On this page

The crypto community celebrated the 14th anniversary of Bitcoin’s whitepaper as several crypto initiatives were rolled out.

It’s the start of another exciting month in the crypto space, with several crypto and NFT initiatives being rolled out. In this edition of the crypto scoop, we review

Bitcoin’s 14th Whitepaper Anniversary
Dogecoin’s price gains
Crypto initiatives in South Africa and India
Meta’s NFT initiative for content creators and more.

Bitcoin Community Celebrates Bitcoin’s Whitepaper 14th Anniversary.

On 31st October 2022, the Crypto community celebrated Bitcoin’s whitepaper anniversary. On 31st October,2008, Satoshi Nakamoto released a nine-page document, Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, that began a financial revolution and birthed a trillion-dollar industry, bitcoin.

While BTC continues trading above $20,000, Michael Saylor notes, “Bitcoin is Winning”. Michael Saylor, the former CEO of Microstrategy, a crypto whale that owns 130,000 Bitcoins, reports that Bitcoin performs better than the other major assets the company owns. He also attributes Microstrategy winning to bitcoin because of the company's levered-long Bitcoin strategy.

Despite China's anti-crypto stance, recent reports indicate that China is one of the world's largest crypto whales. China currently holds $6 billion worth of cryptocurrencies, including 194,000 Bitcoin ($3.9 billion), 833,000 Ethereum ($1.2 billion), and several other unnamed digital assets.

DOGE's Price Chart (Source: Coinmarketcap)

DOGE Replaces Cardano ADA as 6th Largest Cryptocurrency

After Elon Musk purchased Twitter, DOGE has recorded new highs rising over 133.36% in the past week. With its price gains, DOGE replaced ADA as the 6th largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

Data from Lookonchain analysis indicates that the top 50 investors liquidated 761 tokens valued at around $110 million as they cashed in their profits from the price spike. At the same time, within 24 hours, these investors bought $70 million worth of DOGE. The DOGE price continues to rise as the DOGE community anticipates DOGE integration into Twitter integration by Elon Musk.

Crypto Community Mourns Death of Visionary Developer

Local media reported that blockchain developer Nikolai Muchgian drowned on a beach in Puerto Rico. For his work in the crypto space, the crypto community describes the deceased as a visionary.

Muchgian was the co-founder of Balancer Labs and a contributor to MakerDAO. He was also in charge of the DAI fork, RAI, and Rico, among several other DeFi projects.

India Rolls Out Pilot For CBDC and South Africa Retail Giant Accepts Crypto Payment

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the country's central bank, declared on Monday that "The first pilot in the digital rupee — wholesale segment (e-W) commenced on November 1, 2022. The central bank stated that settlement in central bank money would lower transaction costs by avoiding the need for infrastructure for settlement guarantee or collateral to reduce settlement risk.

Retail grocery giant in South Africa, Pick n Pay (PIKJ.J), said on Tuesday that it is expanding a pilot to add cryptocurrency as a payment option to more stores. The announcement came a few weeks after the Financial Sector Conduct Authority officially recognised cryptocurrency assets as financial products in South Africa, opening the door for regulation and the widespread acceptance of cryptocurrencies as a form of payment.

Meta's Proposed NFT Initiative For Instagram (Source: Meta)

Meta Announces New Initiatives For NFTs on Instagram

The social media platform, Instagram, is getting ready to launch a number of tools related to nonfungible tokens (NFTs) that will let creators produce, display, and trade NFTs.

At its Creator Week 2022 event on Nov. 2, Instagram parent company Meta announced that the platform would enable its creators to produce "digital collectables" and sell them "both on and off Instagram." Meta has selected the Polygon blockchain as the initial partner for this functionality.

Speaking on NFTs, hours after the mint, the "Rick and Morty" NFT Collection saw $14 million in trade volume. Justin Roiland, a voice actor and co-creator of the animated comedy series "Rick and Morty," developed the collection with assistance from Web3 venture capital firm Paradigm. The stated objective of Art Gobblers is to establish a "decentralised art factory" through NFTs, a GOO token, and community cooperation.

According to data from the brand-new NFT marketplace Blur, the collection, which was free to mint, has already seen over 9,600 ETH (or roughly $15 million) in trade volume since minting hours ago on Monday night.

Investment Giant Offers Bitcoin and Ethereum Trading Options To Retail Investors

Investment firm Fidelity will allow retail investors to trade Bitcoin and Ethereum. The 34 million retail investors at Fidelity will have commission-free access to purchasing Bitcoin and Ethereum.

The $4.5 trillion asset manager has established an early access waitlist for users to trade both assets. The Fidelity Crypto service will also give investors beginner-friendly educational materials about the cryptocurrency market. Within the same app, users will be able to trade stocks.

While initially, only Bitcoin and Ethereum will be made available, other digital assets may be considered in the future. The product's launch date is still unknown.

Crypto Scoop: DOGE Replaces Cardano As 6th Largest Cryptocurrency