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🏁 Global Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) Race Heats Up!
- CBDCs around the world Israel's central bank rolls out sandbox CBDC experiments (Read more), South Korea speeds up its CBDC project (Read more) and New Zealand begins plans to introduce a CBDC (Read more).
- Fidji for Crypto Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of Fiji insists that crypto is still not recognized as legal tender (Read more).
- It seems like a global CBDC race is on! Each move marks an exciting step in the evolution of digital currency, with potential implications for global monetary policy and financial stability.
💼 Self-Custody Wallets & Layer 2s: The New Norm?
- Kraken, a major crypto exchange, introduces self-custody wallets (Read more), a move that redefines the traditional exchange-customer relationship.
- Meanwhile, OKX and Polygon collaborate to launch the X Layer public mainnet (Read more), another attempt at scalability issues in the blockchain sphere.
- These developments reflect a trend towards greater control and scalability in the crypto ecosystem.
⚖️ Regulation and Taxation: A Balancing Act
- Governments are grappling with how to regulate and tax crypto, from the USA to Canada. Senators Lummis and Gillibrand introduced a new bill to regulate stablecoins (Read more), while Canada plans to implement crypto tax (Read more) and require reporting of crypto transfers by 2027 (Read more).
- The UK is also set to introduce stablecoin and crypto legislation by mid-2024 (Read more).
- Again it proves that, as the crypto world matures, regulatory and tax considerations will become increasingly important.
🚀 Institutional Adoption: Banks and Big Tech Embrace Crypto
- It's been a big week for institutional adoption of crypto. Germany's largest federal bank plans to offer crypto custody services (Read more), while HSBC looks to broaden tokenized offerings after launching a gold token (Read more).
- EY uses Polygon's proof of stake for business on the tech front, underscoring the importance of blockchain technology in modern business operations.
📈 Crypto Market Developments: ETFs, DeFi, & Stablecoins
- Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs get the green light in Hong Kong (Read more), a major milestone for crypto adoption in the region.
- Xuirin Finance, a pioneer for DeFi, sells out stage 1 of its card presale (Read more), indicating strong investor interest in DeFi projects.
- Lastly, the use of stablecoins continues to grow (Read more), with crypto payment firm Triple A including PayPal's stablecoin in payment options for customers (Read more).
