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Web3 Gamer: GTA 6 crypto rumors, Dr Who/Sandbox, Thai tourist NFTs review

Grand Theft Auto VI crypto rumors

Rumors that the upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI will incorporate cryptocurrency and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) have once again surfaced, sparking speculation among fans.

Posts shared on Twitter suggest that GTA 6 will be a play-to-earn game and that in-game items such as cars and weapons will be NFTs.

GTA creator Rockstar Games are yet to weigh in on whether there’s any truth to these claims, but there seems to be little solid evidence backing the rumors.

The company cracked down on the use of crypto in GTA in November last year and sent cease and desist letters to companies running public servers with blockchain integrations — a blow to several game makers that had built their games on the platform.

A Lambo from GTA 5. (Steam/Rockstar Games)

Given that GTA 5, released in 2015, has sold over 180 million copies and generated a staggering $8 billion in revenue, it seems unlikely that Rockstar would drastically alter the successful formula of the franchise, the latest installment of which is expected next year or in 2025.

A lambo from GTA 5
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Rapid growth in DeFi-focused Ethereum liquid staking derivatives platforms raises eyebrows

Ether’s (ETH) decentralized finance (DeFi) activity has declined in the bear market, and the sector faces further competition from Ethereum’s annual staking reward of 4%, according to Glassnode analysts. However, a DeFi narrative is building around liquid staking derivative (LSD) tokens, which could revive Ethereum’s network activity.

The percentage of gas consumed by DeFi protocols has dropped from 34% in 2020 to between 8% and 16% presently, with nonfungible tokens (NFTs) commanding the maximum share of 25–30%, according to a recent report from Glassnode.

Ethereum gas usage by transaction type. Source: Glassnode

Glassnode’s supply-weighted price index for DeFi, priced in United States dollars and ETH, recorded a 90% loss since early 2021.

The so-called DeFi “blue chips,” which represent a basket of governance tokens from well-known DeFi protocols like Uniswap (UNI), MakerDAO (MKR), Aave (AAVE), Compound (COMP), Balancer (BAL) and SushiSwap (SUSHI), have lost 88% of their market capitalization from all-time highs of $45 billion in May 2021.

ETH vs. DeFi tokens price performance. Source: Glassnode

DeFi blue chip tokens have underperformed against ETH during bullish market rallies and experienced a more severe drop than ETH “on the downside during the bear.” The analysts predict that since the staking of ETH now yields 4%, it will act as a “new hurdle rate over which token returns must jump.” This yield represents the benchmark rate for Ether investors.


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Musk’s alleged price manipulation, the Satoshi AI chatbot and more: Hodler’s Digest, May 28 – June 3

Top Stories This Week

Dogecoin investors accuse Elon Musk of insider trading in amended class-action lawsuit

A group of Dogecoin investors has requested leave to amend a class-action lawsuit against tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, alleging he is responsible for insider trading of DOGE and asserting the token is a security under U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission regulations. According to the complaint, Musk profited off DOGE trading at the expense of other investors by causing the price of the token to spike through actions including changing Twitter’s logo to the Dogecoin logo. As one of the world’s richest people, the Twitter CEO has made frequent statements about Dogecoin to his millions of followers since 2019, often causing the price of the token to surge.

Satoshi Nak-AI-moto: Bitcoin’s creator has become an AI chatbot

Satoshi Nakamoto may have effectively disappeared over 12 years ago, but two artificial intelligence dabblers are seeking to revive the ability to chat with the famed Bitcoin creator. The model, essentially, is OpenAI’s ChatGPT trained on a limited data set, including Nakamoto’s public emails and forum posts, as well as other Bitcoin sources. In testing, the chatbot generates responses that are typically uncertain of the future of fiat currencies and hopeful about Bitcoin. Its goal is to show that AI tools could potentially be used in education, one of the creators said.

Buying a bank won’t solve crypto’s debanking issue — Binance CEO

Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has considered acquiring a bank amid the ongoing debanking of crypto firms across the globe. However, according to CZ, regulatory complexity and capital requirements make it unwise for Binance. “The reality is much more complex than the concept,” said the crypto executive. Binance has recently lost its fiat on-ramp and off-ramp partner in Australia — after difficulties finding a bank partner in the United States earlier this year. The company has been seeking a new payment provider in the country. 

Crypto.com has been granted a major payment institution license for digital payment token (DPT) services in Singapore. With the license, the crypto exchange is now authorized to offer its DPT services to customers in the country. The latest announcement adds to Crypto.com’s track record of securing regulatory licenses. The exchange has also been granted registration and/or licenses in France, the United Kingdom, Dubai, South Korea, Australia, Italy, Greece and Cyprus..

Web3 developer Magic raises $52M in funding led by PayPal Ventures

Wallet-as-a-service provider Magic raised $52 million in a strategic funding round led by PayPal Ventures. The funding round also saw participation from venture firms Cherubic, Synchrony, KX, Northzone and Volt Capital, bringing Magic’s total funds raised to over $80 million. Magic’s software is currently used by brands in retail, music, fashion and gaming, including Mattel, Macy’s, Xsolla and Immutable. Founded in 2020, Magic has generated over 20 million unique wallets to date. 


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Arbitrum price soars after DeFi whale address resumes ARB accumulation

On June 2, the price of Arbitrum jumped alongside the top-ranking cryptocurrencies after the United States Senate voted to raise the debt limit.

Why is the ARB price up today?

The price of Arbitrum (ARB) rose 9% to an intraday high of $1.25, beating the crypto market’s total overall gains of 1.5% in the same period.

ARB/USDT vs. total daily price chart. Source: TradingView

Arbitrum’s outperformance coincided with some strange buying activity associated with popular trader Andrew Kang’s crypto addresses.

Notably, on June 2, the Mechanism Capital co-founder deposited $1 million worth of stablecoins into Arbitrum pools and spent over 20% of it buying RDNT, the native token of decentralized finance lending platform Radiant Capital.

Andrew Kang's crypto activity snapped on June 2. Source: Lookonchain

Later, Kang exchanged his newly bought and existing RDNT reserves for $867,000 worth of ARB. Then, he deposited the proceeds to Radiant Capital to borrow Circle’s USD Coin (USDC), according to data resource Lookonchain.

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Bitcoin ‘big move’ due in July after March $30K push — Latest analysis

Bitcoin “consolidation” could end by July, new research predicts as optimism over a BTC price breakout returns.

In its latest market update on June 2, trading firm QCP Capital revealed a bullish bias on both Bitcoin  (BTC) and the largest altcoin, Ether (ETH).

QCP Capital: Bitcoin consolidation “played out perfectly”

Bitcoin price has been ranging between $26,000 and $31,000 since mid-March, but analysts are increasingly calling time on the sideways action.

QCP Capital is among them, predicting a change of course as soon as the end of the month.

This, it argues, is thanks to the United States debt ceiling “sideshow” vanishing, leaving Bitcoin closely mimicking its consolidation and breakout phase from 2020.

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Bitcoin wicks down to $26.5K, but trader eyes chance for ‘bullish surprise’

Bitcoin (BTC) bounced near multiple support trend lines into June 2 as market indecision remained in force.

BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart on Bitstamp. Source: TradingView

Traders bet on $27,500 BTC price ceiling

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD hitting lows of $26,519 on Bitstamp after the daily close.

The pair showed little signs of a trend change as a stalemate between bulls and bears continued to produce little volatility.

The collection of moving averages (MAs) and the short-term holder (STH) realized price near $26,000, thus staying untested on intraday timeframes.

Analyzing the current setup, popular trader Crypto Ed considered the potential for upside topping out at $27,500.

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Yuan stablecoin team arrested, WeChat’s new Bitcoin prices, HK crypto rules: Asia Express

RMB stablecoin team allegedly arrested

On May 31, local news outlet PANewsLab reported that the developers for the offshore Chinese RMB and Hong Kong dollar stablecoin issuer CNHC had allegedly lost contact or had been taken away by law enforcement officials. A photo shows what appears to be an empty office building at CNHC’s Shanghai division with the following message posted:

“The building’s assets have been seized by law enforcement; vandalism is prohibited.”

In March, CNHC raised $10 million in its Series A, led by KuCoin Ventures, Circle, and IDG Capital. The team said back then that it planned to use the funds for “expansion in the Asia Pacific Region” and was in the process of moving its headquarters from the Cayman Islands to Hong Kong.

The reported move appears to be part of a wider crackdown on cryptocurrencies by Chinese authorities. On May 24, Asia Express reported that tokens of Singaporean inter-blockchain communications protocol Multichain had plunged 30% on a delayed backend upgrade and rumors of Chinese police arrest of its core developers.

Though Multichain says that it is still operational, it stated on June 1 that it is still “unable to contact CEO Zhaojun and obtain the necessary server access for maintenance,” and as a result, the protocol will need to suspend a number of affected cross-chain services.


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Bitcoin price slips under $27K, but data shows BTC whales counter trading DXY strength

As the summer season arrives, an unexpected heatwave is gripping financial markets.

This heat is coming in the form of the U.S. Dollar Index (DXY), which has been on a remarkable uptrend since late April, reaching levels unseen since early March’s banking crisis when the dollar wrecking ball wreaked havoc on asset prices.

This surge in the dollar has raised concerns among market participants due to its high inverse relationship with Bitcoin (BTC), a topic many macro and crypto analysts have discussed repeatedly in 2023.

The implication of this inverse correlation means that when the dollar rises, BTC falls and vice versa. The chart below showing the year-to-date performances of DXY (blue line) and BTC (orange line) underscores this relationship a step further.

Notice how Bitcoin’s 2023’s performance has been propelled by a downward dollar. Not coincidentally, the DXY reached its year-to-date low near 100.80 on April 13, nearly the exact date BTC reached its year-to-date high of just over $31,000. Since then, however, both have been trending in opposite directions.


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BitCulture: Fine art on Solana, AI music, podcast + book reviews

BitCulture explores arts, culture, music and media in blockchain and Web3.

Fine art on the blockchain

Exchange.art head curator Haley Karren came to Web3 from some of the world’s leading art institutions and says that working with 14,000 artists on Solana’s fine art marketplace has broadened her tastes. 

Exchange.art head curator Haley Karren (Supplied)

“I have a new appreciation for pixel art, voxels and things that really are very much native to this space. It’s been fascinating to see the difference between what I was more interested in two years ago and what I’m interested in now.”

Formerly a curator at New York’s Museum of Modern Art and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Karren says her role has always been as a “conduit” between contemporary artists and the rest of the world. Even more so now that she’s connecting traditional artists to a space that utilizes blockchain, NFTs and artificial intelligence.

“Digital art and traditional art spaces are moving together more and more. That’s a big push for us at Exchange.art, but there is still a little bit of a divide,” she says. 

Exchange.art’s head curator Haley Karren
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Last BTC price dip before a $30K breakout? Bitcoin wipes weekend gains

Bitcoin (BTC) returned to a key focal point on June 1 as the monthly close delivered disappointment.

BTC/USD 1-day candle chart on Bitstamp. Source: TradingView

BTC price “fills” latest CME futures gap

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView confirmed a lackluster end to May for BTC/USD, which slid below $27,000.

The pair erased its entire uptick seen over the weekend, coming full circle to act in a familiar range on the day.

This centered on the area immediately below $27,000, Bitcoin frequently visiting since the middle of April.

CME Bitcoin futures 1-hour candle chart. Source: TradingView

In doing so this time around, however, BTC/USD “filled” a gap in CME futures outstanding since the weekend trip higher.

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PepeCoin (PEPE) price action points to a potential 70% drop

Pepe (PEPE) price has dropped by more than 70% three weeks after establishing its record high of $0.00000449. And the memecoin could fall even more in the coming days, according to a mix of technical and fundamental indicators.

PEPE charts flash a classic bearish reversal pattern

From a technical standpoint, the price of PEPE could drop sharply from its current levels. At the core of this bearish outlook lies the classic head-and-shoulders (H&S) pattern.

Analysts who use technical analysi view the H&S pattern as a bearish reversal indicator for the unversed. It forms when the price forms three peaks atop a common neckline support; the middle peak, called "head," is higher than the other two, called the "left shoulder" and "right shoulder."

Head-and-shoulder breakdown illustrated. Source: Forex Academy

The H&S pattern resolves after the price breaks below its neckline. Meanwhile, as a rule of technical analysis, traders measure the pattern's downside target by adding the maximum distance between the head and neckline to the breakdown point.

On May 22, PEPE broke below its H&S neckline near $0.00000156. That puts its downside target near $0.00000041 in June, down around 70% from current price levels.

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Bitcoin played second fiddle as KAVA, XRP, TRX, RPL and RNDR led the crypto market in May

The cryptocurrency market experienced a dull month, with Bitcoin (BTC) dropping 7.37% — its worst performance since November 2022 — and Ether (ETH) losing 0.22% in May. 

The average loss across the market stands at 5.62% on the last day before the monthly close.

However, some outliers posted impressive gains thanks to popular investment narratives and the growth of the Ethereum staking sector.

In the first half of May, memecoins grabbed headlines, with Pepecoin (PEPE) leading the narrative. The memecoin cycle guzzled up a lot of gas on Ethereum in the first half of May.

PEPE’s market capitalization surged to a peak of $1.54 billion in the first week of May, according to CoinGecko. It has witnessed a sell-off since then, as tokenholders booked profit. However, the token still ended the month with over 300% gains.


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Bitcoin hodlers exited ‘capitulation’ above $20K, new metric hints

Bitcoin (BTC) is in a “transition,” which should pave the way to the next bull market top, new research has concluded.

In the latest edition of its weekly newsletter, “The Week On-Chain,” analytics firm Glassnode unveiled its latest tool for tracking Bitcoin’s resurgence.

Bitcoin hodlers in “transition”

After the 2022 bear market and signs of recovery in Q1 this year, on-chain metrics have undergone a broad transformation, many suggesting that a long-term BTC price bottom is already in.

With price action stagnating since mid-March, however, doubts have returned — along with downside targets that stretch toward $20,000.

For Glassnode analysts, however, Bitcoin’s long-term investor base is already preparing for better times ahead.

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Mad scientist’s NFTs degrade when they’re traded: 0xDEAFBEEF, NFT Creator

When NFTs first took off, it was Beeple’s digital art, CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club PFPs that dominated the headlines and top sales — but one individual bucked the trend in a unique way, garnering attention with generative audiovisual art using just a C compiler. 

That individual was 0xDEAFBEEF, an artist and engineer based in Toronto, Canada who’s spent over 20 years experimenting with art, technology, music, generative art, computer animation, blacksmithing and sound recording. 

Using low-level computer code and a minimal toolset to craft raw information into audiovisual artworks has proven more popular than you might expect. A collection of six of 0xDEAFBEEF’s sold for $6.8 million in August 2021, and two weeks ago, “Series 1: Angular – Token 134” fetched $241,300 at Sotheby’s. It was auctioned during part 1 of “Grails,” a collection of highly desirable NFTs originally owned by the now-insolvent 3AC (Three Arrows Capital).

Trained on classic piano as a kid and somewhat of a mad scientist when it came to audio equipment, discovering a programmable blockchain in Ethereum was a revelation.

“I’d describe myself as a tinkerer, jumping around between many fields, overlapping art and technology. It just happened that the project that I commenced before I knew anything about NFTs, doing audiovisual work with code, happened to align with things that were happening within Ethereum,” 0xDEAFBEEF says. 

Glitchbox
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Bitcoin risks ‘new lows’ into monthly close as BTC price retests $27K

Bitcoin (BTC) tested $27,000 on May 31 as weakness prevailed into the monthly close.

BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart on Bitstamp. Source: TradingView

Analyst: Bitcoin reaching “crucial area”

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed BTC/USD as it continued to lose momentum after local highs near $28,500.

As early-week excitement faded, traders and analysts warned that now was a make-or-break point for the short-term trend.

“Crucial area approaching here for Bitcoin and dipped into it,” Michaël van de Poppe, founder and CEO of trading firm Eight, summarized.

“If this zone sustains as support & Bitcoin will be able to reclaim $27,500, everything looks like we’ll continue the upwards trend. Drop beneath $26,600 and we’ll see new lows.”

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Bitcoin on-chain and options data hint at a decisive move in BTC price

Bitcoin’s volatility has dropped to historically low levels thanks to macroeconomic uncertainty and low market liquidity. However, on-chain and options market data allude to incoming volatility in June.

The Bitcoin Volatility Index, which measures the daily fluctuations in Bitcoin’s (BTC) price, shows that the 30-day volatility in Bitcoin’s price was 1.52%, which is less than half of the yearly averages across Bitcoin’s history, with values usually above 4%.

According to Glassnode, the expectation of volatility is a “logical conclusion” based on the fact that low volatility levels were only seen for 19.3% of Bitcoin’s price history.

The latest weekly update from the on-chain analytics firm shows that Glassnode’s monthly realized volatility metric for Bitcoin slipped below the lower bounds of the historical Bollinger Band, suggesting an incoming uptick in volatility.

Bolinger Bands for Bitcoin monthly realized volatility metric. Source: Glassnode

Long-term Bitcoin holders metric points to a price breakout

The on-chain transfer volumes of Bitcoin across cryptocurrency exchanges dropped to historically low levels. The price is also trading near short-term holder bias, indicating a “balanced position of profit and loss for new investors” that bought coins during and after the 2021-2022 bull cycle, according to the report. Currently, 50% of new investors are in profit, with the rest in loss.


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Bitcoin price rejects at $28K as analysts eye CME futures gap dip

Bitcoin (BTC) fell into the May 30 Wall Street open as the return of United States equities failed to boost performance.

BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart on Bitstamp. Source: TradingView

Bitcoin pauses into the monthly close

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD heading to $27,700, having briefly spiked above the $28,000 mark.

The pair encountered resistance below its local highs from around the weekly close, and stocks also treaded water after the opening bell.

The excitement around a possible deal to raise the U.S. debt ceiling, which had boosted crypto previously, also cooled as market participants waited for its first test in Congress.

“Bitcoin has been having a hard time reclaiming the weekend high,” monitoring resource Material Indicators summarized in part of an analysis on the day.


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Bitcoin is on a collision course with ‘Net Zero’ promises

Each year at the annual UN Climate Change Conference (COP), individual countries are pressured to ramp up their emissions reductions promises and showcase evidence they are taking steps to meet them.

With Bitcoin mining blamed for using as much power as an entire country, and politicians searching for easy targets to strike, the industry appears to be on a collision course with these global commitments to achieve net-zero emissions.

While it’s not possible to ban Bitcoin completely, lawmakers and regulators can tank the price and make life very difficult in the years ahead for the number one cryptocurrency.

There are signs it’s already happening.

A report from the European Commission at the end of 2022 stated that EU countries “must be ready to block crypto mining,” and the trading block’s new MiCA rules were at one stage set to include a ban on Bitcoin mining. The recently adopted legislation still leaves this door ajar, however, aiming to “reduce the high carbon footprint of crypto-currencies” by making service providers “disclose their energy consumption.”

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Bitcoin erodes 4% gains as BTC price downside targets stretch to $23K

A spike above $28,000 begins to fade as the new week begins, while a U.S. holiday means no external BTC price triggers from equities.

AI Eye: 25K traders bet on ChatGPT’s stock picks, AI sucks at dice throws, and more

Almost 25,000 investors have signed up to trade alongside ChatGPT as they follow the GPT Portfolio experiment from copy trading firm Autopilot.

The traders have bet a combined $14.7 million on the AI’s stock picks, which would average about $600 each if they all invested after signing up. They’re hoping to take even a small slice of a purported 500% return from one of the strategies backtested in academic research.

The GPT Portfolio gets the AI to analyze 10,000 news articles and 100 company reports to select 20 stocks for the $50,000 portfolio, updated each week. The initial picks included Berkshire Hathaway, Amazon, D.R. Horton and Davita Health. After two weeks, the portfolio is up around 2%, which is pretty much the same as the stock market. 

Interestingly the bottom five picks lost more in percentage terms than the top five gained — Dollar Tree lost 17% after it missed earnings — so it might be more sensible in future to only invest in GPT-4’s best five or 10 ideas, but we’ll see how it works out.

The smaller-scale ChatGPT Crypto Trader account is tweaking a similar strategy that gets GPT-4s advice on when to go long on Ethereum. He says it shows a profit of 11,000% backtested to August 2017, but in the real-world experiment since January, the portfolio is up by a third, while the Ethereum price has gained 60%.

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