Today, Bitcoin is going up — and lots of companies are getting funded to work on DeFi products.
Today’s Top Crypto News Stories
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Crypto News
Bitcoin Recovers, Back at $44,000 🔥
A flurry of green candles has helped BTC bounce back to $44,000. The world's biggest cryptocurrency rallied after the U.S. Federal Reserve held interest rates close to zero. Debt problems at Evergrande had also weighed heavily on Bitcoin this week, but shares in this company rallied 17% on Thursday — indicating sentiment on the crisis is improving. Read more.
ANOTHER BTC Giveaway Scam 😡
Bitcoin.org has once again been targeted. This time, scammers hijacked the homepage and launched a giveaway scam. Victims who sent BTC to an address were promised they would receive twice as much back. The site's domain name provider took swift action to disable the page. Data suggests the scammers' wallet only ended up receiving $17,000. The latest.
Celeb Endorsements Have Big Impact 👀
Some 45% of crypto enthusiasts say they would buy a coin endorsed by a celebrity — compared with 20% of normal investors. Staggering research from Morning Consult also indicates that one in five American adults ended up hearing about Kim Kardashian's Instagram post promoting Ethereum Max. Here's what the poll found.
Robinhood to Launch Crypto Wallet, Transfer Features 💱
Robinhood annnounced this week that its users will soon be able to send and receive cryptocurrencies more easily through a new crypto wallet and transfer feature — currently, Robinhood only offers buying and selling cryptocurrency services.
Altcoin News
How Popular is Dogecoin Now? 🤩
DOGE has been back in the news this week. AMC might accept it as a payment method. Robinhood has launched a new crypto wallet feature that supports deposits and withdrawals. And DOGE can also be used to invest in two digital real estate deals. Despite that, data suggests transaction levels have dropped to their lowest level since 2017. Read more here.
DeFi News
1inch Adds Support for Arbitrum 👏
DEX aggregator 1inch has added support for Ethereum scaling solution Arbitrum — making seven blockchain available via 1inch on Arbitrum.
Dfinity Plans Bitcoin Smart Contract Launch on Internet Computer 🤯
The Dfinitiy Foundation announced their plans to integrate with Bitcoin by the end of year, giving Bitcoin the ability to work with smart contracts and DeFi applications.
NFT News
NBA Player Drops NFT Art, Crypto Twitter Cries ‘Plagiarism’ 🎨
John Wall of the Houston Rockets announced an NFT drop this week of “Baby Ballers” — the problem, according to crypto Twitter, is that the Baby Baller backgrounds are screenshots of Fortnite, and the babies themselves resemble the infants from the Boss Baby movies. In response to the backlash, the Baby Baller team has removed the background and plans to bring on more designers.
Funding News
Cobo Raises $40 Million to Expand DeFi-as-a-Service 💰
Cobo, an Asia-headquartered crypto custodian, raised $40 million in a Series B funding round led by DST Global, AT&T Capital and IMO Ventures. Cobo plans to use the funding to increase its offerings as well as apply for regulatory licenses — good idea.
Dapper Labs Raises $250 Million 🤑
NFT startup Dapper Labs (of NBA Top Shots fame) raised $250 million in funding this week, led by Coatue Ventures and with participation from a16z. The NFT behemoth will expand its NBA Top Shot platform to support more sports and products, all on its Flow blockchain.
DEX on Solana Raises $18 Million in Series A Funding 💸
Orca, a DEX on the Solana blockchain, raised $18 million in funding this week in a round led by Polychain, Placeholder and Three Arrows Capital. Orca had surpassed $231 million in total value locked since August, when it launched its governance token.
