Crypto Saving Expert

In this new fresh investment round, LayerZero reunited 33 different backers with some reputable investors, including a16z Crypto, Sequoia Capital, Circle Ventures, Samsung Next, OpenSea, and Christie’s. Almost a year ago, LayerZero raised $135 million in an investment round co-led by Sequoia Capital, FTX Ventures, and Andreessen Horowitz, including Coinbase Ventures and PayPal Ventures, Tiger Global, Uniswap Labs, and other investors. The previous investment round had put LayerZero at a valuation of $1 billion, three times smaller than the one announced today. According to Bryan Pellegrino, co-founder and CEO of LayerZero Labs, the difficult mid-year market conditions were why LayerZero started soliciting money for the round late last year. Still, he enforced that LayerZero didn’t need the money and that the money that was raised to support LayerZero’s expansion goals. Pellegrino also mentioned that one of the major objectives for this year is to make considerable inroads into the Asia-Pacific market and the gaming industry. With the two funding rounds, LayerZero Labs has received $263 million. According to what a source told The Block, all its funding rounds have the same SAFE (short for “simple agreement for future equity”) structure plus token warrants.

What is LayerZero?

LayerZero is an efficient, trustless omnichain interoperability technology that enables dApps to develop and communicate across various blockchains. Using on-chain Ultra Light Nodes, which combine a middle chain's cost-effectiveness with a light node's security, LayerZero links dApps across chains. Developers can use the protocol to convert their decentralised applications (dApps) into omnichain applications using a single, straightforward interface.

Source: LayerZero Labs

The protocol also serves as an alternative to blockchain bridges, which require numerous transactions before a token transfer is complete. According to Pellegrino, the protocol’s total value locked has surpassed $7 billion, and transaction volume has reached over $6 billion since its inception last year. Pellegrino also explained that for blockchains, LayerZero is what the internet was for computing clusters. As chains can communicate and execute arbitrary data using LayerZero, much like a packet on the internet, in addition to creating bridges (to move assets or value between them). As a result, developers can now create apps that are more sophisticated than those that already exist and can do this while utilising chains seamlessly. LayerZero has also had widespread adoption, the most popular DeFi protocols, such as Uniswap, SushiSwap, and PancakeSwap, have Layerzero integrated for cross-chain transactions, and NFT transfers are also supported by LayerZero thanks to its Omnichain Non-Fungible Tokens (ONFT) protocol.

A report published by De.Fi Security has revealed that the crypto industry lost more than $450 million through hacks and scams in the first quarter of 2023. The total loss significantly decreased from the $1.3 billion loss recorded in Q1 2022. De.Fi Security disclosed that out of the $451 million lost, over $210 million was lost in the first 20 days of March, leaving the rest spread over January and February. "While all attention has been on the unfolding banking crisis and a subsequent uptick in the Bitcoin market, we saw crypto losses mount to a 9-figure amount in March, and for the second month in a row. Hackers and scammers are upping the stakes as we count a total loss of close to $400 million in the first quarter of the year," the report stated.

Flash Loan Exploiters Stole Over $200M

Most of the losses came from two protocols – Euler Finance, exploited through a flash loan on March 13, and BonqDAO, through a smart contract vulnerability in February. They collectively lost $196 million and $120 million, amounting to $316 million. De.Fi Security discovered that the most significant losses were due to flash loan attacks, as more than $200 million was lost through them. However, regarding frequency, smart contract exploits were used most, followed by rug pulls and flash loans attacks. There were 17 smart contract exploits, eight rug pull cases, and six flash loan attacks. It is worth noting that the highest losses were recorded on the Ethereum network, while BNB Smart Chain had the most criminal cases. From January to March, hackers executed 18 successful attacks on BNB Chain, ten on Ethereum, and seven on Arbitrum.

$130 Million Recovered in Q1

Meanwhile, Euler Finance recovered roughly $130 million from its attacker. Being the only protocol that received a portion of its funds, Euler marked a 28.7% recovery rate for Q1 2023. "In conclusion, the significant surge in financial losses this quarter underscores the need for heightened risk management and vigilance when investing in the decentralised finance (DeFi) sector. It is crucial for investors to educate themselves on potential dangers and implement appropriate measures to protect their investments," De.Fi Security added.

The SEC's most notable action is against Ripple Labs for its issue of the XRP token. In December 2020, the SEC hit Ripple with a lawsuit that it allegedly raised capital via unregistered security. Two years on, both parties refuse to give an inch. The action by the SEC has led to XRP being suspended from trading on several exchanges, thus slowing growth and hindering the token's value. However, firm believers within the community have held strong throughout the case, believing that Ripple will win for themselves and crypto as a whole. But it isn't just Ripple who have been targeted. In 2021 the SEC took action against Coinbase over their proposed 'Coinbase Lend' feature by giving the company a Wells Notice. A Wells Notice is a letter issued by the SEC which notifies a company or person that an investigation has been concluded against them and that they will bring enforcement action against them. In this case, it meant if Coinbase went ahead with its proposed Lend programme, the SEC would sue them. Coinbase said it had 'been proactively engaging with the SEC about Lend for nearly six months' meaning the Wells Notice was a very unexpected turn for the company.

The Next Phase of SEC Action

The SEC reemerged this March with another round of fire on crypto. Coinbase has been served another Wells Notice. Regarding the notice, they stated, "we asked the SEC for reasonable crypto rules for Americans. We got legal threats instead." on their website's blog page. Coinbase’s response to the notice has been strong. Their CEO Brian Armstrong, Chief Legal Counsel Paul Grewal and Coinbase themselves have all commented on the SEC’s actions. Coinbase reported on their blog they were served another Wells notice regarding the listing of a 'portion of our listed digital assets, our staking service Coinbase Earn, Coinbase Prime, and Coinbase Wallet after a cursory investigation.'

Is ETH a security, or is it a commodity? Paul Grewal highlights the confusion within U.S. law at the moment. Source: Twitter

Coinbase alleges that they have been in constant contact with the SEC discussing regulations regarding their products, but they have been faced with a brick wall in return. How can a company expect to create products for their customers and maintain their own, their customers and regulatory safety when the regulatory body does not contribute to the regulatory discussion? Safe and proactive regulation requires joint discussions. According to Coinbase, this has not been the case. This week we also reported on the SEC's charges against Justin Sun, a well-known individual within cryptocurrency, over alleged fraud and securities violation.

The Double-Edged Sword

It is important to note, despite SEC notices and charges, the supposed wrongdoings of companies and individuals are alleged until proven in a court of law. This means the cryptocurrency industry will have matters such as these lingering in the background joining the queue behind Ripple when crypto is healing and moving on from the events of 2022. However, the double-edged sword for the U.S. issuing all these notices stunts the growth and development of cryptocurrency in the country. The U.S. is a large portion of the cryptocurrency market share and a home to companies, projects, miners, and market participants within the industry. Still, consistent events such as these will inevitably drive capital away. Why would a company remain in the US when it could move to a more crypto-friendly jurisdiction? It is widely known that Hong Kong is reopening its door to cryptocurrency in the coming months. Europe has also positioned itself as a crypto-friendly alternative. Even the UK has mentioned it sees a future as a global cryptocurrency hub. The apparent hassle of becoming regulated within the guidelines in the U.S. is almost an impossible task. Coinbase, a public company listed on the Nasdaq, a process requiring SEC approval, still cannot catch a break from the body that authorised its listing. What chance do smaller projects and companies have? The U.S. gained a significant advantage when China banned Bitcoin mining in May 2021 as miners sought a new home to run their operations. Still, with little progress in terms of regulation over the last two years, the U.S. is becoming a less attractive place for crypto to call home. Inevitably, it will cost the country billions of dollars over the years if it continues to punish crypto instead of embracing it, as it will lose out on the taxes it would have brought in. Other countries are showing themselves to be much more welcoming to the industry. Could we see crypto leave the U.S. en mass in the near future?

Bitcoin has made a stellar start to the year, rallying from $16,500 to over $28,000, closing the long-awaited CME gap with minimal pullbacks or signs of weakness. In the early hours of Thursday, Bitcoin broke the $29,000 level to cement a fresh high as the bullish strength and momentum appear not to be fading. This is significant because the price has been attempting to push back into a previous trading range to open the door to $32,000. Bitcoin is up ~73% for the year at the time of writing, with the cryptocurrency market certainly within its own lane as it brushes off the events of 2022.

Bitcoin’s high time frame outlook. Source: Tradingview

Why is Bitcoin So Strong?

After the FTX collapse, many market participants were calling for bitcoin to dip to $12,000 and lower. But, with the new year came a fresh start for the cryptocurrency industry. The lessons of 2022 must be learned for the sector to continue to prosper. Bulls have, without doubt, been in control for most, if not the whole year to date, with the upside moves being explosive and strong, with seemingly little room for bears to do anything to combat it. Bitcoin has thrived since the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) as it brought around the reminder despite the scarcity and halving events that surge the price, Bitcoin was created to provide us with an alternative to banks. Bitcoin rallied when Wall Street and the banking system were quivering and traded extremely closely to Gold, which also had big upside moves. Bitcoin increased by ~30% in the day’s post-SVB collapse. Bitcoin is now fractions away from reclaiming the trading range that could see it tag $30,000 and above in a single 1-minute candle, with the ball in the bulls’ corner. It is essential to note that Friday is the monthly and quarterly close, with Bitcoin marking a new monthly open level on Saturday, so the price may be volatile, leading into the next two days.

Argentina’s Federal Police (PFA) have arrested members of a crypto hacking group that fraudulently obtained hundreds of thousands in digital currency loans from a crypto exchange Buenbit. The exchange is based in Argentina, with operations in other Latin American nations, including Mexico and Peru.

Crypto Loans Exploited

Buenbit started offering crypto loans barely nine months ago, which allowed users to borrow up to one million in Argentine peso-backed stablecoin nuARS. Provided they supply 80% of the requested amount in DAI stablecoin as collateral. The police said the gangs used bots to mass produce fabricated loan applications, using only a particular virtual wallet as a guarantee. In doing so, they reportedly took up to $800,000 from the exchange. Four group members were arrested yesterday across Buenos Aires Province. The police also said it seized debit cards, 15 mobile phones, a notebook computer, flash drives, and three tablets during the raids, which helped dismantle the hackers’ operations.

Scam Group Led by 19-Year-Old

The leader of the group remains at large. According to reports, the leader is allegedly a 19-year-old suspected to have fled to France with an undisclosed amount of the stolen funds. The police said an international warrant might be required to detain and deport the leader to Argentina. Elsewhere, the founder of the exchange co-founder Federico Ogue, stated that the situation is “something unfortunately common and everyday for all companies in the fintech world.” Orgue also said, “the fraud had no impact on our customers’ balances or the company’s operations.” Buenbit is among the leading cryptocurrency firms in Argentina. In 2021, the company raised $11 million in Series A to expand its operation across the Latin American region. Before the FTX crash, the exchange also had plans to raise fresh capital in Q3 of 2022, and even more in 2023.

The Indian government has amassed Rs 157.9 crore ($19.2 million) in taxes from cryptocurrency trading and direct transfers in the financial year between 2022 and March 20, 2023.

India Raises $19M From Crypto Taxes

According to a CNBC report, India's Finance Ministry disclosed the figure to Ram Nath Thakur, Janata Dal party representative in the Rajya Sabha, in a written statement about the taxes received by the government. The ministry revealed that the Union Budget 2022-23, which deducted a 30% tax from Virtual Digital Assets (VDA) trades and a 1% tax deductible at source (TDS) from transfers, generated $19.2 million between the 2022-23 financial year. Recall that the government introduced the taxation regime last February and implemented it between April and July. While crypto remains unregulated in India, the country believes that the tax policies would give investors clarity and direct the regulation of the industry. On the other hand, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has suggested that cryptocurrencies be prohibited, as such assets are borderless and need international collaboration to avoid regulatory arbitrage.

An Unfavorable Crypto Taxation Regime

While India generated taxes from local crypto traders, the domestic industry has recorded massive losses since the implementation of the tax policy. Crypto Saving Expert reported earlier this year that the tax structure caused Indian crypto exchanges to lose billions in their trading volumes collectively. By October, their trading volumes had plunged to $137.6 million from $4.73 billion at the beginning of the year. Trading activities on local exchanges plunged as investors moved their assets to foreign trading platforms. Between July and September, downloads for local exchange applications also dropped by 16%, while that of offshore exchanges increased at the same rate. Indian technology think tank Esya Centre predicted that at the ongoing rate, the tax structure could lead to roughly $1.2 trillion in losses for local exchange trade volume by 2026. Meanwhile, local exchanges hope the government will introduce some crypto tax relief policies in the upcoming Union Budget for 2023–2024 to urge investors to keep trading in the country.

It is suspected that a new Safemoon contract upgrade may have introduced “a public burn bug,” which enabled the hacker to remove a large amount of SFM tokens from “Safemoon-WBNB Liquidity Pool.” By doing this, the hacker artificially inflated the price of SFM and sold back the tokens into the same liquidity pool, to drain $8.9 million in WBNB. “To the SAFEMOON community: We want to inform you that our LP has been compromised,” the team confirmed the attack. “We are taking swift action in an attempt to resolve the issue as soon as possible.”

Safemoon’s Hacker Willing to Return Stolen Funds

Hours after the incident, the hacker sent on-chain messages to Safemoon Deployer address, asking to set up a secure communication channel for talks about returning the fund. “Hey relax, we are accidently frontrun an attack against you, we would like to return the fund, setup secure communication channel , lets talk,” the messages reads. “Lets discuss the detail, please send a message from same address containing your email address, and contact us by email.” A similar scenario happened with Euler Finance, which saw more than $196 million in cryptocurrency stolen earlier this month. In an on-chain message, the hacker showed a willingness to return the funds, adding that they had “no intention of keeping what is not ours.” The hacker returned 51,000 ETH worth around $89 million to Euler Finance last week. So far, over $176 million of the stolen funds have been returned, according to reports. At the time of writing, SFM is down 23% to $0.00019077 in the last 24 hours.

Disney is no longer interested in the Metaverse. According to a Wall Street Journal report, the one-hundred-year-old media and entertainment company has eliminated the small division charged with ‘developing metaverse strategies.’ The move is part of a company-wide downsizing plan to reduce Disney’s workforce by 7,000 in the next two months. ‘The difficult reality of many colleagues and friends leaving Disney is not something we take lightly,’ Disney CEO Bob Iger wrote in an internal memo. ‘This company is home to the most talented and dedicated employees in the world, and so many of you bring a lifelong passion for Disney to your work here. That’s part of what makes working at Disney so special. It also makes it all the more difficult to say goodbye to wonderful people we care about,’ he added. Other divisions affected by the layoffs include Disney Entertainment, Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, and corporate.

Disney Had Only Begun Venturing into the Metaverse

The sudden end to Disney’s Metaverse ambitions comes less than a year after the company enthusiastically embraced the industry, picking six startups to participate in its annual Disney Accelerator program. The six companies specialised in Web3, augmented reality (AR), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and artificial intelligence. The Ethereum layer two scaling solution, Polygon (MATIC), was the only blockchain project chosen by Disney in last year’s accelerator program. Disney additionally hinted that its Metaverse strategy might include fantasy sports, theme-park attractions and other customer-centric experiences. CEO Iger had also been bullish on the Metaverse last year, having invested in and joined the board of Genies Inc., a startup that allows users to create online avatars for use in the Metaverse.

Facebook’s Meta has Also ‘Dumped’ the Metaverse

However, Disney is not the only major global company backtracking on its quest to conquer the Metaverse. In late February, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg quietly shifted focus away from the Metaverse by introducing ‘a new top-level product group at Meta focused on generative AI to turbocharge’ the company’s work in this artificial intelligence arena.

The number of bitcoin investors holding 0.1 or more BTC has hit a new all-time high of 4,280,062. This new milestone was captured by the team at Glassnode, who shared the following chart providing a visual cue of the growth of this category of bitcoin investors.

Number of bitcoin addresses holding more than 0.1 coins. Source: @glassnodealerts on Twitter.com

Bitcoin Traders are Increasingly Looking Forward to a Bull Run

The number of addresses holding 0.1 or more BTC hitting an all-time high comes when more and more bitcoin traders express optimism that a BTC bull run is on the horizon. For example, in a Tweet over the weekend, crypto Twitter community member @seth_fin speculated that Bitcoin was entering an up trend on the higher time frames. Their analysis was based on the fact that BTC was about to close the week above the mid-band of the Gaussian channel.

Source: @seth_fin on Twitter.com

Bitcoin Confidently Recaptures the 200-Week MA as Support

Further analysing the one-day BTC/USDT chart below, it can be observed that Bitcoin is in clear bullish territory above the 50-day (red), 100-day (yellow), 200-day (green) and 200-week (black) moving average.

Source: Trading View

To note is that Bitcoin traders have long used the 200-week moving average to determine whether the number one digital asset hit a bottom after a bear market. Consequently, and if Bitcoin maintains a value above this crucial line, the November 21st low of $15,476 could now be declared the bottom of the 2022 bear market.

Bitcoin Could Still Dip to $25,250 in the Short-term

However, concerning short-term price action, Bitcoin’s one-day MFI (green), MACD and RSI (red) hint at a pending pullback by the number one crypto that could result in a retest of the $25,250 support. The latter price level is around the current position of the 200-week moving average, and a dip to this level could be quickly bought up by traders and investors looking for a bargain.

During the recent banking crisis, the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the US, has increased its balance sheet for the first time in a year. The Fed has been raising interest rates since March 2022 to combat inflation rates. Alongside raising rates, the Fed has been reducing its balance sheet by undergoing quantitative tightening (QT). The opposite of QT is quantitative easing (QE), the formula adopted in 2020 and 2021 to help stimulate the economy. The Fed’s actions in tackling inflation have suppressed financial markets as they removed money from the economy. The Fed's liquidity injection stimulated the U.S. economy following months of lockdowns and was partly the reason for the massive rally in the stock and cryptocurrency markets.

Money Printer Go Brrrrrrr

Since March 2022, the Fed’s balance sheet has shrunk by 7%, reducing by approximately $626bn following the hawkish monetary policy Jerome Powell has adopted.

An outlook of the Fed balance sheet. Source: Tradingview

As of the 1st of March 2023, the balance sheet was valued at around $8.33 trillion. The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) prompted the current banking crisis, which has begun to creep worldwide. Other banks, such as Signature Bank, followed SVB out of the door, with other banks facing an emerging liquidity crisis’. But it isn't just a liquidity crisis causing the banking woes. Banking stocks are being obliterated in fear of an ever-worsening situation. This leads to bank runs and a severe loss of confidence in the traditional financial system from its customers who trust banks to custody their money. The Fed appears to be prepared to solve liquidity issues as it has printed around $393Bn since the crisis began. This has increased the balance sheet by approximately 4.71%, reversing months of monetary tightening. U.S. officials are working to increase the $250,000 FDIC insurance limit with billions of dollars at stake and an uncertain road ahead for Banks. This could be partly the reason for the increasing balance sheet or if the Fed is preparing to bail Banks out instead of allowing them to go bust. The U.S. certainly has a rocky few weeks ahead, and the Biden administration will be scrambling to resolve the situation with the Presidential vote approaching in 2024.

Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest Bank, sent shockwaves through the banking system on Friday, bringing fresh fears following the Credit Suisse saga. Last week we reported on the Credit Suisse situation as it unfolded as it took an emergency loan from the Switzerland National Bank. The crisis began in the U.S. with the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), but the contagion risk has now made its way to Europe and is spreading like wildfire. After the Credit Suisse saga appeared to have come to a resolution, the situation in Europe had subsided until the news regarding Deutsche Bank unfolded. It was reported to be a rise in the cost of insuring against the bank's default, which rose to a four-year high, that dealt a blow to the stock price, but the situation appears to be worsening. In February, Deutsche Bank published it had generated a profit of €5.6Bn before tax in 2022. Despite this, its finances are allegedly in a mess and could be another domino in the downfall of the traditional banking system. The issue stems from how banks store their customer deposits. Typically, these deposits are invested into long-term bonds, tying the money away for a long-term guaranteed interest rate. Usually, this is fine but leaves the bank vulnerable to a run. It was reported for the 2022 fiscal year-end, Deutsche Bank had ~$1.35 trillion in liabilities. That staggering number sets the scale for this possible disaster unfolding. When the system is shaken, as what has been happening over the past few weeks, customers rush to withdraw their funds, something banks can’t process if the deposits are illiquid. Therefore, the Bank then needs to make a plea for liquidity.

Deutsche Bank Chart

The Deutsche Bank ($DB) Chart. Source: Tradingview

The bank's stock price fell to a daily low of ~$8.85, around 8.31% from where it closed trading on Thursday. At the time of writing, the stock has seen some relief, bouncing back to around the $9 mark. At first glance, it may not appear so bad, 5-8% down, but this isn't an altcoin; it is one of Europe's largest banks but is currently trading as if it were an altcoin. Millions of people have their funds on the line in just this one bank, in addition to the effect on other European banks any negative sentiment could have. From the end of January, $DB is down over 30%, which demonstrates this isn't a one-day occurrence; it has been building up for a while.

Ominous Signs

Curiously, Friday seems to be a day on which large banks have issues. Going back to the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, Washington Mutual filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Friday, 26th September 2008. Friday, 12th September, was the last trading day for Lehman Brothers before their bankruptcy was declared. Friday has been critical in this current banking crisis too. Regulators seized Silicon Valley Bank on Friday, March 10th. That day was also the last working day for Signature Bank before its seizure two days later. The bid by UBS for Credit Suisse also came in last week, on Friday, 17th March. What might be in store this Friday?

The market research company Polaris Market Research published their latest report on the blockchain gaming industry in February this year. The 116-page report, “Blockchain Gaming Market Share, Size, Trends, Industry Analysis Report, By Game Type; By Platform; By Region; Segment Forecast, 2023-2032”, is based on the company’s comprehensive analysis of the current market, emerging trends, and current and predicted growth rates. The research firm collates and bases its analysis on data from validated websites, analyst reviews, press releases, whitepapers and reputed paid databases. Based on the latest market trends, the report predicts the value of the global blockchain and play-to-earn gaming industry to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 68.9% from US $9.12 billion in 2023 to US $1020.02 billion in 2032. That represents a massive 11084% increase in just nine years. The report provides a complete synopsis of the various factors predicted to drive the growth of the blockchain gaming industry. Their research found that a substantial increase in investment in the sector is underway, which could drive an exponential market expansion.

Burgeoning Interest from Traditional Gaming Companies

The first key indicator is that massive players in the traditional gaming sector are beginning to take a serious interest in developing blockchain and play-to-earn products. ‘Most of the world's biggest gaming companies are investing and collaborating with other platforms to provide blockchain gaming infrastructure,’ the report states. Indeed, just recently, gaming behemoth Sony has filed a patent, ‘NFT Framework For Transferring And Using Digital Assets Between Game Platforms, ’ for developing in-game assets that are player-owned and can be swapped between players, games, and gaming platforms. According to the patent, Sony also envisions NFTs, such as unique NFT weapons, awarded to players for achieving certain milestones. The Pokémon Company, owned by Nintendo, recently revealed their interest in exploring the blockchain gaming world when it advertised a job listing on LinkedIn for a Corporate Development Principal. The advertisement lists “Deep knowledge and understanding of Web 3, including blockchain technologies and NFT, and/or metaverse” and “Deeply connected to a network of investors and entrepreneurs in the technology sectors above (Web3 and metaverse)” among the qualities the candidates are expected to bring to the company. The position is in a company department responsible for Pokémon's corporate strategy and development.

Rewards for Gaming

Another critical driver of growth is the fact that gamers are rewarded with assets with real-world value, such as cryptocurrencies and NFTs, for playing. This revolutionary concept allows gamers to profit and make a living from their skill, time, and effort. Gaming NFTs provide gamers verifiable ownership of in-game assets, including weapons, spells, armour, avatar skins, pets, up-grades and power-ups, and the ability to sell these on the secondary market to other gamers. The report's authors see role-playing games as having the most growth potential. The report concluded that although the Ethereum ecosystem currently holds the largest market share, and the most popular blockchain games have been developed on this platform, Binance Smart Chain is expected to be the ecosystem that sees the fastest growth in the future.

Asia-Pacific Will be Hub of Industry Growth

The report pinpointed the Asia-Pacific region as a critical growth area for blockchain gaming. The popularity of gaming and the number of potential gamers in the region are cited as being major factors, as well as the increasingly favourable blockchain regulation being set up by governments in the region. The region is known to have one of the world's highest levels of crypto adoption. Research by Triple A, a crypto payment company, found that 130 million of the 320 million owners of crypto worldwide are located in Asia. Both Singapore and Hong Kong are aiming to become global crypto hubs. Hong Kong has allocated US $6.4 million of its 2023-2024 budget to develop its Web3 infrastructure. The Securities and Futures Commission of the country has also passed recent regulations allowing digital asset trading. The Hong Kong government plans to implement a ‘virtual-asset development’ task force to advise on sustainable and responsible ways to develop the crypto sector.

Increased Investment from the Crypto Sector

The blockchain gaming sector is booming, with multiple new gaming projects being released and developed throughout the bear market. Together, Binance Smart Chain and Animoca Brands have launched a US $200 million asset program that will support the growth of the GameFi industry and foster startup crypto gaming projects. The report also mentions the following crypto companies as key players in the global GameFi market: Sky Mavis, Mythical Games, Dapper Labs, Open Sea, Voxie Tactics, Rokosoft, Gamestation, Pocket Arena, Planet Sandbox, Splinterlands, Animoca Brands, Wemade, AlwaysGeeky Games, G.JIT Japan, Immutable, Horizon Blockchain Games Planetarium, Codebit Labs, and Binamon.

Concluding Thoughts

Despite the huge backlash against play-to-earn gaming and NFTs from traditional gamers and the largely negative sentiment in the gaming sector press, it seems blockchain gaming has only started its journey. If the analysis in this report is accurate, GameFi is set to become a huge industry, especially in the East, where it has been the most favourably received.