The Friday Focus: Issue 28
Welcome to our Friday newsletter. Here you find the most exciting crypto content from the previous week - curated for you by us.Weekly happenings in the crypto industry (Apr 2 - Apr 8)
The Bitcoin 2022 conference gave us many exciting announcements, and the Lightning Network continues to be a vital tool in enabling Bitcoin adoption. Strike partners with three of the world's largest payments providers to allow customers to pay with bitcoin at most stores throughout the US. Payment processors BitPay and Cash App announced new Lightning features, and Robinhood finally enabled on-chain and Lightning bitcoin withdrawals. We might see stablecoins issued on the Lightning Network as Lightning Labs unveiled a new protocol allowing for it. Samson Mow announces pro-bitcoin legislation in three new countries.While the open-source developments on Bitcoin go lightning fast, traditional regulators are slower in their approaches. This week's biggest regulatory news was two US House members introduced a bill to 'mitigate the risks' from El Salvador's Bitcoin adoption. Michael Saylor continues stating his optimism on US crypto regulation, putting the money where his mouth is by buying $191M worth of bitcoin through MicroStrategy.Crypto exchanges continue being active, as Coinbase starts operations in India, FTX.US makes a strategic investment in the stock exchange IEX Exchange, and BitMEX lays off 75 employees after their German bank acquisition collapses.Investors still have a huge appetite for the crypto industry. Binance US achieves a valuation of $4.5B, blockchain security firm CertiK raises money at a $2B valuation, and Ethereum scaler Boba Network is valued at $1.5B. Payments company Bolt will buy crypto payments provider Wyre for $1.5B in one of the crypto industry's largest non-SPAC takeovers. SPAC deals continue to be a popular means for bitcoin miners to go public, as PrimeBlock plans a $1.25 public listing. On the other hand, Gryphon Digital Mining cancels its upcoming SPAC deal.If you haven’t already signed up, click here and subscribe to receive the newsletter in your inbox every Friday.
