Strengths
- Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, the best performer for the week was Neoteric NTRC, rising 1278%.
- Bitcoin settled into a holding pattern on Wednesday ahead of U.S. inflation figures that could inject fresh volatility. The largest cryptocurrency held at about $19,500 in Asian trading, little changed on the day but nursing a drop of 11% since the end of last week. Global markets were also becalmed as investors took a deep collective breath in the countdown to the inflation data writes Bloomberg.
- French crypto lending protocol Morpho raised $18 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, defying the gloom surrounding the sector after companies like Celsius Network froze withdrawals. Around 100 backers invested in the decentralized autonomous organization called Morpho, including Variant, Coinbase Ventures and Spark Capital. The investors received a newly issued token tied to the project named MORPHO writes Bloomberg.
Weaknesses
- Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, the worst performing for the week was NoblessCoin down 97.87%.
- Nearly all industrial scale Bitcoin miners in Texas have shut off their machines as the companies brace for a heat wave that is expected to push the state’s power grid near its breaking point. Miners such as Riot Blockchain, Argo Blockchain and Core Scientific are working with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to shut down their mining machines when the state faces energy shortages, writes Bloomberg.
- Stablecoins must “urgently” be brought under increased regulatory oversight before they can become a risk to financial stability, according to the European Central Bank (ECB). The institution said that with some stablecoins already playing critical roles in providing crypto markets with liquidity, there could be significant spillover should a large stablecoin fail, writes Bloomberg.
Opportunities
- Major League Baseball (MLB) All-Star and New York Yankees Pitcher Nestor Cortes, aka “Nasty” Nestor, announced on Tuesday that he will be releasing his exclusive non-fungible token (NFT) collection on the Reserve Foundations RBX Network protocol with a portion of his personal proceeds to benefit Sloan Kettering Memorial Hospital and Miami Children’s Hospital on Sunday evening July 17th, writes Bloomberg.
- Ethereum rose 11% on Thursday after the inflation data came out above expectations and the highest in 40 years. The market is believing they are well behind the curve and taming inflation will be harder than expected.
- Polygon’s MATIC token jumped after Walt Disney Co. chose it for a business-development accelerator program. MATIC was 1.3% higher Friday morning in Asia after surging 21% on Thursday in the wake of Disney’s announcement that polygon was one of six companies selected, writes Bloomberg.
Threats
- The founders of bankrupt crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital haven’t been cooperating in the firm’s liquidation process and their whereabouts were unknow as of Friday according to court papers. Representatives tapped to liquidate Three Arrows by a British Virgin Islands judge had “not yet received any meaningful cooperation” from Kyle Davies and Zhu Su, lawyers said in U.S. bankruptcy court filings. Advisory firm Teneo is attempting to round up and preserve the assets of the hedge fund according to an article written by Bloomberg.
- Cryptocurrency lender Celsius Networks filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the latest casualty of a $2 trillion crash that has wiped out some of the industry’s biggest names and exposed hundreds of thousands of individual investor to steep losses. Celsius, which has more than 100,000 creditors said took the step to stabilize its business and work out a restructuring for all stakeholders, writes Bloomberg.
- OpenSea, the world’s largest marketplace for NFTs, is cutting about 20% of its staff, the latest in a series of layoffs that’s rocked the crypto industry as digital-asset prices continue to plummet. CEO Devin Finzer announced the job cuts in a tweet on Thursday, and warned of a prolonged downturn amid the collapse in crypto prices and broader economic stability writes Bloomberg.
