The chief technical officer of crypto market data aggregator Glassnode, Rafael Schultze-Kraft, has described a slew of Bitcoin (BTC) market indicators as “insanely bullish,” and predicted prices are set to increase by more than 10 times. On Dec. 9, Schulze-Kraft tweeted a thread providing the basis for his ultra-optimistic prediction, presenting six of “the most important on-chain market indicators that are currently hovering at the same levels they were at the start of 2017.” 1/ Where are we in the #Bitcoin market cycle? A look at some of the most important on-chain market indicators. TLDR: Insanely bullish, most metrics are …

Germany’s Bankhaus von der Heydt, or BVDH, has launched a Euro stablecoin on the Stellar network. The bank claims the token is the first of its kind to be issued by a banking institute.The EURB stablecoin, which went live today, was developed on the Stellar blockchain in partnership with tokenization and digital asset custody technology provider Bitbond. The asset, which is fully regulated and backed one-for-one with Euros, will not be openly traded on exchanges due to tight regulatory and Know Your Customer requirements. If a customer wants to acquire the stablecoin, a fiat currency transfer is held in an …

Digital-asset regulation has been a hot topic in 2020 and shows no signs of cooling. A recent G7 meeting concluded that the sector faces an ongoing need for regulation. In addition to talking about COVID-19 and economic issues, the group “also discussed ongoing responses to the evolving landscape of crypto assets and other digital assets and national authorities’ work to prevent their use for malign purposes and illicit activities,” according to a public statement from the United States Department of the Treasury on Monday: “There is strong support across the G7 on the need to regulate digital currencies. Ministers and …

Facebook’s Diem stablecoin, which recently changed its name from Libra, is still failing to impress German regulators. As reported by Reuters, German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz voiced his criticism of the project on Monday after a conference between G-7 finance ministers and central bank directors. Scholz called Facebook’s project “a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” highlighting that changing its name would not change its fundamentals. According to him, Facebook and the Diem Association have failed to adequately address its regulatory risks. Until that is done, the German government “will not accept its entry into the market.” Before renaming itself, Libra had …

German private bank Hauck & Aufhäuser announced its first crypto fund, the HAIC Digital Asset Fund I, launching Jan. 1, 2021. According to a report on FundView, the initiative, a collaboration with Berlin fintech Kapilendo, will target institutional and semi-institutional investors who want to invest in a portfolio of crypto assets, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Stellar (XLM). The fund will pursue a passive investment strategy, with a crypto allocation ratio based on market cap and other criteria. According to the company, the portfolio will cover 85% of the total crypto asset market. The minimum investment in the fund …

After spending much of 2019 unsuccessfully lobbying to get its exchange-traded fund, or ETF, approved by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, investment management fund VanEck has finally launched a Bitcoin-backed exchange-traded product. However, according to a Nov. 25 tweet from the company’s digital asset strategist Gabor Gurbacs, the product is an exchange-traded note rather than an ETF, and is listed not on a U.S. exchange, but Germany’s Deutsche Börse Xetra. Rather than being a mutual fund, an ETN is essentially a debt instrument tracking a sometimes hard-to-access market, which in this instance is Bitcoin (BTC). The VanEck Vectors …

On Nov. 18, blockchain solutions provider BlockApps launched a blockchain-based agricultural crop tracking network called "TraceHarvest" — and one of the largest companies in the world, Bayer, is among its first users. TraceHarvest reportedly provides users with the ability to trace the life cycle of agricultural products starting from the source of seeds, all the way to defining the responsibilities of each party involved in the supply chain. The platform also provides users with information in real-time, ideally mitigating problems associated with manually tracking crops. TraceHarvest is open to all participants in the supply chain such as farmers, dealers, manufacturers, …

Artificial intelligence specialist Fetch.ai and blockchain solutions provider Datarella have announced the launch of a “Smart City” infrastructure trial in Munich on Nov. 12. The trial will be centered around the Connex Buildings business center in the city and will use a multiagent blockchain-based AI platform to optimize parking space management at the building. This is designed to encourage reduced car use and, hence, reduced CO2 emissions. Autonomous economic agents will negotiate the “price” of parking spaces between the operators and users. Users will be rewarded for choosing less-popular parking spaces or not using the parking lot at all. Rewards …

Deutsche Bank, the largest banking institution in Germany, is confident that central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, will replace cash in the future. The bank’s research arm, Deutsche Bank Research, published a new report on economic estimations and proposals to assist global economies hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Titled “What We Must Do to Rebuild,” the study was released on Nov. 10. In the report, Deutsche Bank states that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the “digital cash revolution.” According to the bank, this revolution will eventually enable CBDCs like China’s digital yuan or Sweden’s e-krona to replace cash in …

German soccer club FC Bayern Munich, which plays in the country’s Bundesliga, is entering the world of blockchain-based fantasy soccer. The Ethereum blockchain-based fantasy soccer game Sorare, which Bayern joined this week, already counts over 100 participant clubs, including high-profile names such as Paris Saint-German, Juventus, PSG, and Atletico Madrid. FC Bayern Munich is itself no stranger to collaborations with blockchain projects, having partnered last fall with Stryking Entertainment to produce digital collectibles of its players. These cards are both collectible and playable as part of a fantasy-league style challenge. In announcing its Sorare deal to fans, FC Bayern Munich …

Top-tier German soccer club Borussia Dortmund, or BVB, is entering a multi-year partnership with the crypto trading platform Bybit. At present, details of what the partnership will involve, beyond mutual brand outreach, remain slight. In a statement for Cointelegraph, Bybit CEO Ben Zhou pointed to BVB's huge popularity, characterizing its fan base as the seventh-largest in the world. He said: "With the partnership, Bybit intends to increase its global reach and branding, as the Bybit logo and slogans will be presented virtually on BVB's matches, their websites and social platforms." A forthcoming high-profile match with Bayern Munich, in which the …

According to a public notice published in the Supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union, Ocean Protocol, a Singaporean non-profit foundation, was hired to create a decentralized network for Germany's Bundesbank. The central bank said that the Ocean protocol, which is a project of relatively limited renown, was chosen mostly because they were the only possible contractor for the job, citing a “lack of comparable competitors.” Bundesbank detailed in its public notice that the main purpose of the project is to set up a “decentralized network approach, which allows participants a permanent, symmetrical data access for the realization …