The NFT market is showing signs of recovery ??; Kraken’s staking-as-a-service shut down by SEC ??

???Hey,?Linas here!?Welcome to a????weekly free edition????of my daily newsletter. Each day I focus on 3 stories that are making a difference in the financial technology space. Coupled with things worth watching & most important money movements, it’s the only newsletter you need for all things when Finance meets Tech.

If you’re not a subscriber, here’s what you missed this week:

1. Adyen is the fastest-growing global payments platform????[a deep dive into the payments giant you can no longer ignore]
2. Alternative asset investing: the multitrillion-dollar opportunity????[this could be the next big thing in FinTech]
3. Tougher times ahead? Visa and Mastercard see revenue growth slowing down????[analysis of their latest results, what’s ahead & some solid bonus reads on both Visa & MC]
4. Social Investing just got a lot more interesting????[what the second generation of trading apps is all about]
5. Apple Pay Later is almost here, and it can be huge????[why + a deep dive into Apple Bank's strategy]
6. BNPL payments surge as the rising cost of living hits shoppers???
7. Google started rolling out a feature that could kill a hundred FinTech startups???
8. Lightning Network just hit the Bitcoin record. But does it matter????
9. FinTech stocks are coming back to life???
10. Can Web3 disrupt the music industry?????[+ who are the real winners in NFTs]

and more! Don't miss out and join the community here????

Last week (6-10 February) was really hot in the #Blockchain and #Cryptocurrency world.?We will look at the NFT market which is showing signs of recovery; Kraken’s staking-as-a-service that just got shut down by SEC, and other interesting news and developments.

Without further ado, let us dive into what happened in the Blockchain & #Crypto sector last week. Let’s connect the dots.

The NFT market is showing signs of recovery ??

New data ???The NFT market seems to be on the path of recovery. Trading volumes rose for two months straight, with January scoring the highest volumes since June last year, according to the latest data from the Dapp Industry Report.

More on this ???The growth in January marked a stark difference from the trend of the past few months (October was brutal while in November, the market halted the downward trend). Volumes then recovered in December, rising slightly to $683 million, and increasing 38.5% from that number to $946 million in January.

Ethereum continues to be the leading blockchain for NFTs with over $36 billion in all-time sales.

?? THE TAKEAWAY

Looking ahead ???Recovering NFT volumes might suggest that non-fungible tokens weren’t only a zero interest rate phenomenon. Nevertheless, I would still give them a few more months so we could see if this is actually a pattern and not a coincidence. Looking ahead, I really hope that this will also give a boost to NFT adoption beyond just digital art. Because that’s where the most exciting opportunities are.

Reread: NFT lending as the next BIG thing in non-fungibles? ??

Kraken’s staking-as-a-service shut down by SEC ??

The news ?? The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)?reached a settlement of $30 million with the crypto platform?Kraken, for the exchange’s failure to register its staking-as-a-service program.

More on this ?? Kraken Digital Asset Exchange is no longer able to offer staking-as-a-service in the US but has announced that the program will still be provided to overseas customers through a subsidiary.

The service would have allowed investors to transfer assets to crypto for staking to receive annual investment returns of up to 21%. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission commissioner Hester Peirce spoke out against the move in a statement, claiming that the takedown was a heavy blow on a service that was “serving people well”.

We can remember that the SEC similarly received backlash from trading firms Gemini and Genesis after fining them for unregistered securities, leading to the shutdown of Gemini’s crypto lending scheme.

?? THE TAKEAWAY

Sigh ???Crypto regulation is tough, and it’s especially tough in the US. But the crazy part here is the SEC, which is really hard to understand. They almost gave FTX an exception to offer more services in the US while going after Kraken and Coinbase, the two most compliant US exchanges. What’s even harder to understand is that the same SEC previously refused to provide guidance on the same services they are going after right now. Incredible… ??

Extra Reads & Quick Bites for Curious Minds??

• On sale!?? Digital Currency Group (DCG)?has started?selling?holdings in several investment vehicles run by its subsidiary, digital assets manager Grayscale, at a steep discount,?according to a Financial Times?report?citing U.S. securities filings. Grayscale operates the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), which has $10 billion-plus in assets under management and?was late last year trading at a record discount?to the net asset value. The discount has narrowed a bit in 2023, but remains above 40%.?Reread: Genesis files for bankruptcy. Here's why it's alarming??
• SoftBank does it again ???SoftBank, the Japanese tech investor?posted?a $5.8 billion loss across its?Vision and?Latin American?funds in the final quarter of last year. Previously, SoftBank, which has also backed crypto firms such as?FTX,?Sorare,?and?ConsenSys, posted a $10 billion loss in the third quarter, per a Wall Street Journal report.?Reread: SoftBank is an elephant that keeps falling over ??
• More crypto cuts ?? Protocol Labs, the startup behind Filecoin and IFPS,?laid?off 21% of its staff. Protocol Labs cut 89 roles across teams, according to a note from founder?Juan Benet.?Benet cited a difficult macroeconomic environment contributing to a prolonged “crypto winter.”?The company has also lowered costs over the past few quarters by reducing team budgets, infrastructure spending, and investments.?Bonus: Kraken's brutal layoffs: why nobody’s safe & one key lesson ??

Money Moves??

• EigenLayer, an?Ethereum?restaking protocol, is?raising $50M?in Series A funding.?
• French InsurTech?Garantme?has raised €15M in a round featuring state-backed investor Bpifrance.
• Habitto, a Tokyo-based startup looking to change money habits through a mobile bancassurance platform, has raised $3.9M in a pre-Series A financing round. Co-led by Saison Capital and Cherubic Ventures, the round was joined by new investors DG Daiwa Ventures, GMO Ventures, Kyokuto Securities, Epic Angels, and discrete angel investors.

Continue reading by subscribing to?Linas's Newsletter.?You will receive fresh news about FinTech, Blockchain, and Crypto with hot takeaways every day.

P.S.?You might enjoy my earlier pieces as well:

?? The Perfect Pitch Deck: How Coinbase Raised Seed Capital and Began Journey Towards $100B Worth Public Company

???A Wise pitch deck that led to London’s biggest and most successful direct listing ever

?? Lessons FinTechs can learn from Spotify going into audiobooks ??

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About: I am?a business developer, sales professional, FinTech strategist, as well as Cryptocurrency and Blockchain enthusiast. I'm highly passionate about Financial Technology and Digital Innovation, and strongly believe that it will change the world for the better. Apart from my daily job at a global payments startup where I'm leading the company's expansion into Europe, I'm an active member of the FinTech community and a TechFin evangelist.

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