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With U.S. regulations and policy coming soon, the frauds, scams and irresponsible investment management practices that led to the current market downturn will be things of the past, reasons Paul Brody of EY.

Helium’s newly-issued IOT token has risen by over 370% in the past 24-hours following the protocol’s successful migration to the Solana blockchain last week.

Circle, the creator of the USD Coin stablecoin, released the Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol CCTP for Ethereum and Avalanche chains, enabling users to move their USDC stablecoin between blockchains.

This protocol facilitates the transfer of USDC across different blockchain networks by burning native USDC on one chain and minting the same amount on another, making asset transfers possible, according to the official developer FAQ page.

“CCTP removes the need to bridge USDC via traditional lock-and-mint approaches, improves liquidity across the blockchain ecosystem, and enables developers to provide their users a seamless and secure experience moving USDC natively across chains,” Circle said in a tweet.

Bridge projects and interoperability-focused protocols like Celer Network, Layer Zero, Li.Fi, Multichain, Router Protocol, and others have already integrated the protocol to let users move USDC via their interfaces, Circle said.

© 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.

The paper turns on its head conventional wisdom that limits are needed to avoid supplanting the banking system

Solana wallet Phantom added support for the Ethereum and Polygon blockchains in its first step to go multichain.

Phantom is an app and in-browser wallet extension that has always been focused on providing a clean user experience by showing NFTs within the wallet. It lets users swap and stake tokens within the wallet extension.

Now that it’s multichain, each user will see an Ethereum and Polygon address for each wallet address. They can see all their funds on the three networks in one place for each wallet. They will be able to make transactions from the wallet to either of the three blockchains depending on which asset they are moving — instead of having to change the network, which is how MetaMask works.

The wallet will also contain features for NFT holders. It will show specific data related to NFT collections, like the floor price — the lowest value of all NFTs on sale — and the amount the NFT was purchased for. Users can also list their NFTs on marketplaces directly from Phantom.

“We believe that the future of digital asset management lies in cross-chain interoperability, and we’re committed to providing our users with the tools and resources they need to easily navigate and transact across various blockchain networks,” said Brandon Millman, co-founder and CEO of Phantom. “By bridging the gap between different protocols, we’re enabling a new era of decentralized innovation for all digital asset users.”

Phantom has also introduced a few security measures. These include transaction simulation so that users get a better picture of what transactions they are signing and NFT spam filtering — hiding suspicious NFTs from wallets to prevent attacks. The wallet will also block access to malicious websites.

© 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.

Mythical Games’ blockchain-enabled NFL Rivals is ready for primetime as the mobile video game is now available to the general public.

The launch of the first officially licensed NFL crypto game comes with a twist, however, with Mythical saying that it’s swapping Ethereum for the Polkadot blockchain. The company is betting that the switch will help it expand both the number of users playing Mythical titles and trading their in-game digital assets, or NFTs.

By releasing a video game based on professional football, easily America’s most popular sport, Mythical CEO John Linden is bullish that NFL Rivals will be the first blockchain-powered title to tap into the highly-lucrative market of mobile gaming. Other than a handful of months during the pandemic when Axie Infinity became popular as some people stuck at home were able to make money playing the crypto game, video games that use blockchain technology have mostly failed to reach a wider audience.

“We anticipate this game will be north of 10 million players this year,” said Linden, adding that users will immediately have a digital wallet they can use to trade digital assets when they sign up to play NFL Rivals.

“Everybody has a wallet from day one and as they learn there’s a tradeable economy behind it. We think we’re going to onboard a much bigger audience than we’ve ever seen before,” he said.

All-star backers like Michael Jordan and Andreessen Horowitz

Compared to peers, Mythical has been one of the most successful, fledgling web3 gaming startups in terms of attracting financial support. The company has an illustrious roster of backers that includes NBA legend Michael Jordan and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, nicknamed a16z. The investment firm has shown confidence in the future of blockchain game developers, investing $150 million in Mythical and creating a $600-million gaming fund last year.

While NFL Rivals introduces innovations related to the trading of in-game assets to the highly-popular video game sports genre, its exaggerated, arcade-style gameplay possesses elements reminiscent of classic titles like NBA Jam and Tecmo Bowl. In NFL Rivals, gamers will be able to acquire and trade real NFTs of NFL players as they build their nine-man squads.

During the game’s soft launch, Linden said that NFL Rivals attracted roughly 150,000 gamers, with about 40% playing the game again after first trying it. So far, the only other high-profile NFL-meets-crypto project, an NFT collection of video clips called NFL All Day, has performed well below expectations.

Ethereum abandoned for less-expensive Polkadot

Mythical’s migration to Polkadot follows a wider trend of blockchain-powered games choosing not to operate on Ethereum. Despite being the most popular blockchain among elite NFT collections, Ethereum costs more per transaction than other blockchains, making it less attractive for game developers who want players to be able to cheaply buy and sell a high number of in-game assets.

“The decision to leave the Ethereum ecosystem is a combination of issues surrounding relatively slow transaction speeds … that ultimately will hinder Mythical’s scaling plans,” Linden said in a statement.

Björn Wagner, CEO of Parity Technologies, which contributes significantly to the Polkadot network, added the move should also encourage more developers.

“Mythical realized the only network that will truly allow gaming developers to exploit the vast opportunities of the emerging web3 is Polkadot, thanks to the network’s scalability, flexibility, and interoperability,” he said.

Mythical is staffed by video game industry veterans that have worked on top-flight franchises like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Guitar Hero. In 2021 the company hit a valuation of $1.25 billion.

Before NFL Rivals, Mythical’s largest web3 video game release was Blankos Block Party, which launched in September 2022 and can be downloaded on the Epic Games Store. NFL Rivals can be found on the Apple and Google Play stores. 

© 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.

Born out of the ashes of the Compute North bankruptcy, the new venture aims to give clients control over their energy strategy.

EU banks’ forays into crypto have been meek so far, but new laws are on the way