In a recent interview (with Crypto Capital Venture Founder Dan Gambardello) Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson talked about his vision for Cardano in 2022. According to a report by The Daily Hodl, here are a few highlights from that interview: “I think everything will get done that I outlined – the sidechains, the pipelining, the import […]
NFTs existed prior to 2021, but it was last year that digital art exploded in the blockchain space, and digital artists shone in the NFT spotlight. While the crypto world became an exciting place to be, a new generation of NFT artists entered the world’s largest artistic movement to date. Crypto investors are having a difficult time in January 2022, as the price of Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies continues to fluctuate wildly. Some have blamed the drop on the Federal Reserve’s recent announcement of additional rate hikes, as well as political unrest in Kazakhstan, which drastically reduced Bitcoin’s hash rate. The price of Bitcoin fell below $42,000 on January 14 as traders hoped for bullish signals. It appears that while the crypto market continues to struggle, the NFT space is witnessing incredible surge in trading volumes and interest. NFT & GameFi In Sweet Month A new report has shown that NFT and GameFi transactions continued to rise despite falling crypto prices. The report by Dappradar noted that “the number of UAW connected to Ethereum NFT DApps has grown by 43% since Q3 2021,” according to the research. The money generated by NFT trading increased from $10.7 billion in Q3 2021 to $11.9 billion in the first ten days of 2022, according to the research. This rise could also be attributed to recent advancements in the NFT arena, such as the establishment of the LooksRare marketplace. “Blockchain games continue to be widely used,” according to the report, noting that they “represent 52% of the industry’s usage.” The case for blockchain games to continue developing during 2022 has been enhanced by expanding metaverse technologies and the growing success of the play-to-earn model. Data from Dune Analytics revealed OpenSea, the leading NFT marketplace, generated approximately $2.7 billion in volume in the first half of January, on track to beat the $3.4 billion high it set in August. OpenSea had its highest single-day volume of $261 million dollars on January 9. So far in January, OpenSea has surpassed $150 million in trade volume on a daily basis. OpenSea daily volume on Ethereum. Source: Dune Analytics Related article | OpenSea Transaction Volume Shows That NFTs Are Not Slowing Mason Nystrom, a senior research analyst at Messari, believes the NFT market is in a better position than recent cryptocurrency price moves suggest. Nystrom noted that: “The cryptomarkets are fairly correlated – the market tends to rise and fall with Bitcoin. This has made it surprisingly interesting over the recent downturn as the NFT market has continued to increase in volumes. OpenSea has recorded $2.3 billion in NFT volume in January so far, on pace to break its monthly volume record if volumes continue.” Market Reflects Growing Interest During this market downturn, Chinese consumers have shown a growing interest in NFTs and blockchain gaming, which aligns with recent Chinese announcements that the government will begin building its own non-crypto NFT. “China is now the country with the most extensive user base…increasing 166 percent from the numbers registered in November,” according to DappRadar’s research. Crypto Market Cap Stands at $2 trillion. Source: TradingView Despite the near-term volatility that NFTs may experience as a result of current market conditions, the nature of these digital assets may lead to a decoupling of prices within crypto marketplaces. Despite the fact that the United States is currently ranked second in terms of overall traffic, the country added 175,000 new members to the NFT ecosystem, representing a 38 percent increase. This is due in part to a rise in interest among younger audiences, as Millennials and Generation Z begin to account for a larger share of traffic. Related article | a16z, Mark Cuban invest $23 million in NFT platform OpenSea Featured Image from Unsplash | Charts by Dune Analytics, and TradingView
Data from cryptocurrency analytics firm Santiment suggests cryptocurrency whales have been quietly accumulating Litecoin ($LTC), a cryptocurrency that has been described as the “silver to Bitcoin’s gold,” over the last 15 weeks. On social media, Santiment shared data showing that whale addresses holding between 10,000 and 1 million LTC have been accumulating the cryptocurrency for […]
PlayUp has appealed a federal judge’s ruling denying the Australian-based gaming company an injunction against its former CEO, who it claims violated the terms of her employment contract and scuttled a deal that would have led to a $450 million sale of the company. The appeal is the latest twist in a case that also […]
North Korean hackers stole cryptocurrency worth about $400 million last year in at least seven major attacks on crypto platforms. “Only 20% of the stolen funds were bitcoin … And for the first time ever, ether accounted for a majority of the funds stolen at 58%,” said blockchain data analytics firm Chainalysis.
North Korean Hackers […]
Alkesh Shah, a digital asset strategist at Bank of America has revealed he believes Solana ($SOL) has the potential to “become the Visa” of the cryptocurrency space as it focuses on scalability, low transaction fees, and ease of use. As reported by Business Insider, Shah has pointed out that Solana has settled over 50 billion […]
Wednesday, Representative Michael Davis, R-Kansas City, proposed legislation that would modify Missouri’s existing ‘Right-to-Try’ law. Right-to-try aims to allow patients who have been diagnosed with life-threatening diseases or conditions who have tried all approved treatment options and who are unable to participate in a clinical trial to access certain unapproved treatments. Right-to-try permits those patients […]
With a new year, comes a new legislative session, which started on January 10, 2022 here in Washington state. In Washington, we have short sessions (60 days) in even-numbered years and longer sessions (105 days) in odd-numbered years, so in 2022 there will be a short session. This post examines five cannabis-related bills that we […]
Global investment bank JPMorgan has asked its clients what they think the price of bitcoin will be by year-end. Among the bank’s clients who responded, 55% expect the price of bitcoin to end the year at $60K or higher.
What JPMorgan’s Clients Expect the Price of Bitcoin to Be by Year-End
JPMorgan has conducted […]