Weekly Web3 Roundup

• OpenSea’s smart contracts used the most gas in the Ethereum network last week, with OpenSea’s Seaport smart contract burning 8.64K ETH. 
• Based on last week’s data, the electrical cost of mining bitcoin is estimated to range between $13k to $16k, highly profitability issues.
• The total market cap recaptured $1 Trillion last week.
• Solana’s new daily address growth outpaces other blockchains, with active wallets up 58% since the start of the year.

THIS WEEK'S HEADLINES

🟣 Tracking Celsius

• Celsius’s financials reveal $1.2B hole in balance sheet.
• Celsius outlines reorganization plan a bankruptcy hearing

🟣 Tracking 3AC

• Genesis reveals $2.36B exposure to 3AC, files for Chapter 15 bankruptcy. 
• 3AC owes Moonbeam $27M, Court documents reveal

🟣 Yuga Labs gives first look at Otherside metaverse

• Last week, Yuga Labs opened up their Otherside metaverse for 4300 players for a first look demo.
• The metaverse will open up to Otherdeed land holders only in its first phase.
  

🟣 ERC721i - A New NFT standard

• Charged Particles have released a new token standard for NFTs, called ERC721i.
• The new token standard allows creators to pre-mint their projects for a very low cost, allowing them to interact with their NFTs on-chain before releasing them to the public.
• ERC721i NFTs can hold other NFTs and fungible tokens inside them.
• ERC721i affords creators the ability to let people choose which NFT to buy, rather than getting a random one at mint.
• The new standard does not impact the cost of purchase for first time buyers, minting is simply replaced by transferring.‍

🟣 Snapchat begins testing NFTs on their platform

• NFTs will be able to be turned into AR lenses, superimposed into real-world backgrounds.
• An initial release to a test group is expected in August.

🟣 ENS collector buys Sony.eth for $72,000

• ENS domains are a type of NFT, and a human-readable crypto address.
• The collector, Sunnybae, also owns coke.eth and ipad.eth.

🔵 Minecraft's developer bans NFT integrations

• Mojang studios, the developer of Minecraft, announced that it will exclude the integration of NFTs and blockchain technology.

🟢 Dubai reveals metaverse strategy

• Following in Shanghai’s footsteps, Dubai has become the second city in two weeks to reveal a metaverse strategy.
• The strategy aims to attract 1000 blockchain and metaverse companies to the city and support over 40,000 jobs by 2030.

🟢 Web3 platforms form the Open Metaverse Alliance

• The organization was established by Alien Worlds, Animoca Brands, Dapper Labs, Space, Superworlds, The Sandbox, Upland and Voxels.
• They will form a DAO aiming to be “transparent and user-centric.”

🟡 Christie’s launch venture fund

• The well-known British art and luxury business will invest in businesses that ‘enable seamless art consumption’.

🟡 Polygon launches zkEVM

• Polygon has launched the first roll up with EVM-equivalence.
• EVM-equivalence differs from the more well known EVM compatibility in that it is significantly easier to deploy a dApp on an EVM-equivalent chain than an EVM-compatible chain. 
• A dApp which exists on Ethereum’s mainnet can port over to an EVM-equivalent chain with no changes to the underlying code.

🟡 Blockchain.com lets go of 25% of its workforce

• The cryptocurrency exchange is reducing its workforce by 150 people amid poor market conditions.

🟡 ZkSync announces mainnet launch in 100 days

• The Ethereum based layer 2 solution aspires to be the first zk proof-based scaling solution for EVM smart contracts available in a live production environment upon its mainnet launch.

🟡 Zipmex suspends withdrawals

• The crypto exchange is following in Celsius’s  footsteps, citing market volatility.

🟡 UK Financial Services and Markets Bill outlines rules for stablecoins

• The new rules bring stablecoins under UK payments regulation.

🟡 Gemini lays off employees, again

• Gemini is laying off 68 employees.
• The exchange already laid off 10% of its employees in June.

🟡 Curve founder hints at stablecoin

• The curve founder hinted at an over-collateralized stablecoin at the online crypto conference, Redefine Tomorrow 2022.

🟡 Former Coinbase employee arrested on insider trading charges

• Ishan Wahi repeatedly tipped his brother Nikhil Wahi and friend Sameer Ramani on new coin listings.
• The two profited at least $1.5 million in illegal trades.