Missed the market updates? Here is a recap of everything crypto that made the headlines in the last seven days.
USDC depeg leads to a massive chain reaction
SVB Financial Group has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The collapse of SVB Financial Group, the former umbrella entity of Silicon Valley Bank, led to the depegging of the USDC stablecoin.
The event took a toll on other stablecoins like BUSD and DAI as well, triggering a massive chain reaction. Despite that, most stablecoins are back on track by the end of the week.
Bitcoin pushes ahead, gaining 35% on the weekly chart
BTC leads the latest bull run, securing 35% gains on the weekly chart. Altcoins have followed suit and turned most of the market green. At the time of this writing, the global crypto market is at $1.14T and BTC boasts a $515B market cap. The impact of the ongoing United States banking crisis is evident on the crypto economy, positively.
But the sustainability of the bull run is in question, with warnings that more banks could collapse in the coming weeks. The possibility of the infection spreading to Europe is also a concern. However, that could also mean more investors find a safe haven in cryptocurrencies, which have the advantage of decentralization. The turbulence in the global economy can stream more investments to the crypto market. If that’s the case, the bull run will pick up the pace, reversing a decent share of the losses made last year.
Global crypto market overview, 18 March 2023, CoinMarketCap
Swords of Blood presale goes live
The much-awaited presale of hack-and-slash RPG Swords of Blood goes live. In the first stage, investors can procure the tokens for 0.054 USDT. The presale is divided into three stages, with a gradual price increase. Early token holders are eligible for perks like access to the game’s closed beta, automatic whitelisting to future NFT sales, and phygital giveaways, as well.
Swords of Blood is the first AAA-quality fast-paced F2P hack-and-slash RPG in the blockchain, launching on Polygon. The game is built on the framework of an award-winning title that was first released in 2019 by Artifex Mundi. The rights to reimagine the game are now held by Hit Box Games LLC, which will take it to Web3 with brand-new features.
The MVP, which was launched with limited access and features, continues to host an active gamer community with a good retention rate. Interestingly, it has been downloaded by over 4M players from App Store and Play Store, which speaks for the credibility of the new game. The MVP is playable with a wide range of asynchronous game modes:
- Main campaign dungeons in three difficulty levels.
- Monster Hunt dungeons, where you play against waves of progressively harder monsters.
- Boss Fortress, where you team up with four other players to fight against powerful bosses.
- PvP, where you compete against other players to rank up in the global leaderboard to earn prizes.
- Daily dungeons, where you enter a special rift to play a daily selection of dungeons with special rewards.
- Time-limited event dungeons with a special currency that can be spent on unique event items.
- Challenge dungeons are special events where you take challenges to win prizes from the global leaderboard.
- Shattered Mazed is a week-long special event with an event shop where you go through mazes and fight monsters and bosses.
Unlike most Web 3.0 games with high entry barriers, Swords of Blood will be a free-to-play game with a blockchain economy. As it integrates synchronous game modes and improved gaming experience, it will move to a community-centric MMORPG. The features of the reimagined game include:
- 4, 8, and 16-player PVP modes
- Play-to-own and improved free-to-play mechanics
- E-sports micro tournaments
- Community-based gaming with guilds and clans
- Multichain crypto payment integration via SphereOne
- Fiat payment with Visa and Mastercard via Simplex
- New soundtrack that features talents from many famous acts such as Disturbed and Trivium
- U.T.’s – game utility tokens, NFTs that can be used in-game and sold in the open market
- A 150-hour game expansion pack (narrative written by a team with members from Cyberpunk, The Witcher, Gord, Command and Conquer, and Ghost Recon).
- Community-based communication areas with (likely) VR capabilities.
With gripping gameplay and a low entry barrier, Swords of Blood is set to become one of the leading blockchain games of this year. Set in the World of Ezura, the game has already caught widespread attention from the broad gaming community. Industry experts predict that $SWDTKN, the native cryptocurrency of Swords of Blood, can enter the $1B club by the end of the year. If that’s the case, it is one of the best gaming tokens to invest in right now.
Crypto assets will be a separate category in UK tax forms
The recent national budget published by His Majesty’s Treasury introduces a separate category for crypto assets in tax return forms. The amendment of the self-assessment forms for crypto assets is a part of the UK’s efforts towards developing its own comprehensive crypto framework. However, the Treasury hasn’t specified the anticipated budget revenues from the tax category.
Coinbase joins Australian banking regulators to help with crypto regulations
Coinbase meets officials from The Reserve Bank of Australia and Treasury to help with the government’s token mapping efforts. The discussions centered around the future of crypto regulation in Australia and global best practices concerning licensing and custody. The Australian Treasury’s token mapping exercise aims to categorize digital assets in order to fit them into existing regulatory frameworks.
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