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| Hey Insider! Welcome to the week's third Inside Cryptocurrency newsletter! Today's issue again covers some of the most prominent stories in the crypto market, such as Binance's exit from Russia, HSBC's new service to allow for crypto mortgage payments, an Argentine oil company's plans to start crypto mining using residual gas power, and more. Enjoy your reading, and if you find this newsletter useful, please do not forget to share it with your friends and colleagues! Doğa
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| 1 | | HSBC, one of the largest banks in the world, has recently started allowing its customers to pay their mortgage bills and loans with cryptocurrencies. The banking giant has partnered with the blockchain-based payments processor FCF Pay to enable the new service. More: - HSBC customers need to first select the recipient for the payments and then provide payment information while settling their bills and loans through crypto.
- Following these steps, HSBC and FCF Pay process the payment within two days.
- FCF Pay charges a 2% fee on the payment with an additional $3.
- The new offering supports payments with many popular cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Binance Coin (BNB), Ripple (XRP), Dogecoin (DOGE), and Shiba Inu (SHIB).
- The service is currently only available to U.S. customers, though the company plans to expand the offering to other countries in the future.
Q: Do you prefer to use cryptocurrencies to make your mortgage payments? Join the conversation here. |     | |
| 2 | | 
What the numbers say: The floor price of Pudgy Penguins (PPG), the nineteenth-largest NFT collection by sales volume, jumped by over 14% within 24 hours. The collection's floor price increased to as much as 5.26 Ether (ETH), up from 4.59 ETH a few hours earlier. Then, the figure saw a slight decline later in the day. The collection's 24-hour sales also experienced a surge of nearly 250%, suggesting an increased investor interest in the PPG NFTs. Relevance: The jump in the collection's floor price followed the strike of a collaboration between Pudgy Penguins and Walmart, the biggest retailer in the U.S. As part of the collaboration, the retail giant put the Pudgy Penguins' physical toy collection, Pudgy Toys, up for sale across its 2,000 U.S. stores. Customers can now access 26 different types of Pudgy Toys at the stores, including the ones exclusive to Walmart. Besides, the price tags of the toys range from $2.99 to $11.97. Each toy features a birth certificate that allows holders to claim unique traits for their digital Forever Pudgy character inside Pudgy World, an online virtual world where users can build their characters, play mini-games, and interact with other users by scanning a QR code. Holders also receive licensing royalties for each corresponding toy sold at Walmart since all the toys are connected to existing pieces of NFT intellectual property (IP). Brands that should care: Pudgy Toys can similarly be bought on e-commerce giant Amazon's online store. On the other hand, Walmart recently accelerated its collaborations within the Web3 space. Most recently, the retail giant also launched a gamified metaverse experience dubbed The Cultureverse to celebrate the golden anniversary of hip-hop music in partnership with Web3 creative studio People of Crypto (POC) Lab. Besides, the company previously introduced two other metaverse experiences dubbed Walmart Land and Universe of Play on Roblox. | | | |
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| 3 | | Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, has officially withdrawn from Russia by selling its Russian unit to a Seychelles-based crypto-exchange dubbed CommEX for an undisclosed amount. The platform's chief compliance officer, Noah Perlman, said operating in Russia is no longer compatible with their compliance strategy for the future. More: - A company spokesperson, Simon Matthews, also stated that neither Binance nor its executives have shares or profit-sharing with CommEX.
- Binance pointed out that the off-boarding process would take up to a year since they want to ensure a smooth transition for existing Russian customers.
- The move came several months after Binance started being investigated by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in the U.S. over potential violations of U.S. sanctions on Russia.
- Indeed, Binance started applying restrictions on Russian citizens, residents, and banks in 2022 after the European Union (EU) and the U.S. announced sanctions against Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine.
- However, several Russian users recently reported that they were able to access some Binance services despite the restrictions the platform began imposing last year.
- The reports forced the platform to delist sanctioned Russian banks from its peer-to-peer (P2P) payments service, disabling clients from paying each other in rubles through the related lenders, and ultimately exit the country.
Zoom Out: - On the other hand, Binance had to intensify its legal compliance efforts over the last months since it faced increased crackdowns by regulators in various countries, including the U.S., Australia, France, and Belgium.
- The platform also recently withdrew from several markets in the West, such as Canada, Austria, the Netherlands, Cyprus, the U.K., and Germany, mainly due to compliance issues.
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| 4 | | The U.S.-headquartered payment processing company MoneyGram's CEO, Alex Holmes, has announced the firm's plans to launch a non-custodial crypto wallet in Q1 2024. The new digital wallet will be built on the Stellar network in partnership with Cheesecake Labs. More: - The wallet will allow users to store, move, and convert their stablecoins into fiat currencies or vice versa.
- The self-custody solution will mainly utilize MoneyGram's on-ramp and off-ramp services, which allow conversions between cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies, to facilitate instant transactions, speeding up cross-border payments.
- MoneyGram will charge no fees for the service until June 2024.
- The company's wallet users will also be able to send digital assets to other users through the new service.
- Besides, users will be able to cash out their stablecoins at any partner facility of MoneyGram worldwide.
- The payment processing giant introduced its fiat on-ramp and off-ramp services for digital wallets in 2022 before expanding them to eight wallets on the Stellar blockchain network.
- The expansion allowed customers to make cash withdrawals in over 180 countries and deposits in over 30 countries.
Zoom Out: - The announcement came a month after the Stellar Development Foundation, which builds the Stellar network, acquired a minority stake in MoneyGram.
- Non-custodial wallets, also known as self-custody solutions, allow users to manage their private keys, providing complete control of their assets and reducing personal financial risks from a potential collapse.
- Custodial wallets, however, require a third party, such as a centralized crypto exchange (CEX), to control users' private keys to keep their crypto assets under custody.
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| 5 | | The U.S.-based crypto exchange Gemini has allocated $24M to improve its expansion plans in India. The company will use the funding to grow its engineering hub in Gurgaon. More: - The company's Indian hub, the Gemini Gurgaon Development Center, started its operations in May after being announced by Gemini's global chief technology officer, Pravjit Tiwana, in April.
- At the time, Tiwana said the location would be the firm's second-largest engineering hub after the one in the U.S.
- Since its launch, the center has hired more than 70 staff.
- The engineering hub actively continues to hire software engineers, technical product managers, and talents in finance, support, and compliance.
- Gemini's Indian hub mainly focuses on developing user experience and new features in the web edition, mobile app, NFT marketplace, and digital asset trading platform.
Zoom Out: - In April, Gemini founders Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Winklevoss also stated they had big plans for growth in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region this year.
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| 6 | | Argentina-based oil company Tecpetrol has announced that it would start crypto mining using energy converted from excessive gas. The company's first gas-powered crypto mining facility will be located in the Los Toldos II Este region in Patagonia. More: - The move will help Tecpetrol optimize its gas usage and reduce waste while improving its crude oil production.
- The company plans to drill at least 35,000 barrels of oil at the facility every day.
- However, the firm will tap crypto mining to consume the gas being released in the oil production process since it has no infrastructure to consume it and no ability to release it into the environment.
- The oil production giant aims to start its crypto-mining operations in late October or early November.
- The company said it has already signed contracts and partnerships with a firm implementing similar strategies in the U.S. without naming the entity.
- The whole process will mainly aim to reduce the environmental impact of Tecpetrol's oil production by avoiding gas emissions while generating additional profits.
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- Decentralized peer-to-peer (P2P) transactional network Mixin has offered a $20M bug bounty to hackers behind the $200M cyberattack to return the remaining stolen funds.
- Payment protocol Ripple has hired Lauren Belive, who previously worked at the White House under the presidency of Barack Obama, as its new head of U.S. public policy and government.
- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has delayed a decision on whether to approve the launch of a spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) once more.
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INSIDE CRYPTOCURRENCY LEADERBOARD (ALL-TIME) |
 | Staff Writer | | 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. | | This newsletter was edited by Aaron Crutchfield | |
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