Crypto News Weekly roundup February 5

This week has seen tons of regulatory actions in the crypto industry, along with the market going up and blooming hopes. We at TheCoinRise are here to summarise it for you.

Bitcoin is currently up by more than 9% on the daily chart, notably the founder of investment firm SkyBridge Capital, Anthony Scaramucci, predicted that it will be $500,000 in the next five years.

Several big names came out who have rigorously bought the dip. Texas’ Senator Rafael’ Ted’ Cruz is the newest name on the list. The financial report revealed that he had purchased BTC worth between $15,000 and $50,000 on January 25.

The famous Bitcoin investor firm MicroStrategy never fails to miss any chance to buy BTC and again bought 660 BTC units worth around $25 million.

Major Funding Events

Astar Network has secured $22 million worth of funds from venture capital investors months after winning its Polkadot parachain auction.

FTX derivatives exchange has increased its valuation to 432 billion by securing a $400 million fund under its efforts to expand its valuation as a mega-unicorn. The funding round also saw participation from Temasek, Paradigm, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, NEA, IVP, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Steadview Capital, Tiger Global, and Insight Partners, among others.

The crypto-focused enterprise payment platform Tribal Credit has raised $60 million in an oversubscribed funding round. It comes under the company’s mission to accelerate its expansion in Latin America, a part of the world that sees significant momentum in Blockchain-based cross-border payments.

Exchange News

Binance recently announced that its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) has surged a valuation of $1 billion. The insurance fund was introduced back in July last year to protect users’ interests. Binance also released two wallet addresses where the funds are kept. The two wallets hold billions of worth of crypto in BNB, BUSD, and BTC.

The global virtual asset trading platform Matrix is integrating block trading on its platform in a major backend update. The platform is also starting to support four major crypto cryptocurrencies and stablecoins: XRP, XLM, USDC, and USDP.

The crypto exchange giant Coinbase has partnered with TurboTax to make the taxation process simpler for its users. With the new collaboration, taxpayers in the U.S. can receive their refunds directly in crypto, with zero trading fees.

Crypto exchange platform Crypto.com has been mocked by animated Sitcom South Park for an advertisement starring Matt Damon after over three months of its launch.

Regulatory actions worldwide

The Central Bank of Russia (CBR), despite facing major backlash, is contemplating banning crypto mining even after considering not to blanket ban crypto in the nation.

CBR has also released a license to the nation’s first recognized digital asset manager, Atomize LLC. The company was approved on the fact that it met the requirements to operate Digital Financial Services (DFA) based on the technical capabilities, which implies all necessary laws.

The South American country Ecuador has decided to regulate cryptocurrencies by the Third quarter of 2022. Guillermo Avellan, the manager of the Central Bank of Ecuador, said that the U.S. dollar is the only legal currency in the nation.

Research by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or MIT and Fed over CBDC discovered some downsides in the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT).

The recent court decision hints that the IRS might not tax staking prizes until they are sold. The regulator has agreed to refund the Nashville couple who sued it over taxes they paid on unsold and unclaimed staking rewards.

With the implementation of new fees for crypto miners in the province of Tierra del Fuego, Argentina is facing a 4X increase in crypto mining expenses due to increased profitability.

Amidst the grand opening ceremony, two members of Congress have released a warning of the risks involved in using digital yuan at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

Jordan has been on headlines after the Central Bank of Jordan or CBJ revealed its plans on issuing a CBDC, which would be a legal tender and tied to the Jordanian dinar. The country also hinted to start crypto trading after a clear set of regulations.

India is divided on the crypto wishlist, with half of the legal experts demanding precise crypto regulations and the other half suggesting the government step back and consider the definition and use cases for every crypto instrument. However, the country, in its ongoing Union Budget Session, does not have any crypto bill. 

Recently, the Finance Minister of the country said that India is planning to impose a 30% crypto tax and will roll out a CBDC by 2022-23.

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission or SEC has once again delayed the decision on Grayscale’s Bitcoin ETF. It expressed issues on market manipulation, liquidity, and transparency.

The Myanmar military is reportedly planning to launch a digital currency to support the local economy. 

Decentralized Finance

ADAX plans to launch a non-custodial and order book-based DEX on Cardano blockchain, according to a January 30 update.

The decentralized Application developer Kirobo has joined hands with Evai, an AI-based decentralized digital asset rating system.

Adoption

Arizona state senator Wendy Rogers has proposed a bill with plans on adopting Bitcoin as its legal tender and has been the star of the week.

Philadelphia is following the steps of Miami, New York City, and Austin by joining hands with the CityCoins to establish crypto in Philadelphia.

The city of Las Vegas has witnessed a different level of crypto adoption in a well-known gentlemen’s club Crazy Horse 3. The club now accepts Bitcoin for lap dances and entertainer tips.

The NBA star LeBron James has joined hands with the crypto exchange giant Crypto.com to spread crypto and Web 3 education among children as a part of James Family Foundation’s initiative.

Under its roadmap for 2022 and beyond, the Internet Computer has decided on Bitcoin and Ethereum integrations by the end of the year.

Solana brings Solana Pay, the “most prevalent use-case to be with digital dollar currencies,” that provides the alternative of Solana-related assets like SOL, FTX’s FTT, among others. It is a peer-to-peer payment model that offers the capacity to accept and process crypto payments to online merchants and point-of-sale providers.

A Thailand cafe has become the haven for crypto investors who want to sip coffee and have cakes while taking crypto-financial advice.

The Singapore-based healthcare service provider Zuellig Pharma has integrated a blockchain-based system to monitor COVID-19 vaccinations for the prevention of expired vaccine delivery.

Cardano startup Ravendex is launching the public testing for its native staking platform and NFT collection made up of 10,000 pixelated Raven birds. Arken Finance is another promising DEX with all one trading tool for DeFi lovers.

Everest collaborates with Polygon

The blockchain-integrated regulated fintech company Everest announced a collaboration with the leading platform Polygon for Ethereum scalability and infrastructure improvements. Everest makes its EverChain fully interoperable with the Polygon PoS chain and brings its amazing regulated financial services to Polygon’s “internet of Blockchain.”

Mitsui & Co brings Japan’s First Gold-Backed Stablecoin, ZipangCoin 

The famous Japanese trading company Mitsui & Co. is set to launch the country’s first-ever gold-backed stablecoin, ZipangCoin (ZPG). The coin is expected to be released within a month and will be linked to gold prices dominated by the Japanese Yen. It will be sold to retail investors via crypto exchanges.

Meta confirms the termination of Diem

After days of doubts, Meta has officially confirmed the termination of its global digital currency project Diem. It is selling its intellectual property and related assets to Silvergate Capital Corporation.

The Australian billionaire Andrew Twiggy Forrest has sued Facebook for allegedly fraudulent crypto commercials using his identity to mislead sufferers. 

NFT and Metaverse world

Chinese legendary musician Jay Chou has announced that one of his classic songs would soon be auctioned off as an NFT. He also added that he has planned multiple NFT collaborations for 2022.

The NFT player Tom Brandy has announced that he will be retiring from Football and would solely focus on his family and the NFT startup Autograph, which he founded in 2021.

The legendary musician and 12 times Grammy Award winner John Legend is starting a new NFT platform, OurSong. Bloomberg reports that OurSong is a joint venture with KKBOX CEO Chris Lin, Twitch cofounder Kevin Lin, and Cherubic Ventures founder and managing partner, Matt Cheng.

The metaverse project TCG world has joined hands with WhiteBIT, the first exchange to build their virtual office in the TCG World Metaverse. 

Kanye West, the American rapper, criticized the NFT on his Instagram with 10.5 million followers. He harshly said that he wants to do real things in the real world and will not be doing any NFT projects in recent days.

The Quentin Tarantino NFTs auction has been put on hold because of massive volatility in the market. The Secret Network (SCRT) blockchain is handling the auction.

Athletic apparel giant Nike has sued StockX for trademark infringement and the sale of unlicensed NFT sneakers. The lawsuit also demands halting sales of all such virtual collectibles.

We at TheCoinRise wish you amid the death cross situation and will be back with another weekly roundup next Friday.