Stay in the know with our daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – uncovering the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
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NFT News
The Avant Arte marketplace recently announced its collaboration with Yuga Labs to bring all 10,000 CryptoPunks into the physical realm for the first time. This will be done with two time-limited print editions made by Avant Arte’s printmakers Make-Ready. The first, Punk On-Chain, will enable Punk holders to commission a unique 1-1 physical print of their Punk(s) for €500 ($530). The second, 10,000 On-Chain, will be available to Punk holders and fans alike for €600 ($630), offering everyone the opportunity to own their own Punk artwork. Both works will go on sale for 48 hours on October 26th.
DeFi News
VitaDAO, the Pfizer-backed decentralized autonomous organization focused on advancing longevity research, launched its biotech firm Matrix Bio. 99.9% of the community participating in the vote in late March had approved a collaboration with the University of Rochester’s Aging Research Center co-chair, Dr. Vera Gorbunova. The project’s budget includes financing of up to $300,000 provided by VitaDAO, with up to $200,000 allocated to high throughput screen (HTS) and exploratory medicinal chemistry with a 3rd party CRO or academic ‘fee for service’ facility, and up to $100,000 allocated to the Gorbunova lab for hit compound experiments.
Payment News
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s CEO Eddie Yue Wai-man said in an interview with the South China Morning Post that e-HKD digital currency’s trials showed potential uses in payment, deposit, and investment scenarios. However, more experience is needed before a launch date can be considered. He stated that there are some interesting use cases of e-HKD in the areas like programmable payments, and in new areas like tokenised deposits and tokenised assets. Additionally, Crypto payments infrastructure provider MoonPay announced the launch of Swaps in the MoonPay App. Features include low gas fees, cross-chain swaps, more than 1,500 trading pairs, all wallets in one place, and competitive exchange rates.
Exchange News
According to CCData’s monthly Exchange Review, Binance’s market share declined for the seventh consecutive month in September. Spot trading volumes on the exchange fell 36.8% to $115 billion in September, recording the lowest monthly spot volumes since October 2020. This reduction also marked the third consecutive decline in volumes since June 2023, leading Binance’s market share among spot trading exchanges to stand at 34.3%, its lowest since June 2022. Additionally, the report stated that the combined spot and derivatives trading volume on centralized exchanges fell for the third consecutive month, dropping 20.3% to $1.67tn.
Mining News
Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto-mining monolith Bitmain reportedly paid September wages to its employees after payments were delayed and deducted because of cash flow issues, according to a report by the local media outlet Odaily. Crypto reporter Colin Wu tweeted that on the afternoon of October 7, Bitmain had repaid September wages, and stated that it only did not pay the performance salary of some people. It had also been repaid, and the basic salary had been released normally on September 30.