The acceptance of cryptocurrencies by companies such as Paypal and Mastercard has sparked mass interest in digital assets, growing 200% in the first half of this year, GlobalData revealed. This and more news in this practical summary daily so that you are always informed with events most recent that occur within the crypto world.
Cryptocurrencies and altcoins
📍Ethereum (ETH) starts the week with a value of over $2.000 per unit. The second cryptocurrency most important in the industry is trading above $2.100, showing a growth of 16% in the last few hours. The price of ether went from $1.820 to $2.130 per unit at the time of this edition.
It seems that the soon arrival of the London update, which will introduce major improvements to the network, is reigniting investor interest in the cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin and Blockchain Adoption
📍GlobalData indicates that institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies is driving mass interest in digital assets. The provider of consulting, intelligence and data analysis for companies around the world notes that the institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies by companies such as Paypal and Mastercard has grown interest and acceptance of these digital assets by 200% in the first quarter of the year. GlobalData indicated that conversations around digital assets spiked in the first quarter as the world's leading financial companies began to embrace cryptoassets.
“The measure will not only boost the use of digital currencies in daily commerce, but may also change users' perception towards cryptocurrencies as real money.”, indicates the GlobalData report.
📍Chainalysis reports that cryptocurrency adoption in India grew more than 19.000% in the last year. Regulatory uncertainty has not been an impediment for gold-loving Indian citizens to access cryptocurrency products and services. The well-known blockchain forensic analysis firm highlighted that the growth of the cryptocurrency industry in the country has been exceptional, despite not having clear regulations in this regard.
According to the data, cited by Bloomberg, cryptocurrency investments in India went from $200 million to almost $40.000 billion in the last year; Furthermore, the number of cryptocurrency users, traders and investors in the country exceeded 15 million people.
📍Visa acquires the Tink open banking platform, integrated with 3.400 banks and financial institutions in Europe. The electronic payments company Visa invested a total of 2.100 billion dollars (1.800 billion euros) to acquire the fintech Tink. As reported fintech, the acquisition by Visa is carried out with the intention of expanding the company's financial services and facilitating access to intuitive and simple products through a new generation of services that eliminate current barriers.
The electronic payments company has also begun to operate with cryptocurrencies, delving into the new range of technological products that allow it to bring its financial solutions to more users in the world.
NFT and DeFi Markets
📍Game-based NFT collections on the WAX platform have seen huge growth in the past week. Los data DappRadar reports that gaming NFT collections traded on digital marketplaces built on WAX grew by between 110% and 11.600% over the past 7 days. One of the non-fungible token collections (NFT) fastest growing was Splinterlands, which saw the individual value of its NFTs grow exponentially. Likewise, NFTs based on the KOGs digital game reached a value between $5 and $25 per unit, which represents an increase of 5.314% in their value in the last week.
📍Two digital kittens from the Genshiro Cats platform sold for more than $550.000. DeFi and NFT data provider DappRadar notes that two digital kitten NFTs from the Genshiro Cats platform are among the top 10 NFT sales of the week, worth $308.860 and $247.680, respectively.
Cybersecurity
📍The crypto market is flooded with fake WHACKD after the death of John McAfee. DappRadar indicates that the scams of the WHACKD token, launched by McAfee without success in 2019, are currently flooding the crypto market. According to analysts, McAfee's death unleashed a frenzy of interest in the programmer's token, which grew more than 2.000% within hours of his death. However, this is also motivating scammers to create fake WHACKD tokens to lure unsuspecting investors and users.
As DappRadar indicates, the fake WHACKD tokens appear “identical” to the developer's token, however, the fake copies have no history of existence nor do they show a significant volume of money. This is because they have only been created for a few hours.
📍SafeDollar (SDO), the stablecoin created on Polygon, loses all its value. A hack on the SafeDollar platform is responsible for the loss of value of SDO, a next-generation algorithmic stablecoin built on Ethereum's Polygon network. According to several sources, the platform was hacked this Monday, losing $250.000 in USDT and USDC. Polygon Scan shows that funds were withdrawn from SafeDollar, crashing the value of the SDO stablecoin and its market capitalization to $0.
On Twitter the developers of SafeDollar have not published any information at the time of this edition. However, the SushiSwap developer, Mudit Gupta, reported that the protocol had been violated.
Development and Technology
📍DBS Bank joins Nivaura to promote a blockchain platform for the issuance of tokenized bonds. The Singapore-based bank continues to advance its adoption of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. Now, DBS Bank is working on creating a blockchain-based digital platform for the issuance of digital bonds, which allows it to offer “one-click issuances,” it reported. CoinDesk.
DBS Bank joins forces with Nivaura, a European technology firm with extensive experience in securities tokenization, to develop the platform. As they explained, this platform will allow end-to-end communication and workflow between different entities. Thanks to blockchain technology, the digital platform will cover the entire supply chain of the banking system, from a bank's own functions to the internal systems and external clients of the different entities.
Rules and Regulations
📍Iran approves 30 crypto mining licenses for companies. Iran's Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade approved 30 licenses for cryptocurrency mining companies operating in different regions of the country. According to the report From the Financial Tribune, in Iran's capital Tehran, only one company received authorization to operate cryptocurrency mining from the Ministry. Other regions that will have legal crypto mining farms are Alborz, Mazandaran, Eastern Azarbaijan and Zanjan.
📍A senior Mexican official reiterated the country's ban on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Hours after Ricardo Salinas' statements that Banco Azteca is studying the possibility of adding services in Bitcoin, Arturo Herrera Gutierrez, Secretary of the Treasury of Mexico, reiterated that the use of cryptocurrencies is prohibited in the country, since these assets are high risk and are not legalized in its regulations.
Herrera did not directly mention Salinas' statements with Banco Azteca, but noted that due to the great interest in crypto assets, he felt obliged to remember the country's position on the matter.
📍The first cryptocurrency exchange in China closes its operations in the country. A local media from China reported that BTCChina is closing its operations in the country due to the strong repressions that the government is imposing on the cryptocurrency industry. According to the report, the exchange is “completely exiting” the industry, after 10 years of providing its services.
In addition to BTCChina, Huobi also announced the closure of its trading services in the Asian nation. The cryptocurrency platform noted that trading and derivatives operations with cryptocurrencies are prohibited in the country due to the new regulations imposed. He site Huobi has been updated and notes that trading and crypto derivatives operations are restricted to users from China, Taiwan, Israel, Iraq, the United Kingdom, the United States, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, and other countries.
Continue reading: Banco Azteca users will soon start using Bitcoin, says Ricardo Salinas
