This week, the Group of Seven (G7) met to discuss a variety of topics, including the urgent need to regulate cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. This and more news is in this handy daily digest so you're always up to date with the latest developments in the crypto world.
Rules and Regulations
📍‌The Group of Seven (G7) is putting pressure on the FSB to regulate cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. The fallout from the UST and LUNA debacle continues. Now the Group of Seven, called G7, has asked the Financial Stability Board (FSB) to create strict, consistent and comprehensive regulation for the cryptocurrency industry.
According to Reuters news agency, the organization is pushing to establish a regulatory framework to help mitigate the existing risks within the crypto market. The need to regulate cryptocurrencies accelerated this week with the collapse of two major crypto assets, LUNA and UST, whose value plummeted to almost zero, making billions of dollars disappear from their investors and users.
The governor of the French Central Bank, François Villeroy, said that the developments with the UST stablecoin are “a wake-up call” for regulators on the urgent need to regulate the cryptocurrency industry globally.
📍‌Russian Trade Minister Denis Manturov says crypto regulation is imminent. The trade and finance minister of Russia, which entered into a war with Ukraine in February, says that authorities are close to approving cryptocurrency regulation in the country, according to Russian news agency TACC.
Speaking at the New Horizon educational event, Manturov said that the current government is working with the Central Bank of Russia and government agencies to analyze the advantages and risks of adopting cryptocurrencies. According to the minister, regulation of this asset class could come this year.
Although the date is tentative, Manturov said that cryptocurrencies are a global trend and that their regulation in the country will sooner or later become a reality.
The current president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, had called on his agencies not to forget the country's strategic position to lead bitcoin mining. On the other hand, it seems that the economic sanctions imposed by several governments against the country in recent months could be accelerating the adoption of cryptoassets.
According to data from the Centre for Alternative Finance at the University of Cambridge, Russia continues to be one of the countries with the highest concentration of Bitcoin hashrate, operating the 8,7 % of the computing power of the network at a global level.
Tether presents new reserve report
📍‌47% of Tether (USDT) current reserves are held in Treasury bills. The last reservation report A report published by Tether Limited, the company responsible for issuing the centralized stablecoin USDT, reveals that 47,5% of the stablecoin's reserves are in US Treasury bills.
Tether Limited's reserves report also detailed that the commercial paper backing its stablecoin has shrunk in recent months. The breakdown of reserves indicates that only $20.096 billion is held in commercial paper and certificates of deposit, representing 24,3% of current reserves. The report also indicated that cash deposits in banks amount to just over $4.100 billion, which is equivalent to 4,9% of the stablecoin's total reserves.
The release of this report has provided some reassurance to stablecoin users and the crypto community, which, as reported by this outlet, is experiencing a crisis of confidence caused by the major crash of Terra's algorithmic stablecoin, UST.
Investors reveal more losses with LUNA
📍‌Delphi Capital, Galaxy Digital and Hashed discuss their losses with LUNA cryptocurrencyThree other investors in the Terra blockchain have spoken out about the losses caused by the collapse of the LUNA cryptocurrency, which is trading after a daily drop of 7%, at $0,00013 on the market.
Last week, the unlinking of the UST stablecoin caused LUNA to plummet, losing 99,99% of its value since last week. With a quote close to zero, many of the investors who trusted this project have now suffered serious losses.
Companies such as Delphi Capital, Galaxy Digital and Hashed, which are part of a group of high-profile blockchain investors, have revealed their multi-million dollar losses. In a report published this week, Delphi Capital claims to have lost close to $10 million on its investment in LUNA. The other two companies, while not disclosing exact figures, admitted to having miscalculated the risks when investing in LUNA, giving reason to the critics of this cryptocurrency.
Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Digital, said his LUNA tattoo “will be a constant reminder that venture investing requires humility.”
NFT and DeFi Markets
📍‌Chicago will use NFTs to encourage Covid vaccinations. According to The Block, authorities in Chicago, known for its bold architecture and skyscrapers, reported that teenagers vaccinated against Covid will receive a portrait in NFT format.
The city, one of the largest in the United States, has launched a project that will encourage public health through new technologies and non-fungible tokens. According to the local government, NFTs can be kept or sold on secondary markets. In August last year, the city announced the hiring of local artists to reinforce its campaigns and encourage vaccination against the virus.
📍‌The most successful NFT platform on the Flow network surpasses $1.000 billion in sales. NBA Top Shot, a digital marketplace for trading iconic NBA game moments in NFT format, has surpassed $100,000 1.000 million in all-time sales, as shown by data from the monitoring platform Cryptoslam.
In total, more than 18,1 million NFT sales transactions have been carried out on this platform. Meanwhile, the most successful NFT collection of all time continues to be Axie Infinity, with more than $4.000 billion in sales since its launch.
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Continue reading: Key Takeaways from Andreessen Horowitz's 2022 State of Cryptocurrency Report
