The Weekly Wrap-Up - 12th March 2022

Avalanche Announces $290M Fund for Subnet Development   

4M AVAX in Grants for ‘Multiverse’ Development 

Layer 1 chain Avalanche has announced a new ‘Multiverse Fund’ aimed at incentivising development of ‘subnets’ for DeFi, NFTs and Web3 applications. 4 million AVAX tokens (currently worth around $290M) will be made available by the fund. 

Subnets are utilised by blockchains to reduce competition for resources and reduce the amount of strain on the network’s mainnet. They are also necessary for scaling of a blockchain. The Avalanche network now has a TVl (total value locked) of around $12B, and the first cohort of the ‘Multiverse Fund’ includes Aave, Wintermute and Jump Crypto.

THORChain Synthetic Assets Trading Goes Live

$RUNE Surges by 20%

On Thursday, Cosmos-based bridge THORChain announced the launch of its synthetic assets trading platform on Thursday. The move caused demand for the platform’s token RUNE to increase, causing its price to surge by 20%. THORChain’s TVL (total value locked) is now $193M and its token now sits at a price of $5.82.  

Synthetic assets mimic the value of its counterpart real asset. The launch of this functionality means that users of THORChain can now redeem assets such as synthetic Bitcoin, for real Bitcoin. The platform was hacked however in July of last year, which resulted in $8M being stolen. 

Ebay Hints at Releasing Crypto Payment Methods 

Investor Day Presentation Sparks Rumours

During an Investor Day presentation on Thursday, online marketplace Ebay revealed that it is researching development on digital wallets for upcoming versions of the platform. The presentation slide in question also stated that the platform will have a usable digital asset wallet by 2022 Q2.    

The news has sparked rumours that the platform might be considering implementing crypto payment methods for its online marketplace. The platform already has functionality for the sale of NFTs, and in an interview with TheStreet, Ebay CEO Jamie Lannone said that the company will “continue to look at new forms of payment to add…” 

Crypto Industry Breathes Sigh of Relief at Biden’s Executive Order

Crypto-Related Bill Considered ‘Extremely Vague’

In response to fears that Russia would utilise cryptocurrency as a means of evading economic sanctions, President Joe Biden drafted an executive order relating to crypto regulation. This week, the details of the order were revealed. Industry-fears that it would explicitly strengthen crypto regulation were put to rest, as analysts describe the bill to be ‘extremely vague’.  

The document emphasises the importance of applying regulation to the digital asset class, but does not define how such regulations should be implemented or what form they should take. The revelation further evidences the belief of many that the White House is becoming increasingly comfortable with the existence of cryptocurrency as a freely traded asset class.