Crypto Push

​​Shrinking ICO Market Reshuffles Tokens Projects offering utility tokens are becoming less popular, while those offering service or security tokens are growing, according to a new report from rating agency ICORating. However, despite being in decline, utility token offerings together with hybrid token offerings are still the most successful ones, the report showed. "Compared to Q2, the number of projects offering service tokens increased by 6.55%. The share of projects offering security tokens increased by 1.66%. The number of projects with utility tokens decreased by 10.07%," according to the agency. Almost half of all ICOs in Q3 offered service tokens (a token used as the internal currency to pay for project services), while a quarter went for utility tokens (tokens of the protocol itself). The numbers keep halving, with around 12.5% of projects offering hybrid tokens (payment for services + bonuses for work performed), around 6.5% selling security tokens (tokens secured by an obligation, like promises of dividend payment, receipt of company shares, etc.), etc. However, just because half of all ICOs are offering a certain type of token, doesn’t mean that this is what investors want. Hybrid, reward and utility tokens are the ones raising the most capital in this quarter, while cryptocurrencies, security and service tokens all raised less than a median amount of USD 250,000. Service tokens were also the most likely to fail, with around half of those projects not making it. Only hybrid token projects had more successful projects than failed ones. What this could indicate is that investors are looking for more options offered in the tokens, preferably returns coming from multiple sources (both from services and bonuses, for example), and that project teams are a bit slow to catch on. Close to half of all ICOs originated in Europe. This could arguably stem from the fact that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is cracking down on ICOs, requiring them to follow a legal framework and ramping up their vigorous oversight of the industry. Recently, the SEC settled charges with two such companies, Airfox and Paragon Coin, mandating they register their offerings as securities and reimburse investors due to improperly offering digital tokens. Other US authorities are stepping up to help regulate the space as well. Maksim Zaslavskiy, a former institutional developer and self-proclaimed businessman, is now facing up to five years in prison for orchestrating two fake ICOs last year. Following the case, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), said that they will “continue to pursue any individual who seeks to profit by exploiting others.” Further, the SEC also filing related civil charges against Zaslavskiy, which are to be settled following the court’s criminal sentencing.

​​Bitcoin & Crypto Drop Alongside Stocks On China's Evergrande Spillover Risks As the problems related to the Chinese property development giant China Evergrande continue to mount, investors in everything from stocks to bitcoin (BTC) and the broader crypto market are worrying about the potential spillover effects a Chinese “Lehman moment” could have. As China’s second-largest property developer, China Evergrande holds more than USD 300bn of debt, placing the company as “the world’s most indebted property developer,” per CNBC. The company has repeatedly seen its ratings cut by international ratings agencies, and has itself warned on multiple occasions that it could default on its debt. And although not at first sight related to bitcoin, some industry insiders are increasingly concerned about the impact such a large Chinese default could have, and possibly already has, on the cryptocurrency markets. Among those who have voiced concerns is Alex Mashinsky, Founder and CEO of crypto lending and borrowing firm Celsius Network, who said that “a cascade of defaults in the global financial system” could drag bitcoin down with it. Also, USDT issuer Tether was forced to issue a statement last week, stating that the company never did nor it now holds any commercial paper or other debt or securities issued by Evergrande. Meanwhile, as reported by the South China Morning Post on Monday, cracks have also begun to appear elsewhere in the Chinese property sector. Among the property developers now being watched closely are Guangzhou R&F and Fantasia Holdings, both of which have seen their credit ratings cut to “negative” by ratings agencies Fitch and S&P Global Ratings in recent days. “The worst part is that not only China Evergrande is collapsing, but also other Chinese home builders are drowning in the tsunami caused by it,” Zhou Chuanyi, an analyst at credit research firm Lucror Analytics in Singapore was quoted by the news outlet as saying. The problems have so far led to a sharp stock market selloff both on Hong Kong’s Hang Seng stock exchange, as well as on US stock markets, with Hang Seng trading down 3.3% for the day and the US S&P 500 set to open down 0.9% later today. Meanwhile, the traditional safe haven, gold, traded up slightly, gaining 0.17% for the day as of 09:30 UTC. In the crypto markets, bitcoin was down by 6% over the past 24 hours to trade at USD 45,211, after having fallen from more than USD 48,800 on Saturday.

​​An NFT Storm Brewing for OpenSea as FTX's New Platform 'a Month Away' Major crypto derivatives exchange FTX is “well-positioned” to become “a very solid competitor” to the popular and controversy-stricken non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea, according to Brett Harrison, president of "FTX US". He told Bloomberg that the exchange has a “robust framework,” and is therefore “set up for an easy expansion” – specifically to include NFTs minted externally. The exchange already allows their users to mint and list NFTs, but the next goal is to enable them to bring in projects they minted through other platforms with the company building their own NFT platform, per the report. “Our exchange can handle more than just NFTs,” Harrison was quoted as saying. He added that they are “definitely building” their own “OpenSea competitor,” stating that their NFT platform is about a month away from becoming available. This past July, the FTX operator, FTX Trading Ltd., said it closed USD 900m Series B fundraise, with over 60 investors, valuing the company at USD 18bn, while just a year prior that number stood at USD 1bn. The company stated at the time that it would look to further expand the network of partnerships it has for its FTX NFT, FTX Pay, and FTX Liquidity program business lines. In August it was announced that FTX was partnering up with entertainment company Dolphin Entertainment to launch an NFT marketplace for prominent sports and entertainment brands. On Twitter, two days ago, Harrison further added that as they “build out our NFT marketplace on FTX, we’re thinking a lot about fees,” providing a thread on FTX NFT’s fee structure discussion, and inviting feedback. Meanwhile, following accusation of insider trading, OpenSea confirmed last week that one of their employees had purchased items that they knew were set to display on the front page before they appeared there publicly – hence knowing that those items were likely jump in price. The employee had to leave the company. The NFT unicorn added that they also implemented several policies that forbid its team members from trading collections that are featured or promoted by the company, among other restrictions.

​​Rising Inflation: Unless UK Acts Now, It Will Not Be Temporary Consumer price inflation in the UK rose by 3.2% year on year in August, the highest annual rise in nearly a decade. This was 1.2 percentage points above the July number, making it the biggest month-on-month rise since records began in 1997. Inflation is also an issue far beyond the UK: in the US, it is currently running at 5.3%, for instance. Bank of England economists conveniently attribute these hefty rises to temporary factors and claim that inflation will soon stop rising in the UK without much intervention. They point out that prices a year ago were artificially subdued and as they returned to more “normal” levels, we were destined to get high measures of inflation. One example would be petrol prices. Subdued demand for commuting helped to lower them to about 113p per gallon at the pump in 2020, yet as travel returned to pre-pandemic levels, increased demand for petrol has pushed prices to around 135p. Or you could look at the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, which lowered the prices people paid in restaurants in summer 2020. As the scheme ended, prices hiked suddenly, which increased inflation. The argument from the optimists is that these one-off shifts will wash through the system and prices will stabilise at their current levels. Yet not all price hikes can be attributed to temporary factors. There are also deeper, structural factors at play. Inflation is measured by the Office for National Statistics, which records the prices of thousands of products. These prices are defined by a never-ending interplay between supply and demand in the economy (assuming the government doesn’t intervene to fix prices in some way). An abundance of excess produce or services means that prices are likely to fall, as we saw with petrol prices. On the other hand, demand for products that can’t be fully satisfied by the supply usually pushes prices higher. This happened with hand sanitisers in 2020, for instance, and more recently with second-hand cars. Besides COVID, Brexit has certainly affected prices. It has rendered trade with the UK’s neighbouring countries more difficult and expensive. This is contributing to shortages of products, pushing prices up. Brexit has also hindered production in the UK by alienating a percentage of EU nationals working in the country. Shortages of fruit pickers, lorry drivers and NHS nurses have been pushing wages higher and making UK production more expensive. And there is the potential for more political and trade disruptions between the UK and EU, not least over Northern Ireland, which could make products and production even more expensive. Another structural factor relevant to inflation is the British pound. The UK imports hundreds of billions of pounds worth of consumer products and raw materials. A lower pound sees the country paying more of its currency to purchase products from abroad, making these products more expensive in pounds.

​Swapp Protocol, Fastest Crypto To Be Listed on Crypto Defi Platform. It seems as though new forms of cryptocurrency are launched every week. Currently, there are around 6,000, a massive increase from 2009 when Bitcoin, the first crypto, was introduced. But few have kicked in the door of the crypto world as swiftly as Swapp. Swapp was listed on Crypto DeFi wallet on August 6th, the fastest crypto ever to be listed on the DeFi platform. Swapp’s recent Airdrop was CoinMarketCap’s third most successful of all time, with more than 539,000 participants. Swapp’s watchlist on CoinMarketCap is well over 500,000. In addition, Swapp Protocol was listed on Coinbase’s new price alerts page as a high potential project. In August, Swapp was the first cryptocurrency to be welcomed into the staid world of thoroughbred horse racing when auction house Fasig-Tipton agreed to accept Swapp Tokens as legal tender at the prestigious Saratoga Sale. Close observers will have noticed that these events all had something in common; they were catalysts for increases in the price of the Swapp Token on Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain. Unlike some DeFi companies, Swapp isn’t shrouded in mystery. The company has more than two dozen employees drawn from various fields and is sister to HubioID, a well-established data management company.

​​Cardano’s Rally Pauses as Smart Contract Launch is Re-confirmed The run-up for Cardano’s native token ADA came to a halt today as the token corrected by 4.9% over the past 24 hours, after having soared more than 50% over the course of last week. The slight correction comes as the planned “Alonzo” upgrade, which will enable smart contracts and decentralized finance (DeFi) capabilities, moves closer with a confirmed September 12 release date. As of press time on Tuesday (07:54 UTC), ADA traded at a price of USD 2.07, per data from CoinGecko. The price is up by nearly 40% for the past 7 days, and 75% for the past 30 days The token currently ranks as the third most valuable cryptoasset on CoinGecko with a market capitalization of USD 66.2bn. That is still well behind of Ethereum (ETH), but ahead of Binance Coin (BNB) and Tether (USDT) at USD 64.5bn and 64.1bn, respectively. Also notable is that last week’s sharp rise for ADA brought it as high as USD 2.25 at its peak, the highest price recorded since it reached an all-time high of USD 2.47 back in May this year. The recent gains for Cardano’s ADA token have come as smart contract functionality appears to soon become a reality on the blockchain platform, which aims to challenge Ethereum’s dominance in the space. In a Twitter update posted by the Cardano-focused research and development firm Input Output on Monday, the September 12 release of Alonzo was reaffirmed, and the team was said to be making “good progress.” “We have been working hard over the weekend and continued to make positive progress, maintaining momentum against the timeline shared in our mid-month update. We’re in a good place but there is further work ahead,” the team at Input Output further added. Adding to investors’ confidence in the rally, blockchain analysis by analytics firm IntoTheBlock also shows some good signs for Cardano, with the onchain signals “net network growth” and the share of holders being “in the money” well into bullish territory. However, a currently negative “bid-ask volume imbalance” on exchanges pulls the overall ranking down to “mostly neutral” on the site. And while fundamentals appear to remain strong for the token, ADA’s price chart also looks healthy from a technical analysis perspective. The latest correction in the price can be seen as a “bull flag,” a bullish chart pattern that typically indicates a resumption of the uptrend later. The next line of resistance after a resumption of the trend would then be the previous all-time high of around USD 2.47.

​​Larger S Korean Crypto Exchanges Announce ‘Temporary’ End of Fiat Trading The ball is finally starting to roll in South Korea, where new rules requiring crypto exchanges to provide real-named authenticated banking services will come into force next week – potentially derailing scores of trading platforms. As previously reported, crypto exchanges must obtain information security management system (ISMS) certification if they are to continue offering crypto-to-crypto trading. But if they want to offer fiat KRW pairings, they must obtain banking deals before September 24. Some exchanges already appear to be ready to concede that this is an impossibility, particularly with a potentially problematic three-day national holiday beginning on Monday next week. This number includes Foblegate and Coinbit, ISMS-certified exchanges that are in the nation’s top 10 in terms of size and trading figures. Per CoinMarketCap data, Foblegate’s 24-hour trading volume stands at almost USD 63m, with Coinbit posting similar figures. They are (respectively) the 89th and 74th biggest platforms in the world per trading volume. KBS reported that the Foblegate exchange said it would “temporarily suspend” KRW trading, although it will still allow KRW withdrawals until the end of the month. The firm claimed that it would keep its crypto-to-crypto services open, and open a new altcoin-to-bitcoin (BTC) market while it looked for a solution to the banking conundrum. Coinbit has also announced that it will stop offering KRW pairings. Also joining their number are a clutch of smaller exchanges, named by KBS as Tennten, Coredax (just outside CoinMarketCap’s top 200) and OKBit. Many leading banks have already ruled out the idea of working with exchanges, but some platforms insist that they are still conducting “talks” with banks. These include the likes of Gopax, Huobi Korea (#28 in the CoinMarketCap 100), and GDAC, who The Fact reported are still “holding conversations” with commercial banks. An industry professional familiar with the matter told "Cryptonews com" under the condition of anonymity that other platforms such as Hanbitco (#62 in the CoinMarketCap 100) were also believed to be speaking to domestic banks. Time, though, is running out. The same industry professional told "Cryptonews com" that banks are still showing great reluctance about the idea of partnering with a non-“big four” trading platform. All four members of the “big four” (Upbit, Bithumb, Korbit, and Coinone) have renewed their existing banking contracts and are now awaiting the green light from regulators. The financial authorities have requested up to three months to review documents. The picture appears to be much bleaker for firms that have failed to obtain ISMS documentation. The Fact quoted an official from the Financial Intelligence Unit, the regulatory body that will police exchanges as of September 24, as stating: “After checking on the status of exchanges that have not applied for ISMS certification, we found that many have stopped trading cryptocurrencies and have already shuttered their businesses.”

​​NFT Insider Trading On OpenSea Highlights Benefits of Decentralization Accusations of insider trading on the popular OpenSea marketplace prompted talks about the need for a decentralized non-fungible tokens (NFT) trading platform. It all started with an anonymous thread on Twitter that alleged that the Head of Product at OpenSea, Nate Chastain, appears to have several secret wallets that buy the marketplace’s drops before they are listed, “then sells them shortly after the front-page-hype spike for profits, and then tumbles them back to his main wallet with his Cryptopunk on it.” OpenSea confirmed that yesterday they learned that one their employees purchased items that they knew were set to display on the front page before they appeared there publicly. OpenSea added that they have also implemented several policies that forbid its team members from trading collections that are featured or promoted by the company, among other restrictions. In either case, as soon as this caught the Cryptoverse’s eye, the discussions started on whether this is illegal or just unethical in the physical art world, but also on how useful NFTs are to insiders – with some saying quite a lot, comparing them to fiat. And a major debate popped up again – that of decentralization within the space. As for whether such platforms exist, Alex Gausman, Founder of NFTX, tweeted that this is a decentralized marketplace, and that it’s the direction NFTX will be moving as they complete features for automated liquidity. “Our decentalized autonomous organization treasury also has USD 71m net worth. All managed 100% onchain through Aragon. All votes requiring > 80% consensus to pass,” Gausman said. Matthew Graham of Sino Global Capital chimed in, saying that if the rumors are true, Chastain should be fired, and law enforcement should be involved, while Maya Zehavi, a Founding Board Member of the Israeli Blockchain Industry Forum, argued that this is something the US Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) should be dealing with.

​​Russian Blockchain Experts Are Offered Almost x5 the National Average Salary Blockchain-related salaries are rising fast in Russia – with developers also starting to command higher salaries than most of their IT professional peers. Even though the government and the central Bank of Russia continue in their efforts to marginalize the sector, it appears that some bigger companies and startups are still banking on crypto success in the long run. Last week, Reuters reported, the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) released quarterly data showing that the Russian economy had actually grown by a staggering 10.5% year-on-year for “its strongest leap since 2000.” But for some, that expansion and any accompanying profitability are already being reinvested – in developers’ and analysts’ skyrocketing salaries. Speaking to Izvestia, Natalia Golovanova, an executive with the Russian employment platform SuperJob, said that the highest annual salary growth rates are now to be found in the domestic IT sector. She explained that in nominal terms (with inflation excluded), growth in the wider tech sector “amounted to 23.3%, and in the first two quarters of 2021, salaries increased by 13.8%.” But it is blockchain specialists who are now getting the truly plum salaries in Russia. The report’s authors noted that most newly hired developers in Moscow could expect salaries of around USD 2,745 per month (in a city where the average salary is about USD 1,470 per month). But in the case of blockchain analysts, the figure could rise to just shy of USD 5,000, more than even experts like DevOps engineers and 1C (Enterprise) programmers. "Cryptonews com" also found blockchain and crypto-related job postings both on SuperJob and other platforms posting starting monthly salaries up to USD 5,000 – with one Moscow-based firm looking for a senior front-end developer on a blockchain “project” and offering up to over USD 6,850 a month. Izvestia quoted Yuri Mikheev, the head of the "Zarplata ru" analytics department, as stating that in “early autumn 2021,” the “highest-paid vacancies” outside senior execute positions are to be found “in the IT field,” where salary growth had shot up by 11%. Mikheev concluded that “analysts and developers in the field of blockchain” were among the most sought-out candidates in the industry – and could command some of the best-paying salaries on the market.

​​Pros and Cons of Diversifying Your Portfolio Everyone knows that if you want to get serious about trading, no matter what your asset of choice might be, you should diversify your portfolio in order to mitigate the risk of loss and improve the odds for profiting. However, although the pros tend to outweigh the cons by a large margin, this doesn’t mean there are no drawbacks to diversifying. This is the most obvious advantage of having a diversified portfolio. If the markets move downwards, you don’t risk your whole portfolio taking a plunge if you have invested in different types of assets. On the other hand, this also means that you can make a profit on one asset while the others are stagnating. There is, after all, such a thing as over-diversification. If you hedge risks too carefully, you are not very likely to lose much—but you also won’t be able to gain much, either. Watering down your portfolio can take all the fun out of investing and/or trading. Diversification means you will have to pay attention to far more markets than you would with only a few assets. This can help you get a better understanding of each of them, which can in turn help you make more informed choices later. While trading can be turned into a full-time job, for many retail traders it is just a side hobby. This means that you have to keep up with everything that’s happening on top of your everyday workload. This can take a toll on your daily energy levels. Some areas in the world experience economic booms while others stagnate, so diversification is a great way to take part in that boom without putting all your eggs into one basket. Nowadays, it is easier than ever to expand your horizons, investment-wise. Seemingly minor, this can eat into your profits if you’re too diversified. The cost of upkeep can get too much, especially if you’ve hedged your risks so well that you’re barely profiting off your portfolio. Admittedly, there can be no real consensus as to whether a concentrated or a diversified portfolio is right for you. The only person who can decide that is the trader. However, no matter what you decide, choosing a trading platform that can support any portfolio type you prefer is the key consideration. At PrimeXBT, you can trade cryptocurrencies, forex, indices, and commodities—or just one of these—from a single account. You can decide to spread out or you can take your bets with a few carefully chosen assets. Finally, their copy trading module Covesting allows you to follow the strategies of pro traders, or share your own with the world.

​​Top Guidelines of Crypto Casino Games I am certain by now you have probably used or heard of cryptocurrencies. The likes of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, Ripple, and Litecoin have been used to make payments in different industries across the globe. But, the iGaming business has been the most popular industry to incorporate crypto coins for casino payments. The success of cryptocurrencies in the gambling world is because of the modern games being designed by top developers. In simple terms, a crypto casino game is a title powered by the blockchain (crypto) network. So, instead of using the regular FIAT payment options like Visa and MasterCard, these casino games are designed to accept crypto coins for deposits. The crypto games also use (NFTs) non-fungible tokens, where you get to own or acquire special assets or rewards and trade them with other players of the same game. Playing crypto games is easy. But, first, you have to know the best place to play cryptocurrency casino games. The most trustworthy crypto casino sites usually offer you a plethora of games to increase your winning chances. So, after you have identified an online casino, you will be prompted to make the first deposit. The best operators will offer you a lucrative signup bonus to get you started. After your account is set up, you can go ahead and select your preferred crypto game to play. One of the pros of playing at a crypto casino is that you get to use the bonus money on your first round. This way, even if you lose, you will still have your money to fall back to. But also, if you win with the bonus cash, you will still get to withdraw real money once you’ve met the wagering requirements. The crypto casinos on our page usually offer games in different categories. So, you can wager on crypto slots games, table games, live dealer games, and so much more. All the crypto casino games are also provably fair. So, you can check out the fairness of the game by yourself when playing at the online casino-guaranteeing your online gambling security. It’s easy to use cryptocurrencies to wager at an online casino. First, setting up a crypto wallet is an easy process. Unlike credit cards, you will only have to open an account at any of the top-rated crypto exchange platforms. After that, you will only be required to provide the wallet address when you are making a deposit or withdrawal at the casino site. You should also note that the best crypto casinos do not charge for deposits or withdrawals. Crypto casino payments are also processed instantly, so you will not have to wait for three working days to receive your winnings. Also, cryptocurrencies are not governed by a central authority. So, anonymity is guaranteed- unlike when you use credit cards for casino transactions, it will reflect in your monthly statements. Doesn’t that sound fun!

​​Drops Allows NFT Holders and DeFi Traders Consistent Returns on Digital Assets Holdings The NFT and DeFi space are growing at an exponential rate. Recently, Piplsay Research had revealed that around 18% of Americans had invested in NFTs, and even though the report was factually inaccurate, it does highlight an important emerging trend. Professional athletes and celebrities across the globe have expressed considerable interest in getting involved with NFTs by issuing their own unique versions. Many industry experts are now recommending that investors consider gaining exposure to the non-fungible tokens space. NFT and DeFi asset holders who have already acquired NFTs might now be looking for ways to put their parked assets to work. These investors might be looking to make solid returns without having to sell their holdings. Meanwhile, other investors or traders might be wanting to leverage their assets as collateral. It’s worth noting, however, that just like the traditional arts or collectibles markets, the current NFT ecosystem may lack sufficient liquidity. This may be concerning for investors that want to use their assets to enter arbitrage opportunities, or acquire other assets with strong upside potential. Experienced traders may also be looking to avoid margin calls on their collateralized debt positions. This approach may also help with adding to the price appreciation, thus helping to increase a trader’s returns in their investments. As the NFT market continues to grow at a rapid pace, it will require scalable platforms for offering quick loans for NFTs and DeFi-related assets. Investors need reliable ways to leverage out of their digital asset holdings for loans and to enter lucrative yield farming positions. Decentralized Loan and Burrow protocol Drops has been introduced to allow investors to get considerable value from their idle NFT and DeFi-related assets. Drops can help traders with putting their unproductive DeFi and NFT portfolio to work by using its platform to borrow funds or earn steady returns by lending assets to other platform users. Drops lets traders easily borrow against their DeFi and NFT tokens. This strategy can help with reducing the opportunity cost of holding onto governance or liquidity tokens by using them as collateral and making decent returns and special rewards on short-term loans. NFTs may also be used for loans. For example, traders may use their non-fungible tokens as collateral and obtain a “trustless” loan. The funding may be obtained without having to contact a lender or having to wait for a lengthy loan approval process, since these are “permissionless” NFT Lending Pools. Additionally, Drops lets investors turn their parked or unproductive assets into “active” yield. Idle assets are quite often lost opportunities. With Drops, however, investors can potentially get a lot more value from their investments by providing different stablecoins and governance tokens to fungible or NFT lending pools in exchange for consistent returns and incentives. The Drops team explains that you have the option to create or participate in an existing pool. When traders take part in these lending pools that satisfy their particular requirements and terms or they create one by choosing which NFTs they’d like to accept along with the amounts that they want to be borrowed against them. The Drops website also mentions that traders can earn steady returns on their crypto holdings and NFT assets by choosing a lending pool that suits their needs and by offering liquidity.

​​Another Japanese Crypto Exchange Will Add XRP Support The Ripple-affiliated XRP token has won another re-listing victory in Japan, where the coin will be made available for trading again on the TaoTao crypto exchange later this month. Per an official announcement, TaoTao stated that the coin would be listed on September 22 following a period of maintenance. The firm added that in addition to spot trading, the coin would also “be available” for margin and leveraged trading. Like many other international exchanges, a large number of Japanese trading platforms delisted or “temporarily suspended” XRP trading after the American Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brought charges against Ripple executives, alleging that they had “knowingly” sold XRP as an “unregistered security.” Ripple has hotly disputed this claim, and a protracted legal battle has ensued, with no sign of a victory or defeat forthcoming on either side. But XRP adoption rates remain high in Japan, where Ripple’s presence has been boosted by its close association with the SBI Group, the Japanese financial conglomerate that owns TaoTao. SBI bought TaoTao in 2020 from its business rival SoftBank’s Yahoo Japan. Earlier this month, it announced plans to merge the TaoTao platform with its own-branded SBI VC Trade crypto exchange. The latter already offers XRP trading, in addition to bitcoin (BTC) and three other major altcoins. The news comes hot on the heels of another coup for XRP in Japan. The e-commerce giant Rakuten’s crypto exchange Rakuten Wallet resumed XRP trading on September 8. Exchange rivals such as GMO Coin and BitBank also list the token. However, it comes as little surprise to see an SBI subsidiary add XRP support – after all, SBI is one of Ripple’s closest partners. The two firms run the SBI Ripple Asia cross-border remittance platform and the SBI CEO Yoshitaka Kitao is a Ripple board member. SBI has even given out XRP bonuses to its shareholders, and its e-sports team pays its roster in XRP. At 11:10 UTC, XRP was trading at USD 1.06. The token was down by almost 5% in the past 24 hours, with a weekly price drop of 18.7%, and a monthly drop of 3%.

Coinbase to Sell $1.5B of 7-Year, 10-Year Debt The funds will be used for general corporate purposes, which may include acquisitions. Coinbase, the Nasdaq-traded crypto exchange, said it plans to sell $1.5 billion of debt through a private offering. The notes will become due in 2028 and 2031, the company said. The funds will be used for general purposes, which may include product development and possible acquisitions of other companies. The sale will be through a private offering. S&P Global Ratings assigned the planned debt a BB+ rating, and gave Coinbase a credit rating of BB+ as well. The interest rate and other terms have yet to be determined.

Price of Litecoin Spikes on Fake Walmart Press Release The fake news release caused the price of litecoin to spike almost 30% on Monday morning before returning to previous levels. An earlier version of this article took the alleged Walmart press release at face value. The story has been rewritten to reflect that the document was inauthentic and includes market reaction. The price of litecoin surged Monday morning after a fake press announcement was released saying retail giant Walmart intended to offer its customers the option to make payments in crypto via a new partnership with the Litecoin Foundation. Walmart confirmed, however, that the press release was fake, saying that “Walmart had no knowledge of the press release issued by GlobeNewswire, and it is incorrect.” The news initially caused the price of litecoin to soar almost 30% from $175.45 to $225.75, and the price of bitcoin to rise 1.8% to $45,540. Litecoin’s price has since fallen back to $178, while the price of bitcoin has dropped to $44,498.