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Young Monday: Bill Murray, GTA, and the strange case of the +800% UST Classic pump

Bill Murray's NFT, GTA 6 crypto, USTC’s price pump

Bill Murray’s NFT extravagances, crypto gossip about GTA 6, USTC’s suspicious pump

The first week of July in the crypto world began with some rumours about the possible crypto capabilities of the new Grand Theft Auto (GTA) edition. There is still nothing certain about the video game that has been in development since the beginning of the year, but a rumour was enough to make fans curious. From a classic video game, we move on to a movie star! The actor Bill Murray has made collectable NFTs to tell some of the absurd stories and events of his life and career. In the past few days, you may also have noticed that the price of USTC, the defunct stablecoin of the Terra ecosystem (LUNA), has soared. What happened? Find out in this edition of Young Monday, with the week’s most interesting news from the crypto world! Spoiler: all that glitters is not gold!

Will GTA 6 be a play-to-earn?

The blockchain gaming industry is giving us truly extraordinary projects and gameplay, and by now all the major blockchains, from Avalanche to Solana, have their own crypto games. The play-to-earn model is also fascinating the off-chain gaming industry. In this regard, rumours have been leaked in recent days by alleged insiders from Rockstar Games about the upcoming release of the new Grand Theft Auto volume. According to the rumours, the sixth GTA video game will be available in 2024 (more than ten years after the last release) with the introduction of a cryptocurrency payment system. Earlier this year Rockstar Games announced that GTA 6 was in development, but the release date and the new crypto feature are still to be confirmed. However, open world fans are already itching to find out if the new GTA will be a play-to-earn and how involved it will be with the crypto world.

Bill Murray celebrates his crazy career with collectable NFTs

An unconventional autobiography of an equally unconventional artist will be available on the 15th of July. The life and career of Bill Murray (71) will be told through 100 stories in NFT format. You may know Bill Murray for his filmography, from playing Professor Venkman in Ghostbusters to being the favourite face of Wes Anderson. Moreover,his artistic life is full of incredible stories and anecdotes that go beyond his acting talents. The NFTs of ‘The Bill Murray 1,000′ collection are also designed to tell all those little stories and details that feed the personality of an artist of his calibre, such as his mania for stealing crisps from strangers’ packets or his passion for gatecrashing weddings. Murray made the non-fungible tokens together with his son and the startup Project Venkman (a platform on Acala, one of Polkadot’s parachains) named after the most famous character Murray played. Each NFT is based on a single original painting by artist David Grizzle, to which backgrounds, unique decorations and the actor’s life story have been added. The first NFTs in the collection will be for sale on the 15th of July with a price floor of 1.5 ETH. The remainder will be released later this year.

Why is the price of UST Classic pumping?

Over the past few days, you may have noticed that UST Classic, the failed algorithmic stablecoin of the Terra ecosystem, is showing signs of life after the loss of its dollar peg and the collapse of the entire blockchain structure. In fact, the price of USTC has risen 800% in a single week. Apparently the growth is unjustified, so what is happening to USTC? Some speak of the return of the living dead, others of zombie stablecoins, is USTC really hovering between life and death? Actually, it would seem not. Although at the same time LUNC, the original version of LUNA, is enjoying a sudden rise (from a market cap of $388 million to $922 million between 26 and 29 June), this is not a real revival of Do Kwon’s project. The price increase, according to some financial analysis groups, is only due to users looking to make money from a possible USTC and LUNC push. However, the underlying technology is dead, USTC has failed to achieve its goal of offering a stable, digital version of the dollar, which is why Terra’s comeback seems rather unlikely.

Solana and the crypto smartphone

Our tech news of the week comes from Solana! The Proof-of-Stake blockchain that promises super-fast and low-cost transactions has announced that in 2023 it will release Saga, an Android smartphone designed to facilitate access to and use of Web3 services. With Saga, you will be able to easily manage wallets, dapp, NFT, all from your mobile phone. Saga will also have competitive specifications in terms of screen, memory and camera. According to Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana, the way people approach the crypto world could be revolutionised by this new model of smartphone that aims to solve the usability problems of decentralised products. Solana wants to bring crypto into everyone’s pockets!

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Tether expands with a new stablecoin pegged to the pound sterling

Tether: GBPT arrives, the stablecoin pegged to the pound sterling

Tether, the company behind USDT, has decided to create a new stablecoin pegged to the pound sterling, in anticipation of a boom in the UK crypto market

Although USDT is the most widely used stablecoin in the crypto ecosystem, its market cap has declined since the shake-up caused by the collapse of Terra (LUNA). The market cap of USDT is 66 billion, but just behind it is USDC, with 55 billion and an upward parabolic trend. The solution of Paolo Ardoino, CTO of Tether? Expand into other markets! The new frontier for Tether is the UK, and GBPT is the new stablecoin pegged to the pound sterling and based on Ethereum. Will gbp on blockchain be an antidote against the bearish market?

A new stablecoin pegged to the pounds sterling for the UK market

GBPT is a stablecoin pegged to the pound sterling that will be released in early July by Tether. In addition to the primary stablecoin USDT, Tether already has other cryptocurrencies pegged to fiat currencies. What are they pegged to? The Euro, Chinese yuan and Mexican peso. However, these cryptos in total have a very low market capitalisation, under $1 billion. Although these ‘minor’ stablecoins do not reach USDT levels, Tether has nevertheless decided to release the new GBPT stablecoin.

The motivation? According to Paolo Ardoino, the CTO of Tether, the UK will be the next frontier of the crypto market. The pound is one of the most widely used fiat currencies in the world and the UK is a world economic power. What’s more, the UK parliament has announced that it is working on a series of laws and regulations that could foster the development of crypto technologies. “Tether is ready to work hand-in-hand with UK lawmakers towards this goal, and we are excited to continue the expansion of Tether-signed stablecoins,” Ardoino announced.

According to Tether, the launch of a stablecoin pegged to the pound will make the crypto market better, i.e. more dynamic, facilitating transactions not only in the UK but worldwide. The Bank of England is looking into the possibility of creating a CBDC of the pound, but some critics have blamed the bank’s slowness. Tether fits right into this market gap with its GBPT.

Will stablecoin pegged to the sterling help Tether?

The idea of a stablecoin pegged to sterling was born during a bearish market phase, with the intention of reviving the use of Tether’s signature stablecoin ecosystem. USDT reached a record market cap on the 11th of May, during the collapse of Terra (LUNA), surpassing $84 billion in capitalisation. On 28 June, after just under two months, USDT’s market cap stands at USD 66 billion. A drop of about 20%!

The causes of this decline are many. Besides the arrival of the bearish market, the very transparency of Tether has been called into question. According to some critics, in fact, the company’s reserves would not guarantee a 1:1 ratio with the USDTs currently circulating on the blockchain. Tether was quick to deny the allegations, releasing the numerous third-party audits confirming its reserves, but the rumours were enough to call into question the stablecoin’s primacy. “These unfounded rumours contribute to panic in the market, probably to take advantage of an already stressed market,” responded a Tether spokesperson, warning those holding USDT on their wallet.

Picking up the slack from USDT is first and foremost USDC, Circle’s stablecoin. Over the past month, USDC has increased its market cap by 4%. At the same time, a new algorithmic stablecoin, Tron’s USDD, has emerged, which has stolen percentage points from USDT by relying on those who still have faith in algorithmic stablecoins despite the Terra disaster.

Will the move to create a stablecoin pegged to sterling prove successful? According to Tether, the GBPT stablecoin will be released at the beginning of July on Ethereum, but it will take a few months to see if the stablecoin will prove equal to USDT or if GBPT will end up being used by a small niche.

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Solana launches a smartphone for crypto and blockchain

Solana’s new Smartphone: Saga, the Android crypto phone

Blockchain in the palm of your hand? Solana announces the development of a flagship Android smartphone integrated with crypto

Want to always have blockchain and crypto at your fingertips? Solana, in collaboration with OSOM, has announced a brand new Android smartphone with cutting-edge technical features, fully integrated with the crypto world. The mobile phone, called the Solana Saga, is designed to make access to Web3 simple and straightforward. The Solana Saga is a future-proof device, find out what the Solana smartphone, the Android mobile phone designed for crypto and Web3 enthusiasts, is all about!

An Android smartphone for crypto and Web3: this is what Solana Saga is and how it works

Did you buy a smartphone with 5G thinking it was state-of-the-art? Technology has just churned out something even more futuristic! In collaboration with Osom, Solana has announced Saga, a crypto- and Web3-proof Android smartphone integrated with blockchain and compatible with all decentralised applications. The manufacturing company, Osom, is a start-up created by some employees of the now defunct company Essential, which designed smartphones dedicated to privacy and security. Now they have decided to push the boundaries: here is Solana Saga!

The technical features of the Solana Saga are respectable and are no match for other top-of-the-range devices. The 6.67-inch OLED screen has a refresh rate of 120Hz, ensuring no blurring even in the most frantic videos. It also has 512 GB of memory, and 12 GB of RAM to run even the heaviest dApps. Highlights are the 50 MP main camera and the excellent Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen1 processor, which is the latest addition to the market and guarantees user privacy. In fact, thanks to the capabilities of this processor, Solana Saga is able to keep private keys and seed phrases safe, but at the same time make them interact with decentralised applications should the need arise. Solana works to ensure that your privacy is not compromised!

Solana also put another important building block on the theme of increasing the accessibility and usability of its network in March 2022, with the partnership between Dialect (Web3 messaging protocol) and Solana Mobile. The goal of the collaboration? To launch a Whatsapp-style, but decentralised, open source messaging application for the Solana Saga Android smartphone.

All this technological power will be used to make decentralised applications and the Web3 work stably and smoothly. Solana Saga  will be integrated with the Solana blockchain and all other realities of the new Internet, thanks also to the new open-source marketplace that will be installed on the device. Solana Mobile Stack replaces the Play Store (installed by default on Android smartphones), allowing developers to develop their own decentralised applications and publish them on the open-source marketplace. “The world needs hardware companies that focus on supporting Web3,” reported Jason Keats, CEO and founder of Osom. “Building the ecosystem of the future without being tied to the past is really exciting.”

Why buy a Web3 and crypto-proof smartphone? Solana’s founders answer

Is Solana’s smartphone, an Android phone integrated with crypto and Web3 really necessary? According to the founders of Solana, definitely yes! Indeed, they hope to be pioneers and lay the foundations for a revolution that is now imminent. “Almost 7 billion people use smartphones worldwide and more than 100 million of these people own digital assets, and these numbers will continue to grow,” said Anatoly Yakovenko, one of the founders of Solana, confidently. ‘Solana Saga wants to create a standard for all hardware devices that interface with Web3’. Yakovenko’s words are clear: the question to ask is not whether a smartphone integrated with blockchain is useful, but when we will all get to have one in our pockets!

“We chose the name Saga because we believe the crypto story is still in its infancy,” said Raj Gokal, co-founder of Solana. “This smartphone is a step forward in history, and we believe it is critical to improving the understanding and adoption of this new technology,” he continued. Thanks to Saga, understanding and using the blockchain will be as easy and intuitive as downloading an app from the Play Store or making a payment using your smartphone’s NFC.

Privacy and technological innovation: Solana Saga is an Android smartphone projected into the future and integrated with Web3 and crypto. It could be the first in a long line of next-generation mobile phones. Imagine transferring cryptocurrencies, paying for pizza and shopping online all from the same interface and in a completely decentralised manner. Does the future of blockchain pass through smartphones? We will find out in March 2023, when Solana Saga finally hits the market!

Solana Saga pre-sale 

It is already possible to pre-order the Solana smartphone. To do so, simply log on to this site, enter your details and pay a deposit of 10 percent of the final price of the smartphone, exactly $100. Solana has announced that pre-ordering the device will provide additional benefits, including limited edition NFTs, merchandising and other benefits that are as yet undisclosed. 

Users interested in obtaining one of the first examples of Solana’s Android smartphone were able to purchase an NFT called the ‘Saga Pass’, which grants them the right to be the first to receive the Saga, as well as the right to airdrop and participate in exclusive events. These NFTs went on sale on 31 October 2022. 

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Yuga Labs hires NFT expert to breathe new life into Cryptopunks

NFT: Yuga Labs Hires Expert for Cryptopunks

A breath of fresh air for CryptoPunks? Yuga Labs has hired an expert to breathe new life into the world’s most famous NFT collection!

Christie’s is the most active auction house when it comes to the NFT trade. Suffice it to say that it sold one of the non-fungible works by the artist Beeple for an impressive $69 million! Not only that: it was also the first auction house to accept payments in cryptocurrency. All thanks to Noah Davis, an NFT Specialist for Christie’s, who has always believed in the potential of blockchain and crypto. But here’s the news: Davis has officially been hired by Yuga Labs, the studio that created the Bored Ape Yacht Club, to breathe new life into one of the crypto world’s most famous NFT collections. Yuga Labs hires an NFT expert to expand the Cryptopunks universe!

Christie’s Noah Davis and Yuga Labs want to improve CryptoPunks

On 19 June, Noah Davis, NFT expert for Christie’s auction house, wrote on Twitter that he would be working with Yuga Labs to give Cryptopunks a new direction. The famous NFT collection, bought in March by the creators of Bored Ape Yacht Club, has 10,000 pixellated images that are all different. Created in 2017 by Larva Labs, those who originally owned an NFT from the collection did not have the intellectual rights to the image.

This line of thinking changed after the acquisition by Yuga Labs: the first change was precisely the announcement to give NFT owners full commercial and intellectual rights to the purchased works! But the creators of BAYC did not stop there: to make Cryptopunks even more ‘Web3-proof‘, they chose to hire an NFT expert. “I am honoured to announce that I will be running CryptoPunks as Brand Leader,” wrote Noah Davis on Twitter.

Why did Yuga Labs choose Davis to manage such a famous and important NFT project? The now ex-Christie’s employee is not only passionate about blockchain with a connoisseur’s eye for non-fungible works of art, but also has many successful projects under his belt! He is currently engaged in the development of an NFT collection called Howlerz. And he is also a proud owner of CryptoPunk No. 2099. Not bad at all!

What will happen to the CryptoPunks now?

Now that Davis has become Brand Leader of CryptoPunks, what will happen to the NFT collection? After acquiring the collection, Yuga Labs specified that it would not turn it into a new ‘Yacht Club’ and it would retain all of the Punkers’ favourite features. Noah Davis confirmed this course of action. “I WILL NOT F**K WITH THE PUNKS,” he stated on Twitter. “No Punks on mugs or stupid TV shows,” he continued. In short, those who bought a CryptoPunk back in 2017 will not find themselves betrayed by overly commercial operations.

Instead, among Davis’s first proposals is a series of face-to-face chats with real CryptoPunks fans. “Wherever the community goes, that’s where Punks will go,” he specified on the Twitter thread. This way the spirit of the early Punkers and CryptoPunks will not be lost behind publicity stunts!

One of the founders of the Bored Ape, Garga, wrote on the 19th of June that more news about the future of CryptoPunks will come in the coming weeks. “We have chosen a slow and considered approach for Punks, taking into consideration the expectations of the community. We are honoured to be the custodians of this historic collection, and we have the utmost respect for Noah and the Punkers community.” So buckle up and get ready for the news: this is just the beginning!

Just during this historic phase for CryptoPunks there was a lot of movement in the NFT market. The price floor for a piece of the collection rose from 48 ETH to an impressive 65 ETH. A jump of 35%! The new recruit at Yuga Labs seems to have already struck a chord with the community. Is it time for the revival of one of the most popular collections ever?

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Meta and The Fabricant, 2 ways of understanding digital fashion

NFTs and fashion: The Fabricant and Meta explain digital fashion

The future of fashion is digital. The dilemma: will blockchain be involved, yes or no? All the most famous brands are converting to the combination of NFTs and fashion!

For fashion brands, the Metaverse is proving to be an opportunity to experiment with expressive languages and to think up new products. More and more brands are developing digital collections, including Zara, Lacoste, Adidas and Gucci. However, not all of them choose to make digital fashion on blockchain: The Metaverse has different forms and can be centralised or decentralised. This duplicity also describes two different ways of understanding digital fashion. For some companies, such as Meta, virtual fashion is not in the form of NFT while for others, such as The Fabricant, digital fashion is to be built on a blockchain. Let’s take a look at these two different approaches to digital fashion!

Meta: a Metaverse dressed in Balenciaga, Prada and Thom Browne

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta (formerly Facebook), announced a few days ago during a live broadcast on Instagram that the digital clothing boutique ‘Avatar Store’ for the Metaverse ‘Horizon Worlds’ is about to open. The launch will be celebrated by partnering with some high fashion brands namely Balenciaga, Prada and Thom Browne. “I’m really grateful and proud that these brands are joining us to kick-start fashion in the Metaverse,” Zuckerberg said. The digital fashion marketplace for all Meta and Facebook users will be available next week, starting in the US, Canada, Thailand and Mexico. Initially, garments for sale on the Avatar Store will be priced between $2.99 and $8.99. Balenciaga, Prada and Thom Brown will therefore be the first brands to sell in Meta’s marketplace. However, Zuckerberg’s idea is to start a marketplace in which everyone, not just designers by training, can make and sell digital fashion. At the moment, it has not yet been revealed how the rewards will be distributed between the Meta marketplace and the virtual haute couture creators.

The Fabricant and the decentralised fashion model

What is The Fabricant? The answer is ‘a Digital Fashion House’, one of the pioneer projects of digital fashion on blockchain. The Fabricant is not a real fashion NFT marketplace, but a virtual fashion incubator. The platform is built on Flow, a blockchain chosen by the founders for its sustainability and speed. Compared to Meta, we are dealing here with NFT fashion, a case of decentralised digital fashion built on the blockchain. The creators of The Fabricant do not create simple garments as digital objects but real NFTs. For The Fabricant’s team, blockchain is ideal for building the fashion of the Metaverse. First of all because it is able to give value to the data and ownership of digital objects. According to co-founder Adriana Hoppenbrouwer-Pereira, The Fabricant is “creating a business for the time when our digital wardrobe will be our wardrobe“. Having a set of clothes in the Metaverse will not be such an absurd concept when there will be more and more digital experiences on offer. Changing one’s clothes and adapting them to each occasion will become as spontaneous as changing clothes in real life: one outfit for the gym and one for an elegant dinner. When this happens, there will be so many digital clothes to make that only blockchain will be the right tool to scale production.

Blockchain is also beneficial for the digital fashion industry because it keeps track of royalties and distributes them equally between creator and owner. In an interview, Hoppenbrouwer-Pereira said that blockchain and the Metaverse will bring fashion back to its dimension of play and fun. Dressing in the Metaverse will be a modular experience, highly creative and expressive of people’s personalities.

What makes an NFT fashion really useful?

NFT fashion must be fully adaptable to the avatars of the various metaverses and transferable between them to be of real use. The Fabricant’s challenge at the moment is to translate its fashion creations into the styles of the major virtual worlds. The Sandbox for instance is more pixelated than Decentraland, the same NFT outfit must be able to be worn anywhere. The other side of this challenge is to provide a cross-chain experience where NFTs built on a blockchain like Flow can be transported and used anywhere. Especially on Ethereum where the main metaverses are developed.

 

Are the metaverse and digital fashion worlds really just around the corner?

In order to conceive the usefulness of digital fashion, you may first ask yourself whether the Metaverse is really a technology capable of predominantly entering our lives. The success of the Metaverse will be dictated by its ability to attract attention and engage users. However, we are only at the beginning. one can consider that Decentraland hosted 40,000 people at its first Metaverse Fashion Week. The results in this respect look promising, the record of MANA‘s metaverse is very high for the blockchain to be able to accommodate so many users. Fashion companies that have chosen NFTs on The Fabricant include Adidas, Under Armour and Puma.

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Young Monday: Pride parades on The Sandbox, Polygon is now carbon neutral and Pharrell Williams’s NFT

Pride in the Metaverse, Carbon neutral Polygon, Pharrell Williams NFT

The events of Pride find a home in the Metaverse, Polygon announces it has made MATIC a crypto green and Pharrell Williams is hired by an NFT collection!

Our final edition Young Monday for the month of June? If that’s the case, then we absolutely need to report on the crypto initiatives of Pride month! In fact, the most interesting news of the week takes us to the main metaverses and their events to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community. You will also discover the incredible sustainability milestone reached by the Polygon network, the blockchain expansion of eBay e-commerce and Pharrell Williams’ new career in the NFT industry!

NYC Pride marches in The Sandbox and Decentraland

On the 26th of June in New York, the streets were swept by a wave of Pride, which annually attracts up to 2 million people, and is the largest event for the LGBTQ+ community in North America. This year, NYC Pride went outside these continental borders to march all around the world, but how so? By making use of the Metaverse! Thanks to LGBTQ+ associations organising Web3 events, The Sandbox and Decentraland, the rainbows of Pride shine brightly in the metaverse. One of these associations is MetaPride Land. According to its founder Matt Stevenson, a former Time Magazine executive, the metaverse is ideal for building a community that is unaffected by geographical limitations: “there are still 68 countries in the world where it is illegal to be gay. In the US, there are over 200 bills targeting our community in one way or another. I felt it was really important that this June we provide an accessible space, no matter where you are, to come out and celebrate your life“. Concretely, a collection of inclusive avatars will be presented at The Sandbox, and People of Crypto, another of the Web3-related realities, unveiled ‘The Valley of Belonging’ on 24 June, a project to promote work in the minority metaverse.

In Decentraland, however, Pride-related events are organised by Cash Labs. The ultimate goal behind this expansion of Pride in the Metaverse is to be able to give visibility and space to the Queer community all year round, not just in June.

Polygon is officially a carbon-free network

On 21 June 2022 in its official blog, the Polygon project announced that it had reached its goal and had become a 100 percent carbon neutral network. Last April, Polygon had published its Green Manifesto pledging to make MATIC a fully-fledged green cryptocurrency. Carbon neutrality was achieved with the purchase of $400,000 in carbon credits representing 104,794 tonnes of greenhouse gases, or all the CO2 Polygon has emitted since its inception. Carbon credits are tokens of the on-chain carbon market whose purchase finances green initiatives. This was achieved thanks to the collaboration with KlimaDAO, which analysed the energy footprint of the network especially concerning staking and smart contract operations.

Polygon’s Green Manifesto also includes the allocation of $20 million for green projects on its network such as Bull Run Forest Conservation to protect forests in the state of Belize or the Ghani Solar Power Project, a renewable energy generation project in India. On 13 July Polygon will host the Green Blockchain Summit, dedicated to ‘Web3 leaders to develop solutions to the most pressing environmental problems facing the blockchain industry’.

eBay buys an NFT marketplace, its expansion on the blockchain continues

eBay has acquired KnownOrigin NFT marketplace, with the aim of expanding further into the world of blockchain technology and digital collectibles. The deal was finalised on the 22nd of June but negotiations remained confidential. KnownOrigin was founded in 2018 in Manchester and allows people to create, buy and sell NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain. Jamie Iannone, CEO of eBay, said, “eBay is the first stop for those around the world looking for the perfect hard-to-find or unique item to add to their collection, with this acquisition, we will remain a leading site as our community adds more and more digital collectibles.”

Pharrell Williams is now a consultant for Web3

The artist and record producer Pharrell Williams has joined the Doodles NFT project as Chief Brand Officer and board member. Williams will take care of partnerships and projects between the Doodles collection and other brands related to events, music, artwork and entertainment. In this regard, a music album dedicated to Doodles entitled ‘Doodles Record: Volume 1’ is already in production, in collaboration with Columbia Records and other leading musicians. Williams explained that Doodles is preparing to become known by mainstream audiences and reach new levels of popularity. Doodles are 10,000 NFTs representing various cartoon-style and pastel-coloured characters. Launched in 2021, the project has quickly become one of the most exciting emerging NFT collections with a trading volume of over $400 million. Doodles recently announced its first funding round led by venture capital firm Seven Seven Six. These two pieces of news have given a boost to the price of these NFTs, within 24 hours their cost has risen by about 10%.

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Bitcoin’s 7 advantages in the face of the bear market

Bitcoin’s 7 advantages in the face of the bear market

Crypto prices are dropping, but BTC is the most solid of them all. The community also fully supports it, let’s find out why!

Bitcoin’s price trend, historical data in hand, follows a 4-year cycle. The trend is marked by the halving event, which occurs precisely every 4 years. The Halving refers to the gradual halving of the BTC rewards that miners receive for their work. The event seems to coincide with the end of one of Bitcoin’s price cycles and the beginning of the next. In fact, since the creation of BTC, its price has followed a pattern where the halving is followed by 18-24 months of a bull market, which is subsequently followed by two years of bear market. Taking into consideration the timing of this theory, we are in the middle of a bear market. The next halving is expected to happen in 2024, when the supply of BTC will then change and consequently so will market behaviour. A bear market can be broken down into several phases, and understanding them can help us look in perspective at Bitcoin’s current market momentum. Discover Bitcoin’s 7 strengths in the face of dealing with a bear market!

Phases of a bear market

If we consider the previous bear market we went through, we can distinguish 7 phases:

  1. The collapse: when the market collapses very quickly, for both Bitcoin and altcoins;
  2. Rejection/denial: when there is a tendency to think that prices are only subject to one of the many usual declines;
  3. Realisation: when you realise that you’re not faced with just a temporary market downturn. Often this realisation also comes from a broader observation of the macroeconomic context;
  4. Panic: after a general realisation of what is happening, people panic and this perspective changes the market mentality. Any attempt at a rebound is eliminated by those who try to limit their losses by selling. At this stage, the rebounds are pushed by bitcoiners attracted to buying BTC at reduced prices;
  5. Accumulation/stabilisation: although the majority of users panic, those who take a long-term view accumulate mainly ‘solid’ coins such as BTC rather than altcoins;
  6. Anticipation: at this stage funds begin to return, Bitcoin is on the rise again. People are also start to buy medium market cap altcoins again;
  7. Steady growth: the market is growing steadily again. There is a shift from extreme fear to neutral sentiment.

We are currently in the panic phase, number 4, where the Fear and Greed Index has the lowest values (extreme fear). The market is slowly trying to move into number 5, or stabilisation. Those who are fully immersed in panic mode find it difficult to perceive the build-up. It is not possible to precisely predict when the bear market will evolve into the next phase. However, if we compare BTC to other cryptos, we can see that although they are all falling, Bitcoin is the one that is dropping the least. While most altcoins are falling more than 90% from their ATH, Bitcoin’s decline is just under 70% from its ATH of $69,045.

The only certainty is that the next halving will be in early 2024 (this is determined by the algorithm), and the market equilibrium will then be upset again. Those who take a long-term view and are convinced of Bitcoin’s value beyond its mere price will continue to buy and hold. The foresight of bitcoiners begs the question: why does Bitcoin continue to be supported? Here are Bitcoin’s 7 strengths to face the bear market!

Bitcoin’s strengths: why bitcoiners don’t give up

Bitcoiners don’t panic. The bear market can sow all the panic it wants, but there are those who just won’t abandon Bitcoin. This is because the strengths and potential of Bitcoin go beyond its price. Bitcoin is in fact:

  1. Open source: everyone can have access to and verify information processed by the blockchain, but above all, everyone can contribute to the development and improvement of the whole network;
  2. Transparent: you don’t need to have blind trust in how it works. One of the slogans the BTC community is fond of is ‘don’t trust, verify’, precisely because everything is in front of your eyes, available and verifiable;
  3. Neutral: it knows no politics and does not depend on any national or international legislation (at least as far as the functioning of its blockchain is concerned, mining for instance may be restricted);
  4. Decentralised: the BTC network is composed of nodes scattered all over the world and no single company or person holds all the decision-making power;
  5. Resistant to censorship: the only way to block Bitcoin is to block the internet (and we can only imagine what the consequences of disconnecting the whole world would be);
  6. Secure: Bitcoin’s security is guaranteed by its Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism. The work of miners makes transactions secure and the decentralisation of nodes means that there is no interference;
  7. Characterised by a winning monetary policy. Its scarcity and digital nature make Bitcoin an alternative to economic systems as we know them.

Will the next halving save us?

As always, the market mirrors many factors, most of which are unpredictable. The halving gives us hope for an improvement in Bitcoin’s performance because it has always had a positive impact in the past. However, the consequences of the last halving in May 2020 were also influenced by external elements such as the FED’s restrictive policy. In all this the stock-to-flow can be useful as a trend indicator but the future of BTC is all to be written!

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Young Monday: Boateng, a new stablecoin pegged to the Euro and the record-breaking PSG fan token

Boateng’s wedding in the metaverse, a euro-pegged stablecoin and PSG’s fan token

Weddings in the Metaverse, Circle’s new stablecoin, Lacoste’s NFT collection and Paris Saint Germain’s record breaking fan token

June is the month of weddings, and no bear market can prevent this: people are now getting married on the blockchain! In fact, just a few days ago, the wedding between the footballer Kevin-Prince Boateng and Valentina Fradegrada took place in the AR Over The Reality metaverse. It is one of the first weddings celebrated in the Metaverse and the event has attracted a lot of attention. Focussing on the NFT sector, the headline of the week involves Lacoste. The brand launched its first collection of non-fungible tokens featuring the iconic crocodile and promises of exclusive benefits. In this edition of Young Monday, you will also learn about Circle’s new stablecoin (pegged to the Euro) and Paris Saint Germain’s new record-breaking fan token!

Swearing eternal love on the blockchain

Kevin-Prince Boateng and Valentina Fradegrada took their wedding vows on Polygon. On the 11th of June, the footballer and the influencer (also multiple Wushu Kung Fu champion) got married in a location in the province of Siena, Tuscany, as well as in the Over The Reality metaverse. The ceremony was organised by Enzo Miccio, Italy’s most famous wedding planner, who took up the couple’s challenge: to organise a wedding where no one else had celebrated one before. Miccio therefore suggested a ceremony in the Metaverse that recreated a lunar landscape through 3D graphics. Miccio himself officiated the virtual wedding! Guests of the Boateng-Fradegrada couple participated by logging in with an NFT. Their fans, who were not invited to the festivities, were able to purchase a spectator ticket at a cost of around 50 Euros. Over The Reality is a decentralised metaverse that allows for augmented reality events of any kind, using the Ethereum and Polygon blockchains. Its token is called OVR.

Lacoste NFT’s collection sells out immediately after launch

The French clothing brand released UNDW3, an NFT project designed to build an online community by experimenting with new Web3 technologies. The collection was released on the 14th of June, and it consists of 11,212 pieces that were sold for 0.08 ETH each. Within a short space of time, the collection was sold out. The number 11,212 is linked to the name of the iconic polo shirt, the L1212. These NFTs depict a hypnotic looking crocodile, a clear homage to the Lacoste logo. Owners of these tokens will have access to exclusive experiences, benefits and dedicated products.

Circle’s Euro-pegged stablecoin arrives

After USDC, the dollar-backed stablecoin, Circle announced that a stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the euro is on the way. The new stablecoin will be called EUROC, and it is scheduled to be launched on the 30th of June 2022.

Euro Coin (EUROC) was built on Ethereum with the support of several partners from the crypto world such as Curve, Uniswap and Metamask. For all intents and purposes, EUROC will be an ERC-20 token. It will mirror USDC’s operating model: “designed to ensure stability, our Euro Coin is backed 100% by euros held in bank accounts, so it is always redeemable 1:1 in euros. EUROC, unlike USDC, will be entirely backed by cash and not by government bonds. The new stablecoin comes at a delicate time for this kind of product. After the collapse of UST, stablecoins have lost the confidence of many people. Will EUROC succeed in gaining credibility in the industry?

The record-breaking Paris Saint Germain fan token

The “PSG” token of Paris Saint Germain tops the football fan token charts with a market cap of over 20 million dollars! PSG continues to reach great heights. On the 14th of June it recorded a peak in sales volume of around $15.36 billion. This puts the Parisian club’s fan token ahead of those of Atletico Madrid, Juventus, AC Milan and FC Barcelona. Despite being far from its August 2021 ATH, PSG seems to be well liked by fans! PSG holders can vote on and suggest decisions concerning their favourite team, such as choosing the message to write on the captain’s armband or voting for the best goal of the season. PSG is a fan token of Socios, the platform built on Chiliz.

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Is Ethereum’s price under pressure? The reasons for ETH’s recent drop

Ethereum’s price: why ETH is dropping

ETH’s price is going through a crisis, and it may possibly fall below $1,000. The market has been impacted by Celsius’ issues, and the possible delay of Ethereum 2.0

Ethereum’s performance in June leaves no room for optimism, and as of today (the 16th of June), the price is hovering around USD 1100. What is happening to Ethereum? Will the price of ETH go back up? The crypto market has been in a bearish phase ever since the collapse of Terra (LUNA) and UST. Many people have decided to wait for stricter regulations or a bullish market before buying crypto again. In addition, problems with Celsius (a crypto lending platform) and a possible delay in the arrival of The Merge have contributed to this delicate moment, which is affecting Ethereum’s overall performance. Find out what is happening to the crypto market, Celsius and The Merge, and why Ethereum’s price is dropping.

Could Ethereum 2.0’s release be delayed? What is the ‘difficulty bomb’?

Here is the first piece of bad news for Ethereum that may have had an impact on its performance: the ‘difficulty bomb‘ has been postponed. But first; let’s see what is implied by this term.

Ethereum is a proof-of-work blockchain, but it won’t be for much longer. The most anticipated update of all, Ethereum 2.0, will change the consensus mechanism and make it proof-of-stake. According to Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, and the other developers of the Ethereum Foundation, the update (called The Merge) will improve the performance of the network and decrease the environmental impact of crypto caused by mining.

The ‘difficulty bomb’ is a system that developers have implemented to make ETH mining more difficult and less profitable. This is meant to discourage miners and to convince users to stake their ETH on the Consensus Layer (i.e. the proof-of-stake layer, now still in beta). This system was supposed to make mining counterproductive the day the update was released, but it was postponed. Tim Beiko, Ethereum’s lead developer, said that postponing the difficulty bomb could ease the stress on developers:”… too much pressure puts a strain on development teams, and that’s a situation we want to avoid”.

What can be deduced from this situation is that the delays to the release of Ethereum 2.0 are putting the entire crypto market in trouble. In fact, Ethereum’s overall performance is dropping. This is probably also due to fears that the update will not work and it could cause the entire network to collapse. According to the developers, however, this fear is unfounded, since the testing phases have gone quite well and the code is almost ready to be made public.

DeFi’s largest lending platform, Celsius, is in trouble: is Ethereum’s performance falling because of this?

One of the factors that could have a bearing on the performance of Ethereum and the price of ETH is the difficult time that the lending platform Celsius is facing. Celsius is one of DeFi’s largest centralised platforms for exchanging, borrowing and staking crypto. The platform was well known in the crypto environment because it offered high rewards to users who staked their cryptocurrencies, up to 17% per year.

How does Celsius work? It is a centralised DeFi platform, in essence, an ‘intermediary’ between the user and the world of decentralised finance. Users entrust their cryptos to these platforms, who use them to exploit DeFi’s potential (e.g. through lending, staking or liquidity farming). In return, the platform offers an annual return to users.

This system worked well when the crypto market was bullish, but now Celsius seems to be struggling. On the 12th of June, the platform was forced to halt all operations, probably because it found itself unable to pay its users back. If that were the case, the halting of Celsius’ operations could prove to be a blow to the entire crypto community. However, the platform has announced that it still has a good amount of BTC in its reserves that it can sell to repay debts. The issue is, Bitcoin sell-off would put Satoshi Nakamoto’s crypto even further into crisis. Bitcoin is already dangerously close to the $20,000 mark. If this were to happen, it is possible that the price of Ethereum would also be affected.

The price of Ethereum in the first 6 months of 2022

This first half of 2022 proved to be full of surprises for the traditional market and also for the crypto market. Ethereum’s performance in particular has been mixed, although the first week of 2022 proved to be positive for Buterin’s crypto. In fact, at the beginning of the year, Ethereum’s price structure was even more solid than Bitcoin’s, holding firmly at around $3,700.

The first difficulties occurred around mid-January, when Russia announced that crypto would be regulated or, worse, banned. On that occasion, the price of Ethereum fell, reaching a low of USD 2160. And just as it was trying to rise again, a second blow, the escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian war in mid-February dashed the hopes of all Ethereum enthusiasts, sending the price of ETH back to around USD 2150.

Signs of an upturn only returned around the beginning of April. On the 5th April, the price of Ethereum reached USD 3520, only to fall to a resistance threshold of 3200. The threshold was quickly broken, however, and Ethereum began a downward trend along with the rest of the crypto market. It was precisely in these ominous market conditions that the collapse of Terra (LUNA) took place, which shook the market terribly. The price of Ethereum reached a low of 1966 dollars! The last time ETH was trading at less than two thousand dollars? the 21st of July 2021.

Over the past few days, the price of Ethereum has continued to drop precipitously, and on the 15th of June it came perilously close to three digits, trading for $1030. In all of this, Ethereum miners are preparing for the transition to proof-of-stake, selecting new shores to migrate to.

The Ethereum mining industry, currently worth $19 billion, has been struggling for some time. In May, for example, revenues from mining activities fell by 27%. The average price of gas fees for transactions on Ethereum also fell. While this is positive news, it also means that there is less interest in Ethereum. Perhaps users are waiting for The Merge to happen before they start using Buterin’s blockchain again.

The crypto market is not the most prosperous at the moment, and the price of Ethereum is falling. But the reasons are not only to be found within Ethereum, as The Merge update is proceeding smoothly. Despite this, Ethereum’s psychological threshold of one thousand dollars has come close. Will Ethereum’s price be able to recover and return to its ATH of 4878 dollars? Especially during a bearish market, always remember the old adage of the crypto world: DYOR!

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Terra 2 is coming, find out how the new LUNA airdrop works

LUNA Airdrop 2.0: how it works and how to get it

It’s official: the new Terra 2 chain will be released on the 27th of May! Find out everything about the new chain wanted by Do Kwon and how the LUNA 2.0 airdrop works

Do Kwon’s proposal passed: a new Terra is on the way. With 66 percent of votes in favour, the community voted in favour of the creation of a new chain. The old LUNAs will be called LUNA Classic (LUNC) and the migration will take place on the 27th of May, through an airdrop that will try to give back to the LUNAtics what they deserve. Find out all about the release of Terra 2, how LUNA 2.0’s airdrop works, and how to get it!

What is LUNA 2.0, the new chain proposal from Do Kwon

After the collapse of LUNA and UST, the crypto community found itself in dire straits. Terra’s founder, Do Kwon, came up with a proposal to create a new chain from nothing. The proposal in question, published on Terra’s Agora, received 66% positive votes despite the fact that some members of the Terra community spoke out against the idea.

Despite criticism from some users, Do Kwon has found support from the majority of the community in creating a fork of Terra. Terra 2 will not exactly be a ‘hard fork’ similar to Ethereum’s actions after the 2017 attack. Instead of “resetting” the blockchain to a time before the collapse (7th of May, in this case), Do Kwon will create a new blockchain from scratch, but without the UST algorithmic stablecoin.

With this fork, Terra’s founder wants to recreate the blockchain by eliminating the weak point that led the old chain to collapse, namely UST. Terra 2 will become a strong DeFi ecosystem with all the dapps already ready to be implemented.

How LUNA 2.0’s airdrop works

The airdrop of the new LUNAs will be gradual and will mainly reward those who held LUNA and UST before the collapse. Before launching the new chain, the developers will take a snapshot (at 8:59pm UK time on Thursday 26 May) of all tokens in the old chain and then distribute the new LUNAs on the updated version. The new LUNAs received will automatically be staked.

Do Kwon’s plan is for the new chain to start from a ‘virgin’ state, i.e. block 0, with a circulating amount of tokens equal to 1 billion. How does the airdrop of LUNA 2.0 work? The new tokens will be distributed in this way:

–       35% of the initial tokens will be divided among all LUNA holders before the crash. This means that as much as 350 million of the new LUNAs will be reserved for LUNAtics who purchased the tokens before 7 May, and held them even during the crash. Wallets with less than 10,000 LUNAs will get 30 per cent of their share immediately, and 70 per cent will be returned gradually over two years. Whales, on the other hand, will have worse conditions, and will get all the LUNA they are entitled to over four years.

–       15% of the LUNAs will be reserved for those who held aUST (i.e. USTs locked on Anchor Protocol) before the collapse. In this case, however, whales will have a maximum of 500,000 LUNA, to give priority to small UST holders.

–       15% of the initial tokens of the new chain will be reserved for those who bought USTs after the 7 May collapse.

–       10% of the new LUNAs will go to those who bought LUNAs after the collapse, and will be returned gradually over a period of two years.

–       Finally, the remaining 30% will end up in the community pool, to support the effort of dapp developers and ensure that the new chain maintains its value as a DeFi ecosystem.

The system is quite complex but Do Kwon thinks this is the best way to compensate LUNAtics fairly and to recreate a functional and effective network in the DeFi landscape.

In the proposal, Terra’s founder writes that the LUNA airdrop will take into account all on-chain assets (including, for example, LUNAs in staking or those on some centralised exchanges), except for a few specific ones due to technical reasons. For example, USTs and LUNAs ‘transferred’ with a bridge to other blockchains will not be part of the airdrop unless they are returned to the original chain (e.g. Terra’s official wallet, Terra Station). LUNAs blocked in the most popular DeFi protocols will also be returned. For more information, please refer to Do Kwon’s official proposal, which is constantly being updated.

Criticisms for LUNA’s fork go beyond the community

The collapse of LUNA and UST has obviously divided the crypto community. Although many support Terra’s fork, not everyone believes that the airdrop of LUNA 2.0 is the best solution to repair the damage caused by the collapse. Criticism, especially on Twitter, abounds: but it is not only the users who oppose Do Kwon’s and the rest of the community’s decision.

Lido Finance, one of Ethereum’s most important liquid staking protocols, refused to support Terra 2.0. Lido’s DAO voted ‘no’ decisively, with 95 per cent voting. Less than 5% of the participants were in favour of bringing Lido Finance onto the new Terra chain.

Despite the fact that Lido Finance had a locked-in value of almost $10 billion on Terra before the collapse of LUNA and UST, the DAO practically rejected Do Kwon’s proposal. “We will think about it after the launch, first it is better to see if Terra 2.0 is a legitimate project and supported by the community. At the moment there are too many doubts about the new chain,’ wrote one of the users against Terra 2.0.

The 27th of May will be a date that will go down in history not only for Terra, but for the entire crypto world. Only one day to go until the decisive date: will airdrop be enough to win back the market’s favour?