November 26 – December 2 – Cointelegraph Magazine

This week's main news

Bitcoin ETF Race Gets 13th Subscriber, BlackRock Revises ETF Model

Asset manager Pando Asset has become an unexpected late entrant to the Bitcoin ETF race in the United States. On November 29, Pando filed a Form S-1 – used to register securities with the agency – with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for the Pando Asset Spot Bitcoin Trust. Like other ETF auctions, the Trust aims to track the value of Bitcoin through the custodial arm of crypto exchange Coinbase to hold Bitcoin on behalf of the trust. Pando is the 13th applicant for an approved spot Bitcoin ETF in the US, joining a dozen others in the race, including BlackRock, ARK Invest and Greyscale.

Binance will end support for the BUSD stablecoin in December

Crypto exchange Binance is downgrading its services to its next generation stablecoin, Binance USD (BUSD). According to an announcement, once Paxos stops producing new coins, the exchange will end support for all BUSD products. Binance said its users must withdraw their existing BUSD or convert it to other assets before December 15 before starting the process of disabling withdrawals for BUSD. At that time, the available balances will be converted to the first digital dollar for a limited time. Users.

CME Bitcoin futures show investors betting on $40K BTC price

Institutional investors' interest in Bitcoin (BTC) became evident on November 10 when Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Bitcoin futures overtook Binance's BTC futures in volume. According to BTC derivatives metrics, those investors are showing strong faith in Bitcoin's ability to break above $40,000 in the short term. CME's current open interest in Bitcoin futures stands at $4.35 billion, the highest since November 2021, when bitcoin hit an all-time high of $69,000 – a clear indication of rising interest. Interest on CME's BTC futures, a 125% increase from a $1.93 billion interest open in mid-October, is undoubtedly tied to the expectation of approval of the Bitcoin exchange-traded fund.

Chat GPT's first year was filled with existential dread, lawsuits and boardroom drama

With ChatGPT, OpenAI has developed the world's most popular artificial intelligence tool. It was launched a year ago on November 30, 2022, and in its first three months, it reached 100 million monthly users. In the 12 months since chatGPT's existence, the narrative surrounding humanity's demise, accusations of massive copyright infringement and the tumultuous firing of its CEO and hiring of researchers are still trying to make sense of it.

FTX and Alameda Research invest $10.8M in Binance, Coinbase, Wintermut.

Wallets linked to defunct crypto trading firms FTX and Alameda Research moved $10.8 million to Binance, Coinbase and Wintermute accounts using eight cryptocurrencies. Blockchain analytics firm Spot On Chain tracked the activity, estimating that since Oct. 24, defunct entities have transferred $551 million using 59 different cryptocurrency tokens. The fund's activities began in March when FTX and Alameda began the process of acquiring properties for investors.

Winners and losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) at $38,673, Ether (ETH) at $2,084 and XRP at $0.61. According to CoinMarketCap, the total market cap is $1.45 trillion.

Among the largest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers for the week were TerraClassicUSD (USTC) at 294.40%, Terra Classic (LUNC) at 85.78% and IOTA (IOTA) at 31.53%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week were Blur (BLUR) at 21.87%, dYdX (ethDYDX) at 13.90% and Gas (GAS) at 10.06%.

Be sure to read Cointelegraph's market analysis for more information on crypto prices.

The most memorable quotes

“I think [Binance’s settlement with the SEC is] A net positive for their company. I think it's positive for our industry.

Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Digital

“Of course, the treatment of CZ and Binance is stupid and only highlights the arbitrary nature of punishment at the hands of the government.”

Arthur Hayes, entrepreneur and former CEO of BitMEX

Let's not forget that “innovation out of control” is a false dichotomy peddled by tech companies to avoid meaningful accountability and binding legislation.

Agnes Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International

“It's AI […] A new type of mind capable of rapid thinking has a great chance of surpassing the intelligence of humans and becoming the new super species on the planet.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin

“Don't be a loser. Get out of the fake money system. Now enter Gold, Silver, Bitcoin…. Before it's too late.

Robert Kiyosaki, author and entrepreneur

“[Blast] Both messaging and performance lines were crossed.

Dan Robinson, head of research at Paradigm

Forecast of the week

Bitcoin ETF will bring 165% BTC price increase in 2024 – Standard Chartered

Bitcoin is on track to trade in six figures by the end of 2024, according to Standard Chartered's latest forecast. Thanks to the United States approving Bitcoin spot price ETFs, BTC/USD has the potential to triple from its current $37,700 in the coming 12 months.

“We expect prices to rise further before halving than we have done in the past,” said Jeff Kendrick, head of EM FX research at Standard Chartered. This suggests that it may reach the $100,000 mark before the end of 2024.

The figure continues the consumer banking giant's already optimistic view of how bitcoin will grow in the coming years. In July, studies have observed that the supply of BTC is shrinking to believe that much higher prices are in store.

FUD of the week

Crypto Thieves Steal $363M in November, Most ‘Damaged' This Year

Crypto criminals made off with $363 million in November and the cryptocurrency industry has now seen its most “harmful” month for crypto theft, fraud and exploitation in 2023, according to blockchain security firm CertiK. Of the roughly $316.4 million earned through exploitation alone, flash loans caused $45.5 million in losses, and $1.1 million was lost to various exit scams.

Bankless controversy forces founders to burn tokens and separate from the DAO.

Amidst the ongoing controversy surrounding cryptocurrency media company Bankless and its related decentralized autonomous organization, BanklessDAO, the founders of Bankless have proposed to separate the brand from The DAO. Bankless co-founders David Hoffman and Ryan Sean Adams plan to submit a management proposal for BanklessDAO to separate the two entities. Hoffman and Adams' decision to separate Bankless from BanklessDAO was in response to community criticism of BanklessDAO's grant application from Arbitrum.

The KyberSwap hacker claims full control over the Kyber company

The hacker behind the $46 million KyberSwap exploit has finally released his conditions for returning the stolen funds, which include “full executive control” over the Kyber Network company. In the year On November 30, the KyberSwap hacker sent an on-chain message to all relevant and interested parties. The hacker made demands including control of the company, temporary full authority and ownership of its management system, KyberDAO, all documents related to the company and all assets of the Kyber Network company.

The best magazine sections of the week

ChatGPIT insults, Q* ‘breaks encryption', 99% fake web: Fury that AI Eye won't tell

A storm of AI bullsh*t is currently taking over the web from the flood of human rage that lives there.

Real AI matters in crypto, No. 3: Smart contract audits and cyber security

Experts believe AI will be an invaluable tool for smart contract auditing and cybersecurity — but not yet.

Pudgy Penguin CEO Appreciation Says ‘It's Really Sad': NFT Creator

“You really can't be an angry, miserable person and then click buy a pudgy penguin.”

Subscribe

A very engaging read in Blockchain. It is given once a week.