MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin Coffers Swell to $7 Billion
- Business intelligence firm MicroStrategy added nearly 9,000 Bitcoin to its holdings in the third quarter, with a total amount on its balance sheet reaching 114,042 BTC as of September 30, 2021
- With Bitcoin currently trading at roughly $61,000, Microstrategy now holds a staggering $7 billion of the leading cryptocurrency.
- According to MicroStrategy’s Q3 financial results published on Thursday, the firm spent a total of $3.160 billion to purchase the Bitcoin it owns, with an average cost of approximately $27,713 per coin.
Australian securities regulator issues guidelines for crypto ETPs
- The Australia Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has issued its response to public consultation on cryptocurrency exchange-traded products (ETPs) alongside fresh industry guidance.
- On Friday, the regulator released a set of regulatory requirements for funds looking to offer crypto ETPs, including exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and structured products, following the months of industry consultation initiated in late June.
- According to the official guidance, ASIC has so far greenlighted ETPs based on major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) and expects more crypto assets to become a foundation for ETPs in the future:
- “As at October 2021, Bitcoin and Ether appear likely to satisfy all five factors identified above to determine appropriate underlying assets for an ETP. We expect the range of non-financial product crypto-assets that can satisfy these factors will expand over time.”
Biggest Bitcoin fund in the world could become ETF by July as GBTC nears $40B AUM
- Grayscale could launch its Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) as soon as July 2022, one of its executives has said.
- Speaking at a virtual event organized by MarketWatch on Oct. 27, Grayscale global head of ETFs David LaValle gave a nine-month timeline for approval by United States regulators.
The amount of ETH burned daily sets new records two days running
- The amount of ether burned on a daily basis has set new records for two days in a row with over 30,000 ETH burned since Wednesday, data shows.
- The Block’s Data Dashboard shows that about 14,820 ETH were burned on October 27 as a result of the EIP-1559 proposal that went effective in early August.
- That set a new record at the time only to be surpassed the next day with over 16,800 ETH burned on Thursday. That added the total amount of burned ether to over 668,000 ETH as of press time, which would have been worth around $3 billion.
Major Russian bank explores crypto investment amid strong demand
- Tinkoff Investments, the online brokerage of major Russian private bank Tinkoff, is researching cryptocurrency investment services despite the Bank of Russia withholding the bank from launching such tools.
- Tinkoff Investments head Dmitry Panchenko claimed that the bank’s brokerage portal is considering projects related to cryptocurrency investment, but it’s too early to discuss specific ideas.
- The company is now working on research and development initiatives targeting a range of crypto-related services, Panchenko said in a Thursday interview with local news agency TASS. Tinkoff Investments is specifically looking at crypto products by companies like international payment giant PayPal, as well as crypto-friendly apps like Revolut and Robinhood.
Ubisoft will seek to invest in and create blockchain games
- Ubisoft, one of the world’s largest video game companies — responsible for creating popular franchise games such as Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and For Honor — hosted its Q2 earnings call this week, where blockchain was a key topic of discussion.
- Alongside reporting a 15% increase in unique active players in the first half of the year compared with 2020, and the fact that Assassin’s Creed Valhalla has become the second most profitable game in the company’s history, the French firm’s CEO, Yves Guillemot, also expressed intentions for investment in and adoption of blockchain-centric gaming companies on the platform.
- Despite making notable advancements in the space — such as the funding of Animoca Brands, owner of Ethereum-based metaverse game The Sandbox — Guillemot stated that the platform is in early-stage research and development.
Justin Sun withdraws billions of dollars worth of crypto from Aave’s lending pools
- Tron founder Justin Sun has withdrawn billions of dollars worth of crypto from DeFi lending platform Aave’s lending pools, according to blockchain data.
- As a result, this has removed a significant amount of liquidity from the platform, triggering much higher interest rates.
- The withdrawals may be a result of concerns over recent tweets between members of the Yearn community and those in the Aave camp. During a Twitter standoff, members of the Yearn community implied that Aave was vulnerable to a potential exploit.
Ethereum Gas Fees Have Risen 2,300% Since June
- The average transaction fee on Ethereum is soaring at $51.45, according to data from crypto metrics site BitInfoCharts. The figures show an increase of 2,293% since late June.
- Only seven days ago, the average transaction fee on Ethereum was $22.52. This month has been particularly temperamental for Ethereum gas fees. On October 15, the average fee was $45.74, almost double the figure on the first of the month: $23.79.
Metaverse Token MANA Up 100% After Facebook Rebrands to Meta
- The prices of crypto metaverse tokens are soaring as much as 100% in the wake of Thursday’s news that Facebook was rebranding to ‘Meta’ in a bid to “bring the metaverse to life”.
- MANA, the token powering the browser-based video game Decentraland–a kind of hybrid of Minecraft and Second Life–is currently trading for $3.39, up 100% from yesterday.
- SAND, the native token for The Sandbox, a community-driven metaverse where users can make their own NFT gaming worlds, has rallied 35% since yesterday.
Nethermind v1.11 Series – ETH
- Nethermind released v1.11.6 of its Ethereum client on Oct. 29, 2021. This is a maintenance release which updates the chainspec for the London hardfork and updates pivots for parallel sync.
