🌐 Esther Pearce: "DeFi experiments should be allowed"
SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce has again made a call for regulatory certainty in the cryptocurrency industry so that DeFi projects can boldly experiment with new services.
“We need to provide regulatory certainty as well as freedom of experimentation so that DeFi can compete with the centralized financial sector in offering financial services to investors,” Pierce said during a speech at George Washington University School of Law.
Back in October last year, the SEC Commissioner talked about the potential of the DeFi industry, and it looks like her confidence has only grown. Pearce said the DeFi regulation "will be a good test of our ability to protect investors and markets, not the interests of existing players."
“The events of recent weeks have led to dissatisfaction among market participants on Wall Street. Some even call for a complete ditch of the traditional financial system and use DeFi. It is a rapidly growing part of the cryptocurrency world working to create an alternative to centralized finance that is managed by smart contracts rather than middlemen. And while DeFi is still evolving, it promises the availability, transparency and predictability of the financial system, ”Pearce said.
She concluded her presentation by emphasizing that it is the responsibility of regulators to assess potential advantages and disadvantages, and to provide legal clarity. In doing so, the SEC should encourage experimentation and competition between DeFi and the centralized financial sector. Pearce also urged regulators to take an open approach to innovation and the digital economy.
Pierce's comments on stock market events refer to the "pump" of shares in the GameStop chain of stores by users of the popular Internet forum Reddit, as a result of which institutional investors suffered significant losses. Against this backdrop, some trading platforms have restricted access to trading in GameStop shares, which has caused a flurry of criticism from users.
Former CEO of BitMEX exchange Arthur Hayes even urged traders to abandon securities trading on traditional financial platforms and switch to decentralized platforms.
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🌐 Square sold $ 4.57 billion worth of bitcoins in 2020
According to Square's report, $ 4.57 billion worth of bitcoins were sold through the Cash App in 2020. In addition, Jack Dorsey's firm bought $ 170 million worth of BTC.
Total bitcoin sales for 2020 through the Cash App were $ 4.57 billion, and profit from these operations was $ 97 million, while in Q4 2020 sales were $ 1.76 billion and profits reached $ 41 million. Square's report notes:
“For 2020, we saw a significant increase in bitcoin revenues. Sales were $ 4.57 billion, a ninefold increase from the previous year. The profit was $ 97 million, which is approximately 2% of total BTC sales. Sales and profits have benefited from increased customer activity and demand for these services, as well as a significant rise in the bitcoin price. "
In 2020, 3 million customers used the Cash App to buy bitcoins, and in January 2021 this figure was 1 million.On average, application users increased their bitcoin purchases by 2.5 times compared to 2019.
In addition, in addition to buying $ 50 million worth of bitcoins last October, Square bought another 3,318 BTC worth $ 170 million. Thus, the company's wallets now hold 8,027 BTC, which is more than $ 400 million at the current exchange rate. about 5% of Square's total stock of money and tradable securities. "
“We are looking to increase our attachment to Bitcoin, and we will continue to look for new ways to integrate our product lines into the Cash App,” said Square co-founder Jack Dorsey.
Recall that in early February, Dorsey announced the launch of his own node in the Bitcoin network, once again confirming his confidence in the future of cryptocurrencies.
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🌐 International conference BlockchainUA will be held in Kiev on March 26
On March 26, 2021, the ninth international BlockchainUA conference will be held in Kiev, which will bring together the strongest blockchain community in Ukraine and Europe.
Every year BlockchainUA brings together more than 1,000 entrepreneurs, investors, IT experts and media representatives from around the world to discuss solutions to pressing challenges in the field of blockchain and decentralized technologies. Step by step, a favorable business environment is being created in Ukraine in a rapidly growing ecosystem.
The first BlockchainUA conference was held in 2016 and became an international event bringing together leaders of the blockchain and fintech industry from more than 20 countries. The conference focuses on global industry trends, advanced technologies and projects in the field of blockchain.
One of the key themes of BlockchainUA 2021 will be “Digital Transformation”, which allows businesses to get closer to technological innovation. The main topics of the conference: blockchain, decentralized technologies, digital transformation, developments in the field of fintech and blockchain, government cryptocurrencies, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and the Internet of things.
BlockchainUA program will be updated on the official conference website and on the Facebook page.
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🌐 State Bank of India to implement blockchain solution JPMorgan
State Bank of India (SBI) will implement Liink, a blockchain-based solution developed by US investment bank JPMorgan Chase, to improve cross-border payments.
SBI Deputy Managing Director Venkat Nageswar said the bank has joined Liink, a new blockchain-based banking data transfer network developed by JPMorgan. Liink is a peer-to-peer network and ecosystem focused on organizations that work with digital currencies.
The network operates under the Onyx project for blockchain research. The service was launched in 2017 as the Interbank Information Network (IIN), but in October 2020, the project was renamed Liink. Thanks to blockchain, SBI intends to reduce transaction costs and optimize international payments for its customers.
“We are delighted to be one of the first Indian banks to join this network. We look forward to working more closely with JPMorgan to implement blockchain and further explore its potential, as this technology will improve the efficiency of serving our customers, ”said Nageswar.
According to Prabdev Singh, managing director of JPMorgan, Liink's solution is used in more than 400 financial institutions and corporations in 78 countries, including about 100 private and public banks. Singh added that JPMorgan's partnership with SBI aims to increase blockchain adoption in India's financial sector.
Despite the fact that the Indian government is opposed to cryptocurrencies, it does not impede the development of blockchain in the country and creates conditions for the development of the latest technologies. Recently, Indian Finance Minister Anurag Singh Thakur said that the country's authorities are studying in detail the possibilities of blockchain in order to accelerate the development of the digital economy.
Recall that in early 2019, JPMorgan began testing its own stablecoin JPM Coin, and in October last year, this digital currency was first used for commercial payments.
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MoneyGram has suspended the use of the Ripple platform
American payment company MoneyGram has decided to suspend the use of the Ripple platform for international transfers due to the ongoing SEC investigation.
On February 19, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed an updated complaint against Ripple. In it, the regulator accuses the CEO of the company Brad Garlinghouse and the former CEO Chris Larsen of organizing unregistered sales and manipulating the price of XRP.
“Due to regulatory uncertainty due to the dispute between Ripple and the SEC, our company has suspended work with the Ripple platform,” MoneyGram said in a statement .
Payment operator MoneyGram began testing the Ripple ODL solution for international transfers back in the fall of 2019. True, here the payment company has its own benefit - Ripple has encouraged the use of its platform with partner payments. For example, in the IV quarter of 2020, MoneyGram received payments from Ripple in the amount of $ 8.5 million.In total, in 2020, the amount of payments in favor of MoneyGram was $ 50.2 million.
In mid-2019, Ripple invested $ 50 million in MoneyGram.
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🌐 CrossTower: Institutions will keep bitcoin above $ 50,000
Analysts at the CrossTower institutional investor platform believe that the interest of large organizations in Bitcoin will continue to support the BTC rate above $ 50,000.
Last month, the number of unique active Bitcoin addresses reached a new high of 22.3 million, driven by the growth of the first cryptocurrency. CrossTower analyst Martin Gaspar reported that the number of Bitcoin addresses holding more than 1,000 BTC has grown significantly in recent weeks. This means that institutions are willing to buy Bitcoin despite its relatively high cost.
Many institutional investors view bitcoin as “digital gold” and therefore enter the market on a “buy and hold” basis. This trend can be regarded as a continuation of the bullish rally. On February 21, Bitcoin exceeded $ 58,000. Many events influenced its growth: the statement of the Mastercard payment company about its readiness to support cryptocurrencies, the development of a platform for managing cryptoassets by BNY Mellon bank, as well as Tesla's large investments in Bitcoin.
However, now the time has come for a correction - bitcoin managed to drop to $ 45,000. Despite the sharp drop in bitcoin, CrossTower experts argue that large investors will not allow bitcoin to trade below $ 50,000 for a long time. The outlook for the crypto asset market is still optimistic. Gaspar also noted a sharp decline in the number of bitcoins on centralized exchanges, while large volumes of stablecoins are stored on the wallets of cryptocurrency exchanges. This trend can also signal the continuation of the “bullish trend” in the market.
A few days ago, analysts at JPMorgan bank predicted a sharp drop in Bitcoin. This could happen if traders stop believing in USDT, as the issuer of this stablecoin - Tether - has been criticized for its lack of transparency in reserves.
woow!! nice job