The cryptocurrency market continues to trade in a narrow range as Bitcoin (BTC) tries to consolidate above $20,000. While preparing this report, Bitcoin was trading at $20,491, up 3.10% in the past 24 hours. Ethereum (ETH) has gained 5.90% to trade at $1,181. XRP was trading at $0.3293, reflecting a gain of 2% in the last 24 hours.
Major altcoins, which have gained ground in the past 24 hours, include Uniswap (UNI – $5.33, 1.20%), Shiba Inu (SHIB – $0.000010540, 3.10%), Tezos (XTZ- $1.54, 5.20%), VeChain (VET, $0.02337, 4.20%), IOTA (IOTA – $0.2747, 1.80%), Stellar (XLM – $0.1098, 2.20%), Polkadot (DOT, $6.94, 2.80), Cardano (ADA, $0.4670, 3.50%) Internet Computer (ICP, $5.63, 1.70%), Binance Coin (BNB- $237.49, 3.60%), Avalanche (Avax- $19.20, 6.70%), EOS (EOS – $0.9974, 3%), ChainLink (LINK – $6.39, 2%), Polygon (MATIC- $0.5243, 5.50%), Solana (SOL, $36.92, 4.80%) and Dogecoin (DOGE- $0.0687, 3.30%).
The only major altcoins, which have lost ground in the past 24 hours, is Cosmos (ATOM, $8.80, -4.0%).
Government level initiatives
Iran to trial CBDC in September
Iran intends to unveil a central bank digital currency (CBDC) trial in September in one of its provinces. Details regarding the digital rial trial were reaffirmed on Friday by Ali Salehabadi, the Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI). A year ago, the former Governor, Abdonnaser Hemmati, stated that globalization of its native currency, the rial, was one of the primary aims.
Notably, the recent Governor has often pointed out programmable money, minimization of tax evasion, and prevention of money laundering as other objectives.
The digital rial has been created by the country’s Informatics Services Corporation and utilizes the Hyperledger Fabric enterprise blockchain. A report published in January indicates that the initial trials of the digital rial would be done with the inclusion of commercial banks, implying that the banks will do the distribution.
Private sector initiatives
Settlemint and IBM develp blockchain trade funding solution for India
Blockchain-focused software firm Settlemint and tech giant IBM have developed a blockchain trade funding solution tailor-made for India. The trial involves the country’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, and roughly a dozen banks, including ICICI, HDFC, and State Bank of India.
The Blockchain-powered platform will be utilized to issue Letters of Credit (LC), which acts as a payment guarantee from the buyer’s bank to that of the seller’s, to minimize fraud. A typical example of fraud is that the buyer sends out a dubious letter of credit without the involvement of his bank. The seller will not receive any payment and will realize a huge loss. The use of a blockchain-based platform will enable the seller’s bank to validate the letter of credit.
Another likely fraud is related to the bill of lading (b/l), a certificate issued by the vessel’s captain confirming the loading of cargo on the ship. By using the B/L, the seller could get paid two successive times. By using common blockchain-based platforms, such fraudulent activities can be averted.
Cognet Bank launches real-time B2B payments through TassatPay
Florida headquartered Cogent Bank has unveiled real-time B2B payments utilizing the TassatPay network, which is a private and permissioned blockchain. The platform enables business customers to make real-time payments to the rest of the Cogent platform users on a 24×7 basis.
The TassatPay platform has also been employed by Western Alliance Bank, Customers Bank, Signature Bank, and Axos Bank. Currently, the platform, which backs smart contracts and the Fedwire feature, has been utilized to execute transactions worth $450 billion.
When customers want to utilize the platform, funds are transferred to an omnibus account, where it gets converted to tokens. During the payment process, the tokens are transferred to the recipient. This is followed by the burning of tokens and the transfer of funds from the omnibus account to the bank account of the recipient.
Notably, last year, TassatPay revealed its intention to inter-linking each of the banks’ private blockchains with the Digital Interbank Network for interbank payments. The network utilizes Tassat technology but is administered by the partaking banks, which comprises a 40 bank working team.
LexisNexis rolls out flight status data tracking platform
Data analytics solution provider LexisNexis Legal & Professional has revealed that it is providing flight status information to the Avalanche blockchain via a Chainlink node.
The company envisions the use of flight information for flight insurance, distribution chain administration, and risk evaluation. The last few years have seen the debut of numerous parametric flight insurance apps that facilitate an automatic payout in case of any postponement without a necessity to submit a claim. Reputed insurance firm AXA was one of the firms which rolled out similar insurance offering five years ago but did not record adequate demand.
The data feed is provided by travel and aviation-focused firm Cirium, an associate firm of LexisNexis.
Miscellaneous
Binance signs contract with Cristiano Ronaldo for NFTs
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has inked a multi-year agreement with soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo to release non-fungible tokens. Notably, with career earnings of more than $1 billion, the soccer icon is second only to Tiger Woods among all professional players.
Ronaldo said, “Due to the fact that I place a high value on the connection that I have with my audience, I was excited by the prospect of being able to provide them with access to exclusive content and experiences by means of the NFT platform. I have no doubt that the audience will appreciate the series just as much as I enjoy.”
As Ronaldo has used the word “exclusive,” NFT enthusiasts believe that the collectibles will be solely offered to clients of Binance.
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