As the crypto market attempts to recover from last week's crash, the needed bullish momentum to bring an upward push remains unavailable. Hence, price continues to range a little above last week's low. That notwithstanding, it was an event-filled week for the community marked by new alliances, solidarity, transitions, infrastructure development, and, regretfully, the desperate fight by some networks to remain within the crypto space.
As Terra crumbles, Binance moves to expand
Binance, in a bid towards playing its part in salvaging the presently feared crumbling of the crypto space, will provide financial and infrastructural support for developers on the Terra network. On May 17, Binance promised to provide financial and infrastructural backing for projects that migrate from the Terra chain to its network. Binance will provide a $1billion fund. Stader Labs has already accepted the invitation, and more developers are expected to jump in on the Binance train in the days and months to come.
Polygon talks Web3
Like Binance, the CEO of Polygon (MATIC), Erik-Jan Jansen, in a tweet on May 15, stated that his network would work closely with a variety of Terra projects to migrate seamlessly to the Polygon network. The team at Polygon added that the Polygon's Proof-of-Stake network is perfect for Terra projects since they require a side chain.
In another development, Polygon released a decentralized private transaction service for enterprises. This mainnet beta (Nightfall) takes a hybrid design and aims to provide security, confidentiality, and efficiency for enterprise networks. More than anything else, polygon and professional services powerhouse EY believe that Web3 would be a watershed in the further expansion of enterprise blockchains.
Terra keeps trying to resurrect
As Binance seizes the opportunity to expand, Terra continues to slip when Lawrence Florio, Chief corporate counsel of Terra, and colleagues abandoned the sinking ship this week. This is coming after the UST lost its peg to the US dollar and crashed last week to an all-time low, causing LUNA, the coin native to the Terra platform, to lose more than $40 billion in value.
However, Terrans remain loyal to the course of the community and are focusing on the restoration of Terra’s ecosystem. The community rejected the initial recovery plans put forward by Do Kwon, which opted to Fork the Terra chain into a User-centric chain that would get a new token called the Lunch and a developer-centric chain that would retain the Luna coin. However, modifications to the plan had increased support which might bring a revamped Terra live by the end of May.
Ask for speed, Lightning responds
Cryptocurrencies have been known for speed. Surprisingly, Lightning takes it one notch up. Lightning Network is ready to take speed to a completely new level. The network launched a new payment service called Bolt Card, allowing Bitcoin users to pay for goods and services using the Lightening contactless technology. The technology promises never-before-seen speed levels for the payment of goods and services and works perfectly on any Point of Sale (POS) with a Lightning invoice.
Provocative statement from the founder of Dogecoin
In a very blunt revelation, the co-founder of Dogecoin, Bill Markus, stated that 95% of crypto projects are fraudulent. Markus argues that most of these coins have no real value and constitute the unfortunate blemishes spewed on the innocent canvass of the crypto technology.
The Central Bank of Norway uses Ethereum Layer 2 for its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Pilot
Norway is set to deploy its digital currency (CDDC) pilot on the Ethereum Layer 2. In a statement by the Central Bank of Norway and ETH layer 2 on May 16, Norges Bank had chosen Ethereum Layer 2 to host the sandbox for Norway’s national digital currency. ETH Layer 2 will therefore build, maintain and train Norges bank users and partners on the use of the sandbox.
Ripple: Connecting people
In another move to expand its reach and usage, Ripple announced its partnership with a Lithuanian online global money transfer provider, FINCI. The joint venture will make B2B payments possible through RippleNet's on-demand liquidity service, which employs the XRP crypto-supported cross-border payments.
Lithuania is one of the fastest developing fintech nations in Europe due to its integration of digital financial products in its financial sector. Hence, the collaboration will open up new markets for Ripple as FINCI becomes the first to collaborate with the Ripple network. The joint venture will also ease and speed business by supporting cross-border payments between Europe and Mexico.
Binance Smart Chain, Ethereum and Vent Finance make a push
In an attempt to create an interoperable platform, Vent Finance is adding Binance Smart Chain and the Ethereum networks to its initial DEX offering launchpad. In a bid to become the first multi-chain IDO Launchpad, Vent is integrating BSC and ETH networks into its ecosystem, which already integrated Polygon and Cardano networks. This means that the Vent platform will now be available to developers and projects across the integrated networks.
Despite rocky past week, Shiba sticks to plan
As part of its long-term development, in the past 48 hours, Shiba has burned another 13 billion coins via its burn portal. The token is also hit hard by the bearish current driving the market downhill. In the past 7days, the token has experienced about an 8% decline in price, making it one of the biggest losers for the week.
Tron increases reserves to protect USDD
In a solidarity move, Tron has set aside $10 million in USDD to help investors who have been affected by the UST crash. Justin Sun, the CEO of Tron, was responding to the call of Ethereum’s founder, Vitalik Buterin, who demanded "coordinated sympathy and relief for the average UST smallholder." Sun stated that the idea is to support the 236,000 holders mostly affected by the UST crash, and the plans for that support will be unveiled very soon.
In other events, Tron’s DAO Reserve purchases $38 million worth of Tron to safeguard USDD, the network's stable coin. Since the UST crashed, Tron's DAO reserve has continued to purchase more and more quantities of Tron to strengthen the stable coins reserve. Tron's DAO Reserve is also purchasing other Stable coins and the Bitcoin to protect the USDD from any shaking.
Tezos invest in NFTs to promote African and Asian artists
In a bid to support underrepresented artists, the Tezos foundation will invest $1.23 million. The fund will be used to collect Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs) created by African and Asian artists. The art collection exercise will be managed and overseen by Misan Harriman, a seasoned photographer and an expert in the making and collection of NFTs.
Top losers and gainers this week
Terra's UST continues to top the losers' chart since its sudden crash. In the last 7 days, the Terra UST experienced a price decline of over 49.27%, followed by Shiba Inu, which declined by about 9.75%, and then Cardano (ADA), which dropped by about 7.87%. On the gainer's chart, Monero is leading the race this week with a whopping 19% gain, followed by Solana, which experienced a 4.72% upward push, and Tron, with a 3.40% value increase.
Cryptocurrency for charitable activities in Canada
CanadaHelps has enabled cryptocurrency donation in Canada. This move will give Canadians the required flexibility for charity involvement which can be trusted to fulfill the purpose for which it was contributed. With CanadaHelps innovation, Ether and Bitcoin can now be donated in a trusted, easy and secure manner towards achieving humanitarian goals put forward by registered charity organizations in Canada.
