TrueUSD's Wild Ride

GM Readers!📪 It's BitDegree Insider, and let's take a look at this beautiful Web3 view.

⭐️Today's selection:

• 🎢TrueUSD's Wild Ride
• 🤺Survival of NFTs
• 🧩️Thursday Quiz
• 👌Selected Meme of The Day
• 📰Bite-Sized News

INSIDE THE PANIC

The dollar-pegged stablecoin TrueUSD (TUSD) has lost parity with another dollar stablecoin USDT on the Binance.US platform.

It fell as low as $0.80 at times.

On the international Binance platform, the price dropped insignificantly, hitting around $0.9980.

Thus, the problem seems to be only from the American platform's side.

But why?

Most likely, the cause of the TUSD's drop was due to low volumes. As was stated in a tweet, "Someone wants to get out."

On the eve of TUSD's depegging, there were negative news about this asset.

Late last week, Nevada state regulators ordered the crypto-custodian Prime Trust to cease operations.

Authorities claim the firm cannot perform customer withdrawals due to a "lack of customer funds."

This move caused market concern as Prime Trust was a technical partner of TrueUSD.

This custodian was ordered to stop working with crypto companies.

As a result, panic sentiments began to grow in the community.

But there is something else in this report.

There is a TUSD Proof of Reserves oracle from Chainlink, but the data comes from a single firm (creatively) named The Network Firm.

(It was previously known as Armanino).

They felt the need to rebrand themselves after the whole FTX whoopsie...

Because it was previously a division of the crypto exchange FTX itself. OOF.

This further intensified fears and triggered sell-offs.

However, as of today, everything has been restored. Yet, you know more and will be careful!

TL;DR: TrueUSD (TUSD) lost parity with USDT on Binance.US due to low volumes and negative news about its custodian, Prime Trust, being ordered to cease operations, causing panic and sell-offs, while concerns were also raised about the reliance on a single firm for the TUSD Proof of Reserves oracle, but the situation has since been resolved.

SURVIVAL OF NFTs

At their roots, some of the first NFT projects (from 2021 and until spring 2022) were more than hopeful that they could financially support themselves purely from royalties on resales (if the project was already successful).

And what happened?

Royalties were removed by force and smart contracts started to be revised.

The only option: enforced royalties and proper communication for community members supporting such projects, explaining what, why, and when they'd need a budget from commissions.

These projects had ambitious plans and goals.

The trend to refrain from levying additional commissions eventually led to a shortage of funds, even though staff had already been hired.

Take, for instance, projects like Azuki (described yesterday). They ventured into creating their own anime series, among several other initiatives.

This led to the point where they had to launch an extra collection for fundraising, despite the fact that the amounts seemed extremely huge to everyone.

A very controversial move.

But there were those in the market who flipped the game without releasing a new collection, but, nevertheless, continue to influence all future creators, builders, and projects. Hmm?

So, let's take a look at Pudgy Penguins.

They developed a product and marketed it to people beyond their existing community, leading to its expansion.

Their brand managed to break through the confines of the Web3 bubble.

Now, it's making inroads into households, spreading happiness along the way.

So… What was the solution? Say "hi!" to Pudgy Penguins Toys!

They became a hit on Amazon, topping the bestseller list for a period of time.

This success came, in part, thanks to Pudgy Penguins becoming a hit on social media as well. They generated lots of attention on Instagram and TikTok.

This led to excited kids unwrapping their Amazon parcels, thrilled to find a toy of a character they had just seen in a cartoon on TikTok.

What's even more interesting is that most of them don't even realize their toy box includes something extra, something that's called an NFT!

Well… Talk about an out-of-the-box way of increasing adoption!

TL;DR: Some early NFT projects aimed to sustain themselves through royalties but faced challenges when royalties were removed, leading to the need for enforced royalties and better communication with the community, while Pudgy Penguins found success by expanding beyond the Web3 bubble through merchandise and social media, introducing NFTs to a wider audience in an innovative way.

THURSDAY QUIZ

You know the drill. What's the hidden word here?

Reminder: The '' ' " thingy means that one letter should be omitted from the word. Example: John' —> "Joh"and John'' —> "Jo"

Good luck!!!

SELECTED MEME OF THE DAY

BITE-SIZED NEWS

• Crypto Investors Win as Slovakia's National Council Approves Lower Crypto Taxes. Crypto taxes will be lowered from up to 25% to 7%.
• Coinbase Files Motion to Dismiss SEC's Allegations of Unregistered Trading. Coinbase takes another step in a legal fight with US Securities and Exchange Commission.
• Binance Announces Break-Up with Euro Banking Partner Paysafe. Binance says goodbye to its euro banking partner.