Uzbek officials have begun awarding regulatory permissions to local crypto service providers as the country prepares to implement a new cryptocurrency framework in 2023. This adoption is expected to take place in 2023.
According to an official declaration that was made public on November 17, the National Agency for Perspective Projects (NAPP), which serves as the primary cryptocurrency market regulator in Uzbekistan, has completed the distribution of the first crypto licenses in the country.
Both Crypto Trade NET LLC and Crypto Market LLC, both of which are referred to as “cryptocurrency stores,” have received licenses that formally permit them to provide services connected to cryptocurrencies.
Tashkent is listed as the location of operations for both Crypto Trade NET and Crypto Market in the data obtained from the electronic license registration maintained by the NAPP.
Behzod Achilov is not only the owner of Crypto Trade NET, but he is also the company’s only creator.
At the time this article was written, none of the platforms seemed to have a website that was actively being updated.
According to the statement made by the NAPP, the two firms have been granted licenses in accordance with the presidential decree that was published in April 2022. This decree provides standards for the circulation of crypto assets inside Uzbekistan.
The announcement comes not long after the government of Uzbekistan restricted access to a number of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges on the grounds that they had the appropriate licenses to provide cryptocurrency trading services.
After making the announcement of the measures in August 2022, the NAPP seems to have removed that statement since then.
The most recent licenses are issued at a time when Uzbekistan is making strenuous efforts to develop a new crypto regulatory framework within the next few months.
Only cryptocurrency companies that have been granted licenses by the government of Uzbekistan will be permitted to provide their services to inhabitants of that country beginning on January 1, 2023.
After a blogger tweeted that users reported being unable to withdraw funds for over a week, CoinList, a cryptocurrency exchange and Initial Coin Offering (ICO) platform, took to Twitter to address “FUD” This came after the blogger tweeted that the situation had sparked fears that the company was having liquidity issues or was insolvent.
A blogger who focuses on cryptocurrency named Colin Wu tweeted earlier to his audience of 245,000 people that “some community members” who use CoinList have been unable to withdraw for more than a week because of maintenance.
It is likely that the fact that CoinList has a creditor claim for $35 million with the defunct cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, which Wu referred to in his tweet as a “loss,” sparked concerns that the company was either insolvent or illiquid.
In an effort to allay the concerns that have led to bank runs on other platforms, CoinList has explained that it is in the process of upgrading its internal systems and migrating wallet addresses to “multiple custodians”
Its status page indicates “degraded performance” for withdrawals, as four cryptocurrencies have been inaccessible for withdrawal since November 15, and one cryptocurrency has experienced delayed deposits since November 16.
According to CoinList’s statement, “Once again, this is purely a technical issue, not a liquidity crunch,”
It asserted that it holds “all user assets dollar for dollar” and mentioned that it intends to publish its proof of reserves at some point in the future.
However, users are becoming increasingly anxious about centralized platforms and have rushed to ensure safe custody of their assets, as evidenced by the surge in sales reported in the middle of November by hardware wallet providers Trezor and Ledger. CoinList stated on November 14 that it did not have any exposure to the FTX exchange, which has since gone bankrupt.
At approximately the same time, the amount of Bitcoin and stablecoins that were withdrawn from exchanges reached all-time highs, and a concomitant increase in activity was observed on decentralized exchanges.
The Ethereum Foundation made the announcement on November 24 that the developers working on the platform had reached a consensus on eight Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIP) to investigate as part of the Shanghai update. This update is the next major upgrade following the Merge and the transition to proof-of-stake consensus.
Beacon Chain staked Ether (ETH) is scheduled to be unlocked as one of the primary features that are anticipated to be included in the Shanghai hard fork. This will make it possible for the assets to be withdrawn along with the upgrade, which means that users who had staked Ethereum prior to the Merge will be able to access those tokens in addition to any other rewards that may be available.
According to a prior roadmap, unlocked ETH was supposed to become available between 6 and 12 months following the Merge.
One of the ideas that was accepted is known as EIP 4844. This proposal focuses on using proto-danksharding technology, and it is anticipated that it would increase network throughput while simultaneously reducing transaction costs, which will be a big gain for scalability.
Other EIPs, such as EIP 3540, EIP 3670, EIP 4200, EIP 4570, and EIP 5450, deal with the modernization of Ethereum Virtual Machines.
One of the most-anticipated updates for the community is the Shanghai testnet version, which was given the name Shandong and went live on October 18. This version enables developers to work on implementations such as the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) object format. This update is one of the most-anticipated updates because it separates coding from data, which may be beneficial for on-chain validators.
According to a blog post published by a worldwide organization on November 22nd, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is advocating for more regulation of crypto exchanges in Africa, which is one of the markets with the highest growth rate in the world.
The collapse of FTX and the subsequent effect it had on the prices of cryptocurrencies is “prompting renewed calls for greater consumer protection and regulation of the crypto industry. ” according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), one of the reasons why countries in the region should embrace regulation. The IMF cited this as one of the reasons why countries in the region should embrace regulation.
In addition, the authors claim that “risks from crypto assets are evident” and that “it’s time to regulate” in order to establish a balance between avoiding risk and making the most of innovation.
The article, which is based on the Regional Economic Outlook for sub-Saharan Africa for October 2022, warns that “risks are much greater if crypto is adopted as legal tender” which poses a danger to public finances if governments accept crypto as a form of payment.
According to the statistics provided by the IMF, just one quarter of the nations located in sub-Saharan Africa have explicitly controlled cryptocurrencies, while the remaining two thirds have adopted certain limitations.
On the other side, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and the Republic of the Congo have already prohibited the use of crypto assets. This accounts for twenty percent of the nations that are located in the sub-Saharan region.
The biggest concentrations of users may be found in the countries of Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa.
According to statistics provided by the analytics company Chainalysis, the value of Africa’s cryptocurrency market surged by more than 1,200% between July 2020 and June 2021. The growth was driven mostly by increasing adoption in Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, and Tanzania.
According to a report by Cointelegraph, Ghana is conducting tests for a digital currency that would be issued by the central bank (CBDC).
In Chainalysis’ Global Crypto Acceptance Index, Kenya and Nigeria were placed 11th and 19th respectively. Ghana has the potential to attain levels of cryptocurrency adoption comparable to those of Kenya and Nigeria.
According to a report that was published on November 24 by the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), many of the central bankers on the African continent have greater faith in CBDC than mobile money, which has been a strong competitor to central bank digital currency (CBDC) in Africa. Mobile money has been a strong competitor to CBDC in Africa.
According to the BIS, central bankers in Africa saw greater utility in CBDC for the implementation of monetary policy than bankers in other parts of the world did.
In response to the survey that served as the foundation for the report, nineteen different central banks in Africa gave their responses, and all of them indicated that they had an active interest in CBDC.
Only Nigeria has issued a retail CBDC, called the eNaira, which is intended for use by the general public. Ghana is currently in the process of piloting a retail CBDC project, and South Africa is in the process of running a project for a wholesale CBDC, which is intended for use by institutions.
The provision of cash was listed as a major motivation for the introduction of a CBDC by African central bankers in the responses of 48 percent of survey participants.
They believed that a CBDC would result in cost savings regarding the printing, transportation, and storage of banknotes and coins.
All respondents made mention of the importance of financial inclusion.
In the year 2021, less than half of Africa’s adult population had their DNA banked.
Two-thirds of the world’s total volume of money transfers come from sub-Saharan Africa, and more than half of all users are located there.
According to the findings of the report, the participation of CBDC in this market may result in increased competition and decreased prices.
“support new digital technologies and their integration with the broader economy.” would be one of the goals of a CBDC.
On November 24, Ardana, a renowned decentralized finance (DeFi) and stablecoin ecosystem that was built on Cardano (ADA), abruptly halted development. They justified their choice by saying that there was “funding and project timeline uncertainty.”
However, Ardana Labs will maintain any remaining funds and treasury balances in its control “until another competent dev team in the community comes forward to continue our work.” The source code for the project will continue to be accessible to anybody who wants to build with it.
The news was made in an abrupt manner, which led many individuals to be taken aback. As a result, the decision came as a surprise to many people.
On the other hand, it would seem that issues have been there for a substantial length of time prior to this point.
Since the fourth of July, Ardana has been conducting what is often referred to as an initial stake pool offering (ISPO) in order to raise capital for its business activities.
Instead of the ADA being donated to the developers by the users, the incentives for staking are given to the developers themselves. This is in contrast to the traditional methods of fund-raising, which allocate the ADA to the developers.
The fact that users are awarded DANA tokens, which are fundamental to the operation of the platform, as a reward for delegating creates an incentive for them to continue doing this action.
Unfortunately, issues have arisen for ISPO issuers as a result of the simultaneous decline in price of DANA and ADA, as well as the falling returns obtained from staking Cardano as a result of the current crypto winter. Both of these phenomena are a direct result of the current state of the cryptocurrency market.
The value of Ardana’s native DANA coins has dropped by more than 99.85 percent during the course of the last year.
A updated privacy policy agreement was issued by ConsenSys on November 23. The agreement states that beginning on that date, MetaMask would begin collecting the Ethereum wallet addresses and IP addresses of its customers whenever on-chain transactions take place.
However, ConsenSys, the company that developed the wallet, clarifies that the gathering of users’ data will only take place if the users utilize the Infura Remote Procedure Call (RPC) program that is included with MetaMask by default.
People that run their own Ethereum node or use a third-party RPC provider in conjunction with MetaMask are exempt from the recently revised ConsenSys privacy policy since they do not use the service.
Instead, you are subject to the conditions of the other RPC provider.
According to ConsenSys, the information that is gathered in this manner may be disclosed to affiliates, while conducting business deals, or in order to comply with requirements dictating Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering by law enforcement. These requirements may be imposed by law enforcement.
With more than 21 million users actively using the platform on a monthly basis, MetaMask is presently one of the most popular self-custody wallets available on the market.
While this was going on, Hayden Adams, the man who invented the Uniswap protocol, was responding to questions by explaining that the decentralized exchange does not monitor IPs and does not let third-party tools on the platform to do so either.
ConsenSys has joined the ranks of other big Web 3 firms like Coinbase that have implemented IP collecting in part owing to the increasingly rigorous laws in the industry.
The digital bank Starling, which is situated in the United Kingdom, is the most recent financial institution to prohibit its cardholders from engaging in any transactions or activities linked to cryptocurrencies.
Customers of Starling will no longer be able to make purchases of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) or receive inbound transfers from crypto exchanges or shops accepting Bitcoin as payment.
The online bank made the announcement to its clients as well as on Twitter, citing the high perceived risks associated with cryptocurrency trading as the reason for the decision.
The bank took these steps in the midst of an ongoing crisis in the cryptocurrency business involving FTX, one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world, which is accused of misappropriating customer cash together with its sister company, Alameda.
According to the documents filed by FTX in its bankruptcy proceeding, the company owes more than $3 billion to its 50 largest creditors, and the total number of investors who are creditors is apparently above 1 million.
This is not the first time that Starling has implemented limits on activities linked to cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.
In May 2021, the bank temporarily blocked payments to cryptocurrency exchanges due to similar concerns. The bank cited “high levels of suspected financial crime with payments to some cryptocurrency exchanges.” as the reason for the temporary stoppage.
The ban comes only a few weeks after Santander UK restricted client contributions to cryptocurrency exchanges to a maximum of 1,000 British pounds ($1,196) per transaction and 3,000 British pounds ($3,588) overall per month.
According to recent reports, a number of other British banks have fully barred transactions relating to cryptocurrencies.
In June of 2017, TSB bank restricted the ability of its 5.4 million clients to purchase bitcoin.
It has been claimed that the authorities in Singapore are looking into allegations of cheating and fraud involving the cryptocurrency lender Hodlnaut.
There were multiple complaints lodged against the platform between the months of August and November 2022, according to reports that were published in the local media. As a result of these complaints, the commercial affairs department of the police department has opened an investigation into the founders of the exchange.
The bulk of complaints, according to the Singapore authorities, focus on deceptive claims and misinformation about the company’s exposure to a particular digital token.
Investors who were adversely affected by the Hodlnaut problem were also instructed by the police to register a complaint online and present verified evidence of their transaction histories on the site.
The cryptocurrency lending platform showed the first symptoms of difficulty on August 8, when it temporarily halted withdrawals on the site, claiming a liquidity shortage as the reason.
At the time, the platform said that they had no exposure to the algorithmic Terra stablecoin, which has since been discontinued and is now known as TerraUSD Classic (USTC).
On-chain data, however, contradicted the assertions made by crypto lenders and revealed that they possessed at least $150 million dollars worth of USTC.
In October, a court report provided more evidence that the data stored on the chain were accurate.
According to the article, the cryptocurrency lender suffered a loss of around $190 million as a result of Terra’s collapse. Subsequently, in order to conceal their level of risk, they destroyed thousands of papers linked to their investments.
After the collapse of the Terra ecosystem, Hodlnaut was able to keep its exposure to USTC a secret for almost three months. However, it eventually fell victim to the liquidity crunch, which forced the company to seek judicial management, during which a court appointed a new interim CEO for the company.
After a delay of three months, the directors of the company are now the subject of an investigation by the police for failing to keep the users informed.
In August, the cryptocurrency lender said that it was working on a strategy to restructure in the hopes that it would soon be able to resume operations.
BinaryX has confirmed that it is working on a new free-to-play, play-to-own game, CyberLand, an open-world MMO powered by blockchain technology. The team just released the concept video which gives a first look of the terrains and features of the game.
Free-to-play, Play-to-Own
CyberLand marks BinaryX’s official transition away from play-to-earn models, and is their first-ever play-to-own game in the metaverse. As a play-to-own game, players have a high degree of freedom in resource production. Players can choose to develop their own assets, construct their own buildings and farm their own products and materials to build their empire. These assets can also be fully traded on the open market.
The team wanted to make a game that is not only visually impressive and entertaining to play, but also lets players create value incrementally, so that players can feel a greater sense of ownership and be able to enjoy the game for much longer than the typical Web3 games.
The Story of CyberLand
The player’s journey in the game begins in a pristine open world with rich natural resources. The player must then explore the vast lands to find resources, invent technologies and develop their land to survive, and eventually build an empire. The game is similar to traditional 4X strategy games. Players get to write their own stories and determine their own fate within the game.
Players will face off against dangerous monsters within the lands. The stronger the monsters, the more precious the resources. Players must fend against the threat of monsters while collecting resources.
The Four Lands of CyberLand
CyberLand currently consists of four terrains: snowfield, plains, desert, and swamps. Each type of land has its own unique resources and is guarded by different monsters. The resources are not known to the player at the beginning of the game, and it is up to the player to search, mine or hunt their own resources. The name of the game is asset ownership, which means that the player gets to own the land that they purchase as an NFT.
100% Player Driven, Off-chain Trading Economy
The game consists of an in-game trading marketplace which is completely off-chain. All transactions of in-game resources can be completed within the game without incurring any gas fees. They can also be transferred to on-chain assets and can be traded on DEXes and CEXes respectively.
The marketplace is also completely player-driven, which means players can trade their land on the marketplace, and determine prices of land and resources by selling the goods they produce from their land in the marketplace. The game also mimics the actual trading economy in a peer-to-peer marketplace, where the supply and demand of resources being sold on the market directly affect the prices of resources in the marketplace.
CyberLand will use $BNX as the main native currency. $BNX can be used in the game for buying land, or as a reward from player participation in leaderboard competitions.
Upcoming Features
In preparation for the beta release, the BinaryX team is working on developing more cool features for the game, including introducing SocialFi features where players can create, manage, and upload monetized content on a shared network while expanding their empire.
The team is also working on an on-chain wallet for seamless cryptocurrency transactions within the game, and designing new playable areas and maps for future DLC releases.
“CyberLand is our attempt at making Web3 games bigger and better. The industry has built a bad rep for various reasons, but we hope that CyberLand will be the first of many great games on the Web3 ecosystem. The team is working hard on the beta version of the game so that players can try it and see for themselves the potential of new free-to-play, play-to-own games. We thank everyone in our community for their support and we’re here to stay.” – Chun Sim, Global Head of Business Operations and Development of BinaryX.
Watch the concept video here
About BinaryX
BinaryX is the GameFi platform behind play-to-earn games CyberDragon and CyberChess, both of which run on the BNB chain.
BinaryX began as a decentralised derivative trading system. The team gradually evolved into developing decentralised video games, and is now transitioning to becoming a GameFi platform offering IGO services to bridge Web2 developers to Web3.
As one of the top 10 projects on the BNB Chain, BinaryX has a vast community of more than 100k coin holders and 17K monthly active wallets. It is also one of the largest metaverse projects by trading volume on the BNB chain, with more than 400 million in market cap. BinaryX also has a token, $BNX, that has consistently demonstrated strong performance despite the bear market.
For more details and information about BinaryX, please visit www.binaryx.pro
