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John McAfee’s suicide reports raise disbelief, spark conspiracy theories

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Often a figure of ridicule within the crypto community thanks to his outlandish predictions as well as being a larger-than-life personality, John McAfee has ceased to be in the spotlight of the crypto community. However, following his alleged “suicide” that occurred in a Spanish prison cell on June 23, tributes have been flowing en masse for the tech savant, who was also an early proponent of digital currencies — especially Bitcoin (BTC) and later Monero (XMR). McAfee had been in exile for the last few years of his life. In this regard, it has been widely reported that the creator of McAfee Antivirus had been on the run from the United States authorities for evading his tax liabilities, which were touted to be worth over $4 million. In all, he had been named in a total of 10 federal indictments and was ordered to be extradited to the U.S. mere hours before the news of his suicide surfaced. After being apprehended by local authorities at Barcelona airport last year, McAfee seemed to
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Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen take equity stake in FTX crypto exchange

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Seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady and Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen are the latest celebrities to reaffirm the growing adoption of the cryptocurrency industry. West Realm Shires Services, FTX Trading Limited and Blockfolio, three companies behind major global cryptocurrency exchange business FTX, announced Tuesday a long-term partnership with Brady and Bündchen. As part of the deal, the legendary football player and model will each take equity stakes in FTX Trading and will receive crypto. Brady will serve as an ambassador for FTX, while Bündchen will take on the role of FTX’s environmental and social initiatives advisor, working on initiatives to reduce the firm’s carbon footprint. Both celebrities will also provide annual multi-million-dolla contributions to charity throughout the duration of the partnership.  Brady said that the new partnership is yet another initiative demonstrating the “endless possibilities” of the crypto industry: “This particular opportunit
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Retire early with crypto? Playing with FIRE

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Finance blogger The FI Explorer didn’t invest in cryptocurrency in order to retire early — but unlike many of the newly minted crypto rich, he did set out to retire early. The FI Explorer, also known as Jason, is part of the FIRE community — financial independence, retire early — where adherents save up to 80% of their income throughout their 20s and 30s in order to either retire early or simply follow their passions. For most of his 20-year journey toward his FIRE target of $1.64 million (USD)— which was chosen to produce $65,000 in annual income for the rest of his life — Jason directed his savings toward sensible investments, like exchange-traded funds, shares and gold. But after listening to a Bitcoin-focused podcast in 2015, he decided to chance it and put around $3,000 — or 0.5% of his portfolio at the time — into the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin’s astonishing growth since has seen the allocation expand to account for almost a third of his portfolio at its peak and helped him sail p
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Enterprise Ethereum matures, looks to open-source community for standards

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Ethereum is quickly becoming an integral part of the enterprise blockchain ecosystem. As more companies begin to leverage public networks for business, it’s important to keep in mind that the enterprise Ethereum space is still relatively new. Therefore, a number of developments are required before organizations can fully take advantage of the Ethereum blockchain.  For example, Dan Burnett, executive director of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance — an initiative enabling organizations to adopt and use Ethereum technology in their daily business operations — told Cointelegraph that Ethereum is increasing in usage, deployment, application and more. As such, Ethereum is transforming into a solid chain for business. Yet Burnett pointed out that standardization work has become increasingly important in order for Ethereum to fully mature. However, the challenge here is that standardization for enterprise Ethereum must take into account the open nature of Ethereum while considering proprietar
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13 more crypto firms withdraw licensing applications in the UK

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The United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) crypto licensing regime is reportedly proving arduous for cryptocurrency businesses looking to operate in the country. According to a Reuters report on Tuesday, the number of withdrawn licensing applications from crypto businesses increased by over 25% in June. Indeed, Cointelegraph reported near the beginning of the month that 51 crypto firms had withdrawn earlier submitted filings for registration with the FCA. An FCA spokesperson quoted by Reuters said that 13 more companies have pulled out of the approval process, bringing the total number of withdrawals to 64. Since January 2020, the FCA has been overseeing Anti-Money Laundering compliance for the country’s crypto sector. At the time, the agency instituted a registration scheme for cryptocurrency businesses with an initial deadline of one year. However, the FCA has been forced to create and extend a temporary registration regime amid a backlog of licensing applications.
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Salvadorans will not be forced to use the government's Bitcoin wallet

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The latest announcement from El Salvador's pro-Bitcoin president, Nayib Bukele, has clarified that citizens will not be forced to use the government-issued “Chivo” Bitcoin wallet. In a tweet on June 29, El Salvador’s President Bukele stated he wanted to clear up any misinformation regarding the government’s wallet application following the passing of the country’s Bitcoin law on June 9, which will take effect on September 7. The new Bitcoin wallet is called Chivo, which is slang for “cool” in El Salvador, and it can hold both Bitcoin and U.S. dollars. Bukele stated it is just one of many crypto wallets that can be used, emphasizing its interoperability with other wallet apps. Aclarando la desinformación que están tratando de esparcir acerca de la #LeyBitcoin: 1. La wallet del Gobierno solo es una de tantas wallets que se pueden usar. 2. La @chivowallet será totalmente compatible con otras wallets. Sigue... — Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) June 28, 2021 To allay privacy conce
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Jay-Z and Jack Dorsey-owned music streaming service could feature NFTs and smart contracts

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Jay-Z and Jack Dorsey have hinted that their music streaming service, Tidal, could be eying integrations supporting nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and smart contracts. Speaking during a June 28 conference hosted on Twitter Spaces, the duo emphasized the importance of introducing features that empower the artists using the platform, citing smart contracts, NFTs, and analytics tools as examples. Despite Tidal lagging behind top music streaming services — with Tidal’s 2019 $166 million revenue paling in comparison to the $2.8 billion and $7.44 billion generated by Apple and Spotify respectively during that same year — Dorsey and Jay-Z believe they can capture significant market share by using blockchain technologies to offer empowering tools to artists. “What really dawned on me was how weak some of the toolsets are for artists, with analytics and data, to understand what they’re doing and help them inform their decisions, especially considering other revenue streams like merchandise and t
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Craig Wright wins default judgment, Bitcoin.org must remove Bitcoin Whitepaper

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The self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto and Bitcoin SV proponent, Craig Wright, has won a legal battle claiming copyright infringement on the part of bitcoin.org for hosting the Bitcoin whitepaper. Wright won by default after the website’s pseudonymous owner, “Cøbra,” chose not to mount a defense. Bitcoin.org must now remove the whitepaper and display a notice referring to the judgment and cough up at least 35,000 GBP ($48,600) to cover Wright’s legal costs. Cøbra responded to the ruling on Twitter:  I don't think you could get a better advertisement of *why* Bitcoin is necessary than what happened today. Rules enforced through cryptography are far more superior than rules based on whoever can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in court. — Cøbra (@CobraBitcoin) June 28, 2021 Onter LLP, Wright’s legal representation, celebrated the victory as “an important development in Dr Wright’s quest to obtain judicial vindication of his copyright in his White Paper.”  “Dr Wright does
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Institutions turn bearish on ETH as record $50M exits Ether investment products

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Ethereum investment products have experienced a record outflow of $50 million this past week, signaling bearish sentiment among institutional investors. According to the CoinShares' “Digital Asset Fund Flows Weekly” report, Ether products have now experienced outflows for three consecutive weeks, with $64.3 million leaving the sector since the week ending June 6. Despite the drawdowns, $943 million has flowed into Ether investment products since the start of 2021. The crypto investment product sector saw outflows overall for the fourth consecutive week, with $44 million exiting the sector over the past seven days. The report estimates that $313 million has been withdrawn from institutional crypto products since mid-May. While crypto products saw outflows broadly this past week, Ether experienced the largest exodus of capital, with Bitcoin outflows slowing to $1.3 million — down from $89 million for the previous week. There have now been seven consecutive weeks of BTC outflows
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