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Last week saw a dull phase of crypto after cryptocurrency broker Voyager Digital filed for bankruptcy and the implementation of TDS for all crypto-related transactions in India. Despite this state, the cryptocurrency industry is expanding daily. The Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domain 000.eth was sold for around $315,000, a Lamborghini-backed GT racing team is set to authenticate car parts using NFTs, Sango crypto hub goes live in the Central African Republic, and more... Read on.
In a near-record sale on 3rd July, the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domain 000.eth was sold for 300 ETH (around $315,000.) This marked the second-largest purchase made using both US dollars and ether.
The Ethereum Name Service is an open, expandable, and distributed naming system that interacts with the Ethereum Blockchain.
In September 2021, the ENS name was first listed in the market for 100 ETH, at a value of about $300,000. The user re-listed the name in January this year for 500 ETH and again for the same value in March. The offer was listed for three months before being accepted. The latest sale stands second to the highest sale of 420 ETH of another ENS name – paradigm.eth last October. At the time, it was worth roughly $1.5 million.
ENS is a Web 3.0-friendly, open, decentralized, and not-for-profit naming system powered by the Ethereum blockchain. ENS’ domain names are secured via smart contracts. ENS is one of the most widely integrated naming standards with over 1.1 million names, 504 integrations, and over 400k owners.
Vincenzo Sospiri Racing (VSR), a GT racing team backed by Lamborghini's motorsport department, has partnered with platform Go2NFT to launch a program that will monitor and guarantee the quality of its auto parts through NFTs.
According to former world champion Vincenzo Sospiri, this enables their staff to validate and audit each component of their fleet. In the future, the NFT accreditation might also be extended to the team's official gear and goods.
Go2NFT is a dedicated platform for creating branded digital collectibles and places the multi-Championship winning GT racing team as the first motorsports team to launch an official NFT certification program.
However, this is not the first time that the world of racing and crypto has been colliding. At the beginning of 2022, Formula 1 racing team Red Bull Racing scored a $150 million partnership with the crypto exchange platform Bybit. Another company Crypto.com also partnered with car manufacturer Aston Martin's Formula 1 team.
In a bid to boost financial inclusion and encourage the growth of the regional crypto ecosystem, the Central African Republic (CAR) has developed the Sango crypto hub initiative, supported by the government.
The Sango project was launched after the CAR's adoption of Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender in April. In addition to accelerating local BTC acceptance and supervising the implementation of crypto legal frameworks and infrastructure, the project intends to draw enterprises and international crypto enthusiasts and enthusiasts.
Sango is backed by the CAR’s National Assembly and is being driven primarily by their President Faustin-Archange Touadéra. While many specifics are yet to be detailed, tokenizing the nation's abundant natural resources will be a key emphasis of the initiative to increase investment access to them.
The expanded Bitcoin support will also see the development of a local wallet built for BTC and the Lighting Network. Citizen identity and ownership of assets will also be tokenized as NFTs. A metaverse platform called' The Crypto Island' and Sango Coin is also in development.
With a new partnership with tech startup Nothing, Ethereum scaling tool Polygon is following the Solana blockchain in bringing Web3 to smartphones.
Nothing has tapped Ethereum scaling tool Polygon to offer NFTs on its new Android-based Nothing Phone (1). This comes as Polygon's competitor, Solana, is also developing its own Web3-focused phone called Saga, which will feature a Web3 decentralized app store Solana Pay to facilitate on-chain payments and a vault for storing private keys.
The efforts of Polygon and Solana represent a resurgence of initiatives to create a phone that is native to the blockchain. If Polygon and Solana's efforts are successful, they may be able to use the ease of commonly available cellphones to successfully introduce Web3.0 to a wide audience.
According to a survey conducted by some Indian cryptocurrency exchanges with nearly 9,500 respondents, 83 per cent of active traders reported that their trading frequency had decreased since India began taxing crypto asset transactions.
The survey was conducted among a pool of day-to-day traders who actively traded recently. According to the report, millennials were the most negatively affected.
The poll also revealed that around 24 per cent of respondents are thinking about moving their trading to international exchanges, owing to the high taxation. Around 29 per cent of investors also traded less than the pre-tax period.
The revenue from tax collections for the government is expected to decline as 27 percent of customers said they would trade less than earlier owing to the current taxation policy.
Just hours after paying off its debt to the decentralized lending protocol Maker and recovering $450 million in collateral in wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), the troubled crypto lender Celsius deposited over $500 million in WBTC to the crypto exchange FTX. WBTC is a bitcoin derivative product of the Ethereum blockchain.
According to data provided by blockchain data company Nansen, a wallet connected to Celsius transmitted 24,463 WBTC to the FTX throughout several transactions.
This suggests that Celsius might sell the assets for more liquid assets, although market data on the exchange did not indicate that it had already occurred.
The company had suspended withdrawals and all user transfers starting in June owing to extreme market conditions that led to fears that the lender might face bankruptcy.
Adding to the woes, a former investment manager at Celsius Network filed a lawsuit against the cryptocurrency lender on July 8 alleging that it used customer deposits to rig the price of its own crypto token and failed to properly hedge risk, causing it to freeze customer assets.
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Disclaimer: This article was authored by Giottus Crypto Exchange as a part of a paid partnership with The News Minute. Crypto products and NFTs are unregulated and can be highly risky. There may be no regulatory recourse for any loss from such transactions. Please do your own research before investing and seek independent legal/financial advice if you are unsure about the investments.