Australian Watchdog Sues Meta Platforms

ALSO: Taiwan is planning to sell shares on Nasdaq, Argentina discourages crypto use, and more |

The biggest crypto news and ideas of the day  Mar. 18, 2022 Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up here. Supported by     Welcome to The Node.   In today's newsletter: Meta Platforms (the former Facebook) and Meta Platforms Ireland are being sued. Taiwan's MaiCoin Crypto Exchange is considering selling shares. And Argentina's Senate approved a debt deal of $45 billion.     –Daniel Kuhn Today's must-reads Top Shelf CRYPTO SCAMS: Meta Platforms (the former Facebook) and its Meta Platforms Ireland are being sued by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for engaging in false, misleading and deceptive conduct. The commission says Facebook and Instagram knowingly published scam ads featuring prominent Australian celebrities, but failed to address the issue even after those celebrities complained. The consumer watchdog is seeking declarations, injunctions, penalties, costs and other orders.     ARGENTINA: Argentina's Senate approved a debt deal of $45 billion with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Thursday night. The deal is intended to restructure a $57 billion program the country received in 2018. Nestled within the agreement is a provision entitled "Strengthening financial resilience," which looks to discourage the use of cryptocurrencies in the country. To further safeguard financial stability, the letter of intent signed by the Senate and IMF on March 3 notes "strong bank oversight will continue, especially following the unwinding of pandemic-related regulatory forbearance."   TAIWAN: Taiwan's MaiCoin Crypto Exchange is considering selling shares on Nasdaq within two years. Regulatory challenges from the island's central bank may linger, and could hamper a Taiwan dollar stablecoin project that is being backed by MaiCoin. In the meantime, MaiCoin expects trading revenue to continue rising, inching up by over 70% by 2025. Currently, traders on the exchange can use the Taiwan dollar via domestic bank transfers.  JOY RIDE: Mobile entertainment company Joyride Games has raised $14 million in seed and follow-on financing ahead of its launch. Founder and CEO Omar Siddiqui told CoinDesk that funding for the Web 3 platform will be used to add more support blockchains to the platform's token wallet, including new non-fungible token (NFT) features and integrations with marketplaces. Over six months, funding will also be used to help launch the first games completed on the Joyride platform. Users will be able to build and launch blockchain-powered esports including casual and social games on their mobile devices.    –Fran Velasquez Overheard on CoinDesk TV... Sound Bites "I made it clear that we should only sanction the people who are on the list of sanctions."    –Kuna Exchange's Michael Chobanian, following Senate Banking Committee hearing, on CoinDesk TV's "First Mover." What's the best way to beat the crypto market volatility? By sidestepping it altogether.   This is the premise of Earn – Nexo's industry-leading solution, that allows you to utilize your idle assets into a predictable source of passive income.    Unlock your crypto's full potential by earning up to 17% interest on hot assets, including BTC, ETH, AVAX, SOL, FTM, LUNA, DOT, MATIC and more.    Get daily compounding interest with our FLEX offering, or maximize your yield by opting for our Fixed Terms. Whatever you choose, rest assured – all assets in your Nexo account benefit from a $375M insurance by our industry-renowned custodians.   Get the ball rolling by depositing your digital assets till March 31 for a welcome bonus of up to $100. Open your account now at nexo.io What others are writing... Off-Chain Signals Central Bank of Russia tightens P2P transactions monitoring, including those in crypto (Cointelegraph)  Google Lands First Subsea Cable in Africa to Spur Digital Access (Bloomberg) Someone borrowed 5 Bored Apes to claim $1.1 million of APE tokens (The Block) Crypto Exchange Binance Confirms Shutdown in Ontario, Canada (Decrypt) Crypto Phising Groups Solicit Phony Aid Donations Amid Ukraine Conflict (Decrypt) Universal Music label acquires Ape NFT to lead virtual music group (Reuters) It's never been easier to earn interest on Bitcoin and Tether with BitMEX EARN. Enjoy up to 10% APR on Tether and 4% on Bitcoin, fully backed by the BitMEX Insurance Fund.    With new products, reliable security, and responsive customer service, there's never been a better time to join BitMEX. Start earning interest today by subscribing to EARN here.    BitMEX products and services are not available to US Persons and in other specified jurisdictions. Putting the news into perspective The Takeaway Why Is the IMF So Afraid of Cryptocurrency?   It seems increasingly clear that opposition to cryptocurrency can be considered an official position of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and we can expect anti-crypto restrictions to become a common condition of its loans to economies in crisis.   Most recently, Argentina has agreed to "discourage" the use of cryptocurrency as a condition of a $45 billion loan from the IMF. The announcement comes less than a year after El Salvador's plan to use bitcoin as legal tender met with vocal complaints from the IMF ahead of negotiations on a loan with that country.     Argentina has been mired in a dire economic crisis for years, with fallout including high inflation. The country also carries huge sovereign debt and has a history default, making borrowing on conventional markets more difficult.   Meanwhile, as laid out by The Block, Buenos Aires has become a significant center of blockchain and crypto development, substantially because the country's economic and monetary chaos has pushed residents to seek the relative stability and trustworthiness of crypto like bitcoin. Crypto companies and organizations in the country are still reportedly seeking clarity on what exactly it would mean for their government to "discourage" the use of crypto.   But if Argentines have decided that crypto is a useful way for them to individually cope with economic chaos, why is the IMF trying to stop them?   Read the full story here.   –David Z. Morris  What Crypto Can Learn From the Play-to-Earn Economy     While cryptocurrency struggles daily to gain acceptance among merchants and consumers, one corner of the blockchain space is enjoying sevenfold annual growth: play-to-earn. When something is expanding that fast – especially from a low baseline – it can't be assumed that everyone who ought to know about it by now actually does. So let's start with the obvious question: What exactly is play-to-earn?   P2E for short, it's the gaming model where "a platform provides its players with a chance to earn any form of in-game assets that can be transferred to the real world as a valuable resource," according to CoinMarketCap. "It effectively gives players a chance to generate revenue by participating in games."   *This is sponsored content from Blockchain Brawlers. The Chaser... The Node A newsletter from CoinDesk Were you forwarded this newsletter? Sign up here. See Previous Editions Copyright © 2022 CoinDesk, All rights reserved.  250 Park Avenue South New York, NY 10003, USA Unsubscribe | Manage your email preferences | Opt out