The markets continued to struggle last week, and for the most part, crypto hasn’t been an exception. However, there were a few standout success stories. WAVES increased 60.3% — a sudden recovery given the coin hasn’t come anywhere near its current value since July 2021. RUNE from ThorChain also enjoyed a resurgence, rising 37.1%, and CHZ increased by 22.8%.
Cryptocurrency investors saw most coins on the negative side of the growth spectrum, although there was nothing too dramatic. HEART’s price fell by 17.5%, FTM fell by 15.2%, and UNI fell by 14.9%, with many other coins experiencing similar drops.
BTC saw its price increase — but at 1.5%, the rise was very minor. TERRA had another good week, with a price increase of 9.5%, and BNB’s price rose by 3%. But for most of the major cryptos, it was a story of downward trajectories. ETH fell by 3.2%, SOL by 3.1%, and ADA by 4.9%, among others.
Last week was full of news related to crypto mining. For one, the company Cipher Miner announced it would go back on its plans to buy Bitfury Rigs so it can remain more flexible. The miner initially planned to spend around $350 million on new machinery, but the CEO has confirmed that the company will stick with its current Bitmain and MicroBT contracts for now, choosing agility over mining speed.
Meanwhile, Mawson — another mining company — has signed two hosting deals in a single week (with Foundry Digital and Celsius Mining) to increase its power capacity. The total hosting capacity has now gone from 2MW at the end of 2021 to 114MW now — not a bad increase. Mawson is now one of the largest mining companies in this competitive landscape.
Digihost, a mining company on the smaller side, has revealed that it has high hopes for the future after announcing a share offering worth $250 million. Considering the company’s current market capitalization is currently under $100 million, this is certainly an ambitious goal, and would help Digihost to expand its operations and grow faster.
But enough of bitcoin mining for now. The OpenSea auction of the Mickey Mantle baseball card in NFT form, which is an iconic collectible from 1952, took place last week. It eventually sold for $471k — that might not sound like such a lot in the realm of NFT auctions, but it’s one of the highest prices earned for a sports NFT so far and resulted in a fierce bidding war. The winner also received an interview with Mickey Mantle’s son, so it wasn’t just a digital prize.
The drugstore chain CVS Pharmacy is the latest company to register NFT-related trademarks, showing that no sector is off bounds. CVS has made a filing for virtual health, wellness, and prescription items under its name, in addition to crypto collectibles. It joins a large list of other retailers, from Walmart to Crocs.
Prominent DeFi developer Andre Cronje has decided to wave goodbye to the blockchain world, which has caused a stir. Cronje was responsible for contributing to dozens of projects, and their prices have since plunged dramatically — including Solidly, Keep3r, and Iron Bank. Even projects he’s been more loosely associated with, like yearn Finance and Fantom, have suffered. In the past, Cronje has taken smaller breaks and shown frustration with the decentralized finance movement, but it seems that this exit will be permanent.
Convex Finance has also had a bad week after discovering a smart contract bug that gave some users excessively high rewards. As a result, the team had to unlock a large portion of the token supply and create a new contract, which caused havoc in the markets and sent prices dropping. It’s not the first time something similar has happened, and it’s unlikely to be the last.
Disclosure: The author is not a licensed or registered investment adviser or broker/dealer. They are not providing you with individual investment advice. Please consult with a licensed investment professional before you invest your money.
Tim Thomas has no positions in the stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, forex, cryptocurrencies, or commodities mentioned.
This post was produced and syndicated by Smart Bitcoin Buyer/ Timothy Thomas Limited.
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