What’s new in the Crypto World?
With everything that’s going on with this new 2023 coming, it’s often difficult to find the time to catch up on every new crypto trend. This is why we at Synapse decided to enlarge our scope of interest and give our community an easy way to stay updated on everything happening in DeFi, even when not directly related to the Synapse Network and its partners.
Each new article in the What’s new in the Crypto World? series wants to give you enough information on a topic to decide if you want to know more and do your research about it, so let’s cut to the chase and dive deep into some streamlined information!
The SBI acquisition of Bitpoint goes through
Japanese securities giant SBI has completed the acquisition of rival crypto exchange Bitpoint. The move consolidates the company’s hold on the crypto market and marks its second acquisition with a domestic rival.
The company acquired a controlling stake (51%) in Bitpoint in May last year. It also agreed on a deal to purchase the remaining 49% of Bitpoint’s shares. At the moment, the company has not disclosed the amount paid for the shares but reputable sources have confirmed that the acquisition is set to finish soon.
SBI explained that it will make Bitpoint a subsidiary totally owned by the security firm’. The manoeuvre felt similar to when SBI acquired TaoTao in 2020 which also operates SBI VC Trade, its own crypto exchange.
SBI has stated that it will use the cash from its UK-based subsidiary B2C2 to improve Bitpoint’s services. In addition, it appears that it may seek to list gambling-related tokens on the platform in the future.
Asian security firms taking over the market?
The crypto exchange scene in Japan has always been dominated by small domestic start-ups, such as market leader BitFlyer.
However, in recent years, securities firms have become increasingly eager to enter this market, reducing the number of companies they have to compete with.
The Monex Group, one of SBI’s biggest rivals in the securities market, bought the Coincheck exchange in 2018. Monex has also been linked to a possible bid for trading platform FTX Japan, which will be sold by a US bankruptcy court later this year.
Other big players on the scene include South Korean-Japanese chat app giant Line and e-commerce titan Rakuten. Both of these companies operate their own exchanges.
With the latest acquisition from SBI, we need to see if the Asian crypto scene is headed towards a monopoly held by the few giants that are now holding the rains of their market.
Binance US and Silvergate: more than meets the eyes?
This was revealed by the Reuters news agency on Thursday, 16 February. According to their article, Binance moved 400 million USD between January and March 2021 from the Silvergate account of BAM Trading, the entity that manages Binance US.
Merit Peak, on the other hand, is a trading company currently under the lens of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which is keeping an eye on it because of its ties to Binance.
It should be noted that Binance itself does not have the necessary licences to operate in the United States.
The former CEO of Binance.US, Catherine Coley, reportedly asked about the funds and their transfers in late 2020. Coley left Binance US in April 2021 and has not held any public role in cryptocurrency companies since then.
No response to journalists’ questions came from Binance.US, but a denial to the news that had just circulated was posted on Twitter: ‘only Binance.US employees have access to Binance.US bank accounts, referring to the fact that Merit Peak has not operated with Binance.US since 2021.
We currently don’t have a way to know if that statement will hold true in lieu of new info, but we can only hope that Binance US has respected their various TOA.
Solana’s new protocol may breathe new life into the network.
Last year’s bear market was a big wake-up call for blockchain networks. It revealed the need to focus on real-world utility and many entities have since then started to work tirelessly on the development of use cases that can be applied in multiple fields of interest.
Solana has followed this trend with the launch of a new protocol called Parcl on its network. In this case, it is a protocol created specifically for real estate derivatives and is the first of its kind to enter Solana’s blockchain.
Just like any other market, prices in the real estate market rise and fall depending on demand.
The new protocol developed by Solana will allow traders to trade derivatives that follow the real estate market. This introduces the possibility of fractional purchases and the advantages of not having to buy the underlying assets. In other words, investors can easily enter and exit a position in the market.
This latest release will affect both the real estate mainstream market and the Solana network itself, as shown in the latest analyses of the public sentiment towards the network and its movements. In summary, weighted sentiment and development activity could favour bears from a speculative perspective.
However, current market conditions reveal that there is still good demand for SOLs. Moreover, the new protocol highlights Solana’s efforts to boost DeFi’s performance, which may be a turning point when the next bull market hits us.
Meta Master Goes hard with their latest presale
Meta Masters Guild’s crypto presale is coming to an end and has raised $4.65 million as of now. All credits are going towards the game’s revenue mechanics. Indeed, for too long the developers have prioritized a game economy based on maximizing profits rather than real player enjoyment.
Meta Masters Guild, on the other hand, has shown their intent in the way it decided to change the play-2-earn industry
But why is the Meta Master ecosystem so interesting and what has drawn this much attention from the public? This GameFi project seeks to differentiate itself from other play-2-earn models, which force players to regularly spend their earned tokens to win games. Indeed, in the MMG ecosystem, the player experience comes first. This has resulted in one of the most ambitious projects ever launched in the GameFi industry.
Working with major triple AAA game studios to develop the ecosystem, MMG plans to deliver some of the biggest titles GameFi has ever seen. One such collaboration is with Gamearound, and those partnerships are set to directly expand MEMAG’s ecosystem.
Another interesting factor in their rise is that Meta Master has released the first-ever strategy game to be launched on the Web3 market, aiming to tap into the community surrounding Civilisation 5 and the Total War franchise.
Voyager and SHIB: even worse than what we have imagined?
The failed crypto lender Voyager is involved in a shady affair. News has leaked of a 250 billion Shiba Inu token transaction worth over $3.4 million to Coinbase. The transaction has left the crypto community stunned and sparked speculation about the reasons for the deal.
According to data from crypto security firm PeckShield, Voyager transferred a total of $28.7 million in crypto to Coinbase and Binance.US.
Among the funds transferred we also can see 15,000 ETH worth over $25.5 million and data on Ethereum show that just after making the transaction with $SHIB, Voyager sent 10,000 Ether to Binance.US and then transferred 5,000 ETH from there to Coinbase.
It also emerges that on the previous day, Voyager had made similar transfers to Binance.US and Coinbase.
In particular, PeckShield intercepted a transaction by Voyager on 14 February in which 6,000 ETH were sent to Binance.US and 1,000 ETH to Coinbase. Shiba Inu is still Voyager’s second-largest asset, holding 1.6 trillion SHIB worth over $23.5 million.
The reason for those transactions is unclear at the moment, however, the opinion is circulating on social media that Voyager is trying to take advantage of the recent crypto rally to liquidate its holdings and compensate creditors.
New York bankruptcy judge Michael Wiles has authorized Voyager to sell parts of their physical assets but the lender business still needs to wait for approval at a subsequent court hearing to finalize the sale of the digital assets meaning that if Voyager’s latest leak wasn’t something approved and screened by legislative entities we may see yet more trouble headed towards the company.
About Synapse Network
Synapse Network is developing a cross-chain investment and start-up acceleration ecosystem based on blockchain technology to give everybody an equal chance to contribute to great upcoming projects and to do so early on. We are bridging the gap between the traditional & crypto market. The idea of the Synapse Network technology goes beyond the standard offer of launchpads available on the market, becoming a true technological brand providing tech solutions.
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