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Crypto is on the rise. Crypto knowledge, however, is stuck on the runway: It turns out that 96% of U.S. adults can’t pass a test on crypto basics.

That’s according to the results of a survey that polled over 1,000 people in the U.S. and thousands more worldwide. Nine out of 10 people were not aware of bitcoin’s supply cap of 21 million, and less than half had an understanding of how the asset’s price is determined.

Perhaps more concerningly, the results suggest cryptocurrency isn’t doing much to break down the barriers of financial inclusion for certain groups: Crypto owners tend to steer young, educated, wealthy and male. In addition, basic crypto knowledge plummeted even further outside the U.S., with 99% of respondents in Brazil and Mexico getting a failing grade.

While overall awareness of crypto may be at an all-time high, clearly the industry has work to do to equip more investors with the knowledge and tools to take part in this new asset class. That’s the impetus behind Crypto Literacy Month, an initiative that aims to promote greater consumer education about crypto and bitcoin, the concepts behind them and the ways investors of all types can integrate digital assets into their financial planning.

CryptoLiteracy.org was created by Coinme, a cryptocurrency cash exchange that powers thousands of physical locations through partnerships with Coinstar and MoneyGram. (Disclosure: CoinDesk’s parent, Digital Currency Group, is an investor in Coinme.) Visitors to the site can take the same survey that created the initial results. CoinDesk is the official content partner of Crypto Literacy Month, and respondents will be given the opportunity to dive deeper into the basics and beyond with Crypto Explainer+, where CoinDesk breaks down the often complex world of cryptocurrency in easy-to-understand articles.

Every week in November, CryptoLiteracy.org will highlight a specific topic in crypto, starting with bitcoin. Subsequent weeks will dive into non-fungible tokens (NFTs), decentralized finance (DeFi) and important security basics every crypto investor should know. Watch CoinDesk’s social channels on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and TikTok for tidbits from the theme weeks, and you can take the survey at CryptoLiteracy.org to test your own crypto knowledge.

When you’re on the outside looking in, the world of crypto often seems impenetrable. Knowledge is the key to getting in, and Crypto Literacy Month aims to spread that knowledge – one day at a time.

CORRECTION (Nov. 1, 13:05 UTC): Corrects that transaction was a secondary sale of DCG shares, did not raise new funds.

Digital Currency Group (DCG), the crypto investment company whose holdings include asset manager Grayscale, crypto lender Genesis and independent news outlet CoinDesk, sold $700 million of stock in a private sale led by a pair of SoftBank funds.

• The round valued the firm at $10 billion and included contributions from GIC Capital, Ribbit Capital and CapitalG, the private equity arm of Google’s holding company, Alphabet, the Wall Street Journal reported.
• Marcelo Claure, chief executive of SoftBank, described DCG as the “single-best asset that gives us the diversity of exposure to crypto, A-Z.”
• As well as being the parent company of CoinDesk, DCG counts digital asset management firm Grayscale and crypto lender Genesis Trading among its subsidiaries.
• SoftBank’s previous forays into crypto include blockchain analytics firm Elliptic and Block.one’s new subsidiary crypto exchange, Bullish.

Read more: DCG’s $1B Pledge and an SEC Filing Kindle Fresh Speculation on ‘Grayscale Discount’

Digital Currency Group (DCG), a crypto venture capital company and the parent of CoinDesk, raised $700 million in an investment round led by SoftBank.

• The round valued the firm at $10 billion and included contributions from GIC Capital, Ribbit Capital and CapitalG, the private equity arm of Google’s holding company, Alphabet, the Wall Street Journal reported.
• Marcelo Claure, chief executive of SoftBank, described DCG as the “single-best asset that gives us the diversity of exposure to crypto, A-Z.”
• As well as being the parent company of CoinDesk, DCG counts digital asset management firm Grayscale and crypto lender Genesis Trading among its subsidiaries.
• SoftBank’s previous forays into crypto include blockchain analytics firm Elliptic and Block.one’s new subsidiary crypto exchange, Bullish.

Read more: DCG’s $1B Pledge and an SEC Filing Kindle Fresh Speculation on ‘Grayscale Discount’

Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, temporarily disabled all crypto withdrawals for a time on Monday due to a large backlog.

• Withdrawals were resumed about 25 minutes after the stoppage was announced to customers on its Twitter account Monday.
• “There will be a temporary delay in withdrawal processing as the backlog is cleared. We expect this to last about 30 minutes,” Binance said in a tweet following the resumption.

We have temporarily disabled all crypto withdrawals on https://t.co/QILSkzx7ac due to a large backlog.

Rest assured our team is working on it with top priority.

Thank you for your patience and apologies for any inconvenience caused.

— Binance (@binance) November 1, 2021

Add Digital Currency Group (DCG) to the list of crypto company deca-unicorns. 

The firm, which is the owner of asset management firm Grayscale and trading firm Genesis, has sold $700 million worth of shares in a secondary investment round. Participants in the deal included SoftBank Group, Ribbit Capital, and Capital G. 

None of the capital in the deal went to DCG, according to an email sent to The Block. The company is currently profitable and could generate $1 billion in revenues from its family of companies. The deal allowed early investors to take some profits from their investment in the company, which has only raised $25 million in primary capital since inception. 

CEO Barry Silbert, which owns about 40% of DCG, did not sell any stock in the transaction. 

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Silbert said the firm has no plans to go public, noting, “It is not only not in the works, it’s not even being discussed.”

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Bitcoin mining firm Fortress Technologies has ordered 4,500 Bitmain Antminer S19j Pro machines as it seeks capture a greater share of mining revenue.

• The purchase will more than triple Fortress’ hash rate from 195 petahash per second to 645 PH/s, the firm announced Monday.
• The machines are scheduled for delivery in monthly instalments from April to September 2022.
• Financial terms were not disclosed. Fortress did not immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for details.
• The purchase follows two weeks after that of 180 Whatsminers M30S machines, which are expected to be installed by the middle of this month.
• The Toronto Venture Exchange-listed Fortress (TSX-V: FORT) underwent a shake-up of its leadership team in September following the departure of CEO Aydin Kilic, who joined publicly traded crypto mining firm Hive Blockchain as president and COO.
• Antonin Scalia and Drew Armstrong joined Fortress from Galaxy Digital as CEO and COO respectively.

Read more: Hive Blockchain Orders Another 6,500 Bitcoin Mining Machines From Canaan

A hack on Boy X Highspeed (BXH) , a decentralized cross-chain exchange, that drained $139 million of funds was probably the result of a leaked administrator key, and possibly an inside job, CEO Neo Wang told CoinDesk

• Based on a consultation with an external security team, BXH says the hacker was probably able to break into the exchange’s Binance Smart Chain address after getting hold of the administrator’s private key, Wang said.
• The hacker either broke into the keyholder’s computer or might have been one of BXH’s technical staff, Wang said. The team is looking into the possibility the hacker set up a virus on BXH’s own site that the administrator clicked on, giving the attacker access to his computer and eventually the key, the CEO said.
• BXH announced the hack in a tweet on Sunday. BXH user funds on Ethereum, Huobi ECO Chain and OKEx OEC are safe, the team said. BXH halted withdrawals until the issue is resolved.
• The inside-job theory is supported by findings that indicate the attacker was in China, where most of BXH’s technical team is based, according to the CEO.
• Wang attributed these findings to PeckShield, a blockchain security company that is working on the case with BXH. He said he is confident that with the support of PeckShield and Chinese authorities the hacker will be tracked down.
• If the hacker is not found or returns the money, BXH will take full responsibility for the incident and figure out a user repayment plan, Wang said.
• BXH is offering a $1 million bounty to any teams that help retrieve the funds, and will give the hacker themselves an unspecified reward if they return the money.
• PeckShield confirmed the leaked admin key theory in a tweet early on Monday, without providing details.
• BXH has also filed a case with China’s network security police, a special force that investigates digital crime, the CEO said.
• The hack is one of several attacks on DeFi projects in the last couple months. Just days before the attack on BXH, Cream Finance suffered $130 million in losses. August saw the largest hack in DeFi history when cross-chain protocol Poly Network lost $600 million, which was eventually returned.

Read more: Poly Network Hacker Releases Private Key for Remaining Looted $141M

“I noticed it has a big connection to electronic music and that is my biggest passion.”

On this episode of The Scoop, multi-platinum and grammy nominated DJ Alesso and Lin Dai CEO of OneOf joined host Frank Chaparro to discuss why prominent artists are getting into NFTs and how this is signaling a cultural shift for how taste makers are engaging with their fans today.

Alesso explained that electronic artists in particular have taken notice of recent advancements in technology like NFTs and the metaverse as a new means of connecting fans to music and visuals. “I saw the possibility of combining art with music and that made me very interested.” Alesso said.

OneOf, which is an NFT platform and marketplace built on the Tezos blockchain network, raised $63 million in its seed round of funding from backers such as Quincy Jones to launch this year. The company is focusing on building partnerships in the music industry and hopes to bridge artists like Alesso, Doja Cat, John Legend and others with their fans by producing NFTs with a lower minting cost.

“We can offer artists like Alesso a great blank canvas to bring their vision to life without considering how much they have to charge [fans].” Said Dai. OneOf further aims to differentiate their business by connecting their NFT tokens to entries for prizes centered on real fan experiences, such as access to special Discord channels or backstage passes at concerts.

Alesso and Dai announced on The Scoop that the Cosmic Genesis NFT will come in four “chapters” with chances to win such tiered prizes, culminating in a one-of-one NFT auction with a ticket for a potential trip to space. Alesso will debut new music attached to the Cosmic Genesis NFT at the Dreamverse launch event at New York’s Terminal 5 concert hall on November 4th to coincide with the NFT’s launch.

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Fast-food chain Burger King plans to give away crypto as prizes to its customers in partnership with brokerage platform Robinhood.

Starting Monday for three weeks, members of Burger King’s Royal Perks loyalty program in the U.S. who spend more than $5 on the restaurant chain’s app will be rewarded with one coin from a pool of 20 bitcoin, 200 ether and 2 million dogecoin.

• The overwhelming majority of users will receive DOGE. Roughly one in every 10,000 will receive an ether and one in every 100,000 will receive a complete bitcoin.
• Having received an email code confirming the reward, users need a Robinhood crypto account to claim it.
• With reduced trading activity in recent months leading to significantly fewer new funded accounts, Robinhood’s revenue fell by 78% during the third quarter. The Nasdaq-listed brokerage platform may be hoping to capture the momentum of crypto’s latest bull run and return to adding new customers as promotions like this spur reward-receivers to open accounts.

Read more: Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest Scoops Up 2.2M Falling Robinhood Shares

South African pension funds are to be banned from investing in cryptocurrencies under new draft rules.

• “A fund may not invest in crypto-assets directly or indirectly,” the proposed rule change states in the Government Gazette published Friday.
• This would replace existing legislation that allowed portfolio managers to invest as much as 2.5% of funds in crypto as part of an umbrella “other assets” category.
• The South African government defines a crypto asset as any digital representation of value “not issued by a central bank, but is capable of being traded, transferred or stored electronically by natural and legal persons for the purpose of payment, investment and other forms of utility; applies cryptographic techniques and uses distributed ledger technology.”
• Such a broad definition points toward the ban extending to non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and similar tradeable digital assets.
• Financial regulators in South Africa have in recent months indicated there would an acceleration in crypto regulation in response to retail investors being scammed by fraudulent investment firms.

Read more: South Africa’s Financial Watchdog to Bring Crypto Exchanges Into Regulatory Oversight