Week 17 wrapup of the weekly Pen is here, with another collection of the key headlines from global markets, concerning crypto, banking, politics, investments, financial markets, tech, defi, and more. This week posed an interesting view for the future of crypto, the European stance vs the American on the growth of the space, some surprising turn of events from major traditional banks and crypto skeptics opening their minds to the future of money, with the Payments taking the lead with the most news development from this week 17. Without further ado, have a good read.
GLOBAL ECONOMY
Australia installs more Bitcoin ATMs than the whole of Asia.
Indonesia follows BRICS’ lead, ditches dollar for local currency
Elon Musk warns against weaponizing currencies as the de-dollarization movement takes hold.
BRICS countries are expanding as 19 nations have submitted membership requests.
El Salvador’s Bitcoin City canceled.
BRICS-issued new currency may pave the way for de-dollarization.
5 Arab nations ready to join BRICS Alliance.
Blockchain features on WEF whitepaper as a tool to fight climate change.
China to expand CBDC use case for Belt and Road initiative.
Zimbabwe’s central bank to issue gold-backed digital currency.
Euroclear profit soars as payments from Russian sanctions pile up.
Russian Foreign Minister says ’global push to ditch US dollar is now unstoppable’.
24 nations align against US Dollar as BRICS looks to launch a new global currency.
POLITICS
U.S. sanctions 3 North Koreans for supporting hacking group known for crypto thefts.
Coinbase uses the SEC for not providing enough crypto regulatory clarity to be able to operate correctly.
Crypto-skeptic U.S. Federal Reserve governor talks up potential benefits of Blockchain and Tokenization.
Proposed stablecoin bill would give states the right to regulate crypto.
Coinbase preparing for litigation with SEC, but prefers dialogue.
U.S. House will have a crypto bill in 2 months.
McHenry announces hearings to address market structure around crypto.
California County approves blockchain-based digital wallet for gov’t services.
Gary Gensler links crypto with cash in a viral 2018 video.
CRYPTO
Deloitte could be jumping into crypto headfirst with hundreds of job listings.
Standard Charters’ London-Based Crypto custody arm raises $ 36 million in new funds.
Bankrupt crypto lender Genesis, creditors to enter mediation.
EU is embracing crypto.
Stablecoins are deemed at being better to move money around.
Vigilante hacker burns hundreds of BTC held in wallets used by Russian Intelligence.
PAYMENTS
Visa hiring more crypto developers to drive mainstream adaption.
Venmo Crypto Transfers coming in May.
Mastercard is teaming up with Aptos Labs, Ava Labs, Polygon, and Solana to reach application devs.
ChatGPT may help Swedish Klarna who burn through $ 100 million a month in the U.S. to into profitability.
Mastercard unveils standards to verify interactions using blockchain networks.
Visa’s ambitious crypto roadmap includes stablecoin payments.
B2B payments sector in Nigeria suffers, as the country promotes a cashless economy.
Jack Dorsey’s Block Snaps up Bitcoin Mining Chip as Intel winds down production.
Visa hiring more crypto developers to drive mainstream adaption.
Apple’s outside payments ban was ruled unlawful in a likely win for NFTs and crypto.
Circle launches cross-chain USDC transfer protocol.
Visa hiring a crypto engineer with a focus on AI-written smart contracts.
BANKING
U.S. officials lead urgent rescue talks for the First Republic.
BankThink says The Fed’s blatant attempt to de-bank crypto companies is illegal.
Banks knock CBDC as a potential drain on deposits.
BigBanks including JPMorgan Chase and BOA asked for a final bid on the First Republic.
Hong Kong regulator requires banks to open accounts for crypto firms.
Raiffeisenlandesbank to offer crypto investment services.
SVB discussed selling up to $20bn in bonds months before the bank run.
FINANCIAL MARKETS
Tokenization is the killer app for Tradfi, JPMorgan says.
JPMorgan holds firm on plans to ’Tokenize’ traditional finance.
Binance to reenter Japan via acquired regulated exchange SEBC.
46% of millennials across major economies own crypto.
Deloitte posts hundreds of crypto-related job listings.
ARK and 21Shares again file with SEC for Bitcoin ETF.
Bitcoin price hit a new record high in Argentina.
Binance.US backs out of $1BN Voyager asset purchase and blames regulatory environment.
Hedge Funds retreat from bets against Italian bonds.
Ripple has bought nearly $11B in XRP since the SEC lawsuit.
Fidelity doubles down on metaverse with financial literacy experience.
Stock Market to witness biggest crash since 1929 as US Dollar explodes.
FTX confirms plans to restart its Japanese Exchange.
Indian authorities freeze over $11M in crypto money laundering case.
INVESTMENTS
Bitcoin could hit $100,000 by end-2024, Standard Chartered says.
BTC price gained 6% as First Republic Bank drama was drawn to Bitcoin Bulls.
Hedge Fund billionaire Ray Dalio still holds a little bit of Bitcoin.
CRO spikes 13% following a partnership between Amazon and Cronos.
Standard Chartered U-turns on Bitcoin with $100,000 price prediction.
Coinbase and Gemini join the bid race for Celcius network’s assets.
DEFI
Wrapped bitcoin token goes live on cardano testnet.
Crypto platform simple.app pilots a new solution for sending money to Ukraine.
UK treasury seeks input on taxing DeFi staking and lending.
Blockchain and crypto leaders converged at DAO Tokyo as Japan increases adoption.
UK’s government wants to change Tax Laws to better suit DeFi.
Cosmos-based DeFi project trends upwards amid news of possible Coinbase listing.
Solana unveils ChatGPT plugin that retrieves on-chain data.
TECH
Google Cloud broadens Web3 startup program with 11 blockchain firms.
Binance integrates ChatGPT into its web3 academy.
Google Cloud to optimize Polygon zkEVM scaling performance.
Robinhood launches fiat-to-crypto on-ramp for self-custody wallets and DApps.
Bitcoin white paper was quietly removed by Apple from the latest MacOS beta.
Crypto.com and Samsung to offer optimized crypto trading experience on z-fold devices.
- Till we yield again
*Disclaimer: This article is not financial or investment advice, nor should it be perceived as such. Penning Group and the author shall not be held accountable for any misinterpreted information by the reader. If you are interested in learning more about investing in the DeFi space and in general, please get in touch with us.