Weekly Flip Thru: Celsius Files for Bankruptcy, Credit Card Cos Get Ready for Crypto
Things move fast in the world of cryptocurrency! That’s why CoinFlip is here to make things simple, easy, and ready to share in a format that breaks down the week’s biggest crypto headlines in our Weekly Flip Thru.
This week’s edition of the Flip Thru covers a long-brewing story of bankruptcy from one major crypto lender, credit card companies figuring out a way to break into the crypto payments process, and media giant Disney recognizing the growth potential of decentralized applications built using blockchain technology.
Here’s the latest news for the week of July 18, 2022.
Crypto Lender Celsius Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection (Bloomberg) Well, this one stings. After drawing the attention and consternation of many in the crypto universe when they announced they were halting withdrawals in June 2022, massive crypto lender Celsius filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy on July 13, 2022. Celsius managed to pay off the last of its DeFi debts to Compound, AAVE, and Maker in the days leading up to the Chapter 11 filing. However, individual asset holders are left wondering when (or if) they will ever see their funds returned. It’s too early to say how things will shake out for those who held their funds with Celsius, but it’s probably fair to say a protracted legal process is in the offing. At any rate, the Celsius saga is another key reason for crypto investors to look at the security offered by self-custodial services.
Credit Card Companies Know Cryptocurrency Is Coming & Want to Be Ready (Wall Street Journal) Major credit card companies like Visa and Mastercard anticipate a much broader use of cryptocurrency as a payment method down the road, with cardholders using crypto to pay for things like airplane tickets, gas, and even clothes. And they want to position themselves to handle crypto payments without the help of third parties.
Wait, don’t these credit card companies know that we’re in a crypto winter at the moment? Sure. They’ve seen downturns in the past, but they’re forging ahead to figure out ways to meet the growing demand for crypto-backed credit cards as a payment method. Cuy Sheffield, global head of crypto at Visa, was quoted in The Wall Street Journal as saying “we are seeing continued interest from our existing clients and new developers coming into the space,” and that Visa is going to ”take a long-term perspective on how crypto can impact payments and focus on adding as much value to the ecosystem as we can.”
More reading: How To Buy Bitcoin Online With a Credit or Debit Card
Crypto Exchange OKX Shells Out Over $20M in Sponsorship for Soccer Club (Forbes) Crypto exchange OKX has expanded its existing partnership with reigning Premier League champions Manchester City FC in a deal reported to be worth more than $20 million, according to Forbes. The club is valued at more than $4.25 billion and this sponsorship deal for the soccer club kits is in addition to OKX’s being named the “official cryptocurrency partner” for Manchester City back in March 2022.
The news of OKX’s expanding sponsorship deal comes despite a recent downturn in crypto markets and widespread cutbacks in advertising spend by other crypto firms. Similar deals said to be in the works for FTX to place branding directly on athletes’ jerseys was halted, according to The New York Post. In 2021, many sports fans became acquainted with crypto brands thanks to splashy deals that plastered the names of crypto companies onto arenas, and high-profile sponsorships of individual athletes like Naomi Osaka, Steph Curry, and Tom Brady. Still, OKX is striking ahead on the deal and announced plans to grow by 30% in the year ahead.
Polygon Joins Disney’s Accelerator Program (CoinDesk) Decentralized Ethereum scaling platform Polygon was selected among a handful of companies as part of The Walt Disney Company’s 2022 Accelerator class. The corporate behemoth handpicked several companies to participate in this business development program that is “focused on building the future of immersive experiences and specializes in technologies such as augmented reality (AR), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and artificial intelligence (AI) characters.” Each company in the 2022 Accelerator class will receive guidance from senior Disney executives and be featured in a demo day at The Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California.
Whether that means Disney characters will break out of movies, theme parks, games, and TV shows to inhabit something akin to a metaverse is anyone’s guess, but Polygon has already amassed a decent stable of decentralized applications (dApps) that facilitate NFTs, video games, collectibles, and payment processing built on the Ethereum network. The price of MATIC, the native token of the Polygon framework, soared to a 30-day high on the news of Polygon being tapped by the House of Mouse for its next-generation project.
Need more crypto news and insights? You can get them delivered right to your inbox by subscribing to CoinFlip’s newsletter. Don’t miss out on the latest discounts, product news, and a heap of fun memes on the CoinFlip social channels – follow us today!
