# Everything Web3! By [Untitled](https://paragraph.com/@0xd72a1a26742980437e82f505f3f7b3a2e7a97024) · 2023-02-21 --- It appears as if the Web3 space has gotten up on a roller coaster ride. As the ride continues, it's been taking up various ups and downs, new turns, and new beginnings, and it is continually getting along with this infinitely.  What an impressive journey! But you have to keep up with this pace and be updated to stay ahead of the game. From Bitcoin NFTs to SEC's take on Kraken's staking services, Metamask's latest update, market price fluctuations, and much more - let's get a gist of all the recent twists and turns of Web3. The Grand Bitcoin NFT news! --------------------------- The introduction of the Ordinals Protocol has increased the usefulness of the Bitcoin network even further. With this recent development, programmers, and artists may produce and save digital works directly on the Bitcoin network. More than 100,000 ordinals have already been produced! The advent of this technology has also caused a sharp increase in Bitcoin metrics. For instance, on February 14, after the introduction of ordinals, the number of non-zero Bitcoin addresses reached 44 million. According to [Dune Analytics data](https://dune.com/dataalways/ordinals), almost 154k+ [Ordinals](https://ordinals.com/) have been inscribed (or minted) on the Bitcoin blockchain as of this moment. ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/bfae4ecbf1131566011ac6ddf1bec42fe234ff5e1497ea3d8220b0bdc60b4f76.png) The most recent Bitcoin wallet to launch with explicit support for Ordinals Inscriptions is Ordinals Wallet, which went live on February 16. The wallet advertises that the capability for transferring, receiving, inscribing, purchasing, and selling Ordinals is soon to come while allowing users to "receive, store, and examine Ordinals" in their wallets. The Bitcoin Web3 wallet Xverse formally launched the Bitcoin Ordinals service just 24 hours before the Ordinals Wallet became live. With its test net distribution on February 14, Hiro Wallet launched before Xverse and Ordinals Wallet. SEC imposing regulations on crypto! ----------------------------------- The Web3 space has been facing various hurdles and has been like a wave with SEC imposing regulations on multiple Web3 firms and projects. Let's get an overview of the recent measures taken by the SEC: **SEC's Take on Kraken's Staking Services in the USA and its impact on other Alternatives** The settlement, according to SEC Chair Gary Gensler, "should make it obvious to the market that staking-as-a-service providers must register and offer full, fair, and truthful disclosure and investor protection." The cryptocurrency exchange Kraken agreed to "immediately" shut down its crypto staking-as-a-service platform for the US customers and pay $30 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charges that it offered unregistered securities contributing significantly to the market's decline. Although liquidity staking tokens were exceptions, with LDO, the governance token of Lido Finance, the largest liquid staking protocol with about $8.4 billion of staked ether (ETH) on the platform, jumping 10.4% in an hour at one point, most other cryptocurrencies spent the day in solidly negative territory. LDO just increased by roughly 2%. Following the Kraken announcement, tokens from smaller liquid staking platforms like Persistence's pSTAKE and StaFi's FIS and LDO rival Rocket Pool's RPL all saw significant price increases. **Following an inquiry, Binance is anticipated to pay a settlement to the US regulators** Binance anticipates paying a fine to resolve a legal and regulatory inquiry, as one of its executives lamented the industry's "extremely confused period." According to the Journal, the DOJ has been looking into Binance for possible violations of anti-money laundering rules, which relied on sources with knowledge of the situation. The exchange has been tied up with major money laundering cases and the transaction of $400 million being transferred from an account under Binance.US to a CZ firm. This is the most recent action against a cryptocurrency company in a campaign mostly driven by the SEC. Metamask's latest Integration: Enabling UPI! -------------------------------------------- MetaMask recently declared that it would accept bank transactions from Indian consumers. Users now have fast access to trade cryptocurrencies thanks to the company's integration of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the country's leading payment technology. MetaMask collaborated with Onramp.money, an Indian platform that enables rapid cryptocurrency transactions, to facilitate this breakthrough. In contrast to the previous trading techniques, MetaMask users can now buy cryptocurrencies utilizing regional payment systems like UPI and Immediate Payment Service (IMPS). Insights on Ethereum's Shanghai Update -------------------------------------- The Ethereum Shanghai upgrade, expected for March, will be the next major trigger for the crypto market. This upgrade will alter the demand and supply of ETH both in the near and long terms, whereas the Merge was a pure technological transition with no direct economic impact. As a result, it can potentially affect the price of ETH significantly. The equilibrium of demand and supply in the ether market could be impacted immediately by the forthcoming Shanghai upgrade, keeping the cryptocurrency more volatile than it was in the weeks following the Merge. The staking earnings accrued over more than two years, which amount to almost 1 million ETH, can be quickly withdrawn, but the entire staking balance of 16.5 million+ ETH cannot. These ETH might be sold on the market, which would cause price volatility. Also, ether may become volatile the days before the event as a sign that the market supports concerns about price volatility following an upgrade. In this instance, the volatility strike is 70%. The amount of volatility realized in March, which will be known at the month's end, determines whether the swap generates a profit or a loss. Current Market Trend for NFTs ----------------------------- With $676.79 million in [sales achieved](https://www.cryptoslam.io/) last week among more than 20 blockchain projects that issue NFTs, NFT sales increased by more than 166.45%.  ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/f45fba3c3aaaa5f5caacaa8689626f0d774d13b2f1a52ffdb305db0e80a9a141.png) With sales of $615.56 million, [Ethereum accounted](https://www.cryptoslam.io/blockchains/ethereum) for 90.95% of the market's overall revenues. Moreover, sales of NFTs based on ETH climbed by 184.22% from the prior week. ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/bdc7774c529af526da1c28b78a5c944364c89587d0a1b1405f00cbf12e9b4add.png) With $27.71 million in NFT sales over the previous seven days, Polygon came in second. However, this figure reflects a 25.95% decline compared to the prior week. In order of NFT sales, Solana, Immutable X, BNB, and Cardano were placed after Ethereum and Polygon. Sales over the past seven days for Solana totaled $19.29 million, Immutable X $5.93 million, BNB $2.24 million, and Cardano $2.11 million. ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/e9f9c0ae7424bead527c7586d2583e75746565c77104c8cefd9969b64d4c2b2d.png) Winding Up: Current Market Trend for Tokens! -------------------------------------------- With the grand Bitcoin NFT News, BTC, ETH, MATIC, and several other prominent tokens witnessed a significant value surge. However, it was soon disrupted because of SEC's actions, and the previous week commencing with Valentine's has not been so lovely for the DeFi market and the traders. Soon after the news, the tokens went down, ETH dropping from $1.6k+ to less than 1.4K. However, the trend was short-termed, and with the end of the week approaching, the tokens surpassed again in their values. BTC now stands at 24.5K+, ETH at 1.6K plus, $MATIC reaching ~$1.5 at some moment, and much more! --- *Originally published on [Untitled](https://paragraph.com/@0xd72a1a26742980437e82f505f3f7b3a2e7a97024/everything-web3)*