₿ Ukraine legalizes crypto as war approaches

Ukraine legalizes crypto as war approaches

As the drum beat of war continues to get louder between Russin and Ukraine, the Ukrainian parliament was busy last week legalizing crypto with the passage of the Ukrainian Law On Virtual Assets. However, this does not mean Bitcoin or any cryptocurrency is legal tender. The law will launch a legal market for virtual assets in Ukraine with the aim of creating domestic and international business development opportunities in the country. Furthermore, it will create a legal ecosystem for foreign and Ukrainian crypto companies to operate in and give Ukrainians legally protected access to the virtual asset market. Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation for IT Development, Oleksandr Bornyakov, with his eye on the horizon and the future said, “In Ukraine, the virtual asset market can become a powerful sector of the digital economy. Thanks to the adopted Law, we have every chance to be a leading country for business development in this innovative field.” (Read on EmergingCrypto.io; Read on Bitcoin Magazine)

Disproportionate share of ransomware and crypto crime took place in Russia

Chainalysis released a preview of their 2022 Crypto Crime Report last week reporting that a disproportionate share of ransomware and crypto crime took place in Russia based on three criteria:

1. Ransomware crime tied to Evil Corp, a Russia-based cybercriminal organization with alleged ties to the Russian government;
2. Ransomware code targeting countries outside the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), an intergovernmental organization of Russian-speaking, former Soviet countries; and
3. Other characteristics to indicate that ransomware strains originated from Russia including shared documents and announcements in Russian or affiliates who are believed to be based in Russia with a high degree of confidence.

Chainalysis estimates that approximately 74% of ransomware revenue in 2021, roughly over $400 million worth of cryptocurrency, went to ransomware strains believed to be affiliated with Russia and laundered through services primarily catering to Russian users. (Read on EmergingCrypto.io; Read on Cointelegraph)

Iran rumored to be developing a CBDC

Last week Cointelegraph reported that Iran is believed to be working on a CBDC, a potential solution to circumnavigate the sanctions implemented on them by the United States. Official details have been sparse and unconfirmed, however, it is rumored that the Iranian CBDC was developed with the Hyperledger Fabric protocol hosted by the Linux Foundation. Ehsan Ghazizadeh, CEO of a local cryptocurrency exchange called Exchange Iran (EXIR), commented that “there is no specific technical data about the Iranian Central Bank’s digital currency” and that “it seems the pilot version might take over a year to be realized.”  (Read on EmergingCrypto.io; Read on Cointelegraph)

“Bing Dwen Dwen” Olympic panda NFT sells out

On a much lighter note, as the flame of this year’s Winter Olympics’ torch extinguishes as the games come to an end, NFT collectors pounced on 200 officially licensed Olympics NFT boxes released by NFT platform nWayPlay, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based blockchain developer Animoca Brands. The sold out boxes featured NFTs of “Bing Dwen Dwen”, the mascot of the Beijing Winter Olympics. This was the second batch released by nWayPlay. The original batch sold earlier this month containing Bing Dwen Dwen NFTs for $99 USD and now the resale value for the first batch of the popular panda varies considerably, ranging from $3 to $1,500. (Read on EmergingCrypto.io; Read on Reject)

Mexican fintech, delt.ai, raises $25M in crypto financing via the DeFi lending protocol, TrueFi

Moving on to Latin America, the Mexican-based corporate credit and expense management platform, delt.airaised the equivalent of $25 million in crypto financing through the DeFi lending protocol, TrueFi. This exciting piece of lending news demonstrates that projects don’t need to go directly to venture capitalists and traditional financial institutions and can turn to DeFi protocols for access to lines of credit. delt.ai will use the funds to issue corporate credit lines for startups and SMEs in Mexico. (Read on EmeringCrypto.io; Read on Cointelegraph)

This week’s spotlight: P2P crypto transactions in Argentina

Meanwhile, this week we’re spotlighting P2P crypto transactions in Argentina where this type of method of acquiring digital assets is popular. The South American emerging market country is ranked sixth in the world for digital assets ownership according to Datareportal’s Digital 2022: Global Overview Report and tenth in the world in global crypto adoption per Chainalysis’ 2021 Global Crypto Adoption index. Two other emerging market countries where P2P transactions is a very popular method to acquire crypto are Nigeria and Kenya. Referring to Datareportal and Chainalysis’ reports, Nigeria is ranked second in the world for crypto ownership and sixth in the world for crypto adoption, and Kenya is ranked 16th in the word for crypto ownership and fifth in the world for crypto adoption. (Read on EmergingCrypto.io; Read on Cointelegraph)

Brazil’s Central Bank in the process of selecting projects for The Lift Challenge Real Digital

Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy, is one of several countries exploring the implementation of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) and an emerging market where there has been broad enthusiasm for the adoption of blockchain technology and developing a crypto economy. Its Central Bank is in the process of selecting projects for The Lift Challenge Real Digital “to promote technological innovation through research projects related to the financial industry in order to assess use cases of a digital currency issued by [the Brazilian Central Bank]as well as its technological feasibility.” Project selection is scheduled to be announced by March 4, 2022 with testing to begin by March 28, 2022. Preference in selecting projects will be based on the following use cases

• Delivery versus Payment, DvP, aimed at the settlement of transactions with digital assets, both native to the digital environment or tokenized;
• Payment versus Payment, PvP, aimed at the exchange between currencies;
• Internet of Things, IoT, aimed at direct settlement by algorithms or machine-to-machine;
• Decentralized finance, DeFi, aimed at defining protocols with settlement based on a CBDC and at compliance and supervision requirements established in the regulation; and
• Potential payment solutions where both payer and receiver are offline (dual offline payments).

Don’t sleep on Brazil as an emerging global leader in blockchain, crypto, and CBDC development. (Read on EmergingCrypto.io; Read on Blocknews)

Africa Tech Summit: Nairobi starts this week

And rounding off this week’s newsletter, the Africa Tech Summit is being held in Nairobi on February 23rd and 24th. This year’s event brings together three summits: The Africa Money and DeFi Summit, Africa Start-up Summit, and Africa Mobile Summit.

• The Africa Money & DeFi Summit “will connect Africa fintech leaders, global platforms and thought leaders on the new opportunities in Decentralized Finance (DeFi)…[with] array of keynotes, panels and breakout sessions will deliver key insights and offer opportunities to connect, network and do business across the African fintech and DeFi landscapes”;
• The Africa Start-up Summit “will bring together stakeholders in the tech space across the continent to explore opportunities…[and] challenges within the ecosystem, while showcasing investment opportunities and encouraging collaboration, with the aim of furthering the development of Africa’s vibrant entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem.”; and
• The Africa Mobile Summit “will deliver a cross-sectional view of new technologies, solutions and opportunities across the African mobile and digital landscape…[and] provide insights on the future of the mobile across the continent.”

The event is sold out, however, certainly there will be a lot of chatter and reporting from the Summit in case you were not able to attend. (Read on EmergingCrypto.io; Read on BATTLES)