Russian people are among the world’s most active participants of the cryptocurrency market, according to the country’s central bank. The Bank of Russia published a fresh review on financial stability on Nov. 25, pointing out the country’s growing role in the $2.8 trillion market. Citing estimations reported by major local banks in July 2021, the Bank of Russia suggested that the total annual volumes of crypto transactions of the Russian population amount to 350 billion rubles, or $5 billion USD. It appears to be unclear whether the Bank of Russia has converted these estimations as the price of Bitcoin (BTC) …

Hot on the heels of the rising cryptocurrency hype, Finnish regulators have dropped a formal notice. On Nov. 24th, the Financial Supervisory Authority (FIN-FSA) stated: “Only registered virtual currency providers can market virtual currencies and related services in Finland. The marketing of virtual currencies in Finnish and in Finland is only allowed for entities registered as virtual currency providers in Finland.” Finland is a highly economically free country, ranking 17th in the Index for Economic Freedom. However, as LocalBitcoins CEO Sebastian Sonntag told Cointelegraph upon receiving their FSA license in 2019: “The controls in the financial sector are of particularly …

Investment funds from major U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley have increased their exposure to Bitcoin through purchases of shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust. According to filings from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on Nov. 23, the Morgan Stanley Insight Fund increased its holdings of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, or GBTC, shares more than 63%, from 928,051 in the second quarter of 2021 to 1,520,549 as of Sept. 30. In addition, filings on the firm’s Growth Portfolio show it holding 3,642,118 GBTC shares in the third quarter of 2021, an increase of 71% when compared with 2,130,153 shares as of …

Australian superannuation fund Rest Super is set to become the first retirement fund in the country to invest in cryptocurrencies. The fund has more than $46.8 billion worth of assets under management (AUM) and around 1.8 million members. Superannuation is the equivalent of a 401k or Individual Retirement Account in the U.S. and is compulsory for all employees. Until now the $2.4 trillion sector has been extremely cautious about cryptocurrency. During Rest Super’s annual general meeting on Nov. 23, the firm’s chief investment officer Andrew Lill told members that the company sees digital assets as an “important part” of its …

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, is reportedly in talks with sovereign global wealth funds to sell them a stake in the company. In addition to planned “mega funding” for its United States-based business Binance.US, Binance is now also seeking global funding to improve relationships with regulators, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said in a Tuesday interview with The Financial Times. According to Zhao, the upcoming funding is aimed to improve its “perception and relationships” with many governments as multiple financial regulators around the world have been cracking down on Binance this year. “But it may also tie us to specific …

Institutional investors were unfazed by the recent correction in the cryptocurrency markets, as digital asset funds dedicated to Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) continued to grow, according to data from CoinShares. Crypto investment products, which include exchange-traded funds (ETFs), saw weekly inflows totaling $154 million for the week ending Nov. 20, according to CoinShares’ latest fund flows report. Like in previous weeks, Bitcoin investment products attracted most of the inflows at $114.4 million. Funds devoted to Ether saw weekly inflows of $12.6 million and multi-asset products registered $14.1 million in net investments. Year-to-date, institutional investors have allocated over $6.6 billion …

Cryptocurrency fintech startup MoonPay has closed its first-ever venture capital round, reaching $3.4 billion in post-money valuation. The firm officially announced Monday that it closed a $555 million Series A funding round led by prominent industry investors like American investment firm Tiger Global and tech-focused investment manager Coatue. Other participants included Blossom Capital, Thrive Capital, Paradigm, and the New Enterprise Associates venture capital firm. The raised capital is the first funding secured by MoonPay in 2.5 years since the company was founded in 2019 by two young entrepreneurs, Ivan Soto-Wright and Victor Faramond. The firm says it has processed more …

The team behind meme cryptocurrency Shiba Inu (SHIB) has issued a public warning against ongoing online scams that primarily target altcoin investors interested in SHIB tokens. The proactive scam alert came in the form of a tweet detailing the various methods used to dupe unsuspecting victims from the Shiba Inu community. Stay Alert & Safe #ShibArmy! We've been made aware of a recent scam, traveling social media, and other communication platforms. Here's a quick video to provide more information on the matter. pic.twitter.com/UOh50WsJSQ — Shib (@Shibtoken) November 21, 2021 The warning further stated, “A fake Shiba Telegram group is being …

Bitcoin (BTC) has been on an impressive price run since the announcement of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s approval of ProShares’ Bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) early in October, hitting a new all-time high of over $69,000 on Nov. 10, as per data from TradingView. However, the financial watchdogs soured the mood by rejecting VanEck’s proposal for a spot ETF on Nov. 12, which acted as a trigger for the price of the flagship cryptocurrency to drop to a 30-day low of $55,705 on Nov. 19. The token is trading in the $56,000 range at the time of …

Trading volumes across various verticals of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) have been on a tear this year. Combined sales for collectible and art NFTs have reached $7.4 billion as of Q4 2021. The art NFT market has grown from $17.8 million on January 1 to $1.8 billion in total sales as of Nov. 5, 2021. At the beginning of 2021, the collectible NFT market started with a total sales volume of $55.5 million. It has since ballooned to $5.6 billion. As reported by Reuters, total NFT sales volumes jumped from $1.3 billion in Q2 to $10.7 billion in Q3. Record sales …

Bitcoin (BTC) diving nearly 20% from all-time highs has finally taken its toll on market sentiment — investors are now "afraid." According to the Crypto Fear & Greed Index, overnight losses on Nov. 19 removed the last traces of "greed" away from traders' minds. From "greed" to "fear" in two days As BTC price action headed lower this week, sentiment played catch-up as spot price contrasted with still bullish signals from markets. Derivatives traders were — and to an extent still are — in a phase of exuberance, with some still betting on a dramatic price rebound in the short …

As reported by The Globe and Mail, Fidelity Clearing Canada received approval from the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada on Wednesday to launch a Bitcoin (BTC) trading and custody platform. It is designed for use by institutional investors — such as pension funds, portfolio managers and mutual funds — and would be a first-of-a-kind service in the country. The firm also plans to cater to retail investors with its regulatory filing for a Bitcoin exchange-traded funded and mutual fund, which was submitted earlier this week. As of September, Fidelity has over $4.2 trillion in assets under management around the …