Weekly Recap: Celsius Repays Debt and Reddit Rolls Out NFT Pfps
Celsius Repays Loans to MakerDAO, Others
Embattled crypto lender Celsius finalized the payments on its loans to MakerDAO. Before then, the company had been at risk of a takeover.
In a single transaction, the crypto network cleared off the remainder of its 223 million USD debt to Maker. The rest of the debt amounted to 41.2 million USD, which Celsius paid off in Dai.
Celsius’ problems began with the fall of the crypto market, forcing the lender to pause all its transactions last month. In the red and weighted down by loans, the firm began to pay off its debt in the first week of July.
The reclaimed collateral on its loan, 450 million USD in total, will allow it to meet customer withdrawal demands. Subsequently, the repayment also reduced the company's chances of forced liquidation and helped keep it afloat.
The company has also made similar moves to repay its debt to DeFi Lending platforms Aave and Compound. The network owed a combined 258 million USD to both platforms. After its payoff, however, data from Zapper showed that its debt had been beaten down to 235 million USD. If Celsius is successful in repaying its loans, the company will receive 950 million USD in collateral.
Celsius is currently working with experts from several advisory firms to restructure its finances.
Reddit Unveils Brand New NFT Marketplace
On Thursday, July 7, Reddit announced the launch of its native NFT marketplace, while avoiding the word “NFT” in its official release.
Reddit’s new “digital collectible” marketplace will deal chiefly with pfp avatars. Reddit users will be able to buy these blockchain-based collectibles on the social media platform. Additionally, user avatars purchased on Reddit's marketplace can not only be used on the site but anywhere else on the internet.
According to its blog post, users do not need to hold crypto to purchase the NFTs, as they also can be bought with fiat currencies.
The avatars for sale dubbed Collectible Avatars will come in 90 different designs and are fully customizable to user tastes. Reddit’s new avatars are built on the Polygon blockchain and will be accessible with the platform’s inbuilt wallet feature called Vault. Vault provides users with a digital wallet address that is compatible with any Ethereum-based blockchain platform.
Finally, the Collectible Avatars are only currently available to a select number of Redditors for now, though the release promises the entire community will be able to purchase them soon.
Cardano Founder Hits Out at Bitcoin Developer Who Criticized PoS Mechanism
Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, took to Twitter on Monday to voice his displeasure with Bitcoin developer, Jimmy Song.
Prior to Hoskinson's abrasive tweet, Song had previously taken a shot at the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. He claimed that the method did not truly provide decentralized consensus, and was therefore flawed. Hoskinson appeared to strongly disagree with Song's views, branding his tweet “stupid.” Hoskinson’s strong rebuttal was probably expected, as Cardano was one of the first proof-of-stake blockchain networks to be developed.
Co-founder of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin also took exception to Song's tweet. Since the past year, the Canadian programmer has been working to transition the Ethereum blockchain from a proof-of-work to a proof-of-stake mechanism. Buterin responded stating that Song was "probably wrong."
Crema Finance Hacker Returns Stolen Funds
On Sunday, July 3, liquidity protocol Crema Finance temporarily suspended its operations due to a security breach. The hack resulted in the loss of nearly 9 million USD.
Following a negotiation deal struck proposed by Crema Finance, its hacker has returned the majority of the funds they stole from the protocol.
Four days after its attack, on July 6, CremaFinance confirmed that the hackers had finally refunded the looted crypto in exchange for a substantial reward of 1.65 million USD.
The firm announced that about 7.6 million USD was made by the malicious actor in four different transactions.
Italian Authorities Set to Subsidize Blockchain Projects
Despite the crypto winter, the crypto industry continues to get traction. Last week, El Salvador bought some more Bitcoin in addition to their stash. This week, the Italian government moved to provide funding for projects in the AI, IoT, or blockchain technology space.
According to a report, the Italian Ministry of Economic Development has created a fund dedicated to the development of AI and blockchain technology. Thus, projects involving artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, cryptography or blockchain technology are eligible for the grant.
The fund is worth a whopping 45 million euros, which amounts to roughly 46 million USD. The fund will cover no more than than 2 million euros in expenses. Applications are set to commence this year. Notably, the grant will be available to organizations, companies, and research centers of any size that operate in specific sectors. These sectors include health, education, aerospace, and a host of others.
Santander Bank Set to Hold Awards Event in the Metaverse
Spanish banking giant Santander Bank will hold the first-ever virtual awards ceremony conducted in the Metaverse. According to the bank’s official website, the event will take place in the Decentraland Universe on the 14th of July.
The awards ceremony is intended to close an ongoing competition organized by the bank in collaboration with Oxentia Foundation. Notably, Santander aims to incentivize projects that have created useful solutions in the blockchain, DeFi, and Web3 space. The contest was open to both start-ups and scale-ups in 11 select countries that have developed inventive solutions to everyday problems using blockchain technology.
