11.12.2023

An overview of current news in the crypto space

By bit.team

In our digest, we took a look at some important crypto industry news over the past week:

  1. DEC and XI tokens linked to the DOGE-1 lunar mission rise in value
  2. With the help of Grok tokens, a trader turned $79,000 into $2.5 million in a month
  3. Anton Siluanov: All Russians will use digital rubles in the new year
  4. Crypto community once again talks about DOGE integration into the X social network
  5. Binance P2P stops supporting the Russian ruble

Now for more details. Reading time: 8 minutes.

  1. The launch is scheduled for January 12 aboard a SpaceX rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in the United States.

    The value of the GEC token issued by Geometric Energy has more than quadrupled in a week. In the last 24 hours alone, the token is up 12%. Another token, XI, which is used to pay for advertisements displayed on the satellite’s outdoor screen, has risen 36%. Both tokens have collectively reached a market capitalization of just over $30 million.

    Geometric Energy announced the DOGE-1 satellite back in May 2021. The mission was paid for by the Dogecoin community, a meme coin promoted by SpaceX founder Elon Musk.

    Geometric CEO Samuel Reid clarified that after the approval of the US National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the flight of the vehicle must still be approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Only then will the flight become a reality.

    The satellite has a mass of 40 kilograms, it should orbit around the moon, collecting information with cameras and sensors. However, collecting scientific data in the interests of Geometric is not the main thing. On the outer skin of the DOGE-1 satellite is a screen that will broadcast advertisements, images and logos, and this picture (a screen with advertisements in space above the Moon) should be broadcast to Earth. DOGE-1 will be the first satellite whose cost, including launch, was paid for with cryptocurrency, namely DOGE tokens.

  2. A successful trader, whose identity is still unknown, made $2.5 million in a month trading the Grok cryptocurrency (GROK) dedicated to the Grok neural network.

    In November, three minutes after the launch of Grok trading on the Uniswap exchange, the digital asset trader bought 154.7 million GROK tokens worth $42,000 at a very low price, and in less than 12 hours they went up 140 times in value. He then bought another 11.9 million coins for $37,000 and when the crypto exchange Gate.io listed GROK, he transferred $1.38 million worth of digital assets to the platform and started selling them gradually.

    As a result, the trader invested $79,000 in the cryptocurrency and made a profit of $2.5 million, thus multiplying the capital almost 32 times. On December 8, the trader sent all the remaining GROK to Uniswap, so now his crypto wallet does not store these tokens.

    Employees of the analytical company Lookonchain found out that the trader used the MaestroBots bot to trade Grok and other cryptocurrencies based on memes. This software allows automating the process of buying and selling coins issued on Ethereum (ETH), BNB Chain and Arbitrum (ARB) blockchains

  3. “The technology of the digital ruble is developing and will continue to develop. Next year, I am sure we will all be able to try to open a digital wallet and be able to pay in the new currency. It is the same ruble, it can also be exchanged for regular ‘cache’ and non-cash rubles… This is another essence of our strong Russian ruble,” the senior official announced.

    The Finance Ministry and the Central Bank of the Russian Federation intend to first test the use of the digital ruble for budget expenditures.

    “We, ‘budgetary workers’, are very interested in it. Because the digital ruble will not be dragged away, it has a clear targeting and we know that if the ruble is directed, let’s say, to the payment of matkapital, it will be spent on matkapital, and for no other purpose. There are no machinations and tricks, which sometimes happen,” the Minister explained.

    Recently, the State Duma of the Russian Federation in the final reading adopted amendments to the Tax Code, which will allow to integrate the digital ruble into the tax system. The document introduces the concept of a “digital ruble account,” which will be a separate type of bank account.

    Authorities said that the Bank of Russia has already conducted almost 14,000 transactions in 11 Russian cities since the start of testing of the digital ruble pilot project in August.

  4. The famous dog-themed meme coin Dogecoin could be on the cusp of significant growth following its possible integration as a payment instrument on the social network X (formerly Twitter*). A spokesperson for the Altcoin Daily account believes that bitcoin, Ethereum and especially Dogecoin are “prime contenders for integration into X in a very scalable and interesting way.”

    According to Altcoin Daily, almost everyone knows that Ilon Musk, the CTO of X, wants to make the social networking platform the perfect app for payments and any other purpose. He noted that Musk’s predecessors in the position also planned to implement a payment solution very quickly.

    Among the three cryptocurrencies listed, Dogecoin is an exception, having the smallest market capitalization. However, Musk’s well-publicized flirtation with the coin meme has led many users to believe that it will be integrated into the X social network.

    Musk’s engagement with Dogecoin began three years ago when he published a post that caused the meme coin’s value to rise nearly 20% in a short period of time. Several events have followed over the months that continue to link the famous entrepreneur to the flagship meme coin. For example, Martin Folb (MartyParty), a well-known name in the space, identified DOGE in the source code of the Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) checkout page for its new Cybertruck.

    Following this event, Dogecoin has been on a steady rise since mid-October. The token rebounded from a low of $0.0569 and has since grown more than 60% to $0.099.

    Currently, the popular meme coin is trading at $0.0998, which has contributed to bitcoin’s rise into the $43,000 range.

    * The company is banned in Russia.

  5. According to the site’s statement, on January 31, 2024 from 00:00 (UTC) Binance P2P will disable trading in pairs with the Russian ruble, including SDT/RUB, BTC/RUB, BTC/RUB, FDUSD/RUB, BNB/RUB, ETH/RUB, BUSD/RUB and RUB/RUB. It was also revealed on the official Bit.team channel. As part of the business transfer to the CommEX platform, users will be able to continue peer-to-peer trading on the platform without additional fees.

    “To use CommEX for P2P trading, simply register on the platform and connect your account with Binance. Users will then be able to transfer their assets from Binance to CommEX and continue P2P trading with support for the Russian ruble,” the statement said.

    Until January 31 next year, Binance P2P users can withdraw their rubles, convert them into cryptocurrencies and trade on the spot market.

    Recall that on the spot market Binance disabled the most popular pairs with the Russian ruble back on November 20.

    Thank you for being with us. Crypto-industry news on Bit.team – always up to date.