News Summary: Liquid Suspends Withdrawals, Coinbase Submits Amicus Brief to Support Ripple, Ark Invest Buys 315,259 Shares of GBTC
Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
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Exchange news
- The FTX–acquired Liquid exchange suspended withdrawals in order to comply with regulations relating to FTX’s filing for bankruptcy. “Fiat and crypto withdrawals have been suspended on Liquid Global in compliance with the requirements of voluntary Chapter 11 proceedings in the United States,” the company said on Twitter.
- Bitget announced that it would increase its Protection Fund from $200 million to $300 million in order to provide further assurance to crypto users following the FTX collapse, said the press release. The initiative came along with a $5 million Builders’ Fund to support FTX users, coupled with the plan to share the Merkle Tree Proof of Reserves, which is under preparation and will be released in 30 days, it added.
Legal news
- Crypto exchange Coinbase has officially submitted its amicus brief to support US-based blockchain company Ripple in the lawsuit filed against it by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Attorney James Filan shared on Twitter that the judge in the case has granted the motions by several parties to file Amici Briefs by November 18.
Investment news
- Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest bought 315,259 shares of Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) on Monday, according to its trade filing. The shares were added to the Ark Next Generation Internet ETF.
- Yuga Labs, the team behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), confirmed the acquisition of WENEW and its flagship non-fungible token (NFT) collection 10KTF. Following the acquisition, Michael Figge, co-founder and CEO of WENEW, will join Yuga’s leadership team as the Chief Content Officer. Mike Winkelmann, aka Beeple, will join as an advisor.
Payments news
- Ripple said it expanded into Africa through a partnership with digital payments gateway MFS Africa. Per the announcement, the new partnership will see MFS Africa using Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) solution for crypto-enabled payments to make it easier for consumers and businesses to make real-time payments with their mobile phones across borders, powered by Ripple’s financial technology, RippleNet.
Adoption news
- Travel technology business Xeni’s blockchain-powered travel ecosystem launched today on the Hedera mainnet, said a press release. Xeni subscribers can instantly launch their own online travel business, complete with a booking engine, bookable inventory at wholesale rates, and CRM. Their travelers can pay for bookings in crypto or fiat. XeniPay, Xeni’s decentralized accounting and settlement solution, tracks, records, and settles every transaction completed on the ecosystem, it said.
Blockchain news
- Algorand Foundation, the organization supporting the Algorand (ALGO) blockchain, has teamed up with the crypto ecosystem Crypto Oasis, said the press release. With this, Crypto Oasis became the official regional partner for Algorand’s annual flagship Decipher conference, which will take place in Dubai at the end of November. The Foundation will remain an official Crypto Oasis ecosystem partner throughout 2023.
Web3 news
- Indonesian digital telecommunications company Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (IOH) agreed on a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Web3 company Fasset to explore Fasset’s crypto trading platform and services on the myIM3 and bima+ apps, said an announcement. Through this collaboration, IOH customers can buy and sell various cryptoassets and, in the future, they will also be able to lock and stake their crypto to get rewards in the form of IM3 and Tri calling credit or data packages.
- peaq, a Web3 network powering the Economy of Things (EoT), announced its partnership with Crust Network, the Web3 data storage protocol. The press release said that this integration opens a vast array of new opportunities for developers building on peaq, enabling them to leverage Crust’s functionality of decentralized data storage as part of their decentralized applications (dapps).
