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Grayscale Launches Solana Trust Following Investors ‘Appetite’

Grayscale Investments, the largest cryptocurrency fund in the world, announced a Solana trust, adding the growing cryptocurrency to its list of product offerings. They have shown great interest in Solana’s performance and see a near and long-term potential in it because of its capability for experimentation.

In a public release, Grayscale Investments said they will be “enabling investors to gain exposure to SOL in the form of a security while avoiding the challenges of buying, storing, and safekeeping SOL directly.” This will require a $25,000 minimum investment, charging Grayscale’s standard 2.5% management fee.

Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein commented to Forbes:

In many investors’ minds, there’s a continued appetite to invest in Solana, In some sense, it is a more cost-effective blockchain [than Ethereum], and today we are seeing over 500 decentralized apps and about 1.2 million monthly active users on the network. When you kind of take a step back, and you see how quickly it has been able to ramp up, it’s certainly pretty impressive.

Regarding the investor’s appetite for Solana, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is a strong supporter of the digital asset, giving a constant public endorsement that has become a key point of its current visibility.

Bankman-Fried has shared his view on Solana being better than Ethereum given its lower fees and possibilities of use and recently claimed it has the potential of becoming the next Bitcoin by mass adoption level.

Related Reading | Solana Could Become The Next Bitcoin, According To FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried

With this addition, Solana becomes the 16th offering in Grayscale’s product line. They also provide exposure to Bitcoin (BTC), Basic Attention Token (BAT), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Chainlink (LINK), Decentraland (MANA), Ethereum (ETH), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Filecoin (FIL), Litecoin (LTC), Livepeer (LPT), Stellar Lumens (XLM), Zcash (ZEC), and Horizen (ZEN).

Solana, the “Ethereum killer”, has had a great year overall, being in the investor’s spotlight, rallying to new all-time highs, showing massive adoption. It has aggressively dominated the terrain of funds held in cryptocurrency wallets.

The cryptocurrency managed to climb to the 4th position of largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, with a value of over $70 billion. The inclusion of Grayscale’s portfolio promises more visibility around institutional and individual accredited investors.

Related Reading | Solana Tops Cardano, Ethereum To Become The Most Staked Cryptocurrency

Grayscale Sees Potential In Solana

Despite the issues Solana has faced -such as the network’s 17-hour outage- and being more centralized than its close competitors, many call for its staking token SOL to hit $300 next, after having rallied close to $217,50 recently. Solana also dominates DeFi services and NFT minting, and its native token SOL became one of the best-performing assets of the year.

Solana Lab’s CEO, Anatoly Yakovenko, recently commented to The Block that the chances of the network going down again don’t really matter “in terms of safety to funds in the state”, not worried about the possibility of it happening again as he claims the users have nothing to worry about if they do not care about the time the transactions could take during an outage.

Sonnenshein shared that Grayscale sees near and long-term potential in Solana, not only seeing the growing interest from important investors but its fields of use for blockchain technology.

What’s been interesting about Solana is that it gives users the ability to learn, experiment, and build. They generally have more budget to experiment on the protocol than some other more established blockchains like Ethereum, because of lower transaction fees.

Solana trading at $212 in the daily chart | Source: SOLUSD on TradingView.com

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Why Hillary Clinton Warns Biden Administration To Regulate Crypto Market

During an MSNBC interview, Hillary Clinton continued to suggest hypothetical scenarios in which cryptocurrencies could destabilize the United States and called on the Biden administration to regulate them as she fears that state and nonstate actors manipulate the role of the U.S. dollar.

Related Reading | Inverse Signals: Why Bitcoin Weakness Is Attributed To Dollar Strength

Clinton warned people are only beginning to see the need to regulate the cryptocurrency markets and called to imagine “the combination of social media, the algorithms that drive social media, the amassing of even larger sums of money through the control of certain cryptocurrency chains,”

The former presidential candidate has already voiced her unamicable views around cryptocurrencies before, seeing them as a threat for the United States.

Likewise, for Clinton, the nations of China and Russia are manipulative obstacles for the country.

We are looking at not only states, such as China or Russia or others, manipulating technology of all kinds to their advantage, we are looking at nonstate actors, either in concert with states or on their own, destabilizing countries, destabilizing the dollar as the reserve currency.

Clinton thinks that the Biden administration needs to address many questions regarding the role of cryptocurrencies in the U.S. nation and its economy, but added they might not have much time to do so.

The Former Secretary of State hopes that the current administration will try to operate “exactly” in the way she thinks best based on what she has been “hearing from them”, meaning their views regulations match her hostility.

We certainly need new rules for the information age, because our current laws, our framework, it is just not adequate for what we are facing.

Is The U.S. Marching Towards More Crypto Hostility?

Last week, the Former Secretary of State made a similar warning during the Bloomberg New Economy Conference, where she stated that crypto represents a risk for the stability of the U.S. nation and currency (the U.S. dollar).

Clinton believes the “interesting and somewhat exotic effort” of crypto mining can undermine the role of the dollar and seemed to consider full-ban on cryptocurrencies similar to China’s:

It appears as though China is going to prevent outside technology payment systems, like the cryptocurrencies development, from playing a big role inside China. I think they recognize, giving their nationalism, perhaps earlier than other nations, that this could be a direct threat to sovereignty.

On the other side, Senator Pat Toomey had voiced back in September that the China ban was an advantage for the United States and tweeted his own opinion on the upside of innovation and economic liberty, which Hillary Clinton still fails to approach.

Beijing is so hostile to economic freedom they cannot even tolerate their people participating in what is arguably the most exciting innovation in finance in decades. Economic liberty leads to faster growth, and ultimately, a higher standard of living for all.

Furthermore, Jerome Powell has just been renominated as U.S. Federal Reserve Chair to face the accelerating inflation and other challenges the nation’s economy is facing. Powell has been warry around cryptocurrencies, but he has also stated he would not opt for a ban, but regulatory controls on stablecoins.

Related Reading | Bitcoin Heads Towards $35,000 as Biden Stimulus Hurts US Dollar

Crypto total market cap at $2.5 trillion in the daily chart | Source: TradingView.com

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DAO To Make Jodorowsky’s Dune Manuscript Public: Member Won $3M Bid

Following Constitution DAO’s lead, a group called Dune DAO went for a copy of the mythological Frank Herbert and Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Dune manuscript, wanted by many and seen by few. A plot almost as interesting as the saga took over Christie’s auction, where the DAO won the final bid, but with a twist.

Just a few days after ConstitutionDAO made history crowd-raising over $46M in an attempt to buy a rare printing of the U.S. constitutions, other groups are following their steps to purchase valuable objects in hopes to make them accessible to the public.

This time, DuneDAO aimed to bid for a copy of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Dune manuscript at a Christie’s auction. They hoped for a total of $500,000 in contributions and actually hit $700,000. Although the final price was way higher, they still managed to secure it.

Christie’s had valued the manuscript’s copy between €25,000 ($28,100) and €35,000 ($39,345), but it sold for over $3 million. They admitted to failing at recognizing the interest that the newest film based on Dune raised, reported The Guardian.

 

Related Reading | Bleeple’s “Human One,” A Sculpture + NFT Hybrid, Sold For $28.9M At Christie’s

The group had stated before the auction:

Dune DAO intends to crowdraise the purchase, and then collectively explore options to digitally preserve the manuscript and make it accessible to the public for the very first time, such as through public viewings and digital lending (to the extent permitted by law).

Since distribution rights are not granted with the purchase, DuneDAO must investigate carefully legal ways to make this copy accessible.

The group used the same platform as ConstitutionDAO, contributions were “handled via JuiceBox”. Each contributor got governance tokens ($SPICE) accordingly to the donated amount. The $SPICE token gives each a vote in the future of the money, the manuscript. It does not mean a fractionalized ownership of it.

Why Dune Dao Wants The $SPICE

In a few words, Jodorowsky did compare the original Herbert’s novel to Proust.

As explained in Frank Pavich’s documentary Jodorowsky’s Dune, this was one of the most ambitious projects in cinematic history, but it never saw light because they lacked $5M to meet the $15M total budget.

Its manuscript, however, records the dreams behind a 15-hour movie-to-be that created a landmark and allegedly inspired many famous movies to follow -like Star Wars, Alien, and Blade Runner.

It features art from a few of the most renowned artists at the time, including Jean “Moebius” Giraud’s storyboard with over 3,000 illustrations, H.R. Giger’s concept art, Chris Foss starships’ designs. Pink Floyd was to contribute to the soundtrack.

Orson Welles was to impersonate “Baron Harkonnen” and Salvador Dalí  “The Emperor”. The list of ambitious ideas keeps going, explaining the reason for not meeting the budget, but also what makes fans call “the Dune Bible” a mythical sci-fi object.

What Went Down At The Auction

Based on the price previously valued by Christie’s, DuneDAO thought they would secure the auction raising over $750k. However, as the price went higher, a core member gave the rest of the money himself, roughly $2.3M.

Reportedly, only three years ago another copy sold for around $42,500. Besides Christie’s claims on the unexpected 50x raise, a Twitter user alleged another bidder had “publicly let their top price slip”. The manuscript’s winning bid was $2,4M plus 20% christies auction fee, plus 5.5% VAT, for a total of $3,160,062, the group stated.

“I just want people to experience it,” said the core member who contributed the winning amount. Now, the money is meant to be raised and reimbursed so the DAO can obtain the copy. They are “figuring out how to navigate the maze of legal issues” before paying him back.

DuneDAO has 30 days to settle payment, which they hope will give time to debate and vote on future plans for the physical object. They have now raised their target to $4,200,000, taking into account additional costs for storage, maintenance fees, digitization, and more.

Related Reading | Miramax Sues Quentin Tarantino Over “Pulp Fiction” NFTs. Tarantino Moves Forward

Ethereum trading at $4,036 in the daily chart | ETHUSD on TradingView.com

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Why Marathon Is Comfortable With Bitcoin Plunging, Says BEP Is $6,500

Marathon Digital Holdings’ (MARA) Fred Thiel said that Bitcoin price would need to drop 80% for the coin to stop being profitable for the company thus entering a challenging situation. Marathon is not worried about the past week’s dip.

During a Bloomberg QuickTake Stock interview, Fred Thiel, Las Vegas-based company’s chief executive officer of Marathon, expressed assurance for Bitcoin’s future and stated that Bitcoin mining is “obviously a very profitable business”  and the company can “ride this market for quite a long time.”

Thiel expressed that, factoring operational mining costs (energy plus hosting), Bitcoin’s breakeven rate is roughly $6,500, meaning that the digital coin would need to drop at least 80% for Marathon to face challenging difficulties, so the price of Bitcoin plunging under $60,000 still translates into profits for them.

What’s not in that cost, if you would, is the depreciation in the miners that we buy. We depreciate our miners over five years, so the payback on that is less than a year at today’s margins. (…) We are a very small team from an operational overhead perspective, so that gets covered very quickly.

Thiel stated those costs are a very comfortable place for the company to be at and believes that Marathon is “one of the most efficient miners in the industry today” because of their agile model that focused on investing in “the miners that produce the maximum return”.

Related Reading | Marathon Digital Holdings Reported A 17% Spike In Bitcoin Mining

Are Miners Selling Their Bitcoin?

Amidst Bitcoin’s bumpy week, speculative comments on social media say that many miners have been selling their BTC the past few days. Bloomberg reporters asked Thiel about the company’s own decision after seeing that the coin dropped below 60k. Thiel responded that they are a long-term holder of Bitcoin and are not planning on selling.

We went into the market in January and bought $150 million of Bitcoin and investment has paid off very handsomely for us. We bought it at an average price of $31,000. So Bitcoin where it is today has paid off very nicely. But we intend to be a long-term holder.

Bitcoin trading at $57,156 in the daily chart | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

Thiel shared the company is optimistic about Bitcoin’s future. They firmly believe that “as a limited supply asset” its value and popularity will keep on rising, and the daily headlines “about new use cases and more uses” backs that optimism.

He also called the U.S. “a very interesting center for Bitcoin mining” because of its excess of energy, opposed to Europe’s situation, and explained that “Some Bitcoin miners need to sell their Bitcoin holdings just to cover their operations”, not worried about the speculations.

Related Reading | Bitcoin Mining Raises Marathon Digital’s BTC Holds To $457M

What’s The Future Of Marathon’s $650M Offering

After Marathon’s debt increase of $150 million that aggregates to the previous $500 million offering size, Thiel shared the decision was taken in order to have “cash on the balance sheet” and stay in “a position of liquidity” so they can potentially take advantage of opportunities in the marketplace that could accelerate their growth, like buying more miners, miner companies that could grow their mining capacity, or invest on improving their mining operation’s energy efficiency.

He further stated that the company is not interested in using the bonds to buy Bitcoin in the open market because they produce it, “unless there are some pricing opportunities” like a $10,000 drop, but they would still be carefully looking into the projections since they want to be “very good custodians” of their shareholders’ capital.

Marathon Digital Holdings, Inc. shares at $51,46 in the daily chart | Source: MARA on TradingView.com

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How Salvadorans Will Use Bitcoin To Pay For Their Bills: Bitrefill Launches Payment Service

Bitrefill, the startup that offers Bitcoin-funded prepaid cards for different services worldwide, launched a new bill-payment service that allows Salvadorans to pay for multiple basic needs using Bitcoin. The company made the announcement during the three-day conference Adopting Bitcoin carried in El Salvador, which brought together “the Bitcoin and Lightning community”.

Bitcoin has been a legal tender in El Salvador since September 7th, but many businesses were not sticking to the requirement of accomodating the digital coin as a payment method into their operations, Bitrefill’s CEO noted. Some have even stated they rather lose sales. Bitrefill aims to offer a solution for businesses so they can easily adapt to using Bitcoin and ease their current worries.

Related Reading | There Are More People Using Bitcoin Wallets Than Bank Accounts, Says El Salvador President

Bitrefill’s bill-payment method will allow Salvadorians to pay for 150 different services using Bitcoin, including internet, water, insurance, loans, taxes, mortgage, social security services, university expenses, and others. They also allowed payments overseas. 12 services are available at the moment on the website, and they will be adding the rest over the next few weeks.

The platform will be using Bitcoins Lightning Network and on-chain transactions, which allows low fees. “El Salvador can now live entire on Bitcoin”, stated the company.

The feature is offered in alliance with Puntoexpress, a local payment platform. The payment process was simplified for the users so they only need to provide an email address to redeem a voucher code and receipt.

El Salvador, A Bitcoin Land

Bitrefill reported they have processed 187,000 purchases in El Salvador during 2021, and 88% come from the country’s capital, San Salvador. There was a peak of 20,000 payments in September when the ‘Bitcoin law’ went into effect.

The majority of Salvadorians reportedly use the Chivo digital wallet, an app created by the government, as the preferred payment method for Bitrefill purchases.

Bitrefill’s CEO, Sergej Kotliar, stated that they now have headquarters established in El Salvador, a manager in the country, and they are hiring for all roles to cover the company’s needs. He shared his strategy is to be directly involved in the country by being present and maintaining contact with people who provide him with different approaches and information that the company can use to design other services.

The CEO thinks El Salvador could become an example model that other countries could follow. The company also stated in a tweet:

The most important part is that the 80% of unbanked people can now pay for almost everything online, products, services, bills, from the comfort of their home (or their relatives in the USA).

El Salvador’s adoption of Bitcoin has been a bumpy road. However, the Chivo Wallet surpasses 2.2 million users a few weeks after its launch, gaining around 8,500 new users per hour and reaching 3 million later on. The citizens received $30 each as an incentive for downloading the app, but some reported to Reuters they had problems using it and making withdrawals.

The government remains optimistic, although challenges lay ahead. We are yet to see if innovation and good strategies can help close the gap between the government’s vision and the tension around Salvadorians.

Related Reading | El Salvador Calls Another Bitcoin Dip With $25 Million Purchase

Bitcoin trading at $60,714 in the daily chart | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

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Paypal Loses AMC Theaters Throne, Bitpay Will Support Shiba Inu Payments

AMC Theather, the largest movie theater company in the world, announced that they will be accepting Shiba Inu (SHIB) as a payment method through Bitpay, becoming their first client to do so.

The company has been working on accepting diverse cryptocurrencies as payment methods for a while and now offers to do so through PayPal, which allows payments in Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Lietcoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH).

However, AMC is also interested in accepting the meme cryptocurrencies Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) because of the remarkable popularity both showed on Twitter during polls made by the theater chain CEO Adam Aron.

When CEO Adam Aron conducted the last Twitter poll, Shiba Inu got 124,623 votes in favor, which takes us to this new announcement in which Shiba Inu shares its spotlight with Bitpay. In about 3 months PayPal will cease to be the only payment method that supports cryptocurrencies on the AMC website.

Related Reading | AMC Theaters Considers Accepting Shiba Inu As Payment Amid Growing Interest

Bitpay, as a payment method for the theater chain, does not only allow more cryptos as options -a great marketing strategy for AMC-, but it also emphasizes Paypal limitations with only four crypto coins and services that lack many great features offered by actual crypto wallets.

SHIB price at $0.00004960 in the daily chart | Source: SHIBUSD on TradingView.com
PayPal Gives Fake Numbers As Crypto, Users Say

At the beginning of the year, Paypal launched a new service enabling its customers to “buy, hold and sell cryptocurrency directly from their PayPal account”. Ever since, they reported a 22% yearly increase of active accounts in Q3, now having 361 million users.

For Paypal, this seems to have worked as a rewarding marketing strategy, since the main intention was to attract clients that might stay for other features.

However, Paypal does not provide its users with a crypto wallet and there are no private keys. The crypto bought in PayPal can mostly be useful inside its retail network.

Essentially, what the platform does is hold the user’s cryptocurrencies on its behalf, but does not provide them with a real one. Using Paypal also implies no anonymity and limited options to use the funds, which, for many, defeats the purpose of crypto.

Back to when the company made the announcement, many Reddit users described the feature as something that gives “fake numbers as crypto”, stating that this is not an intent of adoption of crypto, but the monopolization of it, and if the mainstream adoption of crypto were to follow this path, it would not be different as “the banks holding all the money”.

One user suggested that PayPal “will simply let people think they are using Bitcoin when they’re really not, and then use the blockchain as a settlement layer. And then we’re right back in a central bank dystopia.”

PayPal expanded this feature towards Venmo. A spokesperson shared with Bloomberg  that offering crypto is “part of Venmo’s continued evolution from a peer-to-peer payments app to a more holistic offering that our customers rely on in their everyday financial lives.”

Related Reading | PayPal Co-founder Peter Thiel Admits He Underinvested In Bitcoin

PayPal Vs. Bitpay

PayPal’s crypto announcements did have some highlights, as its already wide platforms could increase the public’s acceptance of major coins. Some even thought that it could also increase their value, and saw the possibility for the company to allow withdrawals of coins eventually.

However, BitPay crypto-related features are not only better, but truer to crypto ideals. Users claim Bitcoin transfers from other wallets to BitPay are easy, it allows payments from anywhere, Bitcoin can be directly transferred into a debit card or exchanged for other currencies. Creating a Bitcoin wallet in the platform allows the user to spend the coin anywhere by offering to turn it into dollars.

Non-custodial wallets, such as BitPay’s, are described as decentralized because the customer gets to own its private keys and has total control over their funds, opposingly to PayPal’s service.

The rating for user satisfaction between the two platforms reads BitPay (100%) vs. PayPal (97%) according to FinancesOnline. Now being under the eye of AMC’s huge customer base and SHIB’s enthusiasts, will BitPay be overshadowing PayPal as a payment method?

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Over $28.6M In Bitcoin And Other Cryptos Seized By Dutch Authorities

Dutch authorities seized over 25 million euros ($28.6) worth in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies due to alleged criminal activity.

A Chainalysis 2021 report revealed that in 2019 the volume of illicit crypto activity represented a small 2.1% of all transactions, and in 2020 that volume fell 0.34%, but their expectation for 2021 was for “cybercriminal use of DeFi for money laundering to increase”.

 just as the cryptocurrency industry is always evolving, so too are the bad actors who commit cryptocurrency-related crime.

The Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD), the National Criminal Investigation Department (DLR), and the Public Prosecution Service (OM) worked together on a mix of investigations with the intention of seizing crypto wallets linked to criminal activities.

The authorities claimed in a public announcement that they “increasingly encounter cryptocurrencies in forms of crime such as drug and human trafficking, fraud and tax evasion.”

Greater than 25 million euros in cryptocurrencies corresponding to bitcoin and ethereum have been seized from dozens of suspects.

Related Reading | Here’s What Happens To All Of The Crypto Assets The IRS Seizes

The Public Prosecution Service further commented their opinion on why cryptocurrencies are being used for criminal activities:

Possession and use of cryptocurrencies is authorized but additionally common amongst criminals. The reason being that criminals understand cryptocurrencies as nameless and they are often moved world wide shortly. Cryptocurrencies are due to this fact broadly used as a method of cost for numerous sorts of crime.

Crypto Exchanges Helped To Seize The Coins

Dutch and foreign crypto exchanges reportedly helped the FIOD and OM with the operation after the corresponding legal actions were taken.

The OM explains that these companies are “obliged to take action beneath Dutch legislation,” adding that their collaboration made it possible to access the “crypto wallets managed by criminals” and retrieve the $28.6 million worth in cryptocurrencies. The value is expected to be eventually transferred to the state treasury.

The investigation additionally revealed that criminals counteract undesirable alternate charges by changing cryptocurrencies into so-called ‘stablecoins’ corresponding to USDT. These are cryptocurrencies whose worth are linked to the U.S. greenback,

As some suspects are outside the Netherlands, the authorities called for foreign counterparts to cooperate and send them over to the country right after being identified.

In 2013, the first seize of Cryptocurrencies in the Netherlands happened. Afterward, the OM believes investigations have improved, gotten better, and faster. The investigation services have learned to collect evidence through traces left by suspects of illicit activities involving crypto. This has allowed the authorities to spot them and seize their assets.

Related Reading | Largest Crypto Seizure In Australia: Police Seize $6M Worth Of Digital Currency

A Picture Of Crypto Inside The Netherlands

A rough estimate of 700,000 Dutch people invests in bitcoin through Bitcoin Meesters, the largest crypto exchange in the Netherlands, but the total number of investors in the country remains unclear.

The Dutch central bank (DNB) has registered around 20 cryptocurrency service providers, but a spokesperson commented “It only means that the providers are not involved in criminal activities, but that is as far as monitoring goes.”

Regardless of the remarkable performance of Bitcoin over the year and the world slowly but unavoidably adapting towards cryptocurrencies, the Dutch investors association (VEB) and the DNB have been warring around Bitcoin and are not convinced of its utility, the latter expressed that the bank is “not advising for or against investment but we do have an opinion,” which is not an amicable one.

Bitcoin price at $63,748 in the daily chart | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView

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How India Sees Crypto: Large Exchange Shows 10x Growth In User Base

Indian crypto exchange WazirX reported a significant growth in its user base and trading volume over the year. They claimed the platform’s user base grew to 10 million during 2021, which represents a tenfold increase.

WazirX’s 2021 trading volume to date has been around $38 billion, CoinDesk reported, with a month-over-month increase of 44%.

They had an important surge of 2,648% in users who registered to the platform from some of India’s largest cities, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad (Tier II and Tier III), where crypto trading already had reported maturity before with high rates of interest and transactions in users under 35 years.

They claimed this healthy growth also saw a great amount of support and interest by women investors in the areas, who had increased 30% to 40% in the user base by September.

India reportedly has one of the world’s fastest-growing crypto market, with a 641% yearly increase, according to Chainalysis:

Large institutional-sized transfers above $10 million worth of cryptocurrency represent 42% of transactions sent from India-based addresses, versus 28% for Pakistan and 29% for Vietnam. Those numbers suggest that India’s cryptocurrency investors are part of larger, more sophisticated organizations.

Source: Chainalysis 2021 Geography of Cryptocurrency report

 Related Reading | Indian Investments In Crypto Grow Rapidly As $40 Billion Milestone Is Reached

Towards Crypto Literacy

In the past year, WazirX has focused on a strategy that aims to grow crypto literacy in India by providing transparency and different sources of education. For this reason, they launched India’s crypto exchange first transparency report last October, where they stated the following:

we are committed to spreading the right information to our users by fostering a conducive environment to help them make informed choices.

Amongst their efforts, WazirX CEO Nischal Shetty carried a Twitter campaign under the hashtag #IndiaWantsCrypto with the purpose of sharing cryptocurrency insights and creating awareness on the industry, “which generates thousands of jobs, not to mention vast amounts of monetary value.”

They have also launched YouTube series, ‘Blockchain Papers’, and a podcast. All to grow the user’s understanding of their platform, clear fears, and misconceptions. They are also collaborating with educational institutions, such as IIT, IIM, and Delhi University.

Tackling misinformation and busting misconceptions around crypto is just one of the ways we think will help our users make informed crypto investment decisions.

These projects are also meant to open paths between the crypto industry and the country’s policymakers, hoping that more widespread information will help bring regulations.

Crypto Exchanges Hope For Regulations

Cryptocurrencies adoption has had a rough path in India over the years. The scenario is not clear enough, although many users and crypto exchanges remain hopeful for future regulations to bring clarity and the possibility for growth in the industry.

In 2018 the central bank of India banned all cryptocurrencies, which had many responses from investors and exchanges who were affected by the decision. Around that time, WazirX launched WazirX P2P “to help users buy/sell crypto with INR” and carried a 1000-day Twitter campaign “to build a case of why we need to allow crypto to foster innovation”.

Then, in March 2020, The Supreme Court of India lifted the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) ban and called it “unconstitutional”. The crypto panorama started to soften for India, which allowed WazirX to become one of the country’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges.

Discussions around regulations started to arise back then. India’s crypto exchanges and investors participated in off-the-record meetings with law enforcement agencies and banks hoping to reach a point of amicability.

The expectations are for the government to classify bitcoin as an asset class and for the Securities and Exchange Board of India to regulate cryptocurrencies and bring clarity, closing the doors to another ban.

Currently, the lower house of parliament listed a meeting under the name “Hearing of the views of associations, industry experts on the subject of ‘CryptoFinance’: Opportunities and challenges,” believed to happen in February 2022. Crypto exchanges, like WazirX, were officially included as invitees for the first time around and their hopes continue to raise.

 Related Reading | Reports Show 45% Surge In Stock And Cryptocurrency Sign-Ups Across Rural Areas In India

Crypto total market cap at $2.7 trillion in the daily chart | Source: TradingView.com

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Crypto Exchange FTX US Sees Growth: Trading Volume Surged 512% In Q3

Crypto Exchange FTX US reported great growth during 2021 third quarter with an average daily trading volume of approximately $360 billion, a 512% jump from the second quarter.

FTX US’ user count surged 52% quarter-over-quarter, increased its headcount by 30%, and held about 4.5% of the U.S. crypto spot market’s volume by September 30th, a 2% increase compared to the beginning of the quarter. The company has reached a total value of $25 billion.

 Related Reading | Solana, FTX, Lightspeed Ventures To Launch $100M Web3 Gaming Fund

Brett Harrison, President of FTX US, commented during a Yahoo Finance interview:

The trust and support of our user base has allowed FTX US to become the fastest growing and most in-demand crypto exchange in the US, but we have barely scratched the surface. We will continue to improve our existing offerings and rapidly expand into new areas, including derivatives, NFTs, and payment services.

Institutions Make 60% Of FTX US’s Trading Volume

The growth shows a contrast with the Q3 report from crypto exchange giant Coinbase, which showed a 29.2% drop in their trading volume and a transacting user count decrease of 16%, from 8.8 million to 7.4 million quarter-over-quarter.

The main difference between FTX US and Coinbase, Harrison explained, is that the latter sees more retail volume, while 60% of FTX US’s volume comes from institutions like hedge funds, high-frequency and proprietary trading firms.

FTX had great brand exposure and marketing strategy during Q3. Harrison stated that the successful numbers are partially owed to the sports partnerships with distinguished athletes such as Tom Brady -and his wife, Gisele Bündchen-, alliances with Major League Baseball and the Miami Heat, as well as the weight of institutional investors in the platform.

Harrison commented to a news portal: “We’re now really being able to activate those partnerships and use them to advertise for our brand, to run promotions, to run giveaways and get people excited about signing up for our product,”

He also commented on FTX US’s aim to expand into the NFTs ecosystem, having recently launched a Solana-based NFTs marketplace of their own that focuses on providing “simpler, safer and easier tools to remove the barriers (…) to enter the NFT space”.

Their NFT project interconnects with the alliances with the athletes:

Many of our partnerships with these athletes involve NFTs and intellectual property that can be used for NFTs in some way, to really be able to activate those and bring exclusive NFTs to the FTX marketplace that no one else has, we really want to improve our offering there.

 Related Reading | FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried Reveals Reason Behind Billions Of Dollars Tether Purchase

FTX US Role On Crypto Regulatory Policies

During the third quarter, attracted by the crypto derivatives trading volume, FTX US acquired LedgerX, now rebranded as FTX US Derivatives.

The acquisition has the purpose of offering retail and investors clients licensed crypto futures and options, as well as utilizing it as a shortcut to not spend “what could have been years” to receive licenses. This brought growth of demand from enthusiastic institutional customers.

Brett Harrison further commented on the subject:

FTX US Derivatives, will enable us to provide licensed crypto futures and options to our retail and institutional customers and has placed us in the unique position to reshape the US derivatives market. To achieve our goals, we will be in constant communication with regulatory agencies and are hoping to play a central role in defining crypto regulatory policy in the US.

Crypto total market cap at $2.8 trillion | Source: TradingView

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It’s A Man’s Market: NFT Female Artists Made 5% Of Sales In 21 Months

ArtTactic, the research firm, published a report where they found out that female NFT artists only made 5% of all Nifty Gateway’s NFT sales during the past 21 months.

The NFT space generated a trading volume of over $10.67 billion in 3Q 2021 alone, and with such a remarkable growth ArtTactic’s report set off many alarms.

Anders Petterson, the founder of ArtTactic, started the report by saying: “Before we throw ourselves into the metaverse, it might be a good idea to stop and ask ourselves what we want this digital universe to look like, before we repeat our mistakes from the past.”

Source: ArtTactic

Grimes is the only female artist to make it to the top-10 NFT sales list with $8.9 million in sales. The next one ranked below the top-10 is Jo-Ani Charland in 50th place with a total of $1.6 million in sales.

Many have talked about the potential for diversity in the NFT ecosystem and the technology itself indeed opens horizons for many, but can the individuals that manage it do the same?

As this generation is more amicable than any has ever been to women in power, men still control the majority of the money, they control the markets: who buys the most, who sells the most.

 Related Reading | NFT Project To Donate 100% Of Income To Help Afghan Women Access Education

Know The Artworld Market: What Will Be NFTs’ Take?

The National Museum Of Women In Arts shares on its website many facts on gender inequity in the arts reported by different surveys and studies all over the world, and it is not a pretty landscape:

  • “There are no women in the top 0.03% of the auction market, where 41% of the profit is concentrated. Overall, 96% of artworks sold at auction are by male artists.” Bocart et al., “Glass Ceilings in the Art Market”
  • “The NEA found that as women artists age, they earn progressively less than their male artist counterparts. Women artists aged 55–64 earn only 66¢ for each $1 earned by men.” National Endowment for the Arts
  • “In the U.K., 64% of undergraduates and 65% of postgraduates in creative arts and design are women, but 68% of the artists represented at top London commercial galleries are men.” Freelands Foundation

Is It A Matter Of Risk-taking?

A 2021 GFLEC survey reports that “women are less financially literate than men”, “but they know more than they think they know.” The study claims this “can be explained by women’s lower confidence levels”.

Related Reading | Women Working to Bring Inclusivity and Equality to the Blockchain Industry

Some have expressed that it is a matter of taking risks being characteristic of masculinity, but risk-taking is not a one-dimensional personality trait, meaning that any person could take risks while making certain decisions, then take no risks for others. So, what creates the gender gap in financial risks and the technological world?

As humans, we tend to avoid what we see as a high risk. Women will naturally avoid the spaces that seem riskier to them than they do to men. Cordelia Fine, an associate professor at the University of Melbourne, researched multiple views on the risk-taking subject and quoted a study by James Flynn and colleagues that suggest an important remark:

Perhaps white males see less risk in the world because they create, manage, control, and benefit from so much of it. Perhaps women and non-white men see the world as more dangerous because in many ways they are more vulnerable, because they benefit less from many of its technologies and institutions, and because they have less power and control,

In a research paper written by Gianni Brighetti and Caterina Lucarelli they state that:

Our findings support that there is no “biological” reason that induces women to be risk-averse, or in general to refuse uncertainty. (…) Nevertheless, (…) our paper asserts that a cultural bias induces women to believe themselves as risk averter, on the one hand, and men to believe themselves as risk lovers; even if the both, facing a risky task, behave the same.

A Harvard University legal scholar Cass Sunstein, also quoted by Fine, goes through what lays behind choices: “aspirations, tastes, physical states, responses to existing roles and norms, values, judgments, emotions, drives, beliefs, whims.”

Is it evolutionary or is it cultural? Saying that it is an “evolutionary” trait sounds like there is nowhere around it. Calling it “cultural” or understanding the psyche behind it implies a possibility of change and a systematic reason behind it.

Women do not exist to “ensure” reproduction as if they were less human or had less consciousness than men. The inherited traits that resulted from a man’s world are there, but no longer needed to survive them. 

If there is something women should “avoid” is further inheriting the so-called “lack of confidence” behind gender disparities in the tech and financial world. Hopefully, the alarming report will result in more female artists finding their way into the NFT ecosystem.

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Bitcoin Mining Firm Argo Blockchain To Raise $57.5 Via Senior Notes Offering

The bitcoin mining firm Argo Blockchain filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a proposed public offering due November 30, 2026, with an interest rate of 8.75% Senior Notes.

The UK-based firm plans to raise a total of $57.5 million through the Notes sales to the public, offering them in increments of $25. They intend to use the funds for the construction of Argo’s Texas crypto mining facility, which aims to power 90% of operations through renewable sources and is estimated to cost around $2 billion.

Our mining strategy is to cost-effectively acquire and deploy the most advanced mining technology solutions in North American facilities that utilize predominantly renewable and inexpensive power.

The Company will also use the net proceeds “for general corporate purposes” and “potentially acquisitions of, or investments in, complementary businesses” as they are exploring “strategic initiatives in software and other technologies in the wider cryptocurrency and blockchain sectors.”

In connection with the Offering, Argo has applied to list the Notes on the Nasdaq Global Select Market (“Nasdaq”) under the symbol “ARBKL.” If approved for listing, trading on Nasdaq is expected to commence within 30 business days after the Notes are first issued.

The filing states that Argo Blockchain completed its U.S. Initial public offering of 8,525,000 American Depositary Shares on September priced at $15,00 per share, having net proceeds of approximately $114.8 million.

Later in the month, they held 1,836 Bitcoin and Bitcoin Equivalent “valued at approximately £58.7 ($79,5) million based on prices as of such date”, with total revenue of £50.4 ($68,3) million, which translated into a growth rate of 238% “over £14.9 ($20.2) million in the nine months ended September 30, 2020”.

Related Reading | Argo Blockchain Secures $20 Million Loan with Galaxy Digital LP

Bitcoin Mining Revenue And Strategy

Argo’s mining revenue rose 32%, a total of $9,75 million in October, having mined 167 bitcoin or bitcoin equivalent, compared to 165 in September with revenue of $7,59 million. The month’s income was generated at a Bitcoin Mining Margin of roughly 84%.

The firm reported a total of 1,646 Bitcoin mined year-to-date and owned 2,128 Bitcoin or Bitcoin equivalent by the end of October. They also announced a mining expansion that comes from adding 220 PH/s to its total capacity, “bringing the Company’s mining capacity to 1.295 EH/s”.

Recently, Argo Blockchain announced they are investing in the construction of an 800-megawatt crypto mining facility in Texas that could cost between $1.5 and $2 billion. It is being built on 320-acre land purchased for $17.5 million.

Questions were raised about Argo’s lack of clarity around the costs of the mining facility, but Argo declared the estimated cost of building and kitting based on “numerous assumptions” and defended the investment.

Our investments in mining facilities are designed to significantly expand our mining capacity and provide us with meaningful control over our mining operations. We are taking these steps as part of a broader strategy to shift our business from contracting for hosting of our mining machines in facilities to owning and operating our facilities.

Related Reading | Bitcoin Mining Vs. The World: BTC Leads Sustainable Energy

Argo Blockchain is listed in NASDAQ Global Market, and its market capitalization is approximately $863 million.

Bitcoin Price Rallying Above $68,000 on Tuesday | Source: BTCUSD TradingView

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Solana, FTX, Lightspeed Ventures To Launch $100M Web3 Gaming Fund

More paths open up for Web3 gaming as a $100 million investment fund is launched by the large blockchain venture firms Solana Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and FTX. A lot of enthusiasm surrounds the future of the GameFi industry as it grows exponentially.

The fund aims to invest in “the intersection of blockchain and gaming”: technology companies, gaming studios that incorporate the Solana blockchain. Gaming could be a great gateway for Web3 to bring in “next billion users”, said one of the partners.

The CEO of FTX Sam Bankman-Fried said in Tweeter that this partnership might build “the biggest growth area in the sector: web3 + gaming + NFTs.”

Related Reading | FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried Reveals Reason Behind Billions Of Dollars Tether Purchase

Recently, Lightspeed and FTX announced their first investment for the gaming studio Faraway by leading a $21 million Series A funding round alongside other important partners such as a16z, Pantera Capital, and Sequoia Capital. Faraway will now integrate Solana blockchain into “Mini Royale”, the studio’s top game.

Faraway CEO Alex Paley commented on their goals for the project:

 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 for both current and future games 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.

Web3 Gaming  And Solana See Growth

Web3 gaming has seen great growth in popularity, parallel to Solana’s token impressive gains in 2021. The new digital era is allowing further monetization and experiences in the gaming ecosystem by integrating DeFi and NFTs.

Related Reading | Why Billionaire Chamath Palihapitiya Invested In The Solana Ecosystem

The merge of the blockchain and gaming comes with great potential for revenue alongside the possibility of creating strong communities and new features for them.

“High-performance blockchains like Solana are now capable of delivering the kind of web2 experiences gamers expect while providing the advantages of decentralized Web 3 systems.” Said Amy Wu, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners in a public statement.

She further commented to Cointelegraph about her views on the metaverse:

the metaverse is a potential digital world where people build identity, reputation, make friends, play, and transact in. (…) If it becomes even a fraction as meaningful as our offline lives, it’s incredibly valuable. Hence why Web 2 companies like Meta and native Web 3companies alike are trying to build this. People spend hours a day in games like Fornite and Roblox, so I believe the metaverse will be born out of a social game.

Anatoly Yakovenko, CEO of Solana Labs, also commented in the fund’s public statement:

In the last few months we’ve seen talented game builders leave their jobs at Riot, EA, Scopely, and other established gaming firms to build Web 3 games on Solana. We are excited to collaborate with Lightspeed and FTX to support and accelerate this new wave of builders.

Newzoo projected that the gaming market will generate around $218,7 billion by 2024. They also reported a growth in player rates from 20210 to 2021 of +5.4%.

Solana’s price at $246 in the daily chart | Source: SOLUSD TradingView

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Square’s Cash App Bitcoin Revenue Decreased 33% In Q3

The American-based payment company Square Inc. reported a drop in Bitcoin revenue month over month from its Cash App during the third quarter of 2021, the total amount being $1.82, overall, 11% up from last year.

Square has found profit in midst of the pandemic as many users grew to need e-commerce services. The number of processed transactions on the app during the third quarter went up 27% with a total amount of $3.7 billion.

The company is led by Jack Dorsey, who also runs Twitter and is a big BTC enthusiast, currently aiming to invest in the future of decentralization and new economic systems.

Square’s third quarter of 2021 had total net revenue of $3.84 billion, 27% up from last year; $2.03 billion excluding BTC. Its gross profit went up 43% year over year with $1.13 billion. The revenue from transactions was $1.30 billion, up 40% since 2020.

However, bitcoin revenue and gross profit dropped compared to the second quarter. The company stated the decrease is due to the “relative stability in the price of bitcoin”.

In the third quarter of 2021, we recognized a loss of $7 million driven by the adjustment to the revaluation of equity investments as well as a $6 million bitcoin impairment.

Bloomberg reported what Chief Financial Officer Amrita Ahuja at Square shared with them:

Bitcoin transactions through Cash App have grown tremendously over the past two years, but Bitcoin revenue can be a deceiving metric. Square reports all Bitcoin sales as revenue, which is why that number can look very large and is dependent on things like price volatility. Bitcoin gross profit, though, represents the money Square collects via fees from Bitcoin transactions, and is a better reflection of that part of Square’s business.

Related Reading | Square’s Cash App Reports $2.7B In Quarterly Bitcoin Revenue, A 200% Jump

After the Q3 earnings letter’s release, the company’s dropped 4.9% in post-market trading.

The Focus Is On Bitcoin (And International Waters)

Square’s earnings letter highlighted their agreement to acquire the Afterpay platform “with more than 16 million consumers and approximately 100,000 merchants as of June 2021.”

Through this transaction, we plan to unite two complementary businesses with a shared focus on economic empowerment and financial inclusion. We believe the combination will more deeply connect our Seller and Cash App ecosystems, accelerate our strategic priorities, and allow us to deliver even more compelling products and services for consumers and merchants.

The report also sheds light on other projects and partnerships, such as the Cash App’s new offer to teenagers, an important expansion of its demographics, and the SoFi Stadium partnership.

We believe our partnership with SoFi Stadium serves as a testament to how we are now equipped to enable unique commerce experiences and support the needs of complex multi-purpose venue sellers.

The App is currently focusing on expanding and offering accessible and flexible commerce products to all. Results show “an increased adoption of contactless payment options due to the pandemic.”

The company explained their focus remains on their “international strategy of achieving product parity globally, investing further into brand awareness, and launching in new markets”.

Square stated they are focusing on BTC rather than bringing other cryptocurrencies into the Cash App. Earlier, Dorsey had tweeted about Square’s intention in building an energy-efficient and more accessible BTC mining system.

“Square is considering building a Bitcoin mining system based on custom silicon and open source for individuals and businesses worldwide,”

Related Reading | Jack Dorsey: Square Could Build Bitcoin Mining System

Price of Bitcoin at $62,016 in the daily chart | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView

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Crypto Adoption Boosts Travel: Travala Rises From The Ashes

Travala.com, the leading crypto-friendly travel platform, reported an “explosive growth” during the third quarter of 2021, and the use of cryptocurrencies played the main role. Its blockchain-based platform allows customers to realize payments in over 50 digital coins.

CEO Juan Otero stated back in July that 70% of the bookings were being paid by digital coins, getting to see over $1 million gains every week. He also commented that

With more people holding cryptocurrencies and more businesses accepting it for real-world things, travel is naturally a desirable experience to use crypto,

Related Reading | Australian Woman Travels to Ten Countries in 12 Weeks on Cryptocurrency Alone

Travala partnered with Viator, the company owned by Tripadvisor, and Expedia Group -even though Expedia does not directly accept payments by bitcoin-. By these partnerships alone they offer over 700,000 hotels and accommodations and 400,000 bookable activities that can be purchased with cryptocurrencies.

Otero had stated earlier that “Travala.com offers over 3 million travel products, making us not just the biggest crypto-friendly [online travel agency], but one of the largest overall.”

In hotel bookings alone, 75% of them were paid by cryptocurrencies, leaving 13% paid by travel credits and only 12% by traditional currencies. Travala’s native AVA altcoin raised to the top with 14% of use, followed by Binance Pay with 12% and Bitcoin at 8%. There was a 41% of use for other cryptocurrencies.

Travala.com Report Q3 2021 | Source: Travala.com

The CEO certainly met the expectations of his past statement, and now expressed in the Q3 report:

Even with the last years being the most challenging on record for the travel industry, Travala.com has grown exponentially as the rise in cryptocurrency adoption has more than offset the negative impact of the pandemic.

Travala’s report states that the Binance Mini-App integration, which allows customers to purchase services directly from their Binance exchange wallets, “has grown quickly to drive more bookings than any individual token”.

Crypto Traveling: Token Votes And NFT Memories

AVA is Travala’s decentralized token that provides economic incentives for users and aims to build a community of guests and hosts that has the power to vote inside the platform. A number of 44,438 AVA tokens were issued “for standard booking givebacks, Smart loyalty, and invite program rewards”, which translates to $155,248.

Since August 2021, 30% of all net revenues from Travala.com are now converted to AVA and added to the Community Pool on a monthly basis. (…) The tokens will be used for initiatives that expand the AVA token’s reach and create more diverse use cases, which we expect will benefit the Travala.com platform as well as AVA.

Travala started to implement the Community Pool and Community Vote using decentralized AVA token governance to give their users the true opportunity to propose changes.

The community proposals came up with a concept they are currently working on, “proof-of-travel” NFTs, approved with 89.6% of community votes. It consists in allowing their users to claim NFTs through a blockchain-based record of their travels as part of the Smart membership status.

We can expect this launch to happen during Q4, as they said they are “devoting a lot of resources to this as a priority.”

They are also planning for more partnerships to integrate their mini-app into other exchanges and metaverses, as well as upgrading their wallet infrastructure to support the tokens BEP2, BEP20, and ERC20.

The company has invested in growing its development team by 23% during Q3, hiring engineers and customer support teams to improve its core platform and booking infrastructure. They aim to grow their team’s headcount even further to 50% in Q4.

Travala announced they plan to keep growing and expanding their platform’s reach, focusing on providing a better booking experience “for crypto travelers around the world”. As the travel industry was greatly affected by the times of the pandemic, the company aims for exponential growth by adapting crypto innovations to the industry.

So far, by Travala’s report alone, many can see how crypto adoption brings the possibility of growth, innovation, jobs, and even new ways to travel and experience the world. As the pandemic changed many aspects of everyone’s life, it is outstanding to see that blockchain tech brought improvements.

Related Reading | CZ: The Pandemic Situation Has Benefited the Crypto Industry

Crypto total market cap at $2.6 trillion | Source: Tradingview

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Crypto Pioneer Backed By a16z, Alchemy Raises Value to $3.5B

Alchemy, the pioneer of crypto infrastructure, raised its value to $3.5 billion with a $250 million Series C round of funding led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). Alchemy is the leading platform for blockchain and Web3 developers. Currently, they intend to reinvest in the ecosystem’s expansion.

Alchemy has seen exponential growth in the past six months with revenues rising over 15 times. They pin their success to their main goal: “make building on the blockchain and Web3 so easy, anyone can do it.”; which turned out to have bigger demand than they expected, boosting their rapid growth.

They stated that their achievements surpassed their initial vision, and that being already a big picture consisting of creating a platform for the developers’ community managing to do for them “what AWS has done for the web or what Windows and Mac did for computing.”

What we didn’t realize was just how big of a need this was! Today, we power the majority of DeFi and almost every single NFT marketplace that has made that whole industry

The company further explained that their “reliability and scalability” is what the ecosystem’s leading companies “are building their success” on. Meaning that this new round of funding will not only help their growth as a company, but it will turn into new benefits for more than one industry.

Related Reading | Yieldly’s CEO Says Interoperability In DeFi Is More Important Than A Market-Leading Blockchain

Crypto AWS To Reach Full Potential

Alchemy’s potential is so large that one cannot possibly narrow it down to one industry. It is at the core of NFTs, DeFi, exchanges, financial institutions, multinational organizations, and more.

They publicly launched around a year ago and now lead as “the solution of choice” for many of the largest crypto companies we can think of: OpenSea, CryptoPunks, Axie Infinity, as well and the ones that are showing new interest in the blockchain, such as Adobe, and others.

Alchemy’s platform has shown the truth about the blockchain: it goes beyond currencies and trading. The possibilities it has given to programmers around the world are just the beginning of the emerging capabilities of DeFi and NFTs. From investors to gamers and creators, the blockchain’s technology prepares the soil for many generations to come.

Related Reading | 17% Of Ethereum Addresses Hold Majority Of NFTs

Ali Yahya, General Partner at a16z, showed their enthusiasm in their public announcement stating that Alchemy is “one of the fastest-growing companies we’ve ever seen in any category,”. He also deepened an explanation of their work:

In the same way that Apple and Amazon built platforms that help developers build on PCs, smartphones, and the cloud, Alchemy is building a platform that helps developers build on modern blockchains. (…)

The biggest misconception about blockchains is that they are just about money, cryptocurrencies, or finance, the truth is that they’re actually much more powerful and allow for a much broader set of applications.

During the past year, Alchemy’s co-founders have shown a long-term vision and a fierce way to build up their performance and achieve worldwide innovation. Nikil Viswanathan, co-founder and CEO of the company, commented that “Empowering developers is the key to bringing the magic of blockchain to the world.”

With tens of millions of users worldwide, Alchemy powers over $45 billion of annual web3 transactions. Other than a16z, they are also backed by Stanford University, Coinbase, Pantera Capital, the Google Chairman, and others.

Brilliant minds, strong believers. This decade has just begun, but Alchemy has already led the blockchain into a level of development only a few had even dreamt of. 10 years from now the advantages of investments like this one will most likely be part of everyone’s life.

Crypto total market cap at $2.59 trillion on the daily chart. – Source: Tradingview

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Robinhood’s Crypto Activity Drops 78%, Stock Tanks Below IPO

Robinhood had a net loss of $1.32 billion this past quarter, recording a plunge of 78% in revenue from crypto transactions from 2Q. Their shares dropped 12% to $34.80 at 9:46 a.m. in New York, $38 below the IPO price in late July, Bloomberg reported.

Robinhood Markets Inc. shares down to $34.80 on the daily chart – Source: Robinhood Markets Inc on TradingView

Analysts had estimated Robinhood Markets Inc. would have a total revenue of $423.9 million during an earlier Bloomberg survey, but the numbers fell short hitting only $364.9 million.

Vlad Tenev, Robinhood’s Chief Executive Officer, had predicted that the trading activity would tumble in the third quarter of 2021 and fewer accounts would open. As he stated during the Q3 Earnings Call, the tumbling numbers do not worry them since they have different short-term goals.

The fourth quarter might be falling short as their anticipation for Q4 is that “total revenue will be less than $325 million and full-year revenue will be less than $1.8 billion. At the top end, this implies full-year revenue growth of 85 percent.”, said Jason Warnick, Chief Financial Officer.

Warnick also reminded that they typically show a “seasonality curve that shows higher growth in the first quarter of the year versus the last three quarters.”, and further explained their Q3 focus on building a team:

We continue to make progress building our teams with increases primarily in engineering, customer service, and our regulatory, and compliance teams. In the quarter, we added 580 new full-time employees across the company, growing 21 percent sequentially versus Q2.

Warnick added that they are not worried about the near-term profitability, rather they feel safe about being “a profitable company over the long term.”

Robinhood’s Crypto Activity Drops-Off

In Robinhood’s report they show a big drop-off on their monthly active users (MAU) from 21.3 million in the second quarter to 18.9 million in this third quarter. Their crypto activity tumbled as well, as they had significantly fewer new funded accounts.

Many thought Robinhood would improve the way to invest in the crypto market. However, many wonder if they can meet with many of their clients interests, such as integrating new digital coins.

Related Reading | Strategist: Next Wave of Bitcoin Investors Likely to Come from Robinhood

Crypto activity and revenue plays a big role in Robinhood’s platform. Ever since they announced their intent to offer a crypto wallet, a waitlist of 1 million clients surged. On the potential growth that this project might bring, Tenev commented:

We actually believe that by rolling out wallets, we will go a long way toward addressing the primary pain point that customers feel right now.

Regulatory Requirements Vs. Crypto Platforms

Tenev stated during the Earnings Call that “the regulatory landscape is increasingly uncertain.” As they want to enhance their involvement in the crypto space, they also intend to watch over their platform and keep it safe by “introducing products that comply with legal and regulatory requirements.”

He explained that Robinhood is carefully looking into new virtual currencies, but they mantain the focus on meeting regulatory guidelines since they do not want another run-in

Related Reading | Robinhood Fined $70M For Causing “Significant Harm” To Customers

In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Blockchain Capital General Partner Spencer Bogart reacted to Robinhood’s tumbling numbers and suggested this drop-off aligns with the frustration that the historically unfriendly regulations from the U.S create for crypto platforms.

Bogart explains that “Historically, the U.S. has been so unfriendly to innovation in the crypto space that most platforms are forced to ban Americans.” According to his opinion, regulations have only worked against the American people’s freedom rather than being implemented in their favor.

For a country that is founded on the principles of freedom, growth, and innovation, to see the U.S. on a shortlist that these merging crypto platforms cannot service, alongside Syria, Sudan and North Korea, it is not just a disgrace, it is a disservice to the American people who should be able to access this technology.

He clarifies that he is unsure of Robinhood’s inside issues, but he understands the landscape behind Tenev’s comments about the regulatory situation “where there really isn’t much clarity”. However, he remains positive as he sees “the tide turning” for crypto.

Robinhood does not sound worried about the Q4 result and they are aiming to play the profitability slow and steady. Warnick said they are investing in crypto and looking forward to diversifying their product selection.

Total crypto market over $2.4 Trillion in the daily chart | Source: Crypto Total Market Cap from TradingView.com

 

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Bitcoin Mining Vs. The World: BTC Leads Sustainable Energy

Recent reports show that Bitcoin mining uses great amounts of renewable energy due to economic incentives. This turn of events raised their numbers of sustainable power mix to almost three times higher than the world average.

As renewable energy offers low costs, bitcoin miners, who had to spend 68.42% of their total income to purchase electricity, have upscaled their efficient use of green energy. A recent data review shows how their mix of sustainable energy is higher than any country or industry.

Bitcoin mining sustainable power mix estimated in 58% – Source: Arcane Research

Renewable energy is not flexible and their locations do not tend to be convenient for most people. As bitcoin miners move close to sources of energy to lower the costs, they are a viable solution to not waste the sustainable energy that otherwise would be deployed, as explained by CoinShares.

According to a survey carried by the Bitcoin Mining Council (BMC), the electricity mix used by bitcoin miners increased 3% from second-quarter to an approximate of 57.7% sustainable in third-quarter 2021 “making it one of the most sustainable industries globally.”

MicroStrategy’s CEO Michael Saylor had stated earlier that the Bitcoin Mining Council’s effort to bring clarity and transparency over Bitcoin mining will most likely “play an important role in demystifying” the industry.

Furthermore, a whitepaper by the Bitcoin Clean Energy Initiative from earlier this year had explained how bitcoin mining, when using renewable energy, “is especially suited to accelerate the energy transition” towards a cleaner electricity grid:

With bitcoin mining integrated into a solar system, (…) energy providers – whether utilities or independent entities – would have the ability to play the arbitrage between electricity prices and bitcoin prices, as well as potentially sell the “surplus” solar and supply almost all grid power demands without lowering profitability.

China’s Ban Impact On Bitcoin Mining

Digiconomist data shows that China’s ban of all Bitcoin mining activities dropped the total amount of “active computational power in the network” by 50%. The reduction of mining competition also generated higher levels of income for active miners worldwide.

Torbjørn Bull Jenssen CEO of Arcane commented earlier:

As China is turning away from bitcoin mining, the mining industry as a whole is becoming increasingly green and a driver for renewable energy around the world. Now is excellent timing for Arcane to enter into this segment, (…) Mining is a very interesting business stand alone, and it also has considerable synergies towards our other investments and business. I am looking forward to finalizing the strategy for Arcane Green Data and presenting it in more detail for our partners and investors.

Related Reading | Is China Considering Lifting The Bitcoin Mining Ban? The NDRC Runs Public Survey

In a wider panorama of energy usage by Bitcoin miners, Square funds a solar-powered facility for bitcoin mining, El Salvador explores the viability of using volcanic renewable power for mining bitcoin, and other countries propose economic incentives for bitcoin miners who use renewable energy.

Related Reading |Jack Dorsey: Square Could Build Bitcoin Mining System

CoinShare stated in June’s report that bitcoin’s network is “more renewables-driven than almost every other large-scale industry in the world.”

Bitcoin trading at $60,618 in the daily chart | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com