One of the most well-known things about crypto is its volatility. For instance, despite reaching an all-time high value of US$68,000 in November 2021, Bitcoin fell to US$33,000 in January 2022. The conditions were so bad that investors became concerned about a “crypto winter”, a phenomenon where prices continue to stay low with no rise insight for over a year.
So you want to get in on the crypto craze. Well, who wouldn’t? After all, it’s a market worth over US$3 trillion! But before you get started, you need to acquaint yourself with token economics. In crypto, tokens represent assets or utilities that your company offers investors in return for their investment. They differ from coins in the sense that tokens are built on an existing blockchain, like Tether on Ethereum, whereas coins are the native tokens of a blockchain, such as Bitcoin.
Decentralized financing (DeFi) is a way of taking banking outside the control of traditional financial institutions. It has emerged as a new and revolutionary way of investing funds with quicker transaction speeds. As of January 2022, US$92.3 billion of value is locked in on DeFi platforms.
In January this year, the crypto market experienced a massive crash and lost a total of US$1 trillion in value. With this crash came the fear of the onset of crypto winter, where the prices of cryptocurrencies drop with no upswing in sight. While the fear has since subsided, the crypto market has been experiencing a crash amid growing conflict in Ukraine.
If you can play games, work together and hang out at concerts as virtual avatars in the metaverse, then sex doesn’t seem too far off the mark, right? According to a game development theory called “Time to Penis” (TTP), every platform or game has a certain time period before users find out how to create a penis on it.
The crypto market had a great run through 2021. In November, its market capitalization hit US$3 trillion, and Bitcoin reached an all-time high of US$68,000. However, jumping into 2022, the market has experienced some roadblocks. On January 14, Bitcoin fell by 12% to US$36,000, dropping to its new lows since July 2021. Bitcoin’s crash saw a parallel fall in other cryptocurrencies as well, resulting in a total of US$1 trillion being wiped out of the crypto market.
The fashion industry is always on top of the game, quickly adapting to any innovative technologies that might come its way. From using virtual influencers to promoting their products to creating their own metaverses, fashion retailers have been actively expanding their horizons. On February 14 this year, we saw the launch of the metaverse fashion week in the Second Life metaverse.
In the early 2000s, the multiplayer online game Club Penguin was a new age internet phenomenon. You could buy outfits for your customizable penguin avatar and decorate your igloo any way you wanted. You also had the ability to chat and interact with others through various social scenarios in the game.
With the non-fungible token (NFT) market growing to US$41 billion, 2021 turned out to be a great year for those within the space. The popularity of NFTs is evident in the fact that the use of the abbreviation has increased by 11,000% in the past year. As interest in NFTs increases, more and more people are looking to grab one of these digital collectibles for their collections.
Recently, financial services startup BlockFi came under fire for failing to properly register its services—more specifically, the BlockFi Interest Accounts—as securities. The company had to pay US$100 million as a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Launched in 2017, this U.S.-based company gained popularity for providing high-interest loans to its users.
Last year was a landmark one for the cryptocurrency industry, featuring the NFT boom and new token launches. Funding into crypto and non-fungible token (NFT) startups grew by over 700 percent last year. Investors have poured in about US$28 billion into global crypto and blockchain startups, with US$3 billion being dedicated to NFT companies alone.
If you are a frequent user of decentralized platforms, you must have been acquainted with the concept of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). From startups to play-to-earn games—founders are optimizing the potential of DAOs to create ecosystems that thrive on collaboration and shared ownership.
In one way or another, all of us have been exposed to popular tech buzzwords, like non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the metaverse and Web 3.0. As of 2021, the NFT market is worth US$41 billion; several metaverse tokens, such as Axie Infinity Shard and SAND, have been climbing the crypto ranks.
Imagine Facebook, but without Mark Zuckerberg at its helm—sounds relieving, right? Well, that’s the concept of decentralized applications, or dApps. They are apps—akin to those on your phone—but without a single authority or entity controlling them. Today, there are approximately 4,000 dApps, with most of them existing on Ethereum. What’s more? Since October 2021, between 60 and 70 dApps have been launched every month.
The internet has always been a way for people with niche interests to find like-minded people. One of the communities that has thrived on the internet is the anime and manga community.
For those of you who may not know, “anime” means animation in Japanese. In English, it refers to Japanese animated content. “Manga” is the Japanese word for comics, and manga often serves as inspiration for anime series.
About 60 percent of American and UK-based video game developers have started using blockchain technology. For them, the scope of innovation and real-world value offered by “play-to-earn” crypto games—absent in traditional video games—enhances their appeal. Players, too, have been enjoying the chance to earn money while playing video games.
