Fashion Show In Decentraland

UNXD, a curated marketplace built on the Polygon network, and Decentraland, a VR platform on Ethereum, have joined hands to launch a fashion week in the digital universe. The fashion party is slated to run from March 24 – 27, 2022.

People Looked up Crypto Most Often on Reddit

Reddit has revealed that cryptocurrency was the most viewed topic of 2021 and was looked up 6.6 million times on its website. Furthermore, among the crypto subreddits, Dogecoin seems to outshone even Bitcoin.

Binance Gets “In Principle” Nod To Set Shop in Bahrain

Binance’s aspiration to become a fully regulated crypto exchange is moving closer to fruition in Bahrain. It has obtained an “in principle approval” for a crypto license from the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB). As per CBB’s director for licensing, Abdulla Haji, this nod means that licensing would be “a matter of formalities” once the firm goes through the application process.

MicroStrategy Continues to Hoard Bitcoin

The business intelligence company MicroStrategy has bought an additional 1,914 bitcoin worth $94.2 million on Dec. 29. At the moment, the firm holds 124,391 bitcoin with a total value of close to $5.9 billion.

Binance’s Setback in Ontario

On the contrary, Binance is facing setbacks in operating in Ontario, Canada. The crypto exchange, which had asked its Canadian clients to close their accounts by Dec. 31, reversed its stance earlier this week, informing them that it would continue to function after successfully cooperating with the regulator. The Ontario Securities Commission later refuted this claim and reiterated that the crypto exchange is still not permitted to set up shop in the province.

Bitcoin’s Rollercoaster Ride

After an uptick in price over Christmas, the world’s premier cryptocurrency saw a slump when its value declined below $50K earlier this week. In the early hours today, bitcoin dropped to a seven-day low of $45,819.95. Several altcoins also took a hit, with many witnessing a double digit dip. Contrarily, several DeFi tokens, including SUSHI, FTM, OSMO, and AAVE, enjoyed a bullish week.

Polygon Quietly Patches a Bug

A critical bug that put over $24 billion user funds at risk was quietly patched earlier in Dec, the layer-2 blockchain Polygon has revealed. Although, an attacker managed to rob $1.8 million worth of MATIC tokens. The vulnerability was reported by white hat hackers from the ImmuneFi platform on Dec. 3. 

HP Servers Compromised for Mining

A bunch of HP branded servers belonging to an undisclosed company was taken over by hackers who used it remotely to mine a digital coin called raptoreum. The operations that seemed to have commenced on Dec. 9 allowed the attackers to rake in $110,000 worth of crypto before they were discovered.

Dwyer Buys More Time

Greg Dwyer, a former executive of beleaguered crypto exchange BitMEX, has succeeded in getting seven months more than his co-defendants to prepare for the impending trial regarding the alleged breach of AML laws by BitMEX’s executives. Dwyer’s lawyers argued that he had less time to prepare for the March 2022 trial as he was, at the same time, fighting extradition from Bermuda, where he had been since 2019.

Voyager Digital Sued

Crypto exchange Voyager Digital is sued for the alleged misleading of investors. According to the lawsuit, Voyager Digital has been charging a trading fee to its customers despite claiming to be commission free.

Phantom Cancels Its iOS Wallet Launch Ticket Sales

Solana’s Phantom wallet ended its plans to sell $1,600 access passes for its iOS beta launch, following heavy criticism from the community over its steep price. In its defense, the wallet company claimed that its intention of the auction was to raise $200,000 to donate to Girls Who Code charity.

GensoKishi Partners With TrustPad

GensoKishi Online, which brings financial elements to the online role-playing game Elemental Knights, is partnering with the multi-chain fundraising platform TrustPad. As a result, TrustPad will assist GensoKishi in promoting its GameFi concept to investors using the TrustPad platform.

Aave and Centrifuge Launch RWA Yield

DeFi platform Aave has partnered with Centrifuge to allow its users to earn yield by providing liquidity to companies in exchange for their tokenized invoices and similar collaterals. Centrifuge enables businesses to tokenize and use their assets as collateral, and Aave lets users exchange these tokens for DAI stablecoin and earn a yield of 2.8%.

OpenSea Steps in To Save Bored Apes

Todd Kramer from New York reportedly fell victim to a phishing scam losing 16 of the Bored and Mutant Apes NFTs, worth $1.9 million. He also confirmed that the NFT marketplace OpenSea had come to his rescue by freezing the stolen assets.

Mexico To Have CBDC by 2024

The Mexican government announced by means of a tweet that the country’s central bank  (Banxico) plans to launch a CBDC by 2024. Banxico considers the new technologies as a great value to advance financial inclusion.

Pensioners Get Petros for Christmas

The pensioners of the state owned PDVSA oil company have received a bonus for Christmas in Petros, the national digital currency of Venezuela. The beneficiaries can exchange the crypto with fiat in local exchanges.

Iran Bans Crypto Mining

Iran has banned licensed crypto mining until March 6 in order to free up over 200 megawatts of power for household uses during these winter months. Meanwhile, it is also allowing renewable power generation plants to sell electricity to cryptocurrency miners with permits.

South Korea To Tax Crypto Inheritance

South Korea will reportedly start taxing people who have inherited or donated crypto starting 2022. However, the authorities have postponed taxing the income from digital assets to 2023.

Kazakhstan Considering Nuclear Power

To address the exodus of crypto miners due to power shortage, Kazakhstan is mulling over building a nuclear power plant to overcome the paucity of electricity.

SEC Appoints Advisor for Crypto

SEC Chair Gary Gensler has picked Corey Frayer, a senior staffer on the US Senate banking committee, as senior advisor overseeing crypto. He will also contribute to policy making related to digital assets.

Buy a House in Colombia With Bitcoin

A Colombian real estate agency La Haus is promoting bitcoin payments for property purchases. To that effect, it is allowing buyers to pay with bitcoin for Natura City, an upcoming real estate project in Santa Marta.

Russia’s First Crypto ETF

Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, has introduced what it said is the country’s first ETF to give institutional investors exposure to crypto assets. The fund will track the Sber Blockchain Economy Index.

ProShares’ Metaverse ETF

ProShares has filed an application for a metaverse themed ETF with the US SEC. The fund will track the Solactive Metaverse Theme Index, which includes companies such as Apple, Meta, Nvidia that sell or use technologies behind metaverse.

A DAO for Saving Users From Gas Fees

This week, a new DAO, dubbed Gas DAO, emerged in an attempt to save users wearied by paying high transaction fees on the Ethereum network. Those who have spent more than $1,559 in gas fees before Dec. 26 are eligible to claim a proportionate amount of GAS tokens.

The First Space Sunrise 2022

A new project, named “The First Space Sunrise 2022,” has set up a challenge to capture the first round of live images of the Earth in 2022 from the International Space Station, which orbits the Earth in 90 minutes. These photographs will be sold as NFTs, and those collecting them will become crew members of the project. Alongside, several crypto influencers are expected to participate in the live event.

And Finally, NYE Ball Drop In Metaverse

Jamestown, the owner of Times Square building in New York, announced a New Year’s Eve party called Metafest 2022 in metaverse. It has purchased 170 parcels of virtual land in Decentraland to recreate the iconic site for the 2022 virtual ball drop.