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In This Issue
Latin America & The Caribbean
•REGULATION: Brazil’s lower house approves crypto regulatory framework
•LAW ENFORCEMENT: FTX remains the subject of “an active and ongoing investigation” by Bahamian authorities
Africa
•PARTNERSHIP: Mercy Corps and Fonbnk launch “Learn-to-Earn” pilot focused on financial and Web3 literacy
•FUNDRAISING: Cameroonian crypto start up raises $8 million in series A round
Asia
•LAW ENFORCEMENT: South Korean prosecutors seek to arrest Terra Luna co-founder Daniel Shin
•REGULATION: Singaporean banks’ exposure to crypto subject to the highest risk weight
Eastern Europe
•CBDC: Ukraine’s central bank presents e-hryvnia concept project
•BLOCKCHAIN: Russia’s largest bank integrates Metamask into its blockchain platform
New to blockchain and web3 and want to learn the basics? EmergingCrypto.io recommends:
Latin America and The Caribbean
REGULATION: Brazil’s lower house approves crypto regulatory framework (5 minute read, original article in Portuguese)
After seven years of debate, Brazil is on the verge of implementing cryptocurrency regulation. The country’s Chamber of Deputies approved the long-awaited bill to regulate virtual asset service providers. Passed earlier this year in Brazil’s Senate, the bill now awaits Presidential approval before its enacted into law. Asset segregation, which is the separation of customer and company resources, was left out of the bill, a win for international exchanges like Binance who weren’t in favor of it. However, asset segregation remains an area of intense debate in order to protect consumers’ funds and the bill could be amended in the future to include this provision.
LAW ENFORCEMENT: FTX remains the subject of “an active and ongoing investigation” by Bahamian authorities (2 minute read)
While praising the Bahamas’ regulatory regime and the speed of enforcement by the country’s Securities Commission, Bahamian Attorney General, Ryan Pinder, announced that FTX remains the focus of “an active and ongoing investigation.” Pinder said the investigation involves both civil and criminal authorities. The Bahamas Securities Commission, Financial Intelligence Unit, and the police’s Financial Crimes Unit will analyze the circumstances around FTX’s collapse and any violations of Bahamian law.
Want more Latin America & Caribbean news?
•YouTubers hunt FTX creator in Bahamas
•Mercado Bitcoin launches its own stablecoin on the Stellar blockchain (Portuguese)
•Elo closes partnership and seeks startups focused on metaverse, crypto assets, blockchain and DeFi (Portuguese)
•The Mercado Pago platform conducted a study to measure the impact of financial services (Spanish)
•BV ‘tokenizes’ receivables and debuts in the digital asset segment (Portuguese)
Africa
PARTNERSHIP: Mercy Corps and Fonbnk launch “Learn-to-Earn” pilot focused on financial and Web3 literacy (5 minute read)
The humanitarian NGO, Mercy Corps, is partnering with the crypto onramp fintech, Fonbnk, to launch a “Learn-to-Earn” pilot in Africa. The first-of-its-kind program to educate and demonstrate the value of Web3 and crypto to financially underserved users will focus on financial and Web3 literacy and digital earning opportunities offered on Fonbnk’s ‘market maker’ program. After the program is completed, participants will earn a small crypto incentive and be invited to earn additional income by completing transactions on Fonbnk’s digital marketplace.
FUNDRAISING: Cameroonian crypto start up raises $8 million in series A round (2 minute read)
Ejara, the Cameroon-based non-custodial crypto wallet startup, has raised $8mm in a Series A round led by crypto-focused fund Dragonfly Capital and London-based VC firm Anthemis. Between October 2021 and today Ejara grew from 8K users to more than 70K users across nine Francophone African countries. One of the primary reasons behind the company’s growth is the ability to allow its users to purchase crypto from their mobile money accounts and make cross-border transactions via stablecoins.
Want more Africa news?
•Africa’s Growing Crypto Market Needs Better Regulations, Says the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
•Kotani Pay Selected to Participate in Funding Pilot by Gitcoin and UNICEF
•Report: Nigerian Securities Regulator to Exclude Crypto in its Digital Asset Agenda
Asia
LAW ENFORCEMENT: South Korean prosecutors seek to arrest Terra Luna co-founder Daniel Shin (2 minute read)
The Seoul Southern Prosecutors’ Office has requested a warrant for the arrest of Terraform Labs co-founder Daniel Shin on suspicion of trading Luna before its collapse and taking unfair gains worth 140 billion won ($106 million). Shin is also suspected of leaking customer information from a fintech he started to Terraform. Meanwhile, the whereabouts of Do Kwon are still unknown.
REGULATION: Singaporean banks’ exposure to crypto subject to the highest risk weight (2 minute read)
The Monetary Authority of Singapore is requiring Singapore-incorporated banks to apply a 1250% risk weight for exposures to riskier crypto assets such as bitcoin and ether. Although the country’s banks have “insignificant” levels of exposure to crypto, contributing to less than 0.05% of total risk weighted assets, they are subject to the toughest risk management requirements. Singaporean banks are required to hold $125 of capital against exposure of $100 to crypto.
Want more Asia news?
•It’s time for more institutions to adopt blockchain and crypto — Opinion
•Blockchain is transforming capital markets in Singapore and beyond — Opinion
•Avalanche to power Alibaba Cloud’s infrastructure services in Asia
•Crypto Exchange Kraken Settles With Treasury Department Over Iran Sanctions Violations
•The chief economist at the Ministry of Finance publishes a report with recommendations regarding the regulation of the digital asset market (Hebrew)
Eastern Europe
The National Bank Ukraine (NBU) presented its e-hryvnia CBDC concept project to representatives of the banking, payments, and virtual assets industries for discussion and feedback. The NBU is considering using the e-hryvnia for (1) retail non-cash payments with the possible functionality of “programmed” money, (2) in the field related to the circulation of virtual assets, and (3) more efficient cross-border payments. As the NBU moves forward with its CBDC study, it will continue to take into consideration the interests and needs of market participants and potential users and assess the impact a CBDC will have on its financial system and market.
Sberbank announced last week that its proprietary blockchain platform will integrate with Metamask to allow users to perform operations with tokens and smart contracts hosted on Sber’s platform. The Sberbank blockchain laboratory has designed its platform to be compatible with Ethereum to enable developers to freely transfer smart contracts, run DeFi applications, and deploy entire projects between the bank’s blockchain and open blockchain networks. Sber’s platform permits participants to issue their own tokens, create smart contracts, and make payments in rubles.
Want more Eastern Europe news?
•Putin calls for blockchain-based international payment system
•Crypto miners in Russia capitalize on the bear market by hoarding ASIC devices
•Ukraine collabs with international consultants to update crypto framework
•The Association of Cryptoeconomics pointed out the shortcomings of the bill on mining (Russian)
Thanks for reading and have a great week ahead!
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Written by Jon Lira. Connect with him on LinkedIn and Twitter.
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New to blockchain and web3 and want to learn the basics? EmergingCrypto.io recommends: