Category: Crypto Trends

Are you ready to unlock $10 billion in donations, tax incentives, and charitable giving? Crypto philanthropy is on the rise and is quickly becoming a popular means of donating and making an impact in the world. According to a recent report from the crypto charity platform, The Giving Block, cryptocurrency donations are set to exceed billion within the next decade. (fiberclean.com) The impressive donation numbers are the result of a sharp uptick in the popularity of crypto donations. This has been spurred on by theCOVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which encouraged non-profits across the globe to start accepting crypto donations.

The surge of crypto donations has also been due to the platform’s annual report, titled “Crypto Philanthropy Data, Trends & Predictions”. This report detailed that crypto donations in the platform surpassed $125 million in 2022, which is a record for the history of The Giving Block. This, in addition to Bitcoin’s uptrend in prices, allowed the crypto charity project to forecast that donations could reach $1 billion by August 2027, $5 billion in June 2031, and $10 billion by November 2032.

The report also provided insight into which cryptocurrencies are the most popular among donors. Unsurprisingly, USDC topped the list and accounted for 44% of donations, followed by 24% of Ether and 17% of Bitcoin. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin holds the record for the largest donation, with $9.4 million donated through his philanthropic fund, Balvi.

Most interestingly, however, was the incentive for donors to opt for crypto donations over cash donations. As it turns out, donors were not only motivated by the powerful tax incentive of using crypto over traditional money. Nonprofits and crypto investors have also become increasingly interested in the role crypto plays in mainstream adoption by providing users with not just tax relief, but social change as well.

So if you’re looking to make a difference and save on taxes, then crypto donations are the way to go. Not only does it provide an avenue for your donations to make a real impact, but you also get to enjoy the tax benefits that come with it. With crypto donations set to exceed the $10 billion milestone in the next 10 years, now is the perfect time to dive into the world of crypto philanthropy.

It’s not often that a lengthy academic paper on bitcoin is considered a page-turner, yet a thesis written by an active-duty United States Space Force major intends to spark enthusiasm for the cryptocurrency beyond its financial use case. In “Softwar: A Novel Theory on Power Projection and the National Strategic Significance of Bitcoin”, Major Jason Lowery establishes and explores his “Power Projection Theory”. Under this concept, the proof-of-work system underlying Bitcoin transaction verification can be leveraged by military powers to impose restrictions on bad actors by making them do a steep amount of physical work in the form of crunching numbers. For this vision to become reality, Lowery argues that the U.S. should stockpile Bitcoin and foster a domestic Bitcoin mining infrastructure, and extend 2nd amendment protections to the technology.

The thesis has gained extensive recognition, with the paperback version ranking second in both books on technology and engineering on Amazon. It has received over 200 ratings with an average of nearly 5 stars on Amazon, many of the reviews praising its well thought-out arguments. However, a few reviewers express that the paper is lacking due to overly ambitious wishful thinking, arguments based on opinion, and even Matrix-style quotes that “detract from the seriousness of the topic.”

In his paper, Lowery notes that inadequate control of Bitcoin held on behalf of the U.S. government poses a threat to the nation’s national security. He expresses concern that the country has forfeited a strategically vital power if it fails to consider stockpiling reserves or at the very least encouraging the adoption of the cryptocurrency. The sale of seized Bitcoin by the U.S. of $215 million last month paints a different picture; the reliance of the government on Bitcoin for national security is not shared by all U.S. entities.

In terms of securing software systems, Lowery proposes creating programs that only respond to external signals if they come with a large enough Bitcoin transaction recorded on the network. This will help to prevent adversaries from flooding servers with fake signals and causing damage. To match the 2nd Amendment endorsement, Lowery compares Bitcoin to the Maritime trade routes, noting that freedom of navigation on the network should be safeguarded just as we protect trade routes.

The potential implications of Bitcoin on the world’s geopolitical stage are immense, and, if Lowery’s theories are correct, the cryptocurrency could become a military-grade solution for securing information. “The U.S. should recognize that the technology it is elected to oppose today may enable the nation’s security tomorrow,” Lowery states.

Though the crypto community is currently facing monopoly attacks from the U.S. government, cryptocurrency advocates are attempting to navigate the bureaucratic and political challenges that Bitcoin is facing. If this is accomplished, the technology may perhaps play a pivotal role in the future of cybersecurity and national defense.

The Crypto Community is fighting back against a recent US court ruling on the liability of token holders in DAOs. DAOs, or Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, are a popular form of organization that runs on blockchain networks and seeks to provide an alternative to traditional company structuring. Recently, the court ruled that not only the founders but also the token holders will be responsible of the actions of the DAO, bringing the legitimacy of the whole concept in question.

The class action lawsuit was filed against bZx, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol, after a 2021 phishing attack that drained its treasury of $55 million. The court rejected a motion to exclude the DAO members of being liable, indicating that simply owning a token can make individuals accountable for wrongdoings. This ruling brought forward a plethora of issues, including how to protect DAO members from being legally liable if the organization is sued.

According to experts, this ruling is not a surprise for anyone knowledgeable about the US legal system. Despite the obstacles, this does not necessarily hinder the use of DAOs for decentralized operations. A DAO can still token-gate its membership, distribute voting power, and use blockchain for voting on proposals, as long as it is registered with the US authorities.

Industry lawyers caution that decentralization might not be as “absolute” as once assumed. The case highlights the broader reality that most crypto organizations are forced to reconcile with—the fact that they exist within a centralized world. This means that companies need to make concessions to reality if they want to keep their operations decentralized.

However, while there may be difficulties that come with operating a DAO, that does not necessarily mean the concept is dead. On the contrary, lawyers believe that the ruling should motivate the crypto community to come up with creative ways to navigate the existing structures and regulations. This could help ensure that the DAO concept can still bring the utility of decentralization to blockchain organizations.

The recent ruling concerning the bZx DAO is more than just a legal case: It is sending shockwaves throughout the crypto community and challenging the idea of decentralization as the ultimate means of avoiding legal liability. It will be interesting to see what new regulations and precautions come around to enable DAOs to continue providing the decentralize operations that are desired, without facing legal consequences for token holders.

When it comes to investing their money, millennials are often left in the dust when it comes to understanding the complexities of the traditional financial markets. But now, with the wave of the future, there may be a new way for them to invest their money and increase their wealth – and it’s all thanks to blockchain-based tokenization.

At this year’s Citi Digital Money Symposium, investment bank Citi said that the market for tokenized real-world assets is estimated to reach between $4 trillion to $5 trillion by 2030 – 80 times larger than the value of such assets locked on blockchains today. In its report, “Money, Tokens and Games”, the analysts said that of the up to $5 trillion tokenized, their estimates show that $1.9 trillion will come in the form of debt, $1.5 trillion from real estate, $0.7 trillion from private equity and venture capital, and between $0.5-1 trillion from securities.

Their research suggests that private equity and venture capital funds are leading the charge and will become the most tokenized asset class, capturing 10% of its total addressable market, with real estate coming in next at 7.5%. Such tokenization aims to supersede legacy financial infrastructure with the help of technologically superior platforms and to open the door to investing in the private markets. Companies like KKR, Apollo and Hamilton Lane have already set up tokenized versions of their funds on Securitize, Provenance Blockchain and ADDX.

Blockchain tokenization negates the need for expensive reconciliation, prevents settlement failures and makes tedious operations ever more efficient. What’s more, it opens up new opportunities for millennials to get involved, who may otherwise have been shut out of investing by high asset requirements and large minimum investments.

Though it’s obvious that blockchain-based tokenization has the potential to revolutionize investments, the lack of clear legal and regulatory frameworks, standard protocols, and the lack of enthusiasm for the technology from some industry players are all huge stumbling blocks. While the Australian Securities Exchange recently reneged on their plan to implement a successful $165 million DLT project in November, Citi remains adamant that the promising technology is not dead in the water just yet.

Tokenization offers a unique, digital-first investment opportunity to millennials who may have felt intimidated by the traditional financial markets. The investment bank further argues that the current financial system has too many restrictions and bottlenecks that blockchain technology could eliminate, making it even more attractive than the existing infrastructure. Citi is confident that this “end state” of a digitally native financial asset infrastructure, reached with optimized smart contract and DLT-enabled automation capabilities, will be achievable.

In other words, with blockchain-based tokenization, millennials have the potential to ignite their real-world investment dreams and get involved in tokenizing financial assets in a way that has never been done before. Millennials have the enthusiasm and the fearlessness to take a chance on something new, and tokenization of assets is the perfect way for them to break into the investment space. Let’s see where the wave of the future takes us!

Blockchain technology has great potential for revolutionizing the financial sector, but the scalability issue has prevented it from becoming a mainstream payment method. In order to unlock blockchain’s full potential and make it easier to use, Layer 2 (L2) scaling solutions have been developed to provide users with faster, cheaper, and more secure transactions. Binance Smart Chain (BSC) is one such network that seeks to become an industry leader with its innovative approach to L2 solutions.

The BSC network recently announced a new proposal to lower transaction fees, allowing users to choose fees below the current 5 gwei rate, with options to go as low as 3 or 4 gwei, depending on their financial needs. The aim is to make transactions faster, cheaper, and more secure. In addition to providing users with more attractive fees, this proposition is also expected to help sustain the BNB economy and optimize block utilization.

The network is targeting a throughput increase from 140 million gas limit and 2,200 transactions per second (TPS) to 300 million gas limit and 5,000 TPS. They plan to achieve this by introducing a communication layer to provide real-time tech support for developers and users, upgrading Web3 applications, and by increasing the number of validator quorums from 29 to 100. The blockchain also intends to launch their new Layer 2 infrastructure, zkBNB, and BNB Greenfield, the blockchain-based Web3 infrastructure.

This past year, BSC has made strides in increased user activity, with daily transactions going up by nearly 60%, however, its success has not been without major disruptions. BSC suffered a temporary halt in operations following a $600 million hack in October and several decentralized finance protocols within its network have witnessed hacks throughout the year.

The progress that BSC has made this far towards providing a more secure and efficient blockchain network is remarkable. By making transactions faster and cheaper via their L2 scaling solutions, they are creating an ecosystem that can compete with rival blockchain networks. As the network continues to grow, increasing its validator quorum and launching its Layer 2 infrastructure, BSC promises to be an intriguing development in the blockchain industry moving forward.

Nadya Tolokonnikova isn’t one to be intimidated. She is the face and voice of Russia’s feminist protest art group Pussy Riot, and her fearless activism has recently taken a creative and technological turn with the launch of their NFT collection, “Putin’s Ashes”. People around the globe joined forces to protest Putin’s oppressive regime and send funds to those on the Ukrainian frontlines. In the wake of her successful NFT launch, Russian officials have responded with criminal charges, citing evidence from Nadya’s artwork that is allegedly offensive to their religious sensibilities.

But Nadya simply is not deterred. A veteran artist and activist, she is leveraging decentralized technologies to aid and amplify her impact. In March, she co-founded UnicornDAO to support marginalized artists and groups in Web3, followed by her support of reproductive rights in Texas.

In reality, the Russian government might be right to be scared of Nadya’s activism. Just look at her latest project, “Putin’s Ashes”. Tolokonnikova and Shepard Fairey collaborated to create an open-edition collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to raise funds for Ukrainian troops battling the Russian invasion since February 2022. They opened the collection, hosted on Tezos-based NFT marketplace Objkt, with a protest and performance at the Jeffrey Deitch gallery in Los Angeles.

The NFT focuses on the Russian President and the protest Pussy Riot staged by burning an image of him in August. Each token includes an artwork of Tolokonnikova with Putin on the front that appears to be in flames. All proceeds from the collection will be donated to Ukrainian soldiers, a cause Tolokonnikova is passionate about given her experiences in a Russian jail for over two years for the Pussy Riot protest.

Outside of her collaboration with Shepard Fairey, Tolokonnikova has been dedicated to making the NFT space more diverse. Last year, she started UnicornDAO, a collective to empower women and LGBTQ+ NFT artists while Ukraine is also utilizing NFTs as a crowdfunding method.

Palm Foundation has teamed up with Tolokonnikova to debut an “Activist Master Class” and a feminist art contest with PalmDAO. The class, open to Palm community members in may, will draw upon Nadya’s experiences as an artist and activist and is meant to empower others to advocate for their causes.

Meanwhile, the feminist art contest will select five finalists to be showcased during NFT.NYC and the winner will receive $1,000 and a special display of their work.

Nadya Tolokonnikova truly embodies the spirit of fearless activism. Even when the Russian police detain her friends and family, she won’t back down. As she says, “They threaten us, but we cannot show fear. Glad to see they are scared.”

From the Pussy Riot protest to her collaborations with Shepard Fairey and cryptocurrency causes, Nadya Tolokonnikova uses art as her weapon. Her creative and digital resistant has only grown stronger over time and her NFT collections and projects will continue to have an impact for as long as Putin remains in power.

Vivienne Tam’s “Lighting the Path of American Fashion” NFT has climbed to the pinnacle of the metaverse, thrusting her and her impeccable designs front and center in the world of virtual fashion. Making history as one of only seven legendary designers invited to commemorate the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s 60th anniversary with a one-of-one, Tam’s digital qipao dress is a poignant reminder that fashion, even in the virtual realm, is still a matter of awe and singularity.

The iconic Chinese-American fashion designer created her piece in a stunning partnership with Brand New Vision, carefully crafting an NFT that fused the unique East-meets-West aesthetic Tam is known for with the pixelated spectacle of a virtual mandala pattern featuring three avatars from the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT Collection.

The breathtaking artwork made quite the splash debuting to cheering crowds at the second annual Metaverse Fashion Week. For over 30 years, the legendary designer has created provocative, exclusively physical, pieces that reside in countless galleries including the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh and New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology. (Valium)

And yet, the dream of a metaverse filled with digital fashion has been much, much longer than 30 years. Leading brands such Adidas and Dolce & Gabbana have added digital wearables to their collections, while tech savvy customers have taken full advantage of NFT fashion, AR filters and digital tailoring, creating a digital landscape deserving of a fashion legend like Vivienne Tam.

With Tam’s qipao dress, her signature style has been combined with Web3 technologies to elegantly bridge the gap between physical and digital worlds. The piece was purchased by Cathy Hackl, Chief Metaverse Officer at Web3 consultancy Journey, and BNV (Brand New Vision) was able to convert the dress into a digital wearable compatible with Decentraland, the pixelated universe in which Metaverse Fashion Week’s events are taking place. Even with the slight downgrade in visuals, Tam was perfectly content.

“It’s not just about being new. It’s being a bridge from old to new, from East to West, from nature to digital,” Tam said. “Even though it isn’t as high-resolution as the first edition, the point is for people to engage with the fashion. There are tradeoffs, but now it might reach more people. That’s more democratic.”

Tam’s custom creation is one of many stunning creations raising the skirt of traditional fashion and poking out the edges of convention through Metaverse Fashion Week. Richard Hobbs, CEO of BNV, applauds Tam’s innovative take on digital fashion, describing it as “completely relevant to Web3.”

What stands out most in the qipao dress is its singular nature, a perfect embodiment of virtual couture as an extension of physical couture absorbed into a Web3 ethos. Hackl, who chaired the event a year prior, recognizes the significance of her purchase, saying it is “a moment in fashion history living on-chain.”

The transformation of fashion in the virtual age has been exciting and controversial in equal measure, taking whatever it touches to new creative and technological heights. With Metaverse Fashion Week steadily evolving each year, amidst new experiments with digital styling and sustainability, Vivienne Tam’s journey to one-of-one fashion greatness is paving the way for a shift in aesthetic toward the creation of fashion moments of impact in the virtual space.

The F1 race circuit is about to get a whole lot more exciting as cryptocurrency exchange Kraken prepares to unleash the power of NFTs and attract motorsports fans. Starting this weekend, the Kraken logo will be exposed to millions of users due to the exchange’s partnership with F1 team Williams Racing. This marks Kraken’s first global partnership and allows them to further their presence in next year’s races.

The partnership will have the Kraken logo seen on the halo and rear wing of the Williams Racing FW45 race car driven by Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant. Fans at the Grand Prix events will also get the chance to see limited edition caps with the Kraken logo.

This is not the first time a cryptocurrency company has gone into F1, with 100% of teams having at least one crypto sponsor last year. However, that all changed in the aftermath of the crypto winter and multimillion-dollar scams that left their mark on the ecosystem.

Williams Racing’s Commercial Director James Bower said he was thrilled with the partnership and that “[it] allow[s] us to engage with both Kraken’s and Williams’ global communities and showcase the impact and life-changing potential of Crypto and Web3.”

Kraken is aiming to boost cryptocurrency adoption in the motorsports sector and has announced that holders of its top NFT projects will have their collectibles displayed on the Williams Racing rear wing alongside Kraken at certain Grand Prix events.

Kraken’s Marketing Director, Mayur Gupta added that this partnership will show what is possible when brands combine innovative thinking with excellence, disruptive performance and innovation.

However, entering the F1 circuit can be risky business and many companies have had sponsorships fall apart, such as FTX with F1’s Mercedes-AMG Petronas or Animoca Brands’ Ethereum NFT game F1 Delta Time that shut down in March 2022.

Despite this, there are still a plethora of crypto sponsors in the race today, such as McLaren’s partnerships with Tezos and OKX, Alpine’s deal with Binance, Haas’s agreement with OpenSea and Red Bull Racing’s $150M deal with Bybit, which was signed in February of this year.

It remains to be seen how Kraken’s sponsorship agreement with Williams Racing will fare, however, the partnership is an exciting way to demonstrate the future possibilities of crypto and Web3 to the motorsports and wider investment community.

Over the last three decades, Chinese-American designer Vivienne Tam has made a name for herself with her groundbreaking East-meets-West fashion designs, which have been granted a place in the permanent collections of both the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh and New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology. In recent years, however, the fashion world has been thrust into the virtual realm, and Tam has joined other designers from around the globe to explore the possibilities of the decentralized world of the metaverse. This year, Tam is taking part in the second-annual Metaverse Fashion Week and her unique Web3 debut is causing a stir on the virtual runway in Decentraland. Herpiece, a virtual qipao dress digitalized embroidered with the likenesses of three avatars from the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection in a mandala pattern, is a one-of-one NFT.

The other designers participating in the event were tasked with creating digital versions of their classic pieces, but Tam used her knowledge of both physical and digital fashion to create an design that was entirely new and relevant to the Web3 space.

“Being able to bring harmony, heritage and my history to something so new is exciting,” Tam told Decrypt. “But it’s not just about being new. It’s being a bridge from old to new, from East to West, from nature to digital.”

The stunning fashion piece was purchased by Cathy Hackl, Chief Metaverse Officer at Web3 consultancy Journey and so-called “godmother of the metaverse”. Hackl believes that virtual fashion should be focused on creating unique, one-of-a-kind pieces that are memorable, iconic, and exclusive.

“I wasn’t just getting an NFT,” Hackl told Decrypt of the purchase. “It’s a moment in fashion history living on-chain,” she said.

Brand New Vision (BNV) was tasked with converting Tam’s design into a digital wearable compatible with the particular visual style of Decentraland, where many of the Metaverse Fashion Week’s events take place. Richard Hobbs, CEO of BNV, noted that while there were tradeoffs with the adaptation, it would allow the design to reach a wider audience.

“Even though it isn’t as high-resolution as the first edition, the point is for people to engage with the fashion,” said Tam. “There are tradeoffs, but now it might reach more people. That’s more democratic.”

Web3 fashion has been steadily picking up steam, with companies and brands working to bridge the gap between physical and digital fashion. This has included experiments in digital tailoring and NFTs, sustainable and ethical solutions to traditional fashion’s environmental problems, and other innovative technologies like NFC chips that expand the reach and discoverability of virtual fashion.

An added benefit of virtual couture, of course, is that it can be appreciated by a far greater audience than that of physical fashion. Indeed, Web3 couture offers the opportunity not only to express the singularity of the designer’s original pieces, but also to share them with a much larger audience, who then have the opportunity to enjoy and experience the beauty of the design in their own way.

The Metaverse Fashion Revolution is only just beginning, and Vivienne Tam’s debut piece is proof of the exciting possibilities that the virtual realm can offer to the burgeoning fashion world. From combining traditional craftsmanship and Web3 technology, to reaching a larger and more diverse audience than ever before, metaverse fashion is about to become something truly special.

The days of high-net-worth individuals dominating the fine arts market are over! With the launch of Freeport, an upcoming blockchain-based platform, individuals of any financial background can take part in art investing. And what better way to kick off this innovative platform and shift in the market than with a special four-piece collection of prints from Andy Warhol?

The collection includes prints of some of Warhol’s most iconic works, including “Marilyn” (1967), “Double Mickey” (1981), “Mick Jagger” (1975), and “Rebel Without a Cause (James Dean)” (1985). Acquired partially from well-known art collectors, the set will be limited to 1,000 tokenized lots each.

The key to unlocking this investment opportunity for everyone is tokenization. Freeport will be using Vertalo, a digital asset management tool, to tokenize the artworks to enable people to buy and sell them through decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms. It’s no small feat to have achieved a regulatory hurdle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), allowing the platform to tokenize fine artworks in the form of security tokens on the Ethereum blockchain.

This May, the collection will launch and open to the public. You can sign up to the waitlist now! Despite the hefty prices associated with such artwork, Freeport has made sure the starting price for each tokenized lot of the collection ranges from $250 to $860 – reasonable enough to let everyone gain access to the incredible artwork.

The launch of the collection is more than just tokenization. Colin Johnson, CEO of Freeport, commented, “Our platform goes far beyond just fractionalizing shares of fine art into security tokens – we’ve built a fully-immersive and interactive platform hosting an art-centric community and redefining the ownership experience surrounding fractionalized art.” Thus, the Freeport platform has created an art-centric community to share artwork, insights, and experiences with other members.

To facilitate the shift in the art market and make art investing accessible to all, Art Block has just launched a specialized secondary marketplace, integrated within their existing website. This marketplace allows NFTs to be bought and sold natively or from external platforms, with no platform fee and creator-specified royalties that are honored. As the industry leader in revenue from sales of $1.4 billion, Art Blocks is certainly a player in turning art investment into a more inclusive process.

The release of the Freeport platform, along with the launch of the Andy Warhol collection, is sure to revolutionize the fine art market. Not only is tokenization making art investing possible for the average individual, but the social platform that accompanies Freeport will bring together art lovers and collectors from all around the world.

It’s clear that the story behind unlocking art investing for everyone is only just beginning. The successes Freeport and Art Blocks achieve in revolutionizing the art market will be a turning point for both artists and artwork enthusiasts. It’s an exciting time for the art world indeed!