Welcome to this week’s roundup of the top news in crypto from stack.money.
Learn which projects have seen a spike in developer activity. Stack Pro Developer Activity Alerts.
Nigeria to Pass Bill That Recognizes Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies While Brazilian President Signs Crypto Bill Into Law
The Nigerian government will essentially pass a law that can recognize the overall usage of Bitcoin, alongside other cryptocurrencies, as a means to stay up to date with what they call "global practices."
Based on a news report from the Nigerian-based masthead Punch Newspapers on December 18, 2022, an interview with the House of Representatives Committee on Capital Markets Chairman Babangida Ibrahim was conducted.
The report states that if the Investments and Securities Act 2007 (Amendment) Bill is signed into law, it would essentially let the local Securities and Exchange Commission “recognize cryptocurrency and other digital funds as capital for investment.”
]Jair Bolsonaro, the president of Brazil, set to leave office on December 31, 2022, signed a bill that aims to legalize the usage of cryptocurrencies as a payment method within the country.
Through a publication published on December 22, 2022, of the official journal of the federal government of Brazil, Bolsonaro's office said the president had signed bill 14.478 into law following approval from the country's Chamber of Deputies. The bill was sent to the president's desk on November 29 as the final step when it comes to recognizing cryptocurrencies as payment methods.
Visa Explores Allowing Auto Payments Through Ethereum Wallets, Biannca to Replace Tokocrypto CEO and Addresses 7 Instances of Recent Fud
Visa released a proposal that outlines how Ethereum users can set up automatic payments directly from their own non-steroidal wallets.
This can eliminate banks as well as other centralized entities, as a team of researchers and engineers at Visa are working towards evaluating the foundations of various blockchains. These areas include security, scalability, interoperability, privacy, and the usage of different protocols.
Binance Holdings Ltd.’s Indonesian unit has begun cutting jobs and is replacing the top executive after the payment company took full control over it.
The exchange now owns almost 100% of PT Crypto Indonesia Berkat, known as Tokocrypto, and has lifted its shareholding from over 51% two years ago when it made the first investment.
Binance Chief Executive Officer Changpeng Zhao confirmed this news through a post on Twitter.
The Indonesian unit is also reducing the workforce by 58% to cut costs, and will also halt diversification into non-exchange businesses.
Binance also published a post in Chinese to address a total of seven key issues that the company wanted to clear up. They are essentially fighting back against the FUD that they faced throughout the prior weeks.
FTX co-founder Gary Wang, and the former Alameda Research co-CEO Caroline Ellison, pleaded guilty to federal charges in the Southern District of New York. Both the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission released civil complaints against them.
Wang and Ellison became the second and third individuals to get charged in connection to FTX's multi-billion-dollar collapse, following Sam Bankman-Fried, who was indicted in federal court.
However, Sam Bankman-Fried was released on a $250 million bail, following a hearing, after the FTX founder was extradited to the United States. Inner City Press, who was covering the hearing, revealed on Twitter that the bail was the highest ever, with Bankman-Fried already surrendering his passport.
Additionally, FTX Group asked an American bankruptcy judge to essentially intervene in a multinational fight for over $440 million worth of Robinhood Markets Inc. shares tied to Alameda Research.
The Retiring U.S. Senator, Pat Toomey, Introduced the Stablecoin TRUSTAct
One week after delivering his farewell in the U.S. Senate, Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey introduced another form of cryptocurrency legislation.
The Stablecoin TRUST Act, which is an acronym for Transparency of Reserves and Uniform Safe Transaction, is aimed at establishing a federal regulatory framework surrounding payment stablecoins and is designed to guide Congress toward a sensible regulation of cryptocurrencies.
Thanks for reading,
James