Author: Staff

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Social Good

Filmmaker Yi Zhou To Sell 4 Short Films As NFTs To Raise Money For Ukraine

Yi Zhou, a Chinese film director, has become the latest celebrity to participate in an NFTs fundraising campaign to aid Ukrainians affected by the Russian invasion.

Yi Zhou has joined the NFT fever by announcing a collection of four NFTs with proceeds going to Ukraine. Four short films about peace are being turned into non-fungible tokens by the director (NFTs).

The short film NFTs are titled in Greek, including “ειρήνη #1, ειρήνη #2, ειρήνη#3, ειρήνη #4”, which means peace.

Each NFT film will be minted at a cost of $25,000 and will be sold only on the OpenSea marketplace. The goal of the campaign is to raise $100,000.

In 2012, Jackie Chan and Princess, as well as actress Clotilde Courau, starred in one of Yi Zhou’s most successful short films. The focus of the film was on combating climate change.

In 2016, Zhou was also invited to create a short film for World Ocean Day by UNESCO Paris. Her work in the short film industry has centered on unique world experiences.

“Film is art, and it’s an expression of our time,” Zhou remarked of her current endeavor. Because we are living in a moment of crisis, art should be used to serve and correct shattered reality.”

The film industry is the latest to embrace non-fungible tokens, with the producers of the 2018 film ‘Prospect’ creating an NFT-based cinematic universe that will be fully independent of financial and distribution partners just recently.

Time Studios teamed up with renowned cartoon NFT producers in January to introduce the NFT characters Toy Boogers and Smilesssvrs to Kids TV. AMC Studios also collaborated with Orange Comet, an NFT production studio, to develop ‘The Walking Dead’ NFTs.

What’s more, Zhou’s short film NFTs are similar to the NFT and short video creation platform Chingari, which is situated in India. Bollywood actors can use the site to create NFTs of their sequences.

YouTube, the world’s largest video streaming and publishing platform, has embraced the phenomena of short video NFTs, announcing Web3 and NFT tools to allow artists turn ‘YouTube Shorts’ into non-fungible tokens.

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Business

African Digital Art Network Launches Nandi NFT Marketplace

With the launch of the Nandi NFT Marketplace, the African Digital Art Network (ADA), an international award-winning digital platform and repository that houses the world’s biggest digital collection of African art, announces its debut into the metaverse. Jepchumba founded the platform in 2009, and it now has a large global community of creatives, artists, and collectors.

“The early excitement and buzz surrounding our groundbreaking launch is invigorating. For more than a decade we have built a community at ADA with the intention of giving artists throughout Africa, and the African Diaspora, a voice and an opportunity to build livelihoods through their work,” says Jepchumba, Co-Founder and CEO of Nandi.

Nandi was founded to provide a platform for Black innovators to prosper in Web3. Nandi will also unveil the Nandi Cowry Community, a collection of 10,000 Nandi Cowry NFTs, each representing a unique digital item that will live on the carbon-negative Celo blockchain. R!OT Sindiso Nyoni, a Johannesburg-based artist who designed South Africa’s Mandela Centenary coin, created the Nandi Cowry NFT.

The Nandi Cowry Community NFT is a membership card that offers holders access to exclusive benefits, content, voting privileges on emerging creative fellowship grants, community curation of top digital art, and curated exhibitions on the Nandi NFT Marketplace. These benefits will be combined into member-only bonuses obtained through platform participation. Fellowships will be awarded to 1,000 young Black creators and cultural institutions by the community. GENESIS, Nandi’s first creative initiative program, has hand-selected eight musicians who will perform at ADA’s AfricaNXT conference.

A number of well-known worldwide influencers, thought leaders, and VIPs have already joined the Nandi Cowry Community as founding members and are looking forward to the debut of the NFT Marketplace.

Categories
Social Good

How to support Ukraine with as little as 60,000 Ugx

Russian President Vladimir Putin dispatched troops to Ukraine on February 23 dubbing the move a “special military operation”. Despite worldwide censure, Putin continues to press on, promising “consequences you have never seen” for countries that choose to interfere. 

On Saturday, Ukraine’s official Twitter account made an unusual move by sharing its digital wallet addresses, where individuals could deposit bitcoin and ethereum, among other digital assets. The supported currencies include; Bitcoin, Etheruem and USDT which is pegged to the dollar.

As of this writing, here is the breakdown of how much has been received. You can track each of the donations by checking the statement here

See ETH statement here

According to Elliptic data, the addresses have received $14.8 million in donations so far, with bitcoin and ethereum accounting for the majority of the funds. Some people even donated NFTs of various values, including a “Mutant Floki,” to help the cause.

Ukraine’s government and other groups have raised a total of $22 million through over 23,000 crypto donations since the Russian invasion began. This says a lot about the role that crypto currencies will play in the near future. People are contributing as little as $1 to help this cause. The transactions are almost instantaneous, and the fees are significantly lower than those charged by wire transfers.

The process is really simple. For crypto transactions, all you need is the recipient’s crypto address which in this case has been shared by Ukraine in the tweet highlighted above. Transactions should be complete within 5 minutes. In contrast, for a wire transfer one would need; account name, account number, IBAN, bank address, recipients address, SWIFT CODE etc. In addition to that, the bank transactions take much more time due to internal bank systems. 

How to donate to UKRAINE using UGX 

Binance

  1. Sign up on Binance You can use the referral link for easier access
  2. Complete (Know your Customer) KYC; It is important for you to complete KYC as you will not be able to deposit your UGX without it.

After completing your KYC, that is when the action begins;

  1. Select “Deposit”.

2. Select “Cash” and Search for “UGX”.

3. Click “Continue” and enter the amount. We recommend a minimum of UGX 65,000  Note that the minimum purchase amount is UGX 60,000.

4. Enter the amount you wish to donate.

5. Then enter your mobile money number and verify it using the OTP sent to you.

6. A prompt will be sent to you to verify the transaction by entering your mobile money Pin. 

7. Give it about 10 mins for the funds to reflect on your Binance account.  

8. Now go to the home page and select “buy crypto > Credit/Debit”.

9. Select the currency you want to buy. For the sake of this donation, we shall select BTC.

10. Enter the amount you want to buy. It should be equal to your current deposit balance e.g UGX 63,000 (There is a 3% fee after depositing).

11. Select “Pay with Cash Balance” and confirm the transaction.

11. You have successfully bought BTC

After successfully buying Bitcoin, we can now send or donate it to UKRAINE. Here is how to do this;

a) Go to the home screen and select “wallet”.

b) Select “Withdraw”.

c) Then select “BTC > Send via crypto network”. 

d ) Copy the UKRAINE BTC address. Here is 357a3So9CbsNfBBgFYACGvxxS6tMaDoa1P

e ) Paste in the address section. 

d ) Enter the amount of BTC you want to send. Be generous, select “MAX”.

g) Then select “withdraw”.

h) You will be required to complete Two Factor Authentication before you can withdraw for the first time. This is a one time process. 

And just like that, you have helped and donated to Ukraine. This is where you can keep track of the transaction.

Yellow Card;

Steps to donating using Yellow Card

  1. Sign up or create an account on Yellow Card. You can use a referral link to make your work easier!
  2. Complete your KYC Verification; We encourage you to complete all four tiers of your KYC Verification. Tier 1 is passed by creating an account with the most minimal details. However, you are strongly advised to finish your Tier 2 and Tier 3 Verification in order to be able to transfer Bitcoin to Ukraine. 
  3. Deposit Funds on your Yellow Card account. You can choose to deposit using mobile money or a bank transfer. We recommend that you use mobile money as it is instant and more convenient. However, the bank transfer option is also available for use.

4. Enter your mobile money number and verify it using the OTP sent to you.

5. A prompt will be sent to you to verify the transaction by entering your mobile money Pin. 

6. Give it roughly 5 minutes for the funds to reflect on your Yellowcard account

7. Now go to the home page and select “wallet” and then select the buy option.

8. And in a snap of a finger, you have bought your bitcoin! 

After successfully buying Bitcoin, we can now send or donate it to UKRAINE. Here is how to do this; 

a) Go back to the home page and select “Wallet” and then “send”

b) Insert the Ukraine BTC Address (357a3So9CbsNfBBgFYACGvxxS6tMaDoa1P). At this step, make sure you select the priority for your transaction.

c) Your purchase will be reviewed and you will be required to include your PIN to complete transaction

d) This is the last step, your transaction will be marked as successful.

Rather than wait to see what world nations are doing about the crisis in Ukraine, let us embark on doing our part on an individual basis. With as little as UGX 60,000/= and internet access, you can make a difference. Do not underestimate the power of one. Let’s start donating!

Categories
Business Bybit

Bybit Launches P2P

New to Bybit’s wide array of trading tools is the P2P (peer-to-peer) platform. Now Nigerians can trade using NGN. P2P allows users to convert fiat currencies to crypto and vice versa. Simply put, it can be described as the “eBay of crypto”, facilitating the buying and selling of two users’ holdings at an optimal, agreed-upon price between both parties.

Bybit P2P is a decentralized system with no bridges or intermediaries. Payments take place directly between buyers’ bank accounts or crypto wallets, to sellers’ Bybit accounts.

Currently, the platform supports the trading of USDT, with more than 80 payment methods, including debit card, credit card, in-person cash payments, etc.

Buyers and sellers can connect directly from anywhere in the world. Plus, they stand to enjoy zero trading fees, zero required deposits, and no hidden fees.

P2P on Bybit is secure and easy to use. The system provides optimal matches between buyers and sellers for mutually beneficial trading. Should users encounter any issues, Bybit’s customer service support is available 24/7 to ensure a smooth process.

For a limited time period only, grab your share of a 100,000 USDT prize pool when you buy USDT on P2P Trading.

Learn more

Established in 2018, Bybit is one of the world’s fastest growing cryptocurrency platforms. Trusted by millions of users, the company offers a holistic range of crypto products, from Spot and Derivatives trading with best in-class liquidity, to the ByFi center for high yield asset management, as well as its very own NFT marketplace. Overall, Bybit endeavors to be the crypto ark of the world, empowering all crypto users to achieve their dreams.”

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Business

Why is Africa’s largest telecom entering the metaverse?

MTN Group, Africa’s largest mobile network operator, has become the first corporation on the continent to own digital land in the metaverse, a virtual reality realm.

With the purchase of 144 plots of land in Africarare, South Africa’s first metaverse, MTN has joined a long list of firms betting big on the metaverse, including Google, Microsoft, and Shopify. Ubuntuland, a virtual land modeled after the African scenery in Africarare, is where the land is located.

Africarare was established in October 2021 with the goal of bringing African creativity to the virtual world. The Milla Gallery in Ubuntuland hosted the event, which featured non-fungible tokens (NFTs) created by South African contemporary artist Norman Catherine. The NFTs were quickly sold out, with a $53,000 price tag.

MTN’s move into the metaverse could be the next step in its technological transformation. The telco was redesigned by replacing its logo with plain black lettering in a black-rimmed oval, rather than the popular white MTN writing in a blue oval-shaped rim.

The rebranding is “aligned to our transformation from a telecoms firm to a technology organization,” according to MTN Group Chief Sustainability and Corporate Affairs Officer Nompilo Morafo.

In Ethereum-powered Ubuntuland, there are approximately 200,000 plots of land that are positioned and valued according to a tiered value structure.

Mic Mann, a co-founder of the metaverse, told Newzroom Afrika, a 24-hour digital satellite television news program in South Africa, that he and his team had been working on it for six months before it opened.

“The NFT markets and metaverses have witnessed tremendous growth in the United States, Asia, and Europe. However, little has come out of Africa, and we believe this is an excellent opportunity for Africa to participate in this new world.”

He compared the metaverse to a video game, claiming that gamers had been exploring it long before it was a catchphrase.

“In games like Minecraft, they socialize with their pals by purchasing virtual products and virtual assets.”

The metaverse, on the other hand, has evolved dramatically; it is now blockchain and crypto-enabled, allowing virtual assets to be brought into the real world.

Ubuntuland functions in this manner; $UBUNTU, the company’s metaverse coin, may be used to buy land and art, as well as rent out conference rooms. M&C Saatchi Abel, another South African marketing firm, bought land on Ubuntuland. To engage with global partners, the agency established a metaverse office.

One would question why Africa’s largest telecom provider is joining the sector, given that virtual meetings and art and fashion shows are taking place there.

MTN’s Group Executive for Marketing, Bernice Samuels, said the move was part of the company’s Ambition 2025 strategy, which is centered on “leveraging trends that magnify consumer’s digital experiences and engagement,” according to a news statement on the company’s website.

Though the term “metaverse” is frequently used on the Internet, it is still a relatively new concept in many parts of the world.

Derya Matras, Facebook’s Vice President for Africa, said that while the metaverse has the potential to open up tremendous economic opportunities for the continent, the connectivity isn’t yet there.

“Obviously, the metaverse isn’t there yet, and putting it all together as an industry will take a good ten years,” she said.

If MTN isn’t becoming mainstream anytime soon, why is it infiltrating the metaverse? The telecom behemoth’s branding will be more about what it does to complete its transformation from telco to IT than what it wears.

While the term “metaverse” has gained popularity on the Internet, it will take well over a decade for it to become widely accepted. Then there’s the question of why MTN decided to enter the metaverse as part of their tech rebranding campaign.

MTN’s dominance as a telecommunications juggernaut has already been established, and its recent move shows that the business is eager to shed its telco skin and start flexing its fintech muscles.

Some of the continent’s most well-known fintech startups, such as Flutterwave, Chipper Cash, and Paystack, have a brand positioning that screams tech; given their level of success, it’s safe to assume that positioning pays off.

MTN said in November of last year that it had received preliminary approval to establish payment service banks (PSBs) in Nigeria, one of Africa’s major economies.

Categories
Business

NFT Market Cools as Trading on Ethereum and Solana Dips

Based on data given from several sources, trading volume throughout the larger NFT sector fell in February after a record-breaking month of NFT trading volume for top marketplace OpenSea in January.

In February, OpenSea recorded approximately $3.65 billion in trading activity between NFT sales on Ethereum and Polygon, an Ethereum sidechain scaling solution that reduces transaction fees. This information comes from Dune Analytics, which reveals a decrease in trading volume on the platform of about 27% month over month.

The daily volume chart shows a general declining trend over the course of the month, despite three days with more than $200 million in Ethereum NFT trading activity. Nonetheless, in terms of total NFT trading volume, it was OpenSea’s second-best month to date after January.

DappRadar, a blockchain analytics startup, released separate statistics to Decrypt showing that the larger NFT industry created $4.02 billion in “organic” NFT trading volume in February. According to a spokesman, this is a 28 percent decrease from DappRadar’s prior January mark.

DappRadar saw a 33% loss in Ethereum trade volume across the whole NFT market, as well as a nearly 61 percent drop in Solana, a 38 percent drop in Axie Infinity’s Ronin chain, and a 55 percent drop in Tezos.

In February, however, not every NFT blockchain network suffered reductions. Due to the recent debut of UFC Strike, the increasing closed beta rollout of NFL All Day, and the rise of the BloctoBay marketplace, Dapper Labs’ Flow blockchain jumped approximately 83 percent in February.

Meanwhile, the Crabada NFT game boosted Avalanche NFT trading volume by 20% in February. Although Flow and Avalanche only account for a small portion of the total volume of NFT trading on Ethereum, the most popular blockchain for NFTs, their respective shares grew in February.

While overall NFT market trading volume declined in February, according to DappRadar’s statistics, total NFT traders increased by 8%, and total NFTs sold across protocols increased by 2%.

On the surface, February was a “very tranquil month for NFTs,” according to Pedro Herrera, DappRadar’s senior blockchain researcher. However, he remains optimistic, citing Axie Infinity’s $4 billion in lifetime NFT trading, the rise of alternative NFT protocols, and upstart projects like Azuki and Clone eclipsing stalwarts like CryptoPunks and the Bored Ape Yacht Club in monthly volume.

“To me, this indicates that the space is gradually but steadily diversifying and maturing,” he said.

LooksRare emerged in January as a strong competitor to OpenSea, with a unique token incentives concept. Users can earn ETH not only by trading on the marketplace but also by staking their LOOKS earnings in the platform.

Trading on LooksRare exploded almost soon after its introduction, throwing up massive amounts that far outstripped the wider market. However, this is due to certain individuals abusing the rewards model by selling NFTs between their own controlled wallets for artificially inflated amounts of as much as $50 million worth of ETH each. It’s essentially the same as wash trading.

LooksRare was believed to have generated more than $8.3 billion in NFT wash trading in just over two weeks by analytics firm CryptoSlam in late January. When compared to total trading volume data from Dune Analytics, that figure indicated that artificial market manipulation accounted for around 87 percent of trading volume on LooksRare at the time.

However, since the site’s incentives rate was decreased 30 days after its introduction, trading volume on LooksRare has dropped dramatically. LooksRare has fallen below $100 million daily since February 22, according to data from Dune Analytics, after frequently posting $400 million or more in trade volume early in February.

LooksRare amassed more than $6.5 billion in total NFT trading volume in February, according to DappRadar, but none of that is included in its calculation for “organic” trading volume for the remainder of the NFT industry.

While some LooksRare NFT trading looks to be legitimate and not enhanced to earn extra rewards, a DappRadar spokesman said the company is still working on a process to “automatically and accurately separate” wash trade data from the rest.

Randy Wasinger, the founder and CEO of CryptoSlam, told Decrypt that his team is still working on data analysis from February, but that his company has logged more than $6 billion in trades on LooksRare, with “more than 98 percent” of the sales volume coming from “known wash sales.”

The suspected wash trades are focused in NFT collections that do not involve an additional royalty fee for creators, such as Meebits and Terraforms, as they were previously. CryptoSlam’s method for detecting NFT wash trades comprises both automatic and manual detection of suspicious transactions.

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Business

Axie Infinity breaks $4 billion in NFT sales as the crypto-gaming metaverse draws in the crowds

Axie Infinity, one of the most well-known names in the play-to-earn universe (P2E), has topped $4 billion in non-fungible token sales. It is currently the third-largest NFT project, after OpenSea and LooksRare.

Axie Infinity, which was launched in 2018, is one of the most popular play-to-earn blockchain games. It was not until 2021, however, that it acquired widespread adoption.

Last year, the non-fungible token space and the peer-to-peer business model began to thrive, and most projects increased their non-fungible token sales to unprecedented heights.

The total value of NFTs sold on Axie Infinity hit $4.14 billion, according to DappRadar statistics. Nearly 2 million merchants were responsible for attaining this, with the average price of sold digital items being $198. Axie Infinity has seen significant growth since its trading volume peaked at $1.1 billion six months ago.

With a cumulative trading volume of over $21 billion, OpenSea is the clear leader among all NFT platforms. With nearly $17 billion, LooksRare is in second place.

An unknown bidder paid 550 ETH for a single plot of digital land on Axie Infinity in November of last year. This was worth $2.3 million at the time of the transaction.

The area in question is one of Axie Infinity’s Genesis plots, which are incredibly rare, as there are only 220 of them.

Other in-game goods and land parcels can be sold as non-fungible tokens on the NFT marketplace.

The blockchain game stated earlier this month that it will make modifications to its reward structure in order to rebalance its environment. It pledged, in particular, to cut the supply of Smooth Love Potion (SLP) tokens by 56%, making them more scarce.

As a result, the asset’s USD value skyrocketed to over $0.04 not long after. SLP, on the other hand, retraced by 55% during the next few weeks (in line with the downtrend in the crypto market).

The price of AXS, Axie Infinity’s native token, soared to about $72 in early February, after hitting an all-time high of $160 in November 2021.

AXS, like the rest of cryptocurrencies, has recently lost a large portion of its value. It is currently hovering around $50.

Categories
Business

Government Cracks Down on Crypto Miners and Assets in South Africa

South Africa’s National Treasury is looking into ways to control cryptocurrency mining, which uses a lot of electricity.

The Treasury stated in its 2022 Budget Review released this week that crypto mining is damaging to the environment.

It also intends to publish a report on the dangers of so-called “stablecoins.” Stablecoins are supposed to have a significantly more stable value than regular cryptocurrencies. This is due to the fact that they are linked to other assets like the US currency or gold.

In June 2021, the country’s Intergovernmental Fintech Working Group (IFWG) released a position paper on crypto assets, outlining a coordinated and phased approach to crypto asset regulation.

Treasury officials said regulatory agencies are working on a number of measures based on the paper’s recommendations, including:

  • Include crypto-asset service providers as responsible institutions under the Financial Intelligence Center Act. This change would address concerns about money laundering and terrorist risk financing through crypto assets and align the law with the standards set by the FATF for virtual assets and related service providers. The proposed amendments to the law were published in June 2020 for public consultation and are expected to be finalized in 2022.
  • Protect consumers by considering the reporting of crypto assets as a financial product under the Financial Advice and Intermediary Services Act. According to this statement, anyone providing advice or intermediary services related to crypto assets must be recognized as a financial service provider under the law and must comply with the requirements of the law. This will include crypto asset exchanges and platforms, as well as brokers and advisers. This work should be finalized in 2022.
  • Improve monitoring and reporting of crypto asset transactions to comply with the Exchange Control Regulations of 1961. The process of including crypto assets in the regulations is ongoing.

Digital Currency

In 2022, the Treasury indicated it will investigate further the digitalization of South African financial markets.

“After examining a Central Bank Digital Currency or wholesale digital currency, the second phase of this project explores digital financial assets based on distributed ledger technology and the use of digital currency to settle payments.

“It highlights the potential impact of this technology and digitalization on financial markets, and clarifies relevant operational, legal and policy issues around potential change.”

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Business

Block’s Bitcoin Revenue From Cash App Hit Nearly $2 Billion in Q4

Cash App, Block’s (previously Square) renowned mobile payment service, has become a popular way to buy Bitcoin. According to today’s earnings release, Bitcoin revenue totaled $1.96 billion in the fourth quarter of last year.

Block earned $4.08 billion in net revenue in Q4, according to page 10 of the earnings release. According to the company, it made $2.12 billion in revenue “without Bitcoin,” which means Cash App’s bitcoin purchasing service accounted for roughly half of the company’s inflows. Bitcoin revenue has increased by 12% year over year.

However, Block only profited from 2% of that income. The proportion is around the same as Block’s transaction fee on a typical Bitcoin buy. For the corporation, this resulted in a $46 million profit.

Cash App claims well over $10 billion in Bitcoin sales and $218 million in gross profit from selling the coin for the entire year of 2021, up 119 percent and 124 percent over the previous year, respectively. Bitcoin’s price appreciation, together with the increase in active Bitcoin users, is cited as the main driver for the increase by the corporation. However, thus far in 2022, the price of Bitcoin has remained below $40,000, and active addresses have decreased.

Block’s balance sheet has taken a hit as a result of the asset’s poor performance since it peaked at $69,000 in November. The corporation was obliged to disclose a $71 million impairment loss for the year after purchasing $50 million of Bitcoin in Q4 2020 and another $170 million in Q1 2021.

In 2017, Cash App launched a feature that allows users to buy and sell Bitcoin using their existing balances. Since then, however, the corporation has refused to accept other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum or Dogecoin.

This is most likely due to Block CEO Jack Dorsey’s unwavering support for Bitcoin over other cryptocurrencies. Dorsey has blasted Ethereum and, more broadly, Web3, the vision of a more decentralized internet based on blockchain technologies, as a centralized project controlled by venture capitalists.

Categories
Business

Coinbase Posts Record Revenue, User Numbers in Q4 Earnings Surprise

Last Thursday, Coinbase surprised analyst expectations by posting sales of nearly $2.5 billion in the previous quarter, with a monthly active user base of 11.4 million.

The revenue figure was the largest for Coinbase ever, above the $1.97 billion consensus projection, while the user count, which was also a record, reversed a recent slide that saw the company’s user base drop to 7.4 million in Q3.

Last quarter, Coinbase produced $840 million in profits, more than double the previous quarter’s profit but still falling short of the $1.6 billion it made in the second quarter of last year.

The outstanding results were no doubt fueled by record-breaking crypto prices in October and November when Bitcoin nearly exceeded $70,000, and the frenetic trading that followed. Given the bear market that has defined 2022 thus far, they are unlikely to be repeated.

Coinbase’s stock price, which has been hovering near an all-time low in recent weeks, does not appear to have risen as a result of Thursday’s results announcement. COIN shares were down marginally in after-hours trading, selling at roughly $169, a long cry from the highs of over $400 seen shortly after the company debuted last year.

The Coinbase earnings also revealed that Ethereum’s share of trade volume, which had previously surpassed Bitcoin, had dropped to 16 percent last quarter. Other assets, such as Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, and others, saw their volume rise from 59 percent to 68 percent.

Over $200 million of Coinbase’s revenue comes from non-trading methods such as staking and lending, according to the company’s earnings. While this represents less than 10% of Coinbase’s total revenue, it indicates that the company is finally diversifying away from the trading fees on which it has long relied and which many fears are under threat from commission-free platforms like Robinhood.

Coinbase lauded the success of Web3, DeFi, and NFTs in its letter to shareholders, implying that they will help the company and the crypto sector grow even more. A graph depicting the rapid expansion of self-hosted wallets and the NFT market was provided in the letter

.

Coinbase also used the results call to highlight a slew of new products it’s released in recent months, including a tax center and a payroll center. Since last fall, the company has been promoting intentions to build an NFT marketplace with social media elements, but the service has yet to emerge.

This Thursday at 5:30 p.m. (ET), Coinbase management will have an earnings call to answer questions from investors about the company’s declining stock price and efforts to diversify revenue.