Weekly Headlines 2022.12 W2
“I think Bitcoin means investment. It means opportunity. It means prosperity. It means financial independence.” – Ted Cruz, US Senator
Weekly News Report:
News
1. India Looks to Coordinate Global Crypto Rulemaking as It Assumes G-20 Presidency
– India took over the G-20 presidency at the start of the month and now has a year to coordinate international guidelines around crypto.
2. Apple’s New Encryption Policy Is a Huge Boon for Crypto
– Opt-in end-to-end encryption tools are an immense win for digital privacy – and crypto.
3. PayPal Expands Crypto Service Into Luxembourg in First EU Foray
– The move follows the initial rollout of the crypto service in the U.S. in 2020, followed by an expansion to the U.K. last year.
4. FTX hires forensics team to find customers’ missing billions: Report
– Lawyers have claimed FTX assets are either stolen or missing and now a team of financial forensic experts is attempting to trace the money trail.
5. Privacy-Focused Gnosis Chain to Undergo Its Own Proof-of-Stake ‘Merge’
– This will mark the second time in blockchain history that a chain swaps out its old model for proof-of-stake.
6. Central bank plans to make CBDC ‘only legal digital tender’ in Indonesia, says gov
– “Collaboration and synergy on national and international level are critical to the development of Digital Rupiah,” said Perry Warjiyo.
7. Nifty News: Reddit NFT mints reach all-time high, EU’s $400K Metaverse party flops and more
– With the record mint day for Reddit avatar NFTs, there are now around 4.4 million Reddit NFTs in circulation.
Institution
1. Hong Kong Amends Finance Law to Incorporate Crypto Firms
– Virtual asset service providers will be covered by terror financing and anti-money laundering rules as of June 2023.
2. Some Central Banks Are Looking to Issue a CBDC Within 10 Years: OMFIF
– Generally, 35% of central banks were more inclined to issue a CBDC despite recent events in crypto, the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum said after surveying 18 entities.
3. South Korea’s Central Bank Wants to Oversee Stablecoins
– The country joins other jurisdictions in proposing standards for stablecoin issuance.
4. Spain’s Central Bank Opens Call for Proposals for Wholesale CBDC Project
– The proposal period will be open until Jan. 31 for financial institutions and tech providers.
5. Why a Divided Congress Is Bullish for Crypto
– Bipartisan efforts to regulate crypto are moving forward, but U.S. representatives should keep crypto’s core tenets of privacy, decentralization and financial freedom closely in mind.
6. Goldman Sachs to Spend ‘Tens of Millions’ on Discounted Crypto Investments After FTX Implosion: Report
– The investment bank sees a bigger need for trustworthy and established players in the crypto market.
7. Guiding the Chinese Central Bank Digital Currency the World Admires and Fears
– Many nations, especially the economic superpowers, began the year in fear of being left behind by China’s relentless progress with its digital yuan. For leading the development of the most advanced major CBDC, Mu Changchun is one of CoinDesk’s Most Influential 2022.
Market
1. FTX Revival Proposal Supported by Sam Bankman-Fried Lifts FTT Token
– The crypto exchange’s founder tweeted his support for influencer Ran Neuner’s revival idea, sending the battered tokens as much as 47% higher.
2. AI-Related Tokens Surge as Maple, Ren Fall: CoinDesk Market Index Week in Review
– AI platform Fetch.ai’s native token FET surged 80% in the past five days, according to data from CoinDesk Market Index.
3. Bitcoin’s Lightning Network Could Be Getting a Privacy Upgrade
– One new standard being developed by Blockstream is already running on the company’s Core Lightning implementation.
4. 2022 Crypto Venture Funding On Pace To Break 2021 Record
– Seed and early-stage crypto startups drew heavier checks this year than in 2021, according to Pitchbook.
5. 2022 – Crypto Markets: A Year in Review
– Coming off euphoric highs of the year before, the crypto market has endured an environment of tightening monetary policy, which led to sell-offs, implosions of projects like Terra, bankruptcy filings of CeFi companies, including Celsius Network and Voyager Digital and the climactic downfall of the FTX exchange.
6. Ethereum Developers Target March 2023 for Release of Staked Ether
– Staked ETH withdrawals are coming in the spring, while “proto-danksharding” will follow in the subsequent hard fork in the fall.
7. How Confident Are Institutional Investors About Bitcoin? COT Report May Offer Clues
– A second consecutive week of increased exposure in the Commitment of Traders weekly measurement of investor activity would signal an undercurrent of confidence.
8. Grayscale Bitcoin Trust Discount Widens to Record High Near 50%
– The shares have not traded at a premium to bitcoin since March 2021.
9. Binance’s Bitcoin Reserves Are Overcollateralized, New Report Says
– Mazars performed a proof-of-reserves and proof-of-liabilities assessment on the centralized exchange.
10. Fan tokens struggle to hold on as World Cup quarter-finals draw nearer
– Soccer fan tokens have seen their prices and trading volumes plummet since the start of the World Cup on Nov. 20.
11. Hoops Legend Scottie Pippen Shoots a ‘Web3’ With Virtual Sneakers
– The six-time NBA champion is working with Web3-based entertainment company Orange Comet to produce a new collection of NFT-based kicks.
12. BTC Dominance Is Behaving Weirdly, and That’s Sort of Good
– It’s likely we are witnessing the consolidation of the crypto market’s speculative nature.
13. Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Drops by Most Since July 2021 as Crypto Winter Cuts Profitability
– Bitcoin miners are being caught between rising costs and the lower price of bitcoin.
14. Bitcoin price recovery possible after record realized losses and leverage flush out create a healthier market
– On-chain analysis highlights a slowdown in selling and improving investor sentiment, which could help BTC price recover.
15. Bullish on Bitcoin, US Senator Ted Cruz wants Texas to be a crypto oasis
– Texas combines plentiful energy at relatively low prices with free enterprise, according to the lawmaker.
16. Avalanche to power Alibaba Cloud’s infrastructure services in Asia
– Avalanche’s partnership with Alibaba Cloud will see the development of tools that enable users to launch validator nodes on Avalanche’s public blockchain platform in Asia.
NFT
1. NFT Marketplace Magic Eden Pushes Further Into Gaming With New Hire
– Chris Akhavan will take on the new role of chief gaming officer to build the marketplace’s Web3 gaming strategy following its expansion to the Polygon network.
2. The Contagion Fever Breaks: NFTs Dominate Art Basel
– The price of ether is down nearly 65% since last year’s Miami Art Week. But this year’s art fair saw an uptick in events, attendees and conversations around Web3 technologies and their road map to mass adoption.
3. CoinDesk Got Colorful With the Most Influential 2022 NFT Collection
– CoinDesk has partnered with 14 truly incredible artists to immortalize on-chain some of the Most Influential 2022, whose NFT portraits will be made available in an exclusive auction being held on Coinbase NFT.
4. Aave’s Social Media Protocol Lens Acquires NFT Mobile Game Sonar
– With the acquisition, Lens Protocol will be integrated into a game app which claims to have 20,000 active users per month.
5. Crypto.com’s CRO Surges as it Launches World Cup NFTs with Coca-Cola
– 10,000 NFTs will be hosted on Crypto.com’s blockchain based on “heatmaps’” from World Cup matches.
Metaverse
1. DMI finds CBDCs not targeting cross-border payments, huge potential in Metaverse
– The Digital Money Institute’s third annual payments report looks at CBDCs for the first time, as well as other payment methods, through the lens of cross-border payment utility.
2. Decentraland launches virtual property renting for LAND owners
– The metaverse platform announced that users who own LAND within Decentraland can officially rent out the rights to the space through the digital marketplace.
Web3
1. Starbucks Launches Beta of Web3 ‘Odyssey’ Loyalty Program
– The test of the experiential program combines customer loyalty rewards with NFT collecting and other gamified elements.
2. Most Underreported Trend in 2022: Crypto Is Embracing Mobile
– You can have your metaverse and VR headsets, writes Boyd Cohen, CEO and co-founder of Web3 startup Iomob. In 10 years he predicts the masses will still be in the real world using smartphones, so if you are a crypto evangelist, jump on the mobile bandwagon.
3. Nike’s RTFKT Announces Plans for Web 3.0 Sneakers
– The Cryptokicks iRL would have gesture controls, walk detection, and wireless charging features.
December 9, 2022