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  • What’s Next For Bitcoin As Prices Encounter Difficulty Reclaiming $43,000?

    What’s Next For Bitcoin As Prices Encounter Difficulty Reclaiming $43,000?

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    Recently, bitcoin prices have struggled, often dipping below the $43,000 mark and then failing to post substantial gains.

    Around 9:20 a.m. EDT, the world’s most popular crypto asset retreated to $42,777.20, CoinDesk data show, Saturday.

    The majority of cryptocurrencies traded lower early Saturday. Global crypto market market capitalization fell nearly 3% to $1.15 trillion in the last 24 hours, while total crypto market volume was up 9.3 percent to $89.50 billion.

    Suggested Reading | Ark CEO Cathie Wood Is As Bullish As Ever, Sees Bitcoin Hitting $1 Million By 2030

    Bitcoin Short Stay At Near $44K

    Bitcoin was able to inch back slightly shortly thereafter, reaching $43,962.01 at approximately 10 a.m. EDT. Following this comeback, it retreated again, falling to around $42,840 at 1:30 p.m.

    On the other hand, the overall volume of stablecoins was $74.34 billion, or 83.06% of the total 24-hour volume of the cryptocurrency market.

    Bitcoin was recently trading at an average price of around $43,500, roughly where it was 24 hours ago and well below the $47,000 barrier it crossed just a few days earlier, as investors continued to weigh in on the Federal Reserve’s new hawkish zeal and the ongoing twist of economic developments sparked by Russia’s attack on Ukraine.

    BTC total market cap at $805.46 billion on the weekend chart | Source: TradingView.com

    Unease Over Fed’s Monetary Policy Tightening

    According to an email from Oanda Senior Market Analyst Americas Edward Moya:

    “Bitcoin is unsure of its direction as Wall Street gets concerned about the central bank’s aggressiveness in tightening monetary policy.”

    Following these recent price swings, various experts expressed their predictions for the cryptocurrency’s future direction.

    Ben McMillan, chief information officer at IDX Digital Assets, weighed in, indicating critical levels of support and opposition.

    “$43k is a critical support level in the near term as bitcoin attempts to build on its recent relative strength,” he noted.

    Suggested Reading | Bitcoin Helps Market Hover Past $2 Trillion As BTC Nears $48,000

    Containing Inflation

    Cryptocurrency prices deviated somewhat from the performance of the main equities markets, which were marginally positive. The Nasdaq, which is heavily weighted toward the tech sector, gained less than a tenth of a percentage point.

    The US central bank has communicated strongly over the last week, both collectively and through individual governors, that it will step up efforts to contain inflation, which has hit about 8%, a four-decade high.

    The correlation coefficient between Bitcoin and US equities has increased in the last 90 days as investors have become more risk averse in response to the Federal Reserve’s withdrawal of the pandemic-era intervention that is attributed with catalyzing the ascent of cryptocurrency.

    Featured image from Research Affiliates, chart from TradingView.com

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  • eToro Launches Its Own $20 Million NFT-Related Fund

    eToro Launches Its Own $20 Million NFT-Related Fund

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    A well-known global  multi-asset  investment platform, eToro, announced that it had launched its own non-fungible token (NFT) fund, eToro.art. According to the press release, the platform seeks to support NFT creators, agencies, and brands within the sphere.

    To begin the program, eToro unveiled its NFT collection. This includes blue chip projects such as Bored Ape Yacht Club, CryptoPunks, World of Women, as well as emerging artists’ projects. Upon deployment of its full funds, this collection will make eToro one of the most dominant NFT collectors in the world.

    “As a company with one eye constantly on ‘what’s next,’ eToro sees huge potential in the metaverse and a range of new digital assets. eToro has a community of over 27 million registered users who want insight into and access to new and emerging technologies. As one of the first companies to offer crypto alongside more traditional assets, it is only natural for eToro to serve as the  bridge  to bring new users into NFTs and the metaverse. We’re incredibly excited to see the developments in this space over the coming months,” Yoni Assia, Co-Founder and CEO at eToro said, commented.

    Funds Distribution

    eToro will use the $20 million dollar fund to acquire blue chip NFTs, as well as to seed emerging creators and NFT projects. Additionally, eToro plans to support new NFT projects for up-and-coming creators and brands. eToro plans to invest $10 million in emerging projects and act as a strategic partner to bring new emerging projects to market by 2022.

    The projects partnering with eToro will receive a range of support and services to help them develop their NFT project from concept to market. Financial support, technical support, marketing support, and community support will all be provided. Creators will have to fill out an intake application on eToro.art to participate in the program.

    Recently, eToro released its fourth-quarter of 2021 full-year financial results, noting a significant increase in total commission. According to the report for the quarter ended December 31, 2021, the investment platform netted $304 million, which is up 85% compared with Q4 of 2020.

    A well-known global  multi-asset  investment platform, eToro, announced that it had launched its own non-fungible token (NFT) fund, eToro.art. According to the press release, the platform seeks to support NFT creators, agencies, and brands within the sphere.

    To begin the program, eToro unveiled its NFT collection. This includes blue chip projects such as Bored Ape Yacht Club, CryptoPunks, World of Women, as well as emerging artists’ projects. Upon deployment of its full funds, this collection will make eToro one of the most dominant NFT collectors in the world.

    “As a company with one eye constantly on ‘what’s next,’ eToro sees huge potential in the metaverse and a range of new digital assets. eToro has a community of over 27 million registered users who want insight into and access to new and emerging technologies. As one of the first companies to offer crypto alongside more traditional assets, it is only natural for eToro to serve as the  bridge  to bring new users into NFTs and the metaverse. We’re incredibly excited to see the developments in this space over the coming months,” Yoni Assia, Co-Founder and CEO at eToro said, commented.

    Funds Distribution

    eToro will use the $20 million dollar fund to acquire blue chip NFTs, as well as to seed emerging creators and NFT projects. Additionally, eToro plans to support new NFT projects for up-and-coming creators and brands. eToro plans to invest $10 million in emerging projects and act as a strategic partner to bring new emerging projects to market by 2022.

    The projects partnering with eToro will receive a range of support and services to help them develop their NFT project from concept to market. Financial support, technical support, marketing support, and community support will all be provided. Creators will have to fill out an intake application on eToro.art to participate in the program.

    Recently, eToro released its fourth-quarter of 2021 full-year financial results, noting a significant increase in total commission. According to the report for the quarter ended December 31, 2021, the investment platform netted $304 million, which is up 85% compared with Q4 of 2020.

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  • The NFL’s First Team To Accept Crypto? The Tennessee Titans

    The NFL’s First Team To Accept Crypto? The Tennessee Titans

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    The Tennessee Titans will be the first NFL team in the league to accept cryptocurrency payments, according to emerging reports. While details are limited, it’s now known that the club will utilize a third-party payments provider to allow for larger, recurring purchases via Bitcoin.

    It’s unknown who exactly that payment provider is, if other crypto token payments will be supported now or in the future, and a timeline for such support (as well as potential timelines for broader support for more simple transactions like one-game tickets). Nonetheless, it’s still substantial news for a league that has historically been hesitant in allowing crypto integration.

    The NFL’s Opening Up? 

    In recent weeks, new reports emerged that the NFL would lighten it’s restrictions around cryptocurrency deals for clubs, while still keeping some gates involved; while teams could now form cryptocurrency partners, there would still be restrictions around stadium signage and deal-length (capped at three years). Nonetheless, this still showed a signal that the league was warming up to crypto-related deals. To date, the NFL has sought out a stiffer stance on crypto deals, relative to most other leagues, that have engaged through a variety of sponsorship channels – from league-wide deals to individual team jersey sponsorships.

    For the Tennessee Titans, while the functionality of Bitcoin-supported payments will only be available for large and recurring payments, the team has expressed a desire to have payment support for everything from tickets to merchandise and in-game food and beverage. Nonetheless, the move still secures the Titans as the first team in the NFL to accept crypto payments in any capacity. In the near-term, expect major payments for things like season tickets, suites, etc. to be the major crypto-related revenue for the team.

    Adoption news has left BTC charts unbothered. | Source: BTC-USD on TradingView.com

    Related Reading | TA: Bitcoin Steadies Above $43K, Why BTC Could Recover Higher

    Tennessee Titans Joining The Short List

    The Tennessee Titans join an exceptionally short list of professional teams in the ‘big four’ of sports leagues (NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB) that accept crypto payments; the MLB’s Oakland Athletics and the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and Sacramento Kings are the only major league clubs in the U.S. to make active strides in accepting crypto payments.

    Expect this list to continue to grow, particularly as broader industry partnerships come to life – such as the recently announced Strike & Shopify deal. As crypto payments continue to see broader adoption, and as crypto exchange and blockchain technology sponsorship deals continue to grow and evolve, there be an increasing amount of clubs and even leagues that feel that there is a slice of the pie that they’re missing out on.

    Related Reading | Mike Novogratz Doubles Down On $500,000 Bitcoin Prediction

    Featured image from Pixabay, Charts from TradingView.com
    The writer of this content is not associated or affiliated with any of the parties mentioned in this article. This is not financial advice.

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  • Terra buys $200M in AVAX for reserves as rival stablecoins emerge

    Terra buys $200M in AVAX for reserves as rival stablecoins emerge

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    Terraform Labs (TFL) and the Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) have announced they have purchased a combined $200 million worth of AVAX tokens from the Avalanche Foundation. 

    TFL, the company responsible for the development of the Terra blockchain, swapped $100 million worth of Terra’s native token, LUNA for AVAX tokens, in order to “strategically align ecosystem incentives”, according to Terra’s twitter.

    LFG, a non-profit organization mandated to build reserves for Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin UST, used its own holdings of UST to purchase an additional $100 million worth of AVAX from the Avalanche Foundation.

    These purchases are meant to reinforce the stability of Terra’s native UST stablecoin, which currently has a market cap of $16.7 billion.

    Do Kwon, the founder of Terraform Labs, told Bloomberg that LFG selected AVAX for its UST reserves because of solid growth in the blockchain’s ecosystem as well as the stark loyalty of its users.

    “Avalanche is still a growing ecosystem — a lot of it is fueled by loyalty to the AVAX token and users feel a lot of affinity with an asset that aligns itself with AVAX…whereas for the average Ethereum user, aligning yourself with Ether doesn’t really mean that much.”

    As Terra continues to strengthen the position of UST, competitors are looking for new ways to dethrone the stablecoin. Near Protocol (NEAR), a Layer-1 blockchain and competitor to both Ethereum and Terra, is rumored to be releasing a stablecoin called USN, which will reportedly also offer a decentralized finance protocol capable of providing users with a 20% annual percentage yield (APY) on their USN deposits.

    This is similar to the Terra ecosystem’s Anchor protocol which currently offers users a 19.49% APY on UST deposits.

    In a Substack post detailing what he understands of the plans, Crypto Insiders Telegram group founder Zoran Kole argued that Near protocol was superior to both Etheruem and Terra, offering data from Electric Capital that outlined Near Protocol’s substantial growth in terms of development.

    Source: Zoran Kole

    Kole concluded that Near’s network growth combined with its soon-to-be-released USN stablecoin and subsequent DeFi protocols could eventually allow for Near Protocol with an $11.7 billion market cap to catch up to and eventually eclipse Terra, which has a market cap of $37.2 billion.

    “This will lead to a comparison of Near to Terra ($LUNA) as the narrative for attractive stablecoin yields proliferates.”