Plus, a teenager who owns Bitcoin had a terrifying ordeal at knifepoint.
Today’s Top Crypto News Stories
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Crypto News
Crypto Unicorn, Amber Group, Plans to Go Public in the U.S. Within 2 Years 🇺🇸
Amber Group — a Hong Kong-based crypto financial service provider — is considering going public in the U.S. in the next two years. Currently, the four-year-old company is managing $1.5 billion in crypto assets, with its main asset management business allowing customers to earn interest on their crypto deposits.
FTX Signs Sponsorship Deal With F1 Team Mercedes-AMG Petronas 🏎️
In another move bringing together crypto and sports, FTX announced a deal with the Formula 1 racing team for an undisclosed length of time. FTX said the sponsorship will span multiple race seasons, with the FTX logo being featured prominently on both the cars and the drivers.
Twitter's Crypto Tip Jar Sends Bitcoin to $45,000… 🔥
There was plenty of excitement on Thursday when Twitter announced Bitcoin is being added as a payment method to its tipping feature. This allows users to make financial contributions to the accounts they follow. It'll be rolled out to iOS users first, with Android to follow in weeks. The social network is also going to start verifying NFT avatars. Find out more here.
FUD News
...But China Crackdown Causes Crash to $42,000 📉
Hours later, Beijing burst Bitcoin's bubble — with the People's Bank of China declaring that all crypto-related transactions are illegal. Financial institutions and payment providers will be stopped from facilitating trades, and monitoring will be stepped up. The latest stage of the crypto crackdown comes ahead of the digital yuan's launch, expected in February. The latest.
Teen's Family Reveal BTC Robbery at Knifepoint 🚨
One year ago, an 18-year-old was excited to start university. But days after he moved into his accommodation, he was robbed at knifepoint. A gang of eight men forced him to reveal the passwords to his financial apps, and hand over Bitcoin. No one was charged in relation to the incident — but now, the victim's mother is urging students to be vigilant. Read more.
DeFi News
Avalanche Rush Program Provides $100K in Developer Incentives for Yield Yak 🏔️
The Avalanche Foundation announced this week that they would be adding open-sourced DEX aggregator Yield Yak for their Rush program. The developer incentives will support the Yield Yak team in advancing their DEX (YY Swap).
Deri Protocol Exceeds $100MM in Everlasting Options Trading Volume 📈
Deri — a decentralized protocol that exchanges risk exposures precisely and capital-efficiently — crossed the $100 million mark in everlasting options trading volume of USDT. The protocol offers decentralized trading of perpetual futures and everlasting options across 4 chains (ETH, BSC, HECO, MATIC).
Bitfinex Launches L2 Bridge From CeFi to DeFi Exchanges 🙋♀️
The bridge — launched by crypto exchange Bitfinex — will initially be limited to Tether (UDST), but may eventually open-up to various ERC-20 tokens in future. Users of the bridge will have access to DeFi systems, as well as CeFi institutions.
EToro Launches DeFi Portfolio 😺
Global investment platform eToro has joined the crypto game even more by launching a DeFi portfolio. At launch, eToro’s DeFi portfolio comprises of 11 DeFi cryptos: Ether (ETH), Uniswap (UNI), Chainlink (LINK), Aave (AAVE), Compound (COMP), Yearn.finance (YFI), Decentraland (MANA), Polygon (MATIC), Algorand (ALGO), Basic Attention Token (BAT) and Maker (MKR).
NFT News
What Happened in the World of NFTs This Week? 🧐
Head over to CoinMarketCap Academy for our neat summary of what's happened in the world of NFTs and play-to-earn games over the past seven days. This week's headlines include the news that Snoop Dogg is entering the metaverse through a partnership with The Sandbox. Plus, how Burger King is hopping on the NFT bandwagon. Check it out.
Funding News
Grape Protocol $1.2M in Seed Funding 💰
Grape Network is a Solana-based "DAO infrastructure" protocol that provides tools for DAOs. The round was led by Multicoin Capital, with participation from SkyVision Capital, Definitive Capital, LongHash Ventures, Double Peak Group and Solana Capital.
Argo Blockchain Raises $112.5M in US Share Sale 💸
Argo Blockchain a U.K.-listed cryptocurrency miner, is selling 7.5M American depositary shares (ADSs) for $15 each. The shares are planned to begin trading today on the Nasdaq Global Market under the “ARBK” ticker.
