Crypto Push

​​Bitpanda New Partner Lydia's 5.5M Users Will be Able to Invest in Crypto Major French mobile financial services app Lydia is slated to offer its 5.5m users exposure to a wide range of crypto assets after a partnership with the Austrian crypto exchange Bitpanda. As part of the deal, Lydia will integrate Bitpanda’s digital asset investment product, dubbed 'White Label Solution,' to allow its customers to invest 24/7 in more than 100 digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, fractional stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETF), and precious metals. Founded in 2013, Lydia is a daily financial “super-app” said to be used by a third of the French 18 to 35 year olds. The app has raised a total of USD 131m in two funding rounds in 2020, though it did not disclose valuation. “With Lydia trading, our ambition is to widen access to investment assets, to make it accessible to everyone whether they are simply curious, beginner investors or experts," said Cyril Chiche, the app's CEO and co-founder. "Our goal is to reimagine what it means to invest, by making simple, easy-to-use financial products for everyone," Eric Demuth, Bitpanda co-founder and CEO, was quoted saying. Bitpanda raised USD 170m earlier this year in a Series B funding round and earned a valuation of USD 1.2bn, becoming Austria’s first tech unicorn. In its Series C funding round, however, the exchange raised USD 263m, earning a valuation of USD 4.1bn. Meanwhile, the exchange has been aggressively expanding its presence across Europe. Just recently, Bitpanda unveiled a partnership with Fabrick, an Italian open finance provider, that will offer digital asset trading services to Italian banks and fintechs. The exchange has also hired former JPMorgan executive Joshua Barraclough as CEO of its advanced trading platform Bitpanda Pro. "We are confident that this is just the beginning: we are committed to offering everyone investment options for any budget and risk appetite," Demuth added.

​​Developer shares insights on ETH 2.0 and why he’s ‘feeling good about Ethereum right now’ Ethereum’s market cap dropped below $500 billion at press time. Needless to say that Ethereum’s short-term weakness doesn’t really bother its long-term investors as it still holds over $166 billion in TVL. What’s coming? Well, the network is gearing up for ETH 2.0, its biggest upgrade since 2015. As per developer Tim Beiko, both ETH 1.0 and ETH 2.0 teams worked together in October on the prototypes for the transition. With most “specifications in place,” Beiko explained what’s coming next in an interview. He said, “What we’re doing during November is we’re trying to have these very short-lived test nets.” But, even before that, ETH 2.0 deposit contract has topped the staked value of 100,000 ETH. With the confidence in the market, Beiko also hoped that they have something substantial before the December holidays. What Beiko was referring to is the Arrow Glacier upgrade that is projected to take place on 8 December 2021. The developer commented that the Ethereum community is interacting to understand the changes that are to come. With that, the milestone of the ‘Merge’ is closer than ever. But, when is it scheduled for? Beiko answered, “Next year, for sure.” Also, Beiko added that if the codes are done by February, the Merge should commence somewhere in April or May. He also said, “It’s hard to give it a specific date just yet because if we find a major bug or something that takes us three weeks to fix you know, that delays things by three weeks.” Nonetheless, the chair of all core devs at the Ethereum Foundation is looking quite optimistic, as he mentioned, “I’m feeling pretty good about Ethereum right now” 100 days of EIP-1559 With ETH 2.0 in focus, EIP-1559, which took place on 5 August this year, deserves a mention as well. According to Christine Kim, a Research Associate at Galaxy Digital, “EIP1559 has saved users a total of $844 million in transaction fees through base fee refunds” since its activation. The improvement proposal is considered a milestone as it is set to begin a deflationary trend on Ethereum. Kim added, “56% of new coins issued on Ethereum has been offset by the amount of $ETH burned through base fees.” However, there are still some shortcomings in the existing network. The researcher noted that the “average cost of sending a transaction on Ethereum has continued to climb.” While it has not decreased miner revenue, high fees remain a problem for Ethereum, according to Kim. ” Despite lower earnings from transaction fees, total miner revenue in dollar terms has increased 33%. In this context, Beiko agreed about the fees, “I think we’re on the right path… If I could accelerate something it would be better tooling and migrations around layer 2. I think the fees on Ethereum are quite high right now. “ Having said that, Real Vision founder and investor Raoul Pal is seeing an Ethereum spike as much as 300% by December-end. He predicted, “Now, I don’t expect perfection but with all the other analysis I have done, something like a 100% to 300% rally is highly probable into year end.”

​​Spooky Shiba - first horror-NFT project 😱 Spooky Shiba - is a BSC token, BUT the project itself is based on the interconnection with the NFT market! All token holders will automatically participate in daily and weekly lotteries with pretty curious rewards 🎁 Spooky Shiba is subject to 10% tax: 5% for the liquidity pool and 5% for a marketing wallet. Expenses gonna be redirected to the involvement of famous YouTube bloggers and affluent Twitter personas! Ads broadcast on all main social networks and even in New York - Times Square billboard 🔥 There are 3 different NFT rarity levels: Common, Rare, and Legendary. There will also be a set of 222 NFTs, 111 of these will be raffled off as prizes, while the remaining 111 will be available for purchase! Future plans: HORROR METAVERSE 🤫 💭 Gonna be honest - the project looks indeed interesting and promising. • Follow the link to buy the token: LINK • Got any questions? You’re very welcome to our chat: ENG

​​ODIN boards Cardano and cooperates with OKEx Odin is a platform with a variety of features that will appeal to a wide range of traders. New traders will enjoy learning and acquiring expertise from more experienced traders; algorithmic traders will have a chance to host their bots that are easy to develop without coding requirements. Odin will also provide other capabilities that will include targeting a specific audience, monetizing content, copy trading, personal landing pages, and much more. Partnerships Brewing With Cardano & OKEx Odin has been busy lately forging partnerships with strategic significance to the project and the efficiency of the protocol. Odin’s plans to make the trading functionality of the protocol as streamlined and smooth as possible, have led to the partnership with OKEx and Cardano which will provide multiple benefits for the users on the Odin platform. By partnering with OKEx, users will be able to use more advanced trading options, such as spot, margin, and futures trading. They can also trade options on OKEx DEX, which provides them with new options in the decentralized markets. Partnership with Cardano transferred Odin into a multichain platform and boosted its performance, security, and reliability. Multichain usage ensures network scalability as a private protocol by limiting the data exchanged every block, reducing irrelevant data, and enhancing transaction speed. Cardano (ADA) is a low-fee blockchain that can handle transactions and smart contracts without a lot of overhead. Its dual-layer architecture separates computing tasks from settlement procedures, allowing each layer to handle the increased workload. Currently, the blockchain can sustain up to a whopping 1 million transactions per second (TSP); Visa and Mastercard can sustain about 5000 transactions per second (TSP), making Cardano (ADA) ready for mass adoption and implementation. About OKEx OKEx is an innovative cryptocurrency exchange with advanced financial services. The exchange relies on blockchain technology to provide everything users need for wise trading and investment. Users can enjoy hundreds of tokens and trading pairs; serving millions of users in over 100 countries. OKEx provides spot, margin, options, and perpetual swaps, DeFi, lending, and mining services. Visit Odin to learn more about the project and its detailed features.

​​Crypto Market Sentiment Unchanged; Cardano Takes the Throne After finally re-entering the positive zone last Monday, crypto market sentiment is holding onto it tight, but without seeing a relevant change. Compared to last week’s 6.04, the average 7-day moving crypto market sentiment score (sentscore) for ten major cryptoassets is now 6.02, according to the market sentiment analysis service Omenics. A small majority – or 6 out of 10 – coins have turned or remained red over the past seven days, with tether (USDT) taking the largest drop, of 8.2%. Notably, tether was last week’s winner. Its drop is followed by USD coin (USDC)’s 7.5%, while on the lower end we see litecoin (LTC)’s 3%, polkadot (DOT)’s 2.9%, chainlink (LINK)’s 1.8%, and lastly bitcoin (BTC)’s 0.1%. On the opposite side is this week’s winner: cardano (ADA), with a rise to its sentscore of 7.9%. The next in line is 4.9% by binance coin (BNB), followed by ethereum (ETH)’s 1.4% and XRP’s 0.3%. Therefore, bitcoin’s and ethereum’s scores remain unchanged over the past week. Meanwhile, four of the ten coins are in the positive zone, these being BTC, ETH, DOT, and LINK, respectively. But others are not far behind, with the two stablecoins having the lowest scores, of 5.3. The rest sit within the 5.6-5.9 range. Now, we’re taking a closer look at the situation in the past 24 hours alone. The 24h sentscore for these 10 coins combined is lower than the one recorded last Monday: 5.75 compared to 5.93 a week ago. All but two coins are red. Therefore, the winners of the day by default are bitcoin, the score of which is up by 5.1%, and binance coin, with 0.3%. The highest drop is 4.1% seen by LINK, with another four coins’ sentscores falling between 2% and 2.5%, two more dropping 1.1% each, and ETH decreasing the least – 0.1%. BTC and ETH are the only coins in the positive zone. And while USDT sits below 5, at 4.6, the rest have sentscores between 5.1 and 5.9. Now, looking into the 25 coins outside of the top 10 list which are also tracked by Omenics, we find that the scores of 11 of them have dropped over the past week. The highest of these is WAVES’s 6.4%, followed by cosmos (ATOM)’s 4.5%. The lowest drop is REN’s 0.1%. Meanwhile, the top two places among the green coins are taken by yearn finance (YFI) with an increase to its sentscore of 8.5%, and maker (MKR) with 7.2%. The lowest rise is 0.3% by vechain (VET). Three coins are in the positive zone – algorand (ALGO), tron (TRX), and zcash (ZEC). WAVES and REN have scores of 4.6 and 4.9, respectively, while the rest sit in the 5-5.9 zone.

​​With these factors fueling it, MANA can stretch to $5 prior to correction Decentraland’s native token MANA has generated a monthly ROI of 370% and looked determined to set higher records following a descending wedge breakout. Although the breakout target had been achieved, strong buy volumes could push MANA to its 78.6% Fibonacci level before an overbought RSI triggers a correction. At the time of writing, MANA traded at $3.62, up by 20% over the last 24 hours. MANA 4-hour Chart MANA continued to push north from its breakout target at the 61.8% Fibonacci level and set sights on $4 over the next few sessions. It was also helped by a bullish crossover between the 20-SMA (red) and 50-SMA (yellow). Now interestingly, MANA was the fourth most traded crypto over the last 24 hours, with volumes of over nearly $8 Billion. Should MANA continue to add on these numbers above the 78.6% Fibonacci level, 30 October’s high at $5 would be its next destination. However, it’s worth noting that the 4-hour RSI was at overbought levels and a near-term correction was on the cards. If sellers do take countermeasures, the first line of defense stood at the newly flipped 61.8% Fibonacci level. A more reliable support lay at the 50% Fibonacci level, which coincided with the short-mid term moving average lines. Reasoning MANA’s breakout was underpinned by bullish signals along most of its indicators. The Squeeze Momentum Indicator flashed rising green bars following a ‘squeeze release’, while the DMI witnessed a bullish crossover. An ADX reading of 34 even indicated a strong directional trend in the market. On the flip side, RSI’s overbought nature could generate some selling pressure as investors cash out on the rally. Conclusion MANA could extend to its 78.6% Fibonacci level and even $5 should buy volumes not waver. Once a correction takes place, expect MANA to find respite at the 50% Fibonacci level, which was backed by the 20-SMA and 50-SMA.

​​Here’s what you should and shouldn’t expect after AAVE V3 AAVE V2 was an important moment in DeFi history. It brought various new features to the protocol, pushed AAVE forward and as a result, catalyzed the TVL to where it is today. However, the way it affected the price of AAVE is what has brought us here today. Because, looking at AAVE’s present-day movement, V3 could change that dramatically. The AAVE dilemma AAVE, despite being the third-largest DeFi protocol, has been one of the more underwhelming tokens in the spot market. Its growth has been very slow and there haven’t been any major developments, except for the SUSHI and DPI event of 29 October. While the AAVE Improvement Protocol (AIP) was executed for the betterment of the network, it led to a $6 billion decline in the Total Value Locked (TVL) the next day. Since the beginning of November, the TVL has been recovering though, with the same around $16.5 billion at press time. Alas, in the spot market, the token is yet to break the descending wedge it has been stuck in since 16 October’s market top. In order to push AAVE and help it break that wedge for good, AAVE V3 might turn out to be the perfect tool. The proposal was announced last week and it aims to bring multiple new features to transform the protocol. These are a few of the important features mentioned in the announcement – Portal – Useful in seamlessly moving between V3 markets and other networks Isolation Mode – To limit exposure and risks to the protocol from newly listed assets by only permitting borrowing up to a specific debt ceiling Cross-chain facilitation – Users can now transfer their own individual liquidity seamlessly from one deployment of the Aave Protocol on one network to another There are many more, but these are the major highlights. AAVE V3 is also focused on greatly improving the decentralization of the protocol, as well as making a next-generation Layer-0 DeFi protocol. How did the community react? Over the last week, the community has been very appreciative and accepting of the proposal. The announcement, in a way, recovered the loss of positivity from the SUSHI-DIP AIP. While the improvements are likely to be favorable for the protocol in the long term, we are yet to know if the market will react bullishly. When AAVE V2 was launched back in December 2020, AAVE had just been listed a month before it. Even then, for one month straight, it made no significant move. It was only after 3 January 2021 that AAVE rose by 460% on the price charts. With AAVE V3, no one really expects a 460% rally. But, at the very least, it might see a hike that is decent enough to pull AAVE out of its descending wedge.

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​​The Ethereum Premine Debate On Fairness, Regulation, and Centralization -"A pre-mine is unethical and favors some actors over others in a political fashion." -"The ICO can be classified as a security offering and the ether tokens as securities." -The ETH sale was actually more open and distributed than critics claim. -The ETH camp claims that PoS doesn’t favor actors with large holdings in ETH. You may not be aware of this, but back in July 2014, Ethereum (ETH) had a premine in which around ETH 60m (worth around USD 272bn now) tokens were sold for a total of USD 18.3m, while 12m was kept aside for early contributors and the Ethereum Foundation. At ETH 72m, this total accounts for around 63.7% of Ethereum’s current total supply, raising the specter of centralization, particularly as the platform transitions to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. Indeed, for many of Ethereum’s detractors, its premine is one of the key reasons why it will never be as decentralized as Bitcoin (BTC), and why it may end up being controlled by a relatively small group of people (if it isn’t already). At the same time, they suggest that premine is akin to an initial coin offering (ICO), thereby putting Ethereum potentially in the line of fire of the US Securities and Exchange Commission. However, the Ethereum community denies that the 2014 premine has any effect on the platform’s decentralization, arguing that the premined ETH was distributed to thousands of people. At the same time, they argue that Ethereum’s shift to PoS won’t decrease its decentralization. Ethereum premine = bad? “A pre-mine is unethical and favors some actors over others in a political fashion. Consequently, the issues that are created are not only in the future, but also in the present and in the past,” said Bitcoin author and advocate Gigi. He suggests that one of the big issues with Ethereum’s premine sale is that it risks regulatory repercussions for the platform, particularly in the event that it distributed tokens to only a relatively small number of buyers. This does appear to be the case, given data from the sale indicating that 40% of the sold total went to only 100 purchasers. “More and more people come to the conclusion that the Ethereum presale has the characteristics of an illegal security offering,” he told "Cryptonews com", advising readers to study articles published by lawyer Preston Byrne and researcher Hasu in 2018 (as well as the Amy Castor piece linked to above). And Gigi isn’t the only observer who asserts that the premine likely qualifies ETH as a security. This is also the view of Josef Tětek, the Trezor Brand Ambassador at SatoshiLabs. “First, the ICO can be classified as a security offering and the ether tokens as securities. The SEC can change its previous stance on this matter, simply because the offering isn’t much different from what subsequent ICOs -- classified as unlicensed securities offerings -- have done,” he told "Cryptonews com". On top of this, Tětek also notes that the premine will exacerbate problems surrounding concentration of ownership and centralization, particularly as Ethereum becomes Ethereum 2.0 at some point (next year?). “Second, the switch to the proof-of-stake system will benefit mostly those that were there for the premine and the initial sale and thus cement the power of these insiders and make Ethereum even more centralized than it is today,” he said. Basically, the thinking here is that, because the Ethereum Foundation sold ETH now worth hundreds of billions to a ‘handful’ of buyers, these individuals/entities will be able to exert an undue influence over staking once Ethereum 2.0 becomes a reality. “Proof-of-stake leads to centralization even without any premine -- already we can see staking-as-a-service offered by exchanges and other third parties ... The premine paves the way for even faster centralization, as those with most coins will further concentrate power over the network and gain on relative importance over time,” said Tětek.

​​Bitcoin Turns Into a Political Tool as US Mayors Compete For BTC Salaries Another US politician deciding to accept some of their salary in crypto shows how bitcoin (BTC) is increasingly becoming a political instrument for decision-makers who wish to appeal to more tech-savvy and crypto-friendly voters. The election of Eric Adams as the new mayor of New York City has added another crypto-enthusiast to the growing club of crypto-friendly US mayors who declared readiness to accept their next paycheck in BTC, alongside the mayors of Miami and Jackson, Tennessee. Miami’s notoriously pro-crypto Mayor Francis Suarez, who was reelected earlier this week as the Republican Party’s candidate, announced shortly after his win he would take his next paycheck “100% in bitcoin”. This has triggered a response by Adams, a Democrat, who vowed during the campaign to transform the Big Apple into “the center of bitcoins.” “In New York we always go big, so I’m going to take my first THREE paychecks in Bitcoin when I become mayor. NYC is going to be the center of the cryptocurrency industry and other fast-growing, innovative industries! Just wait!” Adams tweeted. Taking into account his predecessor’s reported base annual salary of USD 258,541, this would leave Adams with about USD 64,635 worth of cryptocurrency, or slightly more than BTC 1 as of pixel time (UTC 09:00). The mayor-elect’s declaration was welcomed by Suarez who congratulated Adams on his election and said he was looking “forward to the friendly competition in making our respective cities a crypto capital!” As the stakes went higher, the competition for America’s most crypto-friendly mayor was joined by Scott Conger of Jackson, Tennessee, who has served as the city’s mayor since 2019. The politician announced that, while he could not legally be paid in bitcoin by the city under the state law, he would make sure to buy some crypto with his next salary “and instantly convert my next paycheck to Bitcoin”. Furthermore, Jayson Stewart, the mayor of Cool Valley in Missouri, has went as far as to pledge he would provide USD 1,000 worth of bitcoin to every household in his town of about 1,100 residents.

​​NFTs Tied to ‘The Matrix Resurrections’ to Launch Ahead of the Film Warner Bros has teamed up with Nifty, a non-fungible token (NFT) platform, to release digital collectibles tied to “The Matrix Resurrections,” an upcoming science fiction film, to be premiered in December this year. The studio aims to sell 100,000 Matrix-inspired, avatar-themed NFTs that will go on sale starting November 30 at USD 50 per each. In mid-December, the Matrix NFT owners will be given the choice to take a "Blue Pill" or a "Red Pill." Taking the Blue Pill will keep the avatar's character in the Matrix, while the other pill will transform it into a resistance fighter. Reportedly, there will be more challenges and options in the coming months. “We really think that theme, of digital identity, and choice, and owning that identity, resonates with the themes in The Matrix franchise,” Jeff Marsilio, CEO and co-founder of Nifty’s, told The Hollywood Reporter. “It was an opportunity to take what was already a grassroots movement with the NFT avatar, and take it further mainstream.” Back in July, Warner launched a series of NFTs marking the release of "Space Jam: A New Legacy," an animated sports comedy film that starred the professional basketball player LeBron James. Hollywood and the broader film industry have been recently eyeing NFTs as a way to offer unique, exclusive digital arts to advocates. Just yesterday, Quentin Tarantino, a prominent film director, unveiled that he will offer seven uncut "Pulp Fiction" scenes in the form of digital collectibles. Some movie makers are even using NFTs as an independent way to fund their projects. For instance, Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher launched an NFT project in July to fund their upcoming animated show called Stoner Cats.

​​HODLing their Bitcoin plays out well for miners, in the long run Bitcoin miners’ behavior is not as unpredictable as compared to other HODLers. As the month of October has come to an end, it is important to see if they played an important role in the rally that Bitcoin witnessed this month. Surprisingly the observations revealed how much miners affected the price movement and how they would continue to do so ahead. Bitcoin miners’ accumulation Amid rising prices, the miners’ movement brought forth an interesting pattern which contributed to Bitcoin’s rally this month. According to a report from Kraken, Bitcoin miners’ HODLing behavior over the month created a supply shock in the market. And with the market being in a position of strength due to the supply shock led to a price rise. However, not all miner cohorts have been HODLing. If you look at the 1-hop addresses (individual miners) they have been selling for profit into the market strength. Even though they had been HODLing from July until September, their supply has just been declining since and has come down by 100,000 BTC from 2.72 million BTC. On the other hand, 0-hop addresses’ (mining pool holdings) supply has been rising since September. Currently up by 42% it has gone up from $74.1 billion to stand at $105 billion. In fact, a lot of the largest mining firms have publicly reported that they are holding well over 20,459 BTC worth $1.25 billion. Mining firms which have been adding their HODLed Bitcoin to their balance sheets are basically contributing to the long-term holding sentiment and also further contributing to the latest supply shock. These figures will probably continue to grow if the market remains strong since we’ve already had 7 positive difficulty adjustments in a row in the last 3 months, indicating the return of hash and miners, which is also backed by the improving hash rate. Consequently, revenue per hash is declining significantly. But the rising prices have kept the revenue per hash at levels similar to that in April – May. This HODLing behavior is actually helping mining companies further their growth as a company and one of the best examples is that of Rhodium Enterprises. The mining company registered with the SEC for a planned IPO planning to raise about $100 million through it. If Bitcoin prices remain at a high, this move would actually play out in favor of the miners in the long run.

​​These factors are setting up the stage for Polkadot’s rally to new ATH For over three months now, Polkadot has had a sustained rally with occasional speed breakers, but an all-in-all-good run. However, DOT’s last three attempts to blast above its ATH have gone in vain. Polkadot traded at $43.30 noting 1.28% daily gains, alongside Bitcoin comfortably sitting above $61K. It almost seemed like the stage was set for DOT to rally provided certain developmental changes aligned with its on-chain activity. Setting the stage Polkadot’s price faded before it could make a new all-time high on 26 October but with DOT oscillating close to the $44 mark, all it needs is push to a new ATH. Recently, Gavin Wood noted that a relay-to-relay chain bridge between Polkadot and Kusama (KSM), is expected to be operational before the end of this year. Also, that bridging between the underlying parachains is on the roadmap for the early months of 2022. These developments seemed to have pumped DOT’s dominance across the market. Additionally, the institutional investment side for DOT looked pretty solid too, as Polkadot was also the most held asset by VCs and hedge funds. That said, DOT’s circulating market cap was nearing ATH levels of $45.06 billion and stood at a modest $43.54 billion. The circulating market cap, i.e. the price of the asset multiplied by the circulating supply, was noting high values. It meant that the market’s perception of the asset’s future prospects was good. Another factor that seemed to be driving DOT’s rally was the high retail FOMO the coin has been witnessing of late. Evidently, DOT teasing the market with the hope of an ATH had worked pretty well in the favour of its price. Notably, in spite of DOT’s price struggling under the $45 resistance its trade volumes have seen impressive upticks. Looks like this retail FOMO was giving DOT’s price a cushion. These speed-breakers still persist After DOT’s price tumbled back below $45.22 its open interest in the futures market seemed to have dwindled. Even though the OI was relatively higher, it was lower than the October 20 levels and stood at $861.73 million, at the time of writing. Moreover, DOT saw some notable long liquidations on October 27 amounting to $17.1 million, as its price dropped to as low as $38.7. However, developments like the Polkadot-based privacy layer project, Manta Network, which is set for a launch in an upcoming token event called “Squad Game,” are still pushing DOT’s narrative. Further, in a first-of-its-kind initiative, Polkadot has invited users to vote on the blockchain’s future branding. This way, DOT may be setting an example of decentralized social coordination and these healthy activities could push DOT to an ATH sooner.

​​First Bitcoin ETF Moves to November Contracts as Competition Heats Up Despite initial worries that the first bitcoin (BTC) futures-backed ETF would turn out too popular for its own good, data from the ETF’s issuer, ProShares, shows that it is still trading at modest premium. As of Thursday, the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF with the ticker BITO traded at a premium over its net asset value (NAV) of just 0.04%, after having seen premiums as high as 0.15% on October 21, data from ProShares showed. The data is interesting given previous reports of ProShares being in danger of hitting a limit set by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) on how many front-month futures contracts a single entity can hold. The current limit is still that a single ETF can hold a maximum of 2,000 front-month futures contracts, with BITO amassing nearly 1,900 contracts after just two days of trading. And although the CME has said that it will increase the limit on how many front-month contracts can be held to 4,000 starting in November, BITO has already expanded its buying to longer-dated contracts to get around the problem. According to data current as of Wednesday, ProShares’ ETF now holds 3,233 bitcoin futures contracts expiring in November, and only 572 October contracts, with each contract representing the value of 5 BTC. As is well-known among futures traders, however, the price of a futures contract typically rises the further away its expiration date is, a situation known as contango. As such, having to buy longer-dated contracts will normally cause tracking errors in the price of the ETF relative to the spot price of bitcoin. Meanwhile, the competing bitcoin ETF launched by Valkyrie with ticker BTF remains smaller than BITO, which also means that it is able to keep a larger share of its total holdings as front-month contracts. This fact was also pointed out by Valkyrie’s Chief Investment Officer (CIO) Steven McClurg on CNBC on Monday, where he said that the size of their ETF means they can “stick with the front months and we show that we're tracking the futures really closely.” “It's a concern for ProShares and that’s why they applied for this extension to be able to have access to more futures contracts,” McClurg said. “If that doesn't happen, we've seen some signals from the folks at ProShares that they’re going to look at other derivatives like swaps or structured notes able to fill the demand,” he continued. And according to data from Valkyrie, it appears the firm’s CIO is right that their ETF is tracking at least the futures market very closely. As of Wednesday, the ETF held an equal amount of 85 futures contracts expiring in October and 85 November contracts, in addition to 9 “Micro Bitcoin” contracts expiring in October. According to the same data, BTF traded at a price equal to its NAV as of Wednesday this week. And while BITO is still enjoying its massive first-mover advantage, more and more ETFs are joining the group of bitcoin-related ETFs. Just today, the market already saw the launch of a bitcoin-related ETF, with Volt Equity’s ‘Crypto Industry Revolution and Tech ETF’ going live on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker BTCR. Unlike the other ETFs listed recently, however, Volt Equity’s ETF does not track bitcoin directly, but instead holds shares of companies that in various ways are involved in the Bitcoin economy, including miners, hardware manufacturers, and major BTC-holding companies like MicroStrategy. The new ETF gained over 1.6% in its first 20 minutes of trading. Meanwhile, a new ETF from the well-known issuer VanEck is stepping the game up further with its plans to undercut both Valkyrie and ProShares on fees. According to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, VanEck’s ETF, with the ticker XBTF, will charge a fee of just 0.65%, significantly undercutting the existing players.

​​Cream Finance Suffers Another Exploit as Attacker Runs Away With USD 100M+ Ethereum (ETH)-powered decentralized finance (DeFi) project Cream Finance (CREAM) suffered another flash loan attack as the attacker reportedly stole more than USD 100m worth of tokens. Blockchain analytics and security firm PeckShield flagged the attacker's address, while Cream finance confirmed that they "are investigating an exploit on C.R.E.A.M. v1 on Ethereum and will share updates as soon as they are available." CREAM tanked following the news and, at 15:11 UTC, it trades at USD 111.61, dropping by almost 30% in an hour and a day. "The hack is made possible due to a price manipulation bug in CREAM price oracle," PeckShield said, adding that the hacker is still swapping the stolen funds via ParaSwap and Uniswap platforms. Just this past August, Cream Finance lost USD 25m in another flash loan attack.

​​Why Polygon had a great week, and how this reflects on MATIC’s price Polygon has been the frontrunner in the L2 solution race, being the most efficacious solution on Ethereum. Over time with its multiple partnerships the network has furthered its potential and continues to push it. The question is, how this affected MATIC in the past and can the event occurring this week, bear similar results? Polygon goes on This week proved to be the best week in months in terms of investors’ participation in the Polygon network. Active addresses were at their highest this week in almost 3 months. This is the result of the network growth witnessed in the last 10 days and Polygon is expanding on all fronts. The network within a year has risen from having 30 dapps to over 3000 dapps today. Owing to the increasing number of dapps, the number of teams building on the network is increasing MoM by over 61%. Plus of all the active teams over 62% of them chose Polygon as their primary choice to bring their vision to life. Secondly Bitwise announced the Polygon fund offering further exposure to the solution and further its DeFi and NFT capabilities. In a press release, the company stated that: “Many are working on Ethereum competitors to solve this, but Polygon has seen breakthrough traction with a uniquely complementary solution that boosts Ethereum’s speed and efficiency.” And finally, Polygon is also expanding its focus geographically and looking into emerging countries, starting with India with the announcement of BUILDIT, which will be India’s biggest hackathon offering over $100k in rewards You wanna invest, right? Now whilst all of this sounds super bullish and could definitely boost Polygon in terms of development, its investment section hasn’t been quite up to the mark. While last week it did cross BSC when it marked 100 million addresses ATH, recently its performance in the DeFi space has been rather lukewarm. The network is losing participants’ interest and thus active addresses are falling. Consequently, transaction counts are declining as well, and the Total Value Locked is observing no growth whatsoever. While in the spot market the MATIC’s 25% rise of Oct 15 did trigger investors and whales to buy significantly, within 2 days everything returned to the way it was and is pretty dormant at the moment. In the past network development news has pushed MATIC, but looking at the broader market’s slow movement / non-bullish movement, MATIC might also keep its movement slow.

​​Chinese Media’s Silence Is Deafening as Bitcoin Soars Toward USD 70,000 As bitcoin (BTC) continues its meteoric price rise, dragging the rest of the market with it, the news has been making front pages the world over. Everywhere, that is, except China, where the price leap has been met with a wall of stony silence. A search for “cryptocurrency” on Baidu, the Middle Kingdom’s biggest search engine, returns precious little in the way of BTC price news from any of the nation’s major media outlets. A similar search on Chinese Google produces similar results. What such searches do produce, however, is a glut of news reports about crypto scams, token-hungry dating app-based catfishing schemes, police crackdowns, and efforts to fight the “polluting effects” of crypto mining. The state-run China Economic Daily, the nation’s biggest financial newspaper, made no mention of bitcoin or crypto on its exhaustive homepage, while there was also not a peep from the country’s biggest newspaper, the People’s Daily (also state-run). The latter did report on yet another setback for Chinese miners, however: The National Development and Reform Commission (formerly the State Planning Commission) has announced that it is set to place crypto mining on its list of banned industries. While this may sound like a cosmetic change to some observers considering the recent crackdown, it will likely mean more serious enforcement measures are on their way for those miners who have decided to stay in Mainland China. The list has not been updated since 2019, and the move would also prevent companies and individuals from making “investments” in the crypto mining industry. A more serious media blackout could also be coming. As previously reported, Beijing has moved to block mainland internet access to not only crypto-related media outlets, but also sites run by price-tracking data providers like CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap. And per Reuters, the latest Cyberspace Administration of China whitelist of media outlets has shrunk in size to just 1,358. Most worrying, perhaps, is the omission of Caixin, one of the country’s largest and most well-read financial news outlets. The regulator also warned that internet-based news services that repost news “must follow the latest version of the list,” and that “outlets that do not abide by the rules will face punishment.” This latter development could further restrict Chinese web users’ access to crypto-related information: Many Chinese bitcoin and crypto news stories from smaller outlets are currently reprinted on major news sites, but closer regulation could limit this inflow of news. The Financial Times reported that Chinese crypto enthusiasts are looking to the DeFi industry for access solutions after some 30 major crypto firms – including many mining pools and crypto exchanges – deserted the country or closed down their businesses. The media outlet, citing data from Chainalysis, noted: “While the latest restrictions are deterring new blood from entering the crypto markets, experts say that some existing cryptocurrency holders are turning to DeFi in order to continue to trade. DeFi protocols do not have the same know your customer obligations as the more tightly regulated conventional exchanges.”

​​Bitcoin leads inflows but here’s why it can rise higher The week has been an exciting for blockchains across the crypto ecosystem, especially after the Bitcoin market moved from fear into greed. What’s more, with the ProShares Bitcoin Futures ETF due to launch on 19 October, there is more optimism than there was during the summer. CoinShare’ s weekly Digital Asset Fund Flows report shed some light on the exact numbers. Inflows and outflows First and foremost, the report confirmed that digital asset investment products saw inflows of around $80 million in the week ending 15 October. Coming to the king coin, BTC inflows were the largest at around $70 million. This took the leading crypto to its fifth continuous week of inflows. While the report noted that weekly inflows were higher in the beginning of 2021, it acknowledged that the SEC allowing a futures-based ETF in America could trigger “significant” inflows in the following weeks. Coming to assets under management, the report stated, “These inflows, combined with positive price action over the week, have pushed total assets under management (AuM) to US$72.3bn, their highest level on record, surpassing the previous record of US$71.6bn set in May this year.” What about alt coins? While Ethereum saw outflows for the second week, the report warned that it wasn’t yet time to declare this a trend. The outflows were around $1 million. For its part, Polkadot saw inflows of $3.6 million. The eighth biggest blockchain by market cap also enjoyed some attention after founder Gavin Wood announced that there was more than 18 million DOT $806,118,291 the Polkadot treasury. In the meantime, Cardano saw $2.7 million in inflows. However, the once third biggest blockchain by market cap had slipped to fourth place at press time. Ethereum and Solana What could the following days look like for these two alts? According to a crypto analyst who goes by the monicker of Smart Contracter, Solana could shoot to an ATH “soon” and might rally by more than 100% against the USD. As previously reported, This was based on the Elliott Wave theory, which looks at consumer psychology. Coming to Ethereum’s price rise, Smart Contractor commented there was “still some juice in the tank.” It’s worth noting that CryptoQuant data showed that the amount of Ether on centralized exchanges had hit a record low.

​​Odds Grow That South Korean Crypto Tax Will Be Postponed Media outlets and lawmakers have been pouring scorn on the South Korean government’s much-maligned plans to introduce a tax on crypto trading from next year – with some suggesting that Seoul will have to back down from its plans. As reported last week, the National Assembly will assess four separate private member’s bills that seek to delay or amend plans to levy 20% capital gains tax charges on crypto trading profits above an annual threshold of USD 2,100 as of January 1, 2022. The National Assembly has already signed off on the measure, although it was bundled into a range of other tax reforms. Since then, however, crypto tax has become an increasingly hot political potato. Earlier this month, the Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki and Kim Dae-ji, the head of the National Tax Service (NTS) argued that there was no way to delay the new tax, despite fierce criticism from MPs. Critics claim the tax is discriminatory. Traders are particularly irked by the threshold, as KOSDAQ stock market investors have a profit threshold of around USD 42,000. Both Hong and Kim admitted that certain “practical difficulties” still remain with adoption, but refused to budge. Media outlets, however, suggested that their hands could well be forced by political powers stronger even than the government itself. Chosun Ilbo reported that despite Deputy Prime Minister Hong’s assertions, the sentiment in the National Assembly was that “the law will be amended in the direction of delaying the taxation of cryptoassets before the year is out due to next year’s elections.” General elections in March 2022 will be followed by local elections in early summer next year – and both votes could potentially change the face of South Korean politics. "Cryptonews com" has reported that senior figures in the ruling Democratic Party have been furiously back-pedaling on crypto tax in a bid to win back support from disillusioned younger voters. Leading candidates have also weighed into the dispute. Chosun quoted the Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung, one of the major candidates for the Democratic Party nomination, as opining that the “taxation of cryptoassets should be delayed by one year.” The major opposition People’s Power Party appears to have smelled blood, and has been playing on the Democratic Party’s division on the matter: three of the crypto tax-related bills are authored by People’s Power MPs. One of their authors, the MP Yoo Kyung-jin, was quoted as pointing out the government’s lack of preparation for crypto tax. He stated: “When I asked the government about what it intended to do about transactions made on overseas exchanges, the only reply I received was ‘We are in discussions with major Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries on this matter.’ The tax is due to take effect in just three months.” The industry and many crypto community members appear to be rooting for one of the bills in particular: a measure proposed by the pro-crypto business People’s Power MP Cho Myung-hee. Cho has suggested not only delaying the tax’s launch to 2023, but also establishing parity with the KOSDAQ trading threshold. Per Maeil Kyungjae, Cho has argued that with crypto exchange-related legislation only recently promulgated, the new system should be given some breathing room before taxation is implemented. But the same media outlet was less hopeful about the bill’s chances of success, writing that it was “unclear as to whether the opposition will be able to pass such a bill as the government is in a position to promote the taxation of cryptoassets as planned.” However, its political affairs analysts noted that “voters aged 20-39” were paying attention to the bill’s passage, and noted: “It will be interesting to see how the bill is handled in parliament … ahead of the Presidential elections.”

​​‘Art in Motion’ Brings NFTs To NYC, Turning Iconic Penn Station into Largest Public Digital Art Sale New York, NY – October 6, 2021 – Plug Talk Media, an Out of Home (OOH) advertising agency, has announced a partnership with Intersection, an experience-driven Out of Home media and technology company, to completely take over Penn Station in New York City with an interactive art sale featuring over 50 works of digital art, accessible by QR code. Launching October 4 and running through the end of the month, the ‘Art in Motion’ exhibition will be curated by Plug Talk Media founder Nathan Nakhmanovich, also known as Mogul, and transform Penn Station into the first-of-its-kind digital art sale, featuring non-fungible tokens (NFTs) from dozens of artists. The station domination will include more than 200 media assets throughout Penn Station, the busiest transportation hub in the Western Hemisphere. Advertisements on column wraps, rotunda banners, directional clocks and stair risers, to name a few, will encourage visitors to participate in the exhibit by scanning QR codes placed on the ads that will unveil the digital artworks available for bid through NFT marketplace OpenSea. The artists in the exhibition were hand-selected by Mogul and executive producer Eric Spivak, known as Motivate. “This campaign is a statement on the NFT revolution and the power of OOH,” said Nathan Nakhmanovich. “While other NFT galleries have used smaller public and private spaces, the ‘Art in Motion’ gallery will bring NFT to the real-world scale of public transit and showcase how to effectively drive attention from IRL to digital for the masses.” NFTs have been front and center this year; more than $2.5 billion in NFT sales occurred in the first half of 2021 alone, and in March, an NFT was sold for a staggering $69 million. First introduced in 2014, NFTs can range from movies to music to memes but have become especially popular amongst artists, serving as a new way to buy and sell digital artwork. These digital collectibles serve as a great way to represent ownership of unique and often rare digital assets. "’Art In Motion’ is a pivotal moment for us all to recognize. The innovative use of QR codes tied to Arts and Culture is providing huge opportunities for creators, collectors and curates alike,” said Eric Spivak. “From physical to digital and back, this is an envelope-pushing progressive project with purpose that I hope receives the attention, love and respect it deserves, while providing accessibility to the NFT space and hopefully changing the lives of both the artists and commuters in the process.” “We're excited to be working with Mogul to showcase and support talented independent creators in the iconic Penn Station,” said Alexander Bercow, Partner Success Lead of OpenSea. “We believe we're only just scratching the surface of what's possible with blockchains and tokenized media - and this activation is proof that NFTs are changing the way society interacts with art." In the same way NFTs have brought the market for physical art to the digital world, OOH brings the digital world to public space and allows artists and brands to push and blur those boundaries. OOH presents the perfect canvas for an experiential exhibition like ‘Art in Motion’ that’s capable of immersing an audience throughout each step of their journey. “Plug Talk Media has truly pushed the envelope when it comes to this station domination, merging their expertise in OOH and NFTs in the biggest way possible,” said Michael Rosen, CRO of Intersection. “By bringing the first QR-driven NFT art sale to Penn Station, Nathan and his team are helping to connect some of the best NFT artists in the world with a completely new audience, while illustrating the creative canvas that OOH provides for marketers and artists alike.”