Feb 2nd, 2023: Weekly Web3 Newsletter by Sujith Godavarthi

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Gm, web3 people! It’s newsletter time, and here am I, with all the crypto and NFT updates for you.

What’s Happening in Web3

1. FTX

Some SBF and FTX updates for you:

SBF seeks the right to transfer FTX’s crypto. SBF’s lawyers have argued that he should be allowed access to assets and crypto held by FTX, saying there’s no evidence he’s responsible for previous alleged unauthorized transactions. Also:

SBF attempted to transfer crypto assets from FTX to foreign regulators by stalling bankruptcy filings.
SBF allegedly used FTX’s money to invest $400M in VC firm Modulo Capital.
Alameda Research sues bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital for $445M.
8 media companies filed a joint petition to unseal the names of the two guarantors of SBF’s bail bond. While a judge approved the joint petition, SBF has until the 7th to challenge the decision.

2. NFTs on Bitcoin

Yes, recently this has put web3 people to debate on Twitter. Or Crypto Twitter, I should say I guess. The NFTs, known as “Ordinals”, were officially launched by software engineer Casey Rodarmor on January 21st.

“That’s cool! Then why are we not using Bitcoin for NFTs?” Well, that’s the debate.

Some believe that adding just another use case (NFTs in this case) is gonna help the ecosystem, especially the miners (more fees $$$) that keeps the network alive.

On the other hand, there are people who believe that NFTs are a waste of a Bitcoin’s blockspace, and it’s not built for it in the first place. If people start putting NFTs on Bitcoin, that is gonna increase the gas fee (as we are congestion the network) and for a user from another side of the world, it’s gonna be expensive (more gas fee) for her to transfer Bitcoin to me. And hence, I am gonna be poor!!

Honestly, I am on both sides of the argument here. If NFTs, miners will be able to earn enough and keep the network alive (more alive). And on the other hand, we are just making it expensive for a normal user to initiate a transaction.

Hal Finney: We’re buying and selling “cryptographic trading card” 👀

3. NFTs in Jan 2023

NFTgators released an NFT report for the month of Jan 2023 and here are some key insights from that:

In OpenSea, more Polygon NFTs are being traded in a month than Ethereum NFTs. Not just in Jan 2023, but the same story in the month of Dec 2022 too. Ethereum NFTs on OpenSea brought in a volume of $444M. OpenSea Polygon did over $13M in volume in the month of January.
A total of 17.9K ETH, worth approximately $28 million, was lent from 4399 loans (616 borrowers and 291 lenders). NFT Lending is on fire!! All-time high in terms of monthly loan volume and the number of loans.

4. SEC vs LBRY Fight Ends?

Or just began?

We all know that the fight between these two parties has been going on for quite a while, where SEC claimed that LBRY sold unregistered securities.

Now, that comes to an end!!

On Jan 31st, The SEC admitted that the sale of LBRY Credits (LBC) tokens in the secondary market does not constitute a security.

Yes, LBRY won! They proved it. And that’s a win for crypto in general… But….LBRY says they haven’t won yet.

“We have not met a single honest or fair actor in the SEC. We have met numerous liars and psychopaths.”

Anyways, everyone is expecting that this shall help Ripple to prove that XRP has hope in the SEC vs Ripple case. Let’s hope for the best!

Anyways, what’s wrong with SEC??

5. Market Overview

Bitcoin Fear & Greed index surpassed 60 for the first time since March 2022. Also, the price of Bitcoin hit $24000 this week which means the price is almost up 50% in 2023.

The crypto market cap increased from $830 billion at the end of December to more than $1 trillion currently.

Time for some %s:

Bitcoin: +0.91%
Ethereum: +1.70%
Solana: +0.40%
Polygon: +6.95%
Binance Coin: +7.17%

I just checked my CoinDCX portfolio and my investments are down 30% 😎 only.

6. Lost Life Savings $$$

Canadian man Stephen Carr lost his entire life savings of nearly $500,000 after being conned into a cryptocurrency scheme on YouTube.

This is how it happened:

He watched a Youtube video in which the scammers promised that the investors would make a significant return on investment (obviously that’s a red flag).

Stephen started with a $250 investment and then added another $2,500 shortly after. And when he requested a $1,000 withdrawal, he got the money. “Seems legit”, he thought.

From October 2022 to January 2023, he invested almost $500,000 (his entire life savings).

And when he saw his money grow to $1.3M, he asked to cash out part of it. Then the scammers insisted he pays a $150,000 liquidation fee to complete the withdrawal. And that’s when he understood that he got scammed.

He never got the money. And that loss had forced him to put his house for sale so he could reorganize his life.

Carr said he wanted to share his story so others could stay cautious and not repeat his mistake.

Stay safe frens!!

Quick Bites

Coinbase stock surged nearly 90% in January. Also, a week ago, Cathie Wood’s ARKW added $COIN shares of about $17.6M. Also, Tobias Lütke the CEO of Shopify has been buying the Coinbase dip and has spent $4.86 million on the stock over the past three months,….(practically every single week since August)….And that investment is up 35% now.
According to a new Bloomberg report, Anthony Scaramucci’s SkyBridge’s biggest fund went down 39% on the year due to investments in slumping digital assets and bankrupt crypto exchange FTX.
BlockFi has received approval from the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey to sell its crypto mining assets.
Twitter’s upcoming payments tool will initially support only fiat currencies, but Elon Musk wants it built to potentially support crypto in the future.
“The ECB would not set any limitations on where, when or to whom people can pay with a digital Euro”: Fabio Panetta, ECB Board Member.
Optimism’s governance token $OP rose to a new all-time high of $2.49 on Jan. 25 despite its transaction volume decline by over 70% to 200,000 from an all-time high (ATH) of 800,000.

Doodles chose Flow Blockchain over Ethereum for the launch of Doodles2 due to the customization element and the expensive network gas fees on the Ethereum mainnet.
The official Azuki Twitter account was compromised, which lead to over $800k in NFTs stolen from the community.
A study reveals 82% of millionaires seek advice on crypto.
OpenSea recorded a ‘4-month-high’ sales volume for Ethereum NFTs. The sales volumes surged by 21% compared to December, jumping from $283M to $409M.
South Korea will implement a crypto-tracking system. The “Virtual Currency Tracking System” will monitor transaction history, retrieve transaction-related information, and verify the origin of funds before and after remittances.
Wylie Aronow, the co-founder of YugaLabs will be stepping down from his position due to health issues. Wishing him a speedy recovery.
Bitcoin mining revenue is up 50% in the past 30 days.
A report stated that Celsius, which filed for bankruptcy in July 2022, was insolvent since its inception and that its business model differed from what was advertised to customers.

Interesting Tweets

You survived BlockFi, Celsius, Voyager, Terra Luna, 3AC, FTX, and countless other disasters last year. ETH’s going to be worth $10k+ one day. Everyone: “Wow, you got sooooo lucky with Crypto! Why didn’t you tell me to invest?!?” [@thedefiedge]

A simple explanation of the most common Ethereum token standards. [@Blockworks_]

Every NFT needs to have a game-plan to get new users outside of the current crypto twitter ecosystem if they wan to grow. [@JoshBobrowsky]

Interesting Numbers

2.5M

A 40-year-old UK man has been sentenced to 4.5 years in jail after pleading guilty to stealing over $2.5 million in Crypto. Lesson Learnt: Only steal billions.

339B

The Bitcoin network has settled $339B (worth of BTC) in the first 3 weeks of Jan 2023.

226M

Ripple Sold $226M of XRP in Q4 ‘22.

466B

dYdX users traded $466 billion in crypto derivatives during 2022

3.9M

That’s the number of wallets Ethereum has in 2017, and also the number of wallets Cardano has in 2023.

Interesting Reads

Do You Know?

The global VR/AR industry is estimated to reach $856.2B by 2031

Meme Of The Week 😂

Disclaimer: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice. Please be careful and always do your own research.

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