Decentralized lending platform Aave has launched its permissioned lending and liquidity service Aave Arc to help institutions participate in regulation-compliant decentralized finance.
As opposed to its permissionless cross-chain counterparts on the platform, Aave Arc is a permissioned liquidity pool specifically designed for institutions to maintain regulatory compliance in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space.
The first of 30 entities lined up for the whitelist for Aave Arc was Fireblocks, the institutional digital asset custodian. It explained in a Jan. 5 announcement the pool “enables whitelisted institutions to securely participate in DeFi as liquidity suppliers and borrowers.”
Users of Aave Arc must perform due diligence procedures such as know your customer/ anti-money laundering (KYC/AML) in order to gain access.
Slides from Aave’s first reveal of the permissioned pool in July 2021.
Fireblocks also serves as a whitelisting agent for Aave Arc, ensuring other institutions that wish to join the permission pool perform KYC/AML requirements. Aave cannot perform this task itself because it is not a regulated entity such as a bank or other traditional finance institution.
As the whitelisting agent, Fireblocks has already approved “30 licensed financial institutions to participate on Aave Arc as suppliers, borrowers, and liquidators.”
Among some of the whitelisted entities are Anubi Capital, Canvas Digital, CoinShares, GSR, and crypto yield aggregator Celsius.
Related: SBF ‘optimistic’ about institutional crypto adoption in 2022
Aave’s new permissioned liquidity pool aims to onboard more institutions to the burgeoning DeFi space that has $133 billion in total value locked (TVL) as of time of writing. That TVL has grown 4.5 times since Jan. 10 of 2021 according to DappRadar.
While institutions began purchasing cryptocurrency in increasingly sizable portions in 2021, most remained skittish about dabbling in DeFi due to compliance hurdles and regulatory uncertainty.
Melbourne, Australia, December 23rd, 2021 — The world’s first ethical and inclusive DeFi ecosystem platform MRHB DeFihas launched its highly anticipated Souq NFT marketplace. Partnering with Gachyi Land, the first blockchain gaming gacha-launchpad ecosystem, the two parties will mint and issue Hallal Gachyi, a unique Gachyi Land-themed NFT collection created for Souq NFT.
Souq NFT is the first NFT marketplace in the world focussed on creating an ethical and halal marketplace for digital art and other NFT assets. Artists on the platform follow image, audio and video content guidelines such as no hate speech, racism or nudity, and must verify that the artworks are original pieces (no rip-offs of existing NFTs).
The MRHB DeFi collaboration with Gachyi Land will see the latter create 1,410 Hallal Gachyi NFTs (otherwise known as ‘Rimos’). MRHB DeFi will create and deploy the smart contract for these NFTs and Hallal Gachyi will be sold on Souq NFT marketplace.
“Our vision to create an inclusive, ethical DeFi and NFT ecosystem continues to take shape,” says Deniz Dalkilic, CTO of MRHB DeFi. “The Hallal Gachyi collection is the result of a unique collaboration with Gachyi Land and demonstrates our commitment to launching quality crypto products that meet and hopefully exceed community expectations.”
“NFTs are the building blocks of our digital future — they allow us to own digital items in ways we have never been able to before,” comments May Wong, founder of Gachyi Land. “We wanted to provide a colorful and cute entry point into the NFT space for the Islamic community, in the form of a ‘Rimo’. The NFT space has shown us that early adoption of NFTs that gain value over time represents opportunity. We are excited to release Hallal Gachyi with MRHB and provide value to their community!”
Hallal Gachyi NFTs will be issued on the BSC blockchain using the ERC-721 token standard. NFT owners will be able to play a mini-game at a future date where they can earn rewards such as $MRHB tokens and $Polymer tokens. The NFTs will also receive utility in Gachyi Land’s MMO RPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game), expected to be released in 2023.
Both parties will promote the new venture together on their respective platforms and are exploring future plans for MRHB to create other gamification models that integrate with the MRHB ecosystem.
A Shared Vision to Empower Communities
The Gachyi Land platform was created with the desire to empower artists with its disruptive NFT ecosystem. Gachyi Land provides artists with the platform, community, technology and tools they need to display and sell their work, and further explore the possibilities of the digital realm.
Similarly, MRHB DeFi was conceived with the goal of giving excluded and crypto-cautious communities better access to cryptoverse opportunities with a key focus on the provision of decentralized financial services that avoid interest-based profits and lending. MRHB DeFi bridges the existing gap between crypto offerings and the ethical faith-based community.
The journey to an inclusive, ethical DeFi cryptoverse has not been a lonely one for MRHB DeFi. The halal project is currently backed by investors and partners which include Polygon Technology, Sheesha Finance, Blockchain Australia, Australian Gulf Capital, Mozaic, Contango Digital Assets, NewTribe Capital, Masary Capital, ZKSync, Acreditus Partners, EMGS Group, Sinofy Group, MKD Capital and others.
In collaboration with management consulting group, Sinofy, MRHB DeFi has also organized an NFT art competition, designed for creators and artists, within the framework of the DEV Challenge Season 18 championships in Ukraine. More information on how to participate can be found in the MRHB DeFi Medium blog.
December is turning out to be a very exciting and busy month for MRHB DeFi, having launched their IDO yesterday on December 22nd. The $MRHB tokens were sold out on the DODO launchpad in half a day, with the second launchpad ZeeDO catching up. Upon completion of IDO, TGE (Token Generation Event) will take place on December 24th 1PM UTC/GMT, which will then be closely followed by its listing on the popular DEX Pancakeswap.
About MRHB DeFi
MRHB DeFi is a halal, decentralized finance platform built to embody the true spirit of an “Ethical and Inclusive DeFi” by following faith-based financial and business principles, where all excluded communities can benefit from the full empowerment potential of DeFi.
The diverse team comprises researchers, technocrats, influencers, Islamic fintech experts & business entrepreneurs, who came together to ensure that MRHB DeFi prevails in a manner that will impact society as a whole, essentially bridging the gap between the faith-conscious communities and the blockchain world.
Gachyi Land is building an ecosystem that consists of an NFT Launchpad and Play-To-Earn MMORPG. NFTS issued on their platform will be incorporated within the ecosystem to serve either an in-game functionality such as boosts or exclusive pre-sale access, or their utility can be built into future games.
With its disruptive Play2Earn MMORPG, Gachyi is providing artists with the platform, community, technology, and tools they need to unleash their creativity and gain the exposure they deserve. NFTs will be minted via Gachyi’s interactive gachapon machines on the Polygon blockchain based on the ERC-721 token standard, priced in MATIC.
Melbourne, Australia, December 22nd, 2021 — MRHB DeFi, the world’s first inclusive and ethical DeFi ecosystem platform, has announced today the IDO of its BEP-20 token $MRHB on launchpads, ZeroSwap and DODO. Upon IDO completion, immediate listings of the token on DODO and the ever popular PancakeSwap DEX will follow. This is exciting news for the loyal community of over 1000 investors and supporters of the project who will be able to publicly trade $MRHB for the very first time.
“We are thrilled to announce the upcoming IDO and TGE (Token Generation Event) of the $MRHB token, which is the culmination of all the dedication and hard work of the entire Marhaba team,” declared CEO and founder Naquib Mohammed.
“Likewise, we are indebted to our diverse and global family of partners and investors, as well as our loyal community, who have offered steadfast support for the project throughout. The $MRHB token will be the fuel that underpins our entire ethical ecosystem platform, driving our shared vision of an inclusive DeFi for a more sustainable cryptoverse,” he added.
The public sale price of the $MRHB token is USD 0.04 on both ZeeDO, the launchpad of multi-chain DEX aggregator ZeroSwap, and on the DODO BSC launchpad, whose whitelist for the IDO has reportedly already been filled, as of this morning. There will be zero lockup periods for these tokens, which will be 100% released at TGE.
Massive Community Interest for Ethical, Sustainable and Inclusive DeFi Offerings
The community-first project has already concluded two successful pre-launch sales on their website. Unlike many other projects, where only VCs and VIPs get priority, MRHB opened their early rounds to the community to help share the crypto-opportunity — a move celebrated by the now 70,000 strong supporters. For the team, this served as an importantvalidation of the interest for DeFi services rooted in ethics, sustainability and inclusion.
MRHB DeFi was founded with a vision of providing excluded and crypto-cautious communities greater access to the growing opportunities and utilities of the crypto sphere. The project is underpinned by offering faith-based DeFi services which adhere to the ethical investment and financing principles rooted in Islamic Finance — a sector valued at around USD 3 trillion of assets. Bringing even a small portion of Shariah-sensitive liquidity into DeFi will represent a major boost to the total value of the DeFi sector worldwide.
Business practices deemed ethical include those that avoid interest, usury, social exploitation as well as support sustainability, asset or utility backed financing, transparency and equitable risk-reward sharing. These principles have universal appeal far beyond the faith conscious community as evidenced by a large number of stakeholders beyond the halal-seeking population.
Many of the values upheld by the halal platform align with several of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and MRHB is also a signatory of the Crypto Climate Accords, a group that seeks to achieve net-zero emissions from electricity consumption by 2030 as well as develop standards and technologies to accelerate the progress toward 100% renewably powered blockchains by the 2025 UNFCCC COP30 conference.
To date, investors include Sheesha Finance, Blockchain Australia, Australian Gulf Capital, Mozaic, Contango Digital Assets, NewTribe Capital, Acreditus Partners, EMGS Group, Sinofy Group, MKD Capital and a grant from Polygon Technology.
About MRHB DeFi
MRHB DeFi is a halal, decentralized finance platform built to embody the true spirit of an “Ethical and Inclusive DeFi” by following faith-based financial and business principles, where all excluded communities can benefit from the full empowerment potential of DeFi.
The diverse team comprises researchers, technocrats, influencers, Islamic fintech experts & business entrepreneurs, who came together to ensure that MRHB DeFi prevails in a manner that will impact society as a whole, essentially bridging the gap between the faith-conscious communities and the blockchain world.
On Friday, WisdomTree, a financial institution with over $76 billion in assets under management, announced it had created four cryptocurrency indices in the United States and Europe to provide diversified portfolio exposure to investors. The move comes in collaboration with Ritholtz Wealth Management, OnRamp, and Gemini.
In the U.S., WisdomTree will launch the RWM WisdomTree Crypto Index. And in Europe, WisdomTree is advancing the WisdomTree Crypto Mega Cap Equal Weight (MEGA), WisdomTree Crypto Market (BLOC), and WisdomTree Crypto Altcoins (WALT) indices.
The RWM WisdomTree Crypto Index will focus on crypto assets, layer one networks, layer two protocols, oracle networks, and decentralized finance protocols, among others. But it will have a heavy emphasis on layer one networks, with 64% of the fund’s assets going into this category.
Meanwhile, MEGA will act as an equal weight index for large-cap cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). As for BLOC, it will track the performance of the top 70% of cryptos by market cap. Lastly, WALT is another equally-weighted index that seeks to track the performance of altcoins, and will not hold either BTC or ETH.
Related: Grayscale tells SEC ‘no basis’ to approve Bitcoin futures ETFs and not spot ETFs
Alexis Marinof, head of European operations at WisdomTree, issued the following statement with regards to the development:
As interest in crypto assets remains high and becomes a bigger focus for investors, we will continue investing in our platform and capabilities to support investors in this fast-moving market.
WisdomTree’s application to list a Bitcoin spot ETF in the United States was rejected earlier this week after the Securities and Exchange Commission determined that the proposed fund failed to meet various regulatory requirements, including those found under the Exchange Act. However, the asset manager succeeded in listing several exchange-traded products in Europe.
Bitrefill, the startup that offers Bitcoin-funded prepaid cards for different services worldwide, launched a new bill-payment service that allows Salvadorans to pay for multiple basic needs using Bitcoin. The company made the announcement during the three-day conference Adopting Bitcoin carried in El Salvador, which brought together “the Bitcoin and Lightning community”.
Bitcoin has been a legal tender in El Salvador since September 7th, but many businesses were not sticking to the requirement of accomodating the digital coin as a payment method into their operations, Bitrefill’s CEO noted. Some have even stated they rather lose sales. Bitrefill aims to offer a solution for businesses so they can easily adapt to using Bitcoin and ease their current worries.
Related Reading | There Are More People Using Bitcoin Wallets Than Bank Accounts, Says El Salvador President
Bitrefill’s bill-payment method will allow Salvadorians to pay for 150 different services using Bitcoin, including internet, water, insurance, loans, taxes, mortgage, social security services, university expenses, and others. They also allowed payments overseas. 12 services are available at the moment on the website, and they will be adding the rest over the next few weeks.
The platform will be using Bitcoins Lightning Network and on-chain transactions, which allows low fees. “El Salvador can now live entire on Bitcoin”, stated the company.
The feature is offered in alliance with Puntoexpress, a local payment platform. The payment process was simplified for the users so they only need to provide an email address to redeem a voucher code and receipt.
El Salvador, A Bitcoin Land
Bitrefill reported they have processed 187,000 purchases in El Salvador during 2021, and 88% come from the country’s capital, San Salvador. There was a peak of 20,000 payments in September when the ‘Bitcoin law’ went into effect.
The majority of Salvadorians reportedly use the Chivo digital wallet, an app created by the government, as the preferred payment method for Bitrefill purchases.
Bitrefill’s CEO, Sergej Kotliar, stated that they now have headquarters established in El Salvador, a manager in the country, and they are hiring for all roles to cover the company’s needs. He shared his strategy is to be directly involved in the country by being present and maintaining contact with people who provide him with different approaches and information that the company can use to design other services.
The CEO thinks El Salvador could become an example model that other countries could follow. The company also stated in a tweet:
The most important part is that the 80% of unbanked people can now pay for almost everything online, products, services, bills, from the comfort of their home (or their relatives in the USA).
El Salvador’s adoption of Bitcoin has been a bumpy road. However, the Chivo Wallet surpasses 2.2 million users a few weeks after its launch, gaining around 8,500 new users per hour and reaching 3 million later on. The citizens received $30 each as an incentive for downloading the app, but some reported to Reuters they had problems using it and making withdrawals.
The government remains optimistic, although challenges lay ahead. We are yet to see if innovation and good strategies can help close the gap between the government’s vision and the tension around Salvadorians.
Related Reading |El Salvador Calls Another Bitcoin Dip With $25 Million Purchase
Bitcoin trading at $60,714 in the daily chart | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com
Payments processor Strike has announced the launch of a new feature that will allow users to convert their paychecks to bitcoin. This feature brings workers one step closer to collecting their paychecks in bitcoin. Instead of the employer paying out wages and salaries in BTC, employees can take the paychecks they receive and convert them to cryptocurrency in one easy step.
Receiving Paychecks In Bitcoin
Strike is enabling users to convert all or some of their paychecks into BTC. Instead of cashing into fiat and then having to change back to BTC, users can directly convert to BTC using the paycheck that they receive. The feature is known as “Pay Me in Bitcoin” was announced on Thursday and is one of Strike’s efforts to make BTC readily available to its users.
Related Reading | Why We Could See The First Approved U.S. Bitcoin ETF In October
Strike is best known for helping El Salvador in their journey to bitcoin adoption, but they are also a bitcoin-focused payments processor that allows users to receive and pay in BTC. And with the new feature, get paid in BTC with no hassles.
Strike completely bypasses the need for employers to adopt and start paying their employees in cryptocurrencies. Instead giving employees the power to decide if they would rather convert their paychecks to fiat currency or cryptocurrencies. This also means that employees are not limited by the payments options their employers use. It doesn’t matter the company individuals work for, they can choose to have their paychecks deposited in bitcoin.
BTC price trading above $61,300 | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com
Following The Lead Of Coinbase
Strike’s announcement of the “Pay Me in Bitcoin” feature comes only a few weeks after Coinbase launched a similar feature. In the announcement post, Coinbase shared that customers were now able to deposit their paychecks directly to cryptocurrencies to ease their trading activities and just like Strike, streamline the process of users converting their money to cryptocurrencies.
The feature has been welcome in the crypto space as investors can now decide to deposit their full paycheck or a portion of it into their cryptocurrency tradings accounts. Customers could also choose to deposit their paychecks directly to U.S. dollars on Coinbase, which they can then use to carry out their trading activities on the platform.
Related Reading | Bitcoin Breaks $60,000 Ahead Of SEC ETF Approvals
Similar to Coinbase, Strike announced that the feature will initially be available to users in the United States. Roll-outs for other countries may be in the works but there has been no confirmation of these. Although users can only convert their paycheck to bitcoin on Strike, Coinbase offers users a wider variety as they can convert their paychecks to the over 100 cryptocurrencies currently listed on the exchange.
Featured image from Inc. Magazine, chart from TradingView.com
E-sports, gaming and interactive media investment platform Bitkraft VC has established a $75 million token fund for investing in blockchain gaming and digital entertainment.
The fund uses a “stage-agnostic” strategy, meaning that it will put money in companies and startups at any business development stage. Apart from equity investment, the token fund will also invest in cryptocurrencies and nonfungible tokens (NFTs).
In order to provide regulated investment opportunities, Bitkraft received an investment advisor registration from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission in June 2021.
The new token fund is led by Piers Kicks, a founding partner in the investment arm of crypto research firm Delphi Digital. Kicks joined Bitkraft earlier this year to lead the company’s investment efforts in crypto and NFTs.
Bitkraft stated that the fund has already closed six investments including projects like Yield Guild Games (YGG), Immutable, Alethea AI and Horizon Games. Both YGG and Alethea are direct token investments, Kicks told Cointelegraph. “We were only able to announce the funding after final closing, but have been actively deploying from it,” he added.
While the fund has mainly invested in startups building on the Ethereum blockchain, Kicks stated, “We adopt a chain-agnostic approach and assess each project on a case-by-case basis. We are beginning to see some exciting activity on Solana, and will be closely monitoring early gaming projects in that ecosystem.”
Related: Axie Infinity developer secures $152M in Series B funding from investors
According to Bitkraft Ventures founding general partner Jens Hilgers, the fund is looking to invest in about 25 more companies by the end of 2022. The venture capital firm has more than $540 million in assets under management as of Oct. 1, 2021, with a portfolio spanning more than 60 companies across North America, Europe and Asia.
The gaming industry has proved ripe for crypto adoption, with many new use cases for decentralized finance (DeFi) and NFTs. Blockchain game Axie Infinity has emerged as one of the most popular Ethereum-based NFT games this year, with its native token AXS reaching a new all-time high above $155 on Monday. In September, blockchain gamification platform DeFi Land raised $4.1 million to launch a new DeFi game on Solana.
Geneva, Switzerland — September 22, 2021: Liti Capital SA, the Swiss-based litigation funding provider disrupting private equity investing with blockchain technology, is launching ScamBusters, a revolutionary new tool that allows users to vote for which crypto-focused cases the company should pursue next.
Devoted to fighting fraud
Fraud within cryptocurrency and blockchain is rife. This year will be a record for investment fraud: 14,079 investment scams were reported to the FTC in the first quarter of 2021, and victims lost $215 million in this quarter alone. Liti Capital is bringing its expertise in picking, funding and winning court cases and inviting consumers to vote on which scams it should pursue in court next.
“The idea that scammers can freely operate in the crypto sphere without facing the consequences of their actions must end to bring trust and change the perception blockchain and crypto projects have in our society”, says Andy Christen, CVO/COO at Liti Capital.
Liti Capital commits to allocating between 5% and 10% of its yearly investment budget to finance cases that have affected its community members. Any LITI or wLITI token holder can report a purported fraud to the company.
How ScamBusters works
ScamBusters is a community voting event to select which crypto scam cases Liti Capital will sue. LITI and wLITI token holders can use their tokens without spending them to vote for the case(s) they think have the most merit. The more tokens they have, the more voting power they can exercise. Voters of the winning case will share an award up to 250,000 wLITI, distributed pro-rata to their votes.
Once members of the community have submitted cases on the ScamBusters website, Liti Capital instructs its team of legal experts based in 140 countries across the world to explore details of the case.
A selection of cases are then presented back to community members, with the case collecting the highest number of votes being added to Liti Capital’s portfolio. Community voting begins on September 23, 2021, with the first winning case announced on October 15, 2021.
“If cryptocurrency is going to become the de facto way people take part in the Web3 world, trust, regulation and a robust legal system are all parts of that puzzle,” says Jonas Rey, CEO at Liti Capital.
About Liti Capital
Liti Capital is bringing the litigation asset class to everyone through Blockchain technology with LITI tokens, an equity token that is a share of stock in Liti Capital SA. The launch of LITI and wLITI tokens allows any investor to engage in the high-performing litigation finance market previously only available to elite investors.
For project information, please read the Whitepaper.
For token distribution, please read Tokenomics.
Liti Capital Official Channels
Liti Capital Website: https://liticapital.com
Liti Capital Telegram: https://t.me/Liti_Capital_Official
Liti Capital Telegram Announcements: https://t.me/Liti_Capital_Official_ANN
Liti Capital LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/liti-capital
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — Southeast Asian based RedFOX Labs has launched its first auction of SHOPs for the RFOX VALT metaverse, beginning on September 14, 2021, at 4:00 PM GMT+7, and lasting for 72 hours. The SHOPs being made available for bidding are in the Callinova art-themed quarter of the RFOX VALT metaverse.
