October 26, 2022

The biggest crypto news and ideas of the day

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Hello and welcome to The Node. This is Daniel Kuhn and Xinyi Luo, here to take you through the latest in crypto news and why it matters. In today's newsletter:

In this newsletter: Central bank of Turkey plans to launch a CBDC in 2023, UK lawmakers voted to recognize crypto as regulated financial instruments and Reddit NFTs challenge Bored Apes on OpenSea.
The Takeaway: David Z. Morris dug into the 40,000 word Bloomberg BusinessWeek opus, "The Crypto Story," by columnist Matt Levine, which legitimizes the industry.

– D.K.

Today's must-reads

Top Shelf

Central Bank of Turkey Plans to Launch a CBDC in 2023: Turkey is poised to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC) next year, according to an official report. The Digital Turkish Lira system will be integrated with digital identity tools and a payment system operated by the Turkish central bank called FAST.

Separately, the Bank for International Settlements ran a six-week pilot program for its mBridge CBDC project (involving over 20 participating international banks making 160 payments worth around $22 million) and is determined to continue development.

UK Lawmakers Vote to Recognize Crypto as Regulated Financial Instruments: The United Kingdom's lower house of Parliament voted to recognize crypto as a class of regulated financial assets during an amendment made to a regulatory proposal. The draft Financial Services and Markets Bill, now heading to the upper legislative house, concerns the U.K.'s post-Brexit economic strategy.

"The substance here is to treat them [crypto] like other forms of financial assets and…bring them within the scope of regulation for the first time," Andrew Griffith, the financial services and city minister who proposed the amendments, said during a parliamentary meeting.
Meanwhile, new poll results from the Crypto Council for Innovation indicate a majority of voters surveyed in the U.S. want more crypto regulation.

Reddit NFTs Challenge Bored Apes on OpenSea With Trade Surge: Reddit users are pumping the platform's Polygon-based non-fungible token (NFT) collections, with cumulative sales volumes of the avatar collectibles topping $6.5 million on Tuesday. Three Reddit collections ranked within the top 10 NFT projects on OpenSea, reaffirming the massive appeal of PFP (profile-pic) collections.

Last week, Reddit reported that users had opened 2.5 million wallets since being introduced in July.

Meanwhile, a decline in crypto ads this quarter hit Google's bottom line.

– D.K. and Xinyi Luo

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Putting the news into perspective

The Takeaway

(AbsolutVision/Unsplash)

Why Bloomberg's Crypto Opus Matters

Matt Levine, among the most respected financial writers today, took up an entire issue of Bloomberg BusinessWeek to write about crypto. According to CoinDesk's David Z. Morris, this act in itself serves as a stamp of approval for crypto. Although Levine is neutral on crypto's long-term influence, he's fascinated by it. "[W]hen the smartest guy in the room finds something fascinating, without having a simple verdict, that's when you pay attention," Morris writes. Read the full column here.

This week, CoinDesk delves deep into all sides of crypto trading, from practical strategies to how traders stay sane amid market turmoil. We explore what moves markets and what motivates traders. Stay tuned for a mix of features, TV interviews, op-eds, and research.

Macro Problems Are Clouding Ethereum Merge Advances

One month after Ethereum's Merge, Simon Peters, crypto market analyst at social investing network eToro, looks at what's next for the network and its native token, ether (ETH).

Technical Analysis Is Dead, Long Live Transaction Analysis

Historical price movements can only tell crypto traders so much about where prices are trending.

Overheard on CoinDesk TV...

Sound Bites

"If bitcoin still holds above $20,000, it's really a big deal overall."

– IG North America CEO JJ Kinahan, on CoinDesk TV's "First Mover"

The news in a sentence

Headlines

Binance Launches Native Oracle Network, Starting With BNB Chain | Chinese 'Spies' Used Wasabi Wallet to Try to Conceal Bitcoin Bribes, Elliptic Says | Crypto Exchange SushiSwap Approves Restructuring, Will Create Three Firms for DAO | A16z's Largest Crypto Fund Loses 40% in First Half of 2022: Report | BNB Chain Introduces $10M Fund to Incentivize Project Growth on the Blockchain | Phishing Scammer Has Drained $1M in Crypto and NFTs in Past 24 Hours, Says On-Chain Sleuth |

What others are writing

Off-Chain Signals

Multichain Questioned About Management of Millions in User Funds (The Defiant)
BitBoy's unhinged video rant really does encapsulate crypto (Protos)
Andreessen Horowitz Went All In on Crypto at the Worst Possible Time (WSJ - paywalled)
Comeback - an essay about how HongKong retakes its position as the crypto capital markets hub of the world (Arthur Hayes)
Bored Ape Yacht Club tell all: The untold story of the $4 billion crypto startup (Fast Company)