The Bitcoin price has lowered down a bit, so naturally the interest of crypto investors is turning to altcoins again. Unsurprisingly, the most popular blockchain trend of 2021 are NFTs, but projects related to metaverse are quickly gaining momentum and if they keep growing at this rate, they may dominate the crypto ecosystem in 2022. Let’s take a look at some of the most interesting news from the fascinating world of altcoins! 

NFTs: Officially the Most Popular Crypto Trend of 2021

For anyone who has been following crypto news for the past year, it must come as no surprise: Non-Fungible Tokens have been the biggest blockchain trend of 2021. According to new Google Trends statistics, NFTs are quickly turning into a phenomenon in itself, which might even surpass the world of traditional cryptocurrencies in popularity.

The data collected by Google shows that the interest in NFT is not only lowering, but on the contrary - it is constantly growing as Non-Fungible Tokens start to be considered as a cultural trend, and not just another blockchain-related asset class.

When it comes to geographic distribution of the interest in NFTs, most NFT fans are located in Asian countries such as China, Hong Kong, Philippines and Singapore, with Western countries rating surprisingly low on the list of countries with the highest popularity of Non-Fungible Tokens.

The most interesting fact is that the searches for the term “NFT” have already surpassed in number many popular crypto-related words such as “Ethereum”, “DeFi”, “Dogecoin” and even “blockchain”. Although for now “Bitcoin” still remains a more popular word than “NFT”, it’s possible that one day in the future this too will change, and the interest in Non-Fungible Tokens will be greater than in the original and most valuable digital currency.

Crypto.com Acquires Naming Rights to the Staples Center In Los Angeles

The massively popular cryptocurrency trading and investing platform Crypto.com has recently purchased the naming rights for the Staples Center in Los Angeles - one of the largest sports arenas in LA. Beginning on December 25, 2021, the popular venue known for hosting basketball, ice hockey and boxing matches will be renamed from Staples Center to Crypto.com Arena.

The cost of acquiring the naming rights to the venue for 20 years was $700 Million, but it seems like the investment has started to bring immediate returns to Crypto.com. Following the announcement, the CRO token price has appreciated by 42.88%, making it one of the 5 biggest gainers of the past week, and one of the top 20 largest cryptocurrencies on the market with the total market cap surpassing $12 Billion.

IOTX Price Rally Slows Down

Over the past couple weeks, the IOTX token has made spectacular gains of almost 377%, following the announcement of rebranding from IoTeX to MachineFi. The altcoin which previously marketed itself with the concepts of Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence has decided to switch its focus to DeFi, metaverse and NFTs.

Unfortunately, it looks like switching to a more current set of buzzwords was not enough to create a long term bullish price action for IOTX. After a two week-long rally, the price started to fall down, and over the past 7 days, MachineFi/IoTeX has decreased in value by over 5%.

The Sandbox Rallies By over 87% Over the Past 7 Days, Becomes the Best Performing Major Coin of the Week

The recent announcement that Facebook will rebrand itself to Meta and focus on developing virtual reality solutions has massively influenced the cryptocurrency ecosystem as well. Numerous blockchain projects have started to add the term “metaverse” to their websites and whitepapers, while blockchain games utilizing virtual worlds have gained renewed popularity among the investors.

This week, the most successful project vaguely related to the metaverse was The Sandbox (SAND), a digital world which lets the users purchase plots of virtual land in the form of NFTs. Over the past 7 days, the SAND price has increased by almost 90%, making it by far the best performing major crypto asset of the week.

SHIB Price In a Downfall: Is the Short-Time Shiba Inu Rally Over Already?

Shiba Inu has come out of nowhere and quickly became the most successful Dogecoin clone, for a brief time even surpassing its predecessor in market capitalization. However, the SHIB price has been decreasing ever since reaching an all-time high of $0.00008845 on October 28th.

Over the past week, Shiba Inu decreased in price by further 21%, and reached a 7-day low of $0.00004078. It now looks very improbable for SHIB to lose another zero anytime soon, and many retail investors who were buying Shiba Inu near the ATH out of fear of missing out have already experienced a loss of over 50%.

Bitcoin was under attack from the bears earlier today. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization fell sharply from around $64k to get to as low as $58.7k at one point before recovering back to around $60k. Altcoins posted deeper price pullbacks before they too reported small recoveries near press time. More on that later on.

In other news, the latest decrease in Bitcoin price index has allowed some big buyers to jump in and scoop up some relatively cheap Bitcoin. According to on-chain analytics, one whale (big holder) has bought around $18 million worth of Bitcoin when it was around $62k. More on that later on.

Ripple, the company behind the major XRP cryptocurrency, has outlined regulatory proposals for the future of the crypto sector in the United States. The proposal outlines sandbox approach and better public-private communication as key aspects going forward. Ripple is currently engaged in a 11-month long case with the SEC of America regarding its XRP crowdsale. The case is nearing its conclusion but neither side seems to be on top of things. 

Pro-crypto internet browser Brave has unveiled an official crypto wallet built right into the browser. Now users can simply download the browser and start transacting with the inbuilt browser. The move was made to tackle shady third party wallet extensions who were flooding the popular privacy-focused browser.

The government of Israel has announced new Anti Money Laundering (AML) rules for the crypto sector. The regulatory authorities are also revising licenses to crypto exchanges in the country. While Israel has been somewhat of a crypto success in the Middle East, it is facing challenges as opposing organizations continue to get a lot of funding through the P2P cryptocurrencies that aren’t affected by sanctions. This is why Israel has jumped into action. 

Bitcoin price Drops Below $60k

Bitcoin slid below $60k earlier in the day. The move came after the bears put further pressure on the index, forcing it to drop below the usual calm of $64k and right back into the contention zone. 

The last 24 hours started with the digital currency at around $64k. It traded sideways for just a short while before it started to shed value. At 1 AM in the morning, the trend began to shift downwards, but slowly. By 5 AM, the index was parked at around $60k and in no mood for a quick recovery back to previous levels. BTC fell further to around 11 AM and broke the $60k support briefly, retracing back to $58.7k at one point on Binance before making a small recovery back to $60k. It has largely stayed there till press time.

Going forward, the drop to $60k can be considered a relatively healthy drop despite several shorts being liquidated and such. The bulls need to recharge their batteries for another assault at $70k and above and this will achieve just that. However, further price action below will put the long-term bullish situation in trouble. Minor moves below $60k are fine but a big move could bring the bears back into the short-term picture for sure.

The total market capitalization of Bitcoin was around $1.12 trillion and its share of the proceedings was 43.7%.

Altcoins Post Losses

Other cryptocurrency aka altcoins posted even bigger losses than Bitcoin’s earlier in the day as the market had a small sell-off. Some of the biggest losers today were Binance Coin (BNB, -9.5%), Polkadot (DOT, -10.5%), Dogecoin (DOGE, -9%), Shiba Inu (SHIBA, -12.5%), Chainlink (LINK, -12%), Litecoin (LTC, -13%), Bitcoin Cash (BCH, -11%) and Polygon (MATIC, -11%). 

In Other News….

Bitcoin Sell-off Gets Whale to Buy 12.8 Million of Bitcoin

On-chain analytics show that a big Bitcoin player has added 207 BTC ($12.8 million) when the price was around $62k earlier today. The index fell sharply earlier today to as low as $58.8k giving several people the opportunity to get the crypto at a relatively cheaper price. 

The whale in question now has a mammoth 193,433.46915660 BTC in its coffers, worth around $11 billion in total. However, buyers need to be wary that the distribution phase has begun in the bull run. This is signalling that the bull market is heating up and heading towards a climax. This occurs when a lot of crypto changes its hands from selling whales to buying whales. 

On Monday, the United States president, Joe Biden, signed the infrastructure bill into law despite having a controversial language on cryptocurrencies. The cryptocurrency community had observed that the bill used the word “broker” to refer to anyone touching cryptocurrencies, including miners, stakers, and wallet developers.

As brokers, they must operate within the tax guidelines outlined by the country’s tax watchdog, IRS (Internal Revenue Service). The ambiguous definition of a broker attracted the attention of the crypto industry.

Apart from a broad definition of virtual currency-related activities, the industry was also disgruntled by other requirements. For instance, those receiving virtual assets worth more than $10K need to collect the sender’s details, such as social security, and report it to the relevant government agency.

Speaking to CNBC, Shehan Chandrasekera, ConTracker’s head of tax, said that the data reported to the IRS will “be inaccurate for the most part, because [brokers such as] exchanges don’t have visibility into what you have in your self-custody wallet or what you’re doing in the decentralized finance, or DeFi applications.”

Some observers have maintained that such rules are inapplicable to cryptocurrencies and other blockchain-based spaces such as NFTs (non-fungible tokens).

Cryptocurrencies “Are Here to Stay,” Senator Cynthia Lummis

Despite being signed into law, the new rules will come into effect in January 2024. Crypto-friendly US senators have moved to tweak the infrastructure bill’s attack on crypto.

For example, Senator Cynthia Lummis and Ron Wyden have introduced a bill streamlining the controversies surrounding cryptocurrency rules in the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill.

According to Wyden, the standalone crypto bill aims at exempting entities focusing on the blockchain and cryptocurrency “wallets” from the just approved reporting guidelines.

Lummis also noted that virtual currencies “are here to stay,” and the decisions being made now “will have impacts far into the future.” While acknowledging the negative impact of the current rules, she said the US should work towards “fostering innovation, not stifling it.”

Senator Ted Cruz has also joined the efforts to push back on the ambiguous crypto clause in the infrastructure bill.

Announcing the introduction of legislation to repeal the infrastructure bill’s “devastating attacks,” Cruz noted that the infrastructure bill has “overly broad and poorly-crafted” crypto regulations. Cruz agreed with Lummis that the rules, in their current form, “stifle innovation in the [crypto] industry.”

It Failed Because Some “Changed” Their Mind

Industry proponents tried this approach before the bill was sent to Biden. A section of the industry believes that some lawmakers who had vowed to support the amendments changed their minds at the last minute.

One such politician is Senator Kyrsten Sinema, “who the industry was lobbying her to change tax language in an infrastructure bill she’d co-sponsored. And guess what? She changed her mind,” noted Roger Sollenberger, a political reporter at The Daily Beast.

As pro-crypto US senators move to repeal the infrastructure bill’s overly broad crypto regulations, a Japanese court has given direction on the rehabilitation plan for Mt. Gox creditors.

In an announcement on Tuesday, Nobuaki Kobayashi, the trustee for the now-defunct Bitcoin (BTC) exchange, said that the plan is “final and binding.” The plan was first filed in February in the Tokyo District Court. This marks almost the end of a court case that started in 2018.

It’s Unlikely Mt. Gox Creditors Will Be Paid This Year

Mt. Gox creditors wanted to be compensated after the Bitcoin exchange went under in 2014. However, it’s not clear how much each creditor will get, with Kobayashi promising to reach out with more details and specifics of the repayment process.

Although the Mt. Gox trustee didn’t disclose whether creditors will be compensated using fiat or Bitcoin (BTC), creditors must provide their bank accounts.

Kobayashi’s announcement comes more than a month after approximately 83 percent of Mt. Gox creditors agreed to a preliminary rehabilitation plan. However, the events leading to the announcement have left some with skeptical thoughts about the payments.

For example, @BitGeck0, who claims to be one of the creditors, said that the court’s decision was sent to them “before anything was made public.”

However, “when I log into the MT. Gox portal, I don’t see anything about it either. This is why I think these rumors are bulls**t.” Another Twitter user observed that it’s unlikely that the “Mt. Gox claims will be paid out this year.”

Bitcoin is currently trading at $64k at press time despite a relatively healthy price uptick earlier in the day. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization was looking to make a durable price increase but ran into short-term bears once again that pulled it back to $64k later in the day. Altcoins on the other hand had a largely indifferent day as well not reporting much price action themselves. More on that later on.

In other news, the new mayor-elect of New York city is looking to turn the city into a crypto hub. Despite his limited powers to do just that, he is looking to make some solid moves and get the public support behind him. 

Elon Musk’s efforts to bring down the price of Tesla stock are bearing fruit as it has taken a considerable 24% hit over the last week alone. The largest EV manufacturer in the world has been a revelation in the markets for the last year or so, but Musk is now trying to sabotage its explosive trajectory. More on that later on.

Popular Dutch trader and crypto markets expert Michael Van de Poppe believes that the long-term outlook for the digital currency is quite bullish overall. He compared the current on-chain stats to the fired up atmosphere at the start of the year and stated that the digital currency still has a long way to go. However, he did admit that Bitcoin needs to go above $67k convincingly to restart the immediate bullish setup. 

A London assembly member has called for a blanket ban on crypto ads in the city’s public transit system. Sian Berry, the member in question, believes that the current crypto boom is as dangerous as gambling and must be put on a leash, especially in public places. However, it is unsure just how much support there is for Berry’s blanket ban. While some digital currencies being floated in the market are quite risky overall, comparing the whole $3 trillin plus industry to gambling is an overstretch that she speaks from an angle of either a regulatory hawk or plain ignorance.

Bitcoin’s Rise Above $66k is short-lived

Bitcoin rallied above $66k earlier in the day but the price increase proved to be a short-term stunt only. The digital asset was expected to go above $66k convincingly to help kickstart the short-term rally but fell short and traced back to the starting line.

The last 24 hours started with Bitcoin at around $64k. It traded sideways for a while before it started to really take off around midnight. It rose strongly to $66k and then further above in an hour or so. However, further progress was hard to come by and the index instead began to trade sideways. It stayed here for a long time but not before recording a 5-day high of around $66.3k in the proces. At 1 PM, the exhausted bulls gave way to the bears once again, bringing the index back to around $64k in a few hours, thus nullifying the early morning rise. 

Going forward, Bitcoin is currently unsure how to proceed above. Some moves above $65k have been neutralized by the bears who are trying hard to make things difficult. Therefore, a strong rise to $67k and above is needed to get out of their grasp. The bears however have other ideas and want to pull the index to $60k and below. They might just achieve that for sure but the long-term outlook is still quite bullish and on-chain analytics support that.

The total market capitalization of Bitcoin was around $1.21 trillion and its share of the proceedings was 43.37%, virtually unchanged from yesterday. 

Altcoins Remain Steady

Other cryptocurrencies aka altcoins remained largely steady throughout the last 24 hours or so. Very few coins were able to post some gains including Solana (SOL, 2%), Shiba Inu (SHIBA, 4.5%), Avalanche (AVAX, 3%) and Crypto.com (CRO, 9.8%).

In Other News….

Elon Musk Sends Tesla Stock Plummeting

Elon Musk has stated that he might sell more of his Tesla stock soon, a statement that has further brought the EV carmaker’s shares down earlier today. It is now trading under $1000 and at around $990 at press time, down from $1,250 at the start of this month. Musk had previously stated that he thought Tesla’s stock price was high and now he is looking to translate his action in words, looking to dump billions worth of it. 

Musk used to have some influence in the crypto markets too but those days are long gone and many of his crypto tweets don’t even make the news. His influence on his own company’s stock is still strong because of the $200 billion worth of stock in his books and that is now showing.