Kalam Crypto #75: U.S. Debt Ceiling Suspended & Ledger Delays “Recover”

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Arthur C. Clarke

Ahlan wa sahlan, and welcome to the 75th edition of CoinMENA's weekly newsletter, Kalam Crypto. This week, U.S. lawmakers agree to suspend the debt ceiling, again! Chat GPT CEO Sam Altman raises $115 million for project Worldcoin, and Ledger delays the launch of their controversial “Recover” product. All that and more, so let's dive into this week's letter, and talk crypto:

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Local News 📍

Qatar is warming up to crypto? Qatar Financial Center completes its digital asset framework aiming to position itself as the premier destination for tokenization by allowing for the tokenization of various asset classes such as securities, bonds, and real estate. Although Qatar remains cautious about venturing into cryptocurrencies, NFTs, or commodities at this time, the Qatar Financial Center Authority aims to become a preferred jurisdiction for qualified investors. 

Global News 🌍

The US agreed to lift the debt ceiling, again: In what's becoming a bi-annual tradition, U.S. lawmakers have agreed to suspend the debt ceiling, again, staving off a potential U.S. government default. The core agreement is that the self-imposed "debt ceiling" would be lifted for 2 years, through the 2024 election. Markets have responded favorably as Bitcoin is up ~5% on the news. Chat GPT founder raises $115 million for a crypto startup: A cryptocurrency startup, co-founded by Sam Altman, the Chief Executive Officer of OpenAI, has secured additional funding for his crypto project Worldcoin. The controversial project is an audacious attempt to create a global cryptocurrency to be distributed to anyone who has verified they are a real person. How do you verify you are a real person? Well, you scan your iris with one of their orbs! Another story that has us convinced we are living in a Matrix movie.

The first stablecoin is launched on the Bitcoin network: Stably, a provider of Stablecoin-as-a-Service (SCaaS) launched #USD, the first BRC-20 stablecoin on the Bitcoin Network. #USD is created via the Bitcoin ordinals protocol. BRC-20 tokens enable users to inscribe data to individual satoshis, the smallest unit of a bitcoin. These satoshis can then represent anything from digital art ownership to “meme coins” and even stablecoins. This significant advancement represents a crucial milestone in the rapidly expanding Bitcoin Ordinals ecosystem, which has already amassed a total market capitalization of over half a billion dollars in under six months. 

FacePalm of the Week 🤦‍♂️

Ledger delays Recover service: After severe backlash from the crypto community, Ledger has delayed the launch of its new service “Ledger Recover”. As we covered in last week’s newsletter, Ledger had announced a new optional service that will save a copy of a user’s seed phrase with a third party and enable them to retrieve it if lost or stolen. In a letter to users, Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier wrote that the firm won’t introduce the new feature before they open-source the code and make it available to the public.

Keep an eye on 👀

Interesting that USDT’s market capitalization is near all-time highs, while the rest of the major stablecoins are on a downtrend:

1-year change of stablecoin market dominance:

$USDT: 47.4% -> 65.89% 📈

$USDC: 34.5% -> 23.02% 📉

Tweet Of The Week 🐥

Actually, now it takes closer to 1 year for every additional $2 Trillion in debt.

CoinMENA News 🗞

📢May offers ending tomorrow: Last day to take advantage of a 25% discount on trading fees and qualify to win 1 ETH. Both offers end tomorrow at 11:59 PM Bahrain/KSA time! 

📢 Join us for the CoinMENA & Chainlink Community Meetup on June 8th, 2023: Discover the latest updates, hear from industry experts🎤, enjoy snacks🍿, and get exclusive merchandise🎁. Limited spots are available, RSVP through the link.

Quiz Corner ✅ 

Last week’s question: In USD, what was the approximate value of the Bitcoin used to buy the 2 pizzas?

Answer: $41

This week’s question: 

Which cryptocurrency payment processing company helped facilitate the first Bitcoin Pizza Day transaction?

• BitPay

• CoinGate

• Coinbase

• GoCoin

See the answer in next week’s newsletter. Or check out our new learning platform https://university.coinmena.com/