What happened this week in the world of blockchain and cryptocurrencies? The most relevant local and international events as well as appealing background reports in a concise and compact weekly review.
Selected articles of the week:
Since last November, BlackRock, Fidelity and the other Bitcoin ETF providers have been in the race for a fund on the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Ether (ETH). However, a lack of communication from the SEC led the market to doubt approval. A week ago, the expected probability was 10%. A sudden 180-degree turnaround due to political pressure changed this abruptly. Within two days, the regulator requested updates to the applications and took the first step towards approving the products. Soon there will be two digital assets on Wall Street.
The SEC has taken the first step towards approving spot-based Ether (ETH) ETFs in collaboration with partner exchanges.
A historic day
This week, the crypto community once again celebrated “Bitcoin Pizza Day”. This celebrates the unique moment when the theoretical concept of Bitcoin (BTC) became a practical means of payment. In exchange for two pizzas, a member of the Bitcointalk forum paid 10,000 Bitcoin – around USD 680 million today. The first Bitcoin payment for a physical good was made. The software developer Laszlo Hanyecz thus demonstrated that Bitcoin is more than a purely theoretical concept.
The global tradition of Bitcoin Pizza Day commemorates the historic purchase of two pizzas in 2010 and celebrates the first real-world test.
Master’s program on Bitcoin
The topic of blockchain has been part of the Swiss education system for several years now. The University of Basel offers a more technical introductory course at Bachelor’s level, the “CAS Blockchain” at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts highlights the economic aspects and, from 2021, computer science apprentices were able to choose a blockchain focus for the first time. The new course at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (HWZ), which focuses exclusively on Bitcoin, is designed to enable participants to prepare for one of the most important technological developments of our time at an early stage. The course will be led by crypto expert and CVJ.CH co-founder Rino Borini.
Zurich University of Applied Sciences is launching the first master’s program in Europe to focus…
Edward Snowden virtually in Switzerland
Edward Snowden is a former NSA employee who passed on secret information about global surveillance programs, revealing extensive government espionage activities. He faces up to 30 years in prison in the USA for this, which is why he has been living in exile in Russia for a decade. For years, the whistleblower has also spoken out in favor of the benefits of Bitcoin. At an upcoming crypto conference in Switzerland, he will answer questions about this via video call.
The highlight of an upcoming crypto festival in Switzerland will be the digital appearance of the famous whistleblower Edward Snowden.
SDX reaches milestone
In addition: Since September 2021, the Swiss stock exchange SIX has been operating a fully regulated platform for the issuance and trading of digital assets. SDX members include leading Swiss banks such as UBS, ZKB, Raiffeisen Switzerland, some cantonal banks and more. However, international institutions such as the World Bank are also conducting their experiments with digital assets on the platform. With another digital bond issue last week, the platform cracked CHF 1 billion in assets for the first time.
The issuances of digital assets settled via the SIX Digital Exchange (SDX) have exceeded the 1 billion CHF mark.
