Posted on June 16, 2022 by Jonathan Symcox
‘Military-grade’ Himalaya Dollar stablecoin used by auctioneer RM Sotheby to sell 1989 Ferrari 640 for €3.6 million
An iconic Ferrari F1 car has been sold by its driver Nigel Mansell using cryptocurrency Himalaya Dollar (HDO).
The 1989 Ferrari 640, driven by Mansell for Scuderia Ferrari in the 1989 F1 season, has been sold using the stablecoin listed on the Himalaya Exchange.
The transaction was completed for the equivalent of €3.6 million thanks to classic car auction house RM Sotheby’s. The buyer wishes to remain anonymous.
Owned by legendary F1 driver Mansell, the car has been retained in his personal car collection since 1989, having allegedly not been driven since its last grand prix race.
The Ferrari 640 earned the Italian race team 3rd in the 1989 World Constructors’ Championship and secured victory for Mansell at the Brazilian and Hungarian Grand Prix.
RM Sotheby’s believes that this is the first time in history that a Works driver has offered his own Grand Prix Ferrari publicly at auction. It is also the first Ferrari F1 car equipped with a semi-automatic gearbox.
“HDO has gained the trust of RM Sotheby’s. The exchange of HDO into the relevant currency was seamless,” said Bryon Madsen, president and chief strategy officer of RM Sotheby’s.
“The executives and staff at the Himalaya Exchange acted with the utmost professionalism.”
William Je, founder of Himalaya Exchange, said: “I am extremely pleased that the buyer decided to purchase this world-class car using HDO.
“Despite the cryptocurrency market’s recent dip, HDO has constantly remained stable with the US dollar 1:1 without fluctuation. Impressively, this makes HDO the only stablecoin in the world to maintain 100% during this time-period of uncertainty.
“Our military-grade technology has made Himalaya one of the most secure cryptocurrencies available in the marketplace.”
Four companies are continuing to hire despite the plummeting cryptocurrency market.
Crypto exchange Coinbase recently revoked job offers made to many individuals before they had even started the roles then this week announced it is to lay off 1,100 staff to “ensure we stay healthy during this economic downturn”.
Smaller exchange BlockFi also revealed that it is to lay off 20% of its staff, affecting around 170 people.
However, fellow exchanges Binance and Kraken, along with layer 2 sidechain Polygon, are continuing to build.
Everstake, a Ukraine-based blockchain company, is also continuing to hire despite the crash triggered by Terra’s collapsed cryptos and the Russian invasion of its country.
The biggest decentralised staking provider, which has 625,000 users, made plans in the event of a bear market as well as the war.
“During the war in Ukraine, we hired more than 30 employees. At the moment, we have over 10 openings in marketing and dev,” Vlad Likhuta, head of growth, told BusinessCloud in an email.
CEO Sergey Vasylchuk tweeted that the company made preparations in advance for a “special fund”.
“An important part of doing business is assessing and addressing all potential risks,” he said. “We couldn’t help but expect another market crash simply because risk management dictates that one must always expect things to go south.”
1/8 I’m very sorry to hear that lots of our fellow crypto companies are forced to lay people off or at least freeze their hiring as long as bears reign supreme on the market. Despite that, @everstake_pool is not laying anyone off. And there’s a good reason for that.
— Sergey | Everstake 
Everstake recently created a rap video to urge the crypto community to keep donating to charitable organisation Aid For Ukraine.
Uniswap, a decentralised platform enabling automated transactions between cryptocurrency tokens on Ethereum, has appointed former New York Stock Exchange president Stacey Cunningham as an advisor.
Benjamin Delo, co-founder of cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX, has been sentenced to 30 months probation by a New York court for violating anti-money laundering laws. It follows his guilty plea to charges in February of “willfully failing to establish, implement and maintain an Anti-Money Laundering (AML) program”.
According to CryptoMonday, Thailand has the highest number of NFT users, 5.65 million, and is also top of the population ratio with 8.08%. Brazil comes in second with 4.99m, while the US takes third position with 3.81m. The UK doesn’t feature in the top 10.
The overall market cap of the more than 19,800 coins is at $948.29 billion at the time of writing (7am UK), a 5.5% increase in the last 24 hours.
Market leader Bitcoin – the original cryptocurrency created by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto – gained 4% in the last 24 hours to approach $22,000. BTC remains 28% down in a week.
Ethereum, the second most valuable crypto coin – created as a decentralised network for smart contracts on the blockchain – grew 6% to $1,185. ETH is 34% down over the course of a week.
Binance Coin is a cryptocurrency created by popular crypto exchange Binance to assist its aim in becoming the infrastructure services provider for the entire blockchain ecosystem. Its BNB token gained 7% to $227, leaving it 21% down over seven days.
Cardano is an open source network facilitating dApps which considers itself to be an updated version of Ethereum. Its ADA token, designed to allow owners to participate in the operation of the network, added 11% to 51 cents yet is 21% down over the course of a week.
The XRP token of Ripple, a payment settlement asset exchange and remittance system, acts as a bridge for transfers between other currencies. XRP gained 10% to 33.5c but its price is 17% down on seven days ago.
Solana is a blockchain built to make decentralised finance accessible on a larger scale – and capable of processing 50,000 transactions per second. Its SOL token added 20% to $33.79 yet is 14% down compared with a week ago.
Meme coin DOGE was created as a satire on the hype surrounding cryptocurrencies but is now a major player in the space. DOGE gained 13% to 5.9c, leaving it 26% down in a week.
Polkadot was founded by the Swiss-based Web3 Foundation as an open-source project to develop a decentralised web. Its DOT token, which aims to securely connect blockchains, grew 12% to $8.02 but is 13% lower than its price a week ago. It has been overtaken in the price table by market cap by DOGE.
Avalanche is a lightning-quick verifiable platform for institutions, enterprises and governments. Its AVAX token added 15% to $17.71 yet is 27% down in a week.
To see how the valuations of the main coins have changed in recent times – and for round-ups of recent cryptocurrency news developments – click here.
For valuations of the top 100 coins by market cap in US dollars, plus 24-hour price change, see below.
Ashmita Das
Co-founder & CEO, Kolabtree
Rhys Merrett
Account director and FinTech lead, The PHA Group
Janette Martin
CEO, Talos360
Greg Demchak
Director, Digital Innovation Lab at Bentley Systems
Ashmita Das
Co-founder & CEO, Kolabtree
Rhys Merrett
Account director and FinTech lead, The PHA Group
Janette Martin
CEO, Talos360
Greg Demchak
Director, Digital Innovation Lab at Bentley Systems
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