Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.
Top Stories This Week
Ukraine has received $37M in tracked crypto donations so far
Cointelegraph compiled data this week for crypto donations sent to the Ukrainian government, military and charities amid the country’s ongoing conflict with Russia. By Monday, total crypto donations to the Ukrainian government and charities linked to it had reached $37 million.
The “Reserve fund of Ukraine” backed by local crypto exchange Kuna appeared to be the largest recipient, garnering roughly $13 million worth of BTC, ETH, USDT and other assets. Next in line was charity organization Come Back Alive, which pulled in $7.2 million. The group says it’s aiding the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ resistance efforts.
Notably, UkraineDAO also sold a tokenized Ukrainian flag for 2,174 ETH ($5.95 million) to support local civilian organizations.
South Korea to invest $187M in national metaverse project
The South Korean Ministry of Science and ICT put some serious weight behind the metaverse this week, allocating $186.7 million to create a virtual ecosystem to foster digital content and corporate growth within the country.
The metaverse ecosystem is called the “Expanded Virtual World,” and the funding will be used to expand the virtual industrial growth of cities, education and media. The ministry also said that it will host community-oriented creative activities to drive interest, such as a metaverse developer contest and a hackathon.
“It is important to create a world-class metaverse ecosystem as the starting point to intensively foster a new hyper-connected industry,” stated Park Yungyu, head of communication and policy at the ministry in the announcement.
Payment services provider Shift4 acquires The Giving Block for $54 million
On Tuesday, U.S.-based payment solutions provider Shift4 announced the acquisition of The Giving Block in a cash and stock deal worth $54 million. The deal includes provisions that could generate a total earnout of up to $246 million.
The Giving Block platform enables more than 1,300 nonprofit organizations and charities to accept crypto donations. According to the group’s annual report, it processed $69.64 million in crypto donations in 2021, with roughly $12.3 million coming from NFT projects.
“Shift4 will invest further in The Giving Block’s successful strategy while also pursuing a $45+ billion embedded cross-sell opportunity by bundling crypto donation capabilities with traditional card acceptance,” said Shift4 in a statement. “This represents just a small portion of the $470+ billion nonprofit addressable markets that Shift4 will uniquely be able to pursue as a result of this acquisition.”
eBay to add crypto payment options soon, says CEO
Jamie Iannone, CEO of eBay, stated during a recent interview that the e-commerce giant could soon be looking to integrate crypto payments into its marketplace. The CEO also pointed to the growing popularity of NFT buying and selling on the platform, but did not divulge any specific plans to ramp up support for NFT technology.
Iannone said that eBay has been considering the idea for a long time as the company continues to explore new payment methods. He went on to hint that there could be a crypto-related announcement during eBay’s upcoming investor day on March 10.
If eBay were to support crypto, it would be a second attempt from the firm, as it initially tried integrating BTC payments back in 2014.
OpenSea updates banned countries list, sparking decentralization debate
Top NFT marketplace OpenSea reportedly started barring Iranian users from its platform this week. The firm justified its decision by alluding to policy that prohibits people in U.S.-sanctioned territories from…
Read More: cointelegraph.com