Last Week in Review: Bitcoin among top investment searches, and banks may hold more crypto if bill cleared

by Team Luno
· 3 minute read
Bitcoin cetak rekor kenaikan harga terpanjang kedua

The highlights from last week’s headline grabbers. All the important news, numbers and events from the crypto industry in easy-to-read, digestible news bites. 

News from the block

📝  Smart contracts on Ethereum increased four-fold following Merge 

  • The number of smart contracts deployed on Ethereum increased by 453% in the time following the Merge. This is according to the Web3 Development report by Alchemy. 
  • Also of note is that 94% of developers questioned in the survey said they feel bullish about the future of web3. 
  • Web3 developers have been building at rates last seen during the boom cycle in 2021, despite the extreme challenges the crypto industry has had to endure in the last months. 
  • The Merge was a big deal for Ethereum, which is why it’s important to understand what exactly happened and what it means for the second-largest crypto in future. Hop on it, HERE. 

🟠 Bitcoin among top investment searches on Google in 2022

  • In June 2022, Bitcoin was among the most searched for investment terms on Google. 
  • The Visual Capitalist created a visual representation of the Google data as seen below. 

Source: Visual Capitalist 

  • No big surprise too that questions around the interest rate forecast dominated Google search terms for most of the year, especially towards the end. 
  • If you’re wondering why investors start fidgeting at the mere whisper of a rate hike, we have something you might want to read. We’ve covered most of what there is to know about interest rates and its heated relationship with investing, HERE. 

🏦 EU banks will in future able to hold 2% of assets in crypto 

  • European Union (EU) regulators have taken the first steps to introduce legislation that would require traditional banks to hold
    1 Euro for every Bitcoin or other crypto they own, as reported by Reuters. 
  • While regulators have called the move “prohibitive”, the upside is that when the law is passed, it will allow banks to hold 2% of their assets in crypto, very likely driving further adoption. 
  • The pending legislation is in line with recommendations from global banking regulators. 

🤖 Of course there’s a connection between ChatGPT and crypto 

  • Just when you thought ChatGPT and other AI software had infiltrated just about every sacred inch of daily life, Time magazine is here to remind you of the tech’s far-reaching implications for the Metaverse. 
  • Builders will rely on AI tech to generate visuals and designs for customisable worlds in the metaverse. 
  • “So without needing a background in design or architecture, AI users will eventually be able to create virtual 3D environments: first rooms, then buildings, then entire worlds,” says the author. 

TL;Did read

Ok, so this week’s long read isn’t all that long, which is even more reason to commit to a shallow dive on Cardano 📖READ HERE.

Crunching the numbers

38% – The price of Bitcoin is up by almost 40% over the last month. 

60% – The price of eggs in the US jumped by 60% in 2022, pushed along by inflationary pressures.

2% – If legislated, a new bill approved by the Economic Affairs Committee of the European Parliament will allow banks in the EU to hold up to 2% of assets in crypto by January 2025.

83% – Solana saw the highest number of new developers contributing to its ecosystem in 2022, with its developer count rising by 83%, the fastest of any major blockchain.

20 – Rating agency Moody’s is working on a new system to analyse up to 20 stablecoins plus their reserves. 

The crypto time capsule

One whole Bitcoin trading for $300, eight years ago. 

Crypto trivia

Staking may seem like a lot to take in but allow us to demystify the why and the how ✨READ HERE. 

Worth a watch

Charles Hoskinson (🤠), the founder of Cardano, gives us a rundown on the recent network outage and how these systems are designed to recover, self-heal, when things go wrong. 

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