The work is a non-fungible token that its owner can program on the digital platform AsyncArt. The painting changes shape on Buterin’s birthday and Ethereum’s anniversary.

In recent days, a painting of Ethereum’s creator Vitalik Buterin sold for more than USD 133,000. A Twitter user, identified as @MaxStealth5, is now the owner of this digital artwork. It mutates according to changes in the price of Ether, fluctuations in gas rates, and on the birthday of Buterin himself.

“ETH Boy” is a non-expendable token, that is, a collectible, unique and unrepeatable piece by the digital platform AsyncArt. Besides, it is a programmable piece since AsyncArt has incorporated an innovation capable of reflecting data and external stimuli in it. A previous work of art already uses this technology to remake itself according to variations in the price of BTC.

The painting of Vitalik Buterin will be able to change shape according to festive dates and daily information from the network that the work receives. The data that will modify the painting is the fluctuations in the price of Ether, the movements in Vitalik Buterin’s addresses, Ethereum’s anniversary, and even the birthday of the creator of this network.

This original painting shows a Vitalik Buterin wearing a medieval harlequin suit and sitting on a royal chair. This image is undoubtedly making an ironic reference to Ethereum’s best-known developer.

Trevor Jones and Alotta Money are the artists that created this piece, which sold for about 260 ETH on the AsyncArt marketplace. The value of the painting in US dollars was above 133 thousand, taking into account the price of ETH. As if that was not enough, the new owner of the work decided to donate another 3 ETH for the painting to break the record for the most expensive work ever sold on AsyncArt.

The artists will not produce another “ETH Boy” work so that its scarcity will increase its value. However, the painting also has a business concept since they expect to trade the images that the work generates each time it changes shape. They will auction them on the OpenSea platform twice a year, an activity that they will continue to do for five years.

Both the owner of the painting and its creators will split the profits from the sale of these additional images. They also expect to save some money for any maintenance that the paint code may eventually need.

Over the years, works of art about cryptocurrencies or blockchain networks have increasingly gained traction. By 2017, there were several galleries dedicated to the sale of these creations. Meanwhile, different artistic disciplines, such as murals, music, and even intervened banknotes, have begun to consider non-fungible tokens and blockchain networks to develop their pieces or trade them. This trend could give an idea of what art will be like shortly.

By Willmen Blanco

Companies must meet the requirements to be admitted as clients of SBI Holdings. Investors who deposit their bitcoins (BTC) on the platform can earn a figure of  1% annually in BTC.

Japan-based finance company SBI Holdings launched the bitcoin (BTC) lending service VC Trade Lending. It is intended for companies in that nation and receives support from cryptocurrencies provided by individual investors in exchange for interest.

SBI will pay 1% annually in bitcoin to those who provide the capital to be loaned. That rate already includes compound interest and all taxes and costs that the service may incur.

The minimum amount to deposit is 0.1 BTC (USD 1,914 at the time of writing this article), and the maximum is 5 BTC (USD 96,027). Even if there is no charge of maintenance fee, the user will pay a commission if they choose to withdraw their money in yen instead of bitcoins.

BTC deposits must happen in periods of 84 days; during that time they cannot suffer any extraction from the platform.

The company reported that the risk of bankruptcy or insolvency on the part of those who receive the loan is almost non-existent. SBI does not hesitate to put itself as a benchmark in security matters.

It ensures that those who apply for a loan must meet the requirements to be accepted as clients and, for this reason, “the service can be used with confidence.”

Even if bitcoin is, at the moment, the only cryptocurrency, SBI is making plans to incorporate altcoins. “We are currently preparing to add cryptocurrencies,” they say, specifically naming Ripple’s XRP and ether (ETH). The CEO of the business group, Yoshitaka Kitao is part of Ripple’s board of directors.

In the previously-mentioned statement, SBI warns potential users of the risks of cryptocurrencies, including the volatility of their price. Besides, they clarify that, in Japan, “crypto-assets are not legal currencies such as the yen and the dollar.”

This company, which began operations in 1999, claims to have developed the world’s first Internet-based financial ecosystem. On their website, they assure that they will promote the Open Alliance initiative in which they will join forces, among others, companies that work with blockchains.

Cryptocurrencies have been part of SBI’s portfolio and investment strategies for years. For example, those who bought shares of the financial group on the Tokyo Stock Market have received dividends in XRP.

Also, the business group is responsible for SBI Mining Chip Co. This subsidiary company specializes in the manufacture of cryptocurrency mining chips and equipment.

“SBI Group believes in the power of cryptocurrencies to transform the world and we are committed to building a leading cryptocurrency system,” Kitao said in 2017. At that time, SBI joined forces with another company to develop implementations that would improve the security of Bitcoin Cash (BCH).

By: Jenson Nuñez.

During the bullish run of 2017, the price of altcoins did not approach their all-time high. Cryptocurrencies like XRP, BCH, LTC, and DASH are still more than 70% below their maximum prices.

Bitcoin’s price momentum is bringing it closer to its all-time high (ATH), but the same does not seem to happen to the major altcoins in the market. After exceeding USD 19,000 in recent days, Bitcoin is just over 3% of its all-time price. However, the cryptocurrencies that follow are still far from their maximum prices.

According to data from CoinGecko, most of the principal altcoins that reached their peak shortly after Bitcoin did in late 2017 are more than 70% off their respective all-time high.

Bitcoin Cash (BCH), DASH, NEO and Nem (XEM) are the most notable cases, with more than 90% of their maximum prices. In the four cases, the all-time high occurred between December 2017, and January 2018, coinciding with BTC’s historical bullish run.

The case of Ripple (XRP) is also striking. In the last few days, the price of the cryptocurrency has doubled, with an increase of more than 110%. However, that was not enough to approach its all-time high of USD 3.4. It is currently more than 80% below that level.

The list continues to grow, with other cryptocurrencies that are between 70% and 80% below their all-time high. These include Litecoin (LTC), Monero (XMR), Stellar Lumens (XLM), EOS, and even Dogecoin (DOGE), the cryptocurrency that started as a meme and was worth USD 0.017 in January 2018.

Some Altcoins Are Closer to Their All-Time Prices

Among the major altcoins during the bullish run of 2017, the one closest to its all-time high is Ether (ETH), Ethereum’s native cryptocurrency. In recent days, ETH broke the USD 600 barrier, and its price currently places it at almost 60% of its all-time high above USD 1,400.

In the case of ETH, its advantage over other altcoins seems to be close to the long-awaited version 2.0 of Ethereum. Phase 0 of this upgrade will take place on December 1^st, after meeting the target amount of ETH sent to the smart contract of the new network to comprise the validator nodes.

Other cryptocurrencies in the top 20 according to their capitalization are closer to their all-time high. All of them are cryptocurrencies that did not exist during the bullish run of 2017. For example, Polkadot (DOT) and Binance Coin (BNB), are 16% and 18% off their highs of a few months ago, respectively.

The cryptocurrency market has historically followed the trends of BTC. Even though cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin have risen this year, they have not done so with the same momentum.

According to a report from Glassnode, the profits against the US dollar of the main altcoins in the market were not reflected against BTC. XRP, among others, had lost more than 12% to Bitcoin so far this year.

By Alexander Salazar

Series C funding will serve to expand its operations in 2021. The startup stated that it would now be worth about USD 1 billion.

In a third series, C round of funding with venture capital, blockchain intelligence, and Research Company Chainalysis recently raised USD 100 million. Multiple investors and companies, such as Addition, Accel, Benchmark, and Ribbit, participated in the process.

Thanks to this capital injection, Chainalysis will be able to further expand its operations worldwide and double its new hiring of staff. The company made the information public knowledge on its website, but a report from Forbes advanced information on the negotiations.

Chainalysis said that they will open new offices in South Korea and Australia, which will add to the new centers in Tokyo, Japan, and Singapore. The surveillance company is already operating in Washington D.C., New York, London, and Copenhagen.

“Cryptocurrencies are one of the most important technological innovations for the next generation of financial infrastructure. We will always continue to invest in improving our market-leading platform to provide trusted data and workflows around all use cases, including scaling underlying blockchain technology,” stressed the company that stated that it would now be worth about USD 1 billion.

They release the information almost five months after the series B round of funding for the startup took place. In July, Chainalysis had raised USD 49 million from investors Ribbit Capital, Sound Ventures, MUFG, and Sozo.

Chainalysis and the Bitcoin Ecosystem

The company currently has about 200 employees, a figure that they expect to double in the coming months. In May of this year, Chainalysis analyst Daniel Cartolín confirmed that the company had a payroll of 155 employees since it had reduced its workforce by 20% last year.

Chainalysis would have a portfolio of 350 customers in total between the public sector (100) and the private sector (250). Among its main contractors are the US Department of Justice, the FBI, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and the Department of the Air Force.

There is an increase in the demand for the services that Chainalysis offers due to the market that the company serves, along with the increased regulation on cryptocurrencies worldwide. Other companies, such as Elliptic, CipherTrace, and Coinbase, also offer surveillance services on operations in blockchains, that is, on cryptocurrency users.

The company seeks to leverage the adoption of Bitcoin, as long as users comply with all current regulations and laws. Their objective is to prevent the use of crypto assets for crimes such as money laundering and terrorist financing. In other words, they are trying to ensure “responsible adoption.”

According to a report from Chainalysis, there is no evidence linking Bitcoin to terrorist financing. The company itself has said that there was sensationalism in the handling of the piece of  information on the possible use of Bitcoin to support this type of activity.

By Willmen Blanco

The US government’s restrictions on Fincimex, the company that processes payments from Cubans abroad, led the Cuban government to close Western Union offices in the country. This action will eliminate most remittances coming into the country, which could aggravate the financial situation of the country.

Thanks to the facilities that cryptocurrencies provide to people from different parts of the world, they have had an exponential growth in recent months. The weakening of the US dollar and the COVID-19 pandemic have helped digital assets strengthen their position in the international market this year.

A new situation could contribute to a higher demand for Bitcoin, whose current value is around USD 18,000. The pioneering cryptocurrency offers the advantage that its low issuance favors the increase in its price.

The Government Closes 407 Western Union Offices in the Country

The US government blacklisted Fincimex, a military company that processes payments from Cubans abroad, and the Treasury prohibited any local company from negotiating with them. For that reason, the Cuban authorities decided to close the 407 Western Union offices in the country. According to the British newspaper The Guardian, this situation “would eliminate the majority of remittances and aggravate the country’s profound economic crisis.”

In a statement, The Western Union company sent its farewell message: “Today we inform our clients that they have a time limit to send money to their loved ones from the United States to Cuba.”

Bitcoin is a Solution to Restart Remittances

More than 2 million Cubans living in the United States will now have to find an option to continue sending money to their families. Cryptocurrencies emerged as a very interesting option, so Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies may fill the void after the Cuban government’s decision.

People have already started moving and searches for the phrase “buy Bitcoin” on Google had a score of 100, the highest on the scale. In Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and Panama, other interested countries, the mark did not exceed 17.

Even though the phenomenon of cryptocurrencies is still not very popular in Cuba, the BitRemesas company is operating. This solution involves intermediary operators charging fees of up to 25% to convert Bitcoin remittances from abroad into fiat money and deliver them to their intended recipients.

Cubans have received USD 29.95 billion in cash remittances for about 10 years, according to information from The Havana Consulting Group and Tech. A total of 90% came from the United States, which is why the closure of the Western Union is causing much concern among the Cubans who have received such remittances.

Given this critical situation, Cubans could find solutions in cryptocurrencies, since governments cannot cancel them as happened with Western Union. Bitcoin and other crypto-assets are valid options for Cubans living in the United States to continue helping their families. Once again, it is clear that the technologies of the future offer great advantages to their users.

By Alexander Salazar

The former chair of the US Federal Reserve has said that she was “not a fan” of Bitcoin. As secretary of the US Treasury Department, she will be able to tighten the regulations on Bitcoin.

After Joe Biden appointed Janet Yellen as the US Treasury Department, everyone is expecting to see what she has in store for Bitcoin. The former Chairperson of the US Federal Reserve does not hold cryptocurrencies in high regard.

The female front in the Democratic president’s cabinet grows with Janet Yellen’s appointment. However, the Senate, which could be a Republican majority, still has to ratify it to make it completely official.

When Yellen was the head of the US Federal Reserve in 2018, she expressed opinions against Bitcoin. She said that Bitcoin, which is about to reach its all-time high, is a “highly speculative” asset.

She has worked intermittently in the US Federal Reserve since the 1990s. However, she has noted that this organization does not play any regulatory role in the operation of Bitcoin.

In October 2018, Yellen said that she was “not a fan” of Bitcoin. She argued that Bitcoin handles “very few transactions and many of those that take place on Bitcoin are illegal and illicit transactions.” She expressed concern “about the implications of the use of cryptocurrencies for terrorist financing, money laundering,” and other similar activities.

Yellen not only emphasized the potentially illegal provenance of certain bitcoins. She also mentioned factors such as value stability and its decentralized nature.

She said that “a useful source of money needs to be a stable source of value, but Bitcoin is anything but that.” She added that “it is not an efficient means to process payments due to its very decentralized nature and it has difficulties in achieving trust for the inequality of transactions.”

As the new head of the US Treasury Department for the 2020-2024 periods, Janet Yellen would create policies on fiscal matters and federal fund management. Also, Janet Yellen would influence the policy of public debt and financial assets, among others. Given that this office essentially controls money from a government perspective, she could influence regulation or tax burdens on Bitcoin.

The appointed Secretary of the US Treasury Department would have control over the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).

Steve Mnuchin was the former secretary of this office. According to John Bolton’s book “The room where it happened”, President Trump ordered Mnuchin to “go after Bitcoin (for fraud).”

The responsibility for regulating or not the activities involving Bitcoin will now be in Janet Yellen’s hands. She will decide whether or not to follow in her predecessor’s footsteps, as the Treasury Department has done before, by blacklisting Bitcoin addresses.

Even though she has expressed opinions against Bitcoin, she admitted in 2019 that “(blockchain) is a quite important technology that can have implications in the way that people handle transactions within the financial system.” No one knows yet what the new US Treasury Department Secretary’s policy will during Biden’s administration.

By Alexander Salazar