Global payments giant Mastercard is ramping up its exposure blockchain tech yet again, after announcing a Polygon-based accelerator program to help musicians build their careers via Web3. The firm announced the "Mastercard Artist Accelerator" program via a Jan. 7 blog post, outlining that from this spring, it will connect five emerging musicians from across the globe with mentors that will help them set up their brand in the Web3 music space. "The artists will gain exclusive access to special events, music releases and more. A first-of-its-kind curriculum will teach the artists how to build (and own) their brand through Web3 …

Immunefi, a bug bounty and security services platform for the Web3 ecosystem, published a report on Jan. 6 revealing that the crypto industry lost a total of 3.9 billion dollars in 2022. According to the report, hacks were found to be the main cause of the losses, accounting for 95.6% of the total, with fraud, scams, and rug pulls comprising the remaining 4.4%. Immunefi also found that decentralized finance (DeFi) was the most targeted sector, suffering 80.5% in losses, compared to centralized finance (CeFi) which suffered a loss of 19.5%. According to the report: “DeFi has suffered $3,180,023,103 in total …

The cryptocurrency ecosystem underwent a turbulent year in 2022. Criticism inside and outside of the crypto industry was fueled following the collapse of FTX, Celsius, Three Arrows Capital and the Terra ecosystem. A number of losses have been recorded from these events. Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis released a report in December of last year, which noted that the depegging of Terra’s stablecoin, Terra USD Classic (USTC), saw weekly-realized losses peak at $20.5 billion. Findings further show that the subsequent collapse of Three Arrows Capital and Celsius in June 2022 saw weekly-realized losses reach $33 billion. While these events may have …

Despite the crypto winter, nonfungible tokens (NFTs) continue to draw interest. This has become apparent as many brands and retailers have started to offer digital NFTs attached to physical products. Known as “phygitals,” these offerings allow real-world products to be tied to digital NFTs. For example, RTFKT — a digital fashion and collectible company — recently launched a project called Cryptokicks iRL. According to sources, RTFKT is creating digitally-designed sneakers backed by a physical product. RTFKT’s official Twitter account recently tweeted that Lace Engine NFT holders will be able to reserve a pair of Cryptokicks iRL, which can then be …

Financial services institutions and banks have increasingly engaged with Web3 since 2020. This is also true within institutional decentralized finance (DeFi), as several potential use cases have emerged that could trigger a new wave of innovation within these organizations. Institutional DeFi does not refer to growing institutional investments in DeFi protocols and decentralized applications (DApps) but rather to large institutions using DeFi protocols to tokenize real-world assets with regulatory compliance and institutional-level controls for consumer protection. A common question that comes up is: What benefits does DeFi offer on top of digital banking? Not long ago, banking was a physical …

Many decentralized exchanges boast cross-chain capabilities, but in fact, the majority of them simply use bridging technology to perform swaps. To bring complete decentralization to crypto trading, one exchange has developed a fully cross-chain liquidity aggregation mechanic that does not rely on bridging. Find out more about cross-chain liquidity in the latest Cointelegraph interview with Chainge founder Dejun Qian. Q: What is the biggest problem facing DEXes at the moment, and why is it such a challenge? DEXs have several problems, among which the most notable are: lack of liquidity, inefficient/hazardous interoperability solutions, and user experience. The first two issues …

South Korean tech giant LG Electronics announced that it has teamed up with Oorbit, a cloud-based technology platform and PIXELYNX, a company building an integrated music, gaming, and Web3 ecosystem, to bring the metaverse directly into the living rooms of viewers. Announced just in time for #CES2023, we’re excited to announce that we have partnered with @LGElectronics to bring interoperable gaming and social experiences directly to your LG Smart TVs. READ: https://t.co/nppJZe650B — Oorbit (@OorbitOnline) January 4, 2023 The collaboration is set to allow viewers to be able to explore interconnected virtual worlds, concerts, and AI multiplayer games through their …

Time-weighted average price is an algorithmic trade execution strategy commonly used in traditional finance tools. The goal of the strategy is to produce an average execution price that is relatively close to the time-weighted average price (TWAP) for the period that the user specifies. TWAP is mainly used to reduce a large order’s impact on the market by breaking it down into smaller orders and executing each one at regular intervals over a period of time. How TWAP can reduce the price impact of a large order Bids can influence the price of an asset in the order books or …

The multi-billion-dollar sports industry is undergoing a digital transformation and Web3 elements are likely to play a major role. This notion was highlighted in Deloitte’s “2022 Sports Industry Outlook” report, which predicts an acceleration in the blending of real and digital worlds, along with growing markets for nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and immersive technologies. According to the report, such advances may lead to a significant increase in fan engagement. This is an important point to consider, given that fan engagement has long served as the backbone for ensuring sponsor revenue, ticket and merchandise sales, along with the overall popularity of a …

Social media has infiltrated the everyday lives of a huge chunk of the global population. With media giants like Facebook and Twitter taking up a significant percentage of people’s time and attention, issues are not scarce. The main pain point stems from the exclusively centralized character of all these mega companies. With the rise of blockchain technology and the advancement Web3 offers in the digital era, social media platforms are also bound to change. The times of centralized entities hogging all control over this sector of the online world are gone. As users seek more transparency and control over their …

2022 saw the fall of many linchpin crypto and blockchain firms as the May market drawdown shook the industry. It caused many cryptocurrencies to lose value and many investors to pull their money from the market. Furthermore, the unprecedented knock-on effects of the meltdown exposed many blockchain and cryptocurrency firms that were ill-prepared for turbulent times. However, a collective of companies was able to resist negative market forces and grow amidst the turbulence. The crypto market as a whole continues to grow and has now reached 320 million users. As we look back on a year full of surprises, we …

Decentralized finance (DeFi) is defined as any product or service offered by the Web3 world that helps users conduct financial activities such as payments, borrowing, lending, investing, trading and staking. Several Web3 use cases, including DeFi, GameFi, SocialFi and nonfungible tokens (NFTs), emerged through the last bullish cycle. DeFi has been the largest market cap activity within Web3, with a peak total value locked (TVL) of over $175 billion at the peak of the 2021 bull market. DeFi: The primary use case for blockchain? Things have not been the same since the Bitcoin genesis block was created. Thanks to the …