PRICE CHANGE: WTD/YTD

- BTC ($46,773): -8% / +61%
- ETH ($3,919): -6% / +431%
- XRP ($0.83): -2% / +278%
- UNI ($15): -7% / +204%
- Crypto Market Cap ($2.2T): -6% / +187% 
- BTC Dominance: 40%
- ETH Dominance: 21%

STABLECOIN MARKET CAP CHANGE: WTD/YTD

- Tether ($76B): 0% / +264%
- USDC ($42B): +1% / +984%

NFT 3M TRADING VOLUMES

THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO

- The US Senate heard testimony this week on stablecoins. There was discussion over a proposal from the President's Working Group which advocated for Congress to limit stablecoin issuance to insured depository institutions (essentially banks). Republicans want a more open system for issuing stablecoins which would allow for groups like Circle to issue USDC despite not having a banking license. Overall it appears that stablecoin legislation is top of mind for Congress, especially since the Financial Stability Oversight Council is aiming to get emergency authority over stablecoins if Congress doesn't provide guidance soon. Link. 

- Adidas Originals earned 5,924 ETH, roughly $23.5 million, from its "Into the Metaverse" drop done in collaboration with Bored Ape Yacht Club, gmoney, and PUNKS Comic. 30,000 NFTs were sold for 0.2 ETH each. NFT owners will receive physical apparel including a hoodie, tracksuit, and the orange beanie worn by gmoney's ape avatar. Link. Link. 

- Nike bought NFT platform RTFKT Studios for an undisclosed amount. RTFKT partners with artists like Fewocious to create custom sneakers that are NFT collectibles. RTFKT raised $8 million in seed funding led by a16z. Link. Link. 

- Circle launched its USDC stablecoin on Avalanche. Link. 

- Katie Haun is leaving a16z crypto to launch her own crypto fund in 2022. She joined the firm in 2018 and led investments in Coinbase, OpenSea, Celo and Royal. Tweet. Link. 

- Bored Ape Yacht Club is co-developing a play-to-earn crypto game for its NFTs with Animoca Brands. The game is planned to launch in Q2 2022. Link.

- Sotheby's earned $100 million from NFT sales in 2021. 78% of the NFT bidders were new to Sotheby's and half were under 40. Link. 

- Crypto metaverse startup Jadu raised $7 million from investors like General Catalyst, Sound Ventures, and Coinbase Ventures. Jadu's virtual accessories can be used with 3D NFTs like Meebits and interacted with in its AR app The Mirrorverse, which will eventually turn into a full-fledged Pokemon GO-like game. Jadu sold 6,666 NFT hoverboards for $4.4 million last week. Link. 

- Electronics retailer RadioShack is pivoting into DeFi and creating a DEX similar to Uniswap and SushiSwap. The company is partnering with Atlas USV on the offering. Link. 

- There was $7.7 billion value lost to scams in 2021 according to Chainalysis' 2022 Crypto Crime Report. Rug pulls, a new scam common in DeFi where developers of a project abandon it unexpectedly and take users' funds, grew significantly in 2021. Link. 

- Michael Jordan is launching a fan engagement app platform built on Solana called HEIR. HEIR raised $10 million in seed funding and will launch in 2022. Link. 

- Sound.xyz raised a $5 million Series A led by a16z. Sound wants to help emerging artists monetize their work using NFTs, starting with Listening Parties which allows NFT holders to leave comments on song streams. Link. 

- NBA team Golden State Warriors plan to create and launch NFTs on FTX US in early 2022. NFTs will include the Warriors' six NBA Championship rings and 10 commemorative ticket stubs. Link. 

- Former first lady Melania Trump is selling an NFT called "Melania's Vision" on Solana. Credit cards will be accepted via MoonPay. Both MoonPay and Solana said they weren't officially affiliated with the project. Trump has plans to release more NFTs in January that will include both digital and physical artwork. Link. Link. 

- Bitwise launched an index fund to track the 10 largest NFT collections including CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club, Fidenza's, and VeeFriends. The fund will purchase and custody the NFTs. Link. 

- Dapper Labs is launching NFTs with Dr. Seuss called "Seussibles!". Limited edition Dr. Seuss World items can be collected to complete sets that unlock exclusive content. Link. Link. 

- Robinhood will integrate with Chainalysis ahead of the beta release of its crypto wallet in January. Link. 

- Dune Analytics is said to be raising a round at a $1 billion valuation, just four months after closing an $8 million Series A led by Union Square Ventures. Link. 

- Ethereum scaling project Polygon and Seven Seven Six, Alexis Ohanian's venture capital firm, have launched a $200 million initiative to invest in Web3 social media and gaming projects. Seven Seven Six launched a $100 million effort for projects building on Solana just last month. Link. 

- Ethereum layer 2 scaling network Optimism removed its whitelist and is now open to all projects. Until now Optimism was whitelisting projects like Uniswap and Synthetix directly. Link. 

- The SEC requested an additional 45 days to review two spot bitcoin ETF proposals from Bitwise and Grayscale. The SEC already denied VanEck and WisdomTree's offerings this year. Link. 

- Crypto custodian Anchorage raised a $350 million Series D at over a $3 billion valuation in a round led by KKR. The startup has raised $485 million to date. Link. 

- Crypto exchange Kraken is working on an NFT platform that will exist off-chain to keep minting and transaction fees low. Link. 

- Data analytics startup Nansens raised $75 million at a $750 million valuation in a round led by Accel. Link. 

- Crypto payments infrastructure startup Ramp raised a $52 million Series A at a $300 million valuation, led by Balderton. Link. 

- H&R lock is suing Square, which changed its name to Block earlier this month. Link. 

- Serial entrepreneur Justin Kan has launched Fractal, an NFT marketplace on Solana built around blockchain games. Link. 

- Robinhood acquired cross-exchange trading platform Cove Markets. Cove lets customers manage accounts across multiple exchange platforms. Link. 

- 90% of all bitcoin has now been mined, leaving around 2.1 million BTC to be mined before reaching the total supply of 21 million coins. Link. 

- Nexo is launching an NFT lending platform where clients can use Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks NFTs as collateral for loans in stablecoins and Ethereum. Link. 

- NBA player Kevin Durant will be the new face of Coinbase. Link. 

- The IRS has finalized Form 1040 which includes a question on cryptocurrency. "At any time during 2020, did you receive, sell, or otherwise acquire any financial interest in any virtual currency?". 2020 wording left taxpayers with some questions on whether buying or holding qualified as transacting in crypto. Link.