China Unveils Offline SIM Card Wallet for Digital Yuan Payments

Rather than restrict or ban crypto, the Iranian government appears to have taken on a more positive approach, moving towards embracing the new asset class and regulating it.Photo by Lara Jameson on PexelsRegulatory frameworkOn Dec. 7, Iran’s Nour News Agency reported Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Abdolnaser Hemmati as saying that Iran is moving towards managing and eliminating the adverse effects of digital currency on the economy and instead harnessing its positive effects, with a regulatory framework being brought in to ensure that positive outcome. Hemmati went on to confirm that digital money falls under the oversight of Iran’s central bank. The minister stated that he hopes that cryptocurrencies would be developed with the objective of boosting youth employment levels and boosting economic assets held within the Islamic Republic of Iran, while helping to nullify sanctions and aligning Iran’s activities in this respect with the global economy. Circumventing sanctionsThe United States first imposed sanctions against Iran in 1979. The Islamic Republic had been the most sanctioned country in the world up until February 2022 when Russia surpassed Iran due to Western opposition to Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine. Sanctions were lifted in 2016 as part of a deal on the limiting of Iran’s nuclear program. That deal was scrapped during U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s first term in office, with the latest sanctions imposed on entities involved in the transportation of Iranian oil last week. At a BRICS summit held in Kazan, Russia in October, Russia added cryptocurrency to the agenda with a view towards discussing with Iranian and other BRICS country representatives its potential use to bypass sanctions. In July the Bank of Russia set out a recommendation to Russian businesses to use crypto in order to reduce the impact of Western sanctions. Up to $50B in crypto held by IraniansA subsequent report from Nour News Agency on Dec. 8 had good news for Hemmati relative to his aspiration to boost economic assets held within Iran. The report cited Iranian economist Sadegh Alhosseini, who claims that crypto assets to the value of between $30 billion to $50 billion are controlled by Iranians.  The economist provided the estimate after Iranian finance ministry and Central Bank of Iran (CBI) officials outlined that they are looking to make the crypto market in Iran more transparent. If Alhosseini’s estimate is accurate, it would mean that Iranians hold crypto assets to the equivalent value of one-third of the entire gold market in Iran. Alhosseini outlined these findings within a report published by the CBI which provided a summary of proposed upcoming policies relative to cryptocurrencies. The main objective of these proposed policies is to aid crypto traders to remain compliant with anti-money laundering (AML) regulations and local taxation requirements. The CBI has also been working towards launching the digital rial, a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The CBDC project has been running since 2018 and relies upon Hyperledger Fabric, an enterprise blockchain framework that was originally developed by the Linux Foundation. Having been locked out of the SWIFT financial messaging network, Iran has launched ACUMER as an alternative which it hopes to use for trade purposes with Asian partners. Direct payments between Russian and Iranian banking systems have also been enabled. 

Leading crypto exchange OKX has announced the seamless integration of Uniswap Labs' application programming interface (API) into its decentralized exchange (DEX). The objective of the Uniswap addition is to usher in an era of gas-free trading through its innovative feature called "Snap” for OKX service users. Snap trading modeThe company made the announcement by way of a PR Newswire press release on Feb. 29. OKX asserts that Uniswap is one of the most trusted names in DeFi. As part of the integration, the Snap trading mode will be included as a feature on OKX DEX, with the objective of aggregating Uniswap’s liquidity.The feature operates directly on the OKX DEX interface by way of the UniswapX protocol. UniswapX is an immutable smart contract built with the intention to be fully permissionless. The contract cannot be modified or paused by anyone, including Uniswap Labs. Liquidity providers pay the feeIn explaining away the technology, Jason Lau, the chief innovation officer at OKX told Cointelegraph the mechanics behind the no-fee swaps. Lau unveiled a novel model wherein liquidity providers absorb transaction fees on behalf of users. He asserted that this approach not only enhances convenience but also facilitates cost savings for traders. Lau elaborated further, stating: “By agreeing to a price and signing a transaction off-chain, then settling the transaction on-chain, users end up paying no gas fees because the liquidity providers will pay the fee on the user’s behalf.”Photo by Shubham Dhage on UnsplashGoing beyond trading fee reductionAnticipating a positive response from DeFi enthusiasts, Lau highlighted additional features that go beyond transaction fee savings. These include the elimination of slippages, maximum extractable value (MEV) bot attacks and transaction failures, addressing prevalent concerns within the DeFi space.In tandem with the gas-free trading initiative, OKX announced a seamless integration for its wallet users within the Uniswap interface, courtesy of the Multi-Injected Provider Discovery upgrade on Ethereum, based on Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP)-6963. This enhancement extends to all browser extension wallets, enabling OKX wallet users to seamlessly connect with Uniswap, facilitating activities such as cryptocurrency swapping, NFT trading, liquidity pool participation and decentralized application (dApp) development. Positioning this integration as a pivotal addition to their ecosystem, Lau reiterated OKX's commitment to broadening user access to diverse on-chain use cases. He expressed enthusiasm for ongoing development initiatives and urged users to actively contribute feedback for further enhancements. The crypto exchange platform achieved further technical progress recently, with the addition of support for atomicals, runes, doginals and stamps to its Web3 wallet. Providing further detail on these additions last month, the company said that they were part of a "first-to-market" initiative relative to Bitcoin NFTs. Alongside technical advancements like these, earlier this week it emerged that the company was further advancing its market expansion strategy, through the launch of OKX TR, its Turkish platform. With OKX pioneering gas-free trading and bolstering user accessibility to decentralized finance, the convergence of traditional finance and blockchain technology accelerates, indicating an ongoing transformative shift in the crypto space.

Subreddit Token Price Slide Following SurgeReddit’s subreddit community tokens, Moon and Brick, having experienced a remarkable surge in prices last week fueled by a significant increase in trading volume, have taken a downward trajectory, plummeting in price.Photo by Mike Petrucci on UnsplashCrypto.com token listingThe Moon token, associated with Reddit’s r/CryptoCurrency community boasting over 6.5 million members, shot up from approximately $0.09 to nearly $0.58 on July 19, just after Singapore trading platform Crypto.com listed the token.Concurrently, trading volume spiked to around $3 million on Wednesday, marking an impressive boost.Similarly, the Fortnite subreddit community token, Brick, which Crypto.com distributes as a reward to contributors of r/Fortnite, also witnessed a substantial price surge. The token’s value surged from $0.01 on July 17 to approximately $0.10 on July 19, according to data from CoinGecko.Surge acknowledgedIn response to the sudden price surges, Crypto.com released a note early on Monday, acknowledging the surge both tokens had experienced recently. However, in a swift turn of events, both tokens experienced a significant downturn in the past 24 hours, with their prices plummeting by over 20%.As of midday (ET) on Monday, Moon was trading at $0.33, while Brick was valued just under $0.05, as reported by CoinGecko data. Moreover, trading volumes for both tokens have significantly contracted during this period of volatility. Moon’s volume shrank from over $1 million on July 23 to approximately $200,000 on Monday. On the other hand, Brick’s volume saw an even more drastic decrease, falling from approximately $210,000 on July 23 to a mere $26,000 on Monday.Terms of service changeMarket analysts speculate that the recent change in Reddit’s Terms of Service might have been the catalyst for the initial price increases. Reddit’s alteration of its Terms of Service on July 16 to permit users to trade community tokens and avatars potentially triggered the surge in token prices. It appears that Web2 centralized virtual goods such as coins and awards are making way for tradable Web3 community points.Speculating on the token price surge, Bobby Ong, the Co-Founder and COO of Malaysia-headquartered cryptocurrency data aggregator CoinGecko, wrote via Twitter last week: “Both tokens increased at the speculation of the changes coming at Reddit. No one knows exactly what is happening but Reddit deprecating Web2 Coins & Awards while allowing trading of their Web3 CPs could be something to monitor in the coming months.”Despite the recent downturn, the overall crypto space remains highly dynamic and unpredictable. Events such as the listing of tokens on prominent trading platforms can cause rapid price fluctuations. As always, that scenario makes it essential for investors to approach these assets with caution.While Moon and Brick may have encountered a sharp decline, the cryptocurrency market, in general, has proven its resilience and ability to rebound with Bitcoin currently holding a unit price of $29,125. As the market continues to evolve and gain wider acceptance, investors will need to continue to exercise caution and consider the volatility inherent in digital assets.