The global crypto market cap is $1.76T 4.33%▲ with a 24-hour market volume of $86.36B 5.37%▼. Bitcoin's dominance is currently 41.67% 0.20%▼. CURRENT PRICES BY MARKET CAP | # | Name | Price | 24h % | | 1 | Bitcoin BTC | $38,729.01 | 4.01% ▲ | | 2 | Ethereum ETH | $2,647.55 | 6.35% ▲ | | 3 | BNB BNB | $395.01 | 2.65% ▲ | | 4 | Cardano ADA | $1.14 | 7.72% ▲ | | 5 | Solana SOL | $100.78 | 2.35% ▲ | Source: CoinMarketCap, 14:30 EST
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FTX U.S. was valued at $8B in its recent $400M Series A funding. The cryptocurrency exchange FTX’s U.S. arm has a customer base of 1.2 million. More: - FTX U.S. traded $67B in spot crypto, and CoinGecko estimates $255.5M worth of 24-hour trading volumes.
- Last year’s average daily volume surged 608%.
- The recent funding, which saw participation from Paradigm, Temasek, Multicoin Capital, SoftBank, and others, will be used to boost its growth.
- FTX U.S. is all set to introduce a derivative-based product line following the acquisition of Ledger Holdings Inc. last year.
- The company’s president Brett Harrison is confident of leading crypto and derivatives exchange trading.
- The parent company was valued at $25B in Oct. 2021 and has 73 million global customers, although 50% of web traffic comes from the U.S.
- In October, the parent company raised $420.69M.
- FTX is aiming to raise $1.5B and increase its evaluation to $32B.
- The parent organization has launched a $2B venture fund.
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TOP NFT COLLECTIONS (24hr Volume) | # | Name | 24h Volume | 24h % | | 1 | Mutant Ape YC ETH | $14.99M | 113.1% ▲ | | 2 | Cryptopunks ETH | $12.48M | 21.74% ▼ | | 3 | Bored Ape YC ETH | $7.17M | 34.04% ▼ | | 4 | Genesis Creepz ETH | $6.66M | 45.43% ▲ | | 5 | CLONE X - X TAKASHI MURAKAMI ETH | $4.43M | 206.68%▲ | Source: DappRadar, 14:00 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 93 | 0% ▲ | | 2 | CryptoPunks | Ξ 79.95 | 4.5% ▲ | | 3 | Mutant Ape YC | Ξ 19.5 | 9.55% ▲ | | 4 | CLONE X | Ξ 7.95 | 19.55%▲ | | 5 | Cool Cats | Ξ 15 | 1.35% ▲ | Source: NFT Price Floor, 14:00 EST
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 Total cryptocurrency money laundered by year. Cryptocurrency money laundering rose 30% from $6.6B in 2020 to $8.6B in 2021, per blockchain forensics firm Chainalysis. Chainalysis' head of research, Kim Grauer, estimates that money laundering accounts for 0.05% of the entire cryptocurrency transaction volume 2021. More: - 17% of funds from the illicit activity were routed through DeFi protocols, accounting for $900M in 2021.
- The blockchain analysis firm believes certain services are "purpose-built for money laundering" and reports 58% of funds being diverted through five services in 2021.
- Bitcoin was the preferred choice for most money laundering activities, including online scams.
- The illicit activity was at an all-time high in 2019, with over $10.9B worth of funds laundered.
- An estimated $33B worth of cryptocurrency has been laundered since 2017.
- It pales in comparison to fiat currency money laundering, which the UN Office of Drugs and Crime estimates to be between $800B and $2T each year.
- Fiat currency-related illicit activity is supposedly equivalent to 5% of the global GDP.
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 🍋 Fresh Funding 🍋 Superdao, DAO tool: $10.5M. The seed funding was led by SignalFire and saw participation from AllianceDAO, Signal Fire, Pear VC, DIGITAL, One Block Capital, and others. More: - Superdao is a DAO creation and management tool.
- The platform was valued at $160M during the recent funding.
TRLab, NFT art curator: $4.2M. The funding round was led by Animoca Brands with participation from Bertelsmann Asia Investments, Kenetic Capital, INCE Capital, Metapurse, Plutus Capital, StableNode, and Willoughby Capital. More: - TRLab is a platform that curates NFT collections targeted towards the contemporary art market.
- Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang’s artwork sold for $2.5M mid-last year.
- Two new NFT projects are expected to be announced soon.
- The incoming funds will be used to expand their existing collection of NFTs and diversify their range of art.
HAL, Blockchain data: $3M. The seed funding round was co-led by CoinFund, Eden Block, and Animoca Brands with participation from Hashkey Capital, Wintermute, SkyVision, imToken Ventures, Bitcoin.com, Piquet Ventures, and others. More: - HAL provides blockchain analytics and helps integrate automated blockchain data for projects.
- The fresh funding will be used to increase their workforce and product development.
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▲ TOP GAINERS | # | Name | Price | 24h % | | 1 | Waves WAVES | $10.80 | 27.14% ▲ | | 2 | Theta Fuel TFUEL | $0.1622 | 26.16% ▲ | | 3 | Helium HNT | $29.89 | 17.87% ▲ | | 4 | Gala GALA | $0.2175 | 14.12% ▲ | | 5 | Theta Network THETA | $2.96 | 10.01% ▲ | ▼ TOP LOSERS | # | Name | Price | 24h % | | 1 | Terra LUNA | $62.72 | 5.42%▼ | | 2 | Fantom FTM | $2.38 | 3.27%▼ | | 3 | Huobi Token HT | $8.59 | 2.73%▼ | | 4 | Maker MKR | $1,808.33 | 2.62%▼ | | 5 | OKB OKB | $22.35 | 2.28%▼ | Source: CoinMarketCap, 14:30 EST
*Limited to cryptocurrencies in the Top 100
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Valkyrie is seeking U.S. SEC’s approval to list its exchange-traded fund (ETF) on Nasdaq. The crypto asset manager would invest 80% of Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF’s net assets into companies that heavily rely on bitcoin mining for its profit. More: - Valkyrie has set a condition to only invest in firms that derive at least half of their profits from bitcoin mining.
- The fund would include both U.S. and worldwide companies and include a management fee of 0.75%.
- Asset managers have found ways to circumvent the SEC’s aversion to spot bitcoin ETF products by offering stocks to companies that have crypto mining facilities or hold crypto on balance sheets.
- Other than ProShares and VanEck, Valkyrie is only the third firm to get SEC approval for listing a bitcoin futures ETF, which it did in October.
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Decasonic has closed its inaugural fund of $48.8M to invest in Web3 technology, including blockchain, metaverse, NFTs, and other projects. Eighty-eight strategic investors contributed to the fund, including Bridge Alternatives, Corazon Capital, Distributed Ventures, Drive Capital, and KeenCrypto, among others. More: - The debut fund is named Disruptive Innovation Venture and Digital Assets Fund.
- The VC firm is led by Paul Hsu, who has been associated with blockchain companies since 2013.
- Since its initial funding in Aug. 2021, the VC firm has invested in a dozen pre-seed and seed-stage companies across blockchain, DeFi, gaming, metaverse, NFTs, DAOs, and Web3 startups.
- Decasonic Labs, VC firm's tech-lab arm, assists companies in the early stages with developing technology.
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Joe Grand, a hacker, helped retrieve the PIN of a locked Trezor One wallet holding an estimated $2M worth of cryptocurrency. Dan Reich, a New York-based entrepreneur, had forgotten the password to the wallet. More: - Reich had tried to remember it but gave up after 12 unsuccessful attempts since the crypto wallet would have wiped itself after 16 unsuccessful tries.
- Along with his friend, Reich had invested $50,000 in Theta Network coins (THETA) in 2018.
- The valuation of Theta rose from $0.21 at the time of Reich's investment in 2018 to over $15 last year.
- The Portland-based hacker was eventually able to retrieve the PIN.
- The exploit that he used to retrieve the pin has since been closed by Trezor.
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- Digital Currency Group (DCG) has entered into a $10M strategic partnership to provide privacy protocol to DeFi with Railgun DAO.
- Ripple announced equity share buyback from Series C investors, increasing the company’s valuation to $15B. RippleNet’s transactions doubled in 2021.
- Grayscale Investments added 25 tokens to its digital asset under consideration list, including several Layer 1 blockchains like Algorand, Elrond, Fantom, Helium, Holochain, Oasis Network, and Secret Network.
- Dragonfly, a crypto VC firm with $2B in assets under management, is soliciting $500M for a new fund.
- Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange, has partnered with Paysafe to reintroduce SEPA bank transfers for consumers.
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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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