The "Travel Rule" aims to bring reporting standards for virtual asset service providers in line with other traditional financial institutions. Tether Operations Limited, the firm operating the Tether (USDT)-centric platform tether.to, announced today that it will use Notabene, an end-to-end solution for cryptocurrency Travel Rule compliance.

Tether will begin testing Notabene's cross-border transaction monitoring system for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) to combat financial crimes such as money laundering.
Source: Tether trials Notabene’s new travel rule technology to combat financial crimes

The report is also expected to clarify the regulatory jurisdiction of the Treasury Department CFTC with regards to stable tokens. U.S. regulatory bodies have reportedly agreed that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will lead the United States’ efforts to regulate the stablecoin sector.

According to an Oct. 26 Bloomberg report citing anonymous sources “familiar with the matter,” the SEC has reached an agreement with other U.S. agencies to take the reins on proposing legislation and overseeing the stablecoin industry.
Source: SEC expected to head U.S. stablecoin regulation and enforcement

The recent purchasing behavior of institutional investors contrasts with that in 2020 and earlier, when “institutions exclusively favored altcoins that were at least four years old, such as Ether and Litecoin.” Cryptocurrency exchange Okcoin has reported the number of and trading volume of institutions surged significantly in the last year, driven largely by stablecoins and tokens in decentralized finance.

In a report released on Oct. 26, Okcoin said it had seen a 450% increase in the number of institutional customers on its platform between September 2020 and September 2021, as well as a 124% increase in institutional trading volume over the same period. According to the report, 53% of the purchases institutional investors made in September were for altcoins. In addition, the customers showed “a greater appetite for non-Bitcoin crypto assets” compared to previous years.
Source: Okcoin reports altcoins drove institutional interest in crypto for 2021

Dapper Labs’ head of partnerships said pro sports leagues have opened to their arms to NFTs amid the sector's booming growth this year.

Dapper Labs, the firm behind NBA Top Shot, said that pro sports leagues are no longer resistant to exploring nonfungible tokens (NFTs) now that the sector is hot.

Speaking at Yahoo Finance's All Markets Summit on Oct. 25, Dapper Labs’ head of partnerships, Caty Tedman, said that the stance of professional sporting organisations suddenly shifted regarding NFTs amid the sector’s booming growth in early 2021,
Source: Pro sports leagues are no longer resisting NFTs: Dapper Labs

Developer 'Ohmzeus' has launched a new protocol allowing stablecoins to swapped at fixed price of exactly one-to-one.
A developer working on DeFi darling OlympusDAO has launched a new protocol that seeks to facilitate stablecoin swaps without price curves.

On Oct. 26, OlympusDAO developer “Ohmzeus” announced they had launched an experimental project dubbed Range comprising decentralized stablecoin pools that do not use a price curve. The programmer described Range as an “optimistic stablecoin swap protocol” designed to “abandon a pricing curve altogether.”
Source: OlympusDAO developer launches protocol enabling one-to-one stablecoin swaps

Despite reaching a higher total sales volume this month, SuperRare has half as many active collectors buying on the marketplace this month compared to March. NFT marketplace SuperRare has set a new monthly record of $31.4 million for total sales volume with a week to spare until the end of October, according to Dune Analytics.

SuperRare is a single-edition Ethereum (ETH) NFT marketplace, where collectors can purchase a blockchain deed of ownership for digital items such as memes, videos or artworks.

The monthly sales record was previously $29.5 million in March, with 929 active collectors purchasing 3,179 artworks. The average artwork price ranged between 3.0 and 5.5 Ether, or about $12,600 to $23,000.
Source: SuperRare has fewer buyers, but they purchase more expensive NFTs, data shows

Grayscale’s flagship Bitcoin fund had no competition from the newly launched ETF products in their first seven days, figures show. Bitcoin (BTC) investment vehicle the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) outperformed the newly launched exchange-traded funds (ETF) last week, data shows.

Figures shared by Grayscale executives among others confirm that GBTC has quietly delivered better investor returns since Oct. 19.

Grayscale “discount” hits one-month lows
While talk continues to revolve around Bitcoin futures ETFs and their market impact, industry stalwart Grayscale is biting back.
Source: GBTC delivered better returns than Bitcoin ETFs last week

KTCU plans to invest in Bitcoin ETF products after consultation with domestic asset managers,” an exec reportedly said. South Korea’s public pension fund, the Korean Teachers’ Credit Union (KTCU), is reportedly looking to gain exposure to Bitcoin (BTC) via a crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF).

KTCU, one of the largest institutional investors in South Korea, is considering investing in a pure Bitcoin ETF or Bitcoin-linked ETFs in the first half of 2022, local news agency The Korea Economic Daily reported Monday.
Source: South Korean pension fund to invest in Bitcoin ETF: Report