Crypto Currency

The play-to-earn game’s soft launch is planned for Q1 2022, with 400,000 users already pre-registered. Upcoming NFT based mobile role-playing game Guild of Guardians has sold out two tranches of its native token (GEMS) totaling $5.3 million. The token sale, held on Coinlist on Nov. 30 was oversubscribed 82 times, with around 808,000 users registering. More than 10,700 new GEM holders from over 100 countries purchased a maximum of $500 worth of tokens. However users from Australian, the U.S.,Canada and China were prohibited from purchasing tokens amid mounting regulatory concerns . GOG allocated 6% of the total 1 billion total tokens to the CoinList sale, while 63% of the supply will be distributed via community-driven events, activities, and core gameplay. The play-to-earn game’s soft launch is planned for Q1 2022, with 400,000 users already pre-registered. The game comes from Ukrainian developer Stepico games in partnership with Australian-based NFT layer 2 scaling solution Im...

Those who support him hope he raises enough money to fulfill his personal and charitable needs, while others don’t think he should be selling NFTs at all. Ross Ulbricht, founder of defunct dark web marketplace Silk Road, has created a stir by announcing he will auction off his series of nonfungible tokens (NFT) starting Dec. 2. The imprisoned early Bitcoin adopter announced via his supporter operated Twitter account on Dec. 1 his plans to auction the Ross Ulbricht Genesis Collection on Superare NFT marketplace from Dec. 2-8. The collection consists of 11 works of art Ulbricht handmade, then his supporters minted into NFT form. The art was made in different stages of Ulbricht’s life from childhood up to his time in prison. The early works depict comic book characters and animals, while the later works depicts scenes from his court trial and inner feelings he has had since being imprisoned. Proceeds from the auction will help fund a trust to support Ulbricht’s efforts to be freed ...

In explaining his decision to leave Meta, David Marcus said that his entrepreneurial DNA had been nudging him “for too many mornings in a row to continue ignoring.” David Marcus, the head of Meta’s cryptocurrency and fintech unit Novi, will step down from his role by the end of 2021. Taking over from Marcus will be Stephane Kasriel, the former CEO of Upwork who has been at Meta, formerly known as Facebook, since August 2020. Marcus announced the decision via a Dec. 1 tweet , noting that he had made the “difficult decision” to leave the firm by the end of this year. The exec didn’t go into detail about what his next move would be, but hinted that it may be something “new and exciting” that he builds himself: “While there’s still so much to do right on the heels of launching Novi — and I remain as passionate as ever about the need for change in our payments and financial systems — my entrepreneurial DNA has been nudging me for too many mornings in a row to continue ignoring it.” Ma...

Borderless Capital is looking to use its $500 million fund to back projects powering the “next generation” of decentralized projects on the Algorand blockchain. Capital venture firm Borderless Capital has launched a fund worth $500 million to support projects building on the Algorand blockchain. According to a Nov. 30 announcement from the Miami-based company , the Borderless ALGO Fund II will aim to back digital assets powering the “next generation” of decentralized applications (DApps) on Algorand. We are excited to announce the launch of our $500M Borderless ALGO Fund II! https://t.co/EP0U6Ib8HV pic.twitter.com/okXf6GBFo8 — Borderless Capital (@borderless_cap) November 30, 2021 The firm highlighted nonfungible token (NFT) and decentralized finance (DeFi) projects in particular, noting that it is looking at opportunities to “disrupt the creators economy” with NFTs while accelerating the growth of funding into Algorand’s DeFi ecosystem . The move from Borderless comes in th...

Market analysts are nonplussed by HOOD stock price as long as it continues to ramp up its presence in the cryptocurrency trading space. As Robinhood struggles with its declining share price, could ramping up its cryptocurrency offerings help boost the company’s outlook? Robinhood is a financial services company that also acts as a retail trading platform for ordinary users. It's known for meme stocks and currently offers seven cryptocurrencies for trading. Since Aug. 4, Robinhood (HOOD) has fallen nearly 70% from its ATH of $70.39 to $25.94, and it’s been below the $38 IPO price for weeks. Several factors are contributing to the fall, such as a drop in crypto and meme stocks day trading as the pandemic era comes to an end and people return to their offices to work. Robinhood enjoyed big gains in Q2 2021 when Dogecoin ( DOGE ) trading accounted for 41% of Robinhood’s total revenue, and 62% of the $233 million generated by cryptocurrency trading. However, cryptocurrency tradi...

Bitcoin has fallen just 17% from ATH which makes this correction the shallowest of the year so far. In previous bull market cycles, there has been a measurable correction before a rally at the end of the year — and if history rhymes it could be on the cards again. We’ve certainly experienced the correction: Bitcoin hit an all-time high of around $69K on Nov. 10 and has retreated around 17% to current levels. Some mainstream media outlets such as Forbes have taken the view the current pullback has plunged markets back into bearish territory with the rather salacious headline: “Did Bitcoin Enter A Bear Market After Falling 20% From Its ATH?” on a Nov. 30 article. But November's dip was actually the weakest correction of 2021, overshadowed by Bitcoin’s whopping 53.4% correction over three months between April and July. The most recent correction in September was the second deepest, reaching 37% from April's ATH. In its Nov. 29 “Week Onchain” report , analytics provider Glass...

Welcome to the statistically dubious world of cryptocurrency surveys. Here, we'll find out how many Aussies really own crypto, and why there are so many different claims. When Tony Richards, the Head of Payments Policy at the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), read the recent survey results from Finder’s Crypto Report saying that almost one in five Australians owned crypto, he didn't believe it for a second. However, the results had already been widely published around the country, gracing headlines for weeks. They even made their way into the recent Senate Committee on Australia as a Technology and Financial Center’s final report in October. Welcome to the statistically dubious world of cryptocurrency surveys — an easy way for companies to get publicity by hawking survey results, but not necessarily a great way to stay informed. The Finder survey from August claimed that 17% of Australians own at least one cryptocurrency — 9% own Bitcoin, 8% own Ether and 5% own Dogecoin....

As the transition to Eth2 edges closer, Ethereum developers have launched a program for the non-technical users and technical users alike to help test the upcoming Beacon Chain merge. Ethereum (ETH) developers have put out a call to the community to help test the long awaited Merge between the Ethereum Mainnet and the proof-of-stake (PoS) based Beacon Chain. The Merge is a major milestone towards the transition to E th2 as it will see the Ethereum network become a PoS blockchain, decreasing its energy consumption by 99%. On Nov. 29 Ethereum developer Marius van der Wijden announced a new program to get the community involved in Merge testing that caters to three tiers: non-technical users, developers with limited experience in blockchain and highly technical and experienced blockchain developers. Testing is the best way to contribute to #Ethereum . We are starting a new program to get the community involved in testing the merge. If you want to do your part in getting Ethereum ...

A letter to the secretary of the SEC outlines discrepancies in its rejection of Bitcoin spot ETFs and acceptance of Bitcoin futures ETFs. Grayscale Investments has fired back a the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over the recent rejection of VanEck’s spot Bitcoin ETF application. The operator of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) issued a letter to Secretary of the SEC, Vanessa Countryman, on Nov. 29 to argue the SEC is wrong to reject spot Bitcoin ETFs since it has now approved three Bitcoin futures ETFs, one each from VanEck, Valkyrie, and ProShares . Grayscale argues that the SEC has “no basis for the position that investing in the derivatives market for an asset is acceptable for investors while investing in the asset itself is not.” It claims the SEC violated the Administrative Protections Act (APA) by failing to treat the two Bitcoin ETF products the same. A Bitcoin futures ETF allows traders to speculate on the future price of Bitcoin ( BTC ) via derivatives...

“We’ve long recognized Israel as a hot bed of strong technology and cryptography talent, and are excited to continue to grow our team with some of the best and brightest minds in these fields,” said Coinbase. Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase will acquire cryptographic security company Unbound Security in a move that will also have the U.S. company launch a research facility in Israel. In a Tuesday blog post, Coinbase said it would be purchasing Unbound to gain access to its cryptographic security experts as well as establish a presence in Israel. The exchange cited Unbound’s work in multi-party computation to provide users with the “virtually impenetrable nature of cold, offline storage, with the frictionless convenience of hot, online wallets.” “We’ve long recognized Israel as a hot bed of strong technology and cryptography talent, and are excited to continue to grow our team with some of the best and brightest minds in these fields,” said Coinbase. “The Unbound Security team wil...

The remarks came at a time when the country's crypto regulatory framework remains underdeveloped. On Tuesday, Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, voiced his criticism regarding the state of the criticism sector at the "Russian Calling" investment forum in Moscow. According to local news outlet lenta.ru, the president made the following remarks, as translated by Cointelegraph: "It is not backed by anything, [and] the volatility is colossal, so the risks are very high. We also believe that we need to listen to those who talk about those high risks." Putin called for the greater monitoring and regulation of cryptocurrencies and pointed out that certain countries worldwide are seeing significant adoption of digital currencies. Currently, cryptocurrency regulation is still in its infancy in Russia. Although the government is considering the launch of a central bank digital currency, at least eight federal laws and five legislative codes must be ...

2021 is proving to be a breakthrough year for NFTs, but what is driving such impressive performance? This Cointelegraph Research report has the answers. In 2010, if someone had told you that Internet memes, digital artwork and Twitter avatars would sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars, would you have believed them?  Well, these are nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, in a nutshell. NFTs are driving blockchains toward uncharted territory on the backs of cute kitties and pixelated punks. What may appear to be a shroud of speculation over pointless collectibles is actually the clouded horizon of fintech innovation. NFTs represent a turning point. Blockchain technology is now being used to represent assets beyond the chain. In order to understand the thriving and intriguing world of NFTs, the Cointelegraph Research team delves deep into this new space, presenting the findings in the latest report “Nonfungible Tokens: A New Frontier.” This report covers the history and development o...

The platform is anticipated to launch in the first quarter of 2022 and will facilitate buying, selling and licensing of metaverse assets. MetaMundo, a virtual nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace focused on metaverses, has announced the completion of a seed funding round of $2.7 million. Led by Animoca Brands, MetaMundo’s debut funding further included Hypersphere Ventures, Digital Currency Group, OP Crypto, Metaartel Ventures and angel investments from the co-founders of Aave and Rarible, among others. Built upon layer-two network Polygon, the platform lets designers and creators mint, sell and license their NFT assets for usage in virtual and augmented reality, as well as across an array of metaverse worlds including Decentraland, Cryptovoxels and Somnium Space. The announcement states that using the Polygon network provides users with reduced gas fees in comparison with the Ethereum network. One of the reasons we decided to start building on @0xPolygon : pic.twitter.com/dbY96p...

Cryptocurrencies, including CBDC’s, have now become a part of the narrative on sanctions due to high adoption. The use of cryptocurrencies to evade international sanctions from various international governmental organizations like the United Nations (UN), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, among others, has been a concern for regulators ever since the creation of cryptocurrencies. The rapidly increasing adoption of digital currencies in the last two years makes this discussion more important than ever, especially with the advent of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) like the digital yuan.  In an interview on Nov.17, United States Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said that the efficacy of U.S. sanctions would not be undermined by central bank digital currencies.  Adeyemo's remarks follow comments from sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who urged the Russian government to use Bitcoin to evade U.S. sanctions and even weaken the d...

AVAX is one of the year’s top crypto performers, with the likes of Three Arrows Capital and Polychain Capital supporting the PoS chain. Avalanche ecosystem accelerator Colony has raised $18.5 million in seed investments to bootstrap the next generation of Avalanche blockchain projects, underscoring heightened demand for the proof-of-stake ecosystem.  The investment round was led by the Avalanche Foundation, an organization overseeing ecosystem development grants, with additional participation from Shima Capital, HashKey, GBV Capital and Bixin Ventures. Members of the Avalanche community also participated in the seed round. Colony will use the funds to finance early-stage projects building on the Avalanche network and to provide liquidity for decentralized finance, or DeFi, protocols. Colony’s community will also have the opportunity to invest in early-stage projects through a process called ecosystem farming. Under Colony’s validator program, 10% of the accelerator’s capital w...

Silvergate is a major crypto bank known for assisting the launch of El Salvador’s crypto wallet Chivo. Major cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com continues expanding its crypto on-ramp and off-ramp solutions with a new partnership with the California state-chartered bank Silvergate. Crypto.com announced on Nov. 30 that it is working with Silvergate to allow institutional clients to deposit and withdraw from the exchange using the U.S. dollar (USD). According to the announcement, bank transfers to and from the Crypto.com exchange are now available for institutional investors. With the help of Silvergate, institutional clients can transfer USD between their bank accounts and Crypto.com with no fees. The new feature is enabled through the Silvergate Exchange Network, a payments platform enabling users to instantly send U.S. dollars at any time of the day. The feature will be available to institutional clients in all exchange available markets, the announcement notes. Crypto.com co-fo...

The upside move in the Shiba Inu instruments also comes in the wake of broader price rebound across leading crypto assets, including Bitcoin. Shiba Inu (SHIB), a Dogecoin-inspired meme cryptocurrency, has emerged as one of the best performers across traditional and crypto markets entering the new weekly session as its price climbed by over 30% week-to-date. SHIB’s price reached $0.00005155 Tuesday after bouncing from its technical support near $0.00003560 at the beginning of this week. Its rebound signaled a shift in trend, especially after the last week’s broader market sell-off, induced by concerns related to the new COVID-19 strain, dubbed Omicron. Bullish catalysts for SHIB’s price At the core of Shiba Inu’s upside retracement was Kraken, a United States-based cryptocurrency exchange that announced Monday  it would effectively enable SHIB trading on its platform from Nov. 30. However, Kraken clarified that it would not offer SHIB futures and margin trading services. New...

The Series B builds off 2TM’s massive $200 million SoftBank-led raise in July, which catapulted the company to a $2.1 billion valuation. 2TM, the parent company of Brazilian cryptocurrency exchange Mercado Bitcoin, has received $50.3 million in fresh financing to expand its operations across Latin America, sending a strong signal that venture capital sees growth potential in the region.  The Series B fundraiser had participation from United States-based funds 10T and Tribal Capital, as well as Brazilian companies Traders Club, Pipo Capital and Endeavor, the company disclosed Tuesday. The funding round further cements 2TM’s status as a crypto unicorn after the company raised $200 million from SoftBank in July. At the time, Mercado Bitcoin was the second Latin American cryptocurrency exchange to eclipse the $1 billion valuation mark. Brazil’s first #Bitcoin exchange, Mercado Bitcoin, just raised $200m from SoftBank! - CoinTelegraph — Bitcoin Archive (@BTC_Archive) July 1, 2...

“CBDC would be part of an effort to address the use of crypto in financial transactions,” Bank of Indonesia’s assistant governor Juda Agung said. Central bank digital currencies (CBDC), digital versions of national currencies introduced in response to growing cryptocurrency adoption, would be an essential tool for combating crypto, according to the Bank of Indonesia. The central bank of Indonesia is considering launching a digital rupiah to “fight” against cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin ( BTC ), Bank of Indonesia’s assistant governor Juda Agung said at a recent parliamentary meeting. “A CBDC would be one of the tools to fight crypto. We assume that people would find CBDC more credible than crypto. CBDC would be part of an effort to address the use of crypto in financial transactions,” Agung stated , according to a Nov. 30 Bloomberg report. The official noted that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are currently traded alongside commodity futures and regulated by the trade ministry despi...