Derivatives marketplace CME Group is planning to develop reference rates in addition to real-time indexes for a total of three distinct crypto assets that are part of the metaverse. This would make it possible for investors to monitor price data in a more precise manner by using a method that is often used in traditional finance.
The company made the news on January 5 that CME Group and CF Benchmarks will begin offering reference prices for Axie Infinity Shards (AXS), Chiliz (CHZ), and Decentraland’s MANA commencing on January 30.
The reference rates and indexes are not products that can be traded, but investors can use them to “price sector-specific portfolios, develop structured products, and manage price risk around various Metaverse-based projects,” as explained by Giovanni Vicioso, head of cryptocurrency products at CME Group. The CME Group was kind enough to provide us with this information.
Calculations for the real-time indexes and reference rates for AXS, CHZ, and MANA will make use of price data from a minimum of two different cryptocurrency exchanges. In addition to LMAX Digital and itBit, the following exchanges are included here: Bitstamp, Coinbase, Kraken, and itBit.
Every day at 16:00 local time, the reference rates for the assets will be published with prices in United States dollars. These prices will be published (00:00 GMT). Each and every real-time index will be made accessible for use by the general public each and every second of each and every day.
CoinMarketCap estimates that Chiliz, the most successful of the aforementioned metaverse enterprises, now has a market worth of 742.1 million dollars. This information was obtained from the Chiliz website.
AXS is now valued at roughly $686.5 million, whereas MANA is currently at approximately $597.2 million according to the market.
The CME Group has been fairly active in the cryptocurrency sector, offering micro-sized options for Bitcoin and Ether at the end of the previous year.
The popularity of metaverse tokens increased during the most recent bull market in cryptocurrencies as dozens of projects promised to build digital replicas of the real world.
The sports-based fan token market has surpassed $440 million in market cap since the football fans’ blockchain app Socios.com announced it has received regulatory approval from the Italian government, up 97% from the previous month.
Socios.com will now be able to provide cryptocurrency and digital wallet services to fans in Italy.
Fan tokens are tokenized assets that represent proof of ownership or even membership. Users can influence the clubs they support by developing club-specific fan tokens to gain voting rights.
Socios.com is an app for football fans where users can influence the clubs they support by purchasing club-specific fan tokens to gain voting rights.
The platform said the 2021 token generated nearly $200 million in revenue for its partner clubs.
Alexandre Dreyfus, CEO of Socios.com, stressed that Italy is a very important market, with several top football clubs such as AC Milan, Inter Milan, Naples, FC Barcelona, and Others already established Let the platform have a strong influence.
Therefore, ensuring the legitimacy of operations in Italy and gaining the trust of users in this country has always been the direction of the platform’s efforts.
Approval from Italian regulators is, therefore, key to Socios.com’s protection of consumers and continued service in the region
He added that:
“Regulation builds consumer confidence. Fan tokens as a very powerful digital asset class in their own right are growing, and with increased confidence and visibility comes increased demand.”
Chiliz ($CHZ), an ERC20 utility token on the Ethereum blockchain as the digital currency of the Chiliz and Socios.com platforms, is down by about 8.56% at the time of writing.
Dreyfus admits that since the launch of Fan Tokens in December 2019, nearly 110,000 users have joined and bought tokens worth an average of $20.
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Chiliz has announced the launch of the Scoville testnet for the newly established Layer 1 blockchain network Chiliz Chain 2.0 (also known as CC2).
Chiliz (CHZ) is a blockchain-based sports platform that aims to provide blockchain-based solutions for the sports industry and help fans participate in the token economy.
The Chiliz Chain 2.0 will focus on Web3 capabilities in the sports and entertainment fields, and build NFT and game-to-earn (P2E) games while accelerating the development of fan tokens and decentralized finance (DeFi) applications
Chiliz Chief Strategy Officer Max Rabinovitch explained that:
“Approval of the validators must go through our governance process, with validators voting to approve any new validators. Voting power will depend on the amount of $CHZ stacked by each validator.”
Chiliz Labs has also established an accelerator program to provide infrastructure services, technical assistance, and funding for developers building on-chain applications on the CC2 network.
The sports-focused digital trading platform has previously extended its entertainment services and partnered with renowned “big names” in the sports industry, notably FC Barcelona, Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain, among others. Not only are their $CHZ tokens used in soccer-related sports entertainment, but in May, Chiliz has also partnered with UFC.
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Looking at the winners and losers of the past week clearly shows that traders endured some serious heat as the total crypto market capitalization dropped by 12.7% when Bitcoin fell to $41,000. This sharp downside move knocked the figure from $2.37 trillion to $1.92 trillion on Dec. 3 and a total of $2 billion long future contracts were liquidated.
Bitcoin (BTC) price retraced 14.6% over the past week, effectively underperforming the broader altcoin market. Part of this unusual movement can be explained by the performance seen in decentralized applications which held up better than most of the market. Data shows Ether (ETH) traded down 6.0%, Binance Coin (BNB) lost 7.3% and Solana (SOL) dropped by 7.8%.
This week’s top gainers include OKEx’s OKB token (OKB) and Bitfinex’s UNUS (LEO). Perhaps these benefited from not having a United States entity because the regulatory uncertainties in the region continue to increase. Moreover, scaling solutions Polygon (MATIC) and Algorand (ALGO) benefited from Ethereum’s $40 or higher network transaction fees.
Terra (LUNA) featured on last week’s top performers after its built-in token burn mechanism significantly reduced the supply. Meanwhile, Stacks (STX), previously known as Blockstacks, pumped after D’Cent wallet included support for SIP010 tokens.
Among the worst performers were three decentralized sharing solutions: Theta Network (THETA), Filecoin (FILE), and Internet Computer (ICP). They were not alone, as some of the sectors’ altcoins below the top-80 also crashed. Siacoin (S.C.) endured a 34% drawdown and Ankr Network (ANKR) dropped by 31.8%.
Chiliz (CHZ) suffered direct competition after Binance successfully launched an independent soccer fan token called SANTOS. Initially, Chiliz’ platform was created to host exclusive promos, services and voting for their fan tokens and more recently the project ventured into the non-fungible NFT market. However, that initiative also lost impact after soccer player Neymar launched a collection with NFTStar.
Despite being among the bottom performers, decentralized exchange aggregator 1inch Network (1INCH) concluded a $175 million Series B investment round and these funds will be used to expand the protocol’s utility.
The OKEx Tether (USDT) premium measures the difference between China-based peer-to-peer (P2P) trades and the official U.S. dollar currency, and in the past week it decreased slightly.
Currently the indicator has a 98% reading, which is slightly bearish, signaling weak demand from crypto traders to convert cash into stablecoins. Even at its best moment over the past two months, it failed to surpass 99%, so Chinese players have not been excited about the general market.
The overall impact of last week’s correction was a drop in the total futures open interest, down 28% to $16.7 billion. Nevertheless, the move was expected since the total market cap retraced and some $3.9 billion worth of liquidations took place during the week.
More importantly, the funding rates on Bitcoin and Ethereum futures quickly recovered from Dec. 3 price crash. Even though longs (buyers) and shorts (sellers) are matched at all times in any futures contract, their leverage varies.
Consequently, to balance their risk, exchanges will charge a funding rate to whichever side is using more leverage and this fee is paid to the opposing side.
Data reveals that a modest bearish trend occurred on Dec. 3 and 4 as the 8-hour funding rate went below zero. A negative funding rate shows that shorts (seller) were the ones paying the fees, but the movement faded as soon as BTC and ETH prices bounced 15% from their lows.
The above data might not sound encouraging, but considering that Bitcoin suffered considerable losses this week, the overall market structure held nicely. If the situation was worse, one would definitively not expect a 99% Tether premium or a positive perpetual funding rate.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.
A popular crypto strategist sees significant rallies ahead for Solana (SOL), Chiliz (CHZ) and a low-cap gaming project as the metaverse heats up.
The pseudonymous trader SmartContracter tells his 178,600 Twitter followers that he firmly believes SOL will reach $900 this cycle, which would represent a 275% increase from its current value of $233.
The analyst uses a Solana futures chart to show that SOL recovered from a dip more quickly than Ethereum (ETH) after each token hit new all-time highs (ATHs) this week.
“SOL once again first to recover and make ATH, couldn’t have done it without all that ETH maxi salt earlier today, we thank you guys.”
The trader says the SOL/ETH chart can be utilized to try and time an ideal rotation from Solana to Ethereum.
“Update: SOL still pushing up against USD [US dollar], BTC and ETH, clearly the winner here.
As a profit maxi, rotating back into ETH after SOL/ETH makes a new ATH is going to be a godlike rotation for the ETH to $20,000.”
SOL surged to an all-time high of $249.64 on Wednesday but has now settled back to $233.51, still up nearly 25% from a weekly low of $186.95, according to CoinGecko.
Looking at tokenized sports exchange Chiliz, SmartContracter also expects the CHZ altcoin to jump in price on the Bitcoin (BTC) chart.
“CHZ/BTC also painting a monster weekly bullflag breakout. I really think this thing’s gonna rocket 2-3x from here.”
CHZ is currently the 76th-ranked crypto by market cap and sits in the middle of its 7-day price range at $0.45, according to CoinGecko.
Finally, the analyst is eyeing the native tokens of the gaming metaverse Star Atlas DAO.
“POLIS and ATLAS finally gearing up for a run. Initial listing hype died off, got that NFT gaming/metaverse narrative plus clean trendline break on volume, SNED [SEND].”
POLIS is trading for $8.57 at time of writing, up 36.5% from its all-time low of $6.27 on October 27th.
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Real Vision founder and CEO Raoul Pal is highlighting four altcoin projects that he believes have major upside in the long run.
Pal tells his 711,000 Twitter followers that altcoins targeting unique social and virtual use cases are currently the most undervalued on the market.
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He points to the non-fungible token (NFT) platform Rally (RLY), tokenized sports exchange Chiliz (CHZ), and gaming metaverses The Sandbox (SAND) and Decentraland (MANA) as four of the most early and promising protocols in all of crypto.
He’s also a big believer in the NFT-focused company Dapper Labs.
“I obviously also own BTC and a whole bunch of other crypto (layers 1’s, DeFi and interoperability stuff). I think the most undervalued plays for the future (not now) are Rally, Chiliz, Dapper Labs, The Sandbox, Decentraland and other metaverse and social tokens…
I’m not shilling them as they are big-picture future plays. I am not looking for quick gains in those strategic, undervalued bets so don’t follow me in expecting a pump.”
According to Pal, Facebook’s recent rebranding to Meta is a fresh sign that a virtual transformation is underway that will introduce the masses to blockchain technology.
“Make no mistake – Meta/Facebook with Diem and the metaverse experience is a way to onboard billions of people into this world of distributed ledger technology…
This is what adoption looks like – it maybe not what you want, but it is what it is. Again, we have the choice to participate or not. This is very different to the physical world. Your opinion of Meta is just a matter of where you hang out.”
Pal also says now he holds “irresponsibly” long positions in Ethereum (ETH), which recently hit a new all-time high, that dwarf all of his other personal investments.
“Just so we are clear – I am more than irresponsibly long ETH right now. I now have leverage but via calls. This is by far and away the biggest personal position of my entire life by a factor of 10 (or more).
My view horizon for this part of the trade is 6 to 9 months.”
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Sorare, an Ethereum-backed fantasy football platform, has announced its latest partnership with the top two leagues in Germany, the top-flight Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 DE.
Dedicated to helping rebrand the utilities of blockchain technology by remodelling the offerings of traditional fantasy gaming platforms, the partnership between Sorare and the Bundesliga leagues will help to broaden the former’s ecosystem.
“We’re honoured to announce our newest partnership with the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2. DE,” Sorare said in a statement, “The Bundesliga is an iconic football league and home to some of the most exciting clubs and footballers in the world. Following our partnership with the German national team, we’re excited to further expand in Germany and welcome football fans who know all about celebrating their passion.”
Sorare creates digital collectables for each sports team onboarded on its platform. The same items will be done for each Bundesliga team, including Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, and RB Leipzig, to mention a few. All players in the league will also be represented. However, Sorare said these collectables will not be ready until the end of October.
Many football teams are beginning to leverage the capabilities of digital currencies to engage more with their fans spread worldwide. The embrace of blockchain technology by individual German football teams with Sorare predates the Bundesliga partnership, as Bayern Munich notably tapped Sorare’s tokenization program back in November last year.
The majority of the top football clubs are also building their fan tokens using the platform introduced by Socios and Chiliz, with prominent names including FC Barcelona, Paris Saint Germaine, Juventus FC, and Atletico Madrid, amongst others. While the integration and utility definition of soccer teams using blockchain is still in its infancy, it has notably generated enough traction, as shown by the venture capital funding from big investors in the industry.
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Popular crypto strategist Kaleo says that one red-hot altcoin is likely to keep carrying on upward, while also giving some predictions on two more digital assets.
The pseudonymous trader tells his 360,000 followers that smart contract platform Solana’s (SOL) recent bullish momentum likely isn’t over as he expects the Ethereum competitor to launch a new rally.
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“SOL probably keeps running up to HTF [high timeframe] resistance just shy of $100.”
The strategist also says that Solana appears to be setting itself up for a huge breakout in its Bitcoin pair (SOL/BTC).
“SOL/BTC
Break above this resistance, and sh*t is about to get really crazy.”
Kaleo also says that Chiliz (CHZ), the native token on sports-focused fintech platform socio.com, is gearing up to take out the diagonal resistance that has kept the price of the altcoin depreciated since March.
“Keeping an eye on CHZ here. NFT [non-fungible tokens] tokens are starting to pick up steam again, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Chiliz run it back to the spring highs when it’s able to break out of the HTF resistance here.”
The other altcoin the trader has his eye on is Raydium (RAY), an automated market maker (AMM) protocol built on the Solana blockchain. According to Kaleo, RAY is jostling to ignite a 100% surge from its current value of $7.23.
“RAY
Solana ecosystem projects look ready to make another leg higher. I decided I don’t have enough exposure – so I went ahead and snagged a bag of RAY. Looking for a move back to double digits to resistance from the May 19th breakdown.”
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PSG, a fan token launched by Paris Saint-Germain, resumed its uptrend Thursday after Lionel Messi confirmed that he is joining the French football club.
The PSG/USD pair jumped by 10.57% to hit an intraday high of $41.90. The pair’s latest upside move followed an almost 40% bearish correction from its all-time high of $61.53, achieved on Aug. 10 amid speculation that Argentinian football superstar Messi would sign a multi-year contract with Paris Saint-Germain.
“Paris Saint-Germain is a possibility, yes,” Messi stated during his emotional farewell address after ending his 19-year stint at FC Barcelona, on Sunday. However, he added that “nothing is confirmed” and that he is still talking about the possibility of joining Paris Saint-Germain.
The cost to purchase one PSG token almost doubled after Messi’s public address. It later corrected due to what appeared like profit-taking but resumed its bull run entering the Thursday session, almost a day after Messi finalized his two-year contract with Paris Saint-Germain.
Moreover, Paris Saint-Germain revealed that the €35 million per season financial package to Messi would also include payments in PSG fan tokens. The news service cited sources from the football club, claiming that PSG would be a part of Messi’s “welcome package,” provided by Socios.com, the club’s fan token provider.
Socios’ own in-house currency, Chiliz (CHZ), rallied up to 12.30% to $0.368 for the first time in almost two months, after the Messi-PSG news broke out.
The news, on the whole, served as a validation of the sports industry’s active foray into the widely untapped world of cryptocurrencies. In doing so, clubs attempted to employ digitized tokens to provide holders the right to vote on minor decisions and enable them to buy sports merchandise.
On the other hand, fan tokens’ popularity also served as an opportunity to gauge fan sentiment for any decision a club makes. For instance, PSG’s rally to an all-time high based on potential Messi recruitment helped showcase the club’s followers approval of the decision.
Football clubs Manchester United, Arsenal, FC Barcelona, and Italian AC Milan launched their fan tokens earlier this year. Even the national football team of Portugal launched its own crypto token in June on Socios.com.
Meanwhile, the French Football Federation announced that it would launch player nonfungible tokens (NFT) alongside Sorare, a blockchain-based fantasy soccer game.
Socios.com’s Chiliz exchange founder and CEO Alexandre Dreyfus noted that clubs that signed up with them at the early stage made massive profits in terms of revenue. When the business model of monetizing fan engagement worked financially, more clubs joined them.
“The thing is, all of these teams, they talk to each other,” Dreyfus told Sports Pro Media.
“So they call each other and say, ‘hey, can we have more information about your partnership with Socios? Does it work? Are we legit? Did you really get paid the amount you got paid?”
As a result, Socios.com has grown its partners from 20 to 48 so far in 2021, raking in more than $200 million in revenues.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
