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Is This Microsoft or MicroStrategy? |
The National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank, has notified Microsoft shareholders it intends to propose a "Bitcoin diversification assessment" at the company’s annual meeting on Dec. 10, a filing shows. In a Schedule A filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, Microsoft laid out issues that will be discussed at the shareholder meeting. One of the proposals suggests that the tech firm should look into bitcoin to hedge against inflation and other macroeconomic influences. The board urges shareholders to vote against this proposal, the filing reveals, arguing that Microsoft already “carefully considers this topic.” “Past evaluations have included Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies among the options considered, and Microsoft continues to monitor trends and developments related to cryptocurrencies to inform future decision making,” according to a company statement. The National Center for Public Research, a member of Project 2025, argued that bitcoin is an “excellent, if not the best, hedge against inflation,” and that at minimum, companies should invest 1% of its total assets into the cryptocurrency. As many readers know, another publicly traded, "Micro" software company has gone all-in on bitcoin: Michael Saylor's MicroStrategy. |
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Announcing the ftNFT YoCerebrum Awards Volume 3: Eden of Innovation and Creativity!
On Nov. 14, Malta will host this prestigious event, honoring top NFT talents across 15 categories, including NFT Project of the Year and Best Phygital NFT. Submissions are open until Oct. 31, with blockchain voting from Nov. 1-5. Winners will be announced at Fort Manoel and will receive 2024 Fasttokens (FTN) as a prize.
Don’t miss this opportunity to celebrate creativity and innovation in the NFT space!
For more information and nominations, visit: ftNFT Awards Website. |
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Slippage Costs Polymarket Punter |
Republican Donald Trump’s presidential victory odds on Polymarket spiked to 99% – well, for one trader, briefly during Asia trading hours Friday, as the account's constant buying led to a temporary mispricing in the order book. The "GCorttell93" account purchased over 4.5 million Trump contracts in the “Presidential Election Winner 2024” market, spending over $3 million in a short period. However, due to how the order book works, a tranche of $275,000 was filled at 99 cents per share – a leap from the actual 63 cents offered at the time. On Polymarket, the price of shares in any outcome reflects the market's current belief in the likelihood of that outcome. If a "Yes" share for an event costs $0.60, the market interprets this as a 60% chance of that event occurring. The rest of the trader's bets were placed at varying prices more in line with market levels, such as a $129,000 tranche at 65.9 cents and a $102,000 tranche at 62.7 cents. |
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The First 40+ Speakers Announced for Consensus Hong Kong The industry's most influential event in Web3 and digital assets is coming to Asia with a stellar lineup of 40+ global thought leaders already confirmed. Be part of the game-changing discussions, key announcements, and high-impact deals that will shape the future of innovation.
Register todaybefore prices increase and use code NODE15 for an additional 15% off.
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Wall Street's Lazard Joins Tokenization Party |
Lazard (LAZ), a 175-year old global financial services and asset management company, is the latest among traditional financial players jumping on the asset tokenization trend, planning to create tokenized funds with Bitfinex and Anthony Scaramucci's SkyBridge. The tokenized funds will be set up and issued under Kazakhstan's financial services law, under regulatory oversight of Astana Financial Services Authority (AFSA), where SkyBridge and Bitfinex are licensed to operate. Bitfinex Securities is responsible for the tokenization process, while SkyBridge will act as broker and manager of the tokenized fund. The products will be available to retail users, but with certain geographic limitations, and available to be purchased with Tether's stablecoin (USDT). (Bitfinex and Tether have common ownership and management.) Representatives of the companies involved signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) toward creating the tokenized funds on Friday in Lugano, Switzerland at a side event during the Plan B conference. |
As MiCA Looms, Fastex Pushes for Regulatory Compliance What are the three biggest crypto trends of 2024? You could argue the top three trends are regulation, regulation, and regulation. The “Wild West” is no more. Europe’s MiCA framework will soon go into effect. Debates over crypto regulation have spilled into the U.S. presidential election. And one Web3 company is traveling across the globe — quite literally — to show leadership in regulatory compliance: Fastex. Continue reading here. |
A Bridge Opens From Bitcoin to Cardano |
Bitcoin rollup protocol BitcoinOS said its Grail bridge was going live for the Cardano network on Thursday, opening the floodgates for capital to flow from Bitcoin into the Cardano ecosystem. EMURGO, a founding entity of Cardano, will be among the ecosystem builders developing tools and services to attract BTC capital and, conversely, send ADA tokens to the Bitcoin network. BitcoinOS claims to be the first to have verified ZK proofs on Bitcoin in April, and its Grail bridge uses that security infrastructure to allow assets to flow between blockchains. “These bridges only require a single honest participant within a pool of potentially hundreds of operators (1-of-n) in a decentralized, dynamic, and permissionless operator set for your funds to remain secure,” BitcoinOS said. |
The Takeaway: Polymarket and Polygon |
By Margaux Nijkerk One of the major breakout successes this year for the team behind layer-2 blockchain Polygon is Polymarket – the decentralized predictions market where users have flocked this year to place bets on everything from presidential politics to the conclusion of an HBO documentary. What's less clear to crypto analysts examining Polygon's performance metrics is whether the coup will bring relief to holders of the project's ailing tokens, down 65% this year. Polymarket has soared in popularity among mainstream users, allowing them to make bets on the upcoming U.S. presidential election. Polymarket bettors have added nearly $2.4 billion on the question of whether Donald Trump or Kamala Harris will win the election in November. Polymarket is built on the Polygon PoS blockchain, and the application is one of the first major organic successes for the team – known for a past marketing strategy of paying partners like Starbucks to use the network. So given the application's boom in usage, why has it only produced a small amount in dollar figures for the Polygon team, and barely any bump in the price of the native POL token? According to data from Token Terminal, as of Oct. 23, Polymarket has only brought in about $27,000 of transaction fees for Polygon PoS in 2024. The answer, in part, is that the fees are market-based. And lately, transacting on Polygon PoS is extremely cheap. The average transaction fee on the Polygon PoS chain on that same day was $0.007. Another issue is that, in the scheme of things, while Polymarket's bettors are quite active, the volume of transactions doesn't come close to the level of high-intensity applications like decentralized crypto exchanges (DEXs). “I look at how it's built," Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron told CoinDesk in an interview.. "I would never expect a lot of fees from Polymarket, because it doesn't have a massive amount of composability, like Uniswap. It has some, but not a lot. It's really just users coming there. They’re executing a transaction, and then stopping. So it's inherently never going to drive that much until, like, the number of users goes way up.” Read the rest. |
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