MNX launches pre-IPO futures on AI giants, taking on OKX and Bitget
Crypto exchange MNX, which you've never heard of, takes on OKX, Bitget, offering pre-IPO futures for AI giants. If you are trading pre-IPO futures and believe that you somehow have bought stock in Anthropic or ChatGPT or something else that's not on the market, you are dumb and you're going to lose your ass. This is people betting on leverage on the price of what it could be in the future, on an exchange that probably is not as safe as the bigger names that you've heard of. Nothing against MNX. I literally have no idea who they are. But I think at this point, with the established places that you can trade pre-IPO, if you actually choose to, probably not the place that you're going to do it.
Russia's largest bank Sberbank wins approval for crypto trading, a win for adoption but not for self-custody
Sberbank plans to open crypto trading to all clients December 1st, is already testing BTC, ETH, and USDT trades in its app. Russia's central bank has added them to its register of organizations authorized to exchange digital currencies themselves and on behalf of their customers. The customer launch has not happened today. They're testing it, but it will. There's 9 organizations actually that can do this, including Sberbank, VTB, and T-Invest Labs. Access and freedom are entirely separate dimensions. A regulated banking channel can expand participation while increasing oversight and restrictions on how assets move, which flies directly in the face of the ethos of crypto in general, especially Bitcoin. You will buy exposure to Bitcoin, ETH, but that doesn't mean that you have self-custody of them or that you can transfer those assets out. It's really, really strange time in crypto right now where we cheer the institutions that crypto was created as a hedge or an alternative to, because it might make the number go up and we want to see adoption.
