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Fourteen-year-old Ishaan Thakur and his sister, 9-year-old Aanya, spent their summer building a lucrative business mining cryptocurrency.

"We started because we wanted to learn something new about technology – and also make some money along the way," Ishaan tells CNBC Make It.

And they have.

Each month, the siblings make over $30,000 mining three digital coins: Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market value; ether, the second-largest; and ravencoin, an altcoin amid the top 100, Ishaan says.

To do this, Ishaan and Aanya, who are based in Frisco, Texas, had to learn how to mine, which is no simple feat. When mining to earn cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ether, complex computers are programmed to compete to solve difficult puzzles in order to validate transactions.

"Crypto mining is just like mining for gold or diamonds," Ishaan says. "Instead of using shovels, you mine with computers. Instead of finding a piece of gold or a diamond in the mine, you find a cryptocurrency."

After watching videos on YouTube and searching the internet, Ishaan converted his Alienware, a popular kind of gaming computer, into an ether mining rig in April. (He did this by using the graphics card, which can perform a high volume of calculations for mining.)

His parents were supportive: "We could have spent the entire summer playing video games, but instead we used our spare time to learn about technology," Ishaan says.

The siblings began with ether, because mining bitcoin can be especially difficult. With its limited supply and surging demand, the competition when mining bitcoin can be more intense.

On their first day, "I made $3," Ishaan says.

To make business official, Ishaan and Aanya created their own mining company, Flifer Technologies, with the help of their father, Manish Raj, on April 30.

"We liked it so much that we started to add more processors [or chips], and made $1,000 in our first month" of May, Ishaan says.

The siblings' income continued to rise, and by late July, they could afford to buy equipment, like Antminers and Nvidia RTX 3080-Ti graphics cards, to start mining bitcoin and ravencoin, too. When deciding which to mine, they chose ravencoin because the equipment they had was "optimal" for mining it, Raj says.

In total, they expect to earn around $36,000 in September based on the equipment currently on order, Raj says.

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"We can process a little over 10 billion Ethereum algorithms per second" alone, Ishaan says.

Although Ishaan and Aanya have had success, the process is far from easy.

In addition to being very complicated, mining is certainly not cheap, as it requires expensive equipment, a lot of energy and computer power.

Ishaan and Aanya, for example, have over 97 processors, which their father Raj, a former investment banker, helped fund by taking out a loan.

Raj declined to disclose the exact loan amount. But, the worldwide shortage of computer chips made finding equipment much more difficult and set prices at a premium.

Ishaan and Aanya mostly use Nvidia RTX 3090 graphics cards, Ishaan says, and each card alone can cost around $2,500 to $3,000 to buy.

Though at home, the siblings say they use "100% renewable energy for our mining," because "we want to be environmentally friendly," they also rent a data center in Dallas, Texas. In total, for both their home and the data center, the electric bill costs just below $3,000 per month, Ishaan says.

"We moved from my desk to the garage, since the house was getting too much heat and noise. [W]e outgrew the garage, since heat and noise was too much for the garage too," Ishaan says. "We now use the garage only for building and testing mining rigs. When they are ready, we move them to a professional, air-conditioned data center in downtown Dallas."

Ishaan and Aanya were able to "scale up" their operation during their school's summer break, but, looking ahead, they hope to continue to grow their business and balance it with school.

When her friends ask, "I just tell them we're just mining in the garage," Aanya says.

With their profits, they plan to reinvest in their business. But, "hopefully profits from our mining business will [also] pay for our college fees," Ishaan says.

Ishaan hopes to attend the University of Pennsylvania, he says. There, he'd like to study medicine and become a doctor. Aanya also wants to study medicine, but instead, would like to attend New York University.

However, they have a few years left to save – after all, Ishaan is just a freshman in high school, and Aanya is a fourth grader in elementary school.

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Don't miss: This 12-year-old coder is set to earn over $400,000 after about 2 months selling NFTs

Between Bitcoin (BTC) breaking the $50,000 hurdle and the upswell in the altcoin markets, crypto has never been more appealing to speculators. But, stacking profits through trading is worthless unless that money is spent. Luckily, charitable organizations are waking up to the possibility of crypto donations as the world embraces crypto. For blockchain entrepreneur Wendy O, when a local gym was in jeopardy, she knew to tap into crypto Twitter for help. Using social media, her YouTube channel and Tik-Tok, the influencer sent out the call to save a business dear to her heart.

The Self Care Lab is a boxing gym located in Pomona, CA which caters to underprivileged and at-risk youth. Owner Nita Watson recently discovered that the ownership of the gym’s building had changed hands and she had a mere 30 days to vacate and find a new home for a community she had spent years building up.

Thankfully, Wendy O is a long-time client of the gym and a strong proponent of using physical fitness to uplift the youth. Wendy tapped into her network of blockchain enthusiasts, traders, entrepreneurs, and self-declared “degens” to raise the funds to not only move locations but upgrade various, worn-down pieces of equipment. While the gym’s Go Fund Me page has not reached its final goal, she and other members are optimistic they will raise enough donations in fiat and crypto to secure a new location. Wendy O told Cointelegraph:

“This gym has been such a massive part of my life and I can’t imagine where I’d be without it. It’s more than boxing, it’s about self-care and therapy. And a lot of these kids need a positive place like this to keep them focused and out of other less-productive activities. As someone who’s made a living in crypto, I knew I could count on my friends to step in and make a difference.”

However, the innovation didn’t stop at allowing crypto donations. To capture the attention of the nascent blockchain art community, Wendy O successfully launched a series of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) on the Theta blockchain, with thousands sold so far. Two of these NFTs are redeemable for consulting sessions with Wendy O, injecting some utility into the donations. Bridging the gap between speculators and charity is a relatively new phenomenon in the decentralized asset ecosystem, though it will likely be more popular as more well-known names in the space begin leveraging crypto for charitable causes. By avoiding payment operators, middle-men and third-party processors, more of each crypto donation is able to be received.

Related: Prioritizing humanity ahead of profits through NFTs

Other projects have long accepted donations in Bitcoin including the Kessler Foundation and the Dementia Society of America. Most recently, the PAWS Animal Rescue in Chicago began accepting donations in Dogecoin (DOGE). Even though there are no NFTs involved in the case of PAWS, the appeal of helping dogs with such a popular canine-themed token seems undeniable.

Most recently, the blockchain sector has been supporting charities focused on assisting humanitarian efforts in Afghanistan. As thousands of refugees seek new homes all over the world, nonprofits are stepping up to take action. Consulting firm Visualize Value recently joined forces with CARE to sell NFTs that cover a family’s emergency needs.

Related: Digitizing charity: We can do better at doing good

As impactful as these donations are, it may be the convenience of crypto that ultimately drives more users to send funds. Generally speaking, the traditional route to donate online includes filling out a lengthy form, manually inputting credit card info and other steps to complete a donation. In contrast, for crypto investors comfortable making blockchain transactions, sending BTC or Ether (ETH) is second nature. Instead of bidding on penguin NFTs, in this case, they are helping a just cause.

A casual glance at some of the posts on Crypto Twitter may seem a bit strange. Timelines are filled with random shills, various scams, traders celebrating their wins and stories of people losing untold sums due to bad trading practices. While it may seem like a rough crowd to an outsider, however, those who can navigate the space are able to find charitable diamonds in the rough.

Published Sunday, Jun. 6, 2021, 2:34 pm

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New crypto coins to buy in 2021, the topic that’s been on every investors’ mind.  Since a tidal wave of nearly a trillion dollars was injected into the cryptocurrency market, global attention has glued to digital money. Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP have reigned supreme with financial whales making homes in their safe harbors.  Alternatively, coins like Safemoon and Shiba Inu made big gains of fast swings and lots of pumping action. Now, the world is seeking the latest high potential crypto coin and new signals are screaming about the return of the SafeTitan.

The China Coin

The group fueling this digital moneda’s rise are well known to the technology world of China.  Perhaps this is why the rising Titan of cryptos is being dubbed ‘The China Coin.’

Marketing Gurus Xia Yue, Ye Maozhong, and Wang Wenzon are pushing the SafeTitan brand through Asia’s mainland. More specifically they are targeting the youth of the 1.4 billion populated country, which many say has an economy ahead of America as of 2021.

The trio are currently planning a large-scale promotional campaign that will dominate Chinese social media platforms: Douyin, Sina Weibo, Youku, Kuaishou, Qzone, Xiaohongshu, Zhihu & Baidu Tieba. Together these powerhouse platforms serve nearly 3-billion users daily.

New Crypto Coin Moon

The official SafeTitan website is ‘out of this world.’ The page header gives users the feel of cruising outer space, perhaps to the moon. Either that or  trip to “Titan,” a moon of Saturn, which is akin to the cryptocurrency brand name.

The initial offering price of the SafeTItan token is .005 cents (USD) according to the home page.  Another boasted stat includes that several ICO registrations have been done, which means a new initial coin offering is quite likely in the near future. Most cryptocurrencies get listed with 2-5% of the initial exchanges which they register for an ICO with.

This is not Dogecoin.  There is no Elon Musk nor Mark Cuban screaming its name. However, there are rumors floating that a group of social media influencers are quietly aligning with SafeTitan. According to social media group chat rumors, when this new crypto coin releases in 2021, over 15-million followers will get notice pre-sale.

Where to buy in 2021

In layman’s terms, SafeTitan will be available for buyers on PanCakeSwap in July of 2021. The initial coin offering is less than a month away. These ‘facts’ are according to redditors. There is a subreddit community that’s been created for fans of “The China Coin.”

The .005 cents (USD) standard is a bit higher than many competitor coins, but this is also due to projected technology upgrades and usage features.

Not only that, the supply of this coin is drastically lower than most of your ‘mooning’ or ‘mainstream’ name brands on exchanges today. Only 1 billion tokens will be created for use.

This supply will decrease with time. Though nothing specific can be confirmed, this crypto coin will auto-burn 20-30% of its supply over time.

‘The 100’

The team of Chinese executives marketers working on outreach, are also working with influencers from all digi-spheres of the web. And from all over the world.

A “TItan100” plan may unfold later in June. Though not defined well, allegedly 100 powerful influencers will be given 1,000 tokens to sit at the table with SafeTitan’s bosses. This ‘Titan100’ group will be monitoring and influencing communities such as Telegram, reddit, Facebook, skype, WeChat, and more. Public data will be mined to help improve and inform the public about SafeTitan.

Of course, some of those influencers will also be YouTube or TikTok stars. Their company roles are not clear. There is a recent tweet confirming The 100 however (@SafeTian).

SafeTitan token uses

On the SafeTitan website, the company’s insights are clear.  The ‘moon bound’ token will have proof of elapsed time of Space consensus algorithms implemented. The crypto titan will also be focused on sharding technology and other digital currency techniques to allow for cross-chain bridging between the most popular crypto coins. The end goal, be a part in the decentralization of finance and keep fees minimal.

When Dogecoin reached the world-leading crypto exchange Coinbase in June 2021, it was already .30cents. The biggest gains by investors were already made. Active investors have sought out the ‘shiba inu’ faced coin on smaller cryptocurrency exchanges since 2018.   After a lot of buzz built on social media, much like what’s happening with SafeTitan in China, OKEx’s founder offered the coin on their exchange. One tweet was made to announce the event (read here).

Smart and maybe somewhat lucky investors plowed in millions, purchasing the Doge for $.0077, which is less than a penny. Those who purchased $100 of Dogecoins at that time would have approximately $4,739 more, if sold at 38 cents (USD).

No pair of shoes that you invested $100 on in 2019, could have been that comfortable to miss out on nearly $5,000 profit. Not unless you were walking into a Diamond or Gold mine.

Perhaps SafeTitan will be the next rocket to the moon. If as the company claims, it will be ‘beyond the moon.’

The new cryptocurrency ICO launch in July may be the reason one should hold off on that ‘swanky’ sneaker purchase and walk barefoot to success.

The best cryptocurrency to buy in 2021 earlier was Bitcoin, then Ethereum, then Dogecoin, then Safemoon. The moon-rides are coming faster than Elon Musk could have predicted.

Story by Carolina Khid

Albemarle County hosting Community Day at Simpson Park Saturday, 6:18 pmVirginia Tech rally comes up short at WVU Saturday, 4:09 pm

This week's "flash crash" that dragged bitcoin (BTC-USD) back below $50,000 — and sent other digital coins reeling in its wake — marred what should have been the momentous occasion of the first sovereign country on earth adopting a cryptocurrency as legal tender. 

Despite the ugly price action, most of crypto's true believers are still just that — even as some observers question bitcoin's head-spinning volatility, and El Salvador's decision to throw its weight behind it. 

Michael Sonnenshein, CEO of Grayscale Investments, the world's largest cryptocurrency fund manager by assets, who told Yahoo Finance Live this week that other countries are likely to join El Salvador in the race to make crypto legal tender.

And Matt Hougan, CIO of Bitwise, also told Yahoo Finance Live that “it’s the greatest time, I think, to enter the crypto market. A lot of the first decade of crypto was about zero to one. … Now the question is how fast we scale from one to 100. A lot of that is built on what regulatory clarity we get.”

To be sure, it's been a rocky week for digital currencies like bitcoin — which traded above $52,000 on Monday but hovered near $45,000 on Friday — as well as ethereum (ETH-USD) and Cardano (ADA-USD). However, from peak to trough, the latter two didn't lose nearly as much as bitcoin, which suffered offshore outflows upwards of $3 billion during Tuesday's selloff, according to one investor.

On the other hand, the price of cryptocurrency (SOL1-USD), which power the Solana blockchain, is already above its pre-flash crash highs, trading above $175 on Friday. 

Anatomy of a 'telltale' crypto crash

In an interview with Yahoo Finance, Jeff Sekinger, a financial guru, founder of the Miami-based crypto hedge fund Orca Capital, said he believes overall crypto market will likely see a lot of growth through the end of this year, despite this week's rout.

Like the week of Coinbase’s initial public offering, this week began with another major market event — El Salvador’s new Bitcoin Law, which was expected to be a boon to the industry.

Sekinger has witnessed his share of crypto market cycles. He first purchased bitcoin in college in 2013, and the 2017 bull market convinced him to leave his job at JPMorgan Chase to focus on the asset class full-time. He started Orca Capital in April two years later.

Breaking down trading volume, open interest levels and on-chain analysis, Sekinger actually called this week’s flash crash in a Youtube video he published on August 31. He told Yahoo Finance it came down to volume and three major upward trends.

“When the perpetual funding, opening interest and price action are all moving up but volume is slowing, it's been a telltale sign for the past three major crashes,” Sekinger told Yahoo Finance.

This time, the downturn came from the combination of high leverage in the markets on top of cryptocurrency traders “buying the rumor and selling the news,” he said. That was proof enough that the market is still relatively small — and still heavily manipulated by a few big players, according to Sekinger. 

Acknowledging that market cycles are notoriously difficult to predict, Sekinger said the current bull market in crypto will likely end in the first or second quarter of next year.

“There will be too much euphoria and too much leverage and everything will come crashing down. Because we are starting to see serious money within the space, I think in terms of a percentage correction, it will be less,” said Sekinger.

Currently, Orca has two funds that each hold about 10 to 15 different assets that cumulatively hold $50 million under management today, with 167 limited partners. Since Orca started, both funds have outperformed bitcoin while one doubled the cryptocurrency's return in the last year.

Within two months, Orca will rollout two more funds — including a more aggressive decentralized finance (DeFi)-focused fund. These additions should double their total asset value under management, Sekinger said.

Retail investors "see all these crazy stories about the ridiculous amount of money being made on NFTs and that sparks their interest.”Jeff Sekinger, crypto portfolio manager

In terms of leverage, Sekinger said that his funds can lever up to 5 percent of their value, but that they never have had a desire to go close to 5 percent, and typically use it at the most “two to three times per year in small quantities.”

Orca’s future offerings come from retail demand for nonfungible token (NFT)-related investment, according to Sekinger — something he connected to solana's skyrocketing growth over the summer. 

“One of the reasons why SOL is blowing up is because a ton of NFTs are moving from Ethereum to Solana because it's so much less expensive to launch, buy and sell on the Solana blockchain,” said Sekinger. 

Retail investors "see all these crazy stories about the ridiculous amount of money being made on NFTs and that sparks their interest,” he said.

In light of the wellspring of investment brought into the crypto market by NFTs, investor interest in blockchains with higher transaction speed has quickly dominated price action. 

Since its London hardfork update, the Ethereum blockchain is said to perform 15 transactions per second but reports of high fees due to network congestion have sent traders reeling.

I'm glad the gas fees are so high on ETH that I simply have to diamond hand everything anyway. The future of finance involves 0 transactions.

— Lily Francus (@nope_its_lily) September 3, 2021

Based on tests, Cardano is said to do 257 transactions per second and potentially much more with upgrades while Solana can complete 50,000 transactions per second.

David Hollerith covers cryptocurrency for Yahoo Finance. Follow him @dshollers.

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The nonfungible token (NFT) sector of the cryptocurrency ecosystem has made waves that splashed across the headlines of even mainstream news outlets in 2021. Celebrities, musicians, sports teams, established auction houses and even fast-food restaurants got involved with the creation and/or sale of one-of-a-kind digital items. 

With the top NFT marketplaces like OpenSea seeing record-breaking trading volumes as projects like CryptoPunks and Pudgy Penguins see tens of millions of dollars in value exchanged daily. However, it can be challenging to know which projects have the ability to hold or increase in value long-term and which ones are likely to fizzle out once the hype dies down.

NFT projects that fit into the growing crypto metaverse and offer multiple ways to engage and earn a yield such as play-to-earn and staking features have been gaining traction, attracting the attention of both average investors and institutional players.

Here are some of the top metaverse-ready NFT protocols that have potential long-term staying power, as well as pointers on how to spot these diamonds in the ruff amid an increasingly crowded field of NFT projects.

Play-to-earn platforms attract the masses and generate revenue

Axie Infinity has emerged as one of the breakout protocols in this bull market cycle, as its play-to-earn style of gameplay allows users to have fun battling with in-game characters called Axies and earn an income at the same time.

As opposed to the free-to-play model of apps that are loaded with in-game purchases designed to drain a user’s bank account, funds spent on platforms like Axie Infinity allow for the opportunity to earn an income or decent return on investment, since decentralized finance (DeFi) and economic principles such as staking, inflation and scarcity are designed into the gameplay model.

The Axie Infinity ecosystem recently surpassed one million active daily users and has processed $1.373 billion in all-time volume, according to data from CryptoSlam.

The protocol has seen the highest rates of adoption in areas of the world like Malaysia and Venezuela, where the economic struggles of the people make the 150 to 200 Smooth Love Potion (SLP) a player can earn each day — worth between $23.70 and $31.60 at the time of writing — an attractive source of daily income.

— Mr. M (@BlackMambaBitco) August 6, 2021

With the government of Venezuela instituting a monthly income that is equivalent to $2.40 at the exchange rate estimated by the country’s central bank, a daily income of $23.70 could potentially feed a family for up to 10 months.

Due to these factors, NFTs in the Axie Infinity ecosystem have a stronger possibility of holding their value over time and maintaining a higher level of liquidity than many of the random NFT projects which are simply glorified jpegs.

Token generating NFTs give collectibles utility

Another project that offers a unique take on mixing DeFi, gameplay and NFTs is Aavegotchi, a platform built on the Aave protocol that enables in-game avatars to be combined with other cryptocurrency assets, which can then be used as DeFi collateral and earn staking rewards.

Aavegotchi avatars, known as Gotchi’s, are scarce in number and new ones are only minted a limited number of times per year and released via auction or raffle drawing.

— Aavegotchi HAUNT 2 AUG 26-29 (@aavegotchi) July 27, 2021

Users who stake the native GHST token on the protocol earn rewards in the form of FRENS, which can be used to purchase raffle tickets that are entered in drawings for in-game items such as wearables, consumables, or Gotchi summoning portals.

These items can then be combined with Gotchi’s to increase their rarity and value, or sold in the marketplace as another source of income for token holders.

The ability to lock up other tokens or assets into a Gotchi adds another layer of value and rarity for each avatar. To extract any added assets, Gotchis are destroyed in the process leading to an increase in scarcity.

At the time of writing, 7,760 portals have been opened and 432 Gotchi’s have been sacrificed according to Aavegotchi Stats, leaving a circulating supply of 7,328 Gotchi’s with varying traits and levels of rarity.

Cross-asset staking and gameplay complete the metaverse 

One final project that is newer on the scene but attracting attention nonetheless is Illuvium, an open-world fantasy battle game built on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain.

While this project is still in development, the price of its native ILV token surged 1765% between June 22 and Aug. 13 as excitement builds ahead of its launch.

One of the catalysts for its price rise was the introduction of ILV staking, which enables token holders to earn a yield ranging from 43.44% to 86.88% depending on the length of time tokens are locked up.

Illuvium has also offered cross-asset staking via flash pools that allows Axie Infinity (AXS) and Synthetix (SNX) holders a chance to earn ILV by staking their tokens on the protocol.

One method the team has used to attract attention to the project has been to create unique NFTs representing some of the top crypto influencers, and the team has also provided a steady stream of teasers and updates on characters and NFTs that will be found in the game.

— Illuvium (@illuviumio) August 19, 2021

The creation of an AAA-rated game on the Ethereum blockchain has been a sought-after goal for the gaming community for years but network limitations have thus far made it impossible.

If Illuvium can make good on its goal of creating a highly interactive and visually appealing game capable of attracting users from the traditional gaming community, assets and NFTs within the ecosystem have the potential to maintain or increase in value over time.

Gamers spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars per year on some of the most popular free-to-play games that offer the opportunity to purchase rare items, giving them the one-up on their competitors, but little value is left at the end of the day in exchange for all that time and expense.

NFTs allow for a new paradigm in gaming that time spent playing and the loot acquired along the way can be transferred into real-world value that has long-term lasting power. Projects that adapt and integrate with the growing decentralized crypto metaverse are in a prime position to make gains in adoption and value.

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A rare pear-shaped diamond that is expected to fetch up to $15 million can be bought at auction next month using cryptocurrencies, Sotheby’s announced on Monday.

Sotheby’s said it would be first time a diamond of such size has been offered for public purchase with cryptocurrency. No other physical object of such high value has previously been available for sale with cryptocurrency, the auction house added.

The 101.38-carat pear shaped flawless diamond, dubbed The Key 10138, is one of just 10 diamonds of more than 100 carats ever to come to auction, only two of which were pear-shaped.

It carries a pre-sale estimate of $10 million – $15 million and will be sold on July 9 in Hong Kong. Bitcoin or ether, along with traditional money, will be accepted as payment.

“This is a truly symbolic moment. The most ancient and emblematic denominator of value can now, for the first time, be purchased using humanity’s newest universal currency,” Patti Wong, chairman of Sotheby’s Asia, said in a statement.

Cryptocurrencies have had a volatile year, with explosive growth and major tumbles. In the US, the National Republican Congressional Committee last week said it will accept donations in cryptocurrency; El Salvador this month became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender.

Sotheby’s in May sold a Banksy for $12.9 million in the first instance of a work of physical art sold by a major auction house that was bought with cryptocurrency.

Sotheby’s said that the past year has seen strong demand for white diamonds, jewels and other luxury items, particularly from younger people, including those in Asia.

The name of the colorless diamond — Key 10138 — is intended to reflect the integral role that keys occupy in the world of cryptocurrencies.

Pear-shaped diamonds are among the most sought after. The 530-carat Cullinan 1 diamond, which forms part of Britain’s Crown Jewels, is the most famous example.

The top price paid for a colorless diamond at auction was a 118.28 carat oval that went for $30.8 million at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong in 2013, with a record price per carat of $260,252.

A rare 101.38-carat pear-shaped diamond will be auctioned on July 9 in Hong Kong and is expected to get bids in the neighborhood of $15 million.

The shape and size are not the only rare elements of this gem. For the first time, a high-value luxury item will accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment.

Famed auction house Sotheby's announced Monday that the auction will be a part of its inaugural “Luxury Edit” sale series and will be the first time that a diamond of this size would accept a cryptocurrency as payment. 

Ether and traditional cash will also be accepted as payment.

The move helps cryptocurrency become a more familiar form for transactions. El Salvador recently became the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, while residents in Mexico, Venezuela and Cuba are also reportedly turning more towards cryptocurrencies.

The live single-lot auction starts on July 9, but Sotheby’s will be using its hybrid online and live bidding process, as well. The online bidding will open on June 25.

“This is a truly symbolic moment. The most ancient and emblematic denominator of value can now, for the first time, be purchased using humanity’s newest universal currency," Asia Patti Wong, chairman of Sotheby’s, said in a statement. 

This diamond will be one of 10 diamonds ever to be auctioned containing more than 100 carats, with only two of them ever being pear-shaped. Pear-shaped diamonds are among the most desired, part of Britain’s Crown Jewels includes a 530 carat Cullinan diamond in the shape of a pear.

The sparkly colorless diamond is named Key 10138 which goes in hand with the importance of “keys” in cryptocurrency. When using your cryptocurrency “wallet,” your account has an address that is seen as a public “key,” while the user also owns a private “key” only known to them to sign transactions.

“Diamonds are keys to understanding the history of the Earth, reminding us of our human condition and the transcendental power of beauty, with the name ‘The Key 10138,’ we wanted to celebrate this enlightening virtue, while also alluding to the crucial function of digital keys in the world of NFTs and cryptocurrency,” said Wenhao Yu, deputy chairman of Sotheby’s Jewelry in Asia.

Sotheby’s stated that the sale of this diamond comes at a time when there is increased demand for white diamonds, particularly of this quality. Diamonds are attracting more young and new buyers.

The top price paid for a colorless diamond was $30.8 million. The bid took place in 2013 at another Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong for a 118.28-carat diamond.

Bitcoin Diamond Cryptocurrency is currently on bullish momentum by 25.53% in the last 7 days. At 06:40 EST on Monday, 3 May, Bitcoin Diamond is at $2.40.

Concerning Bitcoin Diamond’s daily highs and lows, it’s 14.29% up from its trailing 7 days low of $2.10 and 3.61% down from its trailing 7 days high of $2.49.

Currently, Bitcoin Diamond has 30216 Twitter followers.

As of now, on Github, there are 58 forks, 101 stars, and 33 subscribers.

Bitcoin Diamond’s last week, last month’s, and last quarter’s current volatility was 3.53%, 3.53%, and 3.53%, respectively.

Bitcoin Diamond’s current volatility rank, which measures how volatile a financial asset is (variation between the lowest and highest value in a period), was 3.53% (last week), 3.53% (last month), and 3.53% (last quarter), respectively.

Bitcoin rises to two-week high after breaking technical barrier. According to Bloomberg Quint on Friday, 30 April, "Mike McGlone of Bloomberg Intelligence agrees that adoption is in its early days and says Bitcoin appears to be the right fit for today’s rapidly changing digital world. ", "Diminishing supply juxtaposed with historically low interest rates and the substantial amount of money being pumped into the system is a solid foundation for Bitcoin price appreciation, if the rules of economics apply," he wrote in a note."

More news about Bitcoin Diamond.

Bitcoin Diamond Cryptocurrency is currently on bullish momentum by 224.89% in the last 30 days. At 02:57 EST on Friday, 7 May, Bitcoin Diamond is at $6.18.

Concerning Bitcoin Diamond’s daily highs and lows, it’s 234.05% up from its trailing 30 days low of $1.85 and 18.04% down from its trailing 30 days high of $7.54.

Currently, Bitcoin Diamond has 30458 Twitter followers.

As of now, on Github, there are 58 forks, 101 stars, and 33 subscribers.

Bitcoin Diamond’s last week, last month’s, and last quarter’s current volatility was 3.49%, 3.49%, and 3.49%, respectively.

Bitcoin Diamond’s current volatility rank, which measures how volatile a financial asset is (variation between the lowest and highest value in a period), was 3.49% (last week), 3.49% (last month), and 3.49% (last quarter), respectively.

S&p dow jones brings Bitcoin, ethereum to wall st with cryptocurrency indexes. According to FX Empire on Tuesday, 4 May, "The new indexes, S&P Bitcoin Index, S&P Ethereum Index and S&P Crypto Mega Cap Index, will measure the performance of digital assets tied to them."

Bitcoin traders in U.S. lack investor protections, gensler says. According to Bloomberg Quint on Thursday, 6 May, "The SEC has signaled that Bitcoin is a commodity under U.S. law and therefore not subject to the agency’s toughest rules.", "U.S. investors lack protections when they trade Bitcoin on cryptocurrency exchanges, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler told lawmakers."

Square revenue more than triples, driven by Bitcoin purchases. According to Bloomberg Quint on Thursday, 6 May, "Revenue from Bitcoin sales — which includes the total value of Bitcoin purchases on its Cash App — climbed more than elevenfold to $3.51 billion, up from $306 million a year earlier, the company said Thursday in a shareholder letter. ", "Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey, who also runs social network Twitter Inc., is a vocal Bitcoin proponent, and has praised the idea of an unregulated, global cryptocurrency. "

Goldman offers new Bitcoin derivatives to wall street investors. According to Bloomberg Quint on Thursday, 6 May, "Goldman, which still isn’t active in the Bitcoin spot market, introduced the wagers to clients last month without an announcement.", "Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is wading deeper into the $1 trillion Bitcoin market, offering Wall Street investors a way to place big bets."

More news about Bitcoin Diamond.

Bitcoin Diamond Cryptocurrency is currently on bullish momentum by 16.01% in the last 6 hours. At 23:42 EST on Friday, 7 May, Bitcoin Diamond is at $8.48.

About Bitcoin Diamond’s daily highs and lows, it’s 22.19% up from its trailing 6 hours low of $6.94 and 3.42% down from its trailing 6 hours high of $8.78.

Currently, Bitcoin Diamond has 31105 Twitter followers.

As of now, on Github, there are 58 forks, 101 stars, and 33 subscribers.

Bitcoin Diamond’s last week, last month’s, and last quarter’s current volatility was 4.62%, 4.62%, and 4.62%, respectively.

Bitcoin Diamond’s current volatility rank, which measures how volatile a financial asset is (variation between the lowest and highest value in a period), was 4.62% (last week), 4.62% (last month), and 4.62% (last quarter), respectively.

According to the stochastic oscillator, a useful indicator of overbought and oversold conditions, Bitcoin Diamond’s crypto is considered to be oversold (<=20).

Bridgewater CFO dalby leaving for Bitcoin services firm. According to Bloomberg Quint on Friday, 7 May, "This week, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said it will offer new Bitcoin derivatives to Wall Street investors.", "It offers customers Bitcoin custody, execution and financing and is a subsidiary of $10 billion alternative asset manager Stone Ridge. "

Square revenue more than triples, driven by Bitcoin purchases. According to Bloomberg Quint on Thursday, 6 May, "Still, gross profit from those Bitcoin transactions was just $75 million, reflecting the fees that Square collects.", "Revenue from Bitcoin sales — which includes the total value of Bitcoin purchases on its Cash App — climbed more than elevenfold to $3.51 billion, up from $306 million a year earlier, the company said Thursday in a shareholder letter. "

More news about Bitcoin Diamond.

Menu Reading About NewsCoinsDiamond Standard Tries to Make Diamonds a Liquid Commodity via EthereumBy 3 min readSep 25, 2020Sep 25, 2020, a New York-based startup, is launching a  to buy, track, and sell diamonds on the Ethereum blockchain: The company wants to turn diamonds into a liquid commodity, as fungible and easy to trade as any other asset. To that end, on Monday, it’s holding an “” that, it hopes, will standardize the price of diamonds by literally pegging the gemstones to a physical token that’s encrypted, trackable, and registered to the blockchain. The company hopes to raise as much as $25 million via the sale of the diamond-studded tokens; each token will be sold for $5,000 during the Offering. "If you buy a diamond on 47th Street in New York and try to sell it, you are going to have a hard time getting two-thirds of your money back out of that. Even if you take it to Sotheby's and try to auction it, you're going to pay 18% commission. We've made an efficient commodity just like gold,” the company’s founder, Cormac Kinney in an interview last year. Kinney, a serial entrepreneur who founded, among other things, Flont Inc., a fine jewelry company, launched Diamond Standard in 2018. So how does it work? After a vendor delivers their diamonds to a global Gemological Institute of America lab to be assayed, the diamonds are inspected and separated into sets. They’re then assembled into a “Diamond Standard Coin,” which is sealed with an embedded, wireless encryption chip. The process is audited by Deloitte and the coin is registered as an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain. It can then be traded, sold, or even used as collateral for a loan, via a mobile app. "Diamond Standard is unique—it is both a physical and digital asset containing GIA certified diamonds," Tom Leonard, a Diamond Standard spokesman, told Decrypt. According to , each coin that will be offered during Monday’s public offering contains certified natural diamonds with identical geological scarcity and a wholesale market value of  $5,000.00 as of the sale date. The diamonds are tracked via the blockchain through the wireless computer chip. Once the coin is purchased, the diamonds ship to the buyer or to approved custodians BitGo, Gemini, Dillon Gage, or IDS Delaware. Individual buyers can sell their Diamond Standard Coins to another buyer using the Diamond Standard app or website. Know Your Customer compliance is required to buy, trade, or sell Diamond Standard Coins. "Not only can you trade the commodity, but you can pledge up to 80% of the value of the coin through smart contacts and back any digital transaction. We want to encourage entrepreneurs to innovate digital capabilities," Leonard said. The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice. onds-a-liquid-commodity-via-ethereumRead on the Decrypt App for the best experience. For the best experience, top crypto news at your fingertips and exclusive features download now. Menu About

Days into its experiment with bitcoin as legal tender, the government of El Salvador might as well sign up to become a member of the Reddit forum WallStreetBets. In its fixation with the cryptocurrency, in the language it uses, and in the kind of meme-stock momentum it wants to spark online, El Salvador is taking its cues directly from meme-stock traders.

For months now, Redditors have been picking stocks—GameStop, or AMC, or BlackBerry—and publicly talking up their merits, trying to boost their value by churning up enthusiasm online. The vocabulary and strategies of these traders and other influencers has become familiar: emojis, social media nudges, and avowals of staunch optimism for their choices.

On his Twitter feed, Nayib Bukele, the entrepreneur-turned-president of El Salvador, even dropped short, trumpeting announcements in the vein of Elon Musk. “Gamestonk!!” Musk had tweeted in January, as if to goad his followers into buying the GameStop stock he was excited about. Bukele’s tweet on Sep. 7—”Buying the dip,” followed by a winking emoji—was a precise echo, using the very words that WallStreetBets members invoke so frequently. Bukele has 2.8 million followers. Like Musk or other influencers, he possesses, in theory, an ability to move the market—an ability to get people to buy bitcoin and drive up its value just after his government purchased 150 new coins.

Buying the dip

150 new coins added.#BitcoinDay #BTC

— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) September 7, 2021

Like meme-stock devotees, Bukele has shown a YOLO mindset, acting quickly and unhesitatingly in pursuit of his chosen asset. He first proposed approving bitcoin as legal tender in early June; a law to that effect was passed three days later by his country’s legislature. When the price of bitcoin crashed soon after bitcoin’s debut in El Salvador on Sep. 7, Bukele’s government doubled down and purchased more coins. It was as if the government had “diamond hands,” the WallStreetBets slang that implies holding on to a meme stock with an unshakeable grip.

Sure enough, in meme-stock-y fashion, El Salvador attracted like-minded crypto-enthusiasts. In one Reddit group of 3.3 million bitcoin advocates, a campaign started up to get members to each buy $30 worth of bitcoin—a way to reward El Salvador for its boldness by pushing up the price of the currency. The $30 amount matched the quantum of equivalent coin that El Salvador promised to put into every citizen’s digital wallet. The government named the wallet “Chivo”—a local term meaning “cool,” yet another sentiment more like to be found on WallStreetBets than in the playbooks of sovereign wealth funds and other, more orthodox avenues through which countries invest their money.

In one crucial way, though, El Salvador is different from WallStreetBets. When glitches plagued the rollout of bitcoin, protests broke out in the country—not surprisingly, since Bukele has purchased millions of dollars of bitcoin not with his own money but with taxpayer funds.

Reddit investors stand to hurt themselves more than anyone else, so they don’t need to be accountable about how they spend their money. That isn’t the case with El Salvador. A national government is not a trader on WallStreetBets—a sentence that no one would have envisioned writing before 2021, the year of the meme stock.

Did you Know?

Financial payments startup Square is working on a real-world wallet for bitcoin. Hardware wallets can be used to store digital currency offline, synching with applications for transactions on the internet.

On the origin of the cryptocurrencies, Gandhi said the origination and mining of digital tokens are challenges that need to be addressed. "How to deal with the first owner of the cryptos? How should they be dealt with and taxed as there is no such law or regulation for the digital tokens?" There are laws for physical assets. For instance, finding diamonds deep under personal land attract capital gains taxes. Such measures are missing in cryptocurrencies. "Crypto must be accounted for," Gandhi said. "Investors must declare or authorities must get the information of the crypto holdings of investors or taxpayers." He suggested that exchanges have a depository information mechanism pertaining to buying, selling or dealing of cryptocurrencies by investors. "The primary concern of the government will be assets an investor bought by a particular investor," he said, hinting at the money laundering aspect of cryptocurrency. However, to ensure the anonymity of the asset, he said exchanges would have to disclose details such as who sold to whom and who bought from whom. Commenting on the monetisation part, Gandhi said once people got used to this asset and the adoption was done on a wide scale, issues of payment through cryptocurrencies can be addressed. The key concern of monetary authorities is that if cyptos are accepted at a large scale as a mode of payment, certain arrangements would be needed. First, the total stock of the particular asset and how many transactions are carried out from this asset has to be valued. Thus the regulator may add monetary aggregates, measures of money supply in a country. "More aggregates like M6 or M7 may be added to existing frameworks," he said. Once this information was available, the next challenge would be over the possibility of monetary transmission using cryptos, said the former deputy governor. "It is not clear yet but it will be evolved." All assets are sensitive to monetary policy action, but the magnitude of its sensitivity on cryptocurrencies was yet to be found out, he added.

Bitcoin has once again dipped back down below its $47K resistance point. This time, the price of the digital asset looks to have turned its attention downwards. While this downward correction continues, it is important to know where this correction might lead. Price dips are not a novel concept in bull markets. In fact, price dips are often expected following a rally in the price of any digital asset.

This drop in price is usually the market taking a bit of a step backward. Not necessarily pulling out of the asset. Bitcoin had only recently broken $50K and did not rest at this position for long. So a small downward stretch will most likely lead to a bounce-back that will push the price higher back above $50K. With a consolidation point putting the digital asset at a reasonable position above $50K.

For bitcoin to hit a new all-time high as the market expects, some factors would play into this. Simply speaking, certain signals would need to be triggered for this price jump. Bulls still have majority standing currently, but it is no secret that the bears are determined to drag down the price of the asset.

This has seen the price of bitcoin forming its first weekly bear after the run-up. As expected, bears are trying to straighten their hold on the market. Dragging BTC price down to test the $40K to $45K range again in the coming days. Current trends for the past 24 hours could very well put the market on track for this breakout level. Unless BTC sees a U-turn.

While below $45K is more than likely, BTC price charging back up past $49K will very well see a break away from current bear trends. Not only will this totally weaken bears’ hold but will also trigger a run-up towards $60K.

Despite the recent dip, market sentiments have not moved much. The Fear & Greed Index shows that the market has now moved out of “extreme greed.” But generally has remained in greed, with a current score of 75.

Bitcoin’s current price is mostly a buying opportunity for investors in it for the long run. Also known as diamond hands. Losing over $3,000 in the space of 24 hours will usually see a price rebound. The weekend will most likely usher in an uptick in trading volumes that will see BTC recover above its crash point.

At this time of writing, BTC is trending around $46,600, with an overall market cap of $881 billion. The beginning of the week saw the price break out past $50K. Current trending patterns show the asset will usher in the weekend below $50K.

Fourteen-year-old Ishaan Thakur and his sister, 9-year-old Aanya, spent their summer building a lucrative business mining cryptocurrency.

© Provided by CNBC Ishaan Thakur, 14, and his sister, Aanya, 9, earn $30,000 each month by mining cryptocurrency.

"We started because we wanted to learn something new about technology – and also make some money along the way," Ishaan tells CNBC Make It.

And they have.

Each month, the siblings make over $30,000 mining three digital coins: Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market value; ether, the second-largest; and ravencoin, an altcoin amid the top 100, Ishaan says.

To do this, Ishaan and Aanya, who are based in Frisco, Texas, had to learn how to mine, which is no simple feat. When mining to earn cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ether, complex computers are programmed to compete to solve difficult puzzles in order to validate transactions.

"Crypto mining is just like mining for gold or diamonds," Ishaan says. "Instead of using shovels, you mine with computers. Instead of finding a piece of gold or a diamond in the mine, you find a cryptocurrency."

After watching videos on YouTube and searching the internet, Ishaan converted his Alienware, a popular kind of gaming computer, into an ether mining rig in April. (He did this by using the graphics card, which can perform a high volume of calculations for mining.)

His parents were supportive: "We could have spent the entire summer playing video games, but instead we used our spare time to learn about technology," Ishaan says.

© Provided by CNBC Ishaan Thakur converted his Alienware gaming computer into an ether mining rig in April.

The siblings began with ether, because mining bitcoin can be especially difficult. With its limited supply and surging demand, the competition when mining bitcoin can be more intense.

On their first day, "I made $3," Ishaan says.

To make business official, Ishaan and Aanya created their own mining company, Flifer Technologies, with the help of their father, Manish Raj, on April 30.

"We liked it so much that we started to add more processors [or chips], and made $1,000 in our first month" of May, Ishaan says.

The siblings' income continued to rise, and by late July, they could afford to buy equipment, like Antminers and Nvidia RTX 3080-Ti graphics cards, to start mining bitcoin and ravencoin, too. When deciding which to mine, they chose ravencoin because the equipment they had was "optimal" for mining it, Raj says.

In total, they expect to earn around $36,000 in September based on the equipment currently on order, Raj says.

"We can process a little over 10 billion Ethereum algorithms per second" alone, Ishaan says.

Although Ishaan and Aanya have had success, the process is far from easy.

In addition to being very complicated, mining is certainly not cheap, as it requires expensive equipment, a lot of energy and computer power.

Ishaan and Aanya, for example, have over 97 processors, which their father Raj, a former investment banker, helped fund by taking out a loan.

Raj declined to disclose the exact loan amount. But, the worldwide shortage of computer chips made finding equipment much more difficult and set prices at a premium.

Ishaan and Aanya mostly use Nvidia RTX 3090 graphics cards, Ishaan says, and each card alone can cost around $2,500 to $3,000 to buy.

Though at home, the siblings say they use "100% renewable energy for our mining," because "we want to be environmentally friendly," they also rent a data center in Dallas, Texas. In total, for both their home and the data center, the electric bill costs just below $3,000 per month, Ishaan says.

"We moved from my desk to the garage, since the house was getting too much heat and noise. [W]e outgrew the garage, since heat and noise was too much for the garage too," Ishaan says. "We now use the garage only for building and testing mining rigs. When they are ready, we move them to a professional, air-conditioned data center in downtown Dallas."

Ishaan and Aanya were able to "scale up" their operation during their school's summer break, but, looking ahead, they hope to continue to grow their business and balance it with school.

When her friends ask, "I just tell them we're just mining in the garage," Aanya says.

With their profits, they plan to reinvest in their business. But, "hopefully profits from our mining business will [also] pay for our college fees," Ishaan says.

Ishaan hopes to attend the University of Pennsylvania, he says. There, he'd like to study medicine and become a doctor. Aanya also wants to study medicine, but instead, would like to attend New York University.

However, they have a few years left to save – after all, Ishaan is just a freshman in high school, and Aanya is a fourth grader in elementary school.

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The meteoric rise of blockchain technology has greatly contributed to the digital revolution. It is believed that the technology will someday achieve massive adoption across major sectors and it would be responsible for handling a greater part of the world’s exchange of value and information. To some, the fact that Bitcoin comes to mind on mention of blockchain seems to suggest that the technology is ‘not there’ yet. However, blockchain technology is not synonymous with Bitcoin; one of its numerous applications is in the development of digital currency (cryptocurrency), Bitcoin being an example of such. Although blockchain technology was initially developed as a public distributed ledger for verifying and recording Bitcoin transactions, it later became clear that blockchain technology offered limitless applications than a P2P digital currency system: it could be used to store any information of value, essentially creating the internet of value. Blockchain technology employs a system of distributed ledgers to securely and immutably store data in containers called blocks. Several use cases are constantly being discovered, with new blockchain platforms popping up now and then. One of the innovations developed to harness the full potential of blockchain technology are smart contracts. Smart contracts are self-executing blocks of code that enable seamless, automatic and secure exchange of value (tokens) on blockchains. Borne out of a need to eliminate third parties, smart contracts and tokenization work together, enabling nodes to perform trustless transactions. This implies that contracts can be drafted between individuals and preset actions executed automatically once set conditions have been met, without the need for a third party to verify the contract. So, for instance, a homeowner putting her house on rent could tokenize the tenancy agreement and create a smart contract to execute once the funds have been sent to a unique wallet address. The tenant would then get a digital access key after the payment is verified. In 2013, Vitalik Buterin proposed Ethereum, an open-source platform with a low entry barrier to enable programmers to easily develop and deploy decentralized applications (dApps). The development was funded through a crowdsale between July and August 2014 and the platform went live before the end of July 2015. The development of smart contracts opened blockchain technology to previously undiscovered use cases beyond digital currencies. Decentralized applications began to be developed in different industries, ranging from agritech, healthcare, aviation, government (especially voting and election management), and even the diamond industry. Impact of Blockchain Technology on the Diamond Industry Just as with any major industry, blockchain has a lot to offer the diamond industry from its vast array of groundbreaking features. This can be summarized into three T’s: transparency, traceability and tokenization. Transparency In an age where the global diamond market is taking necessary measures to ensure sustainability and eco-friendliness by eradicating the conflict (or blood) diamond trade and being ‘ecologically accountable’, blockchain technology seems ― and has proven ― to be the best approach. The blood diamond trade continues to be a drawback for the industry, even with the implementation of the. The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme involves local governments working with international organizations to ensure every diamond batch shipped from participating regions is certified. Let’s face it, though: humans are generally less trusting of (centralized) organizations these days; they trust the tech more, since they can get an insight into what’s happening behind the scenes. Apart from that, the certification scheme is convoluted and intricate, with an awful lot of proceedings and players leaving much room for bad actors―even though they claim to have a 99.8 percent success rate. The process could be more streamlined by implementing blockchain technology to provide real-time data, from the mine to the jeweler’s. Blockchain eliminates a central authority by serving as a single source of truth where nodes work have to work together (reach consensus) to verify transactions. This would ensure a fully transparent mining process, guaranteed to eliminate bad actors. Traceability Blockchain offers an immutable record of stored data, which implies that once the whole process is logged, it cannot be retroactively tampered with. All mining data (timestamp, output, value) will be immutably logged on the blockchain. As such, diamond batches could be easily traced back to their origins so owners can have full confidence in the traceability of their ‘clean’ diamonds. Also, auditing is fundamental to establishing provenance across the diamond supply chain, and blockchain provides a platform for audit and regulatory compliance. Tokenization Gold is generally preferred as a store of value by investors, mainly because there’s an easier way to standardize its value. Diamonds are also a valuable natural resource, and they can easily overtake gold as the preferred choice for investors because they’re portable and easy to grade. Blockchain proffers a viable solution, with an immutable decentralized ledger designed to keep track of each diamond’s data (including its value and provenance). To streamline the process, the diamonds could be grouped into sets of equal value, and each set packaged and logged on the blockchain. Once this is done, users can track diamond trades and movement across the supply chain using the unique IDs on each set. In another scenario, once information on each diamond batch has been registered on the blockchain, the value can be tokenized. The token can then be used as a transfer of value for purchasing diamonds. That way, traders can verify the diamonds’ provenance and ascertain whether they were ethically sourced. All in all, blockchain technology can effectively resolve current drawbacks experienced in the diamond industry, particularly sustainability and provenance. This will surely open more ways for disruption across the industry for a clean, sustainable diamond trade. Learn more about iCoin Written by

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) burst into the mainstream financial scene with a splash, most notably via the Beeple auction, but even though average prices might have come down from those initial levels, these cryptoassets are here to stay. Recent market volume demonstrates how quickly these instruments have become a billion dollar asset class.

Cryptocurrency and other cryptoassets continue to rapidly evolve, develop, and become more integrated into mainstream financial markets and conversations, but the majority of investor conversation is still connected to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. That said, when looking under the surface, it becomes quite clear that the blockchain and cryptoasset space has evolved far beyond just cryptocurrency trends and price volatility.

Whether it is the increasing utilization of smart contracts for various enterprise applications, decentralized finance (DeFi), central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) or NFTs the underlying trend is clear; cryptoassets are evolving and becoming more sophisticated.

But, what exactly are NFTs? More importantly, how are these cryptoassets different from other forms of crypto, especially as it pertains to enterprise adoption and implemented? While every single cryptoasset is going to operate differently, and NFTs are no exception to this rule, there are several general trends that should be taken into account.

Setting aside the previous discussion around the price per individual NFT, let’s take a look at just what investors and entrepreneurs should know about these cryptoassets.

Unique and distinct. As the name would seem to indicate, each and every NFT is a distinct and unique asset, which differentiates them from other existing forms of crypto. Be it decentralized crypto such as bitcoin, privately issues and managed stablecoins, or even the potential for a CBDC, every single one of these crypto are fungible in nature. Without diving too much into the minutia of accounting terminology, this means that every single crypto can be exchanged for each other as equivalent items.

Non-fungible tokens are not able to be freely exchanged for one another, since each NFT represents a unique piece of cryptographically secured data. This also means that, unlike other crypto, NFTs are not normally used as a medium of exchange, nor were they designed to be used in such a manner in the first place.

Tax implications. As with every other form of cryptoasset the tax scenarios around NFTs are complicated and subject to rules that can – and most likely will – change. That said, the current tax treatment around crypto means that every single time a cryptoasset is exchanged, changes ownership, or is otherwise transferred between different counterparties there is an income tax event generated.

Even if there is no gain that generates a tax liability, the reporting and compliance issues still do exist; this further mitigates against NFTs being used for transactional purposes.

Monetization. The initial concept of an NFT was captured and utilized primarily by artists and other content creators seek to secure and protect different types of intellectual property. Artists, entertainers, musicians, and other creators of information might have been the first groups to recognize the potential of NFTs, but they are certainly not the last. One interesting new factor that has recently entered in to the conversation is the ability of NFT investors and owners to further monetize these assets.

Outside of benefitting from the price appreciation, assuming any such appreciation does occur, there is also the option for some investors to monetize NFTs and create income streams. The specifics of every royalty or income based agreement will vary from asset to asset – and is important for the creator and investor to understand – this opens the door for further refinement. Creating additional income streams, however, also creates the potential for more complicated tax scenarios and highlights the need for crypto tax planning to play a large role moving forward.

More than art. One last fact that should be mentioned is that the NFT sector is already moving far beyond simply securing artwork and other forms of artistic related content. Everything from deeds and mortgages, to commodities and rare materials such as diamonds, to personally identifiable information (PII) can – and is – being positively impacted by the growing size of the NFT sector.

Protecting and securing data is an integral part of any successful business or economic sector, and NFTs represent a quantifiable step forward toward making the security of blockchain more accessible, understandable, and available for individuals and organizations across the economy.

NFTs might have burst out into the mainstream economic conversation as a direct result of the price levels achieved by several of the initial auctions. Setting aside those, albeit exciting, headlines the underlying message has other stronger economic fundamentals. NFTs may have been traditionally associated with artwork and other creative content, but have potential implications across a wide swath of economic sectors and areas. As with any new and creative financial instrument, but especially for cryptoassets, the individuals and firms that will benefit the most are those that are proactive and forward looking.

NFTs are here to stay, and understanding these cryptoassets is shifting from a nice-to-have, to a must-have sooner rather than later.

…

The popularity of stablecoins is increasingly on the rise. Recently, as Bitcoin hit new records, the market value of stablecoins witnessed a 10x increase. Facebook has announced its own stablecoin, and even VISA has become the first major payments network to settle transactions in the American dollar-backed stablecoin USDC.

So what’s to love about stablecoins? The main reason is, they lack the volatility of regular cryptocurrencies. As they’re pegged to a more consistent reserve of value such as fiat currency, diamonds or gold, the price of a stablecoin isn’t inclined to fluctuate so dramatically as say, Bitcoin or Ethereum does.

“You can have reasonable assurance that in 3 months time, or 6 months time, or 1 week’s time, it’ll still be worth $100. And that’s what was missing in crypto before stablecoins came along.” – Alex Kern, Intelligence Analyst, CB Insights

This consistency has created trust in these types of tokens, which have been around since 2014. But before the use of stablecoins can go fully mainstream, Kern warned that issuers and creators of these tokens are going to have to convince their users that their money will be safe with their new technology.

When  Simone Mazzuca created EURST, or “EURstablecoin”, he had the aim of reducing economic hardship for individuals and businesses within the European Union, whose countries have suffered from a more “flawed economic system” than that of the United States. That’s why EURST is pegged to the value of the United States Dollar.

EURST, as a USD asset-backed and live-audited stablecoin, sits aligned between the concept of fiat and cryptocurrency in an effort to upgrade the European financial system. In regard to the safety of the technology behind EURST, it can be deemed as trustworthy, since it is a token built on the Ethereum network according to the already widely recognised ERC-20 standard.

EURstablecoin has a wealth of benefits, some of which are:

Speed

Since the blockchain functions independently of centralised financial institutions with set working hours, stablecoins streamline financial processing to happen in less time than banks.

Lower Fees

Major credit card companies such as Visa, MasterCard, and AmEx average about a 2% processing fee per transaction. As a result, the price of credit card purchases at smaller businesses has often been increased. Sometimes, even the use of certain cards with higher fees are not allowed to be used in that business at all. Through stablecoins, the high costs of transaction fees can be avoided.

They’re Borderless

Escaping economic turmoil in a country like Venezuela with fiat would not be possible. Their fiat currencies cannot be sent internationally through banks, and if they tried to physically take the money across the border, it would be confiscated once they arrived there. This is why Venezuelans have turned to Bitcoin. Although this option seems like a good one for them as an anonymous, borderless store of value, EURST believes stablecoins provide a much better store of value than Bitcoin, since stablecoins are not subject to speculative markets or wild inflation.

They’re Transparent

Using a blockchain explorer, transactions that occur on the blockchain can be viewed by anyone with

internet access. Through regular audits by EURST, their stablecoins reveal full transparency of the process by which they are backed. Since the Tether stablecoin scandal, there is now a demand for coins that offer more transparency.

They’re Programmable

At their foundation, stablecoins are made up of code, which makes them adaptable to the changing needs of business. Features such as loyalty programs could be added to branded stablecoins, such as Walmart’s upcoming stablecoin. By integrating loyalty programs into their own token, loyalty then becomes directly part of the token user experience. The awkwardness of reward cards would then become a thing of the past, as users would be able to check their stablecoin balance and loyalty rewards in the same app.

API

EURST will create an API that can be integrated with a variety of Decentralised Apps. In a hypothetical scenario, this API could enable users to easily send their EURstablecoin tokens across different blockchain apps without need to install Chrome extensions for Ethereum, or whichever respective chain. Cross-chain atomic swaps would be implemented in EURST’s backend, providing a payments user experience which will support consumer adoption of cryptocurrencies.

With much to love regarding the current decentralised economy, the uncertainty that still lies in Decentralised Finance must be remedied before taking over. It appears that EURST has the technology, security, and tokens to support the shift – and with the use of stablecoins on the rise, hopefully EURST will be at the forefront of bringing a new stability to the European economy.

Bitcoin Diamond (BCD) overviewBitcoin Diamond (BCD) overview 24 Dec, 2019 David KempBitcoin Diamond is another fork of bitcoin. The cryptographic currency appeared in the fall of 2017. It is designed to be used as a means of payment, allowing to conveniently make payments in the village. Some prefer it, since BCD has eliminated some original bitcoin flaws.What features distinguish Bitcoin Diamond from classic bitcoin Traditional Bitcoin has the following disadvantages:Privacy protection. Bitcoin system allows you to monitor the balance of all wallets. It is possible to identify the wallets owner when he withdraws cryptocurrency into fiat.Long transactions confirmation. Usually it takes about 10-15 minutes. Previously it took up to several hours. A number of payments on classic bitcoin have never been confirmed. This speaks of network scalability difficulties, which can lead to same problems in future. The increase of bitcoin users number dramatically affects the coins transfer speed.Small transactional capacity. Coin transfer operations are combined into blocks, and then fit into the blockchain. The block size in classic bitcoin is 1 MB, so the coins transactional capacity is small.High fees. The situation was quite sad at the beginning of 2018. Now that the fees were reduced, they are still high. As a result users move to altcoins, since they take less money for transactions.Bitcoin Diamond offers its solution to each of the problems:Advanced encryption methods are used to achieve complete privacy when using digital money.Blocks blocking speed increased. This is designed to reduce transaction confirmation delays and costs.The block is increased to 8 MB, which is 8 times more than at classic bitcoin.Bitcoin Diamond roadmap These are the main stages of the roadmap:The second quarter of 2018 - using advanced encryption algorithms for improving privacy when using cryptocurrency.I quarter 2019 - BCD-ecology software release.The beginning of 2020 - getting ahead of the original bitcoin by all characteristics.The last stage is very general, which is why many questions arise. The lack of specifics raises concerns as well. No one knows when the work on the BCD token will be completed. The "What are tokens? " article will help to learn more about these digital assets.The Bitcoin Diamonds future is rather doubtful. Bitcoin has many forks, which makes it difficult to estimate the parameters by which one surpasses the others. In addition, the developer cannot be considered as one implementing main roadmap states in time. In case you like taking risks, you may include Bitcoin Diamond in your cryptocurrency portfolio. The main thing is to follow risk management to avoid large losses.cryptocurrencyaltcoinbitcoin-diamondSubscribe to News BlockchainLawsAnother attempt to register Tron in the US failedThe black side of using XRP coinsTaxation of cryptocurrencies in the United StatesMajor Scam by South Korean fraudstersChristine Lagarde warned of the risks of a hasty launch of the digital Euro for the Bank of EuropeThe Iranian authorities are ready to give rewards for information about illegal mining

Cryptocurrencies are never far from the headlines these days. If it’s not news that the value of Bitcoin has reached a record high of $60,000 (€50,500) for the first time, it’s news that Tesla founder Elon Musk is investing billions in it.

While buying and selling cryptos is becoming increasingly mainstream, the opportunities to spend virtual currencies are somewhat limited in comparison due to its volatility.

There are, however, a growing number of companies across a plethora of industries - from big tech to airlines - who are embracing cryptocurrencies, allowing customers to use them as an official method of payment for their goods and services.

Here are some of the biggest and more well-known companies using and accepting cryptos.

As the latest company to permit crypto transactions, the Hong Kong-based Pavilion Hotels & Resorts group has also become the first international hotel chain to embrace virtual currency payments.

The group - which owns properties in Amsterdam, Madrid, Lisbon, and Rome as well as Bali and Phuket - will accept bookings using 40 different tokens, including Bitcoin and Ethereum from July through their partnership with payment platform Coindirect.

As of the start of April, the insurance broker behemoth will allow customers in Switzerland to use Bitcoin as a payment option for their bills. The decision to embrace cryptocurrencies has been in the pipeline since market research conducted by the company in 2019 found that nearly a third of respondents aged 18 to 55 had either already invested in them or were interested in doing so.

Customers will now have a reference code printed on bills for non-life insurance policies in order to pay their premiums through crypto exchange Bitcoin Suisse which will then convert them into Swiss Francs.

As one of the largest software companies in the world, it is significant that Microsoft accepts Bitcoin payments, going some way to instill a degree of confidence in using cryptos. Redeemed for credit in topping up user accounts, Bitcoin can be used to pay for an array of services, including Xbox Live and Skype.

The company’s interest in crypto technology doesn’t end there. Utilising blockchain, Microsoft has also launched ION, a two-layered authentication platform on the Bitcoin network in late March. Instead of payments, the technology creates digital IDs to authenticate online identities.

Following an extensive trial, Starbucks customers can now use the new Bakkt app to pay for drinks and goods at the coffee chain with converted Bitcoin. According to the app’s creators, 500,000 people took up the invitation-only, early access programme to test the digital wallet as a method of payment.

The CEO of electric carmaker Tesla Elon Musk has an up and down relationship with Bitcoin. Initially, the company announced earlier this year that it would accept Bitcoin payments for vehicle purchases in the US. It comes off the back of a $1.5 billion (€1.2 billion) investment in the cryptocurrency by Elon Musk’s company in February. However, this has now been turned on its head with pronouncements that Tesla will put Bitcoin transactions on hold until more than 50 per cent of tokens are mined using renewable energy.

It was reported earlier this year that Amazon was joining the ranks of other tech giants, including Facebook, in laying the groundwork for its own exclusive cryptocurrency. That said, the e-commerce company doesn’t directly accept cryptos yet. You can, however, buy Amazon vouchers through crypto-only company Bitrefill, a platform that makes living on cryptocurrencies easier by converting Bitcoin into gift cards, refill phones, and so on.

Credit card company Visa confirmed at the end of March that it was piloting a scheme with platform Crypto.com to accept cryptocurrency to settle transactions on its payment network. It will now accept USD Coin (USDC), a stablecoin crypto that is pegged to the value of the US dollar.

Following an announcement in October last year, PayPal users in the US can now buy, sell or hold a select few cryptos, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin. In addition, you’ll be able to track cryptocurrencies through the PayPal app. The only drawback is that money can’t be transferred out of the company’s digital wallet.

In August, the company announced that users in the UK can now also trade in Ether, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash on PayPal's website and mobile app.

So far, PayPal is tight-lipped about whether it intends to expand the service to other countries.

Latvian airline airBaltic became the first aviation company in the world to accept Bitcoin as payment for fares back in 2014. According to the company, it has processed more than 1,000 Bitcoin transactions since it launched the payment option seven years ago. Its decision to do so saw another eastern European airline, LOT Polish Airlines, follow suit the following year.

Renowned auction house Sotheby's first began accepting cryptocurrency as payment in late June and has since firmly embraced both cryptos and NFTs.

Since it announced it now accepted cryptos, it accepted Bitcoin as payment for a rare 101 carrat diamond which sold in July for $12.3 million (€10.4 million). It became the most valuable item ever bought with cryptocurrency at an auction.

Where lots are listed as "cryptocurrency payments," the auction house will accept both Bitcoin and Ether as payment. There are certain restrictions, however, as payments will only be accepted through certain approved exchange wallets, including Coinbase.

Amatil, the drinks’ giant’s bottler and distributor in the Asia-Pacific region, has enabled cryptocurrency as a method of payment through its partnership with the Centrapay platform. As of 2020, there are now over 2,000 vending machines in Australia and New Zealand which are geared to accept cryptos to pay for drinks.

Following in the wake of airBaltic, LOT Polish Airlines announced in 2015 that it would also accept Bitcoin as a payment method for flights. Despite the six years that have passed since its decision, LOT remains one of the only European airlines to allow cryptocurrency as a payment option.

Travel giant Expedia is one of the most prominent travel agencies to accept Bitcoin through its partnership with crypto-friendly travel booking platform Travala. You can now book 700,000 hotels from the website’s listings with more than 30 different cryptos, including Bitcoin.

Lush was one of the first global companies to adapt to the use of cryptocurrencies, fully embracing them in 2017 when the handmade cosmetics company started to allow Bitcoin payments for orders on its website through a partnership with Bitpay.com.