Is the bearish crypto market bouncing back?
No doubt, the buzz around cryptocurrency and its conjoined relative, NFT, has watered down over the past few months, as the crypto market, having become bearish, continues to impact investors, market operators, and other crypto players.
While crypto wallets are sieving off funds, NFT arts slowing down in markets, and bitcoin for instance dragging between $19,000 and $20,000 from around $40,000 plus it was at the beginning of the year.
Does this mean the end of the road for cryptocurrencies and NFTs?
Some of the factors causing the NFT meltdown include the bathtub effect where major NFT projects are selling and holding down the small-scale projects, loss of interest in NFT investments, and the crypto drag, including the Luna crash. Hence the fall in NFT sales to up to 92% per a Wall Street Journal report.
The Ethereum merge, a transition from the Proof-of-work (PoW) to Proof-of-stake (PoS) will save the network 99.9% energy use, according to Crypto Carbon Ratings Institute – an eco-friendly switch that may attract more crypto investors and new players to the space.
Also, the projection that the NFT market will actively grow from $20.44 billion to $211.74 billion by 2030, according to Research and Markets, indicates that the NFT market is likely to grow over time and then market becoming bullish again.
Thus, some investors are preparing for the crypto bounce back and NFT rise, even while the market shows fewer comeback signs.
This week, Doodles, an NFT marketplace raised $54 million in its new funding round led by Seven Seven Six, to expand its team and further build out its web3 and NFT products. Also, Bitmama, a Nigeria blockchain startup raised $2 million to expand its operations and enable its users to trade established cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
There are more non-crypto stories in this week's edition of The Draft, so why not continue reading to see what other stories we tracked this week across emerging markets and the rest of the world?
- Juwon