Company Mastercard says its network will get a “level of programmability” similar to famous crypto-assets

Company Mastercard will begin pilot testing the Multi-Token Network (MTN) with tokenized bank deposits. The first trials will take place in the UK with a number of banks and financial institutions.

Selected banks and financial institutions will be given access to the MTN functionality to develop possible use cases for tokenized deposits.

Raj Damodaran, head of cryptocurrency and blockchain at Mastercard, expects That in the future the initiative will also extend to regulated Stablecoins and CBDC digital national currencies.

“Today, the catalyst for the movement of the global economy is regulated money in banks. We are starting to create tokenized bank deposits. The unit of money in the bank account acts as a digital asset in the blockchain, providing the same level of programmability as digital currencies in the crypto-ecosystem,” he explained in a comment for Coindesk.

In October 2022, Mastercard announced plans to become an intermediary for traditional financial institutions to trade cryptocurrencies. A Crypto Secure tool was also announced. And which will help banks to identify and prevent fraudulent transactions going through crypto exchanges.

Our experts note that earlier it became known that after September 25. The company Paysafe Payment Solutions will stop supporting payment services in euros for the cryptocurrency exchange Binance. Users of the largest cryptocurrency will have to update bank details. And possibly agree to the new terms and conditions to continue using SEPA services.

Miners had similar trends at the peak of the market in late 2021. And when cryptocurrency prices reached historic highs

Bitcoin miners are sending record high amounts of cryptocurrency to exchanges, according to analytics platform Glassnode. In the last week alone, they sent a record $128 million in cryptocurrency to exchanges. This is more than 4 times the amount of their daily income, the representatives noted.

Our experts note that during the bull period in the crypto market in 2021. And there were also several similar bursts of large transfers of miners’ income to exchanges, as they were fixing profits. Also amid the late 2022 crypto market crash, miners were sending large amounts of their Bitcoin earnings to exchanges.

Typically, when miners send their Bitcoin mining profits to exchanges. They do so in preparation to cash out in cryptocurrency to cover costs and lock in profits. Last week, Bitcoin reached its highest price of the year. And in doing so, reaching the $31185 mark on June 24. However, the sales of miners have not yet reflected on the rate of BTC.

Despite Bitcoin’s price growth of more than 80% this year, miners are still facing difficulties. Since July 2022, the profitability of bitcoin mining has fallen by more than 30%. And since the peak of the bull market in 2021, more than 80%. Rising hash rates and record increases in the complexity of mining, as well as rising electricity prices, suggest that selling mined Bitcoins may be a necessity to cover costs.

Our experts tell us what we need to know about the new EDX exchange for institutional investors with support from Fidelity and Charles Schwab

A new crypto exchange, EDX, started operating in the U.S. It is backed by such well-known players in the market of traditional finance as Citadel Securities, Fidelity and Charles Schwab. This development could change the digital asset landscape amid increased U.S. attention to the sector.

According to the press release, EDX was launched to “meet the needs of the world’s largest and most advanced financial institutions.” And many of which are still interested in cryptocurrencies. But they are skeptical of existing platforms, also because of the regulatory uncertainty they now find themselves in. The launch of the site coincided with a surge in Bitcoin. It was just after news of an application for a Bitcoin ETF by BlackRock.

The EDX Markets exchange for institutional investors only was first announced in September 2022. In addition to Bitcoin, the exchange allows trading in three other cryptocurrencies – Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). None of them were equated with securities in the sensational lawsuits from the SEC against major cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and Coinbase.

Unlike existing crypto platforms, EDX offers a so-called non-custodial model. And that means it won’t store customers’ digital assets during trading. Instead, EDX works with a third-party custodian. According to EDX Markets CEO Jamil Nazarali, the expectation of regulators. That crypto exchanges should be separated from broker-dealer functions, similar to the structure of traditional financial markets, will create opportunities for EDX.

Major Investors

The first capital to develop the exchange came from venture capital firms Paradigm, Sequoia Capital and Virtu Financial. By the time of launch, EDX had raised additional funding from new investors, including Miami International Holdings, GTS, GSR Markets and HRT Technology. At the end of the year, the company plans to launch its own EDX Clearing service for trades on the exchange.

The Sequoia portfolio also includes other major cryptoservices. The company has invested, for example, in projects such as Filecoiln and LayerZero. Paradigm focuses exclusively on the crypto market and has supported dozens of blockchain startups, including Uniswap, OpenSea, Synthetix, Starkware, Phantom, Optimism, dYdX, Blur and others.

The traditional market enters the cryptocurrency market

EDX customers will still be able to trade the four cryptocurrencies almost around the clock. But the site will share the functions of broker, dealer and exchange.

Many potential crypto investors are still interested in this area. But they are wary of the inherent volatility of the crypto market. Taking the example of the traditional stock market. And now EDX wants to attract these risk-averse customers. The exchange is aimed primarily at large investors. As well as those investors who are put off by the regulatory uncertainty and instability of the crypto industry.

Instead of retail investors trading cryptocurrencies directly through the EDX platform. And as is the case with other exchanges, they will interact with intermediaries. A similar approach is taken, for example, in stock trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The reliability of such intermediaries is also an argument for potential clients.

“There’s no way someone trading through a reliable intermediary will lose a hard drive with $200 million worth of cryptocurrency keys and then spend years looking for it in a landfill,” says Jamila Nazarali, CEO of EDX Markets. And recalling that such cases did occur.

Our experts point out that the site will also provide clients with access to more favorable prices through transactions with special quotes for retail-only quotes. Because institutional traders often buy the asset in large quantities. Their transactions often lead to an increase in the price of such an asset, which leads to losses for market makers. To minimize this, the platforms can set inflated commissions. And which will be strongly felt for retail traders who trade in much smaller volumes. By isolating retail trading, EDX can offer clients better prices for small trades.

Deutsche Bank plans to increase fee income through new services and product offerings related to digital assets

Deutsche Bank has applied to the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) for a license to provide digital asset custody services, Bloomberg writes.

“We are growing our digital asset and custody business. We just applied to Bafin for a digital asset license,” David Lynn, Deutsche Bank’s head of corporate banking, said at a conference June 20.

The move is part of the bank’s strategy to boost fee income, Lynn said. It also reflects the efforts of Deutsche Bank’s investment arm, DWS Group. On increasing revenue from cryptocurrency-related products.

Our experts point out that Deutsche Bank can hardly be called a cryptocurrency-friendly bank. However, its customers could buy cryptocurrencies using their bank accounts or cards from appropriately licensed European cryptocurrency companies.

The bank itself did not provide cryptocurrency services due to the lack of legislation. And companies offering crypto services in Germany opened accounts with other organizations (such as Solaris Bank) for their activities.

The cryptocurrency storage service launched by Deutche Bank is the easiest in terms of IT and regulation. This is made possible by the adoption of Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulations. Which opens the door for many financial institutions in the EU to provide crypto services.

Also the Council of Europe announced the adoption of new legal rules for the digital asset industry in the EU MiCA in mid-May. The rules oblige cryptoplatforms, such as exchanges and custodians (asset custodians), to be mandatorily registered in one of the bloc’s member countries.

A virus software that attacks dozens of crypto-applications, called Mystic Stealer, has spread on the web.

Mystic Stealer is a virus program. It costs $150 per month and targets 21 cryptocurrency applications. As well as 40 browsers, more than 50 cryptocurrency browser extensions and many other services and plugins.

Reports on Mystic Stealer, published almost simultaneously by cybersecurity companies InQuest, Zscaler and Cyfirma, warn of the spread of the new malware and its effectiveness.

The program is rapidly gaining popularity in the cybercriminal community and is increasingly being used in attacks, the experts warned.

Mystic Stealer released version 1.0 in April but had already been updated to version 1.2 by the end of May. The vendor advertised the new software on various hacker forums. While offering it on a subscription basis of $150 per month or $390 per quarter. The project also has a telegram channel where development news, software features and other topics are discussed.

When launched for the first time, Mystic collects information about the operating system and sends data to the attacker’s server. Then it already performs its specific tasks of looking for data stored in browsers (cookies) and applications.

The full list of services that the program hacks is given in the Zscaler and InQuest report. They include Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Opera browsers. As well as browser-based cryptocurrency wallets TronLink, BinanceChain, Coinbase Wallet, MetaMask and many others.

The Cyfirma report states that industry “veterans” have tested the effectiveness of the virus program and confirmed that the program has become a powerful tool for stealing information.

Our experts also note that Mystic’s developer banned the program’s use in CIS countries and added an exception for those regions to its code.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is creating a new class of platforms for cross-border and domestic payments in central banks’ digital currencies

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has begun developing an infrastructure for international central bank digital currency settlements (CBDC). A report released by the fund on June 19 said. That the new class of platforms is designed to ensure interoperability. As well as the efficiency and security of cross-border payments.

“Today’s new technologies allow the public sector to update cross-border payments infrastructure, and possibly domestic payments as well. <…> It’s about technology, but also about governance, which sets the “rules of the game”. This was stated by Tobias Adrian, head of the IMF Monetary System Department and one of the authors of the report, speaking at the IMF roundtable in Morocco before the publication of the document.

Trans-border payments are more complicated than domestic ones. Because they involve an exchange of value between parties located in different jurisdictions. And also subject to different laws, Adrian said. According to him, limited infrastructure makes international settlements expensive, slow and non-transparent. And the management of the existing system is “sporadic. And that leads to significant legal and operational costs.

According to the report, the IMF work on a new class of platforms is being done to speed things up. And also to make remittances between countries easier and cheaper. Experts are developing two types of platforms: for international settlements in CBDC and for domestic ones.

Trans-border settlements in tokens representing the reserves of member countries’ central banks will be provided by platforms called XC, according to an IMF report. They “create representations” of existing assets – reserves held by central banks, the authors explain.

Our experts note that another solution – CBDC platforms – is being developed to facilitate domestic payments in digital national currencies, both wholesale and retail. The report’s author emphasizes that such platforms will be supported by a strong regulatory framework.

Our experts tell how the launch of ETF on Bitcoin by investment giant BlackRock with $9 trillion in assets may affect the global crypto market

One of the world’s largest investment firms, BlackRock, is about to launch an exchange traded fund (ETF) for bitcoin. This is an important step for the market due to BlackRock’s reach. And also because the fund will allow investors to buy Bitcoin as ETF shares from a regular brokerage account.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company asked for permission to sell the currency through a mechanism called the iShares Bitcoin Trust. It will be a spot fund. That is, buying its shares would involve actually buying coins on the market. It will also make it easier for institutional investors, including pension funds, to own cryptocurrency. As of the end of March, BlackRock had more than $9 trillion under management.

Bitcoin Trust and Spot Bitcoin ETF are products that track the real price of Bitcoin. Their point is to give investors access to BTC through a regulated and familiar product. While not actually owning Bitcoin.

Futures-based exchange-traded funds differ from spot funds in that they offer investors access to futures contracts rather than to an asset.

When you buy units of a spot fund, unlike futures products, there is an actual purchase of Bitcoin in the market. If big players show interest in such a product, it may have an impact on the price of the asset.

The document states that the price of the asset on the spot market will be formed based on data from the Nasdaq exchange. This is also potentially critical, as the SEC has so far refused to allow Bitcoin ETFs. In doing so, citing fears of market manipulation. The storage of the underlying Bitcoin as a custodian will be handled by Coinbase, the second largest cryptocurrency exchange. Despite the SEC’s sensational lawsuit against the exchange, the regulator’s charges have nothing to do with its bitcoin storage service Coinbase Custody.

There is still no easy and legal way to invest in Bitcoin in the form of traditional stocks

And it is considered an obstacle for large financial institutions, which by law have restrictions on what assets they can hold on behalf of clients. The best-known solution for buying Bitcoin in the form of stocks is now provided by Grayscale Bitcoin Trust. However, shares of this fund are not allowed to be traded on first-tier stock exchanges. But Grayscale does charge a management fee of about 2% per year. While traditional ETFs have a 0.5% fee.

BlackRock isn’t the first to try to launch a bitcoin spot ETF, the first attempts were made back in 2014 by the Winklevoss twin brothers. Grayscale and a number of funds also asked for permission, but were turned down by the SEC. In all, there have been more than 30 attempts to create a spot exchange-traded fund for bitcoin. But all applications have faced regulatory opposition, citing market problems and a lack of investor protection.

Grayscale is suing the SEC over the rejection, and a decision in the case is due to be released as early as this year. Last year, the SEC approved a cryptocurrency ETF, but only for futures markets. It’s a much more complex and expensive product for investors. After the news about BlackRock, rumors started to appear on social media. That its own Bitcoin ETF could be announced by Fidelity, probably through the purchase of Grayscale.

Attitude of BlackRock towards BTC has been changing and there have been many attempts to open ETF funds

Attitudes of BlackRock towards BTC have been changing. Back in 2017, the head of the company Larry Fink called Bitcoin an “index of money laundering. But a year later, he allowed the launch of ETFs on the condition that cryptocurrencies are legalized. Later in 2021, he said Bitcoin could become a means of saving capital. At the same time, the company bought shares in major publicly traded mining companies. And on behalf of clients, it conducted several trades in cryptocurrency futures on the CME exchange.

In 2022, BlackRock began managing about $24.7 billion in reserve funds for Circle, the issuer of the second most capitalized USD Coin Stablecoin (USDC). The company also announced a partnership with Coinbase. In order to provide institutional investors with access to the cryptocurrency through one of its subsidiary services. At the same time, BlackRock announced the creation of a closed bitcoin trust for institutional investors. However, this story did not develop. The announcement page was removed from the company’s website, but is available to view in the online archive.

In March, the SEC rejected VanEck’s application for a spot Bitcoin ETF for the third time. In January, the regulator rejected cryptocurrency exchange traded fund issuer 21Shares for the second time. As well as investment company ARK Investment Management to create a similar fund.

What will be the impact on the price of ETF on Bitcoin

Last August, the head of ARK, Kathy Wood, suggested in a video for clients that the entry of large investment companies into the cryptosphere could significantly boost Bitcoin. Companies that want to invest in cryptocurrencies typically allocate about 2.5 percent of their portfolio to them, she said. In the case of BlackRock, this amount could be about $1 trillion, which, she estimates, could lead to at least a two-fold increase in the price of BTC.

Our experts say that taking into account the fact that there are only about 3 million really liquid Bitcoins in the market. Then, given the demand for $ 1 trillion, this rate increase is not the limit. Also Kathy Wood is known for repeated purchases of Coinbase (COIN) shares for millions of dollars. And probably bets on their growth, including due to the partnership of the exchange with BlackRock in the case of approval of the ETF.

The head of Binance said that the cryptocurrency exchange will donate $50,000 to support ZachXBT, a famous “detective” in the blockchain community

A famous crypto detective nicknamed ZachXBT collected more than $1 million from subscribers in two days to cover legal expenses. On the evening of June 16, he announced that he had been sued for defamation. And published an address for donations for his legal expenses.

ZachXBT wrote on Twitter that he was being sued by Jeffrey Huang, also known as Machi Big Brother. The plaintiff claims that the crypto detective slandered him in a 2022 article. When the detective claimed that Huang stole 22,000 ETH from the cryptoproject Formosa Financial.

Both contributors are well-known opinion leaders in the English-language cryptocurrency community. ZachXBT has released dozens of investigations into major manipulations by cryptoprojects or Influencers. Who have been seen promoting fraudulent assets. Some of his revelations have formed the basis of law enforcement investigations. And which have led to arrests or fines for proven fraud.

Jeffrey Huang is an NFT Influencer known for multi-million dollar deals to buy images from popular collections. Also according to an investigation from a detective, Huang made a fortune from advertising fraudulent crypto projects. Huang demanded that ZachXBT retract the material and remove it. ZachXBT claimed that “the claim is unfounded and an attempt at censorship, and he intends to fight for freedom of speech.”

ZachXBT compared the case to the story of David and Goliath.

While pointing out that Huang is rich and “uses his capital to silence ZachXBT.” ZachXBT wrote that he himself is not so rich. And asked subscribers to help cover his legal fees, which he said could exceed $1 million.

Also he published an address for donations. On the evening of June 16, it had about $57,000 in cryptocurrency, according to The Block. As of June 19, the amount of cryptocurrency funds sent to the cryptocurrency address over the weekend exceeded $1 million. He began withdrawing them to the Uniswap exchange.

Changpeng Zhao, head of Binance, decided to support ZachXBT and wrote that the cryptocurrency exchange would send him $50,000. Following Zhao in the comments, various cryptoprojects started tagging him, reporting their donations and wishing him good luck. Our experts note that no one should stand aside and should support ZachXBT. As he is doing a very important job that not everyone can do and now at a difficult time the crypto community should give their support.

Amid negative news for the crypto market, decentralized trading platforms are seeing large sales of the leading “stablecoin” USDT from Tether

The largest by market capitalization, Tether’s USDT stablecoin has come under pressure. The coin, which is nominally pegged to the U.S. dollar, temporarily lost parity with it.

The leading stablecoin fell slightly below $1. This came after the Curve decentralized platform’s 3Pool liquidity pool suffered a major asset imbalance. 3Pool is the third largest trading pool of all existing decentralized exchange (DEX) trading platforms (DeFi). And the largest in terms of the amount of stablecoins in it USDT and DAI. At the time of publication, USDT is at $0.999, according to CoinMarketCap.

Curve and Uniswap are the largest decentralized financial protocols for exchanging and trading cryptoassets. Which operate on the basis of software-based smart contracts without a central intermediary (e.g., an exchange).

A liquidity pool is a smart contract containing locked tokens that have been provided by platform users. And acting as an automated market maker on a decentralized exchange

Against the background of the latest news about tough actions of American regulators in relation to major market players, the panic among market participants is quite understandable.

However, the loss of USDT parity with the dollar is caused more by the actions of specific individuals in the liquidity pools of DeFi-platforms.
Our experts note that this happens not for the first time. And earlier it turned out to be a provocation [of market participants] in order to make quick money on opening the necessary position. And manipulations in DeFi were the starting shot.

As Ardoino wrote in a commentary to The Block, “The market as a whole is very tight right now.” He said recent news is pushing big players to exit the cryptocurrency markets. “Tether is a gateway for liquidity, both inbound and outbound. When interest in cryptocurrencies rises, we see an influx. And when the mood in the cryptocurrency market is negative, we see an outflow. But we can’t rule out a direct attack on Tether, as we saw in 2022,” adds Ardoino.

Our experts have analyzed the cryptocurrency market and named profitable assets for long term investments

Neither the stock market, much less the cryptocurrency market, can grow when liquidity is withdrawn from the system. As of this week, the U.S. Treasury Department has begun to withdraw liquidity. And the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) continues to clear the balance sheet as part of QT (quantitative tapering).

When the U.S. Treasury Department raises the public debt ceiling. Then the government can borrow more money in the financial markets to cover its spending. As a result, the volume of government bonds increases. And other debt instruments issued by the Treasury Department.

The U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) clears its balance sheet by conducting open market operations. This means. That the Fed sells financial assets, mostly government bonds and mortgage-backed securities.

It turns out that liquidity in the markets is decreasing. And that means assets like stocks and cryptocurrencies simply have nothing to grow on. Add to this the negative news related to the SEC’s fight against cryptocurrencies. And also answer yourself the question after that: “What should the crypto market grow with right now?”

So the best thing a crypto investor can do is to buy Stablecoins and wait for more interesting entry points into the market. It is equally important to keep a close eye on the further actions of the Fed and the U.S. Treasury.

Additional idea of long-term investments

All of the above provides excellent opportunities for long-term purchases of time-honored assets such as Dash (DASH).

Dash is a decentralized payment system with support for private and fast transactions. Dash is a modified fork of Bitcoin. And it uses both mining and stacking to issue new coins.

Unlike popular “memcoins” and outright scam tokens. Dash cryptocurrency has been around since 2014. And its developers have never been caught in any suspicious activity. And unlike the vast majority of coins on the market. Dash, judging by its metrics, has a real decentralized management. For example, only 15% of existing tokens are held by the top 100 holders. But the main reason to buy this coin is revealed by technical analysis (chart).

chart

The coin broke through a historically strong support block order. And that has kept the price from falling lower for more than five years.

Order block in trading is a grouped set of buy or sell orders in a certain price range. That is, it is an area where a large proportion of market participants are interested in buying or selling an asset.

A great amount of liquidity has accumulated under this support and the price has followed it. The whole fall occurs at a very low volume and oversold indicators.

Our experts say that the price is likely to wiggle below this support zone for a couple of months. In order to shake out all the long-term holders of the coin. And then it will break through the long term downtrend (green line) and the price maximum of 2021. Therefore, this coin is worth buying into your portfolio and forgetting for a couple of years.

Disclaimer:

Crypto-Upvotes does not provide investment advice. This material is for information purposes only. Cryptocurrency is a volatile asset that can lead to financial losses.