The Past Week In Crypto News (Nov. 17th-24th): OBJ's Bitcoin Contract and More

The new LA Rams Wide Receiver Odell Beckham Jr. announced he will take his salary in Bitcoin. The NFL player will also give away $1 million in Bitcoin in a deal with Cash App. Odell Beckham Jr. joins a growing list of athletes who are choosing to convert portions of their salaries in Bitcoin, a lot of whom have chosen to do so with Cash App. The list includes players such as Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Saquon Barkley and more.

Niantic, the AR game studio which is most famous for creating Pokemon GO, has launched a new game in partnership with crypto company Fold. Fold is a debit-card rewards company that offers rewards in Bitcoin. The company stated in its announcement that “This game will help forge an alternative vision for the metaverse—one that promotes human freedom and happiness through Bitcoin and fun.” This is one of the first partnerships which combines gaming and Bitcoin in a mainstream way, so this project is one that can end up having a meaningful effect on potential new adopters.

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele announced that El Salvador will build a “Bitcoin City”. This is just the latest effort from the country to establish itself as a pioneer in the Bitcoin space. The country is planning to fund the project by issuing a $1 billion bond and plans to spend half of that to purchase Bitcoin. There are also plans to not tax Bitcoin earnings at all. It remains to be seen if the city will be built, but nonetheless, this initiative is definitely the next step in the Bitcoin realm of things. 

The President of the Central Bank Of Peru Julio Velarde announced that the BCRP is working on creating a digital currency. Velarde stated that “The payment system that we are going to have in 8 to 10 years in the world will be completely different from the current one. We have been working on a digital currency. We are in a lot of projects with several central banks: with India, Singapore, Hong Kong, etc.” 

This project is another sign that the cryptocurrency trend in South America is growing daily, and with a population that seems to be eager for adoption, the crypto industry in general will benefit if crypto does become mainstream.

The main fiscal institution of the euro-zone, the Eurosystem, has introduced a new framework for overseeing electronic payments, including services related to crypto-assets. The framework is based on the changes that the Central European Bank has made recently in preparation for the launch of the Digital Euro. This framework is a clear sign that the Euro-zone is serious about its efforts to launch a CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency). As the world’s largest economic group, the European Union member countries that use the Euro represent a large economic purchasing power and will prove to be a key experimental ground for crypto.