TOP STORIES OF THE WEEK
Skeptics Decry Crypto Bill and SBF’s ‘Industry Norms Manual’ as Bad for DeFi
The Defiant
As the cryptoverse debated a U.S. bill Wednesday that would allegedly “kill DeFi,” crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) floated a set of self-imposed industry standards to “create clarity and protect customers.” In a blog post, SBF, the head of centralized crypto exchange FTX, suggested building regulatory compliance into DeFi protocols themselves. Such a move, which is common in self-regulatory market organizations such as FINRA, can be a costly and painstaking process that takes years to implement. Perhaps most controversially, the blog calls for “Blocklists” that would prohibit transfers and freeze funds associated with financial crimes. “There should be an on-chain list of the sanctioned addresses, updated in real time, maintained either by OFAC or by a responsible actor,” SBF wrote, referring to the US regulatory agency that placed privacy protocol Tornado Cash on a list of sanctioned entities in August. “Then, both centralized and decentralized applications can query, in real time, the list of sanctioned addresses, to avoid transferring funds to or accepting funds from those addresses.” The post received a sharply negative community reaction before SBF conceded that his suggestions were only meant to jumpstart discussion, and may have been poorly worded.
Reddit Users Open 2.5 Million Crypto Wallets After Launch of NFT Marketplace
CoinDeskReddit users appear to be upvoting NFTs. The social network’s users have opened over 2.5 million crypto wallets on the platform since Reddit released its NFT marketplace in July.
The marketplace requires users to set up a Reddit Vault Wallet to purchase and store tokens, which also allows users to manage community points stored on-chain that can be used for various in-app purchases. Reddit’s rollout of NFTs has been in the works since its initial release of CryptoSnoo in June 2021, an NFT collection based on the platform’s logo, Snoo. In July, Reddit opened its NFT marketplace to the public, ahead of its August airdrops to users with high karma across four Snoo-based collections. As the total number of wallets is roughly 3 million, it’s clear the interest in owning these PFP NFTs is driving adoption with the vast majority of new users hopping on board in the past three months.
The marketplace requires users to set up a Reddit Vault Wallet to purchase and store tokens, which also allows users to manage community points stored on-chain that can be used for various in-app purchases. Reddit’s rollout of NFTs has been in the works since its initial release of CryptoSnoo in June 2021, an NFT collection based on the platform’s logo, Snoo. In July, Reddit opened its NFT marketplace to the public, ahead of its August airdrops to users with high karma across four Snoo-based collections. As the total number of wallets is roughly 3 million, it’s clear the interest in owning these PFP NFTs is driving adoption with the vast majority of new users hopping on board in the past three months.
Tether USDT Available in Over 24,000 ATMS in Brazil
CryptonewsStablecoin issuer Tether has announced that SmartPay aims to boost the Brazilian population’s access to the popular USDT stablecoin by making it available at more than 24,000 ATMs across the South American country. “The difficulties and limitations imposed by inflation and a less-than-inclusive financial system has excluded many of Brazil’s citizens from being able to participate in the country’s growing economy,” said Paolo Ardoino, the CTO of Tether, as quoted in a statement. “Adding tether tokens to ATMs across Brazil provides the opportunity to include more people in the financial system. This will bring major changes not only to the payments industry but to the entire Brazilian financial ecosystem,” according to the executive.
Creators of Meta’s failed Diem stablecoin now launches Aptos Autumn mainnet
Bitcoin InsiderFidelity Offers Ethereum Trading and Custody to Institutional Clients
CryptoCurrency – Finance MagnatesFidelity Digital Assets, part of one of the most prominent asset managers in the world, Fidelity Investments, announced this week it will offer Ethereum trading and custody services to its base of institutional clients. According to an e-mail, Fidelity Digital Assets sent its clients, after successfully completing the Ethereum Merge “many investors are looking at Ethereum through a new lens.” Responding to their needs, the company has decided to allow institutional investors to trade using the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, starting from October 28. The asset manager followed up the announcement later in the week, doubling down on the crypto ecosystem by announcing its plans to hire 100 more crypto employees in the next three to six months.
BITCOIN
Island nation of Madeira hopes to copy El Salvador’s Bitcoin success
Hodl! Tesla hangs onto all its remaining $218M in Bitcoin in Q3
Bitcoin Added to Guinness World Records Book – Find Out More
$740M in Bitcoin exits exchanges, the biggest outflow since June’s BTC price crash
Bank of Canada study shows expansion in bitcoin ownership
ETHEREUM
Ether Issuance Goes Negative as Merge Delivers on Deflationary Promise
DeFi Options Platform Opyn’s ‘Crab Strategy’ Generates 14% Return in Comatose Ether Market
Shortage of Goerli Testnet Ether Puts the Squeeze on Devs
Flashbots’ Hasu: no neutral relay ‘a failure’ amid Ethereum censorship debate
Ethereum Launches Testnet to Begin Work on Shanghai Upgrade
Ethereum solo validators that censor blocks should ‘be tolerated’ — Buterin
Flashbots unveils upgrade that could resolve censorship concerns
ALTCOINS
Decentralized music startup Audius aims to provide virtual concerts via SoundStage acquisition
How Crypto Advocates Are Defending Ooki DAO
DeFi Exchange Mango Markets Will Soon Start Refunding Users for $114M Exploit
Polygon Builds Web3 Mojo With LatAm Fintech Deal
PancakeSwap eyes Aptos following Ethereum integration
Solana Web3 Phone ‘One of the Moonshots’: Anatoly Yakovenko
Avalanche subnets can now let validators stake using the subnet’s token
Terra LUNA Classic community reduces tax burn to 0.2%
Aptos Token Plummets 40% After APT Airdrop for ‘Early Network Participants’
Frax Finance to publicly release liquid staking protocol within two weeks
Huobi token up 70% in the last 30 days, following Justin Sun’s arrival
Ripple wants to bring Ethereum smart contracts to the XRP Ledger
FTX-backed Aptos blockchain under fire for low scalability on launch day
Aptos releases tokenomics summary one day before trading goes live
ApeCoin DAO mulls APE staking delay, addition of bug bounty program
MakerDAO Poised to Break Up Into ‘MetaDAOs’ in Historic Shakeup
BNB Chain responds with next steps for cross-chain security after network exploit
Polkadot hits all-time high in development activity
Mango DAO Votes To Let Hacker Keep Nearly $50M Of Stolen Funds
STABLECOINS
Acting US FDIC head cautiously optimistic about permissioned stablecoins for payments
USDC adoption is lagging outside of the United States: Coinbase
Aave Releases Technical Details Of GHO Stablecoin
CRYPTO ECOSYSTEM
Bitcoin Group considering buying centuries-old German bank: Bloomberg Law
Unstoppable Domains Stops Selling .Coin Domains After Realizing They’ve Existed for Years
Silvergate Capital’s crypto-to-fiat transfers decrease by $50B compared with Q3 2021
Berlin Bitcoin Neobank Nuri Shutters Business, Warns Clients to Withdraw Funds
Ankr Becomes One of the First RPC Providers to the Aptos Blockchain
zkSync rolls out critical testnet integration for its validity proofs ahead of mainnet
Binance CoinMarketCap Index Series kicks off by tracking top 10 cryptocurrencies
$50B asset custody platform GK8 enters Brazil with license agreement
Wintermute repays $92M TrueFi loan on time despite suffering $160M hack
NFTS / GAMING / METAVERSE
Why NFT royalties are almost impossible to enforce on-chain
Interpol Starts Its Own Police Metaverse
Ethereum NFT Marketplace Blur Launches With Free Airdrop for Traders
Sudoswap’s immediate liquidity is enabling NFT arbitrage
Food companies secure trademarks to enter metaverse
Roofstock sells first on-chain house as NFT for $175K
Bored Ape Co-Founders Want Otherside Metaverse to be ‘Web3-Native Roblox’ for Adults
NFT project Azuki launches Physical Backed Token
Cardano NFTs touted as next gold rush after ‘Ford Edwards’ sells for $65,000
Quest Pro VR headset raises privacy concerns for Meta’s future in metaverse
Rarible introduces NFT aggregator to help shoppers bargain hunt
Turn Cointelegraph articles into NFTs — Early access for 500 readers
Digital Assets Manager CoinShares Launches Experimental AI for Determining Fair NFT Prices
What are CC0 NFTs, and why are they important?
Meta falls short of user goal for Horizon Worlds: WSJ
Magic Eden Flip-Flops on Solana NFT Royalties, Making Them Optional
MINING
Foundry data shows price gap between ASIC buyers and sellers
Low hash price, soaring energy costs spell tough Q3 for Bitcoin miners
Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital Holdings reaches $24 million settlement with former CEO
Binance to Launch Cloud Mining Business in November
Bitcoin Fails to Produce 1 Block for Over an Hour
Stronghold ends Northern Data hosting deal in an effort improve ‘operational control’ and liquidity
A Huge Glut of Bitcoin Mining Rigs Is Sitting Unused in Boxes
Digihost is latest bitcoin miner stock to face delisting, trading below $1
EXCHANGES
Binance Denies Allegations It Intends to Use Users’ Uniswap Tokens for Voting
Users upset that Binance’s wrong-crypto-network retrieval fees have soared to 500 BUSD
Effort to Reverse SEC Rejection of Bitcoin ETF Wins Broad Crypto, TradFi Support
Cameron Winklevoss Leaves Gemini Europe Directorate
Coinbase’s new regional managing director to lead European expansion: Bloomberg
Spanish Exchange Bit2Me Launches API for Crypto-Keen Banks
CAPITAL RAISES
Crypto gaming infrastructure platform Stardust raises $30 million: Bloomberg
Web3 Infrastructure Firm ChainSafe Raises $18.75M Series A
Blockchain.com raises fresh capital in round led by Kingsway Capital
INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT
Crypto Asset Manager Valkyrie Lost the Biggest Investor in Its $11M Funding Round
New Bitcoin-Focused VC Firm Ego Death Capital Raising $30M
TRADFI / TECH
Fintech Giant Plaid Jumps into Web3
Fidelity Digital Assets plans 100 more crypto hires within the next six months
Shopify users get their hands on Tezos NFTs with new partnership
Bernstein Still Sees Institutional Adoption Despite Crypto Winter
Nubank to launch loyalty tokens on the Polygon blockchain
Cryptocurrencies Will Play ‘Very important Role’ in Payments Disruption: Walmart CTO
Societe Generale’s Crypto Division Forge Secures Registration With French Regulator
Mastercard to help banks offer crypto trading, provide compliance and security: CNBC
CBDC
Bank of England Must Consider Private Stablecoins in Developing Digital Pound, Lobbyist Says
CBDC Development Necessary for US to Remain Competitive, says Congressman
REGULATORY / COUNTRIES
EU Financial Services Head Calls on the US To Create Global Crypto Laws and Regulation: Report
South Africa declares crypto to be a financial product subject to financial services law
Developers Excluded From Broker Label in New DCCPA Bill Draft
Crypto AML compliance head at FCA to step down in 2023
Senate committee negotiating SEC sign off on digital commodity definition
Turkey taps blockchain for e-Human project, President Erdoğan announces
Japan’s crypto regulator plans to ease token listing rules: Bloomberg
IRS 2022 Tax Guidelines to Treat NFTs as Stablecoins, Cryptocurrencies
Israel Ministry of Finance, stock exchange to test use of digital state bonds
France to Explore Crypto Tax Treatment Next Year
Crypto Venture Capital Fund Paradigm Also Wants CFTC to Serve Ooki DAO’s Members
Texas investigates FTX for securities violations after objecting to Voyager auction
Interpol reportedly creates dedicated unit to fight crypto crimes
CySEC Chair Warns against Crypto Investment Risks, Endorses MiCA
SEC, CFTC Launch Probe Into Bankrupt Crypto Fund Three Arrows Capital: Report
Koreans to have access to blockchain-powered digital IDs by 2024
Hong Kong to Clarify Crypto Position During FinTech Week
Macau’s Executive Council seeks to subject digital currencies to same regulations as fiat
UK’s FCA Appoints Binu Paul to Lead Its Digital-Assets Department
More digital asset firms want to become broker-dealers: FINRA head
SEC Chairman Says CFTC Should Get More Power to Oversee Stablecoins: Report
India aims to develop crypto SOPs during G20 presidency — Finance minister
France approves its third-biggest bank to operate digital asset services
ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL, GOVERNANCE
Greenpeace FUD Claims Bitcoin Mining is Heating the Planet
Sen. Warren leads probe of Bitcoin impact on Texas power grid, ERCOT use of demand response ‘subsidies’
EU Commission warns crypto mining may be halted in energy emergency
BTC energy use jumps 41% in 12 months, increasing regulatory risks
SURVEYS, HACKS, MISC
Kyle Roche launches own crypto class action practice following hidden camera fallout
Craig Wright Loses Lawsuit Against Hodlonaut in Norway Over Satoshi Nakamoto Claims
Vietnam Ranks 1st in Crypto Adoption, USA is 5th, China Back in Top 10 – Chainalysis
Twitter user saves cross-chain bridge from potential exploit
South Korean Prosecutors: Do Kwon Left Singapore for Dubai Last Month
FatMan sounds the alarm on Ronaldinho-backed ‘World Cup Inu’ crypto token
India ranks third in the world in terms of Web3 workforce size: Report
Celo Protocol Moola Market Loses Over $10M in Market Manipulation Attack
Bridge Security Is ‘Unresolved Technical Challenge,’ Chainalysis Research Director Says
Kanye West to Buy Crypto-Friendly Social Media Platform Parler
LiveArtX official wallet compromised, NFT collection down 95%
Mango Market exploiter says action was ‘legal’
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong To Sell Portion of His Shares To Fund Scientific Research
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