An article reviewing the Web3 road of traditional giants in 2022

Original Author: angelilu

Traditional giants can no longer ignore the rise of Web3. As the company that has obtained the most resources in its own field and is also the most capable company to explore the mysterious Web3 world first, from DeFi, NFT to Metaverse, giants have begun to seek to link their own business Hooked directions to explore.

Every time a new giant enters this emerging field, it adds an endorsement to the Web3 field, which includes affirmation of the field, but at the same time it is also a challenge to the unstable encryption system. The course of action of the giants is to conduct large-scale experiments one after another, which is also the purpose of this review, summarizing the actions taken by the giants in the fields of DeFi, encrypted payment, NFT and Metaverse this year.

The progress of financial institutions in the fields of DeFi and encrypted transactions

MAS "Guardian Project"

When it comes to the pilots of traditional institutions in the DeFi field, it has to be mentioned that the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) launched the "Project Guardian" (Project Guardian) in October this year. Proof-of-credential DeFi for the first time with real-time transactions of tokenized deposits. The pilot project follows a real-time cross-currency transaction involving tokenized yen and Singapore dollar deposits completed in November with DBS Bank, JP Morgan and SBI Digital Asset Holdings.

The article published by JP Morgan mentions the use of the Polygon network for transactions in this real-time transaction, the use of Aave to adopt its "permission pool concept", issued tokenized SGD deposits, and built an institutional wallet.

In addition, in November, the United States Patent and Trademark Office approved the trademark registration of JP Morgan Chase's virtual payment wallet "JP Morgan Wallet". , financial risk management and payment reference management; remittance in the same currency, wire transfer services for cross-border high and low payments, etc.

Charles Schwab

In September, financial giants Charles Schwab, Citadel Securities, Fidelity Digital Asset, Paradigm, Sequoia Capital and Virtu Financial plan to launch cryptocurrency exchange EDX Markets. EDX Markets will be led by CEO Jamil Nazarali, CTO Tony Acuña-Rohter and General Counsel David Forman. EDX Markets opened some spot transactions in November and will officially launch it in January next year.

Nomura Holdings

Laser Digital, the crypto subsidiary of Nomura Holdings, will launch a dedicated cryptocurrency trading platform in the first quarter of 2023. The business will include high-frequency trading, market making and proprietary trading to cater to institutional clients, family offices, high-net-worth individuals and hedging Fund needs.

Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs conducted its first over-the-counter cryptocurrency trade with Galaxy Digital in March, via a non-deliverable foreign exchange option on bitcoin. In April, Goldman Sachs launched a loan service using bitcoin as collateral, and in June it executed its first ethereum non-deliverable forward contract transaction, providing institutional investors with indirect exposure to investing in cryptocurrencies.

MoneyGram

Cross-border payment giant MoneyGram launched on the Stellar network in Juneroll outIn addition to depositing and withdrawing cryptocurrencies, the service also creates a developer platform that allows more businesses in and outside the Stellar ecosystem, including wallets and service providers, to expand the functionality and scope of MoneyGram's integration with the Stellar network.

blackrock

The blockchain ETF "iShares Blockchain and Tech ETF" launched by asset management giant BlackRock (BlackRock) in April this year has passed the application and started trading.

BlackRock announced a partnership with Coinbase in August this year. BlackRock's end-to-end investment management platform Aladdin provides its institutional clients with encrypted trading and custody services through Coinbase Prime, the prime brokerage platform of Coinbase.

In August, BlackRock launched a bitcoin-focused private trust to provide spot bitcoin exposure to U.S. institutional clients.

Citibank

Citibank selected the Swiss cryptocurrency custody company Metaco for digital asset custody in June this year. Custody services will be integrated with its securities services. It will first focus on tokenized securities, stocks and bonds will use blockchain technology for movement and settlement, and plans to Fully integrated with Metaco's "Harmonize" crypto hosting platform.

New York Fed launches digital dollar pilot

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York launched a 12-week digital dollar pilot in November with about 10 Wall Street institutions, including Bank of New York Mellon, Citigroup, HSBC Holdings, MasterCard, PNC Bank, TD Bank, Truist, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo. In addition, the international payment system SWIFT will provide an interoperable infrastructure. Deloitte will provide consulting services and Sullivan & Cromwell LL will provide legal advice.

Franklin Templeton

Asset management giant Franklin Templeton (Franklin Templeton), an asset management giant with an asset management scale of over US$1.3 trillion, provided two digital asset independent management account (SMA) strategies through the Eaglebrook Advisors platform in mid-October. Among the two strategies, Franklin Templeton Digital Assets Core is a market-cap-weighted strategy that invests in the 10 to 15 largest digital assets, excluding stablecoins and meme coins; Franklin Templeton Digital Assets Core Capped holds 25% each of bitcoin and ethereum in the portfolio.

BNP Paribas

BNP Paribas joined JPMorgan Chase's blockchain-based fixed income market trading network Onyx in May this year, and in July helped EDF ENR, EDF's energy solutions subsidiary focused on solar farms, on ethereum. Issue tokenized bonds. BNP Paribas is also entering the cryptocurrency custody space by partnering with Swiss crypto custody firm Metaco.

CME Group

CME launched micro bitcoin and ethereum options in March, euro-denominated bitcoin and ethereum futures in August and ethereum options in September.

Bank of New York Mellon

In March of this year, Circle selected BNY Mellon as the main custodian of USDC reserves. In October, it was approved by New York regulators to provide cryptocurrency custody services. It has launched a digital asset custody platform in the United States and developed Bitcoin and Ethereum custody services for some customers. In November, participated in the digital dollar pilot with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Fidelity Investments

Fidelity Investments (Fidelity Investments launched two new Bitcoin ETP products (exchange-traded products) on the Swiss SIX exchange in March this year, and launched two exchange-traded funds targeting the encryption industry and digital payments and metaverse in April. (ETF), namely "Crypto Industry and Digital Payments ETF" (FDIG) and "Fidelity Metaverse ETF" (FMET).

In April, Fidelity Investments proposed to allow investors to open bitcoin accounts in their 401(k), which caused a huge uproar, but the U.S. Department of Labor criticized Fidelity for allowing direct investment in encrypted assets through 401(k). U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also said that adding Bitcoin to retirement savings is a very risky investment. On November 21, three U.S. senators wrote to Fidelity Investments, asking them to reconsider their decision to allow 401(k) plans to invest in Bitcoin. This relatively radical idea proposed by Fidelity was first opposed by the US regulatory authorities and then encountered market fluctuations. It is unclear whether it will be officially launched in the end.

Fidelity opened Fidelity Crypto, an encrypted investment product for retail customers, at the end of November. The company's Fidelity Digital Assets division had previously provided encrypted investment products for institutional customers.

PayPal

Payment giant PayPal formed an interdisciplinary advisory committee on blockchain, encryption and digital currencies in February this year. In June, PayPal added support for transferring, sending, and receiving encrypted assets to external wallets and exchanges, obtained a full BitLicense license from NYDFS, and launched the "Pay Monthly" function of buying first and paying later. In October, PayPal has added keys (Passkeys) as a login method for PayPal accounts. In December, PayPal and ConsenSys reached a cooperation, and US users will be able to use PayPal to purchase ETH from MetaMask.

The layout of traditional giants in the metaverse and NFT fields

Meta

From its resolute name change, Meta can see its determination to explore the metaverse. Since this year, Meta has also invested time and energy in exploring NFT. It stated in January that it plans to launch the NFT market. From March There are plans to bring NFTs to Instagram. By May, the NFT function could be tested on Instagram, and in late June, Meta expanded the scope of NFT testing in Instagram and Facebook. In July, Facebook launched the NFT feature on its platform to specific US creators, and Facebook NFT will appear under the "Digital Collection" tab of the user's profile. In August, Meta supported the display of NFTs on Facebook, and in September, it enabled users to cross-post digital collectibles on Instagram and Facebook. In November, Instagram said it would launch NFT minting and trading tools.

In addition, in late June, Meta renamed its payment platform Facebook Pay to Meta Pay, which supports the exchange of legal tender and cryptocurrency. Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg expressed the hope that in the future Meta Pay can become a universal wallet for all digital items purchased or created in the Metaverse, and is not limited to Meta's products.

Although it is constantly exploring the metaverse, it can be seen from the second and third quarter financial reports disclosed that Meta is still in the early stage of exploration. The quarterly loss reached $3.7 billion, and since the beginning of the year, it has lost a total of $9.4 billion, but Meta does not expect Reality Labs' operating losses to continue to increase significantly next year.

TikTok

The foreign version of Douyin is also actively deploying NFT. Last year, it cooperated with ImmutableX to launch TikTok Top Moments, which can make videos into NFT auctions. In August of this year, TikTok integrated with Audius, a music streaming platform based on the Ethereum and Solana blockchains, allowing Audius users to simply upload music NFTs and share them to TikTok.

YouTube

The new creator tools launched by YouTube, the world's largest video site, in February this year include the sale of NFT, which supports creators to sell content as NFT. “Web3 opens up new opportunities for creators. We believe new technologies like blockchain and NFTs can allow creators to build deeper relationships with fans,” said Neal Mohan, YouTube Chief Product Officer.

Reddit

Reddit has been one of the most active apps in the crypto community, and this year is arguably its biggest yet into crypto. In January of this year, Reddit began testing the NFT avatar function, and announced in March that it was recruiting engineers for its encryption team and NFT platform. In May, Reddit established Reddit X, which is dedicated to building new features such as blockchain. And said in July that it will launch an NFT avatar market. In August, a Polygon-based Collectible Avatar was airdropped to some users. As of the publication, the minted volume of the NFT has exceeded 6.76 million pieces.

eBay

E-commerce giant eBay has also been exploring the NFT field since this year. In May this year, it cooperated with NFT platform OneOf to launch a hockey player Wayne Gretzky-themed NFT series. In June, Acquired KnownOrigin, a digital art and rare NFT discovery and trading platform, and filed a trademark application involving NFT, NFT trading, NFT or virtual goods marketplace.

Samsung

Samsung opened the metaverse flagship store "Samsung 837 X" in Decentraland for a limited time in January this year. In March, it cooperated with the blockchain service platform PlayDapp to launch the Everland metaverse, and its smart TV integrated NFT trading platform Nifty Gateway. In June, the official Samsung US Discord server was launched to penetrate the field of Web 3.0; Samsung Wallet, which can store and access digital IDs and digital passwords, was launched, and Samsung Blockchain Wallet was integrated. In December, Samsung established an XR equipment research and development task force, or will launch XR equipment next year, continuing to deploy in the Metaverse field.

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group

Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMBC) has partnered with Japanese Web3 startup HashPort to develop an ecosystem around Web3 and NFT, including promoting Web3 in Japan. Under the cooperation between the two parties, Sumitomo Mitsui Bank will issue SBT on a trial basis and use Soul Binding Token (SBT) for identity verification.

Visa

Visa began to cooperate with encryption companies to launch encrypted payment cards as early as 2018, and has continued to increase the number of its cooperation projects during this period. However, driven by the NFT boom this year, in addition to the direction of encrypted payments, Visa is beginning to try in the NFT field. In March of this year, Visa launched the Creator Program to help digital artists, musicians, fashion designers and filmmakers conduct business through NFT. In November, Visa and Crypto.com launched the World Cup theme "Visa Masters of Movement" Series NFTs.

American Time Magazine

TIME magazine released the first fully decentralized magazine "The Prince of Crypto Has Concerns" in the form of NFT on the blockchain on March 23.

AMC

AMC, the largest theater operator in the United States, issued an exclusive "I own AMC" NFT in January this year to more than 580,000 shareholders who registered through the AMC investor portal last year. In addition, AMC accepted users to pay in DOGE and SHIB through BitPay in March this year. The AMC mobile application of AMC US theaters supports the use of DOGE, SHIB and other cryptocurrencies for online payments in April this year.

nike

Nike China launched a digital collection event at its Tmall flagship store in April this year, launching 5 digital collections. In that month, it released the first Nike NFT sneaker series RTFKT X Nike Dunk Genesis CRYPTOKICKS with RTFKT Studio. In November, Nike announced that it will launch the Web3 wearable device platform .Swoosh. In December, Nike's encrypted fashion brand RTFKT will launch Web3 smart sports shoes "Cryptokicks iRL".

adidas

Sports brands such as adidas have also adopted the form of NFT for brand marketing. Adidas Originals and Prada jointly launched NFT works in January this year, and launched the NFT wearable series Virtual Gear in November. Its NFT project Indigo Herz allows users to create secondary creations based on BAYC, MAYC or Inhabitants NFT.

Prada 

In addition to the cooperation with adidas, Prada launched 100 Prada Timecapsule NFT on June 2, and launched a new Timecapsule NFT series containing physical clothing in December. Holders of this series of NFT will receive a limited edition sweater.

Domestic data collection

Alipay, Tencent, Byte, Baidu, JD.com, Bilibili, Xiaohongshu and other major Internet companies have begun to deploy digital collections since last year. Xiaohongshu’s layout in the Web3 field is more inclined to Web3 social networking, and it has launched a digital art platform R-SPACE. Ali and JD.com use NFT as a carrier to assist major brands in accelerating the growth of product sales, traffic and young consumers through the marketing method of "physical goods + digital collections". Inke, a Hong Kong-listed live streaming platform, announced in June this year that it had changed its name to "Ying Universe". In addition, it also officially announced its metaverse project Hoot Labs, and issued an NFT overseas - INKEPASSNFT. Momo and Zanthoxylum have also reported the news of issuing NFT overseas. In June of this year, Dewu launched the digital collection platform and released the first round of NFT avatar Sneakercube. Users can get the NFT avatar blind box through a lottery.

summary

summary

In addition to the giant layout mentioned above, the social giant Twitter is also a high-profile year this year. As the most frequently used social tool in the encryption community, Twitter was acquired by Elon Musk, who is also an encryption In-depth players in the field, after the extreme pull of this acquisition war, Twitter used the TradingView plug-in to integrate cryptocurrency prices into its search results in December, and then we can expect Twitter to launch more encryption-related functions.

Traditional giants step into the Web3 field with different strengths and modes. Some are taking steps to transform vigorously, some are cautiously moving forward gradually, and some just carry out a wave of brand promotion through Web3 gimmicks and no longer cause any ripples. Only giants who sincerely embrace Web3 can contribute to the new world of Web3.