Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Non-fungible token (NFT) sales this week dropped 10.88% lower than the week prior. Roughly $118.02 million worth of NFTs were sold this week compared to last week’s $132.43 million. Further, the top two NFT collections with the largest market capitalizations shed significant value during the past seven days. While Bored Ape Yacht Club’s market valuation lost 21.29%, Cryptopunks’ market cap slid by 19.18%. NFT Sales and Prices Nosedive NFTs had a lackluster week as sales and prices have followed in sync with falling crypto asset prices. Statistics show that a large number of NFT collections have lost considerable market value during the past week. For instance, metrics show that Bored Ape Yacht Club’s (BAYC) floor value on September 13, 2022, was $114,388 and today, the floor value is around $90,026 . BAYC’s market valuation on September 13 was $1.14 billion and today it’s down 21.29% to $900.25 million. Data shows that the second most expensive NFT floor value belonged to Cryptopu...

On Wednesday, the layer two scaling solution that leverages optimistic rollup technology, Boba Network has revealed it now supports the proof-of-stake (PoS) network Avalanche. According to the Boba Network team, the new Avalanche support will produce “faster transactions and lower fees.” Boba Network Integrates With the Avalanche PoS Blockchain Boba Network , the layer two (L2) scaling project introduced Boba AVAX L2 on Wednesday via the team’s Twitter account. “We’re over the slopes to announce our partnership as an official scaling solution for Avalanche,” Boba said. “ Avalanche offers blazing fast speeds, low costs, and eco-friendly solutions: Boba AVAX L2 holds true to those values and enhances it further.” Boba is already connected with the Ethereum ( ETH ) network and at the time of writing, l2fees.info stats show Boba’s fee to move ether today is $0.17, and to swap tokens the estimated price is $0.30. That is cheaper than the current 34 gwei ($0.96) to send ether onchain, ...

On Wednesday, the Japanese financial holding company and principal member of the Nomura Group, Nomura Holdings, announced the launch of a crypto-focused venture capital unit called Laser Digital Holdings. Nomura’s move follows a number of financial giants entering the cryptocurrency industry this year. Nomura Introduces Laser Digital Holdings The investment banking giant from Japan, Nomura Holdings, is stepping into the world of crypto assets and in the coming months the new venture will reveal a slew of “new services and product lines.” Nomura is one of the largest investment banks in Japan and one of the oldest in the country. The investment company established itself 97 years ago in Osaka in 1925 as Nomura Securities. The new Laser Digital Holdings is a Switzerland-incorporated holding company that aims to establish three vertical product offerings including secondary trading, venture capital, and investor products. The new venture will be led by Jez Mohideen as CEO and Steven A...

Africa-focused crypto exchange Yellow Card recently revealed it has closed its $40 million Series B funding round. The exchange’s announcement of its latest capital raise comes just over a year after it raised $15 million from its Series A round. Funds to Be Used for Development of New Products Yellow Card, an Africa-focused cryptocurrency exchange, recently disclosed it had closed its $40 million Series B funding round. The crypto exchange said it will use the funds raised to finance the development of new products as well as to “advance strategic partnerships across Africa.” According to a press statement , the exchange platform’s latest funding round was led by Polychain Capital with the participation of Valar Ventures, Third Prime Ventures, Sozo Ventures, Castle Island Ventures, Fabric Ventures, DG Daiwa Ventures, The Raba Partnership, Jon Weiner, Alex Wilson, and Pat Duffy. As reported by Bitcoin.com news in September last year, Yellow Card had raised $15 million in its Seri...

China’s central bank intends to enlarge the area covered by trials of its digital yuan currency in four regions of the country. A top representative of the monetary authority announced the move while highlighting that the People’s Bank has been stepping up digitalization efforts this year. Government to Increase Digital Yuan Coverage in 4 Provinces of China Chinese authorities are going to expand the digital yuan’s area of application in four of the first pilot cities in the project to the rest of their respective provinces. These are Shenzhen in South China’s Guangdong Province, Suzhou in the eastern Jiangsu Province, Xiongan New Area in Hebei Province in the north, and Chengdu in Southwest China’s Sichuan Province. With the upgrade to province-wide testing in these regions, the government in Beijing hopes to “continue to push the innovation of China’s recognized cryptocurrency,” the English-language newspaper Global Times wrote, quoting a report by the Cnstock.com business news ...

The offshore exchange rate of China’s fiat currency versus the U.S. dollar recently breached the 7:1 mark for the first time in over two years, after it touched a new 2022 low of 7.0188 yuan for every dollar on September 15. Similar to other global currencies that have depreciated in 2022, the yuan’s decline is being driven by the strengthening of the U.S. dollar. The Yuan’s Depreciation The offshore exchange rate of the Chinese currency versus the U.S. dollar breached the seven RMB per every dollar mark after it traded at 7.0188 on September 15, 2022. This is the first time in over two years that the exchange rate of the two currencies has gone past this threshold. However, on the same day, the yuan onshore exchange rate had not breached the 7:1 threshold. According to a report in the Economic Times, the yuan’s depreciation against the greenback comes against the backdrop of a strengthening dollar. The currency’s decline also came amidst growing fears that the Chinese economy may...