Crypto news
HK and Singapore’s mega-rich are eyeing crypto investments: KPMG
Hong Kong and Singapore’s wealthy elite appear to be looking at digital assets with fervor, after a new report from KPMG suggesting over 90% of family offices and high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) are interested in investing in the digital assets space or have already done so. According to an Oct. 24 report from KPMG China and Aspen Digital titled “Investing in Digital Assets,” as much as 58% of family offices and HNWI of respondents in a recent survey are already investing in digital assets, and 34% “plan to do so.” The survey took the pulse from 30 family offices and HNWIs in Hong Kong and Singapore with most respondents managing assets between $10 million to $500 million. KPMG said the large crypto uptake among the ultra-wealthy has increased confidence in the sector, spurred...
Wealthy crypto believer and incoming UK PM Rishi Sunak once commissioned a royal NFT
Rishi Sunak is set to become prime minister of the United Kingdom within days. Sunak was defeated for the top government post by Liz Truss on Sept. 5, but she resigned after 45 days in office. Indications so far are that his selection for the office is good news for the crypto industry. Sunak was chancellor of the exchequer, or head of the treasury, from early 2020 to July 5, when he resigned during a scandal that shook Boris Johnson’s government. During that time, Sunak repeatedly voiced his support for crypto. Speaking in April about proposed regulatory reform related to stablecoins, Sunak said: “It’s my ambition to make the U.K. a global hub for crypto-asset technology, and the measures we’ve outlined […] will help to ensure firms can invest, innovate and scale up in this country. This ...
Reddit NFT trading volume hits all-time high as wallet holders near 3 million
According to data provided by Polygon and Dune Analytics, the trading volume of Reddit nonfungible token (NFT) avatars has eclipsed $1.5 million in the past 24 hours. The increase represents over one-third of the collection’s cumulative trading volume of $4.1 million since launch. At the same time, the daily sales volume of Reddit NFTs also witnessed a new all-time high of 3,780 digital collectibles changing hands. Reddit avatars are created by independent artists and are minted as NFTs on the Polygon blockchain. Users can purchase such collectibles on Vault, Reddit’s cryptocurrency wallet. They can then be worn and displayed as profile pictures when users create content on the popular social media platform. After being purchased purchase, the NFTs can be bought and sold on secondary marke...
Volumes on crypto investment products drop to 2-year low: CoinShares
On Oct 24, European cryptocurrency investment firm CoinShares published its “Digital Asset Fund Flows Report,” which revealed that digital asset investment products saw $5 million worth of cumulative outflows last week in a continuation of what it calls an “apathetic period” that began in September 2022. Most notably, investment product volumes dropped to $758 million during the week, the lowest since October 2020 and far below the weekly average of $7 billion around this time last year when crypto markets were in an uptrend. The report reveals that Bitcoin (BTC) investment products saw minor inflows of $4.6 million, marking the sixth consecutive weekly gain, while short-Bitcoin investment products saw outflows of $7.1 million. Ether (ETH) investment products saw outflows for t...
Global Bitcoin payments market projected to reach $3.7B by 2031: Research
The global Bitcoin (BTC) payments market will reach $3.7 billion by 2031, registering a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.3% from 2022 to 2031, with private keys and hardware driving the sector expansion, forecasted Allied Market Research in a report published on Oct. 24. According to the document, operational demand for efficiency and transparency in payments systems, along with data security services growth and a surge in demand for remittances in emerging economies, are among the major factors supporting growth in the sector in the coming years. The report also stated: “Furthermore, increase in demand for bitcoin among banks, and financial institutions and untapped potential in emerging economies are expected to provide lucrative opportunities for the bitcoin payments...
How not to Bitcoin: User pays 1,000x fee to send 4 BTC
Fat fingers? A Bitcoin (BTC) user spent over $200 to make a transaction, paying astronomically above the average fee. In a transaction that entered Bitcoin block 760,077, a user paid 1,136,000 satoshis, (0.0136 BTC or $220.52) to move 3.8 BTC ($63,000). This extraordinarily high fee is a whopping 1,000 times the usual Bitcoin transaction fee, as at block height 760,077, the average transaction fee was roughly $0.20. Twitter user Bitcoin QnA first spotted the out-of-the-ordinary transaction, asking, “Y tho?” The Bitcoin educator told Cointelegraph that “Ultimately, we’ll never know [why they paid high], but there are a few possible answers.” QnA listed the following: “1. Using a wallet with terrible fee estimations 2. A user making a typo when manually entering their fee rat...
Japanese port city wants to become the Web3 hub for the country
In Japan, the city of Fukuoka is looking towards the future of Web3 in its latest partnership with Astar Japan Labs – the company behind Japan’s leading blockchain, the Astar network. Fukuoka is the country’s second-largest port city and has officially been designated as a National Special Strategic Zone. Now it also plans to become the country’s hub for all things Web3 and crypto. The Astar Japan Labs partnership will allow both entities to work together on new use cases for Web3 technologies. Fukuoka joins more than 45 companies working with Astar, including Microsoft Japan and Amazon Japan. According to the announcement, the city wants to attract global, competitive businesses to the area. Representatives from Astar will regularly visit the city to provide education and new use ca...
Women remain bullish on crypto investment despite market lull: Survey
The crypto market downturn is proving a difficult storm to weather for both investors and businesses alike in the industry. However, according to new data, this hasn’t stopped women from being bullish on crypto. A new survey conducted by BlockFi, a crypto trading and investment platform, asked women across the United States about their views of and participation in the crypto industry between Sept. 2021 and Mar. 2022. According to the findings one in ten women chose crypto as their first investment, with 17% of that being Millennial women investors and 11% Gen Z. Findings even revealed that of the women surveyed 7% of Gen X, which includes individuals born between 1965-1980, reported crypto as their first investment. However, as past data has revealed, more education and clarity surroundin...
Warren Buffett-backed neobank picks Polygon for Web3 token — MATIC price eyes 100% rally
Polygon (MATIC) price could double by the end of 2022 or early 2023 due to a mix of extremely bullish fundamental and technical indicators. Polygon wins high-profile clients MATIC rose by nearly 6.5% four days after Nubank, a Brazilian fintech company backed by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and Softbank, confirmed that it selected Polygon’s “Supernets technology” for its blockchain and digital token dubbed Nucoin. “Nubank plans to airdrop the digital token to its customers in the first half of 2023,” the official announcement read, adding: “These tokens will be the basis for its customers’ loyalty rewards program and will have benefits such as discounts and other advantages.” #Polygon is taking @Nubank from #Web2 ➡&#x...
Mango Market exploiter brags after rug pulling Mango Inu ‘shitcoin’
In just over a week after pulling off the $117 million exploit of Mango Markets, Avraham Eisenberg is now boasting about making $100,000 rug-pulling a “shitcoin” called Mango Inu, again claiming he “did nothing wrong.” Eisenberg recently ousted himself as one of the persons behind the recent $117 million exploit of the Solana-based decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Mango Markets, which he has also claimed was “legal.” In an Oct. 23 post on Twitter, Eisenberg said the scheme involved deploying a “shitcoin” named Mango Inu, which he suggests was aimed at “exploiting bots” that gobble up newly launched tokens. Eisenberg said the strategy involved deploying tokens, adding liquidity, and then “rug” right after the bots ...
Fidelity to beef up crypto unit by another 25% with 100 new hires
$4.5 trillion asset management firm Fidelity Investments is reportedly set to hire another 100 people to bolster the firm’s growing digital assets division — a stark contrast to the recent squeezing out of crypto-talent. A Fidelity representative told Bloomberg on Oct. 22 that the firm has begun a new round of hiring which will bring the Fidelity Digital Asset’s headcount to around 500 by the end of the first quarter of 2023. A search on Fidelity’s job board currently shows 74 live results for digital asset-related positions, which cover areas relating to blockchain technology, business analysis, customer service, finance and accounting, product development, and corporate services including compliance. Almost all of the current listings are based in the United States — wi...
Ripple’s lead engineer to exit after nearly a decade with the firm
Ripple Labs’ director of engineering Nik Bougalis is exiting the firm after nearly 10 years, becoming the latest of crypto’s long-time serving executives to depart from the space. In an Oct. 22 tweet, Bougalis noted that: “my decade-long journey at Ripplehas been a fantastic (if exhausting and all-consuming) one. I got to work on a project that I love, towards a goal I believe in. But that journey will be coming to an end in a few weeks.” “All good things…” My decade-long journey at @Ripple has been a fantastic (if exhausting and all-consuming) one. I got to work on a project that I love, towards a goal I believe in. But that journey will be coming to an end in a few weeks. — (@nbougalis) October 21, 2022 Interestingly, the Ripple developer noted that he will not be joining...
