• China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), announced the continued expansion of the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital yuan.
• The digital currency is currently undergoing a pilot program expanded to 17 more provinces across China.
• Two new features, offline payments and smart contracts, have been introduced alongside the CBDC pilot program to improve its use cases.

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) recently announced the expansion of the digital yuan, a central bank digital currency (CBDC), across 17 more provinces in China. This move is part of the bank’s efforts to provide the public with a digital alternative to the traditional paper currency.

The digital yuan was first tested in the four major cities of Shenzhen, Suzhou, Xiong’an and Chengdu in 2020. From there, the pilot program was expanded to seven more cities in December. The latest expansion of the program to 17 additional provinces will help the PBOC increase the reach and usage of the digital currency.

The PBOC is also focusing on launching a system that will allow consumers to “scan with one code” when making payments using the digital yuan. This means that merchants will not have to increase their costs to support digital yuan payments.

In addition to the expansion of the pilot program, the PBOC has introduced two new features to the digital yuan. The first is an offline payments feature, launched on January 23, which allows users to make payments without the need to access the internet. This is done through NFC (Near-field) technology that enables communication between two electronic devices over a distance of 4 cm or less to confirm payments.

The second feature is a smart contract capability, which was introduced earlier this month on the e-commerce app Meituan. This feature allows users to win a daily prize of $1,312.

The PBOC hopes that these new features and the expansion of the pilot program will help increase the usage and adoption of the digital yuan. The bank also plans to continue innovating the digital currency, so that more people can benefit from its use.

• The Ripple Vs. SEC legal battle is creating tension for XRP as the court sittings could end this year.
• Crypto whales have continued to show more interest in XRP, with millions of tokens recently transferred by some whales.
• Notable transactions involving XRP tokens have included a transfer of 160 million XRP coins worth over $65.53 million, and 39,500,000 XRP tokens worth $16.2 million.

The Ripple Vs. SEC legal battle has been creating a lot of tension for the XRP token. The court sittings for the case could end this year, and the Ripple CEO has been optimistic that the lawsuit could come to an end in 2023. Despite the recent dips in XRP prices, crypto whales have continued to show more interest in the token. On-chain data provider Whale Alert reported multiple transactions involving XRP tokens recently made by some crypto whales.

The single largest transaction involving XRP tokens was a transfer of 160 million XRP coins between two unknown wallets on January 27. According to the current crypto market prices, the tokens are worth over $65.53 million. Another notable transaction was a transfer of 39,500,000 XRP from Bitso to an unknown wallet, occurring on January 26 and worth $16.2 million.

Other smaller transactions that occurred included a transfer of 30 million XRP coins worth $12.41 million from an unknown wallet to Bitso, and 33 million XRP tokens worth $13.65 million to Bitstamp from an anonymous wallet. These transactions demonstrate the continued interest in XRP tokens, even amidst the bearish crypto market and the legal battle with the SEC.

It remains to be seen how the Ripple Vs. SEC legal battle will pan out, and what effect it will have on the XRP token. However, these recent transactions show that there is still demand for XRP tokens, and the token might be able to weather the storm.

• The crypto token MATIC has seen a 45.3% increase in the monthly timeframe
• Polygon’s Weekly Roundup contains updates on the hard fork for improved performance
• Fractal, a Web3 game development platform, is coming to Polygon

The crypto token MATIC has been on an impressive run in the past few weeks, with a 45.3% increase in the monthly timeframe. This surge has been largely attributed to the strong on-chain development that the token has seen, which has further fuelled the bullish sentiment in the crypto markets. To top it off, Polygon has released its Weekly Briefings, a roundup of positive on-chain developments in the ecosystem.

The most recent Weekly Briefing discussed the successful hard fork that Polygon underwent, which was done in order to improve performance. The upgrade focused on Polygon’s way of handling reorgs and gas spikes. Reorgs are a temporary copy of the entire blockchain of the ecosystem, and reducing this will ultimately improve the user experience of the blockchain. Reducing gas spikes will also enable users and developers to save on gas fees, as the rate climb in times of demand would be a lot smoother.

In addition, Fractal, a Web3 game development platform, is also coming to Polygon. This will further strengthen the reach of Polygon in the Web3 game industry. With solid on-chain development fueling the current bullish sentiment for MATIC, it is likely that we will see more positive price movement for the crypto in the coming days or weeks.

• Cardano has seen an impressive price trend over the last few days, likely due to its development strides, such as the launch of its sidechain toolkit.
• The network has added over 50,000 wallets to its protocol this month, reflecting increased adoption of ADA.
• Cardano’s Djed stablecoin project is set to launch next week, with no exact date specified yet.

Cardano, one of the leading smart contract platforms, has been making waves in the cryptocurrency space with its impressive price trend over the last few days. This surge has been largely attributed to its development strides, such as the launch of its sidechain toolkit. With this, developers are able to build Decentralized Applications (dApps) on the Cardano Network and make use of its blockchain.

This has led to an increase in the network’s market share, as evidenced by the more than 50,000 wallets that have been added to the Cardano protocol this month. Yevhen, a Cardano ambassador, shared the statistics on Twitter, indicating that the total Cardano wallets had grown from 3,842,867 on January 1 to 3,894,735 registered wallets by January 25, 2023. This growth is indicative of increased adoption of ADA and more on-chain activity among users.

The surge in the Cardano market cap has been equally impressive, rising from $8.48 billion recorded late last year to $13 billion today. This increase has been further bolstered by the upcoming launch of its Djed stablecoin project. Recently, Shahaf Bar-Geffen, in an update from the COTI network, announced that the Cardano stablecoin Djed would launch next week, although the exact date was not revealed.

The launch of Djed is expected to have a significant impact on the Cardano ecosystem, allowing users to access an efficient and reliable stablecoin. The Cardano community has been looking forward to this launch and will be eagerly awaiting further updates from the developers. With the increasing utility of the Cardano Network and the upcoming launch of Djed, it is likely that the price trend for Cardano will continue to remain positive.

• Major US banks including Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo are planning to introduce a new system that uses a digital wallet linked to customer credit cards and debit cards.
• The new service is planned to be operated by Early Warning Services (EWS) and will function separately from Zelle.
• The banks intend to develop the wallet to prevent banking customer relationships with big techs like Apple, PayPal, among others.

Major US banks such as Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo are currently collaborating on a new system that will revolutionize the way customers make payments using their credit and debit cards. The new digital wallet system is expected to be rolled out in the second half of 2023, and it will be operated by Early Warning Services (EWS).

The plan is to create a digital wallet that will be linked to customers’ credit cards and debit cards. This wallet will enable customers to make online purchases and compete with the likes of PayPal and Apple Pay. The wallet will be separate from the existing Zelle money-transfer service, which is also owned by the banks.

The aim of the banks is to prevent customer banking relationships with technology giants such as Apple and PayPal. The new digital wallet will initially be available for retail customers and will support both Mastercard and Visa cards. Eventually, the wallet will be expanded to enable direct payments from banks to merchants, giving customers more flexibility when they make payments.

The introduction of this new digital wallet system will give customers a safer and more secure way to make payments. It will also provide more competition for big tech companies like Apple and PayPal, who are increasingly encroaching on the banking sector.

This new digital wallet system will be an important step forward for the banking sector and will be a welcome development for customers. With the new wallet, customers will be able to make payments with greater ease and convenience, without having to worry about their information getting into the wrong hands.

• Axie Infinity’s native token, AXS, has seen growth since the start of the year despite the negative effects of the crypto winter.
• The game has been experiencing a continued decline in its player base since its all-time-high in January 2022.
• The recent rise in AXS price could be a sign of revival for the game, but it remains to be seen if it can sustain the momentum.

The GameFi industry has been feeling the pinch of the crypto winter, with billions of dollars wiped off the crypto market. One of the projects that have been hit the hardest is Axie Infinity, with its native token AXS losing 91% of its value in the third quarter of last year. However, the crypto market has seen a renewed sentiment in recent months, which has seen the price of AXS rise 43% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko. This could be a sign of revival for Axie Infinity, but the game still has many challenges ahead of it.

One of the biggest issues facing Axie Infinity is its declining player count. According to activeplayer.io, the game has been on a steady decline since its all-time-high in January 2022. The most drastic drop in the player base was in June 2022 when the game lost 1.2 million players in a single month. Currently, the game is near its November 2020 lows, which is a worrying sign for one of the biggest play-to-earn games in the market.

The recent surge in AXS price may be a sign of hope for Axie Infinity, but it remains to be seen if the game can sustain this momentum. The game needs active players to keep it going, and the current player count is still low. If the game can manage to turn this trend around, then the recent rise in AXS price could be the start of a new era for the project. However, only time will tell if the game can make a successful comeback.