Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

JPMorgan Is Using Blockchain for Collateral Settlement

Key Takeaways　　JPMorgan has begun to use blockchain for collateral settlements, beginning with a pilot transaction performed last week.　　The transaction involved assets from BlackRock, which was not directly involved in the transaction as a counterparty.　　Though JPMorgan has embraced blockchain for institutional use, its CEO, Jamie Dimon, remains critical of Bitcoin.　　JPMorgan is using blockchain technology for collateral settlements, according to new reports from Bloomberg.　　Transaction Involved BlackRock Assets　　In a pilot blockchain transaction, JPMorgan Chase s Previous Blockchain Efforts　　JP Morgan has been heavily involved in blockchain over the past several years and has created various products. Please download WikiBit for more blockchain news.　　It launched Quorum, an enterprise version of Ethereum in 2016. Quorum was acquired by ConsenSys in August 2020. Following that sale, JP Morgan launched a new internal blockchain product called Onyx and its own internal stablecoin in October 2020.　　JPMorgan also began to use blockchain for transactions related to repurchase borrowing in 2020. According to Bloomberg, more than $300 billion of value has been handled through those transactions, some of which involved Goldman Sachs.　　Despite the company‘s recent willingness to embrace blockchain technology for institutional purposes, it has also become infamous for CEO Jamie Dimon’s long-standing hostility toward Bitcoin. Dimon has at times called

2022-05-27Deep Dive

Algorithmic Stablecoin Resiliency More Important Than Growth: Vitalik Buterin

Key Takeaways　　Vitalik Buterin has defended the concept of algorithmic stablecoins in a blog post today.　　According to Buterin, algorithmic stablecoins should seek resiliency over quick growth.　　His comments come three weeks after the Terra collapse.　　Vitalik Buterin has shared his thoughts on algorithmic stablecoins in a blog post, arguing that protocols should strive for resiliency above all else.　　Withstanding Extreme Market Conditions　　Creator and co-founder of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin took to his blog today to address the criticism algorithmic stablecoins have faced since the collapse of Terras UST stablecoin.　　While he welcomed the “greater level of scrutiny on DeFi financial mechanisms” that Terras meltdown had brought, he pushed back on the idea that automated stablecoins were flawed by design. Please download WikiBit for more blockchain news.　　Pointing to protocols such as MakerDAO‘s DAI and Reflexer’s RAI, both of which have survived extreme market conditions as successful automated stablecoins, Buterin offered two thought experiments to help judge the resiliency of a stablecoin.　　The first was to calculate whether the “stablecoin [could], even in theory, safely ‘wind down’ to zero users” without collapsing the way Terra had and hurting users. He argued that RAI offered such a system, explaining that RAIs last holder would still get a fair price for

2022-05-27Deep Dive

Tether launches new stablecoin pegged to Mexican peso

Tether has launched a new Mexican peso-pegged stablecoin, marking its entrance into Latin America.　　Dubbed MXNT, the stablecoin will initially be available on the Ethereum, Tron and Polygon blockchains, Tether said today.　　This is Tethers fourth fiat-pegged stablecoin, after US dollar-pegged USDT, Euro-pegged EURT and the offshore Chinese Yuan-pegged CNHT.　　“We have seen a rise in cryptocurrency usage in Latin America over the last year that has made it apparent that we need to expand our offerings,” Paolo Ardoino, CTO of Tether, said in a statement. “Introducing a Peso-pegged stablecoin will provide a store of value for those in the emerging markets and in particular Mexico.”　　Testing ground for Latam expansion　　Tether said the launch of MXNT will provide a testing ground for onboarding new users in Latin America and pave the way for more fiat-pegged stablecoins in the region.　　While Tether has Euro and Yuan-pegged stablecoins, its USD-pegged stablecoin USDT remains more popular, although it has recently seen massive redemptions amid panic over the collapse of algorithmic stablecoin terraUSD (UST) earlier this month.　　USDT remains the biggest stablecoin in the world, with its current total supply standing at over 77 billion, according to The Blocks Data Dashboard.　　Over the past month, however, Tethers supply has declined by

2022-05-27Deep Dive

Mirror Protocol allegedly set up by Do Kwon to scam retail investors

Terra analyst and source of several whistleblower leaks, FatManTerra, has alleged that Mirror Protocol is a:　　“farce designed to enrich Do Kwon/VCs while manipulating governance and screwing over retail.”　　FatManTerra identified a wallet via Etherscan that deployed the Mirror Protocol yield farming smart contracts. The wallet created the smart contract 0xdb27, which FatManTerra alleges to be a part of the Terra wormhole infrastructure and a liquidity pool for Mirror Protocol.　　The contract certainly appears to be acting as an LP pool for some protocol, but at this time, CryptoSlate can neither confirm nor deny that it belongs to Mirror Protocol.　　FatManTerra highlights that this wallet:　　“owned most of the Mirror LPs on Ethereum. They thus farmed most of the MIR rewards, which would allow them to have a disproportionate say in governance decisions.”　　The wallet in question is listed as one of the top 20 MIR wallets, according to CoinMarketCap. The data matches with FatManTerras next accusation.　　“I have found evidence that this wallet and related wallets try very hard to make it look like MIR governance is not majority-controlled by a single entity – they do so by splitting up MIR between several fresh anonymous wallets.”　　The MIR held in the wallets identified in the Twitter thread

2022-05-26Deep Dive

Replaces Real Estate With Crypto as 'Preferred Alternative Asset'

JPMorgan‘s Bitcoin Price Target Is 28% Above Current Price　　Global investment bank JPMorgan published a bullish note on bitcoin and cryptocurrency Wednesday. The bank’s strategists, including Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, wrote that their price target for bitcoin remains at $38,000, “implying significant upside for digital assets from here.”　　At the time of writing, bitcoin is trading at $29,784, down 2.4% over the past seven days and almost 25% over the last 30 days. JPMorgans fair value estimate for bitcoin is nearly 28% higher than the current price of BTC.　　The JPMorgan strategists detailed:　　The past months crypto market correction looks more like capitulation relative to last January/February and going forward we see upside for bitcoin and crypto markets more generally.　　While the investment banks price target for bitcoin is $38K, its strategists have said that their long-term theoretical target price for the cryptocurrency is $150K.Crypto Becomes JPMorgans Preferred Alternative Asset Class, Replacing Real Estate　　In addition, the global investment bank now sees cryptocurrencies as its “preferred alternative asset class,” replacing real estate amid soaring mortgage rates.　　JPMorgan detailed that the recent market downturn hurt cryptocurrencies more than other alternative investments, including real estate.　　Noting that this trend suggests crypto has more room to rebound, the strategists wrote:　　We thus replace real

2022-05-26Deep Dive

World Bank Shows Worry Over Central African Republic’s Bitcoin Plan

The World Bank is concerned about the transparency and financial impact of the Central African Republic (CAR)‘s adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender. It claims that it will be “physically impossible” to fund the nation’s first concrete crypto adoption initiative, which the president announced on Tuesday.　　Worry at the World Bank　　The World Bank has never been very enthusiastic about nation state Bitcoin adoption. When El Salvador implemented its Bitcoin law in September, the international financial institution shunned offering the nation any support due to “environmental and transparency shortcomings.”　　Its now called off any support for CAR, citing the same concerns:　　“We have concerns regarding transparency as well as the potential implications for financial inclusion, the financial sector and public finance at large, in addition to environmental shortcomings,” the World Bank said in an emailed response to Bloomberg.　　Regarding transparency, The Bank of Central African States was reportedly not consulted on CARs Bitcoin plan, and opposed the initiative. The bank currently governs the monetary policy of the Central African CFA franc – a descendant of a French colonial currency also used by Cameroon, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of Congo.　　Denial of Support　　For the World Bank, it‘s important that such monetary authorities “remain in

2022-05-26Deep Dive

Report: The Metaverse Might Contribute $320 Billion to Latam's GDP in the Next 10 Years

A new report indicates that the metaverse might be a significant factor in the growth of economies in Latam and the world in the coming decade. The study, issued by Analysis Group, estimates that Latam might benefit from a surge of $320 billion or an approximate 5% of its GDP, in the next 10 years. This is the biggest percentage share of GDP of the regions in the studys projection.　　Analysis Groups Metaverse Report　　The metaverse is becoming a subject of intense focus in crypto and business at large, and many companies are already projecting the impact that it might have in several countries and areas in the future. In a recent report titled “The Potential Global Economic Impact of the Metaverse” issued by international economic consulting firm Analysis Group, the opportunities that the emergence of the metaverse could open in the next ten years are examined, assuming “adoption begins in 2022.”.　　In the document, the researchers compare the rise of the metaverse with mobile technologies and examine the growth as if this new technology were to evolve in a similar way. This industry was selected “because of similarities to the metaverse in the way it combined existing and nascent innovations to fundamentally

2022-05-26Deep Dive

JPMorgan: Crypto Trumps Real Estate As ‘Preferred Alternative Asset Class’

Digital assets have replaced real estate as JPMorgans “preferred alternative asset class,” the bank said in a report Wednesday.　　Public markets have already priced in significant recession risks, and digital assets have re-priced, following the collapse of TerraUSD (UST), according to JPMorgan analysts.　　An algorithmic stablecoin designed to maintain a one-to-one peg to the US dollar, UST traded around 9 cents Wednesday afternoon.　　“A potential lagged repricing keeps us more cautious on private equity, private debt and real estate over the coming quarters,” analysts wrote. “We thus replace real estate with digital assets as our preferred alternative asset class along with hedge funds.”　　The analysts fair value for bitcoin remained unchanged at roughly $38,000, “implying significant upside for digital assets from here.”　　Bitcoin was trading at about $29,700 at 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday, according to Blockworks data.　　Though the Terra crash has soured sentiment among investors, JPMorgan analysts said there have been relatively limited spillovers to other stablecoins and DeFi more broadly.　　Venture capital funding in the crypto space will be a key metric to watch, they added. Of the $25 billion of venture capital funding so far in 2022, nearly $4 billion came after Terras crash.　　“If VC funding dries up from here as a result

2022-05-26Deep Dive

Stripe resumes BTC payments four years after suspending the service

Online payment processing company Stripe has re-introduced Bitcoin (BTC) payments through a partnership with crypto start-up OpenNode, which leverages the Lightning Network.　　This partnership will allow Stripes customers to accept BTC payments through a new app. This app will let users convert incoming payments and any amount of their account balance into BTC.　　Notably, this service will be part of Stripe‘s public beta of a new app marketplace. These products are scheduled to hit the market in the next few weeks. Through the OpenNode partnership, Stripe’s clients will get access to fast and cheap BTC payments via the Lightning Network.　　Stripe‘s effort to make a comeback in the crypto industry comes after the company suspended BTC payments in 2018, citing slow transaction times, rising fees, and a lack of interest from customers. However, Stripe’s rivals, including Block, PayPal, and Checkout.com, embraced the nascent asset class, prompting the company to resume crypto payments.　　Stripes renewed interest in BTC might help revive the cryptocurrency　　Stripes re-introduction of BTC payments has the potential to help the flagship cryptocurrency rebound following the crash triggered by the collapse of TerraUST (UST) and Terra (LUNA). The company has more than two million users, which could expand BTCs use and help push

2022-05-26Deep Dive

a16z Raises $4.5 Billion to Invest in Crypto Amid Broader Market Correction

Andreessen Horowitz, also known as a16z, has raised $4.5 billion to pour into the cryptocurrency industry via a new fund. Thus, the companys total funds raised for blockchain-related entities have shot up to $7.6 billion.　　Founded over a decade ago, a16z has become one of the largest venture capital firms with a focus on the cryptocurrency industry, with multiple initiatives launched in the past. One of the most recent included a $2.2 billion fund announced in January this year.　　However, the company took it a step further on May 25 when news broke that it had raised even more funds – $4.5 billion – to allocate in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.　　The firms first fund came four years ago, during the notorious bull market, and the latest one comes as the prices have tumbled quite a lot since the November 2021 highs.　　According to Arianna Simpson, a general partner at a16z, these types of unfavorable market conditions provide the “best opportunities.”　　“Bear markets are often when the best opportunities come about when people are actually able to focus on building technology rather than getting distracted by short-term price activity.”　　Speaking on what requirements projects have to meet before receiving a16z backing, Simpson added:　　“The technical diligence and the

2022-05-26Deep Dive

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