 |
| By Beth Canova |
The recent rally that revitalized the bulls seems to have run its course.
Growing anticipation over the next Federal Reserve interest rate hike and the overextended nature of the rally have both taken their toll.
Bitcoin (BTC, Tech/Adoption Grade “A-”) and Ethereum (ETH, Tech/Adoption Grade “A”) have both retreated and successfully tested support, but there’s little upward momentum at this time.
Among the crypto market leaders, BTC is arguably the most sensitive to Fed policy. Its price action is a great indicator of what lies ahead, as other crypto assets tend to follow shortly behind BTC’s movements.
As the rally fizzles out, we’ll be keeping a close eye on Bitcoin in the upcoming weeks to see how severe a correction we could expect.
In Ethereum’s case, the fast-approaching Merge — scheduled to take place in mid-September — will be the key event to look out for. We’ll have to wait and see if the Merge will be enough to provide the upward momentum we’ve been expecting.
But these are near-term concerns. Meanwhile, we’ve seen a series of news that signal growing adoption, fueling our long-term bullish outlook for the broad crypto space.
Here are nine key highlights:
1. Crypto Gets Political
Hawaiian Democrat Patrick Pihana Branco is running as an incumbent for Congress with the help of two crypto-linked political action committees: Web3 Forward and DAO for America. The two PACs have collectively spent around $294,000 to boost Branco’s campaign, with web3 spending a hefty $250,000 alone on advertising.
With crypto regulation increasingly on the minds of lawmakers, organizations like these will be instrumental in how favorable those regulations will be for the crypto space.
2. Attracting Crypto Development
The Catawba Nation, a tribal national economic zone in South Carolina, published draft rules for decentralized autonomous organizations in a bid to attract crypto development in the region.
The semi-autonomous region would recognize DAOs as either unincorporated non-profit associations or limited liability companies, which would grant them corporate state and federal income tax breaks.
3. Enroll in Crypto Classes
Florida International University has partnered with crypto platform Blockchain.com to expand web3 and cryptocurrency education at the university.
4. NFTs for the NFL
Following in the footsteps of the NBA’s Top Shot, Dapper Labs announced NFL All Day, the officially licensed NFL non-fungible token collectibles platform. It recently opened its doors to all collectors after a beta testing phase.
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes will be the face of NFL All Day.
5. A Life in NFTs
After releasing an NFT movie, actor Anthony Hopkins is launching a new NFT collection about his life. The first batch of the series, called “The Eternal Collection,” will provide 1,000+ unique images of the actor based on different archetypes.
6. Nevada Welcomes Binance.us
Binance.us has received a money transmitter license in Nevada. Nevada is the seventh U.S. jurisdiction in which Binance.us has secured a money transmitter license in 2022, following West Virginia, Connecticut, Wyoming, Rhode Island, Idaho and Puerto Rico.
Meanwhile, Binance obtained preliminary approval to operate in Kazakhstan, in addition to approvals and provisional approvals from other countries and jurisdictions, including Italy, France, Dubai and Spain.
7. Bitcoin IRA Wins Big
Bitcoin IRA, the world’s first platform for crypto individual retirement accounts, received the Mobile Web & App of the Year award in the Financial Services and Banking category for the 2022 Globee American Best in Business Awards.
The company’s app has been installed 90,000+ times in a year.
8. Unstoppable Domains
iPhone users can now download the Unstoppable Domains mobile app to manage any owned web3 domains. This means users can easily buy and mint domains directly from their phone, instead of on a computer browser.
The convenience of a mobile app should help boost the number of web3 domains.
Interestingly, Ethereum name service domains already exceeded 2 million after a record-breaking July.
9. Bitcoin Breaks Through in Brazil
Brazil's largest brokerage with 3.6 million users, XP, has launched Bitcoin trading services. And it’s not the only Brazilian institution getting in on the action. BTG Pactual, the largest investment bank in Latin America with $200 billion in assets, launched a crypto exchange.
Bigger and bigger names and institutions are coming to crypto, bringing along with them more and more opportunities to expose crypto to a wider audience. Adoption is still in the early stages, but once momentum picks up, our long-term bullish outlook should prove itself.
In the meantime, keep checking in for the latest market updates and technical breakdowns.
Best,
Beth Canova
