During her opening speech at the Singapore FinTech Festival, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva urged the public sector to “keep preparing to deploy” central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and related payment platforms in the future.

Georgieva expressed her optimism toward the implementation of CBDCs around the globe, although making a reservation that “we have not yet reached the land” and there is still much uncertainty:

“Adoption of CBDCs is nowhere close. But about 60 percent of countries are exploring them in some form today.”

The executive believes that CBDCs can replace cash, offer resilience in advanced economies and improve…

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While the crypto community is still weathering the effects of the recent $100-million Poloniex hack, another cybersecurity threat that could affect billions worth of crypto assets has been discovered by a team of blockchain security experts. 

On Nov. 14, cybersecurity company Unciphered released information on a vulnerability that they called “Randstorm,” which they claim to affect millions of crypto wallets that were generated from 2011 to 2015.

Today we release our work on Randstorm: a vulnerability affecting a significant number of browser generated cryptocurrency wallets

Reporting @washingtonpost https://t.co/OzYDq2tH4W

Technical write-up: …

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Plasma, a once-prominent Ethereum layer 2 scaling solution, should be revisited by teams currently working on zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machines (EVMs), says Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.

Invented in 2017, Plasma diverts data and computation — except deposits, withdrawals and Merkle roots — to an off-chain environment.

It was superseded by optimistic and zero-knowledge (ZK)-rollups as the two solutions offered cheaper client-side data storage costs and security properties that “cannot be matched,” Buterin explained in a Nov. 14 X (Twitter) post.

Exit games for EVM validiums: the return of Plasmahttps://t.co/QgyzXAl0wv

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) November 14,… Read more on Cointelegraph

The Nov. 13 XRP (XRP) price action stemming from a falsified BlackRock XRP trust filing shouldn’t sway the United States securities regulator’s decision to approve or delay spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) — but it isn’t a good look, say industry observers.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has previously claimed the Bitcoin market can be manipulated and has knocked back spot Bitcoin ETFs, citing a lack of market manipulation controls.

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas told Cointelegraph the fake XRP filing should have little to no impact on the SEC’s final decision.

“We doubt this will impact the situation with spot Bitcoin ETFs,” Balchunas said….

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The creator of the Mutant Ape Planet nonfungible token (NFT) collection — a knock-off of Yuga Labs’ Mutant Ape Yacht Club project — has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a New York federal court.

In a Nov. 14 statement, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York said French national Aurelien Michel pleaded guilty to executing a “rug pull” and admitted to defrauding investors out of $3 million in connection with the fraudulent Mutant Ape Planet NFTs.

Nonfungible Token (NFT) Developer Pleads Guilty to an International Scheme to Defraud NFT Purchasers

Aurelien Michel Conspired to Steal From Purchasers of “Mutant Ape Planet” NFTs Through…

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Crypto exchange and wallet provider Blockchain.com closed a $110 million Series E financing round, an investment that more than halves its previous 2022 valuation of $14 billion.

In a Nov. 14 blog post, Blockchain.com said the closing of its Series E round was led by the United Kingdom-based venture capital firm Kingsway Capital. It also saw participation from Baillie Gifford, Lakestar and Coinbase Ventures, among others.

A Nov. 14 Bloomberg report citing sources familiar with the matter said the $110 million round places Blockchain.com at less than half of its $14 billion valuation from March 2022.

On March 30, 2022, Blockchain.com closed a funding round that saw its valuation spike from…

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Crypto exchange and wallet service Blockchain.com has reportedly raised a $110 million funding round.

The Series E round was led by Kingsway, which led a funding round for the company in October 2022, according to Bloomberg. The outlet characterized the funding round as “strategic financing.”

Blockchain.com scored a $14 billion valuation in an early 2022 funding round, as Bloomberg reported at the time. According to the outlet, the new Kingsway-led round was raised at “less than half” of that amount.

The potential for a down round — wherein a company raises at a valuation lower than a previous fundraise — was previously reported by Bloomberg. 

With the fresh capital in…

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Despite lower than expected United States inflation data which showed a 3.2% yearly increase, the bullish momentum that propelled Bitcoin (BTC) to 31.8% 30-day gains is waning on Nov. 14. Bitcoin price appeared overheated with close to $100 million liquidated within an hour, even after traditional markets reacted positively to flat month-over-month inflation. 

The contraction in Bitcoin price has not worried all analysts, with some believing Bitcoin is starting a path to $48,000.

Bitcoin price. Source: TradingView

Let’s take a closer look at the factors impacting Bitcoin price today.

$126 million in Bitcoin longs were liquidated

A sharp movement in the Bitcoin futures market appears to…

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Monday’s false business registration for a BlackRock XRP trust, which briefly boosted the token’s price by as much as 10%, has garnered the attention of regulators. 

The Delaware Department of State referred the matter to the Delaware Department of Justice, a spokesperson told Blockworks Tuesday. 

The registration, which crypto fans noticed Monday afternoon, mirrored past legitimate registrations from asset manager BlackRock, which is currently vying for the US Securities and Exchange Commission to approve its bitcoin and ether products. The falsified registration listed BlackRock Advisors and Daniel Schweiger as registered agents. 

A Bloomberg ETF analyst on Monday confirmed via…

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Crypto markets are notoriously fickle. Round here, fundamentals don’t power prices to the same degree as stocks do — valuations instead tend to reflect a sickly mix of vibes, cult of personality, and memes.

Investing in and trading crypto is murky as a result. Active users, fee generation, total value locked or even developer counts are all metrics that should matter. But they really don’t.

Sentiment is king, and high correlation between digital assets means that when things are bad for bitcoin, then the rest of the market almost always suffers.

It’s no wonder, then, that the concept of “hated rallies” has emerged as our current bear cycle shows signs of letting up. The idea…

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