The second week of August 2023 is refreshingly quiet in the Web3 world. Here are your top stories:

PayPal to introduce Dollar-pegged stablecoin based on Ethereum. 

PayPal made the headlines on Monday (07.08.23) as it announced its own stablecoin, PayPalUSD. (PYUSD) This is the first time a major company has entered the cryptocurrency market with its own coin. 

PYUSD will be supported by U.S dollar deposits and short-term Treasuries It can be redeemed for dollars at any time, and can also be exchanged for other cryptocurrencies available on PayPal’s network.

In the statement announcing the stablecoin, a PayPal spokesperson said: “The shift toward digital currencies requires a stable instrument that is both digitally native and easily connected to fiat currency like the U.S. dollar.”

Since the announcement, some fake and imitation coins masquerading as PYUSD have been spotted on some markets. According to a CoinDesk report, over 66 fake tokens have propped up on networks, such as Ethereum, BNB Chain, Base, and others as of Asian noon hours on Tuesday, DEXTools data shows. The majority of these have been floated on Ethereum, where the original PYUSD exists.

The stablecoin will first be available to U.S PayPal users, followed by U.S Venmo users later in the year. Currently, there is no plan to expand the stablecoin to other markets. 

NFT trading grinds to a halt in July, report shows. 

July was a bad month to trade NFTs. According to a new report from Alchemy, a Web3 development platform, NFT trading volume fell by 41% during Q2 of this year. Despite this, the company has said it remains optimistic as whilst trading volume fell, the number of smart contracts that were deployed still remains high. Developers are focusing on building new use cases to bring Web3 technologies mainstream.

NFT based technology still continues to thrive within loyalty program schemes. The Starbucks loyalty program, which we discussed in a previous issue of this newsletter, launched earlier this year and has seen great success.