A US Commerce Department report finally confirmed that the country was in a recession, by the traditional definition of two consecutive quarters of negative gross domestic product. This understandably had its sway on Wall Street and the crypto market.

The global cryptocurrency market cap is trading marginally higher at $942.84 billion, rising less than a per cent in the last 24 hours. However, the total trading volume tumbled as much as 16%, close to $69.93 billion.

Top crypto tokens were trading mixed this morning. Ethereum and Bitcoin dropped marginally, whereas XRP soared 9%. Polkadot gained over 4%, followed by a 2% rise in Polygon and Solana.

Interestingly, the bitcoin-British pound (BTC/GBP) pair listed on major cryptocurrency exchanges, including Bitstamp and Bitfinex, is more active than ever. This can be attributed to the fall in the price of the pound, and potential hedging activity by investors!

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During the Converge22 conference in San Francisco, Circle has made a number of announcements like usd coin (USDC) support being added to Robinhood Markets’ offerings.

In addition to partnering with Robinhood, Circle also announced the firm’s new “cross-chain transfer protocol to support USDC interoperability for developers [and] their users.”“Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol is permissionless and enables USDC to be sent natively across ecosystems, improving liquidity and reducing fragmentation of bridged assets,” Circle’s official Twitter account said on Wednesday.

Circle also announced it has acquired the payment services firm Elements. The company said that the acquisition “includes plans to quickly scale payment offerings to unlock utility value for crypto and lower the barrier of entry for merchants to access next-gen payments and financial services.”

In other news,

• BlackRock Introduces Blockchain ETF in Europe. Read More
• IOTA Launches Shimmer Network for Zero Fee Asset Tokenization. Read More
• OpenSea Partners up With Warner Music Group to Elevate Artists’ Chances in Web3. Read More
• Facebook, Instagram Enable NFTs for All U.S. Users. Read More

The new website will be the home for all our rich and insightful content, including past issues of our newsletters- Rebel Research, Rebel NFT News and Rebel Digest.

We can’t wait for you to dive into our Rebel Learn articles - a new series of educational articles around crypto, Web3, NFTs and so much more! This new segment is specially created and curated to be friendly to all levels from beginners to proficient and experienced learners.

We have poured our hearts and minds into creating this new platform for our community of Rebels and we hope that you find it as useful as we anticipate.

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The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), known to be the Central Bank for other countries’ Central Banks, is leading an ‘Icebreaker’ program to explore CBDC efficiency in international remittance and retail payments. The project involves the Innovative Hub of BIS, Nordic Centre, alongside the three central banks representing Norway, Israel, and Sweden.

BIS, an association of 61 central banks, runs its innovative hubs located in different regimes. The platforms conduct research and test new financial tools that can facilitate international money transfers in a better way.

The new Icebreaker hub, under the supervision of BIS, will set the environment for Central Banks to connect their domestic proof-of-concept CBDCs systems and test the functionality and efficiency of different interlinked CBDCs for cross-border payments.

The hurdles in the international payment transferred methods, like high fees, limited access, and lengthy processes, have pushed the Bank of International Settlements Innovative Hub (BISIH) to test the blockchain-based financial tool.

In other news,

• Russia Plans Next Step for Digital Ruble. Read More
• Australia Issues White Paper for Central Bank Digital Currency. Read More
• Lawmakers Draft Bill to Allow Crypto in 401(K) Plans. Read More

Stock and crypto investing app Robinhood has introduced a standalone self-custody cryptocurrency wallet dubbed the Robinhood Wallet – in collaboration with Ethereum-scaling platform Polygon.

The wallet supports Polygon as its first blockchain network. It gives customers total control of their crypto, allowing them to trade and swap crypto with no network fees, as well as access the decentralised web.

Johann Kerbrat, chief technology officer at Robinhood Crypto, said: “Launching the Robinhood Wallet beta marks a significant step forward in our journey to make Robinhood the most trusted and simple crypto platform for customers. Like we did with the stock market, Robinhood Wallet strips away some of the complexities of Web3 and DeFi to make crypto more accessible to everyone.

In other news,

• FTX wins bid to acquire bankrupt Voyager’s assets. Read More
• Ribbon Finance announces crypto options exchange Aevo. Read More
• Binance Launches Mining Pool for ETHW Protocol. Read More

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Ripple Labs has scored a big win as Judge Analisa Torres ordered the SEC to hand over documents from a 2018 speech made by then-SEC Director of the SEC’S Corporate Finance Division, William Hinman.

Judge Torres upheld earlier rulings by Judge Sarah Netburn and ordered the SEC to produce documents related to the 2018 Hinman speech. The Judge denied SEC objections to invoke due process privilege, attorney-client privilege, and the relevance of Hinman's speech documents.

By ordering the SEC to produce Hinman’s documents, the judge hands Ripple and its two executives a crucial win that potentially takes them one step closer to overturning the lawsuit that has lasted almost two years.

XRP rallied 10% after the ruling was announced.

In other news,

• Russia’s Authorities To Introduce Crypto Mining Law This Year. Read More
• Senate bill would create a legal grace period for crypto exchanges. Read More
• Fed Chair Powell Sees 'Real Need' for More Appropriate Defi Regulation. Read More