Crypto Weekly Round-Up: BTC Adoption, PSG, Swiss Stock Exchange, And More

The crypto space saw some significant developments over the past week, with news that countries are looking to adopt BTC as a payment mechanism to a set of the Bored Apes NFT collection being sold for over $24 Million. Let’s look at some of the biggest stories from the crypto space over the past week. 

Bitcoin 

Ark Invest CEO Cathy Wood discussed her views on cryptocurrencies in an interview with Yahoo Finance. She discussed Bitcoin’s value at length and criticized John Paulson, who had famously bet against subprime mortgages back during the financial crisis. She, however, did state that she had hoped for the future while referring to other billionaires such as Ray Dalio and Stanley Druckenmiller, who had become supporters of crypto after being extremely critical of it.

Reports in El Salvador have stated that the country’s latest Bitcoin application, the Chivo Wallet, could lead to money service providers such as MoneyGram and Western Union losing around $400 Million in commission fees. With remittances accounting for nearly 23% of El Salvador’s GDP, Western Union and MoneyGram are the preferred mode of remittances. The introduction of the Chivo, however, could change all that. 

Officials in Panama and India are contemplating urging their respective governments to accept Bitcoin, allowing their citizens to use the cryptocurrency to make payments for goods and services. Congressman Gabriel Silva has already introduced a bill to propose regulating the use of crypto in the country. Meanwhile, in India, a former senior central bank official has stated that cryptocurrencies should be accepted as a legitimate mode of exchange. 

Business 

Crypto.com has also announced a multi-year partnership with French Footballing Powerhouse PSG. The deal also includes the condition that PSG will release exclusive NFTs to Crypto.com. The partnership sees one of the strongest footballing sides in Europe partner with Crypto.com after the latter has already announced partnerships with Serie A, F1, UFC, and others. 

Mastercard has announced the acquisition of CipherTrace, a crypto analytics and intelligence firm. Mastercard hopes that the acquisition will ensure transparency and better support for the crypto ecosystem while also ensure the emergence of a digital economy. The acquisition will also see Mastercard and CiperTrace launch an integrated offering for their enterprise clientele. 

FTX has also announced that it has partnered with NBA superstar Stephen Curry’s foundation, Eat.Learn.Play. The partnership will see the NBA superstar become the global ambassador for FTX and receive an equity stake in FTX. The partnership will also see the NBA superstar’s charity launch charitable initiatives in partnership with FTX. 

Technology 

Polygon has also announced that it is integrating with the Mina protocol. The Mina protocol is a blockchain firm that focuses on privacy-preserving technology. The integration will see the protocol’s zero-knowledge proofs make their way to Polygon, bringing its privacy-preserving technology to Polygon’s scalable network. 

The UK Post Office will be offering its users crypto-purchasing options through the EasyID identity verification application. The app was introduced in August and has grown to over 10 Million users; and was developed in partnership with Yoti. Through the crypto purchasing option, users of the EasyID app will be able to access Swarm Markets, a unified crypto exchange. 

Regulation 

Swiss stock exchange SIX also revealed that it had received regulatory clearance for its digital bourse. SIX made the announcement on Friday after the Swiss Financial Market Supervision Authority gave the approval for the digital bourse. With the approval in place, the digital bourse, named SDX, is all set to go live. 

The Ukrainian parliament has also drafted and adopted a law on “Virtual Assets.” The adoption means that virtual assets such as cryptocurrencies are effectively legal in Ukraine, allowing the country to engage in business with businesses and firms from the blockchain and crypto space. 

NFTs

NFT platform OpenSea had gone through a few issues related to a bug that led to the inadvertent deletion of user-owned NFTs worth over 28 ETH. The value of the NFT burned stands at almost $100,000. The matter first came to light when Nick Johnson, the lead developer at Ethereum Name Services, lost an NFT that was linked to the first ENS. 

British auction house Sotheby’s saw one of the biggest sales in the NFT space when the bundle of 101 NFTs from the Bored Ape Yacht Club was sold for over $24 million. The sale was followed by another Bored Ape NFT collection sale, with the Bored Ape Kennel Club collection selling for $1.8 million. 

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.