Your one-stop source for the most important crypto news of the week.
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Headlines
🚀 Google launches cloud node engine for Ethereum developers
🚀 BitOasis inks deal with Mastercard to launch crypto-linked payment cards
🚀 VISA has filed 2 trademark applications
🌍 Coinbase, Alameda-backed Mara launches African crypto wallet service
🐤 Binance confirmed as an investor in Twitter takeover
🐤 Twitter will allow users to buy and sell NFTs through tweets
⚽ Premier League weighs $34.7 million NFT deal with Sorare
🇸🇬 Singapore high court judge rules that NFTs can be property
🇬🇧 UK crypto hub and official NFT plans could be back on as Sunak wins leadership
🇹🇷 Central Bank of Turkey plans to launch a CBDC in 2023
🇦🇪 UAE's central bank pilots digital currency transactions
🇪🇸 Spain overtakes El Salvador to become 3rd-largest crypto ATM hub
Hong Kong unveils completed retail CBDC project that has a CBDC-backed stablecoin
🇭🇰 Hong Kong plans to legalize retail crypto trading
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan's central bank to test BNB Chain for its digital currency
🇮🇱 Tel Aviv Stock exchange to set up platform for digital assets
🏦 Crypto Bank SEBA launches institutional custody service for Ethereum NFTs
⚖️ Costa Rican lawmakers propose nixing almost all taxes on Bitcoin
Featured Story
🥱 How should crypto be regulated? So… did we learn anything? No.
Two titans of crypto join Bankless for an essential conversation on something we all know is coming. Erik Voorhees and Sam Bankman-Fried discuss what may be on the horizon for cryptocurrencies.
Voorhees opened the discussion by making clear on his position against government intervention. “We've seen where that status quo has gone. I think we in the industry should step back and ask ourselves do we want the crypto financial ecosystem? To move closer to the traditional financial world? Are we here because we love how that world looks and we want to make crypto resemble that world more or are we here because we're trying to build something better?”
As the discussion continues, Vorhees elaborates on the moral failings of human regulators and that code written into smart contracts and blockchains relinquish the role or job of regulators. In his view, the systems being built today are inherently more virtuous, more decentralized, and therefore do not require interference by governments, who themselves are corruptible.
SBF agreed. In fact, SBF seemed to agree with a lot of what Vorhees had to say. In his attempt to argue in favor of centralized government regulation SBF kept saying “I don't think it's 100% clear that I'm right about it” and “I’m not sure you’re wrong.”
If this was a debate it’s pretty clear who won. That said, I’m not sure it was. Originally, I wanted to use this video between two industry heavyweights to throw down 800 words leaving the reader thinking deeply about the role of government in decentralized finance. Human liberty and how we relate to money, who should be in control? Food for thought. Instead, SBF just stumbled his way through platitudes and agreement.
If you’re new to crypto and haven’t seen the discussion it might be worth a watch. If, on the other hand, you don’t have two hours to waste on SBF calling lending protocols “awesome” I’ll leave you with the best articulated 30 seconds:
“We are separating money from politics. We are separating money from the state. And in the same way that the church was separated from the state and everyone now hails that as one of the greatest things that humanity ever did, well now too, it comes to us to do the same for money. Money is as or more important to people than religion is. We interact with it every day in all sorts of manners, and just as mathematics or language are immutable and open to the entire human race so too should the exchange and management of money. That is the principle that makes this entire ecosystem important. That is the principle that justifies everything that we do and if we lose that it will be something that we regret for the rest of our lives.” - Eric Vorhees
Apologies for showing my bias on this one, but I just can’t. Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go buy some artificially inflated potatoes with dollars I haven’t yet earned.
Oh, and thanks for dressing up guys.
Insider News
📺 Do you want more of Do Kwon?
✉️ Telegram launches username auction using TON blockchain
👯 PlayboyNFTS are entering The Sandbox!
💲 MakerDAO Community approves proposal to place USDC in Coinbase's custody platform
👻 Aave launches staked Ethereum earn strategy through Oasis
🧾 Are you searching for new Crypto tax havens now that Portugal is out the window?
👉 Crypto predictions site Polymarket foresees republicans winning both senate and house
🔥 Fireblocks launches crypto payment engine with Checkout.com and Worldpay
👉 Circle partners with Axelar on cross-chain initiative for USDC
🍪 PancakeSwap and the CAKE token will be deploying on Aptos
🛠️ Axelar and Polygon supernets team up to provide cross-chain interoperability
₿ Bitcoin mining difficulty rises by more than 3%
🔥 The new era for Paraswap
⚖️ 63% of Ethereum transaction blocks are now OFAC-compliant
📢 $KLAY buyback announcement
👉 Klaytn will reduce existing block rewards by ⅓
🔥 Binance is investing in DeFi
👉 Binance launches native oracle network, starting with BNB Chain
📁 Filecoin releases content delivery network called Saturn
⚠️ Regenesis for ZKsync
⚠️ Near project to wind down its Terra-Like stablecoin
They Bought The Top!
💸 A16z's Largest crypto fund loses 40% in first half of 2022
💸 Pantera Capital's early-stage token fund is down 71% this year
💸 Andreessen Horowitz went all in on crypto at the worst possible time
Reads
📚 The Zero-Knowledge Landscape: Part 2 - Tolks
📚 The Crypto Winter of 2022 - Andre Cronje
📚 Avalanche Subnet Vs Cosmos 2.0 - The Tie
Data
Builder and tools
🛠️ Security Library (Please use it)
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