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Fidelity Investments has reportedly launched Fidelity Crypto, a commission-free crypto trading service for retail investors and has opened an early-access waitlist to users. The service is provided by its subsidiary Fidelity Digital Assets, which enables retail investors to trade Bitcoin and Ether and use custodial and trading services. The firm will include a 1% spread into every trade execution price rather than charging a commission. The firm said the launch of the new product could support its notable portion of customers who are already interested in and own crypto.

The US-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase disclosed in its shareholder letter on 3 November that the company transaction revenue in Q3 saw a 44% decrease when compared to that in Q2, which fell from $655.2 million to $365.9 million. The exchange attributed the decline to macroeconomic factors such as high inflation and interest rates and geopolitical factors contributing to a 30% drop in daily average crypto market capitalization. The exchange observed that the lack of regulatory clarity in the US , more retail customers preferred holding to trading crypto and advanced traders chose its competitors with more complex products were also the reasons for the drop in its transaction revenues. However, the company’s net loss decreased by 50% to $544.6 million in this quarter.

Tech giant Meta announced on 2 November that the company will soon allow creators to make their own digital collectibles on Instagram and sell them both on and off the platform. It will initially partner with the Polygon blockchain to provide an end-to-end toolkit for them to create, showcase and sell their digital collectibles. The company’s head of commerce and financial technology, Stephane Kasriel, said no fees would be charged to create or sell NFTs until 2024, and Meta will cover the buyers’ blockchain gas fees at launch, though the exact launch timeline was not specified. These new features would first be tested with a small group of creators in the US.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said in a news conference during the Web Summit in Lisbon on 2 November that he did not consider CBDC as a threat to Binance or other cryptocurrencies. He thought the governments’ adoption of blockchain technology that applied to CBDC could validate blockchain technology and build trust among those who worry about the technology. His attitude seems to have changed when compared to the comments he made last year saying that CBDC would never provide the same freedom as cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum as many of them would be subject to lots of control by the central banks.

The South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) and the National Assembly have reportedly aimed to pass a new law in 2023, which authorizes financial authorities to oversee and penalize unfair trade acts, including the use of undisclosed information, price manipulation and fraud while supervising crypto exchanges. It is expected that such unfair trade practice in the crypto industry will have an equivalent regulatory outcomes as compared to the traditional financial industry, though the details on the specific penalties have yet to be disclosed.

BANDESAL, a state development bank of El Salvador, has reportedly refused to disclose information regarding the Bitcoin acquisition in the country to ALAC El Salvador, which is a non-governmental anti-corruption bureau. A $150 million Bitcoin Trust (FIDEBITCOIN) was created by the bank to guarantee the convertibility to dollars. BANDESAL said the trustee or the board of directors of the trust could not share any information related to the trust due to the protection of national interests.

Global digital peer-to-peer (P2P) payments company MoneyGram has reportedly allowed the users in nearly all U.S. states and the District of Columbia to buy, sell, and hold Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC) on its mobile app. The company said the new service was launched through its existing partnership with Coinme, a licensed crypto exchange and API-driven crypto-as-a-service provider.

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has published a circular setting out the requirements for the authorization of the public offering of the exchange traded funds (ETFs) that obtain exposure to virtual assets (VAs) primarily through futures contracts (VA Futures ETFs) in Hong Kong on 31 October. The regulator said in addition to the existing regulatory requirements applicable to VA Futures ETFs, the application should meet the additional requirements set out in the circular. The management company shall have a good track record of regulatory compliance and demonstrate at least three years’ proven track record in managing ETFs. SFC said only VA futures traded on conventional regulated futures exchanges are allowed, subject to certain exceptions and it initially only allowed Bitcoin futures and Ether futures traded on Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the country’s central bank, has reportedly launched the pilot for the digital rupee for the wholesale segment on 1 November. The pilot will include nine banks, including the State Bank of India, the biggest bank in the country. The use case will be to settle secondary market transactions in government securities at lower transaction costs. The digital rupee is expected to increase efficiency in the interbank market. The central bank also plans to launch digital rupee for the retail segment within a month in select locations.

The Monetary Exchange of Singapore (MAS) has reminded all authorized cryptocurrency exchanges in the country to conform to financial sanctions against Russia, following the research finding showing that pro-Russia groups raised funds through crypto donations and more countries’ financial authorities have imposed sanctions on Russia. The statement makes Singapore align with the international response to Russia. The latest European Union sanctions prohibited cross-border crypto payments between Russians and the EU, which included a total ban on all crypto-asset wallet, account, or custody services, irrespective of the amount of the wallet.

Changpeng Zhao, the founder and CEO of Binance said on Twitter that the National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK) would integrate its central bank digital currency (CBDC) into its distributed blockchain network BNB Chain. The country is reportedly being the world’s top three destinations for Bitcoin mining. Zhao said he looked forward to further development of use cases by the bank to “bridge the gap between traditional banking and the crypto ecosystem.” The crypto exchange has been granted a permanent license from the Kazakh Financial Services Authority early this month.

Australian Federal Budget 2022 has been released on 25 October. It states that Bitcoin would continue to be classified as digital asset rather than foreign currency for tax purposes, which would remove uncertainty following the Government of El Salvador’s adoption of Bitcoin as a legal tender. Therefore, Bitcoin investors are subject to capital gains tax treatment when they profit from selling the asset. However, the central bank digital currency (CBDC) would be treated as foreign currency.