MARKET WRAP

2023 Might Have Made its Way through the Door But the Crypto Market Seems to Forget their NY Resolution

Cryptos

◉ BTC and ETH both dropped 1.5% last week, BTC was trading flat from ~$16,450 - ~$16,750 whereas ETH was changing hands at around $1,200.

◉ SOL dipped as low as $8 but quickly went back up at ~$10. Not a very good week, or month for SOL, not even Vitalik’s encouraging tweet can help it.

Insights

Young generations do not invest as much in cryptocurrency research as boomers do.

◉ 34% of boomers spend days (50% more than other generations) focusing on technical factors such as tokenomics, revenue, and competitor landscape before investing whereas younger generations are often attracted by the importance of "website aesthetics" and compelling founders as reputational factors.

◉ It could be that oldies are more likely to be retired which gives them more time and experience to make brighter decisions than younger generations.

Equities

◉ Nasdaq, the S&P 500, and Dow Jones Industrial were all trading at a bit sliding prices by 0.11%, 0.25%, and 0.22%, respectively.

Takeaways

◉ It would be a wild guess to make a certain assertion as to whether 2023 will lead the bull charge or not; the sentiment seems to have been quite cynical when the Fed claimed to continue upholding their mile-long interest rate hike into 2023.

◉ It has been a month since the last time the market got upturned by any aggressive movement. Nevertheless, an undertow would be just as dangerous as any other visible tsunami. We’re talking about the foggy debacle surrounding Gemini, Genesis, and DCG right now. The situation has been escalating with haste for the past week and is expected to come to light at any moment.

Top 2 Solana’s Projects Degods and Y00ts Will Leave The Chain

CoinDesk - December 27, 2022 at 9:33 AM UTC

Recently, two of the top Solana NFT projects DeGods and Y00ts said they will make their departure from the Solana network. Early next year, DeGods plans to switch to the Ethereum blockchain, while Y00ts will be available on Polygon.

M3TA Insights
This is a classic ‘shell swap of hermit crabs’. When the hermit crab has grown to outsize the shell, its survival instinct will urge itself to find a larger shell, just as Degods and Y00ts, who wish to scale up with chains that exhibit a larger base of users and new opportunities to expand their ecosystem.

FTX Invested $200m of Customer Money in Mysten Labs and Dave

CNBC - December 28 2022 at 5:35 PM EST

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried used $200 million of customers’ assets to fund investments in two companies. He invested half of the mentioned fund in Dave, a fintech company and the rest in Mysten Labs, the parent company of Sui blockchain.

M3TA Insights
After the collapse of FTX, millions of funds have not found its way back to their rightful owners. The SEC is referencing FTX investments and if FTX confirms that investor funds were used to invest in Sui and Dave, that would mean there are $200 million that investors could claim back.

JAPAN

Japan Considers to List ‘Foreign’ Stablecoins Such as USDT and USDC

CoinDesk - December 28, 2022 at 2:27 AM UTC

Japan's Financial Services Agency is waiting for feedback on the recently proposed legislation over enabling foreign stablecoins to be issued on domestic exchanges. In accordance with the proposed regulation, local distributors who hold sufficient assets will be permitted to handle payment-focused stablecoins as well.

Crypto Exchange Kraken Plans to Exit Japan

CoinDesk - December 28, 2022 at 9:44 PM UTC

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, as of January 31, will close down its operation in Japan and cease to be registered with the Financial Services Agency for the quoted reason of unhealthy market conditions in the country and in the global crypto market.

M3TA Insights
Maybe, could the ‘unhealthy’ market have linked with the fact that Nikkei - the leading and most-respected index of Japanese stocks for the first time in 4 years since 2018 recorded a loss of 9.4% in 2022? This is also the second time that Kraken left Japan’s market since 2018 so it is unpredictable if ‘unhealthy market conditions in Japan’ is the true culprit behind the decision.

CHINA

China Launches (Extremely Centralized) NFT Marketplace

CoinDesk - December 29, 2022 at 8:56 AM UTC

China - a country with widely known strict regulations on cryptocurrency has lately introduced their first state-backed NFT marketplace. Three state-owned, as well as privately-owned organizations, will manage the platform: China Technology Exchange and Art Exhibitions China, both of which are government-backed, and Huban Digital, a private company. 

M3TA Insights
China is known to be strict on its censored culture, media, economy, and cryptocurrency is no exception. Actually, China once even banned investors from trading NFTs with cryptocurrency. Therefore, it is unclear as to whether this NFT marketplace will just be another experiment for their decentralization-refuting authority or it will be a promising playgrounds for China-based NFT traders.

Very interesting to see how time has changed between the Japanese market and the Chinese one at this moment!

Pudgy Penguins NFTs Reaching an All-Time High

CoinDesk - December 28, 2022 at 9:59 AM UTC

According to Nansen, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and other supposedly "blue chip" digital collectibles have been surpassed by Pudgy Penguins in 24-hour trading volume, which was 1,200 ETH - roughly twice that of BAYC, which came in second. 

M3TA Insights
It is thought that the act was NFT wash trading where an entity tries to buy and sell a set of NFTs to increase the floor price, which would mislead investors into thinking that the trending NFT is worth a try.

3Commas API Database was Suspected to be an Inside Job

CoinDesk - December 29, 2022 at 7:53 AM UTC

CoinDesk - December 30, 2022 at 11:48 AM UTC

On 28 Dec, an anonymous Twitter user published ~100,000 API keys of 3Commas users and claimed that they would publish the rest API keys randomly in the following days. Later, the CEO of 3Commas confirmed that the leak was real which led to an investigation by The U.S. Secret Service and FBI.

M3TA Insights
The moral lesson after this incidence is that API keys cannot be 100% trusted with a third party like CEXs or bot traders. Instead, Privacy Blockchain - a system where users can store their data without being compromised by a third party - could serve as an excellent solution for investors.