Category: Crypto Trends

As the Financial Services and Markets Act looms over the United Kingdom, the country’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is in the midst of an ambitious reset, tackling complex issues that includes how to approach crypto regulation. The Financial Services and Markets Act, if passed, will grant the FCA new powers to regulate crypto businesses, but would not be able to stop the risks involved in investing in cryptocurrencies.

On March 8, FCA chair Ashley Alder, who was appointed this February, appeared before the House of Commons’ Treasury Committee and spoke about his view on the crypto sector. Alder told the committee that crypto businesses have the potential to engage in money laundering and were “deliberately evasive.” During his discussion, he highlighted that online casinos often bundle a “whole set of activities which are normally segregated,” creating “massively untoward risk.” Alder also agreed with former FCA chair Charles Randell, who previously wrote a letter to the committee calling crypto “speculative crypto” as “gambling pure and simple and it should be regulated and taxed as such.”

The FCA is currently registering crypto companies to enable them to comply with its anti-money laundering rules. Yet, warning consumers that this does not negate the risks of investing in crypto. According to the regulator, “41 crypto firms have gained registration and shows these standards are achievable.” They confirm this by telling investors that “they should be prepared to lose all their money when investing in crypto.”

It is worth noting that the most popular crypto exchange in the U. K., Binance, is being investigated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on suspicion of a breach of anti-money laundering rules. Alder explained that such investigations were important as they help “discipline the behaviour” of the crypto sector, which he believes had created “great transparency of fraudulent or illegal financial activity.”

The FCA is not just providing the registration service but has also urged firms to do “more to protect customers” by taking steps such as improving customer due diligence, setting up controls to prevent suspicious deposits and checking the source of funds. By doing all these, the FCA is ensuring that the Financial Services and Markets Act won’t be an excuse for crypto firms to start operating without any regulation or having customers without any protection.

When the Financial Services and Markets Act does eventually pass it will be interesting to see how the FCA will use its new powers to regulate the crypto sector. While the regulator’s warnings to consumers should always be taken into account, the FCA will hopefully use these powers to ensure the crypto industry is regulated and tax compliant – offering an environment that both protects customers and promotes responsible growth and innovation.

DeFi protocol Lido Finance has caught the attention of the crypto community once again, this time with its intention to sunset liquid staking on the Polkadot and Kusama ecosystems. On Tuesday, Lido’s partner and decentralized finance applications developer firm, MixBytes, proposed the cessation to take effect from August 1, 2023.

The proposal, written by MixBytes’ Chief Product Officer Kosta Zherebtsov, cited a number of challenges facing the protocol, including market conditions, protocol growth, and limited capacity with regard to priority alignment. Nevertheless, despite the imminent change, Lido has successfully become the world’s largest DeFi protocol, with roughly $9 billion worth of digital assets locked within the platform.

This growth can be attributed to the popularity of yield-earning strategies through crypto-based staking. Essentially, crypto holders can lock up their tokens and delegate them to secure proof-of-stake blockchains in exchange for a reward. With liquid staking, this process can be conducted without sacrificing all of one’s capital, as investors can maintain liquidity in the form of derivatives.

Lido’s proposed timeline would have investors stop investing in DOT and KSM for liquid staking by March 15, with unstaking tokens to take place automatically in June. If this proposal takes effect, it would affect over $25 million worth of assets, according to DefiLlama. Before then, however, the protocol has recently introduced its V2 update, focusing on staking Router Smart Contracts to modularize node operator registries and test withdrawals of ETH.

The recent news of the protocol’s upgrade was met with overwhelming excitement, with the price of the LDO token increasing by 15% at press time. Additionally, following the transition of Ethereum’s proof-of-work consensus mechanism to proof-of-stake back in September, 2021, liquid staking has boomed on platforms such as Polygon and Solana.

On Polygon, MATIC stakers can earn annual yields of between 6.4%-9.55% via Lido, ClayStack, Ankr, and Stader. The protocol enjoys the highest volume of staked MATIC, with over 73 million MATIC locked. On Solana, over 2.4 million SOL has been staked on Lido for up to 6.43% in returns.

In regard to DOT and KSM, 2.2 million DOT has been staked on Lido, while the platform also accounts for 84,000 KSM. Likewise, Karura, the main DeFi hub for Polkadot’s Kusama network, has 192,000 KSM staked in its protocol.

Going forward, Lido Finance’s liquid staking shake-up on Polkadot and Kusama may result in a shift in the DeFi sector in terms of yield-earning strategies. For the time being, close monitoring of the protocol’s proposals and updates will be required in order to ensure that investors make informed decisions regarding staking their digital assets.

Everyone on the lookout for high yields knows they come with a certain level of risk. Yield farming, a form of investing with cryptocurrency, has recently seen a surge in popularity, with some investors seeking annualized returns as high as 21%. (www.christophechoo.com) Conic Finance has been at the forefront of this push, recently launching a tool that can provide users with high rewards and capital gains with relative ease.

The entire cryptocurrency market has had a volatile ride in recent times, with Bitcoin falling to it’s lowest in nearly a month while other tokens have experienced similar declines. Yet, in spite of the turbulence and doubt from observers, Conic has attracted an impressive $60 million in under a week since its launch.

The tool, called omnipools, works by pooling multiple tokens in order to gain exposure to the Curve Ecosystem, where users can lock in rewards and increase their stake yields. Curve uses smart contracts to offer low fees, low slippage and hands out rewards in the form of its own tokens (CRV), which can also be used in voting and governance. Of the three pool options available, the USDC pool has attracted the most funding at over $50 million, with FRAX and DAI trailing at $7 million and $5 million respectively.

The omnipools are tied to a native token, conic (CNC), which provides holders a way to participate in Conic Governance and control how liquidity is allocated across the Curve pools. The current price for CNC is set at $8, with a market capitalization of $32 million, but liquidity providers stand to benefit from additional airdrops and fees if they buy and lock up the token.

The entry of Conic into the yield farming pool appears to be providing traders with an opportunity to take advantage of higher returns without locking their tokens up for long periods, which is the norm in most other platforms. Although the trade off is certain risk, the allure of 21% annualized yields has been driving demand with over $60 million in merely a week.

However, this is not to say investors should take such promises without a pinch of salt. China’s decentralized layer 1 blockchain Conflux has demonstrated that there is much at stake, with the success of its proxy token CFX linked to digital collectibles and trading of its tokens not allowed in the country. This serves as a reminder of the inherent risk associated with the ever-evolving yield farming cryptocurrency markets.

Yield farming is still a relatively new concept and there is much to consider before jumping in, not least its legality in certain countries. Nevertheless, Conic’s arrival provides an exciting way for investors to explore the possibilities of high yield investments. It remains to be seen whether the platform can live up to its promise of 21% yields, but one thing is for sure – the potential rewards are vast and could be a great incentive for cryptocurrency traders to put in the hard work.

Astar Network, a leading parachain and blockchain innovation hub of Polkadot, is taking Shibuya City to the next level with the signing of a basic agreement to nurture the development of Web3 strategy in Tokyo. The partnership marks the first collaboration between a Japanese blockchain firm and one of the hottest tech hubs in the city.

Touted as Japan’s Silicon Valley, the special ward is home to two of the world’s busiest railway stations and a world-famous fashion district. It is also the location for the Japanese arm of the Google headquarters. The new partnership with Astar will help launch educational programs and hackathons to drive the growth of Web3 within the city.

The CEO of Astar Foundation, Sota Watanabe, commented on the collaboration saying, “We’re honored to have opened our office in this tech hub and to have signed a basic agreement with the city to utilise web3.”

Since 2019, Astar Network has been playing an imperative role in fostering the growth of the Web3 space in Japan. To promote the adoption of Web3, the platform hosts educational sessions for developers and business leaders to get fresher insights into the expanding sect.

The recent collaboration with Sony Network Communications is designed to offer an incubation program that targets projects focusing on the utility of NFTs and DAOs. As part of the program, participants will get to engage in educational sessions with venture capital firms such as Fenbushi Capital, Dragonfly, and Alchemy Ventures to name a few. Moreover, Sony Network will also take charge of tech support, resources, and financial assistance for the approved projects.

Apart from that, the company recently launched its XVM functionality on the public testnet Shibuya. The feature allows the connection of different project’s smart contract environments, further expanding the development of complex applications with more use cases.

The Polkadot ecosystem’s parachain also partnered with the blockchain entity Alchemy last summer to ramp up the development of decentralized finance. On this note, Sota Watanabe mentioned, “ We hope to share the knowledge and resources of both organisations to provide value to the participants selected for the program and create new use cases and projects.”

The recently announced Web3 Hackathon by Toyota Motor Corporation that is sponsored by Astar Network is yet another step towards fostering the growth of the Web3 space in the country. Developers from around the world can join the event and create an intra-company DAO support tool on the Astar Network to simplify the team building process and voting procedure. If the program proves successful, Toyota employees will be actively interacting daily with the Astar platform. (https://www.redmanpowerchair.com)

With its collaboration with Shibuya and other forward-thinking firms like Sony and Toyota, Astar’s mission to accelerate the growth of Web3 in Japan is already well under way. This partnership is a unique opportunity for developers worldwide to explore and understand Web3 technology and put their skills to good use.

Undoubtedly, the contribution from Astar Network in the Web3 space will usher in a new wave of digital innovation, paving the path for tomorrow’s digital businesses.

Once derided and laughed off as a failed startup, Open Exchange (OPNX) has proved the skeptics wrong and hit their fundraising goal of $25 million. With the backing of mystery benefactors, former Crypto CEOs of defunct businesses, and rebranded tokens, OPNX looks poised to be the next wave of the crypto wave.

Founded by Su Zhu and Kyle Davies of the now defunct Three Arrows Capital (3AC) hedge fund, as well as Mark Lamb and Sudhu Arumugam – formerly of CoinFLEX – OPNX’s mission statement is deceptively simple: Enable people to trade bankruptcy claims of once fallen exchanges and Crypto firms.
In an effort to make these claims more fungible, the exchange is tokenizing the claims and plans to issue them on the order book exchange. These tokens will be unavailable to American citizens, as OPNX has implemented a strict KYC policy to ensure that no U.S. citizen can access them.
To incentivize liquidity, OPNX is setting up a system where 20% of their revenue is used to buy and burn FLEX tokens. This means that the FLEX token will be rebranded 1:1 with a new token – much like the tokens AAVE/LEND – and used to pay fees.

As part of their path to launch, OPNX had to acquire assets from CoinFLEX. On Tuesday, the Seychelles Court approved CoinFLEX’s restructuring plan, allowing OPNX to acquire all assets from CoinFLEX – including its people, tech, and tokens. Among these assets is the native CoinFLEX token – FLEX – which it will be using as its main token for fees. Currently, there are 100 million FLEX tokens in circulation and 2 million of these have already been burned through fees.

In addition to acquiring the assets of CoinFLEX, OPNX is allegedly planning a lawsuit against Genesis and Grayscale in order to maximize the value of the bankruptcy estate. This follows similar actions from Alameda, which sued Grayscale on Monday for denying customers the ability to redeem their shares for Bitcoin or Ethereum.

It appears that OPNX is not just about new beginnings for Crypto’s fallen heroes. Many also view it as a way to create a global supercycle and further the growth of DeFi and CeFi markets. This can be seen in the vision of OPNX’s founders, which is to create an ideal “combo of cefi + defi”.

In order to do this, they plan to expand beyond the scope of claims trading and derivatives, and build a transparent platform to act as a fully decentralized custodian. This platform will facilitate trading in stocks and foreign exchange while only needing to abide by KYC/AML regulations.

Social media has become more involved in the Crypto world as lawsuits against famous Crypto CEOs become more common. For example, Sam Bankman-Fried, the former FTX CEO, faces eight criminal charges related to the misappropriation of FTX customer funds and is currently banned from using encrypted messaging services to tamper with witnesses in an ongoing case against him.

These stories of resurrection are truly captivating. It is clear that the spirit of collaboration and innovation that originally drove the Crypto industry still remains alive and well. With the launch of OPNX and the revival of FLEX tokens, we can look forward to many other exciting Crypto projects and new beginnings.
Perhaps, it is finally the time for Crypto CEOs, revived tokens and Genesis-Grayscale busting moves to have their moment of glory!

In recent months, the hype surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) has reached an all-time high, with many heralding it as game-changing technology that is revolutionizing many industries. Ava Labs CEO and financial technology expert Emin Gün Sirer, however, is not so easily impressed, believing that many of the AI tokens are highly overvalued. His views on the current state of the AI-driven projects were shared in a recent gm from Decrypt podcast.

Sirer remains mindful of the potential of AI-driven tokens, especially those that are capable of digitizing assets and executing uniform trades. At the same time, he is also aware of its two primary obstacles, which include mitigating or eliminating the gender or racial biases that can be embedded within AI algorithms, and teaching the bots to recognize black swan events.

Sirer discussed the case of AVAX and SOL prices tracking very closely together and how it could have been negatively affected due to the news of the FTX bankruptcy in November, despite having no direct connection with it. He proposed that it may have been due to the trading bots being trained to pick up on the correlation between the two tokens and being unable to ‘unlearn’ it, even in the face of new information.

To move the market and AI technology out of its current state, Sirer suggests the development of more applications that are less biased in favor of major entities, and ones that can recognize and anticipate black swan events. He also encourages investors to do their own research and to understand the larger forces in the market before investing in AI-based crypto tokens.

With AI continuing to be one of the most active corridors of development in the crypto industry, Emin Gün Sirer’s take could serve as an important reminder for both seasoned and novice investors that it is essential to keep the larger context in mind and be prepared for the unexpected.

It looks like the Solana NFT Marketplace wars are about to get even more intense, as Tensor has garnered significant attention with its recent rollout of “pro” reward boxes and loyalty airdrops. The platform, which was previously a smaller player in the market, launched its “Season 1” airdrop on Monday, giving Solana NFT traders the chance to claim free reward boxes depending on their trading activity on the blockchain network over the past months. Those who have traded on the Tensor platform were granted a whopping “25x-50x more rewards” compared to other platforms.

This move is strongly reminiscent of Blur’s approach, an Ethereum NFT platform that emerged last October and caught fire in February after a BLUR token airdrop catapulted trading volumes to new heights. Indeed, the “pro” trader interface, AMM trading option and mysterious rewards boxes—which can be claimed based on buying or selling NFTs—have a strong similarity to Blur’s model.

The airdrop sent droves of traders to Tensor, with the trading volume of Solana NFTs surging to its single-day record of more than US$480,000 on Monday. According to data from Tiexo, Tensor grabbed a sizable 19% of all trading volume over the past day, taking a significant chunk out of Magic Eden’s 60%.

This move paid off, as Tensor just announced the closing of a successful seed round, raising US$3 million with Placeholder VC in the lead. Notable angel investors included Raj Gokal and Anatoly Yakovenko of Solana, as well as pseudonymous trader HGE of Hadeswap—a rival trading platform.

Evidently, Tensor was met with plenty of skeptism from prospective investors, as numerous VCs posed the question of whether the startup planned to leave Solana. Nevertheless, this didn’t prevent the team from raising the funds for their ambitious venture.

It looks like Tensor is here to stay as it doubles down on Solana NFTs with its second season airdrop—which will be exclusively rewarding trading activity on the Tensor platform. This potential gamification of the trading process should bring in even more traders and set the platform up for long-term success.

At the same time, it remains to be seen whether Blur will experience a similar success, now that its trading awards are no longer exclusively targeting its platform. OpenSea’s initiatives, such as lower fees and creator royalty protections, could draw traders away from Blur. (https://davidsinstruments.com/) Additionally, the sustainability and value accrual methods of the Blur ecosystem and DAO will be key factors in future of NFT trading, as the interest and participation of whales is no guarantee of success.

One thing’s for sure—it’s never been a better time to be an NFT trader. With two top-tier platforms vying for trader attention on their respective blockchains, there’s plenty of rewards for those willing to pick sides and maximize their loyalty resources. It’ll be fascinating to watch Tensor and Blur contend to become the dominant NFT platform within their respective ecosystem, as the stakes have just gotten a whole lot higher.

Rollkit, a modular framework for rollups, successfully launched its scalability solution on March 5, 2023. This solution brings the storage of rollup information developed for Ethereum to the Bitcoin network. This integration could help optimize the free space of Bitcoin blocks and expand the capabilities of the network.

Rollups are a way to compress or group a number of transactions into one, thereby increasing privacy and making the network more efficient. The execution layer of the blockchain, where smart contracts, protocols, and dApps reside, supports the application layer. The data layer is the most basic level of the blockchain, where the order of the blocks is handled. This layer is called the ‘data availability layer’, and it ensures all nodes are the same, recognizing the same transaction data.

The integration of Rollkit makes it possible to “run the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) on Bitcoin as a sovereign Rollkit rollup” and this has the potential to expand the possibilities for second-layer solutions. The news of Rollkit’s recent launch has stirred up mixed reactions from the Bitcoin community. While some view this as a step forward in blockchain technology, others are concerned about competing for the limited block space due to the increased functionality.

These changes in Bitcoin also impacted other rollup solutions like Stacks. Stacks, a high functionality layer 1 protocol, also relies on Bitcoin for security, but transactions take 150 Stacks blocks to reach “Bitcoin finality”. This is much different than the new proposed Rollkit, which could reach finality with just one block. The technicalities involving the quick and effective transfer of BTC between the layers is the main issue the developers need to tackle.

Recently, Sovereign Labs, a crypto project focused on rollup development, raised $7.4 million in seed funding. The team is building a software development kit (SDK) that makes it easier for developers to create custom zero-knowledge rollups. A rollup is a set of transactions that derive some of its security from another blockchain, allowing for scalability without sacrificing security.

With the help of the Sovereign SDK, developers can make these rollups compatible with any layer 1 blockchain. This makes the entire process easier and more accessible. Not only does this SDK help with scalability and security, but it also ensures that users maintain the verification processes that come with blockchains.

Overall, the integration of Rollkit’s scalability solution helps bring a new level of potential to the Bitcoin network. Expansion of the possibilities to these second-layer solutions could in turn create a healthier fee market on Bitcoin, helping to bootstrap a more sustainable security budget. Although this integration has stirred up some debates, the Rollkit team remains optimistic as they strive to bring an efficient, scalable, and secure platform to the crypto-space.

After the success of games such as League of Legends, it seems willing investors are keen to back Riot Games’ former executives and their new game studio, The Believer Company. With the help of backing from major firms, like Lightspeed Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and Michael Eisner’s Tornante Company, the team have raised $55 million for their first game in a Series A round. It’s yet to be announced what the game will be, but the company promise it’ll be a next-generation open-world game creating a whole new IP. What’s interesting though, is their stance on one major component of their game. Namely, the whole concept of NFTs, or ‘non-fungible tokens’. NFTs are popularly used in recent gaming trends, allowing players to trade and monetize assets within games. But The Believer Company is saying a resounding “No F*cking Thanks” to these tokens. Steven Snow, co-founder and Chief Product Officer doesn’t think they enrich the industry or make the game experience in anyway more fun. In an interview with TechCrunch, Snow clarified:

“We say ‘no fucking thanks’ to NFTs. These technologies are struggling in games because players aren’t asking for them, and no one as of yet has shown how they can make a game more fun. I believe games are supposed to be fun. We’re not here to meme on tech that won’t enrich the industry for anyone, let alone players.”

So while Snow hasn’t sworn off Web3 forever, he doesn’t interact NFTs have a place in the game right away stating that more R&D needs to happen first.

It’s a savvy move on behalf of The Believer Company, considering the alternative. Web3 gaming companies like Avalon Corp have been getting investments to fund their products too. Founded by experienced game developers from companies such as Electronic Arts and Microsoft, they’re building an MMO and metaverse-style game, set in Unreal Engine 5. Angelic, from Metaverse Game Studios, is a dark science fiction-themed narrative RPG featuring turn-based combat. But both of these games aim for decentralization, with the addition of blockchain technology, NFTs, and low transaction costs.

Ultimately, both The Believer Company and the alternative of Avalon Corp and Angelic demonstrate that the gaming world has changed from a few years ago. With advances in technology alongside a new gaming audience, it’s hard to say which strategy will be victorious in the long run when it comes to the use of NFTs, but for now The Believer Company is taking a public stance of ‘no thank you’. (https://www.focolare.org)

The Believer Company’s next-gen open-world game still has yet to be announced, and perhaps with the hefty injection of capital, they’ll be able to create something revolutionary. But what’s clear is that the focus of this game will be firmly outside of NFTs, something that will no doubt be keeping other Web3 game companies on their toes.

Block, Inc. is leading the charge in Bitcoin mining revolution with its latest announcement of a “Mining Development Kit (MDK)”. The company believes that it and developers can work to build better Bitcoin rigs through the use of the MDK. It would serve as a do-it-yourself kit that would pave the way for innovation in Bitcoin mining hardware.

The MDK kit is set to include basic components of a Bitcoin mining rig, including a hashboard, controller board, open-source firmware, software, and lots of documentation. In Block’s announcement, Naoise Irwin, Block Mining Hardware Senior Product Lead, said the MDK would be useful in developing projects to integrate Bitcoin mining into various novel use cases such as home mining and off-grid mining. He also mentioned its potential usefulness in “optimization of Bitcoin mining hardware for traditional commercial mining operations”.

Last year, Block, Inc. took a step further into the Bitcoin mining sector by contributing $5 million to a joint venture with Tesla and Blockstream to pilot an all-solar Bitcoin mining facility in Texas. More recently, the company also revealed its plans to design its own Bitcoin mining semiconductor chips – commonly referred to as ASICs.

If that wasn’t enough, Block also takes significant initiatives to invest in the Bitcoin ecosystem. It has made significant contributions to open source projects through its independent team Spiral, the decentralized finance development platform TBD, as well as its self-custody wallet.

The company is optimistic that its efforts will help address inefficiencies in the current financial system, especially with respect to identity and trust. Its ambitions may have made a 21% gain since the start of this year, however, investors have yet to be fully convinced as they have seen the company’s shares trading at $78.04, down 3% for the day.

But despite the downturn of the crypto markets, Blockstream, who has notably worked with Block, is still pushing forward with its fundraising. The crypto infrastructure firm is looking to raise funds at a much lower valuation than its last funding round, valued at $3.2 billion in 2021. Bloomberg reported that today that valuation may have fallen almost 70% to below $1 billion.

Blockstream CEO and cryptographer Adam Back noted that this capital will be invested into expanding the firm’s mining capacity. The series B funding round brought in $210 million and over four rounds, the firm has currently raised $299 million.

But miners are suffering from a triple-whammy of high hash rates, energy prices, and low BTC prices. That’s why the Blockstream monthly newsletter in December 5th revealed that its Blockstream Mining Note (BMN) token has earned around 5.37 BTC cumulatively in returns nearly halfway into its three-year term.

With the increasing competition in the Bitcoin mining industry, the MDK and the larger Bitcoin mining projects being developed by Block, Inc. and Blockstream look to be a promising but risky move. If the projects can effectively bring down the costs of mining and make it more widely available, it will be a major boon for the industry as a whole. We’ll have to keep an eye out for more announcements in the coming weeks and months for more details on the revolutionary projects Block and Blockstream are working on.

This week, the crypto world had a lot to talk about. On Tuesday, the $4 billion company Yuga Labs made history with the launch of the first-ever Bitcoin-based non-fungible-token (NFT) project, TwelveFold, a limited-edition, generative art collection inscribed onto satoshis on the blockchain network. The collection garnered bids of over $16.5 million.

Yuga has been an industry juggernaut in the NFT space, having developed three of the current top ten most valuable NFT collections, so the foray into Bitcoin NFTs is a notable shift for the company. And it’s not just Yuga that’s made the move; the Ordinals protocol has gained much attention of late and is becoming increasingly popular. The number of ordinals generated through this protocol has crossed over 100,000, resulting in Bitcoin NFTs becoming a more established idea.

Bitcoin has long been regarded as a pet rock rather than a source of sound money, and so the appeal of Bitcoin-based NFTs lies in the potential push for “greater adoption” of the currency. Bitcoin’s mempool and taproot utilization recently exploded as a result of the Ordinals protocol, but the trend may fizzle when the Initial Collection Auction (ICA) of TwelveFold is over.

Nonetheless, the Ordinals project has been a driving force of this transition, tipping the number of non-zero Bitcoin addresses to a new all-time high of 44 million, according to Glassnode. And amidst chatter of the Ordinals project being both hated and embraced, one thing is clear: Bitcoin provides a new potential for digital artifacts and it’s time for the crypto community to explore it.

Trust Machines, a startup aiming to build the Bitcoin ecosystem, raised $150 million last year, which suggests that there is a demand for Bitcoin applications. Moreover, projects like Counterparty, Liquid, Stacks, RSK, Lightning and more have been around for years building infrastructure around the sound money of Bitcoin. (Alprazolam)

The appeal of Bitcoin NFTs also lies in their secure nature. Bitcoin-based assets, like those featured in TwelveFold, are much more secure than their Ethereum counterparts, which often have their data stored on external servers. Settlement for Bitcoin NFTs stay on the blockchain forever, meaning that their integrity is guaranteed. Furthermore, Casey Rodamor’s “burn address” allows projects previously built on Ethereum to be copied onto Bitcoin, potentially making it easier for users to explore the network.

Yuga’s groundbreaking venture into Bitcoin NFTs may just be the beginning. The development of projects like Ordinals has made people ask: Could Bitcoin be bigger? It looks as if the potential for Bitcoin to expand is there, and this week certainly showed it. If an industry giant like Yuga can embrace Bitcoin, that’s an encouraging message for the community and a powerful reminder of the limitless possibilities to be explored in the volatile and ever-evolving crypto world.

A revolution is happening in the contemporary art world, and its name is non-fungible tokens (NFTs). This new form of digital asset, based on blockchain technology, seeks to authenticate ownership of digital objects like art, music, and videos. And more and more major art institutions around the world are becoming enchanted by this trend, making NFTs more present than ever before in the physical art world.

This month, leading the charge of this revolution is none other than AI artist Claire Silver. Her new collection, titled “Can I Tell You A Secret,” is set to debut at the Louvre Museum in Paris, with physical support provided by Superchief Gallery, a physical space that exhibits NFTs located in New York and Los Angles. The exhibition will begin on March 21, making Silver the first AI artist to be represented by global talent agency William Morris Endeavor (WME).

“We’ll bring AI art to mainstream culture together,” Silver tweeted about the partnership. WME is indeed sending many waves throughout the NFT world, having signed many prominent names of the Web3 sphere, such as Dapper Labs, CryptoKitties co-founder Mack Flavelle, NFT gallery Bright Moments, NFT project Non-Fungible Heroes, NFT startup Boss Beauties, and more recently, NFT artist Valfré.

Silver’s exhibition is an especially noteworthy moment in the NFT world, given that her work is being presented at one of the most prestigious art institutions in the world. It follows in the footsteps of another pseudonymous NFT collector and influencer, Cozemo de’ Medici, who donated several of his digital artworks to Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) last month, as well as Biyan William, who donated a CryptoPunk to the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami.

As if her own NFT collection wasn’t exciting enough, Silver will also be showcasing a one-of-one art piece at the Louvre titled “Love in the 4th Turning.” According to its description, the concept for this artwork was based on the Strauss-Howe generational theory, which suggests that “there is a recurring generational cycle of archetypes throughout history. (https://fii-institute.org) ” The piece is available on OpenSea and at the time of writing, the highest bid stands at 44.44 wrapped ether, or $68,677.

Silver’s exhibition comes alongside other major art institutions’ embrace of blockchain-based talent as well. Paris’s Centre Pompidou, for example, just announced an upcoming permanent exhibition targeting the intersection between art and the blockchain represented by nonfungible tokens (NFTs). It will feature NFTs from over 16 digital artists around the world, including popular collectibles such as CryptoPunk #110 and Autoglyph #25. Meanwhile, NFT artist Refik Anadol is presenting his generative art at New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in a temporary installation titled “Unsupervised” that will run until April 15.

Ultimately, it’s clear that the connection between physical and digital art forms is only strengthening, and the presence of both NFTs in major art institutions and prominent artists such as Claire Silver exhibiting in the Louvre is solidifying this crossover. One thing’s for sure: we’re entering an era of innovation and creativity, reshaping the world and the way we experience art.