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Binance Launches Megadrop: A Token Launch Platform with Airdrops and Web3 Quests

Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange, has recently announced the launch of Binance Megadrop, a new token launch platform that offers a unique combination of airdrops and Web3 quests. This platform allows users to subscribe BNB to Locked Products and complete tasks in their Web3 Wallet to gain early access to rewards from selected Web3 projects before their tokens are listed on the Binance Exchange.

The first project to be introduced on Binance Megadrop is BounceBit (BB), a BTC restaking chain. The token details for BounceBit are as follows: Max Token Supply: 2,100,000,000 BB, Megadrop Token Rewards: 168,000,000 BB (8% of max token supply), Initial Circulating Supply: 409,500,000 BB (19.5% of max token supply).

To get started with Binance Megadrop, users need to log into their Binance account and ensure they have at least one active Binance Web3 Wallet. They can then subscribe to BNB Locked Products and/or complete Web3 Quests to accrue scores. These scores will determine the rewards received through the Megadrop program.

The scoring system for Megadrop is based on the Locked BNB Score, which is calculated based on the quantity of BNB subscribed and the length of the subscription period. Users will also receive a Web3 Quest Bonus and a Web3 Quest Multiplier when they complete the designated Web3 Quests. The total score is calculated by applying the Web3 Quest Multiplier to the Locked BNB Score and adding the Web3 Quest Bonus.

It is important to note that external wallets imported to the Binance Web3 Wallet will not count, and only backed-up wallets created within the Binance Web3 Wallet can participate in Megadrop. The Megadrop rewards will be airdropped to users’ Binance Spot Wallets.

It is crucial for users to complete identity verification and hold at least one active Binance Web3 Wallet to qualify for Megadrop rewards. Additionally, there are certain eligibility criteria for participants based on their jurisdiction. Users from Australia, Canada, Cuba, Crimea Region, Hong Kong, Iran, Japan, New Zealand, Netherlands, North Korea, Russia, Singapore, Syria, United Kingdom, United States of America, and its territories are currently not eligible to participate in BB Megadrop.

Binance Megadrop aims to provide users with an interactive and rewarding experience within the crypto ecosystem. More details regarding the Megadrop amount, Web3 Quests, and the detailed listing plan will be announced separately.

Image source: Shutterstock

Fundraising by Crypto Companies Accounts for $8.2B in Q3

As cryptocurrencies continue gaining steam, crypto companies raised capital worth $8.2 billion in the third quarter of 2021.

Mason Nystrom, a research analyst at MessariCrypto, explained:

“Total Q3 crypto company fundraising surpassed over 300 funding rounds accounting for $8.2 billion dollars.”

Centralized finance (CeFi), whose use cases include earning interest on savings, borrowing money, and spending with a crypto debit card, took the lion’s share with $4.1 billion, followed by infrastructure and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) at $2 billion and $1.4 billion, respectively.

Web 3 and decentralized finance (DeFi) took the fourth and fifth position with $410 million and $342 million, respectively.

This study shows that crypto adoption continues to gain traction as more companies seek to enter this space.

Furthermore, crypto users are upward because Coinbase has emerged as the most sought after iPhone app, surpassing social media applications like TikTok and Instagram. Coinbase is a leading American crypto exchange.

Where is Bitcoin heading?

After surging from lows of $28K to highs of $66,900 in three months, Bitcoin (BTC) has shown how a paradigm shift can be witnessed in this market.

Bitcoin has been correcting since it hit a new all-time high (ATH) of $66,900 on October 20. The leading cryptocurrency has been down 9.13% in the last seven days to hit $60,493, according to CoinMarketCap.

Reportedly, this trend has been triggered by long-term BTC traders taking profits.

Some analysts believe that it might drop to the $57K and $58K levels. Market analyst Michael van de Poppe noted:

“Bitcoin couldn’t break through $63.6K and tests the other side of the range. Might be dropping another time if $61.6K can’t break, and then I’m looking at $58K next.”

On the other hand, crypto trader Joseph Young said:

“Bitcoin is at $59K~$60K but doesn’t feel like a blow off top at all. – Overall leverage is a bit high but not very high – Decent support – Strong fundamental news coming from Asia – Institutional catalysts continue to emerge. Eyes on $57K but not worried yet.”

As crypto adoption continues experiencing an uptick, it remains to be seen how the top cryptocurrency plays out in the short term.

Reddit Intends to Tokenize Karma Points and Onboard Half a Million Users to Web3

Social media giant Reddit is doubling down on its embrace of digital currencies and associated innovations with the latest push into Web3.0.

According to one of the social media’s latest hires, Rahul, the firm primarily focuses on decentralizing social media. Its latest plans are to tokenize Karma Points using the Ethereum blockchain.

The tokenized Karma points will aid more flexible decision-making amongst subreddits, akin to a Decentralized Autonomous Organization. Using the tokenized Karma points, subreddits in disagreements can be forked democratically. According to the software engineer, a forked subreddit can be likened to switching from one different ecosystem, such as Facebook to Twitter, without losing contribution points.

In actualizing these important innovations, Rahul said Reddit would partner with Offchain Labs’ Arbitrum network. Through the partnership, Reddit will be able to create its own blockchain instance where users’ tokenized community points can be stored.

“Everything will be permissionless, open-source, and decentralized, just like crypto. I can’t wait for it to hit mainnet and see how DAOs are formed and what DeFi, NFT applications might emerge,” Rahul tweeted.

Social media companies are becoming engrossed with a switch into the blockchain ecosystem, with Twitter building the BlueSky project. This decentralized protocol is billed to serve as a foundation for various social media platforms to be built on it. Facebook is also making a big push into the metaverse, as unveiled when it changed its name to Meta, as reported by Blockchain.news last week.

Having benefited a great deal from centralized content control, Rahul said one of the core innovations of the switch into a decentralized social media world is to test a financial model that will help “explore a new monetization strategy.” This new tokenization plan will build on the Ethereum based reward system that is currently being applied to the r/Cryptocurrency and r/FortniteBR subreddits, respectively. The latest push by the social media giant is set to onboard 500 million new users into Web3.0.

$75M Capital Raised by Blockchain Founders Fund for Metaverse and Web3

Singapore-based venture capital Blockchain Founders Fund (BFF) has announced the launch of a new Venture Capital Fund II to support emerging projects in the cryptocurrency, Metaverse and Web3 space.

BFF has raised $75 million from major investors, including NEO Global Capital (NGC), Appworks, COO of Sebastien Borget of The Sandbox, GSR, LD Capital, Metavest Capital, and more.

Roger Lim, Founding Partner of NEO Global Capital (NGC) and investor in BFF II said that:

“BFF is an early investor in many leading companies in the blockchain space and we are excited about co-investment opportunities and building a long-term strategic relationship with the team.”

The first investment in this newly launched BFF II economy has been injecting into some exciting companies, including FXDX, GRID, RD Land, Rebelbots, Health Hero, The Apocalyptics, FuseFi, Cross the Ages, and Dogami.

BFF stated that the launch of the new fund mainly focus on high-quality pre-seed or seed-stage projects in the Metaverse and Web3 fields

“We’re very excited by the enthusiasm and support from key industry leaders to back entrepreneurs that will shape the Web3 ecosystem,” said, Aly Madhavji, Managing Partner at Blockchain Founders Fund.

The fund is also ready to provide an additional $5 million to successful startups, allowing it to continue to expand financing.

Despite the price of digital assets fluctuating greatly, it does not affect the entry of capital into this market. As reported by blockchain.news on December 20, 2021, Venture capital firms kept a keen eye on the crypto industry to the extent of pouring $30 billion in this sector in 2021.

Current venture capital funding is nearly four times its previous all-time high of $8 billion recorded in 2018.

Orbs and Fantom Integrate to Push the Boundaries of Web3

The bridge between the major blockchain networks has set its sights on one of the new contenders to join the race for Web3, Fantom.

Ghost may be new, but it offers the best that proof-of-stake (POS) chains have to offer. Scalable, fast, and affordable, focusing primarily on hosting applications for DeFi.

Orb, a Layer 3 chain, which supports Layer 1 and 2 capabilities, making smart contracts capable of performing more sophisticated activities, has now been integrated with Fantom.

This follows integrations with Layer 1 chains, including Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon, Solana, Avalanche, and Harmony.

Fantom itself is an EVM-compatible chain, which means that applications hosted on your network can see the value transferred across the entire EVM chain ecosystem. It currently hosts more than 100 Dapps and ranks fourth on the TVL network to parade with more than $12 billion blocked.

The three largest Dapps hosted on Fantom include SpookySwap, Geist Finance, and Scream, which boast $1 billion in TVL.

The token at the heart of the Fantom network, the FTM, shows strong gains in the last year.

In addition, other projects are expanding at Fantom to improve its multi-chain operability. These include popular projects like Multichain, Curve, and Beefy Binance.

The spheres themselves are growing rapidly. In the wake of its latest update, as it now offers multi-chain betting on both Ethereum and Polygon, as well as more Tier 3 applications based on its protocol, including the on-chain activity alert notification tool via l’Open DeFi Notification Protocol and the Revault Network, intelligent deposit aggregator, it collects data from hundreds of deposits and automatically optimizes investor holdings across all deposits.

The integration between Orbs and Fantom sets the stage for more Fantom-based DeFi applications to improve their protocols with Orbs L3 functionality.

Solana to Replace Ethereum in Blockchain Gaming, Paradox Studios Founder Says

Compared to Ethereum’s Solidity language when developing play-to-earn (P2E) games, the ease of use of Solana’s building language- Rust will give Solana a competitive edge, according to AmioTalio- the founder of UK-based animation and game development platform Paradox Studios.

With blockchain gaming continuously accelerating the metaverse narrative, AmioTalio believes that the huge funding that Solana is offering developers is intended to woo them from the Ethereum network, and it is starting to take shape. He pointed out:

“Solana will leave Ethereum in the dust this year when it comes to gaming. They now have a huge list of games looking to launch this year on Solana, which will take them into the lead position in this area, in my opinion.”

Solana has already rolled out $400 million to enhance Web3 gaming in the last six months.

AmioTalio noted that he made these observations after meeting various specialists who disclosed the simplicity of Rust. He added:

“When you realize every product or service is made by or provided by a business, you must realize the main goal of a business is to make money and maximize profit, so with low costs and high transaction speed and massive funding for gaming developers; the growth is going parabolic.”

The blockchain gaming sector continues to gain steam, given that it attracted investments worth $1.1 billion in January, according to a recent Blockchain Game Alliance and DappRadar report. Virtual worlds, decentralized applications (dapps), and play-to-earn platforms attracted the lion’s share of these investments.

Additionally, the gaming transparency rendered by blockchain technology is also making them tick.

Meanwhile, two-time Indonesian football league champion Persib Bandung partnered with blockchain gaming platform Liberty Gaming Guild (LGG) to offer its fans an ecosystem to learn and thrive in the new gaming era.

Crypto Exchange FTX Expands Business to Africa, Partnering Kenyan Fintech Firm AZA Finance

To expand its global footprint and presence on African soil, top-notch cryptocurrency exchange FTX has partnered with AZA Finance, a Kenyan-based fintech company.

Through the strategic partnership, FTX seeks to enhance the use of Web3 and cryptocurrencies in Africa by offering ideal networking and learning resources.

Moreover, plans are underway to offer African and digital currency trading pairs, which will make it easier to deposit and withdraw cryptocurrencies using African currencies. The non-fungible tokens (NFTs) market is also expected to be boosted by onboarding artists on the continent.

Elizabeth Rossiello, AZA Finance CEO, welcomed the partnership and stated:

“After serving these booming enterprises for years, we know that the next generation of users, creators, and builders for the Web3 economy is undoubtedly African.”

The swift adoption of cutting-edge technologies by Africans coupled with the continent’s rapid-growing population, which is anticipated to double by 2050, also triggered this partnership.

Founded in 2013, AZA Finance, formerly called BitPesa, is a provider of cross-border payment solutions for businesses with a presence in ten African countries.

Based on a valuation of $32 billion, FTX has emerged as one of the leading crypto exchanges globally, and its expansion drive continues to gain steam.

For instance, FTX recently announced plans to open a regional headquarters in Dubai following the approval of its virtual-asset license.

The exchange’s CEO Sam Bankman-Fried acknowledged that FTX Europe, a branch operating in Europe and the Middle East, would offer “complex crypto-derivatives products with centralized counterparty clearing to the institutional market.

FTX Europe was established earlier this month, becoming the second affiliate of the crypto exchange after FTX US, which was launched in May 2019.

The company continues to expand its business worldwide. In February, FTX acquired Japanese digital assets brokerage firm, Liquid Group, to bolster its global presence, Blockchain.News reported.

Spotify Intends to Add NFTs to Streaming Service: Report

Swedish audio streaming and media services provider Spotify appears to be planning to add blockchain technology and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to its streaming service.

The firm recently posted two job openings that indicated that the streaming company is exploring the possibility with Web3.

Spotify is currently seeking to recruit people to work in the early stages for “Web3” projects. According to the ad statement by the company: “The hiring of Spotify in the sector seems to be in the first phase of exploration. A vacancy asks for an engineer for its experimental growth team. The full-stack small team that will be responsible for driving growth through new technologies, such as Web3.”

Spotify also has another job offer that looks for a manager in the Innovation and Market Intelligence group. The job posting said: “The streaming company is looking for a candidate with experience in the content, creator, media, Web3, and emerging technology industries” to assist Spotify in defining Moonshots, a term for ambitious new projects.

Spotify is the latest giant in the tech space seeking to make NFT a part of its streaming service to enhance better offerings, increase artist earnings, and make a step ahead in the competition in the crypto space.

However, the company has not commented on the latest developments.

Optimizing Streaming Capabilities

The move signals that Spotify’s interest in blockchain technology is significantly rising. Three and a half years ago, the firm first expressed its interest in that area by acquiring a startup called Mediachain Labs. Spotify acquired the Brooklyn-based blockchain startup Mediachain Labs, whose team joined the company’s office in New York to work on developing better technology for connecting artists and other rights holders with the tracks hosted on Spotify’s service.

Before the acquisition, Spotify had developed several technologies that could assist in such efforts, including a decentralized, peer-to-peer (P2P) database to connect applications with media and its information, including an attribution engine for creators, and a cryptocurrency that rewards creators for their work.

A few years ago, Spotify invested $10 million in Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency and became one of the founding members of the Libra cryptocurrency initiative.

Every global digital subscription service (such as music or other things) is carefully watching the cryptocurrency and digital payments space. Spotify is hiring people to help it figure out what to do with such emerging technologies.

Opera Web Browser Gets into Web3 Space, Adds Multiple Tokens into Its Crypto Wallet

Opera, a popular Norwegian technology firm that specializes in web browser development and fintech applications, announced Wednesday the addition of support for eight more blockchain networks into its in-browser crypto wallet.

The move is part of the company’s continued effort to introduce Web3 to more than 380 million mobile and desktop users worldwide. As a result, the browser company said that it has added support for eight major blockchain ecosystems – Bitcoin, Solana, Polygon, StarkEx, Ronin, Celo, Nervos Network, and IXO – across its apps and web browsers.

This implies that Solana, Bitcoin, Polygon, StarkEx, Ronin, Celo, Nervos DAO, and IXO, will join Ether as cryptocurrencies supported by the crypto-focused browser’s built-in wallet. This also means that Opera users will now have access to decentralized apps (dApps) and services within such blockchain networks. Opera’s crypto browser is already available on PC and Android with a further integration on iOS release underway.

The tens of millions of active Opera users are now set to benefit from blockchains and decentralized apps (dapps) and services within the eight different blockchain ecosystems. Opera’s desktop crypto browser now enables users to access the Polygon and Solana DApp ecosystems, as well as the benefits of Layer 2 DeFi (Ethereum Layer-2 ecosystems) via StarkWare-powered DiversiFi. The browser will “soon” plug into the rest, Opera stated.

By getting access to such blockchains, users can benefit from faster transactions and lower gas fees while minimizing their carbon footprint and still leveraging Ethereum’s robust security and decentralization.

The integration of multiple blockchains and mainly Layer 2s is the key strategy in Opera’s mission to remain chain agnostic and easily onboard millions of users to Web3 and to do so in an environmentally-conscious manner.

Susie Batt, Crypto Ecosystem Lead at Opera, talked about the development and stated: “Providing environmentally conscious solutions for our users is a key mission for Opera and moving activity on to layer 2 goes a long way to minimizing users’ carbon footprint. To attract mainstream audiences, Web 3 needs a Web 2 makeover – both in terms of user interface and user experience. That’s where Opera excels.”

Driving Crypto Infrastructure Adoption

The latest integration is part of Opera’s continued commitment to build on its recently launched Crypto Browser initiative.

In January, Opera launched its Web3 “Crypto Browser” with features such as a built-in crypto wallet, easy access to NFT/crypto exchanges, support for decentralized apps (dApps), and many more. With the launch, Opera aims to simplify the Web3 user experience that often seems difficult for mainstream users to understand.

The built-in non-custodial wallet enables support of blockchains including Ethereum, Bitcoin, Celo, Nervos, Polygon, and many more from the get-go. Opera’s aim is to let users access their crypto without the need for any extensions, and giving them the option of using third-party wallets as well. With the crypto browser, users can buy crypto and fiat currencies via crypto on-ramp, swap crypto directly in-wallet, send and receive funds, and check their wallet balance.

Abra Opens New Division with Yield and Web3 Investment Services for Premium Clients

Abra, a cryptocurrency wealth management platform based in California, announced on Tuesday that it has launched a new asset management division, Abra Capital Management (ACM), which is designed to provide clients with access to enhanced investment opportunities.

Through ACM, Abra’s clients are now able to access actively managed, structured products and investment funds in addition to Abra’s best-in-class trading, buying, and borrowing services.

ACM is designed to provide five funds to customers. Three funds offer yield-generating opportunities in stablecoins, Bitcoin and Ether, while the other two funds provide early-stage token and equity investment opportunities.

Through ACM, Abra aims to provide high-net-worth clients and institutions with unique access to various other digital asset investment opportunities. ACM provides strategic capital to several early Web3 projects as part of efforts being made by Abra to accelerate many of its DeFi strategies. According to the statement, ACM will complement Abra’s high-yield services by providing investors with a wider variety of ways to gain exposure to the growing asset classes.

Bill Barhydt, the founder and CEO of Abra, talked about the development and said: “As investor appetite for access to the emerging digital asset economy has skyrocketed, so has the demand for solutions that can help them diversify their exposure and invest in high-growth, yet relatively inaccessible, vehicles. Most exchanges and crypto platforms are limited in the solutions they can offer.”

Marissa Kim, who recently joined ACM as a general partner, will lead the new business, while Barhydt will serve as a chief investment officer.

ACM is currently open to all Abra customers and investors with a minimum investment size of $250,000.

Bringing Digital Finance to the Traditional Financial Market

The launch of the new asset management division (ACM) followed a funding raise that the firm conducted late last year.

In September last year, Abra raised $55 million in a Series C funding round led by Ignia and Blockchain Capital. The firm stated plans to use the funds to develop high net worth and institutional sales offerings, scale its marketing team, and beef up its product team into new offerings for wealth management, trading, and payments.

Launched in 2014, Abra’s hundreds of thousands of customers earn a high yield on their crypto assets, trade over 100 different cryptocurrencies and borrow dollars against crypto holdings. The company has processed over one billion dollars in crypto-backed loans and has witnessed revenues rise ten-fold in the last year.