CoinCheckup

Blog

  • Overwolf Invests in SYN CITY Mafia Metaverse to Pioneer User Generated Content in P2E Games

    Overwolf Invests in SYN CITY Mafia Metaverse to Pioneer User Generated Content in P2E Games

    Singapore, Singapore, 7th January, 2022,

    Overwolf, the all-in-one platform that enables creators to build, distribute, and monetize in-game apps and mods, today announced an investment in SYN CITY, the first-of-its-kind “mafia metaverse” game built for the blockchain. As part of the deal, Overwolf and SYN CITY will explore new user-generated content (UGC) opportunities in the metaverse including creation, sharing, and monetization of in-game items.

    Overwolf joins a growing list of investors who see merit in SYN CITY’s Mafia Metaverse. The project raised over $8 million in investments from Twitch, Project Galaxy, Animoca Brands, Huobi Ventures, and many prominent investors and VC firms.

    In addition to the investment, SYN CITY is exploring integration with the Overwolf platform in order to enable in-game creators to monetize their creations in the future. Community-created experiences are becoming a critical part of gaming, and SYN CITY believes that this will be more important than ever in the P2E ecosystem where gamers already have an ownership stake in the game. 

    “Successful social platforms and metaverse projects must let creators generate content for friends, clients, and other ecosystem participants. As a result, metaverse gaming continues to gain momentum and evolve, with a strong focus on social networking. As a result, producers and creators of user-generated NFTs and content can forge their own experiences for the entire community to benefit from. We are thrilled to explore what UGC could look like in-game with Overwolf, the creators of the leading UGC as a service platform,” commented Roy Liu, Co-founder of Syn City. 

     “Overwolf believes the future of games is in user-generated content (UGC) and part of that future lies with enabling creators to build services with and around NFTs. We are excited to invest in such an experienced team of game developers. SYN CITY’s commitment to UGC both in-game and on-chain by introducing a unique in-game governance feature called Mafia-as-a-DAO (MaaD) is a very exciting development in the P2E space,” commented Shahar Sorek, Overwolf CMO.

    About SYN CITY

    SYN CITY is the first-of-its-kind “mafia metaverse” game built for the blockchain. Constructed by a team of experienced game developers, SYN CITY brings the mafia and syndicate-style gameplay on-chain while introducing a unique in-game governance feature called Mafia-as-a-DAO (MaaD). The platform’s native token, SYN, offers players access to several earning opportunities like events and governance rewards. Gamers can take part in daily events, including PvP, PvE and syndicate-based contests like cross-chain tournaments. SYN CITY’s Discord has been a key proponent of the project’s growth, having amassed over 80,000 members in less than a month.

    About Overwolf

    Overwolf is the guild for in-game creators. With over 95,000 creators and 27 million monthly active users, Overwolf is the all-in-one platform that enables creators to build, distribute, and monetize in-game apps and mods. Built for creators by creators, Overwolf is on a mission to unite the in-game creator community and empower them to make a living doing what they love – developing truly awesome gaming experiences. Based in Tel Aviv, Overwolf has raised over $150 million to date from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Atreides Management,

    Griffin Gaming Partners, Insight, Marker, Intel Capital, Liberty Technology Venture Capital, Market and Ubisoft.
     

    Contacts
    • Ryan Dennis
    • marketing@syn.city
  • ClearDAO DeFi Derivatives Factory Lists On KuCoin

    ClearDAO DeFi Derivatives Factory Lists On KuCoin

    Singapore, Singapore, 7th January, 2022, Chainwire

    ClearDAO announced its project token CLH will list on KuCoin on Jan 7th 13:00 UTC. The CLH/USDT trading pair will become available to users of the exchange. ClearDAO is the first KuCoin Spotlight project of 2022. 

    ClearDAO has raised 3 million dollars in seed and private sales. Strategic investors include Huobi Ventures, LD Capital, KuCoin Labs, WOO Ventures, Gate.io, Redline DAO, VRM, StillWater Research and others. 

    ClearDAO is building a decentralized crypto derivatives factory to provide developers with SDK and tools to accelerate the development of crypto derivatives and marketplaces. To date, the project has completed the template development of options, notes, perpetual futures, and CDS. The project has a multi-blockchain strategy and already supports Ethereum, BSC, Solana and Arbitrum.  

    Compared to traditional finance, the derivatives sector in the crypto industry is in its infancy. The 3 major pain points are:

    1. Lack of derivative variety.
    2. Absence of risk management.
    3. No derivatives for new asset classes such as NFTs. 

    As DeFi matures and institutions embrace crypto, ClearDAO believes the market share of derivatives will increase for the foreseeable future. By enabling developers to create bespoke derivatives and lowering the barrier of entry, ClearDAO is accelerating the growth of the derivatives sector. 

    User experience is a core focus at ClearDAO. The project has launched a proof-of-concept barrier trading marketplace on several testnets a month ago. Since then, over 3000 participants have tried the marketplace and provided user feedbacks. ClearDAO aims to provide a clean and simple user interface so users can intuitively complete the trades they wish to execute.  

    According to project roadmap, ClearDAO will launch the Clear SDK v1.0 in Q1 of 2022. In the same quarter, the project will kick off developer program to provide promising dev teams with technical support, funding and marketing resources. The ClearDAO ecosystem will consist of multiple derivatives exchanges run by multiple teams, offering users with very different types of derivative products. 

    CLH/USDT trading pair is now live on KuCoin and Gate.io.

    About ClearDAO 

    ClearDAO is tackling the DeFi derivatives space by building the infrastructure for customizable derivatives. The Clear SDK provides templates and tools that enable developers and traders to easily create options, notes, futures, and swaps and launch marketplaces to facilitate the trading of these products. We are building a multi-chain ecosystem where member exchanges offer unique derivative products, all powered by ClearDAO.

    – Website: https://cleardao.com/

    – Twitter: https://twitter.com/clear_dao

    – Telegram: https://t.me/cleardao

    – Medium: https://medium.com/@clear_dao

    Contacts

    PR

    • Heidi
    • ClearDAO
    • hello@cleardao.com
  • Powered by Autonomy, AutoSwap Brings the First Ever Limit Orders and Stop Losses to PancakeSwap on Binance Smart Chain

    Powered by Autonomy, AutoSwap Brings the First Ever Limit Orders and Stop Losses to PancakeSwap on Binance Smart Chain

    Zug, Switzerland, 6th January, 2022,

    Autonomy Network, an off-the-shelf decentralized automation protocol, is thrilled to introduce AutoSwap, the first ever dApp to offer limit order, stop loss, impermanent loss protection, and recurring payment features for Binance Smart Chain-based DEXes such as PancakeSwap. The dApp will also be available on Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche, Solana and other chains. It’s the first time that these features have become available in the entire DeFi ecosystem. 

    By offering features in DeFi that were available only on centralized exchanges until now, AutoSwap aims to help users better manage risk and boost returns without having to stare at the screen 24/7. Since the crypto markets are open around the clock, traders can automate their orders using Autonomy to stay active in the market even when they are asleep.

    James Key, the co-founder of Autonomy Network, commented, “By introducing both limit orders and stop losses to DEXes for the first time ever on any blockchain, Autonomy has enabled DEXes to have the same features as centralized exchanges. Since most of crypto trading volume is not in market orders, this means that the main inhibitor of the growth of DEXes has been removed and is the final nail in the coffin for the dominance of centralized exchanges, allowing most of the volume to move over to DEXes.”

    Leading DEXes on multiple blockchains have partnered with Autonomy to offer their users the same features available on centralized exchanges. With trading volumes of DEXes growing exponentially, lack of automated solutions such as limit orders, stop losses, recurring payments, and impermanent loss protection had become a real pain point for DeFi users.

    SokuSwap, a multi-chain decentralized exchange, has successfully integrated Autonomy on the Binance Smart Chain. Pangolin is integrating Autonomy’s limit orders, stop losses, and impermanent loss prevention features on Avalanche. It aims to improve its overall usability and provide better risk management to users and LPs by integrating Autonomy. Soon ApeSwap will also have Autonomy-powered limit orders on Binance Smart Chain.

    Autonomy Network enables DeFi users to set up arbitrary actions to be triggered under arbitrary conditions, in a decentralized and guaranteed way. It is not just limited to trading. It could integrate with decentralized exchanges, lending protocols, DAO management tools, or even metaverse and NFT projects. For instance, SushiSwap’s lending platform Kashi has decided to natively integrate Autonomy to offer automating self-liquidations.

    These integrations are happening even before Autonomy Network launches its token. The protocol is preparing for its Initial DEX Offering (IDO) in February.

    About Autonomy Network

    Autonomy Network is the leading decentralized automation protocol building critical automation infrastructure for Web3 dApps. Autonomy Network helps DEXes across Ethereum, Binance, Avalanche, Polygon, and other chains and Layer-2 solutions increase their volumes by enabling them to offer users a wider range of features such as limit orders, impermanent loss protection, recurring payments, and more.
     

    Contacts
    • James Key
    • james@autonomynetwork.io
  • What Predictions can be Made About Crypto for 2022?

    What Predictions can be Made About Crypto for 2022?

    With cryptocurrency being as volatile as it is, it can be extremely hard to try and predict what might happen over a daily basis. Indeed, the virtual currency has managed to carve a reputation of being incredibly unpredictable and one that can potentially be an investors nightmare. However, there is no denying that digital assets have become rather widespread throughout the world, as their popularity has soared and the adoption levels have subsequently increased.

    Although it can be unpredictable in regard to price, there are a number of things that can be predicted when thinking about the future and what impact cryptocurrency can have over an extended period of time. Naturally, it would be a great time now to take a look at what the future may hold and check out the bold predictions that have been made for 2022 as we enter a new year.

    More financial services will embrace it

    One of the biggest predictions that can be made for 2022 and cryptocurrency is that the virtual currency receives a greater level of acceptance and is embraced by more financial services than previously experienced. An example of a service likely to start embracing it will be financial advisors.

    This particular service has been in a hard spot in recent years due to the lack of regulations, therefore they have been unable to guide clients with the amount of guidance that they would normally want to offer. However, the interest from clients in digital assets has continued to grow, with nearly 50% of them asking about crypto in the last six months compared to 17% in 2020.

    Advisors are no longer in a position to ignore the interest in crypto and are perhaps unable to try and convince their clients not to go down that particular route anymore.

    New regulations

    It would not be hard to imagine that 2022 would be the year where we see a lot of new regulations be introduced, with a number of experts concluding that this is likely to happen sooner rather than later. Of course, this will help everyone in a variety of ways.

    Financial advisors will be in a better position to offer guidance, whilst it could also help to drive crypto further into the mainstream market as more people may be willing to invest in it. However, it has been acknowledged that regulation could cause frustration to begin with. 

    Rise of crypto gambling

    Alongside the growth of the crypto market has been the exponential boom that the iGaming market has managed to experience during the same time period. Many have argued, and will continue to do so, that crypto and gambling go hand-in-hand and it is hard to disagree.

    Indeed, the introduction of crypto casinos has made it a lot easier for enthusiasts to enjoy one of their passions, whilst also being able to experience a number of benefits at the same time. Those using crypto will be able to benefit from enhanced convenience, anonymity, security, faster speeds whilst it remains ubiquitous.

    More women to get involved in crypto investing

    One expert has suggested that 2022 could see even more women become involved in crypto investing, with tastes, attitudes and behaviors continuing to evolve.

    It had been found that the average cryptocurrency owner is a 38-year-old male making approximately $111,000 a year, but Gemini’s 2021 State of the U.S. Crypto Report suggests that could change as nearly two-thirds of U.S adults are crypto-curious, with 53% of those being women. “Crypto-curious” refers to those who do not own crypto currently but are interested in learning more or actually hold digital assets in the near future.

    It is understood that women only account for just 26% of the current crypto holders market, so if the figures from the report are right, the entire demographics of crypto investors could change in 2022.

    Major retailers will accept crypto

    Perhaps in the same way that financial advisors are no longer able to ignore cryptocurrency, retailers will also find that they will no longer be in the same position, as well.

    Of course, there are already a number of businesses that accept Bitcoin and other digital assets as a form of payment for their goods and services, however 2022 could see the number of retailers accepting virtual currency increase greatly. There is already evidence that major organizations are already making moves, including Amazon and Walmart as they continue to hire blockchain experts.

    One reason experts believe this could happen in 2022 is due to the consumer generations, with millennials and Gen Z living in digital worlds and perhaps more likely to make purchases with crypto rather than traditional old money. Additionally, retailers may wish to go digital as they could look to eliminate costs incurred when a debit or credit card has been used.

    Crypto bubble will start to deflate

    Naturally, despite the fact that it has continued to grow and enter the mainstream, not everyone is yet to be fully convinced about the future of cryptocurrency. Some experts are suggesting that 2022 could be the year where the bubble starts to deflate, although not quite burst.

    The Federal Reserve has already indicated that it will start to tighten federal policy and this is likely to have an impact on the crypto market due to its position as being incredibly speculative. Furthermore, the digital asset does not have intrinsic value, either.

    To conclude, there are a number of different predictions that can be made regarding the future of cryptocurrency as we enter 2022. Of course, some are going to benefit some more than others, however the predictions made certainly suggest that the industry could be in for an interesting 12 months.

  • NFTs Boom on Polygon, Pushing the Network’s User Activity to All-Time High

    NFTs Boom on Polygon, Pushing the Network’s User Activity to All-Time High

    Key takeaways:

    • The Polygon network has managed to achieve several significant milestones in December
    • User activity reached an all-time high, as did the total number of NFTs sold on the network
    • The Etheurem Layer 2 solution’s native MATIC token hit an all-time price peak of $2.91 on December 22, 2021

    Over the past couple of months, Polygon has become a hotbed for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), particularly those pertaining to the growing GameFi sector. The sales of unique digital items on the network nearly breached the 2 million mark in December after gaining considerable momentum throughout the second half of 2021.

    The number of NFTs sold in December came close to 2 million, a 60% month-over-month increase

    Polygon is a Layer 2 protocol designed to connect Ethereum-compatible blockchains and provide an easy-to-scale environment for the broader crypto ecosystem. Low transaction fees and high throughout have garnered attention from numerous gaming companies that have begun to build NFTs on the Layer 2 network. In recent months, this trend had been the key driver behind the surging sales of digital gaming items on Polygon.

    December was a record-breaking month in terms of NFTs sold for Polygon. Image source: Dune Analytics

    Blockchain research firm Dune Analytics reports that the total number of NFTs sold on Polygon came close to surpassing 2 million in December. This represents a 60% increase over the previous month and an approximately 450% increase since August 2021.

    The number of active Polygon addresses retests ATH set in early October

    The surge in NFT sales comes amidst a broader ecosystem expansion that Polygon has been experiencing over the last year. According to data from Polygonscan, the number of active Polygon Proof-of-Stake (PoS) addresses increased to 545,163 on January 5, just 21,350 addresses shy from the all-time high peak reached on October 2.

    User activity on Polygon has been undergoing a massive surge that started at the tail end of 2021. Image source: Polygonscan

    The founder and head developer of Etheruem, Vitalik Buterin, has recently reiterated the importance that Layer 2 protocols play in the marketplace. Crypto investors agree with Buterin’s sentiment, as L2 platforms, such as Loopring and Immutable-X, have performed incredibly well in recent months. 

    No other Ethereum L2 solution has been quite as successful as Polygon, however, whose native MATIC token recently managed to break into the crypto top 20. MATIC reached an ATH of $2.91 last week on the tailwind of impressive 7,485% yearly gains.

    Buy/Sell MATIC
  • Swiss Crypto Bank Sygnum Hits $800M Valuation Following $90M Series B Round

    Swiss Crypto Bank Sygnum Hits $800M Valuation Following $90M Series B Round

    Sygnum, a regulated digital currency bank based out of Switzerland has raised $90 million in a Series B financing round, which elevated the company’s valuation to $800 million. The funding round was led by prominent alternative investment firms, including Sun Hung Kai & Co., Animoca Brands, and SBI Holdings.

    Key takeaways:

    • According to Sygnum’s press release, the company had excellent business results in 2021. Gross consolidated revenues increased by 1000%, while assets under administration (AUA) surpassed $2 billion on the heels of a considerable increase in the number of corporate clients.
    • Sygnum is an all-encompassing banking and financial services company that provides a myriad of crypto products, ranging from spot and derivatives trading to crypto collateralized fiat loans and custody solutions.
    • Sygnum’s employees and executives have participated in the latest funding round, which was the case in the earlier financing round as well. Personnel of Sygnum have thus managed to retain a majority ownership stake in the bank even after the Series B round.
    • The Swiss bank focused on crypto-related services said that the newly acquired capital will go towards expansion in the Web 3.0 space “including DeFi, NFTs, play-to-earn gaming and the metaverse.”
    • Swiss authorities have been particularly favorable to crypto in the recent past. In September of last year, Swiss financial regulators have green-lighted the creation of the country’s first digital asset fund, named the Crypto Market Index Fund. Later in the year, in mid-December, BBVA Switzerland became the first traditional bank in Europe to provide Ethereum trading and custody services.
  • Bitcoin Sheds 10% of its Value and Retraces to September Price Levels

    Bitcoin Sheds 10% of its Value and Retraces to September Price Levels

    Key takeaways:

    • The total cryptocurrency market capitalization shrank by roughly 10% today, which represents a more than $230 billion drop 
    • Growing uncertainty over inflation rates, new covid variant, and Kazakhstan’s BTC mining outage are the main culprits for the market pullback
    • Close to $900 million worth of “longs” and “shorts” was liquidated in the last 24 hours

    Bitcoin and other digital currencies have undergone a massive market pullback in the last 24 hours, which plunged virtually all coins in the red zone. The value of all digital assets in circulation has diminished by roughly 10%, leaving the total market cap standing at $2.09 trillion at press time.

    A myriad of macroeconomic factors contributed to the market crash. The most notable were Fed preparing an interest rate hike, Kazakstan-based Bitcoin miners going offline, and new covid variant discovery in France.

    Bitcoin drops to $42K, a price level not seen since September

    Bitcoin has been trading in a relatively tight range in the first week of 2022. Earlier today, however, the price of the world’s largest crypto dropped below $46,000 and from then on continued on a quick downward slide towards $42,000. In the span of just 3 hours, Bitcoin lost 8% of its value and bottomed out at a four-month low of $42,500. 

    Bitcoin’s market capitalization shrunk by nearly $80 billion in roughly seven hours.

    Ethereum and other altcoins were hit harder than BTC

    Most digital currencies have performed even worse than BTC over the past 24 hours. Ethereum lost 11.7% of its value and is changing hands at $3,350 at the time of this writing. While Ethereum’s downswing wasn’t as sudden as Bitcoin’s, the second-largest crypto ultimately ended up shedding more value.

    Ethereum has retraced to October price levels.

    Apart from SafeMoon, 99 out of the top 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization are posting negative returns today. Severable notable double-digit losers include Polkadot (-13.3%), Avalanche (-12.5%), Solana (-12.7%), and Terra (-11.3%).

    A wave of crypto liquidations wipes out nearly $900 million from futures markets

    Derivatives traders are especially exposed to the high degree of market volatility. In total, $889 million worth of futures contracts has been liquidated in the last 24 hours, with approximately 90% share of them being long positions.

    Bitcoin and Ethereum futures traders have to make do with a $551 million loss in the last 24 hours. Image source: Coinglass

    According to blockchain analytics firm Coinglass, the largest share of liquidations took place on the OKEx crypto exchange ($266M), followed by Binance ($247M) and FTX ($166M). 

    With economic uncertainty over growing inflation rates and concerns over the new covid variant looming in the air, the markets are most likely headed towards a period of high volatility and unpredictability.

  • QuickSwap Launches a Dragon’s Syrup Pool for Orbs

    QuickSwap Launches a Dragon’s Syrup Pool for Orbs

    Another step forward for blockchain domination by Orbs, who are swiftly partnering up with all the major Layer 1 and 2 chains and forming key integrations with many exchanges and platforms. The latest news comes from QuickSwap, which has launched a Dragon’s Syrup Pool for Orbs, which seems to be one of the sweetest things in the staking realm right now. 

    Here’s how it works:

    Orbs holders can now stake their holdings inside ORBS Pools’ on QuickSwap to earn Liquidity Provider tokens as a reward and they’ll also get 0.25% share of all trading fees conducted inside the pool. With those LP tokens, a user can engage in Quick liquidity mining to earn a second source of passive income via QUICK. From here, the user can stake those QUICK tokens inside Dragon’s Lair in exchange for dQuick, which then gives users a slice of all trading fees generated across QuickSwap.

    By following these three steps, the user has the opportunity to receive a large amount of token rewards in a number of ways. One of which comes from farming $dQuick, alongside the existing stakes from the ORBS pools.

    Here’s what Orbs had to say about the development, “We are thrilled about this special launch on QuickSwap’s Dragon’s Syrup, as it is expected to support and strengthen Orbs position in the DeFi space, as well as enhance exposure for the Orbs project to the Polygon ecosystem.”

    The sweetest thing about Dragon’s Syrup

    QuickSwap is a decentralized exchange that runs on the Polygon Network, and promises cheaper and faster transactions on ETH. It’s native token QUICK is a governance token for voting rights and staking for a share of trading fees on the popular exchange.

    The “Dragon’s Syrup” enables $QUICK token holders to stake their tokens as $dQUICK (they are given these once depositing QUICK intro staking pools, in order to earn tokens that are listed on QuickSwap. The value of his $dQuick tokens grow as more trading fees are generated on the DEX. Those who use Dragon’s Syrup can spread their QUICK tokens to stakers, thus gaining an extra source of yield.

  • StarSharks, the Binance-backed Shark Metaverse, Launches its First Turn-based Card Game : StarSharks.Warriors

    StarSharks, the Binance-backed Shark Metaverse, Launches its First Turn-based Card Game : StarSharks.Warriors

    Singapore, Singapore, 5th January, 2022,

    StarSharks – an NFT-GameFi ecosystem built on the Binance Smart Chain – has officially launched its first game StarSharks.Warriors. It is a turn-based card game where the player’s goal is to eliminate all sharks of their opponents. Players can install the StarSharks.Warriors official version from the StarSharks homepage.

    The new game exists in a shark-themed metaverse defined and shared by the community with a sustainable economic system. The sharks on the platform are NFTs that can be battled, raised, and synthesized. Designed for both newbies and experts, the game combines simple combat rules and skill mechanisms with exciting and challenging infinite strategy combinations.

    “We are excited and ready to bring people together to the StarSharks metaverse with the first game on this platform: StarShark.Warriors. It is a milestone and the beginning of our journey to become an inclusive, passionate and creative community. We hope that the community will enjoy the ‘StarSharks.Warriors’ game, and look forward to building future adventures and experiences with the StarSharks community,” said Franky, the CEO of StarSharks.

    The StarSharks.Warriors is a combat game whose components include Shark body parts, genes, species, skills card and attributes. Each player begins with six skill cards allotted randomly. You can play the game in two modes: PvE and PvP. The PvE mode has an adventure mode and is constantly being optimized through community feedback. A training mode is currently being developed to make it even easier for beginners to get started. Players are automatically matched against another player based on their rankings.

    There will be a total of five games within the StarSharks metaverse and players will be able to seamlessly transfer their assets between different games. StarSharks is breaking the barriers between games by giving players the true ownership of NFTs (sharks) that they can use to play multiple games without getting bored. 

    Users who can’t afford to buy an NFT can rent one using StarSharks’ NFT leasing feature. The “rent to play” feature will fully activate the liquidity and utilization of NFT assets. It bridges the gap between NFT holders who don’t have time to play and active players who don’t have enough initial capital to purchase entry NFTs.

    The game launched on the heels of StarSharks’ recent $4.8 million private funding round that saw participation from dozens of reputed investors including Binance Labs, DAO Maker, Gate.io Labs, Kucoin Labs, YGG SEA and others. Prior to the private round, Binance Labs, the venture capital arm and incubator of Binance, had made a strategic investment in the shark metaverse. 

    About StarSharks

    StarSharks (SSS) is a community-driven game platform where players, developers, and investors could define the value evolution of underlying NFTs in a sustainable ecosystem. This project aims to cultivate and share the value of content with the community, and to disrupt the current GameFi world where assets are isolated in one game. It enables players to come together to build and govern a new metaverse and create a community culture in the Shark-metaverse. StarSharks was founded in 2021 by a team with previous star performers from Timi Studio, Google, and Binance.

    Media contact: Vanessa, marketing@starsharks.com

    For further information: Website | Twitter | Medium | Discord | Telegram | YouTube 

    Contacts
    • Vanessa
    • marketing@starsharks.com