Revolut will support cryptocurrency staking
According to AltFi, fintech company Revolut is going to add support for cryptocurrency staking as early as this week. The feature will be available to UK customers. It is planned to allow staking of Ethereum, Tezos, Cardano and Polkadot. The yield will vary from 2.99 to 11.65%.
For Revolut, this is a pretty logical step: in April 2022, the company began developing a crypto wallet, in August, it expanded its digital assets team by 20%, and in September, it increased the number of supported cryptocurrencies (though only for US customers). The company’s founder, Nikolai Storonsky, intends to launch his own token through Revolut.
Earlier, Revolut has also launched a cryptocurrency training course. Over a million users have already completed the program in the first month. As a reward for academic progress and successful completion of the final test, students of the course received Dot tokens.
Metaverse creator The Sandbox partners with Saudi Arabia
The collaboration agreement, under which metaverse developer The Sandbox will partner with the Saudi Arabian Digital Government Office, was struck during the LEAP Tech conference in Riyadh. This was stated by the co-founder of the company Sebastian Borge. According to him, the partners plan to “explore, advise and support each other during the activation of the metaverse.” Details of the agreement are not yet available, but Borge intends to provide details “in the nearest future.” However, this is enough for investors: after the publication of the news about the start of collaboration, the SAND project token grew by 25% in just a day. It is no stranger to rapid growth, after all, in January 2023, the coin also grew by 83.9%.
The Sandbox is a relatively new company in the metaverse design services market, but it has already become famous. In November 2021, the project attracted investments in the amount of $93 million, and in April 2022 it closed a funding round of $400 million. The company is currently valued at $4 billion.
The largest bank in Singapore intends to enter the Hong Kong crypto market
DBS Bank is preparing to apply for the license required to provide cryptocurrency services to clients in the new region in order to be able to sell digital assets to Hong Kong clients. This was announced by the head of the local office of the bank, Sebastian Paredes. Among other things, he spoke positively about the easing of regulation of cryptocurrencies in Hong Kong, emphasising that the structure is ready to be one of the first to offer digital assets. The bank already has expertise in this field: in Singapore, it launched a cryptocurrency exchange with all the accompanying functionality.
Hong Kong is already ready to change the legislation: in February 2023, the government announced that it plans to hire specialists to ensure control over the work of virtual asset service providers. Recall that before that, Hong Kong imposed restrictions on the access of individual investors to the cryptocurrency market and offered individuals a list of altcoins that are available for investment. However, after a while, the authorities announced that they were going to legalize the retail trade in cryptocurrency through a compulsory licensing program.
UAE launches national digital currency
The Central Bank of the UAE has announced the release of a national digital currency for cross-border and domestic payments. This will increase the country’s competitiveness as a financial center capable of making payments in any available currency. So says the crown prince of Dubai, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, who intends to turn the city into a “a heaven for crypto enthusiasts.” He plans to make Dubai one of the 10 largest cities in the world in terms of the metaverse economy, add $4 billion to the city’s economy over the next 5 years and create 40,000 virtual jobs.
In addition to digital currency, the financial system transformation program will include a platform for paying for services and goods with cards and a system of instant cashless payments. At the first stage of the program implementation, it is planned to implement nine projects related to digital currencies and ecosystems around them. For example, the country is planning to create a digital asset innovation center and e-Know Your Customer platform that will combat money laundering through cryptocurrencies through user identification. Such a waiver of privacy can be called the main crypto trend of the UAE. More recently, the regulator also banned the issuance of cryptocurrencies with increased anonymity.
Pilot tests of cross-border payments using the national digital currency were carried out in October 2022. They, according to the UAE Central Bank, were successful.
The oldest bank in Brazil introduced the function of paying taxes with cryptocurrency
The National Bank of Brazil, Banco do Brasil, together with the fintech startup Bitfy, has integrated the opportunity to pay taxes through digital assets into the payment system. This is most likely why the bank’s venture capital arm previously invested in the Bitfy startup. Now the bank’s customers can use its application to convert cryptocurrencies into reals and pay their taxes through this tool. Bitfy CEO Lukas Schoch is confident that the partnership with Banco do Brasil will expand access to the digital asset ecosystem to national coverage. Now the bank is considered the flagship of the implementation of cryptocurrency services in financial systems in South America.
The head of the Brazilian Central Bank, Roberto Campos Neto, previously said that the country plans to issue a national digital currency in 2024. This will happen after the implementation of a pilot program launched jointly with financial institutions. Recall that at the end of 2022, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro gave bitcoin the right to be considered a means of payment and an investment asset.