The cryptocurrency business is thriving, but a lot of things are happening, including Cristiano Ronaldo launching his first NFT collection with Binance, Cardano-based regulated stablecoin USDA to hit the market next year, FTX collapse leaving the total crypto market cap under $800B and much more!
In this issue:
- Cristiano Ronaldo launches his first NFT collection with Binance.
- Cardano-based regulated stablecoin USDA will hit the market in early 2023.
- Singapore’s Temasek says its $275 million FTX investment is now worth zero.
- FTX collapse leaves the total crypto market cap under $800B, close to the 2022 low.
- Wells Fargo and HSBC add offshore Yuan to the blockchain foreign-exchange system.
- BlockFi plans to file for bankruptcy protection.
- Solana DeFi sees almost $700M in value wiped out on FTX fallout.
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Cristiano Ronaldo launches first NFT collection with Binance
Cristiano Ronaldo’s first NFT collection will be available Friday, November 18 as part of an exclusive, multi-year partnership with Binance, the world’s leading blockchain ecosystem, and cryptocurrency infrastructure provider. The launch is supported by a global marketing campaign featuring Ronaldo, aiming to give his fans an introduction to Web3 through the world of NFTs.
The inaugural Cristiano Ronaldo NFT collection will drop on November 18 and feature seven animated statues with four rarity levels: Super Super Rare (SSR), Super Rare (SR), Rare (R), and Normal (N). Each NFT statue depicts Ronaldo in an iconic moment from his life, from career-defining bicycle kicks to his childhood in Portugal.
The 45 highest value CR7 NFTs (5 SSR and 40 SR) will be held for auction on the Binance NFT marketplace. The auction will remain open for 24 hours, with NFTs awarded to the highest bidder. Bidding prices will start at 10,000 BUSD for SSR and 1,700 BUSD for SR. The remaining 6,600 NFTs (600 R and 6,000 N) will be offered on Binance Launchpad, starting at 77 BUSD for the Normal rarity. The crypto exchange said that future sets of the Cristiano Ronaldo NFT collection will be available in early 2023.
The world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volumes Binance, signed a partnership with footballer Cristiano Ronaldo in June this year for the promotion of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). As part of the multi-year agreement, the Portuguese soccer star and Binance will create a series of NFT collections for sale on the company’s platform.
Cardano-based regulated stablecoin USDA will hit the market in early 2023
Emurgo, the official commercial arm and a founding entity of the Cardano blockchain, plans to launch USDA, a U.S.-pegged stablecoin, in early 2023.USDA will be the first fully fiat-backed, regulatory-compliant stablecoin in the Cardano ecosystem.
“The introduction of a fully fiat-backed, regulatory-compliant stablecoin is the next step in realizing the future for our community,” wrote Emurgo Fintech Managing Director Vineeth Bhuvanagiri.
Stablecoins are tokens backed by an asset, or a basket of assets, and pegged to fiat currency, such as the U.S. dollar. They serve as an entryway to the crypto market for traditional market participants and are extensively used within the ecosystem as instruments for trading, borrowing, and lending.
USDA is part of Emurgo’s Anzens product, a broader plan that would offer users several financial services and products functioning on Cardano-based assets. These plans include lending and borrowing services, crypto-based card payments, and bridges between traditional markets and decentralized applications (dApps). This could help bolster Cardano’s decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem, which locks just over $53 million in value as of Friday, as per DeFiLlama data. That’s an 82% slide since March highs of over $300 million.
USDA is planning to launch on the Anzens platform in Q1 2023 where users will be able to tokenize their USD into USDA via credit/debit cards, wire transfer, or conversion of ADA, Emurgo said.
Singapore’s Temasek says its $275 million FTX investment is now worth zero
Temasek, a Singapore-based global investment company possessing a portfolio that is worth $403 billion, is no longer interested in waiting for the outcome of the FTX crypto exchange’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. According to a statement released by the multinational conglomerate, it will “write down” its $275 million investment which is composed of a $210 million minority stake for about 1% of the exchange’s international business and a $65 million minority stake for 1.5% in FTX U.S.
“Given FTX’s financial position, we have decided to write down our full investment in FTX, irrespective of the outcome of FTX’s bankruptcy filing,” said the statement of Temasek that was released on Thursday, Nov 17.
The investment company poured in millions for the Sam Bankman-Fried-led platform across two funding rounds that started in October 2020 and ended in January 2022.
FTX collapse leaves the Total crypto market cap under $800B, close to the 2022 low
With investor confidence in cryptocurrencies ebbing as a result of the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX exchange, the total market capitalization of digital assets has fallen this month below $800 billion, a level not seen since early 2021, according to data from TradingView.
The latest wave of turmoil in digital-asset markets shaved some $183 billion from the industry market cap. The figure dropped to $736 billion on Nov. 9, the lowest since January 2021.
The decline came as the FTX drama sent prices for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies into a fresh tailspin. Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency, fell 22% during the seven days through Nov. 13, its worst weekly performance in five months.
Bitcoin now makes up $319 billion worth of the entire cryptocurrency market’s capitalization. At the peak of the bull market about a year ago, when bitcoin reached its all-time high of around $69,000, its market value was north of $1 trillion. The entire crypto market capitalization hit the $3 trillion mark then but has been declining since. The price of bitcoin is down 5% over the last seven days and has been trading in a range of $15,000-$17,000.
During the previous market crashes the total market cap of the cryptocurrencies also lost considerable ground. In July 2021, the total market cap fell to $1.1 trillion after reaching highs of $2.5 trillion in May of that year.
Wells Fargo and HSBC add offshore Yuan to the blockchain foreign-exchange system
Wells Fargo (WFC) and HSBC (HSBC) expanded their blockchain-based system for settling foreign exchange transactions to include the offshore yuan.
The addition of the Chinese currency that circulates outside of the mainland marks the first expansion of the network, which uses a shared ledger to settle matched foreign-exchange transactions.
The system debuted in December 2021 with support for the U.S. dollar, British pound, Euro, and Canadian dollar. It has settled over $200 billion in transactions to date, the two banks announced Thursday.
The system uses HSBC proprietary technology built on Baton Systems’ blockchain-inspired CORE distributed ledger technology. Many of the world’s major banks have been integrating blockchain technology into processes such as clearing and settlement in recent years. JPMorgan’s Onyx network, for example, which uses tokens for short-term trading in fixed-income markets, has now processed over $300 billion in volume since its inception in 2020.
BlockFi plans to file for bankruptcy protection
Cryptocurrency lender BlockFi Inc. is preparing a potential bankruptcy filing after halting withdrawals of customer deposits and acknowledging it has “significant exposure” to bankrupt exchange FTX, people familiar with the matter said.
The crypto lender paused client withdrawals, citing uncertainties with FTX while saying it had adequate liquidity and was exploring options with outside advisers.
FTX US and BlockFi are closely tied. In July, FTX US provided the lender with a US$400 million revolving credit line, which came with an option to purchase the company. And BlockFi has given loans to now-bankrupt Alameda Research, Bloomberg reported.
Solana DeFi sees almost $700M in value wiped out on FTX fallout
At their peak last November, decentralized finance (DeFi) applications stored more than $10 billion on the Solana network, its popularity being led by high-flying proponents including Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the FTX crypto exchange, Multicoin Capital, Sino Global Capital, and other venture funds.
A year later, the total value locked (TVL) has dropped to just over $300 million with FTX filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings and facing prosecution, Multicoin, and Sino Global reporting multimillion-dollar losses, and the Solana Foundation itself losing “tens of millions.”
While the $10 billion TVL on Solana has declined over the past year, with the price of SOL contributing to that drop, the past two weeks have been more drastic. More than $700 million has exited Solana-based applications, a 70% drop from the $1 billion in TVL on Nov. 2, when CoinDesk first reported on the collusion between treasury accounts at FTX and its sister company, Alameda Research.
SOL’s 50% price drop has contributed to that fall, alongside falling prices of related DeFi tokens. The lending and borrowing platform Solend took the biggest hit both in percentage and value terms. It held over $280 million on Nov. 2 and now holds under $30 million. Data show a vast amount of stablecoins, wrapped bitcoin tokens and Solana-based tokens have left the protocol.
Closing
That’s it for now! Thanks for reading today’s newsletter! Be sure to have a look at the Blog section to read our previous editions as well! Have a look at our Guides section if you’re interested in learning more about crypto! And finally, don’t forget to follow us on Twitter!
