💰 CRYPTO MACRO
🟢 Celsius blog post cites need for more time to stabilize liquidity and operations
- The lender is yet to continue withdrawals, which were blocked last Monday.
🟢 Over half of Latin Americans have paid with crypto
- A Mastercard survey has found that 51% of Latin Americans have used cryptocurrencies to make a payment.
👾 NFTs
🟢 MoonPay launches NFT platform with Universal, Fox
- The new platform, Hypermint, will significantly upscale NFT minting by enabling brands, agencies, and enterprises to mint hundreds of millions of NFTs a day.
- The platform presents an opportunity for legacy brands like Universal and Fox that own decades worth of intellectual property.
🟢 Magic Eden reaches unicorn status
- The Solana NFT marketplace has just raised $130M at a $1.6B valuation in a Series B co-led by Electric Capital and Greylock Partners.
- The round comes just three months after it closed a $27 million Series A in March & highlights optimism around NFTs on Solana.
🟢 UniSwap Labs acquires Genie
- Genie is an NFT marketplace aggregator, and the integration will allow NFT trading across multiple marketplaces.
- Uniswap will airdrop USDC to Genie users who had used the marketplace more than once.
- The acquisition will enable NFT trading in UniSwap’s web app.
🟢 Doodles NFT announces Pharrell as Chief Brand Officer
- Doodles also announced its first funding round led by VC firm Seven Seven Six.
- Pharrell will help shape the collections approach to: music, artwork, events, consumer production.
🟢 BitGo launches institutional NFT custody solution
- The product is the first custody solution that can be paired with hot wallets and is available in the US.
- BitGo currently services 700 institutional clients
🟢 Ukraine sells donated crypto punk for $100,000
- The Punk was donated to Ukraine in March as part of Aid for Ukraine.
🟢 BAYC founders hit back on Nazi accusations
- The famous NFT pfp founders claim they’re the target of a “Crazy disinformation campaign.”’
🟢 Christiano Ronaldo signs NFT deal with Binance
- The footballer will work with Binance to sell an NFT collection available exclusively on the exchange.
🟢 Meta announces plans to test NFTs on Instagram stories
- Using Spark AR, Instagram users will be able to share their digital collectibles.
🟢 The NHL is set to launch a marketplace for Hockey NFTs
- The National Hockey League has partnered with NFT platform, Sweet, to launch a marketplace and series of collectibles.
🟢 eBay has purchased NFT marketplace KnownOrigin
- eBay began allowing NFT trading on their platform last year.
- This is the latest in a series of moves by eBay to reimagine itself as tech-led.
🟢 Shopify is launching NFT-gated storefronts
- Online retailers and brands will be able to make their stores more exclusive through this function.
🟢 Gucci joins SuperRare DAO
- The high end fashion brand has partnered with NFT marketplace, SupeRare, in yet another move in the web3 space.
🏙 METAVERSE
🟢 KPMG kicks off Metaverse Collaboration Hub
- The accounting giant aims to assist clients during the ‘implementation and operationalization stage’ of their metaverse journey.
🟢 Meta, Microsoft and others announce Metaverse Standards Forum
- The MSF aims to drive cooperation on interoperability standards within the growing online space.
- Major brands such as Decentraland and The Sandbox are not part of the MSF.
🟢 A third of gold investors prefer bitcoin
- The Paxos survey includes responses from 1000 adults that have purchased some form of gold.
🎮 CRYPTO GAMING
🟢 Axie to reopen Ronin bridge
- Axie has decided to re-open its Ronin bridge following a $600M exploit.
- The team has promised to reimburse lost user funds.
🟢 Lionsgate teams up with The Sandbox
- Lionsgate is the first film and TV studio to partner with the Sandbox
- Lionsgate plans to develop its own LAND plot called “Action City’’
- Action City will be an entertainment destination in the metaverse that will feature Voxel avatar versions of famous characters and items produced by Lionsgate.
🟢 Activision Blizzard exec becomes blockchain co-CEO at Catheon Gaming
- Former Activision Blizzard APAC head Mark Aubrey is the new co-CEO Catheon Gaming.
🟢 TIME partners with The Sandbox
- Well known for their physical TIME Magazine, TIME is increasing its online presence in a partnership with The Sandbox.
- TIME is partnering with The Sandbox to build a virtual experience, TIME Square.
🚀 CRYPTO & BUSINESS
🟢 Solana DeFi platform causes controversy
- Users of the Solana based borrowing and lending platform, Solend, temporarily voted to takeover the whale’s large account which is at risk of liquidation, to avoid a large-scale liquidation event which could cause Solana to go down.
- The decision was reversed after significant backlash.
- A third vote has proposed borrowing limits and a reduced liquidation penalty.
- The whale’s Solend deposits amount to around $160M in SOL.
- The situation is highly controversial for a number of reasons.
- The SOL whale, who remained inactive for a period, has since moved $25M to a different protocol on Solana. This means Solend would not suffer the full force of the liquidation, but does not alleviate the problem entirely. The whale has not reduced their position size.
🟢 BitFinex and Tether have no plans to cut jobs
- The two companies are looking to hire more staff, despite other major players doing the opposite.
🟢 Maple Finance warns of insufficient funds
- Maple Finance has added to the list of lending & borrowing platforms that are suffering liquidity risks, as it warns that lenders must wait for borrowers’ loans to mature before they can reclaim their capital.
🟢 Three Arrows Capital owes Voyager around $657M
- Three Arrows Capital has until the day of this newsletters’ publication to repay the loan.
- Analysts claim that the scenario raises ‘survivability questions’ for Voyager.
- Voyager’s stock slid significantly on the news.
🟢 dydx announces plans for own blockchain
- The popular derivatives trading platform plans to build its blockchain in the Cosmos ecosystem.
- The fact that dydx is opting to launch on Cosmos despite layer-2 developments on Ethereum is bullish for the Cosmos ecosystem
🟢 Polygon launches Polygon ID
- Polygon ID is a private, self-sovereign identity solution powered by zero-knowledge cryptography.
- Polygon ID provides users with complete control of their digital identity, allowing them to prove they possess certain attributes without revealing any personal information.
- Polygon ID is integrated with Polygon DAO. More DAOs will roll out the identity solution soon.
🟢 Tether to issue GBP backed stablecoin
- GBPT will be 1:1 pegged to the Great British Pound and will launch in July.
🟢 Citibank choses Metaco for digital asset custody
- Metaco has already worked on digital asset custody for various banks such as BBVA and GazpromBank.
🟢 BlockFi receives $250M from FTX
- The lending platform says the loan will bolster its balance sheet and platform strength.
- This is good news for BlockFi users, who have been concerned following the ongoing situation with alternative crypto lending platform, Celsius.
🟢 Celsius seeks bankruptcy advice, Goldman Sachs reportedly eyeing assets
- Celsius has allegedly hired bankruptcy consultants after halting withdrawals two weeks ago.
- Celsius customers are not guaranteed their funds back in the event of a bankruptcy.
- Goldman Sachs is reportedly raising $2B to purchase Celsius’s assets at a discount.
🟢 Solana to release web3 mobile phone
- The device, Saga, will be available in 2023 and will use Android.
- The device is a move to facilitate the wider adoption of web3 on mobile devices.
🟢 THORchain mainnet goes live
- After four years of development, THORchain has launched on seven different networks.
- THORchain enables cross-chain swaps without bridging or wrapping assets.
- The launch of mainnet itself does not mark any significant protocol upgrades.
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