New Perlu Members 11/29-12/5

According to the security policy of the OKEx exchange, it is mentioned that access to its cold wallets “must require confirmation of two authorized parties. Further analysis needs to be performed on the identified OKEx cold wallets to ensure transfers happening between wallets which would nullify the argument of Xu being a required signatory for the cold wallets. If OKEx does not survive this incident, it is likely to cause the crypto market to plunge by hurting the confidence of users, which will also affect the popularity and application of digital currencies. Not only does this incident put OKEx negatively in the world map, but it gives rise to trust issues and uncertainty for anyone involved in crypto trading.

Legendary venture capitalist and Bitcoin maximalist Tim Draper blows hot on DeFi, seeks to introduce DeFi into the venture capital business. With the recent events unfolding: PayPal moving into crypto, Squares Bitcoin investment, Singapore’s largest bank launching crypto trading platform, JP Morgan’s coin JPM goes live and many more factors are pointing towards a bullish Bitcoin price scenario. With the continued support for contactless payment infrastructure and the need to shift the global adoption curve to an entirely new technological paradigm due to incessant printing of fiat out of thin air, blockchain and crypto continue to present itself as the most viable option. ” The Venture Capital Business – Says Draper Decentralized finance (DeFi) products took the world by storm in 2020 and are now gaining massive mainstream interest.

Several bullish events like PayPal’s involvement in crypto, Square’s Bitcoin investment etc have played a key role in the Bitcoin bullish momentum seen in the past weeks. Especially Uniswap and Curve that saw over $5 billion in total DEX trading volume pump in a single day. The aggregated DEX volume fell from $8 billion recorded in the first week of October sinking down to $3 billion, a number not seen since August. Although DeFi token value is plummeting, the Total Value Locked across DeFi protocol recently set a new all-time high of $12.48 billion on October 25.

As the country looks to strengthen global financial inclusion, a lot of analysts have argued the likelihood of China’s digital Yuan displacing the U. S dollar as the world’s reserve currency. According to a CNBC report on Nov. 2, David Roche, president and global strategist at Independent Strategy stated that China’s central bank digital currency or CBDC which has already passed pilot tests could potentially knock off the U. S dollar as a reserve currency, however it would take a “very, very long time. Amidst the rising debt structure and sinking U. S economy, Rochie has emphasized that despite the slow or negative growth experienced in the past 20 years, the dollar has maintained an   “increasing proportion of the settlement of international trade and an even bigger proportion of financial reserves” Rochie’s comment on the state of a U. S issued CDBC has been centered on the comment previously made by Jerome Powell — the U.S. Federal Reserve’s chairman who declared in October that the U.S government was less concerned about China’s first-mover advantage in the issuance of CBDC. The U. S dollar as a reserve currency of the world has always been a focal point when it comes to matters of international trade settlement and the basis of exchange, which makes it an object of concern with every policy coming out of the States.

An open alternative to classic financial services such as savings accounts, insurance, loans, and trading operating outside the rigid framework of typical institutions Defi’s intrigue is evident, an open alternative to classic financial services such as savings accounts, insurance, loans, and trading operating outside the rigid framework of typical institutions. Conversely, a typical protocol from a traditional financial institution is set by one group or business, a decision usually made behind closed doors where the institution’s intentions may not be as transparent or user friendly. Typically lending Fiat currency has many entry barriers such as ID verification, account creation, and long wait times for transactions, all verified through a centralized medium that charges fees.

Blockchain or distributed ledger technology (DLT) will increasingly focus on tokenizing assets, or enabling physical or digital asset adoption and fiat currencies as tokens, which companies can sell or trade on a network. In the second week of August 2020, MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR), a publicly-traded company, took $250 million out of their balance sheet capital and bought 21,454 bitcoins, or converted cash into bitcoins. The main reason behind these initiatives is that representing physical or digital assets as tokens on a DLT-based network allows companies to reinvent and streamline processes, along with developing innovative business models. A good example is how blockchains tokenize real estate and allow traditional investors and users to buy shares of a property and receive an income on mortgages or rents.

The past few weeks have been eventful in the cryptocurrency space; Paypal got involved in crypto as Bitcoin rallied past the $13k mark, and now JPM Coin — JPMorgan Chase’s in-house stablecoin has gone live and is now been adopted by major transnational tech companies to facilitate cross-border payment. Relying on the information contained in the report, the potency of blockchain technology to increase financial transaction efficiency, reduce cost, and aid modern finance has chiefly contributed to the factors fueling the megabank’s interest in the technology. Leveraging on the significant amount of money transacted through JPMorgan Chase for cross-border wholesale settlements which is in the scale of over $6 trillion per day, Liink will help the company in generating significant cost-savings. Using a version of blockchain with the participants being the main issuers of checks and the main operators of lockboxes, it’s possible we can save 75% of the total cost for the industry today, and make checks available in a matter of minutes as opposed to days.

Now, the payments giant has launched a new service that will allow users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies through PayPal’s digital wallet. US Government agencies have proposed changes in the fund transfer rules to include cryptocurrencies and to set the threshold for international transactions at $250, from the existing $3,000. None In 2019, Americans bought $31.2 billion worth of retail products and services using cryptocurrencies, where PayPal users accounted for 74 percent ($23.1 billion). The two US agencies have asked for a new threshold for international transactions set at $250, lowering from the existing $3,000.

According to the press release, Paypal will allow its users to buy, hold, and sell cryptocurrencies directly from their account. In addition to allowing its users to buy and hold cryptocurrencies, Paypal expects to provide them the opportunity to use crypto as a funding source for their transactions across Paypal’s 26 million merchant network. According to Shehan Chandrasekera, head of tax strategy at Cointracker.io each time a user converts their crypto to fiat in order to pay for goods & services offered by a merchant that user will have a tax obligation. This would mean that users would need to keep detailed records of their crypto transaction history such as the price at which they bought the coins, how long they have kept them on hold, the price of the coin at the time of converting to fiat, etc to accurately file their taxes.

The company launched its second product in 2019 by raising $18.3 million in funding from Valar Ventures, Morgan Creek Digital, Winklevoss Capital, Akuna Capital, ConsenSys Ventures, and Galaxy Digital Ventures, followed by $50 million from NBA Star, Universities, and others. By using this account, retail investors can deposit bitcoin, Litecoin, or ether with the company against the assets to accrue monthly cumulative interest. The BlockFi Interest Account allows retail investors and companies holding crypto assets to receive interest in bitcoins held at BlockFi. For instance, if a user is to get a 6 percent compound interest from his/her BlockFi Interest Account by depositing 1 Bitcoin on February 28, 2019, it will have an updated balance of 1.005 BTC on March 31st.