Facebook's decision this Thursday to rebrand itself to Meta—to indicate its plans to build an avatar-filled metaverse—helped spark a speculative rally across cryptocurrencies that belong to similar virtual world projects. Decentraland, a virtual place with its own economy, currency (MANA), and social events, accessible to anyone with a web browser, saw its market valuation exploding from $1.44 billion to $2.08 billion in the previous 24 hours. That happened as its native token MANA jumped circa 45% to $1.14 in the same period. At its intraday best, the Decentraland cryptocurrency was changing hands for $1.227 Friday, its highest level since May …

Facebook Inc. announced Thursday that it has changed its company name to Meta — marking the first major rebrand for the social media giant. The name change, which reflects the company’s growing ambitions beyond social media, was unveiled by CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the Facebook Connect conference. An accompanying news release laid out the company’s vision for creating a “metaverse” that connects online social experiences and the physical world. Facebook Connect is an annual conference that brings together virtual reality developers, content creators and marketers. This year’s event is heavily focused on the metaverse concept, which has proliferated thanks to …

The cryptocurrency market is back on the rocks on Oct. 27 as many of the top assets find themselves in the red on the day after Bitcoin (BTC) price dropped to $58,000 in the early trading session. Despite the wider struggles of the market, several altcoins have managed to post gains in excess of 22% as major protocol integrations and exchange listings have helped buffer them against the wider market downturn. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the biggest gainers over the past 24-hours were 1inch (1INCH), Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Mask Network (MASK). 1inch integrates with …

The stablecoin market has grown exponentially over the last few months due to the numerous advantages blockchain-based versions of fiat currencies have. But, when Facebook launched its cryptocurrency wallet Novi using Paxos’ stablecoin, some United States senators were quick to oppose it. Are they concerned about user data or monetary sovereignty? The social media giant which, according to its Q2 2021 report, has 2.9 billion monthly active users across all of its platforms, tapped Coinbase and Paxos for its Novi digital wallet project that kicked off its testing phase in the U.S. and Guatemala on Oct. 19. The pilot program …

The biggest regulatory story of the week, if not the year, has been the United States Security and Exchange Commission’s lack of opposition to the launch of the first-ever Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds, which took eight long years to materialize. While the first ETFs are tracking CME-traded Bitcoin futures rather than the asset’s spot price, the crypto space is already anticipating a pure-Bitcoin ETF as a logical next step. This bar might prove to be immensely difficult to clear, however, as SEC Chair Gary Gensler seems far less convinced of the stringency of investor protections that such products offer. Below …

Stablecoin project Diem has distanced itself from Facebook in response to senators calling for the immediate cessation of the firm’s Novi crypto wallet. Diem also claimed senior regulators had called it “the best-designed stablecoin project that the U.S. government had seen.” In a Tuesday letter sent to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the senators, including crypto critic Elizabeth Warren, voiced their “strongest opposition to Facebook’s revived effort to launch a cryptocurrency and digital wallet.” Earlier that day, the Novi wallet was launched in partnership with Coinbase, with a pilot in the United States and Guatemala to enable users to buy, send …

Five senators have called for the immediate closure of Facebook’s new crypto wallet just hours after it was launched in a partnership with Coinbase. Crypto skeptic Senator Elizabeth Warren was one of the five urging Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to “immediately discontinue” the project. In a letter sent to Zuckerberg on Tuesday, the five senators wrote: “Given the scope of the scandals surrounding your company, we write to voice our strongest opposition to Facebook’s revived effort to launch a cryptocurrency and digital wallet, now branded ‘Diem’ and ‘Novi,’ respectively.” Diem is Facebook’s ambitious stablecoin project, formerly known as Libra, which …

Social media giant Facebook has tapped Coinbase and Paxos for its forthcoming Novi digital wallet project, which kicked off its pilot testing phase in the United States and Guatemala on Tuesday. Beginning Tuesday, a small cohort of users in both countries will be able to download the Novi digital wallet app on iPhone or Android devices and add money to their accounts with a debit card. From there, they will be able to send and receive money using Pax Dollar (USDP), a dollar-backed stablecoin issued by blockchain trust company Paxos. Facebook selected USDP in its pilot program because of its …

Publicly-listed cryptocurrency and blockchain investment firm Tokens.com has announced a landmark agreement to acquire a 50% stake in metaverse real estate firm Metaverse Group in a deal worth in excess of $1.6 million. Tokens.com is expected to capitalize on the purchase — reportedly the highest purchase of a virtual real estate firm — through the development of asset opportunities for public retail investors seeking to gain greater exposure to nonfungible token, or NFT, and decentralized finance, or DeFi, assets. Metaverse Group operates a service akin to a traditional real estate firm in that it engages in property acquisition, development and …

With the unprecedented interest the crypto industry is seeing right now, a lot of new projects choose to turn to the blockchain and try to attract new audiences. Meanwhile, social media platforms have been one of the best-performing companies over the past couple of years, with some influencers earning millions of dollars. One project unites the best of the two worlds and has launched an app that allows users to share videos of their favorite blockchain and crypto projects. BULLZ, the first video-sharing app, has released its beta version on both iOS and Android, with top creators already joining the …

Andreessen Horowitz (A16z), a leading venture capital firm operating in the crypto sector, has nabbed two of the leading engineers working on Facebook’s digital currency project for its digital asset fund. According to a Monday report from CNBC, Nassim Eddequiouaq and Riyaz Faizullabhoy have jumped ship from Facebook to A16z after spending two years working on the social media giant’s Novi digital wallet (formerly Calibra). Faizullabhoy will serve as the chief technology officer, while Eddequiouaq will take on the role of the chief information security officer at A16z’s crypto division. Faizullabhoy stated: “Andreessen Horowitz has shown an impressive dedication to …

The year 2021 seems to be a big year for the blockchain world as several projects, such as nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and centralized decentralized finance exchanges (CeDeFis), are taking the central stage. Also at the forefront is Facebook’s Libra. Not too long ago, the media was rife with the news that the world’s largest social media network was developing plans for a global digital currency. Then, after a while, it looked like Facebook shelved plans for it. Disputes with regulators around the globe had a hand in delaying and redirecting Facebook’s plans a bit. Instead of backing out, Facebook decided …