DQMonthly: December Edition

December: Sam arrest, Trump NFTs, GAM3 Awards & more

Published in

DeQuest

7 min readJan 6, 2023

Happy New Year Questers!

We hope you spent the last few days recovering from all the holiday cheer and are now ready to take on the new year with a fresh perspective and a renewed energy. Here’s to a year of more laughter, more love, and more adventures — let’s make it one to remember. As we turn the page on another year, let’s take a moment to reflect on the notable developments and milestones in cryptoverse that took place in December.

It was a wild ride in the world of blockchain last month! Former U.S. President Donald Trump has announced the release of 45,000 fantasy non-fungible tokens (NFTs) featuring images of himself in various costumes and poses. Meanwhile, former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has been arrested in The Bahamas at the request of the US government, and Illuvium Labs has released a private beta for their new game “Illuvium: Overworld”. And the biggest news of all, the winners of the inaugural GAM3 Awards have been announced, with Big Time taking home the coveted Game of the Year award.

What’s the buzz in December

Attackers pocket $20 million in exploits on Ankr and Helio.
There were two connected attacks: one involving a vulnerability in Ankr’s smart contract and the other involving the failure of an oracle system used by Helio Protocol
Starbucks opens up its web3 loyalty program and NFT community to first beta testers
Sam Bankman-Fried Arrested in The Bahamas.
US Attorney for the Southern District of New York confirms a sealed indictment against the former FTX CEO
Gaming blockchain Oasys’ SEGA and Ubisoft-validated mainnet goes live.
Oasys has completed the final phase of its mainnet. Its node validators include gaming giants SEGA and Ubisoft.
Donald Trump Announces $99 Digital Trading Card NFTs.
The edition of 45,000 NFTs features the former USA president in various fantasy costumes and poses. It will be minted on Polygon.
ConsenSys is announcing a huge collaboration with PayPal this week that lets retail buy crypto directly via MetaMask.
Debit, Credit Cards, Bank Accounts Coming to Uniswap. The fiat integration is powered by a new partnership with MoonPay
Binance.US agrees to buy Voyager’s assets.
The bid from the largest crypto exchange’s U.S. arm “sets a clear path forward for Voyager customers’ funds to be unlocked as soon as possible, and returned to them in the form of the cryptocurrencies previously held in their Voyager accounts,” an official blog post notes.

Gaming World

Updates & Top News of Web3 Gaming

Epic Games launches ‘cabined accounts’ for kids in the metaverse.
It allows children to have limited access to certain games while providing a safer online experience with parental consent and disabled chat and purchasing options, with the aim of promoting child safety within its metaverse.
Illuvium releases Overworld as it attempts to bring AAA quality to web3 gaming.
It aims to offer players an open-world monster collector, auto battler, and city builder experience on the ImmutableX blockchain and plans to release six more games over the next 20 years
The GAM3 Awards 2022 Winners Announced.
Big Time named Game of the Year, with other category winners including Shrapnel, Star Atlas, Superior, Thetan Arena, Blankos Block Party, Illuvium, MetalCore, Gods Unchained, EV.IO, League of Kingdoms, and The Harvest.

ImmutableX gaming NFTs now available on Nifty Gateway.
That includes Gods Unchained NFTs, which was one of the top five most traded NFTs by volume in September.
Aave acquires web3 social gaming app Sonar to expand Lens Protocol

NFT Arena

Top News of NFT’s fast moving market

BIGGEST NFT Sale: Bored Ape Yacht Club #3756–480.69ETH
Iconic NFT Collector Gmoney Reveals His Identity
Ledger Just Launched a New Hardware Wallet for Your NFTs
O.G. Audio App Winamp Adds Ethereum and Polygon Music NFT Support
Opera to add drag-and-drop NFT creation tool to browser in early 2023
DeGods and y00ts, two leading projects on Solana, are migrating to other blockchain networks in a bid to continue growing.

World Cup Fan Tokens, NFTs See Heavy Volume After Argentine Victory
Upland Scores Argentina Football Deal for EOS-based Metaverse.
Argentina’s football association partnered with metaverse platform Upland to offer exclusive collectibles, including in-game video
How Rolling Loud Plans to Bridge Hip-Hop and Web3.
The world’s largest hip-hop festival has announced a roadmap for its forthcoming Web3 project LoudPunx, which will provide holders with global entry to every Rolling Loud Music Festival.

Notable upcoming NFT sales-

1-Game of Thrones Hero Box Collectibles by Warner Bros | Mint date Jan/10/2023

2- Egaogods by Godsnow | Mint date Feb/01/2023 | Mint price FREE

3- GM: Daybreak Around the World Photography NFT Collection by National Geographic | Mint date Jan/17/2023 | Mint price 4 SOL

4- BVDCAT | Mint date 1/15/2023 | Mint price 4 SOL

Deep Dive

Submerge deeper into reports of the trending topics

Blockchain Games Are Resilient Despite FTX Collapse
A Comprehensive Guide to the Tezos Blockchain and NFTs
What in the Ethereum application ecosystem excites me -Blogpost by Vitalik
Has 2022 been a bad year for new games? | A look at new releases in NPD charts to measure this year’s performance against each year since 2016
What to Expect From Web3 Gaming in 2023
The Historical NFT thesis (Thread) — Leonidas

Technical Analysis

What indicators say about market

BTC has been trading in a narrow range and has shown minimal volatility. Last month it traded sideways forming a rectangular pattern in a range between $18,000 to $16,250. The range became tighter in the second half of December between $17,000 to $16,250 with low volumes.

RSI: The RSI is around 50, indicating potential for further sideways movement.

Support : BTC has strong support at $15,500, and if it breaks this level it could drop to the next support at $12,000.

Resistance: $18,000 will act as strong resistance for BTC, and if it breaks above this level it could rally up to $22,000.

Factors: Economic concerns such as monetary tightening and recession fears have been major headwinds for BTC throughout 2022. Inflation and rate expectations have also played a role in the initial decline. The fundamental backdrop will continue to be important for BTC price action in 2023

TREND: The bearish trend is still in place, but a move above the 2017 high of $19,666 could provide further guidance. Market is very much in same range which we saw in 2018/19 when BTC broke $6000 and stayed a few months between $3200-$4500 and jump towards $14000 in June 2019.

DeQuest has had a busy December, launching a Realm for Planet IX and hosting a successful Illuvium Christmas event with a points system and marketplace integration. DeQuest has also updated its dedicated Realm page with daily quests and a marketplace for lucky draws with the chance to win tokens, NFTs, and more. It looks like there’s never a dull moment in the DeQuest web3 gaming world!

DeQuest Updates

Illuvium Christmas Event a Resounding Success.
DeQuest and Illuvium’s joint Christmas event was a huge hit, with players completing daily quests and earning points to participate in a lucky draw featuring numerous prizes. The companies’ dedication to providing a fun and engaging gaming experience for their players was evident in the success of the event.
The Future Champions of Gaming: DeQuest Ambassador Program
DeQuest has launched its Ambassador Program, inviting gamers to contribute to the development and promotion of the DeQuest platform and the future of gaming.
DeQuest launches Realm for Planet IX
DeQuest has collaborated with Planet IX to launch a new Realm featuring points, weekly quests, and a lucky draw with various prizes.Players can earn points by completing tasks on the Planet IX game page and use them to enter a lucky draw in the marketplace, with new quests released weekly until the end of January.
DeQuest Realm: New Year, New Adventures
Celebrate the start of 2023 with daily quests, points, and lucky draws in the updated DeQuest Realm. Players can earn rewards by completing quests and entering lucky draws in the marketplace. Get ready for a month of excitement and prizes!

About DeQuest

A reputation-focused gaming platform providing seamless on-boarding, engagement and distribution for web3 games. Choose your Hero, level them up by completing Quests, engaging with Games in their Realms, battle through the Skill Tree and get ready to enter the metaverse and the world of Lorak

The insights, views and outlooks presented in the report are not to be taken as financial advice. DeQuest Research Analysts are not registered broker/dealers or financial advisors. DeQuest Research Analysts may hold assets mentioned in this report.