El Salvador is looking to introduce a bill that will make it the first sovereign nation in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, alongside the U.S. dollar.

U.K.-based Ruffer Investment Management has exited its bitcoin position after making $1.1 billion in profit in just five months. A Ruffer Investment director said the firm sold the last of its BTC because younger people are unlikely to spend so much time trading now that lockdowns are ending.

Cryptocurrency exchange FTX has made a deal with leading Esports organization TSM for it to change its name to TSM FTX. The deal will see FTX pay the team $21 million a year for 10 years.

Sponsored: ADD.xyz is a DeFi platform plugging multiple products into a single application that focuses on user experience, design, and privacy. By aggregating multiple DeFi protocols into a single application, it allows users to save on transaction fees.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• El Salvador Plans to Make Bitcoin Legal Tender
• Ruffer Exits Bitcoin Position With $1.1 Billion in Profit
• FTX Pays Pro Esports Team $210 Million to Change Its Name
• Daily Movers – MATIC, SOL, XTZ
• Sponsored: ADD.xyz, The All In One Privacy-Focused DeFi Aggregator 

El Salvador Plans to Make Bitcoin Legal Tender

El Salvador is looking to introduce a bill that will make it the first sovereign nation in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, alongside the U.S. dollar.

In a video shared during the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami, the country’s president Nayib Bukele announced the nation was partnering with digital wallet company Strike to build a modern financial infrastructure using bitcoin and blockchain technology.

Jack Mallers, founder of the Lightning Network payments platform Strike, said the deal will go down as the “shot heard ‘round the world for bitcoin.” Bukele revealed in the video next week he will send the bill to congress. Mallers added:

“What’s transformative here is that bitcoin is both the greatest reserve asset ever created and a superior monetary network. Holding bitcoin provides a way to protect developing economies from potential shocks of fiat currency inflation.”

According to Mallers, the move will help unleash the power and potential of bitcoin for everyday use cases. El Salvador’s economy is largely based on cash, as roughly 70% of people in the country do not have bank accounts or credit cards. Remittances account for more than 20% of the country’s gross domestic product.

While the bill’s text wasn’t immediately available and details on the rollout are still unclear, El Salvador has reportedly assembled a team of leaders in the cryptocurrency space to help build a new financial ecosystem with BTC at its base.

Ruffer Exits Bitcoin Position With $1.1 Billion in Profit

U.K.-based Ruffer Investment Management has exited its bitcoin position after making $1.1 billion in profit in just five months. A Ruffer Investment director said the firm sold the last of its BTC because younger people are unlikely to spend so much time trading now that lockdowns are ending.

Hamish Baillie, the investment director, said:

“When the price doubled we took some profits for our clients in December and early January. We actively managed the position and by the time we sold the last tranche in April the total profit was slightly more than $1.1 billion.”

Ruffer invested 2.5% of its $27 billion portfolio into bitcoin in November of last year and took profits earlier this year, as the price of the cryptocurrency surged to over $40,000. Its bitcoin purchase was made via One River Digital and Coinbase.

FTX Pays Pro Esports Team $210 Million to Change Its Name

Cryptocurrency exchange FTX has made a deal with leading Esports organization TSM for it to change its name to TSM FTX. The deal will see FTX pay the team $21 million a year for 10 years.

The deal is larger than many others that corporations have struck with traditional sports teams in the last few years to get their names attached to stadiums and arenas. It is similar to recent transactions like Citibank’s deal with the Mets or British bank Barclays’s agreements with the Nets, for $21 million and $20 million a year respectively.

The big difference is TSM isn’t changing the name of a stadium, but the actual name of its team. The deal comes as the gaming industry takes on new relevance as people are stuck at home searching for entertainment online during the coronavirus pandemic.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the chief executive of FTX, said he saw parallels between his firm and TSM He said:

“Taking a huge industry and then reimagining it in a digital age: that’s sort of what e-sports are to sports, and it’s sort of what crypto is to investing and to finance.”

TSM, originally known as Team SoloMid, is one of the most valuable esports companies in the United States, valued last year at $410 million.

Daily Movers – MATIC, SOL, XTZ

Several tokens are leading the charge in the last 24-hour period. Some of these are well-known cryptocurrencies with more liquid trading pairs, so we’ll be focusing on these over low-cap cryptos that may have higher percentage changes.

Polygon (MATIC) - Matic provides scalable, secure and instant transactions using sidechains based on an adapted implementation of Plasma framework for asset security and a decentralized network of Proof-of-Stake (PoS) validators. It allows anyone to create scalable DApps while ensuring a superior user experience in a secure and decentralized manner.

Solana (SOL) - Solana is a single-chain, delegated-Proof-of-Stake protocol, founded by former Qualcomm, Intel, and Dropbox engineers in late-2017, focused on delivering scalability without sacrificing decentralization or security.

Tezos (XTZ) - Tezos is a new decentralized blockchain that governs itself by establishing a true digital commonwealth. It facilitates formal verification, a technique that mathematically proves the correctness of the code governing transactions and boosts the security of the most sensitive or financially weighted smart contracts.

ADD.xyz, The All In One Privacy-Focused DeFi Aggregator 

ADD.xyz is a DeFi platform plugging multiple products into a single application that focuses on user experience, design, and privacy. By aggregating multiple DeFi protocols into a single application, it allows users to save on transaction fees.

This means ADD.xyz makes DeFi more accessible and powerful both for individuals and enterprises. Its focus on privacy and anonymity essentially means users remain safe both on and off-chain while lending, borrowing, trading derivatives, and even when purchasing insurance.

The platform has integrated most major DeFi protocols, including Aave, Compound, Curve, bZx, and Yearn.Finance. It has also signed partnerships with major cryptocurrency exchanges including Poloniex, Changelly, and 1Inch to ensure liquidity.

ADD.xyz’s flagship product is the “Lend & Earn” platform, which aggregates multiple decentralized finance protocols to allow users to receive the best rates without having to search through multiple platforms. Users’ portfolios can then be applied on protocols like Compound and dYdX, and accessed through an easy-to-use interface.

Third parties can also integrate their protocols to improve their functionality. It’s worth pointing out that ADD.xyz’s native platform is decentralized and non-custodial.

ADD.xyz's Products

While the project’s flagship product is all about lending, there are other products that have been released or are in development including:

• ADD.XYZ`s mobile application for iOS and Android
• BL3ND3R and Tornado.Cas, protecting users` identity online 
• Incorporation of decentralized exchanges and decentralized insurance platforms
• ADD.xyz debit card

The $ADD Token

The $ADD token can be staked to earn extra revenue. Staking rewards depend on the amount of staked tokens and staking length. The $ADD token is a governance token, allowing holders to vote on proposals and decide the future of the project. You can learn more about the project on its website.

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