Where did the bird go? This week, Elon Musk followed through on his promise to buy Twitter and replace the bird logo with a doge. After the Dogefather updated Twitter’s logo to a Shiba Inu dog, Dogecoin (DOGE) saw a surge of over 35%. Other DOGE-related tokens also popped after the logo swap. We celebrate with you, meme coiners.
Market Spotlight
Note: Market prices captured in US$ at the time of reading. Explore more on Crypto.com/Price.
News Snaps
With Crypto, Please
American fashion brand Ralph Lauren will accept cryptocurrency payments at its newly opened store in Miami’s Design District, becoming the retailer’s first location to do so. The brand is also partnering with Web3 community Poolsuite to release a co-branded NFT collection.
Steady & Rising
Bitcoin has continued to hold steady at around ~US$28,000 following a 2023 Q1 that saw more than 800 million transactions; meanwhile, Ether has risen to an eight-month high.
High Standards
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, a regulator for the Chinese fintech industry, said it intends to improve standards for its blockchain technology development by 2025.
Bitcoin Boerse
Germany’s second-largest stock exchange and one of the largest in Europe, Boerse Stuttgart, said it will provide both trading and custody solutions for its crypto asset offerings through its subsidiary, Blocknox.
Wrigley’s ‘Juicyverse’
American multinational chewing gum company Wrigley plans to enter Web3 through NFTs and its own Metaverse called ‘Juicyverse’, according to a new patent filing with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
Stable Yen
Japanese bank Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and domestic blockchain players are teaming up to launch a stablecoin interoperability pilot.
What’s Ahead
Ethereum’s Shanghai Upgrade
After some delays, the Shanghai Upgrade is finally around the corner, slated by Ethereum developers for April 12, 2023 — next Wednesday. Here is a quick refresher on what the update will bring in addition to unstaking abilities for validators.
Research & Insights
Crypto.com Visa Card Consumer Spending Insights 2022
A full breakdown of what our community across the globe liked to spend on during 2022.
Crypto spending is up. The Crypto.com Visa Card saw more than 80% growth in total spending in 2022 compared to the previous year.
Here’s what our community likes to spend their crypto on:
- Grocery was the main spending category, with a 36% share.
- Transportation came in second, spiking by 29% compared to last year.
- Recreation grew the strongest, by 52%.
- Similarly, consumers’ spending on hotels and dining also spiked, by 28%.
Read the full report: Crypto.com Visa Card Consumer Spending Insights 2022
NFT Spotlight
Aiming to bridge the chasm between the physical and virtual worlds — real life and the Web3 space — Yurosako, a generative anime art project, brings the crypto and NFT spaces together with the ‘OG Collection’, which drops this coming Monday, April 10.
With the ‘OG Collection’ — the first drop of a larger collection consisting of 7,878 characters — Yurosako requests your help to wear one of the OG masks to join the golden division. There are only 2,100 OG masks, with over 47 traits, each different in look and level of power. This drop also features various utility items, including a 👕 Limited-Edition Hoodie Giveaway, an 📣 OG tag on the Yurosako Discord Server, and 🗝️ early access to the upcoming main Yurosako drop, releasing in a couple of weeks.
Yurosako is calling out to those who’ll become a mask collector, to those who will help them join the golden division: an OG holder bridging the gap from here to Web3.
Become an OG. Or walk the Yurosako bridge toward Web3.
Product Picks
Crypto.com NFT Has Launched Floor Sweeping
This new feature will allow you to easily purchase digital collectibles in bulk. You can sweep up NFTs from a collection based on either a set budget or number of collectibles you’d like from it. Try it out at Crypto.com/NFT now.
Join the Crypto.com First Frontier Land NFT Giveaway
We will be giving away 40 ‘Crimson Dunes’ NFTs and 10 ‘Alluring Aurora’ NFTs to 50 lucky winners who achieve the following: retweet our campaign tweet, register by April 13, 2023, 00:00 UTC; and trade at least US$50 in a single transaction in the Crypto.com App or on the Crypto.com NFT Marketplace.
With a First Frontier Land NFT, you can build the city of your dreams with access to Mane City, plus more exciting Web3 developments coming your way. For more information, check the blog here.
Crypto Level Up
Bitcoin Dominance 101
Despite the intense name, Bitcoin dominance simply refers to the ratio of Bitcoin’s market cap to the total market cap of all cryptocurrencies combined. It is a metric used by cryptocurrency traders as a way to get a feel of the market, manage risk, and spot trends and opportunities. More details below:
Bitcoin dominance fluctuates. When there were few altcoins available — think ETH and LTC — Bitcoin dominance was 90% and above. During the ICO boom, this dropped to a low of 37%. It then began to rise during the bear market of 2018 before dipping again across 2021 and 2022 to settle at ~47%.
Bitcoin dominance is important. Despite Bitcoin’s dominance having dropped by nearly 50%, it is still an important metric and one that feeds into the cryptocurrency Fear and Greed Index (i.e., rising Bitcoin dominance tends to signal rising fear levels). As a result, traders looking to buy altcoins will check this ratio first.
Bitcoin’s dominance does not reflect its price. Although Bitcoin dominance is a valuable piece of information, it only indicates market sentiment; it does not highlight how much BTC is actually worth. As more altcoins join the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin dominance may dip, but simply as a tool, that isn’t inherently good or bad.
Get the Full Scoop on Bitcoin Dominance.
Crypto IRL
If this were the image to a song, that song would be called ‘Owning It’, by @Karell_CRO_DE, in collaboration with the Crypto.com Icy White Visa Card. This looks like a hit, folks.
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
Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT)
Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) is the ability of a computer to continue operating in the event of a node failure or malicious attack.
The term originated from the hypothetical phenomenon known as the Byzantine Generals Problem, which describes a situation where participants must agree on the same strategy to prevent the failure of a distributed system.
For example, Bitcoin uses the consensus algorithm known as Proof of Work (PoW). In the PoW system, nodes compete among each other to solve mathematical puzzles. The first node to solve the equation earns the right to add a block of transactions and get rewarded in newly minted BTC, the native asset. It is through the use of this consensus mechanism that a network becomes Byzantine Fault Tolerant.
BFT networks continue to operate as long as two-thirds of the nodes within a network are functioning. As a result, the BFT system greatly reduces the risks of node failures and malicious attacks.
This Week in Crypto History
Retailers in Japan Begin to Accept Bitcoin
In early April of 2017, merchants in Japan quickly warmed up to Bitcoin after the government announced that the world’s first cryptocurrency would be legally recognized as a payment method. The two companies to hop on board first were consumer electronics chain Bic Camera and retail support firm Recruit Lifestyle.
Since then, all cryptocurrencies have become legal in Japan, with no restrictions for Japanese residents owning and investing in digital assets. Additionally, Statista estimated that, as of 2021, there were close to 100,000 merchants in Japan accepting cryptocurrency as payment.
That’s it for this week’s Snapshot. Want more? Head over to our Insta feed for bite-size crypto lessons.
