Bitcoin Price: $60,344.87(+0.48%)
Ethereum Price: $4,287.80 (+1.85%)
NFT Interest Grows as Volumes Lag, Bitcoin Hovers as Dollar Jumps
- Worldwide Google searches for “NFT” hit new highs in November even as OpenSea’s volumes remain relatively stagnant; we have seen a bit of an uptick in recent days but volumes are still well below late summer highs.
- The continued rise in search interest suggests NFTs are far from dead and may even be an early indication that another wave of activity is on the horizon. At their peak, there was a daily influx of NFT projects dropping left and right, so the disconnect in volume could imply less speculative hype and greater focus on projects with strong, growing communities. There’s only so much attention and demand among crypto enthusiasts so eventually constant drops and short-term flipping was going to lose a bit of steam, especially as more participants started to experience the downside of buying high and selling lower.
- With that in mind, it is observable that there are less NFT mintings in this cycle, which can lead to less secondary market trading activity and, therefore, lower volumes on marketplaces like OpenSea.
- Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) was the highlight in the past week as Jimmy Fallon came aboard (pun intended), Post Malone featuring his ape in his new music video (from 0:15) and NBA all-star Ruby Gobert showed off his ape. This spilled over to Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) as it is a cheaper alternative where floor prices soared over 130% since the start of November.
- Other notables include Doodles, which boasts a strong community and is backed by a treasury where NFT holders can vote on proposals, and Creatures, which were featured as one of the projects that Coinbase NFT teamed up with for drops.
- MVRV, which measures the ratio between BTC’s market cap and realized cap, is a far cry from prior highs, including BTC’s local price top in late Q1 early Q2 2021; prior BTC cycle tops saw much higher peak MVRV levels, which indicates BTC still has more room to run.
- The dollar has been rallying versus most major currencies since June’s FOMC meeting, hitting a 16-month high on Tuesday on the back of strengthening economic data and growing expectations for tighter monetary policy on the horizon; the Citi U.S. Economic Surprise Index is trending higher after spending nearly four months in negative territory.
Fidelity clears regulatory hurdle to become Canada’s first institutional Bitcoin custodian
- As reported by The Globe and Mail, Fidelity Clearing Canada received approval from the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada on Wednesday to launch a Bitcoin (BTC) trading and custody platform. It is designed for use by institutional investors — such as pension funds, portfolio managers and mutual funds — and would be a first-of-a-kind service in the country.
- The firm also plans to cater to retail investors with its regulatory filing for a Bitcoin exchange-traded funded and mutual fund, which was submitted earlier this week. As of September, Fidelity has over $4.2 trillion in assets under management around the world. In addition, exchange-traded cryptocurrency products are rapidly gaining traction, with more than 40 such instruments awaiting approval in the United States alone.
A quarter of Aussie crypto users plan to buy crypto Christmas gifts: Survey
- More than a quarter of Australian crypto users surveyed in October plan to use digital assets as a part of their Christmas presents this holiday season.
- The survey by crypto wallet and services provider Crypto.com polled 2,020 Australians aged 18–59. Of those that had used crypto over the past 12 months, 26% responded that they would consider giving some away for Christmas or buying crypto-related gifts.
- More than half, or 53% of those planning to buy crypto gifts, said they would consider purchasing crypto assets, like Bitcoin (BTC) or Ethereum (ETH) for their loved ones this Christmas.
- The survey also found that crypto merchandise such as themed socks or hoodies might be popular gifts this holiday season as 43% of those planning to buy crypto-centric gifts said they were looking for these items.
- Around 42% said they were thinking about buying coin vouchers, and 35% were considering buying crypto books. Around a third of those surveyed said they were thinking about gifting nonfungible tokens (NFTs).
Australian baseball club Perth Heat to pay athletes in Bitcoin
- Australian baseball club Perth Heat has announced a partnership with Bitcoin payment processor OpenNode to accept and make payments in Bitcoin (BTC). The partnership allows Perth Heat to pay professional players and staff in Bitcoin.
- According to the announcement, the professional sports club will send and receive payments in Bitcoin over the Lightning Network. In addition, the partnership with OpenNode allows the Perth Heat organization to accept Bitcoin payments for sponsorships, merchandise and other revenue streams.
- Taking things a step further, Perth Heat has also rebranded itself as “the Bitcoin baseball team.”
Crypto.com is spending $700 million in cash to rename Staples Center in Los Angeles
- Crypto.com has struck a 20-year deal with AEG, the owner and operator of the Staples Center in Los Angeles, to rename one of the most famous sports and entertainment venues in the U.S.
- Staples Center, the official home to four professional sports franchises — basketball’s Lakers, Clippers and Sparks, and ice hockey’s Kings — will be renamed to Crypto.com Arena. The center has also hosted over 15 GRAMMY Awards shows. The upcoming GRAMMY Awards in January will also be held at the same center.
- Crypto.com has agreed to pay AEG $700 million for the naming rights, a source with knowledge of the deal told The Block. This makes it one of the largest sponsorship deals in sports history.
Portal partners with Polygon to advance DeFi on Bitcoin
- Decentralized exchange, or DEX, and self-custody wallet platform Portal has announced a strategic partnership agreement with layer-two blockchain network Polygon to advance Bitcoin functionality in the decentralized finance, or DeFi, market.
- Portal currently offers fully decentralized on-chain spot and options trading, as well as peer-to-peer lending and borrowing. This partnership is expected to expand these user capabilities through the enablement of zero-knowledge swap functionalities for wBTC/BTC as well as POS/WBTC to BTC, in addition to Polygon operating a liquidity-supporting node on Portal DEX.
- Portal’s primary objective is to cultivate a self-governing, anonymous and uncensored ecosystem for Bitcoin on DeFi. The platform’s utilization of Bitcoin’s hash time-locked contracts grants users robust security in their transaction activities, while its layer-three technology, Fabric, enables the deployment of typical smart contract functionalities such as staking and liquidity,
