9 Out Of 10 Central Banks Globally Are Exploring CBDCs; Spotify Enters Metaverse

According to a survey conducted by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) globally, nine out of 10 central banks are exploring central bank digital currencies (CBDC). It was also found that several banks were either testing or in early development stages regarding retail CBDC apart from wholesale CBDC.
 
Click here to know more about retail and wholesale CBDC.
 
In other news, as per a press release, music streaming company Spotify has announced a partnership with Roblox, a metaverse virtual gaming world, to launch Spotify Island, which will be a sound sanctuary where fans and artists from around the globe can hang out and discover music, quests and unique merchandise.
 
Click here to know more about how Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Grammarly, Audible by Amazon, and other Indian users are facing problems paying for it.
 
Cryptocurrency Prices
 
The global crypto market cap decreased by 1.58 per cent to $1.65 trillion at 8.50 am. The global crypto volume was also down by 15.53 per cent to $97.31 billion, as per Coinmarketcap data. 

"Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $36,000, roughly flat on Friday. The market leader traded with low volatility over the past 24 hours. However, altcoins were comparatively stable. Investors seem to be facing fear of stagflation, or high inflation and slow economic growth, among investors. Over the short term, the fluctuation in price will most likely remain neutral," says Gaurav Dahake, CEO and founder, Bitbns.

Bitcoin (BTC), the world’s oldest cryptocurrency, was trading at $35,965.27, lower by 1.43 per cent in the last 24 hours. Ethereum (ETH) was also trading lower by 2.29 per cent at $2,684.27.
 

Among other major coins, Cardano (ADA) was down by 1.36 per cent at $0.7782, Algorand (ALGO) was, however, trading with a gain of 2.12 per cent at $0.6829 and Binance Coin (BNB) was up by 0.24 per cent at $378.90. But Solana (SOL) was trading with a loss of 3.62 per cent at $81.11, and so was Polkadot (DOT), which was down by 2.13 per cent at $14.17.
 
Today’s top gainer was SafeFloki (SFK), which was up by 637.83 per cent at $0.0000000001773. The top loser was Double-A Chain
(AAC), which was down by 86.76 per cent at $0.001111.
 
Meme Coin And DeFi Prices

Dogecoin (DOGE) was down by 0.13 per cent at $0.1281. Its volume to market cap ratio stands at 0.05005. Rival Shiba Inu (SHIB) was down by 1.39 per cent at $0.00001991.

Dogelon Mars (ELON) lost 2.27 per cent to trade at $0.0000008487, Floki Inu (FLOKI) was up by 0.62 per cent at $0.00001449, and Samoyed Coin (SAMO) was down by 5.58 cent at $0.0122. 

In the DeFi segment, YFI (yearn.finance) was down by 3.39 per cent at $16,628.72, Terra (LUNA) was trading with a loss of 5.68 per cent at $76.51. Avalanche (AVAX) too lost 3.91 per cent at $56.26, Uniswap (UNI) was, however, up by 2.8 per cent to trade at $7.53, and Aave (AAVE) was down by 2.89 per cent to trade at $136.96.
 
 
Latest Updates

The BIS survey said that Covid-19, blockchain stablecoins, and other cryptocurrency developments have accelerated the work on CBDCs. “Both Covid-19 and the emergence of stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies have accelerated the work on CBDCs – especially in advanced economies, where central banks say that financial stability has increased in importance as a motivation for their CBDC involvement,” an excerpt from the said report read.