Social media giants Reddit and Instagram are both back in the headlines for conversations surrounding NFTs and Coinbase announces a partnership with a trillion-plus dollar asset manager just after its posted quarterly loss and an ETH2.0 merge update.

Reddit Launching a Marketplace For NFTs 

Last year, Reddit tested adding Ethereum NFTs as a profile picture on their site, although did not end up implementing it permanently. After, they dropped a limited edition collection of NFTs, of their mascot Snoo. This collection granted unique access and special perks, especially surrounding the rollout of their newest announcement. 

Reddit announced in June that they were launching an NFT marketplace, that could be ready by the end of the summer. It is being tested by a small group of the limited edition NFT holders, but will soon be released to the public. Reddit includes over four hundred million monthly active users and over ten million users inside blockchain, web3 and cryptocurrency related groups.

Instagram NFTs Coming In Hot

Mark Zuckerburg is famous for going all in on the metaverse, from the failed “Diem” cryptocurrency project to focusing on virtual reality and changing Facebook’s name to Meta. For months, he has claimed NFTs were coming to both platforms and it seems that may finally be coming true. 

Instagram just announced major partnerships with Dapper labs and Coinbase. These partnerships will allow the most popular US cryptocurrency wallets to integrate with Instagram, including Coinbase wallet, Dapper wallet, Metamask and Rainbow wallet. CEO, Zuckerburg, has expressed interest in building NFT marketplaces into the platforms, allowing creators to both mint and trade NFTs. 

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram, includes around billions monthly active users. Around half the worlds population, regularly using these platforms. Centralized companies may not be ideal for the Web3 community but platforms like Meta offers could bring global adoption along much quicker. 

Coinbase x Blackrock

Just days after posting a staggering billion dollar loss, Coinbase announces a partnership with the world’s largest asset manager BlackRock. BlackRock operates with about ten trillion dollars worth of assets under management, and has decided to offer their clients Bitcoin exposure. 

Institutional clients of BlackRocks can now gain exposure to the spot Bitcoin price, through the Coinbase partnership. This alliance between traditional finances biggest hedge fund and the cryptocurrency market’s biggest exchange is an exciting one, showing maturity and adoption of the blockchain space. 

The Bitcoin price is pushing over 25k with the launch of the BlackRock fund, as the whole market begins a small rally. The news up a mid-September ETH2.0 merge also has the market sentiment excited.

ETH Goerli Testnet Succesfully Merged to POS

The Goerli testnet is used as a practice field before updating or merging with the Mainnet. Problems are easier to spot and solve in the testnet, and luckily for patient investors, the Goerli testnet of Ethereum successfully merged to Proof-Of-Stake consensus mechanism. This will be a major move for the entire ecosystem and is anxiously awaited by many investors.

Ethereum plans to be a POS network by the end of 2022, saving energy and leaving less of an impact on the environment. The team at Ethereum hopes that this long-planned upgrade will improve the scalability, speed and cost of the entire blockchain. The biggest problems faced by the network are how expensive gas fees are, how long transactions take and the difficulty of building multi-layered applications on top of it. 

Lambo NFTs drop again

Lamborghini drops their third NFT “The Epic Road Trip”. Doing something unique, the luxury automaker is dropping NFTs monthly for several months, and only collectors with each month’s NFT are eligible for the rewards. NFT rewards do include a special NFT, digital artwork and an exclusive tour of Sant’Agata Bolognese’s HQ.

For media, content or writing inquiries please contact Patrick Hagerty at PatrickJHags@gmail.com