Thank you for subscribing to the Crypto Currier for all the biggest news in blockchain and crypto and our new line-up of events including virtual networking. Sign up here 🙌

This week's news: Tesla accepts Bitcoin, Man City launches crypto tokens, New York Times writer sells a column as an NFT, blockchain's role in sustainable waste management and recycling and the Crypto Currier adds DeFi

Brought to you by: 👇🙌

EU-Funded project to use blockchain for airline takeoff slots

An EU-funded project will utilize blockchain technology to create a marketplace where airlines can exchange runway takeoff slots. The project, entitled SlotMachine, will run until 2022 and involve the likes of Swiss Air, the Austrian Institute of Technology, and EUROCONTROL, which coordinates cross-border air traffic control. (Ledger Insights) Read More

Blockchain pilots for sustainable waste management

A slew of pilot projects have adopted blockchain to encourage recycling and responsible waste management. Initiatives in the U.S., India and Argentina are using blockchain to improve waste collection practices. “What the world needs is scalable solutions, broad scalable solutions in terms of tracking, in terms of attaching data to human activity, in terms of really allowing social impact behavior to be monitored, measured and credited,” said Stan Chen, CEO of New York-based startup RecycleGO. (Bloomberg) Read More

German authorities' blockchain solution to sell securities

German authorities are enabling investors to buy and sell securities on the blockchain in return for central bank money. The venture is a joint effort by Bundesbank, Deutsche Börse and the German government’s debt agency, with the solution said to be the first that allows those who sell securities on blockchain to receive proceeds on their account at the central bank. (Channel News Asia) Read More

New York Times writer selling column online as NFT

New York Times tech writer Kevin Roose has decided to sell his latest column – ironically on the topic of NFTs – on blockchain. Roose is tokenizing the article and selling it via online auction. It follows the sale of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s first ever tweet, which raised $2.9 million earlier this month. Roose has confirmed he will donate the funds to the newspaper’s Neediest Case Fund, which supports charitable causes in the city and beyond. (The Hill) Read More

Startup building decentralised blockchain data provider raises

Covalent, a startup building a decentralised and sharded global database, has raised $2 million capital in its latest seed round. The funding will go towards decentralising the project’s network, onboarding professional data providers and validators, and expanding to additional networks. Hashed Ventures led the round with involvement from Binance Labs, Coinbase Ventures, Delphi Ventures, Hypersphere Ventures and others. (Coin Telegraph) Read More

Tesla now accepts bitcoin as payment option

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has confirmed that the electric vehicle maker will now accept bitcoin as a payment option. The company chief also confirmed that Tesla would not convert bitcoin payments into cash, but rather use it to grow its bitcoin holdings. Although only available to US users at present, the facility will be rolled out to other countries in the near future. Last month, Tesla purchased bitcoin worth $1.5 billion. (BBC) Read More

Man City Football Club Joins Socios to Launch Fan Tokens

Premier League giants Manchester City have joined the Socios platform, and will release its very own $CITY fan token. The club joins the likes of Juventus, Paris St Germain and Barcelona, with the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) entitling supporters to collect rewards, access promotions, play mobile games and vote in polls. It’s not the first time Man City have entered the blockchain world: last year, the club signed a partnership with Animoca to release blockchain mini-games collectibles. (Ledger Insight)  Read More

Bitcoin, not US$, a substitute for gold says Fed Chairman 

Jerome Powell, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, sees cryptocurrency as a substitute for gold rather than the US dollar. However, he has once again drawn attention to the volatility of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and dismissed their claims to being a useful store of value. Powell also commented on stablecoins, calling them an improvement over crypto-assets since their credibility derives from their fiat backing. (MarketWatch) Read More

FATF publish draft guidance on risk-based approach to crypto 

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has released updated guidance on anti-money laundering and know-your-customer directives relating to stablecoins, decentralized finance, and non-fungible tokens. In particular, the FATF suggests imposing AML and KYC rules on DEX applications, calling the platforms “decentralized or distributed applications or platforms that offer exchange or transfer services.” The defi space to date has been largely unregulated, capturing traders who are unwilling to subject themselves to AML/KYC. (news.Bitcoin.com) Read More

Wirex suspends customer onboarding to strengthen AML 

Digital payments company Wirex has paused the onboarding of new clients in the UK in order to strengthen its anti-money laundering (AML) controls. The London-based platform has been in dialogue with Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority and insists the measure is temporary, with UK citizens prevented from signing up to Wirex in the short term. “We believe London is the capital of fintech and the FCA's recommendations will help us create a stable environment to operate in,” said Pavel Matveev, co-founder and CEO of Wirex. (Finextra) Read More

Bitcoin rewards company raises $5m for shopper incentives

Rewards platform Lolli has raised $5 million its latest pre-Series A funding round, with contributions from the likes of Serena Williams’ Serena Ventures. Lolli incentivizes shoppers to buy from its partner stores by dispensing rewards in the form of bitcoin. To date, the platform has onboarded over 1,000 merchants including booking.com and Microsoft, as well as quarter of a million users. (CoinDesk) Read More

Ethereum chief believes NFTs can be a social good

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin believes NFTs can be applied to socially relevant causes such as charities and funding public goods. The developer outlined his thoughts in a blog post, saying “NFTs stand a great chance of significantly helping many kinds of public goods, especially of the creative variety.” After stating that he hopes NFTs do not become a casino that enriches already-wealthy celebrities, Buterin went on to say that the industry “could be a significant boon to artists, charities and other public goods providers far beyond our own virtual corner of the world.” (Coin Telegraph) Read More

TIME magazine to accept payment in crypto

TIME magazine will start accepting crypto as payment for subscriptions within the next 30 days. That’s according to the magazine’s president, Keith Grossman, who said the company is seeking to hire a new CFO who is “comfortable with Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.” TIME is also in the process of auctioning off NFTs of three magazine covers, with a bid on one already over $35,000. (Decrypt) Read More

Blockchain .com raises $300 million, valued at $5.2bn 

London-based crypto firm blockchain.com has raised $300 million in its latest funding round, placing the company’s valuation at $5.2 billion. The round was led by DST Global, Lightspeed Venture Partners and, VY Capital, and adds to the $120 million raised earlier this year. The Blockchain.com platform comprises a digital wallet and retail trading division, as well as other services for larger investors, and claims to have 31 million verified users in 200 countries. (Reuters) Read More

Coinbase open to listing CBDCs, says CEO

San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has confirmed that it is open to supporting central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). The comments came from CEO Brian Armstrong during a Reddit ask-me-anything session ahead of the company’s listing on Nasdaq. “Pretty much every major government out there is starting to think about how they’re going to build them," said Armstrong. "We are cryptocurrency agnostic, so we will support any cryptocurrency, including CBDC and stablecoins and decentralized ones like DAI, as long as they meet our listing standards.” (The Block Crypto) Read More

Bitcoin could succeed without mainstream acceptance

The founder of SkyBridge Capital, Anthony Scaramucci, says Bitcoin doesn't need to become a widely-used payment method to succeed: it could prosper solely as a store of value. Scaramucci made the statement at Reuters Digital Assets Week 2021, and also suggested that the US Treasury is actively working on developing a digital dollar. (Yahoo Finance) Read More

Robinhood set for IPO on Nasdaq

Investment app Robinhood has confidentially filed paperwork for an initial public offering (IPO) with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The stock and crypto trading app chose Nasdaq for the listing according to an individual briefed on the matter. Robinhood recently faced criticism after becoming embroiled in the GameStop scandal, with chief executive Vlad Tenev forced to appear before a financial services committee and explain the firm’s decision to restrict trading. (FT) Read More

Defi exchange SushiSwap set to release $880m of tokens 

Popular Ethereum-based decentralized exchange SushiSwap is gearing up for the release of 47 million SUSHI tokens, with a current value of $880 million. However, there are fears that such a market dump could spell the end of the governance token, due to its modest $2.3 billion market cap. The tokens are scheduled to be released from the end of April. (Decrypt) Read More

Uniswap release details of revamped exchange 

Market-leading decentralized exchange Uniswap has publicized details of its forthcoming upgrade, Uniswap V3. Anticipated to launch on Ethereum on May 5, and Optimism in mid-May, the third generation of Uniswap will give liquidity providers the ability to make markets within customized price ranges, an approach dubbed concentrated liquidity. "The story of Uniswap v3 is that execution quality is about to improve by an order of magnitude, if not more,” said Uniswap founder Hayden Adams. (The Block Crypto) Read More

Nigerian startup using defi to address currency devaluation

Nigerian startup Xend Finance is utilizing decentralized finance to address currency devaluation, a common problem in the region. The company enables credit unions to access defi for their customers, through the use of decentralized stablecoins such as DAI and BUSD. “We’ve experienced three massive currency devaluations in the last three years in Nigeria, and this is similar to different economies in the world with unstable economies,” said Xend co-founder Aronu Ugochukwu. As well as supporting credit unions, the startup offers decentralized insurance to protect clients across asset loss resulting from contract failures. (Tech Crunch) Read More

The Crypto Currier is Brought to you by 👇 🙌

Trustology A prominent theme in the blockchain industry has been achieving institutional mainstream adoption. It looks like 2021 has been the year to see that happen. From Goldman Sachs to Tesla, the number of banks, brokers and corporations engaging in the crypto markets has seen explosive growth. 

In our four-part blog series, we offer a simple step-by-step guide for how traditional brokers and new start-up brokers can balance the opportunities that come with digital asset trading against the risks. From connecting to liquidity to safeguarding assets and eliminating counterparty and settlement risk, find out what you need to know when contemplating this new asset class. 

Join the 200+ subscribers to our series, click here: https://hubs.la/H0JTKbW0

compliant DLT/blockchain network where private commercial relationships are re-created between trusted peers because the trading counterparties cannot be anonymous and data privacy is built in. 

Hilbert Capital Hilbert Capital is a hedge fund specialising in algorithmic trading of digital assets. They have been running actively managed portfolios that operate 24/7/365 since the beginning of 2017. The objective of all of their products is to generate exceptional returns across the cycle (bull-market plus bear-market). Hilbert Capital believe that digital assets will prove to be the strongest growing asset class over the next decade and that these markets are only in their early beginnings. Visit Hilbert Capital

track their performance via desktop or app, and print out a tax report under HMRC regulations. Click here to learn more and 10% discount off their platform.