This week’s newsletter highlights the news that Eminem recently paid nearly $500,000 for his first Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT. Bitcoin celebrated its 13th birthday this week. The Bitcoin Genesis Day marks the day when the first bitcoin block was released in 2009, an event widely celebrated by the crypto community. These stories and more are included in this week’s newsletter.
As we begin, let us celebrate a digital coin that has accomplished a lot over the past thirteen years. As Asian markets awoke for the first week of 2022, the Hong Kong Bitcoin Association was one of the first to celebrate Genesis Day. Moreover, mentioning both public and private keys, the Association also noted that this is a good time to ensure that your Bitcoin is stored in a wallet that you control. A Bitcoiner pioneer named Trace Mayer suggested the celebration of the Proof of Keys on this date. The Proof of Keys website promotes this annual event that encourages Bitcoin hodlers to take control of their assets.
The hip hop icon and award-winning artist Eminem recently purchased a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT for the first time, joining a growing list of celebrities who have bought into the hype. He bought the non-fungible token on the OpenSea platform for 123.45 ether, or $462,000. It has since become his Twitter profile picture.
However, this was not his first purchase of the NFT. The rapper has amassed 22 NFTs under the name Shady_Holdings, despite only opening his OpenSea wallet less than a week ago. A Twitter user named GeeGaza, who sold Eminem the Bored Ape NFT, tweeted that he was living in a simulation after the sale to the rap star.
In addition to Eminem, NBA superstar Stephen Curry, celebrity Jimmy Fallon, and music artist Post Malone are also owners of Bored Ape NFTs. Also, Bored Ape Yacht Club is one of the most popular sets on OpenSea, with a floor price of 73.5 ethers, or roughly $280,000 per set. For the first time in late January, its floor price surpassed that of CryptoPunks.
Meanwhile, Mexico has announced plans to issue its own digital coin by 2024. Mexico’s central bank announced that it would issue its own digital currency. It was stated in the statement of the official account of the Mexican presidency that the project would be complete by 2024 and emphasized the importance of technology for the future of the nation’s financial structure.
In an interesting development, PayPal Holdings has confirmed its intention to launch its own cryptocurrency, PayPal Coin. PayPal’s iPhone app developer Steve Moser discovered an in-house stable coin in the source code.
According to a recent research note from Goldman Sachs, Bitcoin, also known as digital gold, is likely to overtake gold as a store of value by 2022. Gold has a value of $2.6 trillion, whereas cryptocurrencies have a market capitalization of $700 billion. It is estimated that Bitcoin’s value would reach just over $100,000 if it attained a market share of 50%. The future of bitcoin looks bright!
Last week, the price of Bitcoin dropped to $44,000 after notes from the Federal Reserve’s December FOMC session reaffirmed plans to bring the balance sheet under control. In closing bell trading, Bitcoin (BTC) and the wider cryptocurrency market fell as equities markets retreated after minutes from the Fed’s December FOMC meeting indicated the regulator is committed to decreasing its balance sheet and raising rates in 2022.
In less than an hour, the price of BTC fell from above $44,000 to below $44,000, triggering a cascade of liquidations that reached $222 million. A wave of selling pulled Bitcoin to an intraday low of $43,717 as its price oscillated around support at $46,000 for the past few days.
In other market news, Bloomberg estimates that Changpeng Zhao is now the world’s richest cryptocurrency CEO, with a net worth of $96 billion. Zhao Changpeng’s net worth has now surpassed that of Mukesh Ambani, who owns a $92.9 billion fortune. Furthermore, the company’s CEO is already close to Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Lastly, according to the Huawei App Market, the number of downloads of the Digital RMB (pilot version) App has increased from “less than 10,000” on the first day of launch to “more than 5.8 million” as of January 9. The number of new users pushing the digital RMB wallet increased by more than ten times daily after the Digital RMB (pilot version) APP hit the shelves, according to various platforms. In the data provided by Meituan, as of January 7, the number of users transferring digital RMB wallets on the platform surged nearly 20 times daily. The daily average increase in digital RMB transaction orders and transaction amounts was approximately 25%. According to Jingdong, the number of users pushing the digital RMB wallet has increased more than 10 times on average every day since the launch of the Digital RMB App (pilot version).
We’ll have more exciting updates in next week’s newsletter. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram ,and Linkedin to stay up to date with all the latest news or visit our website.
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