Crypto Crafters

[PRESS RELEASE – Salt Lake City, Utah, November 8th, 2024]

CoinZoom, a leading global fintech and payments company, announced the launch of its Crypto Debit Card, empowering 617 million crypto owners worldwide to spend their digital assets instantly at over 130 million merchants in 150 countries. As Bitcoin reaches new highs, CoinZoom’s innovative approach further accelerates the mainstream adoption of cryptocurrency, marking a significant step forward for the global crypto landscape.

“More than 56% of consumers globally prefer debit cards for payments, and we’ve seen over 20% growth year-over-year in our U.S. debit card program,” said Todd Crosland, CEO and Co-Founder of CoinZoom. “With that momentum, expanding internationally was a natural next step.”

The free CoinZoom Crypto Debit Card, available as a virtual card with a physical card coming soon, connects directly to a CoinZoom account, holding both local currencies and cryptocurrencies. Functioning like any standard debit card, it allows users to earn up to 5% back in crypto on eligible purchases through its “crypto-back” rewards program. The card is now available to users in 150 countries.

“One of the biggest barriers to crypto adoption has been, ‘Where can I actually spend it?’” said Ben Crosland, Head of Business Development and Co-Founder of CoinZoom. “With our card, users can pay in local currency or choose from cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Dogecoin, or Ethereum. Crypto is now available for everyday purchases, from groceries to dining.”

Previously, merchants had to choose individually to accept cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, with major brands such as Starbucks, Gucci, Tesla, and Xbox leading the way. However, until now, there hasn’t been a seamless way to spend top cryptocurrencies universally. CoinZoom’s launch can signify a breakthrough moment for the crypto industry, which has gained increased support within the U.S.

“With smartphone access and debit cards at the core of modern spending, this is a no-brainer,” added Paxton Powers, CTO at CoinZoom. “Our card offers an easy way to earn crypto rewards on everyday purchases. Imagine earning $300 in crypto per year just from paying your bills and buying essentials with our card.”

In addition to the debit card, CoinZoom’s free remittance service, ZoomMe, benefits users by making funds instantly available for spending. “Combining ZoomMe with the CoinZoom debit card is a game-changer for anyone who sends money abroad,” said Crosland. “Send funds to family in Mexico, and they can instantly use the funds for purchases or ATM withdrawals without the hassle of cash pickups or paperwork.”

About CoinZoom

CoinZoom is a U.S.-based financial platform enabling users worldwide to send, spend, save, and invest seamlessly. As a U.S.-registered Money Services Business and Money Transmitter, CoinZoom is available in 45 states and operates with a SOC2 Type II Certification, recognized for stringent security standards. With diverse funding options like Apple Pay, Google Pay, debit and credit cards, wire transfers, ACH, and instant cash deposits at multiple U.S. retail locations, CoinZoom bridges traditional and digital finance. Its global peer-to-peer payment system, ZoomMe®, allows users in 169 countries to send cash or crypto instantly and fee-free, offering significant savings on remittance fees. The CoinZoom Crypto Debit Card provides unparalleled spending flexibility, allowing users to transact in USD or crypto at over 130 million merchants globally while earning up to 5% in crypto rewards. CoinZoom also has subsidiaries in Australia and Ireland and is pending registration as a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) in Lithuania.

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In the first FOMC meeting after the November US presidential elections, the nation’s central bank cut the interest rates by 25 basis points, which was what the market and experts anticipated.

Bitcoin’s price, which is typically very susceptible to US-related news, was already at all-time high levels of just shy of $77,000 and remained relatively still.

It has been a big week for the world’s largest economy as the nation elected a new president on Tuesday, who presents an entirely different direction for the next four years.

On Thursday, the Federal Reserve was scheduled to host its first FOMC meeting since the one in September when it lowered the key interest rates by 0.5%.

Most market analysts and experts anticipated a more modest cut of 25 basis points during the November meeting, which is what Fed Chair Jerome Powell announced minutes ago. Thus, the rates have been reduced to 4.5%-4.75%.

The central bank based its decision on the declining inflation rates in the country and reaffirmed its goal to lower it to 2% in the next several months.

With most experts expecting such a move by the Fed, it seemed like the markets had already priced it in. As such, there’s no big movement for bitcoin minutes after the decision came out.

The primary cryptocurrency charted a new peak minutes ago at $76,800 (on Bitstamp) but has lost some traction and now stands at around $76,100.

BTC exploded when Donald Trump took the lead in the presidential elections earlier this week and broke its March all-time high as all roads started to point to his return to the White House. Bitcoin is currently 8% up on the week and more than 22% within the past month. Its market cap is well above $1.5 trillion, making it the 9th largest global financial asset.

[PRESS RELEASE – Zurich, Switzerland, November 7th, 2024]

Hyperbridge Launches on Polkadot with Support for Ethereum, Optimism, BNB Chain, and More

Hyperbridge, the highly anticipated blockchain interoperability protocol, has officially launched, unlocking new possibilities for seamless cross-chain communication. Following its $2.5 million seed funding led by the Web3 Foundation and Scytale Digital, Hyperbridge now brings its groundbreaking technology to users, delivering secure, scalable, and verifiable cross-chain solutions across multiple blockchains. Hyperbridge launches with native support for Ethereum, Optimism, Arbitrum, Base, BNB Chain, and Gnosis.

The journey to Hyperbridge’s launch has been thorough, with the project completing two testnet cycles. During these cycles:

• 600,000+ cross-chain messages were processed across supported networks.
• 66 independent relayers joined to facilitate message transfer across chains, validating the robustness of the network.

This extensive testing ensures a smooth mainnet experience, with Hyperbridge now equipped to provide unmatched cross-chain messaging and liquidity solutions.

At launch, Hyperbridge introduces a token bridge for asset transfers: Gateway, arbitrary message passing, and state queries across multiple ecosystems. Gateway offers:

• High security and finality guarantees, displacing traditional multisig-based authentication with zk-proofs and on-chain finality validation.
• Instant access to multichain liquidity, unlocking new DeFi use cases for DAOs, stablecoins, and real-world assets.

Security remains paramount to Hyperbridge’s design, addressing challenges faced by conventional multisig bridges that have previously resulted in over $2 billion in exploits. Hyperbridge leverages zk-light clients and storage proofs to authenticate messages, ensuring a security model equivalent to the blockchains it connects.

“Bridges are only as strong as their authentication mechanisms,” said Seun Lanlege, founder of Polytope Labs, the developers of Hyperbridge. “By leveraging finality-based authentication and eliminating multisig committees, Hyperbridge offers unmatched security, allowing developers to build the next generation of decentralized applications with confidence.”

Hyperbridge enables developers to launch cross-chain applications from day one, supporting use cases such as:

• Non-custodial native bridges for unified liquidity pools.
• Cross-chain intents to facilitate seamless token interactions.
• Multichain expansion for stablecoins, real-world assets, and DAO governance tokens.

As blockchain adoption accelerates, interoperability becomes even more critical. Hyperbridge aims to be at the forefront of this shift, offering developers and projects a reliable, secure, and scalable cross-chain infrastructure that opens new frontiers for DeFi, DAOs, and on-chain finance.

About Hyperbridge

Hyperbridge is a cryptoeconomic coprocessor for secure, verifiable interoperability powered by consensus and storage proofs. Hyperbridge is the HTTPS of blockchain interoperability, providing developers with onchain and off-chain SDKs for securely sending cross-chain messages (POST requests) and reading on-chain storage (GET requests).

About Polytope Labs

Polytope Labs is a collective of researchers and engineers founded by core developers of Ethereum, Polkadot, and IBC. We’re focused on addressing fundamental infrastructure problems that continue to hold back the crypto industry, such as interoperability, scalability, and privacy. We firmly believe that Web3 is the next evolutionary step of the internet, and we are fully committed to advancing truly decentralized technologies.

About Polkadot

Polkadot is the powerful, secure core of Web3, providing a shared foundation that unites some of the world’s most transformative apps and blockchains. Polkadot offers advanced modular architecture that allows devs to design and build their own specialized blockchain projects easily, pooled security that ensures the same high standard for secure block production across all connected chains and apps connected to it, and robust governance that ensures a transparent system where everyone has say in shaping the blockchain ecosystem for growth and sustainability. With Polkadot, users are not just participants, they’re co-creators with the power to shape its future.

TL;DR

• Binance added two new cryptocurrencies to its platform, causing a substantial price rally for the affected ones.
• However, those were listed with seed tags, meaning users should be increasingly cautious when entering the ecosystem.

The Price Boost

Binance announced the listing of the altcoins Cow Protocol (COW) and Cetus Protocol (CETUS). The newly introduced trading pairs include COW/USDT and CETUS/USDT, and clients can now start depositing. Withdrawals will be available from November 7. 

Trading Bots & Spot Copy Trading services will be enabled on the same day. “For users with running Spot Copy Trading portfolios, pairs can be included by enabling them in the [Personal Pair Preference] section of the Spot Copy Trading settings,” the company clarified.

It is important to note that COW and CETUS were added with seed tags. Tokens in this category represent “innovative projects that may exhibit higher volatility and risks” than other listed assets. That said, users should pay extra attention and conduct proper due diligence before hopping on the bandwagon.

“COW and CETUS are relatively new tokens that pose a higher than normal risk and will likely be subject to high price volatility. Users must exercise sufficient risk management and DYOR (do your own research) to fully understand the project before opting to trade the token,” the warning reads.

Binance listings often have a boosting effect on the affected assets due to their increased liquidity, accessibility, and credibility. The latest case was no exception, with COW and CETUS briefly skyrocketing by over 70% on a 24-hour scale. In the following hours, their prices slightly retraced but remain well in the green zone.

The Previous Example

Earlier this week, the world’s biggest crypto exchange launched PONKE/USDT perpetual contracts. The offering enables up to 75x leverage and allows clients to use other assets (such as BTC) as margin.

PONKE – the affected Solana-based meme coin – saw its valuation soaring by 15% shortly after the disclosure. It pumped to over $0.50 before heading south in the following days. Its price, though, started climbing again on November 6 following the overall resurgence of the entire cryptocurrency sector caused by Donald Trump’s likely win in the US presidential elections.  

Donald Trump has won the US presidency, achieving a decisive victory in swing states and surpassing the 270 electoral votes needed. Despite a heated campaign marked by two assassination attempts, Trump will become the second Republican in 20 years to secure a second term, while his opponent, Kamala Harris, received 224 electoral votes.

A strong crypto advocate as of late, Trump has positioned digital assets at the center of his economic vision, making key promises for regulatory reforms and growth in the sector. While he actively endorsed crypto, attracting support from the industry, Harris remained largely silent on her stance.

Bitcoin Whales Accumulate Amidst Trump Victory

The excitement surrounding his win sparked a surge in digital asset markets, driving bitcoin to a record $75,000. This was supported by new BTC “whales,” or large investors seizing the moment to expand their holdings.

In fact, according to the latest update by on-chain crypto analytic platform Lookonchain, 11 new whale wallets were created, which collectively withdrew 1,807 BTC –  worth a whopping $132 million – from Binance within just one hour on November 6th. This wave of large-scale withdrawals hints at growing investor confidence as Trump returns to the White House.

Ahead of his 2024 win, Trump made several key promises to crypto advocates, starting with a pledge to prevent the federal government from selling off its bitcoin holdings. Speaking at the year’s largest Bitcoin conference, Trump vowed to maintain the BTC stockpile seized from financial criminals instead of auctioning them off.

He also promised a major leadership change in financial regulation, announcing his intention to fire SEC Chairman Gary Gensler on his first day in office. Additionally, Trump vowed to make the US the global center for bitcoin mining by ensuring that all BTC is mined domestically.

Trump Bettors to Win Big on Polymarket

The 2024 US election has thrust digital assets into the political spotlight, with industry leaders urging clearer regulations to foster growth. This demand was underscored by crypto investors taking bold, high-stakes positions on election outcomes. Polymarket, the decentralized prediction platform, has seen significant activity from so-called “whales betting on Trump.

After a stunning reversal from September bets, Trump maintained a steady lead on Polymarket throughout October, attracting bold bets from top users. Among the most prominent winners are users “Theo4,” expected to make $20.4 million, “Fredi9999,” set to gain $15.6 million, and “zxgngl,” who stands to profit by $11 million, as recently reported by CryptoPotato.

Elizabeth Warren, who has been vocal in her anti-crypto stance, has secured her third term as the senator of Massachusetts.

Data from NBC News reveals that she gathered 718,766 votes, representing 59.8%, securing a convincing victory against the pro-crypto candidate John Deaton, who got 481,117 votes – or about 40%.

This would be Warren’s third six-year term in office. She’s also a member of the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Banking Committee, which has some jurisdiction over the SEC and the CFTC.

Remember that Warren has been very vocal about her position on crypto, which has been predominantly negative. She is also behind a bill that’s designed to extend know-your-customer rules to validators, wallet providers, and miners.

John Deaton, on the other hand, has been a proponent of the industry for a while. He’s a lawyer who represents thousands of XRP investors in a case against the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. He’s also gained support from the likes of Brad Garlinghouse – Ripple’s CEO – who even said that he had donated to his campaign.

@JohnEDeaton1 has been a relentless advocate for the XRP Army (aka XRP Family!) and the entire crypto industry. Meanwhile, his opponent, @SenWarren spreads misinformation and lies about crypto.

I endorse John enthusiastically and wholeheartedly in his run for Senate.
For those…

— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) October 22, 2024

The U.S. cryptocurrency industry invested over $238 million in the country’s 2024 election cycle, surpassing traditional sectors like oil, pharmaceuticals, and major Wall Street firms.

This marks the first time the digital asset sector has outpaced these established industries in political contributions.

Crypto Donations

According to data compiled by blockchain analytics firm Breadcrumbs and reported by Fox Business, $181 million of the total came through donations to pro-crypto super PACs, with an additional $57 million directed to individual candidates and their supporting committees.

Leading companies such as the Coinbase crypto exchange, blockchain payments firm Ripple, and venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz collectively contributed $160 million to industry-aligned PACs backing candidates supportive of the digital asset industry.

Presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris also emerged as major recipients of contributions from the crypto sector. Trump’s campaign has raised more than $22 million from crypto sources, including over $8 million in donations made with digital currencies like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Ripple’s XRP.

Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, a prominent investor in Bitcoin and co-chair of Trump’s presidential transition team, has donated at least $6 million to Trump. If elected, the Republican candidate has publicly vowed to remove Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler, whose “regulation by enforcement” approach to digital assets has been heavily criticized.

More Election Donations

On the other hand, Harris has received about $12 million from crypto sector donors, nearly all of which has come from Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen. The contributions have mostly been made in XRP, Ripple’s native cryptocurrency.

Silicon Valley figures have also supported PACs aligned with Harris’s interests; Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, reportedly contributed $250,000 to Future Forward, a leading super PAC supporting Harris, while tech investor Ron Conway contributed $600,000.

The crypto industry has also invested heavily in congressional races, with the likes of Fairshake, Defend American Jobs, and Protect Progress raising $170 million. Further, they deployed around $135 million on campaign ads to increase the number of pro-crypto lawmakers in Congress.

Fairshake’s affiliate Defend American Jobs spent $40 million supporting Ohio Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, a vocal advocate for cryptocurrency, as he challenges incumbent Senator Sherrod Brown. Fairshake itself previously spent $13 million on ads targeting anti-crypto Democrats in primary races, contributing to the defeats of Representatives Katie Porter, Jamaal Bowman, and Cori Bush.

Some public interest groups have criticized the sector’s involvement in politics, arguing that the high spending gives the crypto industry disproportionate influence on policy decisions.

Rick Claypool, research director at Public Citizen, called the contributions “a brazen attempt” to sway U.S. democracy in favor of sector-specific interests.

[PRESS RELEASE – London, UK, November 4th, 2024]

WebZero has announced the full agenda for its conference sub0 reset, inviting developers, investors and innovators to join Polkadot founder Dr Gavin Wood, along with industry leaders from Parity and the Web3 Foundation, to work on building JAM, a new paradigm paving the way forward for writing and securing Web3 applications.

The three day event from 9-11 November in Bangkok is dedicated to the most exciting innovation of the Polkadot ecosystem: advancing Gavin Wood’s visionary JAM chain project into the implementation stage and showcasing the most innovative projects built on Substrate.

JAM takes Polkadot’s current architecture to a new level of flexibility, in which Polkadot’s cores can be used for any verification task, whether for smart contracts or sovereign blockchains, maximizing the potential of the cores. It seeks to offer a real solution to the scalability vs coherency dilemma in Web3.

sub0 reset kicks off with a dedicated education day. Attendees can learn from industry greats such as Polkadot founder Robert Habermeier and Avail’s Anurag Arjun, and join barcamp deep-dives focused on Substrate. Day two is Modularity Day, with discussions from leading innovators at Avail, R0gue, Midnight and Parity Technologies. Day three is JAM & Scalability day, building out Polkadot’s founder Gavin Wood’s vision to transform the ecosystem into the world’s first global computer. The venue’s 24/7 hackerspace will give new teams the chance to co-work and compete for 10k USD in prizes.

Fabian Gompf, CEO of the Web3 Foundation said: “sub0 reset is the best opportunity for global developer talent to come together and catch up on the cutting-edge innovation happening in the Substrate and Polkadot ecosystems. Ranging from network updates and milestones to parachains, solochains and a whole day covering Join Accumulate Machine, sub0 reset is an important step for driving forward progress on Polkadot.”

Agenda highlights

 Saturday 9th

• Interoperability deep-dive from Anurag Arjun 12:00pm, main stage
• Keynote from Robert Habermeier, 12:30pm, main stage

Sunday 10th

• Workshop: Building on Polkadot – Shawn Tabrizi, Parity 14:00-15:00
• Building bespoke Web3 gaming experiences, John Linden, Mythical Games 16:30-17:10

 JAM Day – Monday 11th

• Demystifying Jam – Kian Paimani, Parity 11:00am
• Keynote speech on JAM from Dr. Gavin Wood – 17:00-18:00pm
• JAM Toaster: developers can test and optimise JAM implementations on a full-scale simulation of the network with 1,023 nodes at full capacity and 16,384 AMD CPUs. – All day

The Venue

• Spectacular five-floor industrial venue
• 24/7 hackerspace with bounties and $10k prize
• Rooftop oasis
• Free catering and drinks from a private chef

Practical details:

Sub0 reset is taking place at 127 Na Ranong Rd, Khlong Toei, Bangkok from 9-11 November, 2024.

A limited supply of free tickets for sub0 reset are available here.

The event runs from 10 AM until late each day. Make sure to subscribe to the WebZero Luma for full scheduling opportunities. The hackerspace runs 24 hours a day, ensuring developers can build at all hours of the night with food and beverages provided free of charge. Media lounge and recording rooms are provided.

The event will be streamed on the Polkadot Youtube channel.

For any further media enquiries, please contact [email protected]

About WEBZERO

WebZero is a developer experience builder that is establishing a hybrid between event production and developer relations, based on its own unique vision and methodology.

About Polkadot

Polkadot is the powerful, secure core of Web3, providing a shared foundation that unites some of the world’s most transformative apps and blockchains. Polkadot offers advanced modular architecture that allows devs to easily design and build their own specialized blockchain projects, pooled security that ensures the same high standard for secure block production across all connected chains and apps connected to it, and robust governance that ensures a transparent system where everyone has say in shaping the blockchain ecosystem for growth and sustainability. With Polkadot, users are not just participants, they’re co-creators with the power to shape its future.

The excitement surrounding a potential Republican victory spurred $2.2 billion in weekly inflows, pushing year-to-date inflows to a whopping $29.2 billion. This increase, along with rising prices, propelled assets under management past $100 billion. Interestingly, this level was last seen in early June 2024, when AuM hit $102 billion.

As a result, the trading volume surged 67% over the week, totaling $19.2 billion and comprising 35% of all bitcoin trading on reliable exchanges.

Republican Win Anticipation Propel Massive Inflows

According to the latest edition of Digital Asset Fund Flows Weekly Report, nearly all of last week’s inflows went to Bitcoin, which attracted $2.2 billion. Meanwhile, price increases sparked $8.9 million into short-bitcoin investments.

Ethereum received a modest $9.5 million, which lags behind the stronger enthusiasm for Bitcoin and Solana, the latter seeing $5.7 million in new funds. Among other altcoins, Polkadot and Arbitrum recorded inflows of $0.67 million and $0.2 million, respectively.

On the other hand, multi-asset products faced a setback, with $3.1 million in outflows after recovering the previous week. Following suit, Litecoin and XRP also faced outflows of $0.8 million and $0.1 million, respectively, over the past week.

Bitcoin’s Sensitivity to US Election Outcome

Bitcoin has reacted positively as optimism builds around the possibility of Donald Trump, a self-proclaimed pro-crypto candidate, securing a second term. CryptoPotato also recently reported that traders are placing significant bets on Trump’s chances of victory. Large crypto investors, in particular, are backing their beliefs with investments tied to the upcoming election.

Coinshares report also validated this sentiment as it revealed weekly inflows reaching $2.2 billion in the US, driven by early-week enthusiasm over Republican election prospects. However, as polls shifted later in the week, slight outflows on Friday underscored Bitcoin’s sensitivity to US election outcomes.

On a more global scale, Germany also recorded a smaller inflow of $5.1 million. Australia and Hong Kong settled with $2.1 million and $0.7 million inflows over the past week. Canada and Sweden recorded the largest outflows with $24.4 million and $20.3 million respectively, followed by Switzerland with $13.8 million. Brazil also saw a minor outflow of $0.5 million.

Robinhood has reported a 112% year-over-year increase in cryptocurrency trading volume, reaching $14.4 billion in the third quarter of 2024.

However, this surge comes amid a decline in trading activity compared to earlier in the year, with volumes peaking at $36 billion in the first quarter and dropping to $21.5 billion in the second quarter.

Results Fall Short of Analyst Expectations

Despite this slowdown in momentum in 2024, the trading platform experienced growth in its transaction-based revenue. The report indicates that income increased by 72% compared to the previous year, reaching $319 million. Of this, cryptocurrency trading accounted for $61 million, representing a 165% increase compared to last year. However, this figure was down from the $81 million generated in the previous quarter.

Overall, the company reported a net income of $150 million and total revenue of $637 million for the third quarter. However, these results fell short of analysts’ expectations.

The reported earnings per share (EPS) of $0.17 fell short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.18, while total revenue was 3.6% below the anticipated $661.2 million.

Other parts of Robinhood’s business also showed strong performance. Options trading revenues surged to $202 million, up 63% from the same period last year, and equities trading brought in $37 million, reflecting a 37% increase.

The company also revealed a rise in its Assets Under Custody (AUC). The metric grew by 76% year-over-year to $152.2 billion, fueled by net deposits from users and increased valuations of stocks and cryptocurrencies.

Robinhood Executives Comment on Q3 Results

Vlad Tenev, CEO and co-founder of Robinhood expressed his pride in the results, stating that they were a testament to how well the company’s “product engine is humming.”

Further, he highlighted recent initiatives such as the launch of Robinhood Legend, a new desktop platform, and the upcoming introduction of index options, futures, and a realized profit and loss tool.

Chief Financial Officer Jason Warnick noted the quarter’s overall strength, pointing to 36% year-over-year revenue growth that largely contributed to the bottom line.

Since launching its cryptocurrency unit in February 2018, Robinhood has expanded its offerings through various partnerships and initiatives.

Initially starting with Bitcoin and Ethereum trading, the stock brokerage firm has since broadened its offerings to include Litecoin, Uniswap, Avalanche, Chainlink, and various other tokens.