Daily Digest 12/29
Insight on the biggest stories of the day. “Neither this post nor any other on cryptofal.com should be taken as financial advice. It is not.”
Robinhood plans to launch beta crypto wallets in January as HOOD drops to $17
Popular stock and cryptocurrency trading app Robinhood has been criticized by the crypto community in the past for not having wallet capabilities. This means that if you purchase Bitcoin on Robinhood then you can not send it off of the platform like you can if you used Coinbase.
This takes away from one of the core values of cryptocurrency which is having full ownership of your assets. Essentially what is happening here is that Robinhood has large amounts of Doge, for example, in their wallet and investors can buy it from them but when they sell it they sell it right back to Robinhood who collects a fee from the purchase and sale, plus they get the crypto back in their reserves essentially losing nothing because that crypto can not be sent off the platform.
Robinhood has said that they already have tens of thousands of people on the waitlist to have access to the beta version of the wallet when it releases. In total, they have more than 1.6 million investors waiting to be able to deposit and withdraw BTC, ETH, and Doge.
“While some say 2021 is the year that crypto went mainstream, the truth is that most people are still familiarizing themselves with the asset class and how to navigate the blockchain with the launch of wallets, we’re thrilled to play a significant role in welcoming a broad range of investors to the cryptosphere for the very first time.” said Robinhood.
Ferrari signs a deal with Swiss Blockchain firm Velas to create NFTs for fans
Ferrari will be taking its first dive into the digital world with confirmation from Scuderia Ferrari that they will be making NFTs for their fans. This is a multi-year agreement that Ferrari has signed with Velas Network AG which will be exclusively creating the digital content.
Another part of this deal that is huge for Velas Network is that they will become the title sponsor of Ferraris Esports Series, the Esports teams that competes in the F1 Esports Series, and the online mono-branded series of the Prancing Horse from the Ferrari logo. This is similar to the Algorand and the Drone Racing League partnership where Algo has its name sponsored all over the events.
General Manager of Scuderia Ferrari described Velas as a company “that makes innovation and performance the hallmark of technologically advanced products and services.” Compliments also came from Faryad Shagulyamov, CEO and Co-founder of Velas Network AG, who also stated that Ferrari is “an icon of excellence.”
All year major sports brands have been partnering with cryptocurrency companies with one of the most notable being Crypto.com who signed a 20 year deal with the arena formerly known as the Staples Center home of the Lakers. Another popular crypto exchange FTX also signed a deal that gave them the naming rights to the Miami Heat stadium as well as the MLB where their “FTX” logo is on the umpires jerseys. Partnerships with such well-known brands as Ferrari is only going to bring even more eyes to crypto.
ProShares files for ETF that tracks companies focused on the metaverse
ProShares was one of the first companies in the United States to get approved for a Bitcoin ETF; however, it is pegged to the futures contracts of BTC and not a spot ETF. The SEC has been reluctant to approve a spot ETF for Bitcoin over concerns of its high volatility and thinks that it is in the best interest of investors in terms of their protection from risk.
ProShares has now also filed for a Metaverse themed ETF that tracks the Solactive Metaverse Theme index. The Index tracks a lot of the major companies getting involved in metaverse activities such as Apple, Facebook (Meta), Alphabet (Google), and more.
What all of those companies have in common is that they are working heavily on developing the future of their businesses in terms of Virtual and 3D experiences as well as avatars and more. It remains to be seen if they will be approved but the ETF itself is not directly tying itself to any cryptocurrencies so that could give them a leg up on the approval.
Over the summer when Defi really started heating up Uniswap was one of the biggest benefactors as it is the top Decentralized Exchange (DEX) built on Ethereum. You can use Uniswap to swap any Ethereum based token for another and also earn interest by being a liquidity provider for the network.
Since then the transaction fees or gas prices on Ethereum have skyrocketed because of the high amounts of traffic on the entire ETH network making Uniswap almost unusable for the average investor and in some cases unprofitable for liquidity providers.
This has led to a bit of a stunt in the growth of UNI as we can see that old users are heavily outweighing new active users over the last several months leaving some looking for alternatives like 1inch where we see that in the same time frame are gaining more new users. While Uniswap may be the most popular right now the high barrier to entry is going to push a lot of people away but that goes for defi as a whole at the moment.