PoW avoids EU ban, two DeFi protocols suffer a combined $11M hack and BAYC does an

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’s president signs law establishing regulatory framework for crypto

Crypto regulation has received approval from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The bill, titled “On Virtual Assets,” was signed by the president, opening the door to government oversight of the domestic cryptocurrency industry.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation said: “The signing of this law by the president is another important step towards bringing the crypto sector out of the shadows and launching a legal market for virtual assets in Ukraine.”

Among other details, the bill specifies that Ukraine’s National Securities and Stock Market Commission will govern the industry on multiple levels, such as digital asset-related licensing.

European Parliament votes against PoW ban, providing huge relief to the crypto industry

A significant European Union (EU) regulatory bill known as Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) has moved forward, leaving behind wording that essentially would have barred proof-of-work (PoW) crypto assets in the region.

An extensive bill pertaining to crypto regulation in the EU, MiCA had two drafts up for debate — one version that would essentially ban PoW mining and related cryptocurrencies, and another that hosted more favorable language concerning the technology. Long story short, the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs voted for the option that did not ban PoW. The bill will now proceed through further approval processes.

It’s official: Binance secures a license to operate in Dubai

It was a busy week for cryptocurrency exchanges, which earned regulatory approvals in multiple jurisdictions. Binance secured licensing in Dubai and Bahrain. FTX also received a Dubai license.

Thanks to the Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) license it secured in the region, Binance can now establish an office in Dubai, among other rights newly afforded by the license. Additionally, Binance received a virtual asset exchange (VAX) license in Dubai. FTX also unveiled that it received Dubai’s VAX this week.

ApeCoin announcement surges BAYC floor price to near-ATH before correction

Owners of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs stand to receive a considerable sum of ApeCoin (APE) — a new governance and utility token for the project. APE is an ERC-20 token.

If they do so within 90 days of March 17 (12:30 pm UTC time), BAYC owners can claim 10,000 APE, which totaled $72,000 in value at the time of Cointelegraph’s coverage in the article linked above. FTX, Gemini and other exchanges plan on listing APE.

Trading volume and pricing for BAYC NFTs saw turbulence surrounding the APE token news. Among other reported details, the token will have a supply of 1 billion.

Diem team members raise $200M to launch blockchain derived from it

Avery Ching and Mo Shaikh, two former Meta crypto division leads, are building a layer-1 blockchain with some of its roots based on Move — the Diem project’s programming language. Known as Aptos, the project led by Ching and Shaikh recently announced securing $200 million worth of funding, with names such as Coinbase Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz contributing. Aptos aims for its mainnet to go live in the latter half of 2022.

Publicized earlier in 2022, Facebook-turned-Meta’s stablecoin Diem essentially saw an end to its journey, with Silvergate Capital Corporation buying the project’s nuts and bolts (intellectual property, etc.) from Meta.

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $41,727, Ether (ETH) at $2,936 and XRP at $0.79. The total market cap is at $1.87 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100…