The Bank of England Financial Policy Committee and other U.K. regulators are assessing crypto regulation after publishing reports on financial stability relating to cryptoassets and decentralized finance. The BoE report was released on Thursday, and the Financial Conduct Authority, or FCA, along with the Bank’s Prudential Regulation Authority, or PRA, also released documents simultaneously that all reference one another. The Bank’s committee, or FPC, stated in its 40-page report that cryptoassets and DeFi pose a “limited” risk to the stability of the UK financial system, but it saw that risk growing “as these assets become more interconnected with the wider …

Buying a Coinbase stock (COIN) to gain indirect exposure in the Bitcoin (BTC) market has been a bad strategy so far compared to simply holding BTC. Notably, COIN is down by nearly 50% to almost $186, if measured from the opening rate on its IPO on April 14, 2021. In comparison, Bitcoin outperformed the Coinbase stock by logging fewer losses in the same period — a little over 30% as it dropped from nearly $65,000 to around $41,700 What's bothering Coinbase? The correlation between Coinbase and Bitcoin has been largely positive to date, however, suggesting that many investors consider them …

Much loved retail video game store chain GameStop (GME) is looking ahead to its long-awaited NFT marketplace and Web3 gaming unit after suffering a net loss of $147.5 million during Q4 2021 GameStop quietly built a barebones NFT website in mid-2021 but has significantly ramped up efforts this year after unveiling an NFT and Web3 gaming division in January along with penning a major partnership with Ethereum (ETH) scaling solution Immutable X the following month to build an NFT marketplace. As part of the Q4 results — ending on January 29 and published on March 17 — GameStop revealed that …

This March, Cointelegraph Research will release a 30-page report about GameFi — the term used to describe the marriage of blockchain-based games with decentralized finance (DeFi). The report analyzes five popular play-to-earn (P2E) games, the economics of GameFi and the future development of an industry responsible for more than 55% of all crypto transactions in the last quarter of 2021. In collaboration with multiple partners including Konvoy Ventures, Game7, Forte, Animoca Brands and others, the Cointelegraph Consulting Research report will evaluate the strength of in-game economies, the GameFi industry’s future challenges and potential ways to overcome them. The report dives …

Interaction between the cryptocurrency industry and Capitol Hill is becoming ever more intensive as efforts to regulate crypto grow in tandem with its popularity. The surge in crypto industry lobbying last year was given some concrete parameters in February by crypto analytics startup Crypto Head. It released a report showing that the crypto companies that spent the most money on lobbying in 2021 were Robinhood, Ripple Labs, Coinbase and the Blockchain Association. These organizations were the lobbying leaders during the past five years as well, although with different rankings. Here is what the United States crypto-lobbying landscape looks like today. …

Apart from high-profile athletes and politicians who are taking salaries in crypto, a study shows that the number of ordinary people who take some of their salaries in crypto has increased globally. Tracking trends that occurred in 2021, global hiring firm Deel published a report that noted a 10% month-over-month increase in people who want to be paid in crypto since November 2020. The data, pulled from over 100,000 contracts in over 150 countries, shows that Latin America (LATAM) and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) are on top of the regions that have employees taking a portion of their …

Crypto-friendly digital payments tech firm Block, Inc. (formerly known as Square) posted $1.18 billion worth of gross profit in Q4, representing a growth of 47% over the same period in 2020. The firm led by Bitcoin maxi Jack Dorsey has multiple business arms including Cash App, Square, and the freshly acquired buy now pay later (BNPL) firm Afterpay after the $29 billion deal officially closed at the end of last month. Block’s 2021 Q4 report was posted on Feb. 24, and the firm revealed significant gross profit increases across Cash App and Square, with each firm generating $518 million and …

Findings from an online survey of 1,500 United States-based consumers reveal people’s deep concerns over privacy and tech platforms’ outsize power while suggesting that Web3 is yet to become a household term. The study was fielded by global insights and strategy firm National Research Group (NRG) in January 2022. 54% of respondents said they were worried about their rights and freedoms are being threatened by technology, with 44% citing online privacy concerns, 38% being unhappy about online ads, and 35% reporting feeling a lack of control over their data. Almost half believe that tech companies have accrued too much power …

USDT stablecoin issuer Tether cut its reserves allocation to commercial paper by more than one fifth between September and December last year, dropping from around $30.5 billion to $24.16 billion. Tether is legally required to disclose its reserves every quarter as part of an $18.5 million court settlement with the Office of the New York Attorney General from February 2021. The firm was alleged to have misrepresented the specific amount of fiat backing USDT in 2017 and 2018. The latest attestation was conducted by Cayman Islands-based Accountants MHA Cayman and provides a breakdown of Tether’s reserves as of 31 December …

As an unlikely but welcome source of hope during crypto market jitters, Deutsche Bank’s report, the “Future of Cryptocurrencies,” sheds light on potentially bullish cryptocurrency activity. A survey critical to the report suggests that neither traders nor investors are likely to part with their crypto holdings in the event of a bear market. Marion Laboure, a director of macro strategy for Deutsche Bank, told Cointelegraph: “It is interesting to note the deep bullishness for cryptocurrencies. Even in an extremely bearish crypto market in which values were to drop 80%, less than half of investors say they would reduce their investments …

The secret to fast-track cryptocurrency’s mainstream adoption lies within addressing a contradicted consumer demand for crypto payments across business verticals, reveals a new survey. In a study participated by crypto exchange Crypto.com’s 110,000 customers and over 1.5 million Worldpay merchants, roughly 60% of both merchants and customers shared their interest in crypto payments. However, the consumer demand does not reciprocate the business verticals that accept cryptocurrencies. As evidenced above, the consumer demand for crypto payments exceeds merchant availability across four major industries — travel, automotive, digital media and hospitality. The gap in merchant availability poses a massive opportunity to capitalize …

In a bullish report released by professional services firm PwC Luxembourg, 61% of 123 Luxembourg-based financial players are “embarking or planning to embark on a crypto journey.” The report comes hot on the heels of competitor professional services firm KPMG Canada’s decision to add Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) to its treasury. It appears the Big Four is warming up to crypto. Thomas Campione, blockchain & crypto-assets Leader for PwC Luxembourg, told Cointelegraph that “For many years, traditional players have been looking at crypto-assets with skepticism.” He added that a possible combination of “branding issues” and a lack of understanding …