Crypto Trends Weekly May 14 – 20

Breaking crypto news from the last week (May 14 – 20, 2022):

May 14: The head of the BSV Blockchain Association, Jimmy Nguyen, has presented the features of the BSV enterprise blockchain at the University of Dubai. The Association has also funded research development projects with the local universities, where students use blockchain technology.

May 15: Ali Alobaid, the managing director of trading platform BitOasis in Saudi Arabia, expects cryptocurrency use in the MENA region to grow fast over the next few years. He said the value of virtual asset transactions in the Kingdom was worth around $20 billion, with over 800,000 Saudis using digital currencies last year.

May 16: Spotify is reportedly testing the option to include NFT galleries on musicians’ profiles. The test is currently available to select Android users across the US. Should the trial succeed, artists may soon be able to promote their NFTs on their profiles.

May 17: The European Union could issue a digital euro by 2026, a senior official from the European Central Bank (ECB) said. Peer-to-peer payments could be a first test case, though no final decision has been made yet.

May 18: Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) announced the launch of a $600 million fund focused on metaverse games. A16z is looking to expand its reach into the gaming industry, which generated more than $300 billion last year.

Ethereum’s main public testnet, Ropsten, which allows for blockchain development testing before deployment on the mainnet, is estimated to undergo “the Merge” on June 8 in preparation for the main Ethereum blockchain to switch to proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus.

May 19: Dubai’s Museum of the Future has teamed up with leading crypto exchange Binance to cultivate and present a collection of NFTs. Celebrating International Museum Day, the museum, deemed the world’s most beautiful and futuristic building, is introducing a brand new concept that talks about the possibilities of the future.

May 20: The number of wallets on the Cardano (ADA) blockchain has grown by more than 70,000 over the last 30 days, even when the ADA’s price declined along with the rest of the crypto market. Meanwhile, ADA whales’ transactions have risen to a 4-month high ahead of an upcoming hard fork, which will improve the network’s performance.