Manchester City officials sign and suspend partnership with mysterious crypto firm within a week

November 19, 2021 Coin Telegraph

3key

It is unusual for an organization such as a Premier League football club to publicly announce a partnership with a relatively unknown company in the crypto space and then quickly back out without explanation.

English Premier League football club Manchester City has suspended a partnership with a startup crypto firm after seemingly not doing its due diligence prior to signing.

According to Daily Mail reporter Jack Gaughan, Manchester City is currently “conducting further enquiries” regarding 3key Technologies, the crypto firm with which the club inked a deal on Nov. 12. At the time, the football club said it would be collaborating with 3key to raise awareness of its reported decentralized finance, or DeFi, trading analysis products as a regional partner.

Manchester City suspend partnership with "3Key", a start-up cryptocurrency firm whose executives do not seem to appear on internet searches. Partnership was announced last week. pic.twitter.com/Hi02Z2IxAR
— Jack Gaughan (@Jack_Gaughan) November 19, 2021

However, Manchester City is reportedly backing away from the agreement after online searches as reported by The Guardian revealed that the company’s executives had little if any digital footprints, with the information given seemingly unverifiable. Cointelegraph was unable to locate contact information for Ryan Hodder, named as 3key’s chief marketing officer in the announcement.

“The closest anyone has come to verified information is a photo of a man with a ginger beard in a checked suit who may or may not be 3Key’s ‘chief growth strategist’ Jacob Caine,” said Guardian reporter Paul MacInnes.

Though it is possible that 3key is a company providing legitimate services in the DeFi space and its higher-ups are simply choosing to keep a low profile online, the lack of available information is suspect. Many high-profile figures were duped into promoting scam token projects during the 2018 ICO boom including actor Steven Seagal and boxing promoter Floyd Mayweather. However, it is unusual for an organization such as a Premier League football club to publicly announce a partnership with a relatively unknown company in the crypto space and then quickly back out without explanation.

Manchester City is reportedly the sixth most valuable football club in the world, with an estimated value of $4 billion, according to Forbes. Outside of the 3key agreement, the club also announced in March it had partnered with fan engagement platform Socios.com to launch a fan token on the Chiliz blockchain.

Bitso and Circle work on crypto payments between Mexico and US

November 18, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Bitso

Bitso is also known as the core crypto service provider for El Salvador’s official Bitcoin wallet, launched in September.

Bitso, a major Latin American cryptocurrency exchange, is collaborating with the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin operator Circle to launch a new cross-border payment tool between Mexico and the United States.

The company announced on Thursday that the integration with payment solutions from Circle aims to provide Mexican people with a new option to send and receive payments to or from the U.S.

Called Bitso Shift, the new tool uses cryptocurrency to enable low-cost and instant cross-border payments available 24/7, allowing users to instantly exchange between Mexican pesos and the United States dollar (USD)-backed stablecoins.

The new offering intends to unlock easier and more affordable access to the USD for individuals in Mexico, also aiming to increase the transparency of USD transactions in the country.

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration, Mexican citizens who are non-account holders are allowed to deposit up to $300 daily, but no more than $1,500 per month. Account holders can deposit no more than $4,000 monthly. At the same time, there are reportedly no regulations on the transfer of U.S. dollars into or out of Mexico.

“Wire transfers to Bitso Shift are processed in twenty-four to forty-eight hours through fully regulated institutions,” Bitso said in the announcement. The firm did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.

“The opportunity for Circle and USDC to be part of making cross-border exchanges seamless between the U.S. and Mexico — the world’s largest exchange corridor — is tremendous,” Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire said.

Bitso co-founder and CEO Daniel Vogel noted that the new offering aims to support Mexican freelancers and businesses by addressing some of the “financial sector’s most pressing problems.”

Founded in 2014, Bitso is one of the biggest cryptocurrency platforms in Latin America, backed by large crypto companies like the U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase and Ripple. Bitso is known as the core crypto service provider for El Salvador’s official Bitcoin (BTC) wallet, known as Chivo. The exchange’s user base almost tripled from 1 million in July 2020 to nearly 3 million users by September 2021.

Houston Rockets Partner With Bitcoin Company NYDIG in Sponsorship Deal

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Bakkt crypto exchange partners with Google for payments

October 11, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Bakkt

Millions of retailers currently accept Google Pay as a form of payment, potentially giving Bakkt users the ability to pay in crypto at a variety of stores and online markets.

Users who hold debit cards issued by cryptocurrency exchange Bakkt will be able to convert their crypto balances to make fiat payments using Google Pay.

In an Friday announcement, Bakkt said it had partnered with Google to allow its users to purchase goods and services using Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies through the Google Pay wallet and payment system. In addition, Bakkt plans to build new analytics and geolocation functionality on its platform using Google Cloud tools. The exchange hopes that the features will expand loyalty redemption options “while providing Bakkt partners with valuable consumer behavior patterns.”

“This partnership is a testament to Bakkt’s strong position in the digital asset marketplace, to empower consumers to enjoy their digital assets in a real-time, secure, reliable manner,” said Bakkt CEO Gavin Michael.

According to Google, “millions” of retailers currently accept Google Pay as a form of payment, potentially giving Bakkt users the ability to pay in crypto at “supermarkets, pharmacies, restaurants, clothing stores, gas stations, beauty shops” and others. The Bakkt partnership follows major crypto exchange Coinbase's June announcement that Apple Pay and Google Pay would offer support for its Coinbase Card. Gemini has allowed its users to purchase crypto with Apple Pay and Google Pay since April.

Launched by the Intercontinental Exchange in 2018, Bakkt first offered BTC futures contracts exclusively to accredited investors. In March, the platform released a payments app allowing users to use crypto to make purchases, designed to “amplify consumer spending, reduce payment costs, and bolster merchant loyalty programs.”

Traders pile into altcoins after Bitcoin bulls take hold of $50K

October 5, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Traders pile into altcoins after Bitcoin bulls take hold of K

Bitcoin Price

LINA, SCRT and PRE each rallied by 20% and Bitcoin’s attempt to flip $50,000 to support could extend the current rally seen across the altcoin market.

Bitcoin is back above $50,000 and bulls are currently attempting to secure a daily close above the oft disputed level.

The strength seen in BTC has also helped kickstart momentum in the altcoins and at the time of writing, several tokens are seeing gains in excess of 20%.

*Top 7 coins with the highest 24-hour price change. Source:* *Cointelegraph Markets Pro*

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the biggest gainers over the past 24-hours were Linear (LINA), Secret (SCRT) and Presearch (PRE).

LINA moves closer to launching full governance features

Linear is a decentralized delta-one asset protocol that is cross-chain compatible between the Ethereum (ETH) network and the Binance Smart Chain (BSC). The network supports the creation, trading and management of liquid synthetic assets.

According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro, market conditions for LINA have been favorable for some time.

The VORTECS™ Score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historical and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points, including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.

*VORTECS™ Score (green) vs. LINA price. Source:* *Cointelegraph Markets Pro*

As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for LINA climbed into the dark green zone on Sept. 29 and reached a high of 93 around 26 hours before the price began to increase 73% over the next four days.

The spike in momentum comes after the project released additional details about the upcoming launch of the Linear DAO, which will include a new governance model that supports community voting.

SCRT rallies ahead of its Supernova upgrade

SCRT is the native currency of the Secret Network, a blockchain protocol with built-in data privacy for smart contracts and decentralized applications that are permissionless and privacy-preserving.

VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for SCRT on Sept. 30, prior to the recent price rise.

*VORTECS™ Score (green) vs. SCRT price. Source:* *Cointelegraph Markets Pro*

As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for SCRT climbed into the green on Sept. 29 and reached a high of 75 on Sept. 30, around twelve hours before its price began to increase by 135% over the next five days.

The surge in price for SCRT comes as the protocol prepares to undergo its Supernova protocol update which will enable integration with the Cosmos Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol.

PRE partners with CoinMarketCap

Presearch is a blockchain-based decentralized search protocol that is community-driven, allows users to search privately and rewards users for their activity.

VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for PRE on Oct. 2, prior to the recent price rise.

*VORTECS™ Score (green) vs. PRE price. Source:* *Cointelegraph Markets Pro*

As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for PRE climbed into the dark green zone on Oct. 2 and reached a high of 88 around 3 hours before its price began to increase by 50% over the next three days.

The rally seen in the price of PRE comes as the project announced a partnership with CoinMarketCap which will integrate its data feeds directly into the Presearch search engine.

The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $2.17 trillion and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 43.1%.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Laos to Study Digital Currency With Help From Japanese Fintech, Report Reveals

October 3, 2021 Bitcoin.com

Avalanche (AVAX) just hit a new ATH, but what’s really behind the price surge?

September 17, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Aave

AVAX price soared to a record high as heavy inflows enter the protocol through its cross-chain bridge and institutional investors pledge $230 million in funding for the rapidly expanding Avalanche ecosystem.

On Sept.16 Avalanche (AVAX) price hit a new all-time high at $68.89 and over the last few months the project has risen to challenge the Ethereum (ETH) network’s dominance among smart contract platforms. According to the project's website, the layer-one protocol capable of surpassing 4,500 transactions per second (TPS) with a time to finality of less than 2 seconds.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that since hitting a low of $32.10 on Sept. 7, the price of AVAX has rallied 111% to establish a new all-time high on Sept. 16 as its 24-hour trading volume spiked 200% to $2.8 billion.

*AVAX/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView*

Three reasons for the surging price of AVAX include the recent completion of a $230 investment round by large capital funds, the continued migration of liquidity to the Avalanche network and new integrations and protocol upgrades that help improve the user experience.

Big funds back Avalanche

The jump in momentum seen in AVAX price on Sept. 16 came following the announcement that a handful of large funds including Polychain Capital, Three Arrows Capital and Dragonfly capital took part in a $230 million funding round for the project.

This marks the largest investment into the Avalanche ecosystem to date and indicates that larger institutional players are starting to take a keen interest in the Ethereum competitor.

The Avalanche network is cross-chain compatible with Ethereum meaning any tokens or projects that operate on Ethereum can fully migrate to the Avalanche ecosystem and take advantage of its higher throughput capabilities and lower transaction costs.

With no definitive date on when Eth2.0 will be fully operational or what its final capabilities will be, networks like Avalanche now have an opportunity to make the case for why they are a better choice, which could lead to an increase in their market share.

Liquidity migration and rising TVL

A second reason for the building strength seen in AVAX has been the continual migration of assets from networks like Ethereum to Avalanche to participate in its growing decentralized finance ecosystem.

Evidence of the asset migration can be found in the total value locked (TVL) data provided by Defi Llama, which shows that the TVL on Avalanche has been climbing rapidly since Aug. 19 and reached a new record high of $2.17 billion on Sept. 16.

*Total value locked on Avalanche. Source: Defi Llama*

The rise in TVL is largely due to the launch and growth of several successful decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols on Avalanche including Benqi (QI), Trader Joe (JOE) and Pangolin (PNG).

Partnerships and crypto-related integrations

A third factor that has helped boost the value of AVAX has been a series of partnership and integration announcements that have excited investors and put the spotlight on the project.

The Avalanche NFT ecosystem has seen an influx of interest thanks to a partnership with the sports card and memorabilia company Topps, which launched its “Inception” NFT digital collectibles series on the network.

There is also a vote underway in the Aave community, one of the top DeFi protocols in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, to see if investors want to see AAVE launch on the Avalanche network. A vote of approval could lead to a further increase in TVL on Avalanche as assets held in AAVE on Ethereum have the potential to be migrated to AAVE on Avalanche.

The @AaveAave proposal is live!

If you're part of the $AAVE community and would like to see Aave deployed on #Avalanche, please put your vote in now: https://t.co/Bx4jbUq6mO
— Avalanche (@avalancheavax) September 15, 2021

According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro, market conditions for AVAX have been favorable for some time.

The VORTECS™ Score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historical and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.

*VORTECS™ Score (green) vs. AVAX price. Source:* *Cointelegraph Markets Pro*

As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for AVAX spiked into the green and reached a high of 86 on Sept. 13, around 24 hours before the price increased 40% over the next two days.

Dapper Labs and Flow Blockchain to Get a Boost From Big Tech as Studio Partners With Google

September 15, 2021 Bitcoin.com

Partnership