Where’s the glory in repeating what others have done? (weekly crypto updates)
The week is gone, and I am ready for the crypto updates. Telegram CEO has some big plans to get crypto big once more. Few more exploits, one BlockFi bankruptcy, with an extra one soon, for Genesis Capital. A bit more extra noise about FTX and SBF. Not much. What else? Read below:
Bitcoin: Fidelity opened retail crypto accounts, promising commission-free trading for BTC and ETH. Stripe is launching a fiat-to-crypto on-Ramp, allowing crypto company customers to make payments to exchange fiat for crypto, while they are handling fraud, compliance, and KYC checks. Bitcoin's third-largest wallet changed hands, but most probably this is an exchange. not a whale, and it has still the same owner. Gemini is the most likely candidate. Robert Kiyosaki said he is still bullish on BTC.
Ethereum: Total assets under management are at the lowest level since December 2020, with a 14.5% decline in November alone. Falling volume is hinting that ETH price correction is just temporary, and Vitalik urges people to focus on the tech instead of the price. Easier to say it than do it. ETH still failed to break the $1300 level, even after its consolidation.
Altcoins: DOGE went up 10% at the beginning of the week, with no clear catalyst, and it is retracing its previous value now. GMX earned $1.15M in trading fees for one day, surpassing Uniswap's $1.06M record for the first time, but they are trading perpetual and futures, while Uniswap is a spot-based DEX. Fantom is cash-flow positive, Andre Cronje said, thanks to DEFI, earning more than £10M in revenue annually, with $300M in assets. MakerDAO rejected a proposal to invest half a billion dollars in Bonds, for a Secure Finance Rate of 3.8% currently. They have a similar amount invested in Coinbase, and Gemini, for a 1.5%, and 1.25% annual staking reward. By installing a Hivemapper or DIME hardware service, you can earn tokens while driving (so, probably after walk2 earn and drive2earn, next we will have fly2earn, right?). Check something cool, Midnight Blockchain, a data-protection Cardano sidechain letting users choose what data to reveal and what to keep off of the internet. Coinbase Wallet will drop support for XRP, XLM, ETC, and BCH due to low usage in January 2023, so you may want to move yours before that date. Ren Protocol is trying to accelerate the transition to Ren 2.0, as they only got a month left of the runway, now that Alameda can no longer fund them with $700K per quarter.
Blockchain games and NFTs: Porsche is launching an NFT collection of 7500 highly customizable tokenized vehicles. BMW trademarked its logo on a host of Web3 products and services. Heck, even Baby Shark is working on some NFT products. Magic Eden released a tool allowing creators to enforce royalties on their collection. Uniswap is launching an NFT aggregator on its website, some kind of NFT Google Search, as they call it. Genesis League will as soon staking rewards for the packs you own, similar to the ones for the Splinterlands Tower Defence game. DCrops Halloween campaign ended, and I must admit that I like it.
Good news: Pavel Durov, the Telegram CEO, is trying to fill the Messiah role left open after SBF kind of tricked everyone, and he is planning to create non-custodial wallets and decentralized exchanges to let millions trade crypto safely, sorting out the excessive centralization, who let down thousands of crypto users. Brazil passed a law legalizing crypto as means of payment throughout the country, and it is only requiring the signature of the President to be enacted. Crypto got the legal status to pay for goods and services, but they are not legal tender. Binance acquired Sakura Exchange Bitcoin (SEBC) and entered Japan's market. Reports of a planned merger between Huobi and Poloniex emerged last week, they were denied, but they said this week that the two of them will progressively cooperate in the near future. Talking about AI, ChatGPT, an AI-powered chatbot, can warn developers of smart contracts about vulnerabilities, but they can also be used by hackers to search for their vulnerabilities. Good versus evil, once again. Russian President Vladimir Putin is criticizing the global financial system, asking for an independent, blockchain-based settlement network.
Bad news: Everybody is now talking about the Bahamas. Their attorney general held a conference claiming ignorance of those who assert that FTX came there to hide from regulatory scrutiny and blaming the guessing games and rumors. But, influencers like Bitboy and Gabriel Haines are in the Bahamas looking for more answers from SBF and FTX. SBF's new podcast interview is out, and he is talking about donating to both Republicans and Democrats, regretting filing for Chapter 11, and denying some conspiracy theories. He also apologized 12 times during his latest interview, but this doesn't change the outcome much, isn't it? Even one of the 3AC founders (remember them, one of the few companies mainly responsible for this bear market) is back on Twitter talking about their relationship with FTX. He Su Zhu, not to be mistaken for Sun Tzu, is now teaching about life, belief systems, and mental health. If he has the list of the people who are bankrupt because of 3AC, he can start there with life coaching, right? FTX resumed salary payment to its employees, except SBF, Caroline Elisson, Gary Wang, Nishad Singh, or any who have a familial relationship with them. Apple is out there, trying to ask for a 30% tax on every NFT transaction, and Coinbase Wallet no longer supports NFTs because of that policy. Even more, LBRY, a decentralized content-sharing platform, has alleged that Apple forced it to filter certain search terms during the Covid-19 crisis in a flagrant rejection of free speech. This was supposed to be censorship-resistant, but they did what Apple asked, for the sake of the extra reach. Can something like this happen on the Hive blockchain, I wonder? Ankr, that liquidity service, just got exploited, losing $5M due to a bug allowing them to mint an unlimited amount of their staking tokens. Coinsquare, one of the largest Canadian crypto exchanges, suffered a data breach affecting users' personal details, but their crypto is safe. Seems that even BlackRock invested $24M into FTX, marked down now. Seems that Genesis Capital needs a $1B capital infusion to reopen customer withdrawal, so most probably they are the next on the bankruptcy list. We need to see if this will only affect them, or the whole Digital Currency Group, of which they are part. Kraken lays off 30% of their staff, blaming the bear market.
Joke of the week: BlockFi stopped withdrawals last month, and following a familiar route now, for many of us, they declared bankruptcy, filing for Chapter 11, while they continue their operations and wanted to get paid in the meantime. They only have $257M in cash on hand left. They also sued the FTX founder over Robinhood shares promised as collateral. Apparently, SBF, via Alameda, owes them $671M on a now-defaulted loan, and £355M in funds frozen on FTX exchange. Despite all this, JPMorgan believes that CEX - centralized exchanges will continue to control the majority of global digital assets trading volumes, and I personally see this as an attempt to manipulate the newbies, while many others expect a shift towards the decentralized exchanges and the usage of your own wallets with your own private keys.
All the best, George
Why not...
...have fun and win rewards on my favorite blockchain games (Splinterlands- Hearthstone-like card game) (Mobox - GamiFI NFT platform) and (Rising Star - Music creators game).
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