The cryptocurrency market has an interesting way of catching even the most seasoned veterans off guard as each bull and bear market initially shows similarities to previous cycles only to veer off in an unexpected direction and wipe out the fortunes of newly minted crypto millionaires. This was the case with the weak close of 2021 which completely went against the bullish $100,000 BTC price estimates that crypto analysts and influencers were peddling nonstop. Currently, Bitcoin price is more than 50% away from its $69,000 all-time high and altcoins have fared worse, with many down more than 60% in the …

Silicon Valley tech VC Andreessen Horowitz (A16z) is reportedly eying an investment in Bored Ape Yacht Club creator Yuga Labs, with a reported valuation as high as $5 billion. Sources for the Financial Times revealed that Yuga Labs is seeking funding for a multi-million dollar piece of the company. If a deal is secured, it would mark the first institutional investment Yuga Labs has accepted as its popular nonfungible token (NFT) collection has become one of the biggest in the industry. The terms of the deal have not yet been set and negotiations may be canceled outright. Neither A16z nor …

More than three months after its release, the ad from crypto exchange Crypto.com featuring Hollywood star Matt Damon was the subject of ridicule in the latest episode of the animated series South Park. In the first episode of its 25th season titled “Pajama Day”, the creators of South Park took on people in the United States refusing to wear a mask and once again associated crypto investments with scams. Characters in the show attacked Damon’s appearance in an TV spot titled “fortune favors the brave”, showing the actor speaking about Crypto.com amid a digital landscape of historic figures. “My dad …

Operator-led venture capital firms Velvet Sea Ventures and 01 Advisors invested $100 million into Pixel Vault, a large nonfungible token collection of superheroes, to jointly launch the rebranded multi-franchise NFT entertainment company, Pixel Vault Inc. According to Pixel Vault, the aim of the new venture is to leverage NFTs and intellectual property to tell the stories of crypto-native communities across a variety of mediums, including television, movies and video games. Pixel Vault owns 100% of the IP, assets and operations of PUNKS Comic, MetaHero, and all future franchises. Pixel Vault's founder and CEO Sean Gearin, also known as GFunk, launched …

Major Bitcoin (BTC) investor MicroStrategy has announced another major BTC purchase during a market dip to collect a total of 125,051 BTC as of Monday. According to an official form with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed on Tuesday, MicroStrategy purchased 660 BTC between Dec. 30, 2021, and Jan. 31 for “approximately $25 million” in cash. The average BTC price of the purchase amounted to $37,865 per BTC, including fees and expenses, the report notes. As of Jan. 31, MicroStrategy held about $3.78 billion worth of BTC at the average purchase price of approximately $30,200 per BTC, …

After recording heavy outflows at the start of 2022, cryptocurrency investment funds have seen a gradual uptick in investor demand over the past two weeks, offering cautious optimism that the worst of the market downturn had passed. Digital asset investment products saw $19 million worth of cumulative inflows last week, according to CoinShares. Bitcoin (BTC) and multi-asset funds led the gains with $22 million and $32 million worth of inflows, respectively. The news wasn’t all positive, as Ether (ETH) continued to suffer from negative sentiment with outflows totaling $27 million. That marked eight consecutive weekly outflows for ETH-focused funds. Solana …

On Monday, VanEck, a financial institution with close to $82 billion in assets under management with exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, mutual funds, and institutional accounts, announced the launch of its first cryptocurrency fund. The fund is listed as an exchange-traded note, or ETN, on the Deutsche Borse Xetra and SIX Swiss Exchanges with exposure to Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Polkadot (DOT), Solana (SOL), Tron, Avalanche (AVAX), and Polygon (MATIC). Gijs Koning, co-head of VanEck Europe, elaborated on why it was important for the firm to facilitate investment in digital currencies: In early 2017, we determined that digital assets could provide …

Bitcoin (BTC) is heading for its worst January performance in four years — could all not be what it seems? Data from on-chain analytics resource Coinglass shows January 2022 to be the least profitable since the peak of Bitcoin’s last halving cycle. Investors, however, are still waiting for a “blow-off top.” Will Bitcoin see a rare "red" February? Against practically all expectations, BTC price action has continued to underperform this month. At current spot prices of $36,800, BTC/USD is down 20.1% versus the start of the year, compounding misery that began in November, data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView …

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has made yet another bullish Bitcoin prediction soon after the International Monetary Fund urged his government to remove Bitcoin’s status as legal tender. Bukele took to Twitter on Monday to predict that Bitcoin (BTC) will ultimately see a “gigantic price increase” due to its limited supply of only 21 million digital coins. The president cited Bitcoin's scarcity case, emphasizing there are “more than 50 million millionaires” in the world, and there is not enough Bitcoin if each one of them wanted to own at least one BTC. “No enough for even half of them. A gigantic …

Ethereum's native token Ether (ETH) will extend its 30% slump this year to the lowest price level since July 2021, if a textbook technical indicator plays out. Ethereum chart paints bearish pattern ETH's price fell to its six-month low of $2,159 on Jan. 24, 2022, only to rebound sharply to as high as $2,724 days later. However, this created a so-called "bear flag" chart pattern that suggests the price could drop to $2,000 or a 17% drop from current levels. A bear flag appears on the chart when the price consolidates higher after a strong momentum downwards but eventually moves …

Fidelity Investments appeared undeterred by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's, or SEC's, rejection of its Wise Origin Bitcoin Trust spot ETF on Thursday. Following the setback, the company filed two more prospectuses involving crypto-metaverse ETFs for regulatory approval. The proposals are titled are the Fidelity Crypto Industry and Digital Payments ETF and the Fidelity Metaverse ETF respectively. In rejecting the Wise Origin Bitcoin ETF, the SEC cited the exchange listing the ETF, the Cboe BZX, does not have a proper "surveillance-sharing agreement with markets trading" to prevent fraud and protect investor interests. However, neither of the two new ETF …

Crypto.com raised a few eyebrows this past week when it announced cryptocurrency users worldwide could reach 1 billion by the end of 2022. The timing was curious, given that Bitcoin (BTC) and many other cryptos are entwined in one of the largest drawdowns in their (albeit short) history and with the prospect of United States Federal Reserve interest-rate tightening edging ever nearer. But the cryptocurrency exchange, which in November gave its name to the arena where the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team plays in a 20-year deal, was obviously taking the long view. Also, its prediction was contingent on two …