Bitazza Crypto Weekly: Crypto Acceptance Increasing Among Global Banks -

Crypto Weekly: 6 – 12 December 2022

The Chamber of Deputies of Brazil has passed a regulatory framework that legalizes the use of cryptocurrencies as a payment method within the country and enables the creation of licenses for crypto exchange platforms and for custody and management of crypto by third parties. While this makes significant progress for crypto adoption within Brazil, the bill still requires the signature of the president of Brazil for it to come into effect. While the bill will legalize cryptocurrencies as a form of payment, it specifically does not make any cryptocurrencies legal tender within the country.

Russia’s largest bank, Sber bank, continues developing its blockchain platform by adding support for Metamask and integrating the bank with the Ethereum blockchain. Additionally, Sber has been actively developing blockchain products in recent years, filing an application with the Bank of Russia to launch a blockchain platform for its “Sbercoin” stablecoin in early 2021 and gaining approval from the central bank in 2022.

According to co-founder and executive chairman Yat Siu, Hong Kong-based blockchain gaming giant Animoca Brands will be rolling out a massive $2 billion fund, dubbed “Animoca Capital,” to invest in metaverse businesses. The upcoming metaverse fund will make its first investment in 2023 and will focus on digital property rights. It also seeks to provide opportunities to access Web3 companies.

LINE Corporation has announced the shutdown of Bitfront, its US-based crypto exchange platform, which will halt trading services by December 30, 2022, while clients have until March 31, 2023, to withdraw their funds. The company claims that the decision to shut down the platform was not related to FTX’s collapse and instead due to its desire to shift its focus to developing LINE’s blockchain ecosystem.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov has announced plans by the messaging platform to unveil decentralized cryptocurrency products, including a crypto exchange and non-custodial wallets. According to Durov, the new venture seeks to rectify the existing centralization of cryptocurrency entities, with Durov arguing that the current blockchain ecosystem has deviated from its founding principle of promoting decentralization.

Data from Block Research has revealed that decentralized crypto exchange trading volume nearly doubled in November amid the FTX debacle. DEX volumes came in at $65 billion in November, a month-over-month increase of 93%, whereas spot trading volumes on CEXs rose by only 24% in comparison. This can likely be attributed to the growing distrust and negative sentiment toward centralized exchanges as fallout from the FTX collapse.

Leading DEX Uniswap announced that users can now trade nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, on its native protocol with their NFT marketplace aggregator. Uniswap claims that users can save up to 15% on gas costs compared to other NFT aggregators when using Uniswap NFT, which allows users to swap multiple tokens and NFTs in one transaction to save on gas fees. The function will initially feature NFT collections for sale on platforms including OpenSea, X2Y2, LooksRare, Sudoswap, Larva Labs, X2Y2, Foundation, NFT20, and NFTX with additional support for other platforms likely to come in the future.

OpenSea claims that NFT creators have earned more than $1.1 billion in royalties this year, with 80% of that amount allocated to collections outside the top 10. Allegedly, these earnings do not include sponsorship revenue, engagement incentives, or grants

Popular web browser Opera has partnered with Alteon Launchpad to launch a new integration on the Opera Crypto browser to enable beginners to easily mint NFTs. The feature will allow users to drag and drop media files into Opera, which will write and upload a smart contract representing the aforementioned file onto the blockchain, making the NFT minting process easier for creators looking to explore the Web3/NFT space. According to Opera executive Susie Batt, the Opera NFT minting tool will not have any platform usage fees.

Alibaba Cloud, a subset of Chinese e-commerce titan Alibaba, has announced its integration with Avalanche blockchain to power the company’s Node-as-a-Service initiatives. The partnership will see the development of tools that enable users to launch validator nodes on Avalanche’s public blockchain platform in Asia while allowing Avalanche developers to use Alibaba Cloud’s plug-and-play infrastructure as a service to launch new validators.

Weekly Technical Analysis: 6 – 12 December 2022

Bitcoin (BTC)

BTC remains trending sideways despite being bolstered by a weakening Dollar Index. Keep an eye on if the $15,500 support can remain intact; if broken, prices could fall and test the next $13,000 support level. Resistance is set at $18,000 for now.

Ethereum (ETH)

ETH is showing signs of trending sideways up; however, it will have to break through initial resistance at the $1,200 level before it can rally and challenge further resistance levels at the $1,500 mark and beyond. Support is set at $1,000 and will have to remain intact if ETH hopes to recover soon. So far, there is no sign of any news that could potentially spark a rally or fuel a recovery.

Fantom (FTM)

FTM is up by +37.7% over the past week and is in the midst of a short-term uptrend with a support level set at 7.50 baht. If its support can remain intact, look for FTM to maintain its momentum and target its next resistance at the 10-baht level. If FTM’s uptrend is strong enough, the DeFi token may be able to successfully challenge its medium-term target at the 12 baht resistance level.

Axie Infinity (AXS)

AXS is up by +23.7%; however, whether the GameFi project can sustain this rally remains unclear. In the short term, support and resistance are set at 280 baht and 360 baht, respectively.

Trading and Investment Considerations For The Week

Keep an eye on the release of Producer Price Index figures this coming Friday. The PPI numbers could potentially give some insight into the direction and magnitude of change in CPI, which is set to be released next week. Many analysts are forecasting consumer price inflation to go down from last month’s CPI figures of a 6.7% increase in consumer prices to 5.7% this month.

Additionally, keep an eye on the publication of unemployment rates and the European Central Bank’s president on Thursday. That being said, the most significant factors that will affect market performance to close out the year will likely be next week’s CPI figures publication as well as 2022’s final FED meeting.

Whether the FED will slow down its interest rate increase to just 0.5%, like many in the market are hoping for, remains uncertain, causing some market volatility at the beginning of this week. As a whole, the crypto market is expected to trend sideways until next week, when macroeconomic factors could push the market in a clearer direction.

During this period, investors may consider focusing on tokens that have been outperforming the market; there may be potential for short-term speculation and profit-taking due to the market’s volatility.

Disclaimer:
-Cryptocurrency and Digital tokens are highly risky; investors may lose all investment money. Investors should study information carefully and make investments according to own risk profile.
– Past Returns/Past Performance does not guarantee future returns/performance.

*Materials on Bitazza Weekly Newsletter are intended to be used and must be used for informational purposes only. The views, information, or opinions expressed are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of Bitazza and its employees. The information contained herein is not intended to be a source of advice or financial analysis with respect to the material presented, and the information and/or documents contained in this website do not constitute investment advice.

Sources:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/brazil-passes-law-to-legalize-crypto-as-a-payment-method

https://cointelegraph.com/news/russias-sber-bank-integrates-metamask-into-its-blockchain-platform

https://cryptopotato.com/animoca-brands-unveils-2b-metaverse-fund/

https://cryptopotato.com/lines-crypto-exchange-bitfront-to-shut-down-amid-bear-market

https://finbold.com/telegram-set-to-build-crypto-exchange-in-response-to-ftx-collapse/

https://www.theblock.co/post/191352/decentralized-crypto-exchange-volumes-nearly-double-in-november-amid-ftx-debacle

https://cointelegraph.com/news/uniswap-launches-nft-marketplace-aggregator

https://www.theblock.co/post/190900/opensea-nft-creators-earned-1-billion-royalties

https://cointelegraph.com/news/opera-crypto-browser-to-enable-instant-nft-minting-through-launchpad

https://cointelegraph.com/news/avalanche-to-power-alibaba-cloud-s-infrastructure-services-in-asia

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