This digest is prepared for informative purposes only and does not represent an investment recommendation or investment advice. Please see our full disclaimer at the bottom for more information.

See below all the important happenings this week in the world of crypto, presented by the experts at Kraken: 

1. Kraken: OmiseGO (OMG) and PAX Gold (PAXG) Trading Starts October 29th!
   • OmiseGO (OMG) and PAX Gold (PAXG) will be listed on Kraken starting October 29
   • Trading pairs include OMG: OMG/USD, OMG/EUR, OMG/XBT, OMG/ETH; and PAXG: PAXG/USD, PAXG/EUR, PAXG/XBT, PAXG/ETH
   • Both cryptoassets will be available on Kraken, Kraken Pro, and our OTC desk, but won’t be available (yet) on Kraken Futures and for Margin Trading
2. The Block: Blockchain Search Volumes Skyrocket in China Following President Xi’s Remarks
   • Following the President of China Xi Jinping’s public endorsement of blockchain on Friday, Oct. 25, the word “blockchain” was searched 72,049 times on Baidu, a 24hr surge of +1,383%, and 3,331,874 times on WeChat, a 24hr surge of +329%; searches continued into the weekend and increased by +170% on both platforms on Saturday
   • Notably, search volumes for “bitcoin” saw a -5% dip on Friday on both platforms, but picked up traction on Saturday and rose +144% and +216% on WeChat and Baidu, respectively23
3. CoinDesk: From Banking Giants to Tech Darlings, China Reveals Over 500 Enterprise Blockchain Projects
   • 506 blockchain projects have been registered with the Chinese gov’t since March (coming from two lists – 197 projects named in Mar. and 309 in Oct.), revealing some of the largest Chinese banks (e.g., ICBC, CCB & Ping An Bank) and commercial tech conglomerates (e.g., Baidu, Alibaba & Tencent) leveraging the tech to execute administrative tasks; several gov’t offices, including courts and tax bureaus, are also looking into how to best use the nascent technology
   • Trade finance, asset management, cross-border payments and supply chain financing were the four most common use cases in the financial service industry projects included in the two lists; six banks, including two major state-owned national banks and four local banks, have filed for 14 blockchain projects4
4. Cointelegraph: Unknown Miner Controls 50% of BCH Hash Rate for 24 Hours
   • An unknown BCH miner was in control of +50% of the token’s hash rate from 10AM Oct. 24 to 10AM Oct. 25 and mined a total of 73 blocks (912.5 BCH, or ~$241,000)
   • Redditor Bitmeister speculated that it is likely that BTC miners are experimenting with excess BTC hashpower by allocating it to BCH mining, “I think this is a sign of the approaching halvening. We will likely see more miners experimenting and playing with their otherwise useless BTC hashpower by pointing it at BCH. Succinctly, any shift in hashpower from BTC to BCH will look like this initially, whether the motivation is good or evil. If it is even slightly profitable to pump the BCH DAA [Difficulty Adjustment Algorithm], then this is great news as other miners will be tempted to the same […] Any shift from BTC to BCH will induce this cavitation given BCH’s dwarfed hashpower. It could possibly be a poorly configured switching algo that caused this effect. But if in the end the miner actually reaps more profits, then we must conclude they’re using a well configured switching algo. So if this is a profit play by a miner, the other auto-switching miners will need to adjust their algo parms accordingly”
   • LivingRoomOfSatoshi CEO Daniel Alexiuc commented, “In the end, it doesn’t really matter what kind of difficulty adjustment algorithm BCH uses. The root cause of this problem is that BCH is a minority fork of Bitcoin using the same hashing algorithm”
   • Additionally, between 11AM – 1PM UTC on Oct. 26, this entity found 24 blocks, implying that this miner was mining blocks 2x as fast as the expected rate
   • Link to reddit post & coverage by @ZeroNoncense & LivingRoomOfSatoshi CEO Daniel Alexiuc
5. Mastercard: Mastercard Blockchain to Bring Visibility to Food Systems
   • The largest American retail food group purchasing organization Topco Associates will pilot a traceability platform developed by logistics firm Envisible, which is based on Mastercard’s blockchain-based Provenance Solution
   • Topco will use the platform to trace the provenance of produce, meat and seafood
   • Mastercard will demonstrate its provenance solution at the Mastercard Booth at Money20/20 in Las Vegas from October 27-30
   • Link to Cointelegraph’s report
6. Bloomberg: Top Bitcoin Miner Engulfed in Power Clash as Co-Founder Ousted
   • Bitmain co-founder Jihan Wu sent an abrupt email with the subject “important notice” to the firm’s entire staff ousting fellow co-founder Micree Ketuan Zhan, “Bitmain’s co-founder, chairman, legal representative and executive director Jihan Wu has decided to dismiss all roles of Ketuan Zhan, effective immediately. Any Bitmain staff shall no longer take any direction from Zhan, or participate in any meeting organized by Zhan. Bitmain may, based on the situation, consider terminating employment contracts of those who violate this note”
   • Multiple sources familiar with the matter confirmed the authenticity of the email, adding that Bitmain is currently having an urgent all-hands meeting to address employee concerns
   • Wu took over Zhan’s roles of executive director and legal representative of Bitmain
   • Blockstream CSO Samson Mow tweeted that Micree was allegedly forced out, adding that Micree is still a majority shareholder of Bitmain Beijing as well a large shareholder of the parent Bitmain holding co. (as of Sept. 2018 when Bitmain filed its IPO application, Zhan held 37% of Bitmain Holding’s shares while Wu owned 21%)
   • Wu went as far as barring Micree from entering Bitmain’s Beijing office with security at the front door
   • Bitmain’s whole HR dept. was apparently fired with replacement from Jihan’s own people
   • According to sources close to the matter, Micree purportedly may dump the 1.6M BCH (~$451M) he owns
   • Link to coverage by CoinDesk
7. Bloomberg: Chinese Bitcoin Mining Machine Maker Canaan Files for U.S. IPO
   • Canaan Inc., the world’s second-largest maker of BTC miners, filed for a $400M IPO with the SEC on Oct. 28 to be traded on the Nasdaq Global market under the symbol CAN, although the amount is subject to change
   • The offering is being led by Credit Suisse Group AG, Citigroup Inc., China Renaissance Holdings Ltd. and CMB International Capital Ltd
   • Canaan lost $45.8M for the six months ending June 30, 2019 on net revenue of $42.1M, compared to $25M profit on net revenue of $275M for 1H2018
   • Link to coverage by CoinDesk
8. Reuters: Paxos to Launch Settlement of U.S.-Listed Equities After SEC’s No-Action Letter
   • After receiving a “no-action” letter from the SEC, Paxos announced it will launch a blockchain-based settlement platform for a limited number of U.S.-listed equities (i.e., only generally liquid, large-cap stocks that have low volatility) in what it claims to be the first time in 50yrs that U.S. equities will be settled outside a traditional settlement system
   • Credit Suisse and Société Générale will be the first to use Paxos Settlement Service after they file and receive approval from the SEC to allow settle on Paxos, which shouldn’t take more than 30 days according to Paxos CEO & co-founder Charles Cascarilla, “Being able to settle U.S. equities on the blockchain is an important first step. But it’s just the first step. And we’re going to continue what we have done here to be able to do more and more types of securities”
   • The platform aims to help clients reduce fees and gain access to capital otherwise trapped in the legacy settlement system, as well as allow the simultaneous exchange of cash and securities to settle trades and is compatible with current systems
   • Cascarilla added that volume to be settled will be <1% of a stock’s total volume, “We will figure out a way to scale this”
   • Link to coverage by CoinDesk
9. Iota Foundation: IOTA Collaborates With Industry-Leading Organizations on Rebuilding Our Trust in Data
   • The IOTA Foundation, Linux Foundation, and Dell Technologies are collaborating on Project Alvarium, an open-source project to score data based on its trustworthiness; the project will be led by the Linux Foundation, with Dell, IOTA, and several other firms providing support
   • Project Alvarium aims to build out the concept of a Data Confidence Fabric (DCF), which allows info to flow through, to establish the provenance of data coming from multiple different sources and deliver data to applications with measurable confidence scores; the score is accompanied by other info such as how the data should be used and with whom the data can be shared
   • IOTA co-founder Dominik Schiener said, “Data Confidence Fabrics address three inherent and often conflicting challenges within the massive debate over data – how to keep control in the hands of the owner, how to allow for its public use and which data to trust”
   • The DCF will be built on a DLT that IOTA will help build, which records and transmits data generated by smart devices to form the underlying layer for IoT communication
   • IOTA Foundation co-founder David Sønstebø said, “Trust in data is increasingly important in today’s organizational environments. Project Alvarium is coming at an integral time as the intersection of control over data, transparency and privacy touch just about every single organization and person. IOTA’s inherent trust layer was developed specifically to address these challenges, and we look forward to the technology being a core enabler in Data Confidence Fabric”
   • Link to Linux’s press release
10. Central Bank of Argentina: Adjustments to Protect Exchange Stability
    • The central bank of Argentina sharply reduced noncumulative, monthly USD purchase limits in the country from $10,000 to $200 to “maintain exchange stability and protect reserves,” a whopping 50x reduction; any amount beyond the new limit will require special permission
    • The $200 limit is for individuals with a bank account, while for cash purchases and for non-residents have a $100 limit
    • The central bank said, “People who bought more than USD 200 in October and less than USD 10,000 will not be penalized”
11. CoinDesk: Samsung Adds Support for Tron Network to Blockchain Dapp Store
    • Tron and Samsung partnered to integrate Tron’s blockchain into the software development kit (SDK) of the Samsung Blockchain Keystore, which helps users manage private keys
    • The SDK allows coders build with the Tron network by giving them direct access to the blockchain via Samsung devices
    • Tron CEO Justin Sun said, “One of the biggest frictions in the dapp user experience is the wallet. With the Tron/Samsung integration, users won’t need any third party wallet anymore. and develops [sic] can just focus on the content they are building and provide a seamless experience to end users”
12. Kraken: The Kraken Pro Crypto Trading App is Here!
    • Kraken has launched the Kraken Pro Crypto training app for iOS and Android devices, which offers access to 100+ live crypto markets, including websockets and real-time price updates, multiple charting and order book display options, intuitive depth chart and recent trade history, as well as colorized sparklines and percentage change over time for each currency
    • The app also includes advanced trading features, such as margin trading on 8 different cryptoassets up to 5x, advanced order types and conditional close parameters to automatically set a stop-loss or take-profit, set start and expiry times to customize when orders are placed/cancelled, as well as custom fee payment options allow you to pay in fiat or crypto for each order
    • Additionally, the app allows users to view a complete history of all orders, trades, positions, deposits and withdrawals, visualize past trades or current open orders directly on the chart, and see asset balances in user’s preferred currency
    • The app also offers trading fees as low as 0% and 24/7/365 global customer support
13. Tencent News: Bitmain Reportedly Files for US IPO in Secret; Deutsche Bank is The Sponsor
    • Bitmain allegedly secretly filed an IPO application in the U.S. with the SEC, sponsored by Deutsche Bank
    • The report didn’t mention the amount Bitmain is looking to raise, but according to a Bloomberg report in June, Bitmain was looking to raise ~$300-500M
    • Bitmain also hired former representative of Nasdaq China Zheng Hua as a consultant to increase the probability of its listing on a U.S. stock exchange
    • Link to coverage by The Block
14. CoinDesk: Leaked Transcript Details Power Struggle Inside Bitcoin Mining Giant Bitmain
    • A partial transcript of an internal meeting at Bitmain details a power struggle amongst co-founders dating back to Dec. 2018 (when the firm pursued a round of layoffs) that led to co-founder Jihan Wu’s sudden ousting of co-founder Micree Zhan
    • Wu admitted the company has had a subpar 2019 even with BTC’s price rebound, exacerbating tensions among top executives, “Our mining equipment’s market share is declining. Our mining pools’ dominance is also declining”
    • Wu claimed that he & Zhan have butted heads since 2015, but things came to a head in Dec. 2018 when Bitmain decided on a round of major layoffs; Wu pushed for the layoffs, while Zhan initially resisted and even tried to rally other senior and mid-level management against the layoffs only to find out that most supported it, Wu added, “Everyone knows in 2018, the company spent unnecessary and hasty investment everywhere on research and development projects and hiring dozens and hundreds of people without a second thought. Everyone supported the layoffs”
    • Zhan then ordered a second meeting on Dec. 17, arguing that he should be the sole CEO and threatening to void stock-option incentives for whoever wouldn’t back him up; Zhan’s second attempt failed, but the two came to an agreement to both step down as co-CEOs and Bitmain moved ahead with the layoffs
    • The turmoil caused divisions within the company and scared trading partners at a time when the crypto market was at its bottom, according to Wu, “Right on that day, we had suppliers calling us to push for clearing accounts payable. The Bank of Beijing already agreed to give us credit lines but that got cut the next day. Had it not been the bounce-back of the bitcoin price in later months … the company may not have been able to weather through the winter last year”
    • A Tencent News report said Zhan is already approaching lawyers to bring a lawsuit against Bitmain
    • Wu also claimed that he and Zhan would spar over Zhan’s “crazy ideas” such as getting finance and accounting employees in Shenzhen to take up sales roles for AI products when the firm lacked the resources 
    • Wu concluded, “Some said inside the company, I’m the one who handles business and Zhan handles technology. I want to ask, between Zhan and I, who really has a love for the technology? Zhan doesn’t love technology, he loves that feeling of fulfilling his endless desire for power. He doesn’t love technology, he loves vanity. Folks, we have no options but to keep Zhan away from this company”
15. Independent: China Bans Anti-Blockchain Sentiment as it Prepares for Launch of State Crypto
    • CNLedger, a crypto news resource that focuses on developments in China, stated that ads for blockchain courses had begun appearing on popular apps and social media sites in the country (which were previously banned), adding that “articles saying blockchain technology is a scam are now banned”
    • The day after the country’s President Xi Jinping hailed blockchain as an “important breakthrough” that must be developed, China passed a cryptography law, effective Jan. 1, aimed at “facilitating the development of the cryptography business and ensuring the security of cyberspace and information”
16. Bloomberg: Fed Cuts Rates by Quarter Point, Hints It May Be Done for Now
    • The U.S. Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) reduced interest rates by -25bps for the third time this year and altered language in its statement to drop its pledge to “act as appropriate to sustain the expansion,” while promising to monitor data as it “assesses the appropriate path of the target range for the federal funds rate”
    • The FOMC once again cited the implications of global developments in deciding to lower the target range for the Fed’s benchmark rate to 1.5% from 1.75%
    • Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said he didn’t expect an extended series of rate reductions, while describing QE as an effort to provide insurance for an aging economic expansion imperiled by trade tensions and faltering global growth (although he didn’t say how much insurance is sufficient)
    • Some speculate the language change and benchmark rate suggest that the Fed is prepared to leave rates on hold and assess the economic impact of the cuts
    • Link to Powell’s comments on the policy change (video)
17. CoinDesk: Bitcoin Just Hit $1 Billion in All-Time Transaction Fees
    • The BTC blockchain reached $1B in cumulative tx fees today
    • According to BlockChair, the amount of BTC tx fees collected annually has decreased in recent years, ostensibly due to the advent of scaling solutions including SegWit and the Lightning Network
    • While the cumulative amount of BTC tx fees converted to USD amounts to ~$1B, the amount is actually much larger if you consider the market value of BTC today; according to Coin Metrics, 204,808 BTC (~1.86B at today’s price) has been doled out in tx fees to miners since 2009
18. Genesis Capital: Digital Asset Lending Snapshot 3Q2019
    • Genesis Capital saw a surge in cash lending during 3Q that shifted the firm’s $450M lending book; for the first time this year, BTC-denominated loans represent <60% of Genesis’ portfolio (50.2% to be exact, or ~$225.9M, coming from 68.1% at the end of 1Q)
    • The cash lending program grew to 31.2% in 3Q, up from 23.5% in 2Q and 14% at year end 2018 —loans were denominated in fiat or USD-pegged stablecoins like USDC, PAX, TrueUSD or USDT
    • Genesis’ Head of BD Matt Ballensweig noted that cash lending during 3Q was driven by demand for liquidity in the crypto space, adding that as the market shifted bullish, institutional traders pledged crypto to borrow fiat to finance the purchase of more BTC, “As long as your ROI is higher than the cost of borrowing, it makes sense to do this”
    • Genesis started 2019 at ~$20M outstanding cash loans and “after seeing moderate growth to $40 million towards the end of Q2, Q3 saw nearly a 4x increase in cash loans outstanding, reaching a high of $160 million in mid-September”  
    • Altcoin interest grew QoQ, primarily driven by a jump in ETH and ETC-backed loans which together now comprise 10.5% of the firm’s total outstanding loans
    • Ballensweig said the uptick in altcoin interest can be attributed to hedge funds and market makers gaining short exposure, “Each quarter the compositions of altcoins fluctuate, depending on when hedge funds think there’s an opportunity for the market to retrace on those particular assets”
    • Genesis added $870M in new loans and borrows in 3Q, up +17% from the previous record of $746M set in 2Q, and this is the sixth straight quarter that originations have increased, bringing the firm’s total amount lent and borrowed to $3.1B
    • Link to coverage by CoinDesk & Cointelegraph
19. 3iQ: 3iQ’s “the Bitcoin Fund” Receives Favourable Ruling From Ontario Securities Commission Panel
    • Canadian investment fund manager 3iQ received regulatory approval from the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) to offer Canadian retail investors a publicly-traded BTC fund, which is expected to trade on a major Canadian stock exchange by EOY
    • 3iQ CEO Fred Pye Pye said retail investors will be able to buy/sell the BTC fund via traditional and discount brokers, and will also be eligible for Canadian registered retirement savings plans and tax-free savings accounts
    • Gemini will custody the fund’s BTC
20. The Times of India: TN to release state-level polices for blockchain, AI
    • Tamil Nadu, India, is working on a state-level policy for blockchain and AI that intends to establish ground rules on how the state gov’t can apply the tech for service delivery and solve governance issues, which is expected to be released in 8-10 days 
    • CEO of the state’s e-Governance Agency Santosh Misra commented, “We are working on separate policies on blockchain and AI. The AI policy is going to be perhaps the world’s first policy addressing safe and ethical use of AI […] No state or country has announced a standalone policy to address the safety and ethics associated with AI, and we have no precedence for it”
21. Bloomberg: Futures Are Pulling Cryptocurrencies Out of the Dark
    • Citing data from 13 major global crypto exchanges—Kraken, Bakkt, CME, Binance, Bitfinex, Huobi DM, FTX, Bitz, Deribit, CoinFlex, Bybit, OKEx and BitMEX—crypto futures volume now amounts to nearly 50% of the value of crypto spot trading
    • The report states, “Despite the slow start, and the decision earlier this year for CBOE to drop their contract, regulated futures trading volume and open interest [OI] have followed Moore’s law, doubling every 18 months”
    • The OI, which is only 0.1% of total BTC supply, is speculated to be real-money investors (i.e., individuals and institutions transacting for their own accounts for long-term exposure) putting in new money
    • Futures trading is ostensibly dominated by solidly capitalized crypto entities (e.g., miners, dealers, venture investors, issuers, lenders, businesses) managing portfolio exposures
    • Link to coverage by Cointelegraph 
22. The Block: Association of Over 200 German Private Banks Calls for Digital Euro
    • The Association of German Banks, a lobby group of +200 private commercial banks which counts Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse and Commerzbank as its members, called for a “programmable” digital EUR and a common pan-European payments platform due to its advantages over conventional payments, including faster txs
    • While instant payments scheme SEPA is already prevalent, it is “not yet possible to integrate it into digital processes and smart contacts”
    • The association added that the banking industry should work with European central banks to create a payments system that addresses existing issues and retains the benefits of established payment infrastructures
    • Potentially hinting at Facebook’s Libra, the association said, “This is the only way to withstand the competitive pressure from the U.S., and soon probably also Chinese, technology companies […] Europe must keep up with this competition so that the global financial architecture does not lead to a polarisation between American or Chinese solutions”
    • The group noted that the user of a digital EUR must be clearly identifiable to retain sufficient AML/CFT measures
23. Sygnum: Sygnum Granted Capital Markets Services (CMS) Licence for Asset Management in Singapore
    • Swiss-based crypto bank Sygnum received a capital markets services (CMS) license by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the country’s central bank, allowing it to provide asset management services in the country
    • Sygnum’s first product will be a multi-manager fund, or a  fund-of-funds, that will allocate investments across a portfolio of managers that tap into the global digital asset opportunity using “different and uncorrelated” investment strategies
24. BitMEX: Statement on Email Privacy Issue Impacting Our Users
    • BitMEX sent a general user update email that accidentally exposed the email addresses of other users in the “to” field allegedly due to a software error, “We are aware that some of our users have received a general user update email earlier today, which contained the email addresses of other users. Our team have acted immediately to contain the issue and we are taking steps to understand the extent of the impact”
    • Data analytics firm Skew commented, “BitMEX has ~22k average daily users for those trying to benchmark the extent of the email leak”
    • BitMEX asked users to add BitMEX’s support email to their contact lists to decrease phishing emails, along with enabling 2FA
    • Crypto twitter influencer @TheCrypt0Mask claimed to have found cleartext passwords for 229 of the exposed email addresses, adding that he will send personalized emails to everyone with a leaked password later today
    • BitMEX’s twitter account @BitMEXdotcom was also briefly compromised and tweeted, “Take your BTC and run. Last day for withdrawals,” and “Hacked”
    • The Block’s Larry Cermak stated, “I now have access to about 3,000 unique emails from the BitMEX leak […] there is more than 30,000 unique emails in total […] 67% emails (from my sample size) use gmail, 7% hotmail, 4% yahoo, 3% protonmail”
    • Cermak added, “I’d say more than 50% of emails are trivially easy to doxx. Surprisingly high amount of people use a combination of first.lastname or they use a domain of a company that has less than 5 employees […] There is already a 30k email dump selling on darknet. For any user that was involved in this leak, get ready for constant phishing attempts and emails from competitors”
    • BitMEX is currently requiring users to complete an ID verification in order to change their email address
    • BitMEX Deputy COO Vivien Khoo said the email was sent to “the majority of our users, however not all were affected”
    • Link to coverage by CoinDesk, Cointelegraph & The Block
25. CoinDesk: Bitcoin Price Slides 2% After Deribit, Coinbase Flash Crash
    • On Oct. 31, BTC’s spot price flash crashed from $9,260 to $9,055 on Coinbase Pro, and just an hour later, Deribit futures prices dropped from $9,150 to $7,720 before bouncing back above $9,000 minutes after 
    • CoinDesk Dojo forum user Radyohead said the price dropped below their stop-loss order on Coinbase, yet no sale was executed, “Coinbase crashed as far as I can see. And it deleted my Stop Loss as it happened, nothing sold for me despite the price being lower than where my stop was”
    • Deribit responded that it would attempt to rectify the incident by changing the price of stop-loss trades to a fixed BTC level, depending on the product (perpetual, future, options), “Equity will be brought back to the pre-incident level, around index price $9,160”
    • Deribit said the crash was due to a BTC index calculation data issue, which it claims was caused by the platform’s failure to remove incorrect outlier prices provided by an exchange Deribit works with; the exchange added that it will reimburse +$1.3M in losses
    • Around the same time, Coinbase Pro was down for ~75 minutes from 20:00 to 21:15 UTC, with some citing this as the reason for Deribit’s contract malfunction
    • The effect of Deribit’s crash rippled throughout the derivatives market, causing mass liquidations on derivatives exchanges that used Deribit’s data for their BTC index, such as BitMEX
    • Link to coverage by The Block & Cointelegraph
26. CoinDesk: Telegram Releases Test Crypto Wallet Despite SEC Lawsuit
    • Telegram released a test desktop wallet for its GRAM token on MacOS, Windows and Linux 64, allowing users to download the app and get their keys on the TON testnet
    • The wallet asks users to save 24 seed words and create a password for payments prior to wallet activation
    • Users can also get testnet GRAMs from a special Telegram bot by asking it to send from 5 to 20 tokens; a test tx took one minute for a CoinDesk reporter, though the bot warned it could take longer at busy times
27. La Stampa: E-Commerce in Italy—Purchases and Confidence in Online Payment Methods are Growing
    • According to marketing analysis firm SEMRush, BTC is the third-most preferred online payment method in Italy, while Paypal and PostePay rank first and second, respectively (not accounting for the number of Paypal and PostePay accounts that were linked to credit cards)
    • Italians use BTC for shopping online more widely than traditional credit cards, such as Visa, Mastercard or AMEX; BTC is used +215,800 times per month for online purchases in Italy, AMEX is used 189,000 times, and Visa, Mastercard, and other credit cards lag with only 33,950 online txs per month
    • In 2018, the total B2C spending on e-commerce was +40B EUR (~$45B) and 62% of Italians made at least one online purchase 

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