BTC Breaks $28K, DefiLlama Hostile Takeover, GDC Begins

Top Stories

• Bitcoin: BTC broke $28,000 as the banking crisis continues. A Bernstein recent report says institutional funds and crypto funds have been bystanders in the market, with “crypto native money” behind the recent price moves. As more outside money is forced to participate, the moves higher should become sharper. (CD).

• Balaji. Former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan has predicted that Bitcoin will reach $1 million within 90 days due to hyperinflation in the United States. He’s making two bets of $1 million each (CT). 

• Harvest Keeper. Reports are emerging that AI-based dApp Harvest Keeper is a scam. Several crypto security firms, including CertiK, have tweeted that the project has pulled the rug, stealing nearly $1 million. The firms are asking individuals not to interact with any of the project’s URLs (BIC).

• DefiLlama: DefiLlama, a decentralized finance data site, is disputing its leadership as a single team member has attempted to launch a token without wider approval. 0xngmi, one member of the DefiLlama project, said on March 19 that the majority of the team launched the second site due to a “hostile takeover.” He explained that there is an “ongoing attempt” to launch a crypto token without the team’s approval (CS).

Web3 Games

• EOS: EOS Network Ventures is committing $20 million to build games and Dapps on EOS Blockchain. The announcement companies ahead of launching the EOS Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) on April 14. EOS Foundation CEO Yves La Rose tweeted on Monday morning that the investment will encourage more developers to build on EOS EVM (NG).

• GDC: The Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) begins today and runs through March 24th. GDC brings the game development community together to exchange ideas, solve problems, and shape the future of the industry across five days of education, inspiration, and networking. Attendees include programmers, artists, producers, game designers, audio professionals, and business leaders (GDC).  

NFT News

• BendDAO: The BendDAO now holds 108K ETH (~$188M) in total value locked, after seeing the biggest change in TVL in the past 10 months, $37M in a single day. BendDAO is now holding an all-time high with 416 NFTs in its collateral (NG). 

• Taiwan: The Financial Supervisory Commission in Taiwan is set to become the main oversight body for the local crypto industry, in what would mark a first for East Asia. However, NFTs will not fall under the commission’s purview (BW). 

• Wash Trading: NFT marketplaces Blur and X2Y2 recorded the highest NFT wash trading volume as the total NFT wash trading volume surpassed $500 million. Wash trading is a practice where investors buy and sell their assets at the same time for the same price. Wash trading doesn’t provide financial returns. However, it boosts market volume, which can be used to manipulate price levels (CS).

Into the Metaverse

• Ludson/Metasense: Luduson announces its intention to invest $5M in Metasense, a pioneering Metaverse Venture Builder based in Portugal. Metasense is a venture builder that collaborates with entrepreneurs to craft ventures rooted in spatial data, delivering connected and intelligent customer experiences. Their mission is to build the Open Metaverse, a community of communities rooted in human values (PNW).

• Meta: The social media giant has laid off 10,000 employees and made comments that show AI is more important than the metaverse. CEO Zuckerberg said, “Our single largest investment is in advancing AI and building it into every one of our products.” (YF).

• Oncyber: Web3 metaverse platform Oncyber is adding an AI tool that lets users change up 3D spaces by typing out ideas.The company revealed this week that it has developed an AI-powered tool called Magic Composer that lets users customize their environments via text commands (DC).