Monthly Archives: December 2021

The rising number of cases of the Covid omicron variant in the U.S. are a major catalyst for the falling cryptocurrency prices in December, according to investors and analysts.

Ethereum is up more than 400% in 2021 but on pace for its worst month since March 2020 as investors reassess their exposure to riskier assets following the emergence of the omicron variant.

Bitcoin is on pace to double the S&P 500, and ripple is more than 200% higher year to date, but both are also down double digits this month.

"With omicron coming along and the U.S. economy stalling a bit, a lot of macro funds that use bitcoin as this pro-cyclical inflation hedge have decided to take profits throughout December," Brian Kelly, CEO and founder of digital currency investment firm BKCM, told CNBC.

ESG or environmental, social and governance investing and concerns over energy use have also been a catalyst in recent crypto declines, according to Lou Kerner, partner at Blockchain Coinvestors.

"Today 'proof of work' from the [cryptocurrency] mining machines is looked upon negatively by a lot of the investment community because of the energy it consumes," Kerner told CNBC. "But if you dig deep, much of the energy is energy that couldn't be used for anything else. Relative to the massive value we are getting from it, the energy I think will become much less of a concern next year."

Stocks that hold or mine cryptocurrency saw deeper declines than the assets themselves in December. MicroStrategy is down 21% this month, while Riot Blockchain has fallen 38%. Marathon Digital declined 31%. The coins and stocks are closely correlated in the minds of investors, something Kerner sees changing.

"We are on the cusp of a deep understanding by institutional investors of the different companies and what they actually do and the economics of the businesses," Kerner said. "It's still hard for most investors to wrap their head around mining. It's a small part of the market, so you don't have a lot of institutional investors devoting massive amounts of time to it. It's easier for them to just look at it like a basket."

Kelly said he is bullish on bitcoin and believes it could hit $100,000 by the end of 2022 but that the emergence of the metaverse is pulling investor interest.

"You'll see a lot of other coins, whether they be in the metaverse, gaming or decentralized finance do really well," Kelly said. "The venture capitalists, new money and funds like mine are focused on those early growth opportunities."

Read more:
Cryptocurrency prices fall in December, and investors blame omicron, climate change - CNBC

Bitcoin is going higher. But, don't be shocked if it goes a bit lower in 2022. If it does, but it.

Bitcoin...moon again?

Well, wasnt 2021 sort of a moon launch? I think so. It hit all-time highs despite all the legends saying its a worthless seashell for tech dorks. Wrong! Hey, its not $68,000, but itll get there again.

Right?

Bitcoin will reach at least $200,000 by 2025, says Paycer UG founder & CTO Nils Gregersen in Hamburg, Germany. But I am pretty sure we will see it fall to around $20,000 before hand.

Yikes!

Okay, no panicking. Ill buy it.

What about the rest of the cryptocurrency space? Theres more to this market today than Bitcoin. Cryptocurrency investing is the new stock market. Everybody knows that.

This year was a very interesting one for crypto. We saw trends coming and going very fast with coins hyped up by influencers like Elon Musk who gave Dogecoin a lift for a short time before it returned to being a dud coin.

There is a lot of pump in the market at the moment, says Gregersen. I think in 2022 we are going to see a little cooldown in the market. Only the stronger projects will survive. For the memecoins and other shady projects, I think the air gets a little thinner for them, he says, adding that regulations will have an impact on DeFi cryptocurrencies, within varying degrees of positives and negatives.

DeFi will still be a thing in 2022. We have only seen the tip of the iceberg in terms of DeFi, says Gregersen. There are many new products to come that we can't even imagine today.

Some DeFi trends expected next year: Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO) that offer unregulated, decentralized finance and a new regulated centralized- decentralized finance. Call it the yin and yang of DeFi, I guess. CeDeFi will offer less complex financial services based on DeFi but will hold hands with the regulators of financial markets and banking, in general. This might be the type of DeFi that Jim Cramer of Mad Money can get behind.

Ava Labs president John Wu also predicts DeFi will have a good 2022.

But he seems to like the GameFi space even more.

DeFi will continue to lead in terms of total value in the ecosystem, butblockchain gaming will introduce more people to crypto because the learning and adoption curves in gaming are notably smaller than that of DeFi, he says.

Yeah, Im still playing video games on an X Box One. I dont know about blockchain games. I have never stared into the eyes of any blockchain yet. Ill have to do that this year.

Future game gamefi and entertainment digital technology. Teenager having fun play VR virtual reality ... [+] glasses sport game metaverse NFT game 3D cyber space futuristic neon colorful background.

Gaming growth is outpacing new DeFi activity. Just wait until major developers and studios get involved, Wu says.

GameFi is considered a subset of the metaverse as most game developers in the blockchain world are building their ecosystem to be more linked to the virtual world. Non-fungible tokens (NFT) are also an offshoot here because diehard gamers will spend money for digital art, let alone weapons and other gear (or fake land) associated with a game.

The metaverse is in its infancy. So this gives crypto investors a chance to get in on the ground floor of some of the newcomers. I own Decentraland (MANA) as my metaverse play.

Getting aboard the metaverse train today with all the connections to other aspects of blockchain evolution will be synonymous to getting aboard the Bitcoin train in its earliest days, says Sven Wenzel, co-founder of Castello Coin, which operates in the digital art space. An early investment in a metaverse token can amount to so much more in the longer term, he says in comparing metaverse plays with the likes of Bitcoin.

Castello Coin and Decentraland all run on the Ethereum blockchain. Its still the No. 2 cryptocurrency investment after Bitcoin. How will Ethereum look in 2022?

I would invest in Ethereum. I would invest $200 every month in Ethereum, says Gregersen.

Overall, market participants expect more people opening accounts with exchanges. Thats a long term bullish signal for cryptocurrencies.

I predict some of the more old school platforms (think E*Trade) will allow for investment in at least Bitcoin and Ethereum next year. That should get more people involved, especially those who cant be bothered opening up a Gemini account, for instance.

POLAND - 2020/06/15: In this photo illustration an Ethereum logo seen displayed on a smartphone. ... [+] (Photo Illustration by Mateusz Slodkowski/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

The resilience of cryptocurrencies is expected to be a highlight again this coming year. We all have witnessed how our investments can snap back rather quickly from a 10% or 20% loss.

In the past, this would have triggered a sustained downturn and crypto winter, but better risk management on the professional investor side means the market just has a snow day instead. People will be buying the dips in 2022.

I know I will. After a 23 day battle with Covid, Im ready to put some money to work in my Coinbase account again. Ill probably load up on some Bitcoin. After these interviews, I might have to check in on MANA.

Besides investing ideas, Wu from Ava Labs thinks more traditional brand name corporations will enter the space in 2022.

Look at the list of major media companies, sports leagues or content creators participating in digital assets at the start of the year versus the end of it, he says. Deloitte and Mastercard recently linked up with Ava Labs to explore their Avalanche blockchain and its smart-contract enabled applications.

This year was a true zero-to-60 growth in new blockchain protocols like Solana (SOL) and Polkadot (DOT). Many Fortune 500 companies who used this year to explore what NFTs and digital assets can do for them will be two feet in, in 12 months time, Wu predicts.

Theyve seen their peers succeed and so the risk of failure is low enough to make a move, he says.

If you watched the World Series, you saw the FTX crypto exchange logo on the jerseys of the umpires. Yes, you can buy and sell NFTs on FTX, like the currently priced $615 Stephen Curry NFT: The 2974 Collection.

So 2021 was the year of NFTs, for sure. What will 2022 be the year of, if you had to pick one?

More new blockchain projects, especially for businesses, says Wu.

I think you will see enterprise blockchain pilots move into the live stages a lot quicker than people expect, he says.

Sorry, haters, the world will still be investing in digital assets in 2022. To steal an old adage from the world of Wall Street: the trend is your friend.

**The writer owns Bitcoin, Polkadot and Decentraland. Oh, and sadly, Dogecoin.**

See more here:
Cryptocurrency Investing Predictions For 2022 - Forbes

By Lisa Chau

NEW YORK Cryptocurrency is going mainstream, as evidenced by the large turnout at the recent NFT NYC conference. Indeed, increasing numbers of companies are accepting the digital money that takes the form of virtual coins or tokens.

There are over 11,000 cryptocurrencies in existence, with more than 400 exchanges for such digital money, financial website Motley Fool reports. Roughly 14 percent of American adults own cryptocurrency and many more say they are planning to buy some. El Salvador recently made Bitcoin legal tender..

One of the hottest concepts in such circles is NFTs (non-fungible tokens) Indeed, Cointelegraph recently reported record numbers in Google searches for NFTs, blowing past traffic for DeFi, Ethereum and even blockchain search terms which had dominated searches for cryptocurrency-related information.

While Dogecoin firmly captured the publics imagination during the second quarter with search volume for Dogecoinrising to rival Bitcoin in early May, dog-token fever quickly subsided in the third quarter, wrote Kiera Wright for the Cointelegraph site, whose self-proclaimed mission is to cover the future of money.

James Haft is the chairman of DLTx, which deploys blockchains and tech infrastructure used to build the foundations of Web 3, the next iteration of the internet. DLTX is a public company listed on the Oslo Brs Stock Exchange of Norway, hosted a satellite investor event at the NFT confab withLD Capital, GDA Capital & Akash Network. The attendee list included guests from Coinbase, FTX, Facebook, PayPal, Bitfinex, Grayscale, Pantera Capital, Fenbushi Capital, Consensys, Polymath, BlockFi, Blocktower Capital, Republic, Wax.io, IOTA, Hedera Hashgraph, Valhalla Capital, Sovryn, Yugen Partners, Casper Labs, BitMart Exchange, Huobi, Shima Capital, 6th Man Ventures, Graph Protocol, Yield Ventures, EY, Coindesk, Forbes, Insider and others.

Haft believes that the strong attendance numbers at the conference and its satellite events not only showcased the strength and increasing momentum of the new NFT economy, it also demonstrated the world is returning to in-person business transactions.

The wildfire growth of NFTs and the meme stocks and tokens illustrate the path to mass adoption of crypto. These new economies are signing up more new users faster than the classic crypto markets, Haft said. The enthusiasm of these new users for the content-based NFTs and memes will likely abate, and then these users will move into the classic markets en masse.

Gumi Cryptos CapitalGeneral PartnerMiko Matsumura points to play-to-earn game Axie Infinity as a reflection of industry growth. The NFT-based online video game developed by Vietnamese studio Sky Mavish boasts approximately 23 million monthly active users. Matsumura sees a future where users will abandon internet services that dont include them as owners.

Instead, users have begun focusing on work that is more personally empowering.That trend is reflected in a Civic Science poll posted on BeInCrypto, which showed 4 percent of Americans have quit jobs based on crypto gains.

This is an unusual part of an economic recovery that represents the power of nerds and technology on behalf of art and meaning. Crypto nerds have become wealthy sovereigns who are now powering a new renaissance, says Matsumura. Right now, Bored Apes are the kings of pure NFT culture. They will go down in history that way. Eventually this kind of culture will infuse everything and will be less radical but for now thats the tip of the spear.

While the blockchain industry is getting bigger, its still a blip on the radar for the general population, said Bettymedia Founder and Creative Director Bettinna (who goes by one name only). For instance, a couple of members on her team were baffled by NFTs. They had heard her talk about bitcoin, crypto, NFTs, but they didnt fully understand those concepts until NFT NYC this year.

One of her colleagues was excited to open his first crypto-wallet, and got a free NFT at the Palladium. Although excited, he didnt know what it really meant before Bettinna gave him a thorough explanation.

My team said NFTs are like a massive underground world they didnt know about, Bettinna said. I dont know if NFTs or NFT NYC signal an economic recovery for the industry, because the NFT community has been thriving before the pandemic and during the pandemic. Its just many of the general public who didnt know about the NFT community and crypto before Covid-19 found out about it during the pandemic.

Amid all the newfound excitement, observers say its important to be careful when investing in NFTs. Scams are everywhere and in every industry and the ruses include impersonators, fake accounts and misinformation. Bettinna believes that the NFT community does a decent job of calling people out, but that sometimes the major social media companies dont move fast enough to shut down scammers.

She recalled the Fame Lady Squad incident which happened over the summer.The $1.5 million NFT project claimed it was created for women to support women. But collectors found out that the founders and their female avatars were in fact Russian men. Collectors said they felt duped and ultimately the founders surrendered the project to a team of females in the community.

I bring up this story because some saw it as a scam and I believe they have every right to feel the way they did, but I didnt see it as a total scam, said Bettinna. The collectors got beautiful crypto art from the very beginning. They all got their investment and after this controversy, these NFTs from that project will live on in history books. I do see the positive side of all this, at the same time I do think people should be mindful of the NFT world.

With that in mind, Gumi Cryptos Capitals Matsumura offer this advice to those thinking about entering the cryptocurrency realm:

If someone offers you a yield or profit, and you dont understand where its coming from, YOU are the yield.

Edited by Matthew B. Hall and Bryan Wilkes

The post Cashing In On Cryptocurrency And NFTs: Buyer Beware appeared first on Zenger News.

See original here:
Cashing In On Cryptocurrency And NFTs: Buyer Beware - Birmingham Times

A representation of cryptocurrency Binance is seen in this illustration taken August 6, 2021.

Dado Ruvic | Reuters

Crypto giant Binance is bolstering its presence in France after a choppy year of regulatory scrutiny.

The world's largest cryptocurrency exchange is financing a 100 million euro ($113 million) initiative with industry group France FinTech in an effort to support the cryptocurrency and blockchain sector in France.

The initiative, announced in November and dubbed Objective Moon, will see Binance establish a research and development office in France and collaborate on an incubator program for start-ups and training programs.

"The aim of Objective Moon is really to develop an ecosystem and to nurture and accelerate an ecosystem. You cannot do it alone," David Princay, Binance's French GM, told CNBC.

"We need to be also able to capture the talent and to have more capabilities to grow bigger," he said of plans to open an R&D office. "Having an R&D center is one step that we need to go for our next evolution."

Ledger, the French crypto hardware firm recently valued at $1.5 billion, and edtech company OpenClassroom are also involved in Objective Moon on developing educational programs.

France may prove to be fertile ground for the initiative given its growing fintech scene. According to figures from Dealroom, fintech investments in France have ballooned this year with bumper funding rounds for the likes of Lydia and Qonto.

Binance has had a turbulent year in its relationships with regulators across the globe. Among its headaches were a ban by Britain's Financial Conduct Authority and an investigation by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The company also put an end to the trading of its digital stock tokens and, most recently, shut down its trading platform in Singapore.

While its roots are in China, Binance has been famously shy about pinning itself down to any one location, leaning into the decentralization maxims associated with the crypto industry.

Binance has recently changed its tone on that front, however, as CEO Changpeng Zhao has spoken out in favor of regulation and of a willingness to work with regulators while expressing an interest in France as an official base of operations.

Princay was tight lipped on whether the company's significant investment in France was a precursor to establishing its formal headquarters there; "We have nothing yet to add on that," he said.

However the company's moves in the country have not gone unnoticed by watchdogs. Last month the governor of France's central bank said that Binance must have strong anti-money laundering checks in place if it wants to set up operations in the country.

Meanwhile, France's digital minister Cedric O was present with Binance and France FinTech at the announcement of Objective Moon.

"Cedric O has been very clear with us, they are welcome to see us and to have us, but they are also very exigent and that's for the better," Princay told CNBC. He added that Binance is in discussions with regulators in France on licensing.

"It's a very positive sign for innovation," he said of regulation for crypto in France and Europe generally. "We need to be fully scrutinized and audited to pass and that's for the better because when we're going to pass, it is going to be a sign of trust, compliance."

"Our aim is to be 100% compliant in every activity and country we operate."

Regulation is often playing catch-up with cryptocurrency businesses. On a European level, the industry's next big challenge will be the EU's Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation.

MiCA, which was recently approved by the European Council, will introduce greater investor protection and expand the licensing and passporting for crypto firms in the bloc. It is due to be discussed in the European Parliament in the coming months.

Ariel Wengroff is editor-in-chief at Ledger and leads the company's educational content efforts.

She told CNBC that Ledger signed up to the initiative with Binance to increase awareness of crypto, blockchain and Web3 a broad concept of decentralized web services built on blockchain technologies in its home market. She said providing educational programs are "for the greater good" of the industry as it has moved much faster than traditional curricula.

"We are very much still at a stage of mainstream curiosity and if we want to get to mainstream adoption and have individuals have the education they deserve for it to be a secure, seamless and open source future then we have to come together as businesses to provide that now," she said.

"Education in web3 should not be something that is siloed or held against one another, it should be open to any person that wants to learn about this space."

View post:
The world's largest crypto exchange Binance is trying to woo France - CNBC

2021 saw an incredible amount of adoption and interest in the cryptocurrency industry, leading to the increase in the development and investment of DeFi platforms.

Following the spike of interest, the total value locked (TVL) across the cryptocurrency industry reached upwards of $230bn.

However, hackers are catching on and beginning to target unaudited DeFi protocols with increasingly sophisticated attacks.

Coin Rivet runs through the top five biggest cryptocurrency hacks faced in 2021:

The Poly Network hack in August was the biggest cryptocurrency exploit ever!

More than $600m in assets were stolen from the multi-chain protocol, including $264m worth of assets stolen from Ethereum wallets, $250m from Binance Smart Chain wallets and $85m from Polygon.

Following the hack, the cryptocurrency industry banded together to stop the funds being used and laundered by the hacker.

Then, in a surprising turn of events, the hacker decided to return $260m of stolen funds after being hunted by various security firms such as Slowmist and Chainalysis.

The fallout led to the hacker known as Mr White Hat to first be offered a role as chief security adviser by Poly Network before returning the rest of the stolen funds in exchange for a 161 ETH bounty.

The BitMart hack saw a total of $196m in assets stolen from two of the platforms hot wallets on Ethereum and BSC in December.

The assets stolen from the wallets included mostly memecoins such as SHIB alongside a variety of BSC-based tokens that offer similar utility.

Following the hack, rumours circulated within the platforms Telegram channel, where it was dismissed as fake news.

Upon further investigation, BitMart CEO Sheldon Xia confirmed that a large-scale security breach occurred and that funds were stolen. Little is still known about the cause of the exploit.

DeFi platform Cream Finance was hacked twice in 2021, first for $18m in August followed by a larger $130m exploit in October.

The first saw $18m in ETH stolen thanks to a smart contract issue before the second hacker was able to use flash loans to repeatedly lend and borrow funds across multiple wallets.

In total, the hacker managed to get away with a massive trough of assets including 2,760 ETH, 76 BTC and more than $10m in stablecoins.

In December, the play-to-earn NFT game Vulcan Forged had a total of $140m of PYR tokens stolen from compromised wallets.

A majority of the assets were taken from users wallets, which were linked to an integrated wallet service called Venly.

The exploit saw the private keys of 96 addresses being compromised and allow the attacker to drain the contents of their wallets, which also included vast amounts of ETH and MATIC.

Following the hack, the team reimbursed users from its treasury.

The final hack on our list again occurred in December when BadgerDAO faced a front-end attack that saw more than $120m in ETH and BTC stolen from the platform.

Taking advantage of contract approvals which allows the smart contract to interact with the funds within a wallet the hacker inserted additional approvals and was able to send user funds to their own wallet in secret.

Following the reveal of the exploit, the Badger team announced it had paused all smart contracts before investigating further.

Popular crypto platform Celsius was also affected, reportedly losing 896 Bitcoin ($50m) thanks to the exploit.

*All information was correct at the time of writing.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. We do not give advice on financial products.

More:
The five biggest cryptocurrency hacks of the year - Coin Rivet

Bitcoin and Ether's rival, which is the three largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Binance Coin (BNB) has significantly outperformed the two most popular digital tokens. Binance coin has skyrocketed nearly 1,300% this year (year-to-date).

BNB is used widely on Binance, the worlds biggest crypto exchange by volume. It is also the native currency of Binance Smart Chain, a blockchain platform that supports smart contracts for use in decentralized finance (DeFi) and other applications.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin is up 62% in 2021 whereas the second largest cryptocurrency, Ether has surged more than 400% during the said period. Tuesday. Bitcoin, famed for its volatility, has shed more than $21,000 since hitting a record in early November.

On the other hand, Ether, the token of the Ethereum network, has outperformed Bitcoin from the adoption of blockchain technology by financial technology companies, and perhaps more notably the popularity of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in the art and gaming worlds.

As a blockbuster year for cryptocurrencies ticks to a close, other alternative coins, or altcoins, also saw major gains in 2021. Many coins other than the largest few have posted spectacular runs this year. Coins such as Dogecoin, Cardano and Shiba Inu, previously relegated to the most speculative corners of the market, have turned into household names this year. Solana and Fantom, coins connected with other blockchain platforms that support smart contracts, outpaced Binance Coins returns, for instance.

Cryptocurrency prices went on another roller coaster this past year, surging, plunging and then cycling again. El Salvador became the first country to make Bitcoin legal tender this year whereas the first exchange-traded fund tied to Bitcoin futures also began to trade.

(With inputs from Bloomberg)

Subscribe to Mint Newsletters

* Enter a valid email

* Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter.

Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint. Download our App Now!!

Read more:
The number 3 cryptocurrency, with 1,300% rally this year, outshines rivals Bitcoin and Ether - Mint

Abu Dhabi is reducing its reliance on oil and gas while increasing its focus on the cryptocurrency industry with an aim to be the leading crypto hub in the Middle East.

Having already established an initial regulatory framework for its cryptocurrency environment in 2018, the Emirate has targeted the attention of digital asset firms in their bid to create a flourishing market for the crypto industry.

With the creation of the Matrix Exchange and Midchains, the two regulated digital asset exchanges in Abu Dhabi, a third DEX is on the way, according to Shorafa Al Hammadi, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development.

Al Hammadi said the cryptocurrency ecosystem in Abu Dhabi is working to pinpoint the issues with its framework so it proves an attractive opportunity for those influential individuals in the industry.

The whole ecosystem in Abu Dhabi is working together to make it easy for all the actors of that space, to not only attract them but bring them here [and] to develop the legal framework, he said.

[We want] to find what are the pain points worldwide so we can remove them, and have a very strong robust regulatory framework for those people.

Its been a long road for Abu Dhabi in its quest to become a major player in the crypto world, with the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) launching its regulatory framework for spot crypto asset activities in 2018.

Since then, the state-owned Mubadala fund announced its investment in the crypto ecosystem, further demonstrating the capabilities of the capital.

Mubadala CEO Khaldoon Al-Mubarak, also known for his role of chairman at Manchester City football club, mentioned the fast-growing value of the industry as a reason for the funds investment.

I think, you know, this is a business that had, what $200 billion worth of crypto value two years ago, and its two and a half trillion dollars today and growing, Mubarak said.

So I think while many people are sceptics, I dont fall in that category.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. We do not give advice on financial products.

Read this article:
Abu Dhabi aiming to be global cryptocurrency leader - Coin Rivet

The stereotype of cryptocurrency savviness being male dominatedthink bitcoin bromay hold validity in Silicon Valley, but it doesnt seem to ring true on the government side.

I just see women kind of owning crypto, especially on the government fronts like in a really wonderful way across the agencies, whether it's the IRS or all the different components of Treasury that are looking at virtual currency because there's a lot that look at it from different perspectives, said Carole House, director of cybersecurity at the National Security Council. There's always women in the room. It is something where I think that diversity generally, and that particular aspect of diversity is continuing to grow and it's just really encouraging to see.

House was participating in a panel discussion of women in crypto hosted in spring by the firm Chainalysis, which aims to help governments and other entities like insurance and cybersecurity companies investigate crimes and grow consumer access to cryptocurrency safely.

In April, House moved to the White House from the Treasury Departments Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN which has been instrumental in identifying entities for the departments historic move sanctioning virtual currency exchanges.

2021 brought other important firsts for the government navigating the cryptocurrency space, too. And as Congress and the administration navigate between facilitating beneficial innovations in the realm to securing it against illicit use, women have been prominent throughout the chain from policy development to enforcement.

Starting at the cabinet level, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will have control over how a new law requiring facilitators of virtual currency transactions to report to the IRS is implemented.

Speaking during the Chainalysis event, House said an antagonistic relationship with the industry would work against the governments goal of countering illegal activity.

We value hearing from the private sector particularly because we recognize that exchanges and others in industry are the ones that are on the front lines and they're going to be the ones critical to preventing the abuse of cryptocurrency by sanctioned persons and other bad actors, she said.

At Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, Senior Sanctions Policy Advisor Katherine Bradbury talked about the work being done to flag cryptocurrency exchanges that facilitate ransomware payments involving regimes like Iran and North Korea so others in the community can avoid violations.

On the enforcement side, Michele Korver, digital currency counsel at the Justice Departments criminal division, noted the departments significant victory in recovering a majority of the Bitcoin Colonial Pipeline paid to ransomware perpetrators.

And, speaking at a Nextgov event last month, Rita Martin, an agent in the U.S. Secret Services Global Investigative Operations Center, pointed out that the sanctions actions from Treasury were a direct result of cross-agency cybersecurity teams on Justices joint investigative task force.

That all bodes well for more resources going toward work in the digital currency space, according to the women.

We actually just hired another person at the digital currency initiative, which I'm very excited about, Korver said. We made a lot of successful seizures and forfeitures this last year and those will eventually trickle down all the way from the local police that may have worked on something to salaries within the DOJ that will support these cases in these investigations that are really important, and I think theres going to be sufficient attention on the resources that are needed.

In October, lawmakers wrote to the leaders of Justice, Treasury and the departments of Homeland Security and State noting their progress in the crypto space and asking where they can be of assistance.

Agencies are already moving ahead. In September, the IRS issued a request for proposals to apply new research on physical devices for cryptocurrencies that they say could be crucial to investigations.

OFAC and FinCEN also had resources available to hire more personnel for digital currency teams this year, Bradbury and House said, with House noting that FinCEN is pursuing authorities that will allow them to recruit top talent.

The rest is here:
Women Report from the Frontlines of Federal Cryptocurrency Governance - Nextgov

MADRID, Dec 31 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - It might sound like a marketing gimmick, but the founders of the first LGBT+ cryptocurrency said they want to harness the community's economic power with the aim of "changing the world".

The maricoin, a play on words taken from a homophobic slur in Spanish, was launched on Friday in a week-long pilot test involving 10 businesses in Chueca, known as the LGBT+ neighbourhood of Spain's capital, Madrid.

Maricoin's backers are aiming for the virtual currency to start trading early next year, paving the way for it to be used as a means of payment at LGBT-friendly businesses and events worldwide.

Register

"Since we move this economy, why shouldn't our community profit from it, instead of banks, insurance companies or big corporations that often don't help LGBT+ people?" co-founder Juan Belmonte, 48, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.

Belmonte, a hairdresser and entrepreneur, said the idea for the LGBT+ cryptocurrency came to him while he was partying with friends at Madrid's Pride event in July this year.

But he traces the project's origins back to 2017, when the ultra-Conservative group HazteOir launched a campaign against transgender rights by sending a bus around Spain bearing the words: "Boys have penises, girls have vulvas. Do not be fooled."

The conservative Christian group's campaign was swiftly banned by Spanish authorities, but Belmonte said it made him realise he "had to do something" to help leverage the LGBT+ community's economic clout in the fight against homophobia.

HUGE MARKET

The global LGBT+ market is huge, with research by Swiss bank Credit Suisse suggesting it would rank as the world's fourth-largest economy, behind Japan but ahead of Germany in terms of purchasing power.

A 2018 study conducted by Kantar Consulting and LGBT+ social network Hornet estimated the community's buying power in the United States alone at $1 trillion in 2016 almost equal to that of African-American or Hispanic consumers.

Maricoin is backed by Miami-based venture capital firm Borderless Capital, and the initiative's Chief Executive Francisco Alvarez said 8,000 people were already on a waiting list seeking to buy maricoins before the currency starts trading.

Under their plans, the LGBT+ cryptocurrency will be accepted as payment in businesses from restaurants and cafes to shops and hotels that have signed an "equality manifesto".

Among other things, the manifesto defends the rights of LGBT+ people and "everyone suffering from exclusion", as well as advocating a "social, ethical, transversal and transparent economy".

"The establishments that accept our coin will be listed on our map, which will work as an LGBTI guide for anyone visiting any city in the world," Alvarez, 48, said.

"If they violate any of the points of our anti-discrimination manifesto, for example if they fire a pregnant woman because of her pregnancy, they will be expelled from maricoin," he added.

The currency will also have its own LGBT-related language - transfers between maricoin users are called "trans".

Alvarez and Belmonte also hope the venture can generate a source of financing for LGBT+ businesses and community initiatives worldwide.

"We'll be able to give microcredits for people to set up a small LGBTI-friendly cafe in Colombia, or to support projects helping queer refugees flee countries where they'd be stoned to death," he said.

"We're looking forward to changing the world."

Register

Reporting by Enrique Anarte @enriqueanarte; Editing by Helen Popper and Hugo Greenhalgh. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

See the original post:
First LGBT+ cryptocurrency bets on 'changing the world' - Reuters