Autor Cointelegraph By Tom Mitchelhill

BlackRock launches blockchain industry ETF, names crypto as 1 of 3 big opportunities

BlackRock launches blockchain industry ETF, names crypto as 1 of 3 big opportunities

Uverejnil používateľ | apr 28, 2022 |

BlackRock has officially launched a blockchain focused ETF, that provides investors with exposure to the crypto and blockchain industry without needing to directly own digital assets. On Wednesday, the world’s largest asset manager, which currently manages approximately $10 trillion in assets, added the Blockchain and Tech ETF (IBLC) to its iShares product line. The $4.7 million ETF does not directly own cryptocurrencies or digital assets themselves, but instead tracks an array of international companies that are involved in the industry. The ETF is comprised of 41 separate holdings, with the largest single holding being US-based crypto exchange Coinbase making up 11.45% of the fund. This is closely followed by large Bitcoin miners Marathon Digital Holdings (11.19%) and Riot Blockchain Inc. which accounts for 10.41% of the total holdings.Showing readiness for future acquisitions, the ETF currently sports a healthy 9.15% US dollar cash position. Alongside the release of the new ETF, BlackRock published a report that outlined three main areas of the market that are currently undergoing permanent changes. The paper details just how bullish BlackRock is on the crypto industry, stating that while most of the attention directed towards digital assets focuses on the price and volatility, the actual value of blockchain is yet to be fully realised. “We believe the broader opportunity — leveraging blockchain technology for payments, contracts and consumption broadly — has not yet been priced in.”The paper also brings attention to the adoption of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), noting that 87 countries are currently in the process of exploring the technology.Related: BlackRock joins stablecoin issuer Circle’s $400M funding roundCrypto ETFs are growing in popularity among institutional investors as a way of gaining exposure to the cryptocurrency industry. Discussions concerning a spot Bitcoin ETF have been re-ignited after a recent Nasdaq survey revealed that 72% of the 500 financial advisors interviewed would be more likely to invest client funds in a spot fund over a futures-based one.

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Meta’s Reality Labs posts $2.9B loss: 'I recognize it’s expensive' says Zuck

Meta’s Reality Labs posts $2.9B loss: 'I recognize it’s expensive' says Zuck

Uverejnil používateľ | apr 28, 2022 |

Meta Platforms Inc., formerly known as Facebook Inc., posted its Q1 2022 earnings on Wednesday, with its Metaverse-focused Reality Labs division posting increased losses.The Reality Labs division — formerly known as Facebook’s Oculus division — has been spending increasing sums of capital on developing virtual reality and metaverse-related products, posting a $2.9 billion loss for Q1 2022. That’s 61% more than its $1.8 billion loss in Q1 2021. Overall Reality Labs revenue came in above expectations, seeing $695 million in revenue during the first quarter of this year from the sales of things like VR headsets and Meta Portal hardware.In a Wednesday earnings call, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said losses in this division are to be expected, owing to the fact that Reality Labs is still largely focused on research and development for a series of software and hardware products such as Project Cambria. “I recognize it’s expensive to build this, it’s something that’s never been built before. And it’s a new paradigm for computing and social connection,” said Zuckerberg. “We expect to be meaningfully better at monetization than others in the space, and we expect that should become a sustainable advantage for our platforms as they develop.”In financial reports from earlier this year, Reality Labs posted an approximate $10 billion loss throughout 2021, with roughly $4 billion of those losses owing to employee costs and research and development. Overall, the company’s total revenue for Q1 2022 is $27.9 billion up 6.9% from $26.1 billion in the first quarter of last year. Meta’s quarterly report was well received by the market, with Meta’s stock price up 18% in after hours trading at the time of writing.Continuing the growth trend, Meta’s overall employee count surged by 28% year-over-year, with 77,805 employees as of March 31. Related: Meta will open physical metaverse-themed store in San Francisco Bay AreaIn February, Meta suffered the largest daily crash in stock market history as $251 billion was wiped from the company’s market cap. The crash came in the wake of the number of daily active users dropping by roughly 1 million.

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EU officials considered Bitcoin trading ban to enforce proposed mining ban

EU officials considered Bitcoin trading ban to enforce proposed mining ban

Uverejnil používateľ | apr 22, 2022 |

European Union (EU) officials discussed banning Bitcoin trading during a debate on a proposal to ban Proof of Work mining according to documents obtained through a freedom of information request. According to a report, published by German digital culture organization Netzpolitik, officials from the EU went as far as suggesting that an all out ban on trading Bitcoin (BTC) should be enforced in order to curb its overall energy consumption. The most worrying comments from the crypto community’s perspective came from a document that detailed the minutes from an EU meeting with Sweden’s financial supervisor and an environmental protection agency in which officials suggested that regulators pressure the Bitcoin community to switch to a Proof of Stake (PoS) mechanism, instead of its current energy-intensive Proof of Work (PoW) mechanism. A unidentified official in the discussion said:“Ethereum started moving [to PoS] because of its community…if Ethereum is able to shift, we could legitimately request the same from BTC. We need to ‘protect’ other crypto coins that are sustainable. We don’t see [the] need to ‘protect’ the Bitcoin community.”Another unnamed speaker suggested that the EU could reasonably place a blanket ban on trading any crypto assets that used a PoW algorithm. The answer to this question was redacted in the document to protect the “ongoing decision-making process,” but it brings attention to the fact that the EU was seriously considering such dramatic regulation.When discussing the potential effect of an outright Bitcoin ban on investors and retail traders the officials were largely unconcerned, claiming that all Bitcoin investors are fully aware of downside risk.“Participants in BTC are fully aware of the volatility of the currency/investment risk. [We] do not need additional protection measures.”This report comes as Bitcoin’s energy usage continues to draw attention from environmental organizations and regulators. According to the University of Cambridge’s Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, Bitcoin mining currently consumes roughly 139 terawatt hours (Twh) of electricity every year. For comparison, the entire UK only used an estimated 265 Twh in 2021, according to Statista.At the end of March, Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen teamed up with Greenpeace to pressure Bitcoin to change its consensus mechanism to PoS, much like Ethereum intends to do later this year. The EU’s Economic and Monetary Affairs committee recently voted against legislation calling for a ban on Proof-of-Work mining. However, these documents do provide unique insight into the lengths that some EU officials are willing to go to in order to crack down on mining-related energy usage. While it appears that PoS cryptocurrencies remain safe from sweeping regulatory action in the near-term, Bitcoin mining will continue to be a contested issue in the EU.

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Aussie media company goes all in on NBA fan engagement with NFTs

Aussie media company goes all in on NBA fan engagement with NFTs

Uverejnil používateľ | apr 22, 2022 |

Australian media company Basketball Forever has announced an NFT project titled Hoop Hounds which seeks to increase NBA fan engagement and provide substantial real-world utility for the tokens. Critics of NFTs have consistently taken aim at the supposed ineffectual nature of the tokens, with “right click save” memes doing the rounds. However, more recently there has been an uptick in utility-focused NFT projects, such as  Bored Ape Yacht Club and Top Shot, where holders are provided exclusive access to real-world events and products. Basketball Forever, the NBA-focused subsidiary of sports media company Forever Network, has developed high levels of engagement on social media in Australia over the past four years and is trying to enhance that approach with NFTs.Basketball Forever will offer a total of 8,888 different “hounds” — various basketball and NBA personalities depicted as different styles of animated canines — each with unique traits and differing levels of rarity. The company expects the NFTs to be available within the next six weeks. In an interview with Cointelegraph, Basketball Forever founder Alex Sumsky, said that his company was going “all in” on NFTs — saying that the technology is more than just a token tied to a JPG and allows organizations to provide innovative ways to increase user engagement and provide fans with real utility. Users who mint Hoop Hound NFTs for example receive real world fan memorabilia and collectibles, regardless of where in the world they live. “In phase 1 of the roadmap, users will receive physical items, merchandise and memorabilia that directly relate to the unique trait of the NFTs that they own.”If a user mints a hound that’s wearing particular items, they earn the ability to claim the corresponding physical items in real life. Certain traits and hounds will be linked to various NBA season triggers that would see certain holders sent to NBA games including flights and accommodation.Sumsky added that the physical merchandise and NBA experiences offered to users are just part 1 of the project.“The bigger play is phase 2 of our roadmap — the ownership of the hound gives users access to daily pools of merchandise, memorabilia and cash prizes that all play out in the form of a fan engagement app,” he said.Sumsky explained that Basketball Forever has already run a non-blockchain-based version of the app, called V.O.A.T, which saw high rates of engagement. The app users login each day to answer five questions about NBA matters and go in the running to win prizes. Moving to NFTs provides a lot more opportunities, he said.“NFTs and digital providence give companies and organizations like Forever Network, the ability to learn more about what our users are looking for when it comes to engaging with the sport they love, but more importantly it allows us to streamline delivery of real life items and experiences.”Related: NFT LA: Attract the mainstream, focus on Web3 and use casesNFTs are now generating mainstream interest with a yearly market report from NonFungible finding that the total value of all NFT transactions worldwide surpassed more than $17 billion in 2021, up from $82.5 million in 2020. The report also pointed out that “NFT” was selected as Collins Dictionary’s word of the year for 2021.

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US investors realized 6X more crypto gains in 2021 than next country

US investors realized 6X more crypto gains in 2021 than next country

Uverejnil používateľ | apr 21, 2022 |

Crypto investors from the United States realized crypto gains nearly six times higher in total than the UK, the second highest country in terms of realized gains. According to a report by Chainalysis, crypto investors in the US accrued a record $46.9 billion in realized gains throughout 2021, leading the rest of the world by a wide margin. The US is followed at quite some distance by the UK at $8.1 billion and Germany on $5.8 billion. Total realized cryptocurrency gains 2021: Chainalysis.The report comes as global cryptocurrency adoption continues to gain widespread traction. The US witnessed a massive increase in adoption and realized gains, with the total estimated gains for 2021 up 476% from $8.1 billion the year before.Special mentions were given to countries that outperformed their “traditional” economic rankings. Despite Turkey being globally ranked as number 11 by GDP, the country was ranked at number six when it came to realized crypto gains.China was one of the only large nations that did not see the same massive gains as other countries. In 2021, China’s total estimated realized cryptocurrency gains stood at $5.1 billion, up from $1.7 billion in 2020, which equates to year-over-year growth rate of 194%. However, this is still impressive growth considering the extensive crypto bans that were progressively enacted in China in 2021.China’s result pales however besides other countries such as the UK and Germany which saw a respective 431% and a 423% increase last year. Related: What is driving institutions to invest in crypto? BlockFi’s David Olsson explainsAnother notable trend was the increase in total gains from Ethereum (ETH), which saw ETH investors around the world cash out a total $76.3 billion, beating out Bitcoin (BTC) as the highest realized earnings crypto asset in 2021. Bitcoin inventors still performed well however, with the global crypto investing community securing $74.7 billion in gains throughout 2021.

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