Germany’s Fourth Largest Bank Commerzbank Granted Bitcoin And Crypto Custody License

Commerzbank, Germany’s fourth-largest bank, announced its become the first among its peers to secure the Crypto Custody License under Article 1 Section 1a Sentence 1 No 6 German Banking Act (KWG).

The newly acquired license empowers Commerzbank to forge ahead in establishing a comprehensive range of digital asset services, with a specific emphasis on Bitcoin and crypto assets. The initial step involves the creation of a robust, secure, and fully compliant platform, designed to cater to institutional clients seeking secure custody solutions for their crypto assets.

“Now that we have been granted the licence, we have achieved an important milestone,” said Dr. Jörg Oliveri del…

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After a short lived dip, risk-on is back for crypto trading

Risk-on investing is back. 

Crypto outperformed equities Wednesday morning after better-than-expected inflation data fueled investor optimism that interest rate hikes are a thing of the past. 

Bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) posted gains of 1.4% and 1.6%, respectively, early in the trading session, recovering from Tuesday’s sharp decline that saw BTC dip below $36,000. The Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 indexes opened slightly in the green, each rallying less than 0.4%. 

Equities’ mild bounce Wednesday seems to be an extension of the Consumer Price Index-fueled rally on Tuesday, which saw the Nasdaq soar.

“Risk assets celebrated, with the Nasdaq jumping 2.4% yesterday. BTC rose…

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Commerzbank scores crypto custody license in Germany

German bank Commerzbank is the first “full-service bank” to receive a crypto custody license, according to a press release on Wednesday.

The bank was granted the license under the German Banking Act (KWG). 

Commerzbank can now offer digital asset services, and the bank plans to “establish a secure and reliable platform with full regulatory compliance to support its institutional clients by providing custody for crypto assets based on blockchain technology.”

“We have achieved an important milestone. This highlights our ongoing commitment to applying the latest technologies and innovations, and it forms the foundation for supporting our customers in the areas of digital…

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Aave cooperates with forks following vulnerability

DeFi lending protocol Aave is a popular candidate for “forking,” whereby developers take open-source code and launch a spinoff. 

But when its bug bounty program unearthed a potential vulnerability in Aave’s code, the exploit route wasn’t made public. 

Aave’s council of community guardians froze certain assets and markets on Aave after learning of the bug on Nov. 4. 

Over the following week, Aave DAO’s service provider bgdlabs made proposals to disable stable rate borrowing and end the minting of stable debt where borrowers would pay fixed rates in the short term that could be rebalanced later.

Aave lending markets returned to normal on Nov. 13 after the proposals were…

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LATEST: Germany’s Commerzbank Steps Up with Crypto Custody Services License

Commerzbank, a prominent German bank has secured a crypto custody license under the German Banking Act, becoming the first “full-service” bank in Germany to do so. This license allows the bank to provide custody services for cryptocurrency assets and expand its digital asset offerings. Dr. Jörg Oliveri del Castillo-Schulz, COO of Commerzbank, called it an “important milestone” reflecting the bank’s commitment to technology and innovation. The bank’s next steps involve establishing a secure and compliant platform to offer crypto custody services to institutional clients through blockchain technology.

Documentary Shows How Bitcoin Helped Verify Guatemala's Elections

A new documentary is showcasing how Bitcoin, beyond its role as a digital money, played a crucial role in verifying Guatemala’s most recent presidential elections.

The documentary, entitled “Immutable Democracy,” delves into the innovative use of OpenTimestamps, a tool developed by Bitcoin Core developer Peter Todd, and implemented by Guatemalan tech startup Simple Proof.

OpenTimestamps utilizes cryptographic timestamps on the Bitcoin blockchain, ensuring the immutability of key documents related to the country’s elections. This approach, leveraging hash functions and decentralized blockchain technology, provides a robust defense against fraud and tampering.

“The reason why Bitcoin is…

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Sorella, CoW Protocol share a common goal: Improving on-chain exchanges

CoW Swap is spelled with funny capitalization deliberately. Aiming for a Coincidence of Wants (CoW) underpins its unique approach compared to other decentralized exchange (DEX) venues. Unlike typical decentralized exchanges, CoW Swap facilitates direct order matching among traders before considering traditional liquidity pools.

By avoiding on-chain liquidity pools, traders save on LP fees and gas costs, leading to better trade prices. This method also safeguards against MEV attacks by facilitating peer-to-peer swaps, thus eliminating opportunities for transaction hijacking. CoWs are particularly effective in large trades or for assets with lower liquidity.

They can also result in lower…

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Microsoft, Tencent and other tech giants join Decentralized Infura Network

Microsoft, Tencent and 16 other Web2 giants have partnered with Consensys on its mission to decentralize the Infura network — the key point of access to Ethereum for much of the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector.

The partnerships aim to increase decentralization on the Infura network — key to preventing outages of the Web3 services that leverage it, including the wallet service MetaMask.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Consensys senior product manager Andrew Breslin said the significance of the partnerships was less about “who they were” and more about the big-name firms aligning with Infura in “wanting to decentralize every layer of the blockchain infrastructure stack.”

Scheduled…

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OpenAI halts new ChatGPT Plus sign-ups amid high demand

OpenAI, the company behind the popular artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT, said it has put on hold new signups for the premium version of the AI tool, ChatGPT Plus, due to a high surge in usage after DevDay.

The company’s CEO, Sam Altman, announced this via a post on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) on Wednesday, Nov. 15. According to him, new sign-ups are paused because the platform has exceeded its capacity, thus affecting users’ quality of experience. Atman said the ChatGPT Plus has seen a surge in usage since OpenAI’s DevDay, where it announced some new APIs about a week ago.

we are pausing new ChatGPT Plus sign-ups for a bit 🙁

the surge in usage post devday…

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3 reasons why Bitcoin price failed to break $37K

Bitcoin (BTC) recently surged above $37,000 between Nov. 10 and 12, only to falter and undergo a correction toward $35,000 on Nov. 13.

This abrupt movement triggered the liquidation of $121 million worth of long futures contracts, and while Bitcoin’s price stabilized around $35,800 on Nov. 14, investors are left pondering the underlying factors behind this downturn.

Bitcoin 12-hour price index, USD. Source: TradingViewU.S. inflation, gov’t shutdown impact on BTC price

Part of the catalyst behind this movement was the unexpected softening of United States inflation data on Nov. 14. The U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) showed a 3.2% increase in October compared to 2022, leading to a…

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