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Mastercard’s new initiative to aid startups working with crypto and blockchain tech

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Several significant firms dived into the crypto-verse this year, and Mastercard was one of them. While an array of platforms maintained a low profile considering the volatile nature of the market, the payments giant went all in and is continuing to do so. Its latest announcement is enough proof of the same.

Back in February this year, Mastercard went on to announce its interest in crypto. The payments platform revealed that it would be taking a plunge into the crypto-verse, and stablecoins would get most of its attention. In its announcement, the platform stated, “We are here to enable customers, merchants, and businesses to move digital value — traditional or crypto — however, they want. It should be your choice, it’s your money.”

Further elevating its presence in the crypto industry, Mastercard advertised its recent initiative, Start Path, in its latest press release. With this program, the platform hopes to help and bring together startups that focus on crypto as well as blockchain tech.

Mastercard’s move to elevate its presence in the crypto market?

Along with seven companies including, Uphold, Taurus, STACS, Mintable, and several others, Mastercard would be diving deep into the crypto and blockchain startup biz. All of these companies are from different parts of the globe, like Singapore, the USA, Israel, and Switzerland.

Speaking about the same, Jess Turner, the executive vice president of New Digital Infrastructure and Fintech, said,

“Mastercard has been engaging with the digital currency ecosystem since 2015. As a leading technology player, we believe we can play a key role in digital assets, helping to shape the industry, and provide consumer protections and security. Part of our role is to forge the future of cryptocurrency, and we’re doing that by bridging mainstream financial principles with digital assets innovations.”

This initiative would allow startups to solve an array of challenges that the industry faces. The list includes tokenization, data accuracy, digital security, and seamless access between the traditional and digital economy. With each of the startups mentioned above specializing in specific fields, this initiative would address several market impediments.

Amazon is looking for someone to head the digital currency and blockchain product sector

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Amazon has been a constant visitor of the headlines, particularly after its founder Jeff Bezos blasted off into space. Apart from this, Amazon seemed to be making progress in the digital currency sector, and its latest job posting is a clear example of the same.

Digital currencies and blockchain technology witnessed massive growth in terms of popularity. While trying to steer towards digitalization, the world has started to adopt digital currencies as well as blockchain tech. Major firms were seen embracing this side of digitalization and Amazon jumped on the bandwagon.

In a recent job posting, Amazon revealed that it was looking for an experienced product leader to lead the blockchain, crypto, and the central bank digital currency [CBDC] sector of the e-commerce platform.

Amazon dives into digitalization

Applicants were required to traverse backward and keep in mind the needs of the customers as well as the partner. The lead would reportedly work towards developing the platform’s Digital Currency, which would include owning the vision and strategy of the product and designing the roadmap.

Elaborating on the job description, the e-commerce giant wrote,

“You will leverage your domain expertise in Blockchain, Distributed Ledger, Central Bank Digital Currencies and Cryptocurrency to develop the case for the capabilities which should be developed, drive overall vision and product strategy, and gain leadership buy-in and investment for new capabilities. You will work closely with teams across Amazon including AWS to develop the roadmap including the customer experience, technical strategy and capabilities as well as the launch strategy.”

While it wasn’t confirmed if the platform would be rolling out its own digital asset, its interest in the digital currency sector could significantly boost the industry.

Back when Facebook revealed its venture into the digital asset field, several speculated that Amazon would follow suit. However, this remains unclear.

JPMorgan continues Blockchain push as bank amps up new hiring

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Traditional banks have stopped shying away from nascent technologies of late after their proven impact in the financial space. Traditional banks have been a surprise adopter of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies with some players like JPMorgan doubling down on their blockchain-related job openings.

Being one of the largest banks in the United States comes with its own reach and several peripheral effects. Adopting blockchain technology into their fold coupled with the support from cryptocurrency enthusiasts, JPMorgan has set its sights high for the imminent blockchain race. Recently, the bank opened multiple job positions on its website to pursue its “global development efforts”.

Of the listings, a majority were related to JPMorgan’s digital asset focussed Onyx branch. The Onyx division of the bank made news earlier when it became one of the few major subgroups in the world to channel digital assets into the mainstream financial framework. Sources further showed that the opportunities were located worldwide, all the way from the US to Hong Kong.

Other job openings were in connection with Link, JPMorgan’s native blockchain-based interbank data network. The link includes major banks from all trading spheres. Just recently, the State Bank of India had joined the Link roster which also includes both state-owned and private institutions.

Another area that JPMorgan looked at was tapping the use of Proof-of-Stake algorithms and their advantages. The bank’s focus on the digital asset industry comes at a time when it was looking at better its own JPMCoin. JPMorgan’s crypto push was a U-turn on its earlier stance on digital assets. The positive sentiment rode on analyst comments that said Bitcoin could be the new alternative to gold soon.

Australian government grants millions in grants to rising blockchain companies

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There is no denying that blockchain projects have taken off in the last couple of months with even mainstream institutions adopting the technology. On June 12, the Australian government also jumped on the blockchain bandwagon as it granted more than $5.6 million to industry-based grants programs.

Australian Ministry for Industry, Science and Technology Christian Porter said the projects would help to accelerate the country’s adoption of blockchain technology and “assist businesses to solve real-world problems”. The first two recipients of the Blockchain Pilot Grants were Everledger and Convergence. tech. While the former received $3 million, the former landed a grant of $2.6 million.

The funds for the blockchain grants were first included in the Federal Budget for the 2020-2021 session. Last year in February, the Australian Government released the National Blockchain Roadmap which set the course for the current developments. Christian Porter said:

“The Blockchain Pilot Grants will demonstrate the potential for blockchain to help businesses to save money and cut red tape by improving processes such as tracking products throughout the supply chain and transferring customer information.”

He continued:

“These two successful projects will also highlight opportunities to improve the technical and regulatory environment for blockchain in Australia, bolster blockchain literacy and support collaboration between Australian governments, the private sector, and blockchain companies.”

Other sources within the government agreed with Porter in the fact that Australia had to keep up with the changing financial climate. Using the funds, Everledger plans to investigate the use of blockchain in digital certification. On the other hand, Converge will use its grants capital to help automate ‘commodity-based tax’ processes.

Australia has been blockchain positive for quite some time now and the latest move by the government only solidified cryptocurrency’s hold in the continent down under.

USDC on Tron Blockchain Hits $111 Million 4 days after expansion

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USDC activity on the Tron [TRX] blockchain has hit a milestone already. As per the latest stats on Tronscan, the world’s second-largest stablecoin’s circulating supply reached $111.68 million on the 4th of July.

This news comes just four days after CENTRE, the consortium run by cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and payments firm Circle, announced that USDC will be implemented on Tron, Avalanche, Celo, Flow, Hedera, Kava, Nervos, Polkadot, Stacks, and Tezos. Circle CEO, Jeremy Allaire had earlier noted,

“TRON has built a very large and highly successful blockchain platform and network, and is one of the most widely used in stablecoin transactions. We’re excited to bring the benefits of a trusted dollar digital currency such as USDC to this growing ecosystem of users and developers.”

Growing Tron’s appeal and USDC’s dominance

It is important to note that USDC has experienced unprecedented activity over the last few quarters. Reports have also gone on to state that it could soon become a dominant stablecoin on the Ethereum network. It has emerged as one of the most preferred stablecoin in the decentralized finance [DeFi] sector. To top that, over 50% of USDC supply currently rests in smart contracts which totals up to almost 12.5 billion. Additionally, Tether’s growing legal woes also deviated users from turning to USDC, which could be attributed to the leading stablecoin slowly losing grip.

Meanwhile, this new achievement on the TRX blockchain could also signify that the market players are increasingly seeking other blockchains that facilitate transactions at a much cheaper and significantly faster pace than Ethereum. Besides, the TRX blockchain has already seen rapid growth for USDT, on its network. As a matter of fact, USDT on Justin Sun’s blockchain has recently surpassed that on Ethereum.

In short, USDC’s growing dominance in the market has coincided with Tron’s growing appeal as a critical alternative to the Ethereum network.

JPMorgan analysts predict a solid future in staking as “Energy-Efficient” blockchains come to the forefront

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Mainstream financial institutions have raised concerns about the cryptocurrency market since its inception but the tide seems to be turning in 2021. Although JPMorgan Chase and its CEO Jamie Dimon have bashed digital assets before, it looks like some of the bank’s officials had other thoughts.

In a report this week, JPMorgan analysts claimed the creation of energy-efficient blockchains would pave the way for staking. They added that current blockchains suffer from the fact that they consume mammoth amounts of electricity and become contributors to global warming. JPMorgan’s latest report was contradictory to Dimon’s searing comments about the crypto market and its alleged lack of mainstream financial effectiveness.

One of the main discussions in the report revolved around staking and how it is a better alternative for customers to earn rewards for the investments. Right now, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum use a Proof-of-Work-based foundation that requires gigawatts of power. Applying a Proof-of-Stake system not only reduces the energy consumed but also benefits users and their long-term gains. The report read:

“Not only does staking lower the opportunity cost of holding cryptocurrencies versus other asset classes, but in many cases, cryptocurrencies pay a significant nominal and real yield. The yield earned through staking can mitigate the opportunity cost of owning cryptocurrencies versus other investments in other asset classes such as US dollars, US Treasuries, or money market funds in which investments generate some positive nominal yield.”

With blockchains like Ethereum 2.0 on the horizon, the authors of the report stated that they would become a major source of income for cryptocurrency organizations. For example, Coinbase alone is expected to rake in $200 million in revenue from staking in 2022. To put this in perspective, the Brian Armstrong company only generated $10.2 million in 2020.

Users should know that staking is dependent on market volatility and does not create ROI the same way as traditional investments. Experts believe that staking will become a reliable source of income as the cryptocurrency market matures and its volatility decreases.

Tron among 10 blockchain platforms stablecoin USDC plans to expand

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Tron has been chosen as one of the ten blockchain platforms that Centre has enabled its members to issue the stablecoin USDC. Center is a consortium that is operated by cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and payments firm Circle. Initially launched on the Ethereum blockchain, USDC was slowly expanded across other platforms such as Algorand, Stellar, and Solana chains in late 2020.

Apart from Tron, USDC will now be implemented on Avalanche, Celo, Flow, Hedera, Kava, Nervos, Polkadot, Stacks, and Tezos. The official press release of the stablecoin issuer read,

“From inception, our vision was to support USDC on multiple blockchain platforms. Bringing USDC to multiple chains enables users to take advantage of the speed, scalability and cost efficiency provided by next generation public chains.”

The latest move by Center is touted be the extensive expansion of the leading stablecoin as it eclipsed the eight blockchains that support the market leader, Tether’s USDT, which boasts a market cap of more than $62 billion. Over the past couple of months, USDC has witnessed massive growth especially due to unprecedented rally in the cryptocurrency market. The expansion comes in the heels of USDC surpassing the $25 billion market cap for the first time ever.

Following the development, Tron Foundation CEO, Justin Sun tweeted,

“Stablecoins will continue to play an important role and thrive in the cryptocurrency market, and TRC20-USDC’s roadmap and development on TRON is most definitely something to keep an eye on!”

Tron as a popular alternative

Tron also hosts USDT which has seen equally explosive growth in the past quarter. Another biggest contributing factor that resulted in the growth of the USDT on the Tron blockchain was the frustratingly high transaction fees on Ethereum that led many market participants who often use the stablecoin during trading to leave promptly from short-term trades and lock in gains with an asset at a stabilized value.

Just last month, the stablecoin issuer Tether had released 30 billion USDT as TRC20 tokens on the Tron blockchain, which went on to become the highest amount the stablecoin has ever issued on any chain.

Tron blockchain sees growth even as TRX lurks below 20th spot

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Tron [TRX] has emerged as one of the most popular blockchains today. It has bellwether for public chains in China. In the latest development, its blockchain height surpassed 31.35 million this week as the total nodes across the TRX network exceeded 1,330.

As revealed in the Tron weekly report, in the past week itself the blockchain witnessed over a staggering 1.24 million new addresses being added which took the current total number of accounts to more than 41.4 million. Additionally, the total number of transactions on the TRX blockchain hit 2.05 billion. This week itself saw the addition of 35.53 billion transactions on it. In yet another milestone, the network registered more than 6.38 million transactions in one day.

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Besides, daily active decentralized applications [DApp] on Tron have hit 103. On the other hand, its DApp DAU on the blockchain reached 2,320. Moreover, the number of daily transactions and trading volume surged all the way up to 33,000 and $10.21 million respectively.

The latest stats come on the heels of the Tron ecosystem celebrating its 3rd independence day on the 25th of June. To top that, the cryptocurrency exchange Binance had recently announced the official launch of a non-fungible token [NFT] auction platform dubbed ‘Binance NFT,’ the first ‘Genesis’ auction of which was co-hosted in collaboration with Tron along with APENFT.

Tron’s [TRX] Dull Price Action

TRX 2

While Tron blockchain has seen significant growth over the past couple of years, the same cannot be said about its native TRX token. The once top 10 crypto-asset has slid to the 24th spot. Over the past several months, TRX has failed to maintain impressive growth even after briefly shooting up this bull season as compared to its peers.

It was up by almost 4% over the past day amidst market-wide recovery attempts which pushed the price of the token to $0.068, at the time of writing. Additionally, TRX has accrued weekly gains of more than 30%

Goldman Sachs leads repo trade via JPMorgan’s blockchain network

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Goldman Sachs, the multinational investment bank and financial services company, has reportedly joined JP Morgan’s Repo blockchain network. As part of this, the company carried out its first repo trade using JPMorgan’s private blockchain network.

Goldman Sachs had led the initial trade on the 17th of June that involved exchanging a US Treasury bond for JPMCoin which took three hours and five minutes to complete. The entire transaction was quantifiable in nature since it could pinpoint the accurate amount of time required for completion. Hence, this was in contrast to the traditional repo market.

Following the development, Mathew McDermott, global head of digital assets for Goldman’s global markets division was quoted saying,

“We see this as a pivotal moment for the digitization of transactional activity.”

According to the exec, identifying the precise time is a big step up from the current market, as is the way the collateral and cash are interchanged simultaneously and immediately, the report said. McDermott also went on to add,

“We pay interest per the minute,” he said. “We firmly think this will change the nature of the intraday marketplace.”

The Repo blockchain was first unveiled in December sits within JP Morgan’s Onyx branch, which hosts multiple blockchain offerings. Goldman Sachs became the first to reveal that it was using the enterprise blockchain network, with BNY Mellon offering custody.

For the uninitiated, repurchase agreements, or better known as “repos,” are essentially a kind of loan where collateralized securities sold by financial establishments in a contract are bought back at a slightly higher cost some other time, usually on an overnight basis.

Goldman Sachs’ Tryst With crypto

Goldman Sachs was previously one of the many pessimists that doubted Bitcoin’s capabilities. However, since the foray of massive institutional capital into space, Goldman took a whole 180-degree turn on its previous stance.

The company had recently started trading Bitcoin futures after it partnered with Mike Novogratz-founded cryptocurrency merchant bank Galaxy Digital. A week back, Goldman Sachs had also revealed its plans to offer options and futures trading in Ether [ETH].

Blockchain.com bids adieu to NYC as Miami welcomes it with open arms

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Prominent cryptocurrency wallet and exchange, Blockchain.com revealed that it was shifting its headquarters into a more crypto-friendly region, Miami.

Miami managed to secure a prominent spot in the crypto-verse after the city’s Mayor, Francis Suarez, began embracing crypto. While all the other US regions have been dealing with an uncertain regulatory environment, Miami was seen making progress in the same. The Mayor’s efforts were evident as a prominent firm, Blockchain.com, has decided to move to Miami while bidding farewell to New York City.

Blockchain.com hopes to recruit 300 employees by the end of 2021

In a recent press release by Blockchain.com, it was revealed that the CEO of the platform Peter Smith along with Mayor Suarez, announced relocation plans. As the city preps for the Bitcoin 2021 Conference from tomorrow, the crypto platform hopes to bring recruits.

Speaking about the same, CEO Smith stated,

“Thanks to a strong relationship with the local government, we are honored to join the Miami business community. The internet will be the biggest economy in the world by 2030, and crypto is the financial system built to support it. The City of Miami recognizes the industry’s potential, and we look forward to contributing to Miami’s rich innovation ecosystem.”

The crypto platform intended to hire about 300 full-time employees by the end of next year. The expansion wouldn’t be much of a problem for the exchange as it entails the required capital. The Mayor noted that the salaries of the employees, as mentioned earlier, would range from $80,000 to $140,000. Miami’s plunge towards the crypto-verse has made the region suitable for hire.

Furthermore, Blockchain.com already set up offices in London, San Francisco, as well as New York. However, Miami seemed to be a favorable option for the crypto platform. Suarez also commented about Blockchain.com’s arrival and said,

“Blockchain.com’s arrival in Miami perfectly encapsulates what the Miami Movement is all about – leveraging Miami’s talent against the world’s top companies in order to build towards our goal of becoming a Miami that lasts forever and a Miami that works for everyone.”