Bitcoin (BTC)-based investment products are facing strong competition from altcoin-based products, according to cryptocurrency data company CryptoCompare.
The crypto data firm says in a new report that the investment products based on Litecoin (LTC) and smart contract blockchain Solana (SOL) had better returns than those based on BTC over the 30-day period leading to November 19th.
“BTC-based investment products were outperformed by Solana & Litecoin-based products, led by 21Shares’ ASOL (Solana-based product) and Grayscale’s LTCN (Litecoin-based product), which returned 22.0% and 14.9% respectively.”
CryptoCompare says Bitcoin-based investment products recorded losses over the same period while products based on Ethereum and Solana registered profits.
“BTC-based products experienced losses over the last 30 days, ranging from -6% to -13% while ETH products saw gains ranging from 0.5% to 7% for ETH products.
21Shares’ ASOL ETN [Exchange-Traded Notes] experienced the largest gain at 22%…”
The report also highlights that the level of assets under management (AUM) for Bitcoin saw a significant drop on a month-on-month basis while the AUM for other crypto assets surged.
“Bitcoin AUM fell 9.5% to $48.7 billion in November, its largest month-on-month pullback since July. Meanwhile, Ethereum and other cryptocurrency products saw their AUM rise 5.4% to $16.6 billion and 10.4% to $2.6 billion, respectively.”
The decline drives Bitcoin’s market share as a percentage of the total crypto assets under management fall month-on-month from 73.7% to 70.6% in November.
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The French financial regulator Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) has reportedly announced that the cryptocurrency exchange – Binance – must guarantee anti-money laundering compliance to set up a regional hub in Paris.
Earlier this month, Changpeng Zhao – CEO of the trading venue – described the French capital as a “natural choice” for positioning headquarters.
Binance Is Not Ready to Settle in France
The largest digital asset exchange – Binance – has been on a mission to find its new home lately. Established as a decentralized platform with “no headquarters and no borders,” it is now changing its structure and looking for a place to settle, as the CEO recently explained. However, the company has some issues with global regulators, which could turn out to be a hurdle in its way.
Currently, France sounds like one of the suitable options where Binance can establish global headquarters since the company has not had any problems with the local watchdogs. Moreover, Changpeng Zhao recently called Paris a “natural choice” for such expansion.
According to a Reuters report, though, settling under the Eiffel Tower would not be such a straightforward move since the local watchdogs insist that Binance has to enhance its AML compliance efforts.
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“It’s a sign of the Paris market’s innovative dynamism, but this obviously depends on trust and credibility being guaranteed. That’s what will guide the ACPR and the AMF (financial markets authority) in their actions, especially on the key issue of anti-money laundering,” said Francois Villeroy de Galhau – the Governor of the French central bank.
A few days ago, Zhao told the local press that his company hoped to get a regulatory green light from the AMF in 6 to 12 months. He added that 600 out of 3,500 Binance’s employees are responsible for compliance and relationships with various regulators.
The Partnership with France Fintech
At the beginning of November, the leading cryptocurrency exchange and the non-profit association – France FinTech – joined forces to create a €100 million ($116 million) blockchain project in Europe. It comes by the name of “Objective Moon,” as its primary goal is to support the development of the digital asset industry in France and the rest of Europe.
Back then, Zhao predicted the move could turn France into a top spot in the cryptocurrency space:
“At Binance, we recognize the quality of French and European tech, crypto, and blockchain talent, and we are convinced that with the launch of Binance’s major operations and investment in France, we can significantly contribute toward making France and Europe the leading global player in blockchain and crypto industry.”
How About Ireland?
Ireland is another country that could become the new home of Binance. Earlier this year, the trading venue set up three companies there: Binance (APAC) Holdings, Binance (Services) Holdings, and Binance Technologies.
A few days ago, it established a fourth one, named Binance Exchange (Ie), hinting about a future settlement in the country. Asked whether Ireland falls into such plans, Zhao answered: “Yes, it does.”
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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
Axie Infinity virtual land slot sells out for 550 ETH
A plot of virtual land in the widely popular monster-battling NFT game Axie Infinity sold for 550 Ether (ETH) this week, with the sum worth more than $2.2 million at the time of writing.
The piece of virtual land was purchased on Thursday and is classified as Genesis, the rarest form of virtual real estate available in the Axie Infinity ecosystem. The game enables players to use Pokémon-like Axie monster NFTs to battle other players or complete challenges to earn blockchain rewards. Users can also buy, sell or rent land to other players.
The game’s developers said on Thursday that they believed it was “the largest sum ever paid for a single plot of digital land.” However, a quick Google search shows that a piece ofvirtual real estatein Decentraland sold for 618,000 MANA ($2.9 million at current prices) the previous day.
eToro to delist Cardano by 2022 for US users due to regulatory concerns
Retail trading platform eToro announced on Tuesday that it will be delisting Cardano (ADA) and Tron (TRX) for U.S. customers by the end of the year due to regulatory concerns.
By the start of 2022, users will no longer be able to open new positions in the tokens or stake them. Additionally, wallets holding the assets will effectively be in withdrawal-only mode until the first quarter of 2022, when the selling will also become limited.
In the case of ADA, many onlookers were puzzled by the move, as the asset has never had any notable regulatory troubles or legal issues. Cardano has also worked to ramp up its regulatory compliance this year, partnering with blockchain analytics provider Confirm as part of a push to meet financial regulations.
Celsius expands funding round to $750M, tips $7B to $10B valuation in 2022
Celsius Network expanded its $400-million Series B funding round, undertaken in October, to $750 million earlier this week as a result of oversubscription in the firm’s capital raise.
CEO Alex Mashinsky told Cointelegraph that the firm’s valuation stands at $3.5 billion following the Series B, and bullishly predicted that Celsius will be worth “double or triple” that in 2022.
Mashinsky pointed to the firm’s ability to provide services in almost every sector of crypto when highlighting the growth potential of the business. The company currently offers lending and DeFi services along with yields from its crypto mining business, and the CEO said it has plans to enter NFTs soon.
Shiba Inu team issues scam alert to SHIB investors
The team behind beloved memecoin Shiba Inu (SHIB) issued a public warning on Sunday against online scams that primarily target SHIB-curious altcoin investors.
The scammers are said to be circling on Twitter and Telegram, waiting for any chance to pounce on unwary investors by impersonating official accounts and targeting hashtags such as #shib, #shibarmy, #leash, #shibaswap and #bone.
Shiba Inu’s scam alert wanted users to be careful in fake Telegram groups in particular and noted that the official community is not offering any kind of promotions, including airdrops, bonuses, giveaways or gifts, and will not ask for any wallet keys and credentials.
1 million ETH has been burned since the implementation of EIP-1559 in August
Blockchain research firm CryptoRank highlighted on Wednesday that over 1 million Ether, worth around $4 billion, had been burned since the London hard fork went live in August. The upgrade to the network saw the introduction of a burning mechanism as part of Ethereum’s fee structure.
According to CryptoRank, the platform responsible for wiping the most Ether out of existence was NFT marketplace OpenSea with 110,237 ETH ($439 million) burned, while decentralized exchange Uniswap V2 accounted for 97,583 ETH ($388 million).
Data from Ultrasound Money shows that the current burn rate for Ethereum is 10,451 ETH per day, equating to 7.26 ETH per minute. While many onlookers said that the London hard fork would see ETH promptly become a deflationary asset, it appears there is much more room to burn. The current yearly burn rate is 3.8 million ETH compared to the 5.4 million ETH that is issued every 12 months.
Winners and Losers
At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at$54,292, Ether (ETH) at$4,020and XRP is at$0.94. The total market cap is at$2.43trillion.
Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Gala(GALA)at 173.91%, Zcash(ZEC)at 58.07% and The Sandbox(SAND)at 57.88%.
The top three altcoin losers of the week are Nexo (NEXO) at 22.53%, WAX (WAXP) at 21.17% and ICON (ICX) at 20.83%.
For more info on crypto prices, make sure to readCointelegraph’s market analysis.
Most Memorable Quotations
“[An NFT is] a chunk of digital data that records who a piece of digital work belongs to. […] What’s really captured the public’s imagination around NFTs is the use of this technology to sell art.”
Collins Dictionary
“We thought that CME futures were going to be a very effective element of the portfolio. We never thought they would be effective when they would be 100% of the product.”
Anna Paglia, global head of ETFs and indexed strategies at Invesco
“I’m actually not convinced, somewhat controversially I guess, that Dogecoin is good for the crypto market. […] Dogecoin has some inflationary dynamics itself that would make me reluctant to hold it.”
Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple
“India is home to the highest number of crypto owners in the world, and the onus lies on the government to protect the interest of a large number of crypto investors in the country.”
Jay Hao, CEO of crypto exchange OKEx
“We see risks in participating [in the crypto sector], but we see bigger risks in not participating.”
Matt Comyn, CEO of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia
“I can tell you that being in a licensed jurisdiction is much better than being in an unlicensed jurisdiction. And this is because it really changes the conversations that we have with the partners that we get to work with.”
Adrian Przelozny, CEO of Independent Reserve, speaking on incoming regulation in Australia
“I don’t know what the solution is. But I do know for the millions of new users coming, they should not be shamed for going to other ecosystems. Neither should devs be shamed for building on them.”
Su Zhu, CEO and co-founder of Three Arrows Capital, commenting on the Ethereum network
“Finding a way to balance regulation that protects investors and innovation is hard, especially in a space where new financial offerings appear every few months.”
Yuriy Kovalev, CEO of Zenfuse
Prediction of the Week
The Metaverse is a $1T opportunity after users increase 10x: Grayscale report
Crypto investment giant Grayscale published a bullish report on metaverses this week, predicting that the sector could become worth more than $1 trillion in the next few years once the tech becomes mainstream.
The report argues that open metaverse platforms backed by an “interconnected crypto-economy,” such as native tokens, DeFi services, NFTs and decentralized governance, have “created a new online experience” that’s rapidly attracting new users.
Analyzing “global all-time active metaverse wallets” data since the start of 2020, Grayscale found the user base has grown by ten times to reach roughly 50,000 as of June 2021.
“Compared to other Web 3.0 and Web 2.0 segments, Metaverse virtual world users are still in their early innings, but if current growth rates remain on their current trajectory, this emerging segment has the potential to become mainstream in the coming years,” the report read.
FUD of the Week
You shall not pass: Tolkien estate blocks ‘The Lord of the Rings’ JRR Token
A TheLord of the Rings-themed “JRR Token” project was forced to close down this week following legal action from the family and estate of the famed series’ late author J. R. R. Tolkien.
The project heavily borrowed intellectual property from the beloved series, such as images of mythical rings, Hobbit holes, and a wizard looking eerily similar to Gandalf the Grey. The estate’s lawyer, Steve Maier, described the case as a “particularly flagrant case of infringement,” adding that the estate is “pleased that it has been concluded on satisfactory terms.”
According to the settlement, developer Matthew Jensen promised to shut down the token and delete any content that infringes the estate’s trademark rights to the J. R. R. Tolkien name and intellectual property relating toThe Lord of the RingsandThe Hobbit.
Indian parliament’s agenda for winter session includes bill on banning ‘private cryptocurrencies’
According to reports from local media outlets, the Indian government will look at “The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill” as part of a group of 26 bills this coming Monday.
The bill proposes the prohibition of “all private cryptocurrencies” except for assets “to promote the underlying technology of cryptocurrency and its uses,” and is said to be part of a move to pave the way for the creation of an official digital currency from the government.
In March 2020, India’s supreme court overturned a blanket ban on crypto imposed by the central bank two years prior, but local media states the government is now looking at alternative ways to regulate the sector as opposed to an outright ban.
Spanish regulator raises alarm on Binance promo by soccer star Iniesta
Andrés Iniesta, the legendary Spanish football player and former FC Barcelona star, was sent a warning this week from Spain’s financial watchdog, the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV), over his promotion of the Binance crypto exchange.
On Wednesday, Iniesta posted some pictures of himself on Twitter pretending to use a laptop that featured the Binance homepage with the caption, “I’m learning how to get started with crypto with Binance.”
In response, the CNMV wrote: “Hi Andres Iniesta, cryptoassets carry some significant risks due to being unregulated products.” It is unclear how bothered Iniesta was by this message, as it was most likely a paid promo for Binance.
Best Cointelegraph Features
Deterring adoption? Balancing security and innovation in crypto
Security is necessary to protect crypto users but regulators may force companies to adopt processes that stifle innovation.
Just buy it: Nike wants to bring sneakerheads into the Metaverse
Nike intends to sell you digital products in the Metaverse, and you will buy them because Nike knows how to make you want them.
Powers On… Why aren’t more law schools teaching blockchain, DeFi and NFTs?
To counsel clients involved in the DeFi space, wouldn’t you want a lawyer with the technological literacy to understand blockchain and the legal issues surrounding it?
Those who aped into ConstitutionDAO witnessed their PEOPLE tokens rise by some 4,000% after the decentralized autonomous organization failed to buy the U.S. Constitution. But it’s not just the price that’s expanding.
One new derivative project, PEOPLELAND, lets donors mint a virtual plot of land for free. Only those who ‘who made history’ can mint tokens for free. Crypto exchange OKEx has listed it and the coin traded $369,731,773 in the past day, according to data from CoinMarketCap. Whichever way you look at it, the market’s accommodating for the coin in the same way it accommodated for other major buzzy projects, like Loot, Shiba Inu and Dogecoin.
Despite the growth, ConstitutionDAO has formally closed up shop. The DAO’s creators had raised a little over $45 million to buy a rare copy of the U.S. Constitution but were beaten at the final hour by no-coiner and Citadel CEO, Ken Griffin. The DAO technically had enough money to win the bid but opted not to because they didn’t have enough money to look after the rare document.
After the bid failed, the project opened itself up to refunds. Since then, the token has skyrocketed in value. This is partly because the refunds reduce the number of PEOPLE tokens in circulation, boosting the price of individual PEOPLE tokens. But the whole market still has worth because people are very excited about what PEOPLE could become. ConstitutionDAO “cannot and will not endorse any future plans for the token”, including derivative projects and secondary trading.
Chinese investors are particularly excited about the token; an unofficial chat for the project already has 37,000 members. Lots of people think it’s the next Shiba Inu token, which itself was the successor to Dogecoin. It’s clear that PEOPLE could quickly become the next meme coin, not useful per se but instead valuable because of the spirit of its buoyant community.
“ConstitutionDAO lost bidding war to some old money rich asshole isn’t the ending. It’s the beginning,” clunked one member of a Telegram price chat ferociously. The next few days of trading might provide some insight into whether that rings true.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.
Adidas has partnered with Coinbase and The Sandbox.
A Coinbase spokesperson said the Coinbase deal is part of Adidas’s metaverse push.
Adidas currently has a parcel of land allocated to it in The Sandbox.
Sportswear giant Adidas set crypto Twitter ablaze on Wednesday evening with an announcement: “We’ve partnered with Coinbase”, before disingenuously concluding the tweet with a crypto meme reference; it’s “probably nothing”.
No-coiners take note: institutional adoption of cryptoisgrowing. Sure, Tesla owners may bea niche crowd, and who outside of Dallas supportsthe Mavericks? But everyone and their auntie owns a piece of Adidas, so a partnership with Coinbase clearly isprobably something, given the other major bit of news this week that Adidas is also building a presence in the metaverse.
On Tuesday, the official Twitter account for Animoca’s open-world blockchain gameThe Sandboxaddressed a tweet to Adidas. It read: “Hey@adidasoriginals, impossible is nothing in the Metaverse. What if we invite all of the original thinkers and do-ers to design our future together?”
The tweet contained a link directing curious clickers to the coordinates of aparcel of in-game landin the game that has apparently been earmarked for Adidas Originals. It is unclear whether the land was purchased by Adidas or given to it.
Given the facts, Wednesday’s announcement is not nothing. But are the two connected? Probably…
A spokesman for Adidas toldCityAMon Thursdaythat the Coinbase partnership is part of Adidas’s strategy to gain a foothold in the metaverse. The spokesman said: “The Metaverse is currently one of the most exciting developments in digital, making it an interesting platform for Adidas”.
So where does The Sandbox come into it? Will we see an in-game shopping city filled with tokenized Adidas wearables soon? And what role does Coinbase play? The details are thin, but Adidas’s competitors are making similar moves towards the metaverse.
At the end of last month, Facebook announced it wasrebranding to Metaand embracing NFTs in order to get a headstart on the Metaverse. Barely a week later,Nike filed four requeststo trademark “virtual goods” with the US. Patent and Trademark Office. The filings allegedly list various digital goods, including headwear, eyewear, bags, backpacks, and sports equipment.
It looks like the IRL sneaker wars could migrate into virtual reality soon…
It’s impossible to say more about Adidas’s metaverse push at this juncture; despite the obscene amount of money Adidas has spent over the years on ad campaigns and sloganeers, impossible isn’t nothing.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the crypto exchange FTX, is optimistic about Solana (SOL). He believes that Solana has the potential to scale to Bitcoin’s (BTC) mass adoption level. Bankman-Fried added that Avalanche (AVAX) also has the potential to climb to the top.
He also believes Solana is better than ethereum as it’s one of the few blockchains with a plan to accommodate mass adoption.
Related Reading | Solana Hits New All-Time High, Surpasses Cardano And Tether To Fourth Place
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The 29-year old crypto founder has a net worth of $22.5 billion, making him the youngest person to enter the Forbes rich list after Mark Zuckerberg.
Cryptos With The Potential For Real Adoption
In an interview with Kitco News on Thursday, Bankman-Fried talked about bull and bear runs. And which projects would see mass institutional adoption.
When asked if he thinks Bitcoin would see its last Bull run in December before eventually crashing, Bankman-Fried responded that he could not predict the future. However, there will always be more crashes as well as more bull runs. And in the next few years, he expects to see “see substantial institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies.”
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In the event of a crash, however, he says that projects with loyal followers and important use-cases are more likely to survive. Hype-driven projects, like meme coins, often crash the hardest. “Projects that have real adoption, or potential for real adoption are the ones that loyalists will be backing, even during bear markets.”
Bankman-Fried also believes that Solana could be the next Bitcoin. And that there is a possibility that it could see mass adoption very soon. As he has previously said, Solana has a plausible roadmap to scale millions of transactions per second. And that is the most important indicator.
SOL trading at $196.5 | Source: SOLUSD on TradingView.com
“I think Solana has a shot at doing so, which is really exciting. I think that there are other tokens out there as well that are aiming to scale a bit, and Avalanche is one of them.” He emphasized that the core technology of every blockchain is something that is hard to overhaul. Furthermore, he says that Solana could potentially be the base for more DeFi applications in the future.
Bankman-Fried adds that Solana’s market cap could exceed Ethereum’s market. However, it is hard to make a concrete prediction. But one thing that cannot be disputed is that Solana fixes a lot of problems with Ethereum. These include high gas fees and low transaction rates. Subsequently, many have dubbed the network “ethereum killer.”
Solana Is Better Than Ethereum
Bankman-Fried believes that in terms of scale, not many blockchains could compare to Solana. Earlier this month, he spoke at Yahoo Finance and Decrypts’s “Crypto Goes Mainstream” conference.
Related Reading | Why Billionaire Chamath Palihapitiya Invested In The Solana Ecosystem
“Solana is one of the few currently existing public blockchains that has a really plausible roadmap to scale millions of transactions per second at you know, fractions of a penny per transaction, which is a scale that you need for this,” Bankman-Fried said.
“That is not where a lot of other blockchains have been focusing, including ethereum.”
Featured image by Forbes, Chart from TradingView.com
Popular on-chain analyst Will Clemente says he’s identified the new support level for Bitcoin (BTC) after the crypto market’s latest Covid-induced price drop.
Clemente tells his 430,000 Twitter followers that $53,000 is the price level to keep an eye on, and it wouldn’t surprise him to see the largest crypto asset by market cap tested at this support as he has yet to see any sizable flushes.
“Covid variant news isn’t ideal. Yet to see any sizable amount of [liquidations] or [open interest] flush, so a wick lower is very possible.
However, STH (short-term holder) cost basis, or what I’ve been calling the ‘on-chain bull market support band,’ sits at $53,000.”
Source: WClementeIII/Twitter
Bitcoin is exchanging hands at $54,350 at time of writing, an 8.6% decrease from its 24-hour high of $59,445.
In a new Blockware Solutions Market Intelligence Newsletter blog post, Clemente says spent output profit ratio (SOPR) data shows BTC investors are not yet ready to start selling their tokens at a loss, a signal that the support band could hold. The SOPR is an on-chain metric the indicates whether BTC holders are selling at a profit or a loss.
Clemente also says that there he’s seeing a pattern where strong Bitcoin holders are absorbing selling pressure from short-term holders.
“There’s a clear bullish divergence between illiquid supply shock ratio and price right now. Illiquid supply shock compares liquid entities (sell 50% of the BTC they take in) and highly liquid entities (sell 75% of the coins they take in) to illiquid entities (hold 75% of the coins they take in). This means supply is moving to entities with little history of selling. If this does start to decline I will become bearish, but for now, it is continuing a steady incline.”
Clemente concludes that he’s still bullish on BTC despite the recent correction, but he’s ready to change his stance once he sees key on-chain metrics print clear bearish signals.
“In conclusion, if we are indeed in a bull market, the asymmetry is very skewed to the upside right now. Invalidation would be starting to close below $53,000 for several days, seeing SOPR breaking below and failing to retake 1 from the underside, as well as starting to see illiquid supply shock rolling over.”
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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.
The NFT market and metaverse have once again been thrown into a state of euphoria as a single plot of digital land on the most popular NFT game in the crypto space, Axie Infinity, sold for 550 ETH.
$2.3M for Axie Infinity Plot
The plot of land in question is one of the Genesis plots on Axie Infinity, which are considered to be extremely rare as there are just 220 of them in existence.
Going by today’s ETH prices, that single piece of land would be worth a whopping $2.3 million, considering that ETH is trading around $4,100 at the time of writing.
Launched in 2018, Axie Infinity has gained dominance over time and has become the most popular play-to-earn NFT game in the crypto industry.
The play-to-earn business model allows gamers to earn income while playing their favorite games and also contribute to the growth and development of the gaming ecosystem.
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Axie Infinity currently boasts over 2 million daily active users, and daily trading volumes have even reached peaks of $40 million. The game is so popular in the Philippines that some households quit their day jobs to focus on playing full-time.
Featuring small furry creatures that look like Pokemon, called Axies, the game allows players to collect, breed, and battle their Axies with other players to earn Axie Infinity’s native ERC-20 utility token, Smooth Love Potion (SLP).
Other in-game assets such as Axies and parcels of land are represented as NFTs, which can be sold in public NFT marketplaces.
Grayscale Values Metaverse at $1 Trillion
In recent months, the metaverse, an umbrella term given to a persistent digital environment where users are free to create their avatars and interact with each other from across the globe, has witnessed explosive growth.
Although the gaming industry often comes to mind whenever the metaverse is mentioned, it extends far beyond that to include advertising, hardware, digital events, and more.
Following the massive surge in interest in this rapidly growing industry, the world’s largest digital assets manager, Grayscale, recently noted that the metaverse space will be valued at over $1 trillion in the next couple of years.
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The music industry has undergone a massive transformation in recent years. We have seen the advent of the internet leave its mark on music, and most notably, 1999 spelled the coming of Napster. This then-revolutionary peer-to-peer online streaming service defined a whole generation and enabled musicians to share their creations with the world.
Streaming has become the dominant format for music today, through Apple, Amazon, Tencent Music and the clear category winner — Spotify. The goal of distribution services and platforms like Spotify is to enable and empower artists to create more without worrying about anything besides honing their craft.
However, that’s just on paper — does reality reflect this utopian ideal? Not so much.
Sure, the “transformation” of music in the past decades is evident, but it seems that someone got left behind. And the saddest thing is that those who got left behind are the very artists that make us all get goosebumps, make our feet move and bring the widest of smiles on our faces.
The economics of streaming are tough. Platforms like Spotify operate under a business model where the platform operator takes a cut for each stream. That makes sense as Spotify offers better-than-nothing distribution, but there is still a huge problem. Ultimately, it is roughly 70% that ends up with the music rights holders, and the discovery feature tends to put lesser-known artists at a disadvantage vis-a-vis the household names. The result is a top-heavy distribution funnel benefitting the already-made-it musicians.
It isn’t yesterday’s news that music is still a rather damp and dark place for most artists trying to win bread by creating and doing the above. The industry is still plagued by revenue-hogging intermediaries seeking to undercut those who matter most. If you aren’t like the Taylor Swifts, Billie Eilishes and Justin Biebers of the world, you are likely struggling to make ends meet. And even if you are like them, you are probably not getting your due either.
On the bright side… change is coming. No, scratch that — change is here.
Ushering in a new era of music
Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and the underlying technology are introducing a whole new ball game and a level-playing field that will enable and empower artists. What NFTs do is unlock value by making digital scarcity real and assetized. At the same time, they allow musicians, designers and everyone in between to exercise control over their work, effectively making them masters of distribution.
Related:NFTs are a game changer for independent artists and musicians
Do you remember the first NFT you bought? And do you also remember the feeling after you bought it? Felt quite remarkable, didn’t it? That’s another thing about digital collectibles — owning them, stacking them, is simply intoxicating.
Now, imagine if you could support your favorite artist and get your hands on their latest hit directly from them and get the “NFT kick” out of it too. Say you want to attend a festival filled with all your favorite DJs — wouldn’t it be an absolute delight to be able to get your ticket straight from the source? And how rad would it be to also get a unique, customized and one-of-a-kind proof of attendance with your very own name in there? Now we’re talking.
Alright, that’s all cool and soon to be ubiquitous, but what’s the deal with streaming platforms like Spotify? Great question. Most certainly mean well (at least so we hope) and have moved the needle in the right direction. However, that’s not quite enough in a world littered with arbitrary numbers and standardized screens.
Reintroducing scarcity and making music feel unique again
Digital scarcity is necessary to create a unique user experience and enable fans to form longer-lasting and more profound connections with their favorite artists.
As it stands, there is nothing truly unique about music on Spotify — tracks don’t come in limited editions, music connoisseurs are not able to get their hands on rare album releases, and Spotify lacks a scarcity system. Think about it — if you are a diehard fan of the Canadian DJ and producer Deadmau5, you would probably want to own the #1 release of a given track or an album. Or then the #10 release, or #50 — something with a higher intrinsic value that showcases your love for a given artist. Why doesn’t that exist?
Such a “tiered” system of releasing music would undoubtedly benefit the artist since limited and early editions imply higher value. At the same time, it also enables fans to grow together with the artist. Take that #1 release of a Deadmau5 track you own as an example. The moment the track makes it into, say, the Weekly Top 10, others will see your name right next to it — that way, fans can get a slice of the “fame” pie.
At some point and for whatever reason, it might make sense for a fan to sell that #1 release NFT. Care to guess who would get a cut of that sale? Correct — the artist.
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Direct one-on-one interaction, a margin of clout for the fans, an enhanced sense of belonging, and deeper connections — that’s one reason, or three reasons rather, why NFTs are en route to causing a fair share of trembling at the next Spotify shareholder meeting. The other? Enabling and empowering artists and putting them back in the driver’s seat.
A new era of the creator economy
You see, music streaming platforms stripped value away from musicians by standardizing everything, and the past few decades’ worth of digitalization largely created an environment that limits the artist’s control over distribution. With NFTs, this control is now present again — you can program and track anything and do whatever you want with your music if its initial release to the world utilizes NFT technology.
Oh, and you can now also give your fans a piece of the pie by introducing other creative twists such as revenue-sharing. The more popular the artist, the happier the fan — everybody wins. Couple that with the ideas outlined above, and we’ve got ourselves a recipe for success. Who would have thought that’s possible?
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We are entering a new era of the creator economy, and NFTs are the next logical step in enabling and empowering artists even more. It is high time to reintroduce scarcity in an industry predicated on uniqueness and vacate the driver’s seat for those best-suited to take on the road ahead.
Move aside Spotify; NFTs are coming.
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.
Joan Westenberg is a Web 3.0 writer, angel investor and creative director. She founded a tech PR and communications firm called Studio Self and is a part of the MODA DAO team. Her writing has been published in The SF Chronicle, Wired, The AFR, The Observer, ABC, Junkee, SBS, Crikey and over 40+ publications and her regular work can be found on Pizza Party, sharing notes on Web 3.0, the Metaverse and NFTs.
