There are 5 collections, each of which consists of 5 pieces, for a total of 25 NFT. The funds that they raise from the sale of the tokens will go to a Taco Bell charity.

The Mexican-American restaurant chain Taco Bell recently announced that they issued collectible “tacos” as non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The franchise minted its NFTs via the Rarible platform, a marketplace, and community of crypto artists and ERC-721 token collectors on the Ethereum network.

Taco Bell’s main dish Mexican tacos inspired the animated GIF images, videos, and artistic representations that the tokens contain.

Pieces that Constitute the Taco Bell Token Collection

Private buyers have already acquired the 5 collections of 5 tokens each, that is, 25 tokens in total. They could sell them again in the future, which would give the company 0.01% for each sale. The latter would invest these funds in the Taco Bell Foundation, a leadership and job coaching program for young people.

They sold some tokens at prices as low as 0.001 ETH, but the most expensive ones are already worth above 0.7 ETH. At the time of writing this article, that amount is equivalent to around USD 1,275, according to data from CoinGecko.

On their Twitter account, Taco Bell said that tacos now “live in the hearts, stomachs, and digital wallets” of the people. The original names of these token-tacos include “Gimme That”, “Ever-Crunching Tacos” and “Transformative Taco”, among others.

Among the tokens that the franchise sold is “Swivel, Taco,” which shows a picture of a taco moving rapidly. The current owner of this token is another user, who in turn is auctioning it. The highest bid that it has currently received is 0.25 ETH (equivalent to about USD 455).

Regarding the most expensive token, called “Tato Dimensions”, no one knows for sure whether its owner wants to sell it. This piece is worth 0.4 WETH (Wrapped Ether) equivalent to around USD 729, according to data from CoinGecko.

Various Tokens that Taco Bell Has Acquired

Similarly, Taco Bell has purchased or received 14 NFTs by various artists so far. Those works include a coin of Elon Musk, which artist RANA created, among other collectibles.

In recent weeks, the non-fungible token (NFT) industry has gained prominence. For example, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey issued a tweet as an NFT, which he sold to Justin Sun for USD 2 million.

Even though most NFTs work on the Ethereum network, this concept also exists on other platforms such as Bitcoin. These types of tokens allow uploading additional data to an asset on the network in question.

It is possible to create a unique asset on the blockchain that functions as a digital proof of an image, photograph, design, or illustration. It is also possible to do this with music themes, animated GIF images, and videos. The development of various entertaining artistic proposals has emerged as a result of the functionalities of the NFT.

By Alexander Salazar

The US Senate recently passed a law that does not include a wage increase to USD 15 an hour. There is a reduction in unemployment benefits from USD 400 to USD 300.

In recent days, the US Senate approved the law to stimulate the economy with a total of USD 1.9 trillion. They sent it back to the House of Representatives for President Biden to approve and enact it.

The government expects this aid to help alleviate the health crisis that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused. This disease has already killed more than half a million Americans until now. The help includes direct checks, unemployment benefits, plus funding to local states and governments.

In addition to direct aid, the law is promoting an anti-poverty program, offering significant benefits to low-income citizens.

Who the Beneficiaries of the Aid Will Be

They are considering giving checks for USD 1,400 to each eligible citizen, in addition to each dependent person. These people are all those whose salaries are below USD 75,000 per year.

Concerning those whose annual income is between USD 75,000 and USD 80,000, that amount will suffer a gradual reduction. Those who earn more than USD 80,000 a year will not receive direct aid.

There will be a reduction in benefits for the unemployed from USD 400 per week, which the previous law contemplated, to USD 300 per week. The new law contemplates a reduction in taxes of USD 3,000 per child by 2021. Eviction for late payment of mortgages will continue, according to the law, until the end of September.

Among the funds that this new aid law contemplates, states and local governments will receive USD 350,000 million. Besides, the government will allocate a total of USD 130,000 million to schools. Some funds will also go to universities, housing agencies, and child care providers.

The Massive Printing of Banknotes and the Price of Bitcoin

This stimulus package is slightly less than the USD 2.2 trillion of the law passed in 2020. However, there could be a printing of money by the US Federal Reserve (Fed) as large as that of last year.

The printing of money implies a risk of inflation in the medium- and long-term. For that reason, the 2020 relief policies were associated with a growing interest in assets perceived as a hedge against inflation. One of those assets, to which a growing number of investors turn, is precisely Bitcoin. The Fed made many announcements related to the package, which proved directly or indirectly favorable to the current bullish cycle of Bitcoin.

A few days ago, after the US Senate passed the law, the price of Bitcoin began to rise gradually. The pioneering cryptocurrency went from USD 47,000 to above USD 50,000 and rallied again in just 24 hours. At the time of writing this article, the price of Bitcoin is around USD 54,500, according to data from CoinGecko.

By Alexander Salazar

There is a total of 91,064 BTC in the treasury of American company MicroStrategy. The price of a stock is still four times higher than before the company started to invest in Bitcoin.

The company name MicroStrategy has gradually become synonymous with institutional investments in Bitcoin (BTC). Their interest in investing in the pioneering cryptocurrency has not waned but has grown even more. In recent days, they acquired another 205 BTC for USD 10 million in cash.

The news is good for bitcoiners, but the company’s stocks show a downward trend on the Nasdaq Wall Street market. There has been a decline of more than 50% in the price in just under a month. In recent days, it went from USD 1,300 to USD 620 per stock at the close of the trade.

MicroStrategy’s stock is still worth four times its market price before the company started to invest in Bitcoin. Before they announced their first purchase in August, a stock of the company was trading at USD 145.

The fall in the price of the stocks could suggest the little receptivity to investments in Bitcoin when its price falls.

More Bitcoin for MicroStrategy Means More “Hodl”

Michael Saylor, CEO, and co-founder of the company revealed the new injection of capital into the pioneering cryptocurrency. On his Twitter account, the executive detailed the transaction and what it represents for MicroStrategy’s treasury.

“MicroStrategy has bought another 205 BTC for USD 10 million in cash, at an average price of USD 48,888 per unit. We have 91,064 BTC in ‘hodl’, which we acquired for USD 2,196 million at an average price of USD 24,119 per unit,” Saylor explained.

They officially announced the investment and sent a statement about it to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The regulatory agency received from MicroStrategy a Form 8-K notifying the transaction.

Investing in Bitcoin with Own and Financed Funds

The company has been investing in the cryptocurrency since August 2020, with frequent monthly or weekly purchases. About a week ago, the company made its biggest investment in Bitcoin with USD 1 billion to acquire 19,452 BTC.

They said that they will continue to invest in Bitcoin, that is, they are not temporary movements due to the global financial situation. Those acquisitions give Bitcoin value as the main cryptocurrency on the market.

The CEO of MicroStrategy himself recently stated that they will buy more Bitcoin with the excess cash that they receive. He also said that the company will occasionally issue “debt or securities to raise funds aiming to buy more Bitcoin.”

Figures from the Bitcoin Treasuries service indicate that MicroStrategy’s total investment in Bitcoin currently has a value of USD 4.339 billion. In other words, the company has made more than 2,143 million, considering the current price of the cryptocurrency.

Institutional investors such as mutual funds and private companies have put around USD 46 billion into the cryptocurrency. The Tesla case has caught media attention, especially since they recently bought USD 1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin.

By Alexander Salazar

Two Chinese companies created a piece of software that will facilitate the use of the digital currency. The Winter Olympics will take place from February 4th to 20th, 2022.

Efforts to develop the digital yuan in China continue to increase so that people can use it in Beijing during the 2022 Winter Olympics. For that reason, the government of that Asian country is working jointly with private companies on the development of a piece of software to implement this currency.

The Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission, along with other companies, is making a “massive effort” across the state. They are seeking to develop the technology that will support an event that usually attracts many tourists and fans from around the world.

The objective is to help the people who will attend the sporting event that will take place between February 4th and 20th, 2022. This technology will allow them to use the digital currency in hotels, restaurants, and stadiums, among other facilities.

The Beijing Microchip Blockchain and Edge Computing Research Institute companies have partnered with the People’s Bank of China. From this joint effort, a piece of software emerged that will help promote the digital yuan and facilitate its use.

The launch of the software, called Chang’an Chain, occurred on January 27th. They say that this program has “autonomous control capabilities and auditable open-source code.”

Its creators add that more than “10 core modules, anti-quantum encryption algorithm, manageable channeling agreements, and hybrid fragment storage” constitute it. This is reminiscent of the Sharding protocol, which seeks to scale the Ethereum network in the next three years.

Sharding proposes a distribution that works in such a way that each node will validate only a part of the transactions. By redistributing the validation form, the Ethereum network would be able to process new blocks every 2 to 8 seconds.

The Implementation of the Digital Yuan Grows

One of the leaders in the race for central bank digital currencies (CBDC) worldwide is precisely China. There have been experiments in various cities in the country, where people have received 170,000,000 digital yuan (equivalent to around USD 26,166,531) through raffles.

In Shenzhen City, Chinese citizens were able to exchange cash for digital yuan (or vice versa) in January. To do this, the Agricultural Bank of China had enabled ATMs that are compatible with smartphones. That allowed the people of that locality to access the wallet where their digital yuan was.

Shanghai recently joined the cities that have been testing the digital yuan. The People’s Bank of China conducted a test with citizens who do not own smartphones. To fulfill their objective, the authorities activated a physical card for payments with the digital currency.

In various stations of the Shanghai subway, there are vending machines that are accepting the digital yuan as a form of payment. Citizens can use the digital yuan in these machines that provide soft drinks and candies, among other products.

The Government of China began its most recent testing in the city of Chengdu, in southwest China. That happened after they distributed 40 million digital coins to 200,000 users through a raffle.

By Alexander Salazar

NEM’s cryptocurrency appreciated 39% on the eve of the launch of its Symbol network. IOTA climbs 10% while running tests for smart contracts on its network.

The market started to recover slightly after a significant recent decline that took place from February to the very beginning of March 2021. According to Live Coin Watch statistics, more than 70% of altcoins now show a sudden uptrend, with advances reaching 40%.

The most appreciated cryptocurrencies went behind NEM (XEM) and integrated into the Moonpay global payment solution. IOTA (MIOTA) follows the activation of the alpha phase of a protocol for smart contracts; then Tezos (XTZ), which receives support from computer engine vendor Wolfram Alpha gets the third spot.

The crypto assets list also has Storj (STORJ), which integrated the ZK-Rollup solution to set a reduction of commission payments on the Ethereum network, and Tron (TRX), starting with a DeFi product development program.

The price of Bitcoin is showing increases again, exceeding the $ 50,000 after having climbed a minimum amount that marks USD 43,450. On average, it started to recover by 0.2% in a single week.

The pioneering cryptocurrency experienced its highest increase on March 3, when it peaked at $ 52,331. The advance happened amid a set of constant institutional investments. The rise also links to the support that comes from Van Eck’s application for approval of the bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), which received an introduction by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Amazon Web Service (AWS) also announced that, from its blockchain network management tool, Amazon Manager Blockchain, it is possible to gain access to Ethereum nodes. This new feature will allow AWS customers to bring provisional nodes to the network, allowing them to link to the leading web and the Rinkeby and Ropsten test networks.

Meanwhile, other relevant cryptocurrencies on the market are registering rises and declines. Litecoin (LTC) reached 1.4%, and Ripple’s XRP won at least 3.5%. On the other hand, Polkadot (DOT) lost 6.7%; and Cardano (ADA) fell 20.9%.

XEM is Now into Payment Solution Moonpay Platform

In a Twitter message, the NEM team reported that Moonpay integrated the cryptocurrency XEM into its system.

 The announcement relates to the growth of this altcoin, which that same day peaked at $ 0.86. XEM now joins a list of more than 80 cryptocurrencies used on the Moonpay platform. The payment system now sets its operations in at least 180 countries or more.

The price of XEM has been rising since last week because of the activation of its new Symbol network. The registration process for the exchange of XEM for Symbol’s XYM token sets its closure this March 12.

After reaching its maximum weekly price, on March 3, the cost of XEM has been experiencing a decline in recent days. The market capitalization is USD 6,688 million, and the daily trade volume is USD 612 million at the time of writing.

By: Jenson Nuñez

The highest bidder would be buying a digital certificate of the tweet, which Dorsey himself has signed and certified. The tweet has been up for sale since December but gained popularity when Dorsey posted it on his account.

Co-founder and CEO of social network Twitter Jack Dorsey is auctioning off his first tweet in the form of a non-expendable token (NFT). It has been up for sale on the Ethereum-based platform created on social network Valuables by Cent.

In March 2006, the founder wrote on his Twitter account “just setting up my twttr”, the first of his tweets. Now that tweet is up for auction as a digital souvenir for anyone who buys it.

Valuables communicates on its website that “the tweet will continue to live on Twitter” as the bidding is for a digital certificate of it. The tweet is “unique” because its creator himself has signed and verified it.

At the time of writing this article, the maximum bid amount (in Ether) is around USD 2,000,000. Justin Sun, the creator of the Tron blockchain and owner of BitTorrent, was the one who made that offer.

Based on previous bids for the tweet, it has been up for sale since December last year. However, the list of items attracted more attention after Dorsey posted the auction link on his Twitter profile.

NTFs are tokenized versions of the real world whose peculiarity is that they are not interchangeable with each other. Furthermore, they can serve as proof of authenticity and ownership within a digital world.

The NTF of Dorsey’s First Tweet

When Dorsey was 15 years old, he wrote his first tweet, which became popular on the Ethereum platform. For that reason, this digital souvenir can lead bidders to pay a high price.

Valuables has been comparing the purchase of tweets to that of a signed baseball card since its launch in December. Regarding the NTF of Dorsey’s first tweet, there is only one signed copy, so it is a unique piece. If its creator agrees to sell it, “it can become the property of the buyer forever.”

Sale of Art through Tokens

In February 2021, Christie’s auctioned its first tokenized artwork on the Ethereum blockchain. The famous 250-year-old auction house offered for sale a non-fungible token (NFT). Artist Mike Winkelman, also known as Beeple, is the creator of that 5,000-piece collage.

The auction house has classified the work that the artist created exclusively for them as “a unique digital artwork.” They have brought together the images that Beeple created every day for 14 years from 2007 to 2021. It is now a unique piece that he called “Every Day: the First 5,000 Days”.

In November 2020, Twitter user @MaxStealth5 purchased a painting of Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin for USD 133,000. That artwork mutates based on changes in the price of Ether, fluctuations in gas rates, and Buterin’s birthday.

The digital platform AsyncArt created the non-expendable token “ETH Boy”, a unique and unrepeatable work of art. Besides, it is a programmable piece as it is capable of reflecting data and external stimuli in it. The painting of Buterin will be able to change its shape according to festive dates and the information that it receives from the network.

By Alexander Salazar