Grayscale Investments’ latest report “Reimagining the Future of Finance” defines the digital economy as “the intersection of technology and finance that’s increasingly defined by digital spaces, experiences, and transactions.” With this in mind, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that many financial institutions have begun to offer services that allow clients access to Bitcoin (BTC) and other digital assets. Last year, in particular, saw an influx of financial institutions incorporating support for crypto-asset custody. For example, Bank of New York Mellon, or BNY Mellon, announced in February 2021 plans to hold, transfer and issue Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as an …

Cryptocurrency has become one of the most widely discussed topics of 2022. As such, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that mentioning “crypto” in an online dating profile may generate additional attention. A new study from brokerage firm eToro found that 33% of Americans who were surveyed would be more likely to go on a date with someone who mentioned crypto assets in their online dating profile. Out of the 2,000 adult residents in the United States between the ages of 18 and 99 surveyed, more than 40% of men and 25% of women indicated that their interest in a …

Chris Kuiper, Head of Research at Fidelity Digital Assets, is convinced that Bitcoin (BTC) should be treated separately from other digital assets and believes it plays an exclusive role in investors’ portfolios. Fidelity Digital Assets' latest report, titled Bitcoin First, targets two main concerns that Fidelity’s clients have raised towards BTC — eventually being replaced by some other cryptocurrencies and lower upside potential left compared to other coins. According to Kuiper, BTC offers a unique value proposition as the most decentralized and censorship-resistant monetary network. That, according to him, is a non-incremental sort of innovation similar to the invention of …

On Feb. 6, the United States Department of the Treasury released a report under the headline “Study of the facilitation of money laundering and terror finance through the trade in works of art.” In fact, only a tiny fraction of the 40-page document is dedicated to the “Emerging Digital Art Market,” by which the department understands the market for nonfungible tokens, or NFTs. Still, even a brief mention of the emerging NFT space in this context can have major implications for the tone of the nascent regulatory debate with regard to the asset class. What the report said The overall …

The world recently got a sneak peek at what a digital dollar, or at least one component of a hypothetical United States central bank digital currency (CBDC), might look like, courtesy of Project Hamilton, a collaborative effort of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and the MIT Digital Currency Initiative. The results of the project’s first phase were originally expected last summer but were released on Feb. 3. The project, announced in 2020, is named in honor of Alexander Hamilton, the first U.S. Treasury secretary, and Margaret Hamilton, an MIT staffer who contributed to NASA’s Apollo program. Researchers developed two …

The government and central bank in Russia have reached an agreement on how to regulate cryptocurrencies, according to a Tuesday announcement. Russia's government and central bank are now working on a draft law that will define crypto as an "analogue of currencies" rather than digital financial assets, set to be launched on Feb. 18. Cryptocurrencies would function in the legal industry only if they have complete identification through the banking system or licensed intermediaries. Kommersant notes that Bitcoin (BTC) transactions and possession of cryptocurrency in the Russian Federation are not prohibited; however, they must be done through a "digital currency …

In May 2021, a Nashville couple known as the Jarretts filed a lawsuit against the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over taxes they had paid on unclaimed and unsold Tezos (XTZ) staking rewards. At the beginning of February, news broke that the lawsuit filed by the Jarretts had come to an end, resulting in the IRS issuing the couple a tax refund for $3,793. Confusion among crypto holders Not long after this news made headlines, confusion among the crypto community piqued. One crypto media publication sent a tweet from its official account on Feb. 2, 2022, saying, “BREAKING: IRS …

The influence of blockchain technology on the ongoing digital revolution cannot be overstated as the rise of the Metaverse and the integration of virtual reality is transforming the way humans interact on a global scale. One project that is beginning to gain traction in its effort to bridge the old world with the new is Decentraland (MANA), a virtual reality (VR) ecosystem built on the Ethereum network that allows users to create, engage with and monetize digital content through a variety of interactive experiences. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that over the past two weeks, the price …

The armed forces of Myanmar, which have been in control of the government since forcibly detaining many elected leaders in 2021, is reportedly planning to release a digital currency to help the local economy. According to a Thursday report from Bloomberg, Major General Zaw Min Tun said rolling out a digital currency would “help improve financial activities in Myanmar,” but military officials were undecided on whether to work with local companies or release the token on their own. Tun, the chief of the military government’s 'True News Information Team', acts as a spokesperson for the Myanmar army. The digital currency …

Li Jiang, COO at Harmony, believes that a bridge connecting all existing blockchains is key to onboard the first 1 billion users on Web 3. “We think that the future is multichain and cross-chain, that you should be able to move assets very easily from one chain to another, with good prices, with good rates and very fast.”, he told Cointelegraph in an exclusive interview. Harmony is a Layer-1 blockchain protocol that aims at creating bridges with all major blockchains and becoming a “unifying Web 3 platform” by 2026. Jiang acknowledges that blockchain technology is not mature enough to onboard …

Japanese trading house Mitsui is reportedly planning to issue a cryptocurrency pegged to gold, local news agency Nikkei Asia reported Friday. Called ZipangCoin (ZPG), Mitsui’s new digital currency will reportedly be issued as early as February and will be available to retail investors through cryptocurrency exchanges. The stablecoin will be linked to gold prices at yen-denominated prices by Mitsui from the London Metal Exchange, with one ZPG valued equivalent to one gram of gold and guaranteed by Sumitomo Mitsui Banking. According to the report, the new gold stablecoin will be initially offered through Mitsui’s proprietary crypto exchange and later made …

T.V. Somanathan, the finance secretary for the Indian government, is reportedly pushing back against the narrative cryptocurrencies will be widely accepted in the country — by dismissing the possibility of using them as legal tender. According to a Wednesday tweet from Asian News International, Somanathan said that a digital rupee backed by the Reserve Bank of India, or RBI, will be accepted as legal tender, but major cryptocurrencies have no chance of doing so. The finance secretary added that because digital assets including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) do not have authorization from the government, they will likely remain “assets …