Bitcoin (BITCOMP) struggled to recapture any momentum last week, in the aftermath of big falls the weekend prior. The cryptoasset began the week trading below $49,000 and despite climbing over $51,000 on Tuesday has struggled to keep its value over the $50,000 level for the rest of the week.
BTC traded as low as $46,805 on Friday but has since recovered some ground and is now trading above $48,600.
Ether meanwhile saw rises early in the week, reaching over $4,400 at points on Thursday. But weakness in trading has led to ETH (ETH-X) falling over the weekend, reaching the week’s low of $3,825 on Saturday. Despite a brief rally above $4,100 late on Sunday, ETH is currently trading just below $4,000.
WhatsApp to allow crypto payments
WhatsApp is trialling in-app cryptoasset payments via the Novi wallet.
The Meta (FB) (formerly Facebook) owned firm is opening a pilot program to a limited number of users in the US.
Those enrolled in the trial will be able to send and receive US Pax Dollars - a US dollar-pegged stablecoin.
Meta says however that as soon as its inhouse cryptoasset Diem, which has suffered years of setbacks thanks to regulators, is given approval then it will replace USDP in the trial.
Novi's chief executive Stephane Kasriel commented: "We're still very early in the Novi pilot journey, so we made the decision to test this new entry point in one country to start and will look to extend it once we've heard from people what they think of this new experience.”
There is currently no indication when the project may be rolled out to other regions, or if other cryptoassets such as bitcoin or ether will become available to WhatsApp users.
Ubisoft to launch in-game NFTs
Giant gaming publisher Ubisoft has announced it is adding NFTs to its games, with unique in-world collectibles coming to games such as Ghost Recon Breakpoint.
Ubisoft says it is the first publisher in the world to offer playable NFTs in an AAA game. Players will be able collect and use the NFTs, which began rollout on Thursday.
The firm says there shouldn’t be environmental concerns around the tokens and that they are “energy efficient” and use the “environmentally sustainable” Tezos blockchain.
The project, called Ubisoft Quartz, will allow players to buy and sell their NFTs, called ‘Digits’, outside of the Ubisoft ecosystem. The NFTs will be stored on the Tezos blockchain.
Buy flights with SHIB
Travel website Travala has announced it will now accept Shiba Inu (SHIB-X) tokens for bookings.
It comes as the firm held an online vote which it called a “token battle” to decide whether SHIB or FLOKI should be launched on the firm’s site. SHIB ended with over 3.4 million votes to FLOKI’s 1.5 million.
The results means customers can now book flights, hotels and travel packages using SHIB. According to Travala 82% of its bookings in November were made using cryptoassets.
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