Russia Mulls Crypto for Int’l Payments, Fed Vice Chair Sees Place for Digital Dollar, NFT Game Blocks Users in China + More News

Adoption BitMEX Blackrock Blockchain CBDC China

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Sumejja Muratagić-Tadić

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Sumejja Muratagić-Tadić

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Sumejja is a freelance copywriter from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, who delights in pulling things apart to see how they work. That does not necessarily mean she puts them back together; she's...

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June 26, 2023 06:55 EDT

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Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.

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Adoption news

• Russia is considering allowing crypto to be used for international payments, Reuters reported, citing Russian news agency Interfax. The idea is being “actively discussed”, they quoted Ivan Chebeskov, head of the finance ministry’s financial policy department, as saying.
• Finance giant JPMorgan Chase is using blockchain for collateral settlements, per Bloomberg. The bank’s first such transaction came on May 20 when two of its entities transferred the token representation of fellow giant BlackRock Inc. money market fund shares as collateral on its private blockchain. The effort will allow investors to pledge a wider range of assets as collateral and use them outside of market operating hours, they added.

Regulation news

• The newly confirmed US Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard said that the central bank views a digital dollar as part of the global financial system’s future that works in sync with the private sector, per Yahoo Finance. Brainard said that new forms of digital money such as stablecoins that do not share the same protections a central bank would offer could reintroduce risk into the payments system.
• The Thai government is exempting value-added tax (VAT) from the transfer of cryptoassets or digital tokens until the end of 2023 as part of a new royal decree issued under the Revenue Code for the Exemption of VAT, according to Bangkok Post. Akaradet Diawpanich, chief executive of digital asset advisory service provider Cryptomind Group Holdings, said the waiver may be aimed at supporting the use of central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the future but will have limited to no effect on digital asset investment.
• Three US ​​Republican senators, Tom Cotton, Mike Braun, and Marco Rubio, introduced a bill that is aiming to limit the use of China’s CBDC in the United States. According to the bill, app and software distributors in the US shall not support or enable transactions in e-CNY or support any app that features such transactions in the country.

Gaming news

• Non-fungible token (NFT) game Stepn (GMT) will block users based in mainland China to comply with regulatory policies, stopping providing GPS and IP geolocation services to them on July 15. Users in mainland China should make their own arrangements for their assets, they said.
• The US National Football League (NFL), NFL Players Association (NFLPA) and gaming technology studio Mythical Games announced a partnership to launch NFL Rivals, a new NFL video game that leverages blockchain technology, on the Mythical Platform in early 2023. Ahead of the launch, 32 limited-quantity collections of unique generative 3D NFL franchise-themed NFTs will be released in a series of drops called “Rarity League.”

Blockchain news

• The clock of the Solana (SOL) blockchain is currently adrift of real-world time by about 30 minutes due to longer than ideal slot times on the network, the project reported. The issue does not have any impact on network performance, but transactions on the network will show timestamps that are different from “wall-clock time.”
• Tether, the issuer of the USDT stablecoin, launched its tokens on the Polygon (MATIC) blockchain platform.

Exchanges news

• BitMEX announced that its spot trading exchange has reached USD 24m in 24-hour trading volume for a 100% daily increase, the highest after going live 10 days ago. Additionally, their Average Daily Value (ADV) reached over USD 3m traded in the first week.
• Huobi announced the acquisition of Latin American crypto exchange Bitex for an undisclosed amount.
• Latin America-focused Bitso has fired 80 people, but did not state in which countries and did not specify when the cuts would take effect, according to Forbes.

Investments news

• Crypto risk management company Elliptic announced JPMorgan as an additional investor as part of its recent USD 60m Series C funding round led by Evolution Equity Partners. 
  
   

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(Updated on May 28 at 04:30 UTC for space and clarity, also it was clarified that JPMorgan joined Elliptic’s financing round.)