During his testimony to the House Financial Services Committee, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell highlighted the probability of additional increases in interest rates. Powell also expressed concerns about inflation, stating that it remains “well above” the Fed’s long-term target of 2%. In addition, he advocated for a robust federal role in overseeing stablecoins, considering them a form of money. Such movements made a possibility for Bitcoin’s revival.
Surprising the markets, the Bank of England announced a 0.5% increase in interest rates, surpassing expectations. This move brings interest rates to 5.0%, the highest level since 2008.
EDX Markets, a new exchange backed by major players including Citadel Securities, Fidelity Investments, and Charles Schwab, has gone live and now offers trading in four cryptocurrencies: Ether, Litecoin, and Bitcoin revival.
Deutsche Bank Explores Digital Asset Custody License
Deutsche Bank has submitted an application for a digital asset custody license in Germany, showcasing the institution’s growing interest in the crypto space. Furthermore, Deutsche Bank’s asset management group, DWS, has reportedly expressed a desire to invest in two German crypto firms.
The testnet release of opBNB on the BNB Chain introduces a layer 2 chain that utilizes the Optimism OP Stack and is fully compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). The primary objective of opBNB is to improve the scalability of the BNB Chain while ensuring both affordability and security.
Bitcoin now: Coin’s dominance has surged and exceeded 51% this week, reaching a level not seen since April 2021. This rise follows announcements from various traditional finance firms, such as Blackrock, WisdomTree, and Invesco, indicating their intent to file for a spot in Bitcoin ETF UK.
Polygon Labs Proposes Upgrade to Enhance Security and Interoperability
The Polygon Labs engineering team has proposed an upgrade to the Polygon Proof-of-Stake (PoS) sidechain, transitioning it to a zkEVM valium, a layer 2 solution secured by zero-knowledge proofs. This upgrade would enhance security for users and enable seamless interoperability with other chains within the Polygon 2.0 ecosystem.
Offchain Labs, the company behind Arbitrum, has introduced Orbit, a tool that enables developers to launch their own Layer 3 blockchains, further expanding the possibilities for decentralized applications.
In the DeFi space, Osmosis, a decentralized exchange on Cosmos, has unveiled OSMO 2.0, a new tokenomics model that aims to reduce the inflation rate of its native OSMO tokens by 50%.
MakerDAO Increases U.S. Treasury Holdings for Stablecoin Reserves
MakerDAO, the issuer of the stablecoin DAI, has increased its holdings of U.S. Treasuries by $700 million, bringing the total to $1.2 billion in its stablecoin reserves.
NFT minting platform Zora has announced the launch of its layer 2 blockchain network, the Zora Network. Built on Optimism’s technology stack and secured by Ethereum, the Zora Network aims to streamline the minting process, making it faster, cheaper, and more user-friendly.
Ethereum blockchain explorer Etherscan has introduced an AI-powered “Code Reader,” allowing users to interpret and understand the source code of any smart contract.
Crypto Legislation and Stablecoin Framework: Will Bitcoin Crash to Zero?
The U.S. House Financial Services Committee is scheduled to vote on cryptocurrency legislation and a comprehensive stablecoin framework in July, indicating a growing focus on regulatory clarity.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has published a whitepaper proposing standards for the Bitcoin revival. The whitepaper introduces the concept of Purpose Bound Money (PMB), which enables the specification of transaction conditions, including validity periods and permits merchant types when transferring digital currency across different systems.
