Cryptocurrency has been having a big month. After a turbulent start to 2022, the market is finally pushing back into the green in March. Since falling gradually from Bitcoin’s (BTC-USD) all-time high in November, the overall market capitalization of the industry has finally surpassed $2 trillion again. This past week has been a busy one in itself, particularly in the world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
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The crypto industry consists of thousands of projects, breaking news constantly and sometimes fluctuating vastly in price by the minute. As a result, investors can often feel in the dark about what’s really going on across the market. So, what might you have missed in the wide world of digital currency?
Here are some of the top crypto news stories of the week for investors.
Top Crypto News of the Week
Ukraine embraces crypto during crisis
Ukraine has been in the news for weeks now, due largely to Russia’s invasion of the nation. However, crypto has remained a thread consistently woven throughout the conflict. Ukraine, one of the first countries to embrace digital money with open arms, was able to raise over $100 million in crypto donations to help it defend against the invasion. This week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed the country’s crypto infrastructure bill into law. The signing of the long-awaited bill allows the government to access its store of donated funds.
The European Union passes crypto legislation for member states
Ukraine is not the only government body with crypto policy news. Earlier this week, the European Union also convened to vote on its Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) proposal. The bill had caught heat from blockchain proponents because of a last-minute amendment that would severely limit the reach of proof-of-work cryptocurrencies. If passed, the amendment would have effectively banned the trading of Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH-USD). Luckily for crypto bulls, though, EU members shot down the amendment while simultaneously passing the main bill.
Yuga Labs acquires the CryptoPunks NFT brand
One of the biggest gripes CryptoPunk NFT owners have had is that Larva Labs, the company behind the collection, doesn’t do anything for their users. Since launching the project five years ago, Larva has been largely hands-off. This was not a problem initially, but as more projects emerged with promises of events, token airdrops and other fun features for holders, CryptoPunk fans were becoming a little fed up. Now Yuga Labs, which created the Bored Ape Yacht Club, is stepping in and acquiring CryptoPunks’ intellectual property. This has caused reinvigorated excitement among holders as they wait to see how Yuga improves the investor experience.
Bored Ape Yacht Club gets its own cryptocurrency via ApeCoin
The Bored Ape Yacht Club hype didn’t die out with the CryptoPunks acquisition, however. Rather, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) called ApeCoin DAO launched ApeCoin (APE-USD) to supplement the Bored Ape community. While not official, the coin has the blessing of Yuga, who will utilize APE in future products. The APE launch began yesterday with a free airdrop reward to all Bored Ape NFT holders. Already, it is one of the largest projects, with a market capitalization of around $4 billion.
Anchor Protocol moves abroad, starting with Avalanche
Anchor Protocol (ANC-USD) is one of the best-known decentralized finance (DeFi) staking platforms around. The Terra (LUNA-USD)-based protocol allows users to stake TerraUSD (UST-USD) for a consistent annual percentage yield of 20%. In the wake of fiscal volatility, it is becoming one of the best ways investors can hedge against inflation. And now, Anchor is moving beyond the Terra chain, allowing more users to take advantage of its services. It is beginning to do so by first expanding to the Avalanche (AVAX-USD) network. AVAX is seeing a 15% gain on the last seven days as investors digest the bullish news.
GameStop prepares for its long-awaited NFT marketplace launch
Finally, for the last six months, speculation has been flying around due to GameStop’s (NYSE:GME) NFT marketplace. Investors first unveiled evidence of the platform in the fall of last year. Since then, chatter has only grown louder as the company confirmed the platform as well as its partnership with Immutable X (IMX-USD). Now this week, GameStop is letting investors know that the NFT marketplace is set for launch at the end of the second quarter. GME stock investors are basking in the good news; trading volume of GME stock has doubled its average so far today.
On the date of publication, Brenden Rearick did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.