💵 zuck bucks

Meta is exploring digital money, Elon buys 9.2% Twitter stake, Binance.US raises $200 million and more.

Apr 07, 2022

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Crypto Market Update 📈

The global cryptocurrency market cap rose to the $2.01 trillion mark, falling 2.66% over the last 24 hours. The total crypto market volume dropped 4.52% to $113.87 billion during the same period.

Bitcoin (BTC): $43,590.67 (↓2.67%)

Ethereum (ETH): $3,229.68 (↓1.94%)

Tether (USDT) : $1 (↓0.01%)

Binance Coin (BNB): $432.93 (↓0.06%)

Top Stories 📰

1. Meta plans virtual currency, creator tokens

Broke: Diem

Woke: Zuck Bucks

After killing its stablecoin dreams due to regulatory pressure, Meta is now planning to launch its own in-app currency called "Zuck Bucks."

According to the Financial Times, the company is exploring a potential digital currency intended to be used in the metaverse. But it's unlikely to be based on blockchain.

“Instead, Meta is leaning towards introducing in-app tokens that would be centrally controlled by the company, similar to those used in gaming apps such as the Robux currency in popular children’s game Roblox,” FT wrote.

Along with this, Meta is also exploring other tokens such as “social tokens,” “reputation tokens,” and “creator coins” to reward contributors, creators, and influencers. The company is also planning to venture into traditional financial services by offering small businesses loans at attractive rates.

For a while now, Meta has been trying to increase its user base and diversify its revenue streams as the popularity of its social apps, such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, falls, jeopardising its annual $118 billion ad-based business model.

The revelation also comes a month after CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that Instagram plans to launch NFTs in the "near-term," and apparently, it seems that Meta is planning to monetize them via fees or ads. Recently, the company also joined the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), a consortium of tech and crypto companies led by Jack Dorsey's Block Inc., to promote open access to crypto technologies.

Why it matters? Meta has been scrambling to keep up with its rival TikTok. The company lost around $220 billion in its first quarter as user growth across all channels fell flat. The Facebook owner also failed to adapt quickly to Apple's recent privacy changes, accusing the latter of giving preferential treatment to Google.

2. Elon buys a 9.2% stake in Twitter

On Monday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk disclosed that he acquired a 9.2% stake in Twitter, becoming the company’s largest single shareholder. Not just that, Twitter later revealed that he'd be joining as a board member.

Parag Agrawal @paraga

I’m excited to share that we’re appointing @elonmusk to our board! Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board.

Both these announcements triggered the so-called Elon effect, sending Dogecoin to advance over 11%, from $0.143 to around $0.156—its biggest single-day rise in two months. What's more, his latest investment is expected to put a 150% rally into play for Dogecoin, which witnessed minimal growth in recent times.

The news sent Twitter’s stock soaring to around 45% at $36.157, netting Musk approximately $1.1 billion on his $2.6 billion investment.

A true love story: While Elon first expressed his interest in Dogecoin in 2019, his influence over the meme-based token became prominent after his SNL appearance, which caused Dogecoin to plummet by 80% (however, it was back up later.)

Since then, he's heavily promoted the altcoin on Twitter, which often landed him in serious trouble with the regulators. Despite such controversies, he continued showing support for Dogecoin by working alongside developers to improve the blockchain and even accepted it as payment at Tesla's supercharging stations.

Why it matters? Musk could face some heat from the SEC as regulatory filing shows that he filed a 13G form (used by passive investors acquiring over 5% ownership) on April 4 despite buying his stake on March 14—11 days after the deadline. But that's unlike Musk, especially considering his recent tweet. While Musk did file form 13D (meant for active investors) disclosing his full 9.2% stake the next day, he made $156 million in the process and violated US securities laws.

Deal Street 🤑

Near Protocol raises $350 million
Blockchain project Near Protocol announced that it raised $350 million in new funding round as it seeks to compete against Ethereum to become a go-to blockchain for decentralized applications (dapps). Led by Tiger Global, the round saw participation from FTX Ventures, ParaFi Capital, Hashed, Republic Capital, MetaWeb.vc, and others. Launched in 2020, Near is a user-friendly platform for developers of dapps that supports smart contract execution. The speedy proof-of-stake blockchain also offers Ethereum Virtual Machine compatibility through its sister chain Aurora, which raised $12 million in October. Shortly after the news, the NEAR token slightly edged higher, trading at $15.82. It's currently the 19th largest crypto asset with a market cap of $10.5 billion. The company will use the fresh to speed up the decentralization of its ecosystem.

Binance.US becomes a unicorn
Binance.US, the American affiliate of the world's largest crypto platform, has raised a $200 million seed round at a pre-money valuation of $4.5 billion. While the round had no lead investor, it instead raised funding from several VCs and crypto-native firms including, Foundation Capital, Circle Ventures, VanEck, Original Capital, and others. CEO Brian Shroder revealed that the company intends to go public in two and three years. The exchange, launched as a separate entity in 2019, is operational in 45 states and offers spot trading pairs against 72 crypto assets. Last month, it reported a trading volume of $9 billion. The new capital will be used to optimize its spot trading platform, sustain its marketing and education initiatives, and develop a new suite of products.