This Week in Crypto #22
Everyone is talking about Tesla selling their Bitcoin. The only one not talking about it is Bitcoin itself, which doesn’t really seem to care much, as instead of crashing, is actually pumping. This may be because the sentiment in the space is rising. And why wouldn’t it – the developers continue to build while the fog of the bear market envelopes us all. But when the smoke eventually goes down, the projects that continued building will gain traction, the countries that adopted crypto will rise above, and anyone who was in the space during these turbulent times will have a great story to tell.
Here is what happened this past week in the crypto space!
Paraguay Bitcoin haven
The Senate of Paraguay has approved a bill that will see Bitcoin miners exempt from Value Added Tax (VAT) while allowing them to utilise the country’s excess power for their businesses. Paraguay’s electric grid is nearly 100% hydro-powered thanks to the hydro-electric generating Itaipu dam. This is a great step towards a more sustainable and renewable energy utilising Web3.
JUST IN: 🇵🇾 Paraguay's Senate approved a bill that would allow #Bitcoin miners to use the country’s excess energy at lower prices.
— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) July 15, 2022
Yuga Labs and the Otherside metaverse
One of the biggest metaverses being created, the Otherside is the meta-child of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection creator Yuga Labs. They recently held a beta testing phase where roughly 4,500 participants from across the globe interacted simultaneously in the Web3 world.
BREAKING: Video of over 4500 people worldwide simultaneously playing in the Otherside metaverse. @OthersideMeta #web3 #nft #BAYC pic.twitter.com/Mh8kx2KBi5
— Puff Yachty ⛵️ (@PuffYachty) July 16, 2022
Crypto.com secures regulatory licenses in Italy
After success in Singapore, Crypto.com has announced that it has secured regulatory approval in Italy, from the Organismo Agenti e Mediatori (OAM).
Full details can be found here.
Aave partners with Pocket Network
AAVE, one of the leading crypto lending protocols in the cryptosphere, will now use Pocket Network’s 44k nodes to access on-chain data to boost scalability and decentralisation.
That’s a Wrap RUNE!
The crypto space is essentially still in its wild west phase, with many exploits plaguing the industry. This is the reason why the THORChain team has decided to phase out the blockchain’s native token RUNE from being available in wrapped form on other chains, specifically Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain (BSC). The process of phasing out the tokens will happen gradually over the next year.
Killswitch activated.
For every 3.65 days going forward, 1% of the outstanding 30m IOU RUNE will forever be burnt.
Once the kill period is over, BNB and ETH dependencies can be permanently removed and the supply capped. https://t.co/o8oebYgNgE
— THORChain (@THORChain) July 19, 2022
OpenSea Solana Launchpad
Recently the NFT space was surprised when the leading NFT marketplace, OpenSea, decided it would integrate Solana NFTs into its platform, leaving native Solana NFT marketplaces hit hard.
Now, just a few months later, OpenSea has launched a Solana Launchpad from which creators can launch NFT projects and get a head start on the market.
Introducing OpenSea's Solana launchpad! 🚀
Today, we’re kicking off our Solana launchpad experience. Creators can host their pre-mint, allowlist, and post-mint experience all using OpenSea. pic.twitter.com/l70c02mYLt
— OpenSea (@opensea) July 18, 2022
Polygon introduces zkEVM
In their latest attempt to help Ethereum scale, Polygon has introduced zkEVM. zkEVM allows Polygon to inherit the security of its parent Ethereum while increasing throughput and radically reducing fees.
We are proud to announce a giant leap forward for Ethereum scaling and ZK innovation.
Introducing Polygon #zkEVM, the first EVM-equivalent ZK L2.
Today we’re releasing a complete implementation, fully open-source, and we’re just getting started.
[1/6] pic.twitter.com/P929DRCT1y
— Polygon (@0xPolygon) July 20, 2022
sUSD bridge is now live
The sUSD bridge is now live. Users can now move sUSD between Optimism and Ethereum. As it stands, sUSD is the most used stablecoin on the Optimism network.
The sUSD bridge is now live! The most used stablecoin on @optimismFND just got a LOT better.
Users can now move sUSD to/from Optimism to Ethereum Mainnet. Both directions have been switched on.
Check out our guide to begin bridging sUSD. 👇 https://t.co/fvl17Fh09k
— Synthetix ⚔️ (@synthetix_io) July 19, 2022
Tesla sells BTC reserves
In 2021 Tesla announced that it had purchased BTC for its balance sheet, and this was the catalyst for a major crypto bull run, as many began to believe that institutional adoption was underway.
However, in Tesla’s last 2022 Q2 earnings report, CEO Elon Musk said the company had sold 75% of its BTC supply in order to “maximize our cash position, given the uncertainty of COVID lockdowns in China.”
Nickelodeon Nostalgia
Nostalgia is a great marketing tool. And it looks like Nickelodeon got it right on this aspect, as their latest venture into Web3 has been met with massive success. We are talking about their “Nickelodeon: Rugrats & Hey Arnold!” NFT drop, which shortly after launch climbed to the top of the ranks on OpenSea, and already has passed 1.4k ETH in trading volume.
🟢🟠GM TO EVERYONE FEELING THE NOSTALGIA🟠🟢@nickelodeon_nft dropped yesterday and has quickly surpassed 1,000 ETH volume on @opensea
Currently ranked #1 in volume and trending 🚀
Go check the collection out at:
— nickelodeon_nft (@nickelodeon_nft) July 20, 2022
Join our
