Date: 11/05/2021
“NYC is going to be the center of the cryptocurrency industry and other fast-growing, innovative industries! Just wait!” — Eric Adams, incoming New York City Mayor
Weekly News Report:
1. Seeking to one-up Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, the incoming New York City Mayor Eric Adams said on Thursday that he will take his first three paychecks in bitcoin when he takes office in January.
2. With the Cosmoverse conference 2021 kicking off in Lisbon, the event connects ATOM stakeholders, developers and enthusiasts from all over the world with the latest developments on the Cosmos blockchain.
3. The Financial Services Commission (FSC) in South Korea reaffirmed in a public statement on Nov. 5 that nonfungible tokens (NFT) are not virtual assets, and will not be regulated.
4. On Friday, Solana Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners and derivatives exchange FTX announced the launch of a $100 million GameFi ecosystem fund. The intersection between blockchain technology, cryptocurrency and gaming is creating a new reality for gamers.
5. Solana’s SOL hit an all-time high of $246 on Wednesday; Polkadot (DOT) is up 7%, while BTC and ether ETH were little changed. The currencies associated with Solana and Polkadot — both alternatives to the Ethereum blockchain — were outperforming along with gaming tokens like Axie Infinity’s AXS.
6. AllianceBlock brings to the table its cross-chain interoperability solution AllianceBridge, its native decentralized exchange, or DEX, known as AllianceBlock DEX, decentralized peer-to-peer funding protocol AllianceBlock Fundrs, and its compliance and regulatory solution. Together, the two parties seek to enhance their blockchains for DeFi capabilities with each other’s technologies.
7. Global venture capital funding into cryptocurrency and blockchain reached an all-time high of $6.5 billion in the third quarter of 2021, surpassing the updated second-quarter total of $5.2 billion. Coinbase Ventures was the most active crypto investor in the third quarter by a significant margin with 24 deals.
8. The world’s largest mixed martial art entertainment firm, UFC, has collaborated with Crypto.com for its first official NFT, which will be available on Thursday. The UFC’s new NFT series will include digital collectibles such as fight night paintings, event posters, championship belts, fighter personas and avatars.
9. Leading blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis is opening its first Australian office in Canberra, coinciding with the news it has partnered with the Commonwealth Bank on its plans to offer crypto trading to 6.5 million app users. Chainalysis aims to aid crypto and blockchain’s already impressive growth in Southern Asia and Oceania.
10. Riot Blockchain, the Castle Rock, Colorado-based miner, increased its forecast for bitcoin mining computing power guidance to 8.6 exahash per second (EH/s) from the previous guidance of 7.7 EH/s for next year, raising hashrate guidance by 11.7% for 2022.
11. Tiger Global and Dapper Labs are backing Faze Technologies’ bid to “build the metaverse for cricket.” Tiger Global led a $17.4 million seed round for Faze Technologies, the company announced Wednesday.
12. Banks should focus on blockchain technology and investors should increase their bitcoin holdings while trimming gold exposure, according to Jefferies Global Head of Equity Strategy Christopher Wood. The Jefferies strategist is “fundamentally bullish” on crypto and added another 5% exposure to his current bitcoin allocation recommendation.
