New York-based investment bank Citigroup and digital asset-backed securities provider ETC Group will begin trading Bitcoin futures in the United States and Europe. These and more news in this practical daily summary so that you are always informed with the most recent events that occur within the crypto world.
Bitcoin and Blockchain Adoption
📍Citigroup begins negotiations with regulators to launch Bitcoin futures. One of the world's largest banking and financial groups is working with regulators to integrate new investment products into cryptocurrencies, . An anonymous source from Citigroup reported CoinDesk reported that the bank will soon launch Bitcoin futures trading in partnership with Goldman Sachs on CME Group, the world’s largest derivatives exchange. According to the source, Citigroup is only waiting for approval from U.S. financial regulators to launch BTC futures contracts and continue expanding into the world of cryptocurrencies and digital assets.
In May, the bank reported that it was considering integrating crypto-asset storage and custody services; then, in June, it created a new business unit focused on offering technology-related products. blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
📍In Europe, ETC Group's Bitcoin futures will begin trading next month. Starting on September 13, the first Bitcoin futures contracts will begin trading in Europe. ETC Group, the leading provider of digital asset-backed securities in the region, reported which will launch Bitcoin ETN Futures on Eurex, Europe's largest derivatives exchange, opening up new cryptocurrency investment opportunities for European investors.
ETC Group listed the Bitcoin ETN Futures on the XETRA trading platform of the German exchange Deutsche Börse last year.
📍Animal rescue organization PAWS Chicago has started accepting cryptocurrency donations. Susanna Homan, director of PAWS Chicago, reported that her animal rescue organization is accepting cryptocurrency donations to continue protecting homeless animals. Among the cryptocurrencies the organization accepts are Dogecoin (DOGE), Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), among others.
PAWS Chicago, founded more than 25 years ago, will use donations to protect homeless animals, promote free spaying and neutering in low-income communities and minimize euthanasia practices carried out in some shelters.
NFT and DeFi Markets
📍The DeFi frenzy is back with decentralized liquidity markets. Liquidity protocol BENQI, built on the Avalanche blockchain, announced on Twitter that its Total Value Locked (TLV) has surpassed $1.000 billion within a week of its launch. TVL is a metric that refers to the value that users have deposited within the protocol.
📍SushiSap also joins Avalanche's liquidity mining incentive program. Ethereum's counterpart open-source network is gaining popularity as leading blockchain protocols DeFi join their liquidity mining incentive program. Aave, CurveFinance and now Sushi Swap are part of Avalanche Rush, a $180 million incentive program aimed at incentivizing and attracting top-tier decentralized finance applications to the Avalanche ecosystem, a blockchain network that will be able to process up to 4.500 transactions per second without sacrificing security.
CBDC and Central Banks
📍The British are skeptical of CBDCs. An poll A recent study by Redfield & Wilton Strategies in the UK suggests that Britons are quite skeptical of the arrival of a central bank digital currency, known as CBDC Seventy percent of respondents believe that a CBDC would bring greater financial privacy risks, while 70% believe that a central bank-controlled digital currency would cause more harm than good to the country's citizens.
Miners
📍Blockchain and cryptocurrency infrastructure company Blockstream becomes the new crypto unicorn. The company founded by Adam Back reached a valuation of $3.200 billion, becoming the latest unicorn of cryptocurrencies. “Unicorn” is a term used to refer to companies that are not publicly traded but whose market valuation reaches or exceeds $1.000 billion.
Blockstream has just closed a $210 million funding round, raising its valuation to $3.200 billion. The company has acquired Spondoolies' intellectual property and will begin working with the team to develop new, more energy-efficient bitcoin mining hardware, which will become the next generation of mining hardware. “the world’s first enterprise-class miner”. Blockstream has plans to launch this new bitcoin miner next year, it reported through a release.
Development and Technology
📍Crypto Finance Group and InCore Bank launch a new asset tokenization standard on the Tezos blockchain. According to reported entities, the new standard will help enable smart contracts for major European banks, allowing the creation of innovative, blockchain-compatible digital financial products. The new tool created by Crypto Finance Group and InCore Bank in partnership with Tezos will enable the tokenization of assets based on the Tezos FA2 standard, for the creation of fungible and non-fungible tokens.
In addition to this, InCore Bank also announces the launch of new storage services, staking, institutional-grade XTZ trading and trading. XTZ is the native cryptocurrency of the Tezos blockchain.
📍Ethereum 2.0 receives $1,5 million in funding. Compound Grants, Lido, Synthetix, The Graph Foundation, Uniswap Grants, and Kraken have joined in funding the development of Ethereum 2.0, the most anticipated update in the Ethereum crypto community. The DeFi projects and the cryptocurrency company totaled $1,5 million in funding, which will serve to continue boosting the work of Ethereum developers in building and developing the new blockchain network. proof of stake (PoS).
Rules and Regulations
📍Philippine Department of Finance tells Axie Infinity players they must file taxes. According to the recent statements According to Antonette C. Tionko, Philippine Undersecretary of Finance, citizens of the country who are participating in the blockchain game Axie Infinity must declare their winnings to the financial authority and pay income taxes. The news was reported by Manila Bulletin, the largest English-language newspaper in the Philippines by circulation. According to the outlet, Tionko also stated that there is a possibility that axies, the game’s creatures in NFT format, could be considered securities in the country.
Continue reading: Deloitte: Banks must prepare for an imminent digital future full of cryptocurrencies
