🐴 Crypto Exits the Chute Kickin’ in ‘22

January 8, 2022

|In Weekend Recap

|By Osprey Team

Crypto was a wild ride in the first week of 2022.

Year to date, Bitcoin is down 12% and Ethereum is down 16% so far with some of the smaller tokens taking even more of a haircut.

The sell-off preceded the Fed’s less dovish jawbone on Thursday and accelerated into it.

So maybe some of the language was telegraphed, while some of the follow-through was downward momentum. Who knows.

Despite the volatility, hash rates held up in the face of what may be a not so peaceful revolution in Kazakhstan, the second largest Bitcoin mining nation. That’s its own turbulent tale, see more below…

Meanwhile… NFT Sales Gallop Out of the Gate

In the first week of January, Bored Ape Yacht Club sales already cleared 50% of December’s total. Not too shabby.

We asked Osprey NFT Fund PM Justin Paterno his thoughts on the hot start. He shared,

“NFTs are seeing relative strength despite the crypto dip and there’s strength concentrated in select projects like BAYC.”

Here’s a chart of daily NFT volume on OpenSea since early-October.

A Mobile Wallet Built On Solana

Phantom, a wallet built on Solana, released its mobile beta in early-November and has continued to see strong demand.

The wallet opened the beta to an additional 1,000 users on Thursday and it filled within 4 hours.

Folks aren’t just flocking to the iOS version, Phantom secured 1.8M users in 2021 on its desktop application.

It’s probably nothing.

Kazakhstan Unrest Escalates

Unrest continues in Kazakhstan as a Russia-led military alliance assists, at the request of the president, to restore order.

The protests have turned violent with more than a dozen casualties and a “shoot-to-kill” order from Kazakhstan’s president in an attempt to tame the tensions.

Nationwide internet shutdowns occurred on Wednesday and continued through Thursday leaving crypto mining at a standstill.

With 18% of the world’s bitcoin miners operating in Kazakhstan, this is a bigger story than the mainstream media is communicating.

Despite the miners going off-line, the Bitcoin hash rate appears to be holding up.

In case you missed it, catch our recent post on Hash Rates here.

OpenSea’s Series C

OpenSea announced a 300M Series C raise this week. That’s a lot of JPEGs.

The firm will use the fresh capital to —

Accelerate product development.
Improve customer support and customer safety.
Invest in the wider NFT and Web3 community.
Grow their team.

The NFT platform is “hiring across the board.” If you’d like to work in Web3, shoot your shot.

See the blog post here.

LinksDAO Is Real World

LinksDAO raised >$10M in less than 48 hours to acquire a top-100 golf course walking the game into Web3.

It’s metaverse meets the physical world which is pretty cool.

Mike Dudas, LinksDAO founder, said the organization was developed to create “one of the world’s greatest golf clubs.”

We love to see it.

What is a DAO? We’ve got you covered.

Why Web3 Matters via AVC

This week, Fred Wilson weighed in on Web2 vs Web3. It’s a must read.

Here’s the money quote —

Most consumers start with the token/asset and go from there. Initially, it was Bitcoin and you’d store it at Coinbase. Then it was Ethereum and you’d stake it. Then it was a Cryptokitty and you’d sire it. Then it was a TopShot and you’d collect it and trade it. Then it was a CryptoPunk and you’d make it your Twitter avatar. Then it was an Axie token and you’d use it to play Axie Infinity. I could go on and on but you get the idea…

Come for the assets, stay for the experience.

VR Gaming Goes Next-Gen

PlayStation released its latest and greatest in virtual reality for the PS5.

The company shared,

PlayStation VR2 takes VR gaming to a whole new level, enabling a greater sense of presence and allowing players to escape into game worlds like never before.

Building upon our innovations from PS5, PlayStation VR2 adds a true next-gen experience with high-fidelity visuals, new sensory features, and enhanced tracking.

Web3 could be a gamers’ paradise.

See the blog post here.

Sony also unveiled an electric SUV which sounds crazy and probably is.