A lot of 9 CryptoPunks portraits ended up selling for just under $17 million in a Christie’s auction Tuesday evening, marking another substantial moment for NFT art sales. The lot of pixelated portraits were from the collection of the NFT platform’s co-creators Matt Hall and John Watkinson. The CryptoPunks platform is one of the first…
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At a decentralised conference entitled The Pooh Corner Debate on DeFi, Eeyore kicked off (having won the coin toss) by pointing out 7 points that investors considering DeFi should think about: Blockchain transactions are irreversible and unregulated. If you lose money you have zero recourse, it is gone – poof! Irreversible and unregulated is a…
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Last week we saw some major backing of the Secret Network blockchain, as significant blockchain players Arrington Capital and Blocktower Capital invested in the privacy-first smart contract platform. What this is signaling is the rise of privacy-oriented financial blockchain projects, which are crucial if “DeFi” (decentralized finance) is to have any kind of future. We…
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Some subjects are too complex for our short attention spans, so we do 4 posts one week apart, each one short enough not to lose your attention but in aggregate doing justice to the complexity of the subject. Stay tuned by subscribing. The reason to pay attention to DeFi is a) capital is flowing into…
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Institutions need to keep their crypto assets somewhere. And they aren’t going to keep it on some random, or consumer-grade crypto operation. This requires more sophisticated technology. Furthermore, being in the EU is going to be a key barrier to entry for many US or Asia-based operations. Thus it is that Berlin-based digital asset custody…
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After a years-long crypto winter, it been the spring of NFTs, but as digital art prices sober up after an explosion in sales, blockchain founders are looking to find more stable opportunities in the space that can grow over time even as speculative interest in NFTs shifts. One particular interest has been using NFTs to…
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Dubai Multi Commodities Centre — a free trade zone established by the Dubai Government — has signed a sale and purchase agreement with REIT Development to construct a 100,000 square foot precious metals refinery. According to a DMCC release on Wednesday, the precious metal refinery and storage facility will be the largest in the Gulf…
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Ubisoft, the video game studio behind popular titles such as Assassin’s Creed, Prince of Persia and the Tom Clancy series, will become a corporate Tezos baker, or validator node. In a statement issued on Tuesday, Ubisoft announced its partnership with Tezos-backed Nomadic Labs that will see the latter creating a validator node on the Tezos…
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Singapore-based fintech Hashstacs Pte Ltd (STACS) announced today it has raised $3.6 million USD in pre-Series A funding. The company develops blockchain platforms that can work with financial institutions’ existing infrastructure, and its core technology is also used in GreenSTACS for environmental, social and governance (ESG) investments. The round was led by Wavemaker Partners, which…
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Kristin Smith, executive director of the Blockchain Association has dismissed fears that the United States Department of the Treasury was close to cracking down on Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrencies. Indeed, rumors of the Treasury bringing money laundering charges against some financial institutions using cryptocurrencies began circulating on social media over the weekend. The report emerged…
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