“The Central Bank of Iran, or CBI, and the Ministry of Trade have reached an agreement to link the CBI’s payment platform to a trade system allowing businesses to settle payments using cryptocurrencies.
This should provide new opportunities for importers and exporters to use cryptocurrencies in their international deals.
He added that the government should not be ignoring the economic and business opportunities of the crypto industry, referring to major private cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC):
All economic actors can use these cryptocurrencies. The trader takes the ruble, the rupee, the dollar, or the euro, which he can use to obtain cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, which is a form of credit and can pass it on to the seller or importer.”
“On Tuesday, Ethereum Push Notification Service (EPNS) announced the launch of what founder Harsh Rajat calls the “Web 3 communication primitive” with a bevy of decentralized finance (DeFi) mainstays involved. Version 1 of EPNS, which is now live, is launching with MakerDAO, Aave, Uniswap and dYdX, among others.
DeFi protocols, non-fungible token (NFT) platforms and other Web 3 infrastructure providers largely lack the capacity to send these kinds of messages, leading to an informational gulf.
For example, if you’re liquidated on a lending platform you as a wallet address will not know about it, if your governance proposal passed you won’t know about it, if you’re into NFTs you have no way to reach out to someone who bought your NFTs to let them know a new collection is out.
The project attempts to solve this problem by enabling protocols to create “channels” – distribution networks that allow dapps to manually send messages or automatically send alerts based on on-chain activity. These messages will be sent directly to Ethereum addresses. The messages are largely gasless, meaning there is no transaction fee, as the notifications are sent with the EIP-712 standard, a method for off-chain data message signing.”
See Also: Unstoppable Domains Launches NFT-Based Sign-On for Ethereum and Polygon
“Bitcoin’s Lightning Network-powered app Strike has launched its services in Argentina. The company said Tuesday that Argentines will be able to make bitcoin remittance payments, receive bitcoin tips on Twitter and use Strike’s peer-to-peer transaction services.
Argentina is one of the most exciting countries for building the Bitcoin economy, leveraging Bitcoin as both a superior asset and a superior payments network.
Argentina is the first step in a 2022 Latin American expansion that will include Brazil, Colombia and “other Latin American markets.” The company launched its payment app in El Salvador last March.”
“After months of speculation about a possible vampire attack, dominant NFT marketplace OpenSea may finally have a worthy – and more thoroughly decentralized – competitor: LooksRare. The numbers point to a searing-hot start for a day-old platform that seems to fill a clear market demand.
For months, NFT traders have clamored for OpenSea to release a token and decentralize portions of its operations. The incumbent’s policies around enforcing IP as well as delisting hacked or exploited NFTs has made it a target of critics who say it’s a rent-seeking middleman in a decentralized ecosystem. The firm was recently valued at $13.3 billion.
The question is: Will traders return to OpenSea if token incentives can’t keep them around?”
See Also: eToro rolls out smart portfolios for new metaverse investors
“The Federal Reserve’s highly anticipated report on cryptocurrencies and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) – initially slated to come out last September – will be released “within weeks,” Fed Chairman Jerome Powell told a U.S. Senate committee on Tuesday.
The report is expected to focus on CBDCs. During his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday, the Fed chairman also said a CBDC wouldn’t necessarily lead to a ban on private stablecoins.“
“Bitcoin rose toward $43,000 on Tuesday and is up about 3% over the past 24 hours. Several alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins) such as MATC and FTM were up about 14% over the same period, suggesting a greater appetite for risk among investors.
For now, it appears that most buyers are remaining on the sidelines, especially ahead of the U.S. consumer price index (CPI) report, which will be released on Wednesday.
The market expects the CPI to rise 7.1% for the year through December and 0.4% over the month. If the figure released is larger than expected, we can expect further sell pressure for bitcoin. Due to the selling we have seen in recent weeks, the downside for BTC is limited in the short term, even with higher-than-expected inflation data on Wednesday.
Miners appear to be unfazed by the price dip. For example, bitcoin mining firm Bitfarms purchased 1,000 bitcoins worth $43.2 million during the first week of January.”
See Also: Key on-chain metric shows Bitcoin miners in ‘massive’ BTC accumulation mode
“The move brings Citadel Securities closer to crypto, as Paradigm focuses on investing in crypto and Web 3-related firms. Pardigm was co-founded by Fred Ehrsam, a co-founder of Coinbase, and Matt Huang, who previously led crypto investments at Sequoia.
Citadel Securities handles about 27% of the shares that are traded in the U.S. stock market each day.
We look forward to partnering with the Citadel Securities team as they extend their technology and expertise to even more markets and asset classes, including crypto.”
“In two recent job postings on LinkedIn, Jack Dorsey’s Block (formerly Square) revealed the group’s plans to develop “the next generation of mining ASIC” and make a hardware wallet for the next 100 million Bitcoin (BTC) users.
The new job posting confirms that Block sets out to develop purpose-built ASICs for BTC mining. Block is the holding name for Square, CashApp, Spiral, Tidal and TBD54566975.”
The Disrupt 