The Nation Football League Players Association, or NFLPA, in collaboration with sports betting operator DraftKings Inc., announced the launch of a gamified nonfungible token, or NFT, collection to drop on DraftKings Marketplace during the 2022-2023 NFL season. Starting next year, fans will be able to play NFT-based games featuring their favorite NFL Players, according to the company. OneTeam, the official media business partner of the NFLPA, helped facilitate the deal with DraftKings, giving them the necessary licensing rights to use the name, image and likeness for active NFL players. In a statement shared on the Draftkings website, Beth Beiriger, SVP …

Do you remember the time when a fleeting mention of Bitcoin, stablecoins, or even central bank digital currencies by a top-ranking government official was considered major news all over the cryptoverse? Feels like It’s been forever. As we find ourselves in the midst of digital assets’ global mainstreaming, such statements come in droves every day and are expected. Randal Quarles, an outgoing member of the U.S. Fed’s board of governors, warned against overregulating stablecoins and even rebuked some of the conclusions that the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets had articulated in its November report. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen admitted …

Are big emerging economies more likely to gravitate toward blanket crypto bans? China has set a precedent, and now it appears as if India could be weighing a similar policy direction: A bill containing a proposed ban on all “private cryptocurrencies” will go in front of the nation’s parliament sometime this winter. The measure is designed to clear the way for India’s central bank to advance its digital currency agenda. Whether a sovereign central bank digital currency can coexist with a thriving market of “private” cryptos will be one of the central questions of the looming CBDC age, and it …

A haphazardly assembled online group of passionate people who formed a decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, and pooled a spectacular amount of Ether (ETH) for a noble cause came tantalizingly close to pulling off an incredible feat of collective action. While they fell short of reaching their main goal — securing the last privately owned print copy of the United States Constitution’s first edition in order to make it available to the public — the speed, scale and efficiency of the decentralized effort were profoundly impressive. The fact that the group’s objective was to preserve an artifact epitomizing the most …

New York-based crypto-mining service provider Foundry USA takes the lead to become the world’s second-largest Bitcoin (BTC) mining pool after taking up a 15.42% share of the network. Data from BTC.com shows that Digital Currency Group-owned Foundry USA stands behind the pool leader AntPool by a hash rate of just 4,000 PH/s, which contributed to a 17.76% network share at the time of writing. The rise in the participation of American entities can be attributed to China’s recent blanket ban on crypto trading and mining activities. The ban forced a large-scale migration of local Bitcoin miners, who now reside in …

As the U.S. federal government — acting through its Securities and Exchange Commission — continues to valiantly protect investors and the public interest from the grave dangers of a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, one major American city after another begin embracing or at least exploring the potential of crypto and blockchain technology to improve various aspects of city finance, administration and residents’ monetary well-being. Following the lead of Miami, New York, Tampa and Jackson, Tennessee, it is now Philadelphia that is looking into the ways to implement blockchain solutions in city government. The hope is that a series of city …

Even though crypto has long attained relevance as an independent political issue, at times it gets entangled with the broader dynamics of the political process. The notorious infrastructure bill — a major pillar of the Biden administration’s economic agenda — suddenly passed in the U.S. House last Friday despite congressional Democrats’ original agreement to vote on the party’s other legislative priorities first. Having passed 228 to 206, the bill is moving to President Biden’s desk. Along with authorization of massive spending on roads, bridges and broadband internet access, it carries a handful of consequential crypto-related provisions that remained unchanged since …

Legal experts have warned that a section of the Infrastructure Bill, which is due for a vote today, amends a part of the tax code and makes a failure by businesses and individuals to report digital asset transactions a criminal offense. University of Virginia School of Law lecturer Abraham Sutherland said it is a separate provision to the controversial “broker” provision that attracted all the attention when the bill was in the Senate: “It’s bad for all users of digital assets, but it’s especially bad for decentralized finance. The statute would not ban DeFi outright. Instead, it imposes reporting requirements …

New York Democrat Mayor-elect Eric Adams revealed on Twitter today he intends to take his first three paychecks in Bitcoin. Adams also doubled down on his plans to make New York the “center of the cryptocurrency industry” after he takes office in January. The clear statement of political support for cryptocurrency came in response to an earlier tweet by Bitcoin podcaster Anthony Pompliano: “Who is going to be the first American politician to accept their salary in bitcoin?” Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who won reelection earlier this week, replied to the tweet saying that he plans to take his next …

Data suggests that some low-paid members of the workforce are quitting their jobs after making life-changing crypto gains. Analytics firm Civic Science posted survey results (weighted according to U.S. census data) on Nov. 1, which shows that 4% of 6741 respondents aged 18 and over had quit their jobs in the past year due to “financial freedom” earned by investing in crypto assets. Civic then cross-referenced the 4% figure with data from 1,201 respondents based on their annual income who had quit their jobs due to crypto gains. Almost two thirds of those who had quit their jobs due to …