Crypto Scoop: Ethereum Conducts Final Public Testnet In Anticipation Of Ethereum 2.0

With new intriguing crypto adoption bills and crypto initiatives from tech giants, it's been an eventful week in the crypto space. Will the positive market sentiments drive price increases, ATHs? For now, let's review the highlights of this week:

• Ethereum's final public testnet, Kiln
• Ripple's first of a kind NFT incubation program
• Meta, Stripe's crypto initiatives
• Ukraine's recognition of cryptocurrencies as a legal entity

Ripple launches the first NFT incubation program.

While the SEC vs. Ripple case remains inconclusive, Ripple is moving forward with its crypto initiatives and has launched the world's first NFT incubation program. Ripple's NFT Creator Fund provides innovators the necessary tools, financial support, and connections to possible partners they need to get their NFT ideas off the ground. Creators who want to expand their NFT lines, as well as NFT marketplaces looking for new talent, will be part of the initiative.

The Ripple team has announced that the XRP Ledger features a built-in native token functionality, XLS-20d, that is simple to use. Participants in the first wave of the NFT Creator Fund will use NFT-Devnet, a beta environment that improves XRP Ledger's NFT capabilities. NFT-Devnet, according to Ripple Teams, is designed to allow anyone, regardless of their skill level, to swiftly and efficiently construct NFT projects.

The overall budget of the Creator Fund for the first wave was set at $250 million. The initiative has received approximately 4,000 applications since its inception, with a diverse range of use cases. xPunks, Steven Sebring, and Justin Bua are among the creators, while Mintable, mint NFT, NFT Pro, and Ethernal Labs have joined as marketplaces.

Ukraine legalizes Cryptocurrencies and launches a website for crypto donations

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a new law onn virtual assets which legalizes cryptocurrencies and classifies them as a regulated asset. Virtual assets, on the other hand, are not classified as a payment instrument under the new law.

On Monday, Ukraine's Ministry of Digital Transformation announced the launch of the official "Aid For Ukraine" website, which will gather donations for the Ukrainian armed forces and humanitarian aid programs in the fight against Russia. The crypto contribution platform is a collaboration between Everstake, a staking service provider, and FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange. This is the first time a cryptocurrency exchange has worked directly with a government-run financial institution to facilitate crypto donations.

The Aid For Ukraine website provides cryptocurrency addresses as well as bank account details for donations to the Ukrainian government.  Over  $55 million has been raised on the site to support Ukraine.

US Senators have also proposed a bill that may force cryptocurrency exchanges to sever ties with Russian wallets. The US  Justice Department will also prosecute banks and cryptocurrency exchanges that assist Russians in concealing their assets. The White House and the G7 group of nations will also be working on a policy to prevent the use of cryptocurrencies to evade US sections by Russia. 

Russia’s crypto position during the power tussle

Earlier this year the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) called for a total ban of cryptocurrencies. However, the government had decided against noting that Russia could not be left in global development. However, weeks following its proposed ban and the power tussle between Russia and Ukraine the CBR  is attempting to regulate cryptocurrencies. CBR added Sherbank, one of the largest banking service providers to its register of information system operators for digital financial assets. 

According to CBR, Sherbank runs on a distributed ledger technology which makes it immune to information tampering making it a prime choice. Legal entities on Sberbank will soon be able to issue digital financial statements certifying monetary claims, acquire digital assets allocated in Sberbank’s system, and conduct crypto transactions. However, this might be a difficult feat for Sherbank to achieve as it is currently facing major sanctions from the US.

Following the sanctions, Russians are apparently planning to invest in real estate in the UAE using their cryptocurrencies. According to Reuters, cryptocurrency firms based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been flooded with requests from Russian clients to liquidate billions of dollars worth of digital assets.  Reuter reports that investors are eager to liquidate their holdings because they are afraid of the sanctions. 

UAE presidential adviser Anwar Gargas has however noted that UAE isn’t taking sides as he “believes that taking sides would only lead to more violence,” and their focus was to “encourage all parties to resort to diplomatic action.”

Meta to launch NFTs on Instagram as tech company, Stripe takes an interest in crypto

According to Engadget Senior Editor Karissa Bell, Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, said at a panel at Austin's South by Southwest Festival on Tuesday that NFTs would be launching on Instagram. “We’re working on bringing NFTs to Instagram in the near term," Zuckerberg says, but “ I’m not ready to kind of announce exactly what that’s going to be today.”

According to a report from Financial Times, Meta is currently working on a feature that allows members of both Facebook and Instagram to display NFTs on their profiles. 

Casey Newton of The Verge's Platformer newsletter also reports that, Zuckerberg stated that Instagram users will be able to mint their own non-fungible tokens (NFT) within the app "hopefully" in the coming months.

Financial services firm, Stripe has unveiled a new comprehensive solution for crypto-focused businesses, such as exchanges, wallet providers, and NFT marketplaces. "Not just for pay-ins, but also for payouts, Know Your Customer (KYC) and identity verification, fraud prevention, and plenty more," added co-founder John Collison in a tweet. Stripe will now provide businesses with a fiat payments API interface to handle crypto-to-fiat currency payments.

Terra’s CEO places a $1 million bet on LUNA’s price following critics from skeptics.

Over the last few weeks, Luna has recorded significant growth and awareness in the crypto space. Its recent attention has prompted a Twitter user by the name, Sensei Algod to voice his criticism of the cryptocurrency. 

Sensei explained that he considered Luna a ponzi scheme with no real potential for the long term and as such its price would subsequently drop. He took to his Twitter account challenging, “Who wants to take a $1000000 bet that $luna will be lower in 1 year than now?”  In the tweet, he tagged CEO of Terra blockchain, Do Kwon and other Terra stakeholders.

In response, Do Kwon tweeted, “ I would prefer to ask whatever your net worth is and bet 90%. But maybe this is what that is already.” The has further placed spotlight on Luna, which has been performing above expectations despite the bear market.

Blockchain Platform Launched For Ghanaian Cocoa farmers

Koa, a startup firm, has established a blockchain platform to help Ghanaian farmers boost their earnings. Seedtrace, a German supply chain firm, and MTN Group, a South African telecommunications provider, have joined forces to assist the program. By putting a stop to "scandals and cocoa farmer poverty," Koa says it intends to "promote openness and accountability."

The Conseil du Cafe-Cacao, which supervises cocoa production in Ivory Coast and Ghana, has accused companies like Oreo and Mondelez, the maker of Chips Ahoy, of paying farmers less than a livable wage. Such behaviors, according to Koa, can be eliminated by publicly documenting payment data on a blockchain. Farmers can use the data to track where their products are going and how they are being utilized, while customers can easily trace the origins of the ingredients in their meals and check that the farmers were adequately compensated for their efforts.