Elon Musk Wants McDonald’s to Accept Dogecoin; Amazon to Launch NFT Initiative

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has come out as a Dogecoin supporter again, expressing his love for the fast-food giant McDonald’s. After being forthcoming with his interest in Dogecoin, the Tesla chief responded to a series of tweets from Mcdonald’s and the crypto community. Earlier, McDonald’s had tweeted, “what did I miss,” which prompted Binance’s Twitter account to reply, “A lot of green candles.” Mcdonald’s then once again showed its love for the crypto community by responding with “wagmi,” which is an acronym for “we are all gonna make it”, often used by the crypto community to build trust and encourage the community not to lose hope, according to a report by crypto news outlet Bitcoinist. To this, Elon Musk responded with, “Oh, hi lol.”

Meanwhile, a report by Binance questioned how likely it is that McDonald’s will accept Dogecoin for payments. This development comes after Elon Musk made his Happy Meal offer in January 2022. At that time, the DOGE price surged by double digits. However, McDonald’s did not react seriously to accepting Dogecoin as a payment method, tweeting, “only if Tesla accepts Grimacecoin,” the Binance report said.

Calling it a publicity gimmick, the Binance report said that it seems more likely that the fast food company simply wants to generate free publicity and engagement with the crypto community via its tweets, further notifying that beyond tweets, the multinational corporation has yet to show any aspirations regarding crypto.

Amazon to Launch NFT Initiative

E-commerce giant Amazon is reportedly taking another step to solidify its position in the crypto industry, as per a report from crypto news outlet Blockworks. The report states that the company will launch a non-fungible token (NFT) initiative sometime in spring 2023, citing six sources familiar with the matter. Additionally, the Blockworks report claimed that Amazon has partnered with over ten crypto projects to support its NFT initiative. As a result, the program could likely revive the sector and strengthen it following a decline in the NFT market from its 2021 high.

The report further notes that the e-commerce giant will focus on different sectors with plans to dab into NFT gaming, and the platform will reward players with unique items in the form of NFTs. Amazon already offers its Prime service subscribers access to a videogame platform, and members of this service can access the platform’s catalog and receive monthly rewards to claim AAA games, the report said.

The Blockworks report said that the new NFT initiative could bolster the service by offering rewards and attracting new users. The NFT platform is currently under development and could run on Amazon proper rather than on Amazon Web Services (AWS). The report said the company could reveal further information in April 2023, but there is no official statement from Amazon or its executives. Interestingly, Amazon is joining the league of other big tech

companies with ambitions in the crypto space, including Meta, Twitter, and others that have already launched their crypto initiatives allowing their users to interact with digital assets.

US White House Calls Regulators To ‘Step Up Its Efforts’ on Crypto Rules

Four senior US officials in the White House published a statement on Friday urging Congress to “step up its efforts” concerning regulating the cryptocurrency market, according to a report by Binance. The officials, Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, Arati Prabhakar, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Cecilia Rouse, chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan – wrote that Congress “should expand regulators’ powers to prevent misuses of customers’ assets…and to mitigate conflicts of interest,” the report said.

The report highlighted other suggestions for Congress in the statement, which included strengthening transparency and disclosure requirements for crypto companies, strengthening penalties for violations of illicit-finance rules, and working more closely with international law enforcement partners. However, the officials also suggested what Congress should not do to craft new crypto regulation, including “greenlight[ing] mainstream institutions, like pension funds, to dive headlong into cryptocurrency markets.” To do so, the officials warned, “would be a grave mistake” that “deepens ties between cryptocurrencies and the broader financial system,” as per the report.

Additionally, the report said that though FTX was not directly named in the statement, the presence of the now-defunct crypto exchange loomed large over the officials’ guidance, which called 2022 “a tough year for cryptocurrencies” plagued by the implosion of “a so-called ‘stablecoin’ prompting a wave of insolvencies” and the subsequent collapse of “a major cryptocurrency exchange.”