Hungary’s Central Bank Governor says all crypto-related activities should be banned in EU as it can lead to illicit funding. Uber open to cryptos if “pre-existing problems” such as high fees are solved.
Governor of Hungary’s Central Bank György Matolcsy has called for a total ban on cryptocurrencies and related activities as he feels it can be used to fund illicit activities in the European Union (EU). Meanwhile, Uber Technologies CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in an interview with Bloomberg that his company is open to crypto adoption if certain pre-existing problems were solved.
The global crypto markets have crashed heavily amid reports of a 40-year high US inflation which might force the US Federal Bank to stop the fiscal stimulus and, hence, drive the excess liquidity in various asset classes. The global crypto market cap declined by 10.61 per cent at $1.75 trillion. The crypto trading volume too dried up and at 8.27 am was down by 42.16 per cent at $66.07 billion, as per Coinmarketcap data.
Bitcoin (BTC), the world’s oldest cryptocurrency, saw its prices decline by 1.52 per cent at $42,439.20.
Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, saw its prices decline by 3.59 per cent at $2,952.81.
Among other major coins, Cardano (ADA) was down by 4.35 per cent at $1.09, Algorand (ALGO), which is known as the Ethereum killer, was down by 3.31 per cent at $0.9357; its market cap was at $6,137,795,588. Binance Coin (BNB) was down by 1.96 per cent at $403.61, while Solana (SOL) fell 6.14 per cent at $98.05 and Polkadot (DOT) by 6.66 per cent at $18.99.
Today’s top gainer was MetaPay (METAPAY), which is up by 1,085.27 per cent at $0.00001672. The top loser was BUILD Finance (BUILD), which is down by 95.55 per cent at $0.06719.
Meme Coins And DeFi
Dogecoin (DOGE) was down by 4.09 per cent at $0.1458. Its volume to market cap ratio stands at 0.03658. Rival Shiba Inu (SHIB) was also down by 3.52 per cent at $0.00002924.
Dogelon Mars (ELON) was trading with a loss of 7.75 per cent at $0.0000009624. Floki Inu (FLOKI) was also down by 12.08 per cent at $0.00003925, while Samoyed Coin (SAMO) declined by 6.43 per cent at $0.02636.
In the DeFi segment, YFI (yearn.finance) was trading with a loss of 4.32 per cent at $23,330.18. While Terra (LUNA) was down by 2.42 per cent at $51.18, Avalanche (AVAX) was up by 6.09 per cent at $84.04. Uniswap (UNI) fell 3.7 per cent at $10.92, while Aave (AAVE) declined 5.14 per cent at $166.68.
Latest Updates
Governor of Hungary’s Central Bank György Matolcsy has come out in support of a total ban on crypto and its related activities just as the Russian Central Bank was before a radical change in the idea. He said that cryptocurrencies could be used by criminals to fund their illicit plans and can disrupt the EU financial system too. He was quoted as saying in a press release, “It is clear-cut that cryptocurrencies could service illegal activities and tend to build up financial pyramids. Russia’s central bank is right saying that “the breakneck growth and market value of cryptocurrencies are defined primarily by speculative demand for future growth, which creates bubbles”.
Intel, the American semiconductor giant, has launched an energy-efficient accelerator that it believes will help the crypto and blockchain industry. Bitcoin mining takes up a lot of energy which is a serious concern for the world. Raja M. Koduri, senior vice-president and general manager of Intel's Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Group, says in a detailed blog post, “We are focusing our efforts on realizing the full potential of blockchain by developing the most energy-efficient computing technologies at scale.”
Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO, Uber Technologies, an internet cab aggregator, told Bloomberg in an interview that his company is open to crypto adoption if certain pre-existing problems were solved. The problems cited by him were high crypto transaction fees and the environmental impact of crypto mining. He was quoted as saying, “As the exchange mechanism becomes less expensive and becomes more environmentally friendly, I think you will see us leaning into crypto a little bit more,” reported Hindustan Times.