Facebook’s rebranding into Meta was Mark Zukerberg’s latest attempt to retain dominance in the social media world of Web3, specifically, the Metaverse. On the occasion of Meta completing one year on the rebrand, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the CEO of the crypto exchange FTX, shared his thoughts on the rebranding and what it means for the future of Meta. Zuckerberg’s $100 billion Metaverse experiment first raised eyebrows when the CEO released the avatar for Meta’s Horizon Worlds VR platform. Subsequent releases of the Zuckerberg avatar fell prey to internet memes, although each new iteration seemed visually better than its predecessor. According …

Not everyone is convinced that Mark Zuckerberg’s massive metaverse experiment is a good idea. Since Facebook rebranded to Meta in 2021, the social media giant’s focus has increasingly shifted to connecting the digital and physical worlds through augmented reality. However, a shareholder of the company recently issued a letter to the CEO calling the metaverse investment “super-sized and terrifying.” It didn’t take long for those concerns to be justified. Meta published its third-quarter financial results after the bell on Oct. 26 and, perhaps unsurprisingly, its metaverse division underperformed. Meta’s Reality Labs lost a whopping $3.672 billion during the quarter, mirroring …

Bitcoin (BTC) is decoupling from big tech as disappointing earnings fail to spark any major BTC price losses. Economic data for Q3, 2022 saw heavy losses for some tech stocks, but BTC/USD avoided a chain reaction. Bitcoin hodlers shrug off Q3 tech results The largest cryptocurrency shed around $800 over Oct. 27, or 3.8%, after hitting its highest levels in six weeks. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was still around $20,200, offering more consolidatory trading behavior than a major correction. The same was not true of tech stocks, these led by a dramatic 20% rout in Amazon during out-of-hours …

Big Five technology player Meta is still burning cash through its Metaverse research and development arm Reality Labs with a $3.67 billion loss posted for the third quarter of 2022, stating those losses will further deepen next year. The company’s Q3 2022 earnings released on Oct. 26 show the biggest-ever quarterly losses for Reality Labs from earnings dating back to the fourth quarter of 2020, the business also made $285 million in revenue for the third quarter, its lowest on record within that time. With its Reality Labs business marking its third straight quarterly loss totaling $9.44 billion so far …

A shareholder’s open letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has labeled the tech giant's investment into the Metaverse as “super-sized and terrifying.” The shareholder has urged the company to scale down its investment in the Metaverse and its related technology arm amid a significant fall in its stock price over the last 18 months. The open letter was published on Oct. 24 and was directed at Zuckerberg and the board of directors. It was authored by Brad Gerstner, CEO and founder of technology investment firm Altimeter Capital, which owns roughly a 0.11% share in Meta, according to Hedge Follow. Gerstner …

After four years of development and millions in funding, the layer-1 blockchain Aptos (APT) has finally launched its mainnet, though it has been marred by mixed reception. The much-anticipated proof-of-stake blockchain, dubbed by some as a “Solana killer” due to its claimed 160,000 transactions per second (TPS) has launched its mainnet on Oct. 17. However, some members of the community have pointed out that the previously claimed TPS is falling far short of expectations on the mainnet. According to Aptos’ blockchain explorer the network is seeing around 4 TPS at the time of writing, while some users on Twitter have …

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced its latest virtual reality (VR) headset at the Meta Connect 2022 event on Oct. 11. The company introduced new features to enhance digital avatars, which raised privacy concerns regarding data collection. The Quest Pro is the latest piece of VR technology released by Meta as it continues its push into the metaverse. It utilizes five cameras inside the headset, which are positioned to watch and track a person’s facial expressions and eye movements. In addition, it has five external cameras, which will be employed in the future to track other bodily …

Facebook went under a major brand overhaul to project its focus on the Metaverse and rebranded to Meta in late 2021. The major shift for the social media giant surprised many, but looking at Facebook’s record with emerging tech trends, it was only a matter of time before it jumped into Web3. Meta’s crypto aspirations first came to light in 2019 after a failed experience in the digital payment sector with a Messenger-integrated payment option. The tech giant subsequently revealed its plans to launch a universal stablecoin backed by a basket of fiat currencies from different nations. The plan was …

Meta Platforms has partnered with technology giant Microsoft to bring a range of Microsoft Office 365 products into Meta’s Virtual Reality (VR) platform, aiming to entice companies into working in virtual environments. During Meta’s Connect 2022 keynote on Oct. 11, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said its Teams video calling app would integrate with Meta’s “Quest” and newly unveiled “Quest Pro” VR headset allowing people to gather in a virtual space akin to a boardroom. Familiar Microsoft productivity applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and SharePoint will also be made available within Meta’s VR. Nadella added future functionality would include …

New draft legislation on stablecoins in the United States House of Representatives proposed to impose a two-year ban on new algorithmically pegged stablecoins like TerraUSD (UST). The proposed legislation would require the Department of the Treasury to conduct a study of stablecoins similar to UST in collaboration with the United States Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Securities and Exchange Commission. An algorithmic stablecoin is a digital asset the value of which is kept steady by an algorithm. While an algorithmic stablecoin is pegged to the value of a …

Meta, Facebook and Instagram's parent company, announced another development on its digital arts initiative. As of today, all users on both platforms can connect wallets and share nonfungible tokens (NFTs) across 100 countries. As part of the feature, which has been in testing since May, users will be able to tag creators and collectors and cross-post digital collectibles between platforms without paying any fees. Everyone on @instagram and @facebook can now share their digital collectibles in the US, and on Instagram in the previously announced 100+ countries. Creators like artist Lívia Elektra are sharing their #NFTs on our apps. https://t.co/6yV4HgfHSW …

Some may argue that the Metaverse has been around for years, as demonstrated by early gaming platforms, yet virtual ecosystems are now being embraced by almost every industry. A recent report from consulting firm McKinsey & Company believes that the Metaverse has the potential to generate at least $5 billion in value by 2030. McKinsey also found that investments exceeding $120 billion have been put toward Metaverse platforms this year, indicating that major growth is underway. While notable, there is still the perception that most metaverse platforms are lacking when it comes to graphic quality. For example, Mark Zuckerberg was …