Gate.io announced it began its hardware wallet, Wallet S1, “an easy to use built-in display with fingerprint recognition” that holds storage for more than 10,000 digital assets. As stated by the company, the biometric algorithm can auto initialize when recognizing a brute-force attack.
Binanceadvertised six blockchain projects on Binance Smart Chain being given funds through its USD 100m Accelerator Fund. The six projects include AnySwap, Arkane Network, BakerySwap, Bitquery, PancakeSwap, and Proxima, which will host USD 350,000 in funds.
CBDCs News
The central Bank of Korea (BOK) has declared that its digital currency – which it is still yet to commit to issuing formally – will run parallel to the existing financial system, per a report from E Daily. However, the BOK did state that based on the pilot results, and it will decide whether the digital won will make a real-world debut.
Blockchain News
World Economic Forum (WEF) has published a new article on the “Global Standards Mapping Initiative: An overview of blockchain technical standards.” The report gathered that blockchain “standard-setting activities are in the early stages” and “there are many unknowns,” and provided some recommendations for standard-setting entities, as well as for entities adopting technical standards.
Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysisannounced that it boosted its “number of customers by 65% to drive a 100% growth in recurring revenue YoY” in Q3 of 2020. The public sector agencies encouraged the increased demand for investigative blockchain technology. At the same time, “recent positive regulatory actions across the United States and internationally set the stage for further private sector expansion” and broader adoption and regulation of digital assets.
100 Italian banks are now working on the country’s blockchain network Spunta, built on R3‘s Corda, announced the Italian Banking Association. The network was launched in March 2020, and since then has processed over 204m transactions. The association predicted that this number would grow to more than 350m transactions by the end of 2020.
Staking News
Zilliqa (ZIL) said it started non-custodial staking services on its mainnet. It was enabled through Zillion, a non-custodial staking platform. Zilliqa has also inaugurated a new fungible token to the network—governance ZILs (gZIL), earned alongside staking rewards, functioning as an incentive for long-term token holders.
Investments News
US-based major crypto investment firm Grayscalesaid it registered its largest-ever quarterly inflows, over USD 1bn in 3Q20, making it the third consecutive record-breaking quarter. Grayscale Bitcoin Trust experienced USD 719.3m in 3Q20 inflows, while other products accounted for 31% of inflows during 3Q20. Among alternative products, the most notable increase in appetite has emerged for Grayscale Bitcoin Cash Trust, Grayscale Litecoin Trust, and Grayscale Digital Large Cap, it added.
Corporates appear as a source of demand for bitcoin (BTC) after payments firm Square and technology company MicroStrategy gained significant purchases, Bloomberg reported, citing JPMorgan strategists.
UK-based digital asset investment company KR1 plc said that it had sold 202,297.55 DOT tokens in the Polkadot project at an average price of USD 5.12 per DOT token, generating proceeds of more than USD 1m. As of this announcement’s date, KR1’s total holding of Polkadot tokens is 3,558,490.89 DOT, post-re-denomination.
Mining News
The Ukrainian state-run nuclear power plant operator NAEC Energoatom has accepted on a deal that will see it supply energy to mining operators from Bitfury’s crypto mining division. Energoatom stated that it would provide “up to 2 GW” of life to Bitfury, headquartered in the Netherlands. The deal will also allow Bitfury to construct mining centers adjacent to power plants, on land belonging to the nuclear stations.
NFTs News
South Korean chat app giant Kakao has begun marketing a digital package for the NC Dinos pro baseball team, per Chosun. The package contains, among other items, a non-fungible token (NFT) collectible baseball card. Pro baseball is the most popular sport in South Korea, and the Dinos – maintained by gaming company NC Soft – play in Changwon, a city with over 1 million residents. The move is the first significant blockchain or crypto-related partnership deal involving a South Korean professional baseball team.
Regulation News
Russia’s telecommunications services regulator Roskomnadzor has barred any connection to the LocalBitcoins peer-to-peer (P2P) trading portal by adding its URL to a registered platform sharing prohibited information. The block has not affected the site’s usage yet, but the company is at risk of losing access to the Russian market, one of the biggest P2P trading markets globally.
No Comment