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Laos decided to cut the electricity supply for crypto mining firms as the ongoing drought impacted the country’s power generation. Just over two weeks since its launch on Coinbase’s Base network, critics of the decentralized social media app Friend.tech are already heralding the app’s potential demise. Meanwhile, PayPal USD stablecoin has attracted limited adoption and defunct crypto exchange FTX has announced a cybersecurity breach involving its bankruptcy case claims agent, Kroll, in which limited, nonsensitive customer data of specific claimants was exposed.
Laos drought pulls the plug on crypto mining electricity supply
Laos state-owned electricity distribution company Électricité du Laos (EDL) decided to suspend electricity supply for crypto mining operations in the country as drought conditions in the region negatively impacted power generation.
Laos experienced drought in the first half of 2023. The extreme heat resulted in higher demand for electricity and caused hydropower plants to struggle to generate enough power.
Moreover, the EDL said that hydropower plants generate 95% of the country’s power, and it aims to supply electricity locally and export large volumes to Thailand in 2024.
Friend.tech critics call app ‘dead’ after volume, activity plummets
Less than three weeks after its launch, the decentralized social network Friend.tech has already been declared “dead” by critics following a recent drop in key metrics such as activity, inflows and volume.
The decentralized app, which is hosted on Coinbase’s Base network, saw record highs around Aug. 21, when daily fees peaked at $1.7 million and transactions hit 525,000 on the same day.
However, recent data shows that the fees have since dropped 87% to around $215,000 on Aug. 26, according to DefiLlama, while Dune Analytics data shows the app recorded over 51,000 transactions on Aug. 27, down 90% from its peak.
In an Aug. 27 X post, Coinbase payments risk manager Lisandro Rodriguez opined that the platform is “dead” due to “greed and poor execution.” Another pointed to the recent metrics, simply commenting “RIP Friendtech August 2023 – August 2023.”
Friend tech is dead because of greed and poor execution. We can see that after the initial influencer pump volume has fallen off a cliff. Let's dig into how this failure came to be pic.twitter.com/WDQncTQJ21
— Lisandro (@TheRealLisandro) August 27, 2023
Last week, crypto commentator Yazan told Cointelegraph of factors that led him to believe Friend.tech had between six to eight weeks before it would see a decline in user key prices and activity.
PayPal’s stablecoin sees limited uptake post-launch
The launch of PayPal’s stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD), has been met with limited adoption so far, according to on-chain data compiled by Nansen.
Since launching on Aug. 7, roughly 90% of PayPal USD is still held by Paxos Trust, the stablecoin’s issuer. Only 7% of the total supply of PYUSD is held on exchanges like Kraken, Gate.io and Crypto.com. In other words, the coin isn’t circulating on exchanges and has seen limited adoption by crypto users.
Excluding contracts and exchanges, only 10 holders have amassed over $1,000 worth of PYUSD, Nansen said. Adoption among so-called “smart money” investors, a term used to describe institutions and professional traders, is negligible.
PayPal has over 350 million users, and the launch of a stablecoin was supposed to be a seminal moment for crypto adoption. So far, that hasn’t materialized.
“On the surface there’s a lack of demand from crypto users for PYUSD when other alternatives exist (might be due to Paypal targeting a different demographic),” Nansen said.
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