Musk fires Twitter execs, research stirs blockchain energy debate and CFTC brass shares crypto concerns: Hodler’s Digest, Oct. 23-29

Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.

Top Stories This Week

JPMorgan executes first DeFi trade on public blockchain

A cross-border currency swap was carried out on a public blockchain by JPMorgan as part of a pilot program involving the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) Project Guardian, SBI Digital Asset Holdings, Oliver Wyman Forum and DBS Bank. The Polygon blockchain hosted the swap between tokenized deposits of the Japanese yen and the Singapore dollar, helped by smart contract technology from Aave.

UnionBank of the Philippines launches Bitcoin and Ethereum trading

Philippine banking giant UnionBank now offers certain retail clients access to Bitcoin and Ether trading and custody, thanks to a collaborative pilot between the bank and crypto company Metaco. The offering from UnionBank utilizes Harmonize, a platform from Metaco. UnionBank operates under the regulatory approval of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the central bank of the Philippines. The offering has been almost a year in the making, the result of a January 2022 partnership between Metaco and UnionBank. This is also not UnionBank’s first foray into the crypto sector.

Come one, come all! Meta to bring NFT minting and trading to Instagram

New upcoming features on Instagram will help users create, show off and also sell nonfungible tokens (NFTs) on the social media platform. A social media operation under Meta (formerly Facebook), Instagram will provide an “end-to-end toolkit” for NFTs, according to a recent announcement from Meta. NFTs created on Instagram can be sold on the platform as well as off of it. The Solana blockchain was also added to the list of compatible blockchains for Instagram, as per the announcement. 

Elon Musk faces class-action suit over mass Twitter layoffs

Elon Musk has already implemented several changes to Twitter since finalizing its acquisition on Oct. 27. After firing top-level Twitter brass, Musk has reportedly begun significant staff layoffs. The affected staff are reportedly fighting back via a class-action lawsuit aimed at Musk that essentially claims the layoffs required more advance notice. A regulatory filing also recently publicized Musk as Twitter’s only board member after he removed all others.

You have our swords: 12 independent entities pledge legal support for Ripple

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) legal case against Ripple continues after nearly two years. The latest developments see official support from 12 different entities backing Ripple in the form of submitted amicus briefs. The Chamber of Digital Commerce and Coinbase sit among the list of supporters. The SEC claims Ripple’s XRP sale was an unregistered securities offering. The case’s outcome can potentially affect the crypto industry as a whole.

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $20,861, Ether (ETH) at $1,626 and XRP at $0.49. The total market cap is at $1.03 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Loopring (LRC) at 45.27%, Dogecoin (DOGE) at 41.72% and Arweave (AR) at 40.73%.  

The top three altcoin losers of the week are Aptos (APT) at -11.80%, Klaytn (KLAY) at -7.22% and Terra Classic (LUNC) at -6.77%.

For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.

Most Memorable Quotations

“If the world economy is a circulatory system, it is stagnant. Parts are dying.

Ray Youssef, co-founder and CEO of Paxful

“I think DeFi will replace institutions based on innovative use cases that we are starting to see today.

Mike Belshe, co-founder and CEO of BitGo

“Great cryptocurrencies have to go through several collapses.

Charles Hoskinson, founder of Cardano

“Crypto exchanges often determine the winners and losers of the crypto world, as listed on one is an almost surefire way to raise your token price and provide early investors an opportunity for liquidity.

Habeeb Syed, senior associate attorney at Vicente Sederberg

“I think people care about compounding value rather than going public or being private.

Guillaume Pousaz, founder and CEO of Checkout.com

“It’s easier to hire talent in the bear market.

Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, CEO of Binance

Prediction of the Week 

Bitcoin price bottom takes shape as ‘old coins’ hit a record 78% of supply

Bitcoin saw some price volatility this week, making a move past $21,000 on Nov. 4, according to Cointelegraph’s BTC price index. The U.S. Federal Reserve also raised interest rates another 0.75%, coinciding with some of Bitcoin’s volatility.   

According to data from Glassnode, the number of Bitcoin held for six months or longer now accounts for most of Bitcoin’s circulating supply — over 78% — as of October’s end. This could mean lessened odds of significant selling activity ahead.

FUD of the Week

Deribit crypto exchange halts withdrawals amid $28M hot wallet hack

Crypto derivatives exchange Deribit suffered a hot wallet attack this week, with $28 million stolen. The exchange, however, will use its reserves to pay for the loss, and customers should not feel any effects aside from the platform pausing withdrawals while it ensures sound security. Other than that, the exchange is reportedly functioning normally. Deribit typically holds 99% of customers’ assets in cold storage, which limited the hack. 

‘Everything is fine’ — Gala Games calls for calm after fears of multi-billion dollar hack

FUD surrounding Gala Games this week turned out to be unfounded. In short, fear ensued after PeckShield noticed $2 billion in GALA tokens were seemingly created by a lone wallet address. GALA fell notably in price as a result. The real reason for the odd wallet activity? Gala Games’ affiliated bridge pNetwork drained a vulnerable liquidity pool before anyone could hack it. GALA’s price regained some losses after the explanation was communicated to the public.

Santander UK limits crypto transactions for its customers

Effective on Nov. 15, banking customers of Santander in the United Kingdom will not be able to send more than 1,000 pounds to crypto exchanges in any given transaction, and not more than 3,000 pounds total per month. The bank claims the limits will help protect customers, given the lack of regulatory protections in crypto. The limits pertain to all outgoing pound transactions that relate to crypto. Santander also hinted at further restrictions in the future.

Best Cointelegraph Features

Andy Warhol would have loved (or possibly hated) NFTs

“There were a lot of cypherpunks at those early Bitcoin meetups that I went to.”

Can internet outages really disrupt crypto networks?

“We’re going to use whatever seems easiest — whatever’s going to work. And when it’s not working, we’re going to ditch it.”

Developers need to stop crypto hackers — or face regulation in 2023

One report indicates that more than $2.5 billion in crypto was lost to cross-chain bridge hacks over the last two years alone.