GameStop unveils its new crypto wallet for sending and receiving in-game items and NFTs,
Fantom jumps 12% on Fantom stablecoin development
and speculation surrounding Andre Cronje returning to DeFi,
and SWIFT experiments with CBDC interoperability.
My name is Ben.
This is your nightly crypto news wrap-up.
Let's get it!
GameStop shares rose 3%
with the announcement of a new self-custodial wallet.
The wallet is currently in beta stage
and available for download on GameStop's website.
Later this year,
GameStop plans to launch an NFT marketplace
built on Ethereum-based platform Immutable X,
one we really like,
that will feature in-game digital assets.
The wallet shares similarities with MetaMask,
allowing users to send and receive game items directly through their web browsers.
Also, Fantom's FTM token jumped 12% over the past 36 hours.
Speculation of Andre Cronje's return to DeFi sparked the rally
when crypto reporter Colin Wu
announced the developer's address recently added almost 100 million FTM,
Cronje's release of the Fantom fUSD optimization proposal.
In a tweet, Wu says this is considered a return to Fantom.
Three months ago, Cronje announced he was leaving crypto for good.
Often called the godfather of DeFi,
Cronje popularized yield farming with his work on yearn.finance, or YFI,
and became known for his work on Fantom project Solidly,
which attracted billions of dollars in liquidity to the Fantom network.
He also developed Keep3r's Fixed Forex,
which provides alternatives to USD-dominated stablecoins
and exposes liquidity providers to foreign currencies
like the euro and Australian dollar.
Cronje and fellow developer Anton Nell bowed out of crypto,
handing over control of their websites in early March.
In a Twitter post,
Nell said their departure was coming for a while now.
Back in 2020,
Cronje told Decrypt that the toxic DeFi community was bringing him to the edge of quitting.
Recently though, Cronje was spotted on GitHub working on fMint protocol,
Fantom's platform for minting its collateralized stablecoin fUSD.
Over the past few weeks,
the stablecoin has undergone significant depegging
as market pressure increased
following the depegging of Terra's UST
and the downfall of the network's native token LUNA.
The Fantom Foundation released a statement that unlike UST,
fUSD is over-collateralized by FTM staking
and users create fUSD by borrowing against staked FTM.
Over the past seven days,
the price of Fantom is up over 45%.
And now let's throw it to Frankie Candles for a market watch.
Thanks, Ben!
Alright, guys. Let's jump in and do a little market watch here.
We've got Bitcoin coming in at $29,134.
Down about 4% on the day
Ethereum coming in at $1,973
Down about 3.5% for the day
Let's go ahead and check our top movers.
Bitcoin Gold up 35% on the day
We've got Loopring up about 8% for the day.
Aave up 5%
Neo up 3%
And STX up about 3.5% on the day
Guys, we did get that little pump earlier today,
only to come back down below $30K.
Now, I did tell you, guys, if you watched the morning stream
to keep an eye on those blood diamonds printing on the higher hourly timeframes.
That could be what we're seeing play out here.
Sometimes these things take time to play out.
So keep an eye out for some more downside for Bitcoin in the short term.
And if you guys want to follow me,
it's Frankie Candles on YouTube or @Frankie_Candles on all socials.
Back to the news.
Alright. Thanks, Frank!
On to more news,
Belgian global provider of secure financial messaging
Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications,
or SWIFT,
has stated that CBDCs will be tested for cross-border transactions.
CBDCs, or central bank digital currencies, are similar to cryptocurrencies
and are issued by a central bank.
They are pegged to the value of a country's fiat currency.
And many countries are currently developing and implementing them.
SWIFT enables financial institutions worldwide to communicate with each other.
And right now they are working on integrating digital currencies.
In a blog post, SWIFT affirmed that different systems of CBDCs need to work together
and facilitating interoperability and interlinking between different CBDCs
being developed around the world
will be critical if we are to fully realize their potential.
The head of innovation for SWIFT, Nick Kerigan,
says that CBDCs will increasingly become a new form of fiat currencies.
SWIFT aims to create a highly scalable solution
that is easy to integrate as multiple platforms emerge
to parallel the traditional payment system.
One of the main features that SWIFT is experimenting with
is a gateway on the network
that will intercept cross-border transactions,
translate them and send them to the SWIFT platform
for onward transmission to another CBDC network
or established payment system.
The three use cases SWIFT is experimenting on are communications between CBDC to CBDC,
as well as fiat to CBDC and CBDC to fiat.
The goal in developing CBDCs is to provide privacy, convenience, financial security,
as well as decrease cross-border transaction costs
and provide alternatives to current money transfer methods.
Seven Caribbean Union countries have already developed CBDCs
to include people without bank accounts in their financial system.
Antigua, Dominica, Grenada and Saint Kitts are among the seven countries
that have already developed digital currency.
Nigeria became the first African country to establish a CBDC in 2021.
And India has announced a digital rupee that will be introduced in 2023.
Alright, guys.
That's all I got.
Be blessed.
BitBoy out.