polkadot, NEAR, Solana and Celo. The global network of open APIs is expanding to support new layer 1 blockchains.
- Insured Finance will integrate with one of the leading NFT marketplaces, DigiCol. It will be possible for DigiCol users to secure insurance for their NFTs directly from their terminal. Insured Finance will integrate with all leading NFT marketplaces.
::Cryptocurrency::
- Hong Kong proposal to ban retail crypto traders sees backlash. Hong Kong’s new crypto regulatory framework is being critiqued by industry experts.
- Chinese Lottery Firm 500 dot com acquires crypto mining pool BTC dot com. BTC dot com is currently owned by Bitdeer Technologies and former Bitmain CEO Jihan Wu.
- Switzerland’s Crypto Valley has started accepting Bitcoin, Ether for tax payments. Local firm Bitcoin Suisse has partnered with the canton of Zug, converting cryptocurrency tax payments into Swiss francs.
- Arthur Hayes, the co-founder of BitMEX, has made a remarkable return to the public spotlight emerging on social media for the first time since the US authorities indicted him and his fellow co-founders on charges of financial malpractice.
- Thailand SEC seeks a directive to regulate and protect crypto investors in the country. Younger people are increasingly investing in digital currencies in Thai, making up to about 500,000 crypto investors.
- Binance Coin flips Tether to become third-largest crypto by market cap. BNB’s price hit a fresh all-time high of $276 earlier today, with the crypto correcting slightly and trading at $254.
- Akoin rolled out in $2B medical metropolis in Kenya. Akon’s Akoin is set to become the exclusive crypto in the city.
- Cryptopia suffers another hack in the midst of the liquidation process. Adding to the $30 million stolen in 2019, Cryptopia reports that it was the target of another theft incident on February 1, 2021.
- SBI Holdings, a Japanese financial conglomerate revealed that it was planning to establish a joint cryptocurrency venture that would serve as one of the company’s key earners.
::Ethereum::
- CoinShares CSO reports institutional FOMO for Ethereum, $175,000,000 Entering ETH-related products in just one week.
- Christie’s to auction Ethereum NFT by crypto artist Beeple. NFT marketplace MakersPlace has teamed up with Christie’s for the auction house’s first ever sale of a purely digital artwork.
- Vitalik Buterin releases the first hard fork plan for Beacon Chain, Ethereum 2.0
- Spiderman NFT sells for 12.75 ETH as Marvel comic artists land on Ethereum. With great rarity apparently comes great value. An Ethereum-based Spiderman NFT just sold for $25k as Marvel comics enter the blockchain realm.
- Reflexer launches alternative to Ethereum stablecoin DAI, called RAI. The new Ethereum-backed RAI token’s price is not pegged to anything, but it should retain a stable exchange rate.
- PancakeSwap flips Ethereum’s Uniswap to become the world’s biggest DEX by volume.
- Ethereum registered a new ATH at $2000 yesterday and at the time of writing has dipped slightly on the price charts.
::Central bank digital currency::
- Mastercard launches prepaid card for World’s First CBDC in Bahamas. The Bahamian Sand Dollar can now be used for payments anywhere Mastercard is accepted.
- Bahamas launches the first-ever CBDC-linked debit card. Bahamas launched its CBDC three months ago, and now the island has set another milestone, availing its citizens the first-ever CBDC-linked debit card.
- Banks will be required to work with crypto, e-money, and CBDCs to survive.
