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DITCHING CRYPTO: What started as a $575 million token sale is now a rewards program for watching videos. TaTaTu’s ICO saw film producer Andrea Iervolino raising money from royals like Lady Monika Bacardi, of the famous liquor family. TaTaTu offers a prime example of a platform that used “blockchain” as a fundraising technique and then largely moved on. The project was one of the top-five largest token sales of 2018, but now Iervolino says crypto was never really the point. When asked if TaTaTu is a blockchain business, he was clear: “Not at all. We have one blockchain component in our system.” Full story
FUNDING MYSTERY: The Web3 Foundation has closed on a private sale of tokens to fund the development of Polkadot, the ambitious blockchain interoperability project started by ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood. The Swiss nonprofit said Thursday that the 500,000 DOT tokens (5 percent of the total supply) were sold at a rate consistent with the targeted valuation of the project – $1.2 billion – and that investors wanted more than were available. However, the foundation did not disclose the sale’s actual proceeds, and it is not clear whether the amount raised was the full $60 million sought. Full story
LIBRA ON BINANCE? Crypto exchange Binance is talking to Facebook about potentially becoming involved in the social media giant’s libra cryptocurrency project, according to Finance Magnates. Binance CSO Gin Chao said that early discussions on listing the libra token on Binance have taken place, with an eye to launching a potential secondary market after the network goes live. Chao seemed positive about the project, saying “Any time a company with the weight, size, resources, and impact of Facebook gets involved, it validates both blockchain and [cryptocurrencies]. So whether or not Libra becomes incredibly successful, it’s already a good thing.” Full story
GOLDMAN COIN? Goldman Sachs may ultimately take part in the crypto disruption of finance, according to CEO David Solomon. In interview with Les Echos, Solomon said the bank “absolutely’ could follow JPMorgan in launching a cryptocurrency. He further said that Goldman is carrying out “extensive research’’ on asset tokenization and stablecoins. Asked about potential involvement with Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency project, Solomon refused to comment but said “I find the principle interesting.” Tokenization and stablecoins are “the direction in which the payment system will go," he said. Full story
KIK CAMPAIGN: The D.C.-based Blockchain Association is taking over Canadian social media company Kik’s crowdfunded legal defense fund, Defend Crypto. The companies announced Friday that the association would take all external donations (roughly $2 million) and help other crypto startups with potential legal fights with the SEC. Kik will retain the initial $5 million it dedicated to the fund for its own defense. Blockchain Association head Kristin Smith told CoinDesk that the group now plans to set up a governance structure as part of its administration of the fund. Full story |
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FIVE MONTHS: Despite the recent double-digit correction, bitcoin is eyeing its fifth straight month of gains, with the price indicators on the hourly chart calling for a retest of recent highs near $13,800. Further price rises, however, may remain elusive for a week or two, as the long-duration indicators are signaling extreme overbought conditions. The technical outlook will remain bullish as long as the price is held above the May 31 high of $9,100. Full story |
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| NOT JUST LIBRA? While Facebook’s crypto project Libra is drawing criticism from some over its centralized nature, bitcoin and ethereum are perhaps not as different from it as one might expect. New research reported by American Enterprise Institute suggests that the public cryptocurrencies are vulnerable to “influence by concentrated interests” and could even draw the attention of antitrust authorities. The research in part looks at node concentration: the more nodes a network has, the more distributed it is, and therefore the less prone it is to being influenced by centralized forces. However, as less efficient nodes are squeezed out by big operators such as Bitmain, node numbers are decreasing, the piece says. |
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'Not at all' a blockchain