Hong Kong’s plan to take back its position as a leading crypto hub is underway, with its Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) allowing retail investors to trade specific tokens on licenced exchanges starting in June. This comes after the city’s unclear regulatory stance put it behind rivals like Singapore and Dubai. More details below.
Markets Spotlight
Note: Market prices captured in US$ at the time of reading. Explore more on Crypto.com/Price.
News Snaps
Hong Kong launches green bond.
Hong Kong’s government successfully issued its first tokenised green bond of 800 million Hong Kong dollars (US$101 million) in collaboration with Hong Kong’s Bank of China, Crédit Agricole CIB, and HSBC. Processes of the bond lifecycle will be digitalised and performed on Goldman Sachs’ tokenisation platform — GS DAPTM, a private blockchain network.
Digital yen pilot programme coming.
Japan will launch a pilot programme in April to test its version of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), known as the digital yen. The move comes after more than two years of Proof of Concept experiments by the Bank of Japan (the country’s central bank) around the digital yen.
More blockchain bonds issued.
German conglomerate Siemens issued its first digital bond on a public blockchain. The company used the Polygon mainnet to issue the bond worth €60 million; such a bond issuance makes paperwork more efficient and removes the requirement for a central clearinghouse, according to Siemens.
Blur’s recent airdrop reaches new heights.
The trading volume of NFT marketplace Blur‘s token reached US$500 million after its recent airdrop. BLUR has a total supply of 3 billion tokens, of which 360 million were claimable by eligible users. The governance tokens allow holders to have a vote in the protocol’s direction.
Square Enix teams with Polygon network.
Square Enix, the Japanese video game giant behind popular games like Final Fantasy, is partnering with the Polygon network to launch a gamified art-collecting experience. The project, titled Symbiogenesis, is built around digital collectible art that is tied to a storyline in a virtual adventure.
What’s Ahead
Consensus by CoinDesk is one of the world’s largest and longest-running gatherings that brings the cryptocurrency, blockchain, and Web3 community together.
Since its inception in 2015, Consensus has served as grounds for calibration, collaboration, and resolution for the new digital economy. Consensus 2023 is a call to find solutions to crypto’s thorniest challenges and finally deliver on the technology’s transformative potential. It runs from 26–28 April 2023.
NFT Spotlight
Since the age of five, Nelson J. Madera — known in NFT land as DaRealGenius — has been drawing on paper and painting on canvas for many years, always trying to create art with anything he could get his hands on. After graduating from Arts High School in Newark, New Jersey, the graphic illustrator from Puerto Rico taught himself graphic design by creating club flyers, company logos, and business cards, eventually falling in love with digital art. From there, Madera illustrated book covers and created animated music videos, and has been commissioned by Latin music artists like Don Omar, Farruko, Nicky Jam, Ñengo Flow, Ivy Queen, and Rauw Alejandro.
And now, the community-driven NFT artist, who is the creator of Mad Hare Society and co-creator of PsychoKitties, is dropping his latest NFT collection, ‘Mad Era: The Invasion of the Mutants’, this coming Monday, 27 February. For the first time ever, collectors can increase the rarity score of their Mutant to compete for ranking tiers that enable different Quantum Frenzy in-game and other rewards, unlock new traits to use on their Mutant, and upgrade Packs on one Mutant.
No potions needed.
[I] love to create art that keeps the audience searching for more and at the same time love using colours that pop and bring life to the piece.
DaRealGenius, on what makes his art so unique
Check out Crypto.com’s interview with DaRealGenius from 2022, or snap to and get mutated.
Product Picks
Purchase Multiple NFTs With the New Shopping Cart Feature
You can now easily purchase up to 20 NFTs on Crypto.com/NFT in one go with the newly launched Shopping Cart feature. Save the hassle of repeating the checkout process by conveniently paying for multiple items at once. Try it out now at Crypto.com/NFT.
Web3 Protocol Trading Competition
The Crypto.com Exchange Trading Arena is live with a new trading competition. This week, users can participate by spot trading Web3 protocol tokens, including SOL, APT, and MATIC. The first 100 traders to reach US$10,000 in spot trading volume for the eligible tokens will receive a share of the US$5,000 prize pool. In addition, the top 10 traders ranked by spot trading volume will enjoy VIP Tier 1 status at the end of the competition, where they can enjoy 0% Maker Fees and 0.04% Taker Fees. For more information, click here.
Crypto Level Up
The Four Phases of a Crypto Market
The Accumulation Phase.
Accumulation is the first phase of every market cycle. It starts after the end of the previous cycle when sellers have exited the market and prices are perceived to begin stabilising. In this phase, the market volume is typically lower than average, as interest in the market remains low.
The Markup Phase.
Commonly referred to as the bull market phase, the markup phase is when the market moves higher in price at an increasing rate. During the markup phase, new groups of market participants enter the market, and with that generally comes a notable increase in volume.
The Distribution Phase.
At some point, after a bull run, some buyers become sellers. This is the distribution phase, where the buyers and sellers in the market are at equilibrium. This phase of the market sees high trading volume, and asset prices generally fluctuate within a limited range.
The Markdown Phase.
The markdown phase, or the bear market, starts when supply exceeds demand in the distribution phase. It is a period that’s fuelled by fear in the market, as the outlook becomes increasingly negative. This cascading effect can send prices of an asset to levels not seen since the markup phase.
Learn the Telltale Signs of Each Market Phase
Crypto IRL
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Hashtag #CryptoIRL with your Crypto.com Visa Card on your social profiles to get featured! Your 15 minutes of fame in the CROFam awaits you!
Decoder
Roadmap
A roadmap is a set plan that outlines a strategic step-by-step process of the milestones, goals, and outcomes a project team wishes to achieve. Roadmaps commonly accompany DeFi, NFTs, and many other crypto projects.
On the roadmap, users can see what ambitions a team has. Roadmaps also double as a way to hold a team accountable.
However, roadmaps aren’t entirely set in stone. Teams have the capability to make changes to a roadmap as they see fit, or if they realise that the project would be better suited to reaching different targets and goals.
This Week in Crypto History
Elon Musk Predicts “paper money is going away“
In a podcast on 19 February 2019, Tesla head honcho Elon Musk proclaimed that ‘paper money is going away’. He also mentioned that cryptocurrency was better than fiat in transferring value, and that the technology behind Bitcoin was ‘brilliant’.
Today, Tesla accepts Dogecoin as payment for certain products, and any tweet by Musk vaguely related to dogs can send DOGE soaring. Additionally, Musk has expressed his desire for Twitter to create a payment system that supports digital currency.
That’s it for this week’s Snapshot. Want more? Head over to our Insta feed for bite-size crypto lessons.
