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TOKEN2049 Singapore main highlights

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TOKEN2049 has ended in Singapore. Here are three highlights from one of the most anticipated crypto conferences of the year.

One of the largest industry conferences, TOKEN2049, was held from Sept. 18 to 19 in Singapore. It brought together leading figures in the crypto space, who shared their thoughts on trends, developments and priorities for the industry.

What will the crypto industry be like in three years?

One of the highlights of the event was a panel entitled “The Next 3 Years in Crypto,” during which several leaders of major crypto projects discussed where the industry is heading in the near term. Stablecoin issuer Circle‘s CEO Jeremy Allaire, top crypto exchange OKX‘s founder and CEO Star Xu, and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin participated in the panel discussion and spoke about the digital asset sector’s future, sharing stories from their past experience as long-time participants and leaders in the space.

Self-custody is key

During the panel, OKX’s Xu noted the importance of self-custody technologies for storing cryptocurrency, given their relatively high level of security. However, he also pointed out that promoting self-custody in the crypto industry — meaning holding your crypto yourself instead of using a third-party, like an exchange — does not imply that there is no need to regulate the space.

Speaking about the future of digital assets, Xu noted that over the past ten years, the industry has seen many important technological developments. However, he believes that web3 applications and use cases should be developing even faster.

Less focus on NFTs

Buterin mentioned that one of the main advantages of digital assets is their international, borderless nature. He reiterated the notion that the industry has the potential to meet the needs of people globally who do not have access to the traditional financial system.

He also pointed out the need for practical use cases to drive the mass adoption of digital assets. Buterin called for less focus on expensive NFTs, arguing that they have no real benefits for the industry or for humanity.

The co-founder of Ethereum also said that he believes that improving security in the crypto industry should be a major focus, alongside trying to reduce transaction fees.

Vitalik comments on the accessibility of crypto and sings a crypto song

Buterin also touched on topics such as the accessibility of cryptocurrencies, their use as a means of payment, and security in the ecosystem as a whole.

He argued that it’s no longer valid to say that it’s too early for more widespread adoption of crypto. He compared the extremely limited awareness and adoption of Bitcoin (BTC) in 2013 with the situation just eight years later, in 2021, when a cup of coffee could be bought for Ethereum (ETH) in Argentina.

In between talking about the future of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, he also sang a song about crypto:

And then an improved version of Buterin’s song appeared on social media:

Remix of Vitalik Buterin’s song at Token2049 in Singapore | Source: Lil Bubble

Arthur Hayes predicts market reaction to Fed rate cuts

Also on the first day of the event, the co-founder of derivatives exchange BitMEX, Arthur Hayes, gave a keynote speech with the title “Thoughts on Macroeconomics Current Events.”

Speaking the same day that the U.S. Federal Reserve was expected to announce very anticipated interest rate cuts — which indeed happened later that day — Hayes predicted that the cuts would cause the markets to drop in the short-term:

“I think that the Fed is making a colossal mistake cutting rates at a time when the U.S. government is printing and spending as much money as they ever have in peacetime.” 

Hayes noted that the lower interest rates in the U.S. could trigger a market drop in part because of — again — fears around the unwinding of the yen carry trade. Lower interest rates from the Fed, coupled with recently rising rates from the Bank of Japan, lessen the gap between rates in the U.S. and Japan, making the yen carry trade less profitable.

The yen carry trade refers to when investors borrow yen at historically very low rates, convert it into currencies with higher-yield assets, like Treasury Bills in the U.S., and then invest in those assets. Last month, one of the driving factors behind global markets plummeting was the potential unwinding of the yen carry trade.

However, since the U.S. Fed announced a 0.5% cut in interest rates, Bitcoin has gained almost 7%.

The next TOKEN2049 event — which promises to feature 200+ speakers — is scheduled to take place this spring in Dubai.



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Sui Network blockchain down for more than two hours

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The Sui Network is suspected to be down for more than two hours. The protocol has not produced any new transaction blocks since Nov. 21 UTC 9:15.

Sui Network blockchain down for more than two hours - 1
Data from the Sui Vision explorer shows that the protocol has not produced any new transactions since 9:15 am UTC | Source: Sui Vision

Based on the latest data from Sui Network’s explorer site Sui Vision, the decentralized layer-1 blockchain has stopped producing blocks for more than two hours.

At the time of writing, the last transaction block took place on Nov. 21 at 9:15 am UTC. Since then, no new blocks have been produced on the blockchain.

The Sui Network confirmed the outage on its official X account, stating that the blockchain is currently unable to process transactions. However, it claims that the problem has been identified and will be back to normal soon.

“We’ve identified the issue and a fix will be deployed shortly. We appreciate your patience and will continue to provide updates,” wrote the protocol on X.

Sui’s blockchain outage has seemingly impacted the SUI token price. According to data from crypto.news, the Sui token has gone down by nearly 2% in the past hour. It is currently trading hands at $3.41. In the past 24 hours, SUI has plummeted by 7.29%.

Even though, the token has gone up by nearly 75% in the past month.

SUI currently ranks in the 18th place in the lineup of cryptocurrencies, holding a market cap of $9.7 billion and a fully diluted valuation of $34 billion. The Sui token has a circulating supply of $2,8 billion tokens.

The South Korean crypto exchange, Upbit, announced it will be temporary suspending deposits and withdrawals for the Sui token due to its block generating outage.

The notice informs users that if they deposit or withdraw Sui tokens after the announcement was posted, then there is a chance that their funds cannot be recovered.

Several crypto industry figures took to X to comment on the recent Sui Network outage. Most of them teased Sui’s goal of becoming Solana’s biggest competitor. Ironically, the Solana blockchain also has a track record of outages in the past, with the latest one recorded in February this year.

“Sui [is] just repeating Solana history,” said one X user.

“Hasn’t Solana gone down multiple times?” asked another X user.

“SUI blockchain is down. And they claimed to be a Solana Killer,” wrote crypto YouTuber Ajay Kashyap on his X post.





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SBI, UBS and Chainlink complete pilot for automated tokenized fund solution

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SBI Digital Markets, UBS Asset Management, and Chainlink have successfully completed a pilot program showcasing the use of smart contracts to manage tokenized funds.

The companies announced this on Nov. 18, noting that the solution brings automated tokenized fund management to the market and leverages the Chainlink (LINK) infrastructure. With this solution, users can automate their tokenized fund management processes, unlocking blockchain capabilities for the world’s $132 trillion assets under management market.

urrently, the total real-world assets on-chain represent a market of around $13.2 billion.

Solution allows for efficient scaling of tokenized funds 

According to a press release, the tokenized fund pilot demonstrated how fund managers can leverage smart contracts and Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol to efficiently scale their products on-chain and across distributors.

Central to this initiative is the Digital Transfer Agent smart contract model, a novel fund administration system that utilizes multiple Chainlink oracle networks. SBI’s custodian and fund distributor successfully deployed this model to enable multi-chain subscriptions and redemptions.

As the tokenized funds industry evolves to attract the world’s top players, the demand for on-chain administration is increasing. Notably, a recent report revealed that 93% of fund services providers do not offer full automation for their data inputs and workflow processes. This lack of automation creates key bottlenecks for traditional fund operators.

However, smart contracts, oracle networks, and tokenized funds provide the asset management industry with a pathway to full automation.

“This new way of launching fund structures and administering them via smart contracts empowers both fund managers and their service providers to deliver new on-chain financial products and lower operational costs to investors, both things they are actively looking for,” said Winston Quek, chief executive officer at SBI Digital Markets.

The solution, currently live on various blockchain testnets, will soon go to mainnet.

SBI Digital Markets, UBS Asset Management, and Chainlink announced the solution at the Singapore Fintech Festival, launching it as part of the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s ‘Project Guardian.’

This development follows a partnership between Swift, UBS Asset Management, and Chainlink aimed at bridging tokenized assets with legacy payment systems. UBS also recently unveiled a pilot for cross-border payments called “UBS Digital Cash”.



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Institutional Investors Go All In on Crypto as 57% Plan to Boost Allocations as Bull Run Heats Up, Sygnum Survey Reveals

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“This report tells the story of progress and calculated risk, the use of a diverse set of strategies to leverage opportunities and most of all, the continued belief in the market’s long-term potential to reshape traditional financial markets” Lucas Schweiger, Sygnum Digital Asset Research Manager and report author, said in the press release shared with CoinDesk.



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