The global crypto market cap is $1.79T 11.60%▼ with a 24-hour market volume of $113.95B 121.55%▲. Bitcoin's dominance is currently 40.44% 0.23%▲. CURRENT PRICES BY MARKET CAP | # | Name | Price | 24h % | | 1 | Bitcoin BTC | $38,132.36 | 11.21% ▼ | | 2 | Ethereum ETH | $2,759.95 | 14.26% ▼ | | 3 | Binance Coin BNB | $415.78 | 10.55% ▼ | | 4 | Cardano ADA | $1.19 | 14.43% ▼ | | 5 | Solana SOL | $121.32 | 13.34% ▼ | Source: CoinMarketCap, 15:00 EST
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 Bitcoin's historical value Bitcoin slid to a six-month low, trading at around the $38,500 mark after the crypto market tumbled overnight. The cryptocurrency market's losses have been estimated to be ~$200B. More: - The prices have tumbled on account of tightening cryptocurrency policies in the U.S. and the rest of the world.
- BTC's price of $38,538 at 07:27 EST represents a 43% drop from its all-time-high price of $69,006 recorded on Nov. 10.
- Delta Exchange CEO Pankaj Balani anticipates BTC prices to bounce back to between $45,000 to $50,000 in the short term.
- Ether also slid 11.7% in 24 hours to $2,806.
- Other allied industries, namely DeFi and gaming, also reported significant losses, with Coinglass reporting liquidation of $700M of crypto futures in the past day.
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TOP NFT COLLECTIONS (24hr Volume) | # | Name | 24h Volume | 24h % | | 1 | Bored Ape YC ETH | $11.39M | 211.2% ▲ | | 2 | Axie Infinity ETH RONIN | $5.89M | 10.28% ▼ | | 3 | Mutant Ape YC ETH | $5.72M | 65.06% ▲ | | 4 | Cryptopunks ETH | $4.49M | 43.97% ▲ | | 5 | Wolf Game ETH | $2.61M | 37.21% ▼ | Source: DappRadar, 15:00 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 85 | 6.92% ▲ | | 2 | CryptoPunks | Ξ 63.95 | 2.65% ▲ | | 3 | Mutant Ape YC | Ξ 16.25 | 0.64% ▲ | | 4 | VeeFriends | Ξ 12.3 | 2.90% ▲ | | 5 | Cool Cats | Ξ 12.7 | 10.53%▲ | Source: NFT Price Floor, 15:00 EST
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The U.S. Federal Reserve published the "Money and Payments: The U.S. Dollar in the Age of Digital Transformation" report, a review paper on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). The report discusses the potential benefits and risks of the U.S. CBDC, digital assets tied to the value of a fiat currency, but it makes no mention of whether or not the government plans to sell any cryptocurrencies. More: - The report notes the challenges of current payment systems, particularly the lack of bank accounts for 5% of the U.S. public, reliance on costly financial services, and slow settlement and high transaction fees for international payments.
- A CBDC, according to the Federal Reserve, may provide individuals and businesses with a "secure, digital payment option" as well as facilitate "faster payment options between countries" and maintain the U.S. dollar's prominence in worldwide payments and transactions.
- However, it could also have drawbacks, such as theft threats, price volatility, and limited transaction throughput.
- The Boston branch of the Federal Reserve has collaborated with MIT's Digital Currency Initiative to study and experiment with the use of blockchain-based CBDCs.
- The report frequently mentions blockchain and cryptocurrency, although it's not necessary that the central bank's digital currency would be powered by either technology.
- The paper was repeatedly delayed since mid-2021 and was previously expected to be published in the summer of 2021.
- The Federal Reserve intends this paper to foster broad discussion on developing a CBDC. It has drafted a detailed questionnaire and expects responses from all stakeholders.
- The full report and its questionnaire can be found here.
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 🍋 Fresh Funding 🍋 The Graph, Blockchain indexing protocol: $50M ⮕ The funding was led by Tiger Global with participation from FinTech Collective, Fenbushi Capital, Reciprocal Ventures, and Blockwall Digital Assets Fund. More: - The Graph is a blockchain indexing protocol that indexes data from 26 different blockchain networks.
- Developers can access and create subgraphs by querying open-source blockchain data through APIs.
- Subgraphs are used by Balancer, Livepeer, DAOstack, Audius, and Decentraland.
Stader Labs, DeFi: $12.5M ⮕ The funding round was led by Three Arrows Capital with participation from Accel, Blockchain.com, Accomplice, GoldenTree Asset Management, Amber, Figment, and others. More: - Stader Labs is a crypto staking platform and raised the amount in current funding through an agreement for future tokens sale (SAFT).
- The fresh funding will be used to add support for other blockchains and native tokens.
- Support for Solana, Hedera, and Fantom is expected to be added in the next two to three months.
- Ethereum and Polygon are expected to be supported by Q2 of this year.
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▲ TOP GAINERS | # | Name | Price | 24h % | | 1 | Perpetual Protocol PERP | $9.43 | 5.48% ▲ | | 2 | BitTorrent BTT | $0.002618 | 4.77% ▲ | | 3 | BinanceUSD BUSD | $1.00 | 0.15% ▲ | | 4 | TrueUSD TUSD | $1.00 | 0.10% ▲ | | 5 | USD Coin USDC | $0.9997 | 0.02% ▲ | ▼ TOP LOSERS | # | Name | Price | 24h % | | 1 | Kadena KDA | $6.02 | 22.66%▼ | | 2 | Secret SCRT | $6.67 | 21.56%▼ | | 3 | Loopspring LRC | $0.9418 | 21.50%▼ | | 4 | Quant QNT | $114.88 | 21.35%▼ | | 5 | Theta Network THETA | $3.64 | 20.97%▼ | Source: CoinMarketCap, 15:15 EST
*Limited to cryptocurrencies in the Top 100
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Robinhood launched WenWallet crypto wallet in beta mode for the first 1,000 customers on its waitlist. The project will expand to cover 10,000 customers by March, after which it will be rolled out the rest of the customers on the waitlist. More: - Robinhood customers will be able to use the app to send and receive crypto, even to external wallets.
- The program is currently in its beta testing format, and users were encouraged to provide feedback suggesting changes to the app before it goes live for the larger public.
- A daily limit of 10 transactions and a $2,999 withdrawal limit are placed temporarily during the beta testing phase.
- Robinhood emphasized integrating “world-class” security to be able to monitor transactions.
- The company revealed last November that 1.6 million people had signed up and were on the waitlist.
Note: Inside.com Founder and CEO Jason Calacanis is an investor in Robinhood.
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Iris Energy Ltd. (IREN), an Australia-based crypto mining company, secured a 600-megawatt electricity connection from AEP Texas for its upcoming mining facility being developed on a 300-acre site in Texas. IREN paid $19M in security deposit and fees for the connection. More: - The electrical connection will be completed by Q1 2023.
- IREN currently has invested to ensure a processing capacity of 15.2EH/s and expects to add 10.6 EH/s from the Texas facility.
- Another 7 EH/s could be added to the Texas facility, subject to securing further mining rigs, which could increase the total processing power to 22 EH/s.
- Two other new facilities in British Columbia will add 2.9 EH/s mining power.
- The 22 EH/s computing power in today’s hashrate would equate to ~14% of the total bitcoin network capacity.
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Mónica Taher, an El Salvador government advisor, claimed during a Facebook live discussion that the country is considering using Bitcoin to provide low-interest loans for small and micro-businesses. The move, if successful, would see the country use the most sought-after cryptocurrency as its legal tender. More: - El Salvador’s national institute for small and micro-businesses CONAMYPE’s President Paul Steiner said that loans would be facilitated using the El Chivo wallet app, which is the official Bitcoin and USD wallet launched by the government.
- The wallet has been adopted by 60% of the nation’s population and has 4 million users.
- Steiner claims that 66% of the 1.2 million businesses in the country are small and micro businesses, which rely on informal loan funding or have to resort to borrowing from loan sharks.
- The Facebook live audio recording can be found here.
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- Bitfarms, a Nasdaq listing bitcoin mining firm, acquired 1,000 Bitcoin tokens, increasing its total BTC token count to 4,300, 30% up than earlier. The new purchase cost the company $43.2M.
- Giuseppe Stuto and Julian Fialkow, an alumnus of DraftKings, launched 186 Ventures, a $37M venture fund targeted toward pre-seed and seed-stage startups in media, fintech, web3, and other sectors.
- Adidas and Prada announced their user-generated NFT collaboration based on the Polygon network. The final NFT of the Adidas for Prada re-source project, which will consist of 3,000 community-sourced NFTs, will be auctioned on SuperRare, and each individual contributor will receive a percentage of the sale, while most of the proceeds will go to non-profit organization Slow Factory.
- Christian Faes will set up a renewable energy-powered crypto mining facility in Texas. His investment firm Faes & Co. will fund the venture. A pilot is already running at colocation data centers in Pennsylvania and Tennessee.
- Serena Williams has been appointed as a board advisor to Solare, the blockchain-based fantasy soccer company.
- FTX allowed customers to join the waitlist for their FTX Visa debit card, which will allow users to use crypto for payments at any Visa merchant. The card will not have any fees and will automatically exchange crypto tokens into the corresponding currency at the point of sale. The U.S. region will not be supported at launch.
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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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