Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
Blockchain news
- The Ethereum (ETH) 2.0 deposit contract will not be released in October as previously speculated, and not for a few more weeks at least, according to the Ethereum Foundation researcher Danny Ryan, speaking on the Bankless podcast. Ryan said that it will go live once it passes an audit of a critical crypto library, BLST, performed by cryptography audit firm NCC Group. This could happen in early to mid-November.
Adoption news
- The major Venezuelan supermarket chain Excelsior Gama said it will accept payments in bitcoin (BTC) and a number of altcoins, per an official Instagram post. The supermarket stated that it has struck a partnership deal with domestic crypto exchange Cryptobuyer. The deal will allow cashiers at 24 branches in and near the capital Caracas to start accepting BTC, ETH, binance coin (BNB), dash (DASH), litecoin (LTC), stablecoins DAI (DAI) and tether (USDT), and XPT, a Cryptobuyer-developed ERC-20 protocol token. Excelsior Gama will also allow customers to pay in crypto for online and delivery payments via its website.
Regulation news
- Billionaire Alibaba founder Jack Ma criticised worldwide regulation for stifling innovation, urged China to seek a system that accommodated development, and said that digital currencies could play a role in a new global financial system, reported Bloomberg. “Digital currency could create value and we should think about how to establish a new type of financial system through digital currency,” Ma was quoted as saying.
- A group of leading Japanese crypto firm CEOs have called for more crypto legislation and clarity from regulators at a virtual meetup. Per Coin Post, Yuzo Kano, the CEO of bitFlyer, also warned that the cost of self-regulation was on the rise and could be lead to mounting costs for customers. He also opined that some firms could seek to operate in a legal “grey area” if self-regulatory adherence were not made mandatory for the crypto sector.
Exchanges news
- Bithumb has launched an automated ordering service, reported ENews Today. The function automatically executes buy and sell orders when a cryptoasset reaches a specified price (selected by a customer). The exchange stated that up to 25 orders can be placed simultaneously, but the service is currently only open to PC version users. However, Bithumb added that a dedicated mobile app is currently in the pipelines.
- Bitfinex Derivatives, a derivatives platform accessible through crypto exchange Bitfinex, has launched a perpetual contract for silver. The contract will offer users up to 100x leverage and will be settled in USDT, said the platform.
Tax news
- The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has clarified who needs to answer in the affirmative to a question about cryptoasset activity included in the draft 1040 federal income tax form for 2020. Per the instructions, a person answers ‘yes’ if they sold cryptoasset, exchanged it for goods or services, exchanged it for property including other cryptoasset, and received any cryptoasset or free, including via airdrops or hard forks – but not if they just held any crypto, or moved it from one to another wallet they own.
Legal news
- Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith’s lawyer, Brian Klein, has filed a motion to dismiss the US government’s charges per which Griffith violated sanctions law by speaking at a North Korean cryptocurrency conference, multiple news outlets reported. The motion claims that the government’s indictment doesn’t “specify any alleged overt facts,” and contains no actual allegation of fact.
Crypto politics news
- Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple, a California-based blockchain startup focusing on the banking sector, rejected the recently much-debated apolitical stance of major crypto exchange Coinbase, which was announced by its CEO, Brian Armstrong. In an interview with CNBC, Garlinghouse said he thinks tech companies have an “obligation” to work toward solving societal issues. “The sad reality is — and I say this as a long-time veteran of Silicon Valley — some of these (societal) problems are, at a minimum, exacerbated by the tech platforms themselves,” Garlinghouse is quoted as saying.
- Online payments giant PayPal terminated an account by a domain registrar called Epik, allegedly due to suspicions of money laundering in relation to its digital currency Masterbucks, reported Mashable, citing “a source close to the situation.” This source reportedly said that the group failed to go through the appropriate legal steps to run Masterbucks, and that it was encouraging tax evasion. PayPal reportedly denied that the account was terminated because of Epik’s political ideology, as they claim. Epik is home to far-right websites, whose CEO allegedly defended the white supremacist and a former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.