Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes,
Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.
Top Stories This Week
Crypto markets soar after Fed commits to printing and Evergrande plans to pay its debt
The crypto markets were showing signs of recovery during the week as the U.S. Federal Reserve committed to carrying on its spending habits, while Chinese real estate giant Evergrande was able to strike deals with bondholders to avoid default on its hefty loan obligations.
Evergrande’s potential default on $305 billion worth of debt has essentially been a ticking time bomb that has loomed over the global financial market, with some asserting that this is China’s Lehman Brothers moment. However, the firm is safe for the immediate term, and the news coincided with an 11.3% bump in Bitcoin’s (BTC) price on Tuesday.
The spike in price also followed comments from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, who explained that the central bank plans to continue its ridiculous level of monthly bond purchases for the foreseeable future. Both reports suggest that FUD related to Evergrande and the Fed’s spending habits can now be shelved for a later date.
Old FUD, new BTC price dip — Weeks-old China crypto ‘ban’ sparks $42K Bitcoin price drop
Speaking of FUD, the crypto market recovery appears to be short-lived as old news regarding China was suddenly picked up on social media, sparking an instant price crash across the crypto market.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is down 2.7%, Ether (ETH) is down 6.4%, and FUD is up 100%. This knee-jerk reaction was the result of a memo from the People’s Bank of China, or PBOC, that criminalized practically all crypto activity except possession.
Chinese-language commentators noted, however, that the PBOC released the updated guidance on Sept. 15 but posted it online on Friday.
It seems odd that the market has responded to China banning crypto again, as it’s not like the local government has done anything to foster excitement about digital assets in the country of late. At this stage, they might as well get it over with and ban possession too.
Biden to nominate anti-crypto and anti-big bank law professor to run the OCC
On Thursday, reports surfaced that the Biden administration intended to nominate Kazakhstani-American attorney, academic, and former policy advisor Saule Omarova to head the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, or OCC.
Omarova is a crypto critic who is also not so fond of the big banks, having previously vowed to “end banking as we know it.” Currently employed as a law professor at Cornell Law School, she is expected to clamp down on crypto with tighter regulation, as she thinks the industry threatens the stability of the economy.
If confirmed, bankers and crypto proponents alike may be in for some hairy moments as Omarova single-handedly works to tear down both sectors under the guise of protecting the economy.
Sports-themed NFTs spark gold rush as projects raise $930M in a week
To cleanse the palate, there was bullish news in the NFT sector this week as two firms known for tokenized sports collectible projects raised a combined $930 million in funding.
French-based soccer trading card NFT game developer Sorare closed a $680 million Series B funding round led by SoftBank at a valuation of $4.3 billion. Dapper Labs, the team behind the Flow blockchain and NBA Top Shot, also announced a $250 million funding round led by tech-focused hedge fund Coatue.
Sorare and Dapper Labs both outlined plans to expand their tokenized collectible model beyond soccer and basketball, respectively, along with scaling up their current widely popular NFT projects. The combined total of $930 million marks a significant bet on the tokenized sports sector at a time when the wider NFT market faces declining sales volume and floor prices.
John Cena calls his own NFT sales a ‘catastrophic failure’
John Cena, the WWE hall-of-famer known for his braggadocious “you can’t see me” catchphrase, recently saw limited sales during his foray into nonfungibles.
The professional wrestler said that fans only purchased 7.4% of his WWE NFTs that were dropped last month, labelling the sale a “catastrophic failure” and citing the price point for the gold-tier NFT package as being too high at $1,000.
There were 500 gold tier NFTs offered in total, which were part of a package with physical collectibles, including a hat, shirt, wristbands, belt, towel, and autographed picture.
“I talk a lot about failure — this idea failed,” said Cena. “Myself and the folks in the WWE thought $1,000 was a fair price point. We were wrong. We were absolutely wrong.”
Winners and Losers
At the end of the week, Bitcoin is at $42,223, Ether at $2,905 and XRP at $0.93. The total market cap is at $1.88 trillion,