OTC’s Weekly Retrospect 25/03–31/03/2023

Each week we bring you a round-up of the most important Bitcoin and virtual asset-related stories making waves in the cryptosphere.­­­­

Major news stories this week;

1. European Banking Federation Lays Out Its Digital Euro Vision in New Paper
2. Ethereum Staking Tokens Jump Double Digits as Shanghai Upgrade Gets a Date
3. USDC Outflows Surge Past $10B, Tether Takes Market Share to 22-Month High
4. Binance Sued by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission
5. Jack Dorsey-Backed Spiral Plots Course for Mainstream Adoption of Bitcoin’s Lightning Network

Story Summaries;

1. The agency, which has over 3,500 member banks, shared its vision for Europe’s digital ecosystem while emphasizing the role of the private sector. The European Banking Federation (EBF), which describes itself as the voice of Europe’s banking industry, has shown support for a digital Euro in a newly published paper. The document also makes a few suggestions on how it should operate.
2. The Shanghai and Capella upgrades, named Shapella, will activate around 6: 30 pm UTC on April 12, 2023, per the Ethereum Foundation’s latest note. Crucially, this upgrade will let Ethereum stakers, including individuals and larger staking outfits, freely withdraw their ETH. Currently, that’s not possible.
3. Since March 10, the net outflows from the USDC stablecoin have surpassed more than $10 billion so far. Over the last month, USDC’s market cap has dropped more than 23% from over $44 billion to now at $33 billion. Over the last week, investors redeemed $1.5 billion worth of USDC in excess of the new issuance. Also, bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital alone redeemed $150 million on Tuesday.
4. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is suing Binance for offering commodities trading services to U.S. customers. The CFTC filed a 74-page complaint against Binance today at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. It claims the company is engaging in jurisdictional arbitrage in order to offer commodities trading services to its U.S. customers.
5. LDK, the Lightning Network implementation being developed by the Jack Dorsey-backed Spiral, has got big plans to improve the way payments can be made on Bitcoin. Bitcoin’s Lightning Network may be inching closer toward mainstream adoption, as LDK — one of the main implementations of the network — sets forth on an ambitious new roadmap to improve functionality and accessibility for users.

And that’s all for this week’s news! Wishing you a great weekend ahead!