While digital currency donations continue to pour into Ukraine, the country legalizes the crypto sector. Elon Musk says he will not sell his crypto holdings. The price of bitcoin has increased. We have these stories and more in this week’s newsletter.
As we begin our newsletter, Ukraine has passed a law that establishes a legal framework for the cryptocurrency industry in the nation. According to the country’s Ministry of Digital Transformation, this law, which was approved by Ukraine’s parliament last month and signed into law by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday, will allow foreign and Ukrainian cryptocurrency exchanges to operate legally.
In the “virtual assets” law, the legal status, classification, and ownership of virtual assets are regulated. In addition, virtual assets will be subject to financial monitoring. The Ukrainian Securities and Stock Exchange Commission will oversee the market. It will have responsibility for areas such as issuing licenses to crypto businesses and implementing state policy.
Ukraine began accepting donations via digital currencies like bitcoin and ether for its military defense against Russia last month. According to Elliptic, a blockchain analytics firm, it has since expanded the number of cryptocurrencies it accepts for donations and has raised more than $63 million so far.
The Ukrainian government has launched an official website where people from around the world may donate via cryptocurrencies. These funds will be used to support Ukraine’s military and humanitarian efforts.
The popular Ethereum wallet “MetaMask” has officially launched its own token, as confirmed by Consensys CEO Joseph Lubin. It is also reported that the team will establish a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) to finance the wallet’s growth. MetaMask competes with other self-custodial wallets such as MyEtherWallet and Coinbase Wallet for interaction with the web 3. Individuals and institutions can use the wallet to access Ethereum and other smart contract chains for such purposes as minting NFTs and accessing Defi, for example.
The DAO concept is typically conceived as an alternative governance model (compared to more hierarchical corporations) however, MetaMask’s DAO will not dictate the project’s growth. Rather, it is intended to serve as a funding mechanism, as numerous donation-oriented DAOs have done in the past. Aside from that, little information was provided regarding the DAO.
Recently, MetaMask has experienced tremendous growth, surpassing over 30 million active monthly users. This is an increase of over 40% from November when the company behind it — ConsenSys — was only half of its current value. The wallet was recently involved in some controversy after temporarily censoring Venezuelan transactions, due to the fact that the Node it routes — Infura — is required to limit transactions from certain regions. The issue has since been addressed.
In other news — Several cryptocurrencies, including Dogecoin, Bitcoin, and Ether, briefly spiked last Monday following Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s tweet that he still owns the cryptocurrencies and will not sell them.
The Dogecoin price rose 3.9% to $0.11, according to CoinDesk, before falling 1.2% in early morning trading. Initially, Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, rose by 3.4%. It is currently up 0.2%. The Ethereum token, which underpins the Ethereum blockchain, increased by 0.3%.
“For those looking for advice from this thread, as a general principle, it is generally better to own physical things like a home or stock in companies that you believe make excellent products rather than dollars when inflation is high,” tweeted Musk — “I still own & won’t sell my Bitcoin, Ethereum or Doge fwiw.”
In the last week, several leading cryptocurrencies gained more than 10%, with tokens that are linked to leading Layer-1 networks such as Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, and Avalanche posting some of the highest gains.
Ethereum posted a seven-day growth of 12.6%, double that of Bitcoin. Bitcoin is up about 6% over the same period. The world’s second-most popular cryptocurrency is currently trading just above $2,900.
Avalanche has experienced the greatest growth spurt among the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Before the beginning of the week, the Ethereum rival had risen nearly 30% to $90.97. Although the price is still 37.5% below its previous all-time high of $146.22, set four months ago, it is the biggest gain in leading cryptos in the last seven days.
The other smart contract-enabled rivals in the top 10 are Solana and Cardano, which are up by nearly 11% and 12% respectively. Solana’s price stood at $90.10, while Cardano’s was $0.89.
*Disclaimer* Investment in cryptos carries various risks and is not suitable for all investors. Be sure to do your research thoroughly before making any decisions to invest.
SushiSwap has launched a proposal titled “Sushi Legal Structure” to create an association or foundation to reduce future risks. SushiDAO will thus provide legal clarity regarding the rights and obligations of token holders and contributors, in addition to creating an entity that will manage SushiDAO. There is a community initiative to establish DAO entities in multiple jurisdictions, with the Swiss Association Act currently being the most popular option.
As the Federal Reserve increases interest rates, billionaire cryptocurrency investor Michael Novogratz says bitcoin is unlikely to rally in a big way. He also says investors are now reassessing the risks and consequences of the Russia-Ukraine war, while the Fed is preparing to raise interest rates. Previously, he had predicted that the price of bitcoin would range from $30,000 to $50,000 in 2022.
This concludes our weekly newsletter. We thank you for reading. We hope it was informative and helpful for you. We look forward to bringing you more news about crypto and blockchain next week.
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