Aurelia Butler

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  • 113 Shares189 Views

    in Cryptocurrency

    Israeli VC Firm Pitango Launches First Labs Investment DAO

    Venture capital company Pitango has officially launched First Labs, a thesis-driven web3 lab. Pitango is Israel’s leading venture capital firm that operates seed and early venture fund Pitango First.According to the information provided, First Labs will support investment in early-stage companies utilizing web3 technologies including blockchain, tokenization, NFTs, and metaverses. It will reportedly identify ventures that have sustainable growth models through equity and/or token-based investments. Moreover, First Labs will provide the mentoring to help projects realize their potential by introducing them to its extensive partner network.Describing the development, Ayal Itzkovitz, managing partner at Pitango First, states that they’ve been involved in the crypto space in the last five years and have been following it closely.Notably, First Labs will operate a novel investment DAO, known as First DAO. Founding members of the DAO include Aviv Barzilay, core members of the Pitango First team, and leading blockchain figures, including Tomer Weiss, Amit Peled, Oren De-lange, and MarketAcross partners Nadav Dekner, Elad Mor, and Itai Elizur.Aviv Barzilay, head of First Labs says, “From liquidity mining to token engineering, First Labs is designed to answer the unique needs of the crypto space. Our platform will allow founders and community members to connect and will empower web2 companies to make the leap into web3 with confidence. Having partnered with top crypto-native companies and domain experts, First Labs has the expertise to unlock the web3 universe and everything it has to offer.”The team adds that First Labs aims to bridge the divide between web3 and the traditional tech world by onboarding web2 companies to the fast-growing space while making it easier for investors to identify the first wave of web3 unicorns.Furthermore, First DAO will incorporate the structure of a decentralized autonomous organization over time, gradually assigning stewardship to its community. Having exited stealth mode today, First Labs intends to launch its first program to accelerate web3 teams within two months. Its community members will play a pivotal role in advancing the development of ideas and concepts around the projects it supports in the First Labs Program.Continue reading on CoinQuora More

  • 138 Shares119 Views

    in Cryptocurrency

    PlanetQuest and Immutable X Launched the First Community NFT Planet Sale

    Since it came to the limelight, PlanetQuest has built a massive community of over 230,000 enthusiastic and supporting members. In this unique concept, members of this ever-growing community get the chance to vote on the game’s interactive storyline and shape the history of this expansive multiverse.In partnership with the layer-2 NFT scaling solution, PlanetQuest has organized a community planet sale, giving existing community members and potential ones, like yourself, an opportunity to acquire one of the highly coveted NFT Planets by submitting an application on the PlanetQuest website. Once the application period elapses, the teams will rank all entries, and planets will be allocated to applicants with the most promising applications. Leveraging Immutable X’s cutting-edge scaling solution, you don’t have to worry about gas fees; all purchases are gas-free.“Since coming out of stealth, PlanetQuest has become an instant hit with the IMX community, leaving quite a few of our team members addicted to its concept and storyline, and eagerly awaiting touching down on the first planets. We’re thrilled to see that, in part thanks to our technology, PlanetQuest can execute on its vision for a bot-less, gas-less, community-friendly, planet sale,” Robbie Ferguson, co-founder of Immutable X.You’re encouraged to join the PlanetQuest community on their Discord and earn points on your Explorer Passport to boost your chances at getting your hands on these planets. These points can be earned by getting commendations or completing quests.Finally, you need to write a captivating application essay. The idea is to tell the team why you’d be a great planet NFT owner.With application submissions concluding on Tuesday, June 7, 2022, existing members and new fans can still undertake these simple tasks to boost their chances of acquiring one or more of these greatly desired Planet NFTs.Here’s the exciting part; Each application, even those that do receive enough ranking to obtain a Planet NFT, is automatically entered in a raffle to win several prizes in the form of $IMX—Immutable X’s native token. From smaller prizes of 100 to 1,000 IMX, to the grand prize of 10,000 IMX.With the Planet Sale going on right now, PlanetQuest and Immutable X are pioneering a paradigm shift in the NFT market and you can be part of this movement by applying to be one of the many planet owners.Continue reading on BTC Peers More

  • 125 Shares169 Views

    in Cryptocurrency

    Kazakhstan’s central bank ‘isn’t going to ignore’ the crypto market

    On Tuesday, June 7 during the press conference the chairman of Kazakhstan’s National Bank Galymzhan Pirmatov stated that the nation aims to extract the profit from technologies the cryptocurrency market could provide. He emphasized the attractiveness of innovations and made reservations about the risks to macroeconomic stability. The official doesn’t think that the bank is late to the game:Continue Reading on Coin Telegraph More

  • 113 Shares99 Views

    in Economy

    Putin orders new budget rules to boost Russia's growth

    “Work has already started on the federal budget for the next three years. A fundamental issue here is the construction of budget rules that not only ensure the stability of public finances, but also contribute to increasing the growth rate of the Russian economy,” Putin said in a televised meeting.Russia has suspended a budget rule under which it was channeling extra oil and gas revenues into the National Wealth Fund (NWF) during the coronavirus pandemic two years ago. The finance ministry planned to reinstate the rule, under which it also was also buying foreign currency for the NWF, this year but decided against it after the imposition of Western sanctions that have prevented Moscow from accessing around half its gold and forex reserves. The sanctions were aimed at stopping what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine. Instead of boosting the NWF, additional oil and gas revenues can now be spent on any purpose government may choose. Putin did not provide details of new rules but said corporate and mortgage lending needed a boost, suggesting guidelines could be further relaxed to allow for more state funding to revive economic activity. The existing rule puts a limit on how and where Russia’s $198-billion NWF can be spent, as the government increasingly needs cash to meet Putin’s promises of higher pensions and social payments and support for large businesses. In May alone, the NWF spent $4 billion to buy preferred shares of Russian Railways, the country’s biggest employer. Other state entities, including the flagship airline Aeroflot, are awaiting cash support to cope with sanctions. More

  • 125 Shares179 Views

    in Economy

    Lira slide accelerates as Erdoğan vows to continue slashing rates

    Turkey’s lira continued its slide towards a record low after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vowed once again to cut interest rates despite spiralling inflation.The currency fell to 16.75 against the dollar on Tuesday after Erdoğan, a life-long opponent of high borrowing costs, launched an impassioned tirade against them.The Turkish president said that the country had “wasted years” with the misguided view that prices should be controlled by using higher borrowing costs to suppress consumption. Such policies, he said, only benefited “those living a charmed existence and filling their pockets with [the proceeds of] high interest”, including foreign investors.Erdoğan promised to further cut interest rates even though inflation reached a 23-year high of 73.5 per cent last month, saying: “This government will not raise interest rates. On the contrary, we will continue to cut rates.”The lira fell about 1.2 per cent on Tuesday, bringing its losses for the year to 20 per cent after falling almost 45 per cent in 2021. The currency’s steady decline in recent weeks has threatened to test the record lows hit in December, when the country was thrust into a currency crisis after Erdoğan ordered the central bank to announce a series of interest rates cuts despite rising inflation. Besides a fleeting decline past TL18 during last year’s rout, the currency has never consistently traded at such weak levels.

    Turkey has one of the world’s lowest interest rates in real terms, standing at minus 59.5 per cent once inflation is taken into account. Negative real interest rates have deterred Turkish citizens from keeping their savings in lira, and have tarnished the allure for foreign investors of holding Turkish assets compared with emerging market rivals.Erdoğan and senior Turkish officials justified last year’s aggressive rate cuts by arguing that they were pursuing a “new economic model”. They argued that they would be able to tame inflation by harnessing the weak currency to boost exports and investment and eliminate the country’s longstanding trade deficit.Even before Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, critics warned that the plan was a risky economic experiment that was in danger of causing a collapse in the value of the Turkish lira and runaway inflation.The conflict has compounded the challenges facing Turkey, which imports most of its energy, by pushing up global oil and gas prices and causing a widening current account deficit that has created extra demand for foreign currency. MUFG analysts Ehsan Khoman and Lee Hardman said in a note to clients this week that it was “unambiguously unsustainable” for Turkey to maintain this approach, warning that the pressure on the currency was “likely to continue in the absence of a policy U-turn”.The soaring inflation rate has also come with political ramifications for Erdoğan. While Turkey has enjoyed strong growth thanks to loose monetary policy, the escalating cost of living and the pressure on the lira have eroded public support for the Turkish president ahead of elections that must take place before June 2023.Erdoğan on Monday acknowledged that there was a “cost of living problem” in his country, but insisted that his economic model would soon pay dividends. He said: “We have cast aside the economic prescriptions imposed by imperialist financial institutions that make the rich richer and make the poor poorer by increasing the interest rate.” More

  • 113 Shares99 Views

    in Economy

    Charges against Slovak ECB policymaker dropped, up for review

    Last October, the euro zone country’s Special Prosecutor’s office charged Kazimir, a member of the European Central Bank’s Governing Council, with a “corruption-related crime”. Kazimir has denied any wrongdoing.First deputy of the Prosecutor General, Josef Kandera, told a televised news conference that charges against Kazimir were based on sole “crown witness.” Since that person was charged with crimes and seeking benefits form cooperating with police, it needed special attention, he said. Therefore the current charges were dropped but prosecutors will consider the case again, Kandera said. “The ruling of a prosecutor at the Special Prosecutor’s office was canceled and the prosecutor was ordered to consider the case again and rule,” Kandera told the news conference.A spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office was not immediately available for further comment.Kazimir’s office referred Reuters to his lawyer, Ondrej Mularcik, for comment on the decision. “Mr. governor accepted the decision with pleasure and humility. He did not and does not feel guilty of committing a crime,” Mularcik told Reuters.Kazimir was finance minister from 2012 until 2019, nominated by the leftist SMER party, before he assumed his six-year term at the helm of the central bank.Slovak news website aktuality.sk reported at the time when the charges were made public that Kazimir was accused of being a “courier” who brought an around 50,000 euro ($57,845) bribe to the then-chief of the country’s tax administration, who has been investigated for several crimes and has cooperated with police. More

  • 150 Shares129 Views

    in Cryptocurrency

    Discord of Shiba Inu Food Chain Welly’s Breaks Down in Phishing Exploit

    How Did It Happen?The hackers barged into the server using spam bots, which later sent out a massive amount of links to a fake NFT minting site. Upon entering the site, victims had their wallet information exposed, leading to funds in SHIB, Shiboshis, Land in ‘SHIB: the Metaverse’, and a vast number of NFTs being stolen.Defense and Growth Breeds Come to the RescueLuckily, the Defense and Growth Breeds of the Shiba Inu community managed to remove the bots from the server within 30 minutes of the initial breach. The quick actions of them team reduced the damage, and a lot of the rightful owners of the stolen Land and NFTs were able to get their digital assets back. The official Shiba Inu Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) account cautioned that the full retrieval of lost assets could be a long process, writing: “This is going to be an active work in progress as there are many factors to look at regarding this because the RIGHTFUL owners of the NFTs flagged them on OpenSea. We are already in talks with OpenSea from this attack and working with them to mitigate the damage even more.”Thanks to the quick problem solving skills of the Defense and Growth Breeds, and the help of some Shiboshi Social Club members, the total damage caused by the phishing attack was limited to around 8-10 ETH, which converts to about $17,000 USD at today’s prices—a mild injury in relative terms, especially compared to the recent Discord hack suffered by the Bored Ape Yacht Club, which set the community back $360,000 USD.In conclusion, even though Discord hackers are operating more frequently and tend to extensively plan out their attacks before-hand, it looks as though prevention efforts are becoming more effective, with an increasing number of crypto community members becoming more able to identify dodgy-looking links, and refrain from clicking them.Why You Should CareCrypto scams are becoming more intense, and increased cautionary action must be taken to educate the crypto community about the dangers lurking on social media.Continue reading on DailyCoin More

  • 125 Shares99 Views

    in Cryptocurrency

    Justin Sun Moves 100,000,000 USDT To Accumulate BTC and TRX

    In one of the recent tweets, Whale Alert, an advanced blockchain tracking firm, notified the public about the transfer of 100,000,000 USDT from an unknown wallet to Binance.Almost one hour later, Justin Sun, the founder of TRON and CEO of BitTorrent, retweeted Whale Alerts’ tweet, claiming that Tron DAO Reserve made the transfer. More