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Chainalysis has determined that most NFT transactions so far this year were from retail buyers, but the big volumes were driven by collectors and institutions. More than 80% of all nonfungible token (NFT) transactions were worth less than $10,000 in 2021 according to Chainalysis which categorized them as "retail" in recent research. A Dec. 6 report from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis titled “ The 2021 NFT Market Explained” detailed NFT transaction trends throughout 2021. Researchers at Chainalysis studied on-chain data between January and October 2021. While retail transactions accounted for more than 80% of all NFT transactions on any given day in 2021, collector-sized transactions rose from 6% in March to 19% by Oct. 31 indicating an increase in larger collectors as the year progressed. Institutional-sized transactions accounted for less than 1% of all transfers but made up 26% of the actual trading volume during the period, it added. A retail-sized transacti...

The partnership will allow Bancolombia customers to trade a number of popular cryptocurrencies including BTC, ETH, and LTC. New York-based crypto exchange Gemini has announced that it will be expanding into Latin America through an upcoming partnership with Colombia’s largest bank, Bancolombia. The partnership will take effect Dec. 14, and will permit customers from Bancolombia to trade 4 crypto assets: Bitcoin ( BTC ), Ether ( ETH ), Litecoin ( LTC ), and Bitcoin Cash ( BCH ). A limited number of users will be able to buy crypto directly from their Bancolombia bank accounts through the Gemini exchange, which will provide crypto-specific infrastructure for exchange and custody of assets. It remains unclear whether the users will be able to withdraw the crypto holdings directly from their accounts. In a Dec. 6 announcement about the partnership, Gemini stated that it “serves as an important step toward the strategic expansion of Gemini’s presence in Latin America.” “We believe th...

CEO of Independent Reserve Adrian Przelozny told Cointelegraph that he expects the trend to continue as crypto matures and becomes less volatile. The 2021 Independent Reserve’s Cryptocurrency Index (IRCI) survey of more than 2,000 people found that the percentage of Australians surveyed who own or have owned crypto has reached 28.8%, up from 18.4% in 2020. The results suggest that growth in the sector is being driven by the positive experience of those who own crypto, with 89% of those surveyed saying they have made money or broken even, up from 78% in 2020. Independent Reserve CEO Adrian Przelozny told Cointelegraph that these results didn’t come as a surprise to him, due to an environment in which it has become “very difficult to get returns on investments.” He stated that “cryptocurrencies have easily outperformed any other assets over the last 12 months,” before adding: “I think it's quite natural that more and more people get interested in an asset class that's clear...

A collection of 100 “intelligent NFTs” will be auctioned in Binance on Dec. 16 as Sophia takes a trip into the Metaverse. A virtual anime version of Sophia, the world-famous humanoid artificial intelligence (AI) robot, is set to be tokenized and auctioned off as part of an up-and-coming Metaverse project dubbed “Noah’s Ark.”  Sophia was developed by Hong Kong-based firm Hansen Robotics in 2016 and is known across the globe for her conversation skills and articulate speaking ability. In her first 5 years, Sophia has addressed the United Nations and obtained Saudi citizenship. Earlier this month, former Hansen Robotics CEO and Sophia co-creator Jeanne Lim launched a virtual anime version of the robot dubbed “Sophia beingAI” at her new company beingAI under a perpetual license and co-branding partnership. According to the Dec. 7 announcement, beingAI has partnered with intelligent nonfungible token (iNFT) production firm Alethea AI to launch 100 iNFTs featuring Sophia beingAI ...

A puppet of Jack Dorsey has been used to explain the Lightning Network in a new video promoting Spiral’s LDK. The crypto arm of the recently rebranded Square (now Block) has demonstrated its Lightning Development Kit (LDK) as it aims to turbocharge the Bitcoin network.  The team from Jack Dorsey’s Spiral published a video on Dec. 7 showcasing the capabilities of Bitcoin Lightning and the Lightning Development Kit (LDK). LDK has been designed to allow developers to seamlessly plug their applications into the network on mobile devices and Point of Sale terminals.  LDK supports native APIs using Rust, C, Swift, Java, and Kotlin coding languages. This lets developers customize their wallet app for their users in the language of their choice while also removing the necessity for separate Bitcoin and LN wallets. In the video , Twitter’s former CEO described the LDK as a program that “makes it easy for any developer in the world to build a wallet.” We made a very short docum...

The ICRI survey of 2,000 Aussies also found that 56.7% of the women surveyed said that they would enter the crypto market based on advice from family and friends. A new survey shared with Cointelegraph has found that the proportion of Australian women who own crypto assets has doubled in the last year. The 2021 Independent Reserve’s Cryptocurrency Index (IRCI) of 2000 Australians found that the number of women who currently or have previously invested in crypto rose from 10.3% in 2020 to 20% in 2021. The percentage of female Bitcoin owners also rose from 8.3% to 14.8% according to the survey. Independent Reserve is an Australian-based cryptocurrency exchange that was founded in 2013, it has more than 200,000 users. Karen Cohen, Deputy Chair for the Board of Blockchain Australia, said that more women have entered the crypto market this year as the asset class has continued to become a mainstream investment. Speaking to Cointelegraph, she said: “I think that it tells you that inves...

South Korea’s tax agency is looking into crypto investment firm Hashed according to local media. Crypto investment firm Hashed is currently under investigation by the National Tax Service (NTS) in South Korea according to local media. The 4th Bureau of Investigation from the Seoul Regional Tax Office, which is handling the investigation, is best known for conducting investigations into tax evasion and slush fundraising. A slush fund is a pool of funds raised through undisclosed means and set aside for undisclosed purposes. On Dec. 7, local media reported that the exact nature of the investigation is not clear. An official from the regional tax office told reporters that although they could not confirm the exact nature of the investigation “intense investigations on small businesses without any prior notice are not uncommonly related to slush fundraising or tax evasion on the part of the company’s CEO.” The investigation began early last month and is set to conclude no later than...

DeFi wallets provide users with a gateway into the world of decentralized finance; the only caveat is finding the one that best supports a user's financial goals. Which wallets are worth considering? The SafePal wallet is designed to address simplicity with a consolidated dashboard and cross-chain swapping features to support users with staking, amongst other earning opportunities. SafePal is providing users with a solution that operates as a completely non-custodial decentralized crypto asset management platform. The solution comprises a software and hardware wallet for users both simply and conveniently, targeting users who are still reluctant to participate in DeFi. The SafePal wallet is designed with a simplified dashboard that guides users to a series of DeFi pools without having to navigate through an overwhelming amount of DApps, prior to staking. Alongside staking are the platform’s features for auto-compounding in SafePal Earn, which will give users an additional opp...

Large-volume trader moves point to concerns that a fresh Bitcoin price dip could still occur. Bitcoin ( BTC ) whales may be planning to sell at short notice as BTC price action struggles around $47,000. In its daily QuickTake market updates on Dec. 5, on-chain analytics firm CryptoQuant warned that large volume movements on exchanges were increasing again. Data points to whales increasingly eager to sell Highlighting its exchange whale ratio metric, CryptoQuant deduced that major Bitcoin investors were taking no chances when it comes to short-term price action. Exchange whale ratio measures the size of the largest inflows and outflows from exchanges relative to total inflows and outflows. Before Saturday's dip to $41,900, the metric spiked above the peak 0.95 level — and as of Monday, is back in the same territory. "Whales are still depositing BTC to exchanges. Exchange Whale Ratio reached over 95% again," CryptoQuant commented. "Taker Buy Sell Ratio still r...

Indian banks have reportedly been slow to accept the Supreme Court’s decision allowing them to do business with crypto firms. Kotak, India’s leading private bank, has reportedly become the first to open its gates to the crypto community, per a report published in the  Economic Times .  The banking giant announced it has partnered with the leading crypto exchange WazirX, which would allow traders to use the banking services to liquidate their funds. The partnership between the two parties is being seen as a major breakthrough for the crypto community, given Indian banks have frozen crypto payments and withdrawals for the past eight months. “WazirX has opened an account with Kotak which can be used to receive and pay money to investors trading on the exchange. The account is yet to become operational. Paperwork, KYC, and some testing are on,” said one of the people familiar with the matter. Private banks in India have refused to do business with crypto platforms citing a la...

Launched in April 2020, Stacked is a web-based app allowing users to access trading strategies via pre-built stacks. Alameda Research, a cryptocurrency trading firm founded by crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried , has led a $35 million investment in the automated crypto trading app Stacked. On Dec. 9, the startup officially announced the successful completion of a Series A funding round co-led by Alameda and Mirana Ventures, a venture partner of Bybit exchange and BitDAO. The new funding will reportedly help Stacked grow its 40-person team to over 100 employees in 2022 and continue scaling its suite crypto portfolios and automated lending products. According to Alameda Research Ventures’ partner Brian Lee, Alameda started investing in Stacked over a year ago and is now sure about their ability to provide a “unique and simple investment experience for retail investors.” “The ability to give users some guardrails when building a portfolio, while also allowing that user to custody ...

Over the weekend, hackers made away with nearly $200 million in 20 different tokens. Following a near $200 million hack on the BitMart exchange, the Shiba Inu (SHIB) community and crypto exchange Huobi Global aim to help the exchange strengthen security and track inflows of stolen assets. On Dec. 5, crypto exchange BitMart became victim to a hot wallet compromise hosted over the Ethereum ( ETH ) and Binance Smart Chain (BSC) blockchains. As a result, the hackers were able to steal over $196 million, roughly $100 million over the Ethernet network and around $96 million over the BSC blockchain. 1/3 We have identified a large-scale security breach related to one of our ETH hot wallets and one of our BSC hot wallets. At this moment we are still concluding the possible methods used. The hackers were able to withdraw assets of the value of approximately USD 150 millions. — Sheldon Xia (@sheldonbitmart) December 5, 2021 Soon after BitMart CEO Sheldon Xia confirmed the hack, Huobi ann...

Bitcoin has not died for the 500th time, but market fear could easily convince you otherwise as analysts predict a slow return to higher levels. Bitcoin ( BTC ) starts a new week with traders still digesting the impact of the last — a major price drop that at one point saw $41,900. A modest recovery is now competing with some formidable resistance, first of which is $50,000. As a sense of déjà vu pervades markets, analysts are coming to terms with the fact that the end of Q4 2021 will likely not produce the blow-off top that they had anticipated. There is also concern that another, deeper, BTC price floor may have to enter before a genuine recovery takes place. What could happen in the last few weeks of the year? Cointelegraph takes a look at five factors on everyone’s radar for the coming week. Ranging into "bullish" Q1 2022? After nearing $50,000 earlier this weekend, BTC/USD is now back around $48,000 — still down 16% in a week. Against all-time highs of $69,000,...

BSC-based projects will get a chance to gain insight from Animoca Brands and assistance from the BSC community. Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and Animoca Brands are launching a $200 million investment program to incubate early cryptocurrency-focused gaming projects building on BSC. BSC and Animonica announced Dec. 6 that they are co-investing up to $100 million each to support game projects in the GameFi sector. One of the largest blockchain ecosystems, BSC will be investing from its $1 billion accelerator arm for decentralized finance (DeFi), nonfungible tokens (NFT) and GameFi. The fund was set up earlier this year to extend BSC ecosystem services and drive mainstream adoption across the fintech sector. Animoca Brands is a major player in blockchain gaming and the open metaverse, working on providing property rights via NFTs and gaming. The firm has invested in major NFT-related projects including Axie Infinity, OpenSea, Bitski, Harmony and others. “With this co-investment, projec...

Based on NFT and Metaverse sales over the past week, the demand for digital land outpaced all other items, art, and collections. Digital land is in high demand in what is already a highly lucrative market as the past week’s NFT and Metaverse sales figures revealed. Data from the industry metrics platform, NonFungible, indicates that over the past week there have been more than $300 million in NFT sales. Of that total, almost a quarter have been for digital land in the Sandbox Metaverse.  Over the past week, each one of the top ten NFT Metaverse sales across the top five collections were for in-game digital land. The Sandbox traded a total volume of $70.5 million for 4,433 assets over the past week — making it the Metaverse collection that raked in the most cash. Although Decentraland ranked in second place for the total volume traded, the top ten most expensive metaverse NFT sales during the past week, ranging from 225,000 MANA ($758,250) to 50,000 MANA ($220,000), were al...

More and more traders are turning to DEX aggregators to seek out the best rates for token swaps. Trading volumes on popular decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregators have surged to new highs over the past few weeks. Decentralized exchange aggregators provide a way for token traders and swappers to scan several DEX platforms to get the best swap rates at the time. According to Dune analytics, popular DEX aggregators such as 1inch, 0x, and Paraswap have seen volumes surging over the past month. The combined volume for those three hit a cumulative weekly all-time high of $6 billion last week, increasing by around 50% since the beginning of November. DEX aggregator weekly volumes - dune.xyz 1inch has a minor lead in terms of the current market share at 53%, but 0x is rapidly catching up with 42% recorded for December so far. Last week, 1inch announced a Series B funding round led by Amber Group that raised $175 million. On Dec. 5, 0x actually surpassed 1inch in terms of daily volu...

The Singapore-based Bitget exchange has reportedly lost its license after a legal tussle with the agency for K-Pop boy band BTS. Singapore-headquartered digital asset platform, Bitget, has reportedly been suspended by the Monetary Authority of Singapore after getting into a dispute with an agency for the popular K-Pop boy band BTS. As reported by the Financial Times on Dec. 5, Bitget lost the Singapore license following the controversial listing of a new K-Pop-related cryptocurrency called Army Coin. However, the crypto exchange still claims to have licenses in other jurisdictions such as Australia, Canada, and the United States. The issue arose on Oct. 25, when the Bitget exchange shared a tweet promoting Army Coin, which is named after the South Korean boyband's followers. It allegedly used misleading information such as, “This coin exists for the benefit of BTS” and “ARMY coin aims to take care of BTS members for life”. The exchange reportedly violated the band agency’s ...

The exchange’s CEO says it plans to expand to the U.K. in the next six to 18 months, despite being ordered by the country’s regulator to cease trading in June. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said the exchange is planning to expand to the U.K. in the next six to 18 months, despite being instructed by the country’s regulator to cease trading earlier this year. The U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) revoked Binance’s ability to trade in Britain in June, amid a sweeping regulatory crackdown on crypto exchanges. Binance is one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges. To become a registered crypto asset firm in the U.K., the platform must abide by money laundering and terrorist financing controls. To meet these requirements, Zhao indicated the company was considering setting up a specific company to run in the U.K. —  similar to its Binance.US subsidiary . Zhao told the Telegraph on Dec. 4 that Binance plans to apply for an FCA license, having hired a “number of ex-regulatory s...

If BTC holds the $49,000 level, ETH, MATIC, ALGO and EGLD could move higher during Bitcoin’s expected “consolidation phase.” Bitcoin ( BTC ) and most altcoins sold off on Dec. 4 with massive deleveraging seen in the crypto derivatives markets. Data suggests more than $2.5 billion of crypto liquidations over a 24-hour period. During the recent fall, Ether ( ETH ) has continued to outperform Bitcoin . While Bitcoin’s market dominance has dropped below 41%, Ether has continued to gain ground and its market dominance has risen above 21%. Crypto market data daily view. Source: Coin360 Some analysts believe that Bitcoin’s recent decline could result in a lengthy phase of consolidation. Decentrader co-founder filbfilb expects Bitcoin to consolidate well into the first quarter of the next year. Lex Moskovski, CIO of Moskovski Capital, also expects “ a slow grind up .” Could Bitcoin hit a bottom within the next few days? Let’s analyze the charts of the top-5 cryptocurrencies that coul...