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Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has tweeted about rumours that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may ban crypto staking for retail customers. He argues that such a ban would hinder innovation and lead crypto companies to move offshore. The regulators are also probing into crypto exchange Kraken for allegedly selling unregistered securities, showing that increased regulatory scrutiny for cryptocurrencies may be on the horizon.
Apart from that, here are some of the top stories from the crypto industry this week.
Algorand Foundation has announced a number of partnerships in India, including collaborations with academic institutions to create educational initiatives that will promote Web3 in the country.
To launch educational programs, Algorand has also partnered with Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in Hyderabad and the Indian School of Business. This includes programs for faculty development and student developer training.
The company is also targeting Indian startups and is set to host a master class for companies interested in entering the Web3 market. It recently announced a partnership with T-Hub, a Hyderabad-based innovation center.
Algorand is an open-source layer-1 blockchain firm that aims to bridge the gap between traditional and decentralized finance.
Millions in crypto have been donated by the Web3 community to aid the victims of the massive earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria early Monday morning. A 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the countries, leaving more than 15,000 people dead, thousands injured and homeless.
Several cryptocurrency companies including Binance, Tether, Bitfinex, OKX, Kucoin, and Avalanche Foundation have pledged millions in donations to help the victims. In addition, the MEXC exchange donated food, drinks, cleaning, basic needs, and shelter materials to Turkey victims.
Several decentralized autonomous organizations have spun up in the last week offering support to support humanitarian efforts.
Web 3.0 wallet MetaMask announced to support bank transfers for users in India. MetaMask users will be able to buy crypto directly within the MetaMask app through local payment methods like UPI and IMPS.
The crypto wallet’s support for UPI could go a long way in advancing the web 3.0 infrastructure in the country. For the India payments initiative, Metamask partnered with Onramp money, an instant transactions company.
Through MetaMask’s integration with Onramp.money, Indians will be able to experience the extensive benefits of blockchain technology.
After the successful Merge in 2022, Ethereum developers are gearing up for its first significant upgrade. The Shanghai upgrade, which is anticipated to take place next month, will have a significant impact on ether (ETH), the native token of the blockchain and the second-largest cryptocurrency in terms of market value.
Ethereum’s “Shanghai Hard Fork” is expected to occur next month, marking the latest major upgrade to the ecosystem of Ether.
The network activated the Zhejiang public test network on February 7, as the platform prepares for its upgrade in March. Zhejiang is currently in a preview phase and will be upgraded once more in the coming days for public use.
Artificial intelligence-related digital assets have increased dramatically since ChatGPT, a chatbot developed by OpenAI, became a sensation online and generated excitement about AI's possibilities in the future.
Many of the tokens that CoinGecko categorizes as belonging to the AI category have experienced weekly gains of at least double digits.
Over the course of seven days, SingularityDAO, SingularityNET and Artificial Liquid Intelligence saw significant increase in their prices
Other prominent gainers in the AI and data intelligence field include fetch.ai (FET), measurable data (MDT), matrix AI network (MAN), deepbrain chain (DBC), oraichain (ORAI), and Vectorspace AI (VXV), with price gains ranging from 75%-95%.
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Disclaimer: This article was authored by Giottus Crypto Exchange as a part of a paid partnership with The News Minute. Crypto products and NFTs are unregulated and can be highly risky. There may be no regulatory recourse for any loss from such transactions. Please do your own research before investing and seek independent legal/financial advice if you are unsure about the investments.