What the numbers say: Crypto exchange Bitget’s recent survey of nearly 255,000 adults from 26 countries has shown that Gen Z is the age group most likely to care about crypto regulations while voting for political candidates. 36% of Gen Z respondents said they saw promises regarding crypto as an important factor in elections. Gen Z was respectively followed by millennials, Gen X, and baby boomers. Details: Bitget’s survey also revealed that crypto ownership is most common among millennials, with a 46% rate. Gen X and Gen Z reported almost the same ownership rate, with 25% and 21%, respectively. Baby boomers became the age group having the least crypto adoption, with 8%. Relevance: Crypto has become an important material for election campaigns in the U.S. over the last several years due to its rising popularity. While some lawmakers follow a crypto-friendly approach to receive support from the industry, a remarkable number of politicians, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), declared war against the market because of the sudden collapses of high-profile firms and projects in 2022. Warren, famous for her strict approach toward crypto adoption, most recently implied that she was building an anti-crypto army as part of her re-election campaign in a social media post. The post faced a backlash from the crypto community. Brands that should care: Another survey commissioned by the rival crypto exchange Coinbase recently pointed out that crypto ownership covers different political groups almost equally, with 18% from Republicans, 22% from Democrats, and 22% from Independents, proving that it is a bipartisan issue. The poll also showed almost consistent results with Bitget’s survey, revealing that Gen Z and Millennials take the lead in crypto ownership.
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Speaking at the Consensus 2023 event, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R–N.C.) said the U.S. House Financial Services Committee and House Agriculture Committee will make long-awaited crypto legislation ready within the next two months. The upcoming bill will aim to supervise the crypto industry in the U.S. More: - Before putting together the legislation, the two houses will hold joint public hearings in May.
- McHenry stated that President Joe Biden would sign the legislation into law in the next 12 months.
- The bill will address both securities and commodities regimes and issues.
- The effort will mark the U.S.' first comprehensive legislation on crypto after several bills that stayed in progress.
- During the same event, Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), also known as the Senate's Crypto Queen, said they would introduce a new and improved version of the bipartisan Responsible Financial Innovation Act, unveiled in 2022 to create a regulatory framework for the crypto industry, in six to eight weeks.
- Lummis added that the bill would probably have a stronger section on national security and cybercrimes.
Zoom Out: - Following the collapses of high-profile crypto firms and projects, including the crypto exchange FTX and the Terra ecosystem, in 2022, the U.S. has toughened its regulatory approach towards the crypto industry.
- Over the last several months, many crypto exchanges, including Coinbase, Kraken, Bittrex, and Binance, came under increased scrutiny by the U.S. regulators such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
- Crypto exchange Coinbase's CEO Brian Armstrong recently stated that the company could move its headquarters outside the U.S. if the regulatory environment does not change in the country, joining the industry's leading figures complaining about the regulatory uncertainty.
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Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s digital payments company Block has announced that it finished the design of a prototype for its five-nanometer (5nm) Bitcoin mining chip and will soon start experimenting with the new design. The announcement came right after the company bought a remarkable amount of mining chips from the U.S.-based semiconductor manufacturer Intel. More: - Intel recently said it would discontinue the Blockscale chips designed for Bitcoin mining, stopping taking new orders by October 20 and ending shipping in April 2024.
- Block has stated that the development of the Bitcoin mining chips is in the hands of a select few companies, centralizing the industry, since it is financially and technically challenging.
- The firm pointed out that its efforts would decentralize the market by bringing more efficient and affordable chips to the industry.
- The San Francisco-based company added that it plans to make Bitcoin mining technology open source wherever possible.
- The digital payments services giant also said its large batch of chip acquisitions from Intel will accelerate the development of its proprietary three-nanometer (3nm) chip, expected to be the most advanced mining chip ever.
Zoom Out: - The scale of the nanometer refers to the distance between the transistors on the chips.
- The smaller distance allows much more transistors to be placed on the chip of the same size, increasing both the performance and the efficiency.
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Venmo, the mobile payment platform under the roof of PayPal, has announced that it would enable crypto transfers as of May. The new feature will allow users to buy crypto on Venmo through fiat currencies and send it to another Venmo user, PayPal user, external wallet, or hardware wallet. More: - Users will be able to transfer crypto on Venmo by clicking the cryptocurrency tab in the app, viewing their coins, and selecting the "Send Crypto" option.
- Venmo will also provide users with QR codes as a crypto address to allow them to receive crypto from external addresses.
- Once sent, transfers will not be able to be canceled or reversed.
- Venmo said 50% of customers holding crypto in their Venmo wallets increased their balances since the beginning of the year.
- The firm also pointed out that 74% of clients with crypto balances have held their funds on Venmo for the past 12 months.
Zoom Out: - Venmo started allowing users to purchase and sell crypto on the platform in April 2021.
- The platform, with nearly 70 million users, currently supports Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH).
- Users have a weekly limit of $20,000 and an annual limit of $50,000 while buying crypto.
- The parent company PayPal has also allowed crypto transfers between its platform and other wallets since June last year.
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Blockchain-based network Tron's founder Justin Sun had to reclaim his $56M token transfer to Binance's Launchpool platform following Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao's (CZ) warning. In his warning, Zhao said the platform could take action against Sun if he uses the funds to acquire new Sui tokens. More: - Binance CEO underlined that the Launchpool platform is for individual investors, not institutions or crypto whales.
- Within 20 minutes, Sun said the transfer did not aim at any acquisition of Sui tokens by apologizing to Zhao.
- Tron's founder added that he arranged a full return for the funds on the platform.
- Binance's Launchpool platform allows users to acquire rewards regarding new project tokens by staking cryptocurrencies like Binance Coin (BNB) and TrueUSD (TUSD).
- Sui's mainnet will go live on May 3 and will be the 33rd project to launch on Launchpool.
- Users will be able to lock their own tokens for two days after the mainnet goes live to earn rewards of Sui token (SUI).
- Binance will pair the token with Bitcoin (BTC), Tether (USDT), TrueUSD (TUSD), and Binance Coin (BNB) for trading by listing on the exchange when its liquidity meets Binance's requirements.
Zoom Out: - The Layer-1 blockchain network Sui was built by Mysten Labs, a startup founded by former executives of Meta's now-abandoned crypto project, Diem, just like the Aptos project.
- Justin Sun is a crypto figure who already came under scrutiny by regulators, including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
- In March, the SEC sued Sun with allegations like the organization of the unregistered offer and sale, manipulative trading, the unlawful touting of crypto asset securities, and engaging in manipulative wash trading with the help of celebrities.
- The agency also plans to permanently block Sun from holding any position of authority in a firm offering crypto securities.
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Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission’s head of securities and investment services, Abdulkadir Abbas, said they plan to allow the trading of tokens backed by assets like equity, debt, and property on licensed digital asset exchanges. Abbas underlined that they still do not lean towards crypto-backed token offerings. More: - Nigeria’s central bank does not permit crypto trade in the country.
- The shuttered peer-to-peer (P2P) crypto exchange Paxful’s data shows that Nigeria, the most populous African country with its 200 million population, is the largest market outside the U.S. in crypto transactions by volume.
- The country’s Securities and Exchange Commission does not plan to register crypto exchanges until the central bank agrees upon the standards.
- Abbas stated that the exchanges seeking to register with the commission would undergo a regulatory incubation process for a year.
- The process will only allow the exchanges to offer select services monitored by the commission.
- The agency will decide in 10 months whether to register the firm, extend the incubation period, or order the firm to halt operation.
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- Payment processing giant Mastercard has partnered with several blockchain firms, including Aptos Labs, Ava Labs, Polygon Labs, and the Solana Foundation, to launch a new identity verification system for crypto transactions.
- The NFT marketplace Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, has launched a new staking program, The Sandbox NFT Staking Program, allowing users to earn exclusive NFT rewards by staking SAND tokens.
- CoinMarketCap, a crypto price tracking site, has announced that it would release a Web3 competition show dubbed Killer Whales.
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 |  | Doga is a tech and science editor who has been writing news for nearly 10 years. She worked for leading tech platforms and mainstrem media channels as an editor and presenter throughout his career. Then, she carried her know-how to more than one platform. She is a part-time cat lover and binge-watcher, and also fond of science, space, and emerging tech. She always has a story to tell. She is a bit addict to the laughter and -unfortunately- the '90s culture. |  | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 and 1972 Fords. | |
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