PRICE CHANGE: WTD/YTD
- BTC ($41,650): +10% / -12%
- ETH ($2,999): +17% / -19%
- XRP ($0.67): +11% / -20%
- UNI ($11.19): +4% / -35%
- Crypto Market Cap ($1.7T): +0% / -23%
- BTC Dominance: 42%
- ETH Dominance: 18%
STABLECOIN MARKET CAP CHANGE: WTD/YTD
- Tether ($78B): 0% / -1%
- USDC ($51B): +2% / +20%
NFT 3M TRADING VOLUMES
THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO
- Bitcoin jumped to a two-week high above $40,000 as crypto traders grew more confident that the market had stabilized. BTC had dipped briefly after the US Labor Dept reported unexpectedly strong jobs growth, but rallied soon after along with the broader market. Link.
- Metaverse-related tokens like Axie Infinity (AXS), Sandbox (SAND), and Decentraland (GALA) fell as much as 12% in 24 hours as Meta, formerly known as Facebook, reported a $10 billion loss on its AR/VR division in its earnings report. Link.
- Wormhole, a cross-chain bridging protocol created by Certus one, lost 120,000 ETH ($325 million) in an exploit this week, crypto's fourth-largest and DeFi's largest heist of all time. Wormhole's failure to validate "guardian" accounts allowed the hacker to mint around $325 million worth of ETH on Solana, which they bridged back to mainnet. This depleted the reserves of staked ETH that supported the bridged Ethereum on Solana. Soon after the attack, Jump Capital (which had acquired Certus One last August) announced it had replaced the 120k ETH That was stolen and brought reserves back to 1:1 ratio. Link. Wormhole Tweet. Jump Tweet.
- OpenSea saw $5 billion in trading volume in January, breaking its previous record of $3.4 billion in August 2021. Link.
- Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke is joining Coinbase's Board of Directors. Link.
- Yuga Labs, the startup behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection, is reportedly raising $200 million at up to a $5 billion valuation, in a round by a16z. Link.
- NYC was the crypto capital of the US in 2021, with over $6.5 billion in crypto startup funding (46% of all US fundraising in the space). Silicon Valley ranked #2, followed by Los Angeles and Miami tied for #3 with $760 million raised in 2021. Link.
- GameStop is partnering with Ethereum L2 protocol ImmutableX to launch its own NFT marketplace later this year. The two will also create a $100 million grant fund to support developers to launch their games on the marketplace. Link. Leading up to and immediately after the announcement, GameStop sold $47 million IMX tokens it was granted as part of the partnership, causing the token price to fall over 23% in just 24 hours. Link. Link.
- Crypto sleuths are accusing Tron's Justin Sun of manipulating on-chain governance for DeFi lending platform Compound by borrowing COMP tokens and proposing adding TUSD as a collateral asset on Compound. Link.
- Phantom, one of the most popular wallet apps on Solana, raised $109 million at a $1.2 billion valuation, in a round led by Paradigm just 6 months after raising a $9 million seed from a16z. In that time Phantom has grown from 40,000 active users to 2.1 million. Link.
- Over 500 mobile apps now include the term "metaverse" in their apps' titles or descriptions. Link.
- Axie Infinity is revamping its scholarship programs, as a result of its tokens falling in price and daily active users declining to 2.2 million in Feb, down from its peak of 2.7+ million in November. Axie is reducing rewards of its SLP tokens, which should bring down inflation and re-boost engagement. Link.
- Miami residents received a $5.25 million disbursement from CityCoins, which allows residents to mine MiamiCoin. MiamiCoin has generated more than $22 million for the city since launching in August 2021. Link. Suarez Tweet.
- The SEC is investigating whether the interest paid on virtual token deposits should be registered as securities. Celsius Network, Gemini, and Voyager Digital are all under review. Link.
- The House and Senate will hold hearings on stablecoins over the next few weeks, and will likely feature just one witness: Nellie Liang, the Treasury official who spearheaded recent work on stablecoins. Link.
- Dune Analytics, the platform that lets users easily create dashboards to analyze blockchain data, raised $69.420 million Series B at a $1 billion valuation, led by Coatue. Link.
- India's finance minister proposed a 30% tax on income related to crypto transactions and NFT sales, as well as a 1% tax deduction at source on payments made related to the purchase of virtual assets. Link.
- Coachella is launching an NFT collection on Solana called in partnership with FTX. Coachella Collectibles will give fans access to festival passes, art prints, photo books, digital collectibles, and physical merchandise. Link. Site.
- Pixel Vault raised $100 million in funding from Velvet Sea Ventures and 01A to build a media empire using its NFTs/IP across movies, TV, comics, and video games. Pixel Vault is the creator of PUNKS Comics and MetaHero Universe, and has seen over 100,000 ETH in sales across all of its offerings. Link.
- The AssangeDAO has raised over $30 million to help free Julian Assange. The DAO plans to bid on an NFT co-created by digital artist Pak and Assange. Link. JuiceBox.
- DEX aggregator 1Inch launched Earn, a collection of liquidity pools optimized for stablecoin swaps. Earn is launching with USDC/USDT. Link.
- Instagram banned the popular @NFT account which had 1.7 million followers and a verified check mark, after it was accused of posting sponsored content and ads without disclosing the posts as ads. The account is run by Leverage Game Media which is backed by Mark Cuban. Link.
- Anthony Levandowski, the ex-Google autonomous vehicle engineer accused of stealing trade secrets, is creating a decentralized telecom network called Pollen Mobile. The network relies on token incentives to get mass coverage, and promises anonymity and high speeds at cheaper prices. Link. Medium Post.
- An NFT collector lost 7 Bored Apes, 5 Mutant Apes, and 1 Doodle worth at least $2.7 million when he interacted with a fake mint site that gave the hackers approval to move his NFTs out of the wallet. Signing and approving transactions via an in-app browser like MetaMask is fairly common; what wasn't common in this case was how broad the approval limits were. Link.
- Disney is recruiting for a BD manager to lead their NFT efforts. Disney owns major media brands such as Marvel, Lifetime, National Geographic, 21st Century Fox, and a majority stake in Hulu. Link.
- Senator Ted Cruz purchased bitcoin on January 25, when the price of BTC was hovering under $37,000. Cruz has become a crypto advocate and even introduced a resolution for merchants on Capital Hill to accept crypto payments. He also pushed an amendment to remove language in the infrastructure bill that would require tightened reporting requirements for digital asset brokers. Cruz's state of Texas has also emerged as a bitcoin mining hub, in the wake of China's banning of crypto mining. Link.
- South Park poked fun at Matt Damon's Crypto.com ad in its Season 25 premiere, "Pajama Day". Link.
- Attendees of the Super Bowl LVI will receive a souvenir NFT along with a ticket, as part of a partnership between the NFL and Ticketmaster. The NFT will be marked with the fan's unique section, row, and seat. Link.
- Cameo is launching an NFT collection called Cameo Pass, which was created in collaboration with Burnt Toast (Doodles), Vinnie Hager (Letters), and cartoonist Luke McGarry. Each pass costs 0.2 ETH to mint and allows users to attend exclusive celebrity events such as Q&As, meet-and-greets and in-person parties. Link.
- The Virtual Currency Tax Fairness Act would free crypto users of reporting capital gains under $200, which could relieve some of the reporting burden in situations where users are exchanging tokens, not using them for an investment. Link.
- Chainalysis acquired Abaxx, a government consultancy firm, to enhance its data analytics, lead gen, and investigative services. Link.
- Evertas, an insurance platform focused on the crypto space, became the first coverholder to write policies covering digital wallet products on behalf of Lloy'ds syndicate member Arch Insurance. Link.