- Crypto.com Slashes Card Rewards, CRO Tokens Drop 11% as Community Reacts
Revisions to Crypto.com’s card and staking rewards sent token prices tumbling as much as 11% as the community expressed dismay over the changes that go into effect after June 1.
In a blog post on Sunday, Crypto.com said it would reduce rewards on the usage of its Visa-enabled cards based on the tiers offered. Lower tiers – such as Midnight Blue and Ruby Steel – would get 0%, Royal Indigo and Jade Green would get 0.5%, Icy White and Frosted Rose Gold would get 1%, while Osbidian, the highest tier, would get just 2%.
Monthly rewards on the lower tiers would be capped from $25 to $50, while there would be no rewards cap on the higher tiers, the company said.
Staking rewards on Crypto.com’s cards would additionally cease after completion of the 180-day period for all those who staked on May 1 or before, except for cards of the lowest two tiers.
- Report: Nigerian Trio Allegedly Uses Money Laundering Proceeds to Buy Bitcoins Worth Over $43 Million
The global law enforcement agency, Interpol is seeking to conclude a case where three Nigerian nationals are believed to have used money laundering proceeds to buy bitcoins worth over $43 million, a report has said. Three Kenyans including an unnamed powerful Kenyan politician are accused of having aided the Nigerian trio in their efforts to conceal the exact motive for moving the funds.
According to a report by the Kenyan publication, the Nation, a probe by Interpol found that the trio could have transferred over $215 million (25 billion Kenyan shillings) from Nigeria to Kenya between October and November 2020.
Once the funds were in Kenya, the three, Olubunmi Akinyemiju, Olufemi Olukunmi Demuren and Eghosasere Nehikhare, went on a bitcoin buying spree. During this buying spree, the trio is said to have acquired bitcoins that were at the time valued at $36,353,728 from the U.S. registered branch of Binance, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges by traded volumes. A further $7,246,582 was used to buy bitcoins on Busha, another cryptocurrency exchange.
- ApeCoin Plummets Double Digits After Metaverse NFT Land Sale
ApeCoin is facing some serious volatility.
In the past 24 hours alone, the token behind ApeDAO, a decentralized organization (DAO) linked to the popular NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), has dipped, dived, and even jumped several points.
According to price data pulled from CoinMarketCap, this time yesterday, APE was trading at $17.74. The token then fell to $16.24, rose back to $17.56, plummeted again to as low as $15.7, retook $17.16, before dropping to its current price of $15.49.
The volatile price action has nonetheless inflicted some serious damage, with the net losses over the past day totaling over 13%.
https://decrypt.co/99183/apecoin-plummets-metaverse-nft-land-sale
- Walmart-Owned Flipkart To Venture Into Web3, Metaverse
Walmart-backed Indian E-commerce giant Flipkart, has decided to venture into Web3.0 and Metaverse. Flipkart is set to launch this innovation unit called Flipkart Labs, which shall facilitate commercial functions in the Metaverse.
This plan to foray into Web3.0 will leverage the emerging technologies, aid the development of cutting edge technologies and also focus on delivering solutions to the ecosystem.
Flipkart reported that the in-house innovation unit specifically wants to explore Metaverse e-commerce this year itself and also focus on NFTs, virtual immersive stores and the ever-popular play-to-earn segments along with other blockchain-related use-cases.
Naren Ravula, VP and Head, Product Strategy and Deployment, Flipkart Labs, has quoted that, One of the first areas of focus for Flipkart Labs is to collaborate with the Web 3.0 community and set the standard for commerce in the Metaverse, and Web 3.0, the next iteration of the internet, will have a profound impact across e-commerce solutions, it leverages the best of latest technology like blockchain for real-world use cases that can digitally transform businesses like ours.
https://www.binance.com/en/news/top/7102284
- Indian IT Ministry directs crypto exchanges to store user data for 5 years
The new directives for VPN service providers and crypto exchanges would require them to collect critical private information as well as the ownership patterns of customers.
The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-in), which falls under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, issued a new directive on Thursday, forcing crypto exchanges, virtual private network (VPN) providers and data centers to store a wide range of user data for up to five years.
Under the newly issued directive, crypto exchanges operating in India will be required to store customers’ names, ownership patterns, contact information and various other data.
- Warren Buffett Won’t Buy All Bitcoins in the World for $25, Crypto Community Responds
The Berkshire Hathaway CEO believes Bitcoin does not produce anything valuable or tangible whether or not its price goes up. According to him, the cryptocurrency is a passive asset, and investors buy and hold it hoping that its price will increase in the long run.
“Whether it goes up or down in the next year, or five or 10 years, I don’t know. But the one thing I’m pretty sure of is that it doesn’t produce anything,” he said.
Comparing BTC to other options, Buffett said Bitcoin is not a productive asset like farmlands and apartments that produce food and rent. As a result, he wouldn’t invest in it even if all the bitcoins in the world were offered to him for $25.
“If you told me you own all of the bitcoin in the world and you offered it to me for $25 I wouldn’t take it because what would I do with it? I’d have to sell it back to you one way or another. It isn’t going to do anything,” the billionaire said.
- Bitcoin Immune to ‘Sell in May’ Adage, if History Is Guide
It’s that time of the year again when investors wonder, “should I sell in May and go away.” The famous traditional market adage may not apply to bitcoin (BTC), according to seasonality analysis.
Bitcoin has logged gains in May in seven years out of the past 11 years, per charting platform TradingView’s bitcoin index, which records prices from July 2010.
Historically, May has been the fourth-best month for the cryptocurrency, averaging 289% gains over 11 years.
“In terms of seasonality, May is considered a relative success for BTC. Over the past 11 years, bitcoin has ended the month up seven times and down four times,” Alex Kuptsikevich, senior market analyst at FxPro, said in an email.
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2022/05/02/bitcoin-immune-to-sell-in-may-adage-if-history-is-guide/
- Samsung Group Investment Arm to List Blockchain ETF on Hong Kong Exchange
Samsung Asset Management Company (SAMC) is expected to list a blockchain exchange-traded fund (ETF) on the Hong Kong Exchange during the first half of 2022, the parent company Samsung Group has said. The listing of an ETF, which tracks cryptocurrency and blockchain technology companies, will be a first for Asia one report has said.
The ETF listing is expected to occur in the first half of 2022 comes a few weeks after SAMC reportedly acquired 20% of the stake in Amplify Holding Company, a U.S. ETF sponsor. As part of a $30 million acquisition agreement with Amplify Holding, Samsung Group’s investment arm will have exclusive rights to provide Amplify products in Asia.
The U.S. ETF sponsor, which is famed for its ETF products such as BLOK, or Amplify Transformational Data Sharing ETF, is thought to invest “at least 80% of its net assets in equity securities of blockchain companies.” As per the report, the asset manager’s ETF will have a structure that is identical to that of BLOK.
https://news.bitcoin.com/samsung-group-investment-arm-to-list-blockchain-etf-on-hong-kong-exchange/
- How Crypto Could Spearhead Retail Payments in 2022
Since the release of the 2008 Bitcoin white paper by Satoshi, not one platform has actually achieved a significant impact in providing the underlying value proposition of bringing alternative payments into real everyday buying experience for the average customer.
There has been some movement, with Starbucks (SBUX), Tesla (TSLA) and Microsoft (MSFT) among the big-name brands that started accepting cryptocurrencies in 2021. Many more retailers are attracted by crypto’s reduced fees, faster and safer transactions, and ability to extend customer choice over payments. Swiss firm AXA Insurance, for example, started accepting crypto payments after learning nearly a third of respondents it surveyed had or were interested in crypto investments.
Sesie Bonsi is the founder and CEO of payment platform Bleu. This article is part of CoinDesk’s Payments Week.
https://www.binance.com/en/news/top/7102248
- Wikipedia Stops Accepting BTC, ETH, BCH Donations After 8 Years
After a 3-month long debate among its community members, Wikimedia Foundation (WMF), the no-profit organization behind the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, has decided to stop accepting cryptocurrency donations. Before this decision, WMF used to accept contributions in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Bitcoin Cash.
A Wikimedia editor, Molly White, began a discussion in the Wikimedia community to reconsider its decision to accept cryptocurrency as a means of donation. This led to an online discussion among members from 10 January 2022 to 12 April 2022. Finally, voting was conducted where a majority of the community participants favored White’s proposal.
The arguments put forth against crypto donations included environmental unsustainability and damage to Wikimedia’s reputation as accepting the donations meant endorsing whatever digital assets stand for.
https://cryptopotato.com/wikipedia-stops-accepting-btc-eth-bch-donations-after-8-years/
