roadrunner

Authorities in Russia are gearing up to amend various pieces of legislation to facilitate the issuing and function of the digital ruble. Officials in Moscow believe this version of the national fiat needs to be regulated separately from other digital forms of money such as cryptocurrencies. Russia Prepares to Trial Digital Ruble, Officials Say CBDC Needs Its Own Regulations Russian lawmakers are planning to begin work on legal changes necessary to implement the digital ruble concept in January 2022. These efforts will commence alongside the launch of an experiment for the central bank digital currency (CBDC), the chairman of the parliamentary Financial Market Committee, Anatoly Aksakov, told the Russian daily Izvestia. Aksakov pointed out that at least eight federal laws and five codes — the Civil, Tax, Budgetary, Criminal, and Administrative Code — need to be amended for the digital ruble’s implementation. The new provisions will concern a number of areas such as the powers of Bank of Russia to organize the circulation of the new currency, its legalization as a means of payment, the legal protection for its holders, and so on. Russia adopted a special law regulating “digital financial assists” which went into force at the beginning of this year. Aksakov is convinced, however, that the members of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, have to distinguish between the concepts of digital currencies, stablecoins, and the digital ruble. He also thinks judicial protection for associated rights must be guaranteed and crypto mining regulated. The deputy stated: Conventional cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and the state digital currency must have their own definitions which must be reflected in the legislation. Bank of Russia (CBR), the country’s central bank, intends to begin testing the platform for the digital ruble in January. According to the CBDC concept published this spring, the prototype has to be ready by the end of the year. The media report reveals that the trial will be carried out in several stages. During the first stage, the CBR will issue the digital currency. Later, the number of participants in the pilot project will be increased from the current 12 banks. Representatives of the monetary authority further commented: Based on the results of this piloting, a roadmap for the introduction of the digital ruble will be developed as well as the necessary amendments to the legislation. According to the publication, the Russian Ministry of Economic Development has also noted that the introduction of the digital ruble would require separate legislative regulation. “At the very least, it will be necessary to say that it will be possible to pay with a digital ruble unlike conventional digital currencies,” according to Alexey Minaev, deputy director of the Digital Economy Development Department. Speaking to Izvestia, Minaev described the introduction of national digital currencies as a worldwide trend. The government official also emphasized that this form of money has practically nothing to do with decentralized cryptocurrencies. Central banks around the world have been exploring the possible issuance of CBDCs in response to the growing popularity of cryptocurrencies and the declining use of cash. Besides Bank of Russia, these include the European Central Bank and the U.S. Federal Reserve. The People’s Bank of China has arguably the most advanced project, with domestic trials already underway and plans to test the digital yuan in cross-border transactions. Do you think Russia will successfully issue the digital ruble? Share your expectations in the comments section below. View the full article

Square Enix, one of the biggest developers and publishers in the gaming world, has acknowledged the importance that NFTs and blockchain gaming could have for the future of the company. In its latest briefing session, Square Enix contemplated a “robust entry” into the blockchain games sector as part of its medium-term strategy process. Square Enix to Enter Blockchain Market Square Enix, developers of popular gaming franchises such as Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Kingdom Hearts, has revealed intentions of expanding its business model to now tackle the blockchain gaming market. The company made these remarks in its latest results briefing session on November 5, where Square Enix stated it would make a ‘robust entry’ into the blockchain gaming arena as part of its medium-term business strategy process. In the briefing, Square Enix recognized the change in attitude gamers are experiencing, wanting to have more control over the universe with which they interact. Furthermore, the company states that the gaming world is moving toward a decentralized model, and that token economies in each game are taking hold and expanding. The presentation in the briefing stated: In addition to the sort of content creation we have traditionally engaged in, we will focus on blockchain games premised on token economies as a form of decentralized content. NFT Proof of Concept Successful A company as big as Square Enix, however, cannot simply dive into a new market without doing some kind of test beforehand. It turns out the company has already released an NFT drop based on a franchise called Million Arthur, launched back in 2012, and has been featured in manga and mobile games mostly in Japan. The company declared this was a proof of concept, and it managed to combine the NFT market with one of its franchises in a successful way. The experiment managed to sell its whole press in less than a month, having launched on October 14th. The proof of concept now over, the initiative is expected to transition to the full commercialization phase. This means that we might see NFTs of famous franchises from the company such as Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts. Square Enix is the third big gaming company that has expressed an interest in blockchain gaming in less than a month. Ubisoft and Electronic Arts are also interested in the potential of these alternative technologies as part of the new concept of a more decentralized gaming panorama. What do you think about Square Enix and its blockchain gaming approach? Tell us in the comments section below. View the full article

Solana Ventures, the investment arm of the Solana blockchain, FTX, and Lightspeed, a venture capital firm, have announced the launch of a joint web3 gaming initiative. The fund will have $100 million at its disposal to invest in gaming projects using blockchain-based systems in the Solana network. The fund has already made its first investment in Faraway, a Solana-based gaming company. Solana Ventures, FTX, and Lightspeed Put Funds Behind Blockchain Gaming A new blockchain gaming fund has been launched by Solana Ventures, the investment arm of the Solana blockchain, FTX, and Lightspeed, aiming to fund the most innovative blockchain gaming proposals built on the Solana network. The joint effort will invest $100 million in these kinds of initiatives to kickstart development in the Solana ecosystem. Amy Wu, a partner at Lightspeed, expressed excitement about this joint effort and what they are trying to achieve with the investment. She stated: We are looking to back great teams, both crypto-native, and gaming-native. We believe gaming is one of the best opportunities to onboard the next billion users onto web3, and one of the best use cases for NFTs. Wu also commended the thriving development that has been happening on top of Solana, which already has more than 1,000 active development teams just two years after its launch. Faraway Gets First Investment The fund didn’t waste time making its first investment. Faraway, a Solana-based gaming company, secured $21 million in its latest funding round, which was led by the fund. This comes to compliment the $9 million round Faraway conducted which was also led by Lightspeed earlier this year. The latest funding round also had the participation of a16z, Sequoia Capital, Pantera Capital, Jump Capital, and Solana. Faraway is one of the first companies working in blockchain-based games with a multiplayer component on top of Solana. This makes Faraway an interesting opportunity to gauge the response such games might receive in the future. Faraway’s first game, called Mini Royale: Nations, is a first-person shooter with a decentralized economy component. The game uses the browser as its playing platform, aiming to democratize access for users with fewer computational resources. Alex Paley, CEO of Faraway, voiced his opinion about the future of blockchain gaming and Faraway’s focus on the subject, stating: Blockchain technology will unlock the potential for truly player-driven, open economies and will usher in the next wave of gaming and virtual worlds. Our goal is to create extremely fun and social games with open economies, giving players true ownership over their in-game assets and a true voice in how the game evolves over time. What do you think about this new blockchain gaming investment fund? Tell us in the comments section below. View the full article

The Senate in Kazakhstan has approved amendments aimed at preventing the legalization of illicit funds which will affect companies dealing with digital assets, among others. The new legislation subjects crypto service providers to the country’s financial monitoring regime. Senators Back Law Concerning Crypto Services in Kazakhstan Members of the upper house in Kazakhstan’s parliament, the Senate, have recently adopted new legislation tailored to improve the prevention of the laundering of proceeds of crime and the financing of terrorism. Key provisions adopted with a new law pertain to the establishment of the legal institute of ‘public officials’ and their financial auditing. The amendments have been designed to improve the nation’s anti-money laundering framework as a whole and some of them concern cryptocurrency platforms. A report by Sputnik Kazakhstan reveals that the authors have proposed “to regulate the operation of virtual asset providers.” During a plenary session, Senator Olga Perepechina noted that legal persons issuing digital assets, organizing their trading as well as those providing services for the exchange of cryptocurrencies into cash, valuables ​​and other property are currently outside the scope of the financial monitoring system. According to Perepechina, this leads to the spread of crimes related to money laundering and terrorist financing and also to the expansion of the shadow economy. Malefactors, including terrorist, are encouraged to use digital assets and electronic means in their settlements, the deputy warned. Olga Perepechina reminded that Kazakhstan adopted a law regulating digital technologies in June of this year. It allows the issuance and circulation of digital assets in the country and at the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC). Lawmakers now want to subject the entities carrying out such activities to financial monitoring. The new provisions will oblige crypto companies to notify the respective government bodies upon starting or terminating their operations. The plan is to authorize the Ministry of Digital Development, Aerospace and Defense Industry to act as the main regulator. Another proposal is to expand the powers of the Financial Monitoring Agency, by providing it with unrestricted access to the country’s register of legal entities, for example. Perepechina believes this is necessary to ensure the transparency of the official information about the legal ownership of business organizations. Following the vote in the Senate, the law “On Amendments and Additions to Certain Legislative Acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Counteracting the Legalization (Laundering) of Criminally Obtained Incomes and Financing of Terrorism” has been sent to the president of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who has to sign it. Concerned over the power deficit that Kazakhstan is facing, Tokayev recently called for the “urgent” regulation of another crypto activity, bitcoin mining. With its low electricity rates, the Central Asian country has become a coin minting hotspot, amid an ongoing crackdown in China. Cryptocurrency miners have been largely blamed for a 7-percent increase in electricity consumption this year. As far as crypto investing is concerned, authorities recently imposed limits on the amounts of cryptocurrency non-professional investors are allowed to buy on domestic exchanges registered at the financial hub in Nur-Sultan. Regulators explained the restrictions citing the need to protect private individuals from exposure to risks associated with digital assets. Do you expect Kazakhstan to boost financial monitoring in the crypto space? Tell us in the comments section below. View the full article

PRESS RELEASE. Since blockchain technology and crypto have become the power of the next industrial revolution in recent years, Africa has been making concerted efforts to ensure inclusion in the conversation. As a multipurpose African bank with over 200,000 customers around the world, DafriBank brings the Digital Bank of Africa (DBA) project into existence, and aims for making it Africa’s number 1 cryptocurrency. Taking a step forward, DBA is listed on trading platforms like LBank Exchange, to further expand its global influence and reach. Introducing DafriBank DafriBank is a multipurpose African bank that explores an easy and better way to save, make payments, manage customer’s money and business anytime, anywhere. The traditional banks are finding it difficult to cope with the demands of digitally-focused modern businesses, which has limited their growth. DafriBank solves this problem by providing exceptional digital banking services that are fast, secure, and cost-effective. Its goal is to democratize financial services, bring people out of the spiral of the traditional banking system and encourage people and businesses to join and prosper in the global economic scenario. Over 200,000 customers across the globe use DafriBank for reasons such as no hidden fees, sophisticated security features, easy to pay bills, and no delays. DafriBank supports personal accounts as well as business accounts. The personal savings account is the account helping customers save towards financial security and peace-of-mind, and business account helps customers manage their day-to-day banking and unique business needs such as investing, making hitch-free 3rd party transactions, target savings, and fast-tracking international transactions. Besides providing the existing services in an exceptional manner, DafriBank is providing avenues for the integration of newer technologies like AI, IoT, Blockchain and Digital Currency, so that not only is it up-to-date but also is well prepared for the ever-changing future needs and requirements. Aiming for Africa’s No.1 Crypto Statistics from Google Trends have already revealed that African countries such as Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, and Ghana have all consistently ranked in the top 20 countries worldwide in cryptocurrency-related searches, showing the huge potential of crypto in Africa. But the popularity of cryptocurrency and blockchain tech solutions in Africa while laudable leaves a lot to be desired. To drive more widespread adoption of the still-nascent tech that is blockchain and cryptocurrency, more innovative use cases need to be put forth to disrupt many more industries. The solution that DafriBank came up with is DBA, a cryptocurrency setting to achieve elite status as Africa’s number one cryptocurrency due to its growing number of use cases that is tailor made for Africans. DBA was specifically created to act as an alternative currency used across DafriBank’s ecosystem to help its users harness modern tools such as blockchain and cryptocurrency to streamline banking processes. The token was later adopted as a governance token for the bank. In addition to having a say in the bank’s future decision, clients can collateralize DBA and earn interest. Furthermore, the token is supported by DafriGroup’s daughter companies that cut across multiple industries including Banking and Finance, hospitality, real estate, and many more. These companies are all based on fully developed models and even without cryptocurrency are profit magnets in their own right. The DBA token is listed on LBank Exchange at 21:00 (UTC+8) on November 5, 2021, investors who are interested in DBA investment can easily buy and sell DBA token on LBank Exchange. Evolving with a firm belief DafriBank has a firm belief and commitment to provide an empowering, enabling and accessible digital society, which leaves no one behind. In this ever-changing world, it is working to imbibe the culture of connectivity, digital skills and relative products which can help to close the digital divide. DafriBank also has a fundamental belief that there is a power in the connectivity and digital services to strengthen the capacity of economies. DafriBank believes that “It’s better to light up a candle than to curse darkness” and it enforces this belief by providing banking solutions which are truly: “Smart, Digital, and Borderless”. Contact Details: LBK Blockchain Co. Limited LBank Exchange marketing@lbank.info This is a press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release. View the full article

This weekend, the non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace Opensea surpassed $10 billion in all-time sales. Statistics show that 629,867 traders contributed to the $10 billion in sales and the average sale price since the NFT market’s launch is $872 per NFT. Opensea Cracks $10 Billion in All-Time Sales NFTs have become very popular in 2021 and the trend continues toward the end of the year. Just recently, Bitcoin.com News covered the NFT industry and market action data compiled by nonfungible.com. The report had shown 2021’s third quarter broke records surpassing the NFT metrics recorded in Q1 and Q2. Now the leading NFT marketplace Opensea has reached a record milestone surpassing $10 billion in all-time NFT sales. Opensea is the largest NFT market in terms of all-time settlement and the second largest NFT project is Axie Infinity. Axie Infinity has seen $2.99 billion in all-time sales and recently launched an NFT marketplace. Axie Infinity sales is 29.90% of Opensea’s all-time sales and the NFT game built on Ethereum has seen 1,031,704 traders. Opensea’s $10 billion in sales follows the company’s $100 million capital raise at the end of July. The venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz led the Series B round and investors such as Kevin Durant, Ashton Kutcher, and Tobi Lutke participated as well. The capital raise also propelled Opensea into the unicorn company category as well. Following the funding, however, Opensea’s management dismissed an employee after the crypto community accused the employee of insider trading. Four days later, the Opensea marketplace launched its smartphone application so users can access the NFT market using their mobile phones. Polygon-Based Opensea Action Increases — Top Traders Collect Art Blocks, BAYC In addition to Opensea’s Ethereum network support, the NFT marketplace also leverages Polygon as well. The monthly Opensea volume on Ethereum has been decreasing month over month since August. While August was an all-time high for Polygon-based Opensea transactions, the last two months have remained steady. The highest number of monthly active traders using Polygon-based Opensea transactions is September, according to Dune Analytics stats. While Opensea has seen $10.25 billion settled, the average price on Opensea throughout its lifetime operating is $872 per NFT, according to dappradar.com metrics. At the time of writing, Opensea’s top 500 traders according to Dune Analytics, trade the Art Blocks collection the most, which is followed by the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC). Art Blocks and BAYC is followed by Cool Cats, Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC), and Cryptotoadz. What do you think about Opensea surpassing $10 billion in all-time sales? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

Global investment bank JPMorgan has doubled down on its bitcoin price prediction of $146K. The bank’s analyst explained that the price of the cryptocurrency could reach that level if its volatility subsides and institutional investors start investing in bitcoin more than gold in their portfolios. JPMorgan Renews $146K Bitcoin Price Prediction JPMorgan released an inaugural report of its new publication last week focusing on the outlook for alternative investments, including digital assets. A new report is expected to be released every two to three months. The firm’s analyst Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou has predicted that the price of bitcoin could reach $146K in the long term, with a short-term price target of $73,000 for 2022. “Digital assets are on a multi-year structural ascent, but the current entry point looks unattractive in our opinion for an investment horizon of 12 months as bitcoin appears to have returned to overbought territory,” he explained. The JPMorgan analyst added: “The re-emergence of inflation concerns among investors during September/October 2021 appears to have renewed interest in the usage of bitcoin as an inflation hedge.” Reiterating his “bullish outlook” for BTC made in October, he wrote: Bitcoin’s allure as an inflation hedge has perhaps been strengthened by the failure of gold to respond in recent weeks to heightened concerns over inflation. Panigirtzoglou expects bitcoin’s competition with gold to continue, especially as more millennials invest, given their preference for cryptocurrencies. “Considering how big the financial investment into gold is, any such crowding out of gold as an ‘alternative’ currency implies big upside for bitcoin over the long term,” he detailed. However, the JPMorgan analyst said that for the $146,000 price prediction to come true, bitcoin’s volatility would have to fall significantly, so that rules-bound investors feel comfortable adding the cryptocurrency to their portfolios. He noted that BTC’s volatility is currently around four to five times higher than gold. The report added that the current volatility is such a problem that bitcoin’s fair price is actually around $35,000. Nonetheless, the bank noted that bitcoin’s volatility is falling and that a price of $73,000 looks reasonable as the price target for 2022. Furthermore, Panigirtzoglou said that bitcoin is wildly unpredictable and a surge above $146,000 and a plunge to below $30,000 are both possible. The JPMorgan analyst added, “There is little doubt that cryptocurrencies and digital assets more broadly are an emerging asset class and thus on a multi-year structural uptrend,” elaborating: Digital assets have emerged as a clear winner post the pandemic, with retail investors joining institutional investors such as family offices, hedge funds and real money asset managers including insurance companies in propagating the asset class. This is not the first time JPMorgan has predicted that the price of bitcoin could rise to $146K. The bank first made this bold long-term price target for bitcoin back in January, citing that bitcoin competes with gold as an alternative currency. The bank explained: “The market cap of bitcoin at $575 billion currently would have to rise by x4.6 from here, implying a theoretical bitcoin price of $146K, to match the total private sector investment in gold via ETFs or bars and coins.” JPMorgan recently explained that “the perception of bitcoin as a better inflation hedge than gold is the main reason for the current upswing, triggering a shift away from gold ETFs into bitcoin funds since September.” Moreover, institutional investors are dumping gold for bitcoin seeing it as a better inflation hedge. Meanwhile, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has remained skeptical about bitcoin. In October, he said BTC was worthless and questioned its limited supply. He also said that bitcoin has no intrinsic value and regulators will regulate the hell out of it. In May, The JPMorgan boss personally advised people to stay away from crypto. Dimon said he does not care about bitcoin but his clients are interested. Meanwhile, the firm’s clients see crypto as an asset class that they want to invest in and the bank is now offering various crypto investments to clients. What do you think about JPMorgan’s prediction? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

Tesla and Spacex CEO Elon Musk has asked his Twitter followers whether he should sell his Tesla stock. He has also promised to abide by the results of the poll. Many people urge Musk to sell his Tesla shares and put money into cryptocurrency, particularly bitcoin. Elon Musk Asks Twitter Followers to Decide Whether to Sell His Tesla Shares; Most Said Yes Tesla CEO Elon Musk set up a poll on Twitter Saturday asking his 62.7 million followers to decide whether he should sell 10% of his Tesla stock. “Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock. Do you support this?” Musk tweeted. In a follow-up tweet, he noted that he does “not take a cash salary or bonus from anywhere,” emphasizing, “I only have stock, thus the only way for me to pay taxes personally is to sell stock.” The Tesla boss also promised: I will abide by the results of this poll, whichever way it goes. Musk’s poll has drawn much media attention. It received more than 3.5 million votes, 57.9% of which said “Yes.” The tweet has been liked 111.5K times and retweeted 22.1K times. On Friday, Congress passed the $1.2 trillion U.S. Infrastructure bill after chopping down its hotly-debated tax plan on unrealized capital gains aimed at billionaires. That part of the bill has been spun off into a separate $1.9 trillion bill to be voted on later. The Tesla boss, now the world’s richest man with a net worth of at least $318.4 billion according to Forbes’ list of billionaires, has made several tweets criticizing the bill over the past few weeks. Many bitcoiners jumped into the poll’s thread to voice their opinions to Musk. A number of people suggested that Musk should use the proceeds from selling his TSLA stock to buy BTC. For example, Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor suggested: “If the goal is diversification, an alternate strategy to consider is converting the TSLA balance sheet to a Bitcoin Standard and purchasing $25 billion in BTC. That would deliver diversification, inflation protection, & more upside for all investors in a tax-efficient manner.” Former Tesla employee Michael Rihani, now working as the crypto product lead at Jack Dorsey’s company Square Inc., tweeted to his old boss: Yes, sell to receive $10B+ USD and buy bitcoin with it. You’ll turn that $10B+ into $100B+ and can use the proceeds to (1) increase the odds of fulfilling the Tesla and Spacex missions and (2) helping even more people and countries. Some of Musk’s followers are hopeful that the Tesla billionaire will put some money into the meme cryptocurrency dogecoin. Musk, also known as the Dogefather, has long been a supporter of DOGE, calling it “the people’s crypto.” He recently revealed that he personally owns three cryptocurrencies: bitcoin, ether, and dogecoin. Not everyone was happy about the poll, however. Some were concerned that selling 10% of Musk’s Tesla position will tank the TSLA stock’s price on Monday morning. Others thought it was simply a poor idea to let Twitter users decide what to do with so much wealth. U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, chair of the Senate Finance Committee who is behind the unrealized gains tax provision, responded to Musk’s poll Saturday evening: Whether or not the world’s wealthiest man pays any taxes at all shouldn’t depend on the results of a Twitter poll. It’s time for the Billionaires Income Tax. Last week, Musk offered to sell his Tesla shares if it would solve the world hunger problem. Responding to a comment by the director of the United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP) that 2% of his wealth could solve world hunger, Musk wrote: “If WFP can describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6B will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it.” However, he emphasized: “But it must be open source accounting, so the public sees precisely how the money is spent.” Musk’s shareholding in Tesla comes to about 170.5 million shares as of June 30. Selling 10% of his stock would amount to about $21 billion based on Tesla’s current stock price. What do you think of Elon Musk’s Twitter poll? Also, should he use the sale proceeds to buy bitcoin? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

Billionaire investor Stan Druckenmiller has warned that everything is in a bubble, mentioning cryptocurrency, meme stocks, equities, and bonds in particular. “This bubble is in everything, every asset on the planet,” Druckenmiller stressed. Druckenmiller’s Warning: Every Asset Is in a Bubble Stan Druckenmiller discussed bubbles and value investing last week in a conversation with American billionaire investor and hedge fund manager Seth Klarman at the Boston Investment Conference. Druckenmiller is chairman and CEO of Duquesne Family Office LLC. He was previously a managing director at Soros Fund Management where he had overall responsibility for funds with a peak asset value of $22 billion. According to Forbes’ list of billionaires, his personal net worth is currently $6.8 billion. Klarman, who is the CEO of hedge fund Baupost Group, reportedly asked him: “If the bond market is what everybody’s keying off of and the bond market is in a bubble, then everything’s a bubble, is that fair?” Druckenmiller replied: Yeah, crypto, meme stocks, art, wine, equities … This bubble is in everything, every asset on the planet. The current bubble is not a narrow one like the dot-com bubble, Druckenmiller emphasized. “Everybody tries to compare this with ’99. That was a bubble in technology and, in some sense, a well-deserved bubble because the market figured out 20 years ahead of time the networking effect and that companies could come out of nowhere and have 2 billion customers. But it was a very, very narrow bubble.” Klarman further asked if anything is not in a bubble and is undervalued. “You’re a value investor. I’m not,” Druckenmiller replied. “I don’t know what value means. I’m sure there’s value out there but I’m unable to see what it is, it’s really not my methodology.” The billionaire chairman of Duquesne Family Office continued: “My North Star is every event in the world affects some security and I try to imagine the world as it is today and then try and see if there’s some kind of seismic change going on and how the world might look in 18 months. And if it does look that way, what are the securities that would be priced very differently than they are now?” He further opined: I think a lot of investors live in the present, which is a disaster long term. It might work short term. Druckenmiller revealed in November last year that he owned bitcoin, noting that the cryptocurrency was an attractive store of value that could beat gold. In June this year, he shared how he invested millions in BTC after he got a call from billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones about it. Jones himself said last month that he preferred bitcoin to gold as a hedge against inflation. What do you think about Stan Druckenmiller’s warning? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

The Onecoin Ponzi scheme is still making headlines as reports from a trial in Germany revealed the missing ‘Cryptoqueen,’ Ruja Ignatova, purchased a London penthouse worth $18.2 million with proceeds from the Onecoin operation. The Münster court’s findings stem from the trial against Martin Breidenbach, Ignatova’s German attorney, who is being accused of money laundering. ‘Cryptoqueen’ Ruja Ignatova’s $18.2 Million London Penthouse – Apartment Stuffed With Fine Art, Rare Andy Warhol Piece Ruja Ignatova, Onecoin’s ‘Cryptoqueen,’ purchased a luxury penthouse apartment in London via a shell company, according to recent reports from the BBC. The report notes that Martin Breidenbach is on trial in Münster, Germany with two other individuals over alleged money laundering charges that are connected to the Onecoin pyramid scheme and Ruja Ignatova. Reports published years ago show that Breidenbach started working with Onecoin in 2014. The lawyer worked with the law firm Breidenbach Rechtsanwälte and it has been said that the attorney was also the director of Onecoin Limited (Gibraltar) for eight months in 2015, and ostensibly a partner in Cryptoreal firm RSB Central GmbH (Switzerland) as well. Breidenbach’s trial, alongside the findings from the British author, BBC journalist, and “Missing Cryptoqueen” podcast host, Jamie Bartlett, found that shows Ruja Ignatova had extremely expensive taste. The reports say that the four-bedroom luxury flat kept a number of fine artworks hidden in the apartment, including a rare Andy Warhol piece. The property was purchased by a shell company in 2016 which kept the ‘Cryptoqueen’s’ name out of the picture. Just before she leased the London flat, Ignatova pleaded guilty to a German bankruptcy case. Now Breidenbach is accused of money laundering after transferring €20 million ($23 million) in order to finance the property. Reports note that the ‘Cryptoqueen’ did stay at the luxury apartment in 2016 but didn’t spend much time there. The property’s owner, as shown on the deed, is called Abbots House Penthouse Limited. Meanwhile, Ruja Ignatova has been missing since 2017 and despite a large worldwide search effort, she has not been found. Onecoin is considered one of the largest crypto-related Ponzi schemes ever and the first as well. In 2014 the Law Firm Breidenbach Rechtsanwälte Said: ‘In Our Opinion, the Onecoin Is a Legitimate Product’ The German lawyer’s office Breidenbach Rechtsanwälte in 2014 helped legitimize the idea that Onecoin was a cryptocurrency, even though it didn’t have a blockchain or any similarities to any blockchain technology. “Most countries have recognized cryptocurrencies as a bona fide commodity, which may be held and traded by their citizens,” the law firm Breidenbach Rechtsanwälte opined in 2014. “In our opinion, the ‘Onecoin’ is a legitimate product, limited to 2.1 billion (coins),” the law firm added in December 2014. What do you think about the trial of Martin Breidenbach in Germany and the ‘Cryptoqueen’s’ expensive habits? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comment section below. View the full article

Decentralized finance (defi) protocols continue to shine as the total value locked in defi is over $260 billion. While Ethereum started the defi trend and holds the lion’s share of TVL in defi, a great number of decentralized applications (dapps) are supporting a slew of alternative blockchains. Today’s Most Popular Dapps Support More Than One Network On November 7, the total value locked in defi is $260 billion according to defillama statistics on Sunday. When defi first started making waves, most of the dapps that people interacted with leveraged the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. Toward the end of 2021, all that has changed as cross-chain technology is hotter than ever and dapps are now supporting a myriad of networks. For instance, Curve, the automated market maker (AMM) protocol, holds the largest percentage of TVL with its $20.08 billion commanding 7.71%. Curve also connects with seven different blockchain networks with Ethereum included. Chains include Avalanche, Harmony, Polygon, Arbitrum, Fantom, Xdai, and Ethereum. Another large dapp with $15.75 billion TVL is Aave, the decentralized lending system and users from three different blockchains (ETH, AVAX, MATIC) can access the dapp. When it comes to cross-chain support the dapp Sushiswap has a significant number of chains as 12 blockchain networks can access the dapp. Chains like Palm, Xdai, Polygon, Avalanche, Celo, Okexchain, Moonriver, Harmony, Binance Smart Chain, Heco, Ethereum, and Arbitrum. Sushiswap, Anyswap Support 12 Different Chains — Cross-Chain Support Trend Continues to Swell With all those connections, the decentralized exchange (dex) platform Sushiswap has a TVL of $6.8 billion. The Anyswap dapp also supports 12 different networks and the only difference between it and Sushiswap is that the dapp supports the Kucoinchain. Other popular dapps that leverage more than one network include protocols like Abracadabra, Balancer, Uniswap V3, Renvm, Cream Finance, Synthetix, Mirror, Beefy Finance, Badger DAO, and Alpha Finance. Of course, all of these applications also support Ethereum, but as ether gas fees have risen dramatically this year, competitors have started to catch up. During the last nine months, a great deal of dapps have been adding support for alternative blockchains and it doesn’t seem like this trend will stop growing any time soon. What do you think about the defi applications that now serve various blockchains? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

Restaurant chain Jack in the Box has sued cryptocurrency exchange FTX alleging that the crypto company “brazenly and illegally copied or derived its ‘Moon Man’ mascot” from its own mascot. The lawsuit details that FTX’s refusal to stop using Moon Man has caused Jack in the Box “considerable economic damage and irreparable harm, including by devaluing the goodwill associated with Jack.” Jack in the Box Says FTX’s Moon Man Is an ‘Inferior Version of Jack’ One of America’s largest hamburger chains, Jack in the Box (JITB), has sued cryptocurrency exchange FTX, co-founded by CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, over its mascot. Jack in the Box operates and franchises more than 2,200 restaurants in 21 U.S. states and Guam. According to a lawsuit filed in the U.S. district court of Southern District of California on Nov. 3, FTX US is accused of copyright infringement, trademark dilution, trademark infringement, false designation of origin, and unfair competition. FTX recently launched a series of advertisement spots featuring a mascot that looks similar to the mascot for the Jack in the Box restaurant franchise. Moon Man, the mascot chosen by FTX exchange to represent the brand both in-person and in its own line of TV ads, could at first glance be mistaken for Jack, the 70-year old mascot for Jack in the Box restaurants. The lawsuit details: “FTX’s Moon Man has a spherical white head also affixed to a talking human actor, with blue-dotted eyes, a nose, and a smile. The two characters are strikingly similar in both appearance and behavior. For example, the Moon Man also changes his facial expressions and clothing attire throughout advertisements and appearances, just like Jack.” Jack in the Box stated: FTX brazenly and illegally copied or derived its ‘Moon Man’ mascot from JITB’s Jack … FTX’s Moon Man is a far inferior version of Jack that is now tarnishing Jack’s reputation to consumers, and/or blurring consumers’ association of FTX’s Moon Man with Jack. Moon Man has already made several personal appearances at such sporting events as the World Series, and has at least one TV advertisement in which he seems annoyed that crypto traders all just want to “go to the moon.” This ad spot aired during several major league baseball games, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit further describes that Jack in the Box sent FTX a cease-and-desist letter on Oct. 15, accusing the exchange of “infringing on JITB’s intellectual property and diluting its trademarks.” FTX did not comply, however, responding on Oct. 29 that it will continue to use Moon Man in its advertising. “FTX’s response to JITB’s cease and desist letter is also rife with legal and factual inaccuracies, such as ‘Jack in the Box has only narrow protection limited to the behatted ping pong‐headed clown who exploded out of a box to sell burgers,'” the restaurant chain argued, elaborating: Defendant’s continuing infringement of JITB’s intellectual property is willful and in bad faith. Defendant’s conduct has caused, and if not enjoined, will continue to cause, JITB considerable economic damage and irreparable harm, including by devaluing the goodwill associated with Jack. Do you think FTX’s Moon Man is a direct rip-off of Jack? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

Congress has passed the Biden administration’s bill aimed at improving infrastructure, fighting climate change, and bolstering social services. The $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, which also expands the definition of a broker, awaits U.S. president Joe Biden’s signature after passing with a vote of 228–206 on Friday. Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill Passes to the Tune of $1.2 Trillion The bipartisan infrastructure bill has been a hot topic in recent times and on Friday the bill passed in Congress and now awaits president Biden’s approval. The passing followed weeks of delays and debates as 13 Republicans joined a large majority of Democrats in order to help forward the proposal. BREAKING: The $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill was just passed by the House and will now go to President Biden's desk. They can't stop spending and asset prices can't stop going up. — Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) November 6, 2021 Bitcoin.com News reported on the bill three days ago when it was slimmed down to $1.75 trillion and lawmakers whittled the number down once more before the passing to $1.2 trillion. From the State Dining Room, Biden celebrated Congress passing the bill and said with a smile: “Finally… Infrastructure week.” The 1,600-page proposal discusses incentives to fight climate change, offers “universal pre-K child care,” and an allocation of funds for free computers. Estimates say around $550 billion will go towards fighting the alleged climate crisis in the United States. I voted against this so-called “infrastructure” bill. This bill only serves to advance the America Last’s socialist agenda, while completely lacking fiscal responsibility. Less than 9% of the $1.2 trillion price tag goes toward hard infrastructure. — Rep. Paul Gosar, DDS (@RepGosar) November 6, 2021 $47 billion will be dedicated to flooding, coastal, and climate resiliency and $39 billion to “modernize traffic.” About $5 billion will be dedicated to low and zero-emissions buses, $110 billion for roads and bridges, and $7.5 billion toward electric vehicles and power charging developments. Broad Definition of a Broker, Tax Code Section 6050I Now while adding another trillion to the mountain of debt the U.S. already owns is unfavorable, most crypto proponents are more concerned about the cryptocurrency tax provision. Senators who helped frame the bill slipped in a provision change that says organizations that deal in trading digital assets are considered brokers. In fact, digital currency proponents are worried that the definition of a broker is extremely broad, and crypto advocates think that alongside exchanges, software engineers and miners could also be targeted. The way the bill is written, the main concern is the reporting requirement to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) would force all brokers to file 1099 forms and declarations. Additionally, there is concern about the amendment to Tax code section 6050I, which essentially requires individuals and businesses that have received $10K in cash or a bank wire to file the IRS Form 8300. I emailed both Senators in the state of Virginia today. What have you done to ensure you live the life you want in the future? Abolish Tax Code Section 6050I, and punish the politicians in favor by voting them out of office. #InfrastuctureBill #USGov retweet to spread the message — Oh Smit (@thatguyoliver) November 5, 2021 The form mandates businesses and individuals to follow Know-Your-Customer (KYC) procedures and to record the sender’s name, address, and social security number. Detailed information on the reasoning behind the funding must also be accounted for in Form 8300. Meltem Demirors: ‘Infrastructure Bill Is Inherently Anti-American’ Even after the bill passed in Congress, crypto supporters told their fellow Americans to call their representatives to fix the amended Section 6050I. One crypto advocate tweeted: Everyone in the cryptocurrency community must contact their congressperson. Demand they oppose the clause snuck in [the] infrastructure bill that would amend Section 6050I of tax code, it’ll destroy the defi industry. It is extremely important we kill this. Coinshares CSO Meltem Demirors also complained about the passing of the bill. “This bill is unconstitutional and inherently anti-American. Private citizens have the right to financial privacy and financial freedom. Absolutely shameful to see this,” Demirors said. President Biden called the bill a “once-in-a-generation” investment. “It puts us on a path to win the economic competition of the 21st century,” Biden explained. What do you think about Congress passing the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

The digital euro should be an attractive means of payment but its design should prevent it from becoming so successful as a store of value that it threatens banks and private money, according to Fabio Panetta, a high-ranking executive at the European Central Bank. Panetta stressed that both this paradox as well as the need to issue a successful CBDC need attention. Europe’s Digital Currency to Complement Cash and Be Monterey Anchor While cash currently provides people with access to central bank digital money, its importance in payments is declining as consumers increasingly prefer to pay digitally and shop online. Internet sales in the euro area have doubled since 2015 and only around 20% of the cash stock is now used for payments, compared to 35% a decade and half ago, Fabio Panetta, member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank noted in a speech at the Elcano Royal Institute in Madrid. “As people start to use cash more as a store of value rather than a means of payment, having a digital euro would enable them to continue using central bank money as a means of exchange in the digital era,” Panetta said during his address, focusing on the future role of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). In his view, a digital euro and cash would complement each other to ensure that central bank money remains a monetary anchor for the payments ecosystem. To achieve that, the digital form of the euro should be attractive for regular use in payments, the ECB official believes. At the same time, its design should prevent it from becoming “so successful as a store of value that it crowds out private money and increases the risk of bank runs.” In his comments, Fabio Panetta emphasized: While we have discussed at length the possibility of a digital euro being paradoxically ‘too successful,’ we need to devote just as much attention to the risk of it not being successful enough. The effort to issue the CBDC would need to meet certain conditions for success, Panetta elaborated. Besides its attractiveness as “the only riskless digital form of money,” the digital euro would need to facilitate digital payments wherever Europeans need it for that purpose. Furthermore, merchants would have to be assured that consumers want to use it while intermediaries should find that the benefits of its distribution outweigh the costs. “Developing a convincing value proposition for all stakeholders is therefore critical to the digital euro’s success,” Fabio Panetta insisted in the speech published by the ECB. This, he added, is a key element of the investigation phase of the CBDC project which was launched by the bank earlier this year. The executive pointed out: The ECB and the European Commission are together reviewing at the technical level a broad range of policy, legal and design questions emerging from a possible introduction of a digital euro, including the role that legal tender status might play in achieving the desired network effects. Digital Euro to Be Convenient and Help Privacy, Panetta Claims Fabio Panetta revealed that for consumers, the digital euro would offer a “cost-free and convenient way to pay digitally anywhere in the euro area.” He added that it would also increase privacy in digital payments as the ECB, he said, has no interest in monetizing users’ data. In his opinion, compliance with anti-money laundering regulations would not interfere with privacy enhancement. The representative of the ECB’s management thinks that the digital euro should not compete with digital payment services offered by the private sector and intermediaries will be able to onboard users by providing new services with “digital euro inside” such as credit facilities and automated payments. Thus, small financial institutions and fintech firms would benefit from a “level playing field” and get a chance to compete with big tech companies, Panetta said. The member of the ECB’s executive board also sees the digital euro as supporting the international role of the common European currency and Europe’s autonomy in global payments. “Making it accessible to non-residents and interoperable with other CBDCs could facilitate cross-border payments, which are currently fraught with high costs, low speeds and limited access,” Fabio Panetta remarked. He is convinced that the increasing supply of private digital currencies such as stablecoins and the wide availability of private digital means of payment would not make the digital euro redundant. “With digitalisation at full speed, central banks must prepare for a digital future in which demand for cash as a medium of exchange may weaken, requiring the convertibility of private money into cash to be complemented by convertibility into central bank digital money,” he insisted. Dozens of central banking institutions around the world have been exploring the possible issuance of CBDCs in response to the growing popularity of cryptocurrencies and the declining use of banknotes and coins. Besides the ECB, these include the U.S. Federal Reserve and Bank of Russia. The People’s Bank of China has arguably the most advanced project, with domestic trials already underway and plans to test the digital yuan in cross-border transactions. Do you think the digital euro will be a successful CBDC project? Share your expectations in the comments section below. View the full article

China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital yuan, has been used in transactions worth nearly $10 billion, according to an official with the Chinese central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC). In addition, the government digital wallet has been downloaded by about 140 million people. Digital Yuan’s Adoption Rises, Nearly $10 Billion Transacted Mu Changchun, the director-general of the digital currency institute of China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), shared the adoption progress of the digital yuan at Hong Kong’s Fintech Week conference Wednesday. He revealed that some 140 million people had downloaded the wallet for China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), the eCNY, as of October. Furthermore, the digital yuan has been used in transactions totaling about 62 billion yuan ($9.7 billion), Reuters reported. While China has been actively testing its digital yuan, the PBOC official said that there is no official launch date for the digital currency. Mu added that so far 1.55 million merchants could accept payments using eCNY wallets, including utilities, catering services, transportation, retail, and government services. A growing number of central banks worldwide are exploring launching their own CBDCs. According to the Atlantic Council’s CBDC tracker, 87 countries are now exploring a CBDC. Among them, seven have launched, 17 are being piloted, 15 are under development, and 39 are being researched. In September, the head of the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub, Benoît Cœuré, urged central banks to act on central bank digital currencies now to compete with initiatives in the private sector, including cryptocurrencies. What do you think about the number of people already using the digital yuan? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

Crypto proponents and market observers can now gain insight into Solana’s and Serum’s liquidity infrastructure ecosystem via the analytics and decentralized indexing provider Aleph.im. The cross-blockchain computing project says the induction of Serum Markets will “help surface valuable trading data on Project Serum.” Aleph.im Adds Project Serum Support During the last quarter of the year, the Solana (SOL) protocol and its native asset saw significant growth. In the last three months, SOL has gained a massive 542% and the market cap has entered the top ten crypto markets by capitalization. Today, SOL holds the fourth largest market position with an overall market valuation of $72 billion. On November 4, the cross-blockchain computing and decentralized indexing provider, Aleph.im, announced it is now offering analytical insights into Project Serum. Serum is a Solana protocol that bolsters liquidity infrastructure and provides decentralized applications (dapps) with the ability to access Solana’s blockchain. The Serum website says that the protocol “brings unprecedented speed and low transaction costs” to decentralized finance (defi). Adding Serum Markets to Aleph.im will benefit the ecosystem, the Aleph.im team says, as it will help provide insights to valuable data. “The induction of Serum Markets will vastly benefit Project Serum’s ecosystem, allowing Serum to better analyze the enormous influx of data and funds from their various end-users and providing increased visibility for investors into one of the largest players of the Solana defi ecosystem,” Aleph.im’s announcement details. “Moving forward, projects will be able to connect to Project Serum’s data using Aleph.im’s technology to enrich the Solana defi analytics landscape.” ‘Increased Visibility Into the Solana Defi Ecosystem’ At press time, there’s more than $250 billion total value locked (TVL) in defi today across various blockchains. Solana has the third-largest defi TVL with $14.63 billion, which is up 15.9% over the last seven days. Today, Serum has $5.06 billion TVL and $6.82 billion in seven-day trade volume. The new insights from Aleph.im will provide features like TVL, trading history (OHLCV), the daily number of active users, alongside “searchable data on specific market addresses, open orders accounts, and owner addresses.” “We’re thrilled to extend our indexing solutions and analytics dashboards to Serum, the liquidity infrastructure protocol for dozens of defi programs built on the Solana blockchain, to offer users, traders and institutional investors increased visibility into the Solana defi ecosystem,” Jonathan Schemoul, the founder of Aleph.im said in a statement sent to Bitcoin.com News. Analytical data tied to cryptocurrencies has been a hot commodity in 2021 and many firms providing these statistics have raised millions of dollars. Firms like Skew.com, Coin Metrics, Messari, Dune Analytics, Defillama, Dappradar, Nonfungible.com, and more have seen significant demand. As far as insights into Serum are concerned, Aleph.im explains its open API and GraphQL can also be used to “populate the latest trades on Serum into their dapps or research projects.” What do you think about Aleph.im adding Serum insights? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

Bank of America’s chief operating officer does not see cryptocurrency as competition. Instead, he views it as an asset class, noting that “people like it for all sorts of different reasons.” Bank of America’s COO on Crypto: ‘I Don’t View It as Competition at All’ Bank of America COO Tom Montag talked about cryptocurrency Thursday in an interview with Chainalysis CEO Michael Gronager at a conference hosted by the blockchain analytics firm in New York. Montag is also president of Bank of America’s Global Banking and Markets and a member of the company’s executive management team. He is responsible for all of the businesses that serve companies and institutional investors. He said cryptocurrency reminded him of derivatives in their early days. He also admitted that he does not understand stablecoins. “I don’t understand that as well as everyone in the room … Is there really a dollar behind stablecoin?” The Bank of America COO was also asked whether banks are competing with crypto. He replied: I don’t view it as competition at all. I view it as just another asset class … and people like it for all sorts of different reasons. The Bank of America executive is not the only one seeing crypto as an asset class. Rival investment bank Goldman Sachs said in May that bitcoin is an investable asset. JPMorgan said in July that a lot of its clients see crypto as an asset class that they want to invest in. Commenting on whether bitcoin is a store of value, Montag shared: “I came around to how this could have value as a global store of value. It’s hard to appreciate the importance of that as an American when you’re used to having a stable currency.” As for the Federal Reserve launching its own central bank digital currency (CBDC), he opined, “It will be inevitable, but it will be fine.” Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said in September, “We are working proactively to evaluate whether to issue a CBDC and, if so, in what form.” Last month, Bank of America debuted its crypto research, noting that digital assets are “too large to ignore.” The bank’s dedicated crypto research team was established in July. What do you think about the comments by Bank of America’s COO? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

Square Inc. has reported bitcoin revenue of $1.82 billion in the third quarter, an 11% increase from the same period last year. Its bitcoin gross profit was $42 million during the time period, a 29% increase year-over-year. Square’s Bitcoin Profit up 29% in Q3 In the company’s Q3 2021 Shareholder Letter, published Thursday, Square Inc. reported total net revenue of $3.84 billion in the third quarter, up 27% year-over-year. The company’s bitcoin revenue is generated from its mobile payment service, Cash App. The platform generated $2.39 billion in revenue and $512 million in gross profit in Q3, a 16% and 33% increase year-over-year, respectively. Square wrote: Cash App generated $1.82 billion of bitcoin revenue and $42 million of bitcoin gross profit during the third quarter of 2021, up 11% and 29% year over year, respectively. Bitcoin gross profit accounted for approximately 2% of Square’s total bitcoin revenue in Q3. The company explained that bitcoin revenue is the total sale amount of bitcoin to customers, adding that bitcoin costs are the total amount of bitcoin that it purchases. “We purchase bitcoin to facilitate customers’ access to bitcoin,” the company said. Compared to the second quarter, however, Square’s bitcoin revenue and gross profit decreased on a quarter-over-quarter basis, the company detailed, adding that it was “driven primarily by relative stability in the price of bitcoin, which affected trading activity compared to prior quarters.” Furthermore, the company warned that in future quarters, “bitcoin revenue and gross profit may fluctuate as a result of changes in customer demand or the market price of bitcoin, particularly as we lap strong growth rates on a year-over-year basis in the fourth quarter of 2020.” Square further noted that it invested $50 million in bitcoin in the fourth quarter of last year and $170 million more in the first quarter of this year. In the third quarter, the company recognized an impairment loss of $6 million on its bitcoin investment. Square wrote: As of September 30, 2021, the fair value of our investment in bitcoin was $352 million based on observable market prices, which is $203 million greater than the carrying value of the investment. What do you think about Cash App’s bitcoin revenue? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

PRESS RELEASE. Recently, LBank Exchange held an AMA session with the Polygon team, discussing Polygon’s achievements, collaborations, NFT and Gaming markets, Nightfall solution, future plans and so on. Here’s the summary of this AMA. Ethereum is the blockchain development platform of choice, but it has limitations such as low throughput, poor UX, and no sovereignty. As a protocol and a framework for building and connecting Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks, Polygon breaks through these limitations by aggregating scalable solutions on Ethereum and supporting a multi-chain Ethereum ecosystem. Polygon Outperforms Ethereum In-terms Of Active Users As a layer 2 solutions aggregator built on top of Ethereum, Polygon has made some great achievements since its birth, its POS chain has over 2000 DApps live and processes over 7 million transactions daily. In fact, Polygon now has more daily active users than Ethereum. MATIC, the token for the polygon network, is already live on trading platforms like LBank Exchange, and currently the trading volume of it is over 1 billion across exchanges. Polygon team is aiming to make more people hold MATIC tokens, and it’s hoping to see MATIC’s trading volume on LBank Exchange continue to grow as well. Expanding the Polygon ecosystem With the power to bring thousands of new users into blockchain, NFT and Gaming markets are strategic sectors that Polygon continues to focus on. There are already some of the largest gaming projects live on Polygon, such as Decentral Games, Sandbox, Somnium Space, Vulcan Verse, etc. As for NFT projects, there are OpenSea, Lazy.com, Autograph, etc. The team will be bringing many more such games and NFT projects onto Polygon so that its community can enjoy more artwork and fun. In addition, Polygon allows for massive scalability, and compared to Ethereum, minting costs on Polygon are 100,000 times cheaper on average. Polygon also has products designed for enterprise customers who need privacy and scalability, such as Nightfall, a one-of-a-kind, privacy-focused Rollup that combines Optimistic Rollups with Zero-Knowledge (ZK) cryptography commonly used in ZK Rollups. It creates a scalable and private hybrid of the two popular technologies. Polygon Nightfall has the power to bring many large enterprises into blockchain, the team believes that it will lead to a large number of transactions on Polygon and further add new projects and users to the Polygon ecosystem. Big Plans Ahead The Polygon team has already got some big plans ahead. On the technical side, Polygon is investing heavily into ZK and ZK Rollup technology, for example, the team has already spent $250 million on acquiring Hermez, which is a decentralized, open-source ZK Rollup optimized for secure, low-cost and usable token transfers on the wings of Ethereum. Polygon has also acquired another 4 teams to build more ZK Rollup chains, to achieve the goal of building highly scalable EVM enabled ZK Rollup technology. In addition, Polygon has updates coming for its POS chain and details on EIP 1559 implementation. On the business side, Polygon has many exciting updates as well, with lots of big DApps and integrations planned. Significantly, Arjun, Polygon’s Head of Growth, points out that LBank is enhancing its global branding. He also assures that the love of the community makes the team achieve its goals, so it will continue to collaborate with LBank Exchange to bring more Polygon projects and tokens to the community. Polygon team will keep posting on its official social media accounts such as Twitter to reveal more details about future plans and latest updates. About Polygon Polygon is a layer 2 aggregating scalable solution on Ethereum that supports a multi-chain Ethereum ecosystem. The platform resolves the blockchain challenges like high gas fees, slow speed without sacrificing security. It is a protocol and framework to build and connect Ethereum-compatible blockchains. Visit to Know more: Website: https://polygon.technology/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/0xPolygon Telegram: https://t.me/polygonofficial Discord: https://discord.com/invite/polygon About LBank LBank is an ever-growing crypto trading platform which offers safe trading for the users worldwide. The team aspires to build the professional integration services for crypto-assets being a convenient trading platform. It has become popular with over 6.4 million users around the world. Visit to Know More: Website: https://www.lbank.info/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/LBank_Exchange Telegram: https://t.me/LBank_en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lbank Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LBank.info/ This is a press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release. View the full article

Authorities in the Netherlands have arrested a Russian national with a cryptocurrency business, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow has confirmed. The man involved in the establishment of two crypto exchange platforms was apprehended earlier this month, reportedly on a request from U.S. law enforcement. Russian Founder of Cryptocurrency Exchangers Detained in Holland Denis Dubnikov, co-founder of cryptocurrency exchange platforms Coyote Crypto and Eggchange, has been arrested in Amsterdam, on Nov. 1. A report by crypto news outlet Forklog quoted the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Maria Zakharova, who confirmed the news which spread on social media. The Russian citizen was initially held and placed in an isolation ward at the airport in Mexico City. He was then boarded on a flight to the Netherlands where he was eventually arrested by Dutch authorities, allegedly on a request submitted by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the publication detailed. According to a Facebook post published on Nov. 4 by Sergei Mendeleev, CEO of the defi banking platform Indefibank, the United States seeks the extradition of Dubnikov in relation to a cryptocurrency theft dating from 2018. Part of the digital money is believed to have passed through wallets operated by his crypto exchange business. “So, a few days ago there was an extraordinary situation with the citizen of the Russian Federation Dubnikov Denis Mikhailovich. For a completely indistinct reason, he was detained at the airport in Mexico upon arrival and… was suddenly deported (precisely deported!) to Amsterdam…,” Mendeleev explained, asking how is it possible for this to happen to Russian citizens. “Friends, I think there is a reason to ask the Russian Foreign Ministry for a reaction, maybe Maria Zakharova will give her weighty comment?” Mendeleev noted. In response to his call on social media, Zakharova confirmed the information about Dubnikov’s detention and added: Russian diplomats in the Netherlands provide assistance to a detained Russian citizen, [they] are in contact with local law enforcement agencies on the issue of observing his rights. Dubnikov Arrested Amid Anti-Money Laundering Investigations Against His Crypto Business The news of Denis Dubnikov’s arrest comes after a Bloomberg report revealed this week that his Eggchange is the target of anti-money laundering investigations in Europe and the U.S. This case follows the blacklisting of another Russia-based crypto business on similar allegations. In September, the U.S. Treasury Department adopted sanctions against the Czech-registered OTC crypto broker Suex which operates out of offices in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Dubnikov is not the first Russian crypto entrepreneur detained on a U.S. warrant. In the summer of 2017, the Russian IT specialist Alexander Vinnik was arrested in the Greek city of Thessaloniki, where he arrived on a vacation with his family. American prosecutors claim Vinnik, an alleged operator of the infamous BTC-e exchange, has laundered up to $9 billion through the now-defunct coin trading platform. He has since been extradited to France and sentenced to five years in prison for money laundering. In May, the French judiciary rejected a request for his extradition to Russia where he would also face charges. The sanctioned crypto broker Suex is believed to have laundered digital money related to what was once the largest cryptocurrency exchange on the Russian and regional market. In August, Polish authorities detained Dmitry Vasiliev, former chief executive of BTC-e’s successor, Wex, at the airport in Warsaw. Vasiliev is wanted in Kazakhstan where he is accused of fraud related to the platform and is awaiting a decision on his possible extradition. Poland officially confirmed his arrest in September. Do you expect other arrests of Russian nationals on crypto-related allegations? Tell us in the comments section below. View the full article

A growing number of mayors in cities across the U.S. have said they want to be paid in bitcoin. The mayor of Miami said he is going to take his entire salary in the cryptocurrency, two other mayors will be converting their paychecks into bitcoin, and the mayor-elect of New York City will take his first three paychecks in crypto. More Mayors of US Cities Ask to Be Paid in Bitcoin A growing number of mayors in U.S. cities want to be paid in bitcoin. At the time of writing, at least three mayors and one mayor-elect have said that they will take their next paychecks in bitcoin. The first mayor to say that he will be paid in bitcoin is the mayor of Miami, Florida, Francis Suarez, who tweeted Tuesday, “I’m going to take my next paycheck 100% in bitcoin.” Responding to Suarez’s tweet, the mayor-elect of New York City, Eric Adams, tweeted that he will take his first three paychecks in bitcoin when he takes office as mayor of NYC. Following Adams’ tweet, Suarez said in an interview with Fox Business that he will not just take his next paycheck in bitcoin but will take his entire salary in BTC. The mayor of Miami noted that the city’s CIO “was the first employee to actually take a percentage of his salary in bitcoin,” elaborating: I am going to be employee number two … I will be taking 100% of my salary in bitcoin. “We certainly are not going to impose it on anyone,” the mayor emphasized. “It will be completely optional … We want our employees to have that option, but it certainly is not going to be something we are going to force on them, understanding that a decision like that is a personal decision they have to make if they want to make it.” Suarez has recently been re-elected as the mayor of Miami. He has been trying to build his city into the crypto capital of the world. Two other mayors have said that they want to be paid in bitcoin. Mayor Scott Conger of the city of Jackson, TN, who is also trying to build his city into a bitcoin hub, tweeted Thursday: While state law prohibits the city of Jackson, TN, from paying me in bitcoin, I’ll follow the lead of [Miami Mayor] Francis Suarez & [NYC Mayor-elect] Eric Adams and instantly convert my next paycheck to bitcoin. Another mayor interested in being paid in bitcoin is the mayor of Tampa, Florida. On Friday, WTSP, a CBS-affiliated television station, reported that Tampa is trying to be the hub for cryptocurrency and the city’s mayor wants to prove that she is all in. During Friday’s Bitcoin and Blockchain Summit in Tampa, Mayor Jane Castor floated the idea of receiving her paychecks in bitcoin. A spokesperson for the mayor, Lauren Rozyla, then said the mayor has agreed to accept two paychecks in BTC. However, she is unsure how it will happen exactly. “It may involve her being paid in regular dollars and then investing immediately in bitcoin,” the spokesperson noted. Do you think mayors of U.S. cities should be paid in bitcoin? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

In mid-October, the market capitalization of all the stablecoins in existence was $134 billion and during the last three weeks, the valuation has increased by 5.59% to $141.5 billion. While terrausd’s market cap jumped by 6.7% over the last month, the stablecoin DAI saw an increase of 27.3% in 30 days. The largest stablecoin by market capitalization increased by 6% this month with a grand total of 73 billion tethers in circulation today. Stablecoin Capitalization Increases by 5.59% Over the Last Month — Makerdao’s Stablecoin Rises 27% On October 13, 2021, the largest stablecoin market cap held by tether was $70.9 billion and it is now $73 billion. The stablecoin market USDC was $33.3 billion and today it’s $34.2 billion. While tether’s (USDT) market cap jumped last month by 6%, USDC’s increase was slightly less with a 5.8% increase in 30 days. Out of the top five stablecoins in terms of overall valuation, the stablecoin DAI, issued by Makerdao, rose the most with a 27.3% jump last month. Terrausd, the stablecoin issued by the Terra network, increased 6.7% this past month and was the second-largest 30-day gainer. Mstableusd, Magic Internet Money See Triple-Digit Increases — TIME, KLIMA Rebase Tokens Rise An outlier in the top stablecoins, positioned in the sixth spot is magic internet money (MIM) which saw a massive 30-day increase of 152.3%. The abracadabra.money issued MIM stablecoin has a market valuation of $2.5 billion and $112 million in 24-hour trade volume. At the time of writing, the AVAX-based decentralized exchange (dex) platform Trader Joe is the most active MIM exchange. While MIM increased by 152% last month, it’s the second-largest gainer as mstableusd (MUSD) rose by 379.4%. MUSD now has a market valuation of $139.3 million and $2 million in global trade volume. While the top stablecoin market caps have increased, their sibling protocols — rebase tokens — have risen as well. The top rebase (reserve token) olympus (OHM), however, is down 25.5% during the last seven days. The second and third largest rebase tokens wonderland (TIME) and klima dao (KLIMA) have increased. TIME seven-day stats swelled by 38.5% and KLIMA’s weekly metrics rose 10.5%. What do you think about the swelling stablecoin market valuation and the rise of rebase tokens? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

Non-fungible token (NFT) assets have seen significant demand since the beginning of 2021 and third quarter statistics show that key indicators have continued to rise. Just recently nonfungible.com published its Q3 2021 NFT Quarterly Report which shows active wallets increased, the number of NFT buyers has risen, and the number of sellers has grown faster than the amount of buyers. NFT Action Spikes Higher in Q3 NFT market action in Q3 2021 broke previous recorded quarterly metrics as NFT demand continues into the last few months of the year. The web portal nonfungible.com’s researchers published a study that covers 2021’s third quarter and data shows that most indicators are growing. For instance, active wallets, the number of wallets that have interacted with an NFT smart contract, increased 102.52% from 203,719 active wallets in Q2 to 412,578 in Q3. NFT buyers increased by 166.73% from 97,658 in Q2 to 260,489 in the third quarter. Sellers jumped from 40,056 to 122,910 and saw a much larger 206.84% increase during the last quarter. The amount of U.S. dollars exchanged for NFTs in Q2 was $782 million but in Q3 it rose a great deal to $5.9 billion. “During the volume of USD traded all-time high at the end of August, we saw another all-time high in terms of active wallets,” nonfungible.com’s Q3 report notes. “The Weekly Volume which was already almost $91M per week climbed to $1.674B within 2 months.” Nonfungible.com’s researchers add: After this peak, we notice that the weekly volume stabilizes at a level almost 3 times higher than its previous level, at around $300M per week. In terms of loyalty, NFT patrons like metaverse NFTs are the most loyal and this is followed by NFT collectibles. Sports, games, art, and utility NFTs follow collectibles as far as NFT loyalty is concerned. Collectibles saw the most sales capturing 76% of sales while 9% of sales were focused on art NFTs. Sports would be the least sold NFTs with only 1% of the sales in the third quarter. Q3 Report Indicates That the ‘NFT Market Is Evolving Fast and at an Exponential Rate’ The biggest collectible NFT projects include Cryptopunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC). In terms of collectible NFTs “the primary market share has more than doubled, to represent 75% of the entire collectibles market,” the study’s researchers detail. “This extremely high rate reflects the relative saturation of this segment: too many assets issued for too little resale, or at lower prices.” The researcher’s report concludes that the market is evolving fast and at “an exponential rate.” The liquidity has been unprecedented but also “more of a speculative and volatile market than ever before,” the Q3 NFT report explains. “The recent growth of the NFT industry has been almost unbelievable, in just a few short months, the billion-dollar mark was crossed in traded NFTs, followed by billion per quarter and only then to be surpassed by billion per month,” nonfungible.com’s study reveals. The researchers further conclude: If we are to believe the current figures, the market is in a phase of dynamic and unstoppable growth, with no shadows hiding in the corners. However, the reality is a little different and we would like to be clear that indicators such as the traded volume in USD or the number of trades are not the best metrics by which to monitor the market as they only reveal the very tip of the iceberg. What do you think about the non-fungible token (NFT) asset action in the third quarter? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

PRESS RELEASE. Litentry, a decentralized identity aggregation protocol, has revealed the launch of its Crowdloan Reward Program scheduled to go live from November 4, 2021. This represents a significant development in its quest to win a slot ahead of the upcoming Polkadot parachain auction. Join the crowdloan on Binance now to enjoy 20% LIT (20,000,000 LIT) total supply with an extra $2.5M reward pool, with approx. 2760% APY as of Nov 4. An Innovative Crowdloan program Crowdloan is a growing trend taken by projects to receive enough funding to participate in Polkadot’s parachain auction. Participants contribute by staking DOT into a crowdloan vault stored on the blockchain for a designated period. Compared to other projects, Litentry has designed an innovative crowdloan system that incentivizes contributors. To this effect, Litentry has allocated 20,000,000 LIT tokens representing 20% of its token supply as basic rewards for the crowdloan campaign. Interested participants have until December 17, 2021, to lock their tokens in the crowdloan pool, which has a hardcap of 8,000,000 DOT, which none of it’s slot 1 competitors has. This hardcap would make sure the DOT rewards each participant gets will not be diluted after the staking DOTs reaches a safe winning amount. Contributors will need to stake a minimum of 5 DOT into the crowdloan staking pool to be eligible for rewards. The staking pool will be locked for 96 weeks, and rewards distribution will begin once the Litentry parachain connects to the Polkadot relay chain. Litentry will be rewarding participants a minimum of 12.5 LIT tokens for every 5 DOT staked. Contributors can also get an additional 10% bonus by staking their tokens before the parachain auction or a 5% bonus during the first seven days of the parachain auction. Also there will be an extra 10% identity related bonus which will be announced soon. Giving supporters a total reward of 24% of LIT supply. Participants can stake on Binance now to enjoy a Warm-Up promotion 1-week Warm-Up promotion will receive an extra pool of 500,000 LIT plus liquidity BDOT. Litentry has also partnered with DeFi platforms Bitfrost and Parallel Finance to provide lending options for crowdloan contributors. Users can contribute to Litentry crowdloan pool from both platforms and receive rewards in LIT tokens + liquidity DOT derivatives. Polkadot Parachain Auction is huge for Litentry ecosystem Litentry is a privacy-Preserved DID Aggregator that serves unique functions in the ecosystem & provides liquidity, interoperability and consistency for the multi-chain identity data. Becoming a Parachain maximizes the efficiency of sharing identity data between Litentry and other Parachain projects. With an aggregated cross-chain identity, blockchain projects will be able to offer dedicated graded identity services to power next-generated Web 3.0 services. For example, Litentry can be deployed and used to calculate an individual’s credit rating to facilitate analyzed DeFi services. With all the on-chain activities data aggregated by Litentry on individual addresses, user’s can generate proof in a decentralized manner by submitting the addresses for activities like IDO/airdrop whiteslisting. The potentials of Litentry are endless and users can become part of this innovative protocol by staking their DOT in the crowdloan pool. In addition, the 96 weeks staking period also represents an excellent long-term investment for contributors who will generate value from their DOT tokens and receive LIT tokens as rewards for their stake. About Litentry Litentry is a decentralized identity aggregation protocol that functions across multiple networks. It features a DID indexing mechanism and a substrate-based credit computation network. Litentry also provides a decentralized, interoperable identity aggregation service that reduces the difficulty of resolving agnostic DID mechanisms. Litentry has developed an innovative ecosystem through which users can manage their identities and dApps obtain real-time credit/reputation of an identity owner across multiple blockchains. You can follow the latest updates on Litentry using the following links: Website Telegram Twitter Discord This is a press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release. View the full article

On November 5, Bakkt Holdings announced that the firm will soon let customers buy, sell, and store ethereum after offering bitcoin only since the company’s launch. The firm notes that adding ethereum comes at a time when digital currency interest and adoption continue to see significant growth. Bakkt Announces Ethereum Support Bakkt (NYSE: BKKT) has announced the company will “soon” offer ethereum (ETH) in addition to offering bitcoin (BTC). The digital asset manager listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), as a subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), started offering its products three years ago in August 2018. Bakkt explained on Friday that customers and the firm’s partners will soon have the ability to buy, sell, and hold ether. Adding ethereum follows the company’s recent partnership with Google “to introduce digital assets to millions of consumers.” Furthermore, the firm went public in mid-October after completing a merger with a firm called VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings. BKKT shares are swapping for $32.61 and the company’s market valuation is $838.82 million on November 5. The latest offering will also give institutional clients the ability to leverage the Bakkt Warehouse for custody of ethereum. “Bakkt users have already enjoyed the app’s capabilities to leverage bitcoin and we are confident that our addition of Ethereum will be a complement to our growing ecosystem of partners and assets,” Bakkt CEO Gavin Michael said in a statement on Friday. Meanwhile, ethereum (ETH) markets have recently tapped an all-time price high at $4,674 on November 3. Ethereum is the second-largest market by capitalization with $530 billion on Friday and 18.7% of the $2.8 trillion crypto economy. Over the last 12 months, ethereum has gained 976% and 24% during the course of the past month. Bakkt’s announcement did not disclose the launch date of when it would offer ethereum services. What do you think about Bakkt adding ethereum in addition to bitcoin services? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article