Kalam Crypto #34: BlackRock enters crypto, Solana wallet hack, and more.

"There are two main drivers of asset class returns - inflation and growth." Ray Dalio

Ahlan wa sahlan, and welcome to the 34th edition of CoinMENA's weekly newsletter, Kalam Crypto. Every week we will bring you the latest news and developments from the exciting world of cryptocurrencies. This week, Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager partners with Coinbase to offer institutional clients exposure to digital assets, Michael Saylor to focus more on bitcoin, and the launch of the Dubai Digital Assets Business Group (D2A2). All that and more, so let's dive into this week's letter, and talk crypto:

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Global News 🌍

Blackrock has entered the chat: The world’s biggest asset manager, with close to $10 trillion in assets under management is partnering with Coinbase to enable institutional investors to get exposure to digital assets. Mutual customers of Coinbase and BlackRock's investment management platform, Aladdin, will have access to crypto trading, custody, prime brokerage, and reporting capabilities. To comprehend the scale of Blackrock, a 5% allocation of their assets to bitcoin will double the market capitalization of bitcoin! 

Solana Wallet Hack: a large-scale hack resulted in around 6 million dollars of tokens being stolen from over 8,000 Solana wallets. The root cause identified is a wallet software compromise rather than a vulnerability in the Solana blockchain. It appears the seed phrases belonging to users of a wallet called "Slope" were compromised because the company stored them in an encrypted text file on their server. This security incident shows once again that the best way to protect your digital assets is to store them on centralized exchanges or an external hardware wallet (cold wallet). 

Local News 📍

This week, the Dubai Digital Assets Business Group (D2A2) was formed under the patronage of H.E. Omar Sultan AlOlama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, and Remote Work Applications and Chairman of the Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy. The working group aims to promote the digital assets industry in Dubai, increase transparency through market intelligence data, and support the interests and growth of the digital asset and blockchain ecosystem. 

We are excited to announce that CoinMENA is part of the D2A2, and our CEO @Talaltabbaa will be on the Board of Directors representing the company. We salute Dubai and the UAE on their progressive approach to adopting innovation and look forward to playing an active role in supporting the sustainable growth of the digital assets industry in the region. 

Keep an eye on 👀

🟠Michael Saylor to focus more on bitcoin: Michael Saylor is stepping down as Microstrategy's CEO and shifting to the executive chairman role instead to focus more on the company's Bitcoin acquisition strategy and related Bitcoin advocacy initiatives. 

Did you know 🤔

🟠BTC is becoming rare: 91% of the Bitcoin supply has now been mined, bringing the current supply to over 19 million of the 21 million total supply. Only 9% of Bitcoin is left to be mined over the next 118 years. 

CoinMENA News 🗞

Deposit, trade, and earn cashback: Deposit money using your BEYON Money Platinum or Classic Card and earn up to 5% cashback! There is no limit to the amount of cashback you can earn. 

Earn 25% of your trades back: 10 users can earn 25% of their trades when they place at least one trade for 25 USD or more within the first 2 weeks of August and September each. The 3-month trading period will conclude on 16thSeptember 2022, and the maximum giveaway is 3,000 USD per person. 

Tweet of the week 🐥

Quiz Corner ✅ 

Last week’s question: How many digital assets are currently listed on CoinMENA?

Answer: 21

This week’s question: True or false? Transactions conducted on the Lightning Network are slightly slower and more costly than those conducted on the Bitcoin blockchain. 

• True

• False

See the answer in next week’s newsletter.