Co-led by Tiger Global Management and Coatue Management, the VC funding will inject funds worth $400 million into the bootstrapped company.

MoonPay, a fintech startup dedicated to building crypto payments infrastructure, is reportedly expected to reach a valuation of $3.4 billion after conducting its first round of venture capital funding.

The VC funding for the crypto payments startup is being co-led by Tiger Global Management and Coatue Management and will inject funds worth $400 million into the bootstrapped company. The MoonPay platform allows the purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies and digital assets using mainstream payment methods such as debit and credit card and local bank transfers.
Source: Cointelegraph

Bitcoin (BTC) wallet and exchange platform Blockchain.com has announced the introduction of margin trading services.

In a blog post issued on Tuesday, Blockchain.com stated that Bitcoin margin trading had been a regular request from users since launching its exchange service in 2019.
According to the announcement, the platform will launch margin trading for the Bitcoin-United States dollar (BTC/USD) pair with up to 5x leverage.

The exchange’s Bitcoin margin trading service will be available to users in about 150 countries, with significant exceptions for Italy, France, Canada and the United States. Other exempted jurisdictions include Japan, Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

According to the announcement, the platform will launch margin trading for the Bitcoin-United States dollar (BTC/USD) pair with up to 5x leverage.
Source: Cointelegraph

TheForce.Trade, a leading DeFi and NFT data aggregator with customizable smart contracts allowing users zero-fee auto-compounding for yield farming, has launched TheForce Coin (FOC) liquidity pool after listing on PancakeSwap on May 12, 2021.

PancakeSwap is the leading decentralized exchange on the Binance Smart Chain. It deploys an automated market maker model, supporting the creation of permissionless liquidity pools.

Liquidity providers across the board are now able to participate, allowing easy, cheap and trustless swapping of FOC tokens. For its contribution, TheForce.Trade has incentivized liquidity provision, allocating 595 million FOC as rewards for yield farmers. Source: Cointelegraph

Traders are clearly nervous after XRP corrected by 54%, and the futures open interest premium flipped negative. XRP price soared 260% in April, moving from $0.57 on March 31 to $1.97 on April 14, its highest level since January 2018. The move caused XRP futures to reach an impressive $2.1 billion open interest.

However, on May 19, as cryptocurrency markets collapsed, XRP lost 60% in 4 days, liquidating $510 million long positions. The futures open interest retraced to $550 million, roughly the same level from early February when the altcoin traded near $0.40.

Investors are now questioning if XRP futures will ever be able to recover to a multi-billion market. Were April's figures inflated by excessive leverage, or is it just a matter of time until it rebounds to the previous levels? Source: Cointelegraph

A blockchain-based game that’s powered by Unreal Engine has launched a brand-new feature that recognizes the skills and devotion of top players.
An immersive blockchain game where players vie to collect Immortal Shards has announced the launch of play-to-earn elements — enabling devoted gamers to earn recognition for their skills and combat cred.

HodlGod’s new feature means that an array of nonfungible tokens and raffle tickets will be dropped randomly in the middle of gameplay, emerging above a character’s head. However, collecting these NFTs isn’t enough… you need to survive until the end of the game in order for them to be truly yours. Source: Cointelegraph

Bitcoin was designed as a deflationary system, one that could help it reach ever-increasing values. This is Part One of a multipart series that aims to answer the following question: What is the “fundamental value” of Bitcoin? Part One is about the value of scarcity, Part Two — the market moves in bubbles, Part Three — the rate of adoption, and Part Four — the hash rate and the estimated price of Bitcoin.

The value of scarcity
In recent months — and throughout 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic and its negative effects on the economy — central banks around the world have issued unprecedented quantities of money in order to try to counter an inevitable economic crisis. We live in a world where each generation of newly issued money, printed by central banks, leads to inflation, or the reduction of the purchase value of the currency itself and consequently, an increase in the price of goods. Source: Cointelegraph

Any employee who earns more than minimum wage will have the option for the excess salary to be paid in crypto.
A franchisee of many Domino’s Pizza locations in the Netherlands announced today that its workers would have the choice of being paid in Bitcoin.

According to Immensus Holding, the franchisee behind 16 Domino's Pizza locations out of the more than 270 in the Netherlands, its employees will be able to choose between being paid in euros or Bitcoin (BTC) for all salary above the country’s minimum wage. BTC Direct, a Netherlands-based crypto firm with a fiat-to-crypto onramp, will handle the payments for any of the company’s more than 1000 employees who choose to participate. Source: Cointelegraph