Luc Smits van Oyen
Weekly crypto news: Solana wants to conquer Web3 with own smartphone
The crypto market is still not doing well, as is the stock market. Investments have been under pressure recently, but that is mostly due to factors outside of investments. For example, much of the declines seem to be explained by rising interest rates.
In the case of cryptocurrencies, nothing has fundamentally changed. In fact, there is still plenty of ongoing development on most projects. So there is certainly a possibility that the crypto market will recover strongly if the macro-economic situation improves.
That development is in full swing is clear to see. In the crypto news of the past week (June 24, 2022 to July 1), we see, among other things, the two giants Solana (SOL) and Cardano (ADA) making great developments. Also, the two big companies Breitling and HTC are entering the crypto market. So read along for the most important news of the week!
During a Solana event on June 24 in New York, Solana Labs, the company behind Solana, announced that it has been working on a platform for mobile software for several months. In addition, they have also recently started building their own smartphone, i.e., the hardware.
The event where these announcements were made went by the name of SMS, which stands for Solana Mobile Stack. SMS is a toolkit for developers to develop mobile applications for within the Solana ecosystem. It also includes a decentralized app store where developers can offer their apps.
The Solana Saga smartphone, the new smartphone being developed by Solana, is likely to be released in 2023 and will cost around €1000. Other than that, not much is known about this smartphone.
Coincidentally, the smartphone company HTC also came up with crypto-related news this week. The company announced the HTC Desire Pro 22, or metaverse smartphone. The once great smartphone company, is now focusing more on virtual-reality and this smartphone should be an extension for their virtual-reality goggles.
Cardano is a proof-of-stake blockchain platform based on the peer-reviewed secure blockchain protocol. The secure blockchain network is what enables Cardano to be a decentralized network.
The blockchain protocol is called Ouroboros, it provides blockchain scalability without hindering or compromising security.
The Vasil upgrade on the blockchain will help to increase and improve the performance capabilities of Ouroboros-based proof-of-stake (PoS).
The launch of the Vasil Hard Fork was scheduled for late June, but minor bugs pushed the upgrade to a later date. According to the current schedule, the Hard Fork should now take place by the end of next month.
Breitling, one of the world's most renowned watchmakers, has begun accepting digital currencies as a form of payment as the use of cryptocurrencies increases worldwide.
The Swiss watchmaker has teamed up with cryptocurrency payment services company BitPay to accept Ethereum, Shiba Inu, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in its online store.
Breitling joins a multitude of luxury companies that have been at the forefront of cryptocurrency adoption in recent months, as the general acceptance of Bitcoin continues to play out.
Business intelligence company MicroStrategy announced it has purchased nearly 480 Bitcoin for nearly $10.0 million. The purchase was made at an average price of about $20,817 per Bitcoin, including fees and expenses.
The official blog reveals that the company made the purchase in the period between May 3, 2022 and June 28, 2022.
As of June 28, 2022, MicroStrategy and its subsidiaries owned a total of 129,699 Bitcoin, which were purchased for a combined purchase price of approximately $3.98 billion and an average purchase price of approximately $30,664 per Bitcoin, including fees and expenses.
Recently, there was speculation that MicroStrategy might be forced to sell its Bitcoin, due to the large losses, but CEO Michael Saylor reassured everyone and only promised to buy more Bitcoin.
This was again the most important crypto news of the week. Earlier this week we also wrote about new European crypto regulations. More on that in the article "New European crypto laws are being finalized".
In the case of cryptocurrencies, nothing has fundamentally changed. In fact, there is still plenty of ongoing development on most projects. So there is certainly a possibility that the crypto market will recover strongly if the macro-economic situation improves.
That development is in full swing is clear to see. In the crypto news of the past week (June 24, 2022 to July 1), we see, among other things, the two giants Solana (SOL) and Cardano (ADA) making great developments. Also, the two big companies Breitling and HTC are entering the crypto market. So read along for the most important news of the week!
Solana bets on smartphones
During a Solana event on June 24 in New York, Solana Labs, the company behind Solana, announced that it has been working on a platform for mobile software for several months. In addition, they have also recently started building their own smartphone, i.e., the hardware.
The event where these announcements were made went by the name of SMS, which stands for Solana Mobile Stack. SMS is a toolkit for developers to develop mobile applications for within the Solana ecosystem. It also includes a decentralized app store where developers can offer their apps.
The Solana Saga smartphone, the new smartphone being developed by Solana, is likely to be released in 2023 and will cost around €1000. Other than that, not much is known about this smartphone.
Coincidentally, the smartphone company HTC also came up with crypto-related news this week. The company announced the HTC Desire Pro 22, or metaverse smartphone. The once great smartphone company, is now focusing more on virtual-reality and this smartphone should be an extension for their virtual-reality goggles.
Cardano Vasil hard fork comes close
Cardano is a proof-of-stake blockchain platform based on the peer-reviewed secure blockchain protocol. The secure blockchain network is what enables Cardano to be a decentralized network.
The blockchain protocol is called Ouroboros, it provides blockchain scalability without hindering or compromising security.
The Vasil upgrade on the blockchain will help to increase and improve the performance capabilities of Ouroboros-based proof-of-stake (PoS).
The launch of the Vasil Hard Fork was scheduled for late June, but minor bugs pushed the upgrade to a later date. According to the current schedule, the Hard Fork should now take place by the end of next month.
Watch brand Breitling now accepts crypto payments
Breitling, one of the world's most renowned watchmakers, has begun accepting digital currencies as a form of payment as the use of cryptocurrencies increases worldwide.
The Swiss watchmaker has teamed up with cryptocurrency payment services company BitPay to accept Ethereum, Shiba Inu, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in its online store.
Breitling joins a multitude of luxury companies that have been at the forefront of cryptocurrency adoption in recent months, as the general acceptance of Bitcoin continues to play out.
MicroStrategy makes another big Bitcoin purchase
Business intelligence company MicroStrategy announced it has purchased nearly 480 Bitcoin for nearly $10.0 million. The purchase was made at an average price of about $20,817 per Bitcoin, including fees and expenses.
The official blog reveals that the company made the purchase in the period between May 3, 2022 and June 28, 2022.
As of June 28, 2022, MicroStrategy and its subsidiaries owned a total of 129,699 Bitcoin, which were purchased for a combined purchase price of approximately $3.98 billion and an average purchase price of approximately $30,664 per Bitcoin, including fees and expenses.
Recently, there was speculation that MicroStrategy might be forced to sell its Bitcoin, due to the large losses, but CEO Michael Saylor reassured everyone and only promised to buy more Bitcoin.
This was again the most important crypto news of the week. Earlier this week we also wrote about new European crypto regulations. More on that in the article "New European crypto laws are being finalized".