This week in crypto we did not only had reached down under, but also up and away, and random actors are learning with Vitalik, and soon we can learn on Coingecko, Coinbase and Coinmarketcap, unless you are in the EU Crypto regulation commission, where you never learn, but probably are handsomely paid for your ignorance. That being said, Murphy law regarding expertise states that an expert learns more an more about a niche smaller and smaller, until they know everything about nothing. Well EU has the best experts, see the end of this post to find out why. Do not forget to play Splinterlands and Axie.Infinity, in order to enjoy being a gamer with an income of 1-2 thousand dollars per month. Just for daily quests. So, what happened this week:
Bitcoin: Some crypto-experts were asked how they see BTC going on, and the average answer was down to $25K and then up to maybe $160K. Well, went all the way to 29K this week, so they were close enough. Then tested the $34K. Now I am waiting to see the highest point. US crypto trask force is offering BTC rewards for information about REVIL and the recent wave of ransomware attacks, up to 10 million dollars. Is this the reason why REVIL was fading away? The mad prophet of crypto, our dear Elon, admittet at the B Word Conference that he personally has BTC, ETH and DOGE. ''I would like to see BTC to succeed, he said, and i lose money if BTC goes down. I may pump, but I don't dump''. In US, 6% of the people got more than $10.000 in BTC, compared with 2% in 2018.
Ethereum: One of Ethereum co-founder, Anthony Di Iorio, is leaving the world of crypto, as he is not feeling safe in this space. He is choosing peace over fear. Good for him. Most probalby he will sell Decentraland (MANA) for cash, all crypto offers being rejected. The other ETH developer in the news, Virgil Griffifths, tried to access his ETH assets, even if he is currently investigated in connection with North Korea efforts to launder money via crypto. Did you see this Tweet? Aston Kutcher asking Mila Kunis about crypto, only to be helped by our Vitalik Buterin. ''I want to be Vitalik when I grow up''.2 cool 2 miss! All this while the team is working hard to make ETH 2.0 happen, with EIP 3675, with miners using PoW being gradually phased out.
Altcoins: AAVE CEO is working on a Twitter on blockchain equivalent, based on Ethereum, with content monetization and censorship resistance. For this, I think that the platform needs to be governed by the users, fully decentralized. Will be? I don't know yet. Ellon Musk tweeted a picture of himself with sunglasses reflecting a Shiba Inu, DOGECOIN mascot, and nothing much happen to the token. Is the market becoming normal once more? Meanwhile, Binance burned $390M of BNB, this being the second biggest BNB burn until now. Maker Foundation is now shutting down, leaving Maker to live from now on as a fully decentralized entity. Thorchain was hacked the second time, with $8M in ETH lost to a white hacker, who asked them to disable the code until audits are completed. He did asked for a hefty 10% as reward, thought.
NFTs: It is finally happening, starting next Tuesday, the Splinterlands governance token will be airdropped daily, for one entire year and the biggest your collection in-game is, the more you will get. DEC Liquidity provided on ETH, TRX and BSC blockchain matter, as well as any SPT tokens you staked on their official Hive forum (Splintertalks.io). Axie Infinity officially increased 131 times in one year. Good for all the players, me included, even if they capped the daily rewards at 100 SLP + 50 $ for doing the daily quest. In China, for the first time, Alibaba sponsored Maker Festival will include NFTs, and you can buy them using Chinese Yuan on Taobao. Sorare, a NFT based fantasy football game raised $532M in their first funding round, being valued a $3.8B. I think it is a bit too much, as I played their game already. History repeating once more, as this made me think about the Internet era pumps and dumps. Blockfi also raised $500M planning to go public in the next year, and is now evaluated at $4.75B. If you feel cool, Dolce and Gabbana can offer you exclusive NFT wearables. For the right price. Hong Kong newspaper is working on a NFT collection aiming to record history on blockchain.
Good news: Coingecko Learn will be launched soon. Combined with Coinbase and Coinmarketcap efforts, there is a chance for everyone to get some free crypto, after all. Mixed news for Salvador. A video meeting of the President and his brothers was leaked, and they are discussing Bitcoin alternatives, some wanting all crypto, and some thinking at a Salvadorian stablecoin. Few days after, one stablecoin called Colon Dollar was born, pegged to US dollar and backed by it.
Bad news: Crypto can be addictive, they say, as addictive as gambring, with rushes of dopamine when the market is increasing and signs of depression on bear market. Being away from the computer screen and not knowing how the market goes can create irritability, restlessness and withdrawal symptoms, especially to the beginners. That being said, once you go through few major corrections, you tend to become immune to the market movements. There are few things I want to add about this. First, of you are not sleeping over crypto, this is the sign that you are not comfortable with the amount of money invested, just move some in stablecoins and keep it away on some wallets paying interest on it. Once you feel safe, your sleep will come back, and the uneasiness will dissapear. Second, gambling instead of investing in projects you believe for the long term is bad, and you can lose all your money. Do not do this. Binance stoped offering stock tokens, after multiple governments sent multiple warnings to them. US officials are advising athletes to not use the digital yuan at Winter olympics in Beijing as the Chinese Government will know exactly what you buy and where. China replied that US should not make sport a political matter. You can use digital dollar instead. Wait, there is no digital dollar, I wonder why? India also revealed that they are working on a Digital Rupee project.
Mass adoption: On Travala, you can book holidays using Bitcoin. Yes, you may pay $2.000 in September 2020 and this will be worth $13.000 in April 2021, but the reverse can also hapen. Choose your time wisely. More than 1000 mining rigs were destroyed in Malaysia, after 6 people stole million dollars worth of electricity. An estimate of $21.3M in energy was stolen to mine crypto just in Malaysia alone. Grayscale is launching a DEFI fund soon, containing UNI, AAVE, COMP, MKR, SUSHI, SNX, YFI, UMA and BNT. After a $100M funding round, Opensea, the NFT marketplace, was evaluated at $1.5B. FTX Exchange raised $900M is a B Series funding round, and SBF stated that he wants to acquire Goldman Sacks in the near future. JP Morgan is offering now access to few cryptofunds, mostly by Grayscale.
Joke of the week: I wax thinking at Axe launching a Dogecan body spray, inspired by Dogecoin, but EU still manage somehow to get the top spot after they wanted to do a legislation to make all the crypto transfered by the any exchange (decentralized or not) to provide name, address, date of birth, bank account number and receiver name to them. Privacy tokens included. Somebody up there is in dire need of some blockchain lessons, to learn at least a bit about how crypto works.
All the best,
George
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