EddieJayonCrypto
28 Sep 22
• Major fiats outperformed by Bitcoin in face of strong Dollar• Sam Bankman-Fried is on a roll and may try to increase his winning streak to include the assets of Celsius• Strike gets $80M in Series B round• Christie's launches new NFT platform with eyes set on the Metaverse• IMF says Proof-of-Stak...
• Major fiats outperformed by Bitcoin in face of strong Dollar• Sam Bankman-Fried is on a roll and may try to increase his winning streak to include the assets of Celsius• Strike gets $80M in Series B round• Christie's launches new NFT platform with eyes set on the Metaverse• IMF says Proof-of-Stake tech has voting power risks• Japan targeting illicit crypto transactions through stronger KYC regulation• Robinhood launches crypto wallet on PolygonThe world will always have macro events that will affect the markets. There are also other things that can capture attention that are not actually at a macro scale. Here is what is on my mind today.1. I think it is worth noting even the New York Times recognizes the performance of Bitcoin over fiat around the world and even doing better than gold. The article was published yesterday and notes how other currencies are falling against the dollar while Bitcoin has been holding strong when compared to currencies like the Yen, Pound Sterling and other currencies. It is a strange time when you can look at fiat and see they are more volatile than Bitcoin. 2. Sam Bankman-Fried has been on a roll for some time and it seems like he may try to increase his winning streak to include the assets of Celsius. Rumors have been floating around that SBF is very interested in scooping up those assets from the bankrupt and now headless crypto lending firm. I say headless because Alex Mashinsky has issued his resignation letter to the company. There should be no shock there. The embattled former-CEO is the cause of the lender's abrupt failure and had not created a viable comeback solution. 3. In a Series B round of financing Bitcoin payments company Strike raised $80M. What struck me was the participation in this round including Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Wyoming. The round was led by venture capital firm Ten31. Strike leverages Lightning Network to provide faster payments Bitcoin solutions for everyday purchases. 4. Famed auction house Christies launched Christies 3.0. A fully on-chain Ethereum-based NFT marketplace. The new marketplace was created in collaboration with Manifold, a smart contracts start-up. Christie's is not done yet as they have also partnered with Chainalysis, a well-known blockchain analytics firm and Spatial, a metaverse platform, to create additional functionality in the Web3 space. Clearly, Christie's is looking to become a major destination and not just an NFT marketplace. 5. The International Monetary Fund has identified potential issues with the Proof-of-Stake approach to blockchain infrastructure. I am giggling since their point is very similar to what they have said previously about Proof-of-Work, where there is a potential for a concentration of validators that possess voting power and control over a given network. Of course, as validation networks grow, this risk is diminished. Remember, the IMF is not a fan of the Cryptoverse. 6. Japan is about to drop a hammer on illicit transactions. Their focus is on monitoring payments, including sharing of customer information. That seems to put the onus on businesses to tell who they are doing business with and not necessarily on the payers. KYC is a growing concern across the Cryptoverse. Keep in mind it is going to be difficult for anyone to police OTC transactions. 7. Robinhood finally launches a non-custodial crypto wallet. Leveraging layer-2 technology platform Polygon, the wallet will add more blockchains in the future. It is said that the wallet will trade predominantly on decentralized exchanges. Of course, this does leave the question of whether or not there would eventually be the ability to trade on FTX given its stake in Robinhood.