Chinese removed Crypto Video 🚫, RGB protocol 🔆, How popular is Binance Pay? 🌎

Daily Crypto, Blockchain & Web3 Update 2023-05-26

CRYPTOCURRENCY

Chinese state media removes video on crypto after Binance CEO calls it ‘big deal’ (2 min read)

China’s state-affiliated media company CCTV aired a video about cryptocurrency on May 24 that garnered a lot of attention on Crypto Twitter. Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao called it a “big deal” and claimed that historical coverages like these “led to bull runs.”

Just a day after CZ’s comment, the CCTV network removed the video from its platform. The video program discussed recent developments around cryptocurrency compliance in Hong Kong.

Binance and Gulf Innova to launch crypto exchange in Thailand in Q4 2023 (2 min read)

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance continues expanding its global reach by securing new regulatory approvals in Thailand. Gulf Binance, a joint crypto venture of Binance and Gulf Energy’s innovation arm Gulf Innova, has received digital asse’s Ministry of Finance.

The new crypto venture will combine Binance’s digital asset expertise with Gulf’s deep understanding of the Thai market. The companies have been closely working together for more than a year to explore the opportunity to launch a local digital asset exchange.

South Korea passes bill to make officials disclose Bitcoin holdings (2 min read)

The South Korean government is moving forward with new laws to require officials to report on their holdings of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

South Korea’s National Assembly has unanimously passed a bill that obligates lawmakers and high-ranking public officials to report on their crypto assets. The lawmakers approved the new bill during a plenary session on May 25, the local news agency News1 reported.

Germany’s recession triggers responses from the crypto community (2 min read)

A recession is generally identified when there is a decline in the gross domestic product (GDP) in two successive quarters. In Germany’s case, the country’s GDP reportedly fell by 0.3% for the quarter, following a decline of 0.5% in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Members of the crypto community were split on the potential effects of the recession on the crypto economy. While some believe it’s a bullish signal for crypto, others think it might not have that much-desired effect on the space.

BLOCKCHAIN

RGB protocol may offer solution to Bitcoin’s Ordinals jam, proponent claims (4 min read)

Gideon Nweze, the founder and CEO of the newly launched Digital Bitcoin Art and Assets (DIBA) nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace, believes there’s an alternative way to bring NFTs to Bitcoin that doesn’t impact block space and transaction fees.

Nweze recently put this belief to the test, launching a beta version of his NFT marketplace on May 19. Rather than using Ordinals, it leverages the RGB Smart Contract Protocol to mint NFTs on top of the Bitcoin network.

Meta’s new Megabyte system solves one of the biggest roadblocks for GPTs (3 min read)

Meta AI recently published pre-print research showing off a radical new “Megabyte” framework for building generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) systems. 

Dubbed “promising” by OpenAI’s Andrej Karpathy, former director of artificial intelligence at Tesla, the new architecture is designed to process large volumes of data — such as images, n

BUSINESS

Bitpanda secures licensing agreement with Coinbase as part of strategic partnership (2 min read)

Vienna-based cryptocurrency investment company Bitpanda has finalized a licensing agreement with Coinbase, making Coinbase a liquidity provider for Bitpanda Technology Solutions.

According to the announcement, the collaboration between both entities will enable “Coinbase to offer one of the most scalable Investing-as-a-Service infrastructures to their institutional clients, such as banks and financial institutions outside of the United States.”

Sam Altman’s Worldcoin secures $115M for decentralized ID (2 min read)

Crypto project Worldcoin has reportedly raised $115 million in a Series C round led by Blockchain Capital. Funds will be used to support its decentralized World ID and recently released crypto wallet, World App. 

Co-founded by OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman and built by developers of Tools for Humanity, Worldcoin aims to tackle problems stemming from the growing complexity of artificial intelligence, such as proof of personhood, in the digital age. Venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital Crypto, and Distributed Global are also investors in the round.

Binance Pay sees growing interest in Africa, Eurasia and Eastern Europe (2 min read)

African, Asian and Eastern European countries are using Binance Pay to bridge cryptocurrencies as a payment source for goods and services, according to a regional Binance exec.

A strategic partnership with WooCommerce is also expected to expand the reach of Binance Pay, with an estimated 40% of global websites using the e-commerce plugin. The integration allows cryptocurrency users to make payments with 70 different tokens.

QUICK LINKS

Fahrenheit wins bid to acquire assets of crypto lender Celsius (2 min read)

The consortium, which includes Arrington Capital, outbid NovaWulf to acquire Celsius Network’s assets, while the Blockchain Recovery Investment Consortium serves as a backup bid.

Chinese city releases policy draft for metaverse industry development (3 min read)

The policies include a series of cash benefits to attract metaverse-related companies to set up shop in the city.

OpenAI launches grant for AI democratic governance project (2 min read)

The company behind ChatGPT announced it would award 10 grants of $100,000 to teams worldwide to develop a democratic process for determining AI rules.

Visa, Microsoft and others join Brazilian CBDC pilot (2 min read)

Both national and global companies will participate in the upcoming pilot project of the Brazilian central bank digital currency.

Circle launches euro-based stablecoin on Avalanche blockchain (2 min read)

Circle launched EUROC last year as a regulated stablecoin, which means that each token is fully backed by euro reserves held at United States-regulated financial institutions.

EU regulator urges crypto firms to disclose regulatory status of products (2 min read)

The ESMA reminded investment firms that crypto would remain unregulated in most jurisdictions despite upcoming regulations.

Nvidia AI chip value skyrockets amid AI development boom (2 min read)

The chip developer released its second-quarter revenue forecast, which was 50% higher than market estimates, followed by a 28% increase in company shares.