R2 money

Circle launches cross-chain transfer protocol, Visa shares plans for stablecoin product, Kraken fights back in court, and more. Top Stories This Week Circle launches cross-chain USDC transfer protocol Circle launched a cross-chain protocol that enables USDC transfers between the Ethereum and Avalanche blockchains. The protocol works by burning the selected amount of native USDC on the source chain, and minting an equivalent amount of new USDC on the intended destination chain. The protocol essentially makes USDC transfers between the two networks faster and more user-friendly, as prior to its launch, people had to use third-party bridges or a Circle partner to facilitate transfers between the two networks. Additional support for Solana and other blockchains will be added later in 2023. Stablecoin payments: Visa shares plans for ambitious crypto product Cuy Sheffield, the head of crypto at Visa, announced a new cryptocurrency-related project, on April 24, focused on stablecoin pa...

A recently published study appears to advocate for the isolation of crypto assets from other tax deductions where losses are concerned. Researchers at Indiana University and the University of Maine recently published a study examining the current state of cryptocurrency tax law in the United States. The research concludes with recommendations for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that, if adopted, would prevent taxpayers from weighing crypto losses against other capital gains. The paper, dubbed simply “Crypto Losses,” seeks to define the various forms of loss that can be accrued by businesses and individuals invested in cryptocurrency and proposes a “new tax framework.” Current IRS guidelines concerning cryptocurrency are somewhat nebulous. For the most part, as the researchers point out, cryptocurrency losses tend to follow the same taxation rules as other capital assets. They’re typically deductible against capital gains (but not other gains such as income), but there are some ...

Cointelegraph analyst and writer Marcel Pechman explains how a U.S. debt default could impact Bitcoin and the larger cryptocurrency market. Macro Markets, hosted by crypto analyst Marcel Pechman, airs every Friday on the Cointelegraph Markets & Research YouTube channel and explains complex concepts in layperson’s terms, focusing on the cause and effect of traditional financial events on day-to-day crypto activity. The risks of a United States debt default are the first topic of this week’s show, which comes from none other than Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Yellen warned of potential mass unemployment, payment failures and broad economic weakness if the U.S. failed to pay its debts. This issue emerges every couple of years, creating some tension within Congress, but at some point, they agree to raise the debt limit. So, no harm done, right? That’s partially true because if the government doesn’t have a majority, which happens to be the case, the opposition has the upper ...

Ether traders have been neutral-to-bearish for the past week, indicating little confidence in ETH breaking above $2,000. The Ether price has held above $1,820 for the past three weeks, despite facing a 13.7% correction between April 18-21. Still, analyzing a broader time frame provides a more constructive view, as Ether ( ETH ) has gained 20.8% in three months while the S&P 500 stock market index has stood flat. However, according to ETH options and futures metrics, the gains have not been enough to make professional investors bullish. Worsening macroeconomic conditions have driven cryptocurrencies’ positive momentum in 2023, including the ongoing banking crisis. According to Arthur Hayes, former CEO of crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX, if the government refuses to bail out First Republic Bank , it could set off a dangerous chain reaction of insolvencies. Recession risks increased after the United States economy grew at a modest 1.1% annualized pace in the first quarter, wel...

Sotheby’s auction house is set to sell NFTs that are part of collapsed crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital’s digital collection. In this week’s newsletter, read about how Romania plans to drive Web3 adoption in the country using NFTs. Check out how Sotheby’s will auction off some NFTs of the collapsed crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital. In other news, find out how games and tokenization are driving the maturation of the NFT space and how a second batch of Trump NFTs sold out a day after launch. And don’t forget this week’s Nifty News featuring Yuga Labs’ victory in court. Romania plugs into Web3 with national NFT marketplace Romania’s National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics, known as ICI Bucharest, has announced that it will launch an institutional NFT platform to drive Web3 adoption in the country. According to Paul Niculescu-Mizil Gheorghe, ICI Bucharest’s blockchain laboratory coordinator, NFTs have become valuable assets for institutions due to th...

Legislators in South Korea passed a first-phase review of proposed cryptocurrency regulations that include relatively harsh sentencing recommendations. South Korean legislators passed a first phase review of proposed regulations that would give the nation’s Financial Services Commission authority to investigate and supervise financial activity related to “digital assets,” including cryptocurrency. The proposed bill comes with myriad stipulations governing the sale, storage and trading of cryptocurrencies, with particular emphasis on consumer protection and compliance reporting. Hwang Suk-jin, a member of the ruling People Power Party’s Digital Asset Special Committee,   told media outlet Forkast that “both the ruling and opposition parties have agreed on the matter,” before suggesting the legislation would become law by the end of the year. Related: Bank of Korea given right to investigate local crypto firms If passed, the bill would become one of the most sweeping pie...

On this week’s episode of The Market Report, Cointelegraph’s resident expert discusses if the latest price of Bitcoin is a sign of a new bear market starting or just a healthy correction. In today’s Market Report episode, analyst and writer Marcel Pechman covers the potential triggers to move Bitcoin’s price away from $27,000, including the United State Federal Reserve meeting on May 3. The show airs every Tuesday on the Cointelegraph Markets & Research YouTube channel. The first news article discussed the catalysts for Bitcoin’s next move, including whether the Fed will follow the markets’ consensus of a 25-basis-point interest rate increase on May 3. The video analyzes how Bitcoin ( BTC ) should react to the central bank’s decision and explains how interest rates affect families and businesses. In Pechman’s opinion, the correlation between Bitcoin and the stock market should decline considering the U.S. is nearing its debt limit and the economy is displaying signs of weaknes...

Only 2.42% of claimants favor restructuring, and they are almost exclusively company directors. Withdrawals were frozen in August. Creditors of Singapore-based cryptocurrency lender have again expressed their desire to liquidate the company, which has been under judicial management since August 2022. There is no white knight investor on the horizon, interim judicial manager (IJM) Aaron Loh Cheng Lee explained in a circular updating the case.   A circular from the IJMs dated April 25 said users representing approximately 55.38% of creditors, with claims of 228.3 million Singapore dollars (about $170.5 million), have indicated they would favor liquidation over restructuring. No source of fresh capital has been found, the letter noted, despite the founders’ efforts to find new investors: “There appears to be no indication of a white knight investor to date, and hence no prospect of any fresh capital injection.” Only users with 2.42% of claims supported restructuring, and almost ...

The DeFi protocol appears to have erased its social media presence after news of the alleged exit scam broke. Ordinals Finance, an Ethereum-based decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol that allows users to lend and borrow inscriptions, has been accused of performing an exit scam, also known as a "rug pull."  In an April 24 press release seen by Cointelegraph, blockchain security firm CertiK reported that the protocol's developer pulled 256 million Ordinals Finance (OFI) tokens out of its smart contracts using a "safuToken" function. Another 13 million OFI was removed through an "ownerRewithdraw" function, bringing the total number of tokens withdrawn to 269 million, CertiK stated. #CertiKSkynetAlert We can confirm that the @ordinalsfinance exit scam has resulted in a loss of $1 million. All social media accounts have been deleted as well as the project's website. Funds have been consolidated into EOA 0x34e…25cCF https://t.co/0Pwlt3yibm ...

Ether options volume hints at bearish sentiment as the $1,850 support falters. The Ether ( ETH ) price has struggled to sustain the $1,850 support since April 21, the same level it held before the rally toward $2,100 initiated on April 13. Investors have reason to question whether there are buyers, considering the 13.5% price correction in six days and the $548 million in leveraged futures longs liquidated between April 19 and April 21. Firstly, the regulatory environment seems to have gotten stricter for centralized exchanges. Dubai-based Bybit, for instance, announced that all users  must complete Know Your Customer (KYC) identity verification for order execution and withdrawals. Before the May 8 update, non-KYC users had a monthly withdrawal limit of 100,000 USD Tether ( USDT ). United States-based crypto exchange Gemini announced on April 21 the upcoming launch of a derivatives platform outside the U.S . The uncertain regulatory environment forced the company to seek alter...

U.S. law enforcement has identified three individuals who handled stolen crypto and fiat for the benefit of North Korea. The United States Treasury Department has identified over-the-counter (OTC) cryptocurrency traders who assisted North Korea’s Lazarus Group in converting stolen crypto into fiat currency. Crypto traders in China and Hong Kong have been sanctioned by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). In addition, a China-based banker was sanctioned for coordinating some of the illicit cashflow. Wu Huihui was sanctioned by OFAC for “providing material support to the Lazarus Group,” the North Korean hacker group known for some of the biggest exploits in crypto. According to a statement released by the Treasury Department on April 24, Wu, based in China, converted millions of dollars’ worth of crypto into fiat currency for North Korean “cyber actors” in multiple transactions in 2021. The Chinese government severely restricts operations with cryptocurrency, but ...

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe plans to introduce a gold-backed digital currency as legal tender in a bid to stabilize its local currency. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is set to introduce a gold-backed digital currency to serve as a legal tender in the country. The move is a government initiative to stabilize the local currency from its depreciation against the United States dollar.  According to a report from local media Sunday Mail, the move will allow small amounts of Zimbabwe dollars to be exchanged to the digital gold token, enabling more Zimbabweans to hedge against the currency volatility. Central bank governor John Mangudya said the plan intends to "leave no one and no place behind." Zimbabwe's currency trades nearly Z$1,001 against $1 dollar, but is normally exchanged for Z$1,750 on the streets of Harare, the country's capital, according to Bloomberg. Zimbabwe's annual consumer price inflation reached  one-year low in March at 87.6%, from 92% in Febru...

The vulnerability impacted wallet addresses created through the browser extension between November 14-23, resulting in nearly $170,000 in losses. Crypto wallet Trust Wallet disclosed a security vulnerability that resulted in nearly 170,000 losses for some users. The vulnerability has been patched, according to the company. Trust Wallet found out about the issue through its bug bounty program. A security researcher reported a WebAssembly (WASM) vulnerability in the open-source library Wallet Core in November 2022. New wallet addresses generated "between November 14 and 23, 2022 by Browser Extension contain this vulnerability," said the company in a statement, adding that all addresses created before and after those dates are safe. 1/10 Trust Wallet is built on security & trust. So we're sharing a vulnerability affecting new addresses created Nov 14-23,22 using the Browser Extension. The issue is fixed. Most at-risk funds are secured. Affected users should take ...

Bitcoin and select altcoins have fallen below their respective support levels, a worrying sign that the bulls could be losing their grip. Bitcoin ( BTC ) and most major cryptocurrencies have pulled back from their recent local highs, signaling profit booking by traders. Is the current pullback a buying opportunity or has the trend turned lower? This is likely to be the question in every trader’s mind. Bollinger Bands creator John Bollinger said in a recent tweet that Bitcoin had turned down from the upper Bollinger Band and reached the middle bank, near its breakout level. He said it was a “logical place” and advised traders to “pay attention.” Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360 The correction could worry short-term crypto traders but for the long-term investors, who believe that a bottom is in, this could prove to be an opportunity to build their portfolio with cryptocurrencies of their choice. It is generally a good strategy to avoid buying on the way d...

Cointelegraph analyst and writer Marcel Pechman explains how Bitcoin could become a part of the $120-trillion mutual fund industry. The show Macro Markets, hosted by crypto analyst Marcel Pechman, which airs every Friday on the Cointelegraph Markets & Research YouTube channel, explains complex concepts in layman’s terms and focuses on the cause and effect of traditional financial events on day-to-day crypto activity. This week’s show starts by discussing the mutual fund industry, including the well-known BlackRock, Fidelity and Vanguard, and how the top 15 asset managers handle over $54 trillion. Can you believe it? That money could buy all the companies listed in the S&P 500 Index, plus all the gold, fiat bills and coins in circulation on the planet. Pechman explains how the $120 trillion managed by these mutual funds relies heavily on fixed income and why it remains their top bet despite paying below inflation for the past three years. Moreover, the show discusses how pas...

Many lauded the bill’s approval, suggesting that its anticipated passage could leave the United States at a disadvantage for attracting crypto firms and investments. Though a crypto-focused regulatory framework still needs approval from the European Council before final passage, many in the space have reacted positively to the Markets in Crypto Assets, or MiCA, bill moving forward. On April 20, the European Parliament voted to pass MiCA after two delays starting in November 2022. The crypto framework aims to create a consistent regulatory framework for crypto assets among the European Union member states. Though EU lawmakers still need to conduct legal and linguistic checks for MiCA as well as publish the bill in the EU journal, the policy could go into effect as early as 2024, depending on the European Council vote. Many crypto industry leaders and policymakers largely lauded the bill’s approval. Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, suggested he would begin implementing changes to t...

Scientists at the University of Melbourne and Tsinghua University published pre-print research comparing the cryptocurrency market to traditional equities. A pair of computer science researchers recently published pre-print research indicating that the nascent cryptocurrency market is beginning to show a level of maturity similar to the traditional equities market.  Dubbed “Collective dynamics, diversification and optimal portfolio construction for cryptocurrencies,” the paper was written by Dr. Nick James, a fellow at the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Data Science, and Max Menzies, a professor at the Beijing Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Applications, Tsinghua University. Related: What’s next for EU’s crypto industry as European Parliament passes MiCA? The pair set out to determine what role cryptocurrency plays in portfolio diveristy and how the cryptocurrency market compares to the traditional equities market. Their findings indicate that, while there rema...