Putin signs law banning crypto-based payments in Russia
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on July 14 that bans the use of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment, local news media RBC reported. The law will become effective 10 days after publication in the government official gazette.
However, the bill does not ban digital assets, which means there are other possible applications, including payments in international trade.
SHIBA INU (SHIB) becomes second-most held cryptocurrency by ETH whales
According to the crypto statistics portal WhaleStats, SHIBA INU (SHIB) surpassed the Silverway (SLV) token to become the second-most held cryptocurrency by the top 500 Ethereum whales.
SHIB makes up 23.33% or $544.9 million of the Ethereum whales’ portfolio, not including ETH itself. Such an estimate means that about 49.5 trillion SHIBs are concentrated in the balance of large ETH wallets, which equals 9% of the circulating token supply.
Paraguay Senate approves pro-crypto bill for mining activities
Paraguay’s Senate approved a bill regulating crypto mining and trading on Thursday.
Accordingly, the Paraguay bill is tailored to maximize the total electricity supply generated from Usina and Itaipu. This could propel Paraguay to become one of the leading powers in Bitcoin mining.
Binance cuts investment in Sky Mavis after historic hack
Binance is no longer leading the fundraise for Axie Infinity creator, Sky Mavis, according to The Block.
Since April, Sky Mavis has been able to both stabilize and recover funds. As a result, Sky Mavis is now in a position to cover users’ funds without significant investment from Binance. For this reason, Binance will no longer be the lead investor in Sky Mavis, according to a Binance spokesperson.
FTX announced a new partnership with Ledger
Hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger and crypto trading platform FTX are now working together to bring the best of both worlds to their users.
With the integration of FTX services into the ‘Swap’ section of Ledger Live app, users can now swap 120+ digital assets with low fees, self-custody and world-class security. This involves a single transaction with users’ swapped funds automatically sent to their hardware wallet.
The Central Bank of South Africa officially considers crypto to be a financial asset
Kuben Naidoo (SARB’s deputy governor) recently stated that the institution has rewritten its position on cryptocurrency and is looking to establish a framework for crypto-related transactions to create a safer crypto environment.
Naidoo said crypto exchanges would have to comply with exchange control laws such as anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism rules. They would have to adhere to exchange contract rules, just like people who trade in any currency or make cross-border transactions.
Whale accumulated 9 million DOGE
According to Whale Alert, in the last 24 hours, 9,022,135 DOGE was transferred from multiple wallets to an unknown wallet. This amount of DOGE is worth $565,174.
Highlights of the week
$BNB launches dApp aggregator platform
$MATIC joins Disney’s ‘accelerator program
$SOL dApps now supported by Brave Browser
$ANKR introduced its Ankr Network 2.0 upgrade
$ETH deploys latest Shadow Fork en route to the Merge
$OKB becomes Training Kit Partner of Manchester City
Top 10 Daily Gainers
Over the last 24 hours, the market has witnessed strong growth, with BarnBridge (BOND) having the highest increase and biggest 24h-trading volume on the ONUS app. This asset has gained 120.78% after 24h, with a trading volume of $151.62 million.
Following behind are FIDA (up 88.29%), ERN (up 36.46%), LDO (up 30.29%),…
Ethereum’s Merge projected for September
Tim Beiko of the Ethereum Foundation projected this week that the Merge – Ethereum’s long-anticipated transition to a new design – might take place the week of Sept. 19.
Last week, Ethereum’s Sepolia testnet successfully switched to PoS. Goerli, the third and final of three public testnets, will run through the Merge process on Aug. 11.