28th May 2022 - Middle East

Crypto Oasis achieved a milestone of identifying 1,000 blockchain companies in the UAE ahead of the end-2022 forecast. The revised expectation for the number of blockchain organisations in the UAE ecosystem by the end of 2022 is now raised to 1,500.

The founder of Crypto Oasis, Ralf Glabischnig, said: “This is an exciting time for us as we exceed expectations considerably month after month. Our target for the year has been achieved already and we’re anticipating exceptional growth in the future. The first months of 2022 have already shown that the key pillars of growing and building the ecosystem are talent, capital, and infrastructure. We believe we are still at an early stage but with the speed of development and growth that we see day by day across the community in this region, we look forward to further advancing the blockchain economy in the Middle East.”

Top news this week included UAE-based fund Cypher Capital setting up an ecosystem fund together with Ocean Protocol to which it will be allocating $5 million to invest in Ocean Protocol projects, Crypto.com enabling Shopify merchants to accept crypto payments as Crypto.com aims to further expand its customer base. Audi launches novel fractional NFT, MBC GROUP, BitOasis partner to provide a crypto education platform to MENA region and PayPal looks to embrace all possible Crypto and Blockchain services.

Latest Investment News:-?Edverse

This Week in NFT's:-?Snowcash and Georg Bak by?Nicolas Genovese

Education:-?The incentives to run a nod and potential attacks on consensus protocols with Prof. Dr.?Fabian Sch?r?

So here's what else happened this week in Crypto

In the News

• Davos 2022: WEF launches metaverse for strong public-private cooperation. The World Economic Forum declared on Monday that it will make a "Global Collaboration Village" as the virtual future of public-private cooperation with Microsoft and Accenture.?WEForum

• UAE-based venture capital firm Cypher Capital has set up an ecosystem fund with the data exchange and monetization platform Ocean protocol to allocate $5 million in its projects. The open-source protocol facilitates the exchange and monetization of data and data-based services, allowing people to buy and share information securely while preserving privacy, according to a statement.?Cypher Capital will review Ocean Protocol’s proposals and its $5 million investment will be spread across 20 projects over 24 months, or two or three investments of a minimum of a quarter-million dollars per quarter if a project is recommended by the Ocean Protocol team. Arab News

• Balenciaga starts accepting BTC and ETH payments. Famous for its avant-garde style, Balenciaga will soon be accepting BTC and ETH payments at its flagship stores in Los Angeles, New York and also online at its site.?UToday

• eBay Launches its First NFT Collection. eBay is partnering with Polygon to launch a new line of non-fungible tokens featuring Wayne Gretzky.?The Gretzky?NFTs—unique blockchain tokens that signify ownership—are on the Ethereum sidechain?Polygon?and were issued through a partnership with Sports Illustrated and NFT platform OneOf.?Decrypt

• Coinbase has become the first Crypto company to join the Fortune 500. Coinbase ranked second overall in revenue growth among companies on this list, at 514%.??The exchange pulled in $7.8 billion in revenue for the 2021 fiscal year, ranking 437th on the list, which was announced on Monday. But when?ranked?by revenue growth, Coinbase, at nearly 514%, trailed only Moderna (almost 2,200%) among the top 500 firms. The bulk of Coinbase's revenue is from trading fees. Decrypt

• Blockchain Economy Istanbul summit makes a grand impact with the top names in the industry. The Blockchain Economy Istanbul Summit, the world's most anticipated conference, unveils its first speaker line-up with top industry experts.?Crypto News

• Crypto.com enables Shopify merchants to accept crypto payments. Crypto.com aims to further expand its customer base with the integration and is offering a 0.5% fee waiver for each crypto payment for a month as an incentive.?BeinCrypto

• The Central African Republic will launch the continent's first legal crypto investment hub. This is a development that is expected to attract more investors into crypto, as regulators have increasingly raised concerns about digital assets all over the world.?Reuters

• Audi launches novel fractional NFT. The €50,000 ($53,500) digital artwork will go on sale in fractions of €50 in partnership with Timeless. Proceeds from the May 27 drop will go to UN Refugee Aid for Ukrainians.?Ledger Insights

• UAE telecom services provider e& (formerly known as Etisalat Group) has announced the launch of its first set of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The first batch of NFTs will be supplied on a limited basis, and the group will provide further updates as their plans for the NFTs progress. Last year, the company’s blockchain arm exceeded Dhs10 billion in transactions, demonstrating e&’s dedication to improving innovation skills. Gulf Business

• MBC GROUP and BitOasis partner to provide a crypto education platform to MENA region. MBC Group and BitOasis are proud to announce a partnership to launch a Crypto and Blockchain education campaign across the Middle East and North Africa. Al Bawaba

• PayPal looks to embrace all possible Crypto and Blockchain services. PayPal's vice president Richard Nash said the company has been exploring all possible blockchain and crypto-solutions it could bring to its platform.?Cointelegraph

• UAE's first Metaverse wedding. Dresses were designed and crafted on the Polygon Blockchain, rings were exchanged as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and wedding certificates were issued and signed as Smart Contracts. It was an incredible union of their real and virtual selves, as they became the first couple to get married in the UAE on Decentraland's blockchain.?Khaleej Times

Top 10 Crypto Currencies this Week

Learn to Earn

??This week we learn the of the incentives to run a nod and potential attacks on consensus protocols as Prof. Dr.?Fabian Sch?r?combines his expertise with the?Center for Innovative Finance (Universit?t Basel)?to make this valuable knowledge accessible to everyone.

Latest Investment News

Crypto Oasis Sentio have added Edverse to their investment portfolio. Edverse, the most immersive, interactive and insightful educational Metaverse platform. With the sole aim of combining the appeal of gaming with the importance of learning, Edverse aims to be a leader in ed-tech-sci platforms.

Learn more:?https://www.edverse.com

This Week in NFT's

The crypto market is down but NFT’s are stable in their corresponding token price. The historically important NFT’s are the ones to look at. For example, the Crypto Punk market has not moved much as the ETH price but since ETH is down 50% the “Punk’s” are down 50% at this moment in time. The question arises if the tech will be outdated, will the important IPs remain strong? A lot of experts are of the belief that the historic projects will live far beyond the tech.

Georg Bak the head curator of the SNOWCASH exhibition is of the belief:

The History of Computer and Crypto Art will outlive all tech developments. In crypto and the art market, people look at the current trends. The difference is that the art market looks at the history of culture which will only gain in value over time since that never can be replicated. In the NFT community, this aspect is still missing and very few people have recognized that.

Hence why he is curating an ongoing exhibition called SNOWCASH (Snow Crash 1993) which traces the history of NFT’s and the metaverse.

His mission is to strengthen and bring together the art, NFT, and crypto communities. The show will invite guest curators that will work on the storytelling taking place in two worlds; the physical exhibition space at the Kunsthalle Zurich as well as digital landscapes, where the show will be accessible to a broader audience.

That's it for this week. We'll be back next Friday with more news updates.

Have a Great Weekend.