<strong>Lacoste Enters the Metaverse, TRON USDD Goes Below $1, Coinbase Cuts 18% of Employees.</strong>

Lacoste Launches NFTs

French luxury brand, Lacoste, is launching a web3 universe called UNDW3 (pronounced underwater). UNDW3 will allow Lacoste community members to own the brand creatively and further the brand’s vision.

The first NFT collection dropped on Tuesday. It consists of 11,212 pieces, each priced at 0.08 ETH (about $100 - $120). Each NFT piece is unique and features an image of the brand’s iconic crocodile emerging from the water. Holders of the NFTs will get access to the brand’s UNDW3 metaverse. 

The brand created a Discord Channel, preparing for its first NFT launch on Monday. Over 30,000 people subscribed to the channel within 48 hours. “UNDW3 attests to our desire to accompany the phenomenon of decentralization driven by Web3, and bears witness to our ambitions in this area as well as to the power of our brand,” said Catherine Spindler, the Chief Brand Officer at Lacoste.

Tron’s USDD Goes Below $1

The Tron Network’s algorithmic stablecoin, USDD, lost its peg at the beginning of this week following the crypto crash. The stable coin fell to a low of $0,91 and is currently trading at $0,98 at the time of writing.  

Tron’s USDD is backed by cryptocurrencies such as TRX, BTC, and other stable coins, including USDT and USDC. Its reserve is estimated to be worth about $2 billion. 

Justin Sun, the founder of the Tron Network, tweeted that the “funding rate of shorting #TRX on @binance is negative 500%.” He added that he would deploy $2 billion to fight it.

Coinbase Cuts 18% Staff

Coinbase, the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S., announced that it is cutting 1,100 employees, approximately 18% of its staff members. The reasons were that the company had grown too quickly and needed to prepare for a potential recession, also known as a crypto winter. 

“ We appear to be entering a recession after a 10+ year economic boom. A recession could lead to another crypto winter and could last for an extended period. In past crypto winters, trading revenue (our largest revenue source) has declined significantly, ” wrote Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase. 

Other cryptocurrency exchanges that have announced cutting down of employees in the U.S. include Crypto.com and Gemini.

Written by Lindi Miti © Crypto University 2022