Welcome to this 10th issue of the Chain Reaction newsletter for the week commencing 24th January 2022.
In the news last week we saw the continued mainstream moves of crypto into the world of sports with more sponsorship deals and athletes accepting payments in crypto. We hope they're patient in that regard as it was a sell-off type week for most coins with Russia banning of crypto and the potential for US interest rate hikes looking to spoil the party but as we see in the data, there's more to the sell-off than meets the eye (check out the glassnode on-chain metrics for that).
Elsewhere, we see Microsoft making metaverse plays with their purchase of Activision and we also saw the need to not just implictly trust audit services with the latest $1.3m rug pull on an NFT project.
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What you can expect in this newsletter
In the News
Videos of the week
Charts and Data
Around the world of social media
Education
In the news
Not Boring - The Web3 Debate - In this rebuttal to the well publicised gauntlet thrown down by well-known thought leader Professor Scott Galloway, Packy McCormick highlights issues with the profs arguments. If you missed it, Prof Galloway put together this piece called Web3 which went through the issues he sees in this space. Packy compares this to a debate with Jack Dorsey and Moxie Marlinspike (founders of Twitter and Signal) respectively arguing in the negative against the web 3.0 movement. There's a lot to unpack in this article but we'll highlight the closing argument below
In fact, that’s the point that Jack, Moxie, and certainly Professor Galloway missed. It’s not about whether any particular platform is centralized, or who owns how much of what. It’s about the fact that the data is open, that builders and users have choice, and that they’ll choose the platforms that extract less and give them more ownership.
Australian football league secures $25M deal with Crypto.com - In more news that makes crypto/blockchain more mainstream we see a deal closer to home. Crypto.com already has links in with sports as they have the naming rights to the LA Lakers/Clippers basketball stadium and have now poured in $25m to the AFLW (the women's AFL). Expect more of this in 2022.
CoinDesk - Sotheby’s to Accept BTC, ETH or USDC in Auction of Rare Black Diamond Called ‘The Enigma’ - Another story highlighting the mainstream moves into crypto with the 277 year old auction house Sotheby's saying it will accept bitcoin for the upcoming sale of its 555.55-carat diamond called The Enigma. Will we see other traditional businesses also target the crypto rich? Very likely.
CoinTelegraph - The Australian Open swings into the Metaverse on Decentraland - Not just the Australian Open and NFTs but also Decentraland swinging into action as Melbourne Park gets its own metaverse (at least for a fortnight during the world famous tennis tournament). Additionally, they will have another NFT launch with partner Sweet. Sports and web3 awesomeness continues.
CoinTelegraph - Heavyweight champ to take 50% of his UFC 270 purse in Bitcoin - in more news of crypto becoming mainstream we see UFC heavyweight champ Franics Ngannou announcing he will get half of his prizemoney from the UFC 270 event ($750k USD) in bitcoin. Partnereing with CashApp to do this as well.
CoinTelegraph - Blockchain assessment: How to assess different chains? - Great article looking at different things to watch out for when assessing protocols. Things like the team, roadmap, market cap and more.
Bloomberg - Microsoft Buys Scandal-Tainted Activision in Bet on Metaverse - Microsoft expands their Metaverse play, following the lead of Facebook (Meta). Big tech is consolidating and entering the world of web3 and this is a clear sign of that.
Cointelegraph - NFT-focused Animoca Brands valued at $5B following $358M raise - Animoca Brands (previously listed on the ASX) have had a huge year, after seemingly investing in every GameFi project in the industry. They’ve raised at a US$5bn valuation.
Blockworks - FTX Launches $2bn Venture Fund - FTX & Lightspeed Ventures start a fund primarily focussed on onboarding new users to Web3, seemingly with a focus on “ventures, gaming, M&A and commercial initiatives”.
Techcrunch - Facebook and Instagram may help you create and sell NFTs - not officially confirmed, but hot on the tails of Twitter Blue’s announcement (in Socials section below), Techcrunch quotes Financial Times sources, saying “Meta is developing ways to create, display and sell NFTs on Facebook and Instagram”.
Highlighting the $1.3m NFT rug pull by those behind the Big Daddy Ape project even though they were “certified” by auditing group Civic. There’s a great Twitter thread on the topic highlighted in the article from @Kylienft showcasing the concerns that these services may prove to be centralised chokepoints in the system. Worth a read (link is in the article)
Videos of the week
glassnode - Bitcoin: Surveying the 21 Jan Sell-off (On-chain Market Analysis) - In this video we see glassnode highlight that the recent selling pressure is not widespread across crypto tokens. Rather, it appears to be driven by shorter term holders. This plus other on-chain metrics in the video. 23mins
The Defiant - CBDC‘s will eat your stablecoins for lunch - In this video The Defiant looks at the read between the lines threat to US financial supremacy. It's not DeFi or stablecoins, but the Winter Olympics in China where they get to showcase their digital currency. 17mins
What Bitcoin Did - Bitcoin vs Crypto & Web3 with Ryan Selkis - Really interesting video this week with Ryan Selkis covering a range of topics crypto journalism to whether web3 needs tokens and more. Deep dives into topics like the controversy around VCs owning web3 (see this tweet from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey if you're unaware of the debate - https://twitter.com/jack/status/1473139010197508098) and how it likely works out are especially interesting. 1hr16mins
Coin Bureau - Crypto News: Cardano, STX, BTC Mining, MATIC & More!! - In this video from Guy and the crew we dive into details about the bitcoin mining bonanza and Jack Dorsey's dive into the space wiht Block (and his new Bitcoin Legal Defence Fund) as well as new about more sovereign take up of biticoin as legal tender and movements that are driving usage of USDT around the world. Oasis Network, NEAR and Fantom also get a mention in this video. 21mins
Charts and Data
CoinGecko
Top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap as at the 23rd Januuary 2021 5:18pm AEST on CoinGecko. Most coins are in the red over the last 7 days but check out the glassnode video above for some underlying reasons why.
ETFS 21Shares Crypto Monitor - 20th January 2022 - ETF provider, ETF Securities has recently partnered with crypto ETF provider 21Shares to create a weekly market monitor for cryptocurrencies. They look at total market value of bitcoin, Ethereum competitors and code vulnerabilities. Check it out if you’re interested in ETFs and crypto.
Social post of the week
Twitter Blue Rolling out NFT Profile Pics on iOS - Twitter officially announces integration of NFT profile pictures into paid Twitter Blue subscription account tier.
Education
Buildspace.so - this week we highlight the awesome site for learning about web3 with Buildspace. From building your own smart contract to creating a turn-based game using NFTs, there are a great couple of projects for anyone to jump into and learn.
Thanks again to our various newsletter contributors
If you're interested in contributing to these newsletters in future - please reach out to us on info@defi.org.au