Tokonomo Daily Crypto News Digest – March 18th

The ex-CTO of Coinbase places a $2 million wager on the performance of Bitcoin

Balaji Srinivasan, the former chief technology officer of Coinbase, has placed a $1 million bet on Bitcoin’s price reaching $1 million by June 17th.

This comes after a Twitter user named James Medlock offered to bet $1 million that the United States would not experience hyperinflation. Srinivasan accepted the bet a few hours later.

The terms of the bet state that if Bitcoin fails to reach $1 million by June 17th, Medlock will receive $1 million worth of the stablecoin USD Coin and 1 BTC.
However, if Bitcoin reaches or exceeds $1 million by the same date, Srinivasan will keep the 1 BTC and the $1 million in USDC.

The two parties made the bet based on their differing opinions about the future of the U.S. economy and its banking system. Srinivasan believes that a crisis is looming that will lead to the deflation of the U.S. dollar and, therefore, hyperinflation, which would drive the price of BTC to $1 million. On the other hand, Medlock is pessimistic about the possibility of hyperinflation in the country.

Emergency measures are being prepared in Switzerland for UBS’ acquisition of Credit Suisse

According to sources familiar with the matter, the Swiss National Bank and the country’s financial regulator believe that UBS’ acquisition of Credit Suisse is the only option to prevent a collapse of confidence in Credit Suisse.
To speed up the acquisition process, emergency measures are reportedly being prepared to finalize the deal before the markets open on Monday.

UBS plans to continue Credit Suisse’s investment bank downsizing, with the merged group making up no more than a third of the combined entity.

With UBS having $1.1 trillion in total assets and Credit Suisse having $575 billion, the successful merger of the two banks would create one of the largest global systemically important financial institutions in Europe.

Meanwhile, BlackRock, an American investment company, has tweeted that it has no interest in acquiring Credit Suisse.

Microsoft is testing the integration of a Web3 wallet into its Edge browser

Reports suggest that Microsoft is developing a Web3 wallet that is compatible with cryptocurrencies and NFTs, which will be integrated into its Edge web browser.

According to a Twitter thread on March 17 by Albacore, a software documented, and occasional leaker, the wallet will be noncustodial, meaning Microsoft will not have access to passwords and recovery keys, and it will be embedded in Edge instead of being a separate browser extension.

The screenshots that accompanied the thread showed the ability to swap, send, and purchase crypto assets, with Coinbase and MoonPay as integrated platforms to buy and deposit crypto into the wallet.

As for NFTs, the UI simply suggests browsing different marketplaces to find them, with the wallet organizing the collection.

This move from Microsoft aims to enhance the features and capabilities of Edge, which has traditionally lagged behind competitors like Chrome and Safari in popularity.

OnCyber has revealed its custom metaverse worlds powered by OpenAI’s GPT

Oncyber, a Web3 metaverse platform, has revealed a new AI-powered tool called Magic Composer that enables users to personalize their virtual environments using text commands.

The tool, powered by OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 model, allows real-time changes to Oncyber’s metaverse platforms, where artists often exhibit their digital assets or NFTs.

With Magic Composer, users can modify the sky’s color and appearance, add an artist’s NFT works from a connected crypto wallet, alter the look and size of picture frames, and more.

According to Oncyber’s CEO Rayan Boutaleb, this is just the first version of the tool, and future iterations will allow artists greater control over turning their visions into 3D canvases. Boutaleb stated that AI technology was adopted to assist users in unlocking their creativity on the platform, given the gap between Oncyber’s game-like engine and the visual user interface. Oncyber aims to provide users with fewer limitations over time, with more sophisticated AI functionality, such as the ability to generate custom or modified 3D architecture, added in the future.

A recent tweet by Oncyber asked interested users to join the waitlist for a beta experience, with Magic Composer set to be available to the public soon.

Conclusion

In conclusion, March 18th was an eventful day in the world of cryptocurrency. As always, the world of crypto remains dynamic and unpredictable, and we can expect more developments and surprises in the days and weeks ahead.

Always make sure to DYOR and stay up to date with everything that’s happening in the crypto space with our daily digest of crypto news!