Here comes Friday, December 1st. As the week comes to an end we can focus on the highlights of the crypto industry over the past few days.
FTX authorized to sell $744M worth of Grayscale and Bitwise assets
A United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware has approved a petition by FTX and related entities to sell shares of the Grayscale and Bitwise investment funds for a total of $744 million.
The request was filed back on Nov. 6, and share sales will be done with an eye toward “maximizing the value of their assets” and avoiding adverse market impact, the filing said.
The ruling will affect the following list of entitites: Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, Grayscale Ethereum Trust, Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund, Grayscale Ethereum Classic Trust, Grayscale Litecoin Trust and Grayscale Digital Large Cap Trust.
Such an initiative could be the first step in a $3.4 billion sale of assets held by the platform.
Let us remind you that in October, representatives of the lending institutions and FTX executives adopted a plan stating that customers are to expect a return of $9.2 billion by mid-2024. That same month, the exchange’s board had begun to consider three possible options for reshaping the platform.
75% of GameFi projects shut down, CoinGecko says
Since the GameFi concept emerged five years ago, about 2,127 out of nearly 3000 projects didn’t make it, accounting for roughly 75.5%, according to the latest CoinGecko report.
The researchers explained by way of illustration that, in other words, three out of four Web3 games have become dormant. Following the triumphant launch of CryptoKitties in late 2017, Play-To-Earn (P2E) games have become a hot commodity in the crypto community. However, a year later, 307 Web3 games out of 422 failed miserably.
GameFi’s development and the level of interest surround it have been losing momentum during the 2019-2020 bear market period, which saw only 244 active projects and more than 94% of those abandoned.
Amid the bull market over the course of 2021, Web3 games had the lowest dropout rate, standing at 45%. But in the previous year, the number of deserted GameFi projects exceeded the number of launched ones – 742 vs. 693, respectively.
Since the start of ongoing 2023, 509 games have already flopped with a 70.7% rate. The experts suggest that lower abandonment rates may indicate stabilization in the gaming industry.
This July, Google, the renowned tech giant, revealed its plans to integrate GameFi’s project-hosting feature into its app store for Android devices, Play Market.
As a reminder, in May, Web3 gaming platform Intella had announced the launch of a $10m grant program as a collaboration with Neowi, a South Korean publisher.
Bitget Wallet launches Task2Get airdrop platform
Multichain Bitget Wallet has introduced a brand new airdrop platform dubbed Task2Get, which offers rewards to its users for completing various tasks.
Starting November 20, a contest organized by the L1 platform ZetaChain started there. Winners will share a prize pool of 700,000 ZETA and will also receive exclusive NFTs granting access to future platform activities.
Bitget Wallet also unveiled a strategic partnership with UniSat wallet, the one designed to store and create unique digital assets based on the Ordinals protocol and BRC-20 tokens.
This particular implementation will allow users to perform the following:
- Create and utilize Taproot bitcoin addresses.
- Generate both text-based and animated NFTs via Ordinals-based BRC-20 tokens.
- Trade and exchange BRC-20 tokens on the UniSat Marketplace.
Gracy Chen, Managing Director of Bitget, voiced hope that these moves, including the partnership with UniSat Wallet and the start-up of Task2Get, will make Web3 more approachable and appealing to users.
Speaking of Bitget Wallet, it is a feature-rich wallet for storing and managing your cryptocurrencies, with over 80 networks supported. It forms part of the Bitget ecosystem and includes its native NFT Marketplace, a copy-trading service, Bitget Swap (a DEX), as well as other CeFi and DeFi products.
Previously, Bitget Wallet introduced support for MPC (multi-party computation) wallets, with no private keys involved.
Binance announces BUSD stablecoin delisting date
The well-known CEX will cease support for the BUSD stablecoin completely and delist it starting on December 15.
Paxos, the asset issuer, has discontinued its minting, the company said. The stablecoin will be redeemable through at least February 2024.
BUSD withdrawal will be cut off on December 31, following which the users assets (excluding the customers from Japan, France, Italy, Poland and Kazakhstan) will be automatically converted to FDUSD.
In August, Binance notified customers that it intended to halt support for BUSD. Company officials cited the NYDFS investigation against Paxos. Earlier in February, the regulator had ordered the firm to suspend issuance of BUSD.
The stablecoin market cap has been declining since the late 2022, according to CoinGecko. Over the course of the year, the figure sank from $22 billion to $1.7 billion.
Binance agreed to pay $4.3 billion in a deal with the U.S. Justice Department on Nov. 21, while Changpeng Zhao was slapped with a $50 million fine and resignation as CEO.
He posted $175 million bail to remain free until sentencing is announced Feb. 23, 2024. Prosecutors have requested a travel ban for him from the U.S. fearing he may flee. The entrepreneur faces up to ten years in prison.
Moreover, the judge barred Zhao from leaving the United States until the DOJ’s motion is heard.