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Traders have begun unwrapping tokenized bitcoins. The U.S. Treasury Department will keep a vigilant eye on digital innovations. And trading volumes on OKEx have plummeted.

Michael Corbat’s multinational banking giant has been calling digital currency all but inevitable since 2014.

Crypto exchange Binance expects to turn a profit of between $800 million and $1 billion this year, according to CEO Changpeng Zhao.

Zhao revealed the figures to Bloomberg on Friday after appearing on the 2020 Bloomberg 50 list. Binance’s expected profits for this year are almost double of what it recorded last year — about $570 million, according to Zhao.

To be sure, the exchange has had a bright year so far for both its spot and futures trading platforms. As of November 30, Binance’s total spot trading comes in at roughly $858 billion, with the total for bitcoin futures trading volumes about $991 billion, according to The Block Research.

In terms of open interest, Binance’s futures trading platform crossed the $1 billion mark in November. Open interest refers to the value of outstanding futures contracts that have not yet been settled.

Binance began offering futures trading in September 2019 and they have since grown to become one of the top crypto derivatives exchanges.

As for its spot trading platform, Binance has experienced growth of almost 2.5 times compared to last year’s performance. The exchange saw total spot volumes of around $402 billion in 2019.

Binance also offers options trading, but its data isn’t available on tracking platforms. Binance’s revenue comes from its five core products — spot trading, futures trading, options trading, lending, and peer-to-peer trading in China, as The Block has previously reported.

© 2020 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.

The Chinese city of Suzhou is launching another round of wider trial of China’s digital yuan initiative.

The Suzhou government announced in a blog post on Friday that it will give away 20 million yuan, or about $3 million, in the form of China’s central bank digital currency, known as DC/EP.

The $3 million digital yuan will be given out in the form of 100,000 red packets via a lottery that’s only open to residents in Suzhou. Each red packet will be worth 200 yuan, or about $30.

The government said local citizens can register for the lottery between December 5 and December 6 and the results will be announced on December 11, one day before the annual Double 12 online shopping festival. 

Lottery winners can spend the free digital yuan from December 11 to December 27 at shops that support the DC/EP payment as well as at selected online shops on e-commerce giant JD.com, according to the blog post.

In addition, the government said selected winners from the lottery will be invited to test out the offline payment feature that’s built into a DC/EP wallet.

For the Suzhou test, residents will only be able to activate a DC/EP wallet via six state-owned banks. These institutions are the Agricultural Bank of China, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), China Construction Bank, Bank of China, Bank of Communications, and the Postal Savings Bank of China.

Suzhou’s digital yuan trial also comes just months after the city of Shenzhen completed a similar test rollout, which gave away about $1.5 million worth of digital yuan to local citizens who could spend the DC/EP in over 3,000 shops.

China has been rolling out various trials of digital yuan since April this year in primarily four cities — that is Shenzhen, Suzhou, Chengdu and Xiong’An.

The Block reported previously that the ICBC has opened up internal DC/EP wallet features inside the bank’s mobile app at least to invited users in Chengdu.

© 2020 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.

The approved digital banks will be able to start operating from Singapore in early 2022.

Bolivia is one of the rare countries that has essentially banned cryptocurrency, but the nation’s blockchain advocates aren’t giving up.

OKEx appears to suffer customer outflows after lifting of five-week withdrawal suspension, highlighting the existential threat of operational risk.

Brooks hinted at a flurry of crypto clarity actions in the next 6 weeks that could drive more institutions into the asset class.

“Bitcoin’s macroeconomic, technical and demand vs. supply indicators supportive of $50,000 target resistance,” according to Bloomberg.

Russian cryptocurrency and blockchain association warns the Bank of Russia against the excess centralization of the digital ruble