Ukraine has Collected more than $64.4 Million in Crypto Donations

Jenson Nunez
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Ukraine has Collected more than $64.4 Million in Crypto Donations

The official showed his enthusiasm for the backup that his country constantly receives from crypto enthusiasts and even predicted that donations could gather more than USD 100 million if the contribution continues by the end of this week.

Various recent reports highlight that Ukraine collected more than USD 64.4 million in donations through digital currencies due to the channels activated by the government and other organizations under the current administration’s power.

According to information revealed by the Slowmist.com portal, based on data shared by the Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, Alex Bornyakov, the donations received appear this way: Government of Ukraine: USD 39.4 million, NGO Come BackAlive: USD 15.2 million, UkraineDAO: $6.3 million, Unchain Fund: $2 million, AidForUkraine: $1.4 million, Ukraine Cyber ​​Police: $95,000, Estimated total: $64.4 million.

The money these organizations sent got channeled through digital currencies and digital assets received in these last few days. The destination of these funds will be the support of military activities, supplies, equipment, and humanitarian causes to support the residents of the country.

These funds would help citizens cope with the violent and uncertain situation they are going through after the armed incursion currently executed by Russian forces in their nation.

According to these results, the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, Mykhailo Fedorov, showed optimism about the support received and highlighted that if everything goes the same way as it has been, the global balance might surpass USD 100 million by the end of this week.

Fedorov’s Requests

Fedorov has been one of the officials who receive notoriety in light of the ongoing armed conflict since he openly asked for support through official channels to counteract the invasion of Russian troops.

Among the most controversial requests to pressure President Putin to stop the war, Fedorov asked companies such as SAP, Oracle, Apple, Google, Netscout, Figma, Hitachi, Amazon, and Microsoft to block their services in Russian regions. Many entities supported the request to condemn the actions encouraged by the Soviet nation against Ukraine.

Visa and Mastercard also stopped their services in Russian regions, and now Fedorov asks UnionPay to apply the same procedures to prevent armed incursions from keep getting financially fed.

In this regard, Fedorov explained that the Ukrainian crypto fund managed to collect $50M in crypto assets in a matter of one week to support #Ukraine. He also praised the unity before Putin’s move against freedom and democracy and predicted a possible hit of $100 million by the end of this week. The tension between the two countries intensified since they accorded a cease to fire in the recent days, to evacuate and let citizens and civilians leave the country safely.

By: Jenson Nuñez

Coinbase Yields to Pressure and Joins the Blockade Against Russia

Jenson Nunez
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Coinbase Yields to Pressure and Joins the Blockade Against Russia

Coinbase obstructed many addresses linked to alleged illicit activities from Russia. The company uses a blockchain analytics protocol to study emerging threats.

The pressure caused by the financial punishments imposed by the United States of America and the European Union (EU) against Russia after its military incursion on Ukraine approached the bitcoin and other digital currency exchanges.

One of the exchanges that gave up to pressure and are working hard on hardening sanctions is Coinbase. The US-based exchange highlighted that the procedures might significantly encourage national security and deter aggression.

The company’s position appeared in an announcement made on March 7. There, the entity explained that sanctions are delicate procedures, and administrations get better positioned to choose when and how to execute them to achieve their goals.

The entity has also decided to obstruct more than 25,000 addresses directly to Russian individuals or entities that might be part of illicit behaviors.

The company said that once they identify these addresses, they would share them with the current administrations to enforce further the sanctions applied to those individuals.

Sanctions Program Developed by Coinbase

According to Coinbase, the entity has already developed a multi-tiered global sanctions program. The first mission is to anticipate possible threats through a blockchain analytics program by identifying high-risk behavior, studying emerging threats, and generating new procedures to deal with those struggles; this method is their action against those blocked addresses.

Second, the entity also verifies account applications against lists of sanctioned individuals or entities; it does this action through an independent vendor before allowing a person to carry out a single operation such as a transaction.

Coinbase explained that if a customer has citizenship and lives in a financially punished nation or identifies themselves as an unauthorized individual or entity, they cannot use an account on their network.

The company also improved the global sanctions lists they execute to detect if a customer has opened a Coinbase account. The entity said they use this screening protocol to target that account and block it.

Coinbase joins the administration’s request of US President Joe Biden, who days ago invited these entities to help prevent Bitcoin and other digital currencies from being an alternative for financially punished Russian individuals and entities.

Various Opinions about Bitcoin and Russia

Former US Attorney General Michael Parker explained it would be naive to think that Russia has not considered how to defend its interests in this economic sanctions scenario.

Days before the military attack started, the Russian Ministry of Finance drafted a bill strictly regulating digital assets.

On the other hand, some enthusiasts think that bitcoin is not the best alternative for Russia. Legal expert Andrew Jacobson does not see Russia as likely to adopt a good position about a decentralized currency like Bitcoin.

Jacobson also believes that a digital asset that finds a way to go through a separate path away from the state system, such as Bitcoin, would undermine Russia’s power over its monetary system and affect its economic control.

By: Jenson Nuñez

Cryptocurrency Investing is not for Women: a Big Gender Issue in LATAM

Audy Castañeda
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Cryptocurrency Investing is not for Women: a Big Gender Issue in LATAM

Men are on average 1.5 times more likely to own crypto than women are. Bitcoin can help women achieve the economic autonomy they require.

Are there more and more women adopting Bitcoin (BTC) in the world? Statistics say yes, although not as much as it should have been. Moreover, are they enjoying the financial and technological literacy that the pioneering cryptocurrency can provide them? The answer is painful: definitely not, much less so in Latin America.

The realm of finance and investment has historically remained male-dominated, and this trend continues today. Even though women have gained ground in these areas, the dominance of the male presence has also seeped into the Bitcoin ecosystem.

Satoshi Nakamoto’s invention, supposedly created to overcome many of the biases found in the most closed areas of the traditional financial system, unfortunately, has not been able to break down an important barrier: conquering so many women, as it has done with men. This reaches the point that it preserves the gender disparity found in fields such as finance, investment, science, and technology.

A study conducted in 2021 by investment manager Grayscale found that there is a considerable lack of diversity in the ecosystem. This, taking into account that most of the people involved with Bitcoin, in the United States, belong to the male gender.

This fact coincides with global trends, since “globally, men are on average 1.5 times more likely to have cryptocurrencies than women”, as pointed out by the consulting firm Finder in their report.

Barely an average of 41% of cryptocurrency owners around the world are women, while 59% are men, according to data revealed by the pollster in December last year.

The results of the survey carried out in 27 countries showed that, in December 2021, only Malaysia, Norway, Russia, and Venezuela had a higher rate of women among the population that owns cryptocurrencies.

The gender disparity that exists in the world of cryptocurrencies is not very different from that in more traditional investment forms. This, according to a survey published in August 2021. Men dominate investments in exchange-traded funds, individual stocks, mutual funds, real estate, and bonds.

Self-excluded Women from an Ecosystem of Inclusion: A Paradox

Gender disparities have dogged the finance industry for decades, with one of the main barriers being social stereotypes that insist that men have better skills than women do when it comes to finance and economics.

Likewise, women have excluded themselves from the field of cryptocurrencies as it has happened throughout history with other sectors, such as technology, science, and finance. It is a cultural issue since they did not have the same legal and political rights as men and were under the control of fathers and husbands in almost all societies.

Today things are different from how they were 50 years ago, although they are still catching up in their effort to equalize men in all lifestyles, after centuries of exclusion.

Bitcoin, by contrast, is still in its teens, but still shows itself ready to serve the needs of the unbanked.

Bitcoin as an Element of Change

According to an analysis by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean on how to reduce gender inequality gaps in order to achieve development, women are required to achieve economic autonomy. They are also required to become capable of making free and informed decisions about their lives so that they can be and do according to their own aspirations and desires.

However, in the continent, women face limitations arising from unpaid domestic work that, in most cases, does not allow them to carry out other activities outside their family life.

On the other hand, a World Bank report points out that almost 2.4 billion women around the world lack the same economic rights as men.

The study determines that lower access of women in the economy and their little participation in household economic decisions, in the long run, generates a particular impact on human capital investments and therefore on the development of their environments.

Instead, the whole picture takes a turn when women play a fundamental role in family finances, because even “they can help poor children, from difficult places, to get out of poverty,” the document highlights.

What can Bitcoin do for Women, and Women for Cryptocurrency?

Although no monetary invention can eliminate the effects that sexism has historically left behind, Bitcoin today, more than ever, offers a fair and equitable financial system to all women in the world.

For those who remain unbanked, Bitcoin is there waiting to start accumulating wealth and securing their property rights. As soon as they take the first step, they will shed the legacy of disadvantage they inherited and that affected their finances for generations.

Because Bitcoin can be self-custodial, people no longer need to rely solely on banks, institutions, or brokers to manage their own assets. That is something that many women are discovering today, such as Manasi Vora, a journalist from India who discovered Bitcoin in 2016 when the prime minister of her country banned most of the existing banknotes, devaluing them almost overnight.

In her effort to learn more about the ecosystem, Vora attended talks, conferences, and other activities where she used to be one of the few women to attend, against hundreds of men who packed the halls.

“On the one hand, there was this narrative back then that cryptocurrencies would change the financial world. But on the other hand, I was seeing that the Bitcoin ecosystem has the same systemic biases as traditional finance, where there really wasn’t enough diversity,” Vora told the San Francisco Chronicle.

In conclusion, as long as the cryptocurrency ecosystem does not count on the adoption of more and more women, then Bitcoin will have failed as a tool for social and economic justice, which can help underserved communities to develop their own economy through the creation of generational wealth.

By Audy Castaneda

Tokens in the Real Estate Sector: What is Housing Tokenization?

Audy Castañeda
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Tokens in the Real Estate Sector: What is Housing Tokenization?

Tokens reach the real estate sector.

From the metaverse to tokens, the world appears to be moving too fast. This is an example of home tokenization. We first explore what it is and what it consists of. Next, we examine its risks, to end up discussing whether it is a booming phenomenon, or is it still something residual.

What is Real Estate Tokenization?

To tokenize is to digitize an asset so that the token (a digital representation of an asset on a Blockchain) captures and represents the value of that asset. In other words, deeds represent ownership of a property. Therefore, in the digital world, the token can represent, for example, the exploitation rights over a property and the capital gains generated if the owner sells it.

The token would therefore be a unit of value issued by a private entity. The particularity of the tokens is that thanks to their cryptography we can prove that the owner is the sole owner of a certain product.

When investing in a property in a traditional way there are some barriers to entry. The first thing is to have enough capital to acquire that asset, either to obtain profitability or to sell it after its acquisition. This is where tokenization breaks with the established since by tokenizing the asset you are dividing the asset (in this case the property) into digital shares. Thanks to this, we achieve more accessibility and ease of transmission of the properties. With small shares, small savers could actively participate in the real estate sector.

The tokenization of real estate would also have an impact on the transparency of the housing transfer process since the owners of the properties would have more facilities to liquidate them. In addition to this, the owners would have the possibility to finance the tokens of their assets.

Before we engage in this type of investment, there are a few steps to consider, explained below.

Open a Wallet

Anyone who knows about cryptocurrencies will already be familiar with what a wallet is, which is a cryptocurrency purse. It is like a bank account, but for cryptocurrencies; they can be stored in it.

“The best known, ETH, BNB, and real estate tokens or that represent any other tokenized asset. The wallet par excellence is MetaMask,” they explain in Reental.co, a startup dedicated to the tokenization of real estate.

How to Buy and Sell Tokens

The wallet is the medium through which people can buy and sell tokens. The wallet will ask us for authorization to carry out the transactions. To sell, you locate the token in the wallet that you want to sell: select and choose the exchange to the currency that interests you. This way you get an amount of the chosen currency for each of the tokens sold.

An investor who invests in cryptocurrencies buys the tokens from us. Each token is worth approximately 100 euros, so regardless of the crypto you use, at the time of purchase the change is to euros, which is the capital you invest.

During the project, you receive monthly dividends in USDT (which are dollars but represented on the Blockchain). In addition, when we sell the property at the end of the project, the capital and capital gains return in USDT.

“The advantage of USDT is that you can use it to reinvest or for any other crypto project and it is also very easily convertible to euros at any time through the exchanges that send the euros to your bank,” explains Eric Sánchez, from Reental .co.

The Risks of Real Estate Tokenization

“The intrinsic of any property. In this case, it is not rented, or there are defaults (although we work with guarantee insurance). Or that in the future the property would lose value”, explains Sánchez.

The interests offered, in the form of Reental tokens, are highly speculative in nature, involve a high degree of risk and the people interested in purchasing them must be those who can afford to lose their entire investment.

“There can be no guarantee that the Company’s business objectives will be achieved, whether through the Reental website or through third-party registered investment advisers or otherwise,” according to the Reental.co expert.

“Investing in placements like this requires a high tolerance for risk, few concerns about liquidity, and a long-term commitment. The Interests sold are not insured, they may lose value and they do not have a bank guarantee or any other type”, Sánchez warns.

Is it a Residual Phenomenon?

On February 10, 2021, a tokenized property was sold in Spain. Although a priori it might seem like a relatively residual phenomenon, it is becoming increasingly important among people interested in the world of decentralized finance. The processes of buying and selling real estate, like those of renting, are evolving but they do so more slowly than technologies. It is up to those interested in exploring this area to get properly and thoroughly informed before making important financial decisions.

By Audy Castaneda

Clear Regulations Will Accelerate Crypto Adoption, Says SEBA Bank Executive

Audy Castañeda
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Clear Regulations Will Accelerate Crypto Adoption, Says SEBA Bank Executive

With cryptocurrencies currently targeted by lots of regulators, many have wondered if regulation is good or bad for cryptocurrencies. However, Senior CEO of SEBA Bank Christian Borel says that if the laws are clear, it can drive crypto adoption.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, the banking executive mentions that institutions are likely to adopt cryptocurrencies following the arrival of clearer regulations. Additionally, the presence of “regulated counterparties” within the banking industry creates a secure and trusted way for institutions and their stakeholders to access the crypto assets sector.

Borel says that he expects “to see a considerable acceleration of engagement and adoption of digital assets by institutions driven by a clearer regulatory environment, as these institutional players will need a regulated counterparty in which to operate safely.”

Borel also noted that digital assets are in line with the interests of institutions in finding new prospects. In this regard, he states that “Institutional investors have always been very attentive to new investment opportunities and their interest in the digital asset sector is consistent with this approach.”

The executive also believes that because the industry meets the needs of many, it will have more digital asset banks in the future. A digital asset bank is very similar to a traditional bank. According to Borel, a digital asset bank offers “a full suite of traditional banking services.” However, these belong to the digital economy, as they have a wide range of crypto-structured products.

“I believe that digital asset banks will become increasingly ubiquitous as the digital economy grows, adapting to the changing needs of customers and prospects in the fast-paced digital asset economy,” Borel asserts.

When asked about the benefits that digital assets can bring to both institutions and individuals, Borel described cryptocurrencies as an “attractive alternative” as the other option is to stick with “low interest rates and a low return of investment”.

2022: the Year of Crypto Regulations

If 2021 was the year of the cryptocurrency boom, 2022 seems to be the year of regulations. The rapid adoption of digital currencies caught the attention of government entities seeking to incorporate legal and tax frameworks. Recently, the own minister of Economy of Argentina, Martín Guzmán ignited the debate in the G-20 proposing a greater control.

After El Salvador defined Bitcoin as legal tender, China was the first country to make a decision regarding the debate. In September last year, China’s central bank declared all cryptocurrencies illegal, banning cryptocurrency transactions and crypto mining. For the Chinese government, unofficial virtual currencies represent a financial, social, and national security risk in addition to contributing to global warming.

Some of the Countries Proposing Crypto Regulations

India will be the first great power to regulate and make cryptocurrencies official. The government of the Asian country has presented, as described by Reuters, its regulation of digital goods and cryptocurrencies with important measures that they intend to start applying in 2023.

The Central Bank of Ecuador announced that it would establish a new regulatory framework for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. According to Guillermo Avellán, the manager of the entity, in dialogue with Bloomberg online, digital assets will be the object of regulation in 2022 and there will be limits on their commercialization in Ecuador. For the moment, the only legal tender in that country will be the US dollar and cryptocurrencies will continue to be investment assets.

Both Chile, Brazil, and Uruguay seem to be the least harsh countries against assets. In Argentina, the discussion does not seem to be against crypto assets but rather to implement regulation and taxation mechanisms. At the G20, Martín Guzmán referred to the issue, stating that, “we agree on the importance of developing a framework for gathering information that guarantees full compliance with tax obligations.”

In conclusion, the viability of investing in cryptocurrencies will depend on the risk that the user is willing to assume. Many people invest in them looking for high profits and not with the desire to preserve their assets and generate profitability. When this premise is no longer possible, people will withdraw their resources and there could be major crashes. The volatility with which they develop is one of the great reasons that it is costing the common citizen to adopt them. If we add to this the non-existence of an official issuing entity, which means that many companies in the commercial sector do not accept this means of payment.

By Audy Castaneda

Analysis of the Crypto Market Reaction to the Russia-Ukraine Crisis

Audy Castañeda
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0
Analysis of the Crypto Market Reaction to the Russia-Ukraine Crisis

Bitcoin price sentiment first turned fearful, but soon changed to mildly bullish as price slowly started to climb, regaining lost levels.

February saw a remarkable reversal between inflation and news from the US Federal Reserve, followed by news of a conflict in Eastern Europe that completely overshadowed earlier concerns about economic health. What is happening in Ukraine is causing an immediate drop in prices throughout the market. Bitcoin (BTC) saw a remarkable 11% decline over a 16-hour period, while most altcoins plunged 20% or more.

The initial expectation was that the war would have a negative impact on cryptocurrency prices, which happened for a short time. However, when fear set in, prices rose rapidly.

Nevertheless, the small sample size of days so far has indicated that there is reason to believe the crisis may have a positive effect on BTC and altcoins, as seen in March 2020, with widespread awareness of COVID.

The sentiment turned fearful but calmed down after prices rose. The sentiment is often a good gauge for what you expect to happen next. Over the past month, crowd sentiment as the leading indicator has been extremely effective.

At the end of the Fed and inflation discussions in early February, cryptocurrency prices rose sharply, peaking in the middle of the month when Bitcoin broke above $45,000 before a sharp correction. FUD was the main theme when the war broke out in late February, but sentiment improved as prices quickly rebounded, causing many to speculate that the price drop was nothing more than a “technical bounce”.

Now, traders have turned slightly bullish on Bitcoin again. It is important to mention that cryptocurrencies could be especially volatile as they are currently clinging to the rapid developments of the European crisis.

30-day price Returns on the Entire Map

The case for being a Bitcoin maximalist was very noticeable during the last month of volatility. Yes, there were many projects like Terra (LUNA), XRP, and Shiba Inu (SHIB), among many others, that outperformed BTC in terms of the percentage of market capitalization gained.

However, Bitcoin’s ability not to have relatively volatile slides compared to virtually all other cryptocurrencies, as well as leading the recovery charge for parts of the past month, is why Bitcoin hodlers sat up well.

Rising High Tether Purchasing Power

Stablecoins, like Tether (USDT), particularly with the way large addresses accumulate or sell their holdings, have increasingly become a good benchmark in this regard.

There has been a steady increase in the proportion of the USDT supply, held by addresses holding 10,000 to 1 million USDT, which actually totaled over $1 billion in February. Usually, the amount has a maximum of 1 million because beyond this threshold, there could be many exchange addresses, not taken into account. Regardless, based on what you see, there is clear evidence that sharks and whales have significantly more USDT ready to buy crypto compared to a month ago.

Bitcoin Whales seem to be in a Slight Decline/Hold Pattern

After hitting a one-month low in supply on the day of the war announcement, Bitcoin whales have accumulated only a bit and have held steady with their accumulated holdings. After hitting a low of a month in supply on the day of the war announcement, they amassed only a little and have held steady with their accumulated holdings ever since. Still, stablecoin whales with wallets of 10,000 to 10 million USDT bought more than $1 billion worth of USDT in February, indicating a 7% increase in purchasing power in just one month.

By Audy Castaneda

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