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Grubhub Announces Free Bitcoin Rewards On Food Deliveries

Grubhub, an American online food delivery platform, has come up with an exciting new way to engage its users. The company has partnered with Bitcoin rewards company Lolli to allow its users to earn Bitcoin (BTC) on every order.

Integrating crypto into a simple routine activity – like ordering food online, is yet another effort at driving crypto adoption.

Related Reading | Fold Launches First-Ever AR With Free Bitcoin Rewards Experience

Lolli has partnered with many companies in various sectors to offer customers BTC rewards.

Serving Bitcoin With Food

In a Wednesday announcement, Lolli said that Grubhub customers will earn $5 in BTC on their first order. Subsequently, they would get $1 in BTC on other food orders using the platform’s extension. Before users can enjoy this benefit, they must activate Lolli on web or mobile before placing an order at Grubhub. And after a user earns up to $15, or roughly 0.00026 BTC at the current price of $56,902, they would be able to transfer it to their own virtual wallet.

BTC trading at $56.9K | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

CEO and Co-founder of Lolli Alex Adelman explained that Lolli’s mission is to integrate bitcoin into aspects of everyday life.

“Food delivery is a ritual for many and bitcoin rewards make bitcoin a part of that ritual. Giving users bitcoin rewards on every Grubhub order is an incredible milestone for bitcoin adoption, making earning BTC easier and more accessible than ever,” he said.

Grubhub’s Director of Growth Marketing, Bridget Scanlan, also expressed her pleasure with the partnership. For Grubhub, it is yet another way to reward its diners.

Last month, the company announced a new innovative food-delivery method to its University of Arizona customers. It now uses delivery robots known as rovers to deliver all orders from on-campus dining locations.

Related Reading | Croatia’s Largest Supermarket Chain Rolls Out Bitcoin Payments

Lolli is, however, not the first – nor will it be the last – company in the food industry to integrate crypto into its products. Just last month, fast-food chain Burger King, in partnership with Robinhood, gave its customers crypto prizes. Members of its Royal Perks loyalty program got to earn BTC, Ethereum (ETH), and Dogecoin (DOGE) after spending $5 or more at the fast-food chain.

Lolli Steadily Pushing Crypto Adoption

According to Lolli, it is the first bitcoin rewards application that allows people to shop online and earn BTC. The company has teamed up with over 1000 top brands and merchants, including Microsoft, Kroger, Sephora, and Macy’s, to offer customers BTC rewards.

Lolli believes that bitcoin is a “global alternative currency and universal store of value and wants to share it with the world.”

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Bitcoin Mining Company Griid Set To List On NYSE Via $3.3 Billion Merger Deal

Griid, an Ohio-based Bitcoin self-mining company, is the latest Bitcoin miner to list on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). It would go public by merging with Adit EdTech Acquisition Corp at a $3.3 billion enterprise valuation.

Adit EdTech, a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC), announced the merger in a filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Tuesday. The sole purpose of a SPAC is to acquire a private company and make it go public. It is also called a blank check company.

Related Reading | Bitcoin Mining Firm Argo Blockchain To Raise $57.5M Via Senior Notes Offering

Griid will list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “GRDI” after both parties close the merger, expected by the first quarter of next year. That is, subject to conditions including regulatory approvals and approval of Adit EdTech’s stockholders. Subsequently, the bitcoin mining company will receive about $246 million in cash from Adit EdTech.

Another Bitcoin Mining Company Goes Public

The SPAC deal comes just after Griid secured a $525 million credit facility from Blockchain.com.

According to an investor presentation that Adit EdTech published recently, Griid expects to mine 637 BTC this year. By 2024, the company forecasts up to 24,348 BTC per year.

Speaking on the merger, Trey Kelly, founder and CEO of Griid, said, “We are building an American infrastructure company with the largest pipeline of committed, carbon-free power among public bitcoin miners at the lowest cost of scaled production. Our team has demonstrated a track record of successful execution over the past three years since starting the company, and we look forward to delivering expansion of capacity through this transaction.”

CEO of Adit EdTech David Shrier also emphasized the importance of Carbon-free Bitcoin mining. “GRIID’s combination of a large pipeline of low-cost, carbon-free power, distinctive access to next-generation ASICs, and market-leading execution position them to generate attractive profitability and growth.”

BTC trading at $56.9K | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

There has been a high rate of both individual and institutional Bitcoin adoption this year. Consequently, mining companies all over the world are going public via SPACs or traditional initial public offerings (IPOs). Last month, Australian Bitcoin miner Iris Energy filed to raise $100 million via a direct listing in the U.S.
Earlier this month, a Singapore-based cryptocurrency miner Bitdeer Technologies announced its plan to list in the U.S. via a $4 billion deal with SPAC Blue Safari Group Acquisition Corp.

Mining In The U.S.

The U.S. has become the number one destination for bitcoin miners, thanks to China’s ongoing crackdown.

About a year ago, China was the market leader in terms of hash rate. However, the crypto crackdown changed that story almost overnight.
Majority of the miners that fled China relocated to America in what was dubbed “the great mining migration.”

Related Reading | Bitcoin Mining In The U.S.: 4 States Attract The Most Miners

This migration resulted in the U.S. becoming a global mining hub. And with the mining machine preorders and hash rate projections for 2022, this will not change anytime soon.

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Hackers Are Now Using Compromised Cloud Accounts To Mine Crypto

Attackers are exploiting poorly configured cloud accounts to mine crypto, Google warned users in a recent report.

Cryptocurrency mining is a computationally intensive activity. And Google Cloud customers can access it at a cost. However, miners are now hacking Google Cloud accounts for mining purposes.
In the report titled “Threat Horizons,” Google’s cybersecurity team assessed various threats to Cloud users, providing details of the breaches.

Related Reading | Data Shows Crypto Hacks And Fraud In 2021 Are On Track For A New Record

The report also provided cybersecurity threat intelligence to cloud users. The aim is to enable them “better configure their environments and defenses in manners most specific to their needs.”

Crypto Miners Hacking Google Accounts

In the report, the cybersecurity team analyzed 50 recently compromised Google Cloud accounts. And out of those, 86% were related to crypto mining. “Malicious actors were observed performing cryptocurrency mining within compromised Cloud instances,” Google wrote.

Related Reading | Ethereum Miner Revenue Outpaces Bitcoin In 2021

The report also stated that in the majority of these incidents, the hackers downloaded crypto mining software to the compromised accounts within 22 seconds. The attacks were scripted, and it would have been impossible to manually stop them. Additionally, in 10% of these incidents, the hackers scanned other publicly available resources on the Internet to identify vulnerable systems. While in 8% of the instances, they attacked other targets.

However, as reported by the cybersecurity team, the crypto mining hacks were not the only attacks.

“The cloud threat landscape in 2021 was more complex than just rogue cryptocurrency miners, of course,” wrote Bob Mechler, Google Cloud Director of the office of the Chief Information Security Officer, and Seth Rosenblatt, Google Cloud Security Editor, in a blog post.

Other Threats To Google Cloud Users

Another threat the team identified was a phishing attack by the Russian group called APT28, or Fancy Bear. The attackers targeted 12,000 Gmail accounts in a mass phishing attempt. They attempted to trick users into handing over their login details. Google, however, said it had blocked all the phishing emails, and no user was compromised.

The report also pointed out an attack by a North Korean government-backed group. This hacker group posed as Samsung recruiters, sending fake job opportunities to employees at South Korean information security companies. They attached a malicious link to malware stored in Google Drive. Google said it also blocked it.

Another threat to cloud users is ransomware attacks, whereby hackers encrypt users’ data until they pay. In the report, Google mentions the formidable Black Matter ransomware group. And although the group announced that it was shutting down earlier this month, Google is still cautious. “Google has received reports that the Black Matter ransomware group has announced it will shut down operations given outside pressure. Until this is confirmed, Black Matter still poses a risk.”

Total crypto market at $2.4 Trillion | Source: Crypto Total Market Cap from TradingView.com

Google attributes some of these attacks to users’ poor security practices. And also vulnerabilities in third-party software that the users install.

The report also recommends a few ways to prevent these attacks. One of which is enabling two-factor authentication.

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

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the crypto exchange FTX, is optimistic about Solana (SOL). He believes that Solana has the potential to scale to Bitcoin’s (BTC) mass adoption level. Bankman-Fried added that Avalanche (AVAX) also has the potential to climb to the top.

He also believes Solana is better than ethereum as it’s one of the few blockchains with a plan to accommodate mass adoption.

Related Reading | Solana Hits New All-Time High, Surpasses Cardano And Tether To Fourth Place

The 29-year old crypto founder has a net worth of $22.5 billion, making him the youngest person to enter the Forbes rich list after Mark Zuckerberg.

Cryptos With The Potential For Real Adoption

In an interview with Kitco News on Thursday, Bankman-Fried talked about bull and bear runs. And which projects would see mass institutional adoption.

When asked if he thinks Bitcoin would see its last Bull run in December before eventually crashing, Bankman-Fried responded that he could not predict the future. However, there will always be more crashes as well as more bull runs. And in the next few years, he expects to see “see substantial institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies.”

In the event of a crash, however, he says that projects with loyal followers and important use-cases are more likely to survive. Hype-driven projects, like meme coins, often crash the hardest. “Projects that have real adoption, or potential for real adoption are the ones that loyalists will be backing, even during bear markets.”

Bankman-Fried also believes that Solana could be the next Bitcoin. And that there is a possibility that it could see mass adoption very soon. As he has previously said, Solana has a plausible roadmap to scale millions of transactions per second. And that is the most important indicator.

SOL trading at $196.5 | Source: SOLUSD on TradingView.com

“I think Solana has a shot at doing so, which is really exciting. I think that there are other tokens out there as well that are aiming to scale a bit, and Avalanche is one of them.” He emphasized that the core technology of every blockchain is something that is hard to overhaul. Furthermore, he says that Solana could potentially be the base for more DeFi applications in the future.

Bankman-Fried adds that Solana’s market cap could exceed Ethereum’s market. However, it is hard to make a concrete prediction. But one thing that cannot be disputed is that Solana fixes a lot of problems with Ethereum. These include high gas fees and low transaction rates. Subsequently, many have dubbed the network “ethereum killer.”

Solana Is Better Than Ethereum

Bankman-Fried believes that in terms of scale, not many blockchains could compare to Solana. Earlier this month, he spoke at Yahoo Finance and Decrypts’s “Crypto Goes Mainstream” conference.

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

“Solana is one of the few currently existing public blockchains that has a really plausible roadmap to scale millions of transactions per second at you know, fractions of a penny per transaction, which is a scale that you need for this,” Bankman-Fried said.
“That is not where a lot of other blockchains have been focusing, including ethereum.”

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Ripple Partners With Republic Of Palau To Develop National Digital Currency

Digital payment network Ripple has partnered with the Republic of Palau to develop its own digital currency. The payment network is still on a mission to dominate the global payments industry. That is, despite the issues it is dealing with in the U.S.

Related Reading | SEC Takes Blow In Action Against Ripple, Will It Impact XRP Price?

Like El Salvador, the country does not have its own fiat currency or even a Central Bank. Its legal tender, instead, is the U.S. dollar. The partnership with Ripple will focus on developing a USD-backed digital currency, more like a stablecoin rather than a central bank digital currency (CBDC). This currency would help facilitate cross-border payments for the nation.

Ripple Develops First-Ever Government-Backed National Stablecoin

According to a Tuesday announcement by Ripple, the partnership will focus on developing strategies for cross-border payments. The implementation of this plan means that Palau would have the world’s first government-backed national stablecoin.

Related Reading | XRP Builds Momentum With 7% Increase As Ripple Launches New ODL Partnership

Ripple, with its experience in building global payment systems, plans to implement the national stablecoin in the first half of 2022. And also provide Palau with technical, business, design, and policy support.

Palau’s President Surangel Whipps Jr. expressed pleasure about the partnership with Ripple to advance financial innovation and technology in the country. He also acknowledges the potential of blockchain technology in transforming the country’s economy.

“The first phase of the partnership will focus on a cross-border payments strategy and exploring options to create a national digital currency, providing the citizens of Palau with greater financial access.”

Palau chose to create its digital currency on  XRP Ledger (XRPL) as an alternative to central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Being carbon-neutral and 120,000x more energy-efficient than proof-of-work blockchains is an added advantage. Additionally, the XRPL provides other benefits like scalability, speed, and low cost.

XRP at $1.025 | Source: XRPUSD on TradingView.com

“We are excited to be working with Palau to achieve its financial and climate-related goals,” said James Wallis, VP of Central Bank Engagements at Ripple. “We have a wonderful opportunity to bring together our technology and experience with the unique characteristics of Palau to make a real economic and social impact for the country.”

This partnership is ideal, given both parties’ concerns for climate and the environment.

Ripple’s Carbon Net-Zero Goal

Last year, the leading provider of enterprise blockchain solutions for payments committed to carbon neutrality by 2030.

Subsequently, Ripple co-created EW Zero, a tool to ensure sustainability in the blockchain industry. And the XRP Ledger Foundation was the first to use this tool.

About two months ago, the company also partnered with Bhutan, the only carbon-negative country in the world, to develop its CBDC.

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Australian Senator Says DeFi Is Here To Stay, And Australia Must Not Be Left Behind

Jane Hume, an Australian politician, spoke about Decentralized Finance (DeFi) on Monday at the Australian Financial Review Super & Wealth Summit in Sydney.

In her speech, she referenced the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) calling crypto a fad. And she emphasized that it most certainly is not. She further urged policymakers to cautiously embrace blockchain technology like DeFi rather than act fearfully – because it is not going away anytime soon.

Related Reading | Crypto Is Set To Dominate Australian Financial Industry In Less Than 10 Years

The Liberal Party Senator explained that DeFi would present incredible opportunities. And Australia must miss out on these opportunities for fear of the unknown.

DeFi Is Not Going Away

The Senator’s speech comes just days after Tony Richards, the Reserve Bank of Australia’s outgoing head of payments policy, called crypto a fad. In a speech last week, he predicted a future with people being less influenced by these digital currencies with “no issuer, no backing, and highly uncertain value.” Instead, they would lean toward currencies that regulated bodies issue.

Senator Hume, however, called DeFi is an emerging and rapidly evolving area of financial technology with many opportunities. She said that embracing the blockchain technology will drive the country’s economy forward. And also cement Australia as a frontrunner for innovation and economic progress.

While making her point about how crypto is here to stay, she referenced a recent report on financial technology. This report estimated that about 17% of Australians are investing in cryptocurrency. Richards, however, found the estimate unlikely, saying online surveys were not accurate. Hume also mentioned the Commonwealth Bank’s move to allow its customers to hold cryptocurrencies. This move makes it the first Australian bank and one of a few worldwide to offer customers this service.

DeFi market cap at $164.8B | Source: Crypto Total DeFi Market Cap on TradingView.com

Finally, she offered her perspective on the issue. According to her, historically, innovation begins as disruption before it is generally accepted.

“Don’t be the person who thought the iPhone would never take off because people would prefer to have their music and telephone on separate devices,” she said.
”Don’t be the person in 1995 who said the internet was just a place for geeks and criminals and would never become mainstream. And don’t be the person who argued that email was a passing fad.”

Australian Regulators On Crypto

Other Australian Senators like Andrew Bragg have also been pushing for crypto regulations. He opined that this would bring credibility and validity to the blockchain sector.

Related Reading | Top Australian Baseball Club To Pay Players In Bitcoin

Matt Comyn, CEO of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, talked about the risks of not participating in crypto. Last week, he explained that cryptocurrencies are very volatile and speculative. And that banks need to be involved.

Comyn also said that crypto is here to stay, given customers’ demand to trade crypto. Earlier this month, the bank announced a partnership with crypto exchange Gemini to offer crypto services to its customers.

Featured image by Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Chart from TradingView.com

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El Salvador Announces World’s First Bitcoin City, Backed By $1B Bitcoin Bonds

El Salvador is currently the only country in which Bitcoin (BTC) is legal tender. This move has witnessed many developments, as well as some pushback. Amid protests, technical glitches, and inevitable market volatility, El Salvador continues to drive BTC adoption.

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

In its latest Bitcoin adoption move, the Central American country plans to build a city based on the world’s largest cryptocurrency. President Nayib Bukele announced the Bitcoin City initiative at El Salvador’s Bitcoin Week conference on Saturday night. This conference is a celebration of Bitcoin’s mainstream adoption in the country.

In partnership with crypto firms Blockstream and BitFinex, Bukele plans to issue $1 billion in tokenized USD-denominated 10-year bonds to fund this project.

The Proposed Bitcoin City

Paolo Ardoino, Bitfinex CTO, says the exchange will support the initiative by launching a securities platform to hold the bonds.

Finex will launch a securities platform that will be the home of ES #bitcoin bonds and soon many local and foreign digital assets offerings developing new digital asset regulation for the country!El Salvador, @bitfinex and @blockstream are making history together.

— Paolo Ardoino (@paoloardoino) November 21, 2021

Blockstream Chief Security Officer Samson Mow also clarified the feasibility of sourcing the $1 billion Bitcoin bonds.
“With Bitfinex, they have a lot of whales. I don’t see a problem filling up a $1 billion bond.”

In an announcement by Blockstream, Mow also said that the $1 billion will be split into two parts. $500 million will go towards building energy and Bitcoin mining infrastructure in the region. The other $500 million worth of BTC will be locked up for five years. Mow further stated that after the five-year lock-up period, El Salvador would start selling some of the bitcoin used to fund the bond to give investors an “additional coupon,”
“This is going to make El Salvador the financial center of the world,” he said.

BTC trading at $58.866K | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

The Salvadoran president additionally said that the bonds will be available in 2022. He plans on locating the proposed Bitcoin City near a volcano. The idea, he said, is to provide energy for both the city and bitcoin mining.

According to Bukele, Bitcoin City will be a full-fledged metropolis with residential and commercial areas. It would also have shopping centers, restaurants, a port, an airport, and railway services. There would be no income, property, capital gains, or payroll taxes. Residents would, however, be subject to just value-added tax (VAT). This tax will go towards paying for the municipality’s bonds, public infrastructure, and city maintenance.

“In #BitcoinCity, we will have digital and technological education. Geothermal energy for the entire city and efficient and sustainable public transport” said Bukele.

El Salvador’s Infrastructure Development Projects

After El Salvador adopted Bitcoin as legal tender, the government started reinvesting unrealized profits into several projects.

Earlier this month, the government announced its plans to use some of the profits from its Bitcoin Trust to build 20 new schools. One of the purposes of these new facilities will be to educate locals about how cryptocurrencies work.

Related Reading | New York Mayor Says Cryptocurrencies Should Be Taught In Schools

In October, President Nayib Bukele had announced plans to use the profits for a new veterinary hospital. However, some criticized this move, arguing that investment in medical facilities for humans was more urgent.

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Over $10 Billion Has Been Lost To DeFi Exploits In 2021

Decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms have been the target of criminal attacks this year. Investors in the blockchain-based form of finance have lost billions of dollars to criminals that target the platforms.

The total amount of money deposited at DeFi services has spiked from just $500 million in 2019 to $247 billion this year.

Related Reading | Dog-Themed DeFi Project Mysteriously Loses Fundraised $60 Million

According to a report from London-based firm Elliptic, the overall losses caused by DeFi exploits have totaled $12 billion in the past year. Out of that amount, fraud and theft accounted for $10.5 billion, seven times the amount last year.

DeFi, which has drawn in billions of dollars in investor funds, has also been a frequent target by hackers. They exploit poorly protected protocols, mostly using flash loans.

Related Reading | Poly Network Confirms Hacker Has Returned Most Of The Stolen Crypto

One of the popular attacks this year was the Poly Network hack. Hackers exploited a vulnerability in the multi-chain interoperability protocol. And they took off with roughly $600 million worth of various cryptocurrencies. They however returned most of the stolen funds.

DeFi – The Wild West Of Cryptocurrencies

Elliptic is a firm that tracks movements of funds on the digital ledgers that underpin cryptocurrencies. It recently reported that DeFi exploits amounted to $12 billion this year.

DeFi is often called the “Wild West” of cryptocurrencies because it is still the most unregulated area of crypto. DeFi platforms allow users to lend, borrow and save – usually in cryptocurrencies – without any involvement from middlemen like banks.

“The DeFi ecosystem is an incredibly exciting and fast-moving space, with financial services innovation happening at light speed,” said Tom Robinson, chief scientist at Elliptic. “This is attracting large amounts of capital to projects that are not always robust or well-tested. Criminal actors have seen the opportunity to exploit this.”

According to the report, the underlying technology of DeFi is built on open infrastructure. However, that technology is “relatively immature and untested.” There are bugs in code as well as design flaws that enable criminals to target the platforms.

DeFi market cap at $165.47B | Source: Crypto Total DeFi Market Cap on TradingView.com

“Decentralized apps are designed to be trustless in that they eliminate any third-party control of users’ funds,” said Robinson. “But you must still trust that the creators of the protocol have not made a coding or design mistake that could lead to a loss of funds.”

Criminals can also easily launder proceeds of crime while leaving few traces. “The irreversible nature of crypto transactions make it very challenging to recover these funds,” says the report.

Call For Regulation

With the alarming number of exploits the space is facing, there are calls for DeFi regulation. Regulators are now also turning attention to the sector. However, the actions of regulators in the coming months will play a significant role in determining how well they thrive in the future.

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Top Australian Baseball Club To Pay Players In Bitcoin

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are increasingly making appearances in the world of sports. The latest team to enter the cryptocurrency world is Australian Baseball League club Perth Heat. On Wednesday, the club announced that it integrated crypto payments into its operations. The Heat said they had partnered with OpenNode to accept and send Bitcoin payments powered by the Lightning Network.

Related Reading | Venezuelan Airport To Accept Payment In Bitcoin

The Baseball club is one of Australia’s most successful teams, having won four ABL championships since the league’s formation in 2010. It claims it is the first professional sports club in the world to fully embrace the digital currency.

Perth Heat Integrates Bitcoin Payment

The baseball club has rebranded itself to be called “the Bitcoin baseball team.” 

As part of the partnership with OpenNode, Perth Heat is setting Bitcoin as the new standard for payments and payouts. Players and staff will get their pay in Bitcoin, although it is not mandatory. Players can still be paid in traditional fiat or partially in Bitcoin. However, the club’s CEO, Steven Nelkovski, said that all current employees of the club were on board with the scheme.

BTC trading at $59.55K | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

“By embracing the underlying values of the Bitcoin protocol, we believe that the organization can reach new levels of success both on and off the field and remind the world of the true value of sports. We know the community looks to the Perth Heat as a model of success and we hope our adoption of a Bitcoin Standard will inspire others to embrace a monetary system that demands value creation to thrive,” said Nelkovski.

As part of its Bitcoin adoption efforts, the club also plans to “Hodl Bitcoin on the club’s balance sheet.”

Patrick O’Sullivan, Perth Heat’s new Chief Bitcoin Officer, shed more light on the club’s latest strategic move. He said it is a way of securing its digital property rights on the world’s most secure monetary network.
“We believe the world has begun to recognize the power of sound money principles and are determined to lead from the front. This is not a one-off purchase to hedge against future uncertainties or inflationary pressures. The Perth Heat are embracing the reality that the future of money and corporate treasuries will live on the Bitcoin blockchain.”

The club will also accept Bitcoin payments for sponsorships, merchandise, and ballpark concessions on game days.

Crypto Regulation In Australia

Australia has made big crypto moves this year. It has one of the highest crypto adoption rates in the world. This could be due to the country’s aim to become crypto-friendly. In line with this, regulators are making laws to regulate cryptocurrencies in different sectors.

Last month, Australian senators wrote a report pushing for an overhaul of finance and tax regulations to make the country a global crypto hub.

Related Reading | Crypto Is Set To Dominate Australian Financial Industry In Less Than 10 Years

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) also recently gave the green light to a range of cryptocurrency-related ETFs. This approval could see Bitcoin and Ethereum-backed investment funds trading on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) soon.

Additionally, Commonwealth Bank announced its partnership with US-based crypto exchange Gemini and blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis. It will become the first major Australian bank to offer crypto services to its customers, which it plans to launch in 2022.

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China Warns State-Owned Companies To Stop Bitcoin Mining Or Risk Strict Penalties

China has issued a warning to its state-owned enterprises to stop cryptocurrency mining. It also warned that it would increase electricity rates for companies that continue to defy the ban.

This latest warning comes amid the ongoing crypto ban in the East Asian country. Some months ago, the government of China declared all crypto trading activity illegal. Subsequently, crypto miners and exchanges like Huobi and Binance began to relocate to countries with crypto-friendly regulations.

Related Reading | Is This The Reason China Banned Bitcoin Mining? Carvalho’s Mind Blowing Theory

However, despite the crackdown on crypto, Chinese residents continue to trade Bitcoin. And Beijing authorities are not relenting in their efforts to find ways to prevent crypto use. The Chinese government has also blamed miners for the country’s high energy consumption. In May, during the heat of the crackdown, many large crypto mining farms relocated or stopped operating. Still, some small mining rigs continued to operate.

Last month, Beijing authorities started tracking the IP address of citizens to check for crypto mining activities. Additionally, authorities in Zhejiang province also reportedly began investigating government employees who were illegally mining Bitcoin.

Related Reading | Amid China’s Crypto Crackdown, These Three Places Offer Refuge to Displaced Miners

Despite all these measures, there has not been a significant reduction in energy consumption. This has led officials to intensify their efforts and face state-owned entities.

Authorities Crackdown On Industrial-Scale Bitcoin Mining

According to reports, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) plans to clamp down on industrial-scale bitcoin mining. And by extension, all state companies that participate in such activity. A spokeswoman for the country’s chief economic planner, Meng Wei, said this at a press conference on Tuesday.

She also emphasized the unsustainable nature of crypto mining, stating that it consumes lots of energy and produces lots of carbon emissions.

BTC trading at $60.6K | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

Last week, the NDRC held a special meeting to discuss the crypto ban defiance. And also urged provinces and municipalities to investigate and deal with State-owned enterprises involved in mining.

China Dismisses Government Official For Mining

Beijing continues to reinforce its stance on crypto by going after even government officials. A few days ago, China removed a former Jiangxi government official from his position.

Xiao Yi, a former vice-chairman of the Jiangxi Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, was accused of abusing his power to promote and support enterprises against government policies. He engaged in crypto mining and also took bribes, according to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Xiao is the most senior Chinese official to be punished for his involvement in cryptocurrency mining.

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Crypto Exchange Gemini Lists Shiba Inu As Number Of Holders Increases

Crypto exchange Gemini has added support for popular meme coin Shiba Inu (SHIB) amid growing interest. Gemini announced that it has now supports SHIB in addition to a few new defi, metaverse, infrastructure, and data management tokens.

Related Reading | Shiba Inu Beats Out Cardano, Dogecoin On Top 10 Watch-Listed Tokens

The exchange’s new addition comes as holders of the meme coin are steadily increasing.

Gemini Lists Shiba Inu

The crypto exchange announced its latest additions in a blog post on Friday.

“We are delighted to announce support for Shiba Inu (SHIB), as well as a range of new DeFi, metaverse, infrastructure, and data management tokens.” the company said.

“Shiba Inu (SHIB), Audius (AUDIO), Mask Network (MASK), Wrapped Centrifuge (WCFG), Quant (QNT), Radicle (RAD), Burn (ASH), Superrare (RARE), Fetch.ai (FET), and Numeraire (NMR) are now supported for deposits and custody on Gemini.”

SHIB’s recent listing on Gemini’s platform is a sign of how much users are demanding the coin. In fact, the petition for another major exchange, Robinhood, to add support for SHIB is still ongoing. At the moment, the petition already has 532,237 signatures. However, Robinhood recently indicated that it is not rushing to add any new coins to its platform.

SHIB price at $0.0000528 | Source: SHIBUSD on TradingView.com

Last week, Christine Brown, Robinhood Crypto’s COO and VP of Product Operations talked about her company’s crypto strategy at a conference. Responding to a question about whether the exchange will list SHIB, she replied “When it comes to our strategy of what we are going to list, the first thing is that we’re not going to talk about it. So I’m not going to break that news here, unfortunately.”

She further explained that the company’s strategy is different from others like Coinbase, who are racing the list as many assets as possible.

“We want to make sure we are working and assessing everything from a regulatory perspective very well. And we are a safety-first company so that’s how we’re going to play it.”

Coinbase, on the other hand, is eager to list many cryptocurrencies. Earlier this month, the exchange announced that Shiba Inu is now available to New York residents. Although, it has been offering SHIB on its platform since June.

Number of SHIB Holders On The Rise

As SHIB grows in popularity, more and more people want to get their hands on it.

Related Reading | AMC Theatres Says Customers Will Soon Be Able To Pay With Shiba Inu

The number of Shiba Inu holders is getting closer to the long-awaited number of one million holders in total. At the time of writing, 985,674 unique addresses now hold SHIB assets.

Featured image by TronWeekly, Chart from TradingView.com

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Bitcoin ATM Stolen During Raid In Barcelona

Crypto-related crimes have been on the rise in Spain in recent times. The most recent incident is the case of a stolen Bitcoin ATM in Barcelona.

Related Reading | Data Shows Crypto Hacks And Fraud In 2021 Are On Track For A New Record

Bitcoin ATMs are kiosks that allow a person to purchase Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies by using cash or debit card. According to this website, Spain has the highest number of crypto ATMs in Europe. With 185 ATMs, it is also the fourth highest in the world.

Bitcoin ATM Theft

Local news reported on Friday that the Spanish police are investigating the theft of a Bitcoin ATM. The thieves stole the machine in a raid on a cryptocurrency exchange outlet in a wealthy Barcelona neighborhood.
The police force of Catalonia, Mossos d’Esquadra, said that the ATM theft happened around 3 a.m. They however did not provide any further information on the case to avoid hindering the investigation.

According to the news agency, police sources said thieves took the ATM from a shop on Beethoven street in the Sarria area. The area houses a branch of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). GBTC reportedly declined to comment, and the police also refused to confirm the exact location of the robbery.

BTC trading at $64.16K | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

An unverified video that surfaced showed an SUV crashing into the GBTC storefront. Afterward, some hooded people from another car made away with the ATM.

This incident is just the most recent of the bitcoin-related crimes in Spain. A few days ago, a Spanish techpreneur reported that he had been robbed. Zaryn Dentzel, the victim, is the co-founder of Tuenti, a Spanish social network-turned communications firm owned by Telefónica telecommunications company.

He claimed that four or five hooded people robbed him of millions of Euros worth of crypto from his house in Madrid. They blindfolded him, covered his home’s security cameras, and beat him up. He was then forced to give up the password to an online account containing his cryptocurrencies which held tens of millions of euros in Bitcoin. However, the thieves were unsuccessful in stealing any of his cryptos.

Crypto Crime On The Rise

Crypto attacks are hardly rare. They occur more frequently than most people think, mostly through hacks, phishing scams, ransom attacks, and fake advertisements.
A couple of the most popular attacks this year are the $600 million Poly Network attack and the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack.

Related Reading | Over $5 Billion In BTC Paid In Top 10 Ransomware Variants, Says U.S. Treasury

According to the U.S. Treasury Department, the total value of suspected ransomware payments during the first half of 2021 was $590 million. Also, roughly $5.2 billion in outgoing BTC payments were tied to the top 10 ransomware variants over the past three years.

Many Bitcoin crimes have also been recorded in the U.K., Hong Kong, Australia, and New Zealand, to name a few.

Featured image by Coin ATM Finder, Chart from TradingView.com

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Solana Hits New All-Time High, Surpasses Cardano And Tether To Fourth Place

The Solana (SOL) ecosystem continues to see huge growth in the market. SOL price touched another record high on Sunday, November 7, as it reached $260.06. Its price is up by almost 17,500% YTD – from $1.51. SOL surpassed Cardano (ADA) and Tether (USDT) to become the fourth-largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of $75.4 billion.

Related Reading | Is Cardano Fighting A Losing Battle Against Solana?

At the time of writing, it falls behind Binance Coin (BNB) $109 billion, Ether (ETH) $546 billion, and Bitcoin (BTC) $1.17 trillion. While it is creeping closer to Ethereum, there is still a huge gap between both coins.

Meanwhile, ADA and USDT’s market capitalization came out to be $67.1 billion and $74.4 billion, respectively.

SOL Rises After $100 Million Investment Initiative

Solana’s rise to ATH comes just after its venture capital arm Solana Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and FTX spearheaded a new investment fund dedicated to Web 3 gaming, also known as GameFi. Web 3 gaming has skyrocketed in popularity.

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

The venture company intends to increase SOL adoption by attracting desktop and mobile video game developers to build their projects on its public blockchain. With SOL’s bullish run recently, many are comparing it to No. 2 crypto Ethereum.

“Solana is the leading Ethereum competitor,” Matt Hougan, chief investment officer at Bitwise Asset Management, said to CNBC. “I wouldn’t put all my chips on it, but I’m a big fan.”

SOL trading at $248.7 | Source: SOLUSD on TradingView.com

One of the reasons for this comparison is that both ETH and SOL have smart contract capabilities. Smart contracts are simply programs stored on a blockchain that run when predetermined conditions are met. They are important in running decentralized finance applications and non-fungible tokens.

“A lot of the fastest-growing applications of crypto technology have been built on Ethereum and rely on the Ethereum blockchain to function,” Hougan says. “If you’re investing in Solana, you’re betting that its technical sophistication will help it leapfrog Ethereum.”

Solana And NFTs

NFT industry data aggregator CryptoSlam ranks Solana as the fourth-best NFT blockchain behind Ethereum, Ronin, and Wax by 24-hour sales volume. The data shows that Solana saw a record month for secondary NFT sales volume during September with a total of $189.4 million.

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

Secondary sales volume for Solana-based NFTs has reached almost $500 million since the start of August.
The biggest collection of NFTs on the blockchain is the Degen Ape Academy series of ape digital collectibles. So far, the Degenerate Ape Academy has sold ape NFTs worth about 986,300 SOL.

Mason Nystrom, a Messari research analyst, remarked that how quickly the blockchain has grown to be one of the top NFT blockchains in just a few months.

While Solana displays promising metrics in unique addresses (buyers and sellers) and a lower avg NFT sale price, Ethereum still dwarfs Solana in total NFT secondary volumes.

Still, Solana has become one of the top NFT blockchains by secondary trading in mere months. pic.twitter.com/9HfOp7IRut

— Mason Nystrom (@masonnystrom) November 2, 2021

He also noted that as of November 1, Solana’s NFT secondary sales reached $500 million in just three months.

Featured image by CNBC, Chart from TradingView.com

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Bakkt Set To Expand Its Crypto Offering To Include Ethereum

Digital asset marketplace Bakkt on Friday announced that users and partners will soon be able to buy, sell and hold ether (ETH). Users will also be able to send Ethereum to family and friends through its app. Institutional clients can also choose the Bakkt Warehouse for custody of ether.

Related Reading | Bakkt and CME launch new products, Bitcoin’s price reacts accordingly

The platform is adding ethereum to bitcoin, which it already offers. With these two coins, its users have access to two cryptocurrencies representing more than half of the total market value of all cryptocurrencies. The company, however, did not give a specific date for when the Ethereum offer will be available to its users. 

The U.S. company also offers several other crypto services. They include a monthly bitcoin futures contract, crypto payments with a Visa debit card, as well as a Bakkt card with Apple or Google pay.

Offering Ethereum To Users

Bakkt’s decision to add Ethereum to its offering comes amid growing interest and adoption of cryptocurrencies. 

In a survey that the platform conducted, nearly half of respondents said they had bought some form of cryptocurrency within the last year. Others also expressed interest in adopting the asset class before year-end.

ETH price at $4,494.99 | Source: ETHUSD on TradingView.com

Ethereum has become very popular over the years, and it is currently the second-largest crypto with a market cap of approximately $532 Billion.
“By giving users greater opportunities to utilize their digital assets such as Ethereum, including buying, selling, spending, and sending, Bakkt facilitates the flow of digital commerce in line with the company’s mission of connecting the digital economy.”

Speaking on the platform’s latest announcement, CEO Gavin Michael said, “At Bakkt, providing flexible opportunities for users to enjoy their digital assets is a top consideration, and adding Ethereum brings a popular and growing cryptocurrency to our roster.”

“Bakkt users have already enjoyed the app’s capabilities to leverage bitcoin and we are confident that our addition of Ethereum will be a complement to our growing ecosystem of partners and assets.”

Bakkt Providing Easy Access To Crypto

The company has been on a mission to expand crypto adoption. It started trading as a public company on the New York Stock Exchange last month following a merger with VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings.

The company partnered with Google in October to allow users to spend their crypto with the Bakkt Visa debit card at all merchants that use Google Pay. It is also using Google Cloud to build new analytics with artificial intelligence, machine learning, and geolocation.

Related Reading | Mastercard Furthers Investment Into Crypto Card Integration

Also, in October, it partnered with Mastercard to enable institutions to offer a broad set of cryptocurrency solutions and services to customers. This partnership resulted in Bakkt’s shares jumping to more than $25 per share.

Featured image by Financial Times, Chart from TradingView.com

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Dog-Themed DeFi Project Mysteriously Loses Fundraised $60 Million

A DeFi project that launched on Thursday had raised $60 million overnight during its token sale. However, the funds seem to have disappeared, and no one is sure exactly how.

On Friday, investors woke up to the shocking news that their funds had disappeared. Around 13,556.36 ETH, which was worth $60 million at the time, was drained from AnubisDAO’s liquidity pool.

Related Reading | DeFi Hack: Vee Finance Losses $35 Million To Hackers Following Mainnet Launch

The project, AnubisDAO, was promoted as a fork of OlympusDAO — a cryptocurrency backed by the assets in its treasury. It was based on Anubis, an Egyptian god of death with a dog’s head. This theme is also similar to other dog-themed meme coins.

Although Anubis identified itself as a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), the details of the project were unclear. And even though it did not have an official website, investors still pumped in $60 million worth of ETH into it.

The Project Suffers Mysterious Attack

The token sale started on Thursday, with investors putting ETH into the project and receiving Anubis tokens (ANKH) in return.

However, the token sale, which was supposed to last for 24 hours, lasted only 20. The reason was the removal of the liquidity pool by an unknown entity. And the $60 million in ETH that had been raised in the token sale was then sent to a different address.
Subsequently, the value of the ANKH token dropped to almost zero.

Investors are still in shock about how quickly the whole thing happened. Brian Nguyen, who invested in the project and lost nearly $470,000, spoke to CNBC about the unfortunate event.

Related Reading | Data Shows Crypto Hacks And Fraud In 2021 Are On Track For A New Record

He admitted that he did not investigate the project thoroughly before investing. “We, in crypto, tend to have a ‘buy first, do research later,’ mentality,” he says.

He mentioned that he was interested in AnubisDAO because it was similar to other dog-inspired cryptocurrencies like dogecoin and Shiba Inu, which have surged in popularity lately. The fact that the sale was on popular auction platform Copper Launch also encouraged him to invest.

Also, a crypto influencer who he respected – 0xSisyphus on Twitter – supported the project. “So, I had some conviction on the buy.”

Investigations Begin

Shortly after investors started talking about losing their money, people speculated that Copper Launch was probably compromised. In response, Copper Launch said it was not, “but the Anubis team seems to have compromised their admin keys,” The Auction platform also released a statement yesterday regarding the incident.

There have been many guesses on what really happened. Some suspect it to be a “rug pull.” A rug pull is a common type of crypto scam where a project is created with the specific intention of stealing investor funds.
Others think it could be a phishing attack, where hackers target victims to steal crypto credentials.

DeFi market cap at $152.789B | Source: Crypto Total DeFi Market Cap on TradingView.com

A Twitter user claimed that they may have fallen victim to a phishing attack. They shared a screenshot of an email from someone pretending to be crypto investor 0xSisyphus. 0xSisyphus, however, since denied it, and tweeted on Friday that the 0xSisyphus “account’s namesake is clearly compromised,” They also offered a bounty of 1,000 ETH in return for the lost funds or to anyone who could identify the owner of the receiving wallet.

A Twitter user traced the wallet address to another user named Beerus. Moments later, the Beerus account was deleted.

March 18 @beerus tweets the wallet address that funded today's Anubis hack

1 minute ago @beerus deletes his Twitter account

1k ETH pls @0xSisyphus pic.twitter.com/CvO3YTwCRu

— loldefi // 🥒🦋 (3, 3) (@loldefi) October 29, 2021

0xSisyphus later said that they were certain that the incident was not a phishing attack but instead a rug pull by a “rogue team member,” They further said that Chainalysis was involved in the investigation. And that they are also working with authorities in the UK and US.

Featured image by @AnubisDao on Twitter, Chart from TradingView.com

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AMC Theaters Considers Accepting Shiba Inu As Payment Amid Growing Interest

AMC Theatres, the largest movie theater chain in the world, is considering adding Shiba Inu (SHIB) as a way to pay for tickets.

On Friday, the CEO of the theatre chain, Adam Aron, put up a poll on Twitter asking the crypto community if they would be potentially interested in paying for movie tickets with Shiba Inu.

After acquiring some cinemas in 2016, AMC became the largest movie theater chain in the world. It has 2,866 screens in 358 theatres in Europe and 7,967 screens in 620 theatres in the United States.

Shiba Inu – A Potential Means Of Payment

AMC Theatres is already in the process of integrating the payment options for movie tickets using Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin, into its system. So this recent development is not really a surprise.

On Friday, Shiba Inu overtook Dogecoin to become the ninth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. With a market cap of $40,476,844,035, the meme coin was up 5.13% in the last 24 hours.

Related Reading | By The Numbers: What $1000 In SHIB Is Worth Now

In the early hours of Friday, Aron took to his Twitter page to ask users if the company should accept online payments in Shiba Inu in addition to the other digital currencies that it’s working on.

TWITTER POLL #2: As you know, you can now purchase AMC gift cards using cryptocurrency, and our IT group is writing code so that soon we can accept online payments in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Dogecoin among others. Should we strive to take Shiba Inu too?

— Adam Aron (@CEOAdam) October 29, 2021

The poll already has a significant number of interactions even though there are still four days left to vote. At the time of writing, 121,916 Twitter users have already voted. So far, 87% support the movie theater chain accepting SHIB, while 13% are opposed to the idea.

This is, however, not Aron’s first Twitter poll of this sort. The first poll, which was conducted in September, was about whether AMC Theatres should accept rival meme coin Dogecoin. That poll also attracted a lot of attention. And after the voting ended, Aron expressed his fascination with the number of interactions it garnered.
Among those who liked his tweet was Tesla CEO and dogecoin supporter Elon Musk.

AMC Theatres And Crypto

The multinational entertainment giant has been showing serious interest in blockchain technology recently.

Last week during an interview with CNBC, CEO Adam Aron discussed AMC’s crypto ambitions. He said, “We’ve made a lot of noise in the last few months about getting hyperactive in cryptocurrency.” He also discussed the possibility of issuing company-specific crypto.

Related Reading | Crypto Adoption Boosts Travel: Travala Rises From The Ashes

In August, the firm stated its intention to include Bitcoin payments for movie tickets into its infrastructure by the end of this year.

The following month, the theater giant expanded on those crypto payment options by including Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). According to Aron, moviegoers are keen to pay for their movies with crypto at AMC theatres. These new payment methods will also be available by the end of the year.

SHIB trading at $0.0000736 | Source: SHIBUSD on TradingView.com

Earlier this month, AMC added Dogecoin to the list of crypto payment options. However, this will be added in early 2022. The company also announced that users can now buy digital gift cards with Dogecoin and other cryptocurrencies using their BitPay wallets.

Huge news Dogecoin fans! As we work to accept online crypto payments, now you can buy @AMCTheatres digital gift cards (up to $200 per day) with Dogecoin and other cryptocurrency using a BitPay Wallet.  Accepted on our web site, mobile app, and in theatres. https://t.co/hPubbeq4YG pic.twitter.com/dra7e23tc8

— Adam Aron (@CEOAdam) October 5, 2021

Last month, the CEO of AMC theatres also indicated its interest in minting commemorative movie tickets as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) during a CNBC interview.

Featured image by Financial Times, Chart by TradingView.com

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Economist Peter Schiff Calls Bitcoin An ‘Imaginary Friend’ In Response To Jack Dorsey’s Hyperinflation Tweet

Peter Schiff is an economist, gold advocate, and one of Bitcoin’s biggest critics. He has never liked the digital currency.

He believes that real value is derived from an asset’s ability to create commercial demand in markets; and always refers to gold as a perfect example of this. In contrast, he says that Bitcoin is nothing but an asymmetric store of value with no other use except attracting an endless supply of buyers for the limited supply of assets. In short, it is a Ponzi scheme. However, he has been proven wrong over and over again.

In his most recent critique of Bitcoin, Schiff said it is not a real asset. This was in response to a tweet by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey about the possible arrival of hyperinflation in the U.S. soon.

Schiff Responds To Dorsey

On Saturday, October 23, Jack Dorsey shared his opinion on the current economic situation in the U.S on Twitter. He tweeted about the imminent hyperinflation as a result of the constant money printing in the U.S., and how the rest of the world would suffer from it.

Related Reading | Is Hyperinflation Inevitable? Jack Dorsey Says It’ll “Change Everything”

In response, Schiff tweeted that people should not look to Bitcoin to save them because it is not a real asset. Instead, they should own real assets like gold.

Just don't expect to find any refuge from it in #Bitcoin. To protect yourself from #hyperinflation you'll need to own real assets. #Gold qualifies, but Bitcoin does not.

— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) October 24, 2021

Another Twitter user commented that Bitcoin is, in fact, real. And that it has just surpassed the Swiss Franc in Market cap. At this point, Schiff replied, calling the cryptocurrency a “make-believe asset” and that it is the adult version of an imaginary friend.

#Bitcoin is a make believe asset. Sometimes kids have imaginary friends. It's the same concept, except with adults.

— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) October 24, 2021

Peter Schiff’s Grudge with Bitcoin

According to this Wikipedia profile, Peter Schiff is an American stockbroker, financial commentator, and radio personality. He is also CEO and chief global strategist of Euro Pacific Capital Inc., a broker-dealer based in Westport, Connecticut. Additionally, he is involved in various roles in other financial services companies, including Euro Pacific Asset Management, an independent investment advisor, Schiff Gold (formerly Euro Pacific Precious Metals), a precious metals dealer, and Euro Pacific Bank, a full-reserve bank.

In addition to all these, Schiff is known for something else – his grudge with Bitcoin. He has always claimed its value will one day drop to nothing.

Earlier this year, Mark Cuban told Schiff to “move on” because “gold is dead.” In Response,  Schiff said, “Mark, a lot of your athletes wear gold jewelry. Ask them why. Gold has many uses outside of jewelry that contributes to its value as a metal. It’s not hyped at all. Gold is money. Bitcoin is 100% hype. It’s nothing.”

Related Reading | Mark Cuban Slams Peter Schiff: Gold is Dead, Bitcoin and Ethereum Are Today

Cuban himself used to be a bitcoin skeptic, preferring bananas to bitcoin because he claimed he could at least eat a banana.

In an interview on Good Evening San Diego a few days ago, Schiff referred to Bitcoin as a fool’s gold and a digital pyramid scheme. He also said that the SEC should not be encouraging people to participate.

BTC trading at over $62K | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

When asked about the SEC’s recent approval of Bitcoin ETFs, he responded that “we should get rid of the SEC”.
He continued by saying, “I have no problem with the ETF itself, but if the SEC is pretending that it is some kind of watchdog and trying to make sure that investors don’t get hurt, then it makes no sense that they would approve this ETF because ultimately, the ETF is going to collapse to zero and the people who are left holding the bag are going to get wiped out.”

Schiff is also not impressed with futures ETFs. He says, “instead of owning nothing, you own a futures contract to gamble on nothing.”

Featured image by Bloomberg, Chart from TradingView.com

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Shiba Inu (SHIB) Jumps 50% To ATH Amid Robinhood Rumors

Shiba Inu (SHIB), one of the most popular meme coins, soared to an all-time high for the first time since May 11. The meme coin reached new heights of $0.00004432 over the weekend. SHIB was up over 50% in just 24 hours, according to the pricing from CoinGecko.

Related Reading | Shiba Inu Outranks Chainlink And Takes Place In Top 15 Crypto-Assets

With a market cap of $21.4 billion, Shiba Inu is currently the 13th biggest cryptocurrency. It is getting closer to Dogecoin, which is now in 11th place with a market cap of $33.86 billion. Both coins, however, can be quite volatile.

It is also now worth more than Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, who, according to Forbes, is worth $13.6 billion.

Shiba Inu Rallies

Shiba Inu’s latest rally can be attributed to an ongoing bullish trend that started about two weeks ago. Since then, Shiba Inu maintained week-long support at approximately $0.000028 before resuming a bull run to its latest record.

Related Reading | Why Shiba Inu (SHIB) Rallied 266% Following Biggest Dump In Its History

“At this moment attention seems to have converged on SHIB and speculation is the primary driver of the price surge,” Ben Caselin, head of research and strategy at crypto exchange AAX, said on Sunday to Bloomberg. “Prior patterns and dynamics in crypto indicate that SHIB is likely to be challenged by other projects and shed much of its value further along in the market cycle,” he added.

SHIB price jumps to $0.000043 | Source: SHIBUSD on TradingView.com

Shiba Inu is a decentralized cryptocurrency created in August 2020 by an anonymous person or persons known as “Ryoshi”. The coin’s website refers to it as “a decentralized meme token that evolved into a vibrant ecosystem.” It was modeled off Dogecoin, which is also fashioned after the Japanese dog breed. It is also dubbed the “Dogecoin Killer.”

“With such meme coins it’s hard to speculate on the actual reasons for price movements, in all honesty,” Vijay Ayyar, head of Asia-Pacific with crypto exchange Luno Pte., said in a message Sunday. But “there are some interesting communities being built around them.”

Robinhood Rumors Fueling Rally

There are rumors that crypto trading platform Robinhood is getting ready to list Shiba Inu. According to the recent tweet by a prominent SHIB Twitter account, Robinhood might be considering adding the meme coin to the list of trading assets.

BREAKING NEWS: Robinhood is emailing this survey to select users of their platform.

They are including #SHIB as one of the answers to select!

Clearly doing market research on what their consumers want. pic.twitter.com/ovBNV2p0Wl

— Shiba Inu News (@ShibalnuNews) October 22, 2021

There is also a petition on Change.org urging Robinhood to list SHIB on its platform, and it has over 300,000 signatures.

During his interview with CNBC earlier this week, Robinhood CEO Vladimir Tenev reportedly refused to comment about whether or not the company would make the listing.

Featured image by Binance Research, Chart from TradingView.com

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Elon Musk Plans To Become The World’s First Dogecoin Trillionaire

Tesla CEO Elon Musk says that he will become the world’s first Dogecoin trillionaire.
According to a recent prediction by a Morgan Stanley analyst, the SpaceX founder is on his way to becoming the world’s first trillionaire with his relentless amassing of wealth.

A Twitter account called UberFacts tweeted this prediction. Amusingly, the Tesla CEO replied to the tweet, stating that he would be a Dogecoin trillionaire. With that reply, he sent the Dogecoin price soaring again.

Related Reading | Elon Musk’s “Baby Doge” Tweet Spikes The Dogecoin Price

As of today, Musk is already the wealthiest man in the world, ahead of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who is in second place. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, he has an estimated net worth of $252 billion. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index is a daily ranking of the world’s richest people.

In July, the tech entrepreneur revealed that he owns Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and Ether.

Elon Musk and Dogecoin

Musk’s net worth has skyrocketed because of Tesla, whose stock price has kept increasing over the months. On Friday, the company’s shares rose to a new high above $900/share. With his current net worth, he is worth more than the entire Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of New Zealand.

On Friday, Twitter account @UberFacts reported the prediction from Morgan Stanley.

Elon Musk is predicted to become the world's first trillionaire, thanks to SpaceX

— UberFacts (@UberFacts) October 22, 2021

Elon then replied directly to the tweet agreeing that he would be a trillionaire, but in Dogecoin.

*In Dogecoin

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 22, 2021

In typical fashion, Musk’s mention of Dogecoin in the tweet resulted in the coin’s price rallying by almost 6% in just an hour. At the time of writing, Dogecoin is trading at $0.247.

Musk’s tweet pushes Doge to $0.247 | Source: DOGEUSD on TradingView.com

In July, Musk revealed that he owns Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin. However, he has always posted memes about Dogecoin in particular and is constantly weighing in on the meme coin.

In May, the SpaceX founder announced that in 2022, SpaceX will launch a moon mission funded by Dogecoin. He said this is the first time that cryptocurrency will be used in space, and that it will also be the first meme used in space.

SpaceX launching satellite Doge-1 to the moon next year

– Mission paid for in Doge– 1st crypto in space– 1st meme in space

To the mooooonnn!!https://t.co/xXfjGZVeUW

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2021

SpaceX Founder’s Net Worth Prediction

According to the Guardian, analysts at investment bank Morgan Stanley have predicted that Elon Musk will become the first trillionaire in the world.

Forbes says that the tech entrepreneur is working to revolutionize transportation both on Earth, through electric car maker Tesla, and in space, via rocket producer SpaceX.

A Morgan Stanley analyst says that he could make much more money from his space exploration business SpaceX than he has made from Tesla.

Related Reading | Elon Musk Brushes Off SNL Fail, Plans To Literally Send Dogecoin To The Moon

The analyst Adam Jonas said that SpaceX was “challenging any preconceived notion of what was possible and the timeframe possible, in terms of rockets, launch vehicles and supporting infrastructure”.

He added: “More than one client has told us if Elon Musk were to become the first trillionaire … it won’t be because of Tesla. Others have said SpaceX may eventually be the most highly valued company in the world – in any industry.”

Related Reading | SpaceX Has Bitcoin On Its Balance Sheet, Elon Musk

Jonas estimates that the privately-held SpaceX, valued at $100bn this month, could be worth $200bn and even more. It is presently the world’s second-biggest privately held company, after the internet firm ByteDance. The SpaceX founder owns roughly 48% of the company.

It remains to be seen if these predictions about the Tesla CEO will come to pass.

Featured image by The World Financial Review, Chart From TradingView.com

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PayPal Co-founder Peter Thiel Admits He Underinvested In Bitcoin

Billionaire entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel said he should have bought more Bitcoin. During an interview hosted by the Lincoln Network in Miami on Wednesday, he spoke about cryptocurrencies, central banks, and Artificial Intelligence.

Miami has become a hotspot for crypto investors. Several crypto startups recently announced new offices in the city. The PayPal co-founder’s venture capital firm, Founders Fund, was also an early promoter of Miami as a new tech hub.

Peter Thiel Praises Crypto

During the Miami event, Thiel praised cryptocurrencies and admitted that he may have underinvested in Bitcoin.
“You’re supposed to just buy Bitcoin,” he said, adding: “I feel like I’ve been underinvested in it.” Thiel further pointed out that his only hesitation about investing was that he thought “the secret was already known by everybody.” He concluded by saying “I think the answers are still to go long. Maybe it still is enough of a secret.”

He made these statements after Bitcoin blasted to an all-time high of over $67,000 on Wednesday. Thiel deliberated whether it would rise further. “Bitcoin at $66,000. Is it going to go up? Maybe,” He also added that the surge in crypto prices, “tells us that we are at a complete bankruptcy moment for the central banks.”

Related Reading | As Bitcoin Makes New ATH, Netflow Hints BTC Will Explode Here

In the interview, the tech investor also criticized Artificial Intelligence as a disputant to cryptocurrency. He likened crypto to his political philosophy of being libertarian because it’s a “force for decentralization,”
Therefore, “AI, especially the sort of low-tech, surveillance form, is essentially communist,” because it’s a force for centralization. Thiel further said that he does not want to outlaw AI. Instead, he would like the people building it to “think about how they’re working on a technology that’s going to destroy the world.”

Thiel’s Relationship With Bitcoin

The tech investor has been a Bitcoin believer for a while now. Even in 2018, when Bitcoin’s price was bottoming, Thiel maintained his stance. “I would be long on bitcoin,” he stated.

Related Reading | Billionaire Peter Thiel: Bitcoin’s Potential is Underestimated

Earlier this week, he also talked about Bitcoin at an event hosted by conservative law group Federalist Society. The PayPal co-founder suggested that Bitcoin’s current bull run points to weaknesses in the U.S. political system. “I don’t know that you should put all your money into Bitcoin at $60,000 a Bitcoin right now,” he said.
“But surely the fact that it is at $60,000 is an extremely hopeful sign,” he continued. Describing Bitcoin as “the canary in the coal mine,” Thiel said, “It’s the most honest market we have in the country, and it’s telling us that this decrepit … regime is just about to blow up.”

BTC trading at over $65K | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

In April, while suggesting that Bitcoin may be ‘Chinese financial weapon against the U.S.’, Thiel described himself as a “pro-crypto, pro-Bitcoin maximalist,”

Thiel explained that “From China’s point of view, they want to get — they don’t like the U.S. having this reserve currency, because it gives us a lot of leverage over Iranian oil supply chains and all sorts of things like that,”

He expressed concern with the Chinese government’s goal to weaken the U.S. dollar. However, weeks later, China defied his predictions by launching a wide-ranging crackdown on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Featured image by Real Daily, Chart from TradingView.com