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Read in the Digest:
Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in America, reached an impressive milestone on Monday as it become the first cryptocurrency company to be counted among the ‘Fortune 500′.
Although Coinbase has had it rough recently due to the impact of the 2022 crypto crash, the exchange enjoyed tremendous growth in 2021, which saw it exceed the minimum $6.4 billion required for a company’s consideration to join the ranks of the Fortune 500.
Coinbase closed 2021 with a revenue of $7.8 billion, the majority of which came from trading fees. $3.6 billion of this was recorded as profit, and the impressive stats propelled the exchange to 437th place on the list.
Despite this win, Coinbase released its disappointing 2022 Q1 results of $1.16 billion in revenue, resulting in a net loss of $430 million. However, Emilie Choi, Coinbase’s president, says that the company has overcome various market downturns, and that the recent challenges will be no different.
Having grown on the back of the popularity of cryptocurrencies, Coinbase is leading the way for the next generation of mega-corporations.
During a podcast interview on Tuesday 24th, Sam Bankman-Fried, the thirty-year-old crypto billionaire CEO and Founder of the FTX exchange, disclosed his plans to spend between $100 million – $1 billion (as a soft ceiling) to support the coming 2024 U.S. general election.
Bankman-Fried added that the amount of money he will donate depends on whether or not former President Donald Trump reruns for office. Bankman-Fried, who is worth over $20 billion, claimed that he has already given out over $200 million to different causes.
Experts suggest that the amount could be well north of $100 million should his preferred candidate decide to run. However, Bankman-Fried asserted:
“It really does depend on what happens. It’s really dependent on exactly who’s running where for what, and these things are super contingent.”
According to Alex Baumgart, a researcher with campaign finance tracker Open Secrets, a donation of $1 billion would be “a record-breaker” in terms of the highest amount donated during an election.
The previous record of $218 million is held by Rebublican business owners Sheldon and Miriam Adelson for the 2020 election.
Within weeks of becoming the first African country, and only the second in the world to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender, the Central African Republic has unveiled plans to transform the nation into a Bitcoin hub.
The Central African Republic announced the launch of the Sango Project, an initiative aimed at turning the country into Africa’s first legal crypto hub.
The African nation will build a crypto island as part of the Sango project, which involves creating a zone that offers e-residency, citizenship by investment, online business registration, and tax exemptions for crypto businesses.
The project will allow users to manage NFTs in the metaverse, unlock marketplace ownership, and the funding and tokenization of assets. The CAR will also facilitate the acquisition of land on Sango for investors worldwide.
Through project Sango, the CAR hopes to attract crypto professionals and enthusiasts to work and live in the country.
The number of daily transfers of ERC-721 tokens, popularly known as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), recorded a massive growth spike to reach their highest level since 2019.
According to data from CoinMetrics, there were over 660,000 ERC-721 transfers on May 22nd, surpassing the number of ERC-20 transfers.
This represents a major milestone for NFTs, as ERC-20 is the most significant smart contract standard on Ethereum. Examples of ERC-20 Tokens are Chainlink (LINK), Tether (USDT), Shiba Inu (SHIB), and Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC).
The recent surge correlates with the rising interest among investors in selling and trading non-fungible tokens. Recent projects like ‘Moonbirds’, ‘Bored Ape Yacht Club‘, and ‘Meebits‘ have seen a significant spike in the quantity and volume of trades being carried out.
The ability to compete with ERC-20 tokens, which are used more frequently, shows how far the non-fungible token economy has come, and how quickly it is growing.
Vitalik Buterin, the creator of the second-biggest cryptocurrency and ecosystem, has hinted that the next phase of Ethereum involves ‘Soulbound’ tokens. These tokens are linked to the identity of the person on the blockchain.
Soulbound tokens are digital items that are not exchangeable by mail or auction trading, and can only be obtained by completing tasks, quests, or defeating enemies in Web 3.0 games.
Because Soulbound items cannot be sold or exchanged, Buterin believes that they have the potential to change the industry. ‘Souls‘ would act as wallets to hold Soulbound tokens.
He explains that these SBTs could be used to represent a certain commitment to real-world events and projects. They would also help projects to create market standards, and compensate users for their activity across different platform.
Unlike NFTs, which represent how much a user has by the types of NFTs they can afford, Soulbound tokens would rather represent who a person is in the metaverse.
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