Author: Bloomberg
Paris Hilton is “obsessed” with non-fungible tokens — and now she’s backing a $300 million organization that is bidding to take the boom in digital art to the next level. Origyn, a Swiss foundation that offers smartphone users a way to authenticate objects of value with digital certificates, has raised $20 million from investors including Hilton and Bill Ackman’s Table Management, according to a statement Tuesday. The technology offered by the nonprofit foundation deploys recognition and identification techniques created by experts. “I launched my first NFT drop in March 2020, and have been obsessed with NFTs and the never-ending possibilities…
United States banking agencies provided more insight into their plans for regulating cryptocurrencies on Tuesday, issuing a to-do list of their priorities for next year and announcing a new policy that would require banks to seek permission before offering digital currency products. The Federal Reserve and other banking agencies released an agenda outlining areas of focus, including how they plan to weigh custody, crypto-backed loans and the possibility of capital standards, according to a joint statement. Separately, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said that banks must get an additional sign-off from the regulator before engaging with digital coins. …
India is preparing a bill to regulate cryptocurrencies, which will be presented to parliament in the session starting Nov. 29. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government proposes to help the central bank create an official digital currency, according to a description of the bill, posted on parliament’s website Tuesday. “The bill also seeks to prohibit all private cryptocurrencies in India, however, it allows for certain exceptions to promote the underlying technology of cryptocurrency and its uses,” the text reads. The contents of the bill haven’t yet been finalized, according to people with knowledge of the matter. A Finance Ministry spokesman couldn’t…
The U.S. is pursuing a British man over allegations he helped hijack an American citizen’s identity to steal $8.5 million in crypto assets while he was a teenager. Corey De Rose, who is facing extradition to the U.S., is accused of helping hack into the man’s crypto wallet and transferring the digital currency to him and his alleged co-conspirators in 2017, lawyers for the U.S. said at the start of a London court hearing. He received 108.18 Bitcoins, valued at around $300,000 at the time. De Rose was part of a wider team of hackers called “The Community” which allegedly…
2TM Participacoes SA, owner of the biggest Brazilian cryptocurrency brokerage, is hunting for acquisitions to enter other Latin American markets. The plan is for the company, which is backed by SoftBank Group Corp., to expand into Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Argentina to become a provider of blockchain infrastructure for financial markets in the region, including services such as custodian and fund management, Chief Executive Officer Roberto Dagnoni said in an interview. “Our goal is to go global and participate only in the regulated markets,” Dagnoni said in a video call from Mexico City, where he is looking for acquisition opportunities. …
Speculative stocks on Monday had a rough day, as did Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. To some market-watchers, that’s no coincidence. The 100-day correlation coefficient of Bitcoin and the S&P 500 stands at 0.33, among the highest readings of the year. That means that when stocks move up, Bitcoin is likely to do the same, and vice versa. (A coefficient of 1 means the assets are moving in lockstep, while minus-1 would show they’re moving in opposite directions.) “The recent drawdown in Bitcoin and the rest of the cryptocurrency ecosystem has been tied to the selloff in the more risky growth names,”…
MercadoLibre Inc. is stepping up its foray into the crypto world through its digital payments app. MercadoPago customers in Brazil will soon be able to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrencies using their digital wallets, as the largest Latin American company by market capitalization looks to expand its lineup of financial products. The possibility became available to a small group of clients earlier in November and will be rolled out more broadly in the coming weeks, according to Tulio Oliveira, a MercadoPago vice president. “We took the time to study and learn before deciding to step into crypto,” Oliveira said in an interview.…
Right now, Bitcoin’s flagging and so is Ether after setting all-time highs. But certain pockets of the crypto market are looking past any recent worries and are doing just fine. Take Z-Cash, for instance, which is up roughly 30% since the start of November, according to Bloomberg data. The Avalanche token also is holding up well, gaining about 50% over the past seven sessions, while the Crypto.com coin CRO has advanced enough to become the 13th-largest by market capitalization, which has ballooned to $18 billion. It’s not unusual for so-called alternative coins to hang tough while their bigger brethren suffer a harder…
Cash is disappearing from the U.K. economy, a Bank of England official said in building the case for a new form of digital currency backed by the government. The central bank’s Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe said that technology including the internet and the popularity of credit and debit cards are reducing the role cash played in transactions. Authorities, he said, will have to adapt to keep some sort of state-backed money prominent in the financial system. “Central bank state-issued money is disappearing,” Cunliffe said on “The Swap” podcast from the International Swaps and Derivatives Association. “It’s no longer a full service settling…
Crypto-payments company MoonPay plans to hire around 200 people and make acquisitions to accelerate growth after raising $555 million in a funding round with Tiger Global Management and Coatue Management. Speaking in an interview, MoonPay Chief Executive Officer Ivan Soto-Wright said the company will add jobs around the world, including in Miami, where he is based. He said the company will hire full-stack engineers as well as workers for compliance, customer support and business development, more than doubling the current headcount of about 130. “Part of why we’re raising this round is to be able to attract the best talent from anywhere in the world,”…