Mon 02/06

Good Morning. Reliance becomes the first company to start accepting RBI-launched CBDC, London tops the list for the most crypto-friendly city and Binance & Kazakhstan move cautiously towards DeFi regulations. We hope that you all have a great week ahead!

Reliance To Accept CBDC At Stores: Reliance will begin accepting retail payments in the digital rupee, which could increase the use of India's recently introduced CBDC. It has partnered with ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Innoviti Technologies to offer in-store support for the digital rupee. Customers who want to pay using the e₹-R CBDC will be given a QR code for scanning at the store. Reliance Retail has started offering support for the CBDC at its gourmet store line, Freshpik, and plans to expand it to all its locations in the future. This makes Reliance the biggest Indian company to adopt the digital rupee.

London Is The World’s Most Crypto-ready City For Business: According to research by Recap, UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak's goal of keeping the country's financial services industry at the cutting edge of technology and innovation is on track. London is the number one city for crypto related business. The study looked at the number of events, jobs, and companies focused on cryptocurrencies, as well as factors such as the quality of life, R&D spending, and capital gains tax rate. London has the highest number of people working in cryptocurrency-related roles, but other cities outperform it in other metrics, showing the potential for worldwide adoption of cryptocurrencies. It also has 2nd highest number of crypto companies in the world

Binance, Kazakhstan Agree On ‘wait-and-see’ Approach In Regulating DeFi: A report by Binance and the National Bank of Kazakhstan suggests that the best way to regulate the DeFi space is by taking a wait-and-see approach. The report, titled "State of the Digital Assets Industry and DeFi in Central Asia," recommends increasing collaboration between regulators, using a regulatory sandbox for learning and growth, and educating both consumers and lawmakers. This will help central and decentralized finance to work together effectively.The report also suggests creating a regulated infrastructure that links centralized finance (CeFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi) as the next step. This user-friendly infrastructure will facilitate the exchange of crypto and fiat currencies, bringing CeFi and DeFi closer together.

Fbi Seizes $260k Of Assets Including ETH, Bored Ape Following ZachXBT Tip: The FBI has seized over $260k worth of assets, including NFTs and cryptocurrency, from a man named Chase Senecal. The assets seized include 86.5678 ETH ($116K), two NFTs (Bored Ape Yacht Club #9658 worth $95K and Doodle #3114 worth $9K), and a non-crypto asset, an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Watch valued at $41K. A blockchain analysis by ZachXBT showed that the account was linked to various hacks, leading the FBI to seize the assets on October 24th, 2022. Senecal was believed to be involved in a multi-million dollar scheme that had impacted more than 600 Discord servers and over 12 Twitter accounts. On 03/02, the accounts affected by the hack were highlighted, including those belonging to the NFT project JRNY Club and the animator DeeKay Kwon.

What Is Solana (SOL) Pay, And How Does It Work?: Solana Pay is an open protocol for developers to build on and customize, with standardized payment criteria. Solana Pay is considered by many to be the next innovation in the payments processing arena, facilitating payments while taking nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and Web3 into account. Some are going so far as to call Solana’s new payment protocol the Visa or PayPal of Web3.