Central Bank Digital Currencies: How Will They Work And Could They Kill Crypto

Most people who have heard about central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) hate central bank digital currencies. The only people who like central bank digital currencies are the central banks devising them, and maybe a few monetary policy geeks or savvy bulge bracket banks who think they can make a lot of money off them.

Cryptocurrency is coming to the oldest U.S. bank in what experts are calling a major milestone that adds an "aura of legitimacy" to the crypto industry.

Bank of New York Mellon said select clients can now hold and transfer bitcoin and ether via the bank's platform, according to a recent news release. This makes BNY Mellon the first large U.S. bank to safeguard cryptocurrencies in a similar fashion to stocks and bonds, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news. The bank will store clients' crypto keys and offer some of the bookkeeping services to fund managers that it does for their other financial assets.

Episode 5 Podcast - Access and Creative Innovation with Web3

Host: Sheila Lirio Narcelo, Co-Founder & CEO of Proof of Learn and Founder of Care.com

Guests: John Wu - President of Ava Labs
Chuey Martinez - Filmmaker

As NFT activity continues to slow, some major players in the space have joined forces to expand its reach. The latest to do so is OpenSea, which has launched natively on the layer-1 blockchain, Avalanche, both firms exclusively told TechCrunch.

“The future of web3 is multichain; and it’s always been our goal to offer the best selection and connect people with projects and creators across the chains they prefer,” Shiva Rajaraman, VP of product at OpenSea, said to TechCrunch in an email.

Leading figures in the Web3 and blockchain space took the stage at SALT New York to discuss the new revolutionary technology's implication on LPs, Institutions and a whole world of financial services.

Speakers:

- Carlos Domingo | Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Securitize

- John Wu | President, Ava Labs

- Brett Redfearn | Founder, Panorama Financial Markets Advisory

Moderator:

- Jacquelyn Melinek | Senior Crypto Reporter, TechCrunch

In the last year, Avalanche has rapidly scaled with its dApps and subnets, establishing itself as an “Ethereum killer” despite the broader market downturn. John Wu, the president of Ava Labs, joins Raoul to talk about the big picture, separating the signal from the noise, and Avalanche’s plan to on-board the next billion crypto adopters. John and Raoul also discuss the merge as well as the differences between Layer 1 blockchains. Pour your favorite drink, grab your notepad, and settle in for a can’t-miss conversation about crypto and the future. Recorded on September 8, 2022.

Crypto needs its own version of The Oscars.

At least that’s the thinking behind The Crypties, a new annual awards show created by Decrypt Studios, the Web3 production studio arm of Decrypt Media.

The Crypties will honor the best and brightest of Web3 at the inaugural Crypties Awards gala on November 30 at the Faena Forum in Miami Beach amidst this year’s Art Basel events.

Nominees have been picked by a star-studded board of advisors tapped by Decrypt Studios, including prominent Web3 creators and executives who have their pulse on the industry.

Cryptocurrency prices slid over the weekend and again on Monday morning with all eyes on the Federal Reserve this week.

The market is anticipating that the Fed will deliver yet another hefty interest rate hike when it holds its meeting on Sept. 20-21.

According to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool, the market is currently pricing in an 80% chance of a 75 basis points (bps) rate hike and a 20% chance of a 100 bps rate hike this week.

Last week Securitize, a digital asset securities firm, announced the launch of a tokenized fund to allow access to the KKR Health Care Strategic Growth Fund (HCSG) II. This is the first time private equity investing—with a major sponsor—has become available to qualified purchasers in the U.S. using blockchain technology. This fund is available for individuals or family businesses with portfolios of $5 million or more.

Ethereum's long-awaited Merge has finally arrived. The Merge will take ethereum from proof-of-work to proof-of- stake verifications. Insider asked 15 crypto founders and CEOs how the Merge will impact the broader crypto ecosystem

As institutions continue to dip their toes into the world of digital assets, KKR & Co. is the latest to enter the space by tokenizing a part of one of its private equity funds – a step that may provide institutional private market strategies to more individual investors.

“We’re big believers in blockchain technology and the role it’ll play in shaping future private markets,” Dan Parant, managing director and co-head of U.S. private wealth at KKR, said to TechCrunch.

Advocates of Web3, a catch-all term widely used to incorporate concepts of decentralized networks, cryptocurrencies and other blockchain-powered applications, have a grand vision for the future of the Internet and global finance.

One thing that stands in the way: a lack of people to make it happen.

The past few years have been a wild ride through the cryptoverse, and there’s no sign of it calming down anytime soon. Not when you have extremes like a multibillion-dollar collapse of the Terra ecosystem and its UST stablecoin and Andresseen Horowitz (a16z) closing a $4.5 billion crypto megafund.

While some experts say bundle up for a harsh crypto winter, others remain bullish. This dichotomy is just one reason we’re thrilled that John Wu, president of Ava Labs, will join us onstage at TC Sessions: Crypto on November 17 in Miami.

Ava Labs President John Wu sits for an extensive chat about institutional interest in crypto and DeFi (it has "absolutely not waned") and use cases of Avalanche with Decrypt's Dan Roberts at Avalanche House in Brooklyn on July 15, 2022.

In the world of Ethereum, groups of developers, engineers, and so-called “proof-of-stake implementers” come together each week to chat via Zoom. Time after time, call after call, the biggest topic for discussion has been the timeline for the “merge,” a massive years-in-the-making upgrade for Ethereum that will dramatically improve its efficiency while reducing its environmental impact.

Join John Wu, President of Ava Labs, as he shares his 2022 predictions for cryptocurrency and blockchain and gives his analysis of smart contract layer 1 blockchains.

In collaboration with Phemex, come hear John share his experience as a fintech executive and technology investor and describe his role in creating a blockchain-enabled solution for originating, issuing, and trading financial assets. John and Phemex will provide listeners with insights into the current cryptocurrency market and landscape, and share their thoughts on how investment in the space will play out in the coming year.

A Chainalysis report analyzes the layer-1 blockchain ecosystem, questioning if alternative L1s will continue to challenge Ethereum this crypto winter.

Given Ethereum’s dominance coupled with the current crypto bear market, it remains questionable if L1s will flourish. This was recently highlighted in a Chainalsys blog post entitled “New layer 1 blockchains are expanding the DeFi ecosystem, but no ETH killers yet.” Ethan McMahon, an economist at Chainalysis, told Cointelegraph that Chainalysis published this report to raise awareness for the current L1 ecosystem:

Despite the chilly winter storm depressing cryptocurrency prices, digital asset entrepreneurs, developers, venture capitalists and enthusiasts gathered in Cambridge, MA today for Link Venture’s Imagination in Action Web3 Summit where the movers and shakers ranged from Stuart Haber and Scott Stornetta, co-inventors of blockchain, to Web 2.0 grand dame Esther Dyson and Ben Mezrich, author of Bitcoin BTC +1.6% Billionaires and the book that inspired the Academy Award winning Social Network.

The cryptophiles are settling into the realities of a bear market, but their recent triumphs should not be lost.

A record nine cryptocurrency-focused companies made it onto this year’s Forbes Fintech 50 list–an honor roll of the most innovative private companies in fintech. Collectively, these nine trailblazers have raised $6.5 billion in venture capital, with the lion’s share of that coming within the past 12 months.

If there is one thing that can be said for anything remotely connected to the internet and a computer screen it’s that if it is salacious or is a video game it will probably survive market turmoil.

So for cryptocurrency investors – if there are any left after this week’s news about Coinbase keeping your crypto if it goes bankrupt (they say they’re not at risk of going bankrupt), and Bitcoin BTC -3.7% heading to $25,000 (it is around $29,000 as of this writing) – the sector that looks the most promising is anything related to blockchain gaming or GameFi.