Tether CEO: MiCA regulation poses a threat to stablecoins.

The European MiCA regulation poses serious risks for stablecoin issuers and the banking system. This was stated by Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino in comments to Cointelegraph.

“The main problem with the MiCA rules is that instead of guaranteeing safety, they create a large systemic risk,” Ardoino said.

The MiCA Regulation, which came into force on June 30, 2024, requires stablecoin issuers to hold at least 60% of their reserves in the European Economic Area (EEA). Tether's CEO explained that financial institutions operate under fractional reserve banking conditions, where only a portion of deposits are available for withdrawal. This makes such companies extremely vulnerable, Ardoino said.

 

MicroStrategy is preparing to invest an additional $2 billion in Bitcoin.

Happycoin.club - MicroStrategy has announced a possible injection of up to $2 billion into its already huge Bitcoin portfolio. In its second quarter earnings reports, it was revealed that the company purchased 12,222 BTC for $805.2 million during the period, bringing the total number of bitcoins to 226,500 coins.

At the current price of Bitcoin, these assets are valued at more than $13 billion.

On the day of the organization's announcement, Bitcoin was trading at $62,248, and the news may have sparked a rally, pushing the price to $65,593. However, a few days later, the price of Bitcoin fell to $49,000, after which it recovered above $61,000.

Of course, the crypto community is eagerly awaiting this step, since such large infusions mean a potential increase in the price of BTC. Interestingly, Arkham has created a special portal to track Bitcoin acquisitions by MicroStrategy.

 

The SEC accused NovaTech of creating a $650 million crypto pyramid scheme.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission accused the co-founders of NovaTech of creating a financial crypto-pyramid. We are talking about a scheme that allowed its organizers to receive $650 million from investors.

According to reports, NovaTech creators Eddie and Cynthia Petion, as well as six others, have been charged with fraud for promoting the project.

The company's executives operated it as a multi-level marketing (MLM) and digital asset investing program from 2019 to 2023. According to the authorities, NovaTech lured investors with promises to increase their capital by investing in the cryptosphere.

In total, the pyramid network reached 200,000 clients around the world. Instead of real income, users were deceived with partial payments at the expense of other investors. At the same time, NovaTech management spent millions of customer dollars personally.

 

El Salvador has attracted $1.62 billion in investment to build Bitcoin City.

El Salvador has secured $1.62 billion in private investment from Turkish holding company Yilport. This was announced by the country's President Nayib Bukele.

According to Bukele, this is the largest private investment in the history of El Salvador. The allocated funds will be used for the construction of two seaports. Ownership will be mixed, with Yilport and Salvador operating the sites for the next 50 years, the government said.

One of Acajutla's ports is heavily used for the export of coffee, sugar and balsamic salt from Peru, according to Decrypt. Another La Union site is abandoned. This is where, according to the source, the construction of Bitcoin City is planned.

The head of the National Bitcoin Office of El Salvador (ONBTC), Stacy Herbert, said that the project expects to create “thousands of jobs” and attract even more investment in local infrastructure.
 

MetaMask will launch Mastercard blockchain cards in Europe.

Non-custodial crypto wallet MetaMask begins issuing a Mastercard blockchain debit card in partnership with Baanx. CoinDesk reports this.

The product will initially be available in pilot mode to “several thousand” users in the EU and UK.

Full deployment is planned for the end of the year, followed by expansion to other regions.

The card allows you to spend digital assets directly from your crypto wallet without additional operations to access fiat money. Users have the opportunity to pay for goods and services in USDC, USDT and wETH in the Linea second-level Ethereum network from the MetaMask developer, ConsenSys.

 

Ledger announced a partnership with Revolut.

Ledger, a manufacturer of hardware wallets for storing digital assets, has announced a partnership with Neobank Revolut.

The company said that the cooperation is aimed at implementing the mission of providing self-custody of financial assets among users. In addition, the initiative is designed to make purchasing cryptocurrency easier and more accessible than ever, the release notes.

According to the release, users in select European Economic Area (EEA) countries will now be able to purchase cryptocurrency through Ledger Live, a crypto portfolio tracking software. The service is available to all regular Revolut customers who have passed Know Your Customer (KYC) verification.

The combination of affordability, speed and enhanced security made possible by the Ledger and Revolut partnership sets new standards for cryptocurrency governance, the statement said. By connecting to the service through a Revolut account, users will be able to convert their fiat currency into digital assets, the company said.

 

Circle will launch contactless payments on iPhone with payments in USDC.

Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, plans to introduce contactless payments (Tap to Pay) on iPhone. This was announced by the company's CEO Jeremy Allaire.

CEO Circle made the announcement following Apple's announcement that third parties would have access to the iPhone's payment chip to process transactions outside of the Apple Pay and Apple Wallet ecosystem.

According to reports, Apple will open access to the iPhone's NFC chip to third-party developers in the new version of iOS 18.1. Contactless payments will work in a number of countries, including Canada, Australia, Japan, the UK and the US. In the future, the list of states will expand, the company noted.

According to the release, to integrate the new solution, developers must enter into a commercial agreement with Apple and pay the appropriate fee. Meanwhile, the company did not disclose the details and the amount of the commission charged.

 

The authors of the Airhead NFT collection have opened a whitelist.

The team behind the Airhead project, an NFT collection based on Ordinals, has opened a whitelist. The people behind the creation of these tokens are crypto expert Arthur Hayes and the Oyl Wallet crypto wallet.

Hayes announced the collection in early August 2024. The expert himself describes the project as a collection of “playful, but somewhat degenerate characters.”

Airhead is the first NFT collection powered by Ordinals, in which the rarity of tokens, and therefore the leadership of participants, is determined by the size of their crypto portfolios.

The characters in the collection are made in the style of the works of artist Jeff Koons. According to Hayes, these are balloons inflated with inflation. There are 10 levels of token rarity in total. The more assets there are in the Oyl Wallet from which the NFT was issued, the higher it is.

According to the official website, the project aims to “end the oppression of the rich.” The official collection page in X publishes statements similar in style.

In a comment to Decrypt, Hayes noted that the project is different from previous collections on Ordinals. It was created with the goal of bringing “cultural value” to the Bitcoin ecosystem.

 

A “death cross” has formed on the Bitcoin chart.

Bitcoin's decline below $58,000 has led to the appearance of a “death cross”, which is a sign of a potential new wave of sales.

The mentioned signal occurs when the 50 DMA crosses downwards from the 200 DMA.

According to trader Mags, this is the second bearish cross since bottoming at $15,500. The signal last occurred in September 2023, when the price was trading near $25,000.

According to Cointelegraph, in the past, after forming a bullish signal, in both cases the price rose by approximately ~50% over the next four months. Thus, in September 2023, quotes increased from $26,578 to $39,518. In July 2021, after the appearance of the “golden cross,” the rate jumped by 54%, to $54,813.

 

Mercedes-Benz will implement AI from ByteDance.

German automaker Mercedes-Benz has entered into a partnership with ByteDance's cloud division, Volcano Engine, to collaborate with AI. SCMP writes about this.

The companies signed a memorandum of strategic cooperation in the areas of big data, language models (LLM) and artificial intelligence. The deal includes applying the TikTok owner's AI technology to Mercedes car systems in China.

The firms will work to improve future in-car virtual assistants through LLM capabilities, improving voice system response times and expanding user interaction options.