The cryptocurrency market continued its poor performance this week, with the prices of most coins still underperforming. Bitcoin could end the week trading below $30k once again while Ether could drop towards the $1,600 resistance level over the coming days. However, there is still plenty to talk about in the market, starting with LUNA.
Terra to burn 1.3 billion UST tokens
LUNA 2.0 is coming. The Terra ecosystem is making changes and this time around, the Terra governance system has voted to approve a proposal to burn all TerraUSD (UST) tokens held in the project’s community pool and UST deployed for past liquidity incentives on Ethereum.
The governance system will burn more than 1.3 billion UST or roughly 11% of the existing 11.2 billion UST supply. The proposal received 99.3% approval from the community. Terraform Labs will now proceed to burn the UST tokens.
Numerous cryptocurrency exchanges including Binance have signaled their intention to support new versions of Terra and its native token LUNA. In addition to Binance, Huobi, Bitfinex, Bitrue, Kucoin, and Bybit also said they will support the new versions of Terra and LUNA.
Tether launches a new stablecoin pegged to the Mexican peso
Still on stablecoins, Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin by market cap, announced earlier this week that it has launched a new Mexican peso-pegged stablecoin, marking its entrance into Latin America.
The stablecoin is called MXNT and will initially be available on the Ethereum, Tron and Polygon blockchains. This is Tether's fourth fiat-pegged stablecoin, after US dollar-pegged USDT, Euro-pegged EURT and the offshore Chinese Yuan-pegged CNHT.
ARK and 21Shares are not giving up on a potential Bitcoin ETF
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has rejected numerous spot Bitcoin ETF proposals over the years. However, the financial institutions putting forward those proposals are not giving up.
ARK Invest and 21Shares are making another attempt to get their collaborative bitcoin ETF. earlier this week, Cboe BZX Exchange filed a rule change proposal to list the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF, putting the SEC on the clock for another decision. The crypto community will now wait for the SEC’s decision in the coming weeks.
Coinbase is now in the Fortune 500
United States-based crypto exchange Coinbase has become the first crypto entity to make it into the Fortune 500. Fortune 500 is an annual list of America's largest corporations by revenue and Coinbase ranked 437.
This latest development comes despite Coinbase's current struggles induced by bearish market conditions. Fortune ranked companies for its 2022 list based on their 2021 revenues.
Thailand excludes crypto transfers from VAT payments until 2024
Earlier this week, the Thailand government issued a royal decree that includes a provision exempting crypto transfers from value-added tax (VAT) payments until December 31, 2023. Thanks to this latest development, crypto and digital asset transfers on regulated exchanges in Thailand will not require 7% VAT payments until the start of 2024.
Portugal's Parliament rejects crypto tax proposals
Back in Europe, the Portuguese Parliament voted against two separate proposals from minority political parties to tax crypto assets earlier this week. The proposals were submitted by left-wing parties Bloco de Esquerda and Livre and were both rejected on Wednesday afternoon during a 2022 budget voting session. However, it might only be a matter of time before Portugal starts taxing cryptocurrency transactions.
a16z launches a $4.5 billion fund for crypto and blockchain startups
Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) announced earlier this week that it will launch a $4.5 billion fund for crypto and blockchain startups. The venture capital firm said that $1.5 billion out of the fund has been earmarked for seed investments while $3 billion will go to venture investments. The new fund is called 'Crypto Fund 4,' and a16z has been working on it for the past few months.
GameStop launches self-custodial crypto wallet
Video game retailer GameStop revealed earlier this week that it has launched a crypto and non-fungible token (NFT) wallet. This latest development comes as the company prepares to expand its presence in the digital assets world.
In a press release earlier this week, GameStop said the self-custodial ethereum wallet will allow gamers and others to store, send, receive and use cryptocurrencies and NFTs across decentralized apps without having to leave their web browsers.
