Cryptocurrency

Xverse, the leading Bitcoin Web3 wallet, has teamed up with Acre to offer a native Bitcoin-in, Bitcoin-out staking experience. This partnership gives users the ability to earn BTC-based rewards – marking a new category in Bitcoin innovation.Through this partnership, Xverse users can now effortlessly put their BTC to work in Acre directly from the Bitcoin mainnet via their existing Xverse wallet. Acre’s fully on-chain staking experience eliminates the complexity of participation in the Bitcoin economy with its ‘one click’ feature to access Bitcoin rewards.Acre, started by the team behind the decentralized Bitcoin bridge (tBTC), works with many of the protocols in the rapidly emerging Bitcoin L2 market category to drive rewards. These protocols, powered by assets like tBTC, are building the next evolution of the Bitcoin economy. By collaborating with Xverse, Acre aims to broaden the accessibility of “stacking sats”, catering to both seasoned Bitcoiners and newcomers alike.Acre, a native Bitcoin staking platform has partnered with Xverse for its main net launch. Acre is the latest project from Thesis, the venture studio building brands on Bitcoin. According to Brian Mahoney, Co-Founder of Acre, lets “Xverse users put their Bitcoin to work via the Acre staking app to access the exciting new world of Bitcoin L2s,” using their Xverse wallets. Acre’s staking experience simplifies participation in the Bitcoin economy with one-click access to BTC rewards.For more information, users can visit Acre’s: Official Website | Twitter (x) | DiscordContactKevin McGraththesis@mgroupsc.com718-915-4829This article was originally published on Chainwire More

World no.2 token Ether also saw extended losses as traders largely looked past the launch of spot exchange-traded funds in U.S. markets this week. The launch attracted a fraction of capital flows in comparison to those seen by spot Bitcoin ETFs earlier this year.Risk sentiment was battered by a sharp fall in Wall Street indexes on Wednesday, as investors heavily sold off major technology stocks following a couple of underwhelming second-quarter earnings. Bitcoin fell 3.3% in the past 24 hours to $64,024.7 by 08:57 ET (12:57 GMT). Bitcoin, and by proxy broader crypto markets, were also dented by uncertainty over the U.S. presidential race, especially after President Joe Biden pulled out of the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic frontrunner.Harris was seen polling better than Biden against Republican nominee Donald Trump, and was also seen garnering widespread support from the Democratic party. Given Harris’ past as a public prosecutor- who had cracked down on banks and for-profit colleges, it appeared likely that she would continue Biden’s agenda of stricter financial regulations in the country- which bode poorly for crypto. Media reports said that Harris had reportedly declined an invitation to speak at the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville. These drew ire from several crypto proponents. Initial speculation over a Trump presidency had aided crypto markets, especially given that the Republican nominee has maintained a largely pro crypto stance. Trump is set to speak at the Bitcoin Conference on Saturday. Sentiment towards Bitcoin was also further undermined by reports showing defunct exchange Mt Gox had moved more tokens onto exchanges- likely preparing for more distributions.Mt Gox has been a major pain point for Bitcoin’s price, as the defunct exchange began returning tokens stolen during a 2014 hack. Traders speculated receivers of the tokens would be largely inclined to sell them, given Bitcoin’s massive price gains over the past decade.Among broader cryptocurrency prices, the world no.2 token Ether plunged nearly 9% to $3,143.52 on Thursday.The token was little supported by the launch of spot ETFs in U.S. markets earlier this week, which did see strong trading volumes, of over $1 billion in their debut. But this was much lower than the $4 billion volumes seen by Bitcoin ETFs, indicating relatively lower investor appetite.Other altcoins also made little headway. XRP fell slightly, while SOL and ADA fell 5.5% and 6%, respectively.Among memetokens, DOGE tumbled 7.2%, while SHIB lost 7.2%. Bitcoin miner MARA (NASDAQ: MARA), recently rebranded from Marathon Digital, announced on Thursday the purchase of an additional $100 million worth of bitcoin.The company’s shares dropped by more than 2% in premarket trading on Thursday.The move comes as part of the “full HODL” approach toward its bitcoin treasury policy. This means retaining all bitcoin mined in its operations and periodically making strategic open market purchases.”Adopting a full HODL strategy reflects our confidence in the long-term value of bitcoin,” said Fred Thiel, MARA’s chairman and CEO.”We believe bitcoin is the world’s best treasury reserve asset and support the idea of sovereign wealth funds holding it. We encourage governments and corporations to all hold bitcoin as a reserve asset.” More

The company’s shares fell more than 2% in premarket trading Thursday following the announcement. According to a statement shared with The Block, this acquisition brings MARA’s total bitcoin holdings to over 20,000 BTC, representing nearly 0.1% of bitcoin’s total supply of 21 million.The company did not disclose the specific timing or average price of the purchases. However, given the dollar amount and MARA’s previous holdings of 18,536 BTC at the end of June, as reported by Bitcoin Treasuries, it is estimated that the recent acquisitions likely totaled around 1,500 BTC, bought in the $54,000 to $68,000 range this month, The Block said. Moreover, MARA said it will adopt a full HODL approach to its bitcoin treasury policy, retaining all bitcoin mined in its operations and periodically making strategic open market purchases. This strategy will come into effect immediately. “Adopting a full HODL strategy reflects our confidence in the long-term value of bitcoin,” said Fred Thiel, MARA’s chairman and CEO. “We believe bitcoin is the world’s best treasury reserve asset and support the idea of sovereign wealth funds holding it. We encourage governments and corporations to all hold bitcoin as a reserve asset.”MARA’s latest moves indicate that Bitcoin miner is adopting a strategy similar to that of MicroStrategy (MSTR), the world’s largest publicly-listed BTC holder.Founded by Michael Saylor, a vocal advocate of Bitcoin, MicroStrategy holds the premier cryptocurrency as a primary treasury reserve asset. The company continuously buys Bitcoin, accumulating 226,331 coins as of June 24, 2024. More

The takeover creates new opportunities towards connecting the traditional transportation market with a rapidly expanding blockchain based payment system. HBSS Connect is the company behind transportation platform QRyde,Colu has been an active player in the blockchain space since 2014. The company’s digital wallet app was launched in early 2017 and is now operational in cities such as Tel Aviv, Haifa, East London, and Liverpool, serving over 200,000 users and supporting transactions across 2,000 local businesses.The blockchain startup has previously raised decent investments from firms like IDB Development Corporation and Aleph, and its blockchain technology has garnered attention worldwide.The merger with HBSS Connect Corp will help accelerate the development and deployment of these technologies on a global scale.For its part, the acquisition is set to support QRyde’s efforts in creating a blockchain-based transportation system with more efficient municipal government spending. HBSS Connect will leverage web3 technology to integrate transportation systems with local economies. QRyde’s platform, which serves over 250 customers in 35 states and more than 9,700 cities, focuses on connecting people to essential services.HBSS CEO Himanshu Bhatnagar framed his firm’s investment in Colu as the first step in what will be a long discovery process, though one that he expects to bear fruit soon. He added, “We are pleased to have Colu joining our QRyde team. Colu is the perfect partner to help execute our vision of using blockchain in the mobility space, for entering into urban renewal and smart city space, making the transportation ecosystem trustworthy and more accessible to all citizens, not just the elderly and mobility challenged.”Bhatnagar founded QRyde as a shared ride scheduling platform to offer ride booking, cost-sharing, and bidding management services to educational institutions, healthcare companies, and public transit agencies across the nation. Operating under its parent company HBSS Connect, QRyde employs technology like mobile scheduling, automated dispatching, and AI-based route optimization to help these organizations deliver services more efficiently and cost-effectively.“By combining Colu’s vision of making cities thrive with QRyde’s advanced transportation platform, we can now better serve underpaid communities, transporting them to job centers and commerce areas,” said Ortal Tevel, CEO of Colu. Colu has extensive experience in implementing digital reward schemes to engage residents and strengthen local economies. The company has collaborated with municipalities across the United States, including Akron, Boston, Houston, and Saline County. Through collaboration with QRyde, Colu will expand its program to include a variety of essential services. More

ZAP, the reputation-based token distribution protocol and Big Bang winner on Blast L2, today announced a successful raise of $15 million in a funding round led by Rarestone Capital, Cypher Capital and Sharding Capital. The round also saw participation from Auros Global, Presto Labs, and angels Larry Cermak (CEO, The Block), Chelsea Jiang (Foresight Ventures), and Luca Netz (CEO, Pudgy Penguins), plus notable angels from LayerZero.ZAP is a community-driven token distribution protocol that validates user contribution to ensure fair and meritocratic rewards, enabling projects to sustainably build and grow their communities. ZAP features a comprehensive suite of products: A questing and airdrops protocol, a no-code token launcher, and a curated launchpad offering access to VC backed projects. These are all supported by Mission Control, ZAP’s questing and reputation system, ensuring fair and community-driven access to token distributions. ZAP previously raised $11m in March through a “Vault Sale”, using a similar model to the recently popular Node sales used by XAI and Aethir. More recently, they announced a partnership with analytics platform Nansen, who will help the protocol to build advanced, data-driven insights into on-chain users, enhancing ZAP’s offerings and optimizing their questing and airdrops protocols.In conjunction with their recent funding milestone, ZAP also launched the Blast Gigadrops Campaign aimed at fostering greater user engagement within the Blast ecosystem. Running from May 27 and still ongoing, it introduces a chapter-based airdrop system, rewarding users for both their social and on-chain interactions with over 20 leading Blast protocols and decentralized applications (dApps). The campaign boasts a prize pool nearing $1 million and includes collaboration with major partners such as Thruster, Particle, and MetaStreet among others.About ZapZap is a community-driven token launch protocol designed to solve the challenges in the token launch space and provide value to both founders and investors. By offering a merit-based model, Zap ensures that all investors have an equal opportunity to participate.Website | x | Telegram | DiscordContactXiaoxiao@zap.techThis article was originally published on Chainwire More

The world’s second largest cryptocurrency was last down 6% at $3,170 in what would be its biggest daily percentage fall in three months, leaving it broadly in the middle of its recent trading range. Bitcoin was 3% lower at $63,930. The first U.S. ETFs tied to the price of ether began trading on Tuesday, but have failed to generate the bounce in the price that spot bitcoin ETFs created in bitcoin earlier in the year. Instead, broader macro trends have taken hold. Shares around the world have tumbled in recent weeks, particularly tech stocks, and other ‘risk assets’ which often move in line with crypto currencies. The Nasdaq on Wednesday, lost almost 4% – the worst one-day fall since 2022 – as lacklustre Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) earnings undermined investor confidence in the already lofty valuations of the “Magnificent Seven” stocks. [.N]Shares in crypto-related stocks such as miners fell in Thursday’s premarket, with exchange Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) down 2.3%, Riot Platforms (NASDAQ:RIOT) and Marathon Digital (NASDAQ:MARA) down 3.4-4%. European shares dropped 1.4% in early trading Thursday. More

“Adopting a full HODL strategy reflects our confidence in the long-term value of bitcoin,” said Fred Thiel, MARA’s chairman and CEO. “We believe bitcoin is the world’s best treasury reserve asset and support the idea of sovereign wealth funds holding it. We encourage governments and corporations to all hold bitcoin as a reserve asset.”“Prior to last year, the company used to hold all of its bitcoin,” said Salman Khan, MARA’s chief financial officer. “Given Bitcoin’s current tailwinds, including increased institutional support and an improving macro environment, we are once again implementing this strategy and focusing on growing the amount we hold on our balance sheet. Bitcoin’s recent price decline, coupled with the strength of our balance sheet, afforded us an opportunity to add to our holdings. We look forward to continuing to leverage our technological expertise to support Bitcoin and distributed digital asset ecosystems.” More

NASHVILLE (Reuters) – Republican nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump once blasted cryptocurrency, calling it a “scam.” Now, he is headlining one of the industry’s biggest conferences. Trump, who made the comment in 2021, will speak on Saturday, the last day of the three-day Bitcoin 2024 convention in Nashville. Republican former candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Senator Bill Hagerty of Tennessee and Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming will also speak.Among Democrats, U.S. Representative Ro Khanna of California is on the roster.The industry has quickly rebounded after FTX and a series of other crypto companies collapsed in 2022, sending token prices sliding and forcing multiple companies into bankruptcy. Digital asset proponents say that cryptocurrency users are becoming a growing political force this election cycle, although it is unclear just how many users would prioritize crypto over other issues at the ballot box.The Republican Party is courting their votes by promising lighter regulation, potentially tying a currency built to circumvent government to a major U.S. political party.”For most of its history, crypto was really a nonpartisan issue,” said David Yermack, a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, because Republicans and Democrats alike did not understand it or care to learn more.”I do think the Republicans in the last year or two have begun to move a little more quickly in the area.”Stand With Crypto, a nonprofit industry group backed by crypto exchange Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN), has organized over 1.3 million advocates. Meanwhile, three major pro-crypto super political action committees – Fairshake, Defend American Jobs, and Protect Progress, all of which did not exist until this cycle – have raised over $230 million to support friendly candidates.That influence is already being felt. Fairshake, a super PAC promoting pro-crypto candidates, has spent over $10 million this year against California progressive Democrat Katie Porter, who was running for the Senate. Porter, who questioned bitcoin mining’s effect on climate change, lost her primary.Some crypto advocates are backing Trump, including the billionaire Winklevoss twins who founded crypto company Gemini. Each gave him $1 million in bitcoin but had to take back the money because it exceeded the maximum allowed under federal law.Overall, 7% of U.S. adults held or used crypto in 2023, down 3 percentage points from 2022 and down 5 percentage points from 2021, the Federal Reserve reported in May. But the annual convention is pulling in more politicians than ever. “There’s a joke going around that the list of speakers looks like the RNC Lite,” one attendee said in an interview, referring to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in mid-July.TRUMP’S NEW EMBRACE Trump’s appearance at Bitcoin 2024 is his latest show of support for the industry. In a June fundraiser in San Francisco, he slammed Democrats’ attempts to regulate the sector. He met bitcoin mining companies at his Mar-a-Lago resort last month. “We have tried to engage with the Biden administration and they have not been receptive unfortunately,” said Jayson Browder, head of public policy for Marathon Digital (NASDAQ:MARA) Holdings, who attended the Mar-a-Lago meeting. “And former President Trump has been more than receptive and is now being an active supporter of our industry.”Trump recently indicated he would like to see more bitcoin mining by U.S. firms.Crypto executives are upset with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement actions under U.S. President Joe Biden. The White House told Reuters the Biden-Harris administration will continue meeting with stakeholders and working with Congress to develop necessary safeguards to harness the potential benefits and opportunities of crypto-asset innovation.Harris would likely advance Biden’s crypto policies if she wins the presidential election in November. Neither the Trump nor Harris campaigns immediately commented for this article.Traders betting on a second Trump presidency are flocking to asset classes likely to get a boost under his administration.Crypto and bitcoin in particular are “the cleanest and most direct way to play the ‘Trump trade’ so far,” said Cameron Dawson, chief investment officer of NewEdge Wealth.Conference attendee Hillary Adler, who co-founded operating system BitcoinOS, has previously voted Democratic but now describes herself as left-libertarian. Calling herself an undecided voter, Adler said she is not surprised that some Republican politicians have pivoted to supporting crypto.”The Republicans have always had better long-tail strategies, politically,” she said. “Now, they care about crypto.” More