Your weekly Crypto, NFT & Metaverse readings 🚀
Vol 23 — 3rd January— 9th January 2021
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🪙 Crypto Market News
Rari Capital, Fei protocol token holders approve Multibillion-Dollar DeFi merger. After less than a month of deliberation and voting, two decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO) have consummated one of the biggest mergers in decentralized finance history. On Tuesday, at Ethereum block height 13850929, a vote to merge Rari Capital and Fei Protocol was approved by members of both DAOs. The measure passed by a 93% to 1% margin among Rari’s RGT holders and 90% to 0% rate among those with Fei’s TRIBE. Going forward, the projects will merge via a token swap and be united under the TRIBE token. 📰 Coindesk
Crypto browser Brave passes 50M monthly active users. Crypto-centric browser firm Brave announced it had passed 50 million monthly active users, doubling growth on a year-over-year basis for the fifth year in a row. Daily active users averaged 15.5 million during December. Brave Search, the privacy-preserving search engine launched last year, had 2.3 billion annualized queries. Other products launched in 2021 were crypto wallet Brave Wallet and private video call offering Brave Talk. 📰 Coindesk
Bitcoin declines to lowest level since December’s flash crash. Bitcoin slumped to the lowest level since its December flash crash as growing expectations of rising borrowing rates weigh on some of the best-performing assets of the past few years. The largest cryptocurrency by market value dropped as low as $42,505 in early Asia trading Thursday. That pushed the price to the weakest since it touched $42,296 during a weekend crash at the start of last month. 📰 Bloomberg
Alphabet, Nvidia and GameStop outperformed Bitcoin in 2021. When it comes to investing, it’s hard to quibble with an annual return of 60%. And yet Bitcoin holders earned lower yields in 2021 than one of the Web2 companies that crypto is trying to overtake: Alphabet (GOOGL). Bitcoin had a lackluster December, limping into the new year with 60% returns for 2021 — its worst performance since 2018, when it lost roughly three-quarters of its value. 📰 Decrypt
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🖼️ NFT & Metaverse News
Samsung promises ‘groundbreaking’ new TV feature. Staring at your non-fungible tokens on a smartphone or laptop screen is fine and all, but why not remind everyone who visits your home of the money you spent on digital art NFTs by showcasing them on your TV screen? Somehow we’re in a world where that’s about to become reality: Samsung says it’s planning extensive support for NFTs beginning with its 2022 TV lineup. 📰 The Verge
Square Enix president reiterates focus on blockchain games, ‘Play-to-Contribute’ trend. Yosuke Matsuda, president of Square Enix, the Japanese developer behind video games like Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, has set his sights firmly on NFTs and blockchain technology. “I see 2021 not only as ‘Metaverse: Year One,’ but also as ‘NFTs: Year One,’ given that it was a year in which NFTs were met with a great deal of enthusiasm by a rapidly expanding user base,” Matsuda said 📰 Decrypt
Australian Open launches NFTs. The Australian Open is taking a swing at the metaverse with a pair of blockchain-related announcements on Thursday, becoming the first Grand Slam tennis tournament to do so. The famed tourney is releasing a collection of 6,776 non-fungible tokens that correspond to action on the court and will host a virtual event for the competition on the metaverse platform Decentraland. Every winning shot from the tournament’s 600 matches will correspond to one of the collection’s NFTs. Owners will receive an airdrop with footage of the point, virtual wearables and Australian Open merchandise, according to a press release.📰 Coindesk
Other articles that may interest you 🔥
The FAANG of WEB2 is the BESCA of WEB3
NFTs are emerging as a new asset class and why financial institutions should embrace it
What CBDC‘s are and why they matter
