Laos prioritizes blockchain 🇱🇦, Crypto firms vie for Hong Kong licenses 🇭🇰, Russia scraps crypto exchange 🇷🇺

Daily Crypto, Blockchain & Web3 Update 2023-05-30

Nhu Y

May 30, 2023

CRYPTOCURRENCY

Bitcoin selling for $5K cheaper on Binance Australia as fiat ramp closes (3 min read)

Bitcoin is trading hands at a hefty discount on the Australian branch of the Binance crypto exchange, with the price of Bitcoin down as much as 21% if traded against the Australian dollar.

The move comes as traders rush to cash out their crypto holdings into Australian dollars before the door for local bank withdrawals closes in a few days.

On May 18, Binance Australia informed users that it was suspending Australian dollar services after a decision by its third-party payments provider.

Russia scraps plans for a national cryptocurrency exchange (2 min read)

The Russian government is no longer planning to launch a regulated national cryptocurrency exchange but rather wants to regulate multiple crypto trading platforms.

After introducing a plan to create a national crypto exchange in November 2022, Russian lawmakers have abandoned the idea, according to State Duma member Anatoly Aksakov. As previously reported, the local government was considering launching a unified crypto exchange as part of the Moscow Exchange.

Bitcoin Ordinals surpass 10M inscriptions as creator Rodarmor steps down (3 min read)

The number of Ordinals inscriptions on the Bitcoin network has surpassed the 10 million mark, just days after its creator stepped down as the project’s caretaker.

On May 28, Casey Rodarmor announced on Twitter he had stepped down as the project’s lead maintainer, claiming that he’d been unable to give Ordinals the attention it deserved. Rodarmor handed the role over to pseudonymous coder Raphjaph.

Deal to avoid US debt default nixes proposed 30% crypto mining tax, says Ohio lawmaker (2 min read)

A tentative deal aimed at stopping the United States government from defaulting on its debts would likely eliminate a proposed tax on the energy usage of cryptocurrency miners, according to Ohio Rep. Warren Davidson.

On May 28, U.S. lawmakers released a draft of a bill allowing the government to increase the debt ceiling, an imposed limit on the amount of debt the Treasury Department can incur, following negotiations with President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The legislation still needs congressional approval before taking effect to avoid a seeming economic catastrophe for the U.S. government.

Buying a bank won’t solve crypto’s debanking issue: Binance CEO (3 min read)

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao says the firm is unlikely to buy up any banking institutions, despite a growing worry of crypto companies being debanked, including Binance’s own operation in Australia.

The collapse of several United States banks this year has prompted concerns that the pool of crypto-friendly banks is shrinking. Former key banking partners, Silvergate, Silicon Valley Bank, and Signature Bank have all capitulated this year.

BLOCKCHAIN

Laos government reportedly prioritizes blockchain technology for digital transformation (3 min read)

On May 26, the Laotian government reportedly hosted the inaugural Ministerial Conference on Blockchain 4.0 Digital Transformation in the country’s capital, Vientiane. The conference, which was led by Laotian Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone, was attended by blockchain experts and various leaders from the main economic departments within the country.

NFTs

Popular NFT collections take massive price hit in 2023 (2 min read)

Some of the most sought-after nonfungible tokens (NFTs) of 2022 have taken a massive hit in value over the past year. The trend mirrors the depreciating value of metaverse properties in 2023, which were considered top virtual lands for investment in 2022.

Investments in top NFT projects, including Doodles, Invisible Friends, Moonbirds and Goblintown, have lost up to 95% of their value in Ether. The value of blue-chip NFT collections alone has fallen down by over 40% on average.

BUSINESS

Crypto firms jockey for Hong Kong licenses ahead of June 1 retail opening (2 min read)

The race to snatch up Hong Kong retail crypto traders is about to kick off, with several cryptocurrency companies announcing plans to apply for a license come June 1.

On May 29, the Hong Kong-based crypto exchange CoinEx became the latest to signal its entry to the city, saying it’s launching a local platform called BitHK, which will submit its Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) license application to the securities regulator on June 1.

Amex planning to use AI for ‘approving cards and lines of credit’ (2 min read)

Financial services titan American Express (Amex) plans to use artificial intelligence (AI) services to validate transactions, approve lines of credit, analyze customer sentiment and predict customer finances.

Despite these aspirations, a recent report from VentureBeat indicates that Amex currently has no intention of rolling up its own large language model (LLM) to compete with the likes of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard.

Crypto exchange TrigonX latest to emerge from the FTX rubble (2 min read)

Australian crypto exchange TrigonX is the latest revival story to come out of the FTX collapse, with the exchange set to relaunch after it collapsed in December with debts exceeding $50 million.

According to company director Matteo Salerno, TrigonX is earmarked for revival after a deed of company arrangement was approved by creditors, The Australian reported on May 29.

BNB NFT marketplace Tabi raises $10M in angel funding (2 min read)

Tabi, the nonfungible token marketplace previously as Treasureland, has completed a $10 million angel funding round, the BNB Chain-based platform announced on May 10.

The funding was seeded by venture capital firms Animoca Brands, Binance Labs,… Individual investors include Bo Feng of Dragonfly Capital, Riyad AD of Saudi Arabia, and Suji Yan of Mask Network. According to developers, the funds will be primarily used to develop Tabi’s gaming ecosystem and construct its upcoming on-chain identity protocol.

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