Arijit Sarkar
Just four months after electric vehicl manufacturer Tesla started accepting Dogecoin (DOGE) for merchandise purchases, Elon Musk announced his plan to extend the payment option for his space exploration company, SpaceX.
Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, has been a staunch supporter of the DOGE ecosystem since 2019 and has since publicly revealed interest in accepting memecoin payments across his multibillion-dollar enterprises.
Historically, Musk’s pro-DOGE tweets have had an immediate and positive impact on DOGE’s market prices, as investors try to cash in on the hype. However, the recent revelation about SpaceX’s plan to accept DOGE payments for merchandise had no significant effect on the price amid a bearish crypto market.
Moreover, data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView show that DOGE lost over 55% in value between May 8 and May 13, trading at $0.08077 at the time of writing.
In December 2021, DOGE gained 25% after Musk confirmed that Tesla will accept DOGE for merchandise. Along with similar timelines, the entrepreneur revealed his belief about DOGE being a better everyday payment option as compared to Bitcoin (BTC).
If things work out just as planned, Musk might eventually start allowing DOGE payments for Starlink subscriptions.
Musk recently issued a public warning against an ongoing scam wherein attackers have been found to use deepfake technology to impersonate the entrepreneur and promote fabricated crypto-shilling videos.
Originally shared on Twitter, the deepfake video of Musk promoted a cryptocurrency platform boasting 30% returns on crypto deposits.
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Arijit Sarkar
Crypto has taken over the world, and Formula 1 was no exception to the disruption. From nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and fan tokens to multi-year partnerships, the crypto community continues to support the F1 landscape in numerous ways.
Monaco Grand Prix 2022 saw F1’s fastest pit crew, Oracle Red Bull Racing (ORBR), partner with crypto exchange Bybit to launch ORBR’s 2022 NFT collection — minted on the Tezos blockchain. The limited-edition NFT collection is made available via an auction, wherein bidders get to collect digital collectibles representing various aspects of Red Bull’s past, present and future.
Speaking to Cointelegraph editor-in-chief Kristina Cornèr, Bybit co-founder and CEO Ben Zhou said that F1 has a symbiotic relationship with crypto as the partnerships between the two industry pulls in young investors into the F1 fan base:
“Formula 1 is the challenger of the norm, and that really goes well with crypto. It’s a really huge synergy we see.”
Parallelly, Bybit premiered The Search for the Next Level, a film starring Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio “Checo” Pérez — (spoiler alert) circled around the launch of the new RB18 car.
Aston Martin F1, too, signed a multi-year partnership deal with crypto exchange Crypto.com to explore fan engagement and investment initiatives. Crypto.com NFT marketplace continues to be the go-to place for Aston Martin NFT airdrops and limited-edition collectibles.
This year, crypto giant Binance partnered with Alpine F1 Team to issue NFT airdrops and collectibles. Taking fan engagement to the next level, Binance conducted an event on May 20, allowing one fan to experience the life of an Alpine F1 mechanic.
Previously, Cointelegraph reported on the overall crypto-F1 partnerships as of March 2022.
A few prominent collaborations active during the Monaco Grand Prix 2022 are Ferrari and blockchain firm Velas, Mercedes and crypto exchange FTX, and Alfa Romeo and Shiba Inu- (SHIB)-inspired memecoin Floki Inu (FLOKI).
A recent study conducted by fintech giant Deloitte uncovered the potential of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, and how it can open up new markets and revenue opportunities for the sports industry:
“A nexus will form around sports collectibles, ticketing, betting, and gaming. We are just beginning to see its [cryptocurrency’s] potential, as well as the new markets it could lead to.”
The study also highlighted the possibility of new markets that allow “fractional ownership of season tickets and suites and a reinvention of the ticket resale process.”
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Brian Newar
Renowned billionaire investor Tim Draper insists that a time will come when women begin driving up the price of Bitcoin as more retailers start offering it as a more cost-effective payment option at shops.
Draper, a Bitcoin (BTC) investor himself, told host Scott Melker on the Wolf of All Streets YouTube show last week that women could be key in pushing the largest crypto by market cap up to $250,000 per coin.
He reasons that as store owners begin to accept BTC as payment more widely, “all of a sudden, all the women will have Bitcoin wallets and they will be buying things with Bitcoin:”
“Then you’re going to see a Bitcoin price that’ll just blow right through my $250,000 estimate.”
Draper believes it is in retailers’ best interest to begin accepting Bitcoin sooner than later. He acknowledges that most store owners operate on low margins, so the reduced transaction fees compared to working with major credit card companies Visa or Mastercard could increase BTC’s incentives.
The average credit card transaction costs merchants up to 2.9% in-store and 3.5% online per purchase, according to CreditDonkey. By comparison, the average BTC transaction fee comes in at a flat $1.4 per transaction, according to Bitcoin data compiler BitInfoCharts.
Draper hints that the benefit to retailers is obvious. He said that women “control about 80% of retail spending,” and that retailers can save a lot on fees paid to credit card companies by choosing Bitcoin. Women constitute 30% of all crypto owners in the United States, according to The State of Consumer Banking & Payments by research firm Morning Consult.
The level of adoption that Draper hopes for may not be far off, as Morning Consult found that about 24% of American households own crypto, which is up 2% from July 2021.
If Draper is right, then it could start a cascade event which would also validate Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach’s prediction that the global payments system SWIFT would not exist in five years. Miebach made the shocking prediction last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
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This Daily Dose was brought to you by Cointelegraph.
