The cryptocurrency market had a good weekend! The cryptocurrency business is thriving, as seen by the fact that Meta NFT facilitating Instagram integration in over 100 different countries, Binance and Mastercard will offer prepaid crypto cards in Argentina, and after the April meltdown, Nigeria is the most crypto-obsessed country, according to a report. Recent weeks have been very hectic!
In this issue:
- Meta NFT facilitates Instagram NFT integration in over 100 different countries.
- In Argentina, Binance and Mastercard will offer prepaid crypto cards.
- Nomad offers a $19 million reward for stolen assets in a recent breach.
- As part of an AML probe, Indian authorities froze $8.1M in WazirX money.
- Once compromised for $77 million, Beanstalk relaunches its revolutionary stablecoin technology.
- After the April meltdown, Nigeria is the most crypto-obsessed country, according to a report.
- Portuguese banks are closing cryptocurrency accounts due to risk management worries.
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Meta NFT facilitates Instagram integration in over 100 different countries.
The Mark Zuckerberg-led business has began its nonfungible token (NFT) rollout across 100 countries in Africa, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and the Americas, according to a Thursday Meta blog post.
This includes the addition of support for wallet connections with Coinbase Wallet and Dapper, as well as the ability to upload digital collectibles created on the Flow blockchain. The first deployment focuses on the popular social networking application Instagram.
To publish an NFT on Instagram, the business said in an updated article, users need to link their digital wallet to the platform. The integration of Rainbow, MetaMask, Trust Wallet, Coinbase Wallet, and Dapper Wallet with third-party wallets is either complete as of Thursday or is imminent. Currently supported blockchains include Ethereum, Polygon, and Flow. Instagram does not charge a fee for uploading or sharing digital collectibles.
Flow is a layer-1 blockchain with the FLOW token serving as the medium of exchange for network membership, transactions, and administration. Warner Music, Ubisoft, the National Basketball Association, Ultimate Fighting Championship, Animoca Brands, Circle, Binance, OpenSea, and now Meta are notable ecosystem partners.
In Argentina, Binance and Mastercard will offer prepaid crypto cards.
Binance, a prominent cryptocurrency exchange, has teamed with Mastercard to develop a prepaid card for Argentine citizens.
Binance said on Thursday that its customers in Argentina would be able to use Bitcoin (BTC), BNB, and other cryptocurrencies to make purchases and ATM withdrawals in currency everywhere Mastercard is accepted – around 90 million retailers and online. Additionally, Argentine cardholders may earn up to 8% back in bitcoin on certain transactions.
According to Binance, the release of the card, which will be “widely accessible in the coming weeks,” is part of the company’s efforts to promote the worldwide acceptance of cryptocurrencies. Residents of Argentina will be the first in the area to receive access to the cards, but the cryptocurrency exchange has promised similar initiatives for customers in Ukraine in April and the European Economic Area in 2020.
Maximiliano Hinz, general director of Binance in Latin America, said, “Payments is one of the first and most evident use cases for cryptocurrencies, but adoption has potential to expand.” “By using the Binance Card, retailers continue to earn cash while customers pay with their preferred cryptocurrency.”
The card requires Argentines to hold a valid national identification card or documento nacional de identidad. There are currently similar restrictions in place for credit cards issued by local cryptocurrency exchanges. In 2021, Lemon Card introduced a card with Visa providing 2% back in BTC to Argentine customers, while Buenbit and Belo released a prepaid card and a crypto rewards card, respectively, in partnership with Mastercard.
Nomad offers a $19 million reward for stolen assets in a recent breach.
Nomad offered a reward of up to 10 percent for the restoration of cash stolen from the Nomad bridge. In a website notice and tweet, the business made a wallet address for making the monies publicly available.
The reward applies to everyone who comes forward now or who has previously repaid monies. As of this writing, Nomad has recovered almost $20 million.
The Nomad token bridge was severely compromised on Tuesday. This event was among the greatest crypto hacks in history, with approximately $200 million in stolen crypto assets. However, the site addressed its community and hackers immediately.
In this manner, Nomad will consider any hacker who returns at least 90 percent of the stolen monies to be a white hat hacker. Sometimes, white hat hackers are referred to as “ethical hackers.” Even though these hackers utilise the same techniques as black hat hackers, they normally have the site owner’s consent, making their hacks lawful. White hats are often employed to improve platform security.
As part of an AML probe, Indian authorities froze $8.1M in WazirX money.
Once compromised for $77 million, Beanstalk relaunches its revolutionary stablecoin technology.
Beanstalk said in a release shared with Cointelegraph that it had emerged from the crisis stronger than ever, presumably referring to the protocol’s governance and security. “Beanstalk has emerged from this struggle more powerful than ever. It demonstrates the system’s trustworthiness and its ability to help create a permissionless future, according to Publius, the development organisation behind the BEAN stablecoin and protocol.
Until “a safe on-chain governance mechanism can be established,” Publius has shifted protocol governance to a community-run multisig wallet. Additionally, the company claims that it has passed two protocol audits by “leading not smart contract auditing organisations” Trail of Bits and Halborn.
In addition, the representative emphasised that new application development is already underway on the network, with the Root Protocol launching a $9 million seed round on July 26 to establish financial, commercial, and sports betting markets on Beanstalk.
The project has a long way to go before it reaches the metrics it reached before the hack. Midway in April, Beanstalk’s algo-stablecoin BEAN surpassed $100 million in market capitalization. At the time of writing, however, the amount is just $284,426, and the asset’s price, $0.0039, is far below $1, according to CoinGecko statistics. The initiative has also had minimal success recovering the stolen monies from the April heist. As of 5 June, $10 million has been gathered via a fundraising campaign to replace the stolen money.
After the April meltdown, Nigeria is the most crypto-obsessed country, according to a report.
The April crypto market meltdown caused the majority of cryptocurrencies to lose more than 60 percent of their value, resulting in a decline in trading volume, investor interest, and venture capital investment. After the April market meltdown, countries’ curiosity and interest in cryptocurrencies have increased, according to a new survey.
The analysis was based on Google Trends data of prominent cryptocurrency-related search phrases, which often indicate a growing interest in the cryptocurrency sector. Each nation’s search history was then collected to provide an overall search score. The nations at the top of the list look eagerest to purchase the dip.
The CoinGecko study revealed a considerable increase in Nigerians’ interest in cryptocurrencies following April’s market decline. The Nigerian people conducted the most searches for “cryptocurrency,” “invest in crypto,” and “purchase crypto” among the 15 nations studied, with a total search score of 370.
Portuguese banks are closing cryptocurrency accounts due to risk management worries.
Reportedly, many prominent banks in Portugal have began cancelling the accounts of cryptocurrency exchanges owing to “risk management” concerns, indicating a reversal in Portugal’s pro-cryptocurrency stance. The country’s central bank seems to have given the green light to the financial firms to act.
Several of Portugal’s leading banks have recently cancelled the accounts of CriptoLoja, the first licenced cryptocurrency exchange in the nation. At least four local cryptocurrency exchanges have had their accounts closed by BCP (Banco Comercial Portugues), Santander Bank, Caixa Geral de Depósitos, BiG, and Abanca, according to a Bloomberg report.
The Bank of Portugal, which oversees local cryptocurrency trading platforms, has issued licences to all exchanges. Three of the exchanges were named as Criptoloja, Mind The Coin, and Luso Digital Assets, while a fourth asked media outlets not to publish its identity. Mário Centeno, the president of the Bank of Portugal, was cited as stating that banks were free to do whatever they pleased, but he vowed to keep a tight watch on the issue.
As part of its regulation of exchanges, the Bank of Portugal ensures that platforms fight money laundering, terrorist funding, and fraud. According to BCP, its major responsibility is to report “suspect transactions” to the appropriate authorities, which may result in the termination of banking accounts with specific organisations.
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!