Crypto NFT Today: The latest news in blockchain, cryptocurrency and NFT: 10-16 August 2022
Welcome to another edition of Crypto NFT Today! If you like cryptocurrency, NFTs and riding emotional roller coasters, this is the place to be.
Are you ready for the crunch? Let’s get started.
Zipmex begins releasing Bitcoin and Ethereum to users’ wallets
After weeks of withholding customers’ crypto, exchange platform Zipmex announced that it will begin issuing coins to users’ wallets.
Zipmex will issue ether to users on August 11, with bitcoin following a week later, after blocking customers from taking direct custody of their coins last month.
The exchange has been gradually releasing coins to users’ wallets since last week. Solana, cardano and XRP tokens were the first to be available after all withdrawals were suspended on July 20.
The decision to impose a moratorium on transactions came after the firm lost $100 million related to crypto lender Babel Finance. In mid-June, Babel froze withdrawals due to turmoil in the crypto market, this contagion also led to a flurry of defaults among over-leveraged firms such as Three Arrows Capital and Celsius Network, according to CoinDesk.
Are NFTs Back?
Investors are flocking to NFTs again after the announcement on Wednesday that the US Federal Reserve will raise interest rates once again – a move in line with what the market expected.
The Fed, at its last two policy meetings, raised benchmark interest rates by 0.75 percentage points, the biggest increase since 1994.
Floor prices for some of the most popular NFT collections included Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Bored Ape Yacht Club, Otherdeed for Othersideand CryptoPunks has risen by over 17% in the past two weeks.
As prices rose, so did trading volume. For the Mutant Ape Yacht Club collection, volume increased by a strong 139% in the last day to US$1.17 million. Meanwhile, Bored Ape Yacht Club saw its volume increase by 6% to US$889,040, and Otherdeed rose by 14% to US$777,630, according to Cryptonews.
El Salvador Doubles Down on Bitcoin Bet
El Salvador’s Finance Minister Alejandro Zelaya announced that he does not foresee the country defaulting on its $800 million debt. Minister Zelaya and President Nayib Bukele have hedged their bets on Bitcoin in recent years, making the cryptocurrency their national currency.
Analysts at JP Morgan, Bloomberg and others in the financial sector believe that the probability of El Salvador defaulting on its bond payments is the second highest in the Latin American region, behind only Venezuela.
President Nayib Bukele took to Twitter to reassure citizens of his government’s plan to use crypto to avoid defaults. H also took the opportunity to strike back New York Timeswho recently published an article suggesting that the gambit is not paying off.
“His efforts appear to be backfiring, highlighting the gap between the utopian promises of cryptocurrency advocates and economic realities,” the article said.
Bukele pointed to the fact that crypto exchange Bitfinex announced that it will donate BTC 36 and USD 600,000 worth of Tether (USDT) to help small businesses and communities in the country.
“I can go to the regional debt market or I can issue a three-year local bond in Central America. The truth is, US$800 million in a [national] budget of USD 7,000 million is a marginal amount. It is small,” Zelaya stated in the newspaper El Diario de Hoy.
World Blockchain Summit goes bullish in a bear market
The 20th edition of the World Blockchain Summit Singapore 2022 registered more than 1,300 global blockchain, crypto and Web3 industry participants under one roof to inspire and stimulate business opportunities through mutually beneficial collaborations across the Asia Pacific region.
The summit featured an address by Chief Guest and Republic of Indonesia Ministry of Trade Jerry Sambuaga alongside industry heavyweights such as Illia Polosukhin, Jan Camenisch, Mance Harmon and Hassan Ahmed.
During his speech, Sambuaga spoke about the booming market in Indonesia and the wider Southeast Asian market, noting, “Crypto-asset trading in Indonesia could be one of the government’s strategies to accelerate and develop Indonesia’s digital economy by 2030.”
He also added, “We saw the potential of crypto in that we could use it as a potential commodity for export. In December 2020, the transaction volume of crypto assets in Indonesia increased to 64.9 trillion rupiah, equivalent to 4.2 billion dollars, and in December 2021 it reached 859.4 trillion rupiah [$57.33 billion].”
US bans Ethereum’s privacy tools
