Bahrain hotel first in region to allow crypto payments
Novotel Bahrain Al Dana Resort will have state-of-the-art terminals at its outlets to accept multiple methods of payment.
This will include standard debit and credit cards from Visa and MasterCard, as well as the latest method of payment using crypto assets via the Binance app.
Bill allows Russian financial platforms to operate blockchains, issue digital assets
A draft law filed in the Russian parliament permits operators of platforms providing financial services to also run blockchain platforms.
The legislation will allow them to combine their regular activities in the traditional financial market with issuing digital assets.
Ethereum hits peak of $1,700 as investors add 1.88 million ETH since November
Santiment shared that since November last year, wallets that contain between 100 and 100,000 ETH have accumulated another 1.88 million Ether.
Now, they are holding a total of 47% of the circulating Ethereum supply.
XRP payments can now be accepted on Shopify enabled sites
XRP payments can now be accepted on Shopify e-commerce sites, thanks to tools from crypto payment gateway NOWPayments.
Among the available solutions that NOWPayments provides to businesses that want to accept XRP as payment are eCommerce plugins. These eCommerce plugins are compatible with Shopify, PrestaShop, WooCommerce, Magento 2, WHMCS, OpenCart, Zen Cart and Shopware.
Highlights of the week
$BTC hits record 44 million non-zero addresses
$OKB to launch new OKBChain blockchain in Q1
$ETH supply plunges 37% on crypto exchanges
$MATIC sets March date for zkEVM mainnet Beta to go live
$ASTR and Sony launch a collaborative Web3 Incubation Program
$FIL announced plans to launch the Filecoin Virtual Machine (FVM)
Whale accumulated more than 300 million DOGE
According to Whale Alert, in the last 24 hours, 326,383,471 DOGE was transferred from an unknown wallet to an unknown wallet. This amount of DOGE is worth $28,066,555.
Optimism reschedules Bedrock upgrade
According to a tweet shared by Optimism’s official handle, the Bedrock upgrade has been postponed. The Ethereum scaling solution had earlier announced plans to upgrade the network in February. But the recent shift pushed the event between 2 – 7 March.
Optimism had proposed the Bedrock upgrade to improve node performance, lower transaction fees, and enhance its compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). Optimism noted that it intended to fix all the bugs in the codebase before the final upgrade.
Russia to roll out CBDC pilot with real consumers in April
The Bank of Russia is preparing to roll out the first consumer pilot for the nation’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) on April 1, 2023.
Russia’s central bank is set to soon debut the first real-world digital ruble transactions involving 13 local banks and several merchants, first deputy governor Olga Skorobogatova said.
Japan to launch pilot programme for issuing digital yen
Japan will start a pilot programme in April to test the use of a digital yen, its central bank said on Friday.
The pilot programme is expected to lead to improved designs through discussion with private businesses, according to the Bank of Japan Executive Director Shinichi Uchida.
STEPN plans airdrop for Genesis holders
STEPN announced that it would conduct an airdrop for its Genesis holders. Additional information indicated that different colors would draw different amounts of GMT tokens.
For example, grey shoes will receive an airdrop of 4,000 GMT tokens, followed by green shoes at 8,000 GMT, blue shoes at 16,000 GMT, and purple shoes at 32,000 GMT.