As part of a three-year effort to expand its public services, South Korea is bringing Seoul to the Metaverse. A virtual replica of the capital city, Metaverse Seoul will allow users to take their avatars to tax offices, access youth counselling, find support for small businesses, and read e-books. Future plans involve expanding into real estate and introducing blockchain technologies, including cryptocurrency. The virtual world is estimated to be completed by 2026.
Markets Spotlight
Note: Market prices captured in US$ at the time of reading. Explore more on Crypto.com/Price.
News Snaps
El Salvador to fund ‘Bitcoin City’ with bonds. The country has passed a bill allowing the sale of bonds backed by BTC, with US$500 million of proceeds to be put towards plans to build a ‘Bitcoin City’.
A digital pound could be on the horizon. Economic Secretary to the Treasury Andrew Griffith confirmed that a public consultation about a digital pound will be launched in the coming weeks, as UK leaders continue pushing for the country to become a crypto hub.
Société Générale takes out a US$7 million stablecoin loan. The French investment banking giant used home loan bonds as collateral to withdraw the DAI funds from MakerDAO, in what is seen as the largest direct transaction between a TradFi firm and a DeFi project.
Polygon pushes ahead with hard fork. The 17 January upgrade adjusted how the chain sets gas fees and addresses reorganisations.
CoinDesk eyes a potential sale. Crypto news site CoinDesk has hired investment bank Lazard to explore a full or partial sale of its business “to attract growth capital,” as confirmed by its CEO, Kevin Worth.
Genesis is on the verge of bankruptcy following FTX collapse. After halting customer withdrawals for its lending unit, institutional crypto brokerage firm Genesis Global Capital is in talks with creditors about a prepackaged bankruptcy plan.
What’s Ahead
Shiba Inu to launch Shibarium L2 beta “soon.” The Layer-2 network, which will run on top of the Ethereum mainnet, aims to “revolutionize the Shiba ecosystem” by facilitating small transactions, higher speeds, and the development of dapps and NFTs.
NFT Spotlight
Fish swimming through a forest of buildings. A world where there is no division between the top and the bottom. The scenery that appears like a mirage, walking on the clouds. Enter the world of NAKTA, and imagine another with your own eyes and emotions in the diverse world of the latest NFT collection, ‘Colorful Imagination’, dropping this Monday, 23 January.
‘Colorful imagination’ will fill your day with richer emotions. It will be more stimulating. And there are many more interesting worlds we have yet to see. So adventure on and explore a different world with this imagination stimulation.
”If you spread your imagination a little bit in the daily life you are facing right now, it will be very interesting and change your day. If you tilt the landscape a little, another world is unfolding in it, and various worlds that we cannot see in reality are created.” —NAKTA, getting colourful
Check out NAKTA’s NFT Collection or stimulate your imagination in a colourful way.
Product Picks
PYF Lunar New Year Campaign
Celebrate the Year of the Rabbit with Crypto.com Pay and win special NFTs and up to US$188 in CRO! From 21 January 2023 to 5 February 2023, users who send eRed Packets to their friends that total at least US$100 will receive a limited-edition rabbit NFT. In addition, users who send one or more eRed Packets of at least US$10 in value each will be eligible to win US$88 in CRO, while users who transfer to three or more unique users are eligible to win US$188 in CRO. Register on the Crypto.com App now to be eligible.
DeFi Wallet Twitter Handle Launch and Giveaway
The official Crypto.com DeFi Wallet Twitter account has been launched! The account will serve as a dedicated channel for DeFi Wallet users, where feature updates, new listings, and industry news and insights will be shared. To celebrate this launch, we’re giving away five Cyber Cubs NFTs — worth US$220 each! Click here to participate.
Crypto Level Up
Smart Contracts
Smart contracts are fundamental building blocks of the crypto space. In a nutshell, they’re programmes that execute transactions automatically on a blockchain. Let’s go over what makes up a smart contract on Ethereum.
Functions. Functions define the responding action to an incoming transaction, whether it’s to get or set information. A function call can be internal (within the blockchain) or external (from another contract).
Data. The data can be the number of tokens, outputs of functions, and so on. Contract data must be assigned to a location, either to storage or memory.
Events. Events inform services outside of the blockchain, such as dapps, to notify users of the current state of the contract. They are similar to functions, but event data are inaccessible to smart contracts.
Learn More About Smart Contracts at Crypto.com University
Crypto IRL
It’s that good feeling when a frothy Guinness slides down the gullet while enjoying the view of the backs of strangers sitting at the bar. Cheers to that, @lexasmithx — with Crypto.com Frosted Rose Gold Visa Card.
Hashtag #CryptoIRL with your Crypto.com Visa Card on your social profiles to get featured! Your 15 minutes of fame in the CroFam awaits you!
Decoder
Cryptosis
Cryptosis, also known as OCD (Obsessive Crypto Disorder), refers to the condition where an individual strives to absorb every bit of information about crypto and won’t stop talking about it. In a sentence: She has a serious case of cryptosis and follows the markets day and night.
This Week in Crypto History
Bitcoin takes centre stage in a prime time series
Bitcoin was featured in an episode of the US legal drama The Good Wife titled ‘Bitcoin for Dummies’ on 15 January 2012 — a time when it was unknown to much of the public. In the episode, the US Treasury Department attempts to prosecute Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, claiming the digital currency competes with the US.l dollar. When Dylan Stack, the lawyer representing Bitcoin’s creator, refuses to name his client, the department decides to prosecute Stack, believing he is the defendant himself.
That’s it for this week’s Snapshot. Want more? Head over to our Instagram account to check out our new report about global crypto adoption.
