Binance has entered a partnership with the Recording Academy to become the first-ever crypto exchange partner for the 64th annual Grammy Awards, to be held on April 3 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, US.
As per a statement from Yi He, co-founder of Binance, partnering with the Recording Academy will bring “fresh new experiences powered by blockchain and all the great things Web3 technology can bring to entertainment”:
JUST IN: #Binance has announced they will be an official sponsor of the Grammy's this year.
There are no further details about the partnership as yet. However, it appears Binance is already rolling out plans to make it more than just a branding opportunity. As per the statement:
Binance will continue to work with the Recording Academy throughout the year to bring various Web3 technology solutions and experiences to the organisation’s members, events and initiatives.
Binance statement
Crypto Permeates Entertainment Industry
The increasing popularity of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) is making it harder for leading organisations in the entertainment industry to ignore the potential opportunities to work with this emerging sector, which is taking over the mainstream at a fast pace.
This is the second time the Recording Academy hass collaborated with crypto companies. As Crypto News Australiareported last November, the organisation announced that NFT collectibles would be awarded as prizes at the Grammys thanks to a collaboration with Tezos-based NFT platform OneOf:
We have teamed up with @OneOfNFT, the green #NFT marketplace built for music and backed by 28-time GRAMMY Award winner @QuincyDJones, for an exclusive partnership to release #NFTs that will commemorate the 64th, 65th and 66th #GRAMMYs. ✨ https://t.co/5SyeGSJbWG
Binance is not the only exchange making waves in the entertainment world. Just a week ago, Crypto.com became the official crypto sponsor for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, with the objective to bring awareness of the brand to billions of users who tune in to watch the tournament.
Azukies, an Ethereum-based collection of hand-drawn, anime-style profile picture non-fungible tokens, are the hottest trend in the NFT ecosystem. The project reached a milestone this week with the sale of a single Azuki for a record US$1.4 million.
Azukies comprise 10,000 avatars released by a Los Angeles-based group called Chiru Labs. Each Azuki comes with unique traits and stats, some of them being ronin samurais or skateboarders holding a boombox.
Azukies Outsell BAYC and CryptoPunks
These NFTs have garnered huge sales since their release in January, surpassing some of the biggest collections in the market, such as the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and CryptoPunks in terms of sales – over US$300 million across secondary markets in February.
Azuki #9605 sold for 420.7 ETH (US$1.4 million) on the OpenSea marketplace, as revealed by Twitter user trebooomin, who said he and his friends of Red Bean DAO sold it to a buyer with the moniker Bitcoin4Freedom on Twitter:
My incredible friends at @redbeandao and I have sold the #2 rarity Azuki for 420.7 ETH.
The floor price of Azukies doubled shortly after the sale – 20 ETH (US$64,155) on OpenSea and LooksRare, as per data from CoinGecko:
While Azukies are enjoying tremendous hype in the market, their audience is not immune to malicious actors. Unfortunately, Arthur Cheong – founder of DeFi venture capitalist firm Defiance Capital – last month witnessed his Ethereum wallet being drained of his NFTs, which numbered at least 17 Azukies among other valuable collectibles worth a total of US$1.7 million.
Popular web browser Opera has this week announced support for at least eight more base networks and various layer-2 protocols in what seems to be a push for a major Web3 browsing experience.
As per a blog post from the Oslo-based company, Opera plans to onboard millions of users to enjoy a “seamless Web3 experience” through built-in wallet support for leading blockchain ecosystems and layer-2s including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Polygon (MATIC), Cosmos-based IXO, Ronin, Celo, and StarkEx:
Opera users will be able to access dApps (decentralised applications) from popular ecosystems such as Polygon or Solana and benefit from lower gas fees and faster transactions.
By connecting several layer-1 and layer-2 ecosystems, Opera will remain “chain agnostic” – allowing its 300+ million users to seamlessly access Web3. Users from the popular P2E (Play-to-Earn) title Axie Infinity will also be able to interact with the recently hacked Ronin ecosystem.
The integration of multiple blockchains and notably Layer 2s is a key strategy in Opera’s mission to remain chain agnostic and seamlessly onboard millions of users to Web3 and do so in an environmentally-conscious way.
Opera blog post
Opera Sings Praises of its Browser
Opera has been working on crypto-related products since 2018 when it launched its first web browser with an integrated Ethereum wallet and Web3 support, even before most browsers started integrating different levels of support for blockchains.
It wasn’t until January of this year that Opera unveiled the beta version of its Crypto Browser Project, a fully dedicated Web3 browser with built-in integrations and support for seamless access to dApps, games, and metaverse platforms.
Ever since we started in the Web3 space in 2018, we’ve been sealing partnerships with the most popular and cutting-edge blockchains and Web3 domain name providers in order to accelerate crypto’s evolution from proof-of-concept towards mass adoption.
Jorgen Arnesen, EVP Mobile and Web3, Opera
On February 25, Opera integrated DeversiFi, a decentralised exchange powered by StarkWare, a scaling solution for Ethereum that uses ZK rollup technology.
Since the beginning of the year, Cardano (ADA) has seen a massive 50-fold spike in large transaction volume (LTV) and, according to crypto intelligence firm IntoTheBlock, this represents a significant increase in institutional demand for the decentralised blockchain network.
IntoTheBlock stated in a tweet that such high volumes – last seen in 2018 – indicate “increasing institutional demand”.
The volume of on-chain transactions over US$100k has increased remarkably in 2022 alone. This week, a total of 69.09 billion ADA, worth US$81.4 billion, was moved in these large transactions, representing 99 percent of total on-chain volume, according to the firm.
Cardano’s Total Value Locked (TVL) has also seen a significant increase since the beginning of the year when it started off. The chain’s slow academic approach has seen its token off to a low start but as new functionality is added, the chain becomes more secure and decentralised for users.
Since smart contracts were enabled on the chain in September 2021, many developers have started building in the ecosystem. Within the first five days of the upgrade, 2,334 smart contracts were deployed on the network.
Since 2021, the average amount of active addresses has also been steadily increasing. As of January 2022, the total addresses with a balance have increased from 3.4 million to 5.05 million, pointing to an exponential increase in usage.
Cardano’s Layer 2 – Hydra also recently started looking into implementing a burning mechanism for the token, but this has caused confusion among some members of the community. With all the progress the chain has made, many are wondering how its price has managed to stagnate:
I see ADA really as a better UTXO outcome than BTC. However, network effect. It's over. They haven't cleared the hurdle. BTC=gold, ETH=currency. ADA continues to have great marketing, but no one cares. They have no reason to attract capital over other choices.
Canadian oil and gas miner Bengal Energy has commenced a trial to assess the profitability of mining bitcoin from its stranded gas assets in the Australian Outback.
🚨Canadian oil and gas company Bengal Energy starting a pilot group of portable mining sheds in decommissioned gas wells in outback Australia !#Crypto$BTC#Bitcoin#Bitcoinnews !
According to a report in The Australian, Bengal Energy has commenced its program to install approximately 70 Bitcoin mining rigs within a “donga”, a term that left some confused from the outset:
The initial project entailed assembling a series of previously out-of-operation gas wells in South Australia’s Cooper Basin, all of which were purchased from Santos Energy and Bridgeport Energy.
Bengel Energy’s chief operating officer, Kai Eberspacher, commented that the newly acquired wells however posed a significant problem given that they were “stranded” – able to produce power but unable to be distributed as current pipelines are out of reach.
While a pipeline is under construction, efforts have been delayed due to Covid-19 induced supply chain bottlenecks. In Eberspacher’s words:
We were basically looking at six months of having wells ready but without an outlet. We were dealing with stranded assets.
Kai Eberspaecher, chief operating officer, Bengal Energy
Bitcoin Mining Plugs Gap
After having outlaid the initial capital without a return on investment, Bengal Energy turned to portable Bitcoin mining rigs in dongas. A trial donga is being fitted with 66 mining rigs, able to generate approximately 0.005 BTC, or A$315, per day.
Kai Eberspacher, Bengal Energy’s chief operating officer. Source: The Australian
If the trial is successful, the company has indicated that it intends increasing its mining efforts by a factor of 10 to 20.
Energy Companies and Bitcoin – Match Made in Heaven
Despite recent efforts by some to discredit bitcoin mining, we’re seeing growing evidence of energy companies leveraging stranded assets and flared gas to power bitcoin mining operations.
Irrespective, those who believe bitcoin has no value will necessarily also believe that its appropriate energy use is zero:
So, the Bitcoin mining company 'Bengal Energy' will be burning fossil fuels to make imaginary money.
Again justified with the ludicrous argument that because the fossil fuels are "stranded", that means it's good to burn them and add to climate change. pic.twitter.com/WvbMEsySd4
Let’s take a closer look at today’s altcoins showing breakout signals. We’ll explain what the coin is, then dive into the trading charts and provide some analysis to help you decide.
1. MyNeighborAlice (ALICE)
ALICE is a multiplayer builder game where anyone can buy and own virtual islands, collect and build exciting items, and meet new friends. Inspired by successful games such as Animal Crossing, the game combines the best of the two worlds – a fun narrative for regular players who want to enjoy the gameplay experience, as well as an ecosystem for players who want to collect and trade non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
ALICE Price Analysis
At the time of writing, ALICE is ranked the 258th cryptocurrency globally and the current price is US$7.59. Let’s take a look at the chart below for price analysis:
After accumulating under the November monthly open, ALICE rallied 90% in a week before retracing to support near $6.55. Buyers continue to snatch up dips under the weekly open, suggesting that accumulation is still taking place.
Bulls could look for entries in this region while being conscious of a potential stop run below the cluster of lows at $7.37. Two areas of support, beginning near $7.26 and $7.00, provide probable buys if the price dips this low.
The equal highs near $8.63 provide a first reasonable bullish target. If the price takes this target and penetrates the surrounding resistance, the next probable resistance begins near $9.30. Possible targets include the old highs just above this resistance near $10.43, $10.86, and $11.59.
2. Chainlink (LINK)
The Chainlink Network LINK is driven by a large open-source community of data providers, node operators, smart contract developers, researchers, security auditors and more. The company focuses on ensuring that decentralised participation is guaranteed for all node operators and users looking to contribute to the network. Chainlink allows blockchains to securely interact with external data feeds, events and payment methods, providing the critical off-chain information needed by complex smart contracts to become the dominant form of digital agreement.
LINK Price Analysis
At the time of writing, LINK is ranked the 24th cryptocurrency globally and the current price is US$16.85. Let’s take a look at the chart below for price analysis:
LINK‘s early January spike retraced near $13.08 into the consolidation that began the impulse before bouncing to $17.30.
This consolidation could provide support again, although bears would first have to push the price through possible support near $14.00. The market’s structure may be shifting bearish, with $13.62 likely to provide some resistance if this is the case. A sustained bearish move could reach the swing low near $12.63 before finding support near $11.71.
However, the bullish higher-timeframe trend might prevail, with relatively equal highs near $18.78 potentially giving an attractive target to lure the price over the monthly open. If so, the price could reach for the midpoint of the December wick near $21.58.
3. Reserve Rights (RSR)
Reserve Rights RSR is a dual-token stablecoin platform that was launched in May 2019 following a successful initial exchange offering (IEO) on the Huobi Prime platform. Reserve Rights’ dual token setup includes a stablecoin known as the Reserve stablecoin (RSV), which is backed by a basket of assets managed by smart contracts. The second token is the Reserve Rights token (RSR), which is used to keep the RSV stable at its $1.00 price target through a system of arbitrage opportunities.
RSR Price Analysis
At the time of writing, RSR is ranked the 190th cryptocurrency globally and the current price is US$0.01802. Let’s take a look at the chart below for price analysis:
RSR has retraced approximately 52% as the price hovers over possible support beginning near $0.01608.
The significant number of lows in this area will likely see a stop run before any potential move higher. The gap at $0.01570 could provide support for a shallow stop run.
However, lows near $0.01489 also provide a tempting downside target if bitcoin begins a bearish trend. Under these lows, bulls might find support near $0.01412 – or as low as $0.01365 if the market sees a sustained bearish move.
The confluence of levels near $0.01934 that surround the monthly open may provide some resistance, particularly if reached before a run of the highs near $0.02065.
If the bullish trend resumes, $0.02269 may provide some resistance before running the swing highs at $0.02319 and $0.02410.
These coins have high liquidity on Binance Exchange, so that could help with trading on AUD/USDT/BTC pairs. And if you’re looking at buying and HODLing cryptos, then Swyftx Exchange is an easy-to-use popular choice in Australia.
Sorare has signed yet another football league to its non-fungible token (NFT) fantasy football game. US Major League Soccer (MLS) is the first American league to join the platform for digital football collectibles.
Football leagues across the globe are jumping on the NFT train by enabling a new level of participation and interaction with fans, with the novel technology gaining a lot of traction among sports fans and clubs.
As outlined in an MLS post, Sorare will become the league’s official fantasy football NFT game, adding new players to the fantasy league roster:
According to Chris Schlosser, MLS senior vice-president of enterprise ventures, “I think [digital] collectibles on their own are a really exciting opportunity, but generally, we’re starting to see more and more in this NFT-as-utility space where people want to use their NFTs to do things, and that’s what Sorare figured out early on.”
MLS is one of the fastest-growing football leagues in the US and has one of the youngest fan bases (average 39.6 years) of any major sports league in the US. According to an article by Forbes, millennials and gen-Zers account for 58 percent of MLS supporters, making NFTs a smart move to get in with the tech-savvy crowd.
US League Joins European Heavyweights
MLS will be joining more than 230 global football leagues, including European heavyweights Bundesliga, Laliga, and Bayern Munich. The platforms’ 350k monthly users across 184 countries will now be able to also collect and use NFTs from the MLS league.
Sorare is a fantasy football game built on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. The platform opens doors for users to buy, sell and trade NFTs of their favourite players to build their fantasy team. Scores are tracked based on real-life performances, and players win prizes based on their rank in the league.
The platform’s last funding round in late September 2021 saw it raise US$680 million, boosting its total valuation to US$4.3 billion.
We’re excited to continue our progressive approach to bring NFTs to MLS with industry-leader Sorare. Utilizing the latest technology to provide fans the opportunity to add MLS players and future stars to their personal collections and give them an interactive free-to-play fantasy soccer game made Sorare the obvious choice.
Chris Schlosser, SVP of emerging ventures, Major League Soccer
Billionaire and Ripple (XRP) co-founder Chris Larsen has joined forces with Greenpeace in a US$5 million campaign dubbed “Cleanup Bitcoin” to persuade the protocol to shift from proof-of-work (POW) to a “greener” consensus mechanism such as proof-of-stake (POS):
Last year, I published an op-ed calling for Bitcoin to consider a move away from PoW to a low energy validation method. Today, I’d like to share an update on how my thinking has evolved on this front. https://t.co/8G3MKmiHYK
In partnership with Greenpeace and other organisations, Larsen is funding a series of ads over the next month calling on Bitcoiners to transition away from power-intensive POW mining to a POS system that uses much less energy:
Excerpt from Cleanup Bitcoin manifesto. Source: Cleanupbitcoin.com
Needless to say, the reaction among the community was swift and brutal:
When I think of why regulators should crack down on crypto the one greasy face that pops to mind is Chris Larsen. The Ripple execs are scum. Sorry!
A common criticism emerging from the community was that Larsen’s efforts smacked of duplicity and were instead an opportunistic attempt to leverage the emotive topic of the environment to undermine a Ripple competitor. This appeared to be the sentiment of Bitcoin-friendly US Senator Cynthia Lummis, who described the move as a play for regulatory capture:
This is a disingenuous play for federal regulatory capture. Don’t fall for it. Let ‘em compete. (With thx to @planb for the screenshot) pic.twitter.com/fnE4hjmd5t
America… the only country in the world where you can make billions dumping unregistered securities that look like fidget spinners on retail investors then use the proceeds to lecture actual entrepreneurs on their bitcoin businesses
Walsh’s partner at Castle Island Ventures, Nic Carter, the de facto Bitcoin energy-FUD-buster-in-chief, took a more humorous angle mocking Larsen’s website:
Meme based on Cleanupbitcoin website. Source: Nic Carter
Go Ahead, Fork It
Aside from being misguided about how the protocol works, it was Noelle Acheson, head of Insights at Genesis Trading, who said it best:
What they don’t seem to understand: any change to Bitcoin would involve a fork, which means the original will still exist and many (=most) will choose the original precisely *because* of its proof-of-work security and its resilience to change.https://t.co/NjsZg5hOVj
Jerry Brito, executive director at Coin Center, challenged the notion that 50 miners could force the code to change and encouraged those who believed otherwise to read The Blocksize War – an episode in history that proved it was the nodes and users who controlled the protocol, not the miners:
The result of the ‘Blocksize War’ was a hard fork of Bitcoin and led to the creation of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin Satoshi’s Vision (BSV). With BTC’s market capitalisation at over US$900 billion, compared to BCH’s US$6.9 billion and BSV’s US$1.8 billion, the market has clearly spoken.
Having already dealt with a hard fork in the past, Bitcoiners such as Preston Pysh egged Larson on:
Chris, I strongly encourage you to fork it.
Nothing's stopping you. I'm sure you'll find hundreds of people that will follow your lead.
MetaMask now allows iPhone and Apple Pay users to buy crypto using a debit or credit card through its mobile application, eliminating the need to transfer Ethereum from a centralised exchange such as Coinbase into the app.
📣 MetaMask Mobile v4.3.1 is LIVE with some exciting updates:
Buy crypto on iOS with Apple Pay (@sendwyre), more transparency when interacting with sites, & support for gasless transactions where relevant.
Does it get any better? Yes it does! We now have dark mode! 🌑
And in response to popular demand, MetaMask has also introduced the Apple Dark Mode feature, which will automatically open in the app as long as a user’s iPhone operating system has dark mode enabled.
Daily Deposit Limit of 400 USD
Users can now deploy their Visas and Mastercards stored in Apple Pay to buy ETH and deposit a daily maximum of US$400 into their wallets, thanks to the Wyre API (MetaMask uses two payment gateways, Wyre and Transak, to support debit card and credit card transactions).
Gas fees are also said to be lower, and some transactions may even be gasless if done on a private blockchain or if a project pays for the gas on the user’s behalf. (When completing an ETH purchase, MetaMask discloses that it does not profit from gas fees.)
To see all these updates in action, make sure to update your MetaMask Mobile to v4.3.1! 🦊
⚠️ As always, remember to NEVER share your Secret Recovery Phrase with ANYONE. MetaMask will never request it for ANYTHING, EVER.
Buy Stablecoins and Make Bank Transfers in 60+ Currencies
Via Transak, users have been able to buy stablecoins such as USDT, USDC and DAI on the Ethereum mainnet in MetaMask for some time now, but the latest update also allows them to make bank transfers and use credit/debit cards to buy crypto using more than 60 global currencies.
Exact payment methods and fees vary depending on the location. Earlier this month, OpenSea and Metamask blocked users from countries including Iran and Venezuela after both platforms cited compliance issues. It was later confirmed that Ethereum’s Infura cut off users to separatist areas in Ukraine, accidentally blocking Venezuelan users as well.
NFT artist XCOPY released an open edition art piece last week, raising US$24 million in a matter of minutes. As part of the drop, several other auctions of more limited XCOPY artwork ran alongside.
Most of the funds came from mints of his Max Pain piece, sold as an open edition, but a series of ranked auctions also brought in a generous amount of money.
Max Pain Sells For a Painful Price
XCOPY has again proven that high-value NFT artwork is not going anywhere fast. The London-based NFT artist launched his ‘Max Pain and Frens’ NFT drop via Nifty Gateway. The total amount raised from the drop sits at a comfortable US$24.4 million, with over US$23 million of that coming from the headline act.
Max Pain NFT. Source: Nifty Gateway
The sale for Max Pain opened at 22:30 UTC, with patrons having a window of just 10 minutes to mint an NFT, with no maximum limit on the amount that could be minted. In total, 7,394 NFTs were minted at a hefty US$3,108 each.
Along with Max Pain, two auctions for more limited XCOPY pieces went ahead. The first, entitled Waster, was launched in an edition of six and used a ranked auction system. The top six bids, ranging from US$101,000 down to $91,000, received NFTs.
Waster NFT. Source: Nifty Gateway
Along with Max Pain and Waster, another limited edition piece named Damager Luxe used the same auction system, with a winning bid of US$79,999.
Damager Luxe. Source: Nifty Gateway
Fans who held five NFTs supported on Nifty Gateway’s marketplace could also enter a raffle to purchase one of 24 Gourmet Spicy pieces for US$1.
Gourmet Spicy NFT. Source: Nifty Gateway
Also, in a follow-up to XCOPY’s last open edition drop, Afterburn holders could burn either one or two of their NFTs to receive a selection of other previously unreleased works. Afterburn was released in March 2021 for US$999 in a five-minute open edition with two other NFTs.
