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Corporates are inquiring how to add bitcoin to their balance sheets on a regular basis, according to Darren Jordan, managing director of EMEA at BitGo.

Speaking at the Token 2049 conference in London on Thursday, Jordan said, “The dramatic change — and I have this conversation many times per week — is with corporates. And they are looking to allocate a small percentage of their balance sheet.”

“That has been the most significant change we’ve seen over the last 12 months,” he added.

Jordan said that this involves a lot of education, with corporates having to wrap their heads around liquidity, regulatory frameworks and whether they’re allowed to do so.

On the same panel, Genesis Trading CEO Michael Moro concurred with Jordan. Moro said that although the firm has worked with hedge funds since as early as 2015 and that family offices and similar businesses have entered the market since, this was one of the biggest changes over the last year.

Moro said that we have seen a “tremendous increase in corporations putting crypto on their balance sheet, and this wasn’t just U.S. tech firms, I think we saw involvement from firms in South America and South-East Asia again as kind of a diversification of their treasury portfolio play itself.”

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Quick Take

• Cardano is a proof-of-stake blockchain platform with a stated focus of bringing security and sustainability to decentralized financial applications and ecosystems. 
• The Cardano team is split across three independent Cardano-centric entities, including the Cardano Foundation, IOHK, and Emurgo.
• Cardano was funded by the ICO (initial coin offering) of its native ADA token, with a debuted market cap of $600 million which now exceeds $69 billion.
• Before the Alonzo hard fork, the Cardano Blockchain was limited in ability but now offers smart contract capabilities and support on its platform
• Users and developers can now deploy smart contracts on the Cardano Blockchain, which self execute upon meeting the contract’s predefined conditions, thereby gaining the ability to run dapps.

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Money transfer firm MoneyGram is partnering with the Stellar Development Foundation to enable crypto payouts in local currencies for users, according to a Wednesday announcement.

The partnership will see MoneyGram utilize Circle’s USDC to settle payments and convert payouts to a user’s local currency. MoneyGram’s network will be integrated with the Stellar blockchain to settle the USDC transactions, and United Texas Bank will act as the settlement bank between Circle and MoneyGram. 

Alex Holmes, MoneyGram Chairman and CEO, said the firm is especially bullish on stablecoins as a way to enable cross-border payment and settlement.

“As crypto and digital currencies rise in prominence, we’re especially optimistic about the potential of stablecoins as a method to streamline cross-border payments,” he said in today’s announcement.

Previously, MoneyGram had a partnership in place with distributed ledger company Ripple. However, it ended that partnership in March of this year as Ripple continued its battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over whether the XRP token constituted an unregistered security.

Despite stablecoins’ promise in cross-border payments, U.S. regulators are intent on taking another look at dollar-pegged tokens. Circle continues to face an investigation from the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, and SEC Chair Gary Gensler recently likened stablecoins “poker chips” in crypto’s Wild West “casinos.” Meanwhile, Acting Comptroller Michael Hsu has said he’s thinking of stablecoin issuers through the lens of the U.S.’s wildcat banking era.

The use of stablecoins is a continuation of MoneyGram’s exploration of crypto services. The firm began accepting bitcoin at its locations in May of this year after inking a partnership with crypto exchange Coinme.  

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Recent thinking at the Federal Reserve has positioned digital currencies as a possible challenge to the dollar’s dominance. 

In a paper published on October 6 and entitled “The International Role of the U.S. Dollar,” leaders of the Fed’s international finance department did not predict any dislodging of the U.S. dollar from its privileged position in the “foreseeable future.”

In the longer term, however, they saw a trio of potential challengers: The European Union, an ascendant China and digital currency.

Regarding digital currency, the Fed staffers wrote: “A shifting payments landscape could also pose a challenge to the U.S. dollar’s dominance. For example, the rapid growth of digital currencies, both private sector and official, could reduce reliance on the U.S. dollar.”

The Federal Reserve has seen increased political pressure to account for its work on crypto, particularly a central bank digital currency. The Fed itself has been hesitant to commit one way or the other to the issuance of a digital dollar, which current chair Jerome Powell maintains would require congressional approval anyway.

International competitors like China have, meanwhile, pushed ahead with digitized currencies, though the digital yuan is a far cry from crypto. 

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Bitcoin’s market capitalization has once again eclipsed $1 trillion. 

At the time of publication, Bitcoin was trading at $54,708, putting the market cap at approximately $1.03 trillion.

Bitcoin broke $50,000 for the first time in 100 days last month after a steep downturn to just below $30,000 in July. At that time, it was changing hands around $50,200, with market cap making its way towards the $1 trillion mark but never quite reaching it.

According to CoinMarketCap, it stalled at $989 billion on September 7 before the price took a downturn back to the mid-$40,000s. 

This is the first time since May of this year market capitalization has surpassed $1 trillion. The last time was May 10, 2021, when the market cap reached $1.06 trillion. In the early months of 2021, the Bitcoin market cap was regularly breaking the $1 trillion mark before May’s downturn.

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

A senior U.S. Department of Justice official said Wednesday that the department is forming a “National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team” focused on cybercrime and money laundering.

Unveiled during the Aspen Cyber Summit, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said that the goal of the initiative was to “protect consumers.”

“We want to strengthen our capacity to dismantle the financeable ecosystem that enables these criminal actors to flourish and to profit from what they’re doing,” Monaco remarked. Her statement at the Aspen event was live-streamed.

Her comments come just under a year after the DOJ published an “enforcement framework” focused on cryptocurrencies. Since then, the department has expanded its cryptocurrency efforts, focusing on money laundering and ransomware in particular. 

Monaco also said that the DOJ is launching an initiative focused on cyber fraud. 

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Stablecoins have emerged as major players in the crypto market this year, driven by user demand for flexible liquidity in fiat currency terms. These cryptocurrencies, whose market values are pegged to the worth of certain assets like the U.S. dollar, have also been important assets in the growth of decentralized finance (DeFi). There is $120 billion worth of stablecoins in circulation as of September 1, according to CoinMarketCap.

Amid the rise in demand for stablecoins, various segments of the crypto industry have brought up questions about the veracity of the 1:1 peg of major stablecoins to their backing assets, like the U.S. dollar and other fiat currencies. After all, if the issuers of stablecoins are not able to show that each unit of their tokens can be exchanged for the equivalent amount of the backing asset, there will be serious doubts about the credibility of these tokens, resulting in adverse market effects.

Therefore, when Binance launched BUSD with Paxos in 2019, utmost importance was put towards making sure that every unit of the stablecoin can be verifiably backed with U.S. dollars, therefore giving its users peace of mind and giving more credibility to a stablecoin industry beset by trust issues.

BUSD: A Case Study of Stablecoin Compliance and Safety

BUSD is a 1:1 U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), issued by Paxos, a regulated blockchain infrastructure platform. Since then, BUSD has emerged as the third-biggest stablecoin in the world, with a market cap now above $12 billion and a user base of about 1.1 million people.

As a result of  BUSD becoming the stablecoin of choice for millions of cryptocurrency users, we see a number of characteristics that show the merits of having a stablecoin that has prioritized user safety and compliance to regulatory and public standards.

1. Actual, Audited, and 100% Cash and Cash-Equivalent Reserves

As mentioned above, BUSD is one of few stablecoins in the world backed with actual cash. According to a current reserve report from Paxos, 100% of BUSD’s total market capitalization is backed by cash and cash equivalent reserves.

The issuance of Paxos provides a glimpse of the lengths that Binance has gone to ensure that BUSD is an above-board crypto-financial product. BUSD is one of the few stablecoins that provides monthly audited reports of reserves. Everyone can independently verify at specific points in time that the entire supply of BUSD tokens is consistent with USD in reserve accounts at U.S. banks held and managed by Paxos.

Ultimately, the audits and measures that are implemented to verify BUSD’s asset holdings solve one of the main concerns by regulators regarding the existence of actual reserves that back stablecoins.

2. Regulatory Trust and Insurance

With stringent measures such as the aforementioned monthly audits, BUSD adheres to the highest compliance standards, particularly by NYDFS, regarded as one of the most stringent when it comes to compliance requirements.

Why is having a regulator essential to the stablecoin business?

In August 2020, BUSD became “Greenlisted” by the NYDFS, making it pre-approved for custody and trading by any of the NYDFS’ virtual currency licensees.

Unlike most stablecoins that claim to be compliant, the BUSD business and its issuer Paxos are regulated by NYDFS, This means:

-The value of each stablecoin token is tied directly to the value of the US dollar, and the amount of “reserve” dollars equal or exceed the number of stablecoins outstanding.

-Regulators are overseeing the establishment and maintenance of reserves backing the stablecoins.

-Reserves may only be held in the safest forms, such as FDIC-insured bank accounts and in short-term maturity US Treasury instruments.

-Reserves are fully segregated from corporate assets, specifically for the benefit of token holders, and are held bankruptcy remote pursuant to the New York Banking Law.

Regulatory oversight is important because it assures stablecoin users that the dollars underlying their stablecoins are secure and will be immediately available when they want them. The NYDFS ensures the Trust companies, like Paxos, and their individual tokens are following its strict rules at all times.

3. Growing Use Cases

In less than two years since its debut, BUSD has become one of the fastest-growing cryptocurrencies while featuring a variety of utilities, from trading to lending and payments.

Stablecoins like BUSD play a critical role in the world of decentralization and in providing a solid foundation for the continued growth of DeFi (decentralized finance). BUSD is widely used in Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and Ethereum when it comes to trading, lending, and other scenarios. According to the BSC Project, there are currently more than 400 decentralized applications that support BUSD. On April 21, 2021, the single-day transfer amount of BUSD reached a peak of $261 billion, across 737,000 transactions on BSC.

The combination of ample regulatory compliance, trading volumes, and user interest in BUSD presents a case where private-driven financial innovation via blockchain technology can be pursued while staying compliant with user protection mandates stipulated by the world’s top regulators.

Why Strive for Compliance?

The rise in stablecoins has sparked discussions by regulators regarding the challenges they potentially pose to money markets. Making sure that each unit of a stablecoin can be exchanged for an equivalent unit of its backing asset is a matter of public interest, because deficiencies related to that characteristic can lead to general mistrust in the crypto markets. In the long term, the overall cryptocurrency industry suffers if these concerns aren’t addressed.

With BUSD’s emphasis on compliance, we can safeguard the trust of both users and regulators in stablecoins, while opening opportunities for the private and public sectors to cooperate in establishing stablecoins as an important asset class in the global economy. When more stakeholders show acceptance to stablecoins, particularly trusted ones like BUSD, more avenues for growth opportunities open up.

Ultimately, it takes global cooperation to realize crypto mass adoption, and therefore a better global financial framework. At Binance, we believe in facilitating this in a healthy way, through proactively collaborating with local regulators and leading the industry to a common destination: to benefit and protect users. In a recent virtual press conference, Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said, “Our view is that it’s great for the regulators to be coming in… to get to 10%, 20%, 80%, 99% [crypto] adoption.”

Therefore, it is important for us to maintain BUSD’s status as one of the world’s safest and most compliant stablecoins, for the sake of long-term progress in the industry.

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© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

On October 6, the office of Volodymyr Zelensky, president of Ukraine, returned to Parliament a bill that would establish a comprehensive regulatory regime for digital assets.

The primary issue that the president’s office had was the establishment of a new regulatory body for crypto, which would be expensive:

“The creation of a new body, as provided by this law, will require significant expenditures from the state budget. Therefore, Volodymyr Zelensky proposes to include the regulation of the circulation of virtual assets in the competence of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission.”

The National Securities and Stock Market Commission is Ukraine’s equivalent of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission but is itself fairly underfunded. As of 2019, the most recent year of published data, the commission’s budget was just over 135 million hryvnya — at current exchange rates, roughly $5 million USD.  

The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliamentary body, had approved its version of the bill on September 8. The country has been working on a formal regime to legalize cryptocurrencies for years at this point. 

Despite that legislative uncertainty, crypto holds a notable position in Ukraine. The push to become a hotbed for crypto is a means to overcome stagnant investment, both foreign and domestic, into Ukrainian firms. However the country’s history with corruption and capital flight — most recently exemplified by appearances of Zelensky and his inner circle the Pandora Papers’ exposé of offshore vehicles — could undermine faith in the country’s crypto initiatives. 

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

The Dubai-based crypto exchange BitOasis has closed a $30 million funding round.

The Series B round was co-led by Jump Capital and Wamda, according to a Wednesday morning announcement. A mix of new and old investors also participated, including newcomers Alameda Research and existing stakeholders Digital Currency Group, NXMH and Pantera Capital.

“This new capital is going to equip us with the resources we need to expand our regional presence while ensuring high standards of regulatory compliance. We work proactively with regulators across the region and will acquire licenses where available,” Ola Doudin, BitOasis’ CEO and co-founder, said in a statement.

Peter Johnson, a partner at Jump, said in a statement: “We are thrilled to be backing BitOasis as they continue to scale the leading crypto platform in the Middle East.”  

BitOasis is one of a number of firms operating in Dubai’s crypto sector. At the beginning of the year, Dubai’s financial services regulator said that it would develop a regulatory framework for the industry.

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Strips Finance, a decentralized finance (DeFi) project, has raised $8.5 million in a private token sale round.

Multicoin Capital led the round, with Sequoia Capital, Fabric Ventures, and Morningstar Capital also participating. The fresh capital injection comes in three months after the project raised $2.5 million in a private token sale round in June, bringing its total funding to date to $11 million.

Strips Finance is working on launching a decentralized exchange to trade interest rates through a derivatives instrument called interest rate swaps. Interest rate swaps allow participants to swap variable interest rates for fixed interest rates.

“Because swaps require little capital up front, they give traders a way to speculate on movements in interest rates without tying up capital,” Ming Wu, founder of Strips Finance, told The Block. “Traders simply select the interest rate they would like to trade and place a trade to go long or short.”

The Strips exchange is being built on the Ethereum scaling solution Arbitrum, which uses optimistic rollups technology. The exchange is expected to launch next month.

Strips Finance says it is using a virtual automated market maker (vAMM) model instead of a standard AMM for its platform. A standard AMM-based exchange has two types of users: liquidity providers who provide tokens and traders who swap available tokens. In a vAMM model, liquidity providers are not required, said Wu, adding that users can trade based on collateral stored in a smart contract vault.

“A major innovation that we have developed internally is the ability to stake LP [liquidity provider] tokens as collateral for a derivatives AMM,” said Wu.

The project is also launching its native STRP token next week. Wu said users will have to provide “Sushiswap STRP-USDC LP tokens” in order to participate on the platform.

There are currently ten people working for Strips Finance, and Wu is planning to take the headcount to 20-30 in the near future to launch additional fixed-income products, he said.

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.