As the Solana ecosystem comes back from the aftershocks of the FTX liquidity earthquake, one of its leading automated market makers (AMM), Orca, announced a new integration. The AMM revealed a new Stripe integration which will power its fiat-to-crypto onramp, to make decentralized finance (DeFi) more accessible to users both in and out of the existing ecosystem. This new integration now enables fiat purchases, along with fiat-to-crypto transactions. Users can now purchase SPL tokens, which include USD Coin (USDC) and Solana (SOL) with fiat currencies. According to Ori Kawn, the co-founder of Orca, the new integration helps create wider access …

Russia’s largest bank Sber — formerly known as Sberbank — continues developing its blockchain platform by integrating it with the Ethereum blockchain. On Nov. 30, Sber officially announced new opportunities for its proprietary blockchain platform, including compatibility with smart contracts and applications on the Ethereum network. This would allow developers to move smart contracts and entire projects between Sber’s blockchain and public blockchain networks, the bank said. Sber’s latest additions also bring an integration with major software cryptocurrency wallet MetaMask, which is used to interact with the Ethereum blockchain. The integration allows users to make operations with tokens and smart …

Disparities in information access and data analytics technology are what give institutional players an edge over regular retail investors in the digital asset space. The core idea behind Markets Pro, Cointelegraph’s crypto-intelligence platform powered by data analytics firm The Tie, is to equalize the information asymmetries present in the cryptocurrency market. Markets Pro bridges the gap of these asymmetries with its world-class functionality: the quant-style VORTECS™ Score. The VORTECS™ Score is an algorithmic comparison of several key market metrics for each coin utilizing years of historical data that assesses whether the outlook for an asset is bullish, bearish or neutral …

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance is working with accounting firm Mazars as part of its proof-of-reserve (PoR) audits triggered by the fall of FTX. Mazars, the accounting firm that worked for former United States President Donald Trump’s company, was appointed as an official auditor to conduct a “third party financial verification” as part of Binance’s PoR updates, The Wall Street Journal reported on Nov. 30. The accounting firm is reportedly already reviewing all Binance’s publicly shared information on Bitcoin (BTC) PoR and will also be verifying future updates and tokens, a spokesperson for Binance reportedly said. “The first verification update for BTC …

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried apologized or admitted failure at least 12 times during his appearance at the New York Times' DealBook Summit on Nov. 30. In a wide-ranging video interview, Bankman-Fried was asked to answer a number of questions surrounding the downfall of the now-defunct exchange, with some even suggesting that some of his statements could be used to incriminate him in legal proceedings. In a Nov. 30 Twitter post, crypto attorney Jeremy Hogan, Partner at Hogan & Hogan said that the “light cross-examination” of Bankman-Fried at the DealBook Summit has already returned “at least 3 incriminating statements so …

Blockchain gaming is only four years old — a toddler compared to the rest of the industry. It has a lot of growing up to do, particularly when it comes to play-to-earn games. I’m a 28-year game industry veteran. I’ve produced 32 titles in that period of time on everything from Sega Genesis to Oculus Rift. Some of them were great. Many were forgettable. I didn't hear much chatter about blockchain gaming from traditional developers and players until Axie Infinity began to take off. Cut to the peak of 2021, and the game had nearly 2 million players logging on …

United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero spoke at the Futures Industry Association Asia Derivatives Conference in Singapore on Nov. 30. She talked about “how to harness the best that technology offers, while protecting against emerging threats,” with particular emphasis on cybersecurity and crypto. Goldsmith Romero had two proposals for protecting consumers and markets from the risks presented by cryptocurrency. The first was rather novel. “Protecting household retail investors starts with redefining who is a retail investor,” Goldsmith Romero said. Crypto investors are different, she said: “Most are young-born after 1980, diverse, and make less than …

Referring to the events surrounding the collapse of FTX as “a handful of magic beans”, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren seemed to frame the “contagion” spreading through the crypto space as a partisan issue. Speaking at a Senate Banking Committee nomination hearing on Nov. 30, Warren addressed committee counsel Jonathan McKernan, who confirmed that FTX’s bankruptcy had largely not affected traditional banking institutions in the United States. The Massachusetts senator, an outspoken skeptic of cryptocurrencies, used some of her time to applaud the work of Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, or FDIC, acting chair Martin Gruenberg, who attended as part of his …

Bitcoin (BTC) price gained 6.1% between Nov. 28 and Nov. 30 after briefly testing the $17,000 support. Favorable regulatory winds might have helped fuel the rally after the Binance exchange announced the acquisition of a regulated crypto exchange in Japan on Nov. 30. Binance shut its operations in Japan in 2018 after being warned by the Japan Financial Services Agency for operating without a license. The acquisition of Sakura Exchange BitCoin would mark the re-entry of Binance in the Japanese market. Furthermore, Gemini exchange announced new regulatory approvals in Italy and Greece on Nov. 30. The exchange was granted registration …

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken announced on Nov 30, that it has made “one of the hardest decisions” to cut down its global workforce by approximately 1,100 people, making up approximately 30% of its total workforce, amid current market conditions. According to the CEO and co-founder Jesse Powell, Kraken had to triple its workforce due to the fast-growing crypto ecosystem, and the current pullback takes the company’s team size back to where it was 12 months ago. Powell shared in a tweet; "Macro was already tough and we held out but recent industry woes diminished near-term optimism about a crypto bound." Rough …

Bitcoin (BTC) has shrugged off the weakness in the United States equities markets and is attempting to start a recovery on Nov. 30. Buyers are attempting to achieve a monthly close above $17,000. This suggests that the selling that had picked up due to the FTX crisis may be reducing. Usually, smaller investors panic and dump their holdings in a bear market but it has been the opposite with Bitcoin investors. According to Glassnode data released on Nov. 27, investors holding less than one Bitcoin, also called shrimps, bought 96,200 Bitcoin since the FTX crash. Along similar lines, investors holding …

Sherrod Brown, chair of the United States Senate Banking Committee, has called on Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to work with financial regulators and lawmakers on comprehensive crypto legislation “in the wake of FTX’s implosion.” In a Nov. 30 letter to Yellen, Brown requested the Treasury Secretary coordinate with regulators to address crypto based on recommendations from the Financial Stability Oversight Committee, or FSOC. The committee chair cited crypto exchange FTX’s “alarming fraud”, liquidity crunch, and bankruptcy as an example of financial risk that should not “spillover into traditional financial markets and institutions.” “I ask that you coordinate with the other …