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This week: El Salvador adopts bitcoin as legal tender, institutional crypto holdings up, cow manure in crypto mining and blockchain in sustainable fishing and aircraft maintenance. 

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UNICEF to bootstrap blockchain startups with Venture Fund

UNICEF has announced that it will invest in seven blockchain startups in six countries through its eponymous Venture Fund. The startups were selected from a longlist of 450 in 77 nations, and include firms from Kenya (Grassroots Economics, KotaniPay), Argentina (Xcapit), India (GovBlocks), Mexico (BX Smart Labs), Rwanda (Leaf Global Fintech) and Nepal (Rumsan). The companies will receive up to $100,000 in seed funding, with five firms electing to receive a portion of the investment in ETH. (Forkast) Read More

Could blockchain support sustainable fishing?

Out in the deep blue ocean, there ordinarily isn’t a blockchain to be found for 100 nautical miles, and yet in the remotest of zones the tech is still proving its worth. A ship that recently departed from Mauritius is loaded to the gunnels with high tech apparatus that will allow the line-caught Patagonian toothfish to be tracked using blockchain. “People can just scan the barcode and the whole story is right there in front of them.” Even The Guardian seems impressed (Guardian) Read More

Korean Airline, LG partner for blockchain maintenance 

The airline industry seems enamoured with blockchain technology, particularly when it comes to maintenance. This makes sense, though, given that replacement parts must be meticulously registered and tracked for safety purposes. And what better tech to supply a solution than good ‘ol DLT? Korean airline Jeju Air and LG Corporation’s IT services subsidiary LG CNS are the latest duo to explore this use case, with blockchain providing a verifiable record of replacement parts that can be traced back to their source.

(Ledger Insights) Read More

Austria’s largest energy firm launches tokenization platform 

Outside of the aviation industry, the energy market has emerged as one of the most avid consumers of blockchain technology. Wien Energie is Austria’s largest energy company and is now a proponent of blockchain after utilizing it through a partnership with IoT company RIDDLE&CODE Energy Solutions to launch MyPower. The energy tokenization platform allows customers to acquire shares in solar panel and photovoltaic plants throughout the country. (Ledger Insights) Read More

El Salvador becomes first to Adopt Bitcoin as Legal Tender

El Salvador has become the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender. A supermajority of the El Salvadoran legislature has voted to adopt the digital currency as legal tender. The decision comes after the country’s president, Nayib Bukele, said the government would "guarantee the convertibility to the exact value in dollars at the moment of the transaction.” Citizens who are unfamiliar with the cryptocurrency will be given training to enable them to carry out transactions. (Reuters) Read More

Bank of England: stablecoin payments should be regulated

The Bank of England has said payments using stablecoins should be regulated the same way as payments handled by banks. The comments came from the bank’s governor, Andrew Bailey, who added that it is “essential that we ask the difficult and pertinent questions when it comes to the future of these new forms of digital money.” (Reuters) Read More

Institutional crypto holdings up 170%, says Coinbase 

San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has been documenting the record growth in its institutional business, saying interest from pension funds and hedge funds has increased by 170% in the first quarter, rising from $45 billion to $122 billion. The Nasdaq-listed company revealed that it has over 8,000 institutional clients on its books, including asset managers and endowments. Coinbase credits the roll-out of crypto ETPs and rising awareness among institutional investors. (news.bitcoin.com) Read More

Hardware wallet firm Ledger Raise $380m in Funding Round

Hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger has closed a significant Series C funding round led by digital asset fund 10T Holdings. The Paris-based crypto security company managed to raise $380 million after attracting investment from VC firms such as Cathay Innovation, Draper Associates, DCG, Korelya Capital and Wicklow Capital. The round gives Ledger a valuation of over $1.5 billion. It intends to put the investment towards furthering innovation in its hardware products and providing new services for defi. (Yahoo) Read More

Auction house supports crypto payments for Banksy

Auction house Philips will accept payment in cryptocurrency when it puts a new work by street artist Banksy under the hammer next week. The piece, entitled Laugh Now Panel A, has an estimated value of up to $4.1 million. Those who wish to pay in crypto can use either bitcoin (BTC) or ether (ETH). “It was only a matter of time before cryptocurrency started to be used as a payment method for art and other collectibles,” said Jonathan Crockett, the chairman of Philips Asia. Crockett also confirmed that Philips had been inundated with questions about whether it will support digital payments. (SCMP) 

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Cow manure powers Welsh crypto mining operation

A Welsh farm is mining Ethereum using the power of cow manure. Philip Hughes’ farm utilizes a mining rig composed of a six-cylinder engine running at 500rpm, which turns methane given off by decomposing cow manure into electricity. Hughes, who has made £5 million mining cryptocurrency, says other farmers interested in the project have called him to make enquiries. It is a lot easier to run a computer than a herd of cows or a flock of sheep, Hughes says. (BBC) Read More

China’s CBDC trial launches in Shanghai

China’s much-discussed central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot has reached Shanghai, bringing the program to over two million people to date. The Shanghai pilot will involve 350,000 people, with the CBDC balance to be spent between June 11 and June 20. The city’s Happy Shopping event involves the distribution of red envelopes, a reference to the country’s traditional way of gifting cash, with each carrying a value of 55 yuan. Financial authorities in Hong Kong have also confirmed that they will link the Chinese digital yuan to its domestic payments system to assess the CBDC’s usability in cross-border scenarios. (Ledger Insights) Read More

Beer and big brains credited for criminal-catching AN0M app

Some of the world’s best ideas are dreamed up over a pint – as well as many of its worst. Encrypted criminal app AN0M falls into the former category, having been conceived by Australian police “over a few beers.” The encrypted communications were decrypted from a platform covertly run by the FBI. Gangsters the world over are now cursing the alcohol-assisted honeypot that caught many of their crew in its not-so-encrypted trap. Over 800 criminals have been arrested and assets seized. The AN0M could only be bought through intros from other criminals and paid for in Bitcoin which perhaps helps explain why it took three years before police openly identified the alleged perpetrators. (BBC) Read More

Paraguay Congressman hopes new bill will attract crypto firms

Paraguay Congressman Carlos Rejala is hoping a forthcoming bill will attract crypto businesses to the South American nation. The bill is geared towards international mining companies as well as other businesses in crypto. According to Rejala, the bill will allow such entities to finance their Paraguayan operations with cryptocurrencies, remit dividends overseas and capitalize their crypto profits in local banks.  (CoinDesk) Read More

$8bn Forex giant Interactive Brokers to offer crypto trading

Forex giant Interactive Brokers will offer direct cryptocurrency trading to its clients within a matter of months. Founder Thomas Peterffy suggested rising client demand had influenced the decision. The brokerage currently offers traders a range of assets including currencies, stocks, futures, options, funds and bonds, with equity value in excess of $8 billion. (Cointelegraph) Read More

Top Biden advisor holds $1 million + of Bitcoin

Tim Wu, a senior antitrust expert at the White House, is a Bitcoin millionaire according to a recent financial disclosure filing. Wu is said to own between $1 million and $5 million in Bitcoin, as well as over $100,000 worth of Filecoin. Wu joined the President's administration back in March, signing on as a special assistant for technology and competition policy at the National Economic Council. Wu, a former law professor at Columbia University, is recused from any matters relating to cryptocurrency because of his financial interest, according to a statement by the White House. (Politico) Read More

TRGC set to welcome global investors to crypto space

After four years operating in a closed capacity, the digital asset fund TRGC is preparing to open its doors to outside investors. The fund, which is composed of blockchain and tradfi experts, will give family offices and high net worth individuals the opportunity to support a range of high-quality early-stage blockchain projects. (Yahoo) Read More

Solana Labs Raises $314m in Token Sale

Solana Labs has completed a private token sale after welcoming investment from a slew of crypto-focused venture capitalists. In raising $314 million, Solana Labs has concluded the fourth-largest fundraising round in the crypto industry outside of ICOs. Participation came from Andreessen Horowitz, Polychain Capital, Alameda Research, Blockchange Ventures, and CMS Holdings among others. The funds will be used to create a Solana venture investing arm and a trading desk dedicated to the Solana ecosystem. (CoinDesk) Read More

Gemini acquires custody startup Shard X

Cryptocurrency exchange Gemini has acquired crypto custody firm Shard X for an undisclosed sum. The purchase follows the company’s takeover of Nifty Gateway and crypto credit card firm Blockrize. Gemini said Shard X’s multi-party computation (MPC) technology would help increase the speed at which it can transfer clients’ assets and increase usage of assets on its platform. (The Block Crypto) Read More

Amazon seeks DeFi expert to head up blockchain product

Amazon is searching for a candidate with experience of defi to become its new Blockchain Head of Product. According to a job listing, the candidate will have to demonstrate “a track record delivering outstanding products at scale in emerging spaces” as well as a passion for “blockchain, distributed systems, and cloud scale software.” The candidate will work within Amazon Managed Blockchain, which gives enterprises the ability to create their own private or permissioned blockchains. (CoinDesk) Read More

NFT of Nobel Prize-winning research fetches $54,360

An NFT based on digital data from Nobel Prize-winning research conducted by the University of California, Berkeley has sold at auction for 22 ETH ($54,360). Interestingly, the winning bid came from a group of 31 UC Berkeley alumni who pooled their funds together in a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). The NFT tokenizes the breakthrough research of James Allison, a UC Berkeley alumni who helped establish cancer immunotherapy as a fourth pillar of cancer treatment. The NFT is a collage of 10 pages of details about Allison’s research, as well as correspondence with the university’s patent office in 1995. (Independent) Read More

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