Each person who receives cryptocurrency becomes a member of a community already numbering in the millions, with common goals, interests and plans. But how can you find the right gift for the crypto enthusiast in your life when the holidays come around? It’s no secret that people struggle to choose gifts when they want to meet the expectations of another person. This holiday season, Cointelegraph has put together a list of crypto gifts that crypto hodlers will appreciate. Crypto It may seem too simple, but it can be difficult to find someone who refuses investments with great value. One option …

Bankrupt crypto lending platform BlockFi has filed a motion requesting authority from the United States Bankruptcy Court to allow its users to withdraw digital assets currently locked up in BlockFi Wallets. In a motion filed on Dec .19 with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the District of New Jersey, the lender asked the court for authority to honor client withdrawals from wallet accounts as of the platform’s pause on Nov. 10. As part of our presentation in Court, we also expressed our intention to request approval from the Court to restore withdrawal activities for BlockFi Wallet accounts. — BlockFi (@BlockFi) …

Crypto-users may one day be able to automatically pay their electricity and telephone bills through their self-custodial crypto wallets, according to payments giant Visa. In a Dec. 20 blog post, Visa’s crypto thought leadership team proposed a solution that would allow providers to automaticall “pull” funds from users’ Ethereum-powered crypto wallets, without requiring the user to manually sign off on every transaction. Auto-payments for recurring bills are commonplace in the traditional banking world, giving users the ability to permit certain service providers to draw from their chosen bank accounts to pay off bills — such as a Netflix subscription or …

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has shared three “huge" opportunities yet to be realized in crypto, including mass crypto wallet adoption, inflation-resistant stablecoins, and Ethereum-powered website logins. During an interview with Bankless co-owner David Hoffman, Buterin shared his outlook for the crypto industry in 2023, responding to Hoffman’s raised concern that the “adoption wave” for decentralized applications is now over and that there’s “less opportunity” for developers to come in and build new decentralized applications. Buterin instead shrugged off the “limbo period” that Hoffman eluded to, firstly suggesting that more developments need to be made on cryptocurrency wallet infrastructure in order …

Five wallets tied to the defunct Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX, previously thought to be inaccessible, have just been spotted moving around $1.7 million worth of Bitcoin after years of dormancy. Crypto researcher ZachXBT alerted the crypto community in a Twitter post on Dec. 19, highlighting the five wallets have transferred around 104 Bitcoin (BTC) on Dec. 17 to various wallets. Blockchain records show the wallets had not sent BTC since at least April 2018. Five wallets attributed to QuadrigaCX unexpectedly moved ~104 BTC on Dec 17 for the first time in years. 1ECUQLuioJbFZAQchcZq9pggd4EwcpuANe 1J9Fqc3TicNoy1Y7tgmhQznWrP5AVLXj9R 1MhgmGaHwLAvvKVyFvy6zy9pRQFXaxwE9M 1HyYMMCdCcHnfjwMW2jE4cv9qVkVDFUzVa 1JPtxSGoekZfLQeYAWkbhBhkr2VEDADHZB — ZachXBT (@zachxbt) …

Tel Aviv's Magistrate Court has reportedly issued a ruling allowing Israel's government to seize all the crypto in more than 150 digital wallets it blacklisted over alleged links to funding terrorist groups. According to Dec. 18 local Israeli media reports, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz has revealed the court's Dec. 15 ruling has already allowed authorities to seize a further $33,500 from digital wallets linked to the Islamist militant group Hamas. Prior to the court ruling, Israeli authorities had only been legally allowed to seize digital assets with direct links to terrorist activity but not additional funds in the same …

Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has cautioned the crypto community about self-custody, suggesting that 99% of people choosing to self-custody their crypto will likely lose it one way or another. CZ has been been a supporter of self-custody for years, referring to its as a “fundamental human right” but has always urged users to “do it right.” He published a “CZ’s Tips” on self-storing crypto in Feb. 2020. During a recent Binance-run Twitter Spaces on Dec. 14, the Binance CEO continued to urge caution for those using self-custody wallets — suggesting that more often than not, security keys are not …

Digital payments platform PayPal has teamed up with Metamask’s parent company, ConsenSys, to allow Metamask users to purchase and transfer Ethereum (ETH) via PayPal's platform. According to the announcement on Dec. 14, the service will initially be rolled out to only select PayPal users within the United States, since the US is one of Metamask’s largest markets, user-wise. Our US users will now be able to fund their wallet with ETH via @PayPal! Rolling out in the next weeks in the US, excl. Hawaii, through our mobile app (make sure to update to v5.13.0)https://t.co/392JwFYF3m — MetaMask (@MetaMask) December 14, 2022 …

Users and developers are seeking out ways to stay both safe and informed after a year of volatility and uncertainty. During this shift, the hardware wallet developer Ledger announced a new integration for users to track the value of their assets. Ledger and Merlin, a decentralized finance (DeFi) portfolio tracker, announced their new partnership on Dec. 13 to bring live DeFi performance analytics to Ledger Live users. The app, which connects to Ledger’s cold storage wallets, services over 5 million users. The newly integrated DeFi tracker connects over 1,000 DeFi protocols across ten blockchain networks. Users will have access to …

The Bank of England (BOE) is seeking a “proof of concept” for a wallet that will be able to hold a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). On Dec. 9, the BOE posted a request for applications on the United Kingdom government's Digital Marketplace, a service where government organizations can solicit work for digital projects. Simple guidelines for what the proof-of-concept wallet would have to achieve were outlined, with the wallet seemingly only needing to offer basic functionality such as a signup process, a way to update details, and show balances and transactions amongst other requirements such as displaying notifications. Of …

American fintech company ZELF has introduced an anonymous Visa debit card to be accepted at any of Visa’s 80 million locations worldwide. ZELF’s latest initiative will allow users to open up a U.S. dollar checking account with only their name, email, and phone number, sparing them from having to provide documentation such as a social security number and proof of address. According to the fintech company, prospective clients can open a checking account and have an anonymous virtual debit card, which works with Apple and Google Pay, within 30 seconds. ZELF is LIVE on @ProductHunt with the ultimate in payment …

The hardware wallet industry has emerged as one of the most resilient sectors to the ongoing cryptocurrency winter, with issues like the FTX crash bringing in even more cold wallet sales. The bear market of 2022 has once again reminded crypto investors of the importance of self-custody and independence from centralized exchanges (CEX). As a result, some major CEXs like Binance has increased their investment exposure to hard wallet firms, while CEO Changpeng Zhao even suggested that CEXs may no longer be necessary in the future. Should it be the case, the crypto industry of the future will be quite …