September 16, 2021

Welcome to another edition of Netcoins news.

NFT sales volume is cooling off for the first time in three months. The asset class is still on fire and arguably becoming the most popular sector of the crypto market. That doesn’t mean the space is without its problems however. Leading trading platform OpenSea recently discovered its Head of Product was insider trading.

The platform isn’t the only major name in the news for something negative. SEC chair Gary Gensler is hinting at going after Coinbase.

All of that and more coming right up.

NFT Sales Volume Finally Cools Off After Being on Fire for Three Months

CryptoSlam.io is an NFT analytics website that tracks sales data registered on the blockchain from pretty much all of the most popular NFT projects in the world. Filtering through the data shows that four of the top five NFT projects currently driving the market are experiencing declines between 44% and 82%. The projects we’re talking about here include: CryptoPunks, BoardApe Yacht Club, Loot, and Art Blocks.

The only other project in the top five is Axie Infinity, a battle royale style blockchain-based game that has reportedly brought in nearly $615 million Canadian in revenue since July alone. That game has actually seen a 7% increase in sales volume over the past week and is single-handedly giving people in developing countries full-time employment based on its early adoption of a play-to-earn business model that incentivizes players to keep playing and earning crypto.

Overall, sales volume for digital collectible NFTs has fallen by over $1.1 billion Canadian over the last several weeks, according to this chart from The Block Crypto.

Fidelity Says 84% of Institutional Investors in the United States and Europe Want Crypto

Fidelity Digital Assets just published a new survey saying that 84% of institutional investors in America and across Europe want to add cryptocurrency to their portfolios. 44% of respondents say the best way they think they can do that is to invest capital through a Bitcoin ETF.

What’s the problem with that? The United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) has yet to approve one despite attempts from many different companies and fund managers to get that done.

Most crypto enthusiasts probably think it’s only a matter of time before that happens. Thankfully here in Canada, there are many ways for Canadians to invest in cryptocurrency beyond signing up for a free account at Netcoins and buying some Bitcoin or Ethereum.

Many publicly traded companies listed on Canadian exchanges tie significant amounts of their reserves to cryptocurrencies, meaning they act as proxies to crypto for investors.

It’s great to have the option of owning crypto and crypto stocks here in Canada isn’t it?

SEC Chairman Gary Gensler Actively Calls Out Coinbase

SEC Chairman Gary Gensler isn’t holding back any punches. He testified before the American Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday and reaffirmed his belief that crypto lending and staking products fall under the guise of what would be considered securities products.

Gensler’s opinion has far-reaching consequences for the entire DeFi space as many centralized exchanges offer products similar to that of Coinbase. If they are deemed securities by law, it likely means American investors might be shut out of the space entirely, at least if they decide to continue to use centralized platforms.

A similar thing happened to American investors when the initial coin offering boom happened back in 2017. If you look at initial offerings in cryptocurrency today, Americans aren’t allowed to participate in many of them for that very reason.

DeFi platforms themselves will continue to thrive regardless because many of them are completely decentralized, but users new to crypto who trust the security and customer service that centralized platforms can provide will have to get comfortable with decentralization in order for adoption in the DeFi space to continue to accelerate long term.

OpenSea Admits Insider Trading of NFTs

OpenSea, an NFT trading platform worth nearly $2 billion Canadian, is admitting that its former Head of Product, Nate Chastain, earned nearly 19 Ethereum tokens by engaging in insider trading of some of the more valuable digital assets listed on the platform. How did he do it?

An investigation by a Chinese news outlet traced transactions back to drops of new NFTs. Chastain would put the assets in many different wallets before they were available to the public, wait for the price to spike, and then sell them on the open market for a big profit.

OpenSea counted nearly $4billion in transactions over the past month.

You are now fully up-to-date on the news for this week. Don’t forget to sign up for a free Netcoins account today!

If you want to learn more about all things in crypto, read more here.