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Seek Ventures Looking To Increase Cryptocurrency Allocation As Fund Issuers Increase BTC Investments

By
Adam Barry
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0

UK billionaire and founder of Moneysupermarket.com Simon Nixon is planning to increase his cryptocurrency investments via his venture capital firm headquartered in London.  

Seek Ventures sees an opportunity in cryptocurrencies 

A report by Bloomberg quoted Nixon’s venture firm Seek Ventures’ managing director Adam Proctor who said that the firm would increase its crypto allocation since they feel that the industry is an essential market for the future. Additionally, Proctor said that the company is currently searching for an analyst to lead the crypto-focused effort. 

Family offices are interested in virtual currencies, according to Goldman Sachs. The research firm claims that 50% of the family offices with which it conducts business are open to adding cryptocurrencies to its portfolio.

Billionaires have been steadily investing in the Bitcoin (BTC) ecosystem, including Carl Icahn, who recently stated that he might invest up to $1.5 billion in crypto, noting, “Bitcoin to me is just a store of value.” Furthermore, Alameda Research, a Hong Kong-based firm managed by FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, saw the recent temporary drop in Bitcoin’s price to below $30,000 as an investment opportunity.

Fund issuers hold around 4% of the total BTC supply 

According to a new analysis, 14 BTC asset managers and fund issuers possess 4% of the overall Bitcoin supply, approximately 816,379 BTC, which is worth around $40.1 billion. The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust leads the pack with 654,600 BTC or roughly over 3% of the total BTC supply. CoinShares’ XBT Provider comes in second with approximately 48,466 BTC worth around $2.4 billion, accounting for 0.23% of the total BTC supply, while the remaining 12 fund issuers hold 113,313 BTC of the total supply.

Additionally, the data indicates that mainstream companies Tesla hold around 42,902 BTC, while MicroStrategy holds 108,992 BTC, and blockchain behemoth Block.one owns around 140,000 BTC. In total, the mainstream companies have accumulated BTC worth around $14.2 billion in recent months as mainstream adoption of crypto gathers steam.

Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) Soon to Give Their Users Access to The ‘Novi’ Digital Wallet

By
Adam Barry
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0

David Marcus, Facebook executive, said that Facebook was ready to give its users access to its proprietary Novi digital wallet. In a memo he recently sent out, he stated how change was long overdue and that it was bound to happen in one way or another. Facebook has intended to enter the digital wallet space for quite some time now. The Novi digital wallet will be accessible in the Facebook application, and it’s expected to change how users both see and use it.

So, why are these important?

The importance of digital wallets

For starters, a digital wallet is somewhat like a bank account. The only difference is that they store cryptocurrency assets and allows you to send, receive and access these assets easily. Furthermore, what makes these wallets so great is the fact that you have complete control over all your digital assets.

Marcus believes that this could help make Facebook a significant player in the payments space. When the company integrates its Novi digital wallet product into the app, sellers worldwide will have the ability to access free person-to-person payment schemes. The primary objective here is to use partnerships to provide more financial services. Additionally, he said that small merchant payments would eventually be profitable once the customer base becomes more significant.

Marcus says that people’s needs should always be what comes first. He claims that it’s faster to detect malicious activities in this financial system than the more standard, traditional ones. He claims that the time has come for them to develop and manufacture open and interoperable solutions designed to help users transfer money online.

The company has already managed to secure approval and licenses for its Novi digital wallet in nearly every U.S State. But, the product won’t launch in places Facebook hasn’t managed to get clearances, licenses, and approvals.

The fact that Facebook has over two billion active users could help make this product a particularly profitable one. However, with that said, it will still have to beat many of the major players that already exist in the industry.

JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) Supposedly Shuts Down a Bitcoin Mining Company’s Bank Account

By
Adam Barry
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0

JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), a banking giant in America, has reportedly blocked Compass Mining’s team bank accounts. This Delaware-based Bitcoin mining corporation announced this information via a statement made by the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Whit Gibbs. Compass Mining primarily focuses on providing hardware hosting services and mining rigs for BTC mining. Under the guise of supporting the BTC network and harsh rate, Compass Mining allows its clients to do their mining operations through its private infrastructure.

JPMorgan Chase has previously supported the cryptocurrency industry in many ways. From giving affluent investors access to cryptocurrency assets to hiring blockchain talent. On August 6, 2021, JPMorgan, to expose its clients to crypto-assets, made six cryptocurrency assets accessible in a span of twenty-one days. This move by JPMorgan intends to expose traditional investors to Bitcoin Strategy Funds that are meant to work around pooled indirect and direct Bitcoin investments and Bitcoin futures contracts.

Demand for Cryptocurrency

JPMorgan’s asset and wealth management director, Mary Callahan Erdoes, recently highlighted how important it is to meet the demand for cryptocurrency assets. She continued to say how many of their clients say that they want to invest in the crypto asset class and how it’s their duty to help them transfer their cash to where they want it to go.

The Bank’s Chief Operating Officer and co-president, Daniel Pinto, had earlier mentioned that there wasn’t much demand for crypto assets. However, things have changed a great deal. More of the wealthy investors in their portfolio are growing hungry for crypto assets, and the banking giant is consciously trying to meet this growing demand. Erdoes highlighted, however, that they’re still a bit reserved about whether to categorize crypto as an asset class, especially considering the fact how incredibly volatile they are. She continued to say how personal crypto is, but that only time can tell whether it can be held of value in that way.

Texas Biotech Corporation Set to Have a Bitcoin-Based Balance Sheet

By
Adam Barry
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0

Spinesmith Holdings, a Texas biotech company, recently announced that it’ll now have a Bitcoin-based balance sheet for long-term holdings so that the company can avoid the banks’ overreach. According to Spinesmith Holdings’ spokesman, the company does not want to constantly ask for the bank’s permission when it wants to begin a project using its own funds. The company thinks of this as a cumbersome process they want to avoid. It slows down many processes that can go faster otherwise.

Senior Management

Additionally, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Kevin Dunworth, said that the company was buying BTC to try and hedge against inflation and to reduce the overreach banks usually have.

Furthermore, the company decided to collaborate with Unchained Capital, a company that develops products for bitcoin holders. Other than that, the CEO said that the company chose to do business with this company because it wants to support local Texas companies. He also said that he liked Unchained because of their multisignature vaults. He said that this would be beneficial in the business payments and holdings operations. The CEO also talked about whether the company owns BTC or not. However, he said that they own at least one Bitcoin, much less than both Microstrategy and Tesla. He further stated that they were happy with what they’ve accomplished so far and that they intend to add to the company’s holdings quarterly.

In addition to all this, Coinbase is also looking to pay its workers in Bitcoin. However, it’s looking to develop its financial infrastructure a bit more before it starts doing this. Mr. Dunworth said that the company strongly considers using Bitcoin to pay their long-term employees and wants to accept Bitcoin payments. This move might just help change a lot in the global business world. Spinesmith, which is a holding company that generates more than $15 million every year, is a major player in its industry.

This research and development biotech company, and a Thermi subsidiary, is a global medical device manufacturer that has been successfully doing business for many years now.

Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) Enters the Japanese Market via its MUFG Agreement

By
Adam Barry
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0

Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) is making its entry into the Japanese market thanks to the partnership agreements with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (NYSE: MUFG). Now, Japanese users can access MUFG’s Quick Deposit solutions. This leading cryptocurrency exchange based in the United States is delighted to be finally crossing Japanese borders. Coinbase recently tweeted that they were excited to be entering one of the initial nations that fully embraced cryptocurrency and one of the world’s largest markets in terms of cryptocurrency trading volume.

Coinbase has intended to extend its reach into one of the world’s largest crypto markets for quite some time now, and the company has made this happen in large part due to the partnership agreement it made with MUFG. It seems like it was a very good idea to partner with a banking sector titan like Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. This partnership entails that the bank will offer an on-and-off fiat ramp for people who use Coinbase in Japan. This service will be branded MUFG Quick Deposits.

Senior Management

Brian Armstrong, Coinbase’s Chief Executive Officer, said that the company’s first launch to its new Japanese market would be retail trading products. He claims that the company intends to introduce its top five trading assets designed for trading volume. The assets it’ll bring are Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC), Ether (ETH), Stellar Lumen (XLM) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). The CEO also claimed that it would comply with local regulations. However, the FSA (Financial Services Agency) Commissioner recently made a fascinating statement. Junichi Nakajima specified that cryptocurrency regulations wouldn’t be eased anytime soon in Japan. So, it’s important to remember that the company still managed to enter the Japanese crypto market even with its tight regulations.

This agreement is sure to help increase Coinbase’s market share in the global cryptocurrency industry. If they didn’t look like a major player in the industry, now they certainly do.

Crypto.com Makes History Becoming the First Innovation and Technology Platform to Partner with Liga Serie A

By
Adam Barry
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0

Crypto.com, the fastest growing cryptocurrency platform globally, and Liga Serie A recently announced that the innovation and technology entity would be an Italian Football partner. This is the first partnership agreement of its kind. This multi-year partnership agreement, building on Crytpo.com’s reliability and transparency beliefs, will integrate the platform in the broadcast moments where tech is helping better the match. It’ll be the presenting partner of both Goal Line Technology and VAR (Virtual Assistant Referee). The Lissone-based Virtual Assistant Referee Center the Serie A uses will also be re-branded, and it’ll now be called the Crypto.com VAR Center. Furthermore, Serie A’s Goal of the Month is something Crypto.com will also present.

Crypto.com had recently sponsored the Serie A’s cup tournament, the Coppa Italia, and this partnership agreement builds on that. The Coppa Italia sponsorship made the Italian Football league the world’s first sports league to partner with a cryptocurrency platform.

Serie A is not new to making innovative moves. It was also the world’s first professional soccer league to start using VAR technology. In the 20/21 season, VAR technology played a huge role in 2,372 incidents. In addition, VAR interventions are part and parcel of the league’s worldwide broadcast reaching over 750 million households in over 145 countries.

Crypto.com is well-respected in the crypto world and has more than ten million active users globally. It’s also a top 10 finance application in Google Play and App Store. In addition to being the fastest-growing cryptocurrency platform globally, it also has the most popular crypto visa card in the world.

Senior Management

Liga Serie A’s Chief Executive Officer, Luigi De Siervo, said they were very honored and delighted by the partnership agreement they made with a top crypto corporation like Crypto.com. He said they were excited that Crypto.com chose the Serie A league to develop engaging and innovative sports products for Italian fans.

Crypto.com Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder Kris Marszalek said that they were proud of their chance to deepen their relationship with Serie A.

Filecoin and Chainlink Announce Joint Grant For Hybrid Smart Contract Development

By
Adam Barry
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0

Filecoin, a decentralized data storage platform, is working in collaboration with Chainlink in a joint grant that will accelerate the development of hybrid smart contracts.

How hybrid smart contract works

A type of decentralized application, hybrid smart contracts work by leveraging code running on the blockchain (on-chain) with computation and data running outside it (off-chain). These applications combine smart contracts (from Filecoin) and decentralized oracle networks (from Chainlink) with off-chain services. As a result, they will not have the same limitations experienced with previous smart contracts.

Hybrid smart contracts have the advantage of being more efficient and cheaper than traditional smart contracts because they are self-executing. They can also perform more complex computations.

By bringing Chainlink and Filecoin together, developers hope to make end-to-end decentralized applications that will have a high storage capacity, be cheaper, and have a safe connection to external resources.

Application for the Chainlink-Filecoin Grant Program 

Application for the Chainlink-Filecoin Grant Program will be open until September 17.  The grant is open to teams that are developing applications that combine the decentralized storage of Filecoin with the decentralized applications from Chainlink into one application. 

After the application for the grant is closed, only five teams will be selected and sponsored to continue developing the application.

Since the beginning of 2021, Chain link and Filecoin have partnered up and brought changes to each of their networks. For instance, in March, Filecoin integrated Chainlink’s decentralized Oracle into its network. This brought smart contract functionality and a connection between the Filecoin Network and blockchains such as Ethereum that are enabled by smart contracts. It also gave Filecoin developers access to infrastructure on Web 3.0. This was an important phase that made it possible to develop the hybrid smart contract.

Other collaborations between the two companies include work on Chainlink external adapters which will facilitate bi-directional communication between the two for the project.

The joint grant will enable even more integration between Chainlink and Filecoin by encouraging developers to make workflows connecting the two. Filecoin also sponsored prizes in the Spring 2021 Chainlink Hackathon where joint projects from Chainlink and Filecoin such as Tamago and CryptOrchids were entered.

Titan Launches Crypto Portfolio for US Investors

By
Adam Barry
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0

Titan, the United States investment adviser, and portfolio management service, has launched the first actively managed crypto portfolio which will be accessible by all U.S investors. Titan is known for offering critical guidance on investments to its clients. Currently, it manages $500 million for 25,000 clients.

Titan notes a growing need for understanding cryptocurrency

The introduction of the crypto portfolio will allow users with little or no former knowledge and understanding of cryptocurrency to access companies with high growth. The launch comes after a price rally for cryptocurrency. It comes as a response to the volatility in crypto trading that necessitates that clients make informed decisions.

The portfolio, named Titan Crypto, targets U.S investors and gives market participants revenue to access other digital assets like Ether (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC).

Titan plans to invest in leading cryptocurrencies that show long-term potential. The portfolio will be managed by Titan’s crypto team. According to Clay Gardner, the co-founder, and CEO of Titan, the adaption of blockchains and cryptocurrencies is exploding. The trend is expected to be long-term and structural. It will be available to U.S citizens living out of New York.

Joe Percoco, CEO and Co-founder of Titan believes that Titan’s entry into the crypto market offers non-accredited investors opportunities to invest by educating and guiding them.

Funds raised for Titan Crypto

In July, Anish Acharya from Andreessen Horowitz finished a $58 million Series B financing round which brought Titan’s total funding to $75 million. Horowitz is said to have led some of the biggest crypto funding campaigns. Recently, the venture firm launched a $2.2 million fund for crypto plays and blockchain.

 The funds were raised for the new Titan crypto business along with other company projects. They were to help with plans to launch Titan Crypto. For future growth, the company could rely on decentralized finance (DeFi) coins.

Funding rounds that target cryptocurrency exchange or services providers giving opportunities to investing in digital currency are not uncommon. A growing number of investors are now interested in digital trading as large BTC transactions are shown by Glassnode.

Meanwhile, institutional players such as VanEck vehemently push for a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund.

Singapore Allows DBS Vickers To Provide Digital Payment Token

By
Adam Barry
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0

The brokerage arms of DBS bank, DBS Vickers, has received approval from The Monetary Association of Singapore (MAS) to provide digital payment token services (DPT) under the payment services act.

The announcement comes shortly after the Australian crypto exchange Independent Reserve got a similar grant. This makes DBS bank among the first financial institutions to receive approval.

DBS bank is the largest lender in Southeast Asia. Its crypto exchange platform, DBS Digital Exchange (DDEx), was one of the first crypto trading platforms to be owned by a traditional Asian bank. DDEx is a members-only platform for accredited and institutional investors.

DBS working on meeting requirements to qualify for a license 

Despite the approval, neither DBS nor Independent Reserve have a license for the payment services. The company would have to meet more requirements to get further approval. On August 12, DBS Vickers announced that its brokerage arms were doing all it could to ensure they meet the regulator’s requirement for licensing. After a license is issued, DBS Vickers will be able to directly support trade in digital payments since it will be part of DDEx.

In a statement, the head of capital markets for DBS Eng-Kwok Seat Moey said that the company has seen interest among corporations in digital payment token services. With approval from the MAS, they are now capable to meet the growing need for access to the service. It will also cater to the increasing trading volume and client demand. This would help DDEx grown exponentially.

DDEx to start round the clock services

Additionally, DDEx is expected to start 24hr services on Aug 16 for the first time. The exchange service was previously only available during Asian trading hours. Opening it up to around-the-clock use will make users less susceptible to changes in spot market prices. It will also increase investor’s opportunities to seize assets.

DBS has been working to enhance its strategy towards asset digitalization. In the second quarter of the year, DDEx recorded $180 million in total trading value. Piyush Gupta, the Chief Executive for DBS says the bank plans to grow the investor base from 400 to 1000 within the year.

Crypto.com Launches a Free Tax Reporting System for Australian Users

By
Adam Barry
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0

Crypto.com has expanded its free tax reporting system to crypto users in Australia. Crypto users in the country can now use the exchange to generate their tax reports.

In an announcement made on August 13, Crypto.com said it made changes to the existing tax services it had in place for Canada and the US to allow Australians to use the service. Through collaborations with professional tax advisors, they were able to come up with a system that follows the laws for filling cryptocurrency taxes in the country.

Crypto.com only lets users with accounts on Coinbase, Bitbuy, Binance.US, Kraken, and Binance use the tax reporting service. Users with other exchanges and wallets will not be able to access it.

How the tax reporting system works

The tax reporting system works by allowing crypto users to import their transaction records to tax reporting platforms including TokenTax. A report is generated and later filled by the 

Australian Tax Office (ATO). The service is free whether the users report gains or losses.

The exchange promises the service will allow Australians to generate quick, organized, and accurate tax reports. It will also include transactional history, records of short and long-term capital gains and losses along with other untaxable transactions.

CEO and Co-Founder of Crypto.com, Kris Marszalek, announced his excitement about the project. He explains that his company has always felt the need to create an easy-to-use crypto platform.

ATO taxation on cryptocurrency

Recently countries such as the US and Australia have considered the liquidation of crypto holding capital gains which will be taxed in some cases. Despite this, the Australian government does not tax cryptocurrencies used to pay for goods and services as income if they are under 10,000AUD.

A report by the ATO estimates that between 500,000 and 1 million of its citizens own crypto assets.

A warning was released by the ATO in May to ensure crypto users in Australia fill their tax reports correctly in the event of profits made. The agency said it expected 600,000 citizens with digital assets to file their taxes. They expected to contact 400,000 more to inform them to review tax returns they had logged previously and check for inconsistencies.

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