Will Stocks and Cryptos go separate ways in 2023? 💔
Is the correlation between stocks and crypto weakening? SEC vs Robinhood. Play-to earn or kill-to-earn? Can trade volume on Blur be trusted? The cool Japan strategy. SHIB denim hits the stores
Hello y'all. This is The Token Dispatch, and today's dispatch is like questions, questions and more questions. We ain't worried bout it right now. It's all bout dispatching 🚀 no matter what ✅.
Crypto and stocks have started to act different. Have you noticed? In 2023, the stock market fall don't mean fall for cryptos too. Is it finally happening then, finally?
Why? Unlike stocks, Crypto is influenced by more global flows than U.S. Crypto is influenced by what's happening all over the world, not just the US. In 2022, Crypto and U.S. stocks were like two peas in a pod until FTX went bust in November and they both went down the drain. But by late December, they started to make up and were getting along better than ever, reaching a peak in late January that hadn't been seen since September.
Year of Crypto Token Price Divergence?
Bank of America thinks so 😮 . The bank predicts that tokens that provide utility and a call on cash flows will outperform meme and governance tokens in 2023. Bank of America strategists view cryptocurrencies that power smart contract-enabled blockchain platforms as growth assets exposed to the same risks as growth stocks. They note that these cryptocurrencies and small-cap liquid tokens have led this year's rally and believe that this trend will continue into 2023💰.
Whales Dropping Like Flies 🐋
The number of bitcoin whales has dropped to its lowest point in three years, says data from Glassnode. There are only 1,663 whales left, down from last week's recording of 1,664. 🤑
A silver lining: Ownership is becoming more decentralised as Bitcoin whales hold more than 1,000 BTC and can shift markets by buying or selling large amounts at once. Over 7.6 million of them, are just sitting around, not being traded or used for transactions. Apparently, this is the highest amount in five whole years! - A great bullish sign 🚀.
TTD Sponsorship
Hey Robinhood, look who is on your back? Wait a SEC 😞
The SEC has sent a subpoena to Robinhood. Blame in on the FTX meltdown. It's interested in "cryptocurrency listings, custody of cryptocurrencies and platform operations" - which could lead to it ceasing digital asset trades on its platform. Robinhood also received similar subpoena requests from the California Attorney General's office regarding its trading platform, custody of customer assets, customer disclosures, and coin listing.
SEC vs Robinhood in the past:
The $65 million settlement in 2020 for misleading customers
The $30 million fine in August for failing to comply with anti-money laundering and cybersecurity regulations.
Robinhood is still growing: The FTX collapse in December 2022 led to increased market share for the platform. And in January, crypto trading volumes on the platform jumped a whopping 95%!
FYI … "subpoena" might sound like a fancy Italian dessert, (don't mind one of those), but it's a legal request for a person to appear before a court to testify or produce documentation when an investigation is active.
TTD Blockquote 🔊
“They don’t know how an exchange works"
So, Binance CEO said Forbes was spreading lies about them "shuffling" money and called it "FUD". In February 2022, Binance invested $200 million in Forbes. In June 2022, things changed when Forbes didn't go public. Now, we don't know what's going on.
Play-to-earn #dead. Kill-to-earn #undead
Grant Haseley, of Wagyu Games, wants to go big with Undead Blocks.
What's the deal with Undead Blocks: This first-person shooter (FPS) game is run on ZBUX token. Players shoot their way through hordes of undead and collect random rewards on the battlefield. Players can redeem ZBUX for Ethereum or Immutable's IMX token, buy in-game weapons and character cosmetics, and even stake or lock up the UNDEAD token for more rewards.
The popular Immutable X: An Ethereum-compatible (EVM) Layer 1 blockchain that's already home to GameStop's NFT marketplace and games like "Tiny Colony," which left Solana to enter Immutable X. It offers zero gas fees, carbon-neutrality, processing of 9000 transactions per second (TPS), all powered by StarkWare's zero-knowledge-proof technology.
TTD Think About It 🧠
What to do with dead wallets? Impossible to steal or deaccession. The IRS has recognised that even though your NFTs may not be sellable, they still hold taxable value. So what do you do? Donate it. The Museums love NFTs. It makes them a perfect fit for museums looking to build a low-cost and unstealable collection of important NFTs. So why not donate your dead wallets to museums and get something out of your lost NFTs?
Is there a BLUR in what we seeing? 🔎🤓
A leading NFT analytics platform, Crypto Slam, has flagged 80% of recent trades on Blur as “inorganic,” but is it really wash trading?
CryptoSlam, removed $577 million worth of Blur trades from its data due to “market manipulation.” That figure was up to $824 million as of February 27 morning, that's over 80% of Blur’s total NFT trading volume ($1.02 billion). Recorded by CryptoSlam since the marketplace launched its BLUR token airdrop on February 14. By contrast, the rival marketplace OpenSea saw $6.6 million worth of “wash trades” in the same time period, that's 2.5% of $249 million in total trade volume.
That implies, as per CryptoSlam’s analysis, OpenSea is still handling more organic NFT trading volume than Blur. CryptoSlam has yet to analyse all of Blur’s trading data from its October 2022 launch up until the airdrop.
Can NFTs add the cool to Japan's promotion boost?
The Japanese government created the 'Cool Japan' initiative to promote positive attitudes towards Japan, increase sales of Japanese products, and promote tourism. The strategy consists three steps: promoting domestic growth, connecting Japan and other countries, and becoming a Japan that helps the world. They expect NFTs and web3 to add the dash of cool to Cool Japan strategy to promote its culture and boost its economy. Japan may not be leading the charge in Web3, but you know what they's got - a special market selling NFTs overseas — ANIME. one aspect of Japanese culture that has become popular worldwide, garnering a large and loyal fan base.
TTD NFT Buzz 📯
With love from Paris …
‘Future of Crypto & Web3 Is Culture' - Yat Siu, Chairman, Animoca Brands
‘Trying to Build the Disney of Web3' - Dave Broome, CEO, Orange Comet
‘We're Thriving, Not Just Surviving' - Shiti Manghani, COO, Stepn.
‘NFT Games Aren't Just About Minting’ - Thomas Webb, CEO, Webb
Fashion designer John Richmond launches environmentally sustainable ripped jean collection SHIB Denim Line in Milan.
TTD Surfer🏄
Former FTX Engineering Director Nishad Singh Pleads Guilty to Criminal Charges: Founder Sam Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to fraud and other charges and will face trial this fall.
Algorand Wallet MyAlgo Advises Users to Withdraw Funds After $9.6M Exploit. John Woods, chief technology officer of the Algorand Foundation, said 25 wallets were affected.
BitDAO’s Mantle Core proposes $200M for Web3 fund. It aims to boost the adoption among developers and DApps.
Huawei Takes on Tencent with Polygon Web3 and Metaverse Alliance. The tech giant wants the Metaverse and Web3 alliance to significantly influence Huawei’s strategy.
Cardano Founder EMURGO Invests in Goodwall’s Network for African Youth. The partnership will unlock blockchain opportunities for African youth, projected to make up 42% of global youth by 2030.
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