It happened seamlessly. On Thursday, The Merge fused Ethereum’s PoS testnets, cutting the chain’s energy consumption by a whopping 99.95%. Ethereum fans joined the online watch party, and even Google celebrated the event with a live countdown on its site. We honour the crypto milestone with an ETH giveaway, and take our hats off to everyone who made The Merge happen.
Markets Spotlight
Note: Market prices captured in US$ at the time of reading. Explore more on Crypto.com/Price.
News Snaps
Starbucks will offer an NFT-based loyalty program. CoinDesk reports that Starbucks recently announced an NFT loyalty program running on the Polygon network. Customers will be able to purchase collectible stamps in NFT form that offer immersive experiences and other benefits.
DBS, the largest bank in Southeast Asia, set to enter the Metaverse. Singapore bank DBS is set to explore the Metaverse. DBS announced a partnership with The Sandbox, and its aim is “to create DBS Better World, an interactive Metaverse experience showcasing the importance of building a better, more sustainable world, and inviting others to come alongside.” Check out Bitcoin.com for more.
The Merge just made Ethereum a whole lot greener. With the recent successful merge, Ethereum is now much more energy efficient. Moving from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake has reduced Ethereum’s blockchain energy consumption over 99.95%. Vitalik Buterin tweeted that it would reduce worldwide electricity consumption by 0.2%. Visit CNN for the full story.
GameFi experiences a 135% jump in fundraising for the month of August. The crypto market as a whole may still be facing a downtrend, but interest in Web3 games and Metaverse projects continues strong. Over US$748 million in funds have been raised in the month of August, Cointelegraph reports.
NFT collection Doodles raises US$54M. The well-known NFT collection Doodles recently received US$54 million in funding and a US$704 million valuation. Doodles plans to use this investment to focus on monetising its intellectual property globally in order to scale its growth. See CoinDesk for more details.
What’s Ahead
Keep an eye out for the Vasil hard fork for Cardano that will take place on 22 September. If the upgrade is successful, it will improve Cardano’s scalability and lower the transaction costs on its network.
NFT Spotlight
From “Making Dollars” in 1988 to perhaps “Mining Dogecoin” today, Erick Sermon of iconic hip-hop group EPMD launched an NFT collection with renowned Canadian-Indigenous artist, record producer, engineer, and longtime collaborator David “Gordo” Strickland. The hip-hop luminaries also donated a portion of the proceeds from the collection to an organisation that supports Indigenous residential school survivors.
“Gordo was at the studio doing these abstract hip-hop legends paintings on his down time. […] He was doing paintings of all of us, and Snoop, and Dre, and Redman and so on. […] I let him do his thing and magic happened.”
Sermon, on the origins of his collection
Read Crypto.com’s full interview with Sermon and Gordo or browse the collection.
Product Picks
Six More Tokens Added to Recurring Buy
ZRX, GNO, GRT, NEO, and more have been added to the growing list of over 70 supported tokens for Recurring Buy. Crypto.com App users can now access the Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) investment strategy for more tokens and to automate purchases, with as little as US$15.
DeFi Wallet Now Supports Nine Languages
Users can now easily and securely manage 700+ tokens across 20+ blockchains, seamlessly swap tokens, earn token rewards, manage their NFTs, and connect with the most popular dApps in seconds in their preferred language.
US$10,000 Prize Pool for the ETH Merge Trading Competition
To celebrate this historic event, we’re giving Crypto.com App and Exchange users an opportunity to earn a share of US$10,000 in ETH. Competition ends 30 September. Join now on the Crypto.com App and Exchange.
Crypto Level Up
What is a DAO?
Decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs) embrace everything that traditional organisations don’t. Here are the values that define a DAO.
Flat. No CEOs. No executive committee. No hierarchy. All DAO-related decisions are made collectively by the stakeholders or members of the DAO.
Decentralised. A DAO uses smart contracts, not a third party, for execution. But sometimes, members of a DAO may decide to get outside help to fix issues like bugs or updates.
Transparent. A DAO hides no secrets. Anyone is welcome to inspect the public smart contract that manages its operations and the full transaction history on the blockchain.
Accessible. From chef to bioscientist and yourself, anyone can join a DAO — as long as they fulfil the predetermined requirements, such as holding its governance token.
Democratic. Once the voting is done, and a decision made, no single party can veto it.
Learn more about DAOs and how they work
Crypto IRL
Happiness often comes in pairs. Cheers, @Rutger_B79. We hope you enjoyed the moment with your pal, and the Crypto.com Icy White Visa Card, too, of course!
Featured Merchant
Juan Otero, CEO of Travala.com, tells us how crypto is changing the game of international travel.
What can travellers buy with CRO on your site?
Travellers can use CRO to book 2,200,000-plus accommodations, flights with over 600 airlines, and more than 400,000 activities across 230 countries and territories. Every booking also receives a 2% giveback in $AVA, Travala.com’s travel utility token, which can be increased to up to 10% by becoming a Smart member.
Poor foreign exchange rates are the bane of international travel — can crypto do away with them?
Absolutely — the borderless nature of crypto makes it perfect for international travel. When you book online with foreign travel providers, you’re usually hit with foreign exchange fees in addition to credit card processing fees, which on average, add up to around 3%. By booking travel with crypto, both these fees are avoided. The only fee you pay is the network fee, which in most cases is just a few cents.
What’s the swankiest trip someone has paid for in crypto on your site?
Our luxury travel division, Concierge.io, has organised some incredible recent experiences for crypto enthusiasts — and when we say experiences, we don’t just mean flights and hotels. We’re the exclusive payment provider for Rare Vibes AVClub when it comes to their events in Miami. Earlier in April, RVAC’s BTC Miami Event was the talk of the town, with musical acts such as Diplo, ATrak, Bassjackers, and several others at MAPS Backlot in Wynwood.
Have you paid for a flight or hotel in crypto yet? Where to?Of course! My most recent crypto booking was for flights and accommodation for the upcoming Singapore Grand Prix. My co-founder, Steve, and I will be catching up with the previous Travel Tiger Club giveaway winner in June.
Decoder
Bagholders are individuals who do not sell their assets, even if the price drops significantly or ends up at zero.
There are many possible reasons for an investor to become a bagholder. For one, sometimes investors believe so strongly in a project that they are unaffected by short-term price action.
Another reason is that they missed out on the crash, with the asset price dropping so quickly they didn’t have time to sell it.
Finally, some investors become bagholders because they became disinterested in a project and forgot about their investment. Once they do check, they feel there is no point in selling, as it is worth a fraction of their initial investment.
This Week in Crypto History
Vitalik Buterin in Time magazine’s top 100 most influential people. This time last year, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin was featured as one of the top 100 most influential people of 2021.
Buterin ranked among the likes of Elon Musk, Alexis Ohanian, and Billie Eilish.
That’s it for this week’s Snapshot. Want more? Head over to our Insta feed for bite-sized crypto lessons.
