The estimated windfall Apple got from its App Store in 2020 is $67 billion. That’s up from $50 billion in 2019, a 28% increase. Even as the company has lowered its commissions for smaller developers, the App Store remains a major component of Apple’s bottom-line profits. And it’s not just Apple taking a cut of developer revenue: On Android, the world’s most popular mobile operating system, the Google Play Store netted $38.6 billion in 2020. That’s over $105 billion in revenue from the top two app stores combined. It’s no wonder that regulators in many countries are closely considering whether …
Brian Armstrong, the CEO of United States cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, alleges that Apple is stifling innovation in crypto and sidelining DeFi to protect itself from competition. In a Twitter thread published on Sept. 11, Armstrong doubled down on his earlier claims that Apple continues to block some functionalities for cryptocurrency developers. The CEO alleged that other cryptocurrency firms are “reluctant to speak out on these topics for fear of retaliation,” but that he feels the need to speak out as Coinbase has exhausted regular channels for dialog with Apple and has reached a “dead end.” According to Armstrong, Apple has …
Binance’s attempts to bridge traditional markets with the cryptocurrency space in the form of fractionalized stock tokens has drawn the attention of Germany’s financial regulator. The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, otherwise known as BaFin, warned on Wednesday that the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange could face heavy fines for launching security-tracking tokens without an accompanying investor prospectus. Binance launched fractionalized stock tokens for Apple, MicroStrategy and Microsoft on Monday, adding to tokens for Coinbase and Tesla, which launched earlier in the month. The exchange had employed German equity firm CM-Equity AG to hold its “depository portfolio of underlying securities,” which, Binance …
After Google removed Ethereum-based decentralized application (DApp) browser MetaMask from its Android application store, Apple may now force Coinbase to remove the DApp browser feature from its crypto wallet application. According to a Reddit post published on Dec. 28, United States-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase warned its users that in order to comply with Apple’s mobile App Store policy, it might be forced to remove the DApp browser feature from its wallet application. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong commented on the post: “Coinbase CEO here. This is really unfortunate to see. Apple seems to be eliminating usage of Dapps from the App …
Yat Siu of Animoca Brands Yat is the executive chairman and co-founder of Animoca Brands, which delivers digital property rights to the world’s gamers and internet users, thereby creating a new asset class, play-to-earn economies and a more equitable digital framework contributing to the building of the open Metaverse. “2021 was the year of NFTs, and in the second half of the year, we saw a growing emphasis on GameFi. This trend will continue well into 2022. Real mass adoption of DeFi will happen via GameFi, which will explode in growth during 2022 as the potential for mass financial inclusion …