One of the 2024 predictions is the emergence of at least one breakout blockchain game that will surpass a million daily active users as Web3 gaming continues to vie for mainstream adoption.

Asset manager VanEck has made 15 forecasts for the crypto industry in 2024. In what it terms a “speculative expedition”, the New York-based firm touches many corners of the cryptoverse with mentions of the highly anticipated Spot Bitcoin ETFs, peak NFT season, and KYC regulations in DeFi.
A Relatively Smooth 4th Bitcoin Halving and a New BTC ATH in Q4
VanEck predicts that the fourth halving of the world’s leading crypto will proceed “without a major fork or missed blocks.” The event, which is expected to take place in April 2024, will be followed by a consolidation period that could range from a few

At present, the training and operation of AI models is restricted to large tech companies. Crypto has the potential to help create multi-sided, global, permissionless markets where anyone can contribute data and be compensated for it.

Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has released its “big ideas” for 2024, with its crypto arm composing a list of trends to look forward to in crypto in 2024. The list contains trends that the firm’s crypto partners are looking forward to across sectors such as artificial intelligence (AI), decentralization, and modular technology. We spotlight some of them here.
A New Era of Decentralization
Decentralization has been lauded for its use in democratizing systems, fostering competition and ecosystem diversity, and allowing users more choice and

KyberSwap has stated that it will continue to cooperate with law enforcement and cybersecurity experts to recover user funds and track down the perpetrators of the attack.

The KyberSwap team has recovered approximately $5.7 million after last week’s $47 million hack on KyberSwap liquidity pools on Polygon and Avalanche. The company announced that it has negotiated a return of 90% of the user funds, with the remaining 10% serving as a bounty for the hackers.
“The KyberSwap team has been in contact with the owners of the frontrun bots that extracted about $5.7M* worth of funds from KyberSwap pools on Polygon and Avalanche during the exploit. We have negotiated with the owners of the frontrun bots to return 90% of the users’ funds taken by them […] in return for a 10% bounty,” the post

FTX management has been trying to recover funds from multiple sources including beneficiaries of donations made by the firm and its former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.

FTX bankruptcy advisors have sued cryptocurrency exchange ByBit Fintech Ltd in an attempt to recover funds withdrawn prior to its collapse. According to a Bloomberg report, FTX management filed a lawsuit in a Delaware court on Friday against Bybit’s investment branch, Mirana Corporation and two corporate affiliates. 

FTX’s bankruptcy advisers sued crypto exchange Bybit and two corporate affiliates to recover cash and digital assets valued at roughly $953 million https://t.co/Vy607xzNkO

— Bloomberg Crypto (@crypto) November 11, 2023

The defunct crypto business is attempting to recover about $953 million in cash and digital

HSBC, which is one of the largest banks in the world, revealed that for now, its custody plans involve “tokenized securities issued on third-party platforms.”

HSBC Holdings (LSE: HSBA), in partnership with Ripple Labs subsidiary Metaco, has announced plans to launch a digital assets custody service for institutional clients. The service will offer custody for assets such as tokenized securities and is expected to launch next year. It will complement HSBC’s Orion digital assets issuance platform and its recently launched gold tokenization platform to form a complete digital asset offering for institutional clients.
Chief Digital, Data and Innovation Officer, Securities Services at HSBC, Zhu Kuang Lee, said of the offering:

“We’re seeing increasing demand for custody and fund

Earlier this year, Kiyosaki identified three key things that he believes will drive the price of Bitcoin up.

Robert Kiyosaki, the entrepreneur and author of the popular personal finance book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” has endorsed Bitcoin over traditional assets. In a post on social media platform X, the known Bitcoin champion stated that while conventional assets continue to ‘crash,’ Bitcoin has held steady.
Kiyosaki shared a ‘lesson’ from his book, condemning the conventional model of earning money from regular jobs. He stated that the value of money earned this way was designed to be stolen through taxes and inflation. He instead touted cash flow assets such as rental properties, oil, and food production as a better way to earn ‘tax-free money.’

RICH DAD’s Lesson #1 “The rich don’t

Experts continue to speculate on what the SEC’s next course of action regarding crypto-based ETF applications could be.

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) appears to be gearing up to reexamine Grayscale’s application to convert its Bitcoin trust into a spot exchange-traded fund (ETF). This comes after a recent decision by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to scrape the regulator’s rejection of Grayscale’s spot Bitcoin ETF application.
The court described the SEC’s rejection decision as “arbitrary and capricious”, in what has been described as a landmark victory for cryptocurrency in general and for crypto-based investment vehicles in particular.

The SEC has scheduled a meeting on November 2 to discuss matters such as settlement claims, administrative

The e-HKD program has taken a three-rail approach for the potential implementation of the virtual currency: foundation layer development, industry pilots and iterative enhancements, and full launch.

Hong Kong’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot is set to advance to its second phase following the successful completion of phase one. The first phase was largely focused on full-fledged payments, programmable payments, offline payments, tokenized deposits, and the settlement of Web3 transactions and tokenized assets.
The e-HKD (e-Hong Kong dollar) pilot program was launched by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) in November 2022 to investigate the feasibility of a CBDC as part of the city-state’s “Fintech 2025” strategy. With the first phase of the pilot now complete, the HKMA

Layer-1 blockchain Avalanche is known for its speed, low cost, scalability, and security.

Blockchain horse racing game NEOBRED has announced that it is integrating with blockchain Avalanche to provide players with a superior gaming experience by leveraging the network’s speed and cost-effectiveness.
A spokesperson from NEOBRED said of the integration:

“We are excited to integrate with Avalanche and offer our players a new level of gaming performance and efficiency […] Avalanche’s speed, scalability, and low costs have the potential to make NEOBRED one of the most enjoyable blockchain horse racing games on the market.”
NEOBRED allows players to own, train and breed horses which they can use to take part in races and earn rewards. Finishing in the top ranks in races is a key way to

Visa stock is up by about 23% over the past 12 months and only slightly down from July 2021’s all-time high of $252.67.

Visa Inc (NYSE: V) stock rose 1.35% in Tuesday’s regular session following the release of the company’s earnings results for its fiscal Q4 2023 on Tuesday. The shares rose to $234.65, trading between the 50-day and 200-day lines.
The payments giant’s earnings results late Tuesday exceeded analyst predictions for the quarter as transaction volume increased due to an increase in consumer spending as inflation cools.

Visa’s net income for the quarter rose 19% year-over-year to $4.7 billion or $2.27 per share. Net revenue was $8.6 billion, beating the $8.5 billion projected by analysts. The firm also reported adjusted earnings growth of 21% to $2.33 per share on 10.6%

Snap’s GAAP net loss in Q3 2023 increased by 2% year-on-year to $368 million or 23 cents per share.

Snapchat parent company Snap Inc (NYSE: SNAP) shares fell flat after surging as much as 20% in after-hours trading as the news that some advertisers had suspended ad spending following the start of the war in the Middle East reached investors. At the time of writing, SNAP stock is at around 1.2% up in the pre-market.
According to this CNBC report, the company revealed that it has “observed pauses in spending from a large number of primarily brand-oriented advertising campaigns immediately following the onset of the war in the Middle East”, with the results already evident in the current quarter’s sales.

Snap’s Q3 revenue increased by 5% from last year’s $1.13 billion to $1.19 billion

The tech giant also announced that the latest version of ERNIE has been integrated into its suite of services.

Chinese technology company Baidu has unveiled the latest version of its generative artificial intelligence (AI) model ERNIE 4.0. The company claims that ERNIE 4.0’s capabilities now match those of OpenAI’s GTP-4 model.
The upgrade was announced on Tuesday by Baidu Co-Founder and  CEO Robin Li Yanhong at the Baidu World 2023 conference in Beijing. Li’s presentation highlighted the latest version’s memory capabilities and showed it writing a martial arts novel in real time. He also demonstrated Ernie 4.0’s ability to create advertising posters and videos as well as its ability to understand complex questions, create images and perform basic arithmetic.

“Ernie Bot has

If the appeal process, which could take years, does not result in a unanimous agreement, the corporation would have to settle any unresolved issues in court.

The United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has informed Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) that it owes back taxes of  $28.9 billion “plus penalties and interest” for the tax years 2004 through 2013. In an 8-K filing on Wednesday, the corporation revealed that it had received Notices of Proposed Adjustment (NOPAs) from the IRS.
Microsoft counters that up to $10 billion in taxes that it has already “under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which could decrease the final tax owed under the audit by up to $10 billion” are not reflected in the proposed adjustments.

Further, the tech giant’s Corporate Vice President for Worldwide

According to the filing, “over 95% of the 500 most popular sites on the Internet are the subject of typosquatting”.

The New York-based investment giant BlackRock Inc has called for a crackdown on dozens of domain names that have been registered to imitate the investment firm as they could potentially be used to defraud investors. Blackrock is seeking a court-ordered strike on the domains and  “typosquatting” sites, some of which are crypto-related.
According to an October 10 legal complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, BlackRock is seeking action against 44 domain names containing keywords such as “Blackrock”, “Aladdin”, “securities”, “crypto” and “investments”. The firm contends that the domains were registered with the malicious

Doctors will be able to access the information by asking tool-specific questions instead of going through notes and electronic health records.

Google Cloud has announced that it has added new AI-powered search capabilities aimed at helping clinicians access accurate information across various types of medical records.
While the healthcare industry has a wealth of valuable and potentially useful information, clinicians are sometimes faced with the challenge of lack of access as it is stored in different formats across multiple systems. Google Cloud’s latest search tool seeks to remedy this by allowing healthcare workers to access clinical notes, scanned documents, and electronic health records all in one place. The new capabilities build on Google’s existing Healthcare API and Healthcare

Under the Act, companies building and deploying AI models would need to perform risk assessments and label AI-generated content.

European Union (EU) negotiators are reportedly discussing placing additional restrictions on large artificial intelligence (AI) models as part of the upcoming AI Act. According to a Bloomberg report, representatives from the European Commission, European Parliament, and EU countries are in talks to implement a plan that would address the issues associated with large language models (LLMs) such as OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Meta’s Llama 2 all while making sure that new startups are not weighed down by regulation.
The report cited anonymous sources familiar with the matter who stated that discussions are still in preparatory stages. The proposed regulation for LLMs

A filing with the SEC shows that Exxon Mobil’s third-quarter earnings received a major boost from the high crude oil prices

Oil and gas giant Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE: XOM) is said to be in advanced talks to acquire shale-focused company Pioneer Natural Resources Co. According to a Wall Street Journal report citing an anonymous source familiar with the matter, the deal is estimated to be valued at up to $60 billion and could be closed within the coming days. Earlier in April, WSJ had that the two companies met for preliminary talks.
If the deal is completed, it would be one of the biggest takeover deals of the year, overshadowing Pfizer Inc.’s $43 billion purchase of cancer drug maker Seagen Inc. It would be Exxon’s most significant since its $81-billion merger with Mobil Corp in 1999 and

By mid-day, the ETFs had seen less than $2 million in trading volume. According to the analyst, this was “about normal” for a new ETF but low when compared to BITO, the first Bitcoin futures ETF, which did $200 million in the first 15 minutes of trading.

The highly anticipated launch of nine new Ethereum futures exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has come to a seemingly underwhelming end. The new products went to market on October 2 and are designed to track futures contracts tied to the value of the cryptocurrency Ethereum.
Five of the nine funds hold Ether futures only, while the remaining four track a mixture of Bitcoin and Ether futures contracts. For all the excitement that followed news of the approval of the investment vehicles does not seem to have translated into actual investment.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. recently raised its Sphere Entertainment stock price target from $25 to $28 following the release of the entertainment company’s Q4 figures.

Sphere Entertainment Co (NYSE: SPHR) stock rose by more than 7% after the company opened its Sphere venue in Las Vegas with a show by U2 on Friday night. The 360-foot-tall venue is located at the Venetian Resort and will host live concerts and sporting events.

Everything you need to know about the all new MSG Sphere in Las Vegas. This concert venue is state of the art with visual technology unavailable anywhere else. Here are the food & drink prices, views from 100, 200, 300 and 400 level sections including obstructed views, and the… pic.twitter.com/ctnRrPLL2H

— Jen G. (@vegasstarfish) September 30, 2023

Following the

The news of the new Valkyrie ETF caused a spike in Ether price. 

Asset manager Valkyrie has received approval to convert its Bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) to a two two-for-one investment vehicle by combining Bitcoin and Ether futures contracts into one contract. The firm has already started buying Ether futures contracts.
In a statement to CoinDesk, a company spokesperson wrote:

“Today, the Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF (Nasdaq: $BTF) began adding exposure to Ether futures contracts, making it the first US ETF to provide exposure to Ether and Bitcoin futures contracts under one wrapper.”
Valkyrie Eclipses Grayscale, VanEck in ETH Futures ETF Race
True to analysts’ predictions, was the first among other firms to receive the greenlight for the ETH futures ETF. This,

According to analysts, there are 15 Ether futures ETFs awaiting approval.

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has postponed its decision on spot Ether exchange-traded fund (ETF) applications from ARK 21Shares and VanEck. This comes after a September 26 announcement from the regulator saying it had extended the period for deciding on spot Bitcoin ETF applications from ARK 21Shares and Global X.
In notices filed on September 27, the SEC said it would extend the deadline for its decision on whether to approve or reject a proposed rule change that would make it possible for VanEck and ARK 21Shares to list their spot ETH ETFs on the Cboe BZX Exchange. The regulator stated that it had not received any public comments on the proposals and would move the deadline for

The global crypto exchange has been facing intense regulatory scrutiny. Most of its regulatory issues are in Europe

Binance has urged customers in France to convert their fiat currency on the exchange to crypto. This comes on the heels of the crypto exchange losing its euro banking partner Paysafe.
As part of the partnership, Paysafe provided Binance France with infrastructure for euro deposits and withdrawals via SEPA bank transfers. The companies announced the drawing end of their partnership in June. It expired on September 25 with Binance yet to reveal a new partner.

Speaking on French radio station BFM, a Binance confirmed that the exchange recommended that users convert their fiat to cryptocurrency for free as soon as they could. He added:
“Binance is working as quickly as

Crypto integration into Xbox also has the potential to onboard millions to crypto, further propelling adoption.

Recently leaked internal documents suggest that Microsoft plans to integrate crypto wallets into its Xbox gaming console. The documents were posted on the gaming forum ResetEra and reveal that an Xbox roadmap from May 2022 featured plans to add support for crypto wallets to the next version of Microsoft’s flagship gaming console.
The documents were leaked in connection to a Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) lawsuit against the tech giant’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $69 billion. In a memo to Microsoft employees, the Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer confirmed the authenticity of leaked documents but added that a large portion of the documents was outdated and did

The platform’s usage is not limited to individual users but also extends to educational organizations.

Global crypto exchange Binance’s open-access blockchain and crypto education platform Binance Academy has reported a 62% increase in the number of users.  According to platform data, from September 2022 to August 2023 there was a marked increase in individuals seeking crypto education. This brings the total number of individuals to use the platform to further their knowledge of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies since it was founded in 2018 to 39 million.  
Top trending topics in crypto education so far this year include the Metaverse, Bitcoin, Crypto Wallets and Candlesticks. Beginner-level articles on topics such as how to trade cryptocurrencies, what blockchain technology is

Meanwhile, Alibaba has put a hold on Hong Kong IPO plans for its grocery chain Freshippo.

The Alibaba Group’s logistical arm Cainiao Network Technology is set to reportedly file for its Hong Kong Initial Public Offering (IPO) by next week, making it one of Alibaba’s first units to go public. According to sources familiar with the matter, the logistics firm is looking to raise more than $1 billion from the sale share. They added that the valuation has not been decided on and no final decisions have been made so some details could change.
Bloomberg reported earlier this year that the logistics firm has been working on the IPO with banks such as Citic Securities, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase. Sources suggest that China International Capital had to drop out of the process due to conflicts

Mehta stepped down from his role as the company’s CEO last year and following Tuesday’s IPO, will cease to serve as Executive Chairman.

Online grocery delivery startup Instacart’s founder Apoorva Mehta is now a billionaire after selling 700,000 shares of the company. Mehta, 37, co-founded Instacart in 2012 and went on to grow the business to a market value of $8.8 billion following an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on Tuesday. Mehta is now reportedly worth $1.1 billion.
At its peak in March 2021, Instacart was valued at $39 billion. The co-founder’s 10% stake in the company made him a billionaire with a $3.5 billion net worth. The pandemic-boosted numbers finally tapered, cutting Instacart’s internal valuation to around $13 billion in October 2022.

Mehta quit his job as a

The step into the world of generative AI seems to be part of LimeWire’s rebranding strategy.

Peer-to-peer file-sharing platform LimeWire has announced its acquisition of the popular AI image generation platform BlueWillowAI. The Wednesday announcement comes after the August launch of LimeWire AI Studio, a move into the world of generative AI by a company that was widely known for its popularity in the music piracy scene before being shut down in 2011.
BlueWillow was launched in January and claims to be the second-largest AI image-generation community on Discord after Midjourney with 2.3 million active members and more than 500 million images generated so far. The acquisition will facilitate the integration of BlueWillow’s proprietary text-to-image and image-to-image AI models into the

WhatsApp has a user base of over 2 billion people worldwide and analysts have predicted that it will eventually take advantage of this and monetize the service.

Tech giant Meta has dismissed claims that it is considering adding ads to its WhatsApp messaging app. This comes after the Financial Times reported that teams at Meta have been exploring the possibility of showing ads in lists of conversations with contacts on the WhatsApp chat screen. The report also claimed that the company was also considering introducing a paid, ad-free version of the app.
WhatsApp head Will Cathcart however, denied the claims in a post on the social media app X. The company has stated that it is not testing or working on WhatsApp ads nor does it have any plans to that effect.

This @FT story is false.

A large chunk of OKX’s $25-$50 million annual advertising budget goes towards its sports deals.

Crypto exchange OKX wants its deals with Formula 1 team McLaren and UEFA Champions League-winning team Manchester City to last a decade. The company reportedly spends $25-$50 million per year in its sponsorship deals with the two sports teams.
OKX’s Global Chief Marketing Officer Haider Rafique told The Block in an interview that the company has a five-year deal with McLaren and hopes to extend it to at least ten years. Partnerships between crypto firms and sporting brands have taken a major hit in the past months but OKX appears determined to stand by its partners.

The web3 company unveiled a new version of the McLaren race car emblazoned with the OKX logo ahead of the Singapore Grand

According to BIS research, 93% of central banks across the world are investigating the feasibility of issuing CBDCs.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the Bank of Israel (BOI) have partnered to address the privacy concerns associated with central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). This is according to a joint report titled “Project Sela – An Accessible and Secure Retail CBDC Ecosystem” released by the two central banks and the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub (BISIH) Hong Kong Centre.
Project Sela has reportedly demonstrated that CBDCs have the potential to settle directly on the central bank balance sheet while ensuring that user data remains safe and private. The report outlines the objectives of the Sela proof of concept which included making the onboarding