Turkey’s central bank banned the use of cryptocurrencies to pay for goods and services. The central bank said that cryptocurrencies pose significant risks. Bitcoin has been a popular investment in Turkey since the local currency Lira has performed poorly in the past few years.

Liquity, a new “interest-free loan” decentralized lending protocol has attracted $1 billion in total value locked (TVL) in just 10 days. The new lending protocol is backed by Pantera Capital and offers interest-free loans against Ethereum collateral. Users have to maintain a minimum collateral ratio of 110%.

Larry Fink, CEO of Blackrock, one of the worlds largest asset managers, said in a recent interview that “crypto may become a great asset class” but equally that crypto is not a “substitute of currency.” He seemed to be more bullish on stablecoins or “cryptocurrencies of dollars” as he called them.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Turkey Bans Use of Cryptocurrencies for Payments
• DeFi Protocol Attracts $1 Billion Total Value Locked in First 10 Days  
• Blackrock CEO: Crypto ‘May Become a Great Asset Class’ But Isn’t a Substitute for Currency

Turkey Bans Use of Cryptocurrencies for Payments

Turkey’s central bank banned the use of cryptocurrencies to pay for goods and services. The central bank said that cryptocurrencies pose significant risks. Bitcoin has been a popular investment in Turkey since the local currency Lira has performed poorly in the past few years, in March Turkey’s annual inflation rose above 16%. The Central Bank of Turkey said in a statement:

"Payment service providers will not be able to develop business models in a way that crypto assets are used directly or indirectly in the provision of payment services and electronic money issuance, and will not be able to provide any services related to such business models,"

DeFi Protocol Attracts $1 Billion Total Value Locked in First 10 Days

Liquity, a new “interest-free loan” decentralized lending protocol has attracted $1 billion in total value locked (TVL) in just 10 days. The new lending protocol is backed by Pantera Capital and offers interest-free loans against Ethereum collateral. Users have to maintain a minimum collateral ratio of 110%.

Loans are paid out in the protocols native algorithmic stablecoin ‘LUSD’ which is pegged to the value of a US dollar. The protocol mints new LUSD to meet user demand and so far $480 million LUSD has been minted. Users can earn staking rewards from issuance fees  by providing liquidity to the protocol, which is one of the reasons the protocol has grown so fast. At the time of writing Liquity is ranked 27 by total value locked according to data aggregator DeFi Lama.

Blackrock CEO: Crypto ‘May Become a Great Asset Class’ But Isn’t a Substitute for Currency

Larry Fink, CEO of Blackrock, one of the worlds largest asset managers, said in a recent interview that “crypto may become a great asset class” but equally that crypto is not a “substitute of currency.” He seemed to be more bullish on stablecoins or “cryptocurrencies of dollars” as he called them.

Blackrock has dabbled in crypto and made a small profit from trading crypto in Q1 and are actively studying it: "We’re studying it, we’ve made money on it, but I’m not here to tell you that we’re seeing broad-based interest by institutions worldwide. [...] We've had very little interconnectivity on the conversation on crypto other than a fascination."

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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