Welcome to our recap of the major stories in the crypto world! Lots of exciting things have happened this week, and here’s the TL;DR version:
Is Polygon the next big thing? 👀
Polygon has announced that they are building a zero-knowledge (ZK)-Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) Layer-2 solution.
We are proud to announce a giant leap forward for Ethereum scaling and ZK innovation.
Introducing Polygon #zkEVM, the first EVM-equivalent ZK L2.
Today we’re releasing a complete implementation, fully open-source, and we’re just getting started.
[1/6] pic.twitter.com/P929DRCT1y
— Polygon – MATIC 💜 (@0xPolygon) July 20, 2022
Polygon currently operates as a sidechain to Ethereum, which is a different scaling solution from ZK-rollups.
One of the major concerns of Polygon as a sidechain is that they do not inherit the security of Ethereum.
Polygon relies on their own Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism to secure the network, which could be compromised independently of Ethereum.
With this new development, Polygon will provide a solution that is:
- Ethereum-equivalent: developers are able to port their code directly from Ethereum to Polygon
- Secure: the zkEVM network is able to utilise the security of Ethereum
- Scalable: ZK rollups are considered to be ‘better’ than optimistic rollups, but are far more complex
This is a huge development as some of the current ZK rollups are not EVM-compatible.
Coupled with their recent news of being a part of the Disney Accelerator Programme, Polygon is definitely going places!
Tesla 🙅♂️ BTC?
During its Q2 earnings report, Tesla has sold $936 million worth of BTC, which is around 75% of its entire holdings.
.@Tesla sold $936 million worth of bitcoin, or 75% of its holdings, in the second quarter. BTC prices dipped following the news.
By @NelWanghttps://t.co/6p26RBXBwJ— CoinDesk (@CoinDesk) July 20, 2022
Elon Musk stated that this was due to Tesla wanting to maximise its cash position, “given the uncertainty of the COVID lockdowns in China.”
Nevertheless, Musk said that Tesla is still open to holding BTC in the future, and this selloff “should not be taken as a verdict on BTC”.
The most interesting point was that Tesla did not sell any of their Dogecoin holdings.
Celsius isn’t playing nice 🤷
Amidst the filing for bankruptcy by Celsius, they are now trying to argue that crypto users who deposited the funds actually gave control to the platform.
Celsius depositors face the reality that they transferred title and ownership of their crypto to the firm when they deposited funds. The crypto lender’s lawyers stated that Celsius could use those funds as it sees fit. https://t.co/SAqEfm0g0D
— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) July 19, 2022
This was due to a clause in Celsius’ Terms of Service, which does not guarantee the return of users’ funds.
Celsius terms of use do not guarantee return of customers’ funds #ethereum #crypto https://t.co/24jNjOOyzM
— Ethereum Insider (@InsiderEthereum) July 14, 2022
Amidst this turmoil, Zipmex, a Southeast Asian exchange, has started to halt withdrawals as well.
Due to a combination of circumstances beyond our control including volatile market conditions, and the resulting financial difficulties of our key business partners, to maintain the integrity of our platform, we would be pausing withdrawals until further notice.
— ZIPMEX (@zipmex) July 20, 2022
This was most likely because Zipmex lent out $53 million to crypto lenders like Celsius and Babel Finance.
Crypto exchange @zipmex confirmed that it lent $53 million to troubled crypto lenders @BabelFinance and @CelsiusNetwork. @HeleneBraunn reports.https://t.co/fuCinc4G1w
— CoinDesk (@CoinDesk) July 21, 2022
You can find out more about why crypto lending platforms have started to pause withdrawals here, as well as some of the lessons we can learn from this crash.
NFT trading volume ⏬
NFTs, which was once the hype, may have started to lose its demand.
ICYMI: Monthly NFT trading volumes fell 74% from May to Junehttps://t.co/0C5JxOw7cj
— The Block (@TheBlock__) July 18, 2022
Trading volumes have decreased across the board.
Interestingly, Magic Eden, a Solana NFT marketplace, has been stealing some of OpenSea’s market share.
The #SolanaNFT scene would not be as big as it is if it weren't for these platforms 💥!
Below are the top marketplace on the @solana ecosystem by their 7-day volume 👇@MagicEden @opensea @SolanartNFT @exchgART @SolSeaNFT #NFTs #SOL #Solana #SolanaNews pic.twitter.com/zUQqxWYfrv
— Solana News ☀️ (@SolanaNews) July 21, 2022
You can create a wallet using the Krystal mobile app to store NFTs on the Solana network, as well as 9 other EVM-compatible networks.
Amidst this lower demand for NFTs, Minecraft has started to prevent NFTs from being integrated with their servers.
Here's an early look at our upcoming guidelines regarding Minecraft and NFTs.
If you're a player or creator actively involved in the buying, selling, or trading of NFTs that make use of Minecraft, please read the information in the article below.https://t.co/3S4uYmiSvf pic.twitter.com/Gl0EkoKQqs
— Minecraft (@Minecraft) July 20, 2022
Crypto bills on BTC 📝
BTC and its impact on the environment have been closely scrutinised, especially by regulators.
Paraguay has passed a bill to regulate crypto mining in the country, where there have been concerns over the increase in electrical consumption in the country.
ICYMI: Paraguay’s congress passes crypto bill, sends to presidenthttps://t.co/MSIk37GKZn
— The Block (@TheBlock__) July 18, 2022
Meanwhile, Sweden’s Energy Minister, Khashayar Farmanbar, mentioned that Sweden needs ‘energy for more useful things than Bitcoin’.
ICYMI: Sweden favors making steel over mining bitcoin as power gets scarce: Bloomberghttps://t.co/DgOGTnt6hZ
— The Block (@TheBlock__) July 17, 2022
The concerns regarding the environmental impact of the Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism is one of the major reasons why Ethereum is transitioning from PoW to Proof-of-Stake (PoS).
In fact, this transition (The Merge) is happening very soon, and you can find out more about what it means here.
Do you think that Polygon could be the next big thing? Do NFTs still have a use case, or are they just a fad? Tweet us or send us a message on Telegram to let us know!
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