Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
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Adoption news
- The crypto platform Crypto.com said on Sunday that rewards with its own CRO token will no longer be offered to Jade Green, Royal Indigo, Frosted Rose Gold, Icy White, and Obsidian cardholders from June 1. “Cardholders who still have an active 6-month stake and who staked before 1 May 2022 13:00 UTC will continue to receive their CRO rewards until the end of their 180-day staking period,” they added. The price of CRO dropped on Sunday, and remains down almost 10% for the past 24 hours as of Monday at 15:00 UTC.
- The Central African Republic, which in late April adopted bitcoin as legal tender, did not inform the central bank in charge of its fiat currency about the decision, Bloomberg reported, citing a spokesperson of the Bank of Central African States.
- The luxury health club Equinox will start accepting crypto payments for membership fees, becoming the first gym in New York City to do so, according to New York Post. The payments will be processed using BitPay, it added.
- The Swiss National Bank is opposed to buying and holding bitcoin (BTC) as part of its reserves, Chairman Thomas Jordan has said, Reuters reported.
Ethereum news
- The price of apecoin (APE), a token used in the Bored Apes Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT community, dropped on Monday after a massively popular sale of virtual land by BAYC creator Yuga Labs over the weekend nearly brought the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain to its knees, as the firm was raising USD 320m through the sale of virtual land related to its metaverse project. Several Twitter users reported instances of Ethereum transaction fees in the thousands of US dollars, including one user who said a USD 3,800 fee was necessary in order to purchase an NFT worth USD 270. According to data from BitInfoCharts, average Ethereum transaction fees remained significantly lower than that, although still high by objective standards at USD 197 on Sunday as a result of the flurry of activity surrounding the land sale. As of Monday at 15:00 UTC, APE was down 6% for the past 24 hours to a price of USD 15.32.
Security news
- Over the weekend, crypto projects Rari Capital and Fei Protocol have suffered a USD 77m hack, and Fei Protocol is now offering a USD 10m bounty to the hackers if they return the funds. “We have identified the root cause and paused all borrowing to mitigate further damage,” Fei Protocol wrote in a tweet on Saturday.
Exchanges news
- Coinbase said that it is changing its asset listing process. From now on, information about a listing will only be published once a decision to list has been made, rather than once an asset is under consideration for listing, as has been the case until now, CEO Brian Armstrong wrote.
Investments news
- Samsung Asset Management is set to list a crypto and blockchain-focused exchange-traded fund (ETF) in Hong Kong in the first half of this year, making it the first crypto ETF to be listed in Asia, The Korea Economic Daily reported.
Regulation news
- The Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement (J5), a five-member group of global tax collection agencies, released a list of red flags relating to non-fungible token (NFT) marketplaces. The document, titled “J5 NFT Marketplace Red Flag Indicators,” is the first of its kind and is intended to protect consumers, J5 said.
