friday is upon us once again rejoice i'm your host andrew defrosted from carbonite and suffering
only from a mild case of hibernation sickness that's that's a star wars reference everyone
before we get started with our news roundup a quick update to our recent contest
we've started usdt diamonds and nft distributions starting today and we will be announcing winners
at the end of each daily video starting on monday this is important by the way
if you have one please share with us your twitter name and now on with our news stories
first up bitcoin hits sixty thousand dollars on some exchanges the cause of that price spike
buzz from an sec tweet which we'll look into more positive news as the ceo of morgan stanley says
that crypto is not a fad coinbase makes calls for crypto-regulation shake-ups dozens of countries
vow to join forces and tackle ransomware mexico announces no current plans to make
bitcoin legal tender a major u.s mortgage lender drops crypto payments after a brief trial period
and finally we take a brisk stroll through our nft and gaming news roundup quite a bit of stories
today so let's dive head first into our lead story bitcoin hitting 60 000 on some exchanges
this all happened in the early hours of friday leaving the world's biggest cryptocurrency less
than 5 000 away from securing a new all-time high prices accelerated sharply from fifty seven
thousand two hundred and eight dollars to fifty nine thousand three hundred and forty one dollars
in the space of one hour as investors in asia digested news that the us might be on the brink
of approving a bitcoin etf more on that in our next story given how it has taken just two days to
bounce back from a brief dip to 54 700 excitement is building that a new record price could be
imminent for bitcoin but whether this milestone will be achieved over the weekend remains to be
seen the sec raised eyebrows on thursday when it tweeted about the potential risks and benefits
associated with investing in a crypto etf fund so let's explore that a bit more on monday the
sec is due to reveal whether it will approve the pro shares bitcoin strategy etf although this is
only going to be based on futures a number of analysts believe that the exchange traded fund
is likely to be given the green light becoming the first bitcoin related etf in the u.s as a result
a post on thursday directed followers to an investor bulletin that was first written in june
that encouraged investors to quote weigh carefully the potential risks and benefits of the investment
describing bitcoin's futures market as highly speculative and adding quote as such investors
should consider the volatility of bitcoin and the bitcoin futures market as well as the lack of
regulation and potential for fraud or manipulation in the underlying bitcoin market unquote
the sec went on to tell investors that they should determine the level of risk they
are willing to take on the potential loss of their investment could incur and the fact that
a rise in spot prices might not result in similar growth in a futures focused fund in addition to
the sharp bitcoin price increase the tweet itself sent from the sec's investor education account has
amassed more than 3 000 retweets at the time of writing this is considerably more attention than
what its content normally enjoys so yeah people are definitely paying attention next we continue
writing the train of not bad crypto news as morgan stanley's ceo james gorman has talked crypto
up a bit on an earnings call with analysts he said quote i don't think crypto is a fad i don't think
it's going to go away i don't know what the value of bitcoin should or shouldn't be but these things
aren't going away and the blockchain technology supporting it is obviously very real and powerful
unquote that seems to be a recurring theme among several banks they tend to be more excited about
what the infrastructure can achieve rather than the cryptocurrencies that run on them while morgan
stanley doesn't allow retail clients to directly trade crypto gorman didn't necessarily rule that
out in the future adding quote it's just not a huge part of the business demand from our clients
and that may evolve and will evolve with it unquote and inevitably any further business
strategy will hinge on how u.s lawmakers decide to proceed when it comes to cryptocurrencies
quote we're watchful of it we're respectful and we'll wait to see how the regulators handle it
unquote so you're telling me there's a chance coinbase wants a crypto regulation shakeup
calling for one regulator to be made responsible for digital asset markets and for cryptocurrencies
to fall under a separate framework it argues that cryptocurrencies and blockchain quote do
not neatly fit into the current structure unquote set up to regulate financial activity and that
confusion rains because a number of agencies currently have oversight over this fast-moving
sector coinbase's chief policy officer faryar shirzad said quote elements of past laws do
not accommodate the efficiency seamlessness and transparency of digital asset markets
and thus risk serving as an unintended barrier to current innovations in the digital asset economy
we hope our ideas serve as a helpful starting point for shaping a us regulatory system that
adequately reflects the evolving crypto economy and its extraordinary potential crypto companies
in the us have long expressed exasperation over the lack of clarity they receive from regulators
including coinbase the exchange recently vented its frustration when it was forced to abandon
plans to launch lend a product that would have enabled consumers to earn four percent apy
on usd coin a level of interest mainstream banks could not match that came after the u.s securities
and exchange commission threatened the exchange with legal action if lend went live ransomware
is quote an escalating global security threat with serious economic and security consequences
unquote and the inconsistent enforcement of cryptocurrency regulations is helping hackers
to cash in a joint statement from the countries around the world has warned dozens of countries
including the us the uk japan south korea south africa india and members of the european union
met virtually to discuss this issue on october 13th and 14th the statement released by the white
house said quote from malign operations against local health providers that endanger patient care
to those directed at businesses that limit their ability to provide fuel groceries and other goods
to the public ransomware poses a significant risk to critical infrastructure essential services
public safety consumer protection and privacy and economic prosperity unquote
the statement also said that a country's ability to quote effectively prevent detect mitigate and
respond to threats from ransomware unquote depends on cooperation from global partners
inevitably much of the focus centered around virtual assets which were identified as quote the
primary instrument criminals used for ransomware payments and subsequent money laundering
unquote and the statement also said that the quote uneven global implementation unquote
of standards released by the financial action task force hasn't really helped matters despite the
global support data from chain analysis shows that north america has been extorted for more money by
ransomware attackers than any other region and generally it's cyber criminals based in russia
who are causing most of the disruption quite tellingly russia was not among the countries
that were invited to the virtual conference amid concerns that the kremlin isn't aggressive enough
in tackling this criminal activity now we go south of the border in a recent statement at
a press conference mexico's president andres manuel lopez obrador has said that the country
has no plans to adopt bitcoin as legal tender despite growing interest across latin america
but as decrypt noted a number of rival politicians think that mexico should embrace bitcoin in the
same way that el salvador has arguing that both countries are facing a similar economic climate
in fact a number of other countries in the region are exploring how to integrate bitcoin into their
economies a proposed law in paraguay is seeking to regulate crypto mining and trading but some
advocates have argued that this bill does not go far enough brazil is also toying with the idea
of embracing bitcoin as a payment method and venezuela a country that has suffered rampant
hyperinflation with its local fiat currency has been especially forward-thinking when it comes
to crypto now we hop back to the us as a major mortgage lender has ended its crypto payment
trial united wholesale mortgage has unveiled the plans during the summer making it the first market
with such an offering but in a news release the company said that just six transactions had been
completed using crypto during its trial period spanning september and october leaving the door
open to the service returning at some point in the future uvm's president matt ich bias said
quote we're proud to be the first mortgage lender to successfully pilot this technology and further
demonstrate that we're innovating for the long term as we said last quarter we were going to
look into accepting cryptocurrency and test it to see if it's a faster easier and cheaper solution
and thanks to our innovative technology team members the transactions were successful due
to the current combination of incremental costs and regulatory uncertainty in the crypto space
we've concluded that we aren't going to extend beyond a pilot at this time uvm described the
experiment as a quote test and learn process unquote that will ensure the company is prepared
once there is a higher demand for crypto transactions and the firm vowed to continue
monitoring digital assets and blockchain technology in the future speaking to cnbc
ishbia explained that the company experimented with payments in bitcoin ethereum and dogecoin
but although borrowers thought that the concept was cool he added quote there was not enough
demand at the end of the day to really push the envelope too hard and now hands-on buzzers as we
run through our weekly nft and play to earn gaming news lightning round the demand for mecca verse
a japanese mecha-themed nft series is currently levels above other nft collections trading volume
between the initial mint slightly over a week ago on october 7th and secondary sales climbed to 60
million dollars in a single day as of october 14th the volume traded on open c reached 39.9
000 ethereum or roughly 132 million dollars at ethereum prices today the most intriguing aspect
of the frenzy is that the secondary market buyers and mentors who cannot view the final images still
spent thousands of dollars on the tokens despite the high transaction fees plaguing its network
ethereum is still the reigning king of the nft sector however a few other networks have sprung
up to challenge the supremacy of ethereum from binance smart chain to polygon cardano solana
and now bitcoin these blockchains are enabling smart contracts functionality
speaking of functionality stacks is a blockchain that combines both bitcoin with smart contracts
amid the recent push into bitcoin nfts the native stx token of the network rose by over 57
on sunday according to crypto data aggregator nomics the digital asset became the 55th
largest cryptocurrency in the world after its market cap climbed to 2.9 billion dollars
it might take more than a crackdown on crypto mining operations to stop chinese investors
from exploring the nft sector despite the chinese government's anti-crypto stance the region's nft
markets have continued to thrive according to a publication by crypto news site decrypt quote nft
communities from jpeg speculators to daos to play to earn clubs are alive and well in china even
after multiple crypto crackdowns unquote china's web 2.0 and web 3.0 nft scenes are particularly
flourishing for some context web 2.0 nfts are relatively cheap jpegs created by chinese internet
giants such as tencent and alibaba they live in a centralized ledger can be exchanged in rmb and
have no real crypto element and are not tradable on the secondary market months after raking in
1.6 million dollars of ethereum from the sale of nft trading cards nfl star rob gronkowski is back
for more action this time around the four-time super bowl champion will be releasing a set of
new collectibles on the platform of his longtime teammate tom brady the nfts will be sold via
autograph a platform co-founded by brady earlier this week the grunk shared on instagram video of
the players with a caption that says quote they say blood is thicker than water so tom brady move
over i'm joining the autograph.io family my signed digital exclusives are headed your way this week
so rare an ethereum based nft fantasy football game has caught the attention of regulators and is
being investigated by the uk gambling commission the commission published a statement on friday
explaining that quote the gambling commission is currently carrying out inquiries into the
company to establish whether sorer.com requires an operating license or whether the services it
provides do not constitute gambling the platform which recently raised 680 million dollars in a
series b funding round allows users to trade officially licensed digital trading cards of
players from more than 100 soccer teams as nfts in addition to being able to buy and sell cards users
can build a weekly lineup with their cards and compete against other users they earn points based
on real-life performance of their players and top players get to win free cards or ethereum rewards
the statement of the uk gambling commission suggests that sorer may actually be offering a
gambling service to an extent however the watchdog has decided not to comment any further on the
issue until its investigation is complete as the nft crusade continues to gain more ground actress
rhys witherspoon is one of the latest people to come on board witherspoon revealed on monday a
tweet that she had just purchased her first nfts and would love to know more about women creating
nfts she however did not disclose the particular nft she bought instead she asked crypto twitter
for advice it was at this point that snoop dogg who can now be considered an nft veteran stepped
in the american rapper suggested that witherspoon connects with priyanka desai head of operations at
open law board ape yacht club will definitely go down as one of the most successful nft collections
having attracted hundreds of millions of dollars in trading volume in just a few months
following the success of its nft collection the creators of board ape yacht club yuga labs have
inked a deal with veteran music manager and tech investor guy ossieri to expand its brand into
other aspects of media earlier this week yooka labs announced that it had signed osiri to help
explore media opportunities across various formats including music film television and video games
coinbase is set to join the ranks of cryptocurrency exchanges that support nfts
later this year since spring the leading exchange platform has left clues suggesting that it will
launch an nft platform however very little was offered in terms of the details until tuesday when
the company announced coinbase nft the company wrote in an official blog post quote creating an
nft should be as simple as tapping a few buttons coinbase nft will be a peer-to-peer marketplace
built to enable creativity with an intuitive design built on top of a decentralized marketplace
although the company didn't give a specific date for the launch of the service
a spokesperson revealed that it will be live by the end of the year
meanwhile a waitlist where consumers can sign up for the service has been launched and finally we
take a look at the top nft collections by trading volume from the past week mechaverse is not just
the newest kid on the block it's also the best performing nft collection over the past week
this nft collection 8888 generative mechas recorded a weekly trading volume of over 85
million dollars for 4 312 sales sitting at second place is mutant cats with a seven day
trading volume of 15 million dollars from 4741 sales it is worth mentioning that the sales
figures dropped by over 50 percent since the past week cryptodes by gremplin which was last week's
second best performing nft collection slipped one step down the ladder sales figures plummeted
by about 74 to 388 this week its weekly volume stands at about 14 million dollars and i'm spent
this extra large friday news show always takes so much out of me time to go to sleep until next week
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i've been your friday news guide andrew and we'll see you on monday have a good one
you