Venezuela’s National Assembly held a second discussion session on Thursday for a new draft bill targeting taxes on “large financial transactions” in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC).Continue Reading on Coin Telegraph More
Investing.com — Bond markets continue to struggle after the ECB’s hawkish turn on Thursday and the surprising revisions to U.S. employment data on Friday. Stocks are also set to open lower, but Peloton is bucking the trend after reports suggesting that both Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Nike (NYSE:NKE) are looking at bidding for the company. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visits Washington as the west scrambles for a unified line to take on Russia’s threats to Ukraine, while oil prices barely come off the boil as diplomats prepared to resume talks on lifting sanctions on Iran. Here’s what you need to know in financial markets on Monday, 7th February.1. Bond yields keep risingBond markets around the world remained under pressure after Friday’s U.S. employment data, which showed that the labor market had been far stronger in the last three months than initially expected. That reinforced expectations that the Federal Reserve may raise interest rates by 50 basis points at its March meeting, rather than just the 25 basis points which is still – just – the consensus.U.S. Treasuries have stabilized in the ranges they fell into on Friday, but in Europe, yields continue to rise – and spreads between core and peripheral Eurozone markets continue to widen – following the European Central Bank’s meeting on Thursday, when ECB President Christine Lagarde pointedly refused to rule out an interest rate hike this year. Lagarde speaks in the EU Parliament at 9:45 AM ET (1445 GMT).Dutch central bank head Klaas Knot, a noted ‘hawk’ said in an interview at the weekend he expects a hike as early as October. Italian 10-Year government bond yields rose 11 basis points, while their Greek equivalents rose 22 basis points. The benchmark German 10-Year yield rose 3 basis points to 0.24%, its highest in three years.2. Peloton in playAmazon and Nike are both considering a bid for Peloton Interactive (NASDAQ:PTON), according to various reports over the weekend. The stock responded by rising 22% in premarket trading.The maker of connected fitness equipment has come into play after losing over 80% of its value since peaking at the end of 2020, due to widening losses that have forced it to abandon its niche as a high-end hardware maker and seek a broader base of customers.The group is already under pressure to shake up performance from activist shareholders. However, any acquisition by a Big Tech name would be likely to provoke substantial interest from antitrust regulators, who appear less inclined than before to accept Big Tech’s relentless expansion.3. Stocks set to open lower on rate concerns; Tyson, Hasbro report earningsU.S. stocks are set to open lower again on Monday, having had a mixed day on Friday in response to the labor market report.By 6:15 AM ET (1115 GMT), Dow Jones futures were down 81 points, or 0.2%, while S&P 500 futures were down by a similar amount. NASDAQ 100 futures were down a little less, by 0.1%.With only second-tier economic data due – consumer credit numbers for December come at 3 PM ET – the focus is likely to be on earnings, where Tyson Foods (NYSE:TSN), Loews (NYSE:L), Hasbro (NASDAQ:HAS) and ON Semiconductor are all due to report.Also in focus will be Alibaba (NYSE:BABA), amid reports of a possible share sale by Softbank (OTC:SFTBY) coming down the line.4. Scholz in Washington, Macron in MoscowGerman Chancellor Olaf Scholz visits U.S. President Joe Biden in an attempt to iron out a sanctions package in case of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. U.S. sources briefed again at the weekend that such a scenario is likely, despite Russian insistences to the contrary.Various reports suggest that the U.S. and its European allies are struggling to find alternatives to Russian natural gas supplies which would give them the leverage to refuse flows through the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. That pipeline is currently awaiting final approval from German regulators. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Monday that Europe’s gas prices are likely to remain high for some time.French President Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, is to visit his Russian counterpart in Moscow. Putin received an endorsement of his position on Ukraine from Chinese President Xi Jinping when he visited Beijing last week.5. Oil still bubbling despite Iran newsCrude oil prices continue to trade well above $90 a barrel, despite the lack of any major disruption to Texas’ energy complex from the winter storm at the end of last week.There was only minor relief from news that talks on lifting sanctions on Iran will resume on Tuesday.By 6:30 AM ET, U.S. crude futures were down 0.9% at $91.50 a barrel, while Brent crude was down 0.4% at $92.86 a barrel. More
LONDON (Reuters) – On Jan. 12, an image of a computer-generated pixelated person was sold for about $50.6 million worth of cryptocurrency on a new online marketplace that caters for non-fungible tokens.It gets stranger.Five minutes later, the same “Meebit” NFT – a virtual character clad in purple shorts and green sneakers – was sold back from the buyer to the original seller for around $49.6 million.Confused? Welcome to the weird and wild world of NFTs https://www.reuters.com/technology/what-are-nfts-2021-11-17, a new breed of crypto assets that represent digital items, from images and videos to clothing for avatars. They have exploded in popularity over the past year as part of a fledgling and largely unregulated economy for the much-hyped metaverse https://www.reuters.com/technology/what-is-metaverse-2021-10-18. The Meebit, which can be used as a profile picture, was exchanged between two cryptocurrency wallets – which are anonymous. Although the underlying blockchain technology creates a public record when an NFT is sold, it doesn’t record the names of those involved. A person can own multiple wallets, acting as both buyer and seller in a trade.The digital character was among dozens of NFTs on the LooksRare marketplace that were sold back and forth between a small number of wallets in quick succession for unusually high prices last month, according to a Reuters review of publicly available blockchain records.Since Jan. 11, for example, another Meebit NFT – this one with a sporty outfit and ponytail – has been passed between three wallets in over 100 sales, mostly in the $3-15 million range. In the week of Jan. 12-19, a “Loot” bag NFT, representing virtual equipment for online adventure games, was exchanged across 75 sales between two other wallets, for $30,000-$800,000 a time.The activity has helped LooksRare generate at least $10.8 billion in trading volume since it launched in early January, according to data provided by market tracker DappRadar. The top 27 most expensive recorded sales across the whole NFT industry in January, totalling $1.3 billion, came from just two wallets transacting on LooksRare, according to DappRadar data as of Jan. 31, while the top 100 sales, worth $2.3 billion, came from 16 wallets trading on the platform.”There is a lot of activity happening between a couple of wallets – let’s say wallet one selling to wallet two, and then wallet two reselling it,” said Modesta Masoit, DappRadar’s finance and research director. “It’s quite likely that this is not real demand, that these trades are not organic.” DappRadar and CryptoSlam, another data provider that reported artificially inflated volumes on LooksRare, said such trades could be linked to the platform’s reward structure – though Masoit added there was also “real” activity on the site.LooksRare describes itself as “the community-first NFT marketplace with rewards for participating”, referring to its reward system which includes awarding tokens to the day’s traders based on the proportion of overall sales volumes they were responsible for. These tokens, called LOOKS, can then be used in a process called “staking” to claim a slice of the platform’s revenue from the 2% fee charged on all trades, according to a LooksRare spokesperson.Asked about the transactions reviewed by Reuters and whether the trades artificially boosted trading volumes, the spokesperson said that such practices were highly risky, as traders would have to pay transaction costs that they were not guaranteed to recoup. Traders don’t know until the day’s close whether they have transacted enough to win LOOKS tokens, or how many, because they don’t know what others have traded. The spokesperson added that LooksRare had a structure that was designed to reduce the profitability of LOOKS “yield farming” in the long-term.”The LOOKS staking rewards system is the token’s core reward structure, whereby 100% of trading fees are earned by LOOKS stakers. This fosters a community of users and token stakers who share the common goal of making the platform the best it can be,” the spokesperson said. ‘BYE BYE WASH TRADERS’Nonetheless, the trading activity provides a window into the nebulous and speculative nature of the NFT industry, which attracted $25 billion https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/nft-sales-hit-25-billion-2021-growth-shows-signs-slowing-2022-01-10 worth of sales volume in 2021.The buzz around this new market has been buoyed by art collectibles like CryptoPunks and Bored Apes, algorithmically generated portraits that can sell for millions of dollars. They have gained celebrity traction, with socialite Paris Hilton and TV host Jimmy Fallon recently showing off their Bored Apes.Several big companies, from Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) to Gucci, are testing the temperature with their own NFTs. In the art world, meanwhile, just over $1 in every $20 https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/new-masters-how-auction-houses-are-chasing-crypto-millions-2021-11-08 of revenue at top auction houses last year came from NFTs.John Egan, CEO of L’Atelier, an independent subsidiary of BNP Paribas (OTC:BNPQY) that researches new technologies, characterised the transactions on LooksRare reviewed by Reuters as “wash trades” that would be banned in traditional markets like equities or debt because they give a false impression of demand for an asset.Yet such transactions are not illegal in this nascent industry because there are no equivalent rules governing NFTs, two crypto legal experts told Reuters. Egan added that LooksRare was “not in itself culpable” for the trades. “It is a marketing incentive,” he said. “LooksRare are effectively paying large investors to use their site, drawing a lot of attention and new users in the process.”For the platform’s supporters, this may be a sound strategy to thrive in a virtual gold rush, as tech giants like Meta https://www.reuters.com/technology/facebook-owner-meta-lift-veil-off-its-metaverse-business-2022-01-31 and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) https://www.reuters.com/article/activision-ma-microsoft-idAFL4N2TY36A spend billions of dollars to further their owns visions of the metaverse and pave the way for future profits. Bumper activity in January meant LooksRare overtook four-year-old market leader OpenSea to become the biggest NFT marketplace by monthly volume, despite having fewer than 3,500 traders per day, compared with OpenSea’s 57,000 to 90,000, according to DappRadar data.OpenSea did not respond to a Reuters request for comment for this article.A Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) user called “dingaling”, who LooksRare told Reuters was an investor and adviser to the platform, wrote a thread on Jan. 12 saying wash trading on the platform looked bad but may be part of the “necessary steps” to gain market share and provide a more transparent, decentralized marketplace for the NFT community.”People have been real mad about wash trading, but I’m struggling to understand why. It’s a free market,” dingaling added. “Once real volume takes over, it’s bye bye to wash traders.” MET IN MEATSPACE?From a regulatory point of view, authorities worldwide are worried that the rise of crypto assets more broadly could undermine financial systems, promote crime and harm investors. Efforts so far have been mostly focused on cryptocurrencies rather than NFTs, which throw up new issues such as how they should be classified, since they are one-off – non-fungible – and highly diverse in nature.”Generally speaking, the majority of jurisdictions recognise that NFTs should not be regulated as financial products if each NFT represents a genuinely unique item – for example, a unique collectible, piece of art or piece of media content,” said Hagen Rooke, a partner at global law firm Reed Smith.Traditional authorities may also need to bridge a cultural gap.LooksRare’s founders are identified only by the pseudonyms Guts and Zodd. The spokesperson described them as “NFT nerds” and said the platform’s team was spread across different timezones and have mostly “never even met each other in meatspace”.Meatspace is a term used by internet enthusiasts to refer to the physical world.One frequent NFT trader known as “Rizzle”, who mainly uses OpenSea, is among the big players in the market drawn to LooksRare by its reward model.Rizzle first joined LooksRare after receiving some free LOOKS tokens, which he staked for profit, and since then he has used the marketplace for trading because he said he likes some of the features.”I would not be surprised to see other platforms pop up with even greater initial incentives to try and capture this same audience,” he said. More
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The last time the U.S. unemployment rate fell below 3%, as one Federal Reserve official has predicted it will this year, the Korean War was nearing its end and a recession that saw legions of workers lose their jobs was just around the corner.While the circumstances were unusual, it nonetheless presented a now-familiar pattern – a falling unemployment rate eventually giving way to recession – that current Fed officials will be challenged to avoid as they try to slow the fast pace of inflation without wrecking an expansion that is delivering strong gains for workers.Emblematic of the current confidence in the job market’s strength, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard last week said he expects the U.S. unemployment rate to fall below 3% this year. That flashback to the 1950s in itself would be a warning for some economists.Such a low unemployment rate is “a red flare” that the economy is overheating, with fast price and wage increases that are unavoidable and the U.S. central bank pushed to be more aggressive, said Tim Duy, a University of Oregon professor and the chief economist of SGH Macroadvisers. “I don’t see where there is a good way out” that tames inflation without triggering a recession and the associated jump in unemployment.It’s a tradeoff – of jobs for price control – the Fed thought had become less relevant. In the decade before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, unemployment drifted towards 3% without triggering inflation, and policymakers felt that showed the economy could put far more people to work than previously thought with prices remaining stable.’HARD LANDING’ AHEAD?The pandemic has rekindled that debate and raised doubts about whether inflation, the work choices of Americans, even the global economy overall, will follow the patterns that existed before two years of mass infection, fear and lockdowns. In 2019, for example, the unemployment rate hovered around 3.5% while inflation struggled to hit the Fed’s 2% target. Going into 2022, amid a global tangle of supply-chain bottlenecks, workers’ reluctance to take jobs, and the ongoing pandemic, the unemployment rate was about 4%, businesses wanted far more workers than were willing to take a job, and inflation was nearly triple the Fed’s objective.U.S. central bank officials still think they can avoid a recessionary “hard landing” as they begin what Fed Chair Jerome Powell says will be a steady removal of the low interest rates and other measures meant to help the economy through the pandemic. Policymakers at this point support that approach, with the first rate hike widely expected to come next month.Yet despite their seeming agreement, a subtle divide exists between those who feel much of the current inflation remains tied to the pandemic and will likely ease on its own and those who feel the Fed itself will have to do the bulk of the work on inflation, lifting interest rates enough to slow the economy.In the simplest case that difference is a matter of timing, and could resolve itself in a few months if inflation moves clearly in one direction or the other, and pulls policymakers’ opinions along with it. But more fundamentally it’s about how the economy may have changed since March 2020, a debate that will shape how upcoming economic data gets interpreted, how fast monetary policy may veer in one direction or the other, and whether the pace of inflation can be tamed without a downturn.POTENTIAL FOR MISTAKESBullard, for one, said in a Reuters interview that it was “premature” for anyone to argue the Fed was behind in its inflation fight. Indeed, he said the central bank was well-poised to do what was needed.But he also said he felt monetary policy, by limiting demand through higher interest rates and controlling expectations about inflation, would be responsible for “a significant portion” of the inflation fight. He was “pessimistic” that improvements in global supply chains, the return of individuals to the job market, or other improvements would offer any imminent help and allow the Fed to proceed less aggressively.”I am not deaf to the supply-side arguments,” he said. Yet while policymakers are aligned on the initial rate increases, “there will be a moment at some point in the future where it will be a tougher decision … How much do you want to tighten policy and how much are you risking recession?”Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari by contrast has said rates may only need to rise “a little bit,” more like easing off the accelerator of an automobile than tapping its brakes.Mistakes, and recession risks, can come from either direction – doing too little and allowing inflation to take deeper root; doing too much and causing an unnecessary downturn.UNPREDICTABLE DATA The Labor Department’s jobs report for January, which was released earlier on Friday, showed what the Fed is grappling with in an era when neither prices or employment – the two pillars of its policy mandate – are behaving as expected.Many analysts forecast that the economy had actually lost jobs last month amid a record surge in COVID-19 cases and as businesses scaled back either out of caution or because their employees were sick.The report, however, showed employers added 467,000 jobs, and wages jumped, a sign of the pressures building in the economy despite the jump in infections driven by the Omicron variant of the virus. A surprise to the other side: Labor force participation rose and the unemployment rate actually edged up a tenth of a percentage point, a trend that if established could work in favor of a less aggressive Fed.But as it stands “we have to take the numbers at face value, and they paint a picture of a labor market on fire,” wrote Jefferies economists Aneta Markowska and Thomas Simons, with the Fed likely heading towards “a more sustained tightening cycle and a higher terminal rate.” More
WonderFi Technologies (NEO:WNDR) (OTC:WONDF) is a technology company backed by Kevin O’ Leary that provides us with an easy gateway to DeFi. On January 4th, WonderFi announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the parent company of BitBuy (First Ledger Corp.).”The integration of WonderFi and Bitbuy is a huge step forward in our mission of democratizing finance through easy and secure access to DeFi and crypto,”
said Ben Samaroo, CEO of WonderFi.”A licensed marketplace serves as a crucial gateway to the digital asset economy, and facilitates a robust end-to-end, unified client experience. The integration of Bitbuy’s product suite will accelerate and expand the reach and scope that WonderFi can offer to the market, and will drive long-term growth and value for the Company.”
As mentioned, BitBuy became the first crypto platform that was regulated as a marketplace in Canada, thereby establishing WonderFi as a leading consumer platform for people who are interested in accessing regulated cryptocurrency and decentralized finance (DeFi).Kevin O’Leary, a globally-renowned investor and one of WonderFi biggest backers, said:”this is a combination of two management teams with excellent executional skills that now have the bandwidth, assets and licenses to provide an institutional grade compliant crypto platform to investors interested in exposure to centralized and decentralized financial services.”
In addition, WonderFi just announced that it has closed its previously announced upsized bought deal public offering led by Canaccord for a total of $45 million pursuant to the bought deal at a price of $2.40 per unit. The company intends to use the net proceeds to partially fund the purchase of the previously announced acquisition of First Ledger and to fund future growth initiatives including global expansion of the WonderFi and Bitbuy brands.EMAIL NEWSLETTERJoin to get the flipside of cryptoUpgrade your inbox and get our DailyCoin editors’ picks 1x a week delivered straight to your inbox.[contact-form-7]
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The Cardano-based launchpad has just kicked off its public sale – the final stage in its IDO. The company received exuberating response during its seed sale which ended before the listed deadline and the pre-sale where the soft cap was reached just hours after the announcement. It hit the hard-cap in a grandstyle amidst a bearish outlook in the crypto market and decided to begin the public sale without any delay.The Public SaleThe offer in the public sale is for the remaining 10% of the total supply of the $ROCKET token (detailed tokenomics can be viewed at the dedicated webpage on the site) which is the main utility token used to navigate the launchpad. The token powers the ROCKETPAD ecosystem and is mandatory to vote on the projects you believe have the potential to qualify for IDO on the platform. The sale is your last chance to buy the token at the lower price of 1 ADA = 37.5 $ROCKET tokens as the token is already on the verge of being listed on top exchanges. The minimum buy is 100 ADA while the maximum is at the value of 40,000 ADA. The sale can be participated in by scanning the QR code on the Public Sale webpage of our website and sending ADA using any Cardano-supported wallets.Tier StructureThe utility token helps support a revolutionary tier system through which the platform has found a solution to motivate and reward all the $Rocket token holders in a way that includes everyone who has the token thus erasing the barriers to entry into the crypto market. The tiers are being built with influencers and marketing partners which will result in a consistent stream of well-funded crypto projects.The tier-allocation process begins with the token holders staking the minimum required amounts 5 days prior to the sale. These staking requirements are different for each of the 5 tiers and are listed below:The higher tiers have greater pool weights and these correspond to the level number so for example, the KING tier has a pool weight of 5 while the QUEEN tier has a pool weight of 4 and so on.After the tiers are set, the allocation process depends on the total pool share. This can be better comprehended by using the example of an project. Lets take the example of xxxxxx which wants to sell 100 million tokens on the platform. Further suppose that 10 KING and 20 QUEEN tier members participate in its IDO and so the total pool shares depending on the pool weights are: (5 x 10) + (20 x 4) = 50 + 80 = 130 shares.Then, the total supply of the tokens will be divided between the shares so a single share will be allocated: (100,000,000) / (130) = 769,230 tokens.Hence, each KING tier member will be able to buy 5 times this number of tokens as its pool weight is 5 while QUEEN tier members will be able to buy 4 times this amount corresponding to the tier’s pool weight.The structure will keep on improving based off input from the general public. ROCKETPAD has enjoyed a surge in popularity because it fixes all the all the flaws of existing launchpads and provided the community with a transparent system allowing for a democratic approval of start-up. So log onto the public sale page on the website and make good use of this once-in-a-lifetime investment opportunity.Disclaimer: Any information written in this press release does not constitute investment advice. CoinQuora does not, and will not endorse any information on any company or individual on this page. Readers are encouraged to make their own research and make any actions based on their own findings and not from any content written in this press release. CoinQuora is and will not be responsible for any damage or loss caused directly or indirectly by the use of any content, product, or service mentioned in this press release.Continue reading on CoinQuora More
In a technical whitepaper released on Monday, RSS3 laid out plans for taking its popular internet feed update to Web3. RSS3 would offer every entity an RSS3 file that will act as source data and be updated continuously. The source data file then can be used as an aggregation of all the cyber activities, which can then be used to build out social media, content networks, games and other data-driven applications. The source data would have control on which information to broadcast and which to keep private.Continue Reading on Coin Telegraph More
DAZN MOMENTS joins the thriving sports ecosystem on Flow, home to NBA Top Shot, NFL ALL DAY, UFC Strike, Crictos, and The Players’ Lounge, among others.The DAZN MOMENTS marketplace will allow users to collect moments of super skills of players as well as memorable moments of various sports in Japan. DAZN MOMENTS will draw upon mixi’s success in entertainment and sports – including the social network mixi – as well as the mobile game Monster Strike, which has grossed more than $9 billion since its launch in 2013; and DAZN’s global lead in streaming live and on-demand sports events to more than 200 countries and territories.”mixi is a true example of the best-in-class Japanese-based companies that are emerging on Flow,”
said Mik Naayem, Chief Business Officer and Co-Founder of Dapper Labs.”mixi has led the charge on game-changing platforms, and DAZN has pioneered sports streaming around the globe. By giving fans an awesome experience and an easy way to get engaged, the launch of DAZN MOMENTS will be a true watershed moment for Web3 adoption in Japan.”
“Bringing DAZN’s rich content to NFT moments on Flow will bring traditional memorabilia to life in the digital world in Japan,”
said Koki Kimura, President and Representative Director of mixi.”Dapper Labs’ creativity in design and functionality has inspired us for DAZN MOMENTS and we hope to bring that same level of energy captured in the U.S. to Japan.”
“We’re excited to partner with mixi to unlock NFTs for various sports in Japan,”
Manabu Yamada, Executive Vice President of DAZN Japan.”We unlocked live streaming sports five years ago, and we’re excited to bring that next-generation of innovation to how fans engage with their favorite moments through valuable NFTs.”
mixi and DAZN Japan have been working together since December 2020, bringing DAZN data into Fansta, mixi’s restaurant and bar search application. This gives fans an easy way to find places to watch their favorite sporting events. Coming in the Spring, Japanese fans will be able to collect moments from their favorite sporting events through the DAZN MOMENTS marketplace on Flow. mixi will donate a part of the profits to sports associations to support the continued development of sports in Japan.EMAIL NEWSLETTERJoin to get the flipside of cryptoUpgrade your inbox and get our DailyCoin editors’ picks 1x a week delivered straight to your inbox.[contact-form-7]
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