Posted on

What are the 5 most famous meme coins?

The 5 most popular meme coins from Dogecoin to Baby Doge

From Dogecoin to Shiba Inu, via Baby Doge and Dogelon Mars. What are meme coins and which are the 5 most famous?

Believe it or not, meme coins are an important component in the huge world of cryptocurrencies. This type of crypto dominates bullish market phases and then almost disappears during bear markets. The term ‘meme coin’ can be defined as a neologism, created to describe the first cryptocurrency born in honour of a meme: Dogecoin. The first meme coin was therefore Dogecoin. To this day, it is still the most famous one and has the highest market cap from all those in our list.

But what is the definition of a meme coin? Meme coins are cryptocurrencies born from internet memes or an episode of internet culture. The term ‘meme coin’ is often used to describe a crypto with a negative connotation, although sometimes projects define themselves purposefully in this manner. However, meme coins are not all the same. Some are created as a joke and remain so, others manage to develop a project and consolidate their position. Discover the differences and common characteristics of the 5 most famous meme coins from Dogecoin to Baby Doge!

1. Dogecoin

Dogecoin (DOGE) was created in 2013 by Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus, and is based on the Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism. After Bitcoin, it is the second largest PoW crypto in terms of market cap. The first meme coin in history was inspired by the famous meme depicting a small Shiba Inu dog (named Kabosu) accompanied by short, broken sentences in Comic Sans, a sort of Doge inner monologue.

Dogecoin is one of those meme coins that ‘made it’. Dogecoin’s roadmap is very simple and brief and also seems to be inspired by the manner Doge expresses himself in broken English: ‘utility -> adoption’. This equation means that Dogecoin’s goal for the future, and consequently the utility the team plans to give to the Dogecoin crypto is adoption. The adoption process is coming to fruition with major companies choosing to accept Dogecoin as a payment method. Among these companies are AMC, Twitch, Tesla and SpaceX. Dogecoin’s fame also depends on its relationship with who is now the owner of Twitter, Elon Musk.

Elon Musk, nicknamed ‘The Dogefather’ by the Dogecoin community, was the first famous supporter of the project. The DOGE crypto owes much of its success to the owner of Twitter. In a way, all the meme coins created in honour of our four-legged friends are Musk’s daughters. Some of them, as we will see later, pay explicit homage to him.  

2. Shiba Inu

Among the five most famous meme coins in the crypto world is undoubtedly Shiba In (SHIB). This meme coin was born from an experiment: to replicate the Dogecoin project and make another crypto inspired by a small dog achieve mainstream status. The Shiba Inu project was created in 2020 by an anonymous developer known by the pseudonym Rioshy. Shiba Inu’s crypto, SHIB is actually not a real coin, since it does not yet have its own blockchain. Instead, it is an ERC-20 token built on the Ethereum network. Although it is derogatorily considered ‘just’ a meme coin, over time, Shiba Inu has been integrating various functions within its ecosystem.

The Shiba Inu ecosystem is populated by a decentralised exchange (DEX) with AMM similar to Uniswap, ShibaSwap, and by two other tokens: BONE and LEASH. The former is the governance token that guarantees holders to participate in decisions about the future of the ecosystem. LEASH is distributed as a reward to those who stake SHIB on ShibaSwap. Recently, the Shiba Inu team also released a smartphone game called Shiba Eternity, which was very successful and reached the top positions of the ‘card games’ section on the App Store and Play Store. The next steps for the second of the 5 most popular meme coins envisage a Layer 2 blockchain that should be called Shibarium, as well as a stablecoin named SHI.

3. Dogelon Mars

A meme coin bearing the name of Elon Musk was not a chance to be missed. The Dogelon Mars token, ELON, is one of many ERC-20 tokens that were created following the rise of Dogecoin and Shiba Inu in 2021, the so-called ‘meme coin season’. The idea of Dogelon’s anonymous team was to create a crypto entirely managed by its community.

How does Dogelon Mars differ from any other meme coin inspired by doggos? The answer is incredible storytelling! According to the project’s official synopsis, in the year 2420, Mars will be colonised by the Dogelon Mars breed : humanoid pooches vaguely resembling Elon Musk and endowed with a distinct intelligence. Dogelon Mars began as a meme coin, but following its success and the rapid growth of the community, it decided to develop its own roadmap. The next steps are the development of a decentralised finance ecosystem (DeFi) that allows the ELON token to be staked in order to receive rewards in the ecosystem’s governance token: xELON.

4. Baby Doge

Baby Doge also earns a place on the list of the crypto world’s top 5 meme coins. It is an ERC-20 token built on the Binance Smart Chain, Binance’s EVM-compatible blockchain. It calls itself the ‘daughter’ of Dogecoin. The Baby Doge crypto was also created during the 2021 meme coin season. Baby Doge was conceived as a reward token, i.e. a token that automatically rewards its owner with other cryptos. In the case of Baby Doge, the rewards for holders are of course paid in Dogecoin. This is possible thanks to a smart contract that converts part of the crypto that users use to buy Baby Doge into Dogecoins, which are then redistributed to the holders. One of Baby Doge’s projects is Baby Doge Swap, a decentralised exchange (DEX) with AMM very similar to PancakeSwap. On this DEX, it is possible to sell and buy tokens built on the Binance Smart Chain and to stake the Baby Doge crypto as well as other tokens.

5. Floki

We conclude our meme coin list with Floki (FLOKI), one of the five most famous meme coins in the crypto world. Floki was created following Elon Musk’s tweet published in June 2021, in which he told his followers that he had named his new Shiba Inu puppy “Floki”. The Floki Inu team was very quick to create an ERC-20 token, first on Ethereum and then also on the Binance Smart Chain, named of course after the newborn puppy. In the days following the launch, Floki’s team embarked on an effective marketing campaign on social networks that allowed the project to gain a large number of followers. Floki, as the website states, wants to become ‘the people’s cryptocurrency’. To achieve this ambitious goal, the Floki team is collaborating with platforms that encourage charitable initiatives.

Thanks to the great success in the days immediately following its launch, the Floki Inu meme coin was able to work on the project’s roadmap, starting to develop a series of decentralised platforms and applications. To date, the Floki Inu ecosystem is working on a play-to-earn metaverse named Valhalla, a debit card and a platform for staking FLOKIs.

In addition to the meme coins we listed, which are considered the most famous, an avalanche of similar cryptos have sprung up. Some of these failed to survive. How come? Meme coins are born in favourable market moments, trying to intercept narratives or trends with the aim of reaching as many users as possible. Not all meme coins manage to become useful and offer appealing solutions to users after becoming popular. When you are considering taking a look at the next crypto dedicated to an emoji or a dog’s snout, watch out for FOMO and as always, DYOR!

Posted on

How to tell if an NFT is rare? A guide to rarity tools!

NFT rarity tools: how to use them and understand if an NFT is rare

What is rarity and how can you find the rarest NFTs in a collection? Find out how to use NFT rarity tools!

When you want to buy an NFT, one of the factors to be assessed is the rarity of the token you’re considering purchasing. This is because rarity influences the value of digital works. Usually, the rarer an NFT is, the more expensive it is. Consequently, if you plan to buy an NFT, knowing its rarity could prove to be a great advantage. The rarity level of an NFT can be measured in various ways according to the type of non-fungible token. For PFP collections and NFTs created by generative art systems, this can be done through tools. These are the so-called NFT rarity tools. Find out how to use them to find out if an NFT is rare!

Where to start when assessing the rarity of an NFT

To understand whether an NFT is rare, you must start by considering the type of non-fungible token. To simplify matters, we can divide them into two main categories: digital art produced by the most innovative and prestigious NFT artists and automatically generated NFT PFPs. Artistic NFTs produced by famous artists, such as those of Beeple or the Italian NFT artist Giuseppe Lo Schiavo, are usually unique copies. Because of this, the rarity of such NFTs is primarily determined by the scarcity of the specific digital work piece. Assessing the rarity of these pieces is complex because there are no objective parameters. It would be like asking how rare Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘La Gioconda’ or Botticelli’s ‘Birth of Venus’ are. In this case, rarity is also determined by the prestige of the artist and the beauty and significance of the work.

How to find out how rare a PFP NFT is

For NFTs that belong to PFP collections or that are generated by random algorithms, rarity is calculated in diverse manners, i.e. statistically. Within a PFP collection, some NFTs are rarer than others and this rarity factor is not solely determined by uniqueness, just like for the works mentioned above. In other words, all PFP NFTs are unique, but not all are rare. In this case, the rarity of an NFT coincides with that of the attributes of which it is composed.

These NFTs are composed of a series of traits or characteristics that are randomly combined. Each NFT has a kind of ‘genetic code’ describing these attributes that is inscribed in the token’s metadata. In fact, the latter contains all the information about an NFT, from its transaction history to its attributes. Each of these attributes has its own rarity percentage.

The rarity percentage expresses the amount of non-fungible tokens that possess this characteristic compared to the total number of NFTs in the collection. Take the Bored Apes Yacht Club collection as an example, which to date contains the most expensive NFTs on the market. Among the various traits in the collection (there are a total of 168) are all the aesthetic characteristics that apes possess. For example, whether the eyes are closed or wide open, the Hawaiian shirt or sailor jacket, the diamond or gold teeth. There are only 49 apes that possess the blue beams eyes trait. Since the total number of NFTs in the Bored Ape Yacht Club is 10,000, the rarity of this trait is 0.49%.

Each trait or characteristic contributes to determining the total rarity of an NFT. By adding up the rarity percentage of each attribute, you can roughly determine the total rarity of the non-fungible token. At this point, it may be useful to learn how to find the rarest NFT in a collection. All major NFT marketplaces, such as OpenSea or Magic Eden, grant users the possibility of a filtered search by characteristic. However, to date, they do not allow a collection to be displayed in order of rarity. To meet this need, NFT rarity tools were developed. Let’s find out how to use NFT rarity tools to find out which is the rarest NFT in your favourite collection.

How does a rarity tool work?

Rarity Tools are software programmes that calculate and rank NFTs according to their rarity. In terms of their programming, they are simple databases in which users can search for specific NFTs and see how rare they are within their collection, as well as the characteristics that contribute to their rarity score. With this information, collectors can easily compare the rarity and value of individual NFTs to make informed purchases. Similarly, those looking for a ‘bargain’ can find the rarest NFTs that are offered for sale at a lower price than those with a similar score.

It is important to note that each platform has its own scoring system, so even if the actual rarity rankings are the same across platforms, the rarity score itself will probably differ. Let’s take a look at the 4 most commonly used rarity tools, and how to use them to find out how rare an NFT is.

The main NFT rarity tools

Some of these rarity tools are free of charge and serve mainly to rank NFTs in order of rarity. Meanwhile, others charge a fee and are built for the ‘professionals’ of buying and selling NFTs. Each has its own particularities and is designed for different needs.

1. Rarity Tools

Rarity Tools is the most widely used free rarity tool for finding the rarest and most expensive NFTs on the market.

Scores vary according to the number of different characteristics each collection possesses, e.g. the rarest Bored Ape was given a score of 333.86 while the rarest NFT Azuki anime collection was given a score of 11,096.

On Rarity Tools, you can also filter NFTs by other characteristics besides rarity, such as average price, total sales volume and number of owners. In short, Rarity Tools is a comprehensive tool for delving into which NFT you might want to buy.

On Rarity Tools, it is also possible to search for a specific NFT in a collection by typing its ID into the search bar, i.e. the identification number of the NFT that is usually preceded by a hash symbol. To find the ID of your NFT, simply go to one of the marketplaces where it can be purchased or consult the blockchain explorer of the network on which the NFT was created. For example etherscan.io for Ethereum and solscan.io for Solana.

In the “upcoming projects” section, Rarity Tools presents some of the projects that are about to be launched. To date, the platform only analyses NFT on the Ethereum and Solana blockchains. NFT prices and volumes are calculated in ETH for all collections. NFT collections that want to be included in the “upcoming projects” section of the platform have to pay a fee of 2 ETH. Rarity Tools also takes into account the value that NFT communities give to specific traits. These special traits are called “derived traits” by Rarity Tools, and NFTs that possess them are granted a higher score.

2. Rarity Sniper

The operation of Rarity Sniper is very similar to that of Rarity Tools. The tool started out as a simple Discord server, which users could join for free. Once logged in, you had to type the ID of your NFT in the chat, preceded by a specially created command. Once the message was sent, a bot was triggered by the command, and would give the NFT’s rarity score to the user. In January 2022, the team that ran the Rarity Sniper server decided to develop its own website, which immediately became an institution in the NFT world, reaching one million visitors in less than a month.  

3. Rarity Sniffer

Another popular free NFT rarity tool is Rarity Sniffer. Compared to Rarity Tools, this tool allows the rarity of each NFT in a collection to be displayed in no time after its creation. Whereas Rarity Tools needs a few days to register projects within its platform, Rarity Sniper manages to calculate the rarity of an NFT within a few minutes from the moment the metadata is revealed, i.e. the moment it is created (or ‘minted’ in Web3 jargon). Unlike Rarity Tools, it is not possible to filter collections by volume or price. Also, on Rarity Sniffer, it is not necessary to pay a fee to enter NFT collections for analysis.

4. Freshdrop

The fourth rarity tool is Freshdrop. This paid rarity tool allows you to find out if an NFT is rare instantly, beating all other rarity tools to the punch. On Freshdrop, you can inspect the rarity of an NFT at the exact moment the metadata is revealed. The rarity tool takes care of sending the user a notification when the metadata is revealed and then ranks the rarest NFTs in a collection. In order to use the service, the “All Access Pass” must be purchased. It is also an NFT, available on OpenSea at a price of about 0.07 ETH.

 

Rare NFTs: not just a question of numbers

We have now seen what is implied by the rarity of an NFT, as well as how to tell if an NFT is rare through rarity tools. It is also at this point necessary to specify that it is not only the statistical rarity of traits that determines how expensive NFTs are. Some traits that possess particular aesthetic and symbolic characteristics can become favourites among the Web3 communities and this consequently brings in value beyond mere statistics. For example, the Bored Apes with the golden fur, numbers #8817 and #3749, which are not statistically the rarest, were the two most expensive sales in the history of the collection. They were sold for $3.4 and $2.9 million respectively.

For other collections, it is not sufficient to use the NFT rarity tools. For example, the CryptoKitties collection by Dapper Labs is not present in any of the rarity tools we have seen above. Could it be because the rarity tools can’t stand kittens? Not really, the reason is related to the complex system of attributes, called ‘Cattributes’, and the genetic combinations through which the collection continually evolves.The CryptoKitties are not made up of a fixed number of non-fungible tokens. The NFT kittens reproduce and as a result, Dapper Labs’ collection grows more and more. By combining these ‘cattributes’, genetic mutations sometimes occur that manifest themselves with traits never seen before. NFTs with these mutations are considered among the rarest of CryptoKitties.

Posted on

Young Monday: NFTs on Uniswap, Brazil and the Phantom Wallet

Phantom crypto wallet coming to Ethereum and Polygon

The Phantom crypto wallet becomes compatible with Ethereum and Polygon, NFTs can now be bought on Uniswap and Brazil legalises crypto

Now that December is here, people are starting to think about Christmas presents. In case you’ve been thinking about gifting an NFT over the last week, you can now also buy one on Uniswap, thanks to its brand new NFT marketplace aggregator. The second news of the week concerns Phantom, Solana‘s main crypto wallet, which is also arriving on the Ethereum and Polygon networks. If, on the other hand, the cold December weather has already tired you out and you are considering moving to Brazil, there is some good news. The South American state has approved a legislative decree on cryptocurrencies!

On Uniswap you can now also buy NFTs!

Since the 30th of November, NFTs have officially arrived on Uniswap. The announcement for the initiative came in June, when the first decentralised exchange (DEX) in history announced the acquisition of the NFT marketplace aggregator Genie. An NFT aggregator is a decentralised application (dapp) that is responsible for showing users different alternatives for purchasing the same token on different trading platforms. Uniswap will gather data from Looksrare, OpenSea, X2Y2, Sudoswap and others that are yet to be announced.

In order to welcome NFT collectors to its platform, Uniswap has decided to apply discounts on gas fees. The first 22,000 wallets to purchase an NFT will benefit from a discount of 0.01 ETH (approximately $10) on their first transaction.

The news about Uniswap and Genie does not end there. Those who used Genie before the 15th of April 2022 (included) could be in line to receive a nice Christmas present. The NFT aggregator plans to distribute an airdrop to its early adopters. 300 USDC will be distributed to those who completed more than one transaction on the NFT aggregator, and 1,000 USDC to those who held a genesis Genie NFT on the 15th April 2022.

Phantom is also ready to integrate Ethereum and Polygon

The Phantom crypto wallet, created in 2021 on Solana, will soon also integrate the Ethereum and Polygon blockchains. Phantom was created by the same developers who started the 0x DEX, with the aim of competing with MetaMask. However, instead of creating a crypto wallet for Ethereum, the Phantom team opted for a nascent ecosystem. The choice fell on Solana, and it can be said to have been a good one. Indeed, the crypto wallet has reached 3 million users in less than two years.

Now, Phantom is finally ready to arrive on Ethereum and Polygon, bringing with it the ease of use that has characterised it since its inception.

One of the upcoming innovations for Phantom, presented by CEO Brandon Millman, is the display of all tokens and cryptos in one screen, even if they are on different blockchains. This could be a very useful function for those who hold the same crypto in different networks and want to have an overall view of their funds. A further improvement for Phantom, again according to Millman, are cross-chain crypto and NFT exchanges from within the same wallet. The feature is being introduced so that users can move their assets from one blockchain to another without having to rely on complicated bridges.

Brazil’s crypto legislation

Brazil has reached a turning point in crypto regulation legislation. The crypto assets bill was voted by the Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday the 29th of November and will shortly arrive on Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s desk, waiting to be signed.

Brazil’s new cryptocurrency law provides for a licence for exchanges wishing to operate in the crypto market. It also stipulates that assets on blockchain that are considered securities will be regulated by the Commission for Securities and Exchanges (CVM), while assets that do not fall into this category will be the responsibility of the Brazilian Central Bank. To better understand the role these state bodies play, you can make a parallel with the US. The Brazilian CVM plays the same role as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), while the Central Bank plays that of the Federal Reserve (FED) of the United States.The adventure of this legislative decree began some time ago, in April 2022 to be precise, when it was approved by the Senate. However, the vote in the Chamber of Deputies took longer than expected due to the discussion of a very topical issue: the way in which exchanges store users’ funds.

Posted on

Bear markets in history: 1929 to 2022

A history of bear markets : from the 1929 crisis to the crypto crash of 2022

Do you know about the most important bearish phases in history? What does the crypto bear market of 2022 have in common with past ones?

Following Confucius’ maxim ‘study the past if you want to predict the future’, we are here to analyse past bearish phases with the aim of understanding the dynamics of the bear market we are experiencing now.

If you too are wondering: how long will the 2022 crypto bear market last? Will the price of Bitcoin collapse again? Unfortunately there are no certain answers. However, in this article, you can find information that can help you look at the current state of the market in perspective. For example, we can look at the duration of bearish phases, the elements involved or understand what caused them.

1. The American stock market crash of 1929

The New York Stock Exchange crash of 1929 is the first major crash of a contemporary financial market and the first major crisis caused by free markets and financial speculation. Before the crash of ’29, The United States of America was experiencing one of the most prosperous and economically prosperous periods in history, the so-called ‘Roaring Twenties’. The great economic prosperity of the States seemed unstoppable, made possible by victory in World War I as well as liberal economic policies. However, this economic growth suddenly came to a halt, due to the progressive saturation of the market. Factories closed, products remained unsold and companies began to lay off employees. The crisis of the real economy was reflected on the New York stock exchange through the collapse of the stocks held by both the big capitalists of the time as well as the middle class and small bourgeoisie, who suddenly found themselves without savings.

The real crash came on Thursday 24th October, the infamous Black Thursday. That moment started an intense bear market, nicknamed in retrospect: ‘The Great Depression’. The Great Depression triggered a recession that resulted in a 60% drop in world trade and generated 15 million unemployed people. The Dow Jones, the main US stock index, collapsed by 75% of its value in a few months.

 

2. The ‘dotcom’ bubble

One of the bear markets in history worth mentioning is the one following the ‘dotcom bubble’. The term ‘dotcom bubble‘ is used to describe the phenomenon of unprecedented growth in the share valuations of technology companies, known as ‘dotcoms’, which occurred in the late 1990s. This juncture was characterised by an exponential growth of investments in internet start-ups. It all started with Netscape, the first Internet browser start-up, whose price per share jumped from $28 to $147 in five months. This strong bullish movement brought incredible enthusiasm to the markets, and in particular to the ‘dotcoms’. Alongside Netscape, Yahoo, Amazon and Apple, hundreds of other fledgling companies exploded on the stock exchange.

However, the bubble burst in April 2000, shortly after the all time high (ATH) of the NASDAQ, the stock market index that tracks the prices of the major American technology companies, at 5,048 points. The bubble burst because, in most cases, the dotcoms had no intrinsic value or viable product but were nothing more than aggressive marketing campaigns. This bear market lasted about two years, during which time the NASDAQ index hit 1,111 points, losing more than 75% of its value.

3. The 2008 subprime crisis

The 2008 bear market can be included in the list of major bear markets in history. The economic crisis of 2008 is the one that has most affected our most recent past. Once again, it was the US that started this recession, with the subprime mortgage crisis that erupted at the end of 2006. Subprime mortgages were financial loans granted by major US banks and financial giants, including Chase, JP Morgan and Lehman Brothers to high risk defaulters, i.e. bad debtors. The crisis exploded in September 2008, when the insolvency situation generated by subprime mortgages was combined with a bubble in the housing market. This bubble was the result of accommodative policies by the Federal Reserve (FED), the central bank of the United States. 

The bear market of 2008 did not remain confined to the States but obviously extended to Europe as well. The central banks of the countries found themselves forced to inject huge amounts of money into their economies, through monetary policies of Quantitative Easing, in an attempt to stem the collapse of the global economy. During the 2008 bear market, the S&P 500 (Standard and Poors) stock market index, which tracks the performance of the 500 most capitalised US companies, plummeted 38.5% and the US financial giant Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy. The bear market of 2008 had a much bigger impact than can be guessed from the charts. The effects of the systemic crisis generated by the bursting of the subprime bubble are still being felt today.

 

4. The first crypto bear market: the Mt. Gox hack in 2014

The first real crypto bear market arrived in 2014. Sure, Bitcoin existed since 2008, but until 2013, it had no real market. The only way to buy it was through peer-to-peer exchanges, and its use was relegated to Dark Web sites like Silk Road. However, from 2013 onwards, the buying and selling of BTC was building a real market, mainly due to the growth of the then largest crypto exchange in the world, MT Gox. It was responsible for processing the majority of Bitcoin transactions worldwide.

This period was characterised by the emergence of many exchanges and wallets and is nicknamed the ‘Hack Era’. Between March 2012 and October 2013, numerous exchanges including Linode, Biconica and Bit floor were hacked. The first hacks did not affect the price of Bitcoin, which continued to rise undaunted. From $5 in March 2012, the price of BTC reached $1,150 in November 2013.

At this point, however, came the first black swan event in crypto history happened: the Mt. Gox hack, through which 850,000 Bitcoins were stolen. This black swan event kicked off the first real crypto bear market that lasted 391 days. From a price of $1,150 BTC reached $150, losing 73% of its value.

5. Bear market 2018: ICOs

The spirit of the crypto market cycle from 2016 to 2019 can be summed up in one acronym: ICOs. The term is an acronym for Initial Coin Offering, and it is the equivalent of initial public offerings in the cryptocurrency world. They are pre-sales of tokens that allow those who participate in them to financially support a crypto project before it is launched, through the purchase of native crypto.

This way of selling to the public was popularised by Ethereum in July 2014. ICOs have been simultaneously the curse and delight of this crypto cycle. On the one hand, they allowed the Web3 world to grow and many projects to find supporters. On the other hand, they generated a major speculative bubble, comparable in the way it inflated to the dotcom bubble. The proliferation of ICOs and the great enthusiasm for this new market allowed for many fraudulent projects to raise huge amounts of money. Due to the global macroeconomic situation, in particular the restrictive monetary policies including Quantitative Tightening, the ICO bubble burst at the end of 2017. This caused the beginning of the bear market. Quantitative Tightening is an abrupt tightening of a state’s monetary policy that results in an increase in interest rates with the aim of limiting inflation.

Bitcoin’s price collapsed from the $19,100 ATH to the $3,200 level, losing 84% of its value. Ethereum fared even worse, as the value of Vitalik Buterin‘s crypto went from $1,400 to around $150, registering a downward movement of -95%. The bottom, i.e. the lowest point reached by a crypto in this cycle, was reached exactly one year after the ATH was reached, on the 17th of December 2018.

6. The crypto bear market of 2022

The particularities of this market cycle are the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic, an event of global magnitude that affected the economy and society, and the entry of institutional investors into the market.

The latter increased speculation, a double-edged sword for all kinds of markets. On the one hand it generates rapid growth, on the other it creates the conditions for an equally rapid descent. This collapse actually occurred on the 12th of May 2021, the day when the price of Bitcoin dropped from around $60,000 to $30,000 in just a few hours. However, this collapse did not signal the start of a bear market as it was reabsorbed in the following months, allowing Bitcoin to reach another high in November 2021. The crypto bear market of 2022 began in the spring, the first catalyst for this bearish phase being the Terra-Luna ecosystem collapse of May 2022. As the months went by, events such as the FED raising interest rates and the failure of the centralised exchange FTX a few weeks ago further fuelled this bear market.

The biggest news in the latest phase of the crypto market, which runs from 2020 to today, concerns adoption. In past bear markets, so-called mass adoption, which was resolved in the number of traditional companies adopting Web3 technologies and the number of users using them, came to an almost complete standstill. The cycle we are currently experiencing seems different. Adoption is continuing despite the conditions of this bear market. An example of this trend is Polygon‘s blockchain, which signed important partnerships with companies outside the world of crypto.

The price differences between the 2018 and 2022 bear markets

So, what are the main differences between this bear market and that of 2018? Let’s look at it from the perspective of the price of the two highest market cap cryptos: Bitcoin and Ethereum. We can start by looking at the price level from which the two bear markets started: in 2018, Bitcoin’s price at ATH was $19,100 while Ethereum’s was around $1,400.

The bearish movement from the highest point reached by the price of Bitcoin to its lowest point in 2018-2019 lasted 364 days, causing BTC and ETH to capitulate at $3,200 and $150, respectively. The price swing was -84% in the case of Bitcoin and -95% in the case of Ethereum.

In the 2022 bear market crypto, the bottom for Bitcoin is for now, is around $15,500. It was reached on the 21st of November 2022, 375 days after the ATH was reached. For the price of Ethereum the situation is somewhat different. The ATH was reached on the 15th of November 2021 but the bottom is located, for now, at around $880, which was reached in July 2022.

Now that you have some information at your disposal, how much longer do you think the 2022 crypto bear market will last? Could the bearish phase have ended a few days ago with the drop to $15,735?

Posted on

Young Monday: the FTX movie, the World Cup and Magic Eden on Polygon

FTX: Apple's film on the crypto exchange’s collapse

Apple is in talks for a film about the FTX crypto exchange, Argentina’s fan token collapses after defeat v. Saudi Arabia, Magic Eden arrives on Polygon!

What’s better than a film that can recount the tumultuous events in the crypto world in recent weeks? Apple knows it well, the Cupertino-based tech company has entered into negotiations with author and journalist Michael Lewis to produce a film about the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange. Amazon also had the same idea. Who will win the rights? But in the crypto sector there is another ‘historic’ event that is taking place : the first football World Cup with fan tokens! National team tokens are proving to be closely linked to the results of matches. As in the case of Argentina’s defeat against Saudi Arabia, who even declared a national holiday to celebrate the victory. Because of this defeat, the fan token of Argentina‘s national team (ARG) plummeted by 30%. Finally, in this edition of Young Monday we will talk about the NFT marketplace Magic Eden and its hat trick! From next month onwards, it will also be integrated on Polygon’s blockchain as well as Solana and Ethereum, 

The FTX movie negotiation, Apple wins against Amazon?

Market crashes and the failure of large companies have always inspired filmmakers and storytellers. You must have heard of The Big Short? Come on, the film with Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie about the 2008 subprime mortgage bubble burst. The plot of the film is based on the book The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Micheal Lewis. Lewis himself was approached by Apple to make a film about the collapse of FTX and the story of Sam Bankman-Fried.

Michael Lewis would be perfect to tell the story in an investigative film since the journalist has been in contact for about six months with Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX.

According to some tabloids, Apple is not the only company willing to tell the story of Sam Bankman-Fried and his exchange. Amazon Prime also seems to have made a proposal to the two directors Joe and Anthony Russo (those of Avangers Endgame) to produce a series inspired by the event.

In the meantime, memes about the movie, especially those containing predictions about the cast, have been all the rage on social networks. Crypto enthusiasts agree on the actors who should be involved. The most quoted proposal sees Sam Bankman-Fried played by Jonah Hill while Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda Research, by Maisie Williams, the actress who plays Arya Stark in the famous Game of Thrones saga.

Argentina’s fan token collapses after defeat to Saudi Arabia

Is the price of national football team fan tokens linked to the teams’ performance at the 2022 World Cup? After what happened with the Argentine national team’s first match in Qatar, the answer would seem to be yes. The Argentina national team debuted at the 2022 World Cup on Tuesday 11 November with an opaque performance to say the least, losing 2-1 to the lower-rated Saudi Arabia national team.

The decision of the Arab ruler King Salman to call a day of national holiday after the match may makes you realise, even to those who aren’t football fans, the extraordinary nature of what happened. This unexpected result was reflected in the price of the fan token of the Argentine national team, which, after the third whistle, drew a -30% red candle on the chart. The price of ARG went from around $7 to $4.9 at the end of the match.

Triplet for Magic Eden, also arrives on Polygon

Magic Edenis  to date the second strongest NFT marketplace by volume. It was created on Solana and is also arriving on Polygon. The NFT marketplace continues its expansion. After the integration of Ethereum in August 2022, it is now also arriving on Polygon. For the occasion, a new version of the NFT marketplace for Polygon will be launched, presumably in a few weeks’ time, on which there will also be a Launchpad. NFT Launchpads, sometimes real decentralised applications (dapp), sometimes sections of the NFT marketplace, are used to help new collections grow.

The Magic Eden team, through a post on its blog made the following comment on the announcement: “Fourteen months ago we launched Magic Eden with the dream of building an NFT platform that would win the hearts and minds of collectors and creators alike. We have had a crazy year and we are proud of our ability to release new features quickly.

In this same post, the Magic Eden team justified the choice of Polygon, since Ethereum’s Layer 2 can be considered a competitor to Solana. The Magic Eden team stated that they chose Polygon because of its commitment to connecting the crypto world and businesses outside of Web3.

The Magic Eden team also announced that the marketplace on Polygon will be royalty respecting, which could mean that they intend to make royalty payments to NFT creators mandatory again. This latest statement contrasts with last month’s announcement that it was making royalty payments to creators optional.

Posted on

The 2022 World Cup fan tokens that everyone is keeping an eye on

All World Cup 2022 fan tokens from Chiliz and Socios

Which World Cup 2022 fan tokens are in the spotlight? Socios has prepared a prize game for national team fans!

On Sunday, the 20th of November, the World Cup 2022 officially kicked off with the whistle of the match between Qatar and Ecuador. The match, preceded by a pyrotechnic opening ceremony, kicked off the first World Cup in an Arab Emirate. Socios, the fan token platform built on Chiliz, and its national team fan tokens benefited at the price level from the start of the FIFA World Cup, with bullish movements on the charts.

Socios has also created an ad-hoc section for the 2022 World Cup called Expert Predictions in order to get its users as involved as possible. Find out which World Cup 2022 fan tokens everyone is keeping an eye on and how to play Socios Expert Predictions.

World Cup 2022 fan tokens in the spotlight

The cryptos that have taken centre stage during these last two complicated weeks for the market are the 2022 FIFA World Cup fan tokens developed on Socios. These fan tokens are those of the national teams of Portugal (POR), Spain (SNFT), Brazil (BFT) and Argentina (ARG), which were all released in the summer of 2021. The Italian national team, which unfortunately did not qualify for the competition, also launched its ITA fan token on the 29th of October 2022, in collaboration with Socios and at the initiative of the FIGC.

The recent popularity of these fan tokens can be attributed to the start of the World Cup, which brought interest and buying volumes to these fan cryptos. For example, the fan token of the Portugal team made a bullish movement of almost 100 per cent in 10 days, from a price of around $10 on 10 November 2022 to $19 on 19 November. The fan tokens of Spain (SNFT) and Brazil (BFT) did even better, marking price increases of more than 100% on the chart.

The price of World Cup 2022 fan tokens rose in the days leading up to the start of the competition, so why all this movement even before kick-off? The tokens of Spain, Portugal, Argentina and Brazil may have risen due to fan buying predicting a World Cup victory. Some traders may also have moved in advance trying to capture interest in everything to do with the competition in Qatar.

This hype around the World Cup 2022 fan tokens has also helped CHZ, the Chiliz blockchain crypto that performed well in the days leading up to the start of the competition. Chiliz is the network on which Socios’s platform is built and also the network on which fan tokens are exchanged. Chiliz’s crypto, CHZ went from a price of $0.15 to $0.26 in just over a week. All eyes are on these fan tokens, will the 2022 World Cup matches influence their price?

How to play with Socios Expert Predictions

The World Cup 2022, has a very entertaining element that we didn’t have in previous competitions, thanks to Socios’ Expert Predictions. Socios has come up with a ploy to allow football fans to follow the FIFA World Cup in an even more exciting way thanks to the new Expert Prediction section.

Expert Predictions is a new section of the Socios platform where you can win great prizes, including fan tokens, by guessing the results of FIFA World Cup matches. Playing Expert Prediction is free and very simple, simply go to the ‘matches’ section of the Socios smartphone app and register your prediction. The more accurate the prediction, the more points you earn.

For example, if you guess the correct result, you can earn more points than if you only guess the winning team. The points you earn over the course of the competition are used to determine your position in the standings – the higher up you are, the better your chances of winning one of the prizes. In addition, if you follow the matches live, during half-time you can try the free kick challenge, a mini-game on the Socios smartphone app, which allows you to gain additional experience points that are necessary to climb the rankings. What prizes are up for grabs when playing on Socios? By playing the Socios Expert Prediction you can win, in addition to World Cup 2022 fan tokens, a Playstation 5, football shirts and football boots autographed by the players, and ‘grandstand’ tickets for some club matches scheduled for next year.

As always, when it comes to crypto soccer, we also find the ‘paw’ of Sorare. The Ethereum-based platform has also launched a play-to-earn game dedicated to the World Cup. “Sorare’s ‘Global Cup’ allows all those who are subscribed to its crypto fantasy football platform, to build a team for the World Cup for free, and challenge other users in order to win a wide range of prizes. The first prize for the ‘Global Cup’ includes 3 Ether, around $3,000 at the time, and 3 special NFT cards created by Sorare specially for the occasion.

It promises to be a very interesting FIFA World Cup, also for Web3 fans thanks to the 2022 World Cup fan tokens, the Expert Prediction and the Sorare ‘Global Cup’.

Posted on

Young Monday: Bored Ape with Adidas and Beeple, CryptoPunks on display at the museum

Bored Ape Yacht Club in the Adidas World Cup 2022 commercial

Bored Ape Yacht Club in the Adidas commercial for the 2022 World Cup, Beeple becomes an advisor for Yuga Labs and CryptoPunks arrive in museums!

The FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar has finally started and it’s not missing out on getting NFTs involved! After the collaboration between Algorand and the FIFA World Cup in September, the World Cup 2022 also welcomes the Bored Ape Yacht Club, thanks to Adidas. Adidas has been the main sponsor of the World Cup since 1930, and in this year’s commercial they have also involved the Bored Apes. The Adidas-owned Bored Ape, number #8774, appears in the commercial in the company of champions Karim Benzema and Lionel Messi.

Let’s stay on the NFT theme and talk about the star of the week: Yuga Labs, the Web3 company that created the Bored Apes. Yuga Labs teamed up last week with Beeple, one of the most famous NFT artists in the industry, and launched a plan to donate some NFT CryptoPunks to contemporary art museums around the world, starting with the Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami.

The Adidas Bored Ape in the 2022 World Cup commercial

In the Adidas commercial for the 2022 World Cup, the Bored Ape Yacht Club is also present. In the advertisement, ‘Catch our family reunion all World Cup long’, the Bored Ape of Adidas, Indigo Hertz, can be seen on a cereal box in the shape of footballs. This cereal was named ‘Indigoool’, in honour of the ‘bored monkey’. In the commercial, the cereal is eaten by French footballer Karim Benzema.

Adidas bought its Bored Ape in September 2021 for 46 Ether, about $156,000, and subsequently dubbed it Indigo Hertz, creating a Twitter profile for the occasion. Starring in the Adidas and Bored Ape Yacht Club advert are some famous footballers, including Lionel Messi, Heung-min Son and Serge Gnabry immortalised as they prepare, to the tune of Opus’ ‘Life is life’, to set off as one big family for Qatar. The commercial is narrated by English rapper Stormzy, who is also the driver of the ‘hippie’ style bus on which the footballers board at the end of the commercial.

The Adidas commercial in collaboration with the Bored Ape Yacht Club is not the German brand’s first NFT and Web3-themed initiative! Almost a year ago, on the 17th of December 2021, Adidas launched the ‘Into the Metaverse‘ initiative with the aim of bringing the sports brand into the metaverse. Adidas also recently released a capsule collection of NFT clothing. The collection is called ‘Adidas Virtual Gear – Genesis Collection’ and consists of cyberpunk-style digital clothes, which can now be purchased on the OpenSea NFT marketplace. These clothes, which will also be released in a physical version in the near future, are designed using state-of-the-art technology like 3D printing.

Beeple becomes advisor of Yuga Labs

Beeple, the digital artist who produced one of the most expensive NFTs ever, the Everydays NFT, has become an advisor to Yuga Labs. The relationship between the digital artist and the Web3 company came about through Yuga Labs’ acquisition of WENEW Labs. WENEW Labs is Beeple’s NFT fashion startup and has already established important partnerships with industry giants such as Gucci and Louis Vuitton.

Yuga Labs seems particularly interested in 10KFT, the NFT marketplace built on Ethereum by WENEW Labs. 10KTF is a shop set in the fictional city of New Tokyo and allows users to create and purchase NFT clothing that will, in the future, be able to be worn as their PFPs within metaverses. The 10KTF NFT marketplace is run by Wagmi-San, a garment designer who describes himself as a ‘digital artisan’.

Greg Solano, co-founder of Yuga Labs, said in a comment about the acquisition: “Beeple and the WENEW team have found a way to tell the Web3 story, while at the same time harnessing people’s passion for digital avatars and desire to personalise them. WENEW co-founder Figge, who co-founded the start-up with Beeple, will join Yuga’s management team as CCO (chief content officer), while Beeple, who’s real name is Mike Winkelmann, will act as consultant.

.

CryptoPunks come to the museum!

Yuga Labs is unstoppable! It has also devised a plan to donate CryptoPunks to modern art museums around the world. They are starting with CryptoPunks #305, which was given to the Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami. CryptoPunks are one of the most expensive and iconic NFT collections ever, created in 2017 by Larva Labs, a startup by Matt Hall and John Watkinson. This NFT collection is inspired by London punk culture and are true ideological and philosophical icons of the Web3. CryptoPunks #305 was not chosen at random by Yuga Labs, this number is actually the area code of the City of Miami, one of the main hubs of the NFT industry.

A few months ago, in March 2022, the intellectual property of CryptoPunks and Meebits (another Larva Labs collection) was bought by Yuga Labs together with most of the Crypto Punks and Meebits NFTs owned by the founders. Since then, Yuga Labs has been in charge of project development, planning initiatives to make CryptoPunks and NFTs in general more mainstream.

The Punks Legacy Project initiative, which started with the donation of CryptoPunks #305, aims to donate and create ad-hoc installations for more CryptoPunks in contemporary art museums around the world. The aim of the initiative is to promote NFTs and reinforce the idea that identifies these digital artworks as works of art in their own right. “Just as Jeff Koons and Andy Warhol led the renaissance of contemporary art, I hope that CryptoPunks can lead the charge for NFTs,” said Noah Davis, CryptoPunks brand manager.

Number 305 is not the only CryptoPunks in the possession of the ICA Miami, the museum in fact already holds Crypto Punk #5293, nicknamed “Priscilla” which was donated by a private collector named Eduardo Burillio in July 2021. Punk #305 will be “installed” inside the ICA in Miami on the 2nd of December 2022 and the installation will remain in the Florida museum until the end of the year.

Posted on

Young Monday: Subway, Messi, Polkadot reach agreement with SEC

Subway accepts Bitcoin Lightning Network payments and Messi on Sorare

At Subway, you can pay with Bitcoin using the Lightning Network, Messi collaborates with the NFT Sorare card game, and Polkadot makes a deal with the SEC!

The collapse of the FTX exchange has destabilised the crypto world, but during this delicate time there is also some positive news. Let’s see what happened with Young Monday! In the Subway restaurant chain, one of the largest restaurant franchises in the world, you can pay in Bitcoin using the Lightning Network. Polkadot on the other hand seems to have convinced the SEC that it is a software and not a security, i.e. a financial instrument. The latest news on this Young Monday is crypto football-themed and it concerns one of the greatest footballers ever: Lionel Messi, who has partnered with Sorare, the Web3’s most popular sports NFT card game.

Can you pay in Bitcoin at Subway?

Subway was one of the first shops in history to accept Bitcoin as a payment method. The owner, Daniel Hinze, is a big supporter of Bitcoin and had already allowed his customers to pay in BTC in 2013 at a store in Moscow. However, payments then were very slow. Customers who paid in Bitcoin at the time complained of waits of dozens of minutes for transactions to be processed. Recently, the situation has changed thanks to the possibility of paying in Bitcoin from Subway via the Lightning Network. The Lightning Network is a Layer 2 of Bitcoin, created in 2016 that is able to process transactions extremely quickly and cheaply. It is now possible to pay in Bitcoin from Subway at three shops in Germany, all located in Berlin.

During the first month since the introduction of the Lightning Network, a record number of Bitcoin transactions were processed: more than 120 within Subway stores. For the occasion, a special offer was proposed: a 50% discount to those paying in BTC at Subway. The new solution implemented by Subway was much appreciated by supporters of the first ever cryptocurrency, who shared pictures of tasty sandwiches on social media with the hashtag #usingBitcoin. Another fast food chain, after McDonald’s thus jumps on the bandwagon, for Bitcoin holders it is starting to become difficult to choose where to eat.

Polkadot gets vocal: I am not a security!

The Web3 Foundation, a foundation set up by Polkadot founder Gavin Wood, which aims to promote and protect the technologies behind the decentralised web, has recently concluded its debate with the SEC on the legal terms with which to refer to DOT: is Polkadot a security or software? Securities are exchangeable assets commonly referred to as financial instruments or securities. Various commissions oversee these assets to ensure their safety and compliance with current regulations. In the United States of America, the commission of reference is the SEC (Security and Exchange Commission). The dialogue between the Web3 Foundation and the SEC began in 2019. During the discussions, the Web3 Foundation stood in for Polkadot, with which it shares the founder, seeking to protect its interests.

The aim of this dialogue was to convince the US regulatory commission that Polkadot is neither a security nor a financial instrument but a software. The back-and-forth, which took the form of a real negotiation, ended a few days ago, exactly three years after it began. The verdict? Polkadot and its DOT crypto are not securities! Relations between the two parties do not end with this verdict but will continue with the aim of trying to define an unambiguous regulation for all blockchains.

After Chiliz, Lionel Messi arrives on Sorare

On Wednesday, the 9th of November 2022, Lionel Messi joined the Sorare team as an official ambassador. “The flea” will find himself in good company in this Web3 team built by Sorare, which includes such big-name sportspeople as tennis player Serena Williams and her ‘real world’ teammate Kilian Mbappè. The Argentinean Paris Saint-Germain player will help Sorare reach even more football fans, and get them onto the number one decentralised (dapp) application for crypto fantasy football. Sorare CEO Nicola Julia said that the collaboration with Lionel Messi represents a turning point for the Web3 platform.

Leo Messi is considered the world’s most powerful active player and is the third most followed sportsman on social networks, after his ‘colleagues’ Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar Jr. This is not the first collaboration that Lionel Messi has signed with companies in the crypto sector, as in April 2022 he had already signed a partnership with Socios.com, the most important platform for fan tokens built on Chiliz, for USD 20 million. Fan tokens are a daily part of the Argentinean star’s life, with part of the player’s salary from Paris Saint Germain being paid to Messi in $PSG, the French team’s fan token. With Lionel Messi concluding deals with two competitors, will he keep one foot in two shoes (or boots) forever or will he sooner or later choose his favourite crypto team?

Posted on

Young Monday: Instagram, JP Morgan and Microsoft

Instagram NFT marketplace, JP Morgan gets involved with DeFi

Instagram and Game Stop’s NFT marketplace, JP Morgan and Microsoft get involved in Web3, the Premier League chooses Sorare

For this first Young Monday of November 2022, our protagonists are ‘traditional’ companies grappling with Web3 adventures. The first of these is Instagram, which plans a ‘leg-up’ entry into the non-fungible token market through the development of its NFT marketplace. Then we move on to JP Morgan, one of the most important banks in the United States. They debuted in the world of decentralised finance (DeFi) with their first transactions on Aave, while Microsoft invests in crypto gaming. Concluding with another news item on mass adoption, Young Monday unveils the plans of the English Premier League. The world’s top football league is in fact negotiating with Sorare for the production of an NFT collection.

Gamestop and Instagram launch their NFT marketplaces

Buying NFTs on Instagram? It’s almost a reality! On Wednesday, the 2nd of November 2022, Meta announced the integration of an NFT marketplace on Instagram. Meta’s plan to bring non-fungible tokens to the social network is proceeding step by step. Already in August 2022, in a test phase, some users started to post and display NFTs on their profiles. But soon, it will be possible to create and sell NFTs directly on the app.

Users who create NFTs on Instagram will do so thanks to Polygon’s blockchain. In Instagram’s NFT marketplace, it will also be possible to link their OpenSea account and transfer their tokens from one platform to another. This option will initially only be available for NFTs built on Polygon and Solana (thanks to the collaboration with Phantom).

Instagram’s marketplace will initially be tested by a few sectioned creators. And, according to the official announcement, the Instagram marketplace will not charge commissions in its initial phase. Following the important announcement, on Thursday 3rd of November 2022, the price of MATIC (the crypto on Polygon’s blockchain), drew a green candle on the chart with a price increase of more than 10%.

GameStop also has some updates on its Web3 adventure. This adventure began a year ago now, in November 2021, with the purchase of an NFT domain (nft.gamestop.com). Subsequently, the video game store started building its NFT marketplace and developed its self-custodial crypto wallet. A few days ago, GameStop’s NFT marketplace finally concluded its beta phase, allowing the final version of the NFT marketplace to be activated on the ImmutableX blockchain. ImmutableX is an Ethereum sidechain dedicated to crypto gaming. The partnership between ImmutableX and the famous video game store started in February 2022. The beta version of Gamestop’s NFT marketplace went live 5 months later. To date, the platform provides access to Web3 games built on the blockchain, such as Gods Unchained, Guild of Guardians and Illuvium.

JP Morgan and Microsoft take their first steps into the Web3

For our “institutions join web3” paragraph, this week, we take a look at JP Morgan. The world’s largest bank is part of the American Big Four in the financial sector, along with Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo. In finance jargon, these kinds of giants are called institutional investors. By ‘institutional investors’ we mean organisations that are the benchmark for a certain sector and make periodic and systematic investments using large amounts of capital.

Last week, precisely on Wednesday the 2nd of November 2022, JP Morgan carried out its first transaction on a decentralised finance platform (DeFi). The transaction was processed with the help of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and is part of a pilot programme called ‘Project Guardian’, which was set up to explore the potential of decentralised finance in financial markets populated by large capital. This is the first case of a traditional bank using a DeFi platform in a public blockchain.

JPMorgan deposited Singapore dollars and Japanese yen tokens on the Aave liquidity protocol. These tokens were used for trading and the transactions were finalised using Polygon’s network (preferred to Ethereum for its low fees). According to Aave’s spokespersons, JP Morgan’s first DeFi transaction is a ‘milestone’ for the industry, as it ‘represents a huge step towards moving traditional financial assets to DeFi’.

Bill Gates‘ company Microsoft has also recently invested in Wemade, a Korean play-to-earn video game company. Wemade, which was founded in the early 2000s, recently received some USD 46 million from Microsoft and other companies to devote to the development of crypto games. This is not Microsoft’s first investment in Web3, in February 2022 the company had invested in the blockchain software company Consensys. In September, it participated in a funding round for the decentralised data platform Space and Time.

Sorare and Premier League: one step closer to collaboration

The English Premier League has decided to enter the NFT market through a partnership with Sorare. The partnership has not yet been made official, but if it goes through, it would be Sorare’s third international partnership in a few months. It would follow those with American sports leagues the National Basketball League (NBA) and Major League Baseball (MLB). According to rumours, the English football league’s collection could be similar to NBA Top Shot, and thus represent iconic moments of the world’s most popular and followed football league. A similar crypto football-themed collection already exists, it is the one between Algorand and FIFA dedicated to the World Cup.The uncertainty about the success of the deals is mainly related to the economic part of the question, will Sorare accept the Premier League’s current $34.7 million offer? The English football league, before knocking on Sorare’s door, sounded out the market through relations with some competitors such as Dapper Labs and Consensys. However, it seems that the proposals made by the Web3 companies did not take root. For Sorare, this could be an opportunity to improve on its already incredible performance in 2023.

Posted on

Young Monday: Udinese Calcio, the UK and L’Oréal Paris

Crypto in the UK: Rishi Sunak is bullish and open to stablecoins

The UK is increasingly bullish on crypto, Udinese launches its fan token on Socios, L’Oréal and Meta fund Web3 startups

Electrifying news for this Halloween edition of Young Monday, but fear not, nothing scary! The first item concerns fan tokens. Socios launched the Udinese Calcio crypto on Wednesday the 26th of October 2022. The UK introduces the Financial Service and Markets Bill to regulate cryptocurrencies and Meta is working with L’Oréal to fund Web3 startups.

Socios launches Udinese Calcio fan token

On the 26th of October 2022, Udinese Calcio, Friuli’s Serie A team, launched its UDI fan token on the Socios.com platform. Socios is the most popular fan token platform, built on the Chiliz blockchain. The Udinese Calcio UDI fan token will allow fans to participate in the team’s decisions through surveys, and access exclusive promotions for customised products and content. There are 25,000 UDI fan tokens and they were sold through three different stages, which ensured that most fans will own at least a few.

The first survey in which Udinese Calcio fan token holders were able to participate was launched by Socios at the same time as the first phase of the UDI crypto sale. Fans were able to choose the ‘motivational’ slogan to be printed on the shirts that the players will use for the pre-match warm-up. Voting participants will also take part in a draw, the prize of which will be an official jersey autographed by all members of the Friulian team. Udinese Calcio and Socios have been working together since February 2022 with the aim of involving fans more closely in the club’s decisions. In this regard, more than 500 surveys will be offered to fan token holders by the end of the year.

Growing adoption in the UK thanks to Rishi Sunak

On the 25th of October, the UK presented the ‘Financial Services and Markets Bill’, a bill aimed at strengthening the country’s position in the cryptocurrency sector. The aim of the bill is to turn the UK into a global hub for crypto and Web3 in general. What is the first step to achieve this? Expanding and amending existing regulations, especially those relating to stablecoins. The latter will be renamed to ‘Digital Settlement Assets’ within the document, and could be added to the list of accepted currencies for payments and thus become a widespread means of payment.

This openness of the UK on the subject of cryptocurrencies is not surprising, given the interest in the topic of the new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Sunak replaced Liz Truss on Monday the 24th of October 2022, who resigned after only 40 days in office. Sunak, during his previous tenure as Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister), had already demonstrated his interest in crypto and Web3 technologies. The idea of making the UK a global technology hub for crypto assets was conceived at that time, along with the even more ambitious proposal to create an NFT collection for the British royal mint. Rishi Sunak has also spoken out on a number of occasions about CBDCs. As far back in 2011, he proposed creating a UK Central Bank Digital Currency to be called ‘Britcoin’.

Meta and L’Oréal, working together to finance Web3

Meta and L’Oréal have decided to join forces, assisted by the French business school HEC Paris, to launch a Web3 startup accelerator to promote creativity in the metaverse. Startup accelerators, or incubators, build growth pathways to help young companies with innovative ideas make a name for themselves in an industry. Meta, L’Oréal and HEC will help start-ups that want to specialise in the production of Web3 technologies, in particular augmented reality (AR) virtual reality (VR), 3D production, user experience portability and the token economy.

The collaboration, which will run from January to June 2023, will be entirely hosted by Meta, within its startup campus in Paris, Station F. Applications to participate are open until the 20th of November 2022, and will be judged by a jury composed not only of Meta, L’Oréal and HEC employees, but also of entrepreneurs and investors with experience in the sector. Meta’s Vice President for Southern Europe, Laurent Solly, said, “We are proud to partner with L’Oréal on this ambitious project, which aims to support the French startup ecosystem and will play a key role in building a shared, creative and inclusive metaverse.”