Brazil legalizing cryptocurrencies & Telegram is planning its own cryptocurrency exchange

This week crypto investors have been talking about Telegram’s upcoming cryptocurrency exchange, Brazil’s plans on legalizing cryptocurrencies, OpenSea creator earnings, and the small Bitcoin boom in the middle of the bear market.

This is what the crypto world is talking about right now.

Brazil legalizing cryptocurrencies

In Brazil, a new cryptocurrency law has passed. The new law would allow cryptocurrencies to be a legalized payment method throughout the country.

It will significantly promote the use of cryptocurrencies. The new law is not yet in force; it must be approved by the state president before implementation.

Brazil’s legislative advances are not necessarily comparable to the strides made by El Salvador and Nayib Bukele, who have made Bitcoin a legal means of payment and invested significant government money in it. However, it is a very nice milestone for the global adaptation of cryptocurrencies.

The new law enacted in Brazil still does not make cryptocurrencies a legal means of payment, but it allows the use of digital currencies as a means of payment under the control of the central bank.

In addition to paying with cryptocurrencies, the law includes the possibility to issue licenses for various cryptocurrency exchanges, and companies focused on cryptocurrency management. By law, exchanges must also clearly separate the user’s and the exchange’s own funds to avoid an event like the FTX collapse.

Telegram is planning its own crypto exchange

The messaging application Telegram is planning its own decentralized cryptocurrency exchange and building cryptocurrency wallets. In November, we reported that Telegram has also launched a blockchain-based auction platform, Fragment. Telegram has already sold unique usernames to people for 50 million US dollars through Fragment.

The Fragment project, discontinued earlier in 2020 by the company’s CEO Pavel Durov, was now resumed. Due to the solid success of Fragment, Durov aims to develop Telegram’s blockchain technology further.

The development of the Fragment project continues in Telegram’s open network. Durov has said that the company’s goal is to build a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange, as well as the possibility of using a cryptocurrency wallet inside Telegram.

The news is significant, as Telegram is a popular application, especially among crypto investors. One of the drivers of Telegram’s popularity lies in privacy, which is increasingly important to many users these days.

Durov has stressed that the reason behind Telegram’s development is to change an overly focused application. The comment refers to the recently collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which many are now suffering from.

What is a decentralized exchange?

Decentralized exchanges, or DEXs, are blockchain-based applications that organize large-scale cryptocurrency trading between multiple users. They are based on open-source code and operate using fully automated smart contracts rather than being monitored and controlled by the developer.

Decentralized exchanges are the most important services of decentralized finance, i.e., DeFi. The user does not need to fill in KYC forms or create a profile for the decentralized exchange – identification is easily done directly from the crypto wallet.

In a decentralized exchange, you use peer-to-peer trading, so trading takes place with other investors.

Bitcoin is being acquired at a record pace

Cryptocurrency wallets that hold a maximum of 10 Bitcoins have acquired Bitcoin at a record pace in recent times. This tells us that investor faith seems to be recovering, and the tougher times may be slowly changing for the better.

According to Glassnode, two groups, in particular, have increased their Bitcoin holdings recently:

• Investors with less than 1 BTC
• Investors with up to 10 BTC

The holdings of the group with less than 1 Bitcoin totaled 1.21 million, i.e., 6.3 % of the Bitcoin in circulation. During November, the combined amount of the group increased by a good 96,000 Bitcoins.

Individuals holding up to 10 Bitcoins bought around 191,000 Bitcoins in November, which is also an impressive figure. The previous peak for this investor group was in July 2022, when it bought a total of 126,000 Bitcoins. Now investors have been significantly more active.

Increasing the holdings of smaller owners is of interest, considering the recent news in the crypto world.

OpenSea creators have earned more than a billion dollars in 2022

According to OpenSea, creators on the platform have received more than $1.1 billion in royalties during 2022. 

For developers of NFT projects, this number means great opportunities. Although the market has been struggling this year, the future seems brighter. Before 2018, NFT producers did not receive royalties, and OpenSea has enabled new players to enter the market.

OpenSea’s analysts were themselves surprised by the high royalty figures. The decentralized marketplace has been able to offer producers the opportunity to earn better rewards than centralized services.

Compared to centralized services, the number is high. TikTok promised in 2020 that it would pay content creators a billion dollars in fees over 3 years.

Snapchat paid its producers hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Over the course of nine years, Patreon has paid its creators a total of $3.5 billion in fees.

OpenSea is constantly developing tools that help producers get more out of their art. For example, NFT art built on the basis of smart contracts enables continuous royalties for the original content creator when the art is sold on.

Gaming giant announces a $2 billion fund for the metaverse

Hong Kong-based blockchain gaming giant Animoca Brands has announced a $2 billion fund for the metaverse. The company plans to use the fund to invest in companies related to the metaverse.

The company’s founder, Yat Siu, revealed that the future metaverse fund plans to make its first investments in early 2023. Investments mainly focus on owning digital products. The company is also investigating Web3-focused companies. There are no geographical restrictions on the fund’s investment targets.

Animoca Brand is among the most promising investors in NFTs, blockchain gaming, and metaverse-related companies. The company’s portfolio includes more than 380 different investments, such as Colossal, Axie Infinity, Open Sea, Dapper Labs, and many others.

Stay in the loop of the latest crypto events

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• Web3 in Slush & El Salvador continues BTC purchases

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