Author: Tom Mitchelhill

Ethereum devs tip The Merge will occur in August ‘if everything goes to plan’

Tom Mitchelhill

Ethereum’s long-awaited migration to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, which has been pushed back time and time again, looks set to occur sometime in August. Hopefully.  Preston Van Loon, a core developer of the Ethereum (ETH) network, told attendees at the Permissionless conference that the transition, known as the Merge, would occur sometime in August if everything plays out according to plan. Ethereum core Dev @preston_vanloon just said the eth merge is ready,they are now only testing, and expects the merge to happen in August. Packed room @Permissionless are excited…

NFT collectors sent $37B to marketplaces in 2022, nearly equaling 2021 already

Tom Mitchelhill

Collectors of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have already sent more than $37 billion in value to NFT marketplaces this year (as of May 1), a figure that nearly exceeds the total amount in all of 2021.  According to a report from Chainalysis, investors sent $40 billion worth of cryptocurrency to smart contracts associated with NFT collections and marketplaces throughout 2021. Source: Chainalysis Since the beginning of last year, NFT transaction volume has grown considerably, but the overall growth of the industry has been inconsistent. The report outlines that NFT transaction volume…

Aussie exchange Swyftx to offer ‘no lock-in’ yield on crypto

Tom Mitchelhill

Swyftx exchange will begin offering interest-bearing yields on a wide range of cryptocurrency assets — the first Australian-operated crypto exchange to do so. Swyftx’s new product, called Earn, will offer Australian and New Zealand residents the ability to earn interest on 21 different digital assets, including large-cap cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA) and stablecoins like Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC). Swyftx Chief Executive Officer, Ryan Parsons, said the exchange’s Earn feature was one of the most competitive in the crypto industry, as the Brisbane-based…

Goldman Sachs offers first Bitcoin-backed loan as Wall Street embraces crypto

Tom Mitchelhill

Goldman Sachs has offered its first Bitcoin-backed loan, in a major step forward for institutional cryptocurrency adoption on Wall St.  A spokeswoman from Goldman told Bloomberg that the multinational investment bank had lent cash collateralized by Bitcoin (BTC) owned by the borrower for the first time in Goldman Sachs’ history. She added that the deal was particularly interesting because of its structure and 24-hour risk management. Such a loan allows for a Bitcoin holder to borrow fiat currency such as the US dollar, by fronting up their BTC as collateral…

BlackRock launches blockchain industry ETF, names crypto as 1 of 3 big opportunities

Tom Mitchelhill

BlackRock has officially launched a blockchain focused ETF, that provides investors with exposure to the crypto and blockchain industry without needing to directly own digital assets.  On Wednesday, the world’s largest asset manager, which currently manages approximately $10 trillion in assets, added the Blockchain and Tech ETF (IBLC) to its iShares product line. The $4.7 million ETF does not directly own cryptocurrencies or digital assets themselves, but instead tracks an array of international companies that are involved in the industry. The ETF is comprised of 41 separate holdings, with the…

US investors realized 6X more crypto gains in 2021 than next country

Tom Mitchelhill

Crypto investors from the United States realized crypto gains nearly six times higher in total than the UK, the second highest country in terms of realized gains.  According to a report by Chainalysis, crypto investors in the US accrued a record $46.9 billion in realized gains throughout 2021, leading the rest of the world by a wide margin. The US is followed at quite some distance by the UK at $8.1 billion and Germany on $5.8 billion. Total realized cryptocurrency gains 2021: Chainalysis. The report comes as global cryptocurrency adoption…

Robinhood CEO outlines how DOGE could become ‘currency of the internet’

Tom Mitchelhill

Robinhood CEO Vladimir Tenev took to Twitter on Thursday afternoon to explain how Dogecoin could become the “future currency of the internet.” In a thread of 12 posts to his nearly 200,000 followers, Tenev outlined what steps need to be taken to transform the memecoin into a usable asset for everyday payments and transactions on the internet. Can #Doge truly be the future currency of the Internet and the people? As we added the ability to send/receive DOGE on Robinhood, I’ve been thinking about what that would take. — VLAD…

SEC case is going ‘much better than I hoped’

Tom Mitchelhill

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse is increasingly optimistic that the long-running case with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will deliver a positive result for the blockchain-based global payments company.  Speaking on the main stage at Paris Blockchain Week on Thursday, Garlinghouse told attendees of the fireside chat that Ripple’s defense in the ongoing case was faring better than he expected. “The lawsuit has gone exceedingly well, and much better than I could have hoped when it began about 15 months ago.” Live from #PBWS2022, @bgarlinghouse sat down with @cnbc‘s @ryan_browne_…

Japan’s most popular social messaging app Line adds NFT marketplace

Tom Mitchelhill

Japan’s largest social media app, Line has officially launched its own non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace called LINE NFT.  Partnering with Yoshimoto Kogyo, a major Japanese entertainment conglomerate — the LVC Corporation, Line’s crypto and blockchain manager — will offer approximately 40,000 different NFTs to its 90 million users. The first wave of soon-to-be-released NFTs will include videos from the company’s in-house, Yoshimoto NFT Theatre, as well depictions of characters from well-known anime series, Patlabor the Mobile Police, with more to come on offer in the coming months. Also NFTs from…

Thiel calls Buffett ‘sociopathic’, Mexican billionaire has 60% in BTC

Tom Mitchelhill

Day two of the Bitcoin 2022 in Miami was as colorful as we’ve come to expect, with Pay-Pal co-founder and venture capitalist Peter Thiel offering up his Bitcoin “enemies list” while Mexico’s third-richest man, Ricardo Salinas revealed he has 60% of his portfolio in Bitcoin.  Thiel, one of the keynote speakers, took to the main Nakamoto stage of the conference in the early afternoon and kicked the speech off in style by throwing a wad of $100 bills into the crowd in an attempt to explain the difference between crypto…