Author: The Global Blockchain

The Diem Association, the Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook)-led group behind the creation of a stablecoin, is considering the sale of the project’s assets to return money to investors, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources.

• The group has been speaking with investment bankers about selling Diem’s intellectual property and helping the developers of Diem technology find new places to work, Bloomberg reported, citing its sources.
• Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had high hopes for the cryptocurrency, defending the vision of the project before a Congressional hearing, but the initiative has had a rocky history since its unveiling in June 2019 as the Libra Association.
• In December 2020, the Libra Association rebranded as Diem to distance itself from its original goals.
• At the time, the project envisioned a stablecoin backed by a basket of fiat currencies, one that could be used worldwide as a means of exchange. It immediately prompted international regulatory backlash, with lawmakers demanding that all development cease until they could better understand it, provide some level of regulatory oversight and ensure there were no risks to financial stability.
• Last May, Diem said it would be partnering with Silvergate Bank to launch a U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin. Diem Networks US, a subsidiary of the association, woud run the Diem Payments Network and register as a money services business with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), while Silvergate would be the formal issuer of the Diem USD stablecoin. Silvergate would also manage the reserve backing the token.
• But the Federal Reserve expressed concerns about this plan and wouldn’t guarantee that it would give its approval.
• Last November, the creator of the Libra project, David Marcus announced that he was leaving Meta.

Read More: Libra Scales Back Global Currency Ambitions in Concession to Regulators

Source: Coin Desk

ARK Investment Management, the firm led by star manager Cathie Wood, predicts that bitcoin’s price could exceed $1 million by 2030 as the cryptocurrency’s global usage is still only in its early days.

“Bitcoin’s market capitalization still represents a fraction of global assets and is likely to scale as nation-states adopt [it] as legal tender,” wrote ARK analyst Yassine Elmandjra in the firm’s “Big Ideas 2022” outlook report, which was released on Tuesday.

ARK added in its bitcoin outlook that the cryptocurrency is taking market share as a global settlement network. According to ARK’s research, bitcoin’s cumulative transfer volume increased by 463% in 2021, and its annual settlement volume has surpassed Visa’s annual payments volume.

Technological advancements such as the Taproot upgrade and Lightning Network may also help bitcoin to scale. And institutional ownership of bitcoin will also broaden, according to ARK.

Last year, Wood herself predicted that bitcoin would reach $500,000 by 2026.

Read more: Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest Scoops Up 2.2M Falling Robinhood Shares

Source: Coin Desk

The New York Department of Financial Services officially has a new head.

The state Senate confirmed Adrienne Harris, a former federal official and professor, to run the Wall Street regulator on Tuesday. Harris has been serving as the acting Superintendent of NYDFS since her nomination in August 2021.

Harris was a special assistant to the Barack Obama White House on economic policy, as well as a senior advisor to then-Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Sarah Bloom Raskin, currently a nominee to be Vice Chair for Supervision at the Federal Reserve. She was also recently on the board of the Digital Dollar Foundation, an advocacy group launched by former Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Chris Giancarlo and former LabCFTC head Daniel Gorfine.

In a statement following her confirmation, Harris thanked New York Governor Kathy Hochul for her nomination and the Senate for confirming her.

“I am honored to serve as the Superintendent of the Department of Financial Services. As the first African American woman to lead DFS, I am personally committed to working with all stakeholders to build a robust, fair and sustainable financial system, creating a better economic future for all New Yorkers,” she said.

During a nomination hearing before the state Senate Finance Committee on Monday, Harris said she hoped to bolster the regulator’s BitLicense team to clear a backlog of applications for New York’s landmark virtual currency license.

“One of the things I have done is undertake a review of that unit and see what’s causing that backlog,” she said in response to a question from Senator Diane Savino.

Savino also asked if Harris supported a bill that would enable NYDFS to collect assessments from the virtual currency companies it regulates, noting that the entity is not funded by the state. Harris said she would.

“Cryptocurrency is here to stay but the risk of anti-money laundering, consumers, for cyber are incredibly high so we need real rigor,” Harris said.

Matt Homer, a former senior official at NYDFS and currently an executive-in-residence with Nyca Partners, told CoinDesk after the hearing that her responses during her hearing show “she’s superbly qualified to serve as Superintendent.”

“She has deep expertise that cuts across the financial services landscape and highly relevant prior experience from the Obama White House and Treasury Department, as well as the private sector,” he said.

Harris said she wants NYDFS to have more resources across the board to oversee crypto, fintech and financial services at large. Crypto in particular is continually evolving, she said.

“It is quickly evolving. Even though we’ve had the BitLicense since 2015, it didn’t account for things like stablecoins … there’s always more we can do,” Harris said.

UPDATE (Jan. 25, 2022, 22:07 UTC): Adds statement from Harris.

Source: Coin Desk

Florida’s Office of Financial Regulation (OFR) has issued a warning about decentralized finance (DeFi) based companies that offer lending, banking and investment services.

• The OFR is cautioning the public that before using any DeFi-based service, it is important to do the necessary due diligence and understand what DeFi is in order to avoid becoming the victim of a scam.
• The state regulatory body warns the DeFi investment market is still new, highly volatile and driven mostly by psychological factors rather than investment fundamentals.
• DeFi is one of the fastest-growing sectors of the crypto industry, with $92 billion worth of assets currently locked in peer-to-peer powered protocols – up 196% over the last year, as reported by CoinDesk.
• Scams, rug pulls, exploits and fatal code errors are among the biggest risks associated with using DeFi platforms.
• The OFR defines DeFi as financial services provided by an algorithm on a blockchain, without the involvement of a traditional financial services company.
• “Before getting involved with a company or product in the DeFi market, take reasonable steps to understand the risks of this emerging blockchain-based technology and market,” OFR Commissioner Russell Weigel said in a statement.

Read more: How to Stay Safe in DeFi: Red Flags and Risks You Need to Know

Source: Coin Desk

Crypto venture capital firm Dragonfly Capital Partners is raising $500 million for a new fund, according to a new regulatory filing.

The Dragonfly Ventures III Feeder fund has a $500 million target and hasn’t accepted its first investment yet. Dragonfly indicated that it doesn’t expect the offering to remain open for more than one year.

If the raise is a success, Dragonfly will be the latest high-value fund to emerge in recent months. Paradigm smashed records with a $2.5 billion fund announced in November. Andreessen Horowitz is reportedly doubling down on its already-prodigious crypto war chest with a $4.5 billion target for a pair of new funds.

That main difference with Dragonfly’s effort: The crypto market is currently a sea of red. Will it be enough to spook prospective investors?

Dragonfly had not replied to a CoinDesk email by the time of publication.

Read more: MakerDAO’s Rune Christensen Joins VC Firm Dragonfly Capital

Launched in 2018 with $100 million in assets under management (AUM), Dragonfly is an investment firm focusing on cryptocurrencies, new protocols and startups.

Dragonfly has raised over $300 million across two funds. The most recent was the Dragonfly Ventures Fund II, which launched in late 2020 with a target of raising $200 million.

The Dragonfly portfolio includes the Avalanche blockchain, crypto exchange Bybit and blockchain interoperability project Cosmos. The venture capital firm recently joined the $150 million funding round for the Near blockchain.

According to one partner’s LinkedIn profile, the firm now has over $2 billion in AUM.

Source: Coin Desk

This episode is sponsored by Nexo, Abra and FTX US.

Download this episode

Today on “The Breakdown,” NLW is joined by Ian Lee, co-founder at Syndicate. Syndicate helps groups tap into Web 3 tools to transform investing and capital allocation. Today Syndicate announced their Web3 Investment Clubs that effortlessly turn any Web 3 wallet into an investment DAO. In this conversation, they discuss:

• Ian’s background and how he got interested in DAOs
• Why the tooling for DAOs wasn’t ready in 2018
• Key 2021 milestones for DAOs
• How DAOs interact with the existing legal structure
• Why democratizing investing can transform the world
• What’s coming for DAOs in 2022

See also: YouTube to Embrace NFTs? Syndicate Launching Web 3 Investment Clubs to Mainstream DAOs

“The Breakdown” is written, produced by and features Nathaniel Whittemore aka NLW, with editing by Rob Mitchell, research by Scott Hill and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Adam B. Levine is our executive producer and our theme music is “Countdown” by Neon Beach. The music you heard today behind our sponsor is “Time” by OBOY. Image credit: lemono/iStock/Getty Images Plus, modified by CoinDesk. Join the discussion at discord.gg/VrKRrfKCz8.

Source: Coin Desk

Take off that McDonald’s hat, boyo, and return to the screen: Bitcoin is up 10%. Favorite altcoins of day traders ETH, LUNA and ATOM are also up and to the right. The trading lines are green, even if your total investment is in the red. This is not financial advice.

Today’s market bounce, which may or may not be of the dead cat variety, is just another data point in crypto’s historically volatile lifecycle. It’s this volatility that many investors are after when they enter the market, the same volatility that causes so much pain for unprepared, over-leveraged buyers.

This article is excerpted from The Node, CoinDesk’s daily roundup of the most pivotal stories in blockchain and crypto news. You can subscribe to get the full newsletter here.

Some will look at the past six weeks of crypto market spasms at wonder, “when should I buy in?” Crypto was once a $3 trillion asset class, and even ex-Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein said today this stuff is not going away. Others will declare, “I’m staying away forever, it’s irrational.”

There is likely a middle ground, a sound opinion to hold. I’m not an investment wiz, I’m a reporter who covers fake internet money, but I can say the only appropriate way to invest in crypto is to invest with conviction.

This seems obvious, but crypto’s structural attributes – tokens are unmediated, globally accessible 24/7 buying opportunities – make it so scams often appear to be the more attractive buys. If you could only time the market, you’ll be part of the pump rather than the dump.

So far, we’ve been talking around the idea of FOMO, the fear of missing out. When do you buy in? Should you, could you avoid FOMO forever? It’s the critical mechanism that drives so much of the modern economy – the admixture of desire inculcated by branding, speculation driven by envy and the human urge to have a good time.

There are a lot of hype machines in crypto, and a few projects that exist beyond the spectacle. Ponzinomics are baked into these techno-economic tools: the way to align incentives and attract the right kind of self-interested buyers to build communities. But cutting out the middleman and relying solely on behavioral economic mechanisms means just about all tokens are subject to hyper-capitalistic exploitation. Unfettered markets: a blessing and a curse.

Moreover, as an asset class, crypto lives and dies in almost heroic narrative arcs. When it goes down, it has a tendency to crash and burn. When it goes up, a gaggle of smart-money suits will write Twitter threads about how decentralized tech will disrupt everything from finance to vidya (games).

It’s hard to find the time to think critically about crypto-economics and product-market fit when commentators are so breathless, when the numbers are going gangbusters or driving into the dirt, but you must. You cannot time the markets, and you should know you’re often buying into an adverse environment where early adopters hold more than you could ever afford.

Be smart, read these:

• Buying Your First Crypto? 10 Things You Should Know
• Compounding and Saving in Bitcoin: The Power of a Dollar Cost Averaging
• 4 Things to Do in a Crypto Bear Market

Right now, from what I can piece together, the Federal Reserve, the U.S. central bank, is pulling the ultimate put on the entire economy. It seems like many retail crypto investors are still holding, but they also haven’t been accumulating for the past couple of months. Whales, those bitcoin holders with at least 1,000 coins, by and large rotated their wealth in stablecoins.

What do you do with that information? It is too much to handle, too much to make sense of, at least for me. I don’t want to throw money into crypto even if it seems like a discount, only for the market to tank, and potentially never recover. But my savings account is also moth-eaten by inflation.

Risk is either volatility’s close cousin or alter ego depending on how you look at it. The term “beta” captures both without assigning a value judgment. Saying crypto is a high-beta asset class threads the needle between its systemic hazards and insane price fluctuations. But buying crypto’s beta could be more than a speculative bet, if you have conviction.

Crypto is not an investment for everyone, and you should never, ever risk more than you can afford to lose. Promise me you won’t. But there are a few projects that I have the misfortune of actually believing in. No crypto will ever, or should ever, be central to the majority of economic activity, but it can present viable solutions to real problems.

Decentralization is a powerful force. Some cryptos could rise to that level and become something akin to modern-day public goods infrastructure, meaning they’re accessible to all and under the sway of influence to none. Investing in crypto, for the long haul, is investing in that idea – that’s its beta. But you don’t actually need to own anything to, one day, hopefully benefit.

Source: Coin Desk

The executive board of the International Monetary Fund recommended that El Salvador discontinue the use of bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender in in the country due to the financial risks and liabilities created.

• The recommendation came in a report issued on Tuesday following bilateral discussions with El Salvador about its economy. El Salvador has been in negotiations with the IMF for a $1.3 billion loan.
• IMF directors “stressed that there are large risks associated with the use of bitcoin on financial stability, financial integrity and consumer protection, as well as the associated fiscal contingent liabilities,” according to the report.
• Directors also “urged the authorities to narrow the scope of the Bitcoin Law by removing bitcoin’s legal tender status. Some directors also expressed concern over the risks associated with issuing bitcoin-backed bonds.”
• In November, IMF staff said bitcoin should not be used as legal tender in El Salvador and urged the Central American country to strengthen the regulation and supervision of its newly established crypto payment ecosystem.
• El Salvador adopted bitcoin as legal tender in September and its president, Nayib Bukele, has become a vocal proponent of the cryptocurrency.
• The country has been accumulating bitcoin and recently bought 410 more bitcoins, reaching more than 1,500 BTC held. El Salvador also plans to issue a $1 billion bitcoin bond this year that will be 10 years in duration and U.S.-dollar denominated.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Read more: El Salvador: Who Needs the IMF When You Have Bitcoin?

UPDATE (Jan. 25, 20:10 UTC): Added background in fourth bullet point.

UPDATE (Jan. 25, 20:35 UTC): Added El Salvador’s loan negotiations with the IMF and details about its bitcoin holdings and bond plans.

Source: Coin Desk