PRICE CHANGE: WTD/YTD
- BTC ($35,107): -9% / +21%
- ETH ($2,172): -14% / +194%
- XRP ($0.74): -16% / +237%
- UNI ($20): -14% / +307%
- Crypto Market Cap ($1.5T): -11% / +91%
- BTC Dominance: 45%
NFT 3M TRADING VOLUMES
STABLECOIN MARKET CAP CHANGE: WTD/YTD
- Tether ($63B): 0% / +199%
- USDC ($24B): +3% / +529%
THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO
- Mila Kunis is releasing an animated show called Stoner Cats through a series of NFTs. The project is the first of its kind to use NFTs as a new content production model. The NFTs are expected to be released in mid July. Link. [Author note: I'm personally involved in this project - read my tweets about it here].
- DeFi project Iron Finance witnessed a bank run on its partially collateralized stablecoin $IRON, which caused the price of the project's token TITAN to drop almost 100%. The IRON stablecoin was intended to be pegged to $1, with the TITAN token used as collateral. This design was supposed to allow the stablecoin to absorb market volatility caused by shifts in supply and demand. However, a few large whales began to liquidate tehir position early last week which caused a negative feedback loop and a fall in the price. This led to a run on the bank and a collapse in the project's token price from a peak of $60 to $0. Investors like Mark Cuban called for stablecoin regulations after the events. Link. Link.
- NFT salestotaled $2 billion in Q1. Average prices for various types of NFTs have fallen following an initial surge of interest - and in tandem with crypto prices. Weekly NFT sales hit a peak of $176 million on May 9, but dropped to $8.7 million on June 15. Link.
- Venture capital funds have invested $17 billion into crypto companies so far this year, the highest amount ever. Over half of that came from the $10 billion investment into Bullish Global, a new crypto exchange. The remaining $7 billion is on par with the $7.4 billion raised in 2018, though there's still 6 months left in 2021. Link.
- Holders of the Bored Ape NFTs will receive free Bored Ape dogs, as long as they pay the associated gas fees. Bored Ape holders have until Friday to claim their dogs. So far, the dogs have been selling on the secondary market for over 1 ETH. Link.
- British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee is set to auction the original code for the World Wide Web as an NFT through Sotheby's. The auction will run through June 30. Link.
- Square invested $5 million in Blockstream to fund an open-source, solar-powered bitcoin mining facility in the US. The facility will use 100% renewable energy. Link.
- More than 3,000 ATMs in Beijing will be able to convert China's digital yuan, also known as the e-CNY, into cash and vice versa. China recently banned other cryptocurrencies (including mining in some states), but continues to move forward with its central bank digital currency, the digital yuan. Link.
- NFT real estate in metaverse Decentraland saw volumes rise 1,000% in one day. Decentraland sold out of its 90,601 parcels of land and commands a higher premium than other metaverses like Sandbox and Somnium Space. Link.
- DeFi lending protocol Goldfinch raised $11 million from a16z. Goldfinch allows borrowers to take out undercollateralized crypto loans, whereas the market typically forces borrowers to overcollateralize their loans. Goldfinch does this by using a decentralized consensus method for underwriting the credit worthiness of borrowers. Link.
- Fox Corp is launching a new $100 million fund for digital creators as part of its new Blockchain Creative Labs initiative. The unit's first projects is "Krapapolis," an animated comedy from Dan Harmon. Blockchain Creative Labs plans to sell animation art, short-form videos and other digital experiences to fans. Link.
- Dallas Mavericks plan to provide ticket holders with NFTs starting next season. Link.
- DeFi exchange dYdX raised $65 million in a Series C round led by Paradigm. The firm focuses on decentralized perpetual swaps. Link.
- Blockchain intelligence platform TRM Labs raised a $14 million Series A from investors like Bessemer, PayPal, and Salesforce. TRM helps blockchain companies, financial institutions, and law enforcement agencies investigate, detect and prevent crypto-related financial crimes. Link.
- Jay Z is suing Damon Dash, his former Roc-a-Fella Records co-founder, for allegedly stealing and selling the copyright to Jay's debut album "Reasonable Doubt". Dash was reportedly trying to auction the copyright as an NFT though he only holds the rights to 1/3 of the album. Link.
- The Graph and Optimism announced a new partnership which will allow developers building dApps on Optimistic Ethereum to create sub-graphs to access blockchain data. The Graph has an active community of over 20,000 developers. Link.
- Avalanche and Sushiswap are integrating Chainlink Price Feeds onto their platforms. Chainlink's oracle infrastructure provides DeFi smart contracts secure pricing data. Link.