Bitcoin, Ethereum continue downtrend day-after Fed meet, experts say further hike fears to dampen enthusiasm

Major cryptocurrencies, led by Bitcoin and Ethereum continued their downward trajectory a day after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 75 basis points. While Bitcoin was trading down about 1 percent at $20,200 levels over the past 24 hours, Ether was trading down over 2 percent at $1,540 levels.
Kyle Klemmer, COO, and Co-founder of Mech.com says interest rate hikes are causing funds to lay people off and slow down their investments even more, which will, in turn, will slow down the rate at which new tech enters into the space due to how projects are able to raise money. “Once the macro market gets a feel for how high the rates will go, I think then and only then will you see an increase in money being invested into the space from an infrastructure perspective. That’s where I feel most of the pain is being felt at the current moment,” he said.
Robert R Johnson, Professor, Heider College of Business, Creighton University says higher rates are certainly a headwind for risk assets and crypto represents the highest risk of all risk assets. “Crypto speculators were bolstered by unprecedented quantitative easing undertaken in light of the Coronavirus pandemic. The likelihood of rate increases at the next three Fed meetings will certainly dampen enthusiasm for these highly speculative assets,” according to him. Read full here

ApeCoin DAO approves $4.4m bug bounty program on Immunefi

In a bid to prevent hacks on its upcoming token staking mechanism, the ApeCoin decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) has decided to authorize a $4.4 million bug bounty program using the ethical hacking platform Immunefi. The Bored Ape Yacht Club and Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFT collections from Yuga Labs use the ApeCoin token within the ecosystem, which is managed by the ApeCoin DAO. The ApeCoin DAO members approved a proposal called AIP-134, a funding request of 1 million APE ($4.4 million) for the bounty program to launch Immunefi. Read details here

JP Morgan executes first DeFi transaction for MAS' Project Guardian

Multi-national banking behemoth JP Morgan has completed the first-ever cross-border transaction using decentralized finance (DeFi) on an open blockchain. The trade was facilitated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) Project Guardian on November 2.
Project Guardian has been established to explore potential decentralized finance applications in wholesale funding markets has completed its first live trades. More industry pilots have been launched to test the application of asset tokenisation and DeFi across a broader range of use cases in the financial sector. Take a look

Fidelity offers early access to Bitcoin trading app

The world's largest investment firm, Fidelity has announced a waitlist for early access to its new cryptocurrency product, Fidelity Crypto, which would let ordinary investors trade Bitcoin and Ethereum from their phones without paying commission costs. According to the Boston-based company, retail investors will soon be able to trade cryptocurrency with as little as $1 while also having an integrated view of both their traditional and crypto investments."
The company also announced last month that it would offer an Ethereum trading service for institutions. The company is now in direct rivalry with well-known names in the American cryptocurrency market like Coinbase and Robinhood as a result of the move. Read full here

Payments giant MasterCard welcomes 7 start-ups to its engagement program

The world's largest provider of credit cards, MasterCard has announced the addition of seven new firms to its MasterCard Start Path global start-up engagement program. Since its launch in 2014, MasterCard Start Path has received applications from more than 1,500 companies annually, and the program has assisted more than 350 enterprises in obtaining finance totalling more than $3.5 billion.
Successful candidates are invited to join MasterCard's fintech network, where they are provided with "growth-essential chances" to collaborate, get mentoring, and draw on MasterCard's current relationships and clientele in order to advance blockchain, Web3, and fintech innovation. Read more here

Instagram influencer admits taking $2.5 million in Bitcoin

Instagram influencer Jebara Igbara, who lived in New York and used the online alias Jay Mazini, has admitted to committing a number of offenses, including stealing $2.5 million worth of Bitcoin from his fans. Igbara reportedly stated on his Instagram and other social media profiles that he was prepared to pay premium rates for certain cryptocurrencies, often between 3.5 percent and 5 percent above their market value. Igbara gave his victims altered pictures of wire transfer confirmations to demonstrate he had transmitted the money for the cryptocurrency as promised after receiving it, according to a court filing. Read more here

Robinhood to continue investing in cryptos despite revenue slashing 12%

Crypto and stock trading app Robinhood will keep putting resources into the cryptocurrency market, adding support for more cryptocurrencies, a new wallet with a focus on international retail, and NFT-related services on its platform, despite the company reporting a 12 percent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) decrease in monthly active users (MAU) and a 24 percent QoQ drop in notional volume as two of the main drivers behind a 12 percent fall in crypto revenue, that reached $51 million.
On September 27, Robinhood released the beta version of its Robinhood Web3 wallet, which runs on Polygon, to 10,000 customers. More than one million people were on a waiting list. A day later, Circle's USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin was also incorporated by Robinhood. Read full

Binance CEO says CBDCs are no threat to cryptos

Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, appears to have changed his mind about central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), saying that he does not believe they pose a threat to his business or the cryptocurrency industry. Zhao stated that CBDCs will bolster trust among individuals who had doubts about blockchain technology and legitimize it and "I very much think that the more we have, the better." Zhao was speaking about CBDCs and their use cases in the cryptocurrency sector at the Web Summit in Lisbon. Read more here