Here are some of the major developments in the world of crypto over the past few days.
Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit announced a wallet-based rupee digital currency payment option to the digital currency of the Indian central bank for more security for rupee users. It joins other ways of payment, including bank transfers, Paytm, and India's Unified Payments Interface.
Bybit says the e-rupee is going to help avoid the potential risk of cyber threats hacking into the bank account of any user. This move is trying to put more trust and reliability in transactions to attract more merchants onto the platform, outlined Joan Han, director of Sales and Marketing at Bybit.
It is currently used for peer-to-peer crypto transactions on Bybit. The Indian CBDC is at the pilot stage, with the retail version launched on 1 December 2022, following the wholesale version. On 18 March 2023, the Reserve Bank of India and the UAE Central Bank agreed on a CBDC bridge between their jurisdictions.
However, despite all that potential, as of June, only 5 million retail users have adopted the digital rupee. Indeed, moves to popularize its usage have been slow, with features such as offline capabilities and programmability set to increase adoption. It saw its first programmable use in April for carbon credit reimbursements to farmers, while the wholesale e-rupee has been said to be clunky.
Bitcoin Slips Under $65,000 Level Ahead of Fed's Rate Decision, Middle East Tensions
The price of Bitcoin slipped below $65,000 for the first time since July 25—to $64,549 based on CoinMarketCap—just after midnight UTC on July 31. Briefly spiking to $65,075, it came to rest at $64,470 after the Federal Open Market Committee decided interest rates should be left where they are—at 5.25% to 5.5%. This move was as expected, with markets touting no change until September.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell made it very clear that despite the economy firming, a massive takedown in inflation from 7% down to 2.5%, the central bank is unabashedly still committed to its target of 2% inflation. Of course, amidst all this tumultuousness from these two occurrences, crypto analyst Seth spotlighted the Relative Strength Index of Bitcoin; it is still oversold, meaning it is a buying opportunity.
Amidst this, with reports of the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, geopolitical tensions flared. One can trace similarities in the sensitivity of Bitcoin to Middle Eastern conflicts and can look back to find a similar price drop back to April following incidents in Iran.
BIS, Bank of England Announce Project Pyxtrial on Monitoring Stablecoin, Tokenised Asset
The Bank for International Settlements, jointly with the Bank of England, has launched Project Pyxtrial—a proof-of-concept to track asset-backed stablecoin and tokenized asset reserves. Pyxtrial comes with a data model, database, and APIs to deliver processed data through a configurable dashboard for regulators and supervisors. Though promising, this system does not offer full automation, nor does it undertake an evaluation of the quality of assets or rigor of data sources; this remains the function of supervisory guidance on data quality.
It pulls data from blockchain and stablecoin platforms hourly and then matches it with issuer-provided data about the backing assets. This is where enforcement authorities must lay out the specifications of the data to be provided. It also draws from Project Atlas, both on-chain and off-chain data for central banks.
The modular and adaptive design of this platform makes rather extensive blockchain and regulatory knowledge required for the training of users in Pyxtrial, thus putting it in a good position to monitor other digital assets like tokenized securities or bonds. This PoC makes a case for regulators and technologists to collaborate on fitting certain regulatory needs while enabling easy integration into existing systems for further development.