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What’s brewing in the Binance Smart Chain [BSC] ecosystem?

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There has been a lot going on in the Binance Smart Chain [BSC] network. The latest to hit the smart contract platform is the RAMP DEFI, multi-chain decentralized finance or DeFi protocol that launched its Liquidity Incentives Program on 30th November 2021. According to the blog post, RAMP’s ‘collateralized stablecoin lending protocol‘ would facilitate users to deposit assets at high APYs and borrow against these tokens at the same time, allowing for a seamless scaling platform.

For starters, APY or annual rate of return plays the role of cryptocurrency savings account equal to annual percentage rate (APR) account. Further, the blog stated,

With this incentive program, we hope to help new DeFi users discover the full potential of the RAMP platform and maximize the full value of their crypto-asset ownership in the process.

Another important project that is doing the rounds is the launch of a new meme coin dubbed Rocky Inu [ROCKY] created exclusively on the Binance Smart Chain, two days ago. As per the press release, the canine-themed project takes its inspiration from famed meme coins such as Shiba Inu, to create a ‘low cap gem with massive moonshot potential’. That being said, the press release further claims that the newly launched coin is supported by some of the well-known influencers in the crypto world, which would propel it to reach new heights of popularity.

Binance Smart Chain’s [BSC] much anticipated Bruno Upgrade

According to the Binance website, the upcoming BSC version 1.1.5 Bruno hard fork is scheduled to be activated in the block height of 13,082,000, or at approximately 30th November at 8 am [UTC]. Furthermore, all Deposits and withdrawals on the Binance Smart Chain network will be suspended from around 7:45 am [UTC] on 30th November.

As per the announcement, BSC users and developers will not be directly affected by the upgrade. It will however impact the validators or full node operators. After the activation, the blog explains that “the blockchain will be able to handle a series of new features and eliminate existing bugs.” and further notified that all validators would be required to upgrade into the latest version to continue sending transactions. 

Elrond [EGLD] nears $400 to chart new all-time-high: What’s next?

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Elrond [EGLD] price taps a new high of $395 today, rising by almost 25% and ending the weekend on a high note. The native token has been grabbing the limelight following its stellar rise after announcements of several high-profile projects. The Elrond ecosystem boasts itself as a technology hub for a new generation of the internet that includes fintech, decentralized finance [DeFi], and the Internet of Things [IoT].

Most recently, the popular Internet-scale blockchain launched an ambitious liquidity incentive program for its Maiar DEX DeFi platform. The latest initiative represented a massive push towards boosting decentralized finance [DeFi] adoption “beyond the current boundaries” in the digital asset ecosystem.

As a matter of fact, Elrond’s growth across decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols has risen by leaps and bounds. At the time of writing, the network charted an all-time high in terms of total value locked (TVL) with $975 million, a surge of 43% in the last 24 hours, according to DefiLlama.

In addition to that, the native token’s price movement appreciated by more than 4830% since the beginning of this year. The overall positive development in the network has been reflected in its price as well.

Let’s delve into the price indicators.

Elrond [EGLD] short-term price chart

EGLDUSD 2021 11 21 14 26 46

The 27th rank coin soared to more than 13% over the last 24 hours. At press time, it was changing hands at $394.92 The digital asset recorded a 24-hour trading volume of $569 million. With the ever-rising volume, the price technicals look encouraging.

As gauged from the 4-hour price chart, The Relative Strength Index [RSI] climbed higher in the overbought territory after moving above 70 demonstrating that buyers are dominating. The MACD indicator too reiterated the bullish narrative. At the same time, the Klinger Oscillator [KO] further signals confirmation of an upswing in the price movement. In brief, Elrond is poised for bigger gains.

Manchester City withdraws partnership with sus crypto firm within a week of signing

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Football fans were elated following the entry of many clubs into the crypto space. Manchester City, a prominent English Premier League football club surprised its fans by partnering with a crypto firm. However, within just a week, the platform withdrew its deal.

The crypto-verse is home to an array of platforms. With thousands of coins in the market, the exchanges or firms surrounding have also multiplied. While the emergence of these platforms has aided in the growth of the industry, scammy projects sometimes camouflage amidst the good ones bringing great loss to investors. Identifying these kinds of projects can be difficult at times but is never impossible. Manchester City decided to step up and break off its partnership with 3key Technologies.

Back on November 12, Manchester City struck a deal with 3key to spread the word about the prospects of decentralized finance aka DeFi. The senior vice president of Global Partnership Sales, City Football Group, Stephen Cieplik stated,

“We are excited to partner with 3Key in their journey to simplify the decentralised finance (DeFi) trading analysis user experience through the power of football to engage with our fans with a range of content and activations.”

However, the football club revealed it wanted to withdraw the partnership after it conducted its due diligence.

Manchester City suspends deal with DeFi firm

Almost every firm across the globe has an online presence. Not only the firm but the people part of it also make sure to leave a digital footprint. During the investigation conducted by the football club, it was noted that the executives of 3key Technologies did not have a major online presence.

While there is no proof that 3key is a scammy project, several in the community believed that its low-key online presence was suspicious. Further considering the list of prominent personalities getting duped over crypto projects, Manchester City’s decision to withdraw the partnership seemed legit.

Gemini raises $400 million dedicated to building a metaverse

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The New York-based crypto exchange platform Gemini is the latest addition to the list of multi-million fundraising companies during this bull run. With the recent report by Forbes, it is clear that the company is gearing up to close a $400 million first round giving it a valuation of more than $7 billion. 

After seven years of its establishment, Gemini’s founders, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, are now closing the first round of capital. The latest funding round has almost doubled the cumulative wealth of the twins from $6 billion to $10.5 billion.

Morgan Creek Digital led this massive funding round where many major companies, including decentralized finance venture firm ParaFi Capital, Jay-Z’s Marcy Venture Partners, and technology investment firm WnderCo participated. Other than these, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, family office advisory Netflow Partners, equity firm 10T, and Jane Street also joined the round with massive enthusiasm.

It is also revealed that the twin founders will hold 75% of the shares while the rest will be distributed among the newly joined board members.

40-years old young billionaire Cameron Winklevoss said that there are two technological paths currently. He added:

“There’s a centralized path, like Facebook or Fortnight, that is one step away from being a metaverse, and that’s totally fine. But there is another path, which is the decentralized Metaverse, and that’s the Metaverse where we believe there’s a greater choice, independence, and opportunity, and there is a technology that protects the rights and dignity of individuals.”

Gemini dives into the Metaverse world

Winklevoss twins and Facebook’s founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared a past. The three were college friends who created Facebook and a lawsuit. Eventually, the twins lost Facebook to Zukerburg, but now things are different. After the Gemini’s jump to the Metaverse world, many compare the twin and Zukerberg scenario with tortoise vs. hare competition. 

The current scenario of Facebook transforming itself into Metaverse named Meta and Gemini’s actions seems like history repeating itself. Winklevoss twins, however, definitely have the edge over Zuckerberg this time.

Privacy Software Brave unveils Extension-free Crypto Wallet

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Privacy enabled, Brave software introduced a new crypto wallet that facilitates users to store, manage, grow as well as trade their portfolio from a single wallet. According to the press release, the self-custody wallet is built on its own Web3 enabled desktop browser. In addition to that, the newly launched wallet enables users to link with prominent hardware wallets such as Trezor and Ledger.

The latest announcement is a clear indication of Brave to replace its own native crypto wallet and challenge its rivals such as Metamask. Brave claims that the new feature enables users to have seamless accessibility to Web3 decentralized applications [DApps] without the additional requirement of installing browser extensions, as opposed to other crypto wallets. The blog post further reveals the use cases of the new product as well as what users can expect. These are:

  • See live and historical market graphs [price data powered by CoinGecko]
  • Find the best price match against a list of providers with built-in swap functionality
  • Send and receive assets
  • Buy with fiat via Wyre 
  • Interact with DApps for any EVM compatible network
  • Manage their portfolio — with non-fungible token [NFT] and multi-chain support 
  • Easily import their wallet from MetaMask and self-custody wallets, or Brave’s legacy Crypto Wallets extension, or hardware wallets such as Trezor and Ledger [no Ledger Live required]
  • Send and receive NFTs 

Brave Software to boost DApps adoption

With regards to the features of the wallet, Brave’s co-founder Brain Bondy said,

One of the hurdles is the crypto wallet industry’s reliance on extensions, which introduces friction for DApp adoption and often leads to users losing funds via fake extension phishing scams. The Brave Wallet requires no extensions and is instead browser-native, removing key performance and security concerns while preserving the core features of popular crypto wallets. The Brave Wallet offers our over 42 million users, and anyone seeking a crypto wallet without extensions, a high-performance, highly secure, and full-featured wallet built for today’s crypto user.

Earlier this month, the privacy-focused browser, partnered with leading layer 1 protocol Solana [SOL] at the summit called Breakpoint held in Portugal. The main aim of the collaboration was to transform Brave into the default browser with the blockchain and provide support for all cross-chain activities and decentralized applications [DApps].

Quentin Tarantino’s “secret” Pulp Fiction NFT drowns in troubled water

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Prominent director Quentin Tarantino was the latest to dive into the NFT space. However, his secret Pulp Fiction NFTs had a lot of trouble surrounding them.

Non-fungible tokens aka NFT has everyone under its arm. A wide range of individuals have either rolled out their own NFT or have jumped into the bandwagon by purchasing them. The crypto-verse has undoubtedly garnered increased recognition following the emergence of NFTs. The fact that celebrities were diving into the space lured several into the market. Recently, director Quentin Tarantino surprised all his fans by announcing the sale of NFTs based on Pulp Fiction, a cult favorite movie.

Just a couple of days ago, Tarantino revealed that he would roll out about seven NFTs. This list included certain scenes from the early script that did not make to the screen. Quentin Tarantino fans were over the moon following this news. However, a seemingly huge roadblock was restricting the launch of this NFT.

Quentin Tarantino forthcoming NFTs slapped with a lawsuit

Entertainment firm, Miramax filed a lawsuit against the director alleging that Tarantino it still entails the rights to the movie. Quentin Tarantino reportedly kept his Pulp Fiction NFT plans under the wraps. Miramax had no idea and finally decided to hit back with a lawsuit.

Citing breach of contract, Miramax’s lawuit against Tarantino read,

“Left unchecked, Tarantino’s conduct could mislead others into believing Miramax is involved in his venture. And it could also mislead others into believing they have the rights to pursue similar deals or offerings, when in fact Miramax holds the rights needed to develop, market, and sell NFTs relating to its deep film library.”

The entertainment agency suggested that it wanted the court to put a hold and dissolve the sale of the Pulp Fiction NFTs. Additionally, Miramax wants Quentin Tarantino to handle the legal fees and costs in the copyrights infringement case.

Tarantino decided to respond through his attorneys who suggested that the sale of NFTs would come under the partial rights that the director entailed.

CODI Finance concludes private sale but IDO extended

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Decentralized trading platform, CODI Finance recently close the curtain on its private sale amidst its ongoing IDO. The platform’s Initial Dex Offering [IDO] began with a 10% share of the total supply of CODI [33,000,0000] tokens for sale on November 7 2021. According to the press release, in response to the positive reaction received over the time period, the platform have decided to continue its IDO project till November 30 2021.

CODI is a complete decentralized ecosystem built on the Solana Blockchain. The protocol aims to build a decentralized exchange platform [DEX] that will facilitate users in seamless transfer of funds between wallets, by and sell cryptoassets, quick staking, securing market liquidity and enhancing the network’s capabilities. The blog post further mentions plans to built a open sourced lending and a borrowing protocol under CODI.

CODI Finance latest collaboration

Most recently, the exchange platform partnered with oracle network pioneer Chainlink who will provide access to authentic price feeds, and also secure its features like IDO and staking pools. Apart from that will also help the CODI network build high-level defenses against potential system interruptions and malicious attacks.

CODI’s preference for Solana

According to the blog post, the trading platform aspires to be the “ultimate DeFi ecosystem” by incorporating Solana’s high-speed, low-transaction costs. Besides its exponential growth over the years, the layer one protocol is known for its high productivity and low transaction fee. With more than 700k per transaction per second [TPS] and significantly lower transaction costs [$0.00025 per transaction], make it among the most preferred blockchain for decentralized finance [DeFi] applications.

This low cost comes in handy during DeFi lending and borrowing, particularly with smaller amounts like for example, less than $5k. In comparison to mainstays like Ethereum [ETH], which is plagued with high transaction cost or ‘Gas’, engaging smaller amounts makes it untenable and less appealing. 

The upcoming IDO initiative is a encouraging step for CODI, but only time will tell whether it can establish its place in the highly competitive DeFi industry. 

K-pop NFT metaverse is the new goal for Animoca Brands and Cube

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The Non Fungible token (NFT) industry is solidifying its roots in the mainstream entertainment industry and crypto market. The Hong Kong-based NFT gaming firm and venture capital Animoca Brands has announced its partnership with the Korean record label, music production company, and talent agency Cube Entertainment to create a metaverse around K-pop music.

The partnership of Animoca Brands and Cube around the K-pop music metaverse aims to celebrate famous actors and K-pop musicians by creating multimedia NFTs. The announcement on November 15 states that the NFTs will feature artist portraits and album art along with digital sound sources, including full-length albums.

K-pop Metaverse could be a milestone in the digital content industry

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Animoca Brands, Yat Siu, said that he is really excited to start working with Cube with the goal of making the open metaverse a reality. He added that the partnership would enable true virtual property rights and various benefits for both creators and fans on Cube’s roster.

The CEO of Cube Ahn Woo Hyung, on the other hand, said joining hands with Animoca is a significant step for the company for leading the digital culture market and adopting the virtual content industry. The company manages around 50 famous K-pop artists, including BtoB, Lightsum, (G)I-DLE, and Pentagon. 

Animoca Brands CEO stressed the importance of the disruptive form of ownership offered by NFTs. The venture capital is known for its close link to major milestones in the NFT world’s growth. After Dapper Labs brought the Ethereum network, Animoca decided to invest in it.

Last year, Animoca helped Formula 1 to launch its F1 Delta Time game and secured a global licensing agreement. Recently in November, the company raised around $93 million for the expansion of its NFT metaverse projects.

The humongous price surge of Decentraland Metaverse token (MANA) is a proof of rising interest in the digital sphere. The MANA token is used to own and trade virtual LAND in Decentraland metaverse. While Facebook also turned a new leaf with Meta, it seems that this new blockchain-based technology will attract more institutions, including Microsoft.

BTS and Justin Bieber agency, Hybe catches the NFT bug

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As the Korean wave hit the world, K-pop bands like BTS rose to immense fame. While the band had already established a prominent presence in South Korea, BTS further expanded and amassed fans from all around the globe. Now, jumping into the crypto-verse like several other celebrities, the agency that manages the K-pop band, Hybe revealed that it would be diving into the NFT space.

Non-fungible tokens aka NFTs have spruced up the adoption rate of crypto while giving artists the recognition that they deserve. An array of people entered the NFT market starting a whole new fervor around the industry. Prominent firms, sports personalities, actors, directors, singers, social media influencers have all decided to jump on to the NFT wagon.

Hybe, a South Korean K-pop management firm, that also manages notable pop stars, Justin Bieber, and BTS, decided to enter the NFT space by creating a whole new marketplace itself.

BTS fans in for a digital treat?

Hybe was all set to join hands with South Korea’s largest crypto firm, Dunamu to roll out a new marketplace that would carry out the sale and trade of NFTs of BTS and other artists that Hybe represents.

BTS fans who are also known as “Army” have time and again expressed immense love for the band. The sale of merchandise of the band along with photo cards has witnessed drastic growth over the years. Therefore, taking it to the digital world would be a treat for the firm as well as the fans.

The firm has no intentions of entirely replacing offline concerts. Instead, Hybe hopes that both online and offline concerts could co-exist. Additionally, with this marketplace, the management platform aspires to deliver a wide range of “experiences and activities to fans around the world.”

Even though the firm is based in South Korea, the imminent NFT platform would be established in the United States. The forthcoming NFT marketplace will most likely be launched in the first half of 2022.

Responding to Bloomberg, the agency said,

“As we prepare to enter the NFT business in a sustainable manner, we will directly participate in the operation and implement fan-oriented policies.”

Tencent gifts NFTs to its employees on the occasion of its 23rd anniversary

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China’s largest gaming and internet company, Tencent Holdings Ld., also known as Tencent, is celebrating its 23rd anniversary in a wise and advanced way by incorporating Non-fungible tokens (NFTs). 

The Chinese multinational company has gifted every employee an NFT, which is Tencent’s logo penguin. The company has brought 72,000 unique pieces to the collection. Under these pieces, they have used 1,000 different shapes to diversify the collection.

Colin Wu, the well-known Chinese journalist who is known for reporting exclusive news, tweeted about the same today. Social media has shown a mixed reaction to the company’s actions.

Some of the users find it exciting and a new way to celebrate, while some commented 72,000 is a huge number and does not seem “rare.”

The company was founded in 1998, and it has deep roots in the internet-related market, including entertainment and artificial intelligence.

Tencent’s slowest growth since 2004 amidst Chinese regulatory crackdown

On Wednesday, Tencent posted its slowest revenue growth since 2004, saying that the outlook for the advertising sector will be weak into 2022. The biggest reason behind the slow growth is the brutal Chinese regulatory crackdown.

As per the data by financial market data provider Refinitiv, the company’s revenue surged by 13%, at 142.4 billion yuan, which is the slowest surge since the company went public in 2004. The company said in its statements that the net profit for Q3 rose 3% to 39.5 billion yuan (around $6.18 billion).

Pony Ma, the company’s CEO, stated,

“During the third quarter, the internet industry, including the domestic games industry, and certain advertiser categories, adapted to new regulatory and macroeconomic developments.”

NFT has been one of the most significant contributors to crypto adoption these days due to the involvement of creators and fans from the entertainment and gaming sectors.

As TronWeekly reports, many big firms are trying their hands on NFT, and Disney, as well as Marvel, are the latest examples. Recently, Disney announced its partnership with VeVe to launch its own NFT collectibles.