Weekly Market Highlights #25: December 12 - December 18
Inflation and US interest rates fall, Binance faces FUD, and SBF has been arrested.
✨Over the past few days, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization managed to recover a few billion, but the overall market saw no considerable volatility, and volume is drying up.
✨Over the past week, the crypto market decreased ~$35B (from ~$843B to ~$808B) of its total capitalization
✨Bitcoin Struggles Below $17K
✅BTC's price is down about 2.4% on the week and is only up 0.2% in the past 24 hours, unable to stage an apparent recovery.
✅Bitcoin's price could not hold above the $17K level yesterday and dropped to a low of $16,5K on Binance. The cryptocurrency has failed to recover and is currently trading at around $16,7K.
✨Altcoins Calm, BNB Pulls Ahead
✅BSCS is currently trading at ~$0,009005: +5,79% from its 7-day all-time low of $0,008512.
✅For the most part, altcoins have also been standing still over the past day, unable to produce meaningful increases, with certain exceptions.
✅The best performer from the top 10 coins through total market capitalization is Binance Coin. BNB is up 4%, trading at slightly below $250 at the time of this writing.
✅It seems XTZ lost the most during this period (-3%), which is more or less the same as the WBT token and MINA.
✨Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index is 29 - Fear, higher than at the beginning of the week (27)
✨Dominance:
✅BTC: 39.9%
✅ETH: 17.9%
BSCStation — Integration of Avalanche C-Chain Completed
🔥 BSCStation has completely integrated Avalanche Network into our platform. This integration is a fantastic opportunity for BSCStation to expand our future cooperation with potential Blockchain projects.
📶 The Avalanche C-Chain allows users to execute Ethereum Virtual Machine contracts as well as regular smart contracts.
About Avalanche
✅Avalanche is an open-source platform for launching decentralized applications and enterprise blockchain deployments in one interoperable, highly scalable ecosystem.
✅Avalanche is the first smart contracts platform that processes 4,500+ transactions/second and instantly confirms transactions. As a result, Ethereum developers can quickly build on Avalanche as Solidity works out-of-the-box.
✅C-Chain is Avalanche’s blockchain dedicated to smart contracts. Technically, it is a fast, low-fee implementation of the Ethereum Virtual Machine. This allows Ethereum projects to be easily expanded to C-Chain.
Website | Twitter | Telegram | Medium | Discord | Youtube | Avalanche Hub
🔥 Optimism Network successfully integrated on BSCStation!
🔥We are excited to announce that the new addition to the list of BSCStation-supported networks is Optimism (OP) - our first integration of a cross-chain link between Ethereum mainnet and L2 solutions.
🔥OP is a new scalability stack for Ethereum that aims to enhance and enshrine fair access to public goods on the internet through the development of open-source software by producing infrastructure which promotes the growth and sustainability of an ecosystem of public goods.
Optimism Rollup is the first layer 2 scaling solution that enables:
✅Usability: low latency transactions for the speed of a Web 2.0 experience and smart contracts at a fraction of the cost.
✅Familiar workflows: developers preserve the Ethereum developer experience — the same smart contracts, APIs, and dev tooling. Migrate existing contracts without breaking them.
✅Money Legos: seamless interoperability between dApps and smart contracts.
About Optimism
✅Optimism is an EVM-compatible Optimism Rollup chain designed to be fast, simple, and secure. Optimism pledges to uphold the values of Ethereum by producing infrastructure that promotes the growth and sustainability of public goods.
✅The Optimism network is expected to solve two main problems of the existing Ethereum network: near-instant transaction finality and much lower transaction fees.
Website | Twitter | Discord | GitHub
Binance Labs Leads Funding Round For Web3 Security Startup
Web3’s appeal to investors remains unfazed.
🔶Aligning with ambitious investment plans in the ongoing bear market, Binance Labs – the venture capital arm of the world’s largest crypto exchange – announced leading a private round II for GoPlus Security. The value of the investment has not been disclosed.
⭐️The fresh capital infusion will be deployed to develop security data further, build a security service marketplace, and conduct new hiring for the Web3 security infrastructure provider.
✔️According to the official blog post, Go Plus Security also intends to use the funds to launch a security service marketplace at the end of 2022.
✔️So far, the startup has provided security data to 13 chains.
✔️Following the development, Yi He, Co-Founder of Binance and Head of Binance Labs, commented,
“Security is foundational to the ever-growing Web3 ecosystem and community. By supporting consumer-facing solutions like Goplus Security, we hope to see how security services to end users can evolve and prosper.”
✔️Binance has already committed more than $325 million to over 67 projects this year alone. In contrast, the crypto exchange spent around $140 million across 73 projects for 2021 amidst a far more bullish crypto market.
✔️Binance Labs launched a $500 million fund to support promising Web 3 projects and startup firms with great potential earlier this year.
Investing Retirement Funds in Bitcoin Remains a Good Idea: Senator Lummis
"I'm very comfortable with ensuring that people can include bitcoin in their retirement funds," Cynthia Lummis said.
✅The Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis remains unfazed by the ongoing bear market, saying Americans should feel safe investing their retirement savings in bitcoin.
🎧The politician is among the most prominent advocates of the primary cryptocurrency and is even a HODLer.
'Bitcoin is Different'
♾In a recent interview for Semafor, she reiterated her view that adding BTC to 401(k) plans could be a prosperous move:
"I'm very comfortable ensuring that people can include bitcoin in their retirement funds because it differs from other cryptocurrencies."
✔️Senator Lummis once again praised the asset for its scarcity and a limited maximum cap of 21 million. According to her, that will drive its USD valuation up in the future:
"That's a personal belief, just based on its scarcity."
🔸Lummis also intends to reintroduce her crypto bill in January and will meet with the SEC to discuss all the details. The proposed legislation aims to grant consumers maximum protection and set certain taxation standards.
🌇The Republican Senator criticized the US authorities for letting the country slip into such a monetary crisis last year. In her view, the American dollar could lose its power, so officials should ensure that "non-fiat currencies" can flourish instead.
🔸Bitcoin's decentralized nature could give people the financial freedom they need and act as a shield if such an event occurs.
MetaMask allows users to purchase and transfer Ethereum via PayPal
The service will initially be rolled out to select PayPal users within the United States.
🔵Digital payments platform PayPal has teamed up with MetaMask parent company ConsenSys to allow MetaMask users to purchase and transfer ETH via PayPal’s platform.
♾According to the Dec. 14 announcement, the service will initially be rolled out only to select PayPal users within the United States, as the country is one of MetaMask’s largest markets in terms of users.
✔️The collaboration is intended to allow users to seamlessly purchase and transfer ETH from PayPal to MetaMask by simply logging onto their Mobile MetaMask App and redirecting them to their PayPal account to complete transactions.
🔸Lorenzo Santos, product manager for MetaMask, shared:
“This integration with PayPal will allow our U.S. users to buy crypto seamlessly through MetaMask, and to explore the Web3 ecosystem easily.”
Donald Trump Announces Personal NFT Collection
Trump is selling digital baseball cards depicting himself in various outfits.
🔵Former U.S. President Donald Trump has announced a personal NFT collection featuring the art from his life and career.
🔸As revealed over the celebrity politician’s social media site “Truth Social,” the Donald Trump Digital Trading Card collection is similar to a collection of “baseball cards.” Each card is being sold for $99.
🔸Purchases of each NFT also enter buyers into a sweepstakes raffle, allowing people to meet Donald Trump personally. Furthermore, those who buy 45 NFTs will guarantee buyers a dinner with the president.
🔸Some collectibles include images of Trump golfing, going to space, on the football field, and dressing as a cowboy.
🔸“Trump Digital Trading Cards (NFTs) are intended as collectible items for individual enjoyment only, not for investment vehicles,” clarified the investment page.
🔸Donald Trump’s wife, Melania Trump, has previously issued Solana-based NFTs depicting her eyes and jewelry.
Distressed Crypto Platform Amber Group Secures a $300 Million Fundraiser
♾Amber Group – a cryptocurrency platform backed by Singapore’s investment company Temasek – completed a $300 million funding round. The money will be distributed to clients affected by the FTX collapse.
💎The company, which had to cope with severe issues due to the ongoing bear market, recently acquired the Singaporean exchange – Sparrow Holdings.
Trying to Reimburse Victims
🕊As announced on Twitter the Series C fundraiser was led by Fenbushi Capital US. Amber Group said the move shows “investor confidence” in its operations and commitment to cooperate with the platform despite its recent issues.
“As part of that future, we need to adapt and protect our clients in this challenging market environment,” the platform stated.
🔸As previously revealed, Amber Group was not exposed to FTX or Alameda Research. On the other hand, it has been an “active trading participant” in the bankrupt trading venue.
✅The funds from the latest funding round will reach those clients who lost money on the platform’s products due to the FTX meltdown.
✔️Amber Group aimed to secure another $100 million fundraiser earlier this month but completed only half the planned amount, citing the adverse effects of the crypto winter.
📣Stay tuned! The market's highlights will be updated by BSCStation 😎
About BSCStation
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BSCStation operates on top of the all main blockchain networks and is designed to offer maximum value to consumers and institutions.
BSCStation platform uses the Sharing Economy Model for the purpose of profit-sharing, helping users to access DeFi platforms in the easiest, safest, and most cost-effective way. BSCStation is the most convenient bridge to connect users and application products on all main blockchain networks.