- G-7 Finance Ministers Discuss Crypto Regulation Ahead of Japan Summit Next Week
The Group of Seven (G-7) intergovernmental political forum has signaled its commitment to implementing the Financial Stability Board’s (FSB) forthcoming norms for regulating crypto assets and the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) recommendations on central bank digital currencies.
The group’s finance ministers and central bank governors announced they had discussed crypto asset supervision at a Saturday meeting in Niigata, Japan ahead of the G-7 summit next week. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the summit’s host this year, has said G-7 leaders are set to state their joint support for tougher crypto rules.
India, as the president of the G-20, has been pushing for globally coordinated crypto rules. In February, the group said forthcoming global crypto norms will be based on a new synthesis paper jointly produced by the IMF and the FSB. The G-7 has indicated it will follow the standards set by the FSB.
- Russian Companies ‘Actively’ Using Crypto, Russia to Adopt 4 Relevant Laws, Official Says
The State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, plans to adopt four crypto-related laws during its spring session which ends on July 30, according to Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the parliamentary Financial Market Committee.
The bills are tailored to regulate cryptocurrency mining, cross-border crypto payments, taxation of digital assets, and liability for their illegal use, the lawmaker detailed, quoted by the Interfax news agency. He emphasized that the draft laws are well thought through.
Aksakov remarked that large Russian companies are already actively using cryptocurrency in foreign trade settlements, but they want to see legislation outlining the legal framework for such transactions. Speaking at the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum, he stated:
Now we have come to the point where four bills are in the stage of practical adoption … It is quite possible that we will adopt all the laws in the spring session.
- Ethereum Staking Tokens Lido, Rocket Pool Soar Double Digits on the Week
LSD tokens are heading higher.
Lido Finance (LDO) and Rocket Pool (RPL) led weekly market gains with 22.9% and 12.8% price surges, respectively, even amid a widely bearish move from the broader crypto market.
Ethereum’s price lost 1.% in the last seven days, according to CoinGecko data.
Liquid staking refers to the process of depositing ETH into a protocol that then deposits those assets to the Ethereum mainnet.
Unlike depositing directly to mainnet, which requires a minimum deposit of 32 ETH, services like Lido Finance allow anyone to stake any amount.
In exchange for staking, users receive a staked version of ETH; Lido’s derivative token is called stETH, for example.
https://decrypt.co/140117/ethereum-staking-tokens-lido-rocket-pool-soar-double-digits-week
- Scammers Are Exploiting PEPE Memecoin Hysteria: Report
Fuelled by hype and hysteria, memecoins went from an obscure and bizarre niche to a massive gambling vehicle that made people millionaires overnight.
PEPE is the latest sensation that captured the imagination of some of the most insatiable degens in the space. This particular frog-themed coin continued to ascend to dizzying heights as FOMO engulfed the market. But the latter is a scammer’s best friend.
Memecoin Craze
Crypto Twitter is ripe with stories about how early investors of PEPE became millionaires overnight. While PEPE did manage to bring a memecoin renaissance, it also triggered the creation of numerous scam tokens over the past week.
Blockchain security firm PeckShield observed the creation of at least 10 memecoin scams such as PEPEDOGE, PEPEC, WOW, MEME, FOUR, NEWPEPE, BENZ, BMW, POP, and BOBO. The creators behind the flagged scam token allegedly removed the liquidity and rug-pulled unsuspecting investors.
https://www.binance.com/en/news/flash/7556625
- Zimbabwe sells millions of gold-backed crypto tokens despite IMF warning
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has sold 14 billion Zimbabwean dollars’ worth of gold-backed digital tokens — worth around $39 million — despite a warning from the International Monetary Fund.
On May 12, the central bank of Zimbabwe announced that it had received 135 applications for a total of 14.07 billion Zimbabwean dollars to buy the gold-backed cryptocurrency.
The Zimbabwean dollar is officially trading at 362 Zimbabwean dollars to one United States, according to XE.com — but much higher on the street — making the stash nominally worth around $38.9 million.
The crypto tokens, first introduced in April, are backed by 139.57 kilograms of gold, with the sale running from May 8 to May 12.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/zimbabwe-sells-gold-backed-crypto-tokens
- Bitcoin Cash Prices Bump Ahead of ‘CashTokens’ Upgrade
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) prices jumped as much as 6% ahead of a mainnet upgrade that will allow developers to issue tokens atop the network, among other enhancements.
The ‘hard fork’ is scheduled for about noon time UTC on Monday. A hard fork refers to an upgrade in any blockchain network. Bitcoin Cash’s May hard fork is set to bring added security and privacy to the fledgling network, with plans for “CashTokens” – which would enable decentralized applications directly on Bitcoin Cash, as per developers.
Other proposed improvements already locked in include smaller transaction sizes – which help speed up transactional times – and smart contracts functionality that could allow Bitcoin Cash-based applications built that offer recurring payments, derivatives trading, and crowdfunding opportunities, among other uses, to Bitcoin Cash users.
https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2023/05/15/bitcoin-cash-prices-bump-ahead-of-cashtokens-upgrade/
- South Korean Politician Quits Party Over Crypto Scandal
Kim Nam-kuk, a representative in the South Korean National Assembly, announced he will leave his political faction amid a growing scandal surrounding his alleged cryptocurrency dealings. In a Facebook post on Sunday, he wrote:
Today, I am briefly leaving the Democratic Party that I love. I decided that it would not be right to be a burden to the party and party members any longer.
Kim came under intense scrutiny after revelations that he owned around 800,000 Wemix coins in 2021, Yonhap reported. At the time, the digital assets were worth around 6 billion won ($4.5 million), “a significant amount inconsistent with his frugal image,” the news agency noted.
On Wednesday, the Democratic Party of Korea, the main opposition force in the parliament, urged Kim to sell off the assets, a call that the first-term lawmaker accepted. The party’s ethics committee launched a probe into his coin trading which has been suspended now.
https://news.bitcoin.com/south-korean-politician-quits-party-over-crypto-scandal/
- OpenAI CEO’s Crypto Project Worldcoin Eyes $100M in Fresh Funding: Report
Worldcoin, the iris-scanning crypto project helmed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, continues to attract investors despite yet having left beta.
Citing three people with knowledge of the deal, the Financial Times reported that Worldcoin is “in advanced talks” on a new round of financing worth around $100 million. The round is backed by both existing and new investors, according to one of the people.
Worldcoin’s previous investment round included funding from venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Khosla Ventures, bringing the project’s valuation to $3 billion. It also closed an a16z-led $25 million Series A funding round in October 2021, with other investors including the likes of Digital Currency Group, Coinbase Ventures, and Multicoin.
https://decrypt.co/137255/openai-ceos-crypto-project-worldcoin-eyes-100m-fresh-funding-report
- Dogecoin Network Activity Skyrockets, Attracts New Investors and Boosts Market Sentiment
Dogecoin, the meme-inspired cryptocurrency, has recently witnessed a massive surge in network activity, with daily transactions reaching an all-time high (ATH) of 650,000, surpassing both Bitcoin and Litecoin.
This unexpected uptick in activity is attributed to an increased interest in minting DRC20 tokens, a new type of digital asset, on the Dogecoin network. According to some experts, this surge in activity is a clear indication of the growing popularity of DOGE and its potential to challenge established cryptocurrencies in the market.
#Dogecoin just exceeded #Bitcoin daily transactions
https://www.binance.com/en/news/flash/7556863
- South Korean lawmaker leaves political party amid crypto investment controversy
Kim Nam-kuk, a South Korean lawmaker, has announced his departure from the Democratic Party over his alleged crypto dealings while legislating on digital assets. The politician said that he will continue his fight to prove his innocence independently.
According to Kim, his departure will relieve party members of the burden brought about by the controversy. He believes that the issues should no longer affect the party during a crucial time. While he is leaving the party, Kim highlighted that he will still support the political faction.
Meanwhile, the politician also said that he will be continuing his efforts to bring the truth to light as an independent legislator. “I will stand up to the end to unfair political offenses and reveal the truth,” he said.
