Market Analysis Report (24 Aug 2021)

Visa has bought a digital avatar in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT) for $150,000 to support this burgeoning investment realm and further build its “collection of historic commerce artifacts.”

Top-Tier cryptocurrency trading platforms have been steadily gaining market share over the last few quarters as both retail and institutional traders choose less risky platforms.

Online content platform Substack has integrated bitcoin as a payment option. BTC payments haven’t been rolled out to its 500,000 writers who make money from subscriptions, but instead to “a select group of crypto-focused publications.”

Sponsored: In mid-June of this year, Upland reached a major milestone, where 1 million Property NFTs were minted on their platform. Another gigantic leap has recently been made in the metaverse: players have earned $1,000,000 by participating in the Upland Metaverse Economy.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Visa Buys NFT for $150,000 in ETH
• Top-Tier Exchanges Dominate Crypto Market as Traders Go Risk-Off
• Content Platform Substack Starts Accepting Bitcoin Payments
• Sponsored: Players Have Earned $1 Million Dollars Playing Upland

Visa Buys NFT for $150,000 in ETH

Visa has bought a digital avatar in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT) for $150,000 in Ethereum’s ether to support the burgeoning investment realm and further build its “collection of historic commerce artifacts.”

The financial institution bought CryptoPunk #7610. A total of 10,000 CryptoPunks have been minted and are considered to be original NFTs. The one Visa bought is one of 3,840 “female” punks.

Visa’s head of crypto, Cuy Sheffield, said in a blog post:

“We think NFTs will play an important role in the future of retail, social media, entertainment and commerce.”

Sheffield detailed Visa’s purchase was partly made to learn more about the growing market, as to help its clients and partners participate it needs “a firsthand understanding of the infrastructure requirements for a global brand to purchase, store, and leverage an NFT.”

Top-Tier Exchanges Dominate Crypto Market as Traders Go Risk-Off

Top-Tier cryptocurrency trading platforms have been steadily gaining market share over the last few quarters as both retail and institutional traders choose less risky platforms.

CryptoCompare’s updated Exchange Benchmark details Top-Tier exchanges added 4% additional market share since February of this year and now control 89% of the cryptocurrency market’s trading volume, up from 85%.

Our Exchange benchmark ranks more than 150 global spot exchanges based on a comprehensive methodology that assesses counterparty, operational, trading and security risks.  Top-Tier exchanges, it’s worth noting, are those ranked AA-B.

Six cryptocurrency trading platforms received the highest rating, AA. These were Coinbase, Gemini, Kraken, CrossTower, itBit, and Bitstamp. Nevertheless, the number of Top-Tier exchanges grew as operational standards increased across the board.

Nine exchanges were included in the AA-A ratings, due to stricter category and transaction risk threshold requirements. You can find out more on our Exchange Benchmark report linked below.

Content Platform Substack Starts Accepting Bitcoin Payments

Online content platform Substack has integrated bitcoin as a payment option. BTC payments haven’t been rolled out to its 500,000 writers who make money from subscriptions, but instead to “a select group of crypto-focused publications.”

Substack has partnered with bitcoin payments processor OpenNode for the initiative. A Substack spokesperson was quoted saying:

“We’re excited to introduce this option, even at a small scale to start. Bitcoin payments are fast, convenient, and secure, with low fees. We use the Lightning Network for transactions, [which are] even faster than credit cards.”

The firm is backed by notable investors including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Y Combinator, and others.

Looking at Uniswap’s Fee Volaitlity

This submission examines Uniswap V3 fee volatility, specifically the day-over-day change in fee generation over the past months. As Twitter user @scottincrypto notes, Uniswap V3 fee volatility has increased over the past month, both in terms of day-to-day changes and in overall volatility.

Fees tend to be notably higher on weekdays when compared to weekends — 17 percent higher in fact. The question, @scottincrypto says, is whether people are trading on Uniswap for work or trading on Uniswap at work.

Players Have Earned $1 Million Dollars Playing Upland

In mid-June of this year, Upland reached a major milestone, where 1 million Property NFTs were minted on their platform. Another gigantic leap has recently been made in the metaverse: players have earned $1,000,000 by participating in the Upland Metaverse Economy.

Upland currently has in-game locations in various US cities such as New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, Oakland, Cleveland, and other smaller cities spread across the United States, with more on the way. Each property in the Upland metaverse is a non-fungible token (NFT) on the EOS blockchain, giving the users true ownership of their properties.

Upland’s metaverse stands out amongst other NFT metaverses largely because it is mapped to the real world. This allows players to explore a familiar metaverse and buy property NFTs that are meaningful to them. Property development is also being rolled out, and players can now build on their property parcels with Upland’s unique, stakeable, Spark token, which creates a unique Structure NFT built on their owned land.

Players have seen incredible returns by making strategic property purchases and later selling these properties for a profit. When asked how players’ net worth has changed over time, player BEN68 recalled that his net worth had grown “From 4,000UPX when [he] started in January 2020, to 64,500,000UPX in June 2021.” This represents an astonishing 1,612,400% increase in his net worth! GreenTurtle, another Uplander, reported only investing $5 into the platform and has realized gains of over 100,000%.

To register for Upland, visit this link to gain a 6,000 UPX starting bonus which will get your property portfolio off to a strong start. Upland is available on iOS, Android, and the Web, and can be played from anywhere in the world. To stay up to date on all things Upland, follow the project on Twitter and join their 30,000 members-strong Discord here.

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