Bringing stablecoins & assets to Bitcoin ??; Narrowing the gap between crypto & fiat ??; Meta says Carpe Diem with Zuck Bucks ??

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Last week (4-8 April) was another super exciting week when it comes to the world of Blockchain and Cryptocurrency.?We will look at how you can bring stablecoins & assets to Bitcoin; how the gap between crypto & fiat is getting more narrow; Meta saying Carpe Diem with Zuck Bucks, and other interesting news and developments.

Without further ado, let us dive into what happened in Blockchain & Crypto sector last week. Let’s connect the dots.

Bringing stablecoins & assets to Bitcoin ??

The news & the money ???A new Taproot-enabled protocol, Taproot Asset Representation Overly, or?Taro, was revealed by Lightning Labs co-founder and CEO Elizabeth Stark. Lightning Labs also announced a Series B funding round, which raised $70M, led by Valor Equity Partners and Baillie Gifford.

The USP ?? Taro?is an open-source protocol built on the Bitcoin Lightning?Network and designed to bring stablecoins and other assets to the Bitcoin blockchain.

In a nutshell, Taro supports the issuance of new assets while still benefiting from the security of the broader Bitcoin protocol. This will allow for future use cases and utility to develop on top of Bitcoin, the most?valuable crypto network.

?? THE TAKEAWAY

Beyond just digital gold.?This is pretty much massive news that could make Bitcoin beyond just digital gold or an inflationary hedge. The critical point to comprehend here is that Taro is only the infrastructure to enable the movement of assets over the Lightning Network, be they stablecoins or some other asset. Taro hence is not a stablecoin (collateralized, algorithmic, etc.) - it is simply infrastructure to enable the movement of assets. Developers would need to build projects using Taro, but the potential is enormous here, especially when it comes to payments. The Bitcoin layer-one network itself supports about 5 transactions per second (TPS) while Taro will support developers transferring assets on the Bitcoin Lightning Network by executing hundreds of thousands of TPS, which is a much greater volume than what the Bitcoin network could otherwise support. This will effectively allow individuals without bank accounts to send and receive money in the form of stablecoins that represent their domestic fiat currency through mobile applications (El Salvador???? is doing something similar right now). If I’d be Visa or Mastercard, I would be seriously worried.

Narrowing the gap between crypto & fiat ??

The deal ???Payments giant?Worldpay?is set to offer merchants the ability to receive settlement directly in?Circle's?stablecoin USDC.

USDC is one of the fastest-growing, regulated dollar digital currencies with more than $51 billion in circulation as of April 2022.

More on this ???Under the agreement, Worldpay says it will enable both crypto-native and traditional businesses to build a settlement and treasury strategy that caters to their preferred currency for conducting business.

The company, which already provides merchant acquiring services for four of the top five cryptocurrency exchanges, has signed Crypto.com as a pilot customer for the USDC settlement proposition.

?? THE TAKEAWAY

Narrowing the gap.?The?ability to receive settlements in stablecoins can help both corporates and crypto-native firms to drive further adoption of digital assets. Zooming out, it’s yet another illustration that crypto and fiat worlds are colliding and there’s more and more narrow gap between them. The move also highlights a growing appetite for connections between fiat and crypto-native payment systems. We can remember that last year, Visa became the first major payments service to roll out a settlement on Ethereum for USDC payments.?To add to that, just last week, crypto payments company MoonPay announced a partnership with OpenSea to enable users to buy NFTs with a credit card. Crypto is here to stay.

Meta says?Carpe Diem?with Zuck Bucks, FB’s latest crypto attempt ??

Breaking ???Having just failed with the digital currency project?Diem, Facebook is reportedly concocting another virtual token for the metaverse -?Zuck Bucks. Yes, that’s the name ??????

More about this ???Intended for spending only on Meta's network of sites, the digital token is aimed at keeping users from straying to rival networks like TikTok.

FT reported that Zuck Bucks would be controlled by Meta directly — much like the in-game currencies used on games such as Fortnite or Roblox.

Furthermore, Meta is exploring 'social tokens' or 'reputation tokens', which “could be issued as rewards for meaningful contributions in Facebook groups, for example,” as per FT. The company is also apparently looking into traditional financial services like small business loans.

Finally, internal memos seen by the FT suggest that Meta is also exploring ways to monetize NFTs via "fees and/or ads".

?? THE TAKEAWAY

Again…?First, one must stress that it’s pretty obvious what Facebook is trying to achieve here - it doesn’t want to lose the social media game to other platforms (i.e. TikTok) and wants to incentivize creators to create more content (hence, the rewards) on theirs. Furthermore, given all the hype around the metaverse, it’s obvious that some form of a native virtual currency would be needed and inevitable in the meta world (which Meta wants to play an important role in too), not only to facilitate transactions but also for the incentive systems. Finally, as a cherry on top - there’s ads. A new study by Vista conducted among 2000 UK adults suggests that a third of UK consumers view the metaverse as a new shopping destination, ultimately populated by most high street brands. And FB knows how to make money with ads.

Extra Reads & Quick Bites for Curious Minds??

• Bitcoin Treasury in the making ?? The Luna Foundation Guard (LFG)?purchased ?5,040, totaling $227M. This is the first significant purchase by LFG since March 30 and represents a continuation of their?strategy to purchase bitcoin to shore up Terra's reserve. The latest purchase puts LFG ahead of Tesla in terms of bitcoin holdings. Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon has signaled plans to build up a reserve of $10B worth of bitcoin.?This is getting interesting!
• OpenSea + Solana ?? OpenSea, the venture-backed marketplace for non-fungible tokens, has begun going live with its long-anticipated integration of?Solana.?Data from the marketplace indicates Solana-centric collections are being listed and denominated in SOL, such as Solana Monkey Business. The move hence enables a wide crop of NFTs on the platform, which prior to today catered largely to Ethereum-based NFTs along with integrations with the Polygon and Klatyn blockchains.
• eToro NFTs ???Trading platform?eToro has?launched a $20M fund to purchase blue-chip NFTs – aiming to become “one of the leading NFT collectors in the world” beginning with a $20M investment. The brokerage also launched “e-Toro.art,” an NFT platform, and will dedicate $10M of its funds to emerging projects via a quasi-incubator program.?

Money Moves??

• FTX.US?has made?an investment?in national equities exchange?IEX Group, as it looks to solidify its global digital asset market footprint. The size of the investment wasn’t disclosed and won’t be completed until May, but an FTX spokesperson told CoinDesk the company will become a “significant'' shareholder.
• Sky Mavis?raised $150M?to support users who lost funds in the Ronin sidechain attack. The firm noted that funds from this round combined with balance sheet assets from Axie Infinity will go towards reimbursing against the total $625M loss.
• Hedera Hashgraph?announced the launch of?a?$250M metaverse fund?that will encourage teams to build projects focusing on "gaming and virtual worlds, consumer brands and collectibles, sports and fan engagement, and enterprise metaverse."

Continue reading by subscribing to?Linas's Newsletter.?You will receive fresh news about FinTech, Blockchain & Crypto with hot takeaways every day.

P.S.?You might enjoy my earlier pieces as well:

?? Bitcoin in 2021: a story in 5 graphs, and what might come in 2022

???A Wise pitch deck that led to London’s biggest and most successful direct listing ever

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About: I am?a business developer, sales professional, FinTech strategist, as well as Cryptocurrency and Blockchain enthusiast. I'm highly passionate about Financial Technology and Digital Innovation, and strongly believe that it will change the world for the better. Apart from my daily job at a global payments startup where I'm leading the company's expansion into Europe, I'm an active member of the FinTech community and a TechFin evangelist.

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