Miners are leaving Nvidia
In today’s edition, Terra’s ready to fly again, crypto’s getting a loud ‘maybe’, and there’s another VC for crypto.
Good morning! Welcome to The Daily Moon. Elvis is alive. No, really. All you have to do is get on to the metaverse. The Elvis On-Chain NFT project will bring a virtual avatar of the King Of Rock ‘n’ Roll. There’ll be concerts, parties, and even fan meetups. Designers will also sell NFTs of his iconic costumes and wigs. The ‘60s are back, baby.
Terra’s Got Backers
Terra’s revival is just a day away. After a green light from the community, exchanges are gearing up for the change. An airdrop is scheduled for today, after which TerraUSD will vanish. And LUNA will get a new home.
The big split
TerraUSD, or Terra, as it is now known, will be split in two. Here:
Old chain Terra Classic will have the token LUNA Classic.
New forked chain ‘Terra’ will have the token LUNA.
LUNA will be airdropped to TerraUSD holders.
But for the process to go through, exchanges need to step in too. Terra will take a ‘snapshot’ before and after the airdrop to ensure all holders get tokens. Trading is halted during the airdrop so that tokens can be sent without delays.
This is what crypto exchanges are doing:
Binance will handhold TerraUSD holders during the airdrop.
FTX will suspend TerraUSD and LUNA during the airdrop period.
HitBTC will offer the new LUNA token.
Bitrue will open LUNA trading soon after the airdrop.
Are the troubles over?
It’s too early to predict. Terra’s Do Kwon says forking will save LUNA. The algorithm-led experiment is dead for now because:
LUNA pricing will be market-determined.
The old Terra wallet will be removed.
TerraUSD and LUNA will be delinked.
But Kwon has still not clarified if Terra has dollar reserves to back LUNA.
Some Of ‘Em Like Crypto
Crypto is slowly finding takers. In one form or the other. There are a lot of yays and a few nays. Let’s dive in.
Bring ‘em in
Paraguay has approved a bill to regulate crypto mining. The idea is to attract large droves of crypto miners. Of course, they’ll have to apply for licences to operate.
Then there’s Portugal, already a cryptocurrency tax haven. No wonder a proposal that asked for taxing crypto profits exceeding $5,000 was rejected. Interestingly, Portugal does not consider an individual sale of crypto as investment income, which attracts a 28% tax.
And some good news for Kazakhs whose mining boom was cut short by power troubles. Kazakhstan is warming up to Binance. The exchange will help the country develop policies around crypto.
Not convinced
The US wants to maintain an iron grip by bringing crypto under the SEC. Meanwhile, the ECB has called crypto a big financial risk.
Nvidia’s Chips Are Falling
The miners have left, and Nvidia is hating it. The company made hay when the mining sun shined but things have changed. Its shares plunged 10% because of weak forecasts and poor chip sales in Q1. This is a worry considering that Nvidia launched a crypto-focussed chip just a year back.
Cutting back
Nvidia hasn’t disclosed its exact revenue from chip sales. It’s just said that crypto mining processing sales are ‘nominal’. A year ago, chip sales were $155 million.
Not a big surprise, though. The company’s previous quarter dropped plenty of bread crumbs, especially when chip sales were down 77%.
Just the miners?
There’s a chip shortage globally, so that’s one possible reason sales are low.
Nvidia is extremely secretive about its crypto mining business. So much so that it’ll pay $5.5 million to the US SEC, so those details stay private.
Ex-Binancers’ VC Switch
A few former Binance executives have launched a $100 million venture fund called Old Fashion Research. Their ambition is to evangelise and invest in crypto and web3 companies in Latin America and Africa.
What’s special
This fund will:
Back metaverse projects.
Bring crypto to markets in South America & Africa.
OFR has already invested in 50 blockchain projects so far in stealth mode. Some of the investee ventures include move-to-earn NFT game Genopets, and Africa’s largest gaming community, Metaverse Magna.
ICYMI
Crypto startups are hot right now. Just a day earlier, Andreessen Horowitz raised $4.5 billion for its fourth crypto fund. VC investments in crypto touched $10 billion globally in 2022’s first quarter. This is more than a 100% jump over the previous year.
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