Last week's 5 most important crypto news stories

Worldcoin launches on several exchanges, US comes up with new crypto laws, Optimism overtakes Arbitrum and much more. Another exciting week in the crypto sector is coming up. Let's take a closer look at it in this week's overview.

Worldcoin launches on multiple exchanges

Last week, Worldcoin was launched on several exchanges. Anycoin Direct was the first Dutch party to add Worldcoin on Tuesday, July 25. At its peak, WLD reached a price of US$3.15. At the time of writing, OpenAI founder Sam Altman's coin stands at 2.19 - up 31 percent.

The project is enjoying great popularity, despite some critics. Using iris scans, users can prove their identity online. More than two million people, most in the global South, have already been verified and now hope to be rewarded with tokens in the form of basic income. A new user is reportedly added every nearly eight seconds. Read the following article to learn more about the Worldcoin project.

Putin signs law for digital ruble

In Russia, since Tuesday, the way is clear for the digital ruble. President Vladimir Putin signed a law introducing a Russian central currency. Under the law, Bank Rossii is now authorized to issue its own national currency digitally to citizens. Whether Russian citizens will actually use the coin remains to be seen. According to a central bank statement, daily use of the digital currency is not expected until 2025 at the earliest. Meanwhile, the EU is also working on a digital euro. In that, however, the blockchain hardly plays a role.

Fed and ECB raise key interest rates

Last week, key interest rate hikes were also in the spotlight. The U.S. Federal Reserve kicked off with a 25 basis point increase to a total of 5.5 percent. A day later, the European Central Bank (ECB) followed suit. It too raised the key interest rate by 25 basis points to 4.25 percent. As a result, the bitcoin rate slid downward.

US brings crypto laws to market

The U.S. introduced several crypto laws this week. On Thursday morning, the Finance Committee of the House of Representatives began with the "Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act" and the "21st Century Act." The latter also passed the Agriculture Committee a day later. Indeed, all bodies in American politics must support a bill before it can advance to the "next round.

The laws are intended to provide regulatory clarity in the US. For example, they regulate the responsibilities of the CFTC and SEC authorities and are intended to give exchanges a guideline for going through licensing procedures.

Optimism overtakes Arbitrum

Competition among ETH L2 networks continues to intensify. On July 25, Optimism caught up with rival Arbitrum, at least in terms of transactions. OP came to more than 840,000, while ARB made only 630,000 transfers. Market observers explain the turnaround with the launch of Worldcoin (WLD), whose trading volume is largely handled by Optimism.