💰 CRYPTO MACRO
🟢 Bank of England calls for greater regulation
- The Bank’s financial stability report noted that while crypto doesn’t pose an immediate risk to the financial system, regulatory clarity is necessary as the industry develops.
🟢 Stablecoin growth highlights how significant reserves ready to be deployed across the market
- Stablecoin market caps have witnessed significant growth since 2020.
- Stablecoins, like MakerDAO’s DAI, have grown more than 20 times in size.
- Although the total market cap of crypto is down since November 2020, stablecoins’ market cap has risen. This indicates that capital is waiting on the sidelines, ready to be deployed.
🟢 Indian crypto trading volume plummets due to new tax rules
- Volumes on WazirX, ZebPay, CoinDCX and BitBNS have tumbled between 10% to 70% in the last seven days, data from CoinGecko shows.
- The new rules impose a 1% tax on every cryptocurrency transaction above Rs 10,000 (around $125).
- The tax discourages activities that have slim profit margins or require high trading volumes.
👾 NFTs
🟢 Ethereum Name Service domain name purchased for record breaking 300 ETH
- Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domains allow users to change their wallet addresses so that they’re human readable, rather than a 40 digit long string of hexadecimal characters.
- ENS domain “000.eth” was purchased last week for 300 ETH, causing a spike in ENS registrations that saw ENS top OpenSea in trading volume for the first-time ever.
🟢 Motor racing team to adopt NFT verification for car parts
- GT racing team Vincenzo Sospiri will use NFTs to certify and authenticate car parts.
- This is a part of the pilot scheme by Go2NFT, who specialize in corporate NFTs.
🟢 Alibaba, Tencent, and other Chinese tech giants will require ID checks to trade NFTs
- These tech firms signed a “self-disciplined development proposal” to bring clarity to the NFT space.
- The signatories also reaffirmed the regulation banning the use of cryptocurrencies.
🟢 Founder of Baller Ape Club NFT facing up to 40 years in prison
- The Department of Justice will be filing charges for wire fraud and international money laundering.
- Le Anh Traun allegedly collected $2.6 million from the Baller Ape Club mint.
🟢 LimeWire teams up with variety of artists to launch NFTs on their platform
- The artists, including Travis Barker, Brandy, and Nicky Jam, will launch exclusive artwork, music, and fan experiences.
- LimeWire recently announced its transition from a peer-to-peer file sharing website to an NFT marketplace.
🟢 Reddit to launch Polygon-based NFT marketplace
- Reddit will partner with independent artists to create unique avatars that users can buy for a set fee.
- Collectible avatars will only be available for purchase with local currencies, not crypto.
🟢 DeFi firm Teller launched “Buy now pay later” scheme for NFTs
- The service only supports certain collections, such as BAYC, MAYC, Doodles and Moonbirds, among others.
- Unlike fractionalisation services, Teller allows one user to buy the whole NFT, just to pay the cost later.
🎮 CRYPTO GAMING
🟢 Konvoy Ventures launches $150M crypto gaming fund
- The fund will focus on pre-seed, seed and Series A investments, and adds to the list of funds that have been launched focusing exclusively on gaming.
🟢 Polium announces that it’s building a web3 games console
- The console will support games on the Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, BNB Chain, Harmony, EOS, Immutable X and WAX blockchains.
- The console is expected to be released Q3 2024.
🟢 Nike hints at integrating NFTs into video games
- Nike has filed a patent which shows how the brand wants to incorporate virtual objects, such as branded shoes, into video games.
🟢 Sandbox and BAYZ will expand its Metaverse in Brazil
- Leading metaverse platform, Sandbox, and web3 gaming company, BAYZ, have partnered to encourage metaverse expansion and crypto adoption in Latin America.
🟢 TikTok’s ex-gaming head launches web3 company
- The company; Meta0, aims to solve the lack of interconnectivity between Metaverses.
🟢 Source of Ronin bridge hack revealed
- A recent discovery highlights how a fake job offer is what led to the $540M exploit of Axie Infinity’s Ronin bridge.
- A senior engineer downloaded a malicious PDF document, allowing spyware to infiltrate Ronin’s systems and take over four of Ronin’s nine validators.
🟢 Samsung Next announces Genopets Investment
- Samsung Next, the tech investment division of Samsung, has announced a strategic partnership with move-to-earn game, and NFT Technologies portfolio project, Genopets.
🏙 METAVERSE
🟢 First Women-Led Web3 Conference will be held in Paris Next Week
- The Metaverse summit will take place from July 16th-17th.
- The summit will feature leading Metaverse entrepreneurs, builders and experts, who will discuss and collaborate about the future of Web3.
🚀 CRYPTO & BUSINESS
🟢 Tracking Celsius
🟢 Tracking Three Arrows Capital (3AC)
🟢 CremaFinance hacked for $8.7M
- The hacker used multiple flash loans and malicious data to drain the Solana-based liquidity protocol of funds.
🟢 Circle’s EUROC will begin with US-only trading
- Circle are awaiting relevant licenses to expand its EUROC offering to beyond the US.
🟢 Nexo to buy Vauld
- The cryptocurrency lender plans to acquire up to 100% of the struggling digital asset platform.
🟢 MakerDAO approves $100M stablecoin vault for US bank
- MakerDAO has approved the creation of a $100M stablecoin vault for 151 year old Huntingdon Valley Bank.
- The vault will allow the bank to mint DAI with off-chain assets as collateral.
- The collaboration will help DAI’s integration with TradFi and strengthen its case for use.
- Others have been critical of the move, citing regulatory risks and discontent about working with a TradFi institution.
🟢 Aave announces stablecoin plans
- The new stablecoin, GHO, will be overcollateralized and backed by Aave yield-bearing assets.
