Today in Crypto: Swedish Central Bank Reports Positively on e-Krona Pilot; Binance Takes Lead in $600M Hacker Bailout

The new phase of the Swedish e-krona project has been going on since February, and now the country wants to test its viability for smart payments, Sveriges Riksbank, the central bank of Sweden, announced Wednesday (April 6).

During Phase 2, the technical tests have looked into whether an e-krona might function offline and whether the performance of the tested solution is adequate, according to the bank.

The tests have shown that it’s possible to integrate an e-krona into the internal systems the banks have today. Now, the tests want to see if this would make it possible for customers to exchange money in their bank account for the coin, and vice versa.

In addition, Binance will be leading investors’ contribution to a bailout of victims of a massive digital coin theft from the game Axie Infinity, Reuters wrote Wednesday.

Sky Mavis, the company behind Axie Infinity, was recently hit by a $615 million heist — one of the biggest crypto heists on record — which made it so users couldn’t withdraw their money from the game.

Furthermore, American Bank announced Wednesday that Bakkt Holdings has been selected as its new crypto connect solution.

According to the press release, that will allow customers to buy, sell and hold the two biggest cryptocurrencies, bitcoin and ethereum. Sheela Zemlin, chief revenue officer at Bakkt, said there’s more consumer intrigue and interest in crypto than there ever has been.

In other news, Near Protocol, a blockchain developer, has raised $350 million — over double what it got in its last round, Bloomberg wrote Wednesday.

The investment was led by Tiger Global and shows how much interest there is in crypto startups, per the report. The backers of the deal reportedly see it as a sign that there are more investors that have faith in the blockchain’s ability to underpin a decentralized web.

Finally, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele has canceled his planned participation in Miami’s Bitcoin 2022 Conference, Coindesk wrote Wednesday.

He cited “unforeseen circumstances” needing his full attention at home, though he didn’t say what they were. The report noted that El Salvador is currently seeing issues with criminal gangs called “maras,” with 62 people recently killed on March 27 attributed to those gangs.