Web3 news: Here’s all the latest from the world of crypto and Web3.
- Microsofts’ Bing is topping the charts after being practically invisible for the better part of a decade.
- Regulators from the US are seriously turning up the heat on crypto.
- Bankrupt firm Genesis Global reveals a plan to pay back its creditors.
- Today’s top crypto performers.
Bing tops the charts after receiving a ChatGPT power up
After trying (and failing) to get people to use Bing for the better part of 13 years, Microsoft finally seems to have made some progress in generating widespread adoption of its long-struggling search engine.
The recent US$10 billion partnership with market-leading artificial intelligence (AI) company OpenAI, Microsoft has rapidly upped the ante on its long-running competitor Google. Last week, Microsoft unveiled the integration of the viral AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT with Bing which will soon be consolidated into its Edge web browser.
The company deftly introduced a waitlist for the new AI-powered Bing that required people to update their default desktop browsers to Microsoft products alongside downloading the Bing app on mobile. As a result of this new push, Bing is currently ranked in the top 10 apps overall on the US App Store and is currently the number 2 productivity app sitting just behind Gmail.
Formerly, Bing had been ranked in 160th position on the US app store’s productivity apps list — rendering it practically invisible to most consumers.
While Bing was topping the charts, Google struggled to maintain steam. In a live demo of its own seemingly panic-launched AI product dubbed ‘Bard’, the chatbot made a critical error and spat out the wrong answer to a relatively simple question with serene, machine-like confidence.
This gaffe, combined with what some analysts are describing as “underwhelming” nature of Google’s answer to Microsoft has seen its parent company Alphabet lose more than US$100 billion in value over the past few days.
Web3 news: There’s a lot at ‘stake’ for crypto in the US right now
In a move that may have drastic consequences for the crypto industry, regulators have come out swinging against the practice of ‘staking’ cryptocurrencies in the United States.
On Friday, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ruled that the US-based crypto exchange Kraken would pay a US$30 million fine to settle a claim that it broke the regulator’s rules by offering a service that allowed investors to earn yield by staking their crypto.
The SEC is also pushing to bring crypto operators within the US under the same type of regulatory framework that typically oversees the management of securities. Essentially, the SEC looks like it wants to treat cryptocurrencies that run on ‘staking’ much in the same way as traditional securities like stocks and bonds.
The major and concerning difference between this one and past regulatory crackdowns, is that staking is a central design feature of many of the biggest blockchains including Ethereum and the Binance ‘BNB’ Chain.
A careless crackdown on the overall practice of staking could spell disaster for the crypto industry, as it would render the use of the network extremely difficult for both everyday people and crypto insiders alike.
Web3 news: Genesis Global unveils its plan to make creditors whole again
Bankrupt crypto lending firm Genesis Global has finally made a clear move on how it plans to play back its creditors.
A filing submitted late on Friday afternoon US time, shows that Genesis’ parent company Digital Currency Group (DCG) plans to hand all of its equity tied up in Genesis Global over to another larger company that will eventually move to sell both firms and pay back its clients in full.
Genesis has been in a spot of bother since November last year, following the sudden and epic collapse of the once multi-billion-dollar crypto exchange FTX. And Genesis serves as one of the biggest lenders in the crypto industry.
The case quickly became high profile after it as revealed that Genesis served as the primary lending partner of the Winklevoss-owned crypto exchange Gemini, and currently owes users of the yield-bearing product ‘Gemini Earn’ a whopping US$900 million.
Crypto: today’s top performers
Web3 news: Biggest gainers
- BinaryX (BNX), the native token of the BinaryX gaming ecosystem is up 21%.
- Render Token (RNDR), the native token of the GPU sharing service Render is up 20%.
- Oasis Network (Rose), a new scalable Layer One blockchain is up 12%.
Web3 news: Biggest losers
- Mina Protocol MINA, the “world’s lightest blockchain” is down 4%.
- Maker (MKR), the protocol behind the popular stablecoin DAI is down 2.5%.
- SAND, the native token of the popular Web3 metaverse The Sandbox is down 2%.
Following the revelations that the US government may be looking to crack down on Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and cryptocurrency more broadly in the coming months, the price of Bitcoin dropped significantly on Friday and has struggled to recoup its losses over the weekend.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is changing hands for US$21,984 and commands a total market capitalisation of US$447 billion.
