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Hong Kong is the Most Crypto-Ready Economy, Study Shows
Crypto adoption in Hong Kong is going to expand, as the city has emerged as the readiest country/ region to embrace the digital assets era, according to a study by trading platform Forex Suggest.
Through the Worldwide Crypto Readiness Report, Forex Suggest revealed that Hong Kong scooped the top spot after weighing various parameters like the number of crypto ATMs and legislation.
The study noted:
“The country (or region) can be crowned the most crypto-ready as it ranks in the top three for three categories we looked at, including the number of blockchain startups per 100,000 people and the number of crypto ATMs proportional to the population.”
With a crypto-ready score of 8.6/10, Hong Kong attained this tally based on its appeal to investors because of no taxing capital gains on cryptocurrencies. Furthermore, it has the densest area in terms of the number of crypto ATMs.
“Taking the top spot for the smallest area per crypto ATM is Hong Kong, with residents never more than 7 kilometers away from an ATM. This comes as no surprise as the tiny island nation has the smallest land area of the locations in the index twinned with one of the highest numbers of crypto ATMs.”
Meanwhile, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong recently stepped up its awareness campaign about the risks inherent in the trading of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). Read More
UK Commission Aims to Clarify Crypto Property Law
The proposals prioritize keeping blockchain technology regulation dynamic, competitive, and flexible.
As global authorities continue to wrestle with how to regulate cryptocurrencies, the U.K. Law Commission on Thursday proposed changes to clarify how property laws apply to digital assets in England and Wales.
The 57-year-old commission says digital assets like crypto tokens and non-fungible tokens—unique blockchain tokens that signify ownership that are better known as NFTs—play an increasingly important role in modern society.
"Digital assets such as NFTs and other crypto-tokens have evolved and proliferated at great speed, so it's vital that our laws are adaptable enough to be able to accommodate them," said Professor Sarah Green, the Law Commissioner for Commercial and Common Law, in a statement.
According to a post from the Law Commission, the U.K. government tasked the body with reviewing the law to ensure that it can accommodate digital assets as they continue to evolve and expand as stores of value, forms of payments, or equity or debt securities. Read More
Solana Set to Open IRL Retail Store and Web3 'Embassy' in New York
If you build it, will degens come? Solana Spaces hopes that they will.
A Solana-themed store is set to open its doors in New York City. Called Solana Spaces, the new store is located in Hudson Yards and is being launched in collaboration with the Solana Foundation, the organization behind the eponymous blockchain network.
Crypto companies and Web3 brands have been steadily making inroads into mainstream culture, with celebrities like Tom Brady, Steve Aoki, Snoop Dogg, and Elon Musk getting in on the action.
Brands like the Ethereum NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club have even branched out into “IRL” products and businesses, including a Bored Ape-themed restaurant in Los Angeles. Solana, which recently announced plans to create and launch its own Android smartphone, also appears to see value in going the brick-and-mortar route.
“Inside [the store], you’ll learn how Solana works, what Web3 is. We’ll set you up with a wallet and your first NFTs, and guide you through your first on-chain transactions,” the Solana Spaces Twitter account tweeted earlier this month. It added that it designed the space to be a "cultural center" and "embassy" for Solana. Read More
Uniswap Takes Significant Step Towards “Fee Switch”
Uniswap’s community took a big step towards its “fee switch,” which could have significant implications for both the Uniswap protocol and all UNI token holders. The fee switch has been the subject of long debates in the DeFi community, thanks to its potential implications on the community.
What Is The “Fee Switch?”
Currently, users have to pay 0.3% to trade on Uniswap. Out of this small percentage, the entire amount is sent to the liquidity providers for that particular trade. However, if the “fee switch,” also called the “protocol charge,” comes into play, then liquidity providers would only get around 0.25%, while the remaining .05% would theoretically go to UNI token holders, who would be getting this fee for just holding their UNI tokens.
However, it remains unclear how UNI holders would capture this value and whether they would be able to avail of it as more yield on their holdings or more airdrops. For example, SushiSwap, a fork of Uniswap, allows users to earn .05% on all trades if they hold a staked version of the SUSHI token. According to the team at Uniswap, the redirected funds could be allocated to a decentralized funding mechanism that could be used to support contributions to the Uniswap ecosystem. The Uniswap community could access this fee through a governance vote, meaning if enough users want the fee switch, they can vote and get it. Read More
What Does The Wallet Do? What Does It Mean For You?
The launch of the Markethive wallet is approaching, so it’s time to start beating the proverbial drum. It is the start of an exciting time with the advent of many integrations to follow the release of the wallet that will bring Markethive into prominence as an unprecedented platform. The combination of inbound marketing, social media, digital broadcasting, video, conference rooms, e-commerce, gamification, etc.
Markethive is a blockchain-driven crypto economy, all-inclusive, with a distributed database system required for this decentralized, monolithic global project. We’re almost there with the release of the wallet that will initiate entrepreneurial sovereignty and open the floodgates of this divine enterprise with its plethora of systems and services, including the new interface and dashboard.
We now have a complete working wallet with the Solana Network, and we also have a fully functional crypto merchant account. The Markethive wallet is being polished with the finishing touches, keeping mindful that it’s not just a simple wallet but a comprehensive, dynamic engine centralized for you that powers your platform and business.
Markethive is fundamentally a sophisticated inbound marketing and storefront platform, integrated with a social network, and not just another social media platform you see popping up to counter the media tech giants we’ve come to know as oppressive, censoring you and using your personal data for their own gain. Read More
What The Kraken Investigations Mean For Crypto Regulation
Kraken, a cryptocurrency exchange based in the U.S., is reportedly the subject of an investigation launched by the country's Treasury Department, with the investigation said to have been ongoing since at least 2019.
According to reports, the United States Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is looking into crypto exchange Kraken for allegedly allowing consumers in Iran and other nations to buy and sell crypto to these jurisdictions, a potential infraction of current US sanctions.
The internal documents, which were leaked, show that Kraken has serviced 1,522 unique users with residences filed in Iran, with the data reflecting metrics until June 2022. Users from Syria and Cuba were also serviced, with both countries currently under U.S. sanctions.
The reports came first from the New York Times, in which the press outfit highlighted how Kraken would officially be the largest U.S. crypto firm to face such an enforcement action from the OFAC. Historically, the sanctions have been placed, in particular for Iran, since 1979. This sanction functions by prohibiting the export of goods or services (at scale) to citizens or individuals residing in or doing business from the country.
As a private company, Kraken is currently valued at roughly $11 billion. The crypto exchange has been the subject of regulatory actions in the past, with the most recent being a $1.25 million penalty levied against the firm by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). An earlier report from CryptoDaily also details how the firm's CEO, Jesse Powell, has repeatedly courted controversy for offering to pay-off Kraken employees who were disgruntled over the company's culture. Powell later stated that he had no regrets on the offence he made. Read More
Cardano Leading Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polkadot and Two Altcoins in One Metric: Analytics Firm Santiment
Crypto analytics firm Santiment is highlighting the continued growth of decentralized blockchain platform Cardano (ADA) as it outpaces several key competitors.
According to a new post, the data aggregator showcases Cardano’s impressive number of GitHub repositories compared to lower numbers from layer-1 developer tool Flow (FLOW), cross-chain interoperability protocol Polkadot (DOT) and its affiliated testnet Kusama (KSM), as well as leading smart contract platform Ethereum (ETH).
“Cardano reigns as the most developed asset in crypto, according to our analysis of code pushes, issue interactions, and more.
Routine updates from teams are excluded to ensure only relevant development is included.”
Just three weeks ago Santiment noted the rapid pace of its development on GitHub, with the latest data indicating Cardano is maintaining momentum.
Santiment chief technology officer Valentin Mihov explained the significance of tracking GitHub activity in a blog post by saying,
“Developers’ time is a relatively expensive resource and if a given project has a lot of developers dedicating their time and skills it could mean several things:
These people believe that the project will be successful, the project is shipping more features, [or] there is less probability the project is just an exit scam.” Read More
Solana (SOL) Emerging As New Competitor to Ethereum’s NFT Dominance: Analytics Firm Messari
New data from crypto insights firm Messari reveals that Solana (SOL) is emerging as a challenger to leading smart contract platform Ethereum’s (ETH) non-fungible token (NFT) market dominance.
In a recent report, Messari says that even though Solana’s overall usage declined in Q2 of this year, its NFT activity has greatly accelerated.
“Following a breakout end to 2021 and beginning of 2022, Solana NFT activity accelerated amidst the network’s decline in usage and DeFi activity during Q2. Daily new NFTs dramatically increased to over 7 million newly minted NFTs, representing 46.4% growth. For perspective, newly minted NFTs over the first six months of 2022 are twice the amount minted during all of 2021.”
The market intelligence company unveils that NFT activity on Solana exploded in May and June after it reached a 2022 low in March.
According to Messari, the increased NFT activity on the Ethereum challenger is ramping up due to the success of Metaplex, an open-source tool that lets users create Solana-based NFT marketplaces, the launch of the Serum NFT collection, and fundraising by Solana’s own NFT marketplace, Magic Eden.
“Ultimately, Solana’s position in the NFT sector remains a strong component of its ecosystem despite a down market. It continues to be the second-largest protocol by secondary NFT sales volume, trailing only behind Ethereum.” Read More
Binance CEO Discusses Crypto Ecosystem with Turkish Officials
The push by Binance, the world’s largest exchange by trading volume, to expand its influence has continued to gain increased momentum in Turkey.
The exchange’s Chief Executive Officer, Changpeng Zhao, known on Twitter as ‘CZ’, met with Turkish officials where he discussed issues bothering the crypto ecosystem.
“We had a virtual meeting with Mr Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance. Mr. @cz_binance and I had discussions on the blockchain ecosystem and crypto assets,” said Dr Nureddin NEBATİ, Turkey’s Minister of Treasury and Finance, one of the key officials that were a part of the meeting.
While the exact details of the conversation were not revealed, crypto Twitter has been speculating that something big might be underway between the trading platform and the Turkish government.
Over a year ago, Binance came under fire for operating illegally in quite a number of jurisdictions. With its license revoked, it made up its mind to pursue a more wholesome relationship with regulators across the board. With its commitment to tightening the loopholes in its engagement with regulators, it has earned one of the most impressive backing from regulators over the past year. Read More
Disclaimer: These articles are provided for informational purposes only. They are not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or any other advice.
