State of the Market #84
10/12/2021 - 10/18/2021
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Market Summary
Top Stories
Coinbase Launches NFT Marketplace
Coinbase recently announced the upcoming launch of an NFT marketplace. While the launch date remains uncertain, reportedly over 1 million users have joined the company’s waitlist since the announcement on Tuesday.
Remarkably, in under ten years, Coinbase has grown to maintain a market cap of over $50 billion. Considering NFT trading volume hit $10.7 billion in Q3 of this year alone, it is no surprise the popular crypto exchange plans to expand into the booming NFT space.
Coinbase claims they will make “minting, purchasing, showcasing, and discovering NFTs easier than ever.” Users will be able to buy NFTs using funds from their Coinbase wallets. This feature could be a competitive advantage by lowering the barrier to entry for customers intimidated by some other marketplaces’ slightly more complicated wallet connection processes.
However, Coinbase faces extreme competition. OpenSea, backed by billionaire Mark Cuban, captured over 90% of the NFT transaction market share as of August 2021. Given this, all eyes should be on the NFT space heading into 2022.
Shiba Inu Now 18th Biggest Crypto After 300% Rise
Shiba Inu (SHIB) is an Ethereum-based counterpart to the popular memecoin, Dogecoin (DOGE), which started last year. Unlike Bitcoin, which is intended to be limited, SHIB is supposed to be plentiful, having a one quadrillion circulation supply. The Shiba Inu Token ecosystem funds projects including an NFT art incubator and the creation of Shibaswap, a decentralized exchange. SHIB has seen an increase of 375% since Oct. 1 and has already gained 25,000,000% overall in the past year. The challenge remains for its strong base to keep it growing sustainably. Recently, SHIB has seen a sudden spike in the number of 'whales' entering the market by converting their Ethereum holdings to SHIB coins, which could cause it to breakout and potentially reach its $0.50 milestone.
Blockchain & Healthcare: A Mexican medical company adopts blockchain technology for COVID test certificates
The medical services company, MDS Mexico, has launched a rapid Covid-19 testing service that uses blockchain technology to verify the results.
MDS Mexico now allows its patients to access their results, which are updated in real-time. The results are also physically delivered, with a QR code that can be scanned to verify the results and access the patient's vaccination history on MDS Mexico's blockchain.
MDS stated that it adopted blockchain technology to safeguard clinical analysis results, protect patients' personal data and prevent falsification of covid test results. The MDS website mentions:
“To avoid falsifying negative results, we began to certify the SARS-CoV-2 detection tests with blockchain technology and cryptographic signature, which protects the information in a unique, immutable and unalterable QR code that can be verified worldwide. . "
Test results uploaded to the MDS blockchain also include a cryptographic signature from the doctor who verified the test result.
MDS is not the first entity in Mexico to adopt blockchain to digitize the results of covid tests; Mexico's National Chamber of Commerce (CANACO) announced a state-backed initiative to digitize vaccination passports in partnership with blockchain technology company Xertify in April.
On the other side of the world, in August, representatives of the blockchain industry in Australia pushed for the introduction of a blockchain-based vaccine registry to curb the proliferation of counterfeit COVID-19 vaccine passports online.
Square Considering to Build Bitcoin Mining System: Jack Dorsey
Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Square Inc, recently disclosed that the payment firm is considering jumping into the Bitcoin mining business.
The goal for the payments platform is to create an open source system for anyone to use to mine bitcoin online, creating what he considers more equitable space in terms of mining which is dominated by large players.
Following his announcement on Twitter on October 15, Bitcoin reached a price of $62,000 which is only $3,000 of it’s all time high of $65,000.
Chart of the Week
Bitcoin hit its highest peak since April in the last week reaching over $60,000. This follows news that the US SEC may begin to allow trading of Bitcoin exchange traded funds (ETF) in the market. This should greatly increase the exposure of Bitcoin and allow greater flexibility to investors that wish to have a stake in Bitcoin without mining.
Crypto of the Week - Cosmos ATOM
The ATOM cryptocurrency is the token within an up and coming proof of stake blockchain network named Cosmos aimed at becoming the next “Internet of Blockchains” built for a decentralized future. Cosmos helps independent blockchains communicate with each other; the platform currently has over 250 dApps and services. Watch the video below to learn more about it.
Video of the Week
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Texas Blockchain’s ‘State of the Market’ is a student-led editorial. None of the views expressed by the authors should be taken as the view of the University of Texas at Austin or the Texas Blockchain organization. Furthermore, none of the views expressed should be taken as financial advice in any circumstance.