Author: Brayden Lindrea

Retail CBDCs bring unknown ‘consequences’ to financial system: IMF director

Brayden Lindrea

A myriad of unforeseeable “consequences” will be brought about by retail central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) claimed. The IMF’s Kristalina Georgieva erred on the side of caution regarding retail CBDCs in a May 1 interview at the Milken Institute’s 2023 Global Conference. Georgieva explained the IMF considers retail CBDCs to have far more room for error than wholesale CBDCs. “We think that wholesale CBDCs can be put in place with fairly little space for undesirable surprises, whereas retail CBDCs completely transform…

MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin conviction ‘strong’ as it posts Q1 profit

Brayden Lindrea

Business intelligence platform MicroStrategy has reiterated its commitment to its Bitcoin (BTC) investment strategy after turning its first quarterly profit since 2020.  The Michael Saylor-founded firm went back into the green in the first quarter of 2023 with a profit of $94 million, which was largely attributed to a one-time income tax benefit of $453.2 million. Phong Lee, the firm’s chief executive officer explained in the May 1 statement that MicroStrategy’s “conviction” in its Bitcoin (BTC) investment strategy is as “strong” as ever: “The conviction in our bitcoin strategy remains…

Robinhood subpoenaed by SEC over crypto listings and custody

Brayden Lindrea

Robinhood Markets has revealed thait had received an investigative subpoena from the United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) over its digital asset business’ crypto listings, custody and platform operations. In a 10-K filing, the brokerage said it received the investigative subpoena in December shortly after crypto exchange FTX filed for bankruptcy in November, and after “several other major cryptocurrency trading venues and lending platforms earlier in 2022,” including Three Arrows Capital, Voyager Digital Holdings and Celsius Network. The investigative subpoena was in relation to its cryptocurrency listings and custody services, which…

Bitcoin hits record 44M non-zero addresses, thanks to Ordinals: Glassnode

Brayden Lindrea

The launch of Bitcoin nonfungible tokens (NFTs) — known as Ordinals — has tipped the number of non-zero Bitcoin addresses to a new all-time high of 44 million, according to crypto analytics platform Glassnode. In a Feb. 13 report from Glassnode, the firm explained that for the first time in Bitcoin’s 14-year history, a portion of network activity is being used for purposes other than peer-to-peer monetary Bitcoin (BTC)  transfers: “This is a new and unique moment in Bitcoin history, where an innovation is generating network activity without a classical…

Bitcoin stays out of fear for 11 straight days as price tips near 24K

Brayden Lindrea

Bitcoin (BTC) has just clocked its 11th consecutive day outside the “Fear” zone in the Crypto Fear and Greed Index, cementing its longest streak out of fear since March 2022. Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index is 61 – GreedCurrent price: $23,780 pic.twitter.com/U5gxN3AwnT — Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index (@BitcoinFear) January 30, 2023 It comes as Bitcoin hit $23,955 at 8:10 pm UTC time on Jan. 29, becoming this year’s newest all-time high. Though it has since come back down slightly to $23,687 at the time of writing. Meanwhile, Bitcoin sentiment…

Aussie ‘Big 4’ bank mints stablecoin for carbon trading and remittances

Brayden Lindrea

National Australia Bank (NAB) is set to become the second “Big 4” Australian bank to launch an Australian dollar-pegged stablecoin on the Ethereum network. Set to launch sometime in mid-2023, the AUDN stablecoin is aimed at streamlining cross-border remittances and carbon credit trading, according to a Jan. 18 report from the Australian Financial Review (AFR). NAB’s chief innovation officer Howard Silby said the decision to mint the AUDN stablecoin on Ethereum — which is backed 1:1 by the Australian dollar (AUD) — was based on their belief that blockchain infrastructure…

Polygon primed for hard fork aimed at reducing gas fee spikes: New details revealed

Brayden Lindrea

Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution Polygon will undergo a hard fork on Jan. 17 in order to address gas spikes and chain reorganizations issues that has affected user experience on the Polygon proof-of-stake (POS) chain.  Polygon officially confirmed the hard fork event in Jan. 12 a blog post, which came after weeks of preliminary discussion on Polygon Improvement Proposal (PIP) forum page in late December. GET READY FOR THE HARDFORK The proposed hardfork for the #Polygon PoS chain will make key upgrades to the network on Jan 17th. This is good…

FTX customers are safe from being doxxed, for now

Brayden Lindrea

The names of up to nine million FTX customers are set to remain confidential for at least three more months following the latest ruling in FTX bankruptcy proceedings.  The decision was reportedly made by Judge John Dorsey in the Delaware-based bankruptcy court on Jan. 11 in response to a 168-page filing by FTX on Jan. 8, which requested the court to withhold confidential customer information. Judge Dorsey said that he remains “reluctant at this point” to disclose the confidential information, as it may put creditors “at risk,” despite increased pressure…

Blockchain-based supply chain platform canned by IBM and Maersk

Brayden Lindrea

United States technology company IBM and Danish logistics firm Maersk have decided to discontinue their co-developed blockchain-backed supply chain platform, TradeLens, citing a lack of “global industry collaboration” as a key reason behind the decision. Maersk stated on Nov. 29 that it has begun taking immediate action to cease operations on the platform which should take full effect by Q1 2023: “The TradeLens team is taking action to withdraw the offerings and discontinue the platform […] During this process all parties involved will ensure that customers are attended to without…

Dogecoin jumps after Elon Musk shares glimpse into Twitter 2.0 plans

Brayden Lindrea

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has confirmed that he intends on integrating payments into what he describes as Twitter 2.0 — “The Everything App” —  fuelling a short-lived 19.4% price surge for meme-inspired cryptocurrency Dogecoin (DOGE). The new Twitter CEO revealed his plans in a Nov. 27 tweet to his 119.2 million followers, in which he shared several slides from a recent “Twitter company talk.” Slides from my Twitter company talk pic.twitter.com/8LLXrwylta — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 27, 2022 While Musk made no mention of DOGE in the tweet or in…