This Week in Crypto – 4 June To 10 June 2022

In collaboration with Twitter co-founder and Block Inc. CEO Jack Dorsey, rapper Jay-Z is establishing a financial education program that will include cryptocurrency. From late June until September, the Bitcoin Academy will meet twice a week at Marcy Houses, a public housing community in Brooklyn, New York – the birthplace of Jay-Z.

The $22.6 billion worth of ethereum that continues to increase, according to a decentralized finance (defi) instructor, will not be unlocked until another update is implemented following The Merge. A large number of validators lock cash in the contract every day, and the current amount locked in the contract is approximately $22.6 billion at today’s ether exchange rates. Over two dozen deposits of 32 ether ($56,684) have been committed to the contract in the last 24 hours.

Thanks to a cooperation with the Lyzi app, the Beaugrenelle is the first retail center in France to accept cryptocurrency payments. Through the Lyzi app, users will be able to purchase a Beaugrenelle gift card using one of 21 different cryptocurrencies.

Due to a cooperation with the German crypto platform Lunu, Farfetch, an online luxury clothes store, will soon accept cryptocurrency payments. Farfetch will take seven different crypto currencies, including bitcoin, ethereum, and binance coin, and the service will first be available to a restricted group of customers before being made available to the whole public.

Do Kwon, the Terra Network’s CEO, has been accused of withdrawing $2.7 billion from the cryptocurrency before to its demise. “Do Kwon cashed out $2.7 billion (33 x $80m!) over the span of mere months due to Degenbox” according to a Twitter thread published by FatManTerra. Nonetheless, Do Kwon deflected the attention by saying, “This needs to be apparent, however the declare that I cashed out $2.7B from something is categorically false.”

Tether has added the USDT stablecoin to Tezos, making it the 12th blockchain to support the popular stablecoin. Tether’s implementation across many blockchains has enabled USDT to achieve a market worth of $72.5 billion. In April, the stablecoin was deployed on the Kusama network too for the first time.

On June 7, PayPal Holdings Inc. stated that its users may now send Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin to other exchanges and wallets. According to the press release, the modification was made due to popular demand. According to experts, the new services have the potential to attract millions of new users while also increasing the amount of time people spend on the PayPal app.

Mercadolibre, one of Latin America’s largest “e-tailers,” has collaborated with Mastercard to leverage its technology to safeguard the company’s bitcoin ecosystem. Mercadolibre will be able to employ Mastercard’s Ciphertrace technology as a result of this partnership, allowing the firm to improve the management and security of crypto transactions in its trading environment.

Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and smart contracts were considered in principle throughout the early years of the bitcoin industry. Many people now believe The DAO to be the first smart contract-based DAO, which was founded in 2016 by members of the Slock.it development team. There will be a lot more DAOs in 2022, according to data, with DAO treasuries holding $10 billion.

The Solana Foundation and Solana Ventures have pledged $100 million to non-fungible token (NFT), gaming, and decentralized finance (DeFi) projects on the Terra (LUNA) network following its collapse in order to support the network’s continuing growth. It would also fund platforms based on Terra, which was stranded following the blockchain meltdown, according to Johnny B. Lee of the Solana Foundation.

Currently, 105 nations are experimenting with central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Fifty of them are in the advanced stages of exploring digital currencies (development, pilot, or launch). The Geoeconomic Centre of the Atlantic Council has announced a substantial update to its CBDC Tracker, stating: “105 countries, representing over 95 percent of global GDP, are exploring a CBDC… A new high of 50 countries are in an advanced phase of exploration (development, pilot, or launch)”

Ronin has broken a new record in the non-fungible token (NFT) arena, behind only Ethereum in terms of total sales volume. Ronin now ranks above Solana, Flow, and Polygon, but below Ethereum.

On June 4, 2022, the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) Discord server was hacked, and a phishing scheme was launched against collectors of BAYC, Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), and Otherside non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The BAYC Discord server attacker may have been engaged in earlier phishing assaults, according to Web3 and blockchain auditing and security firm Certik.

The government has adopted measures that would impose stricter rules on the country’s burgeoning cryptocurrency industry. In an effort to combat money laundering, terrorist funding, and sanctions evasion, Lithuania’s Finance Ministry has prohibited anonymous wallets and put severe rules on cryptocurrency exchanges. The change, according to the ministry, was taken in anticipation of future European Union decisions.

Senators Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) introduced a crypto bill on Tuesday that strikes a compromise between consumer safeguards and financial innovation. “The bipartisan Responsible Financial Innovation Act is a landmark bill that will establish a regulatory framework that spurs innovation, develops clear standards, defines appropriate jurisdictional boundaries and protects consumers. Importantly, the Lummis-Gillibrand framework will provide clarity to both industry and regulators, while also maintaining the flexibility to account for the ongoing evolution of the digital assets market,” said Senator Gillibrand

In its inaugural meeting, Colombia’s Congress adopted a measure that governs the activity of cryptocurrency exchanges in the country, taking the first steps toward bringing clarity to this subject. Mauricio Toro, a Green Party lawmaker and one of the bill’s architects, argued that the bill is essential to safeguard people from Ponzi schemes and provide them with security in the crypto realm.

Following discussions with the BAU team, Uganda’s central bank has stated that it is now open to the notion of allowing crypto businesses to join in its regulatory sandbox. Before moving on to technical conversations, the central bank recommended the country’s crypto advocacy organization to brush up on the sandbox laws.

The use of Bitcoin and other digital currencies for transactions is prohibited in Ethiopia, according to the country’s central bank, which warned that those who break the law will face harsh penalties. The bank claims that only the local birr currency may be used to settle transactions in Ethiopia.

Binance’s initial coin offering (ICO) of its crypto currency Binance Coin (BNB), which was released in 2017, is apparently being investigated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). According to individuals familiar with the situation, US regulators are looking into whether Binance Holdings Ltd. breached securities laws by selling digital tokens just as the crypto exchange was getting off the ground five years ago.