Friday, July 15th. As the week comes to an end, we can focus on the highlights of the crypto industry over the past few days.
U.S. Treasury points out CBDC’s advantages for financial stability
The digital dollar has the potential to boost financial sustainability. Such a conclusion was reached by analysts of the Office of Financial Research (OFR) at the U.S. Treasury Department.
The experts considered the fears about the possible formation of “financial stress” due to the launch of the digital dollar to be exaggerated. Previously, the Fed referred to similar risks in its report as a negative consequence of the CBDC appearance.
OFR researchers believe the digital dollar will provide the authorities with an early warning system in case of problems in the financial system. As such, the signal will be an active conversion of funds into CBDC.
“The monitoring will allow supervisors to identify more quickly once a bank panic begins so that they can respond to the threats posed by troubled banks,” the document says.
According to experts, that sort of knowledge can diminish the desire of the large investors of any institution to trigger this process.
Analysts also pointed to reduced incentives for customers of a “weaker bank” to transfer funds to a more reliable entity “in calm days.” The reason for this would be the more conservative policy of the financial organizations compared to the situation before the CBDC.
“We treat [the OFR report] as a tool that supporters of the digital dollar can use to justify plans to launch it,” wrote Jareth Seiberg, a Cowen Group analyst.
Findings from the report are in line with recent comments by Fed Vice President Lael Brainard, who saw CBDC as a neutral trusted level of payments in the forthcoming crypto-financial system.
Celo suspended amid deployment of Uniswap smart contracts
Celo Blockchain Platform has suspended work on block #14,035,018. The project team reported that user funds are safe.
According to the Celoscan reviewer, the network no longer produces blocks for more than seven hours. As developers say, blockchain validators are looking into the problem and seeking ways to solve it.
Sometime before the incident, Uniswap v3, a decentralized exchange, rolled out its smart contracts on the Celo.
Celo stands for “mobile-centric” and “carbon-negative” blockchain. The EVM-compatible network consists of 2.6 million addresses with an average of 1.1 million daily transactions. Through the Mento smart contract platform, the project backs several algorithmic stablecoins.
The deployment of the Uniswap v3 protocol on the network implies the creation of green asset liquidity pools from Celo, such as tokenized carbon credits.
The Celo Foundation, the nonprofit behind the development of the blockchain platform, has also vowed to launch a $10 million Uniswap user incentive program and provide additional financial assistance to the exchange in the future.
Celo (CELO) native token quotations barely responded to the event. According to CoinGecko, the asset price has gained 2.2% in the last 24 hours.
Just to refresh your memory, this July, hackers attacked Uniswap liquidity providers through a fake airdrop.
Samsung sets up its virtual space in the Roblox metaverse
Samsung Electronics introduced Space Tycoon, a virtual playground in the Roblox metaverse. The initiative is aimed at the Zoomers, the company clarified.
It is located on Samsung’s space station and in the research lab. There, alien characters explore the company’s cutting-edge products.
The purpose of the campaign is to familiarize new customers with the brand and give them an opportunity to interact with each other. Space Tycoon is made up of three main play areas:
- the Mining Zone for resource procurement;
- the Shop for game item purchase;
- the Lab for product manufacturing.
By using the mined resources, users can design a variety of Samsung products – from smartphones to televisions to home appliances. At the moment, more than 20 devices are available for you to experiment with.
“Space Tycoon is designed to be a playground […]. We wanted to give our Gen Z customers a chance to experience Samsung products in a way they have never done before,” said Jinsoo Kim, Executive Vice President at Corporate Design Center in Samsung Electronics.
The platform supports 14 languages. The company has promised to add more features in the future, allowing players to cooperate with one another and attend exclusive virtual parties.
Prior to that, Samsung added its own crypto wallet to most devices of the Galaxy series.
As you may remember, in early 2022, the company announced the integration of NFT technology into new products.
BitMEX postpones the listing of its native token
BitMEX, a crypto exchange, rescheduled the listing of its BMEX token, citing “market conditions which are not ideal.”
The platform justified the decision by a willingness to provide better rewards to its users.
“As we look to the future, listing BMEX on our spot exchange remains our top priority,” its representatives said.
Back in December 2021, BitMEX announced the issuance of its native token. Later on January 31, 2022, platform users received 1.5 million BMEX in an airdrop.
BitMEX will distribute a total of 450 million BMEX over five years. Presumably, the majority of the tokens will be used for rewarding users and developing the ecosystem. For this purpose, the exchange will reserve 45% of the issue.
Asset holders will enjoy a number of perks, including:
- fee discounts;
- withdrawal refunds;
- higher deposit returns on BitMEX Earn;
- early access to new products on favorable terms;
- free access to BitMEX Academy tutorials.
Each quarter, the exchange intends to redeem and burn some of the tokens.
Let us mention that the listing was supposed to be done after the launch of a platform for spot trading.
During spring 2021, Alex Hoeptner, the current CEO of BitMEX, unveiled an updated development strategy for the platform, according to which it is expected to become the world’s leading crypto exhange. Among other things, spot trading and custodial services for cryptoassets should appear on the platform.