11/19 FAL Weekly Digest

Welcome to the FAL Weekly Digest, a source for this week’s biggest news articles and crypto market updates.

Here is what you need to know:

Hilary Clinton recently lambasted cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin as more nations and institutions flock to the rapidly expanding asset class.

Hilary Clinton Forewarns Bitcoin Challenging the Dollar

Former U.S. presidential candidate Hilary Clinton spoke at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore today about a variety of threats to the modern global economic structure, including the potential repercussions of Bitcoin adoption and the greater cryptocurrency space.

Clinton warned that “what looks like a very interesting and somewhat exotic effort to literally mine new coins in order to trade with them has the potential for undermining currencies, for undermining the role of the dollar as the reserve currency, for destabilizing nations, perhaps starting with small ones but going much larger.”

While President Biden and former President Trump have both spoken negatively on cryptocurrencies in the past, several world leaders from a variety of backgrounds have spoken in favor for the reorganization of the global economic structure towards a more democratic and decentralized setting that Bitcoin and the greater cryptocurrency space offers. The criticisms also highlight the significant growth Bitcoin has undergone over the past decade, where in the past it was only thought of as “fake internet money” to now be seen as a threat to the traditional global hegemony.

Market Analysis - Bitcoin

The overall cryptocurrency market capitalization is about $2.60 trillion USD, a 4.41% decrease from last week’s valuation of $2.81 trillion. At the time of publication, Bitcoin ($BTC) is valued at $57,807 per Bitcoin with a market capitalization of $1.09 trillion making up 42.1% of the overall market.

The cryptocurrency market including Bitcoin has endured tumultuous price action this week, where $BTC price ranged from highs of $66,000 to lows of $55,500. Fears of economic instability resulting from the Evergrande default and general downward price momentum have spread throughout crypto circles as Bitcoin struggles to find support at the $57,000 level.

While the decreases have provoked concerns of a premature ending to the 2021 bull run, the greater macro uptrend shown above is still intact for the time being. For a more in-depth analysis, please see our full article found here.

Crypto Invades the Sports Industry

Several key partnerships have been made between American sports organizations and crypto-based companies this week as part of a greater effort to accelerate mass adoption by retail users. On Tuesday the Houston Rockets announced a partnership with New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) where the team will be paid in Bitcoin ($BTC).

The partnership will see NYDIG serving as the team’s Official Bitcoin Services Partner and Bitcoin Platform where NYDIG will be the custodian for the Rockets’ digital assets. NYDIG branding will also be visible on the Rockets’ court as well on the organization’s various social media accounts.

The National Football League (NFL) has recently jumped on the crypto bandwagon as well, announcing that fans attending games through the end of 2021 will be eligible to receive a “virtual commemorative ticket” as an NFT. The new NFL ticket NFTs will be hosted on the Polygon network and will only be offered to fans that purchase tickets from one of the NFL’s licensed vendors such as Ticketmaster, StubHub, or SeatGeek.

Even stadium owners have been enticed to join the crypto craze. Following the footsteps of FTX, Crypto.com has announced the $700 million dollar purchase of the naming rights to the Staples Center in Los Angeles, home of the L.A. Lakers and Clippers. The former Staples Center will be renamed the “Crypto.com” arena just in time for the NBA’s Christmas Day schedule in December, where the Los Angeles Lakers will face off against the Brooklyn Nets.

Bank of Russia Continues Development of Digital Ruble

The Bank of Russia has released new details of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) project as it continues development of a “digital ruble.” Kirill Pronin, The Bank of Russia’s Director of Financial Technologies, stated that fees for Russian CBDC transactions will be lower than typical wire transfers to incentivize the transition to a state sponsored digital currency.

The Russian central bank plans to launch the first pilot tests for the digital ruble in early 2022. While President Vladimir Putin has publicly commented on the potential of private cryptocurrencies as a unit of account for trade he has been weary of public cryptos, highlighting their notorious volatility and instability. So far China is leading the race in terms of being the first nation to launch a national CBDC in the form of their digital yuan.

Barbados Creates an Embassy in the Metaverse

The Barbadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade has signed an agreement with Decentraland, one of the largest and most popular crypto based game and digital world, to create the first legally recognized metaverse embassy. The island nation will legally declare digital real estate sovereign land within the Decentraland metaverse, where virtual embassies and consulates will be established to provide services such as “e-visas” and teleporters to travel between different metaverses.

H.E. Gabriel Abed, Barbados’ ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, stated in an interview that the country plans to continue investing beyond this initial agreement to build and purchase digital land in a variety of metaverses. “The idea is not to pick a winner. The metaverse is still very young and new, and we want to make sure what we build is transferable across the metaworlds,” said Abed.

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