In a new report, the asset management giant outlines tech-driven megatrends that are shaping society, including decentralization.
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Author: Brandy Betz
Is your metaverse outfit or Gucci handbag lacking something Ape-themed? It might not be for much longer.
Gucci and Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT creator Yuga Labs kicked off Metaverse Fashion Week with the announcement they have teamed up on an as yet undefined project.
“Continuing to explore the Metaverse, the House comes together with @yugalabs. Stay tuned as a new narrative takes shape, blurring the boundaries between the physical and digital,” the luxury fashion powerhouse wrote on Twitter on Monday.
Continuing to explore the Metaverse, the House comes together with @yugalabs. Stay tuned as a new narrative takes shape, blurring the boundaries between the physical and digital. pic.twitter.com/v60mzcgqqY
— gucci (@gucci) March 27, 2023
It’s all Gucci
The move comes as NFT brands search far and wide for new revenue streams, with a prolonged bear market stifling NFT trading and a struggle among rival NFT marketplaces cutting royalty payments to creators.
Bored Ape Yacht Club has long shipped out merch to its loyal band of token holders, but its owner has been looking elsewhere in recent months for new cashflow. After the NFT shop’s acquisition of CryptoPunks’ IP last year, it also turned to luxury — teaming up with top-end jeweler Tiffany to create NFT-inspired pendants. The so-called NFTiffs sold out at $50,000 an item.
Yuga has form for working with Gucci. In August, the fashion house started accepting payment in ApeCoin, the token associated with the ApeCoin DAO.
© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
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Author: Lucy Harley-McKeown
MicroStrategy scooped up about $150 million of bitcoin over the last month, bringing its total hoard of the cryptocurrency to a little more than $4 billion. The company also said it paid off a loan from Silvergate Bank.
Michael Saylor’s company said it acquired 6,455 bitcoin between Feb. 16 and March 23 at an average price of $23,238 per bitcoin. The news was included in a regulatory filing. The $4.14 billion of bitcoin it now holds is at an average price of $29,817.
The loan prepayment with Silvergate comes following the crypto-friendly bank’s decision to wind down and liquidate. MicroStrategy had taken out the $205 million term loan, which was set to mature in 2025, last year. It paid $161 million to repay the loan in full.
MicroStrategy last month reported a net loss of $249.7 million for the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to a loss of $90 million in the same period of the prior year. The software firm has become better known in recent years for its bet on bitcoin.
In another bit of corporate housekeeping news, MicroStrategy said it sold about $340 million shares as party of a previously announced share-sale agreement. The proceeds, along with some cash reserves, were used to pay off the Silvergate loan.
© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
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Author: Larry DiTore
The company in March 2022 had borrowed $205 million from Silvergate Bank.
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Author: Stephen Alpher
The latest price moves in bitcoin (BTC) and crypto markets in context for March 27, 2023. First Mover is CoinDesk’s daily newsletter that contextualizes the latest actions in the crypto markets.
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Author: Lyllah Ledesma
Traders on Binance now set the daily price for BTC with the crypto exchange’s share of trading volume reaching 80%, the report said.
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Author: Will Canny
Discussions on a global framework will speed up ahead of a May meeting of finance ministers and central bankers.
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Author: Lavender Au
A wallet controlled by the FTX bankruptcy estate has received tranches of the Arbitrum airdrop from several wallets linked to Alameda Research, on-chain data shows.
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Author: Oliver Knight
Some worry the text, a version of which was already agreed on by the European Parliament, will prove impossible to meet for most smart contracts.
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Author: Jack Schickler
Episode 29 of Season 5 of The Scoop was recorded at Paris Blockchain Week with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Nasdaq VP, Global Head of Strategy Matt Savarese.
Listen below, and subscribe to The Scoop on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Feedback and revision requests can be sent to podcast@theblockcrypto.com.
In this episode — recorded at Paris Blockchain Week 2023 — Matthew Savarese, VP, Global Head of Strategy at Nasdaq, lays out his company’s plan for entering the digital asset space. As Savarese explains, Nasdaq hopes to soon offer crypto custody solutions, which is the first of many steps on the exchange operator’s roadmap for digital assets.
During this episode, Chaparro and Savarese also discuss:
- Nasdaq’s expertise in traditional finance
- Institutional interest in digital assets
- Tokenized carbon credits
This episode is brought to you by our sponsors Circle, Railgun, Flare Network
About Circle
Circle is a global financial technology company helping money move at internet speed. Our mission is to raise global economic prosperity through the frictionless exchange of value. Visit Circle.com to learn more.
About Railgun
Railgun is a private DeFi solution on Ethereum, BSC, Arbitrum and Polygon. Shield any ERC-20 token and any NFT into a Private Balance and let Railgun’s zero-knowledge cryptography encrypt your address, balance and transaction history. You can also bring privacy to your project with Railgun SDK, and be sure to check out Railgun with partner project Railway Wallet, also available on iOS and Android. Visit Railgun.org to find out more.
About Flare
Flare is an EVM-based Layer 1 blockchain designed to allow developers to build applications that can use data from other blockchains and the internet. By providing decentralized access to a wide variety of high-integrity data from other blockchains and the internet, Flare enables new use cases and monetization models. Build better and connect everything at Flare.Network.
© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
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Author: Davis Quinton and Frank Chaparro