Kraken, the popular San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange, has acquired Circle’s over-the-counter (OTC) desk.

Confirming the acquisition in an official blog post yesterday, Kraken said it had acquired “one of the most recognized OTC desks in crypto”, while Sean Neville and Jeremy Allaire, co-founders of Circle, confirmed the company had sold Circle Trade OTC to Kraken.

Kraken said the acquisitions will “significantly bolster” its OTC services, which are run by Wall Street veteran Nelson Minier, allowing it to find new trading partners around the world, particularly in Asia, offer deeper liquidity and tighter spreads across all supported assets, and improve automation and provide more advanced tools for traders.

In a statement Neville and Allaire said they had every confidence that customers would continue to find best-in-class OTC liquidity and responsiveness through Kraken, and that Circle Trade was one of the industry’s “enormous” successes.

Apparently, the sale of Circle’s OTC desk is part of its “sharpened 2020 product roadmap”, which will see the company reduce the complexity of its product portfolio, reorganise its teams, and shift its focus to its stablecoin, the USD Coin (USDC). So far this month, the reorganisation has resulted in about 10 layoffs.

As AYO.NEWS reported a couple of weeks ago, Neville is set to step down as co-CEO in January, but will remain with the company, joining its board of directors (read more).

AYO.NEWS says:

Circle certainly has some major changes planned for 2020, as it seeks to capitalise on the rapidly growing use of stablecoins, so it makes a lot of sense to simplify its portfolio and streamline operations now.

Recently crypto exchange Poloniex, which Circle acquired in 2018, was also offloaded – in large part to ease pressures from US regulators. The exchange, which was acquired by a newly set-up company, then promptly itself acquired TRXMarket, the Tron (TRX) network’s largest decentralised exchange (read more).

AYO.NEWS says features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited.

John McAfee, our favourite crypto eccentric, has confirmed he’s putting his individual crypto currency promotions on ice to focus on his 2020 presidential bid campaign.

Yep, he’s really doing it. January will see John McAfee kick off his presidential campaign “in earnest”… even though he openly admits he hasn’t got a snowball’s chance in hell of winning. Still, he sees it as a brilliant opportunity to promote the broader cryptocurrency world to the mainstream.

I’m not backing off from Crypto. I’m backing off from promoting specific coins or projects. It’s the Wild West here in Crypto. Even I cannot properly vet anything in this nuclear explosion of technology, promise and exploitation to the degree that I am comfortable promoting it.

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) December 14, 2019

McAfee, who is currently living in exile on a boat… somewhere, is wanted in the United States on tax charges – which he says are fraudulent – so campaigning will have to be done entirely remotely.

Mind you, not even living on a boat has kept him out of trouble. Back in July, AYO.NEWS reported that he had been arrested and held for four days in the Dominican Republic – though he was later released without charge and, in typical McAffee-style, even posted selfies taken with his captors on twitter (read more).

In October, McAfee launched his own decentralised exchange, saying it was aimed at freeing people from “governments’ cornerstone of control: fiat currencies”, and adding that there was no way to shut it down (read more).

And, let’s not forget, McAfee is still standing by his, now seemingly far-fetched, prediction that Bitcoin (BTC) will hit $1 million by the end of next year or he will eat his own penis.

When I predicted Bitcoin at $500,000 by the end of 2020, it used a model that predicted $5,000 at the end of 2017. BTC has accelerated much faster than my model assumptions. I now predict Bircoin at $1 million by the end of 2020. I will still eat my dick if wrong. pic.twitter.com/WVx3E71nyD

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) November 29, 2017

AYO.NEWS says:

We can’t help but love John McAfee. In a world of Trumps and Johnsons, McAfee’s brand of sticking it to the authorities and slightly unhinged freedom fighting is exactly what is needed! So, for the sake of world peace we’re hoping against hope to see a President McAfee unseat Trump, and for the sake of his manhood we’re hoping to see $1m Bitcoin by the end of 2020!

Good luck John, on both counts!

AYO.NEWS says features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited.

Major cryptocurrency exchange OKEx has announced users of stablecoin Dai (DAI) can soon earn interest by staking their holdings.

The news was confirmed in an official 17^th December Maker blog post, explaining that users who stake their Dai via OKEx’s in-house mining pool, Pool, will earn 4% interest via the ‘Dai Savings Rate’ (DSR), plus an extra incentive from the exchange itself.

OKEx explained that DSR offers individuals, start-ups and businesses anywhere in the world several benefits, including an attractive return (determined by Maker Governance), no fees or minimum/maximum deposits, and the ability to deposit and withdraw anytime.

When the feature goes live on 23^rd December, OKEx will be the first major trading platform to integrate DSR – which was introduced by Maker the entity behind Dai, just last month. Since launching, DAI holders have already staked around $16 million worth of the stablecoin, which indicates dividends of around $640K.

AYO.NEWS says:

Though this move by OKEx will no doubt up the profile of DAI, and get some more people to buy-in, the stablecoin still has a hell of a long way to go before its even in sight of the daddy of stablecoins, Tether (USDT).

Putting it in perspective, according to stablecoinindex.com, on December 3^rd 2019, Tether saw a trading volume of over $19 billion, while its next closest competitor was TrueUSD at around $118.5m, and Dai was at a comparatively lowly $1.6m. That’s some catching up to do!

Staying with Malta-based OKEx, at the end of October we reported the exchange had joined the Klaytn blockchain project as an ecosystem partner (read more).

AYO.NEWS says features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited.

Akon City, a “100% crypto-based city”, is now being built by Grammy award-winning American singer, songwriter, producer, entrepreneur, philanthropist and actor, Akon.

Yep, as we previously reported, Akon has set up his very own cryptocurrency, the AKoin, and is now in the process of building a futuristic city on 2,000 acres of land near Dakar, gifted to him by the president of Senegal.

Speaking on Nick Cannon’s radio show Power 106 Los Angeles, Akon said the city will be “renewable”, with a particular emphasis on solar power, and that the AKoin would be the “centre of transactional life.”

According to the singer, the city is scheduled to take ten years to build, with construction starting in March this year, and state 2 starting in 2025.

Akon also runs a charity called Akon Lightning Africa, which claims to have already provided solar solutions in eighteen African countries. During his chat with Cannon, the star criticised other wealthy people for sitting on large sums of money in the bank, which was wasted and could be used to help those in need.

Despite his enthusiasm for his city project, Akon said he was most excited about his cryptocurrency, the AKoin, and is confident it will take off internationally.

Somewhat echoing Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey’s assertion that Bitcoin’s (BTC) future will be “defined” by Africa (red more), Akon has previously said that blockchain and crypto could the “saviour” of Africa.

AYO.NEWS says:

In November Akon made a high profile appearance at the Malta AI & Blockchain Summit, where his enthusiasm was contagious. However, while there’s no doubting his passion for both AKoin and Akon City, establishing a viable long-term city is about more than just funding and construction, and will require massive, sustainable support from the Senegalese government. In a part of the world that is notoriously unstable, can this project rely on that?

Whatever happens, Akon has to be commended for what he’s doing, and we’ll be following the project with great interest.

AYO.NEWS says features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited.

Fidelity Digital Assets will add support for Ether (ETH) in 2020 according to the firm’s president, Tom Jessop.

The claim was made during an interview with TheBlock, published on 13^th December, when Jessop said the firm had done a lot work with Ethereum, was very much led by its clients, and as such intended to add support for ETH sometime in the new year.

In the same interview Jessop said he believed price volatility was still one of the major obstacles to institutional cryptocurrency adoption, along with regularity unclarity and the lack of a significant track record – though he speculated that as time passed these issue would be addressed, with the latter in effect solving itself.

Fidelity’s cryptocurrency trading and custody platform has been live for select hedge funds, family offices, pensions, endowments and other institutional investors since March 2019. However, the company says it has stayed away from offering a similar service to retail investors to protect its clients from what is still a very volatile market.

AYO.NEWS says:

With Bitcoin (BTC) institutional adoption well under way, it seems certain that Ether (ETH) will follow suite, and Jessop’s assertion that many of the obstacles regarding crypto adoption will solve themselves given time seems logical enough. Will Fidelity be leading the way with ETH offerings sometime within the next few months?

AYO.NEWS says features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited.

Hydra, Russia’s biggest darknet marketplace has announced a token offering in an attempt to raise $146 million to fund global expansion.

Illegal, in more ways than one

According to Forklog, the token sale is very likely illegal, and not just in terms of breaching securities and financial rules and regulations. Nope, Hydra has openly said it wants to expand its unique model of anonymous trading of illicit substances.

Hydra despatches illegal products via couriers, who then leave the good in pre-agreed concealed spots in public locations. The buyer then collects the goods at a later time, meaning that buyers, sellers and courier never meet or see each other.

Ushering in a “new era in the West”

In an ‘investment memorandum’ which can only be accessed using dark web browsers like Tor, the platform says its global expansion will usher a “new era in the West” on a scale that’s “hard to imagine.”

The operators of Hydra say they intend to introduce a new service called “Eternos”. This will combine encrypted messaging, a privacy-optimised web browser, automated dispute resolution, and an over-the-counter marketplace and cryptocurrency exchange.

‘Guaranteed’ $500 monthly dividends

The token sale is slated to go live on 16^th December, and will see investors offered bundles of 100 tokens, each giving rights to a 0.003% share of platform profits. Each token will be priced at $100 and must be purchased with Bitcoin (BTC).

Hydra plans to issue 1,470,000 tokens, equating to 49% of Eterno’s value and has promised $500 in monthly dividends for anyone purchasing 100 tokens or more, based on an estimated monthly revenue of $15 million.

According to Hydra, it currently has more than 3 million users and handles more than 100,000 transactions each day, covering things like illicit substances, hacking services, forgery services, stolen data and cash.

AYO.NEWS says:

Obviously, Hydra’s plans will draw comparison with the infamous Silk Road, which was shut down by authorities in October 2013, and whose founder Ross Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison for money laundering and aiding in the distribution of drugs, computer hacking, fraud and other crimes.

Alphabay, Hansa, and RAMP (Russian Anonymous Marketplace), were other popular darknet marketplaces that were all shutdown by Operation Bayonet – an international law enforcement operation that culminated in 2017. However, illustrating the challenge facing authorities, their closure did little to stop illegal traders, who simply switched to alternative darknet marketplaces – which can be launched as quick as they are shut down.

Of course, given the illegal, shadowy and anonymous nature of Hydra, its difficult to believe that many ‘investors’ will really trust those behind it to deliver on their promises. And, its easy to see that anyone investing in the platform will likely make themselves party to much more serious crimes than merely using it to buy some drugs or stolen data.

If Hydra really does try a big rollout globally we expect we’ll be hearing a lot about it in mainstream media before long. Unfortunately, that coverage may well frame cryptocurrencies, and blockchain technology in general, in a very negative light.

AYO.NEWS says features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited.