Solana Labs announced the launch of Bond, a platform that uses blockchain and cryptocurrency structures to establish links between brands and their customers. Bond will offer different features, including digital collectives, authentication of luxury goods, and digital passports for products, all built on top of the Solana blockchain for low costs and scalability purposes. Solana […]
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House of Streams Presents First-Ever Live Interactive Reality Show With Bitcoin Prize, Global Streamers, and Live Fan Engagement Set to Redefine Reality TV
PRESS RELEASE. MALTA – March 28th, 2024 – At the forefront of entertainment innovation, Stream House Media Productions™, at https://www.shrimp.co/, announces the release date for its reality docuseries, slated to premiere in the spring of 2024. This production marks a one-of-a-kind venture, bringing together eight globally recognized streaming content creators for an unprecedented month of […]
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Visa Adopts Web3 Tech for Its New Loyalty Engagement Solution
Visa, a worldwide leader in credit payment technology, has announced that it will include Web3 elements in its customized loyalty program solution. The company partnered with Smartmedia Technologies, a Web3 loyalty rewards startup, to add innovative features to these programs that include virtual worlds, digital wallets, and gamified rewards.
Visa Turns to Web3 to Revitalize the World of Loyalty Rewards Programs
Visa, one of the largest payments companies in the world, is adding Web3 elements to its loyalty program solution. The company announced that it was revitalizing its traditional engagement solution with Web3 elements to catch the attention of a new kind of customer with more expectations about rewards than just receiving points.
For this, Visa partnered with Smartmedia Technologies, a startup that allows adding virtual and digital experiences to rewards programs. Smartmedia has worked with American Express, Accenture, Axe, and Vodafone.
Kathleen Pierce-Gilmore, SVP and Global Head of Issuing Solutions at Visa, acknowledged that traditional points programs have failed to address the new needs of consumers in this field, which includes digital collectibles and augmented reality elements. She stated:
Our new innovative digital loyalty solution empowers brands to reward customers not only for their transactions but for their active engagement, paving the way for secure, seamless and immersive digital and real-world experiences at their fingertips.
In practice, this means that brands will be able to reward customers with tokens and digital collectibles for purchases, social media interactions, augmented reality treasure hunts, and informative polls. These tokens will allow users to unlock rewards at some destinations or enrich their experience in digital worlds.
Visa has been very active in the cryptocurrency and blockchain, having partnered with Valr, an African exchange, in October. In the same way, Visa also expanded its stablecoin settlements capabilities to the Solana blockchain in September.
What do you think about including Web3 elements in Visa’s loyalty engagement solution? Tell us in the comments section below.
Uniswap Soaring User Engagement: How It’s Transforming UNI Price?
Uniswap (UNI) has emerged as a beacon of activity and growth amidst a month of turbulent trading for the broader cryptocurrency market. Throughout September, the crypto market exhibited a remarkable level of volatility while remaining largely range-bound, leaving market participants in a state of neutrality. However, Uniswap has defied the sideways trend, demonstrating notable progress in various metrics.
According to data from Token Terminal, Uniswap experienced a significant surge in daily active users on September 30th. This uptick in user engagement reflects growing interest in decentralized exchanges (DEXes) and the Uniswap Protocol specifically.
Notably, Uniswap also celebrated a remarkable milestone during this period, completing over 300 million swaps. This achievement underscores the platform’s pivotal role in facilitating decentralized trading and liquidity provision within the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Uniswap…
active users up
trading fees down pic.twitter.com/lX7V3uWNF9— Token Terminal (@tokenterminal) September 30, 2023
Uniswap: Expanding Network Growth
Uniswap’s growth extended beyond its daily user metrics. The network saw an expansion in the number of new addresses, indicating a rising interest in the UNI token and its associated ecosystem. This surge in new addresses is a positive sign for Uniswap’s long-term sustainability and relevance within the decentralized finance (DeFi) landscape.
Swap szn in full effect
Uniswap Protocol has officially hit 300,000,000 swaps pic.twitter.com/6taofceNkJ
— Uniswap Labs (@Uniswap) September 28, 2023
While the broader crypto market struggled to find direction in September, there was some positive momentum to note. Over the weekend, the total market capitalization surged to a six-week high, reaching .15 trillion. This development signals renewed investor interest and optimism in the cryptocurrency space, potentially breaking the cycle of indecision that marked most of September.
UNI’s current price of .62, as reported by CoinGecko, reflects a 3.8% increase in the last 24 hours, with a seven-day surge of 9.2%. These positive price movements are indicative of the renewed investor interest in the Uniswap token.
UNI: Looking Ahead
Although the week’s economic calendar doesn’t directly impact the crypto market, the momentum gained over the weekend may persist if technical resistance levels are overcome. Notably, approximately billion flowed back into crypto markets during the weekend, resulting in a 3% gain for the day. This influx of capital showcases the resilience of cryptocurrencies and their ability to rebound swiftly from periods of consolidation.
Key Events This Week:
1. Fed Chair Powell Speaks – Monday
2. ISM Manufacturing Data – Monday
3. JOLTS Jobs data – Tuesday
4. OPEC Meeting – Wednesday
5. September Jobs Report – Friday
6. Total of 13 Fed speaker events
Big week with the Fed and oil prices in the spotlight.
— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) October 1, 2023
While the broader cryptocurrency market experienced a month of sideways trading and uncertainty in September, Uniswap (UNI) emerged as a standout performer. The platform’s increased daily users, milestone in swap volume, and expanding network growth demonstrate its continued relevance and importance in the evolving world of decentralized finance.
As the crypto market remains susceptible to both internal and external factors, the coming weeks will be closely watched to see if the positive momentum can be sustained.
(This site’s content should not be construed as investment advice. Investing involves risk. When you invest, your capital is subject to risk).
Featured image from iStock
BNB Road To Recovery: Can It Thrive Amid Declining Network Engagement?
Binance Coin (BNB) finds itself in a precarious position, with its price rebound heavily contingent on a resurgence in network activity for BNB Chain. The decline in network activity has played a pivotal role in hindering price momentum for BNB, leaving investors and enthusiasts eager for a turnaround.
BNB’s recent price action has been characterized by extended periods of sideways movement. The bears have proven resilient at the resistance level, preventing prices from breaching the 5 mark.
Currently, BNB is trading at 6.80, according to CoinGecko, with 24-hour gains of a modest 0.8%. Over the past seven days, the coin has seen a marginal decline of 0.1%, leaving investors and enthusiasts eagerly awaiting signs of a potential price rebound.
BNB Hinging On Bitcoin’s Performance
For bulls hoping to witness an upward movement in BNB’s price, their hopes might rest largely on Bitcoin’s shoulders. A significant breakthrough for Bitcoin above the ,000 mark could inject much-needed bullish sentiment into the broader market, potentially benefiting BNB in the process.
Technical price analysis paints a rather bleak picture for BNB. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) reflects the lack of demand for BNB, with a brief spike above the neutral 50 on August 30 quickly followed by a decline below the neutral 50. As of the latest data, the RSI remains in this bearish territory.
Additionally, the On-Balance Volume (OBV) has witnessed significant drops in trading volume, both in early June and late August. These sharp declines have contributed to BNB’s lateral price movement, further reinforcing the prevailing bearish market structure.
Regulatory Woes And Executive Exodus
Adding to BNB’s challenges is the regulatory scrutiny Binance, the platform behind BNB, has been facing recently. The exchange has been in the crosshairs of regulators worldwide, and the situation has been exacerbated by the departure of several high-ranking executives.
Mayur Kamat, Binance’s head of product, is the latest in a string of senior executives to leave the company, marking the fourth such departure.
As BNB grapples with these obstacles, experts in the field predict that the coin may experience further downward pressure. According to a price report, some experts anticipate BNB’s price to drop to 8 by September 19.
Binance Coin’s prospects remain uncertain as it navigates a challenging landscape characterized by declining network activity, technical indicators flashing warning signs, regulatory hurdles, and executive departures.
The fate of BNB appears intertwined with the broader cryptocurrency market’s performance, and investors and enthusiasts will be closely monitoring developments in the coming weeks.
(This site’s content should not be construed as investment advice. Investing involves risk. When you invest, your capital is subject to risk).
Featured image from iStock
Uniswap Rally Could Be In Jeopardy, Despite UNI’s Solid Social Engagement
Uniswap (UNI) started with a bearish stride in 2022 along with Ripple and most other cryptocurrencies but it has been gaining some impressive price action as seen in the past few weeks.
- UNI’s social engagement up by 53.62%
- Supply of unique wallet addresses surged since September 12
- UNI price looking bullish; up by 4.15%
According to CoinMarketCap, UNI’s price has been looking bullish and spiked by 4.15% or trading at .77 as of this writing.
UNI Shows Impressive Social Dominance
More so, UNI has been outperforming other cryptocurrencies when it comes to its social metrics. UNI’s social engagements have spiked by 53.62% while social mention has grown by 62.15%.
In the past couple of weeks, Uniswap is seen to gain social media dominance plus also improved in terms of development activities.
In addition, Uniswap’s weighted sentiment is positive as shown from September 28 to September 30. On the other hand, the weighted sentiment dropped immensely as witnessed on October 1.
As a consolation, the development activity of UNI has grown rapidly since last week or September 29 and has been fairly consistent ever since.
The impressive uptick in terms of development activity is said to be triggered mainly by the network’s Swap widget update.
Chart: Santiment
These continuous advancements and upgrades are said to be hinting at a bull run and attract more investors.
On the other hand, despite the recent UNI updates, it has not helped its TVL as it has been stuck on the same level since September. The thing is, even if the whales were dubious of Uniswap’s DeFi protocols, users are gaining more interest in UNI.
Meanwhile, the top wallet addresses were also seen to surge in terms of supply since September 12, especially since whale interest is very important for the token’s progress.
Uniswap Velocity Down In Last 7 Days
On the downside, UNI’s velocity is seen to drop in the past couple of days implying a reduced number of wallet addresses.
UNI price has dipped in the past two weeks as precipitated by the market turmoil triggered by the inflation happening around the world but it is seen to currently recover a bit.
Meanwhile, it is said to get even worse as predicted by many crypto analysts after the coin has dropped by as much as 72.56% over the past year.
UNI’s moving averages witnessed a bearish movement specifically at its 100-day EMA and SMA saw at .62 and .66; respectively.
Its RSI is currently at 43.66 which signifies a spike in sell action and shows that investors may potentially lose more in the coming days.
With that being said, the sentiment of analysts on Uniswap is generally negative, especially with its lack of significant utility value.
UNI total market cap at .17 billion on the daily chart | Source: TradingView.com
Featured image from Cryptopolitan, Chart: TradingView.com
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MasterCard To Incubate NFT-Focused Startup bitsCrunch Via Its “Start Path” Startup Engagement Program
bitsCrunch, the India and Germany-based blockchain analytics company that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to secure and safeguard the NFT ecosystem, unveiled that it has been selected to join global payment services provider MasterCard’s startup engagement program called the MasterCard Start Path.
Designed to help later-stage startups scale, the Start Path program offers an extended product suite that helps startups reach a global consumer base. With MasterCard quickly expanding into the crypto ecosystem, the Start Path program focuses beyond payment solutions, spanning into diverse areas such as fintech, blockchain, eCommerce, AI, fraud prevention, financial inclusion, and much more.
Under the Start Path program, all selected projects gain complete access to MasterCard’s ready-to-integrate APIs, fintech tools, and solutions alongside the opportunity to put their ideas in front of MasterCard’s global network of consumers, merchant stores, and partners.
According to Vijay Pravin Maharajan, bitsCrunch CEO, “With tech-savvy tools, an incredible team, and industry expertise, bitsCrunch ensures consistent quality and safety across the digital assets startups. Collaborating with MasterCard Start Path helps us deliver the best-in-class solutions to emerging crypto industry customers and transforming business landscapes. Also, we are glad that bitsCrunch will be incorporated into the MasterCard Start Path program shortly.”
bitsCrunch’s core objectives align with MasterCard’s goals of fraud prevention, financial inclusion, and several other areas. Currently, bitsCrunch offers a diverse range of products, each designed to tackle the lingering challenges of the NFT ecosystem, including wash trading, forgeries, and inefficient asset valuation, among others. By leveraging MasterCard’s infrastructure and global outreach, bitsCrunch will be able to expand its presence in the mainstream economy further.
At the same time, MasterCard can leverage bitsCrunch to offer its users direct access to the NFT ecosystem. The platform’s range of products will help MasterCard’s non-crypto users easily find, evaluate, and invest in NFTs and other digital assets. Using bitsCrunch’s trio of NFT security services – Scour, Liquify, and Crunch DaVinci – paired with its fast, accurate, and reliable analytics services, MasterCard can ensure that its global customers can make well-informed trading decisions across a wide range of NFT assets.
bitsCrunch’s products and analytics services work across some of today’s leading blockchain ecosystems, including Ethereum, Avalanche, Polkadot, and Polygon. The platform recently raised .6 million from leading investment companies like Polygon Studios, Coinbase Ventures, Crypto.com Capital, Spark Digital, Bison Funds, and Gravity X, to name a few. Per the tweet from the bitsCrunch team, these funds will help secure a presence on other prominent blockchains like Algorand, Solana, and others.
Stressing the need for credibility for mainstream adoption of digital assets, a spokesperson from the MasterCard Start Path Program team notes, “With MasterCard, startups around the globe can develop platforms across open banking, predictive financial modeling for small businesses, smart rental payments, and more. The partnership with bitsCrunch allows companies to access MasterCard’s global ecosystem and reach new audiences through MasterCard customers. The collaboration will provide safe and secure transactions, which will enhance the brand’s credibility.”
Sovryn Origins Harnesses The Power Of Community Engagement With New Token
The Bitcoin network debuted in 2009 and introduced an asset class the world had never before seen, and some have branded bitcoin’s launch as the beginning of decentralized finance (DeFi). However, the decentralized applications (dApps) that are most associated with DeFi services were developed on other chains.
Bitcoin was a major breakthrough for technology, but its programming didn’t allow for the possibility of running dApps on its network when it first launched. Recently, the integration of a sidechain like Rootstock has brought smart contract and dApp functionality to Bitcoin, and this has proven to be a gamechanger for DeFi.
DeFi protocols like Sovryn, built on Rootstock, allow native bitcoin to be used in DeFi dApps. This means that the world’s first blockchain, supporting the crypto world’s deepest liquidity, is witnessing a growth spurt in the number of projects emerging on its network.
How the Sovryn Origins Launchpad Encourages Bitcoin DeFi Growth
Sovryn is a multi-service Bitcoin DeFi protocol that facilitates swaps, borrowing, lending, and yield farming. The protocol is governed as a Bitocracy where its users stake SOV to vote on Sovryn’s future direction, and this makes Sovryn a community-centered protocol that is guided by its users as it moves forward.
The protocol fosters the development of new projects through Sovryn Origins, a launchpad that supports independent projects, including those that build up the Bitcoin and Sovryn ecosystem, through the ability to fundraise native BTC and other Bitcoin native assets.
The Sovryn Origins launchpad also acts as a way for the Sovryn community to vet new projects, eliminate bad actors, and support the most promising projects through their first steps towards development and launch.
This early funding can boost projects to a more successful launch. It gives community members a chance to receive the project’s tokens at an early, discounted price, which is a win-win situation for everyone involved.
One independent project, Babelfish, raised close to 46 BTC in 30 minutes through the Sovryn Origins launchpad after the Sovryn community greenlighted the project for listing. During the sale, 1,022 community wallets participated in the launchpad event, and a total of four projects have now furthered their development with the cooperation of Sovryn’s users.
Why Sovryn Origins Has Become a Self-Governed Subprotocol
Sovryn’s users vote on Sovryn Improvement Proposals (SIPs) in order to make changes to the protocol. These SIPs run through several stages before they are voted on, with many of the ideas behind their implementation being discussed on community forums.
A recent proposal, SIP-0035, recently passed with enough votes in staked SOV to launch Sovryn Origins as a subprotocol governed by its own token, OG. The first four projects to launch on the Sovryn Origins launchpad were whitelisted through votes cast in SOV, and in the future, these votes will be held by OG holders instead.As described in one of Sovryn’s blog posts, the creation of a new ecosystem for Sovryn Origins means that OG holders will receive the lion’s share of benefits from the success of projects they choose to launch.
How Community Involvement Ensures Sovryn Origin’s Success
Rewarding its community of supporters is one purpose for launching Sovryn Origins’ own token, and rightly so since the protocol owes much of its success to the community behind it. Additionally, the value of OG will be linked with SOV through a bonding curve to create an incentive for more SOV holders to help improve Sovryn Origins in the future.
The idea for this bonding curve first emerged in a forum post from a Sovryn community contributor, and the implementation of this idea demonstrates how the power of the group can be harnessed to reach a common goal. As Sovryn continues to grow, and as it continues to develop new projects through the Sovryn Origins ecosystem, future subprotocols will surely emerge with such an enthusiastic base of support.
Community Engagement The Old Fashioned Way
A viral new project in the play-to-earn gaming sector called HIFI Society has set its sights on industry dominance through a battle-tested play in blockchain and crypto-community building.
In this article, we look into how they plan to do this with a toolkit involving gaming, cryptocurrency and NFTs.
What is HIFI?
HIFI is an emerging crypto Play-To-Earn gaming project that seeks to be a leader in the industry. It is the first major project in the HIFI Society ecosystem.
HIFI wants to build pathways for gamers as well as artists by helping them build their professional careers on the blockchain. Simultaneously, their platform is built to attract gaming studios and gaming devs to list their older games and reactivate revenue utilizing HIFI’s reward engine. Its gameplay economics platform includes over thirty retro video games, as well as experiences and rewardable services. And it’s built to get better with age. Equipped with a proprietary gameplay analytics backend set to allow HIFI to constantly improve their user experience based on players’ activity.
Users and Community Building First
In a cryptocurrency industry rife with pump and dump schemes as well as well-meaning projects too focused on short-term price action, the individual user is often left behind.
The team behind HIFI chose a different direction. Long-term price appreciation is dependent on use cases and a strong community. So they put the community and the users first. The value of a platform and its cryptocurrency tokens are only as valuable as it is valuable to its users.
HIFI seeks to target, engage and retain different elements of the community according to their need:
- Inventors: want ROI
- Traders: want volatility
- Gamers: want to play
- Competitive Gamers: want to compete
- Viewers: want to be entertained
Already in beta testing with over 1,000 users, as well as boasting a community of over 5,000 users on Twitter, HIFI seeks to combine the traditional successful elements of a fun user experience with the innovations of the blockchain. Here’s a closer look into what’s built into it.
HIFI Ecosystem Elements
The first element that HIFI taps into is the nostalgia of game players that users have for retro gaming. They have acquired dozens of games from the ’80s, ’90s and 2000s and one of these is ideally built for keyboard play, others for joystick plays. Their goal was to provide something for a wide array of gamers.
Now enter competitive gaming. ESports has been a growing trend for decades, with professional teams organized to the level of professional athletes. But for the most part, eSports has been a closed group of very professionals. What about something for the everyday user who just wants to have some fun or in-between?
HIFI has incorporated blockchain into the platform to make the user experience attractive to all levels of gamers. The $HIFI token was built on the Binance Smart Chain to optimize the user experience with the lowest fees. The token comes into play in several ways:
- All users will be required to stake (not spend) tokens to participate in the platform.
- Users can earn tokens through participation in the platform.
- More dedicated users can participate in gaming competitions and earn even more tokens.
After platform launch, one of the next steps on the roadmap will include implementing staking rewards. More serious play-to-earn competitors can increase their earnings in this way.
Additionally, $HIFI will engage in a quarterly token burn, buying back tokens and destroying them to decrease the supply, create upward price pressure and incentivize all community participants.
Looking Ahead
With HIFI Society’s gaming platform set to launch within the month, they have already set their eyes toward building other elements of their ecosystem, which will dovetail with HIFI Gaming.
The next phase will include launching NFTs on popular third-party marketplaces, introducing artists, musicians, and gamer influencers with co-branded NFTs and activating NFT utility on their own NFT marketplace, which will be for artists as well as gamers using the system. There is also a plan to incorporate yield farming. This was one of the reasons the team chose to build the $HIFI token on the Binance Smart Chain.
HIFI’s target is a large, vibrant and growing community, with an array of different participants that are each rewarded for their participation, and a platform that supplies their demands.
One Top Crypto Prepares to Lift Off as Social Engagement Metrics Explode
Most of the top cryptocurrencies by market capitalization have been able to outperform Litecoin since March’s Black Thursday.
Since then, Bitcoin and Ethereum are up by more than 130%. Even XRP has been able to recover most of the losses incurred during the marketwide meltdown as it rose by nearly 88%. Meanwhile, the seventh-largest crypto is up only 84%.
Such an upward advance is quite significant, but when compared to the rest of the market, it seems minuscule. Regardless, on-chain metrics reveal that Litecoin could be preparing for liftoff.
Litecoin’s Social Engagement Metrics Explode
Data from Santiment reveals that since mid-April, Litecoin’s social activity has been experiencing a series of spikes reaching levels not seen since the beginning fo the year.
Throughout the first quarter of 2020, the number of LTC mentions across 1,000 crypto social media channels hovered at an average value of 70. But as Q2 kicked off, Litecoin’s social volume exploded, reaching a score of 722 in late April.
Historically, this altcoin tends to enter an uptrend when social engagement metrics climb up, which could be what is currently happening.
Litecoin’s Social Volume. (Source: Santiment)
In addition to the social volume, the token age consume chart adds credence to the optimistic outlook. This fundamental indicator shows the ratio between the number of coins changing addresses at a given date and the time since they were last moved, according to Santiment.
While the movement of old coins does not necessarily mean that LTC’s price will go up, a correlation between the two has been developing over the past three months.
When the price of Litecoin dropped by a whopping 50% between March 12 and 13, for instance, more than 200 million idled LTC tokens were moved to different addresses. Subsequently, this cryptocurrency surged over 76%.
A similar event took place on Apr. 16. Following a 20% retracement, an important number of old tokens changed hands, leading to a 17% upswing.
Now that nearly 107 million idled LTC token were moved to different addresses on May 18, history could be about to repeat itself.
Litecoin’s Token Age Consumed. (Source: Santiment)
Strong Resistance Ahead of Litecoin
IntoTheBlock’s “In/Out of the Money Around Price” (IOMAP) model reveals that Litecoin could find strong resistance ahead if the bulls were to step in. Approximately 75,000 addresses bought more than 1.24 million LTC between and .4. Such a massive supply wall could put a stop to the bullish momentum.
But breaking through it could propel Litecoin towards . The IOMAP shows that there is not any significant barrier between these price points.
In/Out of the Money Around Price. (Source: IntoTheBlock)
Due to the unpredictability of the cryptocurrency market, it is always essential to take into consideration the other side of the coin. If the selling pressure behind Litecoin starts to pick up, one must pay close attention to the support level since moving past it may push this altcoin down to .
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