Welcome to the ninth edition of Shrimpy’s weekly newsletter, a place for staying up to date on the latest trends, news, and events in the cryptocurrency industry.

Digital assets evolve and move faster compared to any other market. For those who do not have time to constantly scroll Crypto Twitter, we wrote a special weekly update covering everything major that happened this week.

Summary

The SEC delayed its decision on VanEck’s Bitcoin ETF to June
The Turkish government might launch a central custodian bank for crypto
Binance will launch an NFT marketplace for BSC and Ethereum in June
Authorities in South Korea target a former chairman of Bithumb Korea
Beijing will probe three local data centers to investigate crypto mining energy consumption
Coinbase now supports PayPal as a crypto payment method
Fed’s Jerome Powell reiterates stance on digital dollar
Mastercard seeks smart contract investment to combine blockchain tech with future CBDCs

SEC Delays VanEck Bitcoin ETF Decision

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) decided to push back its decision on the VanEck Bitcoin exchange-traded fund to June.

The SEC claims that it must ensure ‘sufficient time’ to evaluate VanEck’s proposal and reach a decision. As a reminder, the regulator simultaneously reviews two other ETF applications out of a total of 10 active proposals sent this year.

Turkey to create a central custodian bank for crypto

The Turkish government investigates the possibility of creating a central custodian bank for cryptocurrencies to eliminate counterparty risk, which is currently present following the collapse of two major exchanges.

As reported by Bloomberg, Turkey is set to launch a new set of crypto regulations in the next two weeks. The nation has tightened its grip on cryptocurrencies as of recently, deciding to ban cryptocurrencies for payments. Turkey’s government is likely ‘attacking’ cryptocurrencies to protect the plunging Lira.

Binance announces NFT marketplace

Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao announced that the exchange plans to feature a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace in June. The marketplace will primarily run on Binance Smart Chain, but Zhao notes that there will be support for Ethereum as well.

Binance’s latest decision is possibly another move to capture a portion of the DeFi market. Considering that no other centralized exchange hosts a native marketplace for NFTs, Binance is effectively frontrunning its competition.

Former Bithumb Korea chairman turned over to prosecutors

The Intelligent Crime Investigation Unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency has handed over a former chairman of Bithumb Korea over to the Supreme Prosecutors Office of the Republic of Korea. Coindesk Korea reports that Lee Jung-hoon has been called in for questioning by the police seven months earlier and is now accused of defrauding investors.

As a reminder, South Korea began a wave of regulatory activity to deal with money laundering and illegal activity conducted by the country’s exchanges.

Beijing will track energy consumption impact caused by mining

A report by Reuters states that Beijing plans to probe local data centers in order to check for possible cryptocurrency mining operations and assess their energy consumption. The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology issued an emergency notice on Tuesday, and it included China’s three largest telecommunications companies.

Coinbase Integrates PayPal crypto purchases

Crypto investors from the U.S. are now able to buy cryptocurrencies on Coinbase with PayPal. After FTX, Coinbase is the second exchange to integrate a PayPal payment method. However, the method charges a flat fee of 4%, the same amount spent when buying with credit cards.

Coinbase users can buy up to $25,000 worth of crypto per day. The clear advantage provided by PayPal is that transactions are realized almost instantly.

This week in DeFi

1. Binance Smart Chain DEX called Uranium Finance lost $50 million in an exploit. A BSC clone of the Uniswap Protocol has lost $50 million worth of tokens after a hacker took advantage of a smart contract vulnerability.

The anonymous individual only managed to move $9 million in funds away from BSC.
All of the stolen assets were moved using the Tornado Cash Ethereum mixer.

2. Ethereum startup Notional raises $10 million in funding round. Lending protocol Notional Finance raised an astounding amount of money in a Series A funding round led by Pantera Capital.

The round was also joined by Parafi, Spartan Group, Nascent, Nima Capital, and 1Confirmation.
Notional wishes to challenge the largest lending protocol in DeFi: Aave.

3. Two German Financial Giants team up to launch an NFT marketplace. Deutsche Borse and Commerzbank will work together on creating an online marketplace for non-fungible tokens revolving around real estate and art.

Both entities have previously worked together on blockchain-related projects in the past few years.
Deutsch Borser’s CEO believes that all assets will be tokenized in the future.

Jerome Powell: Fed will not race China on CBDC

During this week’s policy meeting held by the Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell reiterated that the U.S. will not rush out a digital dollar, despite the fact that China is close to launching its own CBDC. Powel stated that it is ‘far more important to get it right than it is to do it fast’ and that the U.S. should see whether a digital currency is good for its people or not.

Mastercard CEO wishes to invest in smart contract technology

During Mastercard’s latest quarterly earnings call, chief executive Micahel Miebach stated that the company should invest in smart contract technology, which would be used in combination with central bank digital currencies.

Mastercard previously worked with the Bahamas to load their CBDC onto a prepaid card. In the future, the payment processor will likely partner with the European Central Bank and Bank of England, which are likely to be the first central banks to launch a digital currency in the west.

Quote of the week

The Good News

After being listed on Coinbase Pro, crypto's largest stablecoin (Tether) has reached a new market cap all-time high by breaching $50 billion.
A new regulatory framework proposed in Germany could potentially bring $425 billion to crypto.
Bitcoin’s hash rate was revitalized after Chinese miners from the Xinjiang province turned their mining rigs back online.

The Bad News

Bitcoin had its worst monthly performance since January by being down 10% month-to-date.
A higher level of activity in the altcoin market in combination with Bitcoin’s lethargic price action might be a sign of weakness for the overall crypto market.

Crypto Twitter Highlights

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