[unable to retrieve full-text content]CoinspeakerIsrael Reveals Plans for Interest-Bearing CBDC
The proposed digital shekel is different from other CBDCs in at least two ways. These are its interest-bearing nature and the separation of the role of banks from the provision of wallets and payment services. 
Israel Reveals Plans for Interest-Bearing CBDC

[unable to retrieve full-text content]CoinspeakerBRICS to Develop Blockchain-Based Payment System
BRICS’ focus this year is to increase its participation in the international monetary and financial system.
BRICS to Develop Blockchain-Based Payment System

[unable to retrieve full-text content]CoinspeakerBlackRock’s Latest Investor-Friendly Spot BTC ETF Ad Presents Bitcoin as ‘Progress’
Marketing for Bitcoin ETFs has taken some interesting turns since Bitwise released the first ad in mid-December 2023, close to a month before spot Bitcoin ETFs were approved.
BlackRock’s Latest Investor-Friendly Spot BTC ETF Ad Presents Bitcoin as ‘Progress’

[unable to retrieve full-text content]CoinspeakerVoyager Digital Investors Sue NBA for Promoting the Failed Crypto Lender
The lawsuit also names Voyager Digital’s law firm McCarter & English. It is alleged that the firm played on its credibility to issue a bogus "legal opinion" that Voyager’s native utility token Voyager Token (VGX) was not an unregistered security.
Voyager Digital Investors Sue NBA for Promoting the Failed Crypto Lender

[unable to retrieve full-text content]CoinspeakerPolish Town Mińsk Mazowiecki Launches MinsCoin Stablecoin for Use at Local Businesses
The launch of MinsCoin not only provides a new way for residents to interact with local whitelisted businesses and projects but could also shed light on how technology can be used to steer social interactions, economic participation, and solidarity within communities.  
Polish Town Mińsk Mazowiecki Launches MinsCoin Stablecoin for Use at Local Businesses

[unable to retrieve full-text content]CoinspeakerRoblox Builds In-House LLM to Bring Real-Time Chat Translation to Metaverse
The model can translate a total of 16 languages, including English, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Turkish. 
Roblox Builds In-House LLM to Bring Real-Time Chat Translation to Metaverse

[unable to retrieve full-text content]CoinspeakerTrump Calls for Action on ‘Dangerous and Scary’ AI Following Increase in Deepfake Usage
The ex-president’s words echo sentiments shared by players in both the technology and political spheres about the potential use of AI to create visual and audio media meant to mislead the public, especially before the upcoming elections. 
Trump Calls for Action on ‘Dangerous and Scary’ AI Following Increase in Deepfake Usage

[unable to retrieve full-text content]CoinspeakerApple CEO Tim Cook Hints at AI Announcement ‘Later This Year’
While Apple has yet to announce any work on a gen AI model, it has been using machine learning technology in its chips and software for features such as image recognition. 
Apple CEO Tim Cook Hints at AI Announcement ‘Later This Year’

[unable to retrieve full-text content]CoinspeakerEl Salvador to Maintain Support for Bitcoin Post-Election
The vice president added that if reelected, Bukele’s government will proceed with plans to launch Bitcoin-backed bonds this quarter.
El Salvador to Maintain Support for Bitcoin Post-Election

[unable to retrieve full-text content]CoinspeakerInvesco, Galaxy Cut Fees on Spot Bitcoin ETF in Bid to Attract Investors
This fee war started before spot Bitcoin ETFs were approved, with issuers lowering their costs even then.
Invesco, Galaxy Cut Fees on Spot Bitcoin ETF in Bid to Attract Investors

[unable to retrieve full-text content]CoinspeakerCoinbase Crypto Advocacy Group: 18 US Senators Openly Support Crypto
Cryptocurrency has been a major point of discussion in politics lately, with experts stating that the crypto community stands to play a significant role in elections.
Coinbase Crypto Advocacy Group: 18 US Senators Openly Support Crypto

[unable to retrieve full-text content]CoinspeakerCantor Fitzgerald: Bitcoin Miners to Struggle to Turn Profits Post-Halving
The analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald expect two firms – Singapore-based Bitdeer and US-based CleanSpark – to remain profitable post-halving.
Cantor Fitzgerald: Bitcoin Miners to Struggle to Turn Profits Post-Halving

Ripple is currently working with over 20 central banks from around the world, helping them to develop digital versions of their national currency.

Blockchain-based payment solutions provider Ripple has reaffirmed its support for central bank digital currencies (CBDC). In a 23-page white paper released on December 14, the firm explains the basics of CBDCs, their potential benefits, risks, and barriers to mainstream adoption. It also stresses the need for governments and private sector players to collaborate in addressing challenges.
Citing a report by global management consulting firm McKinsey, Ripple presents CBDCs as an aid to ensuring financial inclusion, reducing fraud and money laundering, stimulating payment innovation, and reinforcing monetary policy control.

The document also

The filing comes just weeks after it was reported that SafeMoon executives were at the centre of a Department of Justice (DoJ) securities fraud investigation.

Crypto firm SafeMoon on Thursday, December 14,  filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, also known as liquidation bankruptcy. The filing was done by attorney Mark Rose in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Utah. This comes as the company’s executives face criminal charges in the United States for allegedly defrauding customers of millions of dollars.
The court filing shows that SafeMoon has between 50 and 99 creditors, assets ranging between $10 million and $50 million and between $100,000 and $500,000 in liabilities.

In “liquidation” or Chapter 7 bankruptcy, a debtor’s assets are liquidated to repay creditors.

DTCC data shows that the Wise Origin Bitcoin FD SHS is listed under the ticker BITB. Bitwise joins BlackRock, Invesco Galaxy, and Fidelity on the DTCC’s list. 

Bitwise Asset Management has listed its spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) on the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC). This comes after Fidelity Investments listed its FBTC spot Bitcoin ETF on the DTCC’s active and prelaunch list last week.
Bitwise’s move is evidence of the firm’s confidence that a spot Bitcoin ETF will be approved in the United  States soon. Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan stated that while the firm is aware that regulators are yet to approve a spot Bitcoin ETF, it is “preparing as though there’s going to be a launch.”

“We’re preparing marketing and sales strategies and press and all

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