In the last 24 hours, the total crypto market cap has hovered around $1.05 trillion. Major cryptocurrencies, led by Bitcoin and Ethereum continued their downward trajectory a day after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 75 basis points. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down about 1% at $20,200, while Ether (ETH) was trading down over 2% at $1,540 levels.

According to DappRadar’s October industry report, the average number of blockchain dApp unique active crypto wallets (UAW) topped 2 million in the month of October - an increase of almost 7% over September. The report also stated that the total value locked in DeFi also increased by 5.3% to $53.2 billion last month!

Elsewhere, crypto-related public companies had contrasting fortunes:

• Coinbase reported a third quarter loss of $2.43 per share, with trading revenue falling 44% compared to Q2.
• Payments company Block notched up a gross profit of $1.57 billion, owing in significant part to its CashApp payments app.
• Robinhood’s shares rallied 1.5% after its Q3 2022 earnings revealed that its cryptocurrency transaction-based revenue fell 12%, to $51 million.

Goldman Sachs will soon provide institutional clients with an online resource that explains and categorizes cryptocurrencies. The service will help institutional investors who may be strangers to the space wrap their heads around the hundreds of coins and tokens in the industry.

The service is called Datonomy; a joint project with global index provider MSCI and crypto data firm Coin Metrics, according to a Thursday statement.

According to Head of Marquee Client Strategy and Distribution at Goldman Sachs Anne Marie, “the collaboration brings together MSCI’s expertise in critical decision support tools and services, Coin Metrics’ intelligence in the digital assets space, and Goldman Sachs’ innovative platforms paired with over 150 years of experience in financial markets to help solve this problem for clients.”

In other news,

• Fidelity to open commission-free crypto trading to retail investors. Read More
• Mastercard Welcomes 7 Crypto, Blockchain Startups to Fintech Innovation Program. Read More
• Instagram Plans NFT Minting, Trading Tools. Read More
• IRS building ‘hundreds’ of crypto cases, ramping up hiring: Bloomberg Tax. Read More
• Bakkt Acquires Turnkey Platform Apex Crypto to Bolster Digital Asset Footprint. Read More

The first industry pilot under Project Guardian, which examines possible decentralized finance (defi) applications in wholesale funding markets, has finished its first live trades, according to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the central bank of Singapore

According to the MAS; “DBS Bank, JP Morgan, and SBI Digital Asset Holdings conducted foreign exchange and government bond transactions against liquidity pools consisting of tokenized Singapore Government Securities Bonds, Japanese Government Bonds, Japanese Yen (JPY), and Singapore Dollar (SGD).”

Singapore’s central bank is planning two more pilots that involve Standard Chartered Bank, HSBC, and UOB.

In other news,

• Aave Votes to Deploy on Ethereum Layer-2 Solution zkSync. Read More
• Bank for International Settlements will test DeFi implementation in forex CBDC markets. Read More
• BNB Chain DeFi ecosystem recovers almost one-third in three months. Read More

Swiss investment bank UBS AG introduced its hybrid digital bond on Nov. 3, claiming to be the world’s first publicly traded bond that’s settled on both blockchain-based and traditional exchanges.

According to the bank, the digital bond has the same instrument structure, legal status and rating as a traditional UBS AG senior unsecured note. In its statement, the bank said: “Through this bond, UBS enables investors, regardless of whether they have the blockchain infrastructure, to invest in a digital bond. This removes a hurdle on the way to adopt new disruptive technology that can make issuing bonds faster, more efficient and simpler.”

The senior unsecured digital bond is a 375 million Swiss franc-denominated ($272 million) three-year bond with a 2.33% coupon, according to UBS. The bank will list the digital bond at SDX Trading and SIX Swiss Exchange. It will be eligible for the Swiss Bond Index, along with other UBS AG senior unsecured notes.

In other news,

• Chinese Gov Bitcoin Holdings Outrank MicroStrategy Despite Crypto Ban. Read More
• Japan: Digital Ministry Will Launch Own DAO to Understand How They Work. Read More
• Union Bank of Philippines Has Entered the Chat: Crypto Trading Services Now Available. Read More
• Bank of Thailand Needs More Time to Complete and Launch Retail Digital Currency. Read More

Crypto exchange Kraken has launched the beta version of its NFT marketplace. The platform  offers "gasless" transactions and an intuitive design, and is currently only open to customers who joined the waitlist in May, 2022.

Kraken NFT touts itself as "the complete solution for exploring, curating and securing your NFT collection." The launch includes a curated offering of 70 top-selling NFTs on the Ethereum and Solana blockchains.

According to the site, transactions will be "gasless," meaning that users can buy and sell NFTs that are custodied within the Kraken ecosystem without incurring blockchain network fees. "This means clients can trade on the marketplace with zero disruption, even in peak network activity," Kraken said in a press release.