FTX Turmoil Continues in Cryptocurrencies

The markets were shaken by the news from FTX this week. So what happened?

In short, FTX has become able to trade much more than its holdings by collateralizing its own token. Transactions made in this way seemed to make it have a larger volume than it was, but this was actually misleading for the market.

Afterward, there was a big sale and a liquidity crisis with it. This went down in history as the second biggest scandal in the crypto world after the Luna Incident. And the crucial part is that this crisis is not caused by the negative effects of macroeconomic conditions on the market.

Upon the crisis, FTX’s CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, who is now about to be declared “persona non grata” in the market, called Changpeng Zhou, CEO of his biggest rival Binance, and asked him to buy the company.

CEO Changpeng Zhou first announced that FTX would be acquired by Binance, then backed out, saying it was a very serious liquidity crisis that was difficult to handle. As compensation, FTX is reportedly trying to raise $8 billion from its investors at the moment.

Meanwhile, Sam Bankman-Fried, who is known as the second richest person in the crypto industry, has his fortunes melting: from $16 billion to $991 million. There are also courts and lawsuits waiting for him.

In conclusion, it is a fact that this news has caused a serious wound in the crypto market. While the people were waiting for the bull season, first Luna came, then FTX.

Bank Of Korea Tests NFT Trading, Remittances with Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC)

Chang Yong Rhee, chairman of the Bank of Korea central bank, announced in a speech in September that the 10-month digital won test has been completed. Next up are international digital currency remittances and NFT trading.

CDBC attracts the attention of major economies, especially countries such as the USA, UK, European Union, and China, and exporting CBDC is sought by these countries. It is also known that China is already experimenting with this issue.

This test announcement by Bank of Korea also resonated in the world, especially in Korea. Because these tests are aimed at a program that facilitates international digital currency remittances. These studies are also done for NFT trading.

Another highlight of the test is the conclusion that the distributed ledger technology currently lacks the stability required for a retail CBDC. Therefore, it is expected to use the standard centralized ledger database.

South Korea Central Bank Governor Chang Yong Rhee says that the digital Won work will be completed in the first months of 2023.

OpenSea Seeks New Solution for NFT Royalties

OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer stated that they have seen the voluntary royalty payment rate drop below 20 percent due to the voluntary payment of fees.

OpenSea has also stepped into the royalty work initiated by Solana-based marketplace Magic Eden. OpenSea has also recently announced the OpenRarity update, which started Avalanche support and is working on NFT royalties.

OpenSea said that as the prime marketplace of the industry, they have made it their mission to find solutions to the problems in this regard. In addition, the platform emphasized that it is aware of the creators’ wishes and will give more power to the producers.

OpenSea has announced its on-chain application launched for new collections for now. With this tool, content producers’ requests for royalties will be evaluated.

The tool, which will only be tested on new collections until December 8, will launch in all collections if the community’s approval is received and successful.

OpenSea made this statement at a time when content creators were complaining about other marketplaces, but this statement still doesn’t seem to satisfy the creators. They say OpenSea’s messages are unclear and could be potentially misleading and adversely affect competition in the market.

Lionel Messi Invests in NFT Game Sorare

Sorare announced that they will be working with Argentine superstar Messi, who is considered by many to be the greatest football player of all time, to create new content and fan experiences. The world-famous football player also became the global brand ambassador of the game company.

Sorare is a French-based game and Messi is currently playing for France’s prime club Paris Saint-Germain. This NFT fantasy game is currently in collaboration with 300 sports teams in more than 185 countries. It has 2 million users and a current value of 4.3 billion dollars. Collaborating with Messi, known as GOAT, will be a turning point for Sorare, which is already in a good uptrend, and it is expected to have a positive impact on them.

This is an NFT fantasy soccer game running on Sorare’s blockchain. Players can trade digital player cards in Sorare and manage teams of 5 players in fantasy football tournaments. All of the digital player cards in the game are also in NFT format. In this way, the ownership of the cards can be tracked over the blockchain.

Elon Musk Wants To Offer Banking Services On Twitter

Musk made statements on Twitter that he wanted to provide banking services. Saying that this is a transformative opportunity in conventional payments, Elon Musk thinks that there is not a big difference between sending a direct message and sending a payment.

This new feature of Twitter currently covers fiat currency and traditional money sending. Soon, a debit card will be added to the Twitter account. Every verified Twitter user will have a balance that they can use to send money anywhere in the network.

Musk says that instead of traditional banks’ complex and expensive credit cards, savings/cheque accounts, and similar systems, there will be a single balance on Twitter.

Musk is known as one of the founders of PayPal and has previously said he wants to turn Twitter into an app similar to WeChat, an “all-in-one” app in China.

For blockchain and cryptocurrency, Musk’s sympathy for this technology is well known. The integration of Twitter into blockchain and cryptocurrency trading in the not-too-distant future means that the system can go beyond its own circulation. Such a situation will not only transform the popular Web2 application Twitter into Web3 but also contribute to the solution of the actual regulation problems of cryptocurrency systems.