I S S U E 8 / 2 0 2 1 W E E K 1 5 / 0 2 - 2 2 / 0 2 CoinPayments Digest weekly review of the most notable news and events in the , payments & fintech industries

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Binance Coin becomes the third-largest crypto following parabolic rally

Over $100M in crypto collectible NFTs sold in last 30 days Secures a $1 Trillion Market Cap for First Time Ever Tesla Has Already Profited More From $1.5 Billion Bitcoin The price of Bitcoin (BTC) has reached a new all-time high over Buy Than 2020 Car Sales $58,000, over the weekend pushing the coin’s total market capitalization above $1 trillion, according to crypto metrics platform CoinGecko. Market capitalization is the total number of coins currently in circulation multiplied by their current Janet Yellen Calls Bitcoin a market price—basically, the combined worth of all existing BTC. By various estimations, the value of all money in the ‘Highly Speculative Asset’ world is around $95 trillion—and now Bitcoin represents about 1% of that. While it’s not totally fair to compare Bitcoin to money (it can be seen as an asset instead), it provides one way to put it in perspective. Bitcoin’s (BTC) price has been grinding up nicely over the past few weeks, but the past 24 hours have seen a Football fan tokens on the significant correction. BTC price dropped by over $10,000 from march as Poland’s biggest $58,000 to under $48,000 birefly, a correction of almost 20%. It club adopts crypto swiftly rebounded to above $53,000 at the time of posting, representing a roughly 7% drop over 24 hours, according to CoinDesk 20 data. Indeed, bitcoin has seen a staggering price rally over the past four months, rising from $10,000 to nearly Bitcoin Secures a $1 Trillion $60,000, with just one bull market correction in the second half Market Cap for First Time of January. The recent rise from $30,000 to $58,000 was even Ever steeper, so a healthy cooling off of the market looks overdue according to several technical analysis tools, Binance Coin becomes the third-largest crypto following parabolic rally

Binance Coin (BNB), a cryptocurrency issued by the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance, has hit a major historical milestone, becoming the third-largest coin by market capitalization for the first time in history. At the time of writing, BNB’s market cap stands at $40 billion, outstripping the biggest (USDT) by about $7 billion, according to data from crypto tracking source CoinGecko. Alongside propelled growth in market capitalization, BNB also saw a major spike in daily trading volumes, which saw the average daily trading volume of Binance Coin hit a new all-time high of $14 billion on Friday, up from around just $9 billion Thursday. Binance Coin’s entrance to the top three coins by market cap follows a massive rally. As reported by Cointelegraph, BNB recorded a major surge on Thursday, outperforming XRP and becoming the sixth largest coin, following Polkadot (DOT) and Cardano (ADA). BNB's surge comes amid the success of Binance Smart Chain-based decentralized exchange, PancakeSwap. The platform has seen some parabolic growth in the past weeks, overtaking as the largest decentralized exchange by trading volume. On Friday, PancakeSwap’s average daily trading volume stood at $1.6 billion, up from $1.2 billion of Uniswap, according to CoinGecko. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao noted that BNB has been setting new all- time highs not only in fiat terms, but also in relation to the world’s largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC).

Over $100M in crypto collectible NFTs sold in last 30 days

Non-fungible token sales are booming and top marketplaces are seeing record volume levels. The milestone was noted by crypto asset investment firm Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang, who posted a screenshot from NFT marketplace and data tracker CryptoSlam. CryptoSlam also reported that a large portion of trading is now taking place on secondary markets indicating that crypto collectibles are changing hands more often. CryptoSlam reports that NBA Top Shot, a basketball based collection launched in October 2020, is the top-selling NFT platform with $5.8 million shifted over the past 24 hours and a whopping $68.5 million over the past 30 days. Top Shot represents the first time the NBA has entered into a licensing deal backed by technology. Speaking to ESPN, NBA associate vice president for licensing, Adrienne O'Keeffe, said; “Blockchain is unique. It can deliver value to intellectual property owners downstream. We do believe blockchain technology has staying power and a lot of promise for our business." Hashmasks and CryptoPunks are second and third in terms of sales according to the NFT data provider. Switzerland-based Hashmask hosts a collection of unique digital portraits created by a collective of over 70 artists. Over $8 million worth has been sold over the past seven days, and a rare one went for $650k in ETH earlier this month. Tesla Has Already Profited More From $1.5 Billion Bitcoin Buy Than 2020 Car Sales Elon Musk’s electric car company is poised to profit more from its Bitcoin investment made in January than from all of its car sales in the entirety of 2020, according to a note from U.S. research firm Wedbush Securities. Tesla disclosed earlier this month that it bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin in January. Following Tesla’s disclosure, Bitcoin’s price shot up like one of the rockets from Musk’s other venture, SpaceX. Moments after the news broke, Bitcoin’s price jumped by 8.5%. And Bitcoin has kept rising: 12 days later, Bitcoin has broken $58,000, securing a market cap just north of $1 trillion. Wedbush analysts Dan Ives and Strecker Backe estimate Tesla has already seen $1 billion of profit from its Bitcoin investment; compare that to the $721 million in profit Tesla reported for its fiscal year 2020. (This assumes Tesla hasn't yet sold any of the Bitcoin it bought in January.) Musk has helped the price of Bitcoin by tweeting about it to his 47.5 million followers. When he changed his Twitter bio to "#Bitcoin#", the price of Bitcoin rose by 13% within an hour. Musk has defended the coin against critics, too. When gold bug and Bitcoin critic, Peter Schiff, who runs Euro Pacific Bank, tweeted that gold was superior to crypto, Musk disagreed, tweeting, "An email saying you have gold is not the same as having gold. You might as well have crypto."

Janet Yellen Calls Bitcoin a ‘Highly Speculative Asset’

The recently appointed US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called Bitcoin a “highly speculative asset” and pointed to the asset’s high volatility in an interview with CNBC on Thursday. When asked if like Bitcoin need a special regulatory environment, Yellen said that the authorities are focusing on protecting investors and ensuring that cryptocurrencies are not used in criminal activity. “I think it’s important to make sure that it is not used as a vehicle for illicit transactions and that there’s investor protection,” said Yellen. In recent weeks, markets went on a wild run after online traders used Reddit and other social media channels to pump stocks that had previously been shorted by traders on Wall Street. The activity around GameStop and several other companies brought a brand new experience to the world of trading and even caused the US top regulators to convene to discuss the matter. Yellen meanwhile went on to speak more about cryptocurrencies, adding that for the bodies overseeing the digital assets space, it is “certainly important” to make sure that they follow their regulatory responsibilities. The US Treasury Secretary has been a vocal critic of Bitcoin in the past, and during her Senate confirmation hearing in January she stated that cryptocurrencies were of “particular concern” when it comes to facilitating criminal activity and sponsoring terrorism. Later on, Yellen, however, recognized their “potential” to improve the financial system. Football fan tokens on the march as Poland’s biggest club adopts crypto

The spread of blockchain-based soccer fan tokens across Europe continued on Monday as Poland’s most successful soccer club partnered with sports fintech firm Chiliz.Legia Warsaw, which holds the record for the most number of Polish league championship wins, will launch a token on the fan engagement and rewards platform Socios.The LEG Fan Token is expected to launch in the coming months and will grant supporters voting rights on various club decisions. Tokenholders will also be eligible to take part in exclusive games, competitions and VIP experiences. The supply of LEG Fan Tokens will be capped at 5 million.Legia Warsaw joins 21 European football giants to have created fan tokens on the Socios platform recently. Major soccer institutions such as Lionel Messi’s FC Barcelona, Cristiano Ronaldo’s Juventus, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s A.C. Milan have all launched club-based fan tokens on the Chiliz blockchain. The CEO and founder of Socios.com and Chiliz, Alexandre Dreyfus, welcomed Legia Warsaw onto the Socios platform and anticipated it would increase overall fan engagement.“Very soon Legia fans all around the world will have a new way to get closer to the club they love and will be able to influence the team in polls, access VIP rewards, exclusive promotions, chat forums and much more on Socios.com,” Dreyfus said, adding, “We’re sure $LEG Fan Tokens will be a massive hit with fans and become a very powerful new engagement tool for the club.”

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

Now that bitcoin has hit $50,000 I must admit that a move up to $100,000 can’t be ruled out. However move down to zero can’t be ruled out either.

Peter Schiff, American stock broker, financial commentator,

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Sources: coindesk.com | cointelegraph.com | dailyhodl.com | decrypt.co | bitcoin.com | pymnts.com