The Blockchain Billionaires List (March 5, 2021)
Blockchain Billionaires list unveiled, while NBA Top Shot gets some shout out of legitimacy. Also Yield Guild Games announces new funding.
Good morning. Welcome to Friday Focus, part of our new series: BitPinas Daily. We will look back at all the major news and updates that happened this week. Crypto is global, but sometimes news that matters happens while we sleep. So we bring to you what’s happening in our space here and abroad. We highlight three to four important news of the past week and list down the rest.
Market Price as of March 5, 2021:
| Bitcoin | $48,727 | -3.66% |
| Ethereum | $1,546.50 | -2.06% |
| BNB | $230.27 | -4.45% |
| DOT | $35.41 | -4.5% |
| ADA | $1.12 | -8.20% |
| SLP | $0.05 | +17% |
Bitcoin closed March 4, 2021, at $48,727 per BTC. We’re down 0.9% in the last 7 days and up 62% since the year began. This is also 16.9% below the all-time high of $58,640, which was hit on Feb. 21, 2021.
Bitcoin’s market capitalization stands today at $883,520,048,592 which is 59.43% of the entire cryptocurrency market. The entire crypto market, by the way, now has a market cap of $1,487,357,382,010 (-7%).
On the table above, there’s the cryptocurrency SLP. If you wonder what that is, check out this article: Playing Axie Infinity vs Minimum Basic Salary in the Philippines.
Dogecoin
Dallas Mavericks to Accept Dogecoin
The Dallas Mavs will soon start accepting Dogecoin as payment for Mavs tickets and merchandise because of “one very important, earth-shattering reason: Because we can!” Mark Cuban, the team owner shouted in a press release.
For people who want to learn about Dogecoin, this is Mark’s advice: “Talk to your teenagers who are on TikTok and ask them about it. They will be able to explain it all to you,” he said.
Dogecoin currently has a $6.3 billion market capitalization.
Blockchain Billionaires
Here are the blockchain Billionaires:
| Name | Net Worth US$Bn | % change | Main Company | Country of Residence | Source of Wealth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brian Armstrong | 11.5 | 1050% | Coinbase | USA |
| 2 | Sam Bankman-Fried | 10 | New | FTX | China |
| 3 | Zhao Changpeng | 8 | 208% | Binance | Singapore |
| 4 | Chris Larsen | 5.1 | 292% | Ripple | USA |
| 5 | Jed McCaleb | 3.2 | New | Ripple | USA |
| 6 | Barry Silbert | 3 | New | Digital Currency | USA |
| 7 | Tyler Winklevoss | 2.8 | New | Gemini | USA |
| 7 | Cameron Winklevoss | 2.8 | New | Gemini | USA |
| 9 | Michael Saylor | 2.4 | New | MicroStrategy | USA |
| 9 | Matthew Roszak | 2.4 | New | Bloq | USA |
| 11 | Li Lin | 2 | 82% | Huobi Technology | China |
| 12 | Tim Draper | 1.9 | New | Draper Associates | USA |
| 13 | Zhan Ketuan | 1.8 | 13% | Bitmain | China |
| 14 | Xu Mingxing | 1.7 | 21% | OKG Technology | China |
| 14 | Michael Novogratz | 1.7 | New | Galaxy Investment Partners | USA |
| 16 | Brad Garlinghouse | 1.4 | New | Ripple | USA |
| 17 | Dan Morehead | 1.1 | New | Panterra Capital | USA |
The list was made by China’s Hurun Research Institute. The Blockchain Billionaires List are people who have made their fortune mainly from cryptocurrency.
Hurun Research said Armstrong’s wealth is ahead of his company’s upcoming initial public offering. Sam Bankman-Fried is a new entrant in Hurun’s list, following the growth of FTX in 2020.
Satoshi Nakamoto was not included in the list because his identity is not known, Hurun said. Additionally, Vitalik Buterin was also considered in the list but the Institute said it is unable to estimate the Ethereum creator’s holdings.
Rug pull?
Meerkat Finance drained by $31 million
An account of the events from The Block:
- One day after launching its yield farming pool on the Binance Smart Chain, Meerkat Finance said its smart contract vault was compromised.
- The project was drained by around 13 million BUSD and 73,000 BNB.
- The hacker supposedly drained the funds by altering Meerkat’s smart contract using the original deployer account.
- The Block said the data suggests either 1) Meerkat’s deployer private key was compromised or 2) this is self-directed by the project.
- Binance said it has noted of the abnormalities and now working with Certik, PeckShield, and Slowmist, all are auditing firms, to investigate.
- A channel is provided for affected users to report to.
Bitfinex
Bitfinex Pay Lets Merchants Accept Payments in Crypto
In a press release sent to BitPinas, Bitfinex Pay is a payment technology that will allow online merchants with a means of receiving contactless and borderless digital token payments
The Bitfinex Pay widget can be integrated on to a website facilitating online payments. Users can pay with Ethereum (ETH), bitcoin (BTC), Lightning Network BTC (LN-BTC) and Tether tokens (USDt) via Ethereum or Tron. Payments made via Bitfinex Pay will be directly deposited into a merchant’s exchange wallet on Bitfinex.
“This is the age of digital money and with Bitfinex Pay we’ve created an intuitive and seamless way for online merchants to receive payments in crypto,” said Paolo Ardoino, CTO at Bitfinex. “Bitfinex Pay enables merchants to be easily equipped to support crypto payments as increasing numbers of consumers become more comfortable with paying for goods and services using digital tokens.”
NBA Top Shot
Rising Stars Announced
In another vote of confidence, withdrawal problems notwithstanding, NBA Top Shot is where the NBA unveiled its 2021 Rising Stars Rosters. Actually, the Rising Stars game won’t be played so this is just ceremonial and a formalization of sorts.
For some primer on Non-Fungible tokens, including NBA Top Shot, check out the BitPinas article: Non-Fungible Tokens – NFT 101 – Why People are Spending Millions of Dollars for Crypto Art and Digital Items
#CryptoPH
Yield Guild Games Raises Funding To Bring Gamers to the Metaverse
This success has attracted the attention of investors. YGG recently announced that it has raised $1.325 million from a seed round led by Delphi Digital. The funds will be used to invest in game assets and virtual lands and YGG, effectively acting as a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), will lend these game assets in virtual worlds to its players so they can earn income.
Check out the BitPinas article: Yield Guild Games Raises Funding To Bring Gamers to the Metaverse
What else is happening
- NFTs, DAOs and the New Creator Economy
- Dapps Don’t Care About Your Feelings
- What caused the ETH flash crash on Kraken?
This article is published on BitPinas: The Blockchain Billionaires List (March 5, 2021)
