What happened this week around blockchain and cryptocurrencies? The most relevant local and international events as well as appealing background reports in a pointed and compact weekly review.
Selected articles of the week:
Fidelity Investments, the fourth largest asset manager in the world, wants to offer its employees and customers a diversification of their 401(k) retirement solution with Bitcoin. This makes the multinational financial services provider the first major provider of crypto including retirement plans. Fidelity manages plans with more than 20 million participants and $2.7 trillion in managed assets.
Asset manager Fidelity Investments is looking to introduce Bitcoin as part of its retirement plan for employees and clients.
The Central African Republic (CAR) becomes the first African nation to follow El Salvador’s lead and recognize Bitcoin as a legal tender. The president of the republic, which is considered one of the poorest countries in the world, hopes that the introduction of the digital currency will bring new prosperity to the nation.
The Central African Republic (CAR) decided to be the first country in Africa to recognize Bitcoin as legal tender.
NFTs have come to embody a significant part of the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Hundreds of NFT projects have already been minted and new ones are added every day. Only a few of the collections are able to establish themselves over a longer period of time. Similar to large-capitalized stocks from the traditional financial world, these projects are referred to as blue chips. An illustration of the blue chip debate using the trending project “Moonbirds”.
The NFT collection “Moonbirds” has taken the field by storm, reigniting a debate over the classification of a blue chip.
The city of Fort Worth, Texas, has unanimously decided to pursue Bitcoin mining under the leadership of Mayor Mattie Parker and add the proceeds to the city government’s balance sheet. Initially, the project will not be focused on profit, but rather on giving the city the opportunity to take a leading role in Bitcoin mining.
Fort Worth, Texas, is looking to gain a first-mover advantage as it sets up three computers to mine bitcoin in the city hall.
In addition: Historically, gold has been the ultimate protection against inflation. Not surprisingly, Bitcoin is often seen as a digital version of the precious metal. A newly listed ETP product on the Swiss Exchange SIX combines the two assets in one investment vehicle.
The 21Shares ByteTree BOLD ETP combines bitcoin and gold in the world’s first exchange-traded product on the SIX Swiss Exchange.