Hey there - welcome to the Web3 Wrap-Up! If you’re returning, it’s lovely to see you again. Can you believe it’s the last week of July already? Where on earth is the time going!?
Over the past week there’s been a lot of news, recent events and market activity that suggest we a may have a reason to turn our frowns upside down in the midst of this gloomy bear market. We are in a moment of calm, with some sort of?‘temporary’ bottom in place. In recent weeks certain NFT projects have defied the market and seen a resurgence suggesting that non-fungible tokens exist in their own world and dance to their own beat.
The success of DeFi amidst market volatility appears to have sparked renewed interest in the space. Decentralised money is agnostic to borders or citizenship—and requires nothing more than a wallet & internet connection. It’s an extremely valuable tool for people around the world. We’re seeing a lot of widespread civil unrest across the world and there are quite a few conversations going one exploring the use of digital assets over fiat currencies and traditional equities to help mediate some of this. These assets could offer an alternative to centralised assets by providing a decentralised store-of-value with fixed, transparent monetary policy that could be used in any jurisdiction with internet access.?
For more on this week's biggest events across Crypto, Web3, DeFi, NFTs and the Metaverse, continue reading!
- Nickelodeon's NFT marketplace reaches $1.4 million in volume
- The collection has already traded over 1k Ethereum so as previously mentioned the royalty % written into the contract by Nickelodeon themselves means they take home a slice of each sale on top of the initial sell out. Making a profit let alone breaking even on a new digital presence will certainly turn heads & continue to prove how powerful this technology is, especially for established brands.
- UFC fighter becomes first Latin American sportswoman to accept entire salary in BTC
- Brazilian UFC fighter Luana Pinheiro becomes the first female sportswoman in Latin America to receive her entire salary in BTC. Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighter Luana Pinheiro announced that she has partnered with Bitwage to receive her salary in Bitcoin (BTC). Pinheiro said she continues to receive fiat payments from her sponsors but converts them to BTC immediately through Bitwage. Pinheiro is currently ranked 15th in her UFC division and has won eight consecutive fights. Comparing Bitcoin to her fighting style, jiu-jitsu, Pinheiro highlighted that she prefers to get paid in BTC and that she does not care about the volatility of the cryptocurrency. According to her, volatility is the key factor that drives asset appreciation.
- 21Shares launches S&P risk-controlled Bitcoin and Ether ETPs
- Swiss crypto investment firm 21Shares has launched exchange-traded products (ETP) that offer participants risk-controlled exposure to Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). The new ETPs will begin trading on the Swiss SIX Exchange on July 20 with the tickers SPBTC and SPETH. 21Shares' director of ETP, Arthur Krause, explains that achieving this is by combining "exposure to a volatile cryptocurrency with cash — which has zero volatility — to attempt to achieve the overall target of moderate volatility."
- Consensys to tokenise smart contract and blockchain audits via TURN token launch
- It has a special utility: holders can redeem their NFTs for a full week (40 hours) of security audits. It creates an open marketplace for time-bound services. Right now, it’s security audits. But in the future, it could be any time-bound service like consulting, marketing, designing, etc. Companies usually have to wait 6+ months to get an audit. Now they can buy the NFT and skip the line when needed.
- Crypto market cap climbs 15% in a week following Ethereum Merge date revelation
- The Merge, Ethereum’s (ETH) long-awaited transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake, is now tentatively scheduled for September 19th. The news is not just exciting from a tech-innovation standpoint, but it’s a beacon of light for investors as well – both of which, we’ll discuss in greater detail below. Nevertheless, since the announcement on July 14th, the crypto market has strongly rallied as investors cling on to the latest and greatest narrative since markets began tumbling last spring. Because the transition to proof-of-stake reduces the issuance of new ETH by 90%. For those fluent in Bitcoin, that’s equivalent to three Halvings. As a result, millions of dollars of daily sell pressure will be erased. ETH may finally have a legitimate chance to become deflationary - meaning, for the first time, Bitcoin might have some real competition as a store of value.
- Time Magazine looks to turn all future subscriptions into NFTs
-NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are a controversial piece of the crypto conversation, evoking both passionate criticism and praise as Web3 becomes a bigger part of popular culture. Keith Grossman, president of Time, has spent the past year building the 99-year-old media brand’s NFT business, TIMEPieces, and the publisher now accepts 33 cryptocurrencies for digital subscriptions. Since September, the media giant has created, or “dropped” as it’s known in the space, more than 20,000 TIMEPieces NFTs, generating a $10 million profit and $600,000 for charities.
- Central African Republic launches official digital currency ‘Sango Coin’
- Central African Republic will start selling a cryptocurrency it says will be worth $21 million next week, it said on Friday, amid scepticism over the project's feasibility in a poorly connected, war-torn country. The "Sango Coin", described as a "national digital currency" will go on sale on July 21 with a minimum investment of $500 to be paid in cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, according to the country's Sango investment website. The national assembly of the land-locked African country also passed news laws that allow for BTC to be held as a reserve asset.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you all have a great week. Until next time - don't forget to share this Wrap-Up! ?
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