In a speech published Wednesday noon, Federal Reserve Governor Christopher J. Waller reiterated his skepticism for implementing a central bank digital currency, or CBDC, in the United States. However, Waller is not an ordinary cryptocurrency skeptic, as he cites the development of genuine private-sector payment innovations, specifically stablecoins, as the reason why CBDCs are not needed. Top Stablecoins by Market Capitalization | Source: Treasury Report on Stablecoins (Nov. 2021) Despite the positive outlook, Waller highlighted three risks surrounding stablecoins. The first of which he noted as a potential destabilizing run, where unregulated or unscrupulous issuers provide financial instruments that go …

KuCoin Labs, the company behind the world's sixth-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume with more than 500 crypto assets listed, announced on Wednesday that it would be launching a $100 million metaverse fund for early-stage projects. The money is also available for entities that develop blockchain-based games, nonfungible tokens, and decentralized applications. In addition, Kucoin will also provide business incubation services, branding, incentives, and business partnerships for developers selected into the fund. Johnny Lyu, CEO of Kucoin, said the following in a prepared statement obtained by Cointelegraph: "KuCoin Metaverse Fund will be launched to accelerate the evolution of the Internet …

On Tuesday, pSTAKE, a liquid staking protocol from decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Persistence, announced in a statement provided to Cointelegraph that it had closed a $10 million strategic funding round from venture capital firms. Tendermint, the core developer behind the Cosmos network, powers Persistence blockchain with its consensus engine. Liquid staking is the practice of users “double-dipping” with their crypto assets — i.e., allowing them to stake their crypto in one pool and use their staked assets to farm yields in a liquidity provider pool, or vice versa. The process enables higher compounded yields, as assets generate returns in two …

A survey released by the Pew Research Center on Thursday found that roughly 16% of Americans have invested, traded or used some form of cryptocurrency. The number jumps to 31% for people aged 18-29, and even higher to 43% for specifically males in the same age bracket. Black, Hispanic, and Asian participants in the study were also each more likely to have invested in crypto than those who identified themselves as white. There seems to have been no disparity by income. Pew Research Analyst Andrew Perrin said: “We do see now that a large share of the American public has …

During a virtual video session at the Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies' 30th Anniversary Conference, People's Bank of China governor Gang Yi discussed recent developments regarding the country's central bank digital currency, or CBDC, known as the digital yuan (e-CNY). Gang specifically addressed the issue of privacy surrounding the Digital Yuan in the following statement, as translated by Cointelegraph: We are taking a high degree of focus on issues surrounding the security of personal information and the digital yuan and have made relevant regulatory and technological adjustments to meet this objective. We have adopted a principle of anonymity …

It’s only been two years since its founding, but decentralized exchange (DEX) protocol 1inch Network has already surpassed $85.8 billion in cumulative trading volume. At a May 2019 hackathon in New York City, 1inch co-founders Anton Bukov and Sergej Kunz developed a prototype DEX aggregator that became the basis of the network. DEX aggregators are platforms that source liquidity from multiple DEXs, thereby providing better token swap rates with less slippage. The network has a 57.40% market share in the DEX aggregator industry and well over 820,000 users. According to CoinMarketCap, 1inch Exchange is the eighth-largest DEX in the world, …

In a presentation made during the Singapore Fintech Festival, Annerie Vreugdenhil, chief innovation officer of ING, announced the firm is working on a trial of its decentralized finance, or DeFi, peer-to-peer lending protocol with the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets. Vreugdenhil said the following in regards to the development, as reported by Ledger Insights: We are looking into peer-to-peer lending in a DeFi kind of setup. But then not on Bitcoins. What is interesting to us is how you can probably create peer-to-peer lending or open up lending capabilities with different kinds of collateral. So with different ways of …

U.S. Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas submitted a resolution on the Senate floor Monday that would require the acceptance of cryptocurrency payments at all gift shops, restaurants and vending machines located within the Capitol complex. The resolution, titled Adopting Cryptocurrency in Congress as an Exchange of Payment for Transactions, or ACCEPT, also prohibits the Architect of the Capitol — a presidential appointee who oversees the administration of the Capitol Complex — from entering into contracts which preclude the use of cryptocurrency as a form of payment provided that they “are cost-effective and value-centered for patrons.” Cruz said in an …

AllianceBlock, a blockchain tech firm that seeks to bridge the gap between decentralized finance, or DeFi, and traditional finance, announced a partnership with fellow blockchain tech entity Flare. Flare claims its layer-one, or blockchain protocol improvement, technology can bring smart contracts to cryptocurrencies such as XRP (XRP), Dogecoin (DOGE), Bitcoin (BTC), Algorand, and Stellar Lumens (XLM). In addition, Flare is also a decentralized oracle network, which seeks to enable blockchains to access real-world data in smart contract execution. Meanwhile, AllianceBlock brings to the table its cross-chain interoperability solution AllianceBridge, its native decentralized exchange, or DEX, known as AllianceBlock DEX, decentralized …

Decentralized finance (DeFi) solutions have already proved they are better alternatives to traditional finance, arising from the need for an open, secure and transparent financial system. With DeFi, users can take advantage of lower transaction rates, higher interest rates or an opportunity to diversify investments. Therefore, there are few surprises regarding decentralized finance emerging as an alternative to today's financial system for these reasons. The bottom line is that while blockchain technology ensures the network's security, it is at the cost of users’ inconvenience. Unfortunately, like other promising technologies, the blockchain is prone to challenges that may impact its usage. …

Annual percentage yields, or APY, on crypto borrowing and lending platform Aave have surged to record levels after capital withdrawals sent the decentralized finance, or DeFi, protocol into a liquidity crunch. At the time of writing, variable APY on borrowing stablecoin Dai via Aave has surged to 24.88%, compared to approximately 6.50% the day prior. According to cryptocurrency researcher Igor Igamberdiev, blockchain personality Justin Sun was responsible for at least billions of dollars in withdrawals in the past few hours. Aave's total value locked, or TVL, fell to $14.7 billion from $17.89 billion the day prior, based on data from …

AMC Entertainment is in the process of updating its technical infrastructure to allow consumers to pay online with Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Dogecoin (DOGE) for movie tickets. But it doesn't stop there. In a Twitter post early Friday morning, Adam Aron, the company's CEO, asked if users would be potentially interested in paying with Shiba Inu as well. At time of writing, 97,582 Twitter users had already taken part in the poll, with approximately 85% of voters choosing "Yes". The iconic theatre chain has taken a growing interest in crypto as of late. Last week, its CEO …