- News in micro bites: the infrastructure bill, largest crypto hack, PNC bank enters crypto.
- Crypto cash back with PayPal’s Venmo.
- TRON to set up a $300M fund for game finance expansion.
- Chainalysis includes Dogecoin in its reports.
- NFT updates: A Twitter giveaway, the Bored Ape Yacht Club.
News in Micro Bites: the Infrastructure Bill, Largest Crypto Hack, PNC Bank
- The U.S Senate has passed a $1 trillion infrastructure bill, the biggest domestic spending bill in a decade. The section regarding crypto tax was left unchanged from the original draft.
- PNC bank, the 5th largest in the U.S, revealed in its newsletter that it has partnered with Coinbase, the U.S’ biggest crypto exchange. The collaboration may come in the form of crypto investment services for PNC clients.
- Hackers have stolen over $600 million worth of digital assets by exploiting vulnerabilities in DeFi cross-chain bridging protocol Poly Network. This goes down as the biggest cryptocurrency heist in history.
Flipsider:
- It has been a difficult day for the crypto space, from U.S Bitcoin miners being obliged to pay crypto taxes, to DeFi users losing funds. Only Coinbase seems to be feeling cheerful. The exchange doubled its revenue in Q2, reaching nearly $2 billion. A major portion of this came from transaction fees. Now, with the 5th largest U.S bank listed among its partners, its revenue might become even sweeter.
Crypto Cash back with PayPal’s Venmo
PayPal has a long-standing reputation as being a crypto supporter. Its mobile payment outfit, Venmo, has finally launched a new feature for crypto enthusiasts: a crypto cash back tool. Whenever a user gets cash back from purchases made with a Venmo credit card, the service can automatically buy crypto for them.
The tool is free-of-charge, although all cash back will be baked into one monthly transaction for the sake of a better user experience. Currently, the available cryptos are BTC, ETH, LTC, and BCH.
Flipsider:
- The only remaining question is: can we get cashback for buying crypto? If so, we’ll be receiving crypto for buying crypto, even when the market isn’t surging! They can use that as a slogan in their marketing campaign, free of charge.
TRON to Set up $300M Fund for Game Finance Expansion
The TRON Foundation is setting up a $300 million TRON Arcade fund for the GameFi space for the upcoming 3 years. The move comes as a strategic maneuver to expand it’s blockchain adoption.
Game Finance (GameFi) works by utilizing a play-to-earn mechanism, which allows players to receive digital assets as rewards for gaming. The blockchain gaming sector has boomed in 2021. $2.6 billion in investments poured into space in Q1 of 2021 alone.
Flipsider:
- Justin Sun, the founder of the TRON Foundation, sees GameFi as the next big thing that might just merge the DeFi, gaming and NFT spaces in the future. In the meantime, the Chinese government has amplified its censorship of the video game industry.
Chainalysis Has Included Dogecoin in Its Reports
One of the biggest blockchain intelligence companies, Chainalysis, has announced that it will start covering Dogecoin (DOGE) in its reports.
The leading memecoin quickly became one of the most popular crypto assets on the market. However, Its utility in criminal activity likewise increased. DOGE has also become popular in high-risk jurisdictions such as Iran.
DOGE is now the 5th most traded cryptocurrency in 2021. It currently ranks as the 7th largest coin by market cap.
Flipsider:
- The increase in DOGE’s trading volume has a logical explanation now. On the other hand, attention from shady players means you are finally being taken seriously.
NFT Updates: A Twitter Giveaway, the Bored Ape Yacht Club
Twitter’s giveaway generated over $5M in trading volume. A month ago, Twitter randomly prized its users with 140 NFTs. Now, they are valued at 1,700 ETH (worth over $5.3 million) on the biggest NFT marketplace, OpenSea.
The Bored Ape Yacht Club donated 66.45 ETH ($208,000) to Orangutan Outreach, an orangutan charity. This is a CryptoPunk-like NFT collectible game, the cheapest NFT of which trades starting at 15 ETH ($47,000) for now. This isn’t the first time the company has engaged in charity work, as it has previously donated 135 ETH ($419,000) to various animal foundations.
Flipsider:
- Of course, these numbers are nowhere near the trading volumes of CryptoPunks and Axie Infinity, but charity of any kind is always good unless it’s done solely for the purpose of PR.
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