The Weekly Pen: Satoshi & The New World Order

The headline for week 14 might sound dire and dramatic, but not only might this be the week of Satoshi Nakamoto’s birthday, but the BRICS nations are taking a major step toward developing a financial and currency infrastructure completely independent of the U.S. dollar. Is this the beginning of a new world order? What does Satoshi have to do with this? The Pen team has collected a series of headliners, for you to speculate whether the U.S. crypto crackdown is a means to impose CBDCs and whether the influx of crypto investors to Europe is for the mass adaption of digital assets benefitting the global currency agenda or was Steve Jobs simply tripping on fungi before passing away? For you to interpret, so without further ado, have a good read.

GLOBAL ECONOMY#

Fintech founder parlayed connections for the JPMorgan deal before fraud charges.

El Salvador hasn’t defaulted, and Bitcoin gets no credit.

China clears path for foreign investors to $5tn swaps market.

BlackRock's Paris office was invaded by protesters.

Blockchain technology could solve many challenges in Africa’s Payments space.

Economics experts issue dire warning on ’serious threat’ faced by US dollar.

Elon Musk signals he expects a financial crisis as the Fed’s interest-rate hikes choke the economy.

Crypto Migration: While the US is cracking down on crypto, European and Asian regulators are welcoming.

GLOBAL POLITICS#

BRICS nations are creating a new currency.

Arkansas passes the right-to-mine bill.

US DOJ confiscates $ 122 million worth of crypto linked to ’pig butchering’ scams.

ECB head reveals CBDCs could be used for ’control’ amid banking crisis.

French regulator pushes for faster issuance of crypto licenses.

G7 nations to call for stricter oversight of cryptocurrency markets.

Texas lawmakers propose a gold-backed state digital currency.

Head of Thailand’s opposition party promises $300 crypto airdrop if elected Prime Minister.

Russia charges Wall Street Journal reporter Gershkovich with espionage.

Singapore reportedly developed standards around banks and digital assets.

DeFi needs to comply with anti-money laundering rules, the U.S. treasury says.

ASIC cancels Binance Australia’s financial services license.

US presidential candidate Robert Kennedy says FedNow is the first step to banning Bitcoin.

CRYPTO#

AT&T wins legal battle against a crypto investor who fell victim to SIM swapping.

Paxful co-founder will repay users with his own money to avoid jail time.

Ethererum’s Shanghai upgrade will dump huge sums of Ether into the market.

Bitstamp launches new lending products across crypto-friendly markets.

Nomura’s crypto custody firm Komainu eyes UK registration amid staking plans.

Hong Kong’s crypto ambitions to get a boost from U.S. crackdown.

Citigroup predicts an 80x explosion in tokenization, and forecasts a timeline for mass adoption of digital assets.

Microsoft is planning to build a crypto wallet in their browser, Edge.

PAYMENTS#

PayPal wants to Dominate the payments space with 4 new features launched.

Trust Wallet teams up with Ramp and MoonPay to Enable crypto-to-fiat withdrawals.

CFBS’s Chopra eyes big Tech’s payments efforts and stablecoin risks for review.

Jcard launches a time-tracking app for mobile workforces.

Businesses fast-track B2B payments digitization to boost growth.

BANKING#

90% of major banks use legal loopholes to hide cross-border fees.

Binance US is unable to find bank partners in the United States.

Signature Bank execs sold $ 100 million in shares during the crypto boom.

PostFinance and Sygnum Bank team up to offer Swiss customers crypto.

Climate-focused neo bank Aspiration to lay off 180 employees.

Bank lending slumps by most on record in the final weeks of March.

Banks expected to increase risk technology budgets after the March crisis.

European banks launch ’sustainable’ blockchain platform for digital bonds.

European banks team up to launch a revolutionary blockchain platform.

FINANCIAL MARKETS#

Saudis are the backers of George Osborne’s tech investment fund.

Hedge Funds made $7bn from betting against banks during turmoil.

deVere CEO slams UK banks’ crypto crackdown as ’overreaching diktat’.

America’s first nuclear-powered Bitcoin mining center reveals Q1 results.

Robinhood faces a $10.2M penalty from multiple U.S. states over technical failures.

MarketAxess CEO sees signs of a bond ETF revival.

The sterling is the best-performing G-10 currency this year.

After the banking crisis, the unsecured commercial paper market shows cracks.

Bitcoin and XRP whales abruptly move over $650,000,000 worth of crypto in Just 24 hours.

EY Banned by German audit watchdog over Wirecard Work.

Uphold says it never delisted XRP and has $ 10.4 billion of the token in reserves.

Bitcoin and Crypto are bracing for a $ 1 billion U.S. earthquake.

Swiss Government-owned Bank PostFinance to Offer Customers Crypto.

BlackRock to sell $114 billion of defunct Bank Securities.

INVESTMENTS#

Tokenized gold tops $ 1 billion market cap amid banking crisis concerns.

MicroStrategy adds to the massive Bitcoin bet, taking the total to 140,000 BTC.

Bitcoin’s purchasing power outpaces the US dollar.

Bitcoin outperforms the top five major indexes by 170% in Q1, 2023.

Ether rallying ahead of an upgrade that will let holders more easily access their crypto.

Gold & Mining ETFs are surging as the precious metal flirts with a record high.

Dogecoin soars 30% after Twitter changes web logo to Shiba Inu, while Musk is fighting a lawsuit over Doge comments.

Investors are betting $ 3.7 billion against Toronto-Dominion, making it the world’s most shorted bank.

Dogecoin falls after Twitter switches out Shiba Inu image to bird logo.

DEFI#

US treasury sees ’potential benefits’ of DeFi following a risk assessment.

BendDAO gives NFT investors the edge with Web3 financial reporting.

U.S. treasury warns DeFi is used by North Korean scammers to launder dirty money.

SushiDex approval contract exploited for $3.3M.

Decentralized payment protocols are the crypto sector's savior.

Evergrow destroys Shiba Inu’s token burn rate in a ”deal of the century”.

Tether used Signature Bank’s signet.

TECH#

The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every modern copy of MacOS

Apple hiding the Bitcoin manifesto in Macs is fueling theories that Steve Jobs was Satoshi Nakamoto.

- Till we yield again

*Disclaimer: This article is not financial or investment advice, nor should it be perceived as such. Penning Group and the author shall not be held accountable for any misinterpreted information by the reader. If you are interested in learning more about investing in the DeFi space and in general, please get in touch with us.

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