Kalam Crypto #58: UAE: Crypto to play a major role in trade 1,000 USDT Giveaway

Kalam Crypto #58: UAE: Crypto to play a major role in trade 1,000 USDT Giveaway

This week, UAE announces crypto will play a major role in foreign trade, Circle announces CCTP, Société Générale takes out a loan from MakerDAO, and Ethereum layer 2 activity rising.

23 Jan, 2023
CoinMENA Team
Author

“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious” - Albert Einstein

Ahlan wa sahlan, and welcome to the 58th edition of CoinMENA's weekly newsletter, Kalam Crypto. We continue our green start to 2023; BTC breached $23k, ETH $1,600, and the total crypto market cap is back above $1 trillion. This week, UAE announces crypto will play a major role in foreign trade, Circle announces CCTP, Société Générale takes out a loan from MakerDAO, and Ethereum layer 2 activity rising. All that and more, so let's dive into this week's letter, and talk crypto:

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Local News 📍

Crypto to play a major role in UAE global trade: In an interview with Bloomberg Television in Davos, Switzerland, His Excellency Thani Al-Zeyoudi, the UAE's minister of state for foreign trade, emphasized the significant role that cryptocurrency will play in the country's future trade. He also highlighted the need for proper regulations and laws to safeguard retail investors. This statement, made during a bear market, demonstrates the UAE's leadership's strong understanding of the fundamental nature of cryptocurrency and its ability to revolutionize financial services.


Global News 🌍

Circle announces CCTP: the USDC issuer announced Cross Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP). A permissionless on-chain tool that allows for USDC to jump from one chain to another by burning the native USDC on one chain and minting the same amount on another. According to this blog post, CCTP eliminates the need to use a conventional “lock-and-mint” bridge, which otherwise would lock native USDC on the source chain – incurring a potential security risk – and then mint a synthetic/bridged version of USDC on the destination chain, which results in fragmentation of liquidity and poor UX. CCTP will be launched on Ethereum and Avalanche chains this quarter, with other chains following later in 2023. 

In related news, Circle announced a partnership with Deloitte, a top accounting firm, to further its commitment to transparency and proof of reserves.

Société Générale takes a loan from Maker DAO: The French multinational investment bank and financial services company minted $7 million as a loan of dai stablecoin from its issuer MakerDAO. For collateral, the firm used home loan bonds worth $40 million to borrow from a lending vault on Maker. This is a significant move as it shows how traditional finance players can leverage decentralized finance to create new avenues for borrowing. 


Keep an eye on 👀

Ethereum Layer 2s rising: While both protocols have been steadily trending upwards since the beginning of 2022, Optimism transaction activity has overtaken Arbitrum for the first time. Both protocols had been on a steady upward trend since the beginning of 2022. Both Arbitrum and Optimism utilize a scaling solution called Optimistic Rollups, which allows for transactions to be processed off-chain, providing a more efficient and cost-effective option compared to using the Ethereum main network. Layer 2 activity is expected to be a key narrative in 2023. 

optimism

🤦‍♂️Face Palm of the week:

Have you ever heard of Bitzlato?: The US Department of Justice woke up one morning and decided to scare everyone in crypto. They tweeted in capital letters: INTERNATIONAL CRYPTOCURRENCY ENFORCEMENT ACTION. Rumors started swirling that the action will be against a crypto exchange that begins with the letter B. Everyone expected it will be the big exchange that starts with B, but after three suspenseful hours, they announced that an exchange called Bitzlato has been accused of laundering hundreds of millions in illicit funds. Who is Bitzlato? No one really knows. This sparked a wave of hilarious memes on Twitter.


CoinMENA News 🗞

💰1,000 USDT GIVEAWAY: We are giving away 1,000 USDT to two users (500 USDT each!) All it takes to qualify is a $20 deposit to your CoinMENA wallet before January 31st. 

🍔🍟End of the month Combo Offer: 

  1. Deposit & Save with Discounted Card Deposit Fee: Now only 2% instead of 3.5% from January 25 - 27th, 11 PM Bahrain/KSA time. 

  2. Mystery Offer: January 28 - 31: Can you guess what offer goes well after a discount on deposits?


Tweet of the week 🐥


Quiz Corner ✅ 

Last week’s question: What determines the price of bitcoin?

Answer: Supply and demand

This week’s question: The term Web3 was coined by:

  1. Mark Zuckerberg

  2. Vitalik Buterin

  3. Gavin Wood

  4. Satoshi Nakamoto

See the answer in next week’s newsletter.

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