The cryptocurrency business is thriving, but there are a lot of things happening, including US Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, speaking about Decentralized Finance (DeFi), Ernst & Young (EY) joining the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance board, the Sandbox getting deployed on Polygon, and much more!
In this issue:
- DeFi needs to be regulated ‘carefully & thoughtfully’, says US Fed chairman Jerome Powell.
- EY joins the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance board to advance Ethereum business readiness.
- The Sandbox gets deployed on Polygon which marks yet another milestone.
- Warner Music Group partners with OpenSea to create more Web3 opportunities for artists.
- UAE Ministry of Economy opens up new headquarters in the Metaverse.
- Russia aims to use CBDC for international settlements with China.
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DeFi needs to be regulated ‘carefully & thoughtfully’, says US Fed chairman Jerome Powell.
U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell talked about the regulation of decentralized finance (DeFi) during a panel discussion on digital finance hosted by the Banque of France. Powell urged lawmakers to be cautious when regulating decentralized finance (DeFi) while speaking at a round table conference organized by the Central Bank of France on Sept. 27.
“The monetary policy normalization that we are seeing worldwide,” Powell began. “All it did was simply reveal that we have long pointed out as significant structural issues in the DeFi ecosystem and conflict of interest.” He stressed, “ Within the DeFi ecosystem, there are these very significant structural issues around transparency- lack of transparency.”
Powell said that regulation should be introduced “carefully and thoughtfully,” and that regulators must be “cautious about how crypto activities are taken within the regulatory perimeter.”
According to Powell, in the future, crypto markets will grow large enough to disrupt financial market stability, which is why “there is a real need for more appropriate regulations.” Powell’s cautious approach is in line with California Governor Gavin Newsom, who vetoed a bill last week, stating that crypto regulation needs to be “more flexible” and cannot be “premature.”
Christine Lagarde, the President of the European Central Bank (ECB), and Agustín Carstens, the General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) also participated in the discussion. Both concurred with Powell and similarly stressed the importance of appropriately regulating the DeFi ecosystem.
EY joins the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) board to advance Ethereum business readiness.
The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) announced the advancement of longtime EEA member Ernst & Young (EY) to the Board, the highest level of the organization.
In addition, the EEA announced that EY Global Blockchain Leader, Paul Brody, will serve as the company’s EEA Board of Directors representative, taking part in guiding the organization’s vision, driving member engagement, and building new advocacy, careers, and education initiatives to advance the Ethereum business ecosystem.
“This is an exciting time for businesses that are building on Ethereum, with The Merge offering companies a path forward to deploying decentralized solutions on Ethereum’s now energy-efficient Mainnet. With EY’s combined expertise as a business leader in the Ethereum ecosystem and as a longtime EEA member, the EEA and its members can expect to benefit greatly from EY joining at the Board level.
Paul’s expertise in understanding business readiness and deploying enterprise-grade distributed ledger financial services solutions will be pivotal to the EEA’s efforts in helping businesses deploy on the Ethereum Mainnet, and understand Ethereum technology and its business derivatives,” said EEA Executive Director Dan Burnett.
From acquiring insights to managing the tax and audit requirements for Ethereum blockchain-based transactions, EY helps businesses handle the regulatory and tax complexities of an emerging ecosystem. Newly appointed EEA Board representative Paul Brody was the first to lead EY’s blockchain strategy engagement, working to determine how digital services and payments come together in the new digital world.
The Sandbox gets deployed on Polygon which marks yet another DeFi milestone.
In a recent announcement made on the official Twitter handle of The Sandbox, the team revealed that they are deploying their smart contract on Polygon. This marks yet another milestone for the project that it has managed to accomplish in its 2022 roadmap.
The successful migration of The Sandbox’s smart contract on Polygon Layer marks another step towards altering the majority of its ecosystem. As revealed, the deployment and the bridge of their LAND and SAND tokens will help the team facilitate the development of a cheaper and overall greener ecosystem that has more features.
The announcement revealed that each LAND bridged grants a 10 mSAND cashback on Polygon. Additionally, it has been revealed that both LAND and SAND are now completely supported on Polygon’s Network, and users will now have the potential to interact with all of their Sandbox tokens in a single place.
With the initiation of the deployment and bridge of the ecosystem on the Polygon Network, users will benefit from being more efficient and greener, having access to faster speeds, and paying lower gas fees.
Warner Music Group partners with OpenSea to create more Web3 opportunities for artists.
On Sept. 29, global music and entertainment company Warner Music Group (WMG) announced a partnership with nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea to provide a platform for select musical artists to build and extend their fanbase into the Web3 community.
According to the release, the collaboration between these two entities will allow select WMG artists to get early access to OpenSea’s newly rolled-out feature, which enables artists to launch their NFT collections and limited-edition projects on their own customizable and dedicated drop pages.
These WMG artists will have access to personalized storytelling on customized landing pages, as well as to OpenSea’s industry-leading safety and security features.
The partnership, aimed at helping WMG artists build new Web3 communities, intends to introduce existing fan communities on OpenSea to new forms of connection and creativity through NFTs and open up new opportunities for fans to engage with music and artists within the Web3 community.
Shiva Rajaraman, OpenSea’s vice president of product, shared: “For artists and musicians, NFTs represent a new creative medium and a mechanism to build community, engage directly with fans, and express themselves across borders and languages.”
UAE Ministry of Economy opens up new headquarters in the Metaverse.
The UAE has always been the forerunner of technological advancements. With blockchain, crypto, NFTs, and now metaverse, the country is on its journey to becoming the hub of the global metaverse.
UAE Minister of Economy Abdulla bin Touq Al-Marri made an astonishing announcement during the Metaverse Assembly on September 28, 2022. The UAE Ministry of Economy will be launching its headquarters in the metaverse.
The Ministry of Economy already has its offices in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. With this new virtual office, the UAE government is considering it as their “third address”.
The metaverse headquarters will feature a multi-story building equipped with high-end functionalities.
The headquarters have separate spaces for events, conferences, and meetings. The virtual office enhanced with sophisticated tools will also facilitate the signing of bilateral agreements. Anyone in the world can visit their virtual headquarters and interact by issuing a ticket from the “customer happiness center employee”.
Surprisingly, the virtual office will allow visitors to sign legal documents in the metaverse. Thus, eliminating the need to visit the physical office for documentation processes or to provide their signatures.
Experts are considering this announcement as a key component of the UAE’s Metaverse Strategy which aims to create 40,000 virtual jobs and add $4 billion to Dubai’s economy.
Russia aims to use CBDC for international settlements with China.
Russia is currently in the pilot phase of its CBDC development and is expected to complete the development by early next year. New reports indicate that the country could use its national digital currency to settle international trade.
According to a report published in Reuters, Russia is reportedly planning to use the digital rouble for mutual settlements with China by next year.
The digital rouble is currently being tested for settling with the banks and is expected to be completed by early next year.
Anatoly Aksakov, head of the finance committee in Russia’s lower house of parliament, recently admitted that the geo-political crisis has limited Russia’s accessibility to the international trade market.
This is why they have been actively working for alternate modes of payment and trade settlements, and national digital currency seems to be the primary choice at the moment. He said: “The topic of digital financial assets, the digital rouble, and cryptocurrencies are currently intensifying in society, as Western countries are imposing sanctions and creating problems for bank transfers, including in international settlements.“
Russia has joined the growing list of countries that are in the final phase of their CBDC development. According to the Bank of Russia’s latest monetary policy update, the authority will begin to connect all banks and credit institutions to the digital rouble platform in 2024.
Closing
That’s it for now! Thanks for reading todays newsletter! Be sure to have a look at the Blog section to read our previous editions as well! Have a look at our Guides section if you’re interested in learning more about crypto! And finally, don’t forget to follow us on Twitter!
