🚀 Will 2024 Be Crypto's Big Year?
In today’s edition: 💼 FINRA greenlights Prometheum, 🔥 Major ad-based theft, 💶 Circle's EU expansion, and more!
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💡 OPINION: 2024 Crypto Predictions: Signs Point to Yes
by David Z. Morris
Macro conditions and crypto developments are aligning to bring crypto a truly wild year.
What’s Poppin’?
by Jeanhee Kim, Sage Young, Brandy Betz and Samyuktha Sriram
Prometheum Receives FINRA Approval for Expanded Crypto Services
The firm created consternation last spring when the SEC granted it a Special Purpose Broker Dealer license for digital asset securities.
Wallet Drainers Stole $58 Million Through Malicious Ads
A wallet draining scam linked to phishing campaigns on Google and X has stolen an estimated $58 million from victims over nine months.
Stablecoin Issuer Circle Receives Conditional Regulatory Approval in France to Provide Crypto Services
The issuer of the euro-pegged EURC stablecoin was approved as a Digital Asset Service Provider by regulators.
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Over the past year, the crypto industry has seen the rise of a new trend: the adoption of points systems.
Li Jin, cofounder of Variant Fund, says that while points systems have long been a staple in the Web2 domain, their integration into the crypto ecosystem could have pitfalls.
She covers how these points are currently being leveraged within crypto applications in the hopes of driving user engagement and retention, why they’re taking off now, and why they’re off-chain. She also points out that, if implemented poorly, they could engender disloyalty instead of leading to sustainable communities, and urges founders to be thoughtful about the design of these systems, especially about how points translate to economic value.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Pandora, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. We are also on Fountain now!
Daily Bits…✍️✍️✍️
🔧 Ethereum developers target January for the first testnet deployment of the 'Dencun' upgrade, aiming to enhance data storage capacity and blockchain scalability.
📱 Some orders for the Solana Saga phone were canceled due to an inventory management issue, following high demand driven by an arbitrage opportunity with bonk tokens.
⚡ The public capacity of Bitcoin's Lightning Network, a Layer 2 scaling solution, dipped below 5,000 BTC, indicating a slowdown in growth and a decrease in publicly viewable channels.
💰 Argentina's new government, led by President Javier Milei, confirmed the use of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in official contracts.
👥 A survey by Variant and Union Square Ventures found that new hires in the crypto industry in 2023 were more likely to receive equity than tokens, with a focus on hiring engineers and increasing geographic diversity.
🥞 PancakeSwap's CAKE token surged over 20% following a proposal to reduce its maximum supply from 750 million to 450 million, sparking significant price movement.
🔄 Qredo underwent major management changes, including the replacement of CEO Anthony Foy, and secured debt financing amid ongoing challenges, led by investor 10T Holdings.
🌍 Worldcoin halted its Orb-verification service, used for iris scanning-based identity verification, in India, Brazil, and France.
Today in Crypto Adoption...
💲 Hong Kong's financial regulator is set to accept applications for spot crypto ETFs, expanding investment options in the virtual asset sector.
The $$$ Corner…
🕹️ South Korean gaming firm Wemade and Singapore-based Whampoa Digital are launching a $100 million fund dedicated to Web3 development, focusing on the Middle East market.
💰 The PBS Foundation, backed by Vitalik Buterin and major crypto firms, is offering $1 million in grants for research on Ethereum's proposer-builder separation to improve decentralization.
What Do You Meme?
Recommended Reads
Eridian on why Lido doesn’t self-limit
DL News: World’s largest broker dealer says Bitcoin’s rise is stoking demand for crypto derivatives
📈 Your Market Update 📉
BTC is down 1.1%, trading at $43,632
ETH is up 1.4%, trading at $2,305
BTC dominance: 49.27%
Crypto market cap: $1.74T
*All data as of today, 06:48 am ET
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