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Biden asks FTC to investigate oil and gas companies
“I do not accept hard-working Americans paying more for gas because of anti-competitive or otherwise potentially illegal conduct,” the president wrote. He asked Khan to “bring all of the commission‘s tools to bear if you uncover any wrongdoing.” He cited the “two largest oil and gas companies“ in the U.S. without naming them — Exxon Mobil and Chevron. Context: Gasoline prices have hit Americans hard, with regular unleaded jumping more than 60 percent from a year ago to an average $3.41 a gallon, according to the American Automobile Association. The president has little control over pump prices, but Biden is caught in a period of rising inflation and weak favorability ratings. On Wednesday, he travels to Detroit to visit a General Motors factory that manufactures electric vehicles, which re...
David Guetta Announces Partnership to Sell Blockchain-Powered “United at Home” NFTs
A new partnership between industry-leading blockchain companies and David Guetta will facilitate the first sale of NFTs tied to the French dance music producer’s charitable “United At Home” concert series. Guetta’s formidable career has continuously propelled him not only to the top of the charts, but also to the intersection of music and the metaverse. Now partnering with Blockchain Artists Initiative and Beat AlphaVerse, Guetta’s “United at Home” series will be turned into digital collectibles. Guetta’s livestreamed “United At Home” concerts took place in Miami, New York City, Paris, and Dubai. His partnership with Blockchain Artists Initiative and Beat AlphaVerse will turn each into exclusive and limited digital asset...
You Can Now Buy Electronic Music NFTs Created By Designers From Prada, Burberry, More
You’re going to need some designer clothing for your metaverse avatar. Purple Fly, Project X, and Who Knocks have joined forces for a unique partnership to blend the world of NFTs, high fashion, and art. On November 22nd, they will launch an exclusive NFT collection prepared by a number of the world’s leading clothing brands, such as Prada, Burberry, Moschino, and Etro. Each company’s expert designers will work closely with the companies to curate a unique look relative to the digital collectible. The NFT pool kicked off on November 16th with a collection from South Korean dance music superstar DJ SODA,, which was designed by Damiano Clemente of Dsquared2. The collection consists of 10 rare NFTs and allows consumers to purchase a portion of the design rather th...
Bacon Protocol offers industry-first ‘NFT mortgages’
Decentralized mortgage lender Bacon Protocol has minted its first seven mortgages as nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, offering investors and borrowers new options for accessing the residential mortgage market. The interest rate for each NFT mortgage ranges from 1.5% to 3.1% on properties in four U.S. states, the company disclosed Wednesday. That’s the interest rate borrowers pay after minting their mortgage through Bacon Protocol. By comparison, the average mortgage rate in the United States ranged from 2.27% to 2.98% for the week ending Nov. 10, according to Freddie Mac. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage peaked at 3.14% on Oct. 28. Mortgage rates in the United States have ticked up recently but remain well below the historic average. Source: Freddie Mac Bacon’s decentralized mortgage plat...
Blockchain unicorn ConsenSys valued at $3.2B following $200M raise
Blockchain infrastructure provider ConsenSys has reached a lofty valuation of $3.2 billion after closing a $200 million funding round, joining over a dozen other crypto-focused companies to reach coveted unicorn status this year alone. The $200 million financing round saw participation from several new investors, including Marshall Wace, Third Point and Think Investments, who contributed alongside existing investors such as Dragonfly Capital, Electric Capital, Spartan Group, Coinbase Ventures, HSBC, DeFiance Capital and Animoca Brands. ConsenSys also announced that Ethereum wallet and browser extension MetaMask has achieved roughly 21 million monthly active users, having more than doubled over the past four months. [embedded content] MetaMask, which was developed by ConsenSys, was recently...
Navigating CityCoins: Miami citizens to earn Bitcoin despite the city not holding crypto
Miami is quickly becoming the crypto capital of the United States. In August of this year, the Magic City was the first state in the U.S. to launch MiamiCoin (MIA), its very own cryptocurrency used for civic engagement. A few months later, Mayor Francis Suarez announced that every Miami resident with a digital wallet will be eligible to receive a Bitcoin dividend. While such a proposal would make Miami the first city in America to provide a Bitcoin (BTC) yield to its residents, Mayor Suarez told Cointelegraph that the City of Miami does not actually own or hold MiamiCoin, or any cryptocurrency for that matter. According to Suarez, CityCoins is an independent community acting in its own capacity. “CityCoins launched MiamiCoin as a way for citizens to engage more intimately w...
Portal partners with Polygon to advance DeFi on Bitcoin
Decentralized exchange, or DEX, and self-custody wallet platform Portal has announced a strategic partnership agreement with layer-two blockchain network Polygon to advance Bitcoin functionality in the decentralized finance, or DeFi, market. Portal currently offers fully decentralized on-chain spot and options trading, as well as peer-to-peer lending and borrowing. This partnership is expected to expand these user capabilities through the enablement of zero-knowledge swap functionalities for wBTC/BTC as well as POS/WBTC to BTC, in addition to Polygon operating a liquidity-supporting node on Portal DEX. Portal’s primary objective is to cultivate a self-governing, anonymous and uncensored ecosystem for Bitcoin on DeFi. The platform’s utilization of Bitcoin’s hash time-...
Tidal Launches Free Tier, Steps Into User-Centric Payments
Tidal is launching a free tier in the U.S. and is introducing a user-centric payment model for its premium subscription offerings, the company announced Wednesday (Nov. 16). The moves mark the first major shifts under its new parent company Square, which acquired Tidal earlier this year for $302 million. The streaming service now has three tiers for listeners to choose from: Tidal Free, which gives U.S.-based listeners free access to Tidal’s 80 million song catalog; Tidal HiFi, which offers high-fidelity audio and offline listening with a new feature called My Activity that will provide daily listening insights for listeners for $9.99 a month; and Tidal HiFi Plus, a $19.99 a month subscription that includes immersive sound options like Dolby Atmos Music and Sony 360 Audio and Master Qualit...
Top 3 Finance Tokens to Buy on November 17: NEXO, UMA, and XDC
NEXO has the potential to increase its value throughout November. UMA is at a lower value point, which signals a solid purchase opportunity. XDC specializes in international trade and finance and has the potential to grow in value tremendously. Nexo (NEXO) is a platform that provides instant crypto loans as well as fast access to cash for the support and maintenance of ownership of digital assets. Its token is used as a source of discounts, which also provides users with other benefits. Universal Market Access (UMA) Is an Ethereum token that is an open-source protocol that allows developers to design and create their own financial contracts as well as synthetic assets. XinFin (XDC) Network is a hybrid blockchain company optimized for international trade and finance, where the native token ...
Pain at the pump drives Biden’s suffering in the polls
That energy price surge is badly timed for the Biden administration, which just a few days earlier was playing a leading role in the U.N. climate negotiations in Glasgow and as Democrats try to pass their $1.75 trillion bill that contains the biggest ever effort to tackle climate change by boosting renewable fuels over oil, natural gas and coal. That’s handed Republicans an easy attack line to highlight the sharp differences in the two parties’ energy policies. “The people of America will pay dearly for the energy that we are not producing in the United States, because what Joe Biden did in Glasgow was beg OPEC+ to sell more energy and produce more oil for the United States to buy,” Sen. John Barrasso said at a Senate committee hearing on Tuesday. The inflationary pressur...
Will the GOP go along with the COP26 pact?
Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.) spoke with POLITICO’s Ryan Heath fresh off his trip to Glasgow, Scotland. | Crystal Thomas/POLITICO The Republican delegation went to COP26 with a clear message: both parties recognize the need to fight climate change. But did world leaders take them seriously? And how will Republican leaders sell that pivot to Republican voters? Fresh off his trip to Glasgow, Scotland, Rep. Garret Graves, a Louisiana Republican, spoke with POLITICO’s Ryan Heath. He shares — if not a commitment to the Build Back Better plan — his ideas on turning climate pledges into climate action. About how Republicans and Democrats share more than they might think on climate policy “If I go into a very liberal room, and I may go in there and start talking about how we need to improve the compe...
VanEck Bitcoin Strategy ETF launch day volume a fraction of BITO’s
The VanEck Bitcoin Strategy ETF (XBTF) closed its first day of trading on Nov. 16 with “respectable” trading volume, but one that pales in comparison to similar launches. Bitcoin futures ETFs provide investors exposure to potential future prices of Bitcoin without forcing them to hold any Bitcoin themselves. At market close on the Chicago Board of Exchange (CBOE), XBTF had accumulated around $9.5 million in assets under management (AUM), and saw around $4.6 million in daily trading volume according to investing.com. This is just a fraction of the first-day trading volume of $1 billion the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy (BITO) enjoyed on Oct. 19 on NYSE. BITO has since reached the top 2% of all ETFs by total trading volume. Tommy Horan, Head of Corporate Partnerships at Austral...
