Critics of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) look at these digital assets as being invaluable JPGs, without any specific use case. The main argument here is that while an NFT might hold value like a rare stamp or Pokemon card, they don't have the real-world impact on making them little more than a collectors' item. Whether you agree or are an avid collector yourself, the same fact rings true, with a functional, engaging platform, the NFT world would be revolutionized, as would the real-world industries surrounding them. One of these industries might just be horse racing, a sport that continues to grow …

As Russia continues pushing de-dollarization, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA Russia) is reportedly considering replacing the United States dollar with not only traditional fiat currencies but also digital currencies. Aleksandr Pankin, deputy minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, reiterated the country’s plans to reduce the U.S. dollar share in Russia’s international reserves and its usage in settlement with foreign partners in a Tuesday interview with local news agency Interfax. The official said that MFA Russia isn’t excluding the possibility of replacing the U.S. dollar with “some digital assets” alongside other currencies: “It’s possible to replace the U.S. dollar with …

Volodymyr Zelensky, president of Ukraine, has delayed signing a bill that would establish the nation’s regulatory framework around digital assets. The draft law, entitled “On virtual assets,” secured parliamentary approval on Sept. 8. However, according to an Oct. 5 statement issued by the presidential office, Zelensky remitted the legislation back to the parliament alongside a number of proposed improvements. As per the statement, the president’s major objection to the legislation in its current shape is the costliness of establishing a new regulatory body for digital asset oversight: According to the legislation, regulation of the virtual assets market is to be …

Walt Disney, Fox Corporation, and JP Morgan are among a list of 20 publicly traded United States companies with some level of exposure to crypto and digital assets, based on data by Bank of America, or BofA. According to a BofA report published on Monday, companies like Morgan Stanley, Signature Bank and Warner Music Group also have some exposure to digital assets. In all, the 20 firms identified by BofA have their stocks rated as either “Buy” or “Neutral” by America’s second-largest bank by assets under management. As part of the report, BofA categorized these companies as seeking significant market …

The National Bank of Ukraine, the country’s chief monetary authority, has recently taken to professional social network LinkedIn to promote its blockchain developer job opening. The ad was published by the director of NBU’s IT department, Vladimir Nagornyuk. The ad goes on to list “development, implementation and modification of infrastructure services […] and distributed systems” among the prospective employee’s duties, in addition to mentioning smart contracts and Hyperledger competencies among the requirements for the job. The central bank’s interest in blockchain hires adds to other recent news coming out of Ukraine’s CBDC project, the e-hryvnia. Last week, speaking at a …

Arca Labs, the innovation arm of digital asset investment firm Arca, has partnered with blockchain tech firm Securitize to launch regulated, tokenized financial products. According to a Thursday announcement, Securitize has signed on to provide a smart contract and issuance platform for the firm, starting with Arca’s tokenized fund dubbed the “Arca U.S. Treasury Fund,” which was launched in July 2020. Arca touts the Arca U.S. Treasury Fund as the first treasury fund registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940 to issue shares as digital assets via the blockchain. The fund meets the same regulatory requirements as a mutual …

Institutional interest for digital assets continues to grow rapidly, demonstrating that cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and nonfungible tokens (NFT) are here to stay. At the same time, traditional financial institutions are beginning to understand the dire need to properly support digital assets. For example, although payments giants such as Mastercard and Visa currently offer crypto-enabled credit and debit cards, these companies are also forming partnerships with crypto organizations to enable better security and trust for consumers transacting with digital currencies. Shedding light on the matter, Ajay Bhalla, president of cyber and intelligence at Mastercard, told Cointelegraph that Mastercard’s customers and other partners …

An OpenSea executive has been outed for hyping nonfungible tokens he purchased and then featuring them on the homepage of the popular NFT marketplace — a move that presumably allowed him to sell the art pieces for a quick profit. Nate Chastain, who serves as OpenSea’s head of product, allegedly used burner wallets to purchase NFTs, which were then featured on the front page of OpenSea — where they’d receive the most attention — before unloading them. A Reddit user documented the whole ordeal by publishing the transaction details. One of the NFTs in question belongs to the Dailydust Collection …

Gold and cryptocurrencies are often seen as oil and water by investors — but a new project enables consumers to gain exposure to both asset classes at the same time. AABBG is a token that is fully backed by gold, and this ensures that the asset’s value is pegged to the current spot price of the precious metal. This is coupled with a crypto wallet that allows these digital assets to be stored securely, giving users the freedom to effortlessly make transfers to friends, family and businesses. The project, developed with Core State Holdings, Corp (CSHC), says anonymity is a …

Australian digital asset manager Monochrome has concluded a $1.8 million Series A fundraiser led by some of crypto’s most influential entrepreneurs, underscoring the growing potential of institutional-grade crypto-asset solutions. The cash injection will be used by Monochrome to develop new products specializing in Bitcoin (BTC) and other digital assets, the company said. The Series A was co-led by Litecoin creator Charlie Lee, Blockstream chief strategy officer Samson Mow, former Binance CFO Wei Zhou and Kain Warwick, the founder of Blueshyft and DeFi protocol Synthetix. Following the raise, Monochrome’s total valuation was estimated to be worth roughly $15 million. Monochrome was …

Sber, the largest banking institution in Russia, continues progressing with the development of its blockchain-based platform for issuing digital assets. Anatoly Popov, deputy chairman of the executive board at Sber, said that the bank is planning to have registered its digital asset issuance platform with the Bank of Russia — the country’s central bank — by mid-September, local news agency TASS reported on Thursday. Popov said that Sber has started building functionalities to allows third parties to issue digital assets and expects to have rolled out this feature by the end of the year. At the time being, the bank …

As the debate surrounding the impact of major blockchains on the environment continues, an energy-efficient blockchain is releasing an eco-friendly NFT collection designed to reduce carbon emissions. The Worldwide Asset eXchange says Carbon Offset vIRL NFTs will make their debut in August 2021. For every dollar that is “composted,” the National Forest Foundation is going to plant one tree sapling, each of which will offset an average of one tonne of CO2 over their lifetime. WAX co-founder William Quigley said: “WAX is officially setting higher standards for responsibility across the blockchain. We’ve been working tirelessly to ensure our blockchain is …