Last Week in Review: Tokenised real estate to begin trading in Japan, and are we done with rate hikes?

The highlights from last week’s headline grabbers. All the important news, numbers and events from the world of crypto in one place

News from the block

No mention of rate cuts in latest FOMC meeting minutes

• “In discussing the policy outlook, participants continued to judge that it was critical that the stance of monetary policy be kept sufficiently restrictive to return inflation to the Committee’s 2% objective over time,” the minutes said.
  
• In other words, the committee has not ruled out further rate hikes down the line.
  
  
• “The release comes amid overwhelming sentiment on Wall Street that the Fed is done hiking,” CNBC reported.
  

Worldcoin price goes up as Sam Altman returns to OpenAI

• It was a busy week at OpenAI, one of the leading AI developers in the world. A few weeks back, the OpenAI board announced its unanimous decision to fire co-founder Sam Altman, also the face of the company. A few days later, and a lot of other things happening in-between, Altman was reinstated back as CEO, this time with a new board.
  
  
• But Altman is also one of the founders of Worldcoin, a crypto project that aims to verify human beings on the internet, as opposed to bots, using biometric technology.
  
  
• Worldcoin’s price roughly followed Altman’s ups and downs, rebounding 13% following his rehiring, according to beincrypto.com.
  

Digital exchange in Japan to begin trading real estate tokens

• Osaka Digital Exchange (ODX) will open trading on its new digital securities trading platform in December, the company said.
  
  
• “Around 3 billion yen ($20 million) worth of tokenised securities will be issued by real estate firm Ichigo Owners,” according to CoinDesk. The Ichigo Residence Token will be invested in six rental residential properties.
  

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TL;DID read

What are smart contracts? 

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Crunching the numbers

50 million – The current number of bitcoin wallets with an amount greater than zero.  

5% – The percentage increase in Bitcoin mining difficulty in the last seven days, which hit an all-time high last week, possibly indicating an increase in miners looking to capitalise on bitcoin’s price movements. 

 $96.8 million – The total amount of bitcoin under management in exchange-traded funds (ETF) in Brazil, where these types of investment vehicles have been traded for two years. 

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Crypto trivia

7 Avalanche use cases 

The team at Avalanche explains how the protocol has been used in insurance, finance and gaming applications. Read here. 

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Protect your crypto 

Ensuring the safety of your investments is not just good practice, it’s essential. While we do all we can to secure your account, you can help by activating these key security features available in the app. 

?️ A guide to essential security features

*This information should not be construed as a solicitation to trade. All opinions, news, research, analysis, prices or other information is provided as general market commentary for information purposes only and is not investment advice or recommendation. Luno always advises you to obtain your own independent financial advice before investing or trading in cryptocurrency.