“GAMES FUND ONE” will invest in game studios, consumer apps and game infrastructure providers with a16z saying the industry has “solved many of the problems” needed to make a Metaverse. Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has launched a $600 million fund dedicated to gaming startups with a focus on Web3 saying it believes “games infrastructure and technologies will be key building blocks of the Metaverse.” Dubbed “GAMES FUND ONE” the fund will invest in three main areas: game studios, consumer applications which support player communities with Discord used as an example ..read more

Participants of the accelerator program will get funding, mentorship and market exposure through the platform DeFi.org. In a new development for the decentralized finance space, Ethereum scaling platform Polygon has partnered with layer-3 project Orbs to launch a program that supports DeFi builders through the DeFi accelerator platform DeFi.org.  In an announcement, Polygon and DeFi.org noted that the program will provide funding opportunities, mentorship and market exposure to chosen projects. Building on Polygon is mandatory for participants in the DeFi.org accelerator round. On th ..read more

“Merging Ropsten is a huge testing milestone towards Ethereum’s mainnet merge later this year,” said Preston Van Loon, an Ethereum core developer at Prysmatic Labs. The Ethereum ecosystem is set for a “huge testing milestone” with the Ropsten testnet Merge set to be conducted on June 8. According to the Merge testnets page on Github, Ethereum DevOps engineer Parathi Jayanathi submitted a pull request for the Ropsten testnet Merge configuration code on Monday, suggesting the implementation is ready to go. Ropsten is one of several testnets created by the Ethereum Foundation ..read more

As MicroStrategy stock slumps, Michael Saylor remains confident Bitcoin holdings will cover a potential margin-call on BTC-backed loans. MicroStrategy’s CEO and Bitcoin proponent Michael Saylor is confident his firm’s BTC holdings will more than cover a potential margin call on Bitcoin-backed loans. The American business intelligence and software giant made headlines in 2021 with a number of major investments into Bitcoin. Saylor was a driving force behind MicroStrategy’s decision to convert its treasury reserve into BTC holdings. Global markets have suffered major losses in early May and Micr ..read more

Whilst the purchase won’t cast a shadow on the billions worth of Bitcoin owned by other firms, the company said it could have made $1.2 million if it sold its holdings at the end of the first quarter. Townsquare Media, a New York based digital marketing and radio station company is the latest business to back the original cryptocurrency with its addition of $5 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) to its balance sheet. A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) disclosing Townsquare’s purchase of Bitcoin was first picked up by Macroscope, a Twitter account which focuses on i ..read more

Fear dominates the crypto market as BTC price trades near $30,000, but data suggests whales and momentum traders could be interested in accumulating in this zone. Sentiment across the cryptocurrency market plunged even deeper on May 9 as an escalation in the ongoing sell-off intensified, with bears pushing Bitcoin (BTC) to $30,334, its lowest price since July 2021.  Crypto Fear & Greed Index. Source: Alternative.me   Multiple factors like rising interest rates, the end of easy money policies by the Federal Reserve, declining stock prices and concerns related to TerraUSD (UST) sta ..read more

The Bitcoin price plunged below $31,000 on Monday, marking a new low for the year. Altcoins also sold off sharply. Roughly $1.4 billion worth of Bitcoin (BTC) was reportedly moved from a wallet tied to Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) on Monday, raising questions about its ultimate destination on a day that has seen Bitcoin’s price tumble more than 11%. Data from blockchain explorer Blockchair revealed Monday that 42,530.82827771 BTC was spent from the LFG wallet, though its destination was unknown. It has been speculated that the funds were split into two batches — roughly 12,500 BTC and ..read more

The development marks the first time XRP digital currency will be used on a cross-border Japanese e-commerce site. SBI Motor Japan, a subsidiary of SBI Africa Co., Ltd., has announced that its customers can now make payments for used cars using Bitcoin (BTC) and XRP. As per the announcement by SBI on Monday, the development marks the first time XRP cryptocurrency will be deployed on a cross-border e-commerce website in Japan. The BTC and XRP transactions will be settled on the SBI VC Trade Co., Ltd, a cryptocurrency exchange owned by the SBI Group. The platform, according to SBI ..read more

The Bitcoin market appears to be retracing the gains it has made since January as whales may be exiting and selling on centralized exchanges, according to Glassnode. The number of Bitcoin whales is rapidly decreasing to levels not seen since earlier this year, possibly due to the three-month high of coin inflows to centralized exchanges (CEXs). Bitcoin market tracker Glassnode has issued several bearish indicators for the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, including data suggesting a market exit for whales holding at least 1,000 coins and exchange inflows of more than 1.7 million coins, the ..read more

Finding a million reasons why blockchain won’t succeed turned out to be one of the biggest innovations in the last 500 years. You are about to read a half-fiction witty story based on Stuart Hylton’s review of “the making of Modern Britain” and my interpretation of the blockchain’s impact on today’s world. I found it fascinating how the description of the industrial age front-runner technology resembled the awe and fear of blockchain in modern times. Some quotes are so relevant that changing the “railroad company” to “blockchain protocol” would give the same shilling. After several “bubbles ..read more