According to Jerome Powell’s conference calendar, the CEO of Coinbase, Brian Armstrong, met with the Federal Reserve chairman and former House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan to speak about the implications of digital currencies.

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Several Indian banks have reportedly halted services to customers dealing in cryptocurrencies despite the central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), informing them that the banning circular is no longer valid. The latest bank to join the fray is IDFC First Bank.

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The Palestine Monetary Authority is exploring the possibility of issuing its own digital currency. For Palestinians, the minting of a national coin would represent a step, at least a symbolic one, towards achieving monetary independence from the State of Israel.

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The STC Terminal will be launched by the end of July 2021 and will be a major milestone in the wide-scale tokenization of the economy. It will make issuing a token accessible to everyone, including individuals, organizations, corporations, startups and decentralized finance (DeFi) projects.

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The Swiss company TRES Group GmbH is launching an exciting and innovative program aiming at adding a solution to the Climate Change challenge. For several months, the FOSTER project has been under development, which aims to mass plant trees around the world for the benefit of increasing carbon dioxide absorption using blockchain technology.

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Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan has urged her country to be ready for emerging fintech by paving the way for cryptocurrencies. She also urged the country’s central bank to begin the necessary preparations for a step-change in global attitudes towards banking.

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With bitcoin’s popularity rising, a growing number of businesses in Scotland have been introducing cryptocurrency payments. A roofing company from Glasgow now says more and more of its customers, including pensioners, are willing to pay with crypto.

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South Africa’s Intergovernmental Fintech Working Group (IFWG) has a released new position paper that calls for the regulation of the country’s cryptocurrency ecosystem.

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After years of development, Concordium has unveiled its permissionless blockchain and MVP that is designed to meet the needs of enterprises by delivering transparency and governance, all with an orientation towards protecting user privacy.

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Progressive Care, a company that operates a chain of pharmacies in the United States, has announced it’s now accepting cryptocurrency for its Covid-19 rapid testing services. Customers are welcome to pay with bitcoin for the quick tests offered at its Pharmcorx locations using a dedicated QR code.

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Malta-based cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, has reportedly extended its blockade of Zimbabwean users to include non-resident citizens. As a result of the new measures, all Zimbabwean nationals are now precluded from using the Binance trading platform.

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On June 1, Major League Baseball (MLB) reporter David Adler announced the MLB organization established a long-term deal with the digital collectible company Candy Digital. The oldest American professional baseball organization is stepping into the non-fungible token (NFT) collectibles world and will start by launching a Lou Gehrig NFT.

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Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo have shared their policies regarding cryptocurrency before the U.S. Senate banking committee. The three banks are in different stages of offering crypto services to their clients. They also lag behind some of their peers, such as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, in offering access to investments with exposure to bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.

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India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has awarded a young entrepreneur for her cryptocurrency price tracking application while the government is still deliberating on the country’s crypto policies. News.Bitcoin.com caught up with the award recipient to find out more about her app.

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Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and Spacex, has, at last, reaffirmed his cryptocurrency allegiance, after a series of contradictory signals that collaborated with the market plunge this past week.

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China’s push for the digital yuan will boost demand for cryptocurrencies, according to an analyst at BK Asset Management, citing that the Chinese government wants “absolute power” over the wealth and income of its citizens.

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The Indian government is reportedly looking to form a new “panel of experts” to focus on ways to regulate the cryptocurrency industry in the country. “There is a view within the government that the recommendations made by Subhash Garg are dated and a fresh look is needed at use of cryptos rather than a total ban,” local media reported.

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Coinbase shares have dropped in value during the last month after opening at $342 per share. The company’s shares have dropped over 27% to $248 per share since the Nasdaq listing in mid-April. On Monday, the firm further announced intentions to sell $1.25 billion of convertible debt.

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South Korea’s monetary policy regulator, Bank of Korea, plans to obtain documents from financial institutions to track crypto transactions involving bank accounts. Cryptocurrency prices fluctuate independently from the real economy, the bank says, adding that market growth could pose a risk to the country’s financial system.

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The banking subsidiary of the national postal service of Switzerland, Postfinance, has launched a mobile app providing clients with access to cryptocurrencies, ETFs and more. The software allows users to make payments, save funds or invest in various assets, with a commitment to a level of security provided only by the country’s leading online banks.

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The local tax authority could soon hunt tax evaders who trade cryptocurrencies in Argentina following a notice sent to domestic crypto exchanges. The Federal Administration of Public Revenue (AFIP) ordered them to report all virtual currency-related transactions every month.

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Vanda Research has warned of a broad correction in the cryptocurrency market. Ben Onatibia, the firm’s partner and senior strategist, said that the surge in cryptocurrency prices this year is reminiscent of bitcoin’s rally in 2017.

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Swiss investment bank UBS Group is reportedly exploring offering cryptocurrency services to its wealthy clients. UBS joins a growing list of major investment banks that are either already offering or planning to offer crypto investments to their clients, including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Citigroup.

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The Thai government has reportedly imposed a new cryptocurrency requirement. Crypto exchanges will be required to verify users’ identities using a machine that requires the customers to be physically present.

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In early April 2021, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) issued a circular warning Nigerian institutions to stop the practice of rejecting old or lower denomination USD notes. The CBN issued the warning after it became “inundated with complaints from members of the public on the rejection of such notes by banks and other authorized forex dealers.”

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The Turkish government is reportedly creating a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies after two crypto exchanges in the country abruptly halted trading and are now being investigated for fraud. The government is reportedly planning to establish a central custodian bank among other initiatives.

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The covid-19 crisis is worsening every day in India, as the country keeps hitting record daily numbers of cases and its death toll. The crypto community is starting to show solidarity with the country, as big players such as Ethereum co-founder and a well-known investor announced crypto donations to provide support.

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The tax department of the Seoul metropolitan government in South Korea has reportedly seized cryptocurrencies worth about $25 million from hundreds of crypto investors with delinquent taxes. The cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, were seized from three exchanges.

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Blockchain’s underlying decentralized ledger technology has many practical applications, yet, the value of the technology itself has in practice become secondary to token capitalization.

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On Monday, the oracle provider API3 announced a ten-year partnership with the Open Bank Project in order to connect more than 400 banking APIs to blockchain smart contracts using API3’s Airnode. The collaboration between API3 and the Open Bank Project aims to bridge conventional banking with blockchains and Web 3.0 applications.

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