Read in the Digest:
- Bitcoin dominance at two month high, MicroStrategy buys more BTC.
- Solana Pay launches into new payment era, ConsenSys acquires MyCrypto to expand MetaMask.
- Crypto VC investments roar on in 2022, with New York leading the charge.
- Whale demand for ADA rises with planned Cardano block size increase of 11%.
Bitcoin Dominance at Two-Month High, MicroStrategy Buys More BTC
Despite January 2022 being the worst start to a year since the crypto winter, Bitcoin’s dominance by crypto market cap has only increased. With no sign of an ‘Altseason’ in sight, Bitcoin’s dominance has reached its highest point since November 2021.
Following a rally towards the end of January, the dominance of Bitcoin hit 42.93%, levels last recorded in November 2021 when Bitcoin’s recorded an all-time high. Bitcoin’s dominance now stands at 41.8%, contributing $770 billion to the $1.77 trillion global market cap as of this writing.
The total market cap dominance of the crypto market. Source: Tradingview
Continuing to show support for Bitcoin, MicroStrategy announced that it had bought an additional 660 Bitcoins at $25.0 million, each at an average price of $37,865 USD per BTC. The purchases took place between December 30th, 2021, and January 31st, 2022.
In total, the business intelligence firm, led by bitcoin enthusiast Michael Saylor, now holds 125,051 bitcoins. According to Saylor, the sum with which the firm acquired its bitcoin stash totals $3.78 billion at an average price of approximately $30,200 per bitcoin.
Flipsider:
- Despite Bitcoin’s recent price recovery, options traders have turned bearish as Bitcoin’s inherent volatility drops.
- According to Arcane Research, they are “bearish, but hesitant” about betting on Bitcoin’s next movements.
Why You Should Care
The increasing dominance of Bitcoin comes as Altcoins continue to be in free-fall, with Solana, Ethereum, and Polkadot losing 47%, 34% and 41% respectively, compared to Bitcoin’s 18%.
Solana Pay Launches into New Payment Era, ConsenSys Acquires MyCrypto to Expand MetaMask
In a bid to solve the crypto payment roadblocks of slow speeds and high transaction costs, on February 1st Solana announced the launch of its new payment protocol, ‘Solana Pay.’ The release of Solana Pay promises to usher users into a new payments era.
Solana Pay is the product of a joint collaboration between Solana Labs, Checkout.com, Circle, Citcon, Phantom, and FTX. Built on Solana’s lightning-fast blockchain, Solana Pay will be an intermediary between fiat and the cryptocurrency sector, including NFT integration.
In other news of crypto firm’s expanding their services, ConsenSys has announced the acquisition of Ethereum wallet, ‘MyCrypto.’ While the terms of the deal have not been disclosed, ConsenSys revealed its plans to merge MyCrypto with the MetaMask wallet.
The merger, according to ConsenSys, will boost the security and usability of the MetaMask wallet. However, both MyCrypto and MetaMask will remain independent under the same brand umbrella for the immediate future.
Flipsider:
- While Solana Pay has launched with a lot of expectations, users continue to express concerns about the weakness of the Solana blockchain.
Why You Should Care
Crypto firms are expanding their offerings with new products in a bid to improve their user experience and reach new audiences.
Crypto VC Investments Roar on in 2022, with New York Leading the Charge
The crypto industry attracted remarkable attention from venture capitalists in 2021, recording $25 billion in investments. While still in the early days of 2022, VCs look set to continue the trend with massive crypto investments this year.
Alexis Ohanian’s VC Firm, ‘776 Management,’ has announced its plans to focus on crypto in 2022, raising $500 million across two new funds. The VC firm also recently partnered with Solana Labs to invest in decentralized social projects in a $100 million investment.
As VC Firms turn up the heat, New York appears to be the biggest beneficiary. In 2021, NYC received $6.5 billion from venture capitalists, or 46% of the total crypto VC funding in the United States.
The crypto investment boom in NYC is being led by New York Digital Investment Group LLC, and Celsius Network LLC, which completed funding rounds of $1 billion and $750 million, respectively.
Flipsider:
- According to Michael Shaulov of Crypto.com, many investors are hesitant about investing in crypto because of the crypto winter.
Why You Should Care
The burgeoning interest from crypto VCs is predicted to continue as high-quality projects continue to emerge.
Whale Demand for ADA Rises with Planned Cardano Block Size Increase of 11%
Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK), the development company behind the Cardano Network, has shared a proposal for increasing Cardano’s block size by 11%. The increase would see the network’s block size rise from 74KB to 80KB.
An increase in the block size would mean more transactions could be included in transaction batches. As a result of the upgrade, the script memory units per transaction on Cardano would increase to 14 million from 12.5 million.
The upgrade is expected to boost the throughput of transactions on the Cardano network. IOHK revealed that the upgrade will go live on the Cardano mainnet on February 4th.
As Cardano prepares its important mainnet upgrade, IntoTheBlock reported a 15,000% increase in the number of Cardano wallets holding between 10,000 to 1,000,000 ADA since December 2021.
Flipsider:
- Despite significant network improvements, Cardano (ADA) has been unable to break out of its consolidation level at $1
Why You Should Care
Cardano has steadily improved its network performance and use cases, albeit slowly, in its bid to live up to expectations of being an Ethereum-Killer.
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