Welcome to Around the Blockchain, Huobi Learn’s daily rundown of the crypto markets.
A proposal to permit companies using crypto in cross-border settlements has been included in a draft law to regulate crypto in Russia. While the draft law bans crypto as a means of payment, it does suggest recognizing them as an investment tool, and the change was made in coordination with the ministries of finance, economy, digital development, internal affairs, the Federal Tax Service, and Russia’s financial watchdog, Rosfinmonitoring. The Central Bank of Russia, however, is missing from the list as it still objects to any form of crypto legalization.
Dmitry Gora, the head of Belarus’ Investigative Committee, recently revealed that the country has confiscated millions of dollars worth of crypto assets. Crypto activities were legalized in Belarus in 2018 but last year, president Alexander Lukashenko implied regulations might be tightened. According to Gora, law enforcement agencies had to find a way to confiscate digital assets used in the drug trade and economic crimes; seizing crypto funds were then permitted following a legal procedure by the Ministry of Justice last month.
Binance has received approval from Italy’s financial regulator, Organismo Agenti e Mediatori (OAM), to operate as a crypto service provider in the country. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said “clear and effective” regulation was “essential for mainstream adoption” of crypto, and an announcement from the exchange stated that it had recently established Binance Italy as its legal entity in the country. This comes after it recently received similar approvales and licenses in France, Bahrain and Dubai.
The Ethereum network’s average fee fell to $2.96 per transaction on Sunday afternoon (ET), its lowest in over 10 months. Its median fees were even lower at $1.56 per transfer (as of 29 May). Since Sunday, average fees have risen slightly to $3.56 per transfer but remain low after dropping since mid-Feb. Moving an ERC20 token like USDT or USDC costs around $4.37 per transfer, and L2 transfer fees to send ETH were also quite low on Sunday — Zksync’s and Loopring’s ETH transaction fees were around $0.04 per transfer, while Optimism’s were $0.12.
Crypto’s ups and downs are not restricted to financial markets. It may or may not be coincidence, but one of FPS game Apex Legends’ more difficult-to-use characters, named Crypto, is upsetting players of the game after undergoing a Season 12 rework. A 28 May post by user Kai-ni on the game’s subreddit bemoaned how Crypto’s “buff” felt “more like a nerf” and that all it did was “frustrate current Crypto mains”. We wonder what token Crypto owns.
Show me the money