Blockchain gaming has long been a segment of the crypto market vying for user and investor attention, but it hasn’t been until recently that these types of games have taken off.
Axie Infinity — the PVP game in which animated axolotl’s battle each other — sparked the latest round of the meta verse gaming trend. Other games like Decentraland also helped usher in the current wave of so-called “metaverse” gaming, providing a digital world in which users can create avatars and navigate interactive land plots.
Treeverse is one of the most highly anticipated upcoming metaverse games, aiming to provide players with an Runescape-style MMORPG game that allows users to deploy NFTs in an open and interactive world.
The platform, founded by popular NFT investors Loopify and Aizea, recently wrapped up a fundraising blitz at a $25m valuation. Notable investors in the round include IdeoCo Labs, Animoca Brands, SkyVision Capital, Stani Kulechov and other angel investors.
The project’s successful fundraising round shines a light on the popularity surrounding MMORPG-style metaverse games that allow users to interact with NFTs within a virtual medium.
They also released their first official NFTs on August 1st, a collection of 10,420 private plots of land at $520 each, which sold out in an hour. These plots of land named “Founders’ Private Plot” have now done over $20m in secondary volume and are trading at $7,000 per plot.
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Treeverse isn’t the only MMORPG vying for users’ attention. Embersword is another popular game currently under development that is highly anticipated by those within the metaverse gaming community. It seems as though the demographic for Web3 users is comprised largely of users who grew up in the Runescape era. That is, a time where massively multiplayer online role-playing games captivated the attention of gamers.
The rise of NFTs adds an interesting element to this type of gaming, as users can have verifiable ownership of the non-fungible in-game assets. My theory is that the in-game assets for popular Web3 games will be the next segment of the NFT market to really take off. If true, then early users of games like Treeverse and Embersword will likely have a serious edge over this bourgeoning fragment of the market.
Meet the Authors
Joseph Young is a cryptocurrency analyst who has been in the space since 2014. He contributes to Forbes, CoinTelegraph, and a host of other top crypto news sites. Over his 6+ years in the space, he has built countless connections with industry leaders and has amassed over 150,000 followers on Twitter.
Nick Chong is a passionate crypto researcher specializing in identifying and extracting conclusions from trends within the rapidly emerging DeFi space. He has been involved in the crypto markets since 2016, and sources deals for ParaFi Capital—a DeFi-focused hedge fund.
Cole Petersen first learned about Bitcoin in 2013 and began working in the space in 2017. While on a gap year as a student at the University of California, Irvine, he is now a managing partner at a crypto-asset venture fund and previously worked as an associate at BlockVenture Coalition.
[Disclosure: Members of the Alpha Alarm team have exposure to some of the projects mentioned in this report. It is not a considerable percentage of any of the team members’ portfolios.
None of this newsletter should be construed as financial advice or a endorsement to use or invest in a specific crypto-asset or crypto-asset protocol.]
The Federal Bureau of Investigation partnered up with the Israeli Police to arrest 26 people alleged of offenses related to digital currencies employment. While the operation happened in Tel Aviv, it involved victims who all reside abroad.
Detaining The Criminals
According to a local report, the FBI and the Tel Aviv district fraud unit of the Israeli Police conducted an investigation on criminals who conned tens of millions of shekels from victims. In a recent joint operation, the two units arrested 26 people suspected of taking part in money-laundering offenses related to digital forex trading.
The local officials said they had received a report from the US that a group of Israelis was tricking dozens of people into a fraudulent investment scheme with cryptocurrencies. Instead of providing the promised services, the criminals stole millions of dollars from the victims.
After the investigation, the authorities detained the bad actors in an overnight operation and seized digital storage devices and computers as proof of the investigation.
Per the announcement, all of the arrested are residents of central Israel. The officials did not reveal their names nor the company they work for. However, they informed that the process will start with two of the suspects, men in their 30s, who will appear at Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court this week. The victims of the fraud, on the other hand, are Americans.
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The report added that in addition to the arrests in Israel, local law enforcement agencies have recently carried out similar operations in other countries around the globe.
Other Arrests of Crypto Fraudsters
One of the hottest topics in the digital asset space earlier this year was the notorious trading venue – Thodex. In April, nearly 400,000 users of the Turkish cryptocurrency exchange were left out of their accounts without being able to withdraw their funds. The platform’s website was down for several days, while reports suggested its CEO had fled the country with up to $2 billion.
Following the investigation, the Turkish Police detained 62 people involved in the scam and even jailed 6 of them. The brother and the sister of the company’s CEO – Faruk Fatih Özer – were among them. The head of Thodex, though, is still at large.
As CryptoPotato reported in June, such an arrest also occurred in China. Back then, the Chinese authorities detained 1,100 suspects who allegedly used digital assets for money laundering activities to avoid law enforcement agents. The subsequent investigation also led to the dismantling of 170 criminal gangs.
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Cryptocurrency analyst Michaël van de Poppe is analyzing Cardano’s path forward in the wake of Bitcoin rallying to a new 90-day high above $55,000.
In a new strategy session, Van de Poppe highlights the potential entry points for Cardano on the USD chart and says he believes the crypto asset is close to a bottom.
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“If you want to buy Cardano at this point, I think you want to be looking at anywhere in this range here, aggressive in the area around $2.45. And also if we dip towards $1.75, that’s an entry point.”
Cardano is trading at $2.27 at time of writing, per CoinGecko.
The crypto analyst adds that he expects Cardano to continue climbing higher and approach its all-time high at $3.10.
“So what are we going to expect at this point? I’m assuming that we’re going to have a grind back up with Cardano against USDT for a little bit towards this all-time high region just like we have been seeing in November 2020, in which we grinded back up toward the all-time high region before we started to accelerate heavily.”
Looking at Cardano against Bitcoin (ADA/BTC), Van de Poppe outlines how the pair can restart its uptrend.
“We are making lower highs, lower lows…if we break above the area of 0.0000464 BTC ($2.50), that is the level that you should be looking at and then we’re going to have a new impulse wave.”
However, if bulls fail to push above 0.0000464 BTC, Van de Poppe says the pair could drop between 0.00003785 BTC ($2.04) and 0.000032 BTC ($1.72).
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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any loses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.
In a surprise Reddit post on Friday, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin had strong words for El Salvador’s Bitcoin rollout, and specifically President Nayib Bukele for forcing local businesses to accept the top cryptocurrency.
After a Reddit user on the r/cryptocurrency subreddit posted: “Unpopular opinion: El Salvador president Mr Nayab (sic) Bukele should not be praised by crypto community,” Buterin replied: “Nothing unpopular about this opinion. Making it mandatory for businesses to accept a specific cryptocurrency is contrary to the ideals of freedom that are supposed to be so important to the crypto space.”
Buterin’s post continued: “This tactic of pushing BTC to millions of people in El Salvador at the same time with almost no attempt at prior education is reckless, and risks a large number of innocent people getting hacked or scammed. Shame on everyone (ok, fine, I’ll call out the main people responsible: shame on Bitcoin maximalists) who are uncritically praising him.”
Indeed, Bukele’s embrace of Bitcoin as legal tender, first announced with great fanfare at the Bitcoin Miami conference in June, has earned him raves from some of the loudest voices in Bitcoin. Those same Bitcoin flag-wavers have been less eager to talk about the young president’s well-documented authoritarian tendencies and the less savory aspects of his government’s Bitcoin rollout. One Salvadoran business owner, requiring anonymity, told Decrypt, “It crushes my soul to see Bitcoin maximalists around the world cheering this when, if they actually sat down and read the law and regulations, it is completely opposite to everything they preach.”
And Buterin isn’t the only voice in crypto speaking out about the contradictions in forcing an open, decentralized technology on business owners.
At the TOKEN2049 conference in London just this week, Blockchain.com co-founder Nicolas Cary said during a panel, “I think there’s some valid criticisms of how the program is rolled out in El Salvador in terms of being top down. One of the main ethos of crypto is that there’s really grassroots adoption, and people are doing it voluntarily.”
Buterin didn’t stop at his first post. Further down in the same thread, when the original poster commented: “It’s like [Bukele] pushed it because he bought at cheaper price and knew a country adopting a crypto would alone take the price high enough to make him rich,” Buterin replied, “Simpler and dumber hypothesis: both for political reasons and because he’s a human being like the rest of us, he just loves being praised by people he considers powerful (ie. Americans). Bitcoin maximalists are a very easy community to get to praise you: you just have to be in a position of power and do or say nice things about them and their coin.”
The original poster replied to Buterin: “Elon did the same exact thing, now Bukele exploiting emotions of the community.”
Coming every Saturday,Hodler’s Digestwill help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.
Top Stories This Week
Indian crypto exchange CoinSwitch Kuber raises $260M
Indian crypto exchange CoinSwitch Kuber closed a $260 million Series C funding round this week at a valuation of $1.91 billion, adding itself to the prestigious unicorn club.
The funding round was led by Coinbase Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz, the latter of which has emerged as a leading crypto venture capital firm. Following the $1.91 billion valuation, CoinSwitch Kuber is said to be India’s most valued crypto firm.
Speaking of funding, Sky Mavis, the developers of the immensely popular NFT game Axie Infinity, announced a $152 million Series B funding round on Tuesday. Unsurprisingly, Andreessen Horowitz backed the funding round along with participation from FTX.
Ethereum fractal from 2017 that resulted in 7,000% gains for ETH appears again in 2021
The same set of bullish indicators that sent Ether (ETH) surging 7,000% in 2017 has appeared again in 2021, suggesting that the asset is on track to reach the moon before Dogecoin (DOGE).
The fractal indicator from 2017 consists of at least four technical patterns that were instrumental in pushing the price up, including the relative strength index (RSI), stochastic RSI, bullish hammer, and a Fibonacci retracement level.
At the time of writing, Ether is worth $3,600, indicating that the price could hit $13,000 if history repeats itself.
Federal High Court of Nigeria approves eNaira CBDC rollout
The Nigerian Federal High Court has approved the rollout of the eNaira central bank digital currency (CBDC).
The CBDC was launched for beta testing on the nation’s 61st Independence Day celebration on Oct. 1 and has now been given the green light to circulate alongside its fiat counterpart. The CBDC is being touted as a faster, cheaper and more secure option for transactions. It will also be supported by an eNaira wallet.
The official eNaira website says that the digital version of the Nigerian naira will be made available universally, stating that “anybody can hold it.”
Judge rejects XRP hodlers’ bid to join SEC against Ripple case as defendants
The ongoing legal dispute between Ripple Labs and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has taken another turn as U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres ruled on Monday that individuals holding XRP tokens cannot act in Ripple’s ongoing lawsuit as defendants.
The ruling came after several ambitious XRP hodlers aimed to file “friends of the court” briefs which, if granted, would enable them to join the bloody battle as defendants, alongside Ripple, against SEC assertions of XRP being a security.
The judge said the ruling was for their own good, as it would compel the trigger-happy SEC to take action against the XRP hodlers as well. However, it was determined that they could participate as “amicus curiae” — a party that is not involved in the litigation but is allowed by the court to advise or provide information.
Bitcoin returns to $1T asset as BTC price blasts to $55K
Bitcoin(BTC)returned to its $1 trillion asset status this week as the price surged past $55,000.
It appears that the damage caused by the China mining ban in May has been wiped clean, suggesting that there could be a run to new all-time highs in the coming weeks or months. At the time of writing, BTC is worth $54,900 and sits 14.9% below the all-time high.
“Honestly, I think we’ll be continuing to see strength on Bitcoin,” Cointelegraph contributor Michaël van de Poppe said, adding:
“USDT pairs will be fine on altcoins, but perhaps we’ll be having 6-8 weeks of some corrections on the $BTC pairs, before a new party starts. December/January is often the best period to buy alts.”
Winners and Losers
At the end of the week, Bitcoin is at$54,176, Ether at$3,612and XRP at$1.07. The total market cap is at$2.30 trillion,accordingto CoinMarketCap.
Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are SHIBA INU(SHIB)at 244.87%, Fantom(FTM)at 74.68% and Axie Infinity(AXS)at 47.02%.
The top three altcoin losers of the week are eCash(XEC)at -10.20%, Huobi Token(HT)at -8.70% and Amp(AMP)at -6.85%.
For more info on crypto prices, make sure to readCointelegraph’s market analysis.
Most Memorable Quotations
“Policymakers should implement global standards for crypto assets and enhance their ability to monitor the crypto ecosystem by addressing data gaps. […] Emerging markets faced with cryptoization risks should strengthen macroeconomic policies and consider the benefits of issuing central bank digital currencies.”
International Monetary Fund
“For us, digital assets are not about payments per se. They’re about a new computing paradigm – a programmable computer that is accessible everywhere and to anyone and owned by millions of people globally.”
Bank of America Securities
“We did a survey of our membership, and it was very impressive: 110 countries are at some stage of looking into CBDCs.”
Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund
“What a crazy concept this is, that we as a country embrace so many bright, young, talented people to come up with a replacement for our reserve currency. […] I wish all this passion and energy that went to crypto was directed towards making the United States stronger.”
Ken Griffin, founder of Citadel LLC
“The best way to look at it, if you’re an investor, either you believe in decentralized finance and centralized finance, and you believe in Bitcoin and Ethereum and the blockchain, or you don’t. If you don’t, stay in gold as a hedge, and if you do, tip into it.”
Kevin O’Leary,Shark TankJudge
“I’m not going to get into any one token, but I think the securities laws are quite clear — if you’re raising money […] and the investing public […] have a reasonable anticipation of profits based on the efforts of others, that fits within the securities law.”
Gary Gensler, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
“My bill with Congresswoman Ross would set disclosure requirements when ransoms are paid and allow us to learn how much money cybercriminals are siphoning from American entities to finance criminal enterprises — and help us go after them.”
Elizabeth Warren, U.S. senator
“Bitcoin’s $50,000 resistance point since May appears ripe to become the crypto’s support value in 4Q.”
Mike McGlone, senior commodity strategist at Bloomberg
Prediction of the Week
BTC bull run has ‘at least 6 months to go’ — 5 things to watch in Bitcoin this week
This week saw Bitcoin crack the $50,000 mark and continue upward past $55,000. Although upward price action accompanied the start of September, Bitcoin showed more of a downward trend for most of the month. Price action for BTC has posted upward pressure so far for October, but time will tell how the rest of the month plays out.
On a broader scale, in an Oct. 2 tweet, stock-to-flow model creator PlanB expressed the possibility that the current Bitcoin bull run still has several months of upward action ahead. “My guess: this 2nd leg of the bull market will have at least 6 more months to go,” PlanB said in the tweet, posting one of his BTC stock-to-flow models.
Several other factors are also relevant to determining Bitcoin’s outlook, including analyses of the asset’s hash rate estimates and technical indicators.
FUD of the Week
‘Evolved Apes’ NFT creator allegedly absconds with $2.7 million
Hodlers of the Evolved Apes NFT avatar project were left gobsmacked this week after one of the developers reportedly went rogue and swiped 798 ETH, worth around $2.9 million.
The anonymous developer who goes by the pseudonym “Evil Ape” is said to have dashed off with all the funds generated from the initial mint of the 10,000 tokenized apes, along with the gains from sales on the secondary market.
Apart from allegedly stealing 798 ETH, Evil Ape also took down the project’s website and Twitter account. There was also a blockchain-based fighting game that was promised by the project’s creators, and while the outlook is grim, the community is driving a recovery initiative dubbed “Fight Back Apes.”
Billionaire Ken Griffin slams crypto as ‘jihadist call’ against the greenback
Hedge fund manager Ken Griffin was the source of some mixed FUD this week as he slammed crypto as a “jihadist call” against the U.S. dollar.
Griffin, who is the founder of the $38 billion hedge fund Citadel LLC, and said that crypto is a “Jihadist call that we don’t believe in the dollar,” as he took aim at the pesky youth for spending so much time working on digital assets.
“I wish all this passion and energy that went to crypto was directed towards making the United States stronger,” he added.
The Citadel founder, however, stated that his firm is yet to enter the crypto sector due to the “lack of regulatory certainty,” suggesting that he’s more worried about compliance than a jihadist call against the precious greenback.
Gensler confirms SEC won’t ban crypto… but Congress could
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said on Tuesday that his agency does not have the authority or intention to ban crypto, stating, “That would be up to Congress.”
However, Gensler highlighted that many crypto tokens fall under the enforcement power of the SEC. He singled out “financial stability issues” that arise from stablecoins as a key area of focus for the agency.
“It’s a matter of how we get this field within the investor consumer protection that we have and also working with bank regulators and others — how do we ensure that the Treasury Department has it within Anti-Money Laundering, tax compliance?” Gensler said.
Best Cointelegraph Features
Beyond Bitcoin: The future of digital assets is bigger than the first crypto
While Bitcoin is the most recognizable digital asset, it’s just one of many that are here to evolve financial services globally.
Money in 2030: A future where DeFi and CBDCs can work together
In coexistence with mutual benefits, decentralized finance and central bank digital currencies will finally make money universally available worldwide.
What it’s like when the banks collapse: Iceland 2008 firsthand
“Imagine if the money that you have in your bank account now would suddenly buy you 1/10th of what it had? That happened in a week.”
Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin says the crypto community should examine the merits of El Salvador’s new Bitcoin policy.
Last month, El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender despite widespread protests and surveys showing much of the population wasn’t on board. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele spearheaded the move.
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Buterin took to Reddit on Friday to agree with a user who says Bukele shouldn’t be praised for his actions.
Explains the Ethereum creator,
“Making it mandatory for businesses to accept a specific cryptocurrency is contrary to the ideals of freedom that are supposed to be so important to the crypto space. Additionally, this tactic of pushing BTC to millions of people in El Salvador at the same time with almost no attempt at prior education is reckless and risks a large number of innocent people getting hacked or scammed.
Buterin says Bitcoin enthusiasts should keep their passion for the top cryptocurrency in check and focus on maintaining a critical look at what’s happening in the space.
Shame on everyone (ok, fine, I’ll call out the main people responsible: shame on Bitcoin maximalists) who are uncritically praising [Bukele].”
The Bitcoin roll out in El Salvador has reportedly been far from perfect.
Reuters says it spoke to dozens of users in the country had at least one issue with the country’s Bitcoin wallet, named Chivo. One user says the app took his money but never gave him BTC in return.
The report cites data from the Salvadoran Foundation for Economic and Social Development that shows 12% of shoppers in the country have used BTC for purchases.
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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any loses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.
Whether it’s baseball players or shiny Pokemon cards, collectibles have been a cultural mainstay in human behavior since the Renaissance. Memorabilia from famous films or items of clothing worn by a celebrity can be auctioned and sold for eye-watering amounts. Take the prototype Batmobile from the 1960s Batman TV show, it was sold for $4.2 million. With collectibles, the concept itself is simple: An item has value based on its scarcity. The less of it there is, the more it’s worth.
It is this concept that is the driving principle behind the explosive growth of nonfungible tokens (NFTs). Largely bought and sold on the Ethereum blockchain, NFTs are essentially collectibles that have been digitized. Whether it’s the insanely popular and limited CryptoPunk avatars or Jack Dorsey’s first-ever tweet, NFTs are big money and those who managed to nab a rare NFT will always have proof of ownership, as this data lives in the blockchain.
Related:Art reimagined: NFTs are changing the collectibles market
But, just how easy is it to grab yourself an NFT?
Gas doesn’t come cheap
In the same way that Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) are acquired, NFTs can only be obtained through mining. For seasoned buyers and sellers in the crypto space, the process of mining and paying gas fees — a sum someone must pay to process their crypto transactions — is nothing new. For first-time buyers dipping their toes into the NFT waters, however, the mining process could feel like a nasty bite from a shark.
Although it’s not a common practice, a few NFT launches utilize a bonding curve to determine the price of an NFT. This is how liquidity is created in the NFT market. In layman’s terms, this means that the price of an NFT asset is determined by only a finite amount of block space. With an ever-increasing demand on blockchains like Ethereum, network fees have the tendency to skyrocket.
Related:Ethereum fees are skyrocketing — But traders have alternatives
If you’re a miner, you have the liberty to select transactions that come with a high fee, so miners are lining their pockets at the expense of the buyer. Now, this state of affairs is normal for crypto natives. For someone new to crypto, however, the whole mining fiasco can be confusing, unacceptable and deeply unjust, which isn’t a completely unreasonable viewpoint to have if you’re a novice in the market.
So, how can this imbalance of power be readjusted so new buyers of NFTs do not have to suffer from high gas fees?
Save a place in the queue
When we launched its shrug NFT, digitizing an infamous emoji that had become a popular culture meme, it was acutely aware of the aforementioned issues. Ultimately, we needed to find a way to lessen the activity on the chain, thus reducing the gas fees, when hundreds of people are trying to mine an NFT. Early NFT platforms have been struggling with processing streams of transactions, which for buyers can lead to a cumbersome experience and higher gas fees that they need to fork out to just get their transaction approved.
Related:The NFT marketplace: How to buy and sell nonfungible tokens
The answer to these lingering problems lies in the implementation of a queue system. Some NFT platforms have built infrastructure that can increase the speed of blockchain transactions, which leads to better user experiences. Creating a protocol where buyers have to wait in line to mint their NFT while also giving a window of time in which to do it will solve the major discrepancies in the entire minting process, which currently puts buyers at a disadvantage.
A queue system creates a fairer marketplace, as it minimizes the possibility of customers competing for the same NFT and losing their gas fees. As NFTs continue to explode in popularity and grip the mainstream’s imagination (and our wallets), it is important that NFT platforms make their blockchain-hosted marketplaces a fairer and more inviting place for buyers looking for the latest digital collectible.
The dominance of whales in the market
Despite the hype and eye-watering amounts of money circulating through the NFT space, the “average” price of an NFT sold on SuperRare is 2.15 Ether, or around $5,800, according to rankings on OpenSea. This begs the question: Who exactly is buying the NFTs? Are first-time buyers potentially being pushed out by a small group of buyers with deep crypto pockets?
Even implementing a queuing system does not change the fact that the market is largely dominated by crypto whales. As the name implies, a crypto whale refers to individuals or entities that hold large amounts of Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. This is a problem in the wider crypto space, as it means people who hold enough Bitcoin have the potential to manipulate currency valuations.
Specifically with NFTs, most of the people purchasing these nonfungible tokens are crypto whales. For example, only 2.3% of sellers on the Rarible marketplace are making up 50% of NFT sales. This is further amplified on OpenSea, arguably one of the biggest NFT marketplaces, where only 1.9% of its sellers make up half of the NFT sales. Essentially, what is happening is that whales are buying up projects early and end up wielding too much influence on the reseller market, practically pricing out first-time buyers.
As a result, people who don’t live and breathe crypto aren’t engaging in the market as much perhaps because there simply isn’t any room for them to do so.
To lessen the dominance of crypto whales, more needs to be done to educate the mainstream audience on how to purchase NFTs so that it doesn’t remain the preserve of these dominant holders. We still have 197 of our shrug NFTs remaining. Our hope is that we can attract new users into the NFT space who could use the experience of buying their first NFT as a jumping-off point into the wider NFT marketplace.
There is so much potential for NFTs to finally bring the world of crypto fully into the mainstream, as it essentially takes a concept that many people understand in the physical world and digitizes the whole driving force behind it. At the heart of it, collectibles are meant to be a fun and lucrative activity for those who choose to partake in it. NFTs should not be any different.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.
The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
Simon Yu is the CEO and co-founder of StormX. He has been in the blockchain space since 2015 and has been an avid speaker and early builder of the industry. Simon has been featured in Forbes, Reader’s Digest, Nasdaq, Business Insider and more.
Millionaire investor and Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary is sharing his perspective on the future of stablecoin regulation in the US.
In an interview on Kitco News, O’Learysays that he welcomes regulation in the crypto space as it will validate the asset class and give institutional investors a clear ramp to push capital into cryptocurrencies.
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“I, for one, would welcome a regulator to come in here and start to apply regulatory platforms to all of these cryptocurrencies and all of the level-1 and level-2 blockchains because you gotta understand something, people are very excited about crypto, but the truth is, the real money, the institutional money is not there yet…
I work closely with lots of pension plans and sovereign funds. They’re not touching any of this yet for one singular reason: the regulator has not ruled.”
O’Leary also pushes back on the notion that regulators could overstep and regulate stablecoins out of existence.
“They could, but I think the cat’s out of the bag. I think the genie’s out of the bottle, and all those other ways of looking at it, because the productivity enhancement proven already in the first $30 billion, the opportunity to be leaders in this worldwide, the opportunity to enhance the productivity of our own economy and payment systems, and all of the other things that stablecoins could do are just too big an opportunity for an economy this size, and I just don’t think a regulator’s gonna say, ‘No, no, no. We don’t want any of that innovation.’”
As for whether or not the government will fully introduce its own Fedcoin stablecoin, the millionaire investor thinks it’s unlikely and that governments will probably regulate stablecoin providers, such as Circle, more like traditional banks.
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“I think you and I will still be talking about this 20 years from now, as far as the Fed doing that. I think what’s more likely to happen is they will basically regulate issuers of stablecoins as banks. And so, you look at a CIrcle, they’ll get a bank license, they’ll be regulated.
If they’re tying their stablecoin to the US dollar, then, you know, one argument from the regulator’s point of view would be, ‘Let’s treat it like a bank through all the regulatory environments that banks have to deal with, and all of the balance sheet scrutiny and everything else.’ That would be a good outcome. I’d be okay with that too.”
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Powercrypto Holdings, a subsidiary of the blockchain software provider Powerbridge Technologies, is launching cryptocurrency mining, specifically Bitcoin (BTC)and Ethereum (ETH), in Hong Kong. These cryptocurrency operations will utilize environmental-friendly, green, and sustainable energy. This announcement was made in a press release on Friday, October 8, 2021
Powerbridge Technologies is a growth-driven technology company primarily engaged in SaaS solutions and Blockchain applications.
Launching Crypto Mining In Hong Kong
Powerbridge Technologies plans to deploy a total of 2,600 high-performance mining rigs in Hong Kong, including 600 BTC mining machines working at a hash rate of approximately 60 PH/s. It also includes 2,000 ETH mining machines, with a hash rate power of approximately 1,000 GH/s.
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According to the announcement, Powercrypto aims to increase the BTC and ETH hash rate levels across the North American and Asian markets.
Related Reading | Since China’s Mining Ban, Bitcoin Hashrate Has Recovered by 68% And Counting
Sean Wang, Powercrypto’s General Manager and Chief Technology Officer, stated that: “Powercrypto is a major strategic move by the Company to highlight our global presence in the crypto-mining business. We will focus on enhancing our overall hash rate level in BTC and ETH mining by setting up mining fleets in North America and Asia.”
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In its global BTC and ETH mining, the company plans to focus on maximizing the use of carbon-free clean energy power. Powerbridge Technologies President Stewart Lor, also commented, “We are very excited about our launch and positioning as a global presence in the cryptocurrency mining business. We expect our high-performance environmental-friendly crypto-mining fleets to significantly accelerate our revenue.”
Related Reading | Value Of Ethereum Held By Miners Reaches Five-Year Record Levels
Powerbridge Technologies states that it plans to increase its bitcoin miners with an expected capacity of 10,000 miners and an expected hash rate of 728 PH/S. Additionally, according to the company, its proprietary AI/GPU operating system can support up to 100,000 ETH miners in operation.
Powercrypto Holdings: A Subsidiary Of Powerbridge Technologies
Powerbridge Technologies established Powercrypto Holdings, its new Singapore-based subsidiary for its Crypto Mining and Digital Asset operations, late last month.
Powercrypto focuses on green renewable energy-powered crypto mining farms with its intended worldwide operations. The announcement states that the subsidiary strives to become one of the most competitive Bitcoin and Ethereum mining companies. The President of Powerbridge Technologies believes that Powerbridge is well-positioned to accelerate the growth of its crypto businesses and generate promising revenue from it.
BTC trading at $54.9K | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com
A few days ago, the company announced the appointment of Sean X. Wang as General Manager and Chief Technology Officer of Powercrypto Holdings. Mr. Wang, a blockchain expert, was brought on to lead the operations and technology development of Powercrypto’s crypto mining business. He reportedly has wide-ranging expertise in the fields of crypto mining and digital assets operations, having managed and operated mining fleets with nearly forty thousand Bitcoin and Ethereum mining rigs.
Digital Currencies In Hong Kong
Hong Kong has played a crucial role in the history of cryptocurrencies. It is the birthplace of some of the world’s largest crypto companies. Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin, was also launched here.
Hong Kong is a metropolitan area and special administrative region of China. Therefore, unfavorable regulations have affected the digital assets space in the region. However, it has been making efforts to develop its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), e-HKD since 2017.
Featured image by CoinGeek, Chart from TradingView.com
El Salvador’s decision to officially make bitcoin a legal tender inside its borders has caused some controversy.
While some locals expressed their dissatisfaction, many prominent names such as Michael Saylor praised the move as “extraordinary” and “world-shaking.”
The world is yet to find out whether this would turn out to be the beginning of a successful monetary revolution or another attempt from a top political figure who aims to win power and support.
In a recent blog post, Alexander Höptner – Chief Executive Officer of the cryptocurrency derivatives exchange BitMEX – placed himself next to those who believe this could be a highly beneficial initiative.
The executive said he is not surprised that all those heading the current financial system, such as the World Bank, Moody’s Investors Service, and more vigorously attacked El Salvador. However, “what the critics fail to recognize is that developing countries like El Salvador are leading the world in embracing decentralized digital currencies and payments,” Höptner added.
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Moreover, he predicted that at least five developing nations would follow this experiment in 2022. And here are the arguments.
Remittances
A substantial percentage of people coming from countries like El Salvador work abroad to send funds to their relatives and thus provide a better lifestyle for them back home. And while leading money service companies are “ripping people off” with high charges and slow transactions, bitcoin “with its near-negligible fees and quick 24/7/365 transactions” could be the best solution to the problem, according to Höptner.
This is not the first time when BitMEX’s CEO compares digital assets and traditional finance. In a recent interview for CryptoPotato, he said the developments that are going on in the crypto field are happening at a “much faster pace:”
“What we’ve seen happen in the traditional financial world in the past 30 years happened in 2 years [in the crypto industry].”
Alexander Hoptner, Bitmex CEO. Image by: RYT9
Inflation
The next reason that Höptner gave is the risk of rising inflation after the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. It goes without saying that developing countries would struggle much more than advanced economies. And when inflation starts shaking the financial network, people usually seek alternatives to fiat currency such as bitcoin. As proof to that statement, BitMEX’s CEO pointed out to Turkey:
“As inflation climbed well above 15 percent this year in Turkey, crypto adoption surged. Turkey responded by quickly banning the use of crypto for goods and services, but inflation is now at 19.25 percent.”
Many other prominent names also stood behind the idea that the primary cryptocurrency can be a successful hedge against economic crisis. Billionaire Paul Tudor Jones III and Dawn Fitzpatrick are some of those who believe bitcoin’s maximum cap of 21 million coins can be the best instrument against the mass printing that central banks have executed recently.
Politics
Bitcoin is not only a digital currency. It is also a technology, a store of value, and according to many – a representation of the future financial system. As such, politicians will have an interest to position themselves as “progressive, populist, and new age thinkers” if they decide to make it an official means of payment, stated BitMEX’s CEO.
Despite being a supporter of such an initiative, Höptner warned that top politicians might increase their popularity not because of what they have achieved throughout their work but because of bitcoin:
“This won’t be a love letter to President Bukele of El Salvador, who is staking his political future on the successful rollout of this policy. I support the policy, of course, but I think there’s long-term risk in giving too much credit to individuals in the crypto space.”
Subsequently, he opined that if a politician who plays a significant role in the adoption of BTC fails as a leader, this might automatically hurt the image of the leading digital asset.
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