Daily Digest - 7th September 2022

Headlines

▌Russia Seeks to Establish Stable Currency Cross-Border Clearing Platform With Friendly Countries

Russian Deputy Finance Minister Alexey Moiseyev said on Tuesday that Russia is cooperating with several friendly countries to establish a clearing platform for cross-border settlement of stablecoins. “We are currently working with some countries to create bilateral platforms so that the dollar and euro are not used. We provide tokenization tools that will be used on these platforms, which are mutually acceptable and which are essentially what we are currently developing with these countries. Stablecoins can be pegged to some recognized instruments, such as gold, the value of which is clearly visible to all participants.” As previously reported, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseyev in an interview with Russia’s 24 TV channel, the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Russia have reconsidered their approach to cryptocurrencies and see the need to legalize cross-border settlement of these currencies in the near future.

Cryptocurrency

▌KPMG Report: Crypto Investment Slowdown Will Continue Until the End of 2022

According to a new report from global auditing and consulting firm KPMG, global investment in cryptocurrency companies fell from a record $32.1 billion last year to $14.2 billion in the first half of 2022. The slowdown will continue until the end of 2022. The biggest deals in the first half of the year were venture capital investors pouring $550 million into crypto custody firm Fireblocks, $450 million in Ethereum infrastructure builder ConsenSys, and $400 million in cryptocurrency exchange FTX. KPMG also expects investors to shift from companies offering tokens and NFTs to blockchain infrastructure projects in the second half of the year, especially the use of blockchain in the modernization of financial technology. Analysts see growing interest in solutions related to compliance and transaction traceability, as well as increased corporate interest in stablecoins, as a low-risk route to investing in cryptocurrencies.

▌Coinbase Publishes Governance Proposal to Generate $24 Million for MakerDAO

Coinbase published a proposal on MakerDAO’s governance forum to transfer 33% of MakerDAO’s $1.6 billion Peg Stability Module (PSM) to Coinbase Prime escrow accounts, which is expected to increase Maker’s revenue by about $24 million. Additionally, Maker will pay zero custody fees for its PSM allocated to Coinbase and will be able to freely mint, burn, withdraw, and settle its allocated USDC through Coinbase Prime.

▌Arbitrum to Host First Hackathon on October 15th-16th in Bogota, Colombia

Ethereum Layer2 scaling solution Arbitrum announced that it will host its first hackathon in Bogota, Colombia, on October 15th-16^th. The track includes DeFi, NFT and gaming, social networking, and tools. Registration is now open.

▌The Human Rights Foundation Donates $325,000 in Bitcoin for Bitcoin Development

The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) has announced its most recent round of donations, which total $325,000 in BTC. Of these, the largest donation ($100,000) was given to the open-source Bitcoin payment processor BTCPay Server. Jon Atak, a core developer who is constantly reviewing and improving Bitcoin’s code; and Josh Kitman, who is developing Fedimint, a Chaumian electronic cash solution for Bitcoin, both received $50,000 each in donations. Keith Mukai has received a $25,000 donation to help him continue working on Seed Signer, an offline, air-gapped Bitcoin hardware wallet. Leigh Cuen, who developed a guide for Bitcoin donations that may be used by nonprofits, received a $25,000 donation. In addition to the individual developers, Robosats, an open-source peer-to-peer (P2P) Lightning exchange, will also receive $25,000. These funds will be used for expanding the product’s documentation, supporting several languages, and helping with continuing development. Independent Russian news outlet Novaya Gazeta will also receive a $25,000 donation. The final $25,000 will go to the Vinteum Initiative, a non-profit Bitcoin research and development center, for its educational seminars, fellowships, and grants that support Brazil’s Bitcoin developers.