After trading briefly above its previous all-time high, Ethereum has managed to muster support to break the resistance at $4,370 to register a new all-time high at $4,660 this week and has potential to go above $5,000 in the month of November. On the other hand, Bitcoin continues to remain range-bound between $58,000 and $63,000 giving ample time and opportunity for several altcoins to catch up with the market momentum. Total crypto trade volumes across exchanges have dipped by 6% overall in the last 24 hours indicating propensity to sell among the market participants. In this article, we are going to look at the stories that drove the cryptocurrency markets this week.
Google has announced that it has made a $1 billion investment in Chicago Mercantile Exchange group (CME) which is responsible for many crypto derivatives products. A derivative is a financial instrument that is used to mitigate risk in the underlying asset like Bitcoin without direct exposure to it. In addition to the investment, CME group has entered into a 10-year strategic partnership with Google Cloud to accelerate its move into the cloud ecosystem and to bring new products and services to the market faster.
Leading fintech app Robinhood has partnered with fast food chain Burger King to give away free cryptocurrency to US customers who spend $5 or more. Customers will receive the rewards from a total prize pool of 2 million Dogecoin, 20 Bitcoin and 200 Ethereum.
In another move to spur interest among the food lovers, its rival McDonalds has launched a limited edition of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) featuring the McRib sandwich which will be awarded to 10 consumers who participate in their promotional campaign.
India’s leading online payments company Paytm has said that it will consider introducing Bitcoin services if the legal framework for cryptocurrencies in the country is well defined. This remark came amidst the news of Paytm preparing for its initial public offering (IPO) this month. It is worthy to note that India’s finance minister Nirmala Sitharam has stated earlier that a blanket ban on crypto in India is unlikely.
Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has reportedly acquired an Indian artificial intelligence (AI) startup Agara for an estimated cost of $40 - $50 million. The acquisition is aimed at developing and automating Coinbase’s customer service capabilities by giving new natural language processing tools to its engineering team. This latest effort to provide better customer experience comes after reports of users slamming Coinbase for poor customer support surfaced on the internet.
Cryptocurrency industry as a whole has drawn a lot of attention and criticism from government bodies all over the world mainly for its lack of regulations. But contrarily the mayor of Miami Francis Suarez and mayor-elect of New York Eric Adams have plans to transform their cities to be the next center of crypto innovation in the future. In a move to support their commitment towards the same, the mayors revealed on Twitter that they both will be taking their next paychecks entirely in Bitcoin. Eric Adams also hinted that New York will be looking to create a cryptocurrency similar to MiamiCoin. MiamiCoin was launched earlier in August to fund the city’s municipal projects and has raised more than $7 million.
Disclaimer: This article was authored by Giottus Cryptocurrency Exchange as a part of a paid partnership with The News Minute. Crypto-asset or cryptocurrency investments are subject to market risks such as volatility and have no guaranteed returns. Please do your own research before investing and seek independent legal/financial advice if you are unsure about the investments.