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 isthe 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 tothe 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.
I’m humbled and honored to announce I’ll be leaving my current post in July to steward the CryptoPunks as Brand Lead under the umbrella of @yugalabs before I say anything else it’s important to confirm what we WON’T be doing… simply put: I WILL NOT FUCK WITH THE PUNKS… 🧵👇🏻
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!
What Noah will be bringing to the table is for him to share. Much like us, he has no vision of Punks that includes rushed brand deals, shitty TV shows, or licensed lunchboxes.
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?
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.
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.
GM Digi-people! 🚀💥 Today we're going LIVE with @Naamuliz and @aschno1 for part I of the 'Behind the Design' #WoWFashion series🌸🌈
— The Fabricant | Minting WoW 29 June 👛 (@thefabricant) June 22, 2022
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.
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.
Introducing: #BelongingWeek 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ Celebrate your uniqueness and differences in the #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%.
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:
The collapse: when the market collapses very quickly, for both Bitcoin and altcoins;
Rejection/denial: when there is a tendency to think that prices are only subject to one of the many usual declines;
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;
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;
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;
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;
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:
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;
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;
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);
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;
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);
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;
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!
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.
𝐓𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟎𝟔/𝟏𝟒 𝐢𝐬 𝐋𝐚𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐚𝐲.
At 12h12 CET time, you will have the opportunity to mint a #underwater NFT.
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 thesupport 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.
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.
🧊 Gray Glacier Upgrade Announcement 🧊
At block 15,050,000, the Ethereum network will undergo the Gray Glacier fork to push back the difficulty bomb, *hopefully* for the last time ever 😁
— Tim Beiko | timbeiko.eth 🐼 (@TimBeiko) June 16, 2022
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”.
This was contentious, to say the least. Again, recommend watching the livestream for the back and forth. How much pressure is the right amount to put client teams under, the impact of block times on users, and of PoW on the environment all came up 😅
— Tim Beiko | timbeiko.eth 🐼 (@TimBeiko) June 10, 2022
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.
.@CelsiusNetwork is pausing all withdrawals, Swap, and transfers between accounts. Acting in the interest of our community is our top priority. Our operations continue and we will continue to share information with the community. More here: https://t.co/CvjORUICs2
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 thetraditional 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 waseven 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 ofall 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!
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.
1/ Terra 2.0 is coming. With overwhelming support, the Terra ecosystem has voted to pass Proposal 1623, calling for the genesis of a new blockchain and the preservation of our community.
— Terra 🌍 Powered by LUNA 🌕 (@terra_money) May 25, 2022
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.
1/10 If you haven't heard, Terra 2 testnet is live. Mainnet goes live Friday. It's happening!
How much of an airdrop will I get? What is the point of Terra 2? What protocols will be participating?
Everything you need to know about Terra 2. 🧵👇
— Orbital Command (🌎,🌔) (@orbital_command) May 24, 2022
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 onsome 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.
JUST IN: Lido Finance DAO has voted against a proposal to support the $LUNA chain reboot.
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?
What metaverse and NFTs are on Fantom? Why is it linked to Cronje? What is its logo doing on F1 circuits? Find out 5 interesting facts about Fantom!
FTM, the Fantom token, is now available on Young Platform! Surely you’ve already heard about it, this blockchain platform is one of the most widely used for the provision of DeFi services, but are you sure you know everything about it? Certainly its “spooky” branding doesn’t go unnoticed, between emoji of ghosts and the reference to the musical “The Phantom of the Opera,” the developers who use Fantom indulge in metaphors and creepy names. One example? The BOO token from Spookyswap, the dapp Tomb Finance and the NFTs from Fantums of Opera. But the FTM ecosystem doesn’t only hide horror easter eggs, here are 5 interesting facts about Fantom!
1. Andre Cronje’s history with Fantom
A simple search on Google or Twitter shows that Fantom is often associated with the name Andre Cronje. But who is Andre Cronje? And most importantly, why is he so important to Fantom? Cronje is one of the most prolific developers in the DeFi industry, creating several protocols and dapps that have helped shape the current image of DeFi and Web3. Cronje has become a crypto star because of his coding skills but also because of his repeated “rage quitting” over DeFi (after the last one a few months ago, in the past few days he broke his silence by talking about the need for crypto regulation). His most famous creations are Yearn Finance and Keep3r, but Cronje has also contributed to the development of other protocols such as Fantom. The developer worked on Fantom from 2018 to 2022 as a technical advisor and as chairman of the Fantom Foundation Technology Council. His imprint was decisive and his prestige in the DeFi field attracted the trust of many people who became Fantom supporters.
After Cronje’s farewell, Fantom suffered in terms of popularity and TVL decline, but DeFi is not made by individual developers. The team has continued to work, gaining deserved success!
We're extremely grateful to Andre for all he did for crypto as a whole.
However, Fantom isn't and never was a one man team.
When designing a Metaverse on blockchain you have to take into account all the transactions that need to be processed by all the active users, and Fantom has all the makings of a platform loved by Metaverse developers: it’s fast, scalable and cheap! 8BIT Nostalgia is one of the Metaverse on Fantom, essentially an interactive 3D space that can be explored by avatars sold as NFTs. On 8BIT there are game areas and arenas where users can come together to chat and design new features. 8BIT is expanding through various collaborations, for example owners of the ADAPunks collection on Cardano will be able to use their skins on Fantom as well. As the name implies, the atmosphere of 8BIT is very nostalgic. You can’t help but shed a tear when you think back to Pokemon Perla on Nintendo DS!
Another Metaverse on Fantom is Pod Town, which is distinguishing itself by building a solid in-game economy. Pod Town is integrating a number of DeFi services that allow players to manage and monitor their in-game assets and wallets. The third noteworthy project is Slothtopia, this Metaverse on Fantom is developing a 3D virtual world compatible with VR.
We are proud to announce our strategic long term partnership with @clover_finance 🍀🥳
Users will now be able to connect and perform crypto txns using Clover wallet. 🍀
Fantom works with the crème de la crème of Web3. In fact, among the protocols integrated into the blockchain platform are Chainlink, The Graph and Ankr. In detail, Fantom works with Chainlink to ‘build secure and scalable DeFi products such as decentralised stablecoins, lending protocols and synthetic assets’. Developers using Fantom’s infrastructure can freely access Chainlink’s oracles to combine and compare on-chain and off-chain data from trusted sources. The Graph, on the other hand, comes in handy when one wants to consult information from different blockchains, information that can be useful for developing and offering cross-chain solutions. With The Graph, Fantom has found the solution to interoperability problems. Finally, Fantom uses the API and development tools of the Ankr protocol.
4. Book your holidays with Fantom
Among the five facts about Fantom, there is an initiative that makes people dream about holidays. In 2020, Fantom started a partnership with Travala.com, the leading cryptocurrency travel booking platform active since 2017. Thanks to this partnership, people can directly use their FTMs on Travala to book hotels, houses, flights, tours and various activities. The Travala project aims to make the travel industry cheaper, fairer and more inclusive, those who use FTM for payments will be able to save over 40% (compared to other classic online travel agencies) and be able to choose from 2 million properties and 600 airlines.
Hey, @FantomFDN fans! Did you know you can use your $FTM to book flights, hotels, and activities all over the world? 🌎
Use our search or map tools to narrow down exactly where you want to go, and have fun exploring your options😍
Fantom has signed two agreements to sponsor Formula 1 projects. In 2021, the partnership with the Italian team Scuderia Alpha Tauri was announced, with the Fantom logo appearing on the car, helmets and drivers’ overalls.
Since March 2022, the Fantom brand has also been present on the equipment of Pietro and Enzo Fittipaldi, the two F1 drivers also known as the Fittipaldi Brothers. In addition to the sponsorship, the two brothers have chosen Fantom as the platform to create their first NFT collection. “My brother and I have been interested in the cryptocurrency space for some time, we are fascinated by the potential it has to inspire financial freedom and the tools for athletes to engage with their fans,” commented Pietro Fittipaldi.
Diego: Sebastien is COO and co-founder of The Sandbox. So, can you describe to our community what the Sandbox project is all about. And if you want you can describe your role at The Sandbox.
My name is Sebastien Borget and I’m COO and co-founder at the Sandbox
The Sandbox is a gaming virtual world on the Ethereum blockchain where creators can make free assets and games and monetise them through the use of Non-Fungible Tokens, NFTs, as well as SAND, our main utility token of the platform.
We are a franchise that has existed for now 10 years. We started on mobile in 2011, we had more than 40 million players in installs back then.
Over the last 3 years we launched a sequel, a new version that this time is in 3D multiplayer, multiplatform, and it uses NFTs to allow anyone to make their own NFT and start owning the assets, owning the land where they publish the games, monetise their time, monetise their creation, trade them, exchange them, sell them, if they want, on Marketplaces.
We have more than 60 partnerships to date, including major brands that are part of our virtual world
So far the Sandbox is one of the most active communities, we are really thankful to our community and specifically to our community today for being part of this fantastic journey with us.
Diego: Thank you Sebastien, and how did the idea for the Sandbox come about?
When we founded my previous company, Mobile Games Studio. As i mentioned, the Sandbox came out about 10 years ago. There was this kind of game, called Powdergame, this game where you could play with physical elements: salt, water, steam etcetera, and it was mostly a physics simulator.
We took that idea and we said “what if we just allow any player to become the creator?” dropping elements with the touch of their fingers on the mobile screen, and share those creations online.
That’s how the first Sandbox idea started. And 10 years later, the new Sandbox, this time 3D and on the blockchain is essentially keeping all the roots from the franchise.
We want to allow anyone to make games without any programming knowledge, to just drag and drop assets, to drag and drop NFTs into a virtual world, and publish that world on the LANDs so that they can then allow players to participate in game experiences, play, earn, collect rewards, collect tokens and engage with that.
Diego: Everyone right now is talking about these NFTs, Non-Fungible Tokens. Can you describe to our community what is a Non-Fungible Token and why do you think they can represent a real revolution?
We’ve been true pioneers in the space of Non-Fungible Tokens – we’ve been building the Sandbox for the last 3 years and we launched already several ones.
What is a Non-Fungible Token? It essentially is a piece of digital asset. It can be music, it can be art, it can be a collectible, it can be game assets, sports tickets, anything essentially that is reproduced on the blockchain and has specific attributes.
Those attributes being the fact they have scarcity, so a limited supply that anyone can see on the blockchain.
They are unique, so unlike one bitcoin and another bitcoin, which can be interchanged, with NFTs – each one is unique.
So a gold sword and a silver sword even if they are both swords they have different attributes, they cannot be interchanged that easily. They are undividable.
Similarly, you cannot have 0.00001 of a sword, 1, many or zero and one main benefit of these NFTs is that as a user, as a player is that you own them in your wallet and you can use them in a game but you can also trade them in marketplaces in a permissionless manner. You don’t need to ask the permission to the developer of the game to be able to transfer the content to another user, to sell that content on marketplaces, or use that content potentially in other games, which is a major revolution in gaming.
Games today are centralised, well-guarded, they are trying to keep their users and they have all the data, all the virtual currency of the game assets that you bought in-game, you can never take them away.
If you leave the game you basically lose all your progress, all your content, all your virtual currencies, all that content you bought, you spent time to acquire by playing was never really yours, basically – and it’s difficult to put value on something that is not really yours, you cannot transfer.
With the use of Non-Fungible Tokens, all the content, all your avatars, you identities the objects or assets you acquire are yours, including also the tokens, the equivalent of virtual currency, so SAND in our case.
So this is because it’s yours, it can be exchange, it can be valued, other users can want it. So this is the premise of building a virtual economy into a virtual world, this is why NFTs are so important.
They are growing, they facilitate access to the greater economy, to monetize your time in ways that were never done before.
That’s why now we are seeing a lot more influencers, celebrities, artists, creators, game makers as well, jump on board.
Diego: You mentioned these NFTs connected to the world of art, music and of course video games, how do you see them connected to the world of videogames?
Because you mentioned that with NFTs you are the real owner of something, even in a non-physical world – how do you see them connected to the specific world of videogames?
In videogames, more specifically, unlike art, music and sport collectibles, which are also very hot NFTs at the moment. Those are just collectibles. You own them, they are rare, but they don’t necessarily have a specific utility.
Rather than being maybe aesthetically great-looking, or just being rare, in videogames NFTs have additionally a utility. Like if you acquire a character that is very powerful and rare, you’re most likely to be able to use that character in the game.
The characteristics, the attributes of that character will impact your gameplay, will impact maybe the way that you can earn rewards, finish first at the tournament, complete your goals. And this is participating to a new model called play-to-earn, where your assets can be put to use to produce actively more return on your time for you and that I think is something really interesting and unique in gaming, that you don’t find in other industries.
In The Sandbox, additionally, there’s this concept of virtual real estate, with LAND, because, besides being a gaming platform, we’re also a virtual world with a limited map and on each of those maps – and it’s pretty simple to understand – as you own the map, it’s a piece, it’s a place, it’s a digital space where users can publish their games can start monetizing their content.
If you cannot publish your game, you cannot monetize it to have players coming into it and also enable other business models like renting that LAND to a creator creating different points of attraction based on your content etc.
So, that’s something we’re seeing more and more people interested in – digital land, virtual land as NFTs.
Diego: About The Sandbox, what are the developments that await us in the coming months?
We’ve already achieved several milestones at The Sandbox. Since about 3 years ago we’ve launched in beta several creation tools for our platform, our NFT maker, called VoxEdit, which is a 3D editor where you can make Voxel-based content, animate them, publish it to the marketplace or the users to acquire it
We’ve launched the marketplace and it’s essentially a map where we sold in the pre-sell round up to 35% of the whole map, each of those LAND being a unique NFT, and interestingly last month, in February we sold more values than in the past 2 years, showing an acceleration in the adoption of NFTs in general.
We’ve launched the beta of the Game Maker as well. That, as I mentioned, enables anyone to create game experiences by drag-n-drop, no programming knowledge required. And we have hundreds of active users using those products on a daily basis. The next step for this year is to open the public Alpha to players, so to let them discover some of the games made by the creators using the tools to participate in play-to-earn seasons where they’ll be able to collect rewards and exchange those rewards if they want to for tokens of value and hence turn their time into a potential revenue stream.
We’re also preparing our soon-to-open marketplace in beta, allowing anyone to make their NFTs and start selling them. We’ll do it progressively, first through selecting great content and high-quality creators and we know we do have some in our Italian community, so I’m excited to see this content coming from Hackatao – to mention one of the most talented creators working with us on The Sandbox, but there are many others and we’re excited to have this marketplace launch – I would say before the end of the month in March – and really enable anyone to buy, collect, own and use NFTs in The Sandbox.
According to European legislation, Ripple is compliant. Therefore Young Platform will not be removing XRP
The Enquiry
On 22 December, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple Labs, the company behind the cryptocurrency XRP. The SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) is the federal agency that oversees the US stock exchange. The SEC is investigating the relationship between Ripple Labs and XRP, alleging that the latter is actually a security token.
The SEC alleges that the founders launched the XRP currency by selling it as a share of the Ripple company, without registering it as such. The ICO launched by XRP raised more than $1.3 billion from investors all around the world. Therefore, the lawsuit centres on the fact that the SEC holds Ripple Labs responsible for failing to register its offering as an investment contract for investors. Ripple promptly responded to the lawsuit, anticipating the SEC’s official charges on Twitter.
XRP will stay on Young Platform
The debate has led to the major US-based exchanges delisting or planning to delist XRP.
However, according to European legislation, Ripple is compliant. Therefore Young, like other European exchanges, will not be removing XRP from the Young Platform and Young Platform Pro exchanges at this time. This is because we want to avoid harming our users and give them the ability, in accordance with current European regulations, to continue to sell, buy or trade their XRP.
The future of XRP on Young Platform
Should the company’s main liquidity providers remove Ripple from their offerings, it is likely that Young will also be forced to delist XRP. Should this happen, our customers’ funds will still be protected by allowing them to be converted to fiat or sent to external wallets prior to removal. Again, users will be notified well in advance to allow them to better plan and manage their XRP funds.
Young will continue to follow the debate closely and keep its users updated.
XRP recorded a 55% growth in the last 24 hours.
Read more about Ripple and XRP in our dedicated Academyarticle.
