Crypto News Weekly roundup May 15

This week has seen a historic crash of the cryptocurrencies triggered by Terra’s stablecoin volatility. We at TheCoinRise summarize this crypto market week, ranging from regulatory involvement to urging adoption.

Regulatory involvement in the crypto industry

Following approximately three years of talks about forming a task force to oversee blockchain and crypto operations, Utah Governor Spencer Cox signed a bill establishing the Blockchain and Digital Innovation Task Force.

Despite China’s total ban on crypto transactions and foreign exchanges last year, data from website traffic metric provider Similarweb shows that Deribit and OKX receive a significant amount of traffic from the country.

According to Reuters, the Bank of Israel summarised the findings of the public comment period on its CBDC proposals. It received 33 responses from diverse industries, 50% of which came from outside the country and 17 from within the country’s fintech community.

Partnerships, launches, fundings, and future plans

Recently, Google Cloud announced the formation of an internal team to provide services to blockchain developers and those who own blockchain-based apps. This comes as traditional economic sectors exhibit increased interest in, activity with, and use of crypto and Web3 tools.

According to SBI Motor Japan, a subsidiary of SBI Africa Co., Ltd., customers can now pay for used automobiles using Bitcoin (BTC) and XRP. This is the first time the XRP crypto has been used on a cross-border e-commerce platform in Japan.

The PayPal-backed company Talos recently announced a Series B fundraising round of $105 million. The leading institutional technology supplier for digital asset trading has reached a valuation of $1.25 billion and has earned unicorn status thanks to the current round headed by General Atlantic, a leading global growth equity firm.

Sorare has signed a deal with MLB or Major League Baseball to develop NFT-powered fantasy baseball games. Players will be able to design their dream team from the players, enter tournaments, and earn incentives based on how their teams do in real life as part of the agreement, which also includes MLB players.

Latin America’s premier digital bank, Nubank, has added trading capability for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) to its app. Paxos, a licensed crypto infrastructure service provider, will act as both the custodian and the broker for the trading service.

In the East African region, MARA, a new crypto trading platform, has been launched. Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Research, and Huobi Ventures, among other renowned venture capital firms, are among the company’s backers.

In its Series F round of fundraising, Chainalysis, a blockchain analytics business, raised $170 million. The new funding eclipsed the company’s previous $100 million financing in June 2021, bringing its valuation to $8.6 billion from $4.2 billion.

The second iteration of PancakeSwap’s tokenomics roadmap features a governance proposal. A supply cap on PancakeSwap was proposed in the most recent version of the light paper’s centerpiece (CAKE). Based on quantitative data certified by CoinMarketCap, the research estimated a maximum figure of 750 million.

Crypto exchange news

Binance TR, the Turkish arm of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, has issued a warning to investors in the region about a fraud involving bogus Binance-branded billboards and advertisements.

KuCoin said on May 10 that it had raised $150 million in a pre-Series B funding round, valuing the company at $10 billion. KuCoin, with new funding from Circle Ventures, intends to move beyond centralized trading services and focus on Web3.

FTX.US, the subsidiary of the FTX Derivatives Exchange in the United States, has announced the opening of its new headquarters in Chicago, which will house approximately 70 staff.

Gate.io has released a new product aimed at institutional investors, specifically Market Makers and Brokers. The new offering, named ‘Gate Institutional’ by the trading platform, would provide the proper tools to help corporate entities enhance their exposure to the young crypto sector.

NFT and Metaverse

As more large collections are hit, the floor price for Yuga Labs’ Otherside metaverse project’s controversial Otherdeed NFT collection has dropped below its mint price to 2.45 Ether (ETH).

Beeple, the queen of pop and record-breaking artist, has created a series of NFTs called Mother of Creation. Mother of Technology, Mother of Nature, and Mother of Evolution are three NFT arts included. The NFTs show Madonna giving birth to robot centipedes, butterflies, and trees in three dimensions.

LUNA/UST disaster and market crash

As TheCoinRise reported, the LUNA price fell significantly due to a huge selloff, causing a significant drop in the value of Terra’s stablecoin UST, which fell below the expected $1.00 price point. To continue pegging UST, the company increased the supply of LUNA, which led to the investors losing their money to the ashes.

A recent proposal calls for burning the remaining UST in the community pool, as well as staking up to 240 million LUNA coins to help defend the network against governance attacks.

Binance suspended withdrawals for LUNA and UST as the crypto community tries to figure out what is causing Terra’s pegging-de-pegging dilemma with its stablecoin TerraUSD (UST).

The implications of excessive crypto market volatility, according to Celsius Network’s leadership, have had little impact on the project. According to reports, Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky replied to a now-deleted tweet from Twitter user David Belle, who claimed the platform had been “completely wiped out.”

Following the enormous price drop triggered by the crises shaking Terra (LUNA) and TerraUSD, the cryptocurrency sector saw a solid comeback (UST) on May 13.

Allegations on centralized exchanges for selling users’ Bitcoin

Security breaches and attacks routinely highlight the risks of keeping Bitcoin (BTC) on centralized exchanges. Keeping Bitcoin on centralized exchanges, according to Rufas Kamau, a research and markets analyst at Scope Markets Kenya, is also a factor in price decreases.

Exclusive reviews and announcements

Meta World: It was created under the license of the well-known Japanese 3D MMO “Elemental Knights Online,” and it has a 14-year history with over 8 million downloads globally.

DeCartel: It is a new sort of alliance comprised of numerous promising DeFi dApps, led by Starlay Finance, Polkadot’s No. 1 TVL, and ArthSwap, Astar Network’s No. 2 TVL.

Tezro: It is a payment network that transforms chats with friends, family, coworkers, and clients into a digital bank where users can perform fiat and crypto transactions from anywhere.

MoveZ: Powered by BlueZilla, it debuted with a number of innovative features that solve the shortcomings of previous alternatives. For example, “boost zones” allow users to participate in social fitness events while also earning increased prizes.

TRON DAO and BitTorrent Chain (BTTC) are preparing for Season 2 of the TRON Grand Hackathon 2022, which will open for registration on Monday, May 16. TRON DAO’s long-term initiatives to encourage the mass adoption of blockchain technology and innovative cross-chain ideas include the Hackathon.

TheCoinRise will be back with another week of crypto roundup next Weekend.