This Week in Crypto (04/17)
This Week in Crypto (04/17)
"And the Oscar for best actor goes to...Bored Ape #1283?"
In the News
1.Bored Apes Yacht Club (BAYC) is getting their own movie trilogy
Three animated short films with the BAYC NFTs will be made with the first being released in June 2022, the trilogy is titled “The Degen Trilogy”. BAYC holders are able to submit their apes, along with a character description to star in any of the movies.
Rather than a film production company, the crypto exchange Coinbase will be the one producing and creating the movie. This move ties in nicely with their new NFT strategy as Coinbase also hopes to launch their NFT marketplace to challenge the likes of OpenSea.
2. Circle has raised $400 Million USD in a funding round and announced Blackrock as a strategic advisor
Circle is a major crypto payments company well known for acquiring crypto exchange Poloniex and creating USDC (a fiat-backed stable coin in collaboration with Coinbase). Circle has said it intends to be a national commercial bank and has onboarded Blackrock as a partner to help manage USDC cash reserves. Blackrock is the worlds largest asset manager.
3. US Officials Tie North Korea’s ‘Lazarus’ Hackers to $625M Crypto Theft
A few weeks ago we discussed the Hack on The Ronin Network, (reminder that this is the sidechain used by the major crypto game Axie Infinity). The US government has looked into the exploit and has traced the wallets back to the North Korean hacker group “Lazarus, the Ether wallet addresses have now been added to sanction lists. The group is well known for hacks like the 2014 Sony hack and the WannaCry ransomware.
4. The Ethereum merge has been postponed again
An Ethereum core developer confirmed on Twitter that the long-awaited Ethereum merge will not happen in June but instead likely later on in the year.
“What is the merge” I hear you ask? Bitcoin and Ethereum are currently both Proof of Work blockchains, meaning they rely on computers mining for transaction processing and their consensus mechanism. Ethereum is currently in the process of moving to Proof of Stake, often deemed quicker and more environmentally sustainable due to the lack of reliance on mining rigs. Ethereum’s proof of stake chain is currently deployed separately from the main chain currently used. The merge is when these two come together.
5. Animoca has acquired Eden Games, the company behind Need for Speed
Animoca, a major crypto-focused gaming investment company has acquired a majority stake in Eden Games for $15.3 Million USD. They plan to bring a “Metaverse first” approach to existing motorsport-based games.
What are we reading?
What is Multi-Sig? All exchanges, DAOs, custodians some high net worth individuals use a multi-signature wallet structure. This tweet thread scratches the surface of multi-sig and why it’s important
WTF is a stable coin? Did you know that 4 of the top-15 coins ranked by market cap have a constant value of $1? This thread is a great primer on stable coins and how many of the common implementations work.
“Real wealth is created during bear markets” - I have already shared this one quite recently, but it feels extra relevant this week.
