Bitcoin Price: $60,058.87(-5.58%)
Ethereum Price: $4,209.76 (-7.76%)
Price Retracements, AVAX Momentum, MetaMask Usage Climbs
- BTC had a great run up through the first half of November, setting a new high near $69,000, but two major retracements of ~10% in the past week alone (one from ~$69,000 to ~$63,000 on Nov. 10 and another today from ~$66,000 to ~$60,000) has investors and traders alike back on edge.
- Leveraged traders were victims of liquidations as prices dropped and markets deleveraged. Prior to this, open interest was at peak levels for most trading pairs; typically, flushing out excessive leverage is healthy for markets over the longer term. However, market structure may need some time before order book depth and trader activity recovers.
- Multiple incentive programs on different L1s came to attract capital and usage on their chain. However, Avalanche stands out as they seem to be one of the few that’s managed to maintain and continue attracting capital onto its chain.
- Aside from its incentive program, Avalanche’s unique consensus mechanism and active support from some of the biggest names in the industry has led Avalanche’s DeFi TVL to cross $10B as its native token (AVAX) hit fresh all-time highs (~$101) just this week (AVAX is currently trading ~$96 at the time of writing).
- Metamask’s Swap feature has seen a huge usage increase in recent days, with an obvious spike in DAUs on Polygon in the last week. This is likely attributable to the MetaMask’s token rumor that has been going around on Crypto Twitter. The increase in Polygon’s MetaMask Swap usage can be just users attempting to Sybil to game MetaMask’s airdrop.
China warns state-owned enterprises to cease involvement in Bitcoin mining
- China is pressuring its own state-owned businesses to cease mining cryptocurrencies, and the government is considering harsh penalties on firms that continue, including higher energy expenses.
- According to reports, Meng Wei, a spokesperson for the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said at a press conference that as China’s top economic planner, the NDRC intends to regulate industrial-scale Bitcoin (BTC) mining and any involvement by state businesses in the activity. The NDRC, which is in charge of policymaking for mining, has reportedly recently organized a special session on the subject. It also has increased the pressure on provinces and municipalities to investigate and clean up mining by state-owned entities.
Bitcoin price dips under $60K as Dollar Strength Index reaches 16-month highs
- Bitcoin (BTC) logged its worst daily performance since September as BTC price slid by 10% to under $59,000 on Nov. 16. On the other hand, the United States dollar jumped to its best level in sixteen months after spending across the American retail sector grew despite persistent COVID-19 fears and inflation concerns.
- Meanwhile, the dollar continued its prevailing bull run smoothly as sales at the U.S. retail stores rose by 1.7% in October versus 0.4% in the previous month. That provided further evidence — after an excellent Nonfarm Payrolls report last week — that the U.S. economy has been rebounding strongly from the COVID-19 lows.
- As a result, investors raised their bids on the dollar, anticipating that the Federal Reserve would accelerate the tapering of its $120 billion a month asset purchase program, leading to earlier-than-expected rate hikes, which have remained near zero since March 2020.
Valkyrie launching $100 million hedge fund run by Tom Brady’s former business manager
- Valkyrie Investments, the firm behind one of the market’s bitcoin futures-tied exchange-traded funds, is launching a new hedge fund that aims to profit from dislocations in the fast-growing decentralized finance ecosystem.
- Housed under Valkyrie’s crypto division, the new fund will be led by Will McDonough, a Wall Street veteran who is best known for being Tom Brady’s “handler” and business manager. The so-called On-Chain DeFi Fund will actively move in and out over hundreds of coins in the DeFi market based on the firm’s own proprietary systems, according to McDonough, who is also a vice-chairman at Valkyrie.
Brave launches browser-native crypto wallet to combat fake extensions
- Privacy-oriented browser Brave continues to deepen its commitment to cryptocurrency adoption by replacing its extension-based cryptocurrency wallet with a browser-native one.
- The company announced to Cointelegraph on Tuesday that it is prepping the official launch of Brave Wallet, a self-custody cryptocurrency wallet built into the Brave desktop browser, enabling users to store and buy cryptocurrencies like Ether (ETH).
- The Sandbox Alpha is an open multi-week Play-to-Earn event starting on November 29 at 1PM UTC, in which players will have the opportunity to explore The Sandbox Metaverse for the first time, through 18 experiences created by The Sandbox’s teams.
- The Alpha Pass is an NFT ticket that will allow players to completely explore the 18 experiences of the Alpha Season content and earn up to 1,000 $SAND and three exclusive NFT rewards.
- Players without an Alpha Pass will still be able to access three full experiences and the Alpha HUB, a central multiplayer experience showcasing a range of locations, and quests, not to mention the chance to connect with other players from our amazing community. However, they will not be able to earn Play-to-Earn rewards.
Tether launches Synonym to boost Bitcoin adoption through Lightning Network
- Synonym Software Ltd., a company founded by stablecoin issuer Tether Holdings Limited, officially launched on Tuesday, setting in motion a highly ambitious project to bring Bitcoin (BTC) transactions mainstream through an independent financial platform that utilizes the Lightning Network.
- Synonym’s stated goal is to enable self-ownership and control of crypto assets by creating an open financial ecosystem that utilizes Bitcoin and the Lightning Network, the company announced Tuesday. CEO John Carvalho said “Hyperbitcoinization won’t magically happen on its own. In order to live in a world without big banks, oppressive regulations, or Big Tech presiding over our lives, we need a strategy and ecosystem to replace the legacy economy. That is where Synonym comes in.”
- The first protocol to be launched by Synonym is called Slashtags, an interoperability framework for private networks that doesn’t rely on blockchain technology and can be used by any platform for coordination, privacy and consensus.
IoTeX ‘MachineFi’ rebrand backs 200%+ rally to a new all-time high
- The biggest boost for the IoTeX ecosystem came early in November when the project announced that it was rebranding to focus on “The rise of MachineFi” as a way to further integrate machines, the Metaverse and the traditional workforce.
