Blockchain sports fan startup Socios partnered with Turkish Football Club Galatasaray Spor Kulübü to launch an Ethereum-based fan token. Turkish Football Club Galatasaray Spor Kulübü plans to launch fan Ethereum-based fan tokens in partnership with blockchain sports fan startup Socios based on sports tokenization platform Chiliz.Socios announces in a press release published on Sept. 16 that as a result of the partnership, The Lions (Aslanlar) — the only Turkish club to have won a major UEFA competition — will release its fan tokens on its platform.A blockchain sports platformFurthermore, the team will also be present on the firm’s blockchain-based, influence and rewards mobile app for football fans. These fan tokens will allow fans to vote in club-delegated polls, taking part in deciding on topics that the club will put up for fan vote.Polls are expected to concern things such as “new official product designs, matchday activities and in-stadium experiences, as well as sponsorship campaigns and collaborations and social media content.” The number of tokens held by a fan determines the value of their votes.Also, the more fans interact with the team, the more “rewards they can earn, competing for club-specific once-in-a-lifetime experiences and enjoying exclusive rights.” The company also promises that in the future fans will be able to access exclusive leaderboards, games and merchandise.The Fan Token OfferingThe token will be sold through Socios.com, in Q1 2020 through a process the company calls as a Fan Token Offering. Galatasaray Spor Kulübü board member Dorukhan Acar commented on the development, saying:“As Galatasaray, we are very pleased to join forces with Socios.com and start an exciting journey. This new partnership opens a world of new opportunities for us with respect to our fan engagement and global reach as well as being another milestone in our digital transformation strategy.”The company says that other big-name football clubs including Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus, West Ham United, AS Roma and Atlético de Madrid have joined the Socios platform.As Cointelegraph reported in May, Chiliz — the sports blockchain company behind Socios — has announced a strategic partnership with Binance Chain, the mainnet of major cryptocurrency exchange Binance. […]

Market analyst Travis Kling says Bitcoin has come into its own as a unique hedge amid the current macroeconomic climate. Equities portfolio manager turned crypto fund executive Travis Kling has argued that Bitcoin (BTC) has come into its own as a unique hedge within the current macroeconomic climate.In an interview with CNN on Sept. 15, Kling argued that the specific properties of Bitcoin make it an exceptional insurance policy against monetary and fiscal irresponsibility from central banks and governments globally.“Crypto has been created for such a time as this”Kling — a veteran of the multi-billion-dollar hedge fund Point72 —  outlined how his interest in cryptocurrencies had evolved over the course of Bitcoin’s decade-long history and how, as he garnered more knowledge, he had come to recognize the asset as being the “most significant investment opportunity of a generation.”While developments within the crypto markets may formerly have been isolated from the traditional financial sector, Kling argued that the latest, compelling evolution in Bitcoin’s identity is its present interaction with legacy markets. He said:“Now is an incredibly interesting time from a global macro perspective and [...] it appears that crypto has been created for such a time as this. With what we have in terms of monetary and fiscal policies from central banks and governments, big tech overreach, government overreach, data privacy issues that are coming to the center of the collective consciousness.”As a “non-sovereign, hard cap supply, global, immutable, decentralized digital store of value,” he said, Bitcoin should be considered separately from other crypto assets — for these very properties are what distinguishes it as a particularly robust and timely investment.“The hardest money in human history”Kling observed that the world needs Bitcoin as an insurance policy “more today than it did yesterday” and that it’s going to need it “more tomorrow more than it does today,” in light of what central bank and government policies:“It’s apparent that central banks are all racing to devalue their currencies [...] What are they devaluing against? They’re devaluing against assets that have provable scarcity [...] Bitcoin has even more provable scarcity than gold, it’s the hardest money in human history.”In the throes of an uncertain world economic picture, Kling’s perspective has been broadly — if not unanimously — shared by analysts of different stripes. In August, digital asset research firm Delphi Digital published a report arguing that the present macroeconomic landscape is creating the “perfect storm” to ignite Bitcoin price appreciation.Also, this summer,  the head of global fundamental credit strategy at Deutsche Bank remarked that central banks’ dovish policies are positively impacting “alternative” currencies like Bitcoin. Anthony Pompliano, meanwhile, has echoed this in proposing that the European Central Bank’s dovish turn will be “rocket fuel” for Bitcoin’s price performance. […]

PayPal representatives have said they remain cautious about the future of Facebook’s Libra, yet they continue to strongly believe in its potential. PayPal representatives have said they remain cautious about the future of Facebook’s planned stablecoin Libra, according to a Sept. 14 report from Agence France Press (AFP).PayPal investor relations vice president Gabrielle Rabinovitch reportedly emphasized that the firm’s membership of the Libra Association represents a “non-binding commitment," noting that:"Obviously, I think there's a lot of work to happen before we get to that point where it [Libra] becomes something more than just a very exciting idea."“Democratizing access to capital”As previously reported, the Libra Association is an independent, not-for-profit membership organization established to govern the forthcoming Libra network. It counts 28 founding members — including PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, Uber and Spotify — each of which was required to invest $10 million to join.Even as ever more regulators and national governments continue to voice their misgivings about the social media giant’s digital currency plans, Rabinovitch emphasized that ultimately, the goals and ambitions of Libra align closely with those of PayPal. She defined these as “serving the underserved” and “democratizing access to capital." "So we very much believe in the potential of Libra," she said.In August, unconfirmed sources had alleged that at least three of the Association’s members were considering withdrawing their support of the project in light of mounting regulatory and political pressures.Libra confident while critics emphasize risksDespite the fierce regulatory pushback — which has only intensified since Facebook unveiled its plans for Libra this June — Bertrand Perez, the director-general of the Libra Association claimed last week that the Association is committed to clearing all obstacles and that Libra should launch by the second half of 2020.  Peretz’s comments came hot on the heels of sharp remarks from French finance minister Bruno Le Maire, who declared that France would attempt to block the development of Libra on European soil, claiming that no less than the "monetary sovereignty of states is at stake."Following Le Maire, German parliamentarians have also this week said they are against authorizing Libra in the European Union and have echoed the French minister’s proposal to challenge the project with a Europe-born, government-backed “public digital currency.” Today, officials from the European Central Bank and 25 global central banks are set to meet with Libra’s founders to assess the financial stability risks of the project. […]

The need to identify the sender and receiving parties in crypto transactions allegedly means support for privacy-focused altcoins must end. The South Korean arm of cryptocurrency exchange OKEx is removing support for five major altcoins due to new international regulations. FATF rules halt privacy coins tradingIn a blog post originally published on Sept. 10, OKEx Korea confirmed it would halt trading of Monero (XMR), Dash (DASH), Zcash (ZEC), Horizen (ZEN) and Super Bitcoin (SBTC) on Oct. 10.The reason, said the exchange, is that as since they are focused on privacy, the coins fall foul of new guidelines set out by the intergovernmental body the Financial Action Task Force, or FATF.“Support for trading of 5 different cryptocurrencies, XMR, DASH, ZEC, ZEN, SBTC, will be terminated,” the blog post reads.As Cointelegraph reported, the sweeping changes to crypto transaction rules demand businesses to identify the two parties sending funds to each other if a transaction is worth more than around $1,000. More exchanges could followMore than 200 countries should theoretically implement the rules by June 2020, despite concerns that doing so is physically impossible for many decentralized blockchains. The five cryptocurrencies outlined by OKEx all make it all but impossible to identify the sender and recipient of a transaction by design. An OKEx representative told Cointelegraph that the coins will be delisted only on OKEx.co.kr. But they will remain listed on the global OKEx platform. […]

Changpeng Zhao has U-turned on warnings Binance’s new product was under attack from a bad actor. The CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance has dispelled fears a bad actor had attacked its newly-launched Bitcoin futures platform.Technical error crashed Bitcoin priceIn a series of tweets on Sept. 16, Changpeng Zhao, also known as CZ, initially warned that the exchange’s futures were under attack from one of its own market makers. The perpetrator allegedly crashed the BTC/USD order book from $10,324 to $10,024, in what Zhao said was the second such attempt at an attack. Binance launched its futures platform in invite-only mode following a user testing period earlier this month. Two platforms were originally available, with users voting for their preferred choice. As Cointelegraph reported, despite criticism of both options’ technical characteristics, uptake was brisk, with open interest reaching $150 million last week. CZ: Only “attacker” lost moneyIn the event, the attack turned out to be a false alarm, originating from a technical error on the market marker side. The entity remains unknown, Zhao only revealing it was also an operator of Bitcoin futures. Due to Binance’s own settings, meanwhile, the $300 dip did not liquidate other traders’ positions; only the accidental attacker lost funds.“NO ONE was liquidated, as we use the index price (not futures prices) for liquidations (our innovation). Only the attacker lost a bunch of money, and that was that,” he confirmed.Binance forms one of two major Bitcoin futures offerings to hit the market this month. The other, due on Sept. 23, comes from institutional trading platform Bakkt.&nbs […]