The global crypto market cap is $1.67T 3.15%▲ with a 24-hour market volume of $90.04B 27.82%▼. Bitcoin's dominance is currently 41.95% 0.17%▼. CURRENT PRICES BY MARKET CAP | # | Name | Price | 24h % | | 1 | Bitcoin BTC | $36,961.38 | 2.02% ▲ | | 2 | Ethereum ETH | $2,456.49 | 3.03% ▲ | | 3 | BNB BNB | $382.07 | 4.63% ▲ | | 4 | Cardano ADA | $1.05 | 1.56% ▼ | | 5 | Solana SOL | $95.32 | 5.71% ▲ | Source: CoinMarketCap, 15:15 EST
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BitFuFu, a Singapore-based cryptocurrency mining service provider, will go public in the U.S. after merging with the Nasdaq-listed Arisz Acquisition SPAC. The Bitmain-backed company is valued at $1.5B. More: - Bitmain and a spinoff company, Antpool Technologies, have led $70M of fully committed private investment in public equity (PIPE) into Arisz, through the definitive business combination agreement.
- BitFuFu offers mining facilities to companies looking to mine cryptocurrency without investing in facilities.
- Cloud-mining, self-mining, and miner hosting facilities are provided by the company.
- Leo Lu, founder and CEO of BitFuFu, expects the acquisition and subsequent listing will improve corporate governance, increase transparency, and attract new talent.
- Bitmain signed a 10-year mining hosting arrangement with BitFuFu.
- The former has invested in BitFuFu to become its sole cloud service partner and also provided mining hardware, including machines and mining pools.
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TOP NFT COLLECTIONS (24hr Volume) | # | Name | 24h Volume | 24h % | | 1 | Cryptopunks ETH | $19.62M | 494.77% ▲ | | 2 | Bored Ape YC ETH | $10.86M | 109.41% ▲ | | 3 | Mutant Ape YC ETH | $9.3M | 264.3% ▲ | | 4 | Azuki ETH | $7.74M | 123.17% ▲ | | 5 | Genesis Creepz ETH | $6.69M | 146.51% ▲ | Source: DappRadar, 15:30 EST (0% royalty NFTs with the majority of their daily transaction volume on LooksRare omitted)
TOP ETH NFT COLLECTIONS (Floor Cap) | # | Name | Floor Price (ETH) | 24h % | | 1 | Bored Ape YC | Ξ 93 | 6.04% ▲ | | 2 | CryptoPunks | Ξ 77 | 14.93% ▲ | | 3 | Mutant Ape YC | Ξ 17.95 | 16.41% ▲ | | 4 | Cool Cats | Ξ 14.84 | 24.71% ▲ | | 5 | CLONE X | Ξ 6.55 | 1.42% ▲ | Source: NFT Price Floor, 15:30 EST
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Polymarket relaunched its site but will restrict access of U.S. users to view-only. The crypto-based prediction market will use a geoblocking policy so that U.S. residents cannot trade, as directed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) earlier this month. More: - The CFTC investigated Polymarket’s event-based options contract and found that it failed to obtain a designated contract market certification or a swap execution facility registration.
- Polymarket reached a $1.4M settlement with the CFTC on Jan. 3.
- The company was ordered to close certain markets and refund users by Jan. 24 as part of the settlement.
- The information markets platform later confirmed that it would exit three markets.
- As part of the CFTC settlement, the company will not be able to provide full access to U.S. users and hence will grant them restricted view-only access.
- The company has added new markets in several areas where it will be relaunching operations.
- New markets include cryptocurrency, NFTs, business, politics, and culture.
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 ๐ Fresh Funding ๐ BCB Group, Digital currency banking partner: $60M. The Series A funding round was led by Foundation Capital with participation from Circle, Backed VC, North Island Ventures, and others. More: - BCB Group provides multi-currency foreign exchange and digital OTC currency payment solutions for crypto clients.
- Its clientele includes Bitstamp, Coinbase, Kraken, and several others.
- The London-based startup will use the fresh funding for the development of its yield product and fund the acquisition of Germany-based Sutor Bank.
- The startup is already exploring options for another $300M funding round.
Swing, Crypto protocol: $6M. The funding round was led by Republic Capital with participation from Celer, Bitcoin.com, Morningstar Ventures, and others. More: - Swing helps users move crypto across layer 1 (base layer) and layer 2 (companion network) blockchains.
- The cross-chain liquidity and bridge protocol was valued at $60M at the recent funding round.
- The platform currently supports cross-chain transfer on Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche, Binance Smart Chain, Arbitrum, and Moonriver.
Flint, Stablecoin trading app: $5.1M. The seed funding round was led by Sequoia Capital India and Global Founders Capital with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Better Capital, Antler India, MSA Capital, and others. Sixty angel investors also invested in the company. More: - The India-based startup Flint provides a platform for investors who want moderate but low-risk returns on cryptocurrency investments and grants them stable returns of 13% p.a.
- The company invests exclusively in stablecoins like Tether and USDC.
- Flint claims that over 75,000 users across 78 nations have already joined its early access program.
- The fresh funding will be used to double the workforce, hire across senior positions, product development, and strengthen legal and risk functions.
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▲ TOP GAINERS | # | Name | Price | 24h % | | 1 | Loopring LRC | $1.03 | 26.09% ▲ | | 2 | BORA BORA | $0.8726 | 16.04% ▲ | | 3 | NEAR Protocol NEAR | $12.07 | 14.16% ▲ | | 4 | Helium HNT | $25.17 | 14.01% ▲ | | 5 | THORChain RUNE | $4.16 | 13.17% ▲ | ▼ TOP LOSERS | # | Name | Price | 24h % | | 1 | Maker MKR | $1,826.13 | 3.43%▼ | | 2 | Theta Fuel TFUEL | $0.1264 | 2.55%▼ | | 3 | Terra LUNA | $64.29 | 2.35%▼ | | 4 | Arweave AR | $31.60 | 1.66%▼ | | 5 | Cardano ADA | $1.04 | 1.58%▼ | Source: CoinMarketCap, 15:45 EST
*Limited to cryptocurrencies in the Top 100
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The Blockchain-Based Service Network (BSN), a government-backed blockchain infrastructure project in China, launched its NFT platform today. The Chinese authorities are promoting the state-compliant NFT building BSN-Distributed Digital Certificate (BSN-DDC) network to substitute and deter the citizens from using Ethereum blockchains. More: - BSN-DDCs are similar to NFTs but restrict access to Chinese nationals only and accept payment in fiat currency.
- At launch, scheduled for March in the city of Nanjing, the network will offer 10 Open Permissioned Blockchains.
- Five of them were announced:
- Ethereum-based Wuhan Chain.
- Wenchang Chain powered by Cosmos-based IRISnet.
- Corda-based Zunyi Chain.
- EOS-based Zhongyi Chain.
- FISCO BCOS-based Tai'an Chain.
- Rong Bao Zhai Auction, Hainan International Culture and Artworks Exchange Center, Sumavison, Baiwang, and Digital Art Fair Asia were announced as partners to create and sell NFTs on the platform.
- An additional 26 founding partners are expected to be announced at launch.
- The BSN-DDC foundation is built on the Blockchain Services Network, a low-cost platform that allows developers to create and deploy decentralized apps.
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Singapore-based Blockchain Founders Fund closed a $75M investment for its BFF II fund. The fund will invest in early-stage startups in blockchain, crypto, Web3, and metaverse domains. More: - The company often invests in startups in the pre-seed and seed stage and follows up with an up to $5M investment in future rounds.
- Its portfolio includes a top-ranked blockchain game called Splinterlands, as well as LunarCrush, ASM, and Monkey Ball.
- It has also invested in decentralized derivatives exchange FXDX and video games tech startup Breshna.
- The fund saw participation from NEO Global Capital, AppWorks, The Sandbox COO Sebastien Borget, GSR, LD Capital, Metavest Capital, TechMeetsTrader, Zipmex, Baksh Capital, Octava, Aria Group, and others.
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Kazakhstan’s national grid operator KEGOC has scheduled a power cut for crypto miners over seven days starting Jan. 24. The nation has been unable to meet its power demand recently. More: - The power supply shortage is due to a recent major transmission line disconnection resulting from an imbalance in the Central Asian power system.
- A knock-on effect of this was a power surge on the North-East-South 500-kilovolt (kV) power transmission line.
- A memo highlighting the conditions has been sent to 196 energy companies.
- Miners in Kazakhstan, home to 20% of the world’s bitcoin mining in Aug. 2021, are under increasing government pressure and are exploring options to move out their mining from the nation in light of Kazakhstan’s proposed 100-megawatt energy limit for new crypto mines.
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- The International Monetary Fund’s executive board advised El Salvador to stop using bitcoin as legal tender due to the financial risks, volatility, and liabilities associated with the digital currency.
- Ethereum has rebranded its Ethereum 1.0 layer to the execution layer and Ethereum 2.0 to the consensus layer. The former is the Proof-of-Work blockchain, while the latter is a Proof-of-Stake chain. Both will be integrated at a later date and will be collectively known as Ethereum.
- PleasrDAO, a collective of NFT collectors and digital artists, is aiming to raise $69M at a ~$1B valuation by Feb. 2022.
- YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki indicated that it is considering adding NFT features to the video platform in the annual letter addressed to its creators.
- OpenSea is refunding users whose NFTs were sold at low prices due to a bug in the UI.
- Syndicate Protocol announced the launch of a beta version of the crypto investing tool Web3 Investment Clubs. The decentralized investment platform will leverage social media networks to form groups of people into clubs to invest in blockchain.
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 |  | Karan Chafekar is a Management Consultant, Business enthusiast, and Licensed Pilot. | | | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 Ford. | |
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