Mic Drop

Flipkart, which is backed by Walmart, has announced the launch of its in-house innovation unit called Flipkart Labs. According to a statement by the company, Flipkart Labs will be focused on testing nonfungible tokens (NFTs), virtual immersive storefronts and play-to-earn features. According to Naren Ravula, VP and Head of product strategy and deployment at Flipkart Labs, “We are in the early days of a paradigm shift from Web2.0 to Web3.0 and this evolution of the web/internet built on the concepts of decentralisation, openness, and greater user utility will have a profound impact across many areas including e-commerce," https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-28/walmart-backed-flipkart-to-test-web-3-0-metaverse-expansion

The Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA), Belgium's financial regulatory agency, has issued a new rule that requires crypto exchanges and custodial wallet services in the region to register by May 1st. Existing Service providers have until June to notify the regulator about the “exercise of their activity”, under the law which was finalised in February. Furthermore, these service providers will be required to formally register as Virtual Asset Service Providers before Sept 1st. https://cointelegraph.com/news/belgian-financial-regulator-fsma-to-regulate-crypto-exchange-services

According to a recent post by Yuga Labs, the team has decided against going with a Dutch auction mechanism for their upcoming Metaverse land sales. Instead, the auction which is scheduled for 9 pm ET this Saturday will now follow a flat-price sale model. Each of the land NFTs called ‘Otherdeed’ will now retail for 305 Apecoin (APE). That’s roughly around $6,900 per Otherdeed. A total of 55,000 Otherdeeds will be available for minting from wallets that have passed the KYC verification process. According to the blog post, “NFT ‘Dutch auctions’ are actually bull****. They do not successfully mediate demand, nor do they really negate gas wars in highly-anticipated mints.” https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/144298/yuga-labss-otherside-scraps-dutch-style-auction-for-nft-sale/

According to recent reports, Binance has recently shut down accounts of many individuals with personal ties to senior Kremlin Officials. Individuals who have been blocked by Binance include ‘Polina Kovaleva’ who is the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s stepdaughter and ‘Elizaveta Peskova’, who is the daughter of the President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov. The son of Konstantin Malofeev, a Russian oligarch who was indicted by the US Department of Justice for breaking US sanctions, has also been blocked by Binance, as the exchange continues to look for users with ties to sanctioned persons. https://cointelegraph.com/news/binance-blocks-crypto-accounts-of-relatives-tied-to-the-russian-government

Panama approved a bill regulating the use of cryptocurrencies in the country. The bill sponsored by Panamanian Congressman Gabriel Silva passed on Thursday and seeks to regulate the trading and use of crypto-assets, the issuance of digital value, tokenisation of precious metals and other assets, and payment systems among many others. While Panama hasn’t formally recognised Bitcoin as legal tender, the new legislation allows for the free use of crypto as means of payment for any transaction. This means that businesses and individuals retain the right to accept or refuse payments in crypto. The law also formally recognises Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs) as legal entities and sets the framework for the country to issue tokenised securities and commodities, like gold and silver, via security token offerings (STOs). The bill just needs to be signed by the country’s president before it comes into force. https://decrypt.co/98962/panama-regulate-bitcoin-crypto-daos

According to a recent tweet by blockchain security firm PeckShield, Deus Finance has suffered a flash loan exploit on the Fantom Network which netted the attacker roughly $13.4 million in crypto assets. The attacker took advantage of a flash loan to fool Deus' smart contracts into reading data from the platform's liquidity pools. This allowed the attacker to raise the value of some assets artificially, borrow funds, and profit after repaying the loan. This is the second exploit faced by Deus Finance in the past two months. Flash loans, first introduced by DeFi lending platform Aave, were intended for arbitrage trading and capital efficiency. However, hackers have taken use of them to corrupt DeFi price data feeds (oracles) and carry out exploits. https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/143969/deus-finance-flash-loan-exploit-nets-hacker-13-million/

It seems like Wall Street gets deeper into crypto with each passing day. In what can only be deemed bullish for the ecosystem, Goldman has offered its first loan facility backed by bitcoin. This means that crypto investors can now borrow fiat money from Goldman using their bitcoin holdings as collateral. This is the first time in Goldman Sachs' history, that such a product has been offered. According to a spokesperson from Goldman, the most interesting part of the facility was its structure and round the clock 24-7-365-day risk management system. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-28/goldman-offers-its-first-bitcoin-backed-loan-in-crypto-push

The Digital Commodity Exchange Act of 2022 (DCEA) proposed by a bipartisan group of US lawmakers aims to grant the Commodity and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) greater influence and control over the crypto spot market. The bill would define "digital commodity" and empower the CFTC to regulate corporations that issue or allow consumers to trade these sorts of tokens, while the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would continue to regulate tokens that are subject to US securities regulations. According to the bill, "The term 'digital commodity' means any form of fungible intangible personal property that can be exclusively possessed and transferred person to person without necessary reliance on an intermediary," These digital commodities can only be traded on CFTC-registered exchanges. Equity, debt interests, and securities are expressly excluded from being included within the definition of a digital commodity. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2022/04/28/us-lawmakers-reintroduce-bill-to-give-cftc-crypto-spot-market-oversight/

Evmos (formerly Ethermint), a proof-of-stake EVM compatible blockchain built using the Cosmos SDK is finally live on the Cosmos Network after nearly 6 years of development. Evmos first went live in late March, but it quickly ran into a number of issues, including difficulties claiming airdrops. The development team recovered confidence after tidying things up and adding a few features, including the establishment of a new dashboard to assist with staking, governance, and claiming airdrops. According to Evmos founder Federico Kunze Küllmer, “We decided as a community of validators and on the core team to just take a step back and try it again once we have everything sorted out.” https://www.coinbureau.com/news/cosmos-evmos-goes-live-on-ethereum-network/

According to an announcement by ‘The Open Network’ (TON), a decentralised blockchain initially designed by Telegram and abandoned by the platform in mid-2020, users of the messaging app can now send each other crypto via a new telegram wallet bot. The "wallet" bot's initial release would allow users to send and receive Toncoins with no transaction costs, according to the developers. Users can also use their bank cards to buy Bitcoin and Toncoins through the wallet. They can then transmit Bitcoin (BTC) or Toncoin to other users by clicking on the "Wallet" symbol in direct messaging. https://cointelegraph.com/news/telegram-wallet-bot-enables-users-to-send-crypto-in-app-via-revived-blockchain-project

That being said... NATO isn't 100% clean here either: They acted shady, but no written accord was broken. I'll quote a good article from Spiegel:

This is really sad, but to be honest Ukraine didn’t have a choice. The government really wanted to hold onto the nuclear bombs, but they wouldn’t receive western funding unless they got rid of them, which is what they really needed as a country that just emerged from the rubbles of the Soviet Union. Belarus and Kazakhstan were also potential nuclear powers, but they immediately gave up their bombs. Plus the bombs were too expensive to properly maintain so there wasn’t much use of them anyways.

This happened when Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan signed The Budapest Memorandum, which brought Ukraine into the global Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Russia, the US and Britain also signed this document which promised none of these countries would invade Ukraine and respect its sovereignties and existing borders while also giving them political independence. The Memorandum stated: “Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America reaffirm their obligation to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine.” The document added that Russia, the US and Britain also wouldn’t use economic coercion tactics against Ukraine either.

Sunday is expected to be the hottest day with temperatures close to or above 50° Celsius. That’s 122 F for us Americans.

My Dinner with Andre (1981) directed by Louis Malle

This comes after President Biden agreed to send Ukraine another $800 million in weapons, responding to President Zelenskyy’s urgent call.

No exchange will be able to do to Bitcoin what the LME did above And why do the buyers of Gold, Silver, Platinum etc....not easily see how they are in the same position as the nickel traders in the video above? mind blowing. Get out of the corrupt markets, Get out of cash settled fake "bitcoin" etfs, bonds, MBS backed residential RE and stocks.....and get into something solidly based on math where the exchanges cannot just erase a day's worth of trades and "reset" the market for a losing big player.

Now to see how this could become an even larger scandal.... replace the word Nickel above with Silver and/or Gold.

You would typically do it through an exchange like Robinhood app or Coinbase. Although there are many who believe it is best to exchange the bitcoin with someone directly for cash. You transfer your bitcoin to that person and they hand over the cash to you. I think localbitcoin.com or something like that facilitates that type of exchange.

According to Coinbase CEO, Brian Armstrong: “Coinbase’s role here is going to be in a very long-term game. We’re making a long-term investment… We know it’s not going to be a straight shot to bring this technology (in the region). We don’t know exactly how it’s going to evolve but we’re committed to working with bank partners, regulators, most importantly, the Indian people because they showed a real spark of interest in cryptocurrency and there’s a real desire to get access to some of these services and products.” The news comes shortly after Armstrong announced a massive Coinbase hiring spree that will see the exchange’s workforce quadruple with a new 1,000 workers. It has also been revealed that Coinbase Ventures has already deployed $150 million into Indian cryptocurrency start-ups. “constantly identifying new opportunities to help Indian founders scale.” The news comes amidst growing concern from the blockchain community about stringent tax obligations being imposed on crypto users and investors in the Asian country. New tax regulations are imposing a 30% income tax on crypto and other, perhaps more, frightening taxes could be on the way. That said, Coinbase global chief of product, Surojit Chatterjee, is not deterred: “We are very happy that the Indian government has been looking at digital assets very closely and they have clarified a few things that virtually digital assets are not tenders, they’re not competing with digital rupee.” https://www.coinbureau.com/news/british-banking-giant-hsbc-offers-wealthiest-clients-new-metaverse-fund/