March 11, 2022 · 3 min read
The Weekly Wrap-Up - 12th March 2022
Avalanche Announces $290M Fund for Subnet Development
4M AVAX in Grants for âMultiverseâ Development
Layer 1 chain Avalanche has announced a new âMultiverse Fundâ aimed at incentivising development of âsubnetsâ 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 networkâs 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 âMultiverse Fundâ 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 platformâs token RUNE to increase, causing its price to surge by 20%. THORChainâs 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 âcontinue to look at new forms of payment to addâŠâ
Crypto Industry Breathes Sigh of Relief at Bidenâs Executive Order
Crypto-Related Bill Considered âExtremely Vagueâ
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 âextremely vagueâ.
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.