This Week in Crypto – 28 May To 3 June 2022

Marhaba, a DeFi platform, taps into the Islamic finance sector with halal-compliant NFTs. Marhaba DeFi Network (MRHB), a Muslim-focused ethical decentralized financial network, has begun minting non-fungible tokens (NFT) for the “world’s first halal compliance certificates,” according to the company. Although Shariah compliance is a major legislative requirement in Muslim nations, the authenticity of Crypto is still up for debate.

According to a recent Federal Trade Commission investigation, cryptocurrency fraudsters have looted over $1 billion from 46,000 victims since the start of 2021. According to the FTC, over half of those who reported losing digital currency in a scam claimed it began with an ad, post, or message on a social media network.

Tether’s supply fell by 16 percent in May, reaching $160 billion. Only a month prior, their total supply had surpassed $190 billion. This was mostly due to investors’ loss of faith in stablecoins following Terra’s collapse.

Nansen, a blockchain analytics company, claims that numerous parties were involved in the sell-off that sent TerraUSD into a death spiral. A wallet linked to the crypto lending company Celsius was one of them, with large UST sales causing a stampede to the exit. According to Nansen, one of the two wallets that withdrew $420 million from Anchor is related to Celsius and was involved in moving cash to Ethereum via the Wormhole Bridge.

For the first quarter of this year, GameStop made a loss. The video game store recorded a $158 million loss in hardware sales on $1.378 billion in revenue, up from $1.277 billion the previous year. Overall, the company’s crypto activities are taking shape and might help the company grow.

In the first quarter of 2022, Kazakhstan’s government received 652 million Kazakhstani tenges ($1.5 million) in fees from crypto miners. After being expelled from China in May 2021, Kazakhstan provided a safe haven for displaced miners looking for cheaper electricity for 87,849 computers. After an internet outage and power outages rendered the location too dangerous, several miners have left.

Kenya’s largest energy company, KenGen, intends to sell extra geothermal energy to bitcoin miners in the area. KenGen says that renewable energy accounts for 86 percent of its energy, the majority of which is geothermal heat from pockets of ground source heat in the Great Rift Valley. KenGen has space at its new industrial park in Olkaria, near its flagship geothermal power station, that might be rented to Bitcoin miners, according to local news site The Standard.

One River filed papers for the ETF in May 2021, and the SEC notified in March that its decision would be delayed. One River pledged to buy and sell carbon credits to account for the emissions linked with the bitcoin in the fund, which set it apart from other spot ETF applications. On Friday, this was turned down. According to the SEC, the plan to list on the NYSE Arca market lacks proper investor safeguards.

The $1.2 trillion crypto market is still regulated unevenly throughout the world. The European Union will vote shortly whether or not to accept a plan that would require crypto firms to gather data on both senders and receivers in a transaction.

Switzerland is one of Europe’s most appealing destinations for blockchain and crypto companies. Their regulatory framework is far more user-friendly than that of several European nations nearby. The “Crypto Valley Association,” an independent, government-backed organization, was founded in Switzerland to capitalize on the country’s capabilities in becoming a crypto and blockchain center.

Tether has recently released its fourth stablecoin, which is pegged to the Mexican Peso. Tether’s MXN₮ will join three other fiat-currency pegged tokens on the market: the USD₮ fixed in US dollars, EUR₮ pegged in Euros, and CNH₮ pegged in offshore Chinese Yuan. Ethereum, Tron, and Polygon are among the first blockchains it supports.

In an effort to improve the local economy, the Chinese government plans to give $30 million in digital yuan via red envelopes through a lottery scheme in the Shenzhen district. Each participant has the chance to win one of three prizes: 88, 100, or 128 digital yuan. The airdrop is intended to help the local economy recover from recent lockdowns caused by an increase of COVID-19 cases.

Savers in the South American country are increasingly turning to cryptocurrencies to counteract years of severe inflation, which is already approaching 60%. Argentina’s weekly LocalBitcoins volume is $18.6 million. According to one projection, cryptocurrency use in Argentina might increase by 235 percent in the following 12 months.

Many nations’ central banks are attempting to develop digital currencies in response to the rising popularity and acceptance of digital assets and cryptocurrencies. The governor of Oman’s central bank said on Tuesday that the country’s central bank is working on its own digital currency and open banking services.