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Cryptocurrencies are down by 0.88% week to date, while major protocols went up by 1.71%. In TradFi, the S&P500 is down by 2.49% in the last five days, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite is down by 2.57%.
This newsletter edition covers this week's market movers, shares how interest in AI tokens has spiked, and deep dives into what blue chip NFTs are.
☕️ This week in crypto
- Spotify - the music streaming platform - is testing a new service called token-enabled playlists that allows NFT holders to connect their wallets and listen to curated music.
- Revolut - the challenger bank - launched crypto-staking services for various Proof-of-Stake tokens like Ethereum, Polkadot, Cardano, and Tezos. The new service will only be available initially in the UK and select European markets.
- European Central Bank - was considering whether to issue a CBDC and published a rollout plan for the Digital Euro that included prioritizing online purchases and making payments among friends.
- Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Melon) - said at a conference run by Afore Consulting that the digital asset industry is "here to stay" as institutional investors have a strong interest in crypto. "What we see is clients are absolutely interested in digital assets, broadly," according to Reuters.
- Coinbase - the crypto exchange - launched Base, a layer 2 network built using Optimism's OP Stack. Coinbase's website states, "Base is a secure, low-cost, developer-friendly Ethereum L2 built to bring the next billion users to Web3."
It's the rise of AI 🤖
We have all heard about ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chat that set the record as the fastest-growing consumer application in history, reaching over 100 million monthly active users in January, only two months after its launch.
Companies all over are trying to get in as quickly as possible, with Microsoft investing $10 billion in ChatGPT's creator OpenAI. Google launched its own Bard AI chat (and loosing $100 billion in market value after the chat shared inaccurate information in a promotional video).
According to the e-trading report from JPMorgan, blockchain and AI go hand in hand when it comes to future-defining technologies, with "53% of traders predicting 'Artificial Intelligence/ Machine Learning' technology to be the most influential in shaping the future of trading over the next three years, with 'API Integration' and 'Blockchain/ Distributed Ledger Technology' following".
And AI crypto tokens are feeling the heat with their prices spiking over the last few days.
Tokens like The Graph (GRT) and Fetch.ai (FET) are trading over 80% and 56% higher than in the last seven days. Others like Oasis Network (ROSE) and Ocean Protocol (OCEAN) are "only" trading 25% and 35% higher.
These AI tokens are cryptocurrencies that utilize AI to improve security, user experience, scalability, or other factors, and as we know, AI is the hot topic right now.
2023 feels like the year of AI, but with great hype usually comes greater volatility, so as always, Do Your Own Research before investing.
⛓ Cryptocurrencies: $CHAIN is down by 0.88%
The Arch Blockchains token (CHAIN) traded 0.88% lower than in the last seven days.
- Bitcoin (BTC) NFT interest has exploded in popularity. BitMex, the crypto derivatives firm, published a blog post identifying over 13,000 Ordinals transactions. According to the post, the media files published onto Bitcoin have consumed 526 megabytes of block space and cost creators 6.77 bitcoin. The NFTs have made Bitcoin network activity spike to a two-year high, according to CryptoQuant.
- Polygon's (MATIC) independent blockchain explorer, Polygoscan, went down on Wednesday, sparking rumors that the Polygon blockchain had gone offline. Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal tweeted, clarifying the issue was related to Polygonscan, not the Polygon network.
- According to Dune Analytics, Solana's (SOL) NFT Marketplace's daily active users have been on a constant decline since the first week of February. The Solana-themed retail storefronts called "Solana Spaces" announced they are closing their brick-and-mortar storefronts in New York City and Miami. On other news, after Polygonscan went down, fans from the network took to Twitter, praising Solana.
📈 Protocols: WEB3 is up by 1.71%
At the time of writing, The Arch Ethereum Web3 token (WEB3) traded 1.71% higher than last week.
- Chainlink (LINK) continues to add more partnerships. Archblock, the issuer of TrueUSD stablecoin, announced it would use Chainlink's proof-of-reserves system, while Zeta Markets integrated Chainlink Price Feeds. On other exciting news, Chainlink announced Smartcon 2023, one of the most prominent blockchain and Web3 conferences, is set to take place Oct. 2 and 3 in Barcelona, Spain.
- Brave (BAT), the web browser, added support for Solana dApps on its mobile version, according to a statement published on their site. Users can now connect with Solana NFT marketplaces Magic Eden and crypto exchanges Orca and Jupiter Exchange.
- Synthetix (SNX) - a protocol that enables the issuance of synthetic assets on the Ethereum blockchain, including commodities and stocks - deployed version 3 (v3) on the Ethereum mainnet. Developers stated that Synthetix v3 would have a more efficient architecture to allow developers to create faster, more complex, and more efficient DeFi applications.
- Uniswaps (UNI) NFT marketplace launched a new feature allowing NFT traders to use any token on the Ethereum blockchain to purchase their NFTs through a simplified interface. Uniswap's new Universal Router contract "finds the most cost-efficient route" to complete a swap.
👩🎨 What are blue chip NFTs
Blue-chip companies are renowned for their stability and financial soundness, even during economic uncertainty. Blue chip NFTs offer the same characteristics.
Ana Fernandez
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed are for general informational purposes only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations. The views reflected in the commentary are subject to change without notice.
