It seems that we will have times of economic crisis for a long time, since now the European Union has been in charge of showing us that there is still a long way to go, to control inflation. Meanwhile, retailers begin to accumulate crypto assets, new projects emerge, and more acceptance of crypto assets is generated in different sectors.

Inflation is undoubtedly the public enemy of all countries in this 2022, and it seems that the procedure to be able to neutralize it will be quite complex, and it could take a few more months. Now the main witnesses that confirm this to us have been the countries of the European Union, since it has broken records again, this being the highest inflation figure in the history of the European Union, with a figure of 10.9%, according to Eurostat.

It is said that the annual inflation in Europe came from the increase in energy prices by 4.19%, accompanied by the food sector, alcohol and tobacco, services and non-energy industrial goods.

The highest interest rates were recorded in the following countries:

• Estonian: 24.1%
• Lithuania: 22.5%
• Latvia: 22.0%

On the other hand, the lowest were in:

• France: 6.2%
• Malt: 7.4%
• Finland 8.4%

It should be noted that the United Kingdom is also in a critical situation in terms of inflation levels, since they have registered the highest in 40 years, reaching 10.1% according to data from the National Statistics Office (ONS).

The distribution of the Bitcoin supply shows something interesting, since despite the difficulties presented by the current economic situation, retailers have started to accumulate Bitcoin during the last few weeks, and the supply for those who own between 0.01 and 10 Bitcoins, has reaching its maximum percentage of supply, above 15.9%. However, the whales show a different behavior, since the supply of all those who control between 100 and 10,000 BTC has fallen to minimum values of the last three years, according to Santiment. What does this mean?

In other news, international payment and bank card giant Mastercard announced the launch of a Bitcoin and cryptocurrency trading program for financial institutions. The service, known as Crypto Source, will act as a bridge between Paxos and the banks. Mastercard and Paxos will take care of regulatory compliance and security, two main reasons that make banks avoid this asset class.

The launch of the program announced by Mastercard is scheduled for the first quarter of 2023. However, no further details are known about the banks that have registered so far.

Now we bring news for all football lovers who are part of our community, and it is that Real Madrid’s French striker, Karim Benzema, won the Ballon d’Or 2022, and was also awarded an NFT to commemorate this great achievement.

During the award ceremony, which took place last Monday in Paris, Benzema received the physical trophy along with a box containing an electronic device in which the award is stored in digital format. Another element to note is that the launch of a new collection of NFTs about the Ballon d’Or has been announced, for the general public.

The acceptance of crypto assets in financial institutions continues, and in this case it fell to NuBank, as the Brazilian digital banking startup will launch its own cryptocurrency next year, marking a big step in terms of the implementation of digital assets by of a large financial institution.

Nubank announced last Wednesday that it will launch its own token, called Nucoin, in early 2023. In a press release, the company touted Nucoin as a new way to recognize customer loyalty and encourage engagement with Nubank products. The company also plans to offer discounts and other benefits to token holders.

One of the most alarming events and controversies of 2022, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and its economic repercussions continue, and it has been announced that Kraken will be the last cryptocurrency exchange that restricts Russian user accounts on its platform, with the in order to comply with European Union sanctions.

Last Wednesday, the company sent an email to its clients in that country to announce that they will suspend their services. At the moment they did not specify if there is a time limit for the Russians to withdraw their funds from the exchange. How long will this strong conflict end?

Bitcoin has been quite static, and is in that same resistance zone that we saw last week, trading above $19,200. There seems to be a lot of indecision and uncertainty. If it continues going down, we can see another important zoner near $17,100.

BTC/USDT 1D (TradingView Chart).

For its part, Ethereum is also at a price similar to that of last week, above $1,300. However, Ethereum seems to be using the closest important level as a support zone, so you will have to keep an eye on what happens with both assets, since they tend to have a fairly high correlation. Ethereum has a next resistance level near $1,770.

ETH/USDT 1D (TradingView Chart).

Inflation has negatively impacted every country in the world, and the recession looks set to be quite long. However, crypto assets continue to develop innovations and functionalities that add value to society, so we will have to be patient and do our own research in order to find the best opportunities. Without further ado, we wish you an amazing week.