Arijit Sarkar
The wish of owning cryptocurrencies this Christmas came true for a 12-year-old with an intelligence quotient (IQ) higher than Albert Einstein’s.
Barnaby Swinburn, a resident of Bristol, England, had asked for two Christmas presents, a Mensa test for testing his IQ and a cryptocurrency portfolio. According to BristolLive, Swinburn scored the highest possible score of 162 on the test, beating Einstein’s IQ of 160. As a result, the schoolboy became a member of the high-IQ society, which accepts the top 2% of the highest Mensa scorers.
Speaking about cryptocurrencies, Swinburn’s mother, Ghislaine, said:
“He’s been watching the markets. He’ll be getting an envelope with money in it for Christmas which he’ll turn into cryptocurrency.”
However, the Swinburn family is yet to reveal the monetary amount and the cryptocurrencies that have been purchased this Christmas.
In tune with his interest in crypto, Swinburn wants to grow up to become a programmer. “He’s already looking at university courses, and he wants to go to Oxford,” Ghislaine added.
Ornella Hernández
Kraken founder and CEO Jesse Powell recently shared in an interview with Bloomberg News that the crypto exchange will launch a nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace that will enable users to borrow funds against their NFTs.
Powell explained that the company plans to enter the NFT space in early 2022 and hopes to add the feature to determine the liquidation value of an NFT and if it can be put up as collateral for a loan.
“If you deposit a CryptoPunk on Kraken, we want to be able to reflect the value of that in your account," said Powell. "And if you want to borrow funds against that."
The value of NFTs, however, is all over the spectrum and only a small percentage of token owners hold a digital collectible valued for as much as a CryptoPunk, whose floor price is 66.9 Ether (ETH) or $273,673 at the time of publication.
According to Powell, NFT utility will explode next year:
“Phase one was speculation, phase two is buying art and supporting artists, phase three is going to be functional uses of NFTs.”
Additionally, Kraken recently acquired Staked, an infrastructure platform that allows for non-custodial crypto staking, in an effort to attract new investors. Kraken clients will now be able to earn crypto rewards and yield while retaining control over their digital assets.
Kraken was founded in 2011 and has become one of the largest crypto exchanges worldwide, ranking among the top in terms of average liquidity, volume and digital asset reserves, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Joseph Hall
Mexico’s third-richest person sent out a heart-warming New Year message to Bitcoin (BTC) enthusiasts on Christmas Eve. Ricardo Salinas Pliego recommended moving away from fiat money and buying Bitcoin in a two-minute festive video.
He gives three pieces of advice to his 957,200 followers on Twitter as part of his Christmas and New Year message before asking his followers to retweet and share:
“Steer clear of fiat money. Whether it’s the Dollar, the Euro, or the Yen –it’s all the same. It’s fake money made of paper lies. Central banks are producing more than ever.”
He pauses before pointing to the camera to say, “Invest in Bitcoin!”
In front of a golden Christmas tree, the other two “presents” of advice Salinas left his followers were to let go of jealousy and to believe in oneself, particularly when pursuing freedom and innovation.
It’s no surprise that Salinas promotes investing in BTC. As a prominent Bitcoin evangelist since 2013, his Twitter bio describes himself simply as a “Mexican businessman and Bitcoin holder.”
Salinas aims to make Mexico’s second-largest retail bank, Banco Azteca, the first lender in the country to do business in BTC. However, Salinas, chairman of the bank’s parent company, Grupo Salinas, was left disappointed in June this year.
This Daily Dose was brought to you by Cointelegraph.
