Date: 06/18/2021
“At the intersection of emerging technology like virtual reality and blockchain, developers, investors, and hobbyists alike are creating a vibrant digital real estate market.” — Republic Realm
Weekly News Report:
1. The campaign fundraising arm of House Republicans, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), announced Thursday it will begin accepting donations in cryptocurrency, becoming the first major party committee to do so and allowing a more seamless transaction from crypto holdings to political contributions.
2. U.K. regulator the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) estimates 2.3 million adults now hold crypto assets, up from 1.9 million last year. The FCA conducted detailed research in January which concluded that cryptocurrencies “appear to have become more normalized”, with fewer of those investing regarding them as a gamble, and more as a legitimate alternative asset.
3. Chinese authorities are cracking down on cryptocurrency to dial back energy consumption and meet their climate goals, sending miners scattering. And increasingly, miners are decamping for places like Texas, South Dakota or Canada, launching a mass migration with implications for the evolving industry and the new communities that will house it.
4. BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with almost $9 trillion in assets under management, is seeking to develop a blockchain strategy for its flagship portfolio management system, Aladdin, according to a job posting.
5. GoldConnect, a leading wholesale telecommunications provider in Latin America and the Caribbean, announced that the company is now accepting cryptocurrency payments with BitPay.
6. Miami could become the crypto capital of the world, with help from its large expatriate population, say finance experts. The CEO of Bitstop expects more than hundreds of bitcoin ATMs to be installed in southern Miami within the next 12 months.
7. Resorts World Las Vegas will become the first casino resort to accept cryptocurrency payments when it opens this summer. The vast 3,500 room resort has been designed to harness the latest technology throughout so integrating crypto makes perfect sense.
8. From Bitcoin mining to ATMs, Illinois is positioning itself as a center for the booming cryptocurrency industry. City of the big shoulders, hog butcher for the world, Chicago is looking to add another title for the digital age: cryptocurrency finance center.
9. Crypto-asset manager Grayscale has added 13 tokens to those under consideration for investment products, most of which are concerned DeFi. Grayscale stressed that not all will be turned into investment products, which requires a significant due process and would be subject to custody arrangements and regulatory considerations.
10. Billionaire crypto financier Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital has agreed to provide liquidity to Goldman Sachs for the bank’s BTC. The partnership with Goldman Sachs is one of several high-profile moves Galaxy has made in recent months, including a string of acquisitions of digital-asset management firms.
11. Ethereum’s ‘London’ hardfork set to go live on testnets starting June 24. Three Ethereum testnets now have a set date for the London hard fork, a key step toward a full mainnet implementation.
12. According to a Thursday announcement, the Canadian Elite Basketball League, or CEBL, has partnered with Toronto-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitbuy to convert part of basketball players’ existing salaries from Canadian dollars to Bitcoin on request. The league said it will arrange for the funds to be delivered to the players’ personal crypto wallets.
13. The world’s fourth-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume and was founded by Powell in 2011, Kraken could go public within the next 12 to 18 months.
14. Virtual real estate investment firm, Republic Realm, has a new platform record for the most expensive digital land plot in Decentraland’s metaverse after spending $913,000 on 259 parcels.
15. One in five (21 percent) Kiwis were investing in or have previously invested in cryptocurrencies — an increase of around 7 percent since March 2020.
