Date: 12/10/2021
“Crypto is really about the Cantillion Effect
The Fiat Standard: The Fed owns the Cantillion Effect (the rich get richer)
The Bitcoin Standard: The people own the Cantillion Effect (the early adopter gets richer)
Maximalism: Shitcoins are a scam to seize the Cantillion Effect”
— Willy Woo
Weekly News Report:
1. Prices for bitcoin, seen by a growing number of investors as a hedge against inflation, jumped 2% after the CPI report from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. The CPI for all items rose 6.8% in the 12 months through November, the highest since May 1982, when it was 6.9%. Looking ahead, it is expected to see a rapid upward movement in gold, major indices and bitcoin.
2. The crypto exchange Binance is in talks with PT Bank Central Asia (BCA), which is controlled by billionaire brothers Budi and Michael Hartono, and state-owned PT Telkom Indonesia, the country’s largest telecom operator, about a possible venture. The crypto venture would enable Binance to tap into the developing country of 273 million people, many of whom are unbanked.
3. Universal Music Group (UMG) has partnered with avatar company Genies, the label announced Thursday. Previously, some of the label’s artists, including Shawn Mendes and Justin Bieber, had personally tapped Genies for avatar versions of themselves. Now the label’s full roster can port their own avatars into “the evolving digital universe” — whether that be in activations in crypto-powered Decentraland metaverse or just on Twitter.
4. The Ethereum scaling network Polygon is undertaking another big-budget buy. Polygon announced a $400 million acquisition of Mir, a project focusing on zero-knowledge proofs. This will purportedly make Mir one of the fastest and most efficient layer 2 options. The purchase was executed with 250 million MATIC tokens at a price of $1.60; since the agreement, MATIC has risen to $2.18.
5. Terraform Lab’s Luna cryptocurrency is now one of the ten largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, according to CoinGecko, rocketing past popular dog-based meme tokens Shiba Inu and dogecoin despite a market-wide selloff that erased hundreds of billions in value over two days. Luna was one of just two top-20 tokens not pegged to other assets to defy the rout.
6. WhatsApp has launched a cryptocurrency payment feature for a small number of users in the United States, thanks to Novi integration, a digital wallet owned by Facebook (now Meta). The pilot program lets users of the encrypted messaging app send and receive money “instantly, securely, and with no fees” using the Paxos Dollar (USPD) stablecoin, whose value is linked to the US dollar.
7. The government of Gibraltar announced a project to integrate blockchain technology into its legacy systems in order to improve the delivery of its public services. The pilot project is being undertaken with the support of Latin American crypto exchange Bitso and RSK blockchain developer IOVlabs. The government wants to build on the existing functionality of its “eGov” system, which is used as a digital platform for accessing public services.
8. The government of Puerto Rico is reportedly seeking to improve its anti-corruption efforts by adopting blockchain technology. Puerto Rican House Speaker Rafael “Tatito” Hernandez announced that lawmakers will hold meetings with local blockchain enthusiasts this month to discuss the potential adoption of blockchain technology to reduce corruption. The implementation of blockchain and smart contracts could bring more transparency and accountability to the public sector, the official said at a Puerto Rico Blockchain Trade Association conference.
9. Looking ahead to 2022, Mark Cuban is most excited to see the “new and unique” crypto applications that may replace existing business processes. “Smart contracts can change the world,” he said. “I like ether more [than bitcoin because I can see an unlimited number of applications that will change the business and consumer world forever” Cuban tweeted.
10. BTC price continues to soften; however, it’s not all bad news for cryptocurrency holders on Dec. 10 because several altcoins have managed to post double-digit gains due to new exchange listings and protocol upgrades. The biggest gainers over the past 24-hours were Flux (FLUX), SafePal (SFP) and Badger DAO (BADGER).
11. ETH has outperformed BTC by more than 230% this year and derivatives data suggests traders believe the altcoin has a lot more upside. Most traders have noticed that Ether price has seriously outperformed Bitcoin for months now and the ETH/BTC ratio has rallied more than 230% in 2021 and recently hit a new high at 0.089 BTC on Dec. 9.
12. As the wider crypto market corrected and Bitcoin dropped by 22%, DeFiChain (DFI) bucked the trend and rallied 76% to establish a new high at $5.70 on Dec. 6 as its 24-hour trading volume surged from an average of $3.6 million to $24.3 million. Three reasons for the price breakout for DFI are the launch of decentralized assets on the DFI mainnet, a surge in transactions and users on the network and an increase in the total value locked (TVL) on the protocol.
13. A slew of new NFT-related partnerships and integrations with DeFi platforms sparked a rally in XTZ, WAXP and ALEPH. Analysts expect that Bitcoin will continue to search for firmer footing and while this process plays out, Ether and a handful of mid and low-cap altcoins are booking moderate gains.
14. “DeFi Land” is integrating music streaming into its gameplay by way of the blockchain-based Spotify rival. In DeFi Land, an FM radio tower was erected, the result of a recent partnership between DeFi Land and Audius, a music streaming platform built on the Ethereum and Solana blockchains.
15. Pepsi announces the brand’s first-ever foray into the innovative and evolving world of NFTs with the Pepsi Mic Drop genesis NFT collection. Anchored in the brand’s roots in music, Pepsi is creating 1,893 (to mark the year Pepsi was born) unique generative-style NFTs. The exclusive generative traits of the Pepsi Mic Drop genesis NFT collection pay homage to the brand’s storied history in music and the suite of Pepsi flavors.
