This week was nothing short of eventful from all ends of the spectrum. The market went through considerable volatility, fortunately – it was to the upside for the most part. One of the most popular NFT series – Azuki – also airdropped additional NFTs to its holders while the anticipation and hype more or less doubled its value. All this while Axie Infinity’s Ronin bridge was exploited for some $600 million in what can easily be the largest crypto hack ever. Let’s unpack.
Bitcoin was trading around $44,000 at this time last week, but it didn’t take long for the cryptocurrency to start rising. On Monday evening, the price had already risen to almost $48,000, where it consolidated for a few days. Market participants have been unable to move BTC back and forth. That all changed on Thursday, but unfortunately the bears took over and pushed the price back towards $45,000 – where it is currently trading.
The rest of the market followed in Bitcoin’s footsteps with certain obvious exceptions. Ethereum is up about 8%, BNB – about 5%, AVAX – 8%. Solana managed to increase by a whopping 26% on news of OpenSea integration, whereas LUNA is up 10.9% as Do Kwon doesn’t seem keen on halting the Bitcoin buys.
Meanwhile, Axie Infinity’s Ronin Bridge has been mined for a whopping $600 million. Axie Infinity’s Kapital DAO leader – Sam Peurifoy – even suggested that they could sell some of his equity to raise the funds needed to reimburse all users.
Stepping into the realm of NFTs this week, it was the Azuki collection that stole the show and outperformed all others in terms of both floor price increase and overall volume. This is because the team airdropped the Something Official collection to Azuki holders. It currently has a floor value of 4.3 ETH worth over $13K.
Top of Form
All in all, it’s been a very busy and eventful week, and it’s particularly exciting to see how the next seven days unfold.
Market Data
Market Cap: $2,200B | 24H Vol: $154B | BTC Dominance: 39.3%
BTC: $45,414 (+3.4%) | ETH: $3,344 (+7.7%) | ADA: $1.14 (+10.6%)
Biggest Crypto Hack Ever: What Happened in the Ronin Bridge Attack? The Ronin Bridge, essential infrastructure of the Axie Infinity ecosystem, was exploited. This saw the company lose over $600 million worth of ETH and USDC in what appears to be one of the biggest cryptocurrency-related hacks.
Rio de Janeiro to Accept Cryptocurrency Payments for Taxes (Report). Cryptocurrency adoption continues, and this time it happens in the form of regulatory clarity. The city of Rio de Janeiro revealed that it will begin accepting crypto for tax payments in a considerable push forward.
MicroStrategy to buy more BTC after $205 million Bitcoin-backed loan from Silvergate. MicroStrategy — the company, led by one of BTC’s most vocal proponents, Michael Saylor — will buy more Bitcoin following a $205 million loan from Silvergate that was backed by BTC.
$13 Trillion in Total Addressable Market for the Metaverse, Banking Giant Citi Says. The international banking giant – Citi – has demonstrated a very bullish outlook for the metaverse. The institution believes that the total addressable market for it would be between $8 trillion and $13 trillion by 2030.
Grayscale Comapres Ethereum in New York. Grayscale – the world’s first digital asset manager – has taken a very interesting approach to explaining cryptocurrencies to the general public. The company compared Ethereum to New York for its abundant but sometimes crowded development.
OpenSea Reveals the Solana Integration Date. The world’s largest marketplace for non-fungible tokens, OpenSea, teased that they will be integrating Solana next. This saw the price of the cryptocurrency skyrocket by some 26% in the past seven days alone.
