Hello Rebels!
Thankfully, the market ended in the green last month, for the first time in a while!In the early stages of August, Miami is working with TIME, Mastercard & Salesforce onNFTs, there’s a huge 9-figure investment, and there’s a new “Bitcoin Valley” alongsidecountry-wide blockchain adoption!
The month of July was marked by a record inflow of funds for the year 2022. Thecumulative inflows into the crypto market in July amounted to $474 million.This is one of the reasons Bitcoin finally broke its months-long negative streak with a 17%increase last month. BTC and other altcoins did well, following the US Federal Reservehiking interest rates by 75 basis points and President Biden reinvented the meaning of arecession.These developments helped push BTC from under $21,000 to over $24,500 in a matter ofdays. This week, there has been a decline, which isn’t so bad as the coin appears to betesting the 200WMA for the $22,880 support. It’s also showing a correlation with theS&P500, which could drag it down.
FC Barcelona, one of the world's biggest football clubs, announced a multi-million europartnership with Socios.com, a blockchain-based sports fan engagement platform.Socios.com’s parent company Chiliz, will invest €100 million (~$102 million) to acquirenearly a quarter of Barça Studios, which manages the club’s audiovisual productions anddigital business offerings.According to a press release, the investment will enable the club to build better NFT andmetaverse projects while refining its approach to engaging with fans and buildingcommunity through the use of digital assets. The partnership intends to createopportunities for the use of BAR fan tokens that extend beyond Socios.com’s platform.Shortly after Socios.com disclosed the deal, FC Barcelona confirmed the news on Twitter,stating it will help the club advance its “audiovisual, blockchain, NFT and Web.3 strategy.”
Colombia’s government has partnered with Ripple Labs, the company behind thecryptocurrency XRP, to put land titles on the blockchain. This is intended to rectify landdistribution efforts so unfair they’ve led to decades of armed conflict.The project, built by blockchain development company Peersyst Technology and Ripple,will permanently store and authenticate property titles on Ripple’s Ledger - its publicblockchain.“The point is that land is important in Colombia, so a system is needed that ensures landcannot be wrongfully taken,” said Peersyst Technology CEO Ferran Prat. “Putting theinformation into a public blockchain that cannot be changed or altered will help.”Many land owners in Colombia still don’t have papers to certify ownership over parcelsthey inhabit, Ripple Labs added. The project will start by certifying more than 100,000 landadjudications.“With the public blockchain, once the transaction is recorded, it can never be deleted,”added Antony Welfare, a senior adviser at Ripple Labs. “That’s the most important part. Ifthe government system is blown up, the owner of the land will still be in a blockchainbecause it is held around the world in different nodes.”
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler published avideo Thursday explaining how the securities watchdog plans to regulate cryptoexchanges and provide investor protection.Gensler noted that crypto platforms serve “millions, sometimes tens of millions” of retailcustomers directly buying and selling crypto assets without going through a broker. “Withso many retail customers trading on crypto platforms, we should make sure that thoseplatforms offer similar protections” to traditional security platforms.He added, “So I’ve asked our staff to work directly with the platforms to get themregistered and regulated to ensure that those crypto tokens come in as well and registerwhere appropriate as securities.”In conclusion, the SEC chairman stressed: “There’s no reason to treat the crypto marketdifferently just because a different technology is used. That would be like saying drivers ofelectric cars don’t need seat belts because they don’t use gas.”
The City of Miami has announced a Web3 initiative backed by TIME, Mastercard andSalesforce to engage the community and drive additional revenue to local businesses.Miami aims to create a collection of 5,000 NFTs designed by 56 local artists. The number56 represents the city’s 56 square mile area. It’s anticipated to launch in December, withtokens deployed to the Ethereum blockchain.NFT holders will be able to access Mastercard’s Priceless Miami program, whichorganizes unique culinary experiences and private events around the city. Cloud providerSalesforce will handle the minting and selling via their newly unveiled NFT Cloud product.City of Miami Mayor Francis X. Suarez stated, “The City of Miami has been on thevanguard of the web3 revolution, and we will continue to employ these new technologiesto support our existing businesses while attracting new ones, raise capital and provideexperiences for our citizens and those visiting this great City.”
