Welcome again to this 17th issue of the Chain Reaction newsletter for the week commencing 14th March 2022.
In the news this week we saw local web3 stalwart, Immutable, raise $200m to deploy towards expanding their presence in this space, President Biden signed an executive order that was viewed as a positive for the crypto markets and the crew at The Defiant showcased part 1 of a more in-depth reponse to the backlast that NFTs have had since the release of the infamous Line Goes Up critique a few weeks ago. All that and more in the newsletter.
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
Bankless Newsletter - What NFTs teach us - Been a bit of a crazy period for NFTs including the Pixelmon saga but despite all that, other projects moved ahead including news on new platforms like LooksRare’s rarity rankings, the donation of a crypto punk to Ukraine’s crypto donation address and news on the SEC providing more scrutiny on the NFT ecosystem.
The Block - Healthcare giant CVS files for NFTs and virtual goods trademark - the US pharmacy giant CVS has filed for trademark for NFT and metaverse health services but this is not a sure sign of actually offering these goods. That said, it does signal an intent from traditional web2 firms that are exploring the web3 space more.
Cointelegraph -How Secretum Plans To Take Over NFT Gaming - NewsBTC _Spectrum is set to replace tweeter ,telegram and discord , as web3 is in a dire need of a sophisticated platform for a multi-trillion dollar industry.
Decrypt-Payments Giant Stripe Launches Support for Crypto, NFTs - Decrypt _ Strip joins the new financial system by introducing cryptocurrency payment, NFT transactions and more.
Ethereum's 'consensus layer' contract hits 10M ETH staked _ Ethereum surpassing its first milestone by reaching the equivalent of $26 billion in eth staked .
Cointelegraph- ENS director of operations remains at foundation after voting _ everyone agrees that DAOs might be just the answer to fight corruption , however in the current ones we keep seeing flaws like here Brantly Millegan using his voting power to stay in position despite the votes to remove him.
AFR - Aussie crypto star Immutable banks $280m at $3.5b valuation - If you weren’t already a fan of Immutable, perhaps it’s time to look them up as they just raised an insane amount of money (and valuation) to continue their work to improve how NFTs are traded and how this leads into powering the play-to-earn revolution. Well done team Immutable!
Finance magnates-Blockdaemon Expands Presence in Crypto Market, Acquires Gem The institutional-grade blockchain infrastructure company for node management and staking, Blockdaemon announced today that it has acquired Gem, a crypto API firm.
Finance magnates- Top 3 Exciting DEXs to Follow in 2022 and Beyond - Dexs have reached $1.74 trillion USD total current market due to their popularity in the crypto market. This article is a list of the best DEXs to explore.
Cointelegraph-The future of work: Companies open offices in the metaverse - Metaverse trending while remote working is the new normal ,has led companies to take virtual offices as services seriously.
BTCNEXT Foundation Hong Kong considers crypto metaverses as inevitable and they are set to compete in it .
Polemos - Monthly Report - February - In this Medium article we see the CEO of the gaming guild, Polemos, discuss their continued team growth and community engagement as well as further building out the smart contracts for the PLMS token they are launching. Full steam ahead for team Polemos.
Al Jazeera - Biden to sign crypto order as industry faces pressure - the exec order that will outline the strategy for cryptocurrency in the US and will push the administration to look at regulatory changes. Whether this is positive or negative for crypto overall remains to be seen.
#Regulation and Government
The White House -FACT SHEET: President Biden to Sign Executive Order on Ensuring Responsible Innovation in Digital Assets - In this press release from the Biden administration in the US, they outline their “FACT SHEET: President Biden to Sign Executive Order on Ensuring Responsible Innovation in Digital Assets” covering 6 key priorities including:
Protecting US consumers, investors, businesses
Protecting US and global financial stability
Mitigating illicit finance and National Security Risks using digital assets
Promoting US leadership in technology and economic competitiveness
Promoting equitable access to safe and affordable financial services
Exploring a Central Bank Digital Currency (CDBC)
Cointelegraph- regulatory and industry leaders reacts to Biden’s EO After having the US lagging behind in the crypto market , Biden's Executive order seemed to be a positive step towards understanding and regulating the industry in an informed manner.
CoinDesk - XRP Climbs 22% Amid Developments in Ripple v. SEC Case - XRP the Ripple payments token jumped 22% upon news that they would be able to showcase evidence that they were not being shown to investors as an investment product which is what the SEC contends as part of their lawsuit. The case continues to be defended.
Finance magnates-BitMEX Co-founder Pleads Guilty to US Bank Secrecy Act Violations Samuel Read joins his co-founders in pleading guilty for violating (BSA) Bank secrecy act ,by failing to implement anti-money laundering protocol , which results in $10 million fine for each.
Dailycoin Kraken Donates Trading Fees From Russian Accounts to Ukraine Kraken has been getting the spotlight recently in their leadership amid the Ukrainian war , after their refusal to ban Russians from the platform , they have decided to donate their trading fees to the Ukrainien users .
Dailycoin-National Bank of Ukraine Receives First Payment of Aid from Solana ... The National Bank of Ukraine has received the first tranche of $1 million raised by Solana enthusiasts from all over the world through a dedicated initiative.
Charts and Data
CoinGecko
Top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap as of March 13th 2022 7:22pm AEST on CoinGecko. Bitcoin got as high as $42k in the middle of this week and then fell to $39k by the end of this week.
Dune Analytics
In this week’s highlight we see the spirit of collaboration in the web3 space especially amongst analytics competitors with Messari (who have their own platform) utilising the open source services of Dune Analytics to build some awesome dashboards for the community including this overall view (https://dune.xyz/messari/Messari-Dashboards) as well as one for Airdrops (https://dune.xyz/messari/Messari:-Airdrops) and another for Flashloans (https://dune.xyz/messari/Messari:-Flashloans). Here’s to more collabs like this in future.
Videos of the week
The Defiant - Explained (properly) - why gamers hate NFT’s - If you’ve seen Line Goes Up, the well publicised (and one-sided) critique of NFTs and crypto, you’ll know they hit out at the founder of The Defiant, Cami Russo. In a few previous videos, her colleague Robin Schmidt has responded and even put a call out to openly discuss these topics with Dan Olson who produced the critique. In any case, this 30 min deep dive into NFTs and the biggest hate they get, from gamers, is a good look into the lack of public discourse in this space and what arguments against NFTs miss. Well worth a watch. 30mins
Coin Bureau - When Fiat FAILS!! This CANNOT Be Ignored: Historical Lessons 💣 - Why fiat has failed and how crypto may be the salvation? Definitely one for the history buffs amongst this community with this list of lesson from Guy and team. 24mins
ausbiz - Tax implications of investing nd trading in crypto - A look into crypto tax with the crew at CryptoTaxCalculator. It allows investors to track their crypto across hundreds of exchanges and in this video, their founder Shane Brunette goes into detail on how it works. 14mins
ausbiz - Risk off as Ukraine receives crypto donations - interview with BTC Markets CEO Caroline Bowler looking at the overall crypto markets being affected by the Russia Ukraine crisis. With trading volumes seeing spikes and then drops, the price has followed suit. 7mins
Ausbiz - Biden provides greater clarity over crypto regulation | Sydney's NFT gallery - chatting with Binance Australia CEO, Leigh Travers and the opportunities investors look for in this space along with the physical NFT gallery they’re helping launch in Sydney for wholesale investors.15mins
Social post of the week
The rockstar developer behind projects such as Fantom and Yearn Finance is leaving DeFi, announces on Twitter Fantom Foundation colleague Anton Nell.
No reason was given for the pair’s departure from the DeFi sector.
With the news, the price of dozens of tokens plunged. After Fantom falling more than 20%
the Fantom Foundation published a statement: “Andre and Anton did not ‘terminate’ 25 projects. Instead, any involvement (such as user interface) in these projects was to be handed over to the existing teams, many of whom had been developing and running independently."
Here's the original tweet: https://twitter.com/antonnellcrypto/status/1500405473337565191?s=21
Education
We highlighted this a few weeks ago but one of our members, known as Crypto Karin, has a video series out for beginners and in this episode (2) it’s all about the cryptocurrency aspect. This is a great set of foundational videos for those getting started - check it out. 48mins
This week's newsletter edited by MARK MONFORT
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