NBA Top Shot Backer Worth $2.6 Billion | Visa Settles On Ethereum

VISA IS PAVING THE WAY FOR STABLECOIN ADOPTION

A big win for both USDC and Ethereum fans: Visa has settled the first transaction in U.S. Dollar Coin (USDC), a cryptocurrency pegged to the U.S. dollar in a 1:1 ratio, on the Ethereum blockchain. The transaction, conducted between Visa and its global crypto wallet partner Crypto.com, is the first step of a larger move by the credit card giant toward accepting stablecoins as payment.

This development is the latest stage in Visa’s movement towards crypto. In December, Visa and Circle, the company behind USDC, announced a similar partnership with the ultimate goal of issuing a corporate card on the Visa network that will enable Circle business account holders to spend their USDC.

A DAB FROM DAPPER LABS

The NFT market is still boiling. The latest testament is a huge $305 million capital raise by Dapper Labs, the company behind NBA Top Shot and the underlying FLOW blockchain competing with Ethereum. The deal values the three-year-old Vancouver-based startup at $2.6 billion. Among the investors are basketball legend Michael Jordan, owner of the Charlotte Hornets, and Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant. Five months into its open beta, the blockchain-based collectible platform has already handled more than three million transactions and $460 million in sales on the secondary market.

Year-to-date, the combined market cap of major NFT projects has increased by 1,785%. Other blockchain gaming-focused projects like Theta Network, Enjin, Sandbox and Axie Infinity are also gaining traction. Additionally, NFT marketplaces, like Rarible and Opensea, saw their sales rise by anywhere between 50- to 100-fold in the past three months. According to Dapp Radar, in the first quarter of 2021, NFTs set a new transaction volume record of $1.5 billion.

BITCOIN MAKES A STRONG COMEBACK

Following last Thursday’s plunge that wiped out $100 billion in market value and the $6 billion bitcoin options expiry on Friday, bitcoin is back in business. On Tuesday, the price of bitcoin had climbed 2% over 24 hours, pushing its market capitalization up to $1.1 trillion – about $40 billion shy from an all-time high on March 13. As of Thursday afternoon, bitcoin’s price stood at $58,719.

Analysts pinned the nearly $150 billion gains to the blooming institutional adoption. Following Visa’s announcement, PayPal launched a new cryptocurrency checkout service on Tuesday. PayPal’s 375 million customers can now shop using cryptocurrency at millions of online merchants. On March 31, Goldman Sachs said its private wealth management division clients will be able to gain bitcoin exposure in the second quarter. On Thursday, Morgan Stanley approved bitcoin exposure for five of its mutual funds.

BLOCKCHAIN 50 SPOTLIGHT

Honeywell is among the first companies in the aerospace and manufacturing sectors to transfer all of its 2 million-plus aviation quality documents to a blockchain ledger, making them fully accessible to its customer base. Recorded documentation supports Honeywell’s blockchain-based marketplace for used aviation parts, GoDirect Trade. Launched in November 2018, the platform collects information about aircraft parts over their entire lifecycle and makes it available to potential buyers prior to the sale. The marketplace has more than 10,000 users and 4,100 companies and has grown its online sales volume from $5 million in the first year of operation to $30 million.

ELSEWHERE

 
Bitcoin sleuthing start-up Chainalysis doubles valuation to $2 billion with Benioff backing [CNBC]

DOGE Jumps After Tesla’s Musk Promises ‘Literal’ Moonshot [CoinDesk]

Deconstructing The Bitcoin Lending Landscape In 2021: How To Lend Wisely And Avoid Disaster [Bitcoin Magazine]

Follow us on Twitter & Facebook