Kalam Crypto #40: Bahrain testing BTC payments, Ethereum Merged, & BTC giveaway

"Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get" Ray Kroc

Ahlan wa sahlan, and welcome to the 40th edition of CoinMENA's weekly newsletter, Kalam Crypto. Every week we bring you the latest news and developments from the exciting world of cryptocurrencies. This week, Ethereum merged successfully, the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) is testing bitcoin payments, experts correct Whitehouse crypto climate change report, and a bitcoin giveaway from CoinMENA. All that and more, so let's dive into this week's letter, and talk crypto.

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Lightning Round ⚡️

Before we dive into the biggest stories of the week, here’s a quick rundown of the week’s other headlines: 

Ethereum Merged Successfully: The long-awaited Merge was successfully completed on Thursday morning, where Ethereum moved from Proof-of-Work to a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism.

Fidelity offers bitcoin to retail investors: The United State’s largest retirement planner is evaluating how to integrate bitcoin trading and make it available to over 30 million brokerage accounts. In addition, this fall, Fidelity will roll out the first-of-its-kind plan that will allow employers to allocate a portion of employee retirement plans to bitcoin.

Do Kwon Do Gone: South Korea formally issued an arrest warrant for Do Kwon, CEO of Terra and the mastermind behind the biggest collapse in crypto history, the UST/Luna fiasco. South Korean prosecutors say Do Kwon is on the run and not cooperating with authorities.

Global News 🌍

Expert corrects Whitehouse crypto/climate change report: Last week, we pointed out the limitation of the Whitehouse report on the impacts of crypto on climate change, and this week Nic Carter, an expert on crypto and energy consumption, took the critique to another level. He released an annotated version of the report where he expertly corrects all the false claims and points out the debunked sources the report relies on. His blog post concludes that overall “The paper is effectively an extended literature review with very little in the way of new data or analysis presented. It relies on a mélange of academia, anti-PoW consultancies like the Crypto Carbon Ratings Institute, and quasi-academic bloggers like the infamous De Vries. Many of the academics cited are conflicted.” The full annotated version of the report can be found here. Well worth the read to get the facts right.

Local News 📍

CBB approved bitcoin payments testing: OpenNode received approval fromThe Central Bank of Bahrain, through its Regulatory Sandbox, to test its bitcoin payments infrastructure. The CEO of OpenNode stated that this is a watershed moment for the region, and added “OpenNode's leading Bitcoin infrastructure solution continues to pave the way for countries, governments, and reputable financial institutions to adopt the Bitcoin standard and transact on the lightning network." Thanks to its progressive regulatory framework, the Kingdom of Bahrain is becoming a regional leader in Fintech and Crypto adoption. We could not be more proud to call this wonderful country our home.

CoinMENA News 🗞

CoinMENA Bitcoin Giveaway: We are giving away 1 bitcoin to 200 users! To be among the winners, all you have to do is trade (buy/sell) for 10 USD or above. That’s it! 

Bonus: Today is the last day to take advantage of the 20% discount on trading fees. Trade now to earn your bitcoin gift!

Did you know 🤔

🟠Bitcoin appreciated by over 210,000% in the past 10 years, making it the best-performing asset in the world!

Tweet of the week 🐥

Quiz Corner ✅ 

Last week’s question: Which is NOT true for Dollar Cost Averaging?

Answer: Allocate a fixed amount of money at irregular intervals

This week’s question: Which of the following is the oldest cryptocurrency?

1. Bitcoin

2. Litecoin

3. Ripple

4. Ethereum

See the answer in next week’s newsletter.