As the crypto market continues to bleed over the past days, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) shares have widened their discount in relation to the underlying crypto held in the fund.
GBTC Premium at New Lows
According to recent data from Coinglass, the trust’s negative premium hit a new all-time low (ATL) as bitcoin struggles around the $35,000 mark. The GBTC has been trading on a steady decline since February last year, with the premium now sitting at 30%.
The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust is an investment vehicle provided by Grayscale Investments, one of the largest investment managers for institutions venturing into the cryptocurrencies space.
The GBTC fund allows institutional investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin through a regulated traditional investment vehicle without

Ethereum-based play-to-earn game, Heroes of Mavis, has recently completed its seed funding round where it raised $5.5 million from Web3 and metaverse investors, including Binance Labs.
Binance and Others Invest in Heroes of Mavia
According to a press release shared with CryptoPotato, the project intends to use the new capital injection to develop the game further, attract top talent, and expand its community of supporters.
The seed funding round was led by Binance Labs and saw contributions from several notable venture capital firms. These include Delphi Digital, Genblock Capital, Mechanism Capital, Alameda Research, Animoca Brands, YGG, YGG SEA, ExNetwork Capital, Double Peak Ventures, Merit Circle, Hashkey Capital, and many other angel investors.
Head of Investment at

The Cardano community and the rest of the crypto industry were excited when smart contracts were enabled on the network following its Alonzo upgrade last year. However, there have been some minor issues since then.
SundaeSwap Goes Live on Cardano
Four months later, the first Cardano-based decentralized app (dApp), SundaeSwap, launched its mainnet on January 20 after a series of private and public testing.
The decentralized exchange (DEX) allows users to trade, stake, and lend tokens on the platform, with traders paying little fees and liquidity providers earning returns on their deposits.
Failed Transactions Frustrate Users
However, barely five minutes after staking went live, users who had initially been excited to join the DEX became frustrated with several platform

Privacy-focused startup Nym Technologies has developed the first block for its Nym mainnet and has started onboarding validators ahead of its mainnet launch.
Onboarding Network Validators
In a press release shared with CryptoPotato on Wednesday, Nym noted that it has welcomed some top firms as its network validators, including the telecommunications giant Swisscom, Dokia Capital, Chorus One, Nodes.Guru and a few others from the community like Commodum.
The validators will help maintain Nym’s mixnet privacy system, which can allegedly defeat nation-state-level mass surveillance.
They do this by providing consensus on the network arrangement of mix-nodes at any time, a public history of all NYM token transactions, in addition to creating and protecting certificates against

Following its entrance into the metaverse, the Australian Open (AO) has announced that its virtual tennis tournament, dubbed AO Decentraland, will be launching next week.
AO to Host Tennis Tournament in Metaverse
As earlier reported, the Australian Open (AO), one of the world’s biggest tennis tournaments, partnered with leading virtual reality platform Decentraland to extend this year’s championship to the metaverse.
According to an email shared with CryptoPotato today, AO Decentraland is scheduled to launch on January 17, 2022. The initiative will enable supporters to gain unrestricted access and explore the Australian Open from any part of the world.
The tournament organizers noted that it will replicate the best elements of Melbourne Park, the official stadium of the

Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are one step closer to mainstream adoption as NCR Corporation, a leading manufacturer of automated teller machines (ATMs), has enabled customers to buy and sell crypto assets on its more than 750k ATMs and digital touchpoints across 140 countries.
NCR Acquires Crypto Firm LibertyX
The development comes after NCR announced the acquisition of ATM network company and cryptocurrency software provider LibertyX for an undisclosed amount. NCR initially outlined plans to acquire LibertyX last August.
The crypto software provider already has existing partnerships with independent ATM operators. This includes Cardtronics, which owns and manages ATMs in the United States at locations like supermarkets, pharmacies, and convenience stores.
Since LibertyX

Cameroonian mixed martial artist Francis Ngannou, who competes in the heavyweight division for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), is considering joining the growing list of sports stars receiving their paychecks in bitcoin.
A Bitcoin Believer
The UFC champion revealed on Friday that he is a Bitcoin believer and has been discussing the leading cryptocurrency with his family and friends. Ngannou also noted that he is quite bullish on the future of Bitcoin, and that’s why he is considering taking half of his next fight earnings in the digital asset.

Been talking with my family and friends in the crypto space. #Bitcoin is huge in Africa and I’m thinking of taking half my fight purse in it. Bitcoin is the future and I’m a believer 🤔 @ufc #ufc270
— Francis Ngannou

Popular Russian rapper and YouTuber Morgenshtern has partnered with The Open Network (TON) to become an investor and ambassador for the blockchain project.
Morgenshtern Sings About TON
According to a recent report from a local news outlet, the A-list Russian rapper released a new song, in which he sang about the TON project and its native cryptocurrency Toncoin.
In the song, the hip-hop star mentioned that he “sold all the cue balls and bought TON.” Morgenshtern subsequently revealed he had purchased about $130,000 (10 million rubles) worth of the cryptocurrency.
The track quickly garnered thousands of streams in a couple of hours following its release on Spotify, attracting the attention of several local news media.
Morgenshtern also spoke about the crypto space, NFTs,

Polkadot’s parachain smart contract platform with Ethereum compatibility, Moonbeam, has recently completed its pre-launch process and is now live on the Polkadot network.
Moonbeam Launches on Polkadot
Announcing the launch on Tuesday, the project’s team noted that Moonbeam is the first fully operational parachain on the Polkadot blockchain. With the release, the protocol will pave the way for over 80 projects in its ecosystem to be deployed.
Earlier in October, Moonbeam won the second Polkadot Parachain Auction after seeing over 35 million DOT worth more than $1.4 billion contributed by its supporters from across the globe.
With Moonbeam now live on Polkadot, it intends to bring several new integrations, activities, and users to boost the Polkadot ecosystem and contribute

Leading Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution, Polygon, announced today that the much-awaited Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559 upgrade will go live on the mainnet next week.
Polygon’s London HardFork Set to go Live
In an official announcement on Wednesday, the India-based project noted that the upgrade, which will initiate the burning of MATIC, is scheduled to go live on the mainnet on January 18, 2022 at about 8 a.m. UTC.
The EIP-1559 upgrade, commonly known as the London hardfork, completely revolutionizes how the fee market works on the Ethereum network. It eliminates first-price auction as the main mechanism for fee calculation and introduces a discrete base fee that is burned rather than paid to miners.
While this change does not lower transaction fees, which are

The Central American nation of El Salvador entered into the pages of history as the first country to officially adopt bitcoin as a legal tender on June 9, 2021.
Subsequently, the country went on a bitcoin buying spree, taking advantage of every opportunity to acquire more of the popular “digital gold” since it considers it a hedge against the consequences of inflation.
A Breakdown of El Salvador’s Bitcoin Purchases
El Salvador has made a total of eight BTC purchases to date, and about half of them were made in September alone.
The country made its first purchase of 200 BTC worth $9.34 million on Sept. 6, 2021, just a day before its Bitcoin Law took effect. It was followed immediately by another one of 200 BTC worth $9.36 million on the same day.
The third one took place on

In a bid to revolutionize its fan engagement, French esports organization Team Vitality announced that it has collaborated with popular blockchain project Tezos on a three-year partnership deal.
Team Vitality Partners Tezos
Announcing the development in a press release shared with CryptoPotato today, the partnership, which is considered the biggest since the inception of Team Vitality, will span from 2022 through 2024.
Commenting on the news, Nicolas Maurer, CEO of Team Vitality, said collaborating with Tezos could be a game-changer and set the organization on the right track in making 2022 the biggest year in its history.

“The opportunities Tezos can bring to strengthen the relationship between us and our fans is incredibly exciting, and we’re immensely proud to have

American home rental firm Airbnb Inc. might soon join the growing list of companies that accept cryptocurrencies as payment options for services.
Airbnb to Accept Crypto Payments?
The possibility of Airbnb supporting crypto payments comes after the company’s co-founder, and CEO Brian Chesky asked users on Twitter to recommend anything they would like the home rental firm to do in 2022.

If Airbnb could launch anything in 2022, what would it be?
— Brian Chesky (@bchesky) January 2, 2022

Three days after he posed the question, Chesky sorted through nearly 4,000 comments and made a list of the top six recommendations.
Crypto Payments Tops List
Apparently, many people want to be able to book an Airbnb apartment with digital assets as “crypto payments” topped the list of

Binance Labs, the investment arm of the popular cryptocurrency exchange Binance, said it had invested $12 million into institutional liquidity provider WOO Network’s Series A+ funding round. Shortly after, the latter’s native token skyrocketed by double digits.
Binance Invests $12M in WOO Network
According to an official announcement from Binance, the investment in WOO Network comes on the heels of the project’s recently-concluded Series A completed round in November 2020.
The round saw WOO Network raise $30 million from notable investors such as Three Arrows Capital, PSP Soteria Ventures, Gate Ventures, QCP Capital, Crypto.com Capital, Avalanche, and BitTorrent.
With the latest capital injection from Binance Labs, Woo Network will deploy the funds into expanding its

It is no news that an increasing number of corporate investors are seeking to gain more exposure to cryptocurrencies, given that the asset class has grown tremendously from its nascent state into a popular financial instrument.
VC Investments Surge 450%
With corporate investors seeing the opportunities associated with cryptocurrencies, a recent report published in CryptoQuant suggests that such businesses saw an inflow of more venture capital (VC) funding in 2021 compared to previous years.
Crypto Investments From VCs. Source: CryptoQuantIn 2020, crypto companies saw a handful of VC investments, amounting to only $5.5 billion. However, the figure surged by 450% in 2021, as about $30 billion was poured into the sector by venture capitalists.
Per the report, the $30 billion

The start of a new year provides an opportunity to reflect on the past and move forward with intention and purpose. And while other crypto personalities started 2022 with bullish predictions, Ethereum’s co-founder Vitalik Buterin chose to travel back in time, revisiting some of the things he predicted over the last ten years. He also shared what he learned and what he thinks about the subjects today.
As a programmer, writer, and an active member of the cryptocurrency space since its early years, Buterin has said, written and predicted a lot of things about the industry. Some he nailed, some he missed, and others very laughable. But for one thing, he doesn’t shy away from admitting when he’s wrong about his predictions.
Vitalik on Bitcoin Adoption and Regulation
Before

2021 was indeed an eventful year for the cryptocurrency industry. Many milestones were achieved within the last 12 months. We saw an influx of institutional investors adopting crypto assets, especially Bitcoin, as a hedge against inflation.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) became a thing for celebrities and retail investors, with billions of dollars traded in exchange for different digital collectibles.
While the landmark growth of the industry was championed by different players, including retail and institutional investors, as well as blockchain developers, certain individuals were more instrumental in fostering the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies in 2021.
Top 10 Influential Crypto People in 2021
To wrap up the year, CryptoPotato has curated a list of the top 10 most

Enjin is wrapping up 2021 in grand style as its scalable, decentralized, and cross-chain NFT infrastructure, Efinity, emerged as the winner of Polkadot’s last parachain auction for the year.

With 7.7M $DOT contributed by over 20,000 community members, @efinityio has won the 6th @Polkadot parachain auction! 🎉
Thank you to everyone who has supported us in our endeavor to bring #NFTs to Polkadot.
To Efinity and beyond! pic.twitter.com/n2ffJEr53C
— Enjin | We’re Hiring! (@enjin) December 30, 2021

Over $214 Million Raised
Efinity won the sixth parachain slot after raising almost 7.7 million DOTs worth over $214 million from more than 8,600 stakeholders who locked their funds in favor.
Congratulating the project for the win, Polkadot noted that Efinity will go live on March

FTX US, the United States division of global cryptocurrency exchange, FTX.com, revealed today that its customers will soon be able to access crypto derivatives and non-fungible token (NFT) services on the platform.
According to Brett Harrison, the president of FTX US, the exchange is building a self-hosted wallet that will support FTX NFTs and NFT gaming.
The crypto exchange is also looking to offer tokenized stock trading to US customers.

– derivatives for US customers– stocks on FTX US– self-hosted wallet support for FTX NFTs https://t.co/RveUDajexh
— Brett Harrison (@Brett_FTXUS) December 28, 2021

FTX US Prepares to Offer Derivatives
The idea to offer crypto derivatives to US customers has been in the works for months.

In October, FTX US made initial steps to expand

In the spirit of Christmas, American football rookie quarterback Michael McCorkle “Mac” Jones gifted his teammates with Bitcoin (BTC) as he played the role of Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.
Bitcoin as a Christmas Gift
Although the amount he shared was not disclosed, Jones gifted bitcoin to 12 of his teammates, making them Bitcoiners for the first time. The list includes Ted Karras, David Andrews, Trent Brown, Yodny Cajuste, Yasir Durant, James Ferentz, Justin Herron, Shaq Mason, Mike Onwenu, Alex Redmond, Will Sherman, and Isaiah Wynn.
The 23-year old, who plays for the New England Patriots in the National Football League (NFL), said that he has been researching Bitcoin for some time now, so he decided to give out some to his teammates as Christmas presents.
New England

Charles Hoskinson, founder of IOHK – the foundation behind Cardano- has shared some of the project’s goals in 2022 via a live Christmas broadcast on Youtube.
Hoskinson reflected on the growth of Cardano and the entire crypto industry. He mentioned the non-fungible token (NFT) revolution, the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) boom, and how hackers are targeting DeFi projects, leading to a loss of over $10.5 billion in 2021 alone.
Speaking on Cardano’s achievements this year, Hoskinson noted that over “two million assets” have been issued on Cardano, most of it being NFTs. He added that more than 127 projects are currently writing code to build decentralized applications (dApps) on the network, with about 20 to 30 in the pipeline to launch within the next three months.
Charles

The Bank of Thailand (BOT) has revealed that it will delay the testing phase of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) until late 2022.
Thailand Reschedules CBDC Test
Reporting the postponement, Reuters noted that Thailand plans to use the national digital currency as an alternative payment option to cash.
Although the central bank did not state the reason for the delay, it still intends to use the pilot project to evaluate the use of a CDBC to complement cash transactions within a limited skill.
The pilot phase will see some financial institutions and about 10,000 users test the digital currency for online and offline transactions such as deposits, withdrawals, and fund transfers.
Commenting on the development, deputy BOT director Kasidit Tansanguan said that after

The Dogecoin Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the growth of popular meme-inspired cryptocurrency Dogecoin (DOGE), has joined forces with the founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin. The idea is to design a “Community Staking” system based on the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism.
This comes months after the foundation announced at the Bitcoin ESG conference held earlier this year that it is moving Dogecoin from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake.
What is Community Staking?
According to the Dogecoin Trailmap, community staking is a version of PoS that allows all community members, and not just whales, to earn rewards for their participation and contribution to the Dogecoin ecosystem. Additionally, users will be able to give back to the whole community

The global provider of secure financial messaging services, SWIFT, is planning to launch an innovative pilot in the first quarter of 2022 that will see it explore interoperability in the nascent asset tokenization market.
SWIFT to Test Tokenized Assets
Aside from SWIFT, other participants in the initiative will include Clearstream, Northern Trust, Citi-backed enterprise blockchain firm SETL and other industry players, the company noted in a recent announcement.
Thomas Zschach, SWIFT’s Chief Innovation Officer, said with the organization being able to link more than 11,000 institutions across 200 countries, it is strategically positioned to engage closely with the future of tokenized securities.
“We look forward to this set of new experiments and innovating collaboratively

Xinhua News Agency, a Chinese state-run media company, has revealed that it will soon issue China’s first “news digital collectibles” in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs),
Xinhua Launches NFT Collection
In an official announcement on Wednesday, Xinhua will issue a total of 110,001 copies of unique photographs taken by journalists in 2021.
According to the announcement, the digital items will be made up of 11 collections consisting of 10,000 copies, each with one special edition release, which will be available on the Xinhua mobile app on Friday, Dec. 24, Christmas Eve.
The development indicates an increasing interest in virtual assets and blockchain technology, despite several warnings by the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) about the potential risks associated with the

As the cryptocurrency industry progresses towards a mainstream adoption stage, Dubai, one of the seven emirates in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), also continues to solidify its position as one of the top crypto-friendly jurisdictions in the world.
DWTC to Become Crypto Zone
In a recent update from the nation, Dubai authorities have declared that the Dubai World Trade Center (DWTC), a government-owned event and exhibition venue, will soon become a comprehensive zone and regulator for digital assets, including crypto assets, products, operators, and exchanges.
The initiative is geared toward promoting mass adoption of crypto by designing a “comprehensive ecosystem” for the rapidly growing industry. It aims to work with the private sector and other important entities needed

The Chamber of Senators of Paraguay passed a bill on Thursday that would regulate and commercialize crypto trading and mining activities in the country.
Paraguay’s Senate Approves Crypto Bill
Sen. Fernando Silva Facetti, one of three senators sponsoring the legislation, confirmed the approval on Twitter, saying that the bill now awaits deliberations from the Chamber of Deputies of Paraguay next year.

(1/3) Today, after an intense debate, the Senate @SenadoresPy approved todaya New Law Project which regulates the industry and commercialization of #Crypto assets #Bitcoin #Paraguay after …(open threat)
— FernandoSilvaFacetti (@FSilvaFacetti) December 17, 2021

According to Facetti, the bill, which received an intense debate from the Senate, aims to “regulate the industry

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has postponed its decision regarding the Bitwise Bitcoin ETP Trust and Grayscale Bitcoin Trust applications.
SEC Extends Approval Date to Feb 2021
The regulatory body has issued two new extension dates for both applications to determine whether to approve, reject, or “institute proceedings to determine whether to disapprove” them.
“The Commission finds that it is appropriate to designate a longer period within which to take action on the proposed rule change so that it has sufficient time to consider the proposed rule change and the comments received,” the SEC stated in the notices sent to both firms.
The financial regulator expects to make a decision on February 1, 2022, for the Bitwise Bitcoin ETP Trust and

Polkadot has announced the launch of the first parachains, a set of individual blockchains that will run in parallel within its ecosystem, the project noted in a press release shared with CryptoPotato on Saturday.
Polkadot’s First Batch of Parachains
According to the official announcement, slots for the first parachains are allocated to different blockchain projects built on the Polkadot network and focused on various niches. These include decentralized finance (DeFi), cryptocurrency investments and loans, and smart contracting.
The first parachains that will lease a slot on Polkadot’s Relay Chain for up to 96 weeks are, Acala, Moonbeam, Parallel Finance, Astar, and Clover.
Notably, Polkadot believes as its ecosystem continues to grow following the rising interest in the

In an official announcement, the company noted that it has confidentially submitted a Form S-1 with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Reddit Commences Plans to go Public
Reddit did not disclose any further information about the proceedings but stated that it had started the paperwork with the SEC regarding its intended IPO next year.
The company noted that it has refrained from sharing more details about its public offering due to regulatory reasons.
“The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined. The initial public offering is expected to occur after the SEC completes its review process, subject to market and other conditions,” the announcement reads.
A Crypto-friendly Platform