Stripe, one of the world's leading payment processors, has announced that businesses will be able to convert fiat payments into bitcoin via its app. The feature is available through the Bitcoin Lightning Network infrastructure software, OpenNode. The opportunity for the American giant to attract a new technophile clientele.

Ebay, the e-commerce giant, has announced its entry into the NFT market. By partnering with the Web3 OneOf platform, the Californian company has just announced the sale of a first collection called "Genesis" featuring the field hockey legend Wayne Gretzky in 3D. Most of the NFTs have already been sold by now, but Ebay has confirmed that Wayne is the first iconic athlete in a long line that will be released in the coming months.

GameStop, the company that specializes in the distribution of video games and electronics has launched a beta version of its own crypto and NFT wallet on the Ethereum blockchain. A non-depository wallet that will allow users to store, send and receive cryptocurrencies and NFTs via their web browsers. It has even announced plans to launch a dedicated iOS app. After achieving "meme stock" status, the company is coming to rub shoulders with a new world.

Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach told an audience of blockchain executives at the World Economic Forum in Davos that SWIFT, one of the most widely used networks for cross-border transactions, would no longer exist in five years. On May 19, SWIFT announced a new series of experiments involving central bank digital currencies in collaboration with Capgemini to facilitate cross-border payments.

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde made no secret of her negative feelings about the crypto world during an interview on David Rubinstein's Dutch program College Tour. "I have always said that crypto-assets are highly speculative and very risky assets [...] They are worthless. They are not based on anything, there are no underlying assets to act as an anchor of safety." These words immediately gave rise to a debate on social networks between pro and anti digital currencies.

Terra's rebirth is underway. After shaking the crypo world following the loss of parity of its algorithmic stablecoin (UST) with the dollar causing the collapse of its ecosystem, Terra 2.0 is about to bloom. A recovery plan proposed by the protocol's founder and CEO, Do Kwon, was voted on and approved by 65.5% of the community and validators. The plan called "Terra Ecosysteme Revival Plan 2" aims to create a new chain that will not include algorithmic stablecoin this time. The old failed chain will be called "Terra Classic" and the new one "Terra."

French banking giant BNP Paribas is joining JPMorgan's Onyx blockchain. It will trade digital tokens on JPMorgan's network to make short-term asset loans. Onyx operates primarily in the intraday repo market, which is valued at approximately $12 trillion. With this system, banking infrastructures can lend U.S. Treasuries for a few days without the assets leaving their balance sheets. This helps manage the liquidity demands placed on institutions following the 2008 crisis.

Let's finish this Crypto Recap with an unusual news. Russian authorities have discovered a cryptocurrency mining farm in the country's oldest prison dating back to 1771 - Boutyrka. Law enforcement agencies discovered mining equipment in the Federal Penitentiary Service of the prison. The prison's deputy warden is accused of using the prison's electricity to mine cryptocurrencies with the help of unidentified accomplices. The machines allegedly consumed 8,400 kW of electricity between November 2021 and February 2022, the equivalent of $1,000 worth of electricity at the expense of the Russian government.

The evolution of the Top 20 cryptocurrencies in terms of capitalization over one week.
(Click on the heatmap below to better visualize the variations)

Source: Quantify
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