Crypto Weekly Roundup: Jay-Z’s Free Bitcoin Academy, Merge Debuts On Ropsten, Retailers Target Crypto Payments, Terra Investigations, And More

More and more retailers are adopting crypto payment options. The Deloitte report confirms that. Several payment providers have also recognized this demand and have started providing the feature on their platforms. On the other hand, Terraform Labs is still in deep trouble, especially with the SEC, which is launching investigation after investigation to find the answers for the Terra (LUNA) crash. Let’s find out more. 

Bitcoin

Rapper Jay-Z and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey have partnered up to launch The Bitcoin Academy, a free-of-service Bitcoin and crypto education program in Brooklyn, New York. 

To counter the recent open letter sent by crypto skeptics to Congress, a group of human rights advocates has also sent a letter to Capitol Hill, asking for a “responsible crypto policy.”

Ethereum

The Ethereum network successfully deployed The Merge on the Ropsten testnet on Wednesday – a significant step towards activating proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus. 

Altcoins

The LINK token hit a four-week high following Chainlink unveiling the details and the roadmap of its upcoming staking program, set to launch in the second half of 2022.

The new privacy features of Litecoin’s latest upgrade have led to it being delisted on major crypto exchanges in South Korea. 

The decentralized exchange native to the Elrond Network, the Maiar Exchange, went offline and was placed under maintenance following suspicious activity, resulting in a drop in the price of EGLD.

Technology

A London-based think-tank reported that the obsession of most central banks with CBDCs might not work out favorably, as customers are not likely to feel incentivized enough to use them. 

Business

Deloitte published its “Merchants Getting Ready For Crypto” report, revealing that around 75% of all U.S. retailers want to enable crypto payments within the next two years. 

VeChain, one of the world’s leading sustainability-focused blockchain foundations, is now the first official Layer-1 blockchain sponsor of the UFC.

Solana Ventures has set up a $100 million investment and grant fund to sponsor Web3 startups in South Korea, primarily those involved in DeFi and GameFi. 

The payments company, Checkout.com has announced that it will let users settle payments in the USDC stablecoin from now on to help merchants conduct transactions round-the-clock.

Payments giant PayPal has announced it now allows users to transfer crypto from their accounts to external wallets and exchanges.

After the CFTC, the Gemini Trust Co. has now been sued by the IRA over the former’s failure to prevent a hack that resulted in pension fund losses amounting to $36 million.

Regulation

The SEC has launched an investigation into Terraform Labs to evaluate if the marketing of the Terra stablecoin, TerraUSD (UST), violated federal investor-protection regulations.

A U.S. federal judge has also ordered Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon to comply with the subpoena served by the SEC. 

CFTC chairman Ross Benham has said that his agency is ready to move further into the crypto regulatory space and define which cryptos would come under its jurisdiction.

Ethiopia’s Central Bank has released a statement terming cryptocurrencies like bitcoin as illegal and prohibiting the use of any other currency except the Birr for all transactions within the country.

The SEC has accused the Binance crypto exchange of breaking securities rules during the ICO of its native token BNB held in 2017 and is investigating the same. 

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.