Crypto Scoop: SOL Launches Mobile Phone As Tether Announces Launch Of A New Stablecoin

While top cryptocurrencies move towards a price recovery, several cryptos and NFT initiatives have been rolled out. In this week’s episode of the crypto scoop, we’ll review the highlights of the week.

• The price movement of top cryptocurrencies
• Solana’s latest invention, mobile phones
• NFT initiatives by Meta, eBay and other top stakeholders
• Football legend Ronaldo’s launch in the NFT space and much more.

Price Movement Of Top Cryptocurrencies

In the last few weeks, the market prices have been volatile, with top cryptocurrencies like BTC, ETH, SOL, and more experiencing significant price dips. While these coins are fast trying to find their footing, some crypto traders seem to have been scared off. Google trends data reports that the search phrase "bitcoin is dead" received an all-time high during the week. However, bitcoin's price seems to have stabilised, and it is currently trading above $21,000. 

Jon Cunliffe, the deputy governor of the Bank of England, compared the recent price crash of the top cryptocurrencies market to that of the dot-com bubble in the late 1990s and predicted that the survivors would go on to become like the eCommerce giants "Amazons and eBays" of the future.

Elon Musk also reaffirmed his passion for crypto, Dogecoin dismissing the recent lawsuit filed against him for prompting Dogecoin. He explained. "I have never said that people should invest in crypto. I intend to personally support Dogecoin because I know a lot of people who are not that wealthy that have encouraged me to buy and support Dogecoin. So I'm responding to those people." He continued by adding that he had purchased Dogecoin, Tesla also accepts DOGE for merch, and SpaceX will soon do the same. 

The Twitter board has also unanimously recommended Twitter shareholders vote in favour of Musk's takeover of Twitter. If Musk is successful in the takeover, he has more than one expressed plan to integrate crypto payments on Twitter and also help use Twitter as a tool to stop crypto scams. 

Solana Launches its Mobile phone, Saga.

The Solana (SOL) network's creators, Solana Labs, announced the release of their Android smartphone, the Saga, and the Solana Mobile Stack software ecosystem for Android on June 23.

An open-source software development kit (SDK) called the Solana Mobile Stack (SMS) enables programmers to create native Android apps that integrate with the Solana blockchain network.

With Solana's SDK appearing on the Saga smartphone, the toolkit would allow developers to "create stunning, seamless web3 mobile experiences." Amazing, isn't it?!

Tether is Set to Launch A New Stablecoin pegged to the British pound sterling.

As the UK prepares to use stablecoins as a form of payment, Tether anticipates playing a role in industry innovation there. Tether is adding a new cryptocurrency backed by the British pound(GBP) sterling to its stablecoin lineup. The debut of GBPT, Tether's future GBP-pegged stablecoin, was officially announced on Wednesday. GBPT will first run on the Ethereum network.

While fans celebrate Tether's announcement, the rival Circle has come under fire for the power it holds. Founder of the Daily Gwei newsletter, Anthony Sassano, claims that USDC accounts can be blocked. Founder of the Daily Gwei newsletter, Anthony Sassano, claimed that 

USDC issuer Circle can freeze the tokens "in any address at any time for whatever reason." 

However, Circle CEO and co-founder Jeremy Allaire quickly dismissed this as inaccurate and unhelpful FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt). He linked an article, Why developers can trust USDC to offer more clarity on the claims.

Football Legend Ronaldo Joins The Crypto Revolution

According to a statement released by the Binance, soccer legend Cristiano Ronaldo and cryptocurrency exchange Binance have agreed to an exclusive multi-year NFT relationship.

Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the greatest soccer players in history, with five Ballon d'Or awards, more than 800 career goals, and more than 550 million followers on Twitter and Instagram. Binance plans to exploit the agreement to attract Ronaldo's supporters to the Web3 and NFT industries.

Following the agreement, the Manchester United player and the exchange will collaborate to develop various NTF collections exclusively offered on the Binance NFT marketplace.

In his response to the collaboration, Ronaldo said that he values his relationships with his followers and is excited to provide them with "unprecedented experiences" via the Binance NFT platform.

US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) Approves Short Bitcoin ETF

The ProShares Short Bitcoin Strategy, which provides exposure to Bitcoin's inverse performance, was just approved by the US SEC a few days ago. Under the symbol BITI, the ETF began trading on Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The introduction of ProShares' Short Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) may be a sign of good things to come for the sector, according to Michael Sonnenshein, CEO of the top cryptocurrency asset management Grayscale Investments.

With the approval of new Bitcoin-related investment products, Sonnenshein remarked that he believes the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the United States is gradually becoming more at ease with the most popular cryptocurrency.

Meta, eBay and several stakeholders take a leap into NFTs.

Meta, Instagram’s parent company, has announced that it will begin testing NFTs on Instagram. The NFTs will be tested using its augmented reality platform Spark AR. 

eCommerce giant eBay has also announced the acquisition of KnownOrigin, an NFT marketplace. The acquisition will assist eBay in its plans to diversify into the NFT space and blockchain technology. 

MoonPay, a crypto payment startup, has partnered with Fox corporations, Death Row Records, and Universal Pictures to launch an NFT platform. T e NFT platform, HyperMint, will be used to allow individuals and firms to mint millions of digital collectables. 

Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and the American publication Rolling Stone have teamed up once more. In addition to releasing 2,500 limited-edition paper zines containing Bored Ape photographs on their main pages, Rolling Stone collaborated with BAYC previously to auction off two of its digital magazine covers. In a recent tweet, BAYC announced its second collaboration with the publication to introduce a nonfungible Bored Ape Yacht Club token and a fungible Mutant Ape Yacht Club token.

TAG Heuer, a Swiss premium watchmaker, launched a smartwatch with NFT capabilities. The smartwatch shows nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and is connected to cryptocurrency wallets like MetaMask and Ledger Live. It was developed by watchmaker TAG Heuer in collaboration with the well-known nonfungible token (NFT) community surrounding Bored Ape Yacht Club and CLONE-X.

Ukraine has also sold one of the NFTs it received in a donation. The CryptoPunk 5364 NFT was donated to the Aid For Ukraine campaign by user 0x165cd3, who procured the artwork on March 1, 2022. Ukraine successfully sold the CryptoPunks NFT donation for 90 ETH, worth over $100K.