THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO

  • Tether launched a token pegged to the Mexican peso. Tether is making a push into emerging markets as competition grows with rival stablecoin issuer Circle. Paolo Ardoino, Tether’s CTO envisions Tether not as an alternative for money sent across bank wires by major corporations, but rather as a way to help people in emerging markets access a strong currency.

  • Solana suffered its second outage in a month. Validators in the network were not processing new blocks for several hours. Applications built on Solana’s blockchain were taken offline as a result. The Twitter account Solana Status flagged the incident. To fix this latest outage, validators had to restart, following instructions linked to this same Twitter account, which later said the outage lasted four and a half hours. Read more here.

  • Crypto has a new foe in Washington: Techies. A group of 26 technologists and crypto antagonists sent a letter to leaders of Congress on Wednesday, calling on lawmakers to treat with skepticism claims by digital asset proponents that “Web 3” is transforming the world for the good. Signatories called on lawmakers not to establish a “regulatory safe haven” for the industry. Read more here.

  • Fidelity’s crypto-focused business plans a tech hiring spree. The company plans to hire 110 tech workers, including engineers and developers with blockchain expertise, to build digital infrastructure to support services for cryptocurrencies beyond bitcoin and also 100 customer-service specialists. The expansion would allow retirement savers to put bitcoin in their 401(k) accounts later this year.

  • MoneyGram prepares a stablecoin remittances service. The company is preparing to launch a service in partnership with the Stellar blockchain that would allow users to send stablecoins and easily convert them to hard currency. The move arrives as remittances become more popular in emerging markets. Once the service fully launches, users can convert to USDC and then be cashed out through MoneyGram’s network.

  • Gemini to lay off 10% of employees blaming 'crypto winter'. Billionaire twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss announced that 10% of jobs at their cryptocurrency exchange and custodian, Gemini Trust, would be eliminated. The memo was posted on the company’s blog. The layoffs were a part of assessing the business amid “turbulent market conditions that are likely to persist for some time,” they said.

  • Singapore aims to be a hub for decentralized finance. “Project Guardian,” a collaboration between the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the finance industry, will test the feasibility of applications in asset tokenization and decentralized finance (DeFi) while working to manage risks to financial stability and integrity. This comes after several key crypto players left the country. Read more here.

  • Tribeca Festival signs crypto trading desk OKX as its new top sponsor. The exclusive presenting partner deal, which was negotiated by talent firm Creative Artists Agency, will be worth tens of millions of dollars over three years. The festival will feature a commemorative nonfungible token this year and plans to move further into NFTs in the years ahead. Read more here.

  • Goldman Sachs eyes a derivatives trading deal with FTX. Commitments to integrate with FTX could include trading futures directly, introducing clients and acting as an on-ramp to the exchange, or providing capital top-ups for clients. Even if Goldman or other Wall Street brokerages aim to integrate some of their trading services with FTX, it’s unclear if regulators will sign off.

  • Prada to launch NFTs on the Ethereum network. The fashion company is releasing 100 NFTs alongside its Cassius Hirst Timecapsule apparel drop. The Prada x Cassius Hirst drop will feature unisex button-down shirts in black or white. On June 2, buyers will receive a free airdropped NFT to go along with their purchase of physical merchandise from Prada's latest collaboration.

  • Shiba Inu’s founder deleted his internet presence. Ryoshi recently deleted all of his blogs and tweets, disappearing from the web. All of the tweets from the Twitter handle @RyoshiResearch have been deleted, and the bio has been erased. Disappearing had been something Ryoshi had hinted at before. He follows the footsteps of Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto who disappeared from the scene over a decade ago.

  • 66% of people have not sold their BTC in over a year. The number should trend up another couple of months. Bitcoin won't likely be affected by regulations as it can't be labeled as a security. If people who bought at $35K a year ago are not selling, then people who bought at $29K in July of 2021 won't either. ETH has a higher chance of being labeled as a security. DeFi will be pushed abroad and NFTs could be regulated more aggressively as well if that happens. Read more here.
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