Europe’s Biggest Telecom Buys Polkadot

PLUS: BitMEX's airdrop, Ethereum's latest testnet and more |

The biggest crypto news and ideas of the day  Dec. 21, 2021 If you were forwarded this newsletter and would like to receive it, sign up here. Sponsored by     Welcome to The Node.   Questions? Feedback? We'd love to hear from you! Simply reply to this email.   –Daniel Kuhn Today's must-reads Top Shelf BEARISH TURN? Between hawkish U.S. Federal Reserve positioning and a general de-risking across markets recently, CoinShares reported $142 million in crypto outflows across the industry last week. This is the largest weekly downturn on record, the digital-asset manager said, more than the previous record of $97 million last June. This bearish turn follows a 17-week run of inflows, and more than $9.5 billion in fresh capital pumped into crypto this year. Further, strangely, NFT web searches are up (even if the non-fungible market is down).   STABILITY WANTED: Fitch Ratings said that regulatory clarity could moderate stablecoin credit risks. In a new report the prominent credit rating agency said the fiat-pegged digital assets could create new market opportunities, and that uncertainty has deterred financial institutions from using them. Fitch notes that the European Union is the first major economy to publish draft regulations for the sector and has called for issuers to be regulated like banks or electronic money institutions.   BIT DERIVATIVE? BitMEX, the storied, bitcoin-only derivatives giant, will airdrop a new exchange token to account holders in early 2022. The BMEX token is similar in design and purpose (to reward users and pay for exchange services) to Binance's BNB and FTX's FTT token, two global crypto exchanges that have eaten into BitMEX's market share. One-fifth of all BMEX, out of a capped supply of 450 million tokens, will be reserved for BitMEX employees.   TANZE DIE POLKA: Europe's biggest telecommunications company, Deutsche Telekom AG, is throwing its weight behind the interoperable blockchain platform Polkadot. Deutsche Telekom's digital innovation subsidiary has purchased a significant  trove of Polkadot's native cryptocurrency, DOT, to participate in its proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism and will also provide node-running infrastructure for other stakers. The telecoms company has existing stakes in oracle network Chainlink, NFT-geared blockchain Flow and mobile-first payment network Celo – all of which are PoS.   TESTING GROUND: Ethereum opened the Kintsugi testnet to the public on Monday, Tim Beiko, a developer for the blockchain, announced in a post. Named for the Japanese art of mending broken pottery with gold, Kintsugi is one of the final public testnets before Ethereum 2.0, the long-awaited, ambitious upgrade to make the most used blockchain cheaper, faster and more scalable. Earlier testnets were available only to developers, but this "longer-lived public testnet" will allow developers and the community to test applications and features in a controlled setting. A message from Nexo When it comes to buying, borrowing or earning on your crypto, you won't find and easier, safer way to do it than Nexo. Right now you can earn $25 worth of Bitcoin for each friend you refer. And the best part is that your referral gets $25 in BTC too! How it works? It's quite simple – sign in to your Nexo account, copy your unique link and start referring like your life depended on it!   And here's what'll happen next: you and your referrals will both get $25 in BTC within 30 days of them passing Advanced Verification and topping up the equivalent of $100 or more of any asset supported on the Nexo platform.   There's no limit on the number of people you can refer, so invite as many friends as you'd like! Join Nexo and start earning free BTC with your friends! What others are writing... Off-Chain Signals Brian Eno on NFTs & Automaticism (Crypto Syllabus) Secret bitcoin miners in China could still make up 20% of global hashrate (Protos) US Goes to Court to Recover $154M Stolen From Sony, Converted to Bitcoin (Decrypt) Twitch co-founder's Fractal NFT project gets hijacked — $154,000 stolen (The Block) Crypto mayors on the rise (Tech Crunch) A message from NowRX This company's share price increased 1,650% from 2016 – Own a piece today!   NowRx is disrupting the $480B retail pharmacy industry using proprietary software and robotics to provide a more personalized, hassle-free pharmacy experience.   In 2020, the company saw revenue grow 90% YoY and this year they're on pace to top $22M. Oh and did we mention their telehealth service grew over 3,000% since January?   Don't miss your chance to own shares of this high-growth startup!   Invest in NowRx Sponsored Content   FBG Capital: Why Investors Are Excited About the DeFi-zation of GameFi   Splitting the ownership and utility of gaming assets opens huge investment opportunities for GameFi, potentially making game finance bigger than decentralized finance (DeFi). The GameFi sector is young but booming, and this is very exciting for investors. The financial components of GameFi include on-chain leasing solutions, fractionalization, staking, game non-fungible tokens (NFT) dedicated marketplaces, layer 2 solutions for blockchain games and others.   GameFi and DeFi have many similarities but there are also some crucial differences. The Chaser... The Node A newsletter from CoinDesk Were you forwarded this newsletter? Sign up here. 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