The cryptocurrency market has turned bearish as Bitcoin (BTC) fell below $40,000 once again. While preparing this report, Bitcoin was trading at $39,475, down 5.80% in the last 24 hours. Ether (ETH) has lost 6.40% to trade at $2,969. XRP was trading at $0.6980, a decrease of 5.20% in the past 24 hours.
The only major altcoins which have gained ground in the last 24 hours is Near (NEAR- $15.97, 2.50%).
Major altcoins, which have lost ground in the last 24 hours, include Terra (LUNA- $81.71, -7.30%), Binance Coin (BNB- $394.53, -4.40%), Cardano (ADA, $0.92882, -8%), EOS (EOS-$2.18, -6.30%), VeChain (VET, $0.0577, -9.60%), Polkadot (DOT, $17.36, -7.80%), Dogecoin (DOGE, $0.1348, -8.40%), Internet Computer (ICP, $16.11, -5.7%), Shiba Inu (SHIB- $0.00002207, -8.90%), Avalanche (Avax- $74.53, -5%), ChainLink (LINK-$13.76, -7.70%), Bitcoin Cash (BCH, $297.50, -5.60%), Solana (SOL, $99.21, -9.40%), Stellar (XLM-$0.1868, -5.30%), Cosmos (ATOM, $23.86, -8.10%), Polygon (MATIC- $1.33, -5.60%), Uniswap (UNI, $9.08, -6.10%), Tezos (XTZ-$3.00, -2.20%), and IOTA (IOTA-$0.6426, -8.30%).
Government level initiatives
Bank Negara Malaysia releases report on CBDC plans
Malaysia’s central bank (Bank Negara Malaysia-BNM) released its annual report outlining its central bank digital currency (CBDC) plans. In addition to the current involvement in Project Dunbar focused on cross-border payments, it also intends to conduct a study on domestic wholesale CBDC sometime this year and retail digital currency in 2024.
Project Dunbar represents a CBDC project involving multiple central banks focused on cross-border payments. Specifically, the project aims at using wholesale CBDC to facilitate remittance by commercial banks without the involvement of third parties. Its objective is to minimize the costs and incompetences in cross-border payments. Partakers in the venture include the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and also the central banks of Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa, and Australia.
In the second stage, the BNM aims to integrate its wholesale CBDC with RENTAS, the real-time gross settlement (RTGS) platform. RENTAS offers complete multi-currency settlement and is linked to SWIFT’s global financial messaging network.
The third stage, planned to be conducted in 2024, will concentrate on the Bank’s intention to study retail CBDC in fostering innovation and improving retail remittance diversity and endurance, even though it points out that prevailing solutions in the retail domain are effective.
PboC hosts conference on digital yuan experiments
The central bank of China (PBoC) hosted a conference on its digital yuan experiments on the last day of March and revealed intentions to broaden the central bank digital currency (CBDC) trial to cover additional locations.
The decision, signaling the second expansion of the trial, was made after key eCNY trials, including the Beijing Winter Olympics and Winter Paralympics, were completed successfully. The number of cities participating in the trial are expected to double. Specifically, the list of cities that are anticipated to be included in the next phase are Tianjin, Chongqing, Fuzhou, and Xiamen in Fujian, Beijing, Hebei, and Guangzhou in Guangdong, and six cities in Zhejiang that will stage the Asian Games. The central bank has estimated that the count of users, vendors, and transactions have steadily risen with an overall positive response from the market.
Private sector initiatives
Institutes RiskStream Collaborative partners with B3i Services
The US-focused foremost enterprise-level blockchain association of the insurance industry, Institutes RiskStream Collaborative, has partnered with another blockchain insurance consortium, B3i Services, which was founded four years ago. Both associations intend to jointly run Labs to study the parametric insurance and reinsurance opportunities related to homeowners.
The advent of blockchain technology has made parametric insurance more feasible. Costs related to assessment and claims processing are major issues faced by insurers. For instance, in the case of flood insurance, sensors can estimate whether the flood-affected a specific zip code and automatically release payment to the insured, irrespective of the level of damage suffered.
The use of a blockchain platform would enable quick payments to homeowners while likely lowering premiums due to a decline in administrative costs. However, the payout may not cover the entire damage. So, there will be benefits when both blockchain consortiums work together to come up with a better solution.
Circle contracts BNY Mellon as custodian for its USDC stablecoin
Circle has contracted BNY Mellon for acting as custodian for its USDC stablecoin. Notably, BNY Mellon is the world’s biggest custodian service provider for traditional assets, securing over $46 trillion worth of assets. Also, USDC is the second-largest stablecoin with a market cap of about $52 billion.
Back in February 2021, BNY Mellon revealed the establishment of the Digital Assets division. A month later, the firm stated that it had chosen Fireblocks as its technology associate for digital asset custody. Fireblocks have raised over $1 billion in funding so far.
By selecting the largest custodial bank, Circle has successfully positioned itself as a quality stablecoin.
Roman Regelman, Chief of Digital at BNY Mellon. “Based on our position at the nexus of confidence and development, our function as a custodian for USDC reserves benefits the wider market and adds value to customers.”
Miscellaneous
Nifty Gateway collaborating with Samsung
Nifty Gateway, a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace, is collaborating with South Korea-based Samsung to create a smart TV NFT platform. Established four years before, Nifty Gateway was among the foremost NFT marketplaces and was taken over three years back by the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, which was founded by the Winklevoss twins.
The platform will permit users to browse, invest and trade digital art and NFTs through Samsung’s higher-end TV series. More than 6,000 digital art pieces created by Daniel Arsham, Beeple, and Pak will be made available.
Duncan Cock Foster, the co-founder of Nifty Gateway, opined, “Nifty Gateway’s objective is to strengthen creators and streamline the manner by which consumers purchase, trade, produce, and retain NFTs. We’re dedicated to making NFTs easily affordable and acquiring NFTs easier than ever.”
Samsung stated in January that it intended to produce a smart TV series with NFT connectivity.
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