The global crypto market cap is $2.15T 3.10%▼ with a 24-hour market volume of $86.88B 15.53%▼. Bitcoin's dominance is currently 39.28% 0.22%▲. CURRENT PRICES BY MARKET CAP | # | Name | Price | 24h % | | 1 | Bitcoin BTC | $44,834.28 | 2.69% ▼ | | 2 | Ethereum ETH | $3,665.67 | 3.80% ▼ | | 3 | Binance Coin BNB | $493.80 | 3.21% ▼ | | 4 | Solana SOL | $159.04 | 5.69% ▼ | | 5 | Cardano ADA | $1.26 | 4.38% ▼ | Source: CoinMarketCap, 3:00 EST
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 The government of Kazakhstan submitted its resignation today amid violent protests in Almaty, the capital city of Nur-Sultan, and elsewhere. Police used tear gas and stun grenades to drive protestors out of Almaty's main square yesterday, but video evidence shows that protestors have taken over much of the city center today — including the mayor's office. More: - The government submitted its resignation to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev today, and deputy prime minister Alikhan Smailov was appointed as the interim prime minister.
- Kazakhstan's system of government is made up of an elected president, who appoints members of a cabinet in the executive branch, as well as an assembly and a senate. The cabinet is the portion of the government that resigned today.
- The protests started when the government lifted price controls on liquified petroleum gas (LPG), which has led to higher consumer prices.
- President Tokayev tweeted that the price controls would return "in order to ensure stability in the country."
- Police have detained more than 200 people, and the government has ordered a state of emergency in Almaty and nearby states.
Zoom Out: - Kazakhstan became the second-most popular country for BTC mining following China's crypto mining ban, with an average monthly hashrate share of 18.10%.
- There were about 50 registered crypto mining data centers in Kazakhstan in October, consuming around 700 megawatts of power, and several "gray mining" operations consuming approximately an additional 250 megawatts.
- BIT Mining (BTCM) began transferring 2,600 BTC mining rigs from its Ganzi Changhe datacenter to Kazakhstan following power cuts to mining operations in China.
- Bitcoin mining rig manufacturer Canaan started moving its mining operations to Kazakhstan in June.
- An energy crisis, rolling energy and internet blackouts, and civil unrest in Kazakhstan could pose a threat to Bitcoin at the beginning of 2022.
This story appeared, in part, in Dan Smith's Inside Daily Brief newsletter. Subscribe to the Inside Daily Brief for the latest in world news.
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TOP NFT COLLECTIONS (24hr Volume) | # | Name | 24h Volume | 24h % | | 1 | Doodles V4 ETH | $11.41M | 286.74% ▲ | | 2 | Mutant Ape YC ETH | $10.65M | 52.38% ▼ | | 2 | Bored Ape YC ETH | $7.54M | 56.38% ▼ | | 4 | Clone X ETH | $7.19M | 7.84% ▼ | | 5 | Axie Infinity ETH, RONIN | $1.41M | 1.41% ▲ | Source: DappRadar, 4:45 pm EST
TOP ETH NFT COLLECTIONS (Floor Cap) | # | Name | Floor Price (ETH) | 24h % | | 1 | Bored Ape YC | Ξ 69.99 | 4.76% ▼ | | 2 | CryptoPunks | Ξ 67.45 | 0.35% ▼ | | 3 | Mutant Ape YC | Ξ 13.99 | 6.29% ▼ | | 4 | Clone X | Ξ 6.40 | 9.42% ▲ | | 5 | VeeFriends | Ξ 10.89 | 10.00% ▲ | Source: NFT Price Floor, 4:45 pm EST
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Crypto exchange provider INX acquired Tokensoft Transfer Agent (TTA) from TokenSoft. The acquisition is the third securities-related acquisition INX has made in the past six months. More: - Transfer agents are responsible for supporting securities transactions with issuers.
- INX additionally acquired OTC foreign exchange trader ILS Brokers and licensed ATS and broker-dealer Openfinance.
- Through the acquisition and with INX’s status as a registered broker-dealer and alternative trading system (ATS), it can now independently issue, list, trade, and offer administrative support for securities.
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- 28% of people admitted using their personal device for work more than their work-issued device
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 🍋 Fresh Funding 🍋 CryptoSlam, NFT/Analytics: $9M ⮕ The seed funding round was led by Animoca Brands and participated in by Mark Cuban, Sound Ventures, Polygon Ventures, Forte, OKEx Blockchain Ventures, and others. More: - CryptoSlam is a blockchain agnostic NFT market data and analytics platform.
- The platform currently tracks sales data of hundreds of NFT collections on Ethereum (ETH), Polygon (MATIC), Solana (SOL), and other blockchains.
- CryptoSlam plans to use the fresh funding to expand its 20-person team, launch an API and developer tools, and further its support for additional blockchains.
Exotic Markets, DeFi/Yield: $5M ⮕ The token sale funding round was participated in by Multicoin Capital, Ascensive Assets, Alameda Research, Animoca Brands, Morningstar Ventures, and others. More: - Exotic Markets is a Solana (SOL) based DeFi platform that offers structured products, indices, options, and yield instruments.
- The structured products are market-linked instruments that let investors adapt their risk and yield across several different investment types.
- Exotic will use the fresh funding to continue building its team and expanding its marketing.
Livepeer, Blockchain/Streaming: $20M ⮕ The Series B extension round was participated in by Tiger Global, Alan Howard, Digital Currency Group, and others. More: - Livepeer (LPT) is a “Platform as a Service” blockchain for serving live and on-demand video streaming content.
- The equity funding round brings Livepeer’s total funding to $51M.
- Livepeer’s upcoming Confluence update, which will bring Livepeer’s protocol from Ethereum L1 to L2 network Arbitrum, is expected to launch in early 2022.
OpenSea, NFT/Marketplace: $300M ⮕ The Series C funding round was co-led by Paradigm and Coatue Management. More: - OpenSea amassed an impressive $13.3B valuation, up $11.8B from its Series B funding round in July.
- The NFT marketplace saw $14B in revenue and 1.8M active users at the end of 2021.
- OpenSea will allocate some of its fresh funding to create a grant program for developers, builders, and creators.
Related: Making sense of OpenSea at a $13B valuation (TechCrunch); OpenSea raises $300M, buys Dharma Labs (Inside VC)
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▲ TOP GAINERS | # | Name | Price | 24h % | | 1 | Chainlink LINK | $25.51 | 7.84% ▲ | | 2 | XDC Network XDC | $0.09835 | 5.20% ▲ | | 3 | NEM XEM | $0.1322 | 5.07% ▲ | | 4 | Livepeer LPT | $45.17 | 3.12% ▲ | | 5 | VeChain VET | $0.08947 | 2.83% ▲ | ▼ TOP LOSERS | # | Name | Price | 24h % | | 1 | Cosmos ATOM | $37.41 | 12.04%▼ | | 2 | Axie Infinity AXS | $83.06 | 11.69%▼ | | 3 | Arweave AR | $58.36 | 10.64%▼ | | 4 | Gala GALA | $0.3849 | 9.94%▼ | | 5 | Curve DAO Token CRV | $5.60 | 9.09%▼ | Source: CoinMarketCap, 3:00 EST
*Limited to cryptocurrencies in the Top 100
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 Goldman Sachs predicted that Bitcoin (BTC) is set to continue taking gold’s market share. The prediction came in a research report and note to clients on the “store of value” market. More: - Bitcoin’s float-adjusted market cap accounts for 20% of the store of value market.
- If BTC were to continue to trend up to $100,000, which Goldman believes can happen within the next five years, Bitcoin’s market share would rise to 50%.
- According to Zach Pandl, Goldman’s co-head of global emerging market strategy, Bitcoin’s increasingly dominant position in the store of value market will drive BTC’s price up around 17% to 18% higher annually.
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 Institutional investor inflows to digital assets increased 36% in 2021, reaching $9.3B. The total number of cryptocurrencies invested in additionally increased from nine to 15. More: - YoY Inflows were up 16% for bitcoin (BTC), while Ethereum (ETH) inflows doubled YoY to $1.3B from $920M.
- The total AUM of cryptocurrency investing products sits at around $62.5B compared to $2.8B in 2019.
- Grayscale remains the leader among institutional investors with $43.5B in digital assets under management.
- The space brought in 37 new investment products in 2021, bringing its total to around 132.
For more info on institutional investor inflows, check out Digital Asset Fund Flows Weekly from CoinShares. This story was written in collaboration with Trevor Grant and is featured in today's Inside Venture Capital newsletter.
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QUICK HITS: - Quentin Tarantino announced that he would continue his planned NFT auction for the Pulp Fiction screenplay with SCRT Labs despite an ongoing legal battle with Miramax Films.
- MoneyGram acquired a 4% stake in Coinme in a strategic investment to accelerate Coinme’s international expansion.
- Programmable cash stream protocol Zebec joined the Visa Fintech Fast Track Program, making it the first Solana (SOL) based project to be admitted to Visa’s exclusive program.
- Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky shared on Twitter that crypto payments was the most suggested feature by users for 2022.
- U.K. transport agency Transport for London (TfL) stated that it is currently not approving any advertisements that look to promote crypto products.
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 |  | Griffin McShane is a New York transplant currently living in Brooklyn, NY. He is a graduate of Providence College, where he studied both computer science and business, and the University of Maine School of Law, where he earned his JD. Beyond his work at Inside, Griffin has written articles for CoinDesk and is a member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP). |  | | 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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