Bitcoin had a slightly bearish day as it dipped below $42k before recovering back above it. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization is looking to make a decisive move above or below a narrow trading range but has struggled to post any meaningful change. Altcoins on the other hand witnessed bearish price pullbacks of their own too. More on that later on.

In other news, according to LinkedIn, the number of crypto related jobs posted on the platform have risen more than 395% in 2021. These included jobs with terms like “Bitcoin”, “Ethereum”, “Cryptocurrency” and “Blockchain”. More on that later on.

Crypto.com, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has suspended withdrawals for some users after detecting suspicious transactions. Despite the company claiming that all funds were safe, the withdrawals are still frozen which is giving rise to speculations that the exchange’s hot wallets were hacked and some amount was stolen from them. It would be better for the exchange to come out clean and release the details of the anomaly, otherwise users will look to bail out from the exchange and take their crypto with them. It can also potentially impact its partnerships including a recent one it struck with Australian Football league worth $25 million.

The United Kingdom now ranks 3rd in the world for Ethereum ownership according to a new survey by finder.com. The country also witnessed a growth of 1% during December despite the bearish price action. 

Major Non Fungible Token (NFT) platform OpenSea has surpassed over $3.5 billion in monthly ETH transactions which is a new record. It also recorded a whopping $260 million worth of volume on last Sunday alone, which is another new high for the NFT scene. The NFT sector is seeing phenomenal growth in recent times despite the overall crypto slowdown which shows that the sector is decoupling from the mainstream digital currency scene and making a mark of its own.

Over in the Far East, Singapore has banned cryptocurrency service providers from advertising in open space. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) doled out the new guidelines as it continued to crack down further after reports of scams and frauds rising in the country.

The Pacific archipelago nation of Tonga is now accepting Bitcoin donations as it grapples with a natural disaster. A big underwater volcano burst in the Pacific Ocean that sent Tsunami warnings across the Pacific Islands. Tonga is one of the countries hit by this disaster and the extent of the damage is yet unclear. 

Bitcoin Drops to $42k

Bitcoin is currently trading around the $42k level as it dropped slightly in value during the last 24 hours. The cryptocurrency was looking to post some recovery after recording a multi month low of around $39.6k recently but it has been a slow experience overall. 

The last 24 hours started with the Bitcoin price at around $43k. It came down slightly to $42.5k at 6 AM in the morning and traded sideways around that level for many hours in the aftermath. After that, the cryptocurrency began to trend downwards at 4:45 PM in the evening and posted a low of $41.9k in the process before recovering from it. At press time, it is trading around $42.3k.

Moving forward, Bitcoin is currently trending slightly downwards and the bears are looking to make a comeback. The bulls needed to show some strength by pulling the index above $45k but they failed to do that yet again. Now, the index is looking to continue on its downwards trajectory, albeit slowly. 

The total market capitalization of Bitcoin was around $800 billion at press time and its share of the proceedings was 39.82%.

Altcoins Post Losses

Other cryptocurrencies aka altcoins also posted some losses during the last 24 hours. Ethereum (ETH, -4.5%). Binance Coin (BNB, -5%), Terra (LUNA, -7%), Polkadot (DOT, -8%), Dogecoin (DOGE, -5%), Avalanche (AVAX, -7%), Polygon (MATIC, -5%), Shiba Inu (SHIBA, -5%) and Chainlink (LINK, -8%) all posted some losses. Cardano (ADA, 5%) was the sole gainer of today.

In Other News….

LinkedIn Gets Almost 4 Times as Many Crypto Jobs in 2021 as in 2020

Major professional recruiting website LinkedIn has announced that its crypto and blockchain-related job postings increased more than 395% in the USA during 2021 alone. The wider tech sector showcased a growth of around 98% and thus the digital currency sector dwarfed that as well. 

Coinbase posted 300, Kraken 250 and Binance posted 600 jobs alone. However, the pace is expected to slow down in 2022 as the bear market kicks in. 

After briefly breaking the support line at $40,000, Bitcoin has rebounded and quickly rallied upwards by a few thousand dollars. But although the altcoin market reacted positively, most of the alternative cryptocurrencies have only made modest gains. However, some less known altcoins managed to appreciate greatly. Without further introduction, let’s take a look at some of the most interesting altcoin news from the past week!

Solana Is Having Troubles - Will the Metaverse Save SOL?

The last quarter of 2021 was not very good for Solana (SOL). The ambitious project encountered many bumps in the road, mostly caused by technological difficulties which led to downtimes and outages. Even though Solana managed to stay in the top 5 of largest cryptocurrencies on the market, the investors’ sentiment towards SOL became much less enthusiastic.

However, there’s a chance that Solana’s problems might finally be over, as one of the new projects on the SOL blockchain has just announced a massive partnership with Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world.

The project called Portals is a metaverse built on the Solana network that allows individuals and businesses to own rooms in the virtual world. Although the project has not gained larger recognition yet, Binance’s decision to build a virtual office in the Solana metaverse might give a lot of momentum not only to Portals, but to the SOL ecosystem as a whole.

So far, businesses and brands migrating to the metaverse were choosing ETH-based platforms like Decentraland (MANA) or The Sandbox (SAND). Will Binance’s surprising decision to choose Solana as their go-to metaverse destination be enough to change this trend?

Disney Joins the Metaverse Race

Following in the steps of companies such as Meta (previously Facebook), IBM, Nvidia and Microsoft, yet another multi-billion dollar enterprise has jumped on the metaverse bandwagon. Disney, the largest media company in the world, has announced that their patent for a groundbreaking metaverse technology has just been accepted by the US regulators.

So far, most projects claiming to be metaverses are still simple online games which don’t even feature Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR) solutions. Disney’s metaverse will be different - the innovative technology will enable displaying 3D assets directly on real life objects like walls.

It’s still unclear whether Disney’s metaverse will feature blockchain-based assets such as Non-Fungible Tokens, or will Disney decide to launch their own altcoin, but one thing is certain: the possibility of displaying your NFTs in real life one day has just become much more likely!

Harmony and Oasis Network Become the Best Performing Major Altcoins of the Week

The most famous altcoins made very moderate gains this week, and some haven’t even managed to make up for their recent losses. However, two less-known alternative cryptocurrencies have made impressive gains over the last 7 days.

Out of the top 100 largest coins in the market, Oasis Network (ROSE) has done the best. Oasis Network is a DeFi-oriented decentralized protocol aiming to increase the privacy and scalability of data stored on the blockchain. The ROSE price has increased by over 32%, which made Oasis Network the 68th biggest project in the blockchain ecosystem.

Another altcoin that made superb gains this week was Harmony (ONE), a blockchain platform aimed at dApps developers and allowing building fast and efficient smart contracts with cross-chain interoperability. Over the past 7 weeks, the ONE price has increased by almost 29%.

The SHIB Price Increases Slightly, as the Shiba Inu Supply Becomes More and More Centralized

The Shiba Inu (SHIB) price has increased by over 5% in the last 7 days, covering a small fraction of the massive losses that SHIB holders have suffered since October. But in the case of Shiba Inu, on-chain data can tell us more than the price activity itself.

Over the past week, two significant things have happened to Shiba Inu. Most importantly, the SHIB whale activity increased tremendously, with a few addresses rapidly accumulating billions of SHIB tokens. In other words, the cryptocurrency known for the fact that most of the supply is owned by less than 10 wallets is becoming more and more centralized.

On the other hand, the number of SHIB transactions keeps diminishing. The number of daily SHIB transactions have fallen down to under 200, which shows that the retail interest in the meme cryptocurrency might be waning.

Is the massive accumulation of SHIB by a few whales over the past couple weeks a sign that we might witness one more huge Shiba Inu pump before the tokens are dumped? It’s likely that we’ll find out really soon!

Bitcoin remained lifeless for most of the day as the index remained entrenched in a tight trading zone between $42k-$44k. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization is looking to recover from a multi-month low of around $39.6k but is now stuck in this narrow trading range for the last few days. Altcoins on the other hand were also steady for most of the day except for a few outliers. More on that later on. 

In other news, a young Indonesian man has made a whopping $1 million in trading Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs). He made these NFT sales by clicking selfies with his smartphone for the last five years. More on that later on.

Speaking of NFTs, nowadays it is being widely speculated where the NFT market is going to go from here onwards. While the current trends are running their course right now, it is widely expected that they will give way for new ones in the near future. Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated art is expected to become one of the next in line to be tokenized and sell as NFTs. The concept is quite old but was recently promoted by Dan Brown’s new book Origin in which an AI makes its own art pieces and is in every way smarter than human beings. 

The acting US Comptroller of currency has stated that the immediate need of crypto intermediaries to collaborate and coordinate with each other and federal agencies. Michael J. Hsu, the current temporary incharge of the currency regulator recently spoke at the international event called TransAtlantic Finance Forum and spoke in length on the topic “the future of Crypto Assets and Regulation”. 

Bitcoin is Steady above $43k

Bitcoin had an uneventful day overall as the index refused to go below $42.5k and move to $44k throughout the last 24 hours. The cryptocurrency survived a move below $43k just before press time but that was too shallow on its own.

The last 24 hours started with the cryptocurrency at around $43.3k and it didn’t fluctuate much for the rest of the day. Early in the day, the index rose to as high as $44.7k before midnight. However, that proved to be the highest valuation the digital currency would have during this time. The price immediately came down to $43k and traded sideways around it for the most of the rest of the day. Just a few hours before press time at 2:30 PM, the index posted a low of around $42.6k in a dip but recovered quickly back above $43k. At press time, it is trading at around $43.4k. 

Moving onwards, Bitcoin is currently looking to consolidate itself just above $40k before making the next move. The index has remained within a tight space for the last few days and is expected to carry on in the near future until either the bulls or the bears can make a definitive move. 

The total market capitalization of Bitcoin was around $821 billion and its share of the proceedings was 39.5%.

Altcoins Remain Steady

Other cryptocurrencies aka altcoins remained largely steady during the last 24 hours apart from a few exceptions. Cardano (ADA, 9%), Uniswap (UNI, 6%) and Cosmos (ATOM, 7.25%) were the three big performers. Dogecoin (DOGE, -5%) posted a noticeable loss. But, the rest of the market was very steady and didn’t post any real change during this time. 

In Other News….. 

Indonesian Guy Raises $1 Million from NFT Sales

A 22-year old Indonesian man has raised a massive $1 million from his NFT sales on OpenSea. Interestingly, the NFT collection was made up of 1,000 selfies which Ghulam Gustaf Ali took during the last few years. It was kind of a throwback to his entire graduation from university. He also mentioned what was happening around the time time when he took each particular picture which added a sense of uniqueness to it. Like this one:

Ali didn’t know he was getting into this kind of money. Initially he had placed a price of around $3 for each selfie and didn’t expect much activity from the buyers. However, like a viral meme, the NFT caught on and crypto users on Twitter really promoted it. Now, the NFT has sold for a whopping $1 million. 

The NFT sector in general has really taken off in 2021 and is continuing on this year as well. Despite the crypto market in a sizable dip at the moment, the the NFT market is continuing on with its amazing progress. 

Bitcoin is currently hovering above $42.5k at press time. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization is having a bit of a recovery session as it looks to post a reactive recovery after going below $40k after a gap of several months. Altcoins on the other hand also posted some recoveries, many of them outdoing BTC again. More on that later on.

In other news, the largest NFT trading platform OpenSea is all set for a record month despite the recent slowdown in the crypto world. There are many prevailing reasons why NFTs are refusing to back down despite a major slump in most markets around the world. More on that later on. 

The North African country of Morocco is becoming the regional hub in crypto adoption. This is interesting to witness as the monarchy has officially banned the use of the digital currencies and there are considerable offences involved. Despite all this, the country is in the top 50 in the world when it comes to crypto holding population percentage according to estimates from Triple A. 

The US Congress is once again nearing a new set of crypto regulations across the country. Mike Crapo, the senator from Idaho, criticized the recent lack of progress from the US Federal Reserve Bank (aka The Fed) and its chairman Jerome Powell. The latter promised a detailed report and that is likely to come out in a few weeks.

The Iranian government is close to allowing crypto payments for international trade. The embattled and heavily embargoed country is under talks with the US and other key governments around the world to lift crippling sanctions. However, it is at the same time looking at other options to accept payments provided the talks reach a dead end. 

A recent JP Morgan survey shows that investors on Wall Street don’t believe Bitcoin can rise to $100k in the near future. The overwhelming majority of the wall streeters believe that the digital currency won’t go as high as $100k in the near future while only 5% believe that it will. 

Twitter’s ex CEO and founder Jack Dorsey is looking to invest in the crypto mining sector, recent job opportunity advertisements show. The billionaire founder of the microblogging platform has always maintained a direct interest in the crypto sector and reportedly owns a considerable amount of crypto. Now, through his company Block (formerly Square), he plans to develop the best ASICs for Bitcoin mining which is a big development. 

Major podcaster and commentator Joe Rogan has high hopes for Bitcoin and the crypto sector in general. According to his latest podcast, the digital currency scene will either fall apart on its own or give humanity a better way to live. 

Bitcoin Recovers Above $42k

Bitcoin has recovered somewhat from its recent dip below $40k and is now around 7% up from that recent low level. At press time, the digital currency has risen to around $43k and it may try to consolidate these gains by moving further upwards.

The last 24 hours started with Bitcoin at around $41.3k. It immediately rose to around $42k and spent most of the day hovering around that level. However, just around press time, the digital currency rose strongly and is now knocking at the gates of $43k.

Going forward, while the recovery earlier today was welcoming, it is still quite weak overall. The cryptocurrency just fell to around 4 month lows and even then the price gain was weak. Overall, the bulls need to continue further to get to around $46k at least. Otherwise this recovery will be all for nothing and the bears can make a comeback quite easily.

The total market capitalization of Bitcoin was around $812 billion and its share of the proceedings were 40.5%.

Altcoins Post Recoveries

Other cryptocurrencies aka altcoins posted recoveries of their own, many outperforming BTC in the process. Major gainers included Binance Coin (BNB, 10%), Cardano (ADA, 6.5%), Terra (LUNA, 8.5%), Polkadot (DOT, 10%), Polygon (MATIC, 13%), and Near Protocol (NEAR, 10%) which entered the top 20 cryptos for the first time.

In Other News…..

NFTs Continue to Break Records Describe Bearish Crypto Market

The NFT sector is posting considerable numbers and is showing no signs of slowing down. The largest market for these digital collectibles is called OpenSea and that is on course to post the highest monthly volume ever. More than $6 billion worth of these digital tokens are expected to be traded on the platform.

This is another indication that the NFT sector is growing independently of the larger digital currency sector. This is because while the NFT scene does rely on blockchains and such, it is essentially a very different sector overall and one that is posting very contrasting numbers. So, expect the NFT market to decouple more and more from the cryptocurrency market in the near future.