OTC’s Weekly Retrospect 09/05–13/05/2022

Every Friday we take a look back over the week’s biggest Bitcoin and Digital Asset stories making waves in the cryptosphere.

1. Stars align for UAE to become a global crypto hub
2. Report: UAE’s Emirates Airline Set to Use ‘Bitcoin as a Payment Service’
3. Terra’s Crypto Meltdown Was Inevitable
4. El Salvador Buys The Dip With Another 500 Bitcoins
5. US Treasury Secretary Yellen points to UST slip, asks for new stablecoin legislation by the end of 2022

Story Summaries;

1. Dubai and Abu Dhabi are making a play for the cryptocurrency crown. Big crypto exchanges like FTX, last valued at $32 billion, are setting up shop in Dubai. In the last few months, the pair have handed out more than 30 licences and passed new laws for crypto exchanges to operate in the cities.
2. One of the United Arab Emirates (UAE)’s leading airlines, Emirates Airline, said it has plans to add “bitcoin as a payment service.” The airline is planning to recruit personnel to create applications that monitor client needs. Reports of the airline’s plan to embrace bitcoin come just a few weeks after it revealed its NFT and metaverse plans.
3. UST was marketed to the public as a stablecoin, a type of cryptocurrency whose value supposedly remains steady over time, creating a convenient edge against the wild price fluctuations of other cryptocurrencies like bitcoin or ether. Except UST is an “algorithmic stablecoin” and has none of that.
4. President Nayib Bukele is quite determined to build up the country’s crypto reserves. Most recently, following the drop in prices of the premium cryptocurrency, he has added 500 more BTCs to the country’s balance sheet. Bukele has been taking every opportunity to add Bitcoin to his country’s reserves ever since El Salvador legitimized the crypto.
5. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is still calling for stablecoin legislation by the end of the year. In response to questioning on stablecoins from Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) at a May 10 hearing, Yellen confirmed that “it is important, even urgent” that Congress pass stablecoin legislation.

And that is all for this week’s crypto news! Wishing you all a happy and relaxed weekend… Happy Friday!