The Friday Focus: Issue 22

Feb 25, 2022

Welcome to our Friday newsletter. Here you find the most exciting crypto content from the previous week - curated for you by us.

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Weekly happenings

Although business has continued as usual in the crypto industry, this week's focus has been on Ukraine as Russia invaded the country. The invasion has led to an increased focus on Bitcoin, as people use it for donations to Ukraine, while some speculate that Russia might utilize it to surpass US sanctions.

The crypto capital market keeps showing strength. Crypto-powered wireless network Helium raises $200M at a $1.2B valuation, and Luna foundation Guard raises $1B to form a bitcoin reserve for the UST stablecoin.

Tradfi firms continue diving into crypto. The NYSE parent company ICE takes a stake in tZERO in a potential move towards tokenized stocks. At the same time, the London Stock Exchange Group buys fintech firm TORA for $325M, potentially to provide NFT trading, in a similar move as NYSE the previous week.

FTX continues its relentless business expansion by moving into two new industries: gaming and fashion. The Chinese crypto exchange Huobi is also active on the business development side, planning a US expansion. The US market proves to be extremely strong, as Block's Cash App reports a record-quarter in terms of Bitcoin revenue.

The unfortunate regulatory developments continue in the EU and on federal levels in North America. In the EU, they talk about banning proof-of-work mining. At the same time, a regulator in Canada warned CEOs of crypto exchanges against recommending users to keep coins in non-custodial wallets.

Regulators in Latin America and on the American state level continue showing more favorable attitudes towards crypto. A Mexican senator plans to introduce a bill to make Bitcoin legal tender, and two American states propose tax cuts for bitcoin miners.