Before reading the article, sign up for Cryptogram, a free weekly newsletter on Web3 and crypto.
Silvergate Capital, a significant lender to the cryptocurrency sector, is closing its bank and winding down operations. The firm has served as one of two main banks for the crypto industry, along with Signature Bank. For the first time in seven weeks, Bitcoin (BTC) fell below the $21,000 mark as investors worried about the effects of the collapse of Silvergate Bank.
Apart from that, here are some of the top stories from the crypto industry this week.
The Indian government intends to apply anti-money laundering (AML) provisions to transactions related to cryptocurrencies or virtual tokens, in an effort to tighten its supervision of digital assets.
The exchange between virtual digital assets and fiat currencies, the exchange between one or more forms of virtual digital assets and the transfer of digital assets will be covered under money laundering laws.
The law will also encompass managing virtual digital assets and taking part in financial activities relating to the offer and sale of virtual digital assets.
However, India is yet to finalise legislation and regulations surrounding cryptocurrencies.
All investors are advised to stick to registered exchanges such as Giottus for their trades and avoid international exchanges with no local compliance.
India is preparing to test the offline functionality of its own central bank's digital currency (CBDC). India began testing the wholesale portion of its internal CBDC on November 1, 2022. By using wholesale CBDCs, the pilot has thus far created nearly 800,000 transactions worth $134 million.
Reserve Bank of India's Executive Director Ajay Kumar Choudhary said the design of India’s CBDC will be the least disruptive and will not replace physical currency or the current financial system.
The central bank is evaluating the CBDC's potential for cross-border transactions and integration with legacy systems in other nations. In spite of being a digital currency, CBDCs would also serve as a substitute for cryptocurrencies. India's efforts to establish CBDC are primarily motivated by the country's desire to move to a digital economy and achieve financial inclusion.
Amazon is set to launch its NFT marketplace next month and enlist 15 NFT collectibles on it to boost the company's growth prospects.
Amazon’s intent to tie real-world assets to tokens and NFTs could create a new type of asset class that could attract more buyers and investors. With its massive customer base, the NFT market also could become more mainstream.
Amazon customers will be able to buy collectibles tied to an asset through their accounts by using debit or credit cards. The purchased collectibles will then be transferred directly to the customer’s NFT account.
Binance NFT, the NFT (non-fungible token) arm of crypto exchange Binance, has announced that the Polygon network has been included in its supported blockchains within the marketplace.
Users of the Binance NFT marketplace can use their Binance accounts to trade NFTs on other blockchains, including Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, and Polygon.
According to Binance, not all NFT collections would be available at the moment and only handpicked ERC-721 NFT Collections on the Polygon network are available on the Binance NFT marketplace.
Shiba Inu developers have announced that the Shibarium public beta platform is set to release its beta version for the layer 2 network this week.
This is a major step for the Shiba Inu ecosystem from being a mere meme coin to offering a way for the SHIB community to access faster and cheaper transactions, with increased scalability and enhanced security.
In addition to being used as a cheap settlement for decentralized applications (dapps) built on the network, Shibarium will have a focus on metaverse and gaming applications.
The launch will help the platform to establish itself as a genuine project with its own blockchain network and dapp ecosystem.
Use promocode TNM51 at www.giottus.com/profile#promo after registration to get Rs.51 worth free Bitcoin.
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.