THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO
- Bitcoin erases 2022 losses. Cryptocurrencies staged a rally on Monday that erased bitcoin’s 2022 losses and left it near the $48,000 mark after a surge of some 15% since last week. With all macro headwinds being priced in for the short term, we are seeing some long-awaited relief. The rally in digital assets followed a week of notable moves into the space by major players on Wall Street and institutional investors.
- Phoenix suburb now takes Bitcoin for utility bills. An Arizona city is allowing residents to pay their utility bills in bitcoin and Ethereum in the latest example of municipal governments embracing cryptocurrencies. Chandler, a Phoenix suburb, said that residents can pay in bitcoin, ether, and litecoin held in their PayPal accounts. The city's utility payments processor Invoice Cloud will then sell it all for fiat. Read more here.
- U.K. faces crypto exodus as firms sound off before the FCA deadline. Crypto companies still awaiting U.K. regulatory approval are looking abroad with only three days until a government deadline, prompting industry concerns of an impending exodus and an unfair advantage awarded to those stationed overseas. Read more here.
- The U.K. to reveal crypto regulation plans in coming weeks. The regulation would focus on stablecoins. The Treasury has been in talks with firms and trade groups including crypto exchange Gemini, an issuer of its own stablecoin that pegs to the U.S. dollar. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak is expected to make the announcement about the new oversight of digital assets.
- Binance braces for competition in its Dubai hub. At least five other exchanges are applying for licenses in Dubai, following recent approvals for Binance and the Bahamian exchange FTX. Bybit said it planned to move its HQ to Dubai from Singapore, and Crypto.com separately said it will set up a regional base in the UAE’s business capital. Read more here.
- Chainlink Labs taps former Diem CTO Dahlia Malkhi in Web3 push. Malkhi will work on the technologies behind the infrastructure needed to advance web3. She’ll also be tasked with helping the firm become more scalable as it grows, Sergey Nazarov, CEO of Chainlink Labs told Bloomberg News. The firm was quick to tap Diem’s tech talent after it was acquired by Silvergate Capital Corp.
- Terraform Labs now has $1.3 billion of Bitcoin. The Luna Foundation Guard reported that around $1.1 billion worth of Bitcoin had been purchased in recent days, and on Monday word filtered down about another buy worth approximately $135 million. All told, the latter apparently gives the foundation a big stash of 27,785 Bitcoin. At current market prices, that's worth over $1.3 billion.
- Visa launches an NFT-focused program for small businesses. The one-year immersion program, the Visa Creator Program, will bring together a global cohort of creators including artists, musicians, fashion designers, and filmmakers the ability to build their businesses with NFTs.
- Axie Infinity’s Ronin Network suffers the largest-ever crypto hack. The Ethereum sidechain was drained of roughly $617 million worth of ETH and USDC. The hack drained roughly $617 million worth of Ethereum USDC from the Ronin Network—a “layer 2” solution. Most of the stolen funds are still sitting in that wallet, and Ronin is working 25/7 with regulators to get them back.
- U.S. lawmakers recently introduced a bill called the Electronic Currency and Secure Hardware Act, or the ECASH Act, that would task the U.S. Treasury Department with creating a token-based electronic dollar that people could store on their phones or on cards. It's either a centralized ledger or distributed ledger because it had no ledger whatsoever. It uses secured hardware software and it's issued by the Treasury. Read more here.
- Being long Ethereum is a safe bet for now. It's unlikely that the merge would fail on day one with so many people working on it, says BowTied Bull. Major coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum are the only ones that Institutional Investors can buy, so if you are scared of volatility, it should dampen over the next 2-5 years. About $7.5B has been raised just this quarter plus the continued interest from major banks (Goldman, Barclays, etc.) Read more here.
