Crypto Weekly 1/23/22
A weekly summary of the latest crypto news...
PRICE CHANGE: WTD/YTD
- BTC ($35,305): -18% / -25%
- ETH ($2,456): -26% / -34%
- XRP ($0.61): -21% / -27%
- UNI ($11): -40% / -37%
- Crypto Market Cap ($1.6T): -24% / -29%
- BTC Dominance: 42%
- ETH Dominance: 19%
STABLECOIN MARKET CAP CHANGE: WTD/YTD
- Tether ($78B): +0% / +0%
- USDC ($48B): +5% / +12%
NFT 3M TRADING VOLUMES
THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO
- The price of bitcoin fell almost 50% from its peak of $69k in November to below $35k. Ethereum fell below $2.5k. DeFi and Metaverse tokens performed even worse. Link. Link. Link.
DEFI (YTD)
- UNI: -40%
- MATIC: -36%
- AVAX: -33%
- AAVE: -38%
- COMP: -36%
- CRV: -46%
METAVERSE (YTD)
- SAND: -40%
- MANA: -36%
- GALA: -45%
- ENJIN: -39%
- Proof of Attendance Protocol (POAP) raised a $10 million seed round co-led by Archetype and Sapphire Sport. Other investors include Sound Ventures. POAPs NFTs are used for community building and rewarding members for taking part in events. Link. My Tweets.
- NFT marketplace OpenSea passed $3.5 billion in monthly trading volume, its highest ever, with 2 weeks left in the month. It also had its largest single-day volume of $261 million on Jan 9. Link.
- The US Fed released a discussion paper about the implications of issuing a CBDC. Issuing a CBDC would require legislation from Congress. A CBDC is different from existing digital money because it would be a liability of the Fed, and as such wouldn't have associated credit or liquidity risk. Benefits of a CBDC include: convenience, innovation and new financial products, faster and cheaper payments (including cross-border), and access to financial services. Risks include cost and availability of credit, impact on monetary policy, and stability of the traditional financial system. Link. PDF.
- Twitter Blue subscribers can now verify their NFT profile pics. Verified users have hexagon-shaped avatars. Link.
- NFT sales on Solana passed $1 billion in all-time volume for the first time. Monthly volumes peaked in Oct at $264 million. December volumes were $105 million. Link. CryptoSlam Data.
- The Bank of Russia wants to completely ban crypto in the country, including crypto mining. Russia is the third-largest miner of bitcoin behind the US and Kazakhstan. Link.
- OlympusDAO's native token OHM is down 80% from all-time highs. OlympusDAO is a DeFi protocol with a treasury that backs the OHM currency with the aim of creating a stablecoin backed by crypto assets. The DAO grows its treasury by issuing OHM tokens in exchange for other cryptocurrencies. OHM's market cap is currently $600 million, down from a peak of $4.35 billion in April 2021. Link.
- Male artists account for 77% of primary and secondary NFT sales on Nifty Gateway ($258 million). Grimes is the only female artist to make it into the top 10 NFT artists, with sales totaling $8.9 million. Link.
- Block (now called Square) is integrating Lightning Network into Cash App. Users will be able to use bitcoin to pay merchants on the Lightning Network for free. Link.
- a16z is reportedly raising $4.5 billion for new crypto funds, including $1 billion for seed investments in web3. Link.
- China's digital yuan has processed over $13.6 billion in transactions across 261 million individual users. Only 10 million businesses have digital yuan wallets, far fewer than Alipay which has 80 million monthly active merchants. Link.
- NFT marketplace OpenSea acquired Dharma Labs, a crypto wallet that offered DeFi trading as well as fiat on-ramps. Users have 1 month to offload assets from Dharma, which will shut down. Link.
- Meta is building a prototype for minting tokens, and plans to allow users to create and display NFTs on their profiles. It is also considering launching an NFT marketplace that would be powered by the Novi wallet. Link.
- A new report from BitPay shows bitcoin makes up 65% of crypto payments processed to merchants, down from 92% in 2020. ETH accounts for 15% of payments, stablecoins 13%, and altcoins 3%. Link.
- Spice DAO spent nearly $4.5 million for a physical copy of Alejandro Jodorowsky's Dune book, allegedly with the misguided idea that owning the book would grant them the rights to its content. The DAO had raised more than $17 million to produce derivative works of the book, including an animated movie. Link.
- Coinbase's upcoming NFT platform will accept Mastercard. Over 1 million people have signed up for Coinbase's NFT marketplace. Link.
- Tom Brady's sports and entertainment NFT platform Autograph raised a $170 million Series B co-led by a16z and Kleiner Perkins. Link.
- New York City mayor Eric Adams received his first paycheck in BTC and ETH. Link.
- $34 million was stolen from 483 accounts on exchange Crypto.com due to a 2FA glitch. Link.
- Bud Light updated its Twitter profile picture to a Nouns NFT, and may use the image in a Super Bowl commercial. Link.
- Serena Williams joins fantasy sports NFT company Sorare as a board advisor. Sorare plans to expand into women's sports in 2022. Link.
- NBA Top Shot's secondary market sales rose 72% to almost $54 million in the last 30 days. Link. Dapper Labs, parent co of NBA Top Shot, is launching its UFC Strike NFTs on Jan 23. The NFTs will include audio + video elements. Link.
- Metaplex, the protocol that helps users build their own NFT marketplaces on Solana, raised $46 million from Multicoin and Jump Capital. Other investors included Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson, and Snoop Dogg. Link.
- Bitcoin mining difficulty rose more than 9%, the biggest jump since last summer when China banned mining. Link.
- Animoca Brands raised over $350 million and is now valued at over $5 billion. Link.
- The waitlist for the FTX Visa debit card opened to users everywhere except the US. The card will allow users to pay with crypto at any Visa merchant and won't charge fees. FTX automatically exchanges the crypto for local currency at the POS. Link.
- Crypto IRA platform iTrustCapital raised $125 million Series A at a $1.3 billion valuation. The platform has over 27k funded accounts and $2 billion in AUM. It's customers average between 45 and 65 years old. Link.
- Kim Milosevich is rejoining a16z as chief marketing officer for crypto, after 17 months as the VP of Comms at Coinbase. Link.
- NFT showroom startup Cyber raised $6.7 million in a round led by Variant. Cyber lets artists construct and sell virtual showrooms. Link.
- El Salvador added 410 bitcoin (~$15 million) to its reserve as prices fell. The country has purchased at least 1,801 bitcoin to date. Link.
- Citigroup is hiring a global head of digital asset risk management. Link.
- The SEC rejected MicroStrategy's adjustment for bitcoin impairment charges in its earnings report. The stock has fallen over 45% over the last 6 months. Link. Link.