European digital asset management firm CoinShares secured the exclusive option to acquire the exchange-traded fund (ETF) unit of its United States competitor Valkyrie Investments, including the Valkyrie Bitcoin Fund that’s awaiting approval in the U.S.

CoinShares said on Nov. 17 that the move helps it expand to the U.S., which could soon become the epicenter for ETF offerings. The firm’s CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti added he hopes the Valkyrie acquisition will help it capitalize on what is currently a fragmented global ETF market.

“The establishment of crypto spot ETPs in Europe since 2015, a development about to be mirrored in the U.S., is the perfect illustration,” said Mognetti….

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The crypto industry should focus on building blockchain-based solutions everybody can benefit from instead of launching cash grabs for brands, says Amy Peck, CEO of tech-focused consulting firm EndeavourXR.

Peck told Cointelegraph at the Lisbon Web Summit that Web3 firms should be build-first oriented and create attractive products to draw newcomers.

She added using Web3 and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) as “just another money grab from brands” to create another slate of multi-millionaires “doesn’t seem like a good look” nor a good use of what is an “elegant technology.”

“This is an infinite landscape. The money’s going to be there, right? Let’s build a better bread box. We… Read more on Cointelegraph

Gas fees on Ethereum layer-2 Polygon (MATIC) surged more than 1,000% to reach a peak of $0.10 as users inundated the network with the minting of Ordinals-inspired tokens dubbed POLS. 

In a Nov. 16 X (formerly Twitter) post Polygon founder Sandeep Nailwal shared his surprise at the elevated transaction activity on the network saying the spike could’ve been due to the launch of a new Polygon-based nonfungible token (NFT) collection.

What is going on on @0xPolygon POS chain? 6m transactions in last 24 hrs. 170 TPS on average. 1mn+ MATIC burnt by the protocol. The chain worked smoothly, gas fees went crazy though but no reorgs or 0 blocks etc.

I hear there is some game Baby Shark Launching,…

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Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industry’s most important developments.

Hot week for Hong Kong exchanges 

Hashkey Exchange — one of the first regulated crypto exchanges in Hong Kong — has announced insurance coverage for clients assets stored in its hot and cold wallets. accounts. The policy will cover 50% of Hashkey’s digital assets in cold wallets and 100% of digital assets in hot wallets and pay out anywhere between $50 million to $400 million in the event of a claim.

Hashkey’s partnership with fintech OneDegree will also see the pair co-develop novel crypto security solutions for the exchange to manage server downtime, data…

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Creating a strong foothold in the stablecoin market, Tether USDT/USD is now looking to enter the Bitcoin mining space with a significant investment.

In the past year, Tether’s market cap has grown by 32.7%, reflecting its prominent presence in the cryptocurrency market.

What Happened: Tether’s incoming CEO Paolo Ardoino announced plans to spend almost $500 million over the upcoming six months to expand into the Bitcoin mining industry, Bloomberg reported. It plans to build mining facilities or acquire stakes in other companies.

Tether announced a $610 million credit facility to Bitcoin mining company, Northern Data AG in November after it had acquired shares in the firm in September.

Read more on Benzinga

Andrew Yang, former candidate for United States president and New York City mayor and founder of the Forward Party, had sobering observations about the uses of blockchain, or its lack of use, in the United States and U.S. regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) when he spoke Nov. 16 at the North American Blockchain Summit (NABS) in Fort Worth, TX.

Yang, who described himself as “enormous believer in smart money, smart currencies,” said he saw blockchain and Web3 technology in a sorry state, especially in the United States, which creates the risk of firms fleeing overseas. Part of the problem is public perception, Yang said:

“The way to avoid this fate it is to have positive use… Read more on Cointelegraph

Macroeconomic trends should be creating the perfect storm for cryptos. But true to form, the asset class isn’t following the rules. 

Bitcoin and ether faltered Thursday after an early-morning rally, dipping around 4.8% and 4.7%, respectively. 

Bitcoin (BTC) came close to breaking into the $38,000 range Thursday before falling into the red, effectively ending Wednesday’s rally. BTC is now down a little over 2% over the week, but still up close to 25% in the past 30 days. 

Stocks also dipped Thursday but recovered to trade relatively flat at time of publication. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indexes each lost as much as 0.5% earlier in the trading session before paring… Read more on Blockworks

Social media giant Meta has introduced its latest artificial intelligence (AI) models for content editing and generation, according to a blog post on Nov. 16. 

The company is introducing two AI-powered generative models. The first, Emu Video, which leverages Meta’s previous Emu model, is capable of generating video clips based on text and image inputs. While the second model, Emu Edit, is focused on image manipulation, promising more precision in image editing.

The models are still in the research stage, but Meta says their initial results show potential use cases for creators, artists and animators alike.

Meta displays its new generative model Emu Edit. Source: Meta

According to Meta’s…

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Ethereum Name Service’s lead developer Nick Johnson took to social media to call out Unstoppable Domains on Thursday.

Johnson penned a series of posts on X not only criticizing Unstoppable Domains for the lack of legal backing or binding behind its Web3 Domain Alliance group — which it both founded and runs — but also accused Unstoppable of patenting an innovation allegedly made by ENS.

Johnson claims that ENS and Unstoppable Domains attempted to discuss the situation outside of the social media platform, but “failed” to make headway.

He claims that ENS, in contrast to Unstoppable, “have not pursued patents on our work.”

The issue at hand can be traced back to January when…

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