FreeCryptoCurrency.Me

Ondo’s OUSG token, one of the largest on-chain tokenized Treasury products, has accrued $134 million of assets under management on Ethereum.

U.S. commodities regulator CFTC could also bring a case against the crypto lender, Bloomberg reported earlier this month.

The latest price moves in bitcoin (BTC) and crypto markets in context for July 13, 2023. First Mover is CoinDesk’s daily newsletter that contextualizes the latest actions in the crypto markets.

The bank said it sees few positive drivers for the crypto exchange’s share price in the near term.

Data shows most SHIB market depth is under $1 million on various crypto exchanges, and a sell order of that value could move token prices by 2% immediately.

The mood in the options market remains positive even as the cryptocurrency struggles to build upside momentum on the back of a bullish U.S. inflation report.

The Bank for International Settlements’s (BIS) latest survey suggests that there might be a big increase in the number of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) by the end of the decade.

“It may be that there will be 15 retail and nine wholesale CBDCs publicly circulating towards the end of this decade,” said the BIS in a survey released on July 10. This is based on the number of central banks that have indicated they are looking into creating one.

The survey noted there are currently four retail Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) in circulation. These are located in The Bahamas, the Eastern Caribbean states, Jamaica, and Nigeria.

Increased interest in CBDCs

The percentage of central banks likely to issue a retail CBDC in the next three years has risen from 15% to 18%, the survey found. The number of banks planning to issue a wholesale CBDC in the short term has also increased. The report found 16% of central banks will likely issue a wholesale CBDC within the next three years. This is twice as much as last year’s 8%. There’s an upward trend for potential medium-term issuance too, with a rise from 54% to 58%.

These figures suggest central banks are becoming more decisive about their short-term CBDC plans. Central banks from Emerging Market and Developing Economies (EMDE) have a higher likelihood of issuing retail CBDCs compared to Advanced Economies (AE), it noted.

Motives behind CBDC Issuance

The BIS identified improved financial inclusion and payment efficiency as key motivations for issuing retail CBDCs. Central banks in both emerging markets and advanced economies attach equal importance to domestic payment efficiency, payment safety, financial stability, and cross-border payment efficiency, it noted.

The survey stated that nearly 30% of central banks report stablecoin use in their jurisdiction, mainly for remittances. Yet it noted that stablecoins are rarely used for payments outside the crypto market. 

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Wallet, the crypto and payment solution based on The Open Network (TON) and integrated into Telegram, is launching Wallet Pay, enabling Bitcoin, Tether and Toncoin merchant payments on the popular messaging app.

Vendors and Wallet Pay users can use the crypto assets to make instant and secure payments for goods and services. “The smooth and simple payment process requires just a few taps within either the merchant’s bot or web application on Telegram,” a statement provided by the TON Foundation said. 

TON Foundation is a non-commercial group of supporters and contributors behind TON blockchain.

Telegram’s 700 million users

Wallet Pay users don’t have to hold the cryptocurrencies beforehand and can top up their Wallet account using a bank card during the payment process. While Wallet Pay is for transactions between consumers and merchants, peer-to-peer crypto transfers between users are also available in Telegram via the @wallet bot.

The TON Foundation said the integration would enable merchants to tap into Telegram’s vast user community of over 700 million individuals. 

“Various businesses can leverage the Telegram and TON ecosystems by utilizing Wallet Pay’s seamless payment solution,” TON Foundation founding member Andrew Rogozov said in the statement. “By developing and promoting such a frequently demanded functionality, we are taking another step towards the mass adoption of cryptocurrency, which is the core mission of TON.”

Merchants can trial Wallet Pay’s public beta via the Wallet Pay bot or its website, with further updates on scaling and availability of the technology expected soon.

The Open Network was originally designed in 2018 by the founders of Telegram Messenger and later handed over to the TON community to continue its development.

Last month, TON Foundation proposed a burn mechanism for TON network, suggesting a 50% transaction fee burn.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Wallet, which is built on the TON blockchain, is allowing merchants to integrate cryptocurrency into the bots they use to accept payments in the messaging app.

Crypto data firm CCData released the first institutional-grade scoring system that evaluates digital assets focusing on environmental, social and governance aspects.