THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO
- Bitcoin hit a record near $67,000 trading high this week, and there’s more institutional and retail inflow to come. A long line of ETFs are waiting for approval in the coming months, which could push Bitcoin even higher. Read more here.
- What’s fueling Bitcoin's rally? JPMorgan thinks it’s actually not the launch of the first U.S. bitcoin futures ETF, but instead because Bitcoin is being perceived as a better inflation hedge than gold. We’ve seen a shift away from gold ETFs into bitcoin funds since September as gold has failed to respond to heightened concerns over inflation, behaving more as a real rate proxy rather than an inflation hedge. Read more here.
- North Vancouver announced it would become the world's first city to be heated almost entirely by bitcoin mining. This is an innovative way to address the ongoing concern surrounding the massive amount of energy needed for mining. Create valuable cryptocurrency coins and usable thermal energy at the same time. Pretty brilliant. Read more here.
- FTX Trading, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has reached a staggering $25 Billion valuation. Many high-profile investors globally joined the new funding round with their vote of confidence in FTX, and the boosted valuation is taking the crypto market ever-skyward. And here’s a little piece of trivia to keep you humble - FTXs founder, Bankman-Fried, is a fresh 29- year-old now-billionaire. Read more here.
- Well, looks like United Wholesale Mortgage has paper hands. The mortgage lender (second-largest in the U.S.) stopped accepting cryptocurrency for home loans after just two short months. They were the first mortgage lender to launch a crypto payment program, but due to the current combination of incremental costs and regulatory uncertainty in the crypto space, they’ve resigned to not move forward with the service. Read more here.
- Will Crypto replace the 401k? It may not be as far-fetched as you think. Coinbase just announced a new direct deposit feature for users to receive a percentage of their paycheck in crypto. The roll-out comes in response to users who have complained that frequent transfers were inconvenient and time-consuming. The feature will even help some investors treat cryptocurrency like a 401(k) plan - a way to consistently put money into crypto as a long-term investment. Read more here.
- Crypto IPO highlight of the week: Bitcoin mining company Stronghold Digital Mining. They soared 52% Wednesday with their public debut, and good timing, too, with both Bitcoin setting a new high, and the Bitcoin ETF debuting this week. Stronghold’s plans for the future include buying more power plants and further expanding its mining fleet. Read more here.
- Fanatics’ new NFT company, Candy Digital, is now worth $1.5 billion, and NFL legend Peyton Manning owns a stake. Fanatics is looking to utilize Candy Digital as a pivot outside of sports merchandising, and its NFT products will compete with the popular Dapper Labs in the sports NFT space. Read more here.
- Jack Dorsey’s at it again. Square Inc. announced it will build a bitcoin mining system based on custom silicon and open source for individuals as well as businesses. This will add to Square’s existing bitcoin-focused projects including building an open developer platform and a crypto hardware wallet (Read more here). The Pomp thinks Jack is positioning Square to be one of the world’s leading bitcoin companies. Read more here.
- With the mainstream Metaverse on the horizon, don’t be surprised when tech giants start acquiring top gaming companies. Activate co-founder Michael Wolf says the path to the Metaverse will likely go through Video Games, and tech companies aiming to build metaverses will first have to master all aspects of video gaming. Metaverses will certainly alter how people interact online and in person, and video games are morphing into metaverse platforms. Read more here.
- Of all people to join the NFT space, we didn’t exactly expect Martha Stewart. Apparently the home-maker is crypto-saavier than we thought, as her first collection of NFTs debuted on her eCommerce site this Tuesday. The line of Halloween-themed digital collectibles features images of her costumes (and other good things) carved into pumpkins. Ms. Stewart plans for regular releases of NFTs tied to seasons and holidays. Read more here.
