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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?

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Fan tokens explained: what are they and what are they for?

Fan tokens: what are they and how do they work?

Fan tokens are cryptocurrencies created to bring sports teams or artists closer to their supporters and to offer exclusive benefits

In recent years, fan tokens have catapulted a lot of new users into the crypto world, specifically fans of sports teams or music groups. At the moment, these are mainly used in the fields of sports and music, but they can potentially be exploited by anything that involves interaction between a brand and a fan base. Non-sports tokens are also often referred to as ‘social tokens’. In this article, to explain what they are, how they work and what they are used for, we will use the example of the most popular fan tokens : the football tokens on Socios.

What are fan tokens and how do they work?

Fan tokens are a type of cryptocurrency, so in essence they are cryptographic digital coins built on a blockchain. They grant the holder access to a range of benefits or experiences related to the sports team that issues them. The working mechanism of fan tokens is simple: a fan buys them and the team grants rewards such as merchandise, match tickets, experiences with players, and the ability to vote on certain team decisions. Fan tokens were created precisely with the intention of improving and enlivening the relationship between fans and their favourite teams.

So, are they cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin? Technically speaking, fan tokens are created on existing blockchains and use standards developed by third parties. For example if they are based on Ethereum, the standard of reference is ERC-20. In contrast, Bitcoin runs on its own native blockchain. This is precisely why they are ‘tokens’ and not ‘coins’ as in the case of Bitcoin. However, fan tokens share the characteristic of fungibility with Bitcoin. In other words, they are not unique to each other but are interchangeable (so to speak ‘one is as good as the other’). In turn, fungibility differentiates them from NFTs, which are actually an abbreviation of ‘non-fungible tokens’. Fan tokens are therefore not used for collecting.

Are fan tokens utility tokens?

Tokens in the crypto sector are generally classified into utility and security tokens. Utility tokens have a specific utility within the ecosystem that issued them. For example, UNI is the utility token of the Uniswap decentralised exchange, which is used to participate in project governance. On the other hand, security tokens promise a future profit to their holder. In what category do fan tokens fit?

According to the Chiliz team, which actually launched the first tokens of this kind on the Socios platform, they are neither utility tokens nor security tokens. Fan tokens constitute a ‘third’ and new token with specific characteristics, which emerged from the need to unite fans and teams with Web3 tools.

Where can you buy them?

Fan tokens can be bought from platforms that issue them, such as Socios on the Chiliz blockchain. To buy fan tokens on Socios you need to sign up and buy $CHZ. In exchange for this crypto, you then can get your team’s fan tokens. Fan tokens are bought like any other cryptocurrency. Once the purchase is complete, you will find the fan tokens directly in your wallet. In some cases, fan tokens are listed in crypto exchanges.

What can you do with fan tokens?

Fan tokens were created to increase the participation of fans in the events of their team. With them, football clubs can offer direct involvement, making the relationship with fans reciprocal.

Why is this needed to bring fans closer together? As Alexandre Dreyfus, CEO of Chiliz and Socios says, 99.9 percent of fans don’t even go to the stadium. Teams therefore need channels to interact with the entire fan base, not just those who can physically go to the games.

What are fan tokens actually used for? Let’s look at a few examples. Holders can choose how to decorate the team’s dressing room with motivational phrases, or the motto on the captain’s armband (as in the case of F.C. Barcelona). Or, decide the song with which to celebrate anniversaries or the design of the kits (in the case of Inter). Napoli fans these days are voting on the new name for the team’s training ground.

As the owners of the Udinese fan token prepare to redeem their Christmas dinner.

Fan tokens are mainly bought by fans. On the other hand, like all other cryptocurrencies, they can be used by traders for buying and selling transactions. The market for fan tokens has proven to be very much linked to the performance of matches as was evident in the case of the 2022 World Cup and national team fan tokens.

Now that you know what fan tokens are, how they work and what they are used for, you may be wondering what their true value is within the crypto landscape, but also within the sports landscape. Their relevance depends on the importance given to fan tokens. If a team sees its fans only as people who go to games, fan tokens do not seem so interesting. When, on the other hand, fans are the lifeblood of the entire football club, fan tokens are a tool for building relationships and sharing sporting enthusiasm.

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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.

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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’.

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The Open Network, Toncoin’s blockchain of choice for Telegram 

What is The Open Network: the blockchain of TON coin and Telegram

What is The Open Network? Discover the Toncoin (TON) crypto blockchain, chosen by Telegram for its Web3 projects!

Among the social networks looking to integrate with the blockchain is Telegram! The messaging service started to develop its decentralised network in 2019. However, due to legal issues it decided to discontinue the project. The Open Network has thus passed into the hands of developers who have built a Proof-of-Stake blockchain that aspires to become a benchmark for dapps. The Telegram team remained committed to The Open Network, to the extent of integrating the Toncoin crypto into the app. Find out what The Open Network is and what Toncoin, Telegram’s cryptocurrency of choice, is for!

What is The Open Network?

The Open Network is a Layer 1 Proof-of-Stake blockchain founded in 2019, also known under its acronym TON. Although the initial idea for the project was developed by Telegram’s team, the messaging app shelved The Open Network in 2020. The development of TON was in fact blocked by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Now, The Open Network is a community-driven blockchain, reborn through the efforts of its developers, via the TON Foundation.

Telegram vs. SEC lawsuit over Gram’s crypto ICO 

In 2019, the Telegram team, led by brothers Pavel and Nikolai Durov, began exploring blockchain solutions for the messaging app. Thus, in 2019, the first testnet of The Open Network was launched with an ICO of the network’s crypto, which was then called Gram. On this occasion, the SEC opened an investigation to verify that Telegram had not sold the Gram crypto without authorisation as if it were a security. After several legal battles, applying the Howey test, the SEC ruled that Gram’s purchasers reasonably expected profits to be derived from the company’s entrepreneurial efforts and that Gram’s was therefore an unauthorised sale of securities. The lawsuit stopped the distribution of Gram. Telegram was ordered to pay a fine to the SEC of $18.5 million and to return $1.2 billion to those who had participated in the ICO. 

At this point, we are in 2020, Telegram decides to abandon the project. In a post, Pavel Durov expresses his displeasure at the outcome, sarcastically pointing out that the United States has the power to decide not only whether a coin can be distributed in its home state, but also worldwide: ‘perhaps even more paradoxically, the US court has declared that Grams cannot be distributed not only in the US, but globally. Why? Because, according to the court, a US citizen could find a way to access the TON platform after its launch. Therefore, in order to prevent this from happening, Gram crypto should not be distributed worldwide, even though every other country on the planet seems to be perfectly OK with TON’.

The Open Network: blockchain reborn thanks to community

After Telegram left the scene, the project was taken over by the developers themselves. From the original core of TON, two parallel projects were born, one of which kept Telegram’s way via the TON Foundation: ‘a decentralised community started by Anatoliy Makosov and Kirill Emelyanenko after Telegram walked away from the project’. 

The second project born from the ashes of Telegram’s crypto experience is FreeTON, which is now called Everscale, another Layer 1 Proof-of-Stake blockchain. Everscale works mainly on scalability, with over 200 secondary and parallel chains processing transactions together.

The restoration of The Open Network blockchain began in January 2021. After ten months, the blockchain was brought back to life with the basic infrastructure and tools. In November 2021, The Open Network was inaugurated and during 2022, the efforts of the developers were concentrated on providing The Open Network with the appropriate technology and security. Most of the assets and services on the network were created this year: tokens, non-fungible tokens, staking, domain names, marketplaces, multifunctional wallets, DEX and other decentralised finance services. TON also has two bridges, one on Ethereum and one on the Binance Smart Chain. The network’s native crypto is no longer called Gram but Toncoin (TON) and is used to pay fees to execute smart contracts, to use dapps, to participate in governance, and to be staked and contribute to the consensus mechanism. To date, The Open Network is operational with 200 validators and has 1.4 million accounts.

Toncoin (TON) has become Telegram’s cryptocurrency

Although Telegram is no longer actively involved in The Open Network, TON still remains linked to the app. The crypto TON has become Telegram’s crypto. Thanks to Wallet Bot developed by Telegram’s developers and launched in April 2022, it is possible to buy TON and send crypto to users via chat and without fees. With Wallet Bot, it is also possible to buy cryptocurrencies with a credit card and perform peer-to-peer transactions. 

The Open Network is also used by Telegram for its ‘TON domain name service’. Via the Fragment platform, users can buy crypto TON names for Telegram in the form of non-fungible tokens, names that are in effect NFT domains. The biggest sale was of the Telegram name @news, bought on the 18th of November for 994,000 TON (almost $2 million). This was followed by @auto at 900,000 TON and @bank at 850,000 TON. 

Like any NFT domain, a telegram name grants exclusive ownership of a username and a digital identity. 

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How to create and sell NFTs on OpenSea: the ultimate guide

Come creare e vendere NFT: la guida definitiva

Do you want to create an NFT project but don’t know where to start? OpenSea is a really simple tool to create and sell NFTs for free in 10 minutes

If there is one thing the NFT market of the past year has taught us, it is that anything can be sold on the blockchain. Or rather, any work that is completely original. You have probably heard of NFTs being sold at stratospheric prices on OpenSea or other marketplaces and wondered if creating and selling NFTs is within your reach. The answer is yes! If you have a unique idea and would like to turn it into a non-fungible token, you will find everything you need to get started in this guide. Wanting to monetise your creations is legitimate, but creating an NFT is not enough to start earning money. Making your way in this field requires commitment and hard work, such as building a community.

Generally minting an NFT, i.e. registering a piece of work on blockchain, requires a cost to pay in fees. However, there are platforms on which you can create and view NFTs for free in as little as 10 minutes. This is the case with OpenSea, the most popular NFT marketplace! OpenSea offers easy and intuitive tools to make your NFT project come true, and is often chosen by beginners because it is a giant showcase due to its large audience. The process for creating and selling NFT differs between platforms, although they share some steps. In the following 5 steps you will discover how to use OpenSea, the industry standard.

Ready? Let’s get started!

1. Create your crypto wallet

If you don’t already have one, now is the time to create a decentralised crypto wallet. Your wallet allows you to connect to the blockchain network and keep the key to your cryptocurrencies safe. One of the most popular wallets is MetaMask, also available as a Chrome extension or Firefox add-on. Metamask is one of the wallets recommended by OpenSea for creating and selling NFTs on Ethereum. If you intend to use the Solana network instead, OpenSea recommends the Phantom wallet. In the next section we will elaborate on the choice of which blockchain to use.

At this point, you may also want to buy cryptocurrencies. NFTs are usually minted using the Ethereum blockchain network, so having Ether is ideal to pay the fees to create your NFT. In some cases it is possible to create NFTs for free on OpenSea, i.e. without paying these fees.

Once you have created your crypto wallet, associate it with OpenSea and create your account.

2. Choose the blockchain on which to create your NFT

In contrast to NFT platforms such as SuperRare where NFT projects must be approved by the team, OpenSea is open to all. OpenSea is currently compatible with the Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Klaytn, Arbitrum and Optimism blockchains. Each of these blockchains has its own characteristics and different gas fees associated with transactions on their networks. To choose a blockchain for minting, take these costs into consideration. However, OpenSea is a great way to start your venture into the world of non-fungible tokens because, thanks to the ‘lazy minting’ mechanism, you can create NFTs for free, i.e. without paying fees if you choose Ethereum or Polygon. When you decide to use this option, your NFT is put up for sale but is also not yet registered on the blockchain. The latter step will only be taken when the work is actually purchased. In this manner, the payment of fees falls on the buyer.

3. Upload your NFT artwork

Of course, you will need your own creation to put on sale. NFTs can be associated with anything: a drawing, an MP3, or a three-dimensional image. Be creative! Opensea supports various file types including JPG, PNG, GIF, MP4, OGG but the file size of a non-fungible token must not exceed 100 MB.

In the ‘My Collection’ section, accessible from your account, click on ‘Create’. Create your Collection, it will be the showcase for your artwork. From here you can start creating your NFTs by filling out the “Create New Item” screen, you will need to enter:

  1. the file of the piece;
  2. the name of the piece;
  3. a link to the website or social page of your collection (not mandatory);
  4. the description of your NFT;
  5. the collection in which your NFT will be contained.

Next, you can also add other characteristics such as the attributes for the NFT (such as the available traits if it is a PFP collection), or the number of copies available. In this step, you will also have to select the blockchain you chose to create and sell your NFT on OpenSea. At this point your non-fungible token is ready and you can share it on social media. This is a crucial step, we will see why in step 5.

You can also set a ‘creator fee’, i.e. a percentage you will receive for each sale of your NFT work. This is known as a ‘royalty’. The percentage can be as high as 10%.

4. Choose the price of your NFT

After you have minted your NFT, all that remains is to choose the price at which you want to sell it. Go to your item’s page and click on ‘Sell’. Here, you can select the price of the NFT, and how long to leave it available on the market. A 2.5% commission from OpenSea will be subtracted from the selling price.

5. Advertise your collection!

Now your NFT is available on OpenSea, but it is not enough to simply create an NFT in order to earn money. As in real life, competition between artists is particularly fierce. For this, you will need to advertise your work effectively.

As you continue to expand your collection, you will have an increasingly interesting portfolio to show. In addition, consider also using art or social platforms such as Reddit, Instagram and Twitter: the more people like your work, the more possible buyers will want your NFT!

Cultivating a community is crucial for creating a successful NFT project. So is offering works with exclusive advantages that can attract collectors. Some of these advantages could be the possibility of using NFTs in the Metaverse, participating in a DAO and deciding on key aspects of the collection, or associating physical goods with the purchase of NFTs.

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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.

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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.

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Nike dotSWOOSH and other NFT news on Polygon

Nike NFTs on Polygon with the new dotSWOOSH platform

Nike’s NFT projects move from Ethereum to Polygon, here’s dotSWOOSH, a platform to buy and create wearables for avatars in video games and the Metaverse

After Starbucks, Disney and Adidas, Nike is also taking part in the list of brands building on Polygon‘s blockchain! Nike continues its exploration of the NFT world with dotSWOOSH, a Web3 platform that will host all the collections of Nike and the most creative users of its community. And the founders of Polygon are crying out for adoption! Discover Nike dotSWOOSH and the latest NFT news on Polygon.

Nike chooses Polygon for its next NFT projects

Nike has launched dotSWOOSH (or “.SWOOSH”), its new platform for non-fungible tokens. From the 18th of November, dotSWOOSH will be available in beta version to be tested by selected users from strategic areas of the US and Europe. The platform has been conceived as the home of all Nike NFT collections, relating to different disciplines and moments in sports culture. Specifically, Nike’s digital creations are so-called ‘wearables‘, i.e. clothing and accessories for avatars in video games and the Metaverse. On dotSWHOOSH, non-fungible Nike tokens can therefore be purchased. However, the highlight of the project is the possibility to create your own Nike-branded NFTs and put them up for sale while also receiving royalties. With .SWOOSH, Nike wants to expand its definition of sport and give birth to a new generation of sportspeople. The platform will be fully active and available to everyone in 2023 and will be inaugurated with an NFT collection created together with the community. And all this will happen on Polygon!

“Polygon’s ecosystem continues to grow at an exciting pace, be it DeFi, Gaming, NFT, Brand, Big Tech adoption or anything else,” commented Sandeep Nailwal co-founder of MATIC blockchain about the collaboration. Nailwal went on to reiterate that this kind of news about cryptocurrency adoption is a sign that events like the FTX epilogue will not have a long-term impact on Web3.

The dotSWOOSH project has been on the back burner for a few months. Last May, in fact, Nike bought an NFT domain on Ethereum Name Service: ‘dotswoosh.eth’ for 19.72 ETH (about $35,000 at the time).

Nike’s first NFTs and the digital store on Roblox

At the launch of dotSWOOSH, the Nike team thanked the ‘friends and mentors’ of RTFKT (pronounced ‘artefact’) for their support. Nike’s NFT adventure began just a year ago with the acquisition of RTFKT, a startup dedicated to making wearables in the form of non-fungible tokens. Nike’s first NFT collection with RTFKT is ‘CryptoKicks’. These tokens depict trainers and were minted on Ethereum. Nike in 2021 also opened a virtual shop on the Roblox metaverse, the Nikeland store hosted more than 7 million visitors in its first two months.

According to Vogue Business, Nike has so far earned $185.3 million with its Web3 products, overtaking its direct competitors in the NFT field: Adidas ($11 million) and Puma ($1.3 million).

The NFT of Steve Jobs’ Birkenstocks was sold for $200,000

Steve Jobs on the other hand was not a fan of trainers, he preferred Birkenstock sandals! Apparently the mind behind Apple had a soft spot for German footwear, whose practicality and functionality he admired. Between the 11th and the 13th of November, an auction was held to bid for a pair of sandals worn by Steve Jobs and the corresponding NFT mint on Polygon.

The auction run by Julien’s Auction fetched $218,750, and the anonymous (and lucky?) buyer took home the 1970s Birkenstocks with Steve Jobs’ footprint prominently displayed, along with the NFT that digitally represents them in full and guarantees ownership. The Birkenstocks in question are considered valuable because they were worn by Jobs at historic moments in Apple’s history and were also on display at the Salone del Mobile in Milan in 2017 and at Birkenstock’s headquarters in Germany. It really is true that everything is built on Polygon!

Bangalore Airport has its own Metaverse

In collaboration with Polygon, Amazon Web Service and Intel, Bangalore Airport in India released its Metaverse: Metaport on the 11th of November.

The Metaverse on Polygon gives airport visitors the opportunity to create their own avatar, visit virtual art exhibitions, go shopping, organise meetings and interact with other users, and access various types of entertainment.

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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?

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Binance and FTX: what’s happening in the crypto world?

Binance and FTX: What's happening in the crypto world?

The Binance and FTX case explained point by point. What is happening in the crypto world? How is the community reacting?

2022 is turning out to be a busy year for the cryptocurrency sector. In recent days, a succession of events, from Binance’s sale of FTT tokens to the news of the FTX exchange’s bankruptcy, has shocked the market ; which is currently experiencing a major decline. In this article, you will find an account of the story in all its passages and the reactions of the community. What is happening in the crypto world?

Who is involved in the affair?

Before getting to the heart of the matter, let’s summarise who the main actors involved are:

  1. Binance: one of the largest and most widely used centralised cryptocurrency exchanges, founded in 2017 and based in the Cayman Islands;
  2. Changpeng Zhao: CEO and founder of Binance, also known as CZ;
  3. FTX: another centralised exchange, founded in 2019 and based in the Bahamas. Its utility token is FTT;
  4. Sam Bankman-Fried: also referred to by the initials SBF, founder of FTX and Alameda Research;
  5. Alameda Research: a trading company whose CEO is Caroline Ellison. Alameda Research was founded by SBF and is these days accused of being not so transparently connected with FTX.

The relationship between Binance and FTX over the years

Binance and FTX are two of the leading centralised exchanges (CEXs) competing for supremacy in the crypto sector. Last year they generated 30% of all trading volume on CEXs together, totalling $27.5 trillion. Binance and FTX have not always been business rivals, in fact the two companies have been very close in the past. In 2019 Binance was one of FTX’s earliest backers and investors, and the partnership between the two exchanges continued until 2021 when FTX bought back its shares in Binance for $2.1 billion, most of this sum was settled in FTT tokens.

The crucial moments of the Binance vs FTX saga

Twitter has become the stage for all the key events in the crypto world. In order not to get lost in the memes, let’s clarify by following all the steps of the Binance-FTX affair.

• 6/11: CZ announces that Binance will sell all its FTT tokens

With a tweet on his personal profile, CZ announced on the 6th of November that he would be selling all FTT tokens held by Binance, due to ‘recent revelations that have come to light’. On this occasion CZ assured that the Binance team would try to minimise the impact on the market of this transaction (spoiler: the crypto market devolved into chaos) and that the decision was made looking at the mistakes that were made in the past with LUNA, the crypto that collapsed in May 2022. The founder of Binance also explained that this was in no way a move to harm a competitor.

Within hours of the publication of this tweet, the price of the FTT token dropped more than 10%. CZ’s decision threw users into a panic (ever heard of FUD?) and in 72 hours more than $6 billion was withdrawn from FTX.

• What are the ‘recently emerged revelations’ CZ is talking about?

The ‘revelations’ referred to by CZ are rumours about the financial difficulties of FTX and Alameda Research. On the 2nd of November, CoinDesk published a report on the financial state of FTX and Alameda Research. Alameda’s balance sheet showed that the trading company is ‘heavily’ dependent on the FTT token, which it uses as collateral. In other words, the FTX exchange would be involved with Alameda much more than SBF has always claimed. For CZ this proved problematic, as the lesson learned from the collapse of Terra (LUNA) is: “never use a token that you created yourself as collateral”. In general, FTX and SBF have been accused of a lack of transparency.

Reinforcing these allegations, Reuters claims that FTX secretly transferred USD 4 billion to Alameda between May and June.

• 6/11: Caroline Ellison of Alameda denies everything

The managing director of Alameda Research, Caroline Ellison, denied the rumours circulating about the trading company, explaining that Alameda also owns other assets besides the FTT token. Ellison also proposed that CZ buy Binance’s FTT tokens for $22 each. 

• 7/11: SBF’s denial makes an appearance (now deleted from Twitter)

On the 7th of November, SBF wrote on Twitter that all rumours are unfounded: ‘a competitor is trying to attack us with false rumours. Assets are fine’. The tweet, however, was deleted.

• 8/11: FTX blocks withdrawals and news of takeover arrives

After the blocking of withdrawals on the FTX exchange, news came of a possible takeover by Binance. CZ stated that FTX had asked for Binance’s help and that the acquisition would have the protection of users as its primary purpose. The founder of Binance then signed a non-binding agreement.

• 9/11: Justin Sun at work with FTX

On the 9th of November, Justin Sun, the founder of the Tron blockchain, said he was working with FTX to find a solution and protect the holders of Tron tokens on FTX.

• 10/11: Binance backs off

‘Following corporate due diligence and the latest news regarding the mismanagement of client funds and alleged investigations by US agencies, we have decided not to pursue the potential acquisition’. With these words, CZ announced that Binance would no longer buy FTX. In a series of tweets, CZ went on to explain how the failure of FTX is a defeat for the entire industry and that regulation of crypto is likely to be increasingly aggressive from now on.

• 11/11: FTX files for bankruptcy

After scrambling for funds (about $9 billion) to solve liquidity problems, on the 11th of November, SBF resigned as CEO of the exchange and FTX filed for bankruptcy.  

The secondary effects of the FTX crisis

On the 10th of November, the crypto market opened with -16.1% for BTC, -24.1% for ETH and -43% for SOL. The uncertainty of the situation made itself felt. The crypto that seems to be suffering the most in this situation is SOL, Solana’s coin. Why SOL in particular? SBF has always been a supporter of Solana, almost becoming its unofficial ‘ambassador’. In recent years, SBF has supported Solana and helped the project to grow. This close relationship has contributed to the drop in the price of SOL. Anatoly Yakovenko, founder of Solana, reported on Twitter that Solana Labs has no equity in FTX.

Among the companies that instead have dealings with FTX are venture capital firm Sequoia, which has alerted its shareholders to a $213.5 million exposure in FTX, and Galaxy Digital with $76.8 million. Amber Group said it has 10 percent of its funds locked up on SBF’s exchange, while Crypto.com has $10m (an insignificant amount according to CEO Kris Marszalek). Kraken stated that it has 9,000 FTT tokens but is not in contact with Alameda.

The FTX crisis has mainly affected user confidence, we see the issues raised by the community.

The reaction of the crypto community

The first topic discussed by those in the crypto world is the enormous power CZ and Binance have shown themselves to have over the markets. For some, it was CZ that engineered the whole affair that led to the collapse of FTX, starting with the insolvency rumours circulated. Beyond that, as in the case of Elon Musk and Twitter, CZ’s actions influenced the market. On this consideration, there are those who have dusted off the issue of the crypto world’s cult of personalities, suggesting that what is needed is true decentralisation that does not make the future of projects depend on the decisions of individuals. Isn’t that why Satoshi Nakamoto chose never to reveal his identity?

On the challenge of centralisation versus decentralisation, Stani Kulechov of Aave and Hayden Adams of Uniswap spoke out. The former argued that the only regulation for crypto is decentralised finance itself.

Adams also expressed himself in the same vein: ‘the basic financial infrastructure, such as the ability to exchange value, is too important to be controlled by corruptible centralised entities. This is one of the many reasons why I work on DeFi and decentralised exchanges.

For some, the collapse of FTX was the perfect opportunity to reaffirm the supposed superiority of the ideals of decentralisation. On the other hand, there are those who point out that these ideals at the moment seem to remain unchanged. Even for the most established dapps, security remains a challenge. At the moment, CEXs remain the connecting link between users, cryptocurrencies and traditional systems. It is up to the latter to ensure the security of users through regulations.

Could a single crypto regulation make a difference?

The absence of clear and unique rules for all industry players is another perspective from which to look at recent events. Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, pointed out that the FTX crisis is a symptom of this lack in the US. A country from which cryptocurrency exchanges flee because of oppressive policies, and that paradoxically find themselves with full freedom once they move abroad.

On the European side, Stefan Berger, a member of the European Parliament’s economic committee, explained that with the MiCA (Market in Crypto Assets) in place, an episode like FTX would never have occurred.

Meanwhile, in a press release from the 10th of November, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation announced that it had opened an investigation into the collapse of the FTX exchange.