Forbes - Bitcoin For Russian Oil | Venture-Dao

PETRO-BITCOIN?

The price of bitcoin rocketed towards $45,000 early Friday morning amid reports that Russia was considering accepting bitcoin for energy sales as it continues to get cut off from the global financial system. Specifically, the head of Russia’s State Duma Committee on energy, Pavel Zavalny, said “friendly” countries, such as China or Turkey, could be allowed to pay with bitcoin or in their local currencies. This surge led many other tokens higher as well, with ether crossing $3,100 and solana breaking $100 once again. However, bitcoin’s extremely high volatility makes it very unlikely that Russia will actually accept crypto for payment anytime soon. Additionally, with China taking an extremely hostile position against crypto and bitcoin in particular, as it tries to promote its digital yuan, Beijing may not be interested in participating in such a transaction. Check out our definitive ranking here.

SAFE HANDS WITH FTX AND BINANCE

Top ten crypto exchanges FTX and Binance, according to Forbes’ first ranking of the global crypto exchange industry, have grown so fast in part due to their ability to operate across more than 100 countries with relatively limited regulatory oversight. However, with governments around the world increasingly honing in on the industry, these major actors are now collecting licenses like they are the next hot NFT drop. Get the full breakdown here.

VENTURE-DAO

Tekin Salimi, a former partner at the original venture firm Polychain Capital, announced the launch of a $125 million venture fund called “dao5,” with plans to convert it to a DAO by 2025. The firm will invest in early-stage companies with the plan to divest itself in the coming years by giving the founders of its portfolio companies tokens to incentive ongoing collaboration and development. However, at this point Salimi is unable to provide many basic details of how the transition to the DAO will operate, expecting much to be filled in later as the ecosystem develops.

Source: Forbes Digital Assets, powered by Nomics.  Prices as of 4:00 p.m. on March 25, 2022.

KRAKEN HAS A NEW CFO—WITH A CHECKERED PAST

The new chief financial officer of $10 billion cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, Carrie Dolan, has a long history of not only helping run wildly successful fintech startups, but for being at the center of one headline stealing collapse. After rising through the ranks of Chevron and Charles Schwab in the 1980s, 1990s and 2010s, she joined rising star peer-to-peer lending startup Lending Club, led by Renaud Laplanche, as CFO during the San Francisco-based firm’s meteoric rise to an $8.5 billion IPO in 2014. However, four years later she and two others settled with the SEC for using Lending Club customer funds to make company purchases.

Still, Kraken is undeterred, and her work since then continues to be impressive. “Carrie has a strong risk management track record,” said a Kraken spokesperson. “We’re confident in her abilities to expand our business and lay the foundation for the next growth stage for our company.” Kraken CEO Jesse Powell has said that the exchange is planning a public listing in the near- to mid-term.

BLOCKCHAIN 50 SPOTLIGHT

Anthem: The $137 billion (sales) Blue Cross Blue Shield licensee is testing the blockchain to try to speed up an arcane administrative process known as “coordination of benefits,” which determines one’s primary insurer. It usually requires a series of faxes (yes, faxes!) and phone calls and can take up to three months. Through a shared ledger with Chicago-based Health Care Service for certain Medicaid members in Texas, the companies now make this determination in minutes or hours. Anthem’s blockchain program processes around 3,000 to 5,000 verifications a month.

ELSEWHERE

Venture Capitalists Pass On Board Seats To Secure Deals In Hot Venture Capital Startups [Financial Times]

Google Files Trademark For Non-Fungible Planet [CoinDesk]

How Cryptocurrency Is Helping Ukraine [Wall Street Journal] 

Steven Ehrlich
Editor 
Forbes CryptoAsset & Blockchain Advisor

Nina Bambysheva
Reporter
Forbes Money & Markets

Follow us on Twitter & Facebook