Google parent company, Alphabet, invested $1.5 billion in the blockchain industry between Sep. 2021 and Jun. 2022, cryptonews.net reports.

According to Blockdata, Alphabet (Google) was revealed as the investor with the deepest pockets compared to the top 40 public corporations investing in blockchain and crypto companies during the period.

The company invested $1.5 billion into the space, concentrating on four blockchain companies including digital asset custody platform Fireblocks, Web3 gaming company Dapper Labs, Bitcoin infrastructure tool Voltage, and venture capital company Digital Currency Group.

This is in stark contrast to last year, where Google diversified its much smaller $601.4 million funding effort across 17 blockchain-based companies, which again included Dapper Labs, along with Alchemy, Blockchain.com, Celo, Helium and Ripple.

Google’s increased investment into the blockchain industry is consistent with the other top 40 publicly traded companies, with $6 billion in total being invested during this time, compared to $1.9 billion between Jan. 2021 to Sep. 2021 and $506 million in all of 2020.

According to data from Chainalysis, Turkey was the largest cryptocurrency market in the Middle East in 2021, with the exchange volume expanding by 1,500% y/y, bne Intellinews reports.

Attorney Burcak Unsal, an expert in cryptocurrencies, noted that the Turkish transaction cryptocurrency volume last year was one of the biggest in the world. Statista Portal, meanwhile, presented data showing Turkey was the world’s fourth biggest cryptocurrency market in 2020 in relation to the number of users.

The attraction of cryptocurrencies in emerging market Turkey stems from the high volatility and plummeted value of the Turkish lira (TRY). Since 2020, the chronic depreciation of the lira has driven many private actors to find a more secure way to invest and save their money.

Turkish residents who relied on the dollar and other strong foreign currencies to protect their savings have become more reluctant to rely solely on such fiat money to protect their assets and investments. Thus, cryptocurrencies become more and more popular while the national fiat money is perceived as less stable than digital assets. A similar trend is visible in South America and Africa.

UAE’s Discount store iDay To Day Hypermarket is the first in the UAE to accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency payments, Gulf News reports.

This payment method will be accepted for both physical branches as well as Day To Day Hypermarket's online shopping website (daytoday.ae).

The payment process will require your mobile phone. For in store payments, it involves a POS machine located in the stores that will facilitate the transaction. For online shopping payments, simply click on the option of the cryptocurrency payments, a link provided by the website (daytoday.ae) will facilitate the payment there on. In both cases, payments can be processed instantly and in a hassle free manner.

With the launch of the latest advancements in cryptocurrency payment systems, Day To Day Hypermarket has set a benchmark for other retailers in the UAE - not only will it cater to the expats but also to the citizens of the UAE.

According to a new study by CoinGecko, Nigeria and the UAE have been the “most curious about cryptocurrency” since the market crashed recently this year, Zawya reports.

The crypto price tracker had looked at Google Trends data of search items frequently used by Internet users that are interested in cryptocurrency.

With a total search score of 371, Nigeria landed the top spot, having the highest search levels for the phrases “cryptocurrency”, “invest in crypto” and “buy crypto” worldwide. For users in this market, “Solana” was the third most-searched cryptocurrency worldwide.

In the UAE, which had a total search score of 270, residents were searching for “cryptocurrency” and “invest in crypto”.

Top 15 countries most interested in cryptocurrency since April 2022:

1. Nigeria

2. UAE

3. Singapore

4. Australia

5. United Kingdom

6. Canada

7. Georgia

8. Lebanon

9. New Zealand

10. Trinidad & Tobago

11. Pakistan

12. United States

13. Ireland

14. Cyprus

15. Kenya

Luxury jewelry brand Tiffany & Co has announced the sale of 250 diamond and gemstone encrusted pendants for CryptoPunk nonfungible token (NFT) holders, Cointelegraph reports.

The handcrafted CryptoPunk pendants were announced by the jewelry brand on Sunday on Twitter, and are priced at 30 Ether (ETH), equivalent to $50,600 each at the time of writing.

We’re taking NFTs to the next level. Exclusive to CryptoPunks holders, NFTiff transforms your NFT into a bespoke pendant handcrafted by Tiffany & Co. artisans. You’ll also receive an additional NFT version of the pendant. Learn more: https://t.co/FJwCAxw8TN #NFTiff #TiffanyAndCo pic.twitter.com/pyKlWejHv4

— Tiffany & Co. (@TiffanyAndCo) July 31, 2022

Each CryptoPunk is limited to a maximum of three NFTiff tokens that allow them to mint a customized pendant. There are 87 different attributes and 159 colors that can be used to custom design the pendants, and the pendant itself will be composed of 18-Karat rose or yellow gold, based on the color palette of the NFT.

Following the announcement by the Federal Reserve that it was raising interest rates by 0.75 percentage point, prices of both bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH) immediately rose by 4.5% and 5.5% respectively, Cryptonews reports.

BTC’s price soared to USD 22,590, while ETH hit USD 1,580. Stocks also rose, with the broad S&P 500 index up 1% since the announcement and up 2.2% for the day to trade just above the key 4,000 level.

In his press conference, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that “another unusually large increase could be appropriate at the next meeting” in September. However, he added that as rates become more restrictive, it will likely be appropriate to “slow the pace of increases.” Powell also repeatedly made it clear that the Fed’s decisions going forward will be “data-driven,” and said the central bank is “strongly committed to returning inflation to its 2% objective.”