The cryptocurrency market has turned slightly bullish, with Bitcoin (BTC) making another attempt to break above $40,000. While preparing this report, Bitcoin was trading at $39,678, reflecting a gain of 4.50% in the past 24 hours. Ether (ETH) had rallied 5.50% to trade at $2,948 in the same period. XRP was trading at $0.6509, up 6.10% in the last 24 hours.
Major altcoins, which have gained ground in the last 24 hours, include Terra (LUNA- $87.50, 5.80%), Binance Coin (BNB- $403.50, 4.80%), Cardano (ADA, $0.8947, 14.60%), Internet Computer (ICP, $14.17, 8%), Avalanche (Avax- $67.06, 11.20%), EOS (EOS-$2.23, 6.90%), VeChain (VET, $0.0543, 13.90%), Polkadot (DOT, $16.31, 9.50%), ChainLink (LINK-$12.20, 8.70%), Bitcoin Cash (BCH, $301.90, 6.50%), Solana (SOL, $93.56, 8.50%), Stellar (XLM-$0.1868, 7.60%), Cosmos (ATOM, $20.15, 12.50%), Polygon (MATIC- $1.17, 7.50%), Tezos (XTZ-$2.80, 11.20%), Shiba Inu (SHIB- $0.00002166, 3.60%), Dogecoin (DOGE, $0.1367, 4.60%) and Uniswap (UNI, $7.98, 15.40%).
Government level initiatives
Bank of Mexico to launch CBDC by 2025
Victoria Rodríguez Ceja, the Bank of Mexico’s Governor, has affirmed its intention to roll out a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) by 2025. While making a presentation at the Mexican senate, the Governor stated that the primary objective of its CBDC would be financial inclusion. The initiative will offer quick payment choices and guarantee that the economy is adept and interoperable. The Governor expressed interest in including features such as programmable money and fostering advancement.
As per Chainalysis, Mexico stands 44th in terms of crypto adoption and at par with Spain, Netherlands, and Germany.
Private sector initiatives
Hong Koong Standard Chartered Bank purchases virtual land in Metaverse
The Hong Kong branch of Standard Chartered Bank has revealed that it has purchased virtual land in the Mega City district of Sandbox metaverse with aid from SC Ventures, a subsidiary of the bank.
Commenting on the plot purchase, Mary Huen, CEO of Standard Chartered, Hong Kong, said, “Considering Mega City’s Hong Kong focus and our pledge to enhance our footprint in Hong Kong, virtual property in Mega City was indeed a logical option for the Bank.”
A handful of institutions focused on financial services are establishing their footprint in the metaverse. Currently, the choice of metaverse is equally distributed evenly between Decentraland and The Sandbox. JP Morgan was the foremost to enter the metaverse by purchasing land in Decentraland, followed by Fidelity Investments and CaixaBank’s Imagin. Notably, the Sandbox was founded in Hong Kong, and all three banks, namely HSBC, Standard Chartered, and Siam Commercial Bank’s SCB 10X, are closely linked to Asia.
Mizuho Trust & Banking to tokenize real estate
Mizuho Trust & Banking, the third-largest banking group in Japan, intends to tokenize real estate and distribute security tokens before the end of 2022. The Trust divisions run by the two most prominent financial institutions, Mitsui Trust and MUFG Trust, were a part of real estate security token distributions in 2021.
Japan is among the leading nations in terms of the use of security tokens by banks and other financial institutions, following amendments to a related law that became effective in May 2020.
Similar to other banks, Mizuho trusts that tokenization will pave the way for rapid and efficient issuance of tokens and make the asset highly liquid for investors. Mizuho will utilize BOOSTRY platform rolled out by Nomura and Nomura Research, backed by SBI in the form of investors.
BNY Mellon signs MOU with BAS
BNY Mellon has inked an MOU (memorandum of understanding) with BAS (Blockchain Association Singapore) to jointly work on blockchain-related innovation, promoting digital assets to institutions, and adoption of decentralized finance (DeFi).
BNY had earlier revealed its intention to unveil a digital asset custodial platform sometime this year. The investment bank is facilitating crypto exposure to institutional investors and also retail investors.
The investment bank also claimed to be the first global custodian bank to be endorsed as BAS’ strategic Institutional Digital Asset Collaborator.
Chia Hock Lai, Co-Chairman of BAS, trusts that the partnership will increase the acceptance and adoption of blockchain technology and DeFi throughout the region. As a matter of fact, digital technologies are relatively new to the region.
Johnny Wijaya, Head of Asia Pacific Innovation Center at BNY Mellon, said, “We are thrilled to become a member of the Blockchain Association Singapore and help shape Singapore’s digital and financial landscape.”
A week ago, BNY unveiled BNY Mellon Blockchain Innovation Fund, which is Singapore’s foremost blockchain-powered fund focused on retail investors. The fund is also offered to institutional investors and high net worth individuals in the European countries, including the UK, Spain, France, Switzerland, and many more.
Furthermore, BNY Mellon has also joined the Veritas project – backed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) – and serves the Strategic Advisory Council of the ASEAN Financial Innovation Network.
Miscellaneous
DC Comics reveals presale of Bat Cown NFT series
DC Comics, a subsidiary of Warner Bros, has unveiled the presale of its new Bat Cowl non-fungible token (NFT) series in partnership with Palm NFT Studio. Purchasers of Bat Cowl NFTs will be able to cast their vote on the storyline, image of an upcoming Batman comic, and even characters. For taking part in the aforesaid process, rewards in the form of unique products and collectibles, access and benefits at DC fan activities, and early access to forthcoming DC NFT series are provided.
The maximum quantity of Bat Cowl NFTs offered would be 200,000 pieces at $300 each. By NFT norms, the quantity of NFTs released per batch is quite huge, in the order of 10,000 to 20,000. Buyer can trade their Bat Cowl NFT holdings on the DC NFT Universe, a secondary marketplace.
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