Cryptocurrency news: July 2021 headlines
– articles, downloads, reports & more
Digital currency-related news items from July 2021 touched on a wide range of implementations: Cryptocurrency lending in Hong Kong; Vietnam’s moves to research a CBDC; the headline-grabbing NFT space; MasterCard’s focus on crypto with its Start Path program; developments with China’s ‘digital yuan’; and many others.
Each cryptocurrency-related news headline featured links to the online item behind it: free, in full, instant access.
ICYMI: Updates go out via app and social media and include news on digital currencies; alternatively you can stay in the loop with the Startup News Asia e-newsletter.
- “…El Salvador will become the first country…to adopt bitcoin as legal tender…also opens a new frontier for bitcoiners looking to test their economic and social theories.”
- BlockFi cryptocurrency company launches ‘crypto rewards’ credit card, in partnership with Visa, in the US, with users earning back 1.5% in bitcoin on purchases made
- Russia’s central bank names 12 banks to be involved in initial testing of future central bank digital currency, the ‘digital ruble’, aiming for 2022 launch
- Download: Designing a Central Bank Digital Currency with Support for Cash-Like Privacy (pdf)
- The Central Bank Digital Currency Tracker, from the Atlantic Council – “81 countries (representing over 90% of global GDP) are now exploring a CBDC…”
- Visa has revealed that over a billion dollars was spent using its cryptocurrency-linked cards during the first half of 2021
- Another look at the the rise of the play-to-earn economy in NFT gaming in SE Asia, focusing on Digital Entertainment Asset startup
- Amazon scouting for Digital Currency and Blockchain Product Lead, progressing with plans to bring its payments systems into the crypto age
- Mastercard unveils new Start Path cohort, focused on fast-growing digital asset, blockchain and cryptocurrency companies
- Square payments giant to build a bitcoin hardware wallet and service “to make bitcoin custody more mainstream”
- US State Department Rewards for Justice program is adding cryptocurrency to its payout options, in a first for a federal agency
- “Local currencies like the Brixton Pound and Bristol Pound failed to save the British High Street. But can they succeed as stablecoins?”
- Mastercard and Circle partner to use USDC for crypto-to-fiat conversions in pilot program, aiming to boost ability of customers to spend crypto assets
- Twitter CEO confirms bitcoin will be ‘big part’ of company’s future, looking at integrations around commerce, subscriptions, Twitter Tip Jar and more
- Square payments giant to launch new Bitcoin-focused business, an open source platform for decentralized and permissionless financial services
- China: Central bank claims ‘digital yuan’ reached $5BN transaction value by end of June, across 70.5M transactions, 21M personal wallets and 3.5M enterprise wallets
- China: Ping An subsidiary in Shenzhen launches COVID-19 insurance plan for medical staff in which users who pay premiums in ‘digitial yuan’ receive discounts
- Monetary Authority of Singapore and Banque de France complete wholesale cross-border payment and settlement experiment using central bank digital currency
- e-news, latest edition: China’s digital yuan, Japan’s NFT trends, used smartphones in India, blockchained bank bonds in Australia and more
- Australia: Koinly tax startup partnered by Binance Australia to give users taxation office-compliant reporting solutions
- BlockFi cryptocurrency company launches ‘crypto rewards’ credit card, in partnership with Visa, in the US, with users earning back 1.5% in bitcoin on purchases made
- Hong Kong: Another look at Amber Group, 4-year old startup that has hit $1BN valuation with a focus on cryptocurrency lending
- India: CoinDCX crypto assets exchange becomes official title Sponsor of cricket’s T20I Series between India and Sri Lanka, the first time a crypto firm lands top sponsor billing
- Japan: Gov’t increases diplomatic efforts to regulate digital currencies globally, seeking involvement in global dialogue around stricter rules on private digital currencies
- A brief look at NFTs through the lens of regulation: “…ownership in the digital world is not the same as ownership in the physical world…”
- NFTs – an explainer: “In physical artworks, there [is] tangible property and intellectual property…in digital artworks…just one kind of property: intellectual property.”
- XUMCoin launches as The Philippines’ first cryptocurrency
- Vietnam: Prime Minister directs central bank to research and run pilot project for national cryptocurrency
- Australia: Visa approves Australia’s CryptoSpend startup to begin issuing debit cards allowing the startup’s users to make direct purchases using cryptocurrency
- Worldcoin and eyeball scans: “Digital privacy experts have raised significant alarms over the use of such an authentication method—and the uses of biometric identification in general.”
- e-news, latest issue: Logistics tech in Malaysia, Amazon and digital currency, Sri Lankan blockchain…
- China’s digital currency moves: “… Bloomberg estimates the e-CNY could capture about 9% of China’s market by 2025.”
- “…new way to collect music or part of an expanding metaverse, NFTs are the near future…that’s the hope for some industry insiders who believe “non-fungible tokens” are going to save music.”
- Thai financial regulators hit Binance cryptocurrency exchange with criminal complaint around digital asset trading, adding to issues in UK, Germany, Japan and the US
- ICYMI: Twitter gets into NFTs, issuing 140 to users of the platform, possibly as a test in advance of commercially-focused NFT offerings
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