Blockchain startup Lolli har angiveligt rejst $5 millioner fra en række investorer ledet af Serena Williams, hendes mand (Alexis Ohanian) og andre YouTubers.

At Bitcoin-belønningsfirmaet Lolli har haft succes med at rejse midler fra investorer

Som det blev annonceret onsdag, er Lolli’s pre-Series A-runde med deltagelse af Serena Williams‘ Serena Ventures, hendes mand Alexis Ohanians Seven Seven Six og Night Media, der er det managementfirma, som repræsenterer YouTuber MrBeast. Andre investorer fra influencer-rækkerne omfatter Casey Neistat, Phil DeFranco, Cody Ko, Noel Miller, Ian Borthwick og Gabriel Leydon.

Det er ikke første gang, at Bitcoin-belønningsfirmaet Lolli har haft succes med at rejse midler fra investorer. Sidste år rejste Lolli en seed-runde på 3 millioner dollars ledet af PathFinder med deltagelse af Digital Currency Group (CoinDesk’s ejer), Michelle Phan og Ashton Kutcher.

Stor Blockchain-investering til tennisstjerne

Bitcoin er på en bull run og krypto er booming, så virksomheder med stærke use-cases udnytter denne mulighed. Lolli, som tilskynder kunderne til at gå til sine partnerbutikker med Bitcoin-belønninger sendt til en tegnebog, kan nu prale af over 1.000 handlende og 250.000 brugere.

Medstifteren af Lolli, Alex Adelman, siger, at virksomheden i øjeblikket tilbyder et gennemsnit på 7% bitcoin-back belønninger hos detailhandlere som Microsoft, Booking.com og Ulta. Han tilføjede, at Lolli-brugere har også tjent mere end 3 millioner dollars i bitcoin-belønninger til dato.

„Vi startede ud med ideen om at uddanne folk om bitcoin. Så vi har bare knyttet det til noget, som alle gør: shop. Folk tænker på at investere, når de tænker på bitcoin, men der er nok mindre end 1% af verden, der ville betragte sig selv som investorer. Alle ville betragte sig selv som en shopper. Det ultimative mål er finansiel empowerment og finansiel inklusion, som også er vigtige grunde til, at Serena Williams og hendes team støtter Lolli,“ sagde han.

Serena er også positiv over for investeringen, da Lolli gør Bitcoin mere tilgængelig ud over blot institutionelle investeringer, til den gennemsnitlige krypto-entusiast. Med hendes ord: „Jeg er begejstret for at annoncere min investering i Lolli, en virksomhed på en mission for at gøre Bitcoin mere tilgængelig. At tjene og eje bitcoin er et skridt mod finansiel inklusion for alle mennesker,“ tilføjede hun.

Dogecoin falls 23 per cent: Elon Musk criticises large DOGE owners

The world’s richest man has criticised major DOGE holders for concentrating supply at a few addresses.

Dogecoin (DOGE) fell 23 percent in a matter of hours on 15 February after Elon Musk drew attention to the highly uneven distribution of DOGE coins and called on large holders to sell their holdings. Dogecoin has one of the most Bitcoin Code unequal coin distributions in the cryptocurrency space. 28.7 per cent are held by just one person. The top 12 holders own almost 50 percent of the supply. Shortly before midnight on 14 February, Musk tweeted:

„If big Dogecoin owners sell the majority of their coins, he will have my full support. Too much focus is the only real problem I think.“

Just over seven hours later, the Dogecoin price has fallen 23 per cent from US$0.063 to US$0.048. Musk’s tweets have previously been blamed for movements in cryptocurrency prices, not least Dogecoin. His role in Monday’s decline, on the other hand, is less clear. The total market capitalisation of all cryptocurrencies fell by more than 105 billion US dollars at the same time.

Losses of more than 20 per cent have not been uncommon for cryptocurrencies. Altcoins in particular, however, have fallen sharply. Analysts suspect that this was caused by Bitcoin’s (BTC) rise to a new all-time high just a few hours earlier. That took volume out of the altcoin market.

Calculating the exact distribution of a particular cryptocurrency can be difficult because public blockchains are often anonymous

But data from multiple sources shows that nearly 70 percent of the total Dogecoin supply is held in just over 100 addresses.

Dogecoin’s founder recently revealed that he sold all his DOGE holdings in 2015 due to financial difficulties after losing his job. Billy Markus started Dogecoin in 2013 as a joke currency. It was based on the Shiba Inu meme, which was popular at the time. Markus said he found it difficult to understand, let alone explain, the meteoric rise of this coin, which has no real use or value.

Elon Musk’s support for Dogecoin is probably largely in jest. The Tesla founder once described himself as the self-proclaimed CEO of Dogecoin (an open-source cryptocurrency). He has only mentioned the coin in the context of memes, but did not promote it as any kind of investment strategy.

Un pont avalanche-œsophage pour les utilisateurs de DeFi afin de gérer les frais de gaz élevés

• L’Avalanche-Ethereum (AEB) est maintenant en ligne, le Bloc a fait un reportage le 8 février.
• Déplacement des actifs de DeFi vers Avalanche

Suite à l’activation du pont d’interopérabilité, les utilisateurs de DeFi dans Ethereum peuvent désormais transférer de manière transparente des ressources vers le réseau Avalanche.

Ce faisant, ils seront libres d’échanger plus rapidement et à moindre coût puisque le réseau a un débit plus élevé, est décentralisé et bénéficie de Bitcoin Bank frais de transaction relativement faibles.

Le réseau AEB est construit par ChainSafe. Protofire, Hashquark, POA Network, Avascan et Meter.io assureront la sécurité du pont en tant que „relais“.
Miser sur l’évolutivité et les faibles frais de transaction

Le réseau Avalanche se décrit comme l’internet des dApps réactifs.

Il s’agit d’un réseau alternatif de contrats intelligents où les projets peuvent facilement lancer des dApps à forte demande.

À partir de la plateforme, les utilisateurs peuvent expérimenter de nouvelles primitives financières tout en restant interopérables.

En raison de leur débit plus élevé, les utilisateurs sont libérés des frais de transaction élevés dont souffre actuellement Ethereum, ainsi que d’autres couches transactionnelles basées sur la preuve de travail comme Bitcoin.

L’AEB est un soulagement pour les utilisateurs de DeFi, qui, bien que disposés à expérimenter et à gagner de l’argent avec différents protocoles, sont plafonnés en raison des frais prohibitifs du gaz.

Problèmes liés au gaz éthéré

Les données de BitInfoCharts révèlent que les frais de transaction moyens au 8 février s’élevaient à plus de 20 dollars.

Les tarifs du gaz suivent l’évolution du prix de l’ETH. Les frais de gaz continueront à augmenter même si la limite du bloc est supérieure à 12,5 millions.

Au moment où nous écrivons ces lignes, les données parallèles d’Etherscan montrent que le taux d’utilisation moyen des blocs d’Ethereum est supérieur à 97 %. Malgré les tarifs élevés du gaz, les utilisateurs font des offres plus élevées, désireux de faire des transactions sur Ethereum.

Gérer des frais de transaction élevés

Le pont Avalanche-Ethereum est une option pour les négociants qui souhaitent gérer les frais de gaz élevés tout en bénéficiant d’un faible délai de confirmation, sans pour autant renoncer à l’écosystème dense d’Ethereum.

Emin Gün Sirer, le directeur général de la société de logiciels qui développe Avalanche, a déclaré :

„Les ponts jouent un rôle essentiel en permettant à DeFi de se développer au-delà des frontières d’un réseau pour atteindre des écosystèmes complémentaires. Ce pont ouvrira les vannes pour que des centaines d’actifs d’Ethereum, y compris des actifs fondamentaux de DeFi comme WBTC, AAVE et d’autres, puissent être intégrés dans Avalanche, alimentant des applications comme les échanges décentralisés, les protocoles de prêt et les marchés de prévision“.

Protego tritt Anchorage als erste Reihe von Unternehmen für digitale Vermögenswerte bei, die eine nationale Treuhandbanklizenz erhalten.

Das Amt des Währungsprüfers hat einer anderen Kryptofirma eine nationale Charta erteilt

Laut einer heute mit Bitcoin Union geteilten Ankündigung ist der in Washington ansässige institutionelle Krypto-Custodian Protego das zweite krypto-native Unternehmen, das eine nationale Lizenz vom OCC erhalten hat.

Die neue Charta ist an Bedingungen geknüpft, und Protego ist eher als nationale Treuhandbank als als traditionelle Bank zugelassen, was bedeutet, dass keine Einlagen abgewickelt werden. Interessanterweise ist Protego ein relativ neues Unternehmen und befindet sich noch im Organisationsprozess. Es wird 18 Monate dauern, bis der Betrieb aufgenommen wird, bevor die derzeitige Charta abläuft.

Das OCC ist das Büro des US-Finanzministeriums, das für die Regulierung der Nationalbanken zuständig ist

Im vergangenen Jahr hat es viel Arbeit geleistet, Krypto in diesen Bereich zu integrieren, einschließlich der ersten nationalen Charta dieser Art an Anchorage im letzten Monat.

Nicht alle waren mit dem Interesse des OCC an der Integration von Kryptofirmen zufrieden. Ein Konsortium staatlicher Bankenaufsichtsbehörden hat kürzlich Klage gegen den OCC wegen des Antrags von Figure auf eine nationale Charta eingereicht und behauptet, dass der OCC die Definition einer Bank bis zur Unkenntlichkeit erweitert.

The Crypto.com platform (CRO) has just entered into collaboration with Alchemy. This startup will provide a suite of tools to help develop applications on the Crypto.com Chain, the Crypto.com blockchain that will be launched very soon.

Crypto.com collaborates with Alchemy

With the deployment of the Crypto.com mainnet getting closer , the company has just entered into a collaboration with Alchemy , a startup whose mission is to facilitate development on blockchains.

Alchemy will provide a full suite of tools and services to make it easier for developers to build applications on the Crypto.com Chain, the company’s blockchain.

This partnership will reduce operating and maintenance costs for application developers , who would otherwise have to host full nodes themselves, improve the competitiveness of partner products, and increase overall accessibility of the Crypto.com Chain.

Since Alchemy’s deployment in 2017, its solutions have helped transfer over $ 15 billion through apps that collaborate with the startup . Already used by the Trust Wallet, the Augur project or even the decentralized DeversiFi exchange, Alchemy’s tools have made a place for themselves at the heart of leading projects.

For Kris Marszalek, CEO of Crypto.com, the involvement of partners such as Alchemy to support the development of the Crypto.com Chain has been a top priority.

“We are excited to partner with Alchemy to create tools that simplify and accelerate the ability of developers to rely on Crypto.com Chain,” he added.

In parallel, has recently Crypto.com of its own incubator project of decentralized finance (DeFi), called Particle B . With the objective of launching at least 1 DeFi project per quarter , this incubator will help, like Alchemy, to develop the ecosystem of Crypto.com

Crypto.com welcome offer

Crypto.com always offers a $ 25 bonus for any order of its flagship product: a crypto-card offering 1 to 8% cashback with each spend . Under certain conditions, any user who orders a card from the Metal range can receive this bonus directly in their Crypto.com wallet.

The first crypto-card eligible for this offer is Ruby Steel . This can be ordered by depositing 2,500 CRO tokens on the platform, or nearly 135 € at the time its lines are written.

This first comes with several benefits, such as a full refund of a Spotify subscription and a 2% cashback for each purchase.

Depending on the model of the crypto-card, other benefits are added such as the reimbursement of Netflix and Amazon Prime subscriptions, in addition to a larger cashkback . Obtaining the other cards in the range, however, requires locking more CRO tokens on the platform.

Microsoft technology giant has partnered with EY consultancy for a blockchain royalty management platform.

The Microsoft technology giant has announced a partnership with the consultancy Ernest & Young to use blockchain technology to pay royalties on content and games from Xbox, one of the largest games platforms in the world.

According to the portal Canal Tech, the company will create a decentralized system to act in the management of royalty contracts linked to the content of the game ecosystem, improving the payment of copyrights.

In a note, the companies classify the initiative as „one of the largest implementations of a blockchain-based financial tracking system,“ also integrating the artificial intelligence technology and Microsoft Azure resources for contract digitalization.

Paul Brody, EY’s blockchain leader, says in the announcement:

„Blockchains could become the glue that digitalizes integrations between companies. This release represents another major step in that direction, extending the level of automation and compression of cycle time to contract digitization for financial additions“.

According to both companies, the system of Bitcoin Pro is capable of processing two million transactions per day. Luke Fewel, financial operations manager at Microsoft, commented on the preliminary tests of the blockchain platform:

„In this go-live, we successfully generated the first round of partner payments using blockchain and intelligent contract technology. This expanded solution will help optimize financial and operational processes with the ability to scale, reduce heavy manual overhead and enhance the experience for Microsoft’s gaming partners.“

The technology giant Microsoft is not new to adopting blockchain in its devices and services, adopting the technology in several of its products. At the end of October, Microsoft announced a partnership to accelerate Brazil’s integration into the digital economy.

The BTC falls below an important level to preserve the chances of further highs as volatility reappears in Monday’s trading.

Bitcoin corrects up to $22,400 after writing down weekend highsMARKET
Bitcoin (BTC) lost support of $23,000 on Dec. 21 as Monday’s talks brought an expected correction. The move comes at a time when futures in the US also fell in pre-market hours by about 2.5% due to concerns about the new variation in coronavirus in the UK.

BTC drops to US$ 22,400
Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView showed BTC/USD reaching lows of US$ 22,410 so far, with losses in 24 hours totaling about 3.3%.

BTC / USD hourly chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView
The move confirms the suspicion among analysts that Bitcoin should shrink after a week of almost constant gains. Traders now have their eye on $20,000, which the order book data represents a potentially strong support level.

At the beginning of last week, the largest cryptomeda was still below $19,500, a level that Michaël van de Poppe, an analyst at Cointelegraph Markets, believes can now form a short term target price.

The $22,800, he added in comments over the weekend, is a crucial area to maintain in order to preserve the prospects Bitcoin Pro of further appreciation.

Altcoins suffer
The main altcoin tokens saw a rapid indirect effect of the Bitcoin losses, with leader Ether (ETH) having a 6% dive a day.
Overview of the cryptomime market. Source: Coin360
Litecoin (LTC) drops 8.5% so far, while XRP loses 7.4% to reach US$

Petr Kozyakov of Mercuryo.io shares his thoughts on the recent surge in institutional interest in bitcoin.

The 2018 bear market disrupted the market, forcing many projects to leave the industry.

The growing institutional activity in the crypto arena is not exclusively accompanied by alternative investments.

Petr Kozyakov, co-founder and CBDO of the international cryptocurrency payment solution Mercuryo.io, shares his thoughts on the recent surge in institutional interest in bitcoin and its possible impacts on the digital asset market.

It’s official: 2020 is the year of institutional investments in crypto, especially Bitcoin. And for a valid reason.

Digital asset funds have seen record inflows in their products, while large corporations hold a significant portion of the Bitcoin (BTC) supply in circulation.

But what is behind this phenomenon and how will it affect the maturing crypto market?

Safe assets do not meet investors‘ expectations

Even in a pre-pandemic period, low-risk instruments in the general market generated disappointing returns for investors.

High-quality savings accounts and government bonds are examples of this, the latter currently producing a modest return of 0.86% for 10-year US Treasuries and 0.32% for UK Gilts. over 10 years.

In the worst-case scenario, high-quality bonds like German Bunds provide negative returns for investors, even with maturities of 10 or 20 years.

Even though a safe investment offers returns to investors, the gains are so small that they will be eaten away by inflation.

Institutional investors to replace gold with bitcoins

While individuals can “afford the luxury” of generating very low or negative returns, institutional investors must meet the return on investment expectations of their stakeholders.

That is why, when the general market is disrupted and safe assets are performing poorly, institutional investors should seek alternative investments to increase their returns.

Gold, a safe-haven asset that is widely believed to perform well in uncertain times, is one of those instruments that institutional investors have been turning to since March. However, gold’s bull run ended in August and the asset has been on the decline ever since.

On the other hand, Bitcoin has been steadily increasing since the March stock market crash. Currently trading above $ 19,500, the digital asset is very close to its all-time high of $ 20,000, which it only touched briefly before the devastating crypto winter of 2018.

On top of that, the total supply is capped at 21 million BTC, while also featuring a built-in mechanism called “halving” or “halving,” which halves the number of coins coming into circulation every four years. It’s about fighting inflation and ensuring a long-term increase in the value of the digital asset.

As a result, with year-to-date growth of over 160% and an almost always low level of volatility , Bitcoin has become an attractive safe-haven asset for institutional investors.

At the same time, recent reports from leading investment banks, such as Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan, confirm the same phenomenon, indicating a shift from gold to Bitcoin among institutional investors.

Peninsula Visa, ett företag som tillhandahåller pass- och visumtjänster i USA, säger att det nu accepterar betalningar i bitcoin.

• Peninsula sa på onsdagen att betalningarna kommer att behandlas via Coinbase Commerce, handlarens betalningsarm för kryptovalutabörsen.
• Inte alla tjänster ingår; För närvarande kan kunder använda bitcoin (BTC, -0,63%) för att finansiera passförnyelser, namnändringar och andra pass.
• Andra pass- och visumtjänster kommer att ingå i programmet under nästa år, sa företaget.
• „Aldrig tidigare har någon kunnat betala för ett amerikanskt pass med en digital valuta“, säger Evan James, chef för Peninsula Visa.
• Med koronaviruset som driver världen att bli alltmer digital, känns det som det rätta steget vid rätt tidpunkt att få in de nya betalningsalternativen nu, tillade han.