Read in the Digest:
- Elon Musk Completes $44b Twitter Deal, Binance Confirms Investment
- Hong Kong Mulls Making Retail Crypto Trading Legal to Become Crypto Hub
- Ripple Now Holds Less Than Half of the Total XRP Supply in a Huge Milestone
Elon Musk Completes $44b Twitter Deal, Binance Confirms Investment
The world’s richest man and self-acclaimed Doge-father, Elon Musk who earlier said his bid to acquire Twitter was for humanity’s sake, has announced the completion on his Twitter page tweeting “The bird is freed.”
After months of back-and-forths and lawsuits, Elon Musk finally closed his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter on Thursday night. Musk, now the CEO of Twitter at last, hopes to make changes including creator monetization and also reduce the number of bots on the platform.
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, also participated as an equity investor in the takeover. CEO Changpeng Zhao confirmed the participation by tweeting that Binance had wired some $500 million “two days ago.”
Continuing with the changes on the micro-blogging platform, Twitter announced that it will let users buy, sell, and display non-fungible tokens (NFTs) directly through Tweets via partnerships with four NFT marketplaces.
Flipsider:
- Following Elon Musk’s takeover, several members of Twitter’s C-suite have been sacked, including the company’s CEO, CFO, and legal head.
Why You Should Care
Crypto experts believe that Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter could be of benefit to the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Google Introduces Cloud-Based Blockchain Node Engine for Ethereum
On Thursday, October 27th, tech giant Google announced that it will be launching a cloud-based node engine for Ethereum developers and projects, dubbed the Blockchain Node Engine.
Google explained in its announcement that developers can use the Blockchain Node Engine to deploy a new node, ideally making the process easier, faster, and ultimately more secure.
In addition, being a “fully managed service,” Google’s Blockchain Node Engine will help developers by actively monitoring the nodes and restarting them if anything goes wrong.
James Tromans, who leads Google Cloud Platform’s Web 3.0 product, explained that the services offer more perks than competing node providers where you share “nodes with many other customers and you do not retain configurability.”
Flipsider:
- Tromans also notes that while it starts with Ethereum, as it is the most used blockchain, it hopes to support other chains in the future.
Why You Should Care
Google’s Blockchain Node Engine solves two significant problems for Ethereum developers, the time it takes to launch a node and the pain of keeping it up and running.
Hong Kong Mulls Making Retail Crypto Trading Legal to Become Crypto Hub
Recent reports suggest that China’s autonomous special administrative region, Hong Kong, is considering plans to legalize retail trading of cryptocurrency to eventually establish itself as a global financial hub.
According to people familiar with the matter, Hong Kong’s authorities could enforce a friendly crypto regulatory framework in March 2023. Additionally, the framework is said to legalize crypto retail trading and listings of leading digital assets.
The report also suggests that the Hong Kong government will announce their intention to become a global crypto hub during a fintech conference that starts next week.
However, crypto platforms will soon be required to apply for a license to offer retail trading in 2023. Additional information on the subject is expected to be announced shortly after public consultations have been made.
Flipsider:
- The move contrasts with mainland China, where cryptocurrencies and mining operations have been banned.
Why You Should Care
Hong Kong has in recent months gradually turned its focus toward the crypto industry and could also be a huge proponent for the next bull market.
Ripple Now Holds Less Than Half of the Total XRP Supply in a Huge Milestone
In its third-quarter report published on October 27th, Ripple Labs revealed it has hit a major milestone as the amount of XRP tokens held by the company fell below 50% (50 billion XRP) for the first time ever.
The milestone also settles the centralization criticism of Ripple, as the company controlled most of the token’s supply. Ripple further rejects centralization claims stating that it operates only four of the 130 existing validator nodes.
Ripple also announced in its report that it sold XRP tokens worth $408 million in the second quarter and a total of $310.68 million XRP tokens in the third quarter.
According to Ripple, the company will continue to sell the token only in connection with the on-demand liquidity (ODL) product, where the XRP is used to seamlessly bridge two fiat currencies.
Flipsider:
- Ripple and the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) are expected to file reply briefs to bring the long-standing lawsuit to its eventual end next month.
Why You Should Care
The milestone highlights the increasing “real utility” of XRP continues to grow via its usage in settling cross-border payments via the Ripple ODL.