Twitter users can enter an asset’s ticker in search bar. And then get data on its current exchange rate and a chart of price movements

Social network Twitter has integrated cryptocurrency and stock prices into search results using a plugin from charting platform TradingView. The new feature was announced on the site’s official account TwitterBusiness.

This new feature allows users to enter cryptocurrency or exchange tickers into the search bar (with a $ sign in front of the characters). This helps generate the current value of assets in US dollars and a chart of price movements. But our experts also noticed that this result also contains a link to Robinhood trading app.

The added feature was also noted by the head of the social network, Elon Musk. He praised the work of the team and added that this is one of many product improvements that will be added to the “financial” Twitter.

At the end of November, Elon Musk had already announced his intention to make changes to this platform. He confirmed plans to integrate cryptopayments into the social network. Also Elon Musk previously talked about possibility to make payment for subscription to premium service Twitter Blue available in Dogecoin.

Additionally, in the next few weeks we will improve user interface. As well as adding new characters. Our experts believe the transformation of Twitter has just started.

Visa is using a proposal from Ethereum developers. It will allow automatic pre-scheduled payments from non-custodial crypto wallets

Visa has developed a blockchain-based autopay solution. A document published by this company details a new concept based on Account Abstraction (AA) technology from Ethereum developers. It will allow the implementation of automatic pre-planned payments using smart contracts in non-custodial users’ wallets.

Account Abstraction technology was proposed back in 2016. Since the core Ethereum network does not yet support AA. Therefore, VISA implemented its solution in StarkNet, a second-tier blockchain built on top of Ethereum blockchain. The account model in StarkNet just uses AA technology.

Whereas normal accounts check if a transaction is correctly signed for a specific address. With StarkNet, they simply verify that the transaction is coming from a given address. In addition, the introduction of Visa’s concept into this blockchain has not only enabled the deployment of a new auto-payment feature. But also increased transaction throughput.

Visa notes that it sees autopay as a key functionality that the existing blockchain infrastructure lacks. And it invites interested companies working in this area to work together on projects in the field of programmable payments.

Our experts note that payment companies from traditional financial industry this year began to actively develop projects related to blockchain and cryptocurrency. Also at the end of September, SWIFT and Chainlink oracle network announced joint work on a blockchain project. This project will allow traditional financial companies to conduct transactions on a platform that supports almost all blockchains.

Crypto-Upvotes experts told about the threat of massive asset outflow from the largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance and its opaque financial statements.

Binance is trying to reassure investors of its financial strength after the collapse of rival exchange FTX. The effects are still being felt in crypto markets. Billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency were withdrawn from the exchange in a matter of days.

Outflows from Binance could range from $6 billion to $8 billion, including Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies such as Tron.
At the same time, analyst firm Nansen reported that users of the trading floor withdrew $3.6 billion in Ethereum. And ERC-20 standard tokens in seven days, while $2 billion was withdrawn in just one day.

After the collapse of FTX and subsequent series of bankruptcies of leading crypto players, major crypto exchanges are trying to convince their customers. That they have enough assets in their wallets and user funds are safe and remain available for withdrawal. Earlier this month, accounting firm Mazars produced “proof of reserves” reports for Binance and other exchanges, including Crypto.com and KuCoin.

At the end of an already difficult week for Binance. Mazars said the firm had suspended activities related to audits of companies in the cryptocurrency industry. This is due to concerns about how such reports are perceived by the public. According to Financial Times sources, media hype was one of the factors that influenced the decision of Mazars.

Published reports on crypto exchanges’ reserves are severely limited in data compared to the results of traditional corporate account auditing procedures. Mazars uses what are known as “consistent procedures” to report on reserve validation. But it does not use asset analysis in the usual sense. No assurances or conclusions are given on the figures in the report in this kind of verification.

Reasons for auditing companies to refuse to work with cryptocurrency exchanges

Mazars’ decision to stop working with Binance. And also for others exchanges was not prompted by specific financial problems at any of the exchanges. The firm’s work was severely limited, and the auditors did not delve too deeply into examining the financial situation of the cryptocurrency platforms.

From a risk perspective, what’s happening with Binance could cause secondary problems. A significant outflow of capital from any business can create local liquidity problems. Even if an exchange is able to cover 100% of deposits, it does not mean that it has sufficient funds or liquid investments.

“The ironic thing about what is happening is that the main trigger in a series of bankruptcies in the cryptocurrency market was the rumors that the head of Binance. Also spread in the public space and his verbal manipulation. And now the main problem for his exchange is the emergence of the same type of rumors around Binance.” – said our expert.

“Black Box” new name for Binance

December 19, Reuters released a story that calls Binance a “black box,” referring to the corporate documents and declarations of the exchange, copies of which journalists were able to access. Among the claims against Binance are the concealment of financial data and the share of its native token (BNB) in the balance sheet. The article also mentions security risks in margin trading. And another portion of doubts about the real volume of user funds reserves.

It has become customary for Binance and its head Changpeng Zhao to publicly refute loud statements by journalists as in official publications of this exchange. And in personal social networks in front of millions of followers. Zhao has repeatedly assured that the Mazars report is “further confirmation” that the exchange’s assets equal or exceed its liabilities to customers.

In the case of Binance, we can talk about an excellent marketing strategy. Which provided a stable inflow of new clients for several years ahead. Therefore, potential liquidity problems may be smoothed out or may not even have started.

Assets on wallets with public addresses of Binance amount to more than $60 billion. This information can be checked through any blockchain browser or on special pages of services that track reserves of cryptocurrencies. At the same time, the company does not disclose information about its liabilities. This makes it difficult to determine its actual financial position.

How stable is crypto exchange Binance?

If the outflow of client funds continues, Binance may have a serious need to plug the holes and credit. And who will give it after the collapse of FTX? That’s the biggest question.

If Binance collapses, it will postpone the recovery of the crypto market for many years. And any positive developments in the next two years could lose any positive impact on the Bitcoin exchange rate.

Theoretically, if we consider the collapse of Binance in FTX scenario. It would cause infrastructural problems for the entire cryptocurrency market. On the one hand, the market would survive and exist regardless of the ability of specific projects to sustain their work. On the other hand, the “huge in its scale project decline” associates the crypto market with Binance.

However, in reality, such an apocalyptic scenario has a rather small chance of realization, our expert believes. Therefore, one should not seriously talk about an urgent withdrawal of funds from Binance.

Rather, the more people do not give in to the trend of cryptocurrency withdrawal, the higher will be the safety of each of participants. For each individual isolated investor, it is more profitable to withdraw money outside of exchange. But at the same time, if the majority will continue to keep cryptocurrency inside the project, it will keep Binance stable and will be beneficial to all, says our expert.

Crypto-Upvotes experts conducted their analysis and told about prospects of NFT segment

Throughout 2022, application solutions with NFT have been actively developed in a variety of projects. The audience of the technology continues to grow at a tremendous rate due to the introduction of the technology by social media. This year, some tools related to NFT were implemented by Twitter (audience of about 400 million users), Reddit (audience of about 430 million users), Onlyfans (audience of about 175 million users).Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and Youtube also announced their plans to implement NFT.

Based on these data, we can consider a long-term investment portfolio, taking into account the prospects for the development of NFT

We would suggest dividing the investment portfolio into two parts. The first would be a liquid backbone, the tokens of projects that provide infrastructure for NFT. Polygon blockchain turned out to be the most popular for application solutions. Therefore, as the audience grows, the entire ecosystem could get developed, so the demand for native blockchain tokens would grow accordingly.

Other top blockchains – Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain – may also get a comparable effect from the development of NFT.

Another interesting application of NFT is the Fragment platform from Telegram. It is likely that in the future the supply will expand and the demand for TON will increase.

We suggest forming the second part of the portfolio from specific tokens of various promising NFT tokens. In a growing market, which by all projections should occur in the second half of 2023 and all of 2024. Therefore, collections with high social capital could go up in price several times over.

When to buy ?

Today, terrific conditions for opening long-term positions for at least 1-2 years, better from 3 years or more. The ongoing scandals around centralized exchanges are constantly weighing on the value of the Binance exchange’s native token. And rumors around the potential centralization of Ethereum due to the move to PoS, with validators predominantly in the same jurisdiction, are also negatively affecting the price of ETH in the medium term.

The market as a whole continues to be in a global bearish trend, which opens up the possibility of buying any tokens at undervalued prices.

What is the right investment portfolio structure ?

• Polygon (MATIC) — 20%
• Toncoin (TON) — 20%
• Ethereum (ETH) — 10%
• Binance coin (BNB) — 5%

Another 5% can be allocated under ApeCoin (APE) acting as a native token in the company’s developed meta-universe. The company that owns the world’s most popular NFT-collections Bored Ape Yacht Club, CryptoPunks and Meebits.

The remaining 40% can be distributed among different NFT-collections.

For example, find interesting offers among applied projects from social media, like collections from Reddit or Twitter.

Risks

The first part of the investment portfolio is quite conservative by the standards of the crypto market. It lists well-established, reliable projects that have many growth and development factors other than the NFT segment. Therefore, the risks in 3/5 of the portfolio do not exceed the overall risks of the market.

However, the rest are extremely risky investments. You have to consider that NFTs have several orders of magnitude less liquidity. And predicting the value of NFTs in the future does not differ in its essence from flipping a coin for luck. But, with all that, the investment can pay off many times over, given a lucky set of circumstances. For example, one appreciated token can potentially outweigh the value of all the others that will fall. But there is absolutely no guarantee that this will happen to you, to your chosen collection, with tokens owned by you.

That’s why it’s worth investing only as much as you’re willing to lose at least half of that amount.

Disclaimer

Crypto-Upvotes experts do not give investment advice, this material is published for introductory purposes only. Cryptocurrency is a volatile asset that can lead to financial losses.

Mazars and Armanino have suspended the practice of providing services to crypto-industry platform. Crypto-Upvotes expert review

Auditing firms have begun to refuse to work with companies in the cryptocurrency industry. For example, Mazars, which recently audited Binance reserves, has suspended its audits of cryptocurrency companies. The firm Armanino, which worked with FTX, is also discontinuing its crypto audit practice and turning away clients.

Mazars Group, the French accounting firm that Binance, KuCoin, Crypto.com and other major industry players turned to to verify their reserve assets, stopped all work with cryptocurrencies. That’s because markets don’t trust its “reserve proof”.

A Mazars official said the company would make a statement in due course and declined to comment further. The website where Mazars reports to cryptocurrencies is currently down.

Another auditing company, Armanino, which has been working in the crypto industry since 2014, is also discontinuing its crypto-audit practice. And is giving up on clients, Forbes writes, citing sources familiar with the matter. According to their information, the firm’s cryptocurrency division may be winding down under pressure from Armanino’s non-cryptocurrency clients. These clients are concerned that the reputational risk to the firm would cast doubt on their audits.

Armanino, which had previously inspected OKX and Gate exchanges, was named a defendant in a collective lawsuit in November 2022. For failing to find irregularities at FTX.US after auditing the exchange last year. Collective action was filed by Stephen Pierce, an FTX customer who he claims lost $20,000.

Many accounting firms are afraid to work with cryptocurrency companies. Changpeng Zhao, Binance’s CEO, said this in an interview with CNBC on Thursday. When asked why Binance has not engaged an auditor from the “big four” (PwC, Deloitte, EY and KPMG). He replied that such firms “don’t even know how to audit crypto exchanges.”

The Mazars audit report on Binance’s reserves, published on December 7, drew criticism and sowed some panic in the cryptocurrency community. Customers of the exchange started withdrawing funds and the value of the BNB token started falling. Changpeng Zhao warned employees that a difficult period was coming. And urged to ignore the rumors and assured that the exchange “will survive any crypto winter.”

Two exchange traded ETF funds raised a total of $73.6 million on the eve of their debut on Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Crypto-Upvotes expert review

Two exchange-traded funds (ETF) will begin trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) on December 16. They are based on cryptocurrency futures. These are the first funds of their kind in Hong Kong. CSOP Asset Management’s ETF invest in Bitcoin and Ethereum futures. Which are listed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME Group) in the United States. They are the only cryptocurrency assets allowed by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC).

Two funds raised a total of $73.6 million before their debut on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The larger one, CSOP Bitcoin Futures ETF (3066.HK), raised $53.9 million, according to the management company. That’s more than the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF, the first U.S. Bitcoin futures ETF. Which began trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in October 2021 with an initial capital of $20 million.

Crypto-futures ETF demonstrate that Hong Kong remains open-minded about the development of virtual assets. This is despite recent problems in crypto-industry, said Yi Wang, head of quantitative investment at CSOP. He noted that since ETF do not invest directly in Bitcoin and are traded on regulated exchanges in the U.S. and Hong Kong. Investors will have more regulatory protections than tokens traded on unregulated platforms.

The first futures-based Bitcoin-ETF were approved in the U.S. back in 2021. However, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has so far rejected all applications to launch a spot exchange-traded fund (ETF). SEC head Gary Gensler attributed this to the fact that applications for such funds do not meet the Securities Act’s standards for cracking down on fraudulent or manipulative practices.

Former FTX head Sam Bankman-Fried is sent to the only prison in the Bahamas. There, due to a shortage of space, some inmates just awaiting trial end up in high-security wings. Review of Crypto-Upvotes experts

Former FTX head Sam Bankman-Fried is headed to the notoriously poor conditions of the Bahamas’ Fox Hill prison. After a court ordered him into custody and denied him bail, Business Insider reports.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange, was detained in the Bahamas on Dec. 12 upon official request from the U.S., where criminal charges were filed against him. Bankman-Fried is charged with several counts. These include scam, money laundering and campaign finance violations.

While awaiting extradition to the U.S., Sam Bankman-Fried will spend time in the Bahamas’ only prison. Fox Hill Prison, notoriously overcrowded and unsanitary. A judge has ordered that he be sent to that prison. Where he will first be held in the medical ward.

The Bahamas has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. Thus, according to the U.S. State Department’s 2020 Human Rights Report, there were 409 prisoners per 100,000 people. The University of Lausanne calculates that the average for the Council of Europe’s 48 prison administrations as of January 2020 was just over 103 inmates per 100,000.

Conditions of confinement at Fox Hill prison

Due to the large number of prisoners in the Bahamas, Fox Hill is overcrowded. As a result, conditions are declining. Lack of space and overcrowding have led to some inmates simply awaiting trial being placed in a maximum-security unit. Local attorney Romona Farquharson told The Wall Street Journal.

Inmates are supposed to go outside for an hour a day, the lawyer said, but because of staff shortages, there are periods when inmates see only 30 minutes of sunlight a week.

The U.S. State Department’s Human Rights Report on the Bahamas. Which was published in 2021, reports that, according to Fox Hill inmates. They had to scavenge with buckets and were forced to lie on the hard ground for long periods of time.

The report says there is an infestation of rats, maggots and insects in the small cells of the high-security unit. They have no mattresses, no toilets, and can hold up to six inmates at a time. Detainees complained of poor food and denial of prompt medical care.

Sam Bankman-Fried applied for bail Dec. 13. But a justice of the peace in the Bahamas denied the request. The trading platform founder was deemed a flight risk and detained until at least Feb. 8, 2023, when his case will resume.

Bybit announced about obligatory KYC procedure for customers to buy cryptocurrencies for fiat money and transactions with NFT. Crypto-Upvotes expert review

Crypto-exchange Bybit will limit the number of services that can be available to users who have not passed the verification procedure. Platform announced changes in KYC policy, as well as the introduction of new withdrawal limits.

KYC is currently required to access Bybit Launchpad and Earn products. Also for credit card payments, trading on P2P service of the exchange and transactions in certain currencies.

Starting December 15, verification will be required on the platform to purchase cryptocurrencies for fiat money and through One-Click Buy and P2P services. The KYC procedure will become mandatory for all NFT purchases and for NFT resales over $10,000. Mandatory user verification for input, withdrawal and purchase of NFT on primary market will be required from December 30.

Bybit may further expand KYC requirements in near future, the exchange said in a statement.

In addition to the new verification rules, from December 15 the platform will change the withdrawal limits. For example, without KYC-checking the daily limit for withdrawal of assets will be 20 thousand USDT, the monthly limit – 100 thousand USDT. Until December 15, only daily limit of 2 BTC is set.

Crypto-Upvotes experts analyzed the situation with Bitcoin on crypto market and told how it can change in the short term

From December 5 to 11, the pair BTC/USDT traded in the price range of $16.7 ths – $17.4 ths. In the first half of the week Bitcoin was under pressure, in the second it got out in a small plus. Because Bitcoin got back in touch with the stock and currency markets. It was influenced by the dynamics of stock indices and the dollar index.

On Monday, December 5, investors were spooked by better-than-expected data from the U.S. service sector. The statistics changed market sentiment of the market participants. Because they are still afraid of the Fed’s continued tight policy to curb inflation. As a result, the S&P500 index was unable to break through the trend line on the daily and weekly section. The downward correction intensified amid closing long positions in technology sector stocks. The dollar index recovered to 105.79 points. BTC/USDT pair returned to the level of $16.8 ths.

On Tuesday, December 6, Bitcoin rate consolidated at $17 ths. On December 7, the pair BTC/USDT fell to the trend line of $16.7 ths on the background of risk aversion. Since Thursday, December 8, the situation in the markets has changed. Bitcoin gained 2.30% against the dollar to $17.2 thousand. The dollar index reversed downward and the S&P500 index recovered to 3,974 points. That was the end of the index’s rise, as well as Bitcoin’s strengthening.

On Friday, December 9, the S&P500 index fell 0.73% to 3934.39 points. The sell-off in risky assets resumed after the release of disappointing U.S. producer price data for November. Prices rose more than forecasted. The PPI index in November rose by 7.4% on an annualized basis and by 0.3% versus October. The average forecast was for a 7.2% growth for the former index and a 0.2% growth for the latter.

Investors fear again

Fears of tighter monetary policy from the Fed and a possible recession came to the fore. U.S. stock futures changed from rising to falling, while Treasury yields jumped.

The statistics are rocking the markets ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s December 14 meeting. High volatility is needed for option sellers. To sell them at a high premium. Investors are expecting Wednesday’s rate hike of 50 basis points, to 4.5% per year. According to the latest CME FedWatch Tool, there is a 78.2% chance of a 50bp rate hike.

There is still uncertainty in the crypto market. The decline in the BTC/USDT pair on Friday was subdued. The level of $17.35K has not been passed, and the buyers can still pass it till Wednesday. The price pattern at 4H (time range on the chart) is favorable for an upward move.

Support is at the level of $16.9 ths, key – at $16.5 ths. We expect the denouement after the speech of the head of the US Federal Reserve Jerome Powell at the press conference, which will be held after the announcement of the rates decision.

Coca-Cola to issue 10K digital tokens from Piece of Magic series will be created based on “heat maps” of tournament matches. Crypto-Upvotes expert review

Coca-Cola, in cooperation with cryptoplatform Crypto.com, will release an NFT collection in honor of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The NFT series, called Piece of Magic, will consist of 10,000 items. Which will be created based on “heat maps” of the tournament matches, according to announcement.

Author NFT is an artist known under the pseudonym GMUNK. He has previously contributed to films such as Tron: Legacy and Oblivion. NFT tokens of collection are generated by tracking attacks, jerks, goals, and other interesting moments during championship matches. According to artist, these NFTs will “capture the spirit of football and depict a visual story unique to each match”.

Items in the collection will only be available to users of Crypto. com NFT marketplace. To gain access to the tokens, one must also register on the Coca-Cola Fan Zone page.

In addition to its partnership with Coca-Cola, Crypto.com has also become one of major crypto sponsors of this FIFA World Cup. Platform’s logo is placed in stadiums where tournament takes place, and users of the service had an opportunity to visit matches and win official attributes.