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 WeekBitcoin officially hits new all-time high above $65KBitcoin (BTC) surged to new all-time highs this week, breaking the former ceiling of $64,900 from April as the asset went into price discovery mode before topping out around $67,000.The bullish momentum coincided with the successful launch of ProShares’ Bitcoin futures-based exchange-traded fund (ETF). Many onlookers are expecting the price to increase in the coming weeks and months, with the more optimistically inclined even suggesting that up to $300,000 is possible in the near future. With Bitcoin’s market capitalization dominance at its highest since mid-May, many popular traders have stressed that now is the time to put a focus on digital gold and put the altcoin market on the back burner for the moment. ProShares Bitcoin-linked ETF launches on NYSEProShares achieved a major milestone for the crypto sector this week after the firm debuted its Bitcoin futures-based ETF (BITO) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Tuesday. ProShares’ Bitcoin Strategy ETF saw around $1 billion in volume on its opening day, with Bloomberg analysts stating that it was arguably the largest first-day volume for an ETF in terms of “natural” or “grassroots interest.” After two days on the NYSE, Proshares’ ETF became the fastest fund ever to reach $1 billion in assets under management. Following Proshares’ ETF, many onlookers are waiting to see how the next in line performs. At the time of writing on Friday, Valkyrie just launched its Bitcoin futures ETF on the NYSE. Coinbase announces multiyear partnership with NBA and WNBATop crypto exchange Coinbase has penned a deal with the NBA, WNBA, NBA G League, NBA 2K League and USA Basketball as part of a multiyear sponsorship deal. As part of the deal, Coinbase will work to educate basketball fans on crypto.According to the NBA, Coinbase will create “unique content, innovations, activations and experiences” to help basketball fans to learn about the crypto space. The firm’s branding will also appear during the televised games.The move could be a real “slam dunk” for the industry in terms of mainstream adoption, with data from Statista showing that an average of 1.6 million people watched NBA regular-season games across major networks during the 2019–2020 season. Mariah Carey buys Bitcoin, hopes to empower fans through educationMariah Carey, the pop icon behind the divisive Christmas song “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” has partnered with the Winklevoss twins’ crypto exchange Gemini to promote Bitcoin adoption and support girls of color in their pursuit of STEM degrees — a broad education category that refers to science, technology, engineering and mathematics. In a video to her 10.2 million Instagram followers, Carey said she’s a Bitcoin investor and offered her fans a referral code to redeem a whopping $20 in free BTC. Her promo deal is linked to charitable causes, as users who sign up through the referral link and trade digital assets on Gemini will be contributing directly to Black Girls Code, a nonprofit organization that provides technology education for African-American girls. Brazilian toddler makes over 6,500% profit on her first Bitcoin holdingA four-year-old hodler from Brazil has earned more than 6,500% in profit on her first Bitcoin. The girl’s father, João Canhada, gifted 1 BTC to his newborn in 2017 when the asset was priced at around $915. Canhada is the founder of Brazilian crypto exchange Foxbit, and stated that he bought his daughter Bitcoin not just as a gift, but as a “way of investing” in the emerging crypto sector. It appears that he was at the right place at the right time, as the price of Bitcoin went on to surge to $20,000 at the tail end of 2017.While there have been many bumps along the road, Bitcoin was worth around $61,000 at the end of the week, suggesting her profit now sits at roughly 6,560%.  Winners and Losers  At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $60,658, Ether (ETH) at $3,963 and XRP at $1.09. The total market cap is at $2.51 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are OKB at 71.25%, Nexo (NEXO) at 33.80% and Huobi Token (HT) at 33.70%.The top three altcoin losers of the week are Flow (FLOW) AT -21.20%, Celsius (CEL) at 14.00% and Perpetual Protocol (PERP) at -13.14%. For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.   Most Memorable Quotations “If left unchecked, these digital assets and payments systems could harm the efficacy of our sanctions.”U.S. Department of the Treasury “We’ve got a lot of smart guys working at Icahn & Company, and we just don’t understand Bitcoin. I’m not saying it’s bad or good, I’m just saying we don’t understand it. We’re not going to invest in something we don’t get. […] The jury is really out on whether Bitcoin has intrinsic value or acts as a store of value. If inflation gets rampant, I guess it does have value. There are so many variables, it is a very difficult thing to invest in.”Carl Icahn, founder of Icahn Enterprises  “There’s a lot of history here. We think it’ll track quite well and, most importantly, we think that a combination of a regulated futures market and a 40-act ETF will really open up the opportunity to conveniently get Bitcoin exposure to a lot of folks who may have been waiting on the sidelines.”Simeon Hyman, head of investment strategy at ProShares “To protect consumers and reduce costs, we encourage the streamlining of state-level regulatory frameworks for stablecoins and the issuance of special-purpose charters by federal banking regulators for stablecoin companies seeking to operate nationally.”The Chamber of Digital Commerce “DAOs do not clearly fall within any of Australia’s existing company structures. […] This regulatory uncertainty is preventing the establishment of projects of significant scale in Australia.”The Senate Committee on Australia as a Technology and…

It’s been said that “Blockchain technology is not as decentralized as we think” and that critical decisions are made, not democratically, but by a small group of “agents of influence” often including founders, software developers, miners and other parties with a monetary interest in the matter. This notion is open to debate, of course, but accepting that this is the case today, would it necessarily hold in the future too? Especially when Bitcoin or Ethereum, or any other blockchain network, has billions of users and, for the sake of argument, plays a critical role in the world economy?Say Bitcoin’s network becomes the platform upon which most global payments are made. At that point (if not before) would the network be deemed a “public good” that is subject to some sort of government or a super government oversight? That is, key decisions would now be made not just by developers and node operators, but also by an international consortium of economists, scientists, engineers and public administrators. Perhaps even headed by a political appointee? In the event of a global cataclysm, could this governing consortium even change some of Bitcoin’s foundational principles, like its issuance limit of 21 billion BTC?A utility working for the common good?This notion of a public good or utility that operates in the public interest goes back to English common law “when key economic players such as ferry operators had to fulfill certain obligations to the public,” writes Dave Yost. In the 1890s, the United States began codifying common-carrier and public-utility law after predations by railroad barons like Cornelius Vanderbilt, who once shut down a bridge he owned to rival railroads trying to enter New York City, causing market havoc. While “public goods” have a technical definition, they are usually recognized as commodities or services available to all members of society — local, national or global — like highways or public education, or clean air. They are often regulated by governments.    “In some ways, blockchain networks like Bitcoin already meet the economic definition of a public good,” Garrick Hileman, head of research at Blockchain.com, tells Magazine. After all, anyone can use the Bitcoin network, even users or builders of rival networks. As for governance, blockchains also possess “a very effective means of settling governance disputes,” adds Hileman. “Participants that aren’t happy with a change — or the lack of change — can simply fork a blockchain to implement their idea. The marketplace then serves as an arbiter over competing blockchain design choices.”That sounds fine in principle, but in the real world things don’t always work out so neatly, others counter. “You may have heard that in cryptosystems, you don’t have to trust humans and their fallible corrupt natures — you just have to trust math. […] this statement is just inaccurate,” said Angela Walch, a professor at St. Mary’s University School of Law, while testifying before the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs in July: Walch added:“Crypto economic systems remain subject to human flaws and corruption, whether in how the software is coded, whether the game theory designed to operate the system is robust, or whether miners collude to exploit their power to order transactions in the blockchain record to their benefit.”The Economist, too, recently questioned the governance bona fides of decentralized finance projects built upon blockchain networks: “Despite the claims of decentralization, some programmers and app owners hold disproportionate sway over the DeFi system,” adding for good measure that “governance and accountability in DeFi-land are rudimentary.” “For a long time, crypto people tried to avoid this [governance] question by simply saying that ‘the community’ or ‘the market’ should decide,” Vili Lehdonvirta, professor of economic sociology and digital social research at University of Oxford, tells Magazine. “There’s this romantic idea of a hive mind that everyone can feel part of. But, in practice, this answer is so vague that it tends to allow powerful people and companies to pull the strings in the background.”  Decentralised finance is one of three tech trends disrupting finance—and it has the potential to rewire how the industry works. In our cover this week, we go down the “DeFi” rabbit hole https://t.co/j7G04qDCJ3 pic.twitter.com/UO2mp6ejVG— The Economist (@TheEconomist) September 16, 2021  Projecting “billions of users”In a recent interview with Cointelegraph, Dan Held imagined Bitcoin ten years hence following a period of “hyperbitcoinization,” starting with retail users then institutional investors, “and finally, governments getting involved,” at which point Bitcoin has been adopted by billions of users and is the world’s reserve currency. Is it too much to envision that some government(s) might, at this point, want to have a say in how the network — this global “public good” — is run? “For now, Bitcoin and Ethereum probably remain a ‘public bad’ insofar as their environmental cost is gargantuan compared to their day-to-day usefulness,” Lehdonvirta says, adding: “But, if someone got proof-of-stake to work and the network got widely adopted in an infrastructural role, then it’s not inconceivable that governments could get interested in how and to whose benefit it was being governed, in the same way as governments are interested in the governance of other essential infrastructures such as water and energy.” Are devs getting a bad rap?Maybe this is all just so much alarmism. The networks are working fine, and will continue to operate well when scaled up, and software developers are just convenient scapegoats for critics who never liked crypto much to begin with.“It is a misnomer that developers ‘run’ or control any relatively decentralized network,” Joe Carlasare, partner and co-chair of the cryptocurrency, blockchain and fintech practice group at SmithAmundsen LLC, tells Magazine. “It is true that many chains have a centralized structure where individual actors and entities have outsized influence.” Carlasare further adds: “In highly decentralized chains such as Bitcoin, the distributed network of thousands of nodes determines whether to accept any suggested revisions to the core protocol.”Moreover, the network is designed so that as Bitcoin gains in adoption, those node operators become more — not less — responsible, Carlasare suggests. “As adoption increases to billions of users, individuals…

This weekly roundup of news from Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong attempts to curate the industry’s most important news, including influential projects, changes in the regulatory landscape, and enterprise blockchain integrations.  In this 30th edition of the Shanghai Man column, we preview the Wanxiang Shanghai Blockchain Week, an offline event that normally is the biggest blockchain conference on the Chinese calendar. Next week, despite all the regulatory crackdowns, the event is still planning to go ahead, albeit with a one-month delay from its usual place in mid-September. The flagship eventHistorically, Wanxiang Blockchain Week has attracted huge crowds of industry participants including traders, investors, developers, financial institutions, and traditional companies. The three-day event is usually supplemented with a busy schedule of side events, focusing on areas like DeFi or network-specific meetups. Last year, following the COVID-19 lockdowns, the event was much more subdued, notably with a lack of overseas speakers such as Vitalik Buterin and Gavin Wood physically attending. These two thought-leaders both have strong ties to Shanghai and always helped to raise the profile of the event from a technical perspective.  An advertisement for the Wanxiang Blockchain Summit focuses on digital transformation this year. Source: Wanxiang Blockchain Labs Wanxiang Blockchain is a large investment outfit that supports some of the strongest projects in the space. It has invested over 100 billion RMB in over 200 projects, operating somewhat like the Consensys of the East. Its ties to China Wanxiang Group give it an elevated position in the business world, including a closer relationship to enterprises and government resources. This year’s event is set to take place on October 26 and 27, with keynote speeches planned from Vitalik Buterin of Ethereum, Sergey Nazarov of Chainlink, Yat Siu of Animoca Brands and Anatoly Yakovenko of Solana. It’s not clear whether any of these will physically attend the event, but given China’s strict quarantine restrictions and cryptocurrency policies, it is more likely that they will give the speech via video. In the past, most of the speeches have focused on the infrastructure and applications, rather than cryptocurrencies and trading-related activities. This has allowed the event to keep attracting government representatives regardless of increasingly negative policies.The Metaverse and NFT art are two topics that have managed to avoid the wrath of regulators. As such, a number of related events have been grouped into what is being called Shanghai Metaverse Week, which may be just a subtle way for “Blockchain Week” events to avoid scrutiny from the government. This Metaverse Week is being hosted by partners including Litentry, Polygon, Harmony, Flow, Tezos and Mask Network. The event is planning to have exclusive live streams in Decentraland.    Changes in the ranksSearches containing the keyword ‘Bitcoin’ on WeChat spiked to nearly 26 million on October 15, fueled by the news of an ETF approval in the US. These levels of attention hadn’t been seen since mid-summer when the regulatory crackdown drew a lot of attention to the asset. Exchange volumes tell an interesting story as OKEx has picked up steam recently, emerging as a clear second to Binance with about 11% of the total market share according to FTX’s global volume monitor. Huobi, which announced it would be restricting Chinese users from using the platform at the end of 2021, has struggled to keep pace with OKEx and has now slipped behind FTX, into the fourth position and only a few billion dollars per day ahead of ByBit. Huobi dominated the CeFi scene between 2014 and 2016, where it enjoyed extended spells as the highest volume exchange. Now a new wave of CeFi exchanges led by FTX and ByBit are starting to eat away at the dominance of the traditional CeFi leaders Huobi, Binance, and OKEx, collectively known as HBO. Catching the NFT trendA number of major corporations have been dropping their own NFTs these days, including eCommerce giant JD.com. The retailer, which has its own blockchain, is releasing a set of seven NFT models through its WeChat mini-program later this year. Last week, logistics company DHL also announced an NFT launching on the VeChain mainnet. These NFTs are emerging as a way to reward customers, but with the strict policies, it’s unlikely these NFTs will end up on open marketplaces and expose many users to the greater cryptocurrency ecosystem.   DHL used VeChain’s ToolChain to create these NFTs for their retail users. Source: DHL Losing out to the USAn announcement on the website for the National Development Reform Commission proclaimed that the US has now overtaken China as the top Bitcoin mining country in the world. The brief article boasts that this transformation has come just two months after Beijing ruled cryptocurrency mining to be illegal. It’s unclear whether or not this article is intended to be taken literally,or as a very subtle but sarcastic reminder that recent political decisions may not be in the best interest of the country.   

Platon, the British photographer famous for his close-up portraits of world leaders, is using NFT photos of the human iris to show how humans can be reduced to a unique but unrecognizable image. He even did one self-portrait of his own iris — but, if placed in an iris lineup, he could not tell his own from anyone else’s.Platon only uses one name – like Prince, he says.His first human portrait reduction took place in June 2021, when he auctioned 12 anonymous irises as NFTs, each one priced at $111 on the LGND.art marketplace. People bidding for the NFTs, each a single mint, did not know whose iris NFT they were buying.They were in for a pleasant surprise: It turns out they were bidding to purchase NFTs depicting the irises of Kobe Bryant, Harry Styles, Harvey Weinstein, James Comey, George Clooney, Donald Trump, Cara Delevingne, Bill Clinton, Caitlyn Jenner, Alicia Keys, Spike Lee, and Maria “Masha” Alyokhina. They all sold out but have remained static on the secondary market, as the holders appear to want hodl the strange art pieces.  Images from Eye Love You, Eye Hate You II (Source: LGND) Photographer to the starsIn a career littered with outstanding celebrity portraits, Platon is now consumed with human rights causes and is more concerned with and fulfilled by capturing the faces of activists. In 2008, he spent a year documenting civil rights leaders across America as part of a project commissioned by The New Yorker.But, while his mission is now virtuous, his world leader and celebrity shoots are legendary; he used the camera to tell stories, posing often provocative or eclectic questions — that is his superpower.For Platon, moving into NFTs was logical. “Photographers, artists, often innovate and seek out new technologies. We like to move into new space and experiment,” he says.He now revels in his work documenting human rights, working on projects with the U.N. He has set up his own foundation, The People’s Portfolio, which amplifies the voices of the ignored. Important people don’t scare him — he doesn’t scare easily. He quotes Martin Luther King, who said “beware the illusion of supremacy.” The funds raised from these recent NFT drops go straight to this foundation.Platon’s portrait of Muhammad Ali (Supplied)Platon treats everyone the same. He doesn’t care if they are a human rights defender, an activist, a former political prisoner, or a head of state.“They’re all people. Be nice. Be curious,” he says.“My job is to be a cultural provocateur. When I saw NFTs, I understood this was a way for me, as an artist, to gain control over my work. To feel a sense of empowerment – there is a long history of artists losing control over their creative output through history. With NFTs, I could see we were cutting out the middlemen — we artists were going straight to the collectors. I got that.“I also understood that, with NFTs, I wanted to put storytelling back into this new, exciting technology. It’s more than tech; it’s an opportunity to talk about the big issues we face in society — issues such as human rights, climate change, poverty, women’s rights, social inclusion, racial equality.“When I saw the buzz about NFTs, I wondered if I could hijack some of that excitement and draw it towards important social issues.”Platon’s first NFT was a portrait of Edward Snowden. He admits the vagaries of the world move in mysterious ways. In April, an auction of the Snowden NFT raised $5.5 million for the Freedom of the Press Foundation, and then $5,000 for his own foundation.  Edward Snowden as captured by Platon (Supplied)  Back to the beginningBorn in 1968, Platon studied at Saint Martin’s School of Art and the Royal College of Art. He began working in London, earning his stripes as a photographer. Soon, he was accumulating portraits in his arresting style, which could be both authentic and dramatic, earning himself a name at British Vogue.He did not realize it, but John F. Kennedy Jr. was scouting for a photographer to launch his new George magazine in New York. Kennedy picked out multiple of Platon’s portrait photographs in magazines and told his aides he wanted that photographer, without even knowing his name at that stage. Kennedy just knew he wanted a photographer to shoot people in a way that felt real. He had grown up inside the inner circle, but wanted to present people – politicians and celebrities – as real people. So, Platon was found and invited to New York based on his work.It was 1995. The magazine’s tagline was “Not Just Politics As Usual” and neither were the images. Platon says:“John told me we were working on a secret new project. He wanted to humanize the world’s most powerful people. He gave me access, he said I must always be respectful but he wanted me to produce real photography.”When Kennedy was tragically killed in 1999, Platon was doing a cover story for him the same day. Platon had just landed in Hollywood when the FBI met him at the airport to tell him the news.“I was by then rooted in the States but I had to continue without my mentor,” he says.    Presidential, suiteIt’s 2000. President Bill Clinton is in the White House. Platon is commissioned by Esquire Magazine to do a formal shoot. Platon figures this might be the one and only time he shoots a living president (actually, he goes on to shoot six in his illustrious 30-year career).Camera dangling from his hands like a James Dean cigarette, he asks, “Will you show me the love?”The Bill Clinton cover was so iconic that Esquire recreated it in 2008 with Halle Berry. (Source: Esquire)Instant concern within the White House team — the impeachment trial over the Monica Lewinsky affair had concluded the year earlier. A hush descends, everyone looks aghast at Platon while an aide leans over and says, none too quietly, in Clinton’s ear, “That is not advisable, Mr. President. We’ve had enough love in this administration.” Instead, Clinton brushes…

DeGeThal – Missed Binance? Missed Revolut?  This is your next stepping stone. With the crypto world growing fast and steadily,and taking over the markets worldwide, it is only wise to hop in and join the crypto bandwagon. That being said, we would like to introduce to you the all brand new DeGeThal.  DeGeThal,is a crypto currency that has been built using the latest blockchain technology and is meant to serve each and every person in carrying out their day-to-day  transactions. As such, it is meant to be used as a payment token in the financial ecosystem. With its entry into the market, it seeks to fulfill its goal of ensuring that anyone in the world has the ability to use an affordable global currency. The whole reason behind all these is, the creators of DeGeThal believe that the crypto market growth has not yet reached its ceiling and therefore its development will be used as a viable and reliable substitute to the conventional financial system regardless of the economical, epidemiological or political factors. It is said that a journey of a thousand miles begins with just a step. DeGeThal’s first step was made in the last quarter of 2021 when it was created. It is in this period that the creators are working hard to build the network infrastructure of this new crypto currency as well as creating solutions for their partners. It is in the year 2022 that this currency’s prototype is set to be released for use after which it is anticipated to boom in the markets.  At the moment, a second live presale is ongoing, for those who had missed the first. It does not go on forever however. This being the last, DeGeThal tokens that are on presale have a multilevel bonus that comprises of six stages of increasing bonuses relative to where the presale ends in the following order;  +5% bonus for presale of  0 – 2000 BNB (ICO learner) +7.5% bonus for 2000 – 4000 BNB (FUD destroyer) +10% bonus for 4000 – 6000 BNB (Bullish power) 12.5% bonus for 6000 – 8000 BNB (Hodl champion) 15% bonus for 8000 – 9999 BNB (Legendary whale) +20% bonus for 10000 BNB (Divine mooning) The tokens can be bought from their website: www.degethal.com/presale. Still in the spirit of offers, one can earn 5% of the contribution made by another who has joined from your referral. FEATURES OF DEGETHAL Being a currency that is tailored to everyone’s need, DeGeThal is making financial services simple and accessible. This is done by bringing together a vast assortment of financial products all in one platform. It links fiat and crypto and all will be available with only a click. More so, the banking license allows it to be deposited with fiat and crypto, which are seamless and quick, allows exchange of assets and even withdrawal at ATMs. This is its multi-currency feature. Security being something that is of great concern, it has been prioritized. The assets are protected and securely stored to prevent theft of assets in any way by checking procedures to the ones used by superior banks. This does not mean that it is now harder use, no. In fact it is very easy and simple to use.  As an addition, the funds are accessible through a regulated wallet that provides transparency while still enhancing protection. The access to the wallet is guaranteed and thus one can engage in crypto transactions in real time. Some of the transactions that can be engaged in include but are not limited to paying bills and shopping.  From the application, one is able to open a bank account in less than one minute whereby the kyc will be required in the next 24 to 48 hours after the account is opened. This is relatively convenient compared to other crypto currencies. On issues pertaining the Demo App, it can be downloaded from GooglePlay and testing is only limited to the members who are subscribed to the whitelist. We cannot go without appreciating the efforts that have been put into the making of this phenomenal currency. In that regard, special thanks to the executive team that comprises; Alin George Luca – Founder and Chief Executive Officer Tiberiu Nedelea – Chief Marketing Officer Eugen Tofan – Chief Operating Officer Peter Barta – Chief Investment Officer Marian Oancea – Chief Technical Officer Peter Kazan – Business Advisor Jan Korevaar – Business Advisor For more details, the following sites have proved to be useful: Website: www.degethal.com  Twitter: https://twitter.com/degetal  Telegram: https://t.me/DeGeThalOfficial  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/decentralizedthaler