San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has confirmed it is acquiring prime crypto brokerage Tagomi. 

In a statement announcing the news, Coinbase said it had seen a surge in demand for crypto investment opportunities from institutional clients over the past twelve months, stating:

“The acquisition will cap off a period of strong institutional focus for Coinbase, and comes at a time when the world’s most recognized professional investors and funds are giving increasing attention to the asset class.”

The growing institutional interest in crypto led Coinbase to launch margin trading for selected users, new tools to help investors segregate their trading strategies, and has seen demand for its professional custody service, Coinbase Custody, grow considerably. 

Coinbase’s new focus on institutional services also saw the company establish an entity in Ireland in January this year, enabling it to offer crypto custody services to European clients.

The rumours were true then…

Coinbase’s acquisition of Tagomi isn’t exactly surprising, with rumours of the acquisition floating around since Autumn 2019 – when Coinbase was prompted to deny it had already acquired the brokerage. 

At that time, some speculated that Tagomi was in Coinbase’s crosshairs because its increasing appeal to retail trading and high-net-worth clients was putting it in direct competition with Coinbase’s own Coinbase Pro platform. 

Founded by Greg Tusar, Jennifer Campbell, and Marc Bhargava, and backed by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, Tagomi only launched 18 months ago, but has quickly established itself as a leading, regulated cryptocurrency brokerage firm. 

The platform counts notable traders, hedge funds, and family offices, including Yale-backed Paradigm Fund, Pantera Capital, Bitwise, Morgan Creek, Galaxy Digital, Founders Fund, and Multicoin Capital, among its clients. 

It is also a member of the Libra Association, the governing body for Facebook’s stablecoin project, and has a partnership with Binance.US, the US branch of the major Malta-based cryptocurrency exchange. 

AYO.NEWS says:

As we’ve noted previously, although institutional investors were slow to get involved in the crypto space, now the regulatory environment is clearer and infrastructure is more sophisticated and resilient, we expect to see them drive the market over the long-term, and hopefully add some much-needed stability. 

Staying with Coinbase, last week we reported the company had said it would transition to a “remote-first” future after the COVID-19 crisis had passed. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020

eMusic has become the first major music service to launch a digital token (eMU), to help build a sustainable music ecosystem for artists, fans, and music services. 

A digital music pioneer, New York-based eMusic was founded in 1998 and is famous for launching the world’s first online store for MP3 downloads. Now it has launched the eMU decentralised digital currency, to make payments to artists more efficient and transparent. 

According to the company, the blockchain-based system will remove the need for intermediaries, allowing music artists to keep more of the royalties they earn for purchases, and provide real-time visibility into how their music is being consumed and by whom. 

Discussing the token President of eMusic, Tamir Koch, said:

“Streaming has dramatically increased revenues and adoption, but the model has proven itself to be fundamentally flawed. Hard-up artists receive a fraction of the royalties, while intermediaries take an ever-growing slice of the pie and leading services remain loss-making.

“The eMU token is now here to reinvent music distribution. It creates a brand-new commercial model built on fair compensation and transparent flow of funds between fans, artists and music services”.

eMU tokens can now be purchased on digital asset exchange Bibox, at a base price of $0.39 per token. Users are guaranteed that each token will always buy at least one song from the eMusic store. 

Commenting on the listing Managing Director at Bibox, Guojie Liu, said:

“eMusic pioneered the concept of digital music and was among the very first music subscription services. When they say that blockchain is the future, the music industry should take note. We are delighted to be listing eMU on our exchange and anticipate strong demand for using the token on the eMusic platform and beyond.”

Fans will also be able to earn instant rewards from their favourite artists for engagement, such as sharing music and reviews, and even help crowdfund artists’ tours. 

The eMU token and blockchain platform are also intended to help artists to build sustainable careers, allowing them to independently upload their own content to the eMusic store and elsewhere. 

AYO.NEWS says:

Several companies are harnessing blockchain to enable more transparency and efficiency for music rights management and royalty collection. 

In January we reported London-based Ditto Music had announced the launch of Bluebox – a blockchain-based recording solution, while last year Bitfury Surround partnered with music rights management company SoundVault, to improve creative opportunities with blockchain and AI. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020

Eidoo, the Swiss DeFi startup, has partnered with Contis to launch a new Visa crypto debit card. 

The new Eidoo card has been approved by Visa and will be accepted by 40 million merchants worldwide. It uses regulated stablecoins to enable crypto-to-fiat conversions, supporting major currencies including the euro (EUR) and British pound (GBP). 

Contis, a principal member of Visa Europe, acts as the issuer of the new card, while the Ethereum-based stablecoins used are issued by UK-based financial services firm Moneyfold. According to Eidoo, the new card represents the first time the backend of a cryptocurrency card is done via stablecoins and DEXes. 

People can pre-order an Eidoo Card by staking or burning Eidoos native EDO token (minimum burn 100 EDO, or minimum stake 25,000). There are three levels of account available: BASIC, VIP, and BLACK. 

The company says nearly 3,000 cards have already been pre-ordered, with more than 3m EDO tokens staked.

AYO.NEWS says:

Cards like this really do make cryptocurrencies as convenient as cash, and will be a major driver of mainstream adoption. At the end of March we reported that Malta-based crypto company Binance had launched a Visa debit card, with initial roll out in Malaysia. Meanwhile, US-based Coinbase has been steadily adding more countries and cryptocurrencies to its Visa debit card program.  

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020

Italian porn industry news outlet PornVisory.it is planning to launch a third-party video and live streaming platform, and reward people for watching with its own crypto tokens. 

Talking to Cointelegraph the company’s founder, Veronica Noschese, said that the adult entertainment industry was in desperate need of anonymous financial systems, and she saw there was a “natural synergy” between the crypto and porn industries. 

With even the world’s biggest adult website, Pornhub, running into issues with payment providers – as evidenced by PayPal’s decision to ban it in 2019 – cryptocurrencies seem to offer an appealing solution. As we previously reported, in January this year Pornhub itself decided to support the Tether (USDT) stablecoin, and it was already supporting the Verge (XVG). 

Apparently PornVisory’s token (PVY) has been inspired by the Basic Attention Token (BAT) – and will be awarded to visitors using the privacy-first Brave Browser if they enable special ads, and to users viewing PornVisory’s content. 

An exclusive section of the new platform will also allow users to pay for content using popular mainstream cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Though PornVisory currently only offers Italian-language content, it is planning to launch an English-language section soon. 

Interestingly, Noschese confirmed there will not be an initial coin offering (ICO) for the PVY token, and the project is being financed with the founder’s own funds. However, there are plans to seek additional investment once the platform is running, and there are token airdrops planned for marketing purposes. 

Though plans have been delayed somewhat by the COVID-19 crisis, which effectively shutdown Italian businesses for months, the company plans to launch its new platform before the end of 2020. 

The technical blockchain aspects of the project are being handled by Swiss company Deepit. 

AYO.NEWS says:

As we’ve pointed out before, the adult industry could well turn into one of the most significant drivers for mainstream blockchain adoption among the general public. However, with regulators across the world now turning their attention to cryptocurrencies, how long the technology will really be able to offer anonymity for financial transactions is anyone’s guess. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020

Blockchain lottery company Quanta has appointed Ioannis Papachristou as SVP, Managing Director, of its Isle of Man operations. 

Papachristou has extensive experience in managing operations and projects, and is said to be a dynamic and motivated professional with a proven track record of managing projects from concept to completion. 

Introducing Papachristou Quanta’s CEO, Harmen Brenninkmeijer, said:

“Ioannis is able to respond quickly to changes that occur on a daily basis in fast moving industries. As a member of senior management, the managing director is also expected to promote expansion and innovation within the industry.”

While Papachristou himself added:

“I am excited to take on this role and to focus on Quanta’s potential to utilise revolutionary technology to bring unparalleled security, transparency, and immutability to the gaming sector and beyond. As a true believer in Quanta’s vision for the future, I have confidence in the new management team and its ability to lead the company to success.”

Staying with Quanta, in March we reported the company had appointed John Kamara as SVP African Operations, while in February Jason Yee was appointed Chief Financial Officer of the company.

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Telegram has conceded defeat in its battle with US authorities, withdrawing its appeal against a US federal court injunction.

According to a court document dated 22 May, the company has halted its attempt to fight the injunction that ordered it to cease issuing and distributing its Gram tokens. 

As we reported in March, the injunction had been issued after a US District Court agreed to grant a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) request, stating that it considered the SEC to have shown “a substantial likelihood of success in proving” that the issuance and sale of tokens was an “integral part of the sale of securities without a required registration statement.” 

Earlier this month Co-Founder of Telegram Messenger, Pavel Durov, announced the closure of the Telegram Open Network (TON) project, and the withdrawal of the appeal seems to be the final nail in the coffin, confirming there’s no going back. 

However, though it may be the end of the road for Telegram’s official involvement in TON, the Telegram Open Network operating system, the open-source project is still very much alive, after being published on Github and propelled forward by its worldwide developer communities. 

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