Autor Cointelegraph By Zhiyuan Sun

Robinhood makes significant strides in crypto business in Q1 despite falling revenue

On April 28, discount-brokerage platform Robinhood published its financial results for the first quarter of 2022. Year-over-year, the firm’s net revenue declined by 43% to $299 million. Specifically, revenue from cryptocurrency trading fell by 39% to $54 million during the same period. This was partly due to a decrease in the interest in meme stocks as well as an ongoing cryptocurrency bear market that dominated much of the first three months of the year.However, despite a decrease in sales, the company’s net cumulative funded accounts rose by 27% year-over-year to 22.8 million. At the same time, total assets under custody increased 15% to $93.1 billion. Robinhood took several important steps in enhancing its crypto business. First, the firm rolled out crypto wallets to the approximately two million waitlisted customers in early April, with a full roll-out completed this week.Then, in response to customer requests, Robinhood listed four new coins; Compound (COMP), Polygon (MATIC), Solana (SOL) and Shiba Inu (SHIB). Finally, Robinhood plans to integrate with layer-2 Bitcoin (BTC) payment protocol Lightning Network for faster transactions with lower fees. As told by Robinhood:”Once fully integrated, we expect the service to help accelerate Robinhood’s ability to serve Bitcoin remittances on a global scale — at virtually no cost — and will be important for international expansion.”This month, Robinhood signed an agreement to acquire Ziglu, a U.K.-based electronic money institution and crypto firm, as part of its roadmap. Robinhood plans to leverage Ziglu’s team of financial services and crypto experts to help the company expand across the United Kingdom and Europe.

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NYDFS calls for crypto firms to use blockchain analytics

In a letter published on Thursday, the New York State Department of Financial Services, or NYDFS, recommended that all virtual currency companies operating under New York banking law adopt blockchain analytics to trace transactions. In supporting the decision, the regulatory agency wrote:”Wallet addresses are typically pseudonymous, with nothing on the face of the transfer tying back to the originator, beneficiary, or underlying beneficial owners.”Therefore, as told by NYDFS, it is vital that such class of firms use blockchain analytics to prevent illicit transactions, such as money laundering or terrorism financing. The agency also outlined three analytical processes that can help combat such measures. These include augmenting Know Your Customer, or KYC, related controls, conducting transaction monitoring of on-chain activity, and conducting sanctions screening of on-chain activity.Separately, the same day, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced that it was rolling out a novel know-your-transaction, or KYT, service, dubbed “Coinbase Intelligence,” to help cryptocurrency firms deal with compliance issues. As told by Coinbase, it is an API-type service that businesses and institutions can use to mitigate regulatory risks on their own platforms. Features include:Automating real-time transaction monitoring for millions of transactions by generating risk scores for addresses. Receiving alerts to enable proactive risk management if there are changes to risk profiles.Easily configuring rule engines and unique risk insights into existing third-party case management tools.Screening transactions for anti-terror financing and other AML-related flags at scale.Meanwhile, Coinbase Analytics has been rebranded to Coinbase Tracer to visualize the flow of funds using public attribution data to reduce fraud, demystify counterparty risk, and help flag anti-money laundering risks with risk scores and alerts.

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Telegram Wallet Bot enables users to send crypto in-app via revived blockchain project

As told via a Twitter post on Tuesday, instant messaging app Telegram has rolled out crypto payments via Ton Token.To access the feature, users first need to download and install Telegram’s official Wallet bot, which allows them to purchase cryptocurrency by bank card, exchange and transfer to other wallets. According to the company, they can then send Bitcoin (BTC) or Toncoin to other users by clicking on the “Wallet” icon in direct messages. You can now send #Toncoin directly within Telegram chats!It’s a new way to send Toncoin without transaction fees to any Telegram user. With this service, you’ll no longer need to enter long wallet addresses and wait for confirmations.Watch the video and test the new feature! pic.twitter.com/EtXSMFtJj6— TON (@ton_blockchain) April 26, 2022Ton stands for Telegram Open Network and was created by the namesake company in 2017 for decentralized services such as decentralized storage, anonymous networks, DNS, instant payments and others using a proof-of-stake mechanism. Cointelegraph previously reported that Telegram abandoned Ton in May 2020, following a lengthy battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.The decision came as the SEC alleged that the company sold unregistered securities to the public through its initial coin offerings. To complicate the matter, a New York judge had previously ruled that the company cannot distribute Grams, a token likened to Ton, to investors outside of the United States. Shortly after Telegram developers made their exit, crypto enthusiasts from around the world quickly took over the reins and launched the free Ton network with its own mainnet, based on Ton technology.

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Minecraft-linked developers draws up pledge for NFT and digital asset engagement

Over the weekend, Climate Replay, which comprises developers from the Mojang Group, the maker of the popular Minecraft series, posted a pledge regarding the responsible integration of nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, and digital currencies into gaming.”Games give us hope in a world that is increasingly uncertain. They help us unlock our creative potential and free us of real-world constraints — physical, financial or otherwise,” the team at Climate Replay said. However, they cautioned about the current state of digital assets intertwining with gaming: “Most NFTs, and by consequence, most forms of digital ownership, in their current state, serve the exact opposite purpose — their value is defined entirely by artificial scarcity and speculation and powered by an unnecessary expenditure of physical resources.””Thus, it is imperative for the health of the worldwide gaming community, planet and society as a whole to ensure any adoption of blockchain-based technologies such as NFTs occurs only when they bring demonstrable value to games and their communities,” wrote the team behind the gaming entity. To potentially solve the aforementioned problem, they proposed that game finance, or GameFi, developers abide by, among other things, the following guidelines:Brings meaningful value to players [through digital assets].Does not make use of technology that is intentionally inefficient, resulting in a concrete, significant environmental impact.Does not embrace artificial scarcity to generate speculative value. Does not rely on unregulated, volatile cryptocurrency.Does not disproportionately benefit early adopters or wealthier users/players. [Is] implemented with transparency and takes concerns from studio members seriously.It also appears that Climate Replay wants to see major changes to the current play-to-earn, or P2E, model associated with GameFi. This includes shifting the primary purpose of such games from P2E to enjoyment. In other words, players should not be earning incomes from such games as an “informal job.” Cointelegraph reported last year that individuals playing popular NFT game Aixe Infinity in developing nations had been earning incomes higher than the minimum wage of their native countries.However, players are increasingly becoming frustrated with the steep drop in the price of a major in-game token within Axie Infinity, leading to a corresponding plunge in their income levels.

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Report: Postmates founder Bastian Lehmann launches crypto startup

According to local news outlet FinanceFWD, German entrepreneur Bastian Lehmann is making a move into the crypto industry with the creation of a new startup called “TipTop Labs.” Although details surrounding the venture remain unknown, its website states the firm seeks to provide “consumer finance solutions for an emerging web.” On its careers page, it appears that TipTop Labs is hiring a blockchain engineer whose primary responsibilities include “Building protocol components that integrate across different blockchain systems,” and “leading the design and architecture of core protocols and tokens.” The firm has been registered in the State of Delaware since February. On his Linkedin page, Lehmann states that he is the current founder of a “stealth startup.”Lehmann founded food delivery giant Postmates in 2011. In December 2020, Uber acquired Postmates for $2.65 billion in an all-stock deal. By that time, Postmates had grown to cover 80% of households in the United States, with more than 600,000 restaurants listed on its platform for deliveries and take out.Cointelegraph previously reported that the Chinese food delivery giant Meituan Dianping is joining the country’s central bank digital currency efforts. Across the world, Grubhub is enabling its users to earn rewards in Bitcoin (BTC) as part of its partnership with Lolli. Meanwhile, the city of Liverpool has taken an interest in a blockchain-powered food delivery platform built on the Fuse blockchain.At this point in time, it is unclear if Lehman’s Tiptop Labs venture plans to integrate crypto payments or solutions into the Postmates platform or if it is a separate, stand-alone blockchain related startup. 

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