Date: 09/20/2021
“No one person could’ve possibly come up with all of the uses for Ethereum, but it did take one person’s idea to get it started. From there, a new world has opened up, and given rise to new ways of leveraging blockchain technology.” — Ohanian, Reddit co-founder
Weekly News Report:
1. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has dropped as much as 2.4% — which, as a reminder to crypto traders, is in fact a whole lot in equities markets. One major narrative explaining the drop is centered on Evergrande, a hugely indebted Chinese real estate developer that appears to be on the brink of collapse.
2. BTG Pactual plans to launch a platform for blockchain-based investments, the Brazilian investment bank announced Monday. BTG Pactual’s crypto arm, called Mynt, will be available in the last quarter of 2021 and allow exposure to bitcoin and ether, the company said, adding that it would make the service available to users of BTG Pactual digital and BTG+, its digital bank.
3. Decentral Games has secured funding and support from Binance Smart Chain’s $100 million accelerator fund to help it expand. Decentral didn’t disclose the exact amount but said it plans to use the financing to help expand NFT markets on the Binance Smart Chain, and accelerate the creation of new games and features for its existing six metaverse venues.
4. NFT trading card game “Splinterlands” has recently become the most widely played blockchain game on the market by daily user count. The blockchain card game has soared in popularity over the past two months, taking advantage of NFTs and their in-game cryptocurrency to retain their player base.
5. FTX crypto exchange expands to the Bahamas and Gibraltar with a new registration. The Securities Commission of The Bahamas has registered FTX Digital Markets, the Bahamian subsidiary of the global FTX crypto exchange, as an official digital asset business, the firm announced Sept. 20.
6. Blockchain-based fantasy soccer game Sorare has raised $680 million in a funding round led by SoftBank. Since January 2021, there have been $150 million of sales on Sorare, which accepts payments via credit card and the cryptocurrency ether.
7. California has emerged as the most crypto-ready jurisdiction in the United States thanks to the proliferation of cryptocurrency ATMs and growing interest in digital assets among the state’s population, according to new industry research from the review site Crypto Head.
8. Two pieces of legislation related to cryptocurrencies recently took effect in the state, and many businesses already accept digital payments. A new poll from Newsweek suggests that as many as 10.8 million Texans may support legislation that makes cryptocurrency legal in the next election.
9. The Salvadorian government has installed over 200 ATMs in September after adopting Bitcoin as a legal tender. El Salvador now hosts the third-largest network of crypto ATMs after the United States and Canada, amounting to 70% of all crypto ATMs in South America.
10. Africa may have the smallest digital currency market share globally, but the continent has seen some of the highest growth in adoption in the past year. Africa had been recorded a 1,200% growth since June last year, with the need for cheaper remittances, the rise of peer-to-peer trading, and savings needs leading the revolution.
11. Crypto funds see inflows, despite slower overall volumes. Solana, which suffered a network outage that lasted nearly 20 hours last week, saw inflows of $4.8 million.
