Date: 10/27/2021
Hyperinflation is going to change everything. It’s happening.” — Jack Dorsey
Weekly News Report:
1. The SHIB coin has picked up a strong bid four days after bitcoin’s move to a new record high of $66,975 on Oct. 20 and points to an increased risk appetite in the cryptocurrency markets, becoming the 11th-largest crypto coin. Prices for the meme token extended the month-to-date gain to almost 500%.
2. Amazon Web Services (AWS) aims to onboard the first billion blockchain users by promoting a simpler, user-friendly process, which in turn, would be an opportunity to build products and services built on the secure and open-source platform.
3. As well as providing race call data on the 2021 U.S. state elections, the Associated Press (AP), the 175-year-old news agency, will provide economic, sports and elections data to Chainlink.
4. Walmart, the American retail juggernaut, has initiated a crypto trial program that will see Bitcoin ATM machines installed at 200 of its locations across the United States. The trial is being conducted by the company Coinstar, which operates the machines and is rolling out 8,000 units around the country.
5. French start-up Mainbot announces the creation of The First Global Education Games Metaverse — The Winkyverse — to teach new technologies to children and their families. The Winkyverse will rely on blockchain technology and will have its cryptocurrency: The Winkies, offered to the public through an ICO starting October 25.
6. Twitter co-founder and crypto advocate Jack Dorsey weighed in Friday on escalating inflation in the U.S., saying things are going to get considerably worse. “Hyperinflation is going to change everything,” Dorsey tweeted Friday night. “It’s happening.” The tweet comes with consumer price inflation running near a 30-year high in the U.S. and growing concern that the problem could be worse than policymakers have anticipated.
7. Singapore’s DBS Bank has joined The Hedera Governing Council, the first Southeast Asian Lender to join the global grouping. DBS joins a council comprising 39 other technology, corporate and non-profit heavyweights including Google, IBM, Boeing and Deutsche Telekom, among others.
8. Adobe will roll out a “prepare as NFT” option in preview by the end of the month. A new feature on Adobe Photoshop will allow artists to prove they are the creators of artwork on NFT marketplaces.
9. David “Big Papi” Ortiz is the newest ambassador of crypto exchange FTX. The Major League Baseball (MLB) legend, who hit over 500 home runs and brought home three World Series titles to the Boston Red Sox, has agreed to a multi-year deal with the exchange.
10. 99Pay, the digital wallet of Brazilian ride-hailing company 99, will enable the purchase and sale of bitcoin on its platform, the company announced on Tuesday. Users of 99Pay will be able to execute commission-free transactions with a minimum purchase amount of 10 Brazilian reais and a maximum of 10,000 reais — equivalent to 1,800 U.S. dollars — starting Nov. 3.
11. Leveraged funds on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) raised their bets against bitcoin rising to a record high in the week ended Oct. 19, possibly to profit from the widening gap between futures and spot markets prices. The leveraged funds held a net short position of 31,000 contracts in the seven days to Oct. 19, marking an increase of 6,000 from the previous week.
12. After months of waiting, the Bank of Spain has issued instructions on how to register with the central bank to offer crypto-related services in the country. All entities, including banks that are already regulated, have to register.
13. The Graph, a service that organizes data on blockchains to make the data easy to find, began testing its service Tuesday on the NEAR blockchain, marking the first time the product has run on a blockchain that’s not compatible with the Ethereum blockchain. The Graph is used by developers to access data such as prices and user information. The protocol is live on 25 blockchain networks.
14. World Wrestling Entertainment (NYSE: WWE) has signed an agreement with Blockchain Creative Labs, to launch a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace for licensed digital WWE tokens and collectibles, the company announced Wednesday.
15. Bitcoin bulls could be in for a $715 million profit if BTC price is above $60,000 ahead of Friday’s $3.2 billion options expiry. BTC has been trading in a descending channel pattern since its $67,000 all-time high on Oct. 20, which was just one day after ProShares’ Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) debuted at Nasdaq. However, bulls have a sufficient number of incentives to peg Bitcoin’s price above $60,000 on Oct. 29 when the $3.2 billion monthly options expiry settles.
16. The price of Solana’s SOL coin is meeting resistance near its all-time high again, but solid fundamentals and the impressive growth of its DeFi and NFT ecosystem are likely to drive the altcoin above $250 before year-end.
17. The cryptocurrency market is abuzz on Oct. 25 as the sight of multiple altcoins hitting new all-time highs and Bitcoin’s return to $63,000 has traders looking for a resumption of the bullish uptrend. The biggest gainers over the past 24 hours were PARSIQ (PRQ), Handshake (HNS) and NEAR Protocol (NEAR).
