ECB Starts Digital Euro Project

The European Central Bank (ECB) has decided to investigate the feasibility of a eurozone CBDC. As per ECB, this phase will last 24 months. But a decision on whether or not to issue a digital euro will only be taken at a later stage.

Ghana to Trial CBDC in September

The deputy governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Maxwell Opoku-Afari, announced this week that the central bank is looking to start its CBDC pilot in September. He added that the success rate of the pilot would determine the future stages.

UAE Plans to Issue CBDC in Five Years

This week, the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE) announced its plan to issue a state-backed digital currency within the next five years. The initiative is a part of the central bank’s seven objectives of the 2023-2026 strategy to position it among the world’s top ten banks.

China Releases CBDC Whitepaper

Chinese central bank’s ​​digital currency working group has released a whitepaper that delineates its thoughts and progress so far on e-CNY. As per the paper, a digital currency is no different from its physical equivalent. Alongside, it confirmed that the digital yuan has now reached 20 million wallets, and 35.5 billion RMB ($5.4 billion) worth of transactions have been processed.

Cancer Survivor MLB Player Turns to NFT

Baltimore Orioles’ first baseman Trey Mancini has created NFTs that represent his appearance at Major League Baseball’s Home Run Derby. The NFTs are available on the Ureeqa platform. The proceeds from the auction will be donated for colon cancer awareness campaigns. Mancini is a cancer survivor, having overcome Stage 3 colon cancer last year. At the time of writing, the Trey Mancini Gold Edition NFT had been sold for $6,000.

Ronaldo’s Top Award Goes Digital

Portuguese soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo’s gold Top Scorer award from UEFA EURO 2020 is now a digital collectible minted on AntChain Blockchain. The silver and bronze awards of Patrik Schick and Karim Benzema are also tokenized into unique Blockchain collectibles. UEFA aims to ensure the top soccer players are permanently honored.

Copa America Trophy Is Now an NFT

CONMEBOL, the governing body for soccer in South America, is commemorating the 47th Copa America soccer tournament by minting the trophy as an NFT. The championship that ended last week was won by Argentina, which beat Brazil 1-0.

American Football Star to Take Endorsement Pay in Bitcoin

The New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley announced that he would take the payments for the marketing deals and endorsements in bitcoin.“You see how high [inflation] is, and you learn you can’t save yourself through wealth,” “That’s why I am going to be taking my marketing money in bitcoin,” – Barkley told Anthony Pompliano on the “The Best Business Show.

Niftys.com Arrives with Space Jam: A New Legacy 

This week, Nifty’s, Inc. announced the official launch of Niftys.com, the first social NFT platform. The goal is to bring digital collectibles to mainstream audiences. Alongside, Nifty’s, Inc. announced a partnership with Warner Bros. As a result, a collection of limited-edition NFTs featuring characters from the upcoming animated film Space Jam: A New Legacy, starring basketball champion LeBron James along with the beloved Looney Tunes, will be launched on the platform. 

Amex Launches NFTs for Its Customers

American Express launched 14 single edition NFTs exclusively for its cardholders. These collectibles represent various moments of performances by R&B singer SZA. The NFTs that are priced at $100 each are minted by Fanaply.

Crypto Charity for Kids in Rwanda

Save the Children, an NGO based in Rwanda has partnered with the Cardano Foundation to launch an ADA crypto charity. Cardano has installed a payment gateway that enables donors to send ADA directly to the charity. The money will be given to African institutions that work for children and youth.

Australian Government’s Blockchain Investment

The Australian government is giving $4.1 million in grants to Blockchain firm Everledger and technology company Convergence.Tech. The investment goes into projects to research the ability of Blockchain to ease regulatory burdens in the supply chain systems.

Nuclear Energy Powers Mining

Bitcoin mining firm Compass Mining has signed a 20 year deal with nuclear fission startup Oklo. As a result, the Oklo reactors that will be deployed in 2023 or 2024 will supply 150 megawatts of energy to the mining company.

Offset Mining Emissions With Carbon Credits

Brazil-based asset manager Hashdex will launch a Bitcoin ETF that will use a part of the management fees to buy carbon credits to offset Bitcoin mining emissions. The ETF will be available as of August on Brazilian stock exchange B3.

Capital International Buys Shares of MicroStrategy

Capital International, a division of one of the world’s oldest asset management firms, Capital Group, has bought 953,242 shares of business analytics firm MicroStrategy. As a result, Capital International now has indirect exposure to over 100K Bitcoin that MicroStrategy holds today.

BNY Mellon to Provide Asset Services to Grayscale

BNY Mellon, the world’s largest asset services company, will provide accounting and admin services to Grayscale Bitcoin Trust starting October 1. Moreover, it will also be the service provider for Grayscale’s flagship product – Grayscale Bitcoin Trust.

Grayscale’s Digital Large Cap Fund is Now a SEC Registered Company

Crypto asset manager Grayscale announced this week that its Digital Large Cap Fund has now become a reporting company under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It also revealed that it has filed for three more trusts to become reporting companies.

Samsung Launches Paperless Blockchain Solution

Samsung SDS, the technology arm of Samsung, launched a new service named Paperless. It is a Blockchain solution for enterprises to manage sensitive documents such as contracts, consent forms on Blockchain to prevent forgery and falsification.

Paraguay’s Supposed Crypto Bill

A purported draft of Paraguay’s crypto law developed by Congressman Carlos Rejala and Senator Fernando Silva Facetti surfaced online this week. As per the bill, cryptocurrencies are required to be registered with the country’s Undersecretariat of State Taxation. It also proposes regulating mining and crypto trading activities.

Tanzania to Set Up Crypto Advisory Team

The Tanzanian government has announced plans to create a crypto advisory team within 14 days. The government’s ICT commission is expected to set up a team to advise the government on policy and legislation surrounding crypto.

Power Ledger to Move to Solana

Australia based renewable energy Blockchain Power Ledger revealed its plans to move to Solana from Ethereum. In addition to using Solana’s low energy consuming Proof of History and Proof of Stake consensus, Power Ledger is looking for higher speed and scalability.

S&P Dow Jones Adds Five Crypto Indices

S&P Dow Jones Indices has added five new indices to its existing list of crypto market benchmarks. The most significant among them is the S&P Cryptocurrency Broad Digital Market (BDM) Index that tracks the overall health of the crypto market based on the performance of over 240 different cryptos. The other four are a subset of the BDM index.

OK Group to Work With Chinese Police

The Blockchain technology company OK Group announced this week that it would work with the Nanjing police authorities and research using Blockchain tech in anti-money laundering operations. Its subsidiary will work on public security and social governance Blockchain applications.

Binance’s Regulatory Troubles

Italian Regulator Issues Warnings

Italy’s securities regulator, the Italian Companies and Exchange Commission (CONSOB), joins a long list of regulators that have issued warnings against the Binance crypto exchange. This week, CONSOB issued a statement stating that Binance and its affiliates are unauthorized to operate in Italy.

European Payments Processor Halts Binance Payments

Clear Junction, the European payments processor, announced that it would stop processing transactions for Binance. This decision was influenced by the warning issued by the UK regulators.

Binance Suspends Sterling Withdrawals

Binance has suspended withdrawals of sterling after the Faster Payments service ended its agreement with it. Faster Payments’ decision was also based on the UK watchdog’s warning.

Binance Stops Selling Stock Tokens

Binance announced this week that it is stopping the purchase of new stock tokens such as of Tesla, Facebook, Google effective immediately. Support for existing ones will stop after October 14. Binance’s statement follows the probing of these tokens by several financial regulators.

Visa Approves Crypto Debit Card 

Global payments giant Visa has approved CryptoSpend, a local Australian startup, to issue debit cards for its customers. As a result, those using the CryptoSpend app can pay at the brick-and-mortar retail stores with their cryptocurrencies.

PayPal Raises Crypto Limits

Online payment services company PayPal has raised crypto limits for its US customers to $100,000 per week with no annual purchase limit. According to Paypal, this move would provide its customers more choice and flexibility with cryptocurrencies.

Coinbase Adds Support For Polygon

Coinbase wallet has added support for decentralized apps (dApps) built on Ethereum scaling solution Polygon. Hence, the users using the mobile and web versions of the Coinbase wallet can transact on the dApps on the Polygon network.

And Finally, ShapeShift Decentralizes Itself 

The crypto trading firm ShapeShift is planning to dissolve its entire corporate structure and hand over its legacy to a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) controlled by holders of its FOX token. In the process, it will begin by airdropping $98 million in crypto to DeFi investors across multiple blockchains.