Rapid fire

• The most anticipated news in the crypto community is the Executive Order Biden is expected to announce imminently. The reason for the order has been cited as ’for national security’. Speculation as to the contents of the order ranges from a ban on stablecoins to a ban on mining. The consensus is an order to compel competing agencies to cooperate to bring regulatory clarity to crypto.

• OpenSea, the leading NFT marketplace, exceeded $3.5 billion in monthly trading volume which eclipsed the all time high of $3.4 million achieved in August 2021.

• Animoca Brands, The company behind leading metaverse platform The Sandbox, raised $350 million valuing it at $5 billion. It just goes to show you that the smart money is being invested in the companies behind projects rather than in tokens.

• It is often assumed that the proceeds from the sale of virtual land in the various metaverse’s vying for investors’ attention flows back to token holders. In most cases this isn’t the case. In the best case scenario sale proceeds end up in the treasury which are then used to invest in the project. However in the majority of cases funds flow to the company behind the project. Investors should check before investing in any metaverse land based project as this clearly demonstrates the intentions of the project owner and whether token holders are valued or not.

• According to JP Morgan, Ethereum is losing market share to rivals like Solana when it comes to NFTs. Ethereum’s volume share fell from 95% at the beginning of 2021 to 80% as the high gas fees continue to weigh on the platform.

• The Bank of Russia called for a full ban on crypto. However this outcome seems unlikely as the government encourages bitcoin mining after the exit of China from the space.

• Talking about banning crypto, India has opted to tax rather than ban crypto and have announced the introduction of a central bank digital currency. At least that brings certainty to the biggest democracy in the world where the growth in crypto adoption is exploding.

• Crypto.com says that hackers stole nearly $34 million from users. However they were quick to make good investor’s losses.

• Google is getting into crypto. As part of this drive Google Pay users will be able to store their crypto assets on digital cards which can then be converted into fiat whenever a purchase is made. 

• The Federal Reserve published a 40 page white paper discussing a US CBDC. Whilst this paper is only exploratory it is a sign that the initiative is under consideration.

• Meta formerly known as Facebook canned its cryptocurrency dreams by selling its intellectual property to the crypto bank Silvergate.

• One concern crypto naysayers often cite is the threat from quantum computers. Researchers at the University of Sussed think today’s quantum computing power is still millions of times too weak to hack bitcoin. They believe this will continue to be the case in most of our lifetimes.

• January saw its fair share of rug pulls. One rugpull was a project called Doodled Dragons. Part of their pitch was that they would donate money to the WWF. Shortly after the rugpull the head scammer tweeted, ‘actually, fuck that, our charity will instead be… my bank account. Cya nerds.’ There is a special place in hell reserved for people like that.