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gm everyone!

Today we uncover what has hit the banking industry and how it has affected the Web3 space. But before that:

🙏🏾 Thanks to today’s Sponsor Tendies Research

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Here is a breakdown of what has recently hit the industry

• Metaverse Clothing Brand DRx Launches Streetwear-Inspired AR Collection (nftevening)

• SHIB falls as the community accuses developers of copying blockchain code (cryptonews)

• Polygon Launches Extension for Web3 Domain Names (nftlately)

• LinksDAO wins bid to buy its first golf course, says CEO (cointelegraph)

• Mass layoffs: Meta cuts 10,000 jobs after scrapping NFT plans (nftnews)

• Cathie Wood says regulators responsible for banking crisis, not crypto (cryptonews)

• Instagram and Facebook Discontinue NFT Features (nftlately)

• Crypto users turned to DEXs, loaded up on USDC after Silicon Valley Bank crash (cointelegraph)

• Funko brings Dungeons and Dragons to life with exclusive NFT collection (nftnews)

• Nissan Steers Into Metaverse and NFT Advertising (nft lately)

• SVB’s parent company also reportedly considers bankruptcy (cryptonews)

• Sotheby’s to Auction Beeple and Reddit-Inspired NFTs (nftlately)

• NounsDAO approves proposal for an animated film (nftnews)

• European Parliament votes to form final law on EU digital wallet (cointelegraph)

• India and UAE work towards a joint CBDC (cryptonews)

• Degen Zoo goes viral while working to disapprove Logan Paul’s claims (nftnews)

• Lamborghini makes a final 8-month NFT Campaign (nftevening)

• Ethereum core developers set April 12 for Shanghai hard fork (cointelegraph)

Here is what else we dig

Silicon Valley Bank tumbles to Bankruptcy

The past few days have seen the banking industry under intense financial pressure. Silicon Valley Bank has become the talk of the world after going under receivership in less than 36 hours.

Here is what we know about the collapse

• It all started a few weeks ago when CNBC market analyst Jim Cramer announced that SVB stock was a good investment opportunity.

• Investors and analysts started to look closely into the financial books of the bank.

• SVB had bought billions of dollars worth of bonds using customer deposits which is not an unusual occurrence.

• However, these investments were greatly affected by the Fed’s move to raise interest rates.

• Usually, this is not an issue if the bank holds the bonds to maturity.

• However, when the bank faces liquidity crisis, it will be forced to sell some of these assets at a loss.

• SVB's customers were largely start-ups and other tech-centric companies that started becoming needier for cash over the past year.

• The bank experienced a bank run as depositors rushed in to withdraw their funds.

• The Fed finally closed the bank down and assured that all depositors they will get their funds back.

The Shiba Inu community is debating the origin of the Shibarium code

Drama broke out in the Shiba Inu Discord channel on March 16, when one of the members, Steve, suggested the Shibarium chain code was copied.

Here is what we know about the story

• Steve said the Shibarium chain used a similar code to the 917 Rinia Testnet chain.

• The chain ID 917 came into the limelight in December 2022 through the Rinia blockchain.

• Shibu Inu released Shibarium’s beta version a few days ago; therefore, crucial technical specifics, including block explorer, Chain ID, bridges, and RPC nodes, are coming to the public now.

• The controversies have sent SHIB price tanking to $0.00001067 according to raw data from coinmarketcap.

Hackers target Telegram and WhatsApp users with trojanized apps to steal crypto

A recent investigation by ESET researchers revealed dozens of copycat Telegram and WhatsApp websites targeting Android and Windows users with trojanized versions of these popular instant messaging apps.

Here is what we know about the research

• ESET Research has found the first instance of clippers built into instant messaging apps.

• Threat actors are going after victims’ cryptocurrency funds using trojanized Telegram and WhatsApp applications for Android and Windows.

• The malware can switch the cryptocurrency wallet addresses the victim sends in chat messages for addresses belonging to the attacker.

• Some of the clippers abuse optical character recognition to extract text from screenshots and steal cryptocurrency wallet recovery phrases.

• ESET Research has also found remote access trojans (RATs) bundled with malicious Windows versions of WhatsApp and Telegram.

Graph of the Day: BTC/USDT chart

BREAKING: BTC breaks above the $25k level and is currently trading at the highest price in the past 273 days🤩🤩. Is the bull market back? 👀

NFT Spotlight: Black Dave

Dave Curry (AKA Black Dave) is a musician, producer and multidisciplinary artist exploring the NFT world through music and art.

He first dabbled in this market in 2020 during the the Covid-19 pandemic, creating NFTs of his unreleased cover art.

These works are his Manga Tears series, featuring stylized and edited images extracted from manga comics. Curry likens this artistic process to that of producing rap music, which frequently uses samples of other creators’ work.

Having first tried his hand at NFTs towards the end of 2020, Dave is now miles away from his early beginnings, which saw him minting anime characters.

But although he has branched out significantly, he hasn’t lost his roots. His current NFTs still encapsulate the whimsical and passionate nature of his own personality.

Essential links: Twitter, OpenSea

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Meme Drop

🤣🤣🤣🤣 So, the Fed is to blame for all the trauma?

Read our previous newsletters:

• 🗞️Vitalik Buterin’s endorsed NFT collection pumps on OpenSea

• Vitalik Buterin hosted in Accra, Ghana by Afropolitan

• Binance delists AION, MIR, and ANC tokens

• Paxos stops minting Binance USD stablecoin

Follow the team: Olumide Gbenro, Chris Hauser, Sandro IEVA

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