DAY LONG NEWS ROUNDUP: LATEST NEWS 22/10/21

We are bringing you the top headlines from 22/10/21 that are making the biggest impacts in the world of blockchain and crypto so that you can stay ahead of the curve!

McDonald’s China Tasked With The Expansion Of Digital Yuan Trial

According to the Financial Times, officials in China are urging McDonald’s to aid in the expansion of the trials of the widely talked about Digital Yuan, China’s own version of the Central Bank Digital Currency, commonly known as the CBDC.

Currently more than 270 outlets of the fast food giant in Shanghai are testing out the central bank digital currency but the officials in Shanghai are in favour of expanding the test case so that it is more widely available to the public.

According to reports from the FT, other prominent American companies that are operating in the mainland, such as Visa and Nike, are also being urged by the government officials to start accepting the digital Yuan. 

Beijing has been equally determined to make sure that the digital Yuan is widely available across the nation ahead of the Winter Olympics which is scheduled to begin in February 2022. However speculations suggest that the pandemic has probably caused a hindrance to these ambitions resulting in curtailment. 

What is important to remember is that China is increasingly advanced when it comes to rolling out plans for CBDC, way ahead of the United States. But there are concerns that the CBDC offered by Beijing could tamper with privacy as the officials sharing their vision entails a picture of the digital asset offering “controllable anonymity.”

DeFi Surpasses $100 Billion Mark As The Surge In Crypto Continues

Recently the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) market has surpassed the mark of $100 billion. According to the reports gathered by DeFi Pulse, the historic rise of the globally popular Bitcoin has contributed significantly to help lift the value of assets that were utilized for decentralized financing, well over $100 billion for the first time in the history of DeFi. 

The figure was achieved after multiplying the amount of Ethereum and other related assets that are owned in smart contracts and processed on Ethereum network, by their value in American dollars. Only during the previous week, borrowing on crypto networks witnessed a sharp increase of 14.9% which amounted to about 50.7 billion dollars. Even on the DeFi networks, cryptocurrency exchange trades saw a rapid increase of 8.6%. 

Decentralized Finance or DeFi is a subset of the cryptocurrency market that embraces a wide range of buying, selling, loaning and wagering activities which are mostly conducted using public blockchains. These activities are made with the help of tokens used as secured loans and proceeds. Estimates from Coingecko suggest that it has an estimated market cap of almost 128 billion dollars.

In A Heated Crypto Market, Shiba Inu Continues To Expand Through ATMs And Robinhood

The world of Finance is transforming at a rapid pace as people need faster and reliable transactions these days. That is exactly where Blockchain and cryptocurrencies come in. When we talk about crypto, the basic names that come to mind are that of Bitcoin and Ethereum which are still too expensive for many people to own even a single coin. However this is where the meme coins come in marking the ascent of Shiba Inu, a coin built for the people, by the people. 

The Shiba coin is gaining immense popularity in the crypto community. The coin can now be purchased through ATMs as well. A coin that was not even on the radar a few years back, is not being allowed in some countries to purchase real estate with. 

The next big thing on the list of activities for Shiba Inu is the profile on Robinhood. Insiders working in Robinhood are speculating that the platform is developing an infrastructure upgrade in the system that would result in acquiring Shiba coins. 

As of now, Robinhood does not list many cryptocurrencies for exchange availability. Dogecoin is the only meme coin that can be seen listed on the platform. It is important to remember that Robinhood was the only platform that allowed individuals to invest in stocks using modest amounts. Shiba Inu will undoubtedly see new heights with the listing on yet another popular exchange platform. The coin has over 750,000 shareholders and an impressive market capitalization of over 28 billion dollars.