Banks and Institutions
Bitcoin Capital AG releases two crypto ETPs on SIX Swiss Exchange
The new offerings included the FiCAS Active Bitcoin ETP (BTCB) and FiCAS Active Ethereum ETP (ETHB), and can already be invested into by institutional, professional and private investors as a way to diversify their portfolios. Those two crypto ETPs follow the world first crypto ETP introduced by Swiss SIX Exchange in late 2018.
Craig Wright condemned to pay $100 million in billion-dollar bitcoin lawsuit
The Kleiman v. Wright case leads to Craig Wright’s convict for the unauthorized use of funds from Kleiman and Wright’s shared business. While Craig Wright still pretends to be Bitcoin’s creator, considerable evidence proves he’s not.
Ecosystem
Visa pushes mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies for merchants and banks
The payments giant Visa announces new crypto consulting and advisory services for financial institutions, retailers and others firms. This initiative follows a recent in-house study in which “40% of crypto owners would be likely to switch their primary bank to one that offers crypto-related products”.
Adidas enters the metaverse with NFT partnerships
Adidas announced a collaboration with Bored Ape Yacht Club, gmoney NFT, and PUNKS Comic. A Bored Ape NFT has already been redrawn to feature Adidas’ iconic tracksuit. The Adidas website already hints at reduced prices for their merchandise for token holders.
TerraUSD (UST) adoption backs LUNA’s ascension
The price of LUNA has surged 106% to a new all-time high at $78.43 on Dec. 5 with a 24-hour trading volume reaching a record $5.66 billion. Increasing use of LUNA and UST pushed the total value locked on the Terra blockchain to a new all-time high at $14.36 billion.
Ubisoft chooses Tezos for a new NFT platform
Ubisoft has launched the beta version of a new tezos-based platform called Ubisoft Quartz, which allows users to acquire NFTs of items that can be used in-game, such as a weapon, clothing or vehicle. The first tests on Ubisoft Quartz will be compatible with the computer game Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint. Ubisoft’s five-year vision of blockchain gaming will also include play-to-earn models
Digital payments company Square rebrands to Block in a move towards blockchain
The change of the official corporate name is supposed to lead to a merge of Cash App, Bitcoin exchange project tbDEX, and music and video streaming platform Tidal into one. According to Square, led by Jack Dorsey, the idea refers to a blockchain as a “block parties full of music, obstacles to overcome, a section of code, building blocks, and of course, tungsten cubes”.
Technology
A critical Solana bug discovered
A bug in the Solana Protocol Library (SPL) could have allowed hackers to attack Solana projects and steal funds. Projects concerned included yield aggregator Tulip Protocol and lending protocols Solend and Larix. Security researchers figured the hack could steal funds at a rate of $7.500 per second (almost $27 million an hour). A fix has been implemented by the Solana developers.
DeFi protocol BadgerDAO exploited has fallen victim to a $120 million hack
The DeFi protocol BadgerDAO, focused on bitcoin yield, has been hacked last week with unauthorized withdrawals. Some users lost up to $50.8m in cryptos due to a front-end attack.
Figures
- Ethereum miners revenue outpaces Bitcoin for the seventh month
- Dogecoin and Ethere rank in top 10 news searches on Google Trends in 2021
- According to a survey, over 25% of households in the US currently own Bitcoin.
- Retail buyers make up more than 80% of NFT transactions.
- El Salvador buys the dip, with 150 additional bitcoins.
