Weekly Headlines 2022.12 W1
“Yes, there are questions about the future of crypto, but we’d be foolish to ignore the potential of the underlying technology.” – Andrew Griffith, U.K. Economic Secretary
Weekly News Report:
News
1. Galaxy Digital Wins Auction to Buy GK8 From Bankrupt Crypto Lender Celsius
– GK8, a self-custody platform acquired by Celsius over a year ago, was put on the block following Celsius’ bankruptcy filing in July.
2. Binance Enters Japan With Acquisition of Regulated Crypto Exchange Sakura
– Japan’s financial services regulator was one of several that last year issued warnings saying Binance was not licensed to operate in its market.
3. Coinbase Foils Extortion Attempt, Reinforces Bug Bounty Program
– A self-proclaimed “hacker” demanded $450,000 after falsely claiming to be in possession of sensitive Coinbase customer data.
4. Broker-Dealer INX Digital Bids to Purchase Voyager Assets
– The firm joins a number of other suitors, Binance among them.
5. India to Test Digital Rupee in 4 Cities With 4 Banks
– The test, which will start on Thursday, will be extended to include another nine cities and four more lenders in a later phase.
6. Dominica works with Huobi for digital identity program
– Dominica has launched a digital identity program and national token in partnership with Huobi.
7. France, Luxembourg Test CBDC for 100M Euro Bond Issue
– The Venus Initiative is the latest attempt to use digital representations of money for financial-market settlements.
8. US House committee sets Dec. 13 date for FTX hearing
– The House event, titled “Investigating the Collapse of FTX,” will follow a similar hearing in the Senate Agriculture Committee scheduled for Dec. 1.
9. Coinbase Makes 4 New Appointments to Bolster European Expansion
– The crypto exchange said the EMEA region is “leading the charge” on building sensible regulation for the industry.
10. Social-Media Giant LINE Closes Its Crypto Exchange Bitfront
– The firm will focus on its native blockchain and token, LINK.
11. BlockFi Files for Bankruptcy as FTX Contagion Spreads
– BlockFi received a $400 million line of credit from FTX earlier this year.
Institution
1. UK’s Crypto Agenda Won’t Be Derailed by FTX Collapse, Minister Says
– The country has a goal of becoming a crypto hub.
2. BlackRock CEO: FTX Token caused downfall, but tech still revolutionary
– Despite taking issue with tokens created by centralized exchanges, BlackRock’s CEO sees securities tokenization as the next evolution of the financial market.
3. Ukraine Considering CBDC That Can Facilitate Crypto Trading
– The National Bank of Ukraine says it is looking at retail payments, virtual asset circulation and cross-border transactions as possible use cases for an electronic hryvnia.
Market
1. Trader Joe takes its first step into the Ethereum ecosystem
– Despite the new multichain vision, the Trader Joe team confirmed that its “true home” and “top priority for all growth efforts” will continue to be on Avalanche.
2. Crypto miners in Russia capitalize on the bear market by hoarding ASIC devices
– Miners in Russia have likely been increasingly buying crypto ASICs due to reduced prices of mining devices as well as low-cost energy.
3. DXY bounces at major support, reducing Bitcoin’s chance at breaking the $17.2K resistance
– The dollar index (DXY) found support at a key level, leading traders to question whether BTC will manage to flip $17,250 to support.
4. Dogecoin’s Bitcoin-Beating Bounce May Be Bad News for the Market
– In the past, outsized gains in DOGE have paved the way for a broader market sell-off.
5. Bitcoin Slips as US Economy Added a Strong 263K Jobs in November
– The unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.7%.
6. DEX token GMX rallies 35% after beating Uniswap on trading fees for the first time
– GMX’s technical indicator hints at a strong correction in December, which may push its price toward $40.
7. Total crypto market-cap hits $850M as Bitcoin and altcoins recover from FTX’s collapse
– The total crypto market recovers some lost ground as the contagion risks associated with FTX’s collapse begin to look resolvable.
8. Bitcoin Correlation With the Dollar Index Turns Negative, Again
– Asset managers reduced long positions in BTC for a third consecutive week.
9. Fed Likely to Raise Rates by 50 Basis Points in December; Bitcoin Jumps
– Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said that “it makes sense to moderate the pace of our rate hikes” as soon as December.
10. Trading of Fan Tokens Featuring Stars Such as Messi & Ronaldo Soar at World Cup
– The overall market cap for fan tokens sporting players like Messi & Ronaldo jumped to $401 million at the World Cup’s opening weekend.
11. Cardano’s AdaSwap Finally Goes Live on Mainnet after Two Years of Building
– In a fresh development, the total number of smart contracts running on Cardano Plutus has jumped by 300% year-to-date.
12. Solana’s Top Crypto Wallet Looks to Ethereum, Polygon Next
– Solana-focused crypto wallet Phantom is tapping Ethereum and Polygon for its expansion plan.
13. Huobi Token Surges After Crypto Exchange Discloses Airdrop of Dominica Coin
– The deal is noteworthy partly because of its connections to crypto billionaire Justin Sun, founder of the Tron blockchain where the Caribbean island’s new token will initially reside.
14. Dogecoin Jumps Over 13% as Elon Musk Hints about Twitter 2.0
– Dogecoin investors continue to hold out hope that, somehow, DOGE will make its way into Musk’s vision for Twitter 2.0.
15. Bitcoin is the king of crypto brand awareness for Aussies: Report
– The IRCI report states that Australians still believe in Bitcoin and that the boomer demographic is growing in conviction.v
16. First Mover Asia: Dogecoin Surges 16% to Continue Its Holiday Cheer
– The popular meme coin’s upswing during U.S. Thanksgiving holiday celebrations, which started Thursday, was an exception in crypto markets as bitcoin and most other major tokens traded sideways.
17. Wrapped Bitcoin Trades at Discount Amid Market Contagion
– WBTC’s discount dropped to as low as 1.5% as questions swirled over whether the token is fully backed. Custodian BitGo clarified that it is.
18. Buy the Dip, Sell the Bounce: Crypto Funds Have Biggest Outflows in 12 Weeks
– Total asset under management (AUM) in digital-asset funds dropped to a new two-year low of $22.2 billion, according to CoinShares.
19. Centralized Crypto Exchanges Will Remain Dominant Despite FTX Collapse: JPMorgan
– DeFi protocols rely heavily on centralized exchanges to be able to function and it would likely take a long time until price discovery shifts from centralized to decentralized exchanges, the bank’s analysts said.
NFT
1. Never mind FTX — Fine arts institutions should still onboard to blockchain
– The strategic adoption of blockchain technology still makes sense, regardless of the distraction FTX created for cryptocurrency.
2. Coinbase Disables Mobile NFT Trading, Citing Apple’s App Store Policies
– The exchange made the announcement in a Thursday Twitter thread, saying Apple is demanding Coinbase pay a 30% tax on gas fees used to transfer all NFTs.
3. Uniswap Taps Into NFTs as It Looks To Be Financially Sustainable
– Six months after acquiring NFT marketplace aggregator Genie, Uniswap Labs officially launches NFT trading on its platform.
Metaverse
1.Firefox dev Mozilla goes all-in on metaverse, acquires Active Replica
– The legacy web developer and internet browser Mozilla announced its acquisition of Active Replica as part of its Hubs creator ecosystem to enhance digital experiences.
2. Facebook Parent Meta Dips Toe Back Into Policy Circles to Boost Metaverse
– Still haunted by its Libra debacle, the company offers a gentle nudge on how governments might pursue metaverse policies.
3. Porsche Forays into Metaverse, Reveals Plans to Launch NFTs at Art Basel
– The collection is expected to launch by January 2023, with a total of 7,500 unique NFTs.
4. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg Still ‘Long-Term Optimistic’ on Metaverse
– “The skepticism doesn’t bother me that much,” the CEO of Facebook’s parent company said at the DealBook Summit on Wednesday.
Web3
1. Polygon APIs to Soon Deploy on Web3 Indexing Service The Graph
– The Graph is a decentralized protocol for indexing and querying data from blockchains, starting with Ethereum. It makes it possible to query data that is difficult to query directly.
2. Near Foundation Joins Processed Foods Giant Grupo Nutresa to Unveil Web3 Loyalty Program in Latin America
– It is the first open-source loyalty program using the Near protocol and aims to reach one million consumers throughout the region.
3. Web3 DAO Game7 Unveils $100M Grant Program
– The grants will be awarded to Web3 game projects over five years.
December 2, 2022