April 18, 2022

Crypto likely to be regulated in Brazil by this summer🌎

April 18, 2022

April 18, 2022

EmergingCrypto.io Weekly Update April 10 - April 16

Latin America

Image Credit: Rafaela Biazi vis Unsplash

Crypto likely to be regulated in Brazil by this summer

Last week Brazilian news publication, Valor, reported that the Brazilian government wants to pass a crypto framework to regulate the Brazilian market by this June. However, this does NOT mean that crypto will become legal tender in Brazil like in El Salvador. The proposed law will empower the Brazilian president to determine which regulatory body will be responsible for establishing crypto rules in the country, defining market guidelines, and establishing norms in line with international standards to prevent money laundering and the concealment of assets. This could either be in the form of a new regulator or delegating these functions to Brazil's Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) or the Central Bank of Brazil (BC). Despite the country's high energy costs, the bill seemingly encourages incentives for crypto miners to set up shop in Brazil by offering import tax exemptions on ASIC miners. Needless to say, the Brazilian crypto market has an exciting summer to look forward to. (Read on EmergingCrypto.io; Read on Cointelegraph) 

Latin America's top delivery service app to pilot crypto payments in Mexico

The most popular delivery service in Latin America, Colombian-based Rappi, is working with Bitso and Bitpay to pilot accepting cryptopayments in Mexico. During the pilot-phase crypto will not be accepted directly in the app. However, users will be able to connect their crypto wallets to convert crypto into Rappi credits to be used for any item within the app. Although future plans were not disclosed, it's anticipated that Rappi has ambitious plans to integrate crypto further into its services. Like other emerging markets, enthusiasm for crypto adoption across Latin America is very high. El Salvador was the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, and Venezuela, Argentina, Colombia, and Brazil made the top 20 list in Chainalysis' 2021 Global Crypto Adoption Index. (Read on EmergingCrypto.io; Read on Cointelegraph)

Africa

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The Open Network (TON) blockchain appears to be the likely vehicle for crypto payments in three francophone African countries

Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Republic of the Congo have all announced that they plan to adopt blockchain and crypto based solutions to drive economic growth. It appears that all three of these countries may partner with The Open Network (TON) to implement and deliver blockchain based cryptopayments. As reported by Forbes, each country will launch their own stablecoin on the TON blockchain. However, this WON'T be a central bank digital currency (CBDC). TON is a leading contender because of its high throughput, it can process millions of transactions within seconds; it's decentralized, therefore, censorship resistant; and TON is integrated with the Telegram messaging app, making crypto-based peer-to-peer (P2P) possible. (Read on EmergingCrypto.io; Read on BitcoinKE) 

Cardano-backed African blockchain incubator onboards nine projects

Ariob, the Cardano-backed Africa-focused blockchain incubator has selected nine projects:

 Project

 Focus

 DirectEd

 Education scholarships

 CheCha

 Micro-lending

 CanuckCrypto Ekival

 Hawala system escrow service

 Thrift Finance

 Decentralized savings accounts

 DeliveryChain

 Parcel delivery

 HippoCrades

 Healthcare information   exchange

 WADA

 Micro-lending

 African Blockchain Center for Developers (ABCD)

 Talent development

 Waya Collective

 Manufacturing

Ariob is part of Input Output, the parent organization of Cardano. The incubator is partnering with with iceaddis, a pan-African business incubator, and accelerator. (Read on EmergingCrypto.io; Read on BitcoinKE)

Asia

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The Gulf Cooperation Council anticipates crypto investments in the region to reach up to $500 million USD

The Middle East appears to be looking like the world's crypto oasis, attracting investments and global companies to set up shop due to its friendly regulatory environment. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a regional, intergovernmental, political, and economic union that consists of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), anticipates that crypto investments in the region will reach up to $500 million USD in 2022 alone. The UAE, the GCC's emerging crypto hub, is the digital economy center of the GCC. There are over 1,400 start ups in the UAE and its digital economy contributes to approximately 4.3% of its GDP, equivalent to about $27 billion USD (100 billion dirhams). The emirate has 12 business incubators, 90 investment funds dedicated to the digital sector, and the total value of startups is estimated to be approximately $24 billion USD (90 billion dirhams). (Read on EmergingCrypto.io; Read on UNLOCK Blockchain) 

Volumes plummet on Indian crypto exchanges

Since the 30% crypto tax rule came into effect in India on April 1st, volumes on Indian crypto exchanges declined as high as 70% between April 1st and April 10th according to data from Indian blockchain analytics firm, Crebaco. During this timeframe trading volumes on Binance-owned WazirX, India's leading crypto exchange, dropped from $47.8 million to $13.2 million. Downstream effects of India's new crypto tax rule has impacted local payment processors who've also begun to cut ties with crypto exchanges. What additional impacts India's new crypto tax law will have on the local crypto ecosystem remain to be seen. However, local stakeholders fear that this new tax treatment may stymie further growth in India's thriving crypto economy. (Read on EmergingCrypto.io; Read on Cointelegraph)

Eastern Europe

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Web3 humanitarian aid initiative, Reli3f, raises over $300,000 for Ukrainian charities

Web3 humanitarian aid initiative, Reli3f, launched their second nonfungible token (NFT) collection last week and raised over $300,000 USD for Ukrainian charities. Combined with their first drop, Reli3f has raised over $1.5 million USD for Ukraine. The organization was founded in February of this year by Web3 entrepreneurs Satvik Sethi, Andrew Wang, Giovanni Gussen, Aleksandra Artamonovskaja, Raskalov, and developer SignorCrypto. So far Reli3f has brought together 57 artists from around the world to demonstrate the philanthropic potential of NFTs for social good. (Read on EmergingCrypto.io; Read on Cointelegraph) 

Russian Chamber of Commerce head proposes that Russia use crypto for payments in Africa

Rounding off this week's newsletter, Tass, the state owned Russian news agency, reported last week that the head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) of Russia, Sergei Katyrin, sent a set of proposals to Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin for developing cooperation with African countries. Translated by Google Translate, part of Katyrin's proposals said, "It seems appropriate to instruct the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, together with the Central Bank, to ensure the conclusion of intergovernmental agreements with African states (as agreed) on the use of national currencies and cryptocurrencies in mutual settlements and payments." (Read on EmergingCrypto.io; Read on Cointelegraph)

Thanks for reading and have a great week ahead!