‘Uniquely DOGE Proposal’, Binance ‘Funds SAFU’, Monero-Mining Spider-Pirates, Late Thai CBDC + More News

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Sumejja Muratagić-Tadić

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Sumejja Muratagić-Tadić

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Sumejja is a freelance copywriter from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, who delights in pulling things apart to see how they work. That does not necessarily mean she puts them back together; she's...

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Last updated:

January 4, 2024 11:03 EST

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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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Staking news

• The Dogecoin Foundation, a non-profit organization behind the meme-based project Dogecoin (DOGE), is working on a staking mechanism in collaboration with the Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin, which would allow all dogecoin users to stake their DOGE and get extra tokens for supporting the network. They added that they’re building a “uniquely Doge proposal” for a “community staking” version of proof-of-stake (PoS) which will give back to the community through charitable causes.

Exchanges news 

• Binance encountered some issues with spot trading on December 24, around 5 am UTC, but stated that “funds are SAFU.” The problems were resolved within less than half an hour.

Security news

• Pirates attempting to download illegal copies of the Spider-Man: No Way Home film are exposing their computers to crypto-mining malware that diverts those computers to mining monero (XMR), according to cybersecurity firm ReasonLabs. A likely source of the torrent may be a Russian torrenting website, and while the malware doesn’t steal personal information, ReasonLabs pointed out that it does exact a cost on the victim, in the form of increased electricity bills and high CPU usage, causing their machine to slow down.

CBDC news

• The central Bank of Thailand said it expects to test its retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) for the public as an alternative payment option in late 2022 – later than planned, per Reuters. The pilot project, previously planned for the second quarter of 2022, will evaluate the use of the CBDC in cash-like activities within a limited scale, deputy central bank director Kasidit Tan said.

Regulation news

• Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis, one of the US lawmakers behind many pro-crypto pieces of legislation, is planning to introduce a comprehensive bill next year to handle digital assets, Bloomberg reported. The proposed bill will aim to provide regulatory clarity on stablecoins, guide regulators as to which cryptos belong to different asset classes, and offer consumer protections, as well as create an organization under the joint jurisdiction of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to oversee the crypto market.

Trading news

• Financial services company Fidelity Investments’ UK arm reported that over the last 12 months, customers were most interested in trading shares of crypto mining firm Argo Blockchain. However, the company hinted that Argo may not make the top five next year, as “new arrivals” knocked the mining firm off the list of most actively traded stocks in December.

Investment news

• The assets under management (AUM) of bitcoin (BTC) and Grayscale products fell more sharply in December compared to the competing assets and digital asset firms – meaning that the dominance of the two faded during the month, according to the market data provider CryptoCompare. Bitcoin products’ market share fell from 70.6% in November to 67.8%, the lowest share of 2021, while AUM in Grayscale products fell 17.1% to USD 43.9bn, reaching a market share of 76.2% of total AUMs, also the lowest share of 2021.
• The US SEC has rejected Valkyrie and Kryptoin bitcoin spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) applications. The watchdog is yet to approve a bitcoin spot ETF application.
• Content creator tokenization platform XCAD Network completed Series A funding from one of Wall Street’s major digital asset players, Jump Crypto, but did not disclose the amount that was invested. Jump Crypto will be helping to build XCAD into a top asset in the space, via exchanges, partnerships, further liquidity and more, they said.

Career news

• Adam White, the president and founding executive of digital assets company Bakkt, is leaving the firm at the end of next week after three years. The Bakkt president did not reveal what his next move would be, or whether he would continue to work in the crypto space.
• Richard Teng, who joined Binance Singapore as its chief executive officer four months ago, has taken on a new role as the global entity’s head for the Middle East and North Africa, according to his LinkedIn profile. The move came after Binance announced an agreement with the Dubai World Trade Centre Authority to establish an international virtual asset ecosystem.