Market focus

Over the past few years, I have heard about various countries across the world planning to use cryptocurrencies to circumvent economic sanctions. In most cases, it remained just an idea or turned into a farce, like with Venezuela and its Petro token. However, now we are seeing an entire country trying to salvage its economy…

Ronin Network, an Ethereum-based sidechain created by Axie Infinity developer Sky Mavis to support its popular NFT-based game, was exploited by an unknown hacker and lost roughly $625 million worth of crypto on Tuesday. It may be the largest exploit in DeFi history. The Ronin Network published a blog post explaining how its network was…

Stable cryptocoins pegged to fiat currencies have long been justly criticized “on both sides” – both by adherents of “traditional” crypto and devout opponents of cryptocurrencies. But the rapid changes to the economic reality have turned stablecoins into the most highly sought-after financial tool. The amount of USDT issued on the TRON network has recently…

Larry Fink, the chief executive of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with around $10 trillion in assets under management, has said his company is “studying” digital currencies due to growing client demand. Meantime, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies continued to rise, while bank analysts suggest the Russian war in Ukraine could create a new world…

While the world’s largest economies are gearing up for the CBDC race we recently wrote about, smaller countries are looking to integrate “traditional” cryptocurrencies into their financial systems. The alternative, they realise, is quickly losing their fiscal independence in the new economic reality. Australia went its own way: ANZ – one of the country’s “big…

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub collaborated with central banks from Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, and South Africa to develop prototypes of two versions for an international settlement platform that uses different central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). According to the executive summary of the report, the project’s first phase was successful in developing functioning…