Shiba Inu and Luna on a tear; K-pop bets on digital assets

Transcript

It’s all about altcoins right now, we’re keeping watch on Shiba Inu and Luna’s price action today.

Welcome to The Daily Forkast December 1, 2021. I’m Angie Lau, Editor-in-Chief of Forkast.News, covering all things blockchain.

Well, Shiba Inu coins listing on Kraken has sent it soaring, while Terra Networks Luna Token is also on a tear, hitting an all time high Wednesday morning Asia time. We’re going to take a look at market action and a whole lot more coming up.

Let’s get you up to speed from Asia to the world.

Let’s kick off with some of the top stories out of Asia today.

First up, India says hold up – did we say ban crypto? What we actually meant was . . .

Well, according to former Indian Finance Secretary Subhash Garg, the description of the country’s crypto bill is misleading.

In an interview with local media, Garg, who drafted the shelved 2019 bill that called for a ban on cryptocurrencies, said the draft of the new bill is not ready and hence it was a mistake to mention that private cryptocurrencies will be banned. He went on to say that the government needs to understand the vast crypto world and use cases for cryptocurrencies in order to form a comprehensive bill.

Now over in Korea, internet giant Naver’s metaverse operating subsidiary Naver Z has raised over US$180 million in a Series B round.

Around US$150 million of that came from Japan’s SoftBank, while K-pop industry names like HYBE, YG and JYP Entertainment also took part.

Naver Z says the funding will help it focus on expanding its global services, and it says its metaverse, Zepeto has already 200 million users. 80% by the way, who are teenagers.

You can find those stories and a whole lot more on Forkast.News.

Over to the markets now.

A couple of big moves have caught our eye this week after maintaining strong price action over the weekend, despite a market wide sell off.

Terra’s Luna hit an all-time-high of US$59.63 Wednesday morning Asia time.

And it is not the only token riding high. Shiba Inu coin got a shot in the arm, following its listing on global crypto exchange Kraken.

Forkast.News Lachlan Keller has more.

According to CoinMarketCap, Shiba Inu leapt 47% after listing. With Kraken telling Forkast.News there was a lot of interest in the coin. And that it is now past the exchange’s lengthy due diligence process.

“It made the cut. This is an ongoing process for us and we’ll continue to list new coins every year going forward. Hopefully, at a faster rate.”

Meanwhile, Miller says the Terra is one of a number of stablecoin projects that’ve been getting a lot of attention as they grow their use cases.

“And Terra is an algorithmic stablecoin. You know, it’s got a unique selling point. It has a very different mechanism to pegging the value.”

Miller says there is value in stablecoin projects as they can connect users with decentralized finance and allow seamless cross-border payments.

Bitcoin hasn’t fared quite so well, suffering a minor blip around the time, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the risk of higher inflation has increased.

However, Miller says Bitcoin remains an incredibly strong asset and a great store of value, and that persistent inflation will only build further into that story as we enter 2022.

For Forkast.News, I’m Lachlan Keller.

Got a question for you. Who’s your bias?

Well, if you’re a K-pop fan, you’d have no trouble understanding that question. But for others not so well versed in K-pop lingo like me, that’s just a way of asking who you like.

With the Korean entertainment industry sweeping the world off its feet, K-pop, NFTs and metaverse are the next big thing.

Forkast.News Timmy Shen has more in today’s NFT insider.

Go big or go home, and the K-pop industry is betting on the former.

With an overseas market that was valued at US$10 billion in 2019. Big industry names are now betting on developing NFTs and other digital assets.

Hype, which manages the global sensation BTS, partnering with Dunamu in November to digitize BTS’s merchandise into NFTs.

The company’s founder Si-Hyuk Bang, believes the tie up will help expand the fan experience more diversely and securely.

Cube Entertainment, one of the largest K-pop agencies, also teaming up with Animoca Brands to form a joint venture dedicated to building a music metaverse and issuing NFTs.

In an exclusive interview with Forkast.News, Cube CEO says the sky is the limit when it comes to investing in new tech.

“Playing a role in creating new experience and new value in this field, gives a sense of purpose to Cube artists and members.”

And the singers themselves are raring to explore the new platform to create music and connect with their fans.

“The new system can make it a bit easier for me to share my creations with more people, so I’m feeling very excited.”

The metaverse also beckons with K-pop groups planning virtual concerts and gong from the popular BtoB giving a sneak peek at a new fan experience in the works.

“In conversations with the band and the company, we’ve started to talk about how to hold concerts on the metaverse, although these are initial discussions.”

One expert telling Forkast.News, NFTs could help fans trade digital collectibles of their K-pop idols.

“Fans covet these kind of these pieces of paper so much that they will buy or trade or sell them could range from like a couple of dollars to several hundred dollars. I’ve seen some of them being sold for like $500 on Twitter. NFT can provide these venues to sell, market and buy collectibles.”

And that indeed looks like the future.

For Forkast.News, I’m Timmy Shen.

And that’s The Daily Forkast from our vantage point right here in Asia.

Hit like and hit subscribe. We really appreciate it, and it does help us reach our goal of reaching more of you. We’re going to end 2021 on a high thanks to you, so keep on watching.

For more visit Forkast.News.I’m Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau. Until the next time.