The cryptocurrency market remains range-bound, with Bitcoin (BTC) firmly caught in a narrow trading range of $35,000 to $40,000. While writing this article, Bitcoin was trading at $37.037, reflecting a gain of 13.8% in the last 24 hours. Ether (ETH) has gained 6% to trade at $2,582. XRP has appreciated 7.8% to trade at $0.9041.
Major altcoins which have lost ground in the last 24 hours includes ChainLink (LINK-$25.13, 10.10%), Tron (TRX-$0.0753, 6.8%), IOTA (IOTA-$1.15, 7.9%), EOS (EOS-$5.36, 10.9%), Polkadot (DOT-$24.17, 17.20%), Cardano (ADA-$1.61, 8%), Tezos (XTZ-3.47, 6.90%), Dash (DASH-$176.74, 10.2%), Bitcoin SV (BSV-$171.82, 8.3%), Binance Coin (BNB-$370.53, 10.3%), Bitcoin Cash (BCH-$629.57, 10.20%), Stellar (XLM-$0.3614, 8.9%) and Cosmos (ATOM, $13.82, 7.5%).
Government level initiatives
The Bank of Ghana is making progress on its CBDC
Dr. Ernest Addison, Governor of the Bank of Ghana, has announced that the central bank has significantly progressed on its work related to the country’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
Addison said, “The Bank of Ghana was one of the first African central banks to declare that we were working on a digital currency and looking at the concept of an e-Cedi. We are quite advanced in that process.”
He pointed out that there is a necessity to work on the venture in stages and underlined three levels, namely design, implementation, and trial, before the mass rollout. The central bank of Ghana is currently in the advanced design phase and planning the implementation phase.
Addison said, “After the implementation phase, we will have a pilot phase where a few people would be able to use it, use the electronic Cedi on the mobile applications and other payment applications that are currently running.”
Private sector initiatives
GuildOne collaborating with Blockchain for Energy
GuildOne, which develops new technologies for oil and gas industries, is collaborating with Blockchain for Energy (previously referred to as OOC) association to trial the foremost blockchain-powered Integrated Joint Venture Management (IJVM) platform.
Top oil enterprises such as ExxonMobil, Chevron, Repsol, and Hess are associates of Blockchain for Energy. Several oil and energy ventures involve partnerships, with investment from multiple firms. Such kind of joint ventures frequently leads to misunderstandings between the partakers in the project, leading to a sharp rise in administrative expenses and postponements.
The trial will be carried out utilizing Corda, the enterprise-level blockchain built by R3, and managed by Blockchain for Energy. Furthermore, the trial will make use of ConTracks, which is GuildOne’s smart contract technology. Notably, it is the first trial to be deployed on Blockchain for Energy’s Corda network.
The two enterprises previously worked on a Proof of Concept (PoC) blockchain solution for AFE balloting utilizing ConTracks and Corda. AFE is utilized to endorse big project expenses. Endorsement of expenses and venture billing are two crucial elements for a joint venture system.
The new GuildOne and Blockchain for Energy joint venture trial will be developed on the prevailing AFE PoC to reduce the possibility of misunderstandings and subsequently minimize issues specific to joint venture projects in the energy sector.
11 Banks participated in Finteum’s FX intra-day swap system trial
Finteum, a blockchain startup, disclosed that 11 banks took part in the piloting of its FX intra-day swap system. Deutsche Bank, NatWest, Banca Mediolanum, Bank of Ireland, and seven more banks having $14.50 trillion worth of contracts in their balance sheet took part in the trial.
By the end of this year or early next year, the platform is expected to be operational on a commercial basis.
As per BIS figures, worldwide FX daily trading volume in 2019 aggregated to $6.60 trillion, of which $3.20 trillion were FX swaps. The blockchain platform intends to assist bank treasurers in managing intra-day liquidity.
Deep liquidity will drain returns, while scarcity of liquidity will result in the postponement of payments. To avoid this, a transaction needs to be settled within two days. Another tool introduced by Finteum resolves the issue by facilitating settlement on the same day.
Miscellaneous
nWay signs a contract with the International Olympic Committee
A subsidiary of Animoca Brands, nWay, inked a licensing deal with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and revealed the rollout of Olympic-subjected non-fungible token (NFTs) pins along with a multiplayer video game.
nWay’s platform nWayP1Lay will start offering the NFTs on June 17th, while the game is expected to be available later this year.
For decades, the Olympic pins represented athletes, referees, and other executives participating in the Games. Furthermore, the pins are regarded as a conventional Olympic feature and are amassed by fans across the globe.
The digital pins will be a portion of the Olympic Heritage Collection, one among IOC’s three Global Licensing core programs, and its digital art will represent iconic aspects of earlier Olympic Games, including emblems and mascots.
Pin collections, as it can be understood, are usually restricted to journalists, fans, and citizens who attend the Games physically. With digitization, the pins will have a broader reach in the form of NFTs.
The pins can be bought either directly on the nWayPlay.com platform or via nWay’s secondary marketplace where collectors trade their NFTs. After the video games are launched, consumers will also be able to earn NFTs by taking part in games.
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