Date: 07/26/2021
“We’re not selling any Bitcoin, nor am I selling anything personally or nor is SpaceX selling any Bitcoin.” — Elon Musk
Weekly News Report:
1. Amazon has published a job listing for a “Digital Currency and Blockchain Product Lead,” at its Seattle offices. It appears that Amazon is looking to delve deeper into digital currency and blockchain technology with a new job posting on its website. The listing is for a Digital Currency and Blockchain Product Lead to be a part of its Seattle-based Payments Acceptance & Experience team. The team is in charge of all customer payments globally on Amazon sites.
2. Amazon may allow users to pay in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin soon as the e-commerce giant is hiring a digital currency and blockchain product lead for its payments team. According to the latest job listing, Amazon’s Payments Acceptance & Experience team is “seeking an experienced product leader to develop Amazon’s Digital Currency and Blockchain strategy and product roadmap”.
3. Bitcoin tops $39,000 for the first time in nearly 6 weeks. Experts attributed the moves to a number of factors including recent bullish comments from Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. And also E-commerce giant Amazon is looking to add a digital currency and blockchain expert to its payments team, suggesting it could be taking a closer look at bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
4. Amazon has come out and flatly denied a British newspaper’s report that the e-commerce colossus was planning to accept BTC payments by the end of the year. “The speculation that has ensued around our specific plans for cryptocurrencies is not true,” a spokesperson said.
5. Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs has filed an application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that would offer exposure to public companies in decentralized finance and blockchain around the globe. The filing noted that the fund would invest at least 80% of its assets into companies that advance blockchain technology and the digitization of finance.
6. Cryptocurrency is gaining recognition and acceptance by Singaporeans, according to a survey commissioned by Independent Reserve. Forty-six percent of respondents said they plan to buy cryptocurrency in the next 12 months, with those under 45 twice as likely to make the purchase, the survey showed.
7. The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, which houses one of the world’s major art collections, will auction virtual copies of five of its most famous masterpieces in August on the Binance NFT marketplace. The museum will sell digital copies of works by da Vinci, Giorgione, Kandinsky, van Gogh and Monet on Binance NFT.
8. The number of crypto ATMs installed globally has increased by more than 70% to 24,030 this year. The growth compares with a jump of almost 120% for all 2020, according to data from Coin ATM Radar.
9. Lemon, an Argentina-based crypto exchange, raised $16.3 million to Expand in Latin America. The company plans to expand its operations in Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay by the end of 2022.
10. Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company reported no new sales or purchases of digital assets, according to its Q2 earnings presentation Monday. The company holds $1.3 billion in bitcoin. Despite its recent concerns about bitcoin’s environmental impact, Tesla hasn’t sold any more BTC.
11. Tesla reports record $1B income for Q2 despite a $23M impairment loss on BTC. Electric vehicle and clean energy firm, Tesla, has reported $1.14 billion in net income for the second quarter. The firm’s July 26 earnings report showed that total revenue grew by 98% year on year (YOY) for Q2, increasing from $6 billion in 2020 to $11.9 billion this year.
12. Shopify allows merchants on its platform to sell NFTs directly through their stores. Shopify President Harvey Finkelstein said, “Once again we are putting the power back into the hands of merchants and meeting customers how and where they want to buy.” The company’s decision therefore potentially opens up NFTs to much wider adoption.
13. During Twitter’s earnings call, CEO Jack Dorsey, outlined Twitter’s use of Bitcoin just one minute into his opening remarks. He described cryptocurrency as the internet’s “global native currency”. Dorsey elaborated that it wasn’t just about accepting cryptocurrency to pay for advertising. “I’m more focused on how we create economic incentives in the network itself, without having to rely on advertising. ”
14. New Jersey pension invested $7M in Bitcoin mining stocks last quarter. The $30 billion pensions took stakes in Riot Blockchain and Marathon Digital Holdings in a first for the state. The allocation appears to be New Jersey’s first in the crypto sector.
