Author: Jeremy Ryan

Ukraine has received over $70 million in the form of cryptocurrencies since the start of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, providing the nation with military equipment and humanitarian assistance.The figures came from a Feb. 24 report by blockchain data platform Chainalysis, which found the majority of the funds to have come in the form of Ether (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC).ETH donors led the way with $28.9 million given, while donors of BTC and Tether (USDT) chipped in $22.8 million and $11.59 million respectively.Cryptocurrencies donated to Ukraine wallets provided by the Ukrainian government. Source: Chainalysis.Donations have also come in the form of nonfungible tokens…

NFT Creator royalties have taken a back seat in the NFT space as marketplace OpenSea recently slashed fees in response to its new rival Blur, which has surged ahead in terms of trading volume on NFTs in part by charging zero trading fees and not enforcing creator royalties. Creator royalties, however, provide an ongoing revenue stream to NFT projects beyond their initial sales—typically a 5% to 10% cut when a token is resold—and many companies are now being led astray, Animoca Brands Chairman Yat Siu told Decrypt at NFT Paris. “This is all about grabbing market share, and it’s at…

The first G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) meeting under India’s presidency discussed key financial stability and regulatory priorities. India urged member nations to understand the macro-financial implications of crypto assets and recommended formulating a coordinated global policy.India’s Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, has historically supported creating crypto regulations in partnership with other jurisdictions — given the global reach of crypto assets. Under India’s G20 Presidency, this narrative is now a part of mainstream discussions.India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during FMCBG meeting in Bengaluru. Source: Ministry of Finance.During the FMCBG meeting held on Feb. 24–25, G20 members discussed the potential…

The world of Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) continues to surge, with the past week alone witnessing a remarkable 138% increase in sales compared to the previous week.According to recent reports, NFT sales settled in the last week, and amounted to a staggering $801 million, marking a significant rise in the NFT market.Interestingly, while crypto asset prices took a hit, NFT sales remained robust, with Ethereum accounting for the bulk of the total sales, recording a whopping $762 million. The number of NFT buyers also increased by 34.7% compared to the previous week.Ethereum Dominating NFT MarketIn fact, Ethereum and Panini were the…

Blockchain The goal of mass adoption is a common refrain for the blockchain industry, but there’s a steep learning curve in onboarding the masses to Web3. Alchemy hopes its new Create Web3 Dapp or CW3D platform will help bring more people into decentralized technologies. “Our overall mission and vision is to bring blockchain or Web3 to a billion people,” Elan Halpern, Product Manager at Alchemy, told Decrypt in an interview. “The way we really see that happening is by empowering developers.” 1/ Building a dapp from scratch in 4 minutes sounds impossible, right? Wrong. Create Web3 Dapp just entered the…

Lawyers representing former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried in federal court have requested an extension to file a proposal related to his bail conditions.In a Feb. 24 filing with the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Mark Cohen of Cohen & Gressler said the legal team wanted until March 3 to file a proposal for additional bail conditions for Bankman-Fried and find a suitable candidate to act as a technical expert in the case. The lawyers agreed to hire an expert following a Feb. 16 hearing discussing the former FTX CEO’s use of a virtual private…

The Central Bank of Jordan is closer to its next step toward a retail central bank digital currency (rCBDC) with the completion of an International Monetary Fund technical report on the country’s markets. The IMF conducted a three-month mission last year to assist the bank with preparations for a CBDC feasibility report. The IMF released its report on Feb. 23.Working between July and September 2022, the IMF gave the country’s existing retail payment market a largely positive review, calling it well integrated. Two non-bank payment service providers (PSPs) have “generally accessible and appropriate product” and the country has high smartphone…

NFT Recent data from the community-based open-source data provider Dune Analytics shows that 13,600 wallets canceled their orders on the OpenSea NFT marketplace in the past week. Popular opinion attributes this development to actions related to a migration of users from OpenSea to another NFT marketplace, Blur. A total of 13.6k wallet addresses canceled their OpenSea orders in the past week due to Blur’s loyalty program, which is almost 5-6 times the historical average. According to @andrewhong5297 Dune. https://t.co/DWP0jFZ7TD pic.twitter.com/mSZJcfcfrL — Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) February 26, 2023 The Blur NFT trading platform rewarded AirDrop participants on February 14, 2023. The…

NFT Cardano’s NFT project, Clay Nation, is set to make history as the first Cardano project to be integrated into The Sandbox Game. It believes that the move will help promote Web3 interoperability. Enter The Sandbox ????Clay Nation will become the first @Cardano project to be integrated in @TheSandboxGame – pushing interoperability even further in #Web3The experience will be created in collaboration with @smoblerstudios.Stay tuned for more. pic.twitter.com/kzdSsUyKpW — Clay Nation (@claymates) February 25, 2023 The Sandbox is a virtual world where players can build, own and monetize their gaming experiences on the Ethereum blockchain, and it has the native…

The World Wide Web, as its name implies, is borderless, and so is crypto. The internet and cryptocurrency’s common ethos is wide-open communication and exchange, unimpeded by national boundaries. On the ground, however, as crypto has become a more significant player in the financial system, nations have begun to consider issues of sovereignty and regulation. While many countries have so far remained open to crypto, others have restricted its use or outright banned it. The same reason that some have advocated for crypto and blockchain technology — as a means of revolutionizing the international financial system — has alarmed plenty…