Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, saw the largest single-day slide in market value for a U.S. company ever with a 26% fall in share prices on Thursday after the tech giant revealed disappointing earnings and a decline in daily active users.
Meta famously changed its name from Facebook in late 2021, to signal its plans to focus on the Metaverse, and its struggles have coincided with double-digit percentage gains for its decentralized competitors The Sandbox and Decentraland.
Meta reported $33.67 billion worth of total revenue for Q4 2021, compared to $28 billion the year prior. However, its net income decreased to $10.28 billion, down from $11.2 billion 12 months ago.
For the first time, Meta broke out a segment in its earnings report for its virtual and augmented reality research and development business, Reality Labs. It saw losses which topped over US$10 billion, up from US$6.6 billion in 2020. However it’s only in the early stages of laying the groundwork for Metaverse technology, including developing a haptic glove, allowing users to “touch” objects in the metaverse.
Speaking with Cointelegraph, Animoca Brands chairman and co-founder Yat Siu, suggested that the sharp drop of Meta’s share price may represent a broader trend in which users are beginning to question the centralized Web2 model:
“It’s a system that does not share any meaningful part of the ownership or value of the network, which will eventually lead to a decline as users look for better options.”
“As people are still likely to spend even more time online, the question is where and how? This is an early indicator that they are moving away from Web 2.0 and the logical conclusion on where to go for a growing number is Web 3,” he added.
Siu argued that Web2 companies like Meta and Apple are also “losing their best people” to Web3 companies and projects:
“Web 3 and the open Metaverse is more than just another product cycle, it’s a movement, and it’s hard to fight something like that as a single corporation.”
Crypto-backed metaverses
Decentraland, a Metaverse platform built on Ethereum, has seen the price of its token MANA increase by over 20% the past seven days, surging from a seven-day low of US$2.19 to recent support levels around the US$2.60 mark.
Likewise, SAND tokens for The Sandbox, one of Decentraland’s main Metaverse competitors, has seen a seven-day gain of 17.5%, entering the weekend at a low of US$3.31 before surging to a high of over US$4, now seeing support levels around US$3.60.
Apart from Meta, other factors are affecting prices for MANA and SAND this week. Decentraland released it’s 2022 Manifesto, announcing a prototype mobile app, improvements to its play experience, greater utility of NFTs, and protocol enhancements.
The Sandbox team announced a partnership with UniX Gaming, a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO), and a release of more “land” in its metaverse slated for February 10th.
Animoca Brands owns The Sandbox, and there were unconfirmed rumors earlier this week that Meta would be acquiring the Metaverse platform. However Siu promptly shut those rumors down on Feb. 3.
There is an unconfirmed rumor that Facebook is about to acquire @TheSandboxGame. It looks like regulation is coming sooner than later to this space… https://t.co/XiAelDoBac
Outside of Meta, other big tech companies including Apple and Microsoft are getting into the space. Entertainment giant Disney also seems to be gearing up for a move into the Metaverse with a recent job advertisement for a Business Development Manger seeks looking for someone to “help lead Disney’s efforts in the NFT space”.
It’s not immediately clear if Disney’s efforts could relate to it’s planned headset-free augmented reality Metaverse project uncovered by patent filings.
A new report indicates that the blockchain industry is set for astronomical growth in the next decade, with the North American market leading the way.
The report by Fortune Business Insights, titled “Blockchain Market Analysis Research Report, 2021-2028,” mentions that the global blockchain market size is expected to reach a whopping $104.19 billion by 2028, exhibiting at a CAGR of 55.8% across the forecast period.
The presence of major industry players such as IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, AWS, Digital Asset Holdings and others in the North American market is expected to have a significant impact during the forecast period. For comparison, the regional market was valued at $1.44 billion in 2020.
According to the research, the pandemic has expedited demand for cloud-based services and software, resulting in a market ripe for blockchain innovation. The demand for secure and transparent data management is greater than ever, with more and more organizations seeking to establish virtual work platforms.
The report highlights that blockchain’s increasing popularity is due to enterprises’ need for software as a service in order to maintain business continuity. According to the study, small business enterprises (SMEs) utilize Blockchain-as-a-Service solutions to protect their digital assets and validate human identities, implying that demand for BaaS services will continue to rise.
The growing concern over data security is expected to drive demand for blockchain technology in the future. The technological demands, including cross-border transactions, clearing and settlements, trade finance platforms, digital identity verification, and credit reporting, are expected to fuel future growth in the blockchain sector.
Big tech companies are increasingly shifting focus to the blockchain space to capitalize on the increasing demand for distributed ledger technology. As Cointelegraph reported, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is looking into using the innovative technology in its core products and services, such as YouTube and Google Maps.
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the U.K.’s tax agency, on Wednesday, has released a controversial set of guidance that could affect innovation in Decentralized Finance (DeFi).
The updated regulation focuses on the treatment of digital assets specifically for DeFi lending and staking in the UK, and whether returns or rewards from these services are deemed as capital or revenue for taxation purposes. Owing to the cutting edge nature of DeFi these services had fallen into a grey area with tax professionals unsure of how the existing rules apply.
“The lending/staking of tokens through decentralized finance (DeFi) is a constantly evolving area, so it is not possible to set out all the circumstances in which a lender/liquidity provider earns a return from their activities and the nature of that return. Instead, some guiding principles are set out,” the HMRC update stated.
HMRC has updated its guidance on the treatment of crypto and digital assets, specifically for decentralised finance (DeFi) lending and staking in the UK, significantly altering their classification and treatment. Full report and our response here – https://t.co/8XXD0bm34Opic.twitter.com/Q3N7La5FVX
The guidance outlined that returns via staking and lending of DeFi assets will not be treated as “interest” as digital assets in the UK aren’t considered currencies, but rather property for tax purposes.
However, this approach could create tax problems for stakers with the guidance suggesting that in many cases it would indicate that “beneficial ownership of those tokens” had been passed to the platform. This would mean they were disposed of for tax purposes and incur Capital Gains Tax.
Ian Taylor, executive director of CryptoUK asserted the new regulations would create an “unnecessary burden” for crypto investors that stock market investors do not face when lending shares:
“HMRC treats crypto assets as property for tax purposes. However, this is inconsistent with the approach currently being adopted by Government and other regulatory bodies in the UK, including the Treasury and the FCA”
Right,so if i have to pay taxes on staking, isn’t that double taxing….Let’s say i stake 200 000 pounds worth of crypto on 10% APY, that will be worth 20 000,so i will have to tax as i earn it and after that tax it again once i exchange it for fiat/different asset?
Taylor added that the new rules add “undue reporting requirements for the consumer, and create tax compliance confusion” as investors will have to report on hundreds or even thousands of transactions.
“This is out of step with the Government’s stated aim for the UK to be open and attractive as a destination for investment and innovation post Brexit,” he said.
Last week, former Secretary of State for Health and Social Care current U.K. Member of Parliament (MP) Matt Hancock urged the House of Commons to introduce progressive crypto policy to make England the “home” of crypto.
In November last year HMRC laid out regulations concerning the introduction of digital services tax levied on crypto exchanges operating in the UK
Major crypto exchanges originating from Asia as well as from the West have shown an increasing interest in the Asia-Pacific region.
Coinbase launched in Japan last year, joining the selected group of exchanges to offer crypto trading services to native customers. Binance, the world’s leading crypto exchange by trading volume, has forged a series of new partnerships in Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand.
The growing interest in global crypto exchanges in Asia could be attributed to the crypto craze in the region, despite regulatory uncertainty in several countries. The Asia-Pacific region is currently the hub for the majority of crypto growth. Countries such as Singapore and Thailand have seen a great boom in crypto adoption both as a retail payment as well as a form of investment.
Mastercard Asia-Pacific executive vice president Rama Sridhar said in an interview with TechAsia that compared to the global market, “adoption rates for emerging payment options have always been better within the Asian region.” A survey conducted by Mastercard across 18 markets in 2020 suggested 94% of consumers in the Asia-Pacific region are considering using emerging payments methods.
Jackson Mueller, director of policy and government relations at Securrency — a financial markets infrastructure company — sees the prominence of digital payment and peer-to-peer market growth as one of the key reasons behind Asia’s growing influence as a crypto hub. He told Cointelegraph:
“Southeast Asia has been a hotbed for payments activity for some time now. It comes as no surprise to see significant growth in the number of crypto firms, exchanges and volume of peer-to-peer activity in the region.”
“It’s also important to note that we’re just beginning to see the emergence of crypto assets frameworks in the region, alongside ongoing efforts to improve current domestic payments systems, interlink these systems with neighboring countries, and promote capital markets development,” he added.
According to a Chainalysis report, Asian markets accounted for 43% of global cryptocurrency activity or $296 billion in transactions between June 2020 and June 2021. The report further highlighted that the Central and Southern Asia and Oceania crypto market is the fourth-largest in the world, and transaction activity there increased 706% in the same time frame.
Here we’ll take look at some of the top global crypto exchanges and service providers with a growing presence in Asia.
Binance’s rapid expansion in Asia
The leading global exchange by trading volume had a roller coaster of a ride in terms of regulations in 2021. After seeing a series of compliance warnings from nearly a dozen countries, Binance mended its way toward the end of the year. The exchange forged several new partnerships, but its growth in the Asia region was something that got everyone’s attention.
Binance acquired an 18% stake in Singapore’s securities exchange Hg Exchange. However, the exchange withdrew its crypto license, which many claimed was due to non-compliance with the Anti-Money Laundering guidelines. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao called the reports as fear, uncertainty and doubt, or FUD, and maintained that Singapore remains one of the top priorities for the exchange.
The exchange is now looking to reestablish its presence in Thailand after an early warning in 2021. The crypto exchange partnered with Gulf Energy Development PCL, a Thai holding company run by billionaire Sarath Ratanavadi.
Binance is looking to open a crypto exchange in a joint venture with a consortium led by MDI Ventures, an investment arm of Telkom Indonesia.
Binance chief regulatory liaison officer Mark McGinness told Cointelegraph:
“We are keeping all of our options open, and we are currently considering a number of cities that meet user needs, our needs as a company, and of course, regulatory requirements. The crypto regulatory framework of the jurisdiction is a key consideration. Naturally, we would like to operate where the regulations are clear, workable and ‘pro-crypto.’”
Coinbase’s growing focus in South Asia
The first United States crypto exchange to go public in 2021 is looking to expand to a global market. The exchange has been rapidly ramping up its presence in South East Asia and building new crypto infrastructure. In terms of regulatory headway, the crypto platform acquired an operating license in Japan last year. Coinbase officially launched in Japan in August 2021 after it had partnered with banking giant Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. Japan is one of the first countries to adopt crypto and one of the biggest crypto markets by trading volume.
Singapore was one of the first destinations for Coinbase outside the U.S., with the firm starting its services in the country in 2015. At the time, the exchange had not revealed any expansion plans to other Asian countries.
Despite the regulatory uncertainty in India, crypto giants and venture capital firms have been eyeing the Indian market for quite some time. In July 2021, Coinbase made its intentions of expansion in India clear and said it is setting up a new office there and hiring hundreds of new employees.
Kraken is available in over 45 Asian nations
Kraken, a global crypto exchange originating from the U.S., has had quite a success in the Asian markets. The exchange’s services are available in over 45 Asian nations, and it has grown to become one of the leading western exchanges to gain a footing in the Asian market.
Kraken also relaunched in Japan in 2020 after closing its services in 2018, citing rising operating costs and the need to concentrate its efforts on “other geographical areas.” The exchange became a licensed “Crypto Asset Exchange Service Provider” in the country in line with domestic regulatory requirements.
Crypto.com’s Asia-first Policy
Crypto.com, a global crypto trading service provider with its headquarters in Singapore, is primarily known for its $500-million venture arm fund to support early-stage crypto startups. However, the exchange has a strong footing in the Asian market despite its primary sponsorship partnerships in the United States.
The platform launched its flagship crypto Visa card that allows people to spend their crypto at Visa merchants in Asia first, followed by the rest of the global market, which indicates the popularity of the crypto ecosystem in Asia.
What makes Asia crypto-friendly?
Messari’s report on the Asian crypto landscape revealed that leading crypto nations in the region such as Japan, South Korea and Singapore have deep liquidity pools. The region is also a top crypto spot market and accounts for more than 90% of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) futures trading volume. The nature of traditional finance has also played a key role in becoming a crypto hub, where capital controls in China and South Korea pushed people toward crypto, while low yields in Japan played a catalyst in fast crypto adoption.
Apart from major crypto exchanges that avail their services in Asia and looking to expand further, many mainstream global payments processing giants such as Visa and Mastercard also see great potential in the Asian market. In November 2021, Mastercard partnered with three leading crypto service providers in the Asia Pacific to launch crypto-funded Mastercard payment cards.
Countries such as India and Pakistan, where there is still no clarity over crypto regulations, are not lagging behind either. The Indian crypto market grew 641% from July 2020 to June 2021 and attracted $638 million in crypto funding, while Pakistan has seen a similar rise in crypto adoption. According to an FPCCI report, Pakistanis held $20 billion in crypto in 2020–2021. Jawad Nayyar, co-founder of Pakistani fintech firm PropTech, told Cointelegraph:
“Over the last five years, cryptocurrencies have gone from a Ponzi scheme to a gambling tool and a highly volatile asset to now finally being recognized as a legitimate virtual asset of value in the region. In times of monetary expansion, high inflation and a huge currency devaluation, the private sector now considers cryptos as a hedge against such economic adversaries.”
Nonfungible tokens (NFTs), gaming protocols and the dawn of the Metaverse were all trending topics in 2021 and they are shaping up to be even bigger in 2022.
NFTs and Metaverse-related projects are also bouncing back quickly from the market-wide downturn and Vulcan Forged (PYR) is one of the top movers this week. The project is a blockchain game studio and NFT marketplace that is in the process of developing out its VulcanVerse ecosystem.
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that after hitting a low of $6.59 on Jan. 24, the price of PYR has rallied 119% to an intraday high at $14.43 on Feb. 1 amid a 141% spike in its 24-hour trading volume.
PYR/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
Three reasons for the recovery seen in the price of PYR include the launch of the Elysium testnet, the listing of 100 plots of land for sale within the VulcanVerse and the launch of a PYR bridge between Ethereum and Polygon.
Elysium testnet launches
High fees on the Ethereum network have been a thorn in the side of protocols hosted on the network and this has led to many projects migrating to other networks or launching their own solutions to help lower the cost for users.
Vulcan Forged opted to travel the latter by launching the Elysium blockchain, which Vulcan Forged is referring to as “the blockchain for Metaverses.”
It’s 20:05 GMT, 28th January, 2022, The Year of the Vulcanite.
According to announcements made about the project, Elysium will become the world’s first carbon-neutral blockchain via a collaboration with the Netherlands-based decentralized carbon credit exchange Coorest.
This will be accomplished by offsetting the CO2 emitted by the Elysium blockchain with tokenized trees and the gas fees from transactions will be used to plant trees on nearly 70,000 acres of land owned by Coorest.
In addtion to this environmentally-friendly approach, the network is also attracting the attention of other protocols, with Vulcan Forged indicating that three other Metaverse projects have already signalled their intent to launch on Elysium.
Land sales go live
A second reason for the bullish move in PYR over the past week has been the limited listing of 100 plots of land in the VulcanVerse.
12-24 hours left on the @VulcanVerse 100 plot sale.
All plots of land are available for purchase using PYR, which has prompted some traders to accumulate the token to make a purchase, leading to an increase in demand and token price.
On top of offering holders a yield of 35 PYR per month for the next four years, land plots in the VulcanVerse can also be used to to earn through gameplay or rent.
A third reason for the bullish turnaround in the price of PYR has been the success of VulcanDex, the protocols decentralized exchange which currently operates on the Polygon and Ethereum networks.
According to VulcanDeX, the protocol surpassed a total value locked of $10 million on Jan. 29 and this figure continues to rise as PYR price rallies.
VulcanDEX is also in the process of integrating a cross-chain bridge between Ethereum and Polygon into the ‘My Forge’ section of the DEX that will enable the simple transfer of PYR tokens between the two networks.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
Solana Pay is a peer-to-peer payments infrastructure designed to enable the global market of online merchants and point-of-sale providers the ability to accept and settle payment transactions in a panoply of digital assets.
A joint collaboration between Solana Labs, Checkout.com, Circle and Citcon, in addition to wallet integrations from Phantom and FTX, the platform’s inbuilt software development kit acts as an intermediary between traditional fiat-centric businesses and the cryptocurrency sector, promising to promote wider engagement and adoption from traditional consumers.
In an exclusive statement, Solana Pay revealed that they perceive the “most prevalent use-case to be with digital dollar currencies” such as Circle’s USDC stablecoin, but also are enabling the option of Solana-related assets such as Solana’s native SOL, FTX’s FTT, and Serum’s SRM, among others.
Built upon Solana — a blockchain that launched April 2019 and quickly became regarded for its high-speed and fraction-of-a-cent transaction fees — Solana Pay is seeking to provide a low barrier-to-entry crypto payment alternative, as well as the possibility for integration of emerging asset classes such as nonfungible tokens, or NFTs.
Cointelegraph spoke exclusively to the Head of Payments at Solana Labs, Sheraz Shere — formerly responsible for co-creating the Google Wallet — to discuss his anticipations for Solana Pay in supporting the wider growth of the Solana ecosystem throughout 2022.
Shere revealed that the platform “leverages Solana’s unique differentiators of high throughput, low cost and scalability”, before stating that:
“While Solana Pay will provide frictionless payments to Web3 participants in the Solana ecosystem, we believe this protocol transcends Web3 and will be transformational for the payment’s ecosystem across physical and online commerce.”
In an interview with Cointelegraph on Dec. 22, Head of Communications at Solana Labs, Austin Federa, spoke on topics of recent network outages such as that of mid-September — an incident that was attributed to denial-of-service attacks — the benefits of scalability and questions around centralization of nodes, among others.
Shere noted that Solana Pay is dedicated to supporting the onboarding process of merchants throughout the coming year, irrespective of their prior education, concluding that:
“We anticipate a growing understanding amongst mainstream merchants about the benefits of stablecoins and digital dollars.”
In addition to this, Solana Pay is also expected to launch a series of payments-centric hacking events this year in a bid to connect the global community of developers and whitehats with their technological infrastructure.
Tusk Ventures CEO and founder Bradley Tusk says that the failure to regulate cryptocurrency and social media effectively in the United States is a “really good lesson for how we should handle the Metaverse.”
In a Feb. 1 interview on CNBC’s “Closing Bell,” Tusk urged U.S. policymakers to “get ahead” of the Metaverse and implement regulations sooner rather than later.
“Typically speaking, our policy has been that we wait for technology to be introduced to gain market fit and traction [before introducing regulation].” However, “It’s very hard to do that retrospectively,” he said.
“We know the Metaverse is coming — it’s already here in some ways. We know it’s got all the problems of the internet, probably times five or ten. So why don’t we think about it now, and get ahead of it?”
He echoed this sentiment in a Mirror blog post uploaded the same day, writing: “The problems we have regulating technology companies now will be reproduced and amplified in the Metaverse. You think policing state-sponsored disinformation is hard on Facebook and Twitter? Wait until you try it in 3-D.”
He also stated that while policymakers are unable to develop specific regulations for the Metaverse until they have a better sense of what’s coming, they should start by looking at cryptocurrency and social media.
How do you think appropriate regulation can be put in place for something that is not yet defined or well understood? I understand the desire to get it “right” but I don’t think regulation is beneficial, especially at this stage. A plan to educate policymakers though, sure.
“We can avoid making the same mistakes we did with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and social media generally if we can develop an intellectual framework for regulating the Metaverse now.”
Crypto regulation is becoming an increasingly hot topic in the hallways of the U.S. Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC). According to a Jan. 19 report by Cornerstone Research, the SEC has launched a total of 97 actions against crypto organizations since 2013, 20 of which happened in 2021 alone.
Despite the continued calls from some congresspeople and industry players for a more coherent and consistent regulatory framework when dealing with cryptocurrency, Tusk told CNBC that policymakers’ inaction had left citizens without basic protections.
“We don’t have basic rights about who owns what data, how can we transfer it, how can we take it down. Those are all basic things that I think at this point we have a right to expect our government to handle. And when the Metaverse comes, it’s just going to be that much more extreme.”
Tusk was an early investor in Uber, Lemonade, and Coinbase. During 2009, he served as the campaign manager for media oligarch Michael Bloomberg in his bid to be re-elected as the Mayor of New York City. He also has acted as the Deputy Governor of Illinois, an early political advisor to Uber, and the Communications Director for U.S. Senator Check Schumer.
Bitcoin (BTC) is heading for its worst January performance in four years — could all not be what it seems?
Data from on-chain analytics resource Coinglass shows January 2022 to be the least profitable since the peak of Bitcoin’s last halving cycle. Investors, however, are still waiting for a “blow-off top.”
Will Bitcoin see a rare “red” February?
Against practically all expectations, BTC price action has continued to underperform this month.
At current spot prices of $36,800, BTC/USD is down 20.1% versus the start of the year, compounding misery that began in November, data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows.
Historical figures show that January is conversely often a “green” month for Bitcoin — 2021, by comparison, delivered gains of more than 21%.
The same can be said for November and December, however, making this year especially painful for bulls. Those two months in 2020 saw price increases of 43% and 47%, respectively.
The last “red” January for Bitcoin, meanwhile, was in 2018, as the fervor surrounding the trip to then all-time highs of $20,000 rapidly cooled.
That halving cycle peak, coming roughly 18 months after the previous block subsidy halving event, should have played out again in late 2021. The reality was quite different, and Bitcoin’s underperformance saw time-tested price apparatus come in for criticism.
Last year, BTC/USD gained nearly 37% in four weeks, while serious downside last occurred far back in February 2014. In 2018, by contrast, Bitcoin hardly moved.
As Cointelegraph reported, the out-of-character price behavior since November has got analysts wondering whether Bitcoin is in a bull or a bear market.
At the height of this month’s losses last week, hodlers were down 52% against all-time highs, and so opinions favor further downside to come.
Data shows opportunist traders’ resolve — the dip below $37,000 that followed the weekly close was heavily utilized by shorters betting on weakness continuing.
Interoperability is shaping up to be one of the main themes for the cryptocurrency market in 2022 as projects across the ecosystem unveil integrations that make their networks Ethereum (ETH) Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible.
While this has been one of the long-term goals of the ecosystem as a step on the path to an interconnected network of protocols, it has also created a new decentralized finance (DeFi) market for multi-chain bridges and decentralized finance.
Here are three of the top volume cross-chain bridges that the cryptocurrency community uses to transfer assets between blockchain networks.
Multichain
Multichain (MULTI), formerly known as Anyswap, is a cross-chain router protocol that aims to become the go-to router for the emerging Web3 ecosystem.
According to data from Defi Llama, Multichain is the top-ranked cross-chain swap protocol by total value locked, with $8.95 billion currently locked on the platform.
Multichain total value locked. Source: Defi Llama
One of the main reasons for the high TVL on Multichain is the large number of blockchain networks supported by the protocol. Currently, 30 different chainscan be accessed on the network.
Blockchain protocols supported by Multichain. Source: Multichain
According to data provided by Multichain, the protocol has processed a total of $53.15 billion worth of volume since launching, with $19.08 billion of that being transacted in the past 30 days alone. There are currently 485,399 users that have interacted with the Multichain protocol, amounting to nearly 2.256 million transactions.
Multichain network statistics. Source: Multichain
Users who deposit tokens into one of the pools supported by Multichain receive a sare of the transaction fees generated by the pool in question.
The protocol’s native MULTI token is used to vote and participate in the governance of the Multichain ecosystem and has a circulating supply of 18.64 million tokens out of a total 100 million.
Synapse
Synapse (SYN) refers to itself as a “cross-chain layer ∞ protocol” that is designed to offer users interoperability between separate blockchain networks.
According to data from Defi Llama, Synapse recently hit an all-time high in total value locked of $1.16 billion prior to experiencing a wave of outflows that lowered the TVL to 740.43 million.
Total value locked on Synapse. Source: Defi Llama
The Synapse protocol currently supports 12 different chains which have a combined total bridged volume of $5.33 billion according to data from the platform’s dashboard.
Total bridged volume on each network supported by Synapse. Source: Synapse
A large percentage of the total volume recorded on Synapse has come since the start of 2022 with the protocol seeing an all-time high bridge volume of $157.8 million on Jan. 23.
Synapse bridge volume. Source: Synapse Analytics
The protocol’s native SYN token has several uses within the ecosystem. Token holders can use it to conduct community governance votes via the SynapseDAO, liquidity providers (LPs) receive a percentage yield paid out in SYN for their deposits and it is also used as a subsidy to pay for the gas expended by network validators to secure transactions across the network.
LPs also receive a share of the protocol fees earned by the Synapse platform on each transaction.
Another popular cross-chain bridge is the Celer cBridge, a multi-chain network that enables instant, low-cost value transfers between 19 different networks.
The cBridge is a subsector of the larger Celer (CELR) ecosystem and utilizes the CELR token for operations on the protocol and as the reward token for liquidity providers.
Along with the CELR rewards paid to LPs, a percentage of the transaction fees generated by people who use the liquidity pools to bridge funds across chains are paid out to LPs and added directly to the pools, allowing the rewards to compound.
According to data from cBridge analytics, the total value of funds locked in the bridge contract (pool-based bridge) and the funds locked in the token vault contract (canonical token bridge) currently stands at $240.92 million.
cBridge usage statistics. Source: cBridge
A total of 89,897 unique addresses have interacted with the protocol since inception and have conducted a total of $2.842 billion in transaction volume.
Similar to the transfer trend seen with Synapse, the transaction volume on cBridge has gotten noticeably higher in 2022 with a record $71.12 million being transacted on Jan. 22.
Daily transaction volume on cBridge. Source: cBridge analytics
Some of the protocols currently supported by cBridge include Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Avalanche, Polygon, Fantom, Metis, Harmony, Gnosis, Arbitrum and Optimism.
Want more information about trading and investing in crypto markets?
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) announced the commencement of an in-house effort to expedite blockchain development and innovation across 15 zones and 164 entities.
The initiative aims for the large-scale implementation of blockchain technology across businesses and government organizations in China.
The CAC, along with other government agencies, directed the regulatory authorities to “promote the intensive and balanced layout of blockchain technology infrastructure in the region, form a large-scale production-level cross-chain data exchange support capability, and promote the formation of a multi-party collaborative blockchain industry ecology.”
The notice also included a list of cities, companies and other entities — predetermined by the local and departmental recommendations — that will be directly involved in the blockchain pilots.
A snippet of CAC’s list for blockchain pilot projects. Source: CAC
The key areas of blockchain development include manufacturing, energy, government data sharing and services, law enforcement, taxation, criminal trials, inspection, copyright, civil affairs, human society, education, healthcare, trade finance, risk control management, equity market and cross-border finance.
The circular also emphasizes the need for regulatory departments to coordinate the advancement and promotion of the pilot projects “and give full play to the role of blockchain in promoting data sharing, optimizing business processes, reducing operating costs, improving collaborative efficiency, and building a trusted system.”
Despite a strong stance against crypto adoption, the Chinese government continues to show interest in related ecosystems including blockchain and nonfungible tokens (NFT).
Most recently, the Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN), a government-backed blockchain project in China, was reportedly working on an infrastructure to support businesses and individuals in building NFT-focused platforms and apps.
As Cointelegraph reported, the project aims to support the deployment of platforms capable of trading non-crypto NFTs via fiat currency.
