Blockchangers Blog

Weekly Wrap Up #31

Quote of the week: “If I was to really break down, OK, in the 10 years I’ve been making music, six albums, and you culminate all those advances, what I did in one drop last year in NFTs, I made more money.” – Steve Aoki, music artist. Source:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/nifty-news-anime-ca-brands-steve-aoki-s-nfts-more-profitable-than-decade-of-studio-albumsJPMorgan Joins the Metaverse:  JPMorgan is the first bank to set up shop in the Metaverse. The firm has set up a lounge in Decentraland. JPMorgan is bullish on its position in the Metaverse and predicts that the Metaverse will become a $1 trillion market opportunity. Source: https://fortune.com/2022/02/16/jpmorgan-first-bank-join-metaverse/

BlackRock Prepares to Launch Crypto Trading Services: Sources say that BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, plans to start offering crypto trading services to its clients. The firm wants to enter the crypto market and provide investor clients the ability to borrow from the investment manager by pledging crypto assets as collateral. It is not confirmed when its services will be unveiled. Source:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/blackrock-blk-prepares-offer-crypto-151603712.html

The Aftermath of Crypto Super Bowl Ads: This year, Super Bowl ads cost on average $7 million for every 30 seconds. Crypto companies were not deterred though. Such companies including Crypto.com, Coinbase, and FTX, among others, advertised themselves during the Super Bowl commercials; and, they were successful. For instance, Coinbase’s app rose from 186th place to 2nd place on Apple’s App Store. Furthermore, Blockfolio, owned by FTX, saw a significant increase in rankings as well. Source:  https://finance.yahoo.com/news/crypto-related-apps-popularity-skyrockets-204846108.html

U.S. Regulation Update:  This week, the United States Treasury announced that crypto miners and wallet operators (or “ancillary parties”)  are exempt from the IRS tax reporting rules. This is a major legal win for the United States cryptocurrency industry. Source:  https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-miners-exempt-from-irs-reporting-rules-us-treasury-affirms

Bitcoin Update:  Over the last week, the price of Bitcoin has increased due to factors including Canada’s “Emergencies Act;” however, as of Thursday, February 17, Bitcoin is down on the day. Currently, traders are assessing geopolitical factors, including the tensions between Russia and the United States. Bitcoin is trading at $41,110.90 as of February 17, 2:37 pm EST. 

Sources:  https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/

https://www.coindesk.com/podcasts/markets-daily/crypto-news-roundup-for-feb-17-2022/

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/canada-targets-crypto-donations-via-085919112.html

And, that’s a wrap!

Jordana Cohen,

Associate

Alpha Sigma Capital

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Alpha Sigma Capital
Daniel Siciliano

F. Daniel Siciliano is an Independent Director of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco and Chair of the American Immigration Council. He is the former faculty director of the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University and former Professor of the Practice and Associate Dean at Stanford Law School. His work has included expert testimony in front of both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives and for 2009, 2010, and 2011, alongside leading academics and business leaders such as Ben Bernanke, Paul Krugman, and Carl Icahn, Professor Siciliano was named to the “Directorship 100” – a list of the most influential people in corporate governance.

Siciliano was also co-founder, CEO and ultimately Executive Chairman of LawLogix Group, Inc. – a global software technology company named 9 consecutive times to the Inc. 500/5000, several times ranked as one of the Top 100 fastest-growing private software companies in the US and named to the US Hispanic Business 500 (largest) and Hispanic Business 100 (fastest growing) lists for 2010 and 2011. In 2012 he sold a majority stake of the company to PNC Riverarch Capital, continued as Executive Chairman, and led the sale of the company to Hyland Software/Thoma Bravo in 2015.

Siciliano is a co-founder and board member of the Silicon Valley Directors’ Exchange (SVDX), Chairman of the national non-partisan American Immigration Council, past-President of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Council #1057, and an active member of the Latino Corporate Directors’ Association.


Siciliano’s related areas of expertise include executive compensation, corporate compliance, the legal and social impact of autonomous (AI/robotic) systems, and corporate technology strategy and security. He has served as a governance consultant and trainer to the Board of Directors of dozens of Fortune 1000 companies (including Google, Microsoft, Fedex, Disney, Entergy and Applied Materials), is an angel investor and consultant to several firms and companies in Silicon Valley, Hong Kong, India, and Latin America, and currently serves as an independent director on the board of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco. He lives in Los Altos, California.