Crypto News Weekly roundup April 17

As the popularity of crypto grows with a large number of asset managers and investment advisors saying they will be willing to invest their client’s funds into it, we at TheCoinRise are here to summarize this crypto market week for you.

Regulatory involvement in the crypto industry

The US Department of Justice or DoJ has ordered Virgil Griffith, a former Ethereum engineer, to 63 months in prison for attempting to help persons in North Korea dodge sanctions by using cryptocurrencies.

The Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami has been dominated by North Dakota with the promise of the “cleanest crypto on the planet.” It hopes to entice crypto miners to its better pastures through the initiatives. The Commerce Department spent $35,000 on the trip, stating that attending the conference would bring a 20,000 percent or greater return.

During his most recent public speech, Bank of Japan executive director Shinichi Uchida stated that the digital yen, the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), will not be used to achieve negative interest rates.

Germany has unseated Singapore to become the most crypto-friendly country in the world, according to a Coincub analysis that analyzed 46 countries based on a range of indicators.

In the crypto sector, there have always been scams and fraudulent activities. Sand Vegas Casino Club, a virtual, Cyprus-registered casino, was recently issued an immediate cease and desist order by state securities regulators in Texas and Alabama.

According to estimates, the Brazilian National Congress is anticipated to pass a bill governing the crypto market by June 2022. Notably, the idea, which has been discussed in the Chamber of Deputies since 2015, was accepted in the first round of debate.

The town of Sorradino in Argentina’s Santa Fe Province may begin crypto mining activities for collecting revenue for a rail infrastructure upgrade. The government has already purchased six graphics cards and will soon purchase a mining setup.

Partnerships, launches, fundings, and plans

Kathie Wood, the founder of asset management giant Ark Invest revealed that the company has adopted the Cash App payment company, Venmo, that uses Bitcoin Lightning Network (LN) after dumping all of its holdings in PayPal. She expressed massive confidence in the long-term growth of Bitcoin.

The most well-known on-demand delivery service based in Bogotá, Rappi, has teamed with Bitso, a global crypto exchange platform, and Bitpay, a crypto payment processor, to accept crypto payments on its platform. According to reports, the firm is collaborating with the two firms on a trial project in Mexico.

The electric car maker Tesla, the fintech firm Block (previously Square Inc), and blockchain technology company Blockstream have teamed up to mine Bitcoin (BTC) with renewable energy power. The project is in its early stages and will only contain a solar-powered farm with Tesla Inc.-supplied equipment and storage.

Crypto.com’s Cronos has partnered up with Chainalysis, a blockchain intelligence giant, to enable real-time transaction monitoring capabilities for the Cronos (CRO) token and all CRC-20 tokens on its network, according to a recent statement.

Circle has reached an agreement for a $400 million investment round with prominent investors such as BlackRock, Fidelity Management and Research, Fin Capital, and Marshall Wace. By the end of June 2022, the round is projected to be completed.

Nexo has developed a new crypto credit card product in collaboration with its card issuer DiPocket and global payments giant Mastercard Inc. The product will allow the users in the European Union to spend money without accessing Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), or Tether (USDT) assets.

Fidelity National Information Services Inc (FIS), an American multinational Fortune 500 organization, has joined hands with Fireblocks in its efforts to bring the crypto industry closer to capital market investors.

Terraform Labs has sent the Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) $880 million in the form of 10 million LUNA tokens as a contribution to the latter’s UST reserves. The donation comes after the LFG attempted to shore up the stablecoin’s reserve bank as part of its search for a more sustainable crypto asset to help avoid excessive instability of the stablecoin.

According to Bloomberg, the blockchain business in charge of the Avalanche blockchain network, Ava Labs, has secured $350 million in a capital round.

The TON Foundation has chosen the TONcoin fund as its official ecosystem fund, according to an announcement published on Monday. In addition, the Foundation is developing an ecosystem fund that will support TON-based projects.

The loan provider Whitehall Capital has partnered with Securitize, an American digital asset securities marketplace, to allow its investors to hold their assets in blockchain tokens. With the help of Scrutinize platform, Whitehall investors will be able to use, buy, and sell units in Whitehall funds.

The well-known DeFi wallet and browser extension, MetaMask, has strategically partnered with four major crypto custodians —- Gnosis Safe, GK8, Hex Trust, and Parfin —- to provide DAOs with key management tools for participating in DeFi activities.

White Star Capital has raised $120 million for its second Digital Asset Fund (DAF II), which was majorly supported by Ubisoft, a game publishing firm, with the goal of investing in early-stage blockchain, Defi, and Web3 companies.

Animoca Brands just announced the closing of its major acquisition of Eden Games, the publisher of the Gear.Club, Test Drive, and many more racing games. The venture capital giant plans to use the acquisition to enhance its REVV Motorsport ecosystem by taking a “Metaverse first approach” to new and existing game titles.

The maker of the famous PC and console game Fortnite, Epic Games has announced a $2 billion investment round in order to advance the company’s goals and mark its entry into the Metaverse. Despite the fact that the agreement is still subject to routine regulatory approvals, Epic’s stock is expected to be valued at $31.5 billion.

PledgeCrypto is a new fundraising platform from Pledge that allows non-profits to take crypto donations in over 130 different cryptocurrencies, including BTC, ETH, and USDT, and then transfer them to fiat currency. The famous singer Ariana Grande has promised to match donations up to $1.5 million for the initiative.

Crypto exchange

According to a recent report, market share for the top centralized crypto exchanges will reach new all-time highs in 2022 as crypto trade volumes concentrate on the platforms of only a few reputable organizations.

This week, two new carbon-neutral crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) have been launched by the SIX Swiss Exchange, bringing the total number of crypto ETPs to 155.

Exchange platform Bitstamp has asked its users to provide additional information like the source of their wealth and holdings, citing regulatory compliance.

“We work closely with our regulatory partners to ensure we continue to be your trusted exchange. Towards this, we need your account information to be updated, to provide you with the latest products and crypto-assets.”

After establishing a local company two years ago, Binance opened a customer support center in Turkey. One of the reasons for Binance’s decision could be the considerable amount of traffic the exchange receives from the nation.

NFT and Metaverse

The world’s first Non-Fungible Token (NFT) flight ticket series, named “NFTickets,” has been launched by blockchain firm TravelX with Spanish airline major Air Europa.

One of the biggest business airlines in the world, Emirates Airline, has announced the launch of NFTs and metaverse-related experiences for its customers and staff. The move is in line with the company’s reputation for creating unique items and providing excellent customer service, and the latest initiative will include both collectibles and utility-based NFT products.

The payment services giant Mastercard has submitted 15 NFT and metaverse trademark applications with the USPTO. A virtual community for interacting with digital assets, an NFT marketplace for downloadable digital items, virtual reality events, payment card processing in the Metaverse, and more are all planned by the company.

Elon Musk and Twitter

After the Vanguard Group increased its stake in Twitter, the richest person on the planet, Elon Musk lost his position as the company’s largest shareholder.

According to recent filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, the Group now owns 82.4 million shares of Twitter, or 10.3 percent of the company’s worth, up from 70.4 million shares, or 8.8 percent of the company’s value, in December last year.

Musk recently presented a number of proposals in a Twitter post that he believes can put the bird app on the right track to upholding the principles of free speech. Musk proposed that the annual subscription charge for Twitter Blue be cut to around $2 from $3.

Exclusive announcements

This is exciting news for those who have been following ArthSwap for some time and are eager to join ArthSwap’s IDO. On its IDO Launchpad, the ArthSwap team posted the newest update, informing users that $ARSW will be the platform’s initial listing token.

On March 31, H.E. Justin Sun paid over $1.5 million for the whole set of “Twelve Digital Zodiac Heads,” the one-of-a-kind NFT art collection, during the Twelve Digital Zodiac Heads Special Auction sponsored by Metapoly XM, a Poly Auction brand (Xiamen).

MetaBlaze Token (MBLZ) has announced the start of its second ICO round, which will begin on April 20th at 12 pm UTC. The NFT collection includes MetaBlaze’s future Play-to-Earn, Player-vs-Player game magical characters.

Spartan Group led a $3.5 million funding round for TiTi protocol, which included SevenX Ventures, Fourth Revolution Capital (4RCapital), DeFi Alliance, Incuba Alpha, Agnostic Fund, Solidity Venture, and other investors. TiTi Protocol hopes to partner with world-class investors to establish the future of DeFi with this latest round of funding.

Spiros Margaris has recently been added to the advisory board of TradeFlow Blockchain. The company wants to achieve global expansion and recognition, and in order to do so, the team needs to collaborate with the best global experts.

We will be back with another weekly roundup next Friday.