As we approach the final trading days of February, here are some of the most notable stories that impacted the cryptocurrency market this past week:

BlockFi Will Reach Settlement With U.S. Regulators

The high interest paid by BlockFi to clients who register cryptocurrency savings account has been called into question by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which believe that these accounts are being managed as investing securities. BlockFi will now have to pay a $100 million fine to the SEC and various state regulators; moreover, the company will need to adjust the way it structures its financial services over the next couple of months.

JPMorgan Gets Into Crypto Finance Through the Metaverse

Banking and investing giant JPMorgan has opened a virtual space in the Decentraland metaverse world, and it intends to promote its proprietary Onyx blockchain platform through this digital portal. Even though JPMorgan was dismissive and doubtful of Bitcoin in the past, things have changed, and the bank's analysts now believe that the metaverse will become a $1 trillion market over the next few years.

Bank of Russia Prepares to Circulate Digital Rubles

The Russian ruble was the first successful digital currency project carried out by a central, but it has not been tested for real-world currency until now. The digital ruble is a centralized ERC20 token that aims to modernize payments in Russia, and it seeks to offer an alternative to the euro, an international currency that does not seem to have digital plans in store. The team is led by Dmitry Klyuev, a former bitcoin core developer, and Dmitry Shvetsov, a developer for the Russian government who has worked on a number of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency projects. The digital currency will work across all regions and will eventually be supported in mobile wallets. With daily transaction volumes of $9.7 billion, the volume of Russian payments transactions settled with rubles beg for a thorough modernization, and the Bank of Russia prefers to see those payments made with digital rubles instead of major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Tether. As can be imagined, the Bank of Russia will have full control over the value of the digital ruble.