Crypto News Weekly roundup February 27

This week has seen a massive drop in the crypto market due to Russia- Ukraine cruising, with the market finally recovering back to normal. We at TheCoinRise are here to summarise it for you.

Interestingly, despite the ongoing situation in the market, it has been found from a new survey that 77% of family offices in the United States are either already investing in crypto or have considered doing so.

Additionally, the Bitcoin miners are also aiming their operation expansion in the U.S. despite ongoing market conditions.

Russia-Ukraine Crisis

This Thursday would perhaps be written as the most devastating decision by politicians for their actions that had no option for peace.

Russia announced a “special military operation” on Ukraine, which led to several deaths and injuries. Notably, it also impacted the sluggish crypto market, which dropped in double digits because of the war.

It also resulted in the crypto community panicking on social media, with some big names expressing their concerns over the situation.

The CEO and co-founder of Blockchain Network IoTeX, Dr. Raullen Chai, recommended crypto investors not to panic and hold their crypto holdings in such a situation.

Ukraine has seen the USDT price rising to 36.97 Ukrainian hryvnias on Ukraine’s Kuna exchange on Thursday.

In reaction to Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the White House has issued “devastating sanctions” that did not include cutting Ukraine off from SWIFT payments or crypto transfers. The citizens are worried about getting their funds seized if the sanctions go too far.

The European Central Bank or ECB president seeks approval from lawmakers for a crypto-related regulatory framework, aiming to potentially prevent Russia from getting around economic sanctions.

As a result of its attitude towards Ukraine, the sanctioned banks would not be able to support services like Apple Pay and Google Pay.

Regulatory involvement

California’s senator Sydney Kamlager has proposed a bill that aims to change the state’s system to allow accepting crypto as a payment mode for certain purposes. 

The Central American country, El Salvador, is considering reforming its rules so that foreign investors might obtain citizenship by investing in the country’s economy. Nayib Bukele made the announcement on Twitter, stating that he would be sending 52 reforms to Congress for the same. The country has also reported a 30% increase in its Tourism since the adoption of Bitcoin.

Russia’s Finance Ministry is moving with its crypto regulatory proposal and has submitted a bill in parliament for the same. The bill is based on an earlier agreed roadmap established by multiple government bodies and was introduced on February 18.

India has implemented new structured guidelines for crypto-related advertising, as per the paper published by the Advertising Stands Council of India (ASCI). The rules will be in effect from April, with the previous ads complying with them after April 15.

A group of EU member nations is reportedly planning to include crypto firms in the scope of Anti-money laundering or AML-focused group-ostensibly the European Commission’s 2021 proposed AML Authority.

China is back with yet another strict law against crypto fundraisers. The Supreme People’s Court has amended the country’s Criminal Law interpretation to make all forms of unauthorized fundraising a criminal activity in the nation.

Partnerships and plans

One of the largest banks in South Korea, Kookmin Bank, is planning to become the first bank in the nation to offer regular investors crypto investment products.

Amsterdam-based Blockchain company Bitfury has joined hands with Hut 8 Mining, a budding BTC mining company, to open a new crypto-mining data infrastructure in Ontario, Canada. The collaboration aims to start up activities across North America.

Latest fundings

The nonprofit focusing on the open-source stablecoin network Luna Foundation Guard, that powers Terra USD, has secured $1 billion through the LUNA token sale round led by Jump Crypto and Three Arrows Capital.

Recent Launches

Recently, BuyTheBroncos DAO or Decentralized Autonomous Organization has been launched by a group of enthusiastic entrepreneurs, with the aim to acquire the professional American Football franchise, the Denver Broncos. The DAO is set to raise around 25% of the $4 billion required to purchase the franchise.

Apex146 founder Scott Robinson this week announced that he has recently founded a sports analytics platform that started with his passion for motorcycle racing. He stated that the result came after he gained experience in technology, trading methods, and data science.

Crypto asset management company Grayscale has come up with a campaign that asks American investors to comment to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for delaying the company’s application for a BTC spot ETF.

The operator of USD stablecoin, Circle, is bringing a new account service aimed at assisting businesses with crypto transactions. The move will allow enterprise clients to deposit, withdraw, receive, and store crypto with all transfers managed by USDC.

Crypto exchange

The American division of the crypto exchange platform FTX, FTX.US, is hiring software developers for its upcoming blockchain gaming unit. The unit aims to attract more game developers to the blockchain-based gaming ecosystem.

Crypto exchange giant Coinbase’s in-house wallet service Coinbase Wallet has recently announced the support for Ledger hardware wallets for its browser extension. The users can now use a physical Ledger device to keep the private keys to their wallets offline.

The U.S.-based crypto trading platform Uphold has achieved approval from the Financial Conduct Authority or FCA for its European subsidiary.

As per a recent Q4 financial report by Coinbase, the company has reported $2.5 billion in net revenue, blowing away the crypto community’s expectations.

Goldman Sachs senior Roger Bartlett has announced his departure from the company by joining the crypto exchange Coinbase.

NFT and Metaverse

The first blockchain-powered Real Estate PE company SumoTex has recently held the very first gender reveal party in metaverse Decentraland. The event took place on February 20, 2022, from 2:00 PM to 8:00 PM (GMT).

Harmony, the renowned Blockchain company, has announced the launch of the BAYC Passport, which enables users to import proof of their apes to a play-to-earn game developed on the Harmony blockchain, DeFi kingdoms.

NFT marketplace OpenSea has recently been a victim of a continuing phishing attack. It has released a smart contract upgrade on February 20, which would mandate users to convert their posted NFTs from Ethereum blockchain to a new smart contract.

A $1 million lawsuit has been filed against OpenSea by the owner of a Bored Ape Yacht Club or BAYC NFT whose token was sold for 0.01 ETH (roughly $26) without his authorization. Timothy McKimmy, the owner of the BAYC, accuses OpenSea of security flaws in its platform and demands a return of his NFT as well as $1 million to settle.

The famous football club Manchester City has partnered with Sony to build a virtual replica of the Etihad Stadium to serve as the club’s metaverse hub. The deal holds Sony for three years for supplying virtual reality professionals with image analysis and skeletal-tracking technologies.

In a live discussion on the history of NFTs and CryptoPunks, renowned techie and CryptoPunk expert Sherone Rabinovitz said that it is the first initiative to “do everything right.”

Renowned energy drink company Monster Energy has registered for four pending trademark applications related to NFTs and Metaverse world.

As the NFT adoption in Japan is touching the skies, the country’s e-commerce company Rakuten announced that it had launched its own NFT trading platform, Rakuten NFT.

SafeMoon lawsuit attacks big stars for misleading promotions

A class-action case regarding Binance Smart Chain or BSC-native cryptocurrency SafeMoon pump and dump scheme has requested a jury trial against big stars and social media influencers for their alleged involvement in the scheme.

Exclusive Reviews

Here are a few reviews by TheCoinRise:

• Locker: The Locker decentralized app is a white-label entrance to the Blockchain and crypto world for professional sports players and teams.
• Cardax: Being one of the top projects in the DeFi space, Cardax is actively trying to establish itself as one of the key driving forces behind DeFi development in the Ethereum-alternative.
• OVR: OVR has the largest owner community, much larger than the prominent names in the metaverse sector, Decentraland and The Sandbox.

TheCoinRise will be back with another weekly roundup next Friday.