Market Summary

Bitcoin Price: US$ 20,723.52 (+0.73%)
Ethereum Price: US$ 1,125.85 (-0.21 %) 

Liquidity Dries Up, ZK vs Optimistic Rollups, NFTs Transforming Shopify

• The bid/offer spread is the difference between an asset’s bid price and ask price. This spread can be used as a measure of liquidity. A small spread indicates higher liquidity as there are more market participants, and a larger spread indicates smaller liquidity and lesser market participants.
• As the market turmoil continues due to potential insolvencies and liquidations, this has caused bid/offer spreads to broaden across multiple exchanges as market participants become hesitant to buy/sell — reducing the assets’ liquidity.
• The bid/offer spreads for BTC and ETH are widening to new highs. This will likely continue until market sentiment improves and market participants re-enter.
• Continue on Delphi…

Uniswap acquires NFT marketplace aggregator Genie to further ‘universal ownership’ goals

• Decentralized exchange Uniswap announced the acquisition of the NFT marketplace aggregator Genie on June 21st. Uniswap said this move is part of its mission to unlock universal ownership and exchange on its platform.
• Uniswap is now integrating NFTs into its product line beginning with the Uniswap web app and later integrations are said to include developer APIs and widgets. This isn’t the first time Uniswap has worked with NFTs. In the spring of 2019 it launched Unisocks which offered NFT liquidity pools backed by real-world assets.
• Uniswap said in the announcement, “We’re excited to bring what we’ve learned building DeFi products to NFTs.” In August Uniswap said it planned to airdrop USDC to historical Genie users in an effort to share the value of this acquisition and integration.

Colombia’s new president seems to be a fan of Bitcoin

• Gustavo Petro, who recently won the 2022 Colombian presidential election, has previously made statements in favor of cryptocurrencies.
• Petro will replace Iván Duque Márquez as the president of Colombia on August 7 for four years after winning the second round of a run-off election on Sunday. The president-elect took to social media in December 2017 shortly after a major bull run to speak on the “strength” of Bitcoin (BTC). Petro hinted at the time that cryptocurrencies like BTC could remove power from government and traditional banks and give it back to the people.
• His running mate, Francia Márquez, who will become the vice president of Colombia, has been largely silent on crypto-related policies. Some of the president-elect’s remarks from 2021 included a response to El Salvador President Nayib Bukele’s idea of building volcano-powered crypto miners in which he suggested that the country use the natural resources of its western coastline to mine crypto.

FTX US acquires Embed Financial subsidiary for stock trading platform

• The United States-based subsidiary of cryptocurrency exchange FTX will acquire Embed Financial Technologies as part of a deal aimed at “enhancing” the company’s stock offering.
• In a Tuesday announcement, FTX US said it will purchase Embed Financial Technologies and its subsidiary, clearing firm Embed Clearing, for an undisclosed amount “pending satisfaction of customary closing conditions and regulatory approval.” The deal followed the crypto firm’s announcement in May that it would be launching a stock trading platform, with FTX Stocks partnering with Embed Clearing to “execute, clear and custody” user accounts and trades.
• According to FTX US president Brett Harrison, the acquisition of the clearing firm will provide the technology and infrastructure facilitating the crypto exchange’s stock offering. The FTX Stocks platform has been in beta testing for select clients in the United States since May, with the exchange reporting on Tuesday it would be available to all domestic customers sometime in the summer.

GameFi continues to grow despite crypto winter: DappRadar report

• Blockchain games were the subject of the latest DappRadar x BGA Games Report #5, published on Tuesday. The report looked at healthy ecosystems and investments coming into the GameFi and metaverse markets.
• Several projects were covered in detail in the report, which outlined their continued success and growth. Splinterlands, Illuvium, Galaverse and STEPN have continued to bring new players to their platforms, gain financial interest and expand their businesses.
• DappRadar claimed that a common theme between many of these popular projects was the underlying utility provided by the gaming aspect, itself. GameFi and Metaverse projects have begun to utilize nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and crypto tokens in ways other than pure speculation — one example being the NFT shoes in the STEPN move-to-earn (M2E) project, which can be bought and sold in the STEPN metaverse, potentially offering some incentive in addition to the exercise aspects of the game.

Solana NFT marketplace Magic Eden closes $130M Series B round at $1.6B valuation

• On Tuesday, Magic Eden, a popular nonfungible tokens (NFTs) platform on the Solana (SOL) blockchain with 112,927 SOL ($4 million) in 24-hour trading volume, announced that it had closed a Series B round for $130 million. The funding round was led by investors such as Electric Capital, Greylock, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Paradigm and Sequoia Capital  valued the firm at $1.6 billion.
• The newly-infused capital will be used to expand the company’s primary and secondary marketplaces, explore multi-chain opportunities, allow new hirings, and for use in research and development. Since its inception in September 2021, the marketplace now receives an average of 22 million unique monthly sessions and sees over 40,000 NFTs traded daily.
• Magic Eden’s Launchpad has also onboarded over 250 projects to date. In addition, it offers customization, marketing support, and operational execution to new NFT collections coming onto the primary market. Meanwhile, its secondary market covers over 7,000 listings and sees over 92% of all NFT volume on Solana.
• Furthermore, Magic Eden has also launched over 50 games and metaverse projects. In that segment, the firm oversees 90% of all gaming NFTs on Solana traded on its marketplace. Regarding the development, Zhuoxun Yin, chief operating office and co-founder of Magic Eden, commented:
• “We’re thrilled to have the continued support of our investors and community and look forward to delivering on Solana and beyond.”

NEAR Foundation Launches Smart Contract Audit Program

• NEAR Foundation is excited to announce that its Smart Contract Audit Program is live. This is an important step in expanding smart contract audits and enhancing ecosystem security.
• Many new projects request smart contract audits, necessitating an expansion of the number of auditors the Foundation has on retainer. This effort will make the process of choosing the most experienced and skilled auditors seamless.

Deloitte and NYDIG set up alliance to help businesses adopt Bitcoin

• Professional services giant Deloitte is getting increasingly serious about Bitcoin (BTC) amid the ongoing market downturn, setting up a major initiative to promote BTC adoption.
• Deloitte has partnered with the Bitcoin-focused financial services firm, New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG), to help companies of all sizes implement digital assets.
• According to a joint announcement on Monday, NYDIG and Deloitte are launching a strategic alliance to create a centralized approach for clients seeking advice to adopt Bitcoin products and services.
• The companies will work together to enable blockchain and digital asset-based services across multiple areas involving Bitcoin-related products, including banking, loyalty and rewards programs, employee benefits and others.
• According to the announcement, global financial institutions and banks have been facing an increasing demand to provide trusted exposure to Bitcoin. The alliance between Deloitte and NYDIG aims to help accelerate adoption while ensuring compliance, Deloitte’s digital assets banking regulatory practice lead Richard Rosenthal said, adding:
• “The future of financial services will center around the use of digital assets, and we are focused on advising our clients on ways to engage in a regulated and compliant way.”

Blockchain investments are disrupting the real estate industry: Report

• The Cointelegraph Research Terminal, the leading provider of premium databases and institutional-grade research on blockchain and digital assets, has added a new report to its expanding library from the industry leader in tokenization. 
• The report, from Security Token Market and sister company Security Token Advisors, covers the rapidly emerging asset-backed real estate tokenization industry. It has information on the developing shifts in the industry and is a must for any firm or business with a portfolio that encompasses real estate.
• The tokenized real estate industry is growing rapidly amid the current market frenzy. With investors looking for a more secure investment that utilizes emerging technology, the demand for blockchain-based investment opportunities backed by real-world assets is increasing. Real estate assets account for upward of 40% of the pipeline for certain technology providers in the industry, likely making it the largest and most “urgent” sector when it comes to future security token offerings.
• The existing tokenized real estate market can be broken into the following tranches: assets securitized on the blockchain, assets that are fully tokenized but not actively trading on secondary markets and assets that are fully tokenized and actively trading on secondary markets.
• The tokenization of assets such as real estate allows for these historically illiquid investments to realize additional liquidity. By trading fractionalized portions of a property, investors can enjoy the yield generated by rent and operations without the legal and time-consuming hassles associated with paper-based real estate investing and management.

Celsius token CEL rises 300% in one week amid a GameStop-like ‘short squeeze’ event

• The price of CEL, the native token of Celsius Network, has almost quadrupled since June 19 in what appears to be a frenzy stirred up by day traders.
• CEL’s price rose from $0.67 on June 19 to $1.59 on June 21, a 180% spike compared to the crypto market’s 12.37% rise in the same period.
• Notably, the rally started after PlanC, an independent market analyst, announced a $20 million bounty for anyone who could prove that the Celsius Network suffered a coordinated attack at the hands of a third party, which prompted the crypto lending firm to suspend withdrawals last week.
• The announcement led to a frenzy on Twitter, with many accounts placing the hashtag #CelShortSqueeze in their bio and thus reflecting their intentions to target investors who bet that CEL’s price would fall.

Ukraine sells CryptoPunks NFT donation for 90 ETH, worth over $100K

• It took cross-border sanctions and an escalating war for the Ukrainian government to realize the importance of cryptocurrencies, as it witnessed uninterrupted monetary aid in the form of crypto and nonfungible tokens (NFT).
• In a continued effort to aid the needs of its citizens and the nation, the Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, Alex Bornyakov, announced the sale of a CryptoPunks NFT for 90 Ether (ETH) that was received as a donation on April 20, 2022.
• The CryptoPunk 5364 NFT was donated to the Aid For Ukraine campaign by user 0x165cd3, who procured the artwork on March 1, 2022, for 16.19 ETH, which was worth $31,722 at the time. Soon after the NFT was donated to Ukraine, it got a buy offer for 100 ETH worth $288,414 on April 27 — the highest bid it ever received. 
• Fast forward to Sunday: Ukraine sold CryptoPunk 5364 for 90 ETH worth $102,640. However, the buyer, 0xc08f6d, spent $103,523 to compensate for the Ethereum gas fees.