Weekly Cryptocurrency News. Friday, Nov. 24


Here comes Friday, November 24th. As the week comes to an end we can focus on the highlights of the crypto industry over the past few days.

CoinGecko takes over Zash, an NFT data startup

Crypto data aggregator CoinGecko has acquired non-fungible token data provider Zash for an unspecified amount.

“Acquiring Zash will allow us to supply you with fungible & non-fungible token (NFT) data seamlessly in one integrated offering. This is in line with our commitment to provide you with the most reliable, comprehensive and accurate cryptocurrency data, and brings us a step closer to empowering the decentralized future,” the statement reads.

The crypto ranking website intends to integrate indexing of NFT data from 87 different marketplaces by Q2 2024, including transaction history as well as the trade-based money laundering (TBML) information.

The financial terms of the deal remain undisclosed.

Founded in 2021, Zash provides insights into NFTs from 87 marketplaces on the Ethereum, Polygon, BNB Chain, and Solana networks. On the sidelines of of the deal, the startup’s team will join CoinGecko.

Prior to that, the value of renowned NFT marketplace OpenSea plummeted to $1.4b after Coatue Management slashed its investment from $120m to $13m.

Let us remind you that Dapper Labs Studios and Disney Corporation had previously announced the launch of the Pinnacle mobile NFT platform runnning on the Flow blockchain.

Prosecutors seek to ban CZ from leaving the U.S.

Changpeng Zhao, the now-former CEO of Binance, is required to stay in the United States until the passing of a sentence scheduled for February 23, 2024, prosecutors claimed in the motion.

Considering his sizable financial status outside the United States and quite limited ties to this country, the prosecution deems the odds of Zhao attempting to flee to be “significant.”

Zhao himself, who has a dual citizenship both in UAE and Canada, said he is willing to leave the country as long as he is allowed to do so based on a $175m appearance bond, which is to be secured by $15m in cash held in trust and three responsible persons who pledged property or cash.

However, they argue that the former Binance executive failed to provide convincing evidence to prove that he would not try to leave should he return to the United Arab Emirates.

“Zhao’s significant assets and strong ties to the UAE, as well as the government’s inability to extradite him from the UAE, favor a ruling from this court that he be required to remain in the United States until his sentencing,” the motion states.

This application is due to be heard by the court by November 27 PST.

As a reminder, Zhao had pleaded guilty to Binance’s failure to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program. On November 22, the court released him on bail amounting to $175 million. 

Under the current terms of his release, Zhao is free to leave the U.S., but he must return by February 9, 2024.

Telegram trading bot Banana Gun surpasses $16m daily volume

Over the course of November, the daily turnover of the Banana Gun, a Telegram trading bot for exchanging and acquiring crypto, topped $16 million. It also has seen a seven-day average trading volume of $9 million, rivaling a handful of famous DEXs.  The trading bot is observing an estimated 19,000 trades a day amongst 3,000 daily active users.

It has attracted almost 46,000 lifetime users since launching in June and a lifetime trading volume of $589 million as a result of half a million deals.

Blockworks research analyst Ren Yu Kong pointed out that Telegram have seen a continued sustained usage, and the cumulative trading volume on such platforms has crossed the $4 billion mark. Banana Gun stands out, having increased its market share from 20% to 35% in three months, according to the financial expert.

Amid a so-called “features war” in the trading bot space, Banana Gun offered a brand new innovation dubbed “autosniper” allowing you to set the exact number of coins and their selling price.

The analyst also noted that Unibot contributed to this conflict with its recent upgrade to Unibot X, a standalone trading terminal that goes beyond Telegram’s main interface.

Despite the mounting popularity of such platforms, they still entail great risks. In the last day of October, an anonymous hacker attacked Unibot, stealing a total of nearly $650,000 in crypto. Experts have previously warned about the threat of asset loss when trading via Telegram bots, as they do not provide reliable protection against cyberattacks.

Netflix director splurged a windfall $27m of DOGE instead of shooting a TV series

Carl Erik Rinsch, the director of the movie “47 Ronin,” received funding from Netflix to film a new TV series but used some of that money to purchase the Dogecoin cryptocurrency, according to The New York Times.

Between November 2018 and March 2020, Netflix also allocated $55m to the filmmaker to create the sci-fi series Conquest. However, neither series was ever completed.

Concurrently, Rinsch invested $11m of that amount in the stock market but virtually lost the entire sum. Back in May 2021, he acquired $4m of Dogecoin on the Kraken crypto exchange earning $27m.

These proceeds were afterwards spent to purchase five Rolls-Royce cars, a Ferrari and a luxury Vacheron Constantin watch.

Meanwhile, Netflix is in litigation with Rinsch, accusing him of breach of employment contract. The director in turn claims that the company itself is responsible for the termination of the deal, as it repeatedly delayed salary amounting to $14 million.

The hearing is conducted in private and a decision is expected shortly.

As you may remember, during 2016 Vitalik Buterin had made over $4m by investing in Dogecoin and purchasing $25,000 worth of the dogish cryptocurrency.

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