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UK-based pension scheme makes 3% Bitcoin allocation
Cartwright reported that an “unnamed scheme” based in the UK had made a 3% allocation of Bitcoin into its pension fund.
United Kingdom-based pension specialist Cartwright reported that an “unnamed scheme” had made a 3% allocation of Bitcoin into its pension fund.
According to a Nov. 4 notice, Cartwright reported that “after a rigorous training and due diligence process,” a UK pension scheme had chosen to make the Bitcoin allocation, citing its “long investment time horizon.”
The firm’s head of investment implementation, Steve Robinson, said the crypto investment would help “reduce reliance on employer contribution.”
The company did not provide additional details about the nature of the pension scheme or how much would be invested. Cointelegraph reached out to Cartwright for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication.
Many local and federal governments turned to crypto investments for pension funds in 2024. In the UK, Legal and General, a pension and investment firm with $1.5 trillion in assets under management, announced in October that it would consider offering tokenized funds. Read More
Robinhood, Kraken, Paxos launch Global Dollar stablecoin network
Major firms from crypto and traditional finance have partnered to launch the Global Dollar Network, a regulation-compliant network designed to accelerate the adoption of stablecoins.
Crypto and traditional finance companies, including Robinhood, Galaxy Digital, Kraken and Paxos, have formed a consortium supporting the latest stablecoin pegged to the United States dollar.
In a Nov. 5 statement, blockchain infrastructure firm Paxos shared that the new “open network” was designed to accelerate the adoption and use of stablecoins worldwide.
“The lack of competition in the regulated stablecoin market has prevented the industry from reaching its full potential. USDG upends this dynamic with a more equitable model that will bring mainstream participants into the ecosystem and accelerate new stablecoin use cases,” said Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi in the statement.
The network is designed to support the global adoption of Paxos’ USDG stablecoin, launched by the firm on Nov. 1.
USDG is currently only available on the Ethereum blockchain, but Paxos said the stablecoin will be made available on other chains as regulations evolve. Read More
Internet Computer cross-chain protocol usage up 13x amid Bitcoin DeFi boom
Network activity across all Internet Computer protocols has increased 150% year-over-year, according to Dfinity.
Internet Computer’s cross-chain messaging protocol, Chain Fusion, has seen usage spike 1,230% year-over-year, largely from Bitcoin-native applications, according to a Nov. 4 report by developer The Dfinity Foundation.
Bitcoin apps, including Rainbow Protocol, Tap Protocol and Bitfinity, are using Internet Computer to deploy smart contracts and other complex programs on the Bitcoin network, Dfinity said.
Chain Fusion “enables smart contracts for Bitcoin as ICP can directly interact with the Bitcoin network without using any trusted bridges,” the developer told Cointelegraph in a statement.
Internet Computer “is a set of protocols that allow independent data centers around the world to band together and offer a decentralized alternative to the current centralized internet cloud providers,” according to crypto exchange Coinbase.
Network activity across all Internet Computer protocols has increased 150% year-over-year, according to Dfinity. Read More
Coinbase Derivatives to Launch Silver and Stellar Futures
Coinbase Derivatives is expanding its portfolio of CFTC-regulated products with the introduction of futures contracts for silver (SLR) and stellar (XLM) in retail sizes on November 11.
The latest addition to Coinbase Derivatives which already includes bitcoin (BTC), ethereum (ETH), bitcoin cash (BCH), litecoin (LTC), DOGE, SHIB, AVAX, DOT, LINK, Gold, and Oil will expand the company’s offering for retail traders.
Coinbase’s primary goal in launching new futures contracts is to create diversified markets that support risk management and price discovery. This informed the offering of the contracts in retail sizes, 50 troy ounces of silver and 5,000 stellar, removing obstacles for traders of all skill levels and enabling more participation in the futures markets.
In the blog post, Coinbase shared that adding traditional commodities such as silver along with a top cryptocurrency in stellar will create a more holistic trading environment.
Along with gold, silver has long been seen as a strategic asset that can provide some protection from market volatility and inflation. Stellar is well-known for providing quick and affordable cross-border payment solutions, adding a unique element to Coinbase’s offerings in digital asset derivatives. Read More
The Top Five Cryptocurrency Exchanges by Trading Volume And Its Significance
The world's financial landscape is undergoing a profound transformation driven by innovative approaches to economic exchange. This shift is influenced by technological progress worldwide and impacts various aspects of society. The traditional boundaries of finance have been erased, as transactions are no longer limited by physical presence or geographical constraints. The nature of commerce has also undergone a significant shift, with the rise of digital assets and the increasing popularity of buying and selling liquid assets that exist solely in the digital realm.
Cryptocurrency is a popular digital asset that is increasingly used for transactions and debt settlement on a global scale. Given the rapid advancements in the crypto industry and the growing government interest, cryptocurrency is anticipated to replace traditional fiat currencies eventually. In addition to serving as a form of payment, crypto tokens can also be exchanged with one another.
The emergence of cryptocurrency trading has given rise to a specialized market that operates through online exchanges. These exchanges facilitate the buying and selling to engage in transactions within the cryptocurrency space. Without these platforms, it would be highly challenging for individuals to participate in the market, highlighting their crucial role in modern finance.
These exchanges, which play a vital role in the cryptocurrency market, can be centralized, decentralized, regulated, or deregulated. A key metric for evaluating their importance is the total trading volume of transactions executed on these platforms over a specific timeframe. Essentially, trading volume gauges the level of market activity, revealing the number of participants engaged in buying and selling and their willingness to take risks on price fluctuations. Read More
What is Ink: Kraken’s layer-2 DeFi bridge?
Ink is a layer-2 bridge under development by Kraken with the goal of making decentralized finance (DeFi) more efficient by enhancing transaction speed, lowering costs and improving flexibility. The Ink Testnet will be launched during DevCon in Bangkok on Nov. 12-15, 2024, and the mainnet is scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2025.
Seamlessly integrating centralized and decentralized environments, Ink by Kraken provides users with all the necessary tools and services while mitigating common challenges associated with these environments. The solution operates on Ethereum as a layer-2 (L2) solution, easing the pressure on the layer-1 (L1) chain.
The term “L2 solutions” refers to protocols built on top of base blockchains, also called L1 blockchains, to improve their characteristics, such as scalability and privacy. These protocols take the processing of transactions from the L1 blockchain, using it solely for transaction settlement. Common L2 solutions include state channels, sidechains, optimistic rollups and zero-knowledge rollups.
Developed on Optimism’s open-source, MIT-licensed OP Stack codebase, Ink is integrated with the Ethereum ecosystem. Ink will be a component of the Optimism Superchain, a network of L2 blockchain networks that share a common development stack, security, bridging and communication layer.
Ink will enable you to use Ethereum’s tried-and-tested security while participating in a system that actively supports Ethereum’s scalability. The Optimism Superchain will facilitate interoperability throughout its ecosystem and beyond, allowing liquidity to easily move between the chains that make up the Superchain. Read More
What is Pyth Network (PYTH)?
Pyth Network is a decentralized oracle (essentially, a service that connects blockchains to real-world data) that brings real-time financial metrics, such as stock, crypto and commodities prices, onto blockchains.
Launched initially on Solana in 2021, Pyth’s mission is to make high-quality data accessible for blockchain applications, especially decentralized finance (DeFi), where accurate data feeds are essential for pricing assets and preventing mispriced trades.
Unlike some oracles that pull data from multiple intermediaries, Pyth sources data directly from top-tier financial institutions, including exchanges and trading firms, which improves both speed and reliability in its data feeds. Read More
Cathie Wood Says Trump Victory Will Put Blockchain and Four Other Technologies on Steroids
ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood thinks blockchain and a handful of other technology sectors could grow under a Donald Trump administration.
Wood says in a new YouTube video that federal deregulation could drive tech innovation.
“If Trump’s elected and they do the decreasing regulation, getting government spending down, and expectations of government spending [is] down, I believe that what we’ve been expecting is going to happen on steroids, and that is the five major innovation platforms that are evolving today, so robotics, energy storage, artificial intelligence, blockchain technology and multiomic sequencing, they involve 14 different technologies and they’re all ready for prime time.
They’re entering exponential growth trajectories… they will be allowed to fly. Now why will they? Because technologies are inherently deflationary, and why is that? They deliver huge gains in productivity. And so can you imagine a world where unit growth accelerates and pricing is either flat or negative?” Read More
BNB Chain reveals no-code real-world asset tokenization service
According to financial services firm Standard Chartered, real-world asset tokenization could reach a $30-trillion market cap by 2030.
BNB Chain has unveiled a new real-world asset tokenization service that provides individuals and businesses with a no-code solution to tokenize real-world assets in “minutes.”
According to the announcement, the new service streamlines the process of asset tokenization through in-built compliance tools and clear guidance through each step of the tokenization process — including asset securitization and onchain minting of tokens.
Outsourcing the tokenization process to the BNB Chain’s tokenization solution significantly reduces the cost, time and labor required to tokenize assets, lowering the barrier to entry for small businesses seeking to leverage real-world asset tokenization.
Tokenizing physical assets provides several benefits to businesses, including the fractional ownership of assets such as art, securities, collectibles and carbon credits. Tokenization can also create cost efficiencies in customer loyalty and rewards programs to encourage consumer engagement. Read More
Ethereum launches Mekong testnet to preview Pectra upgrade features
The Ethereum Foundation launched Mekong, a short-term testnet allowing developers to explore UX and staking updates for the upcoming Pectra fork.
The Ethereum Foundation introduced a short-lived testnet called Mekong to allow developers to experiment with future upgrades before they reach the Ethereum mainnet.
On Nov. 7, the Ethereum Foundation — a nonprofit organization that supports Ethereum — announced it would launch the “Mekong testnet,” to allow developers to explore user experience (UX) changes and familiarize themselves with upcoming modifications for the Prague-Electra, or “Pectra,” fork on Ethereum. The Ethereum Foundation wrote:
“Mekong is meant to be a playground for wallet developers to experiment with UX changes and for stakers to gain confidence in the upcoming changes. The testnet will be short-lived and is feature complete with all the intended EIPs for Pectra.”
According to the foundation, developers may see minor spec changes for smaller Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), but the features included will make it into existing public testnets and eventually into the Ethereum mainnet. Read More
Disclaimer: These articles are provided for informational purposes only. They are not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or any other advice.
Featured Image Source: Pixabay
